A Life Worth Celebrating
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.
“You see, you can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the same name)
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): As I’ll explain just below, I had only 1 option to share with you this week anyway, but that became more emphatic when I had to miss most of a day that would normally be devoted to blog research and writing to replacing both the sound bar that enhances my TV and the Roku box that brings in all the streaming I’ve been reporting to you about, lo these many 2020-ish months, because my dear little cat, Layla (shown just above in one of her new hangouts, my bathtub, which she discovered to be to her liking during our recent northern CA heat wave), all 1½ years of her, decided to explore the tight territory behind the TV, chewed on some wires (fortunately, to no detriment to her) which put both of those devices out of business. So, unanticipated time was spent buying replacements (to the tune of $225; still, I got some nice sale bargains at Target), getting them installed, doing the tedious button-pushing on the Roku remote to get all of the streaming services back in action. Now that all of that’s properly in place I had just enough time to address this marvelous biography of Sidney Poitier (I guess some of it would have to be called autobiography because of his direct testimony regarding his life) in somewhat condensed fashion so let’s see what you’d encounter by watching it. (And, for those of you who might want to replace any electrical wires that have been hanging around your home for too long just doing the boring job of keeping appliances operating, I can gladly loan Layla out to you for a reasonable rate.)
Sidney (Reginald Hudlin) rated PG-13 113 min.
In truth, even though I’m getting closer to venturing back into a movie theater to see something in first-run-release with a larger audience than just my wonderful wife, Nina, and a frequent friend who often joins us for our weekly viewing sessions (not that I really need more than them), I didn’t make that COVID-be-damned-decision last weekend for a number of reasons: (1) I was invited by other friends to join them at an Oakland Athletics baseball game (haven’t been in 2 years) so I joyfully went, chomped on unneeded hot dog and nachos calories, didn’t have to worry about crowds because the 42,000-potential-stadium barely got to about 4,700 so there was plenty of room to stay semi-isolated (and outdoors to boot) while the home team lost again; (2) Nina and I decided to honor the tickets we’d already paid for to attend live theatre at the Berkeley Rep to see Goddess, a lively cluster of love stories (none of which go the direction the participants intended), although we were surprised because the last time we attempted such a venture the venue was only about half-full whereas this time it was a packed house, but at least they require everyone to be up-to-date with vaccinations/boosters and wear a mask the entire time; (3) I also had the pleasure of being invited to a small dinner with 3 friends on Friday night, which was lovely, seemingly safer than being with a theatre crowd, until Monday morning when I got an email from 1 of them who’d just tested positive for COVID (sneaky virus, you never know when it might wallop you), but fortunately the rest of us have tested negative (as I’ve done consistently over the last couple of years, thanks to the heavens).
So, not only was there little opening in local moviehouses I was all that interested in, but I didn’t really have much time to see anything anyway; by chance, the only streaming option I truly cared about, this marvelous documentary about Sidney Poitier, is playing in a few theatres too so I can claim somewhat of being in the new-releases-mainstream even if I didn’t have any desire to see Don’t Worry Darling (Olivia Wilde) despite its off-screen-controversies and healthy global take of about $32 million upon its debut. Frankly, I think you’d be better off seeking out Sidney if it’s playing near you; if not, it’s easily available at Apple TV+ for no extra charge (no Spoiler warnings this time due to no Spoilers because most everything you’d see about Poitier in this doc could be found in other biographies anyway). Also, here are links for the schedule of cable network Turner Classic Movies, which gives you a wide selection of older films with no commercial interruptions and the JustWatch site which also offers a wide selection of options for streaming rental or purchase. If you just want to know what reigned at the domestic (U.S.-Canada) box-office last weekend, go here.
Here’s the trailer for Sidney:
(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.)
As with other documentaries I’ve reviewed for this blog, I’ll ditch my usual structure of What Happens, So What?, and Bottom Line Final Comments because when the movie is an historical record of a person or event all of these areas flow together more so than when I’m exploring a work of fiction. In the case of famed actor/director/civil rights-activist Poitier you can easily learn his personal history, also explored well in this movie, from Internet biographies such as this one or another, much more extensive (extensively-documented as well), just as you can gain insights into this particular filmmaking process by consulting interviews such as this one with director Hudlin and producer Oprah Winfrey (all of which helps extend my comments due to the various events that ate into my usual available time to get something written this week). Even within its condensed structure, this exploration of a very significant presence in American cinema gives a lot of useful information about the man, enhanced by segments of an interview with him (shot before he died on January 6, 2022) looking directly into the camera narrating photos and film clips about various aspects of his life; in addition to what Poitier has to say about himself we also get testimony from Winfrey, Sidney’s ex-wife Juanita Hardy (married 1950-’65), his widow Joanna Shimkus (married 1976 until his death), 3 of his 6 daughters (Beverly Poitier-Henderson, Sherri Poitier, Anika Poitier—the former 2 from the first marriage, the latter from the second union), and a host of people we’d recognize who knew Sidney first-hand: among them are Morgan Freeman, Quincy Jones, Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Andrew Young, Barbra Streisand, Halle Berry, Louis Gossett Jr., Lenny Kravitz, and Robert Redford, plus clips of Poitier conversing with long-time-friend, Harry Belafonte.
Along the way, Poitier talks about his early life (born 1927) on rural Cat Island in the Bahamas, including how premature birth led to an immediate assumption of a quick death (which he overcame, as an indication of a lifetime of resiliency); how a U.S. embargo on Bahamian tomatoes led his farmer parents to seek different work in Nassau (1937) where as a teen he fell in with jail-bound-friends so his father sent him to live with Sidney’s brother in Miami (1942); there he encountered the harsh racism of segregated-USA. so a year later he moved to NYC, found a more welcoming social climate in Harlem where he worked at various odd jobs while slowly pursuing a desired career as an actor with the American Negro Theatre, forcing him to overcome a thick accent and semi-illiteracy.
All of this foundational biography is established by Poitier’s narration; the rest of this doc details how his Hollywood career slowly caught fire (especially with The Blackboard Jungle [Richard Brooks, 1955], playing a rebellious teen, The Defiant Ones [Stanley Kramer, 1958], co-starring Tony Curtis [Best Actor noms for both], where they played escaped prisoners chained together for much of the story until trying to escape on a moving train with Poitier’s character voluntarily jumping off to stay with Curtis who couldn’t quite catch up, and A Raisin in the Sun [Daniel Petrie, 1961], about a Black family making a difficult decision to move into a White neighborhood in Chicago). Along this chronological journey we get some info about the 1950s Red Scare where members of the U.S. government were looking everywhere for communists, including in the entertainment industries, then the early 1960s Civil Rights movement where Poitier, Belafonte, and other prominent Hollywood people joined the famous M.L. King 1963 March on Washington. Also in 1963 Poitier made history by becoming the first Black actor to win an Oscar in a leading role, for Lilies of the Field (Ralph Nelson). By 1967 he was a prominent presence on screen, with 3 notable releases that year: To Sir, with Love (James Clavell), where he goes from student (in … Jungle) now to teacher; In the Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison), where his Philadelphia police detective character directly confronts racism in Mississippi; Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Kramer), where his impending interracial marriage forces future in-laws Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy to acknowledge the actual problems with their supposedly-liberal-views (In the Heat … won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor for Rod Steiger, while Guess … won Oscars for Hepburn as Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay).
However, by the 1970s era of Black Power, Black Panthers, and Blaxploitation movies aggressively challenging racism in the U.S., Poitier was accused by some other Blacks as being an Uncle Tom for taking roles where he was too willing to work with the Whites who initially distained him (a criticism he rejected) leading to him shifting gears into more assertive roles—such as co-starring (as well as directing after he dismissed ill-prepared-Joseph Sargent) with Belafonte in Buck and the Preacher (1972), then directing the smash comedy hit, Stir Crazy (1980), with Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder.
Several other films he either acted in or directed are also noted—along with forming production company First Artists with Streisand and Paul Newman (1969-’80)—as we move on to his later life where he received many honors, including the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award (1992) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009). However, despite all of this recounting by me, the doc itself contains much more, concisely structured with a lively pace. While the overall attitude is very upbeat, there is inclusion of testimony from family members about how his long affair (1959-’68) with (former co-star) Diahann Carroll had negative impact on their home life. You might be able to find this—which I highly encourage you to do—in a few theaters as it just opened last weekend (no mention on Box Office Mojo, apparently little impact in those venues so far), but more likely you could stream it (for no extra cost beyond normal subscription rates) on Apple TV+. The CCAL joins me in that recommendation, with Rotten Tomatoes reviews at 90% positive, the ones at Metacritic in their usual-lower-mode but with a 70% average score they’re in supportive territory by their standards as well. I’ll wrap this up with my usual tactic of a Musical Metaphor to offer final thoughts from an aural-perspective, although nothing appropriate was coming to mind until I looked up this movie’s trailer where there was reference to Michael Kiwanuka’s “Black Man in a White World” (from his 2016 album Love & Hate), which I’ll share with you at https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=-TYlcVNI2AM; honestly, I don’t remember if it’s used somehow in the doc or not, but with such lyrics as “I’ve been low, I’ve been high / I’ve been told all my lies / I’ve got nothing left to pray / I’ve got nothing left to say […] I feel like I’ve been here before / I feel that knocking on my door […] I’m not wrong / Oh it’s alright” I’d say it fits what’s being explored on screen quite well, so if you can find your way to this life-affirming-biopic I'll heartedly-recommend it: great moral encouragement.
That’s all for my critical commentary this week (which usually reminds me of some parting lyrics from Pink Floyd’s "Time": “The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say,” or maybe R.E.M. knows me even better [from "Losing My Religion"]: “Oh no, I’ve said too much / I haven’t said enough”), but whether you agree with any of that stuff or not I’ll offer you one more opportunity to be in unity with an attitude that would benefit all of us, James Taylor’s "Shower the People" (on his 1976 In the Pocket album), because we should “Shower the people you love with love / Show them the way that you feel / Things are gonna be much better/ If you only will.” We’re now sailing through divisive times; it could be a smoother ride if we’d only help each other a bit more.
Other Cinema-Related Stuff: In quick fashion, here are some extra items you might like to know about: (1) Hugh Jackman is back as Wolverine in Deadpool 3 (2024); (2) Will Smith's upcoming Emancipation is likely to be haunted by his Oscar-slap of Chris Rock controversy.
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Here’s more information about Sidney:
https://www.apple.com/tv-pr/originals/sidney/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uguUmbc-1L8 (24:56 interview with director Reginald Hudlin, producer Oprah Winfrey, and Sidney Poitier’s daughters Beverly Poitier-Henderson, Sherri Poitier, Anika Poitier [ads interrupt at 7:38, 11:40, 16:58, 21:56)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sidney_2022
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/sidney
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Here’s more information about your “Concise? What’s that?” Two Guys critic, Ken Burke:
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, but maybe while there you’ll get a chance to meet Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey, RIP). 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 (although, as you know, with bar songs there are plenty about people broken down by various tragic circumstances, with maybe the best of the bunch—calls itself “perfect”—being "You Never Even Called Me By My Name" written by Steve Goodman, sung by David Allen Coe). But wherever the rest of my body may be my heart’s always with my longtime-companion/lover/
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 venue) because “I’m still in love with you,” my dearest, a never-changing-reality even as the moon waxes/wanes over the months/years to come. But, just as we can be raunchy at times (in private of course) Neil and his backing band, Promise of the Real, on that same night also did a lengthy, fantastic version of "Cowgirl in the Sand" (19:06) which I’d also like to commit to this blog’s always-ending-tunes; I never get tired of listening to it, then and now (one of my idle dreams is to play guitar even half this well). But, while I’m at it, I’ll also include another of my top favorites, from the night before at Desert Trip, the Rolling Stones’ "Gimme Shelter" (Wow!), a song “just a shot away” in my memory (along with my memory of their great drummer, Charlie Watts, RIP). To finish this cluster of all-time-great-songs I’d like to have played at my wake (as far away from now as possible) here’s one Dylan didn’t play at Desert Trip but it’s great, much beloved by me and Nina: "Visions of Johanna." However, if the day does come when Nina has to recall these above thoughts (beginning with “If we did talk”) and this music after my demise I might as well make this into an arbitrary-Top 10 of songs that mattered to me by adding The Beatles’ "A Day in the Life,"
because that chaotic-orchestral-finale sounds like what the death experience may be like, and the Beach Boys’ "Fun Fun Fun," because these memories may have gotten morbid so I’d like to sign off with something more upbeat to remember me, the Galveston non-surfer-boy.
However, before I go (whether it’s just until next week or more permanently), let’s round these songs out to an even dozen with 2 more dedicated to Nina, the most wonderful woman ever for me. I’ll start with Dylan’s "Lay, Lady, Lay" (maybe a bit personal, but we had a strong connection right from the start) and finish with the most appropriate tune of all, The Beatles again, "In My Life," because whatever I might encounter in my Earth-time, “I love you more.”
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