At the Cinema - September 2020

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.

Saints Report #3 - September 27, 2020

The Saints have been on national television for the first three weeks of the NFL season, so Drew Brees and his battle with gravity has been a national discussion.  The National Sports Media pays little attention to the Saints most of the time, but a whiff of decline and the Saints are a hot topic.

The Saints lost to the Packers 37-30 on Sunday night in the Superdome.  The Saints hung closer than I really expected them to.  In the end the 36 year legendary quarterback outperformed the 41 year old one just enough to secure the victory. 

Late in the third quarter Alvin Kamara scored on a spectacular 52 yard run after catching a swing pass.  That tied the game at 27, as the 4^th quarter began.  The Saints defense, which played pretty well most of the night when they weren’t being called for pass interference, held the Packers at midfield on a 4^th down attempt.  The Saints took over.  They gained 8 yards on a pass to Murray.  Then came the turning point.  Brees went to the sidelines for Taysom Hill.  Hill fumbled on a 2^nd and 2 option play.  The Packers recovered and although the defense held the Packers to a field goal, It was a deflating moment.  Aaron Rodgers drove the Packers for a touchdown as the 2 minute warning approached and the game was history.

Here are the conclusions from this game:

First, the old Drew Brees showed up.  He was mostly efficient and crisp, if not perfect, and began to utilize his receivers more.  He still is hesitant to throw deep, but he hasn’t thrown deep since Devery Henderson left.  He isn’t a gunslinger anymore, but he still shows signs of life. The Saints have been dinking and dunking for 5 years.  

Secondly, the Saints running game was excellent.  It became apparent early that the Saints could run it at will, and that would accomplish a lot, like keep the clock running and MVP candidate Rodgers off the field. 

Third, rookies Cesar Ruiz and Alex Trautman contributed.  It looks like they can play, and since Andrus Peat’s weekly injury appears serious, Ruiz will get action. 

Fourth, Michael Thomas should have been NFL MVP last year.  He’s that good, and the Saints are just an average offense without him.  On third and long it does not appear Brees is willing to throw to anyone but Thomas near the sticks. 

Fifth, penalties remain a major problem.

Finally, and this is inescapable.  Sean Payton can not commit to running the ball for 4 quarters.  He simply doesn’t have the discipline.  If there was ever a game where it was called for, this was it.  Latavius Murray averaged 5 yards a carry, and it seemed like more.  Alvin Kamara averaged 10 yards a carry.  The Saints rushed 20 times for 122 yards.  They threw 36 passes.  Those numbers should have been reversed.  They began by dominating the line of scrimmage.  I’ve heard football defensive lineman talk many times about how tiring and demoralizing it is for a team to run the ball on a defense.  If the Saints had stuck with their ground game this would have been a 24-20 type game.  But Payton, the master of the passing game, just couldn’t resist.  In the series after the game’s only turnover, the Saints completed 3 passes for a total gain of 5 yards.  Only the Saints could do that.

I am a thankful fan.  I am grateful that Sean Payton is our coach and I don’t want his head on the chopping block.  I have no idea if he answers to anyone in terms of game strategy.  But, as great as Drew Brees is statistically, there’s a reason he only has one Super Bowl.  And I get it, we have a ball control, short passing game.  No one likes 2^nd and 2 more than me.  But, the best seasons have featured a run commitment, and the success the Saints had early last night evaporated, and there’s nothing harder than evaporation in the humidity of New Orleans.  It evaporated because the Saints ran the ball 41% of the time on a night that called for 61%.  It’s not in their DNA, but its time for a transfusion.  Payton wants to win shoot-outs.  He should want to just win games. 

I will close with this statistical addendum.  If you are a Saints fan, you know the records, and you can correlate when the Saints have had success with the percentage of times they run vs. pass in the B/P era.

2006:  45%
2007:  38%
2008:  39%
2009:  46% 
2010:  37%
2011:  39%
2012:  36%\
2013:  36%
2014:  38%
2015:  37%
2016:  37%
2017:  45%
2018:  48%
2019:  41%

 

 

Saints Report #2 - September 21, 2020

The NFL Raiders, ever the nomads, have settled in the Nevada desert.

Monday night the New Orleans Saints came to christen the latest home for the now Las Vegas Raiders.  The stadium is inexplicably named after something called “allegiant” but is nicknamed the Deathstar.  Thus the lure of liquidity forces another legendary sports franchise to abandon its roots, traditions, and fanbase. Ironic that the first season may play out in an empty stadium.

The Saints brought their stellar B/P era record of 16-7 on Monday Night Football to the Deathstar and got convincingly doused by Gruden’s 11.  The Saints lost 34-24 in a nice gesture to the Raiders and their new home.

On defense, the promise of last week’s “welcome-to-a-real-division” victory over the Brady bunch lasted about one quarter.  It was then that the Raiders showed their run/pass balance and the Saints defense could handle neither.  The running backs acted like they were on a honeymoon in Vegas, and Darren Waller spent the night revealing why the Raiders let Jared Cook get away.  Waller came up aces all night.  For 50 years we’ve watched the Saints make stars out of unknown quarterbacks.  Now, it’s tight ends.  Vernon Davis, George Kittle, and now Waller join the Hangover crew.  Slowing down productive tight ends is not in the Saints’ defensive playbook.  Unfortunately, pass interference is.  Any chance of a late rally was snuffed out when last week’s pick-six hero Janoris Jenkins played the goat role on a 3^rd and long bomb late in the game, when he mauled the receiver.  The Raiders parlayed their clock eating into a field goal to finish off the scoring.  The defense leads the league in penalties, and whichever team is second is going to have to double down to catch this group.

On offense, the Saints ran the ball a little, and threw the ball a little, but not nearly as efficiently as the Saints fans have come to expect.  Kamara was a handful all night, but the passing game still has not clicked.  Brees played the cooler and threw a crucial interception near the end of the first half (aren’t they all crucial?) and he took a lot of “arm strength” heat for it, but in watching it a couple of times, it was more of a tangled foot issue.  No excuse, because he shouldn’t have thrown it.  It was actually the missing of some open receivers that was more concerning.  Brees is 63 after all, and his great footwork is vital to his delivery.   He’s beginning to look human.  Saints fans have been treated to his 70% accuracy for so long, that 60% makes him look human.  The Saints vaunted offensive line struggled to protect him all night, when they weren’t getting called for holding.  When the Saints got behind, they had to ignore the don’t pass line and crank it up.

Unfortunately, there was no Michael Thomas, and Emmanuel Sanders disappeared.  That left Tre’quan Smith, who did ok but is not a load carrier, and a couple of unknowns that Brees obviously doesn’t have confidence in yet.  Rookie Marques Callaway, an undrafted free agent, has made the team, and rookies don’t often play for Payton, so he must have some promise.  Veteran Bennie Fowler, who Brees drafted this year after some practice sessions, couldn’t get open.  Things are different in the pocket these days for Brees.  Payton and Brees have been Siegfried and Roy for a long time, but the magic is coming to an end, and father time is a white tiger ready to take a bite.  Decision time is looming for Loomis and Payton as to how long they can press this bet.  This is the year they were all in, and the season’s start is more “fear and loathing” than “viva.”  A tough schedule is no help.

Garry Shandling used to tell a joke that as he approached Las Vegas he would just start throwing money out of his car window just to get used to losing it.   

Let’s hope this game is just a blip and it stays in Vegas.  Saints fans don’t want to get used to losing again.