Movie Review - "Ammonite"

"Ammonite" is a British movie written and directed by Francis Lee.  It made the the Film Festival circuits in late 2019, and was to be released in early 2020, but got lost in the COVID Pandemic shuffle.  It was finally released theatrically in the United States in November of 2020, but if it played anywhere in the Pittsburgh area, I missed it.  It is now available for rental on Prime, and that is where I watched it today.   To be perfectly honest, in and of itself, this is not a movie that I would be inclined to see, but I wanted to see it because of its two leading actresses, Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan.    I have said it before, if they filmed Saoirse Ronan reading the phone book, I would no doubt pay to see it.  Kate Winslet was an added bonus.

The story takes place in an English Channel seacoast town in the 1840's.  Winslet plays Mary Anning, a paleontologist whose discoveries were, and probably still are, on display in the British Museum.  Her discoveries were important and widely acclaimed, but due to the societal mores of Victorian England, she herself was not.  She spends her days combing the  rocky Channel beaches looking for fossils and gathering shells for she and her aging and ailing mother to sell to tourists in their small shop.  It is a lonely, forlorn, and mostly a silent existence.  See what I meant by this not being one that I would normally be inclined to see.

Into her life comes another paleontologist  Roderick Murchison and his wife Charlotte, played by Ronan.  Roderick seeks to learn from Mary before he departs on an expedition of is own, and Charlotte is there, suffering from "melancholia" according to Roddy, and needs the sea air to soothe her and help her recover.  He convinces Mary to allow Charlotte to stay with her while he's gone to assist in her recovery.  Mary has no desire to do so, but Murchison will pay, and she and her Mum could use the money.

Much like Mary, Charlotte too suffers from the repressions towards women in the era.  Mary begrudgingly takes care of her and takes her along on her beach hunts, and soon the two of them find something in each other that is missing in each of their lives

The relationship soon takes on physical aspect and Mary and Charlotte engage in a sexual affair.  The lovemaking scenes between them are quite powerful and erotic.  I wouldn't call them pornographic, but at the same time, I have to say that they might not be to everyone's taste.  You've been warned.

I mentioned that the reason I wanted to see this film was to see Winslet and Ronan together on screen and they did not disappoint.  As always, Saoirse Ronan was terrific, but this movie really belongs to Kate Winslet.  There are long stretches of this movie where the dialog is limited and is often drowned out by background noise (use the subtitles when you stream this one), so the actors need to rely on facial expressions and physical reactions, and, boy, do they pull it off.  Pay attention to Winslet's face in one scene as she sits in a gathering in an upper class parlor when a musical recital is being given.  And watch both of them as Charlotte boards a carriage to leave the little beach town and return to her husband in London.  Both are real WOW moments.

Like I said, this movie normally be my cup of tea and would probably only get Two Grandstander Stars, but the presence of Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan earns this one Three Stars.

By the way, Mary Anning is a real historical figure.  Charlotte Murchison is not.   There is no historical evidence that Mary was gay, nor is there any such evidence that she was not.

THIS Is Why You Do Movie Remakes

A few weeks ago, after seeing the movie "In The Heights" I made the comment on Facebook that seeing a great musical such as this had really put me in the mood and anxious to see the new version of "West Side Story" from director Steven Spielberg that will be released later this year. 

Well, as you might expect, this produced a whole bunch of comments along the lines of "I'll NEVER go see a remake of such a classic movie" or "Why are they doing this?" or "How can someone even THINK of tampering with such a classic?"  It was almost as if someone was painting a Groucho Marx mustache on the Mona Lisa.

I have written on the topic of movie remakes many times, most notably HERE and and on West Side Story specifically in this past post so I will not go chapter and verse today, but let me recount one incident from my vacation last week that brought home yet another reason WHY it is not necessarily a mortal sin to remake a classic movie.

In discussing "In The Heights" with our nieces Jennifer and Jill, both of whom are in the neighborhood of fifty years of age, and Jen's son Zach, 25, who is living in Los Angeles and working on a behind the cameras career in the film industry, Marilyn and I brought up Spielberg's upcoming "West Side Story."  None of them, it turns out, had ever seen the 1961 Academy Award winning "West Side Story"!  Oh, they know the story and many of the songs, but they had never seen this classic film, but they are planning on seeing the new version of this movie.

So there you have it.  A remake of a classic film exposes new generations of viewers to a classic piece, not only of American filmmaking, but of American theater.  And at our urging, each of them said that the release of this version will prompt them, either before or after, to see the 1961 version.  That alone is a good reason to remake a Classic.  Of course, the new version of such a film needs to be well done and of high quality, too, and with Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner working with such quality source material, who can doubt that 2021's "West Side Story" will be of high quality?

Those who dismiss it out of hand and refuse to see it, could be depriving themselves of a wonderful experience.

Outer Banks Vacation, 2021

As many of you know, Marilyn and I have been vacationing with her family at North Carolina's Outer Banks since 1986, and last week, we did it once again, specifically to Corolla, Currituck County at the same house that we have rented since 2006.  The trip this year was especially enjoyable and liberating since, like the best of the world, we did not go anywhere in 2020, and Marilyn and I had not been on a vacation since our trip to Great Britain in the Fall of 2019.  There was one particular branch of this Family Tree, the Richards of Gilbertsville, PA, that we hadn't seen since Christmas, 2019, eighteen months ago.

Our weather was excellent, when it did rain, it occurred late in the afternoon or through the night, so we didn't miss a single day at the beach or poolside.  I must confess, though, that I never made it into the Ocean past my knee caps due to currents that necessitated flags such as this along our particular stretch of beach.

Per tradition, Marilyn and I, which of course, means "mostly Marilyn", hosted a "Theme Night" when it was our turn to make dinner.  The theme this year was "Carnival."  It included a Midway...

...and a goofy photo booth....

It was fun,  but the highlight of the week was "Graduation Night."  Since we last gathered in 2019, the family has had three graduations: Nathan from Grove City College in 2020 and Gavin and Cale (that's her photo-bombing us in the pic at the top of this post; she's an expert in that particular art) from Gilbertsville High School in 2020 and 2021, respectively.  It was Jill's idea to celebrate these three milestones and have a Graduation Party.

The only "requirement" of the night was that everyone was to wear a tee shirt or sweatshirt representing their past, present, or future college.  Such as...

It also produced a couple of terrific group shots of the entire crew.

Okay, you all get the idea.  We had a great week in the OBX, and at this point, I won't go any further, because, as I always say, there is only SO MUCH  that people want to hear about other peoples' vacations, but I will close up with a couple of other of my favorite photos from the trip.

Every one - less two - poolside in the afternoon

"It's the fine life, baby!"

Me and a Corona, channeling 

my inner Snoop

Date Night 

for

 The Grandstander and Mrs. G.

Until next year......

"Hacks" and "Mrs. Fletcher"

Allow me to recommend two pretty good comedy series now streaming on HBO Max.

In "Hacks", Jean Smart (fresh off her terrific role as Kate Winslett's mother in "Mare of Easttown") plays a LasVegas diva comedienne Deborah  Vance (think Joan Rivers) whose star is in its desendency, and a young actress, unfamiliar to me, named Hanna Einbinder, is Ava, a young comedy writer recently fired from her comedy writing gig due to a "tasteless" joke she wrote tweeted about a politician (that part is hard to believe).  To reignite both of their careers, their mutual agent puts them together in hopes that Ava can freshen up Deborah's act, and that Deborah will help rescue Ava from show biz purgatory.  

Neither of them particularly want this arrangement, but they reluctantly agree, thus beginning a ten episode oil-and-water comedy series that is funny, charming, and, in a rough edged way, very endearing.  Smart is terrific and will probably be Emmy nominated for this one.  The twenty-six year old Einbinder is really charming and should have a nice future in show biz.  She is also the daughter of original Saturday Night Live cast member Laraine Newman.

Smart and Einbinder

The series ended perfectly set up for a second season.  We'll be waiting.

Three Stars from The Grandstander

********

A few years ago, I started reading the novel., Mrs. Fletcher" upon which it this seven episode series was based, but gave up on it about halfway through, but it was enough to pique my interest in the show. The show centers upon Eve Fletcher, a divorced Mom who has just sent her jagoff of a son off to college. To combat her empty nest blues, she takes a night adult education writing class, and develops some, shall we say, quirky, viewing habits on the internet. Like Eve's viewing habits, the show is a bit quirky, but I really liked Kathryn Hahn as Eve. She was really good - heartfelt, funny, and, I thought, quite sexy. There were lots of good points to be made in the series. It ended in a deep state of limbo, I thought. This is a couple of years old by now, so it doesn't appear that they plan on a Season Two. Too bad.

Two and one-half Stars from The Grandstander.

Three Absent Friends

It's been a crowded departure lounge of late, so today The Grandstander salutes three Absent Friends.  The tributes will be shorter than usual, sorry to say.

Ned Beatty

1937-2021

I have often written about character actors in this space, and I usually end up by saying that while Stars are Stars, you can't make movies and television without great character actors, and Ned Beatty, who died last week at the age of 83 was the quintessential character actor. With 165 credits in both television and feature films stretching over almost fifty years, Beatty was certainly ubiquitous.  What I didn't realize until reading his obits was that his very first acting credit was probably the role for which he was most famous, that of the weekend adventurer who was raped by backwoodsmen in 1972's "Deliverance."  He was also nominated for an Academy Award in 1977 for his role in "Network."  Comedy, drama...he could do it all.  

I wonder if he ever got tired of people coming up to him and saying "Squeal like pig."

********

Clarence Williams III

1939-2021

Clarence Williams III, he of the luxurious Afro and cool shades, died last week at the age of 81.  He is know most famously for his 123 episodes of "The Mod Squad" from 1968-73, but he, too, is another actor who never really stopped working, accumulating 99 credits right up to the current date.  I can remember going to see a movie in 1999 called "The General's Daughter."  It was based on a thriller novel that I had read and it starred John Travolta, but when watching it I had one of those "who is that guy?" moments seeing one of the actors, and it turned out to be Clarence Williams III, who I had not seen in probably twenty years.  I remember thinking "I just saw a movie that starred Vinnie Barbarino and Linc Hayes."  Williams also had a featured role in the feature film "Lee Daniels' The Butler" a few years back.

For better or worse, though he will be most remembered for starring with Michael Cole and Peggy Lipton in "The Mod Squad", the show with perhaps the greatest 1970's-era tagline ever....

The Mod Squad

"One White, One Black, One Blonde"

********

Jim "Mudcat" Grant

1935-2021

By any measure, Jim Grant had a memorable major league career, made more so, no doubt, due to his colorful nickname. (It is interesting to note that when you look for his page on baseball-reference.com, "Jim Grant" will not take you there.  You have to type in "Mudcat Grant.") in fourteen seasons from 1958-71, he pitched for seven different team, including a stint with the Pirates in 1970-71.

He had a career record of 145-119, including a 21 win season for the AL pennant winning Twins.  He was the first Black pitcher to win twenty games in a season in the American League.  He pitched in three games in the 1965 World Series, going 2-1, losing in a Game Seven to the great Sandy Koufax.  No shame in that.

I will always remember Mudcat, though, for his role as a color commentator on Cleveland Indians broadcasts during the mid-Seventies, during a time when we lived in Cleveland.  Part of Grant's charm was the fact that he never lost his down home southern accent, and on one broadcast, when an injured player was being walked off the field, Jim noted that "It appears that he pulled his pictorial muscle."  

How could you not love a guy like that?

RIP Ned Beatty, Clarence Williams III, and Jim "Mudcat" Grant

"In The Heights"....In The Theater

It was a big day today as we mark our progress in post(?)-pandemic life: we went to the movies.  No, not to the television set to stream something, but an honest-to-God movie theater.  The movie we saw was Lin-Manuel Miranda's "In The Heights", but more on that in a bit.

First off, what was it like being back inside a theater?  First off, I felt rather safe in there.  The seating was spaced, all employees were masked (not so all the patrons; that was a mixed bag).  concession workers wore gloves.  Frankly, I felt safer there than I did last night when I did something else for the first time in a year - I went to Mass inside a Church.   Spacing and masks in there was not so well enforced, but that is another topic for another time.

The last time we were in a theater was in February, 2020, when we saw the Julia Louis-Dreyfus/Will Farrell movie "Downhill."  Not a bad movie, but not one you would necessarily want as the answer to the "what-was-the-last-movie-you-saw-in-a-theater-before-the-shutdown?'" trivia question.    We knew that we would be venturing back to the theater soon, so the question became, what movie  will get the nod as The First One?  That it would be "In The Heights" was a pretty easy decision.  It is a feel good musical with big, splashy, and colorful production numbers.  Yes, we could have streamed it at home via HBO Max, but this was the kind of movie that really should be seen, initially at least, on a big screen in a darkened movie theater.

Anthony Ramos (John Laurens/Phillip Hamilton from "Hamilton") plays Usnavi, who runs a small bodega in the Washington Heights section of New York City and longs to return to his native Dominican Republic, where he lived until he was eight years old.  Story lines revolve around Nina, a young girl who "made it out" and attends Stanford University, Vanessa, who works in a nail salon and upon whom Usnavi has a major crush, Benny, who works for Nina's dad as a cab dispatcher, Sonny, Usnavi's cousin who works in the bodega, and Abuela Claudia, the older lady who is everyone in the neighborhood's surrogate grandmother.

Ramos and Barrera 

as

Usnavi and Vanessa

The big musical numbers are what the movie (and the Broadway show that preceded it) is all about. The opening title number, the great "$96,000" number that takes place largely at a public swimming pool, great dancing sequences in a beauty parlor, a night club, and another in the neighborhood near the end as the residents are in the throes of a three day period with no electricity due to a heat related power outage in the City.  There is also a really cool number near the end of Benny and Nina singing and dancing on their building.  Yes, I said "on" their building.  You need to see it.

Leslie Grace as Nina

Vanessa and Nina in the beauty salon

"Tell Me Something I Don't Know"

Ramos was terrific in the lead, and we were impressed with the two talented and beautiful female leads, Melissa Barrera as Vanessa and Leslie Grace as Nina.  We were not familiar with either actress, and bothe were terrific.  Other notable cast members are Jimmy Smits as Nina's father, Corey Hawkins as Benny, and Gregory Diaz IV as Sonny.

As most people know, "In The Heights" was Lin-Manuel Miranda's first Tony Award winning musical.  He starred as Usnavi on Broadway in this, and he serves as the Producer of the film version.  He also has a small role and a musical number in the movie version.  Oh, and if you watch and listen closely, you will find two additional - that I caught - "Hamilton" easter eggs embedded in the movie.

I found "In the Heights" to be a perfect summer movie and great way to return to the movies:  upbeat, positive, energetic, beautiful to look at, and fun.  Go see it in a movie theater!

Three Stars from The Grandstander.

 

Saluting our 2021 Grads

 

A tip of the ol' mortarboard today as we salute the graduates among our vast array of nieces and nephews this spring.

• Cale Richards, Boyertown High School
• Will Sproule, Washington University (St. Louis)

Congratulations to these two great kids as they move on to the next phase of their lives.  Cale will be attending Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, PA, and Will will be headed for employment and, possibly, a year of grad school.

Book Review - "Ocean Prey" by John Sandford

 (This post contains no spoilers.)

Did you ever go to a movie that you enjoyed, and then learned after the fact that the original director's cut of the movie was something like three and a half hours long, and all you can think of is that the movie you liked would have been God-awful at 3 and 1/2 hours long, and thank God for editing?

Well, that is how I felt after reading John Sandford's newest Lucas Davenport novel, "Ocean Prey."  At 420 pages in length, this one was too long by about 50-75 pages.

The story:  three US Coast Guardsmen are murdered in cold blood by drug runners in Florida, who are seeking to pick up vast numbers of kilos of pure heroin that were dropped of the coast by drug dealers from Mexico (or maybe they were from Venezuela or Colombia) on the ocean floor at a specified GPS location. The FBI is gaining no traction on finding the killers so the US Marshalls Service, in the person of Lucas Davenport, is called into the case.  The Marshalls recruit Minnesota state police detective Virgil Flowers to go undercover and pose as an expert scuba diver to infiltrate the scumbag drug dealers who killed the Coast Guard guys.  The case has expanded to not only find the killers, but to recover the remaining sealed kilos of heroin on the ocean floor AND tie it all back to a Mafia kingpin who is in New York City.  There were more layers to this story than a debutante's wedding cake.

Did you get confused and tired just reading that above paragraph?  Just imagine plowing through 420 pages of it, and I left out the pages and pages and PAGES of intricate detail involving the technical difficulties in scuba diving in the ocean when a diver goes beyond depths of 50 feet....and 100 feet....and 120 feet...and 150 feet.  "ENOUGH ALREADY" you wanted to  scream.  I have loved the Sandford/Davenport Prey series over the years and usually finish them in two or three sittings.  This one took over a week and days went by where I wouldn't even pick the book back up to resume reading.  My wife, also a fan of the series, had the same reaction.

All that said, however, when Sandford finally got around to bringing this story to a conclusion,  he reverted to form and the last fifty or so pages were slam-bang top shelf stuff.  If only he could have pared it  down a bit and made the entire book like that.  Oh, and be sure to read the "Author's Note" at the end of the book.  It's kind of funny.

I also have to say that Lucas Davenport, the character, has taken a bit of a dark turn. It started in the previous novel, "Masked Prey" where Lucas went rogue to take down the bad guys, and it has continued to the point where even the other characters in the story are commenting upon it.  Makes me wonder where Sandford is leading us.

If you are a devoted fan of Sandford's Davenport "Prey" novels, you have to read this one, but to this reader at least, it was a disappointment.

One and one-half Stars from The Grandstander.

Tunch

Steelers radio color analyst Tunch Ilkin announced today that he would be formally retiring as a broadcaster for the Steelers Radio Network.  Ilkin spent 23 years in the Steelers radio booth, and it couldn't have been easy in that he had to succeed a legend in Myron Cope in that spot, and then had to spend the rest of his time doing the heavy lifting whenever  broadcast partner Bill Hillgrove botched up his play calling, which was often.  This career behind the mic followed a 14 year career as a Steelers offensive linemen where he performed with great distinction throughout his career.  He played under both Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher, and while his career did not include a trip to a super Bowl with the Steelers, that takes nothing away from the excellence of his long career.  He remained in Pittsburgh after his playing days, and became a frequent commentator on the team and a most popular guy around town.  He is, as they say, a Steeler for Life.

Sadly, Tunch was much in the news last fall when he announced that he had been diagnosed with ALS - Lou Gehrig's Disease.  He stayed on in the broadcast booth throughout the 2020 season, but in announcing his  retirement today, he mentioned that he needed to devote all of his energies to battling this disease.   ALS is a horrifying illness.  It never ends well, and there is still no cure fo it.

A cute story about Ilkin that I always liked is that his wife Sharon appeared once on the cover of Sports Illustrated while he never did.  They were students together at Indiana State where she was a cheerleader, and it was in that role that she made the SI cover with another Sycamore of some note:

That's the future Mrs. Tunch Ilkin on the left

Steelers fans, football fans, and good people everywhere will be cheering once more for Tunch Ilkin, and praying for his peace and comfort in his years ahead.

"The Pirates Project" - Two Months In

Hey, Gang, remember when I wrote about "The Pirates Project" back in March, the wagering experiment that I would be conducting throughout the season?  Well, the Battlin' Bucs have now completed two months of the season, 53 games worth, and I am sure that many of you, at least one or two, are wondering, "Just how is that going for The Grandstander?"

Some raw numbers before I give you the results so far.

• The Pirates had a surprisingly good April, finishing the month at 12-13.
• In May, the Pirates became what we thought they would become.  They went 8-20.  Their record of 20-33 puts them on pace for a 61-101 record for the season.
• I wagered a total of $57.49 on the Pirates' 53 opponents to win on the Money Line odds.  Average bet per game was $1.08 with bets ranging from $.50 to $2.00 a game.  Most bets were for either $.75 or $1.00.

Here are the Year To Date results:

		Amount Bet	Amount Paid	Net
May Totals		30.90	34.72	3.82	12.7% gain in May
April Totals		26.59	22.76	-3.83	14.4% loss in April
YTD (April-May)		57.49	57.48	-0.01	Virtual break even for season

Yep, the Pirates put me in the hole after that hot start (for them) in April, and it took the entire month of May for me to dig out of that hole, but dig out of it I have to the extent that I have lost exactly $0.01, one crummy penny, on the overall project.  It's enough to convince me to extend the project for at least another month.  The Pirates have 26 games scheduled in June, which will take them to two games shy of the halfway mark for the season.   Should they continue to play more like they did in May than they did in April, I think that I will be writing in black ink when I next report back on this Project.

I also want to point out that, yes, I do feel a little skeevy about constantly betting against "my team", and that when I watch them, I am never cheering for them to lose.  Still, when they get outscored 33-3 in three games, as happened against the Braves last month, this little experiment is something upon which to fall back.