Jim Radford is a British folksinger and peace activist. At the age of 15, he was also the youngest participant of the Allied Invasion of Normandy, which occurred 74 years ago today.
This video, from 2014, features Radford singing about his D-Day experiences at the Royal Albert Hall.
I’ll be the first to admit it : I’m way less familiar with the current state of affairs vis a vis all-ages comics than a person in my (self-appointed, but still) position probably should be. It’s not that I have anything against all-ages books, quite the contrary : I think there needs to be a whole heck of a lot more good stuff out there that appeals to the so-called “youth market” if we want kids to fall in love with the comics medium. If there’s no future for kids’ comics, there’s no future for comics, period, since very few people get interested in these funnybooks we love in their 20s and 30s. Comics started life aimed at a children’s audience, and even if they’ve purportedly “grown up” (notice I don’t say that they’ve actually matured), there always needs to be a healthy crop of material out there…
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What’s an Insomnia File? You know how some times you just can’t get any sleep and, at about three in the morning, you’ll find yourself watching whatever you can find on cable? This feature is all about those insomnia-inspired discoveries!
Last night, if you happened to be awake at 2:30 in the morning, you could have turned over to Starz and watched the 1997 film, Donnie Brasco.
Benjamin “Lefty” Ruggiero (Al Pacino) has spent his entire life as a loyal Mafia soldier. It’s the only life that he knows and he can tell you some stories. He remembers the early days, back when men like Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, and Meyer Lansky were in charge of things. Lefty is proud to say that, over the years, he’s successfully carried out over 20 hits. Lefty is lucky enough to be an associate of an up-and-comer nicknamed Sonny Black (Michael Madsen). While Sonny was in prison, Lefty kept an eye on Sonny’s family. Lefty feels that Sonny owes him. Whether Sonny feels the same way isn’t always quite clear.
Lefty’s problem is that everyone loves him but few people respect him. The aging Lefty is viewed as being a relic and, at most, they merely tolerate his constant bragging. Lefty may fantasize about the big bosses knowing who he is but, when he tries to greet one of them at a party, it becomes clear that he doesn’t have the slightest idea who Lefty is. Lefty spends his time worrying that he’s dying and dreaming of one last opportunity to make a name for himself.
In fact, perhaps the only really good thing that Lefty has going for him is his friendship with Donnie Brasco (Johnny Depp). Donnie is a jewel thief, a tough and volatile orphan who Lefty introduces to Sonny. Sonny is immediately impressed with Donnie. In fact, Sonny thinks so highly of Donnie that he assigns Donnie to look over his operations in Florida. Lefty can only watch as his protegé’s star starts to eclipse his own. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. As Lefty explains it, Donnie’s success is also Lefty’s success because Lefty is the one who brought Donnie into the crew. Of course, if Donnie ever fails, the failure will be on Lefty as well.
As for Donnie … well, his name isn’t actually Donnie. His real name is Joe Pistone and he’s a FBI agent. When he first agreed to work undercover, he was told that the assignment would only last for a few months. Instead, the months turn into years and, piece by piece, Joe vanishes as he transforms into Donnie. The formerly soft-spoken college graduate is soon beating up waiters and chopping up bodies in basements. His wife (Anne Heche) fears that her husband may no longer exist. “I am not becoming like them,” Joe/Donnie says at one point, “I am them.”
Donnie Brasco is hardly the first film to examine life in the Mafia. It’s not even the first movie about an undercover FBI agent who manages to worm his way into the mob’s hierarchy. What sets Donnie Brasco apart are the performances of Pacino, Depp, Heche, Madsen, and, as a talkative mob associate, Bruno Kirby. As played by Pacino, Lefty may be a hardened killer but he’s also just a working class guy who wishes that his boss would just show him a little appreciation. Lefty may be capable of casually shooting a guy in the back of the head but, at the same time, there’s something heartbreakingly sad about the sight of him tearing up a greeting card that he hoped to personally deliver to the big boss. As for Johnny Depp, he gives a surprisingly restrained performance, rarely raising his voice except when he’s yelling at his family. Donnie may appear outwardly calm but the stress of losing his identity is always present in his eyes.
Interestingly, for a mob movie, there’s little violence to be found in Donnie Brasco. It’s not until 90 minutes in that we get the expected scene of rival mobsters getting ambushed and gunned down. Donnie Brasco isn’t about violence. Instead, the film’s heart is to be found in the story of Lefty and Donnie’s odd friendship. Instead of being about who is going to kill who, this film is about Lefty’s desire to be something more than he is and Joe’s struggle to remember who he used to be before he became Donnie. It’s a touching and effective gangster film and one to keep an eye out for.
Previous Insomnia Files:
“Wild Bill” Wellman gave us some of the wildest movies of the Pre-Code Era: THE PUBLIC ENEMY, NIGHT NURSE, FRISCO JENNY, HEROES FOR SALE, WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD. But for sheer, unadulterated sleaze, you can’t beat SAFE IN HELL, chock full of lust, murder, shady characters, and a marvelous performance by the virtually forgotten Dorothy Mackaill.
Scantily clad Gilda Karlson (Mackaill) is a New Orleans prostitute, and there’s no doubt about it right from the get-go! We see her lounging around as she takes a call from her madam (Cecil Cunningham) to go out on a job and show a john a good time. That john turns out to be Piet van Saal (Ralf Harolde), the man she was caught in flagrante delicto with by his wife, leading to her current sordid life. Piet tries to rekindle that old flame (for a price, of course), but Gilda turns him…
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by Paul Rader
So, I have to admit that today’s music video of the day is a bit of a last minute pick for me. I got so busy reviewing trailers and watching cute cats on YouTube that I nearly forgot to pick a video!
And why did I pick this video?
Two words: Eric Roberts.
The video itself is okay. The same can be said for the song. (By now, you should be able to guess that my musical taste pretty much runs the gamut from EDM to more EDM.) But, that said, the main reason I picked this video is because it features the reliably eccentric presence of Eric Roberts.
I guess the idea behind this video is that, if your boyfriend’s being a dick, you can call Eric Roberts and he’ll make the guy’s life difficult. That sounds good to me and I’m sure if anyone could make that into a profitable business model, it would be Eric Roberts. That said, judging from this video, it doesn’t look like he really got the job done here.
I don’t know. It’s a confusing video, to be honest. That’s okay, though. Confusion is a good reminder that there are still mysteries left to be explored.
Enjoy!
Seriously, everyone, I’m trying to keep an open mind here.
On the one hand, I really, really, really hate it when classics are remade. And make no mistake about it, Dario Argento’s Suspiria is a classic. It’s one of the best films ever made and anyone who disagrees with me on that is more than welcome to walk their dog through a plaza in Freiburg. I have a fear that, much as happened when David Fincher and Daniel Craig ruined The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, the remake is going to cause people to overlook the original.
And yet, from what I’m hearing from people whose opinions I usually respect, the Suspiria remake my actually be not only effective but also respectful to Argento’s original. Whatever optimism I may have largely comes from the fact that the film is being directed not by an American hack but instead by another Italian, Luca Guadagnino. And the teaser, which you can watch below, is undeniably effective.
So, we’ll see what happens! Out of respect for Guadagnino, I’m forcing myself to keep an open mind. I’m also hoping that the same people who are excited for this version will also take the time to watch Argento’s original as well!
Widows is one of those films that I’ve been looking forward to seeing since I first read about it. Based on a BBC miniseries and featuring an amazingly talented cast, Widows is also director Steve McQueen’s first film since the Oscar-winning 12 Years A Slave.
The film deals with four women whose husbands are all killed during a failed heist. The widows, under the leadership of Viola Davis, join together to pull off the heist themselves. That may not sound like a typical Oscar movie but Widows has got tremendous buzz. Plus, you’ve got a cast that’s full of past Oscar nominees and winners (Viola Davis, Robert Duvall, Daniel Kaluuya, Jacki Weaver, Liam Neeson) and actors who seem to be destined to be nominated some day (Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez, Andre Holland, Carrie Coon, Garrett Dillahunt). All in all, there’s a lot of reasons to get excited for this one!
Here’s the trailer:
Here’s the trailer for White Boy Rick!
Now, White Boy Rick is based on a true story that’s actually pretty interesting. At the age of 14, Richard Wershe, Jr. was the youngest criminal to ever become an informant for the FBI. Of course, once the FBI got what they wanted from him, Wershe was left on his own and, when he was 17, he was arrested for selling cocaine and sentenced to life in prison. Wershe, who was finally paroled in 2017, claims that the harsh sentence was politically motivated and that he basically learned how to become a successful drug dealer through his work for the government.
It’s a great story and, with more and more people questioning both drug prohibition and national law enforcement, a timely one. The film’s got a good cast, with Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Bel Powley, Rory Cochrane, Piper Laurie, and Bruce Dern all in supporting roles. The director, Yann Demange, previously directed the great ’71 and is definitely an up-and-coming filmmaker. Rick is played by a Richie Merritt, who will be making his film debut in the leading role.
As for the trailer itself, it’s effective. I had a hard time understanding some of the dialogue and it’s hard to really judge Merritt’s performance based on what’s present here. But I like the look of the trailer and the music is damn near perfect.
Some are saying this movie might be an Oscar contender. We’ll have to see!
When the trailer for Ralph Breaks The Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 first began, I have to admit that I panicked a little bit.
See, I really enjoyed the first Wreck-It Ralph, even though I’m not totally convinced that it’s a film that really needed a sequel. However, whether needed or not, a sequel to any successful animated film is pretty much a given so my main hope was that the sequel would at least not damage the legacy of the original.
And then this trailer started.
And there’s Wreck-It Ralph entering the internet and we get some quick, cutesy product placement for Twitter and Snapchat and I was just like, “OH MY GOD! EMOJI MOVIE! NOOOOOOO!”
Am I alone in that reaction? I bet not.
But, I stuck with the trailer and actually, it looks like this movie might be a little bit more self-aware than the Emoji Movie. I mean, it basically looks like it’s going to be a commercial for Disney but maybe it’ll actually have a sense of humor about its reason for existing. The scene with all of the princesses would seem to suggest that might be the case.
Plus, Iron Man’s in it and y’all know how much I love iron men…
I’ll give it a shot!
Through the Shattered Lens 