I feel for you Judy

After watching the new Elvis movie last week, I began to notice a bit of a trend in today’s biopics. The genre has always been popular, but lately it seems that what we’re seeing on screen has a commonality: understanding a famous (maybe even infamous) person from deep inside. Seeing the vulnerable part of them that not everyone may have seen. Elvis Presley was enormous in terms of fame, and I grew up hearing about how crazy he was for all the drugs he took. But Baz Luhrmann helped me to see the beauty of what was inside. He helped me acknowledge the challenges and the suffering that maybe I wouldn’t have handled as well as the King did. We had that last year with Princess Diana in Spencer, and Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos. And the previous decade we enjoyed quite a few of these kinds of films: Rocketman (2019); I, Tonya (2017), The King’s Speech (2010); Bohemian Rhapsody (2018); Judy (2019). In each we are see how they rose to fame, but we also see that it wasn’t easy to be them, much less be them with a giant spotlight following them around.

Even the biopics of lesser known people show us individuals in less desirable positions–and less desirable dispositions–and we feel for them. In The Fighter (2010) we are introduced to a once successful boxer who wastes his life and former glory away with a drug addiction and takes advantage of his younger brother. But we also learn to sympathize with his situation, even empathize with his inner turmoil. In Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018) we find ourselves feeling bad for a swindler who cheats people out of a lot of money. And in none of these cases do the movies suggest we dismiss their wrongdoings or suggest they not pay for what they did. They just invite us to be caring despite what may have gone on in one’s life. We can look at ourselves and in all honesty answer the question, “Would we have done any better?”

Could we be a society yearning to empathize with each other? To the point where those who do wrong or even those who are eccentric and excessive could have a chance at being understood as our fellow human beings?

This is something I have really appreciated about listening to podcasts. It’s one thing to see a famous person on a talk show. They’re on TV and every detail has to be perfect: what they’re wearing, their facial expressions, what they say, etc. On a podcast, there is (usually) no studio audience. It’s 2-4 people talking like they would in a living room. They still are aware of how they come across to the audience, but when you take away the camera, when you take away the makeup room, and when the ears are doing all the observing while the eyes take a break, you get glimpses of the real, down-to-earth, even weak side of the people you’re hearing.

I don’t’ know if this really is a trend, or if it suggests anything close to what I shared. But I hope it does. I hope we are both growing in compassion and understanding as a society, and that we’re growing in our hunger for more of both.

Congratulations Judy. This is your week.

And the Oscar goes to…

Best Actress:

Renee Zellweiger as Judy Garland in Judy

Best Actor: Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles in Ray

Best Quote: “You’re absolutely right. John should’ve shot him in the mouth. That would’ve shut him up.” – Lin Manuel Miranda as Alexander Hamilton in Hamilton

And here is my top 10 last 10 (the last movies I’ve watch ranked against each other)

1. The Man from Toronto (2022) ✭✭½

2. The Lost City (2022) ✭✭½ — Both this comedy and the #10 one are both pretty predictable and not ones I would watch more than once. However, some pretty funny scenes in each.

3. Incident at Restigouche (1984) ✭✭✭

4. Heat (1995) ✭✭✭ — This one is a favourite for many, but I didn’t find it much better than just a decent action movie.

5. Trees of Peace (2021) ✭✭✭½ — About the Rwandan genocide from 1994. 

6. Truth (2015) ✭✭✭½ — About Dan Rather and the producer of 60 Minutes during a time when they reported on George W. Bush’s time in the service. 

7. Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022) ✭✭✭✭ — These movies exist almost exclusively as fan service; however, I found this one to be an excellent stand alone.

8. Top Gun: Maverick (2022) ✭✭✭✭

9. The Batman (2022) ✭✭✭✭½

10. Elvis (2022) ✭✭✭✭½