It’s that time of year again. That’s right: awards season. I’ve started watching films and these are my comments.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. The actor’s are all wonderful. I barely recognized Viola Davis as Ma Rainey. My problem is with the script. Like they could improve on August Wilson! They cut Toledo’s part and changed the ending. Toledo is the older man who seems to be the only one with common sense. I remember one of his speeches where he suggests that a young band member quit blaming everything on white people. It seemed to be a message of personal responsibility. That speech got cut. Most of his speeches were cut. They also changed the ending. I know it’s Black History month but changing the play to fit a narrative? Leave Wilson’s words alone. He writes powerful, thoughtful plays. The play was not improved by their fiddling.
A better film, in my opinion, was One Night in Miami. It’s about an epic night when Malcom X, Sam Cooke, Jim Brown, and Mohammed Ali get together. to talk about where they’ve come from and where they’re going. I can’t break this down into an elevator pitch but I recommend it highly. Thought-provoking and moving. And the actors are brilliant.
I was really looking forward to Mank. It’s the story of how Citizen Kane was made with political commentary included. I know it’s popular to trash Republicans and the writer really enjoys it. But the political shenanigans in the 30s he deplores are the tactics used by the Democrats now. The game’s the same; only the names have changed. Maybe that’s what he was trying to point out. I read that Sartre had to write for the Nazis amusement when he was in a concentration camp. So he used his words to mock them and they never caught on. Whatever. Gary Oldman is excellent as usual but I didn’t particularly enjoy the film. No heroes. Maybe that was the intent.
Watched the first two episodes of Ted Lasso. The plot is lifted almost entirely from Major League–except it’s not funny. They take a shot at American imperialism–evil military!–so we know they’re politically correct but that was the only shot. I just didn’t think it was funny. But I’m not their demographic.
Onward….