Hilary Swank, Jeff Perry and Grace Dove in Season One of ‘Alaska Daily’

A news series titled Lawless: Sexual Violence in Alaska published by Alaska Daily News and ProPublica revealed that the highest rate of sexual violence in the United States exists in Alaska. This fact led to the 11-episode first season of the network television series Alaska Daily (2022- ), whose last episode aired the last week of March on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).

(From left, Hilary Swank as Eileen Fitzgerald and Grace Dove as Roz Friendly in the first season of Alaska Daily).

A central storyline for the opening season of the television series was the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Woman (MMIW) issue that exists in the United States and Canada. Besides being scantly depicted in the media, the issue seems to be unaddressed from a law enforcement perspective. The television series introduces Eileen Fitzgerald, a New York City, New York reporter persuaded to move to Anchorage, Alaska as a reporter on this issue. Fitzgerald, portrayed by Hilary Swank, had been disgraced in an unjustifiable manner by her former newspaper editorial board before being convinced to report from Anchorage by an editor that saw through that original injustice.

(Clockwise from left, Craig Frank as Austin Teague, Pablo Castelblanco as Gabriel Tovar, Meredith Holzman as Claire Muncy, Jeff Perry as Stanley Cornik and Matt Malloy as Bob Young in the first season of Alaska Daily).

The addition of Fitzgerald to Anchorage by executive editor of the fictional Alaska Daily newspaper Stanley Cornik, as portrayed by Jeff Perry, launched a series of interesting dynamics within a newsroom that includes acting editor Bob Young, veteran reporter Claire Muncy, Fitzgerald’s partner Roz Friendly, and relevant supporters Austin Teague, Yuna Park and Gabriel Tovar. Young, Muncy, Friendly, Teague, Park and Tovar were portrayed by Matt Malloy, Meredith Holzman, Grace Dove, Craig Frank, Ami Park and Pablo Castelblanco, respectively. The personal stories of people living their lives in this newsroom, coupled with the notions of a dying newsroom and who will tell these stories if the newsroom dies, are legitimate tropes of this drama that offers the series the humanity making for a solid television series.

(From left, Ami Park as Yuna Park, Irene Bedard as Sylvie Nanmac and Shane McRae as Aaron Pritchard in the first season of Alaska Daily).

Mixing this with lives of native peoples including Gloria Nanmac, her mother Sylvie Nanmac, Toby Crenshaw and reporter Roz Friendly were appreciated. The money and influence of Aaron and Conrad Pritchard tell strong tales. Adding storylines for Jamie, Karla, Concerned Citizen, and people in government and law enforcement added depth that, at least through the first season, added something worthwhile. Mamie Eva Cecilia Pete, Irene Bedard, Brandon Alexis, Shane McRae, John Getz, Joe Tippett, Kourtney Bell and Bill Dawes portrayed Gloria Nanmac, Sylvie Nanmac, Toby Crenshaw, Aaron Pritchard, Conrad Pritchard, Jamie, Karla and Concerned Citizen, respectively. I look forward to seeing what comes next season for Alaska Daily, granting the first season 4.0-stars on a scale of one-to-five stars.

Matt – Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Judith Lewis Herman and the book ‘Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror’

Mental health, when given its best chance for success, frequently needs a community that thinks empathetically about what suffering is. That American psychiatrist, researcher, teacher, and author Judith Lewis Herman moved standards within the psychiatric profession in this direction with Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror is a testimony to the force of Herman‘s work and the combined need and accomplishment for treating traumatic stress.

(Alternative book covers for the book Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror by Judith Lewis Herman).

The book that Judith Lewis Herman primarily was written from a feminist perspective, which was completely necessary when considering societal attitudes governing the legitimate powerlessness that occurred when women have been assaulted through the physical, mental and emotional crime of rape. The book additionally tackles the experiences of other domestic abuse at home, combat veterans, including veterans of the Vietnam War, and those who experienced concentration camps, such as existed during World War Two.

(American psychiatrist, researcher, teacher, and author Judith Lewis Herman wrote Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror).

Much of Herman‘s professional work has been in the world of rape and domestic abuse, and the recovery efforts that support this. The parallels of this are juxtaposed against the written literature of combat veterans and victims of political terror. The larger lesson that emerges when therapists listen carefully is that much of the disbelief, shaming and perpetrator pushback against accountability encountered in private and public traumas require people to become audience to active hear the suffering of those with legitimate traumatic experiences. Flipping the script from continuing to traumatize through disbelief to healing by witnessing is the point. Allowing those suffering to experience stages of healing, without judgment or blame but with comprehension, is additionally the point.

(Judith Lewis Herman wrote Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror, which was first published on June 11th, 1992).

In many ways, I found the experiences and specific examples expressed for ways to be present the perspective that I took from reading Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror. That empathy can be the result of reading this book is the big element of positive feedback that I hope to convey. I grant Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror by Judith Lewis Herman 4-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara and Christopher Plummer in the David Fincher movie ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’

Drawn from the posthumously published Stieg Larsson book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo of 2005, David Fincher offered edgy suspense, menacing thriller elements, appalling crime and an unlikely heroine and hero pair overcoming powerful forces pitted against the very serious forces of societal politics, family politics and dark secrets that have been hidden for better than forty years. Today we review The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011).

(From left, Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist and Robin Wright as Erika Berger in the David Fincher movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).

Daniel Craig portrayed Mikael Blomkvist, co-owner of a prominent magazine based in Sweden. After losing a libel lawsuit to businessman Hans-Erik Wennerström as portrayed by Ulf Friberg, Blomkvist is looking to step away from the magazine when wealthy Henrik Vanger, as portrayed by Christopher Plummer, offers him an unusual request that eases and causes strife in the relationship has with his magazine co-owner and married lover. That co-owner and lover, Erika Berger, is portrayed by Robin Wright.

(From left, Goran Visnjic as Dragan Armansky and Steven Berkoff as Dirch Frode in the David Fincher movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).

That proposition from Henrik Vanger is vetted through Vanger’s lawyer Dirch Frode, as portrayed by Steven Berkoff. A delicate and criminal background check offered by Dragan Armansky, as portrayed by Goran Visnjic, introduces the hacker and girl with the dragon tattoo that provided the incredibly detailed and personal background check of Mikael Blomkvist. The offer Vanger makes to Blomkvist is to investigate the 40-year-old disappearance and presumed murder of Henrik’s grandniece, 16-year-old Harriet Vanger.

(Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander in the David Fincher movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).

Lisbeth Salander, as portrayed by Rooney Mara, is the hacker who investigates quite deeply, tactfully, and with an exceptional level of quality for the business run by Dragan Armansky. Dark events in Salander’s past add depth to her story, which is as brutal in the present and past tense. The Lisbeth Salander storyline rivals everything that Mikael Blomkvist finds while investigating Henrik Vanger’s family, the business now run by Martin Vanger, or the antisemitism that runs underneath many of the metaphorical rocks moved about during this investigation.

(From left, Stellan Skarsgård as Martin Vanger and Christopher Plummer as Henrik Vanger in the David Fincher movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).

We see much in the background of Lisbeth Salander both in parallel to the work being performed by Mikael Blomkvist and then in concert with that work. We are introduced to some honorable work by Holger Palmgren, as portrayed by Bengt C.W. Carlsson, and then much less than honorable work by Nils Bjurman. Yorick van Wageningen portrayed Nils Bjurman. The notion of there being mystery, thriller and criminal elements within The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo are addressed in edgy and difficult detail within the movie.

(From left, Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander and Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist in the David Fincher movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).

The directness of the content without effort to tread lightly on the source material of the novel underlying this movie offers something compelling in the direction for this film. There are credible hints for the type of movie we have here that still leaves much in terms of depth for you to find and enjoy within a new or fresh viewing of the film.

(From left, Joely Richardson as Anita Vanger and Yorick van Wageningen as Nils Bjurman in the David Fincher movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).

That there are many layers to the source material that are brought to the screen adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo speak credibly to the achievement that screenwriter Steven Zaillian and director David Fincher make with the movie. Working with difficult themes for mature themes without crossing a line into confusing messages or gratuitous exposition were accomplishments of delivery that lets me respect the work done here. I grant The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as directed by David Fincher 4.25-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.

Matt – Saturday, January 29, 2022

Jon Krakauer documents acquaintance rape enablement in the book ‘Missoula’

Jon Krakauer documents a dominant and judicial culture that enables acquaintance rape in the book Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town.  As indicated in the preface summary for Missoula on Goodreads, “Krakauer documents the experiences of five victims…These stories cut through abstract ideological debate about acquaintance rape to demonstrate that it does not happen because women are sending mixed signals or seeking attention. They are victims of a terrible crime, deserving of fairness from our justice system.”

 (Jon Krakauer)

My perspective as a male reading this book is that the book is fairly researched, even handed to those suffering at the hands of rapists while also fair in pointing out culpability of different systems of investigating and judging guilt, innocence, and the correct courses of action for those accused of rape in a college setting. Many in the Missoula County Attorneys Office, the University of Montana, and the Missoula city police department strike me as frighteningly unaware and deliberately obsessed with taking a severely unsympathetic to the legitimate sensitivities of the victims of sexual contact without consent.

Emily Bazelon in her April 28, 2015 review of Missoula for The New York Times, under title Jon Krakauer’s ‘Missoula,’ About Rape in a College Town, takes a less flattering view. Quoting from her review:

“Instead of delving deeply into questions of fairness as universities try to fulfill a recent government mandate to conduct their own investigations and hearings — apart from the police and the courts — Krakauer settles for bromides. University procedures should “swiftly identify student offenders and prevent them from reoffending, while simultaneously safeguarding the rights of the accused,” he writes, asserting that this “will be difficult, but it’s not rocket science.””

The book is intense, graphic, and at times quite emotional for both of those reasons. Imagery had to be all those things to truly remove address much of what is taboo or mysterious for people when it comes to crimes against intimacy, trust, and gender. Part of what cannot wring true for ladies reading this assessment, that of a male, is that I have many of the same blind spots about ladies that female reviewers of the book, including Emily Bazelon, readily know and identify. Sharing wisdom taken from Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence–from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror by Judith Lewis Herman strikes me as an excellent educational means to illuminate some of that blindness with knowledge.

 (Judith Lewis Herman about enabling rape)

For those familiar with Krakauer‘s work, I see Missoula as aligning more closely in intimacy and narrative tone to Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith or Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman than Into the Wild.

Overall, the presentation was clearly and forthrightly told. The book is lucid throughout, though perhaps less synthesized from a first person narrative accounting of many ladies. My rating for the book is 4-stars out of 5 stars.

Matt – Tuesday, July 4, 2017