Category: Movies Page 51 of 57

Connie has been reviewing film uninterruptedly since 1970 (47 years) and routinely covers the Chicago International Film Festival (14 years), SXSW, the Austin Film Festival, and others, sharing detailed looks in advance at upcoming entertainment. She has taught a class on film and is the author of the book “Training the Teacher As A Champion; From The Godfather to Apocalypse Now, published by the Merry Blacksmith Press of Rhode Island.

Mitt Romney spoke with “Time” magazine’s Rick Stengel and Michael Crowley in an interview on August 21st (September 3, 2012) and said, “I will not waste a campaign attacking him (President Obama) as an individual.”

Imagine my surprise, then, to see the movie “2016: Obama’s America,” supposedly a documentary (I use the term loosely), which was playing at my local Cineplex and rated a big notice in our right-leaning newspaper (The Small family which owns the paper, in decades past, contributed the most corrupt Republican Governor in Illinois history, eclipsing even the recent Rod Blagojovic).

Written by an Indian intellectual (Dinesh D’Souza) who is the president of New York City’s Kings’ College and produced by the semi-retired Gerald R. Molen, who divides his time between Montana and Las Vegas now, but once produced movies for Spielberg (and others) such as “Rain Man,” “Days of Thunder,” “Hook,” “Schindler’s List,” “Jurassic Park,” “Twister” and “Minority Report,” Molen is an ardent member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He was once denied the opportunity to address high school students in his hometown because the principal of the school pronounced him to be “a right wing conservative” zealot.

That label goes double for D’Souza, who has written many books, served in Reagan’s White House, and had no less an authority than the “Washington Post” (5/1/2010) pronounce his book about 9/11 “The worst nonfiction book about terrorism published by a major house since 9/11.” (Whose fault was 9/11 according to Dinesh D’Souza? Why, liberals, of course! The “New York Times” in reviewing the book called it “a national disgrace.”)

So, how’s the movie/”documentary”?

Well, it’s about what you’d expect from this darling of shows like Hannity & Colmes on Fox News or Glenn Beck’s program. D’Souza has debated other intellectuals (among them the late Christopher Hitchens at Notre Dame) and admitted at the end of an appearance on Stephen Colbert’s “The Colbert Report” that he shares some of the same negative beliefs about liberal Americans as Islamic militants.

The film is a real hatchet job.

For instance, a segment is produced claiming to be an interview with a member of Obama’s distantly related relatives in Kenya (Sarah Obama), but the voice is that of Onekie Smallwood. You actually feel sorry for Obama’s distant relatives (his father was much-married and fathered many children by at least three different women, one of them, son George, not born until 6 months after his death). They obviously didn’t know what D’Souza was really up to when they spoke with the man.
What D’Souza was really up to was to try to use fear (cue the spooky music) and the Karl Rove-generated fear tactics used to elect “W” (“Love him or hate him, you don’t know him”—which can more accurately be claimed of their Republican nominee) technique that drove us into 2 disastrous wars under George W. Bush. This “make up any falsehood/ tell any lie” technique is used to blacken the reputation of the sitting president, who has been kept from helping the country pull out of the mess “W” left us in by what is dubbed “The Party of No” in another of the articles in this issue of “Time.”

As Mitch McConnell, the architect of this obstructionist tactic that would sacrifice the national interest of the United States at the altar of partisan politics designed the Republican tactic, “He wanted everyone to hold the fort. All he cared about was making sure Obama could never have a clean victory. (The words of Ohio Senator George Volnovich in the article, who further said, “If Obama was for it, we had to be against it”, p. 44, “Time,” September 3, 2012).

So, exactly what is D’Souza—whose reputation for fair play is not high—-up to with this “documentary”? (I use the term loosely.)With sweeping shots of Lady Liberty in New York City, D’Souza contrasts that with a journey to the most squalid places and people on earth, it would seem, dwelling on Obama’s trip to Kenya and trying to make the case that Obama “wears a mask” and making a big deal over Obama’s returning a bust of Winston Churchill to Great Britain.

D’Souza would have naive viewers believe it was some sort of repudiation of Churchill, when the reality, checked out by “New York Times” reporter Jake Tapper, is that there are TWO busts of Churchill. One was loaned to “W” as a show of solidarity after 9/11 and was scheduled to be returned before Obama was even elected. However, there is a second bust of Churchill still on the premises. Read about it here
Is the Churchill Bust Controversy a Total Bust? – ABC News abcnews.go.com/…/is-the-churchill-bust-controversy-a-total in an article written on July 27, 2012. There were at least 2 additional articles concerning this tempest-in-a-teapot, and it turned out that there were TWO busts of Churchill, one of which was returned, as previously scheduled, and one of which remains.

But is this really the most important issue this country faces in this day and age? [I didn’t think so.]

George Obama: Half-Brother of Barack Obama

D’Souza seems to think so, as he claims returning the statue shows that President Obama thought colonial countries who settled in far-flung empires like Indonesia or D’Souza’s native India, were simply there for the loot and that he is, therefore, “anti-colonial.” In an interview with Obama’s half-brother several times removed (a man over 21 named George), the obviously intelligent Kenya native expressed his opinion that colonialism was not responsible for Kenya’s bad luck, and that “Maybe if we’d let the whites stay a little while longer” the country would have done better, economically-speaking. George also expressed the opinion that he was “over age” and, when asked if Barack Obama should be helping support him, said, “Go ask him. I think he has a family of his own.” This remark was then shown with side-by-side shots of the White House and the hovel in which young George, [the half-brother who was born 6 months after their mutual father was killed in a car accident], now lives. The message for viewers was quite blatant: Obama doesn’t care about his own family members. D’Souza even made a reference to the Biblical story of Cain and Able. It’s ironic, considering that all articles on the Romney/Ryan ticket suggest (see “Time,” page 40) that the Republican duo’s “budget math is coldhearted towards the poor and the elderly.” It’s no News Flash that Paul Ryan is not Medicare’s friend.

DRINKING:

There were also repeated references to excessive drinking by Obama’s birth father and by Obama’s Indonesian stepfather Lolo Soltoro. (“We drank with him”). More tribal music. More shots of squalor. Cue to old guy with bad teeth (Kogelio Oto). Kogelia tells us he had been drinking with Obama’s father “until 1:30 p.m.” before the senior Obama was killed in an auto accident on November 24, 1982. The narrator even works in lines like, “This father (Soltoro) is an abusive alcoholic. He kills a man in a car accident” and distorts the statements of a former professor of Stanley Ann Dunham’s (stressing that the couple met “in Russian class”). I felt sorry for Dr. Alice Dewey, Professor Emeritus of Hawaii, who obviously was “conned” into making statements that are twisted and misconstrued; it was like a bad version of “Borat.”

So, one message that the movie underhandedly attempts to convey is:

1) Obama doesn’t care about his relatives. Does anybody really believe this? And does anybody really believe he owes a family half a world away, whose relationship to him is tenuous at best (different mothers, never knew each other growing up, etc.) support and assistance when even the young man who is his half-brother says differently?

COLONIALISM:

2) Another message from D’Souza: “Colonialism was good.” (D’Souza is the author of an article with the title “Two Cheers for Colonialism”). We could debate this one for a long time. There certainly is a case to be made for some good things that came out of colonialism. But it is just as true that the colonial countries (England, Portugal, France, Spain, Italy, et. al.) journeyed to far-flung lands to bring back the wealth of those lands. Doesn’t anyone remember why the United States of America fought the Revolutionary War? (Hello?) Does the Boston Tea Party ring any bells? Colonialism may have helped educate and improve the standard of living of some countries (India comes to mind) but it certainly was NOT all “Days of wine and roses” for the countries being stripped of their riches and any high school history class in any classroom in this country touches on that salient fact. So, message number 2 from D’Souza, is that Obama—like his father(s) before him—is anti-colonialism, which seems like a fairly reasonable position in this day and age. [D’Souza uses as his most telling point the fact that Obama supposedly wants to give the Falkland Islands back to Argentina. (Does anybody really care about the Falkland Islands during this election season— except possibly the people who live there? And wasn’t that one-day wonder war fought when Reagan was in office? Sheesh. And is THAT statement even true, since so many of the other “truths” of this documentary are falsehoods? I’ll leave the research on that one to someone else. Let me know.)

3) With statements like this one: “Other presidents were known figures. Obama came out of nowhere,” and “What is Obama’s dream?” and “The son is realizing his father’s dream” D’Souza tries to connect Obama’s hopes/plans for our country to a man Barack Obama only met once in his life and never lived with. It is true that Barack had to deal with an absent father who was, as the movie puts it, “air brushed” in a positive way by his white mother, but it is more true that he never really knew the man. I do believe that Obama probably was driven to achieve so much because he wanted to prove his worth and, possibly, earn the love of his always-absent father, but that just makes me like him and feel empathy for him. It doesn’t make him a bad person, a Communist (implied), a person who hates whites (stated) or a person who wants our country to fail, as the Tea Party Congress seems willing to let happen. The words of Obama’s book about visiting his father’s grave in Kenya are used against him (DId Mitt ever write anything worth reading?). D’Souza quotes from Obama’s book “Dreams From My Father:” “Everything I was doing carried the full weight of my life. I sat between 2 graves and wept. The circle closed.”( Is there any person on the planet who is not a product of his or her parenting and upbringing, including D’Souza?)

Stanley Dunham, Obama’s Grandfather

Even more disgusting, the Grandfather (Stanley Dunham) who provided a positive male role model for Obama in his growing up years in Kansas is slandered in several ways, with statements like, “We got drunk and hammered together” and comments about how he was “on the left,” which, to D’Souza, is a little like saying he is from Hell, since D’Souza is so far to the right he makes Rush Limbaugh seem liberal.

4) Among other things that D’Souza suggests (without a shred of proof) is that Obama “hates whites,” that his plan is to spend the U.S. into oblivion (while cutting our nuclear arsenal), and that he’d like to see us reconcile more with Muslim countries (which, actually, sounds reasonable; do we HAVE to be the “most hated country in the world?”).

“The usual suspects” are trotted out to smear our sitting President, including Bill Ayers (the Weather Underground bomber who became an academic at the University of Chicago); the Reverend Jeremiah Wright (I think we all remember that flap, which ended in total repudiation of the pastor by the president); Frank Marshall Davis, who, because he was a Communist, obviously had to be his best friend (Here, D’Souza uses Paul Kengor to talk abut 22 references to Frank in “Dreams From My Father”), a little-known Brazilian economist and Edward Said of Columbia, who, claims D’Souza, is a leading critic of Israel. (D’Souza is trying very hard to lose Obama the Jewish vote and the votes of those who frown on drinking in any form, as Mormons do.—Mormons don’t even drink coffee or pop, so you can imagine how much support alcohol gets.)

GUANTANAMO

Another statement by D’Souza: Obama is “weirdly sympathetic” to those who want to close down Guantanamo. I’m sympathetic to closing down Guantanamo and it’s not “weird” at all. It would have been a great idea to bring those prisoners to the brand-new prison sitting idle in Illinois. The conditions in Guantanamo should not be visited upon another human being, and their suicide rate is extraordinarily high. (See “Mother Jones” issue for a more full description of the terrible living conditions there and many who were innocents detained for years without due process, from a variety of foreign countries. Apparently, the country from which they were taken used the sweep to get rid of many undesirables, including mental defectives and one person who was actually known as “Halfhead,” as I recall the article. A few were very young boys. Many were guilty and have been found guilty in courts, now, but many were not even involved in the war but were undesirables the country of origin wanted to deport.)

OUT OF CONTEXT

Brokaw at the DNC in Denver in 2008.

There is a brief shot of Charlie Rose and Tom Brokaw talking at the familiar round table, where Charlie mentions, “We don’t really know what he stands for, do we?” and Brokaw agrees in a two-second clip. I saw that program. Complete misrepresentation of the entire content of the program. I couldn’t help but think of how little we know about Mitt Romney, who won’t even release his tax returns for any but ONE year. A Brian Williams piece this past Sunday on the Mormon Church certainly showed a denomination that has turned the clock back on equality for women and has some other odd ideas, including equating blacks with “the devil” until quite recently, as was pointed out by comedian Chris Rock when a guest on a late-night talk show. ( And they like to baptize you after you’re dead, as they did with Ann Romney’s atheist father.)

1. The sad thing about a “documentary” like this is that many people believe implicitly what they are told, if it is told skillfully enough, even though most of it is total hogwash. For one thing, the space program was being dismantled by Obama’s predecessor (“W”) before Obama was even elected, because it wasn’t the money-maker that George the second thought it would be. (See article here on NASA, from a visit there: President Obama Vows Support for a New, Improved NASA Space …

voices.yahoo.com/president-obama-vows-support-improved-nasa-58…Cached

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Apr 15, 2010 – “I Am 100% Committed to the Mission of NASA and Its Future…” Connie Wilson, Yahoo! Contributor Network Apr 16, 2010 “Share your voice on …

2. Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Challenger Explosion – Yahoo! Voices

voices.yahoo.com/twenty-fifth-anniversary-challenger-explosion-77…Cached

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Jan 26, 2011 – The next 5 years saw increases in budgeting for NASA. …. Connie Wilson has written for five newspapers and taught writing at six Iowa/Illinois …

When I read the log-line (short for a scriptwriter’s one-line summary of a film’s plot): “Love him or hate him, you don’t know him!” I couldn’t help but think how much more we know about Barack Obama than we do about Mitt Romney, who lives the life of a millionaire member of an unusual religious group not given to openness. The sad truth is that Romney won’t tell us whether he supported the United States with many tax dollars and has absolutely refused to release more than ONE year of his tax returns, despite his own father (Michigan Governor George Romney) pointing out, when he was Governor, that it takes several years to get a good idea of a person’s finances.

At the end of this total hatchet job, which suggests without factual basis that Obama would cut our military superiority and WANTS to spend us into debt, as well as many other misrepresentations about him, this travesty ends with, “The future is in your hands.”

A rather large woman in the audience, as the lights went up, began chanting, “NObama!” I stood up and said, equally loudly, “Let’s not forget who got us into two totally unnecessary wars to spend us into this debt.” This caused the rather large—okay, fat—-woman to say, “Oh, come off it!” and I thought we were going to have an old-fashioned donnybrook right there in the aisle of the Great Escape Theater in Moline, Illinois.

This film is nothing but (more) Karl Rove fear-mongering (see previous article on how Rove has his finger in all Romney pies). It is a disgrace to have an interview statement from Romney in “Time” in which the candidate CLAIMS he is not going to go after Obama personally but then lets the campaign (or the PACS, with their $1.8 BILLION dollars collected!) paint Obama’s biological father (whom he barely knew) as a no-good-nik, and also slam his paternal grandfather, who really raised him, and declare the president (who had a white mother, after all) to be anti-white, anti-colonialism (good for him) and state that he wants to close down Guantanamo (so do I).

It is unfortunate that the REAL important issues are either glossed over or are presented in such a ridiculous and unfair and untruthful light (witness the Winston Churchill bust stupidity).

The final line (“The future is in your hands”) makes me want to point a finger on one of those hands at Dinesh D’Souza and John Sullivan and say, “Shame on BOTH of you!” (And that goes double for the fat Tea Party woman who wanted to hit me.)

I did a piece on “Influential Figures in the Life of Barack Obama” by request for Yahoo. Here is a link to it. It is far more accurate than this smear job. Read it if you want to know the truth about the real influences on Barack Obama’s life. (And, no, I didn’t do it for this election cycle, but I thoroughly researched it and it is the truth, not a smear job like “2016: Obama’s America.”

1. Influential People in Barack Obama’s Life – Yahoo! Voices – voices …

voices.yahoo.com/influential–people–barack–obamas–life-1539933.ht…Cached

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Jun 6, 2008 – Influential People in Barack Obama’s Life. Who Are Some of the People Who Helped Form Barack Obama’s Life and Career? Connie Wilson …

Passing of Whitney Houston on Eve of Grammys a Tragic Tale

By Connie Wilson

On February 14, 2012

In Movies, Music, Pop Culture

Whitney Houston, a tremendous talent, dies tragically at 48.

Whitney Houston possessed one of the most beautiful female voices of the past quarter century. She was the only female singer to have won a Grammy Award, an Emmy, an MTV Video award, an MTV movie award, a People’s choice award and a Billboard Music Award. She won six Grammies and earned twenty-six Grammy nominations, as well as twenty-two American music awards and thirty-eight nominations—a record.

But the Whitney Houston I saw onstage at the Moline (IL) Civic Center after her 1992 marriage to Bobby Brown seemed unprepared. She didn’t know what town she was in and didn’t seem to care. She seemed lost in a fog. That fog may have swallowed her up on February 11, 2012, as she lay in the bathtub of her room at the Beverley Hilton Hotel, where singer Ray J around 3:30 p.m discovered her, underwater and unconscious.

The call for help went out at 3:43, but help came too late. Clive Davis, who had launched her career, was trying to help Houston get her career back on track, but the damage was done. She looked weary in the last footage I saw of her, a brief interview with Houston and Jennifer Hudson.

It was too late for Whitney to undo years of damage to her body and her voice, a downward spiral that most believe began with her 1992 marriage to Bobby Brown, with whom she had a daughter, Bobby Kristina, in 1993. Some say her death was no accident. A video of her onstage singing, “Yes, Jesus Loves Me” two days prior was her final performance. The 3 prescription drugs found in her hotel room are not to be taken simultaneously. Xanax, Valium and lorazepam are all powerful anti-anxiety drugs and taking any of them in combination with alcohol would be potentially life-threatening. Did Whitney take a prescription drug by accident, lose consciousness, and sink beneath the waters of her bath by accident, thus dying by drowning? One comment that came out after the tragedy was that there were orders that Houston was not to take an unsupervised bath. (It makes one wonder how something as private as a bath can be “supervised.”) Whitney’s last album, meant to revitalize her career, did not do particularly well, but it was much better-received than her touring, which is where singers really make their money. At several of her latest shows, her voice showed seemed so ravaged by her hard living that patrons demanded their money back. This must have been a bitter pill for the woman who electrified the world with her version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Superbowl in Tampa and whose “The Bodyguard” album sold millions of copies. Did Houston simply give up and give in, purposely taking the pills and slipping into oblivion? If so, she left no note, and she had talked to family members within a half-hour of her death.

Whitney charted seven consecutive Number One Billboard Hot 100 Hits: “Saving All My Love for You;” “How Will I Know?” “The Greatest Love of All,” “I Wanna’ Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)”, “Didn’t We Almost Have It All?”, “So Emotional,” and “Where Do Broken Hearts Go?” Those titles parallel the sad rise and fall of this beautiful and talented singer. The female lead in “The Bodyguard” opposite Kevin Costner, she also acted in three other films, including” Waiting to Exhale” and “Sparkle” and was working with Jordan Sparks on a new project, where she would play her mother. (To be released in August).

The Grammys were retooled to include a tribute to Houston with Jennifer Hudson singing a haunting rendition of “I Will Always Love You.”

A Feb. 20^th issue of the Inquirer with unflattering photos of Houston detailed some late-night partying that had gone on in the days leading up to this year’s Grammys. Another article claimed she was broke, dependent on advances from the record company and from friends. Although there will be a surge in the sale of “I Will Always Love You,” it is the very much alive Dolly Parton, the songwriter, who will benefit, not the estate of Whitney Houston. Houston told Diane Sawyer in 2002, “The biggest devil is me. I’m either my best friend or my worst enemy.”

Woody (Harrelson) Is Wonderful in “Rampart”

By Connie Wilson

On February 11, 2012

In Movies, Pop Culture

Woody Harrelson portrays a very bad cop in "Rampart."

Woody Harrelson’s new movie with director Owen Moverman, “Rampart,” is just as intense as “The Messenger,” which co-starred Ben Foster (Russell on television’s “Six Feet Under”). The poster carried the slogan: “The most corrupt cop you’ve ever seen onscreen.”

Those are big shoes to fill. Especially when we have such excellent predecessors as Richard Gere in “Internal Affairs,” Denzel Washington in “Training Day,” Harvey Keitel in “Bad Lieutenant,” Nicolas Cage in “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,” Ethan Hawke in “Brooklyn’s Finest” and Matt Damon in “The Departed.”

“Rampart” opens wide on February 17, 2012. The cast includes Harrelson and Foster, together again, plus Ned Beatty, Sigourney Weaver, Anne Heche, Ice Cube, Cynthia Nixon, Robin Wright and Steve Buscemi.

Harrelson’s performance is a tour de force. He is definitely not a good cop, but he has standards that harken back to an earlier day. As veteran cop Ned Beatty tells him, “This isn’t your father’s LAPD.” Ben Foster, who helped Woody deliver the messages that a loved one was dead in combat in Moverman’s “The Messenger,” is almost unrecognizable (and irrelevant) as a paraplegic in a wheelchair (General Terry).

Dave Brown’s nickname in the department is “Date Rape Dave” because he cold-bloodedly murdered a business acquaintance he knew had date-raped several girls. He also married two sisters, consecutively. Each couple had a daughter. They are all living under one roof when the movie opens.

Cynthia Nixon plays Barbara and Anne Heche plays Catherine. (This may be the first time two lesbian actresses were hired to play sister wives.) At the height of the film, in one of the most intense scenes, Catherine screams at Dave (Harrelson), calling him a racist, a bigot, a sexist, a misanthrope, a womanizer and homophobic. His own oldest daughter, Helen, (Brie Larson) tells him, “You are a dinosaur, Date Rape.”

When Woody confesses to his daughters, “Every single thing you’ve heard and more, it’s true. I could never change. But I never hurt any good people,” his teen-aged daughter Helen (Brie Larson) says, “What about us?”

On IMDB (International Movie Data Base) this message appeared: “I just saw the screener. They better fix the ending.” Very, very true. Just as Francis Ford Coppola sweated bullets over a satisfactory ending for “Apocalypse Now,” the writers/director (James Ellroy and Oren Moverman) have come up short at the end of this otherwise fine film. For whatever reason(s), the ending is totally unsatisfactory. It just…ends.

It’s really a shame, because the performances of the fine cast and the intensity of Harrelson’s lead role are spot-on. Just when we are anticipating the much-discussed “Rampart” investigation of police corruption (“a shitstorm of epic proportions”), with Date Rape Dave one of its main targets (“Someone like me is more dangerous on the witness stand than on the street.”) there is an abrupt end to what had been a promising follow-up to Moverman’s “The Messenger.”

Gary Oldman & Tomas Alfredson Discuss Their New Film: “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”

By Connie Wilson

On November 19, 2011

In Interviews, Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

Director Tomas Alfredson ("Let the Right One In") and actor Gary Oldman after the screening of "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" on November 17, 2011, in Chicago.

“I feel like I’m back in my old hometown—Gotham. He abandoned you, didn’t he—Nolan?” said Gary Oldman with a laugh, as he kicked off a Q&A in Chicago following the showing of his new film with Swedish Director Tomas Alfredson (2008’s “Let the Right One In”). The reference, of course, was to Oldman’s role as Lt. Jim Gordon in 2008’s “The Dark Knight.” The “Nolan” reference is to Christopher Nolan and that director’s choice of Pittsburgh as the setting for the newest Batman movie in the franchise, to be released in 2012.

Actor Gary Oldman.

Oldman’s presence in Chicago this night with Director Tomas Alfredson was to publicize “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” the movie version of John LeCarre’s novel of the same name. (LeCarre worked as a producer on the film). Oldman said, “I’ve waited 30 years for a role like this. I had to rein in emotion for this one. It was a nice difference.” Referring to a scene in the film where George Smiley, Oldman’s character, lets a fly out of the car where it has been bothering the three occupants, he says, “The fly scene in the car encapsulated Smiley. He expends only enough energy, like a cat. Smiley is a real study in economy. That (fly scene) tells you more about his character than any dialogue.”

Gary Oldman, star of "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy."

Noting that John LeCarre was a producer on the film, Oldman said, “The shadow of Alec Guinness (who played the part previously) was large enough. And, of course, we had John LeCarre as a resource. He had written the book and lived the life. John could fill in the earlier days for me, as this book was more autobiographical for him than some others. One stop shopping, for me.” He added, “That’s the exciting thing, for me. You go to work and the work happens in the moment. Hopefully, the cloak of inspiration will fall.”

Director Tomas Alfredson said he wanted to make a period piece steeped in atmosphere. “I tried to create a voyeuristic perspective. I wanted to recreate the feeling of London in those days. Sort of a damp tweed and cabbage feeling. It’s a lot of fun to make period pieces and its easier if the period is further away.” The director also commented on the atmospheric soundscape of the film, where the sound of toast being buttered or a tea cup is important. “It’s refreshing to see a movie that isn’t just cut, cut, cut and doesn’t assault you,” both agreed. Noting that, “The secret to playing this (George Smiley) was in the book,” Oldman agreed with Alfredson about the film’s emotional depth. “I thought one of the great things about it is that we were not forced to kick it up a notch. It was sort of like watching a lava lamp,” he joked.

Director Tomas Alfredson ("Let the Right One In")

What both men meant was that there are not gratuitous explosions or car chase scenes, but simply the story of a mole within “the Circus,” the London location of MI6’s headquarters at Cambridge Circus. Several times in the film this line occurs: “There’s a rotten apple. We have to find it.”

On a humorous note, Director Alfredson told of a scene where Oldman is filmed frying an egg. It was a very quiet scene, with Oldman cooking the egg and then carefully cutting and eating it. As he watched the daily rushes, Oldman smiled and said to Alfredson, “I used to be Sid Vicious, you know,” a reference to his portrayal of Sid Vicious in the 1986 film “Sid and Nancy.”

“Tinker, Tailer, Soldier, Spy” opens wide December 9^th.

“Love Always, Carolyn” Is Documentary About Carolyn (Mrs. Neal) Cassady

By Connie Wilson

On October 25, 2011

In Books, Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

Neal and Carolyn Cassady with their son John.

At one point in the documentary “Love Always, Carolyn” son John Cassady, [Neal Cassady’s son with the Carolyn of the title], says, “In a secret way, I dig the attention.” Someone should break it to John that his love of the spotlight is no secret; it comes through loud and clear in this documentary made by Swedish filmmakers Malin Korkeasalo and Maria Ramstrom. This underscored when Malin shared, after the film screened in Chicago at the Chicago Film Festival, that John, now in his sixties, drives around in something dubbed “the Beatmobile.”

Swedish filmmaker Malin Korkeasalo.

Asked how this documentary about Carolyn Cassady came to be made, how the filmmakers gained access to her, Malin said, “I did a short portrait of Carolyn for a magazine and, afterwards, she wanted help with her photographs.” Added Malin, “I was surprised at how eager she was to have her children involved (in the documentary).”

Carolyn Cassady was not the only woman in Neal Cassady’s life. He had a previous marriage (to LuAnne Henderson in 1947, which was annulled), became a bigamist with Dianne Hansen (he had another son named Curtis in 1950). When he died in Mexico at age 41, he had yet another woman (Anne Murphy) in his life. Said Carolyn, “Every woman fell in love with him.”

Swedish filmmaker Maria Ramstrom.

Apparently every man did, as well, since Neal and Alan Ginsberg had a well-documented homosexual relationship that spanned 20 years. I saw Alan Ginsberg come onstage to give a poetry reading at the University of California at Berkeley in the summer of 1965. A less attractive physical specimen would be difficult to find, “Howl” notwithstanding.
Neal Cassady, on the other hand, was physically handsome and very charming, but his upbringing with his alcoholic father in Denver, Colorado was far from normal—although Carolyn, in the documentary says, “There is no such thing as normal.” Carolyn also says, “I don’t regret knowing Neal, but I regret all the artificial self-promoting stuff that has come after it. You just can’t get away from it.”

Maria Ramstrom and Malin Korkeasalo.

At this point in her life, nearing her 89^th birthday (April 28) Carolyn has begun divesting of various mementos of her life with Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac, her lover from 1952 until 1960 at Neal’s urging. As Carolyn explains in the film, “It was Neal’s wish to share me with Jack. I was against it, to begin with, but it was a survival for me to keep the man I loved.” Puffing on one of many small cigarillos, she says, “You have to go with the flow…There isn’t any hard and fast thing called love…Your heart is too big to just hold one sometimes.”

Going with the flow must have been difficult for Carolyn Cassady, who describes herself in the documentary as frigid ever since an older brother (she is one of 5 children) molested her in adolescence. Said Carolyn, “I was totally frigid from then on, but from then on I sold it for affection.” As she told the filmmakers, “You just do what you have to do. You get on with it and do it.”

Maria Ramstrom during the Q&A.

Carolyn’s early life in Lansing, Michigan and Nashville, Tennessee was fairly repressive. The youngest of 5 children, she describes a very solid Victorian upbringing, with a good home and a good education. “There was no touching or cuddling after infancy. My nanny was the only hugging I ever got. Almost anything you did, you never were quite good enough.” Carolyn left home at 16 to study drama and theater and became an accomplished painter and costumer of theatrical productions.

She met Neal and Jack in Denver at age 24 (1947) and says, “Some clog just clicked on a wheel. That’s just how it felt and I knew this was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.” Unfortunately, her parents strongly disapproved. Her mother wrote Carolyn a letter in which she told her “what a horrible horror I was” and her parents eventually disinherited her.

To this day, Carolyn has money issues. At the film’s outset, her son John says of her situation that she has only 200 pounds in her British bank. (John: “She was down to 200 pounds in the bank last week, and I don’t know what we’re gonna’ do next month.”) (*Carolyn moved to Bracknell, England, outside London, at age 63 and lives there alone, as her 3 children with Neal Cassady all live in the United States. At one point in the film she jokes that the sheets she is folding have been around since 1954 and that “maybe I should sell them to Johnny Depp or somebody.”) There is also a line about “all those pictures that have been supporting me ever since” and Carolyn is heard verbally admonishing a representative of Penguin Books, who is selling a book that has a picture of Neal and Jack on the cover that Carolyn took. (“Well, shame on you! You used my photograph without permission or payment!”)

“I think we learn by our mistakes, by our wrong choices,” says the 89-year-old in the film. “The hardest part of my whole life is ending up alone.” She repeated the theme, “It’s a real drag that I ended up my life completely alone,” yet it was Carolyn who moved thousands of miles away from her children. She pronounced possible men in her age range after Neal to be “married or gay or impossible.”

When she looks back at Neal’s constant departures and irresponsible behavior as a husband and father she says, “You don’t do that (leave on a road trip) when you have a new wife and baby.” But, she adds, “He’d always talk himself back…Throwing them out never worked.” She says wryly, “He couldn’t quite get the marriage thing together.”

Cassady also “hated himself like that” when he would play the fool while high on drugs. Neal told her, “They all just look at me and I get high and behave like an idiot.” Added Carolyn, “Which is so sad. He hated himself for it. I asked him, ‘Then why do you do it?’ He responded, ‘I don’t know. They just all expect it.’” Several times, Carolyn murmurs, “Such a brilliant mind. Just horrible that he wasted it all on drugs.”

Carolyn has been quoted in Notes from the Underground as saying, “As far as I’m concerned, the Beat Generation was something made up by the media and Allen Ginsberg.” Her marriage to Cassady suffered tremendously when she refused to post his $5,000 bail after he was arrested for offering 3 marijuana cigarettes to an undercover policeman and he did 5 years in prison at San Quentin as a result. Said Carolyn, “We had some good times after that, but always in the background was resentment. He never ever really forgave me. I couldn’t risk the house, could I?”

The throngs of college students cheering for Carolyn and John Cassady at their appearances on campus seem to have bought into what Carolyn dubbed the myth of the Beat generation, without considering the consequences to the participants. Sad is the biggest emotion that comes through.

Carolyn says, “I watched both of them destroy themselves. It was hell.” She quotes from a letter written to Neal discussing their young son John, who is acting out in adolescence, and says, “I don’t know how I can stand to watch him go the way you have, at what expense?”

Maria Ramstrom and Malin Korkeasalo.

Carolyn Cassady may have lived an interesting and memorable life that she has chronicled in her own book Off the Road, but this documentary takes a look at an almost 90-year-old woman who is living alone, trying to sell off memorabilia from her past with two of literature’s notorious Merry Pranksters in order to survive. What is even more distressing is that her three children seem to also have the idea that living off their always-absent father’s name is desirable. (One daughter wanted to market a wine with the pictures of Kerouac and Cassady on the jug.)

Far from leaving the film feeling envious of a woman who has experienced this history up close and personal, it just made me feel sad. Sad for Carolyn Cassady now, and sad that her life was spent in thrall to a man who had numerous women other than Carolyn in his life. (LuAnne Henderson, his first wife, in 1947; Diane Hansen, who gave birth to Curtis in 1950; Anne Murphy when he was in Mexico, where he was found dead alongside the railroad tracks just 4 days shy of his 42^nd birthday.)
As for Jack Kerouac, he drank himself to death at age 47.

Allen Ginsberg, bearded, disheveled and unkempt, in 1965 had to be physically carried offstage by the janitor at Berkeley, since squatting on the floor playing finger cymbals and mumbling incoherently didn’t really fall under the heading of “poetry reading.”

Adjectives like “ineffectual,” “powerless” and “desperate” are employed by the central figure in the film. Carolyn says of herself, “I was overwhelmed,” but adds, “That’s what makes life interesting is all these complications. Mine was pretty messed up.”

“Undefeated” Documentary: No, It’s NOT the One About Sarah Palin

By Connie Wilson

On October 25, 2011

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews, Sports

The documentary “Undefeated” (not to be confused with the documentary about Sarah Palin) played the Chicago Film Festival, depicting the Manassas High School Tigers football team’s 2009 season, as they attempt to win the first playoff game in the 110-year history of the school.

The filmmakers, T.J. Martin and Daniel Lindsay, spent 9 months living in Memphis and soon learned that “There’s a story under every helmet,” as Coach Bill Courtney told them. Courtney began volunteering in 2004 and is quoted throughout the documentary, reminding this Iowa Hawkeye fan of the antics of Coach Bob Commings (Massillon, Ohio), who was immortalized in a John Irving novel as “Iowa Bob.” Commings called the Hawkeyes the “chosen children” and succeeded in winning some memorable games, but, ultimately, was unsuccessful in turning that program around and was fired. Coach Courtney, by contrast, announces he is quitting after the season to spend more time with his own family.

Daniel Lindsay (R) and T.J. Martin (L) at the Q&A for "Undefeated" in Chicago.

Before that, however, we learn a lot about the players on the Manassas Tigers team. Most successful of the lot is probably O.C. Brown, 6’ 3”, 315 pounds and fast. Mike Ray, volunteer coach, says, “That’s a big dude running that fast.” O.C. has some academic problems and, in a real-life plot that echoes “The Blind Side,” ends up moving in with an assistant coach and his family to make sure he remains eligible and is able to claim a college scholarship. After one report card period, the coach asks O.C., “How do you get a 90 in calculus and a 70 in keyboarding?” One memorable quote to the team, “If you will allow it, football will save your life.”

Another player highlighted in the film is troublemaker Chavis, who has one of the most emotional moments in the film as he turns his attitude around. Then there is “Money,” who suffers an injury to his ACL and must miss 8 to 12 weeks of playing time. He begins to miss school after he can no longer play, and Coach Courtney says, “Money is on the cusp of being lost.”

Director Daniel Lindsay takes questions from the audience following the screening of his football documentary "Undefeated" in Chicago.

Really, most of the team is on the cusp of being lost and the filmmakers, in interviews after the game, revealed how many stories they had to ignore to highlight those that are included. There was Jaquim Collins, who had been in 18 different foster homes in 4 years, a defensive lineman. He became too old to remain in the 19^th home and was kicked out of the system. Said Director Lindsay, “It was heartbreaking not to be able to tell his story. But ultimately the sum is greater than its parts.”

Money, in the film, is shown looking at an X-ray of his injured interior ACL ligament and asks the doctor, “Is that my brain?” The filmmakers reported that Money was not thrilled that that scene remained in the documentary.

Director Lindsay said, “We just filmed a ton of scenes and then laid them out. None of it was scripted…We were going for a very intimate film. Bill’s trusting us made the kids trust us, but it was really surprising to us how quickly they forgot we were there. The camera became an extension of us.” However, reported the filmmaking duo, “Even 2 to 3 months later, they (the players) still didn’t get what we were doing. They’d ask, ‘So, who’s going to play me in the movie.’”

T.J. Martin, filmmaker, in Chicago.

The answer is that the Manassas Tigers played themselves, and the filmmakers did a very good job of being in the right place at the right time to capture moments in their 2009 season. As Lindsay said of one particularly moving scene involving Chavis (the troublemaker), “Oh, my God! Did that really just happen? We have a movie here!”

The film with plenty of exhortations like, “Please remember discipline. Please remember character, and let’s go kick their ass,” (Bill Courtney). As a former NFL player, invited to address the team by Coach Courtney, tells them, “It’s not where you start; it’s where you finish.”

The documentary, which earned great praise from one audience member, in particular, who called it “the best football film I’ve ever seen” will open in February with distribution from the Weinstein Brothers. Said Coach Courtney at one point, “If they don’t win the game, they’re gonna’ win the fight. You gotta’ believe in yourselves. You can come back.”

Daniel Lindsay, T.J. Martin and Music Supervisor Sandy Wilson.

Sandy Wilson was Music Supervisor on the film, and should be singled out for praise, as well. All in all, with 70 young men on the team, there are some compelling and amazing stories of life in North Memphis and what it means to be resilient and never give up.

“Margin Call” Takes Us To the Brink of Financial Disaster in a 24-hour Period at a Wall Street Brokerage Firm

By Connie Wilson

On October 23, 2011

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

Kevin Spacey plays Wall Street trader in "Margin Call."

“The ground is shifting below our feet and apparently there’s no other way out,” say characters in the star-studded vehicle “Margin Call,” (playing now in Special Engagements). This film about the financial crisis of 2008 and how it brought Wall Street to its knees and created a ripple effect still being felt around the world is instantly reminiscent of “Too Big to Fail,” which was nominated for 11 prime-time Emmys.

“Margin Call” has Kevin Spacey as the 34-year-veteran of the financial world who sends traders onto the floor to do business each day. Company head honcho Jeremy Irons needs Spacey to help facilitate a plan to sell off worthless securities, once Stanley Tucci and a young protégé, played by Zachary Quinto (Spock in 2009’s “Star Trek”) discover that the projected losses the formulas predict are greater than the financial worth of the company. Can the traders go forth and sell all this junk in fire sale fashion without the rest of Wall Street getting wise? Not easily, says Spacey to Irons, and, he adds, “You will never sell anything to any of those buyers ever again.” He adds, “This one is very ugly” and tries to quit, saying, “I think this will destroy this firm. You’re knowingly putting people out of business.” Irons needs Spacey standing by him for at least 24 months and Paul Bettany, next man down, does not seem willing to step into Spacey’s shoes and take part in what is described as “professional suicide” (A mercy killing, really,” says Spacey.)

It doesn’t help that, as this Lionsgate film opens, 80% of the staffers, including Tucci who found this imminent disaster scenario and is one of the few who totally understands what is already beginning to occur, is being shown the door. He seems anything but eager to return to help the firm out when the s*** hits the fan. Tucci had reported the discrepancies to his superior (a brittle, dour Demi Moore) earlier, but she and Simon Baker had soft-pedaled it to the big boss(es).

The firm tells its traders that, if they sell 93% of their assets, they get a $1.4 million personal bonus, and if the entire floor hits 93.1% sales, all will get another $1.3 million bonus and, as Irons says, “There’s always been fat cats and starving dogs and the percentage will stay exactly the same.” Irons, the big boss, also notes, “There’s gonna’ be a lot of money made coming out of this mess” and says, “it’s certainly no different today than it’s ever been. “ He notes of the fat cats, “We’ve got our fingers on the scales to help them.”

Written and directed by J.C. Chandor, the ads note that, to win, you need to either (1) Be first (2) Be smarter, or (3) Cheat. When Jeremy Irons’ character says to Spacey’s, “Where is this going to come back to us?” Spacey responds, “Everywhere.”

An all-star cast includes Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Paul Bettany, Simon Baker, Stanley Tucci, Demi Moore, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley and Mary McDonnell, plus Ella the chocolate brown Labrador retriever that humanizes Spacey as he knowingly helps dump $8 trillion of bad paper around the world before Armageddon. Favorite line (re the explanation of the financial machinations): “Speak as you would to a young child or a golden retriever.”)

A bit talky, but engrossing and your cynicism will rise by at least 93%.

Ed Helms, Jason Segel & Susan Sarandon Light Up the Screen in the Comedy “Jeff, Who Lives at Home”

By Connie Wilson

On October 20, 2011

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

“Jeff, Who Lives At Home,” a film by the Duplass brothers, was screened at the Chicago Film Festival on Tuesday, October 18, 2011 to an enthusiastic crowd anxious to see Ed Helms (“The Office,” “The Hangover”), Jason Segel (“Knocked Up,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “I Love You, Man”) and Susan Sarandon (“Dead Man Walking,” “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Thelma and Louise”). Jay Duplass was present for the screening and answered questions afterwards.

The film follows two brothers, Jeff (Segel) and Pat (Helms) over one day, using the documentary-style shooting that Jay and Mark Duplass have become known for. “We just put people in a room and light the whole room and film it like a documentarian. On a regular film, there is just one area lit and the actor has to come down and hit his or her mark and there might be 50 people standing there in a circle. The actors outnumber the crew.

Jay Duplass, Director of "Jeff, Who Lives at Home'" at the Chicago Film Festival.

In our films, they (the actors) own the space. Of course, I’ve gotta’ hustle to get the shots or there might be something epic going on and I’m standing behind a lamp.” This is the style the brothers Duplass have employed since 2001 and it has become standard on such TV sit-coms as “Parks & Recreation” and “The Office.” Many, seeing those shows on television, think the Brothers Duplass have been copying TV, when it is the other way around. Said Jay Duplass in the Q&A after the film: “We’ll never put anything secondary to what our actors are experiencing.”

Another hallmark of a Duplass film, aside from the fact that all of their protagonists seem to be desperate (“Cyrus” with John C. Reilly is an example) is that all actors are expected to improvise most of their lines. With lines like, “What you just said sounded like Yoda took acid and stumbled into a business meeting,” or (Segal commenting on the size of Helms’ new Porsche), “The Porsche is normal-sized. You’re a Sasquatch,” make it clear that these actors are more than equal to the task.

Jeff Thompson (Segel) is shown dictating his thoughts into a tape recorder as the film opens. It isn’t until the camera pulls back that we realize he is sitting on the toilet at the time. Most of Jeff’s musings are about the meaning of life and the “signs” in the Universe that might help him to realize his potential, since, at this point in his life, he is 30 years old and living in his mom’s (Susan Sarandon) basement. (The M. Night Shymalan movie “Signs” is a recurring reference in the film.)

Jay Duplass and moderator during a Q&A that followed the screening of his film "Jay, Who Lives at Home" at the Chicago 47th International Film Festival.

Sharon Thompson (Sarandon) is at work and speaks to Jeff on the phone, telling him to take the bus to Highland Avenue to get wood glue to fix one of her broken shutters within the house. Jeff (Segel) does get on the bus, but he is currently obsessed with the phone calls he keeps getting asking for “Kevin.” Jeff expresses the idea that everything in the universe is inter-related, that everyone and everything is interconnected and he thinks “there are no wrong numbers.”

When Jeff sees a young black man on the bus wearing a jersey that says “Kevin,” he gets off the bus and follows him, eventually ending up in a pick-up game of basketball and (also) being mugged. So far, no wood glue.

Enter brother Pat, who is married and works at Poplar Paint Company. Pat and Linda (Judy Greer), his wife, have hit a rough spot in their childless marriage, some of it because Linda wants to buy a house, while Pat goes out and buys a Porsche, which Linda is not thrilled about. It is easy to see that both brothers are screw-ups, just in different ways.

After Pat’s impetuous purchase of the expensive Porsche (which he promptly wraps around a tree), Linda almost has an affair with a co-worker, Steve (Steve Zisses), even though all she is looking for is someone who will actually listen to what she says. (At one point, attempting to reconcile with her, Pat says, none too endearingly, “I’m going to try to understand your incoherent babble.”)

Another sub-plot involves a “secret admirer” at mother Sharon’s work, who keeps sending Sharon computer messages. At various points, characters say things like, “This is not the way I imagined my life was going to go.” Sharon muses on how she thought she’d join the Peace Corps, live in a hut, and end up kissing the love of her life under a waterfall. Instead, she is a widow (her husband Dan died in 1995 at the age of 44) and, as she tells co-worker Rae Dawn Chong, “I hate my kids right now. When did that happen? They were so cute when they were little.”

The universal human desire to love and be loved dominates the film. After Pat discovers that Linda has been seeing another man, confronts her and she says that she thinks they should both “just walk away” from their marriage, Pat says to his brother, “I just want to feel like I love Linda and I want to feel like she loves me. I miss it. I want it so bad.” Jeff, who is more the philosopher of the two, suggests that Pat must go to Linda and tell her. (“You need to say that to her right now.”)
That leads to a climactic scene on a bridge in traffic, where both brothers, their mother and Pat’s wife Linda end up in a destiny-shaping moment that makes them appreciate their lives.

“What happened?” asks Jeff as he recovers from a near drowning.

“Everything,” is the answer.

A truly entertaining film that is about much more than it sounds like it will be, when/if you read the plot synopsis.

See it for yourself. It’s worth doing.

“Natural Selection” Screens at Chicago Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On October 18, 2011

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

Gayland Williams ("Sheila") and Michael Bricker of "Natural Selection."

The first feature-length outing by Director/Writer Robbie Pickering, “Natural Selection,” played Chicago’s 47^th International Film Festival on Sunday. It was a welcome change from the independent films and documentaries exploring suicide, murder and torture. I was delighted to find a movie about living life that had such a well-written script, such enjoyable humor and such good performances from all.

Everything in the film worked, from the cinematography (Steve Calitri, with editing by Michelle Tesoro) to the humor to the symbolism. Rachel Harris’ Linda White (Rachel played Melissa in 2009’s “The Hangover”) was one of the most skillful turns by an actress I’ve seen so far this year. Three actresses in the Chicago competition whose films screened could easily be Best Actress nominees, with Tilda Swinton (“We Have to Talk About Kevin”), Michelle Williams (“My Week with Marilyn”) and Rachel Harris in “Natural Selection” leading the list. (And never count Meryl Streep out, as she takes on “The Iron Lady”).

The plot of “Natural Selection” focuses on a character named Linda White, who is modeled on Robbie Pickering’s own mother whose real name is Linda White. In fact, the puffy jacket used in the film belonged to Director Pickering’s Mom. Production designer Michael Bricker and cast member Gayland Williams (Sheila) were present to answer questions after the movie screened and shared that detail, plus some behind-the-scenes about the motivation to make this particular film.

Bricker shared with the audience that Pickering wanted to make a film about how the weaker creatures in the forest survive. He was worried, at the time, about his mom’s being alone, as his stepfather, Bill (to whom the film is dedicated) had recently died. How do people who go through life trying to be “pleasers” and going along with the more dominant individuals among us fare?

The film opens with a Biblical quote: (Genesis 38: 9) “And God said to Onan, thou shalt not spill thy seed in vain.” Linda has been pronounced barren years earlier and is unable to give her husband, Abe, played by John Diehl (Detective Larry Zito on “Miami Vice” from 1984-1987) a child. Abe is deeply religious. For their entire 25-year marriage he has withheld sex from Linda because “God says it’s a sin to act on these desires if you aren’t making babies.” Instead, Abe traveled to the Vista Care Fertility Clinic where he deposited his sperm weekly while watching pornographic movies.

It is while making one of the deposits at the “bank” that Abe has a stroke and Linda learns the truth about how Abe has coped with his own sexuality all these years. In the opening scenes, however, Abe asks Linda to pray with him and it is pretty clear that Linda, whose libido is proven to be undeniably healthy, is just supposed to suck it up and do what Abe wants, once again seeking to please her man. Linda even says, “Whatever makes Abe happy makes me happy.” But does it, really? The film will examine that proposition; the viewer can judge for him or herself. One thing that Linda herself acknowledges is that she doesn’t like to be alone. She finds the presence of another person comforting, even if that other person is inflicting his will on her, like it or not. When on the road seeking Raymond Mansfield in Florida, Linda even attempts to call up the desk clerk at one of the motels she has checked in to, simply to talk to another human being. The lyrics of “Eleanor Rigby” would have sufficed for Linda’s plight, but, instead, we have Raymond saying of Linda, “The chick’s got so many holes, I guess it’s hard to keep them all shut.”

The next scene shows a man mowing grass. We learn a few moments later (in a scene derivative of “Raising Arizona”) that inside the grass bag is a prisoner escaping from Huntsville Prison. He forces his way out of the bag after the lawn mower is left untended and flees to an old colleague’s home: Raymond Mansfield’s ramshackle residence in Tampa, Florida. It is Raymond who is the biological son of Abe White (born of Abe’s sperm from the Vista Care Fertility Clinic) but Clyde Brisbee is the escapee guest in residence at Raymond’s pad when Linda arrives.

After Abe’s stroke, Linda discovered that Abe has a son somewhere in Florida, a son he has never met. The doctors tell her Abe is not going to make it, so Linda sets off to find his child. As the film’s log-line notes, “God help her!” When she comes to Raymond’s door, the young man is quite adamant about not wanting any “Jesus crap” from his clean-cut visitor. In fact, he insists that Linda pay him $20 for 5 minutes of talk time. Unkempt. Drug-using. Living in a pit. Linda says, “This place could use a woman’s touch.” Raymond responds, “So could my pecker but that ain’t happening, either.”

I was interested in the respective ages of the two leads. After all, Linda White of the film says she has been married to Abe for 25 years. Rachel Harris, who plays Linda, in real life was born in 1968. Matt O’Leary, a Chicago-born actor who has been working since age 13, was born in 1987. I have 2 children born those exact years, so Linda is supposed to be 19 years older than Abe’s “son,” (whom, we learn in the course of the movie, is not his son at all).

Raymond (Matt O’Leary) is not too keen on accompanying Linda on a cross-country trip to see Abe before he dies, but an unexpected visit from the police to his drug-riddled lair quickly changes his mind. Linda represents an opportunity to flee Tampa and avoid returning to Huntsville Prison. So, off the two-some go in the hatchback Linda has driven to Florida.

The car is symbolic of the relationship between Abe and Linda with lines like these: “A man gets used to a good old car and he misses it when it’s gone…I’m starting to think it was a piece of shit to begin with.” Later, when the car has been stolen (thanks to Raymond’s unsuccessful attempt to ditch Linda and strike off on his own in it) and Linda has returned home, the miraculously recovered Abe asks Linda if it wasn’t just a mistake losing the car.

Linda responds, “It was a mistake. Yes, it was. All of it.” Only, by then, seeing Abe through the eyes of pseudo-Raymond and others, she is realizing some hard truths about her marriage and Abe’s behavior throughout their 25 years together. She’s not really talking about the car at all.

Michael Bricker, Production Designer for "Natural Selection" awaits the screening of the film.

Linda has longed to make a trip to Morgan’s Key, where a person can be a universe of one. The snow globe representing it reminded me of the 1980 film “Resurrection” with Ellen Burstyn, Sam Shepard and Richard Farnsworth. In that film, a postcard of Machu Pichu took on symbolic significance. It represented that destination we all strive to reach in life, just as the postcards from Cool Hand Luke (Paul Newman) to his fellow prison inmates held that distinction in the days when people actually sent postcards and letters. That mythic place will make us whole and happy. In this movie, that place is Morgan’s Key, which Linda’s older sister Sheila (well-played with a flair for the bitchy and a broad Texas accent by Gayland Williams) has visited, but Linda has not. (Reminds of another great line of dialogue, spoken by Raymond to Linda: “Maybe we’ll catch a unicorn takin’a shit of lullabies.’”)

The film was shot in Smithville, Texas, also the location for “Hope Floats” and “The Tree of Life.” The small town (population 4,000) has its own film committee and, according to Production Designer Michael Bricker, couldn’t have been more accommodating. (Every hotel room contained a DVD of Sandra Bullock’s “Hope Floats” film, and the huge tree in Terence Malick’s “Tree of Life” is a Smithville landmark.)

Although first-time director Robbie Pickering studied film in New York and California, he lived in Texas and knew Smithville, which is near Austin. The film not only won big at SXSW, but also won an Audience Award in Athens, won 2 awards in Indianapolis, another in Kansas, and Director/Writer Pickering has been given a Sundance Award to allow him to make more films. This is good news for those of us who have been suffering through films on suicide, grisly murder(s) and all manner of human suffering. Another bit of good news is that Cinema Guild is going to distribute the film. Writer/Director Pickering was not present in Chicago because he was accepting an award in New York from the New York Friars.

In his place, Production Designer Bricker explained that his path to the film and career started when he studied at the University of Texas in Austin (near Smithville), earning a Master’s in Architecture. He applied to be an intern on a film. He was hired and promoted rapidly to the point that he was, first time out, the Production Manager on a film with 4 sets being built for the movie’s use. His plan for “Natural Selection” was to focus on decay and lifelessness, with “different versions of ‘not right,’ moving on to more colorful images later.”

Gayland Williams, who was also present at the Chicago screening, explained that she was the last Texas principal hired, as most of the actors and actresses were from Los Angeles. As Gayland said, “Sheila was not a real sympathetically written character.” Indeed, she was not. She was the older sister who gave her sister bad medical advice (a recurring theme, intentional or unintentional, is truly horrible medical diagnosis of major characters verging on malpractice). That advice changed her sister’s life.

Meanwhile, Sheila seems quite selfish in flaunting her healthy children before a woman who cannot bear children. She also seems aware that her husband, Peter, a minister, seems quite attracted to her pretty younger sister and takes every opportunity to squelch that. Peter was well played by Jon Gries. His own road trip to rescue Linda after her car is stolen is comical.

The only person missing on October 16th who could have made a trip back home and appeared in support of the film was the film’s leading man, Matt O’Leary, who plays Raymond White/Clyde Brisbee. O’Leary, a Chicago native, has been acting since age 13. I remember him as “the Brain” in “Brick,” a 2005 independent film sensation.

One last bit of praise for Izler Curt Schneider, whose work as Music Supervisor was spot-on. The film won for Best Score/Music at SXSW and was nominated for a World Soundtrack Award. In addition to Schneider’s original scoring, many of the songs were performed by the group Futurebirds.

See this film if it comes to a theater or video store near you. It will amuse and entertain and watch out for Robbie Pickering and crew in the future.