Close to the Brink: HBO's Too Big to Fail

"Too Big to Fail" is one of the best HBO movies in some time, based on the Andrew Ross Sorkin book, it is a highly dramatic, thoroughly credible account of the days in September 2009 when the entire American (and global) financial system nearly melted down. Focus is on Treasury Secretary Hank Paulsen and his struggles, personal and political, as he sets aside his ideological belief in free markets and gets the government to step in and bail out the banks. Paulsen does some heroic things, but he's not a hero, as few in politics ever really are - movie makes clear that he could have and should have demanded more from the banks - he had to push to get them (especially the supposedly healthier ones) to accept federal involvement (government bought billions of preferred stock in 9 banks), and refused to require the banks to give that money out in loans to spur the economy. Also, his entire focus was on saving the banks, and not a word about saving the people whom the banks had screwed, through foreclosures and, ultimately, through unemployment. Never the less, I part with many of my progressive friends on this in that I do give him a lot of credit for taking action - as few Republicans would have done. The movie largely gets the tone of government workers during time of crisis just right - the many meetings, conferences, cell-phone calls, lots of good acting from a range of (mostly white male) actors, notably Giamotti (William Hurt OK in lead, too). Only one stilted scene, when concept of credit default swaps explained in a totally stagy office conversation. Otherwise, movie is tense and dramatic and kind of scary as we see how close we were to the brink.

Could anyone not like Casablanca?

Could anyone possibly not like "Casablanca"? It has to be one of the most if note the most universally appealing movie ever made - it's got everything, a great story line with a terrific love interest, politics, international tension, history, wit, sharp dialogue, beauty, music, visual interest, great acting, great characters, beautiful ending. Remarking on just a few elements: Humphrey Bogart's Rick and the laconic dialogue that made his image and made this movie so famous and so often-quoted, including: Why did you come to Morocco? For the waters. But we don't have any waters here; this is a desert. I was misinformed. Bogart/Rick is the classic tough guy (I don't stick my neck out for nobody) who is actually a romantic and deeply sentimental. His decision at the end to send Ilsa off with Laszlo is so famous, and so beautifully scripted, that it's been forever memorialized in Woody Allen's hilarious reprise/parody, Play it Again, Sam. It's one of the rare movies in which the protagonist faces a true moral dilemma - should he take the safe passage and leave with the woman he loves or let her go off with her husband, Laszlo, the noble freedom fighter and total stiff? Throughout the film, the tensions between the Nazis and the European refugees in Morocco are huge, serious, menacing - who can forget the great scene when the Europeans at the cafe sign the Marseillaise? - with the two most interesting characters, Rick and the police chief (Claude Rains) in the middle, cutting their own deals, Rains cynical and blithely corrupt, Rick a mystery, a true American existential hero.

A short list of the best American movies in black and white

Watched "Casablanca" last night - because it's next up for our film-discussion group @ work; we picked it because one of the younger members of the group said she had never seen a movie in black-and-white. Amazing! So many great movies in b/w, so, for Nicole and her cohort, here, in no particular order, is a list of 12 great American movies in b/w that everyone of every age ought to see. Seeing these would be a quick course in American life, art, movies, culture, and would be lots of fun:

Casablanca
It's a Wonderful Life
Psycho
High Noon
Citizen Kane
Manhattan
Mean Streets
Duck Soup
His Girl Friday (The Front Page)
Some Like it Hot
Night of the Hunter
A Streetcar Named Desire

Other suggestions?

And this is American films only. In a future post, I'll suggest films from Europe and Asia.

Laughing out Loud: The First Ever Reality TV Show

M liked the HBO film "Cinema Verite" more than I did, though I found it mildly interesting. I was quite interested in the topic - the first ever reality show, American Family, 10 episodes on PBS about the Loud family of Santa Barbara, which truly captured national interest and attention back in the early 70s. I wondered how it would look by today's standards - whether it would seem more (or less) stagy that contemporary reality TV, which I find totally dull, whether it would look today like a real documentary or whether we'd see all the flaws and the seams. Movie doesn't answer those questions; does use some clips from the original, which I found more interesting than the movie itself. Diane Lane and Tim Robbins play the Loud parents; Gandolfini plays the filmmaker. Movie totally takes the POV of Patti Loud as the victimized wife, and so she is - but my memory was that she's no prize herself. The kids, particularly Lance, are made far more extreme and unconventional than I recall back in the day. Movie touches on a number of themes, most particularly the difficulty in defining the "threshold" of privacy: when the crew should leave the Louds alone, when the Louds are using the filmmakers for their own purposes. Also touches lightly on whether the series itself caused the breakup of marriage or merely captured on film what was going to happen anyway. Seems to suggest that the series made reality rather than captured it - and therefore was not the anthropological study that the filmmakers hoped - it's impossible to observe people without affecting them. Good topics for discussion, but they never came fully alive as a drama for me during this movie.

Cosi Fan Tutte - a great community production all around from Opera Providence

Opera Providence this weekend is doing a totally delightful production of Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte - in contemporary setting (a clever transition to Naples, Florida, and a luxury hotel, with Don Alfonso as the owner/manager and Despina as the concierge - works really well, better even the the Sellers version that set the opera in Despina's Diner). Story sung in English - nice to not have to read supertitles, though English of course never sounds as beautiful and open as Italian, in the arias. Could they do the recitative in English and the arias in Italian? Just thinking. The staging was great - all of the chorus was the staff of the hotel, bustling about, carrying luggage, etc. - and during the chorus, very cleverly, Alfonso distributed to the "staff" copies of the sheet music he is asking them to sing to the departing soldiers. Beautiful set done on a low budget, terrific theater venue at the restored Cranston Center for the Arts (I'm not joking). Most of all, the leads were excellent, especially Fiordeligi and Dorabella - beautiful voices (esp. McVey's) and they were both totally charming and gorgeous. The small orchestra was right on tempo and crisp and sharp - really, this was everything you could hope for in a community opera - more, actually. Beautiful singing, very lively and funny production that never lagged for a moment (personally, I have always thought the 2nd half/act to be a bit slow and reptitious, but who am I to judge Mozart?). Only disappointment: Why so many empty seats on a Saturday night, in a place like Rhode Island, where opera-lovers have filled the Vet for visiting companies not nearly as good as Opera Providence? Hope they can build more support from the community.

Scenes from a bad marriage: Blue Valentine

It's not a very likable movie, but "Blue Valentine" is a truly impressive account of a marriage gone to hell - echoes of many recent Indie films, though its characters (played really well by Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams) and its narrative are more complete - film goes to great lengths to build in the back story so we see not only the marriage falling apart, with a unity of time (the "present" action takes place over a two-day span) but also of the back story - we see not only that these people are together but how they got together: very effective how we see them in some scenes as young and attractive and terribly needy, each in his/her way, and in others somewhat (about 5 years, but looks like more, especially Gosling) older, and having moved on in different directions, Williams thinking at least a little about her career (nursing) whereas Gosling has lost all the boyish charm that won Williams over and now sunk into laziness and alcoholism and self-indulgence, though he's not a complete loser, he's a devoted dad for example. The true roots of Blue Valentine are probably the films of Cassavetes - it seems to be a movie that allowed the leads (and there are no other significant characters) to improvise scenes, to build their own dialogue based on the established situation, in other words, a film that draws heavily on the theatrical tradition, a bit of a throwback in that way. Film is totally credible and grows on you as it moves along and we get deeper and more complex info about the two lead characters. One of those films I admired more than loved, in part because it's very dark and in part because in capturing the inanity of Gosling's life and the failure of the marriage the film at times seems to be running on empty.

The end of a great series : Friday Night Lights

Final episodes of final seasons tend to be maudlin and teary and a bit drawn out. The final-final of "Friday Night Lights" is probably guilty on both counts but still is a great and satisfying ending to this highly likable, fun, and even thoughtful 5-year series. Is there anything in the final episode that is hard to believe? All of the wrap-ups do make sense for the characters and the town - and they leave just enough open space around them that you almost think there could be another season, if need be, but they also close enough of the doors, bring enough closure to the narrative lines, that it seems, yes, FNL followed a complete arc, the characters learning and growing and changing (one another) as the series and the season progressed. (Spoilers coming) So: was I surprised that Eric and Tammy move to Phila. so that Tammy can take a college job? Well, generally colleges don't hire h.s. guidance counselors as deans of admission, but accepting that for the moment, yes, the move makes sense - and was just surprising and edgy enough really to work. Eric learns he has to give up something very important to his life in order to save his marriage, and he will move on to face a new challenge in a new school. Vince has received all he needs from Eric and moves on to the new Dillon High team, which of course will go on, with Buddy ever-present. Julie & Matt - not totally clear how serious their engagement is, but it's obvious that they'll have many issues to work out living together, so young, in Chicago. Riggins is central to the whole series, and he, too, ends on an ambiguous note - staying in Texas, maybe, as he says, his life will cross with Tyra's, but he's never given up his serious drinking and you have to worry about what will happen to him as he ages. And the championship game - what a brilliant way to show it's conclusion and to blend the final play of the game with the epilogue. Great series.