First Man: A Deeply Introspective Look into Neil Armstrong's Life

Movie Review: First Man (2018)
Version: Library Blu-Ray borrow

As we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, the first steps of man to the Moon in 1969, you might do well to see First Man. It's a look into the life of that first man to put a footprint on the Moon, Neil Armstrong, played by Ryan Gosling. Claire Foy plays his beleaguered wife.

First Man is a deeply introspect look into a complex man, an engineer test pilot, who risked his life breaking personal barriers to move the U.S. space program forward. Facing many challenges like the loss of a young daughter, he fought depression and doubt to conquer internal deprecation while still contributing to the national effort to reach the Moon. But it was at a cost to his self, his family, and friends, distancing himself from them as he focused on science and engineering instead of working through his tragedies.

This isn't an easy film to watch. We're used to lionizing our heroes and First Man very much shows the struggling, human side to Armstrong. But in watching this more real side of the hero unfold, we learn of their sacrifices and strengths in becoming really greater than the superheroes we've come to know in lore and legend. Celebrate the triumph that was Apollo 11, yes, but also celebrate the man, the family, the endeavor, and the life that was the first man to step on the Moon in real terms. First man on the Moon was a man, with foibles and weaknesses that went along with the strengths, and both sides got him to the Moon and back.  You'll get plenty of the hype elsewhere.

Can You Ever Forgive Me?: A Dramatic Role Turns to Sardonic Wit

Movie Review: Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)
Version: Library Blu-Ray borrow

Not all writers are cat people, but the most interesting ones seem to be. Lee Israel was an eccentric one, and the 2018 film Can You Ever Forgive Me? explores all her foibles. With Comedian Melissa McCarthy in the starring role, it turns a dramatic role into an often sardonic one with wit and sarcasm as only she can whip at you with an eye or a wink or a sigh. She is great in this memoir based on the adaptation of the book by the same title and makes it her own.

Lee Israel was an author profiling 1970s and '80s women celebrities. But eventually the women she covered grew out of favor and she had trouble making a decent living. One day while doing research she discovered a celebrity letter and found she could sell it at a New York City bookstore and if she ran into letters or notes with spicier, funnier content she could hawk them for even more. Thus began a new career inventing witty memorabilia for sale, and she was quite good at it. Yet, it turned out she wasn't quite as good at it as collectors were at spotting fakes. Can You Ever Forgive Me? takes you through the twists and turns of turning that trade, feeling guilty about it, learning to live with it, and then living with the consequences of discovery.

Joining McCarthy in this breezy romp is the Brit Richard E. Grant, who plays Jack, the homeless gay man-about-town and eventual colleague in crime. He is every bit as genuine in the role as is McCarthy in hers and the two become comrades in trade, although he isn't quite so witting.

Both are socially awkward inepts who fall into each other's orbits quite by accident but become close friends and allies -- their only real friends, actually. In one scene, Jack must help Lee clean her apartment so the supervisor can bring in an exterminator to treat flies, only to discover she hasn't cleaned the apartment for ages. The cat has defecated under the bed and Jack nearly vomits when he looks there to clean. Now, that is a friend! From then on Jack is there to help her clean up the other mess she creates in her new endeavor.

My only real complaints about Can You Ever Forgive Me? are that the film doesn't really take full advantage of the character social ineptness -- there are clues, but if they didn't reference it you might not realize it. And while McCarthy is cheeky in parts of this story, this film doesn't take full advantage of her many comedic talents, although likely the material simply doesn't provide for it. The film becomes a sad tale about two lonely people who just can't catch a break, despite apparent talents to live life otherwise.

Einstein: His Life and His Universe: He Was Brilliant But He Had Relationship Issues

Book Review: Einstein: His Life and His Universe by Walter Isaacson
Version: eBook library borrow

I watched the series Genius, on National Geographic Channel I believe, that delved into the life of genius physicist Albert Einstein. I was so enthralled that I wanted to read the book on which the series was based, Einstein: His Life and His Universe. Now I wish I hadn't done either.

As a science nerd all my life, I held Albert Einstein as one of my heroes. He died in 1955, six years after I was born. We shared the same initials (A.E.). I wanted to be a physicist, because of him. Then I saw the series and read this book. It turns out, Einstein was kind of a cad.

As the series and the book details, he didn't mind misusing people to further his personal goals and complete his work. He relied on the adept mathematical skills of his first wife to proof his own, but he didn't give her credit for his discoveries, even though they discussed his ideas and she was key to the efficacy of his calculations. They married and had children, and he forced her to care for them instead of furthering her own science and mathematics career. Many of his discoveries picked up from the ideas and work of other physicists rather than being original. And he cheated on both wives, one of whom was a cousin. Now, creatively he was a great thinker and was able to extend the work of others because of his keen insights -- no doubt about it.  Einstein was a visual thinker and did several key thought experiments to concept physics in ways other scientists of his time couldn't. That really was his gift. But he had relationship problems.

As we learn in the made-for-TV series and in the book from which it was closely developed, Einstein misused the people around him, from his professors to his wives, to his children. He rarely saw his sons. He had mistresses while he was married. He even led on a fiancee who was the daughter of a family who took him in while he attended university when others forsook him, carrying on a long-distance relationship while he carried on with the woman who would become his first wife, whom he would then divorce for his second wife, a cousin.

The book is well researched and well written. I don't mean to detract from it or the well-produced television series. In the series, it is well acted and well written. But when I realize what a horrible person he was even into later life, well, sometimes your idols are better off left unexplored.

Einstein did do one other thing very well. He understood the power of the atom and the menace the German physicists presented in their search for the atom bomb, preparing the United States for the eventuality of the development such a weapon in their hands. And as the United States prepared for such a weapon themselves, Einstein joined other scientists in opposing it. In this, he became a voice of reason, finally using his celebrity and his prominence for good. So, perhaps, this story isn't entirely a disappointment.

Still, I have many mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, we should acknowledge knowledge gained. On the other, we should be grateful for the unsullied images of long past heroes whom we cherish. Nothing can be changed having finally understood Einstein's personal shortcomings. He was still brilliant in his science insights. In sum, I'm sorry I read this book.

Florence Foster Jenkins: Rich Characters, Great Actors, a Story Worth Telling

Movie Review: Florence Foster Jenkins (2016)
Version: Library Borrow

The Academy Awards recognized a full spectrum of very interesting movies this year, and Florence Foster Jenkins was one of them, its leading actress, Meryl Steep, the main reason to watch. However, the film included rave performances by Streep's leading man, Hugh Grant, and the grand supporting actor acknowledged with a nomination, Simon Helberg.

That said, what a strange bird this tale is. Streep plays the title character, Florence Foster Jenkins, a well-off turn-of-the-20th-century society woman who fashions herself not just an opera buff, but a talented singer. She is encouraged by her more realistic yet doting husband, St Clair Bayfield, played by Hugh Grant, who is willing to spend plenty of Jenkins' money to keep her happy. In fact, he hires the city's renown orchestral conductor to tutor Jenkins and Helberg's character Cosme McMoon, a struggling professional concert pianist, to play for her. Bayfield also pays people to attend Jenkins' performances. She doesn't sing at all well.

Jenkins is oblivious to her failures while giving her all to her efforts. Helberg provides a wonderful performance as the epitome of the professional who recognizes the hopelessness of her dreams, giving fun facial expressions as Jenkins fails time after time to reach notes or carry tunes, yet is humane in his appreciation for her hopes and desire not to see her embarrassed.

Yet, this film isn't a comedy. And it isn't fiction. Florence Foster Jenkins was a real person and this story is real. It's actually a love story.

Without giving away too much of the story -- because I'd love for you to see this very human story -- it is safe to say that Jenkins was sick and her husband Bayfield, who you might have been tempted to think was trying to live comfortably off of her riches, was at least also trying to help her live comfortably in her final days. He deeply loved a woman he couldn't physically love. And so he provided for her by indulging the fantasy she held that she could sing the opera that she so loved. McMoon loved her spirit and her appreciation for the art. Together, they supported her in her last days.

If you are tempted to laugh at her in the beginning of the film, you will learn to admire her courage and love her verve. And you will join in the appreciation the crowds come to find in the gift Jenkins bestows on them by giving her all of herself.

Meryl Streep put herself out there professionally to play someone who couldn't sing worth a tin nickel. Streep is a fine singer and has sung in other performances. But she proved herself the ultimate professional playing this part. It's worth seeing this film just to see her play this part to deftly. It's also worth it to see Helberg react to her miss all of those notes.

This may not have seemed like the movie you were dying to see. But honestly, I urge you to see Florence Foster Jenkins at least once. See the story that great actors risk to take on because the characters are that rich and, in the end, the story is worth the telling.