2016 Directed by Adam Curtis
We live in a world where the powerful deceive us. We know they lie. They know we know they lie. They do not care. We say we care, but we do nothing, and nothing ever changes. It is normal. Welcome to the post-truth world. How we got to where we are now…
Germany
Mindpirates Film Night
USA
True/False Film Festival
UK12
Germany
UK
USA
Ultimately, Curtis’ argument is that the oversimplification of complex problems breeds oversimplified solutions, and when these overly simple solutions are implemented—often violently—they produce unintended consequences that further complicate the calculus. I would like to keep this front and center, because while Curtis has many aesthetic and methodological weaknesses, the framing of his thesis remains sound, even if he himself is not fully beholden to it. The case for complexity is a flexible position, one that does not divide political and ideological camps into categories of right and wrong—or even of more right and more wrong—but flattens them, from communism to fascism, across political parties and religious and cultural divides. He is not saying they are the same—a false equivalency to…
Decades of Western politicians sacrificing lives to construct/preserve their fake reality, and keep imposing their oversimplified solutions on oversimplified issues, like the largest, most horrific theatre ever performed... And people are shocked that a racist egomaniac, with a background in fraud and reality television, is somehow good at this game
Hoop-Tober, year three, film #18:
A towering postmodern, post-media masterpiece regardless of the fact that it hypernormalizes and thus (inconsequentially) oversimplifies its own historical-to-contemporary investigation of hypernormalization, due to it addressing this potential shortcoming by promptly asserting that art/creative expression, which the film certainly knows that it is, hypernormalizes and therefore (irrelevantly) paraphrases the subject matters that it takes into consideration & critiques, by existing in a realm separate from reality - documentaries as well, of course - ergo any qualms that I could've possibly had with the piece were instantly and, almost by force, rendered valueless & vacant; a film, as many are, constructed just as purposefully for the dialogue that it will inevitably provoke between its speculators as it was for the content alone, re: reading responses and discussions from observers following their viewings has been just as fascinating & fruitful as reading the audiovisual text of the film itself.
Your retired college professor paranoid ramblings. Some very persuasive, some mad, all packaged in that familiar know-it-all voice. Curtis manner of unpacking multiple tangents is always impressive in their immersive quality as much as some of his occasional cheap shots are stupid and he seems hilarious unaware of how much oversimplification his form needs. All of the material and arguments, Curtis intertwines does pack a power and his desire to make one ask questions comes through his pedagogical project. The most political act left available is trying to make sense of things.
73
Oversimplified explanations of complex systems, set in tone by Adam Curtis' polite conspirator lecture energy. Much of this went over my head so I can't necessarily fault the hand-holding. Grade-A soundtrack choices, too.
I deleted my review of this film, for a few reasons.
1. I wasn’t invested enough in it, or Curtis, to put up with the aggravation it caused.
2. I could have blocked certain commenters or deleted select comments, but leaving only the remarks that said things like “great review!” seemed rather self-serving.
3. There were a few really obnoxious repeat commenters I wanted to deplatform. I am always willing to defend my views, and am happy to have an argument in good faith. But when people are posting shit like “lmao” and “cringe” and fucking Dril quotes, that’s just trolling.
I have been writing professionally about film for over 15 years, not counting my time in academia. And one…
Nobody can say what the world is anymore. We are post-truth, post-politics, and post-reality.
Adam Curtis' documentary HyperNormalisation takes the thesis of his previous film, Bitter Lake, that complex events are deliberately oversimplified and expands it to suggest that not only is everything oversimplified, it is contradictory and non-understandable. We - the people, the politicians, the financiers - are complicit in our own confusion. All everyone knows is that the world is broken. Whatever your political leanings, does anyone think the current global system works? Or even any current national system? Sure, the person you vote for might get elected, but will anything really change, and will you understand it if it does?
We live in a world of information…
I read about literally everything that is happening right now in the world on 4chan when I was 12 years old
