Edgy MD

I liked it a lot despite myself. It has a lot of Disney wash on it. The three protagonists are represented by three off-the-rack archetypes: the bookish virtuous one, the sexy irrepressible one, the matronly authoritative one. The racism they confront is sometimes cartoonishly overt, and the poise they exhibit in the face of it is almost too too. The music (largely by Pharrell Williams) imitates the modern jazz and soul of the era, but feels more ... -ish. Pretty much all of the white characters are based on composites or pure fiction, which is something of a copout. If you want to indict racists who roadblocked talented women and risked holding back history, well, you oughta name some names. You couldn't get them to sign a release? Well, too bad. You think Bob Dylan got William Zanzinger to sign a release? But the protagonists' stories are real. And they feel real up there despite the writers playing fast and loose with the timeline and some of the particulars (as noted). I tell you, I saw this with an audience of folks who had a stake in this story. And it was a great experience of communal filmgoing I hadn't sat in on in years. There's a sweet proposal scene, and I heard and felt a hunnert folks of all ages squee at the same time. I can harangue about details but you get to sit in on a super-squee like that, well, that's money well spent.

It's the early sixties. Three female African-American mathematicians are employed at NASA as "colored computers." They push back against the racism and sexism that marginalizes their skills and the Mercury astronauts benefit. The nation benefits. [fimg=450:2sndkg2o]http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/hidden-figures-poster.jpg[/fimg:2sndkg2o]

Is this Netflixable?

Frayed Knot wrote: Mr. #28 is missing. Or at least somebody is. Fixt.

30. SYNDERGAARD 29. deGROM 28. CABRERA 27. CESPEDES 26. COLON 25. REED 24. GRANDERSON 23. MATZ 22. WALKER 21. FAMILIA 20. LUGO 19. GSELLMAN 18. BLEVINS 17. JOHNSON 16. LAGARES 15. ROBLES 14. REYES 13. R. RIVERA 12. TJ RIVERA 11. FLORES 10. SALAS 9. KELLY 8. RUGGIANO 7. CONFORTO 6. HENDERSON 5. d'ARNAUD 4. NIMMO 3. REYNOLDS 2. DUDA 1. HARVEY

I wouldn't be surprised. That era was thick with that sort of insanity (which isn't to say that other eras weren't). Brando's most famous crapped-out scene is the great scene with Rod Steiger in the back of the car in On the Waterfront, in which Steiger gets out, and then they show an outside shot of him exiting on the wrong side, as if Charley got a second idea while opening his door, shut it, and then climbed over Terry and got out on the other side. It just strikes me now that Steiger ends the scene by giving Brando a gun and saying, "You're gonna need it," which parallels him playing Jud in Oklahoma! and menacingly telling Gordon MacRae's Curly not to gamble away his gun, because "You're gonna need it." Steiger was very concerned with people being adequately armed.

I always figured he was the original marine biologist, as that was the only large part besides the regular Enterprise (or in this case, Bounty) crew. But it makes sense that the marine biologist character was written in to replace a different character that was written for Eddie.

I'm agreeing to the letter. The problem is, for big chunks of the proceedings, those effects are the point of the film.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I enjoyed it. Three stars. Is three out of five stars, just above average, strong enough for an "I enjoyed it" summary? I feel like my response was a little less warm than that, but I look back and I see I gave it 3.5 stars.

A cocky surgeon with poor personal skills (but a champ at music trivia) gets his hands shattered in a car wreck. Seeking a cure for his nerve damage, he explores the DARK ARTS of the EAST, only to find himself newly empowered and caught up in a war between forces beyond his wildest reckoning.

P.J. was honored with a MILBY award for the top minor league starting pitcher. I don't know what a MILBY is or which body confers it, but it was voted on by the "fans." Which fans? Again, I dunno. But P.J. says that it's an "hone."

As noted, I certainly didn't adopt him on name only.

Dickensian-nomickered starting pitcher flourished at three levels last season. Mixed 31 innings between starting and the bullpen for Brooklyn going 0-1 with one save and a 3.19 ERA. Promoted to Columbia, he gets into only four games, but three are starts. In 28.2 innings, he produces an even lower ERA mark of 2.51. Jumping OVER St. Lucie, he arrives in Binghamton and starts one game, giving up only one run (earned) in six innings. That over all—a 2.47 ERA over 65.2 innings over three levels (three levels which span four) should be enough to love him for. The NAME should be enough to love him for. But get this: 7 walks and 74 strikeouts. SWOON!

You'll like it, but there's some weird anachronisms. Like, it's 1985, and it's Dublin, and everybody's caught up in an economic decline that is mirrored in a decline of the family, the culture, the church, and all sorts of societal institutions. And that reads as authentic. And escaping the economic trap generally means escaping to England or points beyond. And that's authentic too. But ... it's 1985. In Dublin. And U2 isn't mentioned once. And if nothing else was preserving Ireland's cultural identity in 1985, especially among youth, it was the message from U2 and others that music was happening right then and there among them. Musicians were the ones that didn't need to go abroad to find a future. Hell, with the Waterboys and the Pogues and even Bob Fucking Dylan, musicians were coming to Ireland to make music. And record labels were scouting the hell out of the country looking for native talent. In Tua Nua! Something Happens! I salute John Carney and the vein of gold he has found, but he seems to have a bit of a stick up his ass. Maybe he hates U2—and he wouldn't be the first—but they are unavoidably part of his story, and somehow he avoids them. Not only does he fail to give them even a mealy-mouthed acknowledgement, but he throws a minor hissy whenever somebody makes a comparison between his film and The Commitments. He himself was a member of The Frames in the early nineties, and I get the notion that he was one of the thousand Dublin musicians who auditioned for The Commitments and still holds a grudge because he didn't get cast. But The Commitments clearly remains as an obvious reference point for the film, as does a handful of eighties school torment films like My Bodyguard and Heaven Help Us, among others. Good films.

Nobody in the Baltimore of The Wire is actually American. Fun fact!

What's the name of the teammate who grabbed him as he was going down face first? Because the only Mariah song coming to my mind is "Hero."

You can't find a Sweet song you can tolerate but you like Generations?

At the same time, Sheriff Bart was originally intended to be Richard Pryor. It ended up being Pryor who advocated for Cleavon Little, who was always a ham. In Start the Revolution Without Me, he and Donald Sutherland got to be part of two comic pairings, as both played two roles.

Agreed.

Jayce us a strapping cowboy of a player. Good close-cut beard.

Chad Ochoseis wrote: Right now, the Mets are pretty well fixed for starting pitching, but pitching is ephemeral. So who knows. We may be gseeing more Gsellman if things don't work out for one or more of our current staff ... . I may look to you for my Lotto numbers, O wise prophet.

Hate to say it, but Jankowski sure looked like a player.

I hope that's something more than wishful thinking in the face of disappointment, but his lack of power this season has been alarming. Making good consistent solid contact like he has, you'd think he'd log some homers if only by accident.

There are probably few precedents: two rookies homer in their respective first at-bats, back to back.

"I love my slider, I love throwing it into count." [fimg=400:2ra1yegy]http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/grouches/images/9/94/Count_von_Count_baseball.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140209121613[/fimg:2ra1yegy] "He's after me, Keith and Mookie!"