Embedded

In Embedded, written and directed by Tim Robbins, we learn that the media lies to the public and that the government controls the media. Gosh! I never knew that. We also learn that Tim Robbins is a better director than writer. The most interesting part of his show is the projections of dazzling old war films and splay of lights during the scene changes. The rest is simplistic Agit-prop polemic diatribe, mostly declaimed in a Brechtian manner, including masks for Bush's cabinet, but without Brecht's innovative theatrical tangents and delights.

Embedded is basically a boring show with very uneven acting, some of it truly awful, some of it quite good, as in a scene between an Iraqi doctor and a captured American woman, with loud music, shooting, and yelling occasionally to wake us up. Since it describes past events (the Iraq war) and prescribes nothing, and we don't at this time have a time machine to go back and fix anything that's already happened, I'm not sure to what end Robbins exposes us to his well-meaning harangue. If you want to preach beyond the choir, you have to draw us in, not shout things we, the left, the critics and condemners of inhumanity, already know.