Posted on by arotherham

“Won’t Back Down” Disappoints At Box And Virginia Changes

Turns out “Won’t Back Down” does struggle with the date night test at the box office this weekend.

Virginia officials keep saying in public and private that critics of the state’s proposed school performance targets are misrepresenting the policy.  Yet they are (a) changing the policy anyway and (b) have yet to actually say where the critics are wrong…In case you missed it, President Obama had a good response on the waiver/differentiated targets issue when asked about it by NBC’s Savannah Guthrie last week.

Pro tip: Drunk college students might be playing you.

9 Replies to ““Won’t Back Down” Disappoints At Box And Virginia Changes”

  1. The other Gyllenhaal had a much better movie with “October Sky.” Maybe Maggie thought she was making the next “Erin Brockovich.” It’s probably tempting to make a movie billionaire Christian winger Philip Anschutz is bankrolling however…

    Pro tip: When a book or movie has to prefaced with “A fictional story inspired by actual events…” it means someone is trying to manipulate you. If you’re the director or writer and your name is not Oliver Stone, you probably shouldn’t even attempt to do fictional stories based on actual events you pull out of your backside.

  4. Secretary seems a much more redeeming movie experience than “Won’t Back Teachers”.

  5. What will happen as repercussions to the data on Won’t Back Down.
    This, perhaps:

    a. At least one studio executive fired for earning such an obvious “F” on his/her movie Report Card;
    b. At least one script writer demoted to copyist;
    c. A director removed from movie-making responsibility and placed instead in a senior studio management position (a la standard DOE practice);
    d. At least one studio executive blasting the Screen Actors Guild and the related movie industry unions for placing their self-interest ahead of the entertainment enjoyment of the American public and calling for elimination of unions from the film industry;
    e. The entire movie cast fired from their positions with the requirement that they must apply to be rehired at half their prior pay;

  7. Hammer Into Anvil

    But this is one of those areas where conservatives have been extremely successful in dividing the working class, which is precisely the agenda in “Won’t Back Down.” Breeding hostility to unions in themselves, and occasionally insinuating that unionized teachers are a protected caste of incompetents who get three damn months off every single year, has been an effective tactic in what we might call postmodern Republican populism, especially in recent battles over public employee contracts in Wisconsin and elsewhere. It works something like this: 1) Turn the resentment and frustration of people like Jamie – people with crappy service-sector jobs and few benefits, whose kids are stuck in failing schools – against the declining group of public employees who still have a decent deal. 2) Strip away job security and collective bargaining; hand out beer and ukuleles instead. 3) La la la la, tax cuts, tax cuts, I can’t hear you!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.