The believer (2001).

A modern day tale that deals with the complex question of anti-semitism.

The protagonist grows up in an age that has to deal with the residue of Hatred that dates back to an earlier and more unfortunate time. He is a strong advocate for faith but has clearly grown up in a tough neighborhood. He finds it hard to reconcile his emotions to the challenges of the day and has to learn how to be strong and weak at the same time. We walk back and forth from his early years at the Jewish school where he begins to question everything to the point of being thrown out of his class. He then continues to bounce back across two extremes where he learns to balance his hatred for his foes with his loathing towards himself and his community for not 'resisting' enough. 

There is a memorable scene when he is sent for 'rehabilitation' and has to confront a group of survivors for not fighting hard enough for their children. He develops a live interest while exploring the limits of his truth and learns gradually to separate between his obvious love for the written law and the innocent questionings of his attractive young suitor. I am certain that I have had plenty of opportunities to watch Mr. Goslin work but that in my view is a representation do some of his best work. 

The believer is really anyone including the oppressor that stands by and does not say a word even If his conviction tell him what he is doing is right. The believer is also the oppressed that does nothing to oppose what he sees as wrong. 

It is an exposition of fear and the attempts to deal with it in all it's forms. 

And in its transformative nature wins a thumbs up from me! 

The Fan (1996)

It is essentially about an aging man (played by Robert De Niro) with an obsession for the game of baseball. Strictly speaking this is every American...at least a very large proportion of  the population. It is after all America's favorite pass time. All this takes place around a very busy life in the East Coast. 

You watch him relax for a game at the Stadium and are drawn into his family life. As fate would have it, the busy father has a young adorable son and a struggling marriage. Payments to take care of, custody issues and all the drama that goes with the struggle to make ends meet. 

His love for the game draws him into an equal 'affection' for the star player (Wesley Snipes). 

You are almost certain that there is some insulation that protects the star from the crowd and the possibility that outsiders might at some point perceive him to have sold the game. So you watch the emotional outburst and the arm chair coaching-or in this case the side line coaching and cringe with despair as the older man squeezed at home for his failures attempts to make up for these loses with the one thing he shares a passion for with his ailing son. 

With all the tension that follows and the challenges that are presented to the players and the rest of the team, there is one scene that stands out for its particular peculiarity. 

The aging struggling father (who just happens to also be a sales person for cooking Knives) is sitting in his hotel room waiting for calls or just really passing time. Outside his room, a man dressed in black with characteristic locks in his hair and a beard passes by the motel. He for some reason is also carrying a dog (pooch). The sales man and protagonist notices a cockroach in his wall. He grabs one of his sharpened knives and throws it nailing the brown winged creature to the wall. 

Not certain what the writer or director was trying to say but so I will just leave that there. 

The person we admire lives in a divine place in our hearts and when they fail at being 'god' the effects on us can be devastating. When everything seems to go wrong the only refuge he has is in his team and his star. His encyclopedic knowledge of the game, his sense of feeling and the hurt he has to go through as his home life collapses. His sense of ownership of the game. His continue belief that his faith in his team is his new life. The feeling that he cannot be ignored by people that he has invested in and watched all his life. 

Plenty to think about and reflect on and yes a big thumbs up from this side of criticism. Transformative and eye opening. 

Life eternal and A.I

Ah the South Africans have done it again. This time around in an amazing commentary about Artificial Intelligence. The movie is set some time in the future in a South Africa not too dissimilar from the present state. Advancements in science have brought about an merger between technology and the fight against crime. An industry has emerged that now allows Robots to manage crime and to handle some of the less savory elements in the city. 

After a failure in one of the invisible systems, one of the engineers finds a breakthrough that could allow him to transform the mechanical character of his bots. He is forced to capture the abandoned robot in order to test out his theory in a safer place. Unfortunately he is intercepted by a group of opportunists who 'request his services'. He puts the robot back in its old form with new software that essentially allows it to blur the lines between human and machine. The new bot is now similar to a young child and has to learn everything from scratch. 

Its new masters are keen to use its strengths for their crimes and this causes a decent into some humor and madness. 

As the interface between human and robot grows thinner, it becomes possible to control the robots using a human connection. 

The audience is drawn in as the different human elements attempt to leave their mark on the Robot and as it delicately begins to grapple with the ideas around what it means to be alive and consequently what it means to die. We watch as the machine begins to develop a personality of its own. 

With the skill and I dare say mastery that was demonstrated in projects such as District 9, the director and writer draw us into the South African psyche with rich vibrant characters foreign and local complete with thick boer accents.

The plot thickens when interruptions are made in the functions of the whole machinery of crime prevention. 

Watch as the characters make us of the human interface and begin to challenge ideas around eternal life and artificial intelligence. 

Another candidate for the intersection awards.

Choice Pics from the past-One Summer Love.

Susan Sarandon's plays a character who creates an unlikely alliance or friendship with a troubled man (Beau Bridges).
He has a history of instability but is keen to reconcile himself with some of the tragedies in his past.
We see him in all sorts of settings trying to heal himself with his companion (nurse and friend) by his side patiently trying everything in her power to help him.
He finds a job, and is seen dealing with a complex demolition task-which he handles with much skill to the chagrin of his boss who almost fires his insane worker for attempting to deal with such a risky task.

We see in this scene that strange marriage between genius and insanity. As a man manages with quite a lot of ease to take down a complex frame in an old structure while sitting on it!

In another occasion he comes to the rescue of his companion whose former lover makes a come back and taps into his anger to frighten away the seething man. Bridges takes a hold of a chain and begins to maniacally pound the side of the pick up truck with it. The jilted lover realizing what he might have to deal with has a quick change of mind.  

He finally gets to meet his mother. This time around he has to deal with the idols and the art with which she has chosen to surround herself.
Subtle references to to the church and the image of the heavenly mother without fault but perhaps in his case the cause of some of his mishaps.

Watch how he negotiates and has to deal with his past maternal relationship (with some violence directed to the images) and then how he transitions to his new found love. A story which in my view many men have to deal with. Something akin to Freud's thoughts.

All this taking place in a rich southern backdrop of dense greenery and winding roads (an apt metaphor for an uncommon subject).

A definite thumbs up from me. An award for its ability to deal with the complex subject of mental health and healing.

Directed By Gilbert Cates and Written by Richard Nash

Is the change really welcome?

A few months ago I posted on my Facebook wondering aloud whether the the presentation of the award to Lupita Nyongo was deserved. 

(http://intas8n.blogspot.com/2013/11/san-quentins-narrative-on-slavery.html)

(http://intas8n.blogspot.com/2014/01/not-so-funny-after-all-dynamics-of-good.html)

There are several layers to this complex puzzle. The first has to do with her emergence from obscurity. But as it turned out she is the daughter of a famous opposition politician in Kenya-Anyang Nyongo. The truth though is that opposition politicians belong in a class of their own.

The second was a concern about her schooling. The press made a big deal about her time at an Ivy league. Perhaps the suggestion was that a young person from Africa could only rise in the ranks of 

Hollywood via the expected route of good schooling. Later on though it emerged that she was one amongst many. The list of incredible possibilities I wrote was endless given the work of groups like the Phoenix Players in Kenya that groomed many more...not to mention the endless school productions that helped create an incredible group of personalities. 

The Third concern was about the director of the film and his background. A few months prior to the award show I had written extensively about some of Mr. Tarantino's work and commented about his skill in getting you to think by making you laugh. I was wondering why an Englishman had to win an award while there were so many amazing works by Americans on a story more familiar to them. 

In response to this third issue, what I did was to attempt to link the above ideas to the existence of the Black Entertainment Television Awards and the Hispanic awards to a lesser extent. 

Perhaps it was driven by the idea that black frustration in the system as it stands means that often it becomes a little simpler to create exclusive systems which celebrate personal and group achievements as opposed to waiting for acceptance from others. 

A deeper look in the idea led me to think again about the election of Mr. Hope and what it meant in African American Circles. Without downplaying the man's amazing oratory skills and his ability to awaken the spirit of the founding fathers, I wondered aloud why all the contenders resident in the U.S...and black had to be by-passed for an African. 

Maybe your victory is my victory and your daughters are my daughters. But a four hundred year separation should have certainly produced a leadership core...and the not from the content of Origin. 

Maybe the deeper question is whether the drive for change will continue in earnest or if it will be stifled. Will the next manifestation of this change bring a woman to the fore in Casablanca?

Will we see the emergence of a Hispanic? Or even an Italian? Does Kerry still have hoop dreams or will our feisty friend from Jersey manage to make his way into the coveted office. 

.

Robot and Frank

It's been months since I watched this movie. At first I was a little concerned for the actor for seeming to always get this end of the stick (cast directors seems to frequently pick him to play the role of crooks!). 

But the movie is well done and handles several broad themes from aging to robotics to artificial intelligence to ethics, to parenting. 

There are interesting suggestions about what a future library could look, Iike as well as some notes on the possibilities of what role robots might have in the future care of the aging. 

It is great to watch the relationship between a machine and an aging man and the idea behind what it means to be human. There is a sense in which this movie has borrowed greatly from I-Robot (which I watched on a flight back to Africa-after an extended stay in the U.S.A). 

The similarity lies in the idea that both machines seem to have an awakening. 

Although in this case, this robot leaves you rather wounded and convicted and perhaps a little affected about what you think and how you act. 

I was left rather troubled because in my view the line between robot and human has really gotten blurred. Read up of the definition of an automaton if you need a little more convincing. 

Robots and other machines are built to do those tasks which humans would rather not do or that are too risky for humans to do. This is the standard definition. Think about how many things we have often left to 'lesser' creatures or even to 'workers' who in some way we view as less important than ourselves. 

In short, this one takes the Intersection Award for A.I related projects that deal with the subject of change, transition and Radial Thinking. 

Change for helping to present some ideas on what it means to grow older, transition for attempting to show us how certain aspects of our lives are likely to affect the way in which we think and function and radical in the presentation of options (even if these have been explored extensively in Japan-as she grapples with an aging population).