Notes on Politics: Cain's Odd Smoke-Filled Campaign Ad, Rich Getting Super-Rich & Gotta See 'Margin Call'

What are We to Make of This . . . Cain’s Campaign Blowin’ Smoke?

There has been a lot of buzz about GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain’s sudden rise in the polls, in at least one of them he has, shockingly, topped front runner Mitt Romney.

And while we’re trying to figure out when the Herman Cain 9-9-9 apples and oranges bubble is going to burst – I will be utterly astonished if it doesn’t – I’d like to know what in the heck is up with this latest Cain ad featuring his chief of staff literally blowing cigarette smoke at the camera. Seriously, anyone care to venture forth an explanation for the cigarette followed by Cain's Cheshire cat grin? It's baffling. I don't know what it means and it's been bugging me.

Top 1 Percent Saw 275 Percent Increase in Income, CBO Says

A new Congressional Budget Office report says that the top 1 percent of U.S. wage earners have seen their incomes increase by 275 percent over the past 30 years, Politico reported. Politico continued:

“The after-tax income for the highest-income households grew the most out of any group form 1979-2007, the CBO reported. The richest 1 percent of Americans saw a 275 percent growth in household income, while the poorest 20 percent experienced just 18 percent growth . . . The 60 percent in the middle of the income scale saw just under 40 percent growth in after-tax income.”

This provides the Occupy Wall Street/Occupy [Everywhere] protesters with fresh ammo in their objections to the widening gulf between the haves and the have-nots.

Go See ‘Margin Call’

Over the weekend I caught the new “inspired by a true story” film Margin Call, an insiders’ look at what happens when a Wall Street investment firm realizes it has taken on more financial risk than the total worth of the company and decides to sell off investments which they know have no value to unwitting customers in order for the firm to survive. It mixes a little bit of the aura from The Company Men and Up in the Air, as it starts off with mass layoffs at the firm, and also has the intelligent tension of the HBO drama Too Big To Fail.

It provides an unflinching look at the 2008 financial meltdown from the perspective of folks from inside one firm who are making decisions which they know will have a wide-reaching impact only most of them only care about what happens to themselves. While moral questions are raised, many immoral, greedy answers are provided, as some folks who aspire to do the “right” thing – which isn’t always clear – find themselves trapped within the confines of the framework of today’s financial world and believe they have no good choices. This whole financial mess, it’s complicated and ugly. But, then again, we already knew that.

Notes on Pop Culture: 'The Company Men' as a Horror Flick & 'Big Love's' Margene Drops Bombshell

Yes, I’m still here. I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth or become trapped under 47 feet of snow in my front yard as we in the Northeast cope with with a never-ending-depressing-as-hell snow apocalypse. Truth is, I’ve been under the weather, but I seem to be slowly on the mend and have a pair of pop culture quick hits for you:

The Company Men as a Horror Flick

Before falling ill, The Spouse and I finally saw The Company Men. And it scared the hell out of me as I identified a bit too much with the Ben Affleck/Rosemarie DeWitt suburban dwelling parents. (When I saw DeWitt's character driving a black Volvo, drinking iced coffee, carrying reusable grocery bags and wearing clothes that look a lot like what I wear, suffice is to say it was unsettling.) Their life was idyllic . . . until Affleck’s initially arrogant character got laid off and he became humbled by the fact that he couldn’t find work for many months. His wife's nurse’s paycheck wasn’t enough to finance their lifestyle, forcing them to sell their home, move in with his parents. He wound up taking a job with his brother-in-law on a construction job.

I wrote a column about how The Company Men made me question what has happened to the good, old fashioned American dream which told us that if people from financially modest circumstances went to college, got a degree or even two (extra points for an MBA), worked hard (as in never seeing your family) and aggressively climbed the corporate ladder, you could reap monetary rewards, like Affleck's character did. In this new, frightening economic climate where millions of jobs have been shed, that doesn't seem to be the case any more regardless of what academic degrees are hanging on your wall or how well you do your job.

Big Love's Margene Drops a Bombshell

Ep. 46: Scene Clip - The Ice Capades

I also got a chance to review the third installment of Big Love in which a massive bombshell was dropped upon the Henrickson family. (Don’t read any further if you haven’t yet seen the episode . . . )

Margene admitted that she was only 16 when she married Bill when the age of consent in Utah is 18, seemingly leaving Bill open to potential statutory rape charges should this information become public. Like he needs any more bad PR. (I'm supposing this would make Barb -- who has now started drinking to the point of inebriation -- and Nicki accessories of some kind?)

Between that little tidbit, the horrifically awkward four-across ice skating and Adaleen’s odd Alby-embracing decision (remember when Alby tried to blow her up?), the episode was quite gripping.

Notes from the Asylum: 'Big Love's' Last Season Begins, 'Grey's' Pregnancy Issues, 'The Company Men' . . . FINALLY!

Recap #44

Big Love’s Last Season

This is the Henrickson family’s last season on HBO’s Big Love and they started it off with the leader of their clan, Bill, acting like a head-in-the-sand narcissistic who’s suffering from a god complex as wife number one has started hitting the hooch in the middle of the day (in violation of her religion’s dictates), while wife number two threatened a grade schooler on school grounds and wife number three lost her six-figure job because her husband has outed the family as polygamists.

Yeah, about that outing thing, telling the world that he’s a polygamist mere hours after being elected to the Utah state senate, that didn’t turn out to be such a brilliant move. It didn't turn out to be a hit with anyone, not the employees at Bill’s home building supply store who were either quitting or talking smack about his family, not his campaign supporters who felt duped, not his fellow Republicans in the state senate who've vowed to politically isolate him, not the kids who go to school with the Henrickson children and not the Indian tribe which rescinded the Henricksons' contract at the family-friendly casino that was to be the family’s financial life raft.

Now they’re screwed.

While I’m hoping that Big Love’s final season isn’t centered around Bill being ridiculously out of touch, I’m eager to see what happens next. You can read my review of the season premiere on CliqueClack TV, where I’ll be reviewing each episode the day after it airs.


Image credit: ABC

Grey’s Pregnancy Issues

*Warning, spoilers from the recent episode of Grey’s Anatomy ahead.*

This past week’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy (I reviewed it here) -- which featured Meredith struggling with infertility, following her miscarriage, and Callie discovering that she’s pregnant with her friends-with-benefits’ baby -- got me to thinking about all the messed up messages that Grey’s Anatomy, and its sister show Private Practice, have sent over the years about pregnancy, child rearing and the medical profession.

Take Meredith “I’ve Got Mommy Issues Up the Wazoo” Grey. Early in the show’s run, she lambasted a pair of workaholic parents who hired a nanny to take care of their child. Burned by the fact that her dad left home when she was young and her mother threw herself into her surgical work and ignored her daughter, Meredith didn’t think she’d ever make a good mother. Until Derek said they should have a child. She got pregnant but before she could tell her husband Derek, he was shot, nearly died and she miscarried. Six months later, she’s having trouble having a baby and was told she has a “hostile uterus.”

When you throw in what happened with Callie Torres, who said she wanted "a dozen" kids since she was married to George O’Malley, plus Addison Montgomery, Mark Sloan and the only working parent on the show, Miranda Bailey, and you’ll see how thorny an issue this has been for Grey's characters. My pop culture and politics column this week is about all things babies and Seattle Grace.


Image credit: Rotten Tomatoes

The Company Men Finally Going to Be Released This Weekend

Fantastic reviews. Great cast. Perfect moment to address a timely issue – the dispiriting effect that layoffs and calloused cost-cutting/outsourcing efforts have on people who devote most of the waking hours of their lives to their jobs only to find themselves unceremoniously unemployed in a lousy economy when no one's hiring. I’ve been waiting and waiting for this much-delayed, Boston area-filmed movie The Company Men to be released. And FINALLY, it’s coming out this weekend.
And unlike the fact that I didn’t get to see The Social Network in the theaters – it’s in my Netflix queue – and I wasn’t able to see the Potter film in the theaters either (holiday madness and swine flu conspired in a sinister fashion to thwart me), I plan to, somehow, go out and see this film in the theaters.

Image credits: Danny Feld/ABC and Rotten Tomatoes.

Tempting Trailers: 'Morning Glory,' 'Love and Other Drugs,' 'Company Men'

When it comes to DVD movie rentals from Netflix, I’ve been having a spot of bad luck lately chosing good films. I’ve not been fond of the last several movies I watched including Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Greenberg and State of Play, during which I fell asleep. (It surprised me that I disliked State of Play given that it’s a journalism movie and I started out in print journalism.)

That being said, I’ve seen a few trailers recently for movies which look promising -- other than the new Harry Potter movie, of course -- but who can tell if they’ll actually be any good? Oftentimes I’m intrigued by the trailer then wind up hating the film. But still . . . I’m a sucker for these promos.

Though reviewers are saying that the TV morning show-centric rom-com Morning Glory -- out today -- is exceedingly fluffy, they also seem to be in agreement that Rachel McAdams is very good in it. The New York Times said the film -- which also stars Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton – is “a passably amusing romantic comedy,” and that McAdams is “effortlessly likable,” calling her a “young actress on the verge of the big time.” The Boston Globe likened McAdams’ morning TV news show producer character to Mary Tyler Moore. You know, the one who’s gonna make it after all. I’m desperately in need of a feel good movie right about now, if anything, it’ll offset the darkness of the In Treatment episodes I’ve been watching.



Another trailer that has caught my attention is the one for the new Anne Hathaway/Jake Gyllenhaal slightly darker rom-com Love and Other Drugs which is slated to be released on Nov. 24 I hope this one isn’t a letdown or just labeled "passable."


Love And Other Drugs Trailer

One film that’s not at all lighthearted romantic fare but, nonetheless I’m anxious to see was shot around Massachusetts, The Company Men, about the affect of downsizing on an up-and-coming professional with a young family, on two older execs, one with a kid in college, and on the folks left behind. It stars Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner, Chris Cooper, Craig T. Nelson and Tommy Lee Jones and opens on Dec. 10.



Any films you’re looking forward to seeing in November and December?