Movies that I've managed to see this November.

So even though I've been fairly busy this month, I've also managed to find some time to watch movies too. Even though we're still dealing with the pandemic and things aren't back to 'normal', I've tried to check some films in order to keep myself entertained.

Film-wise, even though there haven't been that many films that have been released lately, there have still been some old ones left to see. I've done my best to check those earlier films and see whether they're actually worth watching and worth your time.

In any case, this time, even though we're starting to run out of films, we still have three new movies to review. We have an animation called 'Sonic The Hedgehog', a prison movie called 'Escape from Pretoria' and a nazi comedy-drama called 'Jojo Rabbit'. 

So the first movie that I saw is 'Sonic The Hedgehog', an animated movie about a hedgehog based on a popular video game. In that game, that was released almost 30 years ago, a blue furred hedgehog named Sonic tries to pass levels and collect as many golden rings as possible.

Not surprisingly, when it comes to adapting a paper thin character like that into a full length movie, that is easier said than done. When you have a character that has basically no depth, dimensions or back-story, as a writer you need to get creative.

Fortunately, even though I was a bit worried about the quality of the movie, I have to say that the writers and the producers managed do a fairly good job here. Sonic as a character is pretty likable and the story in the film isn't that bad either.

Story-wise, we're dealing with a movie where Sonic, using those golden rings as a teleport, reaches our human world. Once he gets into some 'hill-billy' town in the U.S, he tries to figure out what's going on and even manages to befriend some people (James Marsden). 

Later on, once the U.S government gets some 'readings' that there's some weird things going on in the town, Sonic gets into trouble. He's being chased by a scientist mad man (Jim Carrey), who wants to kill our hedgehog in order to find out what our protagonist's secret is. 

Quality-wise, the reason that the film works well is that it has an uplifting tone to it and doesn't take itself too seriously. There are more than enough funny & silly moments in the movie and the story beats are placed well enough to keep you entertained.

In that sense, when you look at the movie as a whole, even though it has some problems (weak catalyst), it's still a fairly entertaining film. This is a solid movie, so if you haven't seen 'Sonic' yet and don't have anything better to do, you should watch it at some point. 

 

The second film that I saw this month is 'Escape from Pretoria' a movie about two white guys escaping from a prison in South Africa in the late 1970s. They decide to escape after receiving lengthy sentences for simply protesting the government's racist apartheid policies.

So when it comes to the film, one of the reasons that I watched it with my friend is that I'm a fairly big 'fan' of these escape films. I've watched most of these movies in the genre, that includes films like 'Shawshank Redemption' (fantasy) and 'Escape from Alcatraz' (actual history). 

Another reason that I wanted to see the movie - not that surprisingly - has to do with its lead actor Daniel Radcliffe. I wanted to see how well he would do in a more serious role now that the Harry Potter film series has finally come to its conclusion.

So having now seen 'Escape from Pretoria' I have to say that watching it turned out to be exactly as nerve wrecking as I had imagined. Even though I had read some spoilers about what happens in the story, that didn't stop me from being at the edge of my seat. 

Indeed, as you keep watching the film that is mostly a true story, you can't help to wonder how they were able to pull the whole thing off. You have to admire their enormous creativity and all the things they had to do in order escape from the prison.

Acting-wise, not that surprisingly, Daniel Radcliffe and the rest of the cast do a spectacular job here. They're completely believable - each and everyone of them - in their roles and you simply feel their despair when things don't seem to go their way.

Drama-wise, the only minor problem here story-wise is that the movie, especially in its first half is a bit flat in places. There aren't that many 'bad guys' or B-plots in the movie, which might explain why not everyone liked it (70% positive reviews at Rottentomatoes.com).

Still, when you look at the film as a whole, it's pretty evident that this movie works. It works well, so if you're fan of the genre and are interested to know a bit more about South Africa's apartheid phase, 'Escape from Pretoria' is a must see movie.

The third movie that I managed to see this month is 'Jojo Rabbit', a comedy-drama about a 10 year old german kid who imagines having Hitler as his friend during WWII. I managed to see the film a couple of days with my friend - who really wanted to see it.

Indeed, the fact that we actually ended up watching the film wasn't because I had huge hopes for the movie. I had seen trailer for the movie a year ago when I was at the cinema (with my Canadian friend) and wasn't impressed with the quality of it that much. 

However, having now seen the film, I have to say that my instincts about 'Jojo Rabbit' turned out to be completely wrong. There's actually a real heartfelt story here that you wouldn't guess based on its trailer (94% positive audience rating at Rottentomatoes.com).

Story-wise, the plot is about a impressionable Hitler Jugend kid who finds out that her mother is hiding a jewish girl in their attic. This reveal is what drives the movie and forces the kid to challenge his thoughts about the so called evilness of the Jews.

Quality-wise, when it comes to the overall quality of the film, the biggest reason that 'Jojo Rabbit' works so well is that it manages to mix comedy and drama elements extremely well. There's a nice balance between the different story elements throughout the movie.

Indeed, as we kept watching the film, I couldn't help but admire how well the director/writer (and the Adolf) Taika Waikiki manages to get things click. The movie does a really good job with its heartfelt and laugh out loud moments that bring out the absurdity of the war. 

Story-wise, the only minor flaw in the film is that in the middle of it the story tends to lag a bit. It kinda felt that perhaps there wasn't enough energy to keep the thing going (might have to do with the emphasis being less about the rest of the kids).

Still, when it comes to the film as a whole, there's no question that 'Jojo Rabbit' is a very good movie. This is a good movie and especially when it comes to the kids in it (Roman Griffin Davis as 'Jojo' and Archie Yates as his sidekick 'Yorki'), they absolutely steal the show here.

Thoughts on the U.S. presidential election results.

Like so many others who enjoy following U.S. politics, now that the presidential election is finally over, it has to be said that, in the end, things didn't turn out so bad. It's pretty safe to say that we can finally sigh in relief and look forward to the future at least a bit.

Indeed, even though Joe Biden wasn't that good of a candidate, he still managed to defeat President Trump in the general election. He managed to gather enough support in the crucial swing states in order to claim the presidency and beat the incumbent.

At the same time, there's no question that Biden's electoral college victory, that was almost as slim as Trump's victory over Hillary in 2016, didn't come easily. Trump managed to do way better than what the polls predicted and wasn't actually that far from winning the election.

Indeed, had Trump gotten roughly one hundred thousand more votes total in some of the swing states, he would have won the race. This would have happened, even though Biden is going to end up winning the popular vote by more than 6.5 million votes. 

So when it comes to the presidential election and its results, how did we get here and why did things happen the way they did? What were the things that contributed to Trump's loss and how on earth did Joe Biden not win the election with bigger margins than he did? 

To give you an answer, in a nutshell, the election happened the way it did for two major reasons. The first one has to do with Trump and his response to the global Covid-19 outbreak, whereas the second has to do with Joe Biden and his lackluster platform-free campaign.

So the first and perhaps the most import aspect of the election, not that surprisingly, had to do with the global Covid-19 outbreak. There's no question that Trump's administration completely bungled their response to the outbreak and did not know what they we're doing at all.

By that I mean is that as most countries took the responsible route with the virus by doing lockdowns and quarantines, the United States did not do that. For Trump, especially at the start, the outbreak was basically a Chinese hoax and not a problem at all.

Indeed, as the death toll kept steadily climbing up, that didn't faze the president. His selfish and ignorant attitude towards the virus was so blatant that it took six months before he even started using a face mask to protect himself (he got the virus a month before the election). 

In hindsight, had the Trump administration taken the 'Wuhan flu' more seriously (free masks, lockdowns, more stimulus packages etc.), they would have been in good shape for the election. The backlash - top issue for 20% of the voters - wouldn't have been as severe as it was.

At the same time, even though Trump and his administration screwed up royally, that doesn't mean that Joe Biden did that much better either. There's no question that democrats and the DNC dropped the ball big time when it came to them running their campaign.

Indeed, as incredible as it might sound, in this election Joe Biden had no nationwide 'policy based' campaign against Trump. They had no issue based messaging that would have given them direction and energy especially in the down ballot races (house + senate).  

In practice, what this meant was that instead of running on surefire winners like 'medicare for all', 'green new deal' or 'free college', they did nothing. Even though most of these issues are super popular (70%+), the party 'elites' chose not to go with them.

The really unfortunate thing about this 'orange man bad, but not all republicans are' is that you had almost nothing to vote for. Why would you vote for democrats in house & senate races when you would get nothing in return (most voted against Trump, not for Biden).

Not that surprisingly, even though polls predicted that democrats would gain seats in the house and the senate, that didn't happen. Democrats actually lost some seats in the house and only gained (so far) one senate seat, which isn't enough to give them the majority.

In contrast, every single incumbent democrat in congress who actually ran on stuff like medicare for all won their races. Not one of them lost their re-election and this included 'squad' members AOC, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, who all coasted to victories in their districts. 

In that sense, when you look at the election as a whole, it's pretty clear that this race was full of stupid stuff and unnecessary unforced errors. Both parties did completely ridiculous mistakes that turned out to be costly (fortunately Trump, unfortunately Biden).

Indeed, in Trump's case, even though his situation was challenging but not completely hopeless, he managed to make every possible mistake during the election season. He was absolutely pathetic in every imaginable way with handling the pandemic. 

Also, in Biden's case, even though he had so many advantages over Trump, he almost bungled his chances too. The fact that he didn't run on a policy like medicare for all, especially during a pandemic like this, was just mindboggling and idiotic.

Still, when you look at the election as a whole, considering that Biden ended up narrowly winning the race, the election from my point of view was a success. The fact that Biden managed to beat Trump and his neo-fascist cronies (like Stephen Miller) was certainly a good thing.

After all, even though I have tons of issues with Biden and his corporate policies, there's no doubt that he's still better than Trump with his racist anti-science administration. There's no question that Biden's win is at least a some sort of an improvement to the situation. 

In that sense, in the end, now that we're waiting for Biden to get his transition team going, I can only hope that things will go smoothly. I hope that as he starts to think about who are going to be in administration, he's able to make good decisions about his team.

After all, even though my hopes aren't that high for his presidency, it's clear the country deserves better. The U.S. as a whole deserves better and hopefully President Biden - despites his flaws - is able to do good things and is able to give the country the change that it needs.