It has been a dreary film season

Morning briefing - The Movies

Sunday, February 28, 2021

Ultimately, I believe one of the legacies of the pandemic will be a pretty dreary year for movies.

I’ve seen eight of the 10 nominated movies for the Golden Globes. In drama, the two that stood out were “Mank” (about the making of Citizen Kane) and “The Trial of the Chicago 7” (a courtroom drama written by Aaron Sorkin.

I watched “Nomadland” last night and it is a sad indictment of our country’s failure to take care of the people who fall through the cracks. It’s an important movie, but also a bit dreary. There is one scene where an elderly woman explains how she checked her Social Security benefits only to find out she would be getting about $500 a month. I have a feeling there are many seniors who have experienced this.

The film version of the musical “Hamilton” is also nominated in the musical or comedy category, but that isn’t even fair. I did watch that at least three times on TV.

The other movie I really liked was “One Night in Miami,” the fictionalized account of when Cassius Clay, Malcolm X, football player Jim Brown and singer Sam Cookie Spent the night together after Clay - soon to be Muhammad Ali - won the heavyweight title from Sonny Liston. The director, Regina King, was nominated for a Golden Globe.

The movie that moved me the most was “I care a lot,” a story about an unscrupulous lawyer (Rosamund Pike) swindling senior citizens out of their life savings by legally declaring them incompetent to take care of themselves. I can’t remember the last time I rooted so hard for the villain to come to a horrible end.  

Another movie that stayed with me was “Hillbilly Elegy,” a powerful story of addiction in rural America.

Most telling is that the “Borat” was nominated along with its too stars. I think Sacha  Baron Cohen’s films are refreshingly outrageous, but not necessarily worthy of awards.

The best thing is that almost all the movies are streaming online.

Bush Quote

I finished up Jon Meacham’s biography of George H.W. Bush Saturday. It was one of those rare books that changed my opinion of the former president. He was truly a president that often chose country over party. Yeah, he raised taxes, but that led to an economic boom after he left office.

When the Iron Curtain fell in Europe, It was Bush who successfully handled the post-Cold War transition and provided stability in world affairs.

I was especially struck by this quote about President Bush:

“As a good a measure of a president as I know is somebody who ultimately puts the country first, and it strikes me that throughout his life he did that, both before he was president and while he was president and ever since.”

Barack Obama said that.

Happy Birthday

I wanted to wish my cousin Gail Catlin a happy birthday today. She was born on Feb. 29 and you never know when to wish her a happy birthday. The better news, is she has only 16.