You may recall that last week, I wrote about Ari Melber showing video late at night after the young boy Brayden Harrington had spoken earlier at the DNC Convention about stuttering and Joe Biden helping him.  The video that MSNBC showed was footage of when Biden and  Harrington actually first met back in February.  

It was deeply moving and showed Biden's utter graciousness with a boy who was there, as his father tell's Biden, because he wanted to hear Biden speak.  But the kid is profoundly shy and withdrawn -- and Biden just takes him into his heart.

I searched and couldn't find the footage.  So, instead I just described it.  ​The best could find was video from a week later at a stump speech in New Hampshire, where Biden invites Brayden Harrington to the podium.  It's very nice, but not the same.  

I still can't find the video.  But -- the Lincoln Project just released a new ad comparing Biden's decency to Trump's cruelty.  And to focus on Biden...they use clips from that meeting with him and the boy.

It’s not all the footage, but much of it.  Hopefully I’ll be able to find the whole thing and without cutting away – it’s so moving – but this has most of it, and the point comes through glowingly. It's the next best thing.  And happily is awfully close.

I don't have anything profound to say about the police shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, of Jacob Blake seven times in the back.  Nor do I have anything profound to say about the murderer who wandered the streets of Kenosha with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle, treated with gracious welcome by the police -- imagine if he'd been black -- before shooting and killing two people.  Nor do I have anything profound to say about all the sports teams who have cancelled their games in protest over the actions in Kenosha.

I'm not saying this facetiously or coyly.  I don't have anything profound to say, and most of what's been said on the news all day is far more meaningful and substantive, lead by Mr. Burke's mother (who said, among many things, that "America is great when America acts great") and sister.The only thing I have to note is a very minor personal reaction.  It's pretty close to meaningless at that, but for me it adds a personal reaction that, no matter how small, allows me to look at the shooting and events in Kenosha differently than elsewhere.  Not better, not more meaningfully, just different.

Unlike the other recent murders of black people by the police, I've been to Kenosha.  Not often, and not for a while, but enough to have a sense of the place. 

Kenosha is in the lower south east corner of Wisconsin, just across the Illinois border.  It's about a half-hour from Milwaukee, where my brother lived for a while with his first wife, and I'd visit.  The train went past Kenosha, and if  you drove up Interstate 94 it went through Kenosha.  The last time I was in the town, it was when I was back home in Glencoe, Illinois, and drove up about 50 minutes to see a minor league baseball game.  At the time, the team there was affiliated with the Minnesota Twins -- they were the Kenosha Twins.  It was a nice, little ballpark in a nice, little town. 

In fact, I was in Kenosha twice on that trip.  Really.  The second time was because I got about halfway back home when I realized I'd left behind the Kenosha Twins baseball cap that I'd bought.  And when I returned to the ballpark, the cap was still there.  No one had seen a baseball cap just laying there in an empty stadium and taken it.  That was Kenosha.

Kenosha has about 100,000 people.  So, it's not a tiny hamlet.  But it's small, with a small-town feel, a quiet and pretty residential place on Lake Michigan.  So, to see anyone shot there was surreal.  To see someone get shot in the back seven times in Kenosha was even more surreal.  To someone shot in the back seven times there by a police officer who was holding him redefined the word surreal.  To see rioting in Kenosha was otherworldly.  To see Trump push to have the National Guard sent in to Kenosha -- the National Guard -- was almost an out of body experience.  To see someone calmly wandering down the streets of Kenosha openly carrying an AR-15 semi-automatic rife and then emptying it into people took all of that and put it in a separate world that didn't previously exist.

It was also, of course, sick, infuriating, shameful, disgusting, sad and so much more.  And my reaction only touches the surface that others live with.

This wasn't Seattle or Minneapolis or name the big city, New York, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, wherever.  This was Kenosha.  Yes, I know that such things have happened in small towns for many decades.  But the perspective of knowing a place and knowing its charm not only add a depth to one's personal reaction, but it also points to the larger world outside there that sets the groundwork for such things to happen.

One of my first reactions yesterday was, gee, I wonder if anyone at the Republican National Convention today is thinking, "Hmmm, maybe we shouldn't have given a featured platform to that married couple from Missouri who waved a rife and protesters and got indicted on a felony."  My second reaction was, nah, I don't think anyone at the RNC thought that.  And if they did, they kept it to themselves.

Tonight, in one of the few live speeches, so it was presented after all of these events in Kenosha took place, vice president Pence said, "We will have law and order on the streets of America."  Obviously, he was speaking to his white supremacist base about the rioting.  Lost in the sick irony of that is the reason that cause all the rioting -- and cancelled games in protest:  that a police officer shot an unarmed black man in the back seven times while holding his shirt.  How does that fit into the Pence picture of "law and order" (sic)?  How does a young man immersed in white supremacist groups and openly carrying an AR-15 rifle down the street while murdering two people fit into that Pence picture of "law and order" (sic)?  The fact that the Pence-Trump picture of "law and order" (sic) does not include white people, does not include the police murdering black people is the very foundation of the lack of law and order in the country.  Which is the definition of sick.

And to be clear, for all the Trump efforts to paint a dystopian view of the country to come in supposedly Joe Biden's America, it cannot be stated enough that ALL of these dark, bleak, tragic images of that horrible, scary America are -- in fact -- in Trump's America.

This is Trump's America.

​Kenosha used to be Small Town America.  Now?  It's in Trump's America.

And it must be added:  this is not about Trump, we know who he is.  This is about the elected members of the Republican Party who enable him, applaud him, have blood on their hands and are fully complicit.

The other day, I recommended a movie for a friend of mine to watch with his daughter, a great HBO film called Temple Grandin,"based on a true story, which not only won seven Emmy Awards including Best Movie, but also Best Actress for Clare Danes. However, when I went to find the article I'd written here about the film so that I could send him the link, I found that I'd never written one and had only included it in a long piece back in 2015 about movie recommendations for people to catch up on.

What occurred to me, though, is that as appropriate as the article was five years ago, it's far more so today with entertainment options outside the house so limited (to next to nothing) and people looking for movies, for anything to watch.  So, I'm revisiting that article and posting it here once again.

December 30, 2015

​A friend was coming to Chicago to visit her two sisters, and asked if I had any movie rental recommendations.  That was quite a wide assignment, I said, given that I have no idea what kind of movie she liked – let alone that the three sisters together liked.  Comedy, adventure, thriller, foreign, romance, sci-fi…

I did my best putting together a list, knowing what little I did of the three, all accomplished professionals.  I figured that since the list is done, I might as well post it here.  Keep in mind that this is not even remotely a definitive Moves To See list.  It's focused on these three sisters.  Without knowing their specific tastes.  And I chose to come up with lesser-known films that they were less-likely to have seen.  And I didn't want to take too much time researching and thinking about this, so it was done pretty quickly, in about a half-hour.  I have no doubt that if I took more time and had different criteria, the list would be significantly different.  And there were others I even thought of including, but decided there was a limit, and stopped since I didn't want to inundate her with an interminable list.

So, again, this is not a definitive list in any way, shape or form.  Just something I dashed off given the limited criteria I mentioned above.  And which I thought would be fun to post here, to help end out the year, perhaps even if you're looking for something to rent on New Year's Eve.

So, here then are some random thoughts.
 

A few movies I loved that few people have seen, let alone even know about –
 
“The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio.”  Julianne Moore should have won the Oscar for this, but almost no one saw the movie, and she wasn’t even nominated.  It's a brilliant performance.  Based on a memoir about the author’s indomitable mother who, in the 1950s, helped raise her large family (whenever her well-meaning, but irresponsible, often-drunk husband, played by Woody Harrelson, screwed up their lives) by regularly entering product write-in contest in the newspaper and winning so much of the time.  The full title of the book it's based on is "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio -- or How My Mother Raised 10 Kinds on 25 Words or Less."  The movie also has the single greatest ending to a true-story film I've ever seen.
 
“Proof”, based on the Tony-winning play, about a young woman determined to prove her brilliant father isn’t going crazy by trying to prove the theorem he’s spent a lifetime working on.  With Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins, co-starring Jake Gyllenhaal, and directed by John Madden, who directed "Shakespeare in Love" and "Mrs. Brown."
 
“Rosewater” is the movie that Jon Stewart took time off from “The Daily Show” to write and direct.  It got a tiny release, almost insignificant, but it’s really quite good.  A true story about a journalist in Iran who is arrested for supposedly dealing with an American spy, who actually was just “correspondent” from “The Daily Show.”
 
“Kon-Tiki”, a very good recent retelling of the famous documentary (and book) about an effort to prove how civilization migrating from Asia, as a group of men build a raft and attempt to sail across the Pacific Ocean.
 
Slightly Better-known Movies, but Still Under the Wire –
 
“Temple Grandin” – an HBO movie that won the Emmy for Outstanding Made-for-TV film.  Really wonderful.  A true story about a young woman with autism who confronts it head-on and ends up breaking through major stigmatisms and becomes a famous animal behaviorist. It was nominated for 15 Emmys, and won seven, including Best TV Movie, Best Actress and Best Director.  And not only did Clare Danes win Best Actress, but she beat Judi Dench and Maggie Smith!  And also Joan Allen.  Yes, she’s that good in it.
 
“Ball of Fire,” a classic screwball comedy from the ‘40s, where a gangster’s girlfriend has to hide out among a household of adorable, brilliant and totally innocent academics who spends all their time indoors researching and writing an encyclopedia.  Loosely based on “Snow White and the 7 Dwarves,” with Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper (as one of the academics).
 
Several Brilliant Foreign-language Films –
 
“Character” (or “Karakter”) – one of my favorite films of the last 25 years.  This 1997 Dutch movie was the Oscar-winner for Best Foreign Language Film, and it’s like a long-lost Dickens novel -- as well as a long-lost film directed by David Lean (“Dr. Zhivago,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “Great Expectations, “Oliver Twist.”)  The story has the sensibility particular of "Nicholas Nickleby," telling of a young man from a poor background, trying to make his way in the business world, whose every move seems blocked by the omnipresent town elder, but who has a friendly benefactor guiding him.  A love story, too, as he also tries to discover the story of his past.
 
“La Vie en Rose” – Marion Coitillard became only the third foreign-language actress to win the Oscar as Best Actress, in the life story of singer Edith Piaf.  And though I suspect more people saw this than would have otherwise because of the award, my guess is it still hasn't been seen by many.  It's a tour-de-force performance, but a very well-done movie beside that.
 
“No Man’s Land” – Oscar-winner for Best Foreign Language Film, beating the hugely popular “Amelie.”  It starts out as a war movie about the Serbo-Croatian War, and then suddenly takes a huge turn with one of the great twists I’ve seen in the movies.  (So great that I’ve never told anyone the plot, not wanting to give it away.)  It’s largely a personal drama over a specific dilemma that is utterly gripping.  Since the U.N. plays a major role, probably 25% of the film is in English, making it more accessible than most foreign-language films.  I saw this at an "awards screening," and the response in the room was so visceral that when people asked me my "Oscar predictions," they were stunned that I said this (which they hadn't heard of) rather than "Amelie," which they'd seen and loved.  But I was right.  It won.
 
“Joyeux Noel,” – Oscar-nominated Best Foreign Language Film (that should have won), based on a true story in World War I, when several armies were facing each other in trenches on Christmas Eve, and they get the idea to call a one-night truce.  It’s absolutely wonderful – taught, but endearing and beautifully made.  It lost the Oscar to a South African film, "Totsi," which was good and had a Very Good Message -- but (and I know this is all personal taste) "Joyeux Noel" was just an exquisite film and a total joy..
 
“Hero” – probably the most gorgeously-photographed movie I’ve ever seen.  In fact, I was so taken with it that I wrote an article about the film (here).  It was made by famed Chinese director Zhang Yimou, an artist of impressive craftsmanship, who best known to American audiences for directing the otherworldly spectacular opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics.  The story is good, and interesting, albeit a bit thin, an adventure about a swordsman’s journey for retribution against a warrior, but the movie is so amazing beautiful to watch that it sucks you in with every frame..
 
“Lagaan” – another Oscar-winner for Best Foreign Language Film from India.  It’s VERY long (about 3-1/2 hours), and has traditional India goofiness, like big musical numbers that break out for no reason, but an extremely accessible, fun story – basically “Rocky” meets “Romeo and Juliet.”  The word “lagaan” means tax.  The film takes place when the British still ruled India, and the local tax is raised on a poor village, which they can’t pay.  But they make a bet with the British governors – if they can beat the British at cricket, there will be no tax.  If they lose, though, the tax will be tripled.  There's one slight problem – the villagers don’t know how to play cricket.  A British girl is in love with a young man from the village, so every day she sneaks over to teach them how to play.
 
And okay, that’s enough.  Other lists may vary...including my own.  But that's a quick start.
 
But here's the opening 10 minutes of "Character," co-adapted from a novel and directed by Mike van Diem.

A slight digression.  After posting the article in 2015, I got a user comment from my pal Nell Minow, who not only is a world expert on corporate governance, having even testified before Congress, but she's a movie critic with her Movie Mom website, numerous books and writing for RogerEbert.com, as well.  And she wrote -- "Great list! I'm so glad you recommended 'Ball of Fire,' in my opinion one of the wittiest films ever made, with just about every great character actor of the 40's and a swooningly romantic marriage proposal with a quote from Shakespeare."

And with that, here then is that first 10 minutes of "Character."  Followed by a bonus.

As a bonus, since it's the whole reason that started me realizing I should return to this article, here in addition is the trailer for Temple Grandin.  It's wonderful.  But then, the whole list is awfully good, too.  But then I'm biased.

The first night of the Republican convention got 15.8 million viewers.  By comparison, the Democratic convention averaged about 18.7 million viewers over the networks and three cable channels.  This isn't a substantive fact, though given how much attention Trump always puts on TV ratings, it has to gall him.  That's assuming anyone on his staff has had the courage to pass the news on to him.

Though not substantive, it is not without meaning, however.

The conventions have dropped viewership significantly from 2016.  In large part, I think that this is because many people have sensed the conventions would be largely talking heads in a big Zoom conference.  There's another partial explanation, though, and that's that so many people have already decided who they're going to vote for.  So, there's no great need to watch to help make your decision.

By the way, more important than any explanation -- since the reasons will likely be somewhat similar for either party's convention -- is that the Republican convention had about 15% fewer viewers.

But the issue of “already decided” can't be easily dismissed because it overlaps with another issue -- that while Joe Biden personally got a 3-5 point bump after the Democratic Convention for how the public thinks of him, although he didn't get much of a bump afterwards for how they'll vote.  Initially, that was seen as somewhat of a disappointment for Democrats.  But I wonder if there's another reason for that, and one that's more troubling for Republicans.

What I wonder is if Biden not getting much of a bump from the convention is related to, again, most people already having decided who to vote for.  If so, then the Democratic Convention didn't give him a bump not because it didn't convince anyone...but because people were already convinced.  A convention wouldn’t change that.  And if that’s the case, then Joe Biden being up by 9 points right now is major, and a big problem for Republicans.  Especially when you add to that how the Republican Convention ratings were down -- not to mention getting awful “reviews” for being so dystopian, loudly angry, racist (and that's before getting to the speaker who they had to cancel last night for her anti-Semitic conspiracy views of a Jewish plot to enslave the world's goyim -- I'm not joking, you know -- that were too egregious even for the white supremacist party of Trump) and without a platform of anything it stands for, other than "Vote for Trump" -- which isn't a platform, but a bumper sticker.  And if that's the case, that personal bump for Biden then means the convention got people who unsure about their vote for Biden (oddly, the opposite ends of the spectrum, deep progressives and Republicans switching) to be more comfortable with him.

I don't know for certain if any of this is related to people having made of their minds.  It seems very possible, but no idea for sure.  I do know that when polls ask how firm people are in their choice of who they say they will be voting for, the numbers are exceedingly high -- and for this early in the race, they are unprecedentedly high.

All of which points to what a disservice Republicans have done to themselves by putting the Postal Service in question.  This has likely pushed people to vote by mail or in person far earlier than they were otherwise planning to.  And if, indeed, most voters have already decided on who they are voting for then Trump and the GOP have lost precious time to change minds that are largely been made up -- before they vote early..

​The General Election is on November 3.  But early voting starts as early as in just three weeks.

Time, it is a fleeting thing.  Sometimes, though, it is more fleeting than usual.

​Actually, this is really another old Rainbow.  How it fell through the cracks, I don't know, but this is a Randy Rainbow song parody from three years ago, 2017.  And it's wonderful.

Slight digression and point of personal privilege.  Among the reasons I like Randy Rainbow are that his words are very funny and politically insightful and that he puts together wonderful productions, but also because he writes great song parodies.  And that's different from just being funny and where this digression comes in.  I love song parodies, and have been writing them since around the eighth grade.  I even wrote a book of song parodies.  I've had song parodies in shows.  But many things called "song parodies" aren't -- a song parody actually spoofs the existing lyrics, parodies them.  What passes for many "song parodies" too often are just funny words written to some already-existing music, having absolutely nothing to do with the original lyrics.  That's a comic song -- a perfectly valid form of material and often wonderfully funny.  Indeed, many are funnier at times, than a song parody.  But such a work is not a song parody.  It doesn't take a twist on the original words of the song whose music it's using.  Alan Sherman, for example, wrote song parodies.  His version of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" about a Jewish tailor who worked for Herman Roth was specifically such a gem because of parody lines like, "He was trampling through there warehouse where the Drapes of Roth are stored."  That's a song parody.  And that's what Randy Rainbow does.  He not only writes very funny songs...he writes great song parodies.  And this here is a terrific example.

Well, this is a huzzah -- not just for the political benefit, which will understandably get most of the attention, but also because I can't wait to see it, which should at least count for something.  The cast The West Wing will reunite for a staged reading of the "Hartsfield's Landing" episode to benefit Michelle Obama’s voter turnout drive. At the moment, Martin Sheen, Rob Lowe, Dulé Hill, Allison Janney, Janel Moloney, Richard Schiff and Bradley Whitford have all committed to participate. 

I know this news will be a big treat, as well, for my West Wing-watching pal, Shelly Goldstein.  The Lady Shellington and I would hold extensive telephone analyses of the episodes after they aired.  They were quite insightful, I just say.

The reunion, A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote, will air on HBO Max in the fall.  On the one hand, it therefore won't likely get as big an audience was it would otherwise.  On the other hand, without it being on HBO Max, it might not have been seen anywhere.

Ms. Obama & other guests will make appearances. Also, Aaron Sorkin will be writing some new material for the special, which will film in October over several days at the Orpheum Theatre in Downtown L.A..

The original episode, as describe on the Deadline website told the story of "Sheen’s President Barlet playing chess against Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) and Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff), while the Chinese are playing war games in the Taiwan Strait, and Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) is nervous about the 42 votes in a remote New Hampshire town’s election, which always predict the winner of that state’s primary."

Major shout-out to my "West Wing"-watching pal, Shelly Goldstein.

Here's a short scene from the original.