REVIEWS AND TIPS

Early evening October moon over Cambria
REVIEWS

    The little gray cells were massaged nicely in the last few days and they can't refrain from sharing a few tips for you.

DOUBLE INSPIRATION

     He Named Me Malala is a spellbinding and inspiring documentary of Malala Yousafzai, the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner. Though the world knows her story, gunned down by the Taliban for speaking up for education for girls, the film takes you into her life and deeper into the context of the shooting and her extraordinary recovery and travel since. She is special and so is the film. The animated sequences are especially well done. You'll be left with a sense of hope despite the presence of the damnably wicked Taliban and Isis. Here is how good wins out.

     Bridge of Spies combines Hanks and Spielberg in a script written by the Cohen brothers and young Brit Matt Charman. 
     James Donovan was real and engineered and negotiated an extraordinary spy swap at the height of the cold war and the fear of nuclear war. Hanks gives life to an American who's effort and accomplishment is also inspiring.
     The Hank's as Donovan conversation about the "rule book"- the Constitution-with a CIA handler is a classic defense of a constitutional government that is forced to play by its own rules. At the apex of US-USSR tension and toe to toe, when the Soviet's test was to push until they got resistance, Donovan's insistence to do it properly was seen as a strength by both the East Germans and the Soviets who were also at odds. Again doing and saying the right thing wins. 
     Great to see history told in a Spielberg film. Mark Rylance as Col. Rudolph Abel, the Soviet Spy, creates a character who defines what it is to be laconic but also riveting. Hanks is masterful, but so is Rylance. Spielberg knows how to entertain and inform. The visual look, even the light in the scenes, puts you back in 1962. We think this is a great film.

OTHER REEL THOUGHTS

    Tobey Maguire's portrayal of Bobby Fischer in Pawn Sacrifice is one of the outstanding acting performances of the year.  Director Edward Zwick gives us an enthralling film about the 1972 world Chess championship and the intense mental game it is, including the haunted mind of Fischer. Liev

Schreiber scores as Russian Boris Spassky.

    Nancy Meyers (As Good as it Gets) new film The Intern is nothing but entertaining, a bit touching and a great study of values. De Niro and Anne Hathaway are great together as generational antagonists and eventual allies. A tag line or a working title could have been Baby Boomers meet the Millenials. This is a feel good film.

    My first viewing of this film was in my head as I read Jon Krakauer's Book Into Thin Air. Krakauer is not pleased by the film Everest that was written independently of his book, though it is based on the tragic incident in spring of 1996 when 8 climbers died in a ferocious blizzard on Mt Everest.

     Director Baltasar Kormakur tried to film some of the movie at 15 thousand feet but said he and the crew were so oxygen deprived most of the film was unusable. The real life episode played out at about double that altitude. The film underscores what Krakauer and other journalists have said of that ill fated day-too many people trying to summit, and too many bad judgements including by veterans who knew better.

      This is an intense adventure-disaster drama with a host of great actors making it powerful. Jason Clark, Thomas Wright, Josh Brolin, Jake Gylenhaal, Robin Wright, Keira Knightly, Emily Watson, Tom Goodman-Hill, Ang Phua Sherpa, John Hawkes, Michael Kelly and believe or not, even more. More than a couple of people I know came away from this film wondering even more strongly, why would someone put themselves through all that? That answer remains elusive.

         I hope Cambrians will avail themselves to the rollicking and even poignant comedy, VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE that is playing the CCAT. I wish all could see this production.

     The work by Christopher Durang was the 2013 Tony winner and is perfect for the Cambria demographic.  It is fresh, timely and "speaks" to us. 

     Under Nancy Green's directing the cast provides what is a stunningly entertaining evening. Talented Jill Turnbow combines her ability to own a character with her brilliant comedic timing and punctuates the night with laugh after laugh, while also breaking your heart. Oz Barron is perfect as her brother and his climactic rant and harangue had the audience howling.  Susie Fulton as the third sibling was perfect as the glamorous movie star famous sister bound for a big change of life. Some of the best moments of the evening came from Priscilla McRoberts as the hilarious "psychic" house cleaner Cassandra. Kathryn Gucik brought a fresh and idealistic Nina to life, endearingly and Wade Tillotson was perfect as a boy toy who had trouble keeping on his clothing. 

      It is splendid when a full cast excels and in this case it made a brilliant script jump off the stage in a masterful and enjoyable way.     

 ALSO IN THE VILLAGE

  Lana's recent poster design, now an oil painting, is hanging at Cutruzzola Vineyards wine tasting room in Cambria's west village.

   As this post is a series of reviews, I thought I'd tell my favorite artist that she can add Poster Art to her resume that includes Plein Air, abstract, expressionism and ceramic work. She is a talented woman with an inexhaustible creativity.

    See you down the trail.

THE TROUBLE WITH NEWS

   Sunrise was too pretty to ignore. My admiration of it woke up that corner of the brain where vexing thoughts are caged, waiting to leap into a blank space. 

   One of the troubles with the news business is the derogatory but not inaccurate sobriquet for a style of news "If it bleeds it leads." To be clear that means if it is crime or disaster, tragedy, plane crash, wreck, fire, explosion, or etc. it's the first story of a newscast. Fortunately not all television news rooms operate by that ethos, but too many do. The more competitive the market, the more likely there's a station that follows that path.

   NIGHTCRAWLER starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a stringer (freelance) photographer is a well done examination of the pathology of that kind of news, as played out in Los Angeles.

    One of the brilliant elements of this film is the extraordinary visual treatment of Los Angeles at night. Oscar winning Cinematographer Robert Elswit offers a rich and stunning essay. Seeing his work, especially the open sequence, is worth the price of admission. 
    Director Dan Gilroy plumbs the exploitative, crass world of sensationalism that passes as a kind of tabloid television.  Rene Russo, who coincidentally is married to Gilroy, is marvelous as a desperate news director, once a beautiful young reporter now trying to hang on to a job at a low ranking station by spiking the ratings with overnight gore gathered by Gyllenhaal.  

     Gyllenhaal's character is a solitary whacko. I think of him as a slick cousin or even brother to Robert De Niro's Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. Gyllenhaal's performance is incredible. As Jon Stewart joked he only blinked twice in 2 hours. Indeed Gyllenhaal's eyes and manic delivery are so riveting it'll give you the creeps.  It is a great character by which Gilroy can explore the senselessness of exploitative content and the tyranny of ratings.

     I know of situations where station reputations and staff integrity have been destroyed by this cheap and trashy management and style. Still, there are enough viewers who thrive on tabloid journalism that it exists.

PROFESSIONAL and/or Citizen Journalists

  How deeply should newsrooms go in utilizing or pandering to social media? The debate continues and the first episode of NEWSROOM, the excellent Aaron Sorkin HBO drama mines the issue set against the Boston Marathon bombing.  

   NEWSROOM is to journalism what WEST WING was to politics, only much better because it is more realistic, drawn from real critical judgements and experience. Plus the acting, writing and directing are all worthy of the multiple Emmys.  

BEEN THERE-DONE THAT

   As a television news director I guided an evolution of a traditional and historic news organization into digital news gathering, processing and dissemination.  We changed the technology on which we wrote, edited and the cameras we used to capture the pictures.  Our remote trucks changed from microwave to satellite. We changed our work flow from television only to television and Internet. We moved from thinking only about the big screen to feeding computers, pads, and phones. We changed our graphics, our presentation style and our pace. In changing how we worked, we also advanced the output and our approach to thinking about what is news and how we cover it.  

    I've been retired a few years now, but even back then we were starting to wrestle with blogging, the ethics and legality of using material from personal phones or on line chatter. Now Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other micro blogging and social networking realities impinge on how a news shop operates. I'm not sure they've got it figured out, or properly.  But as my old friend and former broadcast journalist the Catalyst AKA Bruce Taylor cajoles me, don't worry about it. You can't do anything about anyway.  It's another generation's problem. Yea, probably so. But it makes great fodder for film, television or having a drink and bullshitting, or posting about.

     It may still wake me, but Bruce is right. It's someone else's job now.

DIVERSIONS

Late Afternoon

 Evening

Post Sunset

Neighbors
could have been the national bird

Heavy Weather on the way

Turning on the night lights

THROWBACK TO A GOOD DAY

    My late brother Jim, at the wheel and yours truly enjoying a day of golf in the late 70's or early 80's.  Dad was an extraordinary golfer, Jim and I not so much.  But we had fun.

      See you down the trail.

HOW WOULD YOU HANDLE IT? plus EVENING and GOOD WITH POPCORN-THE WEEKENDER

THE GLOAMING

WHEN STARS AND/OR POPCORN ARE ENOUGH

    A buddy, a former FBI agent and leader of a television investigative team said his lovely bride had to drag him "kicking and screaming" to SAVING MR. BANKS. He raved about it.  I understand why.

      We expected something else than the intricate and well woven back story to Walt Disney's making of Mary Poppins. First the 20 year courtship of the author P.L. Travers, and then her history as magnificently played by Emma Thompson, worthy of an Academy nomination at least. Tom Hanks was remarkable, as always, as Walt Disney.  Colin Farrell deserves a lot of applause for his Mr. Banks. Bradley Whitford and Jason Schwartzman were terrific in their supporting roles and Paul Giamatti was nomination worthy in his.  This is a touching, entertaining, fascinating and memorable film. First class in all ways.

HEY, DA BOYS MIX IT UP

    The GRUDGE MATCH is not for everyone, but if you are a De Niro, Stallone, Alan Arkin or Kim Bassinger fan, or if you simply like popcorn and cliche, you might enjoy it.  I did, even though it was reminiscent of a Rocky re-tread and the popcorn was outrageously expensive.

     I guess I was curious to see how a couple of old boys-my age-could handle the boxing gym and ring scenes. BTW Arkin stole a few scenes, as he does so well.  Bassinger need only show up. She remains a stunning beauty as she ages, not so De Niro and Stallone, but then how could they?

   This is a guys film probably. Jim Lampley's presence made me think I was watching an HBO boxing match, set up. I enjoyed the almost two hours, but then I like boxing, pop corn, De Niro and seeing how make up artists can help make Stallone becoming increasingly a punched up, punched out punchy old puncher.  

REAL LIFE COURAGE

    I hope you'll take 7 minutes to watch this exceptionally well done piece on an extraordinary person. This is real life heroism, just in getting by.  You'll feel better about almost everything after you've seen it.

WISH YOU COULD HAVE BEEN THERE

    Cambrian Tess Wright, prevailed again as Mistress of the Salon as she moderated a fascinating discussion about where a couple of Cambria artists fit into the modern art milieu. Full disclosure here, one of those artist is Lana with whom I have lived and who's art I have enjoyed for longer than you need to know.  The other is Bruce Marchese, a displaced Brooklyn lad who was hailed as an exuberant colorist.  Tess has presented a series of lectures on art and artists and I hope someday they'll be available for a wider distribution. Her research is superb and her rapport with artists is a treat to behold.  Thanks to the Wise Owl for a great venue.

    See you down the trail.

RUFFLED-CAMPAIGN FEATHERS AND CLOUDS

GET OVER IT NEWT, IT WAS A JOKE!

     The latest flap in the presidential wars underscores a

couple of things.  1)As a nation our sense of humor is rapidly diminishing.  2)Newt Gingrich becomes more sanctimonious 

by the moment.

     Actor Robert De Niro cracked wise at an Obama fundraiser and the desperate Gingrich sought to make some political hay.

      Here is the "offending" joke:

    "Callista Gingrich. Karen Santorum. Ann Romney. Now do you really think our country is ready for a white First Lady?" he asked the crowd. "Too soon, right?"

      Even the Obama camp, when pressed for a response,

said it was inappropriate.  Well, what else could they say?

It was "edgy" I suppose, but if we can't laugh at ourselves

we are taking it all too seriously.  

       I think if one can joke about color, ethnicity, sexual preferences and yes even religion in appropriate, non offensive language, then it shows maturity and real cultural health.  Isn't that coming closer to being color blind than Newt's little hissy fit would be representative of?

      Accept facts for what they are. If you are a person of color the line may have been funny for reasons beyond the fact it was a good line and made even better by the edginess of it. Both the edginess and the personal color matters fueled the effectiveness of the joke, and obviously the Gingrich lack of humor.

      You know what they say you can do if you can't take a joke. Humor is a balm for frayed nerves.  We should all laugh a bit more.  Lighten up!   

DAY BOOK

RUFFLED SKY

Heard any jokes about thrice married candidates?

See you down the trail.