Lila & Eve, a 2015 sleeper female vigilante thriller , stars Viola Davis (“How to Get Away With Murder”) as Lila and Jennifer Lopez (“Hustlers”) as Eve, The opening scene shows Lila’s 18-year-old son, Stephon (Aml Ameen), in a pool of blood from a drive-by shooting. A grief-fueled fragile mother is determined to fix her life: to bring the murderers of her son to justice so she can move on in nurturing her fourteen-year- old son.
Unsure how to go on with the effort of living, partly numbed by anti-anxiety drugs, Lila joins a support group for moms who have lost children to gang violence. Another grieving single mother, Eve, rejects the unbearable powerlessness of being told to move on as the appropriate way to respond to grief. And soon Lila admires Eve’s strength and anger at the apathy of the local police assigned to cases like theirs, which remain unsolved. Their loss has no recourse or consequences for the murderer. Neither Lila nor Eve wants to request justice like supplicants. Soon both form a bond to exact justice for their children’s unnecessary deaths.
It is the cops’ dismissiveness of Stephon’s death as just another casualty in the drug-turf wars that sets the plot into motion.. Lila is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and seeking empathy from Eve is preferable to being told that she is fortunate to still have another child. The newly aligned couple go on a rampage, as Eve cajoles Lila to go further to seek revenge. Lila & Eve moves from hopelessness and despair midstream in this film to rage, and eventually regret, giving the drama its powerful hook that pulls the viewer in.
Viola Davis never disappoints, giving another impressive performance alongside high-caliber acting by Jennifer Lopez. The two actors play perfectly as counterparts in a dance of doom, danger, and death.
Understated yet gut-wrenching and heart-pumping, Lila & Eve is a character study of the lacerating effects a tragic death has on the living. Davis plumbs the depths of anguish and psychological trauma in an electrifying performance that transforms this story into something far beyond a typical revenge thriller.
I was not sure what to expect from Lila & Eve but was pleasantly surprised by this relatively unknown, little-seen indie film. Lila & Eve offers a powerful portrait of a mother’s pain and her need to relieve it.
Diana:
Thanks for the review and for bringing this film to my attention. This is an era when we should all be seeing more movies like this that address important issues.
By the way, I rarely leave a comment, but I always read and appreciate your thoughtful reviews.
Once again, don’t have Netflix. I suspect we’ll be seeing more of this genre in the future. Strong women taking on roles that used to belong only to men. I’m happy about that!
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, a six-part HBO documentary series based on Michelle McNamara’s book, explores the author and her obsessive investigation into the dark world of the “The Golden State Killer” who terrorized California in the 1970s and 80s. It is mostly due to McNamara’s investigative reporting that this cold case was kept alive and solved. Incredibly, that didn’t happen until late 2018 when the perpetrator was identified, charged and convicted of 50 rapes and 12 murders out of more than 100 known rapes.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark paints an intricate tapestry of a convoluted flawed investigation that challenged police for decades. Bureaucratic dysfunction was rampant. The lack of interjurisdictional cooperation, unwieldy early phase DNA technology, and a blatant sexist culture enabled the Golden State Killer to roam free for close to 40 years. Victims were treated as responsible in part for their rapes by the way they dressed and the way the women freely walked through their own suburban neighborhoods at night. The extensive archival footage as well as interviews with detectives, survivors and family members of the killer are riveting. More than forty years later, the viewer sees the horror of the crime itself as well as the sustained impact on the victims and their families. Interviews with the husbands or boyfriends are similarly unsettling as many of them were traumatized or in denial in a culture in which rape is not yet fully viewed for what it is…a violent, heinous crime.
One of the least expected features of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark is the backstory of McNamara. Her sensitive uncovering of the cold cases of the women begins with her True Crime Diaries blog. She hones her skills as an amateur sleuth more competent than some of the police she deals with as she crosses the state looking for clues. The subtext is her obsession with finding the rapist and murderer. She suspects from the beginning that the rapist is a solitary agent personifying “alchemized hate” for the victims. It turns out that the victims are stand-ins for a fiancée who broke off the assailant’s engagement. His violence grows and the viewer sees him trespass, invade a home, violently assault his victims in the middle of the night, and then reach for a beer and food in the kitchen refrigerator. Chilling indeed.
After more than ten years of dogged analysis of internet clues, hunting for mementos the killer sold online, and visits to the victims’ homes, her determination to find the killer and rapist eventually exacts a toll on McNamara. At first, she feels that she manages the horrors of the crimes at arms-length. But eventually, McNamara has to take sleeping pills and anti-anxiety drugs, gets a gun and installs a complicated security system as she is encouraged to write a book about her research. Tragically Michelle McNamara died of an accidental overdose while in reach of the deadline for her book.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark is a depiction of the most evil and poisonous of human acts, in scene after scene of crushing helplessness and the courage of the survivor, even when that horror was half a lifetime ago. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark is not for the faint-of-heart–and keep the lights on, if you decide to watch this!
Note: Joseph James DeAngelo, now seventy-four, was finally identified, partly through McNamara’s detective work, in close collaboration with retired detectives, forensic specialists and geneticists who used a gene/ancestry database to track DeAngelo down. He pleaded guilty to more than a dozen murders and scores of rapes on June 29 and was sentenced to eleven consecutive life sentences without parole.
Note: Barbara Rae-Venter, a renowned geneticist, is the main resource for solving the genetic puzzle that emerged in the Golden State Killer investigation. She has since inspired others skilled at solving family history puzzles to offer their services to law enforcement. While this has resulted in arrests, not everyone in genetics database technology is comfortable with the alliance with law enforcement. See the August 29, 2018 article on Venter and the June 28, 2020 article on genetics genealogy and its methodology to identify the DNA.
Queen & Slim, directed by Melina Matsoukas (“Insecure”) and written by Lena Waithe (“Master of None”), was influenced by the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin. A story about police brutality and the stress and horror of daily life for a black person in America, Queen & Slim is a gripping fictional film that feels all too real.
A first Tinder date– mediocre and uneventful– takes an unexpected turn. On their way home in a blustery winter night in Cleveland, a young couple are pulled over for a minor traffic incident. Slim (Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya) and Queen (newcomer Jodie Turner-Smith) are calm and cooperative. The situation soon escalates. The policeman wounds Queen. Slim, expecting to be next, grabs the officer’s gun, shooting him in self-defense. Now targeted as cop-killers, Slim and Queen go on the run. She is a successful criminal defense lawyer whose legal experience tells her that the court is unlikely to give them a fair hearing. Slim is, nevertheless, resistant in accepting that he is now a fugitive.
Unaware that the incident is captured on video and that the cop has a history of rogue murders, Queen and Slim unwittingly become a symbol of structural racism, trauma, terror, grief and pain for African Americans across the country. The video goes viral. The couple convince themselves that they should run, even though Queen knows that they are facing a death sentence. Slim is in denial. But they still hope for a miracle while unable to plan an escape. In this thriller, where a pair of young soon-to-be lovers are making a mad dash for freedom, the viewer is entangled emotionally with their inept effort, hoping against odds that they will survive.
Queen & Slim is a difficult movie to review. The film is deeply interesting, focused on legacy, the power of memory and the symbols that propel political and social movements. Queen & Slim frames the plot on the history of a nation infected by a racial inequality so virulent that good people are forced to take the law into their own hands. There is anger without apology, one of the most deeply moving themes in this movie.
The story is powerful, both politically charged and psychologically draining. The content of the film, however, is uneven and incompletely constructed. Slim and Queen’s characters are only loosely sketched, particularly their backstory. How did Queen become so successful in a courtroom often hostile to her clients? Why is her relationship with her mother so dysfunctional? How does Slim fall in love with someone so opposed to him?
Kaluuya’s performance as the reticent and pure-hearted Slim, in deep denial that a crime was committed, is worth watching in itself. And newcomer Jodie Turner-Smith matches his performance. Even though the characters often don’t act rationally, one has to be reminded that they are young, lonely, and want to have the thrill of romance. They suppress the reality that the police, at any moment, could overtake them.
More robust portraits of Queen and Slim–their interior lives– would create scenes more personally compelling as well as more memorable. Furthermore, the music track often disrupts the tension and momentum of the story.
Queen & Slim is a provocative, sometimes uncomfortable and frequently unsettling movie experience that is still very much worth seeing. It presents to the audience what it is like to have your grip on the world shattered while asking what use that grip was anyway.
Hey, once again I don’t have Netflix. But now hoping to add to my ordinary cable channels. Now digging into the 4 Jason Bourne movies and the 5th by another actor. Some backstory for the book I’m writing now. Work on film can be as powerful as fiction. Not always but Matt Damon makes it work in these.
This Sundance Now series from Sweden begins in May 1945 in celebration of the end of World War II. Calle Svensson, a young working class aspiring chef, plants an impulsive kiss on a pretty young stranger, Nina Löwander. Her family owns a traditional, if old-fashioned, restaurant in Stockholm. Although officially neutral during the war, Sweden had both Nazi supporters and resisters. The first of three seasons in The Restaurant grapples with the war’s aftermath.
While peace is proclaimed all over Europe, a family battle begins to rage among Löwander family members: the matriarch, Helga, the widow of the restaurant founder; her eldest son, Gustaf; his brother Peter; and the daughter Nina. At times a fierce sibling rivalry for control of the restaurant becomes brutal and embittered with betrayal and deceit. Meanwhile, free-spirited Nina, the youngest, seeks independence. Unforeseen consequences happen. Subplots involve Margareta, a waitress struggling to support her three-year-old son, immigrant employees diabolically abused, and in-fighting among the chef’s staff.
No one in the drama experiences anything but momentary happiness, intensifying the action and moving the story forward. Rarely does an episode drag, except with somewhat lengthy music and dancing in the restaurant club that Nina manages. Primarily a richly plotted multigenerational family saga, The Restaurant deals with the world we are born into (including class) and how we react when that world changes. Much of the Lowander’s story focuses on the mother’s treatment of each sibling and how that impacts their decisions.
Sometimes called the Swedish “Downton Abbey, with its class hierarchy, The Restaurant goes beyond that reductionist label. The “Upstairs, Downstairs” restrictive behavior is soon nullified by the family saga within the Lowander family itself. Each main character has to struggle with financial considerations that impact their own families separate from their siblings.
Embracing time-leaps over two decades (1946-1962), The Restaurant, sustains the drama’s momentum from falling into boredom-creep that plagues so many period dramas. Characters evolve along with the radical social changes engulfing the conservative Swedish government. Historical footage of Stockholm and exquisite cinematography evokes the changes The Restaurant series touches on: issues including abortion, sexual identity and the political animus towards unionization.
Hamburg is in ruins five months after Germany surrenders in 1946. The Aftermath opens with scenes of German residents starving and displaced in bombed-out neighborhoods. Now, they must face Brits and Americans bossing them around their native land, requisitioning their most luxurious homes for their own use during the occupation. Some Germans are so resentful they’re still willing to die defiantly in the name of Hitler.
We don’t often see a film centered on the immediate aftermath of World War II from a German perspective. Yet The Aftermath is not only for history buffs and those who enjoy historical romance. Here we are introduced to the overt tensions between the German people struggling to make a new life under the watchful eye of the same people who they tried to destroy and who destroyed their city. The war’s immediate aftermath exacerbates unhealed wounds on both sides: for the victorious and for the defeated.
Enter British officer Lewis Morgan (Jason Clarke), accompanied by his wife, Rachel (Keira Knightley), who is livid that her husband has offered to share the home they have requisitioned with its rightful owner Herr Lubert (Alexander Skarsgard) and his troubled teenage daughter, Freda. Otherwise, the Luberts would face grim conditions in a refugee camp.
Alexander Skarsgard and Keira Knightley
Tensions between the two families inevitably build to a crisis in the midst of the rubble by the Allied forces. And in addition, Colonel Morgan, fundamentally a decent officer who wishes to treat the Germans with dignity, is overwhelmed with the obligation to rebuild the city, and is morally distraught by what he witnesses. This has left Morgan emotionally numb.
All of the characters in The Aftermath are wounded in some way and it is fascinating to watch them clash and interact, repulse and attract. All are deeply flawed but worthy of sympathy.
This sleeper of a war drama, The Aftermath, is primarily a tale of lives skittering across the surface, unblessed, and at risk of drowning.
Note: Available as a Netflix DVD now and on HBO July 1, 2020. For viewers who feel that subtitles are a bit cumbersome: The subtitles for the brief dialogue in German are in a much smaller font than for the English. This is especially difficult in reading white letters against a light background.
Mrs. America is the history-packed and binge-worthy nine-episode Hulu series created by Dahvi Waller (of “Mad Men”). We see a dazzling sweep of history from the early 1970s to 1982 as the fight against ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment unfolds. Still unpassed, the ERA would create a constitutional ban on discrimination against women. Its failure to win approval was due in large measure to the brilliant political strategist Phyllis Schlafly. Cate Blanchett embodies captivating contradictions as Schlafly, the antiheroine in Mrs. America.
The story of her STOP ERA movement was in many ways an origin story for the culture wars still raging today, a playbook for how we got to be the polarized nation we are. We see the beginning with Schlafly’s brilliant use of grassroots mobilization–mailing lists, manipulating recorded speeches for the media, and moving supporters across state lines to protest what had been seen as a benign and popular constitutional amendment. The issues were many: gendered pay equity. LGBTQ rights, access to abortion, racism, protections against sexual harassment (i.e., #MeToo) and domestic abuse.
While Mrs. America is foremost a docudrama about Phyllis Schlafly, a parallel plot involving two fictional characters: Alice (Sarah Paulson) and Pamela (Kayli Carter) begin as women who believe that their most important job is to be a wife supporting her husband’s ambitions and a mother. For someone like Phyllis Schlafly, a privileged, highly educated woman (who had run for a political position in Illinois), to come along and say, “We’re going to protect your status,” was an irresistible elixir for many.
Mrs. America is complicated and richly multi-dimensional on several surprising levels. Schlafly basically built a gilded cage and got locked inside it herself. Here’s an elegant intellectual and ambitious woman who was rejected by the Washington establishment in spite of the fact that she wrote brilliant position papers on nuclear disarmament which Henry Kissinger adopted as his own,. Almost in a retaliatory way, Schlafly takes up a cause that has some traction,–pro-family, pro-choice, anti-ERA and anti-gay rights– to build her base. And she uses that base to magnificent effect: building email lists that senators and presidential candidates beg for, including Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. Both of whom she supported enthusiastically but did not garner their explicit anti-ERA support after they secured the nomination and, in Reagan’s case, the presidency.
There’s no denying the homemakers that comprised Schlafly’s army are sympathetic, because they’ve lost status when compared to working women. And Schlafly senses that longing for visibility and acceptance. Benign sexism was the petri dish in which she cultivated her Eagle Forum movement, recruiting churches as a source for her mailing lists and memberships. Grassroots politics became a stunning juggernaut for influencing voters: “The person that everybody’s paying attention to always wins” Phyllis preaches to her choir. Her followers became a fervent cult of acolytes and certainly not stay-at-home housewives. The irony is palpable.
A lot of the people who made up the counterrevolution to the women’s movement were the same people who led the backlash to the civil rights movement. The segregationists became the anti-feminists. The Ku Klux Klan supported her financially but secretly. The overriding theme for the anti-ERA movement was a fear of change to traditional womens’ status.
Schlafly ran for Congress in 1952, wrote four books on nuclear weapons strategy as well as “The Conservative Case for Trump” (published the day after she died in 2016). She helped Barry Goldwater secure the Republican presidential nomination and wrote a syndicated column that ran in more than 100 American newspapers for 30 years. Schlaffly also had been a national-security expert on Soviet Union politics for the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
The irony of Phyllis Schlafly is that she created a battalion of affluent housewives, empowered them to leave their homes to attend conventions, and turned into political activists who understood the power structure in Washington. Certainly no mere stay-at-home moms. We see the ascendancy of the far-right with Phil Crane (later co-founder of the conservative Heritage Foundation), Paul Manafort and Roger Stone asking for her political prowess to gain women voters.
Bella Abzug and Schlafly even used the same campaign slogan in their congressional runs: “A Woman’s Place Is in the House”… the House of Representatives for Abzug, For Schlafly’s followers it was the suburban home, but not for Schlafly herself who seemed to be rarely at home.
In the 1970’s the ambition had to be disguised for her cohort to follow. Her husband, fifteen years her senior, played by John Slattery of “Mad Men”, only reluctantly accepts her growing fame. Perhaps one of the more poignant aspects of her not-easily-categorized personality is the fact that she understood the power of the polemic, of a binary either-or polarization that would evoke outrage and zealotry. Schlafly was a master of the message, however brazenly a lie, and a master of bringing followers together without division and infighting for a bigger share of the power.
Perhaps the climax is twofold and viscerally bloodletting: Schlafly in a scene at the end—victorious in defeating the ERA but betrayed by the male politicians who learned and gained from her. And Alice, an erstwhile friend, who deplores why Schlafly became so “mean” in pursuit of a winner-takes-all strategy.
Note: The battle over ERA realigned the Republican and Democratic parties. Not one Republican Congressman supports abortion and the Republican-controlled Senate will not take up the ERA proposal, after the Democratic-controlled House approved rescinding the deadline—previously 1982—for ratifying the ERA. So far the thirty-eight states needed for ratification have occurred, with the latest—Virginia—passing the ERA this year, almost forty years after the initial failure to acquire the necessary votes.
I recall the mess about Phyllis Schlafy. Wouldn’t waste my time watching her again. She made a fuss, yet wasn’t well-respected in many areas. Also don’t have Hulu.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is a dramatization of the real-life friendship between the beloved Fred Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003) and the investigative reporter, Lloyd Vogel (a pseudonym for Tom Junod.). Vogel (played by Emmy winner Matthew Rhys of “The Americans”), is a journalist known for being cynical and abrasive. He is given the assignment to profile the beloved PBS television host of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood: Fred Rogers (the incomparable Tom Hanks), But he is determined to reveal that no one can have such a good and warm-hearted nature.
A feel-good story of kindness and integrity triumphing over cynicism, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is not a chronicle of the groundbreaking show which became a cultural touchstone for more than two generations of children. [The show ran on PBS from 1968-2001, with a total of 895 episodes.] Rather the US’s most beloved neighbor is intent upon demonstrating what a neighborhood really consists of. This takes great effort, introspection, and role-modeling. (For an excellent documentary of the history and development of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, see my review of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”, March 17, 2019.)
There is a dual plot. Roger’s empathy, kindness and decency prove to be an anodyne to Vogel’s unhealed wounds. This forces the reporter to reconcile with his own painful relationship with his father (played by an astounding Chris Cooper, most recently in “Little Women”). What children and their parents find endearing about Fred Rogers soon affects Vogel deeply: the psychological healing when Rogers probes Vogel’s feelings about his parents the same way he taps into children’s. The surprise for viewers is how much both the personalities–Rogers and Vogel–play off each other and gain strength from their relationship.
Tom Hanks channels Fred Rogers in a jaw-dropping performance, including his vocal range, body language, and facial expressions. The viewer gets a powerful, touching tribute to Fred Rogers and the impact he had on so many children’s lives. Matthew Rhys’s performance as Vogel matches the accomplished brilliance of Hanks. The death scenes for both Vogel’s mother and father are memorable and moving, with a theatrical sensibility of the stage, –stripped clean of any background noise or special effects–and a nuanced, impossible-to-forget performance by Chris Cooper. The entire ensemble cast couldn’t be better
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood manages to make you think about yourself and how you can change the world “in your own special way”. He tells millions of children all over the world that he likes them just the way they are. His demonstration of the impact of kindness, –and courageous and positive ways of thinking and dealing with our emotions,– makes feelings both “mentionable and manageable”. Speaking directly to the camera from his heart and transitioning to a make-believe world may be the most startling reality-TV show ever.
An unexpected delight to watch for every adult (but not young children). I thought it would be saccharine…it is not.
Note: Available as a Netflix DVD. May 22 is the 143rd day of the year and a celebration of the late Fred Rogers’ favorite number. Shorthand for “I love you.” Because there is one letter in “I,” four in “love” and three in “you.”) of the calendar year, has been designated as “143 Day” in tribute to Mr. Rogers.
Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich is an explosive and deeply disturbing four-part Netflix Original documentary, that spotlights a dark international web of underage sex trafficking. Billionaire playboy and financier Jeffrey Epstein operated his sick obsession in plain sight. In Filthy Rich we watch this wealthy predator cultivate links to extraordinarily powerful people including current and former presidents and a British prince. In 2019 Epstein was finally convicted of sex trafficking and associated crimes after similar charges ended in a widely-criticized plea deal.
Released this year but filmed before his death on August 10, Filthy Rich underscores the desperation of young girls, often from abusive homes with little recourse for feeding or housing themselves. We see how these girls succumb to the promise of a better life promised by Epstein and his socialite ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. These now young women remain traumatized by the assault and abuse dating back close to 30 years. Several survivors give harrowing and courageous accounts of depravity, aborted attempts to escape, and determination to move on. Epstein’s real-estate portfolio –New York, New Mexico, the US Virgin Islands, London– provided seclusion from the public eye. Epstein’s homes were not easily penetrated from the outside. But surveillance systems enabled video entrapment from the inside.
Several of the survivors display an incredible lack of awareness and common sense. They recruit their younger sisters and friends in a sex trafficking pyramid scheme involving payments for bringing in other minors. We witness a couple of particularly memorable survivors eventually realize and come to understand the immoral power of the rich, who arrogantly believe they can buy other human beings with impunity. And they did…for almost thirty years. And still do.
An outrageous plea bargain, together with powerful friends Epstein could blackmail, and corrupt law enforcement protected Epstein from serious criminal sentencing. The first trial in 2005 was half-heartedly undertaken by Florida U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta (who later became Secretary of Labor under Trump but resigned within days of Epstein’s arrest in July.)
The FBI is reportedly still investigating Ghislaine Maxwell who ‘facilitated’ Epstein’s depravity, but her current location remains unknown. Even after Epstein was found dead in prison, (purportedly from an apparent suicide), the investigation and prosecution continue. Prince Andrew, pictured alongside an underage girl and Epstein, has so far refused to appear as a witness before US federal prosecutors pursuing criminal charges against Epstein’s co-conspirators.
The attorney in charge, Geoffrey Berman, appears prominently in Filthy Rich, as do employees who worked for Epstein at his US Virgin Islands estate. Also highlighted are the Florida police and FBI officials who were both overruled for their pursuit of this pedophile. The courage of the women who came forward may, perhaps, not be stamped out this time.
Note:Available to stream now on Netflix.
See the Business Insiderfor a detailed description of Epstein’s playbook for sexual predation using offshore real estate and lavish accommodations to entice young girls to his mansions. Also CNN footage of survivors’ accounts.
Many college students who have been raped on campus face retaliation and harassment as they fight for justice. In The Hunting Ground, the students (mostly female but some male) give a painful, absorbing account of not only their sexual assault but also the systemic indifference of the college administrations to whom the victims seek redress. This callousness is as devastating and traumatic as the rampant sexual assaults themselves.
In this 103-minute documentary, college rape is seen from the point of view of the raped student as well as the faculty and administrators who were called upon to take action. One rapist agreed to be interviewed.
While college rapists are a small fraction (about 8 %) of students on campus, they are often repeat offenders who continue to rape with impunity, committing 90% of the rapes. Several women interviewed were raped by the same student. These repeat rapists are empowered with the knowledge that the college will turn a blind eye.
The documentary follows two former University of North Carolina students who were the first rape victims to use Title IX to fight back. (Title IX bans gender discrimination at colleges.) The failure to comply can result in the withdrawal of federal funding upon which colleges depend. To fight for justice and vindication for the indifference of the colleges, the students organize other rape survivors to file Title IX complaints. The use of Title IX in campus sexual assault cases has become a model for rape victims across the country.
The Hunting Groundgoes right for the gut. Although the palpable trauma of rape survivors is powerful–with barely contained tears, choking, and trembling–it is the in-depth reporting of the inevitable cover-up by college administrators that is sickening and gut-wrenching. Parents trust colleges to safeguard their daughters and sons. There is an implicit covenant to do so. Why else would parents willingly send their children away? The brazen breach of that covenant is more than shameful. Administrators deny culpability. Former deans and professors who come forward are retaliated against for standing with the survivors. The police give their side of the story which demonstrates their impotence. Why are so many covering up the rapes? Money. Mostly it is about the reputation of the college and the alumni and fraternity donations and the sports team frenzy that brings in millions of dollars. After all, college presidents are hired to raise money. Safeguarding the lives of our children is secondary. One hundred thousand rapes per year will occur if university policy and culture don’t change.
The student accounts — delivered in sorrow and rage, but also with a naiveté of the very young and inexperienced– make this imperfect, sometimes plodding documentary a must-watch for its activism and advocacy.
Note: The Obama administration made the issue of campus assault a priority. In 2014, the White House released guidelines strengthening victims’ rights on how campus rapes are to be treated, Shamefully Secretary Betsy DeVos in May instituted administrative changes that would make it more difficult for victims to file charges against rapists. Biden is on record to reverse the new rules which are an obvious effort by the Trump administration to “shame and silence” survivors of sexual assault
David Edelstein, writing for New York magazine, advised parents to watch The Hunting Ground before sending their children to college. See “College-Rape Documentary The Hunting Ground Plays Like a Horror Movie” February 23, 2015.
One Reply to ““The Hunting Ground” (2015)–Preying on Our Daughters and Sons”
Well, I’m sorry I missed this film. I’m glad it has come around. In grad school one of my profs wrote a book about rape. Dr. Diana Scully interviewed convicted rapists: her book: Understanding Sexual Violence came out in 1990 was funded by NIMH. For some men rape is sex and indeed sex is rape. It’s still an issue of course.
The English Game, created by Julian Fellowes (of “Downton Abbey”), is a Netflix Original period drama based upon a true story. Set in 1880’s England, The English Game is a notable example of class divisions exhibited in the early evolution of football aka soccer. Rising from a provincial game that was socially stratified for the “Old Etonians” of noble birth, we see the evolution of football to a world-class game, perhaps the most popular in the world.
Soccer’s first governing body was an “old-boy network” consistent with a clubby insular game for the privileged. They knew the playbook but to their chagrin soccer began to trickle down to the lower classes.
Edward Holcroft
By the time The English Game opens, two Scotts from a mill town are drafted as the first paid players in soccer. Fergus Suter (Kevin Guthrie) and his friend, Jimmy Love (James Harkness) become the stars of the mill town soccer team, and prepare for playing in the semi-finals against the aristocrats. They create a new strategy of playing that upends the traditional style followed by the elite.
However, players being compensated for their skills were against the Football Association’s rules and so, the plot thickens. Arthur Kinnaird (Edward Holcroft), an Old Etonian of impeccable aristocratic status, is a founding member of the Football Association and heir to the white-shoe family bank that owns the mill sponsoring the paid players. His team is the arch-rival to the mill town team and unaccustomed to their innovative play strategy.
While TheEnglish Game is ostensibly about sportsmanship and soccer in particular, the overriding theme is class division and the leveling of the playing field for all who qualify, not just those who create exclusionary rules to avoid competition. And the subplots of competition between father and son, women’s vulnerable status and exploitation in a world of privileged men, in a highly rigid society are compelling to watch.
You don’t need to be a sports fan to enjoy The English Game!
Hillary, an intimate and candid four-part series about former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton– one of the most admired and vilified women in the world–features never-before-seen footage of her life from birth in a close-knit family in Chicago, Illinois. The mission of this documentary is not only to interview Hillary Clinton (for a total of thirty-five hours) and several dozen colleagues and personal friends but also to try to analyze why people found Clinton so compelling—and so polarizing. Yet Hillary is so much more than a biopic. It is a distillation of the history of contemporary feminism in the United States, sexism, the failure of journalism, and the history of partisan politics.
For the first time in perhaps four decades, we see Clinton engage in a wide-ranging conversation about herself as a private citizen with breathtaking courage and unflinching reflection on those mistakes. This is maybe the first time she hasn’t had to self-censor.
Even with her exclusive access to Hillary Clinton, filmmaker Nanette Burstein did not intend to go over familiar territory about perhaps the most scrutinized public figure in the last half-century. “Can a woman ever—really, actually ever,– become president of the United States?” To this day, there is no easy answer. And only one woman has come extremely, some would say, perilously close.
Childhood friends, her daughter Chelsea, former President Barack Obama as well as staff members, campaign managers, journalists, and senators, both Republican and Democrat, are interviewed. The former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich so hated the idea of being interviewed that he is on record as responding: “I would rather stick a needle in my eye than talk to you about Hillary Clinton in a documentary.”
Hillaryframes the Hillary Clinton of the past half-century as a woman who learned that to be taken seriously, she’d have to wear a mask. She never fully removes it, of course, but in these interviews it occasionally slips, and clues about a brilliant intellectual that no one else seems to get are revealed. “I’m a private person,” Hillary confesses, “and I’ve made mistakes because of that.” As a woman especially, she may be just too cerebral for some people to put up with. Hillary Clinton is a national lightning rod for women’s status and image–the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Hillary Clinton was criticized for coming off as too cold,–even emotionless– but she had been forced to learn how to be affectless as the rare female law student at Yale University. Clinton’s gender hindered her in unpredictable ways as Burstein’s documentary unfolds. She was scrutinized, investigated, loved and hated.
At one interview, Hillary seems almost perplexed at the double standard, even after all the years on the campaign trail: “I’ve been on platforms with lots of male candidates, and they have shouted, they have beaten the podium, they have gone crazy with their hands and arms, and nobody said a thing.” “A woman candidate? Her voice rises, and somehow that’s over a line.” But what line has been drawn?
The filmmaker does a commendable job illustrating what Clinton was subjected to throughout her career: from footage of protesters with “Iron My Shirt” signs at her rallies, to male supporters earnestly advising her to smile more and wear something besides pantsuits. For younger viewers this past may seem almost unbelievable, in its blatant sexism. To the babyboomer generation, the behavior is dishearteningly familiar.
When Trump stalked behind Clinton in an effort to physically intimidate her, Clinton wanted to call him out, but didn’t. “He was preening like an alpha male.” She knew how the press would react.
Her communications director elaborates on why confronting Trump would have been ill-advised. “I think the post-2016 election world is a different universe — I think a woman could do that and be lauded for standing up to a man who was trying to intimidate her, but not then.” The same resistance to pushing back occurs throughout the film, in spite of anger: in the email with James Comey, in the PizzaGate trolling and in the Whitewater investigation.
She demonstrates how aware she is of the public’s perception of her and the role her gender has played in her polarizing image. And her most painful moments– when she had to face her husband’s sexual predation of Monica Lewinsky– are some of the most heartbreaking to watch. Hillary is personally hurt, admits that she could hardly breathe when Bill admitted he was lying, and demanded that he explain to their daughter about the affair. A fragile, chastened Bill Clinton is seen as a vulnerable humbled man for the unspeakable betrayal of her trust.
Clinton is also positive about how the women’s movement has brought change, but still there is no guarantee that the hard-fought changes and laws will not be rescinded or pushed back. Her tone is optimistic and hopeful, nonetheless.
Hillary is instructive and emblematic of a period in history that is not that long ago. Even for those who despise her, the series offers a unique glimpse behind the scenes of some of the most consequential moments in recent political history.
She cracked the glass ceiling. We now wait for it to be shattered. .
First let me tell you I have a love/hate connection to Hillary. I admire her and think she is the most qualified, intelligent, knowledgeable and deserving politician alive to be President of the United States. With that said, I don’t particularly like her mainly because she is hard to read/like because of her public persona not matching her personal/private one that she allows the public to see. A friend was seated at Hillary’s table at a Presidential Dinner at the White House when Bill was President. She never really “liked” Hillary until that dinner – my friend was impressed with her warmth, inclusiveness and gigantic knowledge/intelligence of the world. Since that dinner, she has been a Hillary Fan and Promoter because of what she saw and experienced.
Now, because of my limited knowledge of how HULU works, I watched the 4th and last episode of “Hillary” first. It was so frustrating and painful to watch because I know how it would end. My grandson watched the whole series and was the one who told me how good it was. Because of this I had to talk to him about it. It helped me a lot to discuss the episode and feelings about the episode and to hear what the other episodes revealed to lead up to this last episode.
I wasn’t going to watch the rest of the series until I had this discussion. I am glad I did watch the rest. I still found the whole series painful because I saw someone who I admire and believe in so vulnerable. It showed me what a great price of personal commitment to be and to become one of the most powerful women in the United States. She is not only smart, thoughtful, and committed to her country, but she is a woman that cares about how this country treats its people. I only wish people could understand that such a strong complex woman as she would have been great for this country.
In this spinoff of the BBC popular series “The Missing”, detective Baptiste is now retired and recovering from brain surgery. The six-part crime procedural, Baptiste, is an intense crime thriller.
Baptiste (Tchéky Karyo) is called in by Amsterdam’s Chief of Police and former lover to investigate the disappearance of Natalie, a young sex worker. He meets her uncle Edward (Tom Hollander of “The Night Manager”) and soon Baptiste and Edward become involved in taking down a Romanian crime organization. The Romanians are in the business of sex trafficking in the red light district of the city. While still the same old curmudgeon as in “The Missing”, Detective Baptiste now has conflicting emotions in his relationship with his own daughter, and with his former lover. Nonetheless, he is quickly sucked into a case that exposes the seedy underworld of Amsterdam beneath the picturesque streets and canals. His family suffers while he becomes obsessed with the case.
Filled with a number of red herrings to throw the viewer off track, Baptiste may fool the viewer as to what really happened to Natalie, and who really is implicated in sex trafficking. This is a great whodunit worthy of six hours of viewing time.
Note: Available on Masterpiece Theater and pbs.org. Baptiste premiered in April of this year. A second season is planned for next year.
Hey,
last night I wanted to start watching Baptiste, but distracted to another show. I will go to the beginning and watch. Sorry I didn’t take notice earlier. It looks good.
Diana:
Thanks for the review and for bringing this film to my attention. This is an era when we should all be seeing more movies like this that address important issues.
By the way, I rarely leave a comment, but I always read and appreciate your thoughtful reviews.
Once again, don’t have Netflix. I suspect we’ll be seeing more of this genre in the future. Strong women taking on roles that used to belong only to men. I’m happy about that!
Cheers,
L.
Will check it out