At the Cinema - October 2020

Totally Under Control – 10

The impactful documentaries I’ve seen this year are going to outnumber the pure entertainment, and this one vaults to the top of the list.  It is a step-by-step, test-by-test recounting of the pandemic and how it got out of control in the U.S.  Director Alex Gibney and his team interview many of the key players in this evolution, even including the doctor in New York who introduced President Trump to hydrochloriquine.  In one interview after another he takes us through every incredible screw up that was made, while contrasting it with other countries who successfully limited the damage. 

There’s one inescapable conclusion.  We did almost everything wrong, but we can learn from it.  It’s going to happen again.  As one of the interviewed says, we build tanks and fighters for wars we’re never going to fight, and we need to do the same in preparing for the next time this happens.  This has been a year that will be studied for a long time.  This movie may well be the first step in that dissection.

 

The Trial of the Chicago 7 – 10

The always-entertaining Aaron Sorkin revisits (and probably revises) history in this telling of the Chicago riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention and the trial that followed.  Several groups came to Chicago to protest LBJ’s adherence to the Vietnam conflict.  Mayor Richard Daley was having none of that and turned the police loose and several bloody clashes ensued, playing out on national TV and dooming Hubert Humphrey’s chances to be President.  Republican Richard Nixon got elected and continued the war.  New Attorney General John Mitchell decided this would be a great opportunity to set a law and order standard by prosecuting seven (8 to start) radical troublemakers.

Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Bobby Seale, Tom Hayden.  These are names I’ve heard all my life and my number one recollection of the group was that Hayden would marry Jane Fonda, as radical a union as could be imagined.  I was 15 at the time, and baseball dominated my radar, not politics.  But, someday they’ll be a movie about this tumultuous summer of 2020 too, when we either pontificated on social media, glued ourselves to our network of choice, or left the house to protest and/or get exposed to a virus.  As this movie points out, protests usually feature some violence and destruction, unless there’s a central figure, a Martin Luther King, Jr, urging non-violence.

Sorkin actually shows some restraint with the wordplay.  It’s hard to walk and talk at a courtroom table.  So, complete with flashbacks, often real footage, he weaves the story of the seven very different radicals at the heart of the trial.  This could have been a preachy movie, but Sorkin seems to resist that, and gives us some perspective on one of our most contentious times, as we face another. 

 

The Perfect Weapon – 10

An old movie (and book I actually read) called The Mouse that Roared tells the story of a tiny duchy somewhere that declares war on the United States so that they can surrender quickly and get the aid the US usually doles out to the vanquished.

HBO puts forth another documentary to scare the life out of you.  For years I’ve been questioning the military buildup we love in America, because I’m wondering out loud, and usually getting ridiculed for this opinion, if a huge military engagement is how future wars will be fought.  Instead, I often propose, what would happen if it were a computer attack?  What if a small duchy, properly equipped with computer geniuses could bring the US to its knees.  What if a small duchy could declare war and win if,  for example, it crippled our power grid.  Could you imagine no a/c in the middle of a southern summer?  How quickly would we be clamoring for our government to get the air back on?

Well, it’s already happening, and the US has been an initiator.  Many examples are covered in length in this film, and I’m not going to give them away here.  See the movie.  Some wars are fought with “My military is stronger than yours.”  Some are fought on the basis of “my god is better than your god.”  The next one may be “My code is better than your code.” 

 
Borat Subsequent MovieFilm - 9

There’s a scene in this movie, where a 15 year old alleged journalist who is alone with Rudy Giuliani says “let’s go into the bedroom,” and he does and he lays down on the bed and reaches in his pants to prepare for action.  It’s pretty gross.  And yet, it’s far from the grossest thing in the movie.  That would be what I’ll call the “Carrie” scene.  This movie is a) all over the place, b) hysterically funny in parts, and c) awfully hard to figure out what is scripted and what isn’t. 
Nevertheless, while not quite as bizarre as the first Borat, it gets itself into the right place at the right time, as in the Mike Pence rally where he confidently says there have been only 15 covid cases in the US and it is well under control, and when Borat attends an early Trump rally.  You can’t make this stuff up, or can you?

Letter to You – Bruce Springsteen – 10

In some ways this is my dream movie.  What’s your favorite album of all time?  How much would you like to see all the recording session highlights of how it was all put together.  For me, that would be Abbey Road, the last album the Beatles recorded, with George Martin at the board.  That would be very cool.

This rockumentary takes place in Bruce Springsteen’s studio where he recorded his newest album, Letter to You, with the E Street Band.  Look, it’s not perfect.  They supposedly recorded this in 2 weeks and the sessions are edited down, as they had to be, to about 2 hours.  Maybe they should have just live streamed it for the 2 weeks.  But the version we see is still enthralling, as Bruce guides the band through his songs, absorbing ideas, and trying various approaches.  I would have liked to see a little more of the mixing process.  This is his third recent movie.  First he did a one-man Broadway show and it was taped for Netflix.  His performance film “Western Stars” was the story behind the songs on that album, and it was terrific for his fans.  This is the best of the three.  Springsteen is an artist, and he’s expanding that into the film world.  His enthusiasm for rock n roll at the age of 71 is pretty amazing, as is his chemistry with his band.  He keeps expanding his reach and cobbling together top-notch albums.  Don’t know where he gets the energy.

 

On the Rocks – 8

As you watch this comedy on Apple+ you can’t help but feel that Bill Murray is playing a version of himself.  He’s the cad dad of Rashida Jones, and they set out to tail Rashida’s husband (played by Damon Wayons) whom they suspect of infidelity.  This is more about the father/daughter relationship than it is about that, and Murray supplies most of the best moments. This is all mildly amusing, but if this is “the best comedy of the year,” as Apple touts, then it tells you all you need to know about 2020.