At the Cinema - September 2018

 Crazy Rich Asians – 7

This hit comedy, without a Caucasian in sight, is a visual feast built around a slight, routine premise.  A lovely Chinese-American professor at NYU named Rachel Chu, (a wonderful Constance Wu) has fallen in love with Nick Young (Henry Golding), whom she doesn’t suspect is from a super-rich Singapore family.  She finds out the hard way, when she accompanies him home to a wedding, and is not accepted by his family because she’s, gasp, American!   

The charm of the cast, the luscious scenery, and the opulence on display is filler for the rather slow-moving story.  The standard plot of boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl (in a most predictable place) adds up to a good, slightly different rom-com that is a wonderful travelogue for Singapore. 

Farenheit 11/9 – 9  

There are many reasons I’m an Independent and would never join either party (although judging by my mailbox contents, they both claim me.)  Michael Moore manages to cover most of those reasons in his latest documentary.  Yes, I’ve seen all his movies, and I know that most of my conservative friends have already stopped reading.  But, if you give this movie a chance you would find that he eviscerates the democrats and republicans pretty equally, almost as well as a Senate sub-committee.

Moore covers a lot of ground.
The best part of this movie is easily the time he spends on the Flint water crisis.  Key points are that 1) the citizenry of Flint claim to pay more for their water than anyone else in the country.  2)  It used to be worth it because it was pumped in from crystal clear Lake Huron.  3)  The source was inexplicably changed to the filthy Flint River. 4) Pretty much everyone who drank it got lead poisoning and 5) you never recover from that.  They clearly paint Governor Rick Snyder as the culprit here, but it’s President Barack Obama’s mid-crisis visit that the citizens of Flint remember.  He took a couple sips of the water, told a few jokes and left town.  Central Michigan was so let down by his lack of action, that they stayed home in the 2016 election.  As one resident puts it, “He came to town as my President, and when he left he wasn’t my President.” 

Much like Spike Lee, Michael Moore’s talent is in his humor.  He goes to the state capitol in Lansing to try to make a citizen’s arrest of the Governor, and when stopped by the Governor’s press secretary, he offers him a glass of Flint water to drink. 

Moore also points out the Democratic National Committee’s propensity for pre-deciding election results.  For example, in West Virginia, Bernie Sanders won every single county, yet the delegate count at the convention was Hillary 19, Bernie 18.  Moore talks to top vote getters around the country who have been told by party officials to get out of races, they’re mucking things up.  It’s quite the indictment. 

Another compelling section of the movie is about the teacher strikes that went on recently, starting in West Virginia.  Some day, we will be held to account for how we under-compensate teachers.  It’s ridiculous and Moore hammers home some pretty lucid points. 

But of course, he saves his best arrows for Donald Trump, and he makes the his case with gusto.  He explains the despot playbook moves of discrediting the press, the justice department, and pretty much anyone that disagrees with him.  And he also makes the hilarious case that when Trump found out Gwen Stefani was making more for The Voice then he was making for The Apprentice, he wanted to put pressure on NBC to pay him more, so he started his Presidential campaign to convince them of his popularity.  He didn’t even see it coming, then the rallies began and the rest is history. 

So, this is a terrific, terribly scary movie.  It’s not going to be seen by many, because well, if you’re a Trump supporter you have no interest, and if you’re not you can torture yourself nightly with TV or social media.  But you’ll be missing a great present-day history lesson, and Moore spares no one. 

As I walked out of the theater, disgusted with both parties more than ever, I just muttered two words.  “We’re fucked.”

Peppermint – 5

Imagine the first Death Wish (1974) with Charles Bronson.  Then substitute a buff Jennifer Garner.  Then, of course, because it’s 2018, tell the story in non-linear fashion.  Jump around in time telling the story of how a drug gang killed her family and how she sets out on a 5-year plan of revenge and demolishes about 5000 members of a gang that can’t shoot as well as she can, or fight as well as she can.  Of course, it’s ridiculous, but expected.

If you’ve had a bad day this may be the movie for you.  Of course, you could also go back and see the original Death Wish. 

 

Scanning the Satellite

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel – 10

I’d never even heard of this Amazon Prime series until the night it walked off with the Best Comedy Series Emmy and Best Actress and Supporting Actress Emmys for Rachel Brosnahan and Alex Borstein.  In fact I didn’t even know we had Amazon Prime, but apparently it gets you free shipping from Amazon, and things have been shipping more than I knew.

Now I can’t tell you if this show deserved the Emmy, as I haven’t watched the competition.  But I can tell that this period piece set in 1958 is lush and lavish and extraordinary.  It seems that this Amazon company has made a lot of money, and they are not afraid to put in on the screen, or into the soundtrack.  The investment oozes off the screen..

Mrs. Maisel’s husband wants to be a stand-up comic, but the best he can muster is memorizing hit comedy albums.  When the couple separate, it turns out its Mrs. Maisel (Brosnahan) who can riff on stage, and a venue scheduler named Suzie (Borstein) sees her as a star.   Now I’m a big fan of comedy albums and can recite old Bill Cosby, George Carlin, and Bob Newhart records because I’ve listened to them so many times, so I love the story.  The soundtracks are incredible in each episode, and I can’t help but wonder what the licensing fees Amazon paid were.  The cast is exquisite and hilarious including dads Tony Shaloub and Kevin Pollack, (who has been missing since the last scene of A Few Good Men.)

There is some anachronistic dialogue, and a period mistake here and there, but it’s shrugged off because we get to watch Rachel Brosnahan become a star right in front of us.  She’s the one that has to be believable to sell this Amazon package, and while Borstein often has the best lines, it's Brosnahan that has the heart.  Now I don’t know if this series will go on to become a classic, but the first season is something special.

Jane Fonda in Five Acts – 10

If you’d like to get a documentary made of your life, I highly recommend you commission HBO.  This is like a super-episode of Biography (whatever happened to it?). This one is about one of the most polarizing figures of the last 50 years.

See Jane Fonda.

See Jane grown up with a stoic father and a depressed mother who eventually commits suicide.  See Jane marry Roger Vadim.  See Jane as Barbarella.  See Jane go (stupidly, she admits) to North Viet Nam.  See Jane marry Tom Hayden and begin a life of activism.  See Jane win Oscars.  See Jane do aerobics and VHS America into exercise. See Jane help her father win an Oscar.  See Jane marry Ted Turner (you won’t believe what he looks like to today.) See Jane grow up.

It’s quite a life that Jane Fonda has lived.   See it on HBO.

 

Saints Report # 3 - September 23, 2018

Just when you think you’ve seen the best a man can do, Drew Brees surprises you.  On Sunday, he may have played his best game ever in the Saints’ overtime victory over Atlanta in their Mercedes dome.  The Saints scored an overtime touchdown to win 43-37.  When the Saints won the overtime coin flip, the Falcons couldn’t know it, but they were dead already.

Brees went 39-49 for 396 yards.  It seemed like the only balls that hit the ground hit Ted Ginn’s hands first.  I counted 3 drops so let’s call it 42 of 49.  He is completing 80% of his passes this year.  Unheard of, and if that wasn’t enough Brees even ran for 2 touchdowns.  During the game Brees set the NFL record for career completions, but there was no fanfare, only the drone of near-perfection.  Alvin Kamara ran and caught, while Michael Thomas caught and ran.  The Saints have developed a superstar triumvirate on offense.

Defense is another story.

The Saints held on one drive forcing a rare Atlanta punt, which they blocked as is their tradition.  It allowed them to stay close, but the defense continued in disarray as they couldn’t cover anyone.  The defense appears 2 Lattimores short of a secondary as PJ Williams replaced Ken Crawley who then replaced PJ Williams as neither could stay with the speedy Atlanta receivers.  The good news is there were signs of life in the pass rush at times, but asking the offense to outscore 37 points, well its not a formula for long term success.

The Saints march to end the game was a thing of beauty.  Brees was the surgeon and Kamara and Thomas were the scapel and saw.  The Falcons were helpless and never got the ball in overtime.  

So the Saints rally to a 2-1 record, keeping pace with Carolina in the division, with hopes that the Steelers can bring the Bucs down to earth on Monday night. 

It’s going to be a long season and it looks like Brees will have to be Superman.  As usual.

Saints Report #2 - September 16, 2018

I don’t even know where to begin with this edition of the New Orleans Saints.  Last year at this time, as the Saints started 0-2 for the fourth straight year, they looked like a Ball of Confusion.  This year they are in some kind of Psychedelic Shack with a 1-1 record.  The hapless and hopeless Cleveland Browns came to the dome and beat the Saints in pass, punt, run, but not kick.   

Zane Gonzalez is the kicker for the Browns and he missed 2 field goals and 2 extra points, enabling the Saints to squeak by 21-18.  The Browns outplayed the Saints in the other 2 phases of the game, but a big 4^th quarter interception by safety Marcus Williams led to a touchdown that put the Saints ahead 18-12.  That should have been it, but Ken Crawley got beat for an improbable long touchdown pass.  With the score 18-18, Gonzalez missed his second extra point.   The Saints drove for a game winning field goal and had to watch Gonzalez miss a long attempt that would have tied it. 

The last time Sean Payton met his old defensive coach Gregg Williams, the Saints torched the Rams, running up the score with impunity.  This time Williams had the upper hand, sacking Brees 3 times on third down.  Brees missed two touchdown passes that he would normally execute, Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas carried the offense again, and the Saints basically won a game they shouldn’t have.  The Saints running game is dormant and their pass rush non-existent and these are the things that carried them through last year’s winning streak.

So, it’s a normal NFL year.  Just as I predicted Tampa Bay and Kansas City will meet in the Super Bowl after getting by Minnesota and Jacksonville in their conference finals.  Or I would have predicted if I understood the NFL.   

So now, the Saints are past their poisonous first two games and are off to Atlanta to play the 1-1 Falcons in a game that will leave the loser in last place in the division.  So, let me tell you what’s going to happen in Atlanta.

There will be traffic.  Many of the clogged streets will have Peachtree in their name.

That's all I can tell you