You can go back to your normally scheduled programming.

Our six year national nightmare might not be completely over, but you can safely quit your addiction to the news, you can rejuggle your priorities, you can go back to regular life.

Donald Trump will never be president again. Oh, he could possibly win the nomination, although I doubt it, but he could never win. You see America saw the movie and didn’t like it, didn’t like much of what Trump touched. And the slow drip of truth being revealed is leaving a stink on a man who might be indicted and even go to jail.

As for last week’s shenanigans in the House…

The headlines were enough. Insanity on parade. Nitwits. These are the people we have to be afraid of? Sure, they can get elected in their right wing red gerrymandered districts, but the rest of America wants nothing to do with them. Sure, nothing will get accomplished for two years, and they’ll investigate Hunter Biden and his laptop, but this isn’t going to rivet the public, they just can’t see how Trump’s kids and his son-in-law can skate completely, having all been involved in their father’s business, never mind administration, and Hunter’s activities were supervised by his father and therefore a penalty should be paid. As for trading on the fame and power of their father, can you say Ivanka and her clothing line?

Case closed. Oh, not for the Trumpers. It’s just that that constituency is nowhere near the majority, its power has been neutered. D.C. might be a source of headlines for the next two years, but you don’t have to focus on the stories, go in-depth beyond the headlines. Actually, you can laugh, because happy days are here again!

Not really. There’s a looming recession, and the economists can’t agree whether it’s coming or not. And rampant income inequality. And homelessness. But…

You can have a life. You don’t have to worry about politics coming up and dividing friends and family. It’s on the back burner. Democracy has been saved, at least for now. And it’s a great relief. (And if you live in an oppressive red state I can only give you Sam Kinison’s advice to the starving in Africa…MOVE!)

What does this mean?

Plenty.

Culture becomes king once again. And what will that culture be?

We’ve done mindless for nearly two decades, but now we’re older and wiser. It’s not like we learned nothing in the past six years. We learned if we’re somnambulant, not paying attention, rust never sleeps and our entire society can be corroded. Thinking people got a boost. The put-down of intellectualism did not triumph. As for Elon Musk and Twitter… It’s now even left the news, all we’ve got is the shell of a social media network and a declining Tesla. Not only did Musk bring down his car company, he put a dent in the image of techies everywhere. It’s kind of like lawyers after Watergate, they still have not recovered their status in society, they’re not hated as much as the cable company, but most people have no faith in lawyers, they look down upon them. Same deal hereafter with tech. Just because you’re rich and successful in one vertical…that does not mean you know anything about anything else.

However, the last six years have taught us that we all live in our own niche, our own vertical, and this will not change. Politics brought us together, it was the one thing we could all talk about. Now…

Be into your band, your streaming TV show, just don’t assume everybody’s heard it or seen it. Sure, there will be national news items now and again, like school shootings, but we’ve already seen them fall off the front page quickly. Everything top-line lasts shorter than ever before. If you want to appeal to everybody, you’re going to find that you don’t last. And if you’re appealing to the top, to the media, oftentimes your core abandons you, if there was a core at all to begin with.

What we’ve learned from TikTok is humanity sells. And everybody is playing. And if you want to win…

Check out the comedians. There’s a plethora on TikTok. They all can’t earn a living. Multiply by a zillion when it comes to music. The competition is stiffer than ever before. And if you’re not great, the surfer skips and the algorithm never shows your face again. Funny how we’ve heard about the power of the algorithm forever, but it’s really only triumphed now, with TikTok, the computer is in control of what we see, and ultimately our culture.

The movie business is dying. Theatre chains are going bankrupt. You see movies are like tech, what you did yesterday does not count. Oh, to a degree you can build on a franchise, but if you don’t come up with something new…

This is like the smartphone killing computer manufacturers. Do you even need a computer anymore? Many people survive without one, or use a tablet, which is just a giant smartphone.

As for the two-dimensional reality stars… That’s so last decade. Famous for nothing, even TikTok stars have a greater identity, and more creativity.

I’m not saying we’re returning to an age of gravitas, but that we are not just going back to 2016, or even 2020. We’ve seen that there are bigger things than money, like democracy. And if you let the blowhards talk long enough they’ll indict themselves, show their flaws.

ChatGPT? Very interesting, but it has nowhere near the impact and footprint of MySpace, never mind Facebook. We expect technological breakthroughs. College graduates have not only never known an era without the internet, they’ve never known an era without broadband. They don’t e-mail, they text. The ship has sailed, the world has been wired, everybody has been connected and if you’re worried about your privacy, you must live off the grid and never go online, but even then your house will show up in Google Maps. The battle between the boomers and the younger generations is over. The younger generations won. Anti-internet screeds are laughable. Stop telling us about the deleterious effects of something so fulfilling. You can’t even ban football, never mind Coke (of either variety!), yet you think you can stop the internet train? Give me a break.

And the boomers have shifted into low gear anyway. They’ve retired, or soon will. They’re all about going to bed early and managing their investments, playing it safe, and we all know progress is made via risk.

Magazines? Like the movies, the pandemic put a dent in them too. So much was wiped away in the past two years. We are not going back to the mall. We are continuing to get our food delivered. Sure, we’re still in the middle of a wrenching transition, but we are absolutely not going back to the way it was.

So where does this leave you?

Well, if you’re working for the man, you’re going to take a haircut. Salaries are being kept flat, they are not keeping up with inflation, because if they do, inflation never dies. So unless you’re rich, you’re going to have to budget, watch your pennies. Not that you’re not going to spend them.

That’s one thing about millennials, they love to have experiences, not only concerts, but travel. Millennials travel in a way their parents never did. Credit the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card, marketed directly to them and incentivizing them to go. Millennials want those perks and they want to use them. So if you’re marketing to them… Give them something, make it interesting.

Only the pubescent and those younger than them are ignorant. These are the online armies. Ignore them. They might be a mile deep, but they’re not a mile wide. The noise far exceeds the impact, like the Republican Congresspeople. There’s something there, but you can ignore it and not much will change.

Online hate, blowback? It’s here to stay. Grow a thicker skin. We’re all in it together, and the main reason people attack you is because they’re angry they’re not where you are, and if they can’t be, you’ve got to pay a price.

So what’s new on the horizon?

Once again, culture.

Food and restaurants are as big as they ever were, America’s number one form of entertainment.

As for streaming content, despite what the financial pages say, there’s still going to be a ton of it, there has to be, otherwise people won’t subscribe. And it will be a smorgasbord, of not only lowbrow, but highbrow too. Because it’s not about getting everybody to watch the same thing, but delivering shows for individuals so they keep paying. Sure, there will be consolidation amongst the streamers, but it’s akin to sports trades, unless you’re really into inside baseball, you can ignore them.

As for music… The brand phenomenon will continue. And will for as long as we have billionaires, musicians want that money.

But there will be a new cadre, not playing to the back row, who realize the power of music is…to speak truth to power. Who won’t fight for every last dollar. Who will be in bed with their audience, not mobilizing them to fight anybody, but to be fulfilled in the symbiotic relationship.

This is the turning point. Don’t expect radical change tomorrow. But there will be an evolution, because most Americans are breathing a sigh of relief, they don’t have to be on guard 24/7 to save our nation. They’ve got bandwidth for other things now.

And don’t expect tech to fill the vacuum. That’s done. We had multiple decades of innovation, but we’re rarely wowed by new products, hardware or software, today. If anything, we expect them.

It’s just like music, which squandered its power after the classic rock and MTV eras.

Really, it’s the age of the individual, which is contrary to the millennial ethos, which is all about keeping your head down and being a member of the group. We’ve seen the power of one individual, especially with Trump. He’s a beacon that way. If you believe and you want something, you may be able to do it. Take a stand.

Breathe a sigh of relief.

Get back to your life.

Trailer: https://bit.ly/3itskNr

Aubrey Plaza is wicked good.

Just a couple of hours ago, I was thinking how the movies are over. Except for the superhero flicks, because really they’re like series, you know, the Marvel Universe is like a multi-season extravaganza on Netflix.

But the real movies, the soul of the industry, the stories, based in real life… They can’t open anymore. Oh, they can promote ’em, put ’em in theatres, but people just won’t go. They posit the audience, mostly oldsters, who support these flicks are afraid to go because of Covid…but in truth, they got out of the habit. Never mind it’s so much more convenient at home.

My mother, bless her soul, gone just over two years now, was addicted to the movies. That was her go-to. If there were a few hours, some empty time, which she hated, she’d pick out a flick. It was a religion.

It was also art. Something to believe in and live for. She went to the Judith Crist weekends…

Fewer people today know Judith Crist than Johnny Carson. I’ll bet no one under thirty, maybe forty, has a clue who she was. But she was the film critic for “New York” magazine, amongst other periodicals. Back in the heyday of film criticism, the late sixties and seventies, when movies still counted, before “Jaws” and “Star Wars” ruined the paradigm.

You see there was too much money in blockbusters. Just like there’s too much money in finance and tech. And there are some who can resist, but not many.

I was introduced to a friend’s friend in Two Elk, the day lodge atop Vail. He too was from Connecticut, but the relative boonies.

So I asked him how he got out of there, ultimately he coughed up that he went to Harvard.

So what did he do after that?

He went into “investments.”

What a waste. He could have changed the world, but he just wanted to get rich.

Sad.

You need enough money to live, but how much is that?

And that’s just the point of “Emily the Criminal,” she needs the money.

They set it up pretty well. How she got into this hole.

And then she makes choices…

I guess that’s got to do with your background too. If you grew up in a middle class family, your values are such that…

The middle class has evaporated. And the truth is those on the bottom will do anything to survive. Desperate people do desperate things, and Emily is desperate.

Is it wholly believable?

What we needed was a few hours to set up a slow transition. But you don’t have that time in a movie. So when Emily makes certain choices, they don’t ring true.

But that’s the script, the plot. The film’s execution is great, as is Aubrey’s performance.

I know Aubrey Plaza’s name, but prior to tonight I couldn’t pick her out of a lineup. Ever hear the host of SNL and wonder who it is? Impossible in the seventies, de rigueur today. At least I knew Aubrey Plaza’s name.

And she impressed me by being real. Sans plastic surgery. A regular person. The kind you’d meet, maybe not on the street, and would be intrigued by. Then again, Emily’s so down and out she doesn’t say much. Until…

Ultimately this movie is about standing up for yourself. It’s very well articulated. I tell friends this all the time. If you don’t stand up to bullies, they’re going to push and marginalize you. That’s how they became successful, by making you feel you’re inferior, taking advantage of you.

Emily says you must make your own rules.

Wow, that resonated. You’re either the boss or the employee. And if you’re the employee you haven’t got much power. Sure, there are nascent unions. Then again, everybody agrees to arbitration and the company always wins and…

Life is hard. Friends can be two-faced, they don’t want to take a risk for you.

And all of this is in “Emily the Criminal.”

I was aware of it, I caught the buzz when it was released in theatres, but I had no intention of seeing it. Until two people e-mailed me about it, I checked the RottenTomatoes numbers and the critics’ number was 94. Sure, the audience number was only 79, but I trust the critics first. And my cutoff number is 80, and 79 is close enough.

You’ll enjoy “Emily the Criminal.”

But it would have been better as a streaming series.

P.S. “Emily the Criminal” is a Sundance movie, as in it premiered at the festival and was acquired based on the buzz. But it stiffed in theatres, it only grossed $2.2 million in North America, which barely exceeds its budget. And since theatre owners take half the gross…

P.P.S. The festival model if not dead, is dying. You know, where distributors show up to skim the cream. Now that the films don’t do well, the glow is off. “The Los Angeles Times,” the industry newspaper of record, said this. Furthermore, the paper said that it doesn’t make sense to travel to Utah, when insiders can just screen the movies at home. You can go to the film festival as a punter, just don’t think you’re on the cutting edge, the festival circuit is now niche.

P.P.P.S. “Emily the Criminal” is on Netflix. 

You won’t know where this is going at first. But by the end of the first episode, you’ll say “wow,” and look forward to watching the other five.

Yes, there are only six episodes. A couple forty five minutes, but the rest an hour or so.

So it’s not a huge commitment. But if I were honest, I’d tell you to watch it all in one sitting. Because when a night or more goes by you have trouble keeping track of some of the plot lines. A week by week drip would be an utter disaster. “Black Butterflies” is really one long movie. And it’s French. And it plays that way.

“Black Butterflies” would not have the same impact if it were American. You see in America the stars dominate the story, cinematography is key, and the end result is something fake. You don’t get wholly engrossed, you don’t wholly believe it. And even though a couple of plot twists in the fourth episode might make you wince, “Black Butterflies” feels strangely real.

So if you’re a fan of French film…

I’m not talking “Mr. Hulot” here. I’m talking about something grittier, more cerebral. That reflects the human condition, and makes you think.

Adrien is a writer. Past his peak. Although married, he doesn’t really fit in. Then again, a writer does not have regular hours, unlike Adrien’s scientist wife Nora.

I don’t want to put all the pieces together, but let’s just say Albert, the old man, is very believable. Someone who has lived his life, and is now just biding time until it is over. He looks experienced, he’s lumpy, got lines in his face, but he’s still sharp.

As for Catherine… She was a babe once, but she’s not desperately holding on to her youth like so many Americans, she’s not trying to compete with the twenty-year-olds. She’s not caking on makeup, but she’s also not let herself go. This is a French archetype, and you’re drawn to it.

So when the series gets going, they flash back to the past. And the strange thing is you lived through it. At least me. And you reflect back on what you were doing then, and compare (and contrast!) yourself to the characters.

And there are multiple characters and multiple plot lines and you know they’ll converge, but you’re not exactly sure how. Which keeps you watching.

Not that “Black Butterflies” is a hard watch. It’s all there, what happens is easily digested, but what does happen is constantly unanticipated. I won’t say it’s a thrill ride, because unlike an American production it’s not screamingly fast-paced. Not that it’s slow, it moves at the pace of life. There’s an intellectual element. Life is being left alone with your thoughts. It’s the essence, it’s what we do most. But that’s not what we tend to see in American art. Unless it has that “look-at-me!” quality, begging for attention. Most of us don’t get attention, we’re flying solo, as many friends or relations we might possess. We want to feel integrated, but it’s a constant challenge, and the isolation can kill you. Never mind that you can be alone together.

“Black Butterflies” is not a comedy. I hear that from people all the time, they want something light, to take them away from the detritus of everyday life.

Now I’m not inherently against light, but I will say it’s hard to do right. I will also say I prefer gritty, edgy, that’s what I want from my entertainment. I don’t want to be taken away, I want to see myself, question my behavior, go inside. I want insight into the human condition, I don’t want to feel so alone.

Not that I could connect with the characters. That’s another cliché that drives me wild, when people say there was no one they could root for, no one they could identify with, that they dislike all the characters. Well, that’s how life is, why should art be any different!

Life is about making choices. And you’re constantly searching for information and also constantly finding out you don’t know much, or you’re surprised by something key. You want to grab hold, you want to eliminate the risk, plan it all out, but no life is like this, and the more you try to attempt this the more you squeeze the life out of life. What I mean is placidity yields little. It’s when you’re a pinball, when you’re the main character in an evolving movie, that life gets interesting.

I don’t want to overhype “Black Butterflies.” It’s not “The Bureau,” or “Happy Valley,” or even “Broadchurch.” But it’s well worth your time.

If you’re watching French shows I’d start with “A French Village.” Forget “Call My Agent,” that’s light fodder akin to “Mr. Hulot.” The French can do that, but it’s earthy and human they specialize in. And, of course, watch the police show “Spiral.”

But as French as “Spiral” is it’s akin to an American series, “Black Butterflies” is not. It’s got the essence of the country in the pacing, the plot twists, the characterizations, it’s the other, and therefore much more the real thing, as in the characters are real people, whose choices…you can evaluate them as opposed to laughing and discarding them, wondering what you’d do in the situations.

Will you be satisfied when it starts to all play out?

Well, maybe not as much as you were in the first half of the series.

Just one warning, really a tip, stay to the very end of the last episode, don’t turn the show off during the credits, which is de rigueur in streaming, hang in there.

__________________________________________

Subject: Trust me on this

We have the exact same taste in shows. Here’s one for you:

Black Butterflies.  Netflix.

Judie Gregg Rosenman

My voice is back and we’re going to try this again.

Tune in tomorrow, Saturday January 7th, to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz

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