But why not Collateral?

Shaviro has a nice post on Collateral, which reminds me that for all their cool ideas, none of my 1000 students seem to have chosen to write about this particular movie. I showed them a couple of clips: the scene with Tom Cruise/Vincent getting in the cab and talking to Jamie Foxx/Max about driving a cab. Then the scene after Max realizes what kind of guy he's driving around, and Vincent's admonition to do the job. Raises some pretty interesting questions about work, though none of them are very straightforward kinds of questions--more ontological/epistemological, like Shaviro says. Hence it's infinitely higher interest, in my mind. And we had a good discussion, too. (Which reached quite the pitch when I pointed out--gasp--the cab driver has the same first name as Weber! But, really, it *was* a good discussion.)

But no papers about Collateral, unless someone in the Monday crew is doing it. Lots of Office Space. Lots of Erin Brockavich. A few movies they brought in on their own (8 Mile being one especially interesting entry.) Good stuff, just wish I coulda seen that Collateral piece.