Westworld Revisited

Folks, I don't usually do this, but the HBO series Westworld is so extraordinary, I want to give it one more recommendation.

From a well-known premise (based on the 1973 film), this series has ventured far afield. Last night's episode was so shocking I had to watch it a second time to catch all the stuff I missed due to sitting stunned and staring at the screen in open-mouthed surprise.

The cast is superb in this one. But, the champ is Anthony Hopkins. He comes across as an addled old man content to socialize with his "hosts." Then his true personality and motives are revealed and you see doddering kindly old Santa Claus become Hannibal Lecter, icy, dangerous, and without compassion.

I smell an Emmy and/or a Golden Globe.

If you have access to this one already, check it out on demand. It's amazing on several levels.

Please don't miss it. In a host of wonderful series past and present on HBO, this one is the most starkly brilliant of them all.

Until next time...

Arrival

Friday I decided to go to the first showing of The Accountant at the movies. It's the one starring Ben Affleck who is an assassin with issues. I thought I might get some inspiration for my second Inquisitor book (the serial killer inspired by the Inquisition.)

But as I stood in the line for tickets, the woman in front of me bought tickets for Arrival. My brain went "Arrival, the weird one with the aliens..." So I bought a ticket to that one instead. I'd seen the commercials and the previews. It piqued my curiosity.

Arrival is not your stereotypical "hey-the-bad-aliens-have-landed!!!"

Instead it is like being in someone else's dream. Amy Adams, a prominent linguist who teaches at some college/university (it is never clarified), is facing a huge classroom with only four or five students. Frowning, she asks her students where the rest of them are. Then the cellphones start ringing. One of the students asks her to turn on the television to a news channel, please.

She does and they all see a series of strangely shaped alien craft hovering over the Earth in twelve different locations around the world. The students are released for the day and martial law is declared until they know the intent of the extraterrestrials.

Later she sits at home staring out at the view of her exquisite lake home (tell me a university that pays enough to have such a house!) Suddenly a helicopter lands in her yard and military men emerge onto her lawn. A Colonel played by Forest Whitaker comes to her door. It seems she is one of the world's best linguists. She is asked to be a part of the contact team for the craft hovering over Montana.

She finally relents and off she goes.

There she meets a physicist, played by Jeremy Renner, heading the scientific team. Together with military representatives, they make first contact with the aliens.

Everything is indistinct as if enshrouded by mist. The creatures, much larger than humans, resemble enormous squids with seven legs on which they stand. They make loud noises, sometime with so many decibels the theatre seats shook like the old "sensurround" days of the movie Earthquake.  For you younger folk, the tremors in that movie rumbled so loudly and deeply, the chairs seemed to vibrate like they would in a quake...

The visitors have a written language which the professor ultimately deciphers so they are able to communicate. Their reason for coming to Earth will surprise you.

Then the Russians and the Chinese stop all communication with the rest of the world, unable to communicate with the visitors and sure they are hostile. Yep, the Earth is brought to the brink of WWIII.

Tense moments ensue until resolution is reached.

I won't tell you about what they learn or how the linguist learns it...

You need to see it for yourself. I'd give this one a solid nine out of ten. It is a lovely film with memorable characters, an excellent screenplay, atmospheric sets and effects, and a somnambulistic quality (like they are all walking in a shared dream.)

It reminded me of what an able actor Amy Adams is. Also showed me Jeremy Renner's capabilities extend well beyond the Marvel films. (Not that I'm bad-mouthing those - solid fan, here.)

This one will stay with you for a while.

I was so stunned by it when I started writing this post on Friday afternoon, I spelled poor Ben Affleck's name as Afflack. Somehow I knew that was wrong..Why did I see a duck? When I figured it out, I decided to postpone writing this review...

Okay, the Cowboy game is coming on!!!

Until next time...

The Prince of Tides

Okay, now that the election is in the past, I'm going ahead in healing mode by blogging about something beautiful.

This morning, sick of the news and the endless speculation of astonished pundits, I decided to watch The Prince of Tides, a lovely film directed by Barbra Streisand in 1991.

This film is based on one of my top two favorite books (I go back and forth between The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.) I just realized both of them died in the last two years.

Anyway, Conroy, who wrote the screenplay with a partner, was an astonishing writer. A victim of abuse from his hardlined father, he created beautiful lyrical language to describe cruelty committed on children by abusive parents. The prose was so magnificent you could not look away even from the most violent passages. Also, like Harper Lee, he was born and raised in the South. Filled with all the attitudes, history, and social habits unique to this region which many of us call home.

The film stars Barbra Streisand as the NY psychiatrist Susan Lowenstein. Nick Nolte gives one of his best performances as Tom Wingo, jolly football coach, always laughing to hide the severe trauma of his family's past. His sister Savannah, played by Melinda Dillon, has once again tried to commit suicide in her new home of NYC. A noted poet, she has tried to kill herself many times. Tom is called to come to NYC to be with his sister. There he meets Susan Lowenstein, her psychiatrist. The vivid tale moves with grace through an unfolding of long held family secrets as the doctor tries to determine why Savannah is so broken.

This is a powerful film has abundant healing in it, not only for Savannah, but for Tom and Lowenstein as well. The dialogue often matches the incredible prose in the novel.

It's a beautiful film filled with joy and astonishing grief at the past which broke the individual members of the Wingo family. Speaking as a long-time social worker, the responses to the trauma are based in reality.

If you would like to witness healing on a major scale, watch this gorgeous film, or even (gasp!) read the magnificent novel which was the basis for the film.

Pat Conroy also wrote The Great Santini, an autobiography of him, his siblings and his domineering father. If you've read that one or seen the film, you will get an idea just how rough Mr. Conroy's childhood was.

I know it doesn't always make sense, but pain is often the impetus for great literature, films, music, and other artforms.

Art in all its forms also gives us examples of people being able to survive hideous experiences and be healed to live content, fruitful lives.

Have a blessed day as we move on to the future.

Until next time...

Theme from "Jaws", ba dum ba dum

It's coming!! I can see the fin in the water!!!

Forgive my silliness, but the election is now five days from today. Did you ever think it would get here? It's been a long, contentious, agonizing period the like of which we've never encountered in the USA.

Don't worry, this isn't going to be a diatribe for either of the candidates for President. In fact, it has nothing to do with them at all. So take a breath...

No, I'd like to offer some common sense about after the election. Whoever is elected for the office of President, and the down slate of positions (Senate, House, State Legislators, State Judges, Local offices, etc.) - Some people will be very upset if their candidates lose.

Okay, here's my pitch to all of you out there. If we have more of the recent pattern of refusing to work with the opposition we've seen in our Congress over the last eight years, very little will get done. We'll continue to deal with an enormous national debt; health care requirements that do not work; government funding that does not get fixed; issues for our infrastructure (you know like crumbling bridges on the Interstates which fall down and kill people?) Just an example of things that benefit our country and its citizens.

I notice the House and Senate always seem to get their operating budgets (including their salaries) voted into law. Funny thing about that.

What I am asking you to remember is that all of these people work for us.  That's why we vote them into office - to do their job, not posture and preen and get all outraged when the cameras are rolling.

We need to work together as Americans to repair the rift in our country.  We're all in this together.

In January when the new administration takes over, I ask you to study the things which you think are important for us. Email, Tweet, or use Facebook. Contact your Congressman or Senator, let them know what you think. Their contact information will be on the Web.

Most of all, please remember, when the elections are over, it won't be "us" and "them" anymore. It will just be us Americans. Let's face it, except for the Native Americans, we are all members of immigrant families who came here seeking a better life. It will be time to compromise and get to work. Hmmm, compromise is a word we haven't heard much lately.

What will I be doing election night? I have to tell you I already voted. I have been avoiding all the hoopla and speculation ever since. I'm sick of the subject and the schism between us. So I'll start out by watching "Star Trek: Beyond" and then settle down to binge watch a bit of  "Longmire."

What do you expect of a self-proclaimed Pop Culture Diva?

Take care and breathe. This will all be over soon...

Money Monster

Okay, I finally got to see Jodie Foster's film, Money Monster, last night on pay-per-view. I wanted to see it from the time I first saw the trailers at the movies.

Directed by Ms. Foster and produced by George Clooney, Money Monster is a tense drama, riveting to the end. In fact, it was time to feed the dogs, midway through the film. They sat begging at my feet, so I paused the video, got up, fed them, and went right back to watching, foregoing my own meal until after I watched the whole thing.

With an impressive cast and a talented director, this is one to see.

George Clooney stars as Lee Gates, the host of a television show called Money Monster, which uses hip dances and appropriately cheesy pop culture to give the viewers investment tips. Julia Roberts plays Patty Fenn, the longtime director of the program. Dominic West, a talented British import, excellent at playing the wealthy amoral man, plays Walt Camby, the owner of a corporation which lost $800 million dollars literally overnight and bankrupted many of the stockholders. Caitriona Balfe, of Outlander fame, plays his assistant, his mistress, and the one who suspects he was involved in the disappearance of the money. Long time character actor, Giancarlo Esposito, plays the police captain in charge of the SWAT team. Christopher Denham plays Ron Sprecher, whose comic misadventure makes him oblivious to the real danger. Lenny Venito plays Lenny, the cameraman, brave enough to follow all the action.

And last, but certainly not least, Jack O'Connell plays Kyle Budwell, a disgruntled investor who lost all his money by following Gates' advice to buy stock from the company of Dominic West. Wiped out of his meager fortune, he sneaks into the studio as a delivery man while the show is live on the air. He makes it into the studio, pulls out a gun and a vest with a bomb on it. He takes over the studio on live tv and demands Gates put on the vest and explain what happened to his $60,000.

A consummate professional, Patty (Roberts) deftly gives Gates' instructions in his earphone while directing security personnel to call NYPD.

Naturally the situation deteriorates from there with the police wanting to storm the studio and take out Budwell and possibly Gates if the bomb goes off in the melee. Patty starts releasing all nonessential personnel in the background, allowing them to leave the building.

Meanwhile the broadcast is still live. People all over the world are watching and a couple of them are involved. People all over NYC are glued to their devices watching the live drama unfold. When Budwell takes Gates out to the streets, all the while being broadcast by Lenny, the brave cameraman, the situation gets even worse. In the background Diane Lester (Balfe) conducts her own investigation of the stock fall and finds some irregularities. She speaks to people all over the world to find out what really happened.

The film grabs your attention as the people race to find the solution and save Gates.  He understands Budwell and begins to bond with him. Gates has to face some hard facts about himself, learning a painful lesson about his life. Budwell turns out to be a sympathetic character forced by the desperation of his circumstances to act as he has.

The film races to its surprising conclusion and the viewer is left feeling like you've run a marathon...i.e. stunned and drained of energy.

It didn't get great reviews when it was released, but when has that ever stopped me?

This one is a gem filled with good actors, a meticulous director, and a taut script. It also got me thinking about my upcoming inheritance and how NOT to invest it...sigh, reality bites, you know?

Until next time, take care and enjoy our rich and varied pop culture...

I sold my mother's jewels today

Thirteen years after her death and ten months after my dad's I finally sold my mother's jewelry today. Both of my parents wanted me to have the jewelry. In fact the day after Mom's funeral, Dad trotted it all out, informing me it was mine.  He was happy to do it, even smiling. He didn't understand when I said I didn't want it.

He kept pushing and pushing until I yelled at him. "I want my mother not the blasted jewelry!" His face took on the puzzled expression I would see more frequently as he slipped into dementia.

Knowing he'd just lost his wife and would never understand anyway, I gathered up the jewelry and packed it away for my return trip to Texas.

Thus began the saga of my mother's jewelry. He asked if I wanted him to place her large solitaire diamond ring with a local broker to sell and I agreed. After a few months it sold. So I didn't have to see it or think about it. The rest I plunked in a safe deposit box and ignored. Once I went and got out a couple of rings and a diamond bracelet for a role I was playing in a current production. Other than that, I never wore it.

I probably sound like a brat. Maybe I am, but here's the deal...money and the pursuit of it ruined my family. My entire life my parents were all about money. I understand why. They were both children of the depression who grew up in genteel poverty.  Both of my grandfathers worked when others didn't. My mother's father worked construction in Miami at a time when the resort was beginning to boom. My father's father worked in law enforcement, so he always had a job. But he had six children to feed. In my mom's family there were three daughters.

Money or lack thereof was a frequent topic of discussion in their respective homes. They came to think with money they would always be safe and free of fear. Of course they were both taught otherwise frequently as adults but clung to their core belief. It was the only refuge they knew.

As a child I recognized the emptiness of pursuing wealth. I never wanted to drive a new Cadillac every year, sparkle with jewels, or wear dead animals on my back. I grew up to be a hippie. People were more important to me and I ended up in social work. My values were opposite of both my parents. I worked for the poor, the neglected, the abused, and the exploited. I went places law enforcement wouldn't go, at times knowing my life was in danger. But I went anyway because those people needed an advocate.

My parents aged and Dad retired, no longer the "big wheel" he once had been, and smarting from it. They were at a loss in retirement. Dad played golf in his expensive country club neighborhood. My mother, always shy, mostly stayed home, seeing few friends, and drinking more until she got so sick she didn't drink at all. She never connected well with people except by being the richest one in the group. Where they lived their last years everyone was on their economic level, some even higher. Her life crumbled around her. She shrank into herself and into a bourbon or vodka bottle, her diamond rings flashing as she lifted the glass to her lips for another drink.

Bedfast for seven months, gradually she put away all her fancy jewelry, wearing only her wedding rings until the day before she died. She asked Dad to put them away finally.

All of Dad's accoutrements of wealth went the same way during the ten years I was his caregiver. One by one everything slipped away. He was no longer able to physically play golf. He finally agreed to sell his beloved Cadillac, couldn't figure out how to change the time on his Rolex and wore his beloved golf clothes which hung on his much smaller frame. The last time he wore them was the last time he went to the hospital. He was wearing them when they wheeled him into the ER. He stayed there over a week and went to hospice care. The rest of his life he wore pajamas.

He was called before the homeowner's association board for the condition of his yard. He shuffled into the meeting in a stained jacket, one of his golf hats and one of his ensembles for the golf course. He was sadly arrogant, a ghost of the man he had been. He laughed at the board with scorn, saying "you don't know who I am. You can't do anything to me." They gave him a deadline to fix the dollar weed problem or face fines. He walked out of there, the shadow of the international vice president he had been, a satisfied smirk on his face. The next day he had forgotten about it, his own perceived victory vanished into what was left of his mind. I arranged for the treatments to the yard and wrote the checks to pay them.

Their house has long since sold to a new family who did extensive renovations. Dad is buried beside Mom at a local cemetery. All the things which were their benchmark for the success of their lives are dispersed.

I sold a few pieces of Mom's jewelry when we had the estate sale. Someone bought them for his wife. They had an important anniversary coming up. The woman who ran the sale said he was thrilled. I'm glad. I hope she enjoys them.

I didn't sell the rest of her jewelry while Dad was alive. I didn't want to hurt him. He'd lost so much already.

Earlier this week, a local jeweler announced they were setting appointments for buying jewelry. So I made one,drove out there this morning and sold everything I brought. They didn't pay much. I didn't expect them to. For all the baubles, rings, bracelets, a diamond heart shaped pendant, and a Baume & Mercier gold and diamond watch, I got ten cents on the dollar. That's okay. I'll use the money I got to pay expenses for Dad's estate, still not settled.

Our family life was what it was. I accepted it and went my own way, knowing I couldn't change anything.
Today I grieved once more for my lost parents.

Freed of the burden of the jewelry, I thought I'd feel better, but I am numb.

It will pass.

Until next time when I promise another movie review, take care...blessed be.

Westworld - HBO

The original film, Westworld, opened in 1973 taken from work by Michael Crichton, known in those days for his books such as The Andromeda Strain.

After months of advertising and teaser clips, HBO premiered their new much-anticipated limited series. The first episode of the series Westworld aired last night in the coveted time slot True Blood once occupied.

It starts out with background staff of the amusement park known as Westworld investigating some unanticipated malfunctions in the robotic units, known as hosts to the visitors at the park. The action switches to a scene between Ed Harris, playing The Man in Black, Evan Rachel Wood, playing Dolores Abernathy, and James Marsden, playing Teddy Flood.

The scene is a tease. Marsden has been followed by the camera from the beginning, giving the impression he is a visiting guest. The hosts are not able to kill the guests, their guns do not function when pointed at a human being. However in a confrontation with the Man in Black over Dolores Abernathy, Teddy Flood, whose shots were ineffective against his adversary is "murdered." The unaffected Man in Black drags a screaming Dolores into a barn where he shuts the door as the screaming intensifies. Then it's the next morning, Dolores is walking around the town with a smile on her face as she greets Teddy who is all hale, hearty, and also smiling. They have no memory of the night before.

Get the picture? Westworld is an amusement park for the very rich and salacious segment of the human population. When humans come to Westworld, they are free to do whatever they wish to the hosts. The hosts on the other hand may never harm a human. Even the horses, dogs, cows, etc are robotic doubles of biologicals.

Uh huh.  The advertising slogan for the 1970s movie, was "Westworld, where nothing can go worrngg."

In the original, the androids revolted and massacred the guests not only in Westworld, but in two other adjoining parks with similar themes. Two guests, played by Peter Fonda and Blythe Danner, managed to outwit The Man in Black, played by Yul Brynner as a gunfighter in the same all black outfit he'd worn in The Magnificent Seven thirteen years before. He was one of the androids determined to kill the pair. He followed them until he was finally incapacitated and could no longer move, thus allowing their escape. (I fell in love with him when I was six years old and some neighbors took me to see The King and I, the big movie that year. Bless him that man had GRAVITAS...)

From the first episode of the HBO series, I sense this one is going to be much darker, more malevolent than the original.

It's eerie and evocative with lots and lots of completely naked hosts, all shapes, all sizes, all ages. Lots of shots in one scene of unclothed hosts sitting on stools taken from behind, their derrieres unflatteringly displayed. (Just imaging mine displayed that way made me put away the sugar free chocolate!) In the first episode, very little was not shown, particularly on the men. So this probably isn't something for young impressionable children to watch.

There was the usual statement about nudity and sexual situations so trust the disclaimers on this one.

There is also some graphic violence depicted with the "guests" cheering and guffawing as they shoot down the hosts one by one in horrendous, blood spurting gore.

After one particularly brutal scene, I thought "yep, I know where this is going..."

Anthony Hopkins plays Dr. Robert Ford the creator of the citizens of Westworld.  He is seen, an amiable Geppetto, examining one of his creations while he and Bernard Lowe (Jeffrey Wright) examine a malfunctioning unit. The host has developed "reveries" or gestures which he was not programmed to do. They decide the gestures may be a precursor to more unlearned behavior, or in other words, trouble.

I have my thoughts on what will happen, but I'll save them for the end of the series. Let's see if I'm correct. Knowing HBO, they'll have some twists in this one, no one expects.

Filmed on location in Utah, the scenery is breathtaking, a true picture of the old west. The wooden town is surrounded on all sides with sand, scrub vegetation and majestic mesas.

Just remember this is the place where nothing can go "worrngg."

Enjoy.