The Contender

The Contender features Joan Allen as a woman nominated to fill the Vice President's position. The movie focuses on process of confirming her. Explicit material surfaces early on about her having had a lurid college encounter with several boys at a frat party. The Contender is about politics, and the ruthless divisiveness of the system. Joan Allen's character remains steely and calm, refusing to address the allegations, which is at times very tense and frustrating to watch.

The Contender is taut and riveting, with complexities and plot twists, and very, very good acting.

Fear of Flying

The best things I can say about Erica Jong's Fear of Flying is that gradually the narrator's somewhat shrill and very pretentious voice grew on me. This was disappointing. I had totally loved the novel when I was in high school. It had me cracking up, laughing out loud, and very immersed in the story and the writing. I think I was impressed by all the psychoanalysis and literature in the upper class world of New York intellectuals.

Jong was included in a segment on Makers, the documentary I watched on the women's movement, and this inspired me to re-read Fear of Flying, which is considered a feminist classic by some. I guess the fact that she makes a literary allusion on every single page while simultaneously using the word "cunt" was considered radical back in the 70s. But the effect on me as a reader in 2013 was that she was trying too hard to place her work in the genre of "literary fiction" rather than "popular fiction" - aka, trash. Her sexual frankness neither bothered me nor impressed me, and the plot seemed incredibly indulgent, raising cliche existential and feminist questions in a shrill, whining fashion that really turned me off. Again, I suppose this was innovative and refreshing when it was first published.

All that said, I actually began to enjoy my familiarity with Jong's alter ego, and it is worth noting that Fear of Flying is one of the few novels I've been able to complete in months. So, I did somehow find it readable.

The Funeral of the Cow

Last night at Wow I saw The Funeral of the Cow, this "postmodern drama about the drama of the postmodern" featured four actors reflecting, discussing, arguing, and creating issues about representation and reality, culture and identity, art and audience. The play was witty, engaging, and thought-provoking. The final scene included a beautiful surprise.

The Funeral of the Cow was written and directed by Susana Cook, who also performs. Other performers included Felice Shays, Mistah (denise) Coles, Jasmine Presson, and Moira Cutler, who played the earnest Tacito with comic grace.

Rachelle Garniez

Last night I had a real treat: Rachelle Garniez at Barbes. She was such a versatile and charming performer. Beautiful voice and range, jazzy and funny. She played several instruments and sang insightful, humorous songs with graceful and professional panache. I really loved the evening.

The Interrupters

Yesterday I watched The Interrupters, a documentary about "Violence Interrupters" working for CeaseFire, a program in Chicago intended to reduce inner city shootings and violence.

The Interrupters contains many powerful scenes, jumping from several story lines, as if follows several interrupters' activity during the course of a year. We see the impact of shootings on families and communities, and cannot help but feel admiration for the intentions of the interrupters.

However, the documentary didn't frame Chicago's violence within any kind of socio-historic context, and I found this to be a serious flaw. Although it posits violence as a "disease" (the founder of the project is a doctor, an epidemiologist, I think), it doesn't fully explore the implications of this theory in terms of social problems.

Also, at just under two hours, it was a little too long, and could have been edited down a good 20-30 minutes without having lost that much.

The Turn of the Screw

Last night I saw New York City Opera's production of Benjamin Britten's The Turn of Screw at BAM. Written in 1954, it represents both the first 20th Century opera I've seen, and the first sung in English.

I was very aware of how different the music was from other operas I've seen, and I enjoyed it very much musically. The singing was wonderful and I found the score intriguing and engaging. However, I found it odd listening to opera sung in English; I prefer the romantic mystery of it sung in another language, particularly Italian.

Most unenjoyable to me, however, was the story. I had read the Henry James novella in my twenties and was perplexed and nonplussed by it. I just didn't get it. The story has a level of abstraction to it that I might be too dense for. In any case, I thought the plot was a poor choice for an opera, and I felt put off by it. Also, the production staged it as taking place in the 1950s, losing the more romantic and gothic quality of the isolated Victorian setting.

I'm really glad I saw The Turn of the Screw, though. The lighting was beautiful and I'm glad to have been exposed to 20th Century classical music.

Makers

Last night I watched the three hour PBS documentary Makers chronically the women's movement of the 60s-80s. This inspiring film focused on key women in the movement, such as Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem (and many others), who pushed the feminist agenda forward, as well as women impacted and inspired by the significant cultural changes the movement brought, such as Judy Blume and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

It included wonderful footage of demonstrations and consciousness raising groups, as well as mainstream television's response. It explored a number of nuances, such as the alienation of African American women and lesbians, and the middle class bent of the movement. It featured segments on key feminist issues including general equality for women, sexual harassment, sexual freedom, abortion, and birth control. It looked briefly at the backlash in the 80s and 90s, including the reaction to Anita Hill.

My criticism is that it could have further explored the backlash, and that it didn't turn to the exciting third wave movement of the 90s. It also didn't look at the recent attacks on Planned Parenthood, and women's rights.

Overall Makers is a fascinating and exciting documentary that made me feel proud of all the brave, strong, independent and talented women in our culture.