Independence Day & Other Paintings
Independence Day by Cybel Martin
Cybel Martin is painting again and exposing us to her joyous visual commentary on what goes on around her.
All that Glitters is not Gold
All of us are so impressionable when we are young or until the age of sixty. Our lives seem simple, boring and without direction. We believe that is a shortcut to living the extraordinary life and find out eventually that life is to short for there to a easy way to live it.
Two films that give us a look at our desire to have our lives be
“storybook” are An Education and Revolutionary Road. Both films deal with the same subject with very different endings. One is a downer and the other offers hope and neither suggest that there is ever shortcut.
New to Me “The Kids Are All Right”
Looking for humor and discovered more. Some parts of the film are very funny and it does a great job showing us how flawed we all are. Great performances by all the folks we know, Julianne Moore, Annette Bening, Mark Ruffalo and a beautiful portrait of a young lady by Mia Wasikowska (Joni) who I did not know.
The film is a portrait of a contemporary family, (same-sex parents and sperm donors etc.) with an expanded storyline that includes the question that we are always asking of ourselves, how did we become who we are, are we our mothers and fathers and could we have been different. And can our kids escape our flaws and become something totally different, their own person?
The Kids are All Right, good flick
Winter’s Bone
John Hawkes - Winter's Bone
This wonderful small film was not for me a detective mystery as some have called it, but rather a portrait of America’s primal self. A portrait that is not at all flattering, like racism, poverty and ignorance that we desperately wish would stay hidden in the shadows.
The film immediately lays the groundwork: opportunity (next to none), respect (yes mam, no sir), family and women. The mystery is less important then the culture. We are watching a lion’s pride, not a cartoon, this is real. The pace of the movie and the soundtrack adds to its realness and I can relate to the desperation. Unlike a documentary, I never get the chance to feel distant and sorry for the people whose lives are portrayed on screen.
Life is simplistic, we will all do whatever is called for in order for us to survive another day. For me, that is the real story. Not the “who did it” or the perils of drugs (Meth), we are all looking to get by.
Lightness of Being – A Single Man
How much importance should we give to what we think we own or control? When we lose something unexpectedly and our joy for life seems to evaporate, we anticipate everlasting pain and sorrow and wish desperately that it could avoided or erased. In watching “A Single Man” it reminded me of the first time I saw “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”. With both movies my take away was that I (any many of us) spend to much time in the illusion of having control of our lives, certain that our next moment will be far better then the one we are in, and that it is our job to make the next moment matter, for it to have some significance. But life is not as heavy as we think.
DVD Corner: “Do The Right Thing”
The 20 year anniversary of Spike Lee’s terrific film, “Do The Right Thing”, is celebrated with a special 2 disc DVD package containing extra footage, interviews, and new commentary by the director.
Director Lee has made so many films since 1989, but, “Do” is his most celebrated film so far – it came in # 96 in the 2007 American Film Institute list of the 100 best movies of all time.
The film tells the story of a hot day in Brooklyn’s Bed’Stuy, when pent up anger and resentment exploded into violence in a matter of minutes. The stellar cast includes Spike Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, John Turturro, Rosie Perez, Martin Lawrence (film debuts for both Rosie and Martin).
What was the “right” thing?
“Do the Right Thing” (20th Anniversary Edition)