The timing for Cristina Costantini’s new documentary about American icon Sally Ride seems ideal, when NASA continues to cede space to private corporations and science in general is under attack by the nation’s government. Throw on top the film’s focus on Ride’s secret lesbian relationship during a Pride Month when hostilities toward the LGBT community have risen thanks to aforementioned government, and the movie would seem like a perfectly timed arrival from the blue. If the film’s prosaic form doesn’t really match the urgency of the protests and turmoil of the week of its release, it’s at least a worthy look at an American icon.
As the first American woman in space, Ride held a nation’s fascination. She handled the rigors of astronaut training alongside interview questions that still tended more sexist than scientific, but revealed a deep well of curiosity about her. And yet while she held the spotlight, a very real part of Ride’s life – her decades-long partnership with Tam O’Shaughnessy – stayed deliberately outside public view.
O’Shaughnessy’s testimony after so much time is valuable enough for a documentary, and the film collects many more interviews and archival clips to make it more than worth the time for a space or history enthusiast. It’s a handsome NatGeo acquisition with a the expected ceiling of that kind of popular production. The extensive time spent on Ride’s personal life never overshadows the time spent on her accomplishments as an astronaut or her dedication to education (like the appearance she makes on Sesame Street – which also works as a reminder to call your local senator about funding public television).
Considering the lengths Ride went through to conceal her homosexuality, the release of this documentary on Disney+ and Hulu highlights the progress of the last forty years, even if it also reminds of the precariousness of that progress. It’s a bittersweet bit of timing, a tribute to a great person of another era that provokes a glance at the stars as we wonder when we might see another American hero strive for them.
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C. D. Ploughman
The weary Ploughman is a writer and filmmaker, focusing these days on documentary and educational projects. He obsesses over movies with his very patient wife and children.
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What Did We Watch?
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – I did this rewatch wondering if it and Fury Road could be watched in either order, with this serving as a strong appetizer for the other. On further review, this is too dependent on Fury Road for meaning to pull it off (even before it goes full victory lap leading into the credits). On its own, Furiosa would be a fascinating and semi-inscrutable object, its attention pulled in bizarre directions at times and its more memorable moments a bit scattered. Fury Road is in many ways a near-perfect movie and this maybe in equal stature as prequels go.
I’m fully on the Hemsworth wavelength this time, it’s actually kind of astounding it’s the hunky Thor behind that nose, so thoroughly he commits to the posturing as Dementus. Taylor-Joy, for the third of the movie she’s in, sounds so wonderfully like Charlize Theron that the transition between the two is shockingly seamless (actually, the transition between each actress playing the part is shockingly seamless). There’s a lot to love here and maybe if there weren’t already so much to love in that other venture to The Wastelands I could bring myself to love with less reservation.
Finished off The Singing Detective then recorded with Dissolver Ethan Warren’s podcast about it! I also managed to get a few digs in about The Sopranos as is my want. I’ve already left my thoughts there but the show, for all it’s faults as near-simplistic Freudian skullduggery, is still moving and rewarding to watch.
Getting to be a fan of Cole Escola, their YouTube channel has lots of gloriously weird 2010’s sketch comedy like this one. A lot of the best experimental alt-comedy stuff from the period went to really dark, absurd places like Steve Brule and Tim/Eric, but this has more of a queer and feminine edge (“She got me into dogfighting and death metal”) that’s refreshing compared to those shows, bless them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8KjZ7wKYUc&pp=ygUPY29sZSBlc2NvbGEgbW9t
Did not have much luck with movies yesterday. Started with King Solomon’s Mines, and the immediate double dip of colonialism and seeing the white hunter shoot an elephant for sport killed this one fast. Then moved to A Room with A View. And got an hour into it, up to the point when by a sheer coincidence the man Helena Bonham Carter is in love with is about to move to Upper Crust Manors. That was enough. What I saw was dull, mannered, not even a little comedic, about people who are at best hard to relate to even a little and at worst stick figures. All that talent and nothing to show for it.
Kojak, “The Captain’s Brother’s Wife” – The titular wife is Shelley Winters, whose late husband was also a cop, and who now is looking for the pot of gold she feels she deserves. Unfortunately, that means she’s broke, in debt to bookies, and relying on Kojak to save her and to not tell Captain McNeil. The idea isn’t awful but the execution, and the endless times she gets into trouble of her own making, are very trying. Winters isn’t bad here, but she’s not the actress we know she can be. Lots of familiar faces here, such as Herb Edelman as her new boyfriend and Conrad Janis as the assistant DA of the week.
Frasier, “Halloween” – Roz thinks she might be pregnant, and confides in Frasier, who talks her into attending Niles’s “dress as a literary figure” costume party. A party Maris misses, leading to Niles getting drunk. And then the farce begins as both Roz’a secret and utter misundestanding about who is pregnant spread through the party. Leading to a “cliffhanger” as Roz confirms to the whole party she’s pregnant. A funny episode since this is a show that does sitcom versions of French farce as well as anyone. Plus we have everyone in costume – Niles as Cyrano, Martin as Sherlock Holmes, Frasier as Chaucer (who some say is a character in The Canterbury Tales) and Daphne as the Wife of Bath, Bulldog as Waldo (he’s from books, right?) and Roz as O from The Story of O. That last leading to: a) everyone in the room reacted when she’s identified going “oooooh” twice; and b) Bulldog knowing she’s supposed to be O since no doubt he’s seen the movie. But I thought Roz had her daughter later in the series. Obviously I am wrong.
Roz gets pregnant sooner than I remembered when I was rewatching – Frasier gets the ski lodge rental because he tells Roz she’s not going to enjoy it as much pregnant.
Live Music – Australian garage-rock / punk kinda stuff from a band charmingly named Alien Nosejob. Friend who runs the DIY venue where I see a lot of this stuff debuted his new band in support, they were chaotic in a good way. And the opener was a solo act playing fuzzy guitar over retro drum machines, good fun. Very warm.
Woooo, live music from an amazingly named band!
Wooo live music! I’ve heard Alien Nosejob on the punk radio show a bit, they’re good!
Wooo live Australians and warm openers!!
The X-Files, “Conduit” and “The Jersey Devil”
Two weak-to-okay episodes, but they have their highlights:
* Carrie Snodgress’s Darlene is a fully realized character in “Conduit”; it’s a bitter pill for Mulder to swallow at the end, but Darlene supporting her daughter hiding the truth of her alien abduction and wanting a firewall between Ruby and obsessives like Mulder is completely understandable and a natural result of all the shit she’s been through. Seeing a UFO back in 1967 and daring to talk about it means the whole town still think she’s an unreliable fantasist–and on top of that, bringing Mulder and Scully into her life also got her house tossed by the NSA. I’d think denial was the way to go too.
* “Conduit” is another episode where Mulder says something isn’t going to happen and then it immediately does, which is always funny to me.
* Mulder’s “I could fix her” reaction to the beautiful Jersey Devil is alternately funny and poignant; Duchovny’s reaction shots give her death a real wistfulness, despite how silly all this is. This is the loss of something strange and wild, and beautiful in that strangeness and wildness. It would just be better if she weren’t also beautiful in the sense of being played by a conventionally attractive twenty-something actress with minor dirt stains and slightly messy hair.
* The professor straight-up lying to the cops about having no idea who Mulder and Scully are: fuck yeah. Great old hippie vibes here.
* The Jersey Devil drawings are the one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I’ve never wanted a tattoo before, but I may have to get one of that “Jersey Devil gestures like he’s showing off a BRAAAAND NEWWWW CAAAARRR” sketch just because seeing it every day would make me so happy.
“Jersey Devil” is one of the more famous bad episodes of the show – goofy premise, weak execution, though by this point I was definitely locked in to Mulder and Scully’s dynamic.
Live music — including an impromptu cover of Mustang Sally, does this count as Sally Ride content? The Baker Thomas Band at the local bar, they play every Wednesday and generally every Wednesday is followed by a Thursday that I have to work so I’ve only caught partial sets but hooray for federal holidays, I was out til 1 and had a damn blast. Last song was a surprising and lovely cover of Tom Waits’ ‘Ol’ 55′, the second time this year that song has closed out a great time (the movie of the year was the other one), I am declaring it the Song of the Summer and who will stop me?
Woooooo federal holidays!!
Woo federal holidays I have to work and live music!
Next Thursday is starting to not look like a good day for me to host a Happy Hour, although I probably could drop in at the end. If we want to stick to that date could someone else host, or would it be better to postpone until the following week?
I’m not in any particular rush, although if we push it a week we’re starting to run up against the Fourth of July and I dunno how many people would be able to attend.
What if we did Tuesday July 1st or Wednesday July 2?
I can’t make it unless it’s on an American Thursday, sadly 🙁