dlfagan Reviews

Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980)

Love it, warts and all

[10 August 2011]

A few weekends ago, I watched Return of the Secaucus Seven again. I first watched it circa 1982, and enjoyed it so much that I brought a different girl to see it a few weeks later. Over the years I rented it on VHS for one girlfriend, and then another, to see. Several years ago I bought the DVD to show my wife, and I probably watch it about once a year. (I do miss that hamburger scene - what a shame!)

The film concerns a weekend reunion of a handful of people that knew each other as young adults in the 1960s. Seems that IMDb reviewers can't resist comparing Sayles' small film to The Big Chill, a big budget film about a reunion of people that met in the 1960s. Both groups talk a lot, and share a lot, but they are actually very different films in almost every other way. The RS7 friends are still fairly young, not yet settled in life, not rich or famous, not at all generic types, and not played by familiar actors. I enjoyed Chill, but I have come to think of the characters in RS7 as old friends. I always look forward to seeing them again.

Waiting for Superman (2010)

Waiting for Substance

[3/10 · 25 April 2011]

I had been waiting to rent Waiting for Superman for quite some time, had read a lot of reviews and definitely went in as a skeptic. The children interviewed were adorable, and thirsting for knowledge. The parents interviewed were devoted to the education of their children. The teachers interviewed ... well, there were no teachers interviewed. They interviewed Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers, but no ordinary classroom teachers, good or bad. There were brief video snippets of very engaged-looking teachers, and other snippets of teachers reading newspapers instead of teaching, and languorous shots of teachers that (we were told) were so bad that they were paid to do nothing.

They did interview Geoffrey Canada, a former teacher that founded a charter school, Harlem's Children Zone, in New York City. Canada is also on the board of The After-School Corporation, a non-profit advocating changes in education. They also interviewed Michelle Rhee, founder of the New Teacher Project, and former Chancellor of Washington DC public schools. Rhee departed when DC Mayor Adrian Fenty failed to be renominated, and is now promoting a non-profit called Students First. They interviewed Bill Strickland, founder and CEO of the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild, a non-profit that focuses on art and music education. They also interviewed education guru Eric Hanushek and Microsoft founder and major donor Bill Gates. But the teachers didn't get to speak.

They talked a lot about teaching, and while Canada and Rhee talked about the bad system, what they called the "Blob," it seemed clear they blamed the teacher's union for keeping bad teachers on the job for most of the bad outcomes - which they called the "dropout factories." While it would seem reasonable to entertain other potential causes, like inattentive parents, broken homes, drugs, etc., Waiting for Superman keeps it simple.

There was one chart presented indicating that overall spending on education was increasing while overall test scores remained stagnant. Neither the spending nor the test scores were broken down to see if the same relationship held at the bad schools. What if most of the spending is at the better schools? I was chatting with my sister-in-law, a teacher's aide, today. They just took their daughter out of public school, where she was in a class of 32, and put her in a private school where class size is 12. Now she feels like a rock star. Although the public school classrooms shown looked much more crowded than the charter school classrooms, there was no discussion about relative class sizes - a real political football. You can scan the internet and find all sorts of stats such as those at American Progress, The False Promise of Class-Size Reduction, and rebuttals such as at Class Size Matters. Anecdotally, I hear a lot about classroom sizes of thirty or more, while the charter schools that I have worked on were to have perhaps 15 students per classroom.

In short, even though it has gotten good reviews and awards, Waiting For Superman was mostly an emotional appeal with little to substantiate its point-of-view. I don't feel that I know much more about the problem from watching this documentary.

Flesh and Bone (1993)

Plot holes

[7/10 · 2 November 2010]

I thought the performances were very good, but not good enough to overcome some gaping plot holes in this film.

First, why is Roy shadowing his son after all these years? We are told that he just needs Arlis to attend to his birdshot wounds. But he had been standing outside Arlis' motel room the night before. Why didn't he have Ginnie knock on the door instead of leaving a cigar butt, and waiting a good long while before getting the treatment he no doubt needed? It seemed to me that by the time he finally got around to getting Arlis into that car, his wounds would have healed over.

Second, why did Arlis get into a car with a broad that he already knew was a con artist?

Third, as has been noted, why would Roy care that Kay was still alive? Everyone had forgotten the murders - she knew nothing, and could prove nothing.

Fourth, why did Roy have Ginnie lure Arlis to the house where he planned to kill Kay? It would have made sense if he planned to kill both of them, but he didn't need Arlis there to kill Kay. Caan would have had to play Roy as a psycho that wanted to kill Kay in front of Arlis rather than just a sociopath who wanted to tie up loose ends.

The Devil and Miss Jones (1941)

The Prince plays Pauper

[9/10 · 15 February 2010]

Although very familiar with Charles Coburn, Robert Cummings, Edmund Gwenn, and several other actors, I had somehow missed seeing Jean Arthur before. The blurb in the listings reminded me of the union vs management plot in The Pajama Game. Many comments have already summarized the plot, so I won't bother.

The story is probably as old as monarchy. Subjects of the French Kings and Russian Tsars used to wish that their rulers knew what was really happening in the slums and courts, certain that they would step in and set things right. Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper was a similar tale of educating a young monarch-to-be about the plight of the common man, through the device of a lookalike commoner. I vaguely recall some film about a medieval king dressing down to go amongst his people, and being protected from a horseman's whip by his plainly-dressed knights.

But while rulers or rich folk might be a bit out of touch with the daily travails of their working class, it is hard to believe that Merrick wouldn't actually know that workers had real grievances, and that he would be all-too-willing to spend the money to satisfy them once he was informed. But it was a pleasant fairy tale.

Miracle on 34th Street (1973 TV Movie)

No miracles

[3/10 · 8 December 2008]

Except for his interaction with the staff psychologist, Sebastian Cabot seemed an affable enough Santa Claus, but the writers removed any hint of magic from his portrayal of Kris Kringle. Speaking Spanish wasn't nearly as surprising as speaking Dutch, and the possibly divinely-inspired intervention by the post office was changed into a ruse by Bill, his lawyer (David Hartman). Given Kringle's condescension towards Dr Sawyer (Roddy McDowall), I almost didn't blame Sawyer for taunting the old man.

The little girl was cute, but not a great actress. Jane Alexander must have had a no touching clause in her contract because Karen's romance with Bill was hard to discern. At the end when he proposed, she sort of nodded while they were standing at least three feet apart - which made for a clumsy ending.

Of the supporting cast, Jim Backus was almost invisible, McDowell was fun to watch as always, the actor playing Alfred seemed more like Quasimodo at first, David Doyle played Mr Macy like Scrooge, and Tom Bosley was fairly humorous as the harried judge. The DA and the old pol were very minor characters in this version.

Living with Ed (2007– )

Conservation and Consumption on Cable

[9/10 · 2 June 2008]

Season One: Conservatives of previous generations found prosperity through frugality, but in today's culture, conservatism and conservation share only a linguistic root. Despite his success as an actor, Ed Begley, Jr. has conscientiously sought to organize his life around conservation and simple living. With his wife, Rachelle Carson, as an amusing counterpoint, Begley gives us a very non-threatening introduction to living a 'greener' lifestyle. You won't find heavy discussions of population overshoot, energy uncertainty or climate change, but you will be exposed to new ideas (good for you) and new products (good for HGTV).

Season Two: As in the first season, successful actor Ed Begley, Jr. plays himself as an average Joe dedicated to conservation and simple living. His wife, Rachelle Carson, plays herself as an average Jane that would rather not think about energy one way or the other, mugging her aggravation relentlessly as Ed preaches conservation. Instead of scaring you with talk of climate change, Living With Ed serves up a mix of simple energy-saving tips (the low-hanging fruit) and pricey new technology.

We enjoyed the first season, but after the first two episodes, all we've seen is Ed and Rachelle ooh and aah over Cheryl Tiegs' airy Bel Air hillside estate, and swoon over Larry Hagman's opulent 25,000 SF hillside mansion. To his credit, Hagman has incorporated $750K worth of solar panels, and donates energy to help nearby working class families, but Ed fails to point out that such an immense house for two people, even with a household staff, is extravagantly inefficient.

I'm hoping this series doesn't become Lifestyles of the Rich and Greenwashed.

Carrier (2008– )

American Society in Miniature

[9/10 · 12 May 2008]

I'm a sucker for documentaries. Even though PBS comes in with lots of ghosting and static, I watched the first five episodes, then bought the DVD to watch the rest. My father was a carrier pilot, but beyond that personal connection, it is interesting to see the different military mindsets up and down the ranks. To some extent, our American class structure replicates itself on board the Nimitz. Non-commissioned support grades are highly integrated while command is still largely, though not entirely, white and male. Command staff are generally gung-ho patriotic; Lower ranks are often just as intense but some express, "It's just a job" or, "We're here for the oil" opinions, too. If Carrier is any indication, the Navy offers full employment, hard work, intense supervision and the sort of camaraderie you don't always find on dry land. That so many of these folk admitted they needed all that is a sad commentary on parenting, schooling and society.

The documentary is definitely character-driven, with some personal revelations drawing gasps from my wife, who identified all too well with the working class element on board. One episode featured a good ol' OK boy that just couldn't (or wouldn't) get past his racist upbringing. Another sad moment was the fallout from an inebriated sexual encounter, while on liberty, between two shipmates that barely even knew each other.

Update: I think I can see why some have complained about the personal stories. Whereas the first five or six hours struck a good balance between the requirements of the mission and the personal stories of the crew, the last three or four hours focused almost entirely on personal situations. To some extent this is understandable since the primary mission was completed, but as much as I connected with their stories, all that personal griping did become a bit tedious.

The Foxes of Harrow (1947)

Dark times

[7/10 · 3 March 2008]

Maureen O'Hara is always stunning, but I don't remember seeing Rex Harrison so young and handsome. Even so there wasn't much romance between two such intransigent characters as Odalie D'Arceneaux and Stephen Fox. Their relationship is tragic enough, but the film also makes no apologies for the institution of slavery that haunts the background of so many scenes. Fox starts out as a decent "maitre," who'll work alongside his workers and slaves, but he never recognizes the parallel between his own loss of family and birthright and that of Little Inch, whose fierce mother Belle intends to be a warrior. In that sense "Harrow" may be a more useful look at slavery than in more enlightened films.

Quarterlife (2007–2008)

Well, we liked it

[8/10 · 28 February 2008]

Purely by chance, not knowing that clips had been available on the net, my wife and I watched the broadcast premier of Quarterlife. We were just about to turn in, but flipped to a show we didn't know and gave it a chance. We're certainly not the target demographic, but as we watched the characters stumble around somewhat realistically, I decided that I liked it. My wife liked it, too, probably for different reasons. But something made me wonder how long it would take TV execs to pull the show.

As far as looks, the characters had a certain realism, not the off the street look you might have seen in "Return of the Secaucus Seven," but not the polished glamor of most TV shows, either. The two long-haired brunettes, Dylan the blogger/narrator and Debra the girlfriend were really lanky, almost anorexic. The blonde actress, Lisa, was conventionally cute and has a voice. Danny was handsome in a Matt Dillon sort-of-way, Andy was a complete geek, and Jed, the 'real' film artist was somewhere in-between.

Today's news, various on Google, are calling the pilot a failure, so I'm not sure we'll get to see that many more episodes.

Update: Quarterlife seems to have disappeared from TV, but we found it on the internet, and watched the second episode. The fallout from the Carly business struck me as very believable so far. The office meeting scenes are a bit dramatized, but still very funny.

The Emerald Forest (1985)

Second watching still enjoyable

[8/10 · 23 November 2007]

Emerald Forest is certainly guilty of oversimplifying the displacement of tribal peoples, but I remembered it fondly. I watched it on video, soon after it came out, and again this morning. I found that I had long since forgotten all the flashy aspects of the plot (the cannibals, the machine gun and the sex slavers), but remembered the courtship ritual very clearly. The parts I had forgotten seemed a bit forced, harder to believe.

After my first viewing, I was certain that "Daddee" Bill had blown up the dam. Now I'm not so sure it wasn't coming down anyway.

Also, it was hard not to be reminded of Jungle2Jungle (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119432/) while watching it now, especially where the son mystically finds his father's skyscraper apartment in a large city.

Nancy Drew (2007)

Tongue in cheek

[6/10 · 16 June 2007]

I took my thirteen-year-old daughter to see the film today. As a boy, I had read most of the Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, Encyclopedia Brown, and watched Tom Brown on PBS. She was an avid reader of Junie B Jones, Goosebumps, and had read a few Nancy Drew books.

In the Brady Bunch Movie, they played the innocent past against the present strictly for laughs. In Blast From The Past, I thought they were looking for a wry social statement along with the laughs. It seems to me that Nancy Drew also tried to make some observations and get some laughs out of the juxtaposition, but it was muddled. Emma Roberts soldiered through and we liked her, but Nancy didn't just emerge from a bunker. An LA high school would have been tougher and would have had more minority students, but Nancy's social problems should have been the same back in River Heights. Even in the innocent past, being a teen detective wasn't always safe. The Hardys used to get roughed-up, bound-and-gagged, even shot at, but in present-day LA the bad guys just didn't seem to consider hurting Nancy.

Despite all the logistical problems, my daughter enjoyed watching it, and I think many other young girls will like it, too. I enjoyed Nancy's period outfits and all the anal-retentive jibes, and I think many parents will get some laughs there, too.

Star Trek Phase II (2004–2016)

Retro fun

[8/10 · 18 January 2006]

Watching 'Come What May' and 'In Harm's Way', the first two episodes, I found fault with the sound editing and with some of the acting but managed to find charm in the efforts of the cast and crew. A year later, I thoroughly enjoyed the third and latest episode: 'To Serve All My Days'.

Whereas before I was comparing, I found that I now simply accept Cawley and company as their characters. Familiarity may be a factor, but I also credit the smoother production values of this episode. There were no sound problems, acting was much, much better and the special effects were more judiciously inserted. Staging and blocking made more sense and the comedic touches were much sharper than before. Having DC Fontana write the screenplay had to help, as well.

As in the first two episodes, I liked seeing casual interplay between the lower-ranked crew members. Young Pavel seemed to have good chemistry with Walter Koenig. I can't wait to see George Takei in the next one.

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (2005)

Brave New Films pushes our buttons

[7/10 · 18 November 2005]

I had a generally low opinion of WalMart before, and Brave New Films' documentary only made them seem worse, but I still have questions. WM is well known for persistent, and often illegal, anti-union activity, which is reported in this film. WM is also known for beating down prices, which is not reported. I didn't know that WM has high turnover, or that many stores are purposefully under-staffed.

The sad stories of the losing competitors do not sway me. Mom and Pop operations of all kinds have been giving way to big box operations for many decades. Olive Garden killed my favorite local Italian restaurant, Lowe's is killing my favorite local hardware store and a planned Home Depot will finish the job. That is just competition in the developed world.

What annoyed me were the subsidies and tax breaks that WalMart manages to get from localities. In one case a WM is shown skipping across the town line, abandoning the subsidized big box stores, just before their sales taxes kick in. But more annoying was a lack of perspective: How many big chains and franchises get subsidies? If many do, that would be the logical counter-argument, so I'd like to have gotten the information.

I was also annoyed that WM employees were on public assistance of some kind, but again: How common is this in retail? Do KMart employees get a lot of public assistance? Or not? Apparently there is a lot of crime in WM parking lots. Is there less crime in Walgreen lots, or more? Brave New Films doesn't say. WM sells products from Chinese sweatshops. Hey, even I know they aren't the only ones. WalMart's habit of stockpiling lawn products in the parking lot often leads to toxic runoff, but they aren't the only ones that do that, either.

I still think that WalMart is a very bad employer, and now I know how much of a drain they are on the local economy, but I think Brave New Films failed to demonstrate whether WalMart is all that much worse than the other businesses on the strip, or simply the biggest of a bad lot. Either way, that would be good to know.

The Replacements (2000)

Disappointing

[3/10 · 10 October 2005]

The true story was much more interesting than this fictional, clichéd version. Washington did do well with a team of replacements during the strike season, but they didn't bring in a new coaching staff, they didn't play the last four games of the season, they didn't play misfits like sumo wrestlers and convicts and they didn't hire new cheerleaders. The replacements did beat a Cowboys team that had several returning pros on the field. Winning the strike games helped the post-strike team get into the playoffs (and win the Superbowl).

I'd like to see a semi-documentary of the real events, ending with the replacement players watching the pros win the Superbowl, and imagining themselves in the game.

War of the Worlds (2005)

No rules

[8/10 · 25 July 2005]

My wife and enjoyed the film. I didn't care so much about the EMP nits, but as we approach oil scarcity, I'm disturbed by the message that we must do ugly things to each other to survive. Ray isn't a bad guy, and he has his talents, but he survives by his ability to focus strictly on the survival of himself and his family. So he steals a car, probably the only working car in the vicinity, to escape. I might have done the same, but as they drove by all those people milling around their stopped cars, I was thinking, "At least tell them to take cover!"

I had read about the situation with Ogilvy, but my wife also had a bad feeling as soon as they ducked into the cellar. So we waited for the confrontation. Spielberg didn't let Ray kill Olgilvy in fury or the heat of immediate threat, but with a certain premeditation, as in, "This guy's gotta go before he does anything else to jeopardize my daughter." I suppose what bothers me is that people are already all too willing to lie, cheat and steal to prosper in a civilized situation. Aliens I can deal with, but it is truly scary to countenance a world with no rules at all.

House M.D. (2004–2012)

A literate curmudgeon

[27 June 2005]

House is very entertaining, but occasionally troubling. In his defensive posture as curmudgeon, Dr. House not only keeps people-who-would-be-friends at arm's length, he (sometimes) seems determined to be as politically incorrect as possible. In a way, he reminds me of MASH's Hawkeye Pierce, who gleefully skewered the pretentious, but was tolerated in light of his surgical talent. But House seems to skewer just about anyone within range, and doesn't shrink from sharpening the point with ethnic or sexist provocations. Yet, even though he favors carefully-constructed boob and darkie jokes, we're led to believe that he's really a sensitive soul inside. Other than this bit of PC-baiting, I like the show a lot.

FWIW, I didn't peg him for Bertie Wooster, or a Brit at all, so I'd say his accent is fine.

The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream (2004)

Stating the problem

[8/10 · 25 June 2005]

A truly scary film. Happening across curmudgeon James Kunstler's rants led me to recently-formed web logs like Life After the Oil Crash (LATOC), Energy Bulletin, and The Oil Drum, and the data behind the theory of Hubbert's Peak. Like this film, LATOC and Kunstler paint a grim picture of die-off or die-back. I hope they're premature, but in mid-2005 rising gasoline prices, rising oil prices, Chevron's Will You Join Us campaign, BP becoming Beyond Petroleum and even T Boone Pickens lend credence to the idea that we are at or near a peak of oil production.

After copious research of limited data, oil investment banker Matt Simmons has suggested that the Saudis may no longer be able to increase production in their immense, but aging fields. In the face of increased demand (primarily from the US and China), the Saudis have not responded with higher production, despite previous assurances. Stated world production from 2000 and 2004 indicates that light, sweet crude has indeed peaked. which means that refining will become more costly.

The film seems aimed at baby boomers, but younger people, our children, also need to understand the implications of an energy-depleted future.

Kinsey (2004)

Kinsey opens the floodgates

[8/10 · 8 June 2005]

A conservative webzine listed Sexual Behavior in the Human Male as the fourth most harmful book of the 19th and 20th centuries, placing Kinsey behind only Karl Marx, Adolf Hitler and Mao Zedong. They are still blaming the messenger. Kinsey may have exposed our national preoccupation with sex, but if people were actually reading his books, or even Masters and Johnson, instead of merely watching advertisements using sex to sell, or worse, they'd be a lot better off, sexually and financially.

I enjoyed the film because I learned a few things about Kinsey, his life and his methods that I had not heard elsewhere. I hadn't realized that Kinsey had used his wife and staff to make observations. Or that he had been snubbed after Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. But the key scene was that first inquiry by the "concerned" newlyweds. Kinsey made it his mission to combat that sort of ignorance.

Raid (2000)

Great quirky characters

[10/10 · 8 June 2005]

Character development and acting are the strength of this drama of political conspiracy with dire economic consequences. Piirainen says that the events surrounding Escon are fictional, but in the wake of the collapse of the US company Enron, they are very believable. Kai Lehtinen plays Raid as an instinctive but troubled hero, surrounded by quirky, well-developed characters. Raid is at times almost a superhero, an effective, but self-restrained killing machine, but can be all too human. Lehtinen is stoically handsome, but not a pretty boy.

One wonders if Hollywood could ever cast a leading lady like Mari Rantasila (Tarja), or Kirsti Vaananen (Susisaari), both of whom were very fetching without being runway perfect (or surgically enhanced). Oiva Lohtander (Jansson), Tuula Nyman (Ms Hakala), Juha Muje (Sundman), Esko Salmonen (Uki) and Risto Aaltonen (Hallvik) struck me as utterly convincing in their parts. Pekka Huotari (Huusko) who is called 'Hopo' by coworkers, but Goofy in the subtitles, cracks lame jokes, makes inappropriate comments and delivers obscure lines about Wild Bill Hickock, but manages to be sympathetic. Tapio Liinoja (Hammar) was a deserving villain, not over-the-top, just a self-interested sociopath.

There are many references to American culture: Sundman's Beach Boys songs, posters of Clint Eastwood (homage to Sergio Leone), bottles of Johnnie Walker. There are few recognizable references to any other (non-Finnish) culture, except for automobiles. Two Mercedes, a BMW, a Toyota and a Jaguar figure prominently among the humble Ladas of the police force.

Raid (2003)

More powerful, but less believable than the miniseries

[8/10 · 8 June 2005]

In June of 2005, the Finnish embassy and the MHz channel arranged a special showing of the RAID sequel at the AFI Silver, just outside Washington DC. We stood in line surrounded by enthusiastic Finnish-Americans. Kai Lehtinen and Tapio Piirainen had flown in, signed autographs and posed for snapshots with fans.

The film delivered most of our favorite characters in another involved political conspiracy with economic consequences. Running gags from the series were continued in the film. It was hard to judge if the film was funnier than the series, or if the enthusiastic crowd made it seem more humorous.

The events in the series were fictional, but believable. Raid was still the talented and instinctive hero, and Uki, Tarja, Jansson and Sundman were still very believable characters; the actions they took were plausible enough to suspend disbelief. Sundman's relationship with a plump model was intriguing.

This film was more action-packed, but it was more difficult to believe that the climactic events could have occurred without serious repercussions for Raid and his cohort. And the film's villain wasn't as memorable as Hammar.

After the showing, Lehtinen laughed a lot while he and Piirainen fielded questions from the stage. Kai seemed very surprised and flattered to be a hit in America, but was grounded enough to brush off any talk of leaving Finland to pursue a Hollywood career.