News of the World is Sweet–In a Good Way

 

 

 

NEWS OF THE WORLD (2020)

Directed by Paul Greenglass

Universal Pictures, 118 minutes, PG-13 (cowboy violence, a few swears)

★★★★

 

Say the name “Tom Hanks” and eyes will roll. For those who like movies with grit, snark, and a walk on the wild side, Hanks evokes Mr. Rogers (or, worse, Forrest Gump). But sometimes there is something to be said for wholesomeness. News of the World is one such movie. It is based on a successful novel of the same name by Paulette Giles in which director Paul Greenglass largely parallels Giles’ book, except that the latter was more successful than the money-losing movie.

 

News of the World is a Western that wears its heart on its tattered sleeve. By 1870, the American Civil War had been over for five years, though the South had a long way to go in terms of economic recovery. Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Hanks) eeks out a meagre living by traveling from town to town with a stack of (semi-) recent newspapers. Literacy among white commoners was considerably lower than in the North. Kidd’s job involves reading random newspaper stories to anyone who pays ten cents to hear him. Like a good teacher, Kidd mixes humorous tales with hard news (economics, foreign rebellions, disaster stories) and his dry-wit delivery and public lecturing skills make him popular as long as he keeps moving and doesn’t draw often from the same well.  

 

After leaving Wichita Falls, he encounters a disturbing scene: an overturned wagon and a black man lynched from a tree. He hears rustling nearby and finds a young girl (Helena Zenger) in hiding. She speaks no English and when the U.S, occupying soldiers come by they advise him to take her to an Army fort in Castroville, some 400 miles out of his way. Kidd makes a stop in Dallas hoping that that some old friends will take the girl in, but she’s far too willful. He also stops at an inn run by a former lover, the widow Gannett (Elizabeth Marvel), who tells Kidd that the girl he calls “Johanna” speaks Kiowa and was taken in a raid six years earlier. By all looks and demeanor she is Kiowa, though an occasional German word pops out.

 

The movie is essentially a sojourn across dangerous lands in which Kidd and Johanna learn from each other. It would be hard to exaggerate exactly how dangerous their journey is. They encounter three ex-Confederate roughnecks who offer to “buy” Johanna, presumably for their sexual pleasure. They hightail it out of town pursued by the sleazy horndogs and have a classic shootout in which Kidd and his young charge hide out in a rocky hillside. Johanna’s ingenuous solution to how to compensate for running out of ammunition is a cool scene.

 

There are hostile Native tribes and In Erath County, Kidd sees firsthand how lawless Texas has become. A cattleman named Farley (Thomas Francis Murphy) has set up a rogue state within Texas in which his word, laws, and racist values prevail. In this case, Kidd’s intellect and silver tongue save the day and they leave with an acolyte named Calley (Fred Hechinger) in tow for a few life lessons before setting off on his own.

 

Kidd and Johanna arrive in Castroville only to learn that there won’t be a Bureau of Indian Affairs agent in place for three months, so it’s off to a farming settlement where records indicate her German-speaking aunt and uncle live. To them, though, Johanna is expected to earn her keep on the farm. This sets the table for realizations and a happy ending. In the movie this comes a bit too fast to be completely believable, but it’s in keeping with the novel.

 

News of the World isn’t a classic, but it’s sweet and satisfying. Hanks is very good in the role of a man who saw enough violence to last him a lifetime and is driven to do the right thing, not the most convenient one. Learn the name Helena Zenger, a German-born actress now in her teens. Her translucent paleness serves to accentuate her vulnerability. When being stubborn or throwing a tantrum, her face flushes as if the underside of her skin is afire. Her acting chops are such that she communicates clearly though for much of the movie her words mean nothing to Hanks or the audience–unless you happen to speak Kiowa! Very few people saw this film, but give it a try.

 

Rob Weir

 

 

Sandwich: Gynocentric but Funny and Poignant

 

 

 

 

SANDWICH (2024)

By Catherine Newman

Harper, 226 pages.

★★★

 

 

Sandwich is the most gynocentric novel I’ve read in years. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy this work from Catherine Newman, but sometimes it’s hard book for males to grasp. The novel’s central character, Rachel (aka/ Rocky) dwells on subjects such as childbirth, menopause, oral sex, her vagina, sagging breasts, and how much she misses pregnancy. Lest you think me insensitive, Sandwich is also very funny, touching, and poignant. Plus, Rocky is seriously neurotic, has few filters, and is blissfully unaware of how others within hearing range might squirm over her topics of conversation. Besides, ladies, how would you feel about a novel that dwelt upon urinary tract infections, distended testicles, varicose veins, sexual dysfunction, “war” stories, and passing gas?  Thought so!

 

For those who don’t live in New England, Sandwich is also a town on Cape Cod. If you think of Cape Cod as the flexing arm extending into the ocean, Sandwich is located atop the muscle after you cross the Sagamore Bridge onto the Cape. It’s where Rocky and her husband Nick have vacationed every summer for twenty years–always in the same cottage. Nick is the one who should bear the nickname Rocky, as he’s loyal, steady, handy, and as patient as Rachel is manic. He always listens, though he suspects he only understands about 65% of what Rocky says. We readers think he might be overestimating! They have two wonderful children, twenty-year-old Willa and her older brother Jamie. Both have flown the proverbial coop and Jamie arrives with his serious girlfriend Maya, though he and Willa often speak like a bonded pair despite the fact that Willa identifies as a lesbian and a vegetarian, though she eats seafood. Because. The Cape!  

 

Rocky and Nick are in their fifties, though you can be excused for thinking of them as older and refugees from Woodstock. They are incredibly laidback, not because their kids are grown, but because that’s just the way there were and are. One example of this is Rocky’s relief that her daughter is gay so she doesn’t have to worry about her getting pregnant. Or, at least he was relieved until Nick reminded her that lesbians can have children by choice! But Rocky always finds things to fret over, including worrying that her daughter might be menstruating in an ocean where sharks are sometimes present!

 

Rocky is a classic born-to-be-a-mom type and Nick has come to accept that he’ll always be number three to Jamie and Willa. We get a no-topics-barred look at family dynamics during a week at the beach. Even Grandma and Grandpa get into the act for a few days. Newman has a true gift for turning annoying moments into comedy. The first thing that happens when they enter their modest (and in need of upgrades) vacation house is that the toilet overflows. When Willa complains of the smell, Nick yells out that he’s “knee-deep in sewage.” Rocky insists that’s not true, but because Willa is a “Daddy’s girl” she’s more inclined to believe him! The fact that Maya adores Jamie and his entire family doesn’t leave much room for an outbreak of elegance. And who has visited the Cape that can’t relate to this visit to the local bakery? “Forty minutes later, we are walking back to the cottage with two lattes, four chocolate croissants, one scone, three baguettes, and a receipt for sixty-five dollars.”

 

More serious issues are discussed–abortion, feminism, anxiety, therapy, politics, still birth, grandpa’s dementia–but mostly we get Rocky’s memories of past trips to the Cape, Rocky’s worried thoughts, and the joy of people reveling in one another’s company. If laughter is the best therapy, Rocky’s neuroses don’t have a chance! When Jamie discovers toasted almond bars in the freezer left behind by the previous resident. Rocky has a “bad feeling” about eating any, but Jamie wins the day by a four-to-one vote: “… you feel like maybe the people who stayed here last week… [are] playing the long game of booking this place last October so that they could plant a poisoned ice-cream novelty and kill us.” Leave to Nick to remember a time when they were younger and Rocky baked a cake in a cat litter pan! As they prepare to leave and muse over their favorite things, Rocky thinks: “…the fact of us together and alive. The kids… are so grown! So young. Mine and not mine, as ever they have been. Maybe my grief is love imploding. Or maybe it’s love expanding.”

 

Rob Weir