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Crop Circle Realities (2021)
The Signs Are Everywhere
I went to a lecture at the Free Library of Philadelphia back in 2002 on Crop Circles. At that time, I may have heard something about them in the past, but nothing that stuck, but for some reason, I was drawn to this lecture featuring one of the top researchers on the subject Linda Moulton Howe. She had recently published a book called "Mysterious Lights and Crop Circles". After the lecture, I immediately purchased her book which she signed. I got home and proceeded to read it cover to cover.
I told myself I was going to go to the English countryside of Wiltshire where so many of the formations are found each summer. That I was going to camp out in hopes of witnessing the phenomenon with my own two eyes. But of course I never did that. I don't camp. And I don't do adventuress things. Although, I did get to go to Stonehenge summer of 2018 at the crack of dawn on the Summer Solstice. The only time visitors are allowed to actually touch the stones and be inside the formation. I did this because I'm interested in most things mystical in nature, but particularly whenever the words Crop Circles comes up, my radar is activated; so when I got the October Coast Newsletter of upcoming films, I immediately requested a screener for the documentary "Crop Circle Realities" by Writer/Director: Darcy Weir and Writer/Narrator: Geoffrey D. Calhoun.
I always find it strange that the Global "We" don't talk more about Crop Circles in general. I remember that same year (2002) M. Night Shyamalan's "Signs" came out and I thought it would be an intriguing, spiritual look at the mystery, but it barely touches on Crop Circles. There's always talk of the Grey type aliens and alien abductions, Roswell, but here's real evidence that life from elsewhere is trying to communicate with us through mathematics, art and food and yet most dismiss it as a hoax and a lot of people know nothing about it.
How can some people believe that humans go out in the middle of the night, where there's no streetlight around and no way to bring that much electricity without someone seeing it, yet managed to create a perfect big complex crop-circle within the hours of darkness... How on earth do they manage and not even a dog awakens to bark? And until this day no one has been caught in the act. Are they so clever to be nearly invisible? What great tools allow them to work so swiftly? And what's the benefit? For that much work would typically be at the interest to make money or hubris to show your art. So no fame, no glory. Just entering pitch dark fields for fun, year after year...
This documentary by Occult Journeys Productions shows us image upon incredible image of the circles over the last two decades or more. We hear stories from individuals who have witnessed a field go from normal to Crop Circled in less then a night. We hear the opinions of experts like Stephen Bassett the executive director of Paradigm Research Group (PRG) founded in 1996 to end a government imposed embargo on the truth behind extraterrestrial related phenomena. Historian Gary King takes us inside the center of the circles describing the molecular structure changes in the crops. Also clips of Journalist Jaime Maussan, who frequently reports on this unexplained phenomenon. The film covers both sides of the argument, but like me, clearly feels strongly these messages are of great importance, indicating a warning to all mankind on Earth. Let's just hope we one day stop questioning and start listening.
Specialish (2019)
WALKING MY WAY BACK TO ME
I got a chance to screen Jessica Watkins' comedic/reflective feature length documentary 'SPECIALish' which logs her walk across the United States over the course of 8 months. Punctuated by her standup comedy about her experience, at stops in clubs along her way. The film is self-produced by Watkins and released by Random Media.
First off, I admire Jessica for all the walking and camping she did do. Because I know for me, I'd be lucky to walk 4 hours, then I'd have to set up my tent and take a nap. By the time I awoke, it would be dark and I'd start to freak out being afraid of possible encounters of all kind: human, animal, cryptid or alien. So then I'd pack it up, call an Uber and head for the closest nice hotel. So I give big kudos to her for sticking it out as much as she did. That being said, this isn't as hardcore as Reece Witherspoon in WILD. Jessica Watkins did not walk across the entire country in 8 months. She winds up taking many breaks and detours, mainly due to family matters, but never picking up where she left off.
I'm also impressed with her self camera work. You'd swear she had a camera guy with her for much of it. She's good at being candid and revealing everything she feels along this trek, but it's never whiny or blathering. Part of what she reveals is being raped at 15 years of age. She never comes right out and says so, but part of this decision to walk by herself through often lonely terrain is to challenge the Universe to protect her this time and allow her to trust in being safe. She does begin to really loosen up part way through, meeting strangers and doing daring new things. Or perhaps secretly she wanted to put herself in jeopardy of being raped again, but being older and wiser wanted to prove to herself she'd be able to better control the outcome. Or maybe she felt it was the final step in putting that fear and rage behind her. It's hard to say, but again, I admire her bravery.
Before setting out she seems to have had time to book gigs for stops along the way, but little else was planned out. She'd done 0 training, which results in a knee injury early on. Thankfully, she turns to acupuncture. God love the healing art of acupuncture! I believe in its effectiveness 110%. In fact, I plan to go after getting fully vaccinated in order to assure my body assimilates to whatever it is that most of us are putting into our systems. But I digress... So in terms of the comedy, well... she has a Jewish sort of delivery, which is strange considering she's from Tennessee. Guess living in New York for so long, she kinda adopted the culture? She's more of a talker, than a joke teller, in the vein of "The Marvelous Mrs Maisel" only not quite as sharp and crackling. I did really like one joke she told about most Pro-lifers also being pro-deportation - she says we should just change the name from abortion to deportion. Women then could say this baby is inside me illegally, I need to deport it from my body.
Magic Mike (2012)
Channing Tatum is smarter and more talented than his close-set eyes imply
Steven Soderbergh is an impressive director - Traffic, Erin Brockovich, Ocean's Eleven Trilogy, Contagion and many more, but his last movie Haywire didn't seem to be up to his usual standard. Now, he's redeemed himself for me with Magic Mike.
Based on the real-life pre-acting career of star Channing Tatum, this behind the scenes look at male stripping is not only entertaining, sexy and fun; it's got more quality and a hipper flavor than the trailer would have you believe. Tatum's character Mike is ambitious in that cocksure way some young guys have of running a lot of hustles, determined to get somewhere, able to party hard and still keep an eye on the ball, all the while, underneath, actually feeling lost.
British newcomer with a flawless American accent, Alex Pettyfer, plays Adam, who has "rules" and keeping to these rules have landed him broke and on his sister's couch. He and female newcomer, Cody Horn, have a good, believable chemistry as brother and sisters. You definitely get the impression they've been on their own for sometime and she's used to playing big sister, even though they're close in age. One of Mike's daytime gigs is construction, where he meets Adam and takes "The Kid" under his wing, getting him a job at Xquisite, a male revue night club, as a props guy. Adam's introduction to the other male dancers and their world of thongs, spray tans and male enhancement paraphernalia is hilarious!
This is where the focus of the film is kept and rightly so; not only is Tatum an unbelievably genius hip hop stripper, but all the stage scenes and stripper/customer interactions are good, funny and hot!
And then there's McConaughey, I believe Matthew McConaughey would have done this role without getting paid.
Magic Mike sets a tone which is able to successfully blend song, dance romance and plot without being the least bit corny. It's exactly what I believe the movies Burlesque and Rock of Ages were aiming to do, but failed miserably. I'm looking forward to checking out Anna Kendrick in Pitch Perfect to see how they handle this mix of elements.
People Like Us (2012)
Place it around #5 On Your Netflix Queue
Writer/Director Alex Kurtzman is known for writing high-tech, extraterrestrial, action flicks like Transformers, Star Trek, Cowboys and Aliens and TV shows like Fringe and Alias, so a family drama like his latest movie People Like Us, is quite a departure. But it's the fact that this story was inspired by Kurtzman and writing partner Roberto Orci's own life experiences with long lost siblings, that keeps them from being out of their depth.
Sam (Chris Pine) is a fast talking, ambitious young man who in the initial scenes seems to be cocksure and on top of everything. All this comes crashing down around him when he makes a big oversight at work, costing him a commission, one which we find out he desperately needs. All this gets put on the back burner when he learns of his father's death and has to go home to face his estranged parents – his indifferently hostile mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) and the memory of his less than doting, big record producing deceased father.
The film does an excellent job of building on the character of Sam's father without ever showing more than a picture or two of this man who managed to be at the center of so much hurt and admiration. It's his father's last instructions to his son to deliver $150,000 to a woman (Elizabeth Banks) and her son (scrappy newcomer, Michael Hall D'Addario) living in a cheap motel-like apartment, that becomes the catalyst for Sam to discover himself and what he truly values.
My fear is that audiences may dismiss the film as too predictable and/or too sentimental, but on the whole, it's well-written. There's an interesting dynamic as Sam and Frankie (Banks) get to know one another; she warily thinking of him as a potential romance. He knowing who she is but trying to first size her up to see if she deserves the 150K and then realizing he's lost the window of time to be honest. Ultimately, everyone gets to know each other as – People Like Us.
Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)
A Good Addition to the Time Traveling Genre of Movies
The concept of Time Travel is one of those collective, universal fascinations that never wanes. The idea seems to constantly be orbiting pop-culture from Orson Welles to countless TV series and movies. For most of us, The Back to the Future trilogy comes to mind when thinking going back in time. And more recently, Midnight in Paris was highly touted for it's imaginative premise of a present day writer meeting literary heroes of the past. I actually liked Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana in The Time Travelers Wife. Now joining the time travel movie galaxy is Safety Not Guaranteed, a quirky, romantic comedy, written by Derek Connolly, expressly for the deadpan, somberly funny Aubrey Plaza (Parks & Recreations).
It also stars one half of the movie-making Duplass Brothers (The Puffy Chair, Jeff Who Lives at Home) Mark Duplass, who along with brother Jeff act as executive producers, putting their improvised dialogue and casual filming stamp all over this movie.
Darius (Plaza) is a lowly intern at a small, Seattle magazine. the position is typical of most internships, running errands, getting coffee, even changing toilet paper rolls, but it's not the job that makes Darius low key, sullen and borderline miserable. Or as her father puts it (cameo by Curb Your Enthusiasm's Jeff Garland) she seems to be under a cloud.
Despite her lack of enthusiasm, when one of the writers, Jeff (Jake M. Johnson) pitches a story idea to track down the person who placed an ad looking for a Time Traveling Companion "Must bring your own weapons". "Safety not guaranteed." Darius volunteers to work on the assignment. Also along for the ride, adding some rather predictable humorous moments, is a nerd intern from India, Arnau (Karan Soni), who has yet to get laid, making it Jeff's mission to not only make certain Arnau gets deflowered on this "field trip", but it's also revealed Jeff's real motive for suggesting the story, is to look up an old high school crush who lives in this area of the Pacific Northwest.
The film has a few implausibilities that have nothing to do with whether or not time travel is possible. For instance: once they locate the would be scientist, Kenneth (Duplass), they find him to be secretive and paranoid about his invention, he worries that he's being watched and takes all sorts of precautions. Yet, after making contact with Darius he never thinks to follow her home? If he did, he'd see she was staying in a cheap motel with two guys, one of which already approached him about his ad.
Kenneth & Darius discover they both want to return to the same year in order to change a part of their respective past; but why did the writer choose the year 2001, with no mention of 9/11? Despite these minor issues - the odd, vulnerable romance that develops between Kenneth and Darius, as they start to trust one another and experience the possibilities and danger of the mission, is what makes the film noteworthy and engaging. Winning The Waldo Salt Screen writing Award at Sundance 2012.
My screening of Safety Not Guaranteed, was back to back with Wes Anderson's new film Moonrise Kingdom, and although the latter is clearly the more superior film in terms of style, cast and creativity; I couldn't help but notice a few similarities between the two:both films are nutty, but not played for laughs, both are centered around the romance of characters who are out of the mainstream, on the fringe. Both couples go on a secret journey together and sit romantically by a campfire, both films take place by the ocean. And technically, since Moonrise Kingdom is set in 1965, you could say it also goes back in time.
The Guiding Light (1952)
Tinsel & Tine's Ode to Guiding Light
Here's a love note to this television institution which showed its very last episode on September 18, 2009 after 72 years of being on the air.
Sadly, Guiding Light was so much apart of my formative years, that I feel I have more memories of these characters, than I do of my own life. I started watching ever so faithfully, when I was 12 years old and saw just about every episode for 25 years.
In the beginning, I would race home from school to catch it. My first paycheck from my after school job, went to the purchase of a VCR. It's pathetic to admit, but I actually remember crying if the electricity went out for some reason or my VCR didn't record an episode. Looking back, I'm sometimes ashamed of the amount of time I spent watching soaps, GL in particular. I still need the escapism found in movies, TV and books, most of us will admit that; but for me, the medium of telling stories through daytime serials brought with it a sense of satisfaction that I have yet to find again.
My earliest memories are of Kelly and Morgan (the red haired Morgan) falling in love at Laurel Falls. Annual Bauer BBQ's, A crazy Amanda Wexler, who retreated back into childhood complete with a big, silly bow in her hair and a ever present rag baby. Then, GL moved into it's heydays with focus on the teenage years of Phillip, Beth, Rick and Mindy's friendships and romances. Although, I think I may have loved the old movie quality of Nola and Quentin's Jane Eyer like storyline, even more.
Anyone even remotely acquainted with the show, will agree the most important moment was the day Reva Shane stormed in to Springfield and the whole Lewis/Shane clan saga was slowly revealed to us riveted viewers. To this day, their history seems like gospel, okay, maybe gospel is taking it too far, but if feels like a universal story, not unlike Gone With The Wind or Camelot.
The Men: I've always said (and I'm still looking for him) that my ideal man would have the humor and bigheartedness of Billy Lewis (Jordan Clarke), the sophistication of Alan Spaulding (Ron Raines), the adventuress spirit of Fletcher Read(Jay Hammer), the good looks and patience of Josh Lewis (Robert Newman), the earnestness of Ed Baurer (Peter Simon) and the solid sexiness of Ross Marler (Jerry Ver Dorn). In addition, throw in a little Rick Hearst, Micheal Tylo and Justin Deas for good measure!
The Women: Some stellar actresses have graced this sound stage. It's really the women that keep you glued to a Soap. It becomes vital that you see each one through crisis after crisis, through changes of love, hate, death, rebirth, births, careers, and most importantly wardrobe!
Reva (Kim Zimmer) is just Reva - no words can describe her, but I do wonder if she's counted how many thousand (perhaps millions) of tears she actually shed over the years.
Harley (Beth Ehlers) was tenacious and raw and adorable.
Cassie (Laura Wright) was a beauty with so much spunk and true grit.
Beth (Beth Chamberlain) took us for a roller coaster ride over the years; sometimes sympathetic and weak, then she'd be devious and self-centered, other times just a mess and sometimes powerful and maternal.
Holly (Maureen Garrett) was one of the most elegantly, naturally, sexy women I've ever seen.
Dinah (Wendy Moniz/Gina Tognoni) made you cheer her on through every self-destructive antic.
My sister will kill me if I leave out her favorite - Blake (Liz Keifer) who never stopped making mistake after mistake, yet we forgave her again and again.
I also really loved the first Alexandra Spaulding (Beverly McKenzie) and I still miss Nola Reardon-Chamberlain (Lisa Brown). Some young actresses like Melina Kanakaredes, Brittany Snow, Hayden Panettiere and Nia Long got started on Guiding Light and went on to be amazing prime time and movie actresses.
In the end, the show was a mere shell of itself, so little happening, such cheap production value. I felt glad that it was being given a final send off before its original magic completely disappeared.
To the viewers delight, Philip and Beth and Rick and Mindy all reunited with marriages for both couples. Billy and Vanessa also made one last trip down the aisle. Alan's double dealings were finally put to rest for eternity and most importantly Reva and Josh rode off together into the sunset.
RIP GL.
Solitary Man (2009)
Good to see Douglas and DeVito together again, but they needed better vehicle
When discussing tried and true actors with great likability, most would include Michael Douglas. I first fell in love with him back in the 80's as Jack T. Colton, Kathleen Turner's romance book hero come to life in Romancing the Stone. Unfortunately, not even Michael Douglas' charm and charisma will have you rooting for him in Solitary Man. Ben Kalmen (Douglas) is an immature, self-destructive, lech. He's supposed to be lovably irrepressible and sagaciously fighting back from professional disgrace. But mostly, you just feel like tuning out and leaving him to his own devices.
Do you want Kalmen to have it all together? No. What good would that be in a character study type film. I feel the problem comes in the execution of revealing who this character was, in relation to who he's become. We don't get that until the very last scene and that's just too late. The other difficulty – it's too dialog heavy, not in a clever, fast paced Nancy Meyer's film way, this is more ex-positional, soliloquy.
Sex Magic: Manifesting Maya (2010)
Sexually explicit without being gratuitous
Part narrative, part documentary, part unintentional comedy, due to its odd subject matter. I'm not talking about Tantric Sex, I'm talking about Baba Dez, sacred sexual healer - the epitome of a crunchy granola,chakra balancing, free loving, Sedona AZ living, hippie Guru.
Sex Magic was originally intended as a documentary on Dez's teachings at his Temple in Sedona; However, filmmaker Jonathan Schell requested Dez open up his life to create a film narrative instead, with a focus on the rocky relationship between Dez and "his beloved" Mya. Mya had come to Dez from a very broken and abused place in her life; while teaching her the art of sexual healing they fell in love. Mya becomes a skilled sexual healer in her own right and believes in intimate contact with clients, but Dez also practices polyamory, which basically is a fancy name for being extremely promiscuous (Dez has lost count as to how many lovers he's had, somewhere between 1000-2000) Mya isn't comfortable with this aspect of their relationship. On top of that, Dez gets accused by a colleague of being inappropriate with his female clients.
The term Sex Magic is the art of manifesting tangible desires through the sharing of sex, while holding the image of what you are trying to accomplish in your mind during the act. Schell said Dez practiced Sex Magic to conjure people willing to participate in sexual healing sessions on film. It worked, be prepared to see quite a bit! The whole thing makes for a very entertaining and enlightening 77 minutes. "Hold a space" for this movie if you get a chance to see it!