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Meryl Streep

The Prom: Everyone is Welcome

December 5, 2020 by Steve Norton Leave a Comment

There’s a certain mystique about the prom.

From ‘prom-posals’ to having the right date or transportation, proms are supposed to be nights of whimsy where everyone can celebrate their journey through high school. However, at the same time, they also continue to be infected with multiple levels of social politics as teens scramble to ensure that they have the perfect night. As such, what’s supposed to be a night of celebration for everyone can very quickly devolve into a night of exclusion and conformity.

With The Prom, director Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story, Glee) wants to believe that this can still be a night for everyone. Adapted from the Tony-nominated musical of the same name, The Prom tells the story of Indiana student Emma Nolan (Jo Ellen Pellman), a young woman who finds herself banned from her high school prom because she wants to attend with her girlfriend Alyssa (Ariana DeBose). Despite the support of her principal (Keegan-Michael Key) Emma is heartbroken and longs to be accepted for who she is. Meanwhile, in New York City, Broadway stars Dee Dee Allen (Meryl Streep) and Barry Glickman (James Corden) find themselves in a crisis of their own when their elaborate Broadway show is cancelled suddenly. With their careers in peril, Allen and Glickman discover Emma’s story online and believe that supporting her may help their public image. As a result, they trek to Indiana with friends (and fellow struggling actors) Angie Dickinson (Nicole Kidman) and Trent Oliver (Andrew Rannells) in an effort help Emma have the night she wants and give themselves a professional lift in the process.

There’s a lot to like about this Prom, a blistering ball of fun that provides the type of energetic escapism that may bring some joy during this difficult season. Brightly lit with blasts of colour, most of the musical numbers sparkle onscreen. Performances within the film are generally solid, especially from co-stars Andrew Rannells, Keegan-Michael Key and, of course, Meryl Streep. Anchoring the film, however, is newcomer Jo Ellen Pellman who shines as hero-in-waiting, Emma. A joy to watch onscreen, Pellman sparkles as the impetuous and courageous young woman, bringing an earnestness and enthusiasm to the film. 

Even so, the film is not without its issues. Clocking in at over 2 hours, The Prom ends up feeling a bit too long. What’s more, the primary lightning rod for the film is the casting of Corden as the openly gay Glickman. Admittedly, at a time where inclusion and representation have become daily (and necessary) headlines, the casting of the heterosexual Corden definitely could be argued as showing a lack of sensitivity to current conversations. (Certainly, there are other openly gay actors in Hollywood who could have filled Glickman’s silver suit.) However, it is worth noting that the LGBTQ+ community have significant representation within the film as well. From stars Pellman and DeBose to the significant diversity amongst its extras to director Ryan Murphy himself, The Prom takes its inclusiveness very seriously and, hopefully, that may help to counterbalance the controversy surrounding Corden’s position within the film.

In terms of discussing modern issues, The Prom keeps things as light and simple as the colour palette that it uses. This is not a tale that seeks to delve into the murkiness of moral ambiguity but rather invites others to step into the light of acceptance. While the film keeps the lines of ‘good v. evil’ clear from the opening scene (modern thinkers = noble; religious zealots = bad), The Prom does draw a clear line between inclusiveness and a proper understanding of Christian grace. (“When you’re lost it always helps recalling those immortal words that Jesus said. ‘There’s one rule that trumps them all: Love thy neighbour’”, Rannells pops.)

For Murphy, the most important truth remains that all are invited to enjoy the party. More specifically, the film is a call to offer genuine love to one another by reminding the viewer what it means to break down the divisive walls of judgmentalism and hypocrisy. In this way, the film does a good job of getting its message across that everyone matters and deserves to feel accepted and valued for who they are. 

In the end, The Prom is an enjoyable (but arguably forgettable) piece that offers enough charm and liveliness to keep viewers entertained. Despite its flaws, the film’s pop and ‘zazz’ does a fairly good job of creating a dream-like experience for viewers that only Broadway can achieve. Even so, the most important aspect of this Prom is that Murphy wants to make sure that everyone is invited to the party. While it may not be perfect, that doesn’t mean that you should throw out the invitation.

The Prom is in select theatres now and will be available on Netflix on December 11th, 2020.

Filed Under: Featured, Film, Netflix, Reviews Tagged With: Andrew Rannells, Ariana DeBose, james corden, Jo Ellen Pellman, keegan-michael key, LBGTQ, LGBTQ+, Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Ryan Murphy, The Prom

5.09 Is MARY POPPINS RETURNS Practically Perfect?

January 20, 2019 by Steve Norton Leave a Comment

http://screenfish.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/5.09-Mary-Poppins-Returns.mp3

After 60 years, Mary Poppins Returns! With Emily Blunt stepping into the legacy (and Oscar-winning) legacy of Julie Andrews, Poppins automatically has massive expectations to live up to the charm of the original Disney classic. But, is the result practically perfect? Or does the sequel ‘go fly a kite’? In a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious conversation, I’m joined by Seeing and Believing co-host, Kevin McLenithan to discuss whether or not this film ’steps in time’ to the original, power of perspective, and—in a special segment—our Top 3 Movie Moments of 2018.

You can also stream the episode above on podomatic, SoundCloud or on Spotify! Or, you can download the ep on Apple Podcasts, Google Play or more!

5.09 Mary Poppins Returns

Want to continue to conversation at home?  Click the link below to download ‘Fishing for More’ — some small group questions for you to bring to those in your area.

Thanks Kevin for joining us!

Filed Under: Film, Podcast Tagged With: Angela Lansbury, Avengers: Infinity War, Ben Whishaw, Best of, Bohemian Rhapsody, Colin Firth, Dick Van Dyke, Disney, Eighth Grade, Emily Blunt, Emily Mortimer, Infinity War, Into the Spiderverse, Julie Andrews, Julie Walters, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mary Poppins, Mary Poppins Returns, Meryl Streep, Miles Morales, musical, Oscars, Rami Malek, remake, spider-man, Thanos, Top Ten, Widows, Won't You Be My Neighbor?

4.09 Digging for Truth in THE POST

January 16, 2018 by Steve Norton Leave a Comment

http://screenfish.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/4.09-The-Post.mp3

In his latest film, THE POST, Steven Spielberg and his all-star cast aren’t satisfied with merely retelling a chapter in American history. They’re on a search for truth and justice in our culture today. This week, Steve welcomes back Kevin McLenithan (Seeing and Believing) to dig into THE POST while also offering their Top 3 Movie Moments of 2017.

Want to continue to conversation at home?  Click the link below to download ‘Fishing for More’ — some small group questions for you to bring to those in your area.

A special thanks to Kevin for joining us!

4.09 The Post

For those of you in Canada who are interested, you can donate to ScreenFish by clicking the link below and simply selecting ‘ScreenFish’ from the ‘Apply Your Donation…’ area. 

https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/connect-city/

Filed Under: Film, Oscar Spotlight, Podcast Tagged With: Allison Brie, Bob Odenkirk, Bruce Greenwood, fake news, Meryl Streep, Oscars, Sarah Paulson, Steven Spielberg, The Post, Tom Hanks

The Post – The Calling of Truth

January 12, 2018 by Steve Norton Leave a Comment

Directed by Steven Spielberg, The Post tells the story of Katherine Graham (Meryl Streep), the first female publisher of a major American newspaper, the Washington Post. Set in the later years of the Vietnam War, Katherine and her editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) suddenly find themselves in the possession of papers exposing the American government’s cover-ups. As her shareholders are growing anxious and question her ability to lead, she and Bradlee must decide whether they will put their careers—and lives—at risk by publishing the truth that they have uncovered in an effort to hold their elected leaders accountable for their actions.

Despite its 1970s setting, The Post feels like Spielberg’s most urgent film in years. With an energetic script, each actor within the film attacks their roles with a ferocity and passion that bleeds off the screen. While one could argue that the film looks on paper as simple Oscar bait (Spielberg! Hanks! Streep! Together at last!), the truth is that, regardless of the size of their role, every performer within the film appears actively invested in the project. As a result, the film sparkles, eliciting shades of classics like The Conversation or All the President’s Men yet seems entirely relevant to the current political landscape. Given the film’s message of freedom for the press and the courage of women, The Post is not exactly subtle with its intentions, arguably the film’s greatest flaw. (“Nothing less than the integrity of the presidency is at stake!” someone exclaims.) However, the intensity of the film coupled with truly remarkable performances across the board prevent it from being simply another ‘message movie’.

In light of this, one of the most interesting aspects of the film is its passion for truth. While it seems obvious that a film about revealing the flaws of the government would have an overarching theme of truth, The Post seems genuinely interested in offering the concept of truth as a universal construct as opposed to basing it on one’s subjectivity. Whereas many modern narratives, whether it’s The Last Jedi to Lady Bird, bases truth on one’s perspective or feeling, this film depicts truth as an objective, higher standard to which we’re all held accountable.

In The Post, truth is a calling.

Interestingly though, the film also manages to resist painting characters by the simple brushstrokes of ‘hero’ and ‘villain’. Whereas Spielberg could have presented characters like McNamara (Bruce Greenwood) or Arther Parsons (Bradley Whitford) as purely evil, he also shows

their desire to do good, albeit by their own standards. As a result, these characters aren’t considered bad because they actively oppose truth. Rather, their actions are bad because they seem naive—or worse, disinterested—in heeding what is objectively wrong. Issues ranging from accountability of government to women’s rights are highlighted by the outdated attitudes and morals of a culture that fears change and these are characters refuse to admit to themselves that they’ve become lost. These are not mustache-twirling criminals but flawed human beings whose misguided actions have real consequences. As such, there is a cost to truth as well. McNamara may argue that ‘it’s easy for the papers to paint us as liars…’ but, by these standards, that is who they are. While these sorts of realizations are painful at times—especially when you consider how we idolize people in authority (or historically)—they also create space for new beginnings when truth is objective.

The Post reminds us that there is still a place for recognizing an objective, external standard of right and wrong that is also imbued with hope. At a time in our culture where administrations trending movements such as #MeToo reveal the damage that has remained in the shadows and caused by people in power, this film is a reminder that there is hope that lies in the truth.

 

The Post is in theatres now.

 

Filed Under: Current Events, Reviews Tagged With: Ben Bradlee, Bruce Greenwood, drama, fake news, Meryl Streep, Steven Spielberg, The Post, Tom Hanks, Vietnam War

Hail to The Post: 1on1 with Bruce Greenwood

January 12, 2018 by Steve Norton 3 Comments

http://screenfish.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/1on1-with-Bruce-Greenwood-THE-POST.mp3

Set in the later years of the Vietnam War, Katherine Graham, publisher of the Washington Post, and her editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) suddenly find themselves in the possession of papers exposing the American government’s cover-ups. As her shareholders are growing anxious and question her ability to lead, she and Bradlee must decide whether they will put their careers—and lives—at risk by publishing the truth that they have uncovered in an effort to hold their elected leaders accountable for their actions.

Directed by Steven Spielberg and featuring an all-star cast, The Post brings a key moment of American history to life that showcases the damage that can be done to our culture through the misdeeds of the administration. Playing former Secretary of Defence, Robert McNamara, in the film, veteran actor Bruce Greenwood felt it was quite an honour for Spielberg to consider him for the role.

“It was just one of those miraculous things about planets aligning,” he begins, “and, for some reason, Steven thought I was the man to invite. He called me and said ‘Would you like to do it?’ and when I picked up the phone from the floor (laughs), I said okay!… We’d had a few brief conversations but I wasn’t that sure he even knew who I was. It was doubly surprising that he reached out to me for this. Then the research began and the conversations began. You get to the set and you look at the call sheet and the call sheet is a list of people that you could only dream to work alongside.

Greenwood’s enthusiasm for The Post is palpable, but he is far from alone. The film has an energy and heat emanating from the cast that is visual from beginning to end. Greenwood claims that the earnestness of the film stems from the current political climate.

“I think that Amy Pascal became aware of Hannah’s script, and it was a passion project. When she took it to Steven, it really began in earnest,” he recalls. “I think he had a project that he was in the midst of getting in motion and he felt strongly, from what I understand, that now was the time and not a moment too soon to make a movie about this. That urgency coupled with the political passion of everyone involved… but I don’t know if it’s just a political passion but a desire to do right by this country to remind everyone that democracy is a fragile, fragile bubble. It doesn’t take much to puncture it.”

However, Greenwood also contests that is importance of the film goes beyond simply the personal passions of the cast. Rather, the significance of these conversations relates to the heart of the current battle for truth itself.

“It’s the attempted smothering of the press and the maligning, the mocking, the calling into question the veracity of things being
reported on by the current administration [that makes this film so vital],” Greenwood explains. “If an administration chooses to malign, mock, diminish and otherwise impugn truthful reporting for long enough, eventually people may throw their hands up and say, ‘I can’t believe anything at all’. Then, the control of the press has been won over in that way. We the people are entitled to the truth but we don’t get it for free. We have to work for it.”

Given the current battle over the nature of truth, Greenwood is unsure what steps need to be taken in order to repair the damage that has been done in our culture when it comes to civil discourse.

“That’s a long question that requires a lot of dialogue to tease out the answer. A lot of news is incredibly partisan and the echo chambers that we all inhabit, to some degree, are dangerous places. I wish I had the answer to how we create civil discourse that allows penetrating reporting to keep us informed.”

One of the greatest strengths of The Post is the overall quality of the script. Although much of the film focuses on conversations as opposed to action, it’s astonishing how gripping the story becomes. Having found himself involved in a number of amazing projects over the years, Greenwood–who also stars in FOX’s upcoming medical drama, The Resident–feels that it’s that quality of writing that helps him know that he’s found a great script.

“The first clue is that you want to turn the page,” he clarifies. “That was what was so remarkable about this is that, even though I
knew the story at large and what was going to happen at the end, I was fascinated at how [writers] Liz Hannah and Josh managed to pull together all these arguably dry details into something in which every character had a passionate point of view and was pursuing that point of view with everything they had. This could’ve been told half a dozen different ways and not been nearly as compelling but they have a gift for endowing characters with an emotional point of view while their giving you information that you might otherwise is just plain information.”

“I think the perfect example in this movie is when Sarah Paulson, who plays Ben Bradlee’s wife, tells him what bravery is and puts in in the context of all the things that Kay Graham was up against to be taken seriously and in order to be heard. That can be just information but it was anything but information. It was a passionate pan from a woman who ultimately left her husband, describing the station of women at that moment in our history.”

Of course, his role as McNamara is far from Greenwood’s first opportunity to bring a historical character to life onscreen. Having played such real-life characters as John F. Kennedy and Jack Dunphy, Greenwood recognizes the amount of collaborative work that goes into preparation for these roles.

“[I do] a lot of reading, watch a lot of film and I continued to read throughout the shoot,” he recalls. “Of course, when you get onto the set, everyone is infused with information from their own research. Then, you start cross-referencing quotes and people and points of view with the other people that have been working on the movie and have done equivalent amounts of research that have been focused on other things. So, the dialogue at work was constantly about ‘Oh, did you know this? Did you know that?’ There was a tremendous about of cross-referencing information between all the people working on the movie. Everybody, right from the top of the call sheet to the last on the list, was made to feel like we were doing something that had to be done and had to be done right now.”

Though re-creating a historical figure onscreen can be intimidating, he also claims that there is room for an actor to bring their own perspectives to the role as well.

Says Greenwood, “I don’t think you can help but bring your own perspectives into the performance and the idea of being able to recreate somebody in a whole way will drive you mad. I can only hope to find a couple of shapes and colours in the kaleidoscope of who they were and hope that that reflects something of who they were and what they represented. I will say that, while I was talking to Carl Bernstein last night that, unsolicited, he said that watching Meryl Streep was like being in a room with Kay Graham. Some actors can do that utterly. Other actors like myself can only attempt. She’s otherworldly.”

Although McNamara would be considered one of the ‘villains’ of The Post, Greenwood believes that, despite his wrongdoing, that he still is a good man overall.

“I think he made some profound mistakes and was profoundly misguided,” he feels. “His mea culpa at the end of his life doesn’t absolve him of his responsibility of what happened in the 60s in Vietnam. But, to impugn him as a man for his profound missteps, [is] not for me to say.”

 

The Post is in theatres now.

Filed Under: Film, Interviews, Oscar Spotlight, Podcast Tagged With: Bruce Greenwood, FOX, Meryl Streep, Robert McNamara, Steven Spielberg, The Post, The Resident, Tom Hanks

The Post – Releasing the Truth

January 11, 2018 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

“In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government’s power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government.” (Justice Hugo Black, The New York Times v. The United States)

Steven Spielberg’s The Post is not really about the Pentagon Papers, the leaked secret documents that showed that the American government had lied to the people through four administrations from Truman to Johnson. The publication of those documents in 1971 brought the freedom of the press into the nation’s consciousness. The Post is really about the courage that is sometimes needed to serve the public good and to make sure the government is serving the people.

The film is set at The Washington Post, a paper that aspired to national importance, but hadn’t quite achieved it. When the New York Times published the first stories about the Pentagon Papers, Post editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) sets his staff to work trying to find a way to get a copy. Soon, one of them tracks down Daniel Ellsberg, the former analyst who leaked the documents. After the Nixon Administration was granted an injunction against the Times to stop publication, Bradlee and his team begin to create their own stories. But it falls on publisher Katherine Graham (Meryl Streep) to make the decision—one that could lead to charges of contempt of court and treason.

Bradlee, in this film, is a stereotypical hard-nosed journalist. He is in search of the truth and believes that the truth needs to be known. We get the sense that he and his reporters would easily be willing to face prosecution over the truth and free press. But it is Graham who is the focus for the difficult decision. Katherine Graham became publisher after the suicide of her husband. The paper had been in her family for decades, but she hadn’t really been involved in it. She was a wife, mother, and social hostess in Washington. She is just beginning to establish herself as a business woman (and really not accepted by some on her board). This decision could have devastating consequences for the company—possibly destroying the paper her father and husband had cared so much about. As deadlines loom, legal issues arise, her various advisors give many opinions, her past friendships with people like the Kennedy’s Johnsons, and Robert McNamara weigh on her. But she must finally choose the road the paper will take.

Spielberg is not new to making historical films. (Previous films include The Empire of the Sun, Munich, Schindler’s List and Bridge of Spies). One of the hallmarks of such films is that they are less about the historical events than they are about the personal stories we are seeing. That is true of The Post. The relationship between Bradlee and Graham is one of respect. They each have different priorities. But they each take their responsibilities—to the paper, reporters, and the nation—seriously. As they face the challenge represented in the Pentagon Papers, they push one another, eventually finding ways to help each to reach their bests.

It’s hard to think of a time when a film that highlights the First Amendment is not timely, but it certainly seems especially so with this film. The adversary relationship between the press and government seems to have grown ever more forceful of late. When tweets take the place of serious discussion, the people are not well served. When an administration dismisses negative stories as “fake news”, the people are not served. When governments seek to hide important information, the people are not served. As journalism continues to evolve (and often devolve) in the information age, we need to be able to depend on a free press to (as Justice Black said) “remain forever free to censure the Government.”

Photos Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: based on actual events, Ben Bradlee, journalism, Katherine Graham, Meryl Streep, New York Times, Pentagon Papers, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Washington Post

Five Came Back – Hollywood Goes to War

May 17, 2017 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

For those who enjoy film, the names John Ford, Frank Capra, George Stevens, William Wyler, and John Huston will be familiar. All are Oscar-winning directors (with a total of 14 Oscars between them). They were also part of the World War II war effort as military filmmakers. Five Came Back is a three-part documentary about these five directors and how they used their filmmaking expertise during the war. The series is streaming on Netflix.

When the U.S. entered World War II after Pearl Harbor, there were many people who left their worlds of safety and comfort to fight in this war. These five filmmakers knew they had talents that could be of import to the war effort. Each volunteered and spent the war in uniform making films for the military. Each had different approaches to the task. For some it took them directly into battle—on Midway and at D-Day, or flying on bombers on combat missions. Others made films that helped American understand why this war had to be fought. But each found a way to serve their nation with the skills they had developed entertaining people with film. Some of their work was essentially newsreel material, often with a good dose of propaganda included. It served to bring the war back to Americans in such a way to keep morale high.

There are some big name directors of today who relate the stories of these earlier filmmakers: Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo del Toro, Paul Greenglass, and Laurence Kasdan. They understand how difficult it is to make films under the best of circumstances. They relate the hardships and trials (which included pushing to make the films their way) faced by the early group.

The series introduces us to their work before the war, but the bulk of the film focuses on their wartime work. It also shows us how this experience changed them. For example, George Stevens (who filmed D-Day and, eventually, the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp) was known mostly as a director of comedies before the war; after the war he never made another comedy (but some marvelous serious films).

This is an excellent piece of film history, plus a nice bit of the history of the Second World War as seen by these filmmakers. Netflix is also streaming some of the wartime films so that viewers can not only learn the story of these men, but also the stories they brought back with them. Among the ones I’ve added to my list on Netflix are: The Memphis Belle (Wyler), The Battle of Midway (Ford), The Negro Soldier (Capra), Know Your Enemy—Japan (Capra), and Let There Be Light (Huston).

29 Aug 1943, London, England, UK — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

Filed Under: Reviews, Television Tagged With: D-Day, documentary, Francis Ford Coppola, Frank Capra, George Stevens, Guillermo del Toro, Holocaust, John Ford, John Huston, Laurence Kasdan, Mark Harris, Meryl Streep, Netflix, Paul Greengrass, Steven Spielberg, William Wyler, World War II

the real problem with Streep’s Golden Globes speech

January 9, 2017 by Matt Hill 1 Comment

some say celebs like Streep
should keep
their political rants
off camera when at
a purportedly non-political party,
such as the Golden Globes

meh. i didn’t mind her
speaking her mind.

Trumpsters, i suppose,
(and he, himself,
if Twitter matters)
are troubled by her
oh-so-subtle-and-clever
naming-without-naming
takedown of the prez elect

nah. seemed accurate to me.

she also called for a
“principled press”

check. no argument here.

so what *was* the problem?
this:
“Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners. If you kick ’em all out, you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.”

um. okay…?

[full disclosure interlude:
i’m a football fan,
and (specifically) a
mixed martial arts (mma) fan;
in other words: i have a dog in this fight;
i’ve come to the defense of mma before
(here) and pretty much always will;
mma still needing a defense is
part of the issue, of course;
however, i feel like
i’d feel the same way –
i hope i would –
even if said dog
were not my dog]

on the surface,
throwaway ones though
they seem,
these lines of Streep’s
are plenty problematic . . .

(there are no
“outsiders and foreigners”
in football or mma?
(of course there are))

(mixed martial arts
and/or
football “are not the arts”?
like as in some privileged,
elitist, ultimately arbitrary
definition of “the arts”
that includes (presumably)
cinema, but not sport?
says who? you?
or as in
“mixed martial arts is not art”?
says who? you?
i shudder to imagine
today’s mixed martial artists
or Bruce Lee
or 1,000 years of Shaolin monks
being told that their
arts are not art;
i’m saddened that someone
could watch what these
artists can do with their bodies
and not see it as art)

one level down,
the problem intensifies . . .
consider the tone:

what’s it sound like to you?
to me it sounds like disdain.
dismissal.
scoffery.
judgment in general.

this seems plainly problematic to me,
but again it intensifies
when the full speech
is considered;
particularly this tidbit:

“And this instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.”

now i know that these lines,
in context,
were part of the
(justified) Trump takedown;
and i know,
regarding the earlier lines,
that her carefully coded target
(also problematic), really,
was red state, republican,
uneducated, tea party, Trump voting
“white trash” . . .
you know: folks who also
watch Nascar maybe,
and probably listen to “country music”
and almost certainly
“cling to guns and religion”

but . . .
setting that aside . . .

i feel like Meryl Streep
attempted to
*humiliate* and
*bully* and
*disrespect*
any and all
footballers and/or mixed martial artists,
their fans, their respective
histories, cultures, etc. etc.

didn’t she?
i know i personally
felt that way, personally

and didn’t she just say
not to do that,
(from her
powerful public platform)?

this, to me,
was the real problem
with her speech:
the old
speck-and-plank problem;
that old problem where we all
want others to
do as we say not as we do,
where we’re all
hypocrites (Greek origin of the word: actor),
we all
love double standards,
we all
inhabit glass houses,
we all
fail and then fail by
telling others to not fail

you know: this one:

 

and even though
this Austin Powers joke is hilarious
(one of my faves),
and even though Jesus,
when he first told the
speck-and-plank story (here),
was intentionally being
funny via hyperbole,
really,
hypocrisy and double standards
aren’t funny, and constituted
the real problem
with Streep’s speech,
and constitute part of
a real potential problem
for humans in general:
that whenever we talk about others,
we also talk about ourselves

you know what else
Streep said in that speech? this:
“An actor’s only job is to enter the lives of people who are different from us and let you feel what that feels like.”

yes.
yes, indeed.
a good thing
to aspire to for
any human,
actor or otherwise;
albeit difficult;
unfortunately,
demonstrably so
in this case

Filed Under: Current Events, Editorial Tagged With: award, Football, Golden Globes, Meryl Streep, MMA, speech, Trump

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