When There is no Gratitude
"If you've come to this world to hear the words 'Thank You', you've come to the wrong world," said Billy Taylor, a Cree First Nations person.
Taylor and his people had fought battles - most of them peacefully - against the giant public utility firm called Hydro Quebec. From the 1960's on, Hydro Quebec built huge dams on traditional Cree land in northern Quebec. The Cree foiled some of Hydro's plans. But only some. Taylor led part of the Cree fightback. If he failed sometimes I'm sure some of the Cree nation put him down. Then he must have realized that some people don't thank you, or show little gratitude for your past efforts.
A few weeks ago one poor person on Vancouver's downtown eastside, put down Jean Swanson, a veteran anti-poverty activist."Jean Swanson's a poverty pimp," he said. In short, Swanson made money on the backs of poor people. This is totally untrue. Swanson has spent 40 years on the downtown eastside, a low income place that is now morphing into yet another place of upscale condominiums.
Swanson lives in a modest housing co-op apartment on Vancouver's northeast area. She has, I'm sure, saved some money. Yet she's far from rich and surely made no fortune from her anti-poverty work.
In the early 1990's, a group of poor people, led by a convicted bank robber, put out a paper that accused Jean Swanson of being a poverty pimp. This group of people have long vanished. Yet poor people, like richer folk,often show no gratitude to people who tried to help them.
Some bus drivers are no different from some poor people. "Gratitude," is defined by 'Webster's Dictionary' as "Thankfulness'. Yet not all people or unionized workers thank or vote for people that help them.
The 3,000 members who make up the bus drivers and mechanics in Metro Vancouver owe their jobs and their slightly above average wages to the long ago NDP government of Dave Barrett. Jim Lorimer, who was Barrett's Minister of Municipal Affairs, ordered close to 100 new buses for Metro Vancouver, not long after he took on the cabinet post. Lorimer set the stage for a true public transportation system in Metro Vancouver.
Before this some trolleys and a few busus trundled City of vancouver streets. A scattering of buses every hour or so servced the growing suburbs that ringed Vancouver. But that was it. "You sure don't have too many buses here," a visitor from Montreal said in the spring of 1972.
Jim Lorimer changed all that. He hired public transit experts to plan new bus lines. When he ordered new buses he also hired new bus drivers and mechanics to drive and repair them.So more people found jobs in transit.
Soon new buses shot back and forth between Vancouver and suburbs like Burnaby, Richmond, New Westminster and other places,. Though Dave Barrett's government lasted a bare three years and three months in power, Lorimer's planners set the stage for transit systems and buses in smaller towns and cities across B.C.
In 1975, for example, the north Okanagan city of Vernon had no publicly-run buses. But by the late 1980's it did. Buses soon ran up and down the streets of Fraser valley cities of Abbotsford, Chilliwack and other places. So Dave Barrett's short-lived government laid the groundwork for a modern bus system. Yet this means nothing to so many bus drivers to-day.
Over 40 years after the time Dave Barrett was premier of B.C. a man I'll call Frank, drove buses all across Metro Vancouver. A big, chunky man, Frank lives in a big suburban home. He owns
two cars, numerous electronic appliances and has taken many holidays in Europe and elsewhere.
He couldn't have done all this as a worker if Dave Barrett's government hadn't come along. Yet Frank has never voted NDP and never will. "I don't believe in socialism," he said in 2013. "No way. I'm a free enterprise man all the way."
Ron comes from the sunny Okanagan. In the B.C. election of 2013 he voted for the Liberals too. And so did other drivers like Ujjal, Hank, Sara, Jean and many other bus drivers. (The are not their real names).
Many of these people know little or nothing about the N.D.P.'s creation of a modern bus system. Yet I think that even if they did, they would still vote for the right wing Liberal party. They surely won't vote N.D.P.
"I'd say about half the bus drivers voted Liberal in 2013," says a man I'll call Merinder. Another big husky driver, this man has never voted for the N.D.P.
So good deeds in politics don't always lead to people voting for your party. The N.D.P. in B.C. found that out in 2013 and earlier than that. There's often no gratitude in politics.
(end of Part One)
Wednesday 31 December 2014
Monday 29 December 2014
Another Mind-Body Book
'When The Body Says No' by Dr. Gabor Mate, M.D., Vintage Canada, 2004. 306pp.
Gabor Mate, a doctor of medicine, has carved out another career as a writer. His book 'When The Body Says No' urges people to see the mind-body illness connection in a new
way.
"Repression of anger increases the risk of cancer," writes the Vancouver-based doctor. "It magnifies exposure to psychological stress." And psychological stress, Mate points out, lies behind many other illnesses too, like sclerdoma, multiple sclerosis or M.S., amytrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease as it's called, and types of cancer.
Here the doctor is leaning on the ideas of Dr. Hans Selye, who Mate co-dedicates the book to. 50 years ago Selye pioneered the ideas that stress lies behind many illnesses. The book forced me once again to look back at my own childhood and adolescence. For 'When The Body Says No' is chockful of patients whose early years like my own, were far from ideal.
And these patients later became victims of cancer, skin diseases and so on. My family like many others was a breeding ground for stress and illnesses. My father was an Orthodox Jew, though not a Hassidim Jew. Still he believed in every word of the Old Testament. He was at times a warm caring man but he could also erupt into frightening spasms of anger.
My mother was a long suffering woman from an upper middle class English family. "your father gave her warmth and love," one of my father's future partners said. My mother surely needed both of these emotions. For her father was a tyrant who drove his wife to deafness by his constant shouting.
Many of the patients in the book remind me of my mother. She nearly always put other people's needs ahead of her own needs. She died of breast cancer in the late 1960's of breast cancer. She was only 50 or so. My younger sister Valerie died at about the same time at the age of 20. I still feel that the estrogen-dosed birth control pills caused the stroke that killed her.
I didn't mourn my sister and mother when they died. As a result, when my dad died about 15 years later, I was seized by rage and great feelings of sadness. Then I started to mourn for my three dead family members. Yet I still blamed my father for the poverty our family endured from the early 1950's to the mid-1960's. And for many years I ended up like my father, full of rage and arguing with everybody.
"David is still fighting with his father," a woman said about me after I had a terrible argument with her.
All of this was brought back to me while reading this book. It took me down memory lane and often I erupted in rage and sadness after reading some pages. Dr. Mate by the way, likes anger but not rage.
"Health rests on three pillars," he points out near the book's end. " They are the body, the psyche and the spiritual connection. To ignore any one of them is to ignore imbalance and dis-ease."
Gabor Mate touches on all three pillars and opened my mind once again, to the connections between emotions and illness, not only in my own life, but the lives of many others. Though ten years old now, it's still a fine book.
Gabor Mate, a doctor of medicine, has carved out another career as a writer. His book 'When The Body Says No' urges people to see the mind-body illness connection in a new
way.
"Repression of anger increases the risk of cancer," writes the Vancouver-based doctor. "It magnifies exposure to psychological stress." And psychological stress, Mate points out, lies behind many other illnesses too, like sclerdoma, multiple sclerosis or M.S., amytrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease as it's called, and types of cancer.
Here the doctor is leaning on the ideas of Dr. Hans Selye, who Mate co-dedicates the book to. 50 years ago Selye pioneered the ideas that stress lies behind many illnesses. The book forced me once again to look back at my own childhood and adolescence. For 'When The Body Says No' is chockful of patients whose early years like my own, were far from ideal.
And these patients later became victims of cancer, skin diseases and so on. My family like many others was a breeding ground for stress and illnesses. My father was an Orthodox Jew, though not a Hassidim Jew. Still he believed in every word of the Old Testament. He was at times a warm caring man but he could also erupt into frightening spasms of anger.
My mother was a long suffering woman from an upper middle class English family. "your father gave her warmth and love," one of my father's future partners said. My mother surely needed both of these emotions. For her father was a tyrant who drove his wife to deafness by his constant shouting.
Many of the patients in the book remind me of my mother. She nearly always put other people's needs ahead of her own needs. She died of breast cancer in the late 1960's of breast cancer. She was only 50 or so. My younger sister Valerie died at about the same time at the age of 20. I still feel that the estrogen-dosed birth control pills caused the stroke that killed her.
I didn't mourn my sister and mother when they died. As a result, when my dad died about 15 years later, I was seized by rage and great feelings of sadness. Then I started to mourn for my three dead family members. Yet I still blamed my father for the poverty our family endured from the early 1950's to the mid-1960's. And for many years I ended up like my father, full of rage and arguing with everybody.
"David is still fighting with his father," a woman said about me after I had a terrible argument with her.
All of this was brought back to me while reading this book. It took me down memory lane and often I erupted in rage and sadness after reading some pages. Dr. Mate by the way, likes anger but not rage.
"Health rests on three pillars," he points out near the book's end. " They are the body, the psyche and the spiritual connection. To ignore any one of them is to ignore imbalance and dis-ease."
Gabor Mate touches on all three pillars and opened my mind once again, to the connections between emotions and illness, not only in my own life, but the lives of many others. Though ten years old now, it's still a fine book.
Tuesday 25 November 2014
Another Journey To The Stars
'Interstellar' Starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain. Directed by Christopher Nolan.
Science fiction and space journeys rarely turn me on. Stanley Kubrick's '2001' stunned me long ago with its dramatic visuals. Yet for me the film failed. After this, Kubrick kept churning out flicks. Yet none of his later works ever matched his 'Paths of Glory'.
A decade later in the 1970's, George Lucas's 'Star Wars' hit the big screen. Again the visuals were impressive but the message struck me as a right wing one. And the same was true of the t.v. series and later the movie 'Star Treck'.
Now comes 'Interstellar' that takes place in the near future. Earth is running out of some precious gas. So Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), and a few others, set out in a spaceship to start up a colony of humans on a distant planet. McConaughey dominates the film and shows us he's one fine actor.
Yet for all its high-tech glitz, and Stephen Hawking type science terms, the core of the film hinges on the power of family. "We're not here to save the world," Michael Caine, the overseer of the mission to outer space says. "We're here to save it." So at film's end, McConaughey meets his family again. he is still young, but his daughter, played by Jessica Chastain, is now an old woman.
Chastain is a very fine actor and Anne Hathaway, who heads out on the mission as a co-pilot, has a strong supportive role. Yet in the end, the film descends into a sermon about the importance of family. My questions is: Shouldn't we first try to save the earth, before fleeing to outer space?Wouldn't that help all the families who may be left behind?
One other problem is the length of the film: It's far too long. The flick, directed by Christopher Nolan, has suspense, action and drama. Yet in the end I found it boring. Anyway high marks go to McConaughey and others, especially Jessica Chastain. Yet I'm not going to any space travel flicks for a long time after watching 'Interstellar'.
Its Harperesque massage is not my trip.
Science fiction and space journeys rarely turn me on. Stanley Kubrick's '2001' stunned me long ago with its dramatic visuals. Yet for me the film failed. After this, Kubrick kept churning out flicks. Yet none of his later works ever matched his 'Paths of Glory'.
A decade later in the 1970's, George Lucas's 'Star Wars' hit the big screen. Again the visuals were impressive but the message struck me as a right wing one. And the same was true of the t.v. series and later the movie 'Star Treck'.
Now comes 'Interstellar' that takes place in the near future. Earth is running out of some precious gas. So Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), and a few others, set out in a spaceship to start up a colony of humans on a distant planet. McConaughey dominates the film and shows us he's one fine actor.
Yet for all its high-tech glitz, and Stephen Hawking type science terms, the core of the film hinges on the power of family. "We're not here to save the world," Michael Caine, the overseer of the mission to outer space says. "We're here to save it." So at film's end, McConaughey meets his family again. he is still young, but his daughter, played by Jessica Chastain, is now an old woman.
Chastain is a very fine actor and Anne Hathaway, who heads out on the mission as a co-pilot, has a strong supportive role. Yet in the end, the film descends into a sermon about the importance of family. My questions is: Shouldn't we first try to save the earth, before fleeing to outer space?Wouldn't that help all the families who may be left behind?
One other problem is the length of the film: It's far too long. The flick, directed by Christopher Nolan, has suspense, action and drama. Yet in the end I found it boring. Anyway high marks go to McConaughey and others, especially Jessica Chastain. Yet I'm not going to any space travel flicks for a long time after watching 'Interstellar'.
Its Harperesque massage is not my trip.
Monday 27 October 2014
'Gone Girl' is Doggone Unbelievable
'Gone Girl' Starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike'. Directed by David Fincher.
In the U.S. heartland state of Missouri, a weird story unfolds. Nicholas Dunne (Ben Affleck) comes home and finds his wife (Rosamund Pike) missing.
From then on, the movie moves backwards and forwards creating a suspense-filled flick as it does. In the end Nicholas and Amy are re-united. The film is directed by David Fincher and scripted by Gillian Flynn who also wrote the novel on which the film is based.
Ben Affleck fills the screen in his role as the bewildered hunk of a husband. Yet in the end, the flick doesn't make sense. As one feminist told me years ago," The most dangerous man a woman will meet is her former husband and/or lover." Crime statistics bear this out. Yet 'Gone Girl' doesn't back up this fact at all.
Also in the film, Amy Dunne suddenly reveals her true character, or the film reveals it. In any case the sudden revelation of where this lady's head is really at, comes too suddenly for this observer. Rosamund Pike tries hard to make her role as Amy Dunne look credible. Yet in the end she fails.
"You have a world class vagina," Nicholas tells Amy in public as they plan to get married in New York City. This is the place where these two writers meet and fall in love. At film's end, a psychically-battered Nicholas asks Amy, "What will we do?"
Quite frankly I couldn't give a damn about the answer to that question. 'Gone Girl' has some good moments and a very good supporting cast that includes Tyler Perry as lawyer Tanner Bolt . Yet in the end I turned thumbs down on 'Gone Girl" It deserves 2 1/2 stars and no more.
In the U.S. heartland state of Missouri, a weird story unfolds. Nicholas Dunne (Ben Affleck) comes home and finds his wife (Rosamund Pike) missing.
From then on, the movie moves backwards and forwards creating a suspense-filled flick as it does. In the end Nicholas and Amy are re-united. The film is directed by David Fincher and scripted by Gillian Flynn who also wrote the novel on which the film is based.
Ben Affleck fills the screen in his role as the bewildered hunk of a husband. Yet in the end, the flick doesn't make sense. As one feminist told me years ago," The most dangerous man a woman will meet is her former husband and/or lover." Crime statistics bear this out. Yet 'Gone Girl' doesn't back up this fact at all.
Also in the film, Amy Dunne suddenly reveals her true character, or the film reveals it. In any case the sudden revelation of where this lady's head is really at, comes too suddenly for this observer. Rosamund Pike tries hard to make her role as Amy Dunne look credible. Yet in the end she fails.
"You have a world class vagina," Nicholas tells Amy in public as they plan to get married in New York City. This is the place where these two writers meet and fall in love. At film's end, a psychically-battered Nicholas asks Amy, "What will we do?"
Quite frankly I couldn't give a damn about the answer to that question. 'Gone Girl' has some good moments and a very good supporting cast that includes Tyler Perry as lawyer Tanner Bolt . Yet in the end I turned thumbs down on 'Gone Girl" It deserves 2 1/2 stars and no more.
Wednesday 17 September 2014
Brooklyn Gangsters
'The Drop'. Starring Tom Hardy, James Gandolfini and Noomi Rapace. Directed by Michael R. Roskam.
Do you like watching people smoke, drink, kill and caress a pit bull dog? If you do you'll like 'The Drop'.
Based on a short story by Dennis Lehane, who also wrote the film's script, 'The Drop' stars Tom Hardy, as Bob, a Brooklyn bar tender. "I just tend the bar," Bob Says. He works in a very busy bar that was once owned by his cousin Marv, played by the late James Gandolfini. But eight years ago or so, a group of Chechen gangsters took over the bar and turned it as a drop for illlegal crime money.
Marv still seethes about that. Then a hold-up in the bar, maybe makes him even more angry.
Enter Nadia (Noona Rapace) who helps Bob save a wounded pit bull. To make things even more frightening, along comes a creepy stalker(Matthew Schoenarts), who claims to be a killer, the pit bull's past owner and Nadia's one-time lover.
Nearly all the people in the film are either crooks, killers or both. Nadia may not be. One man who isn't crooked is Detective Ortiz (John Torres). He knows the bar is a front for organized crime. Yet how can you prove this when everybody's closemouthed. And if they tell the police anything, they can be killed.
Belgian director Michael Roskam has given us a sometimes slow moving but scary take on criminals working in gritty working class neighbourhoods in Brooklyn. Nobody here it seems usually talks in anything but monosyllables.
"I was feared," Marv boasts to Bob, Here, Gandolfini is a fine actor, playing in his last film role. In the film, as usual Gandolfini is way overweight and smokes many cigarettes. I guess Brooklyn gangsters believe that cigarettes and alcohol aren't dangerous when compared with real live bullets.
In any case, in 'The Drop' the British actor Tom Hardy overshadows James Gandolfini. Hardy is the film's real star. He looks so innocent and acts so kindly. Yet in 'The Drop' it seems everbody's got blood on their hands.
Do you like watching people smoke, drink, kill and caress a pit bull dog? If you do you'll like 'The Drop'.
Based on a short story by Dennis Lehane, who also wrote the film's script, 'The Drop' stars Tom Hardy, as Bob, a Brooklyn bar tender. "I just tend the bar," Bob Says. He works in a very busy bar that was once owned by his cousin Marv, played by the late James Gandolfini. But eight years ago or so, a group of Chechen gangsters took over the bar and turned it as a drop for illlegal crime money.
Marv still seethes about that. Then a hold-up in the bar, maybe makes him even more angry.
Enter Nadia (Noona Rapace) who helps Bob save a wounded pit bull. To make things even more frightening, along comes a creepy stalker(Matthew Schoenarts), who claims to be a killer, the pit bull's past owner and Nadia's one-time lover.
Nearly all the people in the film are either crooks, killers or both. Nadia may not be. One man who isn't crooked is Detective Ortiz (John Torres). He knows the bar is a front for organized crime. Yet how can you prove this when everybody's closemouthed. And if they tell the police anything, they can be killed.
Belgian director Michael Roskam has given us a sometimes slow moving but scary take on criminals working in gritty working class neighbourhoods in Brooklyn. Nobody here it seems usually talks in anything but monosyllables.
"I was feared," Marv boasts to Bob, Here, Gandolfini is a fine actor, playing in his last film role. In the film, as usual Gandolfini is way overweight and smokes many cigarettes. I guess Brooklyn gangsters believe that cigarettes and alcohol aren't dangerous when compared with real live bullets.
In any case, in 'The Drop' the British actor Tom Hardy overshadows James Gandolfini. Hardy is the film's real star. He looks so innocent and acts so kindly. Yet in 'The Drop' it seems everbody's got blood on their hands.
Monday 25 August 2014
Woody Allen's Latest Film Lacks magic
'Magic In The Moonlight'. Directed by Woody Allen. Starring Colin Firth, Simon McBurney, Emma Stone, Marcia Gay Harden and Hamish Linklater.
First off, credit where credit is due. Woody Allen is 78 years old and started making movies in the late 1960's. He has outlasted nearly all of his contemporaries like Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Ford Coppola and other big names who started making films at about the same time as Allen.Unlike them, Allen is still going strong.
So for film goers and Woody Allen that's a good thing. "I don't care about my films being immortal," Allen once said. "I want to be immortal."
Yet his latest film 'Magic in the Moonlight' won't save Allen's life or help his reputation. It's not a great film or even a good one. Still, there are some good things in the film. One of them is the main character Stanley Crawford played by Colin Firth. He's a famous magician in the 1920's who's called Wei Ling Soo when he's performing tricks. Stanley is an ill-tempered abusive rationalist who doesn't believe in spiritualism. So one of his magician friends played by Simon McBirney hauls him off to the south of France.
Here he meets Sophie Baker (Emma Stone), a medium and her mother played by Marcia Gay Harden. Baker can communicate with dead people and is in the film speaking with the dead Mr. Catledge. His wealthy son Brice (Hamish Linklater) is in love with Sophie and expresses his affection for her by playing songs for her, backed up by his harmonica.
Stanley falls in love with Sophie and shows an amazing ability to know Stanley's past and present. "Not another fake psychic," complains Stanley when he first hears about Sophie.
Alas, 'Magic In The Moonlight' lacks the magic of many of Allen's past films. The film is saved from being a complete dud by the acting of Colin Firth and the wonderful camera work of cinematographer Darius Khondji. At times Khondji's camerawork can make a viewer think that he or she is in a landscape painting by Claude Monet or Auguste Renoir.
Yet elsewise, 'Magic' never quite takes off. Emma Stone's character, Sophie Baker, comes off at times as lifeless and dull. The sparks that should fly between Stanley and Sophie, aren't there.
Let's hope that Allen's next film will be a better work than "Magic In The Moonlight'. For this flick lacks the tensions and suspense of Allen's past films.
First off, credit where credit is due. Woody Allen is 78 years old and started making movies in the late 1960's. He has outlasted nearly all of his contemporaries like Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Ford Coppola and other big names who started making films at about the same time as Allen.Unlike them, Allen is still going strong.
So for film goers and Woody Allen that's a good thing. "I don't care about my films being immortal," Allen once said. "I want to be immortal."
Yet his latest film 'Magic in the Moonlight' won't save Allen's life or help his reputation. It's not a great film or even a good one. Still, there are some good things in the film. One of them is the main character Stanley Crawford played by Colin Firth. He's a famous magician in the 1920's who's called Wei Ling Soo when he's performing tricks. Stanley is an ill-tempered abusive rationalist who doesn't believe in spiritualism. So one of his magician friends played by Simon McBirney hauls him off to the south of France.
Here he meets Sophie Baker (Emma Stone), a medium and her mother played by Marcia Gay Harden. Baker can communicate with dead people and is in the film speaking with the dead Mr. Catledge. His wealthy son Brice (Hamish Linklater) is in love with Sophie and expresses his affection for her by playing songs for her, backed up by his harmonica.
Stanley falls in love with Sophie and shows an amazing ability to know Stanley's past and present. "Not another fake psychic," complains Stanley when he first hears about Sophie.
Alas, 'Magic In The Moonlight' lacks the magic of many of Allen's past films. The film is saved from being a complete dud by the acting of Colin Firth and the wonderful camera work of cinematographer Darius Khondji. At times Khondji's camerawork can make a viewer think that he or she is in a landscape painting by Claude Monet or Auguste Renoir.
Yet elsewise, 'Magic' never quite takes off. Emma Stone's character, Sophie Baker, comes off at times as lifeless and dull. The sparks that should fly between Stanley and Sophie, aren't there.
Let's hope that Allen's next film will be a better work than "Magic In The Moonlight'. For this flick lacks the tensions and suspense of Allen's past films.
Thursday 31 July 2014
a movie about boyhood
"Boyhood' A film starring Ella Coltrane, Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke. Directed by Richard Linklater.
"The child is father of the man," the poet William Wordsworth wrote over 200 years ago.Whatever kind of man, Mason played by Ella Coltrane turns out to be the film 'Boyhood' turns out to be a pretty good flick.
Spread out over 12 years 'Boyhood' takes place in the state of Texas in the 21st century. When we first meet Mason he's a small child. At the film's end, he's a newly enrolled university student, poised for another romance.
During these 12 years that director Richard Linklater filmed from 2001 to 2013, Mason's parents played all the time by Patricia Arquette and Nathan Hawke, have split up. They live in separate places at the film's beginning.
Arquette marries again to a university professor. "This is the reality," he says at dinner time. "I'm a parent." But he's also a dictatorial alcoholic and a wife beater. End of Arquette's second marriage. And she's on her third coupling at 'Boyhood's' end with an Iraqi veteran.
So goes part of Mason's life as he fights and then bonds with his sister played by director Linklater's daughter, Lorelei Linklater.
Maybe there'll be more future chapters to this film that stretches out for over 166 minutes. One other theme dominates this film and that's the Texas roads and highways. Like life in all the burbs, much of the film's drama takes place in the back or the front of cars.
That too is part of the charm of 'Boyhood'.
"The child is father of the man," the poet William Wordsworth wrote over 200 years ago.Whatever kind of man, Mason played by Ella Coltrane turns out to be the film 'Boyhood' turns out to be a pretty good flick.
Spread out over 12 years 'Boyhood' takes place in the state of Texas in the 21st century. When we first meet Mason he's a small child. At the film's end, he's a newly enrolled university student, poised for another romance.
During these 12 years that director Richard Linklater filmed from 2001 to 2013, Mason's parents played all the time by Patricia Arquette and Nathan Hawke, have split up. They live in separate places at the film's beginning.
Arquette marries again to a university professor. "This is the reality," he says at dinner time. "I'm a parent." But he's also a dictatorial alcoholic and a wife beater. End of Arquette's second marriage. And she's on her third coupling at 'Boyhood's' end with an Iraqi veteran.
So goes part of Mason's life as he fights and then bonds with his sister played by director Linklater's daughter, Lorelei Linklater.
Maybe there'll be more future chapters to this film that stretches out for over 166 minutes. One other theme dominates this film and that's the Texas roads and highways. Like life in all the burbs, much of the film's drama takes place in the back or the front of cars.
That too is part of the charm of 'Boyhood'.
Saturday 31 May 2014
The revolutionary Jesus
'Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth'. A book by Reza Aslan.
Friedrich Engels, the longtime friend and confederate of Karl Marx, once noted how the ideas of communism and early Christianity were pretty similar.
At first mainly slaves and poor peasants became Christians. "Like socialism" writes Sylvia M. Hale, "Christianity promised forthcoming salvation from bondage and misery." .Of course, Christianity said all of this would happen in the afterlife and not on earth. Socialism differed on this point and at one time promised freedom in the here and now.
Now Reza Aslan, an Iranian-born author has brought back to life the supposedly real Jesus. And Aslan's Jesus is a revolutionary. In the historic Israel of 2,000 years ago there were dozens of revolutionary Jews. They sought to overthrow the Roman rulers and kick out the wealthy Jews who supported Rome. Aslan does a good job here of showing what Roman-ruled Israel was like. It certainly was no paradise.
Jesus, according to Aslan was a revolutionary. So was John the Baptist who, says Aslan, was Jesus's mentor. And as Aslan points out these two men weren't the only hell raisers around. All these people rallied poor Jews to their side. Yet in the end all these Jews were crushed. From 66 to 70 C.E. the Roman legions wiped out the revolutionary Jews and scattered them to the four corners of the world.
"In this imaginary Kingdom of God," Aslan says about the hopes of the revolutionary Jews, "wealth will be distributed and debts will be cancelled."" The rich will be made poor and the powerful will be become powerless.
Aslan's Jesus doesn't believe in non-violence either. He urged the Jews to use violence if necessary.
But though I like this version of Jesus, is it the true one? Some reviewers and biblical scholars, who are far more knowledgeable on biblical matters than me, have doubted Aslan's story. One other reviewer points out that Aslan's use of the Gospels is inconsistent. On some points he uses the Gospels. At other times he trashes them.
So if you want a revolutionary version of Jesus, a sort of Hugo Chavez of 2,000 years ago, pick up and read Aslan's book. Yet if you favour a more conventional type of Jesus, stay away from 'Zealot'. I liked the book but it may be untrue.
Friedrich Engels, the longtime friend and confederate of Karl Marx, once noted how the ideas of communism and early Christianity were pretty similar.
At first mainly slaves and poor peasants became Christians. "Like socialism" writes Sylvia M. Hale, "Christianity promised forthcoming salvation from bondage and misery." .Of course, Christianity said all of this would happen in the afterlife and not on earth. Socialism differed on this point and at one time promised freedom in the here and now.
Now Reza Aslan, an Iranian-born author has brought back to life the supposedly real Jesus. And Aslan's Jesus is a revolutionary. In the historic Israel of 2,000 years ago there were dozens of revolutionary Jews. They sought to overthrow the Roman rulers and kick out the wealthy Jews who supported Rome. Aslan does a good job here of showing what Roman-ruled Israel was like. It certainly was no paradise.
Jesus, according to Aslan was a revolutionary. So was John the Baptist who, says Aslan, was Jesus's mentor. And as Aslan points out these two men weren't the only hell raisers around. All these people rallied poor Jews to their side. Yet in the end all these Jews were crushed. From 66 to 70 C.E. the Roman legions wiped out the revolutionary Jews and scattered them to the four corners of the world.
"In this imaginary Kingdom of God," Aslan says about the hopes of the revolutionary Jews, "wealth will be distributed and debts will be cancelled."" The rich will be made poor and the powerful will be become powerless.
Aslan's Jesus doesn't believe in non-violence either. He urged the Jews to use violence if necessary.
But though I like this version of Jesus, is it the true one? Some reviewers and biblical scholars, who are far more knowledgeable on biblical matters than me, have doubted Aslan's story. One other reviewer points out that Aslan's use of the Gospels is inconsistent. On some points he uses the Gospels. At other times he trashes them.
So if you want a revolutionary version of Jesus, a sort of Hugo Chavez of 2,000 years ago, pick up and read Aslan's book. Yet if you favour a more conventional type of Jesus, stay away from 'Zealot'. I liked the book but it may be untrue.
Saturday 26 April 2014
The Holy Land Revisited
Bethlehem; Starring Tsahi Halevi and Shadi Mar'i. Directed by Yuval Adler. In Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles.
Do Palestinians and Israelis ever agree on anything? Sometimes they do. For they've both recently made films on young Palestinians who have links to Israeli intelligence agents.
'Bethlehem' directed by Yuval Adler an Israeli, isn't a love story like 'Omar' that was directed by a Palestinian. Yet like 'Omar' this film doesn't have a happy ending.
In 'Bethlehem' the young Sanfur (Shadi Mar'i) is in constant contact with Razi (Tsahi Halevi) an Israeli agent. Yet Sanfur has a brother Ibrahim who is a terrorist, at least according to the Israelis. The Arabs would call him ' A freedom fighter'.
"You want to search my underwear too?" Sanfur snaps at an Israeli soldier. And a freedom fighter/terrorist says after Ibrahim is captured, "We will turn Tel Aviv into a big graveyard."
No Israeli or Arab film I've seen has caught so well the terrible hostilities that erupt between Israeli and Palestinian and between Palestinians and Palestinians as 'Bethlehem' does. Armed men pop up everywhere, all of them ready to kill and be killed. A wonderful scene in a hospital where a wounded Razi plays backgammon with an older Palestinian, tells us graphically what happens to Palestinian informants.
Yet here I think director Adler goes overboard and weights the film in favour of Israel. Nor is this the only time when the film seems stacked against the Palestinians.
Still, perhaps this is the only fair viewpoint of many Israeli citizens .
In any case Sanfur does get his revenge. "Don't ever call me again," Sanfur tells Razi over the phone. Yet the two do get together one last time with tragic results.
Maybe one day Israelis and Palestinians will live together in peace and harmony. Yet as 'Bethlehem' shows, as did 'Omar', that day may be a long way off.
Do Palestinians and Israelis ever agree on anything? Sometimes they do. For they've both recently made films on young Palestinians who have links to Israeli intelligence agents.
'Bethlehem' directed by Yuval Adler an Israeli, isn't a love story like 'Omar' that was directed by a Palestinian. Yet like 'Omar' this film doesn't have a happy ending.
In 'Bethlehem' the young Sanfur (Shadi Mar'i) is in constant contact with Razi (Tsahi Halevi) an Israeli agent. Yet Sanfur has a brother Ibrahim who is a terrorist, at least according to the Israelis. The Arabs would call him ' A freedom fighter'.
"You want to search my underwear too?" Sanfur snaps at an Israeli soldier. And a freedom fighter/terrorist says after Ibrahim is captured, "We will turn Tel Aviv into a big graveyard."
No Israeli or Arab film I've seen has caught so well the terrible hostilities that erupt between Israeli and Palestinian and between Palestinians and Palestinians as 'Bethlehem' does. Armed men pop up everywhere, all of them ready to kill and be killed. A wonderful scene in a hospital where a wounded Razi plays backgammon with an older Palestinian, tells us graphically what happens to Palestinian informants.
Yet here I think director Adler goes overboard and weights the film in favour of Israel. Nor is this the only time when the film seems stacked against the Palestinians.
Still, perhaps this is the only fair viewpoint of many Israeli citizens .
In any case Sanfur does get his revenge. "Don't ever call me again," Sanfur tells Razi over the phone. Yet the two do get together one last time with tragic results.
Maybe one day Israelis and Palestinians will live together in peace and harmony. Yet as 'Bethlehem' shows, as did 'Omar', that day may be a long way off.
Thursday 10 April 2014
Violence in Cuba but not from Castro
'3 Days in Havana' Starring Gil Bellows and Greg Wise. Directed by Tony Pantages and Gil Bellows.
Be careful of Canadian tourists.
That's the message Cubans and others may take away after seeing '3 Days in Havana'. Jack Petty (Gil Bellows) seems like a polite Vancouver-based insurance salesman who comes off the tarmac in Havana looking like innocence itself.
Bellows played in t.v.'s 'Ally McBeal' for many years.
Then he meets a Scotsman named Harry Smith. He's supposedly a travel journalist. Yet played by Greg Wise, a t.v. star from the U.K., Smith in fact is a cocaine-sniffing gangster.
Co-directors Vancouver's Tony Pantages and Bellows show us all the sights and sounds of touristy Havana. There's crumbling sidewalks, dance halls full of exotic-looking women, dozens of Cuban cigar smoking people, old model U.S. cars and even synchronized swimmers who do their stuff in near empty swimming pools.
Cinematographer Peter Stathis has given a wide view of Havana which includes a visit to Ernest Hemingway's old drinking spot. Here, a bronze statue of Hemongway leans on the bar waiting to be served another whisky.
"You've been playing both sides, haven't you?" one man who follows Petty around, tells him. Soon Petty ends up in the hands of gangsters who nearly beat him to death.
"You're the unluckiest fuck in this planet," one of his torturers tells him.
Yet the beginning and end of this film don't seem to fit the film. Some other scenes seem pasted on for effect. And Petty's sudden turning from a regular insurance salesman into a snarling man of action, strikes me as unreal.
In any case, '3 Days in Havana' is full of fun, drinking, and alas, murder. So Cubans beware! Some Canadian tourists could be dangerous, even if they say, "I just sell insurance."
Be careful of Canadian tourists.
That's the message Cubans and others may take away after seeing '3 Days in Havana'. Jack Petty (Gil Bellows) seems like a polite Vancouver-based insurance salesman who comes off the tarmac in Havana looking like innocence itself.
Bellows played in t.v.'s 'Ally McBeal' for many years.
Then he meets a Scotsman named Harry Smith. He's supposedly a travel journalist. Yet played by Greg Wise, a t.v. star from the U.K., Smith in fact is a cocaine-sniffing gangster.
Co-directors Vancouver's Tony Pantages and Bellows show us all the sights and sounds of touristy Havana. There's crumbling sidewalks, dance halls full of exotic-looking women, dozens of Cuban cigar smoking people, old model U.S. cars and even synchronized swimmers who do their stuff in near empty swimming pools.
Cinematographer Peter Stathis has given a wide view of Havana which includes a visit to Ernest Hemingway's old drinking spot. Here, a bronze statue of Hemongway leans on the bar waiting to be served another whisky.
"You've been playing both sides, haven't you?" one man who follows Petty around, tells him. Soon Petty ends up in the hands of gangsters who nearly beat him to death.
"You're the unluckiest fuck in this planet," one of his torturers tells him.
Yet the beginning and end of this film don't seem to fit the film. Some other scenes seem pasted on for effect. And Petty's sudden turning from a regular insurance salesman into a snarling man of action, strikes me as unreal.
In any case, '3 Days in Havana' is full of fun, drinking, and alas, murder. So Cubans beware! Some Canadian tourists could be dangerous, even if they say, "I just sell insurance."
Tuesday 25 March 2014
Villeneuve's Toronto Is A Grey Scary Place
'Enemy' Starring Jake Gyllenhall. Directed by Denis Villeneuve.
When Marilyn Monroe first came to Toronto back in the 1950's, she looked around and supposedly said, "I didn't know they had buildings in Canada."
In the film 'Enemy', Quebec director Denis Villeneuve gives us a Canada, a Toronto in fact, that's only buildings. Most of the film plays out in huge high rise apartments that sit under a grey sky. Here, a bearded Jake Gyllenhall a political science instructor at the University of Toronto, finds his double who's an actor.
"We look exactly alike," Adam the instructor tells his double Anthony. Yet they're not totally alike and soon they clash and at the end they switch places. Based on the novel 'The Double' written by Brazilian Jose Saramago, 'The Enemy' moves at times too slowly and too heavily. Maybe scriptwriter Javier Gullon intended this.
Melanie Laurent plays Adam's partner, while Sarah Gadon is hooked up with Anthony. If you hope that both women will bring some light into the film you've guessed wrong. The women don't seem to escape their partners' obsessions. Even the sex scenes seem joyless.
Is 'Enemy' one Quebecker's verdict on Toronto which many Quebeckers and other Canadians in other parts of this country sometimes resent? It could be. I waited for more dialogue and lightness in 'Enemy'. Yet they never showed up.
Denis Villeneuve is a talented director. Still, his previous film 'Prisoners' was far more exciting and riveting than 'Enemy', and you can't blame traffic-choked, smog-ridden Toronto, at least as it appears in the film, for this.
'Enemy' is interesting but no more than that.
When Marilyn Monroe first came to Toronto back in the 1950's, she looked around and supposedly said, "I didn't know they had buildings in Canada."
In the film 'Enemy', Quebec director Denis Villeneuve gives us a Canada, a Toronto in fact, that's only buildings. Most of the film plays out in huge high rise apartments that sit under a grey sky. Here, a bearded Jake Gyllenhall a political science instructor at the University of Toronto, finds his double who's an actor.
"We look exactly alike," Adam the instructor tells his double Anthony. Yet they're not totally alike and soon they clash and at the end they switch places. Based on the novel 'The Double' written by Brazilian Jose Saramago, 'The Enemy' moves at times too slowly and too heavily. Maybe scriptwriter Javier Gullon intended this.
Melanie Laurent plays Adam's partner, while Sarah Gadon is hooked up with Anthony. If you hope that both women will bring some light into the film you've guessed wrong. The women don't seem to escape their partners' obsessions. Even the sex scenes seem joyless.
Is 'Enemy' one Quebecker's verdict on Toronto which many Quebeckers and other Canadians in other parts of this country sometimes resent? It could be. I waited for more dialogue and lightness in 'Enemy'. Yet they never showed up.
Denis Villeneuve is a talented director. Still, his previous film 'Prisoners' was far more exciting and riveting than 'Enemy', and you can't blame traffic-choked, smog-ridden Toronto, at least as it appears in the film, for this.
'Enemy' is interesting but no more than that.
Saturday 15 March 2014
'Ccopying a masterpiece takes time
'Tim's Vermeer' Starring Penn Jillette and Tim Jenison. Directed by Teller.
It takes me about 130 minutes to do a small watercolour painting. Yet when geek Tim Jenison painted a copy of Johannes Vermeer's famous 17th century masterpiece 'The Music Lesson', it took him about 130 hours, or 60 times as long.
For Jenison's painting time just capped off a huge project. Before painting a replica of Vermeer's painting, Jenison spent seven straight months, building a replica of the room where Vermeer's picture took place.
Tim Jenison was a man with a mission but no painting skills at all. Based in San Antonio, Texas, the 50 something Jenison has a theory. He believes that Johannes Vermeer used a mechanical aide to do his painting. Jenison isn't the only one who believes this. Famed British artist David Hockney and art historian Philip Steadman agree. They wrote books on this topic and they show up in the film to encourage Denison in his project.
"You've set out to disturb a lot of people," Hockney says. Art historians, or most of them, don't like this idea at all. Jenison's invention is a comparator mirror, that helps him paint a copy of 'The Music Lesson'. This is the heart of this documentary and the sheer boring hard work of painting, nearly drives Jenison mad. You can't blame him. Still, in the end Jenison survives and proves his idea by completing the task.
Alongside Jenison stands or sits Penn Gillette, helper, comic and friend. His wisecracks and comments give the film a funny side that stands as a relief to all the boring hard work Jenison does. Then there's lovely music by Conrad Pope that accompanies Jenison on his lonely task. Teller, the director, takes us to England and back to the U.S. of A. briskly and quietly. Travel's not the topic here. Work is.
John Berger, the English art critic once pointed out that "the fundamental difference between Vermeer and other Dutch painters is that everything in the interior that he paints refers to events outside the room."
In 'Tim's Vermeer' Jenison builds a room and a painting to go along with it. It's one hell of a task that makes for an interesting film.
It takes me about 130 minutes to do a small watercolour painting. Yet when geek Tim Jenison painted a copy of Johannes Vermeer's famous 17th century masterpiece 'The Music Lesson', it took him about 130 hours, or 60 times as long.
For Jenison's painting time just capped off a huge project. Before painting a replica of Vermeer's painting, Jenison spent seven straight months, building a replica of the room where Vermeer's picture took place.
Tim Jenison was a man with a mission but no painting skills at all. Based in San Antonio, Texas, the 50 something Jenison has a theory. He believes that Johannes Vermeer used a mechanical aide to do his painting. Jenison isn't the only one who believes this. Famed British artist David Hockney and art historian Philip Steadman agree. They wrote books on this topic and they show up in the film to encourage Denison in his project.
"You've set out to disturb a lot of people," Hockney says. Art historians, or most of them, don't like this idea at all. Jenison's invention is a comparator mirror, that helps him paint a copy of 'The Music Lesson'. This is the heart of this documentary and the sheer boring hard work of painting, nearly drives Jenison mad. You can't blame him. Still, in the end Jenison survives and proves his idea by completing the task.
Alongside Jenison stands or sits Penn Gillette, helper, comic and friend. His wisecracks and comments give the film a funny side that stands as a relief to all the boring hard work Jenison does. Then there's lovely music by Conrad Pope that accompanies Jenison on his lonely task. Teller, the director, takes us to England and back to the U.S. of A. briskly and quietly. Travel's not the topic here. Work is.
John Berger, the English art critic once pointed out that "the fundamental difference between Vermeer and other Dutch painters is that everything in the interior that he paints refers to events outside the room."
In 'Tim's Vermeer' Jenison builds a room and a painting to go along with it. It's one hell of a task that makes for an interesting film.
Thursday 13 February 2014
A Journey Through the Eternal City
'The Great Beauty'. A film starring Tony Seville. Directed by Paolo Sorrentino. In Italian with English subtitles.
Suppose you want to do a film about Rome. 'The eternal city' someone called Rome. Maybe it is or was. It was founded by twins Romulus and Remus, who mythology says were suckled by a goat. Then Rome was the headquarters of the Roman Empire.N ow the Pope rules over more than a billion Catholics from Rome and his headquarters in the Vatican City.
If you're director Paolo Sorrentino you're influenced by the late Federico Fellini. So you cast Jep Gambardella as an ageing writer. For him Rome is a place of beauty. His balcony looks out onto the Colosseum. The film takes us to modern art shows, old sculptures and paintings and memories of a young woman. This is a woman who Jep Gambardella (Tony Seville) loved but never married.
"Everything around me is dying," he says to his tiny editor. It's true but he and his intellectural friends still keep on smoking cigarettes, drinking, talking and making love.
Director Sorrentino doesn't serve up much of a plot. Along the way he takes digs at the Italian Communist Party, well at least some political party and the Catholic church. An ageing cardinal talks endlessly about his cooking skills. A 104 year old saint based on maybe the late Mother Teresa can barely talk. A critic out of Fellini's '8 and 1/2' looks for deep meanings in art works. Then there's an abusive author of 11 novels who clashes with Gambardella who's only written one novelette in his entire life.
If you want to go on a tour of Rome and its beautiful touristy places, 'The Great Beauty' is a film you'll like. "At my age a great beauty isn't enough' Gambardella says. So Rome will fit the bill for him and other old people too.
Anyway at movie's end, Jep's planning to write another novel after a break of 40 years. Who knows? Maybe he'll pull it off. After all, in the eternal city, hope often springs eternal..
Suppose you want to do a film about Rome. 'The eternal city' someone called Rome. Maybe it is or was. It was founded by twins Romulus and Remus, who mythology says were suckled by a goat. Then Rome was the headquarters of the Roman Empire.N ow the Pope rules over more than a billion Catholics from Rome and his headquarters in the Vatican City.
If you're director Paolo Sorrentino you're influenced by the late Federico Fellini. So you cast Jep Gambardella as an ageing writer. For him Rome is a place of beauty. His balcony looks out onto the Colosseum. The film takes us to modern art shows, old sculptures and paintings and memories of a young woman. This is a woman who Jep Gambardella (Tony Seville) loved but never married.
"Everything around me is dying," he says to his tiny editor. It's true but he and his intellectural friends still keep on smoking cigarettes, drinking, talking and making love.
Director Sorrentino doesn't serve up much of a plot. Along the way he takes digs at the Italian Communist Party, well at least some political party and the Catholic church. An ageing cardinal talks endlessly about his cooking skills. A 104 year old saint based on maybe the late Mother Teresa can barely talk. A critic out of Fellini's '8 and 1/2' looks for deep meanings in art works. Then there's an abusive author of 11 novels who clashes with Gambardella who's only written one novelette in his entire life.
If you want to go on a tour of Rome and its beautiful touristy places, 'The Great Beauty' is a film you'll like. "At my age a great beauty isn't enough' Gambardella says. So Rome will fit the bill for him and other old people too.
Anyway at movie's end, Jep's planning to write another novel after a break of 40 years. Who knows? Maybe he'll pull it off. After all, in the eternal city, hope often springs eternal..
Tuesday 28 January 2014
Things Heat Up Inside and Outside An Oklahoman House
'August: Osage County'. A film starring Meryl streep and Julia Roberts.
"This is the Plains," Barbara (Julia Roberts) corrects her husband Bill (Ewan McGregor) who thinks Oklahoma state is part of the American Midwest. And she adds as they and their 14 year-old daughter (Abigail Breslin) exit their car, "Goddamn, it's hot."
It's hot inside the dark Weston household too as a family re-unites in Osage County, Oklahoma, to mourn the death of poet and family patriarch Beverly Weston (Sam Shepard) Weston's widow Violet(Meryl Streep) is a cancer-surviving, pill-popping, chain-smoking abuser. Violet has problems standing up, but she does tend to see all of her family's secrets.
Barbara, is just like her mother Violet. She's bound to clash with Violet and does. Another of Violet's daughters is Karen a gabby Florida resident who babbles on and on about her life. Yet Violet soon intuits that Karen's sleazy fiance played by Dermot Mulroney, has been married many times before. Stay-at-home daughter Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) has fallen in love with slacker Little Charlie (Benedict Cumberpatch).
Violet senses this romance too. Little Charlie is the supposed son of Violet's sister Mattie Fae (Margo Martindale) and Charlie (Chris Cooper). Mattie Fae and Charlie also show up to mourn and fight.
Yet Ivy and Little Charlie's romance can go nowhere. Then there's Johna(Misty Upham) who's the live-in cook and caregiver. She watches over this totally dysfunctional brood with dignity and compassion, which seem rare qualities in this house.
A memorial dinner brings the whole film to a brutal climax. Director John Wells frames Tracy Letts's Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name 'August:Osage County' as a battle between two prime time abusers, namely Violet and daughter Barbara. Letts also wrote the film's script.
"My mother was a mean old lady," Violet tells her three daughters one night in the back
yard. So is Ivy - and Barbara.
Director Wells gives us some beautiful views of the flat, broiling, sun-baked Oklahoman wheat fields. Yet as another reviewer points out, "No one in the film seems to be sweating." Also some of the scenes are too jumbled together. Yet that's probably the result of shrinking a three-hour play into a two-hour picture.
Over 50 years ago, I travelled through Oklahoma twice in the summertime. I'm glad I went to see this film but I'm glad I never met up with the Weston family on my long ago journeys through Oklahoma.
"This is the Plains," Barbara (Julia Roberts) corrects her husband Bill (Ewan McGregor) who thinks Oklahoma state is part of the American Midwest. And she adds as they and their 14 year-old daughter (Abigail Breslin) exit their car, "Goddamn, it's hot."
It's hot inside the dark Weston household too as a family re-unites in Osage County, Oklahoma, to mourn the death of poet and family patriarch Beverly Weston (Sam Shepard) Weston's widow Violet(Meryl Streep) is a cancer-surviving, pill-popping, chain-smoking abuser. Violet has problems standing up, but she does tend to see all of her family's secrets.
Barbara, is just like her mother Violet. She's bound to clash with Violet and does. Another of Violet's daughters is Karen a gabby Florida resident who babbles on and on about her life. Yet Violet soon intuits that Karen's sleazy fiance played by Dermot Mulroney, has been married many times before. Stay-at-home daughter Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) has fallen in love with slacker Little Charlie (Benedict Cumberpatch).
Violet senses this romance too. Little Charlie is the supposed son of Violet's sister Mattie Fae (Margo Martindale) and Charlie (Chris Cooper). Mattie Fae and Charlie also show up to mourn and fight.
Yet Ivy and Little Charlie's romance can go nowhere. Then there's Johna(Misty Upham) who's the live-in cook and caregiver. She watches over this totally dysfunctional brood with dignity and compassion, which seem rare qualities in this house.
A memorial dinner brings the whole film to a brutal climax. Director John Wells frames Tracy Letts's Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name 'August:Osage County' as a battle between two prime time abusers, namely Violet and daughter Barbara. Letts also wrote the film's script.
"My mother was a mean old lady," Violet tells her three daughters one night in the back
yard. So is Ivy - and Barbara.
Director Wells gives us some beautiful views of the flat, broiling, sun-baked Oklahoman wheat fields. Yet as another reviewer points out, "No one in the film seems to be sweating." Also some of the scenes are too jumbled together. Yet that's probably the result of shrinking a three-hour play into a two-hour picture.
Over 50 years ago, I travelled through Oklahoma twice in the summertime. I'm glad I went to see this film but I'm glad I never met up with the Weston family on my long ago journeys through Oklahoma.
Thursday 16 January 2014
A Folk Singer Failure
'Inside Llewyn Davis'. A film directed by Ethan and Joel Coen. Starring Oscar Isaac.
"Success has a thousand parents," U.S. president John F. Kennedy once said. "But failure is an orphan." Llewyn Davis, played by Oscar Isaac is a folk singer in the age of Kennedy. He's a failure but not an orphan. For his father, a retired seaman, lies old and mute in an old seaman's home.
'Inside Llewyn Davis' is a sad journey through the folk singing world of New York City in the early 1960's. Shivering in the winter cold, and without an overcoat but carrying a cat, Davis travels on a nightmare journey from New York to Chicago, and back again.
Based loosely on the life of folk singer Dave Van Ronk, the film ends sadly. Davis lies beaten up in a night time street. Meanwhile the young Bob Dylan has started singing his way to wealth and success inside the cafe where Davis just performed, perhaps for the very last time. In real life Van Ronk taught Dylan a lot about folk music but this is not in the film.
"Everything you touch turns to shit," Davis's sometime lover and now pregnant woman shouts at him. "You are shit."
It may be true and the film's directors, the Coen brothers. have given us a very gloomy glimpse of early 1960's New York City. The film comes alive when Davis picks up a guitar and sings. In fact Justin Timberlake is doing the vocals.
Yet the folk music is the high point of 'Being Llewyn Davis'. The rest of the film is just one long downer.
"Success has a thousand parents," U.S. president John F. Kennedy once said. "But failure is an orphan." Llewyn Davis, played by Oscar Isaac is a folk singer in the age of Kennedy. He's a failure but not an orphan. For his father, a retired seaman, lies old and mute in an old seaman's home.
'Inside Llewyn Davis' is a sad journey through the folk singing world of New York City in the early 1960's. Shivering in the winter cold, and without an overcoat but carrying a cat, Davis travels on a nightmare journey from New York to Chicago, and back again.
Based loosely on the life of folk singer Dave Van Ronk, the film ends sadly. Davis lies beaten up in a night time street. Meanwhile the young Bob Dylan has started singing his way to wealth and success inside the cafe where Davis just performed, perhaps for the very last time. In real life Van Ronk taught Dylan a lot about folk music but this is not in the film.
"Everything you touch turns to shit," Davis's sometime lover and now pregnant woman shouts at him. "You are shit."
It may be true and the film's directors, the Coen brothers. have given us a very gloomy glimpse of early 1960's New York City. The film comes alive when Davis picks up a guitar and sings. In fact Justin Timberlake is doing the vocals.
Yet the folk music is the high point of 'Being Llewyn Davis'. The rest of the film is just one long downer.
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