Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

BUSHWICK (2017)

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BUSHWICK (2017) is a film that imagines a second American civil war fought in the streets of New York. The South is attempting to secede again, and to increase their bargaining position, they sent militia into Brooklyn to seize hostages and create a base of operations. Only they don’t bargain on the people of New York giving them hell right back with any weapon they can get their hands on, resulting in all-out warfare on the borough’s streets. It’s a supremely improbable scenario, but without it, the movie doesn’t work, so you just gotta run with it. The bad guys are here, and for now, they have the upper hand.

Now to the story. Lucy (Brittany Snow) steps off the train from graduate school hoping to introduce her boyfriend to her grandmother. Instead, she walks out of the subway into a bloodbath. She takes shelter in the basement of an ex-Marine named Stupe (Dave Bautista, who shines in the role of capable veteran who hates war), who agrees to help her get to safety.

That’s pretty much the plot, but I didn’t expect much from this indie thriller. The acting is passable, the actors doing the best they could with a script that was at times a bit hammy and incredibly demanding on Snow, who has to mourn one loved one after another only to soldier on as if she’d never known them. While the movie often had this former New Yorker thinking, “F–k yeah! New Yorkers ain’t gonna take this!”, the ending is pretty dark.

What I liked most is the crazy tension that is sustained through much of the movie. The director relies a lot on very long takes, where the camera follows the action down the street only to be frequently distracted by violent set pieces. Imagine if the battle scenes in CHILDREN OF MEN took up about half a movie, and you get the idea. While the special effects weren’t on par with CHILDREN OF MEN, some of the action is pure adrenaline fuel. I was fascinated by the technique they showed in putting this together in the middle of Brooklyn. Count me in if they ever release a making-of.

BUSHWICK seems to be timed well for the violence and divisions in Trump’s America, and it emotionally touches on that, though otherwise it has no political aspirations, and as such it doesn’t function very well as a cautionary tale of civil war. The film is really a set piece what-if and then produces a tense and scary cinema verite-style portrayal of one man and woman trying to survive it. It doesn’t reach very high beyond what it gives you, but I was okay with that.

Looking at reviews, the film has taken some heat for all sorts of things, but I took it for what it was and enjoyed it quite a bit.

AMERICAN WAR by Omar El Akkad

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american warAMERICAN WAR, a debut novel by Canadian journalist Omar El Akkad, is a beautifully written portrait of a Southern family affected by, and then affecting, a future civil war between the Northern and Southern United States.

In 2074, rising sea levels due to global warming have wiped out the coasts, pushing millions of refugees inland, and the lands near the equator have grown nearly too hot for human habitation. After the President signs into law a complete prohibition on fossil fuels, several Southern states declare independence, which ignites a second Civil War.

The story focuses on the Chestnut family living in Louisiana when war breaks out, chronicling them losing everything, and the commitment of Sarat, one of the Chestnut daughters, to fighting the North to the bitter end to gain revenge for her family’s suffering.

The novel has been hailed as being prescient and a cautionary tale for our times, but for me, it widely missed that mark. The story reads more like the old Civil War was lifted out of history and placed in the future, with fossil fuels instead of slavery being the issue that ignites the war. Artifacts such as short articles and transcripts punctuate the chapters, providing background on the war, but while they add somewhat to the setting, they don’t really get into the key political and cultural roots of the conflict. Despite the rising sea levels and use of vehicles and modern weaponry such as drones, the novel really feels like the last Civil War being refought. In my view, the result misses the real divide in the USA, which is more about class versus class, rural versus urban, and Red versus Blue tribal worldviews. So for me, I hard a hard time connecting El Akkad’s world with the one I live in.

The real strength of the novel isn’t its ideas but its execution. The setting is beautifully rendered and lived-in, the characters and dialogue natural and engaging. It’s a literary civil war, one that’s a joy to read purely for its narrative prose. There isn’t a lot of action, so it’s this prose and general intrigue with the war itself that keeps it moving. Instead, the rich and deep setting is front and center in the book, and for me made AMERICAN WAR worth reading.

Recommended for readers who enjoy literary dystopian fiction.

A FACE IN THE CROWD (1957)

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When I think of old movies, I typically see idealism at the fore, which in today’s jaded age often seems overly earnest and even trite. Then I stumble on gems like SEVEN DAYS IN MAY, ON THE BEACH, SPARTACUS and NETWORK, and I think, WOW, they really knew how to make movies then. Movies about powerful ideas. Movies where the words mattered as much as the visuals. All steak with just the right amount of sizzle. Movies you feel like your brain eats.

A FACE IN THE CROWD (1957) is one of those movies. The film stars Andy Griffith in his first screen role, who tears apart every scene with an incredible performance, along with Patricia Neal, Walter Mathau and Lee Remick. It also features cameos with contemporary media personalities such as Mike Wallace. This is an Andy Griffith unlike any episode of THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW. Forget the kindly sheriff. This guy is an amazing actor who creates a vivid character of a cunning country boy who plays his fans and handlers expertly and would have the entire country dancing to his tune. He gets used by the powerful, but he’s really using them to get what he wants, which is a sense of self-worth and importance.

The story begins with Marcia (the adorable Patricia Neal), who works for her uncle’s radio station in Arkansas. She hosts a show called A FACE IN THE CROWD, in which she goes out among ordinary folk looking for local songs and stories In a county jail, she finds Larry Rhodes (Griffith), a charismatic drifter who blows her away with a song he makes up on the spot about being a free man again the next morning. He won’t tell her his first name at first, so she dubs him Lonesome Rhodes.

Marcia brings Lonesome Rhodes into her studio, where she gives him a morning show. Soon, he’s not only building a fan base with his wit and charm–his way of connecting with ordinary people–but also discovering that he can influence people. It’s his first taste of power, and he likes it.

Soon, Rhodes is hired to do a TV show in Memphis, and Marcia comes with him. There, he uses his power to jab the powerful, including his sponsor, a mattress company. When he loses the sponsor and his TV program, he is brought to New York to do an even bigger show with a sponsor he endorses fully, a manufacturer of energy pills for men that are basically snake oil. Soon, Rhodes is hobnobbing with and serving the rich and powerful he once harpooned.

From there, Rhodes gets bigger and bigger, and so does his ego. He gets another TV show, “The Cracker Barrel,” in which he and some other average folk (paid actors) talk about politics and push certain ideas. The powerful recruit him to push a right wing political candidate for President. He’s told, “The masses have to be guided by the strong hand of a responsible elite.” Rhodes doesn’t care about ideology, however–only his chance to wield even more influence and gain even more power. He tells Marcia–who loves him but hates what he’s become–about his relationship with his enormous following: “They’re mine! I own ’em! They think like I do–but they’re even more stupid than I am. So I gotta think for ’em.”

Like NETWORK, for an old movie, A FACE IN THE CROWD is extremely prescient, and like any classic, its ideas stand the test of time and are as relevant today as they were in the 1950s, possibly even more so.

You can watch the entire movie on YouTube. Here’s the trailer:

Why is There Income Inequality?

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Income inequality is the defining issue of the 2016 election. It fueled Bernie Sanders’ near upset win over Hillary Clinton, and it is fueling Trump’s candidacy. People are working harder and making less. They’re angry.

The American middle class flourished after World War 2 up until the mid-1970s, when a curious thing happened. Whereas between the New Deal and the mid-1970s, workers got a big share of economic growth, after that point, their share steadily shrank until it became negligible. Today, if the economy grows, the average American sees almost none of it. Who gets it? You guessed it–the top 1-5%. The people who are most influential in government policy.

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These people don’t like to share. A recent study confirmed their attitude. Doesn’t matter if you’re Republican or Democrat, if you’re rich, you likely just don’t care that other people work hard but are barely making it.

Economists don’t know why this happened, but Stan Sorscher of the Economic Opportunity Institute has an idea. Check it out here. His answer is economic policies that favor Capital over Labor, enacted by governments influenced disproportionately heavily by America’s investor class.

The Economic Policy Institute chimes in on the issue here. They call for economic policies that not only encourage economic growth but reconnect that growth with gains in worker pay.

Is America An Oligarchy?

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rich and powerfulA Princeton University study confirmed what many Americans take for granted, which is the United States is an oligarchy.

An oligarchy is a country that is controlled by a small group of people rather than a republic, in which power is exercised by the people through elected representatives.

The study analyzed policy preferences of average Americans and economic elites across 20 years. The professors concluded that economic elites hold sway over U.S. policy, writing:

“A proposed policy change with low support among economically elite Americans (one-out-of-five in favor) is adopted only about 18% of the time, while a proposed change with high support (four-out-of-five in favor) is adopted about 45% of the time.”

Further, when even a large majority of Americans want a policy to change, they generally don’t get what they want due to the establishment’s inherent bias for the status quo.

Click here to read the article.
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MOUSELAND

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Actor Keiffer Sutherland introduces MOUSELAND, a short animated film narrated by Tommy Douglas, Sutherland’s grandfather, a Democratic socialist who gave the country universal healthcare.

Each election, the mice in Mouseland have a choice of who will govern them–the White Cats or the Black Cats.

Something to think about during this election year.