My Piece of the Pie ... Karin Viard is wonderful in this tale of class warfare waged from Dunkirk to London, Paris and back. A single mother raising three girls is laid off when vulture capitalists gobble up the plant she works for. Despondent and desperate, she goes through a rough time before taking a job as a house cleaner/maid ... unknowingly for the main man (played brilliantly by Gilles Lellouche) responsible for her plant closing. He’s about as arrogant and abusive as a person can get, but that’s where I’ll stop. This will make you smile, laugh and furious before you know it ... an excellent movie very appropriate for the times.
Potiche ... a fun movie about a trophy wife (Catherine Deneuve) with a past forced to take control of the business her husband runs ... against an old flame communist (Gerard Depardieu) ... family politics, amore and some very funny moments. A bit of a silly ending but getting there is a joy.
Paris ... Short Cuts with a French twist .... a dancer with a weak heart requires a transplant ... his sister (Juliette Binoche) comes to take care of him ... other subplots revolve around the city the dancer watches from his window ... not as good as Short Cuts or the those above ... but not bad either.
The Woman in the Fifth ... great cast, but this one left me wanting so much more. I’m a huge Kristin Scott Thomas fan, but not in this one. I like Ethan Hawke a lot, and he was fine in this, but the movie left me wanting.
Baseball’s MVP War … call me a dinosaur, but WTF with the stats already? Wins Above Replacements? Are they kidding? One more statistical device to show what, exactly? If the games aren’t actually being played (“above the replacements”), then why the hell would anyone take this virtual statistic serious? And it is a virtual statistic … until MLB finishes ruining the game altogether and plays a virtual version, seriously, WTF?
Mike Trout is worth 10.(whatever) wins a year “above replacements.” Some numbers cruncher figured that out? Can the same numbers cruncher figure out why Mike Trout’s team didn’t make the playoffs? Are there another 10,000 variables for him to plug into his calculator? Might one include the pitcher he hit three doubles against in one game had a blister on his finger ... or had sex eleven times the morning of the game?
The MVP voting was simple enough for me. One guy led the league in all three major batting categories: Home Runs, RBI and Average. That GIVES him the MVP. The fact HIS team not only made it into the dopey round robin tournament MLB runs, they made it to the final round, was icing on the cake.
Mike Trout is obviously a great player and he may well have even greater numbers in his future, but this year Miguel Cabrera won the triple crown. I remember the last time it happened, when Carl Yaztremski did it in 1967 … when I LOVED baseball more than anything and would run home from school as fast as I could to catch however many innings were left in the world series game (because they were played during the day and in October, not November). Now, I could care less who plays in the tournament. I watched maybe two innings of one game of the series this year (that includes the regular fugazy season), and quite frankly, could care less if baseball disappeared tomorrow. I’m missing hockey right now (and I’m a very recent fan of the game) way more than I’d ever miss MLB.
The above said, how about a knuckleballer, A.J. Dickey, winning the NL Cy Young award? That’s what I’m talkin’ about. Let’s Go Mets!
Other Stuff …
Romney’s conference call … looks like he really did mean what he said about the 47% … glad he’ll be home for the holidays … imagine the nerve of the public not adhering to his royal desire to be president? Well, with all those gifts Obama was giving out (anyone notice it was mostly to the 1%) besides me?
Go Green in 2014, baby!
Twinkies no more … of course the company is blaming the unions for all their unreasonable demands … this should keep the flames of the insane on the extreme right burning bright into the next election cycle. Imagine workers having demands? Why, they should be happy the owners provide them with working toilets (see the French film, My Piece of the Pie above)!
Oy vey …
Cessation ... Now we’re up to fifty states that want to secede from the union. Does that make Obama even better’n Lincoln? That should make the secessionists rethink it.
Bills Squish the Fish … a punt return and a bunch of field goals … offensive touchdowns? We don’t need no stinkin’ offensive touchdowns! What should’ve been a cakewalk was another nail biter, but this time we came out on top. Can we string together six more in a row? It’s doable … BILLIEVE!
—Knucks
I forget how many times I’ve read the book, this week one more time, but here’s the opening scene from the movie ... The Friends of Eddie Coyle.
