Robert Redford (1936-2025)

Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand on the
set of 1973's The Way We Were (Rolling Stone)

The first time I saw a Robert Redford movie was in 1967. In Barefoot in the Park the newly married couple, Paul (Redford) and Corie (Jane Fonda) Bratter, move in to an apartment in New York City, nearly break up because of their incompatible approach to life--he is organized and practical, she is flexible and free-spirited--and reconcile at the end.

Barefoot was my first exposure to a Neil Simon play. The actors showed off their chops by dashing off rapid-fire repartee as if that was how everyone spoke in New York. The humor and secondary characters lightened the seriousness of the plot, a characteristic of other Neil Simon plays like The Odd Couple and The Goodbye Girl.

But back to Robert Redford. For several decades he was everyone's ideal of the blonde, blue-eyed movie star, until the baton was handed to Brad Pitt. Some movies, e.g., the Way we Were and the Candidate, played off his good looks explicitly, but the roles grew meatier. By the '80's he took up directing and founded the Sundance Film Festival.

Redford spent the next 50 years making and appearing in some of the industry’s most expensive and most commercially successful films. As the force behind the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, he also helped create an ecosystem for the industry’s smallest. Some films that premiered at the festival became popular with mainstream audiences, such as “Reservoir Dogs” and “Napoleon Dynamite,” but far more succeeded in finding a modest audience that appreciated them thanks to the infrastructure for independent films in the U.S. that Redford and Sundance helped create...

“You make the most of what you’ve been given—that’s how I see it,” Redford said in the 2015 WSJ. Magazine interview. “And you keep pushing to make more of it. I don’t see any reason to stop. I think retirement can lead to death, and that’s not for me.”

R.I.P.

Apple Cinemas vs. Apple Inc.

Apple Cinemas theater on Van Ness Ave. (Jessica Christian/Chronicle)

Apple has sued a theater company over copyright infringement:

Cupertino-based Apple Inc. has filed suit against Apple Cinemas a month after the small and relatively new East Coast movie theater chain expanded to San Francisco.

The Cupertino-based tech giant has filed suit against the movie exhibitor in federal court for copyright infringement, alleging that the brand is trying to trick ticket buyers into thinking that the two companies are affiliated.

Apple Inc.'s protectiveness of its entertainment brand is understandable, given that the iPhone company has expanded into movie production. Moreover, Apple Cinemas' case is not being helped if, as Apple Inc. alleges, the quality of the theater experience is poor and could harm the latter's reputation among confused movie-goers. [bold added]

A notable part of the lawsuit is that Apple Inc. contends its brand could be damaged by being associated with Apple Cinemas’ alleged lack of quality control. The suit highlights comments on social media that its theaters are “greasy,” “dirty” and “grungy,” with some complaining of tech issues, including the projection system and online purchase portal.

Normally I would be inclined to support the scrappy underdog, but if Apple's claims about Apple Cinemas' products are valid, then the tech giant will win not only legally but in the court of public opinion.

Note: The irony abounds. When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple Computer in 1976, the Beatles' Apple Corps, founded in 1968, sued over trademark infringement. During the subsequent 30+ years Apple Computer broke agreements that it would stay away from the music business and paid the Beatles' company hundreds of millions of dollars until the dispute was finally settled in 2007.

Lilo & Stitch (2025 Film) Critics are Misguided About the Ending

Actress Amy Hill (Tutu) has a lock on older-Hawaiian-lady roles

The Lilo & Stich live action remake has been criticized by some movie reviewers (but not the audience, with world-wide box office currently over $800 million). Some of the criticism has been directed at the ending. Caution: spoiler alert following.

Big sister Nani, who has looked after Lilo because their parents have died, will go to the Mainland for college, supposedly leaving Lilo in the hands of foster care. According to writer Christine Hitt, these critics don't understand the Hawaiian tradition of hānai.

At the end of the 2002 animated version, Lilo and Nani live happily ever after together with Stitch and their other alien friends. In the live-action remake, however, Nani agrees with the social worker, Mrs. Kekoa, that Lilo should live elsewhere. Then it’s revealed that Lilo will live with Tutu, a new character who is a longtime family friend and neighbor. Tutu and Lilo then tell Nani that she should follow her own dreams: going to college in California to study marine biology at UC San Diego.

“While the movie says that ‘Ohana’ means ‘nobody gets left behind,’ Lilo is literally left behind in Hawaii,” wrote Robert Pitman of ScreenRant. On social media, others agree. “The new lilo and stitch live action has rewritten the ending to showcase an indigenous hawaiian woman (the character, not the actor) giving up her indigenous hawaiian sister to the foster care system so that she can leave her homeland and go to school on the mainland. It’s a concerning display of imperialist ideology to say the very least,” wrote dorothyannedouglas on Threads.

However, these views fail to look at family through a Hawaiian lens.

Nani isn’t abandoning Lilo or giving her up. She’s not leaving Lilo behind, because Tutu is a part of their ohana too. At the end of the movie, the social worker Mrs. Kekoa facilitates a type of hanai relationship among Lilo, Nani and Tutu. “It is usually a much easier transition in these foster situations if the family, hanai or otherwise, are involved,” Mrs. Kekoa says, referring to Tutu as their hanai family. However, hanai is never explained in the movie. A Hawaiian tradition, hanai is a type of adoptive relationship, which really can’t be compared to the Western definition of adoption. Hanai is more complex and fluid, with many variations.

Disney’s definition of ohana throughout the film is heartwarming but incomplete. To understand hanai, one must first understand the concept of ohana from a Native Hawaiian perspective. The word ohana refers to the oha, or shoots, growing out of the taro plant — the same plant that is considered to be an ancient relative to all Native Hawaiians. The oha represent the many people who make a family, all tied together in this important bond.

In Hawaiian culture or otherwise, it isn’t uncommon for a grandparent or other relative to step in and help care for kids. The common phrase “It takes a village” comes to mind. Like a village, the Hawaiian family is shaped by many people who take on multiple roles.

“In Hawaiian, there is no word for aunt or uncle. They are all mothers and fathers. We have no word for cousins. They are brothers and sisters,” acclaimed Native Hawaiian scholar Mary Kawena Pukui once said in a 1971 article in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Similarly, in “Lilo & Stitch,” the character’s name Tutu is the Hawaiian word for grandparent but can also be used to refer to anyone of that generation. And in Hawaii, auntie and uncle are commonly used out of respect for elders, no matter if they are related by blood or not.

Hanai dives deeper into the makings of a family and expands upon it. In Hawaiian tradition, grandparents took first-born grandchildren, natural parents renounced all claims, and sometimes babies were given to other relatives who asked for them, according to a book that Pukui co-authored, “Nana I Ke Kumu (Look to the Source).” Hanai also applies to non-blood relationships.

The practice is well known in Hawaii. Pukui was hanai to her maternal grandmother and also later raised hanai children. Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani was hanai at birth and raised among royals. One of my uncles was hanai.

“In this traditional practice, there was no feeling of turning the child over to strangers as there is with present-day adoption,” the book continued. “The whole feeling was that the first grandchild belonged to the grandparents. … The baby remained within the all-important unit — in which his own parents held only junior rank — the family clan or ohana. However, the child knew and was usually visited by his natural parents.”

Hanai isn’t giving a child away; rather, it’s sharing a precious gift, strengthening bonds between people and extending what it means to be family. It can be done for different reasons, but this structure allowed for young parents to work and provide for the family while grandparents reared them, instilling cultural values in the kids and teaching them generational knowledge. It’s similar to what Tutu is doing now with Lilo for Nani.

When I was growing up, I often called older acquaintances "uncle" or "auntie." Not only did the word "friend" seem too distant, but because Oahu is a small island there were many people whom I knew but didn't find I was related to until years after I met them.

Conclave: Life Imitates Art

Figuring that a fictional account of a papal conclave would be more entertaining than real life, I watched the movie Conclave on Amazon's Prime Video this weekend. The film had political intrigue, dirty tricks, messages from the late Pope and deep diving into cardinals' personal histories. One by one the leading candidates withdraw because of these revelations.

Luis Antonio Tagle

Pietro Parolin

Apparently I was too quick to dismiss real life.

There have been whispering campaigns against the front-runners—Cardinal Pietro Parolin, a 70-year-old Italian and career diplomat, and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, 67, of the Philippines. The aim is to make them living proof of a conclave adage: He who enters a pope, leaves a cardinal.

Parolin, for good measure, has shown he won’t be pushed around. Since the deliberations began, he has revealed the existence of not one but two letters from beyond the grave by Pope Francis, excluding one of the cardinals from the sacred vote.

By the end of the movie a Pope is elected, but only after some twists, turns, and an inspired speech. I doubt that we will experience such drama at the real conclave, but as we have seen so far, life is full of surprises.

Sequel for Guys Like Me

The Accountant 2: Braxton and Christian bonding (Page/WSJ)

We first saw the 2016 film, The Accountant, in 2017. Ben Affleck plays the titular character, Christian Wolff, a weapons and martial arts specialist who is also a financial wizard. He is the first person who underworld magnates call when they have an "accounting" problem and legitimate auditors can't be brought in. Sometimes, however, his clients violate Wolff's personal code of ethics and he employs his lethal skills, as well as leaks to law enforcement, to enforce that code.

Another aspect to the character is that he is severely autistic--Rainman meets Rambo--which makes for some amusing and awkward moments as the super-intelligent Wolff has trouble figuring out the basics of social interactions. The Accountant ended, after the obligatory victory over bad guys, with Christian Wolff reconciling with his normal (neurotypical) and equally lethal brother Braxton.

After nine years the sequel, The Accountant 2, has been released:

“The Accountant 2” is a rarity. It’s a sequel that blows by the respectable original, evolving into something simultaneously smarter and sillier, more grounded and much more fun.

Ben Affleck is back — finally, in his best role in years (along with his 2020 turn in “The Way Back”) — as Christian Wolff, an awkward, high-functioning autistic bean counter for bad guys who is secretly a super killer. He and his estranged brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal), a slick and successful assassin, reunite when Chris is summoned to help investigate the murder of a former U.S. Treasury agent he used to feed tips to on crimes.

...Affleck and Bernthal’s portrayals are miles ahead of where they were in the first film. Bernthal seems to benefit from revisiting roles years later, as evident in his convincing return as the Punisher in the current “Daredevil: Born Again” series. This time around, Braxton is informed by fraternal warmth and goofiness. The brothers’ relationship feels settled into, and it’s a pleasure to watch. When Braxton is about to invite some women into their motel room, he admonishes the stiff Chris, “Just go stand over there. Don’t be scary.”

Affleck’s Chris is much more detailed and lived in now. Before, physical and vocal inconsistencies could pop out, but the Berkeley-born actor is in the groove here. There’s increased precision in Chris’ neurodivergent behaviors and vocal mannerisms (perhaps credit is due to the film’s neurodiversity consultant, “Autism: The Musical” star Elaine Hall). Affleck appears more relaxed, so the character is more alive.

Throughout your humble CPA's life accountants have been mocked for their introversion and inflexibility. Finally there was a movie with an accounting protagonist that was popular enough to have a sequel (and perhaps a series!) for guys like me.

Santa Cruz Students Don't Know Why It's Popular

John Travolta wears the iconic T-shirt (SFGate/YouTube screenshot)

Most UC-Santa Cruz students don't know why its banana slug T-shirt is a sought-after item. The shirt's popularity is due to Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarentino's greatest film, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

“The Fiat [slug] is like the logo,” said [Jason] Cohen of the UCSC bookstore. “It’s a cartoon banana slug wearing glasses and reading Plato. It’s our best-selling logo, period. We sell it in many different capacities. I put that on academic planners and notebooks and all kinds of stuff.”

Among all the slug merch available, the Fiat Slug T-shirts remain the school’s top seller, by far, Ray Rideout, UCSC’s apparel buyer, told SFGATE. “Everyone gets it,” he said. “Anyone who’s seen the movie, it was the cleaner scene, right? When people — they find out where I work, they always send a picture of Travolta wearing it.”

Last month we noted how the banana slug has been named the official California state slug.

"Politics is downstream of culture" is a well-known saying. 30 years after it entered the culture, politics has recognized the cultural significance of the lowly banana slug.

Still at the Acorn Stage

Some in Hollywood understand that the woke messaging (the villain is the white guy, the heroine of color is strong and independent and has no weaknesses) that has lost millions (see Disney's Star Wars prequel the Acolyte) requires a change of direction. The success of small-budget religious, specifically Christian-themed, movies has attracted investors' attention:

Faith-based film makers are getting bigger budgets.

[Jon] Erwin, 42, is a Christian filmmaker whose driving purpose is to put out uplifting stories that families can watch together. After nearly two decades of making small-budget movies in the parallel world of faith-based entertainment, he’s part of a loose tribe of filmmakers, producers and independent studios from that realm now storming into the mainstream.

Some key successes turned this corner of the industry into a hotbed. The Chosen, a multiseason TV drama about the life of Jesus and his apostles, became one of the most popular series in the world. Jesus Revolution, a movie by Erwin about a pastor and a hippie evangelist who create a surge of groovy Christians, pulled people into theaters in the shaky movie market of early 2023 and grossed about $54 million. Sound of Freedom, a thriller about child trafficking, had nothing to do with religion on the surface—but it galvanized religious viewers and grossed $250 million worldwide on a $15 million budget, becoming a box-office phenomenon second only to “Barbenheimer” last summer.

While my values are more aligned with Christianity than wokeness, I hope the new family-values film makers don't forget that the story is the key. Their movies will fail like the wokesters' if they forget that audiences want to be entertained, not lectured to.

Kamala Harris: the Play within the Play?

Jean Hagen and Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain

My favorite musical is Singin' in the Rain, largely because of its famous song-and-dance numbers. The simple romantic plot occurs against the backdrop of the transition from silent to talking pictures, and the cartoonish villain is Jean Hagen's Lina Lamont, who forces ingenue Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) to dub over Lina's high-pitched screech so that Lina can keep her leading-lady status.

Amherst professor Hadley Arkes likens Kamala Harris to Lina Lamont: [bold added]

Movie buffs often look for a film that catches the political moment. Before Joe Biden dropped out, it might have been “The Last Hurrah” (1958). Now it’s “Singin’ in the Rain” (1952), a picture about the emergence of the “talkies” in the mid-1920s, when sound was added to films.

The shock came when glamorous figures suddenly had to speak and, in some cases, their voices and accents made the audience cringe. The captivating siren, threatened with exposure in “Singin’ in the Rain,” is the invincible, unteachable Lina Lamont. In the movie, Lina is played by the veteran Jean Hagen, but the turnabout comes in our own politics, where she is played by Kamala Harris.

Or rather, Ms. Harris is now our Lina Lamont, who must be carefully guarded by her handlers and barred from speaking, for her own good (and that of the Democratic Party). That her managers have kept her shielded and confined to scripted performances confirms their own judgment that she simply isn’t up to it.

In “Singin’ in the Rain,” Lina’s songs are dubbed while she lip-synchs. Ms. Harris can make the sounds; the point of resemblance is that the words aren’t hers. So it was, one might say, for all presidents between Herbert Hoover and Barack Obama. Calvin Coolidge used to plead that he had to decline so many invitations to speak because he didn’t have the time to do the research. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speechwriter Sam Rosenman knew the style and sensibility of the patrician figure for whom he was trying to write. With Ms. Harris, there is no fixed persona or style, confirmed in writing and speech. She is something for her writers to invent.

In real life Jean Hagen was an excellent actress who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Singin'.

It would be an ironic life-imitates-art twist against Prof. Harkes' thesis if Kamala Harris were a Jean Hagen who performs well in unscripted moments, and that her "drunken Kamala" and "word salad Kamala" videos were all her being captured in a weak moment or even an act (is she really that Machievallian?).

Unusual Sight, Even for San Francisco

Maybe this is a sign that Disney is getting back its movie mojo:

On Wednesday, April 24, actors in realistic-looking ape prosthetics were indeed trotting around the northern edge of the Presidio, making a journey back and forth along the pedestrian promenade with the Golden Gate Bridge serving as the backdrop while filming a commercial for the Wes Ball blockbuster ["Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes"], due in theaters May 8...

The unusual sight is part of an elaborate marketing stunt to promote “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” the fourth installment of the rebooted sci-fi action franchise. The film follows a young chimpanzee hunter named Noa (Owen Teague) and a human girl, Mae (Freya Allen), as they embark on a journey that could determine the future for both apes and humans.

Despite being surrounded by onlookers, the "apes" kept their stoic expression and maintained the tradition of Disney's "fur" characters not speaking.

Earlier this week the marketing team duplicated the stunt at Venice Beach, which is 20 miles from where the "twist" ending was filmed in Malibu in the original 1968 Planet of the Apes movie.

Let's hope this story turns out to be worthy of its buildup.

Winding Down the Business

Today I returned the last DVD I will ever rent. Netflix terminated its DVD mail service this month, and at this point I'm unlikely to sign up with another company.

We rented our first movie on VHS tape over 40 years ago from a small store in a local shopping center. We opened accounts at the large chains (e.g., Blockbuster, Hollywood Video) and sometimes rented from electronics stores like Best Buy and the defunct Circuit City.

We bought our first DVD player in 1998 and upgraded to Blu-ray in 2007. DVDs shortly made videotape obsolete because of quality and speed--not to mention not having to rewind the tape before returning it--and Netflix' DVD-by-mail soon put the bricks-and-mortar rental stores out of business.

The dwindling demand and the rising costs of shipping and handling physical media made the closure inevitable, freeing Netflix to focus on streaming.

I'm a sentimental person but am not particularly moved by the demise of a business model. DVDs aren't going to disappear. People will still buy them, much like they buy books instead of borrowing them from the library. Nevertheless, the loss of Netflix as a large buyer of DVDs means that some titles won't be profitable to produce, like books that become out of print. And that's something to be sad about.

Leap of Faith

(Image from Christian Faith Guide)

This morning the lady minister spoke about Luke's Gospel lesson, the one where Jesus walks on water:

And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

The lesson, the lady minister said, was that we should get out of the boat and take a chance.

During sermons I often daydream. I thought of the Lahaina woman who spent seven hours in the water to save herself. Boats were catching fire, and cars were exploding, so people saved themselves by exiting their vehicles, some jumping into the harbor.

I also thought of the 1972 disaster movie, the Poseidon Adventure, where one of the fateful decisions occurs near the beginning: do the passengers wait for help in the dining room or try to climb to the top of the now-upside down ship? The leader of the "climbers," an annoying preacher played by Gene Hackman, turns out to have made the correct decision.

Sometimes the leap of faith is the only one that will save your life.

Pink's Comeback

The Annunciation by Fra Angelico (1400-1455)

It seems etched in stone tablets that pink is for girls (and blue is for boys), but pink's association with femininity only began in the 20th century: [bold added]

The European attitude towards pink was influenced by Christianity. The Renaissance artist Fra Angelico, an early innovator in color symbolism, gave his angels robes of pink, the color of flesh, and wings of gold, the color of light, to illustrate how the Holy Spirit transcended the boundary between heaven and earth.

Gentleman in Pink (1560)

Pink’s association with divine power made it popular in royal circles, especially after the discovery of more potent dye sources such as the South American brazilwood tree. For some, there was no such thing as too much pink: The famous 16th-century portrait “The Gentleman in Pink,” by Giovanni Battista Moroni, depicts an Italian nobleman named Giovanni Gerolamo Grumello dressed head to toe in salmon pink....

It wasn’t until the 20th century that pink lost its masculine overtones and became indelibly feminine. As late as 1918, the British Ladies Home Journal advised mothers to dress their little boys in pink, “a more decided and stronger colour,” and their girls in blue, “which is more delicate and dainty.” In 1937, the avant-garde designer Elsa Schiaparelli challenged such color norms by packaging her new perfume, “Shocking,” in a bright pink box.

During the suit-and-tie decades your humble blogger's closet was filled with white and blue shirts. Occasionally wearing stripes, I donned pink when I really wanted to change it up. It was perfect for Fridays before they were designated casual.

Pink is about to come full circle.

Centuries ago it represented the divine and powerful, then was stuffed into the children's corner during the 20th century.

Pink will be everywhere when Barbie is released on July 21st. Get ready for the comeback.

Don't Hold Them Back Became Let's Give Them an Advantage

Katherine Johnson (1918-2020) received
the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The 2016 film Hidden Figures was based on the true story of African-American women mathematicians who were crucial to the success of NASA's early missions. They had to overcome extreme race and sex discrimination, accompanied by condescending attitudes, to be taken seriously.

By the end of the movie their skill and reputation became so widely known at NASA that John Glenn insisted that the numbers be checked manually by Katherine Johnson, one of the "hidden figures," before his historic flight. She also performs emergency calculations to bring John Glenn home when one of his capsule's heat shields broke loose.

It's a popular theme in fiction and real life: the talents of a person who is discriminated against are so outstanding that the powers-that-be must call on the person to solve an important problem. Anti-discrimination narratives appeal to both the heart and the head: the former because the victims are treated unfairly and the latter because society's potential is unrealized by holding back skilled people.

60 years later the pendulum has shifted too far in the other direction. Anti-discrimination has given way to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) quotas. DEI is especially damaging in the technological contest with China: [bold added]

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute reported this year that China leads the U.S. in research on 37 of 44 critical technologies, including advanced aircraft engines, electric batteries, machine learning and synthetic biology. In a recent essay in Foreign Affairs, Dan Wang, an expert on China’s technology landscape, wrote that “China now rivals Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan in its mastery of the electronics supply chain.” In 2007, the Chinese added less than 4% of the value-added costs of iPhones made in that country. Now it’s more than 25%...

Given this challenge, you might imagine that America would re-emphasize the principles of objectivity and merit that made it the world’s leading scientific innovator. You would be mistaken.

Where it once was taken for granted that expanding knowledge was more important than a scientist’s sex or skin color, anyone adhering to that approach in the U.S. now must fend off charges that it is racist, patriarchal, colonial, or a tool of oppression. As a group of 29 scientists and academics contended in a recent paper for the Journal of Controversial Ideas, scientific progress in the West “is being hindered by a new, alarming clash between liberal epistemology and identity-based ideologies.”...

The U.S. will only find it harder to compete with China if activists and administrators are allowed to bully scientists into caring more about artificial diversity goals than about their work. To quote the 29 authors who stood up for merit, “for science to succeed, it must strive for the non-ideological pursuit of objective truth.”

In the liberal arts and social sciences, the DEI crowd can advocate for individual revealed truths and personal lived experiences. By contrast, those who work in STEM fields believe that there are objective truths, and the goal of science is to discover these truths. I am 100% sure that the mathematicians who worked for NASA would agree.

Don't Burn Yourself

(WSJ illustration)

The word "toast" conjures pleasant images. A slice of buttered toast can be the perfect start to the day, and raising a glass in a toast fills the room with conviviality.

Bill Murray coined a third definition in the 1984 movie Ghostbusters when his character Peter Venkman declared, "This chick is toast" then blasted the demon with his proton pack.

That use of toast seemed to fill a need for a word signifying death and destruction but with a less ominous tone. It immediately caught on:

The Oxford English Dictionary recognizes Murray’s ad-lib as the earliest known occurrence of “toast” with the modern meaning, calling the usage “proleptic.” Prolepsis is a figure of speech in which a future state is represented as already occurring, so “You’re toast” joined other proleptic expressions like “You’re dead” or “You’re history.”

Your humble blogger doesn't use the term because future states sometimes don't materialize. A sage who says "Putin is toast" or "San Francisco is toast" may very well end up looking stupid. Why confirm what people are thinking if you don't have to?.

Elemental Thoughts

Last Saturday's water shutdown in our neighborhood caused us to repair to the Hillsdale shopping center.

Unlike the emptying Westfield in San Francisco, Hillsdale is one of the Bay Area suburban malls that is experiencing growth and attracting investment.

The mall is safe enough that parents are comfortable bringing their children. (San Mateo County has a homeless population of about 1,000, and the City and County have improved security recently.) Disney set up a colorful display next to Macy's to advertise the new animated film Elemental.

The film on the whole has garnered moderately favorable reviews (WSJ: "marvelous imagery"; SF Chronicle: "absolutely gorgeous rendering of a half-baked idea").

Good special effects, plus a new, creative world of "elemental" tribes: that's enough to make me want to check it out on the Disney+ streaming service when it arrives, perhaps in September.

Postscript: I'm not sure I would have enjoyed the movie when I was a kid. I liked to keep reality, e.g., real science, separate from fantasy, e.g., cartoons and fairy tales. When I learned that Aristotle, one of the greatest Greek philosophers, declared the basic elements to be fire, air, water, and earth, this fourth grader thought that was pretty dumb. Today I would be kinder--some of the greatest fiction has been spun from premises that are entirely false.

"A Catastrophic Act of Cultural Destruction"

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021): my last DVD rental?

Spider-Man: No Way Home is the current DVD I'm renting through Netflix. It may be my last, because Netflix announced it will terminate its DVD business on September 29th (discs can still be returned after that date).

Paying $9.99 per month, I haven't been an efficient user of the rental service. Sometimes the disc sits in the player for a month before viewing, or worse, it's returned because I just didn't care to watch it after all.

But I still maintain the DVD plan, because it's convenient to pay one provider instead of hunting for which streaming service is carrying the movie I want to watch. Also, many older movies cannot be found on any streaming plan:

Netflix’s recent announcement that it will discontinue its physical DVD distribution business later this year is a catastrophic act of cultural destruction...

In 2018 the film-data researcher Stephen Follows tracked the availability of the 100 top-grossing films from 1970 to 2017. Those released in the most recent decade were available via streaming, digital renting or purchase. As Mr. Follows worked back in time, however, movies became hard to find commercially. Just half of top-grossing films from the early 1970s could be streamed. Older, less profitable, experimental and independent works hardly streamed at all.

If it’s worth seeing, you may think, the magic of the marketplace will bring it to Hulu or Amazon Prime. This month the Washington Post’s Ty Burr reminds us of some movies we can’t stream: “Cocoon” (1985), directed by Ron Howard, “Short Cuts” (1993) by Robert Altman, “New York, New York” (1977) by Martin Scorsese, “Henry & June” (1990) by Philip Kaufman and “Silkwood” (1983) by Mike Nichols.

Of the 23,000-plus movies released in the U.S. since 1899, streaming services offer only 7,300—and that includes foreign titles. If a film happens to be streaming somewhere, odds are it’s on a platform you don’t pay for. The average American household subscribes to four streaming services out of the many available.

Another point in favor of DVD's: they are impervious to sneak-editing of their content. Steven Spielberg inveighed against the recent tendency to edit books and movies to make them conform to today's morality:

Spielberg acknowledged that the digital modifications [turning police guns into walkie-talkies] he made to the 20th anniversary edition of E.T. were "a mistake. I never should have done that. E.T. is a product of its era. No film should be revised based on the lenses we now are, either voluntarily, or being forced to peer through."

The director insisted that "All our movies are a kind of a signpost of where we were when we made them, what the world was like, and what the world was receiving when we got those stories out there."

If there arises a business that rents a fairly complete library of un-bowdlerized DVD's, I would be a customer.

Groundhog Day, 2023

Today is Groundhog Day, when Phil, the groundhog from Punxsutawney, PA, predicts the weather for the next six weeks (cold if he sees his shadow, warm if he does not, and he did see his shadow.)

Today also celebrates the 30th anniversary of the movie, released on February 4, 1993. Groundhog Day was well-received when it came out and has grown in esteem to the extent that it is now considered to be one of the top films of all time. At its center is a vision of the meaning of life, but it is enclosed in a comedic wrapping that can be enjoyed on its own merits. As I wrote seven years ago:

Groundhog Day was a quirky custom in an out-of-the-way town--it didn't rise in the popular consciousness until the 1993 film.

I came across the movie on HBO in 1996. At first glance it was a cleverly written comedy about a jaded, world-weary weatherman who mysteriously must re-live Groundhog Day over and over again.

Bill Murray's character, Phil Connors, is trapped. Even when he despairingly "kills" himself he wakes up the next morning in the same hotel bed to the strains of Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe" on the clock-radio.

Phil-the-human cannot escape, yet in a sense he is totally free. He can commit any number of sins without consequence because he will have a fresh start tomorrow. No one but he remembers what he did.

Repeated viewings struck a chord. The movie plumbed deep waters. And I'm not alone in that realization.

In the years since its release the film has been taken up by Jews, Catholics, Evangelicals, Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, and followers of the oppressed Chinese Falun Gong movement. Meanwhile, the Internet brims with weighty philosophical treatises on the deep Platonist, Aristotelian, and existentialist themes providing the skin and bones beneath the film’s clown makeup.

theology professor Michael P. Foley wrote that Groundhog Day is “a stunning allegory of moral, intellectual, and even religious excellence in the face of postmodern decay, a sort of Christian-Aristotelian Pilgrim’s Progress for those lost in the contemporary cosmos.”

The movie ends on a hopeful note. Phil makes positive changes of his own free will, without expectations of a reward. Only then is he released from the prison of endless repetition.

Part of the genius of Groundhog Day, the movie, is that it doesn't pummel you with philosophy. It invites you to think, but if you just want to laugh, that's ok, too. As Jonah Goldberg observes,

We’re talking about the movie in which Bill Murray tells a big rat sitting on his lap, “Don’t drive angry,”

Further musings in 2023 about Phil Connors' journey and our own:

In the film — written by Danny Rubin, a Zen Buddhist, according to Ramis’ DVD commentary of the film — Phil reincarnates each day, but he also transforms his behavior over “time.” He takes self-centered advantage of his unique predicament — robbing bank trucks, stuffing his face with angel food cake, tricking a woman into bed — but eventually perfects the day with creative self-improvement tasks and compassionately helping others. Once he becomes the best possible version of Phil Connors, he is released from his temporal prison, while simultaneously winning the love of his virtuous producer, Rita...

But something does change every day, even if it’s imperceptible. It’s ourselves. And we can choose how this day will unfold, and how we will slowly evolve. There might even be a “Groundhog Day”-inspired resolution: memorizing French poetry, playing the piano, figuring out how to help others more often. Like Phil, we can utilize creativity and compassion to change a glass-is-half-empty paradigm, to half full. The pursuit of meaning is itself meaningful. And today, as well as everyday, can be your first day of spring.

Wow, that's heavy! But putting it in perspective, Groundhog Day is also just about a big rat.

Market Segmentation: Too Far?

Candace Cameron Bure will leave Hallmark
to make movies for Great American Family.

For over five years I've been watching Hallmark movies. The plots lack in suspense. Most conflicts are resolved happily, there are no really bad guys except in the murder-mystery movies, and love always wins over career opportunities and peripatetic inclinations.

To be perfectly honest, I often run the Hallmark Channel as a form of background music when I'm doing something else, like composing this blog post.

Hallmark movies are rife with religious values, e.g., lead characters are always volunteering to help poor orphans, but there are very few explicitly Christian movies on the channel. Church scenes are limited to weddings and funerals, and the words "God," "Jesus," or "Lord" are absent from scripts. The audience is often left to infer that characters are religious by their actions and the values they espouse.

Now some of the biggest Hallmark stars are leaving for a faith-based network: [bold added]

These days, the genre that Hallmark pioneered is everywhere, from major streaming platforms like Netflix to more niche channels like the Food Network and HGTV. While the movies may differ, most share an abiding reluctance to dwell on Christianity.

Great American Family enters the scene with the opposite point of view. With a name that conjures red-state pride and content that embraces faith, the channel is presenting itself as the choice for Christians who think Hollywood is ruining Christmas. Mrs. Bure, a former child star best known as D.J. Tanner from “Full House,” is the religious influencer who serves as its face...

The channel’s formula is what [CEO Bill] Abbott calls “soft faith,” a Christian message he said is there for viewers who are looking for it but doesn’t aim to proselytize. Great American Family also offers holiday films that follow conventional secular story lines: The New York advertising hotshot who falls in love while trying to sell the family farm, the luxury travel blogger who stumbles into romance at a bed-and-breakfast, and the like.

Your humble blogger has long had an aversion to shows that are overtly message-y. Lead characters on network shows sometimes launch into speeches against business polluters, real estate developers, racists, and -phobics who condemn others for "being different." Once the writers' agenda is revealed, then it's clear that the characters are there to serve the agenda.

I won't watch shows where the plot is subservient to ideology, even though I might agree with aspects of the ideology. I'll check out the Great American Family network, but it will be on a short leash.

Persuasion by Netflix

Not your grandmother's Jane Austen: Dakota Johnson's
Anne Elliot breaks the fourth wall and holds a rabbit
throughout the film.

Still a Jane Austen neophyte, I watched Netflix' Persuasion this month. Like the screen versions of Pride and Prejudice, the movie necessarily dispenses with the nuances of the novel in order to tell the story in under two hours. If inspired to move on to the book, the viewer can then savor the subtleties of the characters as they navigate the rules of Regency society.

To get right to the point, I liked the film. It had outrageously self-absorbed characters that provided the grist for protagonist Anne Elliot's ironic observations, and the requisite Austen plot twists that provided a happy ending for most of the players.

But it's a good thing that I didn't read the reviews first. They slammed the movie because of the modern dialogue ("He's a 10" "Now we're strangers, worse than strangers, we're exes") and the 21st-century sensibility of Anne Elliot.

Here's an example of movie dialogue that would never come from the pen of Jane Austen.

[Male character]: He [Wentworth] could be an admiral some day, great service to the Crown and all that it holds dear, but instead he'd rather fart around inland for the rest of his life.

[Woman character] Oh, let the man fart where he likes.

It's obvious why diehard Austen fans ("Janeites") are outraged, but I'm not so wedded to historical authenticity. It's fiction.

Olivia Newton-John

If you were a young man in the '70's...if you remember that album cover of Olivia with that blue shirt on with those big blue eyes staring right at you, every boy's, every man's dream, was that I would love for that girl to be my girlfriend.---John Travolta

Olivia Newton-John, 73, died earlier today at her Southern California ranch.

Her public singing career spanned over 50 years, but during the 10-year period 1971 ("If Not for You") to 1981 ("Physical") there was no greater star in music. Her voice was strong and ranged over two octaves and, of course, her looks helped. She had the whole package.

At the age of 28, she was cast as the high-schooler Sandy in the musical Grease, which was the most popular film of 1978 and had one of the best-selling movie soundtracks of all time. During the pandemic I re-watched a lot of musicals, including Grease. My estimation of Olivia Newton-John grew from that of a fine singer who churned out a lot of hits back in the day to that of a truly great entertainer. R.I.P.