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samshafaghi · 3 years

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How CNN's John King Is Using His Magic Wall After The Election

Family Dinner Options

John's wife and kids watch as he enters their home address into Google Maps on the magic wall, then uses his fingers to zoom out. Multiple restaurants in the area are flagged with red pins.

Well, we're all familiar with the Applebee's over in Dekalb County. Dekalb County as everyone knows has three Applebee's locations, that's a net gain of two locations since 2016. But in 2018, they lost our business to the Cheesecake Factory right here in Fulton County. Their food portions were massive. If you recall, we brought a ton of it back home and ate it the next day. But we also had to wait 1 hour to be seated - not ideal, as the large turnout isn't favorable for us. It doesn't appear that another visit to Cheesecake Factory is on the cards.

Instead, we shift our attention to Gwinnett County, where there's a new Red Robin that has surged in popularity the last few days in our household. This could be the next big one, folks. And no surprise that this comes after our disappointing outing to Chilli's last week in Cobb County. Chilli's in Cobb was a surefire success in 2008, and 2012, but failed to capture that same young generation in 2016. It's still too early to call, and we want to take our time here. I understand we're hungry. We have to let the process play out. But based on recent trends and the latest data, if you're a Red Robin fan, you've gotta be pretty happy right now...

John's family sneaks out of the room. Not realizing they're gone, he just continues to yammer away. Vacation Destinations

John gathers his family around the magic wall and opens up Google Earth.

Well look, here's the facts - in 2018, we went to Barcelona. Our last trip. Barcelona is in Catalonia. As we know the President of Catalonia at that time was Quim Torra. A bit of a wild election because Torra was elected when the Spanish courts blocked the other three candidates. We spent a majority of our time in the populated Barcelona region, like over here at the landmark Ciutat Comtal. We enjoyed a nice walk through this section over here, at the beach of La Barceloneta towards Port Olimpic. We also did branch out to rural areas and landscapes, populated by the mostly blue collar workers in the Girona and Lleida regions, which had massive turnouts in the regional elections of 2015.

But due to a rise in busy schedules in our household, along with a seismic shift in how we want vacations to feel like, the "10 day tropical resort" option is the frontrunner. Now we all remember the debacle of Cousin Mark's destination wedding in Cabot, where two unnamed family members got drunk and threw up in the pool. But heading back to that region with just our family is not only doable, but also economical. We can try Bermuda, which is over here, or maybe Turks and Caicos over there.

John looks away from the wall. Day has turned into night. His family, exhausted, has passed out on the couch. Buying Ikea Furniture

With his wife waiting in the car, John pulls up the IKEA floor map on the magic wall.

OK, so if we look over here, the dining table sets are on the first floor in the right hand corner. These are your Mörbylångas, your Skogstas, and your Möckelbys. Now if we tap on the Mörbylångas, you'll see it has one five star review on the IKEA website. Pretty high rating, but can you purchase something based on one review? Well, we have to be patient. It's still too close to call, so we have to go there and inspect. Next on this floor, if we just scroll through here, there's not much - we don't need any of these Hemnes bookshelves, or the storage combination units like the Bestå, or the sturdy Kallax. We can just walk through here, but it may be difficult. Usually there's a large amount of foot traffic through this area. I'm just gonna circle it and you can see, hour by hour as the magic wall data will show you, that it rises exponentially after store opening.

John's wife begins honking the horn multiple times. She gives up and drives off. Social Media Drama

On the magic wall, John opens a browser with multiple tabs.

Here we have the Facebook profile of Shirley open. Shirley is a trusted family friend. We know this as we've known her for 30 years. She dropped a bombshell by posting disproven claims about the election with the hashtag #stopthesteal. It has 15 reactions and over 200 comments. In the business we call that getting "ratio'd".

So let's scroll through some of these comments here. Here's one from Mark. Zooming into his profile picture, it's clear he's wearing Oakley sunglasses and he's taken the picture in his car. His comment: "Biden sucks balls #MAGA". So when you put it all together, that's not surprising coming from Mark. He's a surefire supporter of Shirley's recent post, no question.

I should also point out a lot of these comments are GIFs. We'll just scroll through them quickly here. Here's one from the 1996 film "A Very Brady Sequel," in which Marcia Brady says to Jan Brady, "Sure, Jan." By the way, that film earned 21 million against its 15 million dollar budget. Not a great return, but it did spawn that GIF so maybe not all was lost there. And then there's about 25 comments here that are 7000 words each. We obviously can't read them all, but they mostly contain a roundup of all the misdeeds by the now former President. And I'm just now seeing another 5 comments have been added, taking our total to 205. We'll keep monitoring this situation as it unfolds.

John's wife can only shake her head. She apologizes to her dinner guests. Annual Check-Up

The Doctor is astonished as John has somehow set up his magic wall in the office. A 3D model of John's upper body appears on screen.

Now, Doc, let's look up top at the respiratory system here. Check out this evolution of my lungs over time. Here they are in 2008. They look good, right? That was a watershed year, when I first got this magic wall. And then here they are again in 2012. A bit more collapsed. And that starts to become a trend. Then in 2016, it looks even worse. You said it's because I never stop talking and then you gave me a puffer that year to help control it, which ended up working pretty well. Here's a snapshot of my lungs now, in 2020. Clear as a bell.

But here's a new issue. Let's move up to my head. Let's open up the top of my skull and look at my brain. There it is. As you can see, the cerebral cortex region is just completely inflamed. You can see the color there - it's totally red. But if you look at this image from before I got my magic wall, in 2007, that same region blue. It looks normal. In 2012, however, that blue started to fade away. Clearly my cerebral cortex was flipped red - what caused this? Well, let's try and find the answer. There's a battleground situation happening here.

The Doctor writes John a prescription for Zoloft, Ambien, and horse-grade tranquilizers. In The Bedroom

John stands beside his magic wall, wearing just boxers. His wife, on top of the covers and dressed in lingerie, looks defeated. An overhead shot of their bed is shown on screen. Now honey, before we start, I just wanted to point out two key battleground areas. First, right here in the middle of the bed. This is the spot where we get into our usual position. Back in 2012, you wanted me to be on top. But in 2016, you wanted to be on top. Will there be another swing this year in 2020? Well, based on your recent trip to the chiropractor for back pain, I think it's not a total shock if it does indeed slip. Right now it's too close to call, but we'll see how things play out through the night.

Another key battleground - over here, in your nightstand drawer, are the handcuffs. You've tried numerous times to incorporate them into our love making to spice things up. Well, we can now project that I will once again refuse to wear them. This was a safe projection as I'm not yet comfortable with this particular kink. However, there was a significant effort at the grassroots level to flip this decision, and as a result, it was a lot closer than in previous years. Wolf, over to you.

Wolf Blitzer, hiding in the closet, steps out and banters with John. John's wife falls asleep.

#short story #humour #election #biden 2020 #magic wall #cnn #politics #political humor

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latestnews2018-blog · 6 years

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Reading Between The Lines Of 'White Oleander' Almost 20 Years Later

New Post has been published on https://latestnews2018.com/reading-between-the-lines-of-white-oleander-almost-20-years-later/

Reading Between The Lines Of 'White Oleander' Almost 20 Years Later

It has been almost two decades since Janet Fitch published her debut novel, White Oleander, about a girl separated from her parents and thrust into the grueling American foster system.

In 1999 the book introduced the world to Astrid, a 12-year-old whose mother loses custody of her after being charged with murder. Astrid is flung from the home of one stranger to the next, facing a litany of inhumane treatment along the way. In one residence a lock is placed on the refrigerator, and Astrid is forced to beg for food. In another, her foster mother shoots her in a blind rage.

White Oleander launched Fitch onto a national stage, earning the Oprah Winfrey book club seal of approval, a spot on best-seller lists and a 2002 film adaptation. To readers, Astrid emerged as a protagonist they could relate to — as Fitch put it, “not just a victim and not just a survivor.” Nearly 20 years later, amid the fallout from zero tolerance immigration policies that continue to splinter families in the U.S., Astrid’s journey still stings. White Oleander speaks to the unique experience of one displaced child and the grim reality of living in detention.

The novel takes place in Los Angeles, where Fitch grew up and still lives. When I spoke with her over the phone this month, she was working from her home. Since White Oleander, she has written two novels, Paint It Black and The Revolution of Marina M, and is finishing a sequel to the latter, about a young poet during the Russian Revolution.

In a soft, plaintive voice, she talked about the origin of characters like Astrid, authors’ political responsibility and the frustrating nature of rehash culture.

Kevin Winter / Getty Images

Janet Fitch (left) after the premiere of the film “White Oleander” in Los Angeles in 2002, with Robin Wright, who co-stars in the movie, and Barry Meyer, a Warner Bros. executive.

White Oleander really was an important book for me. I definitely haven’t had the same experiences as Astrid, but just reading about them, I sympathized with her on a really deep level.

Where did the idea for the character of Astrid come from?

Oh, man, have you read any of the articles and stuff online about White Oleander? Or on my website or interviews with me before? That’s a rather complex question.

I’ve read them. I remember you mentioned something about the character of Ingrid coming first, so is Astrid inextricable from her mother?

Well, Astrid came from a short story about Ingrid. It was a black comedy, and people hated her. They said, “Give her a friend. Give her a co-worker. Someone that we that we can see her through.” I gave her a daughter, and then it wasn’t funny anymore.

So I had no idea that Astrid would go into foster care. I had circulated the story to literary journals. I always would send it to The Ontario Review because [associate editor] Joyce Carol Oates was one of my heroes. I usually got form rejections from them, but this time I got a little 1-by-1 Post-it note saying, “Good story. Too long for us. Seems like the first chapter of a novel. J.C.O.” And I thought, “Oh, well, if Joyce Carol Oates thinks there’s a novel there, I’m going to give that a try.”

So I started writing it. To write after that short story was to decide what would happen to Ingrid, because at the time she’s murdered her boyfriend. So I said, OK, well, what happens to Ingrid? Does she go to prison or not? I think … you shouldn’t pull punches in books. That if somebody’s done something like this, yes, they go to prison. She went to prison, and I had to decide what would happen to her daughter. I put Astrid with one friend, and nothing happened. Put her with a different friend, nothing happened. When I was growing up, I had a friend who went into foster care when I was in elementary school, and I realized I did know what could happen to Astrid ― that she would go into foster care.

My friend, her mother died, and her father died, and she went to live with an elderly aunt, who died. She went briefly to live in a home, and then when she came out a week later, they found a brother. She talked about what that was like. Just, the floor dropped out from under you. You found yourself in that entirely different world. It changed me as a kid to realize that something could happen to your family and you could end up in a very different world. Then her brother was arrested, and she disappeared, and she went into foster care. I always thought about her, but I hadn’t really realized how much I had thought about her until I was thinking about what was going to happen with Astrid. I realized I was very concerned with foster kids without even knowing it — this deep anxiety.

Anyway, that’s where the character of Astrid started.

Even if I’m writing a personal story, it will reflect our times, and it will be deeply political without being obviously political, because I think that by writing honestly, we’re always reflecting our world. Janet Fitch

How similar was that first draft of the short story to the first chapter of the book?

It’s the first three chapters. But you know, it expanded and changed.

Was there anything else about Astrid that was informed by your experience?

Yeah, there were a number of aspects. Your characters are all equally your own. They’re all parts of you. So I’m Astrid, but I’m also Ingrid, and I’m also Claire [one of Astrid’s foster parents], and I’m also bits and pieces of a lot. Astrid is somebody who is having to adapt to radically changing situations — a very common issue and experience. She’s trying to figure out who she is in a time where everybody wants to be somebody else. She’s trying to meet people’s expectations and at the same time trying to understand her own authentic reactions. And I think that that’s what growing up is, albeit in a much more extreme way for Astrid.

Do you think that’s what makes Astrid so relatable?

Oh, yeah … I think that her combination of vulnerability and strength is what makes her relatable. She’s not just a victim and not just a survivor. She’s right in the middle. You don’t know how things turn out for her. So a lot of it is just holding your breath, like, is she going to make it?

I think she’s also relatable in that she sees people. People don’t hide things from children. It’s right there. I think children often see things much more clearly than adults do, because they’re not talking themselves into a story about it.

What can young people who are living away from their parents learn from the character of Astrid?

What happens with Astrid is that she’s been introduced to the fact that there’s a bigger world. This is what reading does for us, this is what art does for us, music, that anything that’s kind of a snorkel up out of the situation you find yourself in [does for us]. I think kids living away from their families in radically disrupted situations often don’t have that snorkel. That’s why they’re drowning.

I think that’s what Astrid’s experience has to say to those people. It depends on access to a single book, which is not always a likely situation. But what her situation can speak to all of us is what it feels like to be that lonely, that child who needs a family, needs somebody to care. It tells all of us what that experience is. And in that situation, it tells [children] that they’re not alone and that people make it through this kind of thing.

Speaking of art as a means of survival — it’s clear from your blog posts that you’re passionate about political issues. Do you believe that writers have a responsibility to write in response to politics in some form?

I think that there are all kinds of writers, just like there are all kinds of people. Some of them want to respond to the pressure of the immediate, and some are more responding to the human condition. There are so many different ways to comment on a political situation. Politics is just about power relationships between human beings. Some writers are going to respond to immediate situations and talk about the immediate crises and create characters who are involved in those immediate crises. Some people will write personal stories that cannot avoid reflecting on the political, because we live in the world. Even if I’m writing a personal story, it will reflect our times, and it will be deeply political without being obviously political, because I think that by writing honestly, we’re always reflecting our world.

Tasia Wells / Getty Images

Actress and author Amber Tamblyn (left) with Fitch in West Hollywood, California, in 2015.

The personal can be very political.

So you don’t have to even have a political agenda to have your work reflect on the politics and the economic situation of your time. It’s going to be part of [that]. That’s very much a part of the Russian Revolution books that I’m writing, The Revolution of Marina M. It’s about a young poet coming of age during the Russian Revolution. How political, how superficially political one’s work needs to be was a tremendous question at the time. And it still is.

What are your opinions on President Donald Trump’s family separation policy for unauthorized immigrants?

I think that it is probably the latest outrage ― that in our treatment of immigrants and migrants, our country [has an] absolute inability to see the work of people who contribute so much to our country. The energy of immigrants and migrants has built this country and made it what it is. The family separation [policy] is just the absolute lack of respect for people and their humanity. It’s probably the worst outrage in a time of horrendous outrage.

Your family is Russian. Were they immigrants as well?

Did The Revolution of Marina M connect you to your Russian heritage?

I think it’s the other way around. I think that my interest in Russia was both familial and literary, and that’s the matrix or the soil that the book grew out of, rather than connecting me back.

What is it about young adult women or women in transition that attracts you to writing about them?

I think it’s because young women are making their decisions about life in a big way. I think we are all doing it all the time, but I think that young women especially, young people especially, are making their decisions. So they’re very, very open to what they’re seeing, hearing, encountering and processing all the time. What do I really think about someone? What do I really think about something? That’s very interesting, although who knows what I’ll write my next book about? I’m very interested in the creation itself, of how these experiences change us, touch us and how we’re built not with a fine tool but how we build ourselves layer by layer. We don’t completely cast out the last experience. We build the next experience on that, and the collective experience is what we become.

Why did you choose fiction as your particular means of expression?

I think that fiction speaks to the individual. It’s just writer to reader, and it’s not really telling you anything. It’s laying out a case, almost, and it’s very subtle, and it’s complex, like life is complex. It’s not saying, “This is what I believe. This is what you should believe.” It’s saying, “Here are living people going about their lives trying to meet their needs in a world that is generally very unfair and difficult. And how do they find their way?” I think there are so many questions you can answer in that kind of situation.

As for memoir, I just don’t think my story has the resonance that the stories that I can imagine of other people. I don’t think that I’m the most interesting person I can think of. I can be very subtle and slip in things that I’ve seen and know and think, but it’s always very sneaky. Fiction writers are very sneaky. We want to do everything with the hidden hand.

I did not ever expect a mass audience. So it came as a bit of a shock, and it threw me for a while. But I’m a writer, and what I do is keep writing. Janet Fitch

Do you have any advice for young writers?

Yes, I do! I believe that young writers should notice. I have a writer friend who says it’s not what you know, it’s what you notice. I advise young writers to just carry a notebook with them and anything that interests them, anything they see that they think will have that little gasp, “Oh, wow, cool,” to write that down. Because you will forget it … Stay off screens and go out and interact with the world at large and notice. Be curious about things rather than think you know them. “Oh, yeah, I don’t have to know them, I’ll just look it up.” There’s nothing to replace direct observation. William Carlos Williams said that observation is the first act of the imagination.

So notice what’s going on in the world and … try to describe it. Challenge yourself to eliminate cliche. Anything you’ve ever heard before, seen before, read before is cliche … is borrowed language. So get rid of them. Try to come up with original descriptions for what you’re seeing instead of quoting. We live in such a quoting society. Everything is repackaged, and it’s just getting blurrier and blander as we go along. There’s nothing crisper than those direct observations of the world.

It’s definitely hard to feel that there’s anything new under the sun at this point, but people have probably been saying that forever.

Well, it’s because people are not directly encountering reality. They’re hashing over phrases and ideas and language. The world is as fresh as it’s always been. It’s us. We tend to isolate and insulate ourselves, being air-conditioned with the windows rolled up in the car and going to the same places and spending too much time on preprocessed information on our screens. We’re lazy and don’t really turn them off and go out into the world. Comfort is supremely uninteresting.

Our clothes are very soft, and our air-conditioning is really good, and we have music that we can drown out ambient sound. We don’t smell things. We don’t touch things. It’s getting rid of all that comfort and being willing to be uncomfortable … that will draw out that work.

Was it hard to live up to such a successful book as White Oleander?

Well, it throws you. I’ve been writing for a long time, and what I had imagined as success was just to get a book published with a decent publisher, something that I was proud of, and have some good reviews and some people buying it. I did not ever expect a mass audience. So it came as a bit of a shock, and it threw me for a while. But I’m a writer, and what I do is keep writing. Success is shocking. It does throw you if you’re used to failure. You know how to deal with failure, but if you’ve never had success … suddenly you just don’t have the tools, so it throws you.

How did you learn to deal with failure?

By being a defiant person in general. I’m very much a “You think you’re gonna reject this? Well, screw you” [person], which has always been my attitude.

Do you have any creative outlets other than writing?

Oh, yeah. I’m a terrible artist, but I like to make art, and I dance. Believe me, I’m no Isadora Duncan, but I love to dance, and I love art. I love travel. But I draw. Sketching is a lot like writing. You have to look and take a good, long time and really examine it. Not just quick click a picture on my phone and move on. It takes time, and I love that. I love that because people come over and see what you’re drawing. It’s such a good way to meet people when you’re traveling.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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samiraahmeduk · 6 years

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The scroll screen could have been written for Ep VII. As if nothing has happened. First rule of sequels: Take the story on. What’s the new line? Please hire me to write proper copy in future.

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Leia is unconscious for half the film. Seriously. She does almost nothing when she’s awake either. For a film playing a strong Madame President image in the poster this is the biggest shocker.

Gwendoline Christie is BARELY in it. Again.

Mas Kanata is in ONE scene by webcam. I actually wanted to see the film she’s in. It looks quite exciting. But seriously. WTF.

That’s all three women over thirty from The Force Awakens barely in it. This film was 2 and a half hours long.

Luke milking a giant breasted creature and staring at Rey aggressively while he drinks it was just not healthy. There’s some weird unintentionally misogynistic stuff in here.

Your two most swashbuckling leading men Finn and Poe Dameron are sidelined from the main action. This is madness. There is a giant Han Solo shaped gap and their projection of aspects of him was essential to the charm of the first.

We never learn about why Mas had Luke’s lightsabre.

C3PO is hardly in it except for a couple of excellent but tiny cowardly moments.

Chewbacca gets almost nothing to do except one good macabre joke with some Porg.

The Porg are actually a really welcome addition. And the ice foxes. They seem to have character development, a purpose and help scene setting. Think about that.

R2D2 does almost nothing.

Well over an hour (an hour and a half I think) till we get a proper lightsabre fight. I checked my watch. Single best scene in the film – Kylo and Rey.

Makes you realise how good the red set dressing is. And how reminiscent of Flash Gordon was. And the fight sequences in Kill Bill.

There is no proper onscreen reunion of the older stars.R2D2, C3PO hardly get a hello master Luke moment. Where is the melancholy camaraderie of the first generation? Even Hamill has commented on this publically. Unforgivable.

Hardly any reflection on loss of Han Solo.

There is no proper interaction of all the new comrades either. Poe, Finn and Rey are kept apart till the end. Unacceptable.

We learn NOTHING about Snoke before he’s killed. Like Darth Maul. Unforgivable.

We learn nothing about Rey. Even in that initually visually intriguing scene in the cave.

It would be really nice if she does turn out to be nobody; a rejected urchin. It’s not going to happen, is it?

Careless racism from Rey at the fish nuns – like a race of Mrs Doyles on Craggy Island. “What are those things?” she says. They’re the “native” population according to Luke, who have apparently been (forcibly?) converted like and do all his laundry.

We learn nothing about how Kylo Ren came to join the First Order.

Why is Emo Kylo Ren’s best frenemy General Hux in charge? He seems to have far older and superior officers by his side. An eye roll from the best of them does not make this ok. Maybe I should pretend there’s a Donald Trump Jr reference in his overpromotion?

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For most of the film we are encouraged to think like Poe Dameron, that Laura Dern is an overpromoted feminazi because of political correctness gone made. “What, the admiral is a a woman?!” is the gist of his reaction. Poe is all Eric Trump snide. Even the big reveal about her is pretty late and pretty poor. Why doesn’t she make her big heroic gesture a bit earlier and save all the other transports? She looks amazing but there’s something strangely impractical about how she’s dressed like a cross between the violinist in Yellow Submarine and the Columbia Film lady.

Look at Oscar Isaacs and John Boyega. Why would you not use them as much as possible in the main story? Much of the action involves Oscar Isaac sitting on a slow moving bus being chased at 20mph by a giant milkfloat. But apparently not blown up because of some special new rule. Imagine Errol Flynn sitting in a cart looking over his shoulder for the whole of The Adventures of Robin Hood. And not even driving.

Boyega at least gets a real Flash Gordon sense of 1930s adventuring but…

Unpleasant sense of Finn being separated off as a romantic possibility (what happened to the good old love triangle?) for racially dodgy reasons and the kiss from Rose felt like they were telling us they’re pairing him off with someone from Engineering so stop complaining.

Rose is a great character (Joss Whedon’s Firefly, anybody?). But this doesn’t excuse doing nothing with all the established leads.

Lots of great diverse casting but in new tiny roles. It doesn’t excuse removing all the non white actors from the main emotional arc of the story.

The Casino planet – a James Bond mix of Monte Carlo and the UAE – a den of arms dealers & child exploitative camel racers – is raced through at high speed. Felt underused and superfluous at the same time. Shame.

There is a lazy, nasty “bath her and bring her to my chamber” vibe, even if now Disney de-sexualised, in how Rey is treated by Snoke. Was a lot of this torture-y thing in Ep VII. No excuses for so much of it.

Why do the New Order always park so far away from the entrance to the Rebel Base?

The giant laser spinning battering penis to ram the dark hole of the hidden rebel base. Sigh.

It all goes a bit too astral plane Doctor Strange for my liking at the end.

The child scenes with Disney references are too heavy handed. (Sorcerer’s Apprentice broom, shooting star as if over the castle)

Small Disney observation: While East Asian cinema has been doing the ambiguous whole duality of light/dark so well for decades -which Star Wars copies in Rey and Kylo Ren, this film has reworked some types and imagery from classic Disney Princess films. Some of it very successfully, others more prosaically.

With the red and white colours Rey and Kylo Ren seemed like Snow White and the Prince crossed with the humanised Raven from Maleficient – as equals and each with lightsabres. Most intriguing. Obviously there’s a whole Beauty reforming the Beast plotline. But being equally armed for battle is promising for little girls who have traditionally been rather short changed in Star Wars.

Rose – first discovered sitting and crying in Cinderella pose by the Aladdin-like Finn. But being a qualified engineer and all she’s a recognisably modern Disney princess (think Moana, even Frozen). Modern Disney princess types are very talented and resourceful and their confidence quickly emerges.

Princess Leia has been transformed into a fairy godmother character right down to flying. I think this is the jumping the Disney shark moment.

If you’re going to put Kylo Ren in without a top on, just do it. Strange weak humour (throughout the film) here, to undercut a rare moment of actual sexuality.

Ep VII Rey’s Flashback

The only thing we really learn is the Rashomon-style 3 versions of the night of the massacre at the Temple. But even that was focussed only on Luke and Kylo Ren – just the two of them. What about everyone else? How about matching it to the Jedi temple massacre-in-the-rain flashback in The Force Awakens? Great to see Luke Skywalker and the ever dependable Adam Driver get such great moments out of this film. Shame we didn’t have more of this.

Too much reliance on gaps between films to fill in what happened. How can we be 2 films into a trilogy and I still only know one thing more than I knew in the first?

All this has reminded me how much I love Kung Fu Panda. A lot of the same themes (Rey is the Panda). But The Last Jedi lacks a villain as dark as Ian McShane.

My interview with John Boyega, about his career including Shakespeare, Star Wars and Detroit BBC Radio 4 Front Row (Dec 14th) on iplayer via this link.

I sense a disturbance. Everything that’s missing from The Last Jedi (some SPOILERS so see it first!!) The scroll screen could have been written for Ep VII. As if nothing has happened. First rule of sequels: Take the story on.

#adam driver #carrie fisher #culture #daisy ridley #Disney #errol flynn #film #Hillary Clinton #Hollywood #john boyega #kylo ren #luke skywalker]#princess leia #star wars #the last jedi

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