Still via Netflix. Fair use
There are many reasons to see Aaron Sorkin’s Academy Award-nominated film
The Trial of the Chicago 7. Writer-director Sorkin has gifted us with a well-written, often well-acted lesson in history and political philosophy. Although the focus is on ideas, heartfelt emotions, and wry humor leaven Sorkin’s filmic advertisement for organizing for social change.
Chicago 7 takes us from the planning stages of demonstrations to be held at the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention through convention action, culminating in the trial itself.
Sorkin’s character sketches of the principals have the feel of theater pieces. We are introduced to each of the eight original defendants, their legal defense team, and the state agents pursuing them, both in the streets and in the courtroom. The cameo character development does some injustice as John Carroll Lynch comes off as a much more priggish Dave Dellinger than he was in real life, and the fine actor Yahya
The Trial of the Chicago 7 : The whole world is still watching – People s World peoplesworld.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from peoplesworld.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
via HBO
Form follows function in Paul Rudnick’s lively new theater piece “Coastal Elites”. Rudnick (“Sister Acts”, “In and Out”, “Stepford Wives”, “Addams Family Values”), one of our most clever and amusing writers, digs a little deeper this time with a well-crafted theater piece consisting of five monologues which forcefully break the fourth dramatic wall, speaking directly to the audience.
Each triptych is the product of the emotional plumbing of a single actor. Each deals with their own psychological state refracted through the present prism of pandemic. Despite and often because the pieces are so grounded in current crises, they speak loudly to universals of love, identity, values, survival, and relationships.
The Present : The future is the gift – People s World peoplesworld.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from peoplesworld.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
via Netflix
Amy Poehler’s new Netflix film
Moxie is not perfect. But it is very, very good. It’s a smart, funny, entertaining look at how growing up female in 2020 is similar and different from growing up in the Sixties and Nineties, or any other time for that matter.
Now we know what the prolific writer-director-actress Poehler has been doing between hosting Saturday Night Live, the Golden Globes, and myriad television and film projects! She has been crafting a heartfelt, humorous, painful sketch of teen society structured around high school life.
Moxie is not one, but many character sketches set against the backdrop of family and high school. Poehler’s film daughter Hadley Robinson and her best friend Lauren Tsai are shy introverts, unobtrusively coasting through school. The meek Robinson has neither the will nor desire to match her mother’s reminiscences of feminine rebellion.