What classics did you watch this week? (5/30-6/5)

Ginza Cosmetics (Mikio Naruse, 1951) - Pretty good Naruse, if not one of my favorites. Kinuyo Tanaka plays a single mother and geisha in Tokyo's bar-laden Ginza district. Life is tough, and Tanaka hopes to be able to find an eligible man to take care of her and her son. Most men she meets are total losers, though. This is a little unfocused, but it builds to a good climax. Tanaka is wonderful throughout. 7/10. yes.

Repast (Mikio Naruse, 1951) - Gentle and touching portrait of a marriage. Setsuko Hara and Ken Uehara play a young married couple who have been living in Osaka for a while now, after having met and married in Tokyo. Life in Osaka is pretty dull, especially for Hara, who does little but housewife day in and day out. Uehara doesn't make much money, and his job prospects are weak. They're in a rut. When Uehara's beautiful young niece comes for an unannounced visit, Hara's dissatisfaction with life becomes too much to bear. As is usual for Naruse, the characters are extremely well developed and their emotional dilemmas are very easy to sympathize with. The acting is excellent throughout, with Hara giving one of her very best performances. 8/10. yes/YES.

The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015) - Dystopian sci-fi with an extremely absurdist twist. Single people are brought to a hotel where they are forced to pair up. If they don't, after a certain amount of time they will be physically transformed into an animal of their choice. Colin Farrell, the latest arrival, has chosen a lobster. This film is enjoyably odd. I especially loved the characters' robotic dialogue, which is sometimes just very funny. However, I had no real connection to it and, in the end, it didn't seem to me to be much else but weirdness for the sake of being weird. The characters and situation are so far removed from actual humanity, you'd have to work hard to find that it has anything particularly insightful to say about society, or even its more closely examined subjects like singlehood or relationships. Other recognizable actors include Rachel Weisz, John C. Reilly, Lea Seydoux and Ben Whishaw. 7/10. yes.

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (Akiva Schaffer & Jorma Taccone, 2016) - Amusing mockumentary in the vein of Spinal Tap. Andy Sandberg stars as vapid pop star Conner, who came to popularity through a hip-hop group he founded with his two best friends (the other two members of Lonely Island and the directors of the film, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone) but who has recently gone solo. Taccone has stayed on as his DJ, but he mostly just plays music through his iPod at concerts. Schaffer was infuriated with Conner's behavior and has gone rustic and become a farmer. The film is very silly and a lot of fun, with plenty of great gags, hilarious songs, and entertaining cameos. I do think it runs out of steam as it nears the end - it has to wrap up the plot and becomes semi-serious, and it kind of harms the momentum. I must beg AMPAS to recognize "I'm So Humble" and/or "Equal Rights" for Best Original Song next year. 7/10. yes.

Risen (Kevin Reynolds, 2016) - Christian films of late are factory made to appeal only to a certain kind of dim-witted Christian, stroking their egos and assuring them that they're right and that everyone else is evil and out to get them. Risen, a film which depicts the resurrection of Christ, is certainly a big step up from the likes of God's Not Dead. I wouldn't call it "good," per se, but it's more than competent. It's not quite as rousing as the epics of the '50s, but in some ways I like it's smaller approach better than something like The Robe. Joseph Fiennes stars as a Roman tribune who witnesses the crucifixion of Jeshua (man of all races Cliff Curtis). When the body goes missing, he is assigned to find it. This long stretch of the film is its biggest problem, because it's rather dull. When Fiennes does find Jesus, well, I wouldn't say it becomes fantastic or anything, but it definitely gets more interesting. I would say the big scene where he meets Jesus is quite good. It would be easy to accuse Fiennes of being one note, but I thought his performance was pretty good. He's a man in shock, and he plays it all very well. 6/10. mixed.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (Dave Green, 2016) - A gigantic mess, but a fun mess, unlike the previous film. Obviously I saw it for purely nostalgic reasons, and I think I would have loved this adaptation when I was a kid and a huge fan of the Turtles - this is as close to the cartoon series as you're going to get. I mostly liked it for the side characters it introduces - Bebop and Rocksteady (character actor Gary Anthony Williams and wrestler Sheamus) first and foremost, but also Baxter Stockman (Tyler Perry), Casey Jones (Stephen Arnell) and Krang (Brad Garrett). The story is complete nonsense - my favorite example being the first, 60 second meeting between the Shredder (Brian Tee) and Krang, wherein Shredder decides to transport Krang from his dimension to Earth for a full-scale invasion. Podcasts and Youtube channels are going to have plenty of fun dissecting the idiocy of this script. The Turtles themselves come off well. I liked them plenty in the first movie and there characters are well utilized here. Will Arnett and Megan Fox are back and both are fine at what they do. Poor Laura Linney. You can almost hear her weeping behind the scenes! Hopefully she got paid well. 7/10. yes.

Re-watches

Hot Rod (Akiva Schaffer, 2007) (fourth viewing) - One of the funniest comedies of the '00s. Wish we had been able to get more Lonely Island movies between this and Popstar (and, since Popstar actually opened lower than Hot Rod did in 2007, that may be the last one we ever see). I definitely prefer this one because of the weirder jokes, which Popstar doesn't really go for. Andy Sandberg is hilarious, of course, but the funniest moments of the film probably belong to Bill Hader and Danny McBride. I also can't help but laugh an Ian McShane's poo-eating grin every single time. 8/10. yes/YES.



You know who else was just following orders? HITLER!

On the Bowery (Lionel Rogosin, 1956) 9/10

The end of hope.

"...wades into the notorious human ruin as no other film ever did."
- Michael Atkinson

“...an extraordinary, agonizing document...filled with an overwhelming sense of veracity and an unvoiced compassion for the men who have surrendered their dignity for a drink”
- Arthur Knight

"Not to be churlish about it but simply to state the case as it appears to a cheerful film reviewer and ex-reporter in the byways of New York, this is a dismal exposition to be charging people money to see. You can see the same thing in many places in this city without going too far from where you live. Indeed, it is merely a good montage of good photographs of drunks and bums, scrutinized and listened to ad nauseam. And we mean ad nauseam!

True, the candid photography of actual Bowery scenes—gin-mills, flop-houses, missions and drunk-cluttered doorways at dawn—is sharp and unrelenting. Carl Lerner, who edited the film, has done a fine job of assembling these sordid and pitiful scenes. [...] As a piece of straight documentation, "On the Bowery" makes a tough, arresting film.
[...]
Much more enjoyable on the program is a thirty-minute Walt Disney film, "Man in Space," which explains with animations a projected launching of a manned rocket satellite outside the atmosphere of the earth. [...]"
- Bosley Crowther (The New York Times, March 19, 1957)

Die Zärtlichkeit der Wölfe / Tenderness of the Wolves (Ulli Lommel, 1973) 5+/10

Zootopia 3D (Byron Howard & Rich Moore & Jared Bush, 2016) 7/10

Морфий / Morphine (Aleksey Balabanov, 2008) 5+/10

High-Rise (Ben Wheatley, 2015) 5/10

I started reading the novel after watching this, which so far I like very much and find quite interesting. So, shame about the film, I guess. Maybe I'll watch it again after I'm done reading it.

歩いても 歩いても / Still Walking (Hirokazu Koreeda, 2008) 8/10
http://perception-de-ambiguity.tumblr.com/post/145441822293/still-walking-2008

Big Eyes (Timothy Walter Burton, 2014) 8+/10

Wow, this is just like the Zack Snyder story (his films are actually all directed by his wife, in case you didn't know). But seriously, it's written in kind of broad strokes, but in the engaging and fun(ny) way at which the Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski team (Ed Wood, The People vs. Larry Flynt, Man on the Moon) is really good at.

J'ai tué ma mère / I Killed My Mother (Xavier Dolan, 2009) 8/10

Dead of Winter (Arthur Penn, 1987) 2+/10

Tren de sombras / Train of Shadows (José Luis Guerín, 1997) 5/10

Although not at all a bad or uninteresting film (I liked the other two José Luis Guerín films I've seen, 'Los motivos de Berta' and especially 'In the City of Sylvia') this one didn't really work for me. The fact that the old footage was fabricated unfortunately very much got in the way for me during all of the different sections to one degree or another, including the old footage section itself (which overall is done well enough), and while I would be happy to watch 17 minutes of random home movie footage of people in the 20's/30's goofing around, it would really have to be the real article, those 17 minutes felt more self-indulgent to me than three hours of 'The Hateful Eight', also because after a while I was afraid that the whole film would be like that. I can never help being overly critical of those recreations of old films, thinking that this or that doesn't seem authentic, whether I'm right or not.

I also have a pet peeve with fake home movies in films always having an aggressive lack of artistry, like the filmmakers are afraid that as much as one shot that looks intentionally framed or even just an accidentally interesting-looking shot would ruin the illusion of it being authentic. Not that this fake film shows absolutely no intentionality or experimentation, but it's very, very minor. Plus, this guy was meant to be a filmmaker to some degree, wasn't he even supposed to have won some prize for making films like those? Seriously? So in this case especially the "bland & thoughtless = authentic" equation doesn't add up. They certainly did a beautiful job with aging the film material, and also with the aging of photographs and other props, I'll give them that.

Anyway, sitting through that part paid off well enough during the "old footage investigation" section which implied a love triangle going on, and it's certainly the part that worked best for me. It's also the section that most justifies creating the old footage rather than using actual one, because even if the juxtapositions, recontextualization and "discoveries" can still be considered speculative rather than proven, it wouldn't really have been possible in nearly the same way with some random found footage, partly also because I'm pretty sure there was some cheating involved in the form of additional material being shot (e.g. when blowing up a small reflection in a window and coming up with an unrealistically clear image).

Suffice it to say though, if Guerín had somehow pulled this off with actual found footage this section also would have been a hundred times more impressive and fascinating. And even with this section I'm torn between appreciating the different approach to storytelling and being annoyed at it just being what I would describe as a "fake avant-garde film", which is also how I would describe the film as a whole.

The section that shows the places in the present is to some degree like a James Benning film (I'm thinking 'Landscape Suicide') with the small but to me crucial difference that its backstory/context is completely fictional, while another section suggests that amidst the physical traces in the mansion (which are sets, props and fake photographs) there are also elusive traces of the family still being in the mansion (shadows of the past, ghosts, spirits, call it what you like), a well done section but again something that would be infinitely more powerful if there was the illusion for the viewer of some real-life basis for all of this, not that this isn't also evocative but it would simply make it work on more levels.

For what I would consider a "proper" avant-garde film (and which is a found footage film in its entirety) that is a somewhat similar hybrid of found-footage-investigation & storytelling-through-recontextualization I recommend 'Welt Spiegel Kino' by Gustav Deutsch, a lesser known work from the guy you may know from 'Shirley: Visions of Reality' or 'Film ist a Girl & a Gun'.

Music for the Movies: Tôru Takemitsu (Charlotte Zwerin, 1994) 6/10

Mystery Science Theater 3000: "High School Big Shot" (1994) 9/10
High School Big Shot (Joel Rapp, 1959) 2/10
Out of This World (producer: Jamison Handy for Jam Handy Organization, 1954)
Out of This World (producer: Jamison Handy for Jam Handy Organization, 1954) (rewatch) 6/10

Deadpool (Tim Miller, 2016) 8+/10

It's, like, this decade's 'Last Action Hero'...most people wouldn't see this as a compliment, but I do. I make this comparison because it doesn't completely deconstruct the genre, it's as much a parody of the genre as it is very much a part of it. It's less subverting it than it is acknowledging the conventions, making that kind of plot feel fresh again. Also the irreverence that the film was allowed to have thanks to its R-rating truly is a breath of fresh air.

One probably won't find anything at all in the movie that will make you think, but it isn't just a string of cheap thrills and crass meta-jokes à la Seth MacFarlane either (which it easily could have been and it probably would have gotten by well enough just on the strength of its main concept and protagonist), it's actually smartly-written and well-structured. The whole thing just works, it never feels like it is just going through the motions. Also, maybe, think 'Scott Pilgrim', minus the thematic layers, minus that degree of style, minus Edgar Wright's film-savvy genius, minus the emotional depth,...uhm...somehow it's still really good, though.

Fassbinder (Annekatrin Hendel, 2015) (partly; primarily the Margit Carstensen parts)


- Shorts -

Le spectre rouge / The Red Spectre (Segundo de Chomón & Ferdinand Zecca, 1907) 6/10

Provincial School (Ivan Maximov/Ivan Maksimov, 1992) 7/10
A true original.

Papillon d'amour (Nicolas Provost, 2004) 6-/10

Passo / Birth (Alê Abreu, 2007) 7-/10

Pingu's The Thing / THINGU (Lee Hardcastle, 2012) 6/10

Mankinda (Stan Vanderbeek, 1957)

Menschen im Espresso (Herbert Vesely, 1958) 4/10
Presumptuous.

Aunt Luisa (Tim Miller & Paul Taylor, 2002) 5/10

Hall of Mirrors (Warren Sonbert, 1966) 4/10

No Doubt: Don't Speak (Sophie Muller, 1996) (umpteenth viewing) 6-/10

42 Years of Swedish music in 4 minutes, as seen at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 (medley by Jonas Åkerlund) 7/10
https://vimeo.com/166799900

Bob Dylan: Like a Rolling Stone (Vania Heymann, 2013) 8-/10
Interactive music video. Nice idea, well executed.
http://video.bobdylan.com/desktop.html


- Other -

Louie: "Halloween/Ellie" (Louis C.K., 2011) 5+/10

The Ren & Stimpy Show: "Fire Dogs/Stimpy's Storybook Land: The Littlest Giant" (John Kricfalusi, 1991) 6-/10

On Cinema: 'The Frozen Ground' and 'Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning' (2012) 6/10

On Cinema: 'Red Dawn' and 'Life of Pi' (2012) 7/10

On Cinema: 'Grown Ups 2' and 'Pacific Rim' (2013) 6/10

On Cinema: 'Jupiter Ascending' and 'The SpongeBob Movie' (2015) 6/10


- Didn't Finish -
Calcutta (Louis Malle, 1969) [36 min]
Our Time, Our Story (2002 documentary about the New Taiwan Cinema movement) [30+ min]


- Notable Online Media -

Kanye West's VMA Speech Recut As Stand-Up Comedy Set
Michael Moore: Norway is unbelievable for americans
When Apes Become Human
The business of GIFs: Then and now
The Execution - Cyanide & Happiness Shorts
Russell Crowe Ryan Gosling Jodie Foster Sir Elton John The Graham Norton Show S19E09 [at least the Goslinger parts]
David Lynch pesky fly interview 1986
Badlands and the Art of the Voiceover
The Big Lebowski - The Importance Of A Rug | Ryan's Theory
Game of Thrones: Why Dragons Halt Progress
How Deadpool Spent Halloween
Deadpool - Gentlemen, Touch Yourself Tonight | 2016
Deadpool - Ladies, Touch Yourself Tonight | 2016
Honest Trailers - Deadpool (Feat. Deadpool)
Top 4:
DP/30: Big Eyes, Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski
Christoph Waltz discusses working with Quentin Tarantino - The New Yorker Festival - The New Yorker
Coldplay ‘Up&Up’
Video Essay: PLEASANTVILLE "Black & White vs Color"

- just another film blog -
http://perception-de-ambiguity.tumblr.com

MUSTANG

Directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Turkey, France, U.S., (2015), 96 minutes

“I feel the air flowing for life's in full swing, so tell me why I cannot breathe” – Kate Rusby, Fallin’

Since the dawn of human history, men’s ability to suppress the rights of women has been a measure of their power. Despite our social advances, even today women are often put into categories such as, as author Estela Welldon describes it, “Mother, Madonna, or Whore.” Accusations of being either cold and prudish or seductive and manipulative obscure the fact that sex for women is as natural and healthy a form of self expression as it is for men. Unfolding against a backdrop of adolescent sexual repression, rebellion, and loss of innocence, Director Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s magical first feature Mustang tackles the issue of gender inequality that women all over the world have to confront, the title symbolizing their strength and untamed spirit.

Co-written by the director and Alice Winocour, the film is set in a rural Turkish village near the Black Sea, and takes place in a conservative patriarchal culture that discourages the expression of femininity other than in fulfilling traditional gender roles. Though Mustang is filmed in Turkey and spoken in Turkish, because France is the director’s adopted country, it was France’s entry for the Oscars Best Foreign Language Film award in 2016.

In the film, five orphaned teenage sisters, Lale (Güneş Nezihe Şensoy), Nur (Doğa Zeynep Doğuşlu), Ece (Elit Işcan), Selma (Tuğba Sunguroğlu), and Sonay (Ilayda Akdoğan) are being raised in the countryside by their uncle Erol (Ayberk Pekcan, “Winter Sleep”) and their grandmother (Nihal G. Koldas, “Kuma”). Though sad that their favorite teacher (Bahar Karimoglu) is going to Istanbul, the girls enjoy the final day of their school year, engaging in horseplay with local boys in waist-deep water.

Their joyous exuberance is turned into something dirty, however, by a local gossip who accuses them of sexually touching themselves against the boys’ necks and, of course, it is the girls who must pay the price. As an innocent game becomes the catalyst for intimidation, the girls are taken one by one by grandma to check their virginity and are subject to beatings from their overbearing uncle. Anything potentially corrupting is taken away such as their cell phones and computers along with their makeup. Expressive, often skimpy outfits are substituted with ugly, shapeless, colorless dresses that destroy their vibrancy.

The restrictions become even more blatant after they sneak away to attend a soccer match, even though the crowd is all female (men have been refused entry after a riot). Though Erol didn’t see them at the game thanks to a relative who sabotages the electricity to the entire village, their act of rebellion is the last straw for the grandmother. The house becomes a prison as bars are put on the windows and a group of local women arrive to teach the girls cooking and housekeeping in preparation for their preordained role in life as wives and mothers. The situation is promptly described by the feisty Lale who asserts that their home has become a “wife factory,” and that their key function will be to produce children.

Even sadder, there are darker things going on which are not shown but are implied when we see Uncle Erol going into Nur’s room at night, after which the grandmother hides the sheets. Most likely aware of what’s going on but powerless to prevent it, she begins to arrange marriages for each one of them. Sonay rebels and insists that she will only marry her boyfriend Ekin (Enes Surum) which is agreed to. Selma, however, is not so fortunate. After her marriage to a boring partner, she is forced to undergo a gynecological examination when there's no blood on the sheets, despite her repeated and truthful assertions that she is a virgin. While the forced marriage plan is partially successful, it leads to tragedy that we are totally unprepared for.

Anticipating that she may need to escape this prison before she is also ground down into the passive, compliant woman the family desires, Lale is secretly taught how to drive by Yasin (Burak Yigit, “Victoria”), a friendly neighborhood truck driver and her thoughts turn to other possibilities. Mustang is marked by outstanding performances by the five sisters who display an intimacy that breathes love and affection. Though the film deals with disturbing subject matter, it is not a depressing film. The remarkable performances by these outstanding young women and the connection they have with each other is exhilarating as is their willingness to assert their individuality and their humanity in the face of ignorance masked by good intentions.

GRADE: A-



LOVE & FRIENDSHIP

Directed by Whit Stillman, Ireland, (2016), 92 minutes

“A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.” – Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Chapter VI

Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale, “Absolutely Anything”), the main protagonist of Whit Stillman’s (“Damsels in Distress”) period comedy Love & Friendship is determined to get what she wants without any pretense of hiding her ambitions. With a bow to Machiavelli, she has perfected the skill of turning evidence directed at her back towards her accusers, declaring “Facts are horrid things.” Based on Jane Austen’s novella “Lady Susan” written in 1794 but not published until 1867, the story revolves around the recently widowed socialite, Lady Susan, whose reputation as "the most accomplished flirt in England" follows her from London to the home of her in-laws at Churchill Estate.

In Austen’s day, an unmarried woman had few prospects for financial stability and Susan’s not-so-secret dalliance with the married Lord Manawaring, the owner of the Langford estate, does not work in her favor. Though we are aware of her tendency to scheme, we only get a hint of what she’s up to when her daughter Frederica (Morfydd Clark, “Madame Bovary”) arrives at Churchill after running away from school. Stillman introduces us to each character with a descriptive caption (though it is hardly possible to remember who’s who). Lord Manawaring, (Lochlann O’Meárain, “Poison Pen”) is called “a divinely attractive man,” Sir James Martin (Tom Bennett), who plays Federica’s suitor, is described as “a bit of a rattle” which in commonly understood terms means a simple-minded buffoon.

Lady Susan nonetheless intends for her daughter to marry Sir James, noting that he is “vastly rich, rather simple, ideal.” Intending to enhance her relationships with her late husband’s family, Susan charms her brother-in-law, the young bachelor Reginald Decourcy (Xavier Samuel, “Frankenstein”) who takes the bait, much to the chagrin of his sister (Emma Greenwell, “Dare to be Wild”). Susan has an ally, however, in her American friend Alicia Johnson (Chloe Sevigny, “#Horror”), her secret confidante. Married to a much older man (Stephen Fry, “The Man Who Knew Infinity”), Alicia is threatened by her husband to be sent to Connecticut if her friendship with Susan continues (sounds good to me). “Let Mr. Johnson’s next gouty attack end more favorably,” Lady Susan says to her friend. On another occasion, she laments that Mr. Johnson is "too old to be governable, too young to die."

Kate Beckinsale’s performance as the cunning Lady Susan can only be described as delightful. She is thoroughly believable as the powerless woman who gains strength through her ability to bend others to her will, though her accent and rapid delivery can render some of the best lines unintelligible. Another vibrant performance is that of Bennett who has great comic timing as the inane Sir James who discovers that there are only Ten Commandments, not twelve, and that those little round green things on his plate are called peas. As the plot thickens, the film turns up its snarky wit and the time whisks by in a flurry of exuberance that lends a Shakespearean quality to the unpredictable ending.

GRADE: A-


REPEAT VIEWING
WHERE TO INVADE NEXT

Directed by Michael Moore, U.S., (2015), 120 minutes

Where to Invade Next is a satiric look at what much of the world has to offer that is not found in the U.S. Taking his camera crew to Italy, France, Finland, Slovenia, Tunisia, Portugal, Iceland, and Germany, he interviews workers, teachers, students, CEOs, government officials, and ordinary folks who tell him about the advantages they have that aren’t available in the U.S.. His intention is to show how other nations treat their citizens in the workplace, schools, and prisons, including their attitudes towards women and sex, leaving it to the viewer to make comparisons and to dream.



"The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits" - Einstein

Great review, as usual.
This is currently playing where we live, and you have sparked my interest in something I might have overlooked.

Thanks very much. I appreciate your comment. I think you'd like the movie.

"The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits" - Einstein

Howard - MUSTANG is an utterly marvelous and moving film. It's one of the very best pictures I saw in 2015, and your fine, heartfelt review brings it vividly to life on the page. I certainly hope your words inspire some of those CFB-ers who think they don't make good movies anymore to rush off and watch this outstanding film.

As for WHERE TO INVADE NEXT. What a treat this delightful and thought provoking serio-comic documentary flick is. For me, it might well be Michael Moore's best film, and it made me fall in love with him all over again. Saw Moore on REAL TIME with BILL MAHER - having been ill at the time of the film's theatrical release and unable to appear on the show he was finally there to promote its DVD and Blu Ray release, recently. He has lost a lot of weight, and he reminded us so much of my dear friend "The Professor" - who hasn't lost a lot of weight, but is losing his short term memory, and my heart is breaking. I was surprised at how humble and modest a man Moore was in the flesh.

I know this isn't the CFB way Howard, but I also know how much your reviews mean to you and how much time and effort you put into them, so here comes a sincere compliment. I was in two minds about whether or not to watch WHERE TO INVADE NEXT, so I was lazily scanning reviews and humming and hawwing. I eventually came across your (full) review of it. After reading it, I wanted it to see it real bad, thus I immediately got my hands on the movie and watched it with my partner. We loved it so much and I gave it an IMDB rating of 9 out of 10. Thanks Howard.

PS. Loaned it to my passionate, brilliant, intense and dedicated, but strange and sometimes exhausting bi-polar high school science teacher friend Pete. Pete was blown away and is currently trying to persuade the school where he heads up the Science Department to start feeding the kids properly and doing away with homework.

Of course, after seeing the Portugese example, I am even more determined to persuade the ANC and anybody who will listen that legalization of all drugs is the best way forward in the fight against narcotics. It's a tough, uphill battle and the local newspaper wouldn't even print my last couple of letters about legalizing marijuana, so you can imagine how they feel about my passion to see all drugs legalized in my lifetime.

I even threatened the official opposition in SA, the Democratic Alliance, with the loss of my vote in the upcoming municipal and national elections if they didn't change their ridiculous and mean spirited policy on the legalization of marijuana. To my dismay and great sadness, the threat didn't help, and I think the feckers are prepared to lose my vote rather than do the right thing. Which puts me in a bit of moral dilemma. Because Julius Malema, the leader of the far left worker's party in SA, the EFF (Economic Freedom Fighters) has just asnnounced that they would legalize marijuana if they came to power. I love the way the fearless EFF have taken on the corrupt President Jacob Zuma in parliament, but I also think that if "Wee" (a nickname given to him before he fell out of favor with the ruling elite and was still the leader of the ANC's Youth Wing) Julius became President he would be the next Idi Amin. What's a man of principle to do?

"Wee" Julius in action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwZtmHxftEY

The EFF take on the ANC's Chief Whip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4OfG6TLO4M

You gotta love the EFF for their balls Howard, but their economic policies leave much to be desired. Stiil, there is a small chance I might be the one white person in South Africa voting for them in the forthcoming elections. You are so lucky to live in Canada Howard, and sometimes I wish I lived in Canada or America, but at the end of the day I love this beautiful, vibrant, oft scary, oft dangerous, still deeply scarred country of mine soooo very much. Funny enough, my hugely successful younger brother - who is the Chief Anesthesiologist at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town and also has a thriving private practice, took his girlfriend and their two kids and left to join a practice in a spectacularly beautiful and peaceful part of Canada a few years back. They stuck it out for just over a year before deciding they missed SA too much and returned to Cape Town.

I usually like "period pieces" and have not been disappointed with Jane Austen type movies.

L&F is definitely not the usual period piece but it's worth a try.

"The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits" - Einstein