Posted on December 21, 2015 at 8:00 am
Judy Garland sings this bittersweet classic to Margaret O’Brien as they prepare for what they think will be their last Christmas in the home they love.
Posted on December 20, 2015 at 3:49 pm
B-| Lowest Recommended Age: | Middle School |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, language and some drug references. |
| Profanity: | Some crude language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Scenes in bar, character chews a cigar |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Comic peril and violence, serious injury played for humor |
| Diversity Issues: | A theme of the movie |
| Date Released to Theaters: | December 23, 2015 |
| Date Released to DVD: | March 23, 2016 |
The single most interesting aspect of The Ringer, a movie about a man who pretends to be disabled so that he can compete in the Special Olympics, is that the movie was made in cooperation with and with the endorsement of the Special Olympics organization, and 150 Special Olympics athletes appear in the film.
Unfortunately, the story of how the movie got made is much more interesting than the formulaic story of the movie itself. Steve (Johnny Knoxville), a nice non-disabled guy who needs money to help someone get an operation pretends to be “high-functioning developmentally disabled” to compete in the Special Olympics. He assumes that as a former high school track athlete, he will have no trouble winning, so that his gambler uncle (Brian Cox) can win a huge bet, paying off his own gambling debts and getting the money for an operation. Of course Steve (1) learns that he is the one with the more serious disability, and (2) meets a very pretty volunteer at the Special Olympics (Katherine Heigl as Lynn). You know the rest.
The one thing that is not formula in this movie is its portrayal of the developmentally disabled athletes as loyal, dedicated, smarter than most people think, and very funny. While the non-disabled people in the movie are often clueless, inept, or corrupt, the Special Olympians are on to Steve almost immediately, and they don’t just out-smart him; they out-nice him, too. They become the first real friends he has ever had.
This aspect of the movie provides some fresh and funny moments, but too much of the film is taken up with sub-par “jokes” like Steve’s uncle registering him for the competition under the name of a notorious serial killer and a man having three of his fingers cut off in a lawnmower. The developmentally disabled cast members show considerable charm, especially Edward Barbanell as Steve’s roommate, Billy. Barbanell contributed the movie’s funniest line and delivers it with exquisite comic timing. But a lackluster script and charm-free performances by Knoxville and Cox don’t do justice to the Special Olympians in the story or in the cast. Furthermore, despite its best intentions, the use of non-disabled actors to play disabled characters in many of the key roles gives the film an air of condescension that is never fully overcome. I’m glad the Special Olympians have been recognized in a mainstream Hollywood movie; I just wish it was the movie they deserved.
Parents should know that the movie has some crude language and crude humor, including getting hit in the crotch. Characters drink (scenes in a bar) and smoke (Steve’s uncle is constantly chewing on a cigar).
Families who see this movie should talk about friends and family members with disabilties and how to prevent prejudice against them.
Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy an old movie called Miss Tatlock’s Millions, in which a man pretends to be a long-lost heir who is developmentally disabled so that he can get the money. They will also enjoy Stuck on You (some mature material), directed by the Farrelly brothers, who produced this film. They cast disabled performers in all of their movies and the credit sequence in Stuck on You has a lovely speech by one of them about how much the experience meant to him. A scholarly article from Disability Studies Quarterly explores the portrayal of disabled people in the Farrellys’ movies.
Families who see this movie should talk about what Steve learned from his experience and why.
Families who want to learn more about how this movie was made can learn about what it takes to be a Special Olympian. I recommend this report from the magazine of the Special Olympics organization and this statement from the heads of the organization about what they hoped the film would accomplish:
“Laughing at a person and laughing with a person are very different forms of humor, and it is our belief that this comedy will give audiences the chance to laugh with Special Olympics athletes while appreciating their joy and wisdom. Equally importantly, we believe that the stigmas presented in the early scenes of the movie will be seen as folly by the end of The Ringer. Many of us know all too well how hurtful insensitive words can be. Special Olympics hopes people seeing the movie will be inspired to reach out to people with intellectual disabilities and say, to quote Special Olympics athlete Troy Daniels, ‘Come sit by me’ – a simple gesture that reflects a world of acceptance and mutual respect.”
The Special Olympics, founded by Eunice Shriver, the sister of President John F. Kennedy, now serves more than 1.7 million developmentally disabled athletes in more than 200 programs in more than 150 countries.
Posted on December 19, 2015 at 3:55 pm
Hollywood producer Lawrence Kasanoff makes movies like Mortal Kombat. But his interest in mindfulness and its link to happiness has inspired a documentary called Mindfulness: Be Happy Now
What’s the difference between mindfulness and meditation?
Meditation, in my opinion, is one of the ways you get to mindfulness. There are lots of ways to get to mindfulness.
At one time I brought Thich Nhat Hanh to Oprah; he was one of the first people she interviewed for her new network. I was sitting with them both. People call Thich Nhat Hanh Thay which means teacher, it’s an affectionate term. And Oprah said to Thay: “How often do you meditate?” And he said: “Everything I do I do mindfully so everything I do is a meditation.” When people think of meditation, they normally think of sitting quietly which is meditation but you can be mindful while taking a walk if you’re just taking a walk. You can be mindful while drinking tea while just drinking tea. You can be mindful while talking to Nell from Beliefnet if I am only talking to Nell from Beliefnet; if I am sending a text at the same time, I am not being mindful. So I think they go hand-in-hand. Mindfulness includes meditation but you can also say every act of mindfulness in itself is a kind of meditation.
Yes, we hear in the film that drinking tea and even washing your hands in the morning can be very mindful.
Yes, they can. When I first met Thay he said: wash dishes mindfully, enjoy the water running on your hands, go slowly, don’t try and finish and it works.
It works how? Does it get the dishes cleaner?
You know what? It does get the dishes cleaner because you tend to not be washing the dishes while doing something else, so you focus on the dishes. I think all of this is a way to still your mind. Thay has a great expression and so I had this calligraphy on my wall which says “be still and know.” The analogy is: think of a beautiful mountain lake in Switzerland; if the weather is terrible and cloudy the lake windy, the lake is all choppy and dirty and unclear. If the lake is beautiful and calm on a Sunday spring morning it’s gorgeous and it reflects accurately the sky and the clouds and mountaintops. The first one, the agitated water, does not. So if you can still your mind like that lake, it does reflect and you see clearly. So meditation is not a way of going to sleep. It allows you to wake up and if you wake up you see things clearly, you do do them better. Now in my opinion, meditation is not just the purview of Buddhist monks, anyone can do it. I am doing another movie on the special unit of the special operations of the United States. These guys in my opinion, other than the monks, are the most mindful people I have ever met. They have maybe different philosophies but you’ve got to be pretty mindful standing in a field somewhere with people shooting at you for three days; you’ve got to be calm and still your mind. A boxer is mindful, a golfer is mindful if they are good, a painter is mindful, anyone can be mindful. So I think it’s important to distinguish that even when you are washing dishes mindfully, you do wash your dishes better but more than that, for two minutes you stop your mind, you’ve got nothing else, you’ve cleared your mind and that is a beneficial experience that makes you happier.
How are Special Forces military like Buddhist monks?
I believe the most mindful groups I know, and the two groups I think of the most in common are the Buddhist monks and the special operations soldiers because they both have developed extraordinary mind control to bring their mind to a still level in pursuit of peace. They have completely different tactics on how to find peace but it only diverges there. The Green Berets had a slogan: “slow is smooth and smooth is fast,” which any good athlete understands, too. You just are careful and you move deliberately and you are moving mindfully; It applies to so many many walks of life.
We debated putting Special Forces guys in the movie and putting some supermodel in the movie but we just didn’t want to do anything that would seem a little controversial and take things away from the great message. But the fact that we had an actor and a film director and a doctor and a dog trainer in the movie is just an example of how many walks of life you can apply this to. You can apply it anywhere and that’s what I think is the best thing about it, it works everywhere.
I liked it that throughout the film, the focus is not just going internally but also being mindful as a way of being a better listener or being more aware of what’s going on.
Especially in the world today. Have you been at a dinner or meeting where everyone is talking and texting at the same time? They are not listening. I believe in unitasking; you do one thing at the time. You can do 100 things during the day; just do one thing at a time. If you do that you are being mindful so when you have a meeting, that’s it. When you are walking to the next meeting, you are walking. When you are eating, you’re eating. No one is perfect in all of this, not even the monks but if you take one more deep breath today than you did yesterday that’s great. I think one of the things is this is fun and you don’t have to worry about: did I do it perfectly? Did I do it great every day? I don’t think that’s it. I think whenever you do it’s better than not doing it so that’s great.
Right at the beginning of the film we hear a word that I was not expecting: tenderness. Thay tells us we need to be tender toward our feelings of sorrow or pain.
The monks have this wonderful expression that Thay talks about in the film called the second arrow. So let’s say you stub your toe, now your toe hurts, so that’s one arrow and if you are mindful and you embrace it and you calm down, it won’t hurt as much and it will probably heal faster. But if you say:“Oh my goodness, I am an idiot for stubbing my toe,” boom then you’ve got a second arrow right in the same toe and it hurts more. Now if you say, “Oh my God, I am worried I stubbed my toe, I am going to collapse and die for my stubbed toe,” you’ve got a third arrow.
So if you have a piece of cake and maybe you didn’t want to have piece of cake, okay, then mindfully say: I had a piece of cake, I enjoyed the cake, I did it today. Okay, do I want to do this tomorrow? Let’s think about this; maybe I don’t and then you don’t. But if you then get mad at yourself for having your cake, now two things can happen, you have more calories than you want and you’ve added stress and the opposite of stillness, a kind of disturbance to your mind, you just made it worse. So no one is perfect, everyone makes mistakes and if you see it carefully and mindfully embrace it as they say you can calm it down.
Think about your boss coming to work and saying, “Listen, you should not have sent that memo but don’t worry, I know you didn’t mean it, it’s okay, we will fix it; maybe we should read our memos a little more carefully next time.” You feel much better that if someone comes in screaming to you that you sent off the wrong thing. I think it works with everything. But it doesn’t mean you have to become a wimp and a hippie and hug everybody all the time, you just have to be mindful of what you are doing so you do it with a clarity and a purpose.
Can you be an activist and have the kind of passion that you need to push for change and yet maintain a sense of acceptance?
I was worried about that too. A monk once said to me, “We do not lose sight of our goal. It is just that the anger doesn’t help us.”
I make a lot of martial arts movies. The true fighting Zen master is so incredibly focused that they don’t get angry. It is so hard not to get angry but my goal is my goal and if I get too angry then everyone will start up with their own egos and we will drift from the goal. So being mindful doesn’t mean you have to become a certain way. You can be a mindful Republican or a mindful Democrat or a mindful soldier. You can go to a strip club mindfully. You can play poker mindfully, you can do a lot of things mindfully. Mindfulness is not wimpy, it means doing it with presence and doing it with a clarity of mind. There is no scenario in which being mindful doesn’t help. I make so many fight movies; I own a fight channel. You will win so many more fights if you are not angry.
I think most of this is about eliminating anger, fear and anxiety from your life and if you eliminate anger, fear and anxiety from your life mostly, most people are still left with happiness. It is not antithetical to your goals. It is in fact completely the opposite, it accentuates your goals, it enables you to achieve your goals better. That’s why we love James Bond or old Clint Eastwood movies; we love people who walk in and are calm and present, clear and know exactly what they want and get it.
How did you get involved with mindfulness?
I produced these these big action sci-fi martial arts movies. I read a book by Thich Nhat Hanh about 10, 12 years ago and I thought it was great, I mean I am always interested in new things and I thought, “Hey, maybe we could use him as an inspiration for this character we have in Mortal Kombat.” He is kind of an Obi-Wan Kenobi character in Mortal Kombat called Rayden.
So I called him up and went to meet him really just for inspiration for a “Mortal Kombat” movie. But after spending two hours with him I felt like I had been on vacation for a week. And I said: “What’s your secret?” And he said:“No secret, practice.” And I said: “Wait, I could learn this?” We became good friends and I did start practicing and I did start learning and I got into other mindful things and met some other wonderful people, most of whom are in the film and then eventually he just asked me to make a documentary. Thay’s basic message is peace in yourself, peace in the world. If you find peace in yourself through mindfulness you will be happier. If you are happier, maybe the person you are with will be happier, maybe the guy you get coffee with in the morning will be happier and if everyone does it everyone will be happier.
That is the most simple nondenominational, nonpolitical but helpful message and my hope is that in some small way that the movie promotes that philosophy. So when Thay asked me to do it I just decided to fund the whole thing myself, put it out there and the goal is just to get it into the hands of anyone whom it might benefit.
Posted on December 17, 2015 at 5:59 pm
If only they had trusted the original concept, based on screenwriter Paula Pell’s real life return to her parents’ home to get her stuff so the house could be put on the market. (You can see Pell in the film — she’s the one gagging in a brief appearance at the beginning.)
There’s a lot of comedy to be mined there, the bittersweet sort through the flotsam and jetsam of childhood and adolescence, the inevitability of the “What were we thinking!” moments as we look through old clothes, photos, and diary entries, and the sister dynamic, too, with the closeness and understanding only people who lived in your home and shared your parents have — and the competition and instant return to juvenile emotions that sometimes brings.
Fey and Poehler tried to add some interest by switching the roles from their last collaboration, with Fey as Kate Ellis, the wilder, less responsible sister, a beautician single mother with a teenaged daughter and Poehler as Maura Ellis, a compassionate nurse with a one-eyed rescue dog, divorced for two years and still feeling bruised and insecure.
The Ellis parents (James Brolin and Diane Wiest) have moved into a condo in a retirement community and want the girls to clear out their old room. They hate the idea of giving up the house, and so decide that what they need is one last big, wild party, like the “Ellis Island” parties Kate gave in high school. Kate pushes Maura to invite a handsome handyman neighbor (Ike Barinholtz, the moral and emotional center of the film and please put him in many more movies right now) and somehow he consents. Though Maura’s behavior around him is weird and off to the point of being disturbing, but for some reason he finds it appealing. They do not invite Kate’s old mean girl rival, Brinda (Maya Rudolph, one of the other bright spots), but she shows up anyway, on the policy that if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, and if you can’t join ’em, call in a noise report to the police.
The fun includes the inevitable dance number and trying on clothes montage and some brief appearances by John Cena and “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s” Santino Fontana.
Here’s what’s not so fun (potential spoiler, but it’s in the trailer): a character falling backwards on a sharp, pointed object that gets lodged it his rear end for a supposedly hilarious scene of extraction that seems to go on forever, lots of humor about how getting drunk or smoking weed or having sex with someone you’ve just met is a sign of liberation, a guy who makes endlessly corny “jokes” so we are supposed to laugh at him for it, a mother whose teenager has to explain that it should not be her job to be the grown-up, condescendingly mistaking a construction worker for a homeless guy, condescendingly mistaking a nail technician for an oppressed person who never has any fun, a joke about “c–kblocking our parents,” and humorous ingestion of some very strong drugs. It’s more slumber party skit than movie, too slight for its running time and beneath the talents of America’s sweethearts.
Parents should know that this film has very explicit and crude sexual references and situations, gross-out comedy and graphic images, sexual situations, drinking and drug use, comic and slapstick peril and violence
Family discussion: Was there a house you were sorry to leave behind? Why was it hard for Kate to do what her daughter wanted?
If you like this, try: “Baby Mama” with Fey and Poehler
Posted on December 17, 2015 at 5:13 pm
About five minutes after it began, the long-suffering Dave (Jason Lee, looking tired and oh so over this) comes home to find that the irrepressable little singing chipmunks in the midst of a wild party with a half-pipe set up in the back-yard and LMFAO’s Redfoo working the turntables as DJ. Two-thirds of the dear little creatures experience flatulence, which middle chipmunk Theodore (the hungry, chunky one) describes as “pizza toots.” Sigh. Later on, when one of the chipmunks is hiding inside a character’s clothes as he goes through TSA, pee and poop come out the character’s pant leg. And another character gets pooped on by a bird. Yes, this is that movie. It’s so proud of its potty humor that most of it is featured in the trailer.
Once again our little scamps create chaos and destruction wherever they go. Dave wails, “AAAAAAAAlvin!” Then he scolds them. Then he forgives them. Rinse and repeat.
Dave has two developments in his life, and it is the task of the Chipmunks to create as many complications and catastrophes as possible to impede both of them. First, there is the release of a new album he produced from Taylor Swift-style pop artist Ashley (Bella Thorne), at a big, splashy event in Miami. Second, there is a new woman in Dave’s life. Her name is Shira (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), she is a heart surgeon (but so adorably ditzy that she keeps forgetting that her stethoscope is still around her neck), and she has a son named Miles (Josh Green, a welcome bright spot we hope to see in a better movie soon). When the chipmunks discover an engagement ring just before Dave and Shira are about to leave for Miami, they decide to hide the ring and, when that doesn’t work, they decide to go to Miami to prevent Dave and Shira from getting engaged. At this point, their relationship with Miles is one of outright hostility, but he shares the goal of keeping Dave and Shira apart, so they set off for Miami together.
After various hijinks, they are put on the no-fly list by air marshall Benson (Tony Hale, slumming and looking glum about it) who makes it his personal vendetta to hunt them down as they make their way to Miami, finding (duh) that they and Miles kinda like each other. This road trip, I mean road chip, provides opportunities for musical numbers. The choreography by Richmond and Anthony Talauega is joyously inventive. Unfortunately, the “singing” is just the same sped-up buzzy drone sound that Dave Seville (Ross Bagdasarian) came up with for a novelty Christmas record back in 1958.
Parents should know that this movie includes potty humor and slapstick peril and violence. There are some issues of fears of parental abandonment and actual parental abandonment.
Family discussion: Why did Miles lie about his father? Why didn’t Miles want to like Dave and the chipmunks? Which is your favorite chipmunk and why?
If you like this, try: the earlier chipmunk movies and the “Garfield” movies
