Tag: In and Of Itself

June 12, 2023

Love and Death: Crave through HBO Max is retelling the true story of Candy Montgomery, a small town housewife in rural Texas town, was accused of killing her friend and the wife of the man with which she had had an affair. Played by Elisabeth Olsen, this is another version of the same story that was starring Jessica Biel called Candy back in 2022. In this version Olsen is joined with fellow cast, Jesse Plemons, Patrick Fugit (from Almost Famous) and Elizabeth Marvel who was also in Mrs Davis recently. It is seven episodes so about a seven hour commitment.

This story, created by TV guy David E. Kelley from LA Law, Chicago Hope and Ally McBeal.

Without giving too much away, this 1980 case shows the characters involved, in this small religious town with the two families who knew each other very well. They went to the same church, they had the same friends, and sang in the church choir. Candy and her husband, with two young children, were not very well connected. She was bored. Her husband didn’t pay much attention to her, and would rather focus on network TV comedy shows. She noticed another choir member Allan Gore played by Jesse Plemons. She waited for Allan one night after choir to tell her of her intentions of wanting a relationship. It ensues rather clumsily, but certainly well planned. Allan’s wife, in this story is lacking in confidence and a little uncertain when her husband heads away on frequent business trips. The story continues and then gets into a court room drama with some colourful legal characters. Notable is the local lawyer, played by Tom Pelphrey, who ends up representing the accused, Candy but isn’t a criminal lawyer.

I think that those involved do a credible job of bringing forward this story. The lawyer in me had plenty of questions about the actions of the characters, more especially Candy in all that she does. Back in the day, legal defense work relied, it appeared, on lie detector tests, as well as hypnotizing the accused to better understand their defense. It flies in the face of traditional criminal defense work where you didn’t want to know whether the accused was guilty or not. But it was interesting the strategy involved, where a lot of the defense exercise was to position your client in the media (in that day on the TV and newspapers).

If you know the story or google it, you will learn what the result is. The post-script tells what happen to a number of the principal characters after it ended. Some are more surprising than others. Is it compelling TV that is something to watch? Sometimes. I like Elizabeth Olsen and think that she takes on good roles for her. I can ignore the superhero stuff, which for her is hard to do, but liked what she did in Wind River. I still marvel at the hypocrisy of these small towns and their strong religious beliefs all the while having the extra-marital affairs and justifying the killing. If you like a court room drama and are interested in real life crime, then this could be a story for you. Two separate TV stories about the fact situation would suggest that there is a demand for this story.

In and Of Itself: I rewatched this 2020 film which was the taping of a number of performances of this off-Broadway play with Derek Delgaudio.

Having re-watched it, I am still struggling to describe it accurately. It is a number of different things all packed together. It is magic, it is story telling, it is illusion, it is card tricks among other things. It is also interactive with its audience. But more importantly for me upon second view is that it has emotional impact. Both for him, but also for his audience members who he invites on stage. Random encounters that are impactful on both participant and performer. I won’t say more than that. But I think it is about being seen. It is about reflecting back how others perceive you, but why? Is that it? Is that the sum of us all? I think that there are really good obervations of people and how we interact. I recommend this highly. I saw it was available on Hulu, it was on YouTube and was on PLEX for me. If you can find it, have a viewing.

September 27, 2021

In and Of Itself: Back on Feb 1st I reviewed this movie directed by Frank Oz. I re-watched it again as it was just released on Crave. I enjoyed it thoroughly once again. It is a one man show from a guy named Derek DelGaudio. It is hard to describe it in a single word really. It is part philosophy, part illusion, part parlour trick and altogether interesting. I won’t describe it further because it bears viewing with fresh eyes. So if you haven’t seen it, check it out.

Scenes From A Marriage (Episode 3): This show is on weekly at present. Once again it stars Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac. Both are very good in it. It is slow. It can be painful. The character that Jessica plays, for me, is one that is becoming less and less admirable. That likely isn’t a desired trait, or perhaps reflects exactly what the producers had intended; not all people act admirably. So this can be a mirror to what people experience. Episodes one and two have the changes within this marriage beginning. They have been together for quite some time, and she had some news which resulted in a particular direction. Then, once again, she had in episode two after some passage of time some more news that she wanted to bring to her husband. This episode is really a continuation of that news after some time has passed. It is a tough position for the husband to play in this context. Isaac plays it very well. He has been in reactive mode, trying to adjust his life. He has also sought out to evaluate himself and his contribution to the recent happenings. After all there are always two people in any relationship and rarely it would be solely one person who is making decisions in a vacuum. There were moments here that I was actively cringing and speaking aloud for the husband to choose a different path. If you are watching this, you will know when I mean. I will continue to watch.

Last Week Tonight: This ongoing series from John Oliver is always fun for me. The host makes interesting commentary on the news of the day, then has segments of other items of interest. It is done with humour, but also a critical eye. His news item this week was addressing the refugees seeking to enter the US from Haiti and how they have been turned back. At times forcibly with border agents on horseback. His other segment was on Voting Rights and how certain States (mostly red Republican States) are putting forth legislation to limit the ability to vote or at least curtail its availability. Mail-in voting, specific ID requirements etc. are being put forth which can have a disproportionate impact on the non-white voters. There isn’t much of a surprise there, but it is an effort that President Biden isn’t really taking too seriously. Finally he did a segment on Duck Stamps, which was quite funny. These are stamps that are generally sold to hunters, but also collectors. 97% of the proceeds is used to save wildlife habitation and during its life, has raised over $1B. Each year a team selects the art to be chosen from a list of entries. John’s team entered a number of suggestions.

Here is one of them (note the dog from Nintendo’s Duck Hunt in the back):

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver "Duck Hunt" by Eric Joyner | eBay
Last Week Tonight Failed Entry for 2022 Duck Stamp now up for auction

All his entries failed to get consideration from the judges, but he is now auctioning them off with all contributions going to the charity. It was all very funny. In the same way as his purchase of Russell Crowe’s divorce movie paraphernalia or having Danbury CT name their waste management plant in his name. Enjoy!