"Hail Caesar!" and The Week in Reviews

[I review the new Coen Brothers film "Hail, Caesar!" and the DVDs "Truth" and "The Visit." The Book of the Week is Brene Brown's "Daring Greatly."  I also bring you up-to-date on "My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die" with Michelangelo Antonioni's "L'Avventura."]


Hail, Caesar!

It's the early 1950's in the waning days of The Golden Age of Hollywood and a famous actor is kidnapped.

What you can count on from the Coen Brothers is that the film will be fresh, original and quirky. Think "Fargo," "The Big Lebowski" and "No Country For Old Men."

Here we have Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), the head of the fictional Capitol Pictures and Hollywood studio fixer (who was a real person, by the way), making sure the viewing public doesn't know just how jaded their beloved movie stars really are. That is certainly something that would not be possible today with social media reporting everything from a star's latest romance to his issues with passing gas.

Mannix is a deeply religious man who goes to confession so many times that the priest tells him to cool it.  He is in the midst of producing his big religious epic (think Cecil B. DeMille) "Hail, Caesar! A Story of the Christ" starring leading man Baird Whitlock (George Clooney).  He also has to deal with swimming diva DeeAnna Moran's (Scarlett Johansson) illegitimate child and turning singing cowboy Hobie Doyle (charmingly played by Alden Ehrenreich) into a sophisticated romantic star.  Amidst all of this, Whitlock is kidnapped.

The Coen brothers have created a loving and hilarious send-up of the movies at the end of the Golden Age of Hollywood, a time of innocence when we believed what we saw in the movies was real and that our heroes were as lily-white and scandal free as portrayed by the studio driven movie magazines.  But now we know that behind all of that dancing and singing and drawing room elegance were the dark secrets of the real lives of our idols- sex (gasp!), illegitimate babies (gasp!), homosexuality (gasp!). 

But the stars were protected by the studios.  There was always someone like Eddie Mannix, who was the fixer, who made sure the stars, but more importantly, the studios, the moneymakers, were protected from scandal. But that time of innocence was about to end as the fear of "the bomb" hovered over everyone and Hollywood started blacklisting anyone who even breathed the word "Communist." 

This is a bunch of movies within a movie. The Coen Brothers have the clichés from the movies of that era covered: a singing, dancing Gene Kelly character channeling "Anchors Aweigh," a swimming goddess like Esther Williams, a singing cowboy - think Gene Autry and Roy Rogers - and an effete director specializing in elegant drawing room dramas. 

Highlights include Channing Tatum dancing up a storm as a Gene Kelly clone in a dance number that has some moves that never would have made it past the censors in the 50's and Johansson channeling Esther Williams except with a Brooklyn accent and chewing gum (Johansson played that same kind of character in "Don Jon" and I love her doing that gun moll kind of character).

Ralph Fiennes as stuffy effete director Laurence Laurentz has one of the funniest scenes in the film as he works to whip cowboy actor Hobie Doyle into a sophisticate for a drawing room drama by trying to teach Hobie, with his pronounced cowboy drawl, how to say "Would that it 'twere so simple." Classic. And speaking of Ralph, when did he get so funny? How did he go from "Schindler's List" and "The English Patient," where he turned brooding into an art, to "The Grand Budapest Hotel" to this?  It doesn't matter.  He can do anything.

There is also a particularly funny scene where Mannix assembles religious leaders from the various religions to get their approval of his depiction of Christ in the film.  They get into an argument about Jesus' relationship to God. You had to have been there.

This Golden Age of Hollywood homage is wonderfully funny. But one wonders how many of these old Hollywood references anyone under the age of 50 might recognize, unless they are devoted movie lovers, and there are too many references to count.  Tilda Swinton hilariously plays twin sister gossip columnists, Thora and Thessaly Thacker, a nod to Hedda Hopper and Luella Parsons who were not twins. They were not even sisters, but they might as well have been, because they were both almost interchangeable old bitties plying their trade at the same time, and Esther Williams did lead a sexually adventurous life (read her book) despite her wholesome screen image. Singing cowboys who couldn't act were rampant as were Hollywood scandals involving sexual preferences.  Lots for a "fixer" to do.

Brolin, who, I think, is one of our most underrated actors, carries the film well as straight man to the wacky shenanigans of the other actors, some of whom are Coen Brothers regulars: Frances McDormand looks just like you would imagine a female film editor of the day, glasses, smoking, toiling away in the dark; Clooney as Baird is handsome but brainless and very funny.

Cinematographer Roger Deakins, who worked with the Coens on their version of "True Grit" and who has embraced digital photography, shot this film on 35mm, because the Coens don't like digital and they especially wanted this film to have the look of films of old.  And thank god, because I hate digital films.

There is so much going on at any given moment, that it's difficult to figure out what the Coens are actually trying to say here.  Is this film just a love letter to The Golden Age of Hollywood or is it a comment on lost innocence, religion or blacklisting? Or something else?

It doesn't really matter.  It's good fun.  And the more you know about movies from 60 years ago, the more fun you will have.

The film is full of oblique movie references.  Mannix arranges for DeeAnna to go away, have her baby and then adopt her. Loretta Young really did adopt her own daughter as per her daughter's book.  Hobie, our western star, does a bit where he is on a date in a restaurant and turns his spaghetti into a lasso. Voila!  Spaghetti Western.  Get it?  Movie trivia fans will have a field day.

Rosy the Reviewer says...is this going to stand as a Coen Brothers classic like "Fargo" or "The Big Lebowski?"  Probably not but it is a fun evening of theatre that only the Coen Brothers can deliver.

 

***Some Movies You Might Have Missed***

(And Some You Will Be Glad You Did)!

Now Out on DVD

Truth (2015)

The "truth" behind the 2004 "60 Minutes" report about George W. Bush's military service which cost newsman Dan Rather and producer Mary Mapes their jobs.

Cate Blanchett plays Mary Mapes, a hard-hitting news woman out of the CBS office in Dallas. One of her stories, about Abu Graib, had won a Peabody and was considered one of the best pieces of journalism ever. Dan Rather (Robert Redford) was a trusted news anchor who followed Walter Cronkite in that role on the CBS Evening News and was also one of the reporters on "60" Minutes."

During the 2004 Presidential Election Campaign, Mapes gets wind of the fact that in the 1970's George W. Bush not only used connections to get into the Texas Air National Guard to avoid serving in Vietnam but once there went AWOL.  It was a story too good to be true.  Little did she know.

Mapes got a team together to investigate the story - Mike Smith (Topher Grace), Lt. Colonel Roger Charles (Dennis Quaid) and Lucy Scott (Elizabeth Moss).  Much like the Boston Globe's Spotlight Team, so wonderfully portrayed in the Oscar nominated film "Spotlight," this is an investigative team story, except this time instead of investigating pedophle priests this team is investigated allegations that George W. Bush avoided the draft and going to Vietnam by using his connections to get into the Air National Guard and then did not fulfill his duties while there.

In the course of their investigation, Mapes and her team discovered that not only did Bush get into the Guard by using connections to then Texas Governor Barnes, but in 1972 he was suspended in writing for not taking a physical and never showed up for work from 1972-73.  The next time he appeared on the record was in 1973 when he was granted an early discharge and went to Hawaii.

Question #1 - Did Bush get into the Air National Guard to avoid Vietnam?

Question #2: Did he skip his physical because drugs would have been found and did he go AWOL for a year?

Question #3: Who got him into the Air National Guard?

As the team investigated these questions, no one would talk.  They kept getting a stock answer from the higher ups:  "No strings were pulled."

Keep in mind, this was the Presidential election where Bush's opponent, John Kerry, was getting attacked by the Swift Boat group who tried to discredit Kerry's war hero status.

However, Mary finally found someone who claimed to have proof.  Lt. Col. Bill Burkett (Stacy Keach) had copies of documents that showed that Bush made no attempt to be certified to fly and that his pilot position was a critical function.  This contradicted what Bush had said about his early discharge:  that he had not been needed.

As the investigation continued, Gov. Barnes confirmed he used his position to get Bush into the ANG and with some other confirmations about the accuracy of the documents, the show aired...and then all hell broke loose and Mapes and Rather became the story. 

Strangely, it wasn't the content of the memos that were called into question but the authenticity of the memos, because supposedly the typewriter used to type them was not in use in the 1970's and it didn't help that they were copies, implying the memos were forged, typed on a computer and then made to look authentic.  Conservative websites went crazy.  ABC News went after them.  And sources started to recant.

"60 Minutes" did an internal investigation and Mary was thrown under the bus and Rather was forced to apologize on air and his career never recovered. "60 Minutes" did not stand by Mapes and Rather.  They caved and used the two of them as scapegoats. So much for journalistic guts.

Rather was clearly a father figure to Mapes and the two had a close and trusting relationship.  There is a scene at the end of the film where Mary asks Dan," Why didn't you ask me if the documents were real?" to which he replied, "Because I didn't need to."

Cate plays ballsy women like no other.  She continues to amaze.

Redford is believable as Rather.  He has captured Rather's cadence and how he sometimes garbles his words, though he could have used a bit more of Rather's drawl.

Elizabeth Moss and Randy Quaid didn't really have much to do but Topher Grace was a stand out.

Based on Mary Mapes' book (and this is clearly her version of "the truth") and adapted for the screen by James Vanderbilt (he also directed), this docudrama is a riveting newsroom story very much like the Oscar-nominated "Spotlight."  Released a month before "Spotlight," not sure how this movie got buried as it is every bit as compelling and has an all-star cast.
"60 Minutes" was riding high.  It was the first news show to ever make money.  But moral of the story?  If you go after those in power, you cannot win. When people don't like a story, they will throw all kinds of crap at it in order to obscure the truth.

There is a poignant scene between Rather and Mike Smith.  Smith asks Rather why he got into news and Rather answers, "Curiosity."  Rather then returns the question to Smith and Smith replies:  You.

Rather's career never recovered and it's sad to see him relegated to the AXS Channel and his "Big Interview" series.  It's a good show and highlights Rather's extraordinary and tactful interview ability, but who watches AXS?  It's a sad end to what was once a stellar career. 

The ending of the film has the usual ending for a docudrama:  before the end credits roll we are brought up to date on what happened to the key players - a poignant reminder of what happens when you mess with the Big Guys.  Mary Mapes never worked again.

Rosy the Reviewer says...a powerful docudrama every bit as good as "Spotlight."  It's enough to make you stop watching "60 Minutes!"

 

 

 

 

The Visit (2015)

Two kids visit their grandparents and are frightened by their strange behavior.

Kathryn Hahn starts the film by facing the camera and talking about her bad relationship with her parents who she hadn't seen for 15 years. However, she has recently made contact and arrangements for her teen daughter, Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and young son,Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), to visit them while she goes off on a cruise with a new love.  She is being interviewed by her 15-year-old daughter who is making a documentary of the reunion in hopes it will help mend the rift between her mother and her parent.  Well, you know what that means.  It's all going to get very "Blair Witch Project."

Becca and Tyler take the train to meet their grandparents, Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie), who are there waiting for them.  They go to their farm and about 20 minutes into the film, strange things start happening.  Nana has this habit of running around at night on all fours and gnawing on the woodwork.  Pop Pop has strange fits of anger.  At first the kids try to explain away the behavior, the running joke being that they are old and old people do all kinds of strange things.  When the kids ask Pop Pop about Nana's behavior, he too says old people do strange things.  Made me wonder if I can start using that excuse.  Anyway, Pop Pop tells them it's best if they don't come out of their room after 9:30.  Now right there, if someone told me that, I would be on the phone to my Mom immediately demanding to go home.

With the kids filming everything and the camera on constantly, even when it is laid down, there is a sense of ominousness and that this is going to be one of those "found footage" films.  It sort of is and sort of isn't.

I am known to dabble in the occasional horror film.  Hubby can't handle anything scary so I'm usually watching on my own.  My interest goes back a long way to the Vincent Price/Edgar Allen Poe films and my all-time favorite, "Circus of Horrors."  But those so-called horror films of the 1960's can't compete with the special effects of today.  There were no axes plunged into skulls or intestines teeming with maggots. Hubby could have probably handled this one.

Here M. Night Shyamalan harks back to those less gory films of bygone days by relying more on suspense than thrills. Shyamalan's most famous films are probably "The Sixth Sense" starring Bruce Willis, "Signs" starring Mel Gibson and "The Village," but since then he has been plagued with a series of flops.  This one is more like his early films, but sadly not as good.  I figured it out right away whereas when "The Sixth Sense" ended, my daughter had to explain it to me.

Shyamalan seems to like psychological suspense stories that lure you in and then give you a big twist.  I like his films.  They are not slasher films but more the "what the hell is going to happen next" kind of films with a big twist ending. He plays on our childhood fears of the boogie man under the bed and people not being what they appear to be. Unfortunately I figured out this big twist early on.

But what sets this apart from the usual horror film is that it's actually quite funny and purposely so. There is one funny scene where Nana asks Becca to climb inside the oven to clean it.  She does and for a minute there, I thought I was watching "Hansel and Gretel."

DeJonge and Oxenbould are appealing young actors.  They didn't annoy me at all, as precocious kids in movies usually do.  And Dunagan and McRobbie take their roles seriously. 

It's not a bad film but it's certainly not in the same league as "The Sixth Sense."  It feels more like a "Lifetime Movie." The film still has the production values of an A-list horror film but there are no A-list actors here. This movie relies on one big reveal moment.  If that doesn't work the movie doesn't work.  There are also some issues that stretch the limits of belief such as sending your kids to visit your parents when you haven't seen or spoken to them in 15 years. 

Rosy the Reviewer says...even though you will probably figure out the ending, you will still be compelled to find out if you are right.

 

 

***My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project***

261 to go!

Have YOU seen this classic film?





L'Avventura (1960)

During a boating trip, a young girl goes missing on a stark volcanic island and her friends try to find her in this early film by auteur director Michelangelo Antionioni.

Anna and Sandro are lovers but Anna (Lea Massari) is confused about their relationship and Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti) is a bit of a lothario.  They join their wealthy Roman friends Claudia (Monica Vitti), Anna's best friend and others for a Mediterranean cruise off the coast of Sicily.  They anchor on a small volcanic island, Lisca Bianca, and sunbathe and explore.  Sandro takes a snooze and when he wakes up, Anna is missing.  They scour the island and find nothing.  As the weather worsens, they all decide to leave and seek help, leaving Sandro and Claudia behind. 

Now it appears that Sandro has a hankering for Claudia.  Despite police efforts, Anna is not found and everyone leaves the island and tries to go on with their lives.  Sandro and Claudia get together but the ghost of Anna hangs over them. 

Antonioni likes the barren landscapes and themes of social isolation and lack of connection. Here he plays with the idle, decadent rich and their bored existences.  The film just drips of existential ennui.

I had a love affair with foreign films from a young age.  My friends and I, thinking ourselves very sophisticated, would talk our way into the local adults only foreign film theatre.  A fake ID didn't hurt.  We loved all of the existential stuff that was so popular in the 60's.  I mean we started the school Philosophy Club, for god sake, so we could talk about Sartre.  We were serious kids.

This one would have fit right into our existential yearnings but in 1960 I was only 12 so that would have been a hard sell to get in to see it.  Plus, I think I was still playing with Barbies when I was 12.

Anyway, this is one of Antonioni's early films.  It was booed at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival, but some critics hailed it as one of the most important films ever shown there.  Two years later an international critics poll listed it as the second greatest movie ever made.  Four years after that Antonioni came to international stardom with "Blow-up."  I WAS old enough to see that one and it blew my mind.  This film also brought stardom to Monica Vitti, who was Antonioni's muse and starred in his next two films "La Notte" and "L'Eclisse."  From the loving close-ups of her, it feels like Antonioni was in love with her too.

Why it's a Must See:  "Although writer-director Michelangelo Antonioni had been making documentaries and features for nearly twenty years, this epic-length film was his major artistic and commercial breakthrough."
---"1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die"

Rosy the Reviewer says...perfect film for a dark rainy day so you can tap into your existential angst, and it's worth it just to drown in the gorgeousness that is Monica Vitti.

 

 

***Book of the Week***

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead by Brene Brown (2015)

Brene Brown teaches us how to have the courage to be vulnerable.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; . . . who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”—Theodore Roosevelt

This quote is at the heart of Brene Brown's book and the work she does.  She made a huge hit at a TED talk she did on this topic and has emerged as one of Oprah's self-help darlings. I have even signed up for her video course as part of my self-help binge that I am on.

Vulnerability is not being a wimpy little victim.  That is not the kind of vulnerability Brown talks about.  Brown equates vulnerability with courage.  It's the courage to show up, to put yourself out there, to step into the arena - the arena of life.

Brown uses lots of imagery that reflects "the arena," such as the armor we wear as we go about life and the "shields" we use to combat feeling vulnerable.  The three most common "shields" being "foreboding joy," perfectionism" and "numbing."

"Foreboding Joy" is all about feeling something is too good to be true so we must have to pay somehow for feeling happy.  We wait for the other shoe to drop.  And by the way, do you know where that phrase came from?  Well since I am always trying to help, educate and provide a public service (comes from my years as a librarian) here it is:  In the early 1900's when immigrants flooded into the cities and people were crammed into apartment building, you could literally hear your upstairs neighbors taking off their shoes at night.  Once you heard the first show drop, you would wait for the other shoe to drop.  Get it?  You are welcome.  And you can thank Brene too. 

Anyway, my mother was great at "foreboding joy" and passed it down to me.  Don't get too happy.  Otherwise, something bad might happen.  It think it's a Swedish thing.  I always liked to think that if I anticipated the worst, then it wouldn't happen. 

The way to combat "foreboding joy?"  Gratitude.

Next, perfectionism is the belief that "if we do things perfectly and look perfect, we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgment and shame...[it's] a twenty-ton shield that we lug around, thinking it will protect us, when in fact it's the thing that's really preventing us from being seen." 

The antidote to perfectionism?  "To be kinder and gentler to ourselves and each other.  To talk to ourselves the same way we'd talk to someone we care about."

And finally, "numbing."  It's not just wine, pills and cigarettes, it's also being crazy-busy or anything else you do to numb the anxiety, shame and disconnection you are feeling. 

What to do?  Learn how to actually feel feelings and how to lean into the discomfort of hard emotions.

This is just a taste of her book and what we need to do to live a "whole-hearted" life, but if that is what you want, to live fully, you need to have the courage to be vulnerable.

If you are interested in learning more about Brene and her courses go brenebrown.com or watch this TED talk and see what you think.

Rosy the Reviewer says...Read the book and I will see you in the Arena!

That's it for this week!

See You Tuesday for

"A Letter to My Newborn Granddaughter"

 

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Check your local library for DVDs and books mentioned.

Next time you are wondering whether or not to watch a particular film, check out my reviews on IMDB (The International Movie Database). 

Go to IMDB.com, find the movie you are interested in.  Once there, click on the link that says "Explore More" on the right side of the screen.  Scroll down to External Reviews and when you get to that page, you will find Rosy the Reviewer alphabetically on the list.

NOTE:  On some entries, this has changed.  If you don't see "Explore More" on the right side of the screen, scroll down just below the description of the film in the middle of the page.  Find where it says "Reviews" and click on "Critics." Look for "Rosy the Reviewer" on the list.

Or if you are using a mobile device, look for "Critics Reviews." Click on that and you will find me alphabetically under "Rosy the Reviewer."

Interview With a Librarian

Recently an eighth grade girl asked to interview me about my career as a librarian.

She was working in her school library and in order to get credit she needed to write a report about the profession.

She asked me 13 questions that ranged from what kind of education a librarian needs (a master's degree) to what pay you can expect (not much) to skills that would be helpful (just about everything) to what is the work environment like (it depends).

I had to explain to her that my responses mostly related to working in public libraries.  Though I had worked in a college library and a medical library, most of my 40 years were spent working with the public out on the front lines and as a manager in a public library environment.

I expanded on those answers, but the question that really had me thinking was:

What have you learned from being a librarian?

I can't really remember how I answered that question for the young girl, but it struck me as a question I hadn't really thought about.  "What had I learned from being a librarian?" I have been thinking about that question ever since and wanted to sort that out, so here I am.

I have written quite a bit about libraries and librarians, sometimes in a humorous way, sometimes in a serious way, but I haven't really addressed that particular question.  So after much thought and late night glasses of wine, this is what I have come up with.


What have I learned from being a librarian?



I have learned that

• being a librarian involves many skills and tasks that we never learned in library school, such as plunging the public toilets several times per week. 

I know, ha, ha.  But for some reason, putting whole rolls of toilet paper into the toilet is a fun activity for some people. Not fun for me, though, when I am wearing a cute outfit with fancy shoes and the toilet stall is amok with water.  And again, ha ha.  Yes, librarians wear cute outfits and fancy shoes.  

Another skill that I did not learn in library school - oh, right, it's not called library school anymore.  It's Information School because for some reason LIBRARY is a dirty word.  OK, sorry, I am ranting. 

So another skill not learned in library, er, Information School, is "reuniting "lost children" with their parents who are obliviously using the public computers."  And then there is the fielding complaints thing from the smell in the lobby to "why is that man in the corner staring at me?" I was not warned about any of that in Information School. "Putting out fires" should be in the curriculum as well as on the job description because a librarian's typical day consists of what anyone would have to do when managing staff and working with the public in a public space. 

      (I wrote a blog post called "What Do Librarian's Really Do" back in 2014
       that illustrates that).

• managing and working in a library requires the same skills as any business: good customer service skills, the ability to lead, initiative, creativity. 

For some reason, people think that all we are doing in the library is what you see happening out in the public areas, which sometimes, I confess, can look chaotic. Several years ago when I was managing a branch library, a woman came in who wanted to volunteer.  Library staff welcome volunteers from the community.  They add value by doing tasks that library staff often don't have time to do.  The woman informed me that she wanted to volunteer because she felt she needed to whip us into shape.  She didn't think we were doing what we were supposed to be doing.  We signed her up and, let's just say, it wasn't long before she realized what really went into running a library.  I think I saw her hair turn white over the course of five weeks. She came to me and said, "I had no idea what you all go through to keep this place going!" 

• having a sense of humor when I tell people I am a librarian is important because they will most likely put their finger to their lips and go "SHHHH," or say "I bet you read a lot of books," implying that's what I do on the job, or "You don't look like a librarian." 

The sense of humor is important because what I really want to do is bop them. 

Stereotypes still remain when it comes to libraries and librarians, despite the fact that libraries are not dusty institutions run by ugly old bats. Well, mostly not.

• people like the idea of having a public library even though they never go there.  

A library is a part of the fabric of the community.  They know it's something good to have and they want to have it.  Don't try to take a little branch library away from a community.

But ask the regular person on the street or in a bar or at a party if he or she goes to the library and you will inevitably hear, "I haven't been in a library since I was a little kid," or "I buy my books" or worse yet, "I haven't read a book in years."  But then, after I get over my initial impulse to bop, I realize that people don't really care about public libraries that much.  They just don't think about them.  Why should they? As a librarian, libraries were always on my mind because I lived and breathed them but that just isn't the case for most of the public. They take them for granted as part of what is expected in the community, but they don't necessarily see them as a part of a successful life.  And if we librarians don't make the case for how important they are, why should they?

• libraries have not done a very good job of promoting themselves and their services. 

When I was younger I used to think that if people knew all of the services and materials that were available for free at the library, they would be beating the door down.  It was just a matter of good PR and we would be beating people off with a stick.  I thought that 40 years ago and still think it's true, but for those 40 years, little has changed. I have come to realize that the library is not the first place people think of when they have a question or problem and no amount of talking about it will change that until they have a personal issue that takes them to the library and they find out for themselves.  Then they are converts!  But until then, the stereotypes remain.

I call that the "ME FACTOR," (and I wrote about that back in 2014). 

• if public libraries want to be community gathering places, and many do, then the "rules" need to be relaxed.

Food and drink should be available, there should be areas for noise and vitality and areas for quiet study and staff should be welcoming, professional and knowledgeable and be able to deal with members of the public who want the library to be a quiet, old-fashioned place (and yes, there are still some of those).  Some libraries do that very well; others still have restrictive rules.

And by knowledgeable and professional, I mean that a librarian should know as much about "Dancing with the Stars" and Kim Kardashian as she does about Dostoyevsky and Beatrix Potter and treat questions about them as equally important. No one should feel demeaned by their questions or interests.

 

Those are the things that I have learned about being a librarian that have also frustrated me over the years.

I didn't share any of that with the young girl. 

I didn't want to discourage her because the truth is, despite some of the issues, ask any librarian.  Nine times out of ten, when asked how he or she likes being a librarian, that librarian will respond positively. 

Despite my feelings about what libraries could do better, what I have learned from being a librarian is that Librarianship is a noble profession that provides a life of service to our communities. 

Librarians help people every day and librarians and libraries protect Americans' rights to access to information, their right to read what they want without censorship and libraries provide a place to share that information. People need a place they can go to where they can get information on all sides of a question and ask questions without judgment.

We will always need libraries and librarians. 

The Internet has not taken that need away. 

One of the mottos of the American Library Association used to be "The right book for the right person at the right time."  I think that's still true, but we only need to change a couple of words to make it say that much more about libraries: 

"The right information and services for the right person at the right time." 

That's what librarians do every day.  They provide vetted information in a timely manner for people who need it that helps them live a better life and make sense of the world they live in.

As I wrote back in April of 2014 in a post called "Why We Need Librarians," I talked about how often a library customer would come to me looking for help, telling me not to bother looking on the Internet because he or she had already looked there and didn't find the answer to his or her question.  I would quickly do a search and find the information and the customer would say, "How did you do that?" I wanted to say, "This is what I do. I am a Librarian." But I didn't.

If you have been reading my blog, it's no secret that I once wanted to be an actress and trained as one.  I actually was in a play directed by Karl Malden.
I dreamed of one day winning a Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) Award or, dare I say it? - an Oscar.

When I watch the SAG Awards, I always enjoy the opening where actors introduce the show and themselves. 

The camera goes from one actor to another and each does a little intro like this...

and they all end their statements by saying proudly, "I am an actor."

So what have I learned being a librarian?

 

 

 

"I dreamed of being an actor.

But when I didn't become an actor, what could I do?

I became a librarian

And for 40 years I have been helping people make sense of the world they live in (in a most theatrical way)!

 

I am Rosy the Reviewer

And I am (proud to be) a Librarian!"

 

 

Thanks for Reading!

 

See you Friday

 

for my review of the new movie

"Hail, Caesar!"

and 

The Week in Reviews

 (What to See or Read and What to Avoid)

  

 and the latest on
  

"My 1001 Movies I Must See Before

 I Die Project."

 

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"Anomalisa" and The Week in Reviews

[I review the new movie "Anomalisa" and DVDs "Blind" and "The New Girlfriend." The Book of the Week is "The Wild Truth," by the sister of Chris McCandless, who was the subject of the book and movie "Into the Wild."  I also bring you up to date on my "1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project" with "The Draughtsman's Contract."]





Anomalisa

Michael Stone is a specialist in customer service and is in Cincinnati to give a speech.  While there, he meets Lisa, who seems to be a wonderful anomaly in what is his boring, unsatisfied and mid-life crisis life.
 
As Henry David Thoreau said in "Walden," "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation" and that seems to be the case for Michael Stone.  It's an irony that he is in Cincinnati to give a speech about good customer service, because Michael does not seem to connect with other human beings and is not a happy man. 

In his hotel room alone, he calls his wife and talks to his son and it's clear that none of these people are particularly happy.  Later he calls an old girlfriend and meets up with her but that doesn't go well either.  Then he meets two women, Emily and Lisa, who are customer service reps in Cincinnati to hear his speech.  They are both in awe of Michael and when he invites them downstairs for a drink, they get a bit drunk and Lisa ends up in Michael's room where they have sex. 

Up until he meets Lisa, everyone sounds the same to Michael, literally (all of the voices are provided by one actor - Tom Noonan).  When Michael hears Lisa's voice he is lifted out of his funk, because Lisa's voice is different.  That's because it's Jennifer Jason Leigh's voice.  Michael sees Lisa as an anomaly in a dreary life and dubs her "Anomalisa."  He thinks she can save him.  But we all know how that kind of thing goes, right?

The characters are animated puppets and nothing was done to hide the puppet-like structure of the faces which all looked like the same mask.  And with one person's voice used for all of the characters, except Michael and Lisa, we are thrust into Michael's life where he makes no connections, where everyone looks and sounds the same, living life like a puppet.

There is an irony in Michael's specialty - customer service - where he exhorts people to treat everyone as individuals, to smile and to realize everyone needs love.  He should have added, "even though inside we don't really feel that way."  So much for customer service.

This is a three-hander with David Thewlis providing the voice of Michael, Jennifer Jason Leigh as Lisa and Tom Noonan as everyone else, male, female, young and old.  It's a very effective, though initially startling, effect that illustrates how swept up into the faceless crowd our lives can get.

We are also reminded that animation can do things live actors sometimes can't, though these days almost anything goes in the movies.  But animated characters in full-frontal nudity, indulging in oral sex and doing the deed right in front of us can be unsettling, so don't mistake this for a cartoon and take the kids.

I have always been a big fan of Thewlis, whose quirky looks have starred in many films from "Naked" to "The Big Lebowski" to the "Harry Potter" films.  His lovely English accent provides a nice counterpoint to Noonan's rather monotonous and actually ominous voice playing all of the other characters.  Jennifer Jason Leigh, whose movie career was soaring in the mid-90's and then seemed to sputter out to smaller roles and television, has had a bit of a rebirth in recent years with her Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for "The Hateful Eight" and now a starring role in this, even if it is only her voice.

Written by Charlie Kaufman who also gave us "Being John Malkovich" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" among others (he also co-directed with Duke Johnson), this is decidedly an adult animated feature film with adult themes.  It's the first R-rated animated film to be nominated for an Oscar in the Best Animated Feature category.

Rosy the Reviewer says...with its effective stop-motion animation and existential message, this unusual film is worthy of its Oscar nomination in the Best Animated Feature category.

 

***Some Movies You Might Have Missed***

(And Some You Will Be Glad You Did)!

Now Out on DVD

The New Girlfriend (2014)

Claire and Laura have been best friends since childhood.  But when Laura dies, Claire discovers her secret.

Claire (Anais Demoustier) and Laura (Isild Le Besco) swore BFF-dom at an early age, even sealing the deal in blood.  They grew up together, got married together, Laura to David (Roman Duris) and Claire to Gilles (a very handsome Raphael Personnaz) and Laura had a little girl, Lucie.  But then Laura dies, leaving David alone to care for the baby and Claire, bereft at losing her best friend and confidante.

Claire, as Lucie's godmother, vows to help David raise Lucie.  One day when she arrives at David's house to help with the baby, she finds David rocking her... dressed in a wig and one of Laura's dresses.

Thus the secret at the heart of this movie is revealed -  that Laura's husband has the desire to dress as a woman.  At first Claire is shocked, but as David explains, it is not a sexual thing and he is not gay.  When he was married to Laura he was able to suppress the urge, but since her death it had come back. He also tells Claire that he believes Lucie needs the comfort of a feminine presence.

David confides in Claire that when he dressed Laura in her wedding dress for her funeral, his true feelings of wanting to live as a woman came out and that he liked to dress as a woman.  After her initial shock, Claire is at first curious about David and helps David transform into "Virginia," and "she" becomes Claire's new best girlfriend, which reminded me of Gerda, Einar's wife in "The Danish Girl," who instigated her husband to dress as a woman until she realized he wanted to live as a woman.

The two go off on a weekend together and David is dressed as Virginia, his alter ego, and he revels in his new role.  But it becomes clear that Claire has some feelings she did not expect, feelings that she may have harbored for Laura all along.  Likewise, it seems that David wants to become Laura. As David/Virginia becomes more feminine, Claire, who is usually more shy and reticent, dresses and acts in a more masculine manner.

Claire has conflicted feelings about David and pulls away, telling David he is sick and breaks her ties with him.  But she eventually tells David she misses Virginia and they embark on an affair, but you know something has to happen.  A near tragedy intervenes.

Though similar in theme to "The Danish Girl," this film takes on the subject matter with more humor and lightness.  There is a funny scene where Claire waxes David/Virginia and also David's attempts to "hide" Virginia.  A guest unexpectedly arrives when David is Virginia and he quickly removes his make-up, forgetting his lipstick.

The couples live in gorgeous upper-middle class neighborhoods, which curiously, don't look the least bit French, but rather like American suburbs suggesting this certainly is not something that would just happen in France. The film is beautifully photographed by cinematographer Pascal Marti and has the look and feel of a Todd Haynes film where the beautiful images belie the secrets that lie behind their middle class facades.  There is an operatic score throughout that foreshadows the climactic events to come. 

Duris is a fixture in French films.  He has one of those faces that is unforgettable.  He is totally believable here.  Demoustier channels a young Meryl Streep and has a luminous quality that is utterly charming, though her character is maddening..

This is a timely film in light of Caitlyn Jenner, "The Danish Girl" and Todd Haynes' latest film "Carol," the many discussions around transgender issues and sexual identity. It's interesting that when Claire tells her husband about David, she can't bring herself to tell him that he cross-dresses.  She tells him he is homosexual as if it is more shocking to tell her husband that David wants to dress as a woman than that he was homosexual. However, David is not homosexual.  He loves women and so, apparently, does Claire.

Directed by Francois Ozon (who also adapted the screenplay from a Ruth Rendell story) this is a study in the complex issues surrounding sexual identity and avoids the usual stereotypes.  It's never clear whether or not David equates wearing women's clothes as a sexual thing or that he is actually transgender. Likewise, where Claire is sexually remains ambiguous, which makes the film all the more intriguing and real.

Rosy the Reviewer says...I really liked this film and if you liked "The Danish Girl" or you are a fan of Todd Haynes' films, you will too.
(In French with English subtitles)







Blind (2014)

Ingrid (Ellen Dorrit Petersen), a young Norwegian woman in her thirties, is newly blind and confined to her apartment where she has an active imagination - or is it her imagination?

Ingrid's husband, Morten (Henrik Raphaelsen), goes to work and she is alone in their apartment, afraid to leave.  What must that be like to have the whole day ahead all alone and to be blind?  The slow pace of the film reflects that.  Sounds are magnified, doors shutting, muffled voices from outside but the film also reflects the fear one might experience being alone and blind. You might imagine all kinds of thing such as your husband not really being at work but being in the apartment watching you.

Ingrid's voiceover tells us that she has not always been blind but that it is becoming harder and harder for her to remember what things looked like when she could see. Though she is alone during the day, she goes about her day, making coffee and cleaning up.  But she is also writing a book.

The camera uses close-ups on everything: hair, hands, eyes, all in a cruel irony underlining the fact that Ingrid is blind and not only can no longer see details but sees nothing.  The film is beautiful to look at, again an irony in a film about blindness.

Then in counterpoint to Ingrid, Einar (Marius Kolbenstvetd) appears.  Einar is a perv. He is addicted to Internet porn and peeping on the woman whose apartment window is across from his. There is a bit of "Rear Window" here.  We realize that he is watching Elin (Vera Vitali), a divorced woman from Sweden who is alone on the weekends when her son is with his Dad.

Einar starts stalking Elin.  Einer also runs into Ingrid's husband.  They are old school mates but it becomes clear that Einar was not popular but the two reconnect over movies. And then to add to the complications, Ingrid's husband, Morten, uses the computer to chat with women and one of those women is Elin.

Einar is watching Elin who is talking to Morten who is married to Ingrid.

Then Elin goes spontaneously blind...and you say, WHAAAT??

This is one of those films with seemingly unrelated characters whose lives collide but then you wonder -- hey, what's going on here? Is all of this in Ingrid's imagination?  Is this the book she is writing?

Eventually we realize that Ingrid is writing a novel and not everything we see is to be believed. Elin and Einar are figments of Ingrid's imagination (which is what happens when you are left alone for long periods of time).  Not sure about Ingrid's husband, but I think she was also making stuff about him too. What I thought at first were continuity issues were part of the story as backdrops to the action shift unexpectedly.  These characters, whether real or only in Ingrid's mind, are all at the mercy of her imagination and so are we.

Petersen is a lovely but cold presence, as pale and cool as a Norwegian winter, and her colors when she is on screen are all white and gray.

This is the film debut of director Eskil Vogt, who heretofore has been a screenwriter for Joachim Trier's films. 

Rosy the Reviewer says...a strange but compelling study of loneliness and isolation.
(In Norwegian with English subtitles)

***My 1001 Movies I Must See Before I Die Project***

 

262 to go!

Have YOU seen this classic film?





The Draughtsman's Contract (1982)

Mr. Neville, a philandering 17th century artist, is hired by Mrs. Herbert to make a series of 12 drawings of her husband's estate, but the contract also includes sexual favors.

Neville (Anthony Higgins) is a draughtsman, but he is also a womanizer.  Mrs. Herbert (Janet Suzman) wants Neville to do the drawings of the estate for her husband in order to save her marriage.  She offers eight pounds per drawing and room and board, but Neville also requires that she comply with his request for certain "pleasures."

The film soon becomes a murder mystery as Mr. Herbert's body is discovered on the estate and Mr. Neville is accused.  It all goes downhill from there.

This followed Janet Suzman's triumph in "Nicholas and Alexandria" by 10 years. And its cheeky style seems to have inspired "Amadeus," which followed two years later.  "Amadeus" had the same cynical satiric feel as this one.  It's a satire on the wigs, the clothes, the fops, the silliness of the 17th century wealthy class.

Why it's a Must See: "...the narrative confounds rather than clarifies.  But there is a sparkling wit and pleasing theatrical playfulness to the film, which made it an unexpected British hit. The grand country estate is exquisitely captured by Curtis Clark's cinematography, while Michael Nyman's music, which uses motifs from Purcell, is a joy.  One of the most striking directorial debuts of recent British cinema, [this film] remains Greenaway's most accessible film."
---"1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die"

Written and directed by Peter Greenaway, if you saw his "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover," you know you are going to see something that pushes the envelope, and yes, this film might be more accessible than that one or some of his others.  But even "1001 Movies..." says it "confounds."  And it does.  So I didn't get this comedy's inclusion in the "1001 Movies" I must see before I die, when other comedies, such as early Peter Seller's films like "I Love You Alice B. Toklas" and The Pink Panther films, are not.  I don't get it.

Rosy the Reviewer says...I will be brief.  I didn't like it.

***Book of the Week***

The Wild Truth by Carine McCandless (2015)

Chris McCandliss and his death alone in the wilderness of Alaska was made famous in Jon Krakauer's book "Into the Wild."  Here Chris's sister shares her story and what she believes happened to Chris.

Krakauer interviewed Carine when he was writing "Into the Wild."  She showed him some letters Chris had written to her and shared stories about her family but asked Krakauer not to use the information in his book.  But now Carine wants the truth to be told and to shed light on why Chris went into the Alaskan wilderness.

This book is mostly Carine's memoir about growing up with Chris in an abusive, drunken and dysfunctional family and how that ultimately affected her and her relationships.  She shares many stories of their parents' outrageous behavior and her father's "other family," much of what was glossed over in Krakauer's book.  Carine believes that the abuse and lack of connection to his parents were the reasons Chris went into the wilderness.

"I believe Chris went into the wilderness in search of what was lacking in his childhood: peace, purity, honesty.  And he understood there was nowhere better for him to find that than in nature."

My main criticism here is what I have felt reading some books about excessive child abuse and really, really dysfunctional families. The more I get hit over the head with incident after incident, the more it feels unreal.  Of course, that's just my feeling and probably has more to do with the writing style here than the veracity of the information.

All in all, though, this book doesn't really answer the question of why Chris went into the Alaskan wilderness and starved to death.  We will never know. 

Rosy the Reviewer says...This could be a good accompaniment to "Into the Wild," but does not in any way replace that remarkable book.

 

 

That's it for this week!

 

Thanks for Reading!

 

 

See you Tuesday for

 

"Interview with a Librarian"

 

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Check your local library for DVDs and books mentioned.

Next time you are wondering whether or not to watch a particular film, check out my reviews on IMDB (The International Movie Database). 

Go to IMDB.com, find the movie you are interested in.  Once there, click on the link that says "Explore More" on the right side of the screen.  Scroll down to External Reviews and when you get to that page, you will find Rosy the Reviewer alphabetically on the list.

NOTE:  On some entries, this has changed.  If you don't see "Explore More" on the right side of the screen, scroll down just below the description of the film in the middle of the page.  Find where it says "Reviews" and click on "Critics." Look for "Rosy the Reviewer" on the list.

Or if you are using a mobile device, look for "Critics Reviews." Click on that and you will find me alphabetically under "Rosy the Reviewer."