BEFORE: It's an easy link today, both Barack and Michelle Obama carry over from "All In: The Fight for Democracy". Once I had the list of political docs I wanted to see, there were probably a hundred different ways to organize them, because the same people keep popping up, again and again - but I was limited to those connections visible through IMDB, which are notoriously incomplete and therefore unreliable. (I'm working to fix that, but these things take time...)
So the week will basically start with Mike Pence and end with Donald Trump, with a lot of other people in-between. Me keeping track is sort of a full-time job right now, but it's got to be done, or else the chain could break, and my efforts will be for naught. This is the harder documentary chain for me, the one planned for July is already set and looks pretty solid, yet it's also somewhat flexible, I keep finding new docs to add to it, and so far most of them have fit in without disturbing the chain much - hopefully HBO Max and Netflix will keep those docs available through summer time.
It feels a bit like I'm taking a step back tonight by focusing on the Obamas - why didn't I do this back during Barack's term in office? Did they not make any good documentaries about him, or was I just not into watching docs at that time? I'm guessing it's the latter. Anyway, I'm not really going back in time, because this film was released in 2020, and is all about the former First Lady's book tour in 2019.
Let's check in with TCM's "31 Days of Oscar" schedule for tomorrow, Wednesday, April 21:
6:00 am "A Patch of Blue" (1965)
8:00 am "Penny Serenade" (1941) - SEEN IT
10:15 am "The Perils of Pauline" (1947)
12:00 pm "Period of Adjustment" (1962)
2:00 pm "Pete Kelly's Blues" (1955)
4:00 pm "The Philadelphia Story" (1949) - SEEN IT
6:00 pm "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1945)
8:00 pm "Pillow Talk" (1959) - SEEN IT
10:00 pm "The Pirate" (1948)
12:00 am "Places in the Heart" (1984)
2:00 am "Poltergeist" (1982) - SEEN IT
4:15 am "Possessed" (1947)
I've seen another four out of 12, but only two of them were reviewed here on this blog - I saw "Poltergeist" in a movie theater in 1982, thinking it would be the next "E.T.", and it scared the crap out of me, didn't sleep well for a week. Also, sometime in my pre-teen years I saw "Pillow Talk" on TV, with Rock Hudson and Doris Day - that ALSO scared the crap out of me, and I didn't sleep well for a week, but I'm thinking that was for different reasons. JK. Anyway, I'm now at 100 seen out of 243, which is just over 41%.
THE PLOT: An intimate documentary looking at former first lady Michelle Obama's life, hopes and connection with others during her 2019 book tour for "Becoming".
AFTER: I'll be the first to admit it, it's been a tough year. Forget that, it's been a tough FOUR years, and you know why. So today it was really nice to look back at a much simpler time, a happier time, eight years where we had a competent President, and an empathetic First Lady. Unlike others I could mention (who "didn't really care", by her own admission) we had a Commander-in-Chief who spent the majority of his time playing on the golf course and eating fast food, and accomplishing absolutely nothing - go ahead, name ONE positive thing that came about during 2016-2020, I dare you. Don't worry, I'll be backing up this claim with a couple docs later this week, which I can easily assume will prove my point.
Remember Michelle Obama, though? How she not only listened to people's concerns, but also cared about what they had to say? How she authorized growing vegetables in the White House Garden, like "America's Mom" or something? Leading by example, speaking out on causes that meant something to her, and not decorating the White House with blood-red horror trees during Christmas time. It's like she was a real person, one of us, and not some fakey-fake model from Eastern Europe who was proud to just be a trophy wife. (Seriously, how do you take a stand against immigrants after marrying one? Just saying.) Her causes were poverty awareness, education, women's rights, LGBT rights, physical activity and nutrition, and what did Melania have? "Be Best"? Give me a break, it's not even close. In 2020 Michelle Obama still topped the Gallup poll of most admired women in America, because women know what's up.
This documentary followed her around on her 2019 book tour, where she sold out stadiums (!!) instead of just appearing in bookstores. Her replies to questions from a host of famous moderators are spliced together here, so it seems like she probably answered the same questions in each city, and the only detriment to the editing used here is that Michelle's outfit sometimes changes mid-question in order to produce the proper sequence of answers for the doc. Deal with it, I guess. (Sure, she COULD have worn the same outfit in each city, but my guess is that the wardrobe department and the continuity department were just not on the same page, they had very different concerns.)
There's no question that the former First Lady is the poster child for achieving balance in one's life, it's just too bad that she had to put her legal career on hold just to be a better mother and wife. (We STILL can't make it easy for women, in general, to figure this out, after all this time?) This problem reared its ugly head again during the pandemic, when suddenly parents had to balance working from home with their kids' remote learning, and probably something had to give, somewhere, again and again. And I wonder why the questions that teens ask Michelle Obama are still about achieving this balance, and becoming like her, instead of just wanting to become more like themselves. It's YOUR road, Ms. Obama tells them, you've got to figure that all out for yourselves - she did it in a much nicer way than I could, obviously. But essentially, why are girls still asking how they can marry a President, rather than asking how they can BECOME President? (Look, I love the fact that Biden's in charge now, but he's no spring chicken, I have a hunch that we'll have a female President sooner than anyone thinks...)
But more than anything, this flashback to book tours and the before-times ended up being like a nice warm hug, and some small assurance that just maybe, everything's going to be (close to) OK. Eventually.
Also starring Craig Robinson (not that one, Michelle Obama's brother), Marian Shields Robinson, Sasha Obama, Malia Obama, Kelly Robinson, Elizabeth Alexander, Stephen Colbert (last seen in "Fyre Fraud"), Valerie Jarrett, Gayle King (last seen in "The Boss"), Michele Norris, Conan O'Brien (last seen in "Fyre"), Phoebe Robinson, Tracee Ellis Ross, Oprah Winfrey (also carrying over from "All In: The Fight for Democracy"), Melissa Winter, Reese Witherspoon (last seen in "Home Again")
with archive footage of Jill Biden, Joe Biden (last seen in "Bombshell"), Bill O'Reilly (ditto), Jesse Jackson (also carrying over from "All In: The Fight for Democracy"), Juan Williams.
RATING: 6 out of 10 Secret Service agents
No comments:
Post a Comment