Some Very Real Exploitation Is Chronicled

THE CampChuck REVIEWER t.ne some very real exploitation is chronicled. A nonprofit subsidiary of CampChuck Forty Second ANNUAL EDITION http://www.startlets.com April 18, 2021 Charles N. Jaffee Editor, critic, layout, distribution, and general factotum ... Meryl Streep Pulls All Money from Fossil-Fuel Supporting Banks page 9 The 93rd ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS NOMINATIONS Oscar Night: Sunday, April 25 Best Picture Best Director Manufactured Mailbag 2 Another Round best director only Thomas Vinterberg Pandemic & Climate Change 3 Father, The Best Picture, Best Director 5,6 Judas and the Black Messiah Best Actress, Best Actor 7,8 Mank David Fincher Wild&Scenic Festival Winners 7 Minari Lee Isaac Chung Covid Also Tweaks the Film World Nomadland Chloe Zhao Promising Young Woman Emerald Fennell Covid messed with film production, with film distri- The Trial of the Chicago 7 bution. It closed movie theaters. It triggered alternative Sound of Metal viewing on television and computer streaming services. Covid pushed back the night of the Oscars to April 25. Best Actor Riz Ahmed Sound of Metal My film viewing started before the delayed March 15 Chadwick Boseman Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Oscar nominations. Some viewing opportunities cost Anthony Hopkins The Father $20 to see at home. OK, two people would pay that if Gary Oldman Mank theaters were open. Some movies came with streaming I Steven Yeun Minari already had, but it took extra payouts to use multiple streaming services where releases were channeled. Best Actress Viola Davis Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Whatever, I managed to see all the films with major Andra Day The United States vs. Billie Holiday nominations before nominations were announced. The Vanessa Kirby Pieces of a Woman one exception, “The Father,” I saw in a theater, well Frances McDormand Nomadland distanced from the other 8 people present. Carey Mulligan Promising Young Woman I paddled the streaming to see films with Screen Actors Best Supporting Actor Guild (SAG) and Directors Guild nominations – Sacha Baron Cohen The Trial of the Chicago 7 harbingers for Oscar nominations. Golden Globes (less Daniel Kaluuya Judas and the Black Messiah of a barometer) also happened before Oscar noms. Leslie Odom, Jr. One Night in Miami Paul Raci Sound of Metal My favorite film that showed up somewhere on the Lakeith Stanfield Judas and the Black Messiah various awards landscapes was “Music.” It creatively mixes color, texture, and music with substantive Best Supporting Actress grounding about two sisters: one handicapped; the other. Maria Bakalova Borat Subsequent Moviefilm hardly normal. It’s a weird one to recommend but I do. Olivia Colman The Father Glenn Close Hillbilly Elegy Also, weird to recommend, I recommend “I Care a Lot.” Amanda Seyfried Mank Rosamund Pike plays a Golden Globe winning bad Yuh-Jung Youn Minari person and she’s not even the baddest character in the film. (continued, page 8) (Underlined nominees equal CampChuck predictions) Best Supporting Actor Manufactured Mailbag Dear Editor, Sacha Baron Cohen provides a Dear Editor, compelling building block in the Your beloved Meryl Streep is dynamic ensemble cast of “The I guess it’s old news, but it isn’t. getting pretty old. I was Trial of the Chicago 7.” It, Where you at with your cancer? wondering who’s your next in however, isn’t a salient enough Wen Wellbean, Wishward, WA line. role to win him an Oscar. What is Shaila Meshur, Crab Beach, MD most remarkable about his Dear Wen, performance is how completely Dear Shaila, different he is from his title role Doctors projected that my cancer in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.” could return and return it did, Hmm. I don’t see that Meryl’s nearly two years after the original age matters. Indulging your More distinguished as an Oscar diagnosis. The sesame seed and question, Cate Blanchett, at 52, caliber Supporting role, but also peanut-sized recurrences were so seems a special mix of excellence, with no chance of winning is Paul not like the orange-sized first go range, plus a distinctive brand of Raci in “Sound of Metal.” It’s his round. I was actually released beauty. Like Streep, Blanchett backstory that fuels a nomination from the hospital the morning also carries her film choices, for playing a teacher/counselor in after surgery. Follow up MRIs are persona, and aging well. When a school for the deaf. Besides clean-ish, which is to say in order you ask Google “Who is the next both his parents being deaf and to avoid radiation right next to my Meryl Streep,” its top choice is being fluent in sign language, eyes, frequent MRI monitoring Blanchett. With 7 Oscar nom- Raci’s long, not-famous acting keeps close tabs on anything inations and 2 wins, that tracks career includes involvement with suspicious. I’ve felt fine. I feel pretty well with Meryl’s 10 noms theater for and about the deaf. He fine. I still have one blurry eye to and 2 wins at the same age. anchors lead actor Riz Ahmed help me see how fortunate my No one really cuts it all as well as very well. state of health is. Meryl. You might mention Kate Ed. Winslet or relative new veterans Leslie Odom, Jr., though he’s Dear Editor, like Jennifer Lawrence or Scarlett done lots of TV, really put Man, don’t put a mask on my Johansson. No, it doesn’t ring himself on the map playing Aaron freedom. Don’t keep me from close. Maybe Saoirse Ronan has Burr on Broadway, reprised in the tripping close with people. Forget an up and comer chance. Perhaps film, “Hamilton.” Playing a singer you, putting a needle in my arm. the most striking candidate is (rather than a man from a history Viola Davis who not incidentally book singing in a musical), Odom A friend, Los Angeles aces Meryl in a scene in the may be the most engaging movie “Doubt.” character in “One Night in Dear Citizen, Ed. Miami.” His depiction of singer, You’re telling me this why? Dear Editor, songwriter, and activist Sam Cooke balances the based-on-a- Hey, besides all the people that Don’t you miss going to movie true-story meeting of Malcom X, die – hundreds of thousands -- theaters. I do. Muhammed Ali (then Cassius from behaviors that help Covid Stephanie Lively, Phoenix, AZ Clay), Jimmy Brown (a football spread, did you know that way Dear Stephanie, all-star), and Cooke. bigger numbers of people have (continued on page 4) long lingering health problems I do, too. We drove 45 minutes to Find The CampChuck Reviewer at after suffering Covid? Dude, look enjoy a big screen, dark audito- http://www.startlets.com. for reasons to care. Don’t look for rium feel. Though it was a small Email: [email protected] (that’s reasons not to care. Hey, just get and close up kind of film, it helps three “t’s” in startlets). the story straight. deliver that cinematic spirit. Ed. Ed. 2 There’s the Pandemic, and There’s Climate Change Of course, the two-month pandemic-related delay of the Oscars is small potatoes. However, f rom movie making to movie theaters to celebrity grist, the economic and cultural disruption is indicative of the effect on the economy and culture from segment to Has interconnected segment. the pandemic inconvenienced Consider a pandemic-related lesson that you may not have fit into your inconvenienced you? brain. Consider something harsher than well over a half million U.S. people dead or three million people worldwide dead, while home and work lives are buffeted left, right, and Does center. Consider Climate Change. a half million people Compared with Climate Change, this pandemic we are going through, and that we are still dead going through, is small potatoes. in the United States (and still counting) Has wearing a mask been too much a nuisance? Has wearing a mask been an affront to make you cringe? your freedom? Has your consumption and social context been eroded? Has your livelihood or wellbeing been undermined? Compared with Climate Change, this pandemic Does – which could have been worse and which is still ongoing – is small potatoes. three million people dead Already begun and far worse coming, Climate Change will deliver wildfires, droughts, worldwide rising waters, heat, cold … that’s just a weather report … Climate Change will bring (and still counting) economic and cultural disruption of Black Plague proportions … certainly more than our stir your global head? little old Covid-19 blip. Our response to and responsibility for the current pandemic might be graded “OK, good enough.” However, as a lesson for facing Climate Change, we How need to upgrade our disaster-averting behavior big time. comparatively does Meanwhile, CampChuck continues as it has since 1992, matching every subscription the reality dollar for dollar. All subscriptions – over $40,000 plus CampChuck’s 100% match of of Climate Change $40,000 -- have funneled through CampChuck to RMI and Food Banks. Whether you tilt your kilter? subscribe at the official $5 level or the average participation of $30, think sustainable economic practice and the golden rule. And think access to CampChuck’s newsletters. Please, send “subscription” donations to CampChuck at 16669 Patricia Way, Grass Valley, CA 95949 make checks payable to… Note: Rocky Mountain Institute Different than all the other years that CampChuck has been encouraging This nonprofit helps individuals subscription/donations, I’m only listing Rocky Mountain Institute as a and communities and place to show your support. businesses and governments to Yes, I will still honor checks made payable to the “Food Bank of Nevada make money, yes, make money, County.” The pressing need shouts to lend a helping hand to the hungry – by being smart about the to the “food insecure” (how’s that for modern terminology).

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