The Incredible Jake Parker

This review is about a work by a friend of mine, Angelo Thomas. He and I have had a bit of history, despite not meeting in person (yet). We're at a point where it's safe to say we respect each other.

The Incredible Jake Parker is a film Angelo has produced on a shoestring budget, the story initially being written as a book, then making a pretty painless transition to a screenplay.

Jake Parker (Liam Wall) shoots from a kid on YouTube to a viral star to a pop sensation, the whirlwind of change in Jake's life often leaving him struggling to take control of his life again. Jake becomes anorexic, and his agent Cat (Sasha Jackson) sends him to a clinic.

If this was a big Hollywood production, it'd be played up for high drama, probably some secondary character would either die or be in a critical condition in a hospital, while we'd get a ton of phoned in celebrity cameos. In this way, I think it's to Jake Parker's benefit that it was produced on a small budget. Rather than try to go for high drama, it keeps its eyes on the very real issues that people who deal with eating disorders face. Characters talk about their struggles and work through them. It keeps the movie grounded and real.

The film is short at about 74 minutes. While there's quite a story, it's not dragged out. Performances are capable, with a few small cameos by news and internet personalities. There's no A-listers here, but that doesn't mean anyone's phoning it in. The songs are well-performed by Liam Wall in character as Jake.

This is a film that deserves to be seen and appreciated, tackling an issue not often touched on: eating disorders and how they affect men as well as women. It's available on Vimeo to stream worldwide, while Angelo is also selling a run of DVDs.

1776 and Hamilton

When the Fourth of July rolls around, there's one film my father and I (and my brother) turn to: 1776. It's a 1972 film adaptation of a Broadway musical that had debuted three years earlier.

1776 depicts Massachusetts congressman John Adams (William Daniels) spearheading the effort to declare the United States' independence of Great Britain. In Adams' corner is Benjamin Franklin (Howard Da Silva), Richard Henry Lee (Ron Holgate), and Caesar Rodney (William Hansen). Leading the opposition is John Dickinson (Donald Madden) along with Edward Rutledge (John Cullum).

I've seen a production of 1776 live years ago, but am mostly familiar with the film. I initially watched it on VHS, but it eventually made its way to DVD and Blu-Ray. However, the version I knew on VHS is essentially no more on the later formats: the theatrical version of the film had been edited down to about two hours and twenty minutes. When it was released to DVD, it arrived in a director's cut a full twenty seven minutes longer. The Blu-Ray even added an extended version that added in further deleted scenes for an additional two minutes. The additions make it nearly a complete translation of the musical to a film version, using a full set and costumes versus the limitations of what can be done onstage. A large number of the original Broadway cast members reprise their roles in the film.

The musical and film serve as a reminder that no progress that the United States has ever made has come without debate and hard work and compromise.

In 2015, a new musical debuted on Broadway titled Hamilton. It soon became a cultural phenomenon. It follows the life of Alexander Hamilton, the first Treasury Secretary of the United States from his humble origins in the Caribbean to joining George Washington's army and serving as his personal right hand man to how he proposed the groundbreaking financial system the United States still uses to this day to his political issues with the other founding fathers to his famous duel with Aaron Burr.

While dropping an abbreviated version of a period of American history, Hamilton is ultimately about the power of words, how they affect other people and how our legacies are ultimately broken down into words and the stories told about us.

Hamilton was filmed in 2016 with the original cast, and these sessions were edited into a complete presentation of the show (minus a couple "f-bombs" muted) which was planned for theatrical release next year, but is now available to stream on Disney+.

While the two musicals feature the American Revolution, they're quite different. 1776 takes a more traditional route to being a musical, basically being a drama with some moments punctuated by songs. Some are fun, such as the opening "Sit Down, John," "Piddle, Twiddle, and Resolve," "The Lees of Old Virginia," "But, Mr. Adams," and "The Egg." Then there's the show stoppers: "Momma, Look Sharp," "Molasses to Rum" and "Is Anybody There?" Unlike many musicals, there is no finale number.

Hamilton takes a nearly operatic approach of having nearly every moment sung by the cast (one somber moment near the end of Act I is dialogue only and is not represented on the cast album). While there are slower songs that lend themselves to the traditional musical format, many of them are rapid paced numbers for people capable of singing hip hop. Writer Lin Manuel Miranda (who also originated the role of Hamilton) noted Hamilton's writing and compared him to rap artists and this led to the unusual style for telling the story. This is why much of the cast are people of color who have learned and performed this style throughout their lives. The operatic style makes it harder to point out standout songs as they all go from one to another without a break. Many songs in Act I set up themes that get reprised when story points come back up.

While history mainly notes the men who played out the stories, these musicals try to bring up the women our protagonists knew. A recurring point in 1776 is John Adams' correspondence with his wife Abigail (Virginia Vestoff), which is depicted by the two singing to each other. In the first song "Till Then," John mentions he's asked Abigail to get women to help make saltpeter for the armed forces to use for gunpowder. In "Yours, Yours, Yours," Abigail reminds John of some of the things he's said about her. Finally, in "Compliments," John reminds Abigail of some of the things she's said about him. The song ends with John discovering a shipment of saltpeter that has just been delivered.

In addition, while Thomas Jefferson (Ken Howard) is writing the first draft of the Declaration of Independence, Adams sends for his wife Martha (Blythe Danner), who explains about her husband's wooing of her in "He Plays The Violin." (In actuality, this moment was wholly invented for the play as the very ill Martha had just suffered a miscarriage and would die in a couple years. Coincidentally, Blythe Danner was actually pregnant during filming with a baby that would become Gwenyth Paltrow.)

In Hamilton, there are three principal female performers (there are many dancers and chorus members who are female as well) who play four roles: Elizabeth "Eliza" Schuyler (originated by Philippa Soo), Angelica Schuyler (originated by Renee Elise Goldsberry), and the dual roles of Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds (originated by Jasmine Cephas Jones). The three play sisters in the high energy "The Schuyler Sisters," which introduces them. In "Hopeless," Eliza sings about meeting Hamilton at a party and how they courted and eventually married. This is followed up with "Satisfied," sung by Angelica where she reveals her own feelings for Hamilton and how she denied herself becoming his wife out of love for her sister. (In reality, she was already married.) It is in Act II that we meet Maria Reynolds, who seduces Hamilton into an affair, which her husband uses to blackmail him, forcing him to pay.

Dual roles are used in Hamilton to some great effect. In the original cast, actors Daveed Diggs, Anthony Ramos and Okieriete Onaodowan in Act I play Marquis de Lafayette, John Laurens and Hercules Mulligan, respectively. These men befriend Hamilton early in Act I and also join the army in the effort to defeat Great Britain. In Act II, the three play Thomas Jefferson, Hamilton's son Philip and James Madison. (In the opening number, Diggs and Onaodowan sing "We fought with him," which can be interpreted in different ways for their different characters. Ramos sings "I died for him," which also fits both of his characters.)

The fight of the armed forces is referred to often in 1776 with some of the congressmen taking a trip to see them in action. More regular is dispatches from George Washington detailing what's going on with the forces. A nameless courier delivers them and in a moving song "Momma, Look Sharp" sings about his friends dying in battle. However, the fight is entirely offscreen.

In Hamilton, the fight against Great Britain makes up most the action of the latter half of Act I. In the original cast Christopher Jackson played George Washington, who makes Hamilton his aide-de-camp. Posing as opposition to Washington is King George III (originated by Jonathan Groff) of Great Britain who sings a song that is reprised with lyrical changes twice during the show. While King George is initially the big antagonist of Act I, after his defeat, he also becomes a symbol of England's relationship with the United States.

There are multiple antagonists throughout the show. Aaron Burr (originated by Leslie Odom Jr.) is actually the first voice heard in the show, being depicted as someone Hamilton knew throughout his life. (This is played up a bit for dramatic effect.) In Act II, Thomas Jefferson is introduced as an antagonist to Hamilton who opposes his financial plan, creating the conflict for the opening of Act II. Later, Jefferson becomes an antagonist to Burr himself when they run for president in "The Election of 1800." And of course, Burr turns against Hamilton after he endorses Jefferson, costing Burr the election.

In 1776, the antagonist comes from the conservative members of Congress, chiefly represented by Dickinson and Rutledge. The opposition is largely played up and made more extreme. The vote for Independence is almost rendered dead in the water in the musical when all of the southern delegates walk out in defiance of a clause that would end slavery. In reality, most of the delegates supported removing it. But the debate sets up one of the musical's most chilling songs: "Molasses to Rum," where Rutledge points out that the northern states should not have a clean conscience as they also benefit from the slave trade. In the movie, most of the chamber goes dark, spotlighting Rutledge as he sings of men kidnapping Africans, taking them to the United States and auctioning them off. It's a disturbing song for good reason.

There is also a controversial song that was dropped from the movie version's initial cut but restored for the DVD and Blu-Ray versions: "Cool, Cool, Considerate Men." This song takes place while Adams is away from Congress and Dickinson's opposition party celebrates. The controversy is that they call themselves "conservative," and sing "to the right, ever to the right, never to the left, forever to the right." Richard Nixon believed it reflected poorly on the conservatives at the time and asked producer Jack L. Warner to remove it from the film. Warner actually asked for the negative to be destroyed, but luckily it was saved and is now available in the film's widely available cuts.

Hamilton has also had brushes with presidents. When the show was just an idea for a concept album, Miranda first sang the opening song at the White House Evening of Poetry, Music and the Spoken Word in 2009. Later, president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle would record a video introduction for a performance of a number from the musical for the 2016 Tony Awards. However, later in 2016, vice president elect Mike Pence went to see the musical and after the show, the cast read a respectful address to him, expressing concern that "diverse America" had for the incoming administration of Donald Trump. While Pence said he was not offended, Trump raged against the show on Twitter.

I find it interesting how the two musicals depict some of the same characters. Washington is offscreen in 1776, but John Adams and Benjamin Franklin are only referred to in passing in Hamilton. However, Thomas Jefferson is featured in both shows. In 1776, Jefferson is a quiet member of Congress who longs to return to his wife, initially refusing to write the Declaration on those grounds. In Hamilton, Jefferson is the first person good enough with words to stand up to Hamilton and is very cocky. In 1776, Jefferson claims he's resolved to free his slaves, but this is wholly inaccurate. In Hamilton, Hamilton calls out Jefferson owning slaves and a lyric has him addressing Sally Hemings, a slave that DNA evidence reveals he likely fathered children with.

I've already talked about how slavery played an increased role in the story of 1776. As it's received increased and continued scrutiny, Hamilton has drawn more criticism about how it deals with slavery. Hamilton's friend John Laurens is very much an abolitionist, and Hamilton is depicted as sharing his views in one moment when he sings along with him "We'll never be free until we end slavery." However, historians have pointed out that while it's not known if Hamilton actually owned slaves himself, he certainly worked in the slave trade and helped buy slaves for his friends and family, particularly his father in law Philip Schuyler. His payments to continue his affair with Maria Reynolds has been viewed as treating her as a slave.

So both musicals are guilty of showing some of our founding fathers to be more progressive on slavery than they actually were. While Adams did abhor slavery, he found abolishing it too divisive to present as boldly as he is depicted doing in 1776. Likely in both cases, the writers found this an item to help make audiences support our heroes on, when the reality is different. Unfortunately, this colors audiences' views of history as too progressive when it is important to understand how pervasive this issue was in American history, and the after effects of slavery and the notions that permitted it are still felt in America to this day.

Yet it is difficult to totally condemn either work for these failings. While it is tempting to enjoy a nice musical instead of reading up on history for yourself, these musicals should be seen as gateways to looking into history rather than stopping there.

1776 does have a major criticism in how long it is. The director's cut runs for nearly three hours and really does feel it, even if you do enjoy the musical. It even holds a record for how long it goes without a song as there are several character introductions and a depiction of a day of Congress debates between "The Lees of Old Virginia" and "But, Mr. Adams." Hamilton's filmed production runs six minutes shorter than 1776, but thanks to the pacing and format, it's better at making audiences enjoy the time.

With that said, I enjoy both musicals. I enjoy revisiting 1776 with the more I learn and now I try to listen closely to the dialogue. Hamilton is a brilliant piece of storytelling with great music. Perhaps in looking at our Founding Fathers, we need to remember that while we can learn from them, there is much we have learned since. As 1776's incarnation of Ben Franklin says:

...what would posterity think we were? Demi-gods? We're men, no more no less, trying to get a nation started against greater odds than a more generous God would have allowed.

The Ghibli Novice: Porco Rosso

1992 brought us the sixth (or seventh if you count Nausicaa) Ghibli film, Porco Rosso, again from the imagination of Hayao Miyazaki, based on a three-part manga he'd produced earlier (and which may have inspired Disney's TaleSpin).

The film takes place after World War I and follows Italian pilot Marco Rossolini, who has somehow been cursed to have the head of a pig, getting him the nickname "Porco Rosso."

Porco is seen as a hero by many local groups, but the air pirates frankly hate him. As for himself, he wants to just live his life, fly and work. He's accepted that he's a pig and is sure he'll probably be that way the rest of his life. However, his childhood friend Gina is friendly to him and hopes that one day, he can break the curse.

When the Italian Fascist party puts out a warrant for his arrest, Porco goes to get his plane rebuilt by a mechanic who puts his granddaughter Fio to work on it. She winds up joining Porco in his rebuilt plane as he has to leave in a hurry. But soon, Porco winds up in a duel with a hotshot pilot. Who's going to win?

This was a fun adventure story, but Porco's curse brings up an element. We get to see a flashback to during the war when he saw his fellow pilots going to the afterlife, but he was left alone. It's not clear if this is when he was cursed. In fact, it's not clear how he got cursed or if he'll ever have it reversed. The fact that this isn't directly addressed is basically saying that this isn't about what Porco looks like: it's about who he is. There's one bit where he's questioning if women can do as good a job as men, being classically sexist, but the women working on his plane actually make it better than ever.

So, that was a fun ride.

The Ghibli Novice: Only Yesterday

Unfortunately, the next Ghibli movie, Grave of the Fireflies, isn't on HBO Max, so I'll have to skip that one for now. The next one was unusual for what we've seen from Ghibli so far.

Released in 1991, Only Yesterday follows a young woman named Taeko who's taking a vacation from her life in the city for some time in the country, where she works on an organic farm. Throughout the film, Taeko remembers episodes from her childhood, these episodes being depicted in full animation. They reveal a lifetime of someone wanting to find her own way, but is constantly reeled in by her family. Now she's out on her own, so does she return to the stable life she's known, or go for something new she wants to try?

Only Yesterday could justifiably be called "an animated chick flick," but hey, it's a good animated chick flick with some beautiful animation and a good story. It's just a major change from the other Ghibli films I've checked out so far. It's not sci-fi or fantasy. There's no nice little adventure.

It's also the first Ghibli film I watched not directed by Hayao Miyazaki, but by Isao Takahata, who also directed Grave of the Fireflies. It's based on a manga by Hotaru Okamoto and Yuko Tone. A final bit of trivia is that it took twenty-five years for it to get an English dub, most likely due to English distributors being unsure of how to handle such a different Ghibli movie.

The Ghibli Novice: Castle in the Sky

Well, now for the first proper Studio Ghibli film, again from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki.

Castle in the Sky is set in a steampunk late eighteenth century with airships being quite common.

In fact, the film opens on just such an airship as an orphan girl named Sheeta falls from it when it's attacked by pirates. However, her fall slows and she lands in a mining town where she's befriended by a boy named Pazu who helps her hide from pirates and government agents.

It turns out Sheeta is actually descended from people who used to live in a kingdom on an island floating in the sky called Laputa, held aloft by a special ore that is part of a pendant Sheeta wears, which allowed her safe descent to earth.

When Sheeta is ultimately captured by the agents, Pazu joins with the pirates to rescue her and discover the secrets of Laputa.

Castle in the Sky is a rollicking good time. It's an adventure story with some good action, great pacing and a lot of humor. Plus there's robots, some sci-fi and a little bit of magic as well at heart. This was a good one to check out.

The Ghibli Novice: My Neighbor Totoro

1988 brought one of Studio Ghibli's classic titles: My Neighbor Totoro. This was their second film after the studio was founded.

The film opens with a small family moving into a new country home. It's near to a hospital where the mother is currently staying, recovering from a severe illness.

Almost immediately, they spot some strange and wonderful things happening at their home with soot spirits appearing to the two daughters, Satsuki and Mei.

Mei explores the forest near their home and finds a large furry creature who makes a roar that sounds like "Totoro," and she takes this to be his name. However, she's unable to show her family Totoro or his home later.

Later, Satsuki meets Totoro while she and Mei are waiting for a bus and after she offers him an umbrella to shield him from the rain, he smiles and dances and boards the "catbus," which is an animal that appears to be a giant cat with twelve legs that operates as a bus.

Later, Mei decides to take some vegetables to her mother and gets lost, making Satsuki and the neighbors worry about her. Perhaps it's a job for Totoro, but can Satsuki find him?

My Neighbor Totoro is one of those movies that demands to be visually appreciated. While there's a good bit of dialogue, the parts that are its best are the ones that don't need any. It's a very sweet film about finding the magic in nature and two sisters growing together.

Henry Huggins and Ramona Quimby

One Beverly Cleary decided to take an aim at a complaint she heard from children that there were no books "about us." Thus, 1950 brought Henry Huggins, her first book.

The book opens with a boy of about nine or ten finding a stray dog he takes home... on the city bus. Well, he tries to. The book tells many more stories of Henry and his dog Ribsy that—setting and characters aside—had little or no overarching plot.

However, what did work about Henry Huggins was Cleary's uncanny ability to tell stories from the point of view of a child. Henry doesn't want to play a little boy in the school Christmas play not because he doesn't want to be in the play, but because he doesn't want to get teased for the role. He loses his friend's football and collects worms to get money to buy a new one.

Henry's adventures continued for five more books and began to have overarching plot lines. In Henry and Beezus, Henry is trying to save his money and find moneymaking schemes to buy a bicycle. Beezus—Henry's friend Beatrice Quimby, nicknamed from how her little sister would try to say her name—tries to help Henry, even winning him a used bike in a police auction, except that it's a girl's bike. In Henry and Ribsy, Henry is tasked with keeping Ribsy out of trouble in return for joining his father on a fishing trip, where he intends to catch a ten pound salmon. In Henry and the Paper Route, Henry decides to try and get a paper route. Next in Henry and the Clubhouse, Henry learns to balance his responsibilities.

Cleary was running out of ideas for Henry stories and the last book, Ribsy, follows Ribsy as he gets lost across town and tries to find his way home. She doesn't try to anthropomorphize Ribsy, describing what seem like reasonable thoughts for a dog. He recognizes certain words and tone of voice, but he doesn't turn into a magical dog who understands English.

However, while she maintained the format of writing episodic chapters that could be excerpted and tell a complete story, over arching narratives became more important as she went on. Over time, plot points introduced in one chapter would be resolved in a later one.

Cleary wrote a spinoff book from the Henry Huggins series in 1955: Beezus and Ramona. Beezus becomes the star of this book, dealing with her exasperating preschool age sister Ramona, who insists on having Beezus read her favorite book about steam shovels over and over. Ramona can't seem but not get in trouble and Beezus begins to feel bad that she sometimes doesn't like her sister.

Thirteen years later, the Ramona series properly began with Ramona the Pest (the previous book is considered the first one, but is very different from the rest) as Cleary writes the adventures of Ramona as she goes to kindergarten. The very young Quimby sister has trouble adjusting and understanding how she should behave. It's almost too funny when she thinks "The Star Spangled Banner" is about "The dawnzer lee light," making Ramona assume the song is about a lamp. And when Miss Binney tells Ramona to "sit here for the present," Ramona expects to remain seated until she gets a gift. Finally at the end, things get to be too much for our heroine when she's suspended from school.

Ramona moves on to first grade in Ramona the Brave as she gets her own bedroom for the first time when the Quimbys add on to their house. She also has to deal with a fellow classmate copying from her and getting embarrassed in front of the whole class.

Ramona begins second grade in Ramona and her Father, which sees the Quimby family tighten their belts when Mr. Quimby is laid off and has to find other work. What makes it work is that there's a lot that adults relate to as well. In addition, Beezus and Ramona confront their father's smoking habit, convincing him to quit. It climaxes with a happy Christmas in which Ramona volunteers to be a sheep in a pageant.

The story continues in Ramona and her Mother in which Ramona's mischievous streak returns as Ramona wishes her mother would like her as much as Beezus and consider her "her girl." The family has a lot of tension and Ramona reaches her breaking point.

Ramona Quimby, Age 8 sends Ramona to third grade with new friends at a new school as the Quimbys financial tightrope walking continues. Now if only Ramona can just not crack raw eggs on her head, or avoid getting sick at school. There's also a humorous episode in which Beezus and Ramona are disgusted at being served tongue for dinner and are tasked with cooking dinner themselves.

Ramona Forever served as a decent series finale when it was first published. When Ramona has a horrible time after school while being babysat at her friend Howie's house, Beezus agrees to stay at home. But the girls discover their mother is pregnant with another child, and then their beloved Aunt Beatrice is getting married while the Quimbys consider moving away from their home.

Fifteen years later in 1999, Ramona's World was published, nearly fifty years after she'd debuted in Henry Huggins. In this book, Ramona moves on to fourth grade and makes a new friend in Daisy, a girl whose family recently moved to the area. Ramona also begins picking up more responsibility in the family as for the first time, she's a big sister.

Beverly Cleary's series of stories of these kids who live on Klickitat Street in Portland, Oregon is like a nice warming bowl of chicken soup. They're a little nostalgic, but some of the earlier entries get dated when they refer to exact prices that are far outdated and a number of them were written during times when children were allowed to roam around town without adult supervision. They're about kids facing issues real children face, and the characters talk to their parents about their problems and often get good advice, likely encouraging young readers to do the same.

Still, it might be noted that there isn't a lot of representation of people of color. None of the human characters are written to sound like anything other than Caucasian people, but I'm sure there could be new interpretations of certain characters. Some of this came with the genre at the time as well as the fact that Cleary herself is a white woman. I won't say that this makes them bad, but I do wonder if children of color might have trouble relating to the characters.

The books are available in print, ebook and through audiobook where they're capably narrated by (mostly) Neil Patrick Harris for the Henry Huggins series and Stockard Channing for the Ramona series. The Ramona series became the basis of a 10 episode television series in the late 1980s starring Sarah Polley (the plots are closely based on the books, mixing episodes from Ramona and her Mother, Ramona Quimby, Age 8 and Ramona Forever and charmingly adapted, even if the lower budget shows), and more recently the film Ramona and Beezus starring Selena Gomez and Joey King as the sisters.

I used to listen to several of the books on audio cassettes borrowed from the library, but recently discovered the books were available as collections on Audible. (The Henry Huggins Audio Collection and Ramona Quimby Audio Collection are available for just one credit each, quite a bargain.) I decided to revisit them and really enjoyed them. (Though I know the Henry Huggins series wasn't read by Neil Patrick Harris back in my day, though he did a great job.)

The series could potentially continue, and while Cleary has retired (she is currently 104 years old), I could easily see some up and coming writer deciding to explore Cleary's Klickitat Street on their own terms.