tfclougher Reviews

Sisi (2021– )

shoshanim and revisionism

[7/10 · 10 April 2024]

I agree with that review. You need to research. I looked at the writers and could not find Allison Pataki, who wrote a book entitled, I believe, entitled Sisi. She was a Wittelsbach from Bavaria as was, I believe, Franz Joseph's mother. Pataki sounds like a Slovak name, certainly a name from Austria-Hungary. Of course, Allison cited many sources of research; but imagine the stories she heard from aunts and uncles and grandparents.

By 1914, Franz Joseph was a doddering old fool insulated from reality by his handlers. He was jealous of the chosen heir, his nephew Franz Ferdinand, whom FJ saw as waiting for him to die. So FF gets assassinated, everybody gets their backs up, WWI begins and Franz Joseph dies in 1916. The Brooklyn TABLET of that Roman Catholic diocese mourned the loss of their brother in Christ. The USA was still neutral in 1916 so it was OK to say that. One wonders if Sisi would have had a more conciliatory influence against Kaiser Wilhelm's Prussian bullies.

So I haven't seen it yer but I read the book and am looking forward to the Masterpiece showing. Allison Pataki is the daughter of the former governor of New York State.

Ransom (1996)

My cousin

[8/10 · 14 October 2023]

John Brian Rogers, my cousin's husband, played a police officer with one line in this. He had a credit. Noe I have to see the movie. John was a member of SAG and had some 180 uncredited extra roles. He was credited in Ransom and Dottie Gets Spanked (spanked as put in her place, brought down a peg), He had a prop police uniform and lost it once. He had to undergo an interrogation. Serious reality.

His last name was Concannon but there was Jack Concannon from Brian's something so he used his middle name and mother's maiden name. SAG was on speed dial and he always took their call. I think he had royalties. That would be in a SAG contract and them striking to keep their benefits. He would have been on the picket line if he were still with us.

Who Is Erin Carter? (2023)

Characters

[10/10 · 25 September 2023]

The whole idea-save that kid, Harper-is right on. An unusual premise. Ein did not wait to see if there would be better outcome for the criminals including Harper's birth mother. They were done physically or civilly. And the kid! I have a 9-year old granddaughter. That stretchiness and poise and self-awareness and dependency on a good word from her Mom. I loved Matt Damon in Bourne when he lept three stories in an alley to crash into a bathroom to have a martial arts punchout in a two-by-two room. I was on the edge of my seat with the sense of menace. I admired actors from other shows. Anyone could help or hurt you. There was good in the bad and bad in the good. That's life. And Erin was damned if she wasn't going to give a life to Harper.

A Love Affair: The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Story (1978 TV Movie)

Two touches

[9/10 · 2 January 2023]

I gave it 9 because no one believes 10. First touch: Lou comes home and makes love to his wife on the bathroom floor. Second touch: Lou defends his wife in German against his mother starting with, "Mutter," lay off. The Yankees were owned by Jacob Rupert. My Irish-German-American friend had a grandfather, last name Teufel (devil) who was a truck driver for Rupert Breweries. So, my friend was an ardent Yankees fan. Germans were mistreated in the 1920s because of the negative war propaganda. A kind of cancel culture thing. All the other good things have been said by other reviewers. I just liked it. And Blythe Danner, too.

The Rising of the Moon (1957)

My mother loved it, I think.

[10/10 · 31 August 2022]

We went to see a trilogy. And one of it had a shy Irish man getting up the resolve and courage to ask for his love's hand. He awkwardly asks, "Would ye like to be buried with me people?" She jumps to reply, "I would!" Or was that Wee Geordie? Be as it may, my mother was laughing out loud. She was born in Sneem, County Kerry, Ireland. I think there was a travelogue feature. A young freckle-faced boy was asked how far a place was. He said, "A mile and a bit." The narrator said the bit was longer than the mile. I gave it a ten. Why not? John Ford? Who knew? I have to see The Rising... again just to remember Lady Gregory's take on 1921. The policeman's quandry over his sympathy for the offender recalls The Irish RM who had to consider the opinion that the locals had of him. Irish is local and stands against the central. See the Waking of Ned Devine. Judicious larcency. That's what it is.

Monsieur Vincent (1947)

If only they had listened

[10/10 · 10 July 2022]

I saw this film at St. John's Prep in Brooklyn, NY, around 1959. The school was run by the Vincentian Fathers (Congregation of Missions-CM). I was surprised to see that Jean Anouilh had written the screenplay; he also wrote Becket. It was somewhat episodic. But I remember each one. He was not a patsy. Food line for the needy. He stops one man and feels his muscles and asks what's wrong with him. Instead, he steers him to a job on the docks. A job is a job and one could argue about unionizing later.

Inventing Anna (2022)

Hoist by their own petard

[10/10 · 16 February 2022]

A little Shakespeare quote there: some people destroy themselves. Anna's friend from the hotel said it. Anna could read people and their greed. The marks wanted to believe her fantasies because they were in an unreal mind-frame: why work, plan, be restrained, save, produce when you caaaan influence and bedazzle. I wanted Julia Garner to succeed. I saw her describe how she built Ann's accent. Loved it. Grating? Anna probably grated on people not in her trap, people with sense. What Anna was building was nothing. She was just riding other people's excesses. Anderson Cooper said the Vanderbilts made their fortune vanish in three generations by lavish building and expecting their taste to be the norm. It was le frisson d' eau sur la mousse: the shimmer of water on the foam (of a breaking wave). Insubstantial fluff. A description of the 1890s, end of century, Belle Epoque, when plutocrats reigned. There are still people living on image and gullible confidence and people falling for it. They have only temselves to blame.

Hatfields & McCoys (2012)

One Scene

[8/10 · 7 October 2021]

As one reviewer said: see it to get the history.

Ranal McCoy at one point rides in and says, "God damn you, Anse Hatfield!" Anse, a preacher, goes in and comes out with his rifle which he pumps and says, "One more word about God-whose side He's on-and that horse you're on will be riding out of here without you on it." Ranal left.

They were both Confederates in a war that both side invoked God as supporting them.

Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972)

When you taken from life, you don't waste it when you return to life

[9/10 · 12 August 2021]

The Crusade Francis was on was a war between Assisi and Perugia (the city that retried Amanda Knox three times). Francis's friend was killed and Francis was in a cell or in a coma.

But it is Clare that impressed me. My readings of their lives said Clare was ahead of Francis in caring for the people. Now she is seen as a saint for her being locked up in a monastery in poverty and asceticism. Francis was not about that. He and Domingo Guzman (Dominicans) were preachers without a benefice like priests and bishops and worked to rebuild "my Church," as Francis's vision of Christ told. First, it was literal (stones and mortar) and then, the people. He refused Holy Orders and lived off gifts from the people. He became a Deacon so he could distribute Communion to his followers. But he was a preacher like the followers of Waldo in Northern Italy and others in Europe. Cardinal Hugolino got a hold of him and gave him a constitution, although, as one said, "Who could contain such a spirit within a structure?"

He and Clare were geniuses of connection. All life was on a continuum like the electro-magnetic continuum. Physically, the sun's radiation and the rain's water give growth. Organically, it stretches from simple cells which feed other organisms up through rational animals whose specific difference or soul is thought. But Francis never lost sight of the closeness of other creatures who either bond with mankind or live wild .

Choices of the Heart: The Margaret Sanger Story (1995 TV Movie)

Like my daughters

[9/10 · 4 August 2021]

Dana Delaney is Irish/Anglo like my daughters. Her resemblance to Margaret Higgins Sangers is uncanny. The Higgins is crucial. Higgins is a Roscommon (Ireland) name and people from there have a ten percent leg up toward sainthood.

Sanger thought abortion was dangerous. Better to prevent pregnancy. Her mother 11 births and 7 miscarriages in 22 years and died of tuberculosis at. Say, 42. It's lie, "See. She had all those births and lived." It's like she was the Catholic Mother of the Year. Like the early planes: we're up in the air, 5 seconds, ten seconds and so so on, we're flying! Then, Crash! Wish I had used birth control.

Comstock was against pornography, immorality, prostitution, indecency. His group was. He used the group for his main goal: making sure that the right people did not limit their offspring. A kind of eugenics. Like anti-immigrant, including the Irish of which Sanger was one. But decency: in one scene the board of the group reads Sanger's instructions for inserting a pessary into the vagina. They visibly shiver in disgust. Puritanical vs. Sanger's realistic scientific experience. She was a public health nurse. You know. An essential person.

I see her as one of the three women New York City saints: Mother Elizabeth Seton, Dorothy Day and Sanger. Saving lives. Not so much concerned about whether God exists or Bishops are infallible.

The Aeronauts (2019)

So what?

[8/10 · 19 June 2021]

I found this title (The Aeronauts) by looking for collaborations (Redmayne and Jones) like The Theory of Everything. Jones' character kept Stephen Hawking alive and productive and a father when his body was running out of stamina with ALS until the relationship became nurse to patient. His wife went on to her academic success with Hawking always willing to praise her to the high heavens. My point is that saviors are neither male nor female; they are human. Hooray for my side is a distraction. The drama of "knowing the ropes" without getting your hands frozen to them like Schwartz's tongue in A Christmas Story is gripping (pardon the pun). Using the same two people who rescued each other in one movie makes the story of the second more promising of the same. A box office draw. Imagine two men rescuing each other without knowing their story ahead of time and you have a recipe for viewers saying maybe not this one. Miss Swan in 1905 discovered galaxies by calculating light shift on photographic plates of stars. Who knew there were galaxies outside of ours? Men were conditioned to think they knew everything by divine ordination. Women did not think they knew it all and were open to evidence. (Her boss did credit her for her findings but he got the Nobel Prize. She died before the Nobel considered honoring her.) Finally, being an acrobat who knew balloons was unusual for a woman but daring and useful for a daring scientific quest. I gave it 8 to kick it up to an 8 but the median is pretty solidly 7. Started slow but pulled you right in when they were up.

State of Play (2009)

Cheney

[10/10 · 7 May 2021]

Liz Cheney is in the news for bucking the Trump-Republican line. Jimmy Fallon did her father as Darth Vader doing an at-a-distance death choke on her opponents. But Cheney was the architect of mercenaries in Irag through a company that he had an interest in. And if a reporter tried to ferret that out, Darth Vader would have appeared. I was on the edge of my seat for who the next victim would be. Free press. No less.

Good Girls (2018–2021)

I love-hate this show

[10/10 · 10 April 2021]

I get depressed seeing how trapped they are. It's like Shonda Rimes is saying this is what slavery is like: no exit. Just when they think they are out, they keep pulling them back in. I can't take my eyes off it. I want to know when it's on to see it or ask for it on demand.

A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002)

I agree

[10/10 · 21 December 2020]

I read the top review and agree totally. I was so disappointed when it ended I bought the two season set of discs. I kept waiting for it to return. The Timothy Hutton went on to Leverage and I enjoyed that. The ensemble (that's what they call the same actors as different characters each week was fun. It was acting. It was storytelling. And finally, I loved finding out that Wolfe was Montenegrin and was a guerrilla partisan in the war. "The war" would have been WWII as the setting was NYC in the 50s. The novels would have had WWI, an equally bad time in the Balkans, as it was for The Shadow (LaMar Cranston), a PTSD victim who went to Nepal for relief. Wolfe suffered hunger and became obsessive about food. Wars do that to people. It's real. So was Nero Wolfe.

Holiday Inn (1942)

Peg Reilly

[8/10 · 11 December 2020]

I always wondered what happened to Marjorie Reynolds. Now in my twilight years, I discovered that she was Peg Reilly with Bill Bendix on the radio "The Life of Reilly". Like the WWII vibe of this movie, Reilly worked in an airplane factory-a dee-fainse plant. A result of WWII. Just as blackface and anti-Asian prejudice died out. The crucible of war and its causes made people think. Oh, and eugenics. That was so popular and the Germans sent people over in the '30s to learn from us. The shock of how far the Germans carried it put the kibosh (a WWII word) on that movement. "White Christmas" hit when people really felt the absence of family overseas. Scripts became sanitized. From isolation we went international and feared the competition from Joe Stalin. Nobody spoke their mind for fear of being labelled anti-American. Reilly was a simple, bumbling working stiff. "Father Knows Best" was the man as the linchpin of the the home. In the 1930s, the radio version of it was "Father Knows Best?" with a question mark. Women were sassy in the 30s. After the war Wonder Woman was carried by the oh-so-strong Steve, her man. Of course, the men took back the jobs that the women held for them, Willingly relinquished, the women could now have children. And the men were paid more than enough to raise those families. The 1954 White Christmas got rid of the blackface and the Black cook and the women were competent in their own right. But Peg Reilly was still a homemaker. And the military-industrial-union complex was building.

Fatima (2020)

I went to Our Lady of Fatima

[10/10 · 30 August 2020]

I did. And my parents' neighbor Mr. Baker (Bakir) from Jordan sent his children to that Catholic school which had the name of Mohammed's daughter in it and must have been comforting to their Muslim sensibilities. The nuns even had habits that bordered on burkas. Portugal as part of the Iberian Peninsula was under Muslim rule from 700 or so until the Reconquista gradually drove the Muslims back until 1492. Portugal was clear earlier. This led to fear of fifth columnists among the Jews and Muslims who converted rather than be expelled. Hispania under the Muslims was very tolerant and prosperous. Thomas Aquinas used Greek texts of Aristotle and others that an infiltrator translated into Latin, if not received as a gift. But the Catholic takeover became hysterical looking for subversion everywhere. The monarchy, of course, was absolute.

1917, Portugal entered the war. Spain was neutral. The government was anti-clerical seeing the Church as an arm of the monarchy and an enemy of the people. When what happens? The Blessed Mother appears to the children. How convenient. The Twenties followed with a dictatorship more friendly to the Church and its privileges. Like Russia after Gorbachev, Portugal took the handcuffs off too soon. The people were ready for for a miracle rather than the hard work of seeing problems and finding solutions. "If they will not listen to the Law and the Prophets, not even a man rising from the dead will change your brothers," said Abraham to Lazurus in the story. And, "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord," shall be saved but eveyone who does the will of my Father will." And it was not a pious Jew who was a good neighbor but a despised heretic Samaritan. Of course, some of the prophesies called for repentence and kind behavior. That's good. But the anti-clericals were probably looking for justice and common good too.

Why a ten? Anything that has Goren Visnjic in it can't be bad. And we are going to see it. Even with my historical reservations.

The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019)

Found it

[8/10 · 24 November 2019]

We just saw Ford v Ferrari which had a sub-theme of the driver's relationship to his son and his aspirations. What was that other racing picture like that? After a frustrating search: Bingo! Milo Ventimiglia in The Art of Racing in the Rain. And it was about a dog, right? I liked it and gave it an 8 just so the algorithm would not think I was a shill. What is it about sports that could kill you? These racers are not reckless. They are rational, in touch with their engines, suspensions, steering wheel, gears, spoilers. They know the angles and how to take a turn. They are spatially-oriented, mathematical. He even tells his daughter that if she tries this, he'll kill her. It's taking calculated risks. He ends up in Formula One big time with his daughter along for the ride. The first time I saw Milo Ventimiglia he was going underground with Brittany Snow in that show with Tom Verica and Estes (now Jamie Reagan) in American something during the Vietnam Experience. We never declared war. Or did we. Italian guy. Just like Enzo Ferrari. America wasn't always Anglo-Saxon. Or Spanish. Who was here first?

Dead to Me (2019–2022)

Linda Cardellini

[10/10 · 1 June 2019]

She was one of Don Draper's interests in Madmen and Tony Lip's wife in The Green Book. I, too, love seeing Christina Applegate. Her face says, "I have something funny to say to you." In Dead to Me she's saying, "This is f-g hilarious." I have my guesses how they'll get Linda's character out of it. And what was wrong with Christina's? Can't wait. Meanwhile, I'll check out Ozark. All these shows say there are more screwups in the world than we care to acknowledge and people are enmeshed in them.

Shazam! (2019)

Foster homes are only the beginning

[10/10 · 11 April 2019]

My wife worked with children and is always pissed by the way foster parents are depicted. She liked how Shazam presented them. The grumpy kid? He nods hello. Close enough. Real enough. And the parents know it.

Beyond that. My wife thanked me for "dragging" her to this. I grew up on Captain Marvel in Fawcett Comics. I said where's Dr. Sirvana? It's Sivana and he's here My Sivana had a wicked overbite (you might say buck-toothed, almost like a stereotyped Japanese about whom we were still uncertain in 1954) with a hatchet face. I think he worked in a laboratory. Mark Strong played him as relentless.

I looked for the subway. Billy Batson had a crutch and sold newspaper and would go down into a subway station to get his powers. The movie had a subway once, maybe twice. Good enough. He turned into someone who looked like Fred McMurray who was a friend of the artists who used his image for Captain Marvel. Here Freddie has the crutches. Why quibble?

In short, the positive reviews are right. As Gomer Pyle would say, "Shazam!"

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Universal Frenzy

[5/10 · 16 December 2018]

This was a bit of a shell game, quick changes, shifting focus, frenzied light show on top of scientific jargon to draw us into believing that something was accomplished. "Timeless" had the same conceit: go to the past to change it so that your wife and child would return. But history was present to provoke thought and I-didn't-know-that moments. I felt sorry for the gangster who produced the fantastic machine: he loved his wife and child. Sometimes death is death. The saving grace is that we miss the dead and remember them. as in Coco. Also a fantastic animation. So, on that basis, the cartoon worked. Marvel is over the top. I loved Peter Parker as paunchy. His wife missed him because he dove into his rescue work. A death of a marriage, each rescue escapade was another nail in the coffin. The visual jokes were good. The "heart" was there. Stan Lee was there as usual. We miss him, but his "heart" lives on. A bit much for the preschoolers. Cool for the older ones. Narrative lacking cohesiveness for the retired. Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" confused me at the time. I suppose I was supposed to "get it" but the visuals for his entry into whatever he was entering were cheesy. But, like this Spider-Man, some visuals just danced, like the Blue Danube playing while the ships docked. Swinging through a forest? Superb.

Instant Family (2018)

I laughed

[9/10 · 18 November 2018]

I laughed. About foster home kids. The social workers were balanced. One by the book but knowing what's real. The other-Olivia Spencer-keeping it real but canny. And I was tearing. Seeing a four-year old desperate to be with "Mom" vs. her mother just out of jail is teary. Very good.

Murdoch Mysteries: Sir. Sir? Sir!!! (2018) Season 12, Episode 6

Wellesian

[8/10 · 5 November 2018]

I agree: lighten up AND get out of the logical bind of everybody is involved. Maybe it will be explained. My quibble is: Why did H.G. Wells not show up? But he did! When Murdoch and his wife went nerd and got into explaining comet/meteorite trajectories and burn rates in the atmosphere and the possible presence of other planets at great distances-that was H.G. Wells in at least one of his works. Unbelievable? My father said people went nuts in 1938 over an H.G.Wells story. Hysteria is very powerful. My heading has a double meaning: let those with eyes to read understand.

Coco (I) (2017)

Pagan stereotypes

[10/10 · 30 November 2017]

Some feel that COCO honors pagan holdovers. The "genius" of Christianity of the Roman Catholic sort was to adapt what people had to teach a lesson. Look at the Chinese. Missionaries, Catholic and Protestant, saw ancestor worship as idolatry. Now they say it is merely remembering the past, learning the good from it and letting go of the failures. Christmas came from the Saturnalia. During that time, Romans were ordered to be cheerful and generous. On one of the days, servants and masters reversed roles, getting back to the golden age when men were one and in community. Besides who lets anyone freze or starve during the deadliest, darkest time of year. All Saints Day took over Samhain, the Druidic first day of winter when the boundaries between the worlds went down. Saints have always been those who are "with God", doing good, being human beings, mensches. Some are declared to be with God and "worthy of imitation". The idea of the soul is a pagan construct. The Hebrews believed that you did not worship God from the grave. But God is abstract, no dimension or measurement, Being itself, not a being among other beings. God is present where there is Truth, Justice, Charity. And the dead are still "with God" if they were with God in life. They are with God in memory. As the elder Muslim said in a Town Called Alice, "Who cares for women and children has God not far from him," when asked to help wandering mothers and their children in Japanese-occupied Malayia in 1942. All Saint and All Souls teach that: remember the good that your family did and follow it. They loved you. Love others. It is an ordinary concept for ordinary people. It is not some ritual performed at a High Mass in the Cathedral for the rich hacienda owners or the capitalist elite. It is Francis of Assisi, pedestrian, barefoot, not a priest, not in the hierarchy, looking for the man or woman who needs help or a helping hand, who works alongside the men and women in the fields or the factories, who dresses in overalls. So there. COCO has that kind of heart.

Wonder Woman (2017)

WW and WWI

[10/10 · 6 June 2017]

There might be a spoiler here I give ten out of ten to anything that "holds together" meaning "has integrity". This movie had something to say and said it. Wonder Woman was the creation of Professor Marston, a feminist. There is a whole book about it, him and his creation.

World War I (The Great War, The War to End All Wars, what irony) was only the first act of a twenty-year truce. The Treaty of Versailles and related treaties set up all the problems that we face now. Think of France and Great Britain dividing up the Middle East with no regard to ethnic and religious interpretation boundaries. Bad choices were made. And choice is a matter of love, which is what Wonder Woman is about, which is neither male nor female. That and kick-ass fighting skills. Both require being attentive. Humans are flawed but are known by their choices. In Existentialist terms, "Man is known by his projects." Think of the Flood. Mankind had become so bad that the gods (the Flood story comes from the Gilgamesh and is in Genesis) wanted to destroy it. But He, They, won't do it again. According to Jared Diamond, societies "choose" to fail or succeed. Some people choose to blame God, Allah, the gods, the devil, whatever. Events overwhelm them rather than what they think of events. This movie has that philosophical vibe without losing the tension.

That's enough. Well done. WWI has always held a fascination for me. My Irish immigrant uncles left Great Britain only to end end up fighting to save them from their bad choices.

Gifted (2017)

Play

[10/10 · 30 April 2017]

Play, slack, give, forgiveness, creativity. A drive belt that is too tight will break. Snap. Charles Whitman was an Eagle Scout early, always working toward something. A perfectionist. He received a military scholarship to college and lost it because he "played" some. He acted young and enjoyed himself. Then he went up into the Texas Tower and started picking people off. Snapped. The teenage girls in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, snapped from constant fear and overwork. There was no give, slack or play. So they "malingered" and spent their time accusing neighbors of consorting with the devil. Who cares if someone solves some esoteric mathematical problem. If math turns you on, good. But perfection is the enemy of the good. Thomas Edison and other inventors were noted for finding solutions by sleeping on it. The subconscious brain put it all together and bypassed the logical, conventional picture. Play. Very important.