February’s theme was Film February. This was an inspiration after wishing my niece a Happy Birthday at the end of January. We briefly discussed weekend plans (she’s away at college now). I told her how I used to sometimes see movies on campus on Thursdays/Fridays/Saturdays. Thursday and Friday nights were when international films were shown and Friday and Saturday nights were mainstream movies. Hence, I decided February needed a theme and something to look forward to every week.
I originally intended to just stick to international films, but decided to add movies with a Black History theme since February is Black History month. We also watched a few mainstream movies on Saturdays.
Our first selection was “The Farewell” which stars Awkwafina (famous for her role as the friend in “Crazy, Rich, Asians”) and is about a Chinese family who come together to be with the family matriarch who is dying of cancer. They decide it’s best not to tell granny about her impending death, and instead use the ruse of a family wedding as the purpose for the family gathering.
Apparently this isn’t unusual to lie about something so serious to spare the one whose fate it is to die of a long drawn out illness. No judgment call there, but it was obviously difficult for some members of the family (like Awkwafina who played the granddaughter) who struggled to try and act as if nothing was wrong.
The excuse of jet lag only lasts so long. Even with such a tragic plotline, it’s really not an overly sad film and even has a somewhat light-hearted ending. I can definitely recommend it and I think it’s free to stream on Amazon Prime. It’s bilingual in English and Mandarin.
The other international film was an easy choice as it swept the Oscars last year and we had been meaning to see it ever since. That film was “Parasite,” a South Korean dark comedy (subtitled). It’s a bit long at two and a quarter hours, but it takes that long to fully flush out the story. If the movie had ended about a half hour earlier it would have been a completely different (and more comedic) movie, but it’s the plot twist at the end that makes it the memorable movie it is.
The plot revolves around a clever family who little by little ingratiate themselves into the lives of a family becoming virtually indispensable like parasites, hence the appropriate movie title. Of course hijinks ensue as you know something will eventually go wrong in what seems like the perfect plan. Such is life.
It’s difficult to say much more without giving anything anyway. Just sit tight and you will be rewarded for your patience, and if you need to get up for a snack or bathroom break, definitely pause it because you really don’t want to miss anything. “Parasite” is available to stream on Amazon.com for a rental fee of $3.99.
Our first choice in honor of Black History month was the 1995 HBO television movie, “The Tuskegee Airmen.” According to Wikipedia, The Tuskegee Airmen is a 1995 HBO television movie based on the exploits of an actual groundbreaking unit, the first African-American combat pilots in the United States Army Air Corps, that fought in World War II. The film was directed by Robert Markowitz and stars Laurence Fishburne, Cuba Gooding Jr., John Lithgow, and Malcolm-Jamal Warner.
My reason for selecting this film was because neither my husband nor I knew much about the subject, though we had heard that movies had been made about it, but just hadn’t gotten around to seeing any of them. “Red Tails” is the most recent movie about Tuskegee Airmen and was made in 2012.
The HBO movie version is enjoyable viewing if for no other reason that so many of the cast are familiar faces. In addition to those named above, the movie also starred Mekhi Phifer (aka Dr Pratt on “ER”), and Daniel Hugh Kelly (from 1980s ABC TV series Hardcastle and McCormick as ex-con Mark "Skid" McCormick, co-starring with Brian Keith) (source: Wikipedia)
Of course the issue of continued discrimination is carried throughout the film as the new recruits struggle to fit in and then just struggle to survive once they are actually engaged in battle. As it’s a movie about war and involves lots of time up in the air, expect to see several casualties. Overall it’s a victory though as the recruits eventually prove themselves and earn the respect of their white counterparts who come to trust their lives with them.
At the end, the film details the unit's accomplishments: 66 out of the 450 Tuskegee Airmen died in battle, they engaged and defeated Messerschmitt Me 262s, the first operational jet fighters, and they were awarded a total of 850 medals over the course of the war. The credits also note (inaccurately, but a common belief of the time) that the 332nd never lost a single bomber to enemy fighter action. The claim at the end of the film that the 332nd never lost a single bomber to enemy fighter action is a source of historical controversy. This statement was repeated for many years, and not challenged because of the esteem of the Tuskegee Airmen. However, Air Force records and eyewitness accounts later showed that at least 25 bombers were lost to enemy fire.[6][7] This was, however, still an excellent loss to enemy fire ratio; the average for other P-51 fighter groups of the Fifteenth Air Force was 46 bombers lost.[8] (source: Wikipedia)
I definitely learned a lot and enjoyed the film, as tragic as it was in parts. It’s certainly an important part of our history and should be compulsory viewing for all students and the general public who might be ignorant about it all as we were.
Our second choice was another HBO movie – a documentary
actually, called “Black Art: In the Absence of Light.” As a huge fan of art it
was a no-brainer to watch a movie that was an hour and a half of biographies of
a myriad of black artists, some more well-known than others. The documentary
also provided a history of the black art movement.
Inspired by the late David Driskell’s
landmark 1976 exhibition, “Two Centuries of Black American Art,” the
documentary Black Art: In the Absence of Light offers an illuminating
introduction to the work of some of the foremost Black visual artists working
today.
Directed by Sam Pollard (Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children) the film shines a light on the extraordinary impact of Driskell’s exhibit on generations of Black artists who have staked a claim on their rightful place within the 21st-Century art world. Interweaving insights and context from scholars and historians, along with interviews from a new generation of working African American curators and artists including Theaster Gates, Kerry James Marshall, Faith Ringgold, Amy Sherald and Carrie Mae Weems, the documentary is a look at the Contributions of Black American artists in today’s contemporary art world. (source: HBO)
I was already familiar with Kehinde Wiley whose paintings are part of the permanent collection at our local (Columbus) art museum. It was nice to see more of his works and learn something about the artist himself who is now probably best known for painting the iconic portrait of Barack Obama that now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C.
I also
discovered the artist, Amy Sherald who painted the portrait
of former first lady, Michelle Obama. Like Mr Wiley, she might have been well-known before, but
getting that gig definitely put her on the map and brought her well-earned fame
and notoriety.
Not only
did I find the artists fascinating, but their techniques and styles were
interesting too and I even made note of a couple things I’d like to try that I’d
seen one of the artists do (like paint the sticky side of packing tape and then
stick it down in a collage or art journal).
I found this documentary so interesting I would definitely watch it again and may even do so as it’s available to stream (free) until March 17th. https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/black-art-in-the-absence-of-light
The most thought-provoking of the mainstream movies I streamed in February was called “Puzzle” and is about a bored housewife who discovers she has a talent for quickly assembling jigsaw puzzles. I think you can see why I thought this movie was appropriate due to the sudden resurgence in the popularity of puzzles as a way to pass the time during the early days of the pandemic when people were urged to stay home (and are still on lockdown in my husband’s home country of England).
My husband and I completed (or mostly at least) a couple puzzles last year – one was a map of the United States made up of license plates. The other was a bespoke puzzle I had designed using a photo of our cat. That one my husband eventually gave up on once he completed the bit containing our cat. He found it particularly difficult because most of the pieces were almost identical as it was cheaply made with very little variety in how the pieces were cut out.
“Puzzle” came out in 2018 and I wonder if more people have streamed it since the pandemic started. Like “Parasite,” this movie had been on my radar for some time, but I only just recently got around to finally streaming it, and it was definitely worth the wait.
As I said earlier, the plot revolves around a bored housewife who receives a jigsaw puzzle as a birthday present and surprises herself when she gets it done in something like an hour or two one afternoon. She asks her friend where she purchased it and was told it was a special shop in the big city (that being Manhattan), so of course she did what any of us would do – hopped on the first train to NY and went in search of the puzzle shop. Once there it was choices, choices as the shelves were stocked with subjects to please everyone. Being a good Catholic girl she naturally chose a couple religious-art themed ones.
Agnes meets up with Robert and learns he is looking for a puzzle partner to compete with him in the doubles round of a national puzzle assembling tournament (his original partner was his ex-wife, but she left him, so….) She hesitantly agrees to be his partner after demonstrating that she was indeed a worthy competitor.
Of course her family dynamics start to shift with this sudden change in her lifestyle and relations break down between her and her husband. Though I wouldn’t have minded seeing more of the whole puzzle assembling tournament world, that wasn’t the point of the movie. The point was how a bored housewife decided to eventually expand her horizons outside the tiny NY suburb she rarely ever left. I also assume she gave up the glamorous world of puzzle competitions to try and make her marriage work while also still being able to enjoy her new found freedom and wanderlust.
My favorite conversation in the movie was when Agnes questioned why she should even continue with such a childish pursuit.
“Why are we wasting all this time doing puzzles? What else is there to do? It’s a childish hobby for bored people. That’s not true. Why do you do these stupid puzzles? It’s a way to control the chaos. That’s ridiculous. Come on Martha (Biblical reinterpretation of Agnes); you’re missing the point. Okay, what is the point Robert?”
“Life is messy; it doesn’t make any GD sense…life’s just random. Everything is random…There’s nothing we can do to control anything. But when you complete a puzzle and you finish it, you know you have made all the right choices no matter how many wrong pieces you try to fit into the wrong place, but at the very end everything makes for a perfect picture. What other pursuits can give you that perfection?”
As an aside, according to the puzzle competition, one should always dump out the puzzle, spread it out, then walk around the table to get the proper perspective and see patterns you might not have seen by continuing to sit in the same spot. I think everyone probably knows you should also sort the pieces by color (we use small lunchmeat tubs) and assemble the frame first, then work your way inside.
March’s movie theme – retro 80s picks. My two choices: “Caddy Shack” and “Gremlins” Stay tuned…
