Movie Reviews: Upgrade, Detective Story

Upgrade
directed by Leigh Whannell

This is a low budget sci-fi/thriller film that takes some very old tropes and ideas and wraps them up in fresh packaging to build an entertaining story. The film loses some steam in the middle. I think that the viewer will sooner rather than later pick up on the story twists and ending. But getting there was still fun. Some human fears and worries are consistent across time and space. I remember that back in the day when my maternal grandfather led prayers he would always thank God for giving him and his another day of health and life. I didn't then appreciate my grandfather's emotions. After all most nine year-olds have little concept of aging, tiredness, body decline, disease, and death. But now, all these years later I can understand my grandfather's gratitude. I was reminded of that because of this movie, in which one theme is how quickly and randomly our health or lives can be taken from us. 

The other important theme in Upgrade is how much we would give to get our health and/or the lives of our loved ones back. Although Upgrade has not a single solitary speck of the supernatural, Upgrade still plays on the old tales of deals made with otherworldy entities. The horror author H.P. Lovecraft wrote that wizards should be careful dealing with demons or the dead and to "do not call up any which you cannot put down". Upgrade emphasizes that. The movie nods to authors like Phillip Dick and William Gibson. What is it that makes us human? Can that spark of humanity be isolated and reproduced? Can it be transferred?

Book Reviews: Bad Blood

Bad Blood
by John Carreyrou

This is a real life thriller written by a Wall Street Journal investigative reporter who was one of the first people in the media to puncture the lies and bovine excrement put out by Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Balwani about their startup company Theranos. Theranos wanted to become famous for revolutionizing blood testing and laboratory science. Theranos' claim to fame was proprietary finger prick technology devices that were supposed to be able to test for hundreds of different diseases from very tiny blood samples. The results could then be wirelessly and securely transmitted to a patient's doctors. The idea was that by using this process, everyone would save time and expensive lab space. Additionally people who didn't like going into doctor's offices or labs for venous blood draws would be more likely to use the finger prick devices. 

And most importantly by catching diseases or conditions far earlier than anyone else, Theranos would be saving lives across the world. As an investor wouldn't you like to get in on the ground floor of a company like that? Why sure you would! It would be akin to being in at the beginning of Facebook, Amazon, Netflix,  Instagram, Microsoft, or Apple-the startup company closest to Holmes' heart. Holmes consciously modeled herself after Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, copying Jobs' black turtlenecks , his self-important quotes and even his deep voice. Holmes tried to pitch her normal alto down to the male tenor or even baritone range. This sounded utterly ridiculous,. 

It was particularly noticeable on the occasions when Holmes couldn't keep up the fakery or relaxed and forgot to speak in the male range. I guess no one ever called Holmes on it because her peers and investors didn't care what she sounded like as long as she dangled the possibility of millions or even billions in front of them. And Holmes' subordinates or employees learned very quickly that annoying, irritating, or mocking Holmes wasn't very healthy. Holmes and especially her number two, and lover, Balwani ran Theranos via pure intimidation. More on that in a minute. Arguably they had to run the company via intimidation because very little of Theranos' product worked. When things didn't work Holmes didn't come up with new ideas or new products. No. She lied. She faked tests. She hid results from regulators.  

Judge Brett Kavanaugh: Attempted Rapist???

Do you remember what you doing in high school? You probably do if like the fictional Al Bundy, from the sitcom Married with Children, high school turned out to be the high point of your life. Many of us however may start to forget some details of our high school career, especially once we get beyond our thirties or forties and/or move away from where we went to high school. 

So it goes. But if in high school you were a victim of attempted rape or assault or you committed a rape or sexual assault, I think you would probably remember that. Unfortunately, for those of us who weren't there, it is difficult if not impossible to discover the truth when one person accuses another person or persons of sexual assault thirty some odd years after high school. 

That is what happened to Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court seat vacated by Justice Kennedy. An anonymous constituent of Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein apparently sent Feinstein and her Congresswoman a letter in July accusing Kavanaugh of attempted rape in the early eighties. Feinstein didn't share this letter with her colleagues until a few days ago.  On Thursday she referred the matter to the FBI. 
On Thursday, Senate Democrats disclosed that they had referred a complaint regarding President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, to the F.B.I. for investigation. The complaint came from a woman who accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct when they were both in high school, more than thirty years ago.

Savannah Sprague: Cheerleader Holds Court In The Streets

Just because someone is smaller than you or seemingly less threatening doesn't mean that they will not kick your a$$ six ways to Sunday if you start something with them. As Peter Tosh sang, "I'm like a stepping razor/Don't watch my size. I'm dangerous." It's always smart to keep your hands to yourself unless you are forced into a situation where you must practice the art of self-defense. Because if you run around starting fights eventually you'll run into someone who has no problem ending them. Fortunately in this situation it doesn't look as if anyone was seriously hurt. A longer version of this video showed the larger girl turning the tables somewhat but all in all I would have to give the decision to the cheerleader. 

Once the cheerleader was assaulted she did not hesitate to defend herself against the larger girl. I hope that the aggressor will think twice before starting another fight. Unfortunately life is full of people who will attack you until you have demonstrated to their satisfaction that the cost to them will be too high. So it goes. 

A pint-size cheerleader in California pummeled another girl who challenged her to a fight while still in her uniform, a dramatic video shows. The footage, posted early Saturday, purportedly shows Savannah Sprague, a cheerleader for Clayton Valley Charter High School, brutally beating an unidentified girl who had just challenged her to a fight as the cheerleader sat at a table in Concord while surrounded by other youngsters, some still holding their backpacks.

Movie Reviews: Hereditary

Hereditary
directed by Ari Aster
Now this is how horror movies should be done. 

Calling Hereditary a horror film doesn't really do it justice as many genre films have often been excuses to showcase nubile, buff actors in various stages of undress being slaughtered in increasing inventive yet ultimately boring ways. This is a throwback horror film that reaches back to the classics. Think about such films as Rosemary's Baby or The Exorcist. The frights in  Hereditary are as much psychological and emotional as they are of the supernatural variety. There's not any cheap violence here. Sex is non-existent. Some might argue that sexual urges manifest themselves in other, more Freudian ways, but that's up to the viewer's interpretation. There are few movies, especially horror movies, that really leave much of an impression on me. This one did. I dare say it might do the same thing for the viewer. 

I didn't realize it at first but this film shares some DNA with the movie The Sixth Sense, and not just because Toni Collette was in both films. Each film has some insights about family, loss and parenthood, or more specifically motherhood. There's also a possible connection with Stephen King's scary short story, "Gramma" and the Rob Zombie movie The Lords of Salem.

We are all the sum of our experiences and genetics plus that something extra that different people quantify in different ways. Genetics and family environment can leave a heavy mark on people for good or for bad. Hereditary digs deep into these questions. It would be an emotionally heavy film even without any supernatural overtones. Hereditary mostly eschews the jump scares for some some real scares. Have you ever lost anyone you loved? Have you lost someone you loved before you thought their time was up? Both experiences can hurt very badly. 

White Dallas Cop Enters Wrong Home and Kills Black Man

I want you to imagine that you're peacefully resting, reading, sleeping or just doing whatever you like to do in your own home. 
You hear someone banging on your door. You go to see who's at the door. An armed police officer enters your home without apparent permission and without warrant because she supposedly thinks that this is her home. She then shoots you dead because you're an "intruder" in "her" home. A cynic might say that that scenario is the basic theme of American history and the European invasion of the New World. Well maybe. But it's also the tragedy that occurred to one Botham Shem Jean, a recent college graduate and associate at Price Waterhouse Coopers. I would hope that based on what the facts of the case seem to be now, that the officer who took Mr. Jean's life spends some time in prison and is not allowed to ever again have a weapon or a job as a police officer.

Based on past events though, you never know. I would not be surprised if in the next few days some racist digs up pictures of Mr. Jean playing pee-wee football from the fourth grade to "prove"  that he was some sort of "thug" who got what he deserved. And if the officer is attractive, cries a lot, or gets the right sort of people on her jury she may well be acquitted. Who can say. It's funny that all the people who were wailing and gnashing their teeth and wetting their pants over Colin Kapernick and other Black athletes protesting police violence against Black people so far don't seem to have shown the same level of outrage over Mr. Jean's murder.  I sure they will. Any second now...

Movie Reviews: Deadpool 2

Deadpool 2
directed by David Leitch

If you loved the first movie, you'll probably like the sequel. Like the James Bond movies, there is a plot contrivance to ensure that the titular motormouth hero is single and free to mingle again. 

Unlike the hero from the Bond movies Deadpool is not necessarily 100% straight and/or solely interested in leggy, busty, or otherwise attractive women. YMMV on this. At this time in American culture it would actually be edgier and more rebellious if a hero was straight and not cynical. Deadpool and the smirking antiheroes which he represents have reached diminishing returns for me. Some jokes were funny but many of them weren't. Humor is a very flexible personal thing though so your enjoyment of this film may all depend on your mood. If a joke uses racial or sexual humor does it matter to you if it's coming from a good place or bad place as long as the joke is funny? I didn't think that the jokes were based in contempt or hate or anything like that. But I just didn't see them as hilarious. 

I think many jokes were aimed at people who are insecure about themselves. Other jokes were socio-political. My understanding is that the movie character is broadly similar to the comic. Whatever. The crude humor seems turned up from the first film. I just happen to have reached my limit with the constant stream of male anatomy references or homosexual/homoerotic jokes.