Film Review: A FAMILY AFFAIR

Actress Joey King is a joy to behold even when she's freaking out.

Now streaming on Netflix, A Family Affair is much better on film than it sounds on paper.  So I won't bore you with a scene-by-scene recap of the plot, which is what most professional film critics do and somehow get paid for doing it. Instead I'll tell you why you should watch it despite -- if you're anything like me -- not wanting to.

It stars Zac Efron, a pretty-boy actor I have never paid any attention to mainly because he's just too handsome in a teeny-bopper kind of way. The other leads are actors I respect, including Kathy Bates, Nicole Kidman and relative young newcomer Joey King. With my husband away I thought I'd give it a try, since I would never dare ask him to watch what sounds like a typical Christmastime rom-com. 

It's not. Instead, it's a complex, heart-stirring and down-to-earth drama about a few lost people trying to find their way, each hoping to make a human connection to feel less alone. It all takes place in the context of Hollywood movie-making and very rich people living the good life, which as fas as I'm concerned is lots of fun to wallow in. 

A zany plot actually works here. Chris Cole (Efron) is a huge Hollywood star and Zara (King) is his tireless, go-fer assistant spending her days fulfilling his selfish requests in hope of advancing her career as a movie producer. Through happenstance he meets Brooke (Kidman), Zara's mother 16 years his senior. They fall in lust, then they fall in love, much to the dismay of Zara who is afraid her mother will get hurt, Chris being a well-known serial womanizer.

To see how it turns out, watch the movie. It's full of truths about family ties, loneliness, forgiveness and grief, offering even the most jaded viewer something to hope for even when things look grim. And as it turns out, Zac Efron is a pretty good actor despite his Greek-god looks.

Person of the Year?

According to news reports, Kamala Harris, our current Vice-president who does absolutely nothing as far as we can see, is on the "short list" to be named 2024 Person of the Year by TIME Magazine. This brings to mind a flood of questions, including who knew TIME is still being published? Does anybody read it? What does being named their Person of the Year indicate? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

If the title indicates someone who dominated the news all year regardless of their inherent merit or value to society, Kamala might very well be it. But if it indicates someone who is outstanding in their field, or beneficial to all of society in some way, she's off the list.

If it means someone who is a complete know-nothing clown who happened to be in the right place at the right time and with the right skin tone, then she's it. But if it means an intelligent person who people revere, she's out.

Here's my short list for Person of the Year:

Donald Trump

Elon Musk

Vivek Ramaswamy

Benjamin Netanyahu

Tulsi Gabbard

I know I'm gonna be seen as a racist for not listing a black person. But hey -- P. Diddy seemed wrong.

The Jesus Thing

A dear friend of mine is a retired pastor and continuing student of religious teachings. I consider him to be quite intelligent and possibly the best piano player I have ever met in person. However, his firm and unshakeable belief in the existence of Jesus Christ and the power he holds over every living human being makes me question his sanity at times.

Here's the thing: I strongly believe in God. Not sure what that means, but it's definitely not anything in human form. Maybe it's the Ocean and Sky. Or the Constellations. Or the very air we breathe -- I have no idea. Whatever It is, It did not/could not conceive a human son, in particular Jesus Christ. And if some human named Jesus did walk on the Earth, he certainly did not come back to life after three days of being dead. And his mommy was not a virgin, as in The Virgin Mary. And what makes him God's son anyway?

I know that millions of people swallow that story whole and that blows my mind. As for the whole organized religion thing, after seeing the 2015 movie Spotlight which detailed the discovery and worldwide exposure of priests as child molesters and sexual predators by reporters at the Boston Globe, I don't know how anyone can keep the faith .

Clothes to Die For

I have never understood fashion trends. Who follows them and why is a puzzle. Don't people simply wear clothes they like and that feel comfortable? 

An article online highlighting the hottest new trends declares that skinny jeans are out and fuller pants are in for 2025. I can only guess this is to accommodate the steadily growing girth of the average American. Obviously, hiding in baggy clothes is much easier than dieting.

The article I read included the picture shown below, with the caption "Chic classic jeans will be more popular in 2025." (I would have added "if you are a homeless bum," but that's just me.) So go ahead and indulge all you want! At least if you do have a heart attack while stuffing your face, you'll be right in style when the paramedics come to cart you away.

The Kavanaughzation of Pete Hegseth

Bad boy Hegseth.

Back in 2018, a woman named Christine Blasey Ford came forward to accuse Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her -- he allegedly "groped" her through her sweater -- when he was 17 and she was 15. This was said to have occurred at a high-school beer party nobody could remember, including her. Every Democrat ate it up, seeing as how Kavanaugh, a Republican, had been nominated to become a Supreme Court Justice by Donald Trump, then serving his first term as president.

They dragged Kavanaugh through the mud and muck known as Congressional confirmation hearings, embarrassing themselves in the process. Thankfully Kavanaugh emerged relatively unscathed, except for his sullied reputation and the damage done to his two young daughters during that gruesome ordeal. 

Now the Dems are trying to do the same thing to Pete Hegseth, another Trump appointee -- this time for Secretary of Defense -- who they claim has had too much sex for his own good. It's funny because when Bill Clinton had sex inside the White House they sighed, looked the other way, and said "his sex life is his own business."

I think the Democrats in Congress need a hobby. They could start with closing our borders and making our cities safe. Just a suggestion.

Life Is Short

If aliens from another planet arrived here and could speak our language and use our Internet, which of course they could because they would be so much more advanced than us, having kept themselves hidden for millennia, they would be stupefied by most of what they find. Humans, with the exception of Elon Musk, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, are pathetic. Equipped with incredible brain power, they squander it on things like this:

1. A popular home video is titled something like "What I Eat in A Day As A 150-pound Mom of Three" or "What I Eat In A Day While Dieting to Lose 100 Pounds." They then photograph all their meals and show us how they look eating them.

2. Brides-to-be model three or four different wedding gowns and ask strangers online who are stupid enough to watch them which looks best.

3. Videos of pretend-recipes for giant wedding cakes or complicated casseroles go on and on, showing innumerable ingredients -- Cool Whip is often included -- that look gross and incongruous. These might run 30 minutes or more, and always engender tons of viewer comments like, "This looks disgusting," or "Is this for real, when will they get done with it?" 

The time wasted by hundreds of thousands of people watching inane videos might be spent learning a new language, reading books, exercising or even curing cancer. Almost any other activity would be more beneficial to society. Really, life is short and it gets shorter every day -- for everyone.

Ugly Celebrities Still Get Rich

Sandra Bernhard, net worth $10 million

Kathy Griffin, net worth $40 million

Bill Maher, net worth $140 million

 

How Can We Be Friends?

Politics really messes things up. For example, last night I went out for sushi with my husband. At one point I went to the ladies' room and another woman was in there. I complimented her wild hair -- brown with bright kelly green stripes framing her face. We chatted about this and that as we washed up. It was clear that I liked her and she liked me. 

Maybe I was a little tipsy from all the sake but I said, "We should be friends!" She agreed. Exchanging names, I promised to send her a friend request on Facebook. So when I got home I looked her up and found her profile and did a little looking around. One of the things listed as something she likes was The ReidOut With Joy Reid. 

I don't just dislike Joy Reid, I despise her. In fact, I recently wrote a blog post naming her "The Worst Person in America." Anyone who likes Reid obviously hates Donald Trump and all Republicans. I am a Republican and I voted for Trump.

I decided not to contact the woman from the ladies' room. It's a shame, really. In another time we might be good friends.

Another Turkey Pardoned

The media is all aflutter over Joe Biden's pardoning his son Hunter, like everyone alive on the planet did not see that coming. What's that -- he said he wouldn't and now he did, so he lied? Oh please, lies are the bread and butter of politicians. 

How anyone can get the slightest bit upset about this is beyond me. Hunter is a sleaze bag, a grown-up big baby who cheated on his taxes and maybe did some other sketchy stuff, but he certainly is not a threat to the public and doesn't need to be behind bars. As for Joe, he's his father and he could do it and why wouldn't he? What father wants to see his kid go to jail? 

I see it as a non-story, especially since lying is so common with Joe, ho-hum. But to the members of the media, a hangnail is a story on a slow news day. They will inflate anything into a crisis if it will sell papers, increase ratings or get advertisers. Every reporter, with the possible exception of Bret Baier of FOX News, is no different from the paparazzi who killed Princess Diana in that tunnel in France. 

So relax, turn off the news and turn on a movie, preferably a documentary. There is an excellent one streaming now on the History channel entitled Reagan, about the former Hollywood actor who became our 40th president in 1980. (Not the new movie starring Dennis Qaid, this one was made in 2011.) It's quite interesting, very well-edited and offers a fun snapshot of the times he lived in. Watch it if you loved Ronald Reagan or hated him; either way you'll come away smarter than you will if you tune into all the yapping about Hunter's pardon.

Doing the Trump Shuffle

Come on -- loosen up and give it a try. Doing the Trump Shuffle makes people feel good, and Lord knows the Democrats need something to make them feel good. Maybe if they stopped blindly hating the man and tried being open-minded and, God forbid a million times, loving, things would improve for the whole country.

I know, it's hard since the poison they ingest daily takes its toll. And on Sundays they get a triple-dose of poison that lays them low for days, I'm sure. I'm talking about The New York Times, that insidious Bible for the misguided and unthinking Democratic Party foot soldiers who read it and weep, of course in unison.

Today being Sunday we have the pages of that liberal rag strewn around our living room. After doing the crossword puzzle in the Magazine section, I ventured further and only found blatant negativity concerning everything Trump is doing, will do and ever did, sadness over Kamala's inevitable loss, and suggestions of how to survive the terrible four years ahead until they take back the White House with hopefully a woman president. Like that matters? Have these people learned nothing from the outcome of the recent election, when a black female lost? Get it? Nobody cares about your gender when you are unfit for the job.

My favorite -- and by that I mean my least favorite -- column in today's Opinion section is by Gail Collins, a middling writer who says things like "I dunno" and "um, obviously" in otherwise acceptable sentences. Gail believes that Kamala lost because America is racist: "I know we elected Barack Obama twice, but if we can't rise up above race once and for all, it's hard to believe we'll ever be a country capable of making grand, inclusive decisions like making a woman president."

President Koko Banana-Rama, 2028?

Two things Gail seems to overlook. The first is that we might elect a white woman as president. Would that be grand enough for her, or too lacking in inclusivity? And second, who gives a damn if we have a woman president? Why is that so important? What's next: A dog for president? Or maybe a chimpanzee, I hear they are very smart. 

When will we recognize that we share the planet with many different species? Let them take a crack at running things; they couldn't do any worse than an old man with degenerating brain cells. As for the Dem's so-called deep bench, I actually heard on CNN that AOC is being floated for a presidential run in 2028. If she runs I'm definitely writing in the chimp. (Any chimp.)