The other night, I watched Fight Club and the haiku scene spoke to me:
First off, it emphasizes the mundane routines that most of us trudge through each day, but more poignantly, seventeen syllables really sum up the theme of the movie. That said, I figured I’d go through this year’s Best Picture nominees and see if I could capture each one’s essence through haiku:
Avatar
poorly insured vet
wooed by evil white men to
ruin blue harmony
An Education
don’t weep, poor David
humbert humbert grew madder
Roman had to flee
The Hurt Locker
some people love war
diffuse suicides with ease
cereal aisle boggles
The Blind Side
homeless and broken
white guilt builds great left tackle
i want an Oscar
Up
dreams of adventure
lost in one and only love
dreamt again in—squirrel!
District 9
a swiss cheese story
a wasted allegory
a craving for shrimp
Up in the Air
blame can be outsourced
reality: relative
get behind asians
Inglourious Basterds
{thump!} knells the Bear Jew
credits roll an inferno
bon joor no hitler
Precious: based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire
rolling hills of flesh
suffocating grief and pain
no redemption here
A Serious Man
i haven’t seen it
i hear it’s about a jew
can’t roll on shabbos