At the Cinema - March 2015

March 2015 will forever be known as HBO month – the month they changed the world with 2 documentaries of epic consequences.

Going Clear:  Scientology and the Prison of Belief – 10
I admit that I’ve always been a Tom Cruise fan.  He takes his craft seriously and he produces one credible movie after another, featuring first class production values, good stories, and action thrills.  He loves movies and he has built a strong Hollywood legacy.

This doesn’t change one fact.

Tom Cruise is nuts.

The case for that is made clear, very clear in this nauseating expose of his “religion,” Scientology.  This is not to say that Cruise is the worst thing in this documentary.  That is reserved for the leaders, past and present of Scientology.

With clarity and purpose, director Alex Gibney gives a history lesson of the origins and evolution of this cult, then moves swiftly into the atrocities it commits to keep the sheep in line.  That anybody would look the other way as current leader David Miscavage (allegedly) bullies, imprisons, and beats his minions into submission is particularly galling, but that powerful people like Tom Cruise and John Travolta would stand behind these methods is sickening. 
What’s the number one problem in the world?  I happen to think it’s brainwashing, and never has a stronger case been made that you can get a group of people to do anything, if you know what you’re doing.  Case in point, when Miscavage sentences people into captivity for years at a time, until their mind gets right.

Former high ranking accomplices tell the story succinctly and convincingly and I’m sure there have been stronger, more sickening documentaries made, but I can’t think of one at this moment.  It is appalling that in this day and age cults can still hold people captive, and it’s a practice that needs to end today.  Hopefully someone in our law enforcement community watches this and realizes that it is time to act.  Tom Cruise acts every day, but he’s not going to be the one to act on this.

Allow me to rant a little.  We are in a golden age of brainwashing, and none of us are immune.  Here’s why.

For many years I have thought that you could sum up everything that was wrong with America in one word:

NIKE.

Overpriced product made by foreign slave labor, endorsed by athletes paid exorbitantly (thus inflating prices further) to entice young impressionable purchasers to pay more than they could afford because they over-prioritized the owning of something that should have been optional.  A luxury, not a requirement.  Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Lebron James.  Do the math that justifies paying them around $20 million a year to endorse shoes.  

But now I have a new dirty word.

NEWSFEED.

As best exemplified by Facebook, we are voluntarily and involuntarily force fed that which we already believe, constantly reinforcing our opinion.  Much of what I see in “made-up” headlines is ridiculous.  But it doesn’t matter, it will be gone tomorrow, and replaced by another ridiculous headline – not there to inform you – just there as clickbait.

The result is that we never get balanced and fair reporting.  No matter what happens the minions line up on both sides of the story, and you’ll receive your side’s interpretation early and often, article after article.

If you want to hear diversity of opinion, believe me you are going to have to work to find it.  The computers are working behind the scenes to get you what they know you want, not what you need.

Your best hope is that you have friends who will argue with you and call out your BS.  But it doesn’t happen much.  

I’m talking about more than just politics, but James Baker, Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State said it best recently in reference to politics, “The middle in our politics is sort of disappearing.  This middle is where you govern from.  And if you’re going to govern in bipartisan fashion, you’re not going to get 100% of what you want.  You might get 80% but you have to give up a little, and you have to compromise.  We’ve gotten away from that.”

Ain’t it the truth?  When we are children we are impressionable.  As we grow we may be gullible at times.  At times we are pliable.  Sometimes we are bullied relentlessly.  That’s what this movie is about. 

The unrelenting pressure of brainwashing. Do yourself a favor. See this stunning documentary.  

Jinx – The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst – 10

This is a 6 part documentary that we watched in its entirety the day HBO aired the last episode.  The day before that Durst got arrested in a New Orleans hotel on Canal Street.  The expectation is that he will be charged with murder in California.
I won’t spoil the last sounds in the last episode, but let’s say it’s a crescendo.  Durst is a silver-spoon born New York City real estate tycoon, who never came close to running the family empire.  That task fell to his younger brother, and if that happened to you, you could go live in the country on your millions and just cash the checks.  Robert Durst didn’t do that.  What he did or didn’t do, was kill a few folks for reasons unknown.  He killed a man in Galveston, chopped him into little pieces, and then was found not guilty when he claimed self-defense.

His wife disappeared and his probable accomplice herself got murdered in Beverly Hills.

And those are the ones we know about.

What does it all mean?  Is this person crazy?  Entitled?  A psychopath?  Cocky?

Cocky definitely, because he actually contacted the filmmakers and agreed to be interviewed after seeing their feature film of his story.

Most of us don’t hang around with accused murderers.  Oh, we see them on the screen all the time, but we don’t get the deep insight this movie gives us.  Durst is ice cold, and you don’t think he will ever crack.  It’s quite possible that the film-maker’s adeptness is what has brought the curtain down on his free time.  That’s something law enforcement had been unable to do.

Kingsman:  The Secret Service – 8

You’ll like this movie if you like the idea of an outlandish, undercover, unsanctioned clan of James Bond wannabes trying to do good deeds and fight evil.  That’s the premise of this movie that has the gall to cast Colin Firth in the lead role as a tough-as-nails superspy in a secret British service.  Those Brits have all the fun.   That’s the casting coup of the movie.  The casting mistake is to tell Samuel L Jackson to play the villain as a lisping genius.  Jackson is the only weak part of this movie, which gives a completely entertaining variation on the James Bond/Jason Bourne persona.  It’s funny, ridiculous, action packed, and so much is going on that your head may explode.

Run All Night – 7

The latest Liam Neeson entry is an effective eye-for-an-eye buddy film.  Neeson’s character, Jimmy Conlon, has been a bad-deed-doer for his lifelong mob buddy Shawn Maguire, played with gusto by Ed Harris. When Neeson has to kill Maguire’s son to protect his own very estranged son, Maguire vows revenge by dawn.   The pot boils over as the movie becomes a blood bath.  Not to say it isn’t a lot of fun, in a Funny Bloody Funday sort of way.

A Million Ways to Die in the West – 2

Given that I like Seth MacFarlane and given that I am not easily offended, even by the most tasteless of comedy, I must admit that even when comedy is tasteless, I like there to be a little modicum of wit attached.  “Wit” never made it to the set on this movie.  Just being tasteless for the sake of tastelessness does not justify spending $40 million to do it.  With that money we could have built 4 new high schools, or provided years of water for a country that doesn’t have clean drinking water.  Insert what you could have done with that money here.  

Maybe we could have even rescued some scientologists.