Lady in the Water Ain't Bad

December 26, 2006

I saw M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water over the time off I had this weekend for Christmas. This film received horrible reviews, and if you take the time to look at them in total (via Rotten Tomatoes), you'd think this is the worst movie ever made.

Well, it ain't. In fact, it's quite good and even moving in places. Not Shymalan's best, IMHO, but a good film nonetheless. Certainly better than most of the crap made these days. I can't believe a whole group of people (critics) would pan the film because of how horribly a film critic is portrayed in the movie. If that's true, then film criticism as practiced by newspapers and other media outlets is a joke.

Truthfully, I think the dumb critic gave reviewers am excuse to go with their gut reactions, rather than think seriously about the film. I also think that reviewers "read" films with expectations formed by a very conservative sense of what constitutes good cinema.

Don't get me wrong.... the film has its warts. And it expects you to dispell your disbelief in order to enjoy the movie. I just don't have a problem doing that. In fact, I think there's something charming about a movie that doesn't feel compelled to mire the viewer in current reality. At the very least, the film is certainly not the pariah of a movie that contemporary film criticism would have you believe it to be.

Being Called a Web Developer

December 15, 2006

This friend of mine dislikes being called a web developer. He prefers the term software developer or programmer. This is something that has never bothered me, and in fact, I've always liked the term web developer.

I guess there is the fear that using the term may be indicative of one's skill level, i.e. the web developer only uses HTML, CSS, and maybe a smattering of cut-n-paste JavaScript, while the software developer lives in nothing but code. Maybe it's just that those who prefer the term software developer believe it more accurately describes what we do (the "we" being those of us who code web sites.) I can say first hand that when asked "what do you do," the response "I'm a web developer" yields more blank-faced looks than when I say something to the effect of "I write software for web sites."

I still like the term, though. It speaks to the territory I inhabit. The "web," while being mired in several metaphors, does somehow feel very much like a place. When I code, I try to fill the place with useful structures, inhabitants, villages, cities. It feels like a betrayal to not acknowledge that place when describing myself. The web is like my hometown, like that place you drive by and wonder how anyone could live there. Some of us just see the value in hanging around and trying to make the place a little bit better.