Arts

Just about everyone seems to love Pope Francis. By presenting a face of humility and innate decency to the world, he’s done wonders for the Catholic Church’s tarnished image. But now we have Philomena on the silver screen to remind us of just how much the church has to atone for. Decades before abusive priests became an international scandal, Irish girls who became pregnant out of wedlock were forced to pay for their indiscretion by laboring in convents. That was the easy part of their penance. The hard part was that church officials demanded the right to give their babies up for adoption. Philomena, based on actual events, shows what happened when one of those girls refused to forget the son who’d been taken away from her. Judi Dench plays Philomena Lee, a devout Catholic who has borne her loss in silence for decades. But she’s never stopped wondering what became of the boy she named Anthony. Through a lucky set of circumstances, she’s introduced to Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan), a former journalist who’s just been kicked out of a position with the British government.

Peter Max is an art icon. He literally painted the backdrop for the psychedelic 60s. His work has inspired a couple of generations of artists and that same work is perhaps the most imitated style since that time. His artwork now hangs in 1,123 museums around the world. He has painted and rubbed shoulders with presidents and rock stars. And on Tuesday his latest book, The Universe of Peter Max (published by Harper/Collins), was released to the public. The Free Press was given an advance copy of the book and HarperCollins arranged an interview with Max on the day it was officially released. With a forward written by famed astronomer Neil DeGrasse Tyson, one might expect The Universe of Peter Max to soar into the cosmos. It does not disappoint. Stunning both visually and in its anecdotal revelations, Max's latest work contains a treasure on every page. Think that's hyperboly? Well, I started my conversation with Max explaining the Free Press and the artist shared an interest in environmental issues. Many here in Ohio may recall the 2002 incident in which a cow escaped a slaughter house near Cincinnati and remained on the lam for several days.

When playwright Arthur Miller directed Death of a Salesman in Beijing some 30 years ago, the tragedy was a hit with Chinese audiences. That surprised some: How could citizens of a socialist country relate to a play about the victim of a capitalist system? But Miller’s 1949 work is more than an attack on economic injustice. It’s also the story of a self-deluded man and his dysfunctional family. Most centrally, it’s about the strained relationship between Willy Loman and his favorite son, Biff, an ex-high school jock who’s never been able to get his life together. The scene in which the tension between them finally explodes is the most powerful moment of SRO’s current production, and probably of most productions. Willy, the titular traveling salesman, is a man of 60-plus years who’s been reduced to working for commissions on ever-shrinking sales. Not only has he been unable to pay his bills—a fact he’s hidden from his wife, Linda—but it’s become increasingly clear that he can’t count on his less-than-successful sons for support. Compounding his problems, he’s begun “talking” to people from his past as he tries to figure out where his life took a wrong turn.

Allen Ginsberg. Jack Kerouac. William Burroughs. Lucien Carr. Lucien Carr? Carr may be less familiar than the others—all icons of the Beat Generation—but he apparently played an important role in the literary movement’s birth. That role is explained in the based-on-fact flick Kill Your Darlings. This stylish first feature by director/co-writer John Krokidas is a murder mystery of sorts, but the crime doesn’t materialize until late in the proceedings. For the most part, the focus is on Ginsberg (Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe) and the quest he undertakes after becoming a student at Columbia University in 1943. While World War II grinds on, Ginsberg and other rebellious young writers basically declare war on literary conformity. And how does Carr (Dane DeHaan) figure in? He’s a student who has no writing ability of his own, but he appears to be an expert at inspiring writers—particularly writers who, like Ginsberg, are attracted to his caution-to-the-wind attitude and blond good looks. Though Ginsberg arrives on campus determined to buckle down and study, he eagerly sets aside his books when Carr invites him to a party in a bohemian part of town.

Oh tosh, it has begun. I realize, of course, that I should have been expecting it. But, alas, I was caught off guard. When I walked into the supermarket last night, there it was: the jingling of that bloody bell in the hands of a Santa-clad Salvation Army worker. I'm not entirely certain why it is, but I detest that sound. To me it is akin to the sound of a screaming baby or a wood chipper, both of which make my teeth itch. I put the tinkling of the Salvation Army Santa bell right up there with the sound of an unattended car alarm. Speaking of which, who ever thought that was a good idea? When was the last time you saw someone promptly attend to a car alarm once it has sounded? More often than not, the car alarm blares away outside the earshot of the vehicle's owner, annoying all those who are within earshot. It's senseless, I tell you. But about that Salvation Army Santa bell clattering. The more I think on it, the more I understand about my own loathing of the sound. Several years ago, for reasons I do not recall, I had the occasion to shop at a different supermarket from my regular one.

I was in the second grade at Highland Avenue Elementary School in Columbus when President Kennedy was assassinated. The principal made the announcement over the loud speaker, and school was dismissed. I walked the short distance home and found my mother glued to the television set; she had been interrupted by the horrible news while watching the soap opera, As the World Turns. The television in my parent’s bedroom remained on for the next several days. One would think there could be little left to say about JFK, Jacqueline Kennedy or the rest of the Kennedys of that fabled generation. However, since this year is the fiftieth anniversary of his assassination, the book world has been inundated with books about Camelot. Even the Kennedys were swept up in the misty memories; Jean Kennedy Smith, JFK’s only surviving sibling, Caroline Kennedy, his only surviving child, and a host of Kennedys from the third generation made a sentimental journey to Ireland, the land of Kennedy–and Fitzgerald–ancestors to retrace the steps of his famous 1963 visit there. Many do not know that, as a young man, Kennedy had aspired to be either a journalist or a professor.

On the 31st of July, Yellow Springs Ohio was the site of a major police operation that involved multiple agencies. The resulting standoff left one resident dead from police gunfire and residents with serious questions about police conduct. Ohio Attorney General Mike Dewine took the opportunity on November 12th to deliver a state Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) report and push for new mental health laws and greater police funding. Questions from the deceased's family were not answered and the press conference ended abruptly. The BCI report, which has not been released in full, claims to have interviewed over 80 residents of Yellow Springs regarding the shootout and death of Paul Schenck in July. Several Yellow Springs residents have declined to give statements to the Columbus Free Press, claiming the police would not take their statements and alleging police harassment and surveillance since their attempts to go on record.

The Columbus International Film & Video Festival closes out this weekend with an array of award winning films from around the world. The Festival, the longest running in the US, started last Thursday and continues through Sunday. Today (Thursday, November 14) the Festival features award winning student shorts. Local high school filmmaker Brian Ferenchik’s short “Wake Up” will be screened as well as OSU alumni Ryan Moody’s short “Last Call.” The screening is at the Canzani Center on the Columbus College Of Art & Design campus at 60 Cleveland Ave and admission is free for students and CIF&VF members, all others just $5. Parking is free in CCAD lots. On Friday, the Festival screens the Silver Chris (Best in Division) film “Heart Of Sky, Heart Of Earth.” The film has also been awarded the Central Ohio Green Education Fund Award. Directed by Frauke Sandig and Eric Black (who is originally from the Columbus area) the film is a look at Mayan culture today and their spiritual connection to the environment.

The early heroes of the AIDS epidemic were honored in How to Survive a Plague, a 2012 documentary that focused on efforts to pressure health officials to devote more resources to fighting the disease. Dallas Buyers Club dramatizes the self-serving but equally gutsy struggles of an AIDS hero who didn’t fit the usual mold: a hard-drinking, rodeo-loving electrician named Ron Woodroof. As played by the increasingly surprising Matthew McConaughey, Ron is not only straight but homophobic. When a doctor tells the Texan, one day in 1986, that he’s HIV-positive and has only 30 days to live, he greets the news with angry skepticism. “There ain’t nothing out there that can kill Ron Woodroof in 30 days,” he declares before storming out of the office. But as the weeks go by and he finds himself growing weaker and weaker, Ron begins looking for help. When a local hospital starts testing the new drug AZT, he bribes an orderly to sneak him samples. It’s only after the supply runs out that Ron finds his way to a Mexican clinic run by a renegade doctor named Voss (Griffin Dunne) who’s experimenting with more-holistic treatment options.

Free Press political cartoonist Matt Bors will be among the featured speakers during the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Grand Opening Festival of Cartoon Art today through Sunday Nov. 17 in Sullivant Hall on the campus of the Ohio State University. Bors will be joined by other notable cartoonists including Brian Bassett, Stephen Pastis, Hilary Price, Jeff Smith and many others. Bors, who will also be honored at the 2013 Annual Free Press Awards dinner on Monday (see page 10), has been a nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist through Universal Features since the age of 23. He was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist in 2012, and winner of the Herblock Prize for Excellence in Cartooning as well as the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award. He published his first graphic novel, War is Boring, in 2010 and is currently the comics journalism editor for Cartoon Movement. Bassett is the creator of the comic strip Red and Rover which was launched in 2000, and won the 2013 award for Best Newspaper Comic Strip of the Year by the National Cartoonists Society.