Film review: GRAVITY will suck you in

Last night, I was treated to one of the purest films I've seen in a long time.  Gravity is written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón, with the help of his son, Jonas Cuarón.

 Alfonso, born in Mexico City, had wanted to be a filmmaker and astronaut from a young age.  Once he got a camera, though, filmmaking took center stage.  Despite being expelled from his Mexican film school for producing an English-language short film for an assignment, Alfonso went on to direct a host of critically-acclaimed successes, including Y Tu Mamá También (2001), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), and Children of Men (2006).

Gravity marries Alfonso's two childhood loves, space and film.  It stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, and features a mere three other voice-actors.  The film is a visual delight.  Pain-stakingly Produced over four years, Gravity will take you into the vastness of space with only Bullock and Clooney, show you the glory of the silence and beauty of being thousands of miles above it all.  Then, it will mercilessly cut you off from every comfort you know and leave you to survive the perils of zero gravity.

A simple tale of survival, we are with Bullock every moment of her struggle.  Clooney is a charming and soothing companion during her struggle.  You may not realize how connected you are until it's over, but this short thriller will reach the most basic depths of your humanity.  This one is a must see and is sure to be an Oscar contender on all fronts.

Blurred Lines between Virtual and Actual Reality in Navy Yard Shooting

Yesterday morning, I had the great misfortune of being stuck in traffic on I Street in South East Washington, DC on my way to cross the 11th St. Bridge into Virginia.  My misfortune was nothing, however, compared to that of the soldiers and staffers inside the US Navy Yard, who were at the time being threatened by a lone gunman, armed with a shotgun, picking off people at random and still at large.  Trapped in my lane, I had a front row seat to the unfolding scene.

I watched the men in uniform, marching with their ceremonial shot-guns toward their mandated shelter positions, joined by civilian staffers in colorful suits carrying large handbags.  Their demeanors did not betray the terror that was going on behind the walls.  They seemed to be keeping calm and carrying on.

While I waited, I imagined the lone gunman inside, creeping down dark corridors and around corners, picking off soldiers, and suddenly found myself inside his head and, oddly enough, inside a First-Person POV video game. Then, I had a terrible thought.

If I were a person who played so many video games that my lines between virtual reality and actual reality began to blur, and I wanted to really test my skills as one of these mercenaries, wouldn't breaking into a military base filled with plenty of dark corners and things to hide behind, and formidable targets such a US military soldiers be a pretty perfect way to do it?  Not to mention if I already had a vendetta against the place, as well as documented mental illness?

Now, I shook those off, disturbed by my vivid and momentary hypothetical, said a little prayer, and tried not to think about it.  I didn't know anything about the shooter or whether or not he played video games.  Who was I to make those kind of assumptions?

Then, they figured out who the shooter was, a former US Naval reservist named Aaron Alexis, and we started to learn more about him.  In an article from the British publication the Telegraph, a few quotes from a friend of Mr. Alexis's friend, Nutpisit Suthamtewakul, particularly jumped out at me.  Suthamtewakul first described Alexis as a "big brother", a buddhist, and a smart guy, but as Suthamtewakul got to know Alexis better, a more ominous aspect began to emerge.

"The darker side to Alexis's character saw him playing violent "zombie" video games in his room, sometimes from 12.30pm until 4.30am.

Mr Suthamtewakul said: "He could be in the game all day and all night. I think games might be what pushed him that way. He always had this fear people would steal his stuff so that's why he would carry his gun all the time. He would carry it when he was helping out in the restaurant which scared my customers."

In an article from RT.com, the contrasts of his personality were highlighted: 

"Pretty nice guy, didn't say anything much, you know, just said hello and kept moving,” said Calvin Belton, a neighbor of Alexis’. “He didn't strike me as anything was wrong with him." 

However, below the surface of his apparent neighborly congeniality lurked signs that he was suffering from internal demons. His own father once told detectives in Seattle that his son suffered “anger management problems” related to post-traumatic stress initiated by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. 

In 2004, Seattle police said Alexis was arrested for shooting out the tires of a vehicle in what he later described to police as an anger-fueled “blackout,” AP reported. 

The more I read about this man and his past, the more I realize how frighteningly dead-on I was with my morbid day-dream.  People described the frightening similarity between Alexis' positioning as a shooter and the simulated perches of virtual snipers, gunning from the fourth floor at unsuspecting targets on the first floor of an atrium.  It's just like something out of a movie...or a video game.

Video games are now taking over the entertainment industry.  Though I am not a player of video games, I was an employee at a popular video game company and witnessed them amass over $600 million in sales in 24 hours upon the launch of their latest game.  Games appeal to users because unlike a watching movie which is a spectator activity, playing a video game allows you to become part of the action.

Video games were originally designed by the military to train and desensitize soldiers in preparation for the killing they would have to do in the field.  When you combine this training and desensitization with mental illness and anger management issues, as well as easy access to guns, you get, well...Aaron Alexis in the Navy Yard, dead, along with his 12 innocent victims.  Heavy video game play has been cited in the pasts of other killers, including Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza.  There was a call for stricter violent video game regulation after the Sandy Hook massacre in this article from the NY Daily News. In fact, Lanza and Alexis used the same rifle in their violent crimes, the AR-15, which has been described as "the rifle for the sport of hunting humans."

First-Person POV Video games are not the only problem in these scenarios.  How the killers got access to both their weapons and entrance into their crime-scenes are a whole different story.  But, what is to be done about the glorification of violence that comes from First-Person shooter video games, and the blurred lines between entertainment and reality?  Considering that people took a day off work in celebration of today's launch of violent auto theft game: Grand Theft Auto,  can we ever put the cat back in the bag?  

This week at the cinema: Blue Jasmine

Kicking the week off on Sunday, I took in Blue Jasmine, Woody Allen's latest film.  I had no idea what to expect going into the movie, except that it had an all-star cast, including Andrew Dice Clay, resurrected from the late 20th century.  It had the somber melancholia of Allen's more narrative works such as Match Point as opposed to the quirky philosophical banter of Midnight in Paris or Annie Hall.

The film features Jasmine, a fascinating female character played by Cate Blanchett, who falls from the height of Wall Street royalty to the depths of mental illness and poverty.  Watching her cling to the vestiges of her old life is painful, but will infect viewers with the voyeurism of highway drivers slowing down to get a better view of a fatal car crash.

If Blanchett does not get an Oscar nomination for her work on this one, I will be shocked. The rest of the cast certainly does  Alec Baldwin delivers his best sleazy white collar criminal. Sally Hawkins plays Jasmine's foil as her pure hearted sister Ginger. Bobby Cannavale is the lovable blue-collar boyfriend who does his best to fight the immediate antagonism Jasmine clearly has for him.

Woody Allen says his secret is "picking the right actors and getting out of the way."  He allegedly spends less than a few minutes with his leads, prior to production, explaining what he wants.  The performances in this film just prove what magic can happen when actors are at the top of their games.

DC FIlm Society Screening: JOBS

You can take the girl out of Hollywood, but you can’t take the Hollywood out of the girl, so I was thrilled when my boyfriend, who shares my love of film culture, scored tickets to see a sneak preview of Jobs, the first bio-pic of the hippie-cum-technology magnate, Steve Jobs.

The event was presented by the DC Film Society.  We lined up at the Loews Georgetown theatres an hour early and already had doubts that we’d get in.  By the time we reached the entrance, the only seats that weren’t reserved for VIPs were in the front row.  

I won’t say much about the film, except that it will surprise you and take you through a living history of Jobs and his empire starting before Apple was even a spitball in a brainstorm.  The soundtrack created a strong sense of history and of inspiration.  Ashton Kutcher and Josh Gad, playing partners Jobs and Wozniak, gave moving and well-rounded performances.  The story line was clear and linear.  When the time came, I simply was not ready for the credits to roll.

To my delight, after the film, director Joshua Michael Stern and actor Josh Gad sat right in front of us in directors’ chairs to answer a Q & A moderated by DC Film Society Director, Michael Kyrioglou.

When asked about casting the film, Stern said that when he met Ashton Kutcher, it was clear that Ashton had already become obsessed with the role.   The actor walked into the first casting session with Stern with Jobs’ peculiar gait and was even alleged to practice an all-fruit diet, just like the tech giant.  Stern said Kutcher would be an odd and controversial choice, but a curious one that would draw people in.

Josh Gad spoke about the magic of shooting on location in Jobs’ childhood home in the Silicon Valley, in the garage where Apple 1 & 2 were born.  He said someone even found a collection of Jobs’ personal journals while snooping around between takes.  “You should probably put those back, “ he remembers advising the finder.

Stern has already screened the movie for most of the key players of the original Apple team, who have vetted the film, but not Steve Wozniak. Gad, tried to contact Woz while preparing for the role, to no avail.  Competing film projects may have tied Woz’s hands in terms of offering any help. 

The Q's and A's were over before they began, and Stern and Gad were whisked out, only delayed by a few fan-photo-ops, before being hustled into their respective black esclades and zipping away.  If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought I was right back at Hollywood & Highland.  Too bad there's no In n’ Out in Georgetown.

Be the change you wish to see in the world...

This week in class, I shared this story of a boy throwing sand dollars into the ocean.  A man walked by and said, "why are you doing that.  There are thousands of them washed up on the shore.  You can't make a difference."  The boy replied, "I did for that one."

Often we are overwhelmed with the problems we see in the world.  With such an influx of information from social media and the news, from friends with personal issues to tornado victims, it is easy to feel powerless.  

But, like the boy and his lone sand dollar, if we can recognize one small way we can help in the world, we can make a  difference in one life. If we each do this, just imagine the change we can make in the world.

"Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."-Margaret Mead

Lincoln, Lincoln, I been thinkin'....A Movie Review

When I saw the preview for Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, months ago, and then every time since, I cried.  I've always had a fascination with the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, and everything surrounding that fateful time in our history...and I'm a hopeless sucker for John Williams' movie scores.

I wasn't sure it could live up to what I had hoped for, but I'm happy to say that when 2 hours and 29 minutes were up, I didn't realize how much time had passed and I didn't want it to end.

First of all, this was truly an actor's movie.  Some films are simply vehicles for next year's Best Actor/Actress to show off their work.  (I'm talking to you, J. Edgar.)  They come out looking like somebody slapped a hundred carat Diamond hood-ornament on a crappy Chevy Nova, and hoped no one would see past the diamond.  It wasn't the case with Lincoln.

This movie was a constellation of some of the best character actors in the business, and because it was a period movie, there was a character in it for everyone.  Not only did Daniel Day-Lewis get to do his method thing, but the extras had to look legit, and the under-five-liners had to perfect their dialects, their posture, their mannerisms. Just one hair or inflection out of place would have ruined the magic of our trip back to 1865.

The supporting cast was so colorful and rich, Lincoln himself faded into the background at times.  Sally Field played the part of the tortured Mary Todd Lincoln with a depth and passion that captured the turmoil that she no doubt experienced having to be along for that ride.  Gulliver McGrath and Joseph Gordon-Levitt had two very different and very real relationships with their father.  Tommy Lee Jones played Republican Thaddeus Stevens like a crumpled, old troll with a greyhound-headed cane, but the passion that burned within him made him shine.  Gloria Reuben brought passion to the role of Elizabeth Keckley, Mrs. Lincoln's servant, whose son had died fighting for the Union, for freedom.   Peter McRobbie and Lee Pace played detestable Democrat bullies.  James Spader, John Hawkes, and Tim Blake Nelson, who took their relatively small, but major roles and ran with them, were both comic relief and an important look into the role of lobbyists in Congress.  Hal Holbrook looked like someone had gone back to 1865 and bottled him up in a time-capsule to bring him back as Preston Blair---and not just because he's super old in real life.

This movie is also a wonderful lesson, not only in the life of Abraham Lincoln, but the process of government--the wheelings and dealings and bribes and betrayals that go into passing laws and amendments, and how close we came to not passing something that we take for granted now: the 13th Amendment: the Abolition of Slavery.  Parents should take their kids, and teachers, once its available, should take a couple days to show it to their classes, maybe before Christmas break next year---because seriously, who really wants to do work in the few days before Christmas?  Ok, I digress.

Then, there was Lincoln, himself, Daniel Day-Lewis.  His work was meticulous.  From Lincoln's gait to his flat, high-timbred, mid-west dialect, Daniel became Abe.  Day-Lewis captured the charisma of the Great Emancipator, both with the deep connections that were visible between him and the other characters, but also in the moments where Lincoln seemed to "disappear", lost in thought, wheels turning heavily.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the music, cinematography, writing, make-up, costume, etc etc etc.  Lincoln had the golden touch of Spielberg and his cabinet all over it, which meant that you were too busy living in it to notice it.  It'll take a couple more trips back to the theatre to be able to say much more than that.

When I walked out of the theater, I found myself thinking more about the performances of the other actors, and hardly thinking about Day-Lewis at all.  This morning, however, in that groggy time between sleeping and waking, I found myself thinking about Lincoln, not in the context of the movie, but in some other scene plucked from some other story of Lincoln that had been tucked away in my memory.  When I reached full consciousness, I realized that it was Daniel-Day Lewis's Lincoln that had now taken the place of whatever image of Lincoln I had been working with before.

I guess, for me, his work transcended the performance of the role in the movie.  The man brought the legend to life.   Lincoln was not perfect.  His family life was tumultuous and he was prone to anger.  He was human.  But, it was clear, that, at least, this Lincoln, at his heart, was pure.

Trudy and Joe: A Love Story

I recently started working as an Aide in a physical therapy clinic.  The job is not rocket science.   It consists of making and un-making a lot of beds, wiping countless surfaces with disinfecting wipes, and explaining the same exercises dozens of times a day, hundreds of times a week, thousands of times…ok, you get the picture.  It’s a humbling job, but it’s also a very rewarding job.  Working in an environment like this, we get a chance to see people at their most vulnerable.   It’s almost like working with kids because they are so willing to keep an open-mind and put their trust in us, no matter how foolish they might feel doing an exercise, especially barely being able to walk in same cases. On rare occasions, they can be obstinate and impatient, but most of the time they are kind and cooperative because they see you as an ally on their road to recovery. 

It didn’t take long for me to get bored of the physical tasks of the job.  But there is one good thing about being a conversationalist (ok, chatty.)  Once you get people talking, they tell you their life stories.  You would have no idea, looking at some of them, the random and exciting things that have happened to them.  Because of HIPAA regulations, I will never be able to tell actual stories of patients, but I can take bits and pieces of my interactions with them, their lives, jumble them up, and use them to create fiction.  Here is a piece that I wrote based on one afternoon at work:

Trudy and Joe

By: Shannon Madden

Gertrude Estrada stumbled on her crutches to the edge of the workout table. 

            “You want me to get on there?” she whimpered.

            “Yes,” I said, sliding a stool to the foot of the table. “We can take it nice and easy.  Just step up here and lean forward and you’ll just slide right onto the bed.”

            “I can’t I’m scared.” 

She looked at me, her brown eyes watery, underlined with little black scratches of mascara. Her golden-straw hair was styled in loose, short waves.  She looked every bit her seventy years, if not more, but you could tell that once she was a beauty, though not classically so---more Bette Davis than Anne Baxter.

“C’mon, Trudy.  This is nothing.  Get up there.”  Her husband Joe coaxed her firmly.  He was Filipino, with striking blue eyes, dressed more for a yacht than a therapy clinic. 

Gertrude looked back and forth at us before solemnly handing off her crutches to Joe.  Her right knee was swollen, slashed by a healing wound from a total reconstruction.  She was several weeks post-op, and her leg was far from straight, needing a lot of work to restore its range of motion.  Gertrude took a ginger step onto the stool and then another. 

“No, no, no,” she cried again, like a little kid on the edge of the high-dive who has had a terrified change of heart.

Joe rolled his eyes, “Trudy, you get up on that table.  We’ve worked on this.  It’s nothing new.”

“It’s ok, Trudy.  You’re just going to let your legs hang off so you can stretch out those hamstrings.  It’ll help your leg get a little bit straighter.  It’s a gentle little stretch.” I said.

Her brow scrunched, peering at me, not buying it.  I stifled my laughter.  If she had been a pound puppy, I would have adopted her. 

In the corner, Ellie, a sizable teenager, sat with icepacks on her knees.  Her mother sat next to her with a baby.   They snickered as they watched Gertrude struggle with the precipice of the exam table. 

“Oh, stop being such a baby, Trudy,” Joe said, giving her a devilish smile.  Gertrude stuck her tongue out at him and continued to stall.

----

Special Agent Goldstein stared across the hollow body of the plane.  The whirr of the motor would have been intolerable to most civilians, but as a seasoned agent of the CIA, and one of its few women, she had made dozens, if not hundreds of jumps, and her ears had become accustomed to the noise.

“Joey.  You’ve done this before.  The only thing that’s different will be not having this old monkey strapped to your back.”  Her attempt at humor fell short of the young man staring back at her, his blue eyes and tense neck muscles betraying his fear.  He didn’t move.

“Yeah, and we’ll be dropping into enemy territory.  This isn’t flight school.  Just gimme a minute, will ya?”

“Hey fella, this is what you signed on for.  I wouldn’t let you jump without me if I didn’t think you could get to the ground safely.”  Agent Goldstein had faced this moment before with many of her trainees during their first solo jump in the field.  Nothing like a 14,000 foot dive to make a grown man whimper.

“C’mon Joey, stop being such a baby.”

Nothing like a blow to a grown man’s ego to get him moving.  Joey began to shift, lumbering toward the sliding door as Agent Goldstein tugged at the massive port.  The cold wind of the high altitude rushed into the plane as the two agents scooted to the edge of the floor.

Side-by-side, they gave each other a lingering glance, and, all of a sudden, a current of trust passed between them. 

“Will it make you feel better to hold my hand?”  Agent Goldstein winked, only somewhat in jest.  She never would have said that to any of the other agents she had trained, but she had a soft spot for this one.

“No, I’m fine,” Joey said, then compromised, “Well, maybe just a squeeze, Sweetheart.” 

She smiled, and he clasped her hand for a brief moment.  Filled with a sudden surge of confidence, he shouted over the motor,

“See you on the ground!”  With that, he was gone, headed down toward a clearing in the Vietnam jungle below. 

Shaking her head, Agent Goldstein tipped herself out of the plane.

The two of them tore down through the sub-zero atmosphere as the air became denser and more humid, until it was time to pull their cords, Joey first and then Goldstein.

When they reached the ground, Joey gathered his chute and ran over to his trainer.

“Good Golly, Miss Molly.  That was a rush. ” He let out a howl, making Goldstein laugh.

“See, not so bad, eh? “

Joey laughed, “Not so bad.  Trudy, I couldn’t have done it without you.  Thanks for pushing me out of that plane.” 

“Hey!  I didn’t…” she started to argue, but she saw the twinkle in his eye and she had to smile.

Doing her best to remain professional, despite how adorable she found him, Agent Gertrude Goldstein, rerouted the conversation.

“Ok, Agent Estrada, enough celebration.  Let’s get to the location.”

----

“No, no, no, I can’t do it,” Gertrude whispered with dread, tears springing from her eyes.  She looked up at her husband Joe, who, despite the stern look he was giving her, grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. 

In that moment, something clicked.  She leaned forward, tilted herself up to the bed and dropped right into position.

            “Oh.”  Her whining halted.

            “Oh!” she exclaimed.  “This is not that bad!”

            She wiggled around a little to get into a comfortable position, before declaring,

“Yeah.  I like this.  This is good.  Why didn’t you tell me it was gonna be like this?”

            Joe and I exchanged looks, and Ellie and her mother laughed. Even Gertrude had to smile.

            “Have you always been this much of a baby?” I said, giving her a wink.

            Gertrude looked at Joe, and they crinkled their eyes, sharing something secret. 

            “Not always, “ she said.