I couldn't agree more with your piece on Neil LaBute. I swore off seeing any film with the "disturbing" tag years ago. As the wave of '90s indie film ground on and on, this idea that normal people were fucked up, too, seemed like such a one-trick pony.

Aren't movies supposed to be entertaining? Aren't movies supposed to provide escape into a somewhat better world, where if we're lucky, we can learn something about ourselves and at the very least walk away with a smile? Who wants to go to LaBute's world -- or for that matter, Todd Solondz's or Harmony Korrine's?

Last month, I rented "Your Friends and Neighbors." After the movie, I was affected, but not in any way that could effect change in my life. I can't say I was entertained. The feeling overall was that of mental rape. LaBute is one of a bunch of film school bores who threaten to ruin film for normal people forever.

-- Joey Sweeney
Philadelphia

Mormonism, as a religion, has for a long time been very concerned with image, with public relations, with How We're Perceived. And often enough, those outside our faith either get it hopelessly wrong, or get it obnoxiously right. We're either portrayed as some sort of wacko Amish-like farmers, only with several wives each (which is at least entertaining) or, worse, as clean-cut, middle-class cultural conservatives.

In part, what's shocking about Neil's work is that he is a Mormon, and yet his work shows such a horrifying picture of humanity, and the capacity of all people (including Mormons) to commit dreadful acts of ultimate evil. He's right, of course. But it's not a truth most of us want to face, especially Mormons. But I, for one, am delighted that he's doing it.

Mormonism is a rich and wonderful culture, and right now is producing some superb writers, people like Levi Peterson, Margaret Young, Tim Slover and Doug Thayer. And Neil LaBute. If you want to get to know us, ignore the glossy media campaigns. Read our best writers.

-- Eric Samuelsen

LaBute certainly makes many Mormons uncomfortable, and many church members will likely never see any of his work, simply because of the R-ratings his movies receive. Since previews for "Bash" opened, though, there has been a noticeable ripple of excitement and anxiety among the young New York ward (congregation) members, which includes many theater and entertainment professionals as well as fans.

I personally found the stories in "Bash" actually affirm, albeit through staggeringly negative examples, a major tenet of Mormon doctrine, and one that is shared in various forms by many belief systems -- namely that of individual accountability. In each of the works in "Bash," it was precisely these characters we find to be evil who make insincere and (according to Mormon teaching specifically and Christian belief in general) implausible appeals for justification for their actions, calling on the name of fate.

My feeling watching "Bash" was that LaBute singled out the sin of evasion of personal responsibility for special condemnation. This is the message LaBute drills home, only after manipulating his audience into identifying with his characters.

-- Greg Allen

It's impossible to exaggerate the depths of depravity in the underbelly of the Mormon religion. Pull up the Salt Lake Tribune, throw in the keyword polygamy, and read volumes of gross true crime stories for a look at the dark side of Mormonism. Half-sibling and full-sibling marriages, children born with previously unseen genetic defects, a 15-year-old girl forced into a marriage with her uncle as his 15th wife, belt-whipped for wanting to finish high school. In Arizona an upstanding Mormon High Priest recently "blood atoned" his wife by stabbing her 44 times, then drowning her because she wasn't dead yet -- an early Mormon murder practice. Her crime was not wanting any more children; his defense, supported by his priesthood brothers, was sleepwalking. The miracle in all of this is how they are able to maintain the image of the family-oriented church -- because it spends a fortune on an army of attorneys to protect their false public image.

-- Linda Walker
Director, Child Protection Project

Silicon bachelors
BY JANELLE BROWN
(06/29/99)

I live in the Silicon Valley, and I know these guys. They have their computers and other nifty toys, they have their stocks and what seem to be high salaries, but they also have rent that probably chews up a quarter to a half of their income. Sadly enough, many of these guys who want a girlfriend can't afford one. And the ones who can afford a girlfriend are more interested in computers than girls. Maybe that truly is the revenge of the nerds: Girls? Who needs them?

-- Rosemary Picado-Corral

Kahlúa, we get it: You want to suckle us with sweet love offerings
BY DOUGLAS CRUICKSHANK
(06/26/99)

The characterization of Pauline Hanson as right wing, although also repeated often in the Australian press, is probably granting her a more sophisticated political stance than she holds. As distinct from a conservative, she is a knee-jerk nationalist.

Her opposition to free trade, privatization of utilities and reduced industry subsidies aligns her (on economic issues, at least) with the left-wing Australian Labor Party. On welfare issues she has the apparent support of some senior Aboriginal figures, one of whom (the left-leaning lawyer Noel Pearson) recently spoke in favor of large-scale cutbacks in Aboriginal welfare. He echoed, albeit in a rather more articulate fashion, various Hanson comments on the subject.

So, where to place her in the right/left spectrum? Your guess is as good as mine. Luckily, Australians have largely given up trying. Hanson was voted out in last year's federal election, and the chances of her making a comeback are minimal.

-- Tim Blair

Hard boiled
BY DAVID BOWMAN
(06/28/99)

It's difficult to take seriously an article about modern noir that does not mention Elmore Leonard, the best of the lot. Granted he's gotten cuter over the years, but there is a raft of stuff from the old days, and books like "Maximum Bob" still pack a wallop. Leonard is every bit as pulp, literate, and un-self-conscious as Chandler, if not infinitely more so.

-- Tim Jennings
salon.com | July 6, 1999

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