Waste of time

The Age of Commercialism

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

This is a story about a man, out of work, his marriage is falling apart, overbearing mother, father decently died. In general he is down and in a rut.After an incident on the street where his car is damaged after his wife is rude to the wrong person, he does nothing and is made to feel like less than a man. He goes to the police for assistance and, getting none, he instead finds that the person is a powerful and connected man, untouchable. It then becomes a crusade for this man to get satisfaction.I liked this film of an underdog everyman who has decided not to bow to the entitled. Watching him getting pulled deeper and deeper into dangerous waters until there is no turning back. He is pushed, and in some way allows himself to be pushed, to ever more drastic measures as he butts heads with dangerous people. This is the hill he is ready to die on.Well made movie and fine performances. I recommend.

Rabbi Akiva (?), once at a beach, saw a skull...Power abuse calls for power abuse. Here, an ex-Mossad mefaked is eventually murdered, given that he never apologizes for abusing his power. I am not sure whether as a sound "morale" is stands up. However, several thoughts could be explored:1) The movie plot is punctuated with sirens. The Holocaust memorial day, the soldier memorial day, etc. Complete devotion to these symbols is observed. However, these symbols evoke a national unity, a sense of mission and brotherly respect that could be, finally, just a myth. Or were they evoked exactly to provoke you and I, in order to pose the rhetorical question: "are these only empty symbols"?2) Impotence and outburst goes hand in hand. His (Michael) sexual desire is recovered as he is haunted by the mob. Conversely, one may think as terrorists' acts are close to impotence feelings.3) Mob emergence is strongly related to States that rely on opaque power structures. We see it in Russia, why not in Israel? Sheer confidence in the State of Israel, as "social attachment" might encumber rationality, after all.

The virtual invincibility of powerful evil forces in modern society is portrayed frequently in films, and here it's explored with Israeli flavor, to satisfying effect.A depressed former hi-tech dropout and his surgeon wife have a violent encounter with road rage, and after trying to take the matter to the police discover the good citizen's route is not going to get them very far. They could cut their losses and get on with their lives, except that the emptiness and anger they've been feeling lately doesn't leave them much life to get back to anyway.It's "Network" ('I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!') meets "Eastern Promises" and "Rambo" on the streets of Tel Aviv.There are points at which my suspension of disbelief was somewhat strained, but I accepted these minor weaknesses in the spirit of the fable of someone refusing to be further beaten down by the corrupt systems of all our lives.