#just watched one on netflix called ‘the Texas Killing Fields’ and like

[jonny-versace]

As a true crime expert* (*has watched every true crime documentary ever made), I can today announce that the root cause of 99.9% of all crime is “the police”

[orbemnews]

Man last seen with missing Houston tiger jailed on unrelated charge Victor Hugo Cuevas was taken into custody Friday after a Fort Bend County judge revoked his bond on a pending, unrelated murder charge from 2017. The judge set a new bond for $300,000 and asked the state and defense teams to figure out a trial date on the murder case. What was supposed to be a short bond revocation hearing turned into a dramatic, day-long examination into what happened Sunday night when prosecutors say Cuevas was spotted with the tiger in a residential neighborhood. The defense attorney and prosecutor interviewed five witnesses, showed multiple videos and presented closing arguments that lasted nearly an hour. When Cuevas was allegedly seen with the tiger Sunday night in a West Houston neighborhood he was already out on bond on the murder charge in Fort Bend County and on a separate charge of evading arrest earlier this year in nearby Austin County. He was arrested Monday — though the tiger was not with him — for evading police in Harris County and posted a $50,000 bond on Wednesday. At the hearing on Friday, the state argued Cuevas had violated bond conditions multiple times over the years, including Sunday night when he was spotted with the tiger. As to the current whereabouts of the tiger named India, Cuevas’s lawyer said after the hearing that his client returned the cat to its owner Sunday night. But he didn’t identify the owner or say where the tiger is now. “I think the owner is hiding under a rock right now because of the worldwide attention looking for him and India,” lawyer Michael Elliott said. He said the cat would visit Cuevas a couple times a month. The cat was “treated very, very well,” like a pet dog, and Cuevas “loves this cat tremendously” and spoke to it in Spanish, Elliott said. Elliott said Cuevas has already released information about the alleged owner, but police have not verified any specific individuals of interest. Police think the tiger is still in Houston Houston police said Friday they still have not located the tiger. After fielding hundreds of calls with tips from the public and following leads, investigators believe the tiger has been moved to as many as eight different locations in Houston this week. “We’ve gone to a few locations here in Houston and we have not had any luck finding the tiger yet,” said Houston Police Commander Ron Borza. Borza said that Cuevas may have bought the tiger from a female in the Houston area who police have dealt with before with exotic animals. “I don’t know if he was just looking after the tiger or actually purchased it, because a lot of times when we’re going after people dealing in exotic animals, they start passing the animal from house to house with people that are involved in this trade,” Borza said. ‘That is my tiger’ One witness on Friday was Wes Manion, an off-duty deputy from Waller County who lives in the west Houston neighborhood where the tiger incident happened. Manion said he was outside with the tiger for about 10 minutes, trying to keep the tiger focused on him while waiting for police. The deputy said he had his weapon trained on the animal as it backed him into a yard. He said Cuevas came out and pleaded with him not to kill the tiger. Cuevas told the deputy, “That is my tiger,” approached the tiger, grabbed it by the collar, kissed it on the forehead, and took it into the house, Manion testified. Manion said he watched Cuevas get in a white SUV with the tiger on board. He gave Cuevas numerous commands to stop, but Cuevas drove off. Cuevas’ attorney argued that the off-duty deputy in plain clothing had no legal authority to attempt to arrest or detain Cuevas. Houston police officer Justin Nguien testified that he arrived at the scene but that Cuevas fled in his presence before he could give him any commands. Nguien said he initiated a chase when the deputy told him that there was a tiger in the SUV, but Nguien did not catch up to the vehicle. Cuevas’ wife, Georgie, 22, testified that she was at home Sunday night when the tiger incident happened. She said Cuevas was an occasional caretaker of the tiger, and that she told Cuevas to leave and take the animal to safety that night after the confrontation with the deputy in the street. Carol Baskin offers $5,000 reward Carole Baskin, founder of Big Cat Rescue and star of the Netflix series “Tiger King,” is offering a $5,000 reward in connection with the tiger, according to a video posted on her verified Instagram account. Baskin is offering the money to whoever has the big cat, provided that person will release the animal to a sanctuary that is accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, and will work with the authorities to convict the people involved in the buying and selling of the tiger, Baskin says in the video. In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Baskin praised the off-duty deputy for his response when confronting the tiger. “I was so impressed with the deputy that showed up on the scene because he did exactly the right thing, and he showed amazing restraint in not shooting that tiger,” Baskin said. How agencies are responding The unique dilemma regarding a missing tiger has resulted in multiple government services and animal groups coordinating on what to do if the tiger is found. The US Fish and Wildlife Service told CNN the agency is consulting with Houston Police and offering expert advice to make sure the Endangered Species Act is not violated when detaining the tiger. A spokesperson for BARC — the city’s animal shelter and adoption facility — said animal control officers are assisting Houston police with the investigation. Per city rules, it is illegal to keep any wild animals that are dangerous to humans in any facility other than an accredited zoo or shelter. “In the event any such animals are found in Houston, Animal Control Officers will impound the animals and transport them to a secure location — either BARC, another shelter, or regional wildlife facility — to protect the safety of the public as well as the animals’ health,” spokesperson Lara Cottingham said in a statement. CNN’s Ashley Killough reported from Texas. CNN’s Holly Yan, Carma Hassan, Keith Allen, Amir Vera and Eric Levenson contributed to this report. Source link Orbem News #Charge #Houston #Jailed #Man #ManlastseenwithmissingHoustontigerjailedonunrelatedcharge-CNN #Missing #Tiger #unrelated #us

[campaignsoftheworld]

Same Sex America documentary by Henry Corra currently streaming on Hulu via SHOWTIME®

The award-winning documentary Same Sex America from renowned filmmaker Henry Corra has been re-released this summer and is currently streaming on Hulu via SHOWTIME®. The film, originally aired on Showtime in 2005, captures a watershed moment in LGBTQ civil rights history through the eyes of seven gay couples trying to be among the first in the U.S. to legally marry. The film was nominated for the prestigious GLADD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary. In the midst of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and Pride celebrations around the globe this summer, the re-release of Same Sex America is incredibly timely. Massachusetts was the first U.S. state to sanction same sex marriages. “It was about human rights then and it’s about human rights now,” says Corra.

Watch Trailor Stream Movie The idea for the film originated in late 2003 when Corra read the news that the Massachusetts State Supreme Court mandated that same-sex marriage licenses would be issued as of May 17, 2004. “It was a big constitutional moment and a heated political battle had erupted. All eyes were on Massachusetts. I knew that the next six months would be fraught with political and personal drama,” explains the Director. “Events were unfolding so fast when we approached Robert Greenblatt, then head of Showtime. He green-lit the project immediately, and we hit the road for the Boston Statehouse. The rest is history.” Corra says he wanted to make an intimate film that took the viewer up close and personal against the looming political backdrop of the struggle. “By the end of the story,” Corra adds, “you are so involved with the couples and their families and this explosion of weddings that you just fall in love with these people who love each other and just want to be married and have families. It’s an ecstatic moment for all.” Audrey Roth, a former attorney and one of the film’s main subjects, was filmed with her then-partner Robin and their daughter Phoebe and understands the relevancy of their story today. “We find ourselves once again at a pivotal moment in civil rights in the United States, wondering whether or not our rights will be overturned,” she points out. “Our daughter is 19 now, and she is in the streets marching with her friends.” For Audrey, collaborating with Director Henry Corra on this film was a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity. “Henry came into our home and filmed us, but it was just like talking to a friend,” she recalls. “He was so easy with his questions and what he was filming, that we didn’t even notice the camera was there most of the time.” In addition to celebrating the re-release of Same Sex America this summer, filmmaker Henry Corra – best known for his unique brand of nonfiction “Living Cinema” – is currently working on yet another compelling new documentary project, “Unlocked,” which is somewhat of a follow-up to his HBO film George, made with and about his own autistic son. With “Unlocked,” Corra attempts to reach the supposedly unreachable, a group of severe autistics who are learning to speak their first words and connecting to the world in a way no one around them thought possible. “Unlocked” is a film about the journey of walking out of a prison into the bright sunlight.

Watch the "Unlocked" trailer “Unlocked” is mid-way through production with plans for a 2020 release. Corra and his production company Corra Films, based in New York, have also recently collaborated with long-term client Mercedes on an MBUSA campaign (“Greatness Lives Here”), and are now working on a Street Smarts PSA campaign with METRO and the DC Department of Transportation. About Henry Corra: Henry Corra is an Emmy-nominated American Documentary Filmmaker best known for pioneering what he calls "Living Cinema.” Corra’s films have been exhibited worldwide in theatrical venues and broadcast and streaming outlets such as HBO, Showtime, LOGO, CBS, PBS, vH1, Arte, Channel 4, Netflix, iTunes, Hulu, Sundance and Fandor. His work has also been exhibited in the museum and cultural venues internationally including MoMA, the Louvre, the National Gallery of Art, the Pacific Film Archive and the Smithsonian Institute, and is on permanent collection at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. A Sundance and Tribeca Institute Fellow, he has also done episodic TV projects for broadcasters including MTV, VH1, Bravo, and the Sundance Channel. In addition to his film work, Corra has been singled out as one of the foremost Directors of Nonfiction Commercials and Advocacy Advertising in America with groundbreaking campaigns for clients including the American Cancer Society, NYC Health, Mercedes Benz USA, Jet Blue, Starbucks and Google. Corra’s work is characterized by a deep and intense relationship with his subjects, his painterly eye, and his novelist sensibility. His first feature, the award-winning “Umbrellas” (PBS/Arte, 1995), shows the deep passions of the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude on a world stage and the inherently dramatic and at times painful consequences of their work. With “George” (HBO, 2000), made with and about his autistic son, Corra created a unique cinematic language that dramatized their relationship and confronted preconceived notions of autism. “Same Sex America” (Showtime, 2005), captures a watershed moment in civil rights history through the eyes of seven gay couples trying to marry. “NY77: The Coolest Year in Hell” (VH1, 2007) was Emmy-nominated for “Outstanding Arts & Cultural Programming.” “Jack” (2009) is a road movie that’s a loving and poetic portrait of a full-blown alcoholic that challenges conventional ideas about addiction. “The Disappearance of McKinley Nolan” (short-listed for the Independent Spirit Award, 2010) follows the Nolan family from the cotton belt of Texas, to the battlegrounds of Vietnam, to the killing fields of Cambodia and unfolds as a mysterious fever dream. Corra’s latest genre-breaking work, “Farewell to Hollywood” (theatrical release, 2015), is a nonfiction fairytale about love, death, art, holding on and letting go. About Corra Films: The company was founded in 1994 by Filmmaker Henry Corra, a protégé of documentary pioneers the Maysles Brothers. Corra‘s work has inspired a generation of Nonfiction Filmmakers. Under his direction, they are a passionate ensemble of New York’s most innovative talent. Their films are seen by millions around the world: in theaters, on television, streaming video, and across the web. They provoke profound engagement and dialogue. They make groundbreaking and award-winning nonfiction features. They help the top global brands define themselves with real people, TV commercials and digital content. And they lead the charge on the most urgent advocacy campaigns. And, always, they help powerfully unique individuals leave lasting and timeless legacies. www.corrafilms.com Read the full article

[katdvs]

Lucas Friar moved back to Texas at 17, now he’s running for Mayor of Rosewood Springs so best friend Zay and little sister Gigi decide he needs a little help from a political consultant. Riley Matthews found her calling, she found a fiancé, but she never expected to find herself here, of all places.

Cross-posted to FF.net | Soundtrack | Past Chapters

Author Note: Seriously thank you so much to everyone who is still reading this, you guys are amazing in ways you will never know. Something comes up in this chapter that I 100% have planned for a while, I was writing the scene when I saw the news tweet about it and was like eek! Oh, I’ve got a reader survey going and it would be amazing if you could take the time to fill it out. Everything is 100% anonymous, I’m just a little curious about a few things so I thought why not ask. So if you fill that out, thank you!

-loss of my innocence-

“Come on guys get this room cleaned up.” Riley looked at the crew that had been working on the renovations of the lodge.

“Yes Boss, we should have the room cleaned up in twenty minutes or so. We’re just finishing to install the television, and we’ll get this place cleared up.”

“Thank you.” She smiled, “We start painting tomorrow.”

“We’ll be cleaned up and ready for you to paint.” The foreman told her.

She rubbed her forehead, “Thank you Alec, I know I gave you guys a short deadline but you’ve been great so far.”

“Well we want the rest of the jobs, we know if we mess up you’ll replace us.” Alec shot her a smile before he finished with the television, turning it on, “Should be good to go.”

“Thanks” Riley took the remote control from him and turned the set on, pulling up her favorite cable news channel.

“Your patrons will want to watch sports.” Her husband’s smooth voice danced in her ear as he wrapped his arms around her.

“I’m just making sure the TV works.” She leaned into him, “You this anxious to go to the football game tonight?”

“Riley, this is Texas, it’s Friday night, we do football.” He smirked, “Haven’t you figured that out yet?”

“I have,” she smiled as she put the remote down behind the bar, “How’s this look so far?’

“Amazing, and it’ll look even better once it’s painted, and you have actual guests.”

“We’re on schedule for a Valentine’s Day opening.” She ran her hands through her hair as she looked at her husband, “You ready for tonight? Things are really picking up; the election is barely a month away.”

“I sure am, the trunk is full of buttons and stuff. I also have a basket of stuff for dinner, I got your hoodie in the car.”

Riley paused for a moment as she looked around, “I gotta get my purse from the office. Give me a minute.”

“No problem.” Lucas turned his focus to the news as Riley left.

“And today in New York, son of business mogul Stuart Minkus, Farkle Minkus announced his candidacy for the recently vacant seat in the Senate.”

“Is that Farkle?” Riley’s voice was cloaked in bitterness.

Lucas turned to his wife, her eyes wide with a fire he’d never seen before, “Looks like it.”

“That fucking asshole!” She threw her purse down on the ground, “He and his wife, force me out of the business I built, the business I worked my ass off at, the business where I subjected myself to months, years really away from my family and friends, and then he runs for office?”

Lucas put his hands on her shoulders, “Hey, honey, you have every right to be upset.”

“I don’t understand why they forced me out, this isn’t what they told me.” She blinked back the tears in her eyes.

Lucas pulled her towards him, he could feel her tears already seeping into his t-shirt, “Farkle hasn’t returned any of my calls, and Zay said he hasn’t spoken to either of them since right before you went to New York.”

Riley pulled back, wiping her eyes, looking up to see Farkle on the screen giving a speech, and then she saw the chyron at the bottom, IRSM Consulting dissolved in August. Riley Lawrence left the company to move Texas and start a new project outside of politics.

“Why are they even mentioning you?” Lucas looked back at the screen.

“I don’t know none of this makes sense.” She picked up her purse and stared digging through her purse for her phone.

“Today the FDA announced a recall for the birth-control ComHil.”

Riley froze, as she looked up at the TV again. Her mind racing as she held her phone in her hand.

“Ri, you okay honey?”

“Yeah, um, found my phone. I’m going to call Maya in the car, see what she knows.”

Lucas cupped her face giving her a smile, “Hey, you know what as much as it hurts, as much as it stings that Farkle and Smackle did you dirty like this, but they freed you as well, think about it. You decided, you choose to come here, to be with me, to build a life with me.”

Riley gazed into his green eyes for a moment, “That is true.”

“So, you call Maya, see what she knows and I will get us to the football field.”

“You are the best. How did I get so lucky to find you?”

“The subway jolted and I pulled you into my lap.” He smirked before reaching around the bar for the remote and turning off the TV.

She took a deep breath, trying to relax herself even though she had far too many thoughts running through her head. She had to find out what was going on with Farkle and Smackle, why they had lied to her.

Lucas guided her out of the lodge and to his SUV, he knew she was upset, he couldn’t blame her for being so. He didn’t understand why Smackle and Farkle did what they had, and he couldn’t fathom why. The thing that really got him was that they lied to her, even what she told him when she finally had, didn’t feel right.

He took a deep breath before opening the driver’s side door, he could already hear her talking to Maya.

“What is going on with Farkle, what the hell are he and Smackle up to?”

“I don’t know Riles, they won’t talk to us and I’ve been trying. I even went to the offices, which FYI are all closed up. It’s like creepy abandoned.” Maya’s voice came over the speaker phone almost causing Lucas to jump as he started the engine. “Riles, where are you? Please don’t be driving right now.”

“I’m in the car, but Lucas is driving.”

“Hi Maya.” He glanced to Riley, sure her best friend as going to have a snarky comment.

“Whoa he speaks, I was starting to wonder.” Maya teased. “So, what are you to up to, a hayride or something like that?”

“Football game, it’s Friday night. What are you doing?”

“Movie night, we’re watching Trolls—again, Fallon and Drew love it. One day Riley you’re going to get married and have kids, and it’s not football games or square dancing or whatever it is you all do down there, it’s sitting at home watching something off Netflix for the fifteenth time that week.”

Lucas smirked, he couldn’t help but enjoy the knowledge that Maya didn’t know he and Riley were already married, “I don’t know Maya, that kind of sounds like our Saturday nights, we watched Trolls just last week.”

“Ugh, you would Ranger Rick.”

“Blast from the past.” Lucas chuckled, as he turned into the entrance for the high school. It was still early and he found a good spot quickly.

“Maya, will you please just ask Farkle what his damage is if he does talk to you. They haven’t taken my calls, or answered my emails.”

“I’ll do what I can. But they’re avoiding all of us.”

Riley sighed as she watched Lucas get out of the truck, “I don’t like the way they did this. What gets me is, if they had really just talked to me, we could’ve worked something out.”

“But would you have the settlement you got?”

“The money doesn’t matter to me, okay, yeah its allowed me to do a few things that I might not have been able to otherwise, but it just feels dirty, it did then, but even more so now.” She heard the trunk open, she glanced back to her husband, “I gotta go and play devoted fiancé.”

“Get married already, Lucas ask her to marry you.”

Riley chuckled, “Good night Maya.” She hung up before her friend could continue.

Lucas laughed as he unloaded stuff from the trunk, “She’s gonna kill us.”

Riley shrugged as she got out of the car, “I like what we have, it works for us.”

“It sure does.” He gave her a quick kiss as he pulled out the picnic cooler, “Ready?”

“Ready.” She took his hand, and picked up the bag of campaign swag before they moved to the high school.

Gigi sat in the doctor’s office, chewing her thumbnail as she waited for the doctor to return. She felt like each minute that went by took an hour.

A nurse came in to check on her, offering a supportive smile, “Dr. McGuire will be with you in just a few minutes, it’s a little crazy today.”

“Thanks” Gigi wished she had brought a magazine with her, this couldn’t take too long, but the nerves were building. She tried to think, if she was, what were the possibilities.

She couldn’t remember if she and Deacon had used condoms early on, the only time she knew she’d used them in the last few months was the night with Zay.

At least if she was she didn’t have to worry about who the father was.

She rubbed her hands over her face, her heart racing, how had things gotten to this point?

“Okay Gigi,” The doctor popped her red-haired head into the room, “you ready?”

“I sure am Aunt Rachel.” She sighed watched the older woman come into the room.

Rachel sat down on the stool and looked over the chart, “Good news, you’re not pregnant.”

“Oh, thank God.” Gigi breathed, “I mean I didn’t think I was, but with the recall of my birth control, I figured I should check.”

“Good idea, I’m guessing you and the fiancé have been active.”

“I haven’t told Mom yet Aunt Rachel, please don’t tell her. I’m waiting for when she and Dad come into town for the holidays.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I won’t say a word to my sister.” She looked back down at the chart making a note, “So I’m going to try you out on a different prescription, but I do suggest either wait a week, or use a condom until then.”

“Okay, I can handle that.” Gigi slipped off the table and started getting dressed again.

“How’s Lucas, I know I haven’t been around much.”

“Aunt Rachel, we know you’re busy, besides you were off helping women who needed it. You’re an inspiration.”

Rachel rolled her eyes at her niece, “You don’t have to suck up, I won’t tell your Mom.”

“No, I mean it.” Gigi shrugged, “And Lucas is good, he’s very happy with Riley and campaigning, and planning his wedding for March.”

Rachel looked up from writing out the prescription, “Wait, hold up, Lucas is engaged?”

“Oh right, you just got back like a week ago.” Gigi cringed, “Lucas is engaged to Riley Matthews.”

“Wait, the girl from New York?”

“Yeah, her, they’re beyond happy.”

“How did that happen, I thought she was working in politics thanks to her Uncle Eric.”

Gigi stared at her Aunt, “How do you know that, Lucas didn’t.”

“Eric must’ve mentioned it.” Rachel shrugged.

“Wait, you know her Uncle?”

“Yeah” Rachel looked at her niece, “We were college roommates. So, she and Lucas are engaged huh?”

“Yeah something like that.” Gigi grabbed her purse, “I gotta go fill this prescription, meet them and Deacon at the football game, are you coming by tonight?”

“Actually,” Rachel gave her niece a smile, “I think I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay, have a good night Aunt Rachel.”

“I’ll be right back.” Lucas gave Riley a kiss on the cheek just as Gigi was sitting down next to her.

“You guys really are sappy.” Gigi groaned.

Riley ignored her, “Where are you going?”

“I left the hoodies in the car and the air is starting to chill, I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“Okay, we’ll be here.” Riley watched him for a moment before turning to Gigi, “Where did you disappear to?”

“Doctor, I had to get a new prescription for birth control.”

Riley turned to her concerned, “Why, what was wrong with what you were using, wait you were using something right Gigi?”

“Yes, but the stuff I was on got recalled, some mess up in the manufacturing or something. But Aunt Rachel got me on something new.”

“Wow my Doctor is named Rachel as well,” Riley looked out to the field, “My Uncle is like best friends with her, so I have an appointment next week just for a checkup and stuff.”

“Rachel McGuire?”

“Yeah, why?”

“That’s our Aunt.” Gigi shrugged, “Small world, huh?”

“Yeah, it is.”

“Okay, thank God I had these or Mrs. Miller was going to talk my ear off.” Lucas sat next to his wife and handed her the hoodie he’d been carrying.

“Oh thanks.” Riley took it, and pulled it on realizing immediately it was brand new, not the Abigail Adams High one she’d been wearing since she got to town. She looked down and saw Rosewood Springs printed on front, “Lucas what is this?”

“I know it’s not the hoodie, but I thought since you live here now, and we’re at a Rosewood Springs game, it might be better if you wore something from here.” He waited, hoping he hadn’t done the wrong thing.

Riley took a deep breath, “I love it Lucas, it just doesn’t smell like you.”

He put his arm around her, “Yeah well, it’ll smell like you.”

Riley breathed in his scent, “This will just have to do.”

Gigi made a gagging sound, “You guys are awful.”

Lucas looked up to his sister, “Yeah cause you and Deacon aren’t full on with the public displays of affection.”

Gigi blushed, “We are nowhere near as bad as you two.”

Deacon slipped in the seat next to Gigi, “What’s the score?”

She turned to her fiancé, “It hasn’t started yet, you got here before kickoff.”

“Awesome.” He looked to his boss and his fiancé, “Hello guys, hey could I got a new Vote for Lucas button? Mine got destroyed on a house call this morning.”

Lucas looked at the younger man, “Of course, what happened?”

“Mitzy the goat tried to eat it.” Deacon looked down, “I had it pinned to the shoulder strap of my bag. I set the bag down while I was examining Trixy and when I looked over Mitzy had the pin her mouth.”

Lucas’ mouth hung open, “I have no words, but you’ll have more stories like that as the years go on.”

“I’ll give you a bag of pins to keep in case you have another run-in with goats.” Riley shook her head as the PA system blared with an announcement.

The crowd around them came alive as the band began to play cheerleaders began to cheer.

Riley was still getting used to this part of her new life. She loved watching the enthusiasm of the crowd, it could be intoxicating. In high school, she hadn’t gone to many sporting events after Lucas left. She’d thrown herself into her work at the bakery, saving every penny she could, studying.

Never in a million years had she expected to be here. As she felt Lucas put his arm around her, pulling her close to him she couldn’t imagine being anywhere else for the rest of her life.

Gigi breathed a sigh of relief as she parked her car, thinking about her appointment earlier as she got out to run into the house and grab a few things before going over to Deacon’s.

It was easier each day, the more time she spent at his place, the less chance she had of running into Zay, though from the sounds of it he was spending more and more time at the apartment above the bar then here.

The door flew open just before Gigi could put her key in to unlock it, as her eyes adjusted to the sudden bright light flooding from inside she gulped.

She stepped inside after glancing to see if Riley and Lucas were home, but she didn’t see either of their cars.

“Georgianna Darcy Friar, where on earth have you been?” The voice was accusing, harsh, but also loving as well.

She turned to the door of Lucas’ office and saw her mother Bonnie Friar, with her strawberry blonde hair in a classic bob cut, a nice pantsuit for her flight so she looked put together but still comfortable.

“Mom, it’s Friday night I was at the football game.” She moved to give her mother a hug, wondering why no one told her she was coming, “Lucas didn’t mention you were coming.”

Bonnie waved her hand, “He doesn’t know.” She moved around the house, running her hands over the furniture expecting to leave trails in the dust only to discover she didn’t, “I see your housekeeping skills have improved.”

“Oh that wouldn’t be me keeping house.” Gigi slipped her left hand into the pocket of her jacket, “So where’s Dad?”

“Upstairs taking a shower, we had a long flight from London.” Bonnie paused at a picture on the mantle, “What is this doing out, I didn’t know Lucas still had pictures of her.”

Gigi looked at the picture of Lucas and Riley, it was from high school, a dance, they were posed together, gazing into each other’s eyes. “They look so in love in that picture.”

“High school romance, they never would’ve made it to graduation if we’d stayed in New York.” Bonnie put the picture down, “Riley was always a bit spacy. You know has your brother given Dixie a chance.”

“No, Lucas is never giving Dixie a chance.” Gigi rolled her eyes when her mother turned away, “Dixie is a psycho-bitch.”

“She is a very nice young lady, from a very well-respected family here in town, they own the property right next to ours.”

Gigi paused for a moment, “They used to, it has new owners, who are working to revitalize the property, and create a better resort.”

“Pish-posh Gigi, the Carmichael’s especially Dixie did quite well with it.”

“I would love to stick around and see how this all plays out, but I’m going to go get some stuff before I leave.” Gigi started going towards the stairs.

“Gigi, where do you think you’re going? It’s late where could a respectable girl like yourself be going this late at night?”

Gigi straightened up, “Over to Deacon Hughes house where I’m going to crawl into bed with him, probably have sex, and spend the night.”

Bonnie reached for her daughter, “Like hell you are! Is this what happens when we leave you in your brother’s care, you become the town slut?”

“Sorry Mom, I don’t think spending the night with my fiancé is going to make me the town slut.” Gigi held her left hand up, “So yeah being in Lucas’ care has left me with finding the man I’m going to marry.”

Bonnie’s face shadowed over, “You’re engaged and didn’t tell me Gigi, but why?”

“I knew you wouldn’t approve, besides it’s not like you care. You call but mostly talk to me for like two minutes before asking to talk to Lucas again.” Gigi started up the stairs, ignoring her mother following her.

“Gigi, talk to me.” Bonnie pleaded as she watched her daughter stuff clothes into her bag and grab a few things, it was then that she realized how empty the room had become, her daughter was slowly moving in with this man.

“I have to go Mom, but hey I’m sure you’ll have plenty to talk to Lucas about.” Gigi pushed past her as she moved down the stairs, going straight out the front door just as Riley and Lucas were coming p the steps, “Good luck.”

“With what?” Lucas called out before turning around and seeing his mother in the doorway. “Mom?”

Bonnie stopped going after Gigi when she saw her son, wondering how he could have the audacity to bring a woman home. But as they came up the last step she realized who was with him.

She looked to her son, “I cannot believe you have the stupidity to have this girl here. What are you doing Lucas, you will never become the Mayor if you have this New York trash on your arm. I thought you were smarter than that Lucas, I thought you would finally wise up and realize that it’s time to settle down with a good southern girl. You what decided to open old wounds and bring back this simple little waif?”

Riley was stunned, she’d always thought Mrs. Friar liked her.

Lucas couldn’t believe what his mother was saying, he could only imagine what she’d said to Gigi.

“What do you have to say for yourself Lucas?” Bonnie kept her eyes on her son, she had expected him to say something back to her.

“I want to say it’s good to see you Mom, I do wish you had called before coming. But how dare you speak to Riley like that. What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Get this trash out of my house Lucas.” Bonnie went to the door.

Lucas blinked, “Actually Mom, this is my house. Riley lives here with me. If you have a problem with her, get the fuck over it, or find someplace else to stay.”

[moviesihaveseenbeforeiamdea-blog]

#810 The Thin Blue Line

Source

Released: August 25, 1988

Directed by: Errol Morris

Written by: Errol Morris

Starring: Randall Adams, David Harris

Had I Seen it Before? No

A Fun Anecdote Before We Fall Into Despair: Morris met Werner Herzog while he (Morris) was planning a movie about serial killer Ed Gein. Morris asked Herzog for his help in digging up the grave of Gein’s mother. Herzog showed up at the designated time of the plan, but Morris flaked. This led to a long series of events with Herzog questioning whether Morris could follow through anything, and led to a bet that if Morris finished his debut film, Gates of Heaven, Herzog would eat his own shoe. Morris finished the film, and the subsequent result was that we now have a documentary called Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe. 

There is a lot of unique power in a documentary, and they are probably my favorite genre of film. I’ve talked about in the past few entries to some degree about my belief in how a work of art creates an emotional truth using a false construction and argues emotionally throughout. Documentaries still very much fall in line with this, but they are grounded in a more intellectual structure by nature and present their case often in more formal, distant terms. Their arguments are often logical in a way that fictional films would be ill-suited to convey. Documentaries like Herzog’s Into the Abyss single-handedly reversed my opinion on the death penalty, turning me from a tepid supporter to a full-throated critic with its depiction of the process as a complete loss of time and humanity from everyone involved, from the victim of the condemned to the condemned himself to the executioner. Documentaries have a power, and it’s one that when used effectively, is unrivaled. 

Although Morris himself disputed the label of documentary for his breakout effort The Thin Blue Line, it’s not unreasonable to understand the massive impact on documentaries and documentarians that this film would have. Maybe Morris shirked the label of a documentary because of its connotations with a static, disinterested viewpoint which tend to make up a good bulk of the genre up to the making of this movie, with few exceptions. 

Among Morris’s innovations to the field he desperately wants to avoid being identified with is the hyperfocus on one criminal case of a man of no importance, the recreated scenes from the crime based on witness testimonies and court documents, and the dramatic flair brought by Phillip Glass’s intimidating score. Few if any introductions are made to the subjects in the speaker that aren’t said by the speakers themselves. There are no name cards or cutesy set-ups. Voices simply start speaking into the void of the camera, doing their best to present themselves as they want to be seen. 

All of these characteristics of The Thin Blue Line can be found in productions like Sara Koenig’s Serial podcast, Netflix’s Making a Murderer, or HBO’s The Jinx. There is a mutual exchange with one of Morris’s influencers, Werner Herzog, whose monomaniacal impulses are present but subdued in Morris’s own work. There is a legacy that this film has, and with good reason. 

Randall Adams, the wrongfully convicted (Source)

Morris does an excellent job of maintaining the structure of the narrative, pushing the story through its ins and outs and never overtly giving way to one definitive interpretation of an event until the moment when you’ve been made most impressionable. It’s then that Morris strikes in with what feels like an objective realization but is, on closer inspection, editorial speculation channeled through his subjects. It’s a myopic view to assume that documentaries are free of any subjective bias simply because they rely on what should “objective” facts like testimony, paperwork, and educated guesses. To paraphrase Hunter S. Thompson, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. And Morris knows it. 

Randall Adams is a man entirely sympathetic to Morris and, by extension, the viewer. As he narrates his version of the events, he does not hedge, waiver, or contradict himself. His body language is constrained, respectful, and his eyes plead with Morris and the camera to believe him. At one point, Adams recalls watching an episode of the Carol Burnett show in his motel room at a time which would preclude him from the possibility of the murder of Officer Woods, and a later image Morris includes in the movie confirms that the Carol Burnett show was indeed airing at the time Adams claimed he was watching it. It’s a small detail, but in a case who penalty is death, it’s the small details that Adams’s story will live or die by. 

And just as interesting is the way in which Morris portrays Dallas. A place long known colloquially as “The City of Hate,” Morris paints Dallas through his interviews with the people who live about it as a city of barely-restrained contempt and rage, all too willing to devour the innocent like Adams. Adams himself recalls a member of his family remarking that if there ever was a Hell on earth, it’s Dallas, Texas. I’m not sure if that descriptor is still apt today. It’s been nearly thirty years since The Thin Blue Line was released, but it’s only been about a year since the city was the center of a series of police killings that happened in any already fraught racial and political climate. Morris prominently features Vidor, a small town outside Dallas where Davis Harris hailed from, and a regional center for the Ku Klux Klan, the kind of town that isn’t simply tolerating the Klan but is made up of it. 

Adams is positioned as someone swallowed up the inevitability of tragedy that occurs from a place as hateful and entrenched as Dallas. Adams may have been dumb in hanging out with a clearly-dangerous sixteen-year-old, but you can’t fault the man for wanting any kind of trouble. He didn’t. It found him anyway. 

Officer Mark Woods, the victim (Source)

There is a certain amount of pointlessness that seems to be recognized by Morris in which subjects he chooses to include in the movie. The prosecutor who brought the case against Adams declined to participate in the movie, but many of the law enforcement officers and the presiding judge both chime in and reveal a sentiment that they were always pushing for how they should resolve the murder of a police officer so that it would carry through to a cathartic conclusion. At no point does there seem to be any genuine doubt from the people responsible for condemning an innocent man to death. Adams himself notes that it seemed to him throughout some of the judicial processes it felt obvious that the question of his innocence was entirely irrelevant, the only thing that mattered is how and when they could kill him. 

One of the people responsible for Adams receiving the death sentence is a psychiatrist named Dr. Grigson, who is notable in that this whole movie originally started out as an investigation into his career. Known as “Doctor Death,” Dr. Grigson was a psychiatrist frequently used in cases where the possible sentence could include death to perform evaluations on the defendants. Encouraged by the prosecution, Doctor Death would invariably claim that if the defendant were to be released, he would murder again. It was only when Morris met Adams as a result of this initial investigation did he realize that Adams was not a danger and that his trial was likely a miscarriage of justice. 

There are stories like this throughout. Witnesses with something to gain, inconsistent testimony used like a bludgeon against Adams’s consistent defense, Officer Woods’s partner being near-useless in her description of what happened, and David Ray Harris’s knowing demeanor about what really happened that night all show a judicial system that got the result it wanted and not the result it should’ve worked for. 

It’s unnerving to think how quickly your life can be seized from you in the name of justice. We know this. I know this. The trade-off we make is to give a privileged few the ability to take from us what we most privilege in our own lives. This is one of the cornerstones of a civil society. We do this in the hopes that the system will be near-infallible, but we all know that it isn’t. Even if there is no injustice committed against us by the state, we are all at aware of at least one instance in our lives when someone we knew or someone we saw was denigrated and humiliated by a system we all tacitly endorse, and whose misapplication is never taken as seriously by us as it should. 

David Ray Harris, the likely murderer (Source)

This movie is often remarked on for its sense of activism, which is maybe more explanatory for why Morris recoiled at the idea of marketing it as a documentary. There’s an inherent bias towards structure and anticipation of a particular kind of argument once you label a film with a well-recognized genre, and something affixed with a generic label can live and die by how well the movie fits in with audiences’ expectations (see: The Cabin in the Woods and the misplaced disdain that movie gets from people claiming it isn’t “scary” enough for a horror film). It’s the same logic that led Jon Stewart to repeatedly denounce The Daily Show as a news program. 

I believe Morris’s aversion the documentary label is to shed the responsibility that might come with claiming to be a documentary. Purists might take issue with The Thin Blue Line for its artistic ambitions and the creative liberties it takes with the story, and for Morris, the point isn’t even to be a part of cinematic movement tied to a form, he wants to send a message. Morris, sight unseen, ignores the conventions of the documentary and positions his film as a deeply-researched, deeply political work that carries a chip on its shoulder and an ideology in its heart. 

But I think it would be a misunderstanding of Morris’s intent and the movie’s construction to claim that The Thin Blue Line is interested in heroes and villains Morris makes no particular point to paint Harris as evil, only as the likely murderer. It never lionizes Adams, either, instead of showing him for what he was: an aimless guy going nowhere fast, who got caught up in a sequence of events he never had any influence over. 

Morris is steadfast in an unsentimental pursuit of the truth, something which inadvertently positions him as a sort of antiparallel to the sins of the state actors who simply wanted a result in condemning and executing Adams. While Morris’s aim is undoubtedly nobler in his desire to find the truth of the matter, both Morris and the men who botched a case so badly that Morris had to become involved were both interested in a sort of rational explanation for the world that is outside their control. Morris might have been right about Adams’s innocence, but his intuition and judgment came from a place of the same futility he supposedly condemns: that of a man trying to impose how he’d like the world to be in place of how it is. If only that mentality more often led to the Randall Adamses of the world being exonerated rather than convicted in the first place. 

Final thoughts:

Randall Adams had his case reviewed as a result of this movie, and eventually had his verdict overturned and was released when the prosecution declined to press for a re-trial. Adams received no financial compensation from the State of Texas, sued Morris for the rights to his life back, and became an anti-death penalty activist. According to the internet, he lived in such obscurity that his death was only discovered a year after the fact. There’s no shame in any of that, except for his not having received any compensation from the state. 

David Ray Harris was convicted of a separate murder which happened during an attempted kidnapping. He was sentenced to death and finally executed in 2004. His final words were “Sir, in honor of a true American hero: Let's roll. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. I’m done.” The reference to the American hero was reportedly words said by Todd Beamer on the United 93 flight before fighting the hijackers attempting to crash the plane into the Capitol Building during the September 11 attacks. 

I don’t know if it was FilmStruck, the film itself, or my lackluster TV, but the visual quality of this film was abhorrent. This movie might be in dire need of a remastering, the noise was insane and every 40-60 frames the film seemed to flash a single frame that was more exposed than the rest, making the picture look like it was lighting up. 

Recommended: Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, and Into the Abyss, Herzog’s own 2011 documentary on a capital murder case. Like Morris’s film, Herzog examines the questionable verdict of the case. Unlike Morris’s film, Herzog uses the case as a more explicit condemnation of the death penalty. 

[meansbehindwords]

sup.

I am tired. And yes by tired I means tired of sitting around and doing nothing. I am bored out of my mind. For the past month I have been sitting in the chair I am currently sitting on doing nothing but watching videos on youtube and Netflix and reading tweets of people doing things out of their comfort zone and making money.  In about 4 weeks I am heading to college and I am scared out of my mind. The pressure of succeeding is scaring me and I do not think I can do it. I am listening to "feeling alive" by earl st. clair right now and the lyrics he is saying resonates with me so much because I don't feel alive. I am someone that is scared to go out of their comfort zone to try new things and today is the day I change. I am accepting the fact that life comes with struggles and my struggle right now is trying to tame the boredom that is my life. The song just stopped… hold on while I press replay because it is giving me fuel as I am writing the truest form of words I have ever written (don't know if that made any sense) but I am gonna keep on going (no need for Microsoft Word to correct me). This is me. This is my dryness. This is what is happening in my mind right now… what I am thinking of as this current moment.  I feel trapped and too free. I have so much time in my hands and I am not using it at all or putting it to effect (or affect whichever word fits in this sentence right now) – sorry but the summer has taken a toll on my grammar and ability to think clearly. I feel like the world has given me an opportunity to spread a message. I don't know why am I doing this but maybe it's the universe or God or whatever telling me that it's my time. Now I don't know what I'm gonna do with this message but I am on a role so there's no stopping for me.  I feel like I can tell you anything and by "you" I mean anyone willing to even give me their attention. I am on my period. Yep I said it. It's a sensitive and weird topic but I am just going to say it. Maybe my ovulation cycle is playing a factor into why I am so inspirational but I don't care because I like this side of me. Maybe I woke up on the right side of my bed and that changed how I vewed life. Now I am the type of person that worries of the conseqeuences for every action I make. I know that's not living to my full potential but that's how I am.  And to tell you the truth I'm sick of it. I'm sick of waiting around. I;m sick of waiting for lifde to tell me that's my life is over and it's time to go. I am scared of death. Everything about it is scary. And to think that I may not be alive tomorrow scares me out of my mind. So I'm going to take this opportunity to tell you (whoever is reading this) a little about myself. My name (or part of my name anyways) is Danika  pronounced DAN-I-KAH (like Danica Patrick- the race car driver). I was born in Haiti and came to the U.S. when I was one but no one would no that because I hide the fact that I'm Haitian American. I don't know why I do that. Maybe I'm scared of the reactions or embarrassesd I don’t know right now. I am the oldest of 4 . yep that's right. I am the oldest which means I have a load of responsibilities. To be this role model for my brothers and sister to be the model that my parents want me to be. To be this inspiration that I don't think I can with so much fear within me. I am majoring or hope to major in communications. Ironic right? I can't even speak in front of a group of people and I am majoring in the one field that requires you to speak. I don't know why I am majoring in it I just know that I want to help people and be the voice that no ones wants to be. I want to be an inspiration. I might not show it but it's there. I swear. Now the song that I previously mentioned has been played 3 times right now and I am fueled even more to speak my mine. I have been in this cocoon of mine's since kindergarten. Yep… since setting foot in my elementary school. This shyness takes over me. It's something I can't control and sometimes I love it because it protects me from getting hurt from trusting those that shouldn't be trusted in the first place and would just let you down and disappoint you in the long haul. Umm sorry I just took a long breath and clicked on the replay button and totally forgot what I was going to say next. Anyways I think it’s time for the world to know me and see my potential in making a difference whether I am helping people in the medical field - which I doubt cause blood makes me nauseous – or helping them through their education or mindset as a therapist. I want to help people. That's one thing that I know for sure. Holy crap.. I just looked at the word count on this thing and realized I have type 959. Now 960 now 963 (you get the point) in about 10 minutes. That's the more words I have typed in my whole life especially without pauses and use of the backspace key. All of the things I am saying right now is coming right from my mind with no hesistation about what I am putting on this document or the care of others opinions about me. (sorry for the lack of punctuation marks) I want to show tha rare side of me the side that doesn't care about punctuation marks and grammar and uses of capital letters or lack of capital letters. I don’t really know if anyone is going to read this or the point of this document. I just feel trapped right now and writing this message is helping release my frustration. Did I talk about myself. I don't really know. oh yeah something else about me.. I forget a lot but in other occasions I can rmember moments from my life that is important to  me and has an impact on my life. I can remember things as far as I was at least 4 years old. Some people say it's a gift others say it's not I say why can't this memory help me in my schoolwork because I can't remember a darn thing in any of my classes. No matter how hard I try I learn something one day and forget it within an hour. It's a defect of my memorixation ability. (did I jus create that phrase or is that a thing) anyways what was I saying… crap I forgot… see it works everytime…. I think I just layed out my personality or my "hidden" personality in this document or message or diary whatever you want to call it. My shyness has taken over me and hid parts of me that I would absolutely love to show my friends and sometimes my family. I have a lot of personalities. Don't worry they're not split personalities like that movie about that guy with his split personalities. Don't ask me about whther I saw the movie because I didn't. oooo something else you will learn about me is that I hate horror movies but I love the rush it gives me especially the jump scares. I wouldn't watch a scary movie without the comfort of others so don't expect me to watch any of them. I don't really get scared but when I do it's showcased clearly. The scariest move I have ever watched or I could veer recall was that scarecrow movie i don't know what you call it. I kinda forgot… hahahahaha see I forgot. I don't remem… oh wait! It's the "Texas Chainsaw Movie". Yep that film scared the bajeezus out of me.  I just pause gain and forgot my train of thought. Umm I don't know what to say and I pretty much expressed all of my emotions. If anyone has even gotten up to reading this part I would like to apologize for my weirdness. I don't know what I am writing or even know if any of this is specific or helpful in any way. I feel like I'm talking to a therapist which is weird cause I never talked or seen a therapist ever in my life and suddenly feel like I'm talking to one maybe it's from the tons of therapist scenes I see in movies and tv shows. Uh what else can I say about myself. I like strawberries( that's my default information). Uh holdon I need to click on replay. Okay uh feel like this is a biography or autobiography to be correct. What else can I say about myself. I'm 18. Did I say that already. Uh I like to sing or try to sing and no I am not that person that has the most angelic voice and says they can't sing. I literally can't sig. some days I have this miracle where I can sing or yell out these falsetto notes and other times I sound like a goat specifically a lost one looking for its mother. I don't know what I am talking about. It sounds like I am writing gibberish. Uh I have an obsession with superheroes (holy crap I just scrolled up and saw how much I wrote in like 20 minutes) lol never done that before. Anyways uh wait I have to click on replay and I'm sorry if it's a little annoying that I am writing or typing everything I am doing including my actions but that's how I concentrate. Anyways hold on while i press replay this song is really truly inspirational by the way anyway hold on.  Ok I'm back,. And I just moved from the most comfortable spot I have been for the past twenty minutes. And it was a really good spot… dang it. Ok what was I talking about? Oh yeah ummm superheroes ( I just scrolled up to see what I was talking about last) umm I am obsessed with superheroes whther they are from DC or Marvel I am obseesed with a lot of them. Please don't ask me if I know the difference from dc and marvel in the comments section or if there is even a comment section. I don't know the difference.. I researched it a while ago and read about it and still don't really know the difference except that there are different superheroes in it and right now marvel is killing the game with their movies no offense to dc and dc is killing the game with their tv shows no offense to marvel. Umm my two favorites right now from the tv shows at least are the green arrow and the flash. And my favorites from the movies are spiderman because I recently saw the movie that came out in july this year (this year being that it's 2017) and it was amazing. I also have a man crush on chris evans who plays captain America, and chris hemsworth who plays thor. They are hunks…and that's all I'm going to say for now. I also have a woman crush on the badass otherwise known as black widow a.k.a. scarlett johannseen (I feel like I spelled her last name wrong and Microsoft word is validating that feeling). Ok umm I love these superheroes so to all the superhero obseessors (is that a word, cause Microsoft word is saying no) anywas to the superhero fanatics hit me up cause yah girl want to talk about superheroes. Or wants someone that is interested in superheroes to talk about superheroes with. After typing non stop I just realized that my mind is like an 8-yr old me. I did not know my vocabulary or my default vocabulary if this miniscule and non-advance. I need to build it up in the future. I don't know if that made sense but that's what I thought about in my mind. Now I am also obsessed with musicals.. yes I said musicals I don't how I gain this interest but I love musicals especially playing the parts of the charcters in the songs. I love bring it on the musical, Hamilton of course, umm hairspray, grase, and crap I forgot the other one. I recently found out about david Hansen and I really want to hear some the musicals. I just haven't gotten to doing that yet. Musicals help me concentrate I guess or I just love how the sound resonates with me and how the voices of these artists mesh together and create these beautiful angelic notes and melodies. I just love the togetherness expressed in these musicals. Okay huh what else can I talk about. Uh I like to ummm I like to watch youtube videos. Especially vlogs yes I said vlogs also known as video blogs. Whther their family, couples, or one person vlogs I love watching them. I am currently interested in (don’t hate me for this) Logan Paul Vlogs. Yes I said it. I love watching logan paul on youtube. I started watching when youtube recommended me. I'm pretty sure the first one I watched was the chloe one or when he communicated with a girl through a starbucks store glass window. Yep all the things I just said is true. So the date when that video was posted is when i started watching logan paul. I never really knew about him but after that vlog wait hold on I think the other old one I watched a long time ago was one with him and iphones. I think it was a giveaway. I watched that one. And now as I am typing it, it could have been the first video I watched. Anyways umm what was I saying? Uh after watching those vlogs I was hooked. I have never laughed as much to a youtuber as I have watching logan do stupid stuff(sorry but they are stupid). He's is just this funny charismatic dude. And I can't stop watching (hahaha I sound like a stalker) (which I shouldn't be laughing at… sorry). Okay I am totally wiped this message has become a long paragraph and I mean long ass paragraph about nothing but me talking about myself and my problems. So I'm sorry if I have wasted your time. I have never been this focused in writing a document this long non stop without signing into any social media outlets. Hold on my dad is calling me.  That was my dad. He just called to know how we were. And by we I meant my siblings and I. he and my mom are at work right now. I love them to death.  And now I am tired like I have nothing to talk about anymore. My creative juices are gone. I feel empty like I can't say anything like I have said all the things I needed to. I don't know where I'm going to post this. Or of I should even post this. I don't even know if people are interested In opening this. Umm maybe I can put this on my tumblr page. Yep I have a tumblr page . I created it a while ago and haven't used it at all except to post a message describging my account and what I would have been doing with it like posting topics that matter to me and talking about it. Maybe this could be my starter page or book hahaha get it cause this doc is long as hell. Sorry for that stupid remark. Ok uh maybe I can post those on my tumblr page. This could a diary session of mines. I never really had a diary. Like I had diariy like notebooks but I was forcing mysaelf to be like that typical person of expressing their feelings down on a notebook like the movies portray when they are showing teenage girl and what they do. I know that's not what happens now because a lot has changed. Not going into that topic right now because that would add an extra 4 pages to a message I expected to be 1 page or no not 1 page but 1 very short ass paragraph. Crap I lost focus again which is weird cause I never even had focus in this doc. Umm I don't what I'm going to do next. right now I'm going to put my tumblr profile to use and showcase my feeling and thoughts that sounded weird… thoughts and feelings… okay uh yeah that's what im going to do. I'm not aiming to collect an audience or even have an audience reading this. I am going to use tumblr as my therapy sessions or a folder holding records or transcripts of my sessions of me talking to myself. That did not make any sense. Okay I'm leaving. I'm tired. And by leaving I don't really mean physically leaving I just mean i am leaving this document and uploading it on tumblr. Okay bye uh I don't know what to call it or this,. Uh bye thing. And starting now i am going to record the date and time I started and finish each of my sessions. Since  did not come up with that idea before I started typing I don't have a specific time of when I started typing so I'm going to leave the start time blank.  Okay now I'm just blabbering see ya later thing. Dani out hahaha that was lame. 

p.s. I apologize after advance for the lack of paragraphs and indentations. I did not think about how hard it would be to read this thing. You don't have to read it if you don't want to. Okay bye thing. Also the grammars may make it hard to read. I am not going to correct them unless it's really hard to make out what I'm saying sorry but I am tired of trying to be perfect. Okay that sounded harsh. Sorry gain. Okay for real this time.. bye thing.

End time – 8:21 p.m. Date of Session – 7/31/17 Word Count (minus the recording details I am typing in right now and this parentheses info) – 3,126

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND March 29, 2019  - DUMBO, UNPLANNED, THE BEACH BUM, HOTEL MUMBAI

This is going to be another weekend where I haven’t really seen any of the wide releases except for a few that opened limited first. Next week will probably be the same as I head to Las Vegas for CinemaCon and will miss most of the bigger press screenings.

Sadly, I would have loved to have seen Tim Burton’s DUMBO (Disney) in time to review it for you, as I am generally a fan of Disney’s classic animated movies (vs. the Jeffrey Katzenberg wave from the ‘90s, most of which I still haven’t seen), as I am a fan of Tim Burton and much of the cast of this one. It includes Michael Keaton and Danny De Vito, both reuniting with Burton after Batman Returns, and Eva Green, who has appeared in a few of Burton’s recent movies… AND she once called me a “pervert.” (The story is funnier if I don’t explain why.) But the story of Dumbo is classic Disney in the sense that it reminds me of all the wonders of watching movies as a kid filled with joy and awe… as opposed to now where I always feel a sense of dread, wondering if a movie will be half as good as it hopes. Anyway, I’ll see this on Thursday night and maybe write something Friday if I’m up to it.

I’m less likely to see UNPLANNED (Pure Flix), a movie that I’m shocked even exists, let alone is being released into 1,000 theaters. This is almost like the polar opposite of the great Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake in that it’s a biopic about Abby Johnson, a Planned Parenthood clinic director who was so shaken by witnessing her first abortion (not her own) that she became an anti-abortion activist. Besides sounding like something out of Jordan Peele’s upcoming The Twilight Zone show, it’s also horrifying to think that the Pro-Life crowd is now trying to recruit the Christian Right to their cause through movies, one that received Pure Flix’s first R-rating, no less.

After premiering at SXSW, Harmony (Spring Breakers) Corine’s new movie THE BEACH BUM (NEON), starring Matthew McConaughey and a typically oddball cast including Snoop Dog, Zak Efron and Jonah Hill, will also open wide this weekend. I’ll probably try to catch this just cause I’m so curious about Corine’s oddball auteur sensibilities. Spring Breakers was actually a bit of an anomaly, and it was one of his few movies I actually liked, compared to something like Mister Lonely, which I found unwatchable despite its similarly-odd cast, which included Werner Herzog.

Then there are two movies expanding nationwide this weekend, both of which I’ve seen and enjoyed, the first of them being Anthony Maras’ directorial debut HOTEL MUMBAI (Bleecker Street), a terrific ensemble piece starring Dev Patel, Armie Hammer and Jason Isaacs – three actors I truly love – about the terrorist attacks on the luxurious Hotel Taj in 2008. I was really impressed with how Maras and his cast and crew tell this harrowing story that’s not quite on par as Peter Greengrass’ United 93 but has a similar impact as you watch it and see how these amazing people came together to prevent even more people from dying. I also should point out that the primarily Indian cast beyond Patel are also excellent, showing there’s a lot of talent coming from India that have yet to break out in a big way Stateside.

Focus will also expand Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s drama The Mustang into an unknown number of theaters, and I also recommend this movie if you have an opportunity to see it. It’s a wonderful movie starring Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts (Rust and Bone) as a convict who finds a way to fight against his anger issues and violent tendencies by training a wild horse in the prison’s program. Since I haven’t seen the other three movies above, as of this writing, I recommend seeking out Hotel Mumbai or The Mustang if they’re playing wherever you live.

LIMITED RELEASES

I was a bad boy this weekend and didn’t watch any of the screeners I was supposed to watch, so that means I’ve only seen one of the movies opening in select cities this weekend, and that was Kent Jones’ DIANE (IFC Films), which played at Tribeca last year where it won two awards. It stars Mary Kay Place as a Massachusetts woman named Diane, who puts most of her time into helping others in her big family over herself while also dealing with her son Brian’s (Jake Lacy) ongoing addiction that has him going in and out of rehab. Personally, I found it a slog when I saw it at Tribecalast year.

Opening in New York (Village East and Alamo Drafthouse, the latter a part of their Drafthouse Recommends series) and L.A. (three Laemmle theaters)  is Sophie Lorain’s French coming-of-age comedy SLUT IN A GOOD WAY (Comedy Dynamics), a movie that I haven’t gotten around to watching the screener, as of this writing, but what a great title, huh? It stars Marguerite Bouchard, Romane Denis and Rose Adam as three teenage girls exploring their first taste of freedom, all three of them in love with the guy who works at “Toy Depot” – a sex shop -- where they each apply for part-time jobs.

Also opening in select cities is Alison Klayman’s documentary THE BRINK (Magnolia) which follows former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon through the 2018 mid-term elections as the controversial Breitbart founder tries to reinvent himself by getting involved in the European Parliamentary Elections of 2019 with his “global populist movement.” I’ll be curious to see how this compares to Errol (The Fog of War) Morris’ American Dharma, which premiered during film festivals last September but (as far as I know) still hasn’t been released yet. I’m not even sure it found distribution but Bannon is not a very popular figure among American liberals (for good reason), so I can’t imagine many critics would approve of either film.

This week’s Saban Films’ offering is Sarah Daggar Nickson’s thriller A VIGILANTE, starring Olivia Wilde as an abused woman who sets a course to help victims rid themselves of their domestic abusers while also hunting down her husband, whom she needs to kill in order to truly be free. It will play in select theaters Friday after a month on DirecTV.

Downton Abbey director Michael Engler reunites with Downton writer/creator Julian Fellowes who adapted Laura Moriarty’s bestselling book The Chaperone (PBS Distribution Masterpiece Films). The amazing Haley Lu Richardson (Split) plays Louise Brooks before she became a movie sensation in the ‘20s and is just a student in Wichita, Kansas. When she is sent to New York to study with a dance troupe for the summer, her mother requires a chaperone, a role taken on by the by-the-books Norma Carlisle (Elizabeth McGovern).  This witty period piece opens Friday at New York’s Landmark West 57 and Quad Cinema and then expands to L.A.’s Laemmle Royal, Playhouse 7 and Town Center 5 on April 5.

The Discovery Channel is also giving Ross (Born into Brothels) Kauffman’s new documentary Tigerlanda release in New York on Friday just a day before it premieres on the cable channel Saturday. It’s a film about a group of Russians trying to protect the last Siberian tigers from extinction, and it’s produced by Fisher Stevens of the Oscar-winning The Cove.

Cocaine Cowboys director Billy Corben returns with the doc Screwball (Greenwich), another film set in Miami, this one that looks into Major League Baseball’s doping scandal and how it affected New York Yankee’s Alex Rodriguez. It opens in select cities following its debut at TIFF last year.

The makers of The ABCs of Evil, Tim League and Ant Simpson, return with The Field Guide to Evil, a horror anthology featuring short films by eight (actually nine) foreign horror filmmakers telling folktales about myth and lore, including Peter Strickland (Berberian Sound Studio), Can Evrenol (Baskin), Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz (Goodnight Mommy) and Agnieszka Smoczynska (The Lure). I missed this movie at Fantasia last year (‘cause I didn’t go) but it will be opening in most Alamo theaters (about 40 nationwide) on Friday.

This week’s Bollywood release, opening in about 100 theaters nationwide, is Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s thriller Super Deluxe (Prime Media), the second film from the director who won the Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film at the 59thNational Film Awards in India. It’s a film about how fate messes with the life of a group of people, as fate is wont to do.

Renowned indie distributor Jeff Lipsky’s seventh feature as a director, The Last (Plainview Pictures), will open in New York at the Angelika and CMX New York on Friday, then will expand to other cities including L.A. on April 26. It involves a large Jewish family of four generations learning that their 92-year-old matriarch, a Holocaust survivor (Rebecca Schull) has a secret that shocks the entire family.

Opening in L.A. at the Laemmle Music Hall is the Holocaust drama Sobibor (Samuel Goldwyn Films) from reputed Russian actor/director Konstantin Khabenskiy (he appeared in Timur Bekmambetov’s Wanted and Nightwatch), playing Soviet prisoner Alexander Perchersky, who led a rebellion at the Nazi’s Polish death camp Sobibor in 1943 in order to escape, freeing hundreds of Jews.

As a counterpoint to Unplanned, there’s Josh Huber’s romantic comedy Making Babies (Huber Brothers) about a couple played by Eliza Couple and Steve Howey who spent five years trying to have kids, so they start exploring other medical and spiritual ways to conceive a child. The movie also stars Ed Begley Jr. and the late Glenne Headly and will open in select cities.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Besides playing at the Egyptian in L.A. (see above), John Lee Hancock’s THE HIGHWAYMEN will be available on the Netflix streaming service after playing in select theaters for a couple weeks. I finally caught it last week, and really enjoyed it. It stars Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson as former Texas rangers Frank Hamer and Maney Gault, recruited by the Governor of Texas (Kathy Bates) to hunt down and kill Bonnie and Clyde, whose crime and killing spree has gotten out of hand. Hamer and Gault travel across stateliness trying to find them, following the different clues left behind. This is definitely my kind of movie, not just due to the subject matter, but also seeing such great actors as Costner (possibly the last of the bonafide movie stars?) and Harrelson taking on such great roles to show a different side of the story than the one mostly known from the Warren Beatty movie. I really enjoyed both actors’ performances and the general tone of the film, although I do feel that it was a little too long and drawn-out and not in a good way ala David Fincher’s Zodiac. But it does pay off, and it’s a shame that more people won’t be able to see this on the big screen because the film looks great due to the cinematography by John Schwartzman. I’ll also give a shout-out to my pal Johnny McPhail who plays the farmer who witnesses one of Bonnie and Clyde’s brutal murders. Rating: 7.5/10

Also, Friday sees the return of Santa Clarita Diet for its third season, again with Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant. 

LOCAL FESTIVALS OF NOTE

The big festival starting in New York this week is the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s annual New Directors/New Films, which always has interesting stuff although it’s definitely getting more indie and esoteric in recent years. It kicks off tonight with Chinonye Chukwu’s prison-set drama Clemency, starring Alfre Woodard and Aldis Hodge, which recently won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. The festival’s Centerpiece Is Alejandro Landes’s Monos, another Sundance prize-winner, starring the wondrous Julianne Nicholson as an engineer who travels to the South American jungle and is taken captive by teenage guerillas. The Closing Night film on April 6 is Pippa Bianco’s Share– ALSO a Sundance prize-winner! – which deals with sexual assault and the role of the internet, something which seems very relevant and pertinent. There’s a lot of interesting foreign films and a good amount from women filmmakers in this year’s line-up, which you can read more about here.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

This weekend, the Metrograph begins its Total Kaurismäki Show, as in Finish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki, who has been making festival-winning films for almost 40 years and has YET to have a film nominated for an Oscar. This Friday, the series begins with some of the director’s lesser-seen ‘80s movies Hamlet Goes Business  (1987),Calamari Union  (1985) and Crime and Punishment (1983), as well as Shadows in Paradise  (1986), Ariel  (1988) and then the 1990 film The Match Factory on Saturday. This week’s Late Nites at Metrograph  offering is Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner: The Final Cut  (1982/2007) and Playtime: Family Matinees (which has become my idea of comfort food in terms of cinema) is showing Abbot and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde  (1953). Sadly, I’ll be out of town on Tuesday when the Metrograph is presenting Claire Denis’ The Intruder (2004) with a QnA by Ms. Denis who will also introduce No Fear, No Die (1990) right afterwards. (If you also can’t make this night then never fear as BAM is beginning a full-on Denis retrospective, which you can read more about below.)

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

Tarantino’s reopened rep theater continues to kill it with a single screening of Mike Nichols’ 1966 film Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, on Weds. afternoon. This week’s double features are John Boorman’sPoint Blank  (1967) and The Outfit (1973) on Weds. and Thurs., Fellini’sLa Strada (1954) – one of my personal faves – and Il Bidone  (1955) on Friday and Saturday, then the ‘30s musicals Dames and Footlight Paradeon Sunday and Monday. The weekend’s one-offs are midnight screenings of Kill Bill Volume 1on Friday and the comedy anthology Amazon Women on the Moon (1987) on Saturday. The weekend’s KIDDEE MATINEE is The Black Stallion (1979) and there will be a special 20thanniversary screening of the Wachowski’s The Matrixon Monday. Tuesday night’s GRINDHOUSE double feature is two directed by Roger Corman -- The Trip (1967) and The Wild Angels (1966).

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Bob & Wray: A Love Story continues with a double feature of Virtue  (1932) and Viva Villa (1934) on Weds., a reshowing of Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon (1937) on Thursday as well as a Fay Wray double feature of Once to Every woman (1934) and They Met in a Taxi  (1936). Friday sees a reshowing of the double feature of The Mystery of the Wax Museum and The Vampire Bat, both from 1933, and a double feature of Lee Tracy movies, Doctor X (1932) and Carnival  (1935). On Saturday, there’s a special screening of the early Fay Wray film The Wild Horse Stampede with piano accompaniment, plus a double feature of John Ford’s The Whole Town’s Talking  (1935) and Frank Capra’s  You Can’t Take It With You  (1938), both written by Robert Riskin. This weekend’s Film Forum Jr. is the Disney animated classic Bambi (1942).

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Besides a Weds. double feature of John Lee Hancock’s new movie The Highwaymen with his 2002 baseball film The Rookie starring Dennis Quaid, the Egyptian begins Noir City: Hollywood – The 21stAnnual Los Angeles Festival of Noir, running all weekend. It begins Friday with the double feature of Trapped (1949) and The File of Thelma Jordon  (1950), continues Saturday with Appointment with Danger (1951) and Shdow on the Wall (1950), Sunday is Sudden Fear and The Narrow Margin, followed on Monday by City That Never Sleeps and 99 River Street from 1953 and on Tuesday with Playgirl and Hell’s Devil Acre, both from 1954. (This series will continue next week as well.)

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

On Saturday night, BAM will start a new series called “Beyond the Canon” (pairing a classic with a more recent film which it inspired) with a double feature of Anna Rose Holmer’s The Fits (2015) and Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975). At the same time, BAM is kicking off Strange Desire: The Films of Claire Denis, which will run until April 9 and will show some of the French filmmaker’s best films, including Beau Travail (1999), White Material  (2009), 35 Shots of Rum and more recent films like her upcoming English language debut High Life, starring Robert Pattinson.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

On Thursday, MOMI is having a special presentation of Alexandre Rockwell’s 1992 film In the Soup, starring Steve Buscemi, Stanley Tucci, Seymour Cassel, Jennifer Beals, Carol Kane and Jim Jarmusch as part of the 9thAnnual Queens World Film Festival with Rockwell in discussion with former director (and QWFF Spirit of Queens honoree) David Schwartz. To prepare for Mike Leigh’s fantastic new film Peterloo, MOMI is also presenting Past Presence: Mike Leigh’s Period Films, showing the master’s earlier films Topsy Turvy (1999), Mr. Turner (2014) and Vera Drake (2004). It will include a preview screening of Peterloonext Wednesday with Mike Leigh in person!

IFC CENTER (NYC)

I guess Weekend Classics: Early Godard is continuing this week after all with a 35mm print of Weekend (1967) while the winter season of Late Night Favorites ends with Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain (1973) as well as David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive (2001).

MOMA (NYC):

Modern Matinees: B is for Bacall continues with Douglas Sirk’s 1956 film Written on the Wind on Weds, Vincente Minelli’s Designing Woman  (1957) Thursday and Young Man with a Horn (1950) on Friday.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

This week’s Friday midnight offering is Mandy director Panos Costamos’ 2010 debut Beyond the Black Rainbow.

Next week, it’s a doozy of an April opener with Warner Bros’ Shazam! taking on Paramount’s Pet Sematary and the STX drama The Best of Enemies trying to pick up any remaining scraps of business. I’ve only seen one of them.