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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/artists/14894617/billie-holiday\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Billie Holiday\u003c/a>‘s life and artistry have been analyzed, scrutinized, interpreted and embellished more than any other jazz singer in history. But the first biographer to fully immerse herself in the world of Lady Day was a New York journalist and avid Holiday fan named Linda Lipnack Kuehl. For some eight years in the 1970s, Kuehl interviewed everyone she could find who had a personal association with Holiday—musicians, managers, childhood friends, lovers and FBI agents among them. Then, before she could finish her biography, Kuehl died: In 1978, her body was found on a Washington, D.C. street. Her death was ruled a suicide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889923\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 270px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13889923\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/Screen-Shot-2020-12-03-at-12.08.21-PM.png\" alt=\"Linda Lipnack Kuehl, who spent eight years trying to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday.\" width=\"270\" height=\"210\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/Screen-Shot-2020-12-03-at-12.08.21-PM.png 270w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/Screen-Shot-2020-12-03-at-12.08.21-PM-160x124.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Linda Lipnack Kuehl spent eight years trying to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Kuehl family)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Kuehl left behind a trove of notes, transcripts and some 200 hours of interviews on cassette tapes—mostly in shoeboxes, some labeled, some not. That archive is where director James Erskine first began pulling together the story Kuehl was never able to finish. His new documentary, \u003cem>Billie (\u003c/em>out Dec. 4 on VOD and in select theaters), is about both Holiday—as told through the voices of people who knew her—and Kuehl’s obsession with crafting her biography.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’d like to write something that is real,” we hear Kuehl tell one of her interviewees in the film, “that is really Lady Day, and people who don’t see her in any sentimental way, you know? Really, as she is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erskine describes Kuehl as “a brilliant interviewer” who tracked down everybody from various stages of Holiday’s life. “What was extraordinary was it felt like an archaeological journey,” he says, “because it felt like we were excavating voices lost to the past.” Those now-deceased jazz voices include Count Basie, Charles Mingus, John Hammond, Jo Jones and Sylvia Syms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She excited me with just three notes,” drummer Roy Harte tells Kuehl. “She looked like a panther. It’s the only way I can describe it. With the most unbelievable face in the world,” marvels Syms, singer and Holiday’s friend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To give the documentary a cohesive structure—and to make sense out of the 200 hours of interview material—Erskine says, “We had a discipline that people speaking in the film should only be speaking about an event that they actually witnessed … because otherwise the material was just sort of overwhelming\u003cem>.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKimh-iPd_0\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of most provocative moments in the documentary is Kuehl speaking with Jones, a jazz drummer who toured the country with Holiday when they were both in Basie’s band. Jones questions whether Kuehl, a white woman, is capable of understanding the racism they faced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Miss Billie Holiday didn’t have the privilege of using a toilet. The boys at least could go out in the woods,” Jones tells Kuehl. “You don’t know anything about it because you never had to subjugate yourself to it. Never.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For \u003ca href=\"https://afamstudies.columbia.edu/content/farah-jasmine-griffin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Farah Jasmine Griffin\u003c/a>, author of \u003cem>If You Can’t Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday,\u003c/em> Kuehl’s interview with Jones is “extraordinary.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I found his passion, his truth-telling, all of his wisdom … his honesty, his courage—I found him so compelling,” Griffin says. “And I was very happy that the filmmakers gave him as much space as they did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The film reaffirms some oft-told legends about Billie Holiday: She could curse up a storm; had affairs with men and women (according to some, Tallulah Bankhead among them); liked to get high from cannabis, heroin and cocaine; and often surrounded herself with men who treated her horribly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’re also reminded that when Holiday sang “Strange Fruit,” she was “fighting inequality before Martin Luther King, Jr,” as Mingus puts it. (Holiday sang the haunting indictment of lynching to white and Black audiences as early as 1939.) Mingus tells Kuehl, “That might be why the cops were against her. Not just junk”—alluding to Holiday’s arrest, in 1947, for narcotics possession, another event in Holiday’s life that Kuehl probed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her interview with Jimmy Fletcher, the narcotics agent assigned to conduct surveillance of Holiday, Kuehl asks him whether a big star like Holiday “would have been a target because it would have been a lot of publicity for an agent.” Fletcher concedes, “Well, not just for an agent. For the Bureau of Narcotics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Erskine, Kuehl’s tireless efforts to uncover the truth about Holiday lead to all kinds of revelations. “You certainly get the sense that the more interviews Linda did, the closer she did get to this sort of underground, seedy world,” he says. In the documentary, Kuehl’s sister says the family does not believe she died by suicide. Erskine isn’t sure. “You do start to wonder,” he says, “if she was maybe doing a lot more than just uncovering Billie’s life, but also the political forces that wanted to silence her.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=New+Documentary+%27Billie%27+Explores+Mysteries+Of+Billie+Holiday+And+Her+Biographer&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To give the documentary a cohesive structure—and to make sense out of the 200 hours of interview material—Erskine says, “We had a discipline that people speaking in the film should only be speaking about an event that they actually witnessed … because otherwise the material was just sort of overwhelming\u003cem>.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/hKimh-iPd_0'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/hKimh-iPd_0'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>One of most provocative moments in the documentary is Kuehl speaking with Jones, a jazz drummer who toured the country with Holiday when they were both in Basie’s band. Jones questions whether Kuehl, a white woman, is capable of understanding the racism they faced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Miss Billie Holiday didn’t have the privilege of using a toilet. The boys at least could go out in the woods,” Jones tells Kuehl. “You don’t know anything about it because you never had to subjugate yourself to it. Never.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For \u003ca href=\"https://afamstudies.columbia.edu/content/farah-jasmine-griffin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Farah Jasmine Griffin\u003c/a>, author of \u003cem>If You Can’t Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday,\u003c/em> Kuehl’s interview with Jones is “extraordinary.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I found his passion, his truth-telling, all of his wisdom … his honesty, his courage—I found him so compelling,” Griffin says. “And I was very happy that the filmmakers gave him as much space as they did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The film reaffirms some oft-told legends about Billie Holiday: She could curse up a storm; had affairs with men and women (according to some, Tallulah Bankhead among them); liked to get high from cannabis, heroin and cocaine; and often surrounded herself with men who treated her horribly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’re also reminded that when Holiday sang “Strange Fruit,” she was “fighting inequality before Martin Luther King, Jr,” as Mingus puts it. (Holiday sang the haunting indictment of lynching to white and Black audiences as early as 1939.) Mingus tells Kuehl, “That might be why the cops were against her. Not just junk”—alluding to Holiday’s arrest, in 1947, for narcotics possession, another event in Holiday’s life that Kuehl probed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her interview with Jimmy Fletcher, the narcotics agent assigned to conduct surveillance of Holiday, Kuehl asks him whether a big star like Holiday “would have been a target because it would have been a lot of publicity for an agent.” Fletcher concedes, “Well, not just for an agent. For the Bureau of Narcotics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Erskine, Kuehl’s tireless efforts to uncover the truth about Holiday lead to all kinds of revelations. “You certainly get the sense that the more interviews Linda did, the closer she did get to this sort of underground, seedy world,” he says. In the documentary, Kuehl’s sister says the family does not believe she died by suicide. Erskine isn’t sure. “You do start to wonder,” he says, “if she was maybe doing a lot more than just uncovering Billie’s life, but also the political forces that wanted to silence her.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=New+Documentary+%27Billie%27+Explores+Mysteries+Of+Billie+Holiday+And+Her+Biographer&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A Cynic’s Guide to 5 (Totally Real) Supernatural Christmas Rom-Coms",
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"content": "\u003cp>Last month, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/11/12/933843001/the-cider-sipping-mitten-wearing-guide-to-2020-holiday-movies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR compiled a list\u003c/a> of all the new holiday movies arriving on our screens for 2020’s festive season. And there were 89 of them. \u003cem>EIGHTY-NINE\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this point, in the vast and endless sea of Christmas rom-coms, it’s almost impossible to tell one apart from another. Which might be why a weird sub-genre exists in which the Christmas rom-com tacks on a supernatural element. Because nothing livens up eggnog and longing glances over the fire like throwing a dead guy and some time travel into the mix. Here are five that are streaming right now. (There will be spoilers. And also cynicism.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Family Man\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>, 2000, HBO\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>Supernatural something:\u003c/b> A parallel universe\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnouJoQs52c\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Family Man\u003c/em> is basically a vicious two-hour assault on anyone who doesn’t want to have kids. Nicolas Cage plays Jack, a successful, womanizing businessman who gets sent to a parallel universe by Don Cheadle. (I sat through two hours of this crap and never once figured out who or what Don Cheadle is supposed to be.) Anyway, Cheadle (Magic man? Angel? Demon?) meets Jack, Jack goes to sleep in his shiny New York apartment wearing tiny manties, and when Jack wakes up, he’s in the suburbs (where everything is wood-paneled for some reason), wearing regular old boxer shorts. (\u003cem>Oh, the humanity!\u003c/em>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his new life, Jack is married to his college girlfriend Kate, living in New Jersey, and selling tires for a living. He also has two loud children, a big dog and a life-advice-giving Jeremy Piven who lives up the street. (\u003cem>The horror!\u003c/em>) I think the people who made \u003cem>The Family Man\u003c/em> want us to think this is better than Jack’s old life. The problem is, it patently isn’t. It’s a nightmare. This is the only movie in history that has ever successfully made me sympathize with The Man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Knight Before Christmas\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>, 2019, Netflix\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>Supernatural something:\u003c/b> A time-traveling knight\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JtwROpSVWc&t=11s\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Knight Before Christmas\u003c/em> is basically a romantic remake of \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104187/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Encino Man\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. Sure, there’s a 14th-century knight instead of a caveman, and snow instead of sunshine, and a romance-starved schoolteacher instead of Pauly Shore. But other than that? It’s goddamn \u003cem>Encino Man\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In case you’re too young to know what \u003cem>Encino Man\u003c/em> is, here. Have this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xkTN1Z1rTQ\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Link the caveman and Cole the knight do a lot of the same crap, including but not limited to:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>learning about life from TV,\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>lighting fires in inappropriate places,\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>spitting out food they don’t like,\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>hoarding food they do like,\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>picking up and imitating American slang,\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>being babe magnets.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>I was genuinely surprised when the knight didn’t have a triumphant dance routine at the end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>A Christmas Prince 3: The Royal Baby\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>, 2019, Netflix\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Supernatural something:\u003c/strong> A curse\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK0zCsxBG3U\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s going to sound like I’m being hyperbolic when I say this, but I promise you, I am not. \u003cem>A Christmas Prince 3\u003c/em> is the most boring movie in the history of the world. (Even in the country of Aldovia where this is set, a nation that doesn’t even exist.) It’s about baby showers (\u003cem>meh\u003c/em>) and lost international treaties (\u003cem>yawn\u003c/em>) and a very non-eventful blizzard. The extremely dull premise is not helped by the fact that the prince here is basically what would happen if someone built a human man out of dry toast. (White bread, naturally.) Why in \u003cem>The Crown\u003c/em>’s good name did anyone make three of these?! I can’t. I just… I can’t and you shouldn’t either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Last Christmas\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>, 2019, HBO\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>Supernatural something:\u003c/b> Ghost boyfriend\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9CEIcmWmtA\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The protagonist in \u003cem>Last Christmas\u003c/em> is a total asshole. Whether she’s killing her friend’s pet fish, outing her sister at the dinner table (!) or getting her boss’ small business broken into, she’s so awful it is impossible to care about anything she does, no matter how much acting her eyebrows do. (Even while George Michael’s delightful greatest hits are playing in the background!)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One day a bland archetype of a Handsome Man shows up and tries to make her less of an asshole. He takes her ice-skating, gently touches her heart transplant scar, and sings pop songs with her. Later she finds out that Handsome Man is, in fact, dead and—here comes the extra twist!—he’s the guy her heart transplant came from. Because nothing says seasonal movie fun like dragging the lyrics from Wham!’s “Last Christmas” out to their most literal conclusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Spirit of Christmas\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>, 2015, Hulu\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Supernatural something:\u003c/strong> A(nother) ghost boyfriend\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrwC1NdRZw8\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kate is a callous attorney with a string of failed relationships and no plans for the holidays. (\u003cem>Whattabish!\u003c/em>) Her boss tasks her with getting an old inn sold before the end of the year for reasons that are too boring to go into. But appraisers keep bailing on her because the building is haunted by a ghost named Daniel (\u003cem>awesome ghost name\u003c/em>) who looks like a hipster barber from Brooklyn. It’s not an accident either—at one point he literally asks where the Fernet Branca is. [aside postid='arts_13889581']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anyhoo, Kate decides to stay in the inn, where she discovers that Daniel turns into a real boy (\u003cem>because sure, okay\u003c/em>) every year between Dec. 12 and 24. Kate and Daniel decide to figure out why this happens to him every year and, wouldn’tyaknowit? After a spot of gratuitous shirtlessness (\u003cem>ghosts iron clothes too!\u003c/em>), some bauble dangling, and some mystery uncovering, Kate does some spirit smooching. This movie is truly awful and everyone should watch it immediately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Happy holidays, everyone!\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Last month, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/11/12/933843001/the-cider-sipping-mitten-wearing-guide-to-2020-holiday-movies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR compiled a list\u003c/a> of all the new holiday movies arriving on our screens for 2020’s festive season. And there were 89 of them. \u003cem>EIGHTY-NINE\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this point, in the vast and endless sea of Christmas rom-coms, it’s almost impossible to tell one apart from another. Which might be why a weird sub-genre exists in which the Christmas rom-com tacks on a supernatural element. Because nothing livens up eggnog and longing glances over the fire like throwing a dead guy and some time travel into the mix. Here are five that are streaming right now. (There will be spoilers. And also cynicism.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Family Man\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>, 2000, HBO\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>Supernatural something:\u003c/b> A parallel universe\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/OnouJoQs52c'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/OnouJoQs52c'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>The Family Man\u003c/em> is basically a vicious two-hour assault on anyone who doesn’t want to have kids. Nicolas Cage plays Jack, a successful, womanizing businessman who gets sent to a parallel universe by Don Cheadle. (I sat through two hours of this crap and never once figured out who or what Don Cheadle is supposed to be.) Anyway, Cheadle (Magic man? Angel? Demon?) meets Jack, Jack goes to sleep in his shiny New York apartment wearing tiny manties, and when Jack wakes up, he’s in the suburbs (where everything is wood-paneled for some reason), wearing regular old boxer shorts. (\u003cem>Oh, the humanity!\u003c/em>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his new life, Jack is married to his college girlfriend Kate, living in New Jersey, and selling tires for a living. He also has two loud children, a big dog and a life-advice-giving Jeremy Piven who lives up the street. (\u003cem>The horror!\u003c/em>) I think the people who made \u003cem>The Family Man\u003c/em> want us to think this is better than Jack’s old life. The problem is, it patently isn’t. It’s a nightmare. This is the only movie in history that has ever successfully made me sympathize with The Man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Knight Before Christmas\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>, 2019, Netflix\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>Supernatural something:\u003c/b> A time-traveling knight\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/-JtwROpSVWc'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/-JtwROpSVWc'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>The Knight Before Christmas\u003c/em> is basically a romantic remake of \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104187/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Encino Man\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. Sure, there’s a 14th-century knight instead of a caveman, and snow instead of sunshine, and a romance-starved schoolteacher instead of Pauly Shore. But other than that? It’s goddamn \u003cem>Encino Man\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In case you’re too young to know what \u003cem>Encino Man\u003c/em> is, here. Have this.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/1xkTN1Z1rTQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/1xkTN1Z1rTQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Link the caveman and Cole the knight do a lot of the same crap, including but not limited to:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>learning about life from TV,\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>lighting fires in inappropriate places,\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>spitting out food they don’t like,\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>hoarding food they do like,\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>picking up and imitating American slang,\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>being babe magnets.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>I was genuinely surprised when the knight didn’t have a triumphant dance routine at the end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>A Christmas Prince 3: The Royal Baby\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>, 2019, Netflix\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Supernatural something:\u003c/strong> A curse\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/RK0zCsxBG3U'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/RK0zCsxBG3U'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s going to sound like I’m being hyperbolic when I say this, but I promise you, I am not. \u003cem>A Christmas Prince 3\u003c/em> is the most boring movie in the history of the world. (Even in the country of Aldovia where this is set, a nation that doesn’t even exist.) It’s about baby showers (\u003cem>meh\u003c/em>) and lost international treaties (\u003cem>yawn\u003c/em>) and a very non-eventful blizzard. The extremely dull premise is not helped by the fact that the prince here is basically what would happen if someone built a human man out of dry toast. (White bread, naturally.) Why in \u003cem>The Crown\u003c/em>’s good name did anyone make three of these?! I can’t. I just… I can’t and you shouldn’t either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>Last Christmas\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>, 2019, HBO\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>Supernatural something:\u003c/b> Ghost boyfriend\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/z9CEIcmWmtA'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/z9CEIcmWmtA'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The protagonist in \u003cem>Last Christmas\u003c/em> is a total asshole. Whether she’s killing her friend’s pet fish, outing her sister at the dinner table (!) or getting her boss’ small business broken into, she’s so awful it is impossible to care about anything she does, no matter how much acting her eyebrows do. (Even while George Michael’s delightful greatest hits are playing in the background!)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One day a bland archetype of a Handsome Man shows up and tries to make her less of an asshole. He takes her ice-skating, gently touches her heart transplant scar, and sings pop songs with her. Later she finds out that Handsome Man is, in fact, dead and—here comes the extra twist!—he’s the guy her heart transplant came from. Because nothing says seasonal movie fun like dragging the lyrics from Wham!’s “Last Christmas” out to their most literal conclusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>The Spirit of Christmas\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>, 2015, Hulu\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>Supernatural something:\u003c/strong> A(nother) ghost boyfriend\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/JrwC1NdRZw8'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/JrwC1NdRZw8'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Kate is a callous attorney with a string of failed relationships and no plans for the holidays. (\u003cem>Whattabish!\u003c/em>) Her boss tasks her with getting an old inn sold before the end of the year for reasons that are too boring to go into. But appraisers keep bailing on her because the building is haunted by a ghost named Daniel (\u003cem>awesome ghost name\u003c/em>) who looks like a hipster barber from Brooklyn. It’s not an accident either—at one point he literally asks where the Fernet Branca is. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anyhoo, Kate decides to stay in the inn, where she discovers that Daniel turns into a real boy (\u003cem>because sure, okay\u003c/em>) every year between Dec. 12 and 24. Kate and Daniel decide to figure out why this happens to him every year and, wouldn’tyaknowit? After a spot of gratuitous shirtlessness (\u003cem>ghosts iron clothes too!\u003c/em>), some bauble dangling, and some mystery uncovering, Kate does some spirit smooching. This movie is truly awful and everyone should watch it immediately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Happy holidays, everyone!\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The holidays offer the promise of surprise, in a variety and abundance of forms. That’s the promise of movies, too, all year ’round. Sometimes flicks fall short, of course. This week, though, brings a sleigh-full of unexpected, unpredictable films to unwrap and savor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Doc Stories\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nDec. 3–6\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://sffilm.org/year-round-programming/doc-stories/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Online\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We take for granted that nonfiction is a huge chunk of mainstream programming, penetrating every corner of television. On the big screen, documentaries deliver a substantial chunk of arthouse revenue. Increasingly in recent years, the December awards chatter and hype has centered on documentaries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Film Society created the Doc Stories program several years ago to insert itself into that year-end conversation. Documentaries had long been hugely popular at the S.F. International Film Festival (now called SFFILM), so it wasn’t a big financial risk. Beyond the public, though, Doc Stories was designed to tap into the nationally recognized Bay Area doc community—especially the many local members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who vote for the Oscars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program has moved online this year, of course, and offers a convenient way for anyone to see highlights from the international festival circuit. Gianfranco Rosi (\u003cem>Fire at Sea\u003c/em>) has a new verité work, \u003cem>Notturno\u003c/em>, about the aftereffects of war on denizens of the Middle East. Viktor Kossakovsky (\u003cem>Aquarela\u003c/em>) returns with another audio and visual treat, \u003cem>Ganda\u003c/em>, centered on the titular sow and other animals on a Norwegian farm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2013 film \u003cem>Let the Fire Burn\u003c/em> recounted the Philadelphia police’s horrifying 1978 overreaction to the MOVE compound. Tommy Oliver’s \u003cem>40 Years a Prisoner\u003c/em> revisits those events through Mike Africa, Jr., who was born in prison to a MOVE couple jailed (with seven others) for the death of a policeman. Infuriating—the title is a riff on \u003cem>12 Years a Slave\u003c/em>—and galvanizing, Oliver’s film (which debuts Dec. 8 on HBO and HBO Max) justifiably adds fuel to the fire this time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I encourage anyone interested in the state of the form and the art of documentary to tune in for Carrie Lozano’s \u003ca href=\"https://sffilm.org/event/keynote-address-carrie-lozano/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Keynote Address\u003c/a> on Thursday, Dec. 3 at 3:30pm. The East Bay filmmaker, journalist and professor is the new director of the Sundance Institute’s influential Documentary Film Program, and her perspective on the present and future of nonfiction is essential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889884\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mayor_photo-2_1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"600\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13889884\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mayor_photo-2_1200.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mayor_photo-2_1200-800x400.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mayor_photo-2_1200-1020x510.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mayor_photo-2_1200-160x80.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mayor_photo-2_1200-768x384.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from David Osit’s ‘Mayor,’ 2020. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Film Movement)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Mayor\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nOpens Dec. 2\u003cbr>\nRoxie Theater, Smith Rafael Film Center (\u003ca href=\"http://www.mayorfilm.com\">online\u003c/a>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The opening scene of David Osit’s quietly revealing portrait of Ramallah’s pragmatic mayor—following an introductory shot of Musa Hadid alone in a café sipping a coffee—is a boardroom discussion about the city’s brand campaign. Mayor Musa, as his constituents call him, has little patience for this conversation; he’d rather be out inspecting schools or dealing with sewage dumps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Identity—Palestinian identity—is an everyday issue, in a Christian Arab city surrounded by Israeli settlements and subject to arbitrary incursions by the Israeli army. Mayor Musa must juggle bureaucracy, advocacy and diplomacy with prudence rather than power; he can’t allow his righteous anger to flare too often.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Mayor\u003c/em> climaxes with an extended sequence in which Musa is impotently confined to City Hall as Israeli soldiers roam downtown and fire tear gas at residents, capped by local youths throwing stones at the troops on their way out of town. Politics means something different to Musa than it does for the typical mayor, and his leadership and character are likewise on another level. (A free \u003ca href=\"https://filmforum.org/events/event/live-virtual-qa-with-david-osit-filmmaker-of-mayor\">virtual\u003c/a> Q&A with filmmaker David Osit takes place Monday, Dec. 7.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/DrRTTELtfuc\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Arab Film Fest Collab\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nDec. 3–13\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://watch.eventive.org/arabfilmfestcollab\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Online\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Palestine lives in two programs included in the unusually but appropriately titled Arab Film Fest Collab, a joint venture of four Arab film and cultural organizations around the U.S. Writer-director Najwa Najjar’s opening night saga, \u003cem>Between Heaven and Earth\u003c/em>, dramatizes the geographic, bureaucratic, political and personal hurdles a Palestinian couple encounters trying to get a divorce decree. A retrospective of Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour’s short films powerfully conveys the power of imagination to preserve one’s linked sense of self and place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Memory is also the essential ingredient in \u003cem>Once Upon a Time in Beirut\u003c/em> (1995), which imagines a pair of young women launched into the past through a film collector’s archival images of the Paris of the Middle East, as Lebanon’s capital was once known. This screening is a tribute to its prolific director, Jocelyne Saab, who died in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889878\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/herstory4_KG-copy_2000px-1024x575-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"575\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13889878\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/herstory4_KG-copy_2000px-1024x575-1.png 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/herstory4_KG-copy_2000px-1024x575-1-800x449.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/herstory4_KG-copy_2000px-1024x575-1-1020x573.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/herstory4_KG-copy_2000px-1024x575-1-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/herstory4_KG-copy_2000px-1024x575-1-768x431.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from Kelly Gallagher’s ‘A Herstory of Women Filmmakers,’ 2009. \u003ccite>(Courtesy the artist and SFMOMA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>No Time to Rest!\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThrough Dec. 22\u003cbr>\nSFMOMA (\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/no-time-to-rest/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">online\u003c/a>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly Gallagher, the third of five filmmakers receiving one-week shows curated by SFMOMA’s Rudolf Frieling and Gina Basso in conjunction with the \u003ca href=\"https://feministartcoalition.org/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Feminist Art Coalition\u003c/a>, makes appropriately unsubtle films. They are also occasionally irreverent, and best of all, contagiously energetic. Her recently retitled 2009 undergraduate blitz, \u003cem>A Herstory of Women Filmmakers\u003c/em>, (re)introduces a legion of women directors with collaged animation and Le Tigre and Bikini Kill grooves in 12 stirring, informative minutes you won’t regret or forget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The series continues with Ja-Tovia Gary’s extraordinary \u003cem>The Giverny Document (Single Channel)\u003c/em>, streaming Dec. 9–15, and San Francisco artist and filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson’s 2010 radical history documentary \u003cem>Women Art Revolution!\u003c/em> (Dec. 16–22). No time to rest, indeed.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The holidays offer the promise of surprise, in a variety and abundance of forms. That’s the promise of movies, too, all year ’round. Sometimes flicks fall short, of course. This week, though, brings a sleigh-full of unexpected, unpredictable films to unwrap and savor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Doc Stories\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nDec. 3–6\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://sffilm.org/year-round-programming/doc-stories/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Online\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We take for granted that nonfiction is a huge chunk of mainstream programming, penetrating every corner of television. On the big screen, documentaries deliver a substantial chunk of arthouse revenue. Increasingly in recent years, the December awards chatter and hype has centered on documentaries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Film Society created the Doc Stories program several years ago to insert itself into that year-end conversation. Documentaries had long been hugely popular at the S.F. International Film Festival (now called SFFILM), so it wasn’t a big financial risk. Beyond the public, though, Doc Stories was designed to tap into the nationally recognized Bay Area doc community—especially the many local members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who vote for the Oscars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program has moved online this year, of course, and offers a convenient way for anyone to see highlights from the international festival circuit. Gianfranco Rosi (\u003cem>Fire at Sea\u003c/em>) has a new verité work, \u003cem>Notturno\u003c/em>, about the aftereffects of war on denizens of the Middle East. Viktor Kossakovsky (\u003cem>Aquarela\u003c/em>) returns with another audio and visual treat, \u003cem>Ganda\u003c/em>, centered on the titular sow and other animals on a Norwegian farm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2013 film \u003cem>Let the Fire Burn\u003c/em> recounted the Philadelphia police’s horrifying 1978 overreaction to the MOVE compound. Tommy Oliver’s \u003cem>40 Years a Prisoner\u003c/em> revisits those events through Mike Africa, Jr., who was born in prison to a MOVE couple jailed (with seven others) for the death of a policeman. Infuriating—the title is a riff on \u003cem>12 Years a Slave\u003c/em>—and galvanizing, Oliver’s film (which debuts Dec. 8 on HBO and HBO Max) justifiably adds fuel to the fire this time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I encourage anyone interested in the state of the form and the art of documentary to tune in for Carrie Lozano’s \u003ca href=\"https://sffilm.org/event/keynote-address-carrie-lozano/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Keynote Address\u003c/a> on Thursday, Dec. 3 at 3:30pm. The East Bay filmmaker, journalist and professor is the new director of the Sundance Institute’s influential Documentary Film Program, and her perspective on the present and future of nonfiction is essential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889884\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mayor_photo-2_1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"600\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13889884\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mayor_photo-2_1200.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mayor_photo-2_1200-800x400.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mayor_photo-2_1200-1020x510.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mayor_photo-2_1200-160x80.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/mayor_photo-2_1200-768x384.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from David Osit’s ‘Mayor,’ 2020. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Film Movement)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>Mayor\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\nOpens Dec. 2\u003cbr>\nRoxie Theater, Smith Rafael Film Center (\u003ca href=\"http://www.mayorfilm.com\">online\u003c/a>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The opening scene of David Osit’s quietly revealing portrait of Ramallah’s pragmatic mayor—following an introductory shot of Musa Hadid alone in a café sipping a coffee—is a boardroom discussion about the city’s brand campaign. Mayor Musa, as his constituents call him, has little patience for this conversation; he’d rather be out inspecting schools or dealing with sewage dumps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Identity—Palestinian identity—is an everyday issue, in a Christian Arab city surrounded by Israeli settlements and subject to arbitrary incursions by the Israeli army. Mayor Musa must juggle bureaucracy, advocacy and diplomacy with prudence rather than power; he can’t allow his righteous anger to flare too often.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Mayor\u003c/em> climaxes with an extended sequence in which Musa is impotently confined to City Hall as Israeli soldiers roam downtown and fire tear gas at residents, capped by local youths throwing stones at the troops on their way out of town. Politics means something different to Musa than it does for the typical mayor, and his leadership and character are likewise on another level. (A free \u003ca href=\"https://filmforum.org/events/event/live-virtual-qa-with-david-osit-filmmaker-of-mayor\">virtual\u003c/a> Q&A with filmmaker David Osit takes place Monday, Dec. 7.)\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/DrRTTELtfuc'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/DrRTTELtfuc'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Arab Film Fest Collab\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nDec. 3–13\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://watch.eventive.org/arabfilmfestcollab\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Online\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Palestine lives in two programs included in the unusually but appropriately titled Arab Film Fest Collab, a joint venture of four Arab film and cultural organizations around the U.S. Writer-director Najwa Najjar’s opening night saga, \u003cem>Between Heaven and Earth\u003c/em>, dramatizes the geographic, bureaucratic, political and personal hurdles a Palestinian couple encounters trying to get a divorce decree. A retrospective of Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour’s short films powerfully conveys the power of imagination to preserve one’s linked sense of self and place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Memory is also the essential ingredient in \u003cem>Once Upon a Time in Beirut\u003c/em> (1995), which imagines a pair of young women launched into the past through a film collector’s archival images of the Paris of the Middle East, as Lebanon’s capital was once known. This screening is a tribute to its prolific director, Jocelyne Saab, who died in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889878\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/herstory4_KG-copy_2000px-1024x575-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"575\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13889878\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/herstory4_KG-copy_2000px-1024x575-1.png 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/herstory4_KG-copy_2000px-1024x575-1-800x449.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/herstory4_KG-copy_2000px-1024x575-1-1020x573.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/herstory4_KG-copy_2000px-1024x575-1-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/herstory4_KG-copy_2000px-1024x575-1-768x431.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from Kelly Gallagher’s ‘A Herstory of Women Filmmakers,’ 2009. \u003ccite>(Courtesy the artist and SFMOMA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>No Time to Rest!\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThrough Dec. 22\u003cbr>\nSFMOMA (\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/no-time-to-rest/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">online\u003c/a>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly Gallagher, the third of five filmmakers receiving one-week shows curated by SFMOMA’s Rudolf Frieling and Gina Basso in conjunction with the \u003ca href=\"https://feministartcoalition.org/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Feminist Art Coalition\u003c/a>, makes appropriately unsubtle films. They are also occasionally irreverent, and best of all, contagiously energetic. Her recently retitled 2009 undergraduate blitz, \u003cem>A Herstory of Women Filmmakers\u003c/em>, (re)introduces a legion of women directors with collaged animation and Le Tigre and Bikini Kill grooves in 12 stirring, informative minutes you won’t regret or forget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The series continues with Ja-Tovia Gary’s extraordinary \u003cem>The Giverny Document (Single Channel)\u003c/em>, streaming Dec. 9–15, and San Francisco artist and filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson’s 2010 radical history documentary \u003cem>Women Art Revolution!\u003c/em> (Dec. 16–22). No time to rest, indeed.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Sundance Selects SF’s Roxie Theater as Sole NorCal Venue for 2021 Festival",
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"content": "\u003cp>For the first time, Bay Area movie buffs won’t have to trek out to snowy Utah to experience the \u003ca href=\"https://festival.sundance.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sundance Film Festival\u003c/a> in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.roxie.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Roxie Theater\u003c/a> will play host to the week-long festival’s lineup of movies, talks and other events.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sundance selected the Roxie, a historic indie theater with two screens, as one of 33 partner film presenters around the country. It’s the only Northern California theater chosen to partner with the festival. The other two presenters in California are near Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Thanks to a constellation of independent cinema communities across the U.S. we are not putting on our festival alone,” said Sundance Festival Director Tabitha Jackson in a statement released Wednesday. “At the heart of all this is a belief in the power of coming together, and the desire to preserve what makes a festival unique—a collaborative spirit, a collective energy, and a celebration of the art, artists, and ideas that leave us changed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889836\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889836\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/RoxieTheatre-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/RoxieTheatre-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/RoxieTheatre-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/RoxieTheatre-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/RoxieTheatre-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/RoxieTheatre-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/RoxieTheatre-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/RoxieTheatre.jpg 1999w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Roxie Theater is among the 33 presenters selected by Sundance around the country to screen 2021 festival programming. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Roxie Theater)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to a Sundance representative, the Institute has previously led and collaborated on domestic and international public film programs, but this is the first time the annual festival’s full program has been available beyond Park City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many other cultural events these days, the Sundance Festival is also happening online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And unless the COVID-19-related health and safety restrictions lift in time for the 2021 event, which runs Jan. 28–Feb. 3, the in-person screenings will take place at the Fort Mason Drive-In, and not at the theater’s home-base in the Mission District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Roxie’s director of programming, Isabel Fondevila, told KQED the festival’s organizers reached out to her over the summer about the potential collaboration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not sure why we are the only partner theater in Northern California because there are definitely a lot of fantastic independent movie theaters around here,” Fondevila said. “The Roxie has been around for a while and has a reputation for its programing and curation. We do show mostly independent films, and that includes a lot of films that have come out of Sundance. So I think those things helped.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the terms of the partnership, Fondevila said Sundance is making a financial contribution to all of the satellite screen partners, including the Roxie, to help cover some of the costs associated with putting together the festival in the many remote locations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fondevila said the festival is also providing its partners with additional resources, like sponsorship knowhow. Plus, the Roxie gets to keep all of the income from festival ticket sales in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sundance does not need to do satellite screenings all over the country,” Fondevila said. “But they really believe a healthy ecosystem for artists and audiences requires that independent cinemas across the country survive and thrive.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For the first time, Bay Area movie buffs won’t have to trek out to snowy Utah to experience the \u003ca href=\"https://festival.sundance.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sundance Film Festival\u003c/a> in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.roxie.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Roxie Theater\u003c/a> will play host to the week-long festival’s lineup of movies, talks and other events.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sundance selected the Roxie, a historic indie theater with two screens, as one of 33 partner film presenters around the country. It’s the only Northern California theater chosen to partner with the festival. The other two presenters in California are near Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Thanks to a constellation of independent cinema communities across the U.S. we are not putting on our festival alone,” said Sundance Festival Director Tabitha Jackson in a statement released Wednesday. “At the heart of all this is a belief in the power of coming together, and the desire to preserve what makes a festival unique—a collaborative spirit, a collective energy, and a celebration of the art, artists, and ideas that leave us changed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889836\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889836\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/RoxieTheatre-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/RoxieTheatre-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/RoxieTheatre-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/RoxieTheatre-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/RoxieTheatre-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/RoxieTheatre-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/RoxieTheatre-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/12/RoxieTheatre.jpg 1999w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Roxie Theater is among the 33 presenters selected by Sundance around the country to screen 2021 festival programming. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Roxie Theater)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to a Sundance representative, the Institute has previously led and collaborated on domestic and international public film programs, but this is the first time the annual festival’s full program has been available beyond Park City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many other cultural events these days, the Sundance Festival is also happening online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And unless the COVID-19-related health and safety restrictions lift in time for the 2021 event, which runs Jan. 28–Feb. 3, the in-person screenings will take place at the Fort Mason Drive-In, and not at the theater’s home-base in the Mission District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Roxie’s director of programming, Isabel Fondevila, told KQED the festival’s organizers reached out to her over the summer about the potential collaboration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not sure why we are the only partner theater in Northern California because there are definitely a lot of fantastic independent movie theaters around here,” Fondevila said. “The Roxie has been around for a while and has a reputation for its programing and curation. We do show mostly independent films, and that includes a lot of films that have come out of Sundance. So I think those things helped.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the terms of the partnership, Fondevila said Sundance is making a financial contribution to all of the satellite screen partners, including the Roxie, to help cover some of the costs associated with putting together the festival in the many remote locations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fondevila said the festival is also providing its partners with additional resources, like sponsorship knowhow. Plus, the Roxie gets to keep all of the income from festival ticket sales in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sundance does not need to do satellite screenings all over the country,” Fondevila said. “But they really believe a healthy ecosystem for artists and audiences requires that independent cinemas across the country survive and thrive.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Actor Elliot Page, who received an \u003ca href=\"https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2008\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oscar nomination\u003c/a> for his performance in the 2007 film \u003cem>Juno\u003c/em>, announced Tuesday that he is transgender. He posted a public letter on Twitter and Instagram:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“Hi friends, I want to share with you that I am trans, my pronouns are he/they and my name is Elliot. I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived in this place in my life.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>The posts received expressions of support from hundreds of thousands of followers, on both platforms, within hours of publication.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t begin to express how remarkable it feels to finally love who I am enough to pursue my authentic self,” Page wrote. “I’ve been endlessly inspired by so many in the trans community. Thank you for your courage, your generosity and ceaselessly working to make this world a more inclusive and compassionate place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Page’s post, he asked “for patience. My joy is real, but it is also fragile.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am also scared,” Page acknowledged. “The discrimination towards trans people is rife, insidious and cruel, resulting in horrific consequences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/TheElliotPage/status/1333820783655837701\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His worries are not unfounded. Last month, the Human Rights Campaign reported that 37 transgender and gender non-conforming people were \u003ca href=\"https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/marking-the-deadliest-year-on-record-hrc-releases-report-on-violence-against-transgender-and-gender-non-conforming-people\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">violently killed in 2020\u003c/a>. More than any other year since the organization began monitoring data in 2013.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Page is one of an estimated \u003ca href=\"https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/LGBT-Adult-US-Pop-Jul-2020.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">1.4 million transgender people\u003c/a> in the United States. In his post, he promised to do his best in making the world a better place for the trans community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To all trans people who deal with harassment, self-loathing, abuse and the threat of violence every day: I see you,” Page wrote. “I love you and I will do everything I can to change this world for the better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Dustin Jones is an intern on NPR’s News Desk.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Oscar+Nominee+Elliot+Page+Announces+He+Is+Transgender&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Actor Elliot Page, who received an \u003ca href=\"https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2008\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oscar nomination\u003c/a> for his performance in the 2007 film \u003cem>Juno\u003c/em>, announced Tuesday that he is transgender. He posted a public letter on Twitter and Instagram:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“Hi friends, I want to share with you that I am trans, my pronouns are he/they and my name is Elliot. I feel lucky to be writing this. To be here. To have arrived in this place in my life.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>The posts received expressions of support from hundreds of thousands of followers, on both platforms, within hours of publication.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t begin to express how remarkable it feels to finally love who I am enough to pursue my authentic self,” Page wrote. “I’ve been endlessly inspired by so many in the trans community. Thank you for your courage, your generosity and ceaselessly working to make this world a more inclusive and compassionate place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Page’s post, he asked “for patience. My joy is real, but it is also fragile.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am also scared,” Page acknowledged. “The discrimination towards trans people is rife, insidious and cruel, resulting in horrific consequences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>His worries are not unfounded. Last month, the Human Rights Campaign reported that 37 transgender and gender non-conforming people were \u003ca href=\"https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/marking-the-deadliest-year-on-record-hrc-releases-report-on-violence-against-transgender-and-gender-non-conforming-people\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">violently killed in 2020\u003c/a>. More than any other year since the organization began monitoring data in 2013.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Page is one of an estimated \u003ca href=\"https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/LGBT-Adult-US-Pop-Jul-2020.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">1.4 million transgender people\u003c/a> in the United States. In his post, he promised to do his best in making the world a better place for the trans community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To all trans people who deal with harassment, self-loathing, abuse and the threat of violence every day: I see you,” Page wrote. “I love you and I will do everything I can to change this world for the better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Dustin Jones is an intern on NPR’s News Desk.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Oscar+Nominee+Elliot+Page+Announces+He+Is+Transgender&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The holiday family romcom tends to go a certain way. The loving parents are having some kind of troubles (medical? financial? marital?) that they haven’t fully shared. The kids come home for the holidays, and they have their own things going on: they’re not ready to reveal a breakup, or they’re not happy about running into an ex, or they’re looking to introduce a new partner for the first time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Happiest Season \u003c/em>on Hulu is a variation on this oft-used theme, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Harper (Mackenzie Davis) is bringing her girlfriend Abby (Kristen Stewart) home to meet the family: father (Victor Garber), mother (Mary Steenburgen), nasty striver sister (Alison Brie), and needy middle sister (Mary Holland). The family will have to find some way to welcome Abby and ring in the holidays, right? And the sisters will all have to figure out a way to love each other? And we’ll learn that all these people have their own sadnesses? Sure. The complication is this: Not only has Harper’s family not met Abby, but they don’t know that Harper is gay, so when she brings Abby home, it’s on the pretext that Abby is just her roommate and pal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, the film goes to some lengths to try to create circumstances under which this could happen (because … why would you bring your girlfriend home if you weren’t out, and why would she go?), and they’re not terribly convincing, but that’s okay. Everybody is different, after all, and a little bit of going with the flow is very much expected in holiday movies and romcoms and especially in holiday romcoms. Once Abby gets there and understands the situation, she starts explaining it on the phone to her friend John (played by \u003cem>Schitt’s Creek\u003c/em>‘s Dan Levy), who coaches her about how to handle it, much like Lil Rel coached Daniel Kaluuya in \u003cem>Get Out\u003c/em>. There are some comedic set pieces, there’s some warm family business, and there’s Aubrey Plaza playing Harper’s ex, Riley, who plays a significant role in revealing how Harper got into this situation in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h58HkQV1gHY\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biggest challenge is that the character of Harper is … opaque, for lack of a better word. Her motives are a little hard to understand some of the time. That’s emphatically not because she’s not out to her parents—the film, directed by Clea Duvall, is sensitive about explaining explicitly that people not being out to their families doesn’t reflect poorly on them, and it doesn’t mean they don’t love their partners. But the particular ways Harper treats Abby, and the situations she puts Abby in, strain the necessary part of this story in which you root for this couple. Nobody wants to follow a romance that you sense will end with a couple together while increasingly thinking that … maybe they should break up? I never reached that point with \u003cem>Happiest Season\u003c/em>, but I wobbled a few times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it wasn’t because the characters were complex and flawed (though they are). It was because Harper isn’t nearly as well-rounded as Abby as a character. An early scene with the two sitting on a roof is asked to do too much work establishing Harper as a loving partner and explaining why they’re happy together. By the time Abby considers getting out of the family house (again, like in \u003cem>Get Out\u003c/em>), I wasn’t fully invested in whether she came back. In fairness, those delicate balances are really hard, and I think ultimately, the film gets away with the incomplete development of Harper because of the terrific cast. That means the leads, but also MVP drop-ins that I don’t want to spoil, and the presence of people like Mary Holland, who is one of the most indispensable comic actresses we have. Her every line reading kills, and she manages to make her character deeply funny but never pitiful; she might be the most decent person in the whole family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s particularly satisfying to see Kristen Stewart getting, and enjoying, this kind of work. She’s done plenty of good things that have established her acting chops, but this is a laid-back, charming, funny performance that makes Abby the clear hero of the movie, and the one with the most successfully excavated feelings. In an interesting bend to the formula, it’s Abby who winds up befriending Riley, and seeing the two women—Harper’s ex-partner and current partner—talk about what it’s like to be with her turns out to be perhaps more fun than seeing Abby and Harper together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This kind of dissection might make it sound like I didn’t enjoy the film, and I emphatically did. It’s funny, it’s charming, it’s warm, and it’s got a bunch of really good performances. It’s so good to see queer creators and characters given their own space in this kind of popular genre entertainment. Stewart is just terrific in it, and I don’t think the issue with Harper is Davis, considering how many things she’s also been terrific in. I think getting absolutely everything in balance with this kind of story is almost impossible, and to their credit, they come pretty close.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27Happiest+Season%27+Is+A+Holiday+Family+Romcom+With+A+Very+Merry+Cast&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The holiday family romcom tends to go a certain way. The loving parents are having some kind of troubles (medical? financial? marital?) that they haven’t fully shared. The kids come home for the holidays, and they have their own things going on: they’re not ready to reveal a breakup, or they’re not happy about running into an ex, or they’re looking to introduce a new partner for the first time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Happiest Season \u003c/em>on Hulu is a variation on this oft-used theme, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Harper (Mackenzie Davis) is bringing her girlfriend Abby (Kristen Stewart) home to meet the family: father (Victor Garber), mother (Mary Steenburgen), nasty striver sister (Alison Brie), and needy middle sister (Mary Holland). The family will have to find some way to welcome Abby and ring in the holidays, right? And the sisters will all have to figure out a way to love each other? And we’ll learn that all these people have their own sadnesses? Sure. The complication is this: Not only has Harper’s family not met Abby, but they don’t know that Harper is gay, so when she brings Abby home, it’s on the pretext that Abby is just her roommate and pal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, the film goes to some lengths to try to create circumstances under which this could happen (because … why would you bring your girlfriend home if you weren’t out, and why would she go?), and they’re not terribly convincing, but that’s okay. Everybody is different, after all, and a little bit of going with the flow is very much expected in holiday movies and romcoms and especially in holiday romcoms. Once Abby gets there and understands the situation, she starts explaining it on the phone to her friend John (played by \u003cem>Schitt’s Creek\u003c/em>‘s Dan Levy), who coaches her about how to handle it, much like Lil Rel coached Daniel Kaluuya in \u003cem>Get Out\u003c/em>. There are some comedic set pieces, there’s some warm family business, and there’s Aubrey Plaza playing Harper’s ex, Riley, who plays a significant role in revealing how Harper got into this situation in the first place.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/h58HkQV1gHY'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/h58HkQV1gHY'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The biggest challenge is that the character of Harper is … opaque, for lack of a better word. Her motives are a little hard to understand some of the time. That’s emphatically not because she’s not out to her parents—the film, directed by Clea Duvall, is sensitive about explaining explicitly that people not being out to their families doesn’t reflect poorly on them, and it doesn’t mean they don’t love their partners. But the particular ways Harper treats Abby, and the situations she puts Abby in, strain the necessary part of this story in which you root for this couple. Nobody wants to follow a romance that you sense will end with a couple together while increasingly thinking that … maybe they should break up? I never reached that point with \u003cem>Happiest Season\u003c/em>, but I wobbled a few times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it wasn’t because the characters were complex and flawed (though they are). It was because Harper isn’t nearly as well-rounded as Abby as a character. An early scene with the two sitting on a roof is asked to do too much work establishing Harper as a loving partner and explaining why they’re happy together. By the time Abby considers getting out of the family house (again, like in \u003cem>Get Out\u003c/em>), I wasn’t fully invested in whether she came back. In fairness, those delicate balances are really hard, and I think ultimately, the film gets away with the incomplete development of Harper because of the terrific cast. That means the leads, but also MVP drop-ins that I don’t want to spoil, and the presence of people like Mary Holland, who is one of the most indispensable comic actresses we have. Her every line reading kills, and she manages to make her character deeply funny but never pitiful; she might be the most decent person in the whole family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s particularly satisfying to see Kristen Stewart getting, and enjoying, this kind of work. She’s done plenty of good things that have established her acting chops, but this is a laid-back, charming, funny performance that makes Abby the clear hero of the movie, and the one with the most successfully excavated feelings. In an interesting bend to the formula, it’s Abby who winds up befriending Riley, and seeing the two women—Harper’s ex-partner and current partner—talk about what it’s like to be with her turns out to be perhaps more fun than seeing Abby and Harper together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This kind of dissection might make it sound like I didn’t enjoy the film, and I emphatically did. It’s funny, it’s charming, it’s warm, and it’s got a bunch of really good performances. It’s so good to see queer creators and characters given their own space in this kind of popular genre entertainment. Stewart is just terrific in it, and I don’t think the issue with Harper is Davis, considering how many things she’s also been terrific in. I think getting absolutely everything in balance with this kind of story is almost impossible, and to their credit, they come pretty close.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27Happiest+Season%27+Is+A+Holiday+Family+Romcom+With+A+Very+Merry+Cast&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Thanksgiving is frankly weird this year, and the movie gods have concocted an unusually eclectic brew to accompany the turkey, turducken and tofurkey. It’s deities’ way of reminding us of the vast variety of the world of cinema.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bruce Lee’s 80th Anniversary Birthday Blitz\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nNov. 27\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://www.facebook.com/events/398733521174024\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Online\u003c/a> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The charismatic Hong Kong action star and martial artist Bruce Lee was born at the Chinese Hospital in San Francisco on Nov. 27, 1940. A plaque marking the momentous occasion was put up (finally) on the Chinatown building in 2017, but the nearby Chinese Historical Society of America has a higher-wattage homage in store: A major exhibition, \u003ci>We Are Bruce Lee: Under the Sky, One Family\u003c/i>, is slated to open next fall. Hop on Facebook any time Friday for a preview, along with tales and tributes to the hometown hero who died in 1973. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889722\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1279px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2018-03-20-at-3.24.36-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1279\" height=\"855\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13889722\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2018-03-20-at-3.24.36-PM.png 1279w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2018-03-20-at-3.24.36-PM-800x535.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2018-03-20-at-3.24.36-PM-1020x682.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2018-03-20-at-3.24.36-PM-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2018-03-20-at-3.24.36-PM-768x513.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1279px) 100vw, 1279px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from Nazli Dinçel’s ‘Void (4.INABILITY),’ 2016. \u003ccite>(Courtesy SF Cinematheque)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003cem>traveling thru with eyes closed tight\u003c/em>\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\nThrough Jan. 10, 2021\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://www.sfcinematheque.org/video-programs/traveling-thru-with-eyes-closed-tight/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Online\u003c/a> via S.F. Cinematheque\u003cbr>\n \u003cbr>\nAn underrated feature of online exhibition is the elimination of the various hurdles to entry that mark in-person screenings: scheduling, travel, parking and the most devious, inertia. Experimental film triggers another barrier for some people, namely the reluctance to check out something unfamiliar and/or challenging. Here again, streaming smooths the way, especially when the program is free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>traveling thru with eyes closed tight\u003c/em>, curated by outgoing S.F. Cinematheque staff member Alix Blevins, is a delicious sampler plate of Bay Area avant-garde filmmaking in the (still-)new century. The nine short works, by Linda Scobie, Kent Long, Christina Battle and other notables, explore light, color, shape and shadow and—this is key—the texture and tactility of film. If you’ve never seen an experimental film, this program is a terrific introduction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The BlaQ ArTed Short Film Fest \u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThrough Nov. 28\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://www.queerartscenter.com/blaq-arted-film-fest\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Online\u003c/a> via the East Bay Queer Healing Arts Center\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Avant-garde films—almost all short films, in fact, whatever the genre—are personal. The BlaQ ArTed Short Film Fest, though, takes “personal” to a whole ’nother level. The filmmakers are Black queer, trans and nonbinary youth, which means they are gutsily exposing and exploring their identities and voices in public—that is, through their films.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hilda Ameyaw, Miaya Potter, Eddrena Hall, Silvia Gathundu, Leo Sherman, Meeow (Lottie) Fultz, Zena West, Shay House and Maya GoGodfrey’s work was curated by founder Kin Folkz into a rare festival that incorporates art, activism, education, community and pride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889723\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/uncle-frank-Uncle_Frank_BH_00775R_rgb_1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"818\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13889723\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/uncle-frank-Uncle_Frank_BH_00775R_rgb_1200.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/uncle-frank-Uncle_Frank_BH_00775R_rgb_1200-800x545.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/uncle-frank-Uncle_Frank_BH_00775R_rgb_1200-1020x695.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/uncle-frank-Uncle_Frank_BH_00775R_rgb_1200-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/uncle-frank-Uncle_Frank_BH_00775R_rgb_1200-768x524.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Paul Bettany and Sophia Lillis star in ‘Uncle Frank.’ \u003ccite>(Photo: Brownie Harris; Courtesy of Amazon Studios)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003cem>Uncle Frank\u003c/em>\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\nNow streaming\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Uncle-Frank-Paul-Bettany/dp/B08KZCMFRQ\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon Prime\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shame overrides pride for an unhealthy chunk of Alan Ball’s journey to the past, which he could have called \u003cem>Southern Discomfort\u003c/em>. The Atlanta native’s Oscar win for \u003cem>American Beauty\u003c/em> (1999) rocketed him to screenwriter stardom and, in turn, propelled his HBO series \u003cem>Six Feet Under\u003c/em> and \u003cem>True Blood\u003c/em>. Here he rolls all the way back to early-1970s South Carolina in a perfectly fine but unmemorable coming-of-age tale of closeted self-loathing and unsuccessful escapes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Uncle Frank is Frank Bledsoe (a disarming Paul Bettany), who fled his small town and grew up to be an openly gay literature professor in New York City. In the movie’s prologue at a Bledsoe family get-together, he encourages his 14-year-old niece Beth (Sophia Lillis) not to be limited by their kin or their surroundings. Easier said than done, of course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four years later, Beth is a college freshman in New York, so good on her. But we don’t get to spend a lot of time in Manhattan with Beth and Uncle Frank and Wally, his longtime companion (though the movie doesn’t use the term, in one of its endless ploys to circumvent cliché), before a death in the family pulls everyone back below the Mason-Dixon Line. (South Carolina is played onscreen by North Carolina.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s easy to identify with, and pull for, the dual protagonists, although both characters are somewhat underdeveloped. Indeed, at bottom, our affection for Frank and Beth is the element that carries us all the way through the film. The adolescent recollections and adult revelations that Ball dispenses feel dated, and not just because Uncle Frank is a period piece.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, teens still struggle with their sexual orientations, and the acceptance of their families (or lack of). \u003cem>Uncle Frank\u003c/em> offers them a narrow ray of light, not sufficient to navigate to a coastal capital, but possibly enough to ward off the deepest darkness of adolescence.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Thanksgiving is frankly weird this year, and the movie gods have concocted an unusually eclectic brew to accompany the turkey, turducken and tofurkey. It’s deities’ way of reminding us of the vast variety of the world of cinema.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bruce Lee’s 80th Anniversary Birthday Blitz\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nNov. 27\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://www.facebook.com/events/398733521174024\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Online\u003c/a> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The charismatic Hong Kong action star and martial artist Bruce Lee was born at the Chinese Hospital in San Francisco on Nov. 27, 1940. A plaque marking the momentous occasion was put up (finally) on the Chinatown building in 2017, but the nearby Chinese Historical Society of America has a higher-wattage homage in store: A major exhibition, \u003ci>We Are Bruce Lee: Under the Sky, One Family\u003c/i>, is slated to open next fall. Hop on Facebook any time Friday for a preview, along with tales and tributes to the hometown hero who died in 1973. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889722\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1279px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2018-03-20-at-3.24.36-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1279\" height=\"855\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13889722\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2018-03-20-at-3.24.36-PM.png 1279w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2018-03-20-at-3.24.36-PM-800x535.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2018-03-20-at-3.24.36-PM-1020x682.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2018-03-20-at-3.24.36-PM-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2018-03-20-at-3.24.36-PM-768x513.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1279px) 100vw, 1279px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Still from Nazli Dinçel’s ‘Void (4.INABILITY),’ 2016. \u003ccite>(Courtesy SF Cinematheque)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003cem>traveling thru with eyes closed tight\u003c/em>\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\nThrough Jan. 10, 2021\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://www.sfcinematheque.org/video-programs/traveling-thru-with-eyes-closed-tight/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Online\u003c/a> via S.F. Cinematheque\u003cbr>\n \u003cbr>\nAn underrated feature of online exhibition is the elimination of the various hurdles to entry that mark in-person screenings: scheduling, travel, parking and the most devious, inertia. Experimental film triggers another barrier for some people, namely the reluctance to check out something unfamiliar and/or challenging. Here again, streaming smooths the way, especially when the program is free.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>traveling thru with eyes closed tight\u003c/em>, curated by outgoing S.F. Cinematheque staff member Alix Blevins, is a delicious sampler plate of Bay Area avant-garde filmmaking in the (still-)new century. The nine short works, by Linda Scobie, Kent Long, Christina Battle and other notables, explore light, color, shape and shadow and—this is key—the texture and tactility of film. If you’ve never seen an experimental film, this program is a terrific introduction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The BlaQ ArTed Short Film Fest \u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThrough Nov. 28\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"http://www.queerartscenter.com/blaq-arted-film-fest\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Online\u003c/a> via the East Bay Queer Healing Arts Center\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Avant-garde films—almost all short films, in fact, whatever the genre—are personal. The BlaQ ArTed Short Film Fest, though, takes “personal” to a whole ’nother level. The filmmakers are Black queer, trans and nonbinary youth, which means they are gutsily exposing and exploring their identities and voices in public—that is, through their films.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hilda Ameyaw, Miaya Potter, Eddrena Hall, Silvia Gathundu, Leo Sherman, Meeow (Lottie) Fultz, Zena West, Shay House and Maya GoGodfrey’s work was curated by founder Kin Folkz into a rare festival that incorporates art, activism, education, community and pride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889723\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/uncle-frank-Uncle_Frank_BH_00775R_rgb_1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"818\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13889723\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/uncle-frank-Uncle_Frank_BH_00775R_rgb_1200.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/uncle-frank-Uncle_Frank_BH_00775R_rgb_1200-800x545.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/uncle-frank-Uncle_Frank_BH_00775R_rgb_1200-1020x695.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/uncle-frank-Uncle_Frank_BH_00775R_rgb_1200-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/uncle-frank-Uncle_Frank_BH_00775R_rgb_1200-768x524.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Paul Bettany and Sophia Lillis star in ‘Uncle Frank.’ \u003ccite>(Photo: Brownie Harris; Courtesy of Amazon Studios)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003cem>Uncle Frank\u003c/em>\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\nNow streaming\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Uncle-Frank-Paul-Bettany/dp/B08KZCMFRQ\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Amazon Prime\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shame overrides pride for an unhealthy chunk of Alan Ball’s journey to the past, which he could have called \u003cem>Southern Discomfort\u003c/em>. The Atlanta native’s Oscar win for \u003cem>American Beauty\u003c/em> (1999) rocketed him to screenwriter stardom and, in turn, propelled his HBO series \u003cem>Six Feet Under\u003c/em> and \u003cem>True Blood\u003c/em>. Here he rolls all the way back to early-1970s South Carolina in a perfectly fine but unmemorable coming-of-age tale of closeted self-loathing and unsuccessful escapes. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Uncle Frank is Frank Bledsoe (a disarming Paul Bettany), who fled his small town and grew up to be an openly gay literature professor in New York City. In the movie’s prologue at a Bledsoe family get-together, he encourages his 14-year-old niece Beth (Sophia Lillis) not to be limited by their kin or their surroundings. Easier said than done, of course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four years later, Beth is a college freshman in New York, so good on her. But we don’t get to spend a lot of time in Manhattan with Beth and Uncle Frank and Wally, his longtime companion (though the movie doesn’t use the term, in one of its endless ploys to circumvent cliché), before a death in the family pulls everyone back below the Mason-Dixon Line. (South Carolina is played onscreen by North Carolina.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s easy to identify with, and pull for, the dual protagonists, although both characters are somewhat underdeveloped. Indeed, at bottom, our affection for Frank and Beth is the element that carries us all the way through the film. The adolescent recollections and adult revelations that Ball dispenses feel dated, and not just because Uncle Frank is a period piece.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, teens still struggle with their sexual orientations, and the acceptance of their families (or lack of). \u003cem>Uncle Frank\u003c/em> offers them a narrow ray of light, not sufficient to navigate to a coastal capital, but possibly enough to ward off the deepest darkness of adolescence.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "‘Dolly Parton’s Christmas On the Square’: A Minute-By-Minute Analysis",
"headTitle": "‘Dolly Parton’s Christmas On the Square’: A Minute-By-Minute Analysis | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Not content with co-funding a vaccine in the middle of a pandemic—no, really, that’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/11/21/fact-check-dolly-parton-donated-modernas-covid-19-vaccine-studies/6373339002/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a thing\u003c/a> she just did—Dolly Parton just finally put out a seasonal television event that she appears in for longer than five minutes. (It’s a Christmas miracle!)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naturally, I felt compelled to watch \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.netflix.com/title/81128934\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Christmas on the Square\u003c/a>\u003c/em> and report back, minute-by-schmaltzy-minute, for all those (like me) who love Dolly Parton but passionately hate musicals. Now at least you’ll know exactly what you’re dealing with. (And yes, that means spoilers…)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:01:\u003c/strong> The movie opens with our hero, Dolly Parton, dressed like she’s down on her luck and asking for “Change” in the town square. She remains nonchalant despite being under attack from what looks like a rogue team of fireflies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13889590\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Dolly-homeless-800x447.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"447\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Dolly-homeless-800x447.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Dolly-homeless-1020x570.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Dolly-homeless-160x89.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Dolly-homeless-768x429.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Dolly-homeless.png 1234w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:02:\u003c/strong> The opening musical number is like an over-zealous Old Navy commercial—full of colorful sweaters, a spectrum of ages, and what can only be described as multicultural scissor kicking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889596\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889596\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Old-Navy-1-800x447.png\" alt=\"Here, the Old Navy Dancers stop and openly gawk at a passing woman, like it's the 1950s and casual street objectification is still in style.\" width=\"800\" height=\"447\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Old-Navy-1-800x447.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Old-Navy-1-1020x570.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Old-Navy-1-160x89.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Old-Navy-1-768x429.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Old-Navy-1.png 1101w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Here, the Old Navy Dancers stop and openly gawk at a passing woman, like it’s the 1950s and casual street objectification is still in style.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:03:\u003c/strong> One man just sang to his daughter about thermal underwear and I have questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:04:\u003c/strong> A silver fox with ‘Martin Sheen in \u003cem>Grace and Frankie\u003c/em>’ energy just showed up. Someone at Netflix is pushing this particular old man aesthetic \u003cem>hard\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889598\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889598\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/mses-800x743.jpg\" alt=\"(L) Real Martin Sheen, in 'Grace and Frankie'; (R) Fake Martin Sheen in 'Christmas on the Square.'\" width=\"800\" height=\"743\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/mses-800x743.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/mses-1020x947.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/mses-160x149.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/mses-768x713.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/mses-1536x1426.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/mses-2048x1901.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/mses-1920x1782.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L) Real Martin Sheen, in ‘Grace and Frankie’; (R) Fake Martin Sheen in ‘Christmas on the Square.’\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:05:\u003c/strong> “To the best Christmas gift we’ve ever given each other,” toasts a man named Pastor Christian who’s giving off distinctly gay vibes. Is the gift Dior? Tiffany? Cartier? Nope! “Getting fertility treatments is better than anything that comes with paper!” grins his wife. Did \u003cem>not\u003c/em> see that coming. On account of the gayness, you see.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889597\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889597\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/grimace-800x399.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"399\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/grimace-800x399.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/grimace-1020x508.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/grimace-160x80.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/grimace-768x383.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/grimace.png 1076w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Is this, or is this not, the face of a gay man trying to pretend to be in love with a woman?\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:06:\u003c/strong> Town villain Regina (Christine Baranski) just rhymed “pastor” with “disaster” and I didn’t hate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:06:\u003c/strong> Regina is selling the town to a conglomerate named (say it out loud so I know you get it) “Cheetah Mall.” (Oh dear God.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:07:\u003c/strong> Jenifer Lewis just showed up as local hairdresser, Margeline, and for the first time I have hope that I might get through this movie, sanity intact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889602\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889602\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Hair-1-800x443.png\" alt=\"Jenifer Lewis singing in her salon.\" width=\"800\" height=\"443\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Hair-1-800x443.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Hair-1-1020x564.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Hair-1-160x89.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Hair-1-768x425.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Hair-1-672x372.png 672w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Hair-1-1038x576.png 1038w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Hair-1.png 1095w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sing it, Jen.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:07:\u003c/strong> “The higher the hair, the closer to the North Pole!” yells one of Margeline’s dancing boy-stylists. Dolly Parton definitely produced this musical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:09:\u003c/strong> Normal banking business is occurring while three randos casually tap dance in front of the tellers. (You don’t get \u003cem>this\u003c/em> at the Civic Center Chase branch…)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889601 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/tapping-800x441.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"441\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/tapping-800x441.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/tapping-1020x563.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/tapping-160x88.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/tapping-768x424.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/tapping.png 1104w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:10:\u003c/strong> Everyone demonstrates that they’ve been served eviction papers by \u003cem>walking with purpose\u003c/em> and also \u003cem>singing while frowning\u003c/em>. In all fairness to Regina, it would be exhausting to live in the same town as any of these people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:12:\u003c/strong> Gay Pastor and his wife are singing a love song (to each other, surprisingly) in the square. Even while holding hands, singing “I love you,” and wrinkling their noses at each other, they have all the sexual chemistry of a tortoise trying to hump a rock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13889603\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.33.19-PM-800x410.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"410\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.33.19-PM-800x410.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.33.19-PM-160x82.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.33.19-PM-768x394.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.33.19-PM.png 1016w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:21:\u003c/strong> Margeline gives Regina bad hair in a fit of revenge for what she’s doing to the town. Dolly Parton definitely produced this musical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:22:\u003c/strong> Turns out that Fake Martin Sheen is Regina’s childhood sweetheart, Carl. Regina tells him to “just sign the deal,” and he replies, “Why didn’t you return my calls?” Probably because of your inability to stay on topic, Carl?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:23:\u003c/strong> Okay, so this is also totally off-topic, but there’s a guy who keeps showing up in the background that I like to call The Extra Extra. He chews the scenery like he hasn’t eaten for months and \u003cem>Christmas on the Square\u003c/em> is an all-you-can-eat buffet. Here’s what he looks like literally all of the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889614\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889614\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Extra-Extra-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Extra-Extra-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Extra-Extra-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Extra-Extra-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Extra-Extra-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Extra-Extra-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Extra-Extra-2048x2048.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Extra-Extra-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A collection of the Extra Extra’s finest moments.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:24:\u003c/strong> Regina says Fake Martin Sheen’s shop “isn’t even a general store anymore,” but rather a place filled with “broken dolls and broken dreams.” This prompts Fake Martin Sheen to start singing about random items in his store. It’s hard to focus on what he’s saying though because his hair looks \u003cem>amazing\u003c/em>. Dolly Parton definitely produced this musical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889604 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.37.35-PM-800x500.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.37.35-PM-800x500.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.37.35-PM-160x100.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.37.35-PM-768x480.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.37.35-PM.png 810w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:29:\u003c/strong> Panhandler Dolly Parton tells Regina, “I’m gonna get change out of you, one way or the other!” If you’ve ever wanted to see a human woman flog to death the double meaning of the word ‘change,’ \u003cem>Christmas on the Square\u003c/em> is definitely the movie for you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:31:\u003c/strong> Regina can’t get her lights to turn on at home. Naturally, this prompts shimmering, dressed-in-all-white Dolly Parton to magically appear in her living room \u003cem>sitting on a cloud\u003c/em> and singing. Because—surprise!—she’s not really a panhandler, she’s an angel. (Way to steal the entire plot line of \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0654961/?ref_=ttep_ep15\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Episode 15 of \u003cem>My So-Called Life\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, guys.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889605 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/88531c6727732489fcab88437e422bd6e5-christmas-on-the-square-08.2x.rhorizontal.w700-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/88531c6727732489fcab88437e422bd6e5-christmas-on-the-square-08.2x.rhorizontal.w700-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/88531c6727732489fcab88437e422bd6e5-christmas-on-the-square-08.2x.rhorizontal.w700-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/88531c6727732489fcab88437e422bd6e5-christmas-on-the-square-08.2x.rhorizontal.w700-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/88531c6727732489fcab88437e422bd6e5-christmas-on-the-square-08.2x.rhorizontal.w700-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/88531c6727732489fcab88437e422bd6e5-christmas-on-the-square-08.2x.rhorizontal.w700.jpg 1400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[Also: Dear PG&E, if you could just figure out how to create floating cloud Dolly Parton holograms and stick them in the homes of everyone dealing with a mandatory power outage, Californians would hate you much less. Just a thought.]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:33:\u003c/strong> Dolly is singing a moving ballad about lighting lamps. She does this while circling the room on her cloud. It is as brilliant and unintentionally hilarious as it sounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:37:\u003c/strong> During a church meeting, the entire town fantasizes about torturing and killing Regina. Lyrics include: “Maybe we’ll trip her / Maybe we’ll strip her (Oh Lord, don’t do that!) / Maybe we’ll just throw her on the griddle!” Yes, yes. Let’s get our church group together and cook this woman alive shall we?!\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889606\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889606\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Church-murder-800x462.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"462\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Church-murder-800x462.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Church-murder-160x92.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Church-murder-768x444.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Church-murder.png 962w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">These people are plotting the death of a human being. Including that l’il Fred Savage/Ralph Macchio hybrid in the middle there.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:43:\u003c/strong> Random townspeople keep getting up in church and sing-speaking their thoughts. It turns out that when this guy in the middle (↓) isn’t singing about thermal underwear and premeditated murder, he foin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13889607\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.53.50-PM-800x451.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"451\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.53.50-PM-800x451.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.53.50-PM-1020x574.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.53.50-PM-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.53.50-PM-768x433.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.53.50-PM.png 1053w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:46:\u003c/strong> Everything happening in this church suddenly reminds me of the “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AjkUyX0rVw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">We Are The World\u003c/a>” video from 1985. Partially because everyone on screen just started holding hands and swaying awkwardly. And partially because I now know how Bob Dylan was feeling when he was caught on camera doing this:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJymBJ_5iUg\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:48:\u003c/strong> Regina pays a visit to the local tavern, the Jolly Lamplighter. Eight-year-old daughter of Sexy Singing Guy offers Regina a whiskey. Regina says, “Aren’t you a little young to be a bartender?” The child replies, “I’m an old soul.” Seems legit. Nothing to see here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13889619 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-6.55.20-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"792\" height=\"458\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-6.55.20-PM.png 792w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-6.55.20-PM-160x93.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-6.55.20-PM-768x444.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 792px) 100vw, 792px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:50:\u003c/strong> Kid Bartender has a minor existential crisis in song form over her dead mom, before breaking the news to Regina that Regina’s cruelty is, in a roundabout way, responsible for her mom’s death. Regina goes home and has a flashback about her own dad. There are lamps involved. It is hard to care about any of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:56:\u003c/strong> I’ve just noticed that Regina’s personal assistant is played by \u003cem>So You Think You Can Dance\u003c/em> Season 5 winner, Jeanine Mason. We come to find out that Jeanine’s character is also an angel in training. Which conveniently makes space for a gratuitous ballet practice scene in which Angel (did I mention Dolly Parton’s character is literally named Angel?) makes her dance. The ballet is, like, totally a metaphor, you guys, and not at all just an excuse to give Jeanine a dance solo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889609 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.07.19-PM-800x442.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"442\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.07.19-PM-800x442.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.07.19-PM-1020x564.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.07.19-PM-160x88.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.07.19-PM-768x425.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.07.19-PM-672x372.png 672w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.07.19-PM.png 1103w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1:04:\u003c/strong> Time for a fairly insufferable 1970s high school dance flashback where Young Regina dances with a dude wearing the worst shirt in history and somehow gets pregnant from doing so. Regina’s dad, fearful of the judgment of the townspeople, forces her to give up the baby. That’s why, all these years later, Regina is dead inside and mad at the whole town. This guy’s shirt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889610\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889610\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.18.02-PM-800x538.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"538\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.18.02-PM-800x538.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.18.02-PM-160x108.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.18.02-PM-768x517.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.18.02-PM.png 847w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">I just asked my mother and she told me that at no point, even during the 1970s, was this shirt acceptable.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1:08:\u003c/strong> Kid Bartender has been in an accident so half the town goes and stands in the hospital parking lot looking sad. Regina finds herself inspired to pray and offers to give up her life in exchange for Kid Bartender’s. (Holy crap, that must have been a good drink.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1:14:\u003c/strong> Regina goes to see Fake Martin Sheen and asks for a lantern that belonged to her father that he’s been hoarding. He’s like, “Sure, whatever, one less thing to pack, ya bish.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1:18:\u003c/strong> Dolly Parton sings a heartfelt ballad about how magic (and psychic!) angels are, and runs around doing good deeds. She wakes Kid Bartender up in the hospital! And then she impregnates Gay Pastor’s wife! (Which is handy since he probably wasn’t up to the task of DIYing that whole sitch.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889611\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889611\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.35.58-PM-800x468.png\" alt=\"In Dolly Parton Christmas movies, you can get pregnant when she looks at you through a window.\" width=\"800\" height=\"468\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.35.58-PM-800x468.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.35.58-PM-160x94.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.35.58-PM-768x449.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.35.58-PM.png 994w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This is how you get pregnant in Dolly Parton Christmas movies.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1:22:\u003c/strong> Regina finds a bible hidden in her dad’s lantern and it tells her that the child he forced her to give up for adoption is, in fact, Gay Pastor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1:27:\u003c/strong> Regina breaks the news to Gay Pastor that he is her son. She says: “It’s written in a bible so it must be true.” What super-fun logic to still be carrying around in 2020!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1:30:\u003c/strong> Gay Pastor breaks the news about his long-lost mom to the church congregation. As he leads Regina up the aisle, Dolly Parton sprouts wings and sings high above the altar. This movie is completely out of control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889612\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 787px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13889612\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.39.03-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"787\" height=\"437\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.39.03-PM.png 787w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.39.03-PM-160x89.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.39.03-PM-768x426.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.39.03-PM-672x372.png 672w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 787px) 100vw, 787px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">K.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1:34:\u003c/strong> Regina announces that she’s not selling the town after all and she promises to keep everyone’s rents low. This prompts the Old Navy dancers to strike up the scissor kicks once again and backflip their way back to the square.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1:36:\u003c/strong> Jeanine from \u003cem>So You Think You Can Dance\u003c/em> becomes an angel and hangs out with Dolly at the top of a clock tower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13889613 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.47.44-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"626\" height=\"502\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.47.44-PM.png 626w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.47.44-PM-160x128.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 626px) 100vw, 626px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The End.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square’ is streaming right now on \u003ca href=\"https://www.netflix.com/title/81128934\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Netflix\u003c/a>. Those of you who like Jesus and/or weed will like it better than the rest of us.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Angel Dolly! An 8-year-old bartender! An entire church of aspiring murderers! 'Christmas on the Square' is completely bananas. ",
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"description": "Angel Dolly! An 8-year-old bartender! An entire church of aspiring murderers! 'Christmas on the Square' is completely bananas. ",
"title": "‘Dolly Parton’s Christmas On the Square’: A Minute-By-Minute Analysis | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Not content with co-funding a vaccine in the middle of a pandemic—no, really, that’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/11/21/fact-check-dolly-parton-donated-modernas-covid-19-vaccine-studies/6373339002/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a thing\u003c/a> she just did—Dolly Parton just finally put out a seasonal television event that she appears in for longer than five minutes. (It’s a Christmas miracle!)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naturally, I felt compelled to watch \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.netflix.com/title/81128934\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Christmas on the Square\u003c/a>\u003c/em> and report back, minute-by-schmaltzy-minute, for all those (like me) who love Dolly Parton but passionately hate musicals. Now at least you’ll know exactly what you’re dealing with. (And yes, that means spoilers…)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:01:\u003c/strong> The movie opens with our hero, Dolly Parton, dressed like she’s down on her luck and asking for “Change” in the town square. She remains nonchalant despite being under attack from what looks like a rogue team of fireflies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13889590\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Dolly-homeless-800x447.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"447\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Dolly-homeless-800x447.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Dolly-homeless-1020x570.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Dolly-homeless-160x89.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Dolly-homeless-768x429.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Dolly-homeless.png 1234w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:02:\u003c/strong> The opening musical number is like an over-zealous Old Navy commercial—full of colorful sweaters, a spectrum of ages, and what can only be described as multicultural scissor kicking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889596\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889596\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Old-Navy-1-800x447.png\" alt=\"Here, the Old Navy Dancers stop and openly gawk at a passing woman, like it's the 1950s and casual street objectification is still in style.\" width=\"800\" height=\"447\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Old-Navy-1-800x447.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Old-Navy-1-1020x570.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Old-Navy-1-160x89.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Old-Navy-1-768x429.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Old-Navy-1.png 1101w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Here, the Old Navy Dancers stop and openly gawk at a passing woman, like it’s the 1950s and casual street objectification is still in style.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:03:\u003c/strong> One man just sang to his daughter about thermal underwear and I have questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:04:\u003c/strong> A silver fox with ‘Martin Sheen in \u003cem>Grace and Frankie\u003c/em>’ energy just showed up. Someone at Netflix is pushing this particular old man aesthetic \u003cem>hard\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889598\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889598\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/mses-800x743.jpg\" alt=\"(L) Real Martin Sheen, in 'Grace and Frankie'; (R) Fake Martin Sheen in 'Christmas on the Square.'\" width=\"800\" height=\"743\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/mses-800x743.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/mses-1020x947.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/mses-160x149.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/mses-768x713.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/mses-1536x1426.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/mses-2048x1901.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/mses-1920x1782.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(L) Real Martin Sheen, in ‘Grace and Frankie’; (R) Fake Martin Sheen in ‘Christmas on the Square.’\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:05:\u003c/strong> “To the best Christmas gift we’ve ever given each other,” toasts a man named Pastor Christian who’s giving off distinctly gay vibes. Is the gift Dior? Tiffany? Cartier? Nope! “Getting fertility treatments is better than anything that comes with paper!” grins his wife. Did \u003cem>not\u003c/em> see that coming. On account of the gayness, you see.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889597\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889597\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/grimace-800x399.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"399\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/grimace-800x399.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/grimace-1020x508.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/grimace-160x80.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/grimace-768x383.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/grimace.png 1076w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Is this, or is this not, the face of a gay man trying to pretend to be in love with a woman?\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:06:\u003c/strong> Town villain Regina (Christine Baranski) just rhymed “pastor” with “disaster” and I didn’t hate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:06:\u003c/strong> Regina is selling the town to a conglomerate named (say it out loud so I know you get it) “Cheetah Mall.” (Oh dear God.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:07:\u003c/strong> Jenifer Lewis just showed up as local hairdresser, Margeline, and for the first time I have hope that I might get through this movie, sanity intact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889602\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889602\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Hair-1-800x443.png\" alt=\"Jenifer Lewis singing in her salon.\" width=\"800\" height=\"443\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Hair-1-800x443.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Hair-1-1020x564.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Hair-1-160x89.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Hair-1-768x425.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Hair-1-672x372.png 672w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Hair-1-1038x576.png 1038w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Hair-1.png 1095w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sing it, Jen.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:07:\u003c/strong> “The higher the hair, the closer to the North Pole!” yells one of Margeline’s dancing boy-stylists. Dolly Parton definitely produced this musical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:09:\u003c/strong> Normal banking business is occurring while three randos casually tap dance in front of the tellers. (You don’t get \u003cem>this\u003c/em> at the Civic Center Chase branch…)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889601 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/tapping-800x441.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"441\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/tapping-800x441.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/tapping-1020x563.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/tapping-160x88.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/tapping-768x424.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/tapping.png 1104w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:10:\u003c/strong> Everyone demonstrates that they’ve been served eviction papers by \u003cem>walking with purpose\u003c/em> and also \u003cem>singing while frowning\u003c/em>. In all fairness to Regina, it would be exhausting to live in the same town as any of these people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:12:\u003c/strong> Gay Pastor and his wife are singing a love song (to each other, surprisingly) in the square. Even while holding hands, singing “I love you,” and wrinkling their noses at each other, they have all the sexual chemistry of a tortoise trying to hump a rock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13889603\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.33.19-PM-800x410.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"410\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.33.19-PM-800x410.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.33.19-PM-160x82.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.33.19-PM-768x394.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.33.19-PM.png 1016w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:21:\u003c/strong> Margeline gives Regina bad hair in a fit of revenge for what she’s doing to the town. Dolly Parton definitely produced this musical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:22:\u003c/strong> Turns out that Fake Martin Sheen is Regina’s childhood sweetheart, Carl. Regina tells him to “just sign the deal,” and he replies, “Why didn’t you return my calls?” Probably because of your inability to stay on topic, Carl?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:23:\u003c/strong> Okay, so this is also totally off-topic, but there’s a guy who keeps showing up in the background that I like to call The Extra Extra. He chews the scenery like he hasn’t eaten for months and \u003cem>Christmas on the Square\u003c/em> is an all-you-can-eat buffet. Here’s what he looks like literally all of the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889614\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889614\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Extra-Extra-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Extra-Extra-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Extra-Extra-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Extra-Extra-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Extra-Extra-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Extra-Extra-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Extra-Extra-2048x2048.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Extra-Extra-1920x1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A collection of the Extra Extra’s finest moments.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:24:\u003c/strong> Regina says Fake Martin Sheen’s shop “isn’t even a general store anymore,” but rather a place filled with “broken dolls and broken dreams.” This prompts Fake Martin Sheen to start singing about random items in his store. It’s hard to focus on what he’s saying though because his hair looks \u003cem>amazing\u003c/em>. Dolly Parton definitely produced this musical.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889604 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.37.35-PM-800x500.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.37.35-PM-800x500.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.37.35-PM-160x100.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.37.35-PM-768x480.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.37.35-PM.png 810w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:29:\u003c/strong> Panhandler Dolly Parton tells Regina, “I’m gonna get change out of you, one way or the other!” If you’ve ever wanted to see a human woman flog to death the double meaning of the word ‘change,’ \u003cem>Christmas on the Square\u003c/em> is definitely the movie for you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:31:\u003c/strong> Regina can’t get her lights to turn on at home. Naturally, this prompts shimmering, dressed-in-all-white Dolly Parton to magically appear in her living room \u003cem>sitting on a cloud\u003c/em> and singing. Because—surprise!—she’s not really a panhandler, she’s an angel. (Way to steal the entire plot line of \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0654961/?ref_=ttep_ep15\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Episode 15 of \u003cem>My So-Called Life\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, guys.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889605 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/88531c6727732489fcab88437e422bd6e5-christmas-on-the-square-08.2x.rhorizontal.w700-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/88531c6727732489fcab88437e422bd6e5-christmas-on-the-square-08.2x.rhorizontal.w700-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/88531c6727732489fcab88437e422bd6e5-christmas-on-the-square-08.2x.rhorizontal.w700-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/88531c6727732489fcab88437e422bd6e5-christmas-on-the-square-08.2x.rhorizontal.w700-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/88531c6727732489fcab88437e422bd6e5-christmas-on-the-square-08.2x.rhorizontal.w700-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/88531c6727732489fcab88437e422bd6e5-christmas-on-the-square-08.2x.rhorizontal.w700.jpg 1400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[Also: Dear PG&E, if you could just figure out how to create floating cloud Dolly Parton holograms and stick them in the homes of everyone dealing with a mandatory power outage, Californians would hate you much less. Just a thought.]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:33:\u003c/strong> Dolly is singing a moving ballad about lighting lamps. She does this while circling the room on her cloud. It is as brilliant and unintentionally hilarious as it sounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:37:\u003c/strong> During a church meeting, the entire town fantasizes about torturing and killing Regina. Lyrics include: “Maybe we’ll trip her / Maybe we’ll strip her (Oh Lord, don’t do that!) / Maybe we’ll just throw her on the griddle!” Yes, yes. Let’s get our church group together and cook this woman alive shall we?!\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889606\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889606\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Church-murder-800x462.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"462\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Church-murder-800x462.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Church-murder-160x92.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Church-murder-768x444.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Church-murder.png 962w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">These people are plotting the death of a human being. Including that l’il Fred Savage/Ralph Macchio hybrid in the middle there.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:43:\u003c/strong> Random townspeople keep getting up in church and sing-speaking their thoughts. It turns out that when this guy in the middle (↓) isn’t singing about thermal underwear and premeditated murder, he foin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13889607\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.53.50-PM-800x451.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"451\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.53.50-PM-800x451.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.53.50-PM-1020x574.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.53.50-PM-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.53.50-PM-768x433.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-4.53.50-PM.png 1053w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:46:\u003c/strong> Everything happening in this church suddenly reminds me of the “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AjkUyX0rVw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">We Are The World\u003c/a>” video from 1985. Partially because everyone on screen just started holding hands and swaying awkwardly. And partially because I now know how Bob Dylan was feeling when he was caught on camera doing this:\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/cJymBJ_5iUg'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/cJymBJ_5iUg'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:48:\u003c/strong> Regina pays a visit to the local tavern, the Jolly Lamplighter. Eight-year-old daughter of Sexy Singing Guy offers Regina a whiskey. Regina says, “Aren’t you a little young to be a bartender?” The child replies, “I’m an old soul.” Seems legit. Nothing to see here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13889619 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-6.55.20-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"792\" height=\"458\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-6.55.20-PM.png 792w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-6.55.20-PM-160x93.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-6.55.20-PM-768x444.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 792px) 100vw, 792px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:50:\u003c/strong> Kid Bartender has a minor existential crisis in song form over her dead mom, before breaking the news to Regina that Regina’s cruelty is, in a roundabout way, responsible for her mom’s death. Regina goes home and has a flashback about her own dad. There are lamps involved. It is hard to care about any of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>0:56:\u003c/strong> I’ve just noticed that Regina’s personal assistant is played by \u003cem>So You Think You Can Dance\u003c/em> Season 5 winner, Jeanine Mason. We come to find out that Jeanine’s character is also an angel in training. Which conveniently makes space for a gratuitous ballet practice scene in which Angel (did I mention Dolly Parton’s character is literally named Angel?) makes her dance. The ballet is, like, totally a metaphor, you guys, and not at all just an excuse to give Jeanine a dance solo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889609 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.07.19-PM-800x442.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"442\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.07.19-PM-800x442.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.07.19-PM-1020x564.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.07.19-PM-160x88.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.07.19-PM-768x425.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.07.19-PM-672x372.png 672w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.07.19-PM.png 1103w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1:04:\u003c/strong> Time for a fairly insufferable 1970s high school dance flashback where Young Regina dances with a dude wearing the worst shirt in history and somehow gets pregnant from doing so. Regina’s dad, fearful of the judgment of the townspeople, forces her to give up the baby. That’s why, all these years later, Regina is dead inside and mad at the whole town. This guy’s shirt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889610\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889610\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.18.02-PM-800x538.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"538\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.18.02-PM-800x538.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.18.02-PM-160x108.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.18.02-PM-768x517.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.18.02-PM.png 847w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">I just asked my mother and she told me that at no point, even during the 1970s, was this shirt acceptable.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1:08:\u003c/strong> Kid Bartender has been in an accident so half the town goes and stands in the hospital parking lot looking sad. Regina finds herself inspired to pray and offers to give up her life in exchange for Kid Bartender’s. (Holy crap, that must have been a good drink.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1:14:\u003c/strong> Regina goes to see Fake Martin Sheen and asks for a lantern that belonged to her father that he’s been hoarding. He’s like, “Sure, whatever, one less thing to pack, ya bish.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1:18:\u003c/strong> Dolly Parton sings a heartfelt ballad about how magic (and psychic!) angels are, and runs around doing good deeds. She wakes Kid Bartender up in the hospital! And then she impregnates Gay Pastor’s wife! (Which is handy since he probably wasn’t up to the task of DIYing that whole sitch.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889611\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13889611\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.35.58-PM-800x468.png\" alt=\"In Dolly Parton Christmas movies, you can get pregnant when she looks at you through a window.\" width=\"800\" height=\"468\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.35.58-PM-800x468.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.35.58-PM-160x94.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.35.58-PM-768x449.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.35.58-PM.png 994w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This is how you get pregnant in Dolly Parton Christmas movies.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1:22:\u003c/strong> Regina finds a bible hidden in her dad’s lantern and it tells her that the child he forced her to give up for adoption is, in fact, Gay Pastor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1:27:\u003c/strong> Regina breaks the news to Gay Pastor that he is her son. She says: “It’s written in a bible so it must be true.” What super-fun logic to still be carrying around in 2020!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1:30:\u003c/strong> Gay Pastor breaks the news about his long-lost mom to the church congregation. As he leads Regina up the aisle, Dolly Parton sprouts wings and sings high above the altar. This movie is completely out of control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889612\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 787px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13889612\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.39.03-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"787\" height=\"437\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.39.03-PM.png 787w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.39.03-PM-160x89.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.39.03-PM-768x426.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.39.03-PM-672x372.png 672w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 787px) 100vw, 787px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">K.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1:34:\u003c/strong> Regina announces that she’s not selling the town after all and she promises to keep everyone’s rents low. This prompts the Old Navy dancers to strike up the scissor kicks once again and backflip their way back to the square.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>1:36:\u003c/strong> Jeanine from \u003cem>So You Think You Can Dance\u003c/em> becomes an angel and hangs out with Dolly at the top of a clock tower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13889613 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.47.44-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"626\" height=\"502\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.47.44-PM.png 626w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/Screen-Shot-2020-11-23-at-5.47.44-PM-160x128.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 626px) 100vw, 626px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The End.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square’ is streaming right now on \u003ca href=\"https://www.netflix.com/title/81128934\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Netflix\u003c/a>. Those of you who like Jesus and/or weed will like it better than the rest of us.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "A Tale of 2 Star Wars Holiday Specials: 2020 (LEGO) Vs. 1978 (Oh, No)",
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"content": "\u003cp>Before we chew over the new \u003cem>LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special\u003c/em>, reader, it behooves us to embrace the historical perspective. We must cite precedent, examine trend lines, peruse the vicissitudes of causation. For only then may we place it in its rightful cultural context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There, I said it: It is impossible to properly understand and meaningfully appreciate Disney Plus’ latest foray into the \u003cem>Star Wars\u003c/em> universe of intellectual property—a holiday special which consists of computer-animated, extruded-plastic versions of the franchise’s major and minor characters coming to understand the true meaning of friendship, togetherness, joy, the whole Hallmark Channel schmear—without first peeling the big, stinky space-onion that came before it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s right: Let’s talk Korman, you and I.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Premiere Date\u003c/strong>: November 17, 1978. A Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Outlet\u003c/strong>: CBS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Length\u003c/strong>: Two hours. No, seriously: \u003cem>Two\u003c/em>. \u003cem>Hours\u003c/em>. So apart from its various and sundry other grievous sins, it pre-empted episodes of \u003cem>both The Incredible Hulk\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Wonder Woman\u003c/em>. Imagine. The unmitigated gall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What It Was: \u003c/strong>A cynical cash-grab, for one thing. For another: A holiday special featuring the main stars of the film\u003cem> Star Wars\u003c/em> and … just … so much else. \u003cem>So \u003c/em>much else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Like What?\u003c/strong>: “Like what,” you ask. Oh, you sweet summer child. Like a lengthy interlude featuring a troupe of holographic acrobats performing a routine that’s 20 percent Cirque du Soleil, 20 percent Studio 54 and 60 percent the very concept of cocaine. Like Diahann Carroll in a spangly outfit, floating in space as she breathily seduces a pervy old Wookiee through the magic of song. Like Art Carney delivering lines like “I’ll just insert this here proton pack.” Like Jefferson Starship, randomly. Like Harvey Korman in drag as a four-armed alien hosting a cooking show. Like Harvey Korman as a malfunctioning robot attempting to explain how to assemble electronic equipment. Like Harvey Korman as a lovestruck cantina bar patron who drinks liquor via an opening at the top of his head. Like-\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ok Ok I Get The Idea\u003c/strong>: Oh, you may \u003cem>think \u003c/em>you do. I guarantee that you do not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Stars\u003c/strong>: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford show up, briefly, having not read the fine print on their contracts. Hamill and Fisher perform with gusto—Fisher even sings a song, passably enough. Ford performs with whatever the opposite of gusto is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Plot:\u003c/strong> Hoo boy. Where to begin. Chewbacca wants to get to his home planet (Kashyyyk, canonically, but an Imperial officer calls it “Kazook,” here, because if the Empire is about anything, it’s about that casual racism). His family is celebrating Life Day, the Wookiee celebration of hope and peace and what have you. We learn that Chewie lives in a bad matte painting of a treehouse with his wife Malla, his father Itchy and his son Lumpy (no word if he’s got cousins named, like, Scaly, Rashy and Irregularmoley, but we can extrapolate from the evidence presented.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We also learn that Chewie’s house has a brown, suburban-key-party-chic vibe (there’s even a space-Barcalounger plopped in the center of the conversation pit). He communicates with others across the vast empty void of space via a Commodore PET that the set dresser couldn’t be bothered to snazz up, even a little. (In fact, all of the electronic equipment in the special has a very 1970s burnt-ochre Texas Instruments feel.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Imperial troops invade Chewie’s house and search it, Art Carney outsmarts them (!) and Chewie returns home. Then all the characters sort of float (I know) and walk across space (I know) into a star (don’t think about it) and gather to watch Princess Leia totally co-opt a Wookiee holiday by making it all about \u003cem>her \u003c/em>and singing a Life Day song. The End.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXcb7VPw59s\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Main Thing About It, Though:\u003c/strong> It \u003cem>drags\u003c/em>. All those nonsensical interludes—the tumbling routine, Space-Diahann, Jefferson Starship, All! The! Kormans!, oh and the cartoon that introduces the character of Boba Fett (did I mention there’s a cartoon that introduces the character of Boba Fett? because there’s a cartoon that introduces the character of Boba Fett, making this fetid debacle Canonically Important)—all of it takes forever. Plus, the scenes of Chewie’s family aren’t subtitled, so it’s just three people in furry costumes incessantly grunting and snarling at each other while gesticulating broadly. Call it Loud Mime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why Have I Never Heard Of This?\u003c/strong>: Because you … have other things going on in your life, presumably? But the real reason, of course, is that the special was immediately disavowed by George Lucas and his people (who were working on \u003cem>The Empire Strikes Back\u003c/em> at the time, and had outsourced the writing and production of the special to CBS).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Bruce Vilanch was a co-writer of this thing, by the way. A fact that seems surprising at first and then, suddenly, completely and irrevocably not.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(If I were to tell you that another writer credited was named Mitzie Welch—and I am, I am telling you that—your reaction to the fact that someone named Mitzie was partly responsible would probably go something like, “No, yeah, I kinda figured that, somehow.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, even though George Lucas and Co. ordered that it never be broadcast again, and, further, that it be completely wiped from the Jedi Archives like some kind of cheese-tastic variety-show Kamino, bootleg copies circulated at cons, and inevitably migrated online, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hH8rxarVG8\">as is the way of such things\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Come On, It Can’t Be \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>That \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>Bad\u003c/strong>: It can be, and it is. Except … Well. Okay. If you can hold out for \u003cem>an hour and fifteen minute\u003c/em>s, you’ll come to an oasis of a sketch in which Bea Arthur (you heard me) gets a musical number. She plays the proprietor of the Mos Eisley cantina, and slows the familiar Cantina Band Song way, way down, transforming it into a tune that manages to be at once a German beerhall oompah ditty and a torch song. Seriously, she does that. Because when you hire Bea Arthur, you hire a pro who can commit to the bit, even when the bit in question is this ingloriously shambolic, and yet emerge somehow unscathed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Okay. We have sufficiently immersed ourselves in the dank backwaters of the disavowed past. You’ll want to take a quick shower to get the stink off you. But in the meantime: Onward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong> The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong> (2020)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Premiere Date\u003c/strong>: November 17, 2020. A Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Outlet\u003c/strong>: Disney+\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Length\u003c/strong>: 44 minutes! We’ll come back to this!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What It Is\u003c/strong>: Pretty good, is what. I mean, it’s pure fan-service and little more than that, but at the end of the day? I’m a fan, and I’m fine with getting serviced, now and again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bZxO5Dn9x0\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s trying to be a lot of things at once, admittedly: On the most basic level it’s a straight-up, full-throated holiday special for families, with messages about coming together to celebrate friendship, love, togetherness—the whole schmoopy Hallmark schmear, really.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s also a story that takes characters from the final \u003cem>Star Wars\u003c/em> film trilogy and sends them hopping through pretty much every climactic moment of the Skywalker Saga … and beyond. And it does so while gently satirizing the franchise, in much the same way the many LEGO \u003cem>Star Wars\u003c/em> games do. It even includes references to the 1978 \u003cem>Star Wars Holiday Special\u003c/em>, which, as I trust I have amply illustrated, was a fiasco, stuffed inside a debacle, wrapped in the guy who voiced The Great Gazoo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Stars:\u003c/strong> Within the reality of the special, LEGO versions of Rey, Finn, Poe, Rose, Chewie, Lando, R2-D2 and C-3PO. In our reality, however, the only actors reprising their film roles are Billy Dee Williams, Kelly Marie Tran and (wait for it) Anthony Daniels, who never turns down a gig, and bless him for it. The other characters are voiced by talented sound-alike voice-actors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Plot\u003c/strong>: Rey is training Finn to be a Jedi, while everyone else is preparing a Life Day party aboard the Millennium Falcon. Rey experiences a crisis of confidence in her mentorship abilities and leaves with BB-8 to uncover an artifact that can send her hurtling through time, so as to study other mentor-student relationships across the franchise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that seems to you like just a flimsy excuse to have Rey meet characters from every Star Wars movie and their spin-offs, pour yourself a blue milk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Main Thing About It, Though\u003c/strong>: It’s pure fan service, yes, but what’s weird is that it’s attempting to service very different sets of fans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Star Wars \u003c/em>fandom isn’t monolithic, after all. Some fans of the original films despise the Abrams-Johnson-Abrams final trilogy, and all of its characters. Foregrounding Rey as much as this special does will likely turn those fans off, and once they see how centrally she now figures in, say, one of the most memorable moments in \u003cem>A New Hope\u003c/em>, well. That’ll send them straight to Reddit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Make no mistake: The fact that it’s all so clearly a joke, a goof, a clever meta-gag in a holiday special for kiddies—that won’t matter to these fans. They’ll be incensed, and they’ll stew, because when this particular subset of fandom is angry is when they feel most themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Me? I belong to the cohort of fans who like the final trilogy just fine, thank you very much. I would have liked it better if \u003cem>The Rise of Skywalker\u003c/em> hadn’t dropped so many threads introduced in \u003cem>The Last Jedi\u003c/em>, so imagine my surprise when \u003cem>The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special\u003c/em>, of all things, started picking them up again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Case in point: Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose. The fact that she gets more lines of dialogue in this silly thing than she did in the entirety of \u003cem>The Rise of Skywalker\u003c/em> is … well, it’s sad, frankly, but I’ll take it, because you know why? More Rose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ditto Rey training Finn—a notion that the films only feinted at, but that here drives the entire plot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some elements unique to the special also work nicely. Its version of Emperor Palpatine, for example, gets the best lines, and his persona is less that of the universe’s greatest and most terrible incarnation of elemental evil, and more that of a vain, insecure, manipulative bully—the ultimate bad boss. Which tracks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How Are The Jokes?\u003c/strong>: Good question. They’re solid, mostly. Not nearly as on point and just plain weird as they were in those first couple Lord and Miller theatrical films, though admittedly that’s a high bar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In terms of the Hit Rate of these jokes and Easter eggs (Life Day eggs, I suppose), I’d put this lower than \u003cem>The LEGO Movie\u003c/em> but a notch or two above \u003cem>The LEGO Ninjago Movie\u003c/em>. You know? Right in there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That impression is certainly bolstered by the fact that \u003cem>The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special\u003c/em> knows not to overstay its welcome. In and out, 44 minutes. Faster than the attack run on the Death Star, and more or less as successful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though would it have killed them to throw us one last bone?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>LEGO Bea Arthur\u003c/em>, guys. Come on. Big missed opportunity. Huge. I mean it was just \u003cem>lying \u003c/em>there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=A+Tale+Of+2+Star+Wars+Holiday+Specials%3A+2020+%28LEGO%29+Vs.+1978+%28Oh%2C+No%29&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Before we chew over the new \u003cem>LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special\u003c/em>, reader, it behooves us to embrace the historical perspective. We must cite precedent, examine trend lines, peruse the vicissitudes of causation. For only then may we place it in its rightful cultural context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There, I said it: It is impossible to properly understand and meaningfully appreciate Disney Plus’ latest foray into the \u003cem>Star Wars\u003c/em> universe of intellectual property—a holiday special which consists of computer-animated, extruded-plastic versions of the franchise’s major and minor characters coming to understand the true meaning of friendship, togetherness, joy, the whole Hallmark Channel schmear—without first peeling the big, stinky space-onion that came before it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s right: Let’s talk Korman, you and I.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong>The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Premiere Date\u003c/strong>: November 17, 1978. A Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Outlet\u003c/strong>: CBS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Length\u003c/strong>: Two hours. No, seriously: \u003cem>Two\u003c/em>. \u003cem>Hours\u003c/em>. So apart from its various and sundry other grievous sins, it pre-empted episodes of \u003cem>both The Incredible Hulk\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Wonder Woman\u003c/em>. Imagine. The unmitigated gall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What It Was: \u003c/strong>A cynical cash-grab, for one thing. For another: A holiday special featuring the main stars of the film\u003cem> Star Wars\u003c/em> and … just … so much else. \u003cem>So \u003c/em>much else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Like What?\u003c/strong>: “Like what,” you ask. Oh, you sweet summer child. Like a lengthy interlude featuring a troupe of holographic acrobats performing a routine that’s 20 percent Cirque du Soleil, 20 percent Studio 54 and 60 percent the very concept of cocaine. Like Diahann Carroll in a spangly outfit, floating in space as she breathily seduces a pervy old Wookiee through the magic of song. Like Art Carney delivering lines like “I’ll just insert this here proton pack.” Like Jefferson Starship, randomly. Like Harvey Korman in drag as a four-armed alien hosting a cooking show. Like Harvey Korman as a malfunctioning robot attempting to explain how to assemble electronic equipment. Like Harvey Korman as a lovestruck cantina bar patron who drinks liquor via an opening at the top of his head. Like-\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ok Ok I Get The Idea\u003c/strong>: Oh, you may \u003cem>think \u003c/em>you do. I guarantee that you do not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Stars\u003c/strong>: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford show up, briefly, having not read the fine print on their contracts. Hamill and Fisher perform with gusto—Fisher even sings a song, passably enough. Ford performs with whatever the opposite of gusto is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Plot:\u003c/strong> Hoo boy. Where to begin. Chewbacca wants to get to his home planet (Kashyyyk, canonically, but an Imperial officer calls it “Kazook,” here, because if the Empire is about anything, it’s about that casual racism). His family is celebrating Life Day, the Wookiee celebration of hope and peace and what have you. We learn that Chewie lives in a bad matte painting of a treehouse with his wife Malla, his father Itchy and his son Lumpy (no word if he’s got cousins named, like, Scaly, Rashy and Irregularmoley, but we can extrapolate from the evidence presented.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We also learn that Chewie’s house has a brown, suburban-key-party-chic vibe (there’s even a space-Barcalounger plopped in the center of the conversation pit). He communicates with others across the vast empty void of space via a Commodore PET that the set dresser couldn’t be bothered to snazz up, even a little. (In fact, all of the electronic equipment in the special has a very 1970s burnt-ochre Texas Instruments feel.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Imperial troops invade Chewie’s house and search it, Art Carney outsmarts them (!) and Chewie returns home. Then all the characters sort of float (I know) and walk across space (I know) into a star (don’t think about it) and gather to watch Princess Leia totally co-opt a Wookiee holiday by making it all about \u003cem>her \u003c/em>and singing a Life Day song. The End.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/VXcb7VPw59s'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/VXcb7VPw59s'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Main Thing About It, Though:\u003c/strong> It \u003cem>drags\u003c/em>. All those nonsensical interludes—the tumbling routine, Space-Diahann, Jefferson Starship, All! The! Kormans!, oh and the cartoon that introduces the character of Boba Fett (did I mention there’s a cartoon that introduces the character of Boba Fett? because there’s a cartoon that introduces the character of Boba Fett, making this fetid debacle Canonically Important)—all of it takes forever. Plus, the scenes of Chewie’s family aren’t subtitled, so it’s just three people in furry costumes incessantly grunting and snarling at each other while gesticulating broadly. Call it Loud Mime.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Why Have I Never Heard Of This?\u003c/strong>: Because you … have other things going on in your life, presumably? But the real reason, of course, is that the special was immediately disavowed by George Lucas and his people (who were working on \u003cem>The Empire Strikes Back\u003c/em> at the time, and had outsourced the writing and production of the special to CBS).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Bruce Vilanch was a co-writer of this thing, by the way. A fact that seems surprising at first and then, suddenly, completely and irrevocably not.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(If I were to tell you that another writer credited was named Mitzie Welch—and I am, I am telling you that—your reaction to the fact that someone named Mitzie was partly responsible would probably go something like, “No, yeah, I kinda figured that, somehow.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, even though George Lucas and Co. ordered that it never be broadcast again, and, further, that it be completely wiped from the Jedi Archives like some kind of cheese-tastic variety-show Kamino, bootleg copies circulated at cons, and inevitably migrated online, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hH8rxarVG8\">as is the way of such things\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Come On, It Can’t Be \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>That \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>Bad\u003c/strong>: It can be, and it is. Except … Well. Okay. If you can hold out for \u003cem>an hour and fifteen minute\u003c/em>s, you’ll come to an oasis of a sketch in which Bea Arthur (you heard me) gets a musical number. She plays the proprietor of the Mos Eisley cantina, and slows the familiar Cantina Band Song way, way down, transforming it into a tune that manages to be at once a German beerhall oompah ditty and a torch song. Seriously, she does that. Because when you hire Bea Arthur, you hire a pro who can commit to the bit, even when the bit in question is this ingloriously shambolic, and yet emerge somehow unscathed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Okay. We have sufficiently immersed ourselves in the dank backwaters of the disavowed past. You’ll want to take a quick shower to get the stink off you. But in the meantime: Onward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cstrong> The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special\u003c/strong>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong> (2020)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Premiere Date\u003c/strong>: November 17, 2020. A Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Outlet\u003c/strong>: Disney+\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Length\u003c/strong>: 44 minutes! We’ll come back to this!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What It Is\u003c/strong>: Pretty good, is what. I mean, it’s pure fan-service and little more than that, but at the end of the day? I’m a fan, and I’m fine with getting serviced, now and again.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/-bZxO5Dn9x0'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/-bZxO5Dn9x0'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s trying to be a lot of things at once, admittedly: On the most basic level it’s a straight-up, full-throated holiday special for families, with messages about coming together to celebrate friendship, love, togetherness—the whole schmoopy Hallmark schmear, really.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s also a story that takes characters from the final \u003cem>Star Wars\u003c/em> film trilogy and sends them hopping through pretty much every climactic moment of the Skywalker Saga … and beyond. And it does so while gently satirizing the franchise, in much the same way the many LEGO \u003cem>Star Wars\u003c/em> games do. It even includes references to the 1978 \u003cem>Star Wars Holiday Special\u003c/em>, which, as I trust I have amply illustrated, was a fiasco, stuffed inside a debacle, wrapped in the guy who voiced The Great Gazoo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Stars:\u003c/strong> Within the reality of the special, LEGO versions of Rey, Finn, Poe, Rose, Chewie, Lando, R2-D2 and C-3PO. In our reality, however, the only actors reprising their film roles are Billy Dee Williams, Kelly Marie Tran and (wait for it) Anthony Daniels, who never turns down a gig, and bless him for it. The other characters are voiced by talented sound-alike voice-actors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Plot\u003c/strong>: Rey is training Finn to be a Jedi, while everyone else is preparing a Life Day party aboard the Millennium Falcon. Rey experiences a crisis of confidence in her mentorship abilities and leaves with BB-8 to uncover an artifact that can send her hurtling through time, so as to study other mentor-student relationships across the franchise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that seems to you like just a flimsy excuse to have Rey meet characters from every Star Wars movie and their spin-offs, pour yourself a blue milk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Main Thing About It, Though\u003c/strong>: It’s pure fan service, yes, but what’s weird is that it’s attempting to service very different sets of fans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Star Wars \u003c/em>fandom isn’t monolithic, after all. Some fans of the original films despise the Abrams-Johnson-Abrams final trilogy, and all of its characters. Foregrounding Rey as much as this special does will likely turn those fans off, and once they see how centrally she now figures in, say, one of the most memorable moments in \u003cem>A New Hope\u003c/em>, well. That’ll send them straight to Reddit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Make no mistake: The fact that it’s all so clearly a joke, a goof, a clever meta-gag in a holiday special for kiddies—that won’t matter to these fans. They’ll be incensed, and they’ll stew, because when this particular subset of fandom is angry is when they feel most themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Me? I belong to the cohort of fans who like the final trilogy just fine, thank you very much. I would have liked it better if \u003cem>The Rise of Skywalker\u003c/em> hadn’t dropped so many threads introduced in \u003cem>The Last Jedi\u003c/em>, so imagine my surprise when \u003cem>The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special\u003c/em>, of all things, started picking them up again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Case in point: Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose. The fact that she gets more lines of dialogue in this silly thing than she did in the entirety of \u003cem>The Rise of Skywalker\u003c/em> is … well, it’s sad, frankly, but I’ll take it, because you know why? More Rose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ditto Rey training Finn—a notion that the films only feinted at, but that here drives the entire plot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some elements unique to the special also work nicely. Its version of Emperor Palpatine, for example, gets the best lines, and his persona is less that of the universe’s greatest and most terrible incarnation of elemental evil, and more that of a vain, insecure, manipulative bully—the ultimate bad boss. Which tracks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How Are The Jokes?\u003c/strong>: Good question. They’re solid, mostly. Not nearly as on point and just plain weird as they were in those first couple Lord and Miller theatrical films, though admittedly that’s a high bar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In terms of the Hit Rate of these jokes and Easter eggs (Life Day eggs, I suppose), I’d put this lower than \u003cem>The LEGO Movie\u003c/em> but a notch or two above \u003cem>The LEGO Ninjago Movie\u003c/em>. You know? Right in there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That impression is certainly bolstered by the fact that \u003cem>The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special\u003c/em> knows not to overstay its welcome. In and out, 44 minutes. Faster than the attack run on the Death Star, and more or less as successful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though would it have killed them to throw us one last bone?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>LEGO Bea Arthur\u003c/em>, guys. Come on. Big missed opportunity. Huge. I mean it was just \u003cem>lying \u003c/em>there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=A+Tale+Of+2+Star+Wars+Holiday+Specials%3A+2020+%28LEGO%29+Vs.+1978+%28Oh%2C+No%29&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Now Playing! Sophia, Kate and an Unforgettable Octopus Lead the Way",
"headTitle": "Now Playing! Sophia, Kate and an Unforgettable Octopus Lead the Way | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Movie theaters are open again in San Francisco and beyond, for as long as we are granted this treat in the midst of our public health crisis. On the big screen and home screen, a trio of films with hardy female protagonists command our interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003cem>The Life Ahead\u003c/em>\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\nNow playing\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://www.netflix.com/title/81046378\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Netflix\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1978, French actress Simone Signoret won César and Donatello awards for her crusty performance as \u003cem>Madame Rosa\u003c/em>, a child survivor of the Holocaust and retired Pigalle prostitute who becomes the tough-love mother to an Algerian Muslim boy. Writer-director Eduardo Ponti, the son of cinema immortals Sophia Loren and Carlo Ponti, has transposed the 1975 source novel, Romain Gary’s \u003cem>La Vie Devant Soi\u003c/em> (published under the pseudonym Émile Ajar), to Italy as a vehicle for his mother. Awards are not forthcoming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Loren, although she hasn’t graced a screen in a decade, retains every iota of her regal bearing and effortless command. However, she is 30 years older than Signoret was when she played Rosa, which renders Loren somewhat implausible as a hands-on mother and pushes the Holocaust connection so far into the past that it barely registers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her contribution to \u003cem>The Life Ahead\u003c/em> is substantial, nonetheless, but ultimately it’s not her film. As the title indicates, the future (and to a large degree the present) belongs to Momo, the ultra-smart street kid and drug peddler played by charismatic scene-stealer Ibrahima Gueye. But Ponti weirdly sanitizes both the allure and danger of a life of crime, inferring that Momo’s potential rejection of the opportunity proffered by Madame Rosa won’t doom him to inevitable tragedy but rather an uneducated, uncultured life of unrealized potential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While that would be a catastrophe, it lacks a certain cinematic oomph. Instead of a straight shot of a young life in the balance, \u003cem>The Life Ahead\u003c/em> serves up a tall glass of feel-good poignancy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889325\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/35mm_AM_RAN-studio_DAY28-000047400030_1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"796\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13889325\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/35mm_AM_RAN-studio_DAY28-000047400030_1200.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/35mm_AM_RAN-studio_DAY28-000047400030_1200-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/35mm_AM_RAN-studio_DAY28-000047400030_1200-1020x677.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/35mm_AM_RAN-studio_DAY28-000047400030_1200-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/35mm_AM_RAN-studio_DAY28-000047400030_1200-768x509.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Saoirse Ronan and Kate Winslet in ‘Ammonite.’ \u003ccite>(Neon)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003cem>Ammonite\u003c/em>\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\nNow playing\u003cbr>\nEmbarcadero Center Cinema, Shattuck, Smith Rafael Film Center\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the blustery town of Lyme Regis on the southern coast of England in the middle of the 19th century, self-sufficient Mary Anning (the perpetually humorless Kate Winslet) spends her days by the seashore trawling for rocks embedded with remains of long-dead creatures to clean and sell for souvenirs. Mary’s brief, bright career as a pioneering excavator of fossils is a painful memory and her gray existence, with a long-suffering mother, is a kind of living death. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You might think Mary would be gratified that the harsh years of wind and water inexplicably have left her fine complexion as unlined as a Lancôme model’s. But nothing gives her pleasure until Mrs. Roderick Murchison (Saoirse Ronan) turns up in tow of a husband who, in short order, dumps her in Mary’s safekeeping for a month while he sets off on some manly expedition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Writer-director Francis Lee (\u003cem>God’s Own Country\u003c/em>) doesn’t let a smidgen of tenderness, or color, or music infiltrate his movie for a good half hour, which takes some effort when you cast the throbbing tendril that is Saoirse Roman. Even the armored, invulnerable Mary Anning is not impervious to her Charlotte, which does not surprise us. (Winslet is solid and affecting, as always, but her performance contains no surprises.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ammonite\u003c/em>, which received its local premiere in last month’s Mill Valley Film Festival, is not, as you might expect, a rumination on a secret love constrained by societal mores, pressures and prejudices. Mary could give a fig what others think; her hurdle to happiness is the fear that love leads to comfort and then to—horrors—dependence. This theme, rather than Lee’s handheld camerawork, gives the film its core of modernity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ammonite\u003c/em> lacks the verve and wit of \u003cem>Shirley\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Kajillionaire\u003c/em>, two films this year that likewise pursued an unlikely friendship (and more) between women of disparate backgrounds. More than those worthy works, though, it benefits from the big screen, which wraps us along with the characters in the natural world. But when Saoirse Ronan leaves the film to return to her husband and London, you’ll feel the gloom descend that much more acutely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889324\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/My-Octopus-Teacher_octous-walking_Craig-Foster_1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13889324\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/My-Octopus-Teacher_octous-walking_Craig-Foster_1200.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/My-Octopus-Teacher_octous-walking_Craig-Foster_1200-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/My-Octopus-Teacher_octous-walking_Craig-Foster_1200-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/My-Octopus-Teacher_octous-walking_Craig-Foster_1200-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/My-Octopus-Teacher_octous-walking_Craig-Foster_1200-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The titular creature in ‘My Octopus Teacher.’ \u003ccite>(Netflix)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003cem>My Octopus Teacher\u003c/em>\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\nStreaming now\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://www.netflix.com/title/81045007\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Netflix\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Life in the oceans must be sheer hell,” Werner Herzog mused in the 12th and final tenet of his typically iconoclastic \u003ca href=\"https://walkerart.org/magazine/minnesota-declaration-truth-documentary-cinema-1999\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Minnesota Declaration\u003c/a> of 1999. “A vast, merciless hell of permanent and immediate danger. So much of a hell that during evolution some species—including man—crawled, fled onto some small continents of solid land, where the Lessons of Darkness continue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have yet to watch the wondrously constructed word-of-mouth Netflix hit from South Africa, \u003cem>My Octopus Teacher\u003c/em>, I am delighted to “inform” your viewing with Herzog’s unsentimental view of nature (and nature documentaries, presumably). Yes, I’m being a bit of a spoilsport, but only because I have no doubt that filmmakers Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed’s skill, craft and artistry will exert their intended spell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you haven’t heard, \u003cem>My Octopus Teacher\u003c/em> limns the cold-water relationship between disenchanted filmmaker Craig Foster and the young mollusk he encounters and then is inspired to visit, befriend and film over the course of approximately a year. The most fascinating character, by far, is the octopus, who repeatedly displays phenomenal intelligence and resourcefulness. Foster narrates the film by necessity, but his experience is frankly less compelling than hers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You may find this paragraph, from a “making of” \u003ca href=\"https://stories.seachangeproject.com/the-making-of-my-octopus-teachernbsp\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">article\u003c/a> written by associate producer Swati Thiyagarajan (who is also Foster’s wife, I believe), as hilarious as I do: “A year into the edit, Craig Foster was excited to get in touch with Prof. Jennifer Mather, an ‘octopus psychologist’ at the University of Lethbridge, Canada. There are no octopus behavior experts in South Africa and Craig and Pippa Ehrlich needed to get into the mind of the octopus if they were going to tell her story authentically. In early 2018, Dr. Mather flew to Cape Town and joined them in the edit for some rigorous scientific consulting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientific rigor and character development aside, I defy you not to be moved by \u003cem>My Octopus Teacher\u003c/em>. Even if you wag a finger when it anthropomorphizes or, yes, sentimentalizes its heroine. See, it could be far, far worse: I imagine that Pixar is already developing an animated version of the story—without the inevitable real-world ending.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Movie theaters are open again in San Francisco and beyond, for as long as we are granted this treat in the midst of our public health crisis. On the big screen and home screen, a trio of films with hardy female protagonists command our interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003cem>The Life Ahead\u003c/em>\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\nNow playing\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://www.netflix.com/title/81046378\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Netflix\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1978, French actress Simone Signoret won César and Donatello awards for her crusty performance as \u003cem>Madame Rosa\u003c/em>, a child survivor of the Holocaust and retired Pigalle prostitute who becomes the tough-love mother to an Algerian Muslim boy. Writer-director Eduardo Ponti, the son of cinema immortals Sophia Loren and Carlo Ponti, has transposed the 1975 source novel, Romain Gary’s \u003cem>La Vie Devant Soi\u003c/em> (published under the pseudonym Émile Ajar), to Italy as a vehicle for his mother. Awards are not forthcoming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Loren, although she hasn’t graced a screen in a decade, retains every iota of her regal bearing and effortless command. However, she is 30 years older than Signoret was when she played Rosa, which renders Loren somewhat implausible as a hands-on mother and pushes the Holocaust connection so far into the past that it barely registers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her contribution to \u003cem>The Life Ahead\u003c/em> is substantial, nonetheless, but ultimately it’s not her film. As the title indicates, the future (and to a large degree the present) belongs to Momo, the ultra-smart street kid and drug peddler played by charismatic scene-stealer Ibrahima Gueye. But Ponti weirdly sanitizes both the allure and danger of a life of crime, inferring that Momo’s potential rejection of the opportunity proffered by Madame Rosa won’t doom him to inevitable tragedy but rather an uneducated, uncultured life of unrealized potential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While that would be a catastrophe, it lacks a certain cinematic oomph. Instead of a straight shot of a young life in the balance, \u003cem>The Life Ahead\u003c/em> serves up a tall glass of feel-good poignancy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889325\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/35mm_AM_RAN-studio_DAY28-000047400030_1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"796\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13889325\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/35mm_AM_RAN-studio_DAY28-000047400030_1200.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/35mm_AM_RAN-studio_DAY28-000047400030_1200-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/35mm_AM_RAN-studio_DAY28-000047400030_1200-1020x677.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/35mm_AM_RAN-studio_DAY28-000047400030_1200-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/35mm_AM_RAN-studio_DAY28-000047400030_1200-768x509.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Saoirse Ronan and Kate Winslet in ‘Ammonite.’ \u003ccite>(Neon)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003cem>Ammonite\u003c/em>\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\nNow playing\u003cbr>\nEmbarcadero Center Cinema, Shattuck, Smith Rafael Film Center\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the blustery town of Lyme Regis on the southern coast of England in the middle of the 19th century, self-sufficient Mary Anning (the perpetually humorless Kate Winslet) spends her days by the seashore trawling for rocks embedded with remains of long-dead creatures to clean and sell for souvenirs. Mary’s brief, bright career as a pioneering excavator of fossils is a painful memory and her gray existence, with a long-suffering mother, is a kind of living death. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You might think Mary would be gratified that the harsh years of wind and water inexplicably have left her fine complexion as unlined as a Lancôme model’s. But nothing gives her pleasure until Mrs. Roderick Murchison (Saoirse Ronan) turns up in tow of a husband who, in short order, dumps her in Mary’s safekeeping for a month while he sets off on some manly expedition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Writer-director Francis Lee (\u003cem>God’s Own Country\u003c/em>) doesn’t let a smidgen of tenderness, or color, or music infiltrate his movie for a good half hour, which takes some effort when you cast the throbbing tendril that is Saoirse Roman. Even the armored, invulnerable Mary Anning is not impervious to her Charlotte, which does not surprise us. (Winslet is solid and affecting, as always, but her performance contains no surprises.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ammonite\u003c/em>, which received its local premiere in last month’s Mill Valley Film Festival, is not, as you might expect, a rumination on a secret love constrained by societal mores, pressures and prejudices. Mary could give a fig what others think; her hurdle to happiness is the fear that love leads to comfort and then to—horrors—dependence. This theme, rather than Lee’s handheld camerawork, gives the film its core of modernity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ammonite\u003c/em> lacks the verve and wit of \u003cem>Shirley\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Kajillionaire\u003c/em>, two films this year that likewise pursued an unlikely friendship (and more) between women of disparate backgrounds. More than those worthy works, though, it benefits from the big screen, which wraps us along with the characters in the natural world. But when Saoirse Ronan leaves the film to return to her husband and London, you’ll feel the gloom descend that much more acutely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13889324\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/My-Octopus-Teacher_octous-walking_Craig-Foster_1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13889324\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/My-Octopus-Teacher_octous-walking_Craig-Foster_1200.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/My-Octopus-Teacher_octous-walking_Craig-Foster_1200-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/My-Octopus-Teacher_octous-walking_Craig-Foster_1200-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/My-Octopus-Teacher_octous-walking_Craig-Foster_1200-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/My-Octopus-Teacher_octous-walking_Craig-Foster_1200-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The titular creature in ‘My Octopus Teacher.’ \u003ccite>(Netflix)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003cem>My Octopus Teacher\u003c/em>\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\nStreaming now\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://www.netflix.com/title/81045007\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Netflix\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Life in the oceans must be sheer hell,” Werner Herzog mused in the 12th and final tenet of his typically iconoclastic \u003ca href=\"https://walkerart.org/magazine/minnesota-declaration-truth-documentary-cinema-1999\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Minnesota Declaration\u003c/a> of 1999. “A vast, merciless hell of permanent and immediate danger. So much of a hell that during evolution some species—including man—crawled, fled onto some small continents of solid land, where the Lessons of Darkness continue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have yet to watch the wondrously constructed word-of-mouth Netflix hit from South Africa, \u003cem>My Octopus Teacher\u003c/em>, I am delighted to “inform” your viewing with Herzog’s unsentimental view of nature (and nature documentaries, presumably). Yes, I’m being a bit of a spoilsport, but only because I have no doubt that filmmakers Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed’s skill, craft and artistry will exert their intended spell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you haven’t heard, \u003cem>My Octopus Teacher\u003c/em> limns the cold-water relationship between disenchanted filmmaker Craig Foster and the young mollusk he encounters and then is inspired to visit, befriend and film over the course of approximately a year. The most fascinating character, by far, is the octopus, who repeatedly displays phenomenal intelligence and resourcefulness. Foster narrates the film by necessity, but his experience is frankly less compelling than hers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You may find this paragraph, from a “making of” \u003ca href=\"https://stories.seachangeproject.com/the-making-of-my-octopus-teachernbsp\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">article\u003c/a> written by associate producer Swati Thiyagarajan (who is also Foster’s wife, I believe), as hilarious as I do: “A year into the edit, Craig Foster was excited to get in touch with Prof. Jennifer Mather, an ‘octopus psychologist’ at the University of Lethbridge, Canada. There are no octopus behavior experts in South Africa and Craig and Pippa Ehrlich needed to get into the mind of the octopus if they were going to tell her story authentically. In early 2018, Dr. Mather flew to Cape Town and joined them in the edit for some rigorous scientific consulting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientific rigor and character development aside, I defy you not to be moved by \u003cem>My Octopus Teacher\u003c/em>. Even if you wag a finger when it anthropomorphizes or, yes, sentimentalizes its heroine. See, it could be far, far worse: I imagine that Pixar is already developing an animated version of the story—without the inevitable real-world ending.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Heartbreaking and Hopeful, 'Ammonite' is a Wind-Swept Tale of Forbidden Love",
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"content": "\u003cp>Back in 2017, the English writer and director Francis Lee made a wrenching drama, called\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2017/10/26/559505214/pent-up-passions-go-free-range-in-god-s-own-country\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> \u003cem>God’s Own Country\u003c/em>,\u003c/a> that I wish more people had seen. It told the story of two isolated young men on the rugged moors of North Yorkshire, tending a flock of sheep and falling passionately in love—sort of like a British \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5046247\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Brokeback Mountain\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, only a lot more explicit and with a much happier ending.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now Lee has made another gorgeous wind-swept tale of forbidden love, this one set in the 1840s and centered on two women. It’s called \u003cem>Ammonite\u003c/em>, and it feels like a step up in scale and ambition, partly because it’s about real-life figures, and partly because it stars Kate Winslet and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/24/790812857/saoirse-ronan-playing-jo-march-in-little-women-was-a-confidence-boost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Saoirse Ronan\u003c/a>. But Lee’s filmmaking is still as raw, intimate and unhurried as it was in \u003cem>God’s Own Country\u003c/em>. He takes his time easing you into his characters’ world, which is important, since that world is not an easy place to live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Winslet plays Mary Anning, a self-taught paleontologist who was known for her groundbreaking fossil discoveries along the shores and cliffs of Lyme Regis, a sleepy town in the English county of Dorset. The famous tongue-twister “She sells seashells by the seashore” is said to have been inspired by Anning, who sold many of her fossils, including those extinct mollusks known as ammonites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mary is gruff and solitary, a kind of human hermit crab, who lives with her ailing mother, played by Gemma Jones. One day, an aspiring geologist named Roderick Murchison turns up, offering to pay Mary if she’ll let him accompany her on one of her fossil hunts. She reluctantly agrees, as she and her mother could use the money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Mary gets more than she bargained for. Roderick abruptly takes off and pays Mary to look after his young wife, Charlotte, for several weeks. Charlotte, played by Ronan, is suffering from severe depression following a miscarriage. And while Mary finds her burdensome at first, she nurses the poor woman back to health. A spark soon ignites, and the two begin to enjoy each other’s company. Charlotte helps Mary with her work, which both fascinates and energizes her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnDhlrs3XVM\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some ways, \u003cem>Ammonite\u003c/em> suggests a companion piece to \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/05/784106216/portrait-of-a-lady-on-fire-painted-in-precise-subdued-brushstrokes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Portrait of a Lady on Fire\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, \u003c/em>another 19th-century lesbian love story set against a stark coastal landscape. Both films also make important points about the intellectual achievements of women and the way so many of them have been ignored and even erased by men throughout history. In the movie, some of Mary’s most remarkable finds are displayed in museums under a man’s name—a nod to the fact that Anning herself was often denied credit for her work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charlotte Murchison became a well-regarded geologist herself, and while she and Anning were close friends, it’s unclear if they were really lovers. \u003cem>Ammonite\u003c/em> is a free imagining of Mary’s romantic life, and historical accuracy aside, it’s gripping stuff: The erotic tension builds with such exquisite deliberation that when it finally erupts, the force of it practically shatters the screen. Ronan and Winslet give the sex scenes a startling physicality, which is fitting, since the entire film is so intensely physical. Lee’s camera shows us a way of life sustained by nonstop manual labor: He’s particularly attentive to the roughness of Mary’s hands, whether she’s preparing food, digging up rocks on the beach or sketching in her notebooks into the wee hours of the night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are fine supporting performances from Alec Secareanu as a charming village doctor, and from the great Fiona Shaw as a local apothecary who turns out to have some past romantic history with Mary. And Ronan is unsurprisingly good as Charlotte, whose love for Mary awakens in her a new sense of passion and purpose. But \u003cem>Ammonite\u003c/em> really belongs to Winslet, who gives her richest performance in years. She makes Mary a profound study in alienation and loneliness, ill at ease with other people and deeply protective of her secrets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, it’s telling that it’s not neighborhood gossip or the stigma of homosexuality that threatens to keep these two women apart. It’s Mary’s need for control and her reluctance to let anyone into her carefully managed life. There’s something heartbreaking about that, but something radically hopeful, too, as she and Charlotte circle the possibility of a future together. \u003cem>Ammonite \u003c/em>may be set in the Victorian era, but it dares to envision a world in which women are ultimately free to make their own decisions, for themselves and for the ones they love.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 Fresh Air. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fresh Air\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Heartbreaking+And+Hopeful%2C+%27Ammonite%27+Is+A+Wind-Swept+Tale+Of+Forbidden+Love&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Back in 2017, the English writer and director Francis Lee made a wrenching drama, called\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2017/10/26/559505214/pent-up-passions-go-free-range-in-god-s-own-country\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> \u003cem>God’s Own Country\u003c/em>,\u003c/a> that I wish more people had seen. It told the story of two isolated young men on the rugged moors of North Yorkshire, tending a flock of sheep and falling passionately in love—sort of like a British \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5046247\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Brokeback Mountain\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, only a lot more explicit and with a much happier ending.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now Lee has made another gorgeous wind-swept tale of forbidden love, this one set in the 1840s and centered on two women. It’s called \u003cem>Ammonite\u003c/em>, and it feels like a step up in scale and ambition, partly because it’s about real-life figures, and partly because it stars Kate Winslet and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/24/790812857/saoirse-ronan-playing-jo-march-in-little-women-was-a-confidence-boost\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Saoirse Ronan\u003c/a>. But Lee’s filmmaking is still as raw, intimate and unhurried as it was in \u003cem>God’s Own Country\u003c/em>. He takes his time easing you into his characters’ world, which is important, since that world is not an easy place to live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Winslet plays Mary Anning, a self-taught paleontologist who was known for her groundbreaking fossil discoveries along the shores and cliffs of Lyme Regis, a sleepy town in the English county of Dorset. The famous tongue-twister “She sells seashells by the seashore” is said to have been inspired by Anning, who sold many of her fossils, including those extinct mollusks known as ammonites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mary is gruff and solitary, a kind of human hermit crab, who lives with her ailing mother, played by Gemma Jones. One day, an aspiring geologist named Roderick Murchison turns up, offering to pay Mary if she’ll let him accompany her on one of her fossil hunts. She reluctantly agrees, as she and her mother could use the money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Mary gets more than she bargained for. Roderick abruptly takes off and pays Mary to look after his young wife, Charlotte, for several weeks. Charlotte, played by Ronan, is suffering from severe depression following a miscarriage. And while Mary finds her burdensome at first, she nurses the poor woman back to health. A spark soon ignites, and the two begin to enjoy each other’s company. Charlotte helps Mary with her work, which both fascinates and energizes her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/AnDhlrs3XVM'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/AnDhlrs3XVM'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>In some ways, \u003cem>Ammonite\u003c/em> suggests a companion piece to \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/12/05/784106216/portrait-of-a-lady-on-fire-painted-in-precise-subdued-brushstrokes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Portrait of a Lady on Fire\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, \u003c/em>another 19th-century lesbian love story set against a stark coastal landscape. Both films also make important points about the intellectual achievements of women and the way so many of them have been ignored and even erased by men throughout history. In the movie, some of Mary’s most remarkable finds are displayed in museums under a man’s name—a nod to the fact that Anning herself was often denied credit for her work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charlotte Murchison became a well-regarded geologist herself, and while she and Anning were close friends, it’s unclear if they were really lovers. \u003cem>Ammonite\u003c/em> is a free imagining of Mary’s romantic life, and historical accuracy aside, it’s gripping stuff: The erotic tension builds with such exquisite deliberation that when it finally erupts, the force of it practically shatters the screen. Ronan and Winslet give the sex scenes a startling physicality, which is fitting, since the entire film is so intensely physical. Lee’s camera shows us a way of life sustained by nonstop manual labor: He’s particularly attentive to the roughness of Mary’s hands, whether she’s preparing food, digging up rocks on the beach or sketching in her notebooks into the wee hours of the night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are fine supporting performances from Alec Secareanu as a charming village doctor, and from the great Fiona Shaw as a local apothecary who turns out to have some past romantic history with Mary. And Ronan is unsurprisingly good as Charlotte, whose love for Mary awakens in her a new sense of passion and purpose. But \u003cem>Ammonite\u003c/em> really belongs to Winslet, who gives her richest performance in years. She makes Mary a profound study in alienation and loneliness, ill at ease with other people and deeply protective of her secrets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, it’s telling that it’s not neighborhood gossip or the stigma of homosexuality that threatens to keep these two women apart. It’s Mary’s need for control and her reluctance to let anyone into her carefully managed life. There’s something heartbreaking about that, but something radically hopeful, too, as she and Charlotte circle the possibility of a future together. \u003cem>Ammonite \u003c/em>may be set in the Victorian era, but it dares to envision a world in which women are ultimately free to make their own decisions, for themselves and for the ones they love.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">\u003cem>Copyright 2020 Fresh Air. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fresh Air\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Heartbreaking+And+Hopeful%2C+%27Ammonite%27+Is+A+Wind-Swept+Tale+Of+Forbidden+Love&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/em>\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Johnny Depp's UK Libel Case Failed—And His US One is Likely Doomed Too",
"headTitle": "Johnny Depp’s UK Libel Case Failed—And His US One is Likely Doomed Too | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The summary of British judge Andrew Nicol was the vindication for Amber Heard that Johnny Depp’s faithful fans never saw coming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Taking all the evidence together, I accept that she was the victim of sustained and multiple assaults by Mr. Depp in Australia,” the judge said. “I accept her evidence of the nature of the assaults [Depp] committed against her. They must have been terrifying.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This, then, was the sound of Johnny Depp losing his libel trial against \u003cem>The Sun\u003c/em> newspaper last week. Britain’s most popular tabloid had originally drawn Depp’s ire in 2018, after it published an article that queried: “How can J.K. Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting wife beater Johnny Depp in the new \u003cem>Fantastic Beasts\u003c/em> film?” Depp objected to that characterization, and later launched legal action. The case, initially delayed by COVID, finally made it to London’s Courts of Justice in July.[aside postid='arts_11635129']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Depp, the lawsuit probably seemed like a no-brainer. To other celebrities in his predicament, British courts have long been seen as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/johnny-depp-loses-libel-case-tied-amber-heard-win-domestic-ncna1245882\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">far safer bet\u003c/a> than American courts for libel cases, because of where the burden of proof lies in each country. In the U.K., it lands on the party accused of libel—so in this case, \u003cem>The Sun\u003c/em> had to prove it was telling the truth. It the U.S., the burden lands on the plaintiff to prove that the defendant made a false allegation, \u003cem>and\u003c/em> that the defendant knew it was false, \u003cem>and\u003c/em> had made it with malicious intent. Not only is that a much tougher prospect, but the U.S. also has first amendment rights that are unparalleled in the U.K. This is what Depp will face next year when his \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/05/22/timeline-johnny-depp-amber-heards-ongoing-legal-battle/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">defamation case\u003c/a> against Amber Heard reaches American courts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Defamation cases have historically been so much tougher to win in the U.S. that it’s resulted in what British legal experts refer to as “libel tourism.” Kate Hudson was accused of this in 2006 when she \u003ca href=\"https://www.today.com/popculture/hudson-wins-libel-award-over-too-thin-story-1C9432083\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sued the U.K. edition of the \u003cem>National Enquirer\u003c/em>\u003c/a> after it suggested she had an eating disorder. She settled that summer for damages and an apology. Hudson’s settlement came two days after the British\u003cem> Enquirer\u003c/em> had been forced to issue an apology to Britney Spears over allegations she was “ready to divorce Kevin Federline.” That same year, Lance Armstrong settled a libel case out of court, after London’s \u003cem>Sunday Times\u003c/em> referenced \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.A._Confidentiel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">L.A. Confidentiel\u003c/a>—\u003c/em>a French book that accused Armstrong of doping. (The cyclist was paid an undisclosed sum that was later paid back to the \u003cem>Times\u003c/em> in 2013, after he admitted the allegations were true.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By August 2010, Congress was so concerned about celebrities using British courts to go after American publishers and companies, it passed the SPEECH (Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage) Act. \u003ca href=\"https://www.rcfp.org/journals/the-news-media-and-the-law-fall-2010/speech-act-protects-against-l/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Act\u003c/a> now “bars U.S. courts, both federal and state, from recognizing or enforcing foreign libel judgments unless certain requirements are met, including consistency with the U.S. Constitution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regardless, not only has Depp pledged to move forward with an appeal in the British courts, he has moved forward with a $50 million defamation lawsuit against Heard in Virginia. The case concerns a \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ive-seen-how-institutions-protect-men-accused-of-abuse-heres-what-we-can-do/2018/12/18/71fd876a-02ed-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Washington Post\u003c/em> op-ed\u003c/a> that Heard wrote in December 2018 titled, “I spoke up against sexual violence—and faced our nation’s wrath. That has to change.” This proves to be an uphill battle for Depp, not just because of the tougher American legal system, but also because of the conclusions that were made at the British trial. [aside postid='pop_97650']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>British Justice Nicol made clear in his summary that he found Heard to be a much more convincing witness than Depp. One of Depp’s claims was that, just before he filed for divorce, Heard “or one of her cohorts” left “human feces on the bed” for him to find. \u003ca href=\"https://meaww.com/who-pooped-johnny-depp-bed-judge-rules-pet-pooch-not-amber-heard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The judge concluded\u003c/a> that that was “unlikely” and that “it was Ms. Heard who was likely to suffer from the feces on the bed, not him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Depp also accused Heard of severing the tip of his finger during one drunken argument. The judge said he didn’t believe she was to blame for the injury, and that it was “a sign of the depth of [Depp’s] rage that he admitted scrawling graffiti in blood from his injured finger and then, when that was insufficient, dipping his badly injured finger in paint and continuing to write messages.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In related matters, the judge also pointed to a text Depp had written about Heard as evidence of Depp’s anger and resentment towards her. “She’s begging for total global humiliation. She’s gonna get it,” the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/02/media/johnny-depp-libel-ruling-scli-intl-gbr/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2016 text\u003c/a> read. “I have no mercy, no fear and not an ounce of emotion or what I once thought was love for this gold digging, low level, dime a dozen, mushy, pointless dangling overused flappy fish market.”[aside postid='arts_13865685']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nichol also disagreed entirely with the idea (painted in recent years by both Depp and his supporters) that Heard had accused Depp of abuse for financial gain. “A recurring theme in Mr. Depp’s evidence was that Ms. Heard had … done this as an ‘insurance policy,'” the judge noted. He then pointed to Heard’s decision to donate her $7 million divorce settlement to charity as, “hardly the act one would expect of a gold-digger.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Depp’s U.K. libel trial, then, has achieved nothing positive for him. In addition to publicizing the sordid details of the breakdown of his marriage, his loss in court has also resulted in the actor being forced to resign from J.K. Rowling’s \u003cem>Fantastic Beasts\u003c/em> franchise. (Shockingly, Depp will \u003ca href=\"https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/behind-warner-bros-decision-to-sever-ties-with-johnny-depp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">still receive his full salary\u003c/a> for the project, despite only filming one scene for the third installment.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end,\u003cem> The Sun\u003c/em> may have won the British legal victory, but Amber Heard clearly won the moral one. That Depp wants to repeat this exercise on home soil isn’t just mind-boggling, it’s woefully ill-advised.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The summary of British judge Andrew Nicol was the vindication for Amber Heard that Johnny Depp’s faithful fans never saw coming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Taking all the evidence together, I accept that she was the victim of sustained and multiple assaults by Mr. Depp in Australia,” the judge said. “I accept her evidence of the nature of the assaults [Depp] committed against her. They must have been terrifying.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This, then, was the sound of Johnny Depp losing his libel trial against \u003cem>The Sun\u003c/em> newspaper last week. Britain’s most popular tabloid had originally drawn Depp’s ire in 2018, after it published an article that queried: “How can J.K. Rowling be ‘genuinely happy’ casting wife beater Johnny Depp in the new \u003cem>Fantastic Beasts\u003c/em> film?” Depp objected to that characterization, and later launched legal action. The case, initially delayed by COVID, finally made it to London’s Courts of Justice in July.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Depp, the lawsuit probably seemed like a no-brainer. To other celebrities in his predicament, British courts have long been seen as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/johnny-depp-loses-libel-case-tied-amber-heard-win-domestic-ncna1245882\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">far safer bet\u003c/a> than American courts for libel cases, because of where the burden of proof lies in each country. In the U.K., it lands on the party accused of libel—so in this case, \u003cem>The Sun\u003c/em> had to prove it was telling the truth. It the U.S., the burden lands on the plaintiff to prove that the defendant made a false allegation, \u003cem>and\u003c/em> that the defendant knew it was false, \u003cem>and\u003c/em> had made it with malicious intent. Not only is that a much tougher prospect, but the U.S. also has first amendment rights that are unparalleled in the U.K. This is what Depp will face next year when his \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/05/22/timeline-johnny-depp-amber-heards-ongoing-legal-battle/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">defamation case\u003c/a> against Amber Heard reaches American courts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Defamation cases have historically been so much tougher to win in the U.S. that it’s resulted in what British legal experts refer to as “libel tourism.” Kate Hudson was accused of this in 2006 when she \u003ca href=\"https://www.today.com/popculture/hudson-wins-libel-award-over-too-thin-story-1C9432083\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sued the U.K. edition of the \u003cem>National Enquirer\u003c/em>\u003c/a> after it suggested she had an eating disorder. She settled that summer for damages and an apology. Hudson’s settlement came two days after the British\u003cem> Enquirer\u003c/em> had been forced to issue an apology to Britney Spears over allegations she was “ready to divorce Kevin Federline.” That same year, Lance Armstrong settled a libel case out of court, after London’s \u003cem>Sunday Times\u003c/em> referenced \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L.A._Confidentiel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">L.A. Confidentiel\u003c/a>—\u003c/em>a French book that accused Armstrong of doping. (The cyclist was paid an undisclosed sum that was later paid back to the \u003cem>Times\u003c/em> in 2013, after he admitted the allegations were true.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By August 2010, Congress was so concerned about celebrities using British courts to go after American publishers and companies, it passed the SPEECH (Securing the Protection of our Enduring and Established Constitutional Heritage) Act. \u003ca href=\"https://www.rcfp.org/journals/the-news-media-and-the-law-fall-2010/speech-act-protects-against-l/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Act\u003c/a> now “bars U.S. courts, both federal and state, from recognizing or enforcing foreign libel judgments unless certain requirements are met, including consistency with the U.S. Constitution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regardless, not only has Depp pledged to move forward with an appeal in the British courts, he has moved forward with a $50 million defamation lawsuit against Heard in Virginia. The case concerns a \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ive-seen-how-institutions-protect-men-accused-of-abuse-heres-what-we-can-do/2018/12/18/71fd876a-02ed-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cem>Washington Post\u003c/em> op-ed\u003c/a> that Heard wrote in December 2018 titled, “I spoke up against sexual violence—and faced our nation’s wrath. That has to change.” This proves to be an uphill battle for Depp, not just because of the tougher American legal system, but also because of the conclusions that were made at the British trial. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>British Justice Nicol made clear in his summary that he found Heard to be a much more convincing witness than Depp. One of Depp’s claims was that, just before he filed for divorce, Heard “or one of her cohorts” left “human feces on the bed” for him to find. \u003ca href=\"https://meaww.com/who-pooped-johnny-depp-bed-judge-rules-pet-pooch-not-amber-heard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The judge concluded\u003c/a> that that was “unlikely” and that “it was Ms. Heard who was likely to suffer from the feces on the bed, not him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Depp also accused Heard of severing the tip of his finger during one drunken argument. The judge said he didn’t believe she was to blame for the injury, and that it was “a sign of the depth of [Depp’s] rage that he admitted scrawling graffiti in blood from his injured finger and then, when that was insufficient, dipping his badly injured finger in paint and continuing to write messages.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In related matters, the judge also pointed to a text Depp had written about Heard as evidence of Depp’s anger and resentment towards her. “She’s begging for total global humiliation. She’s gonna get it,” the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/02/media/johnny-depp-libel-ruling-scli-intl-gbr/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">2016 text\u003c/a> read. “I have no mercy, no fear and not an ounce of emotion or what I once thought was love for this gold digging, low level, dime a dozen, mushy, pointless dangling overused flappy fish market.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nichol also disagreed entirely with the idea (painted in recent years by both Depp and his supporters) that Heard had accused Depp of abuse for financial gain. “A recurring theme in Mr. Depp’s evidence was that Ms. Heard had … done this as an ‘insurance policy,'” the judge noted. He then pointed to Heard’s decision to donate her $7 million divorce settlement to charity as, “hardly the act one would expect of a gold-digger.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Depp’s U.K. libel trial, then, has achieved nothing positive for him. In addition to publicizing the sordid details of the breakdown of his marriage, his loss in court has also resulted in the actor being forced to resign from J.K. Rowling’s \u003cem>Fantastic Beasts\u003c/em> franchise. (Shockingly, Depp will \u003ca href=\"https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/behind-warner-bros-decision-to-sever-ties-with-johnny-depp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">still receive his full salary\u003c/a> for the project, despite only filming one scene for the third installment.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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