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Indivisible: Healing Hate (2022)
An Eye Opening Connection of Recent Events
Part of the fundamental problem in today's society is we seek out confirmation bias, almost as a lifeline to our own sanity. Which explains why there are so many polar responses to this mini-series. You can infer the political party of the critic based solely on the number of stars given. 10 Stars = Democrat, 1 star = Trump Republican. Make no mistake about it, their political views cloud their opinion.
But for those of us that might not think of our party as the absolute epitome of morality, or are independent, the absoluism can be a bit less convoluted.
The series begins with telling the tale of an ex-skinhead trying to make sense of his past, one that saw him utterly fail in his hate crime against a synagogue where he was arrested and sent to jail for his crimes.
Throughout the series it returns to his disillusionment about what being a part of the arian nation means.
In the meantime it weaves national news story after national news story that have entranced the country for years, and examines how they are connected in a fundamental way that even the participants might not fully comprehend or understand.
It examines how the flow of news we choose to to view shapes our very understanding of the story itself.
It manages to string together a narrative of wildly diverging stories from the past several decades into one that actually makes sense.
It is a good examination for those looking to understand the events of Jan 6 beyond simply a coup attempt by Trump.
It examines what Trump was tapping into and relying upon in his attempt, and it's much deeper than him simply attempting to usurp power.
The journey is well worth the time to explore.
Future Man (2017)
Nearly Every Scene Is A Spoof
Whether it's a line in the dialogue, or the scene itself, nearly everything that happens in Future Man is a spoof of some sort. The references are all across the board, from Easy Rider to Midnight Cowboy to Terminator to Back To The Future to Top Gun and on and on, each scene in this show is either a spoof or homage to famous TV shows and/or Films of yesteryear, especially isolated when the characters time travel to a particular year.
How they go from scene to scene or situation to situation seems a bit forced throughout the series, as the pop culture references seem to be the most important element in the writing of the show, is sometimes forced and ham handed, but make no mistake about it, this show is all about spoofing pop culture first and foremost.
Once you understand this mechanic of the story-telling, the rest just falls into place.
Sometimes the references are laugh out loud funny, other times they simply make your eyes roll.
One thing is for sure about this show, don't take any of it seriously and please ignore the many plot holes in it.
The Sandlot (1993)
Remember When
Remember when episodes in your life were more than merely what they were? When everything was live or die? When pure passion was all that you lived on?
This is a movie about those times, and yet, it's something more. At the age of 10-12, every moment that we live seems like it will last forever, and there is no sense of repercussion for your actions. In this film, there are times when you want to bury your face in your hands because you can remember something from your own childhood that this film relates to.
This film is about that simple time between childhood and adulthood. That time when you believed that shoes could actually make you run faster. Or that the dog just beyond that next fence was actually a huge monster just waiting to kill you. Those stories that your friends sat you down and told you about that, in retrospect, you should have known better, but believed anyway, just because you chose to.
Scenes in this film bring back memories of a childhood that was once so real, so vivid, and yet, so distant. While children can relate to this film, because the main characters in the film could be kids that they know, parents can relate to this film as well, because there are situations that we all went through, in one way or another. The loss of innocence, the connection with our parents on a "real" level, the final realization of the vast difference between reality, and that which your friends have sworn is true.
As you sit down to watch this film, be prepared to venture back into your own childhood, as that is what this film is really all about. This film is about each of our childhoods, told through the eyes of the narrator. About the friends that we held dear, and about how we grew together just by being a part of something, together.
Oh, and baseball plays a pretty good roll in the film as well. 9 boys who are drawn together by one thing, baseball. It is through these nine boys that we all find identification.
There are some great supporting roles by the likes of Dennis Leary (surprisingly restrained, actually acting even), Karen Allen, and James Earl Jones (who becomes the oracle of baseball, taking in the two kids who will eventually spend the rest of their lives around baseball).
This film is one of the many movies that was mismarketed. This is a film for all ages. Adults shunned it because it was labeled a "kids movie", and kids shunned it because it wasn't a cartoon. Fact is, this is one of the few films that both parents and kids can sit down and watch together and derive completely different satisfaction from. This is one of those films that I can't wait to share with my children, when they get old enough to understand it, like maybe 7 or 8.