A Good Watch Despite Junior High School English Class

May 24, 2020 – Cross Creek (1983) Amazon Prime Rental

Cross Creek is a sweet story about how a writer in the 1930s, played by Mary Steenburgen, abandons her husband and life in New York and moves to a remote part of Florida to write her novel. The writer learns to be independent, develops friendships with her neighbors, balances her autonomy with a romantic relationship, and ultimately learns to write from her own experience, rather than to emulate the gothic novels she loves. Since this is a true story about the writer Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, I don’t think it is a spoiler to report that in the end, she writes the novel The Yearling.

I read The Yearling in Junior High. It was the year that all the books they assigned in English class were about animals: the two I remember besides The Yearling are Old Yeller and Call of the Wild. I guess they figured that all kids like animals and so would like books about animals. They figured wrong about me. I found The Yearling and the other animal books to be completely uninteresting. At that point in my life, I only wanted to read science fiction.  

Cross Creek would have been boring to me then too. It is a family picture, without stakes beyond the emotional development of the characters. It could have been a saccharine Hallmark movie if it weren’t for the direction of Martin Ritt and the great performance from Mary Steenburgen. For the most part, the movie avoids sentimentality and presents a gently compelling story. The exception is the overwrought score. No music from this movie is ending up on my Shelter-In-Place Streaming Playlist.

One other nice thing about Cross Creek is the reunion of Mary Steenburgen and Malcolm McDowell, who has a small part as the editor Max Perkins. The two actors were in one of my favorite unsung movies, Time After Time, a 1979 thriller/romance where H.G. Wells chases Jack the Ripper through time to what was then current-day San Francisco. I am due for a rewatch of this movie, so look for a review of Time After Time on this blog coming soon.

Cross Creek is the third Martin Ritt film I have watched since the pandemic began. The first two were  Paris Blues and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. It is not the last Ritt Film I will watch – we are going to see Norma Rae as soon as we can get Henry to sit down with us long enough to watch. What is surprising is how different all these Martin Ritt films are from one another: a tense, black and white spy drama, a genial story of American Jazz musicians in Paris, and this sweet family drama.

Revisiting an Old Favorite from My Youth

May 22, 2020 – The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (1972) Kanopy

The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe is the comedic bookend to the last film I watched: Investigation of a Citizen Beyond Suspicion. Both early 1970s films deal with the amoral and brutal surveillance and repression by government security forces over the citizens of their country. And both films have really long titles. But where Investigation of a Citizen is mostly serious, The Tall Blond Man is a slapstick sex farce. I start laughing to myself just thinking about Peirre Richard as the mild-mannered, awkward violinist who is randomly identified to a faction of the security police as a superspy and Jean Carmet as the violinist’s best friend who believes himself to be going crazy as dead bodies appear and disappear at a dizzying pace. The Tall Blond Man also features a great panpipe-heavy score by Vladimir Cosmo (who also scored Diva) and the best backless dress of all time.

The Tall Blond Man is another film that I saw and loved at an Ann Arbor film society in the early 1980s. If the movie sounds familiar, you may have seen the mediocre 1980s English-language remake starring Tom Hanks. But don’t let a pale Hollywood imitation put you off of the real thing. It is so nice to revisit an old favorite from my youth, full of pratfalls and mistaken identities, and still find it as entertaining as I remembered.

Driven By Impotence and Threatened Masculinity

March 18, 2020 – Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970) Criterion Channel

Dottore kills his mistress on the day he leaves his position as the chief of Homicide to become the head of the Italian police division that investigates political subversive. The killer doesn’t try to hide his crime. In fact, he deliberately leaves clues to his involvement. Dottore is both attracted to and repelled by his impunity, and he is determined to test the limits of his power.

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion is a satiric political thriller by the Italian director Elio Petri. It is fascinating to watch. The character of Dottore is at once compelling, repulsive, and baffling. The score by the great Ennio Morricone gives the movie a lighter touch than you might expect from the subject matter (you can hear the main theme from the movie on my Streaming Festival Playlist on Spotify). Investigation of a Citizen gets energy from its setting in late 1960s Italy, in all its swinging and radical glory, including protestors changing “Mao, Mao Ho Chi Minh. Did they really chant that then? It seems almost inconceivable now.

Though this film is about politics, this film has more of a psychological than a political orientation. The repression of the state is not attributed to the needs of capitalism so much as to the needs of Dottore to compensate for the scorn and infidelities of his mistress. It is his feelings of impotence and threatened masculinity that drive this repressive bureaucrat and murder.

Investigation of a Citizen won an Academy Award and the grand prize at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival. In my view, it is worthy of those awards. I had not heard of Elio Petri before, but I am going to seek out other films by this director.

My Absolute Favorite Comfort Read in Stressful Times

May 17, 2020 – Network Effect by Martha Wells (2020) Tor Publishing

“I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don’t know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.”

So begins All Systems Red, the first book in The Murderbot Diaries, a series of four prize-winning novellas and this novel. I can’t tell you how much I love, love, love these books. I must have read the novellas three times, just over the last couple of years. They are my absolute favorite comfort read in stressful times.

Let me tell you some of the things I love about The Murderbot Diaries.

First, the Murderbot character is funny, compelling and fascinating. Murderbot is a genderless, half-human, half-robot Security Unit or SecUnit with a sarcastic, self-deprecating sense of humor. Murderbot narrates the books, and I love their voice. Murderbot is experiencing autonomy for the first time – they just hacked their governor module, remember? They were treated like a tool, not a person, and now Murderbot has to figure out what it is to be their own person. They are learning to recognize their own wants and desires and to figure out how to act on them. They have to learn how to relate to others as equals or perhaps not relate to them at all – Murderbot isn’t sure if they want anything to do with humans. Like Lisbeth from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Breq from Ancillary Justice, Murderbot is a wholy original and vividly memorable character. The reader is fully on their side as Murderbot struggles to become an autonomous person.

Second, the books are full of classic space-opera fun. Murderbot may prefer watching streaming video over fighting, but they are not going to let something bad happen to “my humans.” And something bad is always threatening Murderbot’s humans. When it is necessary to fight, Murderbot is quite a fighter.

Finally, these books take on some real political questions, though these questions are never in the forefront of the books. There is a consistent anti-corporate thread running through the Murderbot Diaries – Murderbot is not the only one the corporations try to control. And the series deals with interesting questions of gender, since after all Murderbot does not have gender. These political themes and questions are not dealt with in a didactic way – they are not at the center of the books. But they are there in real way to reflect upon, if you choose.

Network Effect is a worthy addition to the series, bringing back some favorite characters from earlier books and continuing Murderbot’s development. You could probably pick up Network Effect even if you have not read the earlier books, but I recommend starting with the first book, All Systems Red, if you are a Murderbot newbie. You will enjoy the new book more if you know the characters’ histories.

A Wealth of Talent

May 15, 2020 – The Cincinnati Kid (1965) Turner Classic Movies

The Cincinnati Kid features Steve McQueen as the up-and-coming stud poker ace who goes up against the older poker king played by Edward G. Robinson in 1930s New Orleans. There is a wealth of talent in this movie. The screenplay is by Oscar-winning screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr. and Terry Southern, who wrote the screenplays for Dr. Strangelove, Easy Rider, and Barbarella. This is Lardner’s first credit since he was blacklisted as one of the Hollywood 10. The film was directed by Norman Jewison and edited by Hal Ashby, who went on to direct Harold and Maude, Coming Home, and Being There, among other movies. Ray Charles sings the theme song, which is on my Shelter-In-Place Streaming Festival Playlist.

The cast is also amazing. Besides the two leads, the movie features the great Karl Malden, a very young Rip Torn, veteran Joan Blondell, Cab Calloway in a non-singing role, Tuesday Weld, and Ann-Margret who may be the second-most beautiful and sexy woman who ever lived, after my wife Wendey.

The story peters out at the end, but it is a fun ride getting there. There is a great chase scene through a railroad yard and some nice New Orleans jazz. This could be the fourth jazz movie in my festival, although unlike Paris Blues, Chico and Rita, and A Song Is Born, the music in The Cincinnati Kid is incidental to the plot and none of the characters are musicians.

My Secret Shame: Why I Don’t Like the song Purple Rain

May 14, 2020 – Prince and the Revolution: Live 1985 (2020) Youtube

The Prince estate is streaming this complete concert from 1985 through Sunday night, May 17. It is free to watch, but they ask for donations to the United Nations World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. If you read this in time, go watch this concert now while you have the chance.

The concert is amazing. Prince is at the height of his powers. It is like watching Michael Jordan in the early 1990s. Prince’s singing, piano playing, and guitar playing are all great; the band is so well-rehearsed and tight; Prince’s energy seems inexhaustible; the costumes, lighting, and choreography are all elaborate – it is really a show. There are so many high points in this concert, but if I had to choose just one, I pick the nearly endless, high energy performance of Baby I’m a Star, which closes the concert before the final encore of Purple Rain. Prince is having an amazing time during this song, running back and forth, calling out directions to the band, dancing with Jerome and members of the Time (I think). He is joined by Shiela E. on percussion, Eric Leeds on sax, and Apolonia Six on backing vocals. It is Prince at his most energetic, danceable and infectious.

I now must admit something I have never shared with anyone. But first I have to establish my bona fides. I am a big fan of Prince. I have seen him many times in concert, in giant arenas, medium-sized theaters and small clubs. I have bought every Prince album the day it came out, including The Rainbow Children. I know who Jamie Starr is, and I have listened to albums by The Family, Mazarati, and Madhouse – all produced by Prince. I have even seen the Prince movie Under the Cherry Moon. I may not be as big a Prince fan as my friend Eric Greene – who may have seen all 21 of Prince’s concerts in the Los Angeles Forum in April and May of 2011 when I only saw one of those shows – but I am in the top 1% of Prince fans for sure.

So, with my Prince fan credentials established, I can sheepishly admit to you that I don’t like the song Purple Rain. I recognize this is everyone’s favorite Prince song. It closed the Prince tribute concert on CBS in April, as it closed the live concert in 1985 that is streaming now. I know I should like Purple Rain, but I find the song turgid and obvious. The melody of Purple Rain is moving, yes, but what exactly is the song about? What is this “purple rain” that Prince is talking about? I guess the song is an apology to a lover that Prince hurt, but the song lacks all specificity. Purple Rain is a power ballad, and I have always hated power ballads and all anthemic songs that seem aimed at the last row of the stadium. The song’s production is overblown and manipulative. Purple Rain requires you to waive your arm over your head in a slow back and forth motion. I don’t want to do as directed – when everyone moves in unison on the orders of one person, I feel like I am in a Fascist rally being filmed by Leni Riefenstahl.

Prince has real moments of vulnerability that I find genuinely moving. My two favorite moving, vulnerable Prince moments are How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore, which was the B-side of the single 1999, and Sometimes it Snows in April from the album Parade. To me, the song Purple Rain is not a moving, vulnerable Prince movement; it is a moment of heavy-handed manipulation.

Consistently Great Soul Music for More than Forty Years

May 11, 2020 – Betty Wright Playlist (2020) Spotify

The great soul singer, songwriter, and producer Betty Wright passed away this week. She was 66 years old. If all you know of her music is the great 1971 hit song Clean Up Woman, then you might think of Wright as a one-hit wonder. But Wright has been making consistently great soul music for more than forty years, including her last two albums Betty Wright: The Movie (2011, with The Roots) and Living Love Lies (2014). Wright formed her own record label in 1985 and became the first female artist to have a gold album on her own label with the great Mother Wit. She also was a Grammy-nominated producer who worked with Joss Stone, Tom Jones, Gloria Estefan, and others. This playlist features some of my favorite Betty Wright songs, as well as a handful of songs she produced.

A Lazy Weekend Morning

May 9, 2020 – The Way Back (2020) Amazon Prime Rental

This is a recent film starring Ben Affleck as a depressed and alcoholic former basketball star who becomes the new coach of a Catholic High School’s undersized but scrappy basketball team. If you guessed what happens next, you would be right. But even though predictable, The Way Back is understated and well made. Affleck gives a powerful performance, the soundtrack is moving and not too sentimental, and the teens in the movie are actually believable as teens. While this movie won’t show up on my ten-best list, it was an enjoyable way to spend a lazy weekend morning.

Taking me Back to Bill Kennedy at the Movies

May 9, 2020 – The Host (2006) Hulu

I love this movie. Bong Joon Ho is a great director, as we saw in his Oscar-winning movie Parasite. The Host is Bong’s take on the classic monster movie. It reminds me of watching Godzilla vs. Mothra and other monster movies after school on the 4:30 Movie or Bill Kennedy at the Movies, growing up in the Detroit suburbs. Bong takes all that is good about the monster movie, subtracts the stiff acting, poor special effects, and overall silliness, and adds his trademark visual flair, commentary on social class, and dark humor. Of course, the villain in The Host is the United States – our negligent attitudes toward toxic waste create the monster, and our efforts to kill it through the use of “Agent Yellow” harm the people in the movie’s coastal city while leaving the monster unscathed.

I must also say a good word for Song Kang-ho, who has been in all of Bong’s films that I have seen – he is the dad/driver in Parasite. Song is always amazing; he brings charm and goofiness that lighten what would otherwise be dark and violent films. In The Host, Song plays the sleepy, slow-witted son and father, who is so damaged already that nothing the monster, the Korean police, evil scientists or the U.S. government do can really hurt him.

Wendey came in to watch the last hour of the film with me, and she loved it too. We both recommend it highly if this is your kind of thing.

Unclear Leftwing Politics

May 3, 2020 – Reds (1981) Kanopy

It was nice to show Henry this classic film. Reds’ power is undiminished 29 years later. The movie is still a compelling love story of true-life radical journalists/activists John Reed and Louise Bryant, set against the backdrop of radical politics in the U.S. and the Russian revolution. It is a long movie – over 3 hours – but it holds your interest the whole time (though we did watch it over two nights). The cast is great, including the leads Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton and the supporting cast Jack Nicholson (Eugene O’Neil), Maureen Stapleton (Emma Goldman), Jerzy Kosinski (Russian bureaucrat Grigory Zinoviev), and many more. This was a movie that all three of us liked a lot.

I was most interested this time in watching how Reds talked about radical politics. The film name-checks a lot of true-life figures and events, without much explanation of what they mean. I wanted to know more: what was the trajectory of the Socialist Party in the U.S. that lead them to support WWI; how did the two different U.S. communist parties created in the movie feed into the U.S. Communist Party led by Gus Hall in the 1980s; what was the relationship between the International Workers of the World (IWW) and the U.S. Socialist and Communist parties? If you know nothing about the history of left-wing politics in the United States before you watch Reds, you won’t come away knowing much more afterwards.

The politics of the movie itself are unclear. While Reed and Bryan, and to a lesser degree Emma Goldman, are sympathetic figures in the movie, their support for the Soviet Union and their larger politics come off as misguided. The movie does not clearly show that after the promise of the Russian Revolution was betrayed, left activism continued because it was always based on something more than what was happening in the Soviet Union. A fervent right-winger watching Reds may be uncomfortable with the idolization of Reed and Bryant, but they will come out satisfied with the message in the end that left-wingers are power-hungry, unprincipled, petty, or naive (or all four) and left-wing politics are doomed to end in failure and totalitarianism.