Ethiopian Food

spongy soft
and slightly sour-
the bread is the base
for the dining hour

creamy curries
simmering stews
stuffed with spice
delight the chew

fingers are fine
to slurp and shovel
a satisfied stomach
brooks no rebuttal

Better To Give

The saying "it is better to give than to receive" is so old and oft repeated it has almost lost its meaning. But with most platitudes and cliches there is truth in it. Because the reality is that with giving(whether it be emotional, chronological, or material) there is a reciprocation involved. Doing something for someone else(be it buying something, preparing a meal, what-have-you) gives you satisfaction, gives you purpose. There is an interchange there of feeling that simply receiving an object doesn't provide. Because when we are giving to others, being of service, it is enriching for us. It makes us feel good. It reminds us we are not all important, all knowing, or particularly unique. We all have needs. We are one of many. We are not alone.

This holiday was a bit more unusual than years past for me and my family. My dad got in a car accident on Tuesday(not his fault, someone blew a red light), which resulted in a cracked rib. He's recovering but, quiet reasonably, wasn't up to doing much over the holiday. My 5 month old niece is teething and subsequently my sister and brother-in-law have been run a bit ragged. All this taken together my mother and I were the ones that did a fair amount of the cooking, cleaning, and decorating for the holiday. With five people, a baby, and a dog that's not nothing.

Not to say I was put upon just that it was proportionally more work for me than in years past, work I was happy even grateful to do, it got me thinking and put some things in perspective. It made me realize how much my parents do around the holiday(and did in general when we were growing up), the kind of energy all the minutia takes. Now, as an adult myself and with my parents not old but aging, I realize its time perhaps for me to contribute a bit more substantially when it comes to the more basic stuff. And I'm not talking anything grandiose I'm talking making sandwiches and scrubbing sinks, that kind of thing. And doing those various things over the holidays made me feel good, made me feel like all those years my folks and sister were taking care of things I now have an opportunity to pay it back a little. Take care of my family, in small ways, as they've taken care of me for so long.

This is all to say it was a good holiday, perhaps more challenging than usual but good. I had the opportunity to step up in a substantial way, maybe for the first time, and I did. It's always great to spend time with family, double so if you can contribute to the well being of it, however slight. Because when you are of service, when you share of your time and energy, it almost always comes back. Today I offer help, tomorrow I'll probably need it.

'The Fits' A Review

The Fits is a a coming-of-age drama about Toni, an eleven-year-old who trains with her brother at a boxing gym in the local community center. After watching the girls' dance team rehearse she reluctantly decides to join. Toni(Royalty Hightower) is quietly torn between boxing and the comfortable and companionable world of her brother and his friends and the more alluring, complicated, confusing dynamics of the girls and young women of the dance team. The situation becomes even more complicated when older members of the dance team begin to have inexplicable violent fits.

Hightower gives an incredible subtle performance, quiet but rich with emotion and subtext. The supporting cast full of mostly unknowns all give remarkably poised and engaging turns, conveying a solidity and authenticity that give the story striking, seemingly effortless, depth.

Visually the film has the potential to be mundane, its just a community center in a city, but the weather seems perpetually overcast, the interiors strangely shadowed. The cinematography evokes not only the uncertainty of youth but an eerie sense of precarious foreboding. The score helps to elevate the routine to the uncanny in a way that singularly captures adolescence.

A fresh and beguiling take on a familiar subject.

See It.

Paranoia

It can be infectious.

Our neighbor
in the wake
of our post-Thanksgiving
burglary
has become increasingly
fearful
of innocuous
pedestrians
and comes knocking
jittery and wary
to warn,
her panic
contagious.

And so
in preparation
for Xmas travel
I stash valuables
in nooks and crannies
at the back of drawers
draped in laundry
and in the toolbox
in hopes of foiling
wouldbe
holiday hooligans.

Best to be prepared, some say.
Better still to live fearless.
Burglars and robbers be damned.
For, terrified or tranquil, the winds of winter blow.

'Rogue One' A Review

Rogue One is a scifi action movie, the first stand alone feature in the Star Wars universe, that follows the theft of the Death Star plans as referenced in 1977's A New Hope. The film opens on Jyn Erso as a child hiding out on a mostly deserted planet with her parents. Empire soldiers come and take her father away as it turns out he was a defector and former chief engineer of the in-construction Death Star. Jyn is taken in by family friend Saw Gerrera(Forest Whitaker). Years pass. Jyn(Felicty Jones) now an adult is an Empire prisoner and is rescued and recruited by the Rebellion. Jyn teams up with Cassian Andor(Diego Luna), his wise-cracking droid K-2SO(Alan Tudyk), and later Chirrut Îmwe(Donnie Yen) and Baze Malbus(Jiang Wen) as they slink and battle their way in opposition to the Empire.

The cast boasts astounding talents with the bulk of the film falling on Jones and to a lesser extent Luna, both who give engaging intense performances, but are prevented by time and narrative from being especially layered. Tudyk provides some much needed snarky charm and both Yen and Wen give the film the series' customary(and necessary)mystery and mysticism. The film is thick with talented actors who are all pleasing to watch but the focus is more on the spectacle and the plot. There is some character development and some moments of emotional depth but the momentum of the story propels us past any potential meditations on identity. Which is all well and good. It's not a character study but a war/heist film set in a galaxy far  far away and succeeds as such.

Visually the film is dark, foreboding, and rich. We are given a glimpse of the dirt and muck and toil of the war we have previously only seen waged on metallic walkways or in the forests of Endor. Both visually and sonically the tone is dark and evocative punctuated by moments of despair and doom as well as rapturous courage and resigned sacrifice. The battles are intricate and sweeping, all the new worlds and cultures we are shown- rich. Rogue One expands and augments the world building of Star Wars in a most satisfying way.

Combo war epic and tight heist thriller, the first standalone Star Wars movie delivers but leaves you wanting a bit more.

See It. 

'Jackie' A Review

Jackie is a biopic about first lady Jackie Kennedy,(Natalie Portman) her time in the White House and the days in the wake of JFK's assassination. The film uses Theodore H. White's(Billy Crudup) Life magazine interview as the spine of the narrative which it flashes back from.

Portman gives an incredible performance, strong and captivating, at times impressionistic. A real power house turn. As the film is mostly about style and tone heightened by immaculate costume design, cinematography, and uncanny score all revolving around Portman's titular Jackie the supporting cast doesn't have much to do. They are all serviceable but they have, justly, little focus. Peter Sarsgaard as Bobby, Greta Gerwig as Nancy Tuckerman, John Hurt in the somewhat befuddling role of Father Richard McSorley, and Crudup, all great actors, all function as foils for Portman rather than fully flushed out characters. And given how dynamic Portman is that's not really a problem.

All the design elements create an ethereal almost abstract feel and this is incredibly successful for the majority of the film but it either over stays its welcome or fails to sustain its eerie magnetism. Either way the film loses its footing in the third act, meandering when it should be definitive, protracting sequences which should be crisp. The film, essentially, ends multiple times but then circles back for another five minutes of obliqueness repeatedly which only serve to detract from the impressive work already done.

A provocative engaging production design paired with an evocative lead are marred by a failure to finish.

Rent It.

'La La Land' A Review

La La Land is a musical romance about two aspiring artists Mia(Emma Stone) and Sebastian(Ryan Gosling) who have a handful of chance encounters before they begin dating. Mia struggles to get her acting career off the ground and Sebastian bums around as a jazz musician. There's singing and dancing and a dating montage. Mia, frustrated with auditioning without booking anything and under Sebastian's encouragement writes a one woman show. Sebastian, after overhearing a conversation Mia has with her mother decides to go legit and join a friend in a modern jazz fusion band. Their divergent paths cause a rift in their relationship. Will their relationship survive their artistic ennui?

Gosling and Stone bring their considerable charm and chemistry to bear and although their voices and dancing are proficient they are far short of dazzling. Their strength is their acting and there are few scenes where they are allowed to do so. There are a few numbers where they hit a certain grace and resonance but it is momentary and bookended by lackluster competence. There are some great people in the supporting cast but they don't have much to do. John Legend, J.K. Simmons, and Rosemarie DeWitt are particularly wasted.

The film certainly has a lot of style, impressive camera work and vibrant colors, but it lacks any semblance of substance. The leads are not only two thin, attractive, privilaged, incomprehensibly economically stable individuals that achieve their dreams with little to no adversity they display almost no personality until the film's third act. We virtually know nothing about who these people are until the film is almost over. Despite the best efforts of the actors the characters are simple flat sketches in place so that they can sing and dance rather than singing and dancing for any actual emotional purpose. If there's any comment or message on romance, Hollywood, ambition, artistic integrity, it is muddled to the point of being lost.

Superficially entertaining. A throwback that doesn't have the performative finesse of its inspiration or the character complexity of the contemporary.

Don't See It.