THE PENN STATE, SYRACUSE, AND ENSUING SEX SCANDALS

Published on December 6, 2011 in Current Events, Religion, Sports

Here in the Washington, DC metro area, there are plenty of Penn Staters.  Some of these alums are rabid enough football fans to tackle the 400 mile round trip necessary to attend all the home games.

Needless to say, they are in shock, and many refuse to speak about the matter at all.

While there has been no shortage of media coverage, one topic is strangely absent from any story I have read or watched.  Maybe it’s because the topic is indelicate, although today’s media can hardly be accused of having much restraint.  Perhaps it’s because the topic cuts way too deep.

What I’m referring to is the undercurrent of homoeroticism that exists in all competitive sports.  There is, after all, a fine line between the promotion and admiration of physical perfection, and the tendency to take it a step further.  Likewise, there is a fine line between so-called “horseplay”—the same word has always been used as a cover, going back at least to Bill Tilden—and intentional sexual harassment.

Moreover, for a predator such as Joe Sandusky, few environments can match an athletic locker room.

Inevitably, these scandals will be compared to the pedophilia occurring in the Catholic Church, but I will offer one difference—slight though it may be.  There were a number of priests, including Fr. Leonard Feeney, who spoke out against the rising number of gay priests, and the acceptance of a gay subculture within the priesthood.  These clerics also noted with dismay the overly close relationship between certain priests and their charges.  Sadly, many of those who did speak out were persecuted, and even worse, were ignored.

The records show that the majority of the so-called “pedophilia” cases that occurred within the Church actually involved adolescents, some of whom appeared to be in consensual relationships.  Yet, based on the promise of easy money and the built-in animosity that society has always had for the Church, the lawsuits and media coverage proliferated.

No, I am not justifying any of this sordid behavior, but the word “pedophilia” conjures up the image of a small, defenseless child being molested, which provokes even more outrage.

Contrast this with the fact that no one within Penn State or Syracuse spoke out on these matters until the story had already broken.

If athletics are to be held in greater esteem than religion in this society, more’s the pity that the overwhelming interest is in being a spectator, rather than as participant.

 

DREAM HOUSE

Published on October 5, 2011 in Movies

Dream HousePanned by most of the critics, this movie is a riff on the typical “Honey, we’ve bought a haunted house” scenario. Apparently, the studios took over production, much to the chagrin of helmer Jim Sheridan and the stars. Then again, perhaps it should have been pulled from the director.

As the pic opens, NYC publisher Will Atenton (Daniel Craig) is going through the process of voluntarily leaving his job, to spend more time with his family at his recently-purchased rural home (Ontario, Canada filling in for Connecticut), and finally finish his novel. His wife Libby (Rachel Weisz) and young daughters are happy to see him, and look forward to having him around the house.

However, this domestic bliss is short-lived, as the girls see a prowler in their yard, and Will discovers goth teenagers performing a ritual in their basement. The goth kids are surprised to hear that Will knows nothing about the brutal murders, which occurred at the house five years earlier.

Will probes for more information and finds out that a mother and her two daughters were killed, with suspicion falling on the father—but there was insufficient evidence to charge him. What’s more, this father—Peter Ward—has just been released from a mental institution, and is said to be back in town.

Making matters worse, Chloe (Rachel Fox)—a girl from across the street—tells Will’s girls that “Everybody who lives in this house gets killed.” Will complains to Chloe’s mother Ann (Naomi Watts), who is not particularly friendly to him.

She has her own problems, with a bitter custody dispute on her hands, but later warms up to Will. Meanwhile, as Will makes further inquiries, he begins to realize that all is not quite as it seems.

 

***SPOILERS AND OTHER COMMENTS***

Ironically, a big spoiler is provided in the film’s trailer, whereby it is revealed that there is no Will Atenton.  “Will” is actually Peter Ward drifting into an imaginary identity he developed to ease the pain of the loss of his family.

Peter was put away, not so much as a killer, but as a complete wreck—reacting to his loss. In occasional lucid moments, he sees that the dream house is abandoned and vandalized, but also sees the ghosts of his family.

It would appear that the original story got changed, explaining the murder of Peter’s family as a paid hit gone terribly wrong. Since this is the real plot twist, maybe the studio figured that it had to give away the “Will is Peter” bit in the trailer. I guess too many twists are difficult to follow.

I’m not sure about the auds, but the critics have a great deal of trouble following the storyline of many films. If you don’t believe me, try watching a movie with a complicated plot, and then read some online reviews—even by the so-called elite critics.

Many reviews ask how a “talented” director like Sheridan could have come up with what they call such a mess, and then blame the studios for ruining everything. The fact is that Sheridan is greatly overrated. Check out my review of his awful In America (2002).

A better story would have come up with a more sensible reason for the homicides, possibly having Peter really commit them, and being able to completely fool the public. Otherwise, the pic has its moments, and certainly does not deserve all the negative press.

 

CONTAGION

Published on September 15, 2011 in Movies

Not for a single moment does this pic live up to its marketing hype as a medical thriller. At best, it plays like a fancy documentary with some name talent onboard. At worst, it comes off like a vanity project with a script so weak you wonder how it got financed.  Maybe teenage boys really do want to see Gwyneth Paltrow die a horrible death.

Patient Zero of the movie’s pandemic is Beth Emhoff (Paltrow), who contracts the super-virus in Hong Kong. Beth is headed back to Minnesota by way of Chicago. This gives her plenty of time for a little offscreen mufky-fufky with an old flame—thus cheating on her husband Mitch (Matt Damon).

Perhaps this character flaw was further developed in the original script, but it is truly pointless here, as she quickly dies once she gets home. Not long after, her young son succumbs to the virus, leaving daddy and daughter Jory (Anna Jacoby-Heron).

Pretty soon, people are dropping like flies, even if it is apparent that certain of them, including Mitch, have immunity. At this point, the rest of our stars get into the act.

Kate Winslet plays an investigator, working for CDC honcho Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne), and Elliott Gould does a nice job as academic virus guru Dr. Ian Sussman. What little dramatic tension that does exist is largely brought by conspiracy theory blogger Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law).

The narrative grinds down to a predictable conclusion, and most auds will fell cheated.

 

***SPOILERS AND OTHER COMMENTS***

Besides the adultery in Beth’s character, which comes to nothing, there are also little blips regarding Dr. Cheever and Krumwiede, and they’re not fleshed out either. The panic caused by lack of vaccine is only briefly hinted at, and that’s surprising, since it would have actually provided some dramatic tension.

A good deal of screen time is devoted to the misadventures of a WHO researcher played by Marion Cotillard, that (surprise, surprise) also comes to nothing.

Finally, the epilog involving Mitch’s teenage daughter going to the prom might “personalize” the story, but you’d think there would be much more to say in the wake of a pandemic that has cost tens of millions of lives worldwide.

 

THE BIG BANG

Published on July 30, 2011 in Movies

The Big BangRegular readers of this column know that I am no big fan of movie critics. It is quite clear that the vast majority of them don’t work terribly hard at their “craft,” and tend to have prefabricated, fixed opinions on most aspects of cinema. To show their supposed sophistication, they know just which names to drop and which obscure films to cite in in their reviews.

Perhaps most maddeningly, they often don’t understand the events unfolding on the screens before them, and get major plot details wrong. If this is a genuine occupational hazard of seeing hundreds of movies per year, then they owe it to us to work to avoid it. After all, they ARE professionals, right? Would we excuse a sports writer such flaws?

I offer the above as a prelude to my review of The Big Bang, a film almost universally panned by the critics, and misunderstood by them to the same degree. The pic is a sort of neo noir, with numerous riffs along the way that poke fun—with all due reverence—at the conventions of the genre.

Ned Cruz (Antonio Banderas) is a private eye, hired by Russian mob thug Anton ‘The Pro’ Protopov (Robert Maillet), recently released from prison. Protopov wants Ned to locate Lexie Persimmon, a gorgeous stripper, who is his prison pen pal girlfriend. The story is told in flashback, with frequent voice-over by Ned.

Ned is reluctant to take the case, but the money is impossible to turn down. More than that, he is falling in love with the subject of his quest, à la Laura (1944). After some false starts in Los Angeles, the action shifts to San Celeritas, New Mexico, and an encounter with eccentric billionaire Simon Kestral (Sam Elliot), who has built a linear accelerator below the desert floor, in search of the so-called God particle.

In the meantime, a mysterious black car is tailing Ned, in search of $30 million worth of diamonds connected to Protopov.

All will be revealed against a backdrop of brilliant production design, and a host of character actors including William Fitchner, Delroy Lindo, Thomas Kretschmann, Bill Duke, Snoop Dogg, and Jimmi Simpson. Saying anything more will ruin it for you.

Check this one out.

 

US WOMEN LOSE TO JAPAN IN WORLD CUP

Published on July 18, 2011 in Current Events, Sports

In fairness, you could tell that their luck was running out—almost from the beginning. By all rights, the score should have been 4-0 US at the end of the first half, but our team could just not finish.

Surely, there were some coaching issues. After all, despite the lack of success, our side did not change its approach to corner kicks, always opting to float the ball into the back post. And, there was far too much of a let down after both go-ahead goals. Not exactly seminal Al Davis “No let up, no let up” moments.

I could also have done without the crosses done by our players in front of our own goal. When the penalty kicks came, it was all over, of course with the three straight misses.

A big disappointment, but Japan wanted this one a whole lot more.

 

CAYLEE ANTHONY

Published on July 12, 2011 in Current Events, True Crime

There has been no shortage of media coverage on this case, so my piece takes a different tack. The title of this article is quite deliberate, in that the victim in this case—two-year-old Caylee—received neither justice nor sufficient attention.

Rather, there was an unseemly media feeding frenzy that took full advantage of defense counsel’s lurid revelations, both real and imagined, regarding mother Casey’s white trash lifestyle. Amazingly, the prosecution swallowed the bait and devoted far too much time to painting the defendant as a scumbag—a charge happily stipulated by the defense. Let me assure you that the most astonished people in the court room, upon hearing the verdict, were the defense counsel.

Caring little that proving first degree murder would be impossible without forensic evidence, the prosecution also failed to convince the jury of the obvious circumstantial nature of the case (courtesy of the Washington Examiner‘s Gregory Kane):

  • Defendant is a proven liar
  • Defendant’s kid goes missing
  • Defendant reports kid missing after 31 days
  • Kid is found dead
  • Defendant bears some responsibility

For their part, the jury expected a TV-style forensic case, also caring little that given the state of the corpse, there could be no useful forensic evidence. What was more stupid and pathetic? The jurors claiming that no cause of death was established, or the prosecution not instructing the jury that this would be impossible?

It is most ironic that a generation ago, a TV-style case was nearly always based on circumstantial evidence. Although most Perry Mason perps confessed on the stand, the case was always made based on the destruction of alibis. And, a generation before that, nearly all Agatha Christie murder mysteries were solved the same way.

As people familiar with true crime are only too well aware, forensic evidence is not available in many crime scenes, and even when it is, there is no value without a suspect. In the Anthony case, there was a suspect, but no forensic evidence. However, there was a mountain of circumstantial evidence. That used to be enough for some sort of homicide conviction. Has the standard now changed?

A number of retired cops have told me that shoddy police work likely delayed the discovery of Caylee’s body. Of course, that would never have happened on television, but in real life, we are dealing with real people who might not always respond to calls about corpse sightings with the greatest alacrity.

Not surprisingly, a number of legal academics—including Butler Shaffer, in an especially nasty piece—have praised the jury, and have attacked the naysayers.

As I told Shaffer in an e-mail exchange…

The outrage over this case, which apparently escapes you, derives from the fundamental lack of concern regarding justice for the victim, coupled with the strangely self-satisfied attitude of the jury, applying their precious analysis to the case. The bigger picture is that even though so much “progressive” legislation is supposedly based on our concern for “the children,” in fact we value them not at all—and this was writ large in the Anthony case.

We can take solace in this:   Casey, like OJ before her, will surely be back in the “system” before too long.

 

THE US SOCCER TEAM LOSES IN THE GOLD CUP FINAL–AGAIN

Published on June 26, 2011 in Sports

Despite leading 2-0 early on, our guys could just not maintain it, losing to Mexico 4-2. Clearly, Mexico had the better team, although one wonders how they would have done if they were not allowed to replace five players who were kicked off for drug violations, earlier in the tournament.  A rare example of FIFA largesse.

Adding insult to injury—even if this was hardly unexpected—the Rose Bowl crowd was overwhelmingly pro-Mexico. Less well known is that the title ceremony was conducted in Spanish.  This was rightly called a ” f—–g disgrace” by US goalie Tim Howard.

I would add that the current state of US soccer merits the same description.

 

THE BANNER SUPPLY SETTLEMENT

Published on June 26, 2011 in Current Events

For those of you following the Chinese drywall mess, the Banner settlement is simply the latest scam to come down the pike.

Execrable plaintiff’s lawyer Arnold Levin is in charge here, and predictably, the attorneys are set up to get millions, while the affected homeowners might get a few thousand—and that assumes that they can obtain all the necessary documentation to prove their case.  Naturally, such documentary compliance is all at the homeowners’ expense.

It is a testimony to the peculiarities of the human mind that class action lawsuits exist at all. Evidently, the victimized public gets sufficient succor by seeing the defendant “suffer,” even though they themselves will get no meaningful recovery. The idea is to build the class as big as possible to garner the maximum settlement, assuring big attorney’s fees, and at the same time securing nothing for the plaintiffs.

Ironically, the only class action that ever benefited the plaintiffs involved Blockbuster Video, which settled, and changed its late fee policies. And that exception proves the rule that class action litigation, including the Banner settlement, is a total crock.

 

US SOCCER TEAM FINALLY GETS IT DONE

Published on June 20, 2011 in Sports

Playing well for the very first time in the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament, our team scored a solid 2-0 victory over Jamaica.   The Reggae Boyz definitely had some weapons, though, with goalie Donovan Ricketts and speedster attackers Dane Richards and Luton Shelton.

Has the US side finally gotten into its groove?  That’s why they have the games…

Let’s see how they progress.

 

WEINER’S WIFE PREGNANT? I’LL BELIEVE IT WHEN I SEE IT

Published on June 10, 2011 in Current Events

The very convenient announcement, by “unnamed sources” that his wife is pregnant, came out on the heels of further revelations and more sordid details about the congressman. As such, this has all the earmarks of a Clintonesque spin strategy.

My take is that she is not pregnant at all, but this is instead a bid to garner some sympathy for him. After all, who would be callous enough to question her? Except “she”—his wife—did not make the announcement, did she? Moreover, if he is still in trouble a month from now, the next stratagem will be to claim a tragic miscarriage, caused no doubt by all this harassment from the media and Weiner’s political foes.

Also working in Weiner’s favor is the fierce New York attitude whereby they won’t have “their guy” removed by outside (hick) forces.

Given that Weiner has no marketable skills whatsoever, save a possibility as some sort of low rent lobbyist, he is desperately trying to cling to that paycheck. Absent that, supporting his Forest Hills lifestyle will not be possible, unless he can dictate some sinecure position as a condition of his resignation.

 
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