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.
