Marriage Story: A Star Is Born, Almost Again

Marriage Story on Netflix, as you likely already know, is a divorce story, more specifically, a story of a couple who pretty much love each other, and have a son, splitting up.  In that sense, it's pretty much an old story, one we've seen on the screen many times, but it's lifted by strong acting from Adam Driver (just seen in Star Wars) as Charlie and Scarlett Johansson as Nicole, witty dialogue, and some primo scenes.

My favorite was Charlie and Nicole screaming at each other about why they split up, both brought to tears by the knowledge they already knew that they still loved each, and frustrated beyond belief that this had happened to them.  So, why did it happen?  That's the story of this Marriage Story.

It's actually a little more Nicole's than Charlie's story, since she initiated the break-up.  She couldn't abide her creative life being subsumed by Charlie's, something he was for the most part blissfully unaware of.  I guess to make her leaving more believable and better motivated, he does sleep with another woman - though only "once," as he would and does tell us, and Nicole as well.

But the deeper story is how can two creative people have a life together?  This was explored beautifully in A Star Is Born, more than once, four times, to be exact, but that was a special case of marriage of an aging star and a rising starlet (or singer), which story very different than Marriage Story, where Charlie is only a bit ahead of Nicole in his success.  So maybe Marriage Story can be best understood as a compressed Star Is Born, though likely not.

Driver also does some impressive singing in the movie, of a Stephen Sondheim song no less.  Which raises another point.  There's a studied hipness in this movie.  But it's done so well that it doesn't seem studied.

Anyway, romantic that I am, I would've liked to have seen the two together at end, and who knows, since this isn't A Star Is Born, that could actually happen, notwithstanding Nicole's boring boyfriend.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Tipping into the Mystic

So here's where I am regarding the nine episodes of Star Wars: I thought the first trilogy, by George Lucas, was fabulous - every bit as good, and maybe even better, than the other trilogy of that era, The Godfather (the third part of which, coming along almost 20 years later in 1990, not as good as the first two).  And I thought, contrary to a lot of critics, that the second Star Wars trilogy, also by George Lucas, in the movie theaters at the turn of the 20th into our 21st century and a little after, was every bit as good as the first trilogy, and at times even better.

And then there's the third trilogy (episodes VII-IX), of which The Rise of Skywalker is the third and final installment (episode IX), the creation of J. J. Abrams.  It takes place after the first trilogy (episodes IV-VI), which took place after the second trilogy (episodes I-III).  The second trilogy was thus a prequel, usually more difficult to do in a narrative than a sequel.  Which meant Abrams had a somewhat easier job than Lucas.   And, though I enjoyed this final trilogy ... now that it's concluded, I just think all of it just wasn't quite on the level of the first two.

This was a result of both the acting and the storylines.   In the first Star Wars trilogy (that is, the middle three episodes in terms of the time the story takes place), the acting was mostly campy, but lit up by some really high quality acting by Alec Guinness.  In the second Star Wars trilogy (the prequel), the acting by Natalie Portman, Ewen McGregor, Liam Neeson, and Samuel L. Jackson was downright excellent, and often incandescent.  In the third trilogy, just concluded, the acting returned to mostly campy, and the non-campy acting by Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley, especially in the finale, was strong and effective enough but not on the level of Portman and McGregor.

Indeed, the most appealing part of this third trilogy was the return of Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, and Billy Dee Williams in their original roles.   This was done well in terms of the acting.  But, in the final episode, the storylines in which they returned were a little ham-handed and under-explained.  In the first trilogy (episodes IV-VI) shown in theaters, one character, Obi-Wan, returns in a major way after he dies, and that worked very well in the narrative.  In third episode (IX) of the third trilogy, which debuted in theaters tonight, Ford, Fisher, and Hamill each return, and that was too much. And there were parts that were more muddled than need be in the part of the plot that centered around transitions from life to death and back again.  In the powerful scene in which Kylo brings Rey back to life, it wasn't clear if she was really dead, or if Kylo was dead and his appearance was an expression of Rey's unconscious.  It wasn't even completely clear whether Palpatine was dead or alive.  I know all nine movies were more mythic than literal, but the ratio of the final trilogy went a little too far towards the mythic, especially in this final episode.

All of that said, The Rise of Skywalker was enjoyable enough, and my wife and I will no doubt see whatever comes next on its opening day, whenever that arrives.   Our kids, who weren't born when my wife and I saw the first trilogy, were with us when we saw the second trilogy, and tomorrow are seeing the end of the third trilogy with their families. I'll be interested in finding out how they liked it.

See also Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Shakespearean and Fun ... Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Enjoyable Birds and Storylines

And see also Ten Reasons to Like the Clones

The Report: The Not-So-Good Old Days

My wife and I saw The Report last night on Amazon Prime.  Even more so than its superb star-studded cast - Adam Driver, Annette Bening, Jon Hamm, Michael C. Hall, Maura Tierney, Ted Levine, you get the picture - the story of  how our government, before Trump, lied and otherwise did its utmost to keep the public from knowing that we tortured prisoners via water-bordering after September 11, makes The Report an absolute necessity for anyone who cares about democracy and human decency to see.

I say the government, but Senator Diane Feinstein, brilliantly portrayed by Bening, sticks with Daniel Jones (powerfully played by Driver) and is ultimately instrumental in seeing his report published.  Not so much just about everyone else, other than a few of Feinstein's colleagues on her Senate committee.

That George W. Bush would have wanted to keep this secret is not surprising - the torture took place on his watch.  But Obama was in no hurry to make it publicly known, either.   And since the government was regularly denying that it ever took place, including when Obama was in office, well, he doesn't come across the greatest in this narrative, either.

But the most disconcerting was CIA Director John Brennan (2013-2017, i.e,, under Obama) perfectly played by Ted Levine, whom I first noticed as a good guy in Monk.   Here, in The Report, Levine plays pretty much the complete antithesis of a good guy.  I've seen Brennan many times on MSNBC.  He's understandably a favorite critic of Trump to have on the air, seeing as how Trump took away his security clearance after Brennan dared to criticize Trump.  But the way he behaved in regard to Jones, coming this close to getting him thrown in prison for years for daring to uncover the truth, well, I'll never look at Brennan the same again.

The point here is the degradations of democracy and humane conduct on which we pride ourselves here in the United States were bipartisan, with many Democrats, at least in the Administration, more than willing to do whatever it took to cover up what the Bush Administration had done and denied doing.  All in the name of national security.

To be clear, I'm a New Yorker, and was terribly traumatized by what happened on September 11.  Although I wasn't in favor of torturing prisoners, I might have at least understood it though not supported it, if it had really worked.  But as The Report makes clear, it did not.  And the attempt to keep it from the public, to lie about its effectiveness, represents a low day for all Americans.

The only heroes here are Driver, Feinstein, and The New York Times for going public at a crucial time with what it knew of the story, which kept Jones from being ruined.   And now, this crucial movie is heroic for being made (written and directed) by Scott Z. Burns and shown on Amazon right now.  Kudos to all, and, once again, our First Amendment.