Your Sunday Night Movie4/15/2018 Make the popcorn and have a box of tissues ready. A real feel good movie. And for those of you living in the Thunder Bay, Ontario area, mark your calendar for Thursday Nov 1, 2018. Emmanuel Jal, who plays the character, Paul, will be speaking at a fundraiser to help former child soldiers. More details to follow.
As for the movie, check out this review from Rolling Stone: "Chill out you cynics who fear that The Good Lie will follow the lead of The Blind Side and draw a halo over the head of a single determined white women for solving the thorny problems of global racism. Not happening. Not here. True, Reese Witherspoon gets star billing. But for a good half hour, The Good Lie doesn't offer even a glimpse of her character, Carrie Davis, an employment counselor based in Kansas City, Missouri. Canadian director Philippe Falardeau, Oscar nominated for Monsieur Lazhar, focuses, as he should, on the plight of the lost boys (and girls) of the Sudan after brutal militia attacks beginning in 1983 left them orphaned, starving, displaced wanderers. Yes, the film is based on a true story, Hollywood's usual shorthand for making things up with impunity. This time the fakery is not so dire. Screenwriter Margaret Nagle (Boardwalk Empire) creates fictional characters, but their situation is all too tragically true. After opening with scenes of violence against these children, the script concentrates on the plight of five of them, including brothers Mamere (Arnold Oceng) and Theo (Okwar Jale) and their sister Abital (Kuoth Wiel) who meet up with two brothers, Jeremiah (Ger Duny) and Paul (Emmanuel Jai), and organize a resistance. Mamere, the default chief, is haunted by a sacrifice Theo makes to save the others. The film's climax allows Mamere, hauntingly played by Oceng, to make his own form of restitution. In America, the first wrenching blow to this makeshift family is when the boys are assigned living quarters in Kansas City, while sister Abital is sent to Boston. That's when Carrie (Witherspoon) enters their lives, trying to find them jobs in a disciplined if perfunctory manner. It's through Carrie's eyes that we awaken to the enormity of what's at stake. Witherspoon tackles the role with hip-swinging verve. She's a livewire. But Carrie and her boss (Corey Stoll) are facilitators, not saviors. The refugees, all played by gifted Sudanese actors, must face the pressures of adjusting to a new world and become the heroes of their own lives. Or not. The lack of`cheeseball overload is refreshing. I could tell the good lie and say the movie is perfect. It's not. It's often earnest to a fault and fearful of its deeper, darker implications. Still, you won't leave The Good Lie unmoved. Its heart really is in the right place." ~ Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
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Spring time at M.A.S.H.4/1/2018 I am a M.A.S.H. fan. Yep. I have all of the DVD’s and I’ve probably watched each episode 9 or 10 times. There’s one M.A.S.H. show, however, that I’ve watched more than what can be considered a sane number. I’ve gone to it time and time again and try to use its simple wisdom as a means to fight the insanity that can roll inside my head.
It’s called “Dear Sigmond” and it evolves around the character psychiatrist, Sidney Freedman, as he writes a letter to the late Sigmund Freud while visiting the 4077. It’s quite hilarious, and rather than telling you about it I suggest you watch it. B.J. is up to his tricks again and no one is immune, and the scene where Frank falls into his own air raid hole, filled with ... well like I said, I’m not telling. Go watch it for yourself and you’ll see. Anyhow, as Sidney is trying to cope with his own internal battles as a war psychiatrist, he finds the answers to healing his mind mess in each of the characters own little coping mechanisms. But it’s the one line, near the end of the show, that helps me the most. Sidney tells Hawkeye and B.J. that coming to terms with effects of war, is like springtime in Korea. When the wind is blowing and winter is still biting and spring is as far removed from you as the comforts of your own home, you just have to make a little of your own spring. And I like that. It can mean so many things, but to me it means life is difficult, we all have troubles, some way more than others, but when it is difficult we can coax new life out of anything. We just have to find a new way to do it. So, my friends, when you have some trouble finding some spring in your lives, feel free to use my cure. Season 5, episode 7: Dear Sigmond. It just may cure what ails you. Donna WhiteMy journey as an author, giving voice to those who can't - or won't - speak. Archives
June 2018
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