Polar Vortex

Severe, certainly
but denizens
of the middle west
are not alien
to winter's teeth
and as the city
slows, then stops
there is no surprise
or fear
only dogged preparation
and tacit
camaraderie
followed by
a resigned patience
for the inevitable
melt.

Cough Drop Lady

First off
I'm sorry
for coughing so much
in our crowded train
not the best way
to start the work day
for either of us

Secondly
thank you
for the cough drop
all the other commuters
ignored my mild suffering
and you helped
for which I'm grateful.

'Glass' A Review

Glass is a superhero thriller the completion of the M. Night Shyamalan trilogy preceded by Unbreakable, and Split. The Horde(James McAvoy) has captured four cheerleaders and David Dunn(Bruce Willis) and his son Joseph(Spencer Treat Clark) are on his trail. When the two come into confrontation the cops and psychiatrist Dr. Staple(Sarah Paulson) capture them. They are locked up in a mental institution along with Mr. Glass(Samuel L. Jackson). Dr. Staple attempts to convince them they are not superhuman beings and are merely suffering various delusions. The three conspire to break out and show the world that they are real.

The titular character played by Jackson is one of the most compelling but is given exceedingly little to do spending the majority of the run time in a catatonic state. When Jackson is actually allowed to act he gives a couple tantalizing monologues but is starkly underutilized. Willis continues his decade long streak of minimal to no effort in the acting department, he is so vacant and reserved he is barely doing anything. McAvoy continues his energetic versatile performance from Split but the story is so much more muddled and disparate it isn't as effective as the first go-around. Paulson is criminally used, her sole purpose is as a conduit for exposition. The cast is stacked with some incredible actors but they are given little coherent to actually do, the story is more concerned with its own convoluted machinations than investigating the interesting characters that inhabit it.

Visually the film has some interesting set-piece moments but, as with the narrative, has little coherence. There is no universal color palate like there is in some of Shyamalan's earlier more successful work and as a result the cinematography is ultimately relatively pedestrian. There are a number of POV shots from various characters, which is at least, kind of unique, but they are relatively unmotivated and happen so often their impact fails.

There are some intriguing moments, some funny moments, and it is pleasing to see the various characters again but after the promising Split this seems to be unfortunately a return to form for Shyamalan's later work- muddy, boring, and clueless. For a filmmaker who began with such success and promise who then spent a deserved time in the cinematic dog house its kind of astonishing who colossal a missed opportunity Glass turned out to be.

Stream It.

Top 5 Movies Of 2018

Top 5:
BlacKkKlansman
Eight Grade
Minding The Gap
Roma
Tully

Honorable Mentions:
Black Panther
Cold War
Crazy Rich Asians
Game Night
Leaning Into The Wind
Leave No Trace
Mandy
Three Identical Strangers
Thoroughbreds
You Were Never Really Here

Top 5 Disappointments:
Damsel
Hereditary
The King
Mute
A Wrinkle In Time

Most Underrated:
Upgrade

Most Overrated:
A Star Is Born

Worst Movies Of The Year:
Susperia
The Mule

Performances Of The Year:
Olivia Coleman & Rachel Weisz, The Favourite
Regina Hall, Support The Girls
Joaquin Phoenix, You Were Never Really Here
Charlize Theron, Tully
John David Washington, BlacKkKlansman

Scenes Of The Year:
Birth of a Nation/Harry Belafonte crosscut, BlacKkKlansman
Theological discussion, First Reformed
Bathroom freak out, Mandy
Unbroken-take car-ride, Widows
Mr. Rogers testimony, Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Blood Will Tell

Shoulders slumped
feet a-shuffle
head bowed
bodies huddled

Winter's bite
brings misery
the season's cold
a treachery

But the chill is in
my blood and bone
born and raised
with sleet and snow

Trying it can be
pitted against the freeze
with only will and serenity
yearning for Summer's ease

But I'd never trade
long Winter's night
or the glare
of frost burned white.

'Cold War' A Review

Cold War is a drama shot in black and white set in post-war Poland about the love affair between two musicians Wiktor(Tomasz Kot) and Zula(Joanna Kulig) whose relationship starts off as student and teacher but then grows into a bizarre and contentious years-spanning love affair. The film begins in 1949 as Wiktor and partner Irena(Agata Kulesza) roam the country side recording folk music in preparation for starting an elite music school celebrating and preserving Polish culture, of which Zula is a student. The communist party co-ops the school for propaganda purposes and the two separate beginning a decade of emotional infatuation, neglect, and destruction.

Kot and Kulig have incredible chemistry and effortless play out this complicated, compelling, and frankly lunatic relationship believably over the course of almost twenty years. Kot is the more understated, quiet, seething, alternatively miserable and elated. Kulig has the showery role, the more difficult, and she throws herself into the extremes and irrationalities with abandon and a courageous allure. The supporting cast are all pitch perfect and unilaterally lean in to individual peculiarities making the story which may seem pedestrian on paper come to life in delicious and exceedingly strange ways.

Writer/director Paweł Pawlikowski follows 2013's incredible Ida with this equally astonishing film. The luscious and stark black and white cinematography create a livid and memorizing back drop for this decades spanning romantic struggle. The brief running time and sharp, immaculate editing waste no time in propelling us forward in time and through the story dropping us into scenes and trusting the audience to infer the necessary information which, oddly, draws you even more fully into the already engaging film.

A lively, mystifying, and utterly engrossing "love" story. Reminiscent of Unbearable Lightness of Being but like actually good.

Don't Miss It.

'If Beale Street Could Talk' A Review

If Beale Street Could Talk is a period drama adapted from the book of the same name by James Baldwin. The film unfolds in a non-linear structure and opens on Tish(KiKi Layne) telling her family that she's pregnant with her childhood friend and lover Fonny's(Stephan James) baby. The news is complicated by the fact he's wrongfully incarcerated. The film then cuts back and forth in time showing the main couples love affair as well as the family's attempts at Fonny's exoneration.

The supporting cast are all incredible Regina King and Colman Domingo as Tish's parents are particularly mesmerizing. Giving nuanced, grounded, emotive performance in the brief flashes we get of them. Brian Tyree Henry also, in virtually only one scene, manages to make a significant impact on the film. The opening scene with both Tish's and Fonny's family is totally electric and raises the bar high for the film which is never able to get back to the level of engagement. Unfortunately both Layne and James either don't achieve or aren't given much in the way of character development. They are mostly blank ciphers for the protracted close ups and the long, wistful, overly scored scenes in which they inhabit. The are more a romantic idea of a fated couple in love rather than actual characters, there performances are more lyrical than emotional and as such they don't necessarily evoke the required empathy that the story needs to sustain itself. The most engaging scenes are almost all ones they are not in.

The non-linear structure is a good device but at this point, since it's arguable advent in 1994's Pulp Fiction, it is no longer new and doesn't have the automatic attraction it once did. Does it fail? No. But it doesn't really bring extra to the film. The voiceover, presumably a way to incorporate the source material, is dissonant as is the real-world stills that occasionally accompany it. They distract rather than enhance a story that doesn't need them. If Layne and Fonny were allowed to act, if we could see scenes of their families living their lives, the expositional and historical information provided in the VO would be inferred more authoritatively and with more elegance. The score, unquestionably gorgeous, is to ever-present. It pounds when it should creep, blasts when it should seethe. It also, at times, takes away from the job the performers are already expertly doing.

Writer/Director Barry Jenkins sophomore feature is unquestionably a competent and worthwhile film however it seems to have less confidence in itself and with its audience than did the totally assured and harmonious Moonlight. Perhaps some of the discord is a result of the adaptation process, attempting to adhere too close to or go too far from the source material. There are some amazingly composed shots and a handful of masterfully acted moving scenes but the sum doesn't quite add up to a coherent whole.

Flawed but ambitious, beautiful but somewhat underwhelming.

Rent It.