WCBE 90.5 FM (NPR): "Ray," "Ju-Ho: The Grudge," "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism"

WCBE #189-FINAL
IT'S MOVIE TIME with John DeSando & Clay Lowe
Producer/Director: Richelle Antczak, WCBE

Reviews: “Ray,” “Ju-Ho: The Grudge,” “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism”
Taped: 4:00 pm, October 27, 2004
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, October 29, 2004
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org.

The Script:

Clay
“Ray” features the music of Ray Charles, as well as a great performance by Jamie Foxx . . .

John
"Ju-On: The Grudge" is Asian horror flick lite by American heavy standards . . .

Clay
“Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism” is now out on DVD, just in time for the elections . . .

MUSIC UP AGAIN, THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak
It's Movie Time in Mid-Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . . .

MUSIC UP, THEN UNDER AND SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

DeSando
I'm John DeSando

Clay
And I'm Clay Lowe.

John (“Ray”)
”De-Lovely” was de lovely biopic of the year for me until I saw “Ray.” Much as I love Cole Porter’s tunes, the genial crossover melodies of Ray Charles could not have been better integrated into a biography than Director Taylor Hackford does along with Charles’ collaboration.

“Ray’s” scenes in recording studios and nightclubs help satisfy my yearning to learn how artists create their works. The flashback scenes to a childhood tragedy, an attempt to explain his drug addiction, are irritating and, gratuitous, if you think about how the film could have cut down from its formidable 153 minutes.

Jamie Foxx will be nominated for his role as Ray Charles. Most actors could imitate Charles’ ticks and jerks, but Foxx breathes Charles’ dreams and demons and projects them, his addiction to womanizing represented as well as heroin.

No need to worry that no man could parrot Charles voice, for Foxx lip-synchs perfectly.

Clay (“Ray”)
John, and I parrot your OPINION. Foxx’s performance is truly inspired. But unfortunately the only person in the movie who is able to get inside the head of Ray Charles, is the actor who plays him. No one else, including those who loved him most, could ever figure him out.

He thrilled everyone with his soul singing ballads; just as he amazed everyone, when he blended the sounds of gospel in with the sounds of Rhythm and Blues. But where all of his music kept coming from, nobody, including the audience, ever seems to know. Perhaps it was his endless love for women that kept driving his creative muse. Or, perhaps, it was his guilt over the death of his brother that caused him to continually create. The filmmaker never lets us know.

What we do know, however, is that his addiction to drugs caused him to self-destruct. And what we do know is, that the women addicted to his love, closed their eyes to his crimes.

But cheer up, folks, after listening to great music for over two hours, the filmmakers aren’t about to send you home haunted by an unhappy ending.

John (“Ju-On: The Grudge”)
The haunted house is a motif replayed successfully every year at this time, but in film it is not always so. I am happy to report “Ju-On: The Grudge,” the third of four Asian films by the same director, Takeshi Shimizu, on the same house, is worth seeing this Halloween week. The films all held up so well the director was invited by director Sam Rami to make an English version called “The Grudge,” starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and now in theaters.

In "Ju-On" Director Shimizu creates an atmosphere of fear and foreboding with a minimum of “Elm-Street” gore as he episodically presents incidents involving people either directly or peripherally related to the unassuming urban house. The niceties of our three-act dramas pale next to the fears this director creates with just sound and shadow and no Western structure.

The murders of a mother and child are the linchpin of the recurring horror in this house. It pays to know the provenance if you buy again, Dr.

Clay (“Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism”)
Sounds and shadows, John, I’ll give you sounds and shadows.

The documentary “Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism” is “Gottcha” journalism at its very best. Sounds and shadows, smoke and mirrors, rapid cutting, ironic juxtapositions (sometimes funny, sometimes cruel) are all a part of a filmmaker or broadcaster’s big bag of tricks. And the director of “Outfoxed,” documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald, is up to the task of taking on the minions of broadcasters who answer to the beck and call of Rupert Murdoch, the Aussie owner of Fox Network News.

If you’re a blue state American you’ll love watching the Fox Network anchors as they respond to their top down memo-of-the-day by endlessly repeating the phrase: “Kerry flip-flops,” “Kerry flip-flops,” and on and on and on. Seeing nearly a dozen of their newscasters, coast to coast, all mimicking the ordered phrase, in edited montage. is worth the rental.

We do learn from this documentary, all news sources are biased, and probably most of us already knew that network news has a more liberal bias than Fox. But rarely do other news directors take top down orders the way Greenwald shows they do on Fox TV. “Fair and Balanced”? It’s all a part of the smoke.

But enough of this smokin’ and gloatin’, it’s grading time.

John
Hooray!

HIT DRUMS

John
"Ray" is an "A" cause "THAT'S ALRIGHT" . . .

Clay
“Ray” gets an “A” for the ACTING that’s ALL rock ‘n roll . . .

John
"Ju-On" earns a "B" for BURYING the BLOOD in a BOLD statement for understatement . . .

Clay
“Outfoxed” gets a “B” because it works BEST for those who already know that Fox is not BALANCED and fair . . .

John
Clay, The blind Ray Charles could tell if a woman were beautiful by holding her wrist. Is your partial deafness YOUR success secret?

Clay
John, I have to move in more closely to hear what they SAY, but you have to move in more closely to hear what they SIGH.

I’m outta here.

See you at the movies, folks, and don’t forget to vote.

MUSIC

Richelle:
The Award Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is produced by Richelle Antczak in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus 106.7 FM in Newark, WYSO, etc.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

Copyright 2004 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe

The Columbus Dispatch Endorses George W. Bush; Wolves Set Loose On John Kerry

RE: The Columbus Dispatch's Endorsement of George W. Bush

To: The Editor

The reasons you gave for endorsing George W. Bush instead of John Kerry reflect an obvious cave-in of the editorial staff to the ownership of this newspaper. Throughout your coverage of the Iraqi war you have been fair, courageous, and on many occasions, way ahead of other papers in this country. You have called George W. Bush to task for waffling on his reasons for going to war. You have also criticized him for taking liberties with our liberties by supporting John Ashcroft's freedom-threatening Patriot Act. You have also called into question his fiscal irresponsibility. Or have I remembered incorrectly?

Supporters of George W. Bush tend to support his decision to go to war. And supporters of George W. Bush tend to be willing to disregard the facts: there were no weapons of mass destruction and there was no connection between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 attack by Al-Queda. A president's disregard for what he knows to be true, particularly when it leads to the deaths of thousands, is reason enough not to re-elect him. President Lyndon Johnson, with all of his faults, at least had the courage to face up to the fact that he had lied to the American people and acted by stepping down from the office. Would that our current president, as well as Tony Blair, possesed that kind of honesty and integrity.

I suspect that your paper's endorsement of President Bush might possibly have caused some members of your editorial staff a bit of pain and discomfort. As a former producer-director of television news, I seem to be able to recall that there are moments when expediency seems to be the better part of valor. My regrets.

Dr. Clayton K. Lowe
Emeritus Associate Professor, College of the Arts Administration,
The Ohio State University

Media Sources & Human Rights: 2004

American Civil Liberties Union
http://www.aclu.org/

Amnesty International
http://www.amnesty.org/

Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org/

International Committee of the Red Cross
http://www.icrc.org/eng

League of Women Voters (Columbus, Ohio)
http://www.lwvcols.org/

Ron Gunzburger's Politics1.com
A comprehensive online guide to American politics
http://www.politics1.com/

http://people-press.org/

http://www.watchblog.com/
http://www.2004dnc.com/zogbypolls.htm
http://www.zogby.com/links/index.cfm
http://www.investors.com/editorial/feature.asp?v=9/13
http://www.armytimes.com/
http://www.prospect.org/web/index.ww
http://www.thenation.com/
http://www.newsday.com/
http://www.motherjones.com/
http://slate.msn.com//
http://www.cbc.ca/audio.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
http://www.globeandmail.ca/
http://www.adn.com/
http://www.pressconnects.com/
http://www.nytimes.com/
http://online.wsj.com/public/us
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/
http://www.csmonitor.com/
http://www.chicagotribune.com/
http://www.suntimes.com/index/
http://www.dispatch.com/
http://www.freep.com/
http://www.cleveland.com/
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
http://www.chillicothegazette.com/
http://www.stltoday.com/
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
http://www.ajc.com/
http://www.athensnewspapers.com/
http://news.mywebpal.com/partners/680/public/index.html?pnpid=680
http://www.savannahnow.com/
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/
http://www.nola.com/
http://www.chron.com/
http://www.sfgate.com/
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/home/
http://www.latimes.com/
http://www.iht.com/frontpage.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/dailymail/home.html?in_page_id=1766
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
http://www.mirror.co.uk/
http://www.independent.co.uk/
http://www.expatica.com/source/site_content_subchannel.asp?subchannel_id=81
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/
http://www.expatica.com/source/site_content_subchannel.asp?subchannel_id=25
http://www.expatica.com/source/site_content_subchannel.asp?subchannel_id=26
http://www.wn.com/
http://allafrica.com/
http://www.asiaobserver.com/
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=2&id=294395
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/thepress/0,,0a6009,00.html
http://english.pravda.ru/
http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/P/FrontPage/FrontPage&cid=1002116796299
http://www.smh.com.au/
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
http://www.reuters.com/
http://www.drudgereport.com/
http://abcnews.go.com/
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/home/main100.shtml
http://www.nbc.com/nbc/NBC_News/
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3032542/
http://www.time.com/time/
http://www.foxnews.com/
http://www.cnn.com/
http://www.npr.org/
http://www.c-span.org/
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?photoid=/cp/news/top/i/osama_pic135.jpg&floc=NW_1-T&oldflok=FF-RTO-PLS&idq=/ff/story/0002/20040604/0935099146.htm
http://names.voa.gov/
http://www.kidon.com/media-link/index.shtml
http://www.newseum.org/
http://thememoryhole.org/
http://www.democrats.org/mna/
http://www.truthuncovered.com/
http://www.lwvcols.org/Home%20Page/VIB.htm

WCBE 90.5 FM (NPR): "I Heart Huckabees," "Team America: World Police"

WCBE #188-FINAL
“It’s Movie Time” with John DeSando and Clay Lowe
“I Heart Huckabees,” “Team America: World Police”
Taped: 4:00 pm, October 20, 2004
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, October 22, 2004
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org.

Script:

John
“I Heart Huckabees” loves existential eccentricities . . .

Clay
“Team America: World Police” blasts its way into young America’s hearts and minds . . .

MUSIC UP AGAIN, THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak
It's Movie Time in Mid-Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . . .

MUSIC UP, THEN UNDER AND SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

DeSando
I'm John DeSando

Clay
And I'm Clay Lowe.

John (“I Heart Huckabees”)
Two films recently take an epistemological tour of reality: “What the Bleep Do We Know” takes the turgid trail trying to explain the shaping thought can do toward destiny; “I Heart Huckabees,” admitting its own “fractured philosophy,” concentrates on the interconnectedness of all people. Both are “New-Age.”

Clay
John, you’ve dated far too many philosophy majors.

John (Continues Unabashedly)
“Huckabees,” which can take a dark but funny turn when a character changes the “H” for an “F,” has Albert (Jason Schwartzman), director of The Open Spaces Coalition, hire “Existential Detectives” Bernard (Dustin Hoffman) and Vivian (Lily Tomlin) to spy on himself for finding out who he is inside and why he has flubbed relationships on the outside.

Archenemy of the detectives is Caterine (Isabelle Huppert), a very French middle-aged radical not above rolling around in the muck to make dirty love with young Albert. The philosophy, however, is more difficult to fondle.

Clay ("I Heart Huckabees”)
John, “I Heart Huckabees” is “The Graduate” post-911. But instead of being seduced by Mrs. Robinson, our young hero DOES find himself mucking it up with Isabelle Huppert’s “Caterine.” Something there is about French women that American men find sensually existential. [And something there is about actress Huppert, who’s never been the same since she played the role of a down and dirty seducer in Michael Haneke’s “The Piano Teacher.”]

But back to “Huckabees,” which tells the story of a giant Wal-Mart-like company that wants to sink the foundation of its new store smack into the middle of Albert’s favorite wetland.

Featuring an ensemble cast of delightfully eccentric characters and a script that’s full of unspeakably foul four letter words, your hearts will go out to the lost souls, who are trying to figure whether life’s connected, and we should all do good, or whether its meaningless, and we should all do as we damn well please.

John (“Team America: World Police”)
The creators of “South Park” have fashioned the best political satire of this political season, “Team America: World Police,” done with puppets, strings and all. The filmmakers satirize hordes of Hollywood liberals such as Alec Baldwin and Susan Sarandon (They all belong to the Film Actor’s Guild, whose acronym is F.A.G.).

Director Trey Parker says, "The subtle joke here is that all actors are puppets.” Jerry Bruckheimer and Roland Emmerich also suffer ridicule for their testosterone epics such as “Armageddon” and “Day After Tomorrow.”

The film breaks into a song, among others, called “Pearl Harbor Sucked” (the film, that is). The James Bond-like villain, the source of the US’s terrorist suffering, is North Korean bad boy Kim Jong. When the gung-ho Team destroys world–class monuments such as The Louvre with misguided missiles, neocons will squirm in their seats.

"Team's" not always funny, but it is one of the "fair and balanced" satires out there today.

Clay (“Team America: World Police”)
“Fair and balanced” John? “Team America: World Police” is as about as fair and balanced as the news on Fox TV. [But who says a movie SHOULD be fair and balanced? Movies can do whatever they want as long the popcorn keeps popping and the cost of the tickets is able to pay for the bills.]

But you’re absolutely right the movie is clever, witty, and as savagely funny as can be. ”Team America” will have all America’s true patriots rolling in the aisles when the Hollywood anti-war puppets get sliced up, diced up, and blasted into bloody-red oblivion.

And all of America’s true patriots will love it when the Team blows up both the Eiffel Tower and The Louvre in order to destroy the terrorists, who mistakenly thought they could find refuge in those cultural bastions of the French.

So there you have it folks, “Team America: World Police,” is THE MOVIE that proves that we’re number one, and will still be number one, even when there’s nobody else left.

But enough of this self-justifying jingoism, John, it’s grading time!

John
Hooray!

HIT DRUMS

John
"I Heart Huckabees" is a "B" for its BAFFLING philosophy . . .

Clay
“I Heart Huckabees” gets an “A” because it knows that “to think or not to think” is the only real question worth posing . . .

John
"Team America: World Police" Earns a "B" for the BEST sex scene this year between 2 puppets who are NOT Bennifer. . .

Clay
“Team America: World Police” gets a “C” because a thug’s a thug no matter the CAUSE that he believes in . . .

John
Clay, "Team America: World Police's: World Police" almost NC-17 lovemaking puppets have found the existential core of romance--all strings attached.

YET, I'm outta here to wrestle those Russian ropes again. Go figure.

Clay
Give you enough rope, John, and you’ll be hung in more ways than one.

I’m outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks!

MUSIC

Richelle:
The Award Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is produced by Richelle Antczak in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus 106.7 FM in Newark, WYSO, etc.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

Copyright 2004 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe

An American in Paris: Theresa Applies For Federal Write-In Ballot

Hi Claysie,

Your appreciation of Woody Allen Friday was seamless (WCBE's "It's Movie Time"). I loved John's quip, "we're still doing that," in response to your description of Farrow's attempts to escape 1930's Depression in America.

I'm anxious as hell waiting to see if Bush is gonna get his can kicked back to Crawford. I just mailed off my absentee ballot and can only hope it will be counted. Since I hadn't received my official absentee ballot from Ohio yet, I had the option to send what's called a Federal Write-in ballot, which Democrats Abroad distributed one evening last week by setting up shop for a couple of hours in a little café called Coffee Parisien in the Saint-Germain-des-Près area (our neighborhood!). I'd never been there, but the place is obviously an American expat/student hangout. Its walls are covered with photos of John F. Kennedy, its espresso machine whirs behind a John Kerry / John Edwards bumper sticker proudly plastered on its front-side, and the menu includes plenty of typical American fare -- including a bottle of Heinz 57 on every table.

What I thought would be a quick and uneventful ballot pick-up became a small but significant moment in my experience as an American expat in Paris. As I pushed my way past the American crowds lined up to get these prized ballots, it was impossible to ignore the national French TV news reporters struggling to film the event in such close quarters, or the BBC Radio journalist braving the din to tape interviews with the Americans in line. Fame, I'm happy to say, eluded me. The reporters seemed to be going for people who waited in groups (which appeared to make up most of the line -- Americans tend to travel in groups); I was there alone. It was probably for the better that I was not distracted by a companion, or by 20 seconds of sound-bite fame, during the two hours that I waited there. Left to my own thoughts and free to fully take in the scene, I was struck by the feeling that I was participating in something much bigger than what I had imagined before entering the café. The classic romantic idea of the American living in Paris in historical times -- it still resonates; it is undeniably relevant today. For that moment, I was shaken out of my usual blasé attitude about living here. For that moment, I sensed the kind of magic and romance that we vicariously discover in the Paris of famous literary Americans -- like the Paris of Hemingway and Stein. Except here I wasn't reading it; I was living it. It was palpable.

Theresa Kuta de Belder,
Le Plessis-Robinson, France

Copyright by Theresa Kuta de Belder

WCBE 90.5 FM (NPR): THE FILMS OF WOODY ALLEN "What's Up Tiger Lilly?," "Purple Rose of Cairo," "Annie Hall," "Sweet and Lowdown"

WCBE #187-FINAL
"It's Movie Time" with John DeSando & Clay Lowe
“What’s Up Tiger Lilly?,” “Purple Rose of Cairo”
“Annie Hall,” “Sweet and Lowdown”
Taped: 4:00 pm, October 6, 2004
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, October 15, 2004
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org.

Script:

Clay
In “Anything Else” Jason Biggs replaced Woody Allen as Woody Allen . . .

DeSando
“What’s Up Tiger Lilly?” was goofy Woody on his way to becoming a savvy auteur . . .

Clay
In “The Purple Rose of Cairo” Woody Allen’s actors came down off the screen . . .

DeSando
In "Annie Hall” Woody talked his way into our hearts . . .

Clay
And in “Sweet and Lowdown” Woody Allen’s script had Sean Penn playing a sweet talking, hard living master of women and the jazz guitar . . .

HIT MUSIC, THEN UNDER FOR

Richelle:
“It’s Movie Time” in mid-Ohio, with John DeSando and Clay Lowe, featuring, today, a fund-raising salute to the films of Woody “Take the Money and Run” Allen . . .

MUSIC UP AND OUT

John
Hi, I’m John DeSando

Clay “Anything Else”
And I’m Clay Lowe.

John, in Woody Allen’s most recent movie “Anything Else,” he passed on his screen identity to Jason Biggs. the “American Pie” guy. Not bad as a stand-in Woody Allen, Biggs gave it a good try but the critics weren’t that kind, because we’ve all come to expect more from a Woody Allen film.

So in today’s fund-raising special for WCBE, we’re going to take a quick look back to see if Woody Allen was ever as good as we imagined him to be.

DeSando (“What’s Up Tiger Lilly?”)
Clay:

In Woody Allen’s “What’s Up, Tiger Lily?” we had Woody directing his first feature about a “Mad-Mad-Mad-World”-like hunt for the world's best egg salad recipe "so good it will make you plotz.”  It’s 1966 and Woody becomes an auteur sooner than could be expected even in Spielberg terms.
 
“What’s Up, Tiger Lily?” is Allen at his goofiest, unabashedly spoofing Japanese thrillers by buying a film and replacing it with straight English dialogue. [Some dialogue is often non-sensical like this: “Don’t tell me what to do, or I’ll have my mustache eat your beard,” and some  just begs for boos like this : "Two Wongs don't make a wight." Even names are silly cute: sisters Suki and Teri Yaki.]
 
The innovative elements are the same that characterize his career—a willingness to stretch the non-sequitor to its limits (“If the audience will only believe in fairies, then there’ll be bullets in my gun”), the absurd setup (the bartender who wants to "marry" his snake and a chicken.), and off-the-wall comments by the narrator on the events.
Not yet has Woody moved his stage to Manhattan angst—it’s not far off.

Clay (“The Purple Rose of Cairo”)
John, Woody sticks close to small-town America in his “The Purple Rose of Cairo,” a film in which nostalgia turns out to be just as good as our memories would have it.

Filmed in the warm, glowing tones of memory-in-full-color, “The Purple Rose of Cairo,” features Mia Farrow as Cecilia, a lonely wife from a small-town in New Jersey who daily goes to the movies to escape from the harsh realities of 1930s’ Depression America. She also goes to the movies to escape from her abusive and out of work husband.

Quite cleverly, the movie playing at the theatre during the week is, you’ve got it, “The Purple Rose of Cairo,” a black and white drawing room romantic comedy that has Cecila, and the audiences, sobbing into their hankies. That is until Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels), the romantic lead, comes down from the screen and starts to romance Ms. Cecilia.

Not since Buster Keaton’s projectionist disappeared into the screen in “Sherlock, Jr.” has a movie been so delightfully filled with cinematic confusion.

DeSando (“Annie Hall”)
Probably the Woodman’s most acclaimed film, “Annie Hall, ” beat out  “Star Wars” in 1977 for the Oscar. Witty and affectionate, the film treats with respect and humor the gain and loss of love (namely ex-girlfriend of Allen, Diane Keaton)  for Alvy Singer, a writer who just has to talk it all out for us.

Dialogue is everything. Witness when Annie and Alvy first meet:

Alvy: You want a lift?

Annie: Oh, why? Uh, you got a car?

Alvy: No, I was going to take a cab.

Annie: Oh, no. I have a car.

Alvy: You have a car? I don't understand. If you have a car, so then why did you say, 'Do you have a car?' like you wanted a lift?

Annie: I don't, I don't, geez, I don't know. I wasn't. ...I got this VW out there. (To herself) 'What a jerk, yeah. Would you like a lift?'

Alvy: Sure. Which way you goin'?

Or enjoy, if you will, the memorable sequence where Annie and Alvy are standing in line for the movies.  Some pseudo behind them rambles on about Fellini. When the loudmouth starts on Marshal McLuhan, Alvy retaliates by producing the real Marshall McLuhan ,  who tells the pompous prig, "You know nothing of my work!"

Well, we were getting to know Woody’s work, and he succeeded to endear himself as a sharp satirist of modern Manhattan angst peppered with his own nerdy hangups about women, marriage, show business and just about anything else a brilliant navel-gazing director encounters.

Clay “Sweet and Lowdown”
John, Woody may be guilty of navel-gazing, but what a gazer old geezer he’s been. Some critics will argue, however, that some of Woody’s best films are those that he’s written, but not starred in.

Case in point, “Sweet and Lowdown,” a wonderful comedy featuring Sean Penn as a jazz guitarist, who just happens to be as quirky a character as Woody has ever created. Penn may have gotten an Oscar for his role in “Mystic River,” but in my book he should have received the nod for his work in “Sweet and Lowdown.” Incidentally, the movie’s lead actress, Samantha Morton, did receive a nomination for playing the charming role of the talkative Penn’s ever-so-patient, but ironically mute, girlfriend.

Filled with sly wrinkles, and wonderful musical riffs, “Sweet and Lowdown” is one of those Woody Allen films that’s made for audiences who like their humor subtle and their movies lean and clean.
John

A reminder, folks, if you love WCBE as much as we do, you can keep the talk and music coming by calling (614) 365-5711 and making your pledge.

I’m outta here.

Clay
I’m outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks.

HIT MUSIC THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle:
"It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is produced by Richelle Antczak WCBE 90.5 FM etc.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

"It's Movie Time" copyright by John DeSando and Clay Lowe

WCBE 90.5 FM (NPR): "The Motorcycle Diaries," "Silver City"

WCBE #186-FINAL
It's Movie Time with John DeSando & Clay Lowe
“The Motorcycle Diaries,” “Silver City”
Taped: 4:00 pm, October 6, 2004
Air Time: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, October 8, 2004
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org.

Script:

Clay
“The Motorcycle Diaries” will have you doing good when you head down the road . . .

John
“Silver City” is "Primary Colors" without Bill Clinton . . .


MUSIC UP AGAIN, THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak
It's Movie Time in Mid-Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . . .

MUSIC UP, THEN UNDER AND SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

DeSando
I'm John DeSando

Clay
And I'm Clay Lowe.

John (“The Motorcycle Diaries”)
Clay:

A cocktail of motorcycle, youth, idealism, and the open road is inevitably spirit altering. But put that “drink” in the hands of 24-year-old Ernesto “Che” Guevara and 30-year-old Alberto Granado and transformation is inevitable. Most notably, in “Motorcycle Diaries,” a new film based on his recollections, the introverted Che gradually sees in the 7500-mile trek from Argentina to Venezuela the injustices suffered by the underprivileged.

This picaresque journey through South America is exhilarating: Sometimes you see the motorcycle tumbling amid the beauty of mountains and desert and other times you linger with hand-held tightness on the changing landscape of Che’s beautiful face. This is, after all, the boy who would be rebel.

No one should be surprised to see Robert Redford’s name as executive producer—there’s another name of someone who cares.

Wordsworth, an inveterate wanderer himself, knew the conjunction of wisdom, humility, and humanism: “Give unto me, made lowly wise/ The spirit of self-sacrifice.”

Clay ("The Motorcycle Diaries”)
Well John, heading down the open road with Jack Kerouac or Walt Whitman would not be a sacrifice for me. But giving up the good life for the sake of standing up to the forces of repression, now that’s one our President might call a “tough one.”

Something there is about the endless highway, though, that challenges us to explore places we’ve never been, and to do things we’ve never done before. And that’s exactly what happened to the two young Don Quixote’s in Che Guevara’s “The Motorcycle Diaries.” A beautifully written film, with actor Gael García Bernal often reciting passages from Guevara’s own narrative journals. [The movie’s poetic script is matched only by it’s equally beautiful cinematography, and the sensitive performances that Walter Salles has elicited from his handsome and talented performers.]

As humorous and romantic as any film you’ve ever seen, the responses of these two young men to the injustice they discover all ‘round them, are as inspiring as any of the moments you’ve ever seen on the screen.

“I hear America singing,” wrote Walt Whitman --- and in “The Motorcycle Diaries” --- America sings on.

John (“Silver City”)
What film depicts corrupt politicians and businessmen controlling a vast local resource and a hapless detective investigating a murder involving those leaders? “Chinatown” is correct; “Silver City” is also correct. However, there is no qualitative similarity: Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown” is a classic; John Sayles’ new “Silver City” is a contemporary curiosity.

The ultra-liberal Sayles writes and directs about a political campaign for the governorship of Colorado that barely disguises its protagonists as George Bush and Karl Rove knockoffs played by Chris Cooper and Richard Dreyfuss respectively.

The comparison to Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 911” is inevitable. The heavy-handedness of “Silver” makes Moore’s work look almost subtle, yet Sayles must be praised for his dissenting voice in parlous times for free speech.

John, Viscount Morley in “Rousseau,” wrote, “Those who would treat politics and morality apart will never understand the one or the other.”

Our filmmakers understand both.

Clay
John, I love ensemble acting and so does filmmaker John Sayles. From “Passion Fish” to “Lone Star” to “Silver City”, his love of his cast has always been his thing. But sorting out the players in “Silver City,” and trying to keep track of its intricate plot, issues a challenge that most of us are either unwilling, or unable to endure.

Chris Cooper does cleverly capture the linguistic permutations of President Bush. And Michael Murphy, as always, is totally believable, as a wheeling and dealing political insider. You’ll also have to love Darryl Hannah, as the candidate’s unwilling sister, who has found in this movie one of her best roles in years. And if you’re simply into another film about human greed and intrigue, then “Silver City” will fill your bill. But if you want to find movies that do it better, then check out Robert Redford’s “The Candidate,” which you’ll find down the street at your favorite video store.

But enough of politics and its menacing mendacities, because it’s grading time.


John
Hooray!

HIT DRUMS

John
“Motorcycle Diaries” earns an “A” because it AIN’T about motorcycles, it’s the people, Stupid . . .

Clay
“Motorcycle Diaries” gets an “A” because AMERICA is more than just the U.S. . . .

John
"Silver City" earns a "B" for not being BAD enough about contemporary politics . . . .

Clay
"Silver City” gets a “B” because it BARELY scratches the surface . . .

HIT CD: “TANIA LIBERTAD COSTA NEGRA (CUT 1: “LA COTORRITA,”) SLOWLY SNEAK UNDER, THEN UP BETWEEN END OF SHOW AND ANNOUNCER

John
On my 6000 mile motorcycle trip to Jasper, I never met the hot chicks Guevera did. Do you think I should have gone with Karl Rove and worn a big Bush buckle?

I’m outta here.

Clay
John, a fun loving ROVER like you doesn’t need a Bush Bashing Buckle to KERRY you through. Ride on, my dear friend . . .

I’m outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks!

MUSIC UP, THEN UNDER

Richelle:
The Award Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is produced by Richelle Antczak in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus 106.7 FM in Newark, WYSO, etc.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

Copyright 2004 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe

Classic Literary Portraits: Becky Sharp ("Vanity Fair," 1847-1848)

Classic Literary Portraits: A Very Clever Woman

"She was quite a different person from the haughty, shy, dis-satisfied little girl whom we have known previously, and this change of temper proved great prudence, a sincere desire of amendment, or at any rate great moral courage on her part. Whether it was the heart which dictated this new system of complaisance and humility adopted by our Rebecca, is to be proved by her after-history. A system of hypocrisy, which lasts through whole years, is one seldom satisfactorily practised by a person of one-and-twenty; however, our readers will recollect that, though young in years, our heroine was old in life and experience, and we have written to no purpose if they have not discovered that she was a very clever woman." William Makepeace Thackery, "Vanity Fair," 1847-48

(Reading concurrently with Beth from MAC's Cafe)

WCBE 90.5 FM (NPR) "Shark Tale," "Shaun of the Dead," "The Photographer"

WCBE #185-FINAL

“It’s Movie Time” with John DeSando & Clay Lowe
“Shark Tale,” “Shaun of the Dead,”“The Photographer”
Taped: 4:00 pm, September 29, 2004
Aired: 3:01 pm and 8:01 pm, October 1, 2004
Streaming live on the web at http://www.wcbe.org.

SCRIPT

Clay
“Shark Tale” is the Grimm Brothers’ “Brave Little Tailor” gone urban . .

John
"Shaun of the Dead" brings zombie flicks back from the dead . . .

Clay
Sebastián Alarcón’s “The Photographer” screens only on Tuesday night at the Wexner . . .

MUSIC UP AGAIN, THEN UNDER FOR:

Richelle Antczak
It's Movie Time in Mid-Ohio with John DeSando and Clay Lowe . . .

MUSIC UP, THEN UNDER AND SLOWLY DOWN AND OUT

DeSando
I'm John DeSando

Clay
And I'm Clay Lowe.

John ("Shark Tale")
Clay:

DreamWorks Animation wasn’t satisfied with the blindingly successful “Shrek”; now it has created the almost as brilliant “Shark Tale.” It’s another anthropomorphic adventure, this time under water with fish voices and faces of movie stars such as Will Smith, Robert De Niro, and Angelina Jolie.

It’s a real UNDERworld world with De Niro as, what else, the don, the Vito Corleone of the sharks, a mafia godfather with a fey son, who doesn’t look like a good candidate to takeover from dad. Anyway, what’s important here are the ingenious adaptations of fish life from human and the allegorical lesson that usually accompanies these colorful animations. While I question whether kids will fully appreciate the parallels, there is enough for the whole family to enjoy.

And with a PG-13 rating there MIGHT be a little sex and violence to keep fathers and older brothers interested.

Clay ("Shark Tale”)
Well, folks, if sex and violence is what you want in a film, best to forget the sharks and wait for Vincent Gallo’s “Brown Bunny.” But if were planning on taking your pre-schoolers to see “Shark Tale,” don’t, because you WOULD be wasting their time and your money.
Not that “Shark Tale” isn’t visually exciting, they would appreciate that. And not that the sound track wouldn’t have them singing and dancing in the aisles (if you’d let them). They might like that too.

But, that’s O.K., leave them home and go see it yourself. You’re bound to find the movie’s dazzling Times Square sequence, set 50 fathoms down, extremely charming and clever. And you’ll find that the movie’s track will have even Republicans in the audience groovin’ on the urban sounds of hip-hop, rap, and Rhythm ‘N Blues.

Dreamworks “Shark Tale” may not be as captivating as “Shrek,” but you’ve gotta love the movie’s sugar-coated attack on slackers, the intolerant, and the unforgiving.

John (“Shaun of the Dead”)
Clay:

British understatement and an audience’s perfect understanding of slackers mix to make zombie spoof “Shaun of the Dead” both funny and appropriate for a society that fosters couch potatoes and underachieving 29 year olds.

Obviously from the title, George Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead” and numerous other zombie flicks are cannibalized as they rise themselves from the dead heap of old “B” movies to amuse audiences, and in this case, scare them to hell, so to speak.

As in “Harold and Kumar,” the humor is low but doesn't force the satire.

The characters are fully “fleshed” enough to make us sympathetic to them, a remarkable feat for movies where actors are usually like the undead themselves.

It’s funny stuff, so see it in a theater before you turn into a potato watching it on your crumby couch.

Clay (“The Photographer”)
John, there are no potatoes, nor crumbs, on my couch but I did curl up there the other night to preview “The Photographer.”

A new Latino release, “The Photographer” will serve as a reminder that the cinematic roots of surrealism go all the way back to the films of Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel. Something there is about those wonderfully iconoclastic, Spanish speaking artists.

The Chilean director of “The Photographer” is no exception. Nor is his leading character, Simón. A bored photojournalist, Simon thinks he has dreamed up a new way of capturing reality on film, and for ninety-some minutes we follow him as he bonds with his buddies and falls in love with every woman in sight.

As rowdy as Henry Miller’s “Rooftops of Paris,” and as cock-eyed as “American Splendor,” if you love to be fooled and confused then you’ll want to be at the Wexner Center this coming Tuesday night.

But enough of reality and the search for truth, John, because it’s grading time!

John
Hooray!

HIT DRUMS

John
"Shark Tale" earns a "B" for being a BIT like Shrek . . .

Clay (“Shark Tale”)
“Shark Tale” gets an “A” for its AUDIENCE APPEAL to ADULTS, but a “C” for its marginal appeal to CHILDREN. . .

John “Shaun of the Dead”
“Shaun of the Dead” earns an "A" for ATTACKING slackers and ABETTING zombies . . .

Clay “The Photographer”)
“The Photographer” gets a “B” because it’s in the BEST of surrealistic traditions . . .

THEME FROM “THE TWILIGHT ZONE”

John
Clay: Is that sinister figure darkly floating around Studio B our general manager? Or could it be Bill Moss from the School Board graveyard?

Zombie zounds, I'm outta here!!!

I’m outta here.

Clay
Nope, it’s just Dan “Science, Science” Mashulko with a five o’ clock shadow. No rolling stones gather moss on his show.

I’m outta here too.

See you at the movies, folks!

HIT CLOSING MUSIC

Richelle:
The Award Winning "It's Movie Time" with John DeSando and Clay Lowe is produced by Richelle Antczak in conjunction with 90.5 FM, WCBE in Columbus 106.7 FM in Newark, WYSO, etc.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

Copyright 2004 by John DeSando & Clay Lowe