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International Women's Day! Films reviewed: True Mothers, The World to Come, My Salinger Year
Posted in 1800s, 1990s, Adoption, Family, J.D. Salinger, Japan, LGBT, New York City, Romance, Women by CulturalMining.com on March 5, 2021
https://danielgarber.files.wordpress.com/2021/03/garber-march-5-21-review.mp3Monday is International Women's Day, so this week I'm looking at three new movies that celebrate women. There's a woman who encounters her adopted son's birth mother; an aspiring writer in 1990s Manhattan; and two women in 19th century, upstate New York.
Wri/Dir: Naomi Kawase
Satoko (Hiromi Nagasaku) is a married professional woman in Western Japan. She and her husband enjoy their kids-free lifestyle — fine dining, travel, and a high-rise luxury condo. But they long for a family of their own, and so far, it isn't working., despite various medical interventions. Then one day on a talk show they see a woman telling about her organization. It's called Baby Baton because the infant is passed on like a baton from the birth mother to its new parents. Adoptees have to pass rigorous requirements, including that one parent must quit their job and become a full-time house parent. Unsurprisingly, Satoko takes that role. And they bring home the newborn baby of a 14-year-old junior high girl named Hikari (Aju Makita). That was five years ago. Now they are devoted to their adorable adopted son, Asato. But their world is turned upside down by a knock on the door by a woman who claims to be the boy's mother. And, she says, she wants him back.
True Mothers is a touching intimate story of two women's lives. The movie is divided in half, The first part is all about Satoko and her husband and son, the trials and tribulations of raising a child. The second half is about Hikari the birth mother, and her life since giving up the baby. It explores her time on a misty remote island off Hiroshima (at the Baby Baton headquarters), where she spends the final months of her pregnancy, but also the dark turn her life takes afterwards. Naomi Kawase is one of very few female directors in Japan, and as in all her movies, the story is gently told but full of pathos. Well-acted and very moving with lovely cinematography, True Mothers pulls no punches when dealing with the reality of fertility, unplanned pregnancy, and the other side of adoption.
Very nice movie.
The World to Come
Dir: Mona Fastvold
It's the 1850s in rural upstate New York. Abigail (Katherine Waterston) is a morose young woman with a stern demeanour and long black hair. She lives in a farmhouse with her husband Dyer (Casey Affleck). They have a flock of sheep, chickens and milk cows. They used to have a little daughter, the light of their lives, but she died before she was five. Since then, it's been a loveless marriage and the two barely speak to each other, just coasting through life without a purpose. Dyer records financial records in his ledger, while Abigail writes her thoughts and observations in a black-bound diary. But everything changes when they meet their new neighbours who rent a farm over the hill. Tallie (Vanessa Kirby) has ginger hair and fiery eyes, and she swooshes past in elegant gowns. Her husband Finney (Christopher Abbott) has a dark side carrying bitter grudged just waiting to explode. Abigail and Tallie become instant friends, sharing thoughts, sharp observations, secrets. Their husbands notice the change — why are they smiling? Why are they so happy? Could these two friends like each other more than their husbands?
The World to Come is a passionate and poetic romance, about two women who find love along the harsh frontier. It's narrated by Abigail's diary entries and love letters from Jan to July of the same year, and the story is told in a literary style, like the turning pages of a book. But it's not all talk, it's a beautifully shot movie full of burnished wood, wrought iron, fireplaces, cotton dresses and candlelight. It's filmed on location, with harsh winter blizzards and beautiful spring days. And while not explicit, there are sensuous scenes of Abigail and Tallie kissing furtively in dark doorways, or sneaking off into the woods. Very famous cast: Vanessa Kirby plays Princes Margaret in The Crown, and Katherine Waterston is in Fantastic Beasts and Inherent Vice. And the husbands, Christopher Abbot and Casey Affleck, are very well known, as well. While I wasn't deeply moved by this movie, I did care about what happens to the characters, and the film itself is visually very nice to look at.
My Salinger Year
Wri/Dir: Phillippe Falardeau (Based on the Memoir by Joanna Rackoff)
It's the 1990s in Manhattan. Joanna (Margaret Qualley) is a young grad student and aspiring poet, who is visiting the city to experience literary New York. She has a boyfriend back in Berkeley, but in the meantime she's camping out in her best friend Jenny's cramped Village apartment. Her "room" is a tiny space in the corner separated by a folding paper screen. And she lands a plumb job; not as a a writer or working for a publisher, but in the office of a venerable agency. The company is headed by Margaret (Sigourney Weaver) who looks like a stately Susan Sontag. Margaret's biggest client is JD Salinger, author of Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zooey, whom she calls Jerry. He hasn't published anything since the '60s, but he's still wildly popular. As Margaret's assistant, Joanna's main job is dealing with the bags of fan mail delivered each day. Salinger is a recluse, and never sees any mail — they shred each letter, but not before reading it, and sending out a hand-typed — we're talking typewriters here, no computers allowed in the office — form letter, saying thank try for your kind letter, unfortunately JD Salinger won't see it.
Meanwhile Joanna is luxuriating in the literary life: having lunch at the Waldorf, rubbing shoulders with famous authors (though never Salinger). She goes to poetry readings at the right cafes and moves in with her handsome new boyfriend Don (Douglas Booth), a working-calls writer who's also a bit of a dick. Will Joanna stay on in Manhattan or return to California? Can she forge a career as a literary agent? And will she ever meet Salinger?
My Salinger Year is a true memoir based on the writer's own early career. It's delightful to watch —who would have guessed we could feel nostalgic for the 90s? She experiences the city, wandering into places like the New Yorker magazine's offices. And it's full of wonderful vignettes about the quirky people she meets in her office (played by Colm Feore, and others.) It also shows us the writers of the fan mail, each of whom addresses the audience directly, reciting the texts of their letters. The film is made by Quebec director Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar) and is shot around Montreal. As always, his movies are full of warm, funny characters and lots of detail; he doesn't gloss over what's going on. Falardeau also has some weird trademarks — characters break into music videos or start dancing — which I don't quite get, but luckily it doesn't detract from the story. You can tell Sigourney Weaver and Margaret Qualley loved making this movie, and if you're into writing or reading books, or the whole literary milieu, you'll enjoy it, too.
True Mothers, The World to Come, and My Salinger Year are all playing today on VOD or streaming sites.
Tagged with: Directed by Women, International Women's Day, Joanna Rackoff, Mona Fastvold, My Salinger Year, Naomi Kawase, Phillippe Felardeau, The World to Come, True Mothers
Birth, Death, Birth. Films reviewed: Dead Dicks, In Safe Hands, The Report
Posted in Adoption, Bipolar, Canada, Family, France, Horror, Politics, Suspense, Suspicion, Terrorism, Torture, US by CulturalMining.com on November 15, 2019
Fall festival season continues in Toronto, with ReelAsian ending tonight and the EU Film Fest still going strong. Coming soon are Blood in the Snow (aka BITS), featuring Canadian Horror and Genre movies, and CineFranco with French language movies, from Canada and around the world.
This week I'm looking at three movies, two about births and two about deaths. We've got mysterious rebirths wanted by no one, a newborn infant wanted by everyone, and a horrifying CIA program they want no one to know anything about.
Dead Dicks
Wri/Dir: Chris Bavota, Lee Paula Springer
Becca (Jillian Harris) is a young bartender who works downtown. But much of her time is filled with taking care of her big brother Richie (Heston Horwin). Richie is a depressed artist with anger issues given to playing music full blast while scribbling in his sketchbook. When there parents died he served as the adult in the family, but now the roles are reversed. She's forced to deal with his angry neighbours and make sure he takes his meds. So when she she is called away from her job by frantic texts, she thinks this is just another one of Richie's episodes. But it's not.
She arrives to see an apartment in disarray, with a huge mouldy patch formed above his bed, and Richie wandering around naked, in a daze. His brain feels fuzzy he says. Turns out he killed himself just a few minutes before. And almost immediately expelled, fully grown, through a hole in the wall. But the dead body he left behind is still there, hanging in the closet. And another one in the bathtub, and another one in the kitchen. Living Richie is surrounded by all the dead Dicks from his repeated suicide attempts. He's experimenting, he says.
But that leaves Richie and Becka with a pile of dead Dicks to get rid of, a mysterious birth canal on his wall and an angry neighbour (Matt Keyes) who could get them arrested by threatening to call the cops. What is causing all these rebirths? What does it mean? And what are the unanticipated consequences?
Dead Dicks is a bizarre, low budget film, part horror, part mystery, part comedy. The film does not encourage death by suicide. Rather, It deals with issues of family and mental illness, within a weird fantasy setting. It manages to be grotesque and gruesome, with very few special effects, and an absurd humorous streak running through it.
In Safe Hands (Pupille)
Dir: Jeanne Herry
It's present-day Brest, in French Brittany.
A young woman arrives at a hospital in labour. She's a college student and says the pregnancy is the result of a one-night stand, and says she doesn't want the baby. This starts a dozen gears spinning into action, notifying dozens of doctors, nurses, psychiatrists, midwives, social workers, foster parents, and adoption agencies. And little Theo, the baby, is the centre of attention. He is transferred to an incubator, with lots of faces peering down at him. But can his lack of contact with his birth mother damage him for life? Or will a concerted effort place this baby into safe loving hands?
In Safe Hands is mainly a dramatization of the process of birth and adoption, but there are a few interestingside plots along the way. Jean (Gilles Lellouche) is a married dad who takes care ofhis own daughter and two troubled foster boys who takes care of Theo as he awaits adoption. Karine (Sandine Kiberlain) works for the adoption and fostering program and has a thing for Jean… but will an affair upset the adoption process? Alice Langlois (Élodie Bouchez) is single and works describing action at live plays for the visually impaired. She applied for adoption when she was attached. A social worker is concerned both for the privacy of the birth mother and of the baby who might one day wish to get in contact with her. And many, many others, all centred around a wordless, Yodalike baby who seems to take everything in. It was interesting from a parenting and adoption point of view, exposing all the hidden parts of the mechanism of adoption, but isn't very satisfying as a dramatic or romantic movie, more just as an educational docudrama, as acted by famous French movie stars.
Wri/Dir: Scott Z. Burns
It's post 9-11 Washington, DC.
Dan Jones (Adam Driver) is a young college grad appointed to a group to write a bipartisan internal report on the CIA for the Senate Intelligence Committee. The committee is headed b Sen. Diane Feinstein (Annette Bening). Dan is locked up in a dark basement in a nameless bureaucratic and told to find out what the CIA has done since 9/11. It turns out their practices, supposedly enacted to stop terrorism, were immoral, illegal and of no value whatsoever for intelligence. Specifically, he uncovers the practice of "enhanced interrogation techniques," a policy previously known as torture and banned by the Geneva Convention.
They were under the direction of two psychologists, James Mitchell and John Bruce Jessen (Douglas Hodge and T Ryder Smith) working on contract with no experience in interrogation. They stripped prisoners naked, chained them to walls, waterboarded them and nailed them – live – into wooden coffins, covering their skin with crawling insects. The torture yielded no intel, yet was repeated for many years in blacksites around the world.
Dan outlines these heinous war crimes in a long report to the committee, shocking senators by its findings. But instead of offering support and investgating their own lawbreakers, the CIA initiates a coverup, threatening Dan himself with jail time if he releases his findings. And the CIA sends operatives to spy on the Senate itself in order to coverup the findings. Will Dan Jones's report ever see the light of day? And will the war criminals be punished?
The Report is a good political drama about the illegal use of torture by the CIA, but a thriller it's not. It incorporates elements of All the President's Men, and is nicely shot with lots of fluorescent lights and stark, brutalist architecture. Driver is great as the persistent policy geek, with an understated Bening as a veteran Senator. Warning: there are a few highly disturbing reenactments of the torture itself, which are extremely hard to watch. Much more common are the reenactments of the culprits – John Yoo, Jose Rodrigues, John Brennan (Ted Levine), Cheney, and the psychologists – war criminals who leave a very bad taste in one's mouth.
I liked this one.
Dead Dicks will be playing at Blood in the Snow, In Safe Hands at Cinefranco, and The Report at the Tiff Bell Lightbox all starting one week from today.
Tagged with: Blood in the Snow, Chris Bavota, Cinefranco, Dead Dicks, In Safe Hands, Jeanne Herry, Lee Paula Springer, Scott Z. Burns, The Report, TIFF Bell Lightbox, TIFF19
Rivals. Films reviewed: Hobbs & Shaw, Luce PLUS Canadian films at #TIFF19
Posted in Action, Adoption, African-Americans, Canada, Cars, CBC, comedy, Drama, Family, High School by CulturalMining.com on August 2, 2019
The Toronto International Film Festival has just announced its upcoming Canadian film programme, so I'm going to talk about that. I'm also looking at two new movies: an action thriller and a psychological drama. There's a rivalry between a respected teacher and a prize pupil that threatens their futures; and a futuristic rivalry between two secret agents fighting a threat to world destruction.
Canada at #TIFF19
If you're looking for some brand new, home-grown movies, docs and short films, there's lots to see at TIFF this September. I haven't seen anything yet, but I've been looking around and there are a few that caught my attention. The program features many indigenous directors who have made great movies so, chances are, these will be great too. In Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger, Alanis Obomsawin continues to document – started in We Can't Make the Same Mistake Twice – the struggle of First Nation kids on reserves to get the same medical treatment as in the rest of Canada. Zachariah Kunuk (Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner) brings us One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk, a drama set in the 1960s when the government was forcing nomadic Inuit hunters to assimilate and give up their way of life. And, in a totality different take, Jeff Barnaby's Blood Quantum pits a Mi'gmaq nation against a new zombie-like plague… that only infects white people.
Sometimes it's just the title that attracts, so listen to some of these Canadian movies coming to TIFF: The Last Porno Show (Kire Paputts) This is Not a Movie (Yung Chang); Tammy's Always Dying (Amy Jo Johnson); And The Birds Rained Down (Il pleuvait des oiseaux); and The Body Remembers when the World Broke Open.
Conversely, there are some short films whose titles are very long. Like I am in the World as Free and Slender as a Deer on a Plain; or how about Speak Continuously and Describe your Experiences as They Come to You. I bet you'll remember those.
And finally you can look at some of the big names of Canadian cinema, with new work by Alan Zweig, who has a documentary about the police called Coppers; Atom Egoyan's Guest of Honour, starring David Thewlis as a food inspector; Albert Shin's Clifton Hill, a psychological thriller set in Niagara Falls; and a new doc co-directed by Ellen Page, about environmental racism in Nova Scotia called There's Something in the Water.
I just flooded you with more names than anyone can absorb, but maybe some of it will stick. Tickets are on sale now, including the cheaper packages, so check them out.
Dir: David Leitch
Hobbs (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) is a hugely muscled single dad in LA formerly with the CIA. Shaw (Jason Statham) is a well dressed wiry assassin from a family of London criminals, headed by his mother. But when Hattie (Vanessa Kirby) an MI6 agent goes rogue, the two men are ordered to work together to bring her in.
The problem is Hobbs and Shaw loathe each other, and would rather die than be in the same room. But there's a bigger issue at stake: Hattie absconded with a terrible man-made virus which, if activated, could wipe out every human in a week.. and she carries it imbedded in her body. Even worse, they have to beat Brixton (Idris Elba), Shaw's former partner, who is now an unkillable cyborg who works for a criminal organization that controls the world's media. Can the two agents overcome their differences, capture Hattie, recover the virus, defeat Brixton, and save the world?
Hobbs and Shaw is a silly, comic-book-like action movie in the style of the Fast and Furious series, and though ridiculous, it's a lot of fun to watch. It doesn't take itself very seriously, instead just provides endless chase scenes – we're talking cars, motorcycles and helicopters here — extended fistfights against nameless enemies, and epic battles with guns, missiles and spears (but without any visible death or blood).
As I said, it's ridiculous, concerned purely with the images. There's a chase scene at a Chernobyl-like nuclear reactor, but the characters blast at each other not caring about meltdoen. The towers are just there for decoration. The story takes you from an amazing vertical chase scene involving ropes and an elevator on the side of a glass and steel skyscraper in London… to an eventual battle royal in Samoa!
The banter between Johnson and Statham is silly, almost to the point of boredom, but there is some humour and, most important, the movie is loaded with superior special effects. Take it for what it is – a simple action movie – and you'll probably love it. I gave up on the Fast and Furious series after Number 3 or 4, but I would probably watch another Hobbs & Shaw. With Idris Elba, and cameo roles by a sinister Helen Mirren and a campy Ryan Reynolds… what more can you ask for for 14 bucks?
Dir: Julius Onah
Based on the play by J.C. Lee
It's an middleclass suburb in the Midwest. Luce (Kelvin Harrison Jr) is the school's golden boy. He's a star athlete, manager of the track team, head of the debating club. He's handsome, popular, athletic and very bright. So much so, he's invited to give inspirational, Obama-style speeches to the school. His white parents (Naomi Watts and Tim Roth) couldn't be happier. They adopted him as a refugee from war-torn Eritrea, and moulded him into their idea of the perfect all-American son, with a new name, history, and identity. His friends may have troubles, but not Luce. Everyone, even his ex, Cynthia (Andrea Bang: Kim's Convenience) loves Luce. Everyone except his teacher Ms Wilson (Octavia Spencer).
She is suspicious of his motives. She is disturbed enough by an essay he wrote (about Marxist anti-colonial writer Frantz Fanon) to search his school locker, where she finds an unmarked bag of firecrackers. She calls his mother in to talk, leaving Luce out of the equation for now. But it plants a seed of doubt in his parents' minds. Luce isn't stupid; he knows something is going on. And so begins a hidden game of cat and mouse between pupil and teacher. Is he just a normal, nice guy… or a psychopath? And is Ms Wilson honestly concerned? Or is she just jealous and wants to bring him down?
Luce is a complex, multifaceted and ultimately ambiguous drama about identity, history and blackness. (Interestingly, another work by Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, was surely lurking at the back of Luce's mind). It's also about parents digging too deeply into their kid's private lives, without realizing they'll expose facts they didn't want to know about. It brings in other issues, too – mental health, sexual consent, and drug use. Tim Roth and Naomi Watts are appropriately annoying as the well-meaning but namby-pamby parents. Octavia Spencer just gets better and better, and Kelvin Johnson Jr (though he doesn't look even vaguely Eritrean!) is great as Luce. He also a very different son in another movie, It Comes at Night, which, in retrospect, adds even more dimensions to this role. Can't wait to see what he does next…
Luce, though not perfect, is a very well-done indie movie that leaves you with a lot to think about.
Fast and Furious Presents Hobbs and Shaw opens today in Toronto; check your local listings. Luce opens next week (August 9th). And for more information on TIFF go to tiff.net.
Tagged with: Canadian Films at TIFF, David Leitch, Fast & Furious presents: Hobbs & Shaw, J.C. Lee, Julius Onah, Luce, TIFF19
Getting away. Level 16, Triple Frontier, The Panama Papers
Posted in Action, Adoption, documentary, drugs, Heist, Morality, post-apocalypse, Women by CulturalMining.com on March 8, 2019
https://danielgarber.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/garber-march-8-19-review.mp3
It's international Women's Day, a great time to check out some movies directed by women. If you haven't seen the great Colombian film Birds of Passage, see it now. And Objects of Desire, a retrospective of French master Claire Denis's films is also playing now at TIFF. She's one of my favourites.
This week I'm looking at people trying to get away with something. We've got orphan girls running for their lives, war vets running off with sacks of loot, and journalists rushing to publish the biggest data dump in history
Wri/Dir: Danishka Esterhazy
Vivien and Sophia are two teenagers at an all-girls boarding school for orphans. They wear identical uniforms: skirts, shirts and ties during the day, and floor-length cotton gowns at night. Classes consist of B&W educational films from the 1950s shown on flatscreen TVs. Their teacher, the strict but beautiful Miss Brixil (Sara Canning), visits each unit to teach them feminine virtues like cleanliness, subservience, obedience and silence. And their most important exams are not about reading or math but applying cold cream to their cheeks and taking their vitamins.
They live under a panopticon with surveillance cameras recording every move and thedisembodied voice of a Doctor (Peter Outerbridge) who tells them what to do. They've never been outside this drab institution, since the air and sunlight out there are "hazardous". Besides, it's important to stay pretty and clean so a nice family will adopt them some day. And now that they're at Level 16, that someday is coming soon.
Headstrong Vivien (Katie Douglas) is excited to hear she might be leaving this place; she's been counting the days. But all her hopes and dreams are shattered when the nearsighted Sophia (Celina Martin) tells her a secret: don't swallow the vitamins! When Vivien takes her advice she is shocked by what she finds out. The "vitamins" are actually sedatives and what happens to their limp bodies at night is not nice at all. What is this place? Why are they there? What is it like outside its walls? And can they ever escape?
Level 16 is a scary and weird speculative fiction look at a distopian future as seen through the eyes of teenaged girls. It's full of strange anomalies: why do the guards speak Russian? Where did all these fake-happy educational film clips come from? Does this movie take place in the past… or in the future? It feels like a cross between Never Let Me Go and The Handmaid's Tale. It's a low budget film shot on a single location (and one that is bland, industrial and and claustrophobic to look at), but it had enough shocking twists to keep me fascinated until the end.
Triple Frontier
Dir: JC Chandor
Santiago (Oscar Isaac) is a paramilitary cop working in an unnamed Latin American country. His police team raids low level drug traffickers… but they are also on the take. Any witness who tries squeal on Lorea's — the fugitive drug kingpin — whereabouts is immediately executed to keep him quiet. But Santiago (an American) has his own informant in Lorea's HQ. He discovers for himself where the big man is hiding. Rumour has it there are millions in cash just sitting in the jungle, waiting to be taken. So he flies back to the States to meet with his former special-ops army buddies. They loved their time in the military, but it hasn't treated them well as veterans.
Miller (Charlie Hunnam) is a low-level army recruiter with a bad goatee who delivers the same speech over and over. Davis (Ben Affleck) tries to support a teenaged daughter from a failed marriage with the pittance he earns flogging condos. Morales (Pedro Pascal) is a helicopter pilot whose license was taken away for drug offenses. And Ben (Garrett Hedlund), Miller's brother, is an MMA cage fighter — not a great long-term career plan.
Santiago says, let's get what the government never gave us but that we deserve: millions in cold hard cash. And don't worry, it's a flawless plan. Sure enough, the heist works great. In fact, it works too well. They are faced not with millions of dollars but hundreds of millions, far too heavy for them to carry. Their momentary greed makes their exit plan impossible. Can they lug their bags of loot through the jungle, over a mountain pass and down to a the ocean (through the multinational "triple frontier" of the title)? Or will mother nature – and the vengeful locals who inhabit it – kill them first?
Triple Frontier has strikingly beautiful scenery, famous-name actors and a well known director and scriptwriter. So how come it sucks?
Well, it's a boring and sexless buddy action flick with inane, bro dialogue: I got your back… I love you man… we deserve this. Do you really care if they get away with the money they stole? More than that, it reeks of exceptionalism. It's co-written by Mark Boal, who brought us the vile Zero Dark Thirty, a movie which said we Americans are always the good guys, torture is useful and all Muslims are potential terrorists. For this movie just substitute drug traffickers for terrorists, and South Americans for Muslims. Almost every person they encounter is corrupt, dangerous, and out to kill us. It's up to our heroic soldiers to stop these caravans of latino drug traffickers from invading our border.
OK, I admit there is a good chase scene near the beginning, but the rest of it is a total waste of two hours and five minutes.
The Panama Papers
Wri/Dir: Alex Winter
It's 2016 in Munich, Germany. Bastian Obermayer, an investigative journalist at the Süddeutcher Zeitung receives a mysterious message. A whistleblower calling himself John Doe says he has some information to send him. But because of its importance and sheer volume he has to be sure his identity is kept secret and the information gets released, What is this information, where did it come from, and why is it so important? The data leak is from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama law firm known for its secrecy. Their clients include both organized crime and upstanding world leaders all hiding their money so they don't pay taxes. The amount of money lost in taxes worldwide is stupendous: it's the reason social services have been cut and why the wealth distribution gap between the ultra rich and everybody else is the highest it's been in a century.
The Panama Papers tells this story through the eyes of the journalists involved in its release. It feels like a chapter of All the Presidents Men, but on a much bigger scale. The papers were shared – in secret! – with over 300 investigative journalists worldwide. And the outcome and blowback that followed changed the world. The Prime Minister of Iceland, top figures in FIFA, Argentina, Pakistan and Spain were forced to resign. Others in Russia, the US and Syria were also implicated in the multinational scandal. And top journalists like Malta's Daphne Gaizia, were murdered because of their role in exposing these crimes.
The Panama Papers is a great documentary that churns politics, investigative journalism and conspiracies into a potent brew.
The Panama Papers is now playing at Hotdocs Cinema, you can catch Triple Frontier's stunning cinematography on the big screen before it moves to Netflix, and Level 16 opens next Friday; check your local listings.
Tagged with: Alex Winter, Claire Denis, Danishka Esterhazy, International Women's Day, JC Chandor, Level 16, Netflix, The Panama Papers, Triple Frontier
Older Women. Movies Reviewed: Philomena and If I Were You
Posted in Academy Awards, Acting, Adoption, Catholicism, comedy, Cultural Mining, Feminism, Toronto, UK, Uncategorized, US, Women by CulturalMining.com on November 27, 2013
https://danielgarber.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/garber-nov27-13.mp3Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM, looking at high-brow and low-brow movies, indie, cult, foreign, festival, documentary, genre and mainstream films, helping you see movies with good taste, movies that taste good, and how to tell the difference.
This week the Toronto Film Critics Association awarded the 2013 Scotiabank Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist to Matt Johnson, who made the fantastic movie The Dirties. Congratulations – great choice, great new filmmaker. Matt Johnson directed, produced and starred in that comedy/horror meta-movie I reviewed earlier this fall. This is could be the beginning of something big.
They say male movie stars can keep working until they die, but women stop being stars at age 35. It's hard for older women to find lead roles in movies. Even Oscar winners. But they do exist. This week I'm looking at two movies starring award-winning, older actresses. There's a British drama about a woman who wants to fill in a gap from her past; and an American comedy/drama about a woman who wants to undo a romantic triangle.
Dir: Stephen Frears
Martin (Steve Coogan) is a former high-power party politico who suffers a fall from grace. He finds himself back in his previous profession: journalism. Reluctantly at first, he ends up pursuing a story about a retired, working-class woman named Philomena. Philomena (Judy Dench) was young, unmarried and pregnant when she was sent to live in a nunnery. She loved her infant son. So, one day, she was shocked and horrified to see her little boy driven away, before her very eyes, by a rich couple! She wanted to keep him, but she never saw him again. He was gone, adopted.
Now, many years later, Philomena wants a chance to see him before she dies. The nuns claim to have lost all her records in a fire. So Martin decides to write about Philomena's story and to help her find her long lost son. So off they fly to America. Philomena is suspicious. Maybe he's just using her to sell his story. Martin, on the other hand, is maddened by her quirky opinions and constantly-changing decisions: I want to go home… Let's stay for another week… Gradually, Martin's heart softens as he and Philomena get to know and trust each other better.
Will they locate the adult son? And if they do, will he want to meet his biological mother? Will he even remember her? And, finally, will the convent ever explain why they did what they did?
This movie is a real tear-jerker. Based on a true story, it's a very touching mother and son drama, with a few unexpected shocks and surprises. And there are at least two scenes that make the audience bawl. On the other hand, it's quite sexless and sterile – not just the nuns. There's no romance and no passion. Just anger at injustice, a sad longing for the past, righting wrongs, and a mother's love for her child. Even though I could feel the movie deliberately tugging at my heart strings, it didn't matter, since they did it so well.
Judy Dench's character is rich and expertly played, while the always- funny Steve Coogan is a perfect foil. Well-directed by Steven Frears (My Beautiful Launderette, The Queen) with an excellent script, co-written by Coogan.
If I Were You
Wri/Dir: Joan Carr-Wiggin
Madelyn (Marcia Gay-Harden) is happily married and a successful professional. But when she accidentally spies her husband, Paul, eating a romantic dinner with a beautiful young woman — when he said he was working late — everything falls apart. Is he cheating on her? Is their whole relationship based on a lie?
Flustered and confused, she finds herself following the young woman home. But rather than confronting her, she ends up saving her life. And so they meet. The Spanish beauty Lucy (Leonor Watling) admits that her lover Paul is still married and hasn't left his boring old wife, and Madelyn, in turn, confesses that she caught her husband – she calls him "Fred" – cheating on her with some "bimbo". They decide to follow each other's advice on how to rescue their respective relationships. But only Madelyn knows that Fred and Paul are the same man. Can she fool Lucy into leaving her husband?
To distract her, Madelyn encourages the aspiring actress to pursue other goals. She takes Lucy to an audition for a play, King Lear, but somehow ends up cast alongside her. Will Madelyn succeed in her scheme? Or will her web of secrecy come unraveled? And are and her husband still in love?
If I Were You is a cute comedy/ drama. It has some very funny sequences full of unexpected twists — it's sort of a screwball comedy, with the main character juggling hidden identities and secrets. And the opening scenes – from one to the next to the next — are brilliant. But later on, the movie seems loaded down with clichés and groaners. You have to wonder why so much screentime is devoted to the theatrical sub-plot. That's not what the movie's about. Most of all, this movie is a vehicle for the lead actress, Marcia Gay Harden. She's at the centre of every single scene, and all other characters exist only to react to her (they love, hate, fear or admire her). To like the movie, you have to like Marcia Gay Harden. I do like her, so I enjoyed this film. It's clever, cute and worth seeing.
Philomena and If I Were You both open today in Toronto (check your local listings).
Tagged with: If I Were You, Philomena
March 2, 2012. Daniel Garber interviews Julia Ivanova about her documentary Family Portrait in Black and White
Posted in Adoption, Canada, Coming of Age, Cultural Mining, documentary, Family, Movies, TIFF, Ukraine, Uncategorized by CulturalMining.com on March 10, 2012
https://danielgarber.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/garbermarch1-12p1.mp3
Julia Ivanova's moving documentary, Family Portrait in Black and White (now playing) deals with a foster mom in a tiny Ukraine village who takes care of dozens of mixed-race children who were abandoned by their parents. The kids face ostracism by some racists, but stick together, forming a tight family with the woman they call Mom. But some of the children bristle at her strict, Stalinist ways, and her refusal to give up the kids to wealthy western Europeans looking for children to adopt. Will the generation gap pull this family apart?
Tagged with: Family Portrait in Black and White, Julia Ivanova
January 6, 2012. Guys Who Won't Grow Up. Movies Reviewed: Jeff Who Lives At Home, Dark Horse, Starbuck
Posted in Adoption, Bullying, Canada, comedy, Coming of Age, Conspiracy Theory, Cultural Mining, drugs, Montreal, Movies, Mysticism, Quebec, Romantic Comedy, Slackers, TIFF, Uncategorized, US by CulturalMining.com on January 5, 2012
https://danielgarber.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/danielgarberjan6kk.mp3 Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies, for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM, looking at high-brow and low-brow movies, indie, cult, foreign, festival, genre and mainstream movies, helping you see movies with good taste, movies that taste good, and how to tell the difference.
It's a New Year now, and everyone's scrambling to make vows, resolutions and oaths to change their lives. And there's one group that's often makes the most earnest promises of all — I'm talking about that popular caricature, Guys Who Won't Grow Up. In the movies, they tend to have dead-end jobs, play with toys, smoke pot, live in their parents' basements and generally strike out with women, despite all their good intentions. So this week I'm looking at three movie, all of which played at TIFF last year, about grown-up boys who decide to change their lives. So all you couch potatoes, it's time to get up, go out, and see some movies!
Jeff Who Lives at Home
Wri/Dir: Jay and Mark Duplass
Jeff (Jason Segel) lives at home – sits around his mother's basement in his underwear, to be exact. He smokes pot, eats chips, watches TV, and waxes philosophical about the cosmos… while sitting on the toilet. He doesn't get along with his older brother Pat anymore (Ed Helms), a self-centred square who neglects his wife. Pat's a guy who's supposed to look at a new home, but instead spends all their money on a Porsche on impulse. And now his wife doesn't feel so great about their marriage. And Mom also notices a change in her cubicle job when her best friend tells her she has a secret admirer. So what's going to happen?
Jeff, is a proto- string theorist (like the characters in the movie I Heart Huckabees) He's always waiting for "signs" to tell him what to do.
Well, one day he's forced to leave home for downtown Baton Rouge to pick up a bottle of glue for his mother (Susan Sarandon). But, when something catches his eye on an infomercial, followed by the words "CALL NOW!" at the same time as a strange, threatening wrong number calling for someone named "Kevin", he gets sent off on a (seemingly) wild goose chase all around the city.
So Jeff embarks on this grand mission – one that eventually ties in with his brother's failing marriage and his mother's love life — because he knows, he just knows, that his actions will change the world.
This is a good, enjoyable comedy. I like the Duplass brothers, who usually make low-budget, 'mumblecore", semi-improvisational, super-realistic movies. They do tend to use annoying, jiggly hand-held cameras, but the movies are interesting enough that it doesn't bother you after awhile. This one, Jeff who Lives at Home, is their biggest budget and most mainstream so far, with stuntmen, and chase scenes, and big name cast. But I like this direction they're taking – it's not a sell-out, it's a fun, light comedy.
You could say Jeff is a "lite" version of the next character. Now think of the same guy, but 10-15 years later…
Dir: Todd Solandz
Abe (Jordan Gelber) also lives with his parents, but he's older, less attractive, fatter, and without any of the cute, endearing qualities that Jeff (who also lives at home) had. He works in his dad's company, sitting in his glassed-in office, dressing like a white gangsta rapper, in track pants and T-shirts, with a gold name plate around his neck. He drives a bright yellow SUV, listens to hiphop, collects Tron Legacy memorabilia. And he despises his older brother who's a doctor, and whom his parents idolize. He's simultaneously arrogant, talentless and uninteresting. He's the kind of guy who throws something toward a garbage can, says "two points!"… and then misses.
But at a Jewish wedding in suburban New Jersey (a hilarious scene where adults in wedding suits are all doing head spins and break-dancing) he meets Miranda (Selma Blair), a depressed but pretty, dark-haired woman who lives with her parents, after breaking up with her boyfriend Mahmoud. Abe is the worst person at picking up girls, possibly in the entire world. When he hits on a woman he says things like "Do you like jazz? NFL?" without bothering to listen to her answer before moving on to the next failed pick-up line. But somehow — for whatever reason — they end up dating.
Here's where the movie gets really interesting (and a bit confusing). Abe decides to take the bull by the horns and change his life. The story goes off on these bizarre tangents. Things get bad with his lethargic parents (Mia Farrow and Christopher Walken) who finally put their collective foot down; the older secretary, Marie, at the office pursues her sexual crush on Abe; and he has other troubles with his plastic model collection. Abe can't take it anymore.
I don't want to give it away, but once again, Todd Solandz, who is such a good director, (with his painfully dark stories and funny-depressing characters) experiments once again with new narrative techniques, like unreliable narrators; total, sudden shifts in point of view – but without informing the viewers; and fantasy, delusions and dreams almost undistinguishable from reality. Wow. It's a great movie that I hope will get released soon.
Dir: Ken Scott
David (Patrick Houad) is just not doing that well with his life. Everything just seems to be going wrong. He's separated from his girlfriend, he's bad at his job (delivering meat for his family business), and his money-making scheme, a grow-up, must be the only one in the world actually losing money: he owes 80 thousand to a bunch of violent thugs who want it back. His girlfriend – who's pregnant with his kid – tells him he'd better change things if he wants to be that kid's father. But these all seem like small potatoes when he's hit by the biggest news of all – the sperm he anonymously donated at a fertility clinic 20 years go, was fertile. Very. He has 500 adult kids now, and 140 or so are planning a class-action suit to make him reveal his identity (he donated using only the nickname "Starbuck".)
So he decides to secretly track down as many of his kids he can find, to help them out but without revealing his identity to them. There's a lifeguard, a drug addict, a street musician, an effeminate goth, an aspiring actor… even if David's own life is a total loss, maybe he can at least make his mark on the world by helping his many, many kids succeed. But the media pick up his story, making it harder and harder to remain hidden. Will he make it out of his various personal crises? Will he be forced to expose his identity to the world? Will his immigrant family ever feel proud of him? And will his pregnant girlfriend let him back into her life?
Starbuck is a really enjoyable, solid, feel-good commercial Quebec comedy, (from the people who brought us Good Cop, Bon Cop0. It's playing at the TIFF Bell Lightbox as part of the best 10 Canadian films series starting now, along with the new Cronenberg movie and Monsieur Lazhar.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies for CIUT 89.5 FM, and on my web site, culturalmining.com.
Tagged with: Dark Horse, Jeff Who Lives At Home, Starbuck
August 4, 2011. Things Inside Other Things. Movies Reviewed: Cave of Forgotten Dreams, The Change-Up, Cowboys and Aliens
Posted in 3-D, Acting, Action, Adoption, Animals, Anthropology, Class, comedy, Cultural Mining, Dreams, drugs, Family, First Nations, France, Germany, Magic, Movies, Porn, Sex, Toronto, Uncategorized, US, violence, Western by CulturalMining.com on August 4, 2011
https://danielgarber.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/culturalminingaug5rr.mp3Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies, for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM, looking at high-brow and low-brow movies, indie, cult, foreign, festival, genre and mainstream movies, helping you see movies with good taste, and movies that taste good, and what the difference is.
Have you ever wondered whether what you're looking at is something with something inside of it? Or if it's something that's inside something (or someone) else? Let me give you an example.
I went to Toronto's annual Night Market – a huge outdoor street fair full of Asian food stalls, held on Cherry Street near the lakefront – and amidst all the deep-friend stinky tofu, the Xinjiang lamb kebobs, and the bacon ice cream – something caught my eye.
What was it? Was it garlicky Korean bulgogi served on a crusty baguette? Or was it a Vietnamese Banh Mi sandwich with grilled beef filling? Was its essence the container or the content? Well, in any case, it tasted great, and the makers described it as a Vietnamese sandwich (with something in it.)
A big part of reviewing movies is determining the categories — the taxonomy — of a given film and its characters, trying to find an easy-to-understand label that encapsulates its true essence. So, to make a long story short, this week I'm talking about three movies, all about things with other things inside them: a documentary about a cave with paintings in it, a traditional western with some space ships in it, and two men who end up trapped inside one another's bodies.
Dir: Jon Favreau
A stranger (Daniel Craig) rides into an old, run-down mining town wearing a strange metallic bracelet. He doesn't know who he is, what he's doing there, where he came from, or even his own name. he may have lost his memory, but he's still a crackshot straight shooter with his six gun, and a good puncher in a dust-up. He knows right from wrong and good from bad, and is liked by dogs and small children. He just wants to remember what happened to his wife. But when the spoiled son of the town boss — an ornery cattle baron (Harrison Ford) — starts shaking down the locals for cash, the stranger steps in on behalf of the town folk.
All just an ordinary western, until, out of left field, comes a bunch of flashing alien spacecraft, plucking up all the people in some alien abductions, and taking them off somewhere (probably for some microchip implants, anal probes or brainwashing!)
So now it's not the white hats vs the black hats, the people vs the bosses, or the cowboys vs the indians. Now it's the humans vs the aliens, scary identical-looking monsters who are up to no good and probably want to take over the world. So they all band together, along with a beautiful woman (Olivia Wilde) who wears a flowered dress and knows something she's not telling us.
It's good there's some native actors (Adam Beach and Raoul Trujillo) and fun to see a twist on old themes, but the movie, even with some scary 3-D effects, is fun enough to watch, but pretty hollow and predictable in its plot.
Much nicer is another summer 3-D pic:
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Dir: Werner Herzog
Some tens of thousands of years ago a cliff collapsed in a French river valley, hiding the entrance to a series of caverns. The great German director and documentary maker Herzog is allowed into the restricted areas and shows us the amazing animal paintings on the walls: lions, rhinos, horses, and bulls; leopards, cave bears, and strange fertility totems. He leads us in three-d through the stalactites and stalgmites, and the glossy, drippy calcium deposits covering everything, from jawbones, to the charcoal they may have used to paint on their walls.
It shows shadows and firelight and the echoey music they might have played on tiny bone flutes.
And, because it's a Herzog movie, he populates the documentary with all the eccentric types who end up showing their quirks before the camera. An archaeologist admits he used to be a unicycle-riding juggler in the circus. A master French perfumer sniffs his way around the caves to try to find any primeval odours that might still be there. And an eccentric scientist demonstrates spear-hurling techniques in a vineyard.
Though I thought the movie drags a bit in the long lingering shots of the wall paintings, it does give you both the forgotten dreams inside the narrow caves, and the people and world all around, emanating down rivers and through valleys across Europe, ending with some fantastic albino crocodiles.
The Change-up
Dir: David Dobkin
Dave and Mitch (Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds) have been best buddies since grade six. Dave's married with three kids, a diligent, conservative careerist on the verge of a promotion if he can pull off a big corporate merger with a Japanese conglomerate. Mitch is a handsome hedonist, a foul-mouthed, struggling actor who lives the Life of Reilly: sleeping-in, smoking pot, hanging out, and having more casual sex than you can shake a stick at. Mitch envies the stability and symbols of success that Dave has, while Dave wishes he could go back to the freedom and fun of his college years.
Through some magical wishing they accidentally end up in each other's bodies, having to live their buddies' lives.
The rest of the movie is funny scenes of them trying to cope with the nightmarish situations they find themselves in, wearing the wrong clothes, saying the wrong things, and wracked by guilt once they see how others view them. Dave in Mitch's body goes to shoot a movie without realizing he'll be asked to perform sexually in a soft-core porn movie with a 70-year old women made entirely of botox, collagen, and silicon. Mitch has to take up all the responsibilities of an intense, stressful workplace, and an equally hard home life, with a neglected wife, and twin ADHD toddlers from hell. Will they get their old lives back? And do they really want to go back?
The movie's funniness ranges from extremely funny (especially with the babies and kids, and the misbegotten sex scenes) to gross funny (with the explicit potty jokes and dick jokes) to cute funny, to… barely funny at all. Reynolds and Bateman get to play out of character which is fun. I think it all balances out with enough shocking and hilarious scenes to make it a worthwhile, if generally predictable, "guy" comedy.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams is playing at the TIFF Bell Light Box, Cowboys and Aliens is also now playing, and the Change-up opens today: check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies for CIUT 89.5 FM, and on my web site, Cultural Mining . com.


text:
The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/2019/07/01/recidivism-dropped-following-california-realignment-study/)
Recidivism Dropped Following California Realignment: Study
By TCR Staff | July 1, 2019
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Photo by Hakan Dahlstrom via Flickr http://www.dahlstroms.com
Rearrest and reconviction rates declined in the four years following the enactment of major justice reforms in California aimed at shifting lower-level offenders from state prisons to county jails, according to a new study.
In an examination of data from 12 California counties between 2011 and 2015, researchers at the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) found that individuals reconvicted for felony offenses dropped from 30 percent to 22 percent. Recidivism rates also fell sharply for drug offenses.
The PPIC researchers stopped short of concluding that the 2011 California reforms, known as "realignment," were directly responsible for the decline, but suggested they had "played a substantial role…through greater emphasis on drug treatment interventions."
The study also discussed Proposition 47, passed by voters in 2014, which reduced drug possession and some low-level property crimes to misdemeanors.
"Another potential interpretation is that the reduction in sanctions for drug possession under Prop 47 sent a signal to law enforcement to prioritize more serious offenders, which could in turn drive reductions in rearrests for drug offenses," the researchers said.
"In an environment where incentives are changing for both felony offenders and the criminal justice systems tasked with securing public safety, it is difficult to precisely determine why recidivism rates are declining. "
More than 300,000 felony offenders in California were released to counties between October 2011 and October 2015.
Under public safety realignment, new sentencing rules made non-violent, non-serious, and non-sexual offenders ineligible for prison sentences and, instead, required they be sentenced locally. The new rules also required most violations of parole to be served in local jails.
The measures were undertaken in response to a Supreme Court mandate to reduce overcrowding in the state's prisons.
As a result of the moves, the state's prison population dropped by more than 27,000 in the first year of realignment. The subsequent increase in the size of county jail and probation populations "marked a new era for corrections and rehabilitation—one that proponents hoped would lower recidivism," researchers said.
Although a crime increase predicted by critics did not materialize, other issues drew concerns, such as an increase in jail deaths.
Overall, the rearrest rate declined by 3 percent and the reconviction rate declined by 15 percent for individuals released during the four-year period. The largest reduction occurred in the felony reconviction rate, which dropped by 27 percent.
The full study can be downloaded here.
California's Prison Downsizing Offers a Model for Other States, Study Says
The success of California's Public Safety Realignment Act in reducing state prison populations without a corresponding increase in crime suggests that other jurisdictions around the country can follow suit.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
import schema from './schema';
import graphqlHTTP from 'express-graphql';
import app from '../app-server';

export function initializeGraphQL() {
  // GraphqQL server route
  app.use('/graphql', graphqlHTTP(req => ({
    schema,
    pretty: true
  })));
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


After days of glorious sunshine the weather moved in, and on Sunday rain clouds were piled grouchily on the horizon. By mid morning, everything had a slate grey cast to it.
"Let's go to the beach," Flemming's Dad said.
The last time we were in Thorup, it was really foggy. When we got there this time, the boats were all sitting snug on the sand, and the sea behind them was brokenly striped in rushing foam and dark water.
My hat blew off my head into a puddle when I stepped out of the car. We'd come down to get some fish from the shop, but it was closed.
With the main mission foiled, we enjoyed the coming of the rain instead, at the edge of the water. Ten minutes to run around the boats before the storm front swept in and needled us with cold rain.
There's nothing like the beach during a storm.
Thorup is one of the last places in the country that tows the fleet onto the beach with a gigantic tractor, when it comes in with the day's catch.
We got back to the car just as the heaviest of the rain hit.
Driving home through rain-laden forests.
I've not been in northern Europe this late in the year, and I am thankful for relatively gentle introduction I'm getting to autumn at these latitudes. I have no experience with real cold. The only winters I've lived through are those of Perth, Australia, and people tell me all the time how those are akin to a gentle spring day at more extreme latitudes.
I've experienced unending sunshine the months I've been around Europe (except for those few days in Scotland and Ireland), but I suspect these grey days are here to stay until I leave.
Hanging on to the last of summer in my head.
Man vs tree. Sunset a few days ago near home.
Really lovely photos! I found your work while researching the X-Pro2, and I've really been enjoying it. Keep it up!
I'm glad to hear it Tom. Thank you!
Andreas, the 23 has barely left my camera since i got it at the end of September. I love it. Working on a blog post on my thoughts about this little lens. It'll be published in a few days. Stay tuned!
Depending on how much you like the 35mm FOV, pretty damn big. It's barely left my camera since I got it at the end of September.
I will tell you now that I won't be addressing any of the optical engineering facets of this lens at all. It will be very much about what it feels like to use this lens, so don't get your hopes up.
I think the addiction is coming soon. After our short holiday on hiddensee I will going to buy this little guy.
Gorgeous pics! Alas summer and warm days are gone away, I've already tasted the first snow here \o/.
Yeah, I think the warmth is definitely gone. Judging by your walking pictures, you do frequent higher elevations than I do (I'm pretty much at sea level here in Jutland), so I'm hoping your experience of snow isn't going to translate to mine anytime soon. It's interesting enough trying to adjust to the wind here, it howls and freezes nonstop!
aren't you bothered by tilted horizons?


ST. LOUIS, Mo. _The new Busch Shooting Range at the August A. Busch Memorial Conservation area in St. Charles is opening this weekend! Shooters will now have access to one of the most state-of-the-art ranges in the country.
Shooting range manager, Bryant Hertel, joined us on KPLR 11 to tell us all about it.


text:
The Rivers of Alice
The Rivers of Alice is an Adventure, Female Protagonist, Point-and-Click, and Puzzle-based video game developed by Delirium Studios and published by Merge Games for multiple platforms. The game takes place in the surreal world and offers the adventure gameplay where it puts the player on an epic journey of self-discovery… read more
Android iOS Win Mac Wii U
Games Like The Rivers of Alice for PS3
47 10 12 29 2 17 1 2 1 4 1 3 3 5 4 1 1 6
#1 Neighbours from Hell
Neighbours from Hell is a Puzzle and Strategy video game developed and published by JoWooD Vienna for PlayStation, iOS, and Microsoft Windows. The game follows the protagonist named as Woody, an average man, who has a peaceful life, until his brutal neighbor named as Mr. Rottweiler makes his happy life miserable. After that, the protagonist decides to take revenge from his neighbor. During the gameplay, the player creeps around the home of his neighbor by performing tricks. According to the story, the player acts as the star of the new Television Show with the same name, with cameras that are capable of tracking every move of the player as he sets traps like swing the chair, smeared painting, soap on the floor, and more. The main job of the player is to create disarray, struggle to increase ratings of his show to win awards. There are several levels and the main goal of each level is to play some tricks on his neighbor using every available item near the player character. Each stage is divided into four to five zones. The player must move the character from zone to zone to advance through the game.
More About The Rivers of Alice
The Rivers of Alice is an Adventure, Female Protagonist, Point-and-Click, and Puzzle-based video game developed by Delirium Studios and published by Merge Games for multiple platforms. The game takes place in the surreal world and offers the adventure gameplay where it puts the player on an epic journey of self-discovery. The player must help Alice face off the fear of her daily life like dishonesty, sloth, envy, that manifested herself in the form of strange mystery characters and complex puzzles. There are more than 10 characters and twenty challenging puzzles on fifteen screens. At the start of the game, the player to select his playable character, start manipulating the environment, interact with NPCs, and select the dialogue to interact with animated characters. The Rivers of Alice includes key features such as Challenging Puzzles, Vibrant Soundtracks, Crafted Adventures, 700 Animated Characters, and more. Check it out, and have fun.
2D Side Scrolling Single-Player


How to Make a Snow Globe - Make your own snow globe!
There is something so magical about snow globes. They are simple yet stunning! As a child, I remember being mesmerized by watching the snow fall again and again! These little globes full of wonder and awe never get boring! Whether you are a child or a kid at heart, everyone loves snow globes.
Today, you will learn how to make a snow globe! I promise you will love this snow globe craft and the memories you will make are going to be so special.
If you loved making the Sock Snowman Craft, you are sure to love this easy snow globe craft!
Gather the kids as we learn how to make this DIY Snow Globe!
The really fun part of this craft is that each person can design their own globe. The centerpiece of the snow globe is made out of modeling clay. Each person can mold whatever shape they like in whatever color they choose.
You will need small jars with lids. You might have these at home from leftover baby food jars, garlic or whatever you use. If you don't, you can order some here. These jars are also good for diy sugar scrub so the jars will not go to waste if you buy several on Amazon.
Also, another tip is to use fine glitter. Yes, you can use any glitter but the fine glitter really looks so much better when it is "snowing".
These are totally optional but very helpful for this craft!
1. Remove all labels and glue/adhesive from jars. I find acetone works best for the sticky residue as well as any printed codes on the jars.
2. Wash jars and lids with warm, soapy water, rinse well and dry completely.
3. Paint jars with black acrylic paint, allowing to dry completely between coats. Shape clay onto the lid of the jar. Make sure you keep the base of the clay sculpture inside of where the rim screws on.
4. Add any animals or items you'd like. Secure by pressing firmly onto the lid.
5. Fill the jar with glitter, making sure the bottom is just covered. Add water and fill almost completely. Place the lid onto the jar and twist tightly. Flip over and shake your jar and see your snow globe!
Optional: Glue the jar lid onto the jars. Before placing the lid on the jar, add a swipe of E6000 glue or epoxy to the rim of the jar. Twist the lid on and set overnight to set up.
1. Start with a black piece of clay and shape it into an oval. Flatten the bottom and sides. Use a toothpick to create wings. Flatten stray clay with your fingers.
2. Place a white face/belly onto the front of the black body and follow with small eyes and a yellow beak and feet. Place onto a white arctic iceberg on the jar lid.
1. Start with two orange pieces of clay and shape as shown. Press head and body together and add a tail. Add a white face and belly. Use a toothpick to make front leg shapes. Add eyes and nose.
To make a tree, take a piece of brown clay and shape it into a trunk shape. Roll green clay to make the tree branches and add pieces of white by ripping the clay and flattening it in your fingers before applying to the green boughs.
Place the tree and fox onto a bed of grass covered with some white patches of snow.
I think this Snow Globe Craft is so neat!
Each snow globe will be unique and it will be so fun to see how each one turns out. If you have candle sticks or pedestals, you can display your snow globes on one of them for a little something special. I find these at the dollar store all the time! It would be so pretty to get several in varying heights to create a snow globe display.
Turn the Christmas lights on, light a candle, bake some cookies and admire your handiwork.
Now that you know how to make your own snow globe, I'm sure it will become a new tradition.
I don't know about you but my kids don't remember a lot of what they received over past holidays and birthdays, but they always remember the fun activities we did together. Cherish those memories because truly it is the small things that are the big things! Enjoy each moment!
Did you know you can also make Homemade Mod Podge? It's SO easy!


Adam Tech offer a wide range of world class connectors and cable assemblies, featuring innovative connector designs and manufacturing capabilities that reduces cost and improves performance in a broad range of applications.
Adam Tech provides Radio Frequency Signal Connectors in standard, miniature, subminiature, micro miniature, and surface mount styles.
The range includes BNC, TNC, FME, FMA, SMA, SMB, N, F, PAL, UHF, Mini UHF, MCX, MMCX, MHF, W.FL and 1.6/5.6 coupling versions. Each has a standard industry interface, with most ideal for applications where size and weight are important, particularly in densely populated applications. All afford excellent RF characteristics.
Adam Tech's exclusive automated manufacturing processes provide consistent high quality with low cost and short lead times. They can also provide a variety of fully custom solutions.
For more information, contact the team on +44 (0) 1480 41 22 33, email info@componentsbureau.com, or view our Adam Tech partners page.


Glasgow based member of SSA, Sara Alonso, currently has a solo exhibition IOTA Unlimited Studios until 22nd April.
"This body of work is an attempt to stay in the present time and space out with demanding social networks and the influence of the lives of others. It explores the necessity of being left alone and being in contact with Nature to establish a tangible dialogue with the inner self for a better understanding of its place in this world.
"On my personal quest for the presence, I would pursue the great liberation from other people's lives through the act of walking, disconnected from social media. Exploring in this way, my sense of out of the virtual world.
"I started a 35 day journey (500 miles) through the Spanish summer fields in 2016. Disconnected from social networks, I took the pilgrim route of Camino de Santiago (from Madrid to Muxía, Galicia), searching for my very own identity in a space that was familiar to me. Not being exposed to social media and its virtual essence, gave my mind the space to embrace reality in its purest form. My feet would recognise the soil and its fields of cereals and sunflowers; my blood would understand the outrageous heat of summer in the Spanish flatland and my spoken tongue would speak for me and to me, fluently, in a dialogue easy to understand. I felt free and safe, in a space and time that only I would have access to.


In the world of technology there are the two big names that are Android and Apple we can say that just like a person who has work in the field of printing, flyers, brochures, postcards, business cards, posters, booklets, rack cards, calendars has his own reform just like that Apple and Android also has their own importance. First of all I'll introduce you the Apple, basically Apple is a electronic company that has lots of devices like iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac and many more the common thing among iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch is the "operating system". The operating system is the same which is running in these devices and that is iOS and Mac has its own operating system.
Apple recently launched its latest smartphone named iPhone 4S and the officially port of Siri (voice control system) also make it pretty functional. On the other hand Android is the operating system which has which is acquired by Google and its also running in the well form in lots of devices, smartphones and tablets. The well-known companies who are using Android OS is the Motorola, HTC, Samsung and LG and many more, on the other hand Android also has lots of Siri like Apps in the Android Market.
In the above that was the little introduction with Android and Apple so, Valentine is also near and I hope you have lots of plans in your mind. We can say that For those who don't be acquainted with the sense of this day, Valentine`s Day is an yearly festival held on February 14 celebrating love and affection. It is usually a day on which lovers utter their love for each other by present flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). Modern Valentine's Day symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid.
Here I am also going to present you something interesting about the Valentine day, if you are in love with someone and you are unable to show the passion of you love its golden chance for you now you can celebrate your Valentine in a good manners. Smartphones by Apple or Android can play a vital role for your love and if you are a little bit coward to express your love then a smartphone can help you below you can see the details of the importance of Smartphones For Valentine. You could send out a valentine via a postcard printing and mailing campaign, or get the message to your recipient faster via their smartphone.
Now the Valentine's Day is correct around the corner, and with any luck you've consideration of how you're going to make your important other feel special. There are some great apps on the iPhone and your, that be able to help you navigate through a successful Valentine's Day. This day can be especially stressful for us guys, but the iPhone is always there for moral support. So, so as to celebrate Valentine's Day with your iPhone or Android device, we have got together 5 seasonal (and handy) applications. These should go various ways towards spicing up the event and making your Valentine's Day even more special. Just don't spend all evening playing with your iPhone and Android Apps also spend some time with your girlfriend and make an impression before her.
On this Valentine day you can make use of Urbanspoon, OpenTable, Fandango, Pocketbooth, OkCupid and Valentine Radio. These are the more useful app and prove pretty useful for your good imperession.
On this Valentine the related wallpaper can also impress your girlfriend and you can make something interesting image of yourself. Valentine's Day is daylight hours to have a good time in love, the most fine-looking feeling in the world. Here I'd like to say that providential are those who are loved and cared for In Android Market there are many Android Apps available to get you involved, such as wallpapers, poems, short quotes, and even fun love tests. You can use the poems apps, wallpapers apps for celebrate this amazing day.
For these apps contain high excellence wallpapers of love, romantic moments, Valentine's Day love quotes by the spirit and fervor at the back the strongest emotion. Best Valentine's Day Apps for Android features the cute and sweet Android Apps for one's loved one. 14th February is celebrated as Valentine's Day, which is actually Saint Valentine's Day, usually shortened to Valentine's Day.
It's a pretty good thought if you are in love in someone and you have a true in your heart for him/her it means you can do everything for him. You should present a Smartphone as a gift there are lots of companies like Motorola, HTC, Samsung and LG you can present any smartphone of those companies to your lover you can also present Apple's iPhone as a gift for your lover.


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Cloudy. High 27F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph..
Partly cloudy. Low 16F. Winds light and variable.
New York Department of Environmental Conservation Administrative Law Judge Molly McBride (left) at the first of three public hearings for the National Fuel Northern Access Pipeline at St. Bonaventure University's Doyle Hall in February 2017. The DEC issued a 20-page letter to National Fuel Gas last week, saying the pipeline project would damage too many streams to meet state water quality standards by churning up sediment.
Olean Times Herald file photo
DEC again denies Northern Access Pipeline; NFG says FERC ruling gives OK
By RICK MILLER Olean Times Herald
Rick Miller
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation doubled down last week on its opposition of the proposed 97-mile Northern Access Pipeline that would carry Pennsylvania shale gas north to interstate pipelines in Erie County and to Canada.
The DEC issued a 20-page letter to National Fuel Gas, saying the project would damage too many streams to meet state water quality standards by churning up sediment.
National Fuel Gas continues to disregard the DEC finding that it could not grant a water quality certificate due to the crossing of 192 state-regulated streams and 73 acres of federally-regulated wetlands.
"We believe that Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) order finding that the New York DEC waived its authority to act on our certification application take precedence and render DEC's new denial ineffective and void," said Karen Merkel of the National Fuel Gas communications department.
"Once DEC's deadline to act passed, its subsequent actions (such as this new denial) are of no consequence," Merkel said in a statement. "We are considering our legal options and continue to work to finalize the remaining federal authorizations to move this project forward."
National Fuel Gas president and CEO David Bauer told investors last week, "While we had positive rulings in the courts, we're in a position where we could apply for a notice to proceed in the near future. That said, we're thinking this is really a longer-term project likely in the 2022 to 2023 timeframe."
The National Fuel Gas Supply Corporation and Empire Pipeline Inc. "would impact streams home to a number of significant animal species including trout (both brown and rainbow) and Eastern hellbender, a state-listed species of concern," the DEC said in a letter to NFG.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruled last year that the DEC failed to act in a timely manner on the NFG Water Quality Certificate application. National Fuel Gas officials say that cleared the way for the pipeline's construction.
"If allowed to proceed, the project would materially interfere with or jeopardize the biological integrity and best usage of affected water bodies and wetlands," the DEC said in its letter to National Fuel Gas.
Federal regulators claim the DEC's missed deadline in ruling on the NFG pipeline application has invalidated any future DEC actions.
In April, the FERC declined to give DEC an opportunity for a second hearing before the commission. DEC officials appealed that ruling to the Second Circuit Federal Court in June.
The pipeline route starts in McKean County and crosses the Allegheny River near Ceres in Allegany County. It generally follows existing rights of way.
The pipeline route would cross into Cattaraugus County in Portville, then head north to Hinsdale, Ischua, Franklinville, Machias and Yorkshire before crossing Cattaraugus Creek into the town of Sardinia in Erie County.
(Contact reporter Rick Miller at rmiller@olean
timesherald.com. Follow him on Twitter, @RMillerOTH)
Follow Rick Miller
North Central Supply


About 75 fishing enthusiasts lined the bank of Social Security Bar Thursday to watch as Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife officials and Oregon South Coast Fishermen members draped a giant seine across the Chetco River, drew it closed and wrangled 40 adult Chinook salmon into their arms and up a bucket brigade to two large holding tanks.
Fish had to be at least 86 centimeters in length — almost 3 feet — which resulted in fish weighing between 20 and 40 pounds.
The broodstock didn't go without a fight and thrashed around in the water in attempts to elude their captors.
They were then transported to the Elk River Hatchery near Port Orford where their eggs and milk are extracted to create next year's stock of smolt.
Some of the giant fish were tagged, indicating they returned to the Chetco River after being allowed to imprint on the river in Ferry Creek Reservoir, about a half-mile up the hill.
The effort is part of an ODFW project, eight years in the making, to keep a vibrant Chinook fishery in the river.


Akshaye Khanna is all set to grace the big screen after four years, as he plays a villain in 'Dishoom'. The actor was last seen playing the lead in 2012 release 'Gali Gali Chor Hai', which failed to make a mark at the box office. "It is wonderful to be back after so long. I had some personal issues to sort out so I couldn't work for a while. But I am thrilled to be back with this and a couple of more films this year," says Akshaye, who confesses that he always feels nervous around the media. Back in 2013, the 'Hulchul' actor made headlines as he was cheated by a couple for Rs 50 lakhs.
What made Alia Bhatt cry?


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Алекса́ндр Петро́вич Гре́ков (1909 — 19 апреля 2000) — реставратор, художник, иконописец. Лауреат Государственной премии СССР в области литературы, искусства и архитектуры (1989), заслуженный деятель искусств Российской Федерации (1993), Почётный гражданин города Новгорода (1992).

Биография
Александр Греков родился 12 сентября 1909 года в Санкт-Петербурге, в семье инженера путей сообщения — потомственного дворянина (предки отца — донские казаки, с 1827 года получили дворянство за участие в Отечественной войне 1812 года). До Октябрьской революции семья Грековых жила в родовом имении в Саратовской губернии и в Санкт-Петербурге, после революции — сначала в Павловске, затем в Риге, в 1920 году — в Херсонесе близ Севастополя, откуда семья в том же году перебралась в Константинополь.

В 1927 году Александр впервые принимал участие в реставрационных работах — в реставрации росписей Константинопольской церкви в Сан-Стефано, проводимых под руководством Н. Парова, там же, в Константинополе, в 1928 году Александр окончил французский колледж Сан-Бенуа.

В 1928—1948 годах семья жила во Франции, сначала в Верхней Гаронне, а с 1932 года в Париже. Там в 1931—1933 годах Александр Греков учился на факультете живописи в трёхгодичной Парижской «Универсальной школе» (ВУЗе-экстернате), но школу так и не окончил, неудовлетворённый качеством преподавания.

В 1939 году после нападения фашистской Германии на Францию пошёл добровольцем во французскую армию, через 10 месяцев попал в плен, по окончании войны снова жил в Париже.

В 1948 году семья Грековых переезжает в СССР, в Ярославль, там Александр Петрович с 1955 года работал в Ярославской специальной научно-реставрационной мастерской, с 1962 года руководитель участка.

В 1965 году переехал в Москву и работал в объединении, которое позднее стало называться «Союзреставрация». Вскоре был назначен руководителем работ по восстановлению фресок XIV века церкви Спаса Преображения на Ковалёвом поле около Новгорода. Также принимал участие в реставрации росписей церкви Фёдора Стратилата, икон в музее Московского Кремля, а также дома Ульяновых в Ульяновске.

После 1969 года реставрационные работы велись в основном в лабораторных условиях.

А. П. Греков совместно с супругой В. Грековой отработал и применил на практике методику спасения фресок разрушенного памятника архитектуры. По этой методике сбор и сортировка раздробленных фресковых композиций производится по секторам, согласно их раннему расположению на стенах памятника. Такая методика позволяет примерно сгруппировать фрагменты по известным композициям и в дальнейшем методом кропотливого подбора восстанавливать слой фресковой живописи. Эта методика уникальна и в практическом воплощении является первым опытом в мировой реставрационной практике.

Вместе с супругой А. П. Греков внёс неоценимый вклад в возрождение и реставрацию, казалось бы, навсегда утраченных шедевров древнерусской фресковой живописи г. Новгорода.

С 1988 года мастерская под руководством Грекова систематически занималась копированием фресок церкви Спаса на Ковалёвом поле, церкви Спаса на Ильине улице и церкви Фёдора Стратилата на Ручью.

Работы А. П. Грекова высоко оценены специалистами как в техническом, так и в художественном отношении. Академик Дмитрий Лихачёв назвал труд Грекова «выдающимся подвигом в искусстве».

Копии восстановленных им фресок неоднократно экспонировались на разного рода союзных и зарубежных выставках.

Среди множества публикаций в научных изданиях наиболее известной и ценной является книга А. П. Грекова «Фрески церкви Спаса Преображения на Ковалёве в Новгороде». Грековы создали свою реставрационную школу, которую прошли десятки людей, ставших впоследствии реставраторами.

Александр Греков скончался в апреле 2000 года. Похоронен на кладбище  (см. фото).

Награды
 1989 год — присвоение Государственной премии СССР в области литературы, искусства и архитектуры.
 1992 год — присвоение звания «Почётный гражданин Новгорода»
 1993 год — присвоение звания «Заслуженный деятель искусств России»
 1999 год — награждение орденом Дружбы

См. также
 Грекова Валентина Борисовна
 Церковь Спаса на Ковалёве

Примечания

Ссылки
 Александр Петрович Греков
 Реставратор А. П. Греков

Персоналии:Саратовская губерния
Участники Второй мировой войны
Персоналии:Ярославль
Иконописцы России
Художники-реставраторы России
Почётные граждане Великого Новгорода
Члены Союза художников СССР
Члены Союза архитекторов СССР

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The approach of a Chaos Army of the Patron Power Nurgle is foreshadowed by a dark plague of flies. These flies are part of the army, and live upon the foulness of the horde itself. During the battle, the flies congregate into an especially dense mass around any one enemy unit, causing much inconvenience as they buzz into the eyes, ears, and mouths of the enemy. The Army of Nurgle uniquely includes units of undead. The body of a plague victim belongs to Nurgle, should he care to claim it, for a year and a day. As the army advances, plague victims burst from their graves in the form of Zombies and Skeletons, ready to serve the Lord of Decay.


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HomeJobs in CanadaNew opportunities to upgrade Canadian express entry requirements
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New opportunities to upgrade Canadian express entry requirements
The latest news of Express Express's departure from Canada provides more good news for candidates who wish to immigrate to and live in Canada. The Canadian Express (CEC) candidate has announced an extradition notice (ITA). The criteria for 3,515 new candidates only allocated CRS 440 points.
The rapid evacuation is a continuation of the Canadian immigration, asylum, and citizenship (IRCC) trend, and only PNP and CEC candidates are invited to participate. The withdrawal is limited to PNP and CEC candidates, as this is a special precautionary measure against the current global coronavirus epidemic-although it is not clear when these restrictions will be lifted. The Canadian government is trying to solve the problem of job shortage by continuously monitoring preventive measures against Covid-19. However, this is the last draw for the largest guest since May 1, and the second-largest pre-wreath since mid-March.
The aircraft that recently took off from the runway is one of the last six Canadian Experience Class (CEC) aircraft departure points. may. The score was 452, which dropped to 447 in the draw on May 15th, and now we are down 7 points to 440.
The downward trend of the CRS threshold is the last use of all programs since March 4 this year. This may be closely related to the regular cloud interval and frequency that IRCC will maintain during the global epidemic.
The frequency and time between two consecutive equivalents are the main factors that seriously affect the CRS threshold. A higher frequency (shorter duration) between two withdrawals does not give candidates more time to create a "quick entry pool" profile, which means fewer candidates will be invited during each draw.
On the day before the government announced 3,515 candidates, 385 Express Entry candidates were withdrawn. These candidates were appointed through the Regional Candidate Program (PNP), with a CRS score of 757. In addition to the human capital score, Express Entry PNP candidates also scored 600 points, which shows that 385 candidates have high CRS scores.
Canada Express Entry manages the overview of the three main economy class immigration programs, namely
Federal Skills Department
Federal Ministry of Technical Workers
Canadian experience class.
Applicants are divided into three categories based on the scores given by the CRS. The system takes into account certain factors, such as:
qualifications,
The age of the candidate.
Skilled work experience.
editor October 5, 2020
Permanent Residency in Canada: Discover the Types of Visas You Should Know About
Living and Working in Colombia – Immigration and exploring the cost of living in Colombia as immigrants