Posts tagged Dan Culberson
“The Company You Keep” a Blast from the Past
May 4th
“A Blast from the Past”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
The Company You Keep is based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Neil Gordon; Robert Redford produced, directed, and stars in it; and it is about an anti-war protester from the Seventies who has been underground all this time, but is now being chased by the FBI for a murder that occurred in a bank robbery that went bad.
This is somewhat ironic, because the protester, Nick Sloan, was a member of the Weather Underground, also known as Weathermen, who used bombs to draw attention to their cause, which was an anti-Establishment protest against the war in Vietnam.
The story erupts into motion when a woman who was also a part of the movement is captured by the FBI, and a young newspaper reporter, played by Shia LaBeouf, starts digging into the details of her arrest and discovers a link between her and a lawyer named Jim Grant, who lives in the area.
The reporter’s editor tells him, “You keep telling me you’re a good reporter, right? Prove it.”
After more digging into Grant’s background and the details of the bank robbery in Detroit, the reporter believes that Grant is actually Nick Sloan, whom the FBI has been looking for since the Seventies and making them look bad, because they could never catch him.
The reporter’s suspicions prove to be true, and after Sloan gets his brother to take care of Sloan’s daughter, who is 11 years old, Sloan takes off across country with both the FBI and the reporter after him.
Although the FBI believes that Sloan is just running to escape capture, the reporter thinks that Sloan has something else in mind, and the reporter is right.
Sloan is searching for Mimi Lurie, another protester from back in the day, and he is looking up other colleagues who might be able to help him find Mimi, because Sloan believes that her help is the only way that he can get his daughter back.
The people that Sloan gets in touch with are all played by famous actors, so many, in fact, that their appearance can become distracting.
The Company You Keep is a look back at a time when the whole country was in turmoil and a protest group believed idealistically that what they were doing was right, a blast from the past.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Disconnect” a Heavy-Handed Look at Serious Problems
Apr 27th
“Heavy-Handed Look at Serious Problems”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Disconnect has three separate, but connected stories about the serious problems that can be the result of today’s activities with the Internet, computers, and smart phones.
One of the stories ends in a tragedy.
The first story is about a lonely teenage boy who is tricked into thinking that he is communicating with a girl who is interested in him when in fact two other boys in his school are behind the deception.
The second story is about a television reporter who is researching a story about teenage runaways, but ends up interviewing a teenager who performs on an Internet porn site.
And the third story is about a couple who are having marital problems to begin with, and then they discover that they are the victims of identity theft, and all of their credit cards are maxed out.
Some of the characters are connected to only one story, some of the characters are connected to two stories, and at least one of the characters is connected to all three stories.
So, in essence, the three stories are disjointed, but interconnected.
And a key point in solving one of the mysteries in one of the stories is when a character texts, “We didn’t mean for this to happen.”
The only actors of note in the movie are Jason Bateman, wearing an uncharacteristic beard, and Hope Davis, who plays his wife.
Now, although an ad for the movie claims that one critic calls it “The Best Film of the Year,” you might think differently when you see how the serious subjects of the film are handled.
In other words, the filmmakers would have done well to have remembered “A little discretion goes a long way.”
Also, be aware that the movie contains nudity and violence, but neither one is exploited.
However, the movie does point out how extensive social media is being used in today’s society, how it can get out of hand, and how destructive some of those results can be to innocent, unsuspecting victims.
Although the movie does single out one person as being a villain in the circumstances making up one of the stories, most of the characters are victims of the situations, either because of intent or accident.
Disconnect is a heavy-handed look at serious problems that can lead to coincidental, interesting, and devastating results.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“The Sapphires” a Sweet Story Set During Vietnam War
Apr 20th
“Sweet Story Set During Vietnam War”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
THE SAPPHIRES is inspired by the unlikely, but true story of four girls from the aboriginal outback of Australia who form a singing group that entertains the American troops in Vietnam during the war.
The movie begins in 1958 in Australia, and we see four little girls who love to sing performing before an audience. Suddenly a group of government officials show up, and one of the little girls, Kay, is taken away from her family by the officials, because she has light skin, and forced to live in a city with a white family.
This was all part of a government program to integrate aborigines into Caucasian society.
Then the movie shifts to 1968, and we meet Dave Lovelace, played by Chris O’Dowd, who is sleeping in his car and arrives late to work in a bar where he is the emcee of a local talent show, and his boss puts him on his last warning.
Dave says to the audience, “I sort of start off slow, and then I slowly peter out.”
Two young aborigine girls, Gail and Cynthia, are singing in the talent show, they announce that they are from “black fella’ country,” and they sing a country song that the audience doesn’t pay much attention to.
But when their younger sister, Julie, suddenly joins them on stage, their singing becomes much better and so does the audience’s appreciation.
After the talent show, the girls approach Dave, show him a newspaper clipping about an audition in Melbourne for singers and dancers to perform for the troops in Vietnam, and ask him to help them go to the audition.
Dave agrees to help, but says they should sing soul music instead of country music and that Julie should sing lead instead of Gail, which doesn’t please Gail one bit.
Also, while they are in Melbourne, they track down their cousin, Kay, who had been abducted 10 years earlier, and she is able to join them for the audition.
Ironically, while Dave is coaching the girls and teaching them choreography, he says that they should sing their soul songs “blacker.”
So, the girls, accompanied by Dave as manager and chaperone, entertain the troops in Vietnam, where there is danger, conflict, and even romance.
The Sapphires is a sweet and mostly true story set during the Vietnam War.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”