For over a week I have been agonizing if I should publicly write about a movie premier I recently attended: Middle Men. You can imagine my trepidation writing about a movie which appears to be Studio 54 meets Boogie Nights and is about the creation of porn on the Internet. While the trailer certainly was designed to tantalize the masses by showing ample skin - to me this movie was as entertaining as it was thought provoking. Throughout the fast paced story of sex, drugs, money, and greed there were strong underlying themes of business savvy succeeding and positive messages that appeal to our inner-self help/hope mantras. The movie touched upon core issues that lurk behind closed doors of our lives: faithfulness, family dramas, personal struggle, and selling out.
I would have never thought that the main character, Jack, would have become a hero or even a guiding force as there is so much about him that one could find despicable (i.e. the man who made sellable sex on the Internet what it is today). However, Jack is not an adult film producer or even its advocate. He is a businessman, a leader, and a fixer. He was not in the adult film business, he was in the "fixing business." Jack's track record of fixes fledgling companies gives way to his mantra, "Let's focus on why we are here" -- a line that I have used daily since I have saw the movie.
This concept of staying focused has really made me think. Focus is an essentially skill that often gets lost in the shuffle of our day-to-day task oriented way of proceeding with our lives. My focus and goal, newly reaffirmed, is to educate people, advocate for people and causes and sometimes even shame or cajole people to be better. So I realized that this movie is not so dissimilar from my core beliefs and what I stand for. As important as it is to insure that the justice system does what it is supposed to, I want to also make sure I do my part: that is to teach others to open their minds and become aware. What will your refocus moment be like?
So my friends, the bottom line is this: Middle Men is a movie I urge you to see. It is now playing at selected theaters -- Find Local Listings.