When Pigs Fly Is Not About 9/11

In general I take issue with most movies about 9/11. My reasons are numerous, but most of them are some version of my general distaste for films that monopolize on collective guilt and sadness and manipulate viewers into feeling, confusing them into believing that something is good. Crash did this, most Tom Hanks movies do this, and Adam Sandler’s new movie Reign Over Me (probably) does it too. I’ve read that Sandler’s film doesn’t touch on 9/11 too overtly, but it’s obvious that he lost his family (his entire family) on that day, thanks to context clues like “I remember September 12th” and “My entire family was on the plane”. While I appreciate the subtlety, I have to say that I’d be more inclined to go see this movie if Sandler’s character didn’t also lose his fucking dog on 9/11. It’s true: his wife, three daughters and his fucking dog were on the plane. I think they had his childhood baseball card collection, too.

Regardless, I missed out on a lot of movies during SXSW because I was busy and a bit disappointed in the selection, but I recently stumbled across an amazing documentary called When Pigs Fly, which is about a quadriplegic woman tending a farm of 700 pigs. You can read Film Threat’s review of it or watch the trailer here.

Just wanted to say hi (hi!) and say that I dig the new look. Nice tweak of the WP theme.

I dislike those types of movies too. Mainly b/c I hate something that is going to capitalize on a tragedy. Especially so quickly after it happened. There were 9/11 movies like the following year, weren’t there? And did you hear they’re already working on a movie of Anna Nicole’s life? (Not that it is NEARLY the same thing, obviously. But still.) It’s because people pander to the lowest common denominator and have no ideas left to create real stories.

p.s. I like the new look.