Society & Culture

The Movie Industry and 2021 Oscars

There’s no business but woke business

Published

3 weeks ago

April 24, 2021

Jeff Davidson

You’re not going to watch the Oscars telecast on Sunday night, and I don’t blame you: Leftist Doctrine has infiltrated the movie industry to the degree that there is no business but woke business. Nonetheless, I’ve briefly reviewed the eight nominated films, and some others:

The United States vs Billie Holiday

This film is captivating. On par with Renée Zellweger in Judy, singer Andra Day in the title role, is quite convincing. Along with Carrie Mulligan, in Promising Young Woman, I think she shares the lead for the best female actor award.

As with four of the other nominated movies for the April 25 telecast, in arguably the worst line-up of nominated films in Oscar history, the upshot is the same: All white men are bad, all black people are exploited.

Judas and the Black Messiah

Starring the British Daniel Kaluuya, and Lakeith Stanfield, both of whom who have excellent futures in the movies, Judas and the Black Messiah is a surprise despite the ultra-clunky title. I was expecting a heavy philosophical overlay of how the Black Panthers’ experience then, somehow translates to Black Lives Matter today.

Indeed, 300+ movie reviewers fervently want to connect the two experiences but they differ vastly: 50 to 55 years ago the FBI, Chicago Police, and other police departments were verifiably hostile to black people. Today, the FBI knowingly and blatantly shields Black Live Matters crimes, be it rioting, looting, mayhem, and even murder.

While a handful of regrettable “death by cop” cases arise each year, in general, police are not out to get black people, who are given more leeway and understanding than anyone from the 1960s could presume. And minority officers now represent 40% or more of many city police departments.

Of note: Martin Sheen hits a new low, not helped by the makeup director, playing an unconvincing J. Edgar Hoover.

The Trial of the Chicago Seven

Although it take liberties with the actual events, this is a reasonably good movie with many excellent supporting cast members, good pacing, and humor, and is worth viewing. Afterward, look up the fact and fiction within the film.

Minari

Set in the 1980s in rural Arkansas, Minari offers an endearing portrayal of what one generation does for the next, as viewed within a single family, in this case, Korean immigrants. This film is garnering rave reviews from every quarter. The ensemble cast performs well, led by Yuh-Jung Youn who adds spark and verve.

The Father

Starring Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Coleman, and Olivia Williams, The Father is a 93-minute movie that is 63 minutes too long. You could watch the first 15 minutes and the last 15 minutes and be no less informed.

We should all be thankful if our parents, or our future selves, do not suffer from the level of dementia portrayed here: He can’t recall what happened yesterday, sometimes an hour ago, and sometimes minutes ago.

The film shows reality from the father’s perspective, which is a constant jangle of dates, times, people, situations, and places; and the reality of those around him who have to deal with his constant ramblings, false assertions, obstinance, proud declarations, and outright inaccuracies. Save time, watch the trailer and read a long review.

Mank

Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried star in this biopic about Hollywood screenwriter Frank Mankiewicz. Strattling the 1930s and 40s, while penning Citizen Kane, ‘Mank’ has a fondness for alcohol and for saying whatever he thinks.

Charles Dance, as the preeminent but affable William Randolph Hearst is notable. This is an insider’s movie for the thankfully shrinking number of people who know or care about Hollywood.

Nomadland

Starring Frances McDormand, Nomadland offers a view of the American west and people who choose to no longer have permanent roots. The film presents one brief encounter after another, moving to the next scene, and the next.

It does impart the sense of loneliness and in some cases emptiness of the people who have chosen this lifestyle and so is somewhat engaging while watching it, but otherwise totally skippable.

McDormand has been nominated for an Oscar, however, this is not among her best. The film itself is regarded as profound by many reviewers, but then so was The Shape of Water and Roma (!)

Promising Young Woman

With Carey Mulligan, in an Oscar worthy turn, this movie represents a new step in her acting career. Without giving away any of the plot, it is both compelling and lingering.

Produced by Margot Robbie, who seems to have a knack for the zeitgiest, you really can’t forget this movie.

Sound of Metal

An inside and gripping portrayal of what it’s like to go deaf, as experienced by a drummer for a heavy metal band. Rapper and now actor, Riz Ahmed, in the lead role, offers moments of denial, rebellion, and poignancy.

Not nominated, fittingly, is this film:

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

This forgettable movie, nominated for several acting Oscars no less, is as revolting as its regrettable title, surprising for a film produced by Denzel Washington. The makeup and wardrobe to make Viola Davis look 40 pounds heavier and decades older is ridiculous.

The first 20 minutes of the film is nearly unwatchable, like a bad Eugene O’Neill play, all staged-dialogue, in one room. As the braggadocio horn player, the non-stop banter by the late Chaz Boseman, to whom the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will posthumously award an Oscar, is simply irritating.

The use of blatant stereotypes – black and white – in this ‘woke era’ is mindboggling: Ma’s white manager is a milquetoast, the recording studio owner is exploitative, the Klansmen (only referred to in a soliloquy by Bozeman) vicious, Ma’s niece is promiscuous, the black band members are accommodating, etc.

Finally, here is one movie that is an under-seen gem:

The Courier

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, this is a Cold War era spy movie, par excellence, a bit reminiscent of the German film, The Lives of Others. Overlooked by the ridiculously woke AMPAS, and probably way too subtle, The Courier is a great movie, easily among the best five pictures of the year, if not the best.

A friend said, “Loved The Courier. It deserves consideration especially with the unpatriotic events unfolding.” And I replied, “but woke Hollywood would object to the less-than-vocal wives and to no minorities in the film. So it had no chance to be nominated for an Oscar.”

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‘Music’ from the Gutter, As America Sinks into Depravity

Society & Culture

The Rightness of The Righteous Brothers

Published

2 days ago

May 13, 2021

Patrick Luscri

I was feeling a bit anxious about all the Orwellian absurdities going on in our country. Randomly, I began listening to The Righteous Brothers and suddenly everything seemed a little more ordered and honest.

Apparently, for me, there’s something about a couple of crooners singing Unchained Melody and other hits and using terms of endearment like “baby’ and “honey” and unabashedly embracing the glorious differences between men and women that’s surprisingly refreshing.

Until recently, artists like The Righteous Brothers felt no inhibition about writing and singing songs that celebrate love and attraction between genders. There were no pronoun police, no anti-machismo militants, no shame and no efforts to emasculate men and weaponize women. Refreshing?

If some think our pseudo-infatuation with many genders and desire-over-biology transitions are good for us as a people—or are good for ANY people—I don’t see any shred of common good in elevating desire over basic biology. I think they’re stiff-arming reality and open-arming fantasy.

If others think The Righteous Brothers should be renamed, “The Righteous Persons” or that they celebrated what is now considered sexist, rather than natural, I disagree. If those who hold this view don’t value tradition and institution created through loving design, I think they’re either fooling themselves or are being fooled, or both.

In their defense, The Righteous Brothers ask their love interests, “Without you baby, what good am I?” At first blush, these words seem to be about worth or utility. I think they’re about more than that; I think they hint at a “lostness” and a completion.

Design and destiny

Speaking of completion, Jesus teaches about men and women fulfilling their design and destiny. In doing so, he describes the union of a man and woman as not merely a joining, but as a becoming. He does this when he defines gender and marriage thusly:

“From the beginning of the world, God made them man and woman. Because of this, a man is to leave his father and mother and is to live with his wife. The two will become one. So they are no longer two, but one.”

According to God, this becoming, this state of oneness happens between members of opposite (and equal) genders. It does so because it’s based on a built-in and glorious design. No amount of surgery or hormones can change it. We’re male and female. This biological and spiritual reality doesn’t lie, and neither does God.

In terms of gender, who we are is fixed because we’re permanently and perfectly designed. It’s also glorious because as men and women we’re made to reflect God’s image in all his glory.

In truth, most of us know this is so, and those who say otherwise likely know deep down that they’re pretending. It’s quite an irony. They want something to be true, yet they’ve convinced themselves that truth is relative. They’ve chained themselves with inescapable logic.

If one accepts that we’re made in God’s image and that he made us male and female, one is free to embrace reality and his or her destiny. This truth brings light and clarity in the midst of the chaos and cacophony of our loud and silly mixed-up culture. Loving design becomes an unchained and beautiful melody.

Business

Post Lockdown: Are You Juggling Too Many Tasks?

Concentration and focus are under rated in our current era of multitasking

Published

2 days ago

May 13, 2021

Jeff Davidson

As traffic starts to mount up everywhere, and more people are heading back to office, is the ill-advised practice of multi-tasking regaining a foothold? Considering all that you need to do personally and professionally, are you attempting to handle too much?

These days, we all seem to be human doings, not human beings. Unfortunately, we give short shrift to concentration and focus. Indeed, concentration and focus are under rated in our current era of multitasking.

Consider this: A magnifying glass held up at the correct angle to the sun will quickly burn a hole through a piece of paper: concentration and focus. Meanwhile, no matter how much sun shines through your office window onto your desk, none of those tedious memos are going to catch on fire. The lack of combustibility has nothing to do with the way the manufacturer engineered this flat piece of glass.

Multi-tasking is occasionally helpful and satisfying but, along with the shower of information and communication overload, represents a paradoxical impediment to getting things done. Let’s see why.

Faster and Less Attentive

The term multi-tasking evolved from the computer industry, the early mainframe computers designed with parallel processes is perhaps the prime example of automated multi-tasking.

In many respects, the computer has accelerated our inattentiveness. Personal computers achieved critical mass in 1981 with the introduction of the Apple Computer designed as an alternative to the IBM PC. The affordable technology enabled us all to engage in sequential activities and elevate our propensity to become task-switchers.

Then for many reasons, and some so bizarre that they defy description, over the next 40 years we began to emulate our computers, multi-tasking while they multi-tasked.

Today, with the typical office professional sending or receiving more than 200 messages a day, counting all forms of communication, and all of them coming and going at shorter intervals, a generation of career professionals are being driven virtually to distraction. A number of the messages are fleeting, the meaning often unclear, and the result a listless and confused workforce.

Against the back drop of information and communication overload, ever-advancing technology, and more choices than anyone needs or even wants, an entire workforce generation has been taught to multi-task as if this is the way it has always been, needs to be, and always will be.

Continuous Partial Attention

Undivided attention is a term that has fallen out of use! Multitasking has become a norm giving rise to “continuous partial attention,” where nothing gets your true and undivided focus, and everything is homogenized to the point of carrying nearly equal weight.

We offer our attention here, there, and then somewhere else. Like a one-man band, we get our strokes from strumming the guitar, tapping our foot, and blowing on the harmonica. We equate accomplishment with flapping our wings, stirring up commotion, and making a lot of noise.

We can barely tolerate stillness. For many, silence doesn’t appear to be golden; it seems more like a dark space, lacking productivity that can yield nothing useful.

Undivided attention is a term that has fallen out of popular use. Generally, we feel guilty if we don’t multi-task! We contemplate our increasing workloads and responsibilities and how they are subject to continual shifts, and justify multi-tasking as a valid response to a world of flux.

Despite the temptation to do otherwise, focusing on the task at hand is vital to getting things done. Whether there’s a handful of tasks confronting you, or ideally only one, give all your time, attention, energy, focus, concentration, effort, and all that good stuff to the task at hand, and then turn to what’s next.

Over-employed, and Undesired

It’s likely that people have always sought to handle many things simultaneously, stretching as far back as cave dwellers. Their multi-tasking effort probably seemed crude by comparison. Someday, somewhere, someone may discover that we are hardwired to continuously attempt to economize our use of time.

Our age old “flight or fight” response to perceived stressors in the environment works well, at intermittent times. The small jolts of concentrated energy and vigilance helps us to safeguard ourselves, our loved ones, and our possessions.

As a species however, we are not wired to effectively handle continuous streams of two major stress hormones — adrenaline and cortisol — on a daily basis.

Bruce McEwen, Ph.D., director of the neuroendocrinology lab at Rockefeller University, observes that while we can apparently weather stresses and rapid hormonal changes in the short term, about 3 to 15 days, soon thereafter chronic stress begins to ensue.

The result is a weakened immune system, aggression, anxiety and a decrease in brain functioning which results in burnout. Dangerously high levels of cortisol can result in poor sleep patterns and insulin resistance, which can open the door to bad eating habits and weight gain.

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