Greenberg

Greenberg is a tense movie by the director of Margot at the Wedding, another movie about difficult people struggling to connect.

Greenberg stars Ben Stiller as an angry, frustrated 40 year old man whose life hasn't worked out as he had hoped. He is house-sitting for his wealthy brother, and reconnects with friends from his past. He also develops a relationship with his brother's assistant. But he pushes everyone away with his self absorption, his irritability, and his hostile outbursts. Most intriguing, disturbing, and somehow charming, was the connection between Greenberg and the assistant, Florence. Although he was abusive toward her, and you don't really want her to be with them, there was something sweet and promising there as well.

Although the movie includes some amusing moments, for the most part I found it too uncomfortable and unsettling to really laugh.

Death by Fire

Today I watched the Frontline episode, Death by Fire, about the Cameron Todd Willingham case. Willingham was executed in Texas for the arson-murder of his three baby daughters. The forensic evidence at the time of the deaths was apparently conclusive, but years later, as he was on death row, other more sophisticated arson experts scrutinized the case and concluded that there was no evidence of arson.

He was executed anyway, and his case has been used by death penalty opponents as proof that an innocent man was executed.

I had been familiar with this story because a few years ago I read an excellent article in the New Yorker about him, and the documentary didn't add too much to it, although it presented interviews with people that remained convinced of his guilt...

The Plea

This week I watched The Plea, a Frontline documentary about the plea bargaining process in the criminal justice system.

With 90% of all criminal cases plea bargained, and only the remaining 10% going to trial, it is important for people to be aware of the injustices in this process, and the institutionally acceptable forms of bullying and coercion that are rampant. The Plea looks at several specific cases, all of them people who are innocent of the crimes they ultimately plead guilty to. This was compelling. However, it would be interesting to explore cases of guilt as well -- which would be a more difficult documentary, really getting at the complexities of the issue.

Schindler's List

Although at first I was a bit bored with the pacing, I soon became fully engaged in Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg's 1990s film about the Holocaust.

Filmed beautifully in black and white, Schindler's List is about a German industrialist who starts off exploiting Jewish labor during the Nazi regime, and ends up so deeply affected by the brutal, brutal treatment and eventually extermination of the Jews that he uses his entire fortune to save them.

It is a moving and memorable and important story. In many ways Spielberg did a brilliant job rendering it. But in spite of the subject matter I couldn't help but feel there was something schmaltzy about it, overly sentimental. The artistic cinematography worked against gritty realism, and sentimentalized or stylized the content. Other than the three leads (Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, and Ben Kingsley) who were outstanding, the characters and the acting was rather two-dimensional and even corny.

I know it's kind of sacrilegious to criticize Schindler's List... I admit I'm dehydrated from crying throughout the entire last hour.

Heavenly Creatures

This morning I watched Heavenly Creatures, a movie from the 90s which I LOVED when it came out. I'm pleased to say it holds up.

Heavenly Creatures is about two teenage girls who develop an extremely intense friendship built on a shared, symbiotic fantasy life. The friendship is all-consuming and sexual, and each girls' family is concerned.
When the family of one of the pair decides to relocate out of the country, the girls, immersed in fantasy, decide to kill the other's mother (this isn't a spoiler -- the murder is plain at the beginning). As Pauline writes in her diary, she understands why she and Juliette are not understood by those around them: "it's because we are both stark, raving mad!"

The director did a brilliant job rendering the fantasies, and the acting by the entire cast was terrific. The film features a very young Kate Winslet (one of my favorite actresses), who is the charismatic one, and the actress playing the sullen and odd Pauline was wonderfully creepy.

My Awesome Place: The Autobiography of Cheryl B

I just finished My Awesome Place: The Autobiography of Cheryl B.

This warm, wry, upsetting memoir focuses on Cheryl Burke's late teens in New Jersey and her twenties in downtown NYC. Corny to say, but it's a coming of age story, about a young woman from a brutal home finding her awesome place in the downtown arts scene. Most moving is the way she rebels against the limitations of her family milieu (her guidance counselor suggested she be a toll booth collector) and insists on being an independent artist.

Her memoir ends at the moment when she chooses sobriety, when she takes a step away from the exciting social chaos of her life, and turns toward the future. Unfortunately, Cheryl Burke's future was tragically short. She died at 38 of "medical malpractice" as it states in the forward, or, complications for Hodgkin's Lymphoma. The afterward by her girlfriend was beautiful and I feel lucky to have had a glimpse into this remarkable woman's life and art.

Every Mother's Son POV

Today I watched Every Mother's Son (POV), a documentary telling the story of three different men who were murdered by NYC police officers, the most famous being Amadou Diallo. The film focuses on the perspective of the victims' mothers, while drawing attention to the issue of police brutality, and the lack of accountability for officers.