Saturday
My memory is still good but not what it once was. As I was watching this week’s movie fix, courtesy of Netflix by mail, the story was familiar. I wondered if I’d seen it in another form, perhaps as a documentary, as I was certain I would have remembered the presence of Shirley MacLaine, whose work I’ve always enjoyed. I checked my queue at the site and, sure enough, I’d rated the flick, meaning I’d seen it. No matter, it was worth seeing again. Bernie (2011) is the story of an affable assistant funeral director who is loved by the small Texas town he serves. Jack Black, resembling William Conrad, is excellent as the lead. Matthew McConaughey is perfectly cast as the DA. It is based on an article by Skip Hollandsworth in Texas Monthly, adapted to the screen by Richard Linklater, who also directed. Its tagline is: “A story so unbelievable it must be true.” It does have a surreal quality. It is sort of a faux documentary. One of its best aspects is the commentary of actual citizens, which lends uncanny authenticity to the narrative. The tone is light despite the grim act at the film’s center. I raise my original rating of three to four. The running time is 94 minutes. Made on a budget estimated at five million, it doubled that at the box office and surely added to that handsomely with streaming and DVD sales and rentals. 61,000+ users at IMDb have rated Bernie, forging to a consensus of 6.8 on a scale of ten. Here are Black & MacLaine in character, photo from Google Images:
RIP Robbie Coltrane, 72, always a lively screen presence, often larger than life. He is known best for his work in the Harry Potter series, but he did so much more, including two appearances as a Russian in the 007 series. Born Anthony Robert McMillan in an upper middle-class family in Glasgow, he changed his name because of his love of jazz. He was on stage at twelve, doing parts of Shakespeare’s Henry V. In 1973 he made a documentary, Young Mental Health, voted Film Of The Year by the Scottish Education Council. He then did standup as well as theater. There are 111 titles under his name at IMDb, a figure that does not include the multiple appearances he made on TV shows. He has four credits writing for TV and one for directing The Comic Strip Presents Brit series. Nominated six times for a BAFTA, he won three for his portrayal of Cracker, a Manchester criminal psychologist. He is a father of two sons. Here’s a quote attributed to him: “I love films where the world seems to be going a bit faster and everything’s a bit brighter and more in focus.” Well done, sir. Thank you. Photo from GI:
From a newsmax article by Nicole Wells, edited by yours truly: “…researchers at North Carolina State University…found that Google’s email platform Gmail sent Republican emails to spam at a rate approximately 820% higher than similar Democrat fundraising emails during the 2020 election cycle.” It’s another reason why Republicans have such a tough road in the so-called battleground states where the divide is approximately 50–50.
Headline from foxnews.com: “House candidate makes porn video to show ‘Sex Positive’ commitment.” NYC’s Mike Itkis is running as a liberal independent hoping to unseat career politician Jerrold Nadler. I wonder how feminists will react to this. As far as I know, most view porn as sexist exploitation. Or has that changed?
My thanks to the lovely young woman who overcompensated me for five Reader’s Digests, the only sale of today’s session of the floating book shop. The sting was alleviated by the appearance on my bank statement of a small royalty payment from Amazon, where someone purchased both a print and E copy of Close to the Edge a while ago. My thanks to whomever it was.
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