At the Cinema - October 2017

Marshall – 9

I knew nothing of the plot of this movie other than it was about Thurgood Marshall. I was thinking it would be a biography of the late Supreme Court Justice.  It was nothing like that.  Instead it is mostly a courtroom drama focused on one case in his early career.

Thurgood Marshall was a traveling civil rights lawyer and worked for the NAACP in their early days. The charismatic Chadwick Boseman plays him as a slightly arrogant, angry, but ultimately brilliant lawyer.  We learn in the closing credits that he argued before the US Supreme Court 35 times in civil rights cases, winning 32 times before eventually become the first black Justice. 

In this tightly constructed story, Marshall is sent to Connecticut to defend a black man (Sterling Brown) accused of raping his white employer (Kate Hudson).  I kept waiting for someone to say he was going to break up a chifferobe.  The judge (a terrific James Cromwell) won’t let Marshall verbally participate in the trial so he is forced to be the puppet master for the local lawyer played by Josh Gad.  To say they fight an uphill battle would be an understatement.

It’s compelling and enlightening and a great take on the career of a legal and civil rights giant.

Blade Runner 2049 – 8

Extraordinary in every visual way, the sequel to the classic Science Fiction movie Blade Runner asks for a little more in the plot twist department than I am willing to give. 
To be honest, I never thought the first movie was anything special.  When I bought the laserdisc I got the director’s cut which had eliminated the annoying narration, but it still fell short of the classic status others have granted.  It was an interesting take on the future, but it wasn’t a Road Warrior.  And for that matter, this is no Mad Max:  Fury Road.  If you are a Blade Runner lover, you’ll probably love this update.  I give it an A for cinematography, an incomplete for the story.

Meanwhile,

What an interesting sports month.

While the NFL popularity is being tested, the World Series was special. 

In recent years both sports have been slowed by Replay Reversals and Rule Change malarkey.  Can anyone tell me how long you have to maintain control of a football for it to be a catch?  Did anyone think Major League umpires missed so many calls? 

Anyway, as much as I love football, and the New Orleans Saints in particular, baseball still rules my heart.  I know the young generation is being raised on soccer, but us geezers don’t understand it and we care much more about real pizza than real Madrid.   Football has an inherent unfairness in that you could conceivably get 5 possessions in a row via onside kicks.  I even used to hate it when we played make it, take it in basketball.  Anyway, no such luck in baseball.  You’ve got to get 27 outs (sometimes gloriously more) to take the game, and it matters not whether that takes 2 hours or 4.  It is a timeless game and there’s magic in those 60 feet 6 inches, and those 90 feet.  Post season heroes are sometimes born, while ace pitchers somehow can’t get the job done in October.

I was so starving for baseball when I first moved to Mississippi I remember listening to the Houston Colt 45’s on the radio.  Their stars were Sonny Jackson and Joe Morgan and I know what a long wait it has been for baseball fans in Texas.

As so often happens (see New Orleans), a championship can take on special meaning in face of a disaster, and in a year that has been anything but heart-warming, the Astros provided some joy to a beleaguered region by winning the World Series.  And earlier this year I saw this picture of the two leading contenders for American League MVP that sums up why baseball is so great.   It’s about hand/eye coordination, not size, so there’s a hope and a fairness to it all.  Bravo.