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jimfellows
Reviews
The King of Comedy (1982)
Might be interesting for students of serious mental disorders.
This is a strange movie. It paints a very realistic picture of a person
with such a severe mental disorder that he can not function in
society. He suffers from an all consuming delusion that he has the
talent to be a tv talk/humour show host and devotes all his time and
energy into harassing the staff at a local big city tv station in an
attempt to attract the attention of a real tv personality.
In fact he lives at home with his mother and is clearly incapable of
holding down even a simple job.
This was a very believable representation of a very sad person. But
is it an interesting drama? Is it amusing watching this unfortunate
man driving everyone mad, although they all treat him with
great forebearance and kindness? We might note that, these days he would more likely get shot for entering other people's spaces and annoying them.
I found it boring and so I had to give up about half way through. But my partner, a psychiatric nurse, did find it interesting. She said it
was a very accurate representation of a severely deluded personality. For her that was enough to hold her attention.
So I can not recomend this movie for the ordinary person. Perhaps
it might be useful for psychiatry students studying severe mental
disorders. Of course I note that many IMDB reviewers rate the movie highly. I am mystified by that.
A note on his mother: she must have been a very kind person and
must have had an above average income. Her son was physically
healthy, well fed and well dressed.
Merchants of Doubt (2014)
An entertaining presentation of a most important topic.
This is a most engaging and informative movie about some most important topics.
The movie shows, with many illustrations, the way certain financial and political interests have used the tactic of spreading doubt to delay action being taken to remedy serious social and environmental problems. The examples chosen in the movie include smoking, flame retardants (sofas cause fires!) and global warming. The presentation is sharp and funny.
Since global warming is the most serious problem facing the world at the moment, this movie couldn't be more important. The movie is based on the book "Merchants of Doubt" which works through a detailed history of these topics, also including acid rain and the ozone layer destruction.
The story is also very depressing because the latest problem, global warming, is unlikely to be remedied before its too late to repair or avoid the consequences. That the "merchants" have been largely successful, in the USA at least, is illustrated by some of the user comments. Or maybe those negative comments were inserted by professional doubters?