13th (2016)

The Best Documentary nomination was what finally made me get my butt in gear to see 13^th, even though I’ve wanted to see it for a while.  I can take streaming movies for granted sometimes – movies in theaters have to be seen within a limited time frame, and DVDs from Netflix have to be watched before they send you new ones, but there’s no real rush with a streaming movie.  I’m glad I finally saw it, though, because it’s very, very good.

Made by Ava DuVernay (Selma, Queen Sugar, the upcoming A Wrinkle in Time(!!!),) 13^th is the story of the 13^th Amendment and all that followed, a documentary about the groundwork that was laid to keep Black people in chains even as they were being freed from slavery.  It’s an ambitious project that covers a lot of ground, but the crux of it comes down to one dependent clause in the amendment:  slavery is abolished, “except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”  The documentary asserts that direct lines can be drawn between the slavery of centuries past and the criminal justice system of today.

There’s so much here.  The almost instant post-abolition shift to create an image of Black people as dangerous criminals, portraying them as crooks, murderers, and rapists (of white women.)  Using prisoners as a work force, from chain gangs all the way to present-day corporations whose products are made by inmates earning pennies.  Painting the Civil Rights movement, including the non-violence advocates, as dangerous radicals.  The deep ties between politicians and the many groups who profit from keeping the prisons filled.  The campaign to view addiction as a crime rather than a disease.  The suffrage denied to convicted felons.  The Black Panthers, the war on drugs, superpredators, Black Lives Matter, Donald Trump – this documentary is packed.

Running through it all like that, 13^th might sound overstuffed, but it really isn’t.  DuVernay builds her case gradually, tying even the most seemingly-disparate threads together from over 150 years of Black demonization and criminalization, and I feel like anyone watching the film would have to try incredibly hard to suggest the connections she’s drawn are mere coincidence.  I won’t say it’s incontrovertible, because goodness knows how contradictory people can be, but it would take a real talent for self-denial to dismiss all that DuVernay has laid out.

Stylistically, it’s very well-done.  It has the usual mix of talking heads, news clips, photographs, and voiceovers, and music is used really effectively throughout.  I also love the simple, powerful device of flashing the word “CRIMINAL” across a black screen in bold white letters every time someone says it, emphasizing how often it’s been spoken, how it was made to creep into our subconscious without our knowing.  And I was bowled over by a montage of Trump egging on his supporters to attack protesters.  I’ve seen these clips juxtaposed with footage of the violence at his rallies before, but DuVernay takes it a step further by incorporating old footage from the Civil Rights movement.  Given Trump’s repeated refrains about what you could to protesters in “the good old days,” it’s chilling to hear those words and see video of Black people being attack on sidewalks, at lunch counters, on marches, especially being met by police with dogs and hoses. 

Warnings

Thematic elements, violence, sexual/drug references, and language (including racial slurs.)

Loving (2016, PG-13)

The original plan had been to see this movie opening weekend back at the start of November.  It seemed fitting to go to the theater to watch a true story about a landmark Supreme Court battle against anti-miscegenation laws on the same weekend that a blockbuster comic-book movie featuring a major whitewashed character came out.  All well and good… except Loving wasn’t in my local theater, or even any semi-close non-local theater, on opening weekend.  I didn’t see the other film, but I couldn’t see Loving until recently, when it finally came to town.

In 1958, Richard and Mildred Loving marry in Washington, D.C. before returning to their hometown in rural Virginia.  According to the laws of Virginia, however, a white man and a Black woman aren’t simply banned from getting married within state lines; they’re banned from being married as well.  The couple are arrested and forced out of the state, away from their families and the only homes they’ve known.  In a years-long battle merely to live and love where they choose, the Lovings become somewhat reluctant faces of interracial marriage as their case makes it all the way to the Supreme Court.

What really interests me in this movie is how little it feels like a traditional civil rights film.  Richard and Mildred go against the law in order to marry, but in doing so, they don’t think of themselves as willfully challenging the law.  They don’t view themselves as fighters or crusaders.  They simply love each other and want to do so as husband and wife, not setting out to topple any system.  When Mildred’s family ask why they went up to D.C. to get married, she just comments that Richard thought it’d be “easier” there, and when the ACLU approaches them with eyes on the Supreme Court, Richard asks if they can’t just explain to the judge that they “won’t bother anybody.”  While they ultimately realize they don’t want to accept being told where they can or can’t live, and they come to understand that the fight isn’t just for them but for every family like theirs, all they really want is that very fundamental, basic thing:  to be together.  It serves as a good reminder when we look at different social justice issues that are debated today.  When a trans person wishes to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity, for example, they’re not doing it to “be political.”  They’re not “making a statement” or “shoving their beliefs” down anyone’s throat.  They just want themselves, and others, to live their lives with the same dignity afforded to everyone else.

Keeping the central focus so tight and personal makes for an often-quiet, gentle film.  The biggest moments come in small scenes, like how proudly Richard hangs his and Mildred’s marriage license on their bedroom wall or the shy reticence in Mildred’s voice when she first takes a call from the ACLU.  Joel Edgerton and Oscar-nominated Ruth Negga play their roles softly and compassionately.  Their chemistry together is so warm, and their understated reactions to the injustices they’re facing somehow highlights those injustices even more starkly.  Michael Shannon also appears in the film, turning in a good performance in his brief role as a photographer sympathetic to the cause.

Warnings

Thematic elements and threats of violence.

Lion (2016, PG-13)

(Note:  in the interest of doing as many Oscar-related write-ups as I can between now and the end of February, I'm putting Buster Mondays on hold for the time being.  Depending on how many movies I get to, I may have to shave off a couple Marvelous Wednesdays, too.)

This is just a beautiful film, really well-done around and gripping with emotion.  It definitely falls into the category of “truth is stranger (and, at times, more wonderful) than fiction,” which makes it all the more stunning.  Some spoilers by necessity.

One night, 5-year-old Saroo boards a train a few stations away from his small village in rural India.  He is alone.  Having fallen asleep, he wakes to realize he is far from home with no idea where he is and no sense of when he’ll even be able to get off the train.  It finally deposits him in Calcutta, over 1,000 miles away from his home and his family, even his language – as he frantically asks for help in Hindi, he’s only met with gruff responses in Bengali.  Saroo scrapes for survival, all the while dreaming to get back to his mother and siblings, but it seems an impossibility.  He winds up in an orphanage, where he’s adopted by an Australian couple and lovingly raised in their home.  The early chapter of his life gets buried under new memories, but none too deep.  When his remembrances are disturbed, he shares the truth about what happened to him with friends, who encourage him to resume his quest to find home some 25 years later.  Armed with Google Earth images of India, a search radius, and line after blurry line of endless miles of railroad tracks, Saroo searches for the impossible.

A truly incredible story, the sort that people would dismiss as implausible if it were fiction.  But it’s not; it really happened, and the film takes great care and respect in bringing Saroo’s story to life onscreen.  It’s a deeply emotional movie that I think exquisitely conveys the depth of Saroo’s anguish as he gives himself over more fully to his journey, digging in deeper and letting it consume both his waking and sleeping hours, needing there to be a light at the end of the tunnel because he can’t bear the thought of searching and finding only darkness.  Thoughtful camera work juxtaposes past and present as the two swirl confusedly in Saroo’s heart, and Dev Patel captures this tug between hope and despair wonderfully (watching this film, it’s crazy to think he used to be on Skins – Anwar’s all grown up!)

I’m going backwards a little here, but the young Saroo sequence in India is also remarkably well-done.  Sunny Pawar does a great job in his first onscreen role, and light, noise, and frenetic blocking all work together to pull you into the chaos and confusion of his young life when he gets lost in Calcutta.  I especially love the scene where he finally gets off the train, how the camera follows him at his height with a crush of extras pressing in on all sides.  You get such a powerful feel of his claustrophobia.

It’s a complicated story with big emotions and few easy answers (Nicole Kidman is also wonderful as Saroo’s adopted mother,) and generally speaking, the film hits the right note every time.  It allows things to get really messy, to get lost physically as well as emotionally, to feel untethered even on one’s own doorstep.  I was really impressed, and it’s a film that will stick with me for some time to come.

Warnings

Strong thematic elements, drug references, drinking, and mild sexual content.

Top Five Damn Hero Moments: Sky Smith (The Sarah Jane Adventures)

When it comes to finding Big Damn Hero moments, the youngest Smith is at a disadvantage.  Due to the show’s sadly-truncated fifth season, she’s only in six episodes, and she’s a baby for most of the first one.  That doesn’t leave her a huge amount of time in which to be awesome, but Sky still pulls it off!  (Spoilers.)

Turning from Miss Myers (Series 5, Episode 2:  “Sky – Part 2”)

Sky’s first big moment remains my favorite, just because it’s so lovely.  Born to be a devastating weapon, Sky is expected, by her terrible piece-of-work mother, to end a war she knows nothing about with extreme prejudice.  Sky has only just been aged out of infancy and has a hard time controlling her unstable powers, but in the end, her desire not to be a force for destruction is enough to hold back the other forces within her, and she chooses life in a very uplifting way.

Discovering the Curse (Series 5, Episode 4:  “The Curse of Clyde Langer – Part 2”)

Sky’s alien biology protects her from the curse that causes everyone to turn against Clyde at the sound of his name.  Even though she’s still new to being alive and doesn’t fully get how humans act, she almost immediately twigs that something isn’t right.  With Clyde run out of the neighborhood, she’s on her own as she puts the pieces together, recognizing that it’s his name that’s the key.

Convincing Sarah Jane and Rani of the Curse (Series 5, Episode 4:  “The Curse of Clyde Langer – Part 2”)

Okay, so deciding that repeating Clyde’s name aversion-therapy-style is the key to breaking the curse is something of an intuitive leap that’s more plot shorthand than anything else, but I still like Sky’s tenacity here.  Sarah Jane and Rani are being immovable in their utter detestation of Clyde, but Sky keeps at them until she finds a way to snap them out of it.

Catching Serf’s Glitch (Series 5, Episode 5:  “The Man Who Never Was – Part 1”)

When it comes to Sky, even when her powers are greatly diminished, the show still focuses a lot on her being an alien.  It comes in handy here, as her electrical sensitivity allows her to notice the Serf hologram’s live glitch, tipping her off that the tech mogul isn’t what he seems.  Bonus points for being able to locate the exact moment of the glitch in the security footage, proving to the others that she and Luke are right.

Operating Serf (Series 5, Episode 6:  “The Man Who Never Was – Part 2”)

I already mentioned this in Luke’s Big Damn Hero write-up, but it bears repeating.  Smith kid tag-team for the win!  Sky is terrific running the Serf hologram with her brother while the Skullions are making their getaway.  While Luke handles motor functions, Sky takes care of the speech department, going a little overboard with the cowboy routine when Luke reminds her that Serf is supposed to be American (she’s been watching Toy Story again.)  Ha!

The Executive Order

I know this is a blog that I use to talk about TV, movies, books, music, plays, and so forth, and even when I discuss issues like bigotry or inclusion, it’s always through that lens of pop culture and storytelling.  But right now, I just need to talk.

An indefinite suspension of refugee admissions from Syria.  A 120-day halt on the admissions process for refugees from all countries.  Cutting the U.S.’s total number of refugee admissions for 2017 by more than half of its originally-planned number.  A 90-day barring of all entry for people from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Somali, Sudan, Yemen, and Libya, even if they already have a visa (and while 90 days is the stated number, admissions won’t resume until the administration has satisfied its “investigation” into these countries.)

I am beyond disgusted at the total disregard for human suffering, the utter contempt for our fellow human beings that goes into an order like this.  The bigotry disguised as national security.  Taking people’s very real endangered lives and playing politics with it.  Stoking the fires of fear and racism to make oneself look stronger by battling a straw enemy of one’s own creation (terrorism is a threat – refugees are not.  This is not the same thing, and to pretend it is is shameful.)  The fact that it was signed on Holocaust Remembrance Day just shines even more of a light on how cowardly and despicable it is.

Is it a “total and complete shutdown” on Muslims entering the U.S.?  Not in so many words, but largely in effect.  Certainly, all the Muslims seeking refuge have had the doors barred to them, a blanket block on the suffering, and the additional country-specific ban keeps out everyone from seven Muslim-majority countries.  But the added caveat within the order makes the Islamaphobic bigotry even more undisguised:  room has been left for exceptions to be made, on both the 120-day refugee ban and the 90-day country-specific ban.  Throughout the whole of the process, case-by-case exceptions can be made, with priority going to those fleeing religious persecution, as long as they’re a religious minority in their country.  With the overwhelming, overwhelming majority of Muslim refugees coming from Muslim-majority countries, that means the exceptions aren’t for them.  They’re for those from these countries who aren’t Muslim, i.e., for Christians.

(Now, I’m not saying that Christians fleeing Syria don’t need protection.  They do.  Obviously they do, and I want to see them getting all the help they need.  But so do the Muslims.  To pick and choose who’s deserving of refuge from suffering is a disgrace.)

I’m reminded of the Black codes used to curtail Black suffrage after the passage of the 15^th Amendment.  States in the South didn’t pass laws saying that Black people couldn’t vote, because it would have been blatantly unconstitutional to do so, just like it would’ve been to block entry to the U.S. explicitly on the basis of religion.  So instead, they created laws like literacy tests and poll taxes, casting wide nets that they knew would catch the majority of Black Southerners, who until recently were barred from receiving any type of education and were owned for unpaid labor rather than receiving any sort of earnings.  But they knew that, while Black voters would overwhelmingly be the ones affected by literacy tests and poll taxes, there would also be a number of white voters unable to pass a test or pay a tax.  So what did they do?  They made exceptions.  Grandfather clauses, whereby you weren’t subject to those other voting requirements as long as your grandfather would’ve been eligible to vote, claims that only white voters could make.

As I’ve said before, I live in a city with a sizable population of Muslim refugees from Somalia, and I work in a public school where I have a lot of contact with EL (English Learner) and other Somali students.  I know Muslim kids who are obsessed with sports and prom and Facebook, kids who alternately love school and loathe school depending on the day, and a SPED kid whose favorite things are hamburgers, cars, flags, and sambusa.  Over the past months, as I’ve been working with them, I’ve been continual blindsided by the thought, “The president-elect doesn’t think they should’ve been allowed to come here,” and over the past few days, it’s been all I can do not to cry when I think of these beautiful, awesome, fun kids that the president is willfully determined to view only as potential dangerous terrorists.  Absolutely shameful.