thank u 4 smoking

Just like the previous years, I only get the feeling of Christmas urgency when the date strikes with a number 2, just like today. Tomorrow will be the office's Christmas party at Peter's house, our German colleague. I already bought my gift for the exchange rituals during the party. It's a 2001 Management Reader published by the New York Times. Quite a rare rare find if I may add, considering the book's usefulness for my manita. Going to the malls is my least favorite thing considering I have, over the previous years developed an increasing intolerance for crowds and queues. I get vertigo in the middle of walking and then I just sit there until I regain balance. Quite scary, I remember Alfred Hitchcock's movie Vertigo.

Yesterday I had my leave and I schedule my choreographing stint with the MGB people but it was canceled because some of the members got injured. Can you believe it? I'm teaching them the sequence of We're All in This Together from High School Musical. I have to view that scene bazillion times to memorize some of the steps. I went to the mall instead and bought ingredients for spaghetti and fruit salad, and scoured pirated DVD copies (not again) of Brick and Elephant, which is directed by Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting) and won the 2003 Cannes Film Festival top prize.

***

I was excited to watch Thank You For Smoking last night. The film is written and directed by Jason Reitman (son of bigwig producer Ivan Reitman). Smoking is centered in the life of Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart), a PR man from the Academy of Tobacco studies, the advocacy front of America's tobacco conglomerate. He goes on a PR offensive to counter the increasing campaign of the government against smoking which of course will hurt the industry. The campaign is led by Sen. Ortolan Finnistere (William H. Macy). The senator wants to put a poison sign in every cigarette pack. You should see the silly redundancy of the slogan and how it was justified by the senator's inept staff.


Naylor is joined by the MOD (merchants of death) squad who is composed of Maria Bello, whose character is on alcohol advocacy, and David Koechner, on the gun promotion. Eventually, Naylor is screwed by journalist Heather Holloway (Katie Holmes) as he reveals some privileged information when they have sex. He is forced to attend a congressional inquiry where his moral dilemma come into play. Despite his MOD stature, he is god to his son, who is on the road to become the exact replica of his father.

Ultimately, the film sheds a soft light in the morality of choice and responsibility, and Reitman's script is unapologetically hilarious and frank without being preachy and imposing at all. The satire touches on the whole gamut of the spin culture in corporate America and a piercing commentary on the political environment. Eckhart delivers his lines like he is some James Bond of PR. His conversation with his son (Cameron Bright) on 'Why is American government the greatest government of all?' or something like that is one of my favorite scenes. Naylor refutes that the question is inherently flawed and criticized his kid's teacher for such question.

photo from: empiremovies.com