2025 Noteworthy Films

 SPOILER ALERT! The plots will be discussed.

Marty Supreme:

This film has a dynamic performance by Timothee Chalomet. He has already received the Critics’ Choice Award and the Golden Globes Award for Best Actor, and he is the favorite for the Oscar. He plays an unlikable person who wants the recognition of being the best table tennis player in the world. The story shows how the single-minded obsession to achieve notoriety can create havoc and collateral damage in that pursuit. In the end, he finally can show his talent without actually being the world champion, and he begins to care for others. The movie is too long and a bit of a mess in the middle (especially the part with the gangster, his cash, and the dog) as Marty moves from one ridiculous situation to another.

After the Hunt:

The title may deal with the results following a trauma. This movie will be seen by some as a betrayal of the MeToo movement and views about discrimination. However, it should not be dismissed on that basis. It challenges entrenched views and can be admired for its courage to take on so many issues without becoming muddled. The story portrays the scholastic community, represented by Alma (Julia Roberts), a philosophy professor at Yale, and Hank (Andrew Garfield), a colleague, vying for tenure. They along with others come off as pompous elites. The film presents the advantages of white privilege. It also shows the devastation of sexual abuse in the person of Maggie (Ayo Edebiri), a PhD student, who says that Hank assaulted her. However, she is not your typical Black oppressed person, since her parents are rich, she plagiarized material in her dissertation, and she violates Alma’s privacy. Alma lied about a sexual assault on herself, and gives advice to Alma that entails surrendering to male oppression in the workplace. Her ulcers symbolize her guilt, and she fakes a prescription to obtain pain killers. The supporting performances by Garfield and Michael Stuhlbarg as Alma’s neglected husband are particularly good.

Bugonia

Here’s another odd and inventive film from director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, The Favourite, Poor Things). This one involves fringe characters kidnapping a female business executive, Michelle, played by Emma Stone, who they believe is a member of an alien race eliminating the world’s honeybees and manipulating people into passive victims. The story shows her at first to be a victim of a deranged man, Teddy (Jesse Plemons), who puts her in restraints and shaves her head, Samson-like, because he believes it is the source of a power to communicate with her fellow aliens aboard a mothership. He tortures her by inflicting electric shock treatments to prove his theory that the aliens can withstand high voltage. She eventually plays along with him, it seems, but as it turns out she really is the top extraterrestrial. Her race has found that their experiment of creating humans has failed since earthlings are too destructive to exist, and they terminate the species. The other creatures are allowed to live, and the bees again flourish. (The title refers to bees springing forth from the carcasses of animals, which fits here). The problem with the film is that it may inadvertently encourage conspiracy theorists to go down misguided rabbit holes. That is not what the film is saying. Instead, it points to people looking for hidden reasons outside of themselves for answers when it is they who are the problem. A Good performance by Emma Stone, who is again nominated for an Oscar. But the superior performance here is by Plemons, who was snubbed by the Academy.

Hamnet:

Chloe Zhao (Oscar winner for Best Director for Nomadland) directed this movie that uses the loss of William Shakespeare’s young son to place the writing of the great play Hamlet in the context of how to deal with the grief of such a tragedy. Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) is withdrawn, dealing with his emotions, it seems, internally, and not capable of comforting the grieving mother, Agnes, played by Jessie Buckley (Buckley is the favorite to win the Oscar for Best Actress). However, her husband is channeling his emotions into the play. Agnes witnesses the premier of Hamlet, in which Shakespeare plays the ghost of the main character’s father. Mescal, shrouded in white bandages and makeup, is like an apparition of himself after Hamnet’s death. Earlier, the playwright taught Hamnet sword fighting. Now the actor playing Hamlet repeats those moves, and the character becomes Shakespeare’s attempt to say goodbye to his son and grant immortality through the main character in his play. At the end of the performance, Agnes, at the front of the stage, reaches for the actor playing Hamlet, and he holds her hands in his. The rest of the audience extends their hands out also, showing how art and reality join together to raise tragedy beyond grief. It is a transcendent moment.

 One Battle After Another:

This may be director/writer Paul Thomas Anderson’s year. The film may win Oscars for Best Picture, Screenplay, and Directing. Like After the Hunt, this movie, derived from the novel Vineland by acclaimed and reclusive author Thomas Pynchon, critiques the many sides of the social and political landscape. Left-wing radicals are exposed for their violent tendencies, and the right-wing fanatics are satirized for their bigoted, sadistic ways. Sometimes some become attached to a cause just so they can be with the ones they love. That is the case with Pat (aka Bob) (Leonardo DiCaprio, Oscar-nominated for Best Actor). He is romantically involved with Perfidia Beverly Hills (Tevana Taylor, rightly Oscar-nominated nominated for her role), a Black woman who is a leader of the revolutionaries. The name Perfidia implies being deceptive with hidden motives, and the Beverly Hills name suggests Hollywood liberalism. She is not admirable because she later leaves her child with Pat (now Bob after they acquire new identities) and betrays her comrades to gain safety in witness protection. Her name fits as she has a sexual attraction for Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn, in a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his scary, over-the-top portrayal), who presides over a detention camp she liberates. (Anderson is not subtle with his character names). Lockjaw admits later to Pat that he “loves” Black women. Thematically, the relationship between the two works as the they are hypocrites to their causes. But, in reality, it is easier to accept a white man’s exploitation of a Black woman as opposed to that woman being attracted to a fascistic white oppressor. The scenes with DiCaprio becoming exasperated by trying to remember the paranoid leftish code word security are hysterical. That Lockjaw becomes a victim of his own people shows how the right-wing white supremacists eat their young if they discover anything that deviates from their agenda. Benicio Del Toro plays a laid-back neighborhood protector who aids Bob. (Del Toro’s performance, in my opinion, is not as good as either Stuhlbarg’s or Garfield’s in After the Hunt). Perfidia’s grown-up daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti), goes off at the end of the movie to join protesters, showing how there is, indeed, one battle after another. 

Sinners:

The title of this movie may be exploring who really are sinners given the context of the story. Writer/director Ryan Coogler does not use horror until later in this movie. He first deftly reveals the main characters and their plight. Michael B. Jordan, nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, portrays twin brothers, Smoke and Stack Moore. The last name suggests that these two men can accomplish a great deal more than one might think. Their nicknames suggest fire, implying they are two fellows not to be trifled with. They have been living in Chicago, and their sojourn in the North has given them a news perspective on life. They bring a feeling of empowerment back to their hometown in Mississippi. With the money they earned working for the gangsters up north they buy an old sawmill and turn it into a music club, hiring local talent.

When the vampires do show up, they are symbolic of how the scary local Klan and “crackers” have been scaring the Black folk here for generations. They whites drained the life out of the African American population and now are there to do the same to the formidable Moore brothers. An epic battle occurs with many losses, but there is survival until dawn and the vampires are vanquished.

There is a remarkable scene at the club before the fight. The brothers recruited their cousin Sammy (Miles Canton) to play guitar at their joint. His magical music channels the indomitable African American spirit that can be found in this form of artistic expression. This surrealistic sequence transcends time as we see primitive performers and others that represent modern hip-hop artists.

This is a rich film, and I hope to do an in-depth post on it in the future.

Frankenstein:

Writer/director Guillermo del Toro (disappointing that he was not nominated for this film), as he did in his Oscar-winning The Shape of Water, subverts our preconceived notions of who are the true monsters. The film is structured to show the story from two viewpoints. It begins near the North Pole where an injured Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) is brought aboard a ship. He tells his story. His father, Leopold (Charles Dance), an aristocrat, was a tyrant. He controlled every aspect of his son’s life to make him into a surgeon. He beat him in the face with a cane to enforce his agenda. Victor lost his mother in childbirth which suggests that is why he wants to use science to defeat death (the subtitle of Shelley’s 19^th century work is The Modern Prometheus which reminds us of the mythological being representing hubris and human advancement because Prometheus stole fire from the gods).

Victor is able to fashion the Creature (Jacob Elordi, nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar), because arms merchant Henrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz) offers Victor all the funding he needs. Harlander is dying and wants his brain transferred to the Creature so he can live forever. The film here suggests the power of the ultra-wealthy. The Creature’s body heals any wound and is extremely strong. Victor repeats his father’s cruelty when he tries to teach his creation how to speak. Victor also is attracted to his brother’s fiancée and lies when he says the Creature killed Harlander, who died trying to subvert the experiment for his own purposes. The thrust here is that humans are selfish and sadistic toward the outsider, the other, who is an innocent. Victor tries to burn his lab and the Creature, but he does have a change of heart. However, he is unable to stop a catastrophic explosion.

The Creature, after fighting the sailors in self-defense at the North Pole, then tells his story to Captain Anderson (Lars Mikkelsen). He says that he escaped the explosion and was attacked by hunters who killed him, but he revived. He eventually helps a family of farmers, which shows his natural benevolence. He then encounters a blind man (David Bradley) who teaches him to excel in reading and writing. His blindness appears to signify that he can relate to the Creature without any prejudice, just like the statue of Blind Justice. His teacher dies when wolves attack the man, so the Creature is on his own again.

The Creature says he returned to get Victor to make him a companion since he knows he is immortal and suffers from extreme loneliness. Victor refused, and the Creature attacked him. Elizabeth (Mia Goth), the fiancée of Victor’s brother, sympathizes with the Creature. Victor is jealous of the Creature. He accidently shoots and kills her when he attacks his creation, afraid that the Creature might have offspring. It’s as if the proliferation of purity must be stopped by selfish humans. Victor pursued his creation to the Arctic, where the Creature failed to destroy himself out of despair with an explosive that harmed Victor. “Father,” Victor, and “son,” the Creature, reconcile in the end as Oscar succumbs to his wounds. At the end of the film, the Creature follows Victor’s early advice of reaching for the sunlight, a suggestion that we must try to illuminate our souls with acceptance of others.

Reversal of Fortune

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

The title, Reversal of Fortune (1990), can refer to several aspects of this film, which is based on a true story. It can point to the change from consciousness to a coma that Sunny Von Bulow (Glenn Close) endures. It can also indicate what happens to her husband, Claus Von Bulow (Jeremy Irons, who won an Oscar for Best Actor for this role), who is accused of trying to kill his wife. It may be that Claus literally receives a fortune because if his wife dies, he inherits her extreme wealth. And finally, the word “reversal” could mean reversing a conviction of murder on appeal. The film also presents a situation where what is real can be difficult to determine.

The first shot of the film shows the opulent estates of the rich in Newport, Rhode Island from the air, as if the rich soar above others, and it highlights the reference to “fortune” in the title. But then, shot shifts to a hospital, pointing to that reversal of fortune. Sunny is on life support. The film has Sunny narrating while in her coma, a device that allows Glenn Close to add her voice in addition to the scenes where she is in flashback. The voiceover allows suggestions as to whether her condition was the result of her own actions or due to her husband’s intent. She recovered from an earlier coma which could suggest she is at fault, but there is the possibility that Claus just used her tendencies to cover up his own murderous intent, and his first attempt failed.

The maid, Maria (Uta Hagen) and Sunny’s children from a prior marriage were suspicious after the first coma and the second put Sunny in a persistent vegetative state, from which she did not recover. The police found that Sunny’s insulin level when she entered the hospital was high enough to cause a coma or kill her, most likely due to an injection. They found a needle supposedly encrusted with insulin residue, which pointed to Claus as the perpetrator. Claus could inherit fourteen million dollars, so there is motive. In addition, Claus and Sunny had an arrangement where he could have mistresses. Claus was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to thirty years. These are the general facts of the case.

The real story begins when lawyer Alan Dershowitz (Ron Silver) becomes involved. He says he takes cases that for him have either a moral or constitutional imperative. The contrast in the fairness of the justice system here occurs because Alan loses a case about two innocent Black youths at the time the wealthy Claus wants to hire him. Alan is skeptical of Claus’s innocence and will charge him a great deal to help him defend the more disadvantaged.

Claus has a snobbish voice, and Irons said it was the hardest part of his performance. He makes a reference to admiring the Jewish people, which, when going out of the way to be stated, sounds prejudicial. At lunch, when Alan wants to talk about the “unpleasantness,” Claus thinks he means the lawyer’s fee, not the health of his wife. It highlights Claus’s lack of empathy. Alan says that one thing in Claus’s favor is that everybody hates him, which means one can show that Claus can be a victim. Of course, it’s a left-handed comment.

Maria the maid testified that she found a vial of insulin and a hypodermic needle, yet Sunny was not diabetic. Alan at the beginning feels that he would have voted to convict Claus if on the jury. He says if Hitler had asked him to defend him, his choice would have been to defend him or kill him. He admits that he would take the case and then kill Hitler. That shows both sides of Alan, a person who wants to follow the law, but also thinks outside it when it comes to morality. (Alan was part of the defense teams for O. J. Simpson and Jeffrey Epstein trials, and defended President Donald Trump in the impeachment trials. It’s up to you to judge his legal and moral codes).

Alan gathers a team around him to question him, to keep him thinking objectively and considering different strategies. It shows how Alan is willing to let his ego come under scrutiny. In contrast, you have Claus, who says, “Let the chips fall where they may,” to which Alan says that is what an innocent person would say. Claus’s response with a sly smile is, “I know.” The scene reveals that Claus is a schemer who is centered on his own self-interest.

Claus adds context to the basic charges by saying Sunny detested doctors and that is why he didn’t call one immediately. He knew there were hypodermic needles because they injected themselves with vitamin B12 shots at one time. He also says that Sunny took some of his prescriptions.

One of Alan’s team members is Minnie (Felicity Huffman) who argues that Claus, a privileged aristocrat, is despicable and that by trying to get him off, they are culpable as “accessories after the fact” in allowing a heinous man to go free. Generally, Alan gives the usual argument that everyone must have a fair trial to ensure that the innocent ones “falsely accused” have the same rights to even the playing field. In Claus’s case he says he is “pissed off,” because the children hired their own investigator to search for evidence. If rich people can decide what the evidence is in a case, then that precedent will make it difficult for poor people to be investigated in the same way the privileged are.

The investigation reveals how unsavory characters get involved, trying to cash in on a high-profile case, or hiding mistakes, which shows the road to justice can be a deceptive one. For instance, there is the slimy David Marriott (Fisher Stevens) who says he helped deliver drugs to Sunny. He later edits a tape to make it look like Alan was paying him to falsify evidence. We don’t learn why he did that (an example of how truth can be twisted). The lawyer in the earlier trial has notes that he is unwilling to share, but which eventually become known. Alan feels that there was no finding of insulin until after the fact. Alan suggests there may have been a frame-up of Claus by Sunny’s children, the next in line in inheritance. But as one student later says, the children could have framed “a guilty man.” There is a news article which has author Truman Capote revealing that Sunny showed him how to inject drugs. So, there are several layers muddling the attempt to get at what really happened.

Claus has a very dark sense of humor, which alienates him from others. When he meets Alan’s defense team, he says, “What do you give a wife who has everything? …An injection of insulin.” And, “How do you define a fear of insulin? … Claus-traphobia.” In another conversation with Allan, who says that a priest is an ideal witness, because “it’s like getting the word of God,” Claus says, “I checked. God is unavailable.” The last lines of the film have Claus getting cigarettes at a pharmacy. After the clerk recognizes him, he says he also wants, “a vial of insulin…just kidding.”

At one interview, Alan, trying to decipher Claus’s psyche, asks why he stayed in the flat where his mother died for five days until reporting the death. Claus is not forthcoming, saying, “My mother is my own business.” Who is this guy? Is he innocent or a killer? That is what Alan is trying to figure out. Especially when we have the narration of the comatose Sunny saying that she took huge amounts of laxatives and aspirin, used an assortment of sedatives, smoked a great deal, and drank to excess on certain occasions. We have a situation where it is difficult to determine what is true and what is false about the circumstances surrounding her vegetative state. Given her self-destructive actions, there is the possibility of her being suicidal.

Claus does not demonize Sunny. Quite the opposite. He says that she was “lovely,” and loved Christmas because more than anything else, she enjoyed giving gifts to others. The couple weren’t intimate for quite a while, but even though she allowed Claus his brief infidelities with call girls, she was hurt when Claus became attached to Alexandra Ises (Julia Hagerty) who sent his love letters to her to spite Sunny. According to Claus, they did discuss divorce, but he wanted to stay with Sunny. However, he wanted to work to have a sense of value, but Sunny wanted him to herself. As Claus tells Allan’s team, she thought her husband was confusing since he married her for her money but still wanted to have a job. Claus tells the team that the second coma was “much more theatrical.” An outraged Alan asks if Claus even cares about his wife’s horrible predicament. He claims he does, but he says. “I don’t wear my heart on my sleeve.” The audience can never get a true fix on what makes Claus and Sunny tick.

Comatose Sunny rightfully says, “it’s easy to forget this is all about me.” The whole story focuses on Claus, but she is the one who is hopelessly confined to a bed, needing others to maintain her existence. That may say something about the rest of us who would rather center on a scandal than on someone’s suffering, or her prior life full of passion and tenderness with Claus, and love for her children. There is a scene where she and Claus meet early on at an outdoor party where a pet tiger approaches her and she is bold about giving the creature a snack. Claus is excited by this act and joins Sunny near the animal. Sunny says, “I never liked people much, not as a rule.” She says that Claus was “different. Not a normal person I guess.” Here we have a sense of how out of the mainstream they were, more comfortable with a wild beast than other humans. Sunny’s voiceover states that things later became “brutish” and “cold,” and she wonders, “is he the Devil? If so, can the Devil get justice?” She wonders if all the legal activity is “in Satan’s service.” That sounds like what Alan talked about earlier concerning how even the guilty must have a fair trial.

Alan’s personality is not free of guilt, also. He sacrifices his personal relationships for his work, which he concedes is “all that I care about.” His own son interrupts him and sarcastically introduces his daughter to Alan, as if he hasn’t had time for her. His ex-girlfriend, Sarah (Annabella Sciorra), who is helping him with the case, says he doesn’t pay attention to those he cares about. He may have invited her to the team so he can be close to her, without being emotionally available.

After describing what happened the night of the second coma, Claus says he discovered Sunny passed out in her bathroom, her “sanctuary,” an almost religious word ironically attributed to a very non-spiritual place, He tells a doubting Alan, “I don’t know the whole truth.” That goes for the audience as well. As Alan says it’s very difficult to trust a man one doesn’t understand. Alan says to Claus, “You’re a very strange man.” To which, Claus responds, “You have no idea.” He admits not only to his “strangeness,” which is off-putting, but that Alan can’t fathom him, and neither can we.

The team eventually gets tests that show that the prosecution’s evidence of residual insulin on a hypodermic needle was inconclusive. Sunny was hypoglycemic, and then would overdose on sweets, which could lead to overcompensation by the body to produce insulin. Alan is able to introduce the new evidence despite the fact the case is on appeal by citing a Rhode Island Supreme Court justice’s prior ruling. They are able to reverse the convictions.

But Alan and Sarah tell Alan’s son two differing versions of what could have happened. Sunny was suicidal, could have taken too many medications, wanted the windows opened, and passed out in her bathroom while Claus was walking the dogs, exercising, and showering. She was ready to pee, and that’s how her nightgown was hiked up. Or, Claus opened the windows and dragged her into the bathroom, which hiked up the sleep clothes, and his actions helped the barbiturates on the way to her destruction, So, we are still in the dark.

Sunny’s last words are that we will only know the truth “When you get where I am,” which means not in this life. After Alan tells Claus about the good news, Alan, again showing the division on how he lives his life, says to him, “Legally, this was an important victory. Morally, you’re on your own.”

As are we.

Almost Famous

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Almost Famous (2000) springs from writer/director Cameron Crowe’s experiences as a writer for Rolling Stone magazine, including his interactions with The Allman Brothers, The Who, and the Eagles. (Crowe won an Oscar for Best Screenplay for this movie). The character William Miller (Patrick Fugit) is Crowe’s alter-ego, and he and others associated with rock and roll celebrities are famous adjacent, noteworthy by association. The film deals with the nature of celebrity, its highs and lows and the fallout on those that enter its sphere, along with the need to be independent, and not a follower.

The opening credits show how personal the story is for Crowe. A desk drawer opens and it has memorabilia of his association with rock bands. A person hand writes some of the credits on a paper pad, showing the analog period in which the tale is told.

The movie begins in San Diego with young William (Michael Angarano) talking to his mother, Elaine Miller (Frances McDormand, with yet another Oscar nomination, this time for supporting actress. They discuss To Kill a Mockingbird and Shakespeare. Their exchange shows her intellectual bent.

Daughter Anita (Zoe Deschanel) comes into the house, and Elaine, a college professor, is immediately suspicious of her activities. She knows that she has been kissing a boy, and she discovers that Anita has a Simon and Garfunkel album she is clutching under her coat. Elaine warns of how modern music is about sex and drugs and says the musical duo pictured on the album cover are “on pot.” These allegations seem ridiculous to us now, knowing of the beauty and insight of Simon and Garfunkel’s music. Mom is pushing vegetarian foods and not celebrating Christmas in September, not December, but when the holiday will not be commercialized. Anita asks, “What else are you gonna ban?” It is interesting that Elaine, a supposed liberal, can be repressive in her self-righteous attitudes.

Anita pushes the supposedly knowledge-championing Elaine into telling William the truth about his age. He thinks he started school early and is twelve years old. Mom had him skip a grade and he is really eleven. The boy already feels put upon by others because he is underdeveloped according to them. Anita says that mom has deprived him of reaching puberty at the same time as his peers. Self-righteous Elaine says, “Adolescence is a marketing tool,” as if it doesn’t really exist. Elaine does not believe in being “typical.” Her rebelliousness against anything accepted by others stigmatizes younger people looking for community among their peers.

Anita leaves to be a stewardess, ready to travel, which Elaine said William should do when he gets older. But Elaine sees William as “unique,” and her daughter as “ungrateful” of her love just because she is “rebellious.” Elaine also rebels against society, but she doesn’t tolerate any deviation from her own ideas. Anita tells William that “one day you’ll be cool,” which is what William yearns for, since it is a path to being revered by others, and eventually, becoming famous. Anita leaves him her record collection under his bed, to help him along the way to the realm of coolness. She leaves a note for William to play Tommy by The Who, and says he will hear his future listening to the album. It is an interesting choice. Tommy, who is not able to hear, speak, or see, is an outsider. His ability to be a pinball wizard despite his handicaps allows him to become famous by being “cool.” But then, he wants to mold everyone into his own image, and his followers reject him for forcing his version of conformity on the masses. It is sort of an ironic message for William, and it sounds like a version of what happened to Elaine.

The story jumps forward to 1973, and the teenage William hears music critic Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who visits San Diego, spout his views on the current state of rock and roll on the radio. The name “Bangs” fits what he does, whacking at the music industry. William meets Lester at the radio studio. He has been sending pieces he writes, and Lester admits William is a good writer. But his advice is the opposite of what his sister wanted for her brother. To be a music critic one must be “uncool,” Lester says. That allows the writer to be objective. He must be “honest” and “unmerciful.” He says that the bands will just try to bribe the critic with booze, drugs, and women to write praiseworthy reviews. He advises that the rock musicians are “not your friends.” Lester realizes that William will not be better off being a lawyer, which what his mother wanted, and he gives him a job to write about the group, Black Sabbath.

William isn’t allowed to go backstage for his interview. Outside he meets Penny Lane (yes, from the Beatles song). Kate Hudson (also nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar) plays Penny, who tells William she altered the groupies into what she calls the “Band Aids.” They are here to inspire the musicians. She says they do not have intercourse with the band members just to become close to those who are famous, although one girl says they do give “blow jobs,” which compromises the mission.

William’s knowledge of an opening band called Stillwater wins over the musicians, who at first called him “the enemy,” and they let him go backstage. (Peter Frampton wrote the Stillwater songs for the film). The band first says they play for the audience, not critics. But when William compliments them, they enjoy the praise. The film shows that everyone likes the critics when they are favorable and condemns them when they are negative. A band member has the belief that rock and roll can change the world, but admits to lower ambitions saying the money is good, and “the chicks are great.”

Penny catches up with William to give him a backstage pass, so she does follow up on her intentions. She plays with his face and tells him, “now you look mysterious.” It’s as if one must have an air of mystery, an element of being “cool,” to become popular. Just upfront honesty does not appear to be enough. William introduces Penny to Stillwater member Russell Hammond (Bully Cudrup), and there appears to be chemistry between the two. After the concert, Russell tells William to visit the band in LA and bring Penny with him. He is going under the name of “Harry Houdini.” Using an escape artist’s name, again, shows mystery is part of the cool allure.

To stress the divide between the cool and the uncool, when Penny tells William they live in the same city, he says they live in two different worlds, despite their proximity. She says she has decided to live in Morocco for a year, saying she needs to find a new crowd. Her words suggest that the Band Aid world of girls with rock stars has become jaded for her. She asks him if he wants to go with her, and the excited William, hoping to break out of his uncool world, says yes.

William lies to his mother about where he is going, and travels with Penny to LA to the Hyatt House hotel, which Russell called “The Riot House,” the play on words showing the contrast between a cool name and an uncool one. There are nerdy types running around gushing about seeing members of Led Zeppelin and getting autographs, wanting to decrease the degrees of separation from those who are famous.

Polexia Aphrodisia (Anna Paquin), one of the Band Aids, tells William that Penny used him so she could get close to Russell, showing how self-interest exists even under the appearance of camaraderie. Later, Penny admits to William that she sees Russell as her last project. She is true to her words about not just being a groupie. She actually wants to help Russell live up to his potential for greatness.

Rolling Stone gets wind of William’s writing and calls him to do a piece on Stillwater. William contacts Lester who again tells him not to be friends with the musicians and that the magazine consists of “swill merchants.” While talking, he wears a shirt that says, “Detroit Sucks,” so cynical has he become. He flies his negativity like a nihilistic flag.

Mom, with great trepidation, insisting on academic standards being kept, and stating “no drugs,” her mantra, allows William to go on tour with the band. When she calls, one of the Band Aids answers, who tells mom that William is doing a great job, is a real gentleman, and is still a virgin. In other words, his uncoolness remains intact. William’s phone call to his mother later occurs while another Band Aid talks about his “purple aura,” and that she has pot for him, which shows how William is caught between two worlds.

William keeps trying to get an interview with Russell, but the musician says he’ll talk off the record, because he doesn’t want honesty to tarnish his being “cool.” But, he admits some of the band’s actions, like being unfaithful to girlfriends and wives back home, should not be discovered by “millions.” Russell also admits that the more success the band has, it becomes harder to split from them, since he feels he is a more advanced musician. He says he and William should be friends for the night, which is what Lester advised against, since journalistic integrity is lost without objectivity. What the audience is seeing here is how art and personality are two separate worlds. While a bandmate still doesn’t trust a journalist among them, he admits it would be cool to be on the cover of Rolling Stone. The ambivalent world of rock stars is evident here.

At a concert, Russell receives an electric shock from an ungrounded microphone. This scene is based on a true event. According to IMDb, Les Harvey of Stone the Crows died due to being electrocuted by an ungrounded mic. Here, the image implies how being in a rock band, which is rebellious while still seeking acceptance, can be dangerous.

In Topeka, the band has a blow-up about T-shirts that depict Russell large and the others out-of-focus in the background. The lead singer, Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee) is particularly feeling unappreciated by Russell. After the argument, Russell grabs William to go out and find some “real people, real feelings.” That suggests that the rock business is feeling phony to him. He, as well as Penny and some others, may find that they can be close to William because of his youth. They may be attracted to what they see is his innocence, his lack of corruption.

Russell says William is real and finally asks about him. William admits to his father dying of a heart attack and how his mother and sister don’t talk. There is some actual sharing in the moment. Then they get invited to a party by passersby, and Russell agrees that they should go. Russell feels that connecting to these “real people” are what he is after. At the party, he is feeling intellectual, talking about how George Orwell’s predictions in 1984 are coming true. The response is that one guy wants to show him feed a mouse to his snake. So much for grand ideas.

William becomes the adult here as he warns the partygoers not to give Russell more LSD. Instead of connecting with real people, Russell delves into the delusional, yelling out, “I am a golden god!” which was attributed to Led Zeppelin singer, Robert Plant. He is on the roof and says that his last words are “I’m on drugs” which the crowd prefers to “I dig music,” and they want him to risk his life, jumping into the pool then just going back to the hotel. The movie implies that the fans want the outrageous from their idols so they can live vicariously through their heroes doing actions that they can’t or won’t do.

William gets Russell back with the band and bad feelings evaporate as the whole touring bus sings along to Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer.” So, music is still the glue that holds them together. William needs to get his interview with Russell before going home. Penny tells him he is “home.” And there lies the conflict. William is in and out of his true home.

In the hotel room William gets advice over the phone from Lester about how to stall Rolling Stone by calling his article a “think-piece” about a “mid-level band” dealing with fame. It may be a ploy, but it actually fits what’s going on. When William asks Penny, after she continues to name-drop rock stars, if she knows any regular people, she says “famous people are more interesting.” That shows the opposite drive from a regular person, as opposed to Russell’s urge to connect with “real” people. They show the desire to break out of where one currently resides.

The Band Aids decide to “de-flower” William, but Penny does not participate. Their friendship appears to be on a different level. The other girls are just playing around with no real connection to the young writer. When he asks them who he is to them he gets his answer when they tell him to take out the laundry.

Now in Cleveland, he has a phone call with his mother. Russell interrupts it and tells Elaine that William is fine, and they are taking good care of him. She, however, cuts through his crap, and tells him that he can overcome his debauchery to reach greatness, and that he would not want to meet up with her if anything unsavory happens to her son. Russell alters his attitude, becoming subservient, as if receiving parental guidance that he needed.

Dennis Hope (Jimmy Fallon) arrives, a big-name band promoter, saying Stillwater needs to move fast to capitalize on their increasing success. (His name “Hope” is a bit ironic here, as he is more for opportunity than the idealistic feel of “hope). He says they must cash in quickly, saying Mick Jagger will not make it as a rock star when he’s fifty. (Jagger still tours at age 82. So, the implication is that one can play the long game). But Stillwater goes with Hope, and they trade in their trusty touring bus for an airplane for transportation to reach more gigs quicker.

William witnesses a card game between rock band members, and Russell agrees to give up Penny and the other Band Aids for fifty dollars and a case of beer to the rock group Humble Pie. William is becoming more cynical about the rock business, and accepts the original idea of him, being a journalist, as “the enemy” who can expose secrets. When Penny wants to go to New York to pursue Russell it is William who tells her to “wake up,” since Leslie (Liz Stauber), Russell’s girlfriend, will be there. He then tells her about the poker game. She tries to hide her hurt. As William points out there is so much phoniness, that they live in a made-up life, with invented names.

In New York, Leslie shows up, but so does Penny, and she is crushed when another band member says she is with him as a diversion. After William tells the band they will be on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, Penny runs off and tries to overdose on Quaaludes. William follows her and calls a doctor at the hotel. She is alone as she feels deserted since the other Band Aids have gone off with other rock groups. She is collateral damage to the fame of others. William says a funny line to the almost unconscious Penny when he changes the opening line of Star Trek by saying he’s going where many have gone before, and tells her he loves her, which he follows with a kiss.

As Penny gets her stomach pumped, we ironically hear “My Cherie Amour,” whose lyrics about the pretty little girl who is adored contrast with the upsetting scene before William. Later he finally learns her real name is Lady Goodman, which she says her mother thought she would become and who she would marry. He says goodbye as she flies back home to San Diego.

The band is on a plane that hits an electrical storm. When it looks like they might not make it, they start to shout out confessions. One admits to being a hit-and-run driver, another says he is gay, Jeff says he slept with Leslie, and the affair between Russell and Penny comes out. When they call Penny just a “groupie,” William gets angry and says she cared about the band and they just used her, and he was in love with her. The threat of death makes everyone become real quickly, no longer hiding behind their false personas. As Russell and William say goodbye, Russell no longer is trying to suppress anything ugly about the band. He tells William to write whatever he wants.

At the Rolling Stone office William is grilled about what he has submitted, and he asks for one night to clean up the story. He talks to Lester, who again tells him he can’t be friends with the musicians. He knows they made William feel “cool,” but he is not cool, and neither is Lester. They are the “uncool.” And, Lester says most great art is about them. He says the art of those who are cool doesn’t last. The real art is about, “pain and conflict and guilt and longing.” Lester again says the best William can do for the musicians is to be “honest and unmerciful.”

William writes honestly and the magazine loves his story, especially about the confessions on the airplane. But when the factchecker calls the band, they feel like they all come off badly, in other words “uncool,” which is exactly how they behaved. The film suggests honesty that shows people as vulnerable is not what hero-worshipping is about. Russell denies almost all of the story, and the magazine drops William’s piece.

William meets his sister, Anita, at the airport in San Francisco. She sees that he has broken free of their mother and says they can have an adventure together. But, he decides at this point he needs the comfort and safety of home after his initiation into the actualities of his idealized vision of modern musicians. Mom is happy to see both her children despite their disobeying her. The implication is that unconditional love works that way.

At the end of the Stillwater tour, it takes one of the Band Aids, Sapphire (Fairuza Balk), to shame Russell about ditching Penny, almost causing her suicide, and denying William’s story. She says that being a true fan is dedicating yourself to the music and the band that creates it. Here, the dedicated fans come off as the honest ones.

Russell calls Penny. At first he lies, saying there are a lot of people around, so he can’t say much. He then realizes truth is the way to go and admits he is alone. He says he is sorry, and he’s best when he is around her. He wants her address so he can, this time, come to her.

She gives him an address, but it is William’s. When he arrives, Elaine says there’s hope for Russell yet, and she’s right. He called Rolling Stone and said everything William wrote was true. He realizes that they both wanted to be with Penny, but she wanted them to be together, so that is why she gave him William’s address. Russell realizes he never knew Penny’s real name. William smiles, because he does, which makes him feel special. William finally gets the interview with Russell he was aiming for, and it will be an honest one.

Penny flies off to Morocco where she said she always wanted to go. She seems to realize that it’s not just famous people who are interesting. By following her dream, so is she.

Award Winner

 My newest novel, Galloper's Quests, recently received third prize for literary fiction at the BookFest convention in California.

My father sparked my interest in science fiction. The first movie I saw in the theater was Forbidden Planet. Over time we watched The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, and The Andromeda Strain and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. This interest led to me to writing a sci-fi novel:

Galloper’s Quests, based on Gulliver’s Travels, begins in 2079. Navy Captain Samuel Galloper is a scientist who continually seeks answers about the mysteries of the universe. The military only temporarily quieted his feverish mind through its regimented ways. Galloper invents a propulsion system that transforms matter into energy and can open wormholes. However, the military wants to steal his work and use it to wage war. So, Galloper decides to prevent the perversion of his invention by leaving Earth on a journey through the cosmos. He visits three planets whose inhabitants exhibit very different ways of dealing with life. He becomes involved in the armed conflict between two of the planets. Along the way he befriends aliens and a witty robot. He falls in love with an extraterrestrial who might know more about humanity than Galloper does. As Galloper nears the end of his quests, he must weigh the risks of returning to Earth. Will his invention fall into the wrong hands? Will anyone believe his story about his intergalactic travels? What fate awaits his new love if she goes with him?

https://www.amazon.com/Gallopers-Quests-Fall-Earth-Destiny/dp/B0DRTBVDM6/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_

Darkest Hour

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

The title of the film Darkest Hour (2017) refers to the saying that it’s always darkest before the dawn, implying that sometimes to reach a goal one must endure hardship. This movie focuses on England when Adolph Hitler’s Germany threatened the country, and specifically on Prime Minister Winston Churchill's role in escaping defeat and pushing forward to victory in World War II.

The story has several historical inaccuracies, as critics have pointed out, which must infuriate those that hope for accuracy in such a story. Apparently, Churchill had some ethnic purity beliefs of his own concerning the British people. However, this post will focus on the moviemaking aspect of the film.

The first images we see are those of countless soldiers and tanks, with Hitler and his military leaders plotting conquest. It is May, 1940, and Germany has already invaded Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, and Norway according to onscreen notes. The shots set the stage for the daunting task of resisting such a formidable enemy.

The film shows the ensuing days by presenting the month and day in large print on the screen, with the days rolling down with loud thudding. The effect is to show the importance and weightiness of what is transpiring. (Think of the opening of All the President’s Men and how the typewriter keys are huge and noisy, showing the impact of what is written). There is a shot from above accompanied by shouting showing how the British government is under siege and not capable of exhibiting traditional restraint. Parliament has blamed Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup) for what has become known as his appeasement, allowing Germany to become stronger. The story depicts how sometimes accepted norms of behavior will not work when dealing with unstoppable aggression.

Chamberlain meets with other members of the Conservative Party and admits that they need a coalition with the opposition party. Those in attendance want Lord Halifax (Stephen Dillane) to be Prime Minister. However, Halifax declines, saying it is not his “time.” Chamberlain admits that only First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman, in an Oscar-winning performance for Best Actor, looks unrecognizable in the make-up and prosthetics, and inhabits the role) will be accepted by both parties. Churchill’s combative personality is not admired by those in attendance. The scene shows these men (no women in government at this time) dressed in stiff, elegant formal clothes, mirroring their superior attitude, divorced from the average citizen.

The next scene contrasts with these upper-class men by starting with the servants preparing to ready breakfast-in-bed for the fussy and demanding Churchill. He demeans his new secretary, Elizabeth Layton (Lily James), by harshly criticizing her while she takes dictation. The audience can see that Churchill can be overbearing and condescending. Churchill’s wife, Clementine (Kristen Scott Thomas) sees how upset Elizabeth is and says how her husband can be a brute, like all men. She adds a strong female aspect to this time ruled by war-waging men. She tells Churchill that he has become “rude” and “overbearing” lately, and if he does become Prime Minister, he will have to use diplomacy. He says that choosing him now is more like revenge. He has had setbacks in the past, including the lives lost at Gallipoli, and maybe that has soured him. She mentions that he has a “lack of vanity” and a “sense of humor,” (unlike the stuffy men shown earlier). She tries to make him show his finer parts. He hopes that, being old now, he can still be useful, saying when “youth departs, wisdom will be enough.” Later, Clementine says that they are financially broke due to his personal excesses. But he can be charming with her, recalling past lovely times, and funny, as when she asks if they are old, and he says to her, “you are.”

The film shows everyday people walking in slow motion in the streets, picking up trash, or going to the office. These are the individuals who will have their lives destroyed if Germany invades. Churchill seems to recognize his upper-class status and how it is divorced from the multitudes. He says he has never ridden a bus or been in line to purchase bread. The one time he tried using the English subway, he became lost.

King George VI (Ben Mendelsohn) summons Churchill after telling Chamberlain how much he regrets accepting his resignation, and how much he dislikes dealing with Churchill. (Chamberlain concedes that Churchill was right about the dangerous Hitler). When Churchill arrives, he and the King talk at quite a distance, showing their lack of common ground. They speak minimally as the King offers the leadership of the nation to Churchill, who must, reluctantly, approach the monarch and kiss his hand. George VI then wipes his hand on his back, so adverse he is to being in Churchill’s presence. The King says they will have to meet, “once a week, I’m afraid.” Churchill seems to agree about the visits being disagreeable, since he will not concede his four pm naptime. He later says meeting the King will be like having a tooth pulled once a week.

Clementine acknowledges that she knew from the start that Churchill would mainly be preoccupied with public life. She accepted that, as did their children. She unselfishly says that their sacrifice was for “the greater good.” The film is implying that not all members of a family can accept a subservient role honorably as did the Churchills. (It is interesting that Churchill critiques his own father for his lack of family attention, telling the King that his father was like God, because he was “busy elsewhere”).

When Churchill enters Parliament, it is like going into the lion’s den. Bells chime in the background like somber knells. There are intercut shots of Churchill giving his speech with scenes where he earlier edits it while dictating to his secretary. He alters words to make it more palatable to the government representatives, which shows the new Prime Minister exercising diplomacy as he ascends into his new role. He admits the huge task ahead and says in pursuit of defending the nation he will give his all, offering his “blood, toil, tears, and sweat.” Churchill makes no attempt, however, at disguising that they will be waging war and that victory is the goal, no matter the cost. Despite the menace of Naziism, the members are reluctant to show enthusiasm for going into all-out battle, and Chamberlain and Halifax plot to remove Churchill for not allowing for peace talks. Others consider him just a great orator whose ideas are dangerous, and that he is an alcoholic.

 There is a difficult choice to be made by Churchill. The Germans are moving swiftly through France, and he must decide whether to tell the public how dire are the circumstances, or to rouse the French and his own people to fight. He chooses the latter, but the French leaders call him “delusional,” given the Nazi onslaught. He wants to inspire with his speech to the English so as not to give into despair. The film poses the question as to whether it is ever an appropriate time not to be totally honest with the public. He speaks his words which contrast with the depiction of the casualties in France.

The film points to another instance of Churchill having to connect to the masses. He flashes what he considers the victory sign, but he initially does so with the palm of the hand turned inwards. His secretary, Elizabeth, reluctantly tells him that means “up your bum,” to the “poorer people.” They both have a large laugh about this mistake, which shows Churchill’s sense of humor, and his ability to adapt.

The story shows the enormity of the sacrifice that a leader must inflict in a large-scale war. It shows Churchill willing to sacrifice four thousand men at a garrison in Calais to divert the Germans so 300,000 soldiers can be rescued at Dunkirk. This decision, along with President Franklin Roosevelt not being able to act because of the passage of the Neutrality Act in the United States, and the fall of Belgium and soon France, stress how this is the darkest hour for Britain. Churchill makes his decision as Halifax and Chamberlain push for peace talks with Germany, with Italy as an intermediary.

Churchill plans Operation Dynamo to rescue the army at Dunkirk by utilizing as many seacraft as possible for the evacuation while the Calais garrison is suffering terrible losses. Halifax says fighting to the end means “the destruction of all things,” and he does not see that resistance against evil is worth that. Churchill obviously disagrees. He also realizes that “you cannot reason with a tiger when your head is its mouth.” However, Churchill eventually agrees to hear German terms of a negotiated peace when under extreme pressure exerted by Halifax and Chamberlain. Whenever Churchill hears Hitler in the background talking on the radio he becomes infuriated by the voce of repression.

Secretary Elizabeth breaks down in tears while Churchill dictates. He listens to her when she says nobody tells citizens the truth about what is happening. He takes her into the secret map room and explains the deadly situation at Dunkirk. Here we have an example of Churchill connecting with an everyday person, trusting her with the truth. She discovers that her brother died at Dunkirk, and he shows compassion towards her, while she encourages his ability to communicate.

He also receives encouragement from Clementine who says his life has prepared him for the burden he now shoulders. The King visits Churchill and the latter is honest about how dire is the situation. The King surprisingly supports Churchill and tells him to seek out the feelings of everyday people, as Churchill had advised him in the past.

As the evacuation of Dunkirk proceeds with unexpected great success, the slow-motion movement of the citizens is again presented as Churchill observes them from his car. He bolts out of the vehicle and descends literally and figuratively to the Underground to connect with his fellow English citizens. He jokes with them, saying to a new mother that all infants look like him. He learns their names and vocations. He asks them what they would do if the Germans invaded. They say, “fight the fascists!” He asks if they would accept a peace agreement with Hitler, and they say, “Never, never, never!” The final connection to the people occurs when he quotes a poem and one of the passengers finishes it.

Churchill goes to members of Parliament and quotes the people on the subway who said they felt that England would turn into a slave state if Germany invaded. He says how would they feel if the swastika flew over the houses of Parliament. The members now echo the feelings of their constituents in not giving into Nazism. He tells the war cabinet that they will not negotiate.

He invites Elizabeth to hear the words that she typed so as to cement the connection between them. Later Churchill gives his famous rousing, “We shall fight on the beaches,” speech. Even Chamberlain concedes. His speech foresees America entering the war that would eventually bring victory over hatred, which is what free and enlightened people fight for, a fight that is ongoing. The note at the end quotes Churchill who said, “it is the courage to continue that counts.”