MOVIES—MEN AT WORK, PHYSICS & MUSIC
Oppenheimer ($5.99 on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, et al)
Oppenheimer, one of the big films of 2023, is an almost mesmerizing portrayal of one individual’s huge impact on history. Physicist Oppenheimer was a complex man and an intriguing one. Brilliance, coupled with ego and drive, propelled him in overseeing the development of the atomic bomb. This invention led directly to the end of World War II and, initially, accolades for Oppenheimer. To what extent, Oppenheimer carefully considered the level of destruction use of the bomb would wreak is a question one can debate.
Several years after the war, he was accused of being a Communist and a security threat. Based on the biography, American Prometheus,the film is multi-layered and nuanced in its depiction of Oppenheimer and those involved in the Manhattan Project. And the special effects are stunning. Highly recommended!
American Symphony (Netflix)
Until I read reviews of American Symphony, I had not heard of Jon Batiste. He’s a composer, pianist, pop performer, and winner of numerous awards. In this film, produced jointly with Higher Ground Productions (the Obamas’ company), the viewer experiences the creation of the musical piece of the title. Simultaneously, it follows the travails of Batiste’s wife Suleika Jaouad as she copes with a recurrence of leukemia. Batiste is a dedicated and hard-working composer, but he is also tender and supportive of Suleika.
I enjoyed parts of Jon’s creative process and admired her for her bravery and her willingness to share the raw as well as the joyful moments of her treatment. Overall, I’d give the film a mixed review. I thought it was unnecessarily long and would have edited out some of the composition scenes.
As a side note, Suleika’s memoir Between Two Kingdoms about her earlier cancer journey was published in 2021. I read it when it was released and included it in a blog post in Sept. 2021.
READING—GRIEF & LOVE
Lost and Found: A Memoir by Kathryn Schulz
Memoirs are one of my preferred genres, so I approached Lost and Found expectantly. It is both emotional and scholarly in tone. Schulz focuses on grief and love. Besides detailing how and why we lose or misplace objects and citing a range of research articles about loss, she delves into her grief over her father’s death and describes his long physical and mental decline. Anyone who has lost a parent or other loved one can relate to this section.
Her other main topic is love and how one goes about finding one’s true love or life partner: what makes two people click and how does one arrange to have the right circumstances at hand for this to happen. Schulz had a long search, sometimes fraught with self-doubt, before meeting her right person and then settling down together.
I confess to skimming some; I was more interested in her personal experiences than I was in the scientific explanations for loss and love. My response may be colored by being older than the author with several decades more life experience. Overall, I give it a qualified recommendation.
LOCAL CULTURE—GREAT MUSIC
The Sarasota Orchestra was in fine form on Friday night for their first concert of the season at Neel Performing Arts Center in Bradenton. Their playing was spirited with all sections performing strongly. This concert, under the baton of guest conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya, included a recent work by composer Clarice Assad, an impressive rendition of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by pianist Stephen Hough, and Elgar’s Enigma Variations. All fourteen of them, each variation clearly delineated one from the other. It was truly a great night for our local musicians. Bravo!
Note: Header photo is of ducks over a pond in California in Jan. 2014 ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)
I watched Jon Baptiste on the Late Show with Steven Colbert before he got 5 Grammies.