philosophy in film

This is how it works…

You are raised in Nazi Germany to believe certain things about the Jews. First and foremost that they are the enemy. Now the war is over. Your Nazi parents have more or less abandoned you and your four younger siblings. You must make your way through the Black Forest to your grandmother’s house. But along the way you encounter the sort of “contingency, chance and change” that can have a profound impact on the lives of anyone.

But when the lives are embedded in an extraordinary context [WWII and the Holocaust] the repercussions can be all that much more extraordinary in turn.

The film basically revolves around a set of circumstances and points of view. It is a “coming of age” film that reminds us of just how much everything does depend on where and when and how you happen to come of age as a particular individual. And here [clearly] one size does not fit all.

Try to imagine yourself watching the movie as someone with no real understanding of the historical context. You are watching these people interact and are trying to figure out why they say and do the things that they do.

And then by the end you will have had to come up with a frame of mind enabling you to judge them.

In any event, at any particular point in time, you are either on the losing end or the winning end of history. It’s just that some are necessarily more innocent than others. Children for example.

And then there is Lore. Not quite a child anymore but not quite an adult. She embraces the Fuhrer as she has been taught. But it is only at the rudimentary stage. She is considerably less adoring of him by the end of the film. But not in the manner in which some might imagine.

IMDb

Despite spending time living in Berlin and directing the movie where the actors performed completely in German, director Cate Shortland doesn’t speak the language.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lore_(film
trailer: youtu.be/MQu8dMec-jU

LORE [2012]
Written in part and directed by Cate Shortland

[b]Vati: We can only take what fits in the truck.
Mutti: I’m not talking about the damn truck!

Mutti: You’re such a coward.
[Vati slaps her]
Lore: Are you coming back Vati?

Mutti: He’s gone. It is the end. He’s dead Lore.
Lore [not understanding]: Vati?
Mutti: Vati…Our Fuhrer Lore. He’s dead.

Neighbor: Is your mama still here?
Lore: Yes, of course.
Nerighbor: We thought they had taken her to prison.

Lore: Are you going to prison?
Mutti: You mustn’t worry. It is a camp.
Lore: Yes.
Mutti: It is not a prison. Prison is for criminals.

Lore: You’re not coming back are you?
Mutti: You must remember who you are.

Old woman [to Lore, looking at portrait of Hitler]: We broke his heart, he loved us so much. And the lies. Those Americans. With their photographs. Actors. The Americans paid all of them.

American soldier: Who are you?
Thomas [who is Jewish…or is he?]: l’m their brother.
Soldier: Hey, you! You. Your name?
Liesel: Liesel.
Soldier: Liesel? Who is this, Liesel? Who is this?
Liesel: Our brother.
Thomas: We’ve just been to Ansbach, looking for food, and have been walking.
Soldier: Where are their papers?
Thomas: Lost. We lost them in Buchenwald. We were moved to Buchenwald from Auschwitz, and we were there until liberation.

Lore [to Thomas]: I know what you are. You’re a Jew. I saw it on your papers. I don’t want you touching the children, do you understand me?

Liesel: Thomas says we’re not allowed in Hamburg. He said it’s over the border. Germany is all broken up. There’s a Russian zone, a British zone, a French zone. We’re in the American one.
Lore: Hamburg is in Germany.
Liesel: Thomas says there isn’t a Germany anymore.

Thomas [to Lore who is in a daze]: If the soldiers ask you anything, I’m your brother, and our parents are dead. Just say that.

Lore: They shot Gunther.
Thomas: You should have stayed down like I told you.
Lore: It’s your fault they shot him. You stole their food and now he’s dead.
Thomas: He fell down. He ran the wrong way. He should have stayed in the trees. On the ground. Like I told you!

Lore: You won’t get away with it. They’ll find you. And you will be punished, like all the others. Like all the men that did bad things.
Thomas: There are people everywhere that do bad things. No one cares.

Thomas: I can’t help you anymore.
Lore: I told them Mutti and Vati would be there. But they’re not.
Thomas: I don’t care.
Lore: You lie! You always lie. You can’t help it. All you filthy Jews! Sometimes I look at you, and I can see them. One lie after the other. They are everywhere. I can’t stop thinking of it. I can’t stop thinking of it.

Girl [on train discussing published photographs of the Holocaust]: One was in Poland, I think. The others were in Germany. There was one of women in a pit. Lots of women. Naked. A little boy.
Boy: They’re exaggerating it. They’re always the same photos, just a different angle each time. And the people are thin and lying on the ground.
Girl: But it said they killed them.
Boy #2: Shut up. Stop talking about it. It’s not like the soldiers in these pictures killed all these people.
Boy #3: You don’t see any pictures of them actually killing them right?

Peter: Do you promise not to tell?
Lore: What?
Peter [producing Thomas’s wallet]: I only did it so he couldn’t go.
Lore [looking at the photo]: It’s not him. Thomas Weil.
Peter: He said it didn’t matter. The man was a Jew. He was dead already. The Americans like Jews. So he pretended to be a Jew.

Liesel [looking at Lore]: You lied. She said Mutti would be here.
Omi: I’m sure Lore didn’t lie.
Liesel: She’s not here, because she’s being punished. Isn’t she Omi. She’s in prison with Vati.
Omi: You must never feel ashamed of them. It is all over now. Your parents did nothing wrong. You know that, don’t you? They did nothing wrong.

Liesel: Please…
Lore: I can’t.[/b]

Gods.
Monsters.
Men.

Take your pick?

After all, depending on your point of view, they can all be interchangable anyway. And, when the one being depicted is based [more or less loosely] on the life of an actual flesh and blood human being, we have certain “facts” by which we can assess the judgments being made.

Of course for some any and all sexual “perverts” are by definition monsters. Especially “back then”. James Whale dies in 1957. Years before the advent of the “sexual revolution”. Or before Stonewall. Let alone before transgender bathrooms.

So some will judge him almost entirely through the shadows of their own particular prejudices. They won’t see the man or his life. They’ll see the fag.

On top of that, he was smack dab in the middle of the Hollywood crowd. There decadence more or less goes with the territory. Just, in turn, more or less in the closet.

And then the part about “movie monsters”. And the part where our reactions to them come to overlap our reactions to one or another facet of actual human interaction. They come to stand in for our own large and small assumptions about what it all means.

And then the part – gay or straight – about getting old. That constant drip…drip…drip as the human body begins to fall apart. Taking you with it.

And [always] the way in which the past and the present are intertwined along a particular trajectory; one that you may or may not be able to communicate to others.

IMDb

[b]Ian McKellen said that he felt very comfortable playing the role of James Whale. For, like Whale, McKellan is a homosexual British actor who spent his early career in the theater and ultimately started a career in Hollywood.

The title comes from a line appeared in Bride of Frankenstein. In it, Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger) say to Dr. Frankenstein (Colin Clive): “To a new world of gods and monsters.”

In real life, James Whale wrote a suicide note before jumping into his pool, reassuring his loved ones that he was not depressed, but only wanted to end his constant physical suffering. [/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gods_and_Monsters_(film
trailer: youtu.be/Nn2G6YrvibM

GODS AND MONSTERS [1998]
Directed by Bill Condon

[b]James: Who is this new yardman?
Hannah: Mr. Bugen… something B… I don’t know. He came cheap.

James [singing as he walks]: Bells of hell go ting-a-ling-a-ling, for you but not for me. O death, where is thy sting-a-ling-a-ling? Grave, where is thy victory?

James: Am I right in assuming, Mr. Kay, that it’s not me that you’re interested in, but only my horror pictures?
Edmund: No, but it’s the horror movies you’ll be remembered for.
James [indignantly]: I’m not dead yet, Mr. Kay.

James: Let’s make the interview more interesting for me. I will answer truthfully any question that you put to me, and in return, for each answer you will remove an article of clothing.
Edmund: I think…That’s funny, Mr. Whale.
James: Yes, it is, isn’t it? My life as a game of strip poker. Shall we play?
Edmund: So the rumors are true then.
James: Oh? What rumors would those be?
Edmund: That you were forced to retire because of, um, a sex scandal.
James: A homosexual scandal, you mean. For me to answer a question of that magnitude, you’ll have to remove both your shoes and socks.
[he takes off his shoes and socks]
James: It is kind of you to indulge your elders in their vices. Just as I indulge the young in theirs.

James: You must understand how Hollywood was years ago. If you were a star nobody cared a tinker’s cuss who you slept with, so long as you kept it out of the papers. As for us directors, well, outside Hollywood who even knows who George Cukor is, much less what he gets up to with those boys from the malt shops?
Edmund: George Cukor? Who made [i]A Star is Born]/i]?
James: Take off your shirt, and I’ll tell you all about it.

Edmund: Frankenstein is one of the great images of the the 20th century, more important than the Mona Lisa.
James: Oh, don’t be daft. It’s just makeup and padding and a big actor. It’s hardly the Mona Lisa.

Clayton: Well, um, w-what were some of your movies?
James: Oh, this and that. The only ones that you may have heard of are the Frankenstein movies.
Clayton: Frankenstein? And, um, uh, Bride of Frankenstein? And the Son of? And the other ones too?
James: Uh, no, I-I just directed the first two. The others were done by hacks.

James: [while sketching Boone]: Oh, that shirt, Mr. Boone.
Clayton: Hmm?
James: Yes, I-I am sorry. It’s just too white. It’s too distracting. Would it be asking you too much to take it off?
Clayton [nervously]: Well, I’m not wearing an undershirt today.
James: Oh, pish posh, I’m not your Aunt Tillie.

James: Oh, God, it’s ironic.
Claton: What is?
James: I’ve spent much of my life outrunning the past, and now it floods all over me.

James [to Clayton]: Our family had no doubt about who they were, but I was an aberration in that household, a freak of nature. I had imagination, cleverness, joy. Now, where did I get that? Certainly not from them. They took me out of school when I was 14 and put me in a factory. They meant no harm. They were like a family of farmers who’ve been given a giraffe and don’t know what to do with the creature except to harness him to the plow. Hatred was the only thing that kept my soul alive in that soul-killing place. And amongst the men I hated was my dear old dumb father, who put me in that hell in the first place.

Betty: I bet he’s some fruit just pretending to be famous so that he can get in the big guy’s pants.
Clayton: What makes you say that?
Betty: Just thinking out loud.
Clayton: Well, why don’t you just keep your dirty thoughts to yourself?
Betty: Alright then, he’s interested in you for your conversation. We all know what a great talker you are.
Clayton: Fuck you.
Betty: Not anymore you don’t.

Betty: Do you realize you’re more interested in this old goober than you ever were in me?
Clayton: That’s different…he’s a man. Besides, you got no business callin’ him a homo.
Betty: It never crossed your mind?
Claytton: He’s an artist. But he’s too old to be thinkin’ about sex.
Betty: All the old men I know think about nothing but sex.

Hannah: Poor Mr. Jimmy. There is much good in him, but he will suffer the fires of hell.
Clayton: Oh yeah…you sure of that?
Hannah: That is what the priests tell me. His sins of the flesh will keep him from heaven.
Clayton: Hell, everybody’s got those.
Hannah: No. His is the worst. The “unspeakable”. The deed no man can name without shame. What is the good English? All I know is bugger, he’s a bugger, men who bugger each other…
Clayton: A homo?
Hannah: Yes! You know. That is why he must go to hell. I do not think it’s fair, but God’s laws is not for us to judge.
Clayton: So, what you’re telling me is, Mr. Whale is a homo.
Hannah: You did not know?!

Clayton: I, uh, I watched your movie the other night with some friends.
James: Did you, now? Did anyone laugh?
Clayton [lying]: No.
James: Pity. People are so earnest these days.
Clayton: Why? Was it supposed to be funny?
James: Yes, of course. A picture about death, I had to make it interesting for myself, you see. So, a comedy about death…The trick is not to spoil it for anyone who’s not in on the joke. But the monster never receives any of my jibes. He’s noble. Noble and misunderstood.

Clayton: You’re a homosexual.
James: Mmm! If one must use the clinical name.
Clayton: I’m not, you know.
James: I never thought you were.
Clayton: You don’t think of me that way, do you?
James: And what way would that be?
Clayton: Well, the way that I look at women.
James: Oh, don’t be ridiculous. I know a real man like you would break my neck if I so much as laid a finger on you. Besides, you’re not my type. So we understand each other. Clayton: Hey. Live and let live.

James: You might not think it to look at me now, but there was a time when I was at the very pinnacle of my profession. The horror movies were behind me. I’d made Showboat. Major success. Big box office. So now I was to do something important. The picture was called The Road Back. It was an indictment of the Great War and what it did to Germany. It was going to be my masterpiece.
Clayton: What happened?
James: The fucking studio butchered it. They took the guts out of my picture. They brought in another director to add some slapstick and the movie laid an egg. A great, expensive bomb for which I was blamed. And after that I was out of fashion. I could no longer command the best projects, so I walked away. Why should I spend my time working in this dreadful business?

James: …when the fetters are loosened, a certain hedonism creeps in, don’t you think? Oh, there was a time when this house was full of young men. Some of them even posed for me, right where you’re sitting now. Of course, they weren’t nearly so bashful. Oh, no, this studio was full of bare buttocks and pricks…Mmm. Hard, arrogant pricks.
Clayton [exploding out of the blue]: Okay, just cut it out! Okay? Isn’t it bad enough that you’ve told me you’re a fuckin’ fairy? Now you’re gonna rub my face in it?!
James [startled]: I assure you, I didn’t mean…
Clayton: Fuck this! I can’t do this anymore! From now on, I’m just the guy that cuts your lawn. Got it?

James: And the fear that you displayed at our last session…how did you overcome that? Clayton: More like disgust.
Jamers: Oh, same difference, Mr. Boone. Disgust, fear of the unknown…all part of the great gulf that stands between us two. Am I right in assuming that you have little experience with men of my persuasion? No teammates in football?
Clayton: No.
James: No comrades in Korea?
Clayton: You must think that the whole world is queer. Well, you know what? It’s not. And war certainly isn’t.
James: Oh, there may be no atheists in the foxholes, but there are, occasionally, lovers.

James [greeting Princess Margaret]: This is my gardener Clayton Boone. He’s never met a princess before, only queens.

Clayton [referring to conversation between Whale and Cuckor]: What was that all about?
James: Oh, don’t worry. Nothing of any importance. Just two old men slapping each other with lilies.

Clayton: That must’ve been funny for you, seeing your “monsters” again.
James [tapping himself on the forehead]: Monsters? The only monsters are in here.

James: Barnett. Barnett on the wire.
Clayton: Your friend.
Yes. He caught his one night coming back from reconnaissance. I wouldn’t take him, but McGill did, “just to give the laddie a taste.” They were nearly home when a Maxim gun opened fire. Barnet’s body landed on this wire that was as thick as briers. It was hanging there the next morning. It was only a hundred yards from the line, but too far for anyone to fetch it. So we saw him every morning stand-to and every evening stand-to. “Good morning, Barnett,” we used to say to him. “How’s Barnett looking today?” “He seemed a little peaked. Looks a little plumper.” And he hung there…well, at least until we were relieved. We introduced him to the new unit before marching out, speaking highly of his companionship. God, we were a witty lot. Laughing at our dead, feeling that it was our death too. But I tell you, for each man who died I thought, “Better you than me, poor sod.” You know, a whole generation was wiped out by that war.

James: Look. Your portrait, Clayton. It’s all gone for me now. All gone. They’re nothing but the scribblings of an infant. There’s nothing…

James: Wait till I tell my friends about this. Won’t they be surprised.
Clayton: I haven’t done anything with you.
James: You undressed for me. I’ve been kissing you. I even touched your prick! How will you ever be able to live with yourself?
Clayton: What do you want from me?
James: I want you to kill me. Break my neck. Come on, strangle me. It’ll be so easy to choke the life out of me. Oh, God. We’ve come this far. I’m losing my mind. Every day a new piece of it goes, and soon there’ll be none of it left. But if you kill me, death will be bearable. You could be my second monster. Come on. Please, do it now. Make me invisible. [/b]

First, the actual disaster itself. And it can be practically anything. And it can occur practically anywhere around the globe. It might be a “natural disaster” or [in this case] one that is considerably more “man-made”.

Then the countdown to the movie begins.

This one revolves around the disaster that created “the worst oil spill in U.S. history”. The explosion of the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon out in the Gulf of Mexico. In April of 2010. The film basically takes us there. It recreates the incident. We are then able to imagine what it might have been like to be on the rig…to experience the explosion [and the aftermath of it] as it actually unfolded back then.

Thus there are two trajectories. The first revolves around the men and women who were there. Around “the experience” itself. The second revolves around the “politics”. Why did it happen? Should it have happened? What was the role played by a corporate mentality concerned only with the bottom line? The part that more or less revolves around this:

A layman’s description and example of the Cement Bond Log, a.k.a. CBL; upon landing on the rig, the OIM (Kurt Russel) asks the departing logging crew if they completed their CBL/VDL run. The logging engineer shrugs and proceeds to board the helicopter. Shortly after, the OIM confirms with the BP Well Site Leader, or “Company Man”, that no CBL was run. The CBL is used to verify the casing to cement and formation to cement presence and its “bonding” to the casing and to the formation. A “sonic” logging tool is lowered into the well, all the way down towards the zone of interest. The tool is then activated and slowly pulled out of the hole. When energized, the “sonic” transmitter sends acoustic pings around a 360 degrees motion, and detectors placed at various distance in the tool “listen” for the return of these pings, monitor the time it took for the ping to return and how much it was attenuated by the presence or not of cement. Take a large rimed glass (any glass will do though) and put it in an empty sink with the drain plugged. Flick your fingers at the top of the glass rim, and listen for the sound. Fill up the sink around the glass, and once the glass is immersed in the water, repeat the finger flick. Listen for the sound difference. Now imagine the glass is the casing, and the water is the cement, and you have pretty much understood what a CBL tool does.

And, finally, when all is said and done, should we be using these “fossil fuels” at all?

IMDb

[b]The film is based on the 2010 oil rig explosion at the deepwater horizon oil rig. It is the biggest oil disaster in U.S. history causing 11 deaths. The fire lasted for 2 days, until the rig sank and then the oil continued to leak into Gulf of Mexico for 87 days until it was finally capped off.

An oil rig was built just for this film, this rig is located in Chalmette, Louisiana where filming mostly took place. It has been coined as the largest set piece ever built.

A large number of oilfield workers in the Gulf of Mexico were against the making of the film, because they felt that it could dishonor the men who died during the actual event. However Mike Williams (one of the survivors) was all in for the film and actually worked on it with the crew along with another survivor of the event. He felt it was a good way of showing people the circumstances that the crew members went through and that the goal of the film crew was to make it look as real as possible. [/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_(film
trailer: youtu.be/8yASbM8M2vg

DEEPWATER HORIZON [2016]
Directed by Peter Berg

[b]Senator: Mr. Williams, can you tell what happened on the Deepwater Horizon?
Mike: Around 9:30, I was on the phone with my wife. It was when I heard that whistle. I heard the engines rev. The hiss became a roar. So strong that I could not describe it. A few seconds later, there was a huge explosion. Projectiles flying everywhere. The heat was overwhelming.
Senator: Can you explain how the Deepwater Horizon alarm work?
Mike: The general alert to all platforms. One: fire, two: combustible gas, three: toxic gas. Each hazard has a particular siren and a particular light.
Senator: Have you hear any of these alarms on the Deepwater Horizon?
Mike: No sir.
Senator: Do you know why you did not hear the alarm, sir? Mr. Williams?

Felicia: Buy gas to get to work to buy gas to go to work again. To buy more gas to get to work.

Jummy: Listen, you mind losing that tie?
O’Brien: I would.
Jimmy: It’s not the tie, it’s the color.
O’Brien: Purple?
Jimmy: More magenta.
O’Brien: And?
Jimmy: Well, magenta alarm on an oil rig is as bad as it gets. That’s worthy of a superstition.

Andrea: What did Mr. Skip say?
Jimmy: They were supposed to test to see whether the cement was holding. I guess they left without doing it.
Andrea: What? Hold up, they didn’t…
Jimmy: Those BP sons of bitches sent the Schumberger guys home.

Mike: Hey Shane! Schumberger run a cement bond log test?
Shane: I don’t know. I don’t think they did.
Mike: Is that stupid?
Shane: I don’t know if it’s stupid…but it ain’t smart.

Mike: Mr. Jimmy wants to know if the team from Schumberger ran a cement bond log test.
Kuchta: No, Vidrine, Kaluza sent 'em home without testing anything.
Mike: Well, why in the hell would they do that?
Kuchta: They never feel the urge to take me through their thinking, Mike, but I assume it’s got something to do with “money, money, money, money”.

Kuchta: Doing it all with band-aids and bubble gum, my man.
Mike: Everytime I peel one off, I find three or four more. Spit and glue ain’t getting it done.

Jimmy: Walk with me, Mike.
Mike: Where we going?
Jimmy: To murder some BP company men.
Mike: Shit, I got a hammer, a screwdriver.
Jimmy: Excellent.

Jimmy: So, we got all 500 feet of cement poured, huh?
Vidrine: Yep.
Jimmy: That cement’s the only thing between us and a blowout. And it’s cured?
Vidrine: Yes.
Jimmy: Had enough time? Takes time to do it right. I mean if that cement job is compromised then everything above it is too.

Jimmy: You don’t want to know if that cement job on this well is shit 'cause you’re 43 days and 50 million dollars over budget.
Kaluza: You really ought to include yourself in that.
Jimmy: BP picked this spot to drill, Bob. Consequences of that is on you guys…The point is you sent the testing team home before they could do their job…What would it have cost to run the test…125 grand? You’re a 180 billion dollar company and you’re cheap.
Vidrine: That’s why we are a one hundred and eighty six billion dollar company. We worry about those bills.

Vidrine: Name a few. I would love to hear exactly what piece of mission critical equipment are down.
Mike: Shit, where do I start. “A” drilling chair. Process station 18. BOP control pods. Telephone system. Pipe-racking system. GPS antenna. Direct TV system. Wireless internet. Iron roughneck. Top drive rack back system. Auxillary draw-works control. Salt water service pumps. Smoke alarms in the galley. And the reason why you’re sweating so hartd is 'cause the compressor for the AC on this deck is down too.

Mike [to Vidrine]: Nope. Hope ain’t a tactic, Don.

Mike [sarcastically to Vidrine]: That’s 43 days behind, not 50. Simple mathematics. Original completion date was March 8th. It’s April 20th today, 43 days. You’d think you money-hungry sons of bitches would at least be good at math.

Jimmy [to Mike]: We should have seen some mud…

Felicia [on Skype]: Mike, what is that? Is everything okay?

Caleb: We gotta go!! We gotta go right now!!!

Felicia [on Skype]: Is it just me or did it get real bright in there all of a sudden? Mike, what is that? Is everything ok? Mike?

Andrea: Magenta! Magenta alarms!! The well is blowing out!!!

Andrea: I’m gonna cut the pipe.
Kuchta: Hey, hey, hey. Andrea get your ass back on station. We don’t have the authority.
Andrea: I’m gonna seal the well.
Kuchta: Do not touch that button!

Vidrine [to Andrea]: What happened?

Mike [watching a lifeboat leave the rig]: They left us! They left us!

Mike: Listen to me. Look at me. We came up higher, so we can jump out further. Okay? We’re gonna jump over the fire.
Andrea: I can’t. Jump.
Mike: Trust me. We’re not gonna hit the fire.
Andrea: I don’t wanna die. I don’t wanna die. I don’t wanna die.
Mike: You’re not going to die. Our choice…our choice right now is to burn or jump.
Andrea [hysterically]: Don’t touch me! don’t touch me! Don’t touch me!..Do what you want.
Mike: I’m gonna do whatever you do. My wife’s name is Felicia. My daughter’s name is Sydney. And I will see them again. Do you understand me?!

Title card: BP supervisors. Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine were convicted of manslaughter. In 2015, these charges were dismissed. 11 men died aboard the Deepwater Horizon on April 20, 2010. The blowout lasted 87 days and spilled an estimated 210 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. It was the worst oil disaster in US history.[/b]

Not only are you fed up with the trials and the tribulations of living in the “modern world”, you are determined to make sure that your family is too. So you take them deep into the forest of the Pacific Northwest and you raise them to live as you have come to imagine the human species was meant to be raised.

In other words, “intellectually, emotionally and physically fit”. In other words, considerably more in alignment with socialism than capitalism. Which, from Ben’s point of view, is right around the corner from fascism. And, let’s face it, until the working class finally does revolt against the powers that be, this may well be the only final solution. One family at a time as it were.

Of course all of this revolves entirely around how Ben has come to understand what this means himself. And always – always – with the very best of intentions.

On the other hand, while he tends to eschew the modern world there are still any number of things that connect him to it. So it’s really all about where he chooses to draw the line.

But even here the law of unexpected consequences prevails. The modern world catches up with him. In particular, when, out of the blue, he needs something that only the modern world can provide: a hospital for Mom. Then Mom dies. She commits suicide. Then in order to cremate her [as she had requested in her will], he finds himself being pulled back into “society”. And then Mom’s parents want to tug – yank – his children back into the mainstream with them. And God. And he is not about to let that happen. At least not without a fight.

Sometimes [admittedly] it is hard to tell: Is this a tribute to idealism or a mockery of it.

IMDb

[b]Director Matt Ross had the actors who portrayed the six kids sign a contract promising that they wouldn’t eat sugar or junk food for the duration of the filming.

In the campfire-scene at the beginning you can see Rellian reading “The Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor Dostoyevski. The novel is about three brothers, who with increasing age, start to shun and rebel against the ways of their father. Just like Rellian himself does later on in the movie. [/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Fantastic_(film
trailer: youtu.be/D1kH4OMIOMc

CAPTAIN FANTASTIC [2016]
Written and directed by Matt Ross

Ben [to Bo after Bo has killed a deer]: Today, the boy is dead. And in his place is a man.

His ideals apparently don’t include animal rights.

[b]Ben: Vesp? How you getting along?
Vespyr: I just finished chapter 12, "the world on a string. "
Ben: What? Are you having any trouble with quantum entanglement? Planck length versus Planck time?
Vespyr: I’m fine.
Ben: Good. Then tomorrow after lunch, you can give a brief presentation on m-theory.

Ben: Mom needs to be in the hospital right now.
Vespyr: But you said hospitals are a great place to go if you’re a healthy person and you want to die.
Zaja: You said Americans are under-educated and over-medicated.
Kielyr: You said the AMA are avaricious whores only too willing to spread their fat legs for Big Pharma.
Ben: All those things are true. But mom does not have enough of the neurotransmitter serotonin to conduct electrical signals in her brain.

Ben [about the flirtatious girls]: Go talk to them. We got time.
Bo: Ask them what they think of the working people creating an armed revolution against the exploiting classes and their state structures?
Ben: Well, Marxists can be just as genocidal as capitalists.
Bo: Or whether or not she’s a dialectical materialist and accords primacy to the class struggle?
Ben: Avoid Marxism. Or telling her you’re a Trotskyite.
Bo: Trotskyist. Only a Stalinist would call a Trotskyist a Trotskyite. And I’m not a Trotskyist anymore. I’m a Maoist.
Ben: Right. I forgot, sorry.

Ben [on the phone with his sister]: How’s she doing? Harper?
Harper [sobbing]: Leslie killed herself last night.
Ben [after a pause]: How? Harper? Harper, tell me.
Harper: She slit her wrists.

Ben [to his children]: Last night, mommy killed herself. She finally did it. Your mother is dead. Nothing is going to change. We will go on living in exactly the same way. We’re a family.

Nai [who looks to be about 5 years old]: We don’t hate Nana and Grandpa, but the rest of their tribe are fascist capitalists.
Kielyr: You’re just repeating whatever dad says.
Nai: I’m writing down everything you say - in my mind.
Kielyr: Do you even know what a fascist is?
Nai: Violent nationalist militants, supported by big business, and they’re totalitarian single-party dictators.

Ben [to his children]: We can’t go to mommy’s funeral. We have to do what we’re told. Some fights, you can’t win. The powerful control the lives of the powerless. That’s the way the world works. It’s unjust and it’s unfair. But that’s just too damn bad. We have to shut up and accept it.
[he ponders what he just said to them]
Ben: Well, fuck that!

Ben [to his children as they pass endless strip malls and fast food restaurants]: Attention, all campers. This is your captain speaking. Here we have the embodiment of Calvin Coolidge’s statement that the business of America is business. Our democracy is one of the brightest lights of social justice in the history of humankind, and yet most of our fellow citizens engage in frenzied shopping as their primary form of social interaction. Come on down! Let’s go shopping! These prices are insane!

Kielyr [about the book she is reading, Lolita]: It’s disturbing.
Ben: More specific.
Kielyr: Can I just read?
Ben: After you give us your analysis thus far.
Kielyr: There’s this old man who loves this girl, and she’s only 12 years old…Because it’s written from his perspective, you sort of understand and sympathize with him, which is kind of amazing because he’s essentially a child molester. But his love for her is beautiful. But it’s also sort of a trick because it’s so wrong. You know, he’s old, and he basically rapes her. So it makes me feel…I hate him. And yet somehow I feel sorry for him at the same time.
Ben: Well done.

Nai [who looks to be about 4 or 5]: What does rape mean?
Ben [almost matter-of-factly]: When a person, usually a man, forces another person, usually a woman, to have sexual intercourse.
Nai: Oh. What’s sexual intercourse?
Ben: When a man sticks his penis in a woman’s vagina…Everyone keep their eyes peeled for deer.
Nai: Why would a man stick his penis in a woman’s vagina?
Ben: Because it can give them both pleasure. And because the combination of a man’s sperm and a woman’s egg can create a baby and continue the human race.
Nai: But that’s where she pees.
Ben: Pee comes not from the vagina, but from the urethra, which is within the outer labia. But generally speaking, yes, that is where she pees…Everyone keep your eyes open for game of any kind.

Kielyr: Okay, you can think that everyone is fat here, but we don’t make fun of people. Right, Dad?
Ben: That’s right. We don’t make fun of people.
Vespyr: Except Christians.

Rellian: What kind of crazy person celebrates Noam Chomsky’s birthday like it’s some kind of official holiday? Why can’t we celebrate Christmas like the rest of the entire world?
Ben: You would prefer to celebrate a magical fictitious elf, instead of a living humanitarian who’s done so much to promote human rights and understanding?..Okay, well, let’s have a discourse.
Rellian: Forget it.
Ben: No, explain. Take the opportunity to make your case. We’re all open to hearing your arguments. If they’re valid and you persuade us, I’m sure we’d all be willing to change our minds.

Nai [the 4 or 5 year old]: Dad, can I have some wine?
Ben: Sure. Why not?
Harper: Ben. No. Children don’t drink wine.
Ben: In France and other countries, children drink small amounts of wine all the time. It’s a digestive. It’s not crack.
Nai: What’s crack?
Ben: Crack is a crystallized, highly addictive derivative of the stimulant cocaine. In the mid-1980s, it accelerated the decimation of inner-city neighborhoods. Crackheads, some of them kids just like you guys, were killing each other over nothing, over their Nikes.
Nai: They killed each other for Nike? The Greek winged-goddess of victory?

Harper: We’re just doing the best we can, Ben. That’s all anybody is doing.
Ben: So am I! Just the best that we know how.
Harper: I’m sorry it doesn’t live up to your high standards!
Ben: I tell the truth to my kids. I don’t lie to my kids.
Harper: Protecting children from certain concepts that they are too young to understand is not lying to them.

Dave: The kids need structure, stability. They need to go to a real school, so they can get real jobs.
Harper: Oh, for Christ’s sake. You’re going to get them killed! I’m sorry. But your kids are without a mother now. I don’t think you have any idea what you’re doing to them.
Ben: I’m saving their lives. That’s what I’m doing.
Harper: Ben, you sound so ridiculous.
Ben: Is knowing how to set a broken bone or how to treat a severe burn ridiculous? Knowing how to navigate by the stars in total darkness, that’s ridiculous? How to identify edible plants, how to make clothes from animal skins, how to survive in the forest with nothing but a knife? That’s ridiculous to you?
Harper: Jesus.
Ben: They have the cardiovascular and muscular endurance levels of elite athletes.
Harper: Who cares? They’re children! They need to go to school. They need to learn about the world.

Ben: Zaja. How would you characterize the 2010 Supreme Court decision on citizens united?
Zaja [who is 8]: Corporations have the same rights as people, so there’s no spending limit on candidates. Which means our country is ruled by corporations and their lobbyists who fund candidates and command their fealty by demanding that…
Harper: Jesus Christ. You made your point. We get it.

Claire: What kind of music do you listen to?
Bo: Mostly Bach. Mainly the Goldberg variations, especially Glenn Gould’s versions. I also like the unaccompanied cello suites, preferably when played by Yo-Yo Ma.
Claire: Where are you from?

Bo: We’re just back in the states because of my dad’s sabbatical. He’s writing a book on Dr. Spock.
Claire: Oh, I love Star Trek. It’s awesome.
Bo: Which star?
Claire: You know, Spock. The guy with the ears, he’s from Star Trek.
Bo: No, Dr. Spock was from Connecticut. Right after Yale, he wrote baby and child care in 1947. It’s one of the seminal books on child-rearing.
Claire: I was talking about that old TV show.
Bo: Oh.

Ben [commandeering the eulogy from the minister]: First of all, Leslie practiced Buddhism, which to her was a philosophy and not an organized religion. In fact, Leslie abhorred all organized religions. To her, they were the most dangerous fairy tales ever invented, designed to elicit blind obedience, and strike fear into the hearts of the innocent and the uninformed. To her, the only thing worse than death would have been the knowledge that her rotting flesh was to be trapped for all eternity inside a big box, and buried in the middle of a fucking golf course. Although the absurdity of being eulogized by someone that didn’t even know her has exactly the kind of comedic flourish that Leslie would have cherished. If nothing else, she had a sense of humor. I want to read something to all of you, so you’ll know what I mean.
[pulling out a piece of paper]
Ben: Leslie’s last will and testament. And I quote, “In the event of my death, I, Leslie Abigail Cash, as a Buddhist, wish to be cremated. My funeral, such as it is, shall be a celebration of the life cycle, with music and dancing. After, it is my expressed desire that my ashes shall be taken to a nondescript location, preferably public and heavily populated. At which point my ashes, promptly and unceremoniously, are to be flushed down the nearest toilet.” End quote. Now that’s comedy.

Jack: Abby and I are gonna take the children to the ceremony, and then you can follow us to the house.
Ben: They’re my kids. They’re staying with me.
Jack: Children, I’m sorry that you have to witness this, but I don’t think your father is fit to attend the funeral.
Ben: We’re not gonna let you put her in the ground!
Jack: Who do you think the police are gonna listen to? Me? Or some hippie in a clown outfit?

Rellian: Mom had psychotic episodes. She had hallucinations. Of smashing our heads in with rocks. I heard them talking about it.
Bo: Mom was sicker than any of us knew.
Rellian: Dad made her crazy. Dad’s dangerous. You think our lives are so great. You think dad is so perfect.

Bo: I just want to go to college.
Ben: You speak six languages. You have high math, theoretical physics! This is what I’m talking about! What the hell are these people going to teach you?
Bo: I know nothing! I know nothing! I am a freak because of you! You made us freaks! And mom knew that! She understood! Unless it comes out of a fucking book, I don’t know anything about anything!

Jack: You told me they were in school.
Ben: They are. Leslie and I are their teachers…were their teachers.
Jack: So you’re teaching them to steal.
Ben: Of course not.
Jack: “Mission: Free the food”?
Ben: That was part of their training.
Jack: So you’re “training” them to steal.
Ben: Their mother had just died. They were in shock. They were devastated. They needed a distraction. So we made it Noam Chomsky day.
Jack: “Noam Chomsky day.” I don’t even know who that is. That’s the day you gave my grandchildren real weapons.

Abby [reading a letter from Leslie to Ben]: "Dear mom, you don’t need to come get me anymore. Burn the other letter. What Ben and I have created here may be unique in all of human existence. We created a paradise out of Plato’s Republic. Our children shall be philosopher kings. It makes me so indescribably happy. I’m going to get better out here. I know I will. Because we are defined by our actions, not our words. "

Ben [to his children]: Okay, prisoner located. Second floor, second window, above the garage.

Ben [to his children]: It’s a beautiful mistake. But a mistake.

Nai: We want to complete the mission.
Ben: No. There is no mission.
Nai: Mission: Rescue dad and mommy. Mom wanted to be cremated. And we want to honor her wishes. And flush her down the toilet.
Ben: I can’t put any of you in danger ever again. I’m sorry.
Rellian: “If you assume that there is no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, that there are opportunities to change things, then there is a possibility that you can contribute to making a better world.”
Ben: Noam Chomsky.

Kielyr: Dad, I found her.
Nai [reading the headstone inscription]: “Leslie Abigail Cash. May god bless her soul for all eternity.”
Zaja: Let’s dig. Otherwise she has to lie under that bullshit forever.[/b]

One summer night a thirteen year old girl vanishes. Her bicycle is found in the exact spot and on the exact same date where 23 years earlier another young girl had been raped and killed.

How are they connected? Are they connected at all?

This is basically what retired police detective Krischan is intent on finding out. After all, “the fact that Krischan was unable to catch the killer two decades prior still haunts him to this very day.”

This is a “crime thriller”, but unlike so many of them, it is also a fine tuned character study of the men and women who get caught up in these terrible events. Tragedies that mean nothing to almost everyone. But experiences that can gut those who are actually ensnared in the unfolding events.

And on both sides of the law.

Now, right from the start we know who the killer is in the first murder. And we know that he was not alone. As one reviewer noted, “as viewers, we know it all, and gradually we move to the edge of our seat as we see how the wrong decisions are made, how the wrong inferences are drawn, how actions by one can be misconstrued by another all too easily, and ultimately how facts can be ignored or discarded for political expediency or professional jealousy and for the need to close a case, once and for all.”

That’s how these things often unfold. And the irony is that while we know that all of this is scripted, it is as though the point of the film is to bring to our awareness how “real crimes” of this nature are not scripted at all. Just flesh and blood human beings stumbling about, doing [more or less] the best they can.

Cops and criminals it seems are “human all too human” as well.

And then that gap [at the end] between what each individual character thinks has happened and what has actually happened instead. Again, we [the audience] know right from the start. But the characters only think that they know. And only one of them is right. But he doesn’t prevail.

IMDb

[b]Director Baran bo Odar has said that South Korean movie Memories of Murder (2003) was a big inspiration for this movie: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=179469&p=2479881&hilit=memories+murder+directed#p2479881

The seemingly obvious reference to Fargo, having Jule Böwe play a pregnant cop, is in fact not a reference. When she auditioned for the part it wasn’t known she was pregnant. It wasn’t until she got the part that she told the director she was three months pregnant, when she in fact was six months pregnant. In the end the director liked the idea and decided to write it into the script.

Director Baran bo Odar, along with the films cinematographer, watched several westerns before shooting this picture. This was to give the movie more of a western style to it instead of being just another thriller.[/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silence_(2010_film
trailer: youtu.be/IrkoJXp6W80

THE SILENCE [Das Letzte Schweigen] 2010
Written in part and directed by Baran bo Odar

[b]Peer [to Pia an 11 year old girl he has just raped]: I’m sorry…
[then he kills her while Timo looks on]

Peer [to Timo as he carries Pia’s lifeless body to the car]: Help me! Help me, help me!

Matthias: I requested to have the new system put on the computers. It’s such a mess.
Krischan: Good luck, I tried to do the thing last year.
Matthias: They’ll listen to me.
Krischan: Sure they will. They always listen to assholes.

Krischan: It’s got to be here somewhere. I wanted to show it to you before you go. That damn case cost me my marriage. They just thre wit away!
David: Is this it?
Krischan [looking in the file box]: Yes, it is. Her name was Pia…July 8th.
David: Today is July 8th.
Krischan [realizing it]: Yes, it is…

Reporter [on TV]: Exactly 23 years today on July 8th, 1986, the 11 year old Pia was raped and murdered in this field. Back then a boy saw a red car, but the killer was never caught. Today, police found a girl’s bike and a gym bag in the same spot. Traces of blood suggest violence. The cases are bizarrely similar. Then, too, there was initially no victim. Only weeks after the murder, the girl’s body was found in a lake. The killer was never caught. Yet the police stated it is still a missing persons case.

Elena [Pia’s mom]: They say Sinikka will show up again.
Krischan: Nonsense.
Elena: It’s exactly like it was back then.
Krischan: Everything. But why?

Elena [to David]: Are you going to catch him this time, or will he get away again? I always wanted to know what he looked like.

Peer: Do you like the girl from the 7th floor?
Timo: What girl?
Peer: The girl in the green bathing suit. The one you were watching by the pool.
Timo: That’s not true.
Peer: How long have you had it?
Timo: Had what?
Peer: I see it in the way you look sometimes. I thought I knew that look.
[Timo says nothing but looks uncomfortable]
Peer: I’ve got some movies if you want to watch them.

Ruth [to Karl about Sinikka]: Why didn’t you drive her to tennis practice?

Timo: Why did you do it?
Peer: Why did I do what?
Timo: With the girl? The one who is missing.
Peer: Well…I didn’t do it. Honestly.
Timo: Just like back then…
Peer: It must be a coincidence…It was a one time thing back then. Why would I do that again?

Timo [looking at a photograph of Pia]: Is that your daughter?
Elena: Yes.
Timo: I have two children, too. Mine are 6 and 13. A boy and a girl. Malte and Laura.
[a long pause]
Timo: What’s your daughter’s name?
Elena: Pia.
Timo: Pia. It’s a beautiful name. [/b]

We know where this is going: To the bottom of the lake.

[b]Jana: Who’s next on the list?
David: Sommer, Peer Sommer.

Julia: When are you coming home?
Timo: I don’t know. Tonight.
Julia: Why not earlier? Where are you?
Timo: I’m at a lake.
Julia: At a lake? I thought you were at the site.
Timo: Can I talk to Malte and Luara please…

Julia: What are you doing in here?
Krischan: This must be Daddy’s little office, huh?
Julia: Excuse me?
Krischan [turning the computer screen toward her]: The computer is full of that stuff. [/b]

Child pornography.

[b]Reporter [on TV]: Police assume that the suspected killer committed suicide. His DNA was on the headphones of Pia, murdered in 1986. Police assume that in addition to Pia, he killed yet another girl, the then 12-year-old Martina B. has been missing since 1982. Sinikka still hasn’t been found.

David: There were two people.
Matthias: You still here?
David: We were wrong. There were two people.
Matthias: What do you mean?
David: The boy said the killer threw something out the window.
Matthias: Yes, the headphones.
David: Right, but he saw the car facing this way, North. But the headphones were here, on the right side…Someone was on the passenger side.
Matthias: The gust from the car could have blown the headphones over to the other side.
David: What you you mean, “gust”? They started the car. There was no gust. The boy was here. He could only have seen the passenger. There was another man in the car.

David: They committerd the crime together in 1986. But then Timo Friedrich disappeared, without a trace. He left Walsen. He got married, started a family and even changed his name. And now this guy has been looking for him desparately. 23 years without success. What does he do? He recreates the crime right down to the last detail. The only person who can interpret this message is Timo Friedrich.[/b]

Matthias doesn’t buy it. And let’s just say that Matthias is no Columbo.

[b]David [aloud to himself]: Yes. There were two guys. There were two guys…

David [at the spot where Pia was murdered]: My wife…Every second, every hour…actually always. When does it stop?
Elena: Never.

Elena: Did he do it?
[David nods][/b]

There comes a time in the lives of some of us when we just want to be left alone. No exception. And the “grumpy old man” theme here is nothing short of legendary.

Bottom line: They have had their fill of all the rest of us and they wish only to go about the business of living from day to day on their own terms. And, then, when it is absolutely necessary for them to intereact, it invariably comes down to the extent to which they insist that others go about the business of living life on their terms too.

So, by and large, the cinematic options here generally come down to two:

1] some ominous encounter between them and those unfortunate enough to come between them and their misanthropy
2] folks bump into their lives and miracuously they are pulled up out of their shell; they are able to go about the business of being just like the rest of us.

Or, sure, a complex combination of both. Think Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino.

In other words, the “unexpected friendship” narrative.

Basically this is one of those films in which, in order to understand a character’s behaviors in the here and now, you must have at least some understanding of all the parts there and then. Now, in a film of course this is accomplished through the use of flashbacks. In “real life” though we don’t have them at our disposal. Instead, we judge the behaviors of others more or less by our own flashbacks.

In other words, it’s a miracle we manage to communicate as well as we do.

And, with Ove, the first thing we have to be clear about is this: he truly, truly loved his wife Sonja. And now she is dead. So the film is also an exploration into loss.

Look for the idiots. Them and the whiteshirts.

IMDb

Two different ragdoll cats, Magic and Orlando, were used in the movie. After a casting, Magic was selected due to his adherence, curiousness and never could be startled away. Orlando was a stand-in used for the scenes when required to stay put or be carried for long periods of time.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Man_Called_Ove
trailer: youtu.be/dPoaN2XROk8

A MAN CALLED OVE [En Man Som Heter Ove] 2015
Written and directed by Hannes Holm

[b]Ove [on the telephone]: There are no phones where I am going.

Ove [at his wife’s grave]: It’s just chaos without you here…but if I hurry now, I might see you by the end of the day. I miss you…[/b]

The hanging: Take two.

Sonja: The shelves turned out great.
Ove [as a younger man]: Yes…How many books have you got?
Sonja: Well, there are these, and the box in the kitchen, and those in the shed.
Ove [looking at the shelf space]: I’ll build you another.

The hanging: Take three.

[b]Ove [voiceover while hanging from the ceiling]: They say the brain works faster as it is dying. As if the outside world is moving in slow motion. Quite a lot passed through my brain. Mainly stuff to do with radiators, surprisingly.

Ove: Hey! What are you doing?
Mähät: It scratched Prince.
Ove: Throw another stone and I’ll transform your mutt into a door mat.
Mähät: It is a chihuahua. And the cat’s got both rabies and the plague.
Ove: Oh, yes. Clearly, you do too. But we do not throw stones at you.
Mähät: You still think you own the place and can do whatever you want? Slimy fucking old man. I’ll tell Anders.
Ove: Go ahead, tell him. If you can make someone who drives an Audi understand. Four zeros on the grill and a fifth at the wheel…If that dog pees on our slabs again, I’ll electrify it.

Ove [at the hardware store throwing a frayed rope down on the counter]: What kind of shit do you sell? Hey? It said “Universal usage – suitable for every need”.
Store clerk: What did you use it for?

Sonja [to Ove as a young man]: Do you often take this train?

Ove [to Patrick]: Manuals are for reading in case you didn’t know.

Ove [to Parvaneh]: Now I want you you listen to me. You’ve given birth twice. Three times, soon. You’ve come all the way from Iran, fleeing war and all kinds of hell. You’ve learned a new language, got an education and a job. And you’ve married a loser. So, you’ll have no problems learning how to drive. I mean, we’re not talking brain surgery here.

Parvaneh: I have thought of one thing.
Ove: Stop Boasting.

Parvaneh: I never met Sonja, and she was probably absolutely wonderful, but you’ve made her into a saint. I think she’d rather be a regular human being. A wonderful but regular human being.
Ove [enraged]: Stop talking!..The more all the idiots keep babbling about her, the more they’ll drown out the little memory I have of her voice…There was nothing before Sonja, and there is nothing after her.
Parvaneh: I’m something.

Whiteshirt: Seriously, what’s your problem, Ove? I know. You’re a nit-picking obstructionist. You see, I’ve done my research on you in the local archives and online, and I know everything. I’ve read all your crazy letters to newspapers and authorities. I know all about your wife, her accident and how you blame it on everyone and everything. But what if the real reason was simply that you just weren’t enough?

Adrian: Mirsad has been kicked out and we thought he might stay here.
Ove [who has just tried and failed to commit suicide…again]: What? Do you think this is a damn hotel?
Adrian: Mirsad came out today.
Mirsad: I told my dad I was one of those gays. He hates gays.
Adrian: He was going to kill himself if any of his children were gay. But never mind, we’ll leave…Sonja was always helping people.

Ove: This means war!!

Ove [to Anita]: Give me every damn document you’ve had from the authorities, the social services, the council, the church…I want everything on Rune!!

Parvaneh: You’ve had a hard time. Everyone’s an idiot. And you just give up. Because you think you’re the only one on this planet who can cope without any help at all. But do you know what, Ove? No one manages completely on their own. No one…Not even you.

Ove [to Parvaneh]: I think I sat with her like that for a week. No one dared speak to me, which was just as well. Until one day…they told me she would never wake up again. But then the unfathomable happened. It was like the best thing and the worst thing happening all at once…And the following day, I had to tell her what happened.

Ove [to Parvaneh]: That’s when I entered into a big black hole. I wanted to obliterate them all. Every single son-of-a-bitch: the bus company, the drunken driver, the wine merchant, the travel group. All of them…

Sonja [to Ove as a young man]: Ove…either we die or we live. [/b]

Black. Strike one.
Poor. Strike two.
Gay. Strike three?

Of course conservatives are generally of the opinion that none of this stuff really matters. However shitty your upbringing might have been, and however dire your circumstances, it ever and always revolves around “individual responsibility”. If you make the wrong choices it is because you and only you fucked up. And [thus] the very last thing “the government” should be concerned with is taking all of that into consideration. Let alone exploring the political parameters that revolve around the extent to which the government may or may not have been involved in creating the conditions where “stuff like this” becomes literally a way of life for thousands upon thousands of residents in Chiron’s world.

The reality of course is always going to be a complex intertwining of “I” and “we” and “them”. This is just one particular trajectory. And it may or may not be applicable to any other. After all, how many of us were born and raised in Liberty City.

The Miami Vice rendition.

Imagine then “coming of age” in this particular neighborhood, and coming to embody this particular frame of mind. So, meet Little, Chiron and Black. A natural progression as it were.

Yes, movies like this come down the pike all the time. You’re thinking that each one will be effective in closing the gap between prejudice and understanding. And for some it does. But then the conditions that created these narratives really don’t change much at all. In other words, there was Liberty City before Obama was elected and Liberty City after he was gone. Of course that part isn’t in the script at all. Unless it’s all just supposed to be understood.

So expect even more movies like this one to come our way.

You don’t even know.

faq imdb: imdb.com/title/tt4975722/tri … =ttqu_sa_1
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonlight_(2016_film
trailer: youtu.be/9NJj12tJzqc

IMDb

[b]When Juan teaches Little how to swim, Mahershala Ali is really teaching Alex R. Hibbert how to swim. When production started, Hibbert did not know how to swim.

In an interview, Barry Jenkins said that the three actors who play Chiron never met during production. He wanted each of them to build their own persona of Chiron during their respective segments, with no influence from the other portrayals. The same technique was used with the actors who play Kevin.

Both director Barry Jenkins and writer Tarell Alvin McCraney’s vision was pretty clear and singular in that both men grew up in the same Liberty City neighborhood of Miami with mothers who had both struggled with drug addiction. Roughly 80% of the film was shot on location here, one of the most poverty-stricken areas in the United States. Initially the production was apprehensive about safety issues until the word got out that Jenkins was from the neighborhood - then everything changed for the better. The locals couldn’t have been more welcoming and cooperative. Naomie Harris has said that she’d never felt so appreciated and at ease on a film set during the shoot.

Such were the budgetary constraints on this production, the cast had to share one trailer for costume, hair and makeup and one rest room stall had to be shared by cast and crew.

An early meeting with Brad Pitt helped director Barry Jenkins get the necessary funds and distribution deal he required.

When first approached, Naomie Harris was very reluctant to play a crack addict since it was so alien to her teetotaling persona. Harris had been insistent from the start on a career plan to only portray women in a positive light. However, when Barry Jenkins confided to her that she’d be portraying a character based on his own crack-addicted mother, she agreed to take on the role. In preparation for the part she spent a month researching the lives of drug addicts by watching several videos of crack addicts on YouTube. [/b]

MOONLIGHT [2016]
Written and directed by Barry Jenkins

[b]Juan: Business good?
Terrence: Business good. Everybody cleaned out, it’s in the cut if you want it.

Juan [to Teresa]: I found this boy in a dope spot. Wasn’t no crackheads there. Just him alone. He ain’t talkin’ though, so why don’t you see if you can get him to say something.

Kevin: All you gotta do is show these niggas you ain’t soft.
Chiron [as a boy]: But I ain’t soft.
Kevin: I know, I know. But it don’t mean nothing if they don’t know.

Juan [to Chiron as a boy]: Ok. Let your head rest in my hand. Relax. I got you. I promise. I won’t let you go. Hey man. I got you. There you go. Ten Seconds. Right there. You in the middle of the world.

Juan [to Chiron as a boy]: Let me tell you something, man…there are black people everywhere. Remember that, okay? Ain’t no place in the world you can go without black people. We’s the first on this planet. I’ve been here a long time. Out of Cuba. A lot of black folks are Cuban. You wouldn’t know from being here now. I was a wild little shortie, man. Just like you. Running around with no shoes on, the moon was out. This one time, I run by this old…this old lady. I was running, howling. Kinda of a fool, boy. This old lady, she stopped me. She said…"Running around, catching a lot of light. In moonlight, black boys look blue. You’re blue. That’s what I’m gonna call you: ‘Blue’.
Little: So your name ‘Blue’?
Juan [laughing] Nah.
[pause]
Juan: At some point, you gotta decide for yourself who you’re going to be. Can’t let nobody make that decision for you.

Paula: What, so you gonna raise my son, now? Huh? You gon’ raise my son?
[Juan says nothing]
Paula: Yeah…that’s what I thought.
Juan: You gon’ raise him?
Paula: You gonna keep sellin’ me rocks? Huh?..Motherfucker. Don’t give me that, “you gotta get it from somewhere”, shit, nigga. I’m gettin it from you! But you gonna raise my son, right? Hmm?..You ever see the way he walk?
Juan: You watch your damn mouth.
Paula: You’re gonna tell him why the other boys kick his ass all the time? Huh? You gonna tell him?

Juan: I saw your mama last night.
Chiron: I hate her.
Juan: Yeah, I bet you do.
[pause]
Juan: Hated mine too.
[pause]
Juan: Miss her like hell now. That’s all I’m gonna say about that.

Chiron [innocently]: What’s a faggot?
Juan: A faggot is…a word used to make gay people feel bad.
Chiron: Am I a faggot?
Juan: No. You’re not a faggot. You can be gay, but you don’t have to let nobody call you a faggot.

Chiron: Do you sell drugs?
Juan [after a long pause]: Yeah.
Chiron: And my momma, she do drugs, right?
Juan [after a long pause]: Yeah.
[Chiron gets up from the table and leaves. He never sees Juan again]

Teresa: What’s wrong?
Chiron [now in high school]: Nothing. I’m good.
Teresa: No. I done seen good, and you ain’t it.

Paula: I need some money.
Chiron: For what?
Paula: That’s my business! Don’t you ask me no shit like that!
Chiron [mumbling]: I don’t have any money.
Paula: No, no, don’t lie to me boy! I’m your mama! That bitch over there ain’t no kin yeah? I’m your blood! Remember? I ain’t feeling good. I need something to help me out.

Kevin: What you cry about?
Chiron: Shit, I cry so much, sometimes I feel like I’m just gonna turn into drops.
Kevin: But you just roll out into the water, right? Roll out into the water just like all these other motherfuckers trying to drown their sorrow.

Terrell [pointing to Chiron]: Yo, Kev. Hit that nigga. Hit that nigga, Kev. Yeah, hit his faggot ass!

Paula [to Chiron, now a man]: I messed up. I fucked it all the way up. I know that. But your heart ain’t got to be black, like mine, baby…I love you, Chiron. I love you, baby. I mean you ain’t got to love me. Lord knows I did not have love for you when you needed it, I know that. So you ain’t gotta love me. But you gon’ know that I love you.

Kevin: Hey, these grandma rules, man. You know the deal. Your ass eat, your ass speak.
Chiron: All right…straight up?
Kevin: Yeah, nigga, straight up.
Chiron: I’m trappin’.

Kevin: Who is you man?
Chiron: Who, me?
Kevin: Yeah nigga. You. Them fronts? That car? Who is you Chiron?
Chiron: I’m me man. Ain’t trying to be nothing else.
Kevin: So you hard now?
Chiron: I ain’t say that.
Kevin: Then what?
[pause]
Kevin: Look. I’m not trying hem you up. Just… I ain’t seen you in a minute. Not what I expected, none of it. Not good or bad. Just not what I expected.
Chiron: Well, what did you expect?
[pause]
Kevin: You remember the last time I saw you?
[pause]
Chiron: For a long time, tried not to remember. Tried to forget all those times. The good… the bad. All of it.
[pause]
Kevin: Yeah…

Kevin: I wasn’t never worth shit. Just kept going on, man. Never did anything I actually wanted to do, was all I could do to do what other folks thought I should do. I wasn’t never really myself.
Chiron: And now?

Chiron: You the only man that ever touched me. You’re the only one.
[pause]
Chiron: I haven’t really touched anyone since. [/b]

Nocturnal animals.

They come out in the dark.

And, in the dark, everything always seems to be creepier; more omninous…more precarious.

And then when the animals are people, well, almost anything goes, right? For example, there is that murky muddle where nonfiction ends and fiction begins. And that equally ambiguous quagmire where one point of view ends and another begins. Trying to separate what is actually true from what you believe is true. Or what you think that you believe is true. Lots and lots of room for, among other things, misunderstandings.

And unintended consequences.

One of those “story within a story” contraptions. The real world and the real world contorted into a novel world.

A plot that more or less revolves around this:

“Susan, enjoy the absurdity of our world. It’s a lot less painful. Believe me, our world is a lot less painful than the real world.”

Here one need but take a gander at that real world as it unfolds. Is it any wonder then that so many of us choose to live a lie?

And then there are those who react to it all from the perspective of the sociopath. And here, among other things, there is no reasoning with them. They are nocturnal animals even in broad daylight.

Postmodern love. It’s basically a nightmare. But a gorgeous nightmare for some. It’s all just a matter of perspective.

Look for one of the most bizarre opening credits sequences that you are ever likely to see.

IMDb

Isla Fisher revealed on NBC’s “Today” that the ‘hillbilly’ night shoot in California’s Mojave Desert lasted about ten days and was such a grueling and emotionally draining experience that she was thoroughly relieved when the film wrapped.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturnal_Animals
trailer: youtu.be/-H1Ii1LjyFU

NOCTURNAL ANIMALS [2016]
Written and directed by Tom Ford

[b]Susan: You know the strange thing is, I don’t really care about all this art.
Hutton: That doesn’t sound like you.
Susan: I know but I don’t.
Hutton: Well, I care. It pisses me off.
Susan: I know you do. Don’t worry, I can fill the walls with some new LA artists and people will think we’re ahead of the curve instead of going broke. You won’t have to be embarassed.

Chloe [at a social event]: So I said, “Well, my mother always told me if you massage your pussy with Pam cooking spray a month before the baby comes,you don’t need vaginal rejuvenation”.
Susan: I’ll have to get some Pam.

Carlos: The opening was spectacular last night.
Susan: Really? That’s what you thought?
Carlos: What, you didn’t?
Susan: No.
Catrlos: I thought the work was incredibly strong. So perfect with all this junk culture that we live in.
Susan: It’s junk It is junk. Total junk.

Carlos: No one really likes what they do.
Susan: Then why do we do it?
Carlos: Because we’re driven…We get into things when we’re young and because we think they mean something.
Susan: And then we find out that they don’t.
Carlos: Oh, Susan, enjoy the absurdity of our world. It’s a lot less painful. Believe me, our world is a lot less painful than the real world.

Susan: You’re gonna be a great novelist 'cause you have created a fictitious character in your head about…
Edward: No.
Susan: Yes.

Edward: Why’d you give up wanting to become an artist?
Susan: Because I’m too cynical to become an artist. I think to be really, really good you have to come from somewhere inside that I’m just not sure I have.

Anne [mother]: Come on, Susan, I know you think that we don’t care about the same things, but you’re wrong. In a few years, all these bourgeois things, as you so like to call them, are going to be very importyant to you, and Edwards not going to be able to give them to you. He has no money. He’s not driven. He’s not ambitious…You may not realize it but you and I are a lot more alike than you think.
Susan: No, you are wrong. You and I are nothing alike.
Anne: Really? Just wait. We all eventually turn into our mothers.[/b]

This is really what the story is all about. You know, if that’s true.

[b]Susan: Why are you so driven to write?
Edward: I guess it’s a way of keeping things alive. You know, saving things that ewill eventually die. If I wrtie it down, then, it’ll last forever.

Alex: You didn’t sleep again, did you?
Susan: You know me, I never sleep. My ex-husband used to call me a nocturnal animal…It’s weird…I’ve been thinking about him a lot lately, and then recently he sent me this book that he’s written and it’s violent and it’s sad. And he entittled it Nocturnal Animals and he dedicated it to me.

Alex: Did you love him?
Susan: Yeah, I loved him. He was a writer and, uh, I didn’t have faith in him. I panicked and I did something horrible to him. Somethng unforgivable, really.
Alex: You left him.
Susan: I left him. I left him in a brutal way, for the handsome and dashing Hutton.[/b]

Her momma was right then, wasn’t she?

[b]Painting on the wall:
RE
VEN
GE

Tony I wanna know, Ray, I wanna know the exact story of what you did to them.
Ray: You’ll have to ask somebody else.

Bobby: I told you, I got lung cancer. It’s metastasized.
Edward: But you smoke all the time.
Bobby: Yeah, well, that’s how it works.

Tony: What we’re gonna do?
Bobby: It’s a question of how serious you are about seeing justice done. You get me?

Bobby [to Tony]: Ray just showed up at Line Camp. I’m gonna let that little idiot get liquored up and then I’m go grap his ass and take him to my camp. And I want you to come with me. We’re gonna keep him for a little while, work him over a bit, get a little rough, make him suffer. And then we’ll see what he does…Would you like that?

Tony: Do you love me?
Susan: That’s not the point.
Edward: No, that is the point. Do you love me?
Susan: Yes, I love you.
Edward: Well, when you love someone, you work it out. You don’t just throw it away. When you love someone you have to be careful with it, you might never get it again.

Tony: Bobby?
Bobby: What?
Tony: Are you in trouble for all of this?
Bobby: Hell, I don’t know. I don’t really give a shit. I’m dying, remember?

Ray: You should fucking kill me. You don’t know nothing. It’s fun to kill people. You, of all people should try it sometime.
Tony: Fun? It’s fun to kill people? Did you have fun killing my wife and daughter? [/b]

Yes, he did.

He’s described as a “brooding, irritable loner”. And, being a brooding, irritable loner myself, I’m naturally curious to see how they script this particular life. After all, so much that passes for a life is embedded in a narrative embedded in a sequences of experiences and relationships that we only have so much understanding of and control over.

So the fact that he is what he is [and not what we would be in the same set of circumstances] can only be so much his fault. And it’s always where different folks draw the line drawn here between “me” and “him” and “we” and “them” that so many actual lives become entangled.

And then it’s being able to recognize the implications of this or not.

Still, where things always get tricky for brooding, irriable loners is [in the movies] when out of the blue they find themselves “obligated” to reconnect with the family. In other words, with the past. Then it is only a matter of whether by the end of the film they remain brooding, irritable loners; or, instead, find one or another road to redemption.

So, first of all, we have to come to an understanding as to why and how he became this brooding, irritable loner in the first place. And here we all have our own unique trajectory. Existential as it were. The turning point for him however revolves almost entirely around the truly horrific death of his three children. And the fact that it was his fault.

In other words, there are some fuck ups so grievous you can never bounce back from them.

From my perspective, this is a film that explores just how problematic and unpredictable and precarious our lives can become when we find oursleves interacting with others in a world that can come at us from all directions. Sometimes the pieces will all fall [fit] into place, but many times [or most times for some] they simply don’t and won’t. And yet everyone still sees you through their own set of assumptions about good and bad, right and wrong behavior.

Bottom line: If you like films where all the pieces stay pretty much grim from beginning to end then you might like this one. There is some light at the end of the tunnel here but one suspects that this particular loner will never quite reach it.

And then one by one we have to decide for ourselves if he even deserves to.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mancheste … Sea(film
trailer: youtu.be/gsVoD0pTge0

IMDb

[b]The town was called Manchester until 1989, when resident Edward Corley led a highly controversial campaign to formally change its name to Manchester-by-the-Sea. The action was passed by the state legislature that year.

While portrayed as working class and blue collar, Manchester-by-the Sea is actually a very upscale and affluent town.[/b]

Manchester By The Sea [2016]
Written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan

[b]Lee: Listen. If there was… If you could take one guy to an island with you and you knew you’d be safe 'cause he was the best man, he was going to figure out how to survive, he was going to make everything, he was going to make the world a good place on the island, he was going to keep you happy, he, he… This is the best man for the job. No matter what, if it was between me and your father, who would you take?
Patrick [as a boy]: My daddy.

Mr Emery: What the fuck’s the matter with you? You can’t talk to the tenants like that. Look, Lee, you do good work. You’re dependable. But I get these complaints all the time. You’re rude, you’re unfriendly, you won’t say good morning.
Lee: I mean, come on. Mr. Emery, I fix the plumbing. I take out the garbage. I paint their apartments. I do electrical work, which we both know is against the law. I show up on time, I’m working four buildings, and you’re getting all the money. So do whatever you’re going to do.
Mr. Emery: Would you be willing to apologize to Mrs. Olsen?
Lee: For what?
Mr. Emery: All right, all right, I’ll talk to her.

Dr. Bethany: But it’s not a good disease.
Joe [after a pause]: What is a good disease?
Dr. Bethany: Poison lvy?
Lee: Athlete’s foot.

Lee [reading his brother’s will]: I don’t understand.
Lawyer: Which… part are you having trouble with?
Lee: Well, I can’t be his guardian.
Lawyer: Well… Uh…
Lee: I mean I can’t.

Randi: Lee, you want to get these fucking pinheads out of my house please?
Lee: Yeah, I do. I mean, I really do.
[Randi walks away]
Lee [jokingly to his friends]: She can’t talk to us that way.
[they all laugh raucously]
Randi [who walks back to them]: I’m not fucking around. It’s 2:00 in the fucking morning. Get these fucking assholes dressed and get them the fuck out of here!!

Lee [at an interview with the police]: We were partying pretty hard. There was beer. And someone was passing around a joint and there was cocaine.
Detective: Cocaine?
Lee: Yes.
Detective: Okay, go ahead.
Lee: Uh, anyway, our bedroom is in the downstairs, and the kids sleep upstairs, so Randi makes everyone leave around 2:00… or three AM. And then… she goes back to bed. So, I go upstairs to check on the kids, and it’s fucking freezing upstairs, but I can’t use the central heat because it dries out Randi’s sinuses, and she gives her really bad headaches. So I go downstairs and put a fire in the fireplace, and I sit down to watch TV, but there’s no more beer. I’m still jumping around like a jackrabbit. So I put a couple fire logs in the fire just to warm up the house when I was gone. And then I am going to the mini-mart, but I’m too wasted and I don’t want to drive. So I walk. It’s about 20 minutes each way. And about halfway there, and I can’t remember if I put the screen on the fireplace. I figure it’s okay. So I just keep going to the store. And, uh, that’s it. Log must’ve rolled out onto the floor. And the firemen said they pulled Randi out. She was passed out downstairs. And then the furnace blew, and they couldn’t go back in again. And that’s all I remember.

Manchester pedestrian: Great parenting.
Lee: What? What did you say?
Manchester pedestrian: I said great parenting.
Lee: Fuck you. Mind your fucking business, fucking asshole.
Patrick: Hey, hey, hey. It’s okay, it’s okay.
Lee: I’m going to smash your fucking face, you fucking asshole.
Patrick: It’s okay, it’s okay. Thank you, thank you. It’s okay.
[the man walks on]
Patrick: Uncle Lee, are you fundamentally unsound?!!

Lee: Do you actually have sex with these girls?
Patrick: Well, we don’t just play computer games.

Patrick: How do you unbuckle this? I’m scraping the skin off my knuckles.
Sandy: Just take your hand out.
Patrick: Ow!
Sandy: Would you please just take your hand out of my cunt?!

Patrick: I’m not moving to Boston, Uncle Lee.
Lee: Well, I don’t want to talk about that right now.
Patrick: You said he left you money so you could move.
Lee: Yeah, but that doesn’t mean…
Patrick: Anyway, what’s in Boston? You’re a janitor.
Lee: So what?
Patrick: You could do that anywhere. There’s plenty of toilets and clogged-up drains all over town.
Lee: I don’t want to talk about it.
Patrick: All my friends are here. I’m on the hockey team. I’m on the basketball team. I got to maintain our boat now. I work on George’s boat two days a week. I got two girlfriends, and I’m in a band. You’re a janitor in Quincy. What the hell do you care where you live?

Lee [to Patrick after he has a panic attack]: If you’re gonna freak out every time you see a frozen chicken I think maybe we should go to the hospital. I don’t know anything about this.

Patrick: What happened to your hand?
Lee: I cut it.
Patrick: Oh, thanks. For a minute there, I didn’t know what happened.

Patrick: You were a tremendous help.
Lee: I didn’t ask to sit down there.
Patrick: You can’t make small talk? Like every other grown up in the world? You can’t talk about boring bullshit for half an hour?
Lee: No.
Patrick: Hey, how about those interest rates? I lost my Triple A card. Like everybody else?
Lee: No, sorry.
Patrick: You’re a fucking asshole.

Patrick [to Lee who is looking at Joe’s rack of rifles]: Who are you going to shoot? You or me?

Randi: I said a lot of terrible things to you.
Lee: No…
Randi: I know you never… Maybe you don’t wanna talk to me.
Lee: It’s not that…
Randi: Let me finish, let me finish. Whoever… My heart was broken, cause it’s always gonna be broken and I know yours is broken too. And I don’t have to carry it. I said things… I should fucking burn in hell for what I said to you.
Lee: No, no, no. Randi, no.
Randi: I’m just sorry.
Lee: It’s… I can’t expl… I can’t…
Randi: I love you! Maybe I shouldn’t say that.
Lee: You can say this. I’m sorry, I gotta go.
Randi: We could have lunch?
Lee: I’m really sorry, I don’t think so. I thank you for saying everything you just said.
Randi: You can’t just die!
Lee: I’m not. I’m not. And I want you to be happy, and I…
Randi: I see you walking around here, and I just wanna tell you…
Lee: I would want to talk to you, Randi. Please, I’ve uh… uh… I’m trying to…
Randi: Lee, Lee, you’ve got to… I don’t know what. I don’t wanna torture you.
Lee: This is not… You’re not… You’re not torturing me.
Randi: I just wanna tell you that I was wrong.
Lee: No. No. You don’t understand, there’s nothing… there’s nothing there. There’s nothing there.
Randi: That’s not true, that’s not true!
Lee: You don’t understand.
Randi: Yes I do.
Lee: You don’t see it. And I don’t know what to say. You don’t understand. I-I-I’ve gotta go. Sorry.
[he walks on]
Randi: I’m sorry.

Patrick: Why can’t you stay?
Lee: Come on, Patty. I can’t beat it. I can’t beat it. I’m sorry. [/b]

Some things change you forever. And your life becomes increasingly more defined by before and after.

Being raped for example.

But: is this particular rape one of them?

Of course the part after will often revolve around the extent to which justice prevails. The rapist must be caught. The rapist must be punished. Still what if you are able to inflict your own rendition of that? What if you go after the rapist yourself in order to exact a particularly satisfying payback?

At least that’s where you think this one is heading.

You’ve always been ruthless. But now you have the opportunity to take this to a whole other level. On the other hand, you are a convoluted personality living in a convoluted world where, among other things, irony abounds. For example, you own a company that manufactures video games that revolve around extremely graphic sex and violence.

The plot here is ever complex and…twisted. And in that respect it imitates the lives of those willing to sink down into the ever more perverse cracks and the crevices of the “human condition”. There is still right and wrong of course. But in a world that some really do construe as beyond good and evil, even a sexual assault becomes tangled up in the sort of decadent mores that will make some, well, flinch.

The whole thing is particularly surreal because she had been flagrantly flirting with the man for some time. Her reaction is…complex?

Postmodern love. Postmodern sex. Postmodern rape.

In France as it were.

IMDb

[b]The initial plan was to produce the movie in the United States, but there were problems finding a female lead. Nicole Kidman, Sharon Stone, Julianne Moore and Diane Lane were offered the role, but they all passed on the opportunity. Marion Cotillard and Carice van Houten were also considered. According to Paul Verhoeven, most actresses immediately rejected the part as soon as they had read the script, instead of waiting for a few days, which is normal. One of the actresses said she felt uncomfortable because of things that had happened to her in the past, one didn’t give any reasons but just said, ‘certainly not’. Verhoeven relocated the shoot of Elle to France after being turned down by Hollywood actresses. Verhoeven revealed that Isabelle Huppert read the book, called up the writer and the producer and said she wanted to do the movie. When they were discussing it, she brought up Verhoeven’s name. Huppert chose Verhoeven, not the other way around. Verhoeven told The Guardian that the only American actor who would have been game, he thinks, is Jennifer Jason Leigh, “she would have had absolutely no problem, She’s extremely audacious. But she’s an artistic presence and we were looking for names”, he said.

Before the production began, Paul Verhoeven went to a Dutch language institute to learn French, in order to better communicate with the cast and crew. He said it was simply necessary, because according to tradition, making a French movie should be done with an all-French crew. He initially spoke English with them, but this didn’t work efficiently. Fortunately, Verhoeven had once been to a French school in his youth, so he picked up the language quickly.[/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elle_(film
trailer: youtu.be/9A-fS3v09tY

Elle [2016]
Directed by Paul Verhoeven

[b]Vincent [pointing to the bruise on her face]: What’s that?
Michèle: I fell off my bike.

Kurt: The real problem is right there. The real problem is, your background in publishing and literature is completely inappropriate for evaluating playability.
Michele: Okay, maybe Anna and I should’ve founded a different sort of company. Maybe Kronos was only a hit thanks to your genius ideas. Maybe we’re just two bitches who got lucky. But the fact is, the boss here is me. And we’re 6 months behind. Our goal is simple, as you all know. When the player guts an orc, he needs to feel the blood on his hands. Thick, warm blood. If at all possible.

Michele reads a text on her phone: “You are very tight for a woman your age”

Michele [at a restaurant]: Richard, would you say I am tight for a woman my age?

Michele: I was looking for a way of simply and naturally tossing this out. but I can’t find one. So… Here goes. I was assaulted…at home. I guess I was raped.
Anna: Raped? Oh, my god. For real? When?
Michele: Thursday, at 3pm.
Anna: And you never said?
Michele: I don’t know what to say. What can I say? I feel stupid for bringing it up.
Richard: Are you insane?
Anna: Are you alright? You have to see a doctor.
Michele: Done that.
Richard: What did the cops say?
[Michele says nothing]
Richard: You didn’t report it?
Anna: Michele, you have to report it immediately.
Michele: What for?
Anna: What for!
Michele: It’s over. It doesn’t need talking about anymore. It’s not worth a debate. How about we order?

Michele reads a text on her phone: “I like the blouse you’re wearing. The cream color. My sperm won’t leave a stain”

Irene: You father is up before the judge next week.
Michele: They’ll never let him out. Thank god! The parole hearing is a charade. Like you telling me to come, when you know I’d rather gouge my eyes out.
Irene: How long will you hang on to hatred?
Michele: I’ll never see him again, in this world or any other. Anyway, there is no other.[/b]

Her father, the monster:

[b]Reporter [on TV]: Seen today, this quiet street in the suburbs of Nantes bears no trace of the atrocities that took place here 39 years ago. Few of today’s inhabitants know the name, Georges Leblanc. Or if they do, it’s a name associated with a horror story that they can hardly remember. An urban folktale from another time. And yet, in 1976, the eyes of France were trained on this street. A nation held its breath. In shock. Time has dulled the terror of that distant day in May. But for some the horror will never fade away. Nor will the unanswered questions. What drove Georges Leblanc, a practising Catholic, loving husband and father, to commit such monstrous and senseless acts? And what role exactly was played by his daughter, Michle? A ten-year-old child at the time. After years of trials and psychiatric evaluations, over 30 years after Georges Leblanc’s incarceration, sentenced to life, the questions remain, as banal yet chilling as ever. First and foremost…Why?

Michèle [to Richard]: The bimbos with big tits never worried me, but a woman who’s read: “The Second Sex” will chew you up…And spit you out.

Michele: Kevin? You shoot, right? I mean, real shooting.
Kevin: That’s right, I do.
Michele: You own guns?
Kevin: A couple.
Michele: Could you teach me?

Michele: Kevin, I also wanted to talk to you because I’ve got an unofficial assignment for you.
Kevin: A black op?
Michele: I want to know who created that animation. You know the one I mean? Hack into the home computers of the whole office. All the guys, at least.
Kevin: I want to help, but that’s a major violation.
Michele: I’m offering $10,000 cash in hand. Between you and me. Our secret.
Kevin: When you snoop on people, you turn up some weird shit.
Michele: I know. I won’t judge.

Michele: My father made the sign of the cross on me, before I left for school. He did it to all the local kids until some parents asked him to stop. Sounds reasonable. Apparently, my father was offended. That night. he made the rounds. Knocked on every door, went into every house on the street with a shotgun, a butcher’s mallet and a pair of kitchen knives.
Patrick: Yes, I heard about that.
Michele: You heard about the 27 human victims, not about the animals. They never get a mention. 6 dogs, a couple of cats, too. For whatever reason, he spared a hamster. You couldn’t make it up.

Michele [to Patrick]: My father decided to burn everything in the house. I helped feed the fire. We gutted the place. Curtains, carpets…Tables, chairs…All in the fire. It was exciting. You get caught up in it. We were about to burn our clothes when the police arrived. Someone snapped a photo. Bizarrely, it’s that photo that stuck in people’s minds. Me, half-naked, smeared with ash. The photo of a little girl as psychopath, next to her father, the psychopath. My empty stare in the photo is terrifying.

Robert: Say you don’t want me anymore and we’re done.
Michele: It’s not that simple. But if you like…I don’t want this anymore, this situation, the lies.
Robert: You dodged my question.
Michele: Sorry. I don’t want to fuck you anymore. Was that the question?

Michele: Take out your dick.
Kevin: Pardon me?
Michele: Show me your dick and I might not fire you.
[Kevin lowers his pants]
Michelle: I thought you were Jewish
Kevin: Well, no.
Michele: Put it back in The man I’m looking for is circumcised.

Warden: Can we talk in my office if you don’t mind? This way…
Michele: I’m here to spit in my father’s face. I can’t guarantee it’s a metaphor. People have all kinds of reasons. I came because I gave the bastard too much power over me. My whole life fleeing him, fearing him. What a waste!
Warden: Ms. Leblanc…Your father is dead.

Michèle [leaning over and whispering to her father…now a corpse]: I killed you by coming here.[/b]

Cue the deer.

[b]Michele: So, how was it?
[Patrick says nothing]
Michele: Was it good? How was it?
[Patrick says nothing]
Micvhele: Answer me. Did you enjoy it? Why did you do it?
Patrick: It was necessary.

Ralf: I saw that your father passed away. One less bastard in the world.
Michele: You should start packing your bags.
Ralf: I saw all the shows on TV about you and your dad. When you murdered all those people. I saw all the corpses, all the dead children. The bastard’s dead now, and at least I fucked his wife.

Robert [after having sex with Michele]: You were fabulous. Where’d you get the idea of playing dead?

Michele: Do it.
Patrick: It doesn’t work like that. Not for me. It has to be like before.

Anna [to Michele]: Robert’s fucking someone.

Michèle [to Anna] : Shame isn’t a strong enough emotion to stop us from doing anything at all. Believe me.

Michele: It’s me.
Anna: What’s you?
Michele: It’s me, sleeping with Robert. It’s over now, but it was me.
Anna: How long?
Michele: 6-8 months.
Anna: I didn’t have a clue.
Michele: I know.
Anna walks away distraught, Robert walks over to Michele]
Robert: What did you do?
M ichele: I stopped lying.

Michèle: It’s twisted.
Patrick: What?
Michele: Twisted. Between us, it’s sick. Diseased. It’s perverse. I was in some kind of weird denial but now it’s all very clear.
Patrick: What’s clear?
Michèle: You expect to get away with what you’ve done to me? I’m gonna do what I should have done right from the beginning.
Patrick: What do you mean?
Michèle: It’s not just about me. There’s your wife too. Others, maybe. Who knows.
Patrick: What do you mean?
Michèle: How many others? How many women did you rape?
[Patrick is silent]
Michèle: I’m going to the police. I’ll tell everything.

Michele: How’s Robert?
Anna: I kicked him out. Ever since, he’s hit the bottle. What did you see in him?
Michele: It was just one of those things. An opportunity. I wanted to get laid.
Anna: That’s no excuse. It was shabby.
Michele: Worse than that even. [/b]

You can take the juvenile delinquent out of the city, but can you take the city out of the juvenile delinquent?

Let’s go to New Zealand and find out. Out in the bush as it were.

This is one of those films [and there are lots and lots of them] that is bursting with humor and yet we know that underneath all the chuckles is some serious shit.

In other words [as they say], “it has a heart”.

But that can get tricky. After all, if the dots you connect between the grins and the groans aren’t just right, it doesn’t ring true. On the other hand, where you would connect the dots between them isn’t necessarily where others would connect them . So [as with most things in life] your reaction to this particular take on the human condition will say as much about you as it does about them.

Here they take a “young, overweight, orphaned juvenile offender that idealizes hip hop” and figure out a way to dump him “on a rotting farm somewhere in the rural back blocks with foster parents”.

Cue Uncle Hec.

All Hector basically wants from life is to be left alone. And all Ricky basically wants from life is, well, that remains to be seen.

In part it all unfolds rather tongue and cheek. Like reading a comic book. And yet other parts seem to be almost believeable. You keep going back and forth trying to make up your mind. Is it just an “adventure flick” for kids, or is there really something there for all the rest of us.

IMDb

[b]In the birthday scene, the cast and crew filmed ten takes singing the normal “Happy Birthday” song before finding out they didn’t have the rights to use it. So the song “Ricky Baker, It’s your Birthday” was created on the spot by the actors.

All of the news presenters in the film were all actual news presenters on New Zealand TV at the time of filming.

An open casting call was held for a 12 to 15 year-old Maori girl to play the role of Kahu, with Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne selected out of 150 applicants. Ngatai-Melbourne auditioned after her friends thought the character description of Kahu sounded like her.

The Uncle portrayed as someone illiterate. But in real life Sam Neill has a BA in English Literature. [/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunt_for_the_Wilderpeople
trailer: youtu.be/n8Xvsjy57X0

HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE [2016]
Written and directed by Taika Waititi

[b]Paula [child welfare lady]: Now, uh, obviously we’ve got a couple of things to talk through, Bella. Clearly you’ve been briefed about his, uh, background and also his foster care history. Apparently he’s a bit of a handful, a real bad egg. I mean, if you look at his file, you’ll see that for yourself. We’re talking disobedience, stealing, spitting, running away, throwing rocks, kicking stuff, defacing stuff, burning stuff, loitering and graffiti. And that’s just the stuff we know about.

Paula: Ricky! There’s no one else who wants you, OK? And you know what the alternative is, don’t you? Eh? Think you can make it work?
Bella: 'Course we can. We’ll make it work.

Paula [watching Hec approach them with a dead boar on his back]: Who’s that Crocodile Dundee guy over there?
Bella: Oh, that’s my husband, Hector.
Paula: Well, I see he has a rifle. Just keep it away from this little guy. God knows what he’s capable of.

Bella: Ricky, this is Hec. You can call him Uncle, if you like.
Hec [gruffily]: No, he can’t.

Bella: Jeez, boy, it’s a miracle we found you! You made it all of 200 meters.
Ricky: I was just taking a break.
Bella: Hec’s cooking breakfast. Eggs, bacon, a few sossies on the side…pancakes. Come on. Have some breakfast, then you can run away.

Ricky: Bella told me to tell you that you should give me something to do. Is there anything you want me to do?
Hec: Yeah… leave me alone.
Ricky: Cool.

Bella: What are you gonna call your dog?
Ricky: Um, still thinking. Something fierce to reflect its true nature. Either Psycho, Megatron…or Tupac.
Bella: What’s a Tupac?
Ricky: It’s just my…this really cool rapper, and he’s, like, my best friend.
Bella: Are you gonna run away tonight?
Ricky: Not sure.

Minister [after Bella dies]: You know, sometimes in life it seems like there’s no way out. Like a sheep trapped in a maze designed by wolves. And you know that if you’re ever in that situation, there are always two doors to choose from. And through the first door- oh, it’s easy to get through that door- and on the other side waiting for you are all the nummiest treats you can imagine…Fanta, Doritos, L&P, Burger Rings, Coke Zero. But you know what? There’s also another door, not the Burger Ring door, not the Fanta door; another door that’s harder to get through. Guess what’s on the other side? Anyone want to take a guess?
Ricky: Vegetables?
Minister: N-No, not vegeta…No.
Woman: Jesus?
Minister: You would think Jesus. I thought Jesus the first time I-I-I-I came across that door. It’s not Jesus. It’s another door. And guess what’s on the other side of that door?
Woman: Jesus.
Minister: Jesus. Yeah, Jesus. He’s tricky like that, Jesus.

Ricky [after reading a letter from the Child Welfare Ministry]: But I live here now. It’s my home!
Hec: Not any more, it isn’t. Not in their eyes. Not without a woman to run the show.
Ricky: Why don’t we just get you a new wife? There’s plenty of ladies on the internet, I heard.

Ricky: Hey, you can’t put Auntie in a box.
Hec: Give it a rest, boy.
Ricky: But she wanted to go to the sky place.
Hec: She’s gone, OK? That’s life…one day you’re here, and the next you’re in a bloody box. Just get this into your head, boy—it was Bella that wanted you here, not me. I know you think this can work, but it can’t. So the welfare people are coming on Friday. They’re coming to get you.
Ricky: That’s that, then?
Hec: Yep… that’s that.

Ricky: I ran out of toilet paper, give me some of yours.
Hec: Eh?
Ricky: I’ve gotta poop. I need to poop, you need to poop, we all poop.
Hec: Use a leaf.

Paula: This ain’t no charred foster kid.
Andy: How can you tell, Paula?
Paula [flinging a paper plate at him]: Does this look like a human head to you, Andy?
Andy: Hey, I reckon the old man chopped him up, buried him somewhere. Or ate him.

Ricky [reading wanted poster]: “Faulkner is cauc-asian”. Well, they got that wrong because you’re obviously white.

Ricky: Uncle, you’re basically a criminal now. But on the bright side, you’re famous.

Hec: You can take him, but I’m staying here.
Hugh: Like hell. People want answers.
Ron: Yeah, answers.
Hec: Look, we got lost, I got injured, he’s fine, it was basically a holiday.
Ricky: Not a real holiday because he made me do stuff.
Hugh: Like what?
Ricky: Just stuff. He had a sore leg so he made me do things for him. It was hard at first because my hands are so soft, but I got used to it. I didn’t really wanna do it, but it was the only way to survive. It wasn’t always hard, sometimes I got to do my own thing. He pretty much never joined in with me though. I asked if he wanted to play with me, but he would just make me play with myself.
Ron: I feel sick, Hugh.
Hec: Well…Hang on. He doesn’t know what he means.
Ron: You’re a bloody pervert!!

Ricky [firing his rifle]: Shit just got real! Back up, homies, and let go of my uncle!

Ricky: We’ll just tell them you were looking after me.
Hec: Doesn’t matter what you tell them, they won’t believe you. They’ll think I made you do it. I’m not going back to jail, I’m better off up here. This is no place for a kid. You’re gonna have to go back, Ricky.
Ricky: To what?
Hec: To the welfare people.
Ricky: No!

Hec: Pretty majestical, aye?
Ricky: I don’t think that’s a word.
Hec: Majestical? Sure it is.
Ricky: Nah, it’s not real.
Hec: What would you know?
Ricky: It’s majestic.
Hec: That doesn’t sound very special, majestical’s way better.

Ricky: Auntie Bella said she was from up here…from this special lake that almost touches the sky.
Hec: Bella didn’t know where she was from.
Ricky: Nah, she said…
Hec: No. She was making it up. Look, Bella didn’t have any family. Like you. Like me. That’s why she wanted to look after you…and took pity on me. She wanted to save us poor wretches when no one else wanted us.

Newsman [to the camera]: Ricky Baker and Hector Faulkner, two renegade outlaws on the run for four months now, and fast becoming legends here in New Zealand…Faulkner and Baker’s popularity is on the rise after a valiant effort to save a critically ill park ranger. The forces are circling against them, and I am reminded of “First Blood”. John Rambo, a man alone…obviously they’re two men alone here…out there somewhere beyond the cutty grass in this dense, thick bush…They are fighting for freedom. And we believe in freedom in New Zealand. It is a marvellous thing.

Ricky: I’ll never stop running!
Paula: Yeah, and I’ll never stop chasing you. I’m relentless. I’m like the Terminator.
Ricky: I’m more like the Terminator than you!
Paula: I said it first, you’re more like Sarah Connor, and in the first movie too, before she could do chinups.

Hugh: There’s a reward for your capture.
Hec: How much? 10 grand.
Ricky: Tell us when it gets to 20.

Hec: You can’t keep on the run forever. You’ve got to go back to society, you know that.
Ricky: I’m a menace to society.

Hec: You’re not a bloody gangster.
Ricky: How would you know?
Hec: Because I’ve known real gangsters, and they’re a lot tougher than you are.
Ricky: Yeah, but were they skux, though?
Hec: Skux? What the hell does that mean?
Ricky: You know…skux.
Hec: Yeah, but what does it mean?
Ricky: Everything. It’s cool, spunky, brainy, good-looking, you know, gangster.
Hec: Oh, for God’s sake. You’re not a bloody gangster!!!

Hec: So, she’s been with us the whole time, eh?
Ricky: Yeah.
Hec: Well, pretty close to the sky up here. Thanks for bringing her, mate.

Ricky [whispering]: Why do you reckon he calls himself Psycho Sam?
Psycho Sam [putting pots on their head]: Here you go. Put these on. Stop the Government from tracking you.
Ricky: Never mind.

Psycho Sam: That’s the typical government. Always trying to step on the little guy just for living his life. It never stops either. That’s why I can’t go back. Not going to be part of the machine. Form fillers.
Hec: Form fillers?
Psycho Sam: That’s how they get you. Anything you want to do in life, you got to fill out a form. And they’ve got forms for everything. You fill it out, it goes upstairs, and then they make you fill out a new form, just to confirm it was you that filled out the first form. And if ever you want to stop filling out forms, well, there’s about five different forms for that.

Hec: How did you get this thing started?
Ricky: The knack.

Hec [with the cops, the hunters, the army and Paula closing in]: May as well play it to the end. What do you reckon?
Ricky: You mean have a shoot out, and then when we’ve got no bullets, run out and say, “Freedom!” And then die in a blaze of glory?
Hec: No. I meant till we run out of petrol.

Hec: OK. Stop the truck, Ricky. I just- stop the truck. I want to get out now.
Ricky [aiming for a metal fence]: I didn’t choose the skux life; the skux life chose me.
Hec: Ricky, stop!! Stop!!!
Ricky [pedal to the metal]: FREEDOM!!!

Ricky [to Hec]: How was jail? Did you shank anyone?

Ricky: Here we go. Reckon you can handle it?
Hec: What do you think? Reckon you can find that bird?
Ricky: Yeah, I think I know where it is.
Hec: Seem to remember it was a pretty beautiful place.
Ricky: Yeah, majestical. [/b]

You know what they say: Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.

On the other hand, most of us are saddled with the sort of responsibilities and obligations – bills to pay, children to raise, families to foster – that we never even come close to that sort of freedom. If that’s even the proper way in which to think about freedom at all.

So, we watch films like this and imagine that, had things been different, that could have been me. Well, if that’s the way your head is actually wired.

In other words, young, dumb and full of cum.

But free.

Imagine then a clique of renegade misfits out on the open road going door to door selling magazine subscriptions. No, really. That’s what they do. But these “kids” are about as far removed from the American Dream as you can get. Yet somehow through their interactions with the rest of us we get to explore the extent to which that dream has long since transfigured into something entirely different. Like just barely hanging on from week to week or day to day; in a dreary and drab existence.

And, personalities and partying aside, it is all about the money. It’s all about the hustle. Somebody set it all up so that [in the end] they get most of the money; and the kids are just so many pawns in their game. But, if that’s all it is, the least you can do is to make the most of it.

And then we [the spectators] get to decide if it is all their own fault or if maybe [just maybe] “society” is also to blame.

Of course you then begin to wonder: Just how many kids are there like this out there?

Watch the film and try to imagine the reaction of folks like, say, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

IMDb

[b]Director Andrea Arnold wanted to work with unknown actors. She would often approach teenagers on the street whom she thought would be good for the movie, and hold impromptu auditions in parking lots.

Filmed in chronological order. Much of the dialogue was improvised.

Director Andrea Arnold split the scripts into parts and gave each actor their daily script on the day of filming. Keeping their scripts a mystery was done to prevent them from planning too much and overacting.

When Sasha Lane was approached on the beach in Panama City, her friend with her thought they were being scouted for porn, and walked away. Then realizing that was not the intent; she ended up cast as the lead.

Partly inspired by a 2007 New York Times article about the on-the-road existence of the “mag crew” kids. [/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Honey_(film
trailer: youtu.be/y1SpWZm1PLc

AMERICAN HONEY [2016]

[b]Star [dumpster diving for food with two of her Mom’s young children]: Are you Spider-Man?
Rubin: Yeah. I’m Spider-Man of the dumpster.

Jake: We go door-to-door. We sell magazines door-to-door, being friendly. You know, you seem friendly. You make $300 a day if you’re good. If you’re smart. You seem pretty smart, so figured I’d ask. Hmm? Come with us.
Star: You can’t just give me a job like that.
Jake: Yes, I fucking can. I’m a business manager…Come with us. We do more than work, you know. We explore, like, America. We party. A whole bunch of shit. It’s cool.

Star: I got a job. It’s in Kansas.
Mom: Did you come all the way here to tell me that? What kind of fucking job you got in Kansas?
Star: Nathan can’t have them, you know that.
Mom: I can’t have them.
Kelsey: Is that the surprise?
Star: I can’t take you to Kansas. I’m sorry.
Boyfriend: Hey, what’s going on?
Mom: She wants us to have the kids because she’s got a fucking job in Kansas.
Star: They are yours.

Krystal: Where’s that accent from?
Star: Texas.
Krystal: So you’re a southern girl. A real American honey like me. You know that song?
Star: No.
Krystal: Got anybody who’s gonna miss you?
Star: Not really.
Krystal: OK good. You’re hired.

Corey: Hey, what’s up? Are you new?
Star: Yeah.
Corey [pulling his dick out]: Yeah? You should let me be the first one to fuck you.

Star: What do we sell again?
Girl: Magazines.
Star: People actually buy those anymore?
Girl: Fuck, no.

Pagan: So, I have this obsession with Darth Vader. To me, he’s just like the epitome of just darkness and suffering. Um, and misunderstanding. Um, I feel like he was just a broken heart that lost any hope for love and life.

Star: Is this of you selling?
Girl: Yeah, we’re at a Walmart selling some shit.
Star: So this is what I have to do?
Girl: Yeah, sell magazines. You just gotta come up with your own spiels and shit, like I use the whole, “Oh, my dad was killed in Afghanistan” shit.
Star: Shit, was he?
Girl: No, but, shit, people love that patriotic shit.

Jake: Prove to me your name is Star, and I’ll give you a present.
Star: It was my mom’s idea. She said we’re all made from stars. From Death Stars.

Krystal: What’s rule one?
Star: Don’t be late for anything.
Krystal: Bitch, you don’t make money, I don’t make money. You get it? I’m gonna let it slide this time because it’s your first day. You keep 20 percent of what you make, 25 if it’s cash. Always try and get cash.
Star: Okay.
Krystal: The rest is management fees, goes to motels, gas. That’s basically it. Jake’ll train you.

Kyrstal [to the crew]: Where y’all headed today is real wealthy territory. I ain’t tried this kind of territory before, but these people are loaded and it shouldn’t be hard. So what are there?
All: No excuses!
Krystal: And with Loser Night coming up in a few days, some of y’all need to step the fuck up.

Star [to the crew in the van]: What’s Loser Night?
Boy: That’s a fun motherfucking night right there. Yeah, kinda, sort of. It’s a party practically. It’s where the two losers of the week…Whoever makes the least amount…Least amount of money…has to fight each other. It’s a game, but technically it’s not a game.

Pagan: You know what Darth Vader looks like beneath that mask?
Star: No, what?
Pagan: He’s a skeleton. Just like the rest of us.

Jake: You read the handbook last night - about the five sales steps?
Star: Yeah.
Jake: That’s a bunch of shit, all that. You don’t gotta listen to that. See, 'cause in Jake’s book there’s one fucking step. Not five, just one. It just takes one step. Once you get this one fucking step down, you’re the chief of the tribe. And I’m gonna teach you that one step today. You hear what I’m saying? Basically, as soon as they open that door and look at you, that’s the critical moment, that’s the make-or-break moment. 'Cause in that second you gotta work them, you gotta read them, you gotta be able to scan them and figure them out, figure what kind of person that person wants in their life. Then you gotta be that person. You know? So, like, a couple of the other agents are really rigid about the five sales steps and all this shit. So they’ll pick a spiel that’s, like, some sad shit, like… “Mama’s got cancer” or, “My fucking foot is falling off.” “I’m trying to get my life back together.” You know, “I got a little lost there in my teens, and now I’m really working and now I’m really working on myself, man,” and, “Oh, you know, my dad, he died in Iraq.” Any sad spiel, and they’ll just say it over and over and over again until it’s meaningless.
[Jake points to a house]
Jake: This person? This person doesn’t give a fuck about magazines, right? They want something from me, so if I’m a G, I’m gonna figure out what that something is and I’m gonna work that.

Star [after Jake gives her a ring]: Did you steal it?
Jake: They have everything, you know, including insurance, so it’s fine.
Star: What if it’s her wedding ring?
Jake: Who gives a shit? What, are you fucking religious or something?
Star: No. God can go fuck himself. God’s a cunt.

Krystal: So, tell me, what was it that you don’t agree with that Jake does?
Star: The lying.
Krystal: He ain’t lying. He’s selling. That’s his job. I don’t get what you want. You wanna make money or you don’t?
Star: I wanna make money.
Jake: She just needs more time. I’m good with the wild ones, you know?
Star: I’m not a fucking cow.
Ktrsyal: It costs me when you don’t earn. Do you get that? This shit, the motel, the gas, everything, that costs me. And I can’t run my business like that. So you show me you can do it, or I’ll leave you on the side of the road. Clear?
Star: Crystal.
Krystal: Is that a joke?
Star: No.

Krystal: I’m watching you, country girl, and you’re starting to get on my nerves. So your training’s done now. You fuck up this week, I’m gonna leave you in the plains with the mountain lions. You think that’s a joke? Jake, tell her.
Jake: It happens. In Nevada, left a girl in the desert with nothing. It just happened before you came. East Texas, gas station. No food, no water, no money, no shoes, no shit.
Krystal: So don’t fuck me off.

Star: Hey, can I ask you something?
Trucker: You kids selling something?
Star: Yeah, magazines.
Trucker: I don’t do magazines. Sorry.
Star: Well, you don’t have to read 'em. You can use 'em to wipe your ass.

Star [after they have sex]: Do you have any dreams?
Jake: Dreams? Like future dreams?
Star: Yeah.
Jake: Nobody’s ever asked me that.

Krystal: Okay, so this town has got people from all over the country and it’s filled with fucking oil. So what does that mean?
All: Money!!
Krystal: It means these people are making a shit load of money. And how does that make people feel when - they make that kind of cash?
All: Amazing!
Krystal: No, it makes them feel like shit. It makes them feel guilty. So I want y’all to dress like dirty white trash, and then they’ll pity you.

Star: This is a nice truck.
[Oil field worker chuckles]:
Star: What’s funny?
Oil Field worker: You’re sitting there talking about my truck while you’re stroking my cock.
Star: Well, it’s a nice truck…Am I doing this right?
Oil field worker" Can I ask you to do me a favor? Since I am paying for this.
Star: Okay.
Oil field worker: Could you be quiet?
Star: Okay, I’ll shut up.

Krystal: You think you’re special. You know, I pay Jake girl-money. A hundred dollars every time he finds a girl. Where you think Drema came from? And he fucks all of them, too. Y’all don’t mean nothing to him. I’ve been trying to think if I should keep you or not. Did you make any money in Williston?
Star: Yeah, I did, but I ain’t got the slips for you.
Krystal: That’s cool. Just give me the money and give me the slips later. Did you think that was Jake? That’s Bill. Bill, that’s Star.
Bill: Hey, Star.
Krystal [pointing across the room]: And that’s Frank. Jake’s gone. I told him he can’t come back again.[/b]

Jacqueline Kennedy.

Jackie.

The movie. Based on a true story.

But what does that really mean? Everyone will react to her – to her life, to the choices that she made – from a point of view that may or may not be in accord to whatever the facts actually were.

And then we will pass judgment on all of that based on what we insist [or wish] that the facts had been instead. And what [in a perfect world] they ought to have been.

Jackie was the queen of Camelot. In fact some go so far as to call her its inventor: thedailybeast.com/articles/2 … death.html

Those were the days. Back then everything was said to be possible. The dawn of a new age. The New Frontier.

Or, in other words, blah, blah, blah. If, of course, that is how you are inclined to look at it.

Jackie was a beautiful woman. Natalie Portman beautiful. How important then is that in understanding her, in understanding her options, in understanding the reaction of others to her?

And her celebrity of course was second to none. Which prompts us to consider again that gap between how the famous are perceived and how they really are. Or, as Jackie herself put it: I believe the characters we read on the page become more real than the men who stand beside us.

And, in this day and age, being a woman doesn’t change that.

And then, as she reminds us right from the start, this will only be her own version of what happened.

And then, finally [as some never tire of reminding us], the rich really are different.

Look for God throughout. Just no less mysterious.

IMDb

[b]Actress Natalie Portman’s skill took actor Billy Crudup aback. “The proficiency of her artistry is very unusual,” he said. “When somebody is so possessed by their character and their work is so refined that you are literally transported and taken away by it, that is something unusual. As deep as I was in character in the scenes with her, I couldn’t help but also have a part of me watching her with the deepest admiration.”

One challenge that loomed for Natalie Portman as she prepared was Jacqueline Kennedy’s highly distinctive dialect, impeccable diction and whispery voice. “She had such an amazing voice,” Portman mused. “It was truly from another era. She had a finishing school sort of way of presenting yourself - very demure, where you bat your eyelashes and speak in a breathy voice. Her accent was posh but also mixed with a real New York accent and also a little British. Her dialect is an unusual combination of sounds that were completely unique to her. The first time I did it on set, I think Pablo [director Pablo Larraín] was terrified,” Portman recalled. [/b]

IMDb trivia: imdb.com/title/tt1619029/tri … =ttqu_sa_1
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_(2016_film
trailer: youtu.be/g9pW3B8Ycc4

JACKIE [2016]
Directed by Pablo Larraín

[b]Journalist: Mrs. Kennedy? They told me to come up. And I’m so sorry for your loss.
Jackie: Have you read what they’ve been writing? Krock and Merriman and all the rest?
Journalist: Yes, I have.
Jackie: Merriman’s such a bitter man. It’s been just one week. Already they’re treating him like some dusty old artifact to be shelved away. That’s no way to be remembered.
Journalist: And how would you like him remembered, Mrs. Kennedy?
Jackie: You understand that I will be editing this conversation just in case I don’t say exactly what I mean?
Journalist: With all due respect, that seems very unlikely, Mrs. Kennedy.
[pause]
Journalist: Right. Okay. Uh, so this will be your own version of what happened?
Jackie: Exactly. Come in.

Jackie: Do you know what I think of history?
Journalist: Of history?
Jackie: I’ve read a great deal. More than people realize. The more I read, the more I wonder: When something is written down, does that make it true?
Journalist: It’s all that we have.
Jackie: Had. We have television now. Now people can see with their own eyes.

Collingswood: Mrs. Kennedy, this administration has shown a particular affinity for artists, musicians, writers, and poets. Is this because you and your husband just feel that way. Or do you think there’s a relationship between the government and the arts?
Jackie: That’s so complicated. I—I don’t know. I just think that everything in the White House should be the best.

Journalist: Is your faith helping you?
Jackie: I’d prefer to discuss my faith with a priest. You’re not a man of the cloth, are you?
Journalist: No, I’m not. I’m just trying to get to the truth. That’s what reporters do.
Jackie: The truth? Well I’ve grown accustomed to a great divide between what people believe and what I know to be real.
Journalist: Fine, I will settle for a story that’s believable.
Jackie: That’s more like it.

Jackie: There’d been the biggest motorcade from the airport. Hot, wild like in Mexico or Vienna. The sun was strong in our faces but I couldn’t wear my sunglasses. Jack has his hand out and I see a piece of his skull come off. It wasn’t flesh colored, it wasn’t white. He slumps in my lap. His blood, his brains in my lap. And I’m saying Jack, Jack can you hear me, Jack, I love you Jack! And his head was so beautiful, and his mouth was beautiful and his eyes were open. I was trying to keep the top of his head down. Keep it all in. He had the most wonderful expression on his face, you know? Just before they’d ask him a question, just before he’d answer. He looked puzzled. I knew he was dead.
Journalist: Mrs. Kennedy…
Jackie: Don’t think for one second I’m going to let you publish that.

Lady Bird: Can I send someone back to help you change? Before we land? All those cameras… People will be watching.
Jackie: There were wanted posters. Everywhere. For Jack. With Jack’s face on them…Let them see what they’ve done.

Jackie [to Bobby]: It had to be some silly little Communist…If he’d been killed for civil rights…At least then it would have meant something. You know?..Jack warned me. Said we were going to ‘nut country.’

Bobby [to Jackie riding in the ambulance with the coffin]: Lyndon’s people are claiming I told him to take the oath in Dallas. Asshole couldn’t wait and now they’re blaming me for it.

Bill Walton: The next day it returned to the White House, and then they walked all the way to St. Matthew’s in a long, grand procession. It was a sunny spring day. Only six hundred tickets were allotted, but thousands lined the streets and rooftops. Citizens, Senators, Congressman, Diplomats and Officers – all in their full dress uniforms. Walton picks up a photograph. Lincoln’s mount, ‘Old Bob’ was draped in a black blanket with white trim and tassels. Hooded, he was led riderless at the head of a miles-long procession by the Reverend Henry Brown.
Jackie: I can feel Jack getting angry with us. ‘There you go, spending all that money on those silly little knick-nacks… The man would spend whatever it took for votes, but balked at buying a beautiful painting. I guess we don’t have to worry about that anymore…We must get this right. It has to be beautiful. Did you tell them we’ll need a horse-drawn carriage? We have to march with Jack. Everyone. A big beautiful procession that people will remember.
Bill Walton: Mrs. Kennedy… You don’t have to do this. In fact, I don’t think they’ll let you parade through the streets. The world’s gone mad. You should take the children and disappear. Build a fortress in Boston and never look back.

Caroline: Mommy… Why are you dressed so funny?
Jackie: Something very sad has happened. And this is how we dress when something sad happens.
John Jr.: Mommy, where’s Daddy?
Jackie: Daddy won’t be coming home.
Caroline: Why not?
Jackie [struggling]: Daddy had to go see your baby brother Patrick. In heaven.
Caroline: Why?
Jackie: Because I’m here with you. And we don’t want Patrick to get lonely, do we?
Caroline: But what about us?
Jackie: Caroline, I need you to be a big girl. You can be brave, right? You can be a soldier? A very bad man hurt Daddy. Daddy would come home if he could. But he can’t. He has to go to heaven.[/b]

What else really is there to say?

[b]Jack Valenti: We need to discuss the funeral. We all want to follow her lead. But, we still don’t know much about this Oswald. There may be coconspirators.
Bobby: I’ll talk to her, but she makes the call.
Valenti: There’s also the matter of the Oval.
Bobby: What do you want me to do first – plan the funeral or pack the furniture?
Valenti: I know this is all delicate. That’s why I’m approaching you. But a procession is insane. I just can’t have my President walking. Given what’s happened.
Bobby: Your President?
Valenti: My President.
Bobby: Well, regardless of what happens, my brother is going to be carried in a box.
Valenti: And I am sorry sir…
Bobby: Fuck off, Jack.

Bobby: Jackie… They’re worried about an outdoor procession. They think it’s a security risk. Everyone’s spooked. Apparently even State’s discouraging foreign dignitaries from attending. It’s eight city blocks to Saint Matthews. That’s a long way to be strolling through crowds. All those rooftops. All those windows…
Jackie [firm]: Bobby it’s our last chance. We have to march with him.

Bobby [right after Lee Harvey Oswald’s murder on TV]: You’ll not speak a word of this! Understood? I’ll tell Jackie when the time is right. Sit down.
LBJ: Excuse me?
Bobby: Sit down.

Jackie: I think God is cruel.
Priest: Well now you’re getting into trouble. God is love. And God is everywhere.
Jackie: Was he in the bullet that killed Jack?
Priest [firmly]: Absolutely.
Jackie: Is he inside me right now?
Priest: Yes. Of course he is.
Jackie [wearily]: Well that’s a funny game he plays – hiding all the time.
Priest: The fact that we don’t understand him isn’t funny at all.
Jackie [angrily] If there’s a heaven, there’s your God – with all his empty promises. What kind of God takes a father from his two little children?!
Priest: Thy Lord sacrificed his only son…
Jackie: And my two babies. Arabella in the womb. And Patrick. Thirty-nine hours on this earth. Just long enough to fall in love with him. What did I do to deserve that?
Priest: Nothing. [/b]

What else really is there to say?

[b]Jackie [to the priest]: There are two kinds of women, those who want power in the world and those who want power in bed.

Jackie: …he was a great father. I picture him in that rocking chair in his office. Caroline and John at his feet…How could I hate him?
Priest: Take comfort in those memories.
Jackie: I can’t. They’re mixed up with all the others.

Nancy: The children are ready. Shall I take them downstairs to ride with Maud?
Jackie: I’d like them to come with me.
Nancy: The press is out front. I thought you’d prefer…
Jackie: Their father is leaving this house for the last time. They should be there to say goodbye to him.
Nancy: But the cameras? Those pictures are being broadcast to every corner of the world. Jackie: Those pictures should record the truth. Two heartbroken, fatherless children are a part of that.

Journalist: I’m only wondering if you considered doing more to shield the children. I think most people would have…
Jackie: We aren’t ‘most people’. Most people don’t have to make those kinds of decisions, hours after watching their husband get murdered next to them.

Jackie: Mr. Valenti. Would you mind getting a message to all the funeral guests when they land? Not sure where this is going
Jack: Of course.
Jackie: Inform them that I will walk with Jack tomorrow. Alone if necessary. And tell General De Gaulle – if he wishes to ride in an armored car – or in a tank for that matter – I won’t blame him. And I’m sure the tens of millions of people watching won’t either.

Jackie: I wrote him a letter. That night, before we moved the casket to the Capitol. Do you know what I wrote? That I wanted to die. I wanted to die.
Priest: I understand.
Jackie: Do you?
Priest: I do. Unless you are asking permission.
Jackie: No, only crass, self-indulgent people kill themselves. No, I was just hoping… if I walked down the street next to Jack’s body then someone would be kind enough to do it for me.
Priest: In front of the whole world…A famous life, a famous death.
Kennedy: I never wanted fame. I just became a Kennedy.

Priest: You say you pray every night to die. That your children have no use for you. That you wish only to be with your husband. And yet – I’m not burying you today. There comes a time in man’s search for meaning when one realises that there are no answers. And when you come to that horrible, unavoidable realization, you accept it or you kill yourself. Or you simply stop searching…I have lived a blessed life. And yet every night, when I climb into bed, turn off the lights, and stare in to the dark, I wonder…Is this all there is?
Jackie: You wonder?
Priest: Every soul on this planet does. But then, when morning comes, we all wake up and make a pot of coffee.
Jackie: Why do we bother?
Priest: Because we do. You did this morning, you will again tomorrow. But God, in his infinite wisdom, has made sure it is just enough for us. [/b]

You know, it that’s true.

Jackie: Maybe that’s what they’ll all believe now. Camelot. People like to believe in fairy tales. Priest: And you? Do you believe you’ve done him justice?
Jackie: I believe the characters we read on the page become more real than the men who stand beside us.

Your mother is weird [if gifted] and you live a cloistered existence in a “secluded farmhouse” somewhere in Portugal. In other words, one of those really strange, intimate relationships between a parent and a child that produce a point of view far, far, far removed from the madding crowd.

Just no less frenzied. And no less prone to horror. Still, when you are being shaped and molded in an extraordinary set of circumstances, the consequences embedded in your interactions with others are likely to be much the same.

Just [here] considerably more bloody and brutal.

Still, this one is bursting at the seams with ambiguity. Regarding, among other things, what is actually unfolding. As one reviewer noted, “…A lot of the story was left up to interpretation. We are given small hints towards things in the dialogue here and there, but must make our own decisions on what the truth actually is.”

So, to the extent that this is seen as a “horror” film more or less than as a “drama”, is really up to each of us to decide.

What do make films like this “horror movies”, however, is that we know that people can actually do these things. And have reasons to. Reasons that you and I are not able to talk them out of. They simply do not see the world around us in the same way.

And, in order to make it all that much more suspenseful – spooky – it is filmed [as it only could have been] in black and white.

Look [or listen] for the Cartwrights.

IMDb

[b]The music that Francisca and her father dance to is “Naufrágio” in the voice of Amália Rodrigues. This type of Portuguese traditional music is called “fado”, which translates to “sad destiny”, and it’s commonly used to express the feeling of losing someone dear.

The three Portuguese-speaking actors all use different accents: Lucy has a Brazilian accent, Francisca has a continental Portuguese accent and António has an Azorean accent. [/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eyes_of_My_Mother
trailer: youtu.be/WWLNn5kk0iU

THE EYES OF MY MOTHER [2016]
Written and directed by Nicolas Pesce

[b]Mother [to Francisca as a young girl]: Saint Francis spent many years living alone in the woods. Then one night, he saw an angel burning in the sky. And when he woke up, he had stigmata. But loneliness can do strange things to the mind. Eventually he died of an eye condition that also would have caused psychosis.

Mother: Cow eyes are very similar to human eyes. The construction is almost exactly the same. The only difference is they’re bigger. In Portugal, we used to practice surgery on cows. Here, they practice on people.

Mother [repeating herself]: Bathroom is through the living room, to your right.
Charlie: Would you show me? I think you should show me the way. Ma’am. I’m trying to be polite. Now, we can try this one more time before I start to become unreasonable.
Mother: I am sorry, sir, but I really need you to leave. I don’t quite know what you’re planning.
Charlie [pulling out a gun]: Hey there, Franny. I’m gonna need you to sit over there on that chair and be real quiet. Can you do that for me?
[Francisca sits on the chair]
Charlie: Now, why don’t you be a good host and show me where that bathroom is?

Father [to Fransisca]: I need help with your mother.

Francisca: Why us?
Charlie [chained to the floor in the barn]: You let me in.
Francisca: You’ve done this before. Why do you do it?
Charlie: It feels amazing…You’re gonna kill me, right?
Francisca: Why would I kill you? You’re my only friend. I’m gonna take care of you.

Kimiko: Have you lived here a long time?
Francisca: My whole life.
Kimiko: Was this your parents’ house?
Francisca: Yes.
Kimiko: Do you live here alone now?
Francisca: Mm-hmm.
Kimiko: I’m sorry, I’m asking so many questions. I ask a lot of questions when I’m nervous.
Francisca: Why are you nervous?
Kimiko: I don’t do this very often.
Francisca: Do what?
Kimiko: Go home with people.

Kimiko: What did your mother do?
Francisca: She was a surgeon in Portugal.
Kimiko: What kind?
Francisca: Eyes. When I was little, we used to do the dissections together. I remember I was fascinated by how the inside of the body looked. She always hoped I would be a surgeon one day.

Kimiko: What happened to her? I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.
Francisca: Someone killed her.
Kimiko: What? What about your dad?
Francisca: I killed him.
Kimiko: No, really.
Francisca: Really.
Kimiko: What? You’re not serious, are you?
Francisca: Yeah.

Francisca [to Chartlie after plunging a knife into him over and over]: You were right…it feels…amazing.

Francisca [sobbing, aloud to herself, after burning the chopped up body of her father]: What am I going to do? What am I going to do? I can’t be alone anymore. Please mother, help me. What am I going to do?

Francisca: You think I could just hold Antonio?
Lucy [who picked Francisca up and drove her home]: I’m sorry. We…we really have to get going.
Francisca: Please, can I hold him just for a little bit? Okay?
Lucy [with hesitation]: Okay, okay, just do it quick.

Antonio [now a boy]: Mom, who is that?
Francisca: What?
Antonio: There’s a person in there.
Francisca: Did you go in the barn?
Antonio: Who is that? Who is that?
Franciscas: I told you to never go into the barn.

Francisca [to Antonio asleep in bed]: Everything I do is for you. I just want us to be together. I would do anything to be with you.

Francisca [to Antonio asleep in bed]: Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. And whether or not it is clear to you, the universe is unfolding as it should.

Francisca [aloud to her herself in the forest after digging up her mother’s body and cradling the skull]: Mother…I miss you so much. I wanted to make you proud. I wish you could meet Antonio. He’s perfect. I just want us all to be together again.

Francisca: Baby! Baby, wake up. Baby.
Antonio: What’s wrong?
Francisca: You know how much I love you, right?
Antonio: What’s wrong?
Francisca: Nothing’s wrong, nothing’s wrong. Whatever you learn, don’t let it change how you feel about me, okay?
Antonio [hearing someone pounding on the door]: Who’s here?![/b]

Right on the cusp. And in so many ways.

At least here in America.

The left-wing, liberal Sixties was all but kaput. And we were just inches away from electing the right wing, conservative Reagan agenda.

But trust me: Only if you actually lived through it could you really understand. And, for some folks, once they began to fully understand that [as John Lennon put it] “the dream is over”, they had to come up with ways to accommodate the “new order”.

Sure, there were still the idealistic parts. But more and more they had to come up with ways in which to intertwine what they felt ought to be with was going to really happen instead.

Of course in Southern California this was all the harder still.

But then that is a very different movie.

Here we have entirely more self-absorbed folks grappling with all of that perennial “personal stuff” that will always be around whatever the particular social and political climate might be. Sex, love, gender roles, parenting. A boy being raised by three women.

In other words, where this gets tricky is that Dorothea was born in the 1920s. So she is already into her forties when the Sixties took off. A whole different kind of cusp for her.

Anyway, some things you can fix, some things you can’t. And, for most of us, we have to go about the business of moderating our ideals and through negotiation and compromise come up with ways in which to make any particular family work with the least amount of dysfunction.

At least in our postmodern world. After all, there was a time [spanning the greater part of human interaction in fact] when communities were considerably more…inflexible. A place for everyone and everyone in his or her place.

Well, by and large.

Here the folks are comfortably ensconced in a white middle class suburban enclave where, among other things, no one ever worries about the bills being paid. It’s as though the rest of world barely exists. It’s all about them.

IMDb

[b]During rehearsals, the cast was encouraged to bring in music they believed their characters listened to. Then, to encourage familiarity among the cast, there would be a dance party where the only rule was that everyone had to dance and it didn’t matter what the song was.

As her character is based on the director’s mother, Annette Bening watched a lot of Mike Mills’ mother’s favorite films, including Stage Door and movies starring Humphrey Bogart; his seminal film Casablanca is edited into the film.[/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_Century_Women
trailer: youtu.be/bxcvng_CpMQ

20TH CENTURY WOMEN [2016]
Written and directed by Mike Mills

[b]Julie [to Jamie]: It was so much easier before you got all horny.

William: We are connected to the dirt, 'cause we came from the dirt. The dirt is made of stars. and started out the same way that we are. So…When you put your hands into that… Dirt and feel the Earth Mother…
Abbie [bursting out in laughter]: William…

Jamie [voiceover]: My mom was born in 1924. When she was my age, people drove in sad cars to sad houses. With old phones, no money or food. Or televisions. But people were real.

Banker: I’m sorry, your son is too young to have an account in his name only. Little guy.
Dorothea: No, he’s a person, he’s not half a person. And he’s not some cute little guy. He has vision, autonomy and privacy. He needs a bank account. Can you do that for us?

Jamie: Do you think you’re happy? Like… As happy as you thought you’d be when you were at my age.
Dorothea: Seriously? You don’t ask people question like that.
Jamie: You’re my mom.
Dorothea: Especially your mom. Look. Wondering if you are happy… It’s a great shortcut to just being depressed.

Dorothea: What is that?
Abbie: It’s The Raincoats.
Dorothea: Can’t things just be pretty?
Jamie: Pretty music is used to hide how unfair and corrupt society is.
Dorothea: Ah, okay so…they’re not very good, and they know that, right?
Abbie: Yeah, it’s like they’ve got this feeling, and they don’t have any skill, and they don’t want skill, because it’s really interesting what happens when your passion is bigger than the tools you have to deal with it. It creates this energy that’s raw. Isn’t it great?[/b]

Yet another conversation about punk rock.

[b]Dorothea [voiceover]: My son was born in 1964. He grew up with a meaningless war. With protests. With Nixon. With nice cars and nice houses. Computers. Drugs. Boredom. I know him less everyday.

Dorothea: He said it was just a game. You breath real hard and another kid pulls on your diaphragm. And you faint. He said you’re supposed to come to a few seconds later. But it took Jamie almost a half an hour to wake up.

Dorothea [to Abbie and Julie]: I think History has been tough on men. I mean they can’t be what they were. And they can’t figure out what’s next.

Julie [about Jamie]: Don’t you need a man to raise a man?
Dorothea: No, I don’t think so.

Jamie: What’s wrong?
Julie: Tim Drammer came inside me.
Jamie: I don’t wanna hear this shit.

Dorothea: Well, you can handle bad news or you can’t. You have to start somewhere. Men always feel like they have to fix things for women… But they are not doing anything. But some things just can’t be fixed. Just be there…Somehow, that’s hard for you all.
Jamie: Mom, I’m not “all men”. Okay. I’m just me.
Dorothea: Well, yes and no.

Jamie [to Julie]: What do we do for two hours?

Julie [to Jamie]: I think being strong is the most important quality. It’s not being vulnerable, it’s not being sensitive. It’s not even—Honestly, it’s not even being happy. It’s about strength and your durability against the other emotions.

Jamie: No ring.
Julie: No ring.

Julie: Can I have one?
Dorothea: No, they’re really bad for you.
Julie: You smoke all the time.
Dorothea: You know when I started, they weren’t bad for you, they were just stylish, sort of edgy, so… It’s different for me.

Dorothea: Abbie.
Abbie: Yes?
Dorothea: Let’s go out tonight. I want to see this modern world.

Dorothea [voiceover over a montage of punk rock images]: It’s 1979, I am 55 years old. This is what my son believes in. These people. With this hair. And these clothes. Making these gestures, making these sounds. It’s 1979 and I am 55 years old and in 1999 I’ll die of cancer from smoking…They don’t know this is the end of punk, They don’t know that Reagan’s coming. It’s impossible to imagine that kids will stop dreaming about nuclear war, and have nightmares about the weather. It’s impossible to imagine HIV.

Dorothea [tending to the bruises on Jamie’s face]: So what was the fight about?
Jamie: Clitoral stimulation.

Abbie [after Dorothea shows her her car with ART FAG spray painted on the door]: Yeah, That’s what Matt called me. For liking the talking heads.
Dorothea [seeing the words BLACK FLAG sprayed on the other doort]: And what is Black Flag?
Abbie: It’s a hardcore band. So…The people who love Black Flag, hate the Talking Heads.
Dorothea: What?!
Abbie: The punk scene is very divisive.

Abbie [to Jamie]: Whatever you think your life is going to be like, just know, it’s not gonna be anything like that.

Woman in club: How old are you?
Abbie [whispering in Jamie’s ear]: Age is a bourgeois construct.
Janue [to the woman]: Age is a bourgeois construct.
Woman: Good answer.

Dorothea: What does that mean… Art Fag? I mean, what is…? If you would’ve thought about it from more like a sociological perspective. Where does that come from? Art fag. What is that?
William: Abbie understands it.
Dorothea: Abbie does not understand it, she’s just a part of it.

Abbie: I gave him beer, and then I taught him how to verbally seduce women. Then we drove drunk, but I stopped that, and then he kissed Trish, and then we walked home.
Dorothea: Ah.
Abbie: You’re not mad? You’re mad.
Dorothea: You get to see him out in the world, as a person. I never will.

Jamie: What’s it like? For girls.
Julie: What? Sex?
Jamie: Orgasms.
Julie: Do you really wanna know what it’s like?
Jamie: Yeah.
Julie: I don’t have them.

Julie: Half the time I regret it.
Jamie: Then why do you do it?
Julie: Because half the time I dont regret it.

Jamie [reading aloud from It Hurts To Be Alive And Obsolete: The Aging Woman by Zoe Moss: “Interested in others. And I think, intelligent. All I ask is to get to know people and to have them interested in knowing me. I doubt whether I would marry again and live that close to another individual, but I remain invisible. Don’t pretend for a minute as you look at me, that I am not as alive as you are, and I do not suffer from the category to which you are forcing me. I think, stripped down, I look more attractive than my ex-husband but I am sexually and socially obsolete and he is not. I have a capacity now for taking people as they are, which I lacked at 20. I reach orgasm in half the time and I know how to please, yet I do not even dare show a man that I find him attractive. If I do, he may react as if I have insulted him. I’m supposed to fulfill my small functions and vanish.”

Dorothea: I appreciate that you trying to help, I do…I just think you are taking it too far. And this stuff, with you know, the women’s movement I respect, but it’s just…It’s complicated, and I think it’s too much for him.
Abbie: I don’t know what it is that you’re talking about.
Dorothea: Okay, he is 15 years old boy…
Abbie: I know…
Dorothea: You are giving him hard core feminism…
Abbie: But he really loves it and it’s really…it’s helping him.
Dorothea: Helping him what?
Abbie: It’s helping him become a man.
Dorothea: This is the boy you were talking about. Learning about a female orgasms… is helping him be a man?
Abbie: Well what man do you know that cares anything about that? It’s a miracle!
Dorothea: He’s a high school kid. Okay? It’s too much, I’m telling you.
Abbie: I think he seems really okay with it.
Dorothea: You know you don’t actually know what you’re doing with him? Okay? Just…
[she walks away]

Jimmy Carter [on televison]: There is a growing disrespect for government…for schools, the news media. And all the institutions. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance. But it is the truth and it is a warning. It is a crisis of confidence. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of unity and purpose for our nation. Too many of us now, tend to worship self indulgence and consumption. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We always believed that we were part of a great movement. Of humanity itself…Involved in the search for freedom. We are at a turning point in our history. The path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest…down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom. It is a certain route to failure. Thank you and good night.[/b]

Cue the Reagan era?

[b]Abbie [at a dinner with lots of people]: Ugh, stop it, I’m menstruating.
Dorothea: Abbie, you know what? You’re menstruating, okay. But do you have to say it, Ok? Do we really need to know everything that’s going on with you?
Abbie: What? I am menstruating. What is that a big deal?
Dorothea: We don’t need to hear about that, thank you.
Abbie [turning to Jamie]: If you ever wanna have an adult relationship with a woman…Like if you wanna have sex with a woman’s vagina, you need to be comfortable with the fact that the vagina menstruates… I’m just saying… Menstruation, it’s not a big problem. So, start saying now… Menstruation.
Jamie: Now?
Abbie: Yes, menstruation.
Jamie [meekly]: Menstruation.
Dorothea: Jamie, no… You don’t have to.
Abbie: You’re saying it like you’re scared, don’t say it like you’re scared. Say it like it’s normal. Menstruation.
Jamie: Menstruation…Menstruation.
Abbie: Not bad.

Julie: The first time that I got my period, I was watching One Flew OAver the Cuckoo’s Nest, with some guy. And…yeah I just told him that I had to leave. So I went to the market and I bought a box of tampons. I read the instructions on the box and I put one in. And I never told my mom about it, but she never asks. So it didn’t matter. I never saw the end of the Cuckoo’s Nest.
William: Jack Nicholson got a lobotomy…and so the big Indian guy, smothered him with the pillow…so that he could be, you know, be free.

Jamie: Mom, I’m dealing with everything, right now. You are dealing with nothing.

Jamie: What’s wrong?
Julie: Nothing.
Jamie: Tell me.
Julie: I think that I’m too close to you…to have sex with you. It’s confusing…
Jamie: I can help you get over that.
Julie: I don’t wanna get over that.
Jamie: Yes you do.
Julie: You’re being like the other guys.
Jamie: I don’t want to just, have sex with you, I want you…
Julie: But it’s your version of me. It’s not me. It’d be a lot better if you just wanted sex. You’re exactly like the other guys…[/b]

As with most things, La La Lands are not all created equal. Sure, you can live in your very own world practically anywhere. But there is something about doing it in Hollywood that brings out the truly best and the worst renditions.

Then it all comes down to politics. And options. Your idea of La La Land may well be at odds with others. And more [or less] within reach.

Take, for example, the La La Land that is the Trump administration and Fox News.

Of course that one is on the other side of the country; and it involves a whole different set of variables. Though I’m sure that some day Trump: The Musical starring Sean Hannity will be coming to a screen near you.

Here though the La La Lands evolve over the course of two Hollywood careers. In other words, there is La La Land when you are struggling to “make it big” out there…which can then evolve [or devolve] into an entirely different sort of La La Land when you finally do make it. If you ever do at all. Or if you can do it on your own terms.

And that’s before you are forced to untangle the personal from the political. Besides, who is to say where to draw that particular line. And who is to say what a true actor or a true musician is? When are they really worthy of respect?

All that boundless bullshit in other words.

Look for the part where it’s a musical. But this one is said to be more “grounded”. Still, few things are more surreal [even ludicrous] than folks [out of the blue] bursting into song, performing choreographed dance numbers in the course of, for example, living their lives.

I hate them.

IMDb

[b]According to composer Justin Hurwitz, all the piano performance featured in the film was first recorded by pianist Randy Kerber during pre-production. Ryan Gosling then spent two hours a day, six days a week in piano lessons learning the music by heart. By the time filming had begun, Gosling was able to play all the piano sequences seen in the film without the use of a hand double or CGI.

The audition scene, where the casting director interrupts Mia’s emotional performance to take a phone call, was actually inspired by one of Ryan Gosling’s auditions in real life.

The line in the film said by Sebastian “That’s LA. They worship everything and they value nothing.”, was actually added in by Ryan Gosling himself, when he heard his real life girlfriend, Eva Mendes, mention it as a “joke”.

The plot has strong ties to Emma Stone’s real-life history. The movie is based in LA, and Mia is discovered as a college dropout actress pursuing her dreams. Stone is a school dropout herself, moving to LA at the age of 15 in pursuit of an acting career.

John Legend, singer and pianist, had to learn how to play the guitar for his role.[/b]

IMDb trivia: imdb.com/title/tt3783958/tri … =ttqu_sa_1
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_La_Land_(film
trailer: youtu.be/0pdqf4P9MB8

LA LA LAND [2016]
Written and directed by Damien Chazelle

[b]Laura [sister]: I brought you this. It’s a throw rug.
Sebastian: I don’t need it.
Laura: Yeah? What if I told you Miles Davis pissed on it?
Sebastian: That’s almost insulting…Is it true?

Sebastian [to Laura]: I’m letting life hit me until it gets tired. Then I’ll hit back. It’s a classic rope-a-dope.

Sebastian: I want to let you know you’re looking at a new man. A man who’s happy to be here.
Bill: Right, and you’ll play the set list.
Sebastian: Happy to. Even though I don’t think anyone cares what I play, but, yeah.
Bill: Well, if by “anyone” you mean anyone other than me, that would be correct. I care and I don’t want to hear any of that free jazz.[/b]

Instead, the set is “jazzed up” Christmas carols.

[b]Sebastian: I hear what you’re saying but I don’t think you’re saying what you mean.
Bill: I don’t think you hear what I’m saying. You’re fired.
Sebastian: Well, that’s what you’re saying, but it’s not what you mean. What you mean is…
Bill: You’re fired.
Sebastian: It’s Christmas.
Bill: Yeah, I see the decorations. Good luck in the New Year.

Sebastian: Alright, I remember you. And I’ll admit I was a little curt that night.
Mia: “Curt?”
Sebastian: Okay, I was an asshole. I can admit that. But requesting “I Ran” from a serious musician, it’s just, it’s going too far.
Mia: My Lord, did you just say “a serious musician?”
Sebastian: I don’t think so.
Mia: Can I borrow what you’re wearing?
Sebastian: Why?
Mia: Because I have an audition next week. I’m playing a serious firefighter.
Sebastian: So you’re an actress? I thought you looked familiar. Have I seen you in anything?
Mia: Uhh, the coffee shop on the Warner Brothers lot, that’s a classic.
Sebastian: Oh I see.
Mia: Yeah.
Sebastian: So you’re a barista? And I can see how you could then look down on me from all the way up there.

Sebastian [to Mia]: That’s L.A… They worship everything and they value nothing.

Mia: I should probalby tell you something now, just to get it out of the way.
Sebastian: Mmm–mmm
Mia: I hate jazz.
[Sebastian stops dead in his tracks]
Mia: You okay?
Sebastian: What do you mean, you hate jazz?
Mia: It just means that when I listen to it, I don’t like it.

Sebastian: I just think that people, when they say that they, you know, hate jazz, they just don’t have the context, they don’t know where it comes from. Jazz was born in a little flophouse in New Orleans, and it’s just because people were crammed in there, they spoke five different languagers, they couldn’t talk to each other. The only way they could communicate was with jazz.
Mia: Yeah, but what about Kenny G? What about elevator music…jazz that I know. I mean…I find it relaxing.
Sebastian: It’s not relaxing. It’s not…it’s not. Sidney Bechet shot someone because they told him he played a wrong note. That’s hardly relaxing.
Mia: Yeah, but where I grew up there was this statiom called K-Jazz 103. And people would just put on that station when they had a cocktail party…And everyone would kinda just talk over it.

Sebastian: You have to see what’s at stake with jazz. I mean, look at these fellas. Look at the sax player right now. He just highjacked the song. He’s on his own trip. Everyone of these guys is composing, they’re rearranging. Then they’re playing the melody. And now look, the trumpet player. He’s got his own idea. And so, it’s conflict…and it’s compromise, and it’s just new every time. It’s brand new every night. It’s very, very exciting…And it’s dying, Mia. It’s dying on the vine. And the world says, “Let it die. It had its time.” Well, not on my watch.

Sebastian: Fuck them!
Mia: You always say that.

Mia: I think you should call your club Seb’s.
Sebastian:Why?
Mia: Because no one will come to a place called Chicken on a Stick.

Keith [to Sebastian]: You say you wanna save jazz. How you gonna save it if no one’s listening? Jazz is dying because of people like you. You’re playing to 90-year-olds at the Lighthouse. Where are the kids? Where are the young people? You’re so obsessed with Kenny Clarke and Thelonious Monk. These guys were revolutionaries. How are you gonna be a revolutionary if you’re such a traditionalist? You hold onto the past, but jazz is about the future.

Sebastian: You should come.
Mia: To Boise?
Sebastian: Yeah, you can knock it off your bucket list.

Mia: Do you like the music that you’re playing?
Sebastian: I don’t know…I don’t know what it matters.
Mia: Well, it matters because if you’re gonna give up your dream of opening your own club, I think it matters that you like what you’re playing on the road for years.
Sebastian: Do you like the music I’m playing.
Mia: Yeah. I do. I just didn’t think that you did.

Sebastian: I thought you wanted me to do this, it just sounds like now you don’t want me to do it.
Mia: What do you mean, I wanted you to do this?
Sebastian: This is what you wanted for me.
Mia: To be in this band?
Sebastian: To be in a band, to have a steady job, you know to be… you know.
Mia: Of course, I wanted you to have a steady job so that you could take care of yourself and your life and you could start your club.
Sebastian: Yeah, so I’m doing that, so I don’t understand like why aren’t we celebrating?
Mia: Why aren’t you starting your club?
Sebastian: You said yourself no one wants to go that club. No one wants to go to a club called ‘Chicken on a Stick.’
Mia: So change the name!
Sebastian: Well, no one likes jazz, not even you!
Mia: I do like jazz now because of you!

Mia [to Sebastian]: People will go to your club because you’re passionaite about it. People love what other people are passionate about.
Sebastian: Not from my experience.

Sebastian: You know, I have a steady job. And now all of a sudden you have these problems with it. I wish you would have said it earlier before I signed on the goddamn dotted line!
Mia: I’m pointing out that you had a dream that you followed. That you were sticking to it…
Sebastian: This is the dream!
Mia: This is not your dream.
Sebastian: Guys will work their whole lives to be in something that’s successful, that people like. You know? I mean, I’m finally in something that people enjoy.
Mia: Since when do you like being liked?
Sebastian: Because I don’t enjoy it doesn’t matter.
Mia: Why do you care so much about being liked?
Sebastian: You’re an actress! What are you talking about?!..Maybe you just liked me when I was on my ass because it made you feel better about yourself.
Mia [after as pause]: Are you kidding.
Sebastian: No.
[A long pause as they stare at each other]
Sebastian: I don’t know…[/b]

There are lives that most of us cannot even imagine. This is one of them. All we can do is to watch it unfold and wonder: What would I do?

And then every once in a while you wonder what ought to have been done for children like this. Also, is there a way to actually untangle all of the strands embedded in this extraordinary life and figure out what might have been the best of all possible worlds.

And so much of it revolves around sheer luck. Suppose Saroo had not stumbled upon the man in the restaurant? Suppose instead he had been abducted by the child snatchers? Or taken by Rama?

Saroo’s first family is “poor but happy”. But he gets separated from them at a very young age and then fortuitously he is brought up in a family that is prosperous and happy.

To connect or not to connect the dots. To go back as an adult and find that first family. The family he lost.

Many no doubt have imagined it…

Suppose, just suppose, you found out that your own family was not your “real” family. You were adopted. Would you feel the need to go back and find your true biological folks? Yet here of course the circumstances can be vast and varied. This is just one set of them. Your own may be nothing at all like them. It’s all profoundly embedded in the complex interaction between here and now and there and then. And once you start in on connecting the two, who knows what the consequences might be.

Look for the teeming masses. And this is about as close as most of us will ever get to them.

And then what to make of Mantosh.

IMDb

[b]Dev Patel had to develop a new physique to portray Saroo and attended several hours in the gym in order inhabit his part. He also grew a beard and developed an Australian accent (with Tasmanian dialect), visited Saroo Brierley’s orphanage in India and wrote a diary while he took the original train ride that Brierley accidentally took as a young child. In total, he spent eight months preparing for the role.

Rooney Mara’s character is not based on a single real-life character, but is a combination of several of Saroo’s real-life girlfriends who were with him through his search.

4,000 boys were auditioned to play the young Saroo Brierly, according to line producer Pravesh Sahni.

In India, over 80,000 children go missing each year and there are over 11 million children living on the streets. [/b]

trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt3741834/tri … =ttqu_sa_1
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_(2016_film
trailer: youtu.be/-RNI9o06vqo

LION [2016]
Directed by Garth Davis

[b]Noor: You speak Hindi?
Saroo [as a boy]: Yes. I got lost.
Noor: Where are you from?
Saroo: Ganestlay.
Noor: Where is that?
Saroo: Home.
Noor: I don’t know where that is.

Noor: There is a man and he is called Rama. He is a good man. He helps everybody. He will help you too. He’s coming tomorrow morning.
Saroo: Is he going to help me look for my mum?[/b]

Nope.

[b]Rama [to Noor]: You’ve done well. He’s exactly what they’re looking for.

Mrs. Sood: It’s my job to make sure there isn’t a single kid here who should be somewhere else. That’s why I’m here. People don’t like me here.
[she shows Saroo a clipping from a newspaper]
Mrs. Sood: We have been asking around about you for a long time. We have published your picture in the newspaper. In all the newspapers in Calcutta. 15 million people read this paper. But we haven’t had a single reply.
Saroo: My home is far away.
Mrs. Sood: Not one reply…We found a family over in Australia who want to look after you.

Saroo: Did you really look for my Mum?
Mrs. Sood: We looked everywhere.[/b]

And then out of the blue he is out of the Third World and into ours.

Sue [to Saroo]: So you’ve come a long way, haven’t you? Little one. I’m sure it hasn’t easy. And one day you’ll tell me about it. You’ll tell me everything. Who you are, everything. I’ll always listen. Always.

20 years later…

[b]Lucy: Saroooo…you OK? Saroo?
Saroo [lost in a memory]: I’m not from Calcutta… I’m lost.

Bahrat [at dinner party]: Did your mother look for you? If she did she might have left a paper trail.
Saroo: My mum couldn’t read or write.
Bahrat: What did she do?
Saroo: She was a laborer. She carried rocks.
Bahrat: Your mum?

Lucy: Saroo, you need to face reality.
Saroo: What do you mean, “reality”? Do you have any idea what it’s like knowing my real brother and mother spending every day of their lives looking for me? Huh? How every day my real brother screams my name? Can you imagine the pain they must be in not knowing where I am? 25 years, Luce. 25!
Lucy: Why didn’t you tell me what was happening to you?
Saroo: We swum about in our privileged lives. It makes me sick. I have to find home. They need to know I’m okay.[/b]

Cue Google Earth.

[b]Lucy: What if you do find home and they are not even there? And you never stop and you keep on searching? You don’t know what happens over time. Things change. Entire worlds change.
Saroo: I don’t have a choice.

Saroo: I’m sorry you couldn’t have your own kids.
Sue: What are you saying?
Saroo: We… we… weren’t blank pages, were we? Like your own would have been. You weren’t just adopting us but our past as well. I feel like we’re killing you.
Sue: I could have had kids.
Saroo: What?
Sue: We chose not to have kids. We wanted the two of you. That’s what we wanted. We wanted the two of you in our lives.That’s what we chose. That’s one of the reasons I fell in love with your dad. Because we both felt as if the world has enough people in it. Have a child, couldn’t guarantee it will make anything better. But to take a child that’s suffering like you boys were. Give you a chance in the world. That’s something.

Saroo [aloud to himself as he stares at the computer screen image of his old home town]: Ganesh Talai. Ganesh Talai…Ganestalay…Mum.

Saroo [to Lucy]: I found home.

Saroo: And Guddo? Where’s Guddu? Where is he?
Mother: Guddu…
Villager: Guddo is no more…he is with God.

Saroo [on a video link to his mom and dad]: I just wanted to say that I am safe. I’m safe and questions have been answered. There are no more dead ends. I’ve found my mother and she thanks both of you for raising me. She understands that you’re my family. She’s…she’s happy just knowing that I’m alive.

Titlecard: Saroo Brierley made it back to Ganesh Talai on February 12, 2012. He’d been lost for over 25 years. All those years earlier, on the same night he stepped up into that empty carriage, his brother Guddu died — hit by a train not far from the platform. Saroo’s mother had never given up hope of Saroo’s return, and had never moved away.

Saroo learned that all those years ago, as a five year old, he had been mispronouncing his own name. He was ‘Sheru’. meaning lion.[/b]

When it comes to films of this nature there is Donnie Brasco and all the rest. Brasco was simply riveting from start to finish. But the premise is the same. It revolves around an exploration into the complex relationships that can emerge when one particular man is sent to infiltrate one or another extremist organization — a group which is deemed to be either dangerous to “society” or are engaged in behaviors that violate the law.

But things get particularly tricky here because the group is an ideological contraption. Its membership revolves around both moral and political objectivism. And its object is to obtain the materials needed to build a “dirty bomb”. To build the bomb and to use it in order to further “the cause”. The cause here being to create a world where white people – the right white people – rule.

In other words, they are said to be terrorists. Home grown terrorists.

But how do you actually accomplish the task of becoming a successful “infiltrator”? Well, among other things, you have to 1] assume a new identity 2] remain undiscovered and 3] get out alive. And since this is “inspired by real events” the tension here becomes all that more palpable.

It is simply mind-boggling how much necessarily goes into creating his new “reality”. And then he has to live it right down to the bone. No fuckups are allowed. So, if you can’t think – really think – on your feet, don’t become an undercover infiltrator.

And then the part where he wobbles back and forth when confronted with situations in which, in order to prove he is “one of them” he has to do some really crazy [even illegal] shit.

Now, some might criticize this film because it offers clip after clip of one or another white supremacist explaining their world view, of defending it. In the end of course they get thumped, but not before being given plenty of air time.

IMDb

[b]The film takes its inspiration from the real-life story of FBI agent Michael German, who helped co-write the script.

The name “Imperium” is Latin but commonly used in German, meaning “empire”, and is synonymous with the German word “Reich”, although never in the context of the German Empire (“das deutsche Kaiserreich”) or the Third Reich (“das dritte Reich”). However, English-speaking Neonazis do frequently refer to a “Western Imperium” as a theoretical future global empire following their political and philosophical views. [/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperium_(2016_film
trailer: youtu.be/I3lFBq7_CPk

IMPERIUM [2016]
Written in part and directed by Daniel Ragussis

[b]Title card: “Words build bridges into unexplored regions.” Adolph Hitler

FBI official briefing the team: These containers carried cesium-137. It’s used for radiotherapy applications in hospitals, but it’s highly regulated and had no business being on that truck. When we tracked the shipment back to Baltimore, the customs record showed eight containers, not two. So there’s six more of them out there, all of them in the country illegally. If that quantity made it’s way into a radiological device, we could be looking at thousands of casualties, mass evacuations and radioactive contamination throughout the D.C. area.[/b]

Only it’s not “the Muslims” this time.

[b]Tom: Uh, lab analysis puts the cesium coming from north Africa. So the guys on four, they put together this map. It’s an analysis of Muslim communities in DC, Maryland and Virginia, along with their countries of origin. We’d like each…yes?
Angela: What about leads on the DT front?
Tom: Well, given the cesium came from north Africa, we don’t think domestic is really in the picture.
Angela: The last time anyone tried to build a dirty bomb on US soil was James cummings. He was a white supremacist living in Maine, he was going to set it off at Obama’s inauguration. He had uranium, thorium, and he was trying to acquire cesium. I’m sure you’re familiar with the case.

Angela: What do you know about Timothy McVeigh?
Nate: Uh…he was some kind of lone extremist…in a militia?
[she hands him a book]
Angela: Here. Timothy McVeigh was a decorated Gulf war veteran. He was not insane; He was not a lunatic; And he was not stupid. He was a white supremacist, following a plan. What plan? A plan from a book called the Turner Diaries. It’s about a “race war” to exterminate blacks, Jews, and “mud people.” You know how the war gets started? The hero drives a truck bomb into a federal building. Timothy McVeigh was reenacting that scene from the Turner diaries. He was carrying the book with him when he was arrested. What he was trying to do was start the race war. You’re focused on the Islamic guys. I get it. We all create a narrative based on what we think is important. We see what we want to see. But just because you’re not looking at something doesn’t mean it’s not there.

Angela: What do you think undercover work is? Beating guys up and shooting at them? No, it’s people skills. It’s controlling situations.
[She hands him a copy of Dale Carnegie’s How To Win Friends & Influence People]
Angela: It’s this.
Nate: Seriously?
Angela: This is the only undercover training you’ll ever need.

Various voices in the background discussing the dirty bomb scenario: A dirty bomb is any kind of crude, explosive device that when detonated, disperses radiation around and beyond the blast. What you would do is irradiate a large territory. Now some of these things have a half-life of 30 years. In many cases, this material cannot be seen, it can not be smelled, cannot be felt, cannot be tasted. The more technically capable an adversary is the more likely they would be to find ways to spread the radioactive material over larger areas. One of things that we’ve been taught in recent years, is that we must be able to prepare for the unthinkable.

Angela [to Nate]: The Turner Diaries, it’s sold over a half a million copies. Who do you think is buying it? Eric Rudolph, the olympic bomber, Wade Paige, who shot up the sikh temple. Larry Ford, developing typhoid and cholera. Liam Carr, with the cyanide bomb, Anthrax, ricin, botcillism, c-4, ied’s, I could go on like this for hours. And all of them are white supremacists.

Nate [practicing his new identity]: My name is Nate Thomas. I was in the marines for three years, on a wmd squad in Iraq. But I saw a lot of things over there that changed me. I started to wonder what was really going on in this country. And now I’m back home… Trying to make a new start. I’m starting to figure out the truth about some things. There’s really only a handful of people who know what’s going on. But I want to be one of them. And I want to make a difference.

Angela [taking a sheet of paper from Nate]: What’s this?
Nate: It’s my DD-214. I was up all night Photoshop-ing it, so if anyone wants to see proof of my service in the marines, they can just…
[Angela rips it up]
Nate: What the fuck are you doing?
Angela: No, no, no, no. Listen to me. If you get yourself in a situation where you have to show somebody your DD-214, then you’re already done. You understand?

Angela [voiceover]: Lone extremism is not a social phenomena, it’s a tactic. Terrorists call it leaderless resistance. The leaders of the movement provide inspiration, but they also encourage hidden cells act independently like Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.

Vince: Look at this bottle. You see anything funny?
Nate: You’re talking about the Jew tax?
Johnny: What’s the Jew tax?
Vince: Tell 'em, Nate.
Nate: Start looking at the food you buy, and you’ll see this little “u.” The union of orthodox rabbis gets paid to perform a “blessing” on everything in the grocery store. For this “blessing,” they rake in billions of dollars in taxes.
Vince: We can’t control the ketchup, but we can control the streets. That’s how it went down in Germany. And we think of ourselves as a Sturmabteilung. We are a thinking man’s soldiers. First here in the head. And then here in the fist. And that is where the revolution starts. We’re not these tired old KKK guys, waiting for some catastrophe to start a race war. We’re the catastrophe.[/b]

Next up: Nate gets a Nazi tattoo.

[b]Nate [to Angelo]: Look at my fucking arm!

Vince: Stay away from those faggots. They got this fucked up religion where they think the Bible was written for white men and aryans are the lost tribes of Israel. The Bible. Jews invented christianity. Jews invented the printing press, and the Bible is the most published book in the world. I mean, anything seem off to you?
Nate: How about the fact the romans conquered every mud race on earth, and then christianity finished them off in a hundred years?
Vince: You gotta know who to stick with in this movement. You’re with us.

Madeline: The tree house is to pretect us.
Nate: Yeah, from what?
Madeline: If the mud people come. Always be ready. Always be watchful and stick together.[/b]

Madeline is about 4 or 5.

[b]Nate: I’m kind of surprised you invited those guys.
Gerry: Well, you can’t exclude them. I mean, they’re the next generation. They need our help. Need to understand their heritage, and be proud of it. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? The children. What kind of a world will they grow up in?

Roy: Hang on, wait a minute…First you tried to stop me, then you try to scare them off, and then you set off that fucking alarm. That wasn’t an accident, was it? Was it, Nate? You wanted them to get away. What the fuck, Nate? Huh? I said what the fuck?
Nate: Okay, you’re goddamn right I wanted them to get away! You want to be a soldier, Roy and not a fucking thug? Then think! You think about security cameras, Roy? You think about the liquor store we were just in? You think about the clerk or the license plates on my fucking truck? You think about any of that shit? Fucking Aryan warrior…A hundred spics and niggers ain’t worth the life of one white man, but go ahead, put us all in prison. That’s how you’re gonna win your race war? Huh?

Dallas [to a room full of white supremicists]: If you take millions of white people, and flood every country in Africa with them, what do they call that? Genocide. But what’s happening to every white country on earth? You’ve got affirmative action that kills white jobs. Abortion, that kills white babies. Gay rights, that kill white families. Folks, let me explain something to you. “Diversity” is a code word. And what it means is white genocide!

Nate: So, Gerry, if you don’t mind my asking, how did you end up in the movement?
Gerry: Listen, for me, it was the books. My parents were practically liberals. Totally blinded by the ZOG. You know, I always knew something was wrong; and I had this anger, I couldn’t put my finger on it. Here. It all started with this.
[he hands Nate a book]
Gerry: I was 13. Read it in four days. It explains race, culture, capitalism and how democracy destroyed western civilization.
Nate: Democracy: “Three people form a government. Then two of them vote to steal the wealth of the third.”

Nate: How do you reason with someone like Gerry? How can you ever hope to change their mind?
Angela: Listen, you need to remember why you’re doing this. We’re not social workers.
Nate: You wanted me to relate to them as human beings, right? “Open up to them?” You said.

Andrew [to Nate]: Take a look at this. This is the entire DC water system. Plants, pipelines, the whole deal. Now, Nathan, the guys you’re hanging out with, they’re all talk, because they’re punks. They’re amateurs. They sit around drinking beer all day, maybe they beat up a few niggers or each other. We got no use for them. We need men like you.

Andrew: Let me ask you something, Nathan. What’s your opinion on infiltration?
Nate: Well, how do you mean?
Andrew: How do we prevent it?
Nate: Well, it’s tough. For one thing, you gotta keep guys with rap sheets out of important positions. That’s…that’s how they flip most people.
Andrew: We have a polygraph back at the compound. Maybe we should make everybody take it.

Andrew: I gotta ask you something. Roy said he contacted the NPRC. Said there’s no record of you having served in the Marines.
Nate: You mean Roy went and filed a 180 with a government that he fucking hates, just to… okay. I was on a wmd squad, so that’s black ops. And he knows that, the fucker. Wait, hold on, are you guys taking this seriously? Is that what that was all about in the truck? Because, I understand you have to do your due diligence or whatever, but that’s a fucking serious accusation! I don’t need to take that shit from anybody!
Andrew: Hey… hey, hey! Okay. Let’s get out of here.

Dallas [to Angelo]: I know your type. You think you’ve got it all figured out, and you don’t know shit. I’m an entertainer. I do this for money, and for fun. And I don’t give a fuck about ZOG or the race war or any of that shit. I tell these jackasses what they want to hear, and they worship me for it. So fuck you, agent Zamparo.

Angela: This happens sometimes, you know? I mean, it sucks, but…
Nate [incredulous]: “This happens”?! Is that all you’re gonna fucking say after we find out all of this? Everything you fucking put me through has been for nothing?
Angela: It’s the nature of the work.
Nate: No! This…this happened because of your pet theory! And like an idiot, I went along with it! “Oh, yeah, she’s an expert,” I thought. “She knows what she’s doing!”
Angela: I’m sorry, Nate.

Nate: I always felt like I could change the world. You know, I could right wrongs, you know, fight injustice.
Gerry: Nate, listen, it’s guys like us that feel these things the most. Idealists.
Nate: Yeah, I just keep thinking about that quote. “For evil to triumph, it only takes good men to do nothing.” But how? You know, fucking how? I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Gerry, I shouldn’t be…I’m just really tired.
Gerry: You know, Nate, maybe you’re going about this the wrong way. The rallies, the speeches, the politics… That’s not how the change is gonna come. It’s gonna come from the unknown soldiers, from the leaderless resistance.
Nate: How do you mean?
Gerry: Let’s go out back. I made some improvements to the tree house.[/b]

Cue “the event”.

[b]Gerry: You guys remember Timothy McVeigh’s last words?
Nate: Yeah, he read Invictus.
Gerry: “It matters not how strait the gait, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”

Nate: And you’re sure they’re not gonna try and test this somehow?
Angela: Yeah, that’s why terrorists love TATP. You can’t identify it without a mass spectrometer.

Nate: What about the TATP?
Gerry: David got ammonium nitrate instead. He used his name, so the jig is up. They’ll know it’s us. It’s not gonna matter tomorrow. We’re in this to the end now, Nate. Do you understand? They’re not gonna take us alive.

Nate [on the phone]: The cesium is here!
Angela: All right, everyone! Let’s get ready to do this!
Nate: No! Angela, you have to tell him to wait.
Tom: Wait? No, no, no, we need to get in there now!
Nate: There are three guys in there with machine guns and they’re building a bomb. This is a residential neighborhood. His wife and kids are in the house. If you come in here now, it’ll be a blood bath.
Angela: This is a volatile situation.
Tom: Yeah, which is why we need to move now…
Nate: No, he doesn’t get it! These guys are fanatics! They will not be taken alive!
Angela: Tom, you’re not in there! We have to listen to him.
Tom: And what the fuck happens if the explosives go off while we’re waiting around? Nate, you got 60 seconds to disarm those guys, because we’re coming in.

Angela: Why do you think I picked you? I knew that you would understand them. And they’d understand you. And the more authentic you became with them, the more authentic they’d become with you. Because when it comes down to it, there really is only one essential ingredient to fascism.
Nate: It’s victimhood.[/b]

As a kid I was an avid sci-fi reader. And a theme that kept recurring over and again was the one with aliens landing on Earth. For better or for worse. Close encounters of any number of kinds. Though not many of the Third Kind. Like this one.

Back then I kept thinking that it was only a matter of time before one or another alien species really did land. Or, at the very least, there would be evidence of their existence. And then once SETI was up and running I figured it was only a matter of time.

I don’t think that way anymore. In fact, I suspect I will go to the grave as ignorant as all the folks before me regarding whether or not “we are alone” in this vast, vast universe.

Instead we still have to “go to the movies” in order the imagine what it might be like.

What’s crucial though is that, should they ever land here, it will be one of those momentous experiences in which everything becomes understood in terms of “before” and “after”.

But more to the point is how each of us, situated in our own sense of reality, will react to it from any number of conflicting perspectives.

Above all, look for some rather fascinating ruminations on, among other things, language, time and memory. It’s one of those films that is less [far less] about the “action” and the “special effects” and more about the scientific and philosophical imponderables that face all of us who inhabit whatever the universe/multiverse actually is.

Especially in this day and age. After all, if extra-terrestrials ever did land, almost everyone would know it in an instant. Imagine the reaction on “social-media”. Everyone would have a political ax to grind. And the wackos would come crawling out of the woodwork.

As for what it all “means”, here is one take on it: screenrant.com/arrival-movie-201 … explained/

IMDb

[b]Director Denis Villeneuve and screenwriter Eric Heisserer created a fully functioning, visual, alien language. Heisserer, Villeneuve and their teams managed to create a “logogram bible,” which included over a hundred different completely operative logo-grams, seventy-one of which are actually featured in the movie.

Director Denis Villeneuve and the writing team took extensive efforts to ensure the movie’s scientific ideology was accurate. Renowned scientist and tech innovator Stephen Wolfram and his son Christopher Wolfram were consulted to ensure all terminology, graphics and depictions were sound.

In writing the story, Ted Chiang had in mind the following quote of the great physicist Albert Einstein: “The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”[/b]

trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt2543164/tri … =ttqu_sa_1
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrival_(film
traler: youtu.be/tFMo3UJ4B4g

ARRIVAL [2016]
Directed by Denis Villeneuve

[b]Louise [voiceover]: I used to think this was the beginning of your story. Memory is a strange thing. It doesn’t work like I thought it did. We are so bound by time, by its order…But now I’m not so sure I believe in beginnings and endings. There are days that define your story beyond your life. Like the day they arrived.

Student: Dr. banks, can you turn the TV to a news channel?

Louise [on the phone]: Mom, please don’t bother with that channel. How many times do I have to tell you? Those people are idiots.

Reporter [on TV]: After Tuesday’s extraordinary events, the president this morning has declared a state of emergency, with as many as 5,000 national guard being deployed to the state of Montana alone. Borders are closed and flights have been grounded, stranding millions of travelers. Panic buying of gas, water and food continues to escalate, and federal authorities have temporarily lifted all caps on overtime for law enforcement. The atf has put a temporary ban on new gun licenses, forcing many independent suppliers of hunting equipment and firearms to close their doors to the public.

Louise [after hearting the elien spoken language on an audio file]: Did they have mouths…
Colonel Weber: How would you approach translating this? Do you hear any words? Phrases?
Louise: I don’t…I don’t know.
Weber: So what can you tell me?
Lousie: I can tell you that it’s impossible to translate from an audio file. I would need to be there, to interact with them.
Weber: You didn’t need that with the Farsi translations.
Lousie: I didn’t need it because I already knew the language, but this…this is…

Weber: Mornin’.
Louise: Colonel.
Weber [answering a previous question about the Sanskrit word for war and it’s meaning]: Gravisti. He says it means “an argument.” What do you say it means?
Louise: “A desire for more cows.”
Weber: Pack your bags.

Ian: [reading from a book by Louise] “Language is the foundation of civilization. It is the glue that holds a people together. It is the first weapon drawn in a conflict.”
Louise: That’s quite a greeting.
Ian: Yeah, well, you wrote it.
Louise: Yeah. It’s the kind of thing you write as a preface. Dazzle them with the basics. Ian: Yeah, it’s great. Even if it’s wrong.
Louise: It’s wrong?
Ian: Well, the cornerstone of civilization isn’t language, it’s science.
Weber: Ian is a theoretical physicist from los Alamos.

Ian: Priority one: What do they want and where are they from? And beyond that, how did they get here? Are they capable of faster-than-light travel? I’ve prepared a list of questions to go over, starting with a series of “handshake” binary sequences…
Louise: How about we just talk to them before we start throwing math problems at them? Weber: This is why you’re both here.

Louise [inside the “ship”]: So, what happens now?
Weber: They arrive.

Weber [looking at Louise’s equivalent of an electronic chalkboard]: What’s that for?
Louise: A visual aid. Look, I’m never gonna be able to speak their words, if they are talking, but they might have some sort of written language or basis for visual communication.

Weber: Everything you do in there, I have to explain to a room full of men whose first and last question is… “How can this be used against us?” So you’re gonna have to give me more than that.
Louise: Kangaroo.
Weber: What is that?
Louise: In 1770, captain James Cook’s ship ran aground off the coast of Australia, and he led a party into the country, and they met the aboriginal people. One of the sailors pointed at the animals that hop around and put their babies in their pouch, and he asked what they were, and the aborigine said, “kangaroo.”
Weber: And the point is?
Lousie: It wasn’t till later that they learned that “kangaroo” means “I don’t understand.” So, I need this so that we don’t misinterpret things in there. Otherwise, this is gonna take 10 times as long.
Weber: I can sell that for now. But I need you to submit your vocabulary words before the next session. Fair. And remember what happened to the aborigines. A more advanced race nearly wiped them out.
[Weber leaves]
Ian: It’s a good story.
Lousise: Thanks. It’s not true. But it proves my point.

Weber [looking at Louise’s list of words for the aliens]: These are all grade-school words: Eat, walk. Help me understand.
[Louise writes “What is your purpose on Earth” on chalkboard]
Louise: Tghis is where you want us to get to right?
Weber: That is the question.
Louise: Okay. So, first, we need to make sure that they understand what a question is. Okay, the nature of a request for information along with a response. Then, we need to clarify the difference between a specific “you” and a collective “you,” because we don’t wanna know why Joe alien is here, we want to know why they all landed. And purpose requires an understanding of intent. We need to find out: Do they make conscious choices? Or is their motivation so instinctive that they don’t understand a “why” question at all? And…and biggest of all we need to have enough vocabulary with them that we understand their answer.

Louise: They have names. So, what are we gonna call them?
Ian: I don’t know. I was thinking Abbott and Costello.

Ian [voiceover]: Here are some of the many things we don’t know about heptapods. Greek. Hepta, “seven.” Pod, “foot.” Seven feet. Heptapod. Who are they? Trying to answer this in any meaningful way is hampered by the fact that, outside being able to see them and hear them, the heptapods leave absolutely no footprint. The chemical composition of their spaceship is unknown. The shell emits no waste, no gas, no radiation. Assuming that the shells communicate with each other, they do so without detection. The air between the shells is untroubled by Sonic emission or light wave. Are they scientists? Or tourists? If they’re scientists, they don’t seem to ask a lot of questions. Why did they park where they did? The world’s most decorated experts can’t crack that one.

Ian [voiceover]: How do they communicate? Here, Louise is putting us all to shame. The first breakthrough was to discover that there’s no correlation between what a heptapod says and what a heptapod writes. Unlike all written human languages, their writing is semasiographic. It conveys meaning. It doesn’t represent sound. Perhaps they view our form of writing as a wasted opportunity, passing up a second communications channel. We have our friends in Pakistan to thank for their study of how heptapods write, because unlike speech, a logogram is free of time. Like their ship or their bodies, their written language has no forward or backward direction. Linguists call this non-linear orthography, which raises the question, “is this how they think?” Imagine you wanted to write a sentence using two hands, starting from either side. You would have to know each word you wanted to use, as well as how much space they would occupy. A heptapod can write a complex sentence in two seconds, effortlessly. It’s taken us a month to make the simplest reply. Next, expanding vocabulary. Louise thinks it could easily take another month to be ready for that.

Louise [to Ian]: Trust me, you can understand communication and still end up single.

Talk radio host: First contact with whoever it is that is inside that thing, and who’s running the show? The government. That’s right, folks, the same government who ruined our healthcare and bankrupted our military. Look at these people! Most of them don’t even have guns! We could be facing a full-scale invasion. Our president’s willing to sit back and let them waltz in and take our country. We are falling asleep at the wheel, people! You know what I’m talking about. I know you do. What if the smartest thing we could do right now would be to give them a show of force? I’m talking about a shot across the bow. What do you think?

Ian: I was doing some reading. If you immerse yourself into a foreign language, then you can actually rewire your brain.
Louise: Yeah, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. It’s the theory that the language you speak determines how you think and…
Ian: Yeah, it affects how you see everything.

Louise: Following suit. Suits. Suits, honor, flowers. Colonel, those are all tile sets in mah-jongg. God, are they… Are the Chinese using a game to converse with their heptapods?
Weber: Maybe. Why?
Louise: Well, let’s say that I taught them chess instead of English. Every conversation would be a game. Every idea expressed through opposition, victory, defeat. You see the problem? If all I ever gave you was a hammer…
Weber: Everything’s a nail…We need to ask the big question. Ready or not.

Louise: Heptapods’ purpose. Heptapod purpose earth. What is your purpose?
Ian: Okay. There you are. What does it say?
Louise: Offer weapon.
Soldier: You saw what they wrote!
Louise: Using a word they don’t fully understand.
Ian: Could be a request.
Soldier: A warning.
Weber: Enough! Louise?
Louise: We don’t know if they understand the difference between a weapon and a tool. Our language, like our culture, is messy, and sometimes, one can be both.
Ian: And it’s quite possible that they’re asking us to offer them something, not the other way around. It’s like the first part of a trade.
Weber: So, how do we clarify their intentions beyond those two words?
Louise: Well, I go back in.

Louise: I can read it. I know what it is.
Ian: What?
Louise: It’s not a weapon. It’s a gift. The weapon is their language. They gave it to us. Do you know what that means?
Weber: So we can learn heptapod. If we survive.
Louside: If you learn it, when you really learn it, you begin to perceive time the way that they do, so you can see what’s to come. But time, it isn’t the same for them. It’s non-linear.

Zhang [to Louise in a surreal time loop]: I will never forget what you said. You told me my wife’s dying words.

Louise [voiceover]: So, Hannah, this is where your story begins. The day they departed. You all right? Despite knowing the journey and where it leads, I embrace it. And I welcome every moment of it.

Louise: If you could see your whole life from start to finish, would you change things?
Ian: Maybe I’d say what I felt more often. I-I don’t know.

Ian: You know, I’ve had my head tilted up to the stars for as long as i can remember. You know what surprised me the most? It wasn’t meeting them. It was meeting you.
Louise: I forgot how good it felt to be held by you.
Ian: You wanna make a baby?
Louise: Yes. Yeah. [/b]

There are few issues more politically charged than the right to bear arms. So when a film more or less revolves around it folks are likely to take sides.

Now, sometimes a film will try to be “balanced” in its assessment. Think for example Dead Man Walking and capital punishment. On the other hand, many “Hollywood” and/or “independent” projects tend to be really, really liberal.

Whatever that even means in America these days. A nation where the NRA more or less has a lock on both the legislative and executive branches of the government.

After all, the “gun industry” is always going to be about the right to make lots and lots of money selling guns.

And that’s the other focus of the film: lobbying. Here, money doesn’t talk, it screams. And all throughout the capitalist political economy. This is just one more snapshot of crony capitalism. Then it’s only a matter of whether a “principled protagonist” can make a difference. In other words, put a tiny dent in it all.

The NRA promptly despised it. On the other hand…

Ironically, the film’s message is not directed at gun control as much as it pulls back the curtain on the corruption and manipulation present among high-powered lobbyists in DC politics, with gun control operating merely as its topic of debate for a lobbying endeavor central to the film’s plot.

This film exposes how “the system” works. And some voters are even aware of it. But enough of them aren’t to sustain a ruling class decade after decade after decade. It’s almost the equivalent of a game though. Pieces are moved on the board and those who think more moves into the future win.

So it’s like this tug of war between principles and profit.

It’s not “based on a true story” however. So your guess is as good as mine regarding the extent to which this is typical or atypical of how the “game” really is played in Washington.

Look for the part about ends and means – that murky line between self-interest and doing the right thing, between the personal and the political.

IMDb

Upon the film’s theatrical release, the US gun lobby mounted an aggressive social media campaign, especially across middle America, encouraging their expansive membership to boycott and excoriate the film. This attack also transpired in the wake of Trump’s unexpected election to POTUS, further invigorating his base of supporters to tarnish the film’s credibility. It’s noted that very few of the film’s detractors even watched the film, nor judged it on its merits, yet they still believed the film carried a pro-gun-control message that threatened their constitutional rights. Their efforts were largely effective in adversely influencing the film’s box-office momentum. However, the film received high praise from critics and audiences who viewed it, and its fanfare on home video and digital HD has largely vindicated the false rhetoric and manipulated ratings that was propogated by the NRA and its hardcore supporters.

trailer: youtu.be/AMUkfmUu44k
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Sloane

MISS SLOANE [2016]
Directed by John Madden

[b]Elizabeth [more or less to the camera]: Lobbying is about foresight. About anticipating your opponent’s moves and devising counter measures. The winner plots one step ahead of the opposition. And plays her trump card just after they play theirs…It’s about making sure you surprise them. And they don’t surprise you.

Elizabeth: I’m going to tell you a story.
Pat: Please, no!
Elizabeth: A priest is giving a young nun a lift home from church one day… and as he’s shifting gears, he rests his hand on the nun’s knee… This is offensive and inappropriate. The young nun looks up at the priest and says: “Father, remember Luke 14:10.” The priest withdraws his hand, embarrassed. Next time they stop at a light, he places his hand a little higher up on her thigh. The nun says: “Remember Luke 14:10, Father.” The priest apologizes: “The flesh is weak”, he says… So he drops her off and when he gets home, he reaches for his Bible and he flips to Luke 14:10. Anyone know what it says? Hm? What does it say, Pat?
Pat: “Friend, come up higher, then shalt thou have glory.”
Elizabeth: Know your subject, people!

Sanford: Our polling data is telling us that we’re not connecting with the female voter, so… we want to change the narrative… from mothers losing their kids to guns… to mothers protecting their kids with guns… from a battered wife threatened by a bullet… to fending off her violent husband with a .38. Guns as tools of female empowerment…
George: What’s the saying? God created humans…
Sanford: …and Samuel Colt made 'em equal.

George: I don’t remember you caring ever, one way or another, about guns.
Elizabeth: My position solidified somewhere between Columbine and Charleston. Come on, George, any headcase, felon or terrorist can buy an assault rifle from a gun show, the Internet or his buddy at the Bowl-O-Rama without so much as an ID. Heaton-Harris puts a stop to that.
George: Christ, Liz, this is the gun lobby. Do you have any idea how long I’ve been trying to reel them in?

George [to Elizabeth]: The only reason you and your team of gum-chewing ragamuffins are here… is that your arrogant pranks might generate enough buzz to attract clients like Bill Sandford. Meaning, if you don’t dedicate yourself to his cause. This firm won’t have any use for you. Now go away. Look into those numbers. Start getting women into guns!

Rodolfo: Will you admit that the present system is broken?
Elizabeth: I remain committed to the Second Amendment.
Rodolfo: Dildos are illegal in Texas, but Joe Public can walk into a sports store and walk out with a shotgun.
Elizabeth: That would explain the low rate of dildo-related murders in Texas.

Elizabeth [to Jane on the phone]: Listen, uhh, if Socrates never wrote anything, how is it anyone’s ever heard of him?

Elizabeth [to her team]: I am leaving Cole Kravitz and starting work as the lead consultant for the Brady Campaign at Peterson Wyatt. I’ve secured positions for everyone in this room without changing your current compensation. So who’s with me on this?
Pat: I just spent the last hour wiping your shit off Bill Sandford’s shoes. Assuring him that your the right lady to broaden his membership. We’re INCHES from a green fuckin’ light! Elizabeth: So you’re saying I should put you down as a “Maybe”?

Elizabeth: Ramirez, how many TEC-9s do you own again?
Ramirez: Enough to defend my property. Plus two more to piss of the lefties.

Sen. Sperling: Ms. Sloane. Welcome to the party.

Elizabeth: Calm down, Daniel. You’re starting to look like you care.
Daniel: No, I don’t care about you any further than I can throw you. I work for the one ethical lobbying practice on the Hill and I wind up defending the…the poster child for the most morally bankrupt profession since faith-healing.

Sanders: Look, there’s over 5 million of us and we’re armed. We’ve beaten this kind of Bill before. We’ll beat it again. They’ll make a lot of noise, they’ll wave their banners. But in the end, it’s so predictable.
Jane: She’s not predictable. She aims to surprise. She’ll share things with her team but she won’t share everything. She’ll have a plan for certain people but they won’t know until they’re dropped right into the middle of it.

Elizabeth [to the team]: We’re all here to ensure safe passage of the Heaton-Harris Bill into Federal law. How do we do it?
Esme: Realistically, we don’t. We fight as hard as we can, build a strong base of support… so we have a better chance when we introduce the next Heaton-Harris or the one after that. I didn’t just move across town with the aim of losing as slowly as possible? Name and seniority?
Esme: Esme Manucharian. 9 years.

Elizabeth: Ok, Esme, why are we gonna lose?
Esme: For every dollar Brady spends on campaign contributions do you know how much the gun lobby spends?
The team in unison: 38!
Elizabeth: So politicians bow to money…but why? It’s not going into their pocket that’d be bribery.
Cynthia: Like what the Indonesians just did to Senator Jacobs?
Elizabeth: That was legal bribery for educational purposes but yes…A Senator’s priority isn’t representing the people. It’s keeping his ass in office.
Cynthia: That is so cynical!
Elizabeth: Cynical is a word used by PollyAnnas to domate an absence of the naivete they so keenly exhibit.[/b]

Cue the reality:

[b] Clara: If senators only care about protecting their positionwouldn’t that make them slaves to public opinion? Polling data puts a majority of Americans in favor of Heaton-Harris.
Elizabeth: And that’s exactly why you keep losing…
Rodolfo: Well, this is actually our first crack at guns but I take your point.
Team member: What point?
Rodolfo: Public opinion is overrated. Return re-election for senators was 82%. The voter turnout was 36%.
Esme: I’ll bet most of them were paid up members of the gun lobby.
Elizabeth: Thank you!
Rodolfo: Our opposition has created a base of voters vast and fanatical who go out and vote exclusively on the issue of guns.

Elizabeth [to the team]: Come on, arguments and rebuttals. Let’s have it! Wake up!
Team Member: It’s the first step toward a National Register of firearms.
Elizabeth: Scaremongering, no one’s even come close to proposing that. And if they did, it would have it’s own day in Congress. Next.
Team memnber: And it’s 2 steps away from confiscation.
Elizabeth: The gun lobby’s rhetoric is based on the falsehood that we want to take something away from people. We don’t. We want to make it more difficult for dangerous people to buy firearms. If we can’t burst this fallacy, we may as well go home.
Team member: The new rules will increase wait times by 2 weeks.
Elizabeth: Welcome to America, where you’ll wait 6 months for an X-ray but hey you can buy an AR-15 in 5 minutes flat![/b]

Then there’s this part:

[b]Elizabeth: Forde, human interaction is an exchange, my money for your…
Forde: Dick.
Elizabeth: I was gonna say skill-set. But that’s only exchange I’m willing to make.
Forde: You sound like a banker.

Elizabeth: Everyone turn to tab 9, please.
Cynthia: I don’t have anything at tab 9.
Rodolfo: Security, lock down Cynthia Green’s desk. Secure her files and her hard drives and escort her off the premises. Your Blackberry, now! Now! Let’s go.
Cynthia: He offered me a partnership track.
Elizabeth: Good luck with that.
Rodolfo: Clear the office. Come on, come on! Everybody out!

Little Sam: Ever hear the expression: “fly on the wall”? Meet the cutting edge in eavesdropping. Rodolfo: It’s a cockroach.
Little Sam: Which can be retrofitted into the cybernetic robo-roach. We glue electrodes to it’s antennae perforate the thorax so we can control it’s movements from our link.
Elizabeth: Don’t call PETA, Schmidt.
Big Sam: These guys can crawl under doors, into crevices, bags… completely undetected. They can go weeks without food and still be mobile.

Jon [on television]: There were 372 mass shootings last year…64 school shootings…and there are over 300 million guns in our country. If background checks are to be of any use they should apply to all gun sales, not just some. Isn’t that what Heaton-Harris is proposing?
Pat: The Bill expand the scope of gun regulation. And it’s yet another affront to Americans’ constitutional rights…
Elizabeth: No. The Bill closes an absurd loophole which allows people on Terrorist Watchlists to buy guns without any check whatsoever.
Pat: It’s an incursion into individual liberty by an all-powerful government…
Elizabeth: What, like Drivers licenses?
Pat: Drivers licenses?
Elizabeth: It’s illegal to operate a car without going through rigorous theoretical and practical assessments…You know, in Japan, chefs train for 7 years before they’re allowed to serve a poisonous blow-fish call Fugu.
Pat: What does any of this have to do with background checks?
Elizabeth: Does anyone in this room think that the government should abolish drivers licenses? That’s absurd. Why? They are a government incursion into individual liberty. We accept them because they make sense. The more dangerous the machinery, the more rigorous the test should be. I think we can extend our definition of dangerous machinery to semi-automatic firearms.
Pat: Except the Second Amendment to the Constitution doesn’t guarantee the right to drive cars… or operate machinery or serve blow-fish, for that matter. It guarantees the right to keep and bear arms. Perhaps you haven’t read it lately. The bill infringes the rights of the people to keep and bear arms!
Elizabeht: Nothing in the bill infringes on the rights of the people to keep and to bear arms. The Second Amendment was signed in a time when the average life expectancy was 38 and it was common practice for our Founding Fathers to resolve their differences at dawn, in a gunfight. What may have been perfectly sensible in those alien times, is wholly inadequate to solve the problems of the present…
Rodolfo [watching the debate on TV]: That’s not a rebuttal! What is she doing? [/b]

Then she really goes off the deep end. Straight from the heart and the gut.

[b]Elizabeth: If they could produce a rational winning argument, I’d gladly migrate to their side… but because it says so in the Constitution, the Bible or my horoscope…What? It’s not a winning argument. It’s a ripcord. An intellectual equivalent of a yellow, pant-pissing wimp cowering behind Mommy’s skirts.
Pat: Why don’t we bring this back…
Elizabeth: No, no, no! Let’s not! Why don’t we ask all the mothers out there who lost their children to an armed sociopath if they believe in his unimpeachable, constitutional right to bear arms. Why not ask a terrified girl who locked herself in a janitor’s closet at Bloomington High, forced to listen as her peers were massacred? Go ahead, ask her! Her name is Esme Manucharian. She’s standing right there!
[she points towards Esme]

Elizabeth: I won’t insult your intelligence by claiming that that came out in the heat of the moment.
Esme: How far back?
Elizabeth: Once I started getting used to all the media.
Esme: Ok. Day 1. Wow! That dinner that night, you asked me if I’d go public like if it was the difference between victory and defeat. What if I’d said no? Would you still have done it? Elizabeth: Probably. I was hired to win and I have a responsibility to use whatever resource I have. The press we’re gonna get from this, it’s practically a dereliction of duty not to…
Esme: That’s it? I’m a “resource”?
Elizabeth: Professionally, yes!

Rodolfo: You’re a piece of work, Elizabeth. If you want to set yourself on fire to service your need to win, I won’t protest… But Esme?
Elizabeth: The end is my concern…you liberal goodie-goodies can fret over the means. You need me. [/b]

Then she tells him why.

[b]Elizabeth: My God! I tell you we’re back in the game, and all you can say is that?
Rodolfo: You knew you were going to screw Esme tonight. So you kept this from me to blindside me before I had a chance to fire you…
Elizabeth: You have an unusual insight for a boutique lobbyist.
Rodolfo: You’ve been pulling all the strings all along.
Elizabeth: Lobbying’s about foresight, you anticipate your opponent’s moves, you devise countermeasures…
Rodolfo: I am not your fucking opponent! Were you ever normal? As a child? Or were the the twisted thought processes in your mind hardwired in the womb? Because I am having a really hard time understanding how somebody gets to this.
Elizabeth: I guess I’m just a piece of work.

Elizabeth: I didn’t know where the line was, Esme. I never, never know where the line is. Obviously, take all the time you want and when you’re ready, we’d love to have you back on the campaign. Your own terms. No media, you can work behind the scenes. If you don’t want to work with me, I’ll resign from the campaign. If that’s what you want.
Esme: Is that your move to get me back at my desk? You want me in front of a camera to counter Frank McGill? It even crossed my mind that this was all you. You just didn’t account for an armed civilian right behind me.
Elizabeth: Esme…
Esme: I’ll keep fighting, Elizabeth. Wherever I can make a difference. But as far as possible away from you. You crossed the line when you stopped treating people with respect. You’re smart enough to know that. You just don’t care.

Sen Sperling: I’m committed to Heaton-Harris. I can’t vote for it with one hand and choke it with the other.
George: Under cover of impartiality, sure you can. You’ve been a vocal critic of lobbyists in the past. You’ll begin an inquiry into Sloane’s affairs in response to growing media pressure regarding her litany of misdeeds.
Sen Sperling: The cost of hearings is paid from the public purse.
George: Ron, our clients have identified you as the man to pull this off. If you refuse, I can’t stop them from blitzing you with negative finance. They won’t stop until they annihilate you. You know the root of the word “annihilate”? It’s Latin. It means reduced to nothing.

Elizabeth [before the Senate committee]: I have been censored by the press and by this hearing as a parasite on American democracy. It’s insinuated that I led the fight for increased gun regulation in the interest of my career. Sometimes we act not for ourselves but because we believe, plainly and simply, it is the right thing to do. I believe the Heaton-Harris Bill is the right thing to do. But I also recognize that this wasn’t what motivated me. When I was offered a position on the campaign, I was enthralled at the challenge. My decision to accept was based on my desire to win and to win bigger than I ever had before. It’s clear that my behavior has fallen well short of acceptable ethical standards. I’ve crossed lines with devastating consequences in the service of my obsession. I have betrayed the people closest to me. I have endangered lives. I deserve censure for this far more than any filing irregularity. When they consider the Heaton-Harris Bill I wish that each member of Congress would follow the example set, not by me but by the group of people that sit behind me who have made great sacrifices in the name of doing what they believe is right. I wish that those members would use their votes not in the interests of their political advancement but for what they believe is right for their country. But I know my wishes are wasted and that this will never happen because our system is rotten. It doesn’t reward honest politicians who vote with their conscience it rewards rats who are willing to sell out their country to keep their noses in the trough. Make no mistake. These rats are the real parasites on American democracy. I anticipated, if we had sufficient success in lobbying for the Heaton-Harris Bill there may be an assault against me personally to stall our momentum and to damage our credibility…Lobbying is about foresight about anticipating your opponent’s moves and devising countermeasures. The winner plots one step ahead of the opposition and plays their trump card just after they play theirs.[/b]

The standard liberal agenda, isn’t? Maybe, but then she reveals her own trump card. Cue the cockroach.

[b]Jane: I’d like to discuss my future.
Pat: This is hardly the time, cookie.
Jane: Actually, it is the time.
[She hands him an envelope]
Pat: The fuck is this?
Jane: My resignation. Academia is more my scene.

Elizabeth [to the room]: Input the following address into your browser: 193.184.216.449. Download a file named: “earthquake”.[/b]

If only it could be like this in “reality”.

[b]Pat [visiting Elizabeth in prison]: You look good!
Elizabeth: Prison’s not so bad if you don’t have a penis. We don’t shank each other, we form self-help groups. There’s a black market in lip gloss.

Pat: Was this really worth your career?
Elizabeth: Career suicide’s not so bad when you consider the alternative is suicide by career. [/b]