Reflections on mental illness and family -
United States of Tara is about a family coping with the mother’s (Toni Collette) dissociate identity disorder and all the chaos that brings. Before I even begin to talk about the show I have to applaud Toni Collette. She made bold, bold choices as she played the eight different characters throughout the series and her ability to shift her body language was amazing. Over three seasons we learn that the traumatic event that triggered Tara’s disorder is not the experience she thought it was, but rather a childhood abuse she has buried deep inside her. The show, written by Diablo Cody of Juno/Jennifer’s Body/Young Adult, definitely had a Cody feel to it. The characters had quips at the ready, but were much more realistic than in Juno. Perhaps the backlash of “oh my blog” and “homeskillet” did some good for her writing. There were other moments that remind you who the author is, such as the writing of the gay characters and Cody’s willingness to put people in situations just to watch them squirm. Some of the other highlights of the show were Patton Oswalt as best friend/employee of Tara’s husband and lover of Tara’s sister and Keir Gilchrist as Tara’s teenage son. Patton Oswalt is one of those actors that become the characters in such a way that even the most one-dimensional writing comes across as a fully fleshed out personality. Even on Dollhouse.
The problems of the show sometimes took away from everything it wanted to be. The Brie Larson problem was the main issue. Larson was perfectly fine as Tara’s daughter in season one, but her character became more and more outlandish in the second season and wasn’t necessary at all in season three. Season two found her as an internet whore who dresses up as a Valkyrie and sits on a cake. (see: Cody’s tendency to be ‘outrageous’) Her character became less and less tied to the rest of the family, only serving to introduce guest star Viola Davis’s artist character. Season three was worse, as it seemed like Larson should have been a recurring character, but the show wanted her to be tied to every episode. Her storyline had nothing to do with the rest of the show – she was working as a flight attendant and only interacted with the rest of the main cast in superficial ways. There’s also the problem with Tara. Toni Collette was amazing, but normal Tara was sometimes so quirky/’fun’ that side characters would even ask if she was really an alternate personality. A little of the wild-teen personality creeped into her day-to-day personality and how she talked to people. Finally, in the series finally Tara is rid of all the extra personalities, as they are killed off one-by-one by Tara’s crazy side. (it’s complicated) But then, the last scene has Tara see her main three alters sitting on the truck. The whole thing made the drama of the alters being killed off meaningless.
Melancholia is about the end of the world. Nibiru, the planet NASA doesn’t want you to know about is hiding behind the sun and some conspiracy theorists say it will destroy the earth in 2012, has been renamed Melancholia in Lars Von Trier’s (Dancer in the Dark/Dogville/Antichrist) drama. But that’s not really what the movie is about at all. Instead, Kirsten Dunst stars (and I mean STARS, as this is the best I’ve ever seen her and makes all of the criticism she received for her performances in the Spiderman (Spider-Man…) movies completely irrelevant) as Justine. It’s her wedding night, and we’re invited! Also, she’s marrying Alexander Skarsgård. But Justine isn’t happy, instead she’s pretty melancholy. THAT’S THE NAME OF THE MOVIE ALMOST. What should be a pretty dull movie about a woman who just won’t cheer up, is instead the most beautiful and powerful movie I’ve seen in a while. Von Trier, who wrote and directed, creates the most amazing sets and the cinematography is so close to being extraordinary. Instead, the beautiful shots are dampened handheld camera work that makes some of the shots shaky. Other than that, Melancholia is a piece of storytelling about depression.
That’s one of the best parts about both United States of Tara and Melancholia: how a mental illness can affect a person, and how it impacts those around them. As someone with a looonnng struggle with depression, Dunst and von Trier hit so many of the right notes that I was punched with feeling. Dunst isn’t just unhappy, she’s sad she’s unhappy, she’s fake smiling and trying to go through motions. SHE TURNS DOWN SEX WITH ASKARS!! Watching her sister struggle to undress her, only to have Dunst be unable to lift her leg and get in the bathtub was such a powerful moment. I remember many times lying in bed screaming in my head to move, get up, do anything, and stay still – feeling like my arm weighed tons that I’d never be able to lift. The amount of sleep Dunst gets is crazy, and yet I know exactly what it’s like. Watching the various characters get angry/frustrated/broken down because of a disease with no cure, I’m forced to face how my issues impact my own family. I recognize the same emotions – anger at me, at themselves and each other, desperation to help with no idea how. Tara’s family goes through the same cycle. Not knowing how to help his wife/their mother, but desperate to stick it out, the rest of the family is put through so much Hell that it becomes almost masochistic. Mental illnesses sometimes seem contagious. The stress involved in caring for someone, the inability to know when or if they will get better, the damage your loved ones do as they lash out in a half-hearted attempt to push everyone else away, it’s no surprise that other members of the family can, and often do, become depressed themselves. Melancholia, the planet, becomes the perfect metaphor. Everyone suffers and no one knows how to fix it.
The Double was almost released in theaters, but something (bad reviews and low box office expectations?) derailed the plan and it went straight to video.
I knew it would be exciting as soon as the credits started.
The Rs are reflected! Like they’re doubles!
Richard Gere is a retired spy, just living his slowed down life watching a local little league team. Oh, he doesn’t have kids on the team - he just likes watching. Creep.
One night his boss surprises him with a plea for help.
Super Spy Richard Gere: How’d you get in here?
Sassy Boss Martin Sheen: That’s what we do.
*insert deal with it gif*
It seems that the arch-nemesis of our lead, the Russian assassin Cassius, is back in town and the CIA needs SSRG to put down the hamster and come out of retirement for one last job. Even though he’s too old for this shit, he agrees.
(also, there’s a scene where Sassy Boss Martin Sheen tells a room full of highly educated agents that they codenamed the Russian and his colleagues after the senators that killed Julius Caesar as if the agents didn’t study that case in training)
The is Inexperienced and Over-Educated Topher Grace of the FBI. He is a little obsessed with Cassius and Super Spy Richard Gere doesn’t like him.
Vampire BHEEEEELLL is one of Cassius’s men. Within 30 minutes, we find out that Super Spy Richard Gere is actually Secret Double Agent Cassius Richard Gere. He gives Bheeeeelll the tools to escape prison before killing him in a parking garage.
The early reveal of the double (that’s the name of the movie!) was also spoiled in the trailers for the movie, so it’s not a surprise. The movie is much less about finding the killer than about the irony the screenwriter can play with as Topher points out similarities between Gere and the killer they are chasing.
The real twist is that Gere isn’t the only double working the case! Just like Salt! I won’t say who, but it’s the other of the two leads…
Also, this happens:
Park in front of your own house, jerk!
HAND IN IT The Muppets receive a “star” on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. (Photo: Fred Prouser / Reuters via The Telegraph)
Look I like Walter, he’s fine. But he’s been around for 4 months.
Please stop trying to make Walter happen.
Piggy should be with Kermit. Rowlf can take her seat. Then either Rizzo or Scooter should replace Pepe.
SO TAKE YOUR $32,000 PARTY AND SHOVE IT
“America has two tax systems, separate and unequal. One is for you and me and the listeners, and we pay each year, but if you’re a corporation you’re allowed to reach back (sometimes 20 years) and carry forward for many year tax losses and tax benefits that smooth out your tax bill. Now, the second thing Mr. Murdoch does that’s very important is- among the largest corporations in America, Newscorp ranks third in Tax Haven subsidiaries. When you have a tax haven subsidiary (the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Panama) what you do is you take expenses in the United States and take the profit in those subsidiaries.”
Columnist David Cay Johnston checked the tax information on Newscorp (a publicly traded company) and found that they made $4.5 Billion through tax havens. There’s no transcript, but listen to the ~3 minute audio for more information.
This story has been redacted by NPR. Apparently the original source was incorrect.
Eek… why are people like this even elected? Who would think pointing your loaded gun (with no safety) at a reporter (or anyone) would be a good idea. “Look at my laser sight, y’all!”
Police have arrested a Transportation Security Administration employee who stole about $50,000 worth of electronics from travelers’ luggage at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
Nelson Santiago, 30, of Hollywood, was arrested after an employee with Continental Airlines saw him slip an I-Pad computer out of a suitcase and into his pants on Monday, said Dani Moschella, spokeswoman for Broward Sheriff’s Office.
Now working as a private investigator, the ex-officer claimed reporters wanted the victim’s phone numbers and details of the calls they had made and received in the days leading up to the atrocity.
A source said: “This investigator is used by a lot of journalists in America and he recently told me that he was asked to hack into the 9/11 victims’ private phone data. He said that the journalists asked him to access records showing the calls that had been made to and from the mobile phones belonging to the victims and their relatives.
Apparently the woman overseeing NofW when all of these hackings were going on was being groomed as Murdoch’s successor. What does that say about how the American Murdoch properties act?
Alabama allows judges to reject sentencing decisions from capital juries, which sounds like a sensible idea. You might want a mature and dispassionate jurist standing between a wounded community’s impulse toward vengeance and a defendant at risk of execution.
“If you didn’t have something like that,” said Judge Ferrill D. McRae, who spent 40 years on the bench in Mobile before he retired in 2006, “a jury with no experience in other cases would be making the ultimate decision, based on nothing. The judge has seen many, many cases, not just one.”
Judge McRae, chatting on the phone the other day, recalled having breakfast with Justice Thurgood Marshall at an American Bar Association meeting not long after the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
Justice Marshall was a fierce opponent of the death penalty. But, according to Judge McRae, the justice also saw the wisdom of the override system. “He thought it was better that someone who had seen more than one case was making the decision,” Judge McCrae said.
What Justice Marshall probably did not anticipate, though, was that judges in Alabama would not use their power for mercy — that they would, in fact, be even tougher than juries. Since 1976, according to a new report, Alabama judges have rejected sentencing recommendations from capital juries 107 times. In 98 of those cases, or 92 percent of them, judges imposed the death penalty after juries had called for a life sentence.
Indeed, more than 20 percent of the people on death row in Alabama are there because of such overrides, according to the report, from the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit law firm that represents poor people and prisoners. The overrides in Alabama contributed to the highest per capita death sentencing rate in the nation, far outstripping Texas.
I recommend clicking through to read the New York Times article in its entirety … and then the report from the Equal Justice Initiative, referenced just above.
There’s nothing quite so unbelievable as allowing the life sentence imposed by a jury of a person’s peers to be overridden and replaced with a death sentence by an elected judge.
The whole thing is just appalling.
This is an interesting article on the death penalty in Alabama. It’s a different issue than just pro or anti death penalty, so it’s worth a read.
My adventures through various media mixed with news commentary and such.
