RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.commonsense.news/p/why-bros-bombed?utm_source=email

The algorithm knows I’m a man and gay, so I’m often served news about Britney, bodybuilding videos, and, more recently, nonstop ads for the Universal movie Bros, written by Billy Eichner. 

The film’s poster features two men groping each other’s jeans-ed butts. At this year’s VMAs, Eichner took the stage to urge audiences to see his movie, gushing that the film “is making history as the first gay romcom ever made by a major studio and the first where every role is played by an openly LGBTQ actor.” Headlines called Bros “hilarious,” “history-making” and “groundbreaking.”

So when I settled into the theater last Sunday evening with a friend (and a bag of heavily buttered popcorn) as the trailer for the Whitney Houston biopic, I Wanna Dance with Somebody, played, I was ready to be wowed.  

The film follows Eichner’s character, Bobby, a mouthy podcaster opening up an LGBTQ museum (cringe) and his relationship with Aaron, a chiseled lawyer with a penchant for group sex portrayed by Luke Macfarlane. (I won’t complain.) The two meet-cute in a nightclub and then must navigate the complex world of gay relationships, commitment issues and insecurities.

There are moments when Bros is funny—a self-deprecating lampoon of gay life. But mostly it’s a preachy, self-indulgent dumpster fire. At one point, Bobby harangues Aaron’s mother about the need to teach her second-grade students about queer history. The two long hours are replete with partisan finger-wagging, lamentations about erasure, and performative apologies from Bobby for being a “cis white guy.” Half of this alleged comedy is devoted to Bobby’s cranky monologues. 

https://manage.kmail-lists.com/subscriptions/web-view?a=L87CGh&c=QMaqcm&k=942020e623bd2316de76f6b2fd4b4879&m=01GF716273DCESEWG4ZBFHVVZ2&r=QMPDcGb

Focusing on America’s failures to save more Jews in the Holocaust unintentionally strengthens the forces that would threaten Jews today. Here’s how.

Among those excited by the announcement that America’s leading documentary filmmaker had produced a three-part series on the Holocaust were sectors of the Jewish community that have long insisted on the need for all Americans to learn about this subject. Who better suited for this task than Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein, known for their well-crafted, carefully researched historical projects? Not only could they be expected to produce a reliable—if not definitive—treatment of the extermination of the Jews of Europe, The U.S. and the Holocaust would also bring the subject home, answering a question that lay at the heart of the matter: why should Americans, specifically, care about this genocide?

Aired on PBS in early September, the series’ episodes were duly admired by critics for their content, their staging, and their message. Of central significance, it was said, Burns, Novick, and Botstein had effectively dramatized America’s shameful failure to help save the European Jews from the fate awaiting them.

In this connection, Exhibit A was the futile attempt made by Anne Frank’s family in Amsterdam, who could easily have been accommodated in the United States, to secure a visa. One was introduced to the various internal American forces, some actively pro-Nazi but many simply opposed to foreign intervention, that had delayed an active American response to Hitler’s mission, as well as to the domestic conditions, political and economic, that worked against admitting Jewish refugees to the country. Altogether, this showcasing of Anne’s iconic status as the most famous chronicler and moving exemplar of the millions of Jews hunted, betrayed, and systematically killed made it seem that America itself, by refusing a visa, had been party to her and their fate.

The Public Broadcasting Service’s regular appeal for support to “Viewers Like You” speaks not just to those who contribute financially but to a much larger audience that is assumed to share its views and values. Burns, Novick, and Botstein, who are not historians or political thinkers but filmmakers who satisfy that audience, have mirrored their eagerness to do good and to atone for past iniquities.

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2022/09/against-the-ice-all-but-frozen/

t the turn of the previous century, Arctic explorers—Alpha males born with an incredible self-belief in their abilities to achieve the impossible—travelled to places where nature held no respect for human life. —Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, introduction, Against the Ice

Greenland is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark and the largest island in the world. Its population is made up mostly of Inuits, who originally migrated there in the thirteenth century from Alaska. It is physio­graphically part of North America, and the United States has been interested in acquiring it from Denmark since 1867.

US Navy Rear Admiral Robert Edwin Peary’s expedition to unexplored northern Greenland in 1891-92 suggested another landmass, separate and north of the main island. Maps of the early 1900s referred to this area as Peary Land and the water between as Peary Channel. The US wanted to claim Peary Land. Danish expeditions were mounted to prove that “Peary Land” was actually connected to Greenland.

The film Against the Ice tells the true story of the 1910 Alabama Expedition, the second Danish expedition launched to achieve this goal. An earlier attempt, the Danmark Expedition, had failed, resulting in the deaths of three of its senior members.

Against the Ice is a co-production between RVK Studios and Ill Kippers and was released on Netflix earlier this year. It was directed by Danish director Peter Flinth, on location in Iceland and Greenland, and is based on the 1955 Danish memoir Two Against the Ice, written by the captain of the Alabama Expedition, Ejnar Mikkelsen. The screenplay is co-written by Joe Derrick and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who plays Mikkelsen.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/remember-this-the-lesson-of-jan-karski/
“Remember This is now a film. No doubt this film will be used in classrooms throughout the world to educate students about the Holocaust. Students will be encouraged to ask what they might have done in Karski’s shoes, and how his example has encouraged them to work to make the world a better place.”

The Theater for a New Audience is staging Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski. Playwright Derek Goldman is Georgetown University Professor of Theater and Performance Studies “with a joint appointment in the School of Foreign Service as Professor of Global Performance, Culture and Politics.” His “mission” is “to harness the power of performance to humanize global politics.” Playwright Clark Young was a Georgetown student of Goldman. Young went on to teach high school. Goldman requested Young’s help in crafting a play about Jan Karski, who had taught at Georgetown. Previously, Young had known nothing about Karski.

Remember This reflects its origin as a play written by an American who didn’t know much about Poland and a professor with a political agenda. An ad for the play features Nancy Pelosi and Jamie Raskin, both of whom participated in the impeachments of Donald Trump. Other featured respondents include Aminatta Forna, a writer of African and Scottish descent; Azar Nafisi, an Iranian-American writer; other, unnamed black men and women; and a smattering of unnamed, young white people, perhaps students.

The Theater for a New Audience “was founded in 1979 by Jeffrey Horowitz with the mission of creating contemporary productions of Shakespeare and other works considered classics … that would appeal to more diverse audiences … Black Lives Matter. We … are committed to identifying, uprooting and dismantling white supremacy.”

David Strathairn stars as Jan Karski. Strathairn was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in Good Night and Good Luck. In that 2005 film, Strathairn played journalist Edward R. Murrow during his 1953 conflict with Senator Joseph McCarthy. Strathairn has supported Democratic candidates, including Kirsten Gillibrand and Barack Obama.

Remember This is a biographical sketch of Jan Karski, with most attention devoted to his work as a Polish underground operative during World War II. Karski met with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Oval Office on July 28, 1943. Karski’s report is said to be the first eyewitness account of the Holocaust received by Roosevelt.

Karski’s mission and subsequent events are often summarized thus: Karski was “one man who tried to stop the Holocaust;” he failed because Winston Churchill and Roosevelt didn’t care; the Allies did nothing to save Europe’s Jews.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/americas-holocaust-failure-through-the-lens-of-21st-century-politics/?utm_source=Old+Daily+Syndicate&utm_campaign=d8b02fdf1d-

Ken Burns’s new documentary focuses on immigration law and anti-Semitism in ways that both illuminate and distort the lessons of history while largely giving a pass to FDR.

Every generation views history through the prism of its own experiences and interests. So, it was probably inevitable that when Ken Burns, America’s great documentary filmmaker, took up the story of the Holocaust, it would be told primarily in terms of ideas that resonate with the PBS audience for which it was produced. There is a great deal of truth and, as always with Burns’s films, brilliant visuals, moving witness testimony and powerful storytelling, in his “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” which premieres on Public Broadcasting stations on Sept. 18 and airs for three nights. But while made at the request of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and with the assistance of the University of Southern California’s Shoah Foundation, it is also a film very much of this political moment.

The narrative is framed primarily as one about immigration rights with events in Europe only gradually taking over the story over the course of the three two-hour-plus episodes. It begins with the Emma Lazarus poem on the Statue of Liberty and goes on to discussions of mass immigration in the 19th century, the restrictions and country quotas imposed during the 1920s. It relates the impact that immigration laws, as well as anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic sentiments on the U.S. failure to let in more than a small percentage of the Jews who sought escape from the death sentence that faced them in Nazi-controlled Europe.

It concludes with the passage of more liberal immigration laws in the 1960s and then a montage, including protests about the collapse of security at America’s southern border; former President Donald Trump’s demand that a border wall be built; the 2017 neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Va.; the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting; and then the Capitol riot on Jan. 6 , 2021. It ends with warnings by talking heads that America’s thin veneer of civilization could, like Germany’s, collapse more quickly than we think.

The inescapable conclusion is that Burns and his team are, as is the case with even the best of his films (and some of his efforts like “The Civil War,” “Baseball,” “New York” and “Jazz” are among the greatest documentaries ever produced), interested in both telling a compelling story and in reinforcing the pre-existing biases of public television networks’ liberal viewing audience and the issues that matter most to them.

Anti-Semitism isn’t merely hateful sentiments; it’s a political organizing principle that has attached itself to a number of different ideologies.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-movie-conservatives-have-been-waiting-for-is-here/

The movie that conservative audiences have been waiting for is here. And by that I don’t just mean that yesterday was the eagerly-anticipated premiere of My Son Hunter, the Robert Davi-directed dark comedy about Joe Biden’s wayward son and his laptop from hell. I mean that this is the political film that finally sets a new bar for conservative filmmaking, far above the heavy-handed messaging and awkward acting that right-leaning audiences have generally had to settle for in the recent past.

You have never seen a conservative film quite like this. Produced by Phelim McAleer and Anne McIlhenny (FrackNation, Gosnell, The Obamagate Movie) and written by screenwriter/novelist Brian Godawa (To End All Wars, The Obamagate Movie), My Son Hunter careens – like a drunken Hunter himself – from comedy to tragedy, from family drama to high-level political corruption, from moral brokenness to moral courage. Surprising stylistic quirks abound, including word balloons onscreen and characters breaking the “fourth wall” to address the audience directly. And yes, just like Hunter’s life, there is an almost nonstop parade of hookers, drugs, and shady deals – hence the R rating that sadly may discourage some conservative moviegoers (Movieguide gives My Son Hunter an “Excellent” rating but advises “extreme caution” due to “immoral carnal behavior, images of women in skimpy outfits, and strong foul language”). The Daily Mail reported overhearing one viewer at a private screening describing the film as “Not your mother’s conservative movie.”

The plot centers on Teflon Addict Hunter Biden, played by British actor Laurence Fox (Gosford Park, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, The Frankenstein Chronicles), and his terrified realization that the personal laptop he carelessly forgot to pick up from a repair shop could derail his father’s presidential campaign. A hooker who has captured Hunter’s heart offers to help him spin the publicity, but in order to do that, she needs to know all the potentially damaging material on that computer. As the sordid contents reveal the depth and breadth of Biden family corruption, the hooker comes to a slow political revelation.

https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Oligarch-Wives-Adam-Goldfried/dp/B0B4S9DTXQ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1RXUZV897PHUB&keywords=secrets+of+the+oligarch+wives&qid=1659603151&s=movies-tv&sprefix=SECRETS+OF+THE+OLI%2Cmovies-tv%2C61&sr=1-1

Murder. Corruption. Betrayal. A tell-all from the women closest to the oligarchs who put Putin in power, mistakenly thinking he would be a puppet president.

Directors

Adam Goldfried

Genres

Documentary

Subtitles

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/08/emmichelle_obama_2024em_a_review_of_joel_gilberts_new_film.html

I confess that, having paid pretty close attention to the lives of Barack and Michelle Obama ever since the entry of the couple into presidential politics in 2003, I was surprised at how much I learned from filmmaker Joel Gilbert’s new film.  Michelle Obama 2024: Her Real Life Story and Plan for Power, offers a deeper look into the former first lady — and, in Gilbert’s opinion, the likely 2024 Democrat nominee — than I had ever experienced.  (You can read Joel’s recent AT article derived from the film here.)

It is a hugely entertaining look as well.  Gilbert travels to the key locations in Michelle Obama’s life, starting with the apartment complex her family first lived in, the schools she attended (quite a story there!), and the places she worked, as well as the places she and her husband made key moments in his political rise.

This is a very personal film, with Gilbert guiding viewers on this tour, and sometimes talking on camera with important persons in her life, including Michelle Obama’s mother, Marian Robinson, through a closed screen door on her house.

It is a testament to the honesty and thoroughness of the filmmaker that I came away from the film with a heightened appreciation for the efforts of Fraser and Marian Robinson in raising their children, older brother Craig and Michelle, as well as a deeper understanding of how thoroughly marinated in politics Michelle has been since early childhood.

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/they-loved-me-buchenwald

A week after Patton’s Third Army liberated Buchenwald, on April 19, 1945, the inmates gave a concert for the soldiers who had freed them. Fourteen Czech, German, Dutch, Belgian, and French musicians made up the band. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles has the fading typed program on exhibit: There were sax, brass, and rhythm sections, and a sole vocalist—a Frenchman, Robert Widerman, who sang “In the Mood,” “A Tisket, A Tasket,” and “Honeysuckle Rose.” He also performed both roles in a Mickey and Minnie Mouse skit of his own creation, which had been a hit with the Nazis and kapos.

“We performed on the stage, in our striped uniforms, exhilarated by our new freedom, and gave the greatest show of our lives which hundreds of GIs and inmates applauded and shouted,” he noted in his memoirs. They closed the set with a “walloping version of ‘Tiger Rag.’”

A few weeks later, back home in Paris, the boyish but indefatigable Widerman, age 19, opened at the legendary Olympia on the Boulevard des Capucines, then one of the many Parisian venues requisitioned for American soldiers’ entertainment. He was the fourth on the bill, in an unenviable slot right after a performing dog act that always thrilled audiences. His first number was “Flat Foot Floogie,” followed by “Daisy Venez Avec Moi.” The audience wasn’t buying it. He was distraught at the perfunctory applause. “I had two more numbers to do, and I was having flop-sweat. I didn’t understand—they loved me in Buchenwald!”

The singer, who had changed his surname to Clary, took gigs all over Paris, working full time, dancing with socialites and prostitutes (“I remember one in particular. She was tall and looked like Joan Crawford … a very good jitterbugger. We had a ball on the dance floor.”) He performed in blackface. He made friends with Charles Aznavour. He relocated to the south of France and worked around the clock.