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Swiss Army Man

I saw the movie Swiss Army Man at the Fargo Theatre in Fargo, North Dakota on Sunday, July 17, 2016. I had brunch at Kitchen Gremlin that was just up Broadway from the Theatre. Broadway is the main drag of Downtown Fargo. It was very hot outside, in the 90s and I didn't feel like doing anything outside. I also didn't feel like just hanging around the hotel in the afternoon and evening. I had found a public library and bookstore near downtown, but they were both closed. I decided to try the Fargo Theatre. They showed arthouse movies similar to the Grand Cinema in Tacoma. The only movie on their marquee was Swiss Army Man. The next screening was fairly soon at around 2 p.m. I decided to see it.

I entered the lobby, paid for a ticket that I think was just printed on receipt paper and entered Theatre 2. It was fairly small with just three rows of stadium seating. I sat in the second row on the left. There were a few other moviegoers. Downtown was sparsely populated that day, possibly because of the Red River Valley fair or one of the other fairs going on in the area that weekend. I had gone to the Red River Valley Fair the day before. It had been a bit cloudy that day but I still got some sunburn. This movie gave me something to do out of the sun.

Soon the lights dimmed and the trailers began. The first was for Denial, a true story about a Holocaust denier. The second was for La La Land that starred Emma Stone. She also appeared in Swiss Army Man. The third and final trailer was for Weiner Dog, a series of vignettes where I think the same weiner "Chet's Guy" lives with different guardians. After the trailers were ads for Kids' Flicks at Fargo Theatre and the Fargo Classic Film Series.

The feature presentation started at 2:25 p.m. and lasted around 90 minutes. It did seem like it lasted that long. It has a very strange premise that took some getting used to, but once I did I found it amusing, enjoyable, and funny at times. Sometimes I struggled to figure out what was going on and why certain things happened, but I figured them out soon enough. The movie really only has two main characters played by Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliff. I think the director also has Dan in their name. The two leads do well playing their hapless characters. Dano's character often tries to seem profound but just sounds funny. I learn a lot about Dano's character. Radcliff's character is more mysterious but they both develop over the course of the movie. The other characters including Emma Stone's role, make very short appearances, though still important.

I liked the setting of the movie. It seemed like the coast and woods of the Pacific Northwest or maybe Northern California. There was much greenery and lots of ferns. At one point the two leads are actually rolling in ferns. It's a bit difficult to tell how much time passes for the characters. It's at least several days. It's also hard to tell how far they travel, though some of that becomes apparent later in the movie. The movie is rated R and rightly so but not due to anything gratuitous.

I don't remember staying around for the credits by the end. When I left the Fargo Theatre I walked out a door that led into a small eatery or coffee shop in the same building. I had an interesting time at Fargo's version of the Grand Cinema.

The Nuns, the Priests, and the Bombs

We attended a screening of The Nuns, the Priests, and the Bombs at Father William Bichsel Hall on Sunday, May 28, 2017. We heard about the screening from the bulletin at St. Leo Parish. The documentary was directed by Helen Young and about two separate groups of people who protested against nuclear weapons by trespassing onto military property. We arrived at Bichsel Hall (a.k.a. "The Bix") shortly before the 4 pm start time. The parking lot wasn't very crowded but the Bix was. Most of the seats facing the screen were taken. They had set up more seats facing another screen on a back side wall. Just inside the Bix we saw the display in honor of Father Bichsel, a.k.a. Bix, including newspaper articles about his earlier arrests for protesting and his trademark blue cap. The screening was free through they suggested a freewill offering. They gave away DVDs that I think were about Bix's time in Japan. From the kitchen counter they served water and cookies from "Our Lady of Costco" as the pastor calls it. We found seats in the back row of the main seating area.

The screen was elevated up on the wall. Below it they had set up a microphone. The filmmaker Helen Young thanked us all for coming and the film began. They did not dim the lights or shade the windows making the picture a bit dim but I got used to it. The movie begins with news reports of the more recent protest action: three people including 82-year-old Catholic nun Sister Megan Rice trespassed onto the Y-12 nuclear weapons production facility in Tennessee in 2012. They got very close to where most of the uranium was stored. The film then went back three years to the event that inspired the Y-12 protest. In 2009, five people trespassed onto the U.S. Navy's Kitsap-Bangor Trident nuclear submarine base that is located only forty miles from Tacoma. This group was later known as the Bangor-5 and included 84-year-old nun Sister Anne Montgomery, and 81-year-old Father Bix.

As we entered Bix Hall volunteers handed us a paper with a synopsis of the documentary. I figured it would contain spoilers and didn't read it until after we went home later. I learned a lot from the film about nuclear weapons. Since the Manhattan Project in the 1940's, the U.S. has spent $10 trillion on the nuclear weapons program. There are now an estimated 15,000 nuclear weapons in the world with 1,300 nuclear warheads residing at Naval Base Kitsap. It is the base for half of the U.S. Navy's Trident submarines: around 4-8 of them. Each submarine has a load of 110 nuclear warheads and each warhead is 30 time more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Both the Bangor-5 and the Y-12-3 are part of the Plowshares movement that seeks to raise awareness of the nuclear threat. Their name is derived from the injunction "They shall beat their swords into plowshares," a quote from the Bible. I first learned about Plowshares from the course "Nonviolent Activism and Peace" that I took at Willamette University. Plowshares started with a small group of people trespassing onto a nuclear weapons facility in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania in 1980. I did not learn what a plowshare actual is until we returned home after watching the documentary. It is the part of the plow that cuts a furrow in the soil. The film also featured the organization Ground Zero that protests against nuclear weapons and has a headquarters on the border of Naval Base Kitsap. They sponsor protests there every Martin Luther King Day, Memorial Day, and the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, August 6.

The film details the planning by the Bangor-5 and the Y-12-3, their trespass actions, their arrests, and trials. We learned that the Federal courts did everything they could to prevent the defendants from giving the reasons for their protests. They operated under the assumptions that possession of nuclear weapons by the U.S. military was legal and sought to portray the cases as exclusively about trespassing, sabotage, and anarchy. As one of the Y-12 protestors said, "The court's motions did not allow the defense to present their defense." The film also included footage of the protests outside the United Nations when they were renegotiating the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 2015. They original signed that treaty in 1970 when five countries had nuclear weapons: the U.S., the Soviet Union (now Russia), China, the U.K., and France. Since 1970 four more countries have acquired nuclear weapons: India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel. The protestors brought a large balloon in the shape of a nuclear missile.

The time covered by the film spans all the way to the eventual passings of three of the Bangor-5: Sister Anne Montgomery, Lynne Greenwald, and Father Bix. The film does get very serious and even graphic such as when it shows the effects of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan at the end of World War II. A programmer made an interactive map that shows how many casualties would result from nuclear weapons hitting New York City, Seattle, and other places. But the film also manages to include some humor. Sister Megan Rice says the protest "baton" has been passed to her because "Sister Anne (Montgomery) is 84 and I'm only 82." Father Bix describes how he has had two open heart surgeries and takes a slew of medications "but other than that I'm doing well."

The film covers the results of the trials. All were convicted and sentenced to varying amounts of prison time and probation. The government seemed more concerned with the lapses in security than the danger of possessing nuclear weapons in the first place. Independent contractors were in charge of security and their cameras hadn't worked. In one case the switch on a camera was not flipped to the "on" position. The film interviewed a person who complained that the Y-12 protestors had caused people to lose their jobs. Nuclear weapons are located in other states such as North Dakota where a base can launch surface-to-air missiles, also called ICBMs. The film also featured Daniel Ellsberg who released the Pentagon Papers back in the 1970's. Ellsberg is also mentioned in the film Our Nixon.

We especially enjoyed the scenes of Tacoma shown in the film such as the Federal courthouse on Pacific Avenue, the "Peace House" (I'm not sure if that's what it's called) on Tacoma Avenue, and St. Leo Church. We even recognized some people in the scenes filmed inside St. Leo. A few of them attended the screening.

After the film ended a panel was assembled at the microphone in front. Some people left and we moved up the rows to see better. The panel consisted of the filmmaker Helen Young, the retired U.S. Navy commander turned peace activist who appeared in the film, the editor of the film, Dr. David Hall of the organization Ground Zero who appeared in the film, and Father Steve Kelly, one of the surviving Bangor-5. Ms. Kelly said that they planned to show the film to the United Nations. They were raising funds for its distribution. This screening was for the volunteers who worked on the film, people who appeared in it, and friends. It was not an official world premiere. They were shopping the film for festivals such as the Toronto Film Festival. Someone in the audience suggested the Tacoma Film Festival. Ms. Young said they had contacted someone with Robert Redford's organization. They said they needed to finish the audio, refine the graphics, and make a trailer. Father Kelly mentioned that Congress was considering a bill to spend $1 trillion to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal and another bill that would take away the President's power to use nuclear weapons without congressional approval. He urged us to call the office of Washington Senator Maria Cantwell to urge her to vote against the modernization bill and to vote for limiting the President's power to use nuclear weapons. I called her office at 950 Pacific Avenue on the following Tuesday and talked to a live person. I hope the film is widely distributed and leads to the elimination of all nuclear weapons.

Headhunters by Jo Nesbø

We saw the Norwegian movie Headhunters at the Rasmussen Rotunda, Wheelock Student Center at the University of Puget Sound on Monday, February 8, 2016. My wife heard about it from an email from South Sound Magazine. It was part of the Sister Cities International Film Festival. They showed a film from each of Tacoma's sister cities. On February 8 it was Ålesund, Norway's turn. The program started at 6 pm. We parked in the lot near the Wheelock student center along Alder that had spaces for visitors. We arrived early to have dinner at the UPS cafeteria. They now had flatscreen TV's mounted above the food stations indicating what was being served and how much each item cost. They were very reasonably priced. We noticed that they had a grand piano between the information desk and the lounge. Someone who looked young enough to be a student asked about our Norway hats. He didn't know about the event or about Headhunters or Jo Nesbø whose book is the basis for this movie.

At 6 pm we entered the Rassmussen Rotunda. They had chairs set up facing a screen. They had tables with literature about Sister Cities and other related programs. They had an old copy of Nordic Kulture and recent back issues of the Norwegian American Weekly. On a table to the left they had their silent auction set up. It included several gift baskets, mostly with wine and desserts. One of them had a DVD movie of Hawaii, Oslo. We bid on one of the items, a mug from Norway with some yellow roses. The program began with Norwegian bingo. The emcee said the Norwegian words for many things that we had to draw on our bingo sheets. Luckily my wife had brought a Norwegian dictionary. The words were fairly straightforward such as hat, window, coffee cup, horse, woman, man, telephone, door, jacket, umbrella, hand, foot, cow, and eye. Once we had drawn in everything, the emcee announced eight or nine words to mark off the bingo sheets. Three or four people got bingo and were given bags of prizes.

After Norwegian Bingo, Tacoma city councilman Robert Thoms spoke welcoming us to the event. I think he was the one who mentioned that the Sister Cities program was started by President Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950's. The program said that Ålesund had been Tacoma's sister city since 1986. After Thom's speech, the emcee introduced Tora Hedges, a senior at Pacific Lutheran University from Norway. She first sang "Spring" by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. She sang it beautifully. I think between this song and the next, the emcee mentioned that Tora had sung for the King of Norway when he came to PLU graduation ceremonies in the May 2015. Tora said she would sing the next song in Swedish. It was by Sibelius and I think it was called "Little Lassie." After that song Tora said we could join in singing the next song. It was the Norwegian National Anthem that she again sang beautifully. We all stood up.

The next speaker was Tom Heavey, the founder of the Greater Tacoma Peace Prize Committee. The Committee was calling for nominations of individuals with a tie to Pierce County who have greatly helped work for peace. The prize would be awarded in April and would include a glass bowl made by Hilltop Artists and a trip for two to Oslo, Norway to watch the award of the Nobel Peace Prize. Heavey mentioned some past recipients of the Great Tacoma Peace Prize: George F. Russell; a pastor in Salishan; UPS alum David Corner who gathered cast-off medical supplies to donate to clinics in third world countries; Sally Shaw from United for Peace of Pierce County; Thomas Dixon for helping to bring together the black and white communities; and Father Bill Bichsel, the "Patron Saint of Tacoma."

At about 6:57 pm the lights went out for the movie. It was projected onto a screen on the north side of the Rotunda. They hadn't closed all the shades and we could sometimes see car headlights but overall the venue was pretty good for watching a movie. The seats were over half full, mostly with people who looked older than us. I think just before the movie started a still screen said it was rated PG-13. But fairly quickly into the movie was some clearly R-rated content. I thought that maybe it was rated PG-13 in Norway. The movie ad on the back of my Headhunters book said it was rated R. The beginning introduces the main character, corporate headhunter Roger Brown, his wife Diana, shady partner Ove Kjikerud, and Clas Greve who seems to be the perfect candidate for a corporate position. Roger has his hidden agendas. What he comes to learn the hard way is that others also have them. Though he thinks he has everything under control, his position is quite precarious from the beginning. As the story progresses it gets more out of control. It is reminiscent of the Coen Brothers and Quentin Tarantino, and very much a Jo Nesbø story.

We thought Roger Brown was perfectly cast with Aksel Hennie. He is shorter than the average Norwegian at 168 cm (5'6") and looks it, especially with his wife Diana played by Synnøve Macudy Lund and Clas Greve played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. We remembered that Coster-Waldau was mentioned in the 2015 issue of Nordic Kulture magazine. The actors playing minor characters also do great jobs establishing their characters, sometimes in just a few minutes. The story doesn't take itself too seriously and has a lot of humor. It is fast-paced and sometimes hard to follow, but I had a general sense of what was going on. It has quite a bit of violence, blood, and some gore. At least one scene is truly disgusting but still an important part of the complex story. A character who worked for Kripos reminded me of the Harry Hole books. Roger wore some Outdoor Research apparel.

The movie is 100 minutes long and I felt like that much time had elapsed. Though the ending was somewhat unexpected, we still found it satisfying. After they turned on the lights they announced the winners of the silent auction. We won the Norwegian mug filled with yellow roses for a bid of $9. I saw the coordinator of the Classics Book Club there. We talked a bit about the upcoming discussion of The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton that was scheduled for two days later on Wednesday, February 10. I later learned that Headhunters was the highest grossing Norwegian film to date.

After seeing the movie I decided to read the book Headhunters by Jo Nesbø. My wife had bought it for me sometime during the past couple of years. It was first published in 2008 and I think it was one of Nesbø's first non-Harry Hole books other than the children's books he has written. It's a fairly short book at 265 pages. My paperback copy included the first 10-20 pages of The Snowman at the end. The original title is Hodejegerne and it was translated into British English by Dan Bartlett. The book does flesh out many details that the movie did not have time to include. Among these is that the title has multiple meanings and Roger is not the only headhunter in the story. Just like the movie, the book begins with Roger interviewing a potential candidate. Roger tells the story as the first-person narrator. The story overall is the same as the movie, but a number of plot points differ such as how a character learned of something. I felt like I understood the story much better after reading the book.

The book gives more exact details than the movie and gives more of Roger's backstory. It the first scene, the candidate Jeremias Lander is dressed "in Gunnar Øye attire: grey Ermenegildo suit, hand sewn Borelli shirt, …" (p. 5) It's interesting that Roger himself wears an Ermenegildo suit in the last scene of the book. Roger notes that the candidate is "approximately 14 centimeters taller than me and three years older. 38 then." (p. 6) Roger first meets Diana in England where his father worked as a chauffeur for the Norwegian embassy. He describes how Diana "had worn a blue-and-white striped scarf and screamed herself hoarse at Loftus Road as her poor little team, Queens Park Rangers, were being thumped by their big brother, Arsenal." (p. 25) I had never heard of the London football team Queens Park Rangers (QPR). I thought the four London teams were Arsenal, Chelsea, Westham, and Tottingham Hotspur. Well, it turns out those are the four teams in the English Premier league, but there are other lower-tier leagues. QPR are in the next league down, the Champions League.

At the beginning Roger says a lot about employment interviews. He quotes the research that says "78% of first impressions at interviews are based on body language and a mere 8% on what you actually say." (p. 12) Roger's interview technique is based on "Inbrau, Reid, and Buckley's Interrogations and Confessions from 1962 (that) laid the groundwork for what have since become the prevailing interview technique." (p. 54) Roger's observations can be very humorous. He describes how in addition to wealthy potential buyers of art, Diana also invites to a private gallery opening "the flock of young, so called promising, and allegedly poor, rebellious artists (jeans with holes, T-shirts with slogans) whom in my mind I termed QPR. When at the beginning I had wrinkled my nose at these elements on the guest list, Diana had argued that we needed 'some spice,' some life." (p. 35) When he tries to call Greve he instead reaches Greve's answerphone. He notices that Greve starts calling him by his "Christian name," Roger. At the end he sees a man stroll "out of the office building heading into a vague direction of the Passat. He had a Passat-owner gait, I determined." (p. 259) I wonder if I had that gait when I owned a Passat.

The book contained one word I did not know and a new meaning of a common word. Roger has "an ineluctable realization." (p. 109) Ineluctable means incapable of being evaded or escaped. The only thing of value that Roger has inherited from his father is "one of those wooden-ball mats, the type that taxi drivers use the whole world over." His father had used it because of piles, and "I did so too as a precaution in case it was hereditary." (p. 120) I had never heard of an affliction called piles. I turns out that piles is another word for hemorrhoids.

The book contains several relatable references. While walking through an unfamiliar neighborhood, Roger casts his eyes "down on meeting the Filipina girls who push prams for the ruling class in their suburb." (p. 49) On character owns a lithograph by Edvard Munch entitled "The Brooch." This is an actual lithograph by Munch whose most famous painting is "The Scream." There was an exhibit of other works by Munch at the Tacoma Art Museum between April and July 2016. While riding the Oslo commuter train for the first time in many years, Roger notices that "The noise from the rails was less deafening, the advertising more deafening and extrovert." (p. 209) This just reminds me of the book about introverts by Susan Crane that I read a couple of years ago. Roger reads that a painting has been sold at auction to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. We wondered if Nesbø meant the Getty or the Getty Villa.

Like most Nesbø books, Headhunters contains many fun musical references, both direct and indirect. An artist whose work Diana's gallery displays is Atle Nørum who has the same last name as John Norum, the guitarist of the Swedish rock band Europe. Diana's mobile phone ringtone is the guitar chord "G11sus4, the opening chord of The Beatles 'A Hard Day's Night.'" (p. 39) The book also has a chapter with the title "G11sus4." When Roger is put on hold by the Oslo telephone switchboard he listens "to a surprisingly good pan-pipe version of 'Wonderwall.'" (p. 198) The best musical reference is a seemingly indirect one. Roger mentions that "My father, Ian Brown, was a keen, though not a very good, chess player." (p. 93) I'm pretty sure it's not a coincidence that Ian Brown is also the name of the lead singer of The Stone Roses. Nesbø mentioned The Stone Roses in one of the Harry Hole books.

Headhunters made for a satisfying movie and an even more satisfying book. Knowing the outcome of the story did not detract much if at all from reading the book. Maybe filmmakers will make more movies out of Nesbø's books.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I saw the movie Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens on Monday, January 18, 2016 at the Century Point Ruston and XD cinema. It's a new cinema that had opened in the past couple of months. The Force Awakens had been out one month but I couldn't find time to see it until January 18^th. The movie had been promoted for a while. Its first trailer appeared in December 2014. There was a lot of anticipation. It was a sequel to Return of the Jedi that came out in 1983. The Force Awakens would feature the main characters from the original trilogy and introduce some new main characters. The last Star Wars movie that I had seen was The Revenge of the Sith in 2005, the third of the prequel trilogies. I also saw the original costumes from that movie at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM). It had been awhile since that last Star Wars movie. My hairstylist was greatly anticipating the new installment. Straight No Chaser even did a vocal version of the Star Wars theme along with some other soundtracks. It went "Star Wars ya da da Star Wars."

My brother and I had talked about getting advance tickets. We had been fans since we were very young. I think the first Star Wars movie I saw was The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 at a cinema in the Seattle area. We had played with many of the action figures and toy sets. We had the original Death Star setup, the Millennium Falcon, the Rebel Transport, Boba Fett ship, and X-wing, snow speeder, Imperial snow base on Hoth, and possibly some others. We eventually let go of most of the toy sets but my mom has kept the figures. My brother and I discussed some possible dates and times but ultimately weren't able to meet up, at least not as of February 11, 2016 when I started writing this review. He saw it during the last week of 2015. I just couldn't find time. In the meantime people I knew saw it multiple times. One person saw it five times during the first two weeks it was out.

I decided to attend the 2 p.m. screening at Century Point Ruston, or maybe it was 2:30 p.m. When I looked up the cinema, I learned that its address is on Main Street. I didn't think there was a Main Street in Tacoma or in Ruston. Through online maps I learned that Main Street was a new street built for the new development. It reminds me a bit of North Mainstreet, one of the streets in Victoria Gardens. To get to the cinema I took Ruston Way northwest and turned right at Bay View Corridor. This led to a traffic machine where I took the third right to drive northeast on Main Street that runs parallel to Ruston Way. I thought I would be able to park at the perpendicular spots along Main Street, but signs said restricted parking. On the right were new apartment buildings with businesses in the first floor. The cinema was at the north end of the block. Right through an intersection was a parking structure whose first floor was open for use. It was free and had many available spaces.

After parking I walked back towards Main Street, crossed the cross street and arrived at the Century Point Ruston. There were no ticket windows on the outside of the building, only a couple of touch screen ticket machines. One of them wasn't working. A woman with a couple of small children tried to buy tickets to the 2 p.m. screening of The Force Awakens but the machine said it was sold out. She walked away to check if it was playing at a different cinema. I knew it was playing at the Regal cinema in Lakewood at 3:30 p.m. but I didn't want to drive all the way out there and have to wait a while. I decided to check if I could get a ticket another way. With my smartphone I went to Fandango.com and found the cinema, movie, day, and time. I found it and tickets were still available, but only in the very front row. I picked a seat as close to the middle as possible. It cost the expected $8.50 regular ticket price plus a $1.50 service fee for a total of $10. After I bought it Fandango produced a QR code.

I entered the cinema and found their proper ticket counter on the right. If I had known better, I probably could halve purchased my ticket at that counter and saved $1.50. I had to scan the QR code at the counter straight ahead after entering the cinema. It initially wouldn't scan. The employee suggested I turn up the brightness of my phone. After I did so it scanned easily. The employee handed me a small paper ticket. I was disappointed that it said "Star Wars: Episode" rather than something like Star Wars: The Force. I found the theater where The Force Awakens was showing, number 1, and my seat, A6 in the front row. The theater was medium size but didn't have as many seats as it initially appeared because each seat was a large, comfortable recliner. Once I figured out the control on the right, I leaned my recliner back. I needed to do so since I was in the front row. I could see most of the screen but it was very close.

The screen showed motion ads, most of which I don't remember. I think there was one of the Lava Pup with James Cordon. I'm not sure what that was. Others were for Lexus, M&Ms, Diet Coke. There were a couple for TV shows: Legends of Tomorrow on the CW and The People versus O.J. Simpson. There were a few Fat Home Vents. I think one was for a Mystery Science Theatre movie treatment. As the ads played, the theater filled up. There may have been one or two empty seats in the front row. The official movie trailers began at 2:01 p.m. The first was for the animated movie Zootopia. The next was for the latest Star Trek movie followed by one for the next Kung Fu Panda. Gods of Egypt followed along with J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where They Come From and the latest Captain America. The feature presentation began at 2:15 p.m. Like the other Star Wars movies this one began with scrolling text on a black "space" background. Unlike most of the others this one was not directed by George Lucas. I don't think he had any direct involvement. The Force Awakens was directed by J.J. Abrams who I saw at a presentation of the TV show Felicity back in early 1999 and whose last directed film was Star Trek Into Darkness. The scenario for The Force Awakens was co-written by Lawrence Kasdan who had also co-written The Empire Strikes Back.

The Force Awakens is set 30 years after Return of the Jedi. It includes all the (still living) main characters from the first three films, though a few of them have very brief appearances. It also introduces several new characters. Some were cast to unknowns such as Daisy Ridley as Rey and John Boyega as Finn. Other actors are a bit more well-known such as Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Lupita Nyong'o, Andy Serkis, and Domhnall Gleeson. The new main characters have more screen time than the old but a few of the old have extensive roles. Another new character is a droid named BB8 who has an interesting design. I still don't know how the characters can understand characters such as BB8, R2-D2 and Chewbacca. To be fair, at least one of the new characters also didn't understand Chewbacca. The actors play their roles well through Star Wars has never been known for its acting. They still have plenty of humorous lines. A few refer back to the original trilogy.

The story is remarkably similar to the first Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, about how several unlikely characters come together and whose lives change drastically very quickly. But it's still fun to watch. It's also interesting to learn what has occurred since Return of the Jedi. Apparently, The Dark Side was not completely defeated. The sides look similar but there are some slight differences, more like updates. Women now pilot X-wings. Storm Troopers have yet another style that it still fairly similar to the original. There are still Tie Fighters, Star Destroyers and X-Wings, but they're colored slightly differently. The movie has fantastic special effects, as expected. My brother said it was like they poured gasoline on the effects of the original trilogy. But the key elements are still there, the blasters, light sabers, even the desert planet, though in this movie Jakku rather than Tattooine. I liked that some of the evil characters were actually a bit more ambiguous and conflicted, though still clearly evil. I also liked Lupita Nyong'o's character and that the story had some interesting twists. It's a fun movie.

After the movie ended I stayed through most of the credits that began at 4:23 p.m. One of the digital artists had the name Stephen King. There were filming units in Abu Dhabi, Iceland, and Ireland. I left the theatre and the cinema. Before leaving I decided to walk around the development a bit. There was still some construction underway. Near the beach was a concrete park with statues of sealife and a large open area with fountains shooting up from the ground. Lights made the water appear in different colors. Looking south from the edge of the park I could see Mt. Rainier a.k.a. Mt. Tacoma. It was overcast but not raining and starting to get dark. I walked by the new restaurant, WildFin, that would open the next day. It looked pretty fancy with real burning torches outside. I returned to the parking structure, drove out, turned right at Main Street that led to a traffic machine and to Ruston Way south.

Though I had finally seen the movie, I wasn't finished with The Force Awakens yet. For Christmas 2015 I had received a Kobo reader. I had read an Overdrive epub with it, Missoula by Jon Krakauer. I wanted to try reading a book in Kobo format. I logged onto my Kobo account and ordered the novelization of The Force Awakens by Alan Dean Forster. I hadn't heard of him but read that he is a respected science fiction author who has also written the novelizations of The Chronicles of Riddick, Dark Star, Transformers, and the first three Alien movies. The Force Awakens novel was pretty good. Though written in the third person, it switches from different characters' points of view even revealing their thoughts. The "point of view" characters include evil characters Kylo Ren and General Hux. It fleshes out some of the story, the dialogue and the characters' inner motivations. But the book still matches the movie practically scene for scene. I think this format detracted from the book. It seemed like the movie in slow motion. I think the book would have been better if it had told the same story but from slightly different angles from the movie. Something I learned about Kobo format is they don't give what page in the book I'm on. They give the page of the chapter and the number of hours of reading left.

I liked that the book reminded me of some seemingly insignificant details form the movie. When Rey returns to her shelter, a collapsed AT-AT Imperial Walker, "she remembered to make a scratch mark on one interior wall of semi-malleable material. She had long since stopped bothering to count the scratches which now numbers in the thousands" (p. 65 of chapter II). I like when the book gives Maz Kanata's thoughts after talking to Rey: "One could teach knowledge. One could teach skills. One could even, she knew, teach something of the Force. But patience had to be learned alone" (p. 25 of chapter XII).

I actually learned a couple of new words form reading The Force Awakens. All Finn can do for Rey is "apologize for having inveigled her into a mess that was a consequence of his own making" (p. 99 of chapter III). According to the internal dictionary, to inveigle means 1) to win over by wiles: entice or 2) to acquire by ingenuity or flattery: wrangle. I learned another new word from the sentence "Design or not, Han had no intention of waiting around to see whether the material of which the port was composted was tougher than rathtar dentition" (pp. 51-52 of chapter IX). The new word was not rathtar. I already knew that was an alien monster. But before reading the book I did not know that dentition was the kind, number, and arrangement of the teeth of humans and animals. The two relatable references had a word I always enjoy. Forster describes the planet Takdana as "Verdant and mild, flecked with bands of white cloud and necklaced with small seas and brightly reflective lakes "(p. 2 of chapter XI). The planet D'Qar's terrain is also "green and verdant, with flourishing trees that put those on most worlds' to shame in size and appearance" (p. 44 of chapter XVI).

The Force Awakens made for a fun movie and novel. Now I can talk freely about them with my hairstylist and brother. I don't have to think too much about Star Wars until the next one comes out in 2017.

X-Men: Apocalypse

We saw the movie X-Men: Apocalypse at the Cinemark Point Ruston: Century Waterwalk on Monday, May 30, 2016. It was the sixth X-Men movie that we've seen in cinemas in the past sixteen years. It was also the third movie I saw at the Century Waterwalk in 2016. I saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens in January and The Brothers Grimsby in March. The last X-Men movie we saw was X-Men: Days of Future Past in May 2014. I think the two years between that movie and the latest one was the shortest time span between X-Men movies. But time plays tricks in film. The latest one takes place ten years after the last one and twenty years after the one before that: X-Men: First Class from back on 2011. The characters have aged but they don't look like they've aged 10-20 years. But it's still fun to revisit the different decades in each movie. Time also plays tricks in the comic books.

We arrived at the Century Waterwalk early at around 11 am. The weather was beautiful and just a little bit windy along the Ruston waterfront. Traffic was a bit slow. We parked in the structure for Point Ruston, crossed to the cinema, and entered through a door on the right. There was no queue at the box office but most of the seats for the 12:20 pm (regular digital screen) screening of X-Men: Apocalypse we sold and taken since they reserve seats. The only row with two adjacent seats available was the very front row. We bought tickets for seats 7 and 8 in row A: towards the center of the very front row. We then had lunch at Mio Sushi and my wife got dessert at Dolce Si (see later review).

We returned to the cinema at 12:15 pm, gave the employee our tickets, and entered Theatre 6 that was right nearby. Like other theatres I've attended at the Century Waterwalk, this one seemed fairly small with its large adjustable seats. We found ours quickly. The theatre was already fairly full and would be completely full by the time the feature presentation started, even the very front row. Despite being so close we didn't have too much trouble seeing the screen. We sat down just before the official movie trailers began. First there was a commercial for the Cinemark card that was also a trailer for The Secret Life of Pets. The first official trailer was for The Infiltrators about some federal agents who go undercover to bring down drug lord Pablo Escobar. The next one was for the Civil War-era movie The Free State of Jones. The one after it is also inspired by actual events. Deepwater Horizon is about the oil rig that exploded in 2010 and the rescue of the survivors. The next trailer was for Jason Bourne starring Matt Damon. The one after was for Assassin's Creed. It's based on a video game and stars Micheal Fassbender. The last trailer was for Independence Day: Resurgence.

Just before the feature presentation began there was a short video message from Alexandra Shipp, the actress who played Storm in X-Men: Apocalypse. She thanked us for coming to see the movie in a theatre. The feature presentation began with an action sequence giving some of the origin story of En Sabah Nur a.k.a. Apocalypse. I was familiar with Apocalypse from reading X-Factor comics in the late 1980's. He was this large blue space-age-looking mutant who could change his general shape and has various advanced technologies at his disposal. He's a bit different in the movie. He seems to have more powers and most of the time he is the size of a normal person, maybe a bit short, though stout and muscular. Oscar Isaac who plays Apocalypse does a good job portraying his power and desire to dominate. He really seems thousands of years old despite Isaac being in his mid-thirties. As I stated, the movie takes plays in 1983 and contains many 80's references such as 80's music, Ms. Pacman, brightly colored fashions, newsmakers such as Ronald Reagan, and a reference to Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. A character says, "The third one is always the worst" that might be a deprecating comment about the X-Men movie they're in. I heard that X-Men Apocalypse got mixed reviews. I thought it was pretty good, maybe not as good as the last one but good enough. I was actually glad the movie was fairly long at 144 minutes because I wanted it to keep going.

I thought the story was decent and that the movie had the right mix of action, character development, humor, comic book references, and 80's references. The movie had many different settings including Wall-era East Berlin, Cairo, the Xavier school in Westchester, Poland, and Canada. I think most of the film was shot in the area of Vancouver, Canada. There is much advanced technology used. The Blackbird jet makes an appearance but I don't think it actually flies in this movie. I was a little unclear on how Apocalypse enhanced the powers of some mutants such as Storm and Psylocke. Other mutants' enhancements such as Magneto's were clearer. I was also a bit confused as to En Sabah Nur's/ Apocalypse's plans. His statement in the movie's trailers is very general: destroy this world and build a better one.

I liked the acting and that so many characters were sufficiently featured. I liked how the movie introduced the new ones such as Angel, Nightcrawler, Caliban, Storm, and Psylocke. Teenagers Cyclops and Jean Grey meet for the first time and play crucial roles in the action. I liked that the filmmakers preserved many character facts from the comics such as Havok being Cyclops' brother and Nightcrawler's Christianity. I think much of the story centers around Magneto/ Erik Lehnsherr who is very well portrayed by Michael Fassbender, though he seems in need of a shave for most of the movie. Raven/ Mystique also plays a major role. Her actions from the prior movie figure strongly in this one. Hank McCoy/ Beast has grown up a lot since X-Men: First Class. The popular Quicksilver returns with many humorous lines and another fun action sequence. He does seem older than the last movie but maybe not ten years older. I thought that Jubilee was yet again underrepresented, but at least she had a few lines in this one. Maybe next time we'll see some of her powers. The movie reveals how Professor X lost his hair.

Even with all the new characters, the movie still had time for the return of Rose Byrne as Moira McTaggart and a cameo by the only actor who as appeared in every X-Men movie since 2000. Original X-Men co-creator Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance that I spotted, though it's not a humorous scene this time. Bryan Singer returns to direct and again does a good job in my opinion. I think he has now directed 2/3 of the X-Men movies. We stayed through the credits that were very lengthy. They included credits for the 80's TV shows, music, and for the Ms. Pacman game shown in the movie. There was a post-credits scene alluding to another X-Men villain, setting the stage for the next sequel. I wonder if that one will take place in the 1990's. The movie ended at 3 pm.

After we got home we looked at our game X-Men Monopoly that my wife got me around that time that the first X-Men movie came out in 2000. We were now familiar with most of the mutants and characters on the properties, as tokens, and in the "Chance" and "Community Chest" cards. There are a few mutants we haven't seen in the movies yet such as Marrow, Cable, and the one we'll likely see in the next X-Men movie.

Sherlock: The Abominable Bride

We saw the special episode of the BBC Series Sherlock "The Abominable Bride" at the AMC at Kent Station on Wednesday, January 6, 2016. We had heard about it the year before. It seemed like a stand-alone episode that took place in Victorian England. The episode was broadcast on PBS on January 1. But we had also heard from the President for Life (PFL) of the Sound of the Baskervilles that it would be screened in cinemas as a Fathom Event (a.k.a. Fat Home Vent). We bought our tickets sometime in late November or early December for $15 each. The episode would screen at other locations on different days during the week of January 3-9 such as The Commons in Federal Way. I think we got our tickets through Fandango and the confirmation e-mail said the screening started at 7 pm.

Before going to Kent Station we picked up dinner at "Yes We Can" Burger Seoul and ate our takeaway at home. But we finished later that I thought we would and had to rush to get to Kent Station by 7 pm. Luckily, there wasn't much traffic on the I-5 north, the 18 east, or the 167 north. We arrived at the Kent Station parking structure right before 7 pm and jogged through an alley to get to the Cinema. Once there we joined a short queue at the ticket window. When we saw Sherlock on the marquee we noticed that it started at 7:30 rather than 7:00 pm. We had arrived early rather than just in time as we had thought. Sherlock was rated NR. When we reached the ticket window, we only had to give our confirmation number. We entered the cinema and the employee directed us to Theatre 8 where there was a queue of many young people, mostly couples. I think they were cleaning the theatre that the sign said was where they usually showed Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

They opened up the theatre fairly early at 7:10 pm. It had stadium seating as I believe all the theatres there do. We found seats in the middle towards the back. I'd say the theatre was at least half full. On the screen they showed ads for Fat Home Vents and values.com. They soon showed trivia questions about the earlier episodes of the TV series Sherlock. The questions appeared as white text on black background with frontispiece-like flourishes on either side. After many minutes the questions started to repeat themselves. At 7:29 pm there was an ad for shop.bbc.com followed by one for the upcoming season of Dr. Who that included a shot of a Tardis flying across the screen. A message told us to be sure stay in our seats after the main feature ended in order to see some more special features. Then it went back to the trivia questions again. They played what sounded like many people talking in the background.

At 7:39 pm the trivial questions finally ended for the last time. They showed a preview for the DVD's/ Blue Rays of series 1-3 of Sherlock. Then there was an ad for watching TED Talks through Fat Home Vents with one quick clip possibly showing Mark Ronson. Next was an ad for Mystery Science Theatre. The movie they were joking through was a recent one, though I can't remember which one it was. They then showed a true special feature: series writer Stephen Moffat giving a tour of the Victorian 221B set. He pointed out the iconic features such as the "VR" shot into the wall and some original decorations such as a stained glass window with images from several different stories. Moffat was hilarious. After his tour, the episode began with scenes from earlier seasons. They conveniently gave the year for each brief scene, and there were some funny ones.

The episode itself also had a lot of humor. It mostly takes place in Victorian England. All the characters look slightly to greatly different such as Mycroft. We thought Lestrade looked and acted most closely to the time period. He was much more bumbling than the present day Lestrade as was Watson. The mystery was original, quite complex, and at times scary. It didn't explain everything entirely and got more and more surreal as it went. It was sometimes had to tell how far through the story it was at different times. At one point when I thought most plot points had been settled, something happened that made everything puzzling again. I don't want to give away too much but I will stay that The Strand magazine makes and appearance and someone uses a manly notebook. The episode ended at 9:30 pm.

After the episode proper they showed a short film of Mark Gatiss interviewing the main cast. He mentioned that one of filming locations was Gloucester Cathedral. The special feature ended at 9:35 pm.

We attended a SOB meeting at the PFL's home the following Sunday. PFL mentioned a Sherlock Holmes visitor attraction in Portsmouth and the article "When Arthur Conan Doyle Visited Tacoma." ACD visited the Presbyterian Church near Wright Park. PFL also passed out a review of "The Abominable Bride" by Amy Thomas that explained the episode better. I think the BBC plans to film another full season of Sherlock within the next couple of years.

The Brothers Grimsby

We saw the movie The Brothers Grimsby at the Cinemark Century Waterwalk 9 in the Point Ruston development in north Tacoma on Saturday, March 12, 2016. I first heard of the movie a few months before, I think from seeing the previews online. I knew it starred Sacha Baron Cohen who also co-wrote it. He is known for comedies Borat and Brüno where he plays outrageous characters who sometimes interact with real people. As Cohen is now very well-known he rarely stages reality situations for his movies but he still plays some outrageous characters as well as supporting characters in other movies. The last title character I remembered was The Dictator where he spoofs a modern strongman dictator. The last movie that we saw featuring him was Les Miserables in which he played Thenardier and was hilarious alongside Helena Bonham Carter. In The Brothers Grimsby, Cohen plays a working class football fan whose long-lost brother is a secret agent played by Mark Strong. Fortuitous events bring them together and force them to cooperate. It's like an "Odd Couple" buddy movie with an English and family twist.

On Monday, March 7, I watched El Gordo y La Flaca on Univision. In the second half of the show, Sacha Baron Cohen visited el estudio in character as Nobby from The Brothers Grimsby. He wore and English football shirt, had a bowl-like haircut and thick sideburns like Liam Gallagher. He did not speak Spanish but heavily accented British English. The hosts, Lily Estefan ("La Flaca") and Carlos, who was substituting for Raul de Molina ("El Gordo"), switched between English with Nobby and Spanish to translate for the Univision viewers. Nobby had some trouble getting through the sliding door into el estudio. Lily and Carlos helped him to a seat while Nobby asked, "Why is everybody touching me?" They said they would try to help him find his brother first showing a picture of Raul de Molina. After Nobby said, "No, that's not me brother," they showed one of "El Chapo" Guzman. Nobby asked if he was a child molester. I think they were going to show one of Prince Harry but had some technical difficulties with the monitor. Finally, they brought in the staffer of el estudio who is also a little person. He had a similar haircut to Nobby and sunglasses. Nobby exclaimed, "It's me brother!" and told him, "You look exactly like I remember you. You haven't grown atall."

We thought the movie might be worth seeing. One main reason for seeing it was that Baron Cohen's character Nobby is very obviously a "chav." Though he portrays chavs rather unfavorably and probably reinforces many stereotypes, there aren't many movies with a chav as the main character. We've taken an interest in chavs since I heard Plan B use that term in his song "Ill Manors" and read the book Chavs by Owen Jones.

The movie opened on March 11 in the United States. We decided to see it on March 12 rather than go to the Masterminds Trivia Contest that we had attended the previous two years. We remembered how we had to drive in the dark though Bonney Lake to get to Masterminds. The weather had been mostly cloudy and raining all week with occasion hours of partial sunshine. We instead drove to north Tacoma and first had dinner at Sammy's Pizza (see later review).

We finished dinner earlier than expected. It didn't take Sammy's very long to make our pizzas. We left Sammy's at around 6:30 pm and drove east on N. 21^st Street/ I Street. We turned left at N 12^th Street, drove north, though down the hill past Lowell Elementary School and St. Patrick's School. We turned left at G Street that turned into McCarver Street and went further down the hill all the way to Ruston Way. We stopped just before the railroad tracks and waited for the light to turn green. Once it did we turned left onto Ruston Way. We drove along the waterfront. When we passed the restaurants such as Harbor Lights, Kate Downs, and Duke's Chowder House we noticed many cars parked in the lots and traffic backed up a bit. As we approached the first intersection into Point Ruston I noticed there was a ship with lights strung across its masts. I'm not sure if that ship is permanently parked there or just visiting.

We turned left onto Bayview Corridor, drove through a roundabout and took the northwest exit onto Main Street. All the parking spaces along the left were filled. I'm still not sure if just anyone can park there. We instead entered the parking structure to the north. It was very full but we found a space towards the back. We then walked back the way we drove. Outside it was quite cold and windy. I would get Raynaud's on one finger of each hand by the time we entered the Century Waterwalk 9 cinema. Luckily, I had visited the cinema before in January to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens (see later review.) I knew that we didn't have to use the machines outside the cinema to get tickets. We entered and queued up at the box office to the right. There were maybe just one or two parties in front of us, though they took time to pick out their seats. It was about a quarter to 7 pm, well before the movie start time of 7:30 pm. When we reached the cashier, he told us to pick out our seats. A screen on the back of the register showed all the open ones. We chose ones in the fourth row back, the front row of the seats in the steepest stadium seating section. I think they were in row E, seats 7 and 8. Tickets cost $10.75 each.

After getting our tickets we check out the concession counters. The queues were much longer than the box office. They sold the usual stuff: popcorn, candy, snacks such as beef jerky, and hot dogs including a ¼ pound Angus beef. They didn't sell pretzels. To the right was a café that sold ice cream and coffee but no sorbet. We decided to forgo concessions and find theatre number 2 where the movie would be showing. An employee tore off the top portion of our tickets and told us to go to the left. There were many people at the cinema. It seemed like most of them had brought along children to see the animated movie Zootopia. I think it opened that weekend or the weekend before. Some others went to the theatre where they were showing Eddie the Eagle.

We had arrived at theatre 2 so early that they hadn't yet cleaned it from the last screening there. We noticed that the seats were arranged such that every other armrest was shorter, as if every seat was part of a set of two. We waited and after 15-20 minutes the theatre started to fill up. At around 7 pm the show First Look began. It was for Cinemark theatres that included Rave theatres where we saw Ramona and Beezus in Las Vegas many years ago. First Look consisted of previews for many TV shows I hadn't heard of and could not understand. Luckily there were some more understandable ads for Fat Home Vents shows of a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit and for the Easter mysteries. There was also an ad for the new restaurant Wild Fin that was just down the sidewalk from the Century Waterwalk 9.  An ad for local smoke-free housing included a shot of the Clearview apartments in University Place.

At 7:43 pm the proper trailers began. The first was for Hardcore Henry that looked like it is filmed from the point of view of an action hero, a little like a video game. The next was for Green Room, a hostage suspense thriller. This was followed by The Nice Guys, an action-mystery-comedy that takes place in the 1970's and stars Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe. Now he gets to fight 'round the 70's. Next was a movie that takes place in college in the 1980's, Everybody Wants Some, a successor to Dazed and Confused directed by Richard Linkletter. Then was one for Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates starring Zac Efron, Adam DeVine, Aubrey Plaza, and Anna Kendrick. The last trailer looked like the only truly enjoyable movie of all the trailers: a remake of Ghostbusters starring Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, and Kate McKinnon.

The feature presentation began at 7:46 pm and ran for 88 minutes including the credits. By the time it started much of the theatre was filled, over half at least. The movie is an action-comedy that never takes itself seriously. It begins with consecutive soundtracked scenes. The second that shows Baron Cohen's character Nobby walking through his neighborhood, presumably the English industrial seaside town of Grimsby, is accompanied by "Parklife" by Blur. It is very appropriate. Nobby has a haircut and sideburns like Liam Gallagher from Oasis, a resemblance later noted in the movie. When he wears a suit in a later scene, he is accompanied by Oasis's "Cigarettes and Alcohol." The musical and a few other references appeal to a certain generation. Other singers shown include Freddie Mercury and George Michael.

The movie is a unique combination of edgy comedy and action. It gets very violent at times and grotesquely raunchy at others. We found some of the quick gags funny such as the photo of Nobby's long-lost brother Sebastian as a child. The movie is rated R for nudity and graphic sexuality, but it's definitely not pornography. It mostly just pushes to the edge of cracking up and grossing out. But it never gets too vicious or exploitive. It is rather political incorrect and several parts might seem offensive if taken too seriously. However, it is also paced fairly well jumping from one continent to another fairly quickly. There are several plot holes such as how Nobby's Grimsby friends and family show up in the last scene, but the details aren't that important. We noticed three references to current events: Bill Cosby, Donald Trump, and another that would spoil too much of the plot.

The actors make a decent effort. Baron Cohen embodies the crazed football fan and perhaps is an over-the-top chav. Rebel Wilson holds up to him as his girlfriend and mother of his nine children. Mark Strong is a great complementary straight-man, initially rejecting Nobby but slowly warming to him. He is convincing as the younger brother of Nobby even though Strong is actually eight years older than Baron Cohen. Baron Cohen's own wife, Isla Fisher plays Sebastian's love interest. The movie has many Oscar nominees in supporting roles including Gabourey Sidibe, Barkhad Abdi, and Oscar winner Penelope Cruz. Baron Cohen is also an Oscar nominee for adapted screenplay. Several child actors have major comic roles, including those who play Nobby and Sebastian as children and some children of Grimsby. There are a few celebrity cameos such as Daniel Radcliff and Donald Trump, though I think they're actually played by lookalikes.

The movie is not entirely a mindless action comedy. A major theme is the importance of family. In between the gross raunchy gags and violent action, the movie has a sweetness to it. Though many characters are fairly one-dimensional, Nobby and Sebastian's relationship is actually quite complex and undergoes some development over the course of the movie. The ending is happy and satisfying, though be sure to stay through the credits as there are some extra scenes. The movie ended at around 9:15 pm. I later heard that it bombed at the box office and got mostly negative reviews. Maybe that's because it relates to a particular generation.

He Named Me Malala

I saw the documentary He Named Me Malala at the Grand Cinema with my wife and a couple of members of the Banned Book Club on Sunday, October 18, 2015. The month before we had discussed the book I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenage activist for girls' education who was shot by the Taliban in 2012. The movie is about Malala. It covers different aspects of her life, the similar figure in Pakistani history after whom she is named, her life and activism in Pakistan from before she was shot, the events surrounding that horrific incident, her present day worldwide activism, and her new life with her family in Birmingham, UK. The movie uses animation for events for which they do not have live footage. I liked how they did that. It was fairly simple animation but the characters very closely resembled the real people. Rather than being presented in a linear fashion, the different events are mixed up, jumping from scenes such as light moments with the family to a violent scene in Pakistan. I didn't have any trouble following the movie, though.

I heard about the movie from imdb.com and Malala's second appearance on The Daily Show with John Stewart. The movie is about 90 minutes long and directed by Davis Guggenheim who directed the documentary Waiting for Superman a few years ago and Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth. I had originally heard that He Named Me Malala opened October 9 or possible earlier. Then I heard it was opening on October 16 at the Grand Cinema and planned an outing for the club for the 18^th. After later hearing that it would start at the Grand on October 9, I kept the outing on the 18^th because that Tacoma Film Festival was going on during the weekend of October 9-11. I chose the 1:55 pm screening that was priced as a matinee.

Unlike the last two times we went to the Grand to see Our Nixon in 2013 and A Hard Day's Night in 2014, this time we easily found parking along the curb across the street. We arrived at 1:20 pm, fairly early. One member of the Banned Book Club was already there in cinema 2. We sat on the right side toward the front. The cinema never got very crowded. There were probably only six or seven people in addition to our party of four. Before the film started they showed some still ads. The Grand might be one of the last cinemas to show still ads. One was for the Chihuly venetians at the Museum of Glass. We had seen that exhibit back in August and enjoyed it very much. There were two trailers. The first was for Suffragette starring Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, and Meryl Streep about women's fight for the right to vote in England. It included a great quote that went something like "War is the only language that you men understand." As one of us remarked, it was a very appropriate quote for He Named Me Malala. The second trailer was for a foreign film called something like The Second Mother. It seemed to be about a domestic servant whose young adult daughter visits her. The trailer didn't make it very clear what was going on.

The lights had dimmed for the trailers right on time at 1:55 pm. Just before the feature presentation, they showed the logo for Fox Searchlight. It had the same music as for Twentieth Century Fox. The movie did not have much music. I think only two songs were mentioned in the credits, one by Alicia Keys. The movie showed many interviews with Malala, several with her father Ziauddin, and a few with her mother and brothers. I already knew most of the content from reading her book but it really hit me to see it in images such as the broadcasts of the Taliban via Radio Mullah and the burning of videocassettes, DVD's, computers, and TV's. I liked seeing what the Swat Valley and Mingora actually looked like. They are green and beautiful as Malala describes, but also quite crowded. The images of the bus in which Malala and two other girls were shot looked even more terrifying than the picture in the book.

The movie includes a few aspects of Malala's story that aren't in the book such as her rehabilitation. It delves more into her schooling in Birmingham. It touches on her celebrity status and shows her and her father in the limelight. The movie tells some of her parents' histories. Ziauddin had a severe stammer and still occasionally stutters when he speaks in interviews. But the movie also shows him giving passionate speeches in either Urdu or Pashtun. It shows some of Malala's speeches as well. Some of the funniest and most touching parts are the interviews with Malala and her family. The segment where she shows the books in her bookcase is especially funny.

After the movie ended we walked over to Corina Bakery to discuss it. I got an orange-chocolate vegan cupcake and my wife got a majestic bar and an 8-ounce chai tea with a heart made of cream inside. We all liked the movie. My wife could still follow its jumbled format even though she hadn't read the book. One book club member had gone to school in England and even recognized one of the questions on Malala's GCSE exams. We talked about the scenes with Malala visiting the Syrian refugees and giving them schoolbooks. She also visits a school in Kenya and the parents of schoolgirls who were kidnapped in Nigeria. Malala really has a global reach now. We talked about how the movie has been received with mixed to good reviews. It showed some clips of interviews with Pakistanis about what they thought of Malala. They say she's a puppet of the West and believe that her father had actually written the book. The movie mentions that her book was banned in Pakistani private schools. The Taliban's method of interpreting the Quran for people reminded some of us of the movie The Book of Eli. We also discussed Malala's comment "I miss the dirty streets."

We talked for over an hour. It wasn't very crowded when we entered Corina Bakery but got very crowded with little kids in costumes and adult chaperones. We had a good Banned Book Club extracurricular outing. Our next regular discussion was the following Tuesday: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

Flaming Star

I saw the DVD of the Elvis Presley move Flaming Star on Thursday, August 27, 2015. I had checked it out from the Tacoma Public Library. It is not in either of our collections of Elvis DVD's: Elvis 75^th Anniversary that primarily consists of MGM movies and Lights, Camera Elvis that consists of Paramount movies. Flaming Star is one of the few Elvis films from Twentieth Century Fox. It came out in 1950 and is just over 90 minutes long. It's a dramatic western with Elvis as Pacer Burton, a half-Indian, half-Caucasian who must choose a side when war between Indians and settlers heats up in the rural Texas ranchland.

The movie opens with the credits in red against the scenery of the desert plains. Rather than driving, Pacer is riding with his half-brother Clint back to their ranch. The movie is based on the novel Flaming Lance by Clair Huffaker. Colonel Tom Parking is credited as a technical advisor and the movie was directed by Don Siegel. He had previously directed the first movie version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and would later direct Dirty Harry starring Clint Eastwood. Elvis sings the title song during the opening credits. Just a few minutes into the movie Elvis as Pacer sings the only other song, the folky "A Cane in a High Starched Collar."

Along with Elvis and Steve Forest, the movie stars Dolores del Rio and Barbara Eden who would later play the starring role in the TV sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. Flaming Star is much more dramatic than Elvis' musical comedies. It is also one of his most violent movies. Many characters are killed. My wife stopped watching about 15 minutes in because of the violence. Other than the fun party at the beginning, there isn't much humor or levity. There is a lot of fear, threats, and hiding in the houses. I actually liked that the Native American characters were greatly developed, moreso, I believe, than most westerns. For all its drama, the acting sounded a bit wooden like in the later Star Wars movies. The scenery was gorgeous, though a bit blurry in the Technicolor. The sound was not good at all, often giving the characters metallic-sounding voices. The title is mentioned and has important meaning.

The only special features on the DVD were trailers for Flaming Star and Elvis' other two Fox movies. One was for his first movie, the black-and-white Love Me Tender where he plays the younger of two brothers in love with the same woman. The movie includes the well-known songs "Love Me Tender," "Let Me," "We're Gonna Move," and "Poor Boy." There are two trailers for Flaming Star, one in English and the other in Portuguese (Estela del Fogo). They show the more intense fight scenes and Pacer in no-shirt shape and very tan. The last trailer is for Elvis' last move for Fox, Wild in the Country.

We read that Flaming Star is considered by many to be Elvis' best movie and the one he felt most proud of as an actor. It is very intense, dramatic, and violent, not what we've come to expect and love from his movies. We'll be glad to get back to his light musicals.

Babette’s Feast

On Sunday, August 23, 2015 we watched a DVD of the 1987 Danish movie Babette's Feast. I had checked it out from the Tacoma Public Library. I first heard about it from the book Pray for Me that said it was Pope Francis' favorite movie. More recently we heard a Deacon mention it in his homily. He had watched it during his Deacon formation. The movie is in Danish but they had set it to be dubbed in Spanish with English subtitles since several in the formation group were Spanish speakers. He mentioned that it won the Academy Award for best foreign language film. It has a run time of 104 minutes and is in Danish, French, and Swedish with English subtitles. We checked and could not set it to be dubbed in Spanish or with Spanish subtitles. It was directed by Gabriel Axel and stars Stéphane Audran as the title character Babette. It is based on a short story by Isak Dinesen, the pen name of Karen Blixen. She is most well known for her memoir Out of Africa that was also the basis for an Academy Award-winning movie.

Babette's Feast mostly takes place in a small village on the coast of Denmark in an area known as Jutland during the Nineteenth century. A few scenes take place in Sweden and in Paris. The characters comprise three different nationalities. Two major characters, the sisters Phillipa and Martine are Danish along with their father, members of their religious group, and others in the village. Babette is French along with a famous (at the time) singer from Paris, Achille Papin. Then there's the Swedish military officer with the fun name to pronounce, Lorens Löwenheim. We could tell when they spoke French versus Danish or Swedish. There were even a few parts where they spoke English such as telling someone to "come in." We got accustomed to a few Danish words such as "takk" for "thank you."

The village setting is very humble, gray, and it often pours down rain blown by wind. The villagers live in humble cottages. They have a small church that plays an important part in the story. We found the words of the hymns they sang to be rather grave. There was one the religious group sang multiple times often in the home and before eating a meal. The scenes outside the village appear much finer and opulent. This contrast is intentional and important to the story. The movie begins by showing fish hanging from stretched lines that look like flounder or small halibut. The soundtrack consists mostly of piano. A couple of characters play the piano and sing in various scenes.

Religion plays a strong role in the story with Phillipa and Martine being the daughters of a pastor who founded a church. With their group they often pray and make references to God. They lead humble lives and eat very bland food. An early dish shown is bread and ale soup. Given its title, food also plays a very central role in the story. The characters spend many scenes in the kitchen cooking and preparing meals. In some other scenes they gather ingredients such as by shopping at the small grocer or haggling with the fishmonger. I liked that the story is about characters who aren't often portrayed in lead roles: elderly unmarried sisters and members of a pious but warring religious sect in a poor humble village. The story turns out to be quite humorous and in the end very heartwarming.

The characters bring the humor and warmth to the story through their excellent acting. Some have funny habits such as the soldier who stamps his foot and burps untimely and the old man who seems to only say "Hallelujah!" Some of the characters appear in the latest time period of the 1880's and the earlier years of 1871 and 1830 in flashbacks. We believe that different actors play the younger versions of the characters but they truly looked like the same people at different ages. The casting directors and make-up artists did phenomenal jobs. I could tell that they had changed both in appearance and manner but still looked like the same people. Many characters have relatively few lines but I could still get a good idea of who they are. The writers and actors made efficient use of the lines. Stéphane Audran who plays Babette appears in two different time periods: 1871 and 1880. I enjoyed the scenes of her learning Danish from Phillipa and Martine. The characters and actors who portray them so well truly make the movie.

We watched most of the special features for Babette's Feast on Tuesday, August 25 in the evening. The first was an interview with Gabriel Axel from 2013. He said the colors of the movie were inspired by Vermeer and that all the food was real. We weren't sure about the turtle soup and the Amontillado sherry. It took him many years to get the movie made. Most producers thought it wasn't filmable. One of them asked, "Why make a film about old people singing hymns?" The success of Out of Africa likely convinced them. The interview with Stéphane Audran lasted much longer. Like the one with Axel, it was in French. Axel had lived half his life in Denmark and half in France. Audran used to be married to director Claude Chabrol who had been considered as a director for Babette's Feast. Audran's earlier films included Les Cousins and Les Biches. Axel had the entire Danish coastal village built from scratch. Everything was gray. Audran talked about the promotion of the film. Promoters staged the feasts from the film in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Everything was the same as in the movie except the turtle soup because turtles are "now protected." The credits for the interview mentioned Courtyard by Marriott.

We next watched the visual essay "Table Scraps" by filmmaker Michael Almereyda and read in English by American Lori Singer. She mentions that Izak Dinesen/ Karen Blixen wrote the story as a bet that she could write a short story about food. It was first published in English in the American magazine Lady's Home Journal and later included in her story collection Anecdotes of Destiny. "Table Scraps" got very pretentious and somewhat bizarre in its analysis. It delved more into Dinesen's/ Blixen's life mentioning visits to her later in life by photographer Peter Beard who appears in the essay, though much older by now. The essay compares scenes of the movie to paintings by Giorgio Morandi. It does indicate that there were twelve at the table for the feast just like Christ party of twelve.

We did not watch the feature-length documentary about Dinesen/ Blixen included on one of the DVD's. The last special feature that we watched was the short film "An Artist of the Everyday." It was an interview with sociologist Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson about the importance of cuisine both in the movie and in French culture. She believes that the first "celebrity" chef was Marie-Antoine Carême in the early 19^th Century. Ferguson gave the origin of the word restaurant as a place of rest but it later signified greater choice of food that at a café or a tavern. The Café Anglais mentioned in the movie was an actual restaurant in Paris in the 19^th century. In the photo shown it looked like a flatiron building. At one point Ferguson mentions Proust. She emphasizes that cooking is transformation.