Tag Archive: Mark Ruffalo


SPOTLIGHT directed by Tom McCarthy (USA, 2015)

 oscarometro2016spotlightHoly shit! Never has this exclamation carried more significance.

Based on actual events (isn’t everything?), the shit uncovered by the Spotlight team of fearless reporters of the Boston Globe at the turn of the Millennium indeed had the holiest of stenches.

The Roman Catholic priests in Boston who molested and abused young boys and girls turned out the be the tip of a dung heap of global proportions. As the credits roll, the printed list of subsequent cases found in parishes around the world is enough to make Jesus and the rest of us mere mortals weep.

Anything which widens the scope of the negative publicity against the hypocritical church establishment is welcome but I doubt that the Pope is quaking in his satin slippers after seeing this lackluster movie. In toning down the sensationalist elements of the story, it becomes more of a celebration of investigative journalism than a full-blooded indictment of this holy disorder. Continue reading

IN PRAISE OF THE HAIRY CHEST

 

One of the many positives about Lisa Cholodenko’s movie The Kids Are All Right is the prominence of Mark Ruffalo’s hairy chest.

His character as sperm donor Dad is , as his ‘son’ observes,  someone who is “into himself”.

In other words, his prominent body (and facial) hair is not a result of slobbishness  but a sign of virility and symbolic of his back to the garden values.

It would be good if this started a trend away from the body fascism that conditions audiences into associating waxed torsos with true manhood; a trend that has seen James Bond stripped of his body hair with Daniel Craig’s smooth pecs a marked contrast to the natural charms of Sean Connery .

I’m not against a bit of home grooming. After hitting 50, the hair displacement from head to ears, nose and back needs to be controlled but going the whole hog with a full Brazilian, or Hollywood,  wax is not for me. I’m happy to trim my rug but pass on  having to endure the pain of a monthly epilation. Ruffalo makes me feel better about this life choice and shows that hairiness and manliness are not mutually exclusive concepts.