Music and Movies: THE HELP, Adele, Mumford and Sons, From Good Homes
We saw The Help via Netflix last night. Very enjoyable film. Certainly makes the blood boil ... the grotesque treatment of black maids portrayed therein. It's an Oscar nominee, and in a sense it's the film I most enjoyed of the (only) three nominees I've seen, but I'm not convinced it's a worthy winner. Mostly that's because I felt manipulated a lot. It's a worthy subject, but an easy one too. There's not a lot of subtlety to the film. Briefly described, it's about a young woman from Jackson, Mississippi, who comes back home after graduating from Ole Miss in the early '60s to take a job writing a Household Hints columns, and ends up deciding to write an account of the experiences of the black maids who run the households of the white people in Jackson, and raise their kids, while putting up with humiliating treatment such as being forced to use outside bathrooms (by law, even!) and being fired by stratagems like trumped-up thievery charges. She has to navigate the justifiable suspicion and fear among the black community, as well as hostility from her white "friends". All this takes place against the backdrop of Medger Evers' murder and other key events of the '60s civil rights movement.
The actresses playing the main two maids, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, both got well-deserved Oscar nominations (Davis for Lead Actress, Spencer for Supporting). I thought Spencer particularly good, in a role that admittedly allowed her a bit more scope for flashy acting than Davis' more serious role. The roles for the white women were not as good, mostly calling for varieties of hammishness (hammy villainy for Bryce Dallas Howard's character, hammy dementia for Sissy Spacek's character, etc.). The lead character, journalist Skeeter Phalen (played by Emma Stone) turns out to be named "Eugenia" but I thought for a while her name must be Mary Sue. (As for the male characters, what few there are, well, it's a movie that would fail a reverse Bechdel test if there was one such.)
I'm being a bit snarky but that's not quite fair. The movie is really enjoyable, and it does take the right side, fairly movingly, on an important issue, without distorting things as far as I could tell. It's a good movie, not a great one.
One more thing about the movie -- the twin girls (Eleanor and Emma Henry) who play Mae Mobley, the last white child Viola Davis's character raises, are the cousins of a man I know very well, Jerry Henry, a member of my church (and Sunday School class). (Jerry grew up in Bruce, Mississippi.)
I said I'd say something about music as well. Just to mention what I'm listening to ... as I may have mentioned before, I'm a huge fan of the bluegrassy jam band Railroad Earth. I finally got the sense to try out the predecessor band to Railroad Earth, From Good Homes, a New Jersey band that broke up in 1999. Their "farewell" album, recorded at their farewell concert, called Take Enough Home, is just plain wonderful.
And, prompted by the Grammies (see, they are worth something!), I investigated two of the prominent artists. Adele is one -- I bought a copy of her album 21. She has a spectacular voice, and I enjoy the album, but it does seem a bit samey samey after a while, and while I like it I don't love it. I also tried Mumford and Sons, and their album Sigh No More. They are closer to my wheelhouse than Adele -- they play old-timey music (not unlike Railroad Earth in a way), though with a distinctly British tone. Some very good stuff -- particularly "The Cave", "Little Lion Man", "Winter Wind", and "Awake My Soul". A certain tendency to get over pompous at times, but quite nice -- I'm glad I tried them.
The actresses playing the main two maids, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, both got well-deserved Oscar nominations (Davis for Lead Actress, Spencer for Supporting). I thought Spencer particularly good, in a role that admittedly allowed her a bit more scope for flashy acting than Davis' more serious role. The roles for the white women were not as good, mostly calling for varieties of hammishness (hammy villainy for Bryce Dallas Howard's character, hammy dementia for Sissy Spacek's character, etc.). The lead character, journalist Skeeter Phalen (played by Emma Stone) turns out to be named "Eugenia" but I thought for a while her name must be Mary Sue. (As for the male characters, what few there are, well, it's a movie that would fail a reverse Bechdel test if there was one such.)
I'm being a bit snarky but that's not quite fair. The movie is really enjoyable, and it does take the right side, fairly movingly, on an important issue, without distorting things as far as I could tell. It's a good movie, not a great one.
One more thing about the movie -- the twin girls (Eleanor and Emma Henry) who play Mae Mobley, the last white child Viola Davis's character raises, are the cousins of a man I know very well, Jerry Henry, a member of my church (and Sunday School class). (Jerry grew up in Bruce, Mississippi.)
I said I'd say something about music as well. Just to mention what I'm listening to ... as I may have mentioned before, I'm a huge fan of the bluegrassy jam band Railroad Earth. I finally got the sense to try out the predecessor band to Railroad Earth, From Good Homes, a New Jersey band that broke up in 1999. Their "farewell" album, recorded at their farewell concert, called Take Enough Home, is just plain wonderful.
And, prompted by the Grammies (see, they are worth something!), I investigated two of the prominent artists. Adele is one -- I bought a copy of her album 21. She has a spectacular voice, and I enjoy the album, but it does seem a bit samey samey after a while, and while I like it I don't love it. I also tried Mumford and Sons, and their album Sigh No More. They are closer to my wheelhouse than Adele -- they play old-timey music (not unlike Railroad Earth in a way), though with a distinctly British tone. Some very good stuff -- particularly "The Cave", "Little Lion Man", "Winter Wind", and "Awake My Soul". A certain tendency to get over pompous at times, but quite nice -- I'm glad I tried them.