The Social Dilemma – 10
I spent an amazing week watching 10 hours of historical examination
that will blow your mind. At this point,
I’m going to assume that most people already have a viewpoint on the events of
the last 4 years and this is all unlikely to change minds, but I urge everyone
to drink these things in.
The first of two astounding documentaries comes to us on Netflix. The Social Dilemma is an examination of the
cause and effect of social media on our lives today. Think back to that unsettling first time that
you realized that something you were looking for was suddenly being advertised
to help you out, right there on your computer screen. How did they know? Oh, they know. In fact, they know everything, and this movie
explains how. It starts with how
merchants realized it was more cost-effective to market on-line to just the
people who were looking for their product, rather than on the local TV news or
in the Sunday paper.
But that’s only the beginning. Pretty soon it became obvious that social media could be used to spread lies, conspiracy theories, and political influence. It’s all covered here and it’s not pretty. Everyone should watch this, and I plan on watching it again. I want to again try to answer the central question. With the suffocating presence of social media, are we better off, or worse off?
Agents of Chaos -10
This second documentary comes to us on HBO and it’s a further autopsy of social media. Alex Gibney is the premier documentarian of our time, and this takes him two parts to dissect the Russian impact on our elections. The first of the two parts is an examination of the Russian troll farm in St. Petersburg in 2013. They gain experience on how to influence public opinion during the Russian invasion of Crimea. It is an amazing story that serves as practice for bigger things to come.
As it enters part two, the troll farm turns its attention to the United States and enters the perfect storm of American politics as candidate Hillary Clinton promises a hard line foreign policy, and candidate Donald Trump seems to be willing to extend a hand, because he has done business in Russia. The troll farm goes to work. How and why they do this will both fascinate and horrify you.
The Comey Rules – 10
Completing the triple crown is a docudrama on Showtime. This is a two-part blazer starring Jeff
Daniels as James Comey.
If you are a Star Trek fan you know the importance of the exercise called the
Kobayashi Maru – the no win scenario. No-win?
That pales in comparison to the dilemma facing FBI Director James Comey as the 2016
election approaches. The quagmire he is
in is that the election is between two candidates that are under investigation
by the FBI: Hillary Clinton for her misuse
of email, and Donald Trump because he appears to be getting Russian assistance.
Two weeks before the election he decides to reopen the email
case against Clinton, (and the movie explains why, and why it was such a
difficult decision), and he also knows that 4 people in the Trump campaign have
ties to Russia as they try to influence the election.
This is a riveting recreation of events, often supplemented
by actual footage. The superb casting
includes Holly Hunter as Sally Yates, and Brendan Gleeson as
Donald Trump,who enters the second part and pretty much dominates the movie from then on.
What to make of it all? Well, it is
based on a Comey memoir, but it is
narrated by Rod Rosenstein, and he is at times brutal on Comey. In addition, I guess we could conclude that
Comey and the FBI were not up to the magnitude of these two investigations, but
who would be? Decide for yourself, but I’ll
call it another Kobayashi Maru.
Blaze – 8
I’m not a fan of country music so I had never heard of Blaze
Foley, or maybe he wasn’t famous. I
don’t know. But I now know that he was
a brawling giant of a man who wrote some awfully gentle music. Ben Dickey brings Foley to life under the
direction of Ethan Hawke. The movie is a
little long, about 3 songs too long, but if you like music, you’ll like this
movie. Foley was definitely unique enough
to warrant a biography.
21 Bridges – 8
One of Chadwick Boseman’s last films has him as a detective Andre Davis, who
says policework is in his DNA because his father was a cop killed in the line
of duty. He has a history of justified
killings in the line of duty. When a
routine drug heist goes wrong and seven policemen are killed in the resulting
shootout, he must catch the robbers by 5 am or the FBI will take over. He orders all 21 bridges coming into
Manhattan closed so the killers are trapped on the island with Davis and his
sidekick for the night Frankie Gray, played by Sienna Miller. This is a fairly tense story, much more
complex than I have laid out here, and it’s one of those action movies where
there is a long chase scene on foot that would have lungs bursting. Just once I’d like to see the sprinters
collapse at the end of a movie run like this.
Apparently the late Boseman did 7 movies while fighting colon cancer. Bosman had quite a canon of excellent work,
playing not only The Black Panther, but real-life heroes Thurgood Marshall,
Jackie Robinson, Ernie Davis, and James Brown, each with great gusto. Oddly, my favorite role of his is as a Ray
Lewis-type linebacker in an otherwise cliché-ridden film, Draft Day. He jumps off the screen with his intensity. A great Actor gone to soon.
Classic Movie Report
Tokyo Story – 9
This Japanese classic was released in 1953, the year I was born. That makes it 67 years old, although I am only 47. This may be the most acclaimed movie of all time. In the Sight and Sound polls, it was picked as the third best movie of all time by film critics, behind Vertigo and Citizen Kane. In the poll of directors world-wide, it was picked as #1. So, it has quite the reputation.
Filmed in glorious Black and White, it chronicles
grandparents who still have one daughter living at home, a school teacher. The rest of their kids are grown and live in
or near Tokyo. They decide that it may
be the time to visit their busy children.
When they go to Tokyo, they find that their children are selfish and
preoccupied and their grandchildren are distant and uninterested. The widow
of one of their sons who went missing in action, is actually the warmest to
them. It’s heartbreaking and sad. It is also a little jarring to see how the
Japanese lived in the 50’s. No
furniture. I don’t know if it’s still
like that or not, but they sit on the floor, dine on the floor at a small
table, and sleep on a pad on the floor.
I actually would have liked that, as I find myself on the floor trying
to get comfortable a lot. Sad movie, but
worthy of its rep.
The Lady Eve – 9
Preston Sturges' classic screwball comedy is #110 on the S&S top 250
movies. I think it would be more accurately
called a pratfall comedy as most of the big laughs come when Henry Fonda is
launched into a spill, usually caused by Barbara Stanwyck’s Eve/Jean. Jean is a card shark on a cruise ship who
targets the rich Charles (Fonda) and their whirlwind relationship consists mostly
of Jean wrapping Charles around her finger and turning him every which way but
loose. Charles Coburn and William
Demarest are terrific in supporting roles, and the movie is pretty funny most
of the time. I have a weakness for screwball
comedies, and this is a good one.
Modern Times – 10
The Gold Rush – 10
My monthly Charlie Chaplin diet included The Gold Rush, his
1925 silent classic, ranked #159 on the Sight and Sound top 250 movies, and the
even better Modern Times, ranked #63 It
is amazing how well his little gems hold up, compared to some of these other
classics filmed in the 50’s and 60’. I’m
becoming a big fan of Chaplin and his comedic timing has probably never been
equaled. I understand his place in
cinema history and why his genius is so revered.
The Thin Blue Line – 9
This highly acclaimed Errol Morris film may have been the first great documentary, and is ranked 183 on the S&S top 250. Morris went to Texas in the mid 80’s to do a small probe into the mindset of death row inmates and became enamored of an inmate named Randall Adams, who insisted he was wrongly convicted of the murder of a cop. Morris and his camera began to investigate the crime, and found enough doubt to make the case for Adams’ innocence as the centerpiece of the movie. It’s a little dated but still effective.
Vernon Florida – 5
Which led me to be curious about Errol Morris’ first documentary, especially when I heard him say it was his favorite movie. It is a 60 minute piece consisting of only interviews with local characters in Vernon. He originally went to Vernon to examine its reputation as the fraud capital of America, where people would go to great extremes, like sacrificing a limb, to get declared disabled and hopefully cash a big check. Morris doesn’t go into that. He finds the locals fascinating, and this is 60 minutes of quirk. I would not agree with Morris on his assessment.
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