we are now into day 2 of our kitchen remodel. i'm sitting here in the living room typing as the entry to the kitchen is covered over in clear plastic and the walls have been stripped to studs. while the backroom is also being remodeled a little with a new door cut in while the rest of the room is used for storage. needless to say, man! the fridge is in the dining room and our microwave, along with a stack of paperplates, a couple of forks and knives, 2 coffee cups, a sippy cup and a bottle is in our bedroom. in other words, we are cramped up!

just picked up the disc of children of men after work today and 1 of the features is a commentary by slavoj zizek, which i have now watched twice. along with watching the movie again. this is the film that has haunted me for the past few months. the one in which i cannot stop thinking about. i daresay that it is a masterpiece. a lot of ambient sound used in the movie, but what strikes me is the motif of ringing ears. when theo [clive owen] is in immediate danger the sound mutes and there is a persistent low metallic ringing on the soundtrack, much like the ringing one would here after a rock concert, or loud explosion. in turn that ringing is a metaphor for the droning violence and speeded up entropy of the dying world.

although the film ends on a slightly positive note, we never forget that in spite of hope humankind still will fuck things up. i won't add any spoilers here if you've not seen the film, but i will tell you near the end there is an epiphanic moment almost, a splendid calm is displayed in the background and foreground of the picture. things stop, and we are allowed to glimpse the miraculous. for a very brief moment at least. then, sudden violence. it is in this scene that displays cuaron's genius. for here the director's action is grounded in cold hard reality. perhaps cuaron is a pragmatist tippled with pessimism, which is personified in theo's character. until he meets kee, that is. then theo loses his despair, strengthens his hope and begins to work toward a kind of pragmatic faith in his mission to save kee and her child.

zizek points out that cuaron's vision is always in the background of the world he created here in this movie. what is simultaneously comforting and frightening is that the world of the movie is also the state we live in. we know it and live in it now. nothing is strange, in cuaron's movie, whether it be technology, religious ideation and action, or the dreadful turns of politics. cuaron created a film both prescient and visionary.

it is this that i say that this might be the most important film of the past dozen years or so.