RKS 2024 Film: “EARLYBIRD”: Theatre and Life Lessons

Mike (Joshua Koopman) owns a struggling small theatre playing it safe presenting “known plays” like “Romeo and Juliet” attracting small audiences but small is better than playing riskier productions that may fail to attract any patrons.

Jerry, the landlord of the theatre premises, advises Mike when his lease expires in two months he will have to raise rent by 35% income the theatre simply does not have hence its probable closure.

Mike decides to play the risky game presenting a different “out of the ordinary” play every night to mostly sold-out audiences. With success comes a new set of problems. Managing a theatre on the edge of financial collapse is far different than running a successful theatre. Actors, support staff, Mike and his wife are run off their feet. Success requires recognition for those who make any business successful a lesson learnt by Mike almost too late to be rectified. Mike is not a bad person just overwhelmed transitioning from managing a struggling theatre to a successful one. There are so many factors required for running a successful business and Mike is not doing a very good job at it. I can imagine after the success of the film it will be screening in organizational psychology classes for MBA students!

The public relations blurb accompanying the film refers to the film as “the hilarious live-theatre themed comedy”. Hilarious it wasn’t and neither was it much of comedy. The humour is mostly “big smile” as opposed to “big laugh” comedy. And I would more accurately describe it as a “romcom”.

While Koopman plays Mike as a distant and abstract character more of an intellectual than a businessman. Julie Pope playing Sarah dominates the screen a sheer master of facial acting! Her undying positive energy is a perfect foil to the distant and unfocused Mike. The acting throughout is immaculate.  It is evident director and co-writer Martin Kaszubowski has a love for live theatre making the film all the more “realistic”.

The film is the midst of a limited theatrical run in the United States and will be showing at the upcoming Beloit International Film Festival in Wisconsin.

Directed and written by Martin Kaszubowski.

Available digitally.

RKS 2024 Film Rating: 75/100.

RKS Literature: The Sovereignty of the American People (Vonnegut)

“The sovereignty of the United States resides in the people, not the machines, and it’s the people to take back if they so wish. The machines,” said Paul, “have exceeded the personal sovereignty willingly surrendered to them by the American people for good government. Machines and the pursuit of efficiency have robbed the American people of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Kurt Vonnegut Jr., “Player Piano”, 1952.

RKS 2024 Film: “All We Carry”: Fairytale, Fantasy and Playing the USA Migrant Game?

There are usually many sides to a story. The documentary “All We Carry” presents one side focusing on the suffering of thousands of migrants streaming towards the United States border somehow believing they are by rights entitled to entry and a life in the United States. Magdiel, Mirna and their child Joshua are self-described Evangelical Christians travelling on train and bus from the Honduras to (hopefully) Texas. Receiving “advice” it is easier to claim asylum in the United States for married couples they participate in a quickie group wedding at the border with other couples building a “winning resumé” to enter the United States with. Hundreds of Caravan migrants chant and sing at the United States Mexican border about their plight including insisting the United States has the capacity to take migrants as after all they say they are not criminals or terrorists!

Magdiel and Mirna’s story is gang harassment and murder in the Honduras affecting their families. If they can establish this gang violence against their families successfully in the United States judicial system it will be a Willy Wonka golden ticket to being recognized as a valid asylum ground for entry into the United States. After a short period of detention in San Diego, Mirna and Joshua are released and make the trip to Seattle where Mirna’s sister is living. Magdiel follows some three months later. An asylum hearing is scheduled some two years later! A progressive synagogue in Seattle has a family with a spare house that the Hondurans can stay in. It is a huge house on the ocean. The synagogue members have a migrant history themselves with parents and grandparents emigrating to the United States “legally”. Magdiel works at spare time jobs for synagogue members.

Mirna is so stressed by her brutalized past she enters therapy. Is Mirna building her resumé? Mirna then becomes pregnant and gives birth to a daughter?  More resumé building? Joshua attends a local school.

After two years of being held in limbo due to the massive amount of asylum cases in the United States judicial system Magdiel, Mirna and their two children are granted asylum by United States meaning in one year they can apply for permanent residency then in four years for citizenship.

A fairy tale story? How many will join the Caravan “inspired” by Magdiel and Mirna? As to whether these Hondurans were “playing the system” we will never know and neither do the filmmakers raise that possibility.

A good documentary can trigger discussion about asylum seeking in the United States. One may view the asylum process as subject to “gaming” by dishonest economic migrants. Another side may see the “right” to economic migrant admission in the United States. I prefer to see the process as determined by the legal system as overrun as it may be. All those seeking entry into a country must have a legal right to do so.

I have been in a migrant destination in Greece and saw the local health system crippled by the migrants. And almost all the migrants were young men in their twenties pining for entry into Germany. And the local population having their livings jeopardized by an aversion of tourists to visiting the destination worsened by the generous EU allowances paid to migrants.

On my last trip to New York City watching the local news there were cuts made to education, library hours and the police necessary to divert funds to migrant servicing including 22 hotels required to house migrants costing New York City billions of dollars.

As for my home city of Toronto a huge surge of migrants is taxing the housing supply and social services. Does a country have a right to control entry into it? Of course! Can the immigration system be gamed? Of course! How many migrants are gaming the system? Unknown but do not presume honesty. Desperation can breed ingenuity.

I suspect there will be discussion about this documentary. Americans are entitled to be concerned about migrants in caravans demanding entry into the United States as a matter of right.

The documentary will be showing at Fletcher Hall in Durham, North Carolina on 5April2024 as part of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. After that showing I have no details. It has previously played at film festivals.

RKS 2024 Film Rating: 78/100.

RKS Literature: The Fork on the Road (Vonnegut)

“Every child older than six knew the fork, and knew what the good guys did here, and what the bad guys did here. The fork was a familiar one in folk tales the world over, and the good guys and the bad guys, whether in chaps, breechclouts, serapes, leopardskins or banker’s grey pinstripes, all separated here.”

Kurt Vonnegut Jr., “Player Piano”, 1952.

RKS Literature: What Are Public Relations? (Vonnegut)

“Please, what are public relations?” said Kashdrahr.

“That profession, “said Haylard, quoting by memory from the Manual, “that profession specializing in the cultivation, by applied psychology in mass communication media, of favorable public opinion with regard to controversial issues and institutions, without being offensive to anyone of importance, and the continued stability of the economy and society as its primary goal.”

Kurt Vonnegut Jr., “Player Piano”, 1952.

RKS 2024 Film: “East Bay”: A Parade of the Mostly Lost

“East Bay” opens with 39-year-old Jack Lee (Daniel Yoon) lamenting his lack of life and filmmaking success from his childhood to the present day. As a child he desperately prayed to God to make him successful. We watch God, an elder bearded Caucasian, throughout the film snickering at the misguided humans and at one point taking a smoke break. God is very human indeed. At points the film becomes less of a comedy and an exploration of spirituality, its misuse and misinterpretation. Even those who have a relationship with God are no happier than those lacking spirituality. The evident message of the film, if there is serious one, is that spirituality is a belief in humanity and being the best person one can be.

Can we blame Jack’s parents for being “dragon parents” relentlessly driving their children to succeed which means financial success shunting aside any possibility of a mental health collapse unfortunately common amongst “driven children” in South Korea. Jack’s mother makes a comment in the film worthy of serious consideration saying our generation coming to the United States from Korea had to struggle for survival which was not so much an issue for their children today who have an equally hard time of trying to be successful and happy. Jack, making his film “The Only Thing Real”, muses that success is overcoming adversity and becoming happy and that is the point of the film he is making.

Jack’s previous films have focused on Asian ethnic stereotypes and have been failures and he only finds success in a film that delves into spirituality as he has witnessed it with his girlfriends, parents and friends.

The film is a combination of excellent acting, writing and casting. Yoon is perfectly cast as an unhappy self doubter. Kavi Ramachandrian Ladnier sparkles as a 1-800 credit card mystic-temptress with a short temper. His hockey buddies and roommates Tim (Edmund Sim) and Stuart (Destry Miller) are lost in their world one addicted to weed and the other gaming. Melissa Pond as Beth is a kooky two-timer Christian that is off the narrow path and convinced she is going to hell. Sara (Constance Wu) sparkles and saves Jack from perdition with her undying belief in the power of simply being a good person. Every actor in this film is a star a very rare observation on my part! And yes Canadians will identify with shinny hockey somewhat of a crucial component of the film.

A film that melds subtle and overt comedy with some serious and valid observations on the nature of spirituality and success.

Yoon in addition to his starring role is director and writer and excels in all these categories.

“East Bay” will be released in theatres in the United States on 26April2024 and as of 31May2024. Perhaps it is a bit too esoteric to be a commercial success as “Crazy Rich Asians” and that is a shame as a film it addresses spirituality in a nonthreatening and straightforward fashion.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 91/100.

You can watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUwSL7vuVT0

RKS 2024 Wine: Puente Austral Reserva Privada 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile

The wine is from the Colchagua Valley in Chile which has evolved in the last 15 years from a quiet stretch of farmland into one of Chile’s largest and most active wine-producing wine regions. The relatively low elevation of the coastal hills allows the Pacific breezes to interplay with the Andean winds extending the region’s ripening period. Most wine produced here is red.

The wine is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and has matured in differing aged French oak barrels.

Aroma: Cherry, blueberry, raspberry and fig.

Palate: Moderate tannins and very well controlled acids. Enough cherry influence to make a decent attempt to convince you it is a Chilean Carmènére! Grippy tannins and a long fade finish.

Personality: I am a full-bodied Chilean red wine not complex but forceful and excuse my straightforwardness delightful as both a sipper but even better with food.

Food Match: Creamy Polenta with Burst Cherry Tomato and Red Wine Ragout.

Cellarbility: Drink by 2026-year end. Will soften over time.

Price: $17 CDN (Ontario).

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 92/100. Carolyn Evans Hammond 92.

(Puente Austral Reserva Privada 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon, Maturana Winery, San Fernando, Chile, 750 mL, 13.5%.).

RKS Literature: Proper Corporate Drinking (Vonnegut)

“There wasn’t the inimitable hoarseness of an honest-to-God drunk in the lot. It was unthinkable that there was a man in the saloon without a glass in his hand, but it was also unlikely that many men would have their glass filled more than twice. They didn’t drink at the Meadows now the way that they used to in the old days when Finnerty and Shepherd and Paul had joined the organization, it used to be that they’d come up to the Meadows to relax and really tie one on as a relief from the terribly hard work of war production. Now the point seemed to pretend drunkenness, but to stay sober and discard only those inhibitions and motor skills one could safely do without.”

Kurt Vonnegut Jr., “Player Piano”, 1952.

RKS Literature: Proper Corporate Drinking (Vonnegut)

“There wasn’t the inimitable hoarseness of an honest-to-God drunk in the lot. It was unthinkable that there was a man in the saloon without a glass in his hand, but it was also unlikely that many men would have their glass filled more than twice. They didn’t drink at the Meadows now the way that they used to in the old days when Finnerty and Shepherd and Paul had joined the organization, it used to be that they’d come up to the Meadows to relax and really tie one on as a relief from the terribly hard work of war production. Now the point seemed to pretend drunkenness, but to stay sober and discard only those inhibitions and motor skills one could safely do without.”

Kurt Vonnegut Jr., “Player Piano”, 1952.

RKS Literature: War and Greatness (Vonnegut)

“There is something about war that brings out greatness. I hate to say that, but it’s true. Of course, maybe that’s because you can get great so quick in a war. Just one damn fool thing for a couple of seconds, and you’re great. I could be the greatest barber in the world, and maybe I am, but I’d have to prove it with a lifetime of great haircutting, and then nobody’d notice. That’s just the way peacetime things are you know.”

Kurt Vonnegut Jr., “Player Piano”, 1952