Syriana

I watch, at most, a dozen films a year. Of those, perhaps 2 or 3 are mainstream current releases. So it's mind-expanding when I let someone else pick a film and do the whole cinema experience with them. Bryon told me that
Syriana was good research for Migritude - even if (or maybe because) it had no women in it.

It actually had 4 women with (minor) speaking parts. The Condoleeza Rice character, the Margaret Thatcher lookalike actalike, and two wives. Oh, and the oil wells - we didn't see them, but they were spoken of as females and were obviously the driving impetus for the whole story.

I didn't learn anything I didn't already know. But I did see more fully realized, fiercely tender, portrayals of migrant Pakistani workers in the Persian Gulf than I thought possible in a Hollywood movie. Heard a lot more Urdu than I expected to in a Hollywood movie. Was pleasantly surprised at the unsparing exposure of the oil industry and it's minions in the US administration. And even if the film had done nothing for me, it was worth going just to experience Grand Lake's Egyptian Theater .