Reviews

I looked forward to this new Shogun series as soon as it was announced having relished the original series with Richard Chamberlain. This series is much better than the original. The in-depth focus on the Japanese characters elevates the dramatic quality of the show. All the actors were superb except for Cosmo Jarvis who was stiff and had limited emotional depth as the Englishman who steers his ship to Japan and is unprepared for the reception. Anna Sawai is particularly good as the interpreter who falls for the Englishman. She shows the depth of her acting ability in the last two episodes. The story line focuses on how Lord Toranaga uses wile and strategy to avoid war in his quest to become the leader of Japan. Jarvis as the Anjin plays a useful role to help viewers learn about the culture. Shogun should win many awards this year. Well done.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this film given the mediocre ratings. The lead characters playing Bob and Rita Marley were very believable and they demonstrated an evolution of the couples' relationship. The film also provided insight into Bob Marley's spiritual beliefs and how they guided his approach to writing songs and performing. By no means does the film suggest his One Love concert brought an end to the violence in Jamaica. It does however present the context of Bob's circumstances leading up to the concert including rejection by his white father, introduction to the Rasta spiritual beliefs, his respite in London after an attempt on his life, and his relationship with Rita. The editors do a good job of seamlessly weaving these things into the film.

My kids were 5 and 10 when We Are the World was released. They couldn't get enough of it probably because Michael Jackson was a big part of it and they knew the money was going to feed kids in Africa. This behind the scenes account of how Harry Belafonte inspired Lionel Richie, Michael Jackson, and Quincy Jones to make it happen is beautiful and funny with some very personal commentary by many of the dozens of artists who did the marathon recording. Their effort seems like something that would never happen today even though we surely could use the love and selflessness they embodied the night they gathered in one studio to record the song. The reflections by Richie, Bruce Springsteen, Smokey Robinson , Cindy Lauper and others make this a special film. It's a little long but worth sticking with it.

I don't rate any movies a 10 but have to give Ava Duvernay's film Origin the highest possible rating. Her film is a powerful presentation of Isabelle Wilkerson's book Caste on the origin of systems that divide people into different levels of worthiness for the purpose of creating or maintaining power of one group over the other. Duvernay does a beautiful job of exploring the caste system in 3 historical and current day contexts. But she also weaves Wilkerson's approach to researching the book during some personal challenges in her own life. I cried at the end for Wilkerson's losses and for how far we have to go to as a society to overcome the long lasting consequences of the caste systems on our humanity.

I am a huge original Law & Order fan. I often watch repeats from the first 20 years. The new season suffers from unconvincing acting (perhaps except for Anthony Anderson), forced story lines, and poor scripts. I hope they will abandon the scripts based on the current big name headlines.