Movie Review—Risen

Risen

by Peter J. O'Connell

Risen. Released: Feb. 2016. Runtime: 107 mins. MPAA Rating: PG-13 for Biblical violence, including some disturbing images.

The lawman is stonefaced, tight-lipped and firmly focused on finding out the facts of the mystery that he has been tasked to solve. Pursuing his mission, he grills witnesses and suspects, raids brothels, exhumes corpses and casts a dragnet far and wide. Eventually, he finds his quarry—a dead man walking, and talking.

No, Risen, directed and co-written by Kevin Reynolds, is not a Gary Cooper Western or a Dirty Harry movie or an episode of Law and Order or CSI. It's Christian cinema. The lawman is Clavius (Joseph Fiennes), an officer in the Roman forces controlling the Empire's remote and restive province of Judaea in 33 A.D. The lawman's assignment, given to him by the governor, Pontius Pilate (Peter Firth), is to find out what happened to the body of the perp Yeshua, a/k/a Jesus of Nazareth, a troublemaker who was executed and entombed one day but whose body was gone from the tomb, even though the tomb was guarded, two days later.

We first encounter Clavius wandering in the desert. He stops at a very primitive inn and tells the story of his experiences—which involve becoming part of what Christians will come to call “the greatest story ever told”--to the innkeeper (Tomas Pozzi). The movie then follows Clavius' account. 

After winning a brutal, bloody battle with Jewish rebels led by Barrabas, the Roman observes the crucifixion and death of Yeshua (Cliff Curtis) in Jerusalem. A few days later Pilate sends Clavius, aided by Lucius (Tom Felton), on his mission, which Clavius pursues with methodical determination.

Eventually, Clavius finds himself in a room with the followers of Yeshua, who pays a visit there, alive as alive can be, shows the wounds that killed him and then disappears. Yeshua has told his followers to seek him in Galilee, which they do, accompanied by Clavius. After a nice catch of fish, they meet up with Yeshua again. After more miraculous doings and some deep discussions between Yeshua and Clavius under the stars, Yeshua promises his followers that he will create a home for them, bids farewell and vanishes in a blinding light.

Pilate, believing that Clavius has betrayed him, has sent troops after Clavius and Yeshua's followers, but the Roman and the followers evade them, so Pilate gives up the pursuit and concludes that he will never encounter Clavius or the followers again.

As Clavius finishes his account, he is asked by the innkeeper if he believes in Yeshua. Clavius says that he does. He is, however, struggling to reconcile what he has witnessed with what he knows from his previous experiences of the world. He resumes his wandering in the desert. 

By using aspects of the police procedural genre, Kevin Reynolds adds a fresh, new approach to “the greatest story.” His location shooting in very striking areas of Spain and Malta also adds much to the drama. As for Joseph Fiennes' performance as Clavius, although stonefacedness can be a powerful form of screen acting, it's power is much increased--as Cooper and Eastwood understood—if from time to time flickers of emotion move across the stone. Such flickers are few and far between on Fiennes' face in this flick. Regarding Pilate, of the two traditional interpretations—a man torn between pragmatism and respect for the Nazarene and a man who is a cold bureaucrat—Peter Firth chooses the latter. Cliff Curtis' effective portrayal of Yeshua is a kind of combination of the “gentle Jesus, meek and mild” of the traditional hymn with the buddy/jock/regular guy of Pound's poem “The Goodly Fere.” 

Overall, Risen, though lacking the spectacular scale and scope of the sword-and-sandal epics of the 1950s, is a worthy work with much of interest, even to non-Christians. 

IRS impersonators

Some days, you just don’t know whom to trust.
A disturbing report was delivered last year by Timothy Camus from the Treasury
Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). A growing number of con artists are posing as IRS agents, and at least 1,103 taxpayers have fallen for the scam so far. They’ve lost more than $5.25 million. TIGTA tracked more than 91,000 suspicious contacts in just one year. Said Mr. Camus, “I’ve spoken to people about identity theft, and though it continues to be a big, big problem, I think this impersonation scheme has overtaken it, in terms of impacting a broad number of people with large dollar amounts.”
The scams are typically done over the telephone, but e-mail also may be used to buttress the con. The criminals may have acquired the target’s Social Security Number or the last four digits of it, which enhances their credibility. They have learned to “spoof” the caller ID system, so their calls appear to originate from an IRS office.
Usually, a con man has to be polite and persuasive to succeed, but in this scam the IRS impersonator is downright abusive, threatening deportation or driver’s license suspension if “taxes” are not paid immediately. Sometimes a confederate will make a follow-up call to the target, posing as a police officer or official from the department of motor vehicles.
One tip-off that a fraud is under way is that these scamsters often insist upon being paid
in prepaid debit cards. They even may suggest the source for obtaining the cards, with directions. The IRS does not accept prepaid debit cards for tax payments.
More importantly, the IRS never “cold calls” delinquent taxpayers. The agency makes contact by mail or in person first. Deportation and driver’s license suspension are not among the IRS enforcement tools.
The IRS impersonators have been detected in every state. The top five, said Camus, are California, New York, Virginia, Texas and Florida. Taxpayers who have been contacted by telephone by someone purporting to be from the IRS should call the IRS at 800-829-1040 to confirm their tax obligation. Taxpayers who are confident that they do not owe taxes should report the fraud to TIGTA at 800-366-4484. 

Open House at Meriden Senior Center

Movie Review—Remember

Remember

by Peter J. O'Connell

Remember. Opening (U.S.): March 2016. Runtime: 94 mins. MPAA Rating: R for a sequence of violence and language. 

In recent years there has been a spate of films dealing with older characters and featuring such senior stars as Robert De Niro, Sally Field, Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith. These films generally have been comedies of various kinds (the Marigold Hotel series and The Expendables series, for example). Some have been serious dramas, such as last year's acclaimed 45 years, with Charlotte Rampling. Few, however, have been intense thrillers. Remember is.

Remember is directed by Canadian auteur Atom Egoyan, famed as a master of the “twist” film—even more so than M. Night (The Sixth Sense) Shymalan. Remember stars two distinguished North American actors, Christopher Plummer (born 1929) and Martin Landau (born 1928), with support from some noted German actors, all over 74, as well as American and Canadian ones.

The film begins in a nursing home where Zev Gutman (Plummer) and Max Rosenbaum (Landau), both Jewish, are residents. Max is hooked up to an oxygen tank and confined to a wheelchair. Zev is recently widowed. Max reminds Zev that he told Zev that they both had been in Auschwitz at the same time and witnessed a Nazi officer, Otto Wallisch, wipe out their families. Max says that he learned that Wallisch immigrated to North America under the false name Rudy Kurlander. Based on that knowledge, Max convinced Zev to vow revenge on Wallisch/Kurlander, once Zev's wife died. 

The problem is, Max points out, that there are four persons in the U.S. and Canada under the name Rudy Kurlander who are of the right age. Another problem, one that shapes the film, is that Zev has an Alzheimer's-related disorder that impairs his memory. Therefore, as Zev undertakes his mission of vengeance, he has to follow detailed instructions written out for him by Max.

Suspense a la Hitchcock mounts as Zev's odd odyssey takes him on bus trips across the continent, confronting various challenges along the way as he attempts to ascertain which of the Rudys he has to kill. Will he be able to buy a gun? Can he cross and recross the U.S.-Canadian border? Can he restore his directions when liquid is spilled on them? Can he handle the family members of the Rudys? Will he actually be able to kill Wallisch when he determines who he really is? Egoyan relieves the tension of this quest by moments of tenderness and humor flecked throughout the film, such as when Zev has a conversation with a young boy. But by the time of the shocking climax, tension has reached a point almost beyond relief. 

The role of Zev is another feather in the multi-feathered cap of Christopher Plummer, whose career extends back 70 years and has encompassed notable work in virtually every genre of stage, film and television. His portrayal of Zev recreates the man's physical frailty while bringing out his psychological (despite cognitive impairment) strength. 

Landau's performance is also fine as are those of such supporting actors as Henry Czerny, Bruno Ganz, Heinz Lieven and Jurgen Prochnow. Dean Norris deserves a shout-out as the German-shepherd-owning, state trooper son of one of the Rudys. The sequence of his confrontation with Zev while demolition by bulldozer and dynamite is going on behind his house is a gem of acting and directing. 

Remember is gripping, poignant and unusual. Make yourself a note to see it!

“Footnotes” to the film: (1) A good way to follow up a viewing of Remember is to see Exotica (1994) and The Sweet Hereafter (1997), stunning films by Atom Egoyan. Egoyan, of Armenian descent, also directed Ararat (2002), about the Armenian genocide during the World War I era. (2) Christopher Plummer's film roles have included Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music (1965) and German General Rommel in The Night of the Generals (1967). (The von Trapp family had to flee the Nazi takeover of Austria.) Plummer also appeared on stage at the American Shakespeare Festival Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut, in 1955 and 1981. (3) Martin Landau's Austrian-born father scrambled to rescue relatives from the Nazis. Martin Landau played an Azheimer's-afflicted character in the TV series Without a Trace ( 2002-2009). (4) The Debt (U.S release 2011) is a drama-thriller involving the hunt by Israeli agents, over decades, for a Nazi war criminal. Jessica Chastain plays one of the agents as a young woman, and Helen Mirren plays her as an older woman. The film features an astonishing knock-down and drag-out fight between the Nazi character and the Mirren character. (5) Memento (2000), directed by Christopher Nolan, is a striking film dealing with anterograde amnesia—loss of the ability to create new memories after the event that caused the amnesia.     

And the most-binged Girl Scout cookie is …

Modal TriggerThese past few weeks, it feels like you can’t swing a stick without hitting an open box of Thin Mints, one of the most famed confections offered in the Girl Scouts’ annual cookie sale.

In related news, you may not be able to button your jeans right now, either.

According to statistics gathered by data scientists at Under Armour from their food-tracking app MyFitnessPal, we are in the middle of what could be considered Girl Scout Cookie Season.

In numbers provided to The Post, utilizing three years of data obtained from the app’s more than 100 million users, tracking of Girl Scout cookies begins to spike in early March, peaking in mid-March and falling to near invisibility once again by mid-April, save for those tiny blips when your clever pals rediscover the stashes they stored in their freezer.

According to MyFitnessPal user data, Thin Mints are far and away the most popular cookie, with almost twice as many instances of tracking as the runner-up, Samoas. (In fact, Thin Mints, along with Do-Si-Dos and Trefoils, are the only permanent guarantees in the Girl Scout cookie lineup. Watch your back, Samoas.) Thin Mints are actually something of an unstoppable force: they were tracked 6.8 percent more this year than the last. Click here to continue reading.

Smart cellphone security tips for seniors

(BPT) - Seniors are one of the five groups most at-risk for identity theft, according to a report from U.S. News & World Report. Because your cellphone or smartphone likely contains personal information about you that may include your name, home address, phone number and financial account information, a lost, stolen or hacked phone can be a treasure trove for criminals.

Consumer Cellular, which specializes in no-contract cellphone service and phones primarily for people 50 and older, offers some advice for securing your cellphone:

* Always use strong passwords. You may be tempted to use one password for all your accounts because it's easier to remember one rather than multiple. However, if your login information is compromised, a single password makes it easier for crooks to gain access to all your accounts. Use numbers, symbols and capital letters in place of lowercase letters to strengthen your passwords. If you're not sure how to create a strong password, Microsoft offers a helpful free online guide. If you're having trouble remembering passwords, try downloading an app that securely manages all your passwords.

* Use your phone's built-in security features, such as a lock screen, password protection and data encryption. Many smartphones give you a variety of ways to secure your phone, such as using your fingerprint, entering a PIN or swiping a pattern on the lock screen. A lock and/or encryption ensures that if your phone is lost or stolen, whoever has it won't be able to easily access data stored on the phone.

* Back-up your phone's data, especially if you use it to capture photos and videos. If your phone gets damaged, lost or stolen, you can easily restore the data onto another eligible device. In addition, backing-up data can help your phone run more efficiently. Storing data on the device takes up a lot of memory and can slow it down.

* Be cautious about what apps you download to your phone. Carefully review the terms and conditions and privacy disclosures of any app you're considering - before you download it. Some apps may collect data about you and share it with the app developer or others.

* Don't forget to add your cellphone number to the National Do Not Call Registry (www.donotcall.gov) so that you don't receive unwanted solicitation calls. Consider blocking your phone number to further protect your privacy; some businesses you call may collect, store and share your phone number and information unless you block it.

* Accidents happen, and smartphones can be costly to repair or replace. An inexpensive way to protect your phone against drops or spills is using a case. It's also a great way to personalize the appearance of your device. Another option is to purchase a protection plan or warranty for your phone through the manufacturer or your wireless provider.

Movie Review—10 Cloverfield Lane

10 Cloverfield Lane

by Peter J. O’Connell

10 Cloverfield Lane. Released: March 2016. Runtime: 103 mins. MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic material, including frightening sequences of threat, with some violence and brief language.

10 Cloverfield Lane is an interesting place to visit (for 103 minutes in a movie theatre), but you wouldn’t want to live there, or maybe . . . .

Lately, movies seem to be “pairing up.” That is, two films circulating at about the same time have overarching themes or situations that link them. For example: Carol and Brooklyn are “across the lines” love stories set in NYC in the 1950s; 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi and The Finest Hours celebrate patriotism and heroism in a crisis; In the Heart of the Sea and The Finest Hours are fact-based maritime tales; Trumbo and Hail, Caesar! are set in Hollywood’s Golden Age. Now 10 Cloverfield Lane joins the recent and acclaimed Room as a story of an attractive young woman held in a confined space by a man definitely capable of violence.

In 10 Cloverfield Lane, Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a Louisiana woman, feels that she is not capable of handling her relationship with her boyfriend, so she packs some things and drives away with no clear destination in mind. At night in a rural area, she is forced off the road by a truck and loses consciousness in the crash. Days later she awakens to find herself held in an underground bunker presided over by an older man named Howard (John Goodman).

Howard tells Michelle that terrible events have taken place above ground while she was unconscious and that the atmosphere up there is unsafe. He doesn’t make clear whether the events are attacks by enemy nations, invasion by space aliens, nuclear and/or chemical pollution, or plagues of various kinds. The doomsday prepper says that he is proud of his foresight in building the bunker before these dark developments. He is wise, he says, not crazy. “Crazy is building your ark after the flood has already come.”

With no knowledge of what really lies above, Michelle questions what’s true and what’s not—but she definitely does not trust Howard, even though he claims to be protecting her. She makes several dramatic attempts to escape. Some of them are with the aid of Emmett (John Gallagher, Jr.), a young man who says that he helped build the bunker and fled into it when he saw a white flash.

After various attempts at escape and seeing from inside the bunker a deformed woman outside it, Michelle decides to play along with Howard’s wish that the three become like a family. They try to put together puzzles (umm . . .), play cards and parlor games, and listen to music from Howard’s jukebox. (Seldom has “I Think We’re Alone Now” sounded less bubble-gummy!) Increasingly, Howard treats Michelle as if she were his daughter, Megan, who, he says, was spirited away by her mother.

Some violent developments and shocking discoveries lead Michelle and Emmett to formulate their most elaborate escape plan. As the plan unfolds, even more violent developments and shocking discoveries take place.

10 Cloverfield Lane (directed by Dan Trachtenberg) is a terrific thriller, featuring a memorable performance by John Goodman as Howard. Always a popular and admired actor, Goodman here shows himself to be an absolute master of his craft, employing expression, gesture, movement, tone of voice--everything—to create a character who comes across as simultaneously a benign patriarch and a malign predator. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is also excellent as a young woman turning desperation into a faith in her own ability to struggle and survive. And John Gallagher, Jr., is quite competent in his role. Stop by 10 Cloverfield Lane for those 103 minutes!

“Footnote” to the film: J. J. Abrams, a co-producer of 10 Cloverfield Lane, is a major figure in the world of action/horror/science-fiction movies. In 2008 Abrams produced Cloverfield, a well-regarded monster movie set in New York City and featuring the then-fashionable “found footage” technique. Film fans have been interested in ferreting out any connections between Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane. Apparently, there are some, but they are minimal. The main connection seems to be one of “tone,” in much the same way that the stories of such classic TV anthology series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Twilight Zone and Tales From the Dark Side were connected. Stay tuned!  

  

Chocolate Covered Banana Cake

Four bananas, well past their prime, sat in our fruit bowl yesterday. Four. I never buy bananas with the intention of letting them turn shades of brown (does anyone? Well, maybe) but sometimes that happens.

And sometimes that happens a few times in a few weeks, as it has recently. I always feel a little guilty when we buy bananas but don’t get around to eating them all. Each brown spot that appears feels like a little nudge of failure — like I didn’t plan well enough, or didn’t pack lunches well enough.

But if there’s a silver lining, it’s that those brown bananas mean banana baked goods and other treats. My whole family likes that, and when I can put those bananas to good use there’s nothing to feel guilty about.

In my head, I ran through the things I could make with them: four batches of Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes. A loaf of banana bread, and a batch of those pancakes. Smoothies. Banana berry applesauce.

But as I dug through my recipes for banana bread, I remembered a recipe I made a few months ago. It was a banana cake that I’d found in an old community cookbook from a school I attended as a child. The recipe produced a moist, dense cake with big banana flavor, and we really liked it. But I wanted something lighter, so I took that recipe and adjusted it, using baking powder instead of baking soda for a lighter cake that’s still moist and banana-y. Click here to continue reading and for the detailed recipe.

Seinfeld's VWs as Tangible Investments

A good number of classy collectible cars sold for less than their estimates at Gooding's Amelia Island auction. The softening in the market for tangible investments such as art apparently extends to Ferraris as well.

Nevertheless, humble VWs from Jerry Seinfeld's collection did surprisingly well.

For instance, this 1964 Camper (I love it!) sold for $99,000, at the high end of its estimate.

Seinfeld's 1960 Beetle, owned for 30 years by a school teacher and driven for less than 16,000 miles. did even better. Expected to sell for $50,000 or so, it fetched $121,000.

Volkswagens may look out of place among Duesenburgs and Aston Martins, but as this 1966 VW ad says . . .

Movie Review—Triple 9

Triple 9

by Peter J. O'Connell

Triple 9. Released: Feb. 2016. Runtime: 115 mins. MPAA Rating: R for strong violence and language throughout, drug use and some nudity.

911 is what citizens call to reach police or other first responders in an emergency. 999 is the code that police dispatchers use to send all units to respond to the grave emergency of “shots fired; officer down.” A 999 dispatch is a key factor in the grim new film Triple 9. In fact, Triple 9 is so grim that the numbers 999 might as well be inverted to become Satan's symbol, 666. The film is, in effect, a tour of a kind of hell with director John Hillcoot as our guide.

The hell is the world of organized crime in Atlanta, where a group of Russian gangsters is operating, using a kosher food business as a front. (One character jokingly refers to the crooks as the “Kosher Nostra.”) The hell is also the world of a group of corrupt cops, who work hand-in-glove with the gangsters.

The film begins with a bank robbery that becomes a shootout in the streets and then a wild car chase. This sequence is quite exciting, though not so much as the one on which it is modeled in 1994's Heat. Michael (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is the link between the gangsters and the corrupt cops, some of whom served with him in the Middle East as special ops and military contractors. Michael's motivation is to gain custody of his son, whose mother is the niece of the crime boss, Irina (Kate Winslet). 

The bank robbery was supposed to guarantee Michael the custody, but Irina insists that he organize one more job for her first, the theft of some material from the offices of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Irina believes that if she gains control of this material, it will lead to the release of her husband, who is imprisoned in Russia.

Michael reluctantly agrees to the vicious Irina's demands. He is attempting to figure out how to pull off the difficult DHS job when Franco (Clifton Collins, Jr.), one of the corrupt cops, suggests that they kill an honest cop, thus triggering a Code 999, which would send every cop in the city to an area far from the DHS. Michael agrees, but who should the victim be? Corrupt cop Marcus (Anthony Mackie) suggests that it be Marcus' new partner, Chris (Casey Affleck). Chris is a straight-arrow type, who has been accompanying Marcus on various duties directed at drug gangs in sleazy housing projects. Chris is also the nephew of Jeffrey (Woody Harrelson), a basically honest detective, though a drug user himself, who is following out leads from the bank robbery. 

All these characters and others play roles in tightly winding and then unwinding the movie's complicated plot, which involves much graphic violence. Triple 9's premise is intriguing. Many of its scenes and settings are morbidly fascinating. Some of its acting is strong, though Winslet is not completely convincing as a Russian crime boss, and Affleck, so good in The Finest Hours, is disappointingly bland here. The major problem with the movie, however, is that with pretty much every  character either in a hellish state of soul or moving toward one, it is hard to find anyone to care much about.     

St. Patrick's Day History and Traditions

This holiday is celebrated every year on March 17th, honoring the Irish patron saint, St. Patrick. The celebrations are largely Irish culture themed and typically consist of wearing green, parades, and drinking. Some churches may hold religious services and many schools and offices close in Suffolk County, the area containing Boston and its suburbs.

People all over the world celebrate St. Patrick's Day, especially places with large Irish-American communities. Feasting on the day features traditional Irish food, including corned beef, corned cabbage, coffee, soda bread, potatoes, and shepherd's pie. Many celebrations also hold an Irish breakfast of sausage, black and white pudding, fried eggs, and fried tomatoes. Common traditions include:

• Parades - This event is most often associated with the holiday. Cities that hold large parades include Boston, New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Savannah, and other cities worldwide.
• Drinking - Since many Catholics are Irish-American, some may be required to fast from drinking during Lent. However, they are allowed to break this fast during the St. Patrick's Day celebrations. This is one cause for the day's association with drinking heavily.
• Dying water or beer green - Chicago dies its river green for the festivities, and many bars serve green-dyed beer. The White House fountain is also dyed green.
• Other incorporations of green - In Seattle, the parade routes are painted in green. Observers are supposed to wear green or else risk being pinched. Parade floats and decorations will feature the color green.
• Religious services - Those who celebrate the holiday in a religious context may also hold a feast. Outside of this context, overindulgence tends to revolve around drinking.
• Pea planting - In the Northeast, many celebrate by planting peas. This is largely due to the color and time of year (prime pea-planting conditions.

Saint Patrick - The Missionary and Bishop of Ireland

St. Patrick, or the "Apostle of Ireland," actually started out in the pagan religion. While not much is known about his early life, as many of his life's details were lost to folklore, letters from St. Patrick reveal that he was captured in Wales, Scotland, or another close area outside of Ireland and taken to Ireland as a slave. Years later, he escaped and returned to his family, who were Romans living in Britain, going back to Ireland for mission work after finding a place as a cleric and then Bishop within the Christian faith. He was born around 460, and by the 600s, he was already known as the Patron Saint of Ireland.

There are many legends associated with St. Patrick. The symbol of the shamrock used for St. Patrick's Day comes from the story of St. Patrick using the shamrock to illustrate the Holy Trinity. The three-leafed plant coincided with the Pagan religion's sanctity of the number three and is the root of the green color theme.

Another popular belief is that St. Patrick banished the snakes from Ireland. The story says that while St. Patrick was fasting, snakes attacked him, so he chased all snakes into the ocean. However, there have never been snakes in Ireland during the post-glacial period. The absence of snakes and symbolism involved with snakes is believed to explain the story, although it could have been referring to type of worm rather than snakes. One legend has St. Patrick sticking a walking stick into the ground while evangelizing, which turned into a tree.

The History of St. Patrick's Day and why it's celebrated.

St. Patrick's Day was first celebrated in America in 1737, organized by the Charitable Irish Society of Boston, including a feast and religious service. This first celebration of the holiday in the colonies was largely to honor and celebrate the Irish culture that so many colonists had been separated from.

Early celebrations continued this modest tradition. In New York, the first celebration took place as a small gathering at the home of an Irish protestant. St. Patrick's Day parades started in New York in 1762 by a group of Irish soldiers in the British military who marched down Broadway. This began the tradition of a military theme in the parade, as they often feature marching military unites. The holiday eventually evolved from the modest religious dinner into the raucous holiday we know today.  Click here to continue reading.

Movie Review—The Witch

The Witch

by Peter J. O'Connell

The Witch. Released: Feb. 2016. Runtime: 92 mins. MPAA Rating: R for disturbing violent content and graphic nudity. 

Ever since Henry James' classic novella The Turn of the Screw (1898), many connoisseurs of horror tales have felt that the best are those that maintain ambiguity as to the nature of any apparitions experienced by the characters. Are the apparitions real supernatural entities, ghosts, demons or whatever? Are they stagings by some plotter? Are they psychological projections of some inner state or states of the person or persons experiencing them? Are they symbolic, the author/auteur's way of representing some state or situation in which the characters exist?

The Witch, written and directed by Robert Eggers, is a low-budget film but one rich in ambiguity. Based on actual accounts in dairies, memoirs and transcripts from 17th-century New England, the film is both a horror story and a historical story. In fact, the horror is found in the history, the history of the stresses that early Puritan pioneers had to deal with as they attempted to eke out a living on the edge of forests that they saw as containing menacing forces—savage Indians or . . . . 

One such pioneer is William (Ralph Ineson), intensely Calvinist but expelled from a settlement. William has established a hardscrabble farm in an isolated, wilderness area. The Puritan patriarch works the farm with his entire family: wife Katherine (Kate Dickie); adolescent daughter Thomasin; son Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw—great name!), just entering puberty; young twins Mercy (Ellie Grainger) and Jonas (Lucas Dawson); and baby Samuel. The animals on the farm include a rather rowdy black goat named Black Phillip. 

The farm's crops are doing poorly, and tensions of various kinds are starting to divide the family. Baby Samuel disappears mysteriously. Caleb starts looking too long—and longingly—at Thomasin's modest cleavage and either has or imagines having a rendezvous with a woman in the woods who is either young and alluring or old and haggard—or both. Thomasin is accused by William of having an “unholy bond” with Black Phillip and by the twins, who have fits, with being a witch. Thomasin plays along with the accusations, and William and Katherine discus giving her to another family as a servant.

When a death occurs in the family, the tensions explode in horrific violence. All along the woods have exerted both a forbidding and a seductive influence on the family. At the movie's climax, the survivor of the family goes into the woods and joins some folks—or phantoms—there and appears to have acquired an ability that is one of the great symbols of freedom and empowerment, one ascribed to witches, whom Puritans feared and loathed, and some contemporary feminists and “pagans” profess to admire. 

The Witch's period details are exact. Even the dialogue is done in the way that 17th-century Puritans spoke, done to an extent that some in the audience might wish that there were subtitles. The film's palette is mostly appropriately gray, except that there is a touch of color when folks are together around a fire, whether inside or outside. The brilliant score by Mark Korven is, however, modernist and dissonant. The acting is exactly right, particularly by the lovely Anya Taylor-Joy (a star is born!). Overall, The Witch, subtitled “a New England folktale,” bears comparison with some of Hawthorne's stories as a probing of the “New England mind.” 

Women and Social Security

by James B. Gust, Merrill Anderson Co. Inc.

Social Security benefits are gender neutral. They are based only upon work history. A man and a woman with identical work histories will have identical Social Security benefits.
In actuarial terms, this confers a small but important extra benefit on women as a group, because they live longer than do men. They will collect more in benefits over the course of retirement than will men. The Social Security Administration reports that 56.0% of beneficiaries age 62 and up are women, and 66.7% of those over 85 are women.

On the other hand, the average Social Security benefit for women is lower than it is for men, because both their years of coverage and their lifetime taxable compensation tend to be less. In 2012 the average annual Social Security income received by women 65 years and older was $12,520, compared to $16,398 for men. What’s more, studies show that single retired women, including both widows and the never-married, are more reliant upon Social Security for their retirement income. For this group, Social Security benefits provide about half of their income, compared with about 36% for elderly men and 30% for elderly couples.

The shortfall has led to some calls for a rethinking of the benefit structure. Last December, at a Senate Finance Committee meeting on the subject of working women and Social Security, Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) called for changes in the way that benefits are calculated for surviving spouses and closing of the gap between benefits received by disabled elderly and other disability beneficiaries. Wyden also recommended the creation of “caregiver credits” for those who have to leave the paid labor force to care for children or disabled family members. If such credits were offered, being a caregiver would no longer have a negative impact on earning a Social Security benefit.

Chart your own course
Whether or not changes are made to Social Security benefits, women—and men!—need to take steps to maximize their retirement capital. That means saving as much as possible in employer- sponsored retirement savings programs, such as 401(k) plans and 403(b) plans. Contributions of up to $18,000 are permitted for these plans in 2015. Additional “catch-up” contributions of up to $6,000 are permitted for those 50 and over, who are closing in on their retirement start date.

Don’t overlook the opportunity to contribute to an IRA or a Roth IRA, up to $5,500 ($6,500 for those over age 50). Having a substantial capital base to rely on for retirement income will dramatically improve retirement financial security. 

5 tips for a fabulous, healthy fall

(BPT) - Now that the holidays are behind us and spring is fast approaching, it is the perfect time to take control and make small changes that will improve your overall health. However, many of us struggle with sticking to a healthy diet and fitness routines and health regimens.
To help you stay healthy this season, here are five tips that you and your family can follow:

Exercise regularly. This may seem "easier said than done" however, don't let winter get in the way of your exercise routine. Get creative and adjust where and how you work out. For example, take that evening walk on your lunch break instead, take the stairs instead of the elevator whenever possible and look into indoor fitness options for those days when it's too cold to exercise outside.

Raise Vitamin D levels (even when the sun doesn't shine). With colder temperatures and shorter days you may not be getting that daily dose of sunlight for Vitamin D, which is essential for maintaining strong bones and supporting your immune system**. However, there are other ways to bolster your Vitamin D intake - no matter the season. Research from the makers of Centrum multivitamins shows that the majority of U.S. adults know sunlight to be a source of Vitamin D, but few can name other sources. Less than half of U.S. adults are aware of other sources of Vitamin D including: fish (43 percent), egg yolks (36 percent) and beef liver (32 percent). Vitamin D has numerous health benefits and may help reduce the risk of some of the top health concerns of adults - including osteoporosis.

Add a multivitamin. Though the weather outside may be frightful, your health and nutrition can be delightful. While it may be a challenge to eat healthy during the winter, look for ways to incorporate healthy carbs, whole grains and winter produce to your diet. If you're having a difficult time getting key nutrients from food alone, consider adding a multivitamin to your daily regime. Centrum multivitamins offer essential vitamins and minerals to support your nutritional health - now with higher levels of Vitamin D3*, the body's preferred form of Vitamin D**.
Stay hydrated. Heat and summer sweat have you reaching for the water during the warmer months but in the winter - not so much. Even though the seasons change, your water consumption shouldn't. Most people need to drink between six and eight glasses of water every day, so if you're falling below this number, drink up. You'll be heathier for it.

Get adequate sleep. It's a known fact that sleep is critical for our mental health and physical wellbeing - it's our body's natural way to recover and rest up. The National Sleep Foundation recommends that adults get 7-9 hours of sleep per night. While it may be difficult to turn in early, there are things you can do to ensure a full night's sleep. For starters, give yourself enough time to wind down at the end of the day and remove distractions from your sleeping space (this includes your electronic devices!).

Now is the perfect time to reset and recharge your healthy habits. Follow the tips above and you'll be able to handle any snow, rain or gloom that winter weather throws your way. To learn more about Centrum multivitamins, visit www.centrum.com/centrum-silver-multivitamin.

*Versus prior formulas of Centrum and Centrum Silver products only.
**These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease.

Ask the Senior GO TO Guide Advisor

DEAR ADVISOR:
My parents are retired, living in another state. They have a sizeable investment portfolio and are financially comfortable. However, as they are getting older, they are having trouble keeping up with their paperwork. Last year they were late in making tax payments, very unlike them. I would help them, but I just live too far away. Is there a service that a bank offers retirees to help in managing their money? Does it cost a lot?
—WORRIED CHILD

DEAR WORRIED:
Your parents should look into establishing a living trust.
They would transfer their investment assets into the trust, which then would be managed by a trust department or trust division, such as us. We would remit income to them as needed, file tax returns, and pay bills if they so desired. We could continue to provide this financial service even if one of your parents became incapacitated. The trust could continue to operate through both of their lives, and it would avoid probate at their deaths.

Movie Review—Hail, Caesar!

Hail, Caesar!

by Peter J. O'Connell

Hail, Caesar! Released: Feb. 2016. Runtime: 106 mins. MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some suggestive content and smoking.

Hail, Caesar! Is a satirical salute to Hollywood in its Golden Age, circa 1950. The film, written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, follows Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), “Head of Physical Production at Capitol Pictures,” through two days in his job as a “fixer,” keeping production going despite various problems; cleaning up or covering up messes in which stars are involved; and fending off gossip columnists (think Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons), such as Thora and Thessaly, the Thacker twins (both played by Tilda Swinton).

The film hilariously skewers various genres of the era—but not before showing how genuinely impressive they could be. For example, DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson), whose out-of-wedlock child Eddie is trying to find a cover for, is starring in a Busby Berkeley-style aquatic spectacle (think Esther Williams). The spectacle is actually almost gasp-inducing until DeeAnna throws a very nasty hissy fit at its peak (literally). And Hobie Doyle (Arden Ehrenreich) is an appealing singing cowboy (think Gene Autry/Audie Murphy) in Westerns until a producer insists that he also star in an elegant drawing-room film. That movie's fussy director (Ralph Fiennes) is unable to get Hobie to say the line “Would it were so simple” correctly. (Ehrenreich's performance as Hobie is a sheer delight.) Bert Gurney (Channing Tatum) stars in a movie (think Gene Kelly in On the Town) featuring dancing sailors. More and more sailors join the terrifically choreographed sequence, which becomes more and more homoerotic—and laugh-out-loud funny—as it proceeds. 

Eddie's main problem, however, involves Baird Whitlock (George Clooney, delightfully dim), who is starring (think Robert Taylor or Richard Burton or Charlton Heston) in a sword-and-sandal saga (think Quo Vadis or The Robe or Ben-Hur). As a Roman soldier, Baird delivers a very moving speech at the foot of the Cross—moving, that is, until he blows his lines.

Eddie's problem regarding Baird, however, is not blown lines, but the fact that the star gets kidnapped, and a ransom is demanded by a mysterious group known as “The Future.” The attempt to get Baird released provides a kind of overarching film noir sendup, which is also seen in other parts of the movie; for example, surveillance scenes reminiscent of Vertigo; domestic scenes reminiscent of The Big Heat; California coastline views and houses reminiscent of those in many noirish works. A scene with Eddie crony Joseph Silverman (Jonah Hill), DeeAnna and Eddie uses absolutely classic film noir composition and lighting. Along the way, Hail, Caesar! also manages to skewer some left-wing screenwriters, including one with a Stalin mustache, and Soviet-type films.

Throughout the movie, Eddie is attempting to decide whether he should continue in the movie industry or accept an offer from another company to work on a nuclear project. The way that the events of the two days play out leads him to make his choice. 

In Hail, Caesar! the Coen brothers, those mischievous moviemakers from Minnesota and their estimable cast and crew, provide—brilliantly--a hurrah for Hollywood combined with a Bronx cheer-- or, should we say, a Bemidji jeer?

“Footnotes” to the film: (1) There was a real Eddie Mannix, but he apparently was actually more of a thug than the character played by Josh Brolin. (2) Even in its Golden Age, Hollywood produced at least two films, both dark melodramas, that punctured its pretensions: The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) and The Big Knife (1955). (3) The Coen brothers also took aim at Hollywood 25 years ago in the comic-apocalyptic Barton Fink (1991), which was clearly influenced by Nathanael West's classic, not-so-comic novel The Day of the Locust (1939). West's novel was itself made into a film in 1975.