God Bless You Google

[NOTE: Since originally posting this list and complaining about being unable to include a picture of the top DVD, I have figured out how to get a picture again. Either Google has restored the previous process, or I was somehow being frustrated in following the usual practice. Nevertheless, I will leave my complaint as I wrote it.]

In its continuing effort to ConGoogle our lives, Google has now screwed around with Blogger to remove the ability to simply upload a picture to a blog; they now apparently want you to upload it to Google Docs or some such thing and then load it to the blog from there. Not being inclined to submit to corporate dominance, I refuse to do it their way. So until I come up with a better idea, in lieu of posting the picture of the DVD cover for the top listed movie, I am including a link to the IMDb page for all of the movies in the list.

Here is what I have watched since I posted my last list. The ratings I give are on my own number system which is explained at the link on the sidebar. Clicking on a movie title will open the IMDb web page for that movie.

The movies on this list streamed via Netflix were:

Serving Life

Johnny Carson: King of Late Night

Political Animals

Pink Ribbons, Inc.

We Were Here

Mommo: The Bogeyman [stream availability expired 11/17/2013]
 

Serving Life – 2011 (3.6). Produced for the Oprah Winfrey Network, this powerful documentary follows four inmates at the Angola prison in Louisiana, where the average sentence being served is ninety years. The men have applied for and been accepted into an innovative program as interns to serve as hospice aides to other inmates who are dying. They interact with officials in charge of the program, learn from inmates with experience as aides in the program who mentor the interns and then are assigned to patients and begin to work with them as they are dying. Watching the movie, we only leave the prison two brief times, once as a prisoner gets medical treatment at a nearby hospital and once as an inmate is escorted to the funeral of his father. We see some scenes of the men trying to make amends with their biological families, over the phone and in one case with a rare prison visit. Wisely omitted are interviews with people who are not part of the prison inmates or staff, no outside experts or academics to distract us from the all-encompassing life of a prisoner in Angola. The film impacts emotionally on three levels, connecting us to the reality of serving a prison sentence of life with no parole, sharing with us the mental process these men have undertaken to reconcile themselves with their guilt and the responsibility for their criminal actions, and allowing us to participate with them in developing trusting relationships with their fellow inmates with whom they lovingly wait for death.

American Experience:JFK – 2013 (3.0). Archival footage and interviews with historians and surviving contemporaries fill in between the narrated story of the life of the young President in this PBS American Experience documentary produced on the 50^th anniversary of his assassination. Thankfully not dwelling on the parts we know so well, this biography gave more details on the serious medical problems Kennedy suffered, the political maneuverings involved in getting him elected President and the fumbles of his Presidency together with a few bright spots. Though his charm and charisma cannot help but shine through, this movie does glorify the man and frankly documents his failings, thankfully only acknowledging his womanizing without dwelling on it and spending more time covering his Presidential shortcomings. Nevertheless, one can see the inexperienced young President was on the right track and starting to grow into the job and accomplish important preliminary steps before his death. Even fifty years on, it is impossible for those of us who remember his assassination not to come to tears at the end of this film.

Boardwalk Empire (Season Three) – 2012 (3.0). The general story arc continues as corruption turns into escalating murders and impending gang warfare. Personal relationships ebb and flow engulfed by the expanding violence. Conniving and backstabbing increase as stakes become higher and Federal Cabinet members become involved. This is a series that concentrates on the bad guys to the point where good types are not even shown, except for a righteous Federal prosecutor in a minor role who seems mostly motivated by her career aspirations. With so many deaths in this series it is comforting to know that all the decedents are people with virtually no redeeming qualities. What keeps us coming back is the belief that they will all eventually die off and the desire to be there to see it.

The First Beautiful Thing -2010 (3.0). Though it flashes back and forth in telling its story, the changes in this Italian movie are seamless and not disturbing. The characters all have a real humanity that makes them flawed but still worthy of our caring. We first meet the central family in 1971 when the pretty but ditsy young mother wins a beauty contest, which disturbs her husband, annoys her son and delights her daughter. As we come forward in time, we see what happens to the couple, their children and their extending family circle. This is a movie that grows on the audience like life progresses, never quite clear where it is heading but always moving along to the ultimate inevitable.

Johnny Carson: King of Late Night – 2012 (2.9). Watching Johnny at bedtime was always comforting, but the man himself was never truly comfortable with his off screen life. This American Masters documentary from PBS uses archival footage of Johnny and later interviews with his family, friends and colleagues to tell the bittersweet story of a man so beloved by the public who felt that lasting love eluded him in his personal life as he encountered problems in his relationships with his mother, three sons, four wives and numerous colleagues. It is sad to realize that so much joy can be brought to others by artists and entertainers whose own lives are filled with hurt. Their pain is our gain, but we can still feel sad for them even as they bring us joy. That is what they want; if they cannot find a way to a happy personal life, at least they can obtain happiness through artistic expression.

42 – 2013 (2.8).Telling only the part of the story involving his signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers organization and playing first with Montreal and then being brought up to the majors as the first African American player, this earnest drama about Jackie Robinson presents its characters as more icon than human. It is only the power of knowing the story is true that makes the movie passable.

Political Animals – 2012 (2.8). USA Network produced this miniseries about a divorced former First Lady now serving as Secretary of State after a failed run for the Democratic Presidential nomination. Parallels to the Clintons are apparent, but two grown sons are substituted for Chelsea. Indulging in the soap opera aspects of the lives of the sons detracts from the political drama. Even though their lives can be issues in any campaign of their mother, the subplots seem to have been included to appeal to a younger audience less interested in solid political stories. A young female journalist becomes central to the story as someone who rose in her career by knocking the former First Lady and then becomes an ally of sorts, but the sex life of the reporter is given as much script time as her journalism.

Pink Ribbons, Inc. – 2011 (2.8). This Canadian documentary examines the breast cancer awareness movement with a critical eye, showing footage of many fund raising walks and similar events, commercial footage and interviews with people from corporations which join in the fundraising, commentary from researchers and critics of the fund raising movement, and most touchingly, testimonials of stage four breast cancer patients facing death. Generally well done, the movie would be better organized if less time was spent showing the walks we all see so often on TV and more time spent with researchers and particularly those involved with the actual management of funds being used for research. The critics do an excellent job of showing how the foundation movement (most notably Susan G. Komen) has become a business which raises an incomplete awareness of breast cancer issues while raises enormous sums of money for research that is never adequately explained. The film obviously had a valid critical viewpoint but should have concluded with more definitive prescriptive information for what a viewer should do if they agree.

We Were Here – 2011 (2.8). Archival footage and interviews with survivors are the ways in which this documentary reminds us of the impact of AIDS on the gay community of San Francisco. The free abandon of the Castro residents gives way to a realization that a strange new disease is affecting gay men and may be sexually transmitted. As early efforts meekly try to determine more about the disease, activism finally gets greater time and money invested in finding effective medical treatment, all of which leads to a transformation in the LGBT community. The survivors produced this movie as homage to the thousands who did not live to see the onset of effective treatment and new attitudes.

 

Mommo: The Bogeyman – 2009 (2.8).Set in a contemporary Turkish village, this drama almost feels like an intimate home movie as it follows a nine year old boy and his younger sister whose mother has died and whose lame father has remarried and abandoned them to the care of their ailing grandfather. The children, apparently real life siblings, inhabit their roles with appealing integrity.