Thursday, December 28, 2017

9 Of Note

Today's Vault explores films from classics to current films worth your while. Remember:   Life is too short for bad movies.
Christopher Plummer as J.Paul Getty in All the Money in the World


     
             All The Money In The World
             2017 - Ridley Scott
             Rated R: 2hrs 22min
            Vault Rating: 6






J. Paul Getty was the guy who first figured out how to get oil out of Saudi Arabia.  In doing so, he became the richest man in the history of the world.  He is an odd subject, then, for Director Ridley Scott, who's made some of the great science fiction films in cinema history.

"All the Money in the World" is a dark portrait based on the 1973 abduction in Rome of Getty's grandson and his ensuing reluctance to pay a ransom for the boy's release.  You could be forgiven for not missing Kevin Spacey in the lead role.  Scott fired Spacey after sexual harassment allegations surfaced and re-shot his scenes with Christopher Plummer in a lead performance that is Oscar-worthy.

The portrayal of a man who would make Ebenezer Scrooge seem generous is unkind at best and, for this writer, calls into question either the man's mental health or, more broadly, the potential disastrous effects of wealth on the wealthy.  The man is unlikable.  There are few people in the film who are likeable.  Thus, having played the story more or less straight, you get an unlikable film.  That said, Scott presents it expertly.  Just don't go and expect to see the typical ransom story pay-off, okay?

Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf in "Lady Bird"




                Lady Bird
                2017 - Greta Gerwig
                Rated R : 1 hr 34 mins
                Vault Rating: 9





"Lady Bird" has to be hands down the best picture of  2017.  If you don't wanna take Vault's word for it, ask the Golden Globes or stroll on down to Rotten Tomatoes where this little gem is the top rated film in the web site's history.

It is the story of a headstrong girl (Saoirse Ronan) coming of age in a catholic school in Sacremento, California.  She's got a passive-aggressive mother (Laurie Metcalf) and challenges every convention in her world which leads to a humorous, poignant and heart rending film.  I think I wept at least twice and was happy when the audience combusted into warm applause at the film's end.

It is refreshing to have a feminine story told from a feminine perspective.  With female directors asserting themselves more broadly these days, stories like "Lady Bird" will seem less and less like they come from some foreign country.  The winner is the film-going public.




Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri
2017 - Martin McDonagh
Rater R : 1 hr 55 mins
Vault Rating: 9


Three Billboards plays like a Cohen Brothers' movie and not just because it stars Cohen favorite Frances McDormand as a mother grieving the unsolved murder of her daughter.  The film takes wild Cohen-esque turns that at first surprise the viewer and then seem downright plausible when you think about it.

It all begins when Mildred (McDormand), frustrated at the lack of arrests in her daughter's unsolved murder, pays for three billboards that question local authorities.  What follows are very natural, often shocking and in some cases predictable consequences.

What you don't get are one-dimensional characters.  Each role in this film is complex, dynamic and lively and it makes for a real crowd-pleaser.    Nominated for 6 Golden Globes including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress.


The Red Shoes
1948 - Michael Powell / Emeric Pressburger
Britain : 2 hrs 14 mins
Vault Rating: 8

Drama musical about a young ballerina (Moira Shearer) who is torn between her love, composer Julian Craster (Marius Goring ) and the iron willed manager of the ballet (Anton Walbrook).

Regarded as the most beautiful in cinema about the ballet, it is a phantasm for the eyes and rightly won Best Art Design-Set Decoration and Color Oscar and best Music and Scoring Oscar on top of that.

Shearer is a top flight dancer and should be hallowed among the screen's most radiant beauties for this stunning performance.

The story is adapted from the Hans Christian-Anderson story of the girl who puts on the red shoes and dances until she dies.  Here, however, she portrays a rising dancer torn between her two loves.

The performance numbers are masterpieces and would reward many, many viewings.

Setsuko Hara  as Noriko in Yasujiro Ozu's "Late Spring."


               Late Spring
               Japan - 1949
               D: Yasujiro Ozu
               Drama - 108 minutes
               VR: 8


A classic of Japanese cinema observes life, love and loss between a widowed man and his daughter in post-war Tokyo.

It is late spring, thematically when flowers and forests burst with life, and we find Noriko, at age 27, rather old for a single woman in the culture, lovingly taking care of her father, Shukichi, who, at age 56, is in the autumn of life.

The cultural imperative toward marriage is heavy, yet there are divorcees (gasp!), working women (shocking!), women pregnant out of wedlock (terrible!) and men who’ve remarried (filthy!).  You know: Life.

Noriko is the classic devoted daughter who wouldn’t think of leaving father to fend for himself.  But Ozu shows us subtle longing when she takes a platonic bike ride to the beach with a male friend of the family who, happily or not, is engaged to marry a younger woman.  Indeed, the prospects of arranged marriage run throughout and Noriko’s auntie has found her a nice 37 year old man who rather “looks like Gary Cooper.”

Through it all, we observe the very real feelings of familial and cultural drift in a world that is also changing.  There is honor.  There is duty.  There is doing the right thing.  But there is also moving on.




               My Happy Family
               2017 Republic of Georgia
               D:  Nana Ekvtimishvili, Simon Groß
               Run time : 2 hours
               Vault Rating: 8

A middle aged school teacher, Manana ( Ia Shugliashvili), leaves her family to live on her own in 1992 Tiblisi.  This thoughtful drama examines the thick bonds of a Georgian patriarchal family and women's issues of the time that are still relevant today.

The story finds the ever suffering Manana living under the same roof as her parents, her husband, their children and even their fiances.  Every day she endures the nagging of her mother and the demands casually placed on the shoulders of a good wife.  She is not even allowed to enjoy her birthday in peace without her family inviting over the entire neighborhood, forcing her to entertain deep into the morning hours.

It is another feminine story written and (co) directed from a woman's point of view, something that is coming more and more into vogue and its about high time.  This one can be found on Netflix and kudos to them for bringing such original voices to the screen.



Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon in "Atlantic City"


              Atlantic City
              1980 - Louis Malle
              Rated R - 104 mins
              Vault Rating 8.5

Here is a film that captures Atlantic City in all of its colors at the beginning of its casino development.  There are old style thugs, racketeers and number runners competing in the same space as corrupt politicians and developers intent on building gambling shrines.  There are loners and losers and lucky ones all packed into the land adjacent to the famous boardwalk.

The story follows Sally (Susan Sarandon), a sexy casino employee, whose no-good husband, Dave (Robert Joy) turns up with her knocked-up, hippy-dippy sister, Chrissie (Hollis McLaren).  These audacious grifters turn to Sally for a foothold in the city.  But Dave runs into real trouble when he starts dealing drugs and drags his estranged wife back into his seedy world.

Enter longtime low-level mobster Lou (Burt Lancaster, in a masterful role), who is fading and past his prime.  Much like the decaying city in which he lives, he has his charms.  He helps people along if he can and seeks only to have real gangster credibility, if he ever had any to begin with.  He meets and falls for Sally, decides to protect her, and surprises himself by rising to the occasion.

Director Louis Malle's richly textured, atmospheric drama was nominated for multiple Oscars and earned numerous critics' awards.



Magnolia features perhaps the best ensemble cast in film history.
               Magnolia
               1999 - Paul Thomas Anderson
               Rated R : 3 hrs 8 mins
               Vault Rating: 10

Just a perfect film and still this writer's favorite of all time, Magnolia is a mosaic piece dealing with the interconnected lives of 10 lost souls in and around Los Angeles during the space of one fateful day.

Each individual in a top notch cast (Tom Cruise, William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jason Robards, Julianne Moore and John C. Reilly to name just a few)  locks themselves in their own personal cages of guilt and then suffer their painful longing to be set free.

There are themes of suffering and forgiveness, pain and healing, sin and redemption, all magnified by amazing actors all going at the top of their powers and by the most perfect original soundtrack written by Aimee Mann.

There are layers and layers and layers to this breathtaking film which rewards this viewer time and time again.  There is, of course, the single most unexpected scene for me in movie history too, which you can either shake your head in disbelief over or think it through and uncover the many hidden metaphors that all point tightly to the core of the film.


             Justice League
             2017 - Zack Snyder
             PG-13: 2 hours
             Vault Rating: 6

You don't get away without a comic book based superhero mashup.  You just don't.  So here's a decent one.
Justice League is a better than average comic book romp.  Superman (Henry Cavill) is dead and the world grieves, opening a chance for Steppenwolf to come to earth and wreak havoc.  Batman (Ben Affleck), with all his gravity, forms a team that "won't be enough" consisting of Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), the hipster cool Aquaman (Jason Momoa), and the comic Flash  (Ezra Miller) along with a cyborg (Ray Fisher) named, appropriately, Cyborg. 

The first half of the film sets up the plot and introduces in turn its principals.  The second half is mostly gee whiz comic book fights.  In a small wonder, the thing hangs together probably way better than a script with ten credited writers ought to, but that's probably because of Chris Terrio, Joss Wheadon and director Zack Snyder doing a nice job of knitting.  

Probably the best part of the film is that it keeps its sense of humor and balances that against the gravitas of the sometimes too heavy Batman to good effect.

So there.  We're all caught up.  Please feel free to share the link to the blog and if you'd like to comment just below, please remember that your comments gain in stature when your actual name is associated with what you say.  Thanks for reading today, dear reader, and until next time, Enjoy!







Monday, December 25, 2017

Democracy In The Balance




THE MOUNTAIN SAYS Donald Trump is at best a vulgar man and at worst a criminal.  The Mountain suspects the President of the United States is a money-laundering stooge, as are a great number of his team, for Russian mobsters.

You might think with criminal charges lodged against four of Trump's political team, that many questions remain.  But the talking heads on Fox and craven republicans in Congress - who are still howling about Hillary Clinton - seem to have no curiosity about what the president did despite four of his team being arrested.  In fact, Fox and the republicans who consume it are now turning on the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation - literally the only agencies in this democracy capable of investigating the president.

Because, you know, you wouldn't want to find out anything that might undermine your business model, now would you?

Fox helped create Trump.  They fostered the monster.  Many of their top talents helped Trump build his 33% bedrock of the misinformed and I hope, dear reader, that you are not among them.  Think about it:  Everyone except Fox is lying.  All of the thousands of climate scientists who've spent their lives studying one little corner of this massive problem... All of them... have devoted their lives' work to .... lying.  All except the one or two who Exxon Mobil bought and paid for.  THOSE two guys... they're the only truth tellers in the world and Fox is the only content provider that found them?

This is dangerous for democracy.  Fox has single-handedly, along with talented a.m. talk blowhards like Rush Limbaugh, undermined the simple fact that there IS, indeed, observable truth.  When the truth is sufficiently crippled, anything can happen.  Kelly Ann Conway, on practically day one of the administration, wasted no time going to the Orwellian max when she claimed the insane mantle of "Alternative Facts." 




If that's what you're selling.

I have personally taken innocent people into custody for questioning.  You know what innocent people do?  They try to tell you everything because they know the truth will save them.  They want a polygraph test.  They'll bring forth corroborating witnesses.  They'll do anything to make sure their integrity is intact.  Donald Trump and Fox and Fox's crony republicans do just the opposite.  They cast aspersions or blame on someone else.  It is common for the guilty to blame the police.  I've seen it many times and any police officer will tell you the same.

These people are putting themselves, not even their party, above the country.

An accused does not have to prove his innocence, but any Hitchcock aficionado can tell you it's possible and even thrilling.  The prosecution must prove guilt.  Trump is not accused yet, but he could - if he was without guilt - prove his innocence.  Every journalistic and criminal investigative bone in my body tells me Trump has problems.  For the good of the country, the Mueller investigation has to proceed until we can understand the nature and depth of these problems.  Anyone who thinks otherwise is literally un-American.  And yes, I shiver to say that.

So how does Trump prove it?  How does he, if you will, show us his birth certificate?

If Trump would just show his tax records to the public (Be assured that Mueller's team already has them.) it would be no time at all until Americans understood what Mueller already knows and I suspect full impeachment would proceed.  We would be privy to who Trump's business partners are and have always been.     There is already much reporting on the record that shows a strong likelihood of international money laundering by the president on a scale that ingratiates him to Vladimir Putin.

What if those facts came out?  What would happen if Trump himself was arrested?

First off, you, dear reader, would be able to read the Affidavit of Probable Cause.  You would be able to read the bill of goods that shows a crime or crimes were likely committed and that this president likely committed them.

Who would be the biggest loser?   Not Donald Trump.  Fox would lose everything.  That's why Fox is screaming the loudest.

Where would Fox be then?  Would they apologize?  Would they retract anything they've "reported."  Would they fire their talking heads or just the executives who put words in their mouths?  What would Sean Hannity's show look like then?  But, more importantly, friend, where would you be when the "fair and balanced" (sic) network was shown to be blowing corporate sunshine up your ass?  Where would you be when it was shown that the "lamestream" media wasn't nearly as bad as you've been led to believe and that only Fox was lying?  Would you ever watch Fox again after all this deception?  I'm asking.  Would you?

Would you then begin to question the information you've been ingesting?  Would you then try to read a newspaper?  Or is it too late for you?  Are you too lazy to do that work?  This government represents how a large portion of America thinks!  Bad information causes bad decisions.  You have a responsibility to the republic.

Fox has a lot to lose here if what the Mountain suspects comes into full view.  Fox loses all credibility in this scenario.  So what is Fox's programming now?  Vitriolic weirdos like Judge Jeanine Pirro  ((Read about her personal problems here.) shrieking that the Mueller investigation is corrupt.  You oughtta know, Jeanine.  You used to be a judge.



A "cleansing?"  Wow.  I could tear this argument apart in many ways.  Let's call it a post for another day.  For now, let's try to find such a hateful screed in any other respectable outlet.  Good luck with that.

Look, folks.  The truth has got to come out.  I remember a time when republicans wanted the whole truth about a blow job.  This is about knocking the underpinnings out from under our democracy.  The truth is the only thing that can save this country from real damage.  Oh, republicans are all about defending the constitution until it is their guy under investigation.  Then the process of justice and the rule of law have to be abridged because... what?... They scream loudest and have their own channel on teevee?

Fox has to protect itself.  Fox is the McDonalds of your media diet.  Shit is bad for you.

Face facts.  If Donald Trump fires Robert Mueller, he is admitting guilt.  And if he does, there will be war to correct the situation.  If Trump had nothing to fear, he wouldn't need a pledge of loyalty from James Comey.  If Trump had nothing to hide, he wouldn't be the first presidential candidate in modern times not to release his tax returns.  If Trump had nothing but integrity, he would be cooperating with the Mueller investigation.  It is clear whose side Donald Trump is on, we just don't know how bad it is.  The Mountain thinks it's bad.  Really bad.  We cannot have the  President of the United States in the pocket of a hostile foreign dictator.  It is highly dangerous to democracy and to the world in general. 

Look.  Hillary Clinton told you all what it was long before the election.  You might not have liked her, but she was right.  Is that why you didn't hear this?

 
 
Who's the puppet?

I guess we're all puppets here.  And I hold all republicans responsible for this.  I hold every local republican.  Every republican sitting on the bar stool down on the corner.  Every township supervisor, school board member and county commissioner.  Every registered republican.  I ask you:  How can you continue to affiliate with this?  You wanna do something about it?  Call your republican representation and tell them you're changing your party affiliation.  Then go down to the county election office and register independent.  Because supporting a team that protects a Russian puppet is a bridge too far for any decent republican.  Maybe then you will supply the cowardly lions on capitol hill with enough courage to stop cowering in the face of the rich, corporate fascists that have taken a once honorable party and sold it straight to hell.

The only republicans I see standing up to the strong man... the only republicans I can see with the guts to do what's right... are Robert Mueller and his team.

**************************

Feel free to comment below and, as I've always said, your opinions matter more when you sign your name to them.  Feel free to share this link with your friends and thanks for taking a walk on the Mountain with me today.  Merry Christmas!

si 12.25.17

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Barring the Door Against Fascism
Vladimir Putin - Fascist

fascism - (fash-is-uhm) noun (sometimes initial capital letter) - A governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.  See photo at right.


There has been an inordinate amount of admiration for the likes of Vladimir Putin coming from the American right.  When the President of the United States and his sycophants fawn over a man who kills anyone who opposes him, if you are standing on Ronald Reagan's grave, you can be forgiven for getting the willies as he rotates under the sod.  There are innumerable ties between the Trump team and Russian mobsters, oligarchs and Vlad himself.

The Mountain suspects Putin is balls-deep in the Trump administration and that when Putin coughs, Trump tweets.  And since no part of the Steele Dossier has been disproved - In fact, many parts of the dossier have been proven independently - it is easy to see why Trump refuses to release his tax returns to the American public.  Trump, The Mountain believes, is a willing dupe involved with big business money laundering - large scale international financial crimes - for the mob bosses who control Russia.  As an investigative reporter and a former criminal investigator, The Mountain feels sure that Trump's IRS files were the first information Special Counsel Robert Mueller subpoenaed.   Once you know who the billionaire owes, then you know who is the organ grinder and who is the monkey. 

All of this is just one part of a grave assault on American democracy.  The republican party has embarked on a corporate plan to take over the democracy.  In effect, capitalism is buying out the democracy so that the government serves corporate interests rather than the electorate's interests.  And damn it, when Verizon wants net neutrality revoked then, by God, net neutrality will be revoked.  And when Exxon wants climate change denied then, by God, climate change will be denied.  And when Monsanto doesn't want their genetically engineered food labeled, by God, it will not be labeled.

When corporate donors buy up all the stooges in congress, which has just about completely happened, at least on the republican side, then we are dangerously close to becoming a thinly disguised fascist state.

Trump has managed a dandy of a stretch.  Utilizing the disinformation of Fox News and Breitbart, the Trump campaign has somehow cobbled together a coalition of evangelicals, tea party activists, Alt-Right Neo-Nazis and Wall Street Ayn Rand worshipers into a bedrock 33% of the American electorate.  Together with the Redmap gerrymandering process, a minority of republican voters ensures corporate control through mostly republican lackeys.

The U.S. House of Representatives looks to the future with Redmap-colored glasses.  The U.S. Senate is also controlled by republican corporate interests.  If you doubt the corpo-republican axis you need look only as far as the republican legislative agenda.  They can hardly govern even given the keys to all the power except to do ONE thing: pass "tax reform."  The DONORS want some payback like a Wall Street dividend check on their investments.  And the republicans are lining up to do as they're told.  That the GOP is selling this as a "middle-class tax cut" is preposterous.  That they are ignoring the $1.7 Trillion hole the plan will likely blow in the national deficit seems to fly in the face of everything conservatives have ever stood for.  But look at them scurry to get it done so that those campaign donations will keep coming.

But there is a glimmer of hope.  You've seen that the republicans just cannot govern.

They bitched about Obamacare for seven years and voted 50 times to overturn or amend it.  But when they got into power they had never done the work to repeal and replace it.  Trump bragged it would be fabulous heath-care.  They had SEVEN YEARS to come up with a plan, but when they pulled back the curtain having taken control they had no plan and couldn't even come close to agreeing among themselves.

And lately, it seems that the pure vulgarity of the GOP candidates is finally starting to catch up with them.  Trump appears to be a serial harasser of women if not a complete mysogynist.  But when the gerrymandered Alabama electorate chose Roy Moore, a pro-life, evangelical pedophile (go figure out what HIS belief structure must look like) to run for the U.S. Senate, finally the people there, by the slimmest of margins, said no.

And with the republican margin in the senate now being 51-47 with 2 independents, good gravy, their precious tax giveaway to the super rich could be in jeopardy.  Donald Trump, himself, stands to profit by $1 Billion under this plan.  So much for helping out the "forgotten men" of this economy.

If recent elections in New Jersey, Virginia and now the redest of red states Alabama are suggestive of anything, it might be that the electorate has finally gotten wise to the vulgar, fascist loving republicans and are calling shenanigans on their ultimate power grab.

Maybe by the time the next presidential election comes around, Mueller will have shown Trump for the criminal The Mountain suspects he is.  Maybe then the corporate citizens bent on controlling government and edging us toward a fascist state will realize their money is far better spent doing good for Americans rather than just trying to OWN America for themselves.


Now Hear THIS!!

Streampad