Category: screen

Valerie Plame was in the CIA. She was trying to figure out if the Iraqis had nukes back in 2002. Her husband, Joe Wilson, was even getting involved in the spy stuff. He was a former ambassador and took a trip to Niger to check an important piece of intelligence. A very important piece.

Then Scooter Libby and the White House started getting involved. Libby appeared to be angry that the CIA hadn’t found any nukes. He figured the Iraqis had them for sure because they were darn close 1991 and they’ve had ten more years to work on them. He’s like, “Just find ’em, CIA.”

Plame starts working overtime to figure this out and husband Joe starts getting discouraged and pissed because he’s starting his own gig in Washington after being an ambassador and his wife is always gone so it’s a logistical nightmare raising the twins.

They portray the White House as you would expect them to be portrayed by Hollywood, as a group with tunnel vision and a preconceived notion that Iraq had nukes. The CIA, Valerie Plame, and her husband knew this was wrong. We still invade Iraq. You know the story.

All this, very convincing with hindsight (I still need to do an accuracy check). But that’s not the point of the movie really. It’s easy to throw the Bush administration under the bus for blowing this intelligence, but the movie doesn’t dwell on this. It dwells on the fallout of his apparent vendetta against an outspoken Joe Wilson (he blew holes in a key piece of intelligence that Bush used to convince Americans of Iraqi nukes). The fallout I’m speaking of is marital strain for Plame/Wilson, job losses for both, and a serious hit to their reputation.

David and Goliath. Small taking on big and powerful. Family drama. Fact based. Good story.

I feel there’s a subtler point that I’m not sure what to make of. Here it is. Shouldn’t the CIA get accorded the same type of respect and honor that our armed forces get? If so, how do we show it? Do we show it enough?

You don’t ever get a “thank our troops” type of sentiment for the CIA. In fact, since 9/11, it seems they get increasingly maligned. Is this deserved? I feel like I should have been outraged about the leaking of Plame’s status.

The White House basically released to the world that Plame was a CIA agent. Only her husband and parents knew. Can you imagine that? Your best friends think you work for a venture capital firm but really you’re trying to save the world.

She was a spy, man. We’re not talking about an analyst or desk jockey here. We’re talking spy, in the field, doing secret agent stuff, until some dude named Scooter Libby takes it on his own to bring Plame/Wilson down.

Well, actually it wasn’t Libby really, I think Richard Armitage eventually copped to the leak. Libby took the fall though and got 30 months in jail and a $250,000 fine, but Bush commuted the jail time anyhow. So the whole thing kind of went unpunished.

Plame and Wilson moved to Santa Fe and wrote non-fiction books. They consulted on the movie and I think she’s going to start writing spy novels. Sounds like they’re making a living and maybe even living the dream in that beautiful New Mexico town. My wife and I have been planning to go there for a vacation but haven’t pulled the trigger. Gail says they have a huge outsider art community there.

Squirrel!!

Oh well, I digress.

The ending was kind of slick. They had Naomi Watts walk into Congress to begin testifying on this…then they blanked the screen, paused and did some beeps and blips, and switched to recorded video of the actual event with the real Valerie Plame while they started rolling the credits.

We watched on Showtime. We don’t buy movie channels, but we got it free for six months in some promo deal. Gail made the decision to watch, I was just along for the ride. I liked it.

Here are other options to look into this:

• 60 Minutes Interview
• Wikipedia (Valerie Plame)
• Wikipedia (Plame Affair)
• Fox News Interview with Rove

The special prosecutor was Patrick Fitzgerald. That dude had his hands in everything it seems.

Wow, I remember Robo QB well. I recall my high school buddy, the only USC fan in Findlay, talking up Todd Marinovich. My buddy was always ahead of the game on college football recruiting and he hated the Big Ten. He would tote out stories about Marinovich as proof of how much the Pac 10 would supposedly dominate the Big Ten in the future. This was maybe 1984, when Marinovich was probably a high school sophomore.

In 1989 I saw Marinovich play live. I attended the Notre Dame vs USC game that year on a rainy Saturday with my wife. I can picture  it like it was yesterday. We had two tix in the north end zone and it was a great game. Marinovich had three TDs (I don’t remember that stat specifically, but I verified it). ND won and I can remember thinking, “This kid is going to be good.”

He was good, but he was a serious headcase. Remember though, this guy was raised by his dad to be a QB beginning at age four, so despite the head problems (and the pot and booze), he was able to be relatively successful. His dad was one of the first strength and conditioning coaches in the NFL (Raiders) and used all (and I do mean all) of their free time to train Todd for the quarterback position.

By 1992 Marinovich had achieved all of his dreams, he was the Raider’s starter and had made his dad proud, but he still wasn’t happy. He felt empty. He says:

If you’re good at something, does that mean you were meant to do it?

The Raiders cut him shortly thereafter for failing a drug test. He was a recreational drug user, but soon after being cut he became a full on heroin addict. He told his side of the story to ESPN while sitting on the beach on an overcast day, wearing a baseball hat without a logo, talking directly to the camera. I was moved.

It’s a familiar story in sports and eerily reminiscent of a similar story in the golf world. When Marinovich made those comments above, the first name that popped into my head was David Duval. Here’s what Duval said after winning a major (from Breaking the Slump, by Jimmy Roberts):

“Vijay (Singh), Mike (Weir), and a bunch of family members were on the plan,” remembers Moore. “After awhile, everybody else fell asleep, and David and I were drinking champagne from the Claret Jug. I remember as we were landing, the sun was coming up, and we were pulling into Toronto and David says to me: ‘I would have thought it would feel better than this.’”

Duval termed it his “existentialist moment.”

“I started to think: ‘That’s it? That’s all there is?’” he recalls.

Unlike Marinovich, after reaching the top of the mountain, Duval’s life didn’t spin out of control into a drug-fueled cesspool, but his golf game went into the tank. Like Marinovich though, the trip back down from the mountaintop led to Duval meeting the woman of his dreams, starting a family, and coming to terms with a family trauma from his childhood (Duval’s brother drowned). In both cases, the ending is somewhat uplifting.

Marinovich is now an artist in Southern Calinfornia and has a wife and two kids. His art looks like it’s mostly portraits themed in sports and entertainment. He’s been clean since 2009 and has come to terms with his childhood and his dad. Todd and his dad continue to collaborate on art projects to this day and are actively involved in each other’s lives.

This was a solid sports doc by ESPN. I don’t like ESPN and I try to avoid the world wide leader for anything but live events. I rarely watch Sportscenter, never go to ESPN.com, don’t have the app, and haven’t watched Gameday in years. But they’re difficult to avoid if you’re sports fan. They’ve done some wonderful work on these sports documentaries and this one was well worth the 90-minute investment.

That being said, I’m always on the lookout for the spin. The cynic in me asks questions. Did ESPN sugarcoat the relationship with his dad to make it more touching? Marinovich’s website just went up; is this all about marketing?

I’m choosing to believe in the genuineness mostly because of Marinovich’s solemn and even-keeled retelling of things. He drew me in with his apparent humbleness. Great stuff.

I was just sitting in my hotel room, staring at the TV and flipping channels, and I came across a particularly intense discussion that a bunch of people with British accents were engaged in. I recognized a few of them as relatively famous actors and they seemed to be playing a bunch of spies, so I was interested. I had no idea what channel it was – I was out of town, and this Courtyard by Marriott didn’t have one of those typed up channel guides sitting next to the TV.

I sat and watched it for about 30 minutes with the computer open, half working, half watching Steelers vs Ravens, but then I started focusing. Bigger stars kept walking in (Rachel Weisz, Ralph Fiennes) and the plot started twisting, so it was pulling me in. I didn’t even know the title until after it was over. I guess I could have looked it up, I had a computer with a not-so-high-speed connection (thanks Marriott) right in front of me. But I didn’t.

This was cool stuff. Oh yeah, and completely free.

It was called Page Eight and it was part of PBS’s Masterpiece Contemporary offering. Makes me want to give money to PBS. Also makes me want to figure out how you get on the list to discover movies like this. Dude, c’mon. I can’t remember the last time I watched a PBS movie so how could I have possibly caught previews or heard about this? I think I watched a Jane Austen movie on PBS a few years ago, but I don’t remember seeing any previews for cool spy thrillers like this.

I’m only a couple of weeks out from reading The Spy Who Came In From The Cold so my mindset was ready for a spy movie like this. I think I’m going to read some Len Deighton (Berlin Game) just to keep the momentum.

This is an action flick. If I recall, this did not get panned. It has a serious all-star cast and they have great chemistry. Mary Louise Parker was especially refreshing and Malkovich was spot on.

It was cute. It had a few cool action scenes. Oh yeah, it had a sweet action scene in Chicago. But the action didn’t really make up for kind of a weak story.

Sort of a waste of time, but I didn’t feel like an idiot for watching it. I know a movie is really crappy if I’m actually angry for wasting the time. So no, I didn’t feel like that, especially because it came at no incremental cost.

Gail and I have watched DVR’d movies two weeks in a row now. Not a trend, but a departure from hardly watching any movies this year.

My wife says to me, “I record everything with Colin Firth in it.” That’s cool, I guess. She’s in charge of the DVR, what could I do?

There are two striking moments early in this movie. One is in the opening scene, which struck me as one of the most horrifying and gut-wrenching death scenes I have ever seen. The second is a few scenes in, which struck me as wrong, as a father and his two daughters finish up the school year and leave Chicago for a year-long trip to Genoa, Italy. That’s not right. Who would do that just at the start of a Chicago summer? Um, nobody.

Shortly after these two scenes, at about 20 minutes, Gail and I debated turning it off. We stuck with it though.

It’s an artsy flick about this guy who takes his two daughters to Genoa as therapy for the death of his wife/their mother. In general, it was a little too artsy for me; no clear plot, ending not really an ending, shaky camera. It kind of lost me at times, but I have no regrets.

My third trip to the movie house this year was to see Moneyball. When I heard about it earlier this year, I has no intention of seeing the movie. I read the book and I’m kind of a sports snob, so I thought I was above it. Well, I feel like a fool. This was a cool, relaxing, and fun sports movie.

It’s amazing how relaxing a Saturday without any Notre Dame football is (bye week). Throw in a slow-paced baseball movie like this, sprinkle in the Lake Theatre in Oak Park, then add my wife and another couple, and you have the recipe for some serious slowing of the heart rate. I doubt I hit my BMR today.

In my old age, I’m watching more baseball. As a kid, when I collected baseball cards and could name the starting lineup of every MLB team, I never watched games really. Now I can sit and watch. I often have it on in the background when I’m working at home. It’s just comforting. I’ve probably watched more baseball this year than I have in five years or so. Heck, I have the Tigers vs Rangers game on right now and I could be watching Auburn vs Florida. Times change.

In fact, Ron Washington, a key character in Moneyball, is now managing the Rangers. The guy who played him, Brent Jennings, did a great job delivering a few deadpan comments about teaching Scott Hatteburg how to play first base. As I write this, McCarver and Buck are talking about Moneyball. McCarver is making fun of Buck for not seeing it. How coincidental is that? Not coincidental that McCarver is making fun, but coincidental that they’re talking about it on the day I saw it and I’m able to witness it because I’m not watching a big SEC football matchup in October.

WARNING: Don’t go into this movie thinking of it as a documentary. And don’t even go see it if you’re one of those baseball snobs, especially one who thinks those sabermetrics guys are fools. Just think of it as a dramatization of a single season based loosely on the facts. In that respect, it feels a lot like Friday Night Lights, which I loved. Suspend your disbelief and you’ll be greatly rewarded.

Pitt portrays Billy Beane, who is often credited for the first full implementation of running a low-cost but highly successful baseball organization using statistical analysis for an extended period of time (A’s, 2000-2006). This is arguable, but don’t try and argue it during the movie.

Sure, it’s highly doubtful that Beane had the leadership conversation with David Justice. It’s probably also doubtful that his ex-wife called him to tell him “great job” when the A’s were up 11-0 over the Royals in their quest for 20 straight wins. It’s a movie.

I left this movie fired up about baseball. I left this movie wanting to re-read Moneyball. I left this movie wanting to read more Michael Lewis books. I left this movie hungry because it was 3pm and I hadn’t had lunch yet. Oak Park to the rescue. Definitely worth the $6 (matinee).

I made the mistake of flipping around the channels while traveling on business and catching Maria Bello running through a park hacking up a lung (she’s trying to quit smoking). I can’t remember seeing her in anything except for Assault on Precinct Thirteen (2005, bit part). In retrospect, the show, Prime Suspect, wasn’t a mistake. It was a decent cop show.

It’s a New York cop show with a strong woman character. She’s tough and smart. They throw plenty of The Black Keys playing in the background to highlight how gritty she is. She just got transferred to homicide but the guys hate her because she slept with her boss right before she got transferred. Then one of the guys has a heart attack and dies, so she gets the big case.

The guys hate her more.

Then she gets beat up by the perp and wraps up the case nicely. The guys still, invariably, don’t like her. Oh well.

The hat, it’s gotta go.

I’m probably coming off as a crime fiction snob. I have The Wire – Season 3 on one side and Kinsey Millhone (dropping November) on the other side. With all that, I can’t get too fired up about a show I know that I won’t watch, even though I thought it was good.

This show has some serious roots though. It’s based on a very popular 1990s British crime drama of the same name starring Helen Mirren. I’ve never seen nor heard of it, but I’m assuming Maria Bello has some big shoes to fill. I’ll keep an eye on the reviews and maybe catch it in a few years.

Rarely do I go into a movie with zero knowledge. I went into this one with an uncharacteristically low amount of information. Here’s what I knew: Hillary Swank learns law to get her brother out of jail. Oh yeah, and Gail said she heard it was good. That second part, about Gail saying it was good, was one of the primary reasons for seeing it.

So this woman, who didn’t graduate from high school, spends 16 years of her life getting her law degree so she can exonerate her brother, who’s serving life in prison for murder. She gets help from famous lawyer Barry Scheck, who runs this thing called The Innocence Project and they successfully prove the innocence of her brother Kenny Waters.

Hillary Swank turns in an inspired effort. I think I’ve only seen her in Million Dollar Baby, which rocked. I’m looking down through her filmography and I don’t see that many movies that I think I’d like, despite her popularity and consistent critical acclaim. What gives with that? Do people have favorite actors any more? You know, the actors for which every movie is a must-see. I guess I’ve seen a ton of Clint Eastwood movies and the majority of John Wayne movies, but I don’t really have any must-see actors anymore.

I watched this movie with my laptop open because I was half working, so I had The Innocence Project website up (plot killer). It got me into a little trouble because I broke the news to Gail that Kenny Waters died six months after getting out of prison, so the ending wasn’t as happy as it appeared. They did add a note that Betty Anne Waters won a settlement from the corrupt police department and continues to work on The Innocence Project, but neither of us noticed anything about the sad news of Kenny Waters’ death and inability of him to enjoy much of his late life freedom.

This stuff just gets better and better. I’m done with season two now and looking forward to more. I’m moving at about a one season per quarter pace, which is sped up because I’m traveling a lot and always watch one episode per flight on my iPhone. Outside of sports and an occasional Netflix movie, this is my primary form of screened entertainment, which is good. I don’t covet more.

Aside: I’m struck by the odd mix of entertainment I’ve decided to restrict my consumption to as I get older. As of today, and it’s changing, here’s the hierarchy of entertainment media consumption in my life arrived at via an unscientific study based mostly on gut feel:

• Books
• Sports on TV
• Music
• Screened entertainment via iPhone
• Movies via Netflix
• Miscellaneous stuff on Facebook and Twitter
• YouTube

Network TV is almost completely eliminated outside of the sports angle. Gratuitous TV watching is not part of my life, I primarily press power on the TV to watch a scheduled sporting event. That’s about it.

I assert, and my wife disagrees strongly, that I can do without the sports also. I’m ready to ditch cable at the drop of a hat, as long as Gail is okay with it. She wouldn’t even have to tell me.

However, I’m not one of those self-righteous snobs who shuns cable. I certainly have time for it. In fact, I get angry when fellow Americans say, “I don’t have time for that.” That statement is full of hypocrisy and lies. To be truly honest with yourself, that phrase should always be followed with the word because and an explanation of other time wasters that you choose to partake in. For instance, here are a few examples that pertain to me:

I don’t have time to read the WSJ because I read too much trash fiction.

I don’t have time to train for a marathon because I play too much golf.

I don’t have time to go to the movie theater because it’s NBA playoff season.

I could make time for seeing movies, training for a marathon, and reading the WSJ, but I choose not too. For me, there’s not a period or exclamation point after the words “I don’t have time for that,” there’s the word because with some insight and analysis into my own personal shortfalls and demons. I feel like I’m being more honest with myself. In truth, I have time for whatever I want to have time for. Any denial of that fact would be putting a blind eye to bouts of laziness and unproductiveness.

Okay, enough of that, back to The Wire. I was especially struck by episode 6 and the theme of accepting your life or trying to change your life.

** PLOT KILLERS FOLLOW **

Episode 6 was an inspired effort. It opened with the Omar’s testimony against Bird (hilarious and inventive) and closed with the murder of D’Angelo (surprising).

Omar says something like this to Levy during the cross examination:

I got the shotgun, you got the briefcase. It’s all in the game.

I watched it on a flight and busted out laughing at this. I probably got some looks.

Now D’Angelo’s murder, that was a little more somber. I should have seen that coming early in the episode after the prison book club meeting with D’s soliloquy about The Great Gatsby and how we can’t change our true self. I knew they were going to try based on Stringer making the payoff, but I thought D was too integral of a character to be killed off.

But as you know, HBO is not afraid to kill off key characters. They certainly did it during Game of Thrones. Check out this guys take on that (he’s an NBA writer but talks about TV every so often). I’m not familiar enough to make this proclamation because I think The Wire is the only HBO series I’ve watched. Oh wait, I think I saw the first season of that funeral home drama, Six Feet Under. Was that HBO or Showtime? I guess I could Google it, but I’m writing this on a plane on my iPhone after watching episode 9 and I think I’ve just met Brother Mouzone. Wow, this is such a cool show.

There’s a lot of rich stuff on the net about The Wire and it prompts some serious debate. I’m amazed at the cult following this show has. Check out Chuck Klosterman’s take at Grantland (no plot spoilers in that one, don’t worry). I hear references from friends and see references on the net, so I really have to make a conscious effort to avoid plot spoilers. It’s tough given the wide-ranging acclaim this show garners.

I’ll start season three in August some time.

It’s been 6 months since Gail and I have been to a movie house so we decided to catch a movie on this summer holiday weekend. We grabbed the 8pm Bridesmaids at Webster Place on a whim when a friend told us she was going, also on a whim. Lest you get the mistaken feeling that my life is full of whimsy, know that Gail and have been plotting to see a movie on the big screen for weeks but haven’t pulled the trigger.

We fire up Flixster some Fridays and ask the question, “Anything good playing?” Hmmm, not good enough to haul our tails to the complex. Premeditated movie going has been effectively replaced by premeditated watching of TV shows in iOS or watching of sports.

But when we got the call, we didn’t hesitate to scurry around and find keys, wallet, and sweatshirt for the quick trip to see Bridesmaids. The time was right to reacquaint ourselves with the movieplex. Glad we did it. It was really funny.

Kristen Wiig, whom I was completely unfamiliar with, wrote it (or co-wrote) and starred in it. It kind of makes me want to watch Saturday Night Live again, but I won’t. I’m not sure what inspired her to put in the Chicago/Milwaukee connection, but it worked well for me, as did the raunch-level. I laughed uncontrollably on a few occasions. Besides Wiig, the sidebar characters were really good. This woman named Melissa McCarthy killed it and Terry Crews (you’ll recognize him) had a great cameo.

See it. Okay to wait for rental though.