Movie Review - Argo

Argo - (2012) - Based (somewhat loosely) on the rescue of six Americans that escaped from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran at the beginning of the Iranian Hostage Crisis in 1980.  A plan to get them out under cover of a fake movie company working on a movie called "Argo".  The question is always will they escaped before the Iranians unravel the story?

Three Academy Awards, two Golden Globes, a Screen Actors Guild Award, the accolades are pretty impressive for this one.  And with good reason.  This is a great thriller.  It has all the tension you could want.  Ben Affleck plays the American extraction expert Tony Mendez who will have to go into Iran and pull off the deception.  The six in hiding aren't all convinced that this is a good idea which raises the stakes even higher.  All it will take is one slip and they will all go down.  Iran at that moment in time bore entirely too many similarities to the Reign of Terror that followed the French Revolution.  It's a great set up for the story.

It's also one of those places where you need to divide fact from fiction.  The screenplay takes some serious liberties with the truth.  (It also takes quite a few minor liberties but that's normal.  You need to move things around sometimes for movie story telling.  I have no trouble with that at all).  The worst is downplaying the role of the Canadian Embassy in the rescue.  President Carter has been quoted as saying "90%" of the idea behind the rescue was Canadian.  And while the real Tony Mendez did do the extraction he was in Tehran for a grand total of a day and a half.  Affleck tries to make up for the snub of the real heroes behind the  rescue with a post-script on the movie but it comes off flat.  That's unfortunate.  It reinforces the perception in parts of the world that Americans are self centered egotists who need to hold the spotlight at all times.

That to one side - it's a lot of fun to watch.

Rating - **** Recommended (but read the history afterwards)

Movie Review - Beasts of the Southern Wild

Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) The fantastical story of a six year old girl living at the edges of the world along the coast of Louisiana.  Alone with her father they face the trials of his failing health and a storm surge that wipes out their community.  For Hushpuppy her father's health and the rising ocean levels become linked and she struggles with the belief that she has somehow broken the world.

From the very first moment of the movie you know this is not going to be like every other movie you've ever seen.  The six year old is our guide and narrator (played by FIVE year old Quvenzhane Willis) and the vision we get is filled with imagination and fears of a child.  Her dreams are haunted by fierce "aurochs" (aurochs were the forerunners of modern cattle but in Hushpuppy's vision they are horned, pig-like creatures  that kill the weak) and the voice of her missing mother. She holds animals (and the occasional human) to her ear to hear what they're saying.  She is ferocious in the pursuit of what she needs.  Raised to be independent in many ways far beyond her years Hushpuppy doesn't recognize that she's too little to get what she wants.

Hushpuppy's world is one of secrets and mystery and wonder.  Willis is ferocious as Hushpuppy.  This is her movie completely and utterly.  It is a truly astounding journey.

Rating - ***** Must See

Squirrels, The Past is the Future and What is Privacy?

 "The View From the Phlipside" is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY.  It can be heard Monday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM.  The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program.  Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice.  WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed.  You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com.  Copyright 2013 by Jay Phillippi.  All Rights Reserved.  You like what you see?  Drop me a line and we can talk.

Program scripts from week of December 8, 2013


My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside. 

What is Privacy?                                                                                               

I was going to start this program by saying we were “returning” to the subject of online privacy but in reality it’s a topic that hasn’t ever really gone away.  Concerns about our personal information range from the mundane worry about identity theft to the far more esoteric visions of Big Brother and the NSA looking over our shoulders monitoring everything we say, do or share online.

So let’s say that it has just bubbled back up to the surface once again. You’ve probably heard the story about so many of the big players in digital communication coming together to protest and push back on the NSA’s work online.  Microsoft, Apple, Twitter, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn and AOL have sent a letter to the President and Congress outlining their grave concerns about the threat to individual liberties and the American business interests.  It’s a fairly impressive grouping if only because most of those companies spend every waking hour plotting against one another.

Microsoft has gone even farther to protect its business interests.  One of the concerns about the latest push for American based Internet security measures is that the U.S. government may use those laws to seize information belonging to foreign companies.  The folks out in Redmond, Washington have issued a very clear statement that they would fight any such attempt.

I am not casting aspersions on the patriotic intentions of these companies but don’t underestimate the importance of the business angle to them.  American companies have enormous investments all around the world.  A serious attack on the privacy of those services would be a potentially crippling blow to the U.S. economy.

At the same time it doesn’t hurt to think about some more mundane potential infringements.  Recent stories are showing a serious backlash against the Google Glass technology.  Suddenly people are realizing that the person sitting across the room from them could be recording everything that is said and done there.  Another story shows that intelligence agencies have been monitoring online gaming sites like World of Warcraft.

Privacy was actually much easier to maintain when more of our lives were actually private.  As our lives are lived more and more in the digital community privacy becomes a far more elusive commodity.

In fact it may be time to reconsider the entire question of just what we mean by and want from,  when it comes to privacy.

Whither Microsoft?                                                                                                 

I had a moment of real nostalgia last week.  For the first time in quite a while I actually sat down and read a newspaper.  Once upon a time reading the paper or several papers was an everyday routine.  I couldn’t wait to get the morning paper.  Sometimes the news department had to come stomping into the studio and reclaim it because they weren’t done with it.  As a pure information junkie I can get my hunger satisfied from lots of sources these days.  But there is something about the experience of sitting down with a newspaper that I truly miss.  The routines of how you read it (I was a back to front guy), how you fold it while you read it, all those things.  Sitting waiting for an order to be filled was a real joy with a newspaper in hand.

It’s interesting that the latest development in the ongoing struggle of the newspaper industry to come to grips with life online is to recognize that there is something to be retained from those traditions.  The New York Times has just released it’s latest update of its “Today’s Paper” app for tablet and desktop.  They looked at what the users of the earlier versions used most commonly.  To the surprise of some folks it was the “Today’s Paper” section.  Surprising because it was the part of the earlier app that is the most like an old fashion newspaper.  The layout is designed to look like a newspaper.  Everything is laid out just they way it would be in the print version of The Grey Lady.

I always find it funny when I hear modern information snobs sneer at the newspaper.  The reality is that the newspaper is just the precursor to the modern aggregator website.  Certainly the customization options were very limited but then you also had the expertise of professional journalist searching all the news of the world.  A newspaper is just that, a news aggregating operation.  They gather together all kinds of stories from many different sources.  Today many of us think we’re better at picking the news we want to see.  But the failure of that system is right there in that last sentence.  You only see the news you want to see.  

I find a lot of the current generation of news source web pages cluttered and annoying.  Maybe the folks at the New York Times are onto something by going old school.

Squirrels!                                                                                                                   

So can someone out there explain the squirrels to me?  All of a sudden I turn on my TV and it’s squirrels as far as the eye can see.  Not cute little, furry Squirrel Nutkin kind of squirrels.  Mostly evil, weird, aggressive, dangerous ones.

It started with coupon clipping squirrels.  A husband has trained squirrels to help his family save money.  Instead they rise revolt against a life of clipping servitude (and really who can blame them?) and attack the husband.  All of this is supposed to make you want to shop at Sears.  I’m still working on that one.

Then we move on to the man attacked by squirrels in the park.  When suddenly surrounded by an entire squirrelly gang intent on doing him violence our hero in this one attempts to talk his way out of trouble.  Surprisingly the squirrels do not respond to commands and, you guessed it, attack him.  The flipside, you should pardon the expression, of this campaign shows the same guy sitting peacefully on his couch giving verbal instructions to his Direct-TV set finding nice movies for his children to watch.

The third ad that has a decidedly less violent squirrel presence but it’s no less creepy.  A lady flying on a plane is suffering from some sort of intestinal distress.  At which point the seat tray in front of her swings open to display a secret compartment.  It contains the new travel version of Pepto Bismol and...a squirrel.  This squirrel gets all inappropriately snuggly with the woman as it pitches the advantages of a little Pepto on the road.

At the end of all this my question is simple?  Whose stupid idea are these ads?  What’s the message I’m supposed to take away from this?  All of these animals are just flat out scary.  There’s no cute here, there’s no funny here, there’s just the stuff of childhood nightmares.
The part that’s really interesting is - did three different ad agencies come up with the same idea or has one agency made a major investment in these little animatronic squirrels and is pushing it on all their customers?  Of course in the end someone at each one of the sponsors had to approve the campaign.  So there’s actually a whole bunch of people who think that weird, dangerous, aggressive, creepy squirrels are a winning approach to selling stuff.

And that’s just nuts.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

Movie Review - "42"

"42" (2013) -  The story of the player that broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball.  Jackie Robinson was chosen by Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Bra.nch Rickey as the player with both the skill and the strength of character to make history.

Jackie Robinson's story is one of the amazing tales in the world of sports.  Rickey (played by Harrison Ford) decided to take on the unwritten rule that black players were not permitted in the Majors.  Robinson (played by Chadwick Boseman) faced an astounding challenge with virtually no support system.  The movie does a wonderful job of walking through the issues that surrounded this moment in history.  Good writing, acting, and directing.  Nothing gets in the way of the story.

There is one unfortunate historical goof.  Much is made of the conflict between Robinson and a Pirate pitcher named Fritz Ostermueller.  In the movie he hits Robinson in the head.  It never happened in real life and it's unfortunate that they tagged him with a particularly nasty moment.

There's one final reason why this movie is great.  Prior to "42" the baseball movie with the highest opening weekend gross receipts was a movie called "The Benchwarmers".  Astoundingly this Rob Schneider/David Spade movie held the record at over 19 million dollars.  Perhaps even more astounding is the fact that this bad movie (I have I seen the movie?  No.  How do I know it's a bad movie?  It's a Rob Schneider movie.  Case closed.) finished the year as the #52 movie gross of 2006 with 59 million dollars.  How is it that no other real baseball movie managed a better opening weekend than this one?  "Moneyball" just missed.  "The Benchwarmers" out grossed "The Natural", "Bull Durham", "Major League" and "Eight Men Out" among others.  That's just so wrong.  Thank God for "42".

This is a really outstanding movie.

Rating - **** Recommended

On Death and Dying, Whither Microsoft, Celebrity Endorsers

 "The View From the Phlipside" is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY.  It can be heard Monday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM.  The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program.  Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice.  WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed.  You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com.  Copyright 2013 by Jay Phillippi.  All Rights Reserved.  You like what you see?  Drop me a line and we can talk.

Program scripts from week of December 1, 2013


My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside. 

Celebrity Endorsers                                                                                               

It was just about a month ago that I commented on a couple of commercials that I really liked.  That included two tequila commercials involving Ray Liotta and Kiefer Sutherland.  I haven’t changed my mind about them but I have done a little more thinking about the genre of commercials.  Specifically the celebrity endorsement.

What really got me going was someone noting that since the Ron Burgundy character started touting the Dodge brand (or Yodge as Ron calls them) sales of certain models have jumped by nearly 60%.

All because a FICTIONAL character endorsed them.  A fictional character who, let’s be honest, is more than a bit of an idiot.

So what I’m really thinking about when it comes to celebrity endorsements is - Why do we care?

Honestly, why would having Ray Liotta be the front man for an adult beverage, or any product, make a difference to us?  Most of us are smart enough to know that we’re supposed to think that if we use that product we’ll be as cool or sexy or smart or good looking as the celebrity in the ad.  But we don’t seriously BELIEVE that, do we?

For the record, there is nothing you or I can do to be as cool as Ray Liotta.  Nothing.

It doesn’t matter what car you drive, toothpaste you use, adult beverage you consume.  It won’t make you anything that you aren’t already.  But they keep trotting out celebrity endorser after celebrity endorser.  I have to believe they do it because we keep buying it.  And that’s really kind of sad.

It’s sad because these endorsers aren’t any smarter than we are.  Most of them aren’t even better looking than we are.  Trust me, if you had a team of experts making you over you’d look great too.  In fact this is mostly about money.  Pay the price and get the celebrity of choice pumping your product.  Stop paying and they won’t mention your product or service again.

Seriously people, you’d buy a truck because Ron Burgundy told you to buy a “Yodge”?

Really?

Whither Microsoft?                                                                                                 

Finding Steve Ballmer’s replacement at Microsoft isn’t quite the corporate culture shifting mega-deal that finding the new guiding visionary to replace Steve Jobs at Apple is but it’s just part of the big changes that could be bubbling under the surface out in Redmond Washington.

As much as folks like Google would like to believe that they are truly in the running to be the “big dog” of the digital world it’s hard to say anyone has surpassed Microsoft at the top of the heap.  Just think about the number of computers running the Windows operating system which is approximately 90% of all the personal computers in the world, then add in the alleged one billion users of Microsoft’s Office suite and I’m not sure anyone has any more claim to being the 900 pound gorilla in the room.  Toss in fun little things like the Xbox and suddenly Microsoft looms large.

So when one of the founders of Microsoft starts talking about breaking up the monster we should probably all perk up our ears.  Paul Allen, who founded the company with Bill Gates, is now talking about just that.  Allen says that Microsoft should spin off products like Xbox because they are not the core of the business.  Billions of dollars could be suddenly brought into play by turning Xbox and the search engine “Bing” (and it’s advertising revenues) over to new corporate ownership.  That would allow Microsoft to focus on what it’s always done.  There’s still tons of money to be made on operating systems (even if the percentage of new computers running some version of Windows has declined each of the last several years) and on what’s called “enterprise” software.  That’s software aimed at corporate or large organization users in simplest terms.

Now I’m the last person to be offering business advice to anyone, let alone a multi-national corporation, but I suppose that it makes sense at the surface level.  

At the same time the real experts in this field seem to feel that the days of the classic software based computer program is rapidly coming to a close.  Add in that a larger percentage of even that business has been shifting to open source software and suddenly the decision looks less logical.  Why cut loose divisions that continue to make money so you can focus on the one that probably can see the end of the road?

It will be interesting to see what direction the new top dogs at both Apple and Microsoft intend to take these two titans of the digital world.

On Death and Dying                                                                                                                   

When I first thought about discussing the death of TV character Brian Griffin and the furor that followed I was planning on sending an order down to the Department of Snark for a little extra this.  As I’ve spent some time thinking about the death of characters on television I’ve found myself on the other side of the issue.

Brian Griffin, in case the name means nothing to you, was the talking dog character on the Fox Network’s modestly successful animated show “Family Guy”.  He was hit by a car and killed last week.  The fandom went nuts the following day.  Now I’ve never watched “Family Guy” but it seemed a little over the top to me.

Then I started thinking about the death of TV characters over the years.  There are three primary reasons for characters to die.  The first is that the actor who played the character actually dies.  Thus, “Sesame Street” had to deal with the death of Mr. Hooper or when “NewsRadio” had to deal with the death of Bill McNeal when actor Phil Hartman died.  The second reason is when the actor gets into a fight with the producers.  Most recently we saw the death of Charlie Harper on “Two and A Half Men” when Charlie Sheen went all, well, Charlie Sheen a couple years ago.  Killing off a star would seem to be a tough decision but it’s been done before.  In 1987 Valerie Harper was fired from the show that bore her name and her character was killed after a hold out over salary.  Got to wonder if the name Harper is jinxed.

Of course the final reason to kill a character off is as part of the story.  Edith Bunker died on “Archie’s Place”,  Chuckles the Clown died on the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” resulting in one of the funniest episodes of all time.  Dan Connor died on “Roseanne”, Susan Ross died on “Seinfeld”, Bobby Ewing died on “Dallas”.  Ok, maybe that’s not a good example.

The ultimate character death for me though is Henry Blake on “M*A*S*H”.  The story goes that the cast was not told what the closing dialogue was going to be.  So when Walter Burghoff’s character “Radar” O’Reilly makes the fateful announcement in the operating room the shock on the face of the cast isn’t acting.  It’s a powerful moment.

So since a tear forms for me every time I see that episode I don’t suppose I have any room to criticize fans of “Family Guy”.

Tell me when Brian’s wake is and I’ll come and raise a glass in his memory.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

Movie Review - Life of Pi

Life of Pi (2012) - A young man is shipwrecked in the Pacific and has to find a way to survive on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger.  The story is told in flashback by the adult Pi to an interested writer.

This is one of those movies that I really wish I could have seen on the big screen.  The visuals on this one are just stunning.  When the backdrop for your action is the sky and ocean in the mid Pacific the grandeur is pretty epic.  The CGI tiger is actually pretty amazing as well.  Director Ang Lee makes the most of the visuals he's given.  The bulk of the move falls onto the shoulders of Suraj Sharma who does most of his acting with a computer generated co-worker.

The obvious parallel here is Tom Hanks's 2000 film "Castaway".  It is the story of a solitary man trying to survive.  The major difference is that Wilson wasn't to kill and eat Hanks's character.  This is a much more mystical story than "Castaway".  With that fantastical element included Lee can take us to wonderful and surprising places.

I wasn't anticipating the very strong spiritual aspect of the story.  Pi's journey through life is in search of his personal relationship with the Divine.  He experiences the Hinduism of his native land along with Christianity, Islam and the rational atheism of his father.  The story never becomes preachy but it gives the story telling another, mystical avenue for the story of Pi.

An amazing fantasy tail and visually stunning.

Rating- **** Recommended