Bad Times: Past (Present) and Future
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.
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): First, my sympathies to all my friends freezing in these recent frigid days, some without power, in the freak winter storm that has recently impacted much of Texas; may you somehow soon find yourselves in warmth and comfort. OK, back to blog content: The potential-awards-contenders continue to trickle out in availability for me (along with a few others that just seem too interesting to wait any longer to watch) so my spotlight review this week is on Judas and the Black Messiah, based in real events about the late 1960s Illinois Black Panther Chairman Fred Hampton and how the supposed-defenders of justice at the FBI recruited a local low-level criminal, Bill O’Neal, to infiltrate the group with the eventual goal of bringing down Hampton before he became a national revolutionary celebrity (available where theaters are open or on HBO Max streaming). Then, in the Short Takes section I’ll review Little Fish, set in the very near future where a deadly virus is destroying humanity, not in a COVID-19 manner but with rapid memory loss, leaving people not knowing each other nor how to function in skills they’ve known for years (found on several streaming platforms, including Amazon Prime, for a cheap rental). Also in that 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 tonight by this burned-out-BlogSpot-drone—oh, tedious software!) along with my usual standard dose of industry-related-trivia.
Here’s the trailer for Judas and the Black Messiah:
(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 those 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: Based in history (although likely somewhat fictionalized, as most docudramas tend to be*), during those turbulent times in the late 1960s when there was a growing—furious at times—cultural divide between, mainly, the older generations (my parents included), The Establishment, who largely resisted sharing/changing their cultural power/perceptions which contributed so aggressively to the racist and sexist attitudes being challenged by younger generations (me included, but not with nearly the purpose/passion of the Black Panthers depicted in this film), with mostly White protesters speaking out/demonstrating against the Vietnam War (as shown in The Trail of the Chicago 7 [Aaron Sorkin, 2020; review in our October 22, 2020 posting]) and communities of color mostly taking action against the entrenched racism of the times, especially Black people resisting violence against their communities, especially by various law enforcement agencies supposedly set up to protect them; thus, we have the nationwide Black Panther Party (shown early on in some newsreel footage here), established in Oakland, CA (1966) with emphasis in this film on Illinois Chairman (also a national Deputy Chairman), Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya), a charismatic man dubbed the “Black Messiah” by truly worried FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen), who seemed to believe Hampton’s leadership could bring enough others to join him so this country might actually experience a revolution; it was Hoover’s frantic goal (along with his clandestine [borderline-legal at best, mostly fanatical-obsessive] campaigns against other “subversives”) to find a means to bring down Hampton. J. Edgar finds his opportunity in 1968 when field agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons) has pressure to put on teenage petty-crook Bill O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) who’d been stealing cars using a fake FBI badge until he’s arrested, given the choice of 6½ years in jail or infiltrating the Chicago branch of the Panthers, getting close to Fred, feeding needed info to his FBI handlers (at both beginning and end of this film we get some footage of O’Neal talking about his time as an informant in the 1990 PBS documentary, Eyes on the Prize II).
Bill joins the Panthers, convinces Hampton he’s a loyal recruit, pushes Roy to get him a snazzy car in order to become Fred’s regular driver, ultimately rises to the post of Security Captain. In the process, though, O’Neal's impressed with Hampton’s sincere determination to use the Panthers’ militant presence as a social weapon in a troubled interracial city to bring improvement to Black neighborhoods by setting up programs for children’s free breakfasts, community medical clinics, and the formation of the Rainbow Coalition of the Panthers, the Black gang the Crowns, the Latino Young Lords, and (amazingly) the redneck Young Patriots to protest citywide discrimination, police brutality.
*Here’s a site with more information about several notable factual characters portrayed in this film.
Along the way, Fred falls in love with a poet-recruit to the Panthers, Deborah Johnson (Dominique Fishback), with whom he eventually has a child. In the meantime, O’Neal encounters George Sams (Terayle Hill) from the New Haven, CT Panther chapter, secretly an FBI informant who allowed another Panther to be mistakenly killed as a snitch, giving Bill a huge worry he could suffer the same fate. Although Roy will never let Bill leave his mole position, O’Neal becomes even more worried after a vicious shoot-out at the Panthers headquarters with Chicago police, resulting in the cops bombing the building while Hampton’s in prison, seemingly for stealing $70 worth of ice cream. When Fred’s released he has a tremendous homecoming, shouting to his jubilant crowd “I am a revolutionary!” even as tensions grow in the group due to more individual shootouts with police resulting in the deaths of Panthers Jimmy Palmer (Ashton Sanders) and Jake Winters (Algee Smith). ⇒Hampton’s court appeal fails so he’d due to be sent back to prison, but Hoover thinks that will increase his popularity, wants him eliminated (Mitchell mirrors that paranoia, equating the Panthers and the Ku Klux Klan as equally dangerous to American ideals) so Bill’s pressured to draw a blueprint of Fred’s apartment (as well as slip him a sleeping pill) so a combined FBI/Chicago Police unit can attack in Dec. 1969, seemingly with no provocation, wounding Fred’s bodyguards and Deb, killing Fred (age 21). Later Roy rewards Bill with cash, the keys to a gas station O'Neal now owns, and full clearance of his previous crimes. Pre-final credits-graphics tell us Bill continued working with the FBI until the early 1970s; Deb had her baby soon after Fred died, continued with the Panthers until her chapter dissolved in 1978; survivors of the attack (where the intruders fired 99 shots, the Panthers none, yet these victims were charged with attempted murder) sued the FBI and finally got a $1.85 million settlement in 1982; Bill tried to defend his actions in his 1989 interview for Eyes … II but then committed suicide when the program aired on Martin Luther King Jr. day, Jan. 15, 1990.⇐
So What? Judas and the Black Messiah comes at an appropriate time for us as various factions of our society are addressing in their specific ways the whole resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement since summer of 2020 with component calls for racial justice in our society, reform of racist police departments, and conflicted arguments over the propriety of the many recent BLM demonstrations given that small factions of the protestors turned violent; in that sense this film likely speaks to people on all sides of these matters as some will continue to embrace the thinking of J. Edgar Hoover and Roy Mitchell that “our entire way of life is under distress” when groups like the Panthers decide it's time to arm themselves (pushing back against the hatred hurled at them by the hegemonic powers of society), while others (the vast majority, I hope) will/may get a renewed/better understanding of why the Black Panther Party presented itself as so publicly militant* (a move they deemed necessary to survival, given the consistent violence against their people) even as they did positive, neglected work in their communities. (Of course, those who denigrated the Panthers back in the 1960s-‘70s or who see them as anarchists today aren’t too likely to watch this film anyway, so how much it provides useful social insights beyond “preaching to the choir” remains to be seen—depending on how widely the film itself is seen [a little bit more on that in this review’s next section]).
*Full disclosure: In 1975 I was visiting in Berkeley, CA from my home base of Austin, TX, somehow delayed too long on my departure day heading to L.A. so as night approached the most convenient thing was to stop at a motel near the interstate in Oakland which I did but most reluctantly because I’d seen way-too-much-media-hype about the “dangerous” Black Panthers who, I assumed, would be all too eager to harass (or something worse) a young White guy “invading” their territory. It sounds absurdly naïve and uninformed now but speaks to how those you don’t know directly can be turned into “the other” if all you have go by are media products or biased news reports substantiating a fiction-often-becoming-fact when voting, budget appropriations, hardened attitudes are concerned. Now that I live out here near Oakland and have learned better what the Panthers were really up to most of the time (not withstanding periodic-extreme-actions by some of them) I feel better distant from my 1975 self (not that I thought returning to Texas offered a lot in the realm of racial tolerance).
As noted by director Shaka King, in an interview in the Related Links section far below, awards (even nominations—more on that right below as well) will help raise the public profile of his work hopefully bringing in additional viewership, encouraging Hollywood studios to finance further stories of this sort as part of our needed national dialogue on some form of healing of our intense social divisions, difficult as that may be to accomplish as some audiences will likely become uncomfortable watching a large roomful of angry Blacks shouting along with Fred Hampton: “I am a revolutionary!” I'll admit his calls for oppressed groups to arm themselves, along with the chant of “No more pigs in our community!” probably won’t help win over those already resisting the “coloring of America” (my phrase; not in the film) either, but if they can see past their fear of leftist revolutionaries (who scare me as well in their most-extreme-Antifa-modes because the violence those thugs bring, polluting legitimate anti-racism, anti-White privilege protests, is exactly the kind of activity that helps stir up right-wing, White-supremacist mobs like those who offered their own hatred and violence, storming the U.S. Capital on Jan. 6, 2021) maybe we can find some viewpoints to peacefully explore together.
Still, I would hope those not already aware of ongoing-overreach by our own government in stifling dissent (by any means necessary, it seems) from others who are legitimately fed up with dismissive treatment, unprovoked violence, denigration of their very existences would learn from this film how dangerous it can be when our own institutions of social structure, protection, “equality before the law” can become the institutions we might fear most when the people in power become determined to impose their own radical ideas of “justice,” which can lead to events such as the cold-blooded-assassination of Fred Hampton (drugged into deep sleep so he could offer no defense, just as the “law” agencies who killed him had no defense to justify their planned attack). You may not care for the content of this film, have no interest in seeing it, but I still encourage you to do so anyway because it contains carefully-constructed-representations of a crucial time in American history (one that resonates strongly with our own era) in the process of (hopefully) helping us better understand how one segment of society can respond actively to a charismatic leader (even one who calls himself a Marxist following the political philosophy of China’s Mao Zedong) while others revile such a powerful voice for change as they see their own stability under threat, just as this film also gives us a nuanced look at another man struggling for accomplishment where he has little hope of achieving the materialistic-American-dream (especially if pushed further into a hopeless hole by doing prison time [earned, of course, by his crimes]) unless he’s willing to sabotage others around him, betraying their trust, becoming an accomplice (sanctioned by his handlers) in illegal, unjustified homicide. Altogether, it’s one of the most powerful cinematic experiences from 2020, deserving of our attention.
Bottom Line Final Comments: The CCAC couldn’t be much more supportive of Judas …, as the Rotten Tomatoes critics deliver 96% positive responses, the normally-stingy-Metacritic folks come up with an 86% average score (highest of anything both they and I have reviewed this year) even as the film as a whole is on the 2020 Top 10 lists of the American Film Institute and the National Board of Review; further, Daniel Kaluuya’s among the Best Supporting Actor nominees for both the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild (along with the film being nominated for Best Original Screenplay by the Writers Guild of America), so if nothing else you might want to see it to enjoy his dynamic performance. I’d also pick him as the outstanding one within an excellent overall cast, even though LaKeith Stanfield might be seen as the focus of the story given he’s there from beginning to end, provides an engaging presence on screen with his range of emotions from fear of jail time and true concern for his well-being if the Panthers discover his ruse, hunger for financial gain (which the actual guy was quite successful at during his time with the FBI), sincere inner-turmoil as he knows he has to keep up his façade even though he’s clearly becoming convinced of the community value of Hampton’s intentions; yet, Kaluuya’s so convincing in his never-wavering-focus on his goals (even continuing recruitment to his cause in prison), so impactful in his exhortations to the crowds he becomes the dominant presence in this story, even if considered as a supporting role.
I’ll admit I’d never heard of Hampton until he appeared as a minor character (played by Kelvin Harrison Jr.) in The Trial of the Chicago 7, leaning over the railing from the audience seats to advise defendant Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), so I’m glad to learn considerably more about him (not fictionalized too much based on what I’ve read recently), although my lack of such awareness is tempered by Stanfield admitting (in the interview in Related Links way down below) he’d never heard of O’Neal until he read the script, was initially disappointed at not being approached to play Hampton. You can access this film on HBO Max if you’re in a theater-desert (like me), but, if not, you might find it at 1 of the 1,888 domestic (U.S.-Canada) venues where it’s also playing (taking in $2.07 million on debut weekend), so embrace the big-screen-experience if you can. (One final enticement is this anatomy of a scene [2:30] by director King where Bill’s given his jail/infiltrator option.) So, enough from me except to finish this off with a Musical Metaphor, which I think for … Black Messiah should be Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” (1984 Various Positions album) at https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrLk4vdY28Q (a live performance which may not contain verses you know because there are about 80 of them which he frequently interchanged) with its encouragement to celebrate all aspects of life, good or bad, which Hampton does, O’Neal’s still working on it as we watch his complex progression in (and as) Judas … . (A mesmerizing song, its meaning briefly addressed by Cohen [2:23], with a longer interpretation [5:40] for you to contemplate regarding how these lyrics resonate [if only in a metaphorical manner] with those events of … Black Messiah.)
(aspiring toward, not always achieving those) SHORT TAKES
(please note spoilers can also appear here)
Little Fish (Chad Hartigan) rated R 101 min.
In our not-too-distant-future a rampaging virus (not COVID-19) is sweeping the globe leading to sudden, at times deadly, memory loss; the focus is on a young married couple where the man’s clearly exhibiting signs of infection, giving his wife reason to worry, but then he’s accepted for a clinical trial that has hopes of remission if he’s willing to chance it, given some danger.
Here’s the trailer:
Before reading further, please refer to the plot spoilers warning detailed far above.
Little Fish (title refers to matching tattoos on our protagonists, even though they're a surprise to the husband) has clear connections to a couple of excellent predecessors in the realm of memory loss, Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000 [use of photos and tattoos as recollection aids]) and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michael Gondry, 2004 [Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, Charlie Kaufman]); however, in the former of these earlier films the loss and inability to make new memories results from a traumatic assault on an individual, in the latter it’s a chosen-neurological-procedure for anyone who buys it while in … Fish the evaporated memories—of both individuals and operational processes (a bus driver simply stops and walks away, an airline pilot crashes)—the loss occurs worldwide (in our near future) due to a viral pandemic, NIA, with no known cause nor confirmed cure. The focus is on Emma (Olivia Cooke), a veterinary assistant, and Jude (Jack O’Connell), a photographer, married earlier in 2021, him showing increasing signs of memory deterioration (not like what we know as dementia because it can come on quickly, increase in impact, nothing age-related about it), both of them terrified as they see the impact on their friend Ben (Raúl Castillo) as he forgets his wife/musician partner Samantha (Soko), thinks she’s a stranger, in his paranoia almost stabs her with a kitchen knife. Then an experimental cure emerges, leading to near-riots as crowds demand to be on the trail roster (sound familiar?), but because it involves a shot through the roof of the mouth into the brain Jude’s terrified even when he has an appointment. ⇒However, he decides to do it, then learns he’s disqualified because of cocaine in his system (although sober for 5 years, he took it with another musician friend, didn’t even remember) so he begs Emma to do it to him (I’m not clear what's in the syringe). Pushing through fear he takes the injection but it doesn’t work, even as she then forgets they agreed to go to the beach for a walk. While there they completely lose connection but seem interested in meeting afresh (like the couple in Eternal Sunshine … although we have no sense of what awaits any of them, but at least the … Spotless Mind pair live in a world without the physical dangers, unknown future of these … Fish worldwide-contaminated-societies).⇐
Technically, this film—which, ironically, was finished just before our current COVID-19 pandemic even began—clusters with apocalyptic/futuristic sci-fi stories, although we learn nothing about the outcome of our species due to this viral disaster (maybe just as well, given the context of it being released during our current virus situation with every sense of coronavirus-progress threatened by new strains of the killer), yet it’s also a touching story of individuals trying to retain whatever they can as their personal links begin slipping away even as the connective sense of what brought them together remains, faint as it may be. If the pandemic aspect’s not too disturbing, I recommend seeing this on Amazon Prime or other platforms (see JustWatch) for a $6.99-$7.99 rental; the CCAL's on my side too as RT offers 92% positive reviews, MC’s average score is 71% (a supportive-enough-number for them)—it’s also in 51 domestic theaters, but grossing about $36 thousand so far. Regarding Musical Metaphors, 2 songs from way back came to mind about romantic connections come/gone (no memory loss, just heartache in the latter) the first celebrating what’s worth recalling in “I Remember You” (written by Victor Schertzinger, Johnny Mercer, 1941), recorded by many with a very popular 1962 version by Frank Ifield (on his 1964 … Greatest Hits album)—“When my life is through And the angels ask me to recall The thrill of it all Then I will tell them I remember you”—along with the flip side, precious memories that “I Forgot What It Was Like” (written by Burt Bacharach, Hal David) to cherish when love disappears as sung in 1963 by Ray Peterson (on his massive 2006 compilation album, Tell Laura I Love Her)— “A broken heart, a broken lie, that’s all I have It’s over now and yet somehow, I’m still in love with you.” Put together, I think they address … Fish well in a less-devastating-manner than what our lovers endure on screen.
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. Pacific 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 of those early-day-ones might need to be recorded, watched later), but there’s considerably more to pick from you might like even better; feel free to explore their entire schedule here. You can also click the down arrow at the right of each listing for additional, useful info.
I’ll bet if you checked that entire schedule link just above you’d find other options of interest, but these are the only ones grabbing my attention at present. Please dig in further for other possibilities.
Thursday February 18, 2021
7:00 PM Singin’ in the Rain (Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, 1952) Beloved-musical (a standard for achievement in its genre) starring Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, Jean Hagen, and Cyd Charisse about Hollywood’s clumsy transition into sound movies, plus romance between a male star and a female newcomer with great potential; features the fabulous “Broadway Melody” sequence, one of the grandest of all MGM spectaculars, along with many songs from previous MGM musicals.
Friday February 19, 2021
6:45 PM Thelma & Louise (Ridley Scott, 1991) A woman with a troubled past (Susan Sarandon) and her friend (Geena Davis) with a domineering husband take a weekend trip which goes wrong as an attempted rape leads to the man shot dead, other crimes accrue as they go on the run yet we still empathize with their crisis. Also stars Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Christopher McDonald, first big role for Brad Pitt. Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (Callie Khouri), nominated for 5 more.
Monday February 22, 2021
5:30 AM My Fair Lady (George Cukor, 1964) Exuberant musical, based on 1956 Lerner and Lowe stage hit (itself from George Bernard Shaw’s 1913 play Pygmalion); sing-a-long songs as smug Professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) transforms Cockney flower-seller Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn) into the semblance of a royal. Winner of 8 Oscars: Best Picture, Director, Actor (Harrison), Art Direction-Color, Cinematography-Color, Costume Design-Color, Adapted Musical Score, Sound.
5:00 PM Rain Man (Barry Levinson, 1988) Hustler car-dealer Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), inherits a Buick from his Dad in Ohio, learns he has an older brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), an autistic savant; they drive to L.A. due to Raymond’s fear of flying, stopping in Las Vegas to make a fortune with Ray’s ability to count cards, as a bond grows between the brothers. Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Actor (Hoffman), Original Screenplay (Barry Morrow, Ronald Bass), noms for 4 others.
7:30 PM East of Eden (Elia Kazan, 1955) James Dean’s screen debut as Cal Trask, a WW I-era young man living near Monterey, CA trying to win the love of his stern father, Adam (Raymond Massey), who gives more support to other son, Aron (Richard Davalos), adapted from the stunning John Steinbeck novel (with its intended Biblical overtones). Even when Cal makes a fortune for Dad he’s rejected so he shames Aron by revealing Mom (Jo Van Fleet) isn’t dead after all but lives nearby, running a brothel. Won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress (Van Fleet); Dean (already dead by the time of the awards) was nominated for Best Actor (as he was for his last, Giant [1956]).
Tuesday February 23, 2021
2:45 PM Death in Venice (Luchino Visconti, 1971) Adapted from Thomas Mann’s noted novella; Austrian composer Gustav von Aschenbach (Dirk Bogarde) goes to Venice for his health, becomes enamored with a Polish adolescent, Tadzio (Björn Andrésen), uses cosmetics to appear younger but never actually converses with the boy. Lots of tragedy here, including a cholera epidemic in the city, Aschenbach with a heart problem, but overall it’s just a quiet, sad meditation on longing and loss.
If you’d like your own PDF of ratings/summaries 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: Extras for you: (1) Details on the 2021 Oscar telecast; (2) IMDb TV and streaming guide; (3) Awards nominations and ceremonies leading up to Oscars on April 25, 2021. As usual for now 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 to search streaming/rental/purchase movie options at JustWatch.
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!
*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problems’ been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.
AND … at least until the Oscars for 2020’s releases have been awarded on Sunday, April 25, 2021 we’re also going to include reminders in each posting of very informative links where you can get updated tallies of which films have been nominated for and/or received various awards and which ones made various individual critic’s Top 10 lists. You may find the diversity among the various awards competitions and the various critics hard to reconcile at times—not to mention the often-significant-gap between critics’ choices and competitive-award-winners (which pales when they’re compared to the even-more-noticeable-gap between specific award winners and big box-office-grosses you might want to monitor here as well as here due to many 2020 releases being tracked on the 2021 list, although the income situation for 2020’s skewed due to so many award-contenders getting limited or no theatrical releases)—but as that less-than-enthusiastic-patron-of-the-arts, Plato, noted in The Symposium (385-380 BC)—roughly translated, depending on how accurate you wish the actual quote to be—“Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder,” so your choices for success are as valid as any of these others, especially if you offer some rationale for your decisions (unlike many of the awards voters who simply fill out ballots, sometimes—damn it!—for films they’ve never seen).
To save you a little time scrolling through the “various awards” list above, here are the current Golden Globe nominees for films and TV from 2020-early 2021.
Here’s more information about Judas and the Black Messiah:
https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/judas-and-black-messiah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jaha3PvWGMU (36:33 interview with director/co-screenwriter [with Will Berson] Shaka King [ads may interrupt at about 2:30, 5:45, 14:40, 21:30]) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VexZulR7HLQ (7:05 interview with actors Daniel Kaluga
and LaKeith Stanfield)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/judas_and_the_black_messiah
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/judas-and-the-black-messiah?ref=hp
Here’s more information about Little Fish:
https://www.ifcfilms.com/films/little-fish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYVHLjRJnLs (21:24 interview with director Chad Hartigan)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/little_fish_2021
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/little-fish-2021
Please note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post. You can also leave comments at our Facebook page, although you may have to somehow connect
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 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 (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.
OUR POSTINGS PROBABLY LOOK BEST ON THE MOST CURRENT VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND THE SAFARI WEB BROWSER (although Google Chrome usually is decent also); OTHERWISE, BE FOREWARNED THE LAYOUT MAY SEEM MESSY AT TIMES.
Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month the total unique hits at this site were 6,896 (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 those responses have come from within the previous week (with appreciation for the unspecified “Others” also visiting Two Guy’s site):
No comments:
Post a Comment