Movie Review—Wind River

Theatrical release poster

by Peter J. O'Connell                           

Wind River. Released: Aug. 2017. Runtime: 107 mins. MPAA Rating: R for strong violence, a rape, disturbing images, and language. 

On a night illumined only by a full moon, a young woman runs screaming across a snowfield, leaving bloody footprints behind. So begins writer/director Taylor Sheridan's Wind River.

This scene is followed by one in which lambs, not silent but bleating, are watched by very silent predators, wolves. A stir in snow reveals that the predators are, in turn, being watched by a protector of the flock, Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner), clad in white and merging with the snowscape. Cory is a professional tracker and expert marksman, whose job it is to shoot dangerous animals, such as those wolves, which he does. 

These two scenes provide the setting and the themes of Sheridan's thoughtful thriller. The setting is the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, a bleakly beautiful region of mountains and prairie, larger than Rhode Island, with only 14,000 residents but many, many social problems. The movie's main theme essentially is the struggle to protect people in vulnerable situations from predatory forces, such as alcohol and drug abuse, sexual violence, exploitation of various kinds. 

In the course of his activities, Cory discovers the bloody, frozen body of Natalie Hanson (Kelsey Asbillie), the young Native American woman seen running in the opening scene. Natalie was the best friend of Cory's teenage daughter, who also died mysteriously four years earlier. Cory is white, but his ex-wife (Julia Jones) is Native American.

Cory reports Natalie's death to the tribal police chief, Ben (Graham Greene). The wrinkles on Ben's face deepen, but he is not shocked. What's shocking is for the audience to realize how common early death is on the res—life expectancy is only 49. Ben and Cory report the death to Natalie's father (Gil Birmingham), who struggles to be stoical but is really ravaged.

The star-spangled banner at the entrance to the reservation always flies upside down as a sign of distress, but the federal government makes its presence felt in the person of Jane Banner (hmmm . . .), a young FBI agent from the Las Vegas office. Newbie Jane (Elizabeth Olsen) is plucky but unprepared for the climatic and other conditions at Wind River. In fact, she has to wear the snowgear of Cory's late daughter in order to survive the cold. Mentored by Cory, Jane more or less becomes his surrogate daughter, rather than—thankfully--the romantic interest that a less realistic film might have turned her into. 

Cory, Jane, and Ben undertake an investigation of Natalie's death that takes them to various modest dwellings—usually trailers—in remote locations, some of which turn out to be venues of fierce violence and criminality, perpetrated by both Natives and whites. Can the three prevail against these forces?

Renner as Cory is a memorable strong, silent type but even more memorable as a man of unspoken sorrow. Olsen's character inevitably calls to mind Jodie Foster's Oscar-winning turn as a young FBI agent in 1991's Silence of the Lambs. Olsen's character, however, is underwritten by comparison, but Olsen makes the most of what she has been given. Graham Greene, a Native American actor, provides superb support, as usual in his long career.

Taylor Sheridan won praise for his screenplays for Sicario and Hell or High Water, set in the contemporary Southwest. Now in his debut as director as well as writer, Sheridan explores another geographical and social area of today's West. The tour that he takes us on is gripping indeed. 

  

Why You Need the Shingles, Flu and Pneumonia Vaccines

Did you know that as you age, your immunity to the diseases you’ve been vaccinated against as a child starts to wane?

So says Dr. Dana Hawkinson, infectious disease specialist at The University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City, Kansas. That’s why it’s just as important to be vaccinated as an adult as it was as a child. Plus, some of the illnesses you could contract in the second half of life aren’t just an inconvenience — they could make you very sick or even kill you.

So here’s what you need to know about the most common vaccines for older adults — influenza (flu), pneumococcal pneumonia and shingles — plus boosters you need for tetanus and pertussis. Use this chart from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control for more information on when to get which vaccines. Click here to continue reading.

Movie Review—Detroit

by Peter J. O'Connell

Detroit. Released: Aug. 2017. Runtime: 143 mins. MPAA Rating: R for strong violence and pervasive language.

Detroit, directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal, is a film of scope and scale, style and significance—and one of great sadness. It is both a history lesson and a horror story. The lesson is about the multiple ways that racism leads to horrible events. The story is the true one that has become infamous as the “Algiers Motel incident.”

The film begins by showing a sequence of Jacob Lawrence's wonderful paintings depicting the “Great Migration” of Southern blacks to Northern cities around the time of World War I. One of those cities was Detroit, which became a mighty metropolis known as “Motor City.” But, as on-screen text explains, after World War II another migration—that of whites to the suburbs—took place. The black community of Detroit found itself left behind in poverty, with substandard housing and schools—but an almost all-white police force, many of whose members were prejudiced..

Frustration built up and erupted into violence one sweltering night in July 1967. Police raided an unlicensed club where a party celebrating the return of black veterans from Vietnam was taking place. Instead of simply closing down the venue and sending everyone home, the police insisted on treating all the partygoers as criminals, arresting them, and transporting them to lockup. Delays in transporting the arrestees allowed an angry crowd to gather. Someone shouted out: “What did they do?”

Bottles, rocks, and Molotov cocktails were thrown. Looters broke into stores. Fires were set. A full-scale riot soon engulfed much of the city. Black leaders attempted to calm the crowds, but to no avail. Governor George Romney and President Lyndon Johnson called out state police, the National Guard, and federal troops to help the Detroit police quell the rioting, as days passed. 

Bigelow brilliantly mixes actual footage of the riot and reenactments in such a way as to plunge the audience members into the midst of the chaos and make them feel as jittery as the camera work on the screen. One wonders how such disparate events will be brought together as: the shooting to death by Krauss (Will Poulter), a baby-faced cop with Seussical eyebrows, of a black for stealing two bags of groceries; the peacemaking efforts of Dismukes (John Boyega), a black security guard; and the disappointment of the Dramatics, a promising young R&B group slated to perform after Martha and the Vandellas at a theatre, who find the show cancelled because of the riot just as they are about to go on. Movingly, the group's lead singer, Larry (Algee Smith), sings beautifully to the empty theatre before leaving. 

The characters in these various events come together at the Manor House of the Algiers Motel, an oasis of relaxed poolside socializing in the midst of the burning city. Larry and a friend make their way there, where they meet several more young blacks and two young white women from Ohio, one, Julie (Hannah Murray), the daughter of a judge. 

The atmosphere at the Algiers changes with shocking suddenness when Carl (Jason Mitchell), a young black man fooling around with a starter pistol fires off some blanks. His horseplay causes gunplay. Police and National Guardsmen nearby think that they are being fired upon, unleash a blizzard of bullets against the Algiers, and raid the Manor. One of the cops is Krauss, accompanied by Flynn (Ben O'Toole) and Demens (Jack Raynor). Dismukes is on duty across the street and goes over to the Algiers to witness the night's events.

The police raid soon becomes, in effect, like a home invasion, with tormenting of the residents as Krauss takes charge, acting out of a mix of paranoia, power-madness, racism, and sadism. He says to the blacks: “I'm just gonna assume you're all criminals.”

The cry from earlier in the film now becomes the leitmotif of the gripping action. “What did they do?” That is, what did the blacks do to deserve the evils being inflicted upon them? Yes, Carl was irresponsible, but the police overreaction is horrendous. 

Before the night is over, three black men have been murdered; seven more black men and the two white women have been brutalized; and one of the white women has been stripped naked. No, not every white is depicted as an active evildoer. Some disapproving ones show up at the scene, but leave rather than, as one says, get “involved in a civil rights mix-up.” 

The last part of the film shows in brief, but moving, scenes and on-screen text the “justice”--not--meted out to the perpetrators of the Algiers Motel incident and the trauma of the survivors and the families of the dead. So sad.

Bigelow has gotten uniformly excellent performances from her cast. Poulter as Krauss is riveting. Algee Smith as Larry and Anthony Mackie as a brutalized Vietnam veteran are, too, and much of their fine acting has to be done while their faces are pressed against a wall! Ben O'Toole as Flynn is a brooding presence, seldom speaking but occasionally erupting into violence. Hannah Murray is appealing as a young woman trying to be brave while being degraded. And John Boyega conveys well the conflicted situation of Dismukes, the only black in uniform at the Algiers.

Bigelow and Boal's wrenching and thought-provoking film ends by telling us that though Larry was too traumatized to ever perform again with the Dramatics, the group itself continues performing to this day. The Motor City never recovered from the riots of 1967, and the Algiers Motel and its Manor have long since been torn down, but at least the Motown melody lives on. Tragically, so does the malady of racism.    

Reverse Mortgages Will Soon Be Less Attractive

One way to supplement your income in retirement is about to become tougher. The Trump administration just announced new policies taking effect Oct. 2 that will increase the upfront cost of reverse mortgages for many borrowers and reduce the size of the loans.

If you’re 62 or older (the reverse mortgage age requirement) and have been thinking about converting your home equity into cash, you may want to apply for a reverse mortgage before the new rules kick in next month.

Smaller Reverse Mortgages, Bigger Upfront Premiums

“Many consumers getting reverse mortgages after Oct. 2 will get a lesser amount of money than before and, depending on how they draw out the money, will pay more in mortgage premiums,” said Peter Bell, president and CEO of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association.

“The issue,” Bell added, “is that the [Home Equity Conversion Mortgage or HECM] program costs more to administer than the Trump administration feels is justified or that the premiums cover.” With a HECM reverse mortgage, you pay an FHA-approved lender an upfront fee and then have access to a percentage of your home equity. The loan is repaid when you move, sell the home, die or fail to pay property taxes or homeowners insurance to maintain the property. The maximum size of a reverse mortgage depends on your age, home value, interest rate and upfront costs.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) said, the economic value of the government’s reverse mortgage program (part of HUD’s FHA) was a negative $7.7 billion.

Making the Federal HECM Reverse Mortgage Program ‘Viable’

Today, a HUD press release said, “younger, lower-income homeowners with traditional FHA-insured ‘forward mortgages’ are routinely bailing out the HECM program through the mortgage insurance premiums they pay.” Consequently, it added, the HECM program “can no longer remain viable in its present form.”

The planned changes to the reverse mortgage program “are huge; they’re very significant,” said Phil Stevenson, owner and principal of the reverse mortgage lender PS Financial Services and a Certified Reverse Mortgage Professional.

They also came as something of a surprise. “We had some inkling” that changes were afoot, Bell said. But HUD didn’t tell the reverse mortgage industry or consumers what was planned until the recent announcement was a fait accompli.

“You always expect the right to be less regulatory and for less government,” said Stevenson. “Now they are forcing our hand without even consulting the industry.”  Click here to continue reading.

Visit us at Boomers & Beyond Expo

This Thursday visit the Senior GO TO Guide booth at the Boomers and Beyond Expo at the Trumbull Marriott.

Movie Review—Kidnap

Theatrical release poster

by Peter J. O'Connell                                                                                                                                            

Kidnap. Released: Aug. 2017. Runtime: 82 mins. MPAA Rating: R for violence and peril.

In the popular Taken series of films (2008-2115), a fiftyish white male protagonist, played by Liam Neeson, seeks to save family members abducted or in danger. Now in Kidnap a thirtyish African-American female protagonist (Halle Berry) seeks to rescue her abducted six-year-old son. 

Director Luis Prieto, screenwriter Knate Lee, and co-producer Berry have been very economical in the structuring of their film. It is only 82 minutes long, instead of the more standard 120 minutes. There is only one star (Berry) in the cast. The movie has only five sequences—three brief ones at the beginning; a car chase sequence, one of the longest on record, taking up more than half the running time; and a sequence that uses the traditional suspense/action film trope of a woman menaced in an isolated old house. 

The beginning sequences are, first, an appealing series of photos and videos of Frankie (Sage Correa), only child of Karla Dyson (Berry), in his infancy and toddler years; then. Karla, now divorced and in a custody fight with her ex, doing tiring work as a waitress in a diner; then, an excursion of Karla and Frankie to an amusement park, where Frankie is “taken”  by, as we learn, a classic redneck couple, Terry (Lew Temple) and Margo (Chris McGinn), who force him into their car and roar away. After some initial panicky confusion, Karla realizes what has happened and sets off in pursuit of the kidnappers, first on foot, running frantically and losing her phone, and then in her minivan.

The wild and wooly car chase that follows is the central sequence of the film and takes us hither and yon on the spaghetti of superhighways surrounding New Orleans and then onto rural roads in bayou country. Berry as Karla convincingly transforms from soccer mom to “Mama Bear” as the chase proceeds, grimacing fiercely, babbling to herself or to God, crying for help to others along the way, and shrieking imprecations at the kidnappers.

She has several direct and bloody clashes with Terry and Margo, letting them know that she will pursue them relentlessly. “Let me tell you something, as long as my son is in that car, I will not stop. Wherever you go I will be right behind you.” (The fact that Karla in her pursuit causes accidents to a number of innocent motorists might make an interesting topic for discussion by audience members as they drive home after the movie.) The cinematography of the chase is itself, effectively, wild and wooly, a startling array of constantly changing camera angles and shot types. 

By the time she gets to the swamps, the gentle Karla that we saw in the beginning sequences has become a woman of wondrous intensity, willing to use any means necessary, no matter how brutal, to save her beloved child, and not just her child. Kidnap may be only 82 minutes long, but it is one—wait for it—Halle of a thrill ride!

Old Savin Rock topic of talk in West Haven

Folks who recall the old Savin Rock amusement park will enjoy a three-person panel discussion: “Memories of Savin Rock Amusement Park” Sept. 28 at 6 p.m. at the West Haven Public Library, 300 Elm St.

Mayor Ed O’Brien will host the free event, which will be presented by the Columbus Day Committee of Greater New Haven and Sons and Daughters of Italy Lodge 37. 

The discussion will include a presentation and a reception with refreshments.

Savin Rock was an amusement park in West Haven that operated in various forms and delighted locals and other beachgoers from the 1870s until 1966. 

Savin Rock was established between 1873 and 1904 — originally just as a hotel. The amusement park was created by George Kelsey, a local entrepreneur who extended the trolley lines to the area of the park and built a 1,500-foot pier at the end of Beach Street to accommodate a ferry service.

But as time went on, Savin Rock grew with the 20th Century into a regional fun district that was said at one point to have more rides, hot dog stands, frozen custard stands and bars than Coney Island.

To learn more about Savin Rock and to wander through a lovingly-assembled collection of its memorabilia, visit the Savin Rock Museum, located in the basement of the Savin Rock Conference Center at 6 Rock St. It is reachable by phone at 203-937-3666 or online at http://savinrockmuseum.com/