The Sapphires - movie review

          “I’m white, but my blood runs negro,” says Dave the group’s manager, played by Chris O’Dowd. While this film is loosely based on true events, it’s especially fun to see an Irish person manage a group of four Aboriginal girls, three sisters and a cousin, as they transform into a singing soul group. It was very reminiscent of “The Commitments” movie.

          In addition to Chris O’Dowd (“The Bridesmaids”), the film stars Jessica Mauboy, Mianda Tapsell, Deborah Mailman and Shari Sebbens as the four girl performers. It’s 1968, and the fledgling group gets sent to Vietnam to entertain the troops.

          The story about how Dave meets the girls and becomes their manager is pretty thin, but I was there for the music mostly. I just didn’t realize it was going to be performed by four black Supremes-like Aboriginal girls. I was not disappointed…neither in the entertaining storyline nor in the Sam and Dave, Wilson Pickett era music.





Four out of five possible ticket stubs

 

 

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Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail – book review

          Wild is a true story of one woman’s three month solo hike along the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), a 2 foot wide, 2,663 mile long path, which runs from the Mexican boarder in California to just beyond the Canadian border to the north.

          The author, Cheryl Strayed, was in her twenties when she began this grueling journey through the wilderness and through her life. Her mother had died at the age of 45 just four years before, and Cheryl struggled to come to grips with her life as it unraveled. She was estranged from her step-father and physically apart from her brother and sister. After multiple affairs, she divorced her loving husband, Paul, and had sunk into heroin up until just days before she began her trek.

          The reader doesn’t get through even the first paragraph in the prologue when Cheryl, high atop the Sierra’s in Northern California, loses irretrievably one of the hiking boots she has just removed from her aching feet. That gives you a sense of how shocking this journey and the story around it will be.

          The story of what led to her making this three month trek is a novel in itself. And, while the prologue portends a scary tale of heights and depths and aloneness, it’s the solitude and confusion of trying to heal from life itself that is a major portion of this narrative.

          The year is 1995, well before the abundance of online information and communications technology that would have eased the vast majority of her difficult trip. One glaring exception to this is when Cheryl finally gives up on her hiking boots because their improper fitting is causing her toenails to turn black and fall out. At one of the rest stops she calls REI and they agree to send her a new pair of the boots in a larger size, overnight and at no cost to her.

          I found myself looking back numerous times at her picture on the book’s jacket. I was incredulous that this young, pretty and conservative looking woman could be the hippie who set out on such a massive project without the necessary training and preparation.

          The struggles encountered along the trail enable Cheryl to sort out the struggles she is trying to deal with in life. For instance, she goes from being a self-imposed objectified woman in her life back home to a comfortable and together single woman, at one point, hiking PCT with six men. It takes the vastness of the adventure to realize the vastness of her life and how it extends beyond her mother’s death or the disappointment of her divorce.

          When she comes to the end of the trek at the Bridge of the Gods at the Columbia River in Washington, she holds her emotions in check, not crying. But I cried, feeling the weight of her journey within a journey, the emotional and the physical.

          Wild is a wonderful book, and I highly recommend it. Now I’m off to get The Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne Rich. This was the only book Cheryl carried the entire 1,100 miles, cherishing it so much she didn’t lighten her load by burning the pages as she went.


Five out of possible five bookmarks

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42 - Movie Review

          42, which was one of the last movies reviewed by Roger Ebert before his recent death, is the inspirational sports film starring Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson and Harrison Ford as Dodgers executive Branch Rickey. Nicole Beharie plays Jackie’s wife, Rachel.

          Jackie Robinson has been called one of the most important American pioneers of the 20th century and “42” is important for that reason alone. Playing baseball, or any professional sport, is tough enough without it being about the first black man to be in that position. In my opinion, this film does an excellent job of putting the viewer into Jackie’s shoes to experience what that must have felt like. The jeers and name calling not only from the stands but, at first, from within his own team was uncomfortable to watch. Prejudice is always hard to watch. The “N” obviously shows up a lot, so be warned if it bothers you even in this logical context.

          The year is 1947. The theory of why Rickey chose that black man at that time in history to be brought into the all-white professional sport of baseball was a recurring question throughout the film. While there was no definitive answer, Rickey did say that he loved the game of baseball and had always felt there was something unfair at the heart of this game that he loved, which was the lack of other players of different races who were just as qualified and could do as much if not more to help the team. Jackie Robinson opened the door to men of color being welcomed into the pro sport.

          Because I wasn’t a witness to the true greatness of Jackie Robinson, I can’t say if this film does him and his career breakthroughs justice. I saw a recent interview with Robinson’s widow, Rachel, now in her 90’s and I could match up the way she seems now with the way she was portrayed in the film. I’m hoping the rest of the characters were as well matched.

          Speaking of all these characters, names like Jackie’s, or Red Barber, the Dodgers announcer, or Durocher, the manager suspended for a year for having an affair, are all just names to me. I didn’t know of them in the news or on TV or even the radio, but the importance of them in sports history is well depicted in “42.”

          I’m so pleased to see a film about a sport personality who was a hero regardless of the amount of money he had, who he was married to or what kind of car he drove. While I didn’t know of Jackie Robinson as being the great player we learn he was, the movie is good enough to both entertain and educate, a homerun in my book.

          Oh, and just a funny aside:  I got shushed during the movie by some people behind us. I’ll tell you, it sure can make a 65 year old senior feel like a shameful kid pretty darn quick!

Four out of possible five ticket stubs
 

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Admission - movie review

          This movie is the comedy/drama story of admissions officer Portia (Tina Fey) as she follows strict guidelines for evaluating acceptance of select students into Princeton. Part of her job requires visiting various high schools to recruit applicants and, in the process, she runs into a former college classmate and headmaster, John (Paul Rudd,) of an alternate school. The headmaster is grooming one student in particular, Jeremiah, from his school who he thinks is, in fact, the child of Portia who was adopted out at birth.

          Extremely straitlaced Portia, looking to be the predecessor to her boss when he leaves at the end of the current term, ultimately bends the rules to garner the admission of Jeremiah.

          I love Tina Fey and I love Paul Rudd, but surprisingly, I don’t love them in this movie, and I don’t think it’s their fault. I think it’s the confusion of this neither comedy nor drama format that left me feeling flat. Perhaps I kept waiting for Tina to burst forth with some sort of SNL routine. Also, because it was produced by Ron Howard, among others, I expected it to be just plain more entertaining.

          In any case, I’m not recommending seeing Admission in the theater. Perhaps a year from now when you run across it at the video store or on Netflix and have nothing better to do….

Two out of five possible ticket stubs