Radioactive plus Short Takes on suggestions for TCM cable offerings and other cinematic topics

You Turn Me On I’m a Radio … active Isotope

(Line extrapolated from a song on Joni Mitchell’s 1972 album For the Roses using 

radio waves as an allusion to romance, not radiation, but radio and X-rays are both 

contained in the electromagnetic spectrum so let’s not be too picky, shall we?)

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) when they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative,

               Radioactive (Marjane Satrapi)

                               rated PG-13

Opening Chatter (no spoilers): As specified in my last posting I wasn’t sure how much time/space I’d devote to reviews of new-streaming-product this week because of the distraction I might have from the official opening of what in 2020 amounts (or maybe just attempts) to be Major League Baseball’s season; well, sure enough, once my Oakland Athletics finally took to the field (accompanied by 5,100 cardboard cutouts of fans who donated money to charity to have their likenesses put into seats around the stadium, with crowd noise, PA announcements, and other audio enhancements from past seasons also added to the empty-stadium—except for players, umpires, broadcasters, and a few support personnel) I’ve devoted a good bit of time over the previous days to what may be a very short experiment given how many members of the Miami Marlins team have now tested positive for COVID-19, so now the whole concept of restarting the sport this year hangs in the balance of the next few days probably, as I cheer my A’s on to a 3-3 record, tied for first place (!) for now in the American League West Division; therefore, I haven’t had much extra time for watching independent cinema I might not have bothered with anyway had it been playing in a public theater.  However, Radioactive, a somewhat-Expressionistic (if not fully Surreal in a couple of scenes) biography of science-giant Marie Curie seemed like a good investment (although critical reaction’s been mixed) because I wanted to know more about her life, I’ve admired several past performances by Rosamund Pike, and I was willing to put my faith in my local San Francisco Chronicle-critic/enthusiast as to how I’d likely be well-rewarded for my investment.  Overall, I was, although I’ve since found hesitations about the value of this film from women whose opinions I trust, including my wife.  Nevertheless, if you’re already an Amazon Prime subscriber or wish to cash in on their 30-day-free-trial offer I think you’d find Radioactive—with its multiple focuses on Marie Curie’s struggle to be taken seriously as a scientist in the late-19^th/early 20^th-centuries, her significant discoveries along with husband Pierre of new chemical elements and the phenomenon of radiation, plus some brief allusions to the positive/negative impact of radiation well into our own time—is quite an interesting premise to explore, along with what could be considered an Oscar-nomination-worthy-performance from Pike.  Also, in the Short Takes section I’ll offer suggestions for some choices on the Turner Classic Movies channel (but too much extra text for line-justified-layout like you see here [Related Links stuff at each posting’s end is similarly-ragged], at least to be done by this burned-out-BlogSpot-drone—oh, tedious software! [which fought me more than before this week, as with that giant space above just below the photo]) along with my marvelous dose of industry-related-trivia.

Here’s the trailer for Radioactive:

                   (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate 

                   that same button or use the “esc” keyboard key to return to normal size.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $.  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, continue on if you prefer.

What Happens: (As with any docudrama, what's on screen may not fully—or even accurately—reflect the historical record we have of the person or events being depicted; if you wish a more complete understanding of the life of Marie Curie you can consult several sources including the Encyclopedia Britannica and the Nobel Prize organization—but if you really want details, go here.  So, in this section of my review when I want to add something I see as relevant but not included in the film’s text I’ll just add it [in brackets].)  Maria Sklodowska (Rosamund Pike) [born in Warsaw, Poland in 1867] comes to Paris [1891, earns a degree in physics in 1893 at the University of Paris—the Sorbonne], changes her name to Marie, works in a large laboratory run by Professor Gabriel Lippmann (Simon Russell Beale), lives with her sister, Bronia (Sian Brooke) [married to a physician, but we see no trace of him except for a baby also sharing the small quarters with the sisters], in 1893 accidently bumps into Pierre Curie (Sam Riley) on the street, moves quickly past his attempts at compliments on her work and small talk [actually introduced by a mutual colleague], runs afoul of Lippmann’s committee when she requests (demands, really) more lab space, is turned down by every male scientist she visits trying to share a lab, finally relents to accept Curie’s offer as she admits they’re working in similar directions, hence he could be a useful collaborator (even as she asserts her brilliance, independent intentions, and—briefly—rejects any romantic interest he might have) which ultimately becomes their norm in both private and public life (even though they do marry in 1895; she warms up, as we see a passionate scene in the countryside as they swim naked in a lake, make love on shore, share loving nights in their bedroom—resulting in daughter Irène [1897]).  

 Over the next few years the Curies do extensive work extending Wilhelm Roentgen’s discovery [1895] of X-rays and the radiation emitted by uranium (Marie explains their theories at a small dinner party, using the analogy—illustrated through animation for us—of a grape turning itself into wine, releasing energy in the process; I didn't fully follow the science/chemistry explained at various times during this film, nor do I think such understanding’s essential to appreciating the larger context of the story presented on screen), during which time Pierre’s granted a professorship in physics at the University of Paris, these dedicated scientists discover 2 new elements—polonium [named for Poland], radium—along with the release of energy from a decaying atom, radiation, leading to a joint Nobel Prize in Physics in December 1903 [along with Henri Becquerel] which Pierre goes to Stockholm alone to accept (Marie'd recently birthed daughter Ève, chose not to travel, didn’t seem that overwhelmed by the award relative to her desire to continue pressing forward with their research [actually, Ève was born Dec. 1904; neither parent went to Sweden for their joint speech until 1905]).

 By this time, Pierre’s becoming ill (from radiation poisoning), yet in his acceptance speech [within the film, although it's fictionalized] he echoes Alfred Nobel’s (inventor of dynamite, sponsor of the awards) belief that new discoveries will ultimately benefit humankind even if some use these breakthroughs for criminal purposes.  When he returns home, though, he finds Marie bitter that he didn’t insist she accompany him (even though, seemingly, he had to demand the Nobel committee include her in the award, not just him), but his increasing illness brings about her immediate support until one night as he’s staggering home, reeling from the radiation he falls under an oncoming horse carriage, dying from a skull fracture.  While I’ve tried to be chronological with this summary so far for clarity, you should know the actual film begins in 1934 as Marie collapses in her lab, herself dying of radiation poisoning, so actually everything we see prior to that officially is a series of flashbacks; however, there are also flashforwards at times editorializing on positive or negative aspects of radiation: The first is in Cleveland, OH, in 1957 where Dr. Jenkins (Demetri Tumbridge) assures an anxious father his hospital’s new, huge radiation device will be greatly beneficial in reducing/curing his son’s deadly tumors; on the other hand, we also get scenes of the atomic bomb dropping on Hiroshima in 1945 and a crowd of spectators in 1961 naïvely watching a bomb blast from a distance in Nevada as if some form of entertainment, then there’s another one in 1986 where the nuclear-reactor-meltdown in Chernobyl spews death and disease into the surrounding area.  Back in the early-20^th-century, life goes on for widowed-Marie who takes Pierre’s position at the U. of Paris, has a scandalous affair with younger colleague, Paul Langevin (Aneurin Barnard)—estranged from his wife—which turns many in the French public against her (Polish ancestry didn’t help, nor did the false charge of being Jewish [actually, lapsed-Catholic]), though she got another Nobel Prize in 1911, for Chemistry [first woman to get this honor in any category, only woman to win in 2 different ones, only person to win in 2 different science fields—Linus Pauling won for Chemistry, also Peace].

 ⇒As France moves into WW I teenage Irène’s* (Anya Taylor-Joy) working at a hospital where amputation is carried out too frequently on wounded soldiers so she convinces Marie to work with her to get portable X-ray machines into field ambulances, initially denied by the government even with Marie’s offer to donate her 2 solid-gold-medals as partial payment but accepted when she threatens to go to the press with her offer [actually, the French National Bank refused the medals, but she was able to use her Nobel prize money to buy war bonds], so many soldiers’ lives and limbs are saved by these devices, along with her use of radon gas (given off by radium) to sterilize infected tissue.   As our story closes we’re back in 1934 where Marie has a dying vision of herself offering comfort in a ward to some various injured (actually dead) victims of radiations, bombs, etc. until she’s joined by Pierre, ready to be with her now in the afterlife (not the half-life of radioactive materials).⇐

*Later (1926) Irène marries Frédéric Joliot; even later (1935) they’ll share a Nobel of their own in Chemistry for finding the process of creating artificial radioactivity, turning one element into another by irradiating stable isotopes with alpha particles (helium nuclei)—not that I fully followed that, either.

So What? Given how comparatively little recognition’s been given to women for their many achievements, with discoveries either ignored in patriarchal (or misogynist) societies, hidden away in family traditions, or falsely claimed by husbands, rulers, government/academic entities, it’s useful to have a film dedicated to celebrating a woman’s great accomplishments, even a woman already well-lauded as Marie Curie, showing the fierce determination she exhibited against the sexist attitudes of her time (also the first female faculty member at the prestigious Sorbonne), yet Radioactive’s dismissed by many reviewers (more details in my next section), its only saving grace being Pike’s emphatic performance.  So, with curious intent I looked over the reviews of some female critics I admire/trust, finding a range of cautious (at best) support.  Leah Greenblatt from Entertainment Weekly says: “Riley's gentle, steady presence lends ballast to Pike's portrayal of a woman so prickly and ferociously driven that even her own child (Anya Taylor-Joy) often behaves less like a daughter than a wrangler. Though in the end, it's hard not to feel that Curie herself would have wished for more rigor in Radioactive's formula — a film that, for all its ambition and force of feeling, only begins to let the light in.”  Manohla Dargis of the New York Times is a bit more supportive: “I wish that Satrapi had cut loose more boldly with her colors and hallucinatory visions. ‘Radioactive’ is more provocative and satisfying than the average waxworks, but Satrapi’s visual strategies also point to the even more fully adventurous movie that could have been. Even so, it pulls you in and sometimes knocks you sideways, [...] illustrating the terrors that Curie’s discoveries led to, a reminder that this isn’t just about one life but many. Bluntly effective and dialectical, these interludes reinforce one of the movie’s refrains: science is invariably political and, in the right hands, can be a force for good and, in the wrong, a weapon of evil.”  In mild contrast, Amy Nicholson in Variety goes further in praise: “As ‘Radioactive’ grapples with the repercussions of inventing a dangerously unstable nucleus that can both cure cancer and cause it, Satrapi collapses a century of innovation and destruction […] into a flat timeline that Curie can see right through as though looking at an x-ray, even walking through a Russian hospital in 1986 to kiss a dying firefighter on the forehead. In those moments of stylistic imagination, the film glows.”  Supportive prose, yet in overall-restrained-reviews.

 But, speaking for those not so thrilled is Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post: “The blunt, episodic nature of ‘Radioactive’ mirrors the pane-by-pane flow of a typical graphic novel. Despite Satrapi’s best efforts to smooth out the story and imbue it with depth and theatrical interest, the story can’t overcome some of its most unwieldy structural flaws. There’s no doubt that ‘Radioactive’ tells an engrossing and inspiring story; it just might be that its heroine was always too hot to handle.”  Actually, Radioactive’s adapted from a graphic novel by MacArthur “Genius Grant” winner, Lauren Redniss; maybe an odd choice for a biography, but I’ve never read it, won’t comment further.

 As far as the film and Marie Curie’s actual history are concerned, though, you might be interested in reading this comparison between film and facts, which would tell you Maria’s mother, Bronislawa Sklodowska, died of tuberculosis when her child was just 10 (shown in the film via sad flashback) but there’s no evidence the older Marie refused to enter a hospital to see equipment Pierre felt would facilitate their lab work nor later to observe WW I amputees Irène needed to show her mother as evidence of soldiers being brutalized even after they’d left the battlefield.  This short article also makes note of scenes where fascinated-Pierre drags Marie to a séance-of-sorts as spiritualist Eusapia Palladino (Federica Fracassi) claims to use the new-found-curiosity of radium-radiation to stimulate ectoplasm of spirits to appear as with an image of Beethoven on a photographic plate; seemingly, Pierre was enthralled with such a possibility while Marie dismissed it as non-scientific hucksterism (although, in the film, after his death she grieves for Pierre so desperately she even begs dancer Loie Fuller [more on her at the end of the next section]), to bring her to another Eusapia-quasi-spiritual-event only to learn the woman’s now dead herself.  While this article doesn’t mention those odd immediate-post-discovery-phase-of-radiation-curiosities in 1890s French popular culture, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn such things as glowing, irradiated cigarettes were actual items then (I haven’t found any mention of such yet, but there is radioactivity in contemporary tobacco—as reported by one branch of the Environmental Protection Agency not neutered by the Trump Administration [so far!])—to be legitimately concerned about just as the discovery of radiation back then led to the hopeful regression of cancer through tumor-shrinkage but also carried the curse of death when not used with proper precautions, taking its toll on some who hoped the Curies’ discoveries would extend rather than terminate life, even as these unknowing, unprotected scientists fell victim to their own radical discoveries.  Ultimately, it would seem there’s a lot in Radioactive to be intrigued by, especially the depiction of this determined, often-legitimately-sour-woman, but even my fiercely-feminist-wife, Nina, agrees with Hornaday about the obviousness of certain aspects of this film (“[…] we know what’s to come when she and Pierre come down with coughs they can’t quite shake.”) and the distancing-attitudes of Marie, making it difficult to fully empathize with her (“[…] Pike once again dispels any natural vanity to bear down on a character who might be admirable, even heroic, but it rarely likable.”); oddly enough, I was more taken by this film than Nina who (like many critics) found Marie Curie and her surrounding filmic-narrative to be more off-putting than enhancing.

Bottom Line Final Comments: Specifically, the CCAL critics are tending toward their OCCU manifestation regarding Radioactive, with the reviews at Rotten Tomatoes rising only to the 64% positive level while the usually-more-stingy-scribes at Metacritic offer merely a 56% average score (more details in the Related Links section much farther below).  Despite this tepid level of encouragement, I’ll admit I was finally pulled into making this my choice of the week from a few other possibilities by the high praise of my local critical-guru, Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle, who encouraged me (Nina, initially as well) with “[Pike often stars in] films about dynamic, driven women in the grip of obsessions and forces they cannot control […] It’s come to a point that, if Rosamund Pike is in a movie, it’s at least worth a look.”*  For me, it made quite a nice look (thus, for this time at least, I won’t find something snide to say about LaSalle because I agree with his overall interest in this film), even if some women whose opinions I respect (especially Nina) weren’t as taken with it as I was (although I admit Radioactive tries to weave so much together it risks losing its audience at times); I’ll let Peter Travers of Rolling Stone speak to my reaction (I’m sure he’s honored): “Banish the dull images of test tubes and musty lecture halls when considering Radioactive […] the historical drama would be a dutiful thing, indeed, if it merely ticked off a list of Marie’s accomplishments […] Pike is having none of that — her performance as the headstrong Marie feels electro-charged. The same sparks run through the direction of Marjane Satrapi, who knows how to energize screen biography; […] by thrusting Marie into the continuing repercussions of her discovery, Radioactive creates something refreshingly untamed.”  Well, maybe I’m not quite that fired up about this film, but I still see it as a worthwhile-watch even if the physics possibly eludes you.

* Another aspect of this film worth a look (if you’re already an Amazon Prime subscriber or want to take advantage of their 30-day-free-trial) is a scene you’ll see in roughly the first ½-hour (at most) of Loie Fuller’s (Drew Jacoby) “fire dance” where she’s in a flowing white dress, twirls around as vibrant colors are projected on her from spotlights.  It’s beautiful just in itself but also reminds me of a major-award-winning-performance from a Finnish artist at an international media festival I used to be the Head Judge of where a dancer did the same, illuminated by various images from slide projectors.  That was mesmerizing years ago; the concept works equally well now even in this more limited form.

 So, if that’s all I (and my accomplices) have to say about Radioactive I’d better close out with my usual wrap-up-tactic of a Musical Metaphor, this time Jackson Browne’s “Doctor, My Eyes" (from his 1972 self-named, debut album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0GhjlmlEwQ (from a live 2010 concert) where his lyrics speak to me of Marie Curie’s fierce passion/personal heartaches as shown in retrospect in this film: “Doctor, my eyes have seen the years And the slow parade of tears without crying Now I want to understand I have done all that I could To see the evil and the good without hiding You must help me if you can […] I’ve been waiting to awaken from these dreams […] I never noticed them until I got this feeling That it’s later than it seems.” Yet, before I go, I can’t resist also giving you Bob Dylan’s "Absolutely Sweet Marie" (from his 1966 Blonde on Blonde album; lyrics below the YouTube screen or just use the CC button on the lower right of that video screen if you want to sing along) because its sarcastic attitude toward another Marie (could be like Antoinette, given her reputation) feels to me like how Prof. Lippmann and other scientific authorities of Marie Curie’s time saw her: “Well, anybody can be just like me, obviously But then, now again, not too many can be like you, fortunately […] But to live outside the law, you must be honest I know you always say that you agree Alright so where are you tonight, sweet Marie?”  Only Pierre (and later, Paul) could answer that last inquiry, although the academic authorities of her time always had plenty of questions put to Madame Curie; nevertheless, she always answered with her work, not her words.

              

SHORT TAKES

              

Suggestions for TCM cablecasts

(This image from Giant should be in color but it’s the best overall example I could find.)

At least until the pandemic subsides Two Guys also want to encourage you to consider movies you might be interested in that don’t require subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime, similar Internet platforms (we may well be stuck inside for longer than those 30-day-free-initial-offers), or premium-tier-cable-TV-fees.  While there are a good number of video networks offering movies of various sorts (mostly broken up by commercials), one dependable source of fine cinematic programming is Turner Classic Movies (available in lots of basic-cable-packages) so I’ll be offering suggestions of possible choices for you running from Thursday afternoon of the current week (I usually get this blog posted by early Thursday mornings) on through Thursday morning of the following week.  All times are U.S. Eastern Daylight so if you see something of interest please verify actual show time in your area for the day listed.  These recommendations are my particular favorites (no matter when they’re on, although some early-day-ones might need to be recorded, watched later), but there’s considerably more to pick from you could like better; feel free to peruse their entire schedule here.

Thursday July 30, 2020

10:45 PM The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1963) Socialite (Tippi Hedren) and lawyer (Rod Taylor) meet in a San Francisco pet store, meet up again a bit north in Bodega Bay, attracted but hesitant. Soon mysterious occurrences begin in this area involving various birds which escalate to direct, deadly attacks on humans with no clear explanation of why this is happening.  Other stars include Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette, and Veronica Cartwright.  A creepy, effective psychological horror movie. 

Friday July 31, 2020

1:00 PM How the West Was Won (John Ford, Henry Hathaway & George Marshall, 1962) Narrated by Spencer Tracy, epic (2 hrs. 44 min.) 4 generations of a family move from NY to CA (1839-1889; Ford directs only the Civil War segment) encountering countless difficulties along the way. Filled with stars including James Stewart, Debbie Reynolds, Karl Malden, Gregory Peck, Andy Devine, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Eli Wallach. Made for 3-projector Cinerama process, format may be too wide for some TV screens. Won Oscars for Best Original Screenplay, Film Editing, & Sound. 

Saturday August 1, 2020

10:00 PM Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944) Most marvelous film noir co-written by Wilder and Raymond Chandler about a scheming housewife (Barbara Stanwyck) working with a clearly shady insurance salesman (Fred McMurray) to kill her husband, collect a big payout, but a claims adjuster (Edward G. Robinson) smells a rat so the deadly plot begins to unravel, betrayals increase (inspired Body Heat [Lawrence Kasdan, 1981] as a sort of glorious remake several unsettled decades later).

Sunday August 2, 2020

12:00 AM Meet John Doe (Frank Capra, 1941) A fired newspaper reporter (Barbara Stanwyck) concocts a fictional letter from “John Doe,” threatening suicide on Christmas Eve because of social unrest; popular response causes editor (James Gleason) to hire her back along with a homeless guy (Gary Cooper) to portray Doe, leading to nation seeing him as hero calling out society’s ills even as he knows the whole premise is a fake just to sell newspapers, leading “Doe” to plan actual suicide.

Monday August 3, 2020

12:00 AM Giant (George Stevens, 1956) Another epic story of the West (3 hrs. 21 min.) but a contemporary plot where the owner of a huge west Texas ranch (Rock Hudson) goes East to buy a horse, ends up also with a wife (Elizabeth Taylor) who has more supportive attitudes toward their Mexican workers. His older sister Luz (Mercedes McCambridge) dies, leaves a small plot to a local rounder (James Dean) who finds oil on his land, gets quickly rich, continues over the years to bedevil the main family. Oscar for Best Director (plus 9 more nominations), Dean’s last role before his car-crash death. For the time and location, a surprising ongoing theme of emerging social tolerance.

8:00 PM The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1948) Welles, due to internal-industry concern about his allusions to William Randolph Hearst in Citizen Kane (1941), never truly had control over his later projects including this one where the climatic scene in a funhouse hall of mirrors was cut from a 20-min. tour de force down to just 3 min. What’s left here is still fascinating starring Welles and soon-to-be-ex-wife Rita Hayworth in a tale of murder, intended murder, double-crosses, intrigue.

10:00 PM Gilda (Charles Vidor, 1946) While she had quite a career otherwise this is the role defining Rita Hayworth’s screen image as probably the most voluptuous, desirable woman of the 1940s.  A small-time, crooked gambler (Glenn Ford) comes to Buenos Aires, becomes the manager of a casino, but when the owner (George Macready) suddenly takes a wife (Hayworth) we soon come to understand she has a past with the gambler which leads first to hatred, then to a rekindled romance.

Wednesday August 5, 2020

10:00 PM On the Town (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, 1949) Adapted from 1944 Broadway musical and Jerome Robbins’ 1944 Fancy Free ballet, 3 sailors (Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Jules Munshin) on 24-hr. shore leave in NYC connect with women (Betty Garrett, Vera-Ellen, Ann Miller). Unusual for an MGM star showcase of the time for filming some scenes on location in NYC; a financial and critical success at the time, won Oscar for Best Music—Scoring of a Musical Picture.

If you’d like your own PDF of the rating/summary of this week's reviews, suggestions for TCM cablecasts, links to Two Guys info click this link to access then save, print, or whatever you need.

Other Cinema-Related Stuff: More items here: (1) AMC Theaters delay reopening again; (2) Mulan opening postponed indefinitely; (3) Golden Globe awards set for Feb. 28, 2021; (4) Christopher Nolan's Tenet to open internationally on Aug. 26, 2020, then in U.S. Sept. 3, 2020; (5) Regal Cinemas to reopen in late Aug. 2020; (6) Asia box-office drops 92%; (7) Even when theaters are open few show up; (8) Universal and AMC agree to early availability of theatrical releases for streaming; (9) An opinion on the difficulties Independent Cinema faces in the near future.  I’ll close out this section with Joni Mitchell’s "Big Yellow Taxi" (from her 1970 Ladies of the Canyon album)—because “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone”—and a reminder that you can search many streaming/rental/purchase options at JustWatch.

           

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:

           

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Here’s more information about Radioactive:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CMTQF2S/?DVM_US_DL_SL_GO_AST_20RA|m_djMcElwvc_c 451225236178&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIn4bB6Zfs6gIVlP_jBx0LhgReEAAYASAAEgLVw_D_BwE 

(huge URL but that’s how it comes out on Amazon Prime)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2S5AoyKXkw (28:34 interview with director Marjane Satrapi, producer Paul Webster, scriptwriter Jack Thorne, and actors Aneurin Barnard, Rosamund Pike [sound level drops down suddenly at about 5:00 so you might find reason to use the CC button 

on the YouTube screen’s lower right])

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/radioactive

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/radioactive 

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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—type it directly if the link doesn’t work. (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 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 20^th 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 (quite an eternal while, in fact).  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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Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month the total unique hits at this site were 39,717 (as always, we thank all of you for your ongoing support with our hopes you’ll continue to be regular readers); below is a snapshot of where and by what means those responses have come from within the previous week (with appreciation for all those unspecified "Others" also):

First Cow and Short Takes on Suggestions for TCM cable offerings and other cinematic topics

Got Milk?

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) when they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.

                   First Cow (Kelly Reichardt) 

                                rated PG-13

“Executive Summary” (no spoilers): Like last week, I’m going with only one review this time, not because I’m dreading what I'll encounter with BlogSpot’s new software (after struggling last week I think I’ve got it under control—or not; see footnote in So What? section) but because there was only one streamer that intrigued me—so First Cow got the call, riding the wave of a fantastic set of reviews (many of them because it got a short theatrical release last March before the Great COVID-19 Shutdown so it’s been around long enough to be seen by those with prior-to-rerelease-access)—plus my cinematically-interested-wife, Nina, suggested we should actually take advantage of some of those Turner Classic Movies I promote on a regular basis so we spent a couple of nights watching 2 of the very best ever adapted from their literary origins, The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940) and The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)—although neither film carries quite the poetry/bitterness (the former) or cynicism (the latter) active in their foundational books, but both were made during the strong years of the industry-self-censoring-filter, the Hays Code, so they couldn’t push much further than they already did (another TCM masterpiece I note far below in this posting—Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? [1966] pushed those boundaries to the breaking point, joining others of that time to aid in finally abolishing the Code, replacing it with the content/age-based-ratings-system that’s opened movies up to more adult content since 1968).  Yet another welcome distraction from watching something I’ve felt compelled to write about is the return of professional baseball with exhibition games (in empty stadiums, cardboard-cutout-photos in the seats of fans who paid [money to charities] to maintain their presence at the games) this week locally between the San Francisco Giants and my beloved Oakland Athletics (now, if the A’s can actually win some games when this weird season begins this weekend, the experience could be even better).

 So, onward to First Cow which ultimately didn’t enthuse me nearly as much as anticipated, but, as I explore below, I don’t seem to be as in tune with this director’s approach as I’m being told I should.  It takes place in early-19^th century-Oregon Territory, where a cook traveling with some fur trappers shifts his focus when he comes upon an enterprising Chinese man, well-traveled, erudite, but not of the financial means to pursue his dreams either until they hit upon a scheme of stealing milk from the only cow in the region.  It’s an intriguing character study, which maybe I’m too much of a character to fully appreciate, but I do think it’s quite watchable.  Also, in the Short Takes section I’ll offer more suggestions on the TCM channel (but too much extra text for line-justified-layout like you see here [Related Links stuff at each posting’s end is similarly-ragged], at least to be done by this burned-out-BlogSpot-drone—oh, tedious software!) along with that standard dose of industry-related-trivia.        

Here’s the trailer:

                   (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate 

                   that same button or use the “esc” keyboard key to return to normal size.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $.  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, continue on if you prefer.

What Happens: We begin in the present day with a woman (Alia Shawkat) walking her dog in the woods; she goes to see what the dog’s digging at, finds a partial human skull, then starts digging herself until she’s uncovered 2 human skeletons lying side-by-side.  A cut to closeups of a hand plucking mushrooms from the ground initially might seem to be part of her scene, but as the camera gives wider shots we see a man whose clothing indicates a much earlier period (Reichardt in the interview in the Related Links section far below says we’re now in 1820 [I don’t recall anything from the film’s context to help us know that]; she also notes how the visuals were somewhat inspired by Frederick Remington's paintings of the Old West [what I know of his work was more of deserts and plains than forests so I’m not sure of that specific connection either, but the shots in the forests are quite beautiful as are others which are intriguing as we look into those woods through an open door or window of a shack]); we learn he’s Otis “Cookle” Figowitz (John Magaro), the cook with a small band of fur trappers, collecting beaver pelts in the Oregon Territory, although these gruff guys aren’t impressed with either the quantity nor diversity of his meals so he’s sent back out again to find more whereupon he encounters a nude Chinese man, King Lu (Orion Lee), who’s on the run from some Russians after he killed one of them in retaliation following the unnecessary death of his friend (he stashed his clothes in hollow trees, threw the gun into a creek to help avoid detection).  Cookie brings him a blanket and some food, later sees him swimming away across a river.  The trappers are headed for Ft. Tilikum to get money for their pelts, then the story shifts to Cookie staying behind after his group’s departed (at times chunks of the plot are dropped away as in French New Wave jump cutting) seemingly (to me) at the fort, but in the Ann Hornaday review I cite in the next section she says he’s now at the Royal West Pacific Trading Post; wherever he is he finds Lu at the local bar (an odd scene where locals taunt big guy/dim-witted [?] Brilliant William [Don MacEllis] until he fights back as they all jostle outside, leaving a baby in a basket behind), they agree to share Lu’s shack in the nearby woods (the Russians have now left the area), Lu explains he left China at age 9 then has traveled much of the world while dreaming about owning a nut tree farm while Cookie would like to run a hotel with an attached bakery (he’s been moving around the country from Maryland since both parents died when he was young), yet neither has the needed cash-on-hand to pursue such dreams.

 Hope for a financial windfall comes when they decide to steal milk at night from the region’s only cow, brought in by Chief Factor (Toby Jones), a rich Englishman (even if this name might indicate otherwise relative to Natives in this environment) with a large home nearby (some reviews say he’s the territorial governor; maybe so), then use the precious liquid to bake some tasty cakes which they sell for so much profit they have to hide their cash stash in a nearby cottonwood tree.  Factor buys one, loves it, invites them to bake a blueberry clafoutis tart for tea time with a local military officer (Scott Shepherd), also attended by Indian Chief Totillicum (Gary Farmer)—maybe his name has something to do with what I understood the fort’s name to be—and his wife (Sabrina Morrison) who seem to live with Chief Factor, but when they all go to see the cow the Captain notices how friendly she is with Cookie, suspects there’s a reason why Factor’s not getting much milk from her.  ⇒That night Cookie says they should lay off the clandestine theft for awhile but Lu wants to continue, build up a bit more capital, then head south to California to start new lives.  However, Factor’s cat’s outside when they sneak over, Cookie on his milk stool, Lu up in a tree keeping watch.  Totillicum’s wife goes outside to look for the cat, Lu’s startled by her presence, falls from the tree which alerts her so she wakes up the rest of the household with the men in quick pursuit of the thieves which are now obviously known to be Cookie and Lu.  King Lu once again escapes by swimming down the river, Cookie hides in the woods but injures his head.  He wakes up in a shack, cared for an elderly Native couple, then makes his way back to Lu’s shack.  But Lu’s already there, having retrieved the moneybag then hides as he watches Factor’s small posse ransack the place; soon after, Cookie and Lu meet up again, head for the nearest boat headed south, though Cookie’s still hurt, can’t travel all that well so they lay down to rest.  While we don’t see anything further, we know from an earlier shot that one of Factor’s men, a guy with a rifle, is tracking them so we have to assume he killed them, took the money, and their bodies just rotted there, covered up with dirt over time, to be discovered by the woman from the opening scene decades later.  As with the seeming-connection between the first and last scenes there’s a lot about this film you have to deduce (or assume) for yourself as it moves along through a measured pace (except when our milk bandits are running away) which can either be a source of investment or frustration depending on how just much of a detective you care to be.⇐

So What? This film runs for right at 2 hours; by halfway into it I wasn’t engaged much at all except wondering if maybe that opening scene would somehow be revisited to offer more connection to what goes on the distant past in this story (nope).  By the time it was over I’d gotten a bit more involved, yet never at the level I’d come to expect after noting so many choruses of praise for Reichardt’s work, here and in her previous films.  What did come to mind, though—many may not agree with me on this—was something about the mood, pace, and left-to-the-viewers’ interpretations in First Cow reminding me a bit of Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1996),* where a Cleveland accountant, William Blake (Johnny Depp)—no relation to the famous poet, although allusions to his writings are used throughout—goes to the western frontier in the 19^th century as misery and death await him at every turn until, mortally wounded, he joins up with a Native American named Nobody (Gary Farmer)—an outcast from his culture as well as the Whites he was forcibly-raised by—leading to a vision quest, more deaths, finally Blake’s demise in a canoe headed out to sea.  As with First Cow’s throwback to the long-used-classic format ratio of 4x3 (as shown in the photo above), Dead Man also pays homage to the cinematic past, shot in B&W, although its soundtrack is contemporary, acoustic guitar melodies by Neil Young, a good many of which were spontaneous-inspirations as he watched footage of the film.  While I’d pick Dead Man if making a choice between these options (for me, overall, First Cow’s just too slow, elusive, unresolved), I wanted to get better insight on what I might be missing; Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post is typical of those in support: “[…] ‘First Cow’ is adamantly horizontal. Reichardt sets her sights low, the better to capture her hard-scrabbling protagonists and their humble struggles against the spiny backdrop of the pine trees that threaten to engulf them (not to mention the equally imposing men trying to make their own more violent way). For Cookie and King Lu, dreams are tender things to be nurtured; for their cohorts, they can only be realized by seizing them by force.”  She’s obviously sensing how such poetry here (?) is eluding me.

*Free to stream if you subscribe to a few platforms, cheap to rent otherwise; see JustWatch for more specifics.  The CCAL’s not as impressed as me, though, with Rotten Tomatoes at only 71%, Metacritic with a 62% average score.  (By the way, for those keeping tabs on my attempts to conquer the new BlogSpot software I concede on trying to put captions under these photos as it screws up the layout big time; I'll have to work caption content into those paragraphs instead. Thanks, Blogger!)

 In regard to my responses, though, Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune seems to be writing directly to me: “I’ve said this before about Reichardt’s films, and for whatever reason I feel the need to say it again. ‘First Cow’ will strike some viewers as too little in terms of dramatic machinery. Whatever. The movie isn’t an oily cake, meant for a quick gulp and repeat business. It is, however, perfectly seasoned [Cookie and Lu use honey and cinnamon to enhance their cakes] and finally very moving. Like Debra Granik’s recent ‘Leave No Trace,’ [2018; review in our August 9, 2018 posting] also shot in Oregon, ‘First Cow’ responds to the forests and streams traveled by these eccentric, memorable characters as if they, too, deserved a storytelling advocate.”  I also give Leave No Trace 3½ stars (despite effusive CCAL praise [RT an extremely rare 100%, MC a very high for them 88%]) so I guess I’m just not solidly on Reichardt’s wavelength.  You might find First Cow infinitely more enthralling; if so, tell me. (If you're curious, the photo above is Chief Factor [on left] and the Captain.)

Bottom Line Final Comments: There’s certainly little hesitancy within the CCAL to praise First Cow, with Rotten Tomatoes offering a hearty 95% collection of positive reviews (based on 121 surveyed, so this is no fluke) while those at Metacritic come surprisingly close with an 89% average score (once again, even though I just said this last week about their 84% score for Palm Springs [Max Barbacow; review in our July 16, 2020 posting] this 89% for First Cow‘s now the second-highest-MC score for 2020 releases attended to by both them and me [with Never Rarely Sometimes Maybe {Eliza Hittman; review in our April 9, 2020 posting}] still their top of the year so far with a 92% average score from a cluster of reviewers whose numbers rarely push into the 80s).  This praise works sadly for me, however, because my expectations of this Indie feature were so high I just didn’t get as involved with the actual slow-paced-experience as I’d hoped to be (although 3½ stars is a still a high mark from me, given how seldom I go above 4 stars in my 5 stars range, preserving those rare higher numbers for something I find to be truly-filmically-significant [see our Summary of Reviews for a look at my extremely short list of 4½/5 stars-ratings]), ultimately agreeing with this clear opinion from Film Inquiry’s Wilson Kwong: “By writing in Native American characters and having one of the fugitive travellers be of Chinese descent (Lee), it’s clear that Reichardt sets the stage for examining the tortuous injustices of colonization and the cultural uprooting of indigenous people. Themes like racial and class disparities are also put under the microscope, and similar to her previous films, percolate in the background like a slowly drifting cloud. The only problem here is that when the cloud eventually nears a distance, it creates more fog, rather than clarity, for its audience. I sat through the film waiting for that moment of clarity to present itself, but it unfortunately never came.”  It didn’t really manifest all that much for me, either, even as it seemed like something more significant should materialize (I’ll bet Reichardt would quickly disagree).

 So, the question for you is how much do you want to pay (if anything) to see it for yourself.  When I wanted to watch it last Friday my only choice was to ante up $14.99 to buy it in HD from Amazon Prime (same price on several other platforms—see JustWatch for details—but we’re already connected to Prime through Nina’s subscription [a little cheaper in SD—but yuck!) so I did; however, now a few days later the options have shifted so you can rent it in HD from several platforms for $4.99-$5.99 which makes more sense to me in retrospect unless the concept inherently appeals to you enough to keep it in your treasure chest.  I’ll end by saying again I found it intriguing, probably useful from an historical context given all the research that went into getting the time period, a specific Native American language, and other details to be accurate, but as a whole experience it just wasn’t (for me, at least) the cinematic revelation I’d been led to expect.  Therefore, I’ll just wrap up with my usual Musical Metaphor tactic of using a song to bring some finality to the review, yet even there I had difficulty finding something appropriate so I ended up with (what some might consider flippant if they truly love this film) “Catch Us If You Can” from The Dave Clark Five” (from their 1965 album of the same name) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJYgNqOFBLk in regard to Cookie and Lu’s baking scam, even though these lyrics admittedly provide scant insight into anything: “Here they come again Catch us if you can Time to get a move on.”  They finally did move on when caught in their milk theft, off to what became a final resting place.  Now that I own their sad tale I guess I can always watch it again to see if it involves me more—but official MLB season starts this weekend so I have a compelling sense of where my viewing loyalties will lie.  Play ball!  Go A’s!

            

SHORT TAKES

                

Suggestions for TCM cablecasts

              

At least until the pandemic subsides Two Guys also want to encourage you to consider movies you might be interested in that don’t require subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime, similar Internet platforms (we may well be stuck inside for longer than those 30-day-free-initial-offers), or premium-tier-cable-TV-fees.  While there are a good number of video networks offering movies of various sorts (mostly broken up by commercials), one dependable source of fine cinematic programming is Turner Classic Movies (available in lots of basic-cable-packages) so I’ll be offering suggestions of possible choices for you running from Thursday afternoon of the current week (I usually get this blog posted by early Thursday mornings) on through Thursday morning of the following week.  All times are U.S. Eastern Daylight so if you see something of interest please verify actual show time in your area for the day listed.  These recommendations are my particular favorites (no matter when they’re on, although some early-day-ones might need to be recorded, watched later), but there’s considerably more to pick from you could like better; feel free to peruse their entire schedule here.

Thursday July 23, 2020 (lots of good ones during this coming week; watch what you can)

8:00 PM Camelot (Joshua Logan, 1967) Well-known version of the Knights of the Round Table legend, adapted from a Broadway play by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe; King Arthur (Richard Harris), Queen Guenevere (Vanessa Redgrave), and Sir Lancelot (Franco Nero) try to maintain dignity, high ideals amidst infidelity, insurrection.   Decent box-office, mixed critical responses; Oscars for Art Direction, Costume Design, Original Song Score or Adaptation Score.

Friday July 24, 2020 

8:00 PM Mr. Roberts (John Ford, Mervyn LeRoy [uncredited Joshua Logan], 1955) Drama with some great comic scenes as well, set on a Navy cargo ship toward the end of WW II with conflicts between the hard-nosed Captain (James Cagney) and one of his junior officers hoping for battle action (Henry Fonda), with Ensign Pulver (Jack Lemmon) avoiding the Captain at all costs for most of the movie.  Ford was fired after conflicts with Cagney and Fonda, but the end result’s a smooth-flowing winner.

Saturday July 25, 2020

12:00 PM Malcolm X (Spike Lee, 1992) Docudrama of inspirational/dangerous (depending on your viewpoint) 1960s civil rights crusader who shifted from small crime to devout Muslim determined for Blacks to resist further White oppression but ultimately breaks from Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam, to promote tolerance rather than segregation, resulting in Malcolm's assassination. Long film (201 min.) but well worth it. Denzel Washington deserved Best Actor Oscar but denied.

3:30 PM Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra, 1939) Likely seems hopelessly idealistic now yet still inspirational about lost causes being the only ones worth fighting for in a government rife with corruption; James Stewart's an idealistic but naïve Senator, faces defeat from a political machine, gets inspiration from Jean Arthur, Thomas Mitchell. Won the Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story (Lewis R. Foster); Stewart deserved to win for Best Actor, got it for The Philadelphia Story (1940).

8:00 PM 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) Sci-fi spectacular and on my All-Time Top 10, with a lot of mysterious, difficult interpretations at its time of release (since clarified with a novel and a sequel) about a powerful object that enhances human evolution, then sends astronauts to Jupiter, aided/thwarted by super-computer, HAL 9000.  “Star Gate” scene at the end was truly groundbreaking for its time, still impressive (contributed to the Oscar for Special Visual Effects).

Sunday July 26, 2020

2:30 AM Planet of the Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1968) The original, which launched many sequels, remakes as a U.S. space team off-course crash lands on a planet where higher apes are the ruling classes, humans are jungle creatures; astronaut George Taylor (Charlton Heston) is captured, shocks the apes with intelligence and speech, works desperately to understand how this planet’s come to evolve. Maybe not a great film but worth seeing for what’s it’s led to over the years.

12:00 PM A Star Is Born (William A. Wellman, 1937) I prefer the later musical-version-remakes of this story (especially the 1954 iteration with James Mason and Judy Garland [pops up frequently on TCM]), yet this is a substantial, straight dramatic-version with Frederic March as an aging movie star, Janet Gaynor his protégé/much-younger-wife whose career soon eclipses his, troubling him. Oscar for Best Original Story & an Honorary one to cinematographer W. Howard Greene for his color work.

2:00 PM Arsenic and Old Lace (Frank Capra, 1944) Silly but loveable comedy (adapted from Joseph Kesselring’s Broadway-play [1941]) about the Brewster sisters (descended from Mayflower settlers) whose nephew, Mortimer (Cary Grant), discovers they “help” lonely old bachelors by poisoning them, buried in the basement by Mort’s brother who thinks he’s Teddy Roosevelt; other main characters are played by Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre, and Boris Karloff. (Also runs on 7/30/2020, 2:15 AM.)

6:15 PM Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Howard Hawks, 1953) Maybe not of the same cinematic caliber as others on this list but well-respected as a musical-comedy especially for the performances of Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell as showgirls interested in men who can provide riches or muscular attraction (respectively). If nothing else you should at least watch the “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” number performed by Monroe (and she and Russell are quite a pleasure to look at as well).

Monday July 27, 2020

10:00 AM Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Victor Fleming, 1941) This is the most overtly-Freudian version of the well-known story of a scientist (sort of representing the Superego), Dr. Jekyll (Spencer Tracy), who develops a serum releasing his buried, horrible Id aspects as Mr. Hyde who rapes, then kills Ivy Pearson (Ingrid Bergman) even as Beatrix Emery (Lana Turner) continues to love him as Jekyll, who soon finds himself turning into Hyde even without the serum as his life quickly descends into chaos.

Tuesday July 28, 2020

6:00 AM The Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke, 1934) Noted more for historical value (curiosity?) than significance but a pleasure to watch (also spawns 5 sequels) as socialites Nick and Nora Charles (William Powell, Myrna Loy) enjoy being detectives (in Sherlock Holmes “sleuth” tradition, not The Maltese Falcon-hardboiled tradition, although Nick, Nora, and Sam all come from Dashiell Hammett novels) while downing numerous cocktails in the process. (Also runs on Wed. 7/29/2020, 8:00 PM.)

9:45 AM Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols, 1966) Adapted from Edward Albee’s controversial play (1962), keeps story and most of the (profane) dialogue intact as a professor (Richard Burton) and his wife (Elizabeth Taylor), daughter of this small college’s president, verbally battle in front of house guests (George Segal, Sandy Dennis) as dysfunctionality reigns. Multiple-Oscar-winner: Best Actress (Taylor), Supporting Actress (Dennis), Art Direction, Costume Design, Cinematography (all 3 for B&W films), another 8 noms; bitter to watch but truly a grim masterpiece.

2:00 PM Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, 1965) Epic adaptation of Boris Pasternak’s novel (1957)—less emphasis on history (Russian Revolution, Civil War), more on affair of Zhivago (Omar Sharif), Lara Anipova (Julie Christie); also stars Geraldine Chaplin, Alec Guinness, Ralph Richardson, Rod Steiger. 10 Oscar noms (The Sound of Music also had 10, beat Doctor … in 4 of those categories), won 5: Best Art Direction, Costume Design, Cinematography, Adapted Screenplay, Original Score.

5:30 PM The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960) Romantic comedy & satire of corporate immorality as execs at a huge insurance company force a lower-echelon-guy, Bud Baxter (Jack Lemon), to use his place for affairs, including Personnel Director (Fred MacMurray) with Bud’s secret attraction (Shirley MacLaine), then complications arise. Won 5 Oscars—Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay (Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond), Art Direction-Black & White, Film Editing—plus nominated for 5 more.

Thursday July 30, 2020

4:15 AM Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959) Marvelous; big hit then now ranked as one of the best, if not the actual top comedy of all time, with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis disguised as women in a nightclub band in Florida trying to escape gangsters after they witness the St. Valentine’s Day massacre in Chicago; also stars Marilyn Monroe, George Raft, and Pat O’Brien (won an Oscar for Best B&W Costume Design). Joe E. Brown’s final line was terrific for its time, now it’s immortal.

If you’d like your own PDF of the rating/summary of this week's review, suggestions for TCM cablecasts, links to Two Guys info click this link to access then save, print, or whatever you need.

Other Cinema-Related Stuff: Here are items you might be interested in: (1) Korea's Peninsula has big opening across Asia; (2) Slow start for reopened Chinese theaters; (3) Christopher Nolan's Tenet delayed indefinitely; (4) Theater owners' response to delays in premieres; (5) Streaming pushing some cable TV networks into financial trouble; (6) Huge growth in U.K. drive-ins.  As usual, I’ll close out this section with Joni Mitchell’s "Big Yellow Taxi" (from her 1970 Ladies of the Canyon album)—because “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone”—and a reminder you can search extensive streaming/rental/purchase options at JustWatch.

              

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:

             

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Here’s more information about First Cow:

https://a24films.com/films/first-cow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1SukKUVCYE (33:56 interview with director/co-screenwriter [with Jonathan Raymond] Kelly Reichardt and actors John Magaro, Orion Lee)

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/first_cow

https://www.metacritic.com/movie/first-cow 

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with us at that site in order to do it (most FB procedures are still a bit of a mystery to us old farts).

If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here please use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work.  (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-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 20^th 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 (quite an eternal while, in fact).  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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