The COVID Diaries--Part 7

Movies: various

Here is what I am watching (so far) during the quarantine for COVID-19.

***
Mrs. America

This Hulu original mini-series is about the fight to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and the women involved on both the pro- and anti- side. In particular, the series, which spans the 1970s, focuses on Phyllis Schlafly, the conservative homemaker/lawyer/political wonk who fought viciously to stop the ERA from being ratified--and succeeded.

Cate Blanchett plays Schlafly to perfection. She perfectly captures Schlafly's mannerisms and her charisma. Schlafly was a hateful person, yet undeniably intelligent. She was also a person into "alternative facts" long before Trump was elected (her final book, published right before her death, is titled The Conservative Case for Trump). The series portrays Schlafly as a woman who wanted it both ways: she wanted power, influence, and to be acknowledged publicly for her work, while also fighting against women's equality in the political, economic, and social spheres. If you're a fan of Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, Serena Joy is clearly modeled after Schlafly.

But the series also follows Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug, Shirley Chisholm, and Betty Friedan in their efforts to push the women's liberation movement forward. Looking back, both Schlafly and the feminists had a huge influence on the women's rights movement. Even though the ERA was not ratified until 2020 (with my home state of Virginia being the 38th state to ratify the amendment) and still isn't enshrined in our Constitution, we have made great strides. We have a lonnnnng way to go, though, and conservative presidents such as Reagan, Bushes Sr. and Jr., and Trump have pushed back our progress.

Mrs. America is an almost perfect show. It fails to honor the full extent to which black and brown women, as well as queer women, contributed to the women's liberation movement. There is an episode dedicated to Shirley Chisholm (played wonderfully by Uzo Aduba), but all the other episodes focus on the white, straight women involved. I've read some criticism that suggests it goes easy Phyllis Schlafly, but I didn't see that. I think it shows her for the conniving, "want to have my cake and eat it too" woman she was. True, it portrays her as human with imperfections, motivations, and strengths. But most people who fall on the wrong side of history were not monsters--they were all too human.

Grade: A-

***
Sinister

Sinister is a bad horror movie that came out in 2012. I watched it with a fellow horror-lover using Netflix Party, which is the only way to watch it because we tore it to shreds. Ethan Hawke plays Ellison Oswalt (I'm assuming the scriptwriter likes Patton Oswalt and Harlan Ellison), a true crime writer who hasn't had a bestselling book in a decade. He moves his family into a *murder house*, where an entire family--except for one daughter--was killed by hanging. Ellison doesn't tell his wife he is moving them into a murder house because he obviously doesn't respect her.

He discovers a box of film reels and a projector in the attic. As he watches them, he realizes they are essentially snuff films showing the murder of other families. After doing some digging, he realizes that all of these families were killed, leaving one child behind who went missing. He also discovers that the Stevensons (the family that was hanged) used to live in the house of one of the other murdered families.

So, it's pretty clear at this point that each family lived in the house of the previous murdered family, and there is some sort of being or curse following the families who move into the murder homes of the other families. So, in short, Ellison fucked his own family over: they now carry the curse.

I won't tell you what happens, but I will say that this movie is so full of cliches, it's bursting at the seams. It has: an alcoholic writer who wears oversize, knitted sweaters and lies to his wife; an older cop who tries to warn the family from moving in; a professor of the occult who tries to explain the weird symbology in the films to Ellison; and a young, annoying cop who ends up cracking the code and telling Ellison his family is the next set of victims for this curse. As my friend said "Are we watching a movie about a movie?" and "Is this movie fucking with us"? Sadly, it was not fucking with us...it was just a bad, cliched movie. Feel free to skip, or watch while mocking.

Grade: C-

***
Little Children

Little Children is a movie I saw many years ago and recently rewatched. Based on the novel by Tom Perrotta, it's about suburban ennui. Kate Winslet plays Sarah, a stay-at-home mom who clearly regrets her choices and resents her daughter and philandering husband. She meets Brad (Patrick Wilson), a stay-at-home dad whom the other moms on the playground dub "the Prom King". Brad and Sarah begin an affair.

Meanwhile, a sexual offender, Ronnie McGorvey (Jackie Earle Haley, excellent in this difficult role), moves back in with his mother after serving time for indecent exposure. Ronnie provides a convenient scapegoat for the neighborhood and in particular, Larry Hedges (Noah Emmerich), a washed up former cop who is looking for someone to hurt.

Fans of Perrotta's novels will enjoy this film, with its moral ambiguity and simultaneous empathy and disgust for the human condition. That's kind of Perrotta's jam: his books are filled with unlikable, but highly empathetic characters. Little Children is the kind of film that asks you to feel bad for a pedophile while still knowing he's sick and a danger to society. If you're not a fan of movies that live in the gray area, this isn't the one for you.

Grade: B

***
Groundhog Day

Here's another movie--a classic, in fact--that I rewatched. It's very appropriate for These Strange Times (tm) since it's about a man living the same day over and over, which is what like feels like right now.

If you haven't seen Groundhog Day, what are you even doing? Just go watch it. The only reason I'm not giving it an "A" is that it isn't quite as funny as I remembered it being when I was a kid. But the grade is sort of irrelevant here. It's Groundhog Day and it is required watching.

Grade: B+

***
Good Will Hunting

And yet another movie I felt compelled to rewatch. Good Will Hunting is what I call an "autumnal" film. It's set in/around a college, the color palate is filled with browns and beiges, and it feels as comfortable and familiar as an old, unraveling sweater. Elsewhere, I've referred to it as similar to mashed potatoes: warm, comforting, and hella white.

Probably everyone knows the plot: Matt Damon is Will Hunting, a 20 year old janitor from south Boston who grew up in foster care. He's also a genius. Like, the type who can solve impossible equations and also has a photographic memory. Stellan Skarsgard is Gerald Lambeau, a math professor at Harvard who realizes Will's genius and, as a condition of not serving jail time for attacking a cop, has Will agree to study mathematics under his tutelage and see a counselor.



The only counselor who is able to deal with Will's bullshit is Sean Maguire (Robin Williams, excellent except for his non-existent Boston accent), a warm, understanding therapist who has issues of his own. He was also Lambeau's college roommate and is someone Lambeau looks down on because he didn't live up to his potential.

So, these two men basically go to war for Will's talent and soul: Maguire wants Will to choose the life he will lead and knows that forcing him into a box will push him away; Lambeau wants to essentially require Will to use his considerable talents in a high-paying government job. He is sickened at the idea of Will "wasting his talent" and being told "failure is an option". This is a tough movie for anyone with "Tiger parents" to watch. Hell, I felt some old resentment towards my parents rising up as I watched it and, overall, I have a good relationship with them.

Other than the fact that this movie is nearly 100% male and white, Good Will Hunting holds up relatively well. It's a bit cliche and over-the-top, but it still works well as a comfort food movie. And the soundtrack, featuring many songs by Elliot Smith, is bitchin'.

Grade: B

"Look at all these stupid cunts" -- a Ghost World retrospective

Movie: Ghost World

So, I randomly decided to rewatch Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World last night since it's on the Criterion Channel. Five minutes in, I knew I had to allot a special review just to this dark, hilarious, depressing masterpiece.

Ghost World is a movie that takes me right back to late high school/early college. A time where I was technically an adult, but still a naive baby. I loved cinema, I thought I was smarter than everyone else, despite the fact that I, to paraphrase Cher Horowitz, was a virgin who was too scared to drive on highways. Ghost World really speaks to the precocious and naive among us. As Enid and Rebecca move beyond high school--a mini-universe that allows them to gloat about being better than everyone else--to the real world, they are faced with the tough realities that actually no one is special and making fun of people doesn't feel all that good in the end.

For those who haven't seen Ghost World or read the graphic novel by Dan Clowes, it's a pretty simple plot: Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) are best friends who graduate high school. They don't plan to go to college. Enid is one part hipster, one part punk, and two parts clearly depressed. Rebecca could be called "basic", but of the two she's more prepared to grow up, find a job, and become an adult.

Enid and Rebecca see an ad in the personals and decide to do the early-aughts version of catfishing: they call the guy who placed the ad and pretend to be the blonde he "had a moment" with. Then they wait and spy on the poor guy as he shows up at the restaurant and drinks a milkshake by himself before leaving. This is Seymour, a sad forty-something (or thirty-something? Steve Buscemi plays Seymour and the dude was born looking old so who knows how old this character is) whose main joy in life is collecting old blues and jazz records.

Despite the catfishing incident, Enid makes tentative steps to befriend Seymour. She buys a blues record from him and ends up loving it. The closer she gets to Seymour, the more she pushes Rebecca away.

But Ghost World isn't a romance and it isn't a happy movie. There are a lot of different messages to take away from the film. It's about the limits of non-conformity. It's about how life goes on whether you decide to participate or not. It's about how people who are hurt hurt other people, even if they ultimately feel shitty doing it. In short: it's a very misanthropic film that also captures some very true (if not flattering) realities about people. People are selfish, confused, lonely. People who are outsiders still think they're better than other outsiders.

In short, 20 year old Jenny was like "inject that shit right into my veeeeiiinnnns".

But there is a lot of beautiful moments in Ghost World as well: the opening sequence where Enid dances along to a wacky Bollywood movie. The dude with the nun-chucks who hangs out at the local convenience mart and says shit like "It's America, dude, learn the rules!" (I thought this was the funniest/best line in the movie back in college...still do). Josh, the sweet guy Enid and Rebecca like to tease--played by Brad Renfro, a promising actor who died too young. The CLOTHES everyone wears.

Ghost World, in my opinion, holds up twenty years later. Despite the fact that we have Tinder instead of personal ads, smartphones instead of the landlines Enid and Rebecca use, and that Thora Birch has fallen off the face of the earth while ScarJo is a superstar (a fucking crime, in my opinion), we still live in Ghost World. And even though I am no longer a virgin, no longer scared to drive on highways, and only *somewhat* think I'm better/smarter than others, Ghost World speaks to the person I am deep down inside--something essential that hasn't changed in 20 years. And if you're a fan of this film, I think you'll find that it still accurately reflects the sick, sad, yet beautiful world we live in.

Grade: A+

The COVID Diaries--Part 6

Movies: various

Here is what I am watching (so far) during the quarantine for COVID-19.

***
Velvet Buzzsaw

This Netflix original film was a happy surprise for me. A friend of mine who is a fellow horror-lover recommended it and I was not disappointed. Directed by Dan Gilroy, Velvet Buzzsaw is a horror-satire set in the Miami's high art scene. Jake Gyllenhaal plays art critic Morf Vanderwalt, a man whose negative art review can make the difference between a piece selling for millions or gathering dust in a storage facility. Morf's best friend and sometimes lover, Josephina (Zawe Ashton) works for Rhodora Haze (Rene Russo), owner of Haze Galleries. Josephina comes across an unexpected windfall in the form of hundreds of eerie paintings left behind by a resident in her apartment building whom she finds dead in the stairwell one night. The old man is Vetril Dease, and Josephina rescues (steals) his paintings from his apartment before the authorities can come and destroy them--which was the instruction Dease left in his will.

Both Morf and Rhodora are enraptured by Dease's artwork. Other art world folks, such as Jon Dondon, (Tom Sturridge), a rival gallery owner, and Gretchen (Toni Collette), an art curator, get wind of the Dease paintings and try to get in on what appears to be a winning lottery number in the art world.

But when strange occurrences start piling up (I'll leave it pretty vague), Morf begins to research Dease and his discoveries are shocking. Morf begins to lose his mind as he is drawn deeper into the horrific backstory and strange power Dease's art seems to have over others. Recommended for horror lovers, especially those of indie horror movies.

Grade: A-

***
The Green Inferno

*Loud sigh* Oh, The Green Inferno. More proof that Eli Roth can't direct for shit. I remember being really disappointed in Roth's Cabin Fever. Well, The Green Inferno is no better than Cabin Fever and arguably much worse. Inspired by the controversial cannibal films of the 1970s and 80s, such as Cannibal Holocaust, you can only imagine how the lives of indigenous people are handled in Roth's sophomoric and extremely white hands. I'll say it right off the bat: this movie is racist as fuck. It also, very interestingly, happens to be about white saviorism. So it manages to both condemn white saviors while also banking on the most extreme and unflattering stereotypes about non-white people.

The plot: a bunch of "woke" college students, including protagonist Justine (Lorena Izzo), decide to travel to the Amazon to protest the bulldozing of a chunk of land inhabited by the Yajes tribe, which has pretty much been untouched by outside civilization indefinitely. They do this in the stupidest, whitest manner possible by following the lead of hot guy Alejandro (Ariel Levy) who essentially puts a bunch of lives in danger to make a name for himself. Once they do the protest, they get in a tiny plane out of the Amazon, it crashes, and the survivors are captured by the Yajes. This is where the fun (and racism) truly begin.

Surprise, surprise, the tribe is a bunch of violent cannibals. They also practice female genital mutilation, which Justine conveniently had a class about earlier in the film, making FGM the most inappropriate "Chekov's gun" ever. The first thing the Yajes do is is slowly dismember Jonah (Aaron Burns), the "fat guy" of the group, and roast the poor sumbitch and eat him.

I'll give The Green Inferno this: it certainly is effective at "horror". The grisly and creative violence makes one feel a sense of horror, as does the communication gap between prisoners and captors. But otherwise, the film is just a mess. The acting is terrible, the dialogue is inane, the racism is so blatant that one wonders if Roth was making a point (and then one remembers that this is just a shitty Eli Roth torture porn movie and the guy ain't a critical race theorist). The Green Inferno is just gross and has no payoff. While I could see someone making an argument that Roth uses gross stereotypes to actually mock and jeer at white people, he does so with a sledgehammer rather than a scalpel. There are better horror movies and better racial satire films--seek those out instead.

Grade: C-

***
Joker

Todd Phillips' Joker is A Lot. Joker is basically the movie version of a very intelligent 15 year old boy who reads philosophy but hasn't had any actual life experiences or hardships. On the one hand, you're kind of impressed, but on the other you just can't help but roll your eyes.

There was no way to go into Joker without a pre-formed opinion based on the number of think pieces on this film. I will say that Joker wasn't quite the celebration of toxic white masculinity I thought it was going to be. It's a condemnation of rich, white men who keep "everyone" (in this case, a poor, mentally ill, white man) down. So, in a way, Joker's heart is in the right place. It's "politics" are correct. The movie says: rich people fuck over society and that leads to desperate people engaging in violence. Correct. But like The Green Inferno above, Phillips decides to hit you over the head with a hammer with this message instead of trying to say anything interesting that we didn't already know. This is a film that tells you rather than shows you. Despite its grittiness, Joker is *very much* a superhero/villain story in that its morals and worldview are simple and obvious.

Joaquin Phoenix is undeniably great in this film. He is the only reason to see this movie. Any fan of Phoenix knows that he plays men at the extremes of life very well, and his character, Arthur Fleck, is at the very edge. Arthur is extremely mentally ill, has no support system, little money, and a childhood filled with violence and rejection.  We are meant to empathize with Arthur and even root for him. He is a man "abandoned by society" who finally snaps.

Joker reminded me of a more nuanced and more high quality version of the 2004 movie Crash. This issue with Crash is that in its quest to explore complex race relations, it ended up having the depth of a required training module you might complete at work. It proposed the radical idea that sometimes good people do bad things and sometimes bad people do good things, while erasing any historical and cultural context that might serve to explain what racism is, why it exists, why it can only go one way (at least at a systemic level), and why it's so damn hard to overcome societally. Joker is the same, but with masculinity and class. But if you're looking for nuance, perhaps a super villain movie isn't the place to look.

I recommend Joker if you can see it for free/on streaming.

Grade: B-

***
But I'm a Cheerleader

I've seen But I'm a Cheerleader multiple times but have never reviewed it. I rewatched it the other day and it is a masterpiece. Directed by Jamie Babbit and clearly inspired by John Waters (it even stars John Waters' regular Mink Stole), BIAC is a queer cultural hallmark.

Natasha Lyonne plays Megan, a cheerleader who harbors a secret that she doesn't hide very well. Her parents and friends suspect she's gay since she has pictures of women in her locker and is vegetarian. She is packed off and sent to "True Directions", a gay conversion camp lead by Mary (Cathy Moriarty) and Mike (RuPaul, out of drag).

The girls and boys of True Directions are forced into comically stereotypical "straight" situations with the girls vacuuming and the boys trying to learn to fix a car. But secretly, as horny teens often do, they are hooking up behind the counselor's backs.

But I'm a Cheerleader is the rare film that fully embraces its campiness but also has a serious and heartfelt message. Megan gets very close to Graham (Clea Duvall) and both of them have so much to lose by being together, which makes their romance all the sweeter.

If you haven't seen But I'm a Cheerleader, this is not one to miss. Panned when it first came out, the film is now a rare cult classic that is also just a darn good movie. And I'm being straight with you there.

Grade: A

***

The COVID Diaries--Part 5

Movies: various

Here is what I am watching (so far) during the quarantine for COVID-19.

***

Liberte´

You'd think a movie about an orgy that includes piss play, whipping, and rimming would be more scintillating, but as most people discover by their 30s, sex in a vacuum isn't all that interesting.

Director Albert Serra's Liberté is literally a 2+ hour film in which a group of libertines who have been cast out from the court of Louis XVI spend the night fucking in the woods. Reviews have fallen on two sides when it comes to this film: "provocative", "visionary", "the most explicit film ever made about the 18th century" OR "boring", "miserable", "pedestrian". I fall on the latter side of the camp: Liberté is boring as fuck.

Not only is there no plot, no character development, and minimal dialogue, the sex isn't even all that radical or explicit. I've seen more action in a stag film from the 1920s. There are plenty of dicks, but they're all flaccid and then men in this movie are ugly as sin (the women are gorgeous, of course). In a way, this film is truly a work of the Marquis de Sade come to life in that it's basically just disgusting and not titillating in the slightest (and I'm not judging. I have nothing against explicit sex or violence in films...but I loathe being bored by a movie).

As a small mercy, most of sex appears to be consensual, even the violent shit. There are discussions of raping animals (yep) and kidnapping women from convents and "making them feel Christ's abandonment" through sex, but thank god the stuff we see on screen (and it's hard to tell if the actors are really having sex or just simulating it) is punctured with verbal consent.

I do not recommend Liberté except to film buffs like me who are extremely curious. I can recommend 10 sexier films off the top of my head if you're looking for a thrill. Liberté is empty, soulless, boring, and a waste of time.

Grade: D (for limp dickz)

***

Behind the Burly Q

This 2010 documentary directed by Leslie Zemeckis (wife of Robert Zemeckis), looks at the "Golden Age" of burlesque, from about the 30s through the 50s. Stars of burlesque, such as Tempest Storm, April March, Dixie Evans, and Blaze Starr are interviewed, as are spouses and children of burlesque performers (including musicians and comedians).

While this is all very interesting, this is very much a white and Euro-centered look at burlesque. There is literally one mention of a black burlesque troupe, which is dismissed as "it didn't last long" and a few details about female impersonators. This really annoyed me because even if there weren't many burlesquers of color during the golden age of burlesque (big if), the art form  borrowed (stole) from non-white, non-western cultures, which rarely get their due. Plus, you have folks like Josephine Baker who most definitely contributed to the art of erotic dancing. I mean, Baker's banana skirt act is more famous than any golden age burlesque act I know of!

So, while this is a fine and interesting doc, it is sorely lacking. It also relies heavily on personal anecdotes and feels a bit all over the place. I did appreciate the inclusion of comedians and musicians, in addition to dancers, as these folks played a huge role in early burlesque shows.

Grade: B-

***

Oh Hello on Broadway

Oh, Hello is not, strictly speaking, a movie. It's a recorded broadway show starring John Mulaney and Nick Kroll, who play septuagenarians George St. Geegland and Gil Faizon. Friends, roommates for 40 years in a rent-controlled Brooklyn apartment, and aspiring artists (George is a novelist and Gil an actor), the two men bicker, banter, and share a love of tuna fish and pronouncing words incorrectly.

If anyone ever asks "do white people have 'culture'"?, show them Oh, Hello. It's the whitest fucking thing I've seen in ages. It even includes famous white people Steve Martin and Matthew Broderick as guest stars!

Grade: A-

***

Killing Them Softly

I had heard that this neo-noir crime movie starring Brad Pitt was an exceptionally good film, but for some reason it was never at the top of my to-watch list. Well, I went ahead and watched it and it is a gritty, funny, violent delight. Not as epic as The Departed, but much more funny and irreverent, Killing The Softly is the kind of film that sucks you in and makes you forget time is passing (my favorite kind of film).

After two dim-witted criminals, Frankie (Scoot McNairy) and Russell (Ben Mendelsohn), hold up a mafia poker game, Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt), a well-respected hitman, is called in to take out the men responsible. Cogan knows Johnny Amato, the mob guy who hired Frankie and Russell, and he has a rule about killing people he knows because "they beg, they piss themselves, they call for their mothers...it get embarrassing". Cogan prefers to "kill them softly"--quickly, from a distance, and with no time for emotions to enter the picture. So Cogan brings in another hit man, Mickey (James Gandolfini in one of his final roles) to take out Amato. Unfortunately, Mickey is more interested in fucking sex workers and drinking all day, so it's up to Cogan to take everyone out himself.

Killing Them Softly is just plain entertaining, especially if you like mafia movies. Ray Liotta is exceptionally good as Markie Trattman, the guy who runs the poker game and who ends up being quite a tragic figure in the film.

Grade: A-

***

Blood Feast

1963's Blood Feast is considered to be the first splatter/gore movie. Directed by the infamous Herschel Gordon Lewis, the film actually has a somewhat interesting plot. Dorothy Fremont is planning a party for her adult daughter, Suzette. She wants something unique, so she visits "Ramses Catering" run by Fuad Ramses (Mal Arnold). He suggests an Egyptian Feast, which Mrs. Fremont gets excited about because Suzette loves Egyptian culture.



Unbeknownst to Mrs. Fremont, Fuad Ramses is a fucking psychopath who has been killing young women and taking their body parts. He is collecting the body parts of young women to serve in a feast dedicated to Ishtar, the Egyptian goddess of war. So Mrs. Fremont has accidentally ordered a cannibalistic feast. Meanwhile, the cops are trying to figure out who is going around killing women and taking their tongues, brains, and limbs as souvenirs.

Blood Feast is a bad movie. As in, poorly made. The acting is ATROCIOUS. It's almost as if the actors were given to directions to act poorly on purpose. However, Blood Feast will forever have its place in this history books since the gore was so extreme when the movie first came out. In today's world, it's PG-13. The blood is all fire-engine red and clearly looks like red paint. The most gruesome scene is when Ramses pulls out a young woman's tongue, which I gotta say made me flinch a little bit. So, it's a bad movie, but you gotta respect what it was going for. Only recommended to horror aficionados.

Grade: D+

The COVID Diaries--Part 4

Movies and shows: various

Here is what I am watching (so far) during the quarantine for COVID-19.

***
Bunny Lake is Missing

This 1965 film directed by the prolific Otto Preminger is about every parent's worst nightmare: what if your child disappeared? But it goes a step further than that: what if you child, along with all evidence that they ever existed, disappeared? Ann Lake (Carol Lynley) is a single mother who moves to London with her brother, Steven (Keir Dullea) and 4 year old daughter, Bunny. She drops Bunny off at her new school, but no teachers seem to be around, so the cook offers to keep an eye on Bunny until one of the teachers is available. Since Ann is late for an appointment, she begrudgingly accepts. Cleverly, we the audience never see Bunny during this interaction.


But later that day when Ann goes to pick up her daughter, not only is she not there, no teachers or students remember seeing her. The police are called and when they go to Ann's flat, all of Bunny's toys and clothes are gone. In addition, brother Steven lets it slip that Ann had a childhood imaginary friend. That friend's name? Bunny. So, by now the police are wondering if they should call for backup for for a psychiatrist.

Since the audience hasn't seen Bunny, *we* don't know what to believe either. And a shocking twist in the final third throughs the entire film for a loop. However, I have to say that Bunny Lake is Missing was both a little over the top and a tad forgettable for me. I sometimes struggle with enjoying "older" films because some (not all) of them feel stilted, both in acting and dialogue. So, I'm giving this film a solid, dignified B-. It wasn't bad, but I probably won't watch it again.

Grade: B-

***
Little Fires Everywhere

This Hulu series, based on the novel by Celeste Ng, is an intensely powerful examination of motherhood, race, class, and privilege. Artist Mia Warren (Kerry Washington) and her daughter Pearl (Lexi Underwood) move to Shaker Heights, Ohio where they encounter Elena Richardson (Reese Witherspoon) who offers to let them move into her rental property. Pearl becomes enamored with the Richardson's wealth and large family, with whom she becomes close. Mia is skeptical, especially when Elena condescendingly offers to pay Mia to be her housekeeper.

Things explode when Mia discovers that Elena's friend Linda's adopted baby is actually the same baby her coworker, Bebe Chow, had to abandon at a fire station the previous winter when she couldn't afford to feed her (and the baby refused to nurse). Mia decides to help Bebe go to court to win back her child, to the horror of Linda and Elena. Meanwhile, Pearl and the Richardson kids have their own drama going on.

I obviously can't get into everything here, but I will point out a couple things:

1) the show's plot differs somewhat from the book (I haven't read the book, but I read a plot synopsis), and in the book Mia is Asian and Elena is white. In the show, Mia is black and Elena is white, so there is still a race difference but it is tweaked to show the unique relationship between upper-class, "liberal" white women (Witherspoon is amazing in this sort of role) with less fortunate black women (Washington sears in a blistering performance).

2) the show is pretty good at making no one (and everyone) the "bad guy". We might think, "well Elena is just a privileged bitch"...and she is! But! Her backstory reveals the choices, good and bad, that lead her to be who she is today. Likewise, we might assume Mia is always in the right. But she's not perfect either, and has made some choices that jeopardize her relationship with her own daughter. Likewise, with the Bebe and Linda--it's easy to sympathize with both women, who are both in agony at the thought of losing the baby. I love these kinds of movies and shows that are able to explore explosive topics such as racism, classism, and motherhood without resorting to stereotypes and simple answers.

3) That said, the only thing keeping this show from a full-hearted "A" rating is that it gets a little over the top near the end (lots of screaming and tears). I feel that it could have been a little more subtle and still packed a powerful punch. Even so, I consider Little Fires Everywhere required viewing.

Grade: A-

***
The Plot Against America

Another series based on a book, The Plot Against America follows an alternative timeline in American history. What if American aviation hero (and anti-semite/Nazi sympathizer) Charles Lindbergh ran against and beat Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1940 election and then decided that America would not become involved with WWII?

The series focuses on the Levin family: Herman, Bess (Zoe Kazan, award-worthy here), Sandy, and Philip. They are a middle-class Jewish family who live comfortably among Jewish neighbors. But when Lindy becomes the populist president, their lives are shaken up. What's more, Bess's sister, Evelyn (Winona Ryder), becomes romantically involved with Rabbi Bengelsdorf (John Turturro) who is a supporter of Lindy and thus helps the anti-semite president soften his image among non-Jews (think about the few public people of color, like Candace Owens, who support Trump).



While the book by Philip Roth came out in 2004, during the presidency of a war-mongering conservative president, the series feels much more spooky and prescient right now during the reign of our very own populist president who gives Nazis and racists legitimacy. The episode about election night, when die-hard liberal Herman Levin listens to the radio as Lindbergh beats Roosevelt, brings back terrible memories from election night 2016.

This series is beautiful to look at, with all the details of the early 1940s on point. I have to say that series was a little more slow-moving and emotionally muted than I thought it would be, but it really picks up in the last two episodes, especially with a plot line about a young Jewish boy forced to move to Kentucky where he and his mother are vulnerable targets of hate. A scene where Beth talks to young Seldon (Jacob Laval whom you might recognize from John Mulaney's Sack Lunch Bunch) long distance on the phone trying to calm him down when his mother is late coming home from work is devastating and hopefully will net Kazan an Emmy.

Grade: A-

***
Lady Macbeth

Call it "Anglican Psycho". Lady Macbeth is about a young woman, Katherine (Florence Pugh), married off to a wealthy landowner who not only couldn't give two shits about his wife, he can't even fuck her properly in order to produce an heir. He also forbids her to leave the house, forcing her into a life of boredom and restlessness.

But Katherine is no wilting rose. Quite the opposite. In today's world, she might well be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, but in the time period of this film--1865--she's just a woman who will do whatever it takes, including kill in cold blood, to get what she wants.

I had mixed feelings about this film. Overall, it is good and well-made. But by the end of the film, you're kind of left wondering what the point was. I do think that, whether the film was intended to be this or not, Lady Macbeth is a sort of stylized horror movie. Because this woman does nothing but hurt and kill others, beyond the point where it would be justified because she's a woman in 1865 and has no other power.

What's more distressing is that there are a number of characters of color in this film: Anna, the maid; Katherine's lover, who has an ambiguous ethnicity (the actor, Cosmo Jarvis, is Armenian); and a woman and son who show up claiming that the young son, Teddy, is Katherine's husband's ward. And Katherine fucks alllll of these people over. Granted, she doesn't just hurt people of color--she harms people, men and women, white and of color, indiscriminately (basically, whoever gets in her way). But it's disturbing to see a wealthy white woman screw over people who have much less power than her without the film commenting on this. Unless, again, the point of the film is simply that Katherine is a psychopath. The title, referencing Shakespeare's infamous Lady Macbeth, suggests Katherine will do anything for power. But the way the film plays out reveals a woman who is far less calculating and just bored and lacking empathy.

Grade: B

***
Downsizing

When Alexander Payne's Downsizing came out in theaters, I think a lot of viewers were pissed that it pulled a bit of a bait and switch. The trailer promises a hilarious comedy that takes place in a not too distant future where science has found a way to shrink humans down to five inches tall. This is helpful for the environment, but also irresistible to average people who want to experience a life of wealth and leisure, since at that size, $1.00 buys $1,000.00 worth of stuff.

And that's exactly how the movie begins. Matt Damon is Paul Safranek, an occupational therapist in Nebraska who convinces his wife, Audrey (Kristin Wiig) to "downsize" after his buddy, Dave (Jason Sudekis) and his wife do it and Dave points out that a middle-class salary translates to millions of dollars when you "go get small". But when Paul wakes up after the procedure, he finds out that Audrey declined the procedure at the last minute and has decided to stay big and leave Paul.

This leads Paul to move into an apartment (albeit a pretty sweet one) since he can no longer afford his mini-mansion. There, he meets Dusan (Christoph Waltz), his upstairs neighbor and European party-boy, who, in turn leads Paul to meet Ngoc Lan Tran (Hong Chau), Dusan's cleaning lady. Ngoc Lan was a Vietnamese political activist shrunk against her will. Now she lives in the slums outside Leisureland (the premiere small community where Paul lives), works as a cleaning lady, and by night brings all the impoverished and sick people in the slums food and medicine (often stolen from the people she cleans for). When she finds out that Paul is an occupational therapist, she drags him back with her as "doctor" to help her sick friends.

Long story short, Paul, who thinks his life is ruined because he got small and his wife left him and he lost his license to practice occupational therapy, finds new meaning and joy to life in helping those less fortunate. Honestly, this is the most open-hearted and optimistic Alexander Payne film I've seen.

The themes are pretty obvious (even though middle-class people who get small also get rich, poor people just get small and stay poor; no one gives a shit about the environment, they just want money and to party), but the concept is so unique that even the one-the-nose social messages seem fresh and interesting. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed (and was emotionally touched by) this film, especially since it got middling reviews when it came out. I highly recommend it!

Grade: A-

***
The Death of Stalin

Armando Iannucci's pitch-black satire about, well, the death of Stalin, is hilarious and absurd. Starring a bunch of British and American actors playing Stalin and his inner circle, all while using their own accents, this film feels like a Monty Python joint (it even stars Michael Palin!).

Taking place in 1953, Joseph Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin) croaks, forcing his council, made up of Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi), Lavrentiy Beria (Simon Russell Beale), Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor), Vyacheslav Molotov (Michael Palin), and others (but fuck, these people's names are hard to spell, so I'm stopping there) to figure out how to carry on without him. They elect Georgy to step in for Stalin, but both Beria and Khruschev are hoping to pull power away from the other. Beria is true believer in Stalin (and also delights in rounding up traitors and killing them...and, uh, raping young girls. He's the Big Bad) and continues to threaten his comrades in the inner circle, even though technically the man who enforces such blind groupthink is dead. Nicky Khrushev, on the other hand, is the more liberal reformer who wants to end the round-ups and killings. So, he works with the other men in Stalin's inner circle to take out Beria.

The plot isn't too difficult to follow, although it is somewhat difficult to explain in a review, so I'll stop there and just say that The Death of Stalin finds a way to make light of the horrific monsters who were collectively responsible for the deaths of millions of innocents (Hitler always gets the glory of the worst genocidal maniac of the 20th century, but Stalin was a worthy competitor). Just as films like Four Lions, Jojo Rabbit, and The Interview take evil people and make it safe to laugh at them, The Death of Stalin walks that fine line between laughing at evil men and humanizing them. I mean, granted, they *were* all too human in their greed and power-thirsty ways, but movies like this need to make sure they never tip into suggesting that these men might be, you know, ok guys. I think Iannucci does a fabulous job walking this line--he always presents these men as inherently bad people, even if they're doing and saying silly things.

I honestly feel like I need to watch this film again to fully appreciate it. I was coming at it from the perspective of someone who knows almost nothing about Russian history, so I had some difficulty keeping up. Those who are more familiar with the history of Soviet Russia will likely enjoy it even more than I did. But the central idea that absolute loyalty to the party remains a relevant one today. Even folks who are on the left should keep in mind that revolutions don't stop with the killing of the "bad guys"--soon enough, you'll be the one facing the bullet or the noose.


Grade: B+