Movie Review—The Greatest Showman

Theatrical release poster

by Peter J. O’Connell  

The Greatest Showman. Released: Dec. 2017. Runtime: 105 mins. MPAA Rating: PG for thematic elements, including a brawl.

The Greatest Showman’s main character is called P.T. Barnum, but the movie, directed by Michael Gracey, is all “show” and tells us little about the actual, and quite fascinating, life of the real man named P.T. Barnum. The Greatest Showman is simply a series of largely fictionalized vignettes vaguely based on Barnum’s life, or just made up, strung together so that flashy song-and-dance routines can be, as it were, “hung” from them. This cinematic necklace is then presented for the audience to gaze at in the spirit of holiday period spectacle.

The movie’s music, by lyricists Justin Paul and Benj Basek—the two also write the music for the recent La La Land—is enjoyable. If not memorable, and the dance routines are definitely energetic, if not particularly original. As Barnum, super-trouper Hugh Jackman brings both energy and enthusiasm to his role. Zac Efron is rather bland as Barnum’s partner, and Michelle Williams as P.T.’s wife, Charity, seems somewhat unfocused, unusual for this gifted actress. Among the performers in Barnum’s show, the lovely Zendaya—who did all her own acrobatics—is a standout, as is Keala Settle as the “Bearded Lady.”

 The film links two themes. One is the familiar biopic formula of:  talented person (Barnum) struggles—with the help of a loved one (Charity)—to fulfill a dream despite social disdain; achieves success; then is tempted to go down a bad road; but—with the help of the loved one—returns to the right road; and lives the dream.

The other theme is one of contemporary resonance. Barnum is presented as a champion of democracy and diversity. For him men and women of varied races and ethnicities, body shapes and sizes, interests and attributes are not “freaks” to be mocked (as the movie has mobs doing) but appreciated as “unique persons.” This theme is actually true to Barnum’s life, even carried out in his political career. (The movie doesn’t deal at all with P.T.’s election as a Connecticut legislator and Mayor of Bridgeport. P.T. opposed slavery and secession and promoted the rights of minorities, women, and consumers.)

The Greatest Showman is by no means the greatest movie musical ever, but it definitely provides an entertaining 105 minutes—for children of all ages!     

How to keep your dog or cat safe in cold weather

WOODLAND PARK, N.J. — As temperatures dip to below freezing in some parts of the country over the next few days, humans aren't the only ones who should beware of the cold — dogs and cats are also at risk, say animal experts.

Frosty weather can be dangerous for pets, particularly smaller dogs or ones with lighter fur, veterinarian Ashley Levinson said.

"The thinner the coat, the more hair-like the coat, the more exposed they are to the cold in general," said Levinson, who works at the Bergen County Veterinary Center.

Dog owners can help protect their pets by bundling them up and keeping an eye on their behavior — if a pet is at the door and wants to come back inside, the owner should let him come in and warm up, Levinson said.

"Make sure they have a warm place to sleep and warm up when they come in," she said. "If it's too cold for you, it's likely too cold for them."

Justice Walker carries his dog Langston whose paws were affected by de-icing agent during a snowstorm in Philadelphia, Friday, Dec. 15, 2017. (Photo: Matt Rourke, Associated Press)

Outdoor cats, meanwhile, should stay inside as much as possible. But if they insist on being outside, make sure they have a place to get shelter from the wind and snow, Levinson said. If the cat regularly hunts outside, she said owners should leave food out in case prey animals are scarce.

Symptoms of hypothermia in cats and dogs include blue tinting to the skin or lips, lethargy, and disinterest in food. Shivering is also a warning sign for dogs, as they rarely shiver, Levinson said, adding dogs should be kept out of cold water, as that makes their body temperature drop faster than just playing in the snow. Click here to continue reading.

Movie Review—Darkest Hour

Darkest Hour

by Peter J. O'Connell

Darkest Hour. Released: Dec. 2017. Runtime: 125 mins. MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some thematic material. 

Superheroes of many types and their special weapons populate today's movie screens, usually fighting to save civilization. Few, however, are short, portly, balding, aging, cigar-chomping, liquor-loving curmudgeons whose weapons are . . . words and will. Such, however, was Winston Churchill. How this real-life unlikely superhero saved civilization from the barbarism of Naziism is told in Darkest Hour, directed by Joe Wright.

It's May 1940, and Hitler's blitzkrieg has begun to roll across Western Europe. On May 10 King George VI (Ben Mendelsohn) reluctantly replaces appeasement-minded Neville Chamberlain (Ronald Pickup) as Prime Minister with the controversial Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman). In a speech to Parliament, Churchill says that he can offer only “blood, toil, tears, and sweat.” For purposes of national unity, Churchill puts together a War Cabinet with representatives of a number of political tendencies. Among them are Chamberlain and Chamberlain's ally Viscount Halifax (Stephen Dillane).

Chamberlain and Halifax plot to oust Churchill and propose calling on Mussolini (Italy is not yet in the war) to mediate a negotiated settlement between Britain and the Third Reich. Churchill is adamantly against such a settlement. Pressure mounts on the PM, however, as country after country falls to the Nazis, and the only effective opposition is the British Army, which becomes trapped in France at Calais and the beaches of Dunkirk. 

The pressure causes Churchill to engage in splenetic outbursts, some directed at his new secretary, Elizabeth Layton (the lovely Lilly James). Winston's beloved wife, Clementine (Kristin Scott Thomas), counsels him to moderate his behavior so as to win people over to his point of view. (Thomas' hairstyle deserves to share some kind of “Hirsute Phenomenon of the Year” award along with Kenneth Branagh's mustache in Murder on the Orient Express.)    

Churchill does become gentler with Elizabeth, who comes to admire him greatly, but his political energy level does not drop. Whether he's dashing about at home in a bathrobe simultaneously drinking and dictating a message or speech or scurrying through the underground labyrinth of tunnels, corridors, and rooms where the war planning takes place, he is a human dynamo. That dynamo is superbly recreated in Gary Oldman's performance. Just as with Helen Mirren as Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), Oldman, an actor of average height and build in real life, makes us believe for every second of the film that he is, both physically and in terms of personality, Winston Churchill.

As it proceeds, the film begins to develop its own form of pulse-pounding suspense, although it does not show combat action such as Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk did earlier this year. Churchill must make his way through difficult decisions regarding the foreign enemy and the plotting of domestic enemies, just as he must make his way through that labyrinth of tunnels, corridors, and rooms beneath the surface.  

The tension reaches a peak when Churchill sacrifices the British force at Calais in an effort to save the much larger force at Dunkirk. He is accused of being a butcher, but when he launches the extraordinary military-civilian Operation Dynamo to rescue the troops at Dunkirk, the way is cleared for Britain to fight on and for Churchill to make an epic speech. Before he makes the speech, however, the movie has a scene of Churchill in the London subway that is apocryphal but accurately reflects the resoluteness of the British people at the time, despite the lack of that trait in some of their politicians. 

The speech that Churchill goes on to make on June 4, 1940, is the famed and inspirational “We shall fight . . . we shall never surrender” one. Chamberlain and Halifax now know that they are defeated and that Britain is ready to fight on for as long as it takes to achieve victory. The movie then gives Edward R. Murrow's famous line about Churchill to Viscount Halifax: “He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.” Wright's Darkest Hour is a superlative salute to one of history's true superheroes.    

8 Changes to Social Security in 2018

For 2018, the basic structure of Social Security is the same in terms of how workers are taxed and how benefits are calculated and paid. However, there are a few notable changes to be aware of, such as the gradually increasing full retirement age and several thresholds and other Social Security figures that adjust over time with inflation.

With that in mind, here's a rundown of eight 2018 Social Security changes that are set to go into effect.

1. The full retirement age is increasing for some eligible seniors

The full or normal retirement age for Social Security benefits has been 66 years of age for some time now, but is set to gradually increase to 67 for Americans born after 1954.

If you were born in...	Your full retirement age is...
1954 or earlier	66 years
1955	66 years, 2 months
1956	66 years, 4 months
1957	66 years, 6 months
1958	66 years, 8 months
1959	66 years, 10 months
1960 or later	67 years

DATA SOURCE: SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION.

The reason this is important now is that the change has begun to affect people who are reaching the age of eligibility for Social Security benefits. Specifically, Americans who will turn 62 in 2018 (born in 1956) have a full retirement age of 66 years and four months, and those who will turn 63 in 2018 have a full retirement age of 66 years and two months.

Here's why this is important. Since most Americans claim Social Security before they reach full retirement age, this means that early retirement will have a more dramatic reduction. For example, if a worker with a full retirement age of 66 claims at 62, he or she would face a 25% reduction. If their full retirement age is 66 years and four months, the reduction percentage would be 25.8%.

2. Finally, a decent cost-of-living adjustment for retirees

The Social Security Administration announced a 2% cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for beneficiaries, starting with the December 2017 payment.

This is the highest COLA in six years, and is due to higher inflation -- specifically, the rise in the CPI. However, this is still historically low. Social Security COLAs have averaged roughly 3.8% since the current method was implemented in 1975. Furthermore, for many retirees, this year's increase could be consumed by rising Medicare Part B premiums.  Click here to continue reading.

22 photos that show the evolution of New York City's Times Square ball drop

Revelers wending their way in New York's Times Square to ring in the New Year on January 1, 1942.AP

Every year, over a million people pack into New York City's Times Square to revel in the new year.

2017 marks the 100th anniversary of the ball drop — the tradition of watching a glowing sphere that slides down a pole until midnight.

Let's take a look at how the celebration has evolved over the past century.

Since the tradition began in 1904, New York's New Year's Eve celebration has been one of the world's largest. The first celebration had about 200,000 attendees.

In the early years, crowds gathered at Wall Street's Trinity Church to listen to church bells at midnight before the Times Square festivity became more popular.

New York had its first ball drop in 1907 after the city banned fireworks. The 700-pound ball had 100 bulbs, was made of iron and wood, and appeared every year until 1920.

New Year's Eve in Times Square in New York City, circa 1940s.YouTube/Screenshot

Over the next few decades, the number of spectators swelled. This was the crowd on December 31, 1941.

When the US entered World War II, the fire department started ramping up security. Because of wartime blackouts, 1942 and 1943 were the only two years without ball drops.

New York's fire department in Times Square on December 31, 1941.

Nevertheless, an estimated half million turned out to Times Square in 1942. At midnight, there was a moment of silence and then a ringing of church bells.

Click here to continue reading.

Movie Review—Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Theatrical release poster

by Peter J. O’Connell 

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Released: Nov. 2017. Runtime: 115 mins. MPAA Rating: R for violence, language throughout, and some sexual references.

Fargo, North Dakota, and Ebbing, Missouri, are hundreds of miles from each other, but the movies Fargo (1996) and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, have something in common: the brilliance of their makers. Brilliance in creating dark situations with comic aspects in a plot that is never predictable. Brilliance in creating a characteristically mid-American atmosphere. Brilliance in eliciting brilliant performances, particularly from Frances McDormand, the star of both films. (Martin McDonagh, the British writer/director of Ebbing, deserves a special hat tip for ranking up there with Minnesota’s Coen brothers, creators of Fargo, in these categories.)  

Ebbing, Missouri, becomes riled up when three billboards outside the small town suddenly bear a startling message, which reads in sequence: “Raped while dying.” Still no arrests?” “How come, Chief Willoughby?” The reference is to the murder several months earlier of the daughter of Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand), a hardbitten local woman. Mildred is a divorcee deeply grieving over her daughter’s death. Outraged at the lack of progress in the murder investigation, she has rented the billboards.  

Chief of Police Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson) is a family man beloved in the town, particularly since it is an open secret that he is dying of cancer. Willoughby is sympathetic toward Mildred but resents the billboards as an attack on his competence. This kind of mixture of motives in the film’s characters reflects the mixture of tones in its presentation.

Mildred and her depressed son, Robbie (Lucas Hedges), are harassed and threatened, including by Mildred’s abusive ex-husband, Charlie (John Hawkes). The most serious harassment, though, is by Willoughby’s deputy, Jason Dixon (Sam Rockwell). Deputy Dixon is a Gomer-type, disorganized and possibly racist, who lives with his mother (Sandy Martin) and longs to become a detective.

Just as McDonagh tempers our instinctive sympathy for Mildred by having McDormand play her as hardbitten even beyond the understandable parameters of her sad situation, so, too, he manages to have Rockwell generate some sympathy for what is in many ways a disgusting character. You might say that Rockwell’s performance is a subtle depiction of crudity.

The fires burning inside several characters are unleashed in a night of real fires. Willoughby, indirectly, teaches some hard truths. Dixon, surprisingly, learns them—somewhat. Charlie makes an unexpected confession. A little person—really—(Peter Dinklage) comes to Mildred’s aid, and she later acquires another unlikely ally for an ambiguous mission.

You might not want to go to Ebbing, Missouri, but you should go to this movie. Some of its impact is billboard big, some subtle, but most of it will be lasting.      

A beginner's guide to Facebook

Against all odds, you likely know someone who still hasn't succumbed to the lure of Facebook. Maybe you’re a beginner yourself. Or perhaps you just haven’t had the gosh darn time to explore every last corner of the world’s most expansive social network. 

Below, we offer a refresher course for those eager to learn more about the basics of Facebook. Let’s take a social stroll through the network’s main features, policies and culture norms. 

Even if you’re a pro, it’s fun to look at the platform through a beginner’s eyes. If you were a Facebook virgin, what would you think of the social network?

1. Timeline

Before you begin searching for friends, it’s important to complete your Timeline (aka your personal profile), which includes everything from uploading a profile picture and cover phototo outlining your employment history to determining your relationship status (OK, that’s optional). It’s called a timeline because you can include information, important milestones and memories spanning your entire life. Timeline is incredibly nuanced, and encourages you to include as much detail as possible, and many, many people do — so, don’t be shy!

Check out these additional resources for building the best Timeline:

2. Friends

Once you’ve filled out a healthy portion of your Timeline, start searching for and adding “friends.” Trust us, you won’t be at a loss. Chances are, many of your co-workers, family members, classmates and neighbors are already on the network. Search for them in the search box that appears on the top of the site. 

As you accumulate friends, Facebook will be able to suggest additional contacts as its algorithm generates connections among your growing network. You’ll see a list of suggested friends on Facebook’s homepage, in the “People You May Know” sidebar. Click here to continue reading.