Tune in today, December 28th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

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You’ve got to see it.

Ignore the reviews. Ignore the fact that it stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence. Forget that it opened in theatres. Ignore its budget. There’s almost no buzz. But this movie is FANTASTIC!

Then again, if you’re a Trump supporter…

We haven’t had a movie that’s captured the zeitgeist like this since “Network.” And that may be a better movie, but it’s not as good of a snapshot of life in these United States and the media business.

Do you feel alone? Is life confusing? Does it make no sense? Do you not even recognize our country? Then “Don’t Look Up” is for you. The truth is we’re shown the fiction every damn day that the center is holding. The media business functions like it’s still the twentieth century while it might as well be the twenty-third. The internet came along and blew the old world apart. It democratized the country. I’m not talking about DEMOCRACY, but democratization. Now everybody has a voice, like the feed of comments scrolling down the images in this picture. Everybody’s got a hater, EVERYBODY! Hell, they want to take Abraham Lincoln’s name off of schools. We’ve become unmoored and  the distance has become too far for the rope to be thrown to reconnect us.

Trump. He was a symptom. He captured the feelings of the ignorant and the left behind, whereas the know-it-all Democrats, the educated elite, had no idea that half the country was being left in the distance on their run to riches. And now instead of having compassion for the losers, they have contempt, then again how can you support these anti-fact, anti-science, nincompoops.

It’s all about money, and that means it’s all about ratings. In other words, if it doesn’t go viral, if it doesn’t get likes, we’re not interested. The tail is wagging the dog, and speaking of that movie, i.e. “Wag the Dog,” it’s not in the LEAGUE of “Don’t Look Up.”

Don’t judge the movie as a movie. Judge it as a cultural exposé. It’s hard to do comedy, comedy is inherently uneven, but the wanker critics use the same template for every flick, and that’s just plain wrong. That’s like scoring Formula 1 on style instead of time, the metrics are different in every category and you must adjust. And we’ve got people who do, and then there are those who refuse to. Don’t tell me you don’t have a smartphone, don’t tell me you don’t subscribe to Netflix, the joke is on YOU! You’ve snuffed out your life. All that anti-tech b.s…we’re never going backward, we’re always going to be connected, get with the PROGRAM!

So, you’ve got Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence waving the truth…and they seem to be the only ones who care. As for DiCaprio, I had to ask Alexa how old he was. 47! If Leonardo DiCaprio is 47, that must mean I’m just about DEAD!

And Jennifer Lawrence plays an intelligent nerd. Enough with the glamour girls, the ones with looks but no brains, never mind no education. You can’t teach a rock to do science, never mind math or astronomy.

And DiCaprio is understated and Lawrence at times out of control…they’re perfect for the roles, and to tell you the truth, when I hear DiCaprio is in a flick I shy away. Thank god I didn’t this time.

So why did I watch? Because Jake texted me about “Don’t Look Up” and I did the research, and I saw it was an Adam McKay picture, who did “The Big Short,” which was different from the book, and just as good. McKay employs cinematic effects that bring you into the picture, he almost breaks the fourth wall, he almost laughs at what is on screen, and I remembered the review I had read which said he didn’t succeed here, but I’d much rather see an honest attempt than a dishonest financial success.

And if “Don’t Look Up” had succeeded at the box office… That used to be a thing, but it’s long gone. You know, the grosses. It was a breakthrough when they were published in the newspaper. They affected ticket sales, never mind delivering naches for the winning studios. Now they’re irrelevant. People only want to see superhero movies in the theatre, everything else plays on the flat screen, where the public truly lives, where even a day and date disaster like “Red Notice” is seen by many more people than the vaunted pictures that debut in the theatre.

And that’s where “Don’t Look Up” started. Yes, Netflix has caved to the ancient Academy. It has placated the wankers in the film industry, but the truth is there is an advantage to being day and date on the flat screen, because you have one starting point for the buzz. Once again, we no longer live in the twentieth century, with its windows. You get one chance to make a good impression, that’s it, after that the public is on to something new, there are no second chances, just an endless onslaught of product, a tsunami that buries the consumer, who is so overwhelmed that he or she or they is lucky if they can focus on and watch one damn thing.

Which is all to say that “Don’t Look Up” is on Netflix. To paraphrase the Stones, it’s just a click away. It’s Sunday, forget sports, with its substitute players, struggling to play on, ignoring Covid like the brain dead Aaron Rodgers. Like Howard Stern said, the next time he’s injured on the field I hope he calls in Joe Rogan, not an M.D. You’ve got to watch “Don’t Look Up.”

You won’t know what is going on at first, you won’t even know it’s a comedy. It’s not until they make it to…

I’m not gonna tell you a damn thing. That’s one of the great things about a movie, a book, the freshness, the twists and turns, if you know what is going to happen it ruins it.

I’ll just say that “Don’t Look Up” is for thinking people, ones flummoxed by the life we lead. It skewers all those who need the puncture. Like the divas, like the musical stars. It’s an equal opportunity offender, but that does not mean everybody deserves the same amount, the same depth of attack. No, it’s quite clear that those on the right, the Republicans, have lost their minds, assuming they’ve got minds. I mean I wonder what they’ll say when they watch this. I mean you really can’t make up your own science, you really can’t deny facts. You can go unvaxxed, you can say whatever you want, but that does not mean death’s honesty won’t fall upon you naturally, even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.

That’s Bob Dylan for the uninformed. That latter line got cheers when Dylan went back on the road with the Band during the Watergate crisis, when Richard Nixon was on his way to being held to account.

Now nobody is held to account. Well, if you’re poor and unconnected, good luck. But Trump even pardoned Bannon and Stone. We live in a country akin to a banana republic, and the rest of the world KNOWS IT!

And so does “Don’t Look Up.” It speaks truth in a world where that’s anathema. You can only tell truth in cartoons, comedies, that’s why “The Simpsons” has lasted so long, it doesn’t pull punches.

And neither does “Don’t Look Up.”

Watch it. It’s not hah-hah funny at first. And then there are moments when you split a side, when you laugh hysterically, at the inanity of modern life.

Best picture of the year, hands down.

Trailer: https://bit.ly/3z0MvXa

What does it take to give up?

I don’t remember a Christmas when I wasn’t skiing.

Well, that’s not true, there was last year, and that year I got cancer, and all those years in between the seventies and 2005 when I was stuck in L.A., wondering what to do with myself when the world stopped and I didn’t want it to.

You grow up in a family. Well, maybe you don’t. Maybe you’re the child of a single parent. Or sans parents. I’m not familiar with your experience, but the suburbs? I know those by heart.

And in the pre-internet era, if you lived in the suburbs you were disconnected, all you could do was dream. You had to go to the city, New York or L.A., to take your chance on the spinning wheel of entertainment, even more. But the truth is most people don’t have the chutzpah, they’re just too scared to leave their comfort zone, or maybe they’ve got no direction except home. Why do people not dream? Maybe it’s society, it does its best to squeeze the creativity out of you, makes you conform, so you can be a good little worker on the assembly line of life. But what if that life isn’t for you?

The truth is it’s easiest to go straight. And if you’re from the suburbs your parents wanted you to go straight, they weren’t rich, they wanted you to be able to leave the nest and keep flying, they wanted you to get a college education, to be prepared, and then a professional degree, to begin your working life one step ahead of everybody else. And to defy your parents, that takes a will most people don’t have, therefore the world is riddled with baby boomers who look back and wonder, what if they took the path less taken, what if they invested in their dreams, what if they hadn’t borrowed so much money, what if they weren’t tied to their job, THEN WHAT?

On the other side you’ve got the people watching the world pass them by as they pursue their dream, and usually never achieve it. At first they can live without the money. But then there’s the house, the car, the family, and then it’s too late, you can never catch up. Either it’s your dream or second class citizenry.

And everybody’s invested in your dream, but only for a short while. They’ll support you, come to your show, and then they won’t, they believe you’re being juvenile, that you need to grow up, everybody else conformed, why can’t you?

I’m not talking about the desperate, who will do anything to make it, many times they do. Then again, the risk is so much smaller, if they fall back to earth they haven’t missed much, just drudgery on the assembly line.

And the truth is it is drudgery. So you live to get high, have sex and be entertained by music, movies and television. Without those three there’d be little reason to live, life would be in black and white, and we all need a little color to make it worthwhile.

But there are a zillion people for each slot. And most are full of it…you know, doo-doo. They tell you about their past, who they know, but they never go anywhere. And then there are those who make it their business to complain about the system, saying it’s rigged. And then there are those for whom it seems effortless, they make it in their twenties, but what if you’re about to be THIRTY!

The bigger the artist, the more unique the path, the more challenges there are to success. Because even the gatekeepers, they want something that rains down coin, they talk about risk, but take very little. As for today’s internet world? Like Sly Stone sang, everybody is a star, and it’s a side hustle. Occasionally it’s your main hustle, but it takes so much effort to keep your head above water that you ultimately give up. Being a star today is different from yesterday, because today it is all about money, whereas before it was about the work, you were measured by your work, not the cash.

So Jonathan Larson put everything on the line to make it, and he failed.

Oh, eventually he succeeded, with “Rent,” but he wasn’t around to see it, he died of a heart attack, you don’t have health insurance when you’re poor, to go to the hospital just costs too much, so you don’t. This is the reason the rich live longer than the poor, health care.

So you’re sharing an apartment. You’ve got the college bookshelves, with the cinder blocks and wooden planks, and after a couple of years your cohorts peel off. Usually they don’t talk about it, they keep it to themselves, and then suddenly they’ve gone straight, and there’s one fewer Indian in the tribe. Can one even use that metaphor anymore? Now there are so many boxes you have to check before you can start to write, start to create, talk about inhibition.

And Larson needs one more song for his musical “Superbia,” and the closer it gets to deadline, the harder it is to write. That’s one of the reasons people don’t risk, because when you get close to the deadline, the test, it’s agony.

And then… “Superbia” fails. I’m not giving anything away. It’s right there online if you do any reading. And the fact that Lin-Manuel Miranda made the picture, a tribute to his hero.

And “tick, tick…BOOM” is made for theatre nerds. If you’re not one, if you’re not a fan of Broadway, I don’t recommend it, it will be a bit of a slog. But then it ends…

It took so much for Jonathan Larson to make it. And despite common wisdom, his Jewish parents did not support him. They support you during your education, then they cut you off, you’ve got to make it on your own, but that’s so hard to do, there are no starting jobs that pay all the bills, you need time to create. But especially if you’re the child of Jewish parents the entertainment business is anathema. Forget that Jews started Hollywood, forget all the successful actors and musicians, that was a different era, they came from nothing.

As for those who come from something… That doesn’t help you much on the creative side of the equation. Maybe you can get a desk job, but when it comes to creativity you’ve either got it or you don’t, and no amount of money can buy it. But the point is…DO YOU BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!

Not blind belief. Not the person who tries to convince you it’s sunny when it’s pouring outside. No, if you believe in yourself you’ve got a world of doubt. The inner mounting flame keeps you going, but you’re not convinced you’re going to make it, at most you can convince yourself you’ll keep on trying.

And then as the wannabes peel off, those with early success and no follow-up become real estate agents, and you get a grasp of what it takes to make it, you can smell it, sense it. Then you know whether you’ve got it or not. And I’m gonna let you in on a secret, most people don’t have it, that “it.”

But everybody recognizes that “it” when they see it, or hear it. They yearn for it, they cut through detritus looking for it. Nothing comes close, it’s the difference between masturbation and sex, the former is just a facsimile, the latter is the real deal.

Used to be the hurdles were right up front. To jump from the minor leagues to the big leagues was quite a leap, but you found out pretty quickly if you were cut out for the creative life. Now, in today’s amorphous world, you’re not even sure what success is, and you can woodshed for a decade, hear the words of acolytes and sycophants, and then realize you can never be a part of the club. You’re in between the winners and the losers, but in truth you’re a professional wannabe.

So…

Jonathan Larson made it. There were signals that kept him going, little events that kept him on the path, certain words of encouragement, but he threatened to go straight, all the winners do, like I said, they have self-doubt.

And he sacrificed love and lifestyle. A significant other will only believe in you so long, then they want the trappings. The odds of finding someone who needs it as much as you do, who will sacrifice as much as you do, are close to nil. They’re all lovey-dovey, supportive, and then the switch flips, you didn’t realize it was coming, and then you’re confronted with a black and white choice, give up or give up everything and keep going.

So, if you’re Jewish and you live in the city, on Christmas you go for Chinese food and then to the movies, maybe two. Christmas means nothing to Jews.

But now you can’t go to the movies, you can’t even go skiing, you’re taking your life in your hands. I know, I was in Vail, I came home. Colorado is not like California, the belief is there is no Covid, no one was wearing a mask. And it’s not like the news will confirm the infection rate, because that might make people leave, or not even come, and they depend on tourists.

And if you have three shots, you’re not gonna die. But my two didn’t give me any antibodies, and a third would do nothing, because I have no B cells. And I was depending on Regeneron’s monoclonal antibodies, good at 82% for eight months, no one went to the hospital, no one died, but then Regeneron said it didn’t work so well against Omicron, the study said 15%. Are you willing to take those odds?

Like I said, I’m unique. I don’t know anybody else with my immune issues. And no one cares about my immune issues. Ever since Reagan the American mind-set has changed, you worry about yourself, not everybody else, not society. And the truth is life is so hard you’ve got to. But the irony is those who are the winners care about the losers, the challenged, the least. Philanthropy is at a higher percentage amongst the far less wealthy, they’re compassionate, whereas the “job creators” are trying to disinform the public as to the reality.

That’s the story today. Which is why our art often suffers, it’s about the bottom line. And movie studios and record labels used to fund the challenging, the out there, the risky, that was part of their mission, but no longer. Thank god we’ve got Netflix, which will fund your passion project with its hands off. But how long will that last?

This is the juggernaut you’re confronted with, No one is awaiting your opus, no one cares about your opus. It becomes unclear how talented you are, perseverance is as important as talent, the road is littered with the talented.

And even if you make it, you cannot get back those years gone by. Your body is beat up, you’re old. No one wants to go on a month-long bike trip with you, they’d rather just relax at an expensive hotel. They’re on the downslope, you’re on the upslope, they’re retiring, you’re still going, is the equation equal, is it worth it?

Hell if I know. Only you know. Deep down inside. Only you can stay the course. Ultimately only you’re the one who believes. Are you willing to put it all on the line?

Jonathan Larson did.

Movies didn’t used to be an event, they used to be a religion.

Maybe if you’re young you can understand when I say that movies used to be streaming television, something we all watched and talked about that at its best tested limits and made us think.

But movies aren’t like that anymore.

Used to be you had to go to the movies to be part of the culture, part of the discussion, when we talked with those nearby as opposed to those far away via a device. This was the paradigm all the way up through the early aughts, when we all looked around and said the movies sucked and stayed home.

But in the late sixties, even into the nineties, you wanted to go to the movies, for the experience. You wanted to be challenged, you wanted your mind stretched, there was constant innovation, remember that movie “Memento,” which unfolded in reverse? That came out in 2000, when all reasonable movies were labeled “art movies” and opened in specialized theatres. And those theatres still exist, but it’s impossible to keep up, there’s a plethora of product, and if it’s worth anything you can stream it soon anyway.

You see we were all completists. You didn’t go to one movie a year, probably not even one movie a month! You wanted to view everything worth seeing. And that included failed attempts as well as classics, like “Being the Ricardos.”

The reviews are middling. One writer said Aaron Sorkin knew nothing about not only comedy, but women.

But on Tuesday it became available for free streaming (we all have a Prime account or access to one, right?) on Amazon.

But I still didn’t want to see it. I mean I remember Lucy. Can’t say that I love her, not that I hate her, but she was always there. Not only in first run, but reruns, she was available every day, frequently at multiple times a day. You knew what she’d deliver. And no one said they never wanted a hit of that.

And she didn’t look like Nicole Kidman. Then again, even Nicole Kidman doesn’t look like Nicole Kidman anymore. Have you seen “Dead Calm,” her Australian breakthrough? It’s better than almost all of today’s studio films, I recommend it. But you might not recognize Kidman. She’s got flaming red hair and freckles, she’s not a Hollywood babe, but a too cute for you girl from high school. You knew people like this. An adjustment or two shy of perfection, who might give you the time of day but would never date you. But then Nicole Kidman had so much plastic surgery she no longer even looks like herself, here, check it out: https://bit.ly/3HbC0mx

And I liked Nicole Kidman, even in the movie where she connected with Tom Cruise, “Days of Thunder.” But ultimately she left Cruise and became a better actress, but less believable. To the point where she’s today’s Meryl Streep, a great actress but you see her acting, it’s always her, not the person she’s playing. So my expectations were low, I was ready to wince, but Nicole Kidman is fantastic in “Being the Ricardos,” she carries the whole movie, at times you even think she’s Lucille Ball, especially in the black and white footage from the television show.

“Being the Ricardos” is hokey from the beginning, from the nearly superfluous wraparounds, behind the scenes people looking back from decades hence. Actually, that’s my major complaint with the film, the endless exposition. In a ten hour streaming series all the facts would come out, but here Sorkin keeps having actors tell their story when in real life they wouldn’t. It’s not only unnatural, at times it’s uncomfortable.

But the only reason I agreed to watch “Being the Ricardos” was because of Sorkin. But this is not “The Social Network,” never mind “Sports Night,” Sorkin misses, but he’s shooting high, like almost no one else, so his failures are worth seeing, ergo my point above, the religion of movies, you have to see them all to get a feeling for the medium, to be educated, to be able to talk intelligently about them, and believe me we did. Judith Crist had movie weekends. We even had Siskel & Ebert. Now we’ve got Comic-Con.

So the cast is actually better than the movie. Javier Bardem is good, close to Desi Arnaz, but not quite there, you don’t suspend disbelief like you occasionally do with Kidman. But J.K. Simmons starts off chewing the scenery and then becomes phenomenal, when he gets into it with Lucy/Kidman.

And it’s always great to see Nina Arianda, who carried the last few seasons of “Goliath.” And Alia Shawkat, who was brilliant in “Transparent” and never got rid of her freckles.

The problem is the story. We’ve seen enough House Un-American Activities films. The Commie-naming doesn’t deliver the tension Sorkin wants it to, we aren’t invested in Lucy’s career, if for no other reason that we know it lasted for decades thereafter.

As for the relationship between Lucy and Ricky…it’s done pretty well, but I wish that had been the sole focus, that’s the movie right there, we all want to know more, at least those interested in this movie, because back in the day so much of the truth never came out.

So the story is there, but there’s too much detritus around it. Well, not detritus, it just seems like multiple movies are happening at once.

There’s the film about the making of a TV sitcom, a behind the scenes look.

There’s the film about Lucy’s genius/difficulty.

There’s the film about the power of the sponsors and the network, their fear of even getting close to a third rail that we passed decades ago. This is what killed network TV, fear. The networks thought they were showing us ourselves on screen, but we had to go to movies for that, and ultimately HBO.

And then there are throwaway references to women’s rights. Yes, Sorkin is trying to include everything from the era, and it hurts the ultimate film.

And the film jumps back and forth in time. You think you’re following it, but at times you’re not quite sure.

As for the cinematography… The truth is the past looked just like the present, but in Hollywood they change the tone, make it richer, not quite sepia, this is supposed to add gravitas. And it’s pretty well done, but in truth I’d like to see the story from the exact viewpoint of the era.

So having gotten that out of the way, there’s Lucy’s arc. Second tier actress who gets involved with Desi and triumphs. The ditzy redhead who in real life was anything but. This is a movie unto itself, I actually wish they’d gone deeper. Was Lucy a control freak, the queen of OCD, or a genius needing to get it exactly right, was she the reason the show was so successful or did the elements alone, the four main characters, push it over the top?

And Fred, played by the aforementioned J.K. Simmons. Was he an irascible drunk or an experienced seer… Here he’s both, and it’s not quite believable.

And what was it like for Ethel to be second banana, this is touched upon, but it’s just one more element in the stew that becomes overwhelming and too much to consume.

So, Sorkin doesn’t really have a feel for Lucy and Desi. What I mean is he’s made a movie, and it’s watchable and good, but it’s not quite the movie we want to see. We want much more than one week. We want the show and its stars more in context, just not references to “Lucy” being number one. And the backstory of the creation of Desilu. And we want the heavies to be more three-dimensional, less cardboard. Although the head of the network, the guy who green lights the show, he seems somewhat real.

You see there’s a lot in this film.

And yes, there’s tons of dialogue, but except for the endless exposition, it doesn’t seem unnatural.

It’s a Sorkin picture, but Sorkin does gravitas, not comedy. And although there is gravitas in Lucille Ball’s story, her main calling card is comedy, and there’s not enough from her in this film, and there’s not enough of it overall in this film.

But at least Sorkin is trying. Or shall we say at least Amazon (and Netflix!) are laying down cash, allowing auteurs to test the limits, do what they do. And the great thing is in these projects story trumps image, like it always has in television. Today people revere these blockbuster film directors who make a movie look good, whiz-bang, it’s just that the characters and the story have no soul.

Finally, when they reference the Lucy/Desi divorce at the end, which is almost superfluous, done with such heaviness you almost laugh, you are shocked when you see it happened back in 1960… That was SIXTY YEARS AGO!

Let me put this in perspective… This would be like asking baby boomers to be interested in the stories of the 1910s, and we were most definitely not. We were interested in the thirties, the forties, Bette Davis and W.C. Fields, but if you’ve seen a flick from the early part of the twentieth century you probably saw it in film class, not at the public theatre.

So…

We’ve got images, moving, of the past. But does that mean they remain, have traction? Is Lucy forever?

I don’t know. She’s a staple of boomer life, but do young kids even care? Kind of like the Marx Brothers. In high school and college we saw all their movies, knew all the characters, did the routines. I’ve never heard a Millennial or a Gen-Z’er talk about the Marx Brothers. Who are still great, but the edge is in the dialogue, nearly hidden, whereas today almost everything is in your face.

So how accurate is “Being the Ricardos”?

Well, we know Desi and Lucy got divorced, but the rest, who knows?

Which means we would have been better off with a documentary, or something closer to a biopic. But this attempt…it misses the mark, but it still delivers a lot, like a movie of yore, you’re not at a distance, you’re engrossed. You’re pulled in. It’s nearly intellectual without advertising itself as such. You’ll think about it after it’s done. Which is something you don’t get with the superhero comic book movies of today.

Then again, comic books were never considered great literature. They were always for kids. Sure, there were some developmentally retarded men who still read of them, but for the rest of us they were a phase, like “Winky Dink.” Funny world we live in, the issues are serious and that which is universal is so dumb. Why do we have to always play to the lowest common denominator? Can the soul of America be lifted, its intelligence, its curiosity? That’s what films used to do, and that’s what “Being the Ricardos” does too, which makes it worth seeing. There.