Bitchin': The Sound and Fury of Rick James

Year 14, Day 176 - 6/25/22 - Movie #4,180

BEFORE: I've got to shift over into a different mode now - it's one where I keep meticulous track of who gets interviewed in these documentaries, and also who appears in the archive footage used, because I'm keeping totals for the year, and things can change very quickly once I get deep into the docs.  Dave Chappelle, and several others, carry over from "The One and Only Dick Gregory", and if a fair number of documentaries license footage of, say, Michael Jackson, he could easily rocket to the top of the list - remember that Nicolas Cage is in the lead for 2022, with 10 appearances, but anybody from Paul McCartney to Charles Manson could challenge that score, if news footage of them appears over and over. Talk-show hosts and news anchors also tend to pop up a lot, so keep an eye on Merv Griffin, Oprah Winfrey, even Dick Cavett - and footage of U.S. Presidents is often used to set the scene, so JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Reagan, they're all potential contenders.  

I'm notorious for submitting more IMDB credits after watching a documentary, trying to list all the appearances of famous people, and noticing that not everyone who appeared in the film got proper credit on that web-site.  Sometimes a documentary will forget an interview subject or two, and I try to correct that whenever I can.  It's an uphill battle because the IMDB review process sometimes doesn't believe me, but I take this sort of thing seriously, I wouldn't submit the missing credits if I wasn't SURE about them!  But what can I do, I'm just one man.  

There were thousands of ways to organize all of these documentaries, and still maintain the chain - but I chose this one, because it connected the maximum number of films (I think), and did so in the most logical way (umm, mostly...).  There were many ways to connect to this Rick James documentary, but I chose Dave Chappelle as the intro connection, because that's funny.  Yeah, I might have run through the doc a few months back with the sound turned off, just to confirm that Dave's in this film - he IS, even though the IMDB doesn't reflect his appearance, for some reason.  God knows, I tried.  

THE PLOT: A profile of legendary funk/R&B icon Rick James capturing the peaks and valleys of his storied career to reveal a complicated and rebellious soul, driven to share his talent with the world. 

AFTER: Full disclosure, I once "met" Rick James - way back in 1988.  I was an intern at a very small production company, a "mom & pop" shop sort of, one that was known for making music videos, which were very in fashion at the time.  The company had made a couple videos for the soundtrack of "Dirty Dancing" just before I signed on - and the very first shoot I ever worked on as a paid Production Assistant was a music video for Rick James, called "Wonderful". You can see it on the YouTube, it was almost a carbon copy of the much more famous "Super Freak" video - get four hot girls, put them in short skirts and low-cut tops, and have them dance around and interact with Rick James.  I mostly just followed the director as he moved with the camera and I kept him from tripping on the cord, if I remember correctly - and then, as now, I was instructed to not engage with the famous person. I sort of barely knew who Rick James was, or what he was about - I mean, I knew "Super Freak", everybody in the world knew that song. 

It's not that surprising to learn about the "other side" of Rick James - the drugs, the sex, the orgies - I think we all pretty much knew that was something of a way of life for him, even calling that the "other side" feels wrong, that WAS the main side.  But also, that was the 1980's and 1990's in a nutshell, there was so much of that going around back then.  The business was full of rumors about music videos or even features that had budgets where cocaine was a line item, in more ways than one...

Diving into the back-story of Rick James, it's not even surprising to find out that's not his real name - he was born James Ambrose Johnson Jr.  And WHY did he have to change his name?  Sure, Rick James just SOUNDS better, but the real reason is that he moved to Canada to avoid being drafted for Vietnam, and he lived there under several false names.  (He'd joined the reserves, which many young men did to avoid the draft, but then he failed to realize he still had to, you know, show up for duty, and when he didn't, the MPs came looking for him.). Eventually they caught up with him and he served a year in "the brig". 

It's not even surprising to learn that Rick James spent the next twenty years trying to become an "overnight success" - sometimes, that's just how long it takes.  He honed his songwriting craft at Motown, as part of a "wrecking crew" type on ensemble, writing songs or parts of songs for others, working out bass riffs as a studio musician, that's all great experience that got him ready for his own songs and albums when it was finally his turn for the spotlight. 

No, what's surprising is learning that during that time in Canada, he was part of the budding FOLK music scene, one that was similar to the ones taking place in New York City and San Francisco, the development of hippie music, folk slowly turning into folk-based rock.  He hung out with members of The Band, who stood up for him in a fight or two.  He was in a group called the Mynah Birds, with Neil Young and Bruce Palmer, who were later part of Buffalo Springfield.  He caught up with Neil Young and the other members of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young later on in San Francisco, where he took another stab at stardom - Rick's friend and traveling companion became the bassist for CSN&Y, but there was apparently no place for Rick there.  We associate Rick James so closely with funk, or "funk rock", it's so easy to overlook the years he spent working in folk music, then of course Motown R&B.  (There were so many line-up changes, people in and out of that band, I think the Mynah Birds band was really just the Canadian version of The Byrds...)

The Mynah Birds got SIGNED to Motown - yes, that's right, at one point a band with Neil Young in it was recording for Motown.  That's weird, too, but for the opposite reason. (I'm going to get to Neil Young a little later in this year's documentary line-up, I know logically this would seem to be a great time to cut to Neil, but I've got an alternative plan.  Don't worry, we're going to get there...). The Mynahs had a SEVEN-YEAR contract with Motown - the recordings they made got shelved and not released, but this documentary does play several of their songs from the Motown archives - and there's no denying it, that's Rick James on vocals, but without the signature musical sound he later became famous for.  If you can't watch the film - this is another great time to jump on YouTube and look up "It's My Time" by the Mynah Birds, and try not to think about how ironic the title of that song turned out to be.  

Eventually, Rick James went back to Buffalo and put the Stone City Band together, and then we get to 1981 and the "Street Songs" album, which included "Give It To Me Baby", and of course, "Super Freak".  That song is rock, funk, new wave and a bit of disco, and nobody, NOBODY was putting out raunchy lyrics like that - or maybe "suggestive" is a better word, because there's really nothing dirty about saying "she's a very kinky girl, the kind you don't bring home to mother..."  It's genius, because then everybody's brain is going to automatically jump to the dirtiest thing they can think of, and it's all just reading between the lines, really.  And then a decade later that song got sampled for M.C. Hammer's "U Can't Touch This", and history was made yet again.  

Then, the film has to cover James' legal troubles - there used to be a show on VH-1 called "Behind the Music", and I think every episode was required to feature the line, "Then, it all came crashing down..."  Drug addiction, and two separate charges of kidnapping and assault of women added up to three years in jail for Rick James, and then his health problems included a mid-concert stroke, and damages to his body from years of doing drugs.  He was essentially a walking PSA, a warning sign for what addiction can do to a human.  

There are many more random encounters, like a close call with Charles Manson's victims, touring (and competing) with upcoming artist Prince, and producing Eddie Murphy's hit "Party All the Time".  (Yes, Eddie Murphy had an album and a #2 song on the charts, that happened.). But mostly Rick James will be remembered for his larger-than-life lifestyle, the drugs and the sex, and that infamous sketch on Dave Chappelle's show.

Also starring Randall Bostick, Todd Boyd, Bootsy Collins (last seen in "Standing in the Shadows of Motown"), Kerry Gordy, Tanya Hijazi, Ice Cube (last seen in "The High Note"), Steven Ivory, Taz James, Ty James, Big Daddy Kane, Jason King, Rickman Mason, Tom McDermott, JoJo McDuffie, Syville Morgan, Donnell Rawlings, David Ritz, Nile Rodgers (last seen in "Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President"), Levi Ruffin Jr., Lisa Sarna, Roxanne Shanté, Carmen Sims, Charisma Stansell, Stan Weisman, 

with archive footage of Rick James, David Bowie (last seen in "Tina"), Grace Jones (ditto), Cyndi Lauper (ditto), Diana Ross (ditto), Stevie Wonder (ditto), George Clinton (last heard in "Trolls World Tour"), Stewart Copeland (last seen in "The Go-Go's"), Sting (ditto), Andy Summers (ditto), Don Cornelius (also carrying over from "The One and Only Dick Gregory"), Merv Griffin (ditto), Michael Jackson (ditto), Eddie Murphy (ditto), David Crosby (also last seen in "Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President"), John Denver (ditto), Graham Nash (ditto), Stephen Stills (ditto), Bo Diddley, Bob Dylan (last seen in "Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project"), Lionel Richie (ditto), Berry Gordy (last seen in "Hitsville: The Making of Motown"), M.C. Hammer, Levon Helm (last seen in "The Last Waltz"), Robbie Robertson (ditto), Jimi Hendrix (last seen in "Zappa"), Mick Jagger (last seen in "Freejack"), Ron Jeremy (last seen in "The Rules of Attraction"), Lyndon Johnson (last seen in "Irresistible"), Quincy Jones, Louis Jordan (also last seen in "Standing in the Shadows of Motown"), Don Kirshner, Charles Manson (last seen in "Manson Family Vacation"), Teena Marie, The Mary Jane Girls, Joni Mitchell (last seen in "Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice"), Neil Young (ditto), Thelonious Monk, Charlie Murphy, Bill O'Reilly (last seen in "The Accidental President"), Bruce Palmer, Bob Pittman, Prince, Lou Rawls (last seen in "Muscle Shoals"), Smokey Robinson (last seen in "The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart"), Michael Score, Gene Simmons (last seen in "The New Guy"), Sly Stone (last seen in "Woodstock: Three Days that Defined a Generation"), The Temptations, 

RATING: 6 out of 10 substances on the toxicology report

The One and Only Dick Gregory

Year 14, Day 175 - 6/24/22 - Movie #4,179

BEFORE: Kevin Hart carries over from "Fatherhood", and it's FINALLY here, both Summer and my documentary programming block.  This year I worked at DocFest when it came to the theater where I work part-time, so I made a mental note about the documentaries I wanted to see, then I added them to the list I already had, and I put together the best (I think...) possible chain from there, then I added a few more just for funsies.  It's going to take me the next month and a half to get through them all, so I'd better get started - the sooner I start, the greater the chance I can get to reviewing some summer blockbusters like "Jurassic World 8" and "Thor: Love and Thunder" before August is over.  Yes, there is a rough plan to work those films into the mix but I can't cover everything (sorry, Minions and "Bob's Burgers", you'll have to wait your turn...)

2018 was the year I really started hitting documentaries hard-core - and I covered nearly every rock group or pop star who had a doc made about them, and all of those films linked together, because of course they did.  I did some clean-up work in 2019 and 2020, but last year I had to split my docs into several smaller chains, that's just how the linking worked out.  Still, in 2021 I managed to review docs about Michelle Obama, John Lewis, the-former-president-who-shall-not-be-named, Walt Disney and Jim Carrey/Andy Kaufman in the first block, then Joan Jett, Frank Zappa, Divine, the Bee Gees, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Pavarotti, the Go-Go's, Jimmy Carter, Martin Luther King, and Tina Turner in the second.  There were also docs watched about Bill Murray, Steven Spielberg and Robert Klein, but it made more sense to work those in among the narrative films, I couldn't have made it to October without the connective tissue provided by that Robert Klein doc, aka Fred Willard.  

So far 2022 has been documentary-free, which means I'm raring to go - I'm starting this process a month or so ahead of when I usually do, but still, it seems like it took forever to get here. Think of this as a giant summer music and/or comedy festival, with other surprise guests, like politicians, actors chefs and more.  It's just a big summer event where I DON'T announce the acts ahead of time - but tickets are free, so you've got nothing to complain about.  Please, let's not let things get out of hand, visit the souvenir stand when you have a chance, and remember to stay hydrated, it's very important.  Now, let's welcome to the stage our opening act, he passed away in 2017 but he didn't let that stop him from being here tonight, comedian and activist - Dick Gregory!

THE PLOT: Chronicles the incredible life and times of legendary comedian and activist Dick Gregory. 

AFTER: For several reasons, one being my age and another being the giant career break that Mr. Gregory took in the 1960's, I've never heard much of the stand-up comedy performed by him.  He was a bit before my time, I discovered stand-up in the 1980's through the comedy albums of Steve Martin and other comics whose work was played on the Dr. Demento show, like George Carlin's "A Place For My Stuff", and then of course those became like my gateway drugs to other acts.  Dr. Demento played records, he was a big vinyl collector, and mostly he featured funny songs, but if a comic released an album, and did a routine on a theme that Dr. D liked, he'd drop some cuts into his program.  Back then you didn't "make it" as a comedian unless he featured you on his syndicated show.  

I don't remember him playing any Dick Gregory bits, but I sort of learned about Dick Gregory in the 1980's through his TV appearances - later on he was "that old guy" who would turn up on that Byron Allen stand-up show "Comics Unleashed", where Byron basically just lobbed a bunch of set-up fungoes to four comics for half an hour.  That show's been on late-night TV since 2006, and I think it's still going - the records on IMDB are very incomplete, which is a shame - that means there's no proof about how many episodes there really are, it could be more than "The Simpsons" and "Gunsmoke" combined, but sadly, we'll never know.  It seems that 2 am is the cut-off for relevant TV, with anything that airs after that, nobody gives a shit. 

But it turns out that Dick Gregory accomplished more in his lifetime than about any other random 5 people.  He lived to be 84, and if all that he'd done was break racial barriers in the realm of stand-up comedy, that would be something to be proud of.  And he did it by poking fun at bigotry and racism, and STILL being able to make people laugh.  He could have been as big as Richard Pryor, although now that I say that, I'm not sure, because Gregory's routines worked at a particular time in U.S. history, the late 1950's and early 1960's, and Pryor's material was targeted at the world of the 1970's and 1980's.  Who's to say Gregory still would have been popular, after paving the way for Pryor and Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle?  Maybe he would have burned out before then, maybe the world needed Richard Pryor to be Richard Pryor, and that might not have happened if Gregory stuck around?

It's a moot point, because after breaking through at nightclubs, and then appearing on shows hosted by Jack Paar and Merv Griffin, Dick Gregory was contacted by Medgar Evers, and got involved in the Civil Rights movement, beginning in 1963.  He criticized the MLK assassination, also the findings of the Warren Commission, and protested the Vietnam War by not eating solid food for close to two years.  Feminist rights, Native American rights, animal rights, he supported them all, plus spoke out against pollution, especially in black neighborhoods.  All of this was more important to him than being a stand-up comic, or perhaps he turned the energy needed to BE a comic into the work he did for those causes.  Again, if this was all that he accomplished, that would be a lot.

On top of all that, though, he was an advocate for health and nutrition - those non-violent fasting protests wouldn't have been possible without developing a juice-based nutrition plan, plus drinking a lot of water each day.  The now-standard "8 glasses of water per day" that is currently recommended by people all over the place?  Yeah, that was him, he popularized that AND he ran across the country, Forrest Gump-style, powered by nothing but juice and water.  People thought he was crazy, but nowadays there are vegetarians and vegans and many of those people play sports - meat's probably only good for sumo wrestlers and body-builders, runners can probably live on fruits, vegetables and pasta and do just fine.  Gregory himself lost about 200 pounds during his protest, and then maintained his health for another 52 years after becoming a vegetarian.

I remember when Dick Gregory made the news for coming to the aid of Walter Hudson, who for a time was the fattest man in the world. Hudson lived in Hempstead, Long Island and weighed over 1,200 pounds at one point - the world learned about him when he got stuck in a doorway in his home in 1987 and rescue workers took hours to free him. Mr. Gregory arrived on the scene and put Hudson on his juice-based diet, and he slimmed down to 520 pounds at one point.  But then Dick Gregory tried to convince him to step outside his house, which he had not done in 18 years, and found he couldn't do it.  At that point Dick Gregory stopped helping him, and Hudson died of a heart attack three years later weighing 600 pounds.  

Still, Gregory's expertise led to something called the "Bahamian diet" and he made some money selling weight-loss powdered shake mix, along with a diet plan that was intended to increase the health and life-span of African-Americans.  Gregory obviously meant well, and his efforts also combated malnutrition in Ethiopia, but at the same time, he made millions from the products and the licensing of his diet plan.  Well, he did have 11 kids to feed - he moved them to a farm in Plymouth, MA and reportedly had strong opinions about what they should and shouldn't eat.  No refined sugar, no sweet snacks, what kind of life is that for a kid?  I bet his kids couldn't wait until he went out to run across the country again...then they could eat whatever they wanted!  

So, based on what's in this documentary, Dick Gregory should be lauded for his work on the Civil Rights movement, breaking down racial barriers in comedy, and helping morbidly obese people lose weight safely.  But then he went down some paths and supported causes that I just can't get behind, like running (God, isn't life tiring ENOUGH?) and vegetarianism (I love my BBQ meats...) and diet programs (seriously, just shoot me already).  Maybe he was right, maybe nutrition science will someday catch up with Dick Gregory and say he was way ahead of his time - but nothing's going to change in this country as long as Big Farma (the meat industry) and the chocolate lobbyists have anything to say about it. 

NITPICK POINT: There's nothing in this documentary about Dick Gregory running for Mayor of Chicago or U.S. President as a write-in candidate, shouldn't that at least be worth mentioning?  Or his comedy album, his work on radio, his book...

Well, there you go, the Summer Rock & Doc Block is off and running - I think about 5 people interviewed or seen here are going to stick around for tomorrow's film, too, that's how strong the linking is this year.  It's a bit like Woodstock or Lollapalooza, once you get a day-pass you can stay in your seats and enjoy several acts in a row.  (But if you take a bathroom break, you'll lose your seat near the stage, sorry.). Join me tomorrow to find out who's next in the line-up, it's going to be a while before the our headliners show up!  

Also starring Dick Gregory (last seen in "The Leisure Seeker"), Harry Belafonte (last seen in "Da 5 Bloods"), W. Kamau Bell (last seen in "Sorry to Bother You"), Nick Cannon (last seen in "Shall We Dance?", Dave Chappelle (last seen in "A Star Is Born (2018)), Christian Gregory, Lillian Gregory, Steve Jaffe, Robert Lipsyte, Lawrence O'Donnell (last seen in "Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook"), Chris Rock (last seen in "On the Rocks"), Rob Schneider (last heard in "Norm of the North"), Wanda Sykes (last seen in "Breaking News in Yuba County"), Lena Waithe (last heard in "Onward")

with archive footage of Bud Abbott (last seen in "A Kiss Before Dying"), Lou Costello (ditto), Muhammad Ali (last seen in "Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President"), Ed Bradley (last seen in "Spielberg"), Don Cornelius, Bill Cosby (last seen in "Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project"), Martin Luther King (ditto), John Lennon (ditto), Yoko Ono (ditto), Walter Cronkite (last seen in "The Trial of the Chicago 7"), Phyllis Diller, Medgar Evers, David Frost (last seen in "The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart"), Judy Garland (last seen in "Capone"), Merv Griffin (last seen in "Robert Klein Still Can't Stop His Leg"), Jack Paar (ditto), Richard Pryor (ditto), Ed Sullivan (ditto), Arsenio Hall (last seen in "Zappa"), Hugh Hefner (last seen in "Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice"), J. Edgar Hoover (last seen in "MLK/FBI"), Michael Jackson (last seen in "13 Going on 30"), Jimmy Kimmel (last seen in "Down to You"), Mantan Moreland, Eddie Murphy (last seen in "Coming 2 America"), Nipsey Russell, Shirley Temple (last seen in "Walt: The Man Behind the Myth"

RATING: 7 out of 10 jokes about the Klan

Fatherhood

Year 14, Day 174 - 6/23/22 - Movie #4,178

BEFORE: The Summer Rock and Doc Block is ALMOST here, just one more narrative film and then we'll kick things off tomorrow, just in time for Friday and the weekend.  This was my back-up film for "Father's Day", in case I couldn't land "The Father" on the right day, but I did.  Now I could save this one for next year, but I don't want to wait that long, plus I'm not completely sure if I'll be able to link to it again.  I've got the linking in my favor right now, I have the opportunity so I'm going to just take it. 

Frankie Faison carries over from "Freejack". 

THE PLOT: A father raises his baby girl as a single dad after the unexpected death of his wife who died one day after their daughter's birth. 

AFTER: Yeah, this is a bummer of a film in many ways, it's about a man recovering from the death of his wife and trying to find the right methods of raising his young daughter, plus managing a job and a couple of friends, and eventually something akin to a social life.  Hey, it's not easy, if it were then anyone could do it, right?  Wait, maybe they can...

The extra wrinkle here is that Matt, the lead character, never really had a father figure, he was raised by a single mom - the explanation given is that his father had other children from other baby mamas.  Fortunately, this has just made Matt extra determined to give his daughter what he didn't have.  Those plans also included co-parenting with his wife, but a medical issue shortly after giving birth ruined those plans.  (Not really a spoiler, the film opens with Matt's wife's funeral...)

Matt's determined to stay in Boston and keep his job, rather than move back to Wisconsin and let his mother and in-laws help raise young Maddy.  I guess that's a good move?  Maybe there's no right or wrong here, people are going to do what they want to do, or what they need to do, or maybe what they have to do.  I don't know, I don't feel the need to have kids so I've never been in this situation. It sucks that Matt's wife died, but that's something that nobody really tells you about getting married, that there are no good ways for it to end, and it has to end at some point, if you think about it.  Being the one who's left rather than the one who dies sucks too, I guess it's better than dying but it probably doesn't feel like it? 

Still, the film presents more ups than downs, once Maddy is out of diapers and can carry on a conversation. Days in Boston Common, riding on the swan boats. Poker games and birthday parties, sleepovers (both the child and the adult kind) and sharing ice creams.  There are dust-ups and controversies at school, but most can be easily solved by Matt just driving away quickly and ignoring the problems - until there's an accident on the playground, and Matt has chosen that same day to sleep in with his new girlfriend, and this casts doubt on whether he's ready to date again and risk taking his eye off of his daughter.  But eventually the balance seems to be restored, and life's progress is made, and there's room in Matt's life for both a daughter and a girlfriend.  

You can tell that Kevin Hart REALLY wanted to work in some stand-up comic-like routines, like he's got this whole breakdown of what you find in kids' diapers.  New parents can probably relate, but it's all alien to me, thank God.  Dealing with difficult baby car seats, strollers that are hard to fold up, there's a lot for a comedian to work with here, but this isn't really a comedy, not first and foremost, anyway.  And Maddy raging against the dress-code machine at a parochial school is probably a battle that hundreds of trans and non-binary kids are waging across the country right now, best of luck to them, I guess.  If a girl doesn't want to wear a skirt or a boy does, who cares?  It really doesn't affect me in the slightest, so fight the powers that be, kids. 

Also starring Kevin Hart (last seen in "Death at a Funeral" (2010)), Melody Hurd, Alfre Woodard (last seen in "Miss Firecracker"), Lil Rel Howery (last seen in "Judas and the Black Messiah"), DeWanda Wise (last seen in "Precious"), Anthony Carrigan (last seen in "Bill & Ted Face the Music"), Paul Reiser (last seen in "Horse Girl"), Deborah Ayorinde (last seen in "Harriet"), Teneisha Collins, Thedra Porter, Holly Gauthier-Frankel (last seen in "On the Basis of Sex"), Julie Trépanier (ditto), Ellen David (last seen in "A Walk on the Moon"), Julian Casey, Anne Day-Jones (last seen in "The Hummingbird Project"), Maria Herrera (last seen in "Bad Santa 2"), Linda Joyce Nourse (ditto), Anthony Kavanagh, Puja Uppal, Marco Ledezma, Sorachny Tan, Achilles Montes-Vamvas, Alice Tran, Rachel Mutombo. 

RATING: 6 out of 10 ice cream flavors

Freejack

Year 14, Day 173 - 6/22/22 - Movie #4,177

BEFORE: I promise you, there's another Father's Day movie coming up tomorrow, before I kick off the Rock & Doc Block.  Today's film, which has ALSO been taking up space on my DVR for nearly two whole years, is necessary to connect "The Father" with another film about fathers. This will make more sense tomorrow, I hope.

But if I'm being completely honest, I could have transitioned into documentaries yesterday, by linking from Ann-Margret, there's footage of her in at least one documentary in the chain, maybe even two.  Or I could link to the documentary chain after today's film, that's an option because Mick Jagger is in this film, and I've learned that filmmakers really can't make a documentary film about rock music without archive footage of the Beatles or the Stones, usually both.  What I'm saying is, I had many options for how to get INTO the doc chain, and because this year's chain turned out to be a big circle (more or less) - meaning that I accidentally organized it so the last documentary linked back to the first - I was able to pick the starting point that made me the most happy, or made more sense from an OCD organizing point of view, which is essentially the same thing.  So, I made the choices that were MOST likely to put the film I wanted to watch on July 4 on July - because I could.  If there are other coincidences that come along, like if anybody makes an appearance on their birthday, either as a documentary subject, an interviewed person, or just appears through the use of archive footage, I'll try to make note of that. 

Anyway, I've got to get rid of this film, like "Magic" it looks terrible, so it probably is - but I recorded it, so now I have to own that.  Anthony Hopkins carries over again from "Magic".

THE PLOT: Bounty hunters from the future transport a doomed race car driver to New York City in 2009, where his mind will be replaced with that of a dead billionaire. 

AFTER: I'm afraid there's no way around this, the only way to do it is go through it, we must acknowledge that this film exists - it's much too late to turn back now.  A film released in 1992 that sends a man into the far-flung future of 2009, where the world is terribly polluted, the ozone layer is destroyed, climate change is real and the gap between the super-rich, the billionaires, the one-percenters, is greater than ever.  Millions are homeless or live in burnt-out buildings around New York City, uncontaminated food is rarely available, and most people are sick due to various toxins, drug use, radiation, overuse of plastics and of course, nuclear waste.  OK, so they weren't exactly WRONG, maybe they were just off a bit on the timetable - because all of this could STILL be the way we're all headed.  But let's reflect on the fact that at least 2009 wasn't as bad as people once thought it would be, and retroactively breathe a sigh of relief - it would be another decade before things got super out of control, right?  

Oh, but there's new technology, some of which came into being, even if most of it didn't.  Things look great for virtual reality and faked zoomed calls, which we do have now, or are just on the brink of having.  But then there's mind-wiping, or implanting one person's memories and consciousness into another's body (last seen in "Swan Song") and well, that's not a thing yet.  Same goes for time travel, or at least a form of it where people can reach back to a specific time and place and yank somebody into the future.  Obviously, this needs to be done at the moment just before death, to minimize the chances of affecting the timestream.  If you "jack" somebody who was likely to survive and have kids, then you've changed the timeline.

Right, but why do they need this race-car driver's body in the future?  Well, that's where they're going to put the dying billionaire's brain, duh.  I know, the next obvious question is, why can't they just use a young attractive, athletic person's body from 2009, so the billionaire can live on?  Well, they do answer that, it's because all the people in 2009 are so sick, thanks to that pollution and radiation and nuclear waste - so they HAVE to reach back to a cleaner, more simpler time to get a good body.  And this makes sense for about 30 seconds, until you realize that clean body with the old mind in it now has to live in 2009, so it will be polluted and sick itself in short order.  And we're back to this plot not making a bit of sense, where we should be.

A 17-year jump isn't really that much time, but essentially the whole world changed during that time, population growth being what it is, and after two terms of Reagan and then one of George Bush Sr. dismantling the EPA, the FDA and the Health and Human Services Dept., you can see why the future looked bleak when viewed through 1992's eyes.  Sure, we'll have lasers and people will be driving tiny, little energy-saving cars, but also the government agents will be hunting down mutants in the Forbidden Zone, which was formerly known as Brooklyn.

It was really smart casting Rene Russo as the racer's love interest, because she somehow managed to look 35 for about 20 years.  I mean, she can't pass for mid-30's NOW but she had a good long run.  Her character works for the mega-corporation that was involved in jacking her old dead boyfriend into the future, yet somehow, she's not aware of the plan.  She's very surprised to see him again, to the point where she doesn't believe that it's him - but she knows that the time travel tech exists, so what gives?  Since she knows that people are brought to the future to serve as host bodies, she naturally assumes that's not the Alex Furlong she knew, it must be someone else in his body.  Still, WHY IS THIS HER GO-TO?  Is it THAT hard to believe that a jacked body escaped before the procedure could be done?  They even have a word for that, they're "freejackers", so why can't she wrap her brain around this?

Her company, the McCandless Corporation, runs the "spiritual switchboard", where rich people's minds are kept in storage until proper new bodies can be found.  Umm, sure, is Walt Disney also kept on ice there?  Alex's only hope is to figure out who all the players are in this barter-for-bodies system, and hope that they hate each other more than they hate him. Because in a world of self-driving cars, who the hell needs race car drivers any more?  

NITPICK POINT: The medical techs in the future have to "revive" Alex after he's jacked into the future, which implies that he did die.  But if he died, it would have been from the car crash, which was a fiery explosion - he would have been horribly burned before dying, right?  But there's not a burn on him, just a few scratches.  So, which is it, did he die or did he not die?  Did they pull him into the future just before he died?  But then, if that's the case, why did they have to revive him?  It's not even a time-travel paradox, it's just a stupid situation that makes no sense, any way you try to explain it.

Also starring Emilio Estevez (last seen in "Bobby"), Mick Jagger (last seen in "I Am Divine"), Rene Russo (last seen in "Frank and Cindy"), Jonathan Banks (last seen in "Mudbound"), David Johansen (last seen in "Bad Reputation"), Amanda Plummer (last seen in "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire"), Grand L. Bush (last seen in "Streets of Fire"), Frankie Faison (last seen in "In Good Company"), John Shea (last seen in "Missing"), Esai Morales (last seen in "Fast Food Nation"), Wilbur Fitzgerald (last seen in "The Best of Enemies"), J. Don Ferguson (last seen in "I Know What You Did Last Summer"), Tom Barnes, Harsh Nayyar (last seen in "Desperately Seeking Susan"), Danny De La Paz, Johnny Popwell (last seen in "Deliverance"), Myrna White, with cameos from Jerry Hall, Mike Starr (last seen in "Zeroville").

RATING: 3 out of 10 broken champagne bottles

Magic

Year 14, Day 172 - 6/21/22 - Movie #4,176

BEFORE: It's the first day of summer, so that means two things - I've shaved off my mustache to keep my face cooler, and also, I'm just a couple days away from the start of my Summer Music (and Documentary) Concert series.  This practice began back in 2018 when I watched 52 rock concert films and documentaries in a row, and they all linked together.  The year may not have been "perfect", but the documentary chain was.  Since then I've done smaller chains, here and there, focusing on art, politics, actors and some of the rockers I missed that first time around - this year I've got 44 planned, but a couple of them MAY not be available on streaming, so I should probably double-check the whole list before I start watching, in case I need to re-arrange things a bit. 

Anthony Hopkins carries over again from "The Two Popes". "Magic" has been on my DVR for two whole damn years now, and I have not been able to fit it in to any of my October horror chains, and I'm planning this October's chain now, it looks like there's no slot for this AGAIN - so, enough is enough, that's just not going to happen, let me burn it off here and clear up some space on the old DVR.  

THE PLOT: A ventriloquist is at the mercy of his vicious dummy while he tries to renew a romance with his high school sweetheart. 

AFTER: We're going all the WAY back to 1978 for this one, and you must realize, it was a very different time.  The country was still recovering from the political scandals of a President who did illegal things to stay in power, Russia was planning to invade a country where it didn't belong, and America was being entertained by the adventures of a young Luke Skywalker and an older Obi-Wan Kenobi.  OK, so maybe things weren't THAT different...

We're introduced to a struggling magician named Corky, and he bombs with his card tricks on Amateur Night at a club.  But then, a year later, he's found a way to combine magic tricks with ventriloquism, and this proves to be a hit.  He finds he doesn't have to perform the tricks perfectly, because people are so distracted by the R-rated humor of the dummy, they don't care so much about the magic.  (Back then, there was no "America's Got Talent" to audition for, or this guy would have gone far...).  But a talent agent still discovers him, and soon he's on track to be the next Rich Little or Steve Martin.  (Umm, back then Steve Martin was a stand-up comic and novelty songwriter, not an actor.  But he played the banjo back then, as he does now.)

One big hitch, before giving Corky his first TV special, the network wants him to take a physical exam - standard stuff, except Corky won't agree to it.  Instead he takes off from the city and heads to upstate NY, where he grew up.  He rents a lake cabin from his old high-school girlfriend, and they pretend at first not to recognize each other. (Umm, awkward...). But before long they've reconnected, and he introduces her to his dummy, Fats.  

Before long, we start to realize why Corky wouldn't get the medical exam - because he's not right in the head. Really, the whole ventriloquism thing should have been a tip-off, right?  Hey, has anybody got eyes on Jeff Dunham?  It's OK to talk to yourself - but when it becomes a two-way conversation, then I think someone really need a "check-up from the neck up".  Look, the whole ventriloquism thing is weird enough, but when the dummy's in control and tells his handler to start killing people, we've got a big problem. 

The screenwriter here is William Goldman, who also wrote the screenplays for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", "The Stepford Wives", "All the President's Men", "Marathon Man", and "The Princess Bride".  But I wish he hadn't titled this film "Magic", because it's not really about magic tricks, it's mostly about ventriloquism, and those are two very different things.  Goldman seems to only have the most basic understanding of magic tricks, he knows what a card force is and the line "Was THIS your card?" and that's about it.  Couldn't he have researched a few more tricks?  

The film also never really picks a lane regarding what, exactly is going on here - this could be a case of mental illness, Dissociative Identity Disorder, which of course is also different from straight ventrilioquism.  Or the dummy could really be possessed, which would make this a true horror film - but I guess we'll never really know for sure.  I'd avoid all ventriloquists if I were you, just to be on the safe side. 

Also starring Ann-Margret (last seen in "Going in Style"), Burgess Meredith (last seen in "Second Chorus"), Ed Lauter (last seen in "Not Another Teen Movie"), E.J. André (last seen in "Papillon" (1973)), David Ogden Stiers (last seen in "The Cheap Detective"), Jerry Houser (last seen in "Slap Shot"), Lillian Randolph (last seen in "At the Circus"), Joe Lowry, Beverly Sanders, Robert Hackman (last seen in "Hooper"), Mary Munday, Scott Garrett, Brad Beesley, 

RATING: 4 out of 10 Bob Dylan wanna-bes

The Two Popes

Year 14, Day 171 - 6/20/22 - Movie #4,175

BEFORE: Anthony Hopkins carries over from "The Father" - to a film with some very different kind of "Fathers" - the Holy Fathers.  I showed this film to my parents, I think in mid-2020 during the pandemic, when I was able to start visiting them again, but I did not watch it with them, because it didn't fit into my linking schedule at the time.  Now it's one of the last films I showed them before they moved into their apartment at the elder-care facility.  Because it has so few name actors in it, it took me about TWO YEARS to link to it - really, the only place I could put this was between two other films with Anthony Hopkins, or link to Jonathan Pryce, which I can't do right now.  So it's sandwiched in here to clear it off my list.  

I was talking about religion yesterday when I was talking about my Dad, he served as a Catholic deacon for over 40 years, part of the first class of deacons in the Boston diocese, who came out of the seminary in 1976, I think.  So yeah, my parents really dug this one, but they're big on the Pope - me, not so much.

THE PLOT: Behind Vatican walls, the conservative Pope Benedict XVI and the liberal future Pope Francis must find common ground to forge a new path for the Catholic Church.  

AFTER: Hey, remember that crazy time in 2013, when the Pope QUIT?  And we all thought, wait, is that something that a Pope can DO?  Like the Supreme Court, the appointment of a pope is intended as a lifetime position - meaning that, usually, there's only one way out.  But we've had Supreme Court justices retire for health reasons, or just because they're plain old - and people are living longer these days, so we should try to understand.  Sandra Day O'Connor retired from the court in 2005, and she's still alive at 92 - but even if she's your favorite first woman justice, do we want a 92-year old person on the Supreme Court?  Jeez, let the woman rest already, she earned it.  David Souter also stepped down in 2009 at the age of 70 and then Anthony Kennedy retired in 2018 at the age of 82.  By contrast, Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September 2020 and she was so tough that I think she still shows up, but it's just to work out at the court's gym.  

Pope Benedict XVI - or Pope Benny (formerly Cardinal Ratzinger, aka Joey Ratz or "Ratzi the Nazi") - had medical reasons to retire, sure.  He was past the typical age of retirement for cardinals (75) when he was elected Pope in 2005 - then he was diagnosed with a heart condition, then had a stroke which made him half-blind.  But as of this writing (barring any late-breaking news from last night) he's still alive at 95, and he's the oldest person to have ever held the office of Pope. He would have been the oldest SERVING Pope if he hadn't stepped down when he did.  Jesus, somebody set him up with Queen Elizabeth - JK. Seriously, though, Ratzi celebrated his Platinum Anniversary last year - that's 70 years as a priest.  

Pope Benny is still around - he first moved to what used to be called the Pope's "summer home", which as you might expect, is nicer than the main residences of 99% of humans.  Castel Gandolfo is the secondary Papal Palace, on a 135-acre garden estate - so, nice gig.  But he only lived there until the work was completed on his retirement villa, at the Mater Ecclesiaste Monastery in the Vatican Gardens near St. Peter's.  Another big garden, and it's a place that used to house 12 nuns - I wonder if they stayed on as his "harem".  Again, nice gig.

The film starts with Benedict's election (the process is complicated, it involves the Cardinald writing names on pieces of paper, as in "Survivor", and then for some reason little wooden bingo balls are also involved.  Then they string the names together with a needle and thread for some reason, and they burn the votes.  Like the Electoral College, a majority is needed, 77 in this case, and if no candidate has enough votes, then they vote again.  The votes burn black each time there's no winner, then white smoke is released when the new Pope is chosen.  Seriously, it's a wonder that this wasn't turned into some kind of reality show the last time it happened. 

And then, during Benny's term as Pope, something happens, and they don't really say what it is in the film, but it's got something to do with the priest scandals, you know what I'm talking about here. Benedict didn't believe in prosecuting the pedophile priests, he favored moving them around to other parishes, hoping against hope that they'd behave after the move, and, well, they didn't.  The church was losing money after all the lawsuits, and Benny's time as Pope was tainted by the public accusations of the cover-ups.  So, what to do?  So he called up the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, who wanted very badly to resign, having had some issues of his own with the church, but also he was the man who came in second in the last Pope-lection, so perhaps Benny was thinking that this man should have won, and then things might have gone different for him, and for the Church.

And so the soon-to-be ex-pope met with the future pope, and they realized that they represent two very different points of view - one of them is conservative, and the other one is SUPER-conservative.  HINT: The German one is the stubborn, more conservative of the two, also like many Germans he turns out to have zero sense of humor - but Jorge Bergolio, on the other hand, is a super-fun, super-likeable guy and if the worst thing you can say about him is that he favored giving communion to divorced people and gay people, well, come on, either we're all God's children or we're not, right?  Bergolio was also engaged once when he was young, as we see in the flashbacks, so that's different, too, we now have a Pope who we think probably had sex before, and with a woman, to boot. So that's different. 

Bergolio got driven by limo to the Pope's summer estate, and got a taste of the good life, probably realizing that being Pope is a pretty sweet deal.  The two of them discussed matters concerning the future of the Church, then took a helicopter back to the Vatican.  Again, pretty flippin' sweet. Then there are more flashbacks that are pretty much a puff piece, to persuade any remaining members of Team Benedict to switch over to Team Francis.  The two men confessed their sins to each other and absolved each other, which seems awfully convenient, before Ratzi mentioned that he wanted to resign, and for some reason, Bergolio tried to talk him out of it.  Dude, what are you DOING?  This all could be YOURS, man, the summer estate and the helicopter and you get to see the Sistine Chapel any time you WANT!  

Bergolio didn't want to become Pope, but really, isn't that exactly the kind of man that SHOULD become Pope?  We here in the United States could learn a lot from this, especially with the midterm elections coming up.  This may sound a bit crazy, but I do believe that anybody who WANTS the job of congressman or President should be automatically discounted.  If you think about it, we're not currently electing the most qualified candidates, we're electing the ones that look better on TV, or pay for the better ads, and therefore we're just getting rich people elected, not qualified ones.  Even if you took the money out of the equation, all of it - the PAC money, the lobbyist money, the bribe - sorry "contribution" - money, and their own personal pre-election wealth - if all things were equal, which they aren't, then we'd still be electing the most ambitious candidates instead of the most qualified ones.  So therefore, anybody who WANTS the office shouldn't get it - we really should find a way to determine who the most qualified candidates are, and then vote them into office without telling them.  These people, ideally, would be smart enough to do the job, smart enough to know that it's not a great or profitable job, but a public service job, and also smart enough to know that once elected by surprise, it would be both their civic duty to hold the office and their responsibility to do a good job.  

A year after Pope Benny's meeting with Jorge from Argentina, he announced his resignation, and Jorge got the most votes, becoming Pope Francis. If all the debate over religious dogma and practice is too much for you - I know it was for me - at least tune in for the closing credits, which feature clips of the two lead actors, in character as the two popes, watching a soccer game together - and it's the World Cup final, between the teams from their home countries, Germany vs. Argentina.  Like several films I could mention that I've watched lately - *cough* "Eternals" *cough*, the mid-credits scene is the absolute best part of the whole film, hands down.

Oddly, my last three films all share something in common - they all have more than one actor playing the same adult role.  In "The Lost Daughter", Jessie Buckley played the younger version of Olivia Colman's character, and in "The Father", two actresses played Anthony's daughter at different times in the film.  Here one actor played the future Pope Francis, and another played him in the flashbacks.  This is not extremely common in films, so it's an odd coincidence that I don't know what to do with. 

I think there was a missed opportunity here, instead of just a film on Netflix, this could have been a whole series, like a sit-com.  Just imagine the opening narration: "On February 11, Joseph Ratzinger was asked to remove himself from the office of Pontiff - that request came from the man above. Deep down, he knew God was right. With nowhere else to go, he appeared at the papal residence of his friend, Jorge Bergoglio - several years earlier, Jorge had ALSO wanted to resign from the church. Can an ex-pope and a current Pope share a Vatican City apartment, without driving each other crazy?"  Oh, yes, and I would title that show "The God Couple".  

Also starring Jonathan Pryce (last seen in "Carrington"), Juan Minujin (last seen in "Focus"), Luis Gnecco, Sidney Cole, Lisandro Fiks, Maria Ucedo, Willie Jonah (last seen in "The Iron Lady"), Thomas D Williams, Achille Brugnini, Federico Torre, German de Silva, Libero De Rienzo, Joselo Bella, with archive footage of Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis, Diane Sawyer (last seen in "Robert Klein Still Can't Stop His Leg". 

RATING: 5 out of 10 slices of Vatican City pizza (it's sacre-licious!)

The Father

Year 14, Day 170 - 6/19/22 - Movie #4,174

BEFORE: OK, last day of the Tribeca Film Festival, which means a 12-hour shift, including a pack-up and load-out, then a reset of the theater back to normal. I worked all weekend, but got off at 4 pm on Saturday, so I'd be fresh and awake for Sunday morning.  But then I had to spend the rest of Saturday catching up on TV shows, or else my TV DVR is going to get filled up.  Bottom line, I'm exhausted, but I'm not going to get a break until July, when the theater's closed for a month due to repairs. I know I should be looking for another part-time job to fill up my month, but honestly what seems really appealing is the notion of filing for partial unemployment for the month, and just catching up on sleep, because I'm way behind. 

Olivia Colman carries over from "The Lost Daughter". 

THE PLOT: A man refuses all assistance from his daughter as he ages. As he tries to make sense of his changing circumstances, he begins to doubt his loved ones, his own mind and even the fabric of his reality. 

AFTER: Normally I would issue a SPOILER ALERT here, to keep people who have not seen this film from learning what happens in it - however, since I'm not really sure what, exactly, was happening here, perhaps it's not necessary.  Just in case, if you haven't seen this film, and you don't want to learn what may or may not have been taking place here, then please, turn back now. 

If you're still with me, this is a film that is constantly changing - certain actors appear several times, under different names, and any facts that are established in the life or the surroundings of the lead character are to be taken with a grain of salt, because they may all change later on.  The goal, I believe, is to represent the mind-set of a man with dementia, because his memory has become unreliable, and thus the audience is put in a position similar to his, anything we think we know or remember from before is suspect. I see where they were going with this, however I think there's a big difference between forgetting things and mis-remembering them.  One is the absence of a memory that was there before, while the other is substituting new, false information in place of what's missing, and I'm not sure that's how dementia works.  Is it?

When we first see the old man, Anthony, his daughter, Anne, is visiting him in his apartment, and she's telling him that she's planning to move to Paris because she met a man, and she will visit him on weekends, but if he keeps acting up with his caregivers, then he'll need to move to a nursing home. This confuses Anthony a bit because he couldn't remember his daughter being in a relationship since her divorce from James, years ago.  

The next day, Anthony encounters an unfamiliar man in his apartment, who claims that he's Paul, Anne's husband, and Anthony lives in HIS apartment, not the other way around. Nearly everything in this encounter contradicts what was learned in the previous one, and then when Paul calls Anne to resolve the situation, she shows up, but she's a different woman.  

The next day, Anthony gets a new caregiver, who he says reminds him of his other daughter, Lucy, who he hasn't seen for a long time. The caregiver mentions Lucy's accident, which Anthony has no recollection of.  Then Anne comes home (played by the first actress again) and has an argument with her husband (played by a second actor) and this pattern pretty much continues for the rest of the film.  Anthony wakes up one time and walks down a hospital hallway, and later wakes up in a completely different bedroom, in a nursing home.  His nurse is played by the second actress who played his daughter, so WTF is really going on here? 

Well, there are a couple of possibilities here, but I'm probably over-complicating things.  The simplest answer is that only one of these realities is genuine, and the rest are comprised of incorrect information inside Anthony's head.  Perhaps his broken brain substituted his nurse's face for his daughters, or vice versa. Perhaps he can't recall whether his daughter's husband is Paul or James, and this is symbolized by the two names the character uses.  

Other possibilities: A) Parts of the film are a dream, or the whole film is a dream.  Many times I've dreamed about being in my parents house, or previous apartments, or living with my ex-wife, this might be very common. B) This could be a "Billy Pilgrim"-like situation, from the Kurt Vonnegut novel "Slaughterhouse Five", where Billy had become unstuck in time, and was experiencing the events of his life in a random order. How do any of us really know that one day comes after another, that we're living our lives in a linear fashion? Notice that every time Anthony finds himself in a different situation, it's right after waking up. Have you ever woken up and had to remind yourself what day, or week or year it is? C) This is just a movie showing us all these key events in Anthony's life, just not edited in a proper linear fashion.  Perhaps ALL of the information depicted is correct, just at different times.  or D) Perhaps Anthony has found a way to access the Multiverse, or the Anthony-Verse, and each time he wakes up, it's in the body of a different version of himself, from another dimension.  

My debate is whether this format is dirty pool, a form of "cheating" at scriptwriting because it's meant to confuse us, and at the same time it takes advantage of the fact that you CAN show a constantly shifting reality in a film, dates and times and names don't HAVE to be constants, but then, the follow-up observation is, even though you CAN mess with the laws of time and space in a film, it may not necessarily mean that you SHOULD.  Quite ironically, or perhaps appropriately, I was so tired while watching this that I kept falling asleep, and the effect when you fall asleep during a movie, then wake up and try to figure out what's going on and what you've missed, is (almost) exactly like what the lead character went through, each time he woke up - so I kind of got a double-dose, or an intensified effect here. 

And now, let's get personal, because my father is, like the main character here (maybe?) living in a home for elderly people - my mother's the one with dementia, though, and it's not getting any easier to have a rational conversation with her. My father still seems to have his wits about him, but since they moved to the new apartment in the facility, he's been focused on taking care of her, and sometimes neglecting his own needs in favor of hers.  My sister's been trying to impress upon him that he has to take care of himself first, in order to take care of her - if that means taking naps so he doesn't wear himself down, then that's what he has to do.  

I've spent a lot of years trying to not become my father - who worked for decades as a truck driver and spent most of his spare time working for the Catholic Church.  Since I broke my ties with the church long ago, and I avoided going into trucking myself, I basically spent a lot of years making sure I didn't turn into my father, personally or professionally.  He's really the kindest, most generous man I know, however he's also been known to exhibit an appalling lack of patience followed by fits of rage, and that's the part of him that I don't want to develop in myself.  But in the areas of home ownership and equipment repair, I've probably learned more from him than I'd care to admit.  In the past year I've gotten back into working in movie theaters, now managing one, and I can't help but think that my job now, opening and closing the theater, is a lot like the time he's spent opening and closing a church, running the services and maintaining the building. So I've circled back to following in his footsteps, in a way, except this time, I'm kind of OK with it.  This would mean that movies are basically my religion right now, and I'm kind of OK with that, too.

So, Happy Father's Day, Joe, and to all the fathers out there, of every age and every degree of mental capacity. But I'm afraid that history will remember the Academy Awards given out in 2021 for the following - in the Best Actor category, it was the most racially diverse group ever nominated, and Chadwick Boseman was expected to win posthumously, perhaps should have won, but the award went, once again, to the old white guy.  It's not for me to judge whether that was right or wrong, because I've only seen three out of the five nominated performances in that category. But out of the 8 Best Picture nominees for 2020, I've now seen 6 of them, having watched this one, "Mank" and "Judas and the Black Messiah" this month. (Just "Minari" and "Sound of Metal" to go...)

Also starring Anthony Hopkins (last seen in "Spielberg"), Rufus Sewell (last seen in "Carrington"), Imogen Poots (last seen in "French Exit"), Olivia Williams (last seen in "An Education"), Mark Gatiss (last seen in "Locked Down"), Ayesha Dharker, Evie Wray (last seen in "Cruella"). 

RATING: 5 out of 10 false accusations