Don't root for one team over another and switches sides at half time back in Washington the full House is gearing up for a Wednesday vote on whether to impeach Trump China and the u.s. Are touting the Phase one trade deal that averts a new round of tariffs that were set to go into effect tomorrow N.P.R.'s genuine reports though the agreement is light on details the deal announcement cuts tariffs and a half 120000000000 dollars worth of Chinese imports in exchange for the tear for leave China says it will increase its foreign purchases and complete some unspecified reforms u.s. China Business Council president Craig Allen says the interim agreement is good news for American businesses but specific commitments from China are needed to encourage u.s. Investment it's important for business to have clarity to have transparency and to have a definitive view of the future here the administration says China has committed to protecting intellectual property but so far it's offered no details genuine n.p.r. News u.n. Climate talks have gone into overtime in Madrid Teri Schultz reports more than $190.00 countries were due to wrap up yesterday but with negotiations in limbo the summit could end with no strong measures to combat climate change ministers are still debating ways to implement the 2015 Paris climate agreement including how to finance countries most vulnerable to climate change how to manage carbon emissions and how strong the pledges to go further would be in the meetings final text Greenpeace says the proposed tax is so weak it sounds like the drafters listened to polluters instead of to the people spokesman under slander says Chile which is leading the talks still hopes to wrap up Saturday he speaks here through an interpreter will try to articulate agreement but if there's not consensus between along the parties than there's not consensus the Finnish environment minister speaking for the European Union says it would be impossible to leave the talks without agreeing on drastic cuts and carbon emissions for n.p.r. News. I'm Terry Schultz in Brussels Mississippi's Republican governor says he will ask the Supreme Court to uphold the state's ban on abortion at 15 weeks one day after a federal appeals court ruled the ban was unconstitutional backers of similar measures in other states have been aiming for a Supreme Court fight with the hope that new conservative justices will overturn the 1973 Roe versus Wade ruling legalizing abortion rights nationwide a low pressure system over the western u.s. Is expected to bring widespread wintry weather from the central plains into the northeast further west snow is piling up in the Sierra Nevada and in the Rockies more than a foot is forecast to fall you're listening to n.p.r. News and from. Some of the stories we're following at 12 o 4 the San Anita racetrack unveiled technology yesterday that it hopes will help curb the number of deaths there are of horses and you onsite scanning machines designed to find preexisting conditions and horses before they suffer a fatal injury on the track racetrack veterinarian Dr Ryan Carpenter's a scanner allows lightly sedated horses to remain standing while their legs are examined he says it's similar to equipment used for professional athletes each horse is looked at by veterinarians that was groundwork that was years ago and. In the recent months that commitment. Has significantly reduced our fatalities over the last 6 to 9 months 37 horses have died at the Arcadia track in last 12 months a coronary investigation into deaths from the California Horse Racing Board will be released in mid January sanity the parks official racing season begins December 26th some 1200 volunteers are handing out over 3000 winter survival kits this weekend to Angelenos experiencing homelessness the nonprofit organization the giving spirit provides aid and social connections for local homeless residents founder Tom. Says the emergency kits contain 75. So you have obviously food and hydration basic hygiene things to keep them warm things keep dry things to communicate with a pad of paper and a pen on the street value when it's coming to. An apartment or just being able to have a conversation. He says the group has been distributing winter and spring survival kits for 20 years they customize the kits based on conversations with the people in need and he says one kid can last a few months giving spirits also hosting educational sessions focusing on homelessness among seniors and college students if you like more info you can find it giving spirit dot org. Support for n.p.r. Comes from Newman offering a personalized weight loss program based on our cognitive behavioral approach with the goal of losing weight and keeping it off for a good learn more at Newman and dot com and listeners like you who donates had this n.p.r. Station. Film way gone 89.3. 0 am Larry Matt so wonderful to have you with us this week our critics are. Sol I'm an animation critic Tim Cobb shell we have many films to talk about this week beginning with uncut gems Adam Sandler stars as a New York jeweler Kevin Garnett former n.b.a. Star and Edina in the cast as well the film is written and directed by this Saffy brothers Benny and Josh also contributing the screenplay Ronald Brownstein please start us with uncut gems Yeah this is actually an outstanding film and I think it's one of the top films of the year it so stand there plays Howard the tightly coaled . Gambling addicted risk addicted. Guy who's having an affair on his wife played by idiom. And Zell with this gorgeous woman who works in his jewelry shop played by Julia Fox He is trying to juggle all his his balls and keep them in the air when everything starts to come down he insists you know he can keep doing this what I love about this after Brothers is there's their mastery of tone they did a film a few years ago a couple years ago called good time with Robert Pattinson which is so so strong and it's a similar kind of totally in that it has a sense of you have a sense of dread but at the same time there's propulsive energy that keeps moving the film forward so it's like a it's like a modern urban new are but not so much in the sense of the visuals although there are kind of new art stylistic elements but more just the way they way they cut the way they move and their use of Adam Sandler here is is just outstanding I've never seen his kind of tightly quailed intensity work to better effect event does here it's really good Tim what do you think of uncut Jim says it is quite good in 2 city is the thing that this after Brothers work with they they they start a film out going 60 miles an hour and keep applying the gas although interestingly it begins it does it well does begin with his call it reality and then he has expression on his face that's extremely important that sounds intense Yeah right so this is what they do every every now and again Adam sander reminds us what really wonderful actor he can be when he wants to. Know yeah you know he can get there the brothers here are working with all kinds of things including this this extremely powerful sort of score by a guy named Daniel of pain sort of a sense of crazy class and claiming score and in this discourse starts to get to you and it's horrible but it's perfect it is exactly correct for everything that's happening in this movie the way the score is clawing at your eyes yeah yeah well put and also I think it's the sense. Yeah you know I think if there's a movie makes you feel it's stressed out it's like you have this this sense of you know impending disaster and there's so many kind of wonderful visual metaphors to as well the way so Kevin Garnett basically is as a prospective client of Adam Sandler's he's very interested in this opal that Sandler has had brought over from Ethiopia which is worth anywhere from $150000.00 to a 1000000 dollars on who you ask and what mood stand letter is in and garnets interested in the opal and he wants to borrow it is that actually which leads to all kinds of complications and bad things but there but the notion of the opal through which you can see all kinds of different kinds of light and Garnett believes it's and it's a token of good luck for him and then the glass crashing that he's he's Sandler's telling him constantly Don't lean on that glass don't lean on that glass that's like an omen of Oz it's going to happen and also that the use of contrast in interior spaces next area spaces the way the outside is the urban grit of New York City and then the interior kind of shiny. Glossy apartments if you get the breadth of a coming thing too there's a basketball game there that the championship game and the thing of it is we know how the game ends because 2012 so we know how the game is but does make the difference the knot in your stomach even as that yeah I mean it's playing out with them blocking the thing all of them stop and think about the fun of this game is what I'm still sitting here and that's how good they are at constructing the zone and that also that terrific scene where he's got he's at his school his kid's school play and he's being tailed by these mobsters who want money he owes them a lot of money he has to run out of the play he gets stripped naked and locked in the car one point he has to call his ex-wife from the cell phone inside the trunk of the car to come rescue him I mean that's the kind of think it's still his current wife because he keeps talking about them getting together well he's Yeah but he wants to he's there they're spreading they're on the verge of splitting up he keeps saying so well you're right you're right Kyra. What do you think of that I'm more the dissenter here in the 1st place I think if you took the n word in the f. Bombs out of the script in about 6 pages was true and if you could at the unnecessary shots of people walking back and forth you'd get a movie that was 20 minutes shorter true I was not as well to buy it I think yes it builds tension I don't know that it's a huge stretch for Adam Sandler to be obnoxious. But a lot of it I just wasn't buying I mean yes there are opals from Ethiopia but they are not nearly as valuable as Australian ones so maybe knowing that kind of let some of the air out of the tires Well let me let me defend those those f. Bombs in that end who are innocent of what he Stanfield in the movie Kevin Garnett all these all these young men some good young good Kevin Garnett was really just really really Kevin Garnett really and now he's that good in this movie I agree about him yes and these fellas these fellas you know doing what they do they talk that way and I will say this about Adam that's a character that he has built that's not Adam Sandler that's not yours No not that's does not any of the characters a lot of the male example even the silly guys to be the place that's like the teeth the thing with the teeth yeah he's got to think t.v. Sort of put in and I'm like no that's a character that's a that's a complete guy and frankly I've known some guys like that these guys that are all ways on the edge always trying to pull in the Big Bad always trying to bring the big one home and every now and again I will say also I don't think this is a movie that's easy to like but it's it is it is worth your your deep appreciation in your anger you know your high regard when you give us after Brothers movies are not easy to lie to not likable near not yeah yeah they're there they're experienced already and for people who are Adam Sandler fans and go to this film and they get a rude awakening Oh yeah if you're And this is not going to be any Adam Sandler you've ever seen before so maybe now I'm not sure if you can spell his name and empire is more sympathetic in the hotel translating really he does great work here than. He really does I think it gets to level uncut gems is the film starring Adam Sandler Kevin Garnett and Idina Menzel Benny and Josh Saffy the brothers are the directors screenwriters it's rated r. In wide release bombshell takes us inside the Fox News Channel a group of women take on the head of Fox News Roger Ailes the movie is directed by Jay Roach It stars Margot Robbie Shar least there and and Nicole Kidman here Roger Ailes talks to higher ups of Fox News about accusations from Anchor Gretchen Carlson. A t.v. Outfit needs tall confident women why push them you bet your ass I do but have I ever demanded sex during our castings. I defy you to find any evidence that a single part of what these women are saying is true get ready or will come we need to let her know what it means if I lose Richard Carlson could kill Fox News this is a fight for your jobs if I go. John let's go portraying Roger Ailes in the film bombshell Well what you think oh let's go is very good in this by the way he can almost see the spin coming out of his mouth and the smoke coming out of his ears and he's he's a very intense Roger Ailes I. I mostly like this film I had a few problems with that so you have Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson you have star least Aaron is making Kelly and you have Marco Robbie as sort of a composite character who is like the new hire who. Christian she's she's comes from the Midwest and she's you know trying to make her way in the big city. Each of these represents a different facets of what turns out to be sexual harassment or the female experience at Fox and to different degrees I think that's extremely well acted there and in particular she wearing prosthetics is unrecognizable as herself but so good as making Kelly she gets the voice she gets the mannerisms and it doesn't feel like a copycat performance at all it feels like she's really kind of inhaled making Kelly I liked Kidman performance a little bit less but I felt she had less to do and then the same with Robbie I think Tim's going to talk about she's a she's a complicated character because she is an amalgam or a composite. Kate McCann on the other hand is in a supporting part plays a closeted lesbian Democrat who works at Fox News. And she represents sort of the the underside the people don't you know don't know about or talk about each of these women has to deal with sexual harassment in the workplace the fact that at Fox It's not you know how how good your reporting is it was House how high how short your skirt is or how much makeup you're wearing that in itself is you know troubling they help bring Roger Ailes down through the various degrees of confessing that they do and whether or not they face the truth it is to me it's not limited in that I don't I guess it's the experience that we're having outside of the film right now that you know we have it there's just a piece in the l.a. Times there's no women nominated for foreign and for directing Oscar women have come so far since the me too movement but really have they at all and you know that was the frustrating part of it for me as I think it didn't really add up to very much is just sort of a slice of this particular event what you think of bombing of the film walks us through the machinations of what happened to these women the women that actually existed we were with them and their lawyers quite a lot as they sort of strategize what they're going to do about all of this we meet Mark Duplass Gretchen's husband right and they're very supportive. The film leaves us liking all of these women quite a lot now what you call amalgamation character I call made up. Just same thing just yeah yeah but but but but made up in the sort of very particular way to achieve these very. Very particular notions Now there's a victim there's a scene in this movie and you know the thing I'm talking about with between model Robbie's made a character and in left out as Ailes left out who I have to I'm sorry and he looked like John Lithgow in a Roger Ailes suit Oh I think it's a great I wanted to earlier this year we had Russell Crowe playing the loudest voice in the Showtime you know series about Roger and I and I you know he inhabited that all right and so so here I always saw John Lithgow But nevertheless in this in this one particular scene with Margot Robbie where this very heinous thing happens . They give us that scene with this made up character we just which is an argument that's you know think it's good but you could use that and you just can't do that I think it's Ok to actually talk about what happened I don't think it's giving anything away he's coming in for an interview with him and he asks her to just do a peer wait for him because it t.v. Is a visual medium and then I asked her just to let her skirt a little bit higher and higher a little bit higher and a little high and nothing much more than that ensues in that scene but it's absolutely heartbreaking because you see her soul crumbling in that moment and her visions of what she thought it was to to be a success in newsmedia absolutely destroyed decimated so that is that's the most powerful scene in the movie to me Tim using composite characters is pretty common in bio picks things like what bothered you about the character Robbie place here because the very specific thing that she would label just described now cruise to Roger Ailes the folks who watch this movie will accrue that moment to Roger Ailes when that moment couldn't happen because that character doesn't exist a moment like that might have happened but if a moment like that happened might have happened the things to Gretchen Carlson and of the of the characters we can ascribe those things to fact as they saw it you can read that you can read them in their books that specific moment did not happen because that character does not exist have Paul you out of the Yes it does because look this is this is what this film is actually basically doing is saying that Roger Ailes was this horrible monster of a person who did all of these things to these women many of which are absolutely true I don't think you have to spin one moment making anything up once you make something up you diminish it I disagree with him I'm sorry but I think it I think it becomes symbolic of the entire culture of discrimination against women and harassment in the workplace whether you're talking about Roger Ailes in that moment or alluding to Harvey Weinstein or Matt Lauer and I think the. There are allusions both direct and indirect in this movie to those to those men and I think it does not diminish the overall content or message of the film I actually disagree I don't know I don't know much pushback against it because I know there's a way that you can use a moment like that in the film to make that point you simply have both of the characters be fictitious. Just make up a moment but you can't I don't think that it is fair to ascribe a whole effect issues moment because the character is fictitious to an actual person and we're going to have this conversation exactly again in about 5 minutes and we talk about Richard Jewell that was the culture that went on there and that to some extent still goes on the problem that I had with the Marco character is different from the one that you have I had a problem with the fact that her and her story gets tied up in a neat little bow and the end that did that that felt entirely disingenuous to me but I I didn't have the same problem that you had with a larger problem with his new They're not just that Ok This movie is funny. It's funny it's funny all the way through I don't think it ought to be so funny or I do bombshell is the film we're talking about Margot Robbie Shirley's there on a Nicole Kidman star Jay Roach directs Charles Randolph wrote the screenplay it's rated r. In wide release we got so many more movies to talk about we'll hear what our critics think in one minute. On the frame week at Charlie's takes on sexual harassment at Fox News in the new movie bombshell it's the framework and this Saturday the 2.3. Days supporters include the l.a. Failed presenting c c wine ins on Monday December 23rd at fault is new concert hall part of the deck the Hall concert series The winner of 12 Grammys makes or Walt Disney Concert Hall debut with a holiday themed gospel concert featuring a full band and a constable choir c.c. Wine insta simper 23rd evolved Disney Concert Hall tickets available at l.a. Phil dot com. Supporters include Crystal farms working to help make the holiday stress free with their selection of fully prepared homemade holiday meals you can preorder honey glazed ham sides and desserts at Bristol farms dot com or at one of their 13 so cal Ok sions. Film wake on 89.3. Battle joined by critics lay a Lowenstein Tim Cobb shell and Charles Solomon a lot of big movies this week and this is what we see this time of year we get to December it's it's big release time films trying to qualify for Oscar consideration and to be available when larger number of people on vacation can go to the movies particularly in a challenging whether on the East Coast we don't have that problem here though that's for sure next up is the latest installment in the Jumanji series Jumanji the next level Dwayne Johnson Jack Black Kevin Hart star the film directed by Jake Kasdan who co-wrote the screenplay Tim Well you know I have to be on the show to let for the previous joins a movie that I really really remember you should like to yeah it was those surprise how much I enjoyed that it was a smash made of town and in the end they have been there and what and thus we have another and all the same characters back and they get back into the game we have 2 new elements we see you see them in the trailer Danny Glover and Danny De Vito Spencer's grandfather and his best friends who had this business together they ran for years and years but Danny Glover retired and. Danny De Vito never forgave him for having spoken to each other in 15 years that in the in this game Danny Danny De Vito is doing Johnson's character and Danny Glover is Kevin Hart's character Ok now this is this is interesting previously in the game. One of the young characters was a young black man and he ended up in Kevin Hart's body right now he inside and Jack Black's body in this film. You know this is a bit of a hypocrite when I'm watching when I'm watching this movie previously in Jack Black Black Spidey there was the sort of teenage Valley Girl So Jack was doing the sort of teenage Valley Girl Yeah that whole previous movie in this movie The rub is in Jack's body so Jack's kind of like doing his brother yeah will become what how does it work oh yeah he's a sterile but I found myself thinking well hey man I don't know if I'm Ok with it and then David that Danny De Vito isn't doing Johnson's body and Danny says you know this old never see Jewish guy and and then in doing this like they are he's doing this show and this movie and then they start switching bodies in the movie insisting Arkell So so the valley girl gets back in Jack Black's body and he has to switch black back to doing her said black women in there and they're just watching these bodies and switching personas and all of these characters all these actors are doing all these people it's discredit me up but it did point out to me just how a little bit tiny a bit of a hypocrite I was when I have tiny little issue with Jack Black doing that brother but I had no issue what I thought whatsoever with Dwayne Johnson doing the little Jewish guy so a little Jewish old man feel offended by what Wayne Johnson does so you know what I had to turn all of those switches off and go with the movie. All kinds of wacky things go on in this movie Aquafina is a movie she's a sterile she's doing Danny Glover to fema doing doing doing not doing Danny Glover Aquafina doing Danny De Vito they're just all switching these characters they just crack me up I'm sorry these movies are funny and you know I'm going to have to turn in my film critic for it and. Charles you're going to say so yeah well didn't Kevin wasn't given heard also the voice of the rabbit in the yes a great life of pets a white snow white rabbit Yes which I mentioned on the shelf. Jim Manji the next level Tim sure likes it Dwayne Johnson Jack Black Kevin Hart star Jake Kasdan direct and co-wrote Jumanji the next levels in wide release rated p.g. 13 the latest film from Clint Eastwood he has his historical drama Richard Jewel based on the store. Of the American security guard who saved thousands of lives from an exploding bomb of the 996 Olympic Games in Atlanta but who ended b. Up being vilified by journalists in this scene Jules mother gives a press conference the media has portrayed my son as the person who has committed this crap they have taken all privacy from us they have taken piece of. The F.B.I.'s follows his every move. And. My son is innocent. Mr President. Please leave us. Kathy Bates portraying Richard Jewel's mother Billy Ray wrote the screenplay which is based on 1997 Vanity Fair article by Marie Brenner Paul Walter Hauser and Sam Rockwell star and Richard Jewel Lael so I have mixed feelings about this film and I and I should confess that you know that with the power of the press. The name Richard Jewel to me before I went and saw the movie and thought about the the whole story behind it I had some vague association wasn't he the guy with that Atlanta bombing thing that you know wasn't he the guy who did that so whether or not he did and he didn't he's exonerated in this movie and you see his story it's it says it's a fairly even handed bio pic although we'll get into that because the Atlanta Journal Constitution is having some issues with the way it's portrayed he did clear his name but was not able to clear it for history I think my point is simply that bad press can stick no matter what now the movie's been in the press this week because the Atlanta Journal Constitution is is angry with the characterization of its reporter for having misrepresented facts Scruggs played by a love you while in the movie. Richard you are going to remember that remember that all this very very well and boy his name was every night everywhere and what in more or less what happened as played out in this movie how he was does hero who found this bomb in this trash can clear all these people out Still I think one or 2 people with were actually killed. That nevertheless injured for a moment he was a hero all switches in the in the course of about 3 days there's an f.b.i. Agent who thinks that he might have done it. In the context of this film. Reporter played by Livia while playing an actual human being passed away Kathy Scruggs gets this information plants that hid lined f.b.i. Sets suspects hero guard may have planted bombs turns Richard Jewel's life upside down justice played out in this movie it's all fun and that's all true I mean the fact that the fact that he was vilified he went from being a hero immediately to being like thought of as you know this crazy guy who impersonated a police officer him yet he was a bit of a quirky odd fellow wouldn't want to be in law enforcement ever could make its way into law enforcement ended up being this the sort of security guard guy all true all true now Richard Jewel born in 62 died in 2007 at the age of 44 over the course of this period all the way back then when his name was cleared Richard Jewel had had a bit of a life one thing he went on to actually work in real law enforcement because of this ritual appeared on Saturday Night Live Richard Jewel appeared in a documentary about this entire period where he played himself. None of which shows up in this movie in this movie though they portray Kathy Scruggs an actual reporter who passed away as having traded sex for the information that she got to which you could publish that story there's no evidence of this whatsoever at all anywhere on the planet but he has she had no she's dead there's no case transfer libel Well yes and she is in fact if she were I promise you we'd be in court right now this is an excellent filmmaking and this is a very good film. Iraq well and Hauser all of these p Kathy Bates that are just doing excellent work of course all the mastered and corralled by the wonderful filmmaker Clint Eastwood but don't you see that that makes it all the worse this is a very good movie a lot of people going to see it and are going to come away from this movie thinking things that are absolutely not true this movie also has other intentions this movie wants to poke very specifically at law enforcement the f.b.i. Right now this movie wants to poke at media in general just what these reporters did here but just in general this movie is but now that that's that's in and. Can point to that today that's a conservative filmmaker making a very conservatively pointed film about these events none of which is untrue except for the one thing that's wholly true now I think though in the original Vanity Fair piece and correct me if I'm wrong the f.b.i. Comes off quite poorly in that piece on which this is based they may come off morally here the f.b.i. Did not they were not fantastic but then they're like I say there is an intention they coax and they could Joel Richard Jewel into the but they get him into the station by air into the office by telling him that they think he's a hero and they need him to to shoot a video about how to bring a suspect and you know they manipulate him a minute and tell that he is not all that all that. Jewel had one great goal really which was just to be to work in security to do his job well he has the sense of duty and and diligence that is really pervasive throughout his character and that was apparently true in his life but I think that's sort of the overriding element of that character and that to me I don't I didn't find it as a multi-dimensional as complex maybe as as you did Tim I thought the film was sort of a little bit weak in that other than these really strong individual performances and I give Eastwood credit for bringing out a great performance from Hauser who by the way played Jeff Gillooly and I tanya he's a he's an actor to watch Kathy Bates excellent as Mom Sam Rockwell and John Hamm I felt like it just it was sort of your standard kind of. Disaster the guy who wants to be a kind of a Year 0 who doesn't go down well that you know I thought it was sort of a mist that was the wrong man kind of say something slightly more pointed in some of the psych text I do think there's subtext and I do think he's going after the media certainly you know this film originally going to be Leonardo Dicaprio play in the Sam Rockwell part with Jonah Hill playing the Richard Jewel and now they're both producers and yes yeah yeah Paul Greengrass was slated to direct really yeah it would have been a. Yes different movie varied in what would not have been in there in the movie I think are the politics yeah Nevertheless I think if you were to ask someone 2030 years later what the name Richard Jewel meant to them they would they would think it had something to do with that that bombing but not necessarily know that he was exonerated him General Reno 997 Janet Reno issued apology to. Richard Jewel Clint Eastwood directs Billy Ray wrote the screenplay Paul Walter auser and Sam Rockwell Olivia Wilde Kathy Bates and Jon Hamm star rated r. It's in wide release Black Christmas followed a group of sorority women is there stalked by killer during their Christmas break this rather loose remake of the 1974 film of the same name that too was remade back in 2006 the current Black Christmas stars Imogene Poots Lily Donahue Elise Shannon and Brittany O'Grady Sofia to call is the director and Co screenwriter Tim Lee on this one this one remade in reshaped in very specific ways to sort of reflect issues of today around me too and things that have happened or that sometimes alleged to have happened on college campuses with fraternities and sororities girls and and all kinds of things that go down like that so we have our young woman here who previously had accused a young man in a frat sexually assaulting her of Dargon in such the assaulting her he's let off he comes back the young woman it's very nervous with her sorority sisters about the situation on campus. They put on this show which is very pointed about all of this and more or less calls out these frat boys as massaging this and sexist and sometimes right this that now this college where these young men happen to be going it's one of these sort of like male sort of college is sort of like a hot it's called hearth on the thing you think of a Harvard or something like that and they have one of these founders who was a guy from 865 you own slaves and an Indian hated and wrote really horrible streets against women all and they they worship this guy so we end up in this movie as this and all comedic are done totally straight it's done a little bit too straight for my taste I'll tell you another thing about this movie it eventually gets to a spotlight rather enjoy because it gets to a spot where girls are hitting frat boys in the face with Axis because you know they're angry about what has been going on but I can tell you this movie kills a whole lot of young women before it turns to tables and I was a little bit uncomfortable with that and I was also a little bit uncomfortable with how flatly it laid out its arguments about these things and and how it was a little as my you when you were describing I was wondering still a bit tongue in cheek Yeah I wish that I was to that had been a little bit more tongue in cheek with with all of this but then again that would be a different movie eventually goes to the spot that I'm Did you know where it's going . To pay for their crimes and you know it gets us there but I don't think is going to be in the canon of at least at 1st film I didn't see that 2nd film Yeah the 1st film what was it about the original Black Christmas that it that made that such a cult film the same the same thing on a college campus although it didn't have to do with frat boy specifically or a cultish magical. Bust in which this one has to do and what that the city the director did Christmas story did that I don't know. Yeah I know you know I mean yeah he did read both Yeah yeah and died tragically so yeah in a car accident yeah yeah Black Christmas so if he had to call is the director and Co screenwriter with April Wolf it stars. Slowly Donahue Elise Shannon and Brittany O'Grady it's in wide release rated p.g. 13 let's at least get started Bob Clark was the driver That's right yes yeah did porkies on his own and has quite a wide ranging career. Cutting hair 3 d. Documentary profiling the modern dancer Merce Cunningham and his dance company Charles just started about the Minutemen will take a break Ok Will Cunningham was of course one of the great choreographer dancers of the 20th century he was John Cage's lover for many years and they worked together his work was so interesting that people like Jesper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg and he wore hold did sort of sets and costumes as minimal as they were and the one hypnotically beautiful sequence in this is from his the film the dance that they did with. 20 least background by Russian Burke and that's what is it's summer space and that sequence is stunning and if the rest of the movie were that good it would be something really special to you where 3 d. Glasses for the house. I didn't see it in 3 d. I had to couldn't get to the scene today in the dancing still impressive I want to hear more of what Leyland Tim thought of Cunningham the 3 d. Documentary on modern dancer Merce Cunningham and his company the director I. Can have more on film week in 2 minutes and this is 89.3 k. P.c.c. I'm Tammy Trujillo some of the stories we're following at 12372 Riverside Sheriff's deputies were reportedly denied service at a Starbucks on Thursday night as comes after law enforcement reported mistreatment to other locations in the u.s. In recent months Starbucks customer Jameson Kerik spoke to our media partner n.b.c. For a little thing took Ok coming not that I like cops or dislike. Enough. For America . To go wherever they want Starbucks says they've suspended the employees pending an internal investigation the company fired an Oklahoma employee after that person wrote pig on an officer's Cup last month mission apology after a barista asked on a group of officers to leave an Arizona Starbucks for making a customer anxious Riverside sheriff Chad Bianco tweeted the anti police culture repeatedly displayed by Starbucks employees must and it's 1239. Clued Jeanette Fras east Hollywood Pasadena and West l.a. And coming soon to Burbank custom profiting and capsize when we're for the full busted woman featuring Lee's shots. From friends Jeanette. That starts at the California Health Care Foundation helping low income Californians get their health care they need on the web at c h c f dot org. So good to have you with us on film week I'm learning that joined this week by critics Tim Pod shell. Solomon were just starting off with Charles's thoughts about the 3 d. Documentary Cunningham on Dancer Merce Cunningham. Is the director of the film continue please the film has 2 big problems though the 1st is this is kind of the scrapbooking approach to documentary you've got framing elements you've got split screen you've got writing appearing on the screen you don't need that 2nd is Dance is difficult to film because it's something very dimensional it can flatten out but by having a moving camera going through the dancers you are adding an element to the dance that Cunningham didn't create and it's often very distracting why if you are shooting. A dancer do you move in so close that you can't see the dancers legs or feet and in one of the dead says there's archival footage that coming from it staged on a bare stage it's just him moving with a partner very interesting ways very dynamic when they film it it's behind these carved cut it wouldn't screens so you're looking through an element through the shadows all of which is distracting you from that movement that is the point of the piece and it's so completely unsympathetic to what come coming in is trying to do I just wanted to smack the director by the end of this or I'd lay a what did you think I liked it better than char I mean I I did like it there than Charles I think I easy enough. I thought if you aren't necessarily indoctrinated into you know the world of Merce Cunningham or know it that much about his dances and certainly you do I I found it at it a worthy introduction to his style and I found it actually pretty elucidating I thought you know I learned quite a bit about him and I thought it was absolutely stunning and beautiful to watch I I certainly see you're right there could have been more about other parts of his career that could mean more about his work with Martha Graham an influence with her and so on and so forth but I but I I learned something from it and it did you feel like you got to tell Cunningham as a person or just as the artist to some extent yes I did and I wasn't as bothered by that technological the aspects of it that Charles was referring to the split screen and so forth that didn't that you know that it sort of worked for me Tim Well I also did it it more or less fill the bill for me to yes you're right you know you dance from Arthur for 6 years you don't even mention it she discovered him that's that's kind of crazy and he was with with with cage for 50 years until cage died in 1950 years yeah and worked together during most of the time you worked at dry. You know I mean he he was he was a person was constantly changing and innovative and in developing with the modern times his idea was to combine ballet with modern dance either the notion was that from the from the hips down it would be ballet and from the waist up it would be modern dance and having himself explain it and we hear his voice in the film let's put it in then in then see it it suddenly sort of crystallizes for you what he was doing I'm like well you know doc I couldn't see that but now I understand it better because of this you know it is about the last few years of the company of his life 1st company of its 1st happening you know but I wish they had had someone like Irving Croce or Louis Siegel talking about some of the points Tim raised that yes from Martha Graham he learned this Paul Taylor learned from him you know if this is not something to exist in isolation he's being influenced he's influencing what else is happening in dance then and I think the context would have major appreciate the singularity of his vision that much need get a sense of his influence on the dancers who followed did not they don't talk about that at all which I think is a real shortcoming of the film that the company has changed the original dancers you know are too old to perform such exacting work and it is. But what did they call on him to do you know and that wasn't a problem when there's I don't know of any other documentaries on him so it ends up being sort of the definitive record if if there's really nothing else to look at conning him the 3 d. Documentary profiling dancer Merce Cunningham and his dance company. Called gun is the director of the films of Lem Lee's Royal Theater in West Los Angeles and it's rated p.g. The documentary what she said the art Pauline Kael is at the new art theater in West Los Angeles Lyall Well Pauline Kael was. I think without question the most influential and. Porton film critic of the last century maybe maybe of all all time I should have Peter Rainer here yeah this is because he was considered one of the Polish disciples so to speak of which Right exactly that's where the term came about was from those who kind of worshipped her and started writing in her style she was to film criticism what the French New Wave was to the movies in that she began writing with this this great of this great passion and love for the movie she was 1st and foremost a movie fan and wrote movie notes for films in Berkeley. Where she helped run the theater and used to have these salons in her living room where people would talk about movies afterwards so she was a fan and then when she started writing about movies it it became it was with this like this she colloquial ised film criticism which had been up until then the sort of stodgy Bosley Crowther writing for The New York Times in this very kind of formal kind of voice she freed up the language she began using the 2nd person you in her writing she she wrote in a way that no one had ever seen before and she was very very polarizing she could also piss people off among them critic Andrew Sarris with whom she engaged in this notorious series of who hasn't been raised by one of her reviews that's kind of part of the job but she's also be loved by many a filmmaker including Quentin Tarantino and Woody Allen who you know became many of them became her friends the issue also and what I liked about this film too is that it's not just all positive stuff it does show the negatives it says so how she could hurt people it does show how she could be a little hypocritical she was a she was a huge critic of the tour style of Sarah's for popularizing the tour style of. In his work but then she became great friends with Renoir and went on to as bows and promote certain filmmakers in her writing as. You know who would have been reasonably thought of a daughter exactly how much so yeah Alan among them yeah let's move to whole lot too I guess you know you with Charles and I were talking little but Charles didn't care that much for Polly and you know there'd be get some dots and and in film criticism so Pauline got all those Paulette's including Roger Reaper drudgery Rigby got me in the thing about her writing is she wrote the way she spoke I met her once but it was a long meeting and it didn't take me very long to realise that in talking with Pauline Kael and reading Pauline Kael you were hearing Pauline Kael. She came off the page exactly where she came out of her mouth. She had a deep understanding of what film could do to us emotionally and she rather hated it she hated it when films just pulled at our obvious strings and I kind of hate that too. On the other hand she says she understood what film should do is explore all the many human conditions all of the many human conditions and then look at each one of those conditions from a different angle from from from an oblique angle she loved it when films did that she loved it when the next thing that happened in the film was the expected but still possible thing that's what she loved about cinema and I love that you know she had to sort of Upper East Side Manhattan sort of dynamic she was born on a chicken farm in Petaluma California. You know to Polish immigrant families she said I knew she was in Northern California I assume she's very citified don't you know the chicken farm same as she was she became urban now and then eventually left it for Massachusetts she bring theirself into Berkeley she did and I'm going to go bring em I want my one encounter with her was. That she was giving a talk in San Francisco in the late late eighty's and I just remember asking you know what if I said you give to someone who who wanted to become a film critic and she said don't do it. Like the advice I got and the radio grateful that I talked with that's a good try to steer McLaren a lot of good that they ended up doing there were talking about the document. What she said the art of Pauline Kael the documentary is at the new art in West Los Angeles it's on rated Rob Garver is the director of the documentary we have many more films to talk about on the program but I do want to remind you there are films we could Cademy awards preview was coming your way earlier in 2020 than in typical years because the Motion Picture Academy has moved the Oscars into early February so all the critics will be on stage at the theater a day so tell Sunday morning February 2nd at 11 o'clock we're also starting it earlier in the day because the Super Bowl Sunday we want you to be able to do both should you desire so started 11 o'clock your brunch before or after our film week Academy Awards preview tickets are available at k.p. Dot org slash in person we hope to see you Sunday morning February 2nd at the back in a minute. Charlie. Supporters include triple bean pizza Roman style pizza from Nancy Silverton with locations in Echo Park and Highland Park triple can come to your office or company with their mobile pizza oven and full catering parties and gatherings of any size 10000 villages 10000 villages offers a full holiday collection of fairly traded items from around the world you can shop . To make a difference by providing vital income to more than 30 developing countries on South Lake in Pasadena and Riviera. Beach more information at 10000 villages dot com. Good to have you with. A bad. Day. Laugh. This week's show we told you a devout a documentary directed by Peter Jackson. Had been released earlier this year it's back in theaters for an encore showing this part of a series of Fathom event screenings of the films with 100 percent ratings on Rotten Tomatoes there were 9 of them this year so just wanted to let you know they shall not grow old has screenings coming up next week in select theaters December 17th and 18th you can check your local listings to see which the hit or near you they shall not grow old is going to be screening at out this week the biographical pick a hidden life drawing August deal and Valerie passion or Terrence Malick the writer director Lael this is certainly Alex return to form he is of course the to film maker who did Days of Heaven and Badlands in their early and mid seventy's and was really notable for that men took a 20 year hiatus before he did The Thin Red Line which was a strong return and then after that his sort of descended into weirdness and self-indulgence with the some really unwatchable movies in. Which are adequately acclaimed Well I have to suffer what I like with you on this side but I just like tree of life I found song to song to be absolutely executable and unwatchable one of the most painful experiences I've had in a while anyway but so this just just to get back to it is is a really beautiful lyrical kind of expansive portrait of a man who is a set around the time World War 2 He is a conscientious objector to the war and you had to swear your allegiance to Hitler if you're an Austrian and and he refuses to do that that becomes known in this very small village that he lives in he gets called off to to serve and he refuses so then the film alternates between his being in Carson. Waited in this horrible gritty grungy prison and these beautiful pastoral shots of his wife funny pulling the hay and so for the it's it's quite beautiful Yeah yeah I've been a return to form tree of life it's a beautiful movie every time we're trying to find one indeed almost actually physically he's using a wide angle lenses in almost every shot not just everything and any shot Wow that's not low floating steady cam Yeah very many of the shots are outside so because using as wide angle everything is in focus and into the middle ground foreground background always in focus always in focus because he wants you to bring us into this world as deeply possibly can. Austrian. Former. Countries interest object or all of this he was executing 143 and the atta fide in 2007 by Pope Benedict I believe which was sort of controversial even a touch but this is this is that story in its toll with these letters lots of voiceover between these letters between him and his wife that they wrote when he was away in prison beautiful writing beautiful filmmaking not not at the top of my says it's his strongest it has a beginning and an end it does flow as a narrative is always helpful yes unlike many of its hidden life from writer director Terrence Malick it's rated p.g. 13 of the arc light Hollywood the landmark in West l.a. And the biographical film Seeburg on Actress Jean Seberg stars Christian Stewart Benedict Andrews the director Tim Yeah yeah very interesting Benedict made a movie called a couple years ago with Moon Iraq this is about this is about Jean Seberg who of course was in. St Joan it was her 1st film she was burned very badly in that film Jean Seberg she was American but she lived most of her life in France spoke fluent France we in the middle sixty's she came back to United States to work in Hollywood and she got involved the Black Panthers a particular Black Panther the f.b.i. Started investigating her in making her. Now the framing device in this movie of the f.b.i. Agent I don't like that at all that needs to go away completely from this movie Miss Stewart again is just extraordinary I got to tell you Kristen Stewart is just one of those wonderful actresses this country has known in a decade and when she was a little girl I used to poke her so badly that she was too contemporary just all kinds of things but as a young woman she's one of those one and she inhabits this performance use extraordinary in this movie she's the thing much more so than the movie itself yeah fantastic casting with her pixie cut she looks just like Jean Seberg and breathless which of course was one of her most famous and you know I think and Stuart of course is a great heroine of the French they adore her because she speaks French as well and she's she's so she's well cast the costumes are great I just thought it wasn't a particularly well written film it could have been a lot stronger and I didn't love the direction either Benedict Andrews directed Joe shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse were describing writers the film Sieberg is rated r. You can see it at lemon least town standard theater in Encino and it's to be released sometime next year on Amazon Prime a rated r. Also want to talk about the Animation Show of Shows Charles what are some of the films you'd like to tell you know this is been a year where so many of the big studio animated films were disappointments uterus that eclair financially and this show was a very welcome reminder that there's another side of animation which is a very personal extension of the traditional fine arts and so it is your use of color and graphics and content remind them that people making personal statements I particularly liked French film by Joanna Lurie that's done in these beautiful watercolor scenes creating a magical sea where they're having a funeral and the souls of the dead become these sort of jellyfish like creatures that swim off into a new dimension. Another one at the swap from Belgium it uses multimedia mixed media shifting media to present the story of a young woman who at the onset of puberty realizes she wants to be a boy she's always seen herself as a boy and now how is she going to deal with that and it's a kind of very calm I think very comforting film for young people who find themselves in that situation but on the other hand completely silly is Rubicon which is a whole series of variations on the you have a sheep a wolf and a cabbage and how do you get all 3 of them across with only one boat and they keep shifting pace and different things happen to them and it's just this little absurdity it's almost like a little baroque piece of music where how many variations on one theme can we do it's just fun and pretty much everything in the show with one or 2 exceptions just reminds you that animation is more than these big studio productions this the 21st Annual Animation Show of Shows and Ron diamond the founder and curator of it so he finds these films from the festival circuit and all over the world for the next week at Len lease Glendale theaters where you can see the 21st Annual Animation Show of Shows also we have sad news to report Actor Danny Aiello passed away at the age of 86 a member him from such films as do the right thing Moonstruck Once Upon a Time in America and his breakthrough was as the hapless lover dumped by share in Norman Jewish since hit comedy Moonstruck. All right. I think you. Share. At the 86. Thank you so much for joining. The program and again we've. Got. To talk about talk to you then. Thanks for spending part of your Saturday with us. Hospital. Group. The highest safety standards in the u.s. For more than 125 years the. Hospital. This is a $9.00 k. P.c.c. Pasadena Los Angeles it's a community service a passing city college offering over 50 free noncredit courses with flexible schedules dream come do learn more at Pasadena dot edu. Welcome to News from the b.b.c. World Service sign Julian Marshall the un climate summit in Madrid extended as some of the world's biggest polluters resist the final text calling for bolder action we have from Norway's environment minister even though we can improve the text here it will still mocked reflect the. Need for the world to do what is necessary Sudan's ousted president Omar al Bashir sentenced to 2 years for corruption will there be more charges for crimes committed during his rule it's not about teaching it's not about being we want good justice to actually. Want all other tissue to freeze and surprise he's also one of the victory of Boris Johnson's Conservative Party and working class districts main for British politics at Arsenal Football Club distances itself from remarks about China by one of its star players that's after the news. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington I mean he held President Trump is at the Army Navy football game in Philadelphia where a president traditionally avoids taking a side it comes as the Supreme Court has agreed to weigh in on whether Trump can keep his financial records private N.P.R.'s Nina Totenberg reports it centers on the issue of presidential immunity the lower courts have upheld all 3 subpoenas that issue in these cases 2 from congressional committees and a 3rd from a grand jury in New York in a criminal case all 3 cases involve subpoenas issued not to Trump himself but to his accountants or banks he did business with the court will hear arguments in the cases in March with a decision expected by the end of June just when the presidential campaign is swinging into high gear Sudan's former dictator 75 year old Omar al Bashir has been sentenced to 2 years of detention for corruption N.P.R.'s Neda Peralta reports on the controversial ruling as the judge in the case began to read his verdict and there was chaos. Supporters here protesting his conviction they were escorted out by security forces in the judge said he was sentencing Bashir to only 2 years in detention because of his advanced age but sheer will also not serve that time in a prison but at a much nicer detention facility with access to his family members but she was ousted earlier this year in a military coup is wanted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but Sudan's new government has refused to turn him over pro-democracy groups have complained that state prosecutors are treating Bashir with kid gloves trying him for much lesser crimes n.p.r. News Nairobi tens of thousands of Italians rallied in Rome today against racism populism.