Watched December 1, 2020 - PBS NewsHour full episode from PBS NewsHour
Tuesday on the NewsHour, a look at what President-elect Joe Biden and his team say about their plan to revive the economy, a CDC committee recommends who should receive the earliest doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and why the pandemic is forcing millennials to move in with their parents.
Watched Ella (2016) from Amazon Prime
Directed by Douglas Watkin. With Stephen Page, David McAllister, Ella Havelka, Suzanne Duffy. In October 2012, Ella Havelka became the first Indigenous dancer to be invited into The Australian Ballet in its 50 year history. It was an announcement that made news headlines nationwide. A descendant of the Wiradjuri people, we follow Ella's inspirational journey from the regional town of Dubbo and onto the world stage of The Australian Ballet. Featuring intimate interviews, dynamic dance sequences, and a stunning array of archival material, this moving documentary follows Ella as she explores her cultural identity and gives us a rare glimpse into life as an elite ballet dancer within the largest company in the southern hemisphere.
Started watching for the ballet, stayed with hope for mnemotechny. I was generally disappointed on the second count.

Either Ms. Havelka didn’t want to personally, didn’t have permission to speak of it via elders, or she didn’t know about some of the deeper uses of dance within her culture. It just wasn’t covered here at all. I’ve been fascinated by Lynne Kelly’s research programme and in particular I’m reading my way through her most recent text Songlines with Margo Neale about the uses of song, dance, and arts within indigenous cultures in Australia. I’m curious how much time she spent in country to learn what she did. Was it just a few weeks for some exposure, or was there a deeper learning experience? Is she passing that experience along to her students? Was some of it filmed, but lost in editing?

Presuming they’re not already acquainted, I suspect that Ella Havelka, Lynne Kelly, and Margo Neale might enjoy meeting and discussing dance, culture, arts, and teaching.

Ella Havelka did speak about the significance of her feather tattoo within her culture, so there was at least some representation of associative memory here. The comment was simply a passing one (and sadly focused on covering it up with makeup to hide it for ballet). The discussion of the feather just didn’t connect with the greater body of knowledge I’m sure is hiding just behind it.

I was a bit proud that my 9 year old ballet enthusiast wasn’t able to discern what made Ella different despite that being a large part of the story arc. Still she enjoyed the dancing and journey anyway.

Note: This film was renamed Ballerina for airing via Amazon Prime.

Rating: ★★★½

Watched Judy (2019) from Amazon Prime
Directed by Rupert Goold. With Renée Zellweger, Jessie Buckley, Finn Wittrock, Rufus Sewell. Legendary performer Judy Garland arrives in London in the winter of 1968 to perform a series of sold-out concerts.

Rating: ★★★
What a lovely ending for such a tragedy…
Watched Marshall (2017) from IMDb TV
Directed by Reginald Hudlin. With Chadwick Boseman, Josh Gad, Kate Hudson, Sterling K. Brown. The story of Thurgood Marshall, the crusading lawyer who would become the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, as he battles through one of his career-defining cases.

Rating: ★★★★
 
I seem to recall having heard a large chunk of this plotline as a podcast a while back? In any case, this was a wonderfully rich telling with great directing, writing, and acting all around.
Watched The Booksellers (2019) from Amazon Prime
Directed by D.W. Young. With Parker Posey, Fran Lebowitz, Gay Talese, Susan Benne. A behind-the-scenes look at the New York rare book world.

Rating: ★★★½
My sort of catnip. How do they not ask about whether or not these sellers use the internet that is killing them?
Watched A Husband for Christmas (2016) from Hallmark Movies
Directed by David DeCoteau. With Vivica A. Fox, Ricco Ross, Eric Roberts, Dominique Swain. Two co-workers agree to a loveless marriage of convenience, but as they become acquainted, an unrealized chemistry grows between them.

Rating: ★★★
 
This redeems some of my faith in Hallmark holiday movies…
I’m not sure the macguffin for this plot works as well in a post-me too world where the lead character would be suing the company for sexual harassments of the worst kind. 
 
I didn’t even recognize Dominique Swain in this at all.
Watched A Royal Christmas Ball (2017) from Hallmark Movies
Directed by David DeCoteau. With Tara Reid, Ingo Rademacher, Mira Furlan, Haley Pullos. Dateless for the Christmas ball, 39-year-old bachelor, King Charles of Baltania, tracks down his American college sweetheart, only to discover Allison has never been married, yet raised a 17-year-old daughter, Lily, who mathematically might be Charles’ biological princess.

Rating: ½ 

 I didn’t think there could be a worse Hallmark Christmas movie than the one saw yesterday. This was an order of magnitude worse.

It did have an interesting Christmas tradition of creating a custom ornament each year to commemorate the year much like the Lakota winter counts. I’ve seen references to these types of decorations before, but it’s rare to see them represented as a recurring thing.

Baltania, what a great name for a generic non-existent European country.  

The animated gilded book page turning and sparkles with voice overs were appallingly bad. I think that almost every bit of footage they shot for the film got used twice. The production value was atrocious. The casting was painfully drunk. The green screen work was pure misery and I’m fairly certain a 9 year old could do a better job using Zoom right now.