Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Toy Story 4

You've Got a Friend in Me … and Me … and Me …

 Other activities (including attending an Oakland Athletics baseball game [vs. the talented Tampa Bay Rays; we lost, damn it!] and a marvelous outdoor presentation [at Twining Vine Winery, Castro Valley CA, which made it even better] of the hilarious 37 Shakespeare Plays in 90 Minutes [more formally known as The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)]) limited me to only 1 new movie to review this week, but as a singular experience it was well worth it, so let's get started.

Review by Ken Burke

                             Toy Story 4 (Josh Cooley)   rated G

“Executive Summary” (no spoilers): Once again the supposedly-inanimate toys from 3 previous episodes of this franchise come actively to life when there are no humans around to observe them, with the large group led by sheriff Woody and space-ranger Buzz Lightyear facing an existential crisis (where toys are concerned) when their new child, Bonnie, begins to lose interest in them as she faces her own trauma of the first day in kindergarten.  However, she overcomes her fears (with Woody’s help; he snuck into school in her backpack) by making a new toy, Forky, from a spork found in the trashcan, a character she loves but who sees himself as trash so Woody has to keep constant vigil on him for Bonnie’s sake.  Soon the whole group’s on an RV trip (organized by Bonnie’s parents) which yields some significant plot advances: Woody convinces Forky he’s a toy as loved as any of the rest of them; Woody meets up with Bo Beep, his love from many years ago, who’s now living on the fringes of society, forsaking the comfort of a loving child; Woody also meets sinister Gabby Gabby, a doll who desperately wants his functioning voice box; Forky’s captured by Gabby’s creepy henchmen, requiring a lot of coordinated effort from all of the other more-hospitable toys to attempt to rescue him.  Beyond that, I’d have to be in Spoiler territory, so either join the millions who’ve already seen Toy Story 4 to fill in the final, heart-tugging gaps or just plow ahead into the detailed review below, spoilers be damned!  But even if you decide to read ahead before attending a screening, I still encourage you to seek out Toy Story 4 because, like all the other entries in this series, this one's a bunch of fun to watch, even as it has some melancholy in its conclusion.

Here’s the trailer:  (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate that same button on the full screen’s lower right or your “esc” keyboard key to return to normal size.)


If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but as this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film—or want to save some bucks—to help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters like this: 
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

What Happens: We start 9 years ago when Andy (the original owner of most of these toys, who grew up across the years of the previous episodes until he was ready to head off to college in the last installment*) was probably about 9 himself, as Woody (voice of Tom Hanks) and the ever-expanding Slinky Dog (Blake Clark) manage a rescue on a rainy night to keep little Race Car from washing down a storm drain.  (This car plays an important role in a climatic-chase-scene in the first Toy Story Not that I directly remember it, however, but my Toy Story-loving-wife, Nina, and I stumbled upon those first 2 installments on some TV channel called Freeform [owned by Disney] so we got to refresh our memories; of course, we found it after seeing … 4 so it would have been better if our wayback-machine had been available earlier, but watching these earlier ones again definitely enhances the overall sense of continuity of this franchise.  Even better would have been equally-quick-access to … 3, which I find to be the best of the series, probably worth 4½ stars if I ever officially review it, so I guess we’ll just have to put some effort into seeking out that earlier one.)

*If it would help to put this latest (Final? That's the indication from Pixar, but ... 3 was also due to be the finale.) installment of the Toy Story stories into more complete context (unless your memory’s better than mine), you can find detailed plot summaries along with other interesting data about Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995), Toy Story 2 (Lasseter, 1999), Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich, 2010) at the sites I suggest as well as many others, I’m sure; all of these movies came out before we began this blog so we have no What Happens info for you (brilliant as our views might have been, once again).

 Woody’s triumph is undercut that night, though, when his younger sister Molly (she's gone after this opening; ... 3 explains why) decides to let Bo Beep (Annie Potts), Woody’s love interest in the first 2 movies, be taken away in a box of discards, explaining why Bo had no appearance in … 3.  After that, we’re back to the present where Andy’s long departed, with all his former toys now the property of little Bonnie (Madeleine McGraw), whom we met during the events of … 3 (I can’t say it enough: Watch this one if you never have or watch it again if you’ve seen it before).  Unlike Andy, who was excited to head off to college, though, Bonnie’s resistance to begin kindergarten doesn’t imply healthy academic experiences for her, so Woody (who’s largely been neglected by Bonnie lately, bringing up his old insecurities about becoming a forgotten toy—or, even worse, a lost toy) sneaks into her backpack, helps her by getting some materials from the trashcan for her first-day-art-project (another kid grabbed what was on her desk), from which she crafts Forky (Tony Hale), a spork with Popsicle-stick-feet, pipe-cleaner-arms, and a funky-face only a 5-year-old could love.  Bonnie’s new-found-affection for Forky puts an encouraging-light on school for her, but when he’s back home he keeps trying to jump into a trash can, convinced his place is with the refuse, not the official toys, so Woody keeps a constant watch in order to maintain Bonnie’s happiness (even when neglected, Woody has a consistent sense of duty toward the child of the house, an admirable trait although often leading to conflicted situations with the other toys who tend to see things differently).

 In that all these Toy … stories seem to thrive on automotive action (in which toys—usually Woody and someone else—tend to get lost along the way or some other trouble occurs), naturally we’re soon on the road again as Bonnie’s parents load her, Forky, and other toys into their RV for a trip to Grand Basin where an antique store and the nearby carnival become the settings for the rest of our current narrative.  Of course, problems occur along the way so after several attempts to keep Forky from disposing of himself he manages to get loose on the highway with Woody in hot pursuit.  Soon they reconnect, walking onward to the family's campgrounds (Woody often carrying his new friend because those popsicle feet weren’t intended for easy movement) as Woody finally convinces Forky he’s truly a toy, much beloved by Bonnie, with such attention from a child all any toy should ever want.  When they get to Grand Basin, though, Woody sees in the window of the antique shot a lamp like the one ceramic Bo Peep and her sheep (3 heads on 1 interconnected-body) once occupied so he slips into the store (bringing now-confused-Forky along, not understanding why they've stopped going directly back to Bonnie [in other scenes, she's upset her new favorite toy has disappeared]).  In the process of trying to find Bo, though, Woody instead is essentially taken into custody by a large doll, Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks), and her 3 creepy-henchmen-dummies, the Bensons.

 Gabby wants Woody’s functioning voice box (his pull-string still works with it so phrases like “There’s a snake in my boot” come from inside him in addition to what he says on his own through his mouth to other toys) because hers was defective from the start, leading to rejection from her long-lost-child.  Woody escapes but not Forky, so as Woody’s trying to figure out how to rescue his oddball-pal he comes upon assertive-Bo, now happy to be a renegade toy with no human connections; Bo’s pals, Giggle McDimples (Ally Maki), a very tiny cop, and Duke Caboom (Keanu Reeves), a Canadian motorcycle-stuntman (with a crash-plagued-past) promise to help; meanwhile, Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) wanders into the carnival where he’s caught, put on a prize-booth-wall with Ducky (Keegan-Michael Key) and Bunny (Jordan Peele).  ⇒They all manage to escape, meet up with Woody and his new allies, but their plan to liberate Forky fails, leading to the rest of them (except Bo, her sheep, her pals) heading back to Bonnie, only Woody left to save Forky (after he insulted the others, so they have no interest in his quest), which he does by sacrificing his voice box.  Ultimately, as the plot pushes onward: Woody befriends sad Gabby after the store owner’s granddaughter, Harmony (Lila Sage Bromley), rejects the newly-voiced doll; Bo comes back to the store for Woody, gives Gabby a pep-talk; Forky reunites with Bonnie; sneaking through the carnival with Woody on the way to Bonnie’s RV Gabby sees a lost girl crying so she makes herself available, leading to a new connection; Woody doesn’t want to leave Bo, Buzz convinces him Bonnie will be OK, so before the others depart in the RV Woody appoints cowgirl Jessie (Joan Cusack) as the new sheriff, then—in a mid-credits scenejoins in with Bo, Giggle, Ducky, Bunny, and Duke to help liberate other toys, rigging the carny booth (where the slacker guy in charge never notices anything until it's too late) so every kid’s a winner, gets a prize.  In another mid-credits-scene, Bonnie returns from her first day in first-grade with a decorated “girl” plastic knife immediately attracted to Forky.  However, when she asks him the question of why she’s alive, he has no answer (neither do we).*⇐

*Don Rickles is also in there again as Mr. Potato Head, even though the actor died in 2017.  All of his dialogue was culled from retained-recordings from the previous Toy Story movies along with various other sources; thus, the final script was written around what was still available from Rickles.

So What?  When you contemplate the interconnected themes of the Toy Story movies (These characters are also part of an additional media blitz by Disney/Pixar, but I’m not conversant with other aspects of their larger narrative), you find messages that I see in parallel with the marvelous children’s book (with relevance for adults as well), The Velveteen Rabbit (Margery Williams, 1922), which still causes me to tear up when I think about it (first read it when I was a college undergrad, helped me get past some of my own ego-driven-traumas, although that’s been a life-long-project), a very touching story about a stuffed-toy beloved by a little boy who suffered from scarlet fever so when the kid recovered the constantly-snuggled-bunny was set to be burned, causing him to cry a real tear, leading to the appearance of a magic fairy who turned him into an actual rabbit who has a new happy life in the woods with others of his kind.  Here’s, for me, the essence of the story (and one of the best guides I’ve ever encountered on how to approach the difficulties we all face in life): “'Real isn’t how you are made,' said the Skin Horse [to the rabbit]. 'It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real. […] It doesn’t happen all at once,' said the Skin Horse. 'You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.' […] Weeks passed, and the little Rabbit grew very old and shabby, but the Boy loved him just as much. He loved him so hard that he loved all his whiskers off, and the pink lining to his ears turned grey, and his brown spots faded. He even began to lose his shape, and he scarcely looked like a rabbit any more, except to the Boy. To him he was always beautiful, and that was all that the little Rabbit cared about. He didn’t mind how he looked to other people, because the nursery magic had made him Real, and when you are Real shabbiness doesn’t matter.”  If only we could all embrace such useful wisdom instead of becoming self-protective, pulling away, fearful of our fragile mortality.

 Across the arc of these touching Toy Story movies various characters at times become damaged physically but recover, at other times some lose faith that Andy or Bonnie still cares for them but most (not all, so tragedy does reside within these sentiments) find the love of their cherished child’s still there once they overcome their fears of rejection; further, the toys learn to support and care for each other (in their various ways; not all of them express their emotions in easily-understood-manners), so again and again they find themselves—hopefully as inspirations for the kids of all ages watching these moral lessons up on the big screen (or smaller video ones)—expanding the scope of their ultimately-embracing-community, becoming emotionally “real” (like the Velveteen Rabbit) to match the mysterious physical “lives” the humans in their houses never know about or can observe.

Bottom Line Final Comments: Although the lead line for this paragraph should read “You can’t expect a better movie debut in 2019’s otherwise-distraction-filled-summer than the $135.1 domestic millions raked in by Toy Story 4 in its debut weekend (plus another $123.6 million internationally for its $258.7 global total),” the reality is even that humongous-haul isn’t considered “enough” by the movie industry, as expectations for the opening ran as high as $160 million domestically (U.S.-Canada)even $200 million, by some estimatesso, despite that huge run on the box-office a few days ago, already putting its current total at #9 domestically for the entire 2019 year (#28 on the All-Time Domestic Openings Weekend list) while those in front on it have already been running continuously for a few months (with the biggest by far being Avengers: Endgame [Anthony and Joe Russo; review in our May 1, 2019 posting] at $834.9 million [now up to $2.75 billion worldwide, with a re-releaseeven though it’s still playing?to help it top Avatar {James Cameron, 2009}, currently at $2.79 billion as All-Time Worldwide champ; Avatar also blew away opening domestic weekend records at $357 million] and Captain Marvel [Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck; review in our March 14, 2019 posting] at $426.8 million)Toy Story 4 is oddly being considered a bit of a box-office-disappointment, along with other returning-franchise-offerings such as Men In Black International (F. Gary Gray)—$52.6 million domestically so far—Godzilla: King of the Monsters (Michael Dougherty; review in our June 6, 2019 posting)—$102.5 million—Shaft [2019] (Tim Story; review in our June 20, 2019 posting), but in the larger context of 2019 grosses this addition to the Toy Story lineage along with Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel, and the live-action-remake of Aladdin [2019] (Guy Ritchie; review in our May 29, 2019 posting) should be helping the Disney stockholders have an enjoyable summer (along with the huge crowds [reservations required when it first opened] exploring the new Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge attraction at Disneyland), so I doubt Pixar folks are too worried about how much total Woody and company rake in because their jobs must feel secure (as long as no one follows departed-studio-head Lasseter into the realm of “alleged sexual misconduct toward employees” [we should know by now only U.S. President-“grab them by the p____”-Trump can get away with that kind of behavior—but hopefully not for too much longer!]).

 No matter how you assess the financial strength of Toy Story 4, though, you couldn’t ask for better critical response, with 98% positive reviews cited at Rotten Tomatoes (giving this movie one of their Certified Fresh designations, for those getting at least 75% positive responses from at least 80 of their Tomatometer critics, with at least 5 of their Top Critics [none of these designations include me, of course]; you can go here to see RT’s top 75 of 2019 [so far], many of which I haven’t even seen, although Toy Story 4 tops much of that more-esoteric-fare at #3 for the year at this point), a very solid (for them) 84% average score at Metacritic (they’ve added a Must-See designation for anything scoring 81% or higher from at least 15 of their professional critics [again, not me; no surprise], which is about 5% of what they review; here are MC's 2019 ratings [so far], many of which at the 80% level or higher I haven’t seen either [there seems to be a pattern here of critics embracing really-obscure-options], with their highest in my awareness being #2, The Souvenir [Joanna Hogg; review in our June 12, 2019 posting], yielding only 2½ stars from me, so maybe all these top-rated RT and MC successes aren’t films I’d be that knocked-out by anyway)Toy Story 4 continues in an impressive-critically-embraced-tradition: The original accomplished an extremely-rare 100% collection of positive RT reviews, a huge 95% MC score (Lasseter got an Oscar, an Academy Special Achievement Award for the breakthrough-accomplishment of this first computer-imaged-animated-feature; further, this Toy Story was nominated in the Best Original Screenplay category, the first animated feature ever to get any Oscar nom for writing); … 2 was exceptional also at RT with another 100% cluster of positives along with a very commendable 88% MC score (plus an Oscar to Randy Newman for Best Original Song, “When She Loved Me”); … 3 was also well-received (you could argue it was the best of the bunch overall—it certainly has the most emotional impact for me) with 98% at RT, a 92% average MC score (notably high for them) as it also won the Best Animated Feature Oscar (however, that award wasn’t given for movies released prior to 2001 so it’s impossible to know how the first 2 might have fared in such races).  Any way you slice it, though, this has been an incredibly-successful-cluster of cinematic stories (by my tally the first 3 earned about $1.9 billion worldwide, no matter how much … 4 eventually adds to that total), even if they’ve reached the end of their arc, which would seem to be the case as Woody’s now left home, finally able to rejoice in his new status with Bo and the others as a willing “lost toy.”

 When considering options for my usual review-wrap-up-tactic of a Musical Metaphor for Toy Story 4, I decided the song should focus on friendship because that’s been the overriding theme of all of these episodes—building friendships, being concerned about losing them, understanding what truly underlies them, repairing tears in their fabric (even while shedding tears [ah, the beauties of our at-times-confusing-language])—so I thought about several possibilities including The Beatles’ "With a Little Help from My Friends" (from their 1967 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album), The Beach Boys’ "Friends" (from their 1968 album of the same name), "Thank You for Being a Friend" (theme song from NBC TV’s The Golden Girls [1985-‘92]), and "Friend Like Me" (from the soundtracks of Disney’s Aladdin [Ron Clements and John Musker, 1992; Guy Ritchie, 2019—the latter reviewed in our May 29, 2019 posting—with Robin Williams singing in the earlier version, Will Smith in the remake]), but ultimately I picked 4 others, all of which are my official Metaphors to reflect the interrelated themes of these 4 Toy Story movies as we’ve come to know/embrace them.*

*Notice I didn’t mention “I’ll Be There for You,” the theme song from NBC TV’s Friends (1994-2004), which just verifies 2 things: (1) I don’t care much for this song, especially compared to anything else I’ve cited in the above and below paragraphs; (2) I never got into Friends either, probably a generational-taste-thing, as I much preferred the show that followed it on Thursday nights, NBC TV’s Seinfeld (1989-‘98), even though both were set in NYC, a place where I lived for a couple of years in the early 1970s (maybe I’d have liked Friends more if I’d been able to share in their Manhattan experience when I was also in my 20s, but living in Queens was a whole different world—just ask Archie Bunker or Donald Trump; not so different, really, except for income levels and a decent heart under Archie’s gruff exterior; Trump needs to ask the Wizard of Oz to give him one or at least sell him a discounted, non-tariff one from China).  I guess by the time both of these series came along I could relate better to the relationship/work/daily-challenges-of-living neuroses of the latter more so than the coffee-drinking, dating-intrigue, whatever-the-hell-else-was-going-on in the former.  For those who think this would be a crucial omission from these comments, though (even if you're as old as I am [71] but liked Friends more than Seinfeld) here’s that omitted-theme-song by The Rembrandts, joined by the Friends main cast (because, now or always, “I’ll Be There for You”).

 The first one’s what’s understood as the franchise’s theme song, Randy Newman’s “You've Got a Friend in Me” (from the 1995 soundtrack of the original Toy Story plus the soundtracks of all 3 sequels) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMN4JZ8crVY (a video combining scenes from all 3 previous Toy… stories) acknowledging how Woody overcame his initial jealousy of Buzz’s more-current-fame to finally welcome him into Andy’s toy collection; the second is The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” (from the 1966 Pet Sounds album), at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd6-OLQB fn4 (supposedly a 1966 live performance with pathetic video [yet Brian Wilson’s on keyboards in the background even though he stopped touring in 1964, with comments the video’s actually from mid-1967 when he rejoined them for a bit; when I first saw them in early 1967 Bruce Johnson was already a permanent member of the band, so what can I tell you except maybe believe what you see?], nice audio though)—which is used in the background of the above trailer for … 4—in recognition of how Woody meets cowgirl Jessie and horse Bullseye from the complete set of his early-TV-group in Toy Story 2 but then creates a crisis for Jessie when it seems she’ll be going to a museum in Japan but Woody wouldn’t be coming along (a later crisis emerges when Woody’s willing to go to Japan, leaving behind all his close friends in Andy’s house); the third is Neil Young’s “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” (from his 1970 After the Gold Rush album) at https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=vpY3xFTYHTQ, acknowledging the horror the playthings face in Toy Story 3 where many of them mistakenly think they’ve been thrown away as trash, then later the whole cluster of our beloved characters are on the brink of being incinerated yet they face their collective demise together until their last-second-rescue; finally, for … 4 we have Carol King’s soul-restoring “You’ve Got a Friend” (from her 1971 Tapestry album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qde5N My7WTU, affirming that even as lives and priorities change they open up new possibilities while old assumptions must be rethought: “Now, ain’t it good to know that you’ve got a friend When people [or toys] can be so cold?  They’ll hurt you, and desert you And take your soul if you let them Oh, but don’t you let them.”  Woody, Buzz, and their other friends ultimately wouldn’t “let them”; hopefully, even when times are lower than what we think we can stand, when our seeming-rocks represented in these movies by Andy and Bonnie aren’t there for us even as we desperately need them, we’ll find the needed stamina within ourselves aided by others still with us, because “Ain’t it good to know, you’ve got a friend? […] Oh yeah You’ve got a friend.”  Certainly, I hope you do, or can at least meet one before you next encounter the marvelous insights we offer at Two Guys in the Dark.
            
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Here’s more information about Toy Story 4:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVQ7pSQkA6Q (12:42 video on 56 Easter Eggs in this movie, drawn from the full Pixar collection)



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If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here please use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com(But if you truly have too much time on your hands you might want to explore some even-longer-and-more-obtuse-than-my-film-reviews—if that even seems possible—academic articles about various cinematic topics at my website, 
https://kenburke.academia.edu, which could really give you something to talk to me about.)

If we did talk, though, you’d easily see how my early-70s-age informs my references, Musical Metaphors, etc. in these reviews because I’m clearly a guy of the later 20th century, not so much the contemporary world.  I’ve come to accept my ongoing situation, though, realizing we all (if fate allows) keep getting older, we just have to embrace it, as Joni Mitchell did so well in "The Circle Game," offering sage advice even when she was quite young herself.

By the way, if you’re ever at The Hotel California knock on my door—but you know what the check out policy is so be prepared to stay for awhile. Ken

P.S.  Just to show that I haven’t fully flushed Texas out of my system here’s an alternative destination for you, Home in a Texas Bar, with Gary P. Nunn and Jerry Jeff Walker.  But wherever the rest of my body may be my heart’s always with my longtime-companion, lover, and wife, Nina Kindblad, so here’s our favorite shared song—Neil Young’s "Harvest Moon"
—from the performance we saw at the Desert Trip concerts in Indio, CA on October 15, 2016 (as a full moon was rising over the stadium) because “I’m still in love with you,” my dearest, a never-changing-reality even as the moon waxes and wanes over the months/years to come.
              
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Thursday, June 20, 2019

Late Night and Short Takes on Shaft [2019] and Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese


Glory Days Revamped

Reviews by Ken Burke
            
                             Late Night (Nisha Ganatra)   rated R

                   
“Executive Summary” (no spoilers): Katherine Newbury’s (Emma Thompson) been a big hit for almost 30 years on late-night-TV, but ratings slippage and a new network boss have put her on track to be fired so she tries to get relevant, a difficult task given her imperial personality (she’ll fire anyone for the slightest reason) enhanced by the distance she keeps from her mostly-young, all-male writing staff, so her producer sets out to hire a woman comic writer, a job oddly-enough pursued by Molly Patel (Mindy Kaling; doubles as screenwriter for Late Night) despite her complete lack of experience, just a sense she’s funny.  Molly’s hired by impatient Katherine but brings no solutions to the show’s dilemma, only honest constructive criticism which puts her at odds with everyone else in the place.  Katherine tries to get more into youth-oriented pop culture but utterly fails, finally takes some useful advice from Molly about playing satirically to her age and Whiteness; however, scandal breaks about Katherine having an affair with one of her young men a few years ago (devastating her loyal-but-ill husband [John Lithgow]) so she’s soon back on the chopping block despite her own clever scheme to trick her intended replacement into supporting her continuance during a broadcast one night.  Beyond that, in this no-spoiler zone, I’ll just have to encourage you to see Late Night for yourself or maybe read my full review below, saving yourself a few bucks in the process for something with excellent intentions yet a result coming across (to me, at least) as more instructional than insightful, despite the useful spotlight it shines on discrimination within the workplace.  There’s hearty humor here, interesting characters, and the type of lead actor in Molly you don’t find very often except in Aladdin (review in our May 29, 2019 posting).  This is an enjoyable, socially-conscious movie, just not as successful as its critics’ cumulative numbers imply. 

Here’s the trailer:  (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate that same button on the full screen’s lower right or your “esc” keyboard key to return to normal size.)


If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but as this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film—or want to save some bucks—to help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters like this: 
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

What Happens: Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson), a successful-staple of later-than-primetime-TV for 28 years with her Tonight with Katherine Newbury show, is the only female host in this genre (with a reputation of not liking other women), winning 43 (!) Emmy awards (excessive even in this fictional scenario), but suddenly she’s faced with a “this is your last year” ultimatum from new network president Caroline Morton (Amy Ryan) because of sagging ratings as this talk-show-icon's losing touch with a larger potential audience by booking politicians, authors, and other non-trendy-guests while her competition makes better inroads with viewers more attuned to what’s happening on social media than what’s (hopefully) more relevant in terms of ultimate social stability.  Katherine’s situation isn’t helped by her being so out of touch with her writing staff—all male, all White, mostly young—whom she hasn’t visited in person for years (the one she fondly remembers died in 2012) so when she does enter their territory she just numbers them in a counterclockwise direction around the table rather than trying to learn their names (a further distancing tactic is only the monologue writer, Tom Campbell [Reid Scott], gets to be in the studio when she’s recording the show, the others just have to watch her on a TV monitor, hoping that if their jokes actually make the cut for the night the studio audience will laugh).  Katherine’s first attempt to get relevant leads to the booking of “Mimi Mismatch,” a YouTube sensation (something about dog-butt-sniffing; that’s all I care to remember) whom the host truly has no interest in, with the young woman picking up on this implied-dismissal, then storming out after hurling some ageist insults, gathering active publicity for Katherine but not of the type her producer hoped to achieve.  In a desperate attempt to bring some form of diversity to her writing staff a search goes out for a female, prompting Molly Patel (Mindy Kaling [who also wrote the screenplay]), a no-social-life, single-mother, efficiency expert at a Pennsylvania chemical plant (“not a factory” she frequently reminds everyone) to apply (she fancies herself a comedian, given her wisecracking over the PA system at work), getting the job simply because Katherine’s in a hurry to move on, desperate for quick remedies to her growing problems.

 Molly knows how to analyze shortcomings in a system (recognizing Katherine’s too old, too White to broaden her appeal unless she makes some changes) but doesn’t have any solutions.  Katherine berates her for her brash-rookie-insolence, upsetting Molly until her long-on-the-staff-officemate encourages her to establish a place for herself on the show by writing something useful.  Molly responds with a good joke about anti-abortion-politicians but is again devastated when Katherine rejects it at the last minute, cautioned to not get too controversial.  The host-switch is still a priority for Caroline, the intended replacement being up-and-coming-comic Daniel Tennant (Ike Barinholtz), a semi-sexist-guy whom Katherine loathes, yet she has no strategy for blocking him, nor can her loving-but-Parkinson’s-hampered-husband (NYU Emeritus Prof.), Walter Newbury (John Lithgow), offer much help beyond ongoing support, which even he retreats from when scandalous stories leak about an affair Katherine had 3 years ago with charming writer Charlie Fain (Hugh Dancy)—Wait!  I thought she didn’t even know who the writers are?—which hurts Molly as well because Charlie’d been flirting with her, then when she surprises him at his apartment one night with Champagne and dessert she has to leave when he quietly indicates that “anyway, I’m not alone” (to steal a line from Bob Dylan’s—more on him later—"It Ain't Me Babe" [from his 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan]) ⇒At first, we might believe the woman he’s with is Katherine until the historical context gets established, so once that’s clear Charlie just disappears leaving Molly to encourage Katherine to take responsibility for her earlier-indiscretion (to misquote Elton John, “Sorry seems not to be the hardest word” in contemporary-media-public-lives), which she eventually does, along with her clever tactic of having Tennant on as a guest, then tricking him to join in with the audience supporting her remaining on her show rather than turning it over to him.  Despite her again-rising-profile, though, Katherine thinks Molly’s butting into her life too much so she’s fired (an ongoing tactic of hers, keeping that writing staff in constant fear), with Molly managing to impress Seth Meyers (playing himself) enough in a clumsy interview to offer her a spot on his staff.  However, Katherine has a change of heart, brings Molly back into her fold, both keep their jobs, Katherine reconciles with Walter, then when it wraps up a year later Molly’s in a leading position on Katherine’s staff which is considerably more diversified, Molly’s an item with Tom, as all’s well that ends well.⇐

So What? Many reviews of Late Night harp on some of its unlikely plot premises.  (Not that we should discount for a minute the reality Kaling drew on from her own experience as a “minority hire” intern for TV shows before she broke into entertainment’s upper-levels, as she recounts her own situation prior to [and in the early days of] being cast in NBC’s ensemble-comedy The Office [2005-2013] before achieving her respected positions as actor, writer, executive producer, and director during the run of the show nor the parallel realities both Kaling and Thompson note in various interviews about the dual situations of lack of prominent women on both sides of the camera in films and commercial TV—especially as writers for comedy shows—along with the disrespect females endure in what all-too-often remain as male-dominated-environments [also in government, business, the military … need I go on?].)  Those complaints include: If Newbury’s been on her talk show for nearly 30 years why isn't she aware of audience decline (given how TV's incessantly-driven by ratings/related-advertising-revenues) before being abruptly told she’s on her way out?; Is Molly the only female writer Newbury’s team can find, especially given she has no industry experience?; Can a TV personality really convince her network execs to change their minds about replacing her, or, at least, can such an established celebrity really catch her intended-replacement so off-guard on camera he’d bow out of the competition? (On a minor level, how does 1 show win 43 Emmys in 28 years, yet go so quickly into decline?)  What matters for the movie, though, is not so much the plausibility of actual network TV operations but more how effectively the plot-premises provide viable opportunities for the script’s needed conflicts/resolutions to play out across 102 min. running time on screen.  In the present case of Late Night, Kaling (who’s worked/ succeeded in TV long enough to be aware of the twisted-reality-complaints she’s facing due to her script) moves actively ahead anyway so as to get into her focuses on both gender-discrimination (racial as well) and the difficulty of older stars making proper sense of their changing cultural milieu, thereby losing relevance as they “age out” of the very demographics they need to appeal to.  (As I’ve aged out even more than Katherine—she’s a mere 56 to my increasingly-closer-to-72—I continue to be amused at ad-targeting where you become increasingly irrelevant after 49, almost forgotten after 55, even though I’m now in the most financially-secure-position of my life [much more so than at those “upper-limit” younger ages], yet advertisers generally [except for medical products and ED pills] fail to notice I exist; maybe it’s due to how this financial-stability I’m now enjoying is largely because I’m not very swayed by impulse purchasing, so even though I could buy more than I do I don’t usually have interest in such acquisitions, possibly justifying why the Don Drapers [AMC TV’s  Mad Men, 2007-'15] of 2019 aren’t concerned with marketing products to me.)

 Of course, the true bottom line here (even before I get to that usual section of my structure to conclude this review) is whether Kaling’s intentions come across in an encouraging, “You make me want to be a better man”-manner (line by Jack Nicholson’s Melvin Udall character to Helen Hunt’s Carol Connelly in As Good as It Gets [James L. Brooks, 1997]) or do they seem preachy, in a more-didactic “Listen to me, damn it!”-manner (line from nowhere, unless I’m somehow channeling it).  I’ve read many reviews praising her script for succeeding with the former result whereas I found the messages (valuable as they are) to be more of the latter, even though there’s a good bit of genuinely-felt, let’s-learn-from-these-situations humor throughout the story, which has its crisis points for both Molly and Katherine but ultimately gives you plenty of encouragement both of these talented, determined women will end up triumphant.  Sure, some guys could complain that except for the show’s producer, Molly’s officemate, and Tom, the men in general here leave much to be desired as people, let alone characters, but given how many decades of movie women have been presented as little more than bimbos, sexless caregivers, or near-invisible-background-workers there’s nothing wrong with calling out men for their chauvinistic and/or entitled-superiority attitudes, especially when you can find plenty of supportive testimony about the reality of such behavior in many tell-all-books about most of our industries (TV being no exception, especially from what I’ve read about the manic men on any side of the camera at NBC’s Saturday Night Live [the older I get, the more the ongoing frat-boy-humor of some of their sketches becomes generationally-lost on medespite sharing the gender of most of their writersever since Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and other impactful-females aren’t there any more to offer a level of balance to some of the truly juvenile stuff continuing decade-after-decade]), with the worst of it skewing into various abusive forms of harassment (fortunately, there’s little of that in Late Night—at least from my [possibly dense] male perspective—as Molly’s just as interested in some of the men around her as they are in her but she sets the limits, doesn’t assume she has to tolerate anything she’s not willing to share).  All in all, this is an enjoyable movie, but for me it’s not quite as organically-hilarious and liberating as intended; it's more like a mandated-diversity-training-video than the insightful exposé Kaling was aiming for.

Bottom Line Final Comments: In the process of seeing how Late Night’s doing with the taste-arbiters (I often call them the CCAL—Collective Critics at Large), I noted it has a 79% positive rating at Rotten Tomatoes, plus a healthy (for them) 71% average score at Metacritic, which also encouraged me to look up what it takes for a contender such as this one to achieve the desired RT status of “Certified Fresh”—turns out you need a minimum of 75% positive from a minimum of 80 reviews (40 for more-limited-releases) by "Tomatometer" critics, including at least 5 of their Top Critics (not sure how to get this designation as I was deemed unworthy for their collective, the snots!).  So, despite hesitations about plausible renditions of the TV industry cited in many of those reviews, the overall response is supportive, as it should be based on some well-crafted-humor, the social importance of showing people not part of an established elite not taken seriously if seen as merely “minority hires” (even as the Supreme Court’s constraining affirmative action even being used in attempts to bring equity to a society dominated by rich, White men).  Audiences, though, are still slowly coming around, as this Amazon-produced-product in its second week in release made a huge jump from only 4 domestic (U.S-Canada) theaters to 2,220 although box-office-gross remains at a mere $6.1 million (plus $540 thousand from international markets), so either interest will suddenly grow (if so, find a screening soon) or Late Night will just be another benefit for subscriptions to Amazon Prime.  With that consideration, I'll close this review via my usual Musical Metaphor; In this case, given how the premise is about Molly Patel saving the day (late night, actually) for Katherine Newbury by showing her how to be tastefully irreverent I’ll do the same (maybe except for the “tastefully” part) with Little Richard’s “Good Golly, Miss Molly” (from his 1958 Little Richard album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGg1OLxCxZs (a wildly-live-performance where he stands on the piano, throws his shoes and necklace to the crowd, then the video stops abruptly at 3:51) as we’ll just have to assume because “Miss Molly, sure like to ball […] From the early, early mornin’ till the early, early night” (How did he get away with these lyrics on commercial AM radio in the 1950s?  Must have been a bunch of clueless-honky-censors.) this must be referring to … basketball (Yeah!), while “the house of blue light” must be a sports arena (Yeah again!)—or maybe this is using a basketball term to describe Ms. Patel’s TV victories in the writers’ room (Even more so, yeah!), but at least she’s ultimately a fine woman (of course!) because the singer’s “going to the corner, gonna buy a diamond ring” for her, celebrating how when she’s “rockin’ and a rollin’ [she] can’t hear [Katherine] call.”  (That’s gotta be what it means!  Mucho yeah!)
                 
(aspiring toward) SHORT TAKES (but, once again, unsuccessfully) 
(please note that spoilers also appear here)
                   
                              Shaft [2019] (Tim Story)   rated R

We’re back in the realm of the “Black private dick That’s a sex machine to all the chicks,” except now it’s 3 generations of John Shaft, NYC’s “bad mother …,” all with the same name, all focused on righting a grievous wrong while stirring up nostalgia for earlier Shaft movies.  You’ll either groove to the familiar or dismiss it as antiquated.

Here’s the trailer:


       Before reading any further, I’ll ask you to refer to the plot spoilers warning far above.

 As already this year with Dumbo (Tim Burton; review in our April 4, 2019 posting) and Aladdin (Guy Ritchie; review in our May 29, 2019 posting), there’s a need here to add [2019] to the title of this movie to keep it from being confused with an earlier version with the same title, although in the case of these 2 Disney live-action-features (with much computer-generated-imagery-enhancement) it’s a case of animation-classics being remade in more-contemporary-modes whereas with Shaft there are 2 previous versions with this exact title (Gordon Parks, 1971 [starring Richard Roundtree]; John Singleton, 2000 [starring Samuel L. Jackson]), in which each one added a new generation of the John Shaft family tree (J.S. II [odd, in that he’s supposedly the nephew, not the son, of the original John Shaft] in 2000; J.S. III, even though he’s called John Jr. or JJ [no explanation given, except possibly for the quick, cryptic statement toward the end of this latest sequel—there were 2 earlier ones starring Roundtree: Shaft’s Big Score! {Parks, 1972}Shaft in Africa {John Guillerman, 1973} plus some made-for-TV-movies I’m barely aware of—from Jackson to Roundtree verifying the older man’s his father, not his uncle as was the premise of the 2000 episode], played by Jessie T. Usher), so it might be easy enough to assume these various Shafts are remakes rather than sequels, but that’s not really the case, although there’s enough repetition of the old-school-macho-posturing (including snide gay disparagements) and near-superhuman-triumph of the superior-protagonist(s) against overwhelming odds for any viewer to see each iteration of Shaft as being something very familiar (at least to this “hardboiled” [as film historians would call it] aspect of the genre of private-detective-protagonists, easily traced back to Sam Spade [Humphrey Bogart] in The Maltese Falcon [John Huston, 1941]—as compared/contrasted to the older, more urbane “super-sleuth” prototype with a heritage in the 19th-century tales of Sherlock Holmes [or another Dashiell Hammett literary-creation—as was Spade—brought to the big screen as sophisticated-detectives Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man {W.S. Van Dyke, 1934}]).  This time, JJ, like his father before him in the 2000 Shaft, begins as part of an official-law-enforcement-agency, the FBI, where’s he’s a super-sharp, Harvard-degreed data analyst (Dad was a cop until he grew tired of working within the constraints of the system [unlike Dirty Harry in those Clint Eastwood 1970s-‘80s movies who simply defied the system while remaining in it, always accomplishing just enough to keep from being fired]; both Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry [Don Siegel, 1971] and John Shaft [Jackson] toss away their badges in disgust in their first-franchise-appearances, but Shaft goes into private practice, like his Dad from those earlier Shaft … stories, while Harry returns to his old role of official “peace” officer).

 JJ finds he needs to be away from his desk, to work out in the streets, when his childhood friend Karim Hassan (Avan Jogia) mysteriously dies, seemingly from a huge heroin overdose, although JJ’s convinced Karim was killed, but his failed attempt to extract info from a local drug lord leads him to swallow his pride, seek out Dad (in the 1989 opening scene of this latest Shaft we see Jackson, JJ’s Mom, Maya [Regina Hall], and little JJ being shot at in their car, with [for clarification, let’s just refer to Jackson as John from now on] John saving their lives but Maya choosing to move upstate from NYC to raise JJ away from his father’s harsh world of crime; Dad tries to be involved with his son by sending annual birthday presents [useful things, such as a box of condoms], but years of separation plus anti-Dad-indoctrination from Mom have left JJ with a firm case of father-rejection, overcome only his need to avenge Karim), accept some advice in becoming more street-wise (to complement his trained skills in marksmanship and capoeira dance/martial-arts moves).  John’s ultimate reason for getting involved in his son’s quest, though, is to follow revealed leads to his long-time arch-enemy Pierro “Gordito” Carrera (Isaach de Bankolé), which ultimately requires father and son to recruit the original John Shaft (Roundtree, henceforth just called Shaft) from his uptown, retired existence to join their quest (his huge arsenal of weapons helps as well).  Without bothering to get into unnecessary details (just know there are the requisite assassination attempts on the Shafts, furious gunfights, tire-screeching car chases, lots of booze for all the Shafts, and a close-friend-turned-love-interest for JJ, medical doctor Sasha Arias [Alexandra Shipp]), ⇒as things turn out, Karim’s involvement with a group of vets supposedly helping other vets led to him discovering it was a front for drug smuggling (hence his death), an operation tied to Carrera, leading to additional violent confrontations, Sasha held hostage, the Shaft men attacking Carrera in his penthouse fortress with all the baddies dead at the end, followed by JJ rejecting his FBI reinstatement (he was dismissed earlier when a raid/arrest on a mosque and its imam he orchestrated didn’t yield what it was supposed to)joining the older Shafts as “Black private dick[s—pun intended, as is the name “Shaft” for that matter—who are] sex machine[s] to all the chicks” (as all is resolved Maya warms up to John, especially when she and JJ realize John was so focused on Carrera rather than them because this was the hood who ordered the hit on their family that ultimately pulled them apart).⇐

 In that I’ve already tipped off what this Musical Metaphor just has to be (we’ll get to it very soon), I'll conclude these remarks by saying this latest incarnation of Shaft is enjoyable in its constant use of humor (much of it JJ’s frustration with the sexist, violent world his Dad so delights in, along with the sarcastic comments from John about the various Green New Deal-type-attitudes espoused by his Millennial-son), its intentional flaunting of political correctness by indulgent-in-every-way John, its nostalgic reincorporation of everything that made the original Shaft so swaggeringly-belligerent in the Blaxploitation-era, as well as its well-choreographed action scenes for those who don’t mind finding most of the cast shot dead by the end, with only John taking a semi-serious-hit while all the other casualties come from the guns of the Shaft attacks.  However, except just for the guilty pleasure of indulging in such hedonistic extravagance, there was probably no reason to even go beyond the original entry in this series, as everything following has just been a bloody rehash of Black pride standing up against the White establishment or various criminals of myriad colors.  Certainly, the critical community at large finds little to praise here, with RT surveying a miserable collection of 34% positive reviews while MC surprisingly goes a bit higher with a 40% average score.  (Unlike with Late Night where I dove under the consensus numbers, this time I came in higher, enjoying this potboiler's inconsequential-allure.)  Audience response wasn’t very energetic on opening weekend either with a mere $8.9 million at the domestic box-office against a budget of $30-35 million (ironically, men who are Black lost out badly in the ticket-sales-race to Men in Black International [F. Gary Gray] which took in a domestic total of $30 million [globally, $103.7 million], although it did even worse with the critics—RT 24% positive reviews, MC 38% average score—a primary reason why I limited my nostalgia choice to Shaft [2019]).  I guess it’s true what my Musical Metaphor says (“Theme from Shaft” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFlsufZj9Fg [from the 1971 Shaft soundtrack album, video's the opening scene from that movie]): “He’s a complicated man But no one understands him but his woman” (whichever J. Shaft's referred to at the moment), so I’ll be kind again in my closing by offering another Metaphor reliving positive aspects of long-gone "Glory Days" (from Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 Born in the U.S.A. album) for the Shaft franchise and all who may still find some reminiscing-pleasure with it (the Shaft song had its own “glory days” too, taking the Oscar for Best Original Song; here's how Hayes [first African-American to win in that category], backed by an army of dancers, presented it at that 1972 ceremony).  I’ve had some other thoughts on “glory days” as well, leading to an addition to my regular cluster of closing songs at the very end of the Related Links section below if you'd care to scroll down there.

 One last thing on my way out of this posting is to draw attention to a film streaming on Netflix, Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (if you watch, you’ll need to give it your attention for awhile as it runs 142 min.), a chronicle (of sorts) of a tour by Bob Dylan, along with various musician friends including Joan Baez, Roger McGuinn, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Ronee Blakely, Joni Mitchell (joined along the way), violinist Scarlet Riviera, poet Allen Ginsberg, and several others, that wound its way through New England, Canada, and NYC in fall 1975, often in small venues with little advance notice.  Scorsese combines footage of several on-stage-performances, rehearsals and backstage chatter (all shot by filmmaker Stefan Van Dorp), and more contemporary interviews with some of those involved (especially Dylan, who talks more—and more directly—here than any time I’ve seen him at many concerts), including Sharon Stone describing how as a teenager she went to a Rolling Thunder show (wearing a Kiss T-shirt) with her mother, then—like Mitchell—spontaneously became part of the traveling crowd, along with Sam Shephard who purposely accompanied the tour to write a script fleshing out Dylan’s intentions with this rambling circus of an experience (the band and crew traveled on buses, Dylan driving one of them), which he ultimately contributed to the confusing-collage of concert segments, rehearsal activities, dramatic (largely adlib) vignettes, etc. collected into the near-universally-panned, 4-hr. (!) Renaldo and Clara (Dylan, 1978)—what from I understand (couldn’t bring myself to see my enigmatic musical/cultural icon in a travesty of his own making), it sounds like what would have happened with the similar-critical-catastrophe of The Beatles’ TV movie, Magical Mystery Tour (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Bernard Knowles; 1967) if they hadn’t bothered to exercise any of the modest restraint they did put in place.  Anyway, Rolling Thunder … ‘s a fascinating look at a largely-little-known period of Dylan’s seemingly-never-ending-touring-life (simply because the places the Revue stopped were frequently small, with no live album [just bootleg stuff] intended to capture the event, although songs from the early-1976-release of the Desire album were part of the act), featuring dynamic performances with lyrical enunciations you’d be hard-pressed to find in Bob’s current stage work—especially in the plea for justice for convicted Rubin Carter in “Hurricane”—despite the disconcerting appearance of Dylan in white-face-makeup (inspired by traditional Italian commedia dell’arte), topped off with a flowered-hat (Baez got into the spirit of this costume, once dressing like Dylan; she fooled some members of the troupe at first until they realized who she was).

 Scorsese adds a wry aspect of his own into this broad conception of the Rolling Thunder Revue with some completely bogus material you can explore in more detail in articles from Forbes and Variety, where we learn “filmmaker” Stefan Van Dorp is actually Bette Midler’s husband Martin Van Haselberg taking on a fictional-role (so I don’t know who actually shot the extensive 1975 footage) while Sharon Stone’s "recollections" are a likewise-lie.  Why Scorsese “enhances” his documentary (making it more of a “Story” than expected) might be explained by this Dylan statement: "Life isn't about finding yourself or finding anything.  Life is about creating yourself and creating things.”*  One thing here not created is Rubin Carter’s** unjust-guilty-verdict for murder (in 1967; retried—to some degree as a result of the focus on his situation by Dylan’s song—in 1976 but found guilty again; conviction overturned in 1985; finally completely cleared in 1988), so I’ll leave you with a final Musical Metaphor (despite not actually reviewing nor rating Rolling Thunder …) of "Hurricane" (on Desire), celebrating not only an aspect of Dylan’s tour (although this video’s from then yet not from the Revue's shows) but also his larger intention of playing in a more spontaneous fashion for the benefit of those not privileged with strategies for grabbing prime (expensive) arena seats (nor having access to effective attorneys for the circuses often happening in our controversial courtrooms—but if you want to see more about Carter’s trials you might watch The Hurricane [Norman Jewison, 1999], Denzel Washington in the title role, with much praise for the acting but some complaints the narrative’s too biased in favor of Carter in dispute of what some see as facts otherwise in this case).

*I have a particular fondness for this film’s material because I saw the version of the Rolling Thunder Revue done as a benefit for “Hurricane” Carter at Houston’s Astrodome on January 25, 1976, a day-night-doubleheader with afternoon shows by Dr. John, Stevie Wonder, Isaac Hayes (can’t remember if he did the Shaft theme), plus a phone call on the sound system from Carter in prison, then the Revue that night enhanced by guests such as Ringo Starr on drums and a sizzling guitar duet (can’t remember the song) by Stephen Stills and Carlos Santana, an amazing event of endless talent.  As a follow-up, I was at a Joni Mitchell concert in home-base-Austin a few nights later when Dylan joined her for a final encore (of course I can’t remember what they sang), an odd situation in which the standing ovation for his appearance led to both of them crouching down low to sing, apparently in an effort to encourage all of us to sit; it didn’t work, so they sang practically from their knees while hardly anyone could see them (the spirit of the Rolling Thunder Revue remained intact).

**Like Sam Shepard, dead since 2017, Rubin Carter’s interviewed for this film although he died in 2014, so Scorsese must have been working on his concept for Rolling Thunder … for quite awhile.
                 
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
           
We encourage you to visit the summary of Two Guys reviews for our past posts.*  Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage If you’d like to Like us on Facebook please visit our Facebook page. We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it!

*A Google software glitch causes every Two Guys posting prior to August 26, 2016 to have an inaccurate (dead) link to this Summary page; from then forward, though, this link is accurate.

Here’s more information about Late Night:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygw6dxLXqcQ (2:52 anatomy of a scene from the movie by director Nisha Ganatra) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUQI_BB31ds  (10:45 interview with actors Mindy Kaling and Emma Thompson)


Here’s more information about Shaft [2019]:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXDgKXZTAyI (53:04 interview with actors Samuel L. Jackson, Richard Roundtree, Jessie T. Usher, Regina Hall, Alexandra Shipp, and Luna Lauren Velez) 



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If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here please use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com(But if you truly have too much time on your hands you might want to explore some even-longer-and-more-obtuse-than-my-film-reviews—if that even seems possible—academic articles about various cinematic topics at my website,
https://kenburke.academia.edu, which could really give you something to talk to me about.)

If we did talk, though, you’d easily see how my early-70s-age informs my references, Musical Metaphors, etc. in these reviews because I’m clearly a guy of the later 20th century, not so much the contemporary world.  I’ve come to accept my ongoing situation, though, realizing we all (if fate allows) keep getting older, we just have to embrace it, as Joni Mitchell did so well in "The Circle Game," offering sage advice even when she was quite young herself.
By the way, if you’re ever at The Hotel California knock on my door—but you know what the check out policy is so be prepared to stay for awhile. Ken

P.S.  Just to show that I haven’t fully flushed Texas out of my system here’s an alternative destination for you, Home in a Texas Bar, with Gary P. Nunn and Jerry Jeff Walker.  But wherever the rest of my body may be my heart’s always with my longtime-companion, lover, and wife, Nina Kindblad, so here’s our favorite shared song—Neil Young’s "Harvest Moon"
—from the performance we saw at the Desert Trip concerts in Indio, CA on October 15, 2016 (as a full moon was rising over the stadium) because “I’m still in love with you,” my dearest, a never-changing-reality even as the moon waxes and wanes over the months/years to come.
               
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