Amid
the morass of inane summertime reality shows, there’s an
intelligent, timely drama with the return of HBO’s
The Newsroom,
from The West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin. Jeff Daniels is the
lead anchor on a cable network news show in perpetual confl ict
over content. Sam Waterston is the news division president and
the calming voice. Jane Fonda is the network’s CEO, and Olivia
Munn plays an economist with her own show. Emily Mortimer is the
executive producer, and Marcia Gay Harden is the network’s
pricey lawyer. As a veteran of TV newsrooms for 40 years, I was
impressed last season with its realistic look. Oh, there’s a
continual din of heated discussions, and then convenient silence
as a dramatic moment sets in—but that’s a drama at work, moving
storylines along.
Real news stories like the Dominique
Strauss-Kahn scandal, the Libyan revolution, and the drone
controversy give the show the context of the summer of 2011,
when it’s set.
Except for Scandal, no other current show
I’ve seen has such rapid-fire dialogue and brisk character
interaction. Real newsrooms have lots of down time before air
time, but the daily news meetings look real, even if the
producers who are pushing stories look south of 30.
Since Sorkin wants to pack as much into as little time as
possible, some of the dialogue sounds spoken without
punctuation, but the ideas are provocative and sometimes
bordering on profound.
The Newsroom presents a souped-up
look behind the scenes of a cable news network, and gets a
summertime audience to do something unusual for once: think.
Just Like a Woman
seems merely a new take on
Thelma and Louise: Two women
are on the run from lackluster husbands and the law. But the
dynamic is distinct. Sienna Miller is compelling as the wife of
a philandering, unemployed Chicago slacker. When she too loses
her humdrum job, she fi nds work as a belly dancer in sleazy
dives with owners with wandering hands. Costarring is
Iranian-born Golshifteh Farahani as an unhappy wife in an
arranged marriage with a domineering mother-in-law. A shocking
accident causes the wife to flee.
This is an engrossing
look at a pair of gritty women in an unforgiving world forging
an unlikely friendship, and the best movie about belly dancing
you’re likely to see.
When you think of Paul Walker, the
Fast and the Furious
franchise comes to mind, the genre dubbed “tits and tire”
movies.
Vehicle 19
again places him in a car, but there the similarities end.
Walker portrays an American parolee who picks up the wrong
rental vehicle at the Johannesburg airport. After receiving some
mysterious phone calls that weren’t meant for him, he fi nds a
woman tied up and gagged in the back, and realizes this is
really the wrong car!
Walker, heretofore pigeonholed as
a pretty-boy actor, skillfully carries the movie while
continually in the driver’s seat. What unfolds is a web of
police corruption, street hustlers, and bandits who pop up
outside, bang on the windows, and try to waylay him. Predictably
in a Paul Walker movie, there are furious car chases and
unpredictable twists and turns. Costarring as the terrifi ed
backseat victim is Naima McLean, giving a poignant performance.
I was fascinated by
Somm, about fi ve wine experts vying to
pass the incredibly diffi cult test to become a master
sommelier. The exam, given once a year, is an intense, three-day
comprehensive grilling (no pun intended) fi rst conducted in
1969 in the UK. The passion of the contestants is boundless. One
tells us that the only days in his life he ever cried were his
wedding day, when his children were born, and when he passed
this grueling test.
I’d always thought people who
ruminate on wine, who let it roll around in their mouth in a
blind taste test, spit it out, then make some sort of
proclamation, were pretentious and silly. But this remarkable
documentary shows the passion, devotion, and expertise of this
life calling. Watching the contestants, who bring a lifelong
preparation to the test, is amazing. Solely by taste testing,
they can divine a wine’s origin, the conditions in which it was
fermented, and which foods go best with it.
“Wine is not
complicated,” a sommelier observes, before giving the history of
wine, all the way back to the Bible. An Italian colleague chimes
in with a generational perspective, and we’re taken on a tour of
vineyards in France, Italy, and other parts of Europe. “Eat,
pray, work, sleep, and drink” was the daily life of ancient
monks, we’re told by a sommelier. “Well, which of those is the
most fun?”
Ever notice the backup singers behind the stars of music
groups? I always wondered about their careers.
20 Feet From Stardom
is a remarkable look at those talented artists dreaming of
stardom but realizing it may be illusive. All genres of popular
music are shown, though many of the singers have similar roots,
mostly as children of preachers who began in the church choir.
Best known among them is Darlene Love, who finally found
stardom and wound up in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a
tribute to her determination and refusal to abandon her dream of
eventual fame. This movie celebrates their aspirations and
contributions.
[HS]