Dianne went to the Barack Obama rally at DU in Denver today.
Read about her take on it at YourHub.com.
Then vote or caucus on Tues., Feb. 5th if you’re in one of the Super Tuesday states.
May the best person, this time, win!
The Real Purpose of Presidential Campaigns
What does earning a college degree have in common with running for president?
See Dianne’s answer at YourHub.com.
Oh, and if you’re in one of the 24 states with primaries or caucuses, don’t forget to vote on Tues. Feb. 5th!
The Savages: A Review by Liz
So upon leaving the movie theater last Sunday, I was surprisingly filled with hope after watching Tamara Jenkin’s film, The Savages. Starring Laura Linney and Phillip Seymore Hoffman (with Phillip Bosco playing their aging father), the film offers a portrait of two siblings who must accept the reality of their father’s dementia. The film is not so much about the father as it is about how his middle-aged children grapple with their personal lives, while also trying to make the best of a grim reality. Both Linney and Hoffman offer wonderful performances, accompanied by a skilled supporting cast who enrich the story.
So why did this film fill me with hope? In a way that few can do, Linney and Hoffman, both so comfortable in the skin of their characters, demonstrated with simple gestures, facial expressions, and superior line delivery that they had moved forward in their lives in a more positive direction by the end of the film. This, of course, can also be attributed to Tamara Jenkins, who both wrote and directed the film.
While The Savages is an excellent film, it may not be for everyone, as it is difficult to watch at times. I highly recommend the film, however, due to the artful blend of comedy and drama and the excellent acting, writing, and directing.
Eastern Promises – Worth Your Time and Money
Dianne yet again. Can you tell I’ve been watching more movies and less TV? There’s a reason for that. This is movie season, after the Golden Globe awards and before the Oscars. The better movies are either still in theaters or have just been released on DVD. Also, the WGA is still on strike, so TV has less and less to offer of much quality. (Although if you search beyond the big networks, you can find some gems… more about those another day.)
This is about the actor, Viggo Mortensen, who we were attracted to in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Since then, he’s taken on gutsier roles, the gutsiest being a member of the Russian mob in Eastern Promises, for which he’s been nominated for an Oscar. My husband told me we’d get to see Viggo naked, so naturally I thought there would be a love scene between him and co-star Naomi Watts. But this movie has chosen violence over sex to engage its audience.
And it works. It’s gritty, to say the least. As I said to my husband as we were throwing out our microwave popcorn bags, “I’m glad I didn’t see that movie before we took the overnight train through F.Y.R.O.M. last year.” I wouldn’t have been so agreeable to that part of our tour of Eastern Europe. We actually met a man who had been gassed and robbed on the same train a few years before. So we went prepared with a steel rope lock, and we made sure the window was cracked.
Shortly after leaving the station in northern Greece, the conductor collected our passports and Eurail passes. About midnight, when we got to the border, we had to disembark and stand outside the police station to get them back. Yes, it was misty out like you’d expect in any good movie about the former Iron Curtain countries. One poor couple from Australia got sent back to Thessaloniki because F.Y.R.O.M. (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) required visas from Commonwealth countries.
An older gentleman on our car had suffered the same consequence a few days earlier. Even though he had been born in Belgrade, Serbia (when it was Belgrade, Yugoslavia), as a current citizen of Canada, he had been turned back and missed almost two days of precious time with his family. It wasn’t like he hadn’t done his homework; there had just been a rift between Macedonia and the Commonwealth in the last few weeks, thus the required visa. Things are still changing rapidly in that part of the world…
Oh, about the movie, “Eastern Promises.” Rent it or go see it. It will scare you. It will make you think. It will make you realize how good you have it, even though you might be bored silly with your suburban life and shopping malls. I hate to come out in public like this and say something, but I think it is important that we strive to protect our freedoms and help others in the world gain theirs. I just disagree with the way we’ve been going about it this century. Hmmm… I think I will go to my Feb. 5th precinct caucus.
La Vie en Rose on DVD
Dianne again. Marion Cotillard definitely deserves her Golden Globe win and Oscar nod for her starring role in La Vie en Rose, a magnificent portrayal of the “Judy Garland of France.” (That’s the best way I can explain the movie to an American audience.) Not only is this true story intriguing, but the manner in which it is told keeps the viewer entranced. It moves back and forth through time quickly, answering our questions before we’ve asked them. We don’t just learn about the songstress Edith Piaf, we deeply care about her and can hardly believe where she came from and how far she went. It’s one of those “stranger than fiction” tales that ends in tragedy, begging the question, Why… ? Oops, I almost finished that which would have given away the ending (and some of the middle) and I don’t want to do that. Just rent it as soon as you can, and if you’re lucky enough, see it in a theater. It must still be playing somewhere.
The Savages: Still in Theaters
Dianne here. Liz and I saw The Savages yesterday afternoon and agree that it’s a “high five” (my term). This movie takes tragedy and makes us laugh, but not so much that we feel disrespectful watching a family deal with what so many of us Baby Boomers are going through: taking care of our aging parents.
In this case, the children, perfectly played by Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman, are estranged from their father when they get the call that someone needs to take care of him. Even though he abused them as children after their mother abandoned them, they rise to the occasion and do the best that they can.
It is clear that they’re not really showing up for their father, since he has dementia , but for each other and themselves. Forgiveness, after all, is the gift we give ourselves. I know I was touched, even though I’m not sure I could have done the same. Bravo to Tamara Jenkins for both writing and directing The Savages.
Atonement: Dianne’s Point of View
I was really looking forward to a good movie, so I was disappointed when Atonement did not meet my expectations. I understood most of what the director was after, but that doesn’t mean I enjoyed all his points of view. I thought all the different scenes made the movie too slow, especially at the beginning - not enough happened to keep me interested.
It reminded me of The English Patient, another award-winning movie about the horrors of war and what it does to the individual and relationships. Just like Elaine on Seinfeld, I found it devastatingly slow and boring. It just took too long for anything to happen. It was too much like real life that way. That’s why we go to movies, isn’t it? To escape our own boring lives.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not like my husband who has to have lots of action in a movie to like it, such as a car chase or guns blasting away. I just need more happening on the screen than in my own life. Maybe my life is more exciting than the average one. After all, I’ve always lived in Montana or Colorado and I’ve had to opportunity to travel a lot. I’ve met a lot of interesting characters and have my own stories that would make good movies…
So maybe I need to do something about that rather than complain about boring movies. Hmmmm…..
Atonement: A Late Review by Liz
So as many of you might already know, the film Atonement recently won Best Drama at the Golden Globes, and, in my opinion, it is a well-deserved award. It is spectacularly directed by Joe Wright, who masterfully brings Ian McEwan’s novel to the screen (screenplay by Christopher Hampton). The film stars Keira Knightly as Cecilia Tallis, a rich girl who has fallen in love with James McAvoy’s character, Robbie Turner, who works for her family on their estate and who returns her feelings. The plot of the film is sparked by an incident that Cecilia’s thirteen-year-old sister Briony (wonderfully played by Saoirse Ronan) witnesses, and does not understand. As a result, Robbie and Cecilia are separated, both by WWII and accusations by Briony against Robbie.
I don’t want to give too much away, but the film is a sweeping drama and artfully done. It has a particularly skillful tracking shot of the beach at Dunkirk. It is both wonderful to watch (from the standpoint of filmmaking) and devastating from the point of the audience; the director shows the true chaos and tragedy of war, as exemplified by Dunkirk. The ending is surprising, but, I felt, fitting for the film; the story is not truly that of Cecilia’s and Robbie’s, but that of Briony – who must live with the knowledge of what she has done.
Corner Gas: It’s A Gas!
Dianne here: The only downside of owning a Tivo is that we get stuck on watching the same shows all the time because we no longer surf. We don’t really see commercials for new TV shows or catch any obscure shows that aren’t highly publicized anywhere. So when we were on vacation over the holidays, while staying in a motel, we discovered “Corner Gas,” an original CTV (Canadian) sitcom.
We immediately took to it as the humor is dry and does not rely on the typical sexual jokes, meanness, or slapstick of most Hollywood sitcoms. If you like BBC comedies, you will like “Corner Gas.” The straight guy on the show is played by Brent Butt who also created the show. He owns and runs the corner gas store. His parents are a pair of characters, his friend Hank, the mechanic, is his stupid sidekick buddy, and his employee is a college graduate know-it-all gal. Lacy runs the Ruby, the cafe next door and is from the big city, Toronto, so never fits in no matter how hard she tries. Then there are the cops, a male and female, who don’t have enough to do and get themselves in all kinds of predicaments.
With the writers still on strike, it’s a good time to check out other avenues for entertainment, so look for “Corner Gas.” We found it on WGN after “Scrubs,” I believe, and before “Becker.” If you’re like us, you’ll be laughing out loud and watching several episodes in a row, if you’re lucky enough to have Tivo. Happy New Year!
