RKS Literature: The Growth of Intimacy (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

“The growth of intimacy is like that. First one gives off his best picture, the bright and finished product mended with bluff and falsehood and humour. Then more details are required and one paints a second portrait, and a third-before long the best lines cancel out- and the secret is exposed at last; the planes of the pictures have intermingled and given us away, and although we paint and paint we can longer sell the picture. We must be satisfied with hoping that fatuous accounts of ourselves as we make to our wives, children and business associates are accepted as true.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Beautiful and Damned”, 1922

RKS Literature: That Faintly Odorous Atmosphere of the Cave and the Nursery (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

“Almost impersonally he was convinced that no woman he had ever met compared in any way with Gloria. She was deeply herself; she was immeasurably sincere-of these things he was certain. Besides her the two dozen schoolgirls and debutantes, young married woman and waifs and strays whom he had known were so many females, in the world’s most contemptuous sense, breeders and bearers, exuding still that faintly odorous atmosphere of the cave and the nursery.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Beautiful and the Dammed”, 1922.

RKS 2024 Film: “Some Other Woman”: The Women are not the Problem Here! Who is Taking Over Whom?

With the camera on a Caribbean Island a female narration sets forth a legend of the island with a backdrop of two women in a life and death struggle in the water. The island legend is of a fisherman is on his boat with his beautiful pregnant wife and encounters a storm which tosses his wife overboard never to be seen again. He spends the rest of his life on the sea searching for his wife while her spirit looks to return to a life she has lost. Each of them is looking for a past that has vanished.

Eve (Amanda Crew) is temporarily on the island with her husband Peter (Tom Felton) who is in partnership with Sal (Rick Fox) developing and selling property on the island. Eve is looking for a less exotic locale to raise her family which despite trying she is yet to have as she has difficulty in conceiving and loses her baby yet again. This is very upsetting to her and she sinks into severe anxiety apparently not correctly remembering some important facts in her life such as telling Peter they were engaged on the island which makes an increasingly concerned Peter even more frightened about Eve losing her mind as Peter retorts we were engaged in Amsterdam. She visits a physician for an examination and is prescribed some sedatives and her sanity further crumbles to the point that a mysterious woman Renata (Ashley Green Khoury) begins to take her identity and life. Then Eve’s story repeats itself with Renata. Renata thinks this other woman Eve is trying to assume her identity A Groundhog Day of loss of the mind. What is the common thread dear viewer……Peter! Think closely about this. I have told you that the women in the film may not be the problem here.

The film slowly converts from a thriller to a terrifying glimpse of what it could be like losing one’s mind. Not being taken seriously, derided, mocked and a terrible fear of loss of your identity! A terrible tale about two women losing their mind in an identical fashion. Wait! Tear yourself away from the women and focus for a moment. How odd both Renata and Eve have the same downward spiral? Things are not making sense.

Pay attention to that rather pained look you will see in Peter’s eyes? Take a wild leap of interpretation for a late film moment where you are compelled to make some conclusion of what is occurring. That personal challenge thrust you way by your own mind is perhaps the best part of this film shot on the Caymans.

Opens in Canadian cinemas on 12January2024. Opened in U.S. cinemas on 5January2024.

RKS 2024 Film Rating: 87/100.

Travels to a Different Time: Travels of My Mother: 4February1971: Palma de Mallorca, Spain: A $1 Lunch of Steak, Mushrooms, Spinach, Half a Bottle of Wine and Coffee

Dear Boys:

Don’t throw envelopes out as I want to save the stamps.

I am sitting in the sun and is 85 degrees. I wish I brought some lighter clothes. I have had such a nice time-today I visited the castle bult in 1300. I walked to it and it was a long one. I was exhausted upon reaching it and forced myself to go through it. It is at the top of the city. The magnificence of their castle you wouldn’t believe. Entrance fee was 18 cents. I took the bus down and that cost three cents.

For lunch a steak, mushrooms, creamed spinach and coffee for $1. So good I have my appetite back. I then bought a silver thimble for Diane.

I think everyone must buy a pair of Spanish shoes. I bought a pair today, such beautiful soft leather in two shades of brown.

Today I saw men lugging coal. They must have hotels so ancient. Just talked to the waiter and he said they did.

Just woke up and it is almost 11.

Don’t forget the meat in the freezer. The oranges are huge and I bought a bag for 18 cents. I eat a couple each day. So juicy when you eat them the juice squirts everywhere.

I miss you both very much. I wish you could share all this with me. It is very hard to be alone. I saw a mother with two of her boys. I think she was from England and it nearly made me cry. I will be coming home my goodness I have seen so many things here. Last night I went out with V.T.  the lady who is in charge of the American tour. We had a wonderful dinner together. She is Barb’s age. Her father died 5 years ago. She has been very good to me. She has invited to several of the tour parties for free.

Well dears that is all for today. I miss you.

Love Mum

RKS 2024 Film: “The Settlers”: Chile’s Submission For Best International Feature Film in the Upcoming Academy Awards

“The Settlers” is Chile’s submission for best International Feature Film in the upcoming 96th Academy Awards. Given the slew of mostly documentaries chronicling the decimation of indigenous populations the colonization playbook is becoming well worn.

Colonize and destroy indigenous populations through violence, both cultural and physical then legitimization through treaties between the colonizers and the indigenous leaders. Then in some cases formal apologies and class action settlements by governments that continue the colonization!

Chile opens the playbook again to offer a Chilean perspective to its colonization.

Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago shared by Argentina and Chile. In “The Settlers” Don Josĕ or Mr. Menéndez (Alfredo Castro), as he more commonly is known as, is a sheep farmer with massive tracts of land in 1901 Tierra del Fuego. Sheep are so valuable they are referred to as “white gold”.

Indians have no value to Menéndez and is not beneath him to offer a bounty for Indian ears and uteruses. He has a vicious and brutal Scot Lieutenant MacLennan (Mark Stanley), also known as the Red Pig, working for him supervising building fences and then sends him with “half breed” Segundo (Camillo Arancibia) and American Bill (Benjamin Westfall) to find a transatlantic route for transporting his sheep but first he must “clean“ the area. Clean means eliminate the Indians that live within it which he undertakes with glee. And so they kill. They encounter a small Argentinian army unit mapping the Chilean-Argentinian border and a small group headed by a psychotic homosexual Scottish Colonel Martin (Benjamin Westfall). It is clear the colonizers and their hired help hate Indians considering them savages. The savages in “The Settlers” are certainly not the Indians.

The newly formed Chilean republican government some 7 years after the atrocities commissioned by Menéndez and carried out by McLennan wants to renew the agreement made by Menéndez and the Mapuche Indians and they want the “optics” on the treaty and treatment of Indians to look good. The Chilean government wants to build (at least theoretically and optically) a unified nation of settlers, Chileans and Indians.

The closing scene involving a film shoot of Segundo and his wife Rosa epitomizes the legitimization/public relations factor in colonization and the resistance it faces amongst Indians.

“The Settlers” makes its point exposing the brutality, hypocrisy, greed and underhanded manipulations of the colonizers.  It could be that Chile has moved on from the shame of the downfall and execution of President Salvador Allende and is examining itself from an historical perspective long before Allende.

There is nothing terribly novel about the film as it follows the colonizer’s playbook but it is perfectly done. What scenery! Momentary lapses into spaghetti westerns.

Directed by Felipe Gálvez Haberle.

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

RKS 2024 Film Rating 86/100.

Travels to a Different Time: Travels of My Mother: ? February1971: Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Dear Boys:

Just having a rest before going down to dinner. Tired from all the walking I am doing. I went to the other side of the island with a couple my age. They are from New Jersey. We shared the expenses. Honestly, I have never seen such a beautiful country. The lemon trees are full of fruit and the almond trees have pink blossoms. The olive trees are loaded with olives.

I would like to live in Spain when I get old-my back is fine with no aches or pain. It is so beautiful here. There is a tour tomorrow for 50 cents. I can afford it and I would like to go. If I stay another week and don’t continue to each too much I will not gain weight. I am wondering how long I can continue to wear my new suit. It is almost falling over my hips. Sometimes the food is so awful as they cook everything in olive oil and there is olive oil in everything and sometimes that gets to be too much.

Now I think about it Robert there is another pair of gloves in the drum that is in your room. I will bring back you another pair from Spain. How are you making out? I wish I could look in on you. I do miss you very much but I am determined to see something while I can.

Barbara has been furloughed until April.

Love Mum

RKS 2024 Film: “Beehive”: An Alien Invasion is All the Buzz with Stinging Analogies to COVID

Comets are seeing whizzing by in the night sky in a rural British Columbia area. Speculation in the media is that this may be an alien invasion. A crock of crap?

Rosy (Meadow Kingfisher) an energetic aspiring filmmaker at age 10ish lives with her father Frank (Stephen J.F. Walker) and her somewhat surly older teen brother Arron (Kaydin Gibson). Their recently deceased mom was Indigenous. Rosy out in the backwoods discovers a wasp or bee’s nest on a tree. Now the nest starts to grow and drip goo. Touch this goopy thing you get stung, develop a high fever and cough then die a la COVID. Again in the COVID mode mass panic swells with “public service announcements” i.e. propaganda advising all to lock door and shelter in place with the Canadian army being called on to save the nation.

A fair to middling piece of film sort of like COVID meeting “Alien”. Really no uniqueness for seasoned filmgoers. What is encouraging is the use of Indigenous actors in non-stereotypical parts. Considering that Canada’s APTN television network was involved in production of the film this is not surprising.

Broadcast premiere will be 9January2024 on Canada’s VOD channel Hollywood Suite.

RKS 2024 Film Rating: 67/100.

RKS 2024 Film: “Adult Adoption”: Lost in a Barbie Land of Not Belonging

Poor 25-year-old Rosy (Ellie Moon) is floundering in a pink obsessed Barbie Land. She is the perfect nine-year-old girl in her dress style, choice of music and her general level of maturity. Just look at her room! Even her sleeping pills are pink.

Rosy was in foster care at age 6 as her mother died at three, her father disappeared and then the grandmother she lived with moved into long term care. She fantasizes about what most of us have for most of our lives, a parent or parents. She is “out of the system” reaching the age of majority and suffering manifest massive anxiety resulting from this exclusionary twist in her life.

So Rosy searches “adult adoption” websites trolling for a parent. She connects with an older man and all goes well until he says to Rosy that she is his peer and they should move to “next level” and she should stop searching for a parent. Rosy doesn’t take that observation well and moves on a new possible mother Jane (Rebecca Northan) but her obsession with Jane smothers that possible relationship. In a brilliant performance Northan rips into Rosy shredding her immaturity and self pity. Rosy matures rather quickly after that summed up in the recorded meditation that she listens to advising her that she is the creator of her own life. In a remarkable transformation Rosy becomes an adult. It could be that this remarkable transition is so convincing and authentic due to Moon’s acting ability.  A delightfully frantic performance by Chelsea Muirhead as Nola.

A quirky storyline but this transformation of Rosy gives a deeper meaning to belonging and identity. A few jabs given to dating aps, religious cults and corporate office culture.

This Canadian film is directed by Karen Knox and it will be showing on the Hollywood Suite VOD system in Canada commencing 6January2024.

You can see trailer here https://www.google.com/search?q=adult+adoption+film&rlz=1C1CHBF_enCA811CA811&oq=adult+adoption&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBggAEEUYOzIGCAAQRRg7Mg4IARBFGDkYQxiABBiKBTIHCAIQABiABDIMCAMQLhhDGIAEGIoFMgwIBBAAGEMYgAQYigUyDAgFEC4YQxiABBiKBTIMCAYQABhDGIAEGIoFMgYIBxBFGDzSAQg2NDk2ajBqNKgCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:d0fd7432,vid:uVEQBP81eMg,st:0

RKS 2024 Film Rating 86/100.

RKS 2024 Wine: Chilean Wines a Flash in the Pan? Nationalism Losing to The Wallet?

In terms of price and quality here in Canada Chilean red wines rule the roost. I await export statistics as to both volume and monetary value for 2023.

In the Liquor Control Board of Ontario’s Vintages 6January2024 release there are 5 Chilean reds and they are all under $20. There are a paltry 3 Canadian reds (shame on you LCBO) one is $17, one $35 and the other $26.95. If the quality is there what are Ontario consumers going to be reaching for? As for many consumers at the LCBO I speak to they are grabbing Chilean wines and not even bothering to lament the poor selection of Canadian red wines.

With a name like Montgras Day One New Range 2022 Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon the North American and UK markets would seem to be the target.

Aroma: Opulent and thick raspberry, blackberry, cassis and all of this suggesting a powerful and rich red wine.

Palate: Blackberry, violets, cassis and dark chocolate. Moderate tannins and a medium finish.

Personality: A 360-pound linebacker wine that plays on the palate like a swift 264-pound tight end. Save me for your Super Bowl viewing. I am no flash in the pan.

Food Match: Since we mention the Super Bowl give up your beer, at least until half time to educate your palate with this wine and pair the wine with a flank steak Fajita with guacamole and corn chips on the side.  Will win points as a sipper until the 3rd quarter starts and you have finished your fajitas and you may wish to switch to some sparkling water.

Cellarbility: Drink by 2025-year end.

Price: $17.95 CDN (Ontario).

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 89/100.

(Montgras Gran 2022 Reserva Day One Cabernet Sauvignon, D.O. Valle del Maipo, Vina Montgras, Chile, 750 mL. 14%).

RKS Literature: Cocktails and a Life of Nothingness of the Idle Rich

“Back in his apartment the grayness returned. His cocktails had died, making him sleepy, somewhat befogged and inclined to be surly. Lord Verulam-he? The very thought was bitter. Anthony Patch with no record of achievement, without courage, without strength to be satisfied with truth when it was given to him. Oh, he was a pretentious fool, making careers out of cocktails and meanwhile regretting, weakly and secretly, the collapse of a wretched idealism. He had garnished his soul in the subtlest taste and now he longed for the old rubbish. He was empty it seemed, empty as on old bottle- “

F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Beautiful and the Damned”, 1922