Wesley Fenlon | Not with a bang but a whimper.

As an independent filmmaker, John Sayles has a penchant for creating movies that are simultaneously entertaining and thought-provoking. Though directors are often considered the visionaries responsible for the quality of whatever movie they’re helming, a strong script is always essential. Sayles takes the best of both worlds — he writes all his own projects.

Sayles hasn’t directed every film he’s written — some of his early screenplays (such as the now-classic Piranha) earned him the money to finance his own projects, and since the early 1980s he has written and directed over fifteen movies. Despite his success as a genre screenwriter, Sayles’s real passion lies in crafting culturally conscious films that present some sort of social criticism, but it an examination of racism, class, or politics.

One such film is Lone Star, starring Chris Cooper and Matthew McConaughey, who wasn’t yet a bigtime Hollywood celebrity in 1996.  Lone Star examines a variety of serious social issues that are likely commonplace for anyone who lives in a Texas border town, such as the one in which the film is set; race relations play a big part in the film, but they’re not the only focus.

More universal concerns such as family relationships are just as emphasized.  Throughout much of the film, Chris Cooper is trying to learn more about his deceased father (McConaughey), and as he unearths more and more he’s forced to challenge the image he’s constructed in his own mind.

That’s one of the coolest things about Lone Star — it’s entirely possible to watch the film for the political and social overtones, but you don’t have to.  Wrapped up in the weighty cultural concerns is a clever murder mystery that continually alternates between Cooper’s present-day search and the past, in which his father was the town sheriff.

Thanks to the film’s numerous interwoven plotlines, there’s a lot to like in Lone Star.  Still, nothing really can compare to country-singin’ legend Kris Kristofferson’s performance as corrupt former sheriff Charlie Wade.  With a devilish gleam in his eyes, Kristofferson totally dominates every scene he’s in, and with just a few minutes of screen time he manages to be the most memorable and entertaining character in the movie.  He’s twisted and evil, but delectably so.

More Kris Kristofferson could have only made Lone Star better, but ultimately his perfectly sinister Charlie Wade would’ve only gotten in the way of the real focus of the film.  The last few moments of the movie offer up one hell of an ending as all the pieces come together to blow your mind with a Sixth Sense-caliber revelation that suddenly clarifies a number of mysterious moments throughout the story.

Shifting gears a bit, let’s think of Lone Star as a teaching tool.  What better way to engage students in important social issues than by presenting those problems in a tightly-wrapped mystery?  It’s the classic bait and switch: lull them into enjoying the film before they realize it’s worth thinking about.

In fact, a little Googling results in the unearthing of a guide to doing just that: using Lone Star in an academic light.  Officially titled “Teaching John Sayles’ Lone Star : A Guide for Teachers of Grades 10-12,” the guide is impressively detailed: it includes useful subjects of discussion and questions for incorporating Lone Star into a classroom setting.

This is how I originally discovered the film, myself: while taking a class on multicultural literature, my professor showed us a few minutes of the film to complement the discussion we were currently having.  And given the number of subjects Lone Star covers in its 135-minute running time, the film is unusually ambidextrous — if you’ve got something serious to discuss, it’s probably relevant in one way or another.

Continue past the cut to read my own analysis of how John Sayles examines a wide range of sociocultural issues in Lone Star.

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Last friday I dragged myself out of bed extra early at the frightful hour of 10 am with visions of Dead Space dancing in my head.  Alas, before I could spend the evening divorcing aliens of their limbs, I had to make it through a dreary, rainy day.  As it turned out, though, it was a pretty good day for gaming, but not just because I had the distinct privilege of watching a college professor try to play Dancing with the Stars.

Before that disco fever took hold, I spent two hours in a dark room listening to a guy named Russell talk about art in video games.  He wasn’t just any guy named Russell, though; he was Russell Chamier, a senior art lead at Mythic Entertainment, who recently put the finishing touches on Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.  His hefty presentation was formally titled “Video Game Industry Insight and Workflow for the Graphic Artist.”  I think the other 30-odd people who managed to find the classroom in the bowels of the fine arts building were actually graphic artists.  I was just there because he was talking about games.

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Last Friday I had the unusual experience of seeing a college professor don a white Wii Sports jacket, zip it up, and proceed to play Wii Bowling on a 100″ screen in front of a crowd of nearly 300 thoroughly entertained students.  And, for the first time, it hit me what a phenomenon the Wii really is.

Logically, I knew it already: old people, young people, casual gamers and “core” gamers all find something to like on the Wii.  Of course, there are those gamers here and there who vehemently dislike the console and claim Nintendo has abandoned its base, but that’s another issue entirely.  The moral of this little story is that the Wii has really found a way to tap into the mainstream in a more significant way than anything related to gaming since, quite possibly, Pac-Man.

So, even though I knew the sales numbers and have read just as many articles about old folks’ homes outfitted with Wiis over the past two years as everyone else undoubtedly has, seeing it in the flesh was an eye-opening experience.  It’s as if Nintendo has found a way to tap on the glass wall enclosing our subconscious and say “Hey, wanna play?”  And, as it turns out, even people who have no conception of themselves as gamers do want to play.  They just hadn’t figured it out yet.

As it turned out, he was a pretty mean bowler, but not much of a dancer: he loves talking about Dancing With the Stars, but the game’s timing system was a bit beyond him, though I suspect it was actually his first time trying it out.  I think the ever-expanding presence of the Wii in the public sphere is exciting, though it’s not without its irony; what if the console that “hardcore” gamers deride for its simplicity and deviation from gaming’s roots is the very system that helps legitimize and establish the medium as a valid component of mainstream popular culture?