Missouri – Matt Lynn Digital

Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell in the Martin McDonagh movie ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’

Filmed in Sylva, North Carolina and set as the fictional town of Ebbing, Missouri, the Martin McDonagh written and directed movie Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) presents a darkly comedic drama. The film was released in the United States in November 2017 and the United Kingdom in January 2018.

(From left, **Frances McDormand** as Mildred Hayes and **Peter Dinklage** as James in the **Martin McDonagh** movie **Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri**).

Mildred Hayes, portrayed by Francis McDormand, draws attention to her daughter’s unsolved rape and murder by renting three roadside billboards. Hayes’ teenage daughter Angela, portrayed by Kathryn Newton, had been taken from her grieving and angry mother seven months before the beginning of the movie. Three disused billboards are rented by Hayes with a pointed message for the local chief of police: “Raped While Dying”, “And Still No Arrests?”, “How Come, Chief Willoughby?”

(From left, **Lucas Hedges** as Robbie Hayes and **Kathryn Newton** as Angela Hayes in the **Martin McDonagh** movie **Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri**).

Portrayed by Woody Harrelson, pancreatic cancer-stricken Chief of Police Bill Willoughby fails to apprehend the guilty following another earnest to do so. Alcoholic police officer Jason Dixon, portrayed by Sam Rockwell, finds a similar lack of success when trying to intimidate billboard renter Red Welby, as portrayed by Caleb Landry Jones, into taking the billboards down. Geoffrey, the dentist sympathetic to Willoughby as portrayed by Jerry Winsett, finds out in a dramatic way that pressuring an angry and grieving mother bent on obtaining some measure of justice will end in a comedically dark way.

(From left, Abbie Cornish as Anne Willoughby and **Woody Harrelson** as Bill Willoughby in the **Martin McDonagh** movie **Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri**).

Stressors and pressures of a personal and amplified within the community perspective follow from examples like the above. Mildred’s relationship with her son Robbie Hayes, as portrayed by Lucas Hedges, would become strained due to the billboards. Charlie Hayes, Mildred’s abusive ex-cop ex-husband portrayed by John Hawkes, reveals that he had turned down the couple’s now deceased daughter shortly before her death when she, Angela, had wanted to live with him once again.

(From left, **Sam Rockwell** as Jason Dixon and Sandy Martin as Jason Dixon’s mother in the **Martin McDonagh** movie **Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri**).

Drama in unexpected measure follows Chief Bill Willoughby’s death at his own hand, with the partial hand of that justice being administered through subsequent police chief Abercrombie. Clarke Peters portrayed Abercrombie. A convoluted circumstance of the drama extends the hands of justice through Willoughby, Abercrombie, Mildred Hayes and James, with James portrayed by Peter Dinklage, into a hospital room reconciliation with Red Welby.

(**Caleb Landry Jones** as Red Welby in the **Martin McDonagh** movie **Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri**).

Many senses of interpersonal debt, partial truth and emotional need that draws out depth for the multiple characters of this film preceded and follow the dynamics of the characters within Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. It takes leaps of character, and an emotional journey within a number of them, to lead the landing point of the movie to a misguided journey seeking satisfaction through emotion destined, through a proxy for feeling, destined for the state of Idaho. That past decisions have been revealed as unsatisfying, misguided and, despite being made with the best of judgments given partial information, does not deter the path left for Mildred Hayes and Jason Dixon at film’s end.

I grant Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri as directed and written by Martin McDonagh 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone in the Martin Scorsese movie ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’

Set primarily in Osage County, Oklahoma, the Martin Scorsese movie Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) is based largely on the David Grann book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI. That intrigue around the murders of a Native American tribe relocated to Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas with negotiated mineral rights led to government sanctioned theft, racism, and at least tacit sanctioning of murder against Osage Indians generally is where the book and the movie begin to intersect. The Federal Bureau of Investigation under J. Edgar Hoover, as a growing investigative service, provides another intersection point.

(From left, **Leonardo DiCaprio** as **Ernest Burkhart**, **Scott Shepherd** as **Byron Burkhart**, **Robert De Niro** as **William King Hale**, Katherine Willis as Myrtle Hale and Delani Chambers as Willie Hale in the **Martin Scorsese** movie **Killers of the Flower Moon**).

With movie writing credits to Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, the murdering of Osage people for oil rights on a one-by-one basis is the focus. Prior to the realization of this, the introduction of a modicum of Osage cultural tradition with the burial of the a ceremonial pipe, mourning their descendants’ assimilation into white American society. Sharing the yearly “flower moon” phenomenon of Oklahoma fields of bloom, we soon see several Osage dancing among oil gushing from the ground in their territory. Assuming the Osage “incompetent” to manage money in the American sense of it, Osage are assigned allotments of money in full and half-blood members headrights, which cannot be sold and transfer through inheritance to relatives upon death. In addition to graft that is addressed yet is not central to the movie, an incentive for untimely deaths had been created for unscrupulous whites.

(From left, **Lily Gladstone** as **Mollie Kyle Burkhart** and **Leonardo DiCaprio** as **Ernest Burkhart** in the **Martin Scorsese** movie **Killers of the Flower Moon**).

It is with this background that we meet Ernest Burkhart, as portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio. Having returned from World War One service unintelligent and greedy, Ernest moves in with his brother, Byron Burkhart as portrayed by Scott Shepherd, and his uncle William King Hale as portrayed by Robert De Niro. It’s on the family ranch that we learn of Hale‘s giving gifts to the Osage and speaking their language while serving in a neglectful law enforcement capacity. The depths of Hale‘s conniving against that proposed interest includes suggesting to Ernest Burhart‘s that his nephew strike up a romance with Mollie Kyle, who takes the Burkhart surname when Ernest and Molly marry in a ceremony with Osage and Roman Catholic elements. Lily Gladstone portrayed Mollie Kyle Burkhart, with Mollie’s relationship with Ernest Burkhart becoming a central focus of the movie.

(From left, **Cara Jade Myers** as **Anna Brown**, **Tantoo Cardinal** as **Lizzie Q**, **Jillian Dion** as **Minnie Smith** and **Janae Collins** as **Reta Smith** in the **Martin Scorsese** movie **Killers of the Flower Moon**).

The criminal enterprise elements of the movie grow from here into what we see to be patterns of attack on the wealth and people of the Osage nation in general and Mollie Kyle Burkhart‘s family specifically. The patterns of attack on Lizzie Q, Anna Brown, Minnie Smith and Reta Smith, as portrayed by Tantoo Cardinal, Cara Jade Myers, Jillian Dion and Janae Collins, respectively, being front and center in the murderous plots. It is the escalating plot geared at Bill Smith‘s two wives (Minnie and Reta) and Ernest‘s wife (Molly), in addition to the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot that occurred with an arguably equivalent impunity, led to the Osage tribe’s council seeking reprieve in Washington DC against the corrupt forces in play on the Osage reservation, including a direct appeal to United States president Calvin Coolidge. Jason Isbell portrayed Bill Smith.

(From left, **Jesse Plemons** as **Thomas Bruce White Sr.**, **Tatanka Means** as John Wren, **John Lithgow** as Prosecutor Peter Leaward and **Brendan Fraser** as W.S. Hamilton in the **Martin Scorsese** movie **Killers of the Flower Moon**).

Despite of and in the face of these developments, William King Hale escalates his criminality further with the killing of Henry Roan, Mollie‘s first husband as portrayed by William Belleau, the ordering of the murdering of his own hired killers, and unsuccessfully attempting to murder Ernest after he testifies against his uncle. The Bureau of Investigation inquest by agents Thomas Bruce White Sr. and John Wren leads to a trial litigated by Prosecutor Peter Leaward. W.S. Hamilton defends William King Hale and Ernest Burkhart. Jesse Plemons, Tatanka Means, John Lithgow and Brendan Fraser portrayed White Sr., Wren, Leaward and Hamilton, respectively.

(From left, director **Martin Scorsese** and actor **Robert De Niro** on set for the **Martin Scorsese** movie **Killers of the Flower Moon**).

The means of bringing together the larger questions of the fates of William King Hale, Ernest Burkhart, Molly Kyle Burkhart and Anna Brown through a dramatized radio program intermixed with flashback provided an unexpected and dramatically cinematic flare to the movie’s resolution. The movie reels of the Tulsa Race Riots in addition to the opening storytelling tributes to the silent movie era of cinema were appreciated artful touches at earlier parts of the movie. These elevation points raised the bar for me on what quality filmmaking truly can be. It is with these points as backdrops to the story told that I grant Killers of the Flower Moon as directed by Martin Scorsese with a highly accomplished cast 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Saturday, November 4, 2023

Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton and Edward Herrmann in the Warren Beatty movie ‘Reds’

A love triangle mixes with the epic historical drama of the life and career of socialist, journalist and activist John Reed today. Reed reported on the Russian Revolution in his book Ten Days That Shook the World, which held a large sway in the Warren Beatty directed and written movie Reds (1981). Trevor Griffiths also wrote Reds along with Beatty.

(From left, Edward Herrmann as Max Eastman, **Warren Beatty** as **John Reed** and **Diane Keaton** as **Louise Bryant** in the **Warren Beatty** movie **Reds**).

The movie Reds begins when suffragist and journalist Louise Bryant, married to another man at the 1915 encounter, meets radical John Reed for the first time at a lecture in Portland, Oregon. The intellectually engaging meeting convinces Bryant, portrayed by Diane Keaton, to join Reed, as portrayed by Warren Beatty, in Greenwich Village, New York City, New York. The womanizing ways of Reed is at odds with the idealism of his writing for Bryant.

(**Maureen Stapleton** as **Emma Goldman** in the **Warren Beatty** movie **Reds**).

The opportunity to meet Emma Goldman and Eugene O’Neill in the district folds into conversations on writing and the radical feelings of the group. O’Neill and Bryant develop intimate feelings for each other in this period, as the strikes of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) alongside the St. Louis, Missouri Democratic presidential convention stirs Reed‘s passions even further. The subsequent marriage of Reed and Bryant hits the difficulty of Reed‘s infidelity, prompting professional, interpersonal and political turmoil between the pair. Goldman and O’Neill were portrayed by Maureen Stapleton and Jack Nicholson.

(**Jack Nicholson** as **Eugene O’Neill** in the **Warren Beatty** movie **Reds**).

The story of John Reed‘s health, losing a kidney in the midst of this, leads to another instinct to head to Russia as the possibility of what became the Russian Revolution. Professionally reuniting for that trip, Bryant too experiences the ideals of that revolution. The love the pair once experienced reignites, at least until Reed and other communist sympathizers in America break ideologically. Practitioners of the Bolshevik ideology in the Petrograd (St. Petersburg), Russia put Reed to work as a propagandist. With help from O’Neill, Bryant aims to reconnect with Reed while the two are kept from having any legitimate communication. The parallel storylines of history and love were messy and difficult. The way both stories come to resolution reflect the successes of the story.

(From left, Paul Sorvino as Louis C. Fraina and Jerzy Kosinski as Grigory Zinoviev in the **Warren Beatty** movie **Reds**).

There is so much more to the tale of Reds than what this introduction to the story of the movie does in more than three hours of movie. Airport Friend rates the movie in the top ten movies he has ever seen. I grant the movie Reds and directed and partly written by Warren Beatty 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, August 16, 2023

Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike and Neil Patrick Harris in the David Fincher movie ‘Gone Girl’

A psychological thriller directed by David Fincher plants an intriguing movie premise. Add that Gillian Flynn wrote the screenplay for Gone Girl (2014) based on her own 2012 novel named Gone Girl adds another level of interest that brings us to this movie today. Add the really dark place this movie takes a marriage for the characters central to the story offers something dynamic.

(From left, **Ben Affleck** as Nick Dunne, **Lisa Banes** as Mary Elizabeth Elliott and **David Clennon** as Randall Elliott in the **David Fincher** movie **Gone Girl**).

The movie opens on the fifth anniversary of the marriage of Nick Dunne and Amy Elliott Dunne, portrayed respectively by Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike. Amy has disappeared. A series of children’s books by Mary Elizabeth and Randall Elliott, as portrayed by Lisa Banes and David Clennon, had been wildly popular, placing an immediate spotlight on what is quickly identified as a disappearance with significant media attention.

(From left, **Rosamund Pike** as Amy Elliott Dunne and **Neil Patrick Harris** as Desi Collings in the **David Fincher** movie **Gone Girl**).

Detective Rhonda Boney and her team, including officer James Gilpin are called in to investigate the Dunne’s Kansas City, Missouri residence in furtherance Amy’s disappearance. A string of incriminating evidence implicates Nick Dunne in the disappearance, with the suspicion that Amy’s disappearance may have escalated to death in a case of domestic violence. Besides the evidence at the family household, factors back to the family’s previous home in New York City, New York are revealed through flashbacks. Boney and Gilpin were portrayed by Kim Dickens and Patrick Fugit.

(From left, **Patrick Fugit** as Officer James Gilpin and **Kim Dickens** as Detective Rhonda Boney in the **David Fincher** movie **Gone Girl**).

With the slow play of revelations against Nick Dunne, Amy’s husband turns to Tanner Bolt, his attorney, and Margo Dunn, his twin sister, for support. The continuing revelations of evidence that make Nick look guilty includes, for example, that Nick had an affair with a former student of his named Andie Fitzgerald. Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon and Emily Ratajkowski portrayed Tanner, Margo and Andie, respectively.

(From left, **Tyler Perry** as Tanner Bolt and **Carrie Coon** as Margo Dunne in the **David Fincher** movie **Gone Girl**).

The mounting pressure of the evidence feeds into the pressure applied in the media, including that of legal opinion host Ellen Abbott, to have Nick Dunne arrested and evidence of Amy Elliott Dunne’s death confirmed. The psychological component of that offers compelling sympathy for the viewpoint, while circumstances brought about in response to some of that media attention brings Desi Collings, a wealthy ex-boyfriend of Amy’s, into the picture. The beauty of this tension, with the dark statements about the Dunne marriage in particular, connected with me in ways that I mean not to undersell. Neil Patrick Harris and Missi Pyle portrayed Collings and Abbott, respectively.

(From left, **Missi Pyle** as Ellen Abbott and **Emily Ratajkowski** as Andie Fitzgerald in the **David Fincher** movie **Gone Girl**).

The achievement that Gillian Flynn as writer and David Fincher as director brought to this movie makes this something that I recommend. The film holds up to additional viewings and reflections after the fact, including with the deliberate discomfort that the film both raises and delivers upon. I give Gone Girl as directed by David Fincher 4.5-stars on a scale of one-to-five stars.

Matt – Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Ray Charles and the album ‘The Spirit of Christmas’

It was 1985 that the Ray Charles album The Spirit of Christmas was presented to the world. Today we embrace this presentation of ten Christmas songs released by the Albany, Georgia native known for blues, jazz blues, soul, country soul and many other variations that influenced many that have listened and made music since.

(The cover art for the 1985 **Ray Charles** album **The Spirit of Christmas**).

Opening The Spirit of Christmas album is the William Chatterton Dix composition What Child Is This? Chatterton Dix was originally from Bristol, Avon, England. The song invokes the birth of Jesus Christ, emphasizing this before invoking a jazz reprise that lasts for approximately the last three minutes of the song.

The Little Drummer Boy was composed by Katherine K. Davis of St. Joseph, Missouri, Henry Onorati of Revere, Massachusetts and Harry Simeone of Newark, New Jersey. The introduction with singing alone before a backing guitar lends an enchanting country emphasis that gives way to keyboard play with a hint of Ray Charles’ musical personality enjoyed with work of his 30 or more years preceding this album.

(The Harry Simeone Chorale first popularized **The Little Drummer Boy** in 1958).

With composition credits from J. Fred Coots of Brooklyn, New York City, New York, and Haven Gillespie of Covington, Kentucky, Santa Claus Is Coming to Town brings us an orchestral, joyous introduction followed immediately by the keyboard play and singing of Ray Charles improvising through the song a smooth jazz rendition of the song.

This Time of Year as composed by Brook Benton of Camden, South Carolina and Cliff Owens (aka Clyde Otis and Clyde Lovern Otis) of Prentiss, Mississippi offers an engaging keyboard opening with orchestration to accompany the sentimental feeling Ray Charles sings for the Christmas season. The mood I sense is one after hustle and bustle wherein a wistful thought of the coming joy of more revelry is to come.

The Johnny Marks composed Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer sees Ray Charles offering a jazzier version of this holiday standard in the United States for more than fifty years. The effect of this song is among the more enchanting of any on the album. Marks is from Mount Vernon, New York.

(**Mable Johnson**, one of the composers for the song **The Spirit of Christmas**, as seen when she performed for one of two record labels in the 1960s).

The Spirit of Christmas comes to us with composers Mable John of Bastrop, Louisiana, Parnell Davison and Joel Webster. The song is a sentimental reminder of the love that surrounds us with the joy of the happiness that, in experiencing the joy of those around, enlivens us. As a complete song, this is my favorite from the album overall.

All I Want for Christmas opens with a sentimental mood for couples, invoking in my listening a sense of romance. The gradual playfulness of the instruments as they roll in builds an engaging uplift to the joyous feelings that I have by the end of this lovely song. William Henderson (aka Willie Henderson) of Pensacola, Florida and then Chicago, Illinois earned composer credits.

Douglas Fraser, Julia Fraser and Rosalyn Winters composed Christmas in My Heart, which offers notions of magic for the holidays. The mood is laid back yet orchestral, with accompanying vocals that could have come from a church choir.

(**Ray Charles** had a long and distinguished career in music).

The penultimate song for The Spirit of Christmas album is Winter Wonderland, as composed by Felix Bernard of Brooklyn, New York City, New York and Richard B. Smith of Honesdale, Pennsylvania. An uplifting jazzy feeling brings a lightness to the composition. The strength of the keyboards as performed by Ray Charles, among other instruments, stands out as much as his singing.

Christmas Time as composed by Edward Cole makes use of Charles on keyboard with horn, bell and other instrumentation. The somber invocation is an easy reminder of the familial blessings and symbols of love and giving with the season. Cole is originally from Montgomery, Alabama.

Matt – Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Sheryl Crow and the album ‘Home for Christmas’

With the joy of late fall weather offering the tokens of the coming winter for some northern climates, I was moved to look into a holiday album released November 26th, 2008. The album Home for Christmas by Sheryl Crow of Kennett, Missouri.

(This image shows the **Sheryl Crow** album cover for **Home for Christmas**. The album was first released on November 26th, 2008).

Go Tell It on the Mountain is an African American spiritual dealing with the nativity of Jesus Christ. The compilation of the song is attributed to John Wesley Work Jr., with the singing in Crow‘s version incorporating singers suggesting the song’s origins to the middle of the 19th century.

The Christmas Song offers a distinctly jazz feeling to the song originally written by Mel Tormé of Chicago, Illinois and Robert Wells. Nat King Cole of Montgomery, Alabama is credited with the first and definitive version of the song, having recorded it multiple times through the years. Over time, the song has carried the subtitle Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire and Merry Christmas to You since the original recording in 1946.

(The ‘definitive’ version of **The Christmas Song** as performed by **Nat King Cole** was released in 1961).

White Christmas presents with uplifting horns, guitars and drums that brings a light and fun experience. The uplifting tempo is as catchy as any offering on the album. Original writing credits for the song belong to Irving Berlin, born in the Russian Empire of the 19th century.

I’ll Be Home for Christmas offers an unexpectedly older fashion instrumentation that would land favorably long ago. This is a welcome addition to this album in the offering of what becomes so many distinctive musical presentations throughout the album. The original presentation in 1943 by lyricist Kim Gannon of Brooklyn, New York and composer Walter Kent New York City, New York included the singing of Bing Crosby, of Tacoma, Washington, with John Scott Trotter & His Orchestra playing the instruments.

(**Bing Crosby** sang the first released version of **I’ll Be Home for Christmas** in 1943).

Merry Christmas Baby brings a clear pop sensibility to a studio recording featuring keyboard play that gives the song a fusion rhythm and blues and jazz flavor. The original writing credits belong to Johnny Moore of Selma, Alabama and Lou Baxter.

The Bells of St. Mary’s includes music written by A. Emmett Adams with lyrics by Douglas Furber, dating back to 1917. The sound is very modern, with a vocal range offered by Sheryl Crow that brings a pleasing effect open to continued listening.

The Blue Christmas as presented here offers a distinctly jazzy and gospel fusion to a song most famously performed by Elvis Presley, originally of Tupelo, Mississippi. Writing credits rest with Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson.

(**Blue Christmas** as performed by **Elvis Presley** made the song as popular as ever in the United States).

O Holy Night opens with a partial singing of It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, with the latter accounting for nearly 1-minute and 10-seconds of the 3-minute and 39-second performance. Distinct production differences points to what feels like performances intended to have been separate. The singing proves inspired and moving, making for a rewarding experience.

As written by Sheryl Crow, the song There Is a Star That Shines Tonight has perhaps the most authentically true song on the album. Strongly piano based with stringed instrument accompaniment, the quiet sweetness invokes celestial inspiration, missing one’s loved ones and the inspiration of the newborn spiritual king.

Hello My Friend, Hello offers a gentle meditation of friendship and winter’s regeneration. The accompanying instrumentation offers a sweet accompaniment to Crow‘s singing. Bill Botrell is credited with writing this song.

(**Sheryl Crow**‘s album **Home for Christmas** was first released on November 26th, 2008).

The final song for the 2008 release of the Home for Christmas album is All Through the Night, a sleepy meditation of a song with seemingly Welsh origins under the name Ar Hyd Y Nos. As noted here, the song “is still sung in Welsh, especially by male voice choirs, [although] it is better known by its English title “All Through The Night.”

Matt – Saturday, November 26, 2022

Steve Martin, John Candy and Laila Robins in the John Hughes movie ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’

With the observance of the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States a little more than two weeks away, we are nostalgic for getting back home to spend time with family. The John Hughes movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) feeds into this with a touch of drama and comedy.

(**Steve Martin** as Neal Page in the **John Hughes** movie **Planes, Trains and Automobiles**).

The movie opens with advertising executive Neal Page, as portrayed by Steve Martin, looking to get back to his home in Chicago, Illinois from a business trip to New York City, New York. The act of getting out of the city and on his way back home is foiled by a series of experiences beyond his control. The annoying and comedic value of the delays inform Page’s outlook, which feels a bit bemusing to the character.

(**John Candy** as Del Griffith in the **John Hughes** movie **Planes, Trains and Automobiles**).

The incidents that placed Page in the initial foul mood intensified when the movie told us that there was but the single goal of getting home for the holiday. With the loss of good humor on the way to the airport relented to an increasing level of misadventure, the introduction of a jolly and Del Griffith intercepting Page’s mood first on the street outside a hotel. Later at JFK airport, the delight expanded into the expansion of a tale that saw Griffith, as portrayed by John Candy, traveling with Page.

(From left, Kevin Bacon as man running for taxi and **Michael McKean** as State Trooper in the **John Hughes** movie **Planes, Trains and Automobiles**).

The story has Neal and Del coming and going from one another’s paths, with air travel being a difficulty in getting to Chicago. A train ride to St. Louis, Missouri reunites and separates the pair, with that mode of transportation letting the pair down in their travels. Rental cars, testy interactions with the obstacles of reliable travel, and the pair is traveling again. Getting to a lowly state as the pair drives back east from St. Louis to Chicago by automobile, Del and Neal encounter a state trooper portrayed by Michael McKean.

(From left, **Laila Robins** as Susan Page and **Steve Martin** and Neal Page in the **John Hughes** movie **Planes, Trains and Automobiles**).

As disaster had struck the pair, with news of Neal’s responsibilities for that disaster having just been revealed, a legitimate question for how much can one man endure to get home for a holiday becomes the clear dramatic and comedic question. The serious question for whether Neal gets home to his wife, Susan Page as portrayed by Laila Robins. The movie does end on a happier note, with much of the shenanigans of the previous travels laid behind the travelers.

(From left, actor **Steve Martin**, actor **John Candy** and writer / director **John Hughes** onsite for the **John Hughes** movie **Planes, Trains and Automobiles**).

I found the movie humorous and lighthearted, despite the subject matter clearly aiming for a test where the boundaries for social limits should be drawn. As a movie clearly aiming for comedy with some mild drama mixed in, I found entertainment and happiness. Thus, I rate Planes, Trains and Automobiles as written and directed by John Hughes 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Sheryl Crow and the self-titled album ‘Sheryl Crow’

On Tuesday, September 24th, 1996, singer / songwriter Sheryl Crow‘s second studio album, named Sheryl Crow, was released. The album offers a mixture of styles including Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock and American Trad Rock. The album feels as relevant today as it did when released 26-years ago this week.

(Shown is the album cover for **Sheryl Crow**‘s second studio album, named **Sheryl Crow**).

As quoted by Songfacts here, Sheryl Crow described Maybe Angels “as “an extraterrestrial yarn that finds Kurt Cobain joining John Lennon in heaven’s winged choir.”” The opening song from Crow‘s second studio album feels a bit trippy lyrically and musically, with the production choices backing this up.

A Change Would Do You Good charted eighth in the United Kingdom and nineteenth in the United States. Written by Crow of Kennett, Missouri, guitarist Jeff Trott of San Mateo, California, and drummer Brian MacLeod of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, the song conveys several loosely related yet lightly presented changes in life that can be made to improve the experience of life. Musically, the song feels playful.

(**A Change Would Do You Good** was written in New Orleans, Louisiana).

Home offers the song of heartbreak in a marriage that simply is not working. There’s an absence of fulfillment with dreams deferred and pain for both spouses. Musically, the song drifts into ballad with the instrumental sensibilities leaning toward a country influence.

(**Home** was the last single from the **Sheryl Crow** self-titled album. The single was released on October 6th, 1997).

Sweet Rosalyn brings more of a funk influence to romance just out of reach. The lyrical twist of a priest aiming to proselytize the musical object of the song, Rosalyn, strikes me as unexpected and a bit amusing. The message I hear is aim for better, fuller love.

If It Makes You Happy charted ninth in the United Kingdom and tenth in the United States. As mentioned here, “[t]his song describes a person who seems depressed or upset no matter what happens…This won the Grammy award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.” While sung at higher pitch with more acoustical energy than Home, the song emotionally hits me from a satisfyingly similar place to the third song from the self-titled album.

(**If It Makes You Happy** was the first song released from **Sheryl Crow**‘s studio album named **Sheryl Crow**).

Redemption Day opens with an intriguing reverberating acoustic sound that includes interesting percussion that I really appreciate. Crow‘s performance, as mentioned here, was “as a politicized song about national redemption.” Johnny Cash would cover the song as something “about personal redemption.”

Hard to Make a Stand charted twenty-second in the United Kingdom. In offering an uplifting sonic feeling like A Change Would Do You Good, the song almost responds to the feedback that change might help. As mentioned here, Hard to Make a Stand “seems to look at the world through the eyes of a person trying to make sense of this world. It mixes the morbid with a strange sense of hope. Plenty of black humor to go around, as well.”

(The third single released from **Sheryl Crow**‘s second studio album, **Sheryl Crow**, was **Hard to Make a Stand**).

Everyday is a Winding Road opens with refreshingly light bongos. The optimism about feeling closer to fine in a world that doesn’t necessarily make sense charted twelfth in the United Kingdom and eleventh in the United States. The perspective offered here called this song a “bit of fortune cookie wisdom.”

(**Everyday Is a Winding Road** was the second song released in support of the **Sheryl Crow** album, **Sheryl Crow**).

Placing my finger on the musical influence for Love is a Good Thing proved a little bit of a stretch, though the choice of organ and then synthesizer / keyboard really impressed me. An interesting note, mentioned here, was that Walmart banned this song over a provocative lyric included in the song. “The store refused to carry the album unless [Sheryl Crow] changed the lyric. Crow refused.”

Oh Marie calls attention to another girl lost in one-night stands and reputation makers. The singer’s perspective questions how this could bring happiness, despite wishing Marie best. To me, I am also hearing Crow question for herself what love is, though tackling that question with answers about what love is not.

The musical introduction for Superstar interests me as much as the message the song, if not more. Crow offers the notion with Superstar another bite of the romantic apple in noting that a celebrity romance has its appeal, though the brilliance at the beginning wears off. The question again feels like “what is love?” A step further, it feels like “what can make love sustainable after the infatuation melts away?”

The Book offers a musically mournful sound and message that interests me so much. The idea of a singer / songwriter becoming the public telling of a romantic experience both signals a violation of trust and a betrayal. My feeling is that Sheryl Crow credibly offers those painful feelings for the betrayal is notably one direction, as in there aren’t details of Crow‘s partners in the music Crow presents.

That Ordinary Morning opens with Sheryl Crow singing in a throaty, high key with a nightclub echo and musical accompaniment reminiscent of a confession is striking. The lyrics coupled with deliberate drums and piano speak knowingly of an experience where Crow woke first and moved on. The lyrics feel to me like a mixture of convincing the singer and us that the previous night’s intimacy was passionate, deliberate and now, done and behind. That this song is placed besides the songs that preceded it, and ends the album, speaks strongly to a message of love, pride, dignity and a still continuing search for love.

Matt – Saturday, September 24, 2022

Jason Kander and the book ‘Invisible Storm: A Soldier’s Memoir of Politics and PTSD’

Jason Kander served in the United States Army with a deployment to Afghanistan. Kander became the first millennial to serve state office when elected to the Missouri state legislature in 2008, later winning election as Missouri Secretary of State in 2012. Kander ran a close yet losing bid for United States Senator from Missouri in 2016. The possibility for legitimate Democratic Party leadership at the national level came about in the aftermath of that.

(Former **Missouri** Secretary of State **Jason Kander** wrote **Invisible Storm: A Soldier’s Memoir of Politics and PTSD**).

Published in July of 2022, Kander‘s book Invisible Storm: A Soldier’s Memoir of Politics and PTSD tells stories of the author’s life roughly from multiple points in time. We get some sense of Mr. Kander‘s childhood relationship with his father and community, of getting to know his wife, and through the feedback he received to choosing military service and then serving in a military intelligence capacity. We learn of the author becoming a father; the decision-making to run for political office too came up.

(From left, **Diana Kander**, **True Kander** and **Jason Kander**).

Then there were some realities of running for office, and the reasons why. The signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) were present in this period. The signs were explained away and coped with as well as the man knew how. The secondary impact of giving the author’s wife and son experiences of PTSD were present, with these too being unrecognized. The details, personal and human for sure, were present in that information shared by Jason Kander and his wife, Diana Kander.

I’ll defer to your reading of Invisible Storm: A Soldier’s Memoir of Politics and PTSD to gain a proper sense for the somewhat gradual means for how the author came to this decision, yet it was in Jason Kander‘s acceptance and then action to address his PTSD with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that Mr. Kander announced his stepping away from pursuing public service through political office. The ability to have this announced publicly, and then addressing much of the substance of why within this book with Diana Kander voice in part, offers a service to those in need in the United States.

(From left, **Jason Kander** and **United States** **Senator** from Massachusetts **Elizabeth Warren** campaigning for the **United States** **Senate**).

Finding the Veterans Community Project as a means of serving after Senator Elizabeth Warren picked up some of Kander‘s voting rights work, Kander has been able to channel a need to continue serving. This comes after his doing the real work of getting emotionally healthier through understanding what PTSD has been for him and his family. The journey that Jason Kander, Diana Kander and their family has experienced in getting back to something emotionally tenable and satisfying is a clear triumph. The experience of the book helps me grant Invisible Storm: A Soldier’s Memoir of Politics and PTSD by Jason Kander 4-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Monday, August 8, 2022

Kate Chopin and the book ‘The Awakening’

Historical fiction from the end of the nineteenth century brings us to a book by Kate Chopin of St. Louis, Missouri and later New Orleans, Louisiana. First published in 1899, The Awakening offers a bold look for the time of what fidelity, adultery and the demands of society say about duties to self, children and marriage from the female perspective. There was controversy about The Awakening as a book, with the quote from a contemporary of Chopin‘s saying this: “Willa Cather, who would become a well known twentieth-century American author, labeled it trite and sordid.” This review includes some spoilers; skip to the last paragraph to receive my rating of the book.

(Alternative covers of the 1899 **Kate Chopin** novel **The Awakening**).

The Awakening is set in New Orleans and along the Louisiana coast with the Gulf of Mexico. Set in the same era of the book’s publishing, the book predates the realism of novelists including Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner while echoing such contemporary writers as Edith Wharton and Henry James.

(**Kate Chopin** is an **American** author, whose **The Awakening** was published in 1899).

The novel itself first sets the stage by introducing businessman Léonce Pontellier, his wife Edna, and their two kids Etienne and Raoul vacationing with the management and support of Madame Lebrun and her two sons, Robert and Victor. Edna spends much of the vacation with her friend Adèle Ratignolle, who helps to establish a central conflict for the story by pointing Edna to her responsibilities as a wife and mother.

(Additional covers to the 1899 **Kate Chopin** novel **The Awakening**).

Robert Lebrun, the son of the woman helping watch the Pontellier children, seeks and earns the affection of Mrs. Edna Pontellier. Robert sense problems with a romantic relationship developing from his affection, so contrives a business venture in Mexico to avoid the impropriety of a relationship with Edna. The feelings this brings for Edna become a focus for the novel.

(The message of works like 1899’s **The Awakening** made **American** writer **Kate Chopin** controversial in some circles).

With Edna reassessing her place in the world following the vacation, publicly observed changes in the traditional roles of a mother of a businessman husband in society lead to an insidious yet societal norm of the period of Léonce Pontellier approaching his physician with questions about his wife’s mental health. Things develop from this place to include a business trip to New York City, New York for Léonce, explicit further behavior for the marriage partners in isolation, and what society truly owes women in the United States and the American South of this period. The story culmination to these questions addresses themselves either through Robert Lebrun or Léonce Pontellier for Edna; my point in not sharing specifically reflects my suggestion that you read the book.

(Even more covers to the 1899 **Kate Chopin** novel **The Awakening**).

The Awakening offers mature themes on the subject of marriage. The book prompts readers to confront their feelings about the subject matter, specifically about where to set relationship boundaries. Doing this in the safety of a book where dialogue can exist feels like a strength for the book. This leads me to give The Awakening by Kate Chopin 4.5-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, June 8, 2022