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apexart-journal · 8 years ago

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Mimi Lipson in Montevideo, Day 6

Today is a “free day” for me--nothing on the schedule other than a skype check-in with the home office. I’m going to catch up on Thursday and Friday’s activities, and then go do all those off-the-record things. You know--visit a whorehouse, traffic in human remains...

Thursday began at dawn, with the first genuinely non-touristic activity I’ve been assigned so far.

I was invited to sit in on a philosophical anthropology class at Universidad Catolica del Uruguay, which is a private Jesuit school.

The class was at 8 a.m., which stressed me out, but I got there on the bus in a few minutes, no problem. It’s not far from the stadium, and I could have walked. I try to walk to things that are walkable. I did get to see a bit of the neighborhood north of the stadium. By contrast, I see that Pocitos--where I am--is kind of special. Fewer trees here, fewer businesses.

Montevideans seem to be crazy about ice cream, by the way. I see people walking around with ice cream cones everywhere, despite being bundled up against the 65-degree weather.

Che and Lenin. I’m hearing a little more about what the Uruguayan type of socialism means for the lived experience. More on that later.

So, the morning started in a classroom. I find myself very at home in this setting. I’ve spend a lot of my life in school, after all.

The class, which was taught by Male Reyes--a friend and colleague of Javier’s--is conducted in English, because it’s for business students. It surprised me that there would be a philosophical anthropology class for business students. I imagined they would treat it as a “gut course” or at least just not be very engaged, but that was not the case. Male conducted the class pretty much entirely as a discussion. I didn’t learn what the assigned reading had been, actually. She began the class by writing on the white board:

“Can human beings be considered as machines?”

and under that:

“The Blue Whale Game”

Everyone but me had heard of the Blue Whale Game. If you don’t know: the “game” is a series of 50 tasks. Players are recruited through a facebook group, which started in Russia, and it is aimed at tweens and young teens--mostly age 10-16. The tasks are assigned by a “guide” and must be documented. They begin with things like getting up at 4 a.m. and watching a certain horror movie. One task is to carve a blue whale in your arm. The tasks get creepier as you go along. You watch a video of someone committing suicide. The 50th task is to kill yourself. The players know this is how the game ends, and if you try to leave the game, your family is threatened. Dystopic, right? Supposedly, hundreds of kids have committed suicide in this way, and it has spread from Russia to Ukraine, the Baltics, and as far as Brazil and Uruguay.

So that is the Blue Whale Game, and Male used it to frame the question of whether humans can be considered as machines. It was a way of talking about free will, of course, but the discussion was far-ranging, and the kids were really responding with their guts--not regurgitating something they read but expressing and then questioning own their gut feelings. Someone brought up Hamlet, someone else mentioned Dr. Kevorkian. It felt like a very interesting dinner party conversation. I can’t overstate how impressed I was by Male and her students. Business students!

I was pretty jazzed by the end of the class. Male invited me to visit again, and I think I will, though 8 a.m. comes pretty early. I would have liked to sit with her and have a cup of coffee, but she had to rush off to meet a client. She is also a psychologist.

Took a bus to Ciudad Vieja for the next stop, which was the Carnival Museum.

I was trying to get a picture of that guy’s hat, which said “Brooklyn Nets.” The guy sitting on the raised platform is the ticket man. I have a card preloaded with 50 rides. You can either pay the guy or scan your card on the yellow box and get a ticket. I was getting error messages pretty consistently, and the guy would aways ask, “Una hora o dos?” So now I tell them “Una hora” before scanning, and sometimes I still get an error message and have to try several times. It’s a little mysterious, but I always get a ticket one way or another.

The Carnival Museum is on the waterfront, across from the port. Maybe because it’s where cruise ships disembark, this also turns out to be where Montevideo’s gringo gulch is located. It was the only place I’ve been where I saw waiters hanging around outside cafes greeting passers-by in English. Also the only crosswalk I’ve seen so far.

They don’t seem to have much tourist infrastructure here. When I’ve asked people why, I’ve been told that the tourists bypass Uruguay for Argentina and Brazil. The smallness of Uruguay is a common theme. People refer to the country’s size with a kind of gentle shrug, but there are a lot of implications to being in the shadow of two giants.

I was supposed to get a museum pass at the Carnival Museum, which I would be using for several other museums, but they didn’t sell them there. They directed me to the Museum of Indigenous and Pre-Columbian Art (on display, among other objets, was this nifty little pre-Columbian pipe organ.

I waited around there, but when the party responsible for selling passes showed up she told me there were no more and she didn’t know when there would be any more. As it happened, the admission to the Carnival Museum was only 100 pesos, or about $3.50.

Traditionally (not sure if it’s still the case), “tablados”--elaborate life-sized papier-mâché dioramas--were a feature of Uruguayan carnival. They had some funny little models recreated from photographs.

I love the papier-mâché. But okay, I already said I don’t care much about soccer, and now I will confess that I’m a little worse than indifferent to the idea of Carnival. I know that sounds bad, but street festivals and exuberant cultural gatherings are just not my thing. I’ll go to a demonstration, but I don’t go for the body painting/sign-whimsy/revelry aspects. Furthermore, I have a kind of allergy to Official Culture--street culture that is repackaged for tourism. The museum was kind of a blessing for me, because I could inspect the costumes on my own terms.

Those are Cabezones, for obvious reasons.

There was an exhibit of costumes by two designers: Ivan Arroqui and Mariela Gotuzzo.

Carnival lasts for 40 days here and features costumed street performances called murgas--musicals, essentially, with drum/guitar bands and musical numbers and speeches on satirical political themes, performed by the members of clubs, who used to also make the costumes, though they no longer do. Traditionally, the club members are working class men. The description reminded me a little of the mummers in Philadelphia, except that they are full-blown productions. Murgas are unique to Uruguay, or that’s the impression I got.

Some of the murga costumes there were loud, flashy kitchen-sink affairs, but some, like Blue Circles (above), were really stylish and graphically interesting. Many were made with salvaged materials, like bottle caps and such. Are these condoms?

Medical waste!

Seeing this work, I thought: this is my jam. I want to work on costumes, not wear them or fight the crowds to look at them. There was an exhibit about a program where women prisoners make costumes, like this Carmen Miranda number, and I thought that was cool. Humane. I can understand the value of making things as a way of hanging onto yourself in a bad situation. I’ve often done that myself.

The evening program involved another cultural touchstone: a tango concert at Mercado Agricola de Montevideo (MAM), which is an old farmer’s market that has been restored to be something like the Farmer’s Market on Fairfax in Los Angeles, if you’ve ever been there: fruit stands, meat markets, shops, food court.

I was picked up by Florencia, another friend of Javier’s. I could tell right away that Florencia was a good person by the way she let people cross at intersections. She does film transcriptions for the hearing and seeing impaired, and like virtually everyone I’ve met so far, she was born and raised here. We picked up her nephew, Martin--a 17-year-old high school student who wanted a chance to practice his English.

It was so great to hang out with Martin and Florencia. I got to ask them a lot of questions about living here and growing up here. Martin is concentrating in engineering at school but he told me (unless I misunderstood) that all high school students are required to take a socioeconomics course. He’d written a term paper on immigration. I was surprised to hear that there aren’t many people coming here from Central America; most of the migrants these days are from Venezuela. Martin was the one who told me that a lot of people live in Parque Batlle. He said there is a big homeless population and students at his school bring meals around to people sometimes rather than having them come to soup kitchens. He said it was better that way: that you got to know people a little when you went to where they were. Which sounds very true.

I asked about their government. The parliament has been in the control of Frente Amplio, a leftist coalition, since 2005 when Tabaré Vázquez was elected. I don’t really want to bore you with a run-down except to say that they seemed pretty sure the right-wing party would win the next election. Florencia didn’t seem all that bothered by it. She said F.A. was too entrenched, etc., and wasn’t dealing with the country’s problems--the most urgent, she said, being the educational system.

Here’s what I learned about how education works: the public university is free, and admission is open. If you graduate and get a job in the field for which you were educated, you pay a tax--for life. If you don’t graduate or don’t get such a job, no tax. Florencia and Martin say that people can’t flunk out. They say there is a problem of people staying in school for the student discounts and never graduating and being a burden on the system. It’s a little much for me to digest. I tend to think, fine! Let people be students forever, and education SHOULD be free. I didn’t get the sense that they were worried about freeloading, though. I think the issue was that people weren’t contributing, and that society needs all hands.

Another thing we talked about was healthcare, and here is an area where the size of the country is a real problem. There are many types of specialty medicine for which care is practically speaking unavailable here and one must go to Argentina. But socio (their universal health insurance) won’t reimburse those expenses.

Okay, so during this conversation we arrived at MAM for the tango concert.

The building is beautiful. Looks like they put on a whole new roof pretty recently.

I took this picture because Florencia told me it was a “famous meat company.” Beef is the big big commodity here.

The tango singer we were there to see was Valeria Lima, who was performing with a band in the food court. We got there kind of late, and the only table was at the back. This was a close as I got.

Very dramatic, just like you’d think. The crowd was mostly older people. When Florencia left the table to buy some pizza (another Uruguayan obsession--there’s a pizza parlor on practically every corner, and Italian is the majority ethnicity, as I have been reminded many times), Martin confessed that he doesn’t really like tango. He said there were some groups that play a contemporary, electronic form of tango, and he likes that better.

Coca Cola is also ubiquitous.

The pizza, by the way, was awful. Sorry, Montevideo, but that’s worse than school cafeteria pizza! But it was sort of beside the point, as was the tango concert. It was all about Martin and Florencia for me.

I need a break. I’ll do a roundup of Friday later.

#Mimi Lipson #Outbound to Montevideo

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thefilmsnob · 8 years ago

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Glen Coco’s Top 10 Films of 2016

Another year has passed and although it wasn’t the greatest year for film, there were still several that stood out. Here are my picks for the top 10 films of 2016. But first, the runners up:

Runners Up

-10 Cloverfield Lane

-Fences

-Hell or High Water

-Loving

-Nocturnal Animals

-Sing Street

-Sully

And here’s the top 10!

#10b (Bonus Track): The Witch

Director: Robert Eggers

Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie

The fact that a horror movie is anywhere near my top 10 list is astounding, but The Witch is a rare gem in a genre usually composed of cliches and cheap thrills. This is one of the most beautifully photographed movies of the year containing countless striking shots and director Robert Eggers creates a mood of almost unbearable tension. The film follows a family who’s been banished by their community to live in a remote part of the woods where strange things begin to happen and we’re never quite sure whether it’s mere paranoia or something supernatural. What’s so impressive is that we see very few little violence or traditionally scary images, yet Eggers always makes you feel like such elements are just around the corner. It’s been said before, but it’s what you don’t see that’s terrifying. The reason why this film isn’t in the top 10 is because of audio problems and poor line delivery. The story is already ambivalent, but you’ll find yourself even more lost because you miss half the dialogue. That said, it’s still a pleasure to look at and definitely worth an honourable mention.

#10: Silence

Director: Martin Scorsese

Starring: Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson

No, it’s not Martin Scorsese’s best film, but even his lesser works are better than most movies out there. Silence is officially a box office flop and admittedly its pacing is frustrating at times, but its effect is undeniable and will leave you thinking about it well after the credits roll. The movie follows two Jesuit priests (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver) as they search for their mentor (Liam Neeson) who’s apparently given up the faith in a 17th Japan that was ruthless toward Catholics. Though the sceenplay could’ve been a bit tighter, like The Witch the movie looks marvelous thanks to Scorsese and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto. Scenes of the priests sneaking through caves, Catholics crucified over the ocean or chilling events seen through the bars of a prison cell are all visually stunning if not disturbing. And the dilemma of whether it’s moral to allow others to die just to uphold one’s faith is an important question here and one that’s handled with care.

#9: Moonlight

Director: Barry Jenkins

Starring: Trevante Rhodes, Ashton Sanders, Alex Hibbert, Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Andre Holland

Moonlight tells the harrowing story of Chiron, a gay African American growing up in the projects of Miami. Unfortunately, in a place like this where machismo reigns supreme, Chiron seemingly has no chance; it’s a tragic situation. Impeccably acted by all three performers who play Chiron as well as the supporting cast, especially Naomie Harris as his drug-addicted mother, the story is told in three different time periods, enhancing the idea these problems can’t be solved overnight and that people from these neighborhoods do, in fact, grow, mature and have fascinating, complicated lives. Directed with poetry and grace, covering both the tenderness and darkness of this character’s life, Barry Jenkins brings everything together perfectly with a final, almost real time, sequence completely devoid of action, but rich in honesty, vulnerability and feeling with Trevante Rhodes and Andre Holland holding your unwavering attention. We’re entranced by the implications of their meeting and eagerly await the outcome.

#8: The Edge of Seventeen

Director: Kelly Fremon Craig

Starring: Hailee Steinfeld, Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner, Woody Harrelson

Although the problems Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld) faces in The Edge of Seventeen pale in comparison to those of other characters in this list, they’re still realistic, identifiable and fitting for a 17-year-old high school student. Nadine’s already awkward, lonely and isolated from her classmates and she has to deal with her only friend dating her older, more popular brother. It sounds like a recipe for a paint-by-numbers teen comedy, but writer/director Kelly Fremon Craig provides one of the most honest and witty screenplays of the year. Steinfeld is quite possibly the best 20-and-under actor in Hollywood today and was completely snubbed for this complex role as a precocious young lady who’s too smart and witty for her own good. She’s hilarious in this role, but also naive and vulnerable and it’s these qualities under the surface that make her such a sympathetic character. Woody Harrelson is exceptional playing the hard-edged mentor teacher who cares about her deep down despite his tough love. The verbal sparring between the two is a delight to witness in an equally delightful film.

#7: Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

Director: Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone

Starring: Ander Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone

Considering the rest of this list, no, this isn’t a joke. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is the funniest movie of 2016 and one of the funniest movies in recent memory. Written and directed by Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, 2/3 of the Lonely Island comedy group, they’re joined by their partner Andy Samberg in acting and writing efforts to bring us this hilarious mockumentary and biting satire about the pop music industry. Producing countless belly laughs through priceless one-liners and some of the funniest sight gags you’ll see, Popstar focuses on the rise and fall and rise of The Style Boyz and all the infighting that comes with that. And I can’t forget to mention the outrageously funny original songs. Any movie whose song contains the lyrics “I wanna fuck you like we fucked up Bin Laden” has to be good.

#6: Manchester by the Sea

Director: Kenneth Lonergan

Starring: Casey Affleck, Lucas Hedges, Michelle Williams

Manchester by the Sea is a minor miracle. Here’s a film whose protagonist has ruined his life through a horrifyingly plausible accident, abandoned his titular coastal hometown due to overwhelming grief and guilt and now must return to take care of his nephew following his brother’s death, yet somehow writer/director Kenneth Lonergan manages to avoid melodrama and manipulation. This is a film with emotional complexity and gorgeous naturalism in a story with no easy answers or moments of eye-opening catharsis. The whole cast is extraordinary, but Casey Affleck stands out playing Lee Chandler who displays flat, distant behavior on the outside, while simultaneously conveying the emotional turmoil going on within, trying to deal with one tragedy after another. It’s an impressively restrained performance for a character who we come to sympathize with more and more as the plot unfolds. The ending won’t please everyone, but it’s honest, human and entirely realistic just like the film.

#5: 20th Century Women

Director: Mike Mills

Starring: Annette Bening, Greta Gerwig, Elle Fanning, Billy Crudup

20th Century Women takes place in the late ‘70s when the cultural identity of America was in a state of flux. This feeling permeates the film and even though it concerns a small group of seemingly insignificant characters, the film is framed within a much larger history and this coupled with the revelation of the characters’ fates far down the road gives the proceedings a heightened sense of importance. Annette Bening, another Oscar snub, is perfect in this role as an aging mother trying to navigate such a strange world while attempting to reconcile her conservative tendencies and wariness of modern life with her liberal values and open-mindedness. This complicated, 3-dimensional character recruits some lodgers and neighbours to help raise her boy, but these people are just as complicated, flawed and, indeed, beautiful themselves, especially Abbie played by the magnetic Greta Gerwig. The movie has little plot, but you fall in love with the characters and their struggles and that’s really what’s important.

#4: La La Land

Director: Damien Chazelle

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone

The people involved in making La La Land should just be thankful the film was produced. A completely original movie musical filled with jazz doesn’t sound like the most lucrative products for today’s audiences. But with the help of Damien Chazelle, who demonstrated his wizardry behind the camera and helped bring jazz to the forefront with his extraordinary Whiplash, and two of the biggest stars in Hollywood today, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, the movie has become a technical marvel and a smash hit. Bringing to mind the classic old Hollywood musicals, La La Land tells the story of two struggling artists with Gosling and Stone making us invested in these struggles every literal and figurative step of the way. Containing breathtaking dance numbers, infectious original songs and some truly show-stopping moments, the movie is fun and exhilarating from start to finish and the chemistry between Gosling and Stone is possibly the best you’ll see in 2016. It’s impossible to walk out of this movie without a smile on your face.

#3: Arrival

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Starring: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker

Arrival is a realistic and logical take on the fascinating premise of first contact. Denis Villeneuve, one of the best directors in the business, is an expert at creating and maintaining an almost suffocating level of suspense with the help of his distinct camera work, steady pacing and nerve-wracking music. The snubbed Amy Adams is brilliant as Louise, mourning the loss of her daughter while facing the herculean challenge of communicating with aliens. Adams has a way of making Louise quiet, contemplative, even sad without exuding weakness. Unlike lesser films where a communication problem like this is solved in minutes, Arrival presents it as a grueling process involving linguistics and translation that Louise and Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) must go through in order to make even the smallest breakthrough. This aspect of the film is entirely convincing and even educational. The ending is a real mind bender that’s executed elegantly and adds another thought-provoking layer to an already dense narrative. The best moment, though, is a scene where a helicopter’s approaching a spacecraft hovering in the distance. The view of the object in the background coupled with the unnerving music and lack of dialogue is hypnotizing and brings to mind imagery from 2001: A Space Odyssey. It’s a truly mesmerizing sequence.

#2: Lion

Director: Garth Davis

Starring: Dev Patel, Sunny Pawar, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara

The most important thing about a story is that you’re invested in the characters and no other movie of 2016 makes you as invested in its lead as Lion. The thought of falling asleep on a random train and waking up hundreds of kilometers away from your home is terrifying, especially if you’re a young child in a densely populated country like India who doesn’t know where home is. But that’s the true story of Saroo, ably played by the young Sunny Pawar and the older Dev Patel. Remarkably, the adult Saroo manages to use Google Earth to find his home and long lost family. All aspects of the film work from the directing to the writing to the wonderful performances. It’s a pleasure going on this extraordinary journey with Saroo. It all culminates in the most satisfying ending of a film in 2016 that challenges you to keep a your eyes dry. You won’t be able to. This is the most inspirational film of the year.

#1: Everybody Wants Some!!

Director: Richard Linklater

Starring: Blake Jenner, Zoey Deutch, Glen Powell, Tyler Hoechlin

It wasn’t nominated for anything, it’s not groundbreaking and no one even saw it, but, dammit, Everybody Wants Some!! is the most satisfying movie experience of 2016. No, it’s not as good as Dazed and Confused, its spiritual prequel, but it’s pretty damn close. The film follows a group of university baseball players in the days leading up to the first day of school. That’s it. Writer/director Richard Linklater understands youth, knows how people talk and has a firm grasp of time and place and he combines all three of these qualities perfectly here. There’s no real plot to speak of but Linklater is that rare filmmaker whose dialogue is so engrossing and whose characters are so relatable that we can forgive him and just enjoy the ride. He also captures that unique time period of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, just like 20th Century Women, where cultural identity was so undefined. He showcases this with a great, eclectic soundtrack composed of rock, pop, rap, new wave and country tunes and even the players go from a disco to a country bar to a punk rock show all in one weekend. But what makes this movie work is the baseball players themselves. Sure, their goals are similar to most college-aged men: have sex, drink beer and compete with each other over everything. But there’s so much more to these characters who sound and act like real humans with varying traits, opinions and emotions. Their macho exteriors don’t drown out their insecurities and insight into their own lives and surroundings. Most importantly, though, you’ll have a blast watching this movie. There’s not a dull scene or exchange within and it’s often laugh-out-loud funny. Hell, it’s literally and figuratively one big party and it’ll make you want to jump through the screen and join in.

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