May 29th, 2023

Whitney Houston: I Want To Dance With Somebody: We lost a legendary voice this week when Tina Turner passed at the age of 83yo. She had battled a long series of illnesses including a kidney replacement. This news made me revisit the shortened life of another legendary voice, Whitney Houston. Say what you want about whether you liked her songs, there was no denying the quality of her voice. Born into a singing family, where her Aunt was Dionne Warwick and Godmother was Aretha Franklin. Sadly we all know how this ends, and we can see the steps that slowly brought this upon the pop superstar, and make no mistake that she was a superstar.

For this movie, the performance of the lead will begin and end how the audience accepts it. Naomi Ackie plays Whitney really well. According to news sources, she doesn’t do most of the singing in the movie. That was Whitney’s voice mostly. But the songs were of course well done. I imagine that the Music Director, may have done as in Amadeus, with Sir Neville Marriner at St Martin In The Fields, said I will do the music ONLY if you don’t change a single note. This must be an intimidating role for anyone to take on. Whitney Houston has a range of singing, and a story that most people know pretty well. We know about Bobbi Brown and that influence that he brought into her life. A life of excess and drugs where the money generated just seems to disappear, whether in the hands of her father or others. She battled her father according to this movie all the way to him to his grave.

Some things that were highlighted which I had no idea about included her relationship with her best friend, Robyn Crawford. I also didn’t realize that it was Kevin Costner who made the suggestion for The Bodyguard, for her to sing Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You”. He made a brilliant choice as well for her to sing the acapella for the introduction of the song. Life is about choices though, and for whatever reasons that she had, Whitney made choices that weren’t always in her best interest. From smoking, to the drugs, to her relationships, it seems that being someone who isn’t your own authentic self (as you see it) tends to lead to some destructive behaviour. The world lost a great talent far too soon. Like so many before her, there was something missing, and a void that could not be filled with earthly experiences. In the end, like Jim Morrison before her she perished in a bathtub. In her system was cocaine, and she had heart disease. But add her name to artists like Prince, Tom Petty, Judy Garland, Sam Cooke, Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin and the list goes on and on. Whitney died at age 48, on Feb 11, 2012 a night before the Grammy’s were to take place.

Did I need to see this movie? It didn’t suck. I learned a little and revisited some songs that she performed. It is a story of excess for someone with a talent who was undeniable. Maybe the candles that burn the brightest, burn out the soonest. I would like to think that Whitney could have matched Tina Turner and reached her 80s, and shared her gift for longer. There is no doubt that Tina would have also lived an extraordinary life, but one with all the trappings of fame and success. They are both missed. Their voices will carry on long after I am gone and most of us.

Succession The Final Season: The final episode was last night. I have to admit then when I began watching this episode I wasn’t sure which of the offspring of Logan Roy would survive. I regarded this series as a tragedy, and that with the King lacking a formal succession plan and their being a potential acquisition in play that we would see the true colours of the adult children, Kendall, Shiv and Roman.

So things, as expected are coming to a head. A board meeting is to take place where the fate of the empire, Daddy’s company, is going to be decided. The parties involved are gathering their respective teams for the big vote. On the one side you have those trying to keep the company in the hands of the family, and in the other the European team looking to acquire it. This has been the basis for the entire final season. Within that parameter, the fight lines have been drawn. As things proceed the respective family members talk, and argue and figure out what their plan of action is, sprearheaded by Ken. Shiv is a survivor and is planning her own strategy. Roman and Ken each have ideas that they should be the heir to the throne. As mentioned in an earlier post, bearded brother Con, is treated as Fredo and not actively involved in the activities. Things play out to a meeting of the board about the acquisition. The vote is extremely close. Then things change in a way that could be predicted but in a satisfying way.

Unlike Game of Thrones, this popular series is ending on a positive note. An appropriate ending for those involved. Parties who have been involved in other seasons, show up from time to time to impact the plot. It seems that a reliance on a family that is dysfunctional can be at best unreliable. Changes come from places that were expected for those involved. Those who the audience had thought were in a precarious position can have their fortunes changed quickly in meetings that take place throughout. “Those who would be last, can be first….and those who would be first, would be last”. Needless to say the Roy family Christmas gathering would be an interesting affair when all is said and done. I think that this has been an excellent series, well written and acted. It was profane. It had some great laughs and soundbites. In the end, I am glad that I watched it. Well worth your time.

Adding a Jurassic Park Easter Egg: One of the things about multiple viewings of the same movie is that rather than focusing on the plot and the big things happening that you can see more of the detail. For moviegoers many people call these Easter Eggs, and I just noticed one for a film that I have seen many times.

It is the scene where Dennis Nedry is sitting at his workstation and having a conversation with John Hammond about his doing the code for the Park and automating it for a small amount of money. Hammon says that “I don’t blame people for their mistakes, but I do ask for them to pay for them”. On the screen on Nedry’s screen there is a live stream of the movie Jaws taking place during one of the scenes where the shark is making its entrance to the men aboard the Orca. I just noticed this, and it was a nice shout out to Spielberg’s earlier blockbuster.

May 22, 2023 (Victoria Day)

Mrs. Davis: I introduced this series back a couple of weeks ago when I started watching it. Now I have completed the season. For me this was quirky fun, with a fantastical story with more religious undertones than had initial expected. That shouldn’t really be too surprising since the main picture for the series shows Betty Gilpin in full habit. Still, it goes much deeper on this front than I ever expected.

The story is just as much fable as it is anything else. It lives on a couple of plains of existence, but the producers seem to make that work. There is some very clever writing. The writing has the plot have characters introduced and scenarios which at first seem to be unimportant, and then more explanation will be provided which brings context to the earlier reference. So you have to pay attention. All of this doesn’t work of course if you don’t relate to the principal character, and her plight. You need to care and want for her to succeed. Played by Betty Gilpin she has very good comic timing and her looks reveal much when she says nothing. She comes from a complicated background in the story with her parents. Dad is a magician, while Mom was a skeptical partner forced into a life that she really didn’t want.

There are themes about family, love, religion, faith, technology and the dependence of people on it, political resistence, acceptance, mothers and daughters among others. That covers quite a broad spectrum of the human experience. I enjoyed it. I laughed out loud a number of times, and openly wondered how they were going to film one aspect of the quest for Simone/Elizabeth. It appears that there are no plans for there to be a Season 2, so this is a one-shot deal. Enjoy it for what it is.

Succession: Last night was the second last episode before the conclusion of the series. It seems odd to writing about this almost weekly, but it has been a fascinating season. The focus has become the ongoing saga of this high profile acquisition of Waystar, along with the four adult children of media mogul Logan Roy. This episode is no exception, as we see each of the siblings act and react to the emotional plot as it unfolds. In many ways, this is the first time that they are showing any real emotion, which is a bit of a surprise. I can’t reveal too much as this is something to watch and experience fresh.

For me, one of the more compelling aspects of this very watchable, and well acted series is the interaction between married couple Tom and Shiv. In the past couple of episodes there have been revealing, truthful. honest moments with real pain between the two of them. Of the four siblings, this is the most complex relationship among two more-or-less capable people. Kendall is divorced and his strained relationship with his Ex doesn’t improve. Roman has his own challenges, and finally Connor Roy has always been relegated to Fredo Corleone status from The Godfather. It is an apt description since in many ways he isn’t as strong intellectually as the others, and even his wedding was a backburner celebration that none of the principal players took seriously. In truth, there was good reason for it, and if you’re curious you have to watch the series.

I thoroughly enjoy this, and I can only expect a little bit elongated last and final episode next sunday. Like Game of Thrones, it will be sad to see this go. I admit that I liked Game of Thrones MUCH more, without a doubt, but this has been quality TV from the start.

May 15th, 2023

I was off last week enjoying some time away in Europe, my happy place with a really good biddy from Germany. We went to a bucket list place for me of Portugal. In short, it was excellent, and lived up to all expectations. I would return to Lisbon, Porto or the Algarve areas. I had the benefit of many YouTube contributtions but was indebted to Netflix for the Somebody Feed Phil series which had an entire episode on Lisbon. The highlight was the Pont Final restaurant right on a jetty on the ocean. It was a very good meal at an excellent location that was one of a kind for a sunny day in May.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: So what do you do as a movie executive if you have released a hit movie, with many sequels and spin offs possible, and then all of a sudden your star of the film in real life dies? It’s not an easy choice. So many ways that the decision can go badly for you. The executive team at Marvel dealt with this situation when the lead of the original, popular Black Panther, Chadwick Aaron Boseman, passed away at the age of 43.

He was a charismatic guy, and along with challenger Michael B Jordan made the original a very watchable superhero film. As I have said many a time, I am generally not a superhero movie guy and less-so the Marvel series. I don’t find many of them compelling, even when it was one of the early superhero movie with Spiderman.

So to answer the question, one of the choices is to accept and incorporate the death into the movie. This was done thoughtfully, respectfully and tastefully with a couple of nice collages within the movie. As for the plot, there is also an amount of time to mourn the lost hero, with the family and the community. But like all things in life, the only constant is change. People move on, and families move on. It doesn’t mean that they forget. Black Panther’s Mom played by Angela Bassett takes the crown back and acts as Queen. She has her hands full because it turns out that the rest of the known world to you and I want to get there hands on the exclusive “vibranium” (or so it was thought).

It seems someone has created a vibranium detector, and there are aggressive moves made by other countries to obtain the mineral from Wakanda by force. It fails. But then things happen which take the film in two different directions. One dealing with the maker of this detection machine and the other around a new, previously unknown mystery entity. I will leave the details to the movie itself. There is a significant threat to Wakanda and the leaders look to find a new protector for the people. Ultimately I won’t quibble with the choice made and how it proceeds forward. Of course as a superhero movie there are moments of disbelief. I think that the performances were generally good. I also think that the music helped a great deal to bring forth some of the emotion. It has a heart this film. For the guy who doesn’t like most superhero movies, I didn’t hate it.

Succession: Final Season: I am one week behind in watching Succession, meaning that the May 14th episode I didn’t see yet. I caught up on the May 7th episode which dealt with the election night. With the father gone, the adult children are showing their limitations and vulnerability. Scheming and turning on each other and the staff who remained at the top with their father. Randall and Roman deal with the potential new acquirer, Matsson. Meanwhile sister Shiv is playing both sides in her professional life and in her personal life with her husband Tom. There is some compelling TV to be seen here. I anxiously await to see how it turns out. Great writing, really good acting. My favourite line in the episode is from Matsson to Greg, who he earlier calls Gary. He says “I thought you were backwash at the bottom of the gene pool…”. Priceless!

April 10th, 2023

Succession – Final Season: Episode three. In the words of Alison as she texted me late Sunday night “Succession!” I think that about sums it up. For those of you who haven’t been watching this Emmy award winning series, the writing and acting have just been excellent. It is quite profane, but that is also part of the allure. There was intrigue building as the three adult children were looking to make a bid for a third party network that was in play, and Dad (with the help of other family members) was an opposing bidder. This was also the day for eldest adult child’s Connor’s wedding (the bearded one in the back, from the guy who played Ferris Bueller’s friend Cameron, and also the bus riding tourist in Speed).

The show’s latest episode has actually even made the mainstream news. I won’t say any more than that, but I will say that this has been a quality show from the beginning. A week ago I was spitballing ideas with Alison with her on how this final season was going to end and I am pretty proud of how prophetic it actually was. Relax, enjoy, let the drama unfold before you. This show may have been based loosely on the Rupert Murdoch family but I regard it as a Shakespearean tragedy, like King Lear.

Tetris: For those of you as old as I am, as well as those who enjoyed video games from back in the day when progress was being made away from “Pong” to more graphic ready devices, this movie may provide you with some background, which is way more involved and political then you could have ever imagined. For context as you watch this movie, Tetris was extremely popular and between the original release from 1989 for Nintendo and Game Boy handheld, and then later Electronic Arts has sold 143,000,000 copies, making it one of the top selling video games ever! This movie is also an Intellectual Property Lawyer’s dream, with the intrigue revolving around the license grant from the game’s creator, who happened to be Russian. For Nintendo and Game Boy this was the flagship app, which sold the device itself.

The intrigue involves the Russian government, which at the time was crumbling with the world watching and US President making pitches for Mikhail Gorbachev to “take this wall down”, referring to the Berlin Wall, but implying that the Soviet form of communism was teetering on destruction as well. Reagan was right. What this movie does well is showing the Russian government and the KGB minions are manipulating the situation with a successful video game with many interested suitors. Taron Egerton (formerly Elton John in Rocketman) plays Henk Rogers who is an American who sees the game at a trade show in Vegas and decides to purchase what he thinks are the Japanese rights to sell it for PCs and consoles. Henk learns however that the private deal between a London based rights purchaser and the sole Russian developer for $10,000 is in jeopardy. Very powerful people get involved, including now disgraced UK billionaire media mogul Robert Maxwell, and his son Kevin. Henk has mortgaged everything with his family in Japan and works diligently behind the scenes to craft the deal to support his own interests, despite not speaking any Russian. What becomes apparent is that the existing Russian government is scrambling to protect their own interests and believes the world is trying to steal their culture from under them. In hindsight it seems irrational, because there was a deal to be made to ensure that everyone could make a lot of money on this seemingly unimportant entertaining game. But they didn’t see it that way. So things unfold in ways expected and unexpected, but we all know as mentioned above that this became one of the top games of all time, and put Game Boys in the hands of millions of people. As a viewer we want to see that the young Russian developer and his wife and family were able to profit from his invention rather than those who decide to take what isn’t theirs. For me, this was entertaining because I lived through those years of playing the game and knowing the platforms on which it was played (Nintendo console, PC and the handheld). As a lawyer I am amazed at even in this instance where words matter and that if the grant isn’t made in the license (like handheld rights) then you don’t have them. Incidentally, Maxwell and his son are played out precisely as you would expect them to be played.

December 13, 2021

The Virtuoso: this is a typical hitman movie that stars Anthony Hopkins in the periphery. It stars Anson Mount in the title role with an otherwise forgettable supporting cast. I hadn’t seen Abbie Cornish since she played along side Russell Crowe in the 2006 A Good Year. This isn’t worth your time. I can readily say that. The story is fairly formulaic with the principal assassin being asked to take on a hit from a reclusive boss (Hopkins), but without being given much more than sketchy information. The assassin needs to figure it out and report back when the job is done. In this instance he needs to head to a small town. There he is given a time and place from which he must figure it out. Let the drama begin. I won’t delve further into the plot, because I would expect that a seasoned movie watcher will anticipate more than a few of the moves that take place. What may come as a surprise to some, won’t be for others. The acting was pedestrian for the most part. Hopkins gives one speech to the principal that tries to make this better than it is. Avoid it if you can.

The Way Back: Ben Affleck stars in what purports to be a basketball movie. In some ways it can mirror quite a bit from the much better 1986 Gene Hackman movie called Hoosiers. In that earlier story the disgraced coach is invited to a small Indiana town called Hickory that found itself coachless in a basketball crazed environment. He has a small team, and he works them hard. They come together. They learn and succeed. Hackman has a really good side story with the father of one of the players, who battles alcoholism, and another with a player that had the most skills. in this 2020 movie, Affleck plays a role that hits pretty close to his real life it would seem on the surface. I say that because the early part of the movie shows Affleck’s character working on a construction project with rebar, but dealing with an obvious alcohol problem. He drinks on the job, in the car and in his life. He is separated from his wife, and yet out of the blue he is called by his old high school looking for him to coach. Hackman’s disgrace was physically assaulting an active player in a game. Affleck’s character checked out as a superstar player for reasons that are explained later. Do I believe them? Not sure. For me, being offered a full scholarship at a top university would be the ticket away from parents (eg: if you live in LA, go to Villanova in Philadelphia or to Kentucky or Kansas). But I digress. Further details are revealed about his situation which are meant (I think) to tug at the heart strings, but they aren’t as effective. It feels like manipulation. This isn’t an uplifting story, quite the contrary. You would think that the title would suggest that there is redemption and to some extent it is there, but not in the way that you might anticipate. Again, this falls flat for me. I am not a big Affleck fan. This doesn’t change that fact at all. His is a character that struggles and can’t seem to turn a corner. Was there a feel good story for one of the young players? Yes, somewhat. In the end is it worth seeking out to see all the details for yourself? I can’t recommend it. There are other movies with coaches and sports involved that are more compelling and better all around.

Succession (Season 3): Sunday night was the last episode in Season three for the well reviewed and excellent Succession. The story of an older father figure, a media mogul worth his billions, with his senior staff and his children, who have their own challenges. Season 1 he had a health crisis. Season 2 there was the challenge by his second son Kendall. This season was a continuation of the Kendall challenges but also dealing with internal Board and adult child strife. The final episode was the wedding of the children’s mom, who had been divorced long ago to the father. Everyone descends to Tuscany in Italy for the wedding, all the while trying to put together a merger with a betting, online company on the rise from their newspaper and TV media empire. It is intriguing. Fun to watch. The writing is excellent throughout and despite the excessive use of profanity, it is clever and cutting. I laugh at least a couple of times an episode with what one of the characters say, usually Roman played by Kieran Culkin. Others chip in as well as the rats collectively turn on one another in a bid to try and get a step up on another of the rats. It’s all good fun as you can see how a group of adult children that could potentially be a formidable force if they chose to utilize their strengths and build a collective front seem incapable of working together and supporting one another. Logan Roy, the father, played expertly by Brian Cox shows time and again his resilience while navigating through the larger issues that seem never-ending for him. This was one of the best series of the past season. It is worth watching and binging.

November 29, 2021

Get Back: Peter Jackson a couple of years back did some work to take World War One film coverage and colour it, add sound and make it more relatable to today’s audiences and the result was the excellent They Shall Not Grow Old. He has turned his sites from New Zealand now into unseen raw coverage of a proposed documentary film for the Beatles in their writing new songs for what became the Let It Be album and the famous outdoor office roof performance from January 30th, 1969. I have not finished the series, three episodes and the first one is over two hours long. It chronicles the days leading up to the performance in early January 1969. I am forewarning viewers that this is a sizeable investment in time, watching the four members of the Beatles interact during rehearsals and early days. A couple of early observations: Paul seems to be the driving force to try and get the material completed, and come up with new ideas. His off-the-top guitar playing with rambling lyrics in a matter of minutes to ultimately begin the song Get Back is quite simply miraculous. I marvel at the creative process, and this is an excellent example of someone creating on the spot. I think generally Paul and John would work together on their own and bounce ideas off each other in their earlier days. Having a camera there to record everything is a little forced, but over time the guys tend to just be themselves. Some of the dialogue can be hard to hear and understand with the accents. Still it is compelling. I cannot see this early what Yoko Ono does on any level. She occupies a chair near John, but says nothing, sometimes reads or looks like she does some craft. She may have been emotional support for John, but creatively in this setting she does absolutely nothing. George is frustrated by this process, and you can see what eventually builds up to his departure from the band during this time. He is creative himself and talks about songs that he has developed but they all seem to be, in his words, much quieter songs. He seems angrier with Paul and he gripes about any show, and seems uneasy in his role as third wheel with Paul and John. He will “just play whatever [Paul] wants [him] to play”. Then Ringo is adding nothing creatively but has the daunting tasks of keeping up, and adding rhythm and beat for the songs being developed. John early on is fixated on working through the song “Don’t Let Me Down” and there is time spent trying to finalize that. For Beatles fans, this is a must see. For more casual fans, you can watch a creative process taking place in two weeks for writing an album that has iconic songs like Two of Us, Across the Universe, I’ve Got a Feeling, Long and Winding Road and of course Let It Be. Utterly remarkable.

Peter Jackson talks about John and Paul relationship – “how utterly painful this was for Paul”

Succession and The Crown: Discussion about how females are treated: I was re-watching the end of Season 3 of The Crown with the episode about the disintegration of Princess Margaret’s marriage to Anthony Armstrong-Jones but also the latest episode in Succession and the treatment of the women in these series. Margaret as the younger sister of Monarch Queen Elizabeth had plenty in her life impacted by the perceptions of how it will impact the Family and the Crown. She was unable to marry her true love Peter Townsend, who was divorced (because his wife cheated on him) because of the whole abdication of the Crown by Edward VIII. She has a tumultuous marriage with Mr Armstrong-Jones who openly is having an affair before the whole world, but no one seems to care about that, including her sister although she did encourage a reconciliation. But then Armstrong-Jones amazingly attacks Margaret for an affair with a younger man who has finally brought some happiness to her world. It seems her Family and her position will just not allow her to be happy. She wanted a meaningful role, in the same way that Phillip did and it just doesn’t come. The Queen is a strong character and develops into a force politically which many acknowledge in this third season, like Edward VIII himself when he was about to die. But Margaret is left to the sidelines to deal with her unfortunate station. In the latest episode in Season 3 of Succession, at Kendall’s birthday party, we see how Shiv is being turned aside in the family as Roman becomes more of the relied upon sibling to execute Dad’s wishes. Roman begins showing his true colours as he gains in confidence while Shiv becomes increasingly frustrated with her seemingly back seat role. Her husband, Tom, who has been fixated on his pre-determined path is given really good news, but he remains unable of moving forward. That marriage is an interesting one, and Shiv has seen her position relegated to secondary status. This season is fairly slow moving but it it brilliantly written with tremendous dialogue. Part of me thinks that the underlying premise is to explore how it seems first generations of wealthy families generate the money, and then the later generations fritter it all away. The story is not unlike the Vanderbilt story with Anderson Cooper just recently reviewed. But it is these female characters that in their time, Margaret was a completely different generation, while Shiv is more or less today, reveals that not much has changed for them and how they are viewed. Both women are extremely capable. Yet when the chips are down, it seems others are relied upon more directly. To be fair about Shiv, I don’t think that she did herself any favours by the events at the Shareholders Meeting. But ultimately we will see how it plays out. There are plenty of good things to be watching these days.

November 1st, 2021

Succession, Season 3: I have begun watching the latest installment of this dysfunctional family series. Dad is a media tycoon, and his children swirl around him like bees on a hive. He in Season1 had a health issue, that sent the kids scrambling. Then Season 2 had the one son end with a press conference that sent shock waves through the company. This season continues on with that story. I think that the writing here is brilliant, with the banter among the characters as first rate. Kieran Culkin (yes MacCauley’s brother) has some of the best lines as the wise cracking, do very little middle sibling. It’s fun. There is plenty of profanity, and it seems that they know very few words that aren’t profane at times. But there are some zingers. Each character is very different and not one of them is honest or willing to deal from the top of the deck with their Dad or each other. I will continue to watch.

Body Heat: When there are more obscure lists that are created about movies, Body Heat from 1981 with William Hurt and Kathleen Turner comes near the top in the category of “sweatiest movies”. Set in small town Florida, in the middle of a heat wave, the look and feel is one of steam rising from the buildings and streets. Characters cool themselves by standing in front of the refrigerator. The plot involves a sole practicing lawyer, who is not remarkable in any way professionally and is known by his friends as a guy who gets around. He sees the Kathleen Turner character at a local event, and chats her up. She quickly notes to him that she is married. But later in the same conversation is not so subtle in her interest in him. Played by Kathleen Turner, she dresses like she has seen Faye Dunaway in Network often.

Kathleen Turner felt 'objectified' by men after first big film role in Body Heat - The Irish News — Kathleen Turner meets and speaks to lawyer William Hurt

As he learns more, she is married, but he husband is away a lot. She lives in a massive place nearby. She begins to drop hints about how lonely she is. Hurt is happy to step right in. The two then plot to have the husband killed and solicit the assistance of a known arsonist, played by a young Mickey Rourke. Things happen and Hurt soon suspects that he is being manipulated, with indications for the slain husband’s murder that some fingers start pointing to him. His buddies, the local District Attorney (played by Ted Danson) and police detective are worried about him. Things progress and unravel for Hurt’s character, and we see just how deep it had become. This is a well acted adult story, with the intrigue in the plot of just how the end result could be reached. There are good supporting cast members and the chemistry between Turner and Hurt, crucial for a film like this, is there. This is on Crave but can likely be found in other streaming services. Well worth checking out.

Wendy: This is a 2020 film take on the classic Peter Pan story. In truth, I am not much of a follower of the Peter Pan story, and yet I can think of a bunch of movies that revolve around it that I have seen. Movies such as Pan, Hook with Robin Williams and Julia Roberts, Neverland with Johnny Depp, the Disney animated version and others. Of that listing I like Neverland the best. This one seems more fantasy based, with a intriguing use of a train that transports the children to another land.

Montserrat's St Patrick's Festival rolls out the Red Carpet for 'Wendy | Loop Cayman Islands — Peter Pan staying young forever

This interpretation wasn’t awful. The young actors playing the roles were very good throughout. Wendy herself played by Devin France is notably good. Beginning in a small diner, Wendy and her siblings are introduced. She has a Mom working hard to keep her customers satisfied, and she speaks about the children taking on this little business in time. The one boy has no interest in it and wants to be a pirate. One day after a quarrel with the adults, he strips off his pants and jumps on a passing train and disappears. After a time, Wendy and her twin brothers decide to take such a train themselves and meet up with a young black boy in a red jacket. Peter. Their adventure begins. There is backstory to explain Hook. There is further backstory to explain the lost boys. The young Wendy keeps your attention, and she is compelling. Still, I cannot recommend for those who aren’t avid Pan fans, if such a thing exists. Given the number of Pan related films there must be, and given the quality of the actors engaged in such projects. The underlying themes of staying young at heart, keeping active and avoiding the ruts of adulthood are well explored. Is it better to stay young forever while others around you are aging? Does aging necessarily mean that there is no more fun or adventure? Do the adults have to let their children go and lead their own lives, seek out their own dreams and place in the world? Time and again we have seen answers to these questions. Truthfully, I wouldn’t want to be a little kid all my life, but maybe it’s because it has those strings of being told what to do, and not independent and able to stand on your own. Even still. I may want the ability to fly, and more than just to believe that I can do it.

April 20th, 2020

More alone time. More social distancing. More voluntary self isolating (for the most part except once a week for groceries, a walk here and there) and doing more things in the condo. Life is about balance, and being alone for me means not just watching TV, but rather puzzles, reading, music, and watching live safaris from South Africa.

If you are interested, check it out: https://www.facebook.com/WildEarthLIVE/?__tn__=%2CdkC-R&eid=ARCZfDKlpj0AA6TJnDnIxDM7BEyRng305QBHolELUhH9c7WDCHskHJBHu7iL4Me8nUxx_OkIUgPrigia&hc_ref=ARRVOmgrqB3hXKyLUYcNlp5rFYrMYwMC0rH9JkCse3kq3A0Ya3JXbZG_hNbaIi2d91k

Now on to the movies and reviews.

The first movie was The Invisible Man, with Elizabeth Moss. Now the Invisible Man story has been told before, more recently to my memory was with Kevin Bacon in Hollow Man. This new addition is basically a re-telling of another similar story Sleeping With the Enemy with Julia Roberts. It has a bit of a technological update but the basic structure remains. A young woman, married to a narcissistic, controlling and abusive husband, seeks freedom away from him. If you stop and think early on, the entire enterprise would be for not if she just avoids the family house pet, Zeus, but never mind. There are bigger questions that will arise and leave the viewer pondering those instead. But I won’t look to spoil them, but happy to discuss once viewers have seen this (if they choose to). So the initial plan, doesn’t go as expected, and new measures need to take place. Moss plays the fleeing wife, and choose to live with a male friend who is a cop, and his daughter. She remains frightened. There are little bits of other movies like The Entity and Terminator in this. The story moves on and she must keep her sanity all the while trying to figure out the things that keep happening to her, and those she cares about. Much like a Terminator, it is hard to explain that someone has become invisible and is a real threat, even when they begin to get mowed down like Sarah Connor’s keepers in her asylum. By the end, it is just a mess. There were a couple of jumps of surprise. But I didn’t buy it, I saw where it was leading and I didn’t particularly care. I wondered, if I had created this capability, would I be using it to try and be with a person who didn’t want to be with me? Unlikely. Money. Power. Everything likely would be possible. But there it is. I wouldn’t want to spend more time in this.

I followed that Moss mess with the black and white The Lighthouse with Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, who has long since moved away from his role in Twilight. Set in the US in a remote island where there is a lighthouse, surprise, surprise and these two men are relieving the previous workers. They have a few weeks there before they are relieved. The older Dafoe character looks and sounds like Captain Highliner. He tells stories and bosses the younger lad around. They eventually become closer over time as they learn about each other. There are some surprising elements that impact the two players. In truth this could be a play rather than a movie. It is really a story of two men pushed to their mental and physical limits. The real reason to watch this would be the cinematography and feel of it. It is beautiful to look at, with realistic water, lighthouse, storms and seas. Both actors are very good. The story? Meh. It takes a long time to tell and really isn’t all that satisfying.

I finally finished the second season of Succession. The first season was okay, as the primary thread was the health issue of the patriarch of the family (a media magnet worth billions and his children, and spouse, exes, and extended family). Season 2 was better for me. It had the intrigued of a corporate acquisition, as well as a government investigation. It is remarkable to watch how dysfunctional this family is. Each member has their own challenges. Seeing how they interact with the father and each other is fun. There will be a Season 3 and I will look forward to it. The cast is good and plays their parts well. Kieran Culkin is particularly seedy. I wouldn’t want to have dinner with them, but I wouldn’t mind sharing the yacht and location from the last episode.

Bombshell outlines another in a line of ugly men in powerful positions, who abuse their power to extract sexual favours from female employees, typically who are ambitious and wish to get ahead or have an opportunity. It’s not Harvey Weinstein at Miramax and film this time. This time it is at Fox News, and there are real time anchors like Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson, played by Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman. Roger Ailes is the real life TV news mogul who is played by John Lithgow. Between this role and playing Winston Churchill in The Crown, Lithgow must be used to wearing fat suits. The Ailes story has also been put on TV with Russell Crowe playing the unsavoury Ailes. He won a Golden Globe for the performance (The Loudest Voice). In short, Ailes is the news director for the successful Fox News where the environment is one where they are garnering viewership by putting anchors in short tight skirts behind glass tables. The news room makes a billion dollars a year for owner Rupert Murdoch. Incidentally, this is not a new formula and women have been objectified here and elsewhere (Entertainment Tonight famously with Mary Hart, TSN, ESPN, CITY and countless other channels). What separates out Fox with Ailes is his looking for “loyal” team members, read ones who won’t talk about his sexual advances. His saying “if you want to get ahead, you have to give head” tells the story really. Ailes was able to isolate his victims, ensuring their silence but also had them move ahead. WHat he could give, he could also take away. A young employee played by Margot Robbie becomes the target of his affections. She later is approached by star anchor, Kelly and they have an interesting exchange. There is a sea of quiet in these situations and many are to blame. The enablers, assistants, people who know year after year who don’t want to know what is happening. They could be whistle blowers. The women/victim themselves, even after the Kidman character (Carlson) makes the lawsuit known, were avoiding her and outright aggressive against her (the wearing of pro-Roger tee-shirts in the office was telling). Of course it goes without saying that the men involved must know better. The other anchors who also participated (say Bill O’Reilly) require greater character. They all have mothers and many should have daughters. And what about Ailes’ wife? Roger Ailes was dismissed from his position in July 2016 at 76 years old. He died May 2017, less than a year later. Sadly he never had any jail time, and the settlement given ($20M to Carlson alone) was covered by Fox and not him personally. This was a good movie and interesting with good performances. It gets wrapped up in political bashing, but this is to be expected with the Kelly and Donald Trump feud. But it is worth checking out.

March 2, 2020

A couple of years back I went to see Gordon Lightfoot live at Massey Hall, amongst the group with me was my brother. He is more of the music guy in the family, and he was always a fan of Gordon. He also plays guitar too which likely gives him a better appreciation for the skill of the Canadian icon. I watched upon suggestion the CBC documentary from 2019 Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind. I found out a number of things; I didn’t know Gordon was from Orillia. I also hadn’t realized how many people covered his songs, including Elvis.

Yea, I didn’t know! This is a story of his life, and I hadn’t realized just how big he was. He had it all. Talent, looks, voice. He wrote all his own music and did it in solitude. No collaborators. He wrote many songs that just drip Canadiana, like the Edmund Fitzgerald. Beyond not realizing how incredibly famous he was, I also didn’t know his personal life. The parties in his Rosedale house. His numerous loves and failed marriages (three wives). He has six children, and despite a couple pics of them in the show, none of them appeared to talk about their Dad. I remember after the concert thinking, he doesn’t really have a voice anymore. I wonder why an 80yo guy is touring, especially after he had a radio story come out a few years back that he was dead. But why tour? He didn’t talk about it. Here is a guy who has played with everyone, knows everyone, written songs that many have sung, been awarded 16 Juno awards and waited until Bob Dylan himself inducted him into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. I wish I had seen him in his heyday, but instead it remains a memorable night with good people for which I can blog about years later.

I re-watched the fun music movie The Commitments from 1991. If you see a trend here, it is another movie set in Dublin (like Leap Year earlier in the year). I am reminiscing about my trip last May to Ireland with great affection. Anyway, this is a movie about a group of young people organized by an outgoing young man, who puts together a musical group to play soul. Soul to him is the music of the common people, the blue collar. He sees an opportunity. He starts gathering talent and they come together, just not entirely. They have a cast of characters including three young ladies, The Commitment-ettes! It’s good fun, with a really good soundtrack that sold well in the 90s. An interesting note that the one guitar playing bandmate who looks a little like the lead singer of Simply Red is the guy who wrote and starred in Once, another Dublin based musical story, well worth your time. He has less hair, and more experienced, but still tells a compelling story. Two quality films that he has been a part of.

Sunday I I ended up re-watching Starship Troopers from back in 1997. It starred Denise Richards and Caspar Van Dien along with supporting cast like Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Ironside (Top Gun) and Clancy Brown (Shawshank). It is a group of young people set in the future who are looking to fight aliens attacking humans. The aliens are bugs of various kinds and abilities and they are tough to kill. It is all campy fun, with a TV News-type intro with clips no one would see at least today, or back in 1997. There is graphic violence and some nudity all of which was meant for the target audience of teenagers back in the day. It is pure entertainment and not meant to be taken seriously. But it can be fun escapism for those looking for sci-fi based two hours to kill (so to speak).

Finally I watched the last episode of Season 1 for Succession. Season 1 has 10 episodes. It’s basic premise is a rich older media mogul, played by Brian Cox is head of a mega-corporation and he has a health issue. The question surrounds whether he will survive and his children (and others close by) scramble trying to deal with the fallout. There is a good cast, and you learn about the various children and how the figurehead views them. People with money have challenges, just money isn’t one of them. It doesn’t make them any less problematic for them. Who is going to succeed the father? What to do when the stock price plummets, and no direction from him? How do adult children act around a patriarch, as well as amongst themselves. Season Two this year won the Golden Globe. I will continue to watch. In a day where there is so much content out there, this is a place – now that Game of Thrones has passed – that you can see some intrigue. No guns. No blowing up things really, and more drama. I can offer that the resolution wihin the final episode was a bit of a letdown. I didn’t see the need to go there, but I guess it helped set up some of Season 2. I will watch and find out. I keep being told that Season 2 is better.