American Medical Association, You're just Glib!

From imdb.com today, more big Tom Cruise News...perhaps it's time for Scientology to begin ritual sacrifice of an over-the-hill celebrity, as part of reaching planet Theta, or whatever they do when they are bored and can't spend enough money:

Tom Cruise has been slammed for buying a sonogram machine for his pregnant fiancee Katie Holmes, with health experts warning that he's putting his unborn child at risk. Officials at the American College of Radiology (ACR) are highly concerned by Cruise's revelation that he purchased the device to track his child's progress, and they're warning him that he could be breaking the law if he's carrying out the scans himself. Dr. Carol M. Rumack, of the ACR Ultrasound Commission, says, "This is a patient safety issue. Untrained people, even if they have the financial means, should not buy, or be allowed to buy and operate, ultrasound machines which are, in fact, medical devices and should not be used without a medical indication. Images of the fetus are an opportunity to diagnose problems before birth that may require treatment. These images should be obtained by certified technologists under the supervision of physicians properly trained in ultrasound... The ACR is concerned that Tom Cruise has been badly advised regarding the use and potential abuse of ultrasound. There are many abnormalities that may be missed by the untrained eye. Also, if it is not medically necessary, the use of ultrasound raises unnecessary physical risk to the fetus."

The Village of Holcomb Stands on the High Wheat Plains of Western Kansas...

Capote Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Chris Cooper Director: Bennett Miller Quality: **** Adventurous: !! Similar Films: Fargo, Pee Wee's Big Adventure (both for his voice and the topic of "American Mystery") In the mid 1960's, at a time when real American writers were expected to produce works of fiction along the lines of Ernest Hemingway or F. Scott Fitzgerald, Truman Capote released his classic novel In Cold Blood. Focusing on the grisly murder of a rural Kansas family, the book was a smashing success. It created--or perhaps merely gave a name to--a new genre of writing known as the “non-fiction novel”, which would quickly become one of the most popular literary forms. Capote, a film by unknown director Bennett Miller, is the story of author Truman Capote and his self-destructive quest to write one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. Based on a book by Gerald Clarke, Capote focuses most of its energy on the relationships that Truman maintained, both with friends in New York, and with the two men, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, who were found guilty of the Kansas murders. Arguably the best character actor in independent cinema today, Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Big Lebowski), stars as the flamboyant author. Catherine Keener (Being John Malkovich, The 40 Year Old Virgin) plays Harper Lee, his lifelong friend, and author of To Kill a Mockingbird. Together they embark on a journey to the heart of America, ultimately hoping to write a short story for the New Yorker magazine. By sweet talking a local law man (Chris Cooper) and spinning yarns from Capote's photographic memory, Truman discovers enough information from the townspeople to begin a potential book. Within months he befriends the killers, and uses his relationship with them to extract intimate details about the night of the murders. After the two murderers are found guilty, Capote persuades them to remain in contact with him. He hires an appeals lawyer for the men, angering many of the townspeople who assisted his efforts. After several years of research and interviews, Capote has almost completed his book. The only question that remains, before he can finish, is whether or not Hickock and Smith will be executed for the crimes. Capote is a gloomy adaptation of Clarke's novel. The sense of darkness that surrounds the entire Kansas town and its inhabitants is set beautifully by Bennett Miller. He films only in winter, and only in settings that give an impression of desolation. The outdoor shots, reminiscent of Fargo, are as rich as Capote's descriptions of Holcomb, Kansas. In the New York scenes, the film has a decidedly glamorous air. As Truman moves from one social gathering to the next, we see how superficial his life was, and how he entertained himself within that life by drinking heavily and telling wild stories. The musical score is as subtle as the landscape it describes. There are no swellings of violins or swooping brass instruments, and because of that the music functions as a perfect compliment to the action and setting. Together, each piece of film is works with the others to form an enjoyable cohesive work. There is nothing worse for a film than to have its lead character savagely washed away by a broken accent or poor costume. Capote stays afloat in that regard. Hoffman is perfect as Truman Capote. As can be seen from the picture above, he is a dead ringer for the man. For extra credit points, he affects the legendary squeaky drawl perfectly. This enhances viewing pleasure immensely. Catherine Keener is also enjoyable as the sometimes unwilling sidekick, Harper Lee. As men of great importance swirl around each other, praising and boasting, Keener plays as if her austere southern writer were the only person of integrity in New York literary circles. Her masculinity counterbalances Capote's femininity perfectly, creating a yin-yang of repartee. As always, Chris Cooper is down-to-earth and understated. In some lives there are moments which, looked at later, can be seen as the lines that define the beginning of a dramatic rise or decline...The proximate cause of [Capote's] tragic fall-for that's what it was- was In Cold Blood itself. -Gerald Clarke, Author of Capote By the end of 1966, In Cold Blood was an American sensation. Truman Capote, on the other hand, was destroyed. Riddled with self-doubt after publishing the novel, Capote became almost permanently blocked. Although he did complete a novella and a few short stories, he never published another completed novel. Many claim that it was his unethical work on In Cold Blood that destroyed his writing career. In 1984, he died from an overdose of pills after battling alcoholism and depression. His only other novel, Answered Prayers: The Unfinished Novel, was published posthumously.

3.141592653589793 2384626433832795

∏ Starring: Sean Gullette Director: Darren Aronofsky Subject Matter: Chaos Theory, Migraine Headaches Rating: ** 1/2 Adventurous: !!! In 1997-1998, with a budget of only $60,000, Darren Aronofsky wrote, produced, and released his first feature-length film, titled simply ∏. Shot in black and white, and starring Sean Gullette, an unknown actor with little film experience, ∏ quickly became a smashing indie success, winning the director’s award at the Sundance Film Festival and Best First Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards. The film’s final gross, given on IMDb.com, was over $3,000,000 domestically, as well as some couch change abroad. The film focuses on Max Cohen (Gullette), a mathematics wizard who developed supernatural powers of arithmetic after looking into the sun as a child. Since the development of this Rainman-esque intelligence, Max has used his powers to predict outcomes in the stock market and other systems. Together with a whacky looking computer and extensive knowledge of chaos theory, Cohen fights evil Hasidic Jews, evil Mutual Fund companies, and evil paranoid homoerotic delusions as the first ever Mathematics Superhero. He is assisted in his quest by a sluttish neighbor, who carries an endless supply of Indian samosas, and a senile sidekick professor prone to grammar school anecdotes. Needless to say, a whole slew of craziness ensues. Dealing with experimental and disturbing subject matter, Aronofsky created ∏ just five years after graduating from Harvard film school. Only two years after completing ∏, he released another disturbing film, Requiem for a Dream, this time focusing on the world of drug addiction. All in all, he has made two mediocre films with two of the most disturbing endings in film history. Unless a miracle occurs and Aronofsky begins making engrossing films, history will probably remember him best for his disgusting film endings. So, what makes his films so disturbing? It is a combination of dramatic themes (drug use, a mentally unstable genius) and ridiculous circumstance. Aronofsky uses these two components, plus a touch of violence, sexual deviance, and bodily fluids to make any situation seem like a microcosmic Armageddon. The director is also prone to using "hip-hop montage" which is a collection of images or actions shown in fast-motion, with accompanying sound effects. And generally, these components create a scene so despicable, that it is hard to feel drawn to the subject matter and, thus, to identify with the characters. They seem too foreign, as if imported from another planet and then trapped inside an unforgiving urban hothouse. That said, ∏ was a wildly successful film. People loved it, and it was quickly hailed as the coming of a new master director. In his online journal that he kept during the production of the movie, Aronofsky compared himself to Stanley Kubrick, Spike Lee, Jim Jarmusch, Kevin Smith, and Martin Scorsese, primarily because they have all used black and white film at some point to make their movies. I would not go so far as to compare him with Jarmusch, Kubrick and Scorsese, but he certainly ranks as high as Spike Lee and Kevin Smith, two directors who began with a bang and quickly fizzled. Aronofsky has not released a film in almost 6 years (though The Fountain is due out next year). The two films he has released have not stood up well. Looking at IMDb, one quickly sees that half of the factual material in ∏ was made up or wrong. And Requiem for a Dream, though popular with the early-teens crowd, has received nothing more than a big Alfred E. Newman yecchh from anyone I know over the age of 20. With a record like that, Aronofsky should focus his comparisons to the one equally deranged and unprolific director on the list, Stanley “Bore Me To Tears, Then Shock Me to Submission” Kubrick.

Have A Great Day and Thanks a Million!

Good Night and Good Luck Starring: David Strathairn, Robert Downey Jr., Patricia Clarkson, George Clooney, Ray Wise Director: George Clooney Quality: *** ½ Adventurous: ! Similar Films: The Fog of War Any good journalist and historian knows and respects the name Edward R. Murrow. Since I am neither a good journalist, nor a good historian, I first learned about Murrow this weekend, at a showing of director George Clooney’s latest drama Good Night and Good Luck. Named for the closing words that Murrow spoke each week in the early 1950’s to his television audience, Good Night is an editorial statement of utmost relevance in the current state of American media. Good Night and Good Luck is a semi-fictional account of Edward R. Murrow’s exposé on Senator Joseph McCarthy during the closing weeks of McCarthy’s Red Scare witch-hunts. In 1953, as prominent members of the national press were being forced to sign patriotic oaths to the United States, Murrow and his team of reporters began exposing McCarthy’s shifty politics. On his weekly program, See It Now, Murrow created an episode titled "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy." The episode featured interviews and speeches made by McCarthy, and showed the senator as a hypocrite and a liar. Though responses from viewers were 15 to 1 in favor of Murrow’s reporting, the episode was one of the most controversial programs ever to air on television, and it cost Murrow his career as a prime-time journalist. Immediately following a rebuttal by Sen. McCarthy two weeks after the original episode, See It Now was moved to Sunday afternoon and then cancelled a few weeks later. This movie is a beauty to watch. Taking his cue from the inventive geniuses, the Coen brothers, who shot The Man Who Wasn’t There in color and then converted it to black-and-white in the developing lab, Clooney created a gorgeous mise en scène by shooting Good Night on a black and white set using color film and then later converting it to B/W. The final product becomes a swirl of cigarette smoke, 50’s jazz, and dark suits on pale white men. Clooney used actual footage of Sen. McCarthy, as well as other clips from the time period. This saved him from finding (and paying) a man to play the part. Because of this creative use of historical footage, the viewer is treated to a part-documentary, part-dramatic interpretation of the events surrounding Murrow’s final broadcasts. Hence, the film is almost entirely nonfiction (as opposed to “Based on a True Story”, which can mean that the film is almost entirely fictional, but using characters who are real people). Where there were no eye-witness accounts, Clooney and co-writer Grant Heslov filled in the blanks with snappy dialogue and famous quotes from Murrow, a notoriously sharp speaker. David Strathairn (Sneakers, Delores Claiborne) stars as Edward R. Murrow, the prominent CBS newscaster who rose to fame as an overseas radio correspondent during World War II. As Hitler annexed Austria on the night of “Anschluss” in 1938, Murrow and fellow newscasters in Berlin, London, and Italy, aired the first episode of World News Roundup, a world radio correspondence which continues to air each morning and night on the CBS Radio Network. Following the war, Murrow continued broadcasting a weekly radio program known as Hear It Now, produced by Fred Friendly (played by George Clooney). As television began to take over in the early 1950s, Murrow renamed his show See It Now, and reluctantly began weekly TV broadcasts. Murrow believed that radio was a better medium for the people than television because it relied on ideas, instead of pictures. He became a bitter opponent of television infotainment, and made many speeches toward the end of his life that derided weak journalism. In 1961, Murrow was asked by President John F. Kennedy to head the US Information Agency, a parent organization to the Voice of America. In 1965, at the age of 57, Murrow died of lung cancer due to his heavy use of cigarettes. David Strathairn, in his first motion picture lead, does a spectacular job as Murrow. With cigarette in hand, Strathairn’s mellow voice and subtle gestures create an instantly likeable character. His nobility radiates. And though his character is not developed beyond the walls of CBS studios, one gets the feeling that behind Murrow’s convictions remain important facts that have built a structure of moral solidity. He is a pleasure to watch. Also fun are Robert Downey Jr. and Patricia Clarkson, a clandestine couple who spend much of their time assisting each other and the CBS news team. Ray Wise (Leland Palmer from Twin Peaks) plays Don Hollenbeck, a troubled journalist whose recent breakup with his wife leads to a downward spiral. It is a perfect role for the sad little man who once killed Laura Palmer. We hardly need to be reminded that we are living in an age of confusion—a lot of us have traded in our beliefs for bitterness and cynicism or for a heavy package of despair, or even a quivering portion of hysteria. Opinions can be picked up cheap in the market place while such commodities as courage and fortitude and faith are in alarmingly short supply. –Edward R. Murrow, This I Believe (1951) The importance of Good Night and Good Luck should be obvious to anyone whose eyes have been at least half open for the last 5 years. In the age of government bribed media, non-confrontational government press conferences, and CIA spooks outed by high party officials, it is important for Americans to reflect on their heritage as a nation of dissenters. George Clooney must have known this as he put together a simmering attack on the media process and its pitfalls. The subject matter alone will put Clooney in the running for Best Director and Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards. If it does not, then we should all start learning to eat borscht and won-ton real quick, for the red army is nigh! If you have any faith left in the democratic process; if your mouth shrivels up and your teeth fall out every time GW takes the podium; if your heart is bleeding out through your ears for the men and women of the armed forces; if you can hardly believe your own luck at being born in this time at this place; GO SEE GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK. Have a great day and thanks a million!