LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

I haven't posted many reviews of movies or books lately. I've seen and read a few, but nothing really grabbed me enough to post. But last weekend I finally got out and saw Little Miss Sunshine. I still remember seeing the trailer for the first time and thinking, "I have GOT to see this!"

So, last weekend we saw it. I can't say it was perfect, but it was really damn good. It was funny and sad and cringey and poignant. I felt it cheated a little at the end, but overall I loved it. The acting was really good as a whole, but Abigail Breslin and Adam Arkin deserve major awards as the little girl and her grandpa.

The story is about a dysfunctional family on road trip to enter the daughter into a beauty contest. But the theme is about how pain and suffering make us who we are. That sounds a bit pretentious, but it doesn't feel that way in the movie.

I don't "like" Greg Kinnear. That is, I won't get excited about a project he's in just because he's in it. That said, I think he's an excellent actor and thought he did a great job in this one. I also recently saw him in The Matador, which, dispite its universal accolades, failed to entertain me. Greg was very good in it, but I didn't care for the movie at all.

One book I read recently and liked a lot was THE STOLEN CHILD by Keith Donohue. It was the story of a child who was abducted by forest gnomes and replaced with one of the gnomes who took the shape of the child. The novel then follows the growth of a gnome, living as a human and a child, living in the forest but forever doomed to remain a child until he trades with a human. It's a fantasy story on the surface, but underneath it explores the way that grown ups long to be children and children long to be grown ups. It was a very moving book and I recommend it highly to any and all.

Marlon Brando, Pocahontas and Me.


Marlon Brando died in 2004. When he died, I posted on my blog about his passing thusly:

I loved Brando, but he'd just turned into such a wacko that he couldn't act anymore. As far as I was concerned, he had died 15 years ago. I was sad to hear he died, but he was 80 years old and treated himself and everyone around him like crap. He was a great actor in his day and a huge influence on countles people. I just think he was finished bringing his art to the world.

I now publicly rescind that statement. I don't remember what it was, but something piqued my interest in Brando a few months ago. Maybe it was a story I read or something on TV. But I began looking up information about him and this interest in all things Brando finally culminated in my reading his autobigraphy, Songs My Mother Taught Me. I thought the book was fascinating and great read.

Brando grew up a sensitive kid who brought home injured animals and drunks because he was imbued with a need to help others. His parents were drunks who gave him no love. He grew up uneducated and fell into acting. It turned out he was extremely good at it because of his inate sensitivity and history of pain. He always considered it just a way to meet girls and get paid, but he kept at it. Once he found out he could work in movies, making more money for less actual work, he never went back to the stage. He continued to act as a way to support his living of life. He did a lot of dumb things, but he lived life the way he wanted to. He refused to allow life to be a burden in any way. I claimed he became unable to act in his later years. The truth is that he simply acted when someone agreed to pay him what he wanted. Then he'd show up for work.
I'm super simplifying, but that's the gist.

He did a play about Jews once and began a lifelong love of Jewish culture and gave millions of dollars to help the formation of Israel. Later in life he became enthralled with jazz and black culture. he became friends with the Black panthers and gave millions to their cause, marched with them and spoke on their behalf when possible. Then he empathized with the Native Americans and gave millions to them, fought alongside them and raised awareness. Late in life he bought an island in Tahiti and entrenched himself in Polynesian culture. He said he loved their wild, life-loving ways and he stayed on the island as often as he could.

He was a gregarious, giving man who would much rather stare at the stars, or play with children, or help the human race than act. In his book he tells, in great detail, the joy he once got out of going outside, picking a lime and squeezing the juice onto a rusty pipe, so the acid would remove the rust. That gave him more satisfaction than Apocolypse Now. But if someone wanted to give him millions of dollars for a couple week's work, he could afford to continue his lifestyle and pump money into various charities.

I think he was a great actor and a flawed, but fascinating human being.

HOLE IN THE GROUND

So, it's been a year since the Bush administration allowed New Orleans to be decimated by Hurricane Katrina. The incompetence of the Federal as well as the local government is staggering, as almost 2,000 people died and an entire city was demolished. So the mayor was asked why the city wasn't built back up already. Frustrated, he responded, ""You guys in New York can’t get a hole in the ground fixed and it’s five years later. So let’s be fair."

Is that harsh? Yup. Is it true? Yup.

I know I'm in the minority and most people will think I'm evil, but too bad. We have a strange obsession with memorializing the dead. My opinion is that when we die, the body is a useless piece of garbage. I want to be cremated when I die so we don't waste more cemetary space that can be better used for farming or housing. The idea that "ground zero" is hallowed ground is, to me, ludicrous. People died there and it was horrible. Each of those families should grieve in their own private way. Putting up a memorial of some kind is a nice gesture. But trying to make all 3000 families happy? Forget it. Half of them want it one way, the other half wants it the other way, and they get all pissy when someone shows them a design they don't like. No offense, but put up a plaque with their names, like the Vietnam memorial and put the towers back up there, or whatever else would better serve the city. What makes it holy ground? People dying there? If every spot on Earth that people were killed on became hallowed and un-developeable, we'd have no country left. "Ground zero" is in the middle of New York Friggin City. That space can be way better utilized than with a giant water fountain.

I see memorials up all over the place, where auto accidents have claimed innocent lives. It's horrible. I lost a brother to an auto accident. But I have no interest in enshrining that random piece of property. I keep my feelings about the death private, or within my circle of family and friends. I don't need to spend money on flowers and signs to show everyone my feelings. And these roadside memorials get refreshed every month, every year, forever. Why? I just don't understand it. I'm not even positive where my brother died. It doesn't matter to me. The intersection is simply a road that cars drive on, just like every other road. I don't need to visit his grave or the place where he died. It seems unhealthy to me to obsess over the death spot of a loved one.

I know I sound insensitive and cruel, but once a person dies, the only thing left is the memory they made in your brain. Their body is not the person you knew. To have an embalmed body at a funeral is crazy to me. It's like you're pretending they're not dead. "Look! He still looks the same!"

As I said, I know I'm in the minority. I haven't met one person who agrees with me on this. Whatever.