philosophy in film

Best friends. Almost everybody has one. And those who don’t prabably want one.

On the other hand, where do you draw the line with them? In other words, for those who do have best friends, you never really know when you might be confronted with that. The circumstances might vary considerably, but there it is: the commitment.

What are you willing to do for your best friend? What are you obligated to do? Where do you draw the line?

And, this being a movie, the circumstances are volatile indeed. Collin is out on paraole. He’s a black man confronting the final three days of his probation. Above all else, he must stay out of trouble. Only, as we suspect, Miles, his own best friend, who is white, is almost never not in trouble.

Then the part about race, the part about class, the part about gentrification, the part about police brutality, the part about tumbling into an urban world [Oakland, California] that is going through changes. You can’t go back, you don’t want to go back, but the path forward is strewn with uncertainty. And so much is at stake.

Also, the film explores the idea that someone’s behaviors can only really be understodd as a “a product of his environment”. We are shaped and molded by the world we lived in, by the world we grew up in. How much of that has to be taken into account when the time comes to make some changes yourself?

But then the part where Collin is rapping to the cop. I mean, come on.

Look for “heightened language”.

IMDb

Structurally, the film is close to a Shakespearean play with a small epilogue. The main action of the film is bookended by classical references: the opening montage of Oakland is not set to hip hop or other urban music, as is the norm for other “gritty city” films, but to an operatic chorus from Verdi’s " La Traviata" “Libiamo ne’ lieti calici” (“Let’s drink from the joyful cups”), and the “Shakespearean” rap.

trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt7242142/tr … =ttqu_sa_1
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindspotting
trailer: youtu.be/-9-HBqVbtTo

Blindspotting [2018]
Directed by Carlos López Estrada

Judge [to Collin]: All right. Now that you have completed your two-month sentence at Alameda County Jail, Santa Rita, you will proceed to a halfway house facility to begin your one-year probation period. You will have an 11:00 p.m. curfew, maintain employment, carry out assigned chores. Do not travel outside of Alameda County, and have zero altercations with law enforcement under any circumstances. Any infraction, fighting, drug use, et cetera, will result in immediate return to Santa Rita. Mr. Hoskins. Mr. Hoskins. Mr. Hoskins. Mr. Hoskins. Give me a verbal confirmation that you’ve heard and understood these parameters.
Collin [who seems to be somewhat in a daze]: Yeah.

Title card: 11 months, 27 days later…3 days left on probation.

[b]Collin: Nigga, I got three days left on this probation, Miles, so let me on out of the car.

Collin: Nigga, why are there six guns in your car, Dezz?!

Collin: Hey, man, do me a favor. When you got that gun on you, just don’t tell me about it. Plausible deniability.
Miles: What gun are you talking about, Collin?
[Miles pulls out a handgun]
Miles: Oh! Oh, do you mean this gun?!

Collin: I, uh, saw the cops kill a nigga last night.
Miles: Ooh. What you mean you saw it?
Collin: Dude runs up past the truck and then the cops came up, shot him.
Miles: Is he dead?
Collin: Oh, yeah, he dead. They shot him like four times.
Miles: I mean, that don’t necessarily mean he dead. Not like they shot him 14 times like that motherfucker out in Milwaukee.

Newsman [on TV] After a pursuit in West Oakland last night, a dramatic standoff with police left one suspect dead.
Miles: This the shit you saw?
Newsman: He was evading arrest by fleeing down Adeline Street towards West Grand…
Miles: You see this cop?
Collin: Yeah, I saw him.
Newsman: …police officers fired four shots, killing the man.
Miles: This cop see you?
Collin: Yeah.
Miles: What, then you just left?
Collin: I mean, it was after 11:00. What I’m supposed to do?
Miles: But you’re a witness. You’re not gonna leave like a statement or some shit?
Collin [pretending to be phinong the police]: “Hello, police? I’d like to report a murder you did. I was out after curfew. Yeah, I’m a convicted felon. All right. Back to jail? Yeah, tomorrow works for me. What time?”

Nancy [Collin’s mother]: You really couldn’t find an apartment? The whole damn city got a “For Rent” sign on it.
Collin: “Have you ever been convicted of a felony? If so, what is the nature of your crime?”
Nancy: Well, whose fault is that?
Collin: Damn.

Mama Liz: How do I know these things even work?!

Collin: I was driving, but if he reach across me and honk the horn, then what I’m supposed to do?
Val: Collin, just take some responsibility for the things that are happening around you.
Collin: I’m not denying it. I’m just saying that maybe this time it wasn’t the black guy with dreads that did it.
Val: Now if you could just get rid of all this hair. You’d almost look…
Collin: Less blamable?

James [from the Halfway House]: You’re late, Mr. Hoskins.
Collin: You just stand there all day? Isn’t this something we could automate?
James: You want a robot telling you to mop the bathroom? How about a robot that just mops the bathroom? Then I can go get some sleep.
Collin: Solutions oriented. See, I like that.
James: Even better. How about motherfuckers just don’t get arrested for dumb shit?
Collin: I see where we’re going here, but if we could just get to it…
James: Then I don’t have to enforce seemingly arbitrary tasks to establish your ability to follow rules as a representation of law.
Collin: Arbitrary. That’s the word right there.
James: Don’t make me write you up for your last week. The judge will extend your time here a year. And then your little map box sentence starts over.
Collin: Convicted on dirty bathroom charges?
James: You are now a convicted felon, Mr. Hoskins. You are now that until proven otherwise. Prove otherwise at all times.
Collin: Got it.[/b]

Title card: Last day on probation.

[b]Collin [to Miles]: Didn’t she say something about a boat?

Collin: What is your problem with Val?
Miles: Val is a disloyal bitch. When you were in jail, did she put money on your books? Uh, did she come visit you even one time at Rita while you were locked up? 'Cause I’m pretty sure I went two times a week, 45 minutes each way. $500 on your book on day one.
Collin: Hey, she talked to me on the phone.
Miles: How gracious of her to have called you once. And what did she want to talk to you about? About changing up your lifestyle? Changing up your ways? You’re not a thug, drug dealer! You went to jail on a fire technicality.
Collin: Did I?
Miles: Yes! How were we supposed to know that hipsters are so flammable?[/b]

Cue Topher and the Scorpion Bowl

[b]Val: Collin and his white friend stomped that drunk dude until he was unconscious. He was in the hospital for a week? And all over a drink.

Val: You’re about to get a fresh restart. You need to get rid of Miles.
Collin: Miles is my best friend.
Val: Yeah, is he? 'Cause I know you guys grew up together, but he’s gonna put you back in jail or he’s gonna get you fucking killed.
Collin: Miles had my back since we were 11 years old. When I went to jail, Miles came and saw me all the time.
Val: I’m not talking about this with you again. He came to visit you out of guilt. ‘Cause he pushed you into a fight, and he didn’t go to jail with you. What if that dude had had a gun? What if Miles’ dumb ass had a gun? What if the cops showed up and they saw you stomping that white dude? Who do you think they would have shot? Miles?
Collin: Good night, Val.

Sid [one of the gentrification yuppies]: What the fuck you think you’re doing, man? Come on, this is my fucking house! Get the fuck out of here, man!
Woman: Get the hell out!
Man: Yeah, dude, go home.
Miles: Get the fuck out of where? Huh? Get the fuck out of where?
[Miles pulls out his gun]
Woman: He’s got a gun!
Miles [firing the gun]: Y’all get the fuck out of here! Y’all get the fuck out! Oh, yeah, y’all love Oakland now, huh? Get the fuck out of here! Go!

Collin [about Terry]: That is Nak’s partner!
Miles: I don’t give a fuck who the fuck it is! Nak’s partner, is that yo’ partner? No! Is that yo’ partner? No! You know how many times I’da have yo’ back out here? How many motherfucking times I’da stepped up fo yo’ ass? Huh? And you didn’t do shit to help me! - Collin: Because…
Mies: Look at my face, bruh!
Collin: Because it was fucking stupid, Miles!
Miles: Look who the fuck I am? Where the fuck I am, Collin? That’s how the fuck I survive out here! You wanna act brand-new, then fine. Go ahead. Be a hipster, get a tech job or some shit. And go act like you don’t know where the fuck you from!
Collin: I ain’t got to prove to nobody where the fuck I’m from!
Miles: Oh, good for you!
Collin: Nigga, you got something to prove to everybody!
Miles: Yeah? That’s ‘cause I’m livin’ somewhere where now everybody got me fucked up! You ain’t gotta do shit! You ain’t gotta…You ain’t gotta worry about you changing up your clothes or your lifestyle. You ain’t gotta worry about none of that shit! You’re a big black dude with fucking braids in Oakland! Nobody is misreading you, Collin.

Collin: Say it.
Miles: What?
Collin: Say “nigga.”
Miles: Oh, fuck you!
Collin: Say it! Say, “Yeah, my nigga!”
Miles: No, and you know…Cause you know I don’t say that shit! But what?
Collin: So it’s okay for me to call you nigga, nigga?
Miles: You been calling me that since we were fucking 12 years old. I’m not gonna stop you now. Do what the fuck you want to, -say what you want to say.
Collin: Nigga, if that is so disrespectful, then why is it okay for me to call you that? You’re a fucking nigga! You’re a fucking nigga, Miles!
Miles: Why are we talking about…
Collin: You out here acting an ass like it ain’t no fucking consequences for that shit. And every nigga who sees me thinks that I do the same dumb, fuckin’ ignorant, gun-carrying shit that you do! But I’ve been taking care of my shit! I fucking…Don’t I do our timecards every week? I pick us up. I keep you out of dumb shit, and then what do you do? You go out and you buy a fucking gun for what? For your family? You are the nigger that they are out here looking for!

Miles [after Collin turns and walks away from him]: Where the fuck you goin’? Where the fuck are you goin’? Collin! Collin! Well then, fuck you then! You hear that? Then, fuck you then!

Ashley: Well, maybe if you niggas weren’t so wild all the fuckin’ time.
Miles: Could you not call me that?
Ashley: What, “nigga”?
Miles: Yeah, can you not call me that, please?
Ashley: Okay.

Collin [on the phone]: How’s the memorizing coming?
Val: Yeah, just trying to learn these psych terms.
Collin: What did you come up with for the double picture one? The face and the vase one? Val: Oh, I like that one. It was “blindspotting.”
Collin: Why “blindspotting”?
Val: 'Cause it’s all about how you can look at something, and there can be another thing there that you aren’t seeing. So you got a blind spot.
Collin: But if somebody points out the other picture to you, doesn’t that make it not a blind spot anymore?
Val: No, 'cause you can’t go against what your brain wants to see first. Unless you spend the time to retrain your brain, which is hella hard, so you’re always gonna be instinctually blind to the spot you weren’t seeing.
[Collin says nothing]
Val: Collin?
Collin: When you look at me now, do you always see the fight first?[/b]

Title card: First day off probation.

[b]Collin [holding a gun on the ex-cop Molina who killed Randall]: Does this scare you, huh? Fuck you know about being scared? Were you afraid someone was gonna come find you? Huh?
Miles: Bruh.
Collin: What? Nigga, I’m just…I’m just talking to him! Ha! You said make it pretty, right? It’s the bounce of it. They like the bounce of it. Like a tree on a sign, nigga, we cut right down. Paul Bunyan-ass cops, come to chop me at the knees and search the trunk in my own town. Did you count his rings when you bled him? When you dead him? Do you understand? How old was he? Nigga, how old was he?
Ex-cop: He was 26.
Twenty-six? That’s how many years you decided didn’t mean shit. All this talking don’t mean shit. I mean, shit!

Collin [to the ex-cop]: The difference between me and you is…I ain’t no killer. I ain’t no killer.

Ex-cop [after Collin leaves the room]: I didn’t mean to.
Miles: Are you sure?[/b]

There have been 4 of them in the “modern era”: Really big scandals involving the White House. Watergate [Nixon], Iran-Contra [Reagan], Whitewater-Lewinsky [Clinton] and now Putin and the Russians [Trump].

But none of them were quite as effective as Iran-Contra in exposing what many truly do construe to be a “deep state” here in America. And it basically revolves around a foreign policy embraced by both Democratic and Republican presidents bent on sustaining the needs of Wall Street. And, in particular, those banks and corporations that profit [considerably] from sustaining the military industrial complex. Intertwined in a corporate media bent on sustaining what can only really be described as a “war economy”.

It’s all about the bucks. About obtaining and then sustaining markets and natural resources and cheap labor. About those who own and operate the global economy from our side of the fence.

Ah, but even stuff as [at times] brutally serious as this has room for “characters”. And Barry Seal can certainly be described as one of them: “the gringo that always delivers”.

Then it comes down to the extent to which these “characters” have any idea at all as to what [politically and economically] lies behind the tasks that they are recruited to do by those who operate behind the curtain. At the CIA for example. For some, sure, it’s just a lucrative “job”; for others, a “wild adventure”.

Not everyone can be Ollie North. J.B. for example.

After all, it takes all kinds to get these deep-state “missions” accomplished.

Look for the parts where the film transfigures into a situation comedy. Also, the parts where you’re thinking, “holy shit, did this stuff actually happen?!!”

Sort of.

Still, there are folks who will watch this film and continue to make the claim that American foreign policy is not entirely predicated on the interests of Wall Street and the military industrial [media] complex. That there is in fact no “deep state” calling the shots from behind the curtains. It’s all about spreading “democracy” around the globe.

Even some here no doubt.

IMDb

[b]Barry Seal looked nothing like Tom Cruise. He was a big heavy-set guy nicknamed “El Gordo” by members of the Medellin Cartel, which translates to “the fat one”.

Doug Liman has described the film as “a fun lie based on a true story.”

Five U.S. Presidents are characterized, mentioned or have appeared in this movie: Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Features the Iran-Contra affair senate hearings where Arthur L. Liman, father of director Doug Liman, served as chief counsel.[/b]

trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt3532216/tr … tt_trv_trv
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Made_(film
trailer: youtu.be/HG9lMOUtyXc

American Made [2017]
Directed by: Doug Liman

[b]Monty [from the CIA]: Barry Seal?
Barry: That’s right.
Monty: You have a drop off and pick up service here every other Thursday. Cuban exiles. They pay commercial pilots to smuggle homegrown contraband through Canadian hubs. Vancouver, Montreal. Right?
Barry: I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Monty: No?
Barry: No.
Monty: You’re smuggling cigars.

Monty: Revolution’s in the air, Barry. Central America, right now. We’re building nations down there, Barry. We’re building nations. It’s America at its fucking finest. And we could use someone like you.
Barry: Goddamn. You’re CIA.
Monty: Shh.

Barry: CIA owns this plane?
Monty: No. No. Uh, Independent Aviation Consultants.
Barry: IAC.
Monty: Yeah.
Barry: Well, what is that? What do they call them? One of them front groups? Is that…
Monty: No, no, no. It’s as real as IBM. You’d run the company, but after hours, you work for us.

Barry [noting the cameras under the plane]: Takes pictures?
Monty: We say it “collects intelligence.”
Barry: Where? Russia?
Mointy: South of the border, north of the equator. Let’s just say, uh, “enemies of democracy.”[/b]

Or, perhaps, enemies of Wall Street?

[b]Barry: All of this is legal?
Monty: If you’re doing it for the good guys, yeah. Just don’t get caught.

Barry: It’s new business. It’s gonna be my business.
Lucy [wife]: Okay.
Barry: Logistical support for airports.
Lucy: Okay. And you’re calling it IAC? What do you know about business? You are a TWA airline pilot. That’s how you support this family.
Barry: This is gonna be good for us, all right?
Lucy: What about benefits? Our healthcare? We have great healthcare with TWA.
Barry: That’s…You know, I’m sure that’s not gonna be a problem.
Lucy: And what the hell does IAC mean, anyway?
Barry: Independent Aviation Consultants.
Lucy: Well, that sounds fuckin’ made up, Barry.
Barry: It does?

Barry [voiceover]: I do tend to leap before I look. Maybe, uh…Maybe I should have asked a few more questions. Anyway, it was back in '78 and, uh…It was September? October. Anyway, it, uh…That was the day I joined the CIA. Now, in those days, the Cold War was in full swing. The Soviets were backing communist insurgents all over Central America. And the CIA wanted snaps of them insurgents.

Barry [voiceover]: The CIA was so happy with my work, they gave me another job. Bagman. See, there was this colonel down in Panama named Noriega. And he was selling the agency’s intel on all the commies down there. My job was just to drop off and pick up. Just drop off and pick up.[/b]

Remember him?
Next up: Columbia, the Medellin Cartel and the cocaine connection. We’re getting closer.

[b]Jorge Ochoa: Good luck, hermano. Christ will keep you safe.
Barry: He ain’t gonna make this runway any longer.

Barry: See these fellas right here? I think they know that I am CIA.
Monty: You’re not CIA. You’re a drug smuggler, Barry. Listen. Louisiana PD was notified of your arrest here. They’re gonna raid your house at 6:00 a.m. They’re gonna pick up Lucy and bring her in for questioning. Maybe even keep her overnight.
Barry: Oh, my God. Oh, my God. You gotta get me out of here.
Monty: Well, maybe…Maybe we could figure something out.

Barry [voiceover to the camera]: Okay, you can…You can stop now if you want. 'Cause, believe me, shit gets crazy from here…Do you remember them fellas that I told you I was taking snaps of? Turns out they was a bunch of commies. Called themselves Sandinistas. These fellas manage to get their shit together and take control right here in this little country called Nicaragua. Theirs is the first successful revolution in Central America. Now, that may have bee bad news for some people, but not for me. See, there was a new sheriff in town.
[cut to Reagan on the TV]
Reagan: My fellow Americans, I must speak to you tonight about a mounting danger in Central America…
Barry [voiceover]: Even after everything that happened, I…I still love Ronnie Reagan. I mean, any man that can make it from that monkey movie all the way to the White House he’s gotta know what the hell he’s doing. And what he wanted was to kick them commie Sandinistas out of Nicaragua. And he wanted the Nicaraguan freedom fighters, called Contras, to do it.
Reagan [on TV]: They need to know that the U.S. supports them with more than just pretty words and good wishes.
Barry [voiceover]: But Congress, well, they smelled the makings of another Vietnam, and they outright refused to let Ronnie have his war. But do you think them politicians could tell the Gipper what to do? Hell no. He turned to the CIA, and the CIA turned to me.

Monty: So, this is all yours. Including everything between here and your house. Almost 2,000 acres. What do you think?
Barry: I own all this? This whole airport?
Monty: Yeah. Congratulations.

Monty: AK-47s. Soviet-made for the PLO. The Israelis captured these and then secretly traded them to us. And you’re gonna fly 'em to Nicaragua.
Barry: You didn’t say nothing about guns.
Monty: It’s a war, Barry. Freedom fighters can’t put up much of a fight if they aren’t armed. This was the deal. Or would you rather be in a Colombian prison?

Monty: This is every current law enforcement investigation on the Gulf Coast. FBI, ATF, DEA, Customs. These maps will help you avoid all of 'em.
Barry: Holy shit.
Monty: You’d just fly where they ain’t.

Barry: This bag is mine?
Monty: What bag?

Lucy [after Barry peppers the floor with bundles of money]: Is this all legal?
Barry: All right. What I’m about to tell you, you… You…You gotta swear you can’t ever tell anybody this, Lucy. All right?
[his voice drops to a whisper:
Barry: I…am…working…for…the…CIA.

Jorge Ochoa: Barry! Put the bat down, huevón. We’re all friends here.
Barry: Jorge. What the hell are you doing here?
Ochoa: This is Don Adolfo Calero. He works for your government on the revolution to bring down the Sandinistas.
Calero: Jorge tells me you are the crazy gringo who always delivers.
Ochoa: We have a new business proposition to you, Barry. You bring your American guns to Colombia, deliver our cocaine here, to the Contras, the Contras take it by fishing boats to Miami, and everybody’s happy.
Calero: It’s for the war effort, Mr. Seal.

Barry [voiceover]: Turns out, the Contras didn’t really want to fight a war. They just wanted to make money. Like the rest of us. Meanwhile, the Medellín Cartel wanted guns. So they worked out a little trade. What was I gonna tell 'em? I’m just a gring who always delivers. Here’s how the operation worked. I’d load up with guns in Mena, then, using Schafer’s intel I’d bypass any law enforcement and fly straight to the cartel’s airstrip in Medellín. The Colombians, well, they loved them guns. And I’d load up with fresh powder and fly on to the Contra training camp. The Contras hid the coke in fishing boats and sailed it up to Miami. Meanwhile, I’d get another load of powder, take it back to the States with a quick stop to refuel in Panama under the protection of my old friend, Colonel Noriega.[/b]

You know, all in the name of democracy.

[b]Monty [to Barry]: We need to borrow some of your land.

Barry [voiceover to the camera]: Them Contras were damn excited about being in the U.S. of A. And they were running away almost faster than we could bring 'em in.

Barry [voiceover]: I opened a few front corporations. But the money was coming in faster than I could launder it. I was taking pictures, delivering guns, dropping off and picking up. Damn, I was building an air force…I had my fingers in every pie on the rack. 10 million in Mena National, 12 million in Mena State, 15 in Mena Trust. I had 40 parked in Miami, 20 in Panama, 7 million in lawn bags, 8 in Samsonites, 4 buried in the woods behind my house, and 90 pounds of gold in my closet. Hot damn!vIf this ain’t the greatest country in the world!!

Barry [voiceover]: We had cash flooding in from every direction. Who… Who thought that was gonna be a problem? I mean…We were running out of places to put it.

Gary [reading from a newspaper]: “A plane crashed in Louisiana with 200 kilos of Colombian powder.” Two hundred.
Monty: Right.
Gary: Is that your boy?
Monty: I’m sorry, are you working for the fucking DEA now?
Gary: Interesting read.

Barry [voiceover]: I wasn’t the only one having trouble with the DEA. Pablo Escobar’s gone crazy and declared war on the government. Thanks to Pablo Escobar’s unique management style, the cartel found themselves kicked out of Colombia. The only place the DEA couldn’t touch him? That’s right. Nicaragua.

J.B: Jesus Christ! I’m fuckin’ family. We’re family!
Barry: That’s right. We’re family.
[Barry tosses a bag into the back seat]
J.B: What’s this?
Barry: Inside’s a passport, first-class ticket to Bora Bora, and enough cash…Enough cash to make a damn good life for yourself. Now, you’re gonna get in that car and you’re gonna drive straight to Dallas/Fort Worth airport. And nowhere else. You don’t even stop to take a piss. You hear me?
J.B.: Yeah, I hear you.
Barry: Good luck, kid.

CIA official: In the calendar year, your operations have transported 10,500 Russian AKs to the Contras.
Monty: Yeah.
CIA official: 5,000 of which have found themselves in the hands of the Colombian cartel.
Monty: Right. But…
CIA official: Out of the 916 Contras brought into the United States to train, only half made itback to Nicaragua.
Monty: Half is…
CIA official: The other half are in the wild.

Barry: What’s going on here?
Monty: Oh, yeah. We had to send the Contras home.
Barry: Home?
Monty: Yeah. They weren’t fighting. That’s the reality of that situation. You know, it didn’t help that their guns were in Colombia. Did it, Barry?

Barry: So…What now?
Monty: We’ll call ya.
Barry: Call me?
[Monty turns and walks away]
Barry: Schafer? Hey, Schafer!
Monty: Who the fuck’s Schafer?

Monty [at the CIA]: Okay, everybody, you know the drill. Everybody gets a burn bag. Into it, you put anything with Barry Seal’s face or name on it. Into the burn bag. Go! Purchase orders Aircraft invoices. Anything with the word “Mena.” Fuel bills, memos, names, directives, photos. Anything like that. Anything which can link us with him, you put it in the burn bag. And what do you do with it?
Agent: Burn it.

Dana: You know who I am, Mr. Seal?
Barry: No, ma’am.
Dana: I’m Dana Sibota, state attorney general. You’ve got DEA, ATF, FBI, all wanting their pound of flesh.
Barry: Yes, ma’am. It’s…It’s quite a room.
Dana: Yeah. Well, you hit the trifecta, didn’t you? I mean, guns, drugs, money laundering. And the state of Arkansas is gonna rip the bark right off of you, boy. We are gonna put you in a four-by-six cell for the rest of your life.
Barry: Ma’am, that’s a long time.
Dana: Yeah.
Woman [on speraker phone ]: Miss Sibota, I have Governor Clinton on the line. He says it’s urgent.

Barry [to all of the law enforcement men in the room]: I’m gonna walk out of here. I’m gonna walk out of here. And there ain’t a damn thing any one of you can do about it.[/b]

Cue the irony:

[b]Reagan [addressing the nation from the White House]: Usually, I talk with you from my office in the West Wing of the White House, but tonight, there’s something special to talk about. And I’ve asked someone very special to join me. Nancy.
Nancy Reagan: Not long ago, I was asked by a group of children what to do if they were offered drugs. And I answered, “Just say no.” Drug criminals are ingenious. So we must be smarter and stronger and tougher than they are. Say yes to your life. And when it come to drugs and alcohol, just say no.

Barry [voiceover]: This fella here is with the DEA. And this fella here is a colonel named Ollie North. Reagan’s go-to guy. The DEA just wants to nail the Medellín Cartel once and for all. Now, at the same time, Colonel North wants to prove the commies in Central America are involved in the drug trade. Let me say that again. Colonel North wants to prove the commies are dealing drugs. And why am I in the room? 'Cause I’m the gringo who always delivers.

Barry: So, you want me to keep going?
Ollie North: For your country.

Barry [voiceover]: They put me right back in business. Now, I’m working for the White House.

Barry: Listen. What’s gonna happen with these photos? Who exactly is going to be looking at 'em?
Rangel: These photos are gonna be on a need-to-know basis.
Barry: Need-to-know.
Rangel: They’re gonna be classified at the highest levels, Barry. We do recognize the dangers involved here.
Barry: No, you don’t.
Rangel: Well, you could always tell us to fuck off and spend the next 30 years in Leavenworth.[/b]

More irony still…

[b]Reagan [on TV addressing the nation]: There seems to be no crime to which the Sandinistas will not stoop. This is an outlaw regime. The Sandinistas have even involved themselves in the international drug trade. I know every American parent concerned about the drug problem will be outraged to learn that top Nicaraguan government officials are deeply involved in drug trafficking. This picture, secretly taken at a military airfield outside Managua shows Federico Vaughan, a top aide to one of the nine comandantes who rule Nicaragua …loading an aircraft with illegal narcotics bound for the United States. This is an outlaw regime.
Lucy: Those motherfuckers! That’s your fucking face, Barry!

Rangel [on phone]: I am truly sorry, Barry. North jumped the gun.
Barry: Yeah, well, you boys fucked me good.
Rangel: We all got fucked. Those photos weren’t supposed to be released, and certainly not until we had the Colombians in custody.
Barry: Yeah, well, they ain’t gonna be coming for you.

Dana [in court]: How can we have a war on drugs when the biggest enemy of the state is being protected by our side?
Barry [voiceover]: And that lady prosecutor she never, ever did give up.[/b]

But the fix is in…

[b]Judge: Defendant will rise. Barry Seal.
Barry: Your Honor.
Judge: You are sentenced to 1,000 hours community service. Dismissed.

Reporter [on TV]: Authorities believe last night’s machine gun killing of Barry Seal was ordered by drug bosses in Medellín, Colombia.

Monty [at the CIA]: Iran. We get the Iranians to arm the Contras…[/b]

For that part go here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran–Contra_affair#Arms_sales_to_Iran

Reporter: Mr. President, what do you know about money going to the Contras?
Reagan: All I know is this is gonna taste wonderful and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
Reporter: Vice President Bush, did you know about the Contra aid or not, sir?
Bush: Want some sauce with that?

American youth. How to explain them in a world that, for most, basically revolves around me, myself and I. Me, myself and I in a world that basically revolves in turn around pop culture, consumerism and celebrity.

They are then mass-produced by the thousands year after year after year.

One thing for sure is this: that the lives they live, awash in all manner of self-doubt, anxiety and insecurity, is almost never connected in films of this sort to an intelligent and systemic understanding of the political and economic forces that shape their lives. Instead, they sustain “me, myself and I” largely through “social media”. The you tube, instagram and snapchat generation.

And, in particular, eight grade is crucial here because these children are right on the cusp between being just kids and becoming young adults.

On the other hand, in portraying these self-obsessed kids as they actually are, the whole point of the film might well have been to expose all of this. You tell me, but I don’t think so.

For some there is no way they can watch a film like this and not weep for the future. Whatever that means.

But then there’s the part that revolves around the relationship between Kayla and her father. Here there were exchanges that resonated. Having been a father myself in this “postmodern” qua “plastic” world.

Look for the “real you” being “cool”.

IMDb

[b]Speaking on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, director Bo Burnham said that technology company Apple were going to provide laptops and phones for the film for free, but they were unhappy with the scene where the iPhone broke when it got thrown. As a result, the laptops shown in the film were those belonging to the crew and the broken iPhone scene was kept in.

On the Jimmy Kimmel show director Bo Burnham reveals that after star Elsie Fisher finished filming for Eighth Grade she started her first year of high school, where she did not receive a part in her school play.[/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighth_Grade_(film
trailer: youtu.be/y8lFgF_IjPw

Eighth Grade [2018]
Written and directed by Bo Burnham

Kayla [making a video]: Uh, okay, so the topic of today’s video is “being yourself,” and it’s like, you know, well, aren’t I always being myself? And like, yeah. For sure. Um, but, uh… Sorry, I… I’m reading these off paper. Um, okay… But it’s like, being yourself is, like, not changing yourself to impress someone else. You know, because, like, um, like, uh, you could be the most popular kid at school or, like, you know, like, um, have, like, the hottest boyfriend or whatever, um, but, like, what’s the point if you’re not being yourself? And it’s like being yourself can be hard. And, like, the hard part about being yourself is that it’s not always easy because, you know, like, people can, like, um, like, make fun of you, or something dumb. Because, like, people suck and evil people exist. Um, but you just got to ignore them and, like, not care what they’re saying.

Being yourself in America? Today? Of course she doesn’t touch on the parts that I do.

[b]Woman [on a sex education video]: Over the course of these next 30 minutes, we will begin to explore and understand these changing bodies of yours. It’s gonna be lit. Chapter One. The Hair Down There.

Mark [Dad]: Can I say one thing, though? Then you can go back to your phone, I’ll leave you alone. I just want to say one thing.
Kayla: Fine!
Dad: Okay, but you have to let me finish saying it. You can’t get angry before I finish saying it, otherwise you won’t listen.
Kayla: Fine! Fine! Just say it.
Dad: All right. All right. Okay. Okay.
Kayla: Are you gonna say it?
Dad: I’m thinking. I think you’re so cool. I think you’re so…
Kayla: I’m gonna stop eating with you if you…
Dad: Look, when I as your age, I was not cool like you. You have all these interests and your videos and, just, how you express yourself in them, it’s so… It’s just so cool. It’s so great, and I just… I just think maybe you just need to put yourself out there a little bit more.
Kayla: Please stop.
Dad: I know the kids at school are not great. I’m not saying you have to be best friends with Kennedy Graves. And I know this is gonna sound lame, but I just think you’re a really special person.
Kayla: Dad…
Dad: And I know it’s like, you know, all dads think that. But even if I wasn’t your dad, I would still think that. I would. I’m sorry.
Kayla: Dad![/b]

And [no doubt] this sort of “conversation” happens all the time in any number of upper middle class communities. And how excruciating is that?

[b]Dad: I’m actually not saying this to make you feel bad. I’m saying it to make you feel better.
Kayla: You know what’d make me feel better?
Dad: What?
Kayla: If you’d let me go on my phone.
[the look on her father’s face: priceless]

Kayla [making a video]: Hey, guys. Kayla back here with another video. Uh, okay, so the topic of today’s video is “Putting Yourself Out There.” Um, okay. So, like, what does that mean? Where is “there”? Well, “there” can be anywhere that you wouldn’t usually go. You know, maybe because it’s, like, weird or scary or, um, something like that. Um, okay, and now you’re probably thinking, like, you know, well, “Why would I want to go somewhere like that?” And there’s actually lots of reasons. Uh, one reason is that people might not know, like, the real you. Like, if you only ever see, you know, some people at school or something, then those people are only going to know the school you. But if you put yourself out there and you go to places you wouldn’t usually go, people can know the movie you or the pool you or the party you or the weekend you. All the yous that make up the real you.

Kayla [making a video]: Okay, so the topic of today’s video, which is super cool, is, “How To Be Confident.” So, um… I think one thing a lot of people think about confidence is that, like, you know, you’re born with it. You either are confident or you’re not. You know, just like how some people are tall. You’re either tall or short. But it’s not like that, actually. Confidence is a choice. Like, the really awesome thing about confidence is that you can just start acting like it, even if you feel like you don’t have any. For example, I used to, like, not be confident at all. But then one day, I’m like, “Hmm, I want to be confident.” So, then I just kind of started acting like it, and then it made me feel good, and then I actually started being confident. Like, without trying. And, like, a big part of being confident is being brave, and you can’t be brave unless you’re scared. So, for those of you who are feeling scared about being confident, that’s actually a big part of confidence, to be scared. That’s normal. Because you can’t be brave without being scared. So, go out there and just be, like, confident. And if you don’t feel confident, just do it anyways. Make yourself confident.[/b]

Clearly: Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

[b]Officer Todd [at a school shooting drill]: Okay, now we’re gonna talk about what you should do when the gunshots are close. You know, when the shooter’s down the hallway or right outside the classroom. What you just saw was an example of what not to do. Okay? If the gunshots are loud and close, and you’re in a classroom or a bathroom, uh, you should do the following. Stay put, turn off the lights…

Kayla: You ever think there’d be a real shooting here?
Aiden [playing a video game]: I wish.
Kayla: Why do you wish there was one?
Aiden: 'Cause I’d fuck him up. Take his gun and elbow him right in the jaw, lay him out. I wouldn’t be a pussy and sit under my desk. Kayla: Yeah, you would fuck him up. He’d be, like, totally screwed.
Aiden: Yeah.

Kayla: I mean, I just…I was trying to open up Instagram, and then I ended up pulling up my dirty photos folder, and it was just…
Aiden [now giving her his full attention]: Really?

Aiden [to Kayla]: Do you give blowjobs?

Dr. Kat [on a video Kayla is watching]: Hi, I’m Dr. Kat, and I’m here to give you some tips for performing oral sex on him. First off, you…

Dad: Is that a banana?
Kayla: What? What?
Dad: You’re having a banana?
Kayla: Oh, this, I was just grabbing a banana.
Dad: I thought you hated bananas.
Kayla: Uh…I don’t hate them anymore.

Kayla [praying]: Dear God, tomorrow is…Tomorrow is a really, really important day for me, and I really need it…I really need you to make it a good day. I mean… I understand that every day can’t be, like, a great day, um…But I really need tomorrow to be a good one. I mean, even if you give me a ton of, like, really bad days in the future or something, um, just as long as tomorrow can be a really good day. All right, uh…That’s all. Thank you. Love, Kayla. [/b]

Tomorrow? Tomorrow is High School Shadfow day.

Olivia [Kayla’s high school “shadow” on the phone]: I don’t know if you’re around or allowed or whatever, but me and some friends are heading to the mall to just, like, hang, if you feel like you wanna come.
Kayla: Oh, my gosh, yes.
Olivia: Please come.
Kayla: Oh, okay. Okay, cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Awesome. Great. Okay.

American youth!

[b]Trevor: Are you bored, Kayla? You look bored.
Kayla: I’m not bored.
Olivia: Trev. Stop. You don’t have to answer.
Trevor: What? No. I’m not judging her. It’s fine. We’re boring her. She’s a different generation than us.
Olivia: She’s not a different generation.
Trevor: Yes, she is.
Olivia: She’s four years younger than us.
Trevor: Okay, but people who were, like, four years older than us felt, like, fucking 50 years old!

Trevor: Okay, but, like, on top of that, she didn’t have Twitter in middle school, and we did. That made us different.
Olivia: Kayla, you’re not different than us.
Trevor: Yeah…When did you get Snapchat? What grade?
Kayla: Fifth grade.
Trevor: Fifth grade? What? No, see! [/b]

Next up: Truth or dare?

[b]Kayla [to Riley]: Please don’t tell Olivia about this.

Kayla [making a video]: Hey, guys. It’s Kayla, back with another video. Um… So… I’m making this video to just kind of say that I’m not gonna be making videos anymore. Or, you know, I’m taking a break or something. Um… And I don’t… I don’t know if anyone is, like, really watching or cares, um…But if you are, sorry if this is, like, a bummer to you. Um…But…It’s the right thing to do, um… I started making videos, you know, to, like, give tips and stuff. And, you know, help you guys out, but…I don’t know. If I’m being really honest, I’m probably not, like, the best person to give advice because I like, you know, I like giving advice and, like, and talking about doing stuff, but I can’t really actually do that stuff. Um… And… Yeah. And… I don’t know. It’s just, like… Um… I’m really, like nervous all the time, and…I…Like, I could be doing nothing, and I’m just nervous. It’s like, um…It’s like I could…I’m waiting in line for, like, a roller coaster, and that stupid, like, butterflies-in-your-stomach feeling you get, like…I get that all the time, and then I never get the feeling of after you ride the roller coaster, and I…I try really hard not to feel that way, um… But…I don’t know. I just can’t… Um…So, I think if you guys are going through, like, tough times and stuff, um, you deserve someone who can go through tough times and make themselves feel better with their advice, and actually do the stuff they talk about. You know, just… If they can make themselves feel better, then maybe they can help you feel better. Um… So, yeah, I think those are the reasons why I’m gonna stop making videos, um…And, yeah. I hope you guys all have, like, you know, good lives, and maybe I’ll see you guys around. Bye.

Kayla: Can you help me burn something in the backyard?
Dad: Yes. You sure you want to do this?
Kayla: Yeah.
Dad; I’m not exactly sure what “this” is… Or means… I just hope that whatever we’re doing here is a positive thing?
Kayla: Yeah.

Dad: What was in there?
Kayla: Nothing, really. Um…Just sort of my hopes and dreams.
Dad: Right. And you’re burning them?
Kayla: Yeah.

Kayla: Do I make you sad?
Dad: What? No. No, not at all. Not at all. Why? Do I seem sad? No.

Dad: It’s so easy to love you. It’s so easy to be proud of you. I’m not just saying this. Hey, I swear to God, I’m not just saying this. I mean, sure, sometimes, if I see you’re upset or having a… A rough day, then I feel sad. But… That kind of being sad, that sort of day-to-day sad, or worrying that I do, that’s not…Kayla, always, beneath all that, I am always just so unbelievably happy that I get to be your dad. When Mom left, I was really scared. I was really, really scared. I…I was scared you weren’t gonna be okay. And then you started to get older. And you got…I don’t know. You took your first steps, and you said your firsts words, and you made your first friend. All the things I thought I was going to have to teach you. How to be nice, how to share, how to care about other people’s feelings. You just started doing that on your own. You know, your teachers would always say to me, “You’ve got such a lovely daughter. You’ve done such a great job with her.” But I didn’t do anything. I really didn’t. I really didn’t. I just watched you. And the more I watched you, the less scared I got. I stopped being scared about whether you were going to be okay a long time ago. Do you know why? Because of you. You make me brave. And if you could just see yourself how I see you, which is how you are…

Kayla [making a video for herself when she graduates from high school]: Middle school wasn’t so great for me, but I’m past it now. And I’m moving forward, and you can do that too with high school if it didn’t go great. Just because things are happening to you right now doesn’t mean that they’re always gonna happen to you. And things will change. And…You know, you never know what’s gonna, like, happen next, and that’s what makes things exciting and scary.[/b]

You know, contingency, chance and change.

Think Larry Clark’s Kids on skateboards. All of them.

But when you think of skateboarders in films you think of dudes. Dudes like these: youtu.be/ZkMDs3FXVzg

Or the dudes in Little Children.

They’re almost always boys. White boys.

They’re almost never black. And they are certainly not going to be a female “subculture” that includes black girls.

But that was then. Now we’ve got a film in which the skateboarders are in fact girls. And most are girls of color.

Is it based on a true story though? Yes, it seems to be.

From the director of The Wolfpackviewtopic.php?f=24&t=179469&p=2583379&hilit=wolfpack+directed#p2583379 – the film follows these girls as they tote their skateboards into and out of contexts that allow us to explore any number of political narratives relating to race and gender and sexual orientation and class. And in the belly of the beast: New York City.

And then the age old story of an alienated suburban teen who commutes from home in order to “find herself” in the Big City. It could one of hundreds of “sub-cultures” that abound in the urban jungle. And, if they are lucky, they find one that allows them to sink new roots. “Me”, “myself” and “I” reconfiguring into “we” “ourselves” and “ours”. That crucial foundation in which to establish an identity, a meaningful life. It’s not what you belong to so much as that you belong to something.

But: Sometimes that works out and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes you stay and thrive in the city and sometimes things get all fucked up and you go back home. Still, every once in a while it can be both.

And then the part where skateboarding can be dangerous. And no one needs to skateboard. But you do it anyway because you want to. And then suddenly the center of the universe seems to revolve around proving to others that you are one of them: among the best skateboarders in the world. Or at least in the hood.

“I” is hooked!

IMDb

[b]The only actor who required a skating double was Jaden Smith.

Director Crystal Moselle first saw two members of Skate Kitchen whilst riding the train. It was here that she approached them to star in a short film with Italian fashion label ‘Miu Miu’. After the success of that short, she decided to pursue a feature film starring them.[/b]

at wiki: none
trailer: youtu.be/iT1izrIxoos

Skate Kitchen [2018]
Written in part and directed by Crystal Moselle

[b] Boy [to Camille skateboarding]: Go for it.
Boy: Just do it.
Camille [after going for it]: Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck!
[a “credit card” cut]

Renata [mother]: No more skating. Promise me. I weant you to promise me.
Camille: Mom. No! What are you talking about?
Renata: You know what? It could have been worse. Maybe you won’t be able to have kids next time.
Camille: All right, fine. All right. I promise.

Kurt: Janay, Janay, Janay, Janay. That girl just fingered me in the bushes, bro.
Janay: Oh, my gosh! What is wrong with you.
Kurt: She just put her fingers in my pussy.
Janay: Not right now!
Kurt: Come on, give me a dab.
Janay: No. This is Camille.

Camille [to the girls but mostly to herself]: For a while I was feeling really lonely and… it’s like…that loneliness you…you have…even if you’re in a crowded room with people smiling and laughing and…that emptiness, I was just feeling it for so long. But um…I don’t feel it anymore.[/b]

Then we segue into a segment straight from Kids in which the girls go into depth about tampons and their vaginas.

[b]Camille: I had to go to the gynecologist not too long ago myself.
Indigo: Word?
Camille: I was skating at this park in Long Island and I was hitting this set. But something happened and the board just…I just messed up and I ended up sitting on the board and it cut me down there.
Indigo: You got credit carded?
Camille: I was just pouring blood.
Kurt: Dude, that’s so scary. That’s like the scariest thing ever. I’ve always feared that. Like you’re really tough for that. Like, that’s crazy.
Camille: Everyone thought it was my period. All the boys were like…
Janay: Oh, my God.
Camille: …“Is that your period?”
Kurt: Yo, boys are just…uneducated sometimes. I’m sorry. Not all boys, but some boys.

Janay: No, seriously, come on. Answer the question. Like, what’s your type?
Camille: Why do you guys wanna know? I don’t know, I just…
Kurt: Dude, it’s a simple question, do you like dick or pussy?
Camille: I like…
Kurt: Do you like sucking dick or eating pussy?

Renata [to Camille]: You were skating. You gave me your word.

Kurt: Your mom took your board?
Camille: Yeah.

Janay: Is your mom always like that?
Camille: I don’t know, I mean… I’ve only been living with her for like five years, so…
Janay: Why?
Camille: She’s whatever. Like… hard to be around sometimes. So, when the courts asked who I wanted to live with, I chose my dad. Once a year, I was supposed to see her during Christmas to, you know, exchange me. But every time we would go, I would just sit in the car and I’d see her through the glass, sitting, waiting for me. But I just couldn’t get out. I’d… I would just sit there and my dad would have to go in and be like, “Oh, Camille doesn’t want to see you.” And so, we’d just leave.

Camille: Once I turned 11, I started, like…changing, physically. I used to stand in front of the mirror and punch myself in the chest because I didn’t…I didn’t want to grow breasts. It was horrifying ‘cause I was always, you know, dressing in boys’ clothes and…playing football, and hanging out with my dad. And when I noticed that I wasn’t going to be like that forever and that I was growing up, it was super embarrassing because he didn’t because he didn’t…he didn’t notice, he didn’t understand. Uh…So, one year, that year, I…on Christmas, I decided, like, I needed to see her. I needed to go. It’s not even like I wanted to. I needed a mother. But I went and…I just started spending more time with her. Eventually, after a couple of weeks, I felt like maybe I should stay with her, start living there and…Uh, my dad was just super jealous. He didn’t think that I’d ever leave him. And I wasn’t trying to leave him but… I didn’t wanna leave him, I just…He just wasn’t…Now we don’t talk anymore and… and I feel so bad because I didn’t want him to feel like I didn’t want him anymore. It’s just I… needed a mom at that time, and, like…[/b]

Of course everryone has their own version of this. The actual experiences that shape our lives in ways that others can only understand up to a point.

[b]Kurt: Skate or die bitch.

Camille: Bam. That’s it.
Janay: Oh, shit. Like, if you don’t care about getting…You just go for it. I don’t know. I feel like the best…like, a lot of good skaters, they like do not think…you can’t think, that’s the thing.
Camille: And us girls, we think too much.

Janay [watching a video of skateboarders doing spectacular stunts]:That’s like by Bryant Park.
Camille: You guys haven’t taken me there. We should go.
Janay: I think that might be a little much.
Camille: What do you mean?
Janay: I mean, I just don’t think all of the girls would wanna do that.
Camille: But you wanna stand out, right?
Janay: Yeah, I want us all to stand out, like I wanna…
Camille: So then we should just go hard.

Janay: I don’t know what I’m gonna do if I can’t skate anymore. Like, that’s my whole life. Like, you know that, that’s all I do.
Camille: Come on, you’re… you’re gonna be able to skate soon and, Janay, skating isn’t your whole life. You’re still you with or without your board, okay?
Janay: Why do you sound like Devon? Oh, my God. He used to say, like, deep shit like that, like, all spiritual and stuff and I’m just like… It’s not… it’s not you.

Camille; What’s wrong?
Devon: I like you so much, Camille…just…just not like this.
Camille: Not like what? What are you…
Devon: It’s…It’s like you’re… you’re like a little sister to me, you know? It’s like you’re one of us. And I don’t wanna…I mean, I just figure we have a different type of… You know, I thought… I thought we got along so well and…No, like, 100%. But, like, I just don’t wanna mess that up.
Camille: Okay. Okay.
Devon: You know?
Camille: Yeah.
[Camille turns on her side, the irony of it all etched into her face]

Renata [to Camille, after she returns home]: What did they do? What did they do to you, Honey?

Renata: Your friends in the city…are you going to meet up with them?
Camille: We’re not friends anymore?
Renata: Why?
Camille: I messed up.
Renata: You could apologize.
Camille: It’s complicated.[/b]

Crazy rich Asians. How are they the same or different from crazy rich Europeans? Or crazy rich Americans? Or anyone else who happens to be both crazy and rich.

Well, we might start with Karl Marx. Or Adam Smith. Or Sigmund Freud.

Or…Hollywood? Turn it all into a “romantic comedy”? With just enough of the “real world” sprinkled in so that most of us will be able to recognize ourselves in it?

Of course it goes without saying that in addition to be being crazy and rich, the Asians depicted in this film are beautiful. And cultured. And sophisticated. On the other hand, why this goes without saying is surely one of those questions that go all the way down to the profound mystery embedded in why anything is what it is at all.

And then the part where Asians born and bred in the “new world” are transported back to the “old world”. Or, rather, the new old world. The money talks world that is never really delved into at all. It just is what it is. Some are obscenely rich and others barely manage to subsist at all. The part where the “modern world” either subsumes the old traditions, obliterates them, or encounters those who fight tooth and nail to preserve the past. Though always in sync with the global economy.

Anyway, the lesson learned is that while money is not nothing in this impregnable world economy, it is still considerbly less than that which matters most. Whatever that happens to be for any particular one of us. Though, in particulkar, self-respect and integrity.

As for this…

In the book, one of Goh’s three dogs is named after Donald Trump. In the film, the name is changed to Rockefeller.

…make of it what you wish.

As for Singapore, many here probably still associate it with this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_P._Fay

At least that’s the first thing that popped into my head.

IMDb

[b]Netflix wanted to produce the film and offered a much bigger budget, but Kevin Kwan deliberately turned down the offer in favor of a modest $30-million budget from Warner Bros. This was done to send a message that Asian-American studio movies are commercially viable.

Crazy Rich Asians 2 has been confirmed; it will be based on the second book of the trilogy, “China Rich Girlfriend”.

Singaporeans gave this movie a tepid reception, criticizing it for its lack of diversity and lack of authenticity, and missing involvement with Southeast Asians and other minorities in Singapore.

Kevin Kwan, the author of the book on which the movie is based, has been charged with draft dodging in his native Singapore. He is liable to a fine of up to $10,000 and/or imprisonment of up to 3 years upon conviction.

Although the film received praise in the United States for its casting, which made “history for Asian American representation”; it was criticized elsewhere for not exclusively using actors of Chinese descent, in ethnically Chinese roles. This film was also criticized for using British and American English over Singaporean English. In addition, the film received criticism for poorly representing the actual makeup of Singapore, virtually erasing non-Chinese citizens.[/b]

trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt3104988/tr … tt_trv_trv
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Rich_Asians_(film
trailer: youtu.be/ZQ-YX-5bAs0

Crazy Rich Asians [2018]
Directed by Jon M. Chu

[b]Nick: So, what about us taking an adventure East?
Rachel: You want to get pork buns in the East Village. That’s what it is, isn’t it
Nick: I was actually thinking of further east.
Rachel: Like Queens?
Nick: Like Singapore for spring break.

Eleanor [Nick’s mother reading aloud]: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

Nick: Radio One Asia.

Mother: You can’t wear that to meet Nick’s. Blue and white is for Chinese funerals. Now this, this symbolizes good fortune and fertility.
Rachel: Great! I was really going for that lucky baby-maker vibe.
Mother: Hey, you were the one who asked for my help picking out a dress to meet Nick’s family.
Rachel: It’s only 'cause I hardly know anything about them. Every time I bring them up, Nick changes the subject.
Mother: Maybe he’s embarrassed. Maybe his parents are poor and he has to send them money. That’s what all good Chinese children do.

Rachel: I mean, his parents can’t not like me, right? What was that look? I saw that.
Mother: Nothing. It’s just Nick bringing a girl all the way there to meet them can mean a lot to these overseas families. They’re different from us.
Rachel: How are they different? They’re Chinese, I’m Chinese. I’m so Chinese, I’m an economics professor with lactose intolerance.
Mother: Yeah, but you grew up here. Your face is Chinese. You speak Chinese. But here [pointing to her head], and here [pointing to her heart]…you’re different.

Attendant: Good afternoon, Mr. Young, Miss Chu. We’ll take your bags and get you checked into first class.
Nick: Great.
Raachel: Oh…No, there’s a mistake. We’re not first class. We’re economy people.

Rachel: So, your family is like…rich?
Nick: Um, we’re comfortable.
Rachel: That is exactly what a super rich person would say.

Nick [to Rachel now in Singapore]: Each of these local stalls sells pretty much one dish and they’ve been perfecting it for generations. You know this is one of the only places in the world where street food vendors actually earned Michelin stars.

Michael: I wouldn’t dream of missing a second with your family and their friends.
Astrid: Well, it won’t be all bad. Nick and his new girlfriend will be there. You’ll like her.
Michael: Oh, yeah? Why? Because she’s a commoner like me?

Child: A pa, can we go trampoline?
Mr. Goh: Uh, you haven’t finished your nuggets yet, sweetie. Okay, there’s a lot of children starving in America. Right?[/b]

Ha Ha?

[b]Mr. Goh [to Rachel]: Let me get this straight. You both went to the same school. Yet someone came back with a degree that’s useful. And the other one came back as Asian Ellen.

Peik Lin: Rachel, these people aren’t just rich. Okay? They’re crazy rich. Look. There’s new money all over Asia. You got the Beijing billionaires, the Taiwan tycoons…but the Young family, they’re old-money rich. They had money when they left China in the 1800s. And they went all the way down here. Not there…here. They came to Singapore when there was nothing but jungle and pig farmers. And there was a snake here eating an apple. You know what I mean? And they built all of this. Now, they’re the landlords of the most expensive city in the world. These people are so posh and snobby…they’re snoshy.
Rachel: Yeah, but Nick’s not like that.
Peik Lin: Even if he isn’t, I guarantee you, the family is.

Rachel: You have a cocktail dress in your trunk?
Peik Lin: I’m not an animal, Rachel.

Rachel: My mom didn’t even go to college. She actually hardly spoke any English when she immigrated to the United States. But she worked really hard. And she studied and she earned her real estate license while she was waiting tables, supporting us. Now, she likes to say that she’s Flushing’s top real estate broker.
Eleanor: A self-made woman. She must be so proud of you.
Rachael: Well, she knows that I’m passionate about what I do, and she’s always wanted that for me.
Eleanor: Pursuing one’s passions. How American. Well, you mother’s very open-minded. Not like here, where parents are obsessed with shaping the lives of their children.

Edison: So you’re not from the Taiwan Chu family?
Rachel: Nope.
Edison: Hong Kong Telecom Chus?
Rachel: No.
Edison: Malaysian packing peanut Chus?
Rachel: Is that really a thing?
Edison: Yeah, it’s everywhere…
Nick: I’m gonna stop you there. because I’m gonna take her on the rounds. We’ll be back.
Edison: No, wait, hang on! China instant noodle Chus? Rachel…Chu are you?

Araminta: Welcome to paradise. This is Samsara Island. This weekend is about sisterhood and connecting with the divine in all of us. So, I hope you’ll all find your bliss…starting with…an all-paid shopping spree at the fashion boutique!

Colin: Dude, ever since primary school, you were always going to be the next chairman of the Young Corporation, your family’s shining heir. You really think your family’s gonna accept anything less than that? I mean, unless you… No. Are you thinking of walking out? Leaving everything to bloody Alistair and Eddie?
Nick: I’m not walking out on anything. I met a girl, I fell in love, and I want to marry her. It can’t just be one thing or the other.
Colin: Uh, no, no, no, no. It’s not that simple. You know that.[/b]

And this is basically the film’s plot.

[b]Rachel: Why would Araminta even have friends like that? It’s just mean.
Astrid: Well, you grow up your whole lives together, you make excuses for people. Especially the morons.

Rachel: I thought I was here to meet your family… go to your best friend’s wedding… eat some good food. Instead, I feel like I’m a villain in a soap opera who’s plotting to steal your family fortune.
Nick: What happened?

Eleanor: Ah Ma says if we don’t pass traditions down like this, they’ll disappear. God forbid we lose the ancient Chinese tradition of guilting your children.

Eleanoir [to Rachel]: I withdrew from university when we got married. I chose to help my husband run a business, and to raise a family. For me, it was a privilege. But for you, you may think it’s old-fashioned. It’s nice you appreciate this house, and us being here together wrapping dumplings. But all this doesn’t just happen. It’s because we know to put family first instead of chasing one’s passion.

Eleanor: Ah Ma thought I would not make an adequate wife to her son.
Rachel: But she came around, obviously.
Eleranor: It took many years. And she had good reason to be concerned. Because I had no idea of the work and the sacrifice it would take. There were many days when I wondered if I would ever measure up. But having been through it all, I know this much: You will never be enough.

Nick: I know my mum can be tough at times, but there isn’t anything she wouldn’t do for me. And there is a reason why I lived with Ah Ma growing up. It’s because my mother knew she wasn’t the favorite. So she let her raise me so I would be.
Rachel: You were just a kid?
Nick: Yeah. Well…It’s hard to understand from the outside. But she did what she thought was best for the family. For everyone involved.

Peik Lin: Was she like… “You will never be good enough for my son.” Or was it like, “You… You… will never be good enough for my son.”
Rachel: It’s like the second one.
Peik Lin: You know, I bet if you told her you’d leave Nick for like, a million dollars, she would write that check. They do that around here.

Rachel: I don’t even know what I should do. I mean, I can’t even tell Nick because he like, worships her.
Peik Lin: Yeah. Chinese sons think their moms fart Chanel No. 5.

Peik Lin: Okay, here’s what you need to understand, all right? It’s not about getting Eleanor to like you. It’s about getting her to respect you. All right? Right now, she just thinks you’re some like, undeserving, clueless, gold-digging, trashy, unrefined banana. Yellow on the outside, and white on the inside.
Rachelk: I know what a banana is.
Peik Lin: When in reality, you’re like a super sophisticated, smart professor of freaking game theory.

Rachel: Princess Intan. Rachel Chu. I read your great article about micro loans in the Asian Economics Journal.
Princess Intan: I received so much criticism about that article.
Rachel: Well, you know what? I think your critics missed the point. Because your micro loans help women. And women lift up economies.[/b]

This passes for “substance” here. But it’s just another plot device.

[b]Colin: Hey, man, Rachel’s not sitting with your family.
Nick: Yeah. I don’t blame her. Mother hasn’t exactly been the most welcoming. But I’m sure she’ll be out back somewhere, laying low.
Colin: Mm, she’s right at the front. Take a look.
[Nick sees Rachal conversing with Princess Intan]
Colin: I think you’ve got a fighter.

Ah Ma: Rachel. I’ve only know you a short time, but it’s clear you’re a very smart woman. But, I will not permit you to ruin my grandson with your ambition.
Nick: Ah Ma!
Eleanor: I’m sorry to tell you, but Rachel has been lying to us about her family and her mother.
Rachel: What-What are you talking about?
Eleanor: I hired a private investigator…
Nick: Mom, you didn’t.
Eleanor: …to look into her past. She said her father passed away - in China. But that’s not true. Your mother’s husband is very much alive. During her marriage, she cheated on him and became pregnant with another man’s child. And before he found out, she ran away to America.
[she hands Nick some papers]
Eleanor: It’s all in here.
Nick: You had no right!
Eleanor: We had every right.
Nick: You did not!
Rachel: You’re lying.
Eleanor: Do you have any idea the scandal this would have caused? For Rachel to hide something like this?
Nick: She wouldn’t have.
Eleanor: We cannot be linked to this sort of family.
Rachel [turning to leave]: I don’t want any part of your family.

Rachel: Why didn’t you tell me about my father?
Mother: My husband wasn’t a good man. He hurt me. But an old schoolmate of mine helped me through things. And we fell in love. And I got pregnant with his baby. That’s you. I was so afraid my husband would find out and kill us both, so I just took you and I ran to America.

Nick: I’m so sorry about everything. What my mother did to you is unforgivable.
Rchel: It’s not your fault.
Nick: It is. Ever since I can remember, my family has been my whole life. And I am done making excuses for them. Marry me. Marry me and we’ll start a new life together in New York. Just you and me. I’ll leave all of this behind.

Rachel: I know Nick told you the truth about my mom. But you didn’t like me the second I got here. Why is that?
Eleanor: There is a Hokkien phrase, “Gar gee nang”. It means, our own kind of people. And you’re not our own kind.
Rachel: Because I’m not rich? 'Cause I didn’t go to a British boarding school, or I wasn’t born into a wealthy family?
Eleanor: You’re a foreigner. American. And all Americans think about is their own happiness.
Rachel: Don’t you want Nick to be happy?
Eleanor: It’s an illusion. We understand how to build things that last. Something you know nothing about.
Rachel: You don’t know me.
Eleanor: I know you’re not what Nick needs.
Rachel: Well, he proposed to me yesterday. He said he’d walk away from his family and from you for good. Don’t worry, I turned him down.
Eleanor: Only a fool folds a winning hand.
Rachel: There’s no winning. You made sure of that. Because if Nick chose me, he would lose his family. And if he chose his family, he might spend the rest of his life resenting you.
Eleanor: So you chose for him.

Rachel: I’m not leaving 'cause I’m scared. Or because I think I’m not enough. Because maybe for the first time in my life…I know I am. I just love Nick so much. I don’t want him to lose his mom again. So, I just wanted you to know that one day, when he marries another lucky girl who is enough for you…and you’re playing with your grandkids while the tan huas are blooming and the birds are chirping…that it was because of me…a poor, raised-by-a-single-mother, low-class, immigrant nobody.[/b]

Imagine it: It’s your accomplishment, but someone else is able to take all the credit. And that someone is your own husband. And it’s decades before the feminist movement is around to encourage you to do something about it.

Or to even suggest that you should do something about it.

Let’s face it, there is being a woman here and now, and being a woman there and then. The part where one’s “historical and cultural context” can make all the difference in the world.

Yet here was a woman thrust into the world of “avant-garde” libertines. The world in which the iconclasts reigned. The world hell-bent on “revolutionizing literature, fashion and sexual expression”.

But even among them there were lines to be drawn around gender. And sometimes that worked in her favor…and sometimes it did not. The irony then being that only as a result of her husband bringing her into this world would a story such as this even exist at all.

Of course there will always be the gap between the story that unfolds up on the screen and the actual reality of the times and the characters being portrayed. Not to mention all of the things that you bring into it as well. Political prejudices for example. As one IMDb reviewer noted, “after I thought I was watching a movie that was historically accurate, the director says that he had changed several characters and other aspects to make them more contemporary — meaning: what he thinks the way things ought to have been 100+ years ago, vs reality.”

In particular, I suspect, the part played by Missy.

IMDb

[b]According to Keira Knightley, it was illegal for women to wear men’s clothing in that time period in France.

The location shoot in Budapest was so warm at times, Dominic West wore a water vest inside his heavy costume that functioned like a car radiator, circulating cool water around his upper body. The contraption was recommended to him by John C. Reilly who used such an apparatus while playing the rotund Oliver Hardy in the biopic Stan & Ollie.

The actual author, Colette, wrote the novella “Gigi” which served as the basis for the stage production and film of the same name.[/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colette_(2018_film
trailer: youtu.be/Mqdyyk-iOvY

Colette [2018]
Written in part and directed by Wash Westmoreland

[b]Gabrielle Colette’s Father: And how is Paris these days, Willy?
Willy: It’s a hotbed. It’s electric. It’s heaving with artists and poets and writers, all seeking to say something profound. Most of them are too young, of course, or too crazed, but still, they generate a certain life force.

Father: We were going in to see a play, weren’t we?
Mother: Yes, La Tosca.
Willy: I…I was at the opening. I wouldn’t bother, to be frank. I mean, Sarah Bernhardt does her best. She always does. But it’s melodramatic in extremis.
Mother: Maybe I’ll go, make up my own mind.
Willy: Well, of course. But do remember, if a book bores you, you can throw it away. If a painting is too garish, then you can close your eyes. But bad theater, it’s like dentistry. You’re compelled to stay in your chair, having your skull drilled until the entire grisly procedure is over.

Arman: Willy, the Eiffel’s tower. Are you for or against?
Willy: Oh, I’m for it, if a little jealous of this giant erection in the heart of our capital belonging to somebody else.

Willy: So, what did you think of the salon?
Gabrielle: I liked the tortoise. I thought he was as bored as I was.
Willy: I suspect you were more intimidated than bored.
Gabrielle: No. I thought they were all…shallow and pretentious.
Willy: No. Come on. You’re reading them wrongly. It’s not so much pretension as exaggeration. The ideal is to be authentic but larger than life. To present a personality with a capital “P.” You could do it too. Country girl charm.

Schwob: Are you writing for him too?
Gabrielle: Mm-hmm.
Schowb: He’s made you one of his ghosts already?
Gabrielle: Just letters.

Willy: She’s not a disreputable woman. They’ve even written a play about her. It was a shit play, but nevertheless. Who the hell wrote that letter?
Gabrielle: I don’t care who wrote it.
Willy: Look, Gabrielle, she’s no rival to you. I promise. Look, I’ll never sleep with her again. But you have to understand, this is what men do. We’re the weaker sex. We don’t have your strength. We’re slave to our urges. And here in the city, it’s perfectly acceptable to…
Gabrielle: Nonsense! I don’t accept it. You’ve been lying to me all this time. I wait for you all day long and I never ask you for anything because you say we have no money.
Willy: But it’s true. We have no money.
Gabrielle: Because you spend it all on her!
Willy: I really don’t.
Gabrielle: And then…And then, when you get into bed and I touch you, and I kiss you, and you say you’re too tired…
Willy: No, no. I’ve been unattentive. I’m sorry. I’ll make amends.
Gabrielle: Don’t you dare touch me!!
[she storms away from him]
Willy: Gabrielle, I… I gave up my inheritance for you! My bloody freedom!
Gabrielle: Go to hell!

Mother: What is it, my love?
Gabrielle: It’s just…nothing is how I imagined it.
Mother: Oh. Come here. My little kitten. No one can take away who you are. No one. You’re too strong for that. You always have been. Just trust no one but yourself.
Gabrielle: I know.
Mother: So what’s he done to upset you?
Gabrielle: Nothing. Nothing. It’s just new, that’s all. I must get used to marriage.
Mother: Better to make marriage get used to you.

Willy: Well, life is awful without you. It’s just dead. I… I don’t feel like myself at all. Everything just seems utterly pointless. Can’t even write anymore. You mean more to me than all the women of Paris put together.
Gabrielle: Have you sampled them all?
Willy: Please don’t mock me.
Gabrielle: You’re very happy to mock everybody else.
Willy: It’s true, but it’s just…Look, it’s just horseshit. Words are deceptive little bastards. But if you trace mine to their source, to my bruised and aching heart…
Gabrielle: Well, I wouldn’t credit that as the organ of origin.

Gabrielle: I can read you like the top line of an optician’s chart.
Willy: That’s brilliant. Did you just make that up?

Willy: Just tell me what you want, Gabrielle. I’ll do anything.
Gabrielle: I know who you are, Willy. Maybe I knew it all along. But I want you not to lie to me.
Willy: I won’t. Never again. I promise.
Gabrielle: I want to be part of things. I don’t want to be treated like some little wife at home. I want to know what’s going on.
Willy: You will. You’ll be part of everything.
Gabrielle: Do you promise?
Willy: Promise.

Willy: You. You could write. Those stories you told me of Saint-Sauveur last year.
Gabrielle: My school stories?
Willy: Yes. That could be Willy’s next novel. Well, try it anyway, but try it now. Start immediately. Aim for four hours at a time. The wolves are at the door!

Gabrielle [writting her novel]: “My name is Claudine. I live in Montigny. I was born there in 1873. I shall probably not die there.”

Willy: Did you manage four hours?
Gabrielle: Twice that, at least.
Willy: You didn’t. You must be a natural.
Gabrielle: I’ve changed a few things…for the story. I think it might ruffle a few feathers back home.
Willy: Oh, don’t worry about the facts. You can change events, add a character. Just adapt it to the times. All people really want is the feeling, the emotion, the great sweep of narrative.
Gabrielle: So you mean I can write whatever I want?
Willy: Of course. No one will dispute it. And if they do, “It’s the hand that holds the pen that writes history.”

Willy [after reading Gabrielle’s novel]: It’s a truly wonderful depiction.
Gabrielle: And?
Willy: And…we won’t be able to get it published. That’s the shame of it.
Gabrielle: What’s wrong with it?
Willy: Honestly? So I’ll treat you like any other writer I’m giving a report to, shall I?
Gabrielle: Yes.
Willy: Except that I love you. I adore you. Should be clear about that.
Gabrielle: Just… Just say it.
Willy: There’s nothing driving it. There’s no plot. A novel by Willy grips you from chapter one, whereas yours…There’s too many adjectives. And some of the characters are interesting, but…it’s too cloying. It’s too feminine.
Gabrielle: Well, that was a waste of bloody time.
Willy: Not if you enjoyed it.
Gabrielle: I wrote it for you!

Willy: Quoting the good book, Gaston? You may remember a little verse about coveting other men’s wives.
Gaston: And you may remember one about not trying to remove a speck from your brother’s eye with a log in your own.

Willy: Gaston’s first play was absolute rubbish, but his mother runs a salon, so, of course, it was a huge success and he was praised to the skies for his brilliant writing and his sublime talent. Unctuous prick. He was after you.
Gabrielle: He’s not my type, and they just got married.
Willy: Yeah, well, they’re no longer on honeymoon, I assure you, my dear.
Gabrielle: Your jealousy is misplaced.
Willy: How so?
Gabrielle: It was the wife I found interesting.

Gabrielle: A little louche.
Willy: Louche sells, trust me. We need more spice, less literature. I know what men want. So do the publishers.

Schwob: All of Paris is saying your husband is a genius.
Gabrielle: And what do you say?
Schowb: He is. If that book is anything to go by.
Gabrielle: Look at him. I haven’t seen him that happy in a long time.

Publisher: I believe Willy based Claudine in part on your school days.
Gabrielle: Yes, I think I had a little something to contribute.

Gabrielle: Is something wrong?
Willy: Well, wh-what do you think is wrong? Finally we have a success, and then you imply that I’m not the true author of it.
Gabrielle: No, I didn’t.
Willy: We’re holding dynamite here. We’ve created something really powerful, and if it goes off at the wrong time, then it could blow our bloody heads off.
Gabrielle: Ollendorff is your publisher, Willy.
Willy: Yeah, well, Schwob also said something.
Gabrielle: Schwob is part of the factory.
Willy: People love to talk. They praise you to your face. Then the moment you turn around there’s knives in your back. I understand the mentality here. You don’t.
Gabrielle: Well, I understand it well enough to write a book that’s the toast of Paris.

Willy: I don’t know why you’re so keen on nature. Animals are vile to each other.
Gabrielle: Animals are honest at least. They never lie.
Willy: Yes, my dear. Well, that’s because they don’t speak.

Willy: But don’t you think she’s being hypocritical? I mean, it’s acceptable for Claudine to sleep with Rezi, but she doesn’t want Renaud to do the same.
Gabrielle: Not behind her back, no. The betrayal came when Renaud lied to her. Renaud, who swore he would always be honest.
Willy: Well, perhaps he wanted to tell her, but he was…frightened of her volcanic jealousy.
Gabrielle: Well, then, he was a coward as well as a liar.
Willy: You’re very harsh on him.
Gabrielle: If not me, who else? And Renaud would never be jealous if, for example, Claudine went off with a young man for a change.
Willy: He would find that unacceptable.
Gabrielle: Oh. Infidelity for Renaud is a matter of gender?
Willy: Yes, it is.

Willy: How long have you known?
Gabrielle: About a month.
Willy: Well, I must say, I’m impressed by the way you’ve handled yourself. A younger Claudine would have thrown a fit.
Gabrielle: I’m planning on killing Renaud off in the next one.
Willy: What? No, you can’t. No, please, don’t.
Gabrielle: “The hand that holds the pen writes history.”

Georgie: I know that you have no time for me since our separation, and I know I behaved badly. But I’m begging you. Ask Willy to change it before publication. Please, Colette. One woman to another.
Gabrielle: I can’t.
Georgie: You’d let me suffer? I
Gabrielle: It isn’t just Willy, Georgie. It… It’s… It’s the book itself. Willy thinks it’s a work of art.
Georgie: You had your chance to be decent, but now it will be left to my husband to settle it. Ollendorff has agreed to a lump sum for the destruction of the entire print run.
Gabrielle: What? You can’t do that.
Georgie: He’s already accepted.
Gabrielle: That sly bastard. You can’t. You just can’t.
Georgie: Well, we have, and that’s how it is.
Gabrielle: You duplicitous bitch.
Georgie: I had a good teacher.

Willy: The thing is, Ollendorff signed the deal, but he neglected to mention that he does not own the copyright. Because I do. So it was simply a question of trotting along to the next publisher, collecting a second advance, and the printing presses are hard at work as we speak.

Missy: It seems Claudines are everywhere these days.
Gabrielle: Yes. There’s even been a Claudine murderess in Marseilles. She slit her husband’s throat.
Missy: Good for her. But seriously, you’ve done something important. You’ve invented a type.
Gabrielle: Willy has, you mean.
Missy: I mean you have. All those young girls between girlhood and womanhood, you’ve given them a voice. You should own up to it.
Gabrielle: Somebody told you?
Missy: I didn’t need to be told. Meeting you is enough.
Gabrielle: It’s true. I wrote them.

Gabrielle: What do you think of Missy?
Willy: She’s very pleasant. But she perplexes me. I’m…Words are either masculine or feminine, but there’s no…there’s no word for Missy.
Gabrielle: Oh, I could think of one or two.

Gabrielle: It must have been very hard for you. Putting on trousers, I mean.
Missy: No. It was entirely natural. I was a rather awkward child, if you can imagine me in pigtails and a dress. I never felt like I belonged, and then one day I tried on my brother’s school uniform, and that was it. I knew I was home for the first time. I’ve come a long way since then. Of course, it’s far easier for me than for a woman of no means, but I wanted to show that it can be done. What about you?
Gabrielle: What about me? Well, I dress as a man. Willy dresses you as a schoolgirl.

Gabrielle: Willy is demanding, yes, but…he also gives me a lot of freedom.
Missy: It is a long leash he keeps you on, but it’s a leash nevertheless. And perhaps you enjoy that.
Gabrielle: Do you think that’s terribly wrong?
Missy: No. It’s entirely your business, but… Never mind.
Gabrielle: But what?
Missy: I wonder if there will come a time…when you must decide, are you Claudine or are you Colette?

Gabrielle: You know the new Claudine book?
Willy: Yes.
Gabrielle: Why don’t we publish it under both our names?

Gabrielle: I need my name on the book.
Willy: No. Willy is a brand. And, in any case, women writers don’t sell.
Gabrielle: You bastard. You fat, smug, lazy, selfish bastard.
Willy: This is utter nonsense. If you felt so strongly, you should never have agreed to it all.
Gabrielle: Goddamn you, Willy.
Willy: Without the progenitor, there would be no Claudine.[/b]

Next up: The kiss.

[b]Willy: I saw our creditors yesterday. It’s horrific. We lost everything at the Moulin Rouge.
Gabrielle: Not today, Willy.
Willy: Colette. We need to sell the country house. We have no choice.
Gabrielle: No. No, Willy. You can’t do that.
Willy: Well, morally, yes, I need your permission. But, legally, well, the house is in my name.

Gabrielle: I’m going on tour, Sido, with Wague, for the next six months. The contracts are being drawn up now. We’re doing a new piece.
Mother: Get out of it. You have to.
Gabrielle: I’m going to do it.
Willy [entering the room]: What did I miss? Women. Knives. All very Greek.

Willy: Tell me something. The sole rights to the Claudines, Ollendorff. What would you give me for them?
Ollendorff: Are you serious? All of them?
Willy: Yes.
Ollendorff: The sole rights in perpetuity?
Willy: Make me an offer.

Gabrielle: What are we doing, Willy?
Willy: Are we finished?
Gabrielle: I don’t know.
Willy: You can’t.
Gabrielle: Why can’t I?
Willy: Because I love you. Because you’re the only woman I could ever love. And because you’re at your most brilliant when you’re with me.
Gabrielle: Am I?
Willy: Yes. You know you are.

Ollendorff: I was thinking if you were free, I’d like to take you and the marquise to dinner.
Gabrielle: Thank you. I’m always up for a free feed. Especially in such august company.
Ollendorff: Mmm, it’s the very least I can do for you, Colette, after all the money you’ve made for me. And will continue to make. I wish I’d been able to give Willy a better settlement. But one can only pay what one can afford.
Gabrielle: I’m not quite sure I understand.
Ollendorff: For the Claudines. The rights to the Claudines.
Gabrielle: Willy sold you the Claudines?
Ollendorff: Yes. All of them.
Gabrielle: He sold you the Claudines?
Ollendorff: Absolutely. I’m sorry. I thought he…
Gabrielle: How much did he get for them?

Gabrielle: Five thousand francs?!
Willy: Don’t be melodramatic. I was trying to keep the house for you.
Gabrielle: I gave you the house.
Willy: We still owed the bank.
Gabrielle: You could have sold Veber’s novels, some of your other trash. You just did it to stick the knife in me. Didn’t you? Didn’t you?
Willy: I wouldn’t have got anything for Veber’s, or Schwob’s, or anyone else’s. Now, please, calm down.
Gabrielle: Why? Why should I calm down? Oh, you hurt and you hurt and you hurt, and you think that by saying “I’m a man, that’s what men do,” you clear it all away. What you did was not just hateful, it was stupid. Now we’ll have no say over our books, and we’ll never make another penny from them.
Willy: We can write some more.
Gabrielle: No, never. Never again. Never!
Willy: You’re overreacting. This was purely a business decision.
Gabrielle: Isn’t that what our whole marriage has been? Wasn’t I the best investment you ever made? No dowry, but my God, she can write for her keep!
Willy: If you were an investment, you were a highly speculative one.
Gabrielle: I paid you back a thousand times.
Willy: Please, just stop it! Just stop talking about money! You were my ideal, my love, my obsession.
Gabrielle: You killed our child, Willy. Those books…they were all we had. And now they’re gone and there’s no chance of repair.

Willy: My darling, Claudine was only…
Gabrielle: Don’t. Don’t tell me what Claudine was. I am the real Claudine. Everything I thought and felt went into those books. They were me. My childhood, my memories, my opinions. Everything. And when I think of the hours I spent alone, slaving away for you, churning out scenes just to try and please you, I am so ashamed of myself for that. And yet I knew and you knew… that I was bound to do it. You found me when I knew nothing. You molded me to your own designs, to your desires. And you thought that I could never break free. Well, you’re wrong. Claudine is dead now. She’s gone. You betrayed her.

Gabrielle [voiceover]: After two years of music hall and theater, I’m still the same, face to face with that painted mentor who gazes at me from the other side of the looking glass with deep-set eyes under lids smeared with purplish greasepaint. I know she is going to speak to me. She is going to say, “Is that you there all alone under that ceiling, booming and vibrating under the feet of the dancers? Why are you there all alone? And why not somewhere else?” Yes, this is the dangerous, lucid hour. Now, whenever I despair, I no longer expect my end, but some bit of luck, some commonplace little miracle which, like a glittering link, will mend again the necklace of my days.

Title card: Colette’s The Vagabond, based on her music hall experiences, was published under her own name to great critical acclaim. Colette and Missy continued their relationship for many years. Missy often accompanied Colette on music hall tours but never again on the stage. After their divorce was finalized Colette and Willy never spoke again. The Claudine manuscripts were not destroyed by Paul Heon who instead returned them to Colette. She later used them to contest the novels’ true authorship – a battle she eventually won. Colette went on to publish over thirty novels and collections of short stories. She became the most celebrated female author in the history of French literature. In her old age, Colette remarked, “What a wonderful life I’ve had. I only wish I’d realized it sooner.”[/b]

In any nation there is always going to be a tug of war between what you feel you have the right to do and what “society” [in the form of the government, the court, the law] thinks you ought not have the right to do. And every now and again it becomes the stuff of headlines.

Here the conflict is “inspired” by true events: telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/0 … ct-speaks/

Think about it. You sincerely believe that in the eyes of the Lord choosing to have a blood transfusion is to thwart God’s will. And though this refusal may result in your death, that too is no less God’s will.

What ought the state – the courts – to do?

To do in grappling with that huge gap between those who believe something absolutely and those who recognize that when others believe just the opposite absolutely, there can only be laws that somehow try to deal with this for all practical purposes. And here there is sometimes room for “moderation, negotiation and compromise” and other times considerably less so.

In this case the patient in need of the transfusion is almost 18 years old. So is he mature enough – adult enough – to make his own case? At least to the extent that anyone raised in a fiercely devout religious family is able to think it through thoroughly? Had he been 18 – legally an adult – there would be no court hearing at all.

One of those films in which there is [at times] an engrossing back and forth exploration into the “issue at hand”. And then a tumble [stumble] into the personal life of the protagonist. Should the boy be permitted to refuse the transfusion and/or will the judge’s marriage be saved? Sometimes they are skillfully intertwined in the plot, and sometimes they aren’t.

In other words, an “intelligent and thought provoking” film intertwined in melodramatic soap opera fare.

And then the tangled conundrums embedded in medicine confronting conflicting goods. To abort or not to abort? To separate or not to separate conjoined babies? The "for all practical purposes’ relationship between law and morality. Tangled further still in God and religion.

Also, let’s not talk about the ending.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Children_Act_(film
trailer: youtu.be/BqGpq_Agv_I

The Children Act [2017]
Directed by Richard Eyre

[b]Fiona [a judge addressing the court]: If the twins remain joined, both babies will die. If the hospital is granted permission to separate them, Luke will die instantly, while Michael is likely to develop into a normal healthy child. The logic of the lesser evil is clear, one child flourishing better than two dead. But if the doctors invade Luke’s body and sever his aorta, with the inevitable consequence of his death, why is that not murder? The loving parents of these twins refuse to sanction such an act of premeditated killing. God has given life, they have argued in this court, and only God can take it away. It has been difficult, under such pressure of time and intense public interest, to arrive at settled legal principle, but the obvious. This court is a court of law, not of morals.

Reporter: Do you think the verdict was right? Can you tell us how you’re feeling?
Mother: Today the court has granted the hospital a licence to murder one of our children. Mrs Justice Maye has taken a scalpel to the heart of reason and justice.[/b]

So, you tell me?

Jack [Fiona’s husband, a professor, addressing his class]: I will leave you with Flaubert’s celebrated observation regarding Lucretius. “With the gods gone and Christ not yet come, there was a unique moment, from Cicero to Marcus Aurelius, when man stood alone.” So, there you have it. Before Christianity began to close the Western mind, what was briefly possible then was ‘the fixity of a pensive gaze’.

God in court, God in the classroom.

[b]Jack [to Fiona after she cancels – yet again – their weekend plans]: Um… look… I don’t know how to say this, um, but here it is. I think…I think I wanna have an affair.
Fiona: What?
Jack: Yeah, I’m going to, um… I mean, you shouldn’t be surprised by this.
Fiona: Oh, really?
Jack: Yeah. Fi… when was the last time that we made love?
Fiona: No idea.
Jack: No, you wouldn’t. You once told me that couples in long marriages often ended up like siblings. Well, here we are. I love you, but…
Fiona: You’re serious about this?
Jack: Mm-hm.

Jack: 11 months.
Fiona: What?
Jack: You said you had no idea when we last made love, so I’ll tell you. 11 months. It’s been 11 months. Almost to the day. I marked it in my diary. Special event.

Fiona: This is so unfair. I have had the conjoined twins case…
Jack: Yes, I know, and before them the Orthodox Jewish schoolgirls, and before them the bad father from Bahrain, and before him the baby in the phone box…
Fiona: Are you already having this affair? If you are, I’d like you to pack a bag now and leave.
Jack: I told you that I’m not…Don’t you miss it, Fi? Or is just 'cause you don’t want it, I can’t have it? Is that the deal? You have to understand that it’s not just about the sex. It’s…We don’t even kiss any more. Barely a peck on the cheek.[/b]

So, you tell me.

[b]Nigel [Fiona’s legal clerk on the phone]: A call from the out-of-hours Urgent Business Associate on behalf of counsel representing a hospital in Wandsworth. They urgently need to give blood to a cancer patient. It’s a boy of 17. Now, he and his parents are refusing.
Fiona:Why are they refusing?
Nigel: They’re Jehovah’s Witnesses. The hospital is seeking an order to proceed against their wishes.
Fiona: How long have we got?
Nigel: Perhaps four days.
Fiona: List it for hearing at short notice the day after tomorrow. Give notice to the respondents. Direct the hospital to inform the parents. They’ll have liberty to apply for legal aid. The boy will need legal representation. I want the hospital to serve evidence by four tomorrow with a witness statement from the treating oncologist. I’ll need to know why transfusion is necessary. And the parents should use their best endeavours to file evidence by noon on Thursday. OK, thanks. Bye.

Minister: Why is blood so important to God? Why is God so insistent? Yes, Sarah?
Sarah [a child]: Because that’s where the soul is, right in the blood, and therefore it belongs to him.
Minister: Very good indeed. The soul, the life, it’s in the blood, and it’s not ours, it’s God’s. Now let us pray for our dear friend, Adam Henry, and a prayer of faith will make the sick one well and Jehovah will raise him up.

Nigel: The boy has a form of leukaemia…
Fiona: The boy, the boy. Let’s at least give him a name.
Nigel: Of course, My Lady. Adam. Adam Henry. An only child. Very devout. Awfully precocious, they say. His parents are Kevin and Naomi, also very devout.

Attorney: My Lady, I believe all parties accept that Adam has leukaemia. The hospital wishes to treat him with four drugs, a universally recognised therapy, as I can show. Two of these drugs have the side effect of attacking the bone marrow, compromising the body’s immune system, therefore it’s standard to transfuse during treatment. However, the boy and his parents are Jehovah’s Witnesses and it’s contrary to their faith to accept blood products into their system. This apart, Adam and his parents agree to any treatment the hospital can offer.

Attorney: Professor Carter, bring us up to date on Adam’s condition.
Professor: It’s not good, he’s weak, and, as I would expect, he’s beginning to show the first signs of breathlessness. His haemoglobin counts are dropping steadily. The norm is 12.5. This morning it was 4.5. And the white cell count? Well, they should be somewhere between 5 and 9. He was showing 1.7. As for the platelets…
Fiona: Remind me of their function.
Professor: They’re necessary for clotting, My Lady. The norm is 250. Adam’s count this morning was 34. A healthy adolescent produces 500 billion blood cells every day. Adam is producing no blood at all.
Attorney: And if you could transfuse this patient…?
Professor: Then he would stand a decent chance.
Attorney: Have you discussed with Adam what will happen to him if he’s not transfused?
Professor: Well, I’ve spared him the details. He knows he could die.
Attorney: What knowledge does he have of the manner of his death?
Professor: Nothing at all.
Attorney: Then perhaps you could tell us?
Professor: It’ll be very distressing for everyone, including the medical team. They simply can’t understand why they should risk losing this patient. He’ll fight to breathe and he’s bound to lose. It’ll be frightening, like drowning. Before that, there will be internal bleeding perhaps, perhaps renal failure. Some patients lose their sight. He may have a stroke. Patients vary. The one sure thing is that it will be a horrible death.

Attorney [for Adam and his parents]: Do you agree, Professor, that the freedom of choice in medical treatment is a fundamental human right?
Professor: In adults, yes, I agree.
Attorney: Adam is very close to being an adult.
Prtofessor: If his 18th birthday were tomorrow morning, he wouldn’t legally be an adult this afternoon.
Attorney: I think we can agree that Adam is very nearly an adult, and isn’t it the case that he’s expressed his views to you intelligently?
Professor: His views are his parents’ views. His objections to blood transfusion are the doctrines of a religious cult for which he’s likely to become a pointless martyr.
Attorney: I assume you’re a Christian?
Professor: I am an Anglican.
Attorney: Is the Church of England a cult? Are you aware that the World Health Organization estimates that up to 20% of new AIDS cases are caused by blood transfusions? And transfusion brings other dangers. Hepatitis, Lyme disease, malaria, syphilis, Chagas’ disease, graft-versus-host disease, transfusion-related lung disease, variant CJD.
Professor: Very rarely happens and never under me.
Attorney: So if we added up all the dangers, wouldn’t you say there was enough to give a rational person pause?
Professor: The blood products we use are tested to the highest standard.
Attorney: But it wouldn’t be unreasonable, surely, given all the potential for infection and error, for a patient to insist his consent be sought.
Professor: You’re playing with words. If I’m not allowed to transfuse this boy, we may lose him.
Attorney: Jehovah’s Witnesses patients are often treated now by what’s called bloodless surgery.
Professor: Look, we’re not dealing with surgery here. This boy needs blood because his treatment prevents him making any of his own. It’s as simple as that.

Attorney [for Adam]: Can you tell the court why you and your wife and Adam are refusing a blood transfusion?
Kevin [Adam’s father]: What you have to understand is that blood, it’s the essence of what it means to be human. It’s the gift of life that we should all be grateful for. Just as life is sacred, so’s blood.
Attorney: So why would Adam refuse such a gift from the doctors?
Kevin: Mixing your own blood with the blood of an animal or another person is pollution, it’s contamination. It’s a rejection of God’s gift. That’s why he specifically forbids it in Genesis and Leviticus and Acts. And our son, Adam, he knows that God’s word has to be obeyed.
Attorney: Do you and your wife love your son, Mr Henry?
Kevin: Yes, we love him.
Attorney: And if refusing a blood transfusion… should cause his death?
Kevin: Then he’d take his place in the kingdom of heaven on earth that’s to come.

Attorney [for the hospital]: Mr Henry, these books of the Bible you mentioned. At the time of these Iron Age texts, transfusion didn’t exist. How on earth could it be forbidden?
Kevin: It existed in the mind of God.
Attorney: Many Jehovah’s Witnesses accept blood products without compromising their faith. Isn’t it the case that there are other options open to young Adam and you could, if you wanted, play your part in persuading him to take them and save his life?
Kevin: I don’t know anyone who departs from the teachings of the Governing Body. The elders give us good guidance.
Attorney: The same strict elders who’ve been visiting your son every day to make sure he doesn’t change his mind?
Kevin: These are kind and decent men. The other churches have priests in the hospital too.
Attorney: It’s true, isn’t it, that if Adam agreed to a transfusion, he’d be what you call dis-fellowshipped, cast out of the community?
Kevin: Disassociated, actually, but it’s not gonna happen because he isn’t gonna change his mind.
Attorney: He’s in your care and it’s your mind I want to change. He’s scared of being shunned. Isn’t that the term you use? The only world he knows would turn its back on him for preferring life to a terrible death. Does that sound like a free choice?
Kevin [to the judge]: My Lady, if you spent just five minutes with him, then you’d understand that this is a very, very special person who knows his own mind.
Attorney: Mr Henry, have you told Adam that if he saved his own life and agreed to a transfusion, you’d still love him?
Kevin: We’ve told him we love him.
Attorney: Is that all?
Kevin: It’s enough.
Attorney: When were the Jehovah’s Witnesses commanded to refuse blood transfusions?
Kevin: It’s in Genesis. It dates from the creation.
Attorney: It dates from 1945, doesn’t it? A committee in Brooklyn has decided your son’s fate. Kevin: There are deep truths that weren’t previously understood. The same is just as true in science.
Attorney: Not much room for dissent in your church, is there?
Kevin: You’ve probably no idea what it means to submit to a higher authority. We do so of our own free will.
Attorney: When you were Adam’s age, you wouldn’t have known your own mind would you?
Kevin: He’s lived his whole life in the truth. I didn’t have that privilege.
Attorney: You say life is precious. Other people’s lives or just your own?
Kevin: All life is a gift of the Lord and his to take away.
Attorney: Easy to say, Mr Henry, when it’s not your life.
Kevin: Harder to say when it’s your own son.

Attorney: Is masturbation a sin?
Kevin: Yes.
Attorney: And abortion? Homosexuality?
Kevin: Yes.
Attorney: Is this what Adam’s been taught to believe?
Kevin: That is what he knows to be true.

Mrs Greene [reading Adams own words to the court]: I’m my own man. I’m separate from my parents. Whatever their ideas are, I’m deciding for myself. I’m prepared to die.
Fiona: Thank you , Mrs Greene.

Fiona [to the courtroom]: Given the unique circumstances of this case, I have decided I would like to hear from Adam himself. I need to know if he understands his situation and what he confronts should I rule against the hospital. I’ll go now to Adam’s bedside in the company of his guardian. I’ll give judgement in open court when I return.

Adam: So you’ve come to change my mind. Straighten me out.
Fiona: No, Adam. I need to know what’s best for you.
Adam: Please, miss, set me on the path of righteousness.
Fiona: I have to be sure you know what you’re doing. Leukaemia’s a very serious illness. Refusing a blood transfusion when it could save your life, some people think you’ve been unduly influenced by your parents and the elders, and others think that you’re awfully clever and we should just let you get on with it. Should we? Let you do yourself in? Somehow I’ve got to decide.
Adam: I think it’s my choice.
Fiona: I’m afraid the law doesn’t agree.

Fiona: Let’s just consider the practicalities. With a transfusion, the consultant could add two drugs to your treatment and you’d stand a good chance of a pretty quick recovery. Without a transfusion, you could die. You understand that?
Adam: Yeah.
Fiona: But how about this, Adam? Partial recovery. You could lose your sight, suffer brain damage. Your kidneys could go. Is that going to please God?
Adam: If you don’t believe in God, you’ve no right talking about what does or doesn’t please him.
Fiona: I haven’t said I don’t believe. I need to know you’ve thought this through. Blind or mentally disabled, or both. For the rest of your life. Ready for that?
Adam: I’d hate it. I’d hate it. But I’d accept it.

Fiona: Tell me this, Adam. I want to hear it in your own words. Why won’t you have a blood transfusion?
Adam: 'Cause it’s wrong. God has told us that it’s wrong.
Fiona: Why is it wrong?
Adam: Why is anything wrong, My Lady? We just know it. Murder, torture, lying, being unfaithful in your marriage. How do we just know it? It’s in our hearts. God has put it there. And so… like, even if we get useful information by torturing a terrorist, we know, we just know it’s wrong.
Fiona: Is transfusion like torture?
Adam: They’re both wrong. I wish I could make you see this. Blood isn’t just a biological thing and it isn’t just a symbol. It’s life itself. It’s what we are. We’ve chosen to live in God’s truth and he’s told us not to mix our blood with other people’s. It’s a simple rule we wanna live by. We’re not inflicting it on anyone else. We just wanna live our lives in the truth as we see it. As we know it.
Fiona: Thank you, Adam. And if I decided the hospital can legally transfuse you, what would you think?
Adam: I’d think My Lady was an interfering busybody.[/b]

Here of course we can only imagine each of us ourselves confronting Adam and his point of view.

[b]Fiona [addressing the courtroom]: I am bound by the Children Act and the clear injunction of its opening lines: “The child’s welfare shall be the court’s paramount consideration.” Assuming a good recovery, this young man’s welfare is better served by his love of reading and his newly found passion for the guitar, by the exercise of his lively intelligence and by the expression of a playful, affectionate nature and by all of life and love that lie ahead of him. I find that A himself, his parents and the elders of his church have made a decision which is hostile to A’s welfare. He must be protected from his religion and from himself. In my judgement, his life is more precious than his dignity. My direction and declaration are as follows. It will be lawful for the applicant hospital to pursue such medical treatments of A as they deem necessary, including blood transfusion.

Adam [leaving Fiona a message on her phone]: Hi. This is Adam Henry. My Lady, I got your number. It wasn’t difficult. I’m out of hospital at last, and it’s so great to hear your calm voice. I loved it when you came and sat with me and we did the Salley Gardens. I look at that poem every day. I suppose I like being ‘young and foolish’. But if it wasn’t for you, I’d be neither. I’d be dead.

Fiona: You look a lot stronger. How’s it been?
Adam: Lots of rows with my parents. School’s OK, I suppose. Sometimes the idea of having a stranger’s blood inside me makes me feel sick, like… drinking someone else’s saliva.
Fiona: Come on. You’re alive.
Adam: Yeah, but I wanted…Look, I’ve so many questions. Couldn’t we go somewhere and talk?
Fiona: Adam, there’s something I want you to get very clear in your mind. For me, your case is over. I’ve got lots of new cases, babies and children, all kinds of sadness, and for you, you’ve got your life back. Everything’s ahead of you now. You’re talented. You’re going to do very well, I’m sure of that. But there’s one thing I want you to do for me. Don’t phone me again or write to me or follow me. Do you understand? [/b]

Meanwhile…

Jack: You were seen coming out of Mike Morrow’s office. Divorce? Are you serious? Without even telling me? I hope he pointed out that you might just be overreacting.
Fiona: Perhaps it’s time I started overreacting.
Jack: God. You’re the big authority on family problems, and yet when it comes to your own, you’re like a sulking child.
Fiona: You were ready to buy your pleasures with my unhappiness.
Jack: Oh, Jesus. Jesus. This is beyond self-pity. What is the point of your silence, Fiona? What is the point? Come on, wake up.
Fiona: I don’t trust you any more.
Jack: Listen, I left this marriage for two days. Two days. You left it years ago. You might just think about that while you’re away.

Then the part where they…jump the shark?

[b]Fiona: Should I be frightened? Are you really stalking me?
Adam: No, it’s nothing like that. I read your judgement. You said you wanted to save me from my religion, from myself. Well, you did. I’m saved.
Fiona: What do you want?
Adam: I’m not the person I was. When you came to see me, I really was ready to die. Amazing that someone like you could waste your time on me. I was such an idiot.
Fiona: You seemed very sincere.
Adam: Well, a sincere idiot. I felt so noble telling the doctors to leave me alone. No one could understand how profound I was. I was so pumped up. At night I used to think about this video I was gonna make on my phone, like suicide bombers do. It was gonna be on the TV news. It was gonna be on the TV news. I could make myself cry just thinking about my funeral, everyone loving me, everyone weeping. What a sacrifice he made. What an idiot.
Fiona: Where was God?
Adam: He was there, behind everything. I was obeying his word, living in the truth. But it wasn’t only about him. It was my delicious adventure, my beautiful death…
Fiona: More of an adolescent thing.
Adam: But if I hadn’t been a Witness, I would never have been in that mess.
Fiona: So now you’ve lost your faith?
Adam: No, no. Perhaps. It scares me to say it out loud, but the thing is, once you take a step back from the Witnesses, you might as well go all the way. Why replace one tooth fairy with another?

Adam: When I had the blood, my parents were there. I saw them hugging each other and crying, really sobbing. They’d lost the case and they’d tried so hard. But then I realised, no, no, they were crying for joy, ‘cause they’d always wanted me to live and they’d never told me. It wasn’t about God at all. I felt cheated, like I’d been really stupid. The whole thing was a fraud. And I’ve looked it up. The courts always let the hospital transfuse a minor. You knew that. You always knew what you were gonna do. They’d never let a kid die for their parents’ religion. So what were you doing at my bedside, coming bothering me and singing with me, getting under my skin, trying to get close to me, asking me questions? I didn’t ask you into my life. A rubber stamp, that’s all you needed. You can’t just send me away. I don’t care if you think you’re too grand to explain yourself, 'cause I’ve a right to know. What did you want from me? And my parents, if they loved me…
Nigel: The cab is here.
Fiona: My clerk will take you to the station and buy your ticket and put you on the train to London. To the station.
[Adam kisses her on the lips]
Adam: If you loved your son, your only son, why would you let him die?

Fiona [reading a note to her from Nigel]: “My Lady, I just had word the Jehovah’s Witness boy, Adam Henry, is very ill again. He’s in St David’s Hospice, refusing treatment, refusing to see his parents. They think he might not survive the night.”

Adam [in the hospital to Fiona]: My choice.

Fiona: Adam thought I could…change his life…answer all his questions. He was just a dreamer, but I…I thought I was being kind, you see. I should have…I should have… He couldn’t understand why his parents…Their only son.
Jack: What happened? What’s his name? Where is he now?
Fiona: Adam. His name is Adam. He…I heard tonight his cancer came back, his thing, and they need to transfuse him. And he’s refused. He’s 18. There’s nothing the hospital can do. He’s refused and his lungs are filling with blood and he’s dying.
Jack: He’s dying for his faith. Were you in love with him, Fiona?
Fiona: Oh, Jack. He was just a child. A boy. A lovely boy. A lovely boy. Jack, he… Such a waste.

Fiona [reading aloud the note from Adam]: “My Lady, you never told me what you believed in. I bet it isn’t God. But what? And me? I just don’t know any more. Sometimes, in strange moods, I think, well, I’m an adult now. This thing will come back. I just know it will. And then…I could be free.”[/b]

Here’s a film that takes us into another world. But not really. It’s a world we can understand because it is populated by human beings. And being human ourselves there are any number of interactions that we can recognize as being “human all too human”.

Also, “gritty all too gritty”. And “grim all too grim.”

For better or for worse. Depending on your point of view.

But most of us can never really embody the point of view of these people because we don’t live their lives from day to day to day. It’s a very different culture with very different ways of thinking about right and wrong, good and bad, true and false. A sense of reality that is borne in large part from a more or less indoctrinated point of view about reality. About family. About family obligations.

But it’s the modern world. A world where immigration has brought together people of very different cultures. A world where access to information [from the media, from the internet] generates all of the many different [and alternative] ways in which one can choose to live.

The family here are Gypsies. So we are confronted with all of the stereotypes that come with the reaction many have in “dealing” with them. As one IMDb reviewer put it:

The writer/director’s treatment is consistent and relentless: an unwavering close up of impoverished Gypsy life, at odds with the “Italians” who surround them and at odds with a society that considers them outsiders, thieves, and liars. The streets are uniformly strewn with garbage, and when a building experiences arson, you are almost ready to say “good riddance.”

There are any number of people who will watch this film and conclude that these people aren’t worth investing any interest in. Let alone compassion. As long as they stay on their side of the tracks and leave the rest of us alone. Class is everywhere here. And race.

A “coming of age” saga that is no doubt far, far removed from yours or mine. And that’s the point. To take us inside a world that we will judge while really knowing nothing about.

When you watch Pio going about the business of surviving from day to day you think of Fresh.

Look for not a single ounce of hope here. And you can’t help but ponder the reaction of many in the Gypsy community. All of the stereotypes seem to be reinforced. Where then are the alternative narratives?

One take on it: nytimes.com/2018/01/18/movi … gnano.html

IMDb

[b]The director and his crew had a Fiat Panda full of film equipment stolen while filming the short film A Chjàna (2012). They went to the Romani community in the Ciambra to negotiate for their car. This is how the director first met the Amato family, who he depicts in this film.

As in the film’s predecessor, Mediterranea (2015), the cast consists of non-professional actors who the director met in the city of Gioia Tauro in Calabria, Italy. The story is a fictional narrative in true-to-life surroundings.[/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Ciambra
trailer: youtu.be/R1l4Hpp27A4
youtu.be/cizugv2Y1AY

A Ciambra [2017]
Written and directed by Jonas Carpignano

[b]Brother: Why are the cops here? The electricity?
Pio: No they found him outside.
Brother: Death to the cops by fire. Did you switch the electricity?
Pio: Yeah.

Father [at the dinner table]: You’re all drunk like the Africans.
Mother: Just like the Africans. They get drunk and smash each other up.
Father: You’re gonna end up like the Africans.

Woman: One time I saw one outside the supermarket. He’s like “come here”. I said “what do you want?” I said, “ugly African, go away!” He grabbed my hand and I freaked. “Ugly African, get out of here.” I’m scared of them. Seriously.

Man: Fucking Gypsies.
Man [now on the phone]: Hello, police? Please send a car to Scina 15. Hurry. There’s a band of Gypsies making a mess. They’re stealing everything.

Pio: Ma, Ma! It’s the Italians!!

One of the Italian men: I heard your boy was arrested.
Mother: What can I do?
Man: These things happen. You know what they say, “it’s better to drag chains than to drag friends down.”

Mother [to Pio]: Now that your father and brother are arrested and gone, you think you’re the boss.

Ayiva [an African man Pio has befriended]: That’s enough.
Pio: Okay, enough.
Ayiva: Come here. Look at me, in the eyes. This is it. I don’t want to go to jail or back to Burkina Faso. And I don’t want them to send you away.
Pio: Okay, enough.
Ayiva: You understand?
Pio: Yes.

Mother: And this money?
Pio: From the car.
Mother: How could you risk it? I’m worried sick about your brother, and you’re gonna go and get arrested? The whole family will be in jail. I’ll be the only one out. And how will I go on?

Police [to Pio’s moother]: Good evening, Ma’am. We have a warrant. We’re looking for the copper you stole.

Daughter: It’s the fine for the electricity.
Mother: How much?
Daughter: Nine thousand euros.
Mother: Nine thousand euros. Is there time to pay?
[the daughter shakes her head]
Mother [while Pio listens in]: What are we gonna to do?

Pio [to Ayiva]: Let’s go make some money.

Pio: Are you okay?
Ayiva: Yeah.
Pio: Was that your wife and daughter on the computer?
Ayiva: No. My sister and my daughter.
Pio: And your wife?
Ayiva: It’s only the three of us.

Pio: You seem off. What’s up?
Ayiva: I’m fine. You know, life is a bit complicated. Sometimes you think you are moving ahead, and then you hit a setback.

Black woman: You see all these people? They are from Ghana. I am Nigerian. Where are you from?
Pio: Gioia.
Black woman: Gioia Tauro? You’re a Gypsy, no?
[Pio nods]
Black woman: I like Gypsies, you know?

Grandfather: Once, we were always on the road. We were free and didn’t have bosses. We answered to no one. We were free, always on the road. Now we live here. Remember…it’s us against the world.
Pio: Against the world.

Pio: Do a lot of Africans have cars.
Ayiva: Some, but not many. Why?
Pio: Why don’t we take some cars and sell them the parts?
Ayiva: Stop thinking about stealing cars.

Pio: Why don’t you tell me about prison.
Brother: Why the fuck do you care?
Pio: While you were in prison, I brought home the bread.
Brother: What the fuck do you want, tell me.
Pio: Let’s go steal together.
Brother: You’re a kid, Pio. Where you gonna go?
Pio: Don’t give me that shit.
Brother: You’re gonna deal with the Italians now?
Pio: I’m not afraid of them.
Brother: Get out. You’re pissing me off. Out. Out!
[Pio looks at him disbelieving]
Brother: Stop bothering me. Out. Out.

Italian man: Tell your family what you did.
Pio: I pretended to get my ball. I saw a computer. A photo, and I took them.
Man: And what else. Tell them. Tell your mother what you did. You know how long I’ve known your family. And you wanna come to my house and steal?..Don’t ever come to my house again. Or you’ll be dead on the floor. Thank god I know your family…your brother or you wouldn’t have had a good night. Understand?

Father [to Pio]: Get out! Get out of this house!!

Pio: What is it?
Brother: You wanna know how it is? In Palmi prison, they take care of you. They all respect you in there. Not the Africans. They get no respect. No one even looks at them. But us…they all respect us. Even the Italians respect us. There was a guy who was in prison in Brazil. Down there, they piss and shit in their cells. They tie themselves up so they don’t fall in their shit. They’re like animals down there. You messed up, Pio. What are we gonna do?
Pio: I don’t know.
Brother: You wanna do something with me? Let’s do this thing…and it’ll make everything okay.

Pio [watching Ayiva go by on his motorcycle]: What are we doing here?
Brother: My friend will come with a truck. I’ll help him. He’ll pay us immediately.
Pio: I’m not gonna do that to Ayiva.
Brother: Stop it with this African, Pio.
Pio: Why are you still calling him that?
Brother: You have to think about us…and you’re worried about the African?

Brother: They won’t let you back in the Ciambra, Pio. Call him and get him outta there.
Pio: I’m not doing it. That’s it.
Brother: Don’t be a baby, Pio. They come with the truck, take everything and pay us immediately. Just say the word. He trust you, Pio.

Ayiva: What happened, Pio? You’re scaring me.
Pio [with tears streaming down his face]: Will you take me home?

Brother [to Pio]: See, everything is fine. You did good.[/b]

Searching.

In the computer age. It’s not for nothing that the criminal justice system is keen on seizing all computers when the crime is serious enough. After all, that is often where all the secrets are to be found.

Only here, it is the father of a missing girl who is able to follow all of the digital crumbs into the digital forest.

So, in part, it’s a “tech film”. Or, as one IMDb reviewer put it…

This film got it right in the technology department. All real websites, technology and actual examples of how you can search the internet to find information. They had to get this right and as an avid tech enthusiastic i was pleased that they did.

And this part will either be over [or way, way over] your head or it won’t. Let’s face it, for a lot of us, these technological marvels may as well still be just science fiction. Or magic.

And it’s a thriller. But it’s also a postmodern thriller immersed in this technological age we have not yet grasped all of the implications of. That the “devices” are there for everyone to use is one thing, how they are used, another thing altogether. To paraphrase Shane, “a computer, the internet and social media are as good or as bad as the person using them”.

Throw in the part about a postmodern morality and things can get really, really dark, really, really fast.

Finally, the part where, in today’s world, what do parents really know about their kids? They go out into the world and make contact with who knows who. Some things they share with you, some things they don’t. And it’s an electronic jungle out there. With the internet the sky is the limit regarding who or what your child might bump into.

As for the ending it is as believable or unbelievable as you need it to be.

IMDb

[b]For the German, Spanish, French, Russian and Portuguese versions of the movie, every TV/phone/computer screen was recreated in its respective language, as well as every typing sequence, keystroke by keystroke.

The film took just 13 days to shoot. However, it took two years to make due to the prep, editing and animating.

Throughout the movie various news articles hint to an alien invasion that happening at the same time.[/b]

trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt7668870/tr … tt_trv_trv
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searching_(film
trailer: youtu.be/3Ro9ebQxEOY

Searching [2018]
Written in part and directed by Aneesh Chaganty

[b]Margot [from voicemail]: Hey, you’ve reached Margot’s phone. Leave me a message or text me back.
David: Hey, Margot, Dad again. I’m not sure if you’ve been checking your messages, but um, I’m starting to get a little…Why did you leave your laptop at home?

David [on phone]: Hi, uh, Mrs. Shahinian? This is David Kim, Margot’s father.
Teacher: Yes, I’m in the middle of a lesson. May I call you back afterwards?
David: Right, no, this is just, take a second…Can you put my daughter on the phone just for a second?
Teacher: I’m sorry, Mr. Kim, I’m confused what you’re calling about.
David: M-My daughter, Margot Kim is in a lesson with you right now?
Teacher: Margot Kim canceled her classes six months ago.[/b]

She didn’t make it to school that day either.

[b]911 operator: 911, what’s your emergency?
David: Hi, I’m calling about a possible… I… I’m calling to report a missing person.
Operator: Okay, who is this regarding?
David: Uh, my daughter. I know I should’ve called sooner. I just thought that…
Operator: That’s okay, sir. The first thing we need to do is file a report. After that, I’ll put out a call to a detective in the area who will be in touch with you.
David: All right.
Operator: Now let’s start with her name.

Rosemary: My name is Rosemary Vick. I’m the detective sergeant assigned to your daughter’s case. I’ve been waiting for your call. We’re working as fast as we can. I’m currently 35 minutes away from your house. But while I have you, do you feel comfortable telling me what you know?
David: I just told every detail I know to whoever I got off the phone with an hour ago. I don’t know what you guys are doing.
Rosemary: I promise you, Mr. Kim, we are taking this very seriously. And as a parent myself, I can only imagine what you must be feeling. But for me to help you, I do need to know how everything unfolded from your eyes.
David: Understood, detective.
Rosemary: Okay, let’s see if I got this right. One: after a group study session, Margot, with her car, didn’t return home Thursday evening. Two: she called three times at 11:00 p.m. Three: she didn’t attend school on Friday. And four: she’s been skipping piano classes for the last six months. Was all of that correct?
David: Yes.
Rosemary: Okay. Mr. Kim, I am going to find out what happened to your daughter. But I’ll need to know a lot more about her, okay? We’ll handle the ground investigation, Mr. Kim. That’s our job. But if there’s something a parent can do, it’s shedding light for us on who your daughter is and the people she talks to. Is that something you can help us with?
David: Yes. I can help with that.

Rosemary: Hey, update me whenever you learn something. Big or small.
David: Okay. Where are you going?
Rosemary: To find out what the rest of her Thursday looked like.

Peter: Are there any Facebook friends you haven’t talked to yet?
David: Yes. 94. And apparently, since nobody was actually her friend, I don’t know who to talk to without calling every name I read online.
Peter: What about offline?

David [on skype]: Did she mention anything unusual going on, maybe? Was she acting strange?
Abigail: Uh… You know, she did go on Tumblr a lot.
David: What? What is a tumbler?

Rosemary [on skype]: First, she fills up for gas. Then exits off the 101. And then turns onto the 152 east. 10:02 p.m.
David: 152 east? That exits leads outta town.
Rosemary: She took it alone.
David: That doesn’t make sense. This does not sound like my daughter. She’s acting like a totally different person.

David [on skype]: She’s been depositing her piano cash into her checking account every week. What the hell was she doing with all that money? Six days ago, she made an outgoing transaction of $2,500 to Venmo.
Peter: The payment service?
David: There it is. $2,500. Six days ago.
Peter: Does it say what it was for?
David: Nothing but a peace sign.
Peter: Who did she send it to?
David: It doesn’t say.

Derek [on phone]: Sir, I don’t have to tell you anything.
David: I just want to know where you were the night my daughter went missing.
Derek: Like I said, I had a prior engagement.
David: What are you hiding? What are you hiding?
Derek: Nothing!
David: Then answer the damn question before there’s a cop knocking on your door. Where were you the night my daughter went missing?!

Rosemary [on phone]: Does the name Rachel Jeun ring a bell?
David: No. Why?
Rosemary: It’s Margot. You mentioned earlier she was acting like a different person. So I had our forensics team look through any deleted contacts on the copy of her hard drive. One of those contacts was a local forger. He said Margot picked up an ID a few days ago. Around the same time, she withdrew all that money.
David: Withdrew? What? Withdrew what money?
Rosemary: David, I also spoke to security at Venmo. To find out more about the account Margot sent the $2,500 to.
David: Do they know who it belonged to?
Rosemary: It belonged to Margot.
David: She sent the money to herself? What was she doing? Running a- a laundering scheme? Rosemary: That’s what it looks like. I’d see this a lot in narcotics. People who know their money’s being watched just transfer their funds to somewhere much less monitored.
David: Less monitored. Like where?
Rosemary: The Internet.
David: She gets a fake ID, she sends money to herself. What does this mean?
Rosemary: That it’s time to start considering the possibility that Margot ran away.
David: Why would she do that?
Rosemary: That’s what we don’t know.
David: No, no, no, no, no. I know my daughter. She did not run away.

Margot [from a YouCast video clip]: My dad doesn’t know I stopped going to piano. He wouldn’t get it.

Rosemary [om skype]: I’m sorry, David, YouCast is another dead end.
David: You sure you looked into every one of them?
Rosemary: Every one. None of the YouCast users Margot interacted with have a connection to her disappearance. Even fishnchips. Using the information on her account, we traced her to a Kerchick’s Diner 10 miles outside Pittsburgh. I spoke to her and her manager who confirmed with CCTV that she was on a shift. Checks out.
David: I didn’t know her. I didn’t know my daughter.

Rosemary [on skype to David]: Couple of years ago, an angry neighbor starts banging on my door. When I asked her what the trouble was, she said, she wanted the $25 that my son had stolen from her. Now, I didn’t know what she was talkin’ about. I know my son. And that did not sound like the Robert I raised. But as it turned out, it was true. My son had gone house to house in the neighborhood for two weeks telling people that he was my son. And that he was raising money for a fictional police charity called Moms and Dads in Blue. Point is…you don’t always know your kid.

Rosemary [from voicemail]: You’ve reached Detective Sergeant Rosemary Vick. Leave a message. I’ll get back to you.
David: Vick! Wake up. I know why she was at that intersection. She wasn’t leaving town, she was driving to the spot she’s been visiting for the past five months. It’s 3:45 a.m. I’m headed there now.

David [on skype]: You told me she ran away.
Rosemary: Okay, I’m heading there right now. Okay. I need you to stay calm, all right? We’re gonna figure this out together. What are you showing me?
David: This is her keychain.
Rosemary: Oh, my God. Did you call the cops? I’m heading, I’m-I’m on my way.
David: You told me she ran away, Vick!

News anchor on TV: Good morning, Bay Area. I’m Natalie Boyd. A terrifying development today as a vehicle matching that of a missing San Jose teenager was discovered late last night underneath a Santa Cruz lake. An operation is currently underway to recover Margot Kim’s Toyota Camry. But at this moment, we still don’t know whether the Evercreek High sophomore is actually inside the vehicle.

Rosemary [to reporters on the scene]: Good morning. Thank you for being here on such short notice. I am Detective Sergeant Rosemary Vick, lead investigator on this case. I am joined by David Kim. Margot’s father. We’ve provided you all with a timeline of events, starting with last Thursday, May 11th, when Margot first went missing. That is yours to circulate. But focusing on the events of this morning, The Silicon Valley Police Department was able to recover Ms. Kim’s vehicle. And to answer the most pressing question, Margot Kim was not inside. However, our examination of the vehicle did reveal a small amount of blood on the passenger side dashboard. Blood that points to a physical altercation. Meaning that this case is now officially being considered an abduction.

Reporter: It’s been four days since Margot Kim was last seen. And so far, nothing to show for it except for the torturous mystery at its center. $2,500 in cash was found in a Manila envelope on Margot’s passenger seat. Was it a runaway fund? Like the lead detective is suggesting, or was it something more?[/b]

Cue the social media frenzy.

[b]Rosemary [on Skype]: You can’t assist an investigation anymore.
David: What? What does that…what does that mean?
Rosemary: It means that we can’t have someone this close to the case helping investigate it. It’s my fault for getting you involved in the first place. I did it because we had already lost so much time. Every professional who should be working on this case is working on this case.
David: All I’m trying to do is to help you find my daughter!
Rosemary: I know, but you can’t see things clearly.
David: Who’s the one who brought you to the car? Who’s the one who found the lake and brought you to the car? If it wasn’t for me, not you, you and I would be thinking that my Margot ran away. But because of me…
Rosemary: We don’t know that she didn’t run away. She had cash in her car. But what we do know is that a 17-year-old boy is in the hospital because you broke his jaw! If you have a suspicion about someone, that’s fine. But then, it is the police’s job to look for proof. Not yours to act on flakes of evidence.

David: What was your relationship like with Margot?
Peter: What do you mean?
David: You guys hung out, right?
Peter: Sure. You know, it was uh… You know, we didn’t hang out a bunch but You know, it’s just…
David: When’s the last time you saw her, by the way?

David [reading Margot’s text to Peter]: “Last night was fun.” “I feel so weird doing this.” “Don’t tell your father.” “He’d kill me.” “Seriously, he’d murder me.” And at seven different times… “See you tonight.” What’d you do to my daughter? What’d you do to my daughter?
Peter: I can explain, all right? But you know what? Let’s calm down.

David [grabbing Peter by the throat]: What’d you do to her?! What’d you do to her?! What’d you do to her?! What were you doing with her?!
Peter: Weed!
David: What?
Peter: Weed! I was smoking her out. When you guys all came back from New Year’s. She found my piece. She wanted to try it and…It just kept happening.
David: You gave drugs to my daughter?!

Text from Rosemary to David: WE GOT HIM. Call me.

Peter: You come in here, and accuse me of something un-fucking-speakable and you’re wondering what kind of family I am?! You wanna know why she hated all those piano lessons? It’s because every time she would walk in, she would see that thing and she would think about her mother.
David: She told you that. She told you that and not me. Why?
Peter: Because you never asked. Ever since Pam, you stopped talking to Margot about the only thing that’s been on her mind the last two years. She needed you to talk to her. Not the other way around.

Reporter [on TV]: This is Eyewitness News. With live breaking news. Good morning, I’m Faustine Rhee. A parent’s worst nightmare comes true this morning for David Kim. In a shocking and thoroughly mind-boggling conclusion to a story that’s captivated the Bay Area, Margot Kim, missing now for five days, has just been tragically declared dead. Why? A taped confession. Randy Cartoff, released just six years ago for felony drug possession and sexual assault uploaded the confession online before taking his own life. We’re going to show you a segment of the three-minute video now, but please be warned, the following contains graphic descriptions and disturbing content. Viewer discretion is advised.
Cartoff [from video]: “Dear girl in the green car, I’m sorry for what I did to you. I’m sorry for not listening to you when you begged me to stop. I’m sorry for beating you. And crushing you. And tossing you with your suitcases so no one would ever find you. I thought this would be easy but it isn’t.”
Rosemary [on TV]: When we arrived at his Morgan Hill residence, Mr. Cartoff was deceased. Seemingly by a self-inflicted gun wound. Sometimes, these confessions are hoaxes but based on his story, we were able to return to the lake site where we discovered trace DNA matching that of Mr. Cartoff in critical areas of the search zone. I’ve already spoken to her father. But at this point in the investigation, we are very confident that Ms. Kim’s life was taken on her way out of town.

David [on skype]: Still doesn’t make sense. Where’s the car that he took her in? Where’s the…suitcases? Did-Did he clean up the blood? Vick, who is this guy?
Rosemary: I don’t know. I wish I had an answer. [/b]

Next up: the answer. The very, very strange answer.

[b]David [on phone]: Hi, I’m wondering if I could speak to Hannah?
Hannah: Speaking.
David: Hi, I’m calling in regards to my daughter, Margot Kim. You spoke to her online as ‘mkmania’.
Hannah: Oh, um, you must have the wrong number. I’m talent, not representation. But I can connect you to my agent, if you like.
David: So, you work as a waitress part time then? Because you told the detective you were on a shift when she called.
Hannah: Uh, what detective? I don’t understand.
David: Detective Vick, she called you four days ago, and you told her you were on a shift…
Hannah: Sir, I never got a call from the police. What are you talking about?
David: Maybe I’m not being clear. On YouCast, you’ve been chatting with my daughter for months. Your user name is ‘fishnchips’. Your mother was in the hospital. Right?
Hannah: What’s Youcast?

David [on phone]: This is David Kim, I need to speak to Detective Rosemary Vick.
Woman: Oh, Mr. Kim. I am so sorry to hear about Margot. We are all so torn up about it here. Yeah, thank you. Especially Rosemary. I have never seen someone so invested in a case. From the moment she volunteered to lead it, to the way she handled the investigation.
David: Hey, w-w-wait, she did… Did you say volunteered? Y-Y-You said she volunteered. I-I was led to believe that she…she was assigned to the case, right? She was assigned?
Woman: No. She definitely volunteered. Unfortunately though, I, I still can’t patch you through dispatch. She’s probably on her way to Margot’s vigil, though. If you’d like, I can connect you to her work voicemail instead…Mr. Kim? Mr. Kim?

Homicide detective: Ms. Vick, as your counsel was informed, by signing this document, you hereby verify the confession you provide today pertaining to the crimes you’re accused of after your arrest one week ago.

Detective; Let’s start with Thursday, May 11th, when Margot Kim went missing. What happened that night?
Rosemary: I got a phone call.
Detective: And who was calling?
Rosemary: My son.
Robert [on video]: Mom… I made a big mistake.

Detective: What did Robert tell you when you got there?
Rosemary: He said, “There’s a girl down there. I accidentally pushed a girl down there.” I asked him why.
Detective: What did he say?
Rosemary: You need to understand that my son is not like other kids. He’s different. He can be hurt…
Detective: What did he say?[/b]

Then yet another rendition of Catfish.

[b]Detective: So, your son calls you. Asked you to help cover up a murder.
Rosemary: No. No. It was my decision.

Detective: So, you helped your son.
Rosemary: I dumped the car in the lake. And took charge of the investigation. I convinced David his daughter ran away. Said forensics had Margot’s hard drive. And told the law enforcement team we’d already cleared the zone I knew her body was in.
Detective: But still, it was only a matter of time before they’d found the spot.
Rosemary: Which is why I needed a confession. It was the only thing that would make it stop. Detective: So you drugged up an ex-con you knew, fed him a script. Was it really a suicide?
Rosemary: He’s my son. Do you know what prison would do to someone like him? He made a mistake. [/b]

Back when it was basically all new [for most of us] a woman would spend her life being the homemaker. As nature intended. Her life revolved around being there for her husband and her children. She was clearly subordinate in many ways but [if lucky enough] she was put up on a pedestal. Then all this was passed on to the next generation.

And then [historically and culturally] the feminist movement came along and her options increased considerably. Now that she could, what would she choose to pursue that was once all but unthinkable for those of her own gender.

How about puzzling? As in jigsaw puzzling. Not crossword puzzles. Not puzzles in mathematics. Not logic puzzles. The kind of puzzles that most of us associate with our childhood. And there actually are contests out there in which the adults among us compete. And Agnes is drawn into it. And then “existentially” her life begins to “unfold in ways she could never have imagined.”

Sound familiar?

Of course it need not be puzzles. It could be anything. You are living a life that in some respects is a good one. But it’s not the one you want the most. Then you stumble into a whole new set of circumstances. New experiences, new relationships, new ways of thinking about the life you live.

And, as in such films as Bridges of Madison County, this is the story of a wife who is married to a “decent man” who is pretty much the dullard. And then meeting another man who in is anything but that.

And with jigsaw puzzles there is always a solution. You put the pieces together in the only way that they can be. Unlike the pieces that you are given to life itself. There is never any one solution. Or, as Robert points out, puzzling is a way to “control the chaos”.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puzzle_(2018_film
trailer: youtu.be/wl_SoMNi0rw

Puzzle [2018]
Directed by Marc Turtletaub

[b]Louie [husband]: Can someone please explain to my mother why she has to stop living in the 20th century?

Son [holding out her smart phone]: Mom, look. Just try it. You can Google something. You can Google recipes or Bible study or whatever. Literally everything in the world is on this one device. Look.
Agnes: No. No.
Son: Just type it into here.
Agners: It’s like carrying a little robot in your purse. Or a little alien robot friend. I don’t need it.

Agnes: I thought you just didn’t eat red meat.
Nicki: I’m vegan.
Agnes: So you never, ever eat chicken? I should have made fish.
Gabe: No, Mom, she… she doesn’t eat any animals.
Agnes: But she has to have protein. She’s still growing.
Nicki: Honestly, it’s fine. I can… I can eat the salad and bread. I’ll be fine.
Agnes: Have you always been this way?
Gabe: Uh, Nicki is, um… she’s also a Buddhist.
Agnes: Well, that sounds interesting. You know, I have no idea what that really means… “Buddhist.” I always hear people talking about Buddhism and celebrities, but nobody says what it is.
Nicki: Okay. Well, um… so the root of all suffering is our desire not to suffer, so we have to give up on the idea of being happy.
Louie: You’re okay with not being happy?
Nicki: Yeah, I try not to think that way. Happiness is an illusion.
Ziggy: Um, I read this thing about this kid who drowned in a river because the only person watching him was this Buddhist monk, and if you’re Buddhist, you’re not supposed to save anybody’s life. You’re not supposed to, like, interfere with their path.

Louie: What are you reading?
Agnes: Puzzle instructions.
Louie: Don’t you just put all the pieces together till you run out? What other instructions do you need?
Agnes: Strategies, suggestions. Doesn’t matter.
Louie: You know…only children play with puzzles, Agnes.

Agnes spots an ad taped to a display shelf: CHAMPION DESPARATELY SEEKING PUZZLE PARTNER

Robert: Have you seen the news?
Agnes: What? No. Uh, I’m here about the puzzles.
Robert: Flood in India, and thousands of people washed away just like that. It boggles the mind. There was an earthquake in northern Iran, and… I’m not trying to be gloomy. I know we’re just meeting. It’s just…too much, you know.

Agnes [to Robert]: What prize?
Robert: Every competition has a prize.
Agnes: Your ad never mentioned a competition.
Robert: I thought it was obvious. “Champion desperately looking for a puzzle partner.” Did you think I was looking for companionship?
Agnes: No, of course not. Uh, just a partner.
Robert: For a competition.

Robert [emptying a box of puzzle pieces on a table]: All right. Let’s see how we work together.
Agnes: Is this a test?
Robert: Absolutely.

Agnes: What is the competition?
Robert: National Jigsaw Puzzle Championship. I won the singles last year. My first time.
Agnes: I didn’t know such a thing existed.[/b]

That makes at least two of us.

[b]Robert [to Agnes]: You’re not doing it by color first? Rule number one of competitive puzzling: You’ve got to organize by color before you do anything else. I will do green and the blues. You do red and the dark browns.

Agnes: So…Why did she leave you? Your last partner.
Robert: Oh, she just left. No explanation, really. Not even a note.
Agnes: So, she wasn’t just your puzzle partner?
Robert: No. She was my wife.

Robert: So, they give you the puzzle, and you pour the whole thing out at once. You don’t take little handfuls and spread them around the table. I noticed you doing that the other day. You also stand up. And walk around the table a couple of times before you start.
Agnes: Oh.
Robert: You get more perspective this way. You see puzzle pieces without the glare. You see patterns you might not have seen from your chair. You know, different color schemes. Now we can sit. And it’s-it’s faster to divide things up. I… I do borders, you do colors.

Robert; You’re so much more comfortable when you’re focusing on the puzzles, aren’t you? Why?
Agnes: You ask a lot of questions.
Robert: Yeah. That’s how you get to know someone.
Agnes: But I don’t ask you anything.
Robert: Go ahead.
Agnes: I can’t think of a question right now.
Robert: That’s my point. You’re uncomfortable around me.
Agnes: Well, I don’t know you. But it’s not just that. I, uh… I’m not comfortable, generally, because I… because, normally, my mind is, uh… I don’t know.
Robert: Because, normally, your mind is moving so fast, you don’t really know where it’s going. There’s nowhere for you to express your mind. No one to express it to. It makes you nervous. So you focus on menial tasks. Puzzles are menial tasks for you, so you can focus. But the results are aesthetically pleasing, you like it, and it turns you on.

Robert: Honestly, Agnes, if you learn the rules and hone the technique, I think we have a good chance at going to Belgium.
Agnes: Belgium?
Robert: If we win the nationals, we go to the World Jigsaw Puzzle Federation competition. It’s in Brussels, right after the nationals.

Ziggy: I want to cook, Mom.
Agnes: What?
Ziggy: I’ve watched you cook my whole life. I watch cooking shows when no one’s home. I think I’d be happy doing what you do, not what Dad does.
Agnes: But I don’t do anything.
Ziggy: Are you fucking kidding? Mom, you do a million things, and you’re good at all of them.

Agnes: Ever wonder what your life would be like if you met me a few years later? Or never met me at all?
Louie: Not for one second. I thank God every day I have you.
Agnes; Every single day?
Louie: Yeah. And night.
Agnes: I think we should watch the news.
Louie: Why? Nothing good ever happens in the world.
Agnes: Still, shouldn’t we know about it?

Agnes; I looked you up. I mean, I Googled you on my phone. You’re an inventor?
Robert: Uh, not really.
Agnes; Something about magnets?
Robert: Yeah. No. Uh… uh… I have a patent under my name. One invention…one good idea that took off. That’s it. I stumbled onto it almost by accident. Haven’t come up with anything since.
Agnes: It made you rich.
Robert: It was a fluke. I’m not an inventor. Let’s just do the puzzle.

Agnes: For once, take my side. There’s so much pain all around us. So much suffering in the world. Why shouldn’t I help?
Louie: You lied to me, like a child.
Agnes: You denied me an act of charity, like a heartless master.
Louie: What is that supposed to mean?
Agnes: You know exactly what it means.[/b]

And it’s not even the real lie.

[b]Agnes: You shouldn’t smoke.
Ziggy: You shouldn’t lie.
Agnes: I’m sorry. I…
Ziggy: Nah, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. Whatever it is, uh…I hope it’s something that makes you feel good.
Agnes: It’s nothing like that.
Ziggy: Why didn’t you ever divorce him? Seriously, you’ve never really been happy.
Agnes: I don’t think a mother and son should be having a conversation like this.

Agnes [regarding Ziggy’s letter]: Second paragraph.
Robert: All right, let’s see. Uh…“My mother doesn’t know anything about the world outside of our house, our church, our traditions and our family. She, like my father and brother, never went to college…I love my mother, but I also feel bad for her. She’s a sheltered person and doesn’t think of anything but serving the men in her life. A child of Hungarian immigrants, she lost her mother when she was young and grew up doting on her dad. She’s still living in the house he raised her in. I want to be different. I want to go to college and learn about other cultures and not just my own. I don’t just want to become my father, who is too scared to think outside the box, or my mother, who just won’t let herself come alive.”

Agnes: You don’t know me.
Robert: Hey. Hey. I know that you are the best puzzler I’ve ever met. I know that you are modest and funny and… and beautiful and strange.

Robert: Ag-nesh. Can I…Can I kiss you right now?
[Agnes shakes her head]

Louie: A puzzle competition? Really? Well, how big is it?
Agnes: 500 pieces.
Louie: No, not the puzzle. The…the competition.
Agnes: Oh. About 360 in the individual competition.
Louie: Look, I don’t think it’s such a good idea.
Agnes: I’m doing it.
Louie: Honey…
Agnes: I’m not asking you. I’m telling you. I’m finally doing something on my own, and you can support me or not. I’ll do it either way.

Robert: Stay. Have a drink with me.
Agnes: I have to beat the traffic. I’ll see you next week.
Robert: I’ll miss you, Mata.
Agnes: Why did you say that?
Robert: 'Cause I meant it.
Agnes: How can you mean it?
Robert: I don’t know.
Agnes: How can this be happening?
Robert: I don’t know.
Agnes: Why are we wasting all this time doing puzzles?
Robert: What else is there to do?
Agnes; It’s a childish hobby for bored people.
Robert: You know that’s not true.
Agnes; Tell me you’re not a bored rich guy. Tell me I’m not a childish housewife.
Robert: No, that’s not what we are.
Agnes: You have much more important things to do. You’re a man of ideas. Why do you do these stupid puzzles?
Robert: It’s a way… to control the chaos.
Agnes: That’s ridiculous.
Robert: Come on, Mata, you… you’re missing the point.
Agnes: Okay. What is the point, Robert?
Robert: Life is messy. It doesn’t make any goddamn sense. Sorry to break the news to you. Life’s just random. Everything’s random. My success, you here now. There’s nothing we can do to control anything. But when you complete a puzzle, when you finish it, you know that you have made all the right choices. No matter how many wrong pieces you tried to fit into a wrong place, but at the very end, everything makes one perfect picture. What other pursuits can give you that kind of perfection? Faith? Ambition? Wealth? Love? No. Not even love can do that, Mata. Not completely.

Louie: I don’t understand what the fucking problem is.
Agnes: The fucking problem is my fucking husband not thinking there’s a fucking problem.

Agnes [on the phone]: God. It’s the worst thing I’ve ever done.
Robert: Wait, what? What happened?
Agnes: Kissing you.
Robert: Oh. Wow. If that’s the worst thing you have ever done, Agnes, you are pretty damn lucky.
Agnes: I haven’t gone to confession. I don’t know how to confess this. I’ve been telling lies. I love you.
[she hangs up]

Ziggy: You okay, Mom?
Louie: Where’s dinner?
Agnes: I guess I forgot.
Louie: You forgot about dinner? What else you forget about? You forget about us?
Agnes: I’m sorry. Just be a minute.
Louie: Did you buy my cheese? Did you forget about that, too?
Agnes [with a smirk on her face]: I did.
Louie: You think this is funny? What’s wrong with you?
Ziggy: Come on, Dad.
Louie: No, I slave all day for this family. I come home, and you’re making puzzles?

Louie [turning to walk away]: No. This is bullshit.
Agnes: If you leave now, don’t come back.

Agnes: Ziggy, maybe instead of getting your own place, you could go back to school. Maybe culinary school.
Louie: Culinary school? You want him to be a cook?
Agnes: He’s clearly good at it.
Louie: So what?
Agnes: You think it’s a bad idea?
Louie: Frankly, I don’t think it’s a very manly thing to do, is what I think.
Agnes: All the great chefs today are men.
Ziggy: Most.
Louie: No one asked you.
Agnes: Most of the great chefs today are men.
Louie: How do you know that?
Agnes: I looked it up online.

Louie: What are you…? What’s going on? Who’s filling your head with all these new ideas? Selling the land and cooking school? This fucking competition? You know what my father would have done to my mother in this situation?..I’m not my father. I’m not him.

Louie: I know you weren’t with Emily. I called her. And Ronnie was here earlier. He said he saw you at the train station the other day.
Agnes: I…I got stuck. I, uh…
Louie: Please don’t lie to me. Just don’t lie to me, okay? You gotta tell me, Agnes. You gotta tell me everything.
Agnes: I don’t have to tell you anything. I’m not your servant. You don’t own me.
Louie: Are you having an affair?
Agnes: Yes, I am. I think.
Louie: You think you’re having an affair?
Agnes: I have a puzzle partner. He’s a man. We are a team. Uh, we’re competing as a team. We’ve had sex one time, and it wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad.
[Louie just shakes his head in silence]
Agnes: Can you say something?
[he just stands up and leaves the table]

Robert [on the phone]: Are you all packed?
Agnes: I’m with my family.
Robert: Mata, you have to get to the airport at least three hours early for an international flight. You have to be here around 1:00. Security is going to take forever. Uh, did you tell Louie?
Agnes: I’m not coming.
Robert: Mata…Please… don’t… don’t do this to me. I love you. I miss you.
Agnes: I’m sorry. I love you, too. I miss you, too.
[she hangs up][/b]

With some accomplishments we tend to remember who is the best. But with others however it is always who is the first.

And that is certainly the case when it comes to landing on the Moon. The first man [and back then it could only have been a man] was Neil Armstrong. And he is the one we remember.

[Perhaps what could only be more remarkable is a man or a woman who accomplishes something truly historic…and goes on to be the only one to ever have accomplished it]

But for most of us what is remembered is the accomplishment itself. Few really know much about the man who accomplished it. Or all that went into the accomplishment by so many others. For many he was a “hero”; and we tend to not want our heroes to be beyond the pale.

Still, like all the rest of us, he is “human all too human”. But that will always mean different things to different people. Just as the accomplishment itself will always be encompassed in particular [and at times] conflicting narratives. And [of course] political prejudices.

Indeed, even the film itself is said to only more or less depict “what really happened”. There are the facts they either get right or wrong. And then there are the reactions to the facts that can only be encompassed in subjective vantage points. But the film is largely construed through the perspective of Neil Armstrong. And what did he get right or wrong?

The irony here for me is that on the day that Armstrong did take that first step on the Moon, I was a soldier in Vietnam. Where I was there was no access to the event. And I do not recall at all what my reaction was to the feat. In fact, this film is my first in depth look at all that unfolded back then.

IMDb

[b]Neil Armstrong’s sons Mark Armstrong and Rick Armstrong said that First Man (2018) was the most accurate portrayal of their father and their mother, Janet Armstrong.

Common errors were avoided in this film: Earth and the moon are always lit by the sun at the same angle, no clouds appear at high altitudes, the paradoxical nature of accelerating and braking rockets in orbit, the oxygen fire causes an implosion, not an explosion, no obtrusive lights hidden inside astronaut helmets to show off their faces, and there is no ambient sound in the vacuum of space.

Ryan Gosling suffered an injury while filming one of the many shuttle sequences. His partner, Eva Mendes, told him to go to the hospital after noticing the bizarre behavior of his passionately ranting to her about national doughnut thieves. It was later discovered that he had suffered a concussion and Mendes had unknowingly saved his life.

Armstrong’s famous quote as he stepped on the moon is the subject of historical controversy. The movie quotes accurately what was heard on Earth and in all recordings: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Armstrong later revealed that he intended to say “… one small step for [A] man …” and that he thought he did, but all efforts to extract this from the recording, even with electronics, have been inconclusive.[/b]

trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt1213641/tr … tt_trv_trv
wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Man_(film
trailer: youtu.be/PSoRx87OO6k

First Man [2018]
Directed by Damien Chazelle

[b]Neil [after a harrowing test flight “ballooning” and “bouncing off the atmosphere” ]: I’m down.

Neil [back to work after the death of his daughter]: Am I grounded, Joe?
Joe: Just write the report on the bounce, okay?

Deke: Why do you think spaceflight’s important?
Neil: I had a few opportunities in the X15 to observe the atmosphere. And it’s so thin; such a small part of the earth that you barely could see it at all. When you’re down here in the crowd and you look up, it seems pretty big and you don’t think about it too much, but when you get a different vantage point, it changes your perspective… I don’t know what space exploration will uncover, but I don’t think it will be exploration just for the sake of exploration. I think it will be more the fact that it allows us to see things that maybe we should have seen a long ago but just haven’t been able to until now.

John [Glenn]: Neil, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.
Neil: I’m sorry, is there a question?
John: Uh, what I mean is, do you think it will have an effect?
Neil: I think it would be unreasonable to assume that it would have no effect.

Voice [from newsreel]: Since the time of Jules Verne, man has imagined traveling to the moon and back. But making the trip as Jules Verne imagined – in a single spaceship – would require an enormous rocket. For this reason, NASA has come up with a new approach, lunar orbit rendezvous. The spacecraft traveling to the moon would actually consist of two, separate vehicles. A command ship that will remain in lunar orbit and a lunar lander that two crewman will take to the surface. After the men explore the surface, the lander lifts off the moon then rendezvous and docks with the command ship, which will take them back to earth. Thus, NASA will land the first men on the moon and return them safely home.

Deke: Here’s reality. Sputnik 1, Sputnik 2, Vostok, Gagarin. The Soviets have beaten us at every single major space accomplishment. Our program couldn’t compete, so we’ve chosen to focus on a job so difficult, requiring so many technological developments, that the Russians will have to start from scratch. As will we. [/b]

He means going to the Moon.

[b]Deke: If we want to get this done, we first have to prove two ships can rendezvous and dock in space. That’s the primary mission of Project Gemini. Only after we master these tasks do we move on to Apollo and consider trying to land a man on the moon.

Gus: The Multi-Axis Trainer was designed to replicate roll coupling on three axes, the kind you might encounter in space. The challenge is to stabilize the machine before you pass out. First victim, Armstrong.

Janet [wife]: You okay?
Neil: Yeah… ust thinking about this lecture… it’s kinda neat.
Janet: What’s neat about it?
Neil: Well, it was about how to rendezvous with the Agena? If you thrust, it actually slows you down because it puts you in a higher orbit. So you have to reduce thrust and drop into a lower orbit in order to catch up. It’s backwards from what they teach you as a pilot but if you work the math, it follows. It’s kinda neat.
Janet: Yeah, it’s kinda neat.
[they both burst out laughing]

Ed: I got some bad news about Elliot.
Neil: No, Elliot’s in command of Gemini 9 now. I know Deke told me he bumped Elliot, but…
Ed: Neil. Elliot and Charlie were flying into St. Louis to train this morning. Their T-38 crashed on approach. There was a lot of fog…

Janet [to Neil]: Who was it?

Buzz: Elliot wasn’t aggressive enough. You of all people have to know that.
Neil: No. I don’t. I didn’t investigate the crash, I didn’t study the flight trajectory, and I wasn’t the one flying the plane, so I wouldn’t pretend to know anything.
Buzz: We’ll never be 100 percent sure.

Dave: What are you doing?
Pete [fiddling with a seat belt lock]: Hey, does anybody got a Swiss Army Knife?
Dave: What’d you say? A Swiss Army Knife? [/b]

Cue the first fly in space.

[b]Dave: You tell them.
Neil: Houston, we’re station-keeping on the Agena at about 150 feet.

Neil [to Houston]: Flight, we are docked.

Fucci: Gemini 8. How do you read?
Neil: We have serious problems. We’re, we’re tumbling end over end up here, we’re disengaged from the Agena.
Fucci: Okay. We got your spacecraft free indication here… what seems to be the problem?
Neil: we’re rolling up and we can’t turn anything off. We’re continuously increasing in a left roll…
Hodge: Did he say he could not turn the Agena off?
Fucci: No, he says he is separated from the Agena and he’s in a roll and he can’t stop it. It’s approaching one revolution per second, at that rate they will black out in 40 seconds.
[Deke gets the attention of PAO Paul Haney, motions for him cut the public feed]

Kraft: I want emergency landing options.
Deke: You don’t wanna wait to find out how much fuel he’s got left?
Kraft: Bob, what do you think?
Bob: I think they’d better land now.

Deke: I need you to go home.
Janet: Fine. Turn the box back on.
Deke: I’ll see what I can…
Janet: Now. Turn the box back on now.
Deke: …well, there’s security protocols
Janet: I don’t give a damn. I’ve got a dozen reporters on my front lawn, you want me telling them what’s going on?
Deke: Jan, you have to trust us, we’ve got this under control.
Janet: No, you don’t. All these protocols and procedures to make it seem like you have it ‘under control’. But you’re a bunch of boys making models out of balsa wood, you don’t have anything under control.

Hamburg Press reporter [at a news conference after astronauts return to Earth]: In the midst of the spinning did you seem to realize or feel the presence of God closer than other times?
New York Times reporter: With this so hot on the heels of the loss of Charlie Bassett and Elliot See, do you question whether the program’s worth the cost? In money and in lives?

Lovell: Well, we’re very, very bullish on Apollo, Senator.
Senator: I should hope so, given the time we’ve spent developing it. Times have changed, you know. Half the country doesn’t think it’s worth it anymore.
Neil: We only learned to fly sixty years ago, so I think if you consider the technological developments in the context of history, it’s really not…
Senator: I’m considering it in the context of taxpayer dollars.

Neil [on phone at the White House]: I’m glad you called, I’m not sure if I’m helping or hurting over here.
Deke: Neil, we had a problem with the plugs out test…
Neil: That’s why we have tests, right? We’ll figure it out.
Deke: …there was a fire. There’s no easy way to say this…Ed, Gus and Roger, they’re gone.

Gilruth: Neil, the political fallout from another accident…
Neil: With all due respect, it’s not my job to worry about the political fallout.
Deke: The damn thing could have killed you.
Neil: Well, it didn’t.
Deke: A split second more and…
Neil: We need to fail. We need to fail down here so we don’t fail up there.
Gilruth: Neil, at what cost? Huh?
Neil: At what cost? It’s a little late for that question, isn’t it sir?

News anchor: You’ve lately taken a couople of swipes at the space program.
Kurt Vonnegut: I think it would be interesting to talk more about whether this is the proper thing to do with the public treasury. The sort of dreams I would have is a habitable New York City, for instance.

Reporter: What has been the reaction of your friends to this?
Woman: Well, they mostly think it’s rediculous that we’re spending so much money to go somewhere we don’t know anything about. And that the money could be used for a lot more helpful things.

Gil Scott Heron: A rat done bit my sister Nell with Whitey on the moon. Her face and arms begin to swell and Whitey’s on the moon. I can’t pay no doctor bill, but Whitey’s on the moon. Ten years from now I’ll be paying still, while Whitey’s on the moon. You know the man just upped my rent last night. Cause Whitey’s on the moon. No hot water, no toilets, no lights. But Whitey’s on the moon. I wonder why he’s upping me? Cause Whitey’s on the moon? I was already giving him like fifty a week. With Whitey on the moon.

Buzz: It’s a political rush job. Congress wouldn’t fund us to come in second. Why else would NASA be sending a virtually untested rocket to the moon?
Lovell: Thanks for the insight, Buzz. Always a pleasure with you.
Buzz: Doesn’t matter. He’s not in the lunar lottery.
Collins: And you are?
Buzz: The only guys they let on the LLTV since Neil’s accident are the ones who might land. That’s Neil or Conrad and I’m backup with Neil, so…
Collins: So you think you’re going to the moon.
Buzz: It’s been up for grabs since Gus died.
they all glare at him]
Buzz: I’m just saying what you’re thinking.
Neil: Well, maybe you shouldn’t.

Cronkite [on TV]: And so, the flight of Apollo 10 has performed the major function of its mission. It has proved through these daring three astronauts that all of the systems work properly and that there should be no reason why man cannot, perhaps as early as July, land on that picked spot on the moon’s equator… These are sailors of the sky and what we’ve seen and heard today make the great ocean voyages of the earthbound seem, well, earthbound indeed.

Janet: Neil, I need you to talk to the boys. Can you hear me? I need you to talk the boys. What are you doing?
Neil: I’m going to work.
Janet [angrily]: Well, just stop it. Just stop, just stop packing. What are the chances you’re not coming back? What are the chances this is the last time the boys are gonna see you?
Neil: I can’t give you an exact number.
Janet: I don’t want a fucking number, Neil! It’s not zero. Is it? Is it?
Neil: No.
Janet: No, it’s not. Pat doesn’t have a husband, those kids, they don’t have a father anymore. Do you understand what that means? What are the chances that’s gonna be Ricky and Mark? And I can’t tell them that their dad spent the last few minutes packing his briefcase. You’re gonna sit them down now, both of them, and you’re gonna prepare them for the fact that you might not ever come home. You’re doing that. You. Not me. I’m done. So you better start thinking about what you’re gonna say.

Mark [son]: Jimmy asked what you’re going to say when you get on to the moon.
Neil: Well, we’re not sure we’re gonna get on to the moon, a lot of things have to go right before that happens.
Mark: How long will you be gone?
Neil: Well, we launch in ten days. We’ll be up for eight. And then about a month in quarantine.
Mark: What’s quarantine?
Neil: We’ll be in isolation. To protect in case we, uh, carry any diseases from the lunar surface, or something of that nature. It’s not likely, but it’s a precaution.
Ricky: Do you think you’re coming back?
Neil: We have real confidence in the mission. And there are some risks, but we have every intention of coming back.
Ricky: But you might not.
Neil [after a long pause]: That’s right.

Gilruth: The White House sent down a contingency statement in the event of a Moon disaster.
[he rerads from a paper]
Gilruth: “Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace. These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know there is no hope for their recovery. They will be mourned by their families; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown. Others will follow, and surely find their way home. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts. For every human being who looks up at the moon in nights to come will know there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind. Prior to the statement, President will telephone each of the widows-tobe. A clergyman will adopt the same procedure as a burial at sea, commending their souls to the deepest of the deep.”

Neil [to CAPCON]: The eagle has wings…

Neil: Pretty rocky area.
Buzz: Those boulders are as big as cars. We can’t land there.

Neil: Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.
CAPCOM: Roger Tranquility, we copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We’re breathing again, thanks a lot.

Neil: That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind…

Newscaster [on TV]: And in Washington, an anonymous citizen has placed a small bouquet on the grave of John F Kennedy with a note, “Mr. President, the Eagle has landed.” And indeed, on this day, it’s hard not to think back upon that speech our 35th President gave at Rice University just seven short years ago…

Kennedy [from old news clip]: But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why fly the Atlantic? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard… [/b]

The movie was absolutely beautiful, the flight scenes fucking insane, but it was ruined for me by the lack of respect for the grandiosity of the moment of landing on the Moon.

It would not have diminished the psychological study of Armstrong, but accentuated it by placing it in scale with a moment of such magnitude.

But in those 2 or 3 minutes he turned the whole movie into a fucking emo song.

As race becomes increasingly more problematic these days [who knows where America is headed], some will clearly be more impacted by it than others.

Black folks for example.

Here, in particular, Starr Carter. Starr makes the daily trek back and forth between “two worlds”. She lives in a “poor, mostly black neighborhood” but gets her education in a “wealthy, mostly white prep school”.

So there are basically two of her. At least in the beginning of the film.

Then one day both worlds collide when she is a witness to a shooting. A white cop shoots and kills a black childhood friend. The community reacts. But, as in many communities these days, the narratives can pop up anywhere along the political divide. And then the exploration into what exactly constitutes racism in our world today — all of the “complexities” involved.

Or, as one IMDb reviewer puts it, “I think the author of the book that this film is based on, understands the frustrating fact that some of the worst issues that need fixing have no quick and easy solutions, and are complex and take time for the human mind to understand – especially to the minds of those who aren’t being affected / victimized, who inevitably take longer to understand.”

Just imagine the reactions of some here. And not only the knee-jerk Kids.

In some respects however this is like a Young Adult version of these worlds colliding. The way in which some might imagine it all to be if they were not really a part of either world themselves. I certainly have never been. So I have no way of knowing how realistic it all is. Still, America’s “youth culture” is often portrayed here almost entirely as I imagine it to be. Most of them being completely self-absorbed and oblivious to the systemic nature of political economy.

IMDb

[b]Kian Lawley was initially cast as Chris but was replaced by KJ Apa after videos surfaced on YouTube of Lawley using racially offensive slurs.

The Hate U Give is adapted from the novel “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas published in 2017. It is after the death of the young Oscar Grant at Fruitvale Station in 2009 that the young woman, then a student, writes a short story on police violence against the African-American population. A few years later, as the country faced other such events that led to the birth of the Black Lives Matter protest movement, she decided to make it a book through which she could express her entire life anger: “The Hate U Give” is a real card and Hollywood offers the rights quickly.

The title of the film and Angie Thomas’s novel refers to the concept of THUG LIFE - the acronym for The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody (the hatred we inculcate in children eventually destroys us all) - developed by the rapper Tupac Shakur.[/b]

trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt5580266/tr … tt_trv_trv
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hate_U_Give_(film
trailer: youtu.be/3MM8OkVT0hw

The Hate U Give [2018]
Directed by George Tillman Jr.

[b]Mav: Now, when it happens, don’t act mad. You gotta look calm. Answer their questions, but don’t tell ‘em nothin’ extra. Keep your hands out your pockets. You drop somethin’, leave that shit where it’s at.
Lisa [wife]: Maverick.
Mav: Leave that stuff where it’s at. My bad. Now, one day, y’all gonna be with me, and you best bet we gonna get pulled over. That don’t mean I did somethin’ wrong. Maybe I made a mistake driving or maybe I ain’t do nothin’ at all. You gonna see me with my hands like this. Flat on the dashboard. Now, you keep your hands posted 'cause moving makes the police get all nervous. If I ain’t with you, you ask for me. It can get real dangerous, so don’t argue with them…but keep your hands where they can see 'em. This how you gonna act. We straight?
Starr [voiceover]: I was nine years old when I first got “the talk”.
Mav [handing her a sheet of paper]: Now, this the Black Panther Ten-Point Program. This our own Bill of Rights. I want you to learn it. 'Cause Imma ask you about it. Imma quiz you.
Lisa: Really, Maverick? Know your rights. Know your worth…?

Starr [voiceover]: Mama thinks Daddy is scared of change. She left the Garden when she was a little girl. And she wants us to get out too. Either way, you gotta stay ready. 'Cause Garden Heights is always gonna be ready for you…And then there’s King. He runs the King Lords. My dad used to be his right-hand man. The high school is where you go to get jumped, high, pregnant, or killed. We don’t go there. Not since what happened to my friend Natasha. So Mama sent us to another school where everyone’s college-bound…

Starr [voiceover]: Garden Heights is one world. Williamson is another. And I gotta keep it separate. So when I’m here, I’m Starr Version Two. That means flipping a switch in my brain. Williamson Starr doesn’t use slang. If a rapper would say it, she doesn’t. Even if her white friends do. Slang makes them “cool”. Slang makes me “hood.”…Williamson Starr is approachable. No stank eyes or yelling because Williamson Starr is non-confrontational. Basically, Williamson Starr doesn’t give anyone a reason to call her ghetto. And I hate myself for doing it.

Hailey [her white friend]: Let me at him. I’ll kick his ass. If someone tries to do some shit to my girl, I have to get him. I’m serious, Starr. I will go after him. I will kick his ass. I do not care. You just say the word.
Starr [voiceover]: Hailey must’ve watched Straight Outta Compton again last night…

Starr: Look, Chris is great, but I’m just not ready. And eventually, I’ll get there, but he just assumed.
Hailey: Assuming. Punishable by death. So, you’re gonna Taylor Swift this?
Starr: She doesn’t even rank on the angry girlfriend scale anymore. Nah. I’m gonna Beyonce his ass.
Starr [voiceover]: I really wanna “Elevator Solange” his ass.

Starr [after Khalil turns on some music in his car]: Man, so you gonna come at me for my music while you listening to this old stuff?
Khalil: Oh, old stuff? You better get up out my car with that. Tupac is the truth.
Starr: Yeah, 20 years ago.
Khalil: No, even still, right now. Listen, let me tell you something. Pac said, THUG LIFE. It means, “The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody.” T-H-U-G-L-I-F-E.
Starr: Meaning what?
Khalil: Meaning what society gives to us when we little comes back to bite them in the ass when we grow up, and we wild out. You get that?
Starr: Damn. Yeah.
Khalil: Pac’s gonna always be relevant.

Starr: So you gonna tell me why you really been busy, Khalil?
Khalil: Because that McJob that I had didn’t make nothin’ happen. And plus grandma got fired from the hospital when they found out she was sick.
Starr: Damn, that’s messed up, K, for real.
Khalil: You know, we got needs.
Starr: If you selling that stuff…
Khalil: Hey, come on now. Mind your business, Starr-Starr. Don’t worry about me. I’m doing what I gotta do.

Starr [after a cop shoots Khalil]: What did you do?!
Cop: Be quiet, ma’am.
Starr: Help him!
Cop: I want you to stay where you are! Do not move, okay?
Starr: He’s bleeding! Help him! Come on! He’s bleeding!
Cop: Where is it? Where’s the weapon? The gun! Where is it?!!
[it was a hairbrush]

Detective Gomez: Starr, do you know why Khalil reached into the car?
Starr: I think he was checking to see that I was okay.
Detective: You think? You don’t know?
Starr: No, I don’t know.
Detective: Because?
Starr; Because that’s when it happened. [/b]

The actual incident was ambiguous. The cop pulled them over for not signaling a lane change. He shot Khalil because he took his hands off the top of the car, reached into the car and pulled out a hairbrush. The cop thought it was a gun.

[b]Detective: Did you drink alcohol at the party?
Starr: No, I don’t drink.
Detective: Did Khalil?
Starr: Not that I saw.
Detective: Did you ever see Khalil sell narcotics?
Starr: No, I never personally saw Khalil sell drugs or do drugs.
Detective: But you knew that he did?
Lisa: You have not asked my daughter one question about the cop.
Detective: We just want the whole picture, miss. That’s all.
Lisa: Well, you ask questions about what happened.
Starr: 115 killed Khalil. And he didn’t do anything wrong. So I don’t know what more of a bigger picture you need!

Mav: So what’s the deal? His ass in jail?
Carlos [a black cop and friend of the family]: They’re gonna place him on paid administrative leave.
Starr: That’s it? After he killed Khalil?
Carlos: Starr, there will be a full investigation.
Mav: Cops investigating cops, huh? You know they should’ve charged his racist ass with murder. But that ain’t gonna happen, is it, Uncle Carlos?
Carlos: Nothing like this has ever happened with this officer before.
Mav: Oh, first-timer. Let’s cut him a break.

Starr [voiceover to herself]: Grand jury. Stuff like this ends up on the news. People get death threats. Cops target them. What will it mean at school? Will I suddenly be the poor girl from the hood who saw her friend get killed? I just gotta be quiet.

Friend: So you famous now.
Starr: What?
Friend: I saw you leave with Khalil. Now you all jittery and jumpy and shit. It’s you, Starr. Don’t even lie. You ready to stir some shit up?
Starr: What you mean?
Friend: Well, you was there, so you gotta tell everybody what happened. You’re gonna stand up for Khalil, right? Listen, Brenda can’t be the only one talking. You know Khalil would’ve stood tall and spoke for you.

King: Hey, Starr. Remember what I told you, all right? You keep that shit in your rearview.

Lisa: I’m telling you. He was threatening her!
Mav: He ain’t gonna hurt her.
Lisa: He will. If he thinks that Starr is gonna tell the police that Khalil worked for him, he will. And then what? Hmm? He’s gonna rope you right back in. Once a King Lord, always a King Lord.
Mav: When you spend three years in lockup doing somebody else’s time, ain’t no roping back in. He let me out. That was our deal.

Lisa: You listen! It’s okay to make sacrifices for your family. God! Do you think that my mother moved me and Carlos out of Garden Heights and into that Catholic school so we could learn how to pray? No. I’m gonna make sure that my kids have it at least as good as I did. If not, what’s the point?
Mav: That’s why we have them up there in that school!
Lisa: And what do you think that school will do when they find out that Starr was with Khalil? Hmm? Those white folks, they love to boast about how diverse that school is, but you know what? This is too much diversity for them.

Starr: It’s THUG LIFE. “The Hate U Give Little Infants…”
Mav; “F’s Everybody.” I know what it stands for. What do you think it means?
Starr: I think it’s about more than just the youth. I think it’s about us.
Mav: Us who?
Starr: Black people. Poor people. Everybody at the bottom.
Mav: Right, you on it. Pac was trying to school us on how the system’s designed against us. Why else you think so many people in our neighborhood deal?
Starr: They need the money.
Mav: Yeah. And there ain’t no real jobs around here, so they fall into the trap. Drugs a multi-billion-dollar industry. Brothers like me and Khalil get caught up ‘cause it look like a way out. But that shit is flown into our communities…and I don’t know nobody with a private jet. Do you? And then they trap us. And we end up in prison, another billion-dollar hustle. And they got us riding through there like we on a conveyor belt. That’s how I end up in prison with my daddy.
Son: You went to jail with your own daddy?
Mav: Yep. But when I caught up with him, wasn’t nothin’ he can do to help me. He was just a weak, old man with regrets. And his light was gone. And I swore that would never be me. Because Imma break the cycle for my kids.

April [addressing the congregation]: I’m April Ofrah, a lawyer with Just Us For Justice. Just before the service, I was informed that the police have no intentions of arresting the officer who murdered this young man. Despite having a credible eyewitness. This is the last place I wanted to be today. And I know I’m not alone. But here we are again. Violence, brutality. It’s the same story, just a different name.Today’s name is Khalil Harris. Another unarmed, young, black man. What does that tell us? Shamell Bell said it best. “It is impossible to be unarmed when our blackness is the weapon that they fear.” And I refuse to let our blackness be seen as a weapon or as a weakness. That is why the Harris family and I ask you to join us after the service…for a peaceful march past the police station. Division is how they win. Unity is how they crumble.

April: Khalil can’t speak for himself. He needs a voice. Starr is it.
Lisa: I don’t like this already.
Mav: Lisa, just hear her on out.
Aprtil: Starr, do you understand what a grand jury is?
Starr: Yeah. It’s where they decide if somebody should go to trial.
April: Right. It’s when they decide if charges should be brought against Officer Macintosh. Lisa: Will they indict him?
April: 99 percent of the time, the grand jury indicts.
Mav: What about that one percent they don’t?
April: Those cases almost always involve a cop.
Starr: But that won’t happen this time, because I saw everything.
April: When Khalil was shot, where were you exactly?
Starr: In the passenger seat.
April: Have any proof of what you saw? Like, did you record it on a phone?
Starr: Nah, the officer told me to drop it.
Seven: So Khalil will never have his day in court? All 'cause a cop shot him?
April: That’s why our trial begins now. On the streets, in the media. Starr is Khalil’s only witness.
Mav: All right. Where do we start?
April: With a TV interview.
Lisa: No. I know what you’re fighting for, but I fight for Starr. And I won’t put her at risk.

Starr [as April is about to leave]: My other best friend was murdered when we were both ten. We were playing basketball on the sidewalk. When this car rolled by…and this tatted hand pulled out a gun. We must have been in the way. It was three shots. And she was on the ground. And I remember… I remember she looked really scared…because she was about to see what happens after you die. And I know who did it.
Lisa: What? Starr, you never told us that.
Starr: It was a King Lord. He missed me once…and I didn’t want to give him another chance, so I didn’t snitch. And then I heard a few months later that he got killed. So I didn’t say anything. Now tell me, Miss Ofrah…what kind of friend is that?
April: You can’t blame yourself for that, Starr. You were young. You are young.
Starr: I wanna be a better friend for Khalil. But goin’ on TV…I don’t know about all that.

Lisa: So, just 'cause some dumb, privileged white kids skip class, you think it’s okay for you to leave school too? Well, guess what, Starr.
Both in unison: It is what it is.
Starr: I know, Mama. But they’re acting like Khalil was murdered just so that they can skip a chem test. And I didn’t do anything about it. Mama…I need to speak for him.

John: Let me guess. You’re Starr. Starr, thank you so much for having the courage to do this. Diane’s very excited to have you. We even bumped a segment to make sure yours airs tonight.
Lisa: And you’re sure the thing we talked about is happening?
John: It’s arranged. They’ve agreed to blur Starr’s face. No one watching will ever know it’s her.

Diane [interviewing Starr for a TV segment]: You are the only witness to the shooting death of a young, unarmed black man by a police officer. Now, millions of people across the country have heard the name Khalil Harris. Who was he to you?
Starr; We knew each other since we were babies but if he was here, he would probably say… that he was actually five months, two weeks, and one day older than me.
Diane: He was a kid.
Starr: Yep.
Diane: What do you think about the people that are only focusing on the not-so-good aspects of Khalil? That he sold drugs.
Starr: Well, if they knew why, then they wouldn’t talk about him like that.
Diane: Why did he sell them?
Starr: Khalil’s mom loved him, but she was an addict so there was no one to bring in money to help his little brother… and his grandma who has cancer. So he had to take the only available job in the neighborhod that would pay him enough to help them.
Diane: Available job?
Starr: Dealing for the biggest drug dealers in Garden Heights. The King Lords.
Diane: So there’s one gang that controls your entire neighborhood? Tell me about that.
Starr: Why are you only asking me about that? I mean, next week, I’ll be called to testify in a grand jury investigation, but no one wants to know what actually happened. Everyone wants to know what Khalil did. What he said, what he didn’t do. Like it’s his fault. I didn’t know that a dead person could be charged with his own murder.
Diane: If Officer Macintosh were sitting here now…what would you say to him?
Starr: I’d ask him if he wished that he shot me too.

Reporter [on TV]: Officer Brian Macintosh Junior has been on the force for five years. A majority of those years serving in Garden Heights, known for its high crime rate, with murders up 15 percent this year alone. Officers have struggled for years to rein in the violence. Changes in policies, gangs, and drugs have remained an issue for this predominantly African American community.
Father [on TV]: Brian is a good boy. People, they’re making him out to be a monster. He’s afraid to go out in public, even for a gallon of milk. There’s been threats against his life. Our family’s lives.
Hailey: Wow. That sucks. That poor family.
Starr: What?
Hailey: His son was only trying to do his job and protect himself. His life matters too, you know…That cop’s life matters also. Are you gonna be mad because I said that, too?
Starr: Yeah. Because you think that his life matters more than the person that you said you were protesting for. That’s a problem. You unfollowed my Tumblr after the protest. Why? Was it the picture of Emmett Till that did it? Did you sympathize with his poor family before you looked away?
Hailey: Okay. Maya, now she’s calling me a racist.

Starr: Have you ever seen somebody die?
Chris: No.
Starr: Well, I have twice now. That’s why my parents put me and my brothers in Williamson. To protect us. And now…it’s like I have to hide who I am every single day. When I’m at home, I can’t be too Williamson. When I’m here, I can’t act too Garden Heights. Khalil was my first crush. My first kiss. And he was going through so much shit…and I didn’t even know… because I turned my back on him. I turned my back on all of my people. Do you even know what that’s like?
Chris: No. And I’m sorry, Starr. I really am. But black, white…nobody gives a shit. We’re all the same.
Starr: But we’re not. Y’all wanna act black, but you get to keep your white privilege. You think playing ball and jumping in some lame-ass Williamson cypher makes you understand what it is to be black? It doesn’t.
Chris: Starr, I just told you I don’t see color. I see people for who they are. The exact same way I see you.
Starr: If you don’t see my blackness, you don’t see me.
Chris: I see you.

Mav: Who’s this?
Starr: Daddy, this is Chris.
Mav: Who’s Chris?
Starr: Chris is my boyfriend.
Mav: You got a boyfriend?
Lisa: Well, who do you think she went to prom with?
Mav: You got a white boyfriend?
Lisa: Uh, Daddy, he’s not my white boyfriend. He’s just my boyfriend.
Mav: That boy is white.

Carlos: Someone’s trying to scare you about the grand jury tomorrow. Did it work?
Starr: Why do we need a grand jury to decide if this should go to trial?
Carlos: Some people don’t see what happened to Khalil as a crime. They see it as a traffic stop gone wrong. A lot goes through a cop’s mind when they pull someone over. Especially if they have to get into a pissing contest with the driver about why they stopped him. It sets off an alarm. The officer thinks…“Are they hiding somethin’? Is the car stolen?” Now, if there’s a girl in the passenger seat like you… “Does she look all right? Has she been beaten or raped?” If they start talking to each other and not the officer, we figure they might be trying to distract. What are they hiding in the car? Drugs? A weapon? Now, if the driver starts to insult the officer, we try to verbally get control of the situation. But if they still don’t comply, then we… we have to use force.
Starr: But you still don’t know if they did anything wrong.
Carlos: That’s why we search them. To make sure that they don’t have a weapon. We run their license and instruct them not to move. But if they open the door… or reach through an open window… they’re probably goin’ for a weapon. So if I think I see a gun…I don’t hesitate. I shoot.
Starr: You shoot? Because you think you see a gun? You don’t say something first? Like, “Put your hands up”?
Carlos: It depends. Is it night? Can I see? Am I on duty alone?
Starr: What if you were in a white neighborhood? And it was a white man wearing a suit, driving a Mercedes? He could be a drug dealer, right?
Carlos: He could.
Starr: So if you saw him… reach into the window… and you thought that you saw a gun… would you shoot him? Or would you say, “Put your hands up”?
Carlos: I’d say, “Put your hands up.”
Starr: Do you hear what you just said?
Carlos: We live in a complicated world, Starr.
Starr: No. No, it doesn’t seem that complicated to me.

Hailey: So, I guess you’re not gonna get over it anytime soon?
Starr: Get over it?
Hailey: Yes. Get over it.
Starr: You can’t even see that you’re acting racist, huh?
Hailey: 'Cause I’m not.
Starr: It’s all “our,” and “us,” and “black lives matter, girl” until you clutch your purse when you’re in the elevator with a black person. You don’t need to use the N-word and use a firehose on black people to be racist, Hailey.
Hailey: You’re different, Starr.
Starr: I’m different? What, I’m the nonthreatening black girl?
Hailey: Yeah. You are. Your friend wasn’t. He was a drug dealer. Someone was probably gonna kill him eventually.
Maya: Are you serious, Hailey?
Hailey: Yes. The officer did see a weapon.
Starr: He saw a hairbrush.
Hailey: That looked like a weapon.
Starr [grabbing Hailey’s hairbrush from her pockebook]: What’s this in my hand right now? You’re gonna tell me that this looks like a weapon?
Hailey: In his hand, yes.
Starr: What about in my hand? Huh? Huh? Does it look like a weapon? Does it look like a weapon now?!!

Starr [after King beat up Seven]: Iesha, what happened? What happened?
Iesha: You snitched and earned an ass whoopin’. My baby took it for you. Bleedin’ all on my floor and shit. Get him outta here.

Starr: Hey, is it true?
Protestor: Cop goes free. No trial, nothing. The grand jury didn’t indict.

Starr [into a megaphone at a street protest]: My…my name is Starr! And I’m the one who saw what happened to Khalil! I am the witness! But so are y’all! We are all witnesses to this injustice! We see it all! And we will not stop until the world sees it too! We will not stop protesting! Everyone wants to talk abot how Khalil died. This ain’t about how Khalil died. It’s about how he lived. Khalil lived! His life mattered!

Starr [voiceover]: No matter what we say…no matter how loud we shout…They refuse to hear us.

Starr [to a couple pf white cops]: How many of us have to die before y’all get it? No more.[/b]

For many though it will be just another rendition of Rodney King’s, “why can’t we all just get along?” And the ending just another idealistic wishing for the world to be a better place. And I]that[/I] comes to pass for a political narrative.

Imagine the odds of something like this happening…

Four men are killed by the police in an attempted heist. Or was it three? Their widows [who have “nothing in common”] get together to pull off a heist themselves.

Carry on Hollywood.

Still, it is directed by Steve McQueen. And co-written by Gillian Flynn. The cast is stellar. And it garnered a 91% fresh rating at RT.

In part, it’s the age old story of women who go about the business of living more or less ordinary lives thrust into a situation in which crossing over to the dark side allows them to gain considerably more substantive [substantial] lives. If, of course, that is an age old story. It does pop up rather frequently [for both men and women] in the cinema. At least I’m assuming it does.

Then this part: Contemporary Chicago. The backdrop for it all. There are criminals both in and out of the government. And it is always about the Benjamins. And class and race and the politics of gender. Corruption and cynicism go hand in hand. Unless of course you are still an idealist. Not many them around here though.

Basically, it is a film in which almost everything has already been covered over and over again “at the movies”. As one IMDb reviewer put it: “Woman power. Black power. Racist old white men. Corrupt politicians. Abusive husbands. Cheating white husbands. Racist cops. Men are bad. Women are strong and good.”

Of course you’ll have to decide for yourself if the list is either too long or too short.

Bottom line: With films like this the cliches will either seem fresh or stale. And you’ll get drawn into them anyway or you won’t.

And, for what it’s worth, it’s based on [of all things] “a 1980s British TV show”: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widows_(TV_series

IMDb

[b]According to Steve McQueen, Colin Farrell and Robert DuVall improvised many of their scenes.

This was Steve McQueen’s first film as a director since his Academy Award-winning film 12 Years a Slave (2013).

Olivia the dog had her own trailer on the set. [/b]

trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt4218572/tr … tt_trv_trv
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widows_(2018_film
trailer: youtu.be/nN2yBBSRC78

Widows [2018]
Written in part and directed by Steve McQueen

[b]Carlos: What, you accusing me of stealing your money?
Linda: Why do you look surprised? You do it for a living.
Carlos: Where you get the balls? What I do for this family. I risk my life.
Linda: Yeah. You risk your life and then you piss it up a wall.

Jack: My father always thought it was a good idea to keep the lines of communication open with his opponent. Keep things honest, dignified.
Jamal: Maybe he could be more honest and open about whatever deal he made with the city council to call this special election instead of waiting until February like the law says. He had to step down.
Jack: He had a heart attack. Who does waiting serve?
Jamal: Everyone who’s not named Mulligan.
Jack: First time I’ve run for office. I’m already ahead of you by 12 points in the polls. The Mulligans have run the 18th ward for 60 years. My grandfather, my father. These days it’s all about name recognition. You wanna go against me?
Jamal: You don’t inherit a ward, Jack. You run for it.
Jack: You have much experience in government?
Jamal: I live here.
Jack: So do I.
Jamal: No, no, no. You, uh, own a house one block into the ward. A house people might actually want to live in.
Jack: It’s a smart idea. Running headquarters from a church. I mean, it’s illegal. There’s that whole church and state thing.
Jamal: More illegal than nepotism?
Jack: Nepotism isn’t illegal. It’s actually celebrated. This is Chicago.
Jamal: Your daddy can put you on some commission where people don’t have no say. Let you be a big boy, play with a few trains, but…
Jack: Extending the Green Line is the best thing for the people of the 18th ward. Brings them closer to jobs, closer to culture.
Jamal: Those people don’t seem to be the ones getting rich though, Jack.
Jack: What about you, Jamal? What have you been doing to improve the lives of the people of Chicago? I bet your reputation’s a real problem for your communications team.
Jatemme: Maybe you the one who need the communications team.
Jamal: I’ve never been arrested. Let’s see if you can say that a few months from now.

Jatemme: Why you wanna go into politics anyway, man? Passing bills and shit. Whatever the fuck they do.
Jamal: Alderman of this ward makes a $104,000 a year.
Jatemme: Shit, we make more than that in a week.
Jamal: But then you add in the juice, right? He gives his friend a contract for a new building, gets a kickback. Gives his brother a contract for construction. Hell, he give his mama a contract for construction. That man owns a piece of every fucking thing. The only people coming after him, they got cameras and microphones. People coming after us with guns. I’m 37 years old, Jatemme. I don’t want this life no more. I want his fucking life.

Tom [father]:Did you get him to concede? Go back to his normal business? Now, let me tell you something. I don’t wanna see you become the first Mulligan…to lose to a nigger. Especially this guy. He’s tricky. Okay?
Jack: He’s staying in.

Jack: Maybe you shouldn’t have been such a hard-ass. Now, if you’d have just rolled over for the mayor on that housing development…
Tom: I don’t roll over for anybody! Okay? He had his agenda, I had mine.
Jack: Look where that’s got us. The lines of the ward are redrawn and we’re down 7,000 votes that would’ve gone our way. You created this problem. Now we might be left without a pot to piss in.

Jamal: I didn’t know your husband, not really. But he stole two million dollars from me. He stole it…right out of a van like he knew where it would be. I just wanna know why.
Veronica: I’m not involved in my husband’s business at all and I don’t know why you’re here.

Jamal: You see, that money was meant to buy me a new life, help with my campaign. You understand?
Veronica: Listen, I don’t have your money. Now, why don’t you just go out and make more?
Jamal: This is about my life! This is about my life. Because it’s about my life, it now becomes about yours.
Veronica: I told you. I don’t know anything…
Jamal: No, and even if that’s true, you have a nice penthouse here. You got a lot of nice furniture, you got cars, you got a closet full of clothes, none of which burnt up in the van, by the way. I’ll give you one month to liquidate.
Veronica: I’ll call the police.
Jamal: Mrs. Rawlings, do you know what the police did the night that Harry died? Do you? They laughed. They laughed over his melted, burnt body, and they scraped whatever they could into a bag and they went to a bar to celebrate, because they give zero fucks about Harry Rawlings’ fucking widow. You’re nothing now. Welcome back…One month.

Jack: Have you ever slept with a black guy?
Siobhan: What does that have to do with Jamal, or anything?
Jack: Just answer the fucking question.
Siobhan: We are in a situation where you could lose everything. You’ve got the IG’s office and the Feds breathing down your neck. You got Jamal Manning climbing in the polls, and all you’re concerned with is whether or not your dick is bigger than his?
Jack: What are we fighting for? This? You know how many shootings happened in this city last weekend alone? Thirty-four! These people are killing each other! This is not where I wanna raise my children. What are we fighting for exactly? I feel suffocated!..I never wanted to be in this fucking business and that’s all this is. It’s a fucking business!
Siobhan: Wake the fuck up, Jack. You are not going to pussy out now. What are you gonna do? Work in a bank? Take the train downtown, punch a clock? This is your life! This is our life. It’s what we do. Everyone has a fucking sob story, most of them better than yours. So, if the idea is to be mayor one day, you’d better man the fuck up!
Jack [utterly resigned]: Jesus. Dollar signs and empty promises. Anybody who thinks different are fooling themselves.

Veronica: Listen. We’re in trouble. It was Jamal Manning’s money that our husbands stole.
Linda: Who’s that?
Alice: Somebody you don’t wanna fuck with.
Veronica: The money burnt up in the van, and Jamal Manning, he wants it back. Harry left me the plans for his next job. It’s worth five million dollars. I take two million, give it to the Mannings. We split the rest…Listen, our lives are in danger. Our husbands aren’t coming back. We’re on our own.

Reverend [to a black congregation]: It seems people are blissful in their own ignorance. How far have we fallen? Indeed, how far have we fallen? We are living in an environment where people are blind! What you don’t see, you don’t know. Out of sight, out of mind. So now ignorance is the new normal. In fact, ignorance…Ignorance is the new excellence. The less you know the more seemingly you gain. Not to care is deemed to be smart. When you subtract love from any equation, from any situation, from any location, the result is always hurt and pain on all sides. That is why we need to bring love back into the equation. Love. In Jesus’ words, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” So he can hear you on high, say it with me. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor - as thyself.”[/b]

And then once the congregation is gone…

[b]Jamal: So you’re endorsing the Mulligans. Can we go now?
Reverend: I didn’t say that. The ward has been redrawn. The Mulligans weren’t playing ball. For the first time, someone like us has a shot. I’d be an idiot to ignore that.
Jamal: I’m gonna cut to the chase here, Reverend. I’m in the driving seat, I just don’t have a set of wheels. All I need is your endorsement and your contribution to help me get across the finish line.
Reverend: How much of a contribution do you need? And what’s it worth to you?
Jamal’s associate: You mean worth in terms of funding? I can fill you in on that, but what matters is that you’re with us.
The Reverend’s phone rings]
Reverend: Someone’s ears are burning. Gentlemen, let’s discuss this further another time. One always must weigh out options.
Reverend [into the phone]: Jack Mulligan. How are you, my brother? No, you know me. Praising Jesus, as always.

Veronica: This money is for the guns.
Alice: Guns?
Veronica: Three Glocks. Ammo, too. No more than $2,000.
Alice: Me? From where?
Veronica: It’s America.

Alice: What are you doing here?
Veronica: I didn’t know where else to go.

Veronica: They killed Bash.
Alice: Who did?
Veronica: The Mannings.
Alice: What? How do you know?
Veronica: I know. I’m not Harry. All this damage, I… I can’t be responsible for all of it.
Alice: Why do you have to be?
Veronica: Because I don’t own anything. Not even the apartment I live in. I have nothing.
Alice: We can’t tell Linda about Bash. She’ll back out.

Amanda [to Harry]: We should have left sooner, like you said we would. You always want more.

Harry [to Jack]: Your medical examiner friend open his mouth yet?

Harry: What about that detective scumbag, Fuller?
Jack: He’s just happy that you’ll never show your face in Chicago again. He’s retiring a wealthy man.
Harry: You know, your guys went a little heavy on the accelerants. I was lucky to get away with half of that.
Jack: I want the full amount, Harry. One million, like we agreed.
Harry: I thought this was about stopping the Mannings?
Jack: Don’t think you can fuck me over like you did your crew.

Jack: I want that money.
Harry: I can get your money, but I need time.
Jack: Before the election. If not…you’re gonna be alive again. In all the worst ways.

Alice: Is everything just a transaction?
David: They brought us these drinks, next they’re gonna bring us the bill. It’s the way the world works, as far as I’m concerned.

Linda: Belle, can you drive?
Belle: Why?

Tom: Let me get this straight. You fire Hillsman. He’s been working with our family for 30 years. So you just put a bullet in him. When the polls drop to, what, three percent? Why? Why?
Jack: I got a new guy coming on. Black guy. British.
Tom: Black guy? Oh, really? A black guy.
Jack: Gavin Cunningham. - What?
Tom: Fuck me and fuck him! Fuck you and fuck the fucking horse you came in on! You fucking asshole! What a fucking asshole you are! Talk about loyalty. Hey! Maybe I’ll call the mayor and tell him we gotta have this election tomorrow, before things get any worse.
Jack: You won’t call the mayor. I will take care of Manning at the debate, and that will be the end of it. Might I add, running in your shadow would be a hell of a lot easier if there weren’t piles of shit scattered everywhere I walk!
Tom: Keep your fucking mouth shut, or I’ll fucking whip your ass! Today! I can still do it. Believe me. Okay? JFK, huh? You think you’re gonna make things better. They’re not gonna be any better. You think you’re gonna change things? Change them to what? You’re not gonna change anything! They’ll never change under you. The only thing that matters is that we survive. That’s all. Look around you. It’s like Custer’s Last Stand. It’s kill or be killed. Now, listen to me, son. Listen, we made this city. We’re not having it taken away from us by people who come here illegally… or by people who can’t stop, you know…making babies. That means staying in power…at all costs. You got that? Yeah?
Jack: You listen to me, Father. I’m looking forward to the day when all this bullshit is over and I don’t have to talk to people like you. Because…Because you won’t be here anymore.

Veronica: From what I understand, we both have a Jamal Manning problem.
Jack: You don’t…You don’t live in my ward, Mrs. Rawlings. But if you’re aware of a crime, you should really go to the police.
Veronica: Mr. Mulligan, you said whenever I needed help. Now, your family’s been involved in Harry’s life for many years. When I say help…I mean help.
Jack: I understand, but…I’m not my father. As you can see, the years have taken a toll on him…and I do not want to go down that same road. So with much admiration and respect for your late husband and yourself, of course… I don’t see what I can do. What I’ve learned from men like my father…and Harry…is that you reap what you sow.
Veronica: Let’s hope so.

Veronica: Now, all of our work is worth nothing if we don’t move this money and fast. The notebook says five million dollars. That’s exactly the amount of money Mulligan was accused of taking in commission kickbacks. So over here we have two million dollars. Twenty Tupperware boxes. Each box has 100,000 dollars in 100-dollar bills. It weighs 44 pounds. Now, over here we have two million dollars. Forty Tupperware boxes. Each box has 50,000 dollars in 50-dollar bills. It weighs 88 pounds…Now, that bag had double the weight of before.
Linda: Why the fuck would you do that?
Veronica: Because I had to think of the best-case scenario and the worst-case scenario. We gotta move fast. We gotta start thinking like professionals. We’re in business together. There’s not gonna be some cozy reunion. After this job, we’re done. We have three days to look and move like a team of men. The best thing we have going for us is being who we are. Why? Because no one thinks we have the balls to pull this off.

Veronica: Everybody ready?
Linda: You got the codes?
Veronica: Something goes wrong…you’re all on your own.

Jamal [at the debate]: Chicago is a city in free fall. Money, greed, avarice. Fat cats in city hall getting fatter on our meals. Yeah. We, the people, are not people to them. We are a mass of ugly need they don’t want to see. Let us have a chance at life. Not just to exist, but to live.[/b]

And how corrupt and cynical is this?

[b]Harry: Yeah. It was meant to be simple. Why couldn’t you just sell the book to Jamal and leave it at that, Ronnie? You’re not supposed to be here.
Veronica: You left me alone, you evil bastard. Wanted to start a new life with your new son, your new white, happy family.
Harry: I couldn’t save him, Ronnie! I couldn’t save us! I had to save me! Me!..I need the money.

News reporter: Muted celebrations in the Mulligan camp as Tuesday’s election results sink in. In a late rally, there was a resounding victory for Jack Mulligan, seen as a sympathy vote following the murder of Alderman Tom Mulligan. Reverend John Wheeler was outside the Mulligan residence this morning to talk to reporters.
Reverend: Brothers and sisters, we ask that you keep Jack Mulligan in your prayers as he tries to find the strength, with God’s help, to begin his term of office and to continue the program of change initiated by his beloved father. I know you remember all the good work the Mulligans have done for this community. So we hope that you will join us Sunday. We will be holding a service for Tom Mulligan to pay our respects to this great servant of our ward.[/b]

Let’s just say that if you are in a bank that is being robbed, there are some bank robbers you’d rather encounter more than others. And this is the “mostly true” story of one – Forrest Tucker – you might [almost] not mind encountering at all.

In fact, “the public” became rather “enchanted” with hm. Especially as, more and more, he continues to “confound” the authorities. In fact one detective in particular becomes rather enchanted himself with him – the sheer audacity and the skills employed by this wanted man.

And then one woman in particular who may or may not have set aside his criminal ways in order to, among other things, fall in love with him.

So, robbing banks…the romantic comedy?

Still this gets tricky. In “real life” being anywhere an armed robbery is taking place will almost certainly be a frightening experience for most of us. “At the movies” however we can be introduced to a context and to a character in which all of that sort of fades into the background. We know that no one is likely to get hurt and we know that rooting for the bad guy [this time] is “okay”.

Then it comes time for the “big one”. No more penny-ante cash drawer takes. This time it’s the “vault and the truck”. And that brings in “the Feds”.

And then the part about getting old, looking back at your life and connecting the dots between the boy and the man. And making up your mind about if you are able to live with it more or less satisfied.

IMDb

[b]In an interview he gave during the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, Robert Redford talked about this comedic film being a good note to end on, since the actor wanted his “last acting job to be fun.” Robert Redford’s final role before retiring from acting.

Although he receives fourth billing, Keith Carradine’s role was almost completely dropped; he appears for literally three or four seconds with a single line of dialogue. (Director David Lowery has stated the cut footage will be included on the DVD.)

David Lowery tried to write the true crime version of this movie and the journalistic version of what really happened, and Robert Redford never felt like he fit into that. In other words, according to Lowery himself, his idea of who Robert Redford was as an actor never really fit into the true story of Forrest Tucker. So after many, many drafts, he realized that what he needed to write was the movie that Forrest Tucker would have wanted to see. He needed to write the version of Forrest Tucker that he saw in his own head as opposed to the one that really showed all the things he did. There was a thin line between two, but it was a very important line and that line allowed him to write a movie that was the version that Robert Redford could excel playing.[/b]

FAQ at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt2837574/faq?ref_=tt_faq_sm
trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt2837574/tr … tt_trv_trv
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Man_%26_the_Gun
trailer: youtu.be/d7rlUe-Thvk

The Old Man and the Gun [2018]
Written in part and directed by David Lowery

[b]Forrest: Hey, I like that truck of yours.
Jewel: Yeah. Me, too.
Forrest: Yeah?
Jewel: I stole it.
Forrest [taken aback]: Did you?
Jewel [laughing]: No. It was my husband’s.

Forrest: Uh… can I tell you something? I don’t know the first thing about sales. I just made it up.
Jewel: Well, what do you do then?
Forrest: Well, that’s a secret.

Jewel [after Forrest writes down what he does]: You’re not serious, are you?
Forrest: I am.
Jewel: This is a joke.
Forrest: I’m serious. It’s no joke.
Jewel: Why would you even tell me, then?
Forrest: Well, I think because I trust you.
Jewel: You just met me.
Forrest: Well, sometimes you just know is all.
Jewel: With me, you know?
Forrest: Well, you’re still sitting here.
Jewel: Well, that’s because I don’t believe you. And if I did believe you…
Forrest: So, what’d be worse? If I’m lying about this or telling you the truth?
Jewel: Prove it.

Forrest [to Jewel]: I’m just pulling your leg.

Detective: You said he was armed?
Bank manager: Yes, he had a gun.
Detective: You saw it? He pointed it at you?
Manager: Well, I…Well, no! But he said he had one! And I…
Detective: You did what he said.
Manager: Yes!
Detective: Because he said he had a gun.
Manager: Yes. And also…I mean, he was also sort of a gentleman.

Gene [a cop, on the phone]: Hey, Gene Dentler.
John [detective]: It’s John Hunt here. Tell me about this robbery.
Gene: Oh, you mean the old guy? Yeah, same story. Small haul. No prints, no MO, no nothing.
John: So you got no leads, huh? What a fucking surprise.
Gene: Mainly on account of nobody giving a shit. It’s just kind of a funny story.
Joihn: Yeah. Nothing funnier than armed robbery.

John: Okay, what we have here is five states. 93 robberies. In two years.
Captain Calder: And you think it’s all the same guys?
John: Hundred percent.
Captain: So, how do the same three guys get away with all that?
John: Well, they haven’t gotten away with it. They just haven’t been caught yet.

John: And how would you describe him?
First victim: Well, he was, uh…he was very polite.
Second victim: He seemed like a nice enough fella.
Third victim: He was…
John: Let me guess. Uh, he was a gentleman.
Third victim: Yeah. Sorta. I guess…he…he just seemed more…happy.

Waller: The vault and the truck.
Teddy: Hmm. You really think we can do it?
Waller: Yeah, I think we can probably do it.
Teddy: We can probably do anything we set our minds to. I’m just saying, it sounds like we’re showing off.
Waller: Well, let’s show off then. I’m so tired of doing the same score over and over again. It’s penny-ante bullshit. I’m gonna be 67 years old. My bones hurt. I’m gonna start thinking about my future. My future.
Teddy: What are you thinking, Forrest? Do you think we can pull it off?
Forrest: Yeah, probably.
Teddy: Probably? Probably? You forget about Paterson? Probably didn’t get you very far then.
Forrest: Yeah, but that was then. This is now. And now, I know what I’m doing.
Teddy: Yeah, I know, too. But I also know what I’m capable of. And these days, those are two different things.

John [on TV]: Well, we figure them to be about 60 to 70 years old. For that reason, we’re calling them “The Over the Hill Gang.”
Reporter: Good name.
John: Thank you. We came up with that. Folks from all around, some from Albuquerque and Little Rock just putting our heads together and hoping to nab these guys.
Reporter: So, old men robbing banks, it seems like they’d be fairly conspicuous. Any idea how they’d gotten away with it for so long?
John: Well, no. But frankly, they have a whole lot more experience robbing banks than we do catching them.

Forrest: You see the news?
Teddy: No.
Waller: How’s the weather?
Forrest: Blue skies.

Teddy [groaning]: They took off one of my love handles.
Waller [removing a bullet from him]: You know, I never actually finished medical school.

John [looking at Forrest on a tape of the heist]: Look at that. Is he smiling?
Detective: Must be thinkin’ of you.

FBI agent: Hard part’s over. Now’s the part where we bring this home.
John: Mmm. Yeah? That could be. You could bring this home. Or it could be that I puzzle things together. I find that clue. I crack the case. And maybe you come to me and you say, "Thanks, John. Let me shake your hand. “You puzzled things together. You cracked the case. That’s good work.”
FBI agent: You remember something?
John: Uhh…No.

Jewel: Oh, you could kind of lose track of yourself, you know. At least I do. And it’s so easy to assume that everything’s fine. That this is fine. This is the way things are supposed to be. And so, you spend so much time thinking you’re happy, and then one day you wake up and you realize, oh, maybe you aren’t. Maybe you never were in the first place. Maybe you don’t even know what that means. Then something happens, like you lose someone or…even your kids grow up and leave home, and you think…“What do I have left?” Now I think, now it’s okay to be selfish. 'Cause you think about ten years from now, where will you be? What’ll you be doing? Now, whenever I close the door, I think… "Oh, at least this is the last time “I’ll ever have a chance to do whatever that thing was?”
Forrest: You know what I do when the door closes?
Jewel: What’s that?
Forrest: I jump out the window.

Dorothy: So, you think you’re gonna catch him?
Forrest: Well, I hope so.
Dorothy: Well, if you do, I don’t wanna see him. I don’t wanna have to come in and pick him out of… what’s it… a lineup or whatever it’s called, okay.
Forrest: No, that won’t be necessary.
Dorothy: You know, I think he should be locked up. You know, my momma told me that… he always said… “Oh, I’m a changed man now.” And then he would just get out and he’d just do it all over again. And again and again. Even after all that, you know, she loved him till the day she died.

Beckley [lawyer]: Forrest Tucker. He was the real deal.
John: Holy smokes. Age 13, bicycle theft. That’s getting an early start.
Beckley: He spent his whole life locked up. Except for the times that he broke out. Sixteen successful escapes.
John: Sixteen?
Beckley: Uh-huh. That’s some kind of record, right? A few years back, he broke out of San Quentin in a boat he built out of scrap wood and tarp and who knows what else. Painted the Marin County logo on the side and sailed right on out of there. You ever meet him, he’ll tell you all about it. He’ll tell you every detail of every adventure he ever had. And probably a few that he didn’t.
John: Maybe somebody should have told him to quit while he was ahead.
Beckley: Well, you find something you love…

Beckley [to John]: He did always have a gun on him, but if you told me that he had never fired that thing once in his life, I’d believe ya. I remember I sat down with him once and I said, “Forrest…surely there’s an easier way for somebody in your position to make a living.” And he looked at me and he said, "Brother… “I’m not talking about making a living. I’m just talking about living.”

Maureen [wife]: Did you find him?
John: Yeah, sorta.
Maureen: What’s that mean?
John: Well… I figured out who he is. He’s a guy who is old…but used to be young. And he just loves robbing banks.
Maureen: That’s it?
John: That’s it.
Maureen: Just like you’re a guy who’s a cop…who’s gonna catch him.
John [after a long pause]: Yeah. Something like that.

Forrest: Hey! Didn’t I see you on TV?
John: Oh, maybe.
Forrest: No, I think so. You were involved in that…What you called… The Over The Hill Gang, right?
John: Yeah.
Forrest: Yeah. Did you catch them?
John: Not yet.
Forrest: Hmm. You close?
John: Oh, we’re getting there.

John: Forrest…I know what I’m doing.

FBI Agent: Forrest Tucker, you are under arrest. Step away from the car! Put your hands up and step away from the car now!
[Forrest jumps back into the car]
FBI agent: Don’t do it! Get out of the car!

Maureen [after John gets off the phone]: What happened?
John: Well, they caught him.
Maureen: How?
John: Oh, somebody talked.
Maureen: Hmm. Now what?
John: He’ll go to prison.
Maureen: Hmm. That’s too bad. I’m sorry you didn’t catch him.
John: I’m not.

Reporter [on TV]: The Over the Hill Gang is no more. Last night, federal agents in Fort Worth arrested the leader of the group, 74-year-old Forrest Silver Tucker. Tucker, a native of Florida, is best remembered in the Bay area for engineering one of the most innovative prison breaks in San Quentin history. That is just one of a long list of escapes and an even longer list of crimes.

Jewel: You lied to me about your name.
Forrest: Well, I figured you knew.
Jewel: That’s what the detectives asked me, if I knew. If I even had the slightest idea.
John: Hmm, what’d you say?
Jewel: Said of course not.
Forrest: I’m sorry.
Jewel: Well, me too.
Forrest [handing her some sheets of paper]: Here. I wrote something for you.
Jewel: What’s this?
Forrest: These are all the times I broke out before.

Jewel: What about this one?
Forrest: Well…kinda saving the best for last.
Jewel: Well… maybe, uh… maybe you should just stay put
[and he did]

Forrest [on the phone]: Hey, John.
John: Yeah, it is. Who’s this?
Forrest: How’s it going?
John [figuring out who it is]: Forrest Tucker. Is that you? I heard you got out.
Forrest: Yeah, I got out all right.
John: What happened? Did you get tired of digging tunnels and climbing fences?
Forrest: Well, I thought so, but, uh…
John: Forrest? Forrest, are you all right?
Forrest [looking over at the bank]: Yeah, I… I’m about to be.

Title card: Forrest Tucker robbed four more banks that day. When he was finally caught, the officers on the scene note that as they arrested him…he was smiling.[/b]

They all say the same thing. If you want to excel as an actor, you must be able to draw on the sort of experiences that make it possible for art to imitate life.

Nothing is off the table here because you never really know what frame of mind or emotion or psychological state you might be called upon to recreate up on the stage.

And, this being the case, there will always be those directing actors who are ready, willing and able to take advantage of it. Thus, “…when the workshop’s ambitious director pushes Madeline to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art the lines between performance and reality begin to blur.”

And this impacts not only Madeline’s performance up on the stage but her very “sense of identity” itself. “I” tugged and pulled…and then completely twisted out of shape. And what if, from the very start, the actor is already emotionally disturbed? What might be the end result of that? A sane actor can portray insanity up on the stage with more or less skill. But what are the [possible] consequences of an actor less than completely sane being pushed all the more to go over the edge?

And then the part about encompassing sanity itself. In today’s world in particular. One way or another we are often putting on a mask and adopting one or another persona in one or another context. And here you are never really certain if what you are watching is in or out of Madeline’s head.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeline%27s_Madeline
trailer: youtu.be/S_ezPTjSSPw

Madeline’s Madeline [2018]
Written in part and directed by Josephine Decker

[b]Nurse [from Madeline’s dreamscape]: There you go. What you are experiencing is just a metaphor. The emotions you are having are not your own. They are someone else’s. You are not the cat. You are inside the cat. Now lie back…

Evangeline [workshop director]: Madeline, what are you doing?
Madeline: I was a sea turtle.
Evangeline: You were a sea turtle, and then you were a woman playing a sea turtle. Look at your hands. Hands. Whose hands are those? Are they yours, or are they the turtle’s?

Madeline: Drive, drive! Duck! Duck! Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Go, Mom!
Regina [Mother]: I’m going, I’m going. I can’t duck and drive.
Madeline: Just go! Just go!
Mother: I’m going! Are you okay?
Madeline: Yes! Oh, my God. We just mooned Evangeline.
Mother: You did?
Madeline: Yes. Let’s go!
Mother: I thought you…I thought something had really happened.

Son: Mom, what would you be if you were someone else?
Mother: Do you mean, like, a famous person?
Madeline: No, he means, um, if you could cut out someone’s face and wear it as your own, who would it be?

Madeline: I had this dream that I wanted to tell you about, but, you know…
Evangeline: I know. You know what they say about dreaming. You just have to trust yourself. Jung says that…in all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order, that the pendulum of the mind swings between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.
Madeline: Dreams are awesome. I dreamt I slammed my mother’s hand with an iron. I couldn’t breathe. It felt like I was underwater, watching her.
Evangeline: Anything like that, you can always share it with me. I dreamt you were my daughter.
[a pause]
Evangeline: Do you feel safe around your mom…?

Boy: Hey, Madeline. What’s up? What’s in your basement? Yo, me and the guys over there, we took bets, and we think there’s five dead bodies in there. Five, for every finger on your hand.
Madeline [bursting into a character]: I killed 'em with my fingernails!
Boy: You’re weird.

Madeline: I was just showing them the basement.
Mother: Mm-hmm. Why don’t you sit down. Let’s watch this! Okay. Right? Sit down, Madeline. This what you were doing? This what I interrupted?
Boy: We were just…
Mother: Yeah? Well, just do it. Go ahead. Do it. Whip it out.
Woman from porn video: You’re putting it in her asshole!
Mother [to the boys]: This is a good idea? You want her in a psych ward for another six weeks? With her condition?

Evangeline: I want to deepen the work that we’re doing with the character that you’re gonna play. Do you want to name her?
Madeline: Oh, I… I thought of a name. Zia.
Evangeline: Zia? -Yeah. That is… It’s really powerful. You know, one of the ways that we could maybe…sort of make Zia more concrete would be…I was thinking we could explore the dream that you were telling me about and maybe act it out. The one that you… With the iron, and you slam your mom’s hand. It’s so just potent. And I-I can’t stop thinking about those images. You know, dream work can be this really… Uh, anyway… we should… try acting it out. How do you feel about that?
Madeline [clearly uneasy]: I, uh…I guess, yeah.

Evangeline [disjointedly]: Madeline, was that…Is that about how it felt? What? I think we need to, um, emphasize the fractured, um, disjointed relationship with the mother at the beginning.

Mother [on phone?]: Yes, it’s an emergency. Her prescription ran out a week ago. Mm-hmm. Why? Because she didn’t tell me. I’m sorry. She’s a teenager, so…She just doesn’t tell me everything in her life.

Mother: You know, I just… I want… I want you to be careful. You know? Because… you’re not…
Madeline: I’m not what?
Mother: Um… You know. You’re not like the other people.
Madeline: Because I’m black?
Mother: No, Madeline. I just feel like you’re maybe not ready, you know. Your situation, which is different…
Madeline: What are you saying?
Mother: It’s different from the other people in the…Everyone else is…is stable, and, um… You know, if you had an episode, which you probably will, what would happen?
[Madeline throws a cup of soda at her]

Evangeline: Are you okay?
Madeline: I’m good.
Evangeline: Yeah? How’s things with your mom?
Madeline: On the way here, she tried to give me the sex talk. I’m 16. I know everything.

Nurse [actor in a skit]: What seems to be the problem?
Madeline [acting as the patient]: I’m sick.
Nurse: Yeah? What do you have?
Madeline: I’m de…Pregnant.
Evangeline: Hey, Madeline. It’s a psychiatric ward, not a pregnancy ward.
Madeline: My mom wants me to have an abortion, but, um, I’m gonna keep the baby.
Nurse: Wh… I mean, do you…Do you think you’re… you’re ready?
Madeline: I think I’m ready. I… I want to take care of someone. Like she will. But I’m afraid that the birth will be horrible.
Nurse: How will it be horrible?
Madeline: Bloody and hard. What if the baby doesn’t wanna come out? What if it’s, like… And it dies inside of me.
Evangeline [not sure how to react]: Let’s take five minutes, and then we’ll, uh, regroup and try some more.

Woman: Madeline was telling us your show is about prison?
Evangeline: Uh, no. No, it’s not.
Madeline: It’s…It’s a metaphor.
Woman: Metaphor?
Evangeline: No, it’s not a metaphor. It’s-It’s, um… It’s about mental illness. And-And…Wow. Madeline is the lead.[/b]

The look on Madeline’s face says it all…

[b]Madeline: So, um, how long have you and Evangeline been together?
George: Oh. We’ve been together five years. Five beautiful years.
Madeline: Wow.
George: Mm-mmm.
Madeline: That’s funny, because she has never mentioned you.
George: She hasn’t?
Madeline: Nope.

Madeline: So, um, it’s my birthday this weekend.
George: Are you serious? Well, happy birthday. You’re turning…
Madeline: Seventeen.
George: Seventeen.
Madeline: And do you know what I am doing for my birthday? I’m going to lose my virginity. George [taken aback]: That’s… That’s great. That’s great. Who’s…Who’s the…Um, who’s the lucky guy?
Madeline: I haven’t decided yet.
George: Okay.
Madeline: You know, if you have any recommendations for, like, a position or anything, for… 'Cause I’m a beginner, you know. I was thinking that I could bend over, and he could squeeze my ass cheeks.

Evangeline: Were you drinking at my house, Madeline? Because you’re not acting like yourself.
Madeline: You don’t know myself. I am being myself.
Evangeline: I do know you. I know you!
Madeline: Are you insecure?
Evangeline: What?
Madeline: Are you… insecure?
Evangeline: I don’t know! No. I mean no. I’m so… I’m not insecure. I’m trying to do something that’s really hard. And I am, you know, holding down the fort on the whole project, and I’m spearheading this very collaborative vision that is fucking just… kind of fucked. So, yes. I mean yes, I’m insecure, because I don’t know if the project’s gonna work. I don’t even know if my fucking marriage is gonna work. And I don’t…
Madeline: Good.
Evangeline: What? What’s good?
Madeline: That you admitted it. I’m insecure too. It’s why I want you to like me so much.

Madeline: I don’t think…I don’t think I should be in your project anymore.
Evangeline: What?
Madeline: Okay. I feel like, you know, we’re…
Evangeline: I think you might be right, Madeline. I think maybe you shouldn’t be in the project. And actually, it feels like a huge relief. I mean, I…Of course, I want you to be in it, but…this doesn’t feel like it’s good for either of us.

Madeline [after Evangeline slams on the brakes and stops the car]: What was that? What… Was it a cat?
Evangeline: I don’t know. Maybe it was nothing.
Madeline: Should… Should we check on it?
Evangeline: No, it’s dead.

Madeline [acting out her mother in a skit at the workshop…with her mother in the room]: You really shouldn’t use hand sanitizer like that. It dries out your skin. Oh, what sweater should I wear? The one with floral or the one with floral? The mood swings. They can be so bad sometimes. High, low. You never know where you’re gonna go. Throwing things, hitting me. But I love you no matter what because you’re my daughter. Were you smoking? I can smell it on you! Go take a shower, for Christ’s sakes. Do you want some pancakes? Pancakes! I know you hate butter. Yes. Will you eat anything? Anything? See, Damon eats. Damon fucking eats. And he keeps it in. You’re not going to rehearsal on Friday if you don’t eat these pancakes. When you were a…just a little baby, I stroked your head so soft. I-I…I said to myself… I said, “This baby, she’s so perfect. She’s gonna be so strong.” And look at you now. You are sick! You are so sick that you… No, Madeline. Madeline, no. Madeline, you’re scaring me. Damon, tell her to…Put it down! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! My hand! My hand! Wow. Wow. Oh, my God. Oh, my God!!![/b]

Her mother leaves the room.

Evangeline: That was so great. That was so amazing. Wow! Oh, my God. Are you okay?
Madeline: Yes.
Evangeline: You’re so good. That was amazing. Did you guys see that? Oh, my God. That was amazing. Wow. Oh! Wow. I, uh… This… This is the play. This is immersive theater. Wow. Okay. Okay. I was thinking we were gonna do something else, but I think that, in light of this powerful new work, we should, uh… Let’s everybody pick a piece, just a section of the improv that Madeline just did, and then we will make a dance. Make a dance of it and, um…
Workshop actor: When you talk about this being the play, is this about Madeline?
Evangeline: Well, no, no. I mean, it’s about a character that we’ve been work… you know, creating together called Zia. It’s about a character.
Actor: And it’s Madeline’s story.
Evangeline: No, Zia. Her name is Zia.
Actor: Yeah, Zia. And she’s comfortable with that.
[she turns to Madeline]
Actor: You’re comfortable with that? With us telling your story?
Actor [to Evangeline]: I mean…So you’re going to tell the story of the inside of her brain.
Evangeline: Yes.

Evangeline completely misses the point that her students clearly get: that she is using and exploiting Madeline’s very real emotional turmoil. Unless I’m completely missing the point.

Evangeline: Get off me! Madeline? Madeline. Madeline. Great job. You know, you’re obviously taking a lot of risks, and I think you’re so talented, you know? But if we’re gonna collaborate, I think we should talk about a process that’s a little more…Listen. This is done. I think this is done now. Okay. Everybody? Everybody, I think this is done now! So thank you very much, everybody! Great job. Hey! Just stop! Stop!

Talk about conflicting goods…

The year is 1993. Your neice is “caught with another girl”. So, out of love, out of faith in God, you send her to “gay conversion therapy”. A group that promises to “cure” her. After all, the Reverend Rick who helps to run the operation was once cured himself.

The bottom line of course is that being gay is okay. The problem resides entirely with the reactionary religious folks who have yet to grasp that.

And that is certainly one way to look at it. But that’s not how everyone does look at it. So, from their perspective, this is a “liberal” propaganda flick that besmirches all that they hold near and dear.

And that is basically how most of us view the world. With or without God there are good behaviors and bad behaviors. And it’s up to us to pick sides.

It really comes down then to how ridiculous the reactionaries are scripted to be. In other words, does it really matter how honest and sincere they are about their own beliefs? And many of them really do believe that being gay is a ticket to Hell. So, I’m looking for this in the film. And I think they did a pretty good job in that respect. I take my own political leap to the left on this issue. But I’m not able to embrace it as the objectivists [left or right] are.

And that’s the point. It’s not as though the religious folks portrayed here are mindless morons. They’re not ignorant clodhoppers or monsters. They have simply found an anchor for “I” in the Lord. And then the whole world becomes “do this” and “don’t do that”.

Inevitably, there are characters here who are considerably more sophisticated about their “treatment” at God’s Promise than others. What makes Cameron particularly vulnerable [and believable] is that she is not nearly as cynical as “sinners” like Jane and Adam. At least not at first.

Look for the American Honey.

IMDb

[b]The clips from the Christian exercise video “Blessercize” are real footage of an actual 90’s video.

Due to its limited theatrical release and marketing, the film failed to recoup its paltry $900,000 budget. It grossed just $904,703 in 85 theaters in North America.

Won the Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic) at the Sundance Film Festival.[/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mised … Post_(film
trailer: youtu.be/VEdngvMGjg0

The Miseducation of Cameron Post [2018]
Written in part and directed by Desiree Akhavan

[b]Pastor Crawford: Okay. Everybody, eyes up here. It’s time to get started. So, I was thinking this morning. I was thinking about what it was like being your age, how I’d come to worship like I was ticking off a to-do list. I didn’t get it like I do now, and I thought, “Well, maybe I should tell you guys a secret.” Do you know what we’re trying to do every Sunday in church as adults? We’re trying to undo the things we did when we were your age. Think about it. You’re our future, and you are at an age where you are especially vulnerable to evil. Now when I say, “Evil,” I mean evil. And you won’t see it now. You won’t see it tomorrow. But what feels like fun is actually the enemy, and that enemy is closing the noose around your neck. While you experiment and play with that yoke like it’s a toy and you think, “Oh, just this once, just… just a little longer,” click. It’s got you.

Reverend Rick [to Cameron]: Don’t worry. You’ll get decorating privileges soon. You have to earn certain rights at God’s Promise. I swear it’s not that bad… just decorating and mail. Most disciples get there in a few weeks. It’s all spelled out in the contract.

Erin: I think if your top priority is to get better, that should also be true of the people you surround yourself with, you know?
Cameron: And you think you’re getting…better?
Erin: Of course. I’ve been brought closer to God, and I can feel Him guiding me.

Lydia: I’ve come to meet our new disciple. Welcome, Cameron. I’m Dr. Lydia Marsh. I’m the director of God’s Promise…I know the adjustment can be difficult at first, but I have every faith you’ll find yourself at home here soon. In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to ask if you need anything.
Cameron: Thank you.
Lydia: You should consider yourself amongst family, Cameron.
Cameron: You can call me “Cam.”
Lydia: “Cameron” is already a masculine name. To abbreviate as something even less feminine only exacerbates your gender confusion.
Cameron: Right.

Cameron: I’ve just never thought of homosexuality like this.
Lydia: There’s no such thing as homosexuality. There’s only the same struggle with sin we all face. Would you let drug addicts throw parades for themselves?
Cameron: No.
Lydia: No, you wouldn’t. Sin is sin. Your struggle is with the sin of same-sex attraction. The first step is for you to stop thinking of yourself as a homosexual.
Cameron: But I don’t think of myself as a homosexual. I mean, I don’t really think of myself as anything.

Jane: Just talk about how positive reinforcements for sports messed with your gender identity. They love that shit. And how your parents gave you too much physical affection or not enough physical affection. Either way, that’s why you’re gay.
Cameron: My parents are dead.
Jane: That should probably go in your iceberg.

Cameron: You grew up in a commune?
Jane: Yeah.
Cameron: I didn’t know hippies were evangelical.
Jane: They’re not. My mom’s new husband is.

Helen: I will not pray for God to change me because God does not make mistakes, and I am the one who is tempted by sin. Change will come through God…but within me. Me. I must be the change.
Steve: I’ve always known I didn’t want to act on my same-sex attractions, so, in the past, I would resort to…self-pleasure. Then when I learned that that was a sin, also, I stopped, but it’s like…shouldn’t it be okay if it’s instead of acting out?
Dane: What? You can’t get a pass from God to jerk off.

Cameron: So, this worked for you, then? Like, you changed?
Rick: Yes. I changed.
Cameron: How?
Rick: It was a process. It’s funny, actually. The moment things began to turn around was in a bar.
Cameron: Bar?
Rick: Yeah. A gay bar, of all places. Two men from my church came in. They saw my car parked outside, and they knew I’d been struggling, so they came in looking for me. Wow. It was God, Cameron. I asked for His help, and He gave it to me in the form of those allies. I was so deeply unhappy, but I didn’t think I was worth saving, and I wonder if you’ve asked that of yourself. Are you worth saving?

Cameron: What’s her deal anyway? Like, I know why Rick is here, but why does she give such a shit? She’s not, like, ex-gay, is she?
Jane: She’s Rick’s sister.
Cameron: Seriously?
Jane: Yeah. She degayed him.

Lydia: Tell us about that girl you knew from home.
Cameron: Okay. Um…her name was Coley. We were in the same Bible study.
Lydia: What was she like?
Cameron: She was perfect. But she wasn’t full of herself. You know, she was the type of person that, no matter who you were, you’d meet her, and you’d… you’d want to be her friend.
Lydia: It’s said that cannibals only eat the enemies they admire as a way to take inside their best qualities. When you speak, you reveal a compulsion to take into yourself the qualities you admired in this girl.
Cameron [hesitantly]: I wanted to be like her, and I confused that with being with her? Lydia: Correct.[/b]

Slowly she is learning to tell them what they want to hear.

[b]Mark: Can I ask you a personal question?
Cameron: Sure.
Mark: Do you believe in God?
Cameron: Um…I-I guess I don’t…I don’t really know.
Mark: Yeah. That’s okay.
Cameron: I guess every time I pray…I kind of feel like I’m being phony.
Mark: Yeah. I-I think everybody can feel like that sometimes, but I also think that those are moments where it’s really important to lean back on your faith and trust that that will take you forward.
Cameron: I don’t think I really have any faith. Or at least I don’t… really know how to go about getting it. Or if I really want it.

Cameron: What’s winkte mean?
Adam: Winkte? Why do you ask?
Cameron: Um… I read it… on your iceberg.
Adam: Yeah. It’s a… It’s a Lakotan word for two-spirit. It’s like a… It’s like a third gender. Okay, so, I am two-spirit, which, uh, means I was born with a man’s soul and a woman’s soul, and, uh, literally, “winkte” means “killed by woman,” so it’s as if the male part of me is being killed by the female part. That make sense?
Jane: He’s basically like the Native American David Bowie.
Adam [chuckling]: I’ll take it.

Cameron: So, why’d your parents send you here?
Jane: His dad got into politics, and then he converted to Christianity.
Adam: Me being like this… fucks his image.

Cameron [on phone]: If I told you I was unhappy… and that I wanted to come home… would you let me?
Ruth [her aunt]: Cam, come on. You have to give it a chance. You know I’m doing this because I love you. Don’t you want to have a family someday?

Erin [after sort of having sex with Cameron]: You can’t tell anyone, Cam.
Cameron: I won’t.
Erin: I really do want to get past this.

Lydia: Mark, why don’t you start us off? I know you’ve had an especially hard week.
Mark: No. I…Every week is especially hard.
Lydia: Is there something…
Mark: Look, if you want me to talk about my father, then I’d prefer if you just ask.
Lydia: Sounds like you want to talk about your father’s decision.
Mark: I don’t see what there is to talk about. I mean, you’ve read his letter. “I am denying your request to return home at the end of the semester. You are still very effeminate… and this is a weakness I cannot have in my home.”
Lydia: How did that make you feel?
Mark: I’d like to read a passage. It’s one of my father’s favorites.
Lydia: Please do.
Mark [in an increasingly mocking voice]: “There was given to me a thorn in the flesh…the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. And for this thing, I besought the Lord thrice…that it might depart from me. And unto me he said…My grace is sufficient for thee…for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather…will I rather glory in infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I-I take…I take pleasure in…in…in infirmities, in…in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong! For when I am weak…then am I strong. When I am weak…then am I strong.”

Mark [to the group]: I know that some of you are aware that Mark had a little bit of an accident last night. Adam found him in the bathroom, and we rushed him to the hospital. His dad’s already flown out. He is stable, and he’s going to be okay.
Dane: Fuck this. You guys are talking in circles. If he didn’t kill himself, then what did he do?
Lydia: Dane, yelling and swearing won’t help you feel better about what happened to Mark.
Dane: See, that’s where you’re wrong, 'cause it does, actually. It makes me feel a fuck of a lot better.

Rick: Last night, Mark used a razor to cut his genitals several times. Then he poured bleach over the wounds. Adam found him.
Cameron: If you were worried about him, why did you leave him alone?
Rick: I don’t have a very good answer for you.
Cameron: Is Adam okay?
Rick: I think so, all things considered. It is going to take him some time to process.
Cameron: How the fuck do you process watching your roommate try and cut his dick off? What’s he going to do, put it on his iceberg? You people have no idea what you’re doing, do you? You’re just making it up as you go along.
Rick [weeping]: I don’t know how to answer you right now. I…I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.

Cameron: Look, I know you’re here because of what happened to Mark.
Government official [sent to investigate Mark’s self-mutilation]: Something didn’t just happen to him. He injured himself.
Cameron: While under the care of this facility.
Government official: Correct, and that’s why I’m here, to investigate the care that is given by those who run this facility, not to investigate the mission of this facility, unless that includes abuse or neglect.
Cameron: Yeah, but what about emotional abuse?
Government official: Are you saying you’re being emotionally abused by the staff here?
Cameron: How is programming people to hate themselves not emotional abuse.[/b]

A theme common to many true-crime docs is the astonishment exhibited by folks who never in a million years could have imagined that their beloved husband or wife or son or daughter or best friend “could do such a horrible thing”.

In fact, at the beginning of the program, they will insist they just know that he or she is innocent. Why? Because no one knows them better than they do. It’s just not “in them”.

But what do we really know about anyone anymore? And what do they really know about us? Most of us don’t live in small villages anymore. In the sprawling metropolis that is our postmodern world, you can bet that everyone pretty much does not know the business of everyone else. Even of those closest to them at times.

On the other hand, there is still the myth of the “small town”. And, in this particular small town, a “picture perfect” family and the crimes of a decade old serial killer begin to merge. Here, “Tyler Burnside is a Boy Scout, a volunteer at his local church, and the dutiful son of an upstanding, community leader dad.”

Then out of the blue one day, Tyler stumbles onto something – pornographic images – belonging to his dad. And this sets his whole world to crumbling. His all-American family is about to be ripped to shreds.

So, are there things he doesn’t know about his own beloved father?

What is always particularly frightening about films like this is that the monsters seem to be such “ordinary people”. The next door neighbor you’ve been hanging around with for years. Your best buddy. Or think of the character in The Stepfather. He couldn’t possibly be more personable. More normal.

Look for the BTK killer.

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clovehitch_Killer
trailer: youtu.be/aJO3G17JqZ8

The Clovehitch Killer [2018]
Directed by Duncan Skiles

[b]Tyler [voiceover]: The first murder happened before I was born. The killer called himself Clovehitch after his favorite type of knot. Our town lived in fear. And then, ten years ago, he stopped. Every year, our community had a memorial for friends and family of the victims. At the time, I didn’t think about it much.

Billy [noting a strange girl across the street]: She’s here again.
Tyler: Who cares?
Billy: Just what is she doing? Planning a church shooting or something?
Tyler: She’s not planning a church shooting.
Billy: She’s not Christian. She’s sick. I know her from school. She always does the same report about the killings every year.

Amy [showing Tyler a pornographic photograph she found under the seat of his truck]: Whoa, what is this?
Tyler: Um, where’d you get that?
Amy: Right there…Oh, my God. Is that what you’re into?
Tyler: No! No, I… I don’t even know where this came from.
Amy: Okay, well, it’s your truck.
Tyler: Yeah, but that isn’t mine.

Tyler: Is this about the photo?
Amy: No, I texted like one person who I thought would never tell.
Tyler: I don’t even know what that was. It wasn’t mine, okay? It was in my dad’s truck.[/b]

And then, just like that, it all begins.

[b]Don [Tyler’s father]: Okay. Sex. There, I said it. You know we’re made in God’s image. That means your body is a holy thing not to be desecrated. You know what that means?
[Tyler nods]
Don: But, men like you and me we got thoughts. We got thoughts that start to. Start to pop into our heads. You ever get those thoughts, bud? Thoughts about girls? I get it. I mean, believe it or not, I was 16 once. We’re in a bit of a pickle, aren’t we? We got God over here on this side and we got a sex-crazed monkey over here on this side. You with me so far, bud?
Tyler: Not really.
Don: Here’s the thing. It’s okay to have thoughts. That’s just a fantasy. God will look the other way. He’s a busy man. But no pictures. Got it? A fantasy’s okay, it’s not real. It’s just… It’s just monkey stuff.
Tyler: Yeah. Monkey stuff.

Kassi: The fuck you following me for?
Tyler: You remember me, right?
Kassi: Tyler the perv. How’s the perving?
Tyler: Why are you always reading the newspaper outside of our church?
Kassi: I like bad news. And I can sit wherever I want. I thought you people were supposed to be all friendly and giving and shit?
Tyler: No, yeah, no. It’s totally fine.
Kassi: Great.
Tyler: Hey, um, you know about that Clovehitch stuff, right? 'Cause I was thinking maybe I could ask you a few questions 'cause I was on some bad website and…
Kassi: Oh, I get it. You heard that rumor about me and the five guys on the football team. And you thought that if you…
Tyler: No. No, no, no.
Kassi: It’s okay. I’m a slut, you’re a perv. We were made for each other.

Tyler: So you were staking out our church to, what, narrow it down? Whoever was going back there?
Kassi: No. Cops already did that. I’m using the FBI playbook. I’m gonna catch him using his weakness.
Tyler: And what’s that?
Kassi: He’s insane. Every killer has an MO tied to his psychology. It’s like a fingerprint. Look. Same entry points, same elaborate ropes on the bodies the clove hitch tied to every victim’s house, his signature. He’s taunting the cops, using the victims as trophies. It’s meticulous and planned. I’m gonna use that fingerprint to connect him to new cases. I don’t think he’s stopped killing. I think there’s more than ten victims.
Tyler: But he has stopped.
Kassi: Serial killers can’t stop.

Don [to Tyler]: You can pull the wool over your mother’s eyes, but not mine. Who was it you were visiting when you’re supposed to be tutoring?[/b]

It’s a cat and mouse game between them now. Father and son. Neither of whom quite know what to believe about the other.

[b]Cindy [Tyler’s mom]: So, Kassi, where do you go to church?
Kassi: Oh, I don’t go to church. Um, my dad’s usually hungover on Sundays and my mom left when I was little. So, um, I’m basically an atheist but I’m considering getting into Wicca.
Cindy: Wicca? Wha…No, I’ve heard of that. It…it’s not black magic, it’s um…a nature-based spiritual…
Tyler: Oh, Mom. She’s…she’s just joking.

Kassi: So, Mr. Burnside, um…you teach Tyler and everybody about camping and whittling. And tying knots? So, how many knots do you know…?

Kassi: So…You think your dad is Clovehitch? It’s not your fucking dad.
Tyler: He has pictures. Like bondage porno stuff. That’s why everyone thinks I’m a perv. I went in his shed where no one is allowed, and there was more. There was even one that said Nora on it, and. I think that was for Nora Devlin. Right next to it, it says, “Lucky’s favorite” on it.
Kassi: There’s no way in hell your dad is Clovehitch just because he likes weird porn. He’s just kinky.

Don: Thought we’d get an early start. You know what we haven’t done in a while? Camping. Just you and me.
Tyler: Yeah, today?
Don: Yeah. Thought we’d go have some fun. Father-son bonding. Lock up that rifle badge.

Tyler [out in the woods with his father]: Where are we going?
Don: We’re almost there, bud.

Don [cleaning his rifle]: Did you tell anyone?
[Tyler says nothing]
Don: Did you tell anyone?
Tyler: What are you talking about?
Don: Tyler, I know you’ve been in the shed and in the crawlspace. You had no business invading my privacy. The lack of respect is really disturbing, Tyler. You know better than that. A lock on that door for a reason. What you found in that box wasn’t mine.
Tyler: Whose is it?
Don: Rudy’s.
Tyler: Uncle Rudy?
Don: The truth is, I’m ashamed to say. I had an interest in those kinds of photos that you found in the truck a long time ago, years ago. Rudy was the same way, only much, much worse.[/b]

Who to believe? What to believe?

[b]Tyler: But it looks like it’s you.
Don: Bud. Bud, I don’t know, I don’t know what else to tell you. Other than I know that you know. It isn’t me. It’s not me. I’m just so…I’m just so damned sorry to to put you through all that. I messed up. I was trying to protect my brother.
Tyler: We have to take it to the police. Or destroy it. But you have to decide.

Kassi: He came in through the basement. And then tied her up. And tortured her here. Then he killed her. This is where they found the body.
Tyler: Why are you doing this?
Kassi: What did your dad tell you? Tyler. I’m not accusing your dad. I just wanna know what happened.
Tyler: It was Uncle Rudy.
Kassi: In the wheelchair? How long has he been like that?
Tyler: Ten years. That’s why he stopped. He told me it was a car accident but…it was suicide. Attempted suicide.
Kassi: I found something in the pit under your house.
Tyler: Y…you said there was nothing under there.
Kassi: There were rope fibers.
Tyler: Rope fibers? Look, this isn’t CSI. I know that you love being obsessed with Clovehitch because it makes you all dark and interesting but, but really, this is my family.
Kassi: He killed my mom.

Tyler: What was her name?
Kassi: Crystal.
Tyler: Crystal Harper?
Kassi [surprised]: How do you know that?
Tyler: Under the house. There was a box, and it had photos, and jewelry. And driver’s licenses. There were 13 of them.
Kassi: Thirteen? Where are they?
Tyler: It wasn’t gonna bring 'em back. And he’s gone. We had to protect our family.
Kassi: So where are they?
Tyler: So we burned them. I’m sorry.
Kassi: Do you believe him? Is there any doubt in your mind? Please.

Tyler [watching Kassi spy on his father]: What are you expecting to see?
Kassi: Anything. There’s no way he could be that sick and not give any hint.
Tyler: I’ve lived with him my whole life. There’s no hint.

Kassi [to Tyler]: He tied this here. I saw him.

Tyler [aiming his rifle]: Dad.
Don [startled]: What are you doin’ here?
Tyler: Is she okay?
Don: You should be gone. Oh, Tyler. You shouldn’t see this.
Tyler: Dad!
Don: What did I teach you? You don’t aim a weapon unless you intend to use it. Are you gonna shoot me, bud? Are you gonna shoot me, bud?
Tyler: You have to turn yourself in.[/b]

Ordinarily when I’m tuning into something called “a star is born” it’s on the Science Channel. And not something out of Hollywood. But this one keeps popping up over and over and over and over again.

And being a “star” in the entertainment business is a hell of a lot more relevant to most folks than the stuff that came out of the Big Bang. And the more the world today makes each of us feel smaller and smaller and smaller, the more some will give almost everything they’ve got to becoming “famous”.

And while there is nothing either inherently good or bad about these treks to the top of the charts, each of us will react to it in our own way. After all, just because you are worshipped and adored in our pop culture doesn’t mean you can’t have the sort of depth that makes you worth being interested in.

And it is always intriguing to imagine a “seasoned” artist on the way down coming into contact with a “struggling” artist on the way up. The personal and the political intertwined in a rampaging spiral that might go in any direction.

And then of course the Lady Gaga stuff. Yeah, we know that she can sing…but can she act? Remember, for example, Madonna?

Then the part that always fascinates me the most. Jackson needs a drink. He picks out a bar. He meets Ally. Her life is forever changed. And all seemingly out of the blue. A fluke, chance encounter.

IMDb

[b]Like his character Jack, Bradley Cooper dealt with both alcohol and drug addiction. He has spoken publicly about how sobriety saved both his life and career.

For his role as Jackson Maine, Bradley Cooper was taught to play guitar by Lukas Nelson, son of Willie Nelson. The pair hung out in Cooper’s basement almost every night for a year so that Cooper could learn how to perform and present himself like a musician.

Majority of the drag queens’ scenes were unscripted and improvised. They originally had little dialogue but seeing that their candid jokes added so much entertainment value, Bradley Cooper decided to extend them and let them play around on their own. Willam Beli, the drag queen that played Crystal, even claimed that none of her original lines made it to the final cut and that all her scenes in the movie were out of improvisation.

Lady Gaga has said that she’d become so attached to her character during the shoot, she had to dye her hair blonde as soon as the film wrapped in order to ‘release’ Ally. She also said that in real life, she is nothing like her character Ally, the biggest difference being that she was extremely ambitious about her career from a young age and was classically trained in music, while Ally is starting off a late bloomer with no self-confidence in her talent.[/b]

trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt1517451/tr … tt_trv_trv
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Star_Is_Born_(2018_film
trailer: youtu.be/nSbzyEJ8X9E

A Star Is Born [2018]
Written in part and directed by Bradley Cooper

[b]Ally: Fuck! God! Fucking men!

Ramon: My man, my man, I…Aren’t you like…
Jack: This is a bar, right?
Ramon: Yeah, but not your kind of place.
Jack: They got alcohol?
Ramon: Well, yeah, but…
Jack: It’s my kind of place.

Jack: Do you do that often?
Ally: Do what?
Jack: The show.
Ally: Yeah, yeah. The girls are so nice to me here. I mean, they would never normally let a girl sing at one of these shows but they’ve always loved my voice. They used to beg me to sing. It’s an honour, really. I get to be one of the gay girls.

Jack: Do you write songs or anything?
Ally: I don’t sing my own songs.
Jack: Why?
Ally: I just…I just don’t feel comfortable.
Jack: Why wouldn’t you feel comfortable?
Ally: Um… Well, cos, like, almost every single person that I’ve come in contact with in the music industry has told me that my nose is too big and that I won’t make it.
Jack: Your nose is too big?
Ally: Yeah.
Jack: Your nose is beautiful.

Jack: You’re lucky.
Ally: My nose has not made me lucky. I could’ve had maybe a hit song if it wasn’t for my nose.
Jack: That’s fucking bullshit.
Ally: No, it’s not bullshit because you go into these rooms and there’s all these fucking men in there and they’re just staring at you, listening to your record, going, “Oh, you sound great, but you don’t look so great.”

Jack [to Ally]: Look, talent comes everywhere. Everybody’s talented. Bet you fucking everybody in this bar is talented in one thing or another, but having something to say… and the way to say it so people listen to it, that’s a whole other bag. And unless you get out there and you try to do it, you’ll never know. That’s just the truth. If there’s one reason we’re here, it’s to say something so people wanna hear it.

Jack: It’s a good thing we met. For both of us. Trust me.
Ally: I don’t know what is going on. Honestly, what…
Jack: Who does?

Jack [whispering to Ally]: Can I tell you a secret? I think you might be a songwriter.

Jack: Hey.
Ally: What?
Jack: I just wanted to take another look at you.

Lorenzo [Ally’s father]: I want my friends to look at you. Take a good look. With a voice like from heaven, but you know what? It’s not always the best singers that make it. You know? I knew a couple of guys could sing Sinatra under the table. But Frank, he’d come on stage with the blue eyes, the sharkskin suit, the patent leather shoes…he becomes Frank Sinatra. And everybody else, all these other guys…that really got it, that really have it inside… just a bunch of nobodies.

Bobby: You gotta put 'em in your ears, man.
Jack: I told you, I can’t wear those. When I wear 'em, it’s just in my head, and I need to be here.
Bobby: The doctor said it’s the only way to manage this thing, Jack. You’re not gonna get back what you lost. It’s the only way we can manage what you still got.

Lorenzo: Look, a guy like that invites you to a show…It could be a great opportunity.
Ally: Dad, don’t start with me!
Lorenzo: Listen. Does he know you sing at all? Did he hear anything from you? It’s the opportunity of a lifetime.
Ally: I don’t have the same disease you have. You get around celebrities like they’re gonna rub off on you.
Lorenzo: What are you talking about?
Ally: “Oh, you know who I drove?” Like magic, now you’re famous. And you’re not. It’s not magic, Dad.
Lorenzo: Sweetheart.
Ally: He’s a drunk! You know all about drunks.

Bobby [to Ally]: He’s out. You think maybe he drinks a bit much? Sweetie, you have no idea. Tell you one thing, though. He’s never brought a girl on stage before. And it’s been a long, long time since he played like that.

Jack: You come and sing with me.
Ally: Where?
Jack: Well, first stop’s Arizona.
Ally: I’m never getting on that thing with you when you’ve been drinking.
Jack: I haven’t even thought about drinking or anything else.
Ally: We’ll see how long that lasts.

Jack [after punching Bobby in the face]: You sold Dad’s ranch! They turned it into a fucking wind farm! I bought that for you. Where’s his grave?
Bobby: He washed away in a fucking storm. His grave isn’t there any more. I told you, but you were fucking drunk. You were fucking loaded…and already pissing yourself a swan song. Fuck if you shed a tear for that piece of shit you idolise for no goddamn fucking reason. All Dad ever did for you…was make you his fucking drinking buddy. And you’d be right there with him if he was still alive and you fucking know it. What did you think… that I was gonna fucking take care of it…while I’m fucking cradling your ass all over the goddamn world?
Jack: Yeah. That’s a good excuse. Raising a little brother so you don’t have to deal with the fact that you were no fucking good.
Bobby: If I was no good, why’d you steal my fucking voice? Huh?
Jack: Cos you had nothing to fucking say. You were too proud to sing any of the songs I ever wrote.
Bobby: Well, I got something to say now, pal. I’m done being your fucking errand boy. I quit.

Rez: That was unbelievable what you did.
Ally: Thank you.
Rez: I don’t know if you know about me, about where I’ve come from. I’m Rez Gavron.
Ally: I know who you are.
Rez: What you have right now goes way beyond just this. There’s people who need to hear what you have to say musically. This is not normal stuff. It’s really amazing what you’re doing. I think you have it all. I do. And the question to you is, “What do you want?” I’m in that position, to put you wherever you want to be.
Ally: I…I don’t…I don’t have…I gotta talk to Jack.

Ally: He said that he thought Interscope Records might really wanna sign me. And he said that he has this wonderful studio with a beautiful live room and these amazing producers he wants to bring in to record my songs. And he loves Look What I’ve Found. Remember the song we did in the diner? Remember, when we were driving?
Jack: Yeah.
Ally: Yeah? I mean, it was so nice talking to him, and he really believes in me.
[Jack falls to the floor in a drunken stupor]
Woman: You all right, Jack?
Ally: He’s OK. He’s fine. He does this all the time.

Ally: Hey, Jack. What’s going on? Hm? What are you doing?
[Jack smears cream cheese up and down her face]
Ally: Oh. You jealous fuck.

Rez: What happened with the dancers there?
Ally: I just thought that I should do it alone cos it’s so overwhelming.
Rez: OK, but you can’t go rogue on me. You have to understand that this is what I do and you have to trust me, OK? So, if I give you a couple of dancers, don’t not use them and then miss a couple of steps, OK? We also have to change your hair. We have to change the colour of your hair.
Ally: What’s wrong with my hair?
Rez: I’m thinking platinum, or…
Ally: I don’t wanna be fucking blonde. I am who I am, and I’m worried about Jack.[/b]

The part where the show becomes a business.

[b]George: She’s good, bro.
Jack: I know.
George: Maybe she’s a way out. Ain’t nothing to be afraid of, bro. You know, it’s like… I don’t know… You… You float out… float out at sea, and then… one day, you find a port, say, “I’m gonna stay here for a few days.” A few days becomes a few years. And then you forgot where you were goin’ in the first place. And then you realise you don’t really give a shit about where you was going, cos you like where you’re at. That’s how it is for me.

Rez: You. SNL. Alec Baldwin hosting.
Ally: Did you get it?
Rez: Season finale.

Jack: Listen, if I just don’t say this, I’ll never forgive myself.
Ally: What?
Jack: If you don’t dig deep in your fucking soul…you won’t have legs. I’m just telling you that. You don’t tell the truth out there, you’re fucked. All you got is you, and what you wanna say to people. They are listening now. They’re not gonna be listening forever. Trust me. So you gotta grab it. And you don’t apologise, you don’t worry about why they’re listening or how long they’re gonna be listening, you just tell 'em what you wanna say.

Ally: You wanna be my drinking buddy? Wanna practise?
Jack: I don’t think you could handle it. Know why? Cos you’re too worried about what everybody else is thinking.
Ally: Here we go, Jack. You want me to be your dad? Be your drinking buddy?
Jack: Yeah, you couldn’t be my dad if you fucking tried. He had more talent in his finger than you have in your whole body. So don’t even fucking go there about that, all right? That’s over the fucking line.
Ally: Why don’t you have another drink and we can just get fucking drunk until we fucking disappear, OK? Do you got those pills?
Jack: You’re just fucking ugly, that’s all.
Ally: I’m what?
Jack: You’re just fucking ugly.
Ally: Get the fuck out! Get out! I said, get out!

Jack: What do you mean, they don’t want me to sing?
Bobby: They hired this fucking kid at the last minute. They didn’t tell me a fucking thing. Look, we’ve been on that other side before. More than once. Truth is, I didn’t deliver.
Jack: Well, it’s a good thing I know the… how to play the guitar. It’s fine, I’ll do it.
Bobby: You’re gonna do it?
Jack: Sure.

Ally: I thought he was supposed to be singing…oh, God!

Ally: I have figured out what I think is the best solution for both of us. Jack should come out on tour with me. We’ll start with our duets. I know he’s gonna be able - to play by himself. Rez: You realise that’s not an option.
Ally: He’s… He’s so inside of his art in a way he has never been. He can hear himself again.
Rez: Ally, there is no way that you can take Jack on tour with you. There’s no way. Do you understand what I’m saying?
Ally: If you can’t make that happen, then fucking cancel the tour.

Jack [to Bobby]: Hey, you know…when I…when I said I…you know, when I took your voice, you know. It was you I idolised. It wasn’t Dad.

Rez [to Jack]: We’re not exactly friends here. While you’ve been away, we’ve been back here in serious triage, trying to clean up your fucking mess. Barely finding our way through it. You almost single-handedly derailed her whole career. You understand that? She’s never gonna say this to you. She loves you too much. Just by staying married to you, she looks like a joke. It’s embarrassing. Let’s be honest, we both know it’s only a matter of time before that’s pushed aside again for the real thing. And when that happens…I don’t want her anywhere near you.

Jack: Hey.
Ally: What?
Jack: I just wanted to take another look at you.

Bobby: Some kid started singing one of his songs in a bar I was in the other night. They’re playing his songs everywhere. At first I got angry. I don’t know why. I guess I felt like…“How can any of these people feel like they knew him?” Who he really was. But then something changed. And it soothed me. That it wasn’t…wasn’t all for fucking nothing.
Ally: The last thing I did was lie to him.
Bobby: Listen to me. It isn’t your fault. It just isn’t. You know whose fault it was? Jack. That’s it. No-one else. Not you, not me. No-one but Jack.

Bobby: Jack talked about how music is essentially 12 notes between any octave. 12 notes and the octave repeats. It’s the same story. Told over and over. Forever. All any artist can offer the world… is how they see those 12 notes. That’s it. Hm. He loved how you see them. He just kept saying…“I love how she sees them, Bobby.”[/b]

Annie is the “long suffering” girlfriend of Duncan. She begins a “trans-Atlantic romance” with “once revered, now faded, singer-songwriter” Tucker. Meanwhile Tucker has become the “musical obsession” of Duncan.

Yes, another “romantic comedy” about a life-changing rendezvous with second chances. In other words, the first relationship is kaput. But here is a chance to rebound into a new relationship. One that might even actually last. Meanwhile, we’re in the audience sizing these people up. What we want is to be able to identify with at least one of them so that we can at least root for one or the other relationship.

Now, it’s a comedy so we expect to find reasons to actually laugh. But are these people worth investing two hours of your life emotionally? Are the parts that are anything but laughing matters worth committing to? Well, as one IMDb reviwer put it, “[t]he jokes are subtle, clever, original” with “[c]onvincing acting, real characters, none of that fake, plastic Hollywood thing.”

That works for me.

And, let’s face it, when it comes to musicians and fans, there is no predicting what might tumble out of peoples mouths. Or what they might actually be inclined to do. Some people take their music very, very seriously. And this is based on a novel from Nick “High Fidelity” Hornby.

Then the part that revolves around the gap between what the fan[atic] thinks about a legendary rock musician and what the musician himself thinks about that. After all, imagine how embarrassing that can be.

IMDb

[b]The film involves musicians and fans. In real life, the director of the film Jesse Peretz is also a musician.

In Duncan’s final video (during the credits), there is a copy of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest behind him. First, that novel inspires a number of fans who are as obsessed with Foster Wallace as Duncan is with Tucker Crowe. Second, those obsessed fans are often youngish to middle-aged men, much like Duncan.

According to an interview with Yahoo program Build, during filming, Rose Byrne cut one of her index fingers clean off with a blender. It had to be surgically reattached.[/b]

at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juliet,Naked(film
trailer: youtu.be/oMjSNkAaABs

Juliet, Naked [2018]
Directed by Jesse Peretz

[b]The backstory :

Duncan [videoblogging]: Hello, welcome to Can You Hear Me? Your source for all things Tucker Crowe. If you’re here, you’re probably already a fan of Tucker’s music, but if you’re merely Crowe-curious or you clicked on the link by accident, allow me introduce you to one of the most seminal and yet unsung figures of alternative rock. Although Tucker started writing songs in his early teens, his real breakthrough was the release of the 1993 album Juliet. It earned respectable college radio play, but was vastly underappreciated by the mainstream. On the list of Top Heartbreak Albums on RollingStone.com it comes only 43rd, which is a joke. Juliet, quite simply, is a masterpiece. Tucker wrote it after a whirlwind love affair with Julie Beatty, a model and fixture of the Los Angeles demimonde. The termination of their brief tryst simultaneously inspired him and crushed his soul. In June of that same year, 1993, Tucker played an engagement at the Pit Club in Minneapolis, United States, that would prove to be his final show. Last seen exiting the men’s toilets after his first set, Tucker abruptly canceled all future shows, and has never performed publicly again. This snapshot, taken in 2014, is purported to be of Tucker on his sheep farm in Pennsylvania, although there is quite a lot of debate as to its authenticity. The true whereabouts and creative endeavors of Mr. Crowe remain a mystery. Be sure to click on the Mystery link of the side of the page.[/b]

Or, rather, Duncan’s version of it.

[b]Annie [voiceover]: Duncan’s own obsessions dominate my life. And it’s become clear that all along, he’s been in love with another man. Not like that, but in an equally consuming and, quite frankly, really bothersome way. He is the ringleader of a community of 200 middle-aged men who gather together to obsessively deconstruct their hero’s music and attempt to crack his mysteries.

Carly: So, do you guys have kids?
Annie: Oh, no, they’re against Duncan’s religion.
Ros: She’s joking.
Duncan: She’s not, actually. Annie and I decided a long, long time ago, that babies weren’t our jam. The important thing is, we’re happy where we are. I mean, who wants to bring kids into this bloody world?
Annie: Fuck kids.
Duncan: You know? Right?
Annie: Fuck them.[/b]

Annie wants kids

[b]Gina: So, that Greek tragedy thing…?
Duncan: Right. Yeah…I guess my point was that these characters, they’re already bound to their fate. Like Antigone.
Gina: Wow.
Duncan: Or Medea.
Gina: So I have to read Antigone to understand The Wire?
Duncan: Not strictly speaking, but it wouldn’t hurt.

Gina: Okay, I’m going to sound like a wanker, but I’m going to say it anyway. I believe in the power of art. I believe that creativity can change people’s lives.
Duncan: That’s fucking refreshing. I just…I hope you haven’t come to the wrong place.
Gina: Why?
Duncan: The next Bob Dylan could be playing up there, these people wouldn’t look up from their fucking sudoku.

Annie [about new music from Tucker]: I should have warned you that it was so dreary. I didn’t say anything.
Duncan: Dreary?
Annie: Yeah. I mean, I suppose it’s interesting if you’ve heard the finished version, but… What did you think?
Duncan: What did I think? I think it’s a bloody masterpiece, Annie. Dreary? You can’t be serious. Oh, what else is dreary according to you? The Sopranos? Hamlet? Jeez Louise. This is history, Annie. I’m going to write it.
Annie: It is not history, it’s boring versions of songs that you’ve heard a million times before.
Duncan: Oh, my God, you think that’s what this is? This is big for me, that this has happened. And I just don’t want to spend my time in the aftermath of this new information with someone who doesn’t get it. I want to spend it with people who do.

Duncan: 158. Oh, somebody new. This is a long one. “Relic Master” they go by. They claim to have already heard the album. I doubt that. Let’s see what they…“Juliet, Naked is naked all right. A naked attempt to squeeze a few more quid out of a long-dead career.” Sounds like you and he would get along swimmingly.
Annie: She.
Duncan: No, I seriously doubt it’s a woman. We don’t get a lot of lady visitors.
Annie: Well, it is.

Tucker [voiceover from an email to Annie]: Bingo. You nailed it. I couldn’t have explained it better myself. All good things, Tucker Crowe. P.S., the folks on that website, they seem pretty weird, so I’d be grateful if you didn’t pass on the address. Thanks.

Tucker [voiceover from email to Annie]: Yes, it is really me. Although, I can’t think of a real way of proving it to you. How about this…I didn’t see the face of God in a Minneapolis toilet bowl. I haven’t been secretly making R&B albums with Lauryn Hill. I don’t have 200 hours’ worth of material locked in a shed, contrary to what your friends on the website may think. In fact, my guitar hasn’t been out of its case for years. I currently live in the garage behind the house where my son Jackson lives with my ex."

Tucker [voiceover in text to Annie]: What to do if you’ve wasted 15 years of your life? All right, first off, you have to whittle that number down. Subtract all the time spent reading good books, having enjoyable conversations and sleeping, because those are important things. And you should be able to bring that squandered time down to more like 10, and anything under a decade you’re allowed to write off for tax purposes. That’s a joke.

Annie [voiceover in email to Tucker]: My dad died when Ros was only 12, and we’d already lost our mom. So it was just the two of us. By the time my boyfriend and I moved in together, I’d had my share of parenting. Or so I thought. Now, with irritating predictability, I’ve started aching for a child, for all the usual reasons, like wanting to feel unconditional love, as opposed to faint, conditional affection.

Tucker [voiceover in email to Annie]: I’m sorry about that ache. I wish I knew the thing to say. I don’t imagine this is much of a consolation, but I’ve brought a lot of kids into the world, and most of them are just reminders of how I’ve blown it in that department. Sometimes my life looks like an endless streak of staring responsibility directly in the eye, and then running the other way.

Duncan: Hey, how do you even know about Grace?
Lizzie [daughter]: You let it slip to Mom back when you were in love and X-ing or something.
Duncan: Look, I realize it’s an unforgivable chapter of my life, but I’m hoping not to be judged by that alone, okay?
Lizzie: Okay.[/b]

The mysterious Grace.

[b]Annie [voiceover]: Tucker. I’ve just read through this thread and I’ve realized I’ve been sharing thoughts I’ve never said aloud to anybody. That’s not a good sign, is it? I mean, maybe it is, but I’ve told my boyfriend nothing of our little email affair. It’s like I’m dabbling in betrayal.

Ros: You already fancy someone, don’t you? Come on, cough it up. Who is it?
Annie: It’s nobody. It’s just…well, I did…I met someone on the Internet.
Ros: I love it. The Internet. God, you’re finally entering the modern age. Which site was it? One for clever people, no doubt. HornierStories.com?
Annie: Duncan’s website.
Ros: Another Tucker Crowe loser? Oh, Jesus, Annie, are you mental?
Annie: No, it’s weirder than that. It’s actually Tucker Crowe.
Ros: No, it’s not.
Annie: I’m not kidding.
Ros: Tucker Crowe. As in, Duncan’s idol Tucker Crowe.
Annie: Yes. What happened was he read that review I posted.
Ros: This is that syndrome.
Annie: What syndrome?
Ros: Where someone falls in love with their captor.

Tucker [voiceover in email to Annie]: Big news. I’m coming to London.

Annie [on phone]: Hello?
Duncan: Hi, it’s Tucker.
Annie: I’m dying to hear your excuse.
Duncan: Well, it’s…it’s pretty good. Um…I had a heart attack.

Duncan [to Lizzie and Zak]: Annie’s my friend from England. We were supposed to hook up yesterday, but then that didn’t go so well.
Annie: We don’t even know each other…
Duncan: Well, we know each other. We met on a website.
Lizzie: A website?
Annie: Not that kind of website.

Annie [on phone]: It was silly of me to have come. I don’t know what I was thinking.
Duncan: No, it was kind of you to come. Look… one of the big problems with screwing up the first half of your life is, you know, try as you might, you can’t press reset, you know? I mean, I…I can’t get to zero, you know? And I was just wondering if you would…if we could try this one more time again tomorrow?
Annie: Are they still there, your ex-girlfriends? They were very nice.
Duncan: No, no, everybody’s gone. Everybody except Jackson, says Jackson. Here he is. He wants to talk to you.
Jackson: Hi, Annie. I found out what a catheter is.

Tucker: Waterloo station, Jackson. Most famous spot in all of London.
Jackson: Really?
Tucker: For real. I mean, if you’re a Kinks fan.

Annie [after Tucker stumbles into Duncan’s shrine to him]: I can explain this.
Duncan: “Maxwell’s, '89, Bar Astro-Dusseldorf”. Did I play at Dusseldorf?
Annie: It’s not what it looks like. I can explain.
Duncan [pointing to a photograph]: That’s me and my high school chess club.
Annie: Really?
Duncan: Yeah.
Annie: I can explain this to you. I know this looks weird. Remember the review on the website? And the guy…it was a really over-the-top review, and you called him like a sad-sack blogger.
Tucker: Oh, Duncan-something?
Annie: Yes! God. Oh, my God, if he knew that you knew his name…
Tucker: So, that guy is the guy. Oh, that’s your 15 years of…
Annie: Yes! Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Bingo. That’s it. That’s it. And this is his room… shrine… temple where he lives and worships you.

Annie: This is Duncan. Duncan Thomson.
Tucker [shaking Duncan’s hand]: Tucker Crowe.
Annie: That’s what I was trying to tell you.
Duncan: And I’m Stevie fucking Wonder. Who do you want to be? Eartha fucking Kitt?

Duncan: If she wants to make a sad spectacle of herself around town by hanging out with some guy old enough to be her father, that’s her business. But mocking me by dragging Tucker into it is just embarrassing.
Gina: She was obviously just trying to wind you up.
Duncan: I know for a fact that there is no son. There were rumors of a daughter w ith a Swedish princess or potentially her cousin, but there’s zero online chatter of a son.
Gina: Did it look like Tucker Crowe?
Duncan: No. God no.
[he looks at a photograph of a much younger Tucker Crowe]
Duncan: Not entirely. Fuck.

Annie: Can I ask you, what’s the deal with Grace?
Tucker: What do you mean?
Annie: Why does her name bother you and the others don’t?
Tucker: It doesn’t bother me. I…I’ve never even met her.
Annie: How’s that possible?

Duncan: There is a possibility that maybe I owe you an apology.
Tucker: Well, when will you know for sure?
Duncan: It occurs to me that there’s no reason for you to claim that you are…he if you were not…he.
Tucker: Well, that’s a start.
Duncan: It’s just… I can’t be certain, you know?
Tucker: Well, I have a passport.

Duncan: I’m sure Annie’s told you, but I am a great admirer of your work, so…
Tucker: Cool.
Duncan: I don’t think that I would be overstating the case to suggest that I am something of a world expert.
Tucker: I’ve read your stuff. It’s…
Duncan: Okay. Wow. You can tell me where I’ve gone wrong.
Tucker: I wouldn’t know where to start.

Duncan [after droning on and on about what he thinks he knows about Tucker]: I know the whole thing left you shattered. And I just want you to know that from that death was born a seminal masterwork.
Tucker: Oh, God, a masterwork?
Duncan: I don’t use that word lightly, sir.
Tucker: All right, I was being really nice, okay? But it’s clear that you don’t know shit.
Duncan: Hey, am a I fan? Guilty as charged. Okay, yes. Am I a little overzealous in my quest for the truth?
Tucker: Listen, man, if you can’t realize that Juliet is a piece of shit…
Duncan: Don’t say that.
Tucker: Yeah, it is.
Duncan: You don’t mean that.

Duncan: Maybe my review of your demos wasn’t exactly correct, but that original album, Tucker? Do you have any idea how much that touches us? How much that has meant to me my whole life? The honesty in your words…
Tucker: Would you stop! It’s not worth the effort.
Duncan: It is to me.

Duncan [getting up to leave]: I’m going to go. I’m going to…This feels like a mistake.
[he walks to the door then stops and turns around]
Duncan: Just one final thing. I think that people like you, people with real talent, you don’t value it because it comes naturally to you. And we never value things that we…that come easily. But I value that album more than maybe anything I’ve ever heard. Not because it’s perfect, but because of what it means to me. Ultimately, I don’t give a shit what it means to you. Art isn’t for the artist no more than water is for the bloody plumber. But thank you. I really, really enjoyed it.

Tucker: Last time I played a show I didn’t even finish it. I was at this club called The Pit, and in between sets I went to the bathroom. And then my ex walks in the door. Julie. She’s holding this baby. And I… and I acted all confused, as if, after we broke up, a million people hadn’t called and told me that she was pregnant, you know? As if her brother hadn’t cursed me out the day the child was born. But she… she held out this little girl and said, you know, “Don’t you want to look at her?”
Annie: Grace?
Tucker: Yeah. Grace. And I looked at her. And then Julie said something, you know, that I didn’t hear. Like, she said… she said something to me about the baby bottle, or she forgot her bag or something. I thought that she was abandoning the child with me. You know? And I just panicked. And I wanted to follow after her, but I… I didn’t think that I could walk out of this club with this baby. There’s all these people out there. So, I…I set Grace down. And then I walked out. I went into the parking lot, and I could hear everybody calling for me, but I… I didn’t go back. And then I couldn’t play any of those songs anymore, you know? After that, I just…I couldn’t play these insipid, self-pitying songs about Julie breaking my heart. You know, they were a joke. And before I know it, a couple of decades have gone by and some doctor hands me…hands me Jackson. I hold him, you know, and I look at him. And I know that this boy…is my last chance.

Tucker [on phone]: Uh, is this Grace?
Grace: Speaking.
Tucker: This is Tucker Crowe.
Grace: Okay. And this is regarding…?

Tucker [on phone]: Listen, I’m sorry for calling you out of the blue but…
Grace: Look, as I said to Lizzie, I have a father already.
Tucker: Oh. Okay. Yeah, right. No, I understand. It’s just, when you say that, do you mean… Do you mean biologically, or…?
Grace: I’m not sure of the distinction you’re making.
Tucker: Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. Right.
Grace: Whatever it is you’re trying to work out, good luck. But it’s just not going to involve me.
Tucker: Yes. Absolutely. I understand. Thank you.
[Grace hangs up]

Annie: Tucker, I was…It’s silly.
Tucker: What is it?
Annie: What? I was wondering if you would be…if you’d be interested?
Tucker: What do you mean…?
Annie: I’m sorry. In me.
Tucker: In you? In you? What…how?
An nie: Oh, I mean, I…sexually.
Tucker: What do you mean? Like, here? Like right now?
Annie: Oh, no, no. I meant…in the future, later.
Tucker: Yes, definitely. I’m extremely interested.

Annie [to Duncan]: We broke up for a reason…You slept with somebody else because she had the correct response to an album.

Annie [voiceover]: Dear Tucker…I did receive your emails. Congratulations on getting your own place. I’m so sorry that I haven’t replied sooner. I’ve just…I’ve been dealing with some really big life decisions. I moved to London, where I’m house-sitting for a friend of a friend, and I landed a job at a cool, little gallery. Somehow, the world just suddenly feels alive with possibility. I’ve also been seriously considering having a baby on my own. Last week, I finally gathered the nerve to go to a clinic and actually start the process. It’s mental, right? Anyway, nothing’s for certain, but whatever happens I feel I’ll be all right. I can’t believe Lizzie’s boy is already a year old. She must be thrilled you’re coming to visit. If you’d like to steal away for a cup of coffee, it’d be great to see you and catch up. I’d actually love that.

Duncan [voiceover as the end credits roll]: Apologies for my prolonged absence. I have been working through the news at hand and formulating an opinion with the care and judiciousness I believe the moment calls for. I’m speaking, of course, of the fact that Tucker has a new album. It’s called So Where Was I? It’s his first release of new material in 25 years. What is my verdict? Well, to quote another critic: “What is this shite?” We have a song about the pleasures of reading in the afternoon. We have a song about homegrown green beans. There’s a little ditty expounding the joys of being a stepfather. I mean, in short, we have a tragedy. And there’s a drum machine. There’s a drum machine on a Tucker Crowe album. I mean, what the fuck? You may ask, as I did, what caused Tucker to produce this cloying, bloodless, catastrophe? Well, reportedly, Tucker has found love. And I am here to tell you, my friends, it doesn’t suit him.[/b]