Category: Film & TV (Page 1 of 4)

Some time ago Mike and I were talking as to whether there were some topics that you shouldn’t joke about: child molestation and the Holocaust came to mind (I have several friends who survived torture and are somewhat able to joke about it, so that’s not a taboo subject). My question was finally answered last night while watching Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, a documentary that chronicles a year in the work-life of the legendary commediene. At one point, while taking a limo drive to an award-show in honor of the late George Carlin, she compares compares the Kennedy Center’s honoring of the leftist comedian to having her receiving an award from the Third Reich for being the “funniest Jewess not in the ovens”. I chuckled.
I’m not a big stand-up comedian fan, it’s OK but I don’t seek it out, so I can’t say I’ve been more that marginally aware of Ms. Rivers. I’ve seen her on the Red Carpet before and in the occasional appearance on some TV show, but I only got to “know her” to any degree while watching Celebrity Apprentice a couple of years ago (guilty pleasures, blah, blah). She was definitely the best thing on that show and I got to appreciate her quick wit and intelligence. The glimpses at her relationship with her daughter Melissa, also on the show, were also very tender. It’s nice to see mothers and daughters who truly love each other. So, when I saw Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work as one of the “must see” films of the year in the paper, I figured I’d check to see if it was available on Netflix “play now” (I no longer bother with DVDs).
The film was very enjoyable. Ms. Rivers comes out as a very insecure but kind-hearted woman, with a very sharp wit. She also came out as very funny. The one theme of her life and the movie is that she wants/needs to work. She needs to have every hour booked – both because she needs the money (as she says, she could live within her savings, but not in the luxury to which she’s become accustomed) and because she needs the adulation, or at least the recognition. She is willing to do anything and pretty much say anything, and yet she doesn’t come across as anyone who’d succeed by stepping on other people. When she tells a joke to a live audience about Helen Keller, a man responds by complaining that she wouldn’t feel that way if she had a deaf son. Rivers gets really upset, calls him stupid and lectures him on the reason for comedy (to laugh about the tragedies in life) – but later, after the show, she seems to be actually upset at having hurt him.
The documentary is in no way a biography, you don’t really know where Ms. Rivers comes from and what made her the person she is today, but it is entertaining and definitely worth streaming.

I wasn’t a big fan of having to transition to digital TV – specially as we had no plans of buying new, expensive, TVs – but the transition was all in all pretty painless (though we did have to spend some extra money on the conveters), and, as a bonus, I got two new TV stations I like.
Once is PBS World, which allows me to catch up on PBS and BBC news programs when it’s more convenient to me, and the other one is Qubo, a channel that shows children’s cartoons all day long. As we don’t have cable, and I do let my TV babysit my kids, that’s quite welcomed.
But what I like about Qubo is the type of programs it has. Many of the cartoons are based on books, such as Babar, Macy and Pippy Longstockings, and others are just very smart. Jane and the Dragon is about a little girl who refuses to be a maiden and tries hard to be a knight.
My favorite show, by far, is Adventures from the Book of Virtues – a show that teaches ethical/moral lessons from stories from around the world. Just a while ago, for example, they had the story of Damon and Pythias, two good friends from Syracuse. One of them stood up against the tyrant of the time, advocating democracy – he was arrested and sentenced to be killed (hey, doesn’t this sound like what’s going on in Iran as we speak?), and he asked as his last wish that he be allowed to say goodbye to his family. The other friend offered to stay on his place, to make sure his friend returned. I loved the story, not just because it teaches about the depth of loyalty and friendship, but because it reinforces the ideal I’m trying to teach my children, that you should stand up to tyranny even on the face of prison or death. I’m not sure that there are many shows around that are willing to tackle such complex ethical issues. And as if that was not enough, the show teaches my kids about important historical figures (like Plato).
The one big problem with Qubo is that all its commercials (between shows, rather than within them, which is a plus) are infomercials for stupid things. Some of them are for children, but many are for adults: furniture warehouses, adjustable beds, gold buyers, etc. They are also terribly long. But I guess that’s the price for fairly good children’s programming.

Mika (my 8 yo) wanted to go see Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and she wanted me to go with her. After reading some reviews I was reluctant – it was mostly portrayed as a pour cousin to Harry Potter with similar, but less developed, characters and plot. And indeed, that’s what it was – but it was a well crafted adventure movie, with great special effects, approachable characters and it held our interest. And, to top it all, it also taught us a little bit about Greek mythology (though you have to be careful not to take anything they say too literally). Hopefully it can be enough to spark a kids’ interest in the subject (Mika is already into ancient mythology).
Camila, my 5 yo, found some parts scary and many boring, but she was a trooper and behaved through all of it.
In all, I’d recommend the movie for kids 7yo and older and even for adults who just want some mindless fluff.