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 To Leslie 

Directed by Michael Morris

Starring Andrea Riseborough, Owen Teague, and Allison Janney

Released in theaters (US) Oct. 7, 2022

Available from several streaming services, including Amazon Prime

The Plot: Leslie, a manipulative drunk, squanders $190,000 she won in a lottery, abandons her child, and lives a peripatetic life, hustling her friends and family for shelter and stealing money to buy alcohol. Towards the end of the film, she seems to be on the verge of recovery.

What I Liked About It 

* The action felt real and the plot felt realistic.

* The setting and the music were appropriate to the plot.

* The acting was good to very good.

What I Didn’t Like So Much 

I’ve been in constant touch with drunks and drug addicts all my life. What I’ve learned is that they are very good at telling you what you want to hear. What they are very bad at is recovery. It’s hard to watch a movie like this, whose depiction of the problem is so realistic, and feel hopeful at the end.

Critical Reception 

* “Riseborough’s performance is nothing short of spectacular. She doesn’t compromise, she doesn’t hold back, but she doesn’t compromise the character with any sort of fake flamboyance.” (Owen Gleiberman, Variety)

* “To Leslie is a movie about hitting bottom but also a story steeped in grace – and even, with its understated, lived-in aesthetic, tinged with a bit of fairy tale.” (Sheri Linden, Hollywood Reporter)

* “It’s a story often told, but this movie tells it well.” (Noel Murray, Los Angeles Times)

You can watch the trailer here.

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Worth Considering

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The COVID Response. What We Got Wrong.

Part XI: The Biggest Mistake 

I have talked here about many mistakes made in the government’s response to COVID-19. But the biggest was the fundamental assumption that “locking down” cities, states, and countries was an effective way to reduce infections and death.

When I first began reporting on the pandemic, I explained why I didn’t believe that would work. Back then, my predictions were treated as conspiracy theories. Now they are, for the most part, proven fact.

Here’s a scientist making the point. (This is not meant to be persuasive. I will be following up, in detail, in future issues.)

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Fun and/or Interesting

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The Argument Over Otters

From National Geographic: They are graceful, playful. They hug each other and give each other shoulder rides. At one time, they were almost extinct. Now they are coming back, and most people are happy about it. Most. Not all. Check out this essay by Cynthia Gorney.

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Fun and/or Interesting

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How Motown Changed America 

Berry Gordy’s Motown music was a breakthrough not only in the music industry but for society at large, as it was the first strain of African American music embraced by nearly the entire Baby Boom generation. Motown included some of the greatest musical acts in the 60s and 70s, including Diana Ross & the Supremes, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, the Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson & the Jackson 5, the Marvelettes, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Lionel Richie & the Commodores.

Click here to listen to one of Motown’s first breakout songs: “Money (That’s What I Want)” by Barrett Strong. It has a catchy tune. But what I like best about it are the lyrics. Super smart.

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Readers Write

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Re my Feb. 3 essay on the Tyre Nichols Killing, GG writes: 

“One thing I suspect we might see in the investigation of the Memphis killing is that the cops were used as tax collectors.

“That sounds crazy, but a Dept. of Justice report on Ferguson showed that a lot of the mistrust in the community that turned into riots after the police shooting of Michael Brown stemmed from using the cops as heavily armed tax collectors. There’s even a section in the report called FERGUSON LAW ENFORCEMENT EFFORTS ARE FOCUSED ON GENERATING REVENUE.

“Basically, the local politicos spent too much money and used the cops to generate revenue to cover their deficits. Predictably, this mostly hurt poor people, and a lot of the poor people there are Black.

“This is obviously stupid. Cops have much better things to do than make money for overspending politicians. And using the cops this way erodes the relationship with police and citizens.

“Anyhow, it wouldn’t surprise me if this ‘Scorpion Unit’ in Memphis had a mandate to make the city money by harassing citizens. That’s one very plausible explanation for why an ‘elite unit’ would concern themselves with something as piddly as reckless driving. They pull Tyre over, give him a bunch of tickets, and Tyre owes the city a few hundred bucks. Wash and repeat. They can make the city a couple thousand a night.

“I bet it also leads to bad behavior in cops. I doubt anyone joined the force to act as a shakedown agent for the state.

“I’m waiting to see some reporting in this direction.

“Here’s the Ferguson DOJ report.”

 

A request for my thoughts on Ron DeSantis, from BG: 

“I look forward to reading you every week. Please comment on your Gov. DeSantis. Oh, and congrats on getting the wedding gigs going at Paradise Palms. It’s beautiful and amazing what you’ve accomplished!”

My Response: Thanks for the note.

I’m glad you are reading my blog. I am especially pleased to know you are reading it because, as one of my favorite leftist friends, it warms my heart to know that you push yourself to read my stuff. I know it must be difficult at times.

It also saves us time. I expect all my friends and family members to read the blog religiously. If they ever ask me a question that I’ve covered, I tell them that I am severely disappointed that they felt the need to ask me something I’ve already written about, and I direct them to the index.

About DeSantis… I haven’t written about him yet, but I’ve been thinking of doing so.

Let’s see. What do I think?

Off the top of my head, I think he has proven himself right by keeping Florida open during most of the last three years, while California and NYC went into a major delusional panic and shut down their economies.

I like that he’s standing up to the gender and race ideological nonsense that is destroying the mental competence of my left-leaning friends.

I love what he’s doing with Disney.

But most importantly, I’m happy that he has kept Florida the land of the free and the home of the brave by:

* Maintaining Florida as a no-income-tax state

* Not raising other taxes

* Preserving Florida as an inexpensive and a safe place to live (Unlike California and NY)

Gee, now that you mention it, I love the guy! I feel lucky to have him as our governor.

Not just that, but he’s good looking and articulate too!

P.S. I hope he doesn’t run for president, because America as a country is too ruined to save. Florida will have to erect borders to keep out the liberals.

 

Re my review of The Banshees of Inisherin 

From AS: 

“In your review, you said, ‘The main plot point: I just couldn’t believe the premise. That after years of friendship, one friend would turn so suddenly and completely away from the other.’

“I thought the movie made it more than clear. He was suffering profound depression.

“You didn’t see that?”

My Response: I understood that was the purported explanation. But his scripted behavior wasn’t even remotely believable.

When people are depressed, they don’t shut themselves away from just one person. They shut themselves away from everyone. A severely depressed person would have stayed home. He would not have gone to the pub at night to enjoy the company of so many people but exclude only one.

That, to me, is entirely invented and artificial behavior. On the level of young women tiptoeing down to the basement after hearing scary noises down there.

 

From FJ: 

“I couldn’t stay with ‘Banshees.’ I made it through for about 15 minutes. I appreciated it but moved on. But your description of Colin Farrell’s casting and acting was spot on. Like myself, he is cursed with good looks and an intelligent demeanor.” – FJ

 

Re the availability of my books: 

SD wrote in to ask how she could buy copies of Words That Work and Making the Most of Your Time. Unlike most of my books, they are not available on Amazon. But we do have some copies in storage. If you’d like a copy of any of my books that are not available on Amazon:

Send a check for $10 (for each book) to cover shipping and postage.

Make the check payable to Cap & Bells Press, LLC. (No cash, please.)

Include your name and mailing address and mail it to:

Cap & Bells Press

Attn: GKoo

235 NE 4th Ave., Suite 101

Delray Beach, FL 33483

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Friday, February 3, 2023, Delray Beach, Florida


Notes From My Journal

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The Tyre Nichols Killing: Where Should the Conversation Start?

By now, most of America is familiar with the story of the five Memphis policemen that beat to death Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old man who had been pulled over on Jan. 7 for “reckless driving.”

When I saw the initial reports, I thought, “Oh, boy. Is this another BLM moment? White cops brutalizing unarmed Black men?” But then the photos were released. All five of the accused police were Black.

What to make of it?

I had a good idea of what the polarized, political response would be. The BLM contingent would see it as an effect of structural racism. It doesn’t matter that the cops were Black. They were acting as they’d been conditioned to act. The anti-BLM contingent would point out that this is just another example of Black-on-Black crime.

These arguments are already being voiced loudly in the media. That’s too bad, because I was hoping it would be seen, by both Blacks and Whites, as I saw it. As an example of police brutality, which has been a serious problem in the US for as long as there have been police. A problem that will never be resolved so long as we examine it as a symptom of race.

I asked Sam, an ex-police (and Black) training partner, if he thought this was a hate crime caused by structural or systemic racism.

“It’s not about racism,” he said.

“Then what?” I asked.

“The root problem is cultural,” he said. “Police culture. It’s about isolation, fear, intimidation, and tribalism.”

I nodded.

“It starts at the top,” he said, “with the old guys. And it is handed down, as a cultural norm, to each new class of cadets. It’s invisible. But it’s powerful.”

“Let me ask you this,” I said, “if Nichols were White, do you think this would have happened to him?”

“I’d say the chances would be less. For sure. But in this case, what you have is five Black cops beating a young, unarmed Black man to death. I don’t believe for a minute that they aimed to kill him. They couldn’t have been that stupid.”

“So, what did they mean to do?”

“Exactly what they did. Beat someone who they felt needed a beating.”

“What do you mean?”

“How do I put this? Yes, I think if this kid were White, they might have thought twice about beating him so badly. And you can call that White privilege. But that doesn’t mean the core problem is racism, that Whites are less likely to take a beating than Blacks. If the victim were a Black woman or a Black senior, they would have been at less risk, probably much less risk, than a young Black man. Or even a young White man. What I’m saying is that the core problem here is that these guys felt they had the moral right to beat up someone, anyone, for any reason. That is an educational problem, a cultural problem. The problem is police culture. That’s what needs to change.”

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News & Views

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Bits and Pieces 

A CEO’s Perspective 

Click here for an outlook on the US economy from Starwood Capital CEO Barry Sternlicht. Friend and colleague JS sent this in, saying, “Listen to this CEO as compared to what you hear from politicians.”

Canada’s Drug Experiment 

I generally think of Canada’s prime minister as a leftist lunatic. And Canada’s federal government as lunatic-led zombies. Justin Trudeau is a textbook example of that old saw “Under every leftist is a wannabe tyrant.”

British Columbia is doing something that, from a distance, sounds like more of the same. But, IMHO, it makes sense.

The province is conducting a three-year experiment in decriminalizing drugs. Not pot. (Cannabis is already legal there.) But harder drugs like cocaine and heroin. Drug trafficking will remain legal. But people caught with modest quantities (less than 2.5 grams) will not be arrested or even charged with a crime. Instead, they will be given information on risks and treatments. Read more here.

“Are We Dating the Same Guy?” 

Click here to read an interesting report from The Free Press about a membership website called “Are We Dating the Same Guy?” It’s for women that have concerns about men they have recently dated. The report contains some surprising facts. (Did you know that women comprise more than 70 percent of consumers of crime and murder stories?) But ultimately, it’s scary.

How to Stop Mass Shootings? 

I’m not sure if providing deadly weapons to teachers is the best way to stop mass school shootings. But if you watch this YouTube video, you may begin to think more broadly about the situation. Click here.

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Worth Watching

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The Banshees of Inisherin 

Written and directed by Martin McDonagh

Starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, and Barry Keoghan

Released in theaters (US) Oct. 21, 2022

Available from several streaming services, including Amazon Prime

BJ, one of my golfing pals, recommended The Banshees of Inisherin in a recent group email. AS, another golfing pal, said it was “dark and disturbing.” JM said he thought it was good in many ways, but confessed that he found it complicated and confusing. “Honestly, I have no idea what it meant.”

I thought: “Sounds interesting. I’m going to love this or hate it.” Last night, I watched it.

The Banshees of Inisherin is, indeed, a complicated movie. It begins as a pastoral period piece, slips into a doleful but warmhearted narrative, and then takes a sharp turn towards a macabre black comedy before resolving itself as an existential tragedy.

What I Liked About It 

* The photography by Ben Davis: beautiful, soft, and sad.

* The music by Carter Burwell: beautiful, soft, and sad.

* The dialog: country Irish. There’s nothing like it.

* The acting by three of the principals: Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, and Barry Keoghan.

* The mood: Excellent. GSD (grim, stark, and depressing).

What I Didn’t Like (So Much) 

* Colin Farrell’s acting: He was hamstrung by his supremely intelligent good looks. His role was that of a simpleton. He couldn’t pull it off.

* The main plot point: I just couldn’t believe the premise. That after years of friendship, one friend would turn so suddenly and completely away from the other.

* The denouement: The story lacked any sort of satisfying resolution.

* The themes: Several were suggested by the plot and some of the dialog. But the movie lacked one overarching theme that could bring the whole thing together.

My Recommendation 

See it. Definitely, see it. Even with its several considerable flaws, it’s still better than 98 percent of the movies being made today.

You can watch the trailer here.

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A Word to the Wise

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The denouement (day-NOO-mon) – from the French for the final part of a play, movie, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and explained or resolved – literally means “untie the knot.” See how I used it, above, in my review of The Banshees of Inisherin (under “What I Didn’t Like (So Much”).

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