Monthly Archives: January 2021

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Ralph Fiennes definitely has range. After winning Oscar nominations for his deeply serious early roles in Schindler's List and The English Patient, he's often subverted our expectations by playing everything from In Bruges' potty-mouthed mob boss to The Grand Budapest Hotel's camp concierge. And who can forget his villainous performance as Lord Voldermort in the Harry Potter movies?

In his latest film The Dig, which premieres on Netflix Friday (January 29), he plays Basil Brown, a self-taught British archaeologist who spearheaded one of the most important discoveries of all time. To whet your appetite, here are some things you might not know about the darn fine Ralph Fiennes.

1. His full name is Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes.

And Ralph is pronounced "Rafe" to rhyme with "safe."

2. He comes from an illustrious family.

His paternal grandfather Sir Maurice Fiennes was an industrialist who was knighted for services to British engineering, while his maternal grandfather Brigadier Henry Alleyne Lash was a prominent officer in the British Indian army.

He's also related to explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, his third cousin once-removed, who in 1993 became the first person to cross Antarctica completely on foot. Oh, and you surely know his brother Joseph Fiennes, a fellow actor famous for Shakespeare in Love and The Handmaid's Tale.

But, did you know that the actor who plays Tom Riddle a.k.a. young Voldemort in Harry and the Half-Blood Prince is actually Fiennes nephew Hero Fiennes-Tiffin?!

3. He's the eldest of six siblings and grew up between England and Ireland.

"We struggled financially and grew up with the refrain that we had a big overdraft," Fiennes told The Times in 2018. "We had food, but it was often packets of soup and mashed potato. My father was a farmer who became a photographer. My mother was a writer. I think my love of the theatre comes from her and my approach to work from him. He loved using his hands and was very gifted at building shelves and things. He trained me in painting and decorating, how to replace a sash window and so on."

4. He rarely discusses his private life and respect to him for that.

But we do know that he was married to Doctor Who favorite Alex Kingston from 1993 to 1997. The two actors met while studying at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and dated for around a decade before tying the knot.

5. He's had honorary Serbian citizenship since 2017.

His agent Simon Beresford told The Hollywood Reporter that year that Fiennes remains a British citizen, but has "gracefully accepted the honor bestowed on him by the Serbian people in gratitude and appreciation of the work he has done in Serbia over a number of years."

Fiennes shot both films he's directed, 2011's Coriolanus and 2018's The White Crow, in Serbia.

6. Long before he joined the Bond franchise as M, he was briefly in the running for the title role.

"There was a discussion, once, some years ago, about my playing 007," he told The Guardian in 2019. "I don't think I would have been very good, but I did feel that I could have had a crack at it if it had been set in the 1950s. I love the books and I always saw them in black and white, gritty, noirish and very dangerous. And probably very politically incorrect!"

7. The role he found the hardest to play was... J-Lo's love interest Maid in Manhattan.

"The truth is I found it really hard playing the young Republican senator in Maid in Manhattan," Fiennes told The Guardian. "I was flattered to be asked to play opposite J-Lo. But quickly realized that my Prince Charming role didnt have much grit. It amused me to read that in a recent Guardian breakdown of J-Los films it was considered that Id let down the film by coming across as a serial killer."

8. He suffers from "huge anxiety attacks."

"I'll wake up early in the morning with my brain anxious about something and I don't even know what it is, just a general sense of profound uncertainty," Fiennes told Esquire in 2014. "It's from the unconscious, I suppose, fears about existence. A weird twilight panic. We feel we can organize our lives and have an order that we can control but really we can't; it's always paper-thin and underneath there's this lurking chaos. You think, 'F**k! This could come at me at any moment.'"

9. He nearly turned down his iconic role as Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter.

"The truth is I was actually ignorant about the films and the books," Fiennes admitted during a 2019 interview on The Jonathan Ross Show. "I was approached by the production. Mike Newell was directing the film that they wanted me to be in... the first time Voldemort was going to appear physically. Out of ignorance I just sort of thought, this isnt for me. Quite stupidly I resisted, I was hesitant."

Fiennes then explained that he has his role as an uncle to thank for his eventual decision to accept the villainous part, saying: "I think the clincher was that my sister Martha who has three children who were then probably about 12, 10 and 8 she said, 'What do you mean? Youve got to do it!' So then I rewound my thinking."

10. Oh, and he wore a rather surprising garment under his robe when he played Voldemort.

Fiennes shared his sartorial secret during a 2016 appearance on The Graham Norton Show, which you can relive below.

Do you have a favorite Ralph Fiennes performance?

Read more from the original source:
10 Things You Never Knew About Ralph Fiennes | Anglophenia - Anglophenia

Its going to be a rollercoaster, but dont worry: it has a happy ending.

Its easy to show and explain that messianic synagogues are just churches where Jesus is reigning with a sauce of Jewish words and customs. That isnt only fake Judaism and falsehood. (How can one promote falsehood and claim to believe in G^d?!) But when we look at the differences between the Orthodox and the non-Orthodox, things are much less clear.

Although no question is taboo in Judaism, the above one is so politically incorrect that, rather than looking for answers, most people may tend to just say that its s proof of disrespect and forbidden to ask.

One could counter that Reform and Conservative and Reconstructionist and Humanist Judaism are new and that everyone knows that all the shades of Orthodox Judaism only are continuations of historic Judaism.

However, Judaism always changed, over the ages, so why would the changes that happened in the last one-and-a-half century be deemed unworthy of being part of the Judaism of millennia?

One could say that it is a bridge too far to do away with the separation between the mens and the womens section, question the Divinity of the Torah, to let the public vote on what Jewish Law should prescribe, to abandon exclusively maternal lineage, and to reject the Supernatural, etc.

Those are radical departures of the past, but weve been there before. Debates on biggies, like if theres a future world, resurrection, or free will.

That is true, but the groups that held that these dont exist, discontinued to be part of the Jewish Tradition. They may have meant well and have been sincere and honest and noble and holy. But not Jewish, in hindsight.

For now, we cant tell which part(s) of Judaism have the future. So, that cannot be an argument to disqualify any specific way. Maybe Pluralism will win out. Maybe Purification will. Maybe neither. Prediction is hard, especially concerning the future. Moses didnt even recognize the Judaism of Rabbi Akiva, the pillar of all Judaism we have today.

But, there is still a difference if you build on old Judaism or if you take modernity and give it a Jewish veneer.

Thats what you say about the non-Orthodoxy. But the great Maimonides adjusted Greek Philosophy to fit Judaism. His books were burned and his name was shunned, until it was discovered that he did not compromise Judaism at all. Same with Chassidut. Same with so many Jewish renewals.

Still, we dont let anyone just invent his own lifestyle and philosophy and claim it to be a legit brand of Judaism. Not only would that be the end of a distinguishable Jewish People but it would also guarantee that every religious Jew began his own Judaism without any common denominator.

But, anti-Semites dont distingue between the present different Jewish streams. They equally hate all of them.

Oh, thats true. This is a serious argument, sadly so. Theyre often the first and best in finding out whos Jewish (for the wrong reasons, obviously).

However, all of the above mess might be the result of the tough situation that Jews found themselves in in the Germanic countries. Every tiny mistake could unleash a mass murder on the small communities, and those Jews became terribly over-precise. A strictness that never was part of Judaism. Then, it can be called a sign of assimilation. Non-Ashkenazic Jews dont separate their communities into Reform, Orthodox, etc.

So, all of the above may be solved when the majority of Jews, the non-Ashkenazic Jews, will take the lead in shepherding the Jewish People.

MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to two Dutch survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork, and holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam). He taught Re-evaluation Co-counseling, became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. * His most influential teachers (chronologically) are: his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim: Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. * Previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. For a couple of years, he wrote hasbara for the Dutch public. His fields of attention now are varied: Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (statistics), Politics (Israel, the US and the Netherlands, Activism - more than leftwing or rightwing, he hopes to highlight Truth), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust and Jewish Liberation), Ecology and Veganism. Sometimes he's misunderstood because he has such a wide vision that never fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what many love about him. Many of his posts relate to affairs from the news or the Torah Portion of the Week or are new insights that suddenly befell him. * He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, reassure the doubters but make the self-assured doubt more. He strives to bring a fresh perspective rather than bore you with the obvious. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds must be disputed. In short, his main political positions are: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, democracy, anti the fake peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, Science, Free Will, anti blaming-the-victim and for down-to-earth optimism. Read his blog how he attempts to bridge any discrepancies. He admits sometimes exaggerating to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. * His writing has been made possible by an allowance for second-generation Holocaust survivors from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. November 13, 2018, he published his 500th blog post with the ToI. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having a peek outside of your cultural bubble. * To find his earlier blog posts on a certain subject XXX, among his over 1200 ones, go to the right-top corner of the Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". His second daily active less tame blog, to which one may subscribe, one may find here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. * To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me.

Link:
Are Reform and Conservative Judaism misappropriating traditional Judaism? | Moshe-Mordechai van Zuiden | The Blogs - The Times of Israel

With audio descriptions provided by narrator Toni Green, this concept album might as well have been a radio musical. Set roughly between the late 1930s and the late 1940s (the earliest date explicitly stated is 29 March 1939, and the narrative ends at a point where Israel had been established as a nation-state), the show is set in Birobidzhan, in Siberia. Birobidzhan remains the capital of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, ostensibly set up so the USSR could claim tolerance towards Jews. But, as this show highlights, even the slightest hint of dissidence against the state results in a lengthy jail term.

Two families in particular are focused on. Iser Liebermann (Sam Young), his wife Mirele (Kate Radmilovic) and their daughter Zofia (Kimberley Blake), a wireless broadcaster, are from Ukraine.

Oskar Levin (John Ellis), his son David (Joseph Claus) and his daughter Bayla (Michaela Stern) are from sunny California. The long and the short of it appears to be that Oskar hates his ex-wife so much he would rather relocate to Siberia than have anything to do with her in the United States. Each to their own and all that.

No prior knowledge of the era in which the show is set is required as sufficient context is provided. Having as much explanation as is provided may be somewhat trying for someone who does know about this period of history, but that doesnt take anything away from how accessible this production is. The show provides an outside looking in perspective on Soviet living, and isnt exactly kind to the USSR, portraying it as a fretful country where everyone spies on everyone else and submits regular reports to the authorities. The Soviet Union is, mind you, where the term politically incorrect came from. Used in its original context, your friends may agree with you about something, and deem you factually correct but politically incorrect, because what youve said is not the official standpoint of the government, and would therefore, if someone were to snitch on you, result in immediate and indefinite imprisonment without trial.

The style and tempo of the music suits the hostile environment. This isnt exactly 42nd Street, and it takes a while to get drawn into the narrative. Some themes and subject matters explored are familiar to fans and followers of musical theatre, such as intergenerational conflict, sibling rivalries, the power of love, and the dilemmas characters must face at pivotal moments, expressed (of course) through song. The show verges on melodrama on occasion, and some of it, frankly, is as predictable as night follows day. Theres the steely determination that one character has when another one wants to throw in the towel. And people are falling in (and out) of love with each other.

For some, the litmus test is whether the melodies are memorable. There isnt a tune that sticks in the mind for me. It is a demanding score to navigate, and the cast does well to belt out the long, big notes (and there are quite a few of them throughout). Im not the biggest fan of synthesizers, and theyre overused here. The production manages a credible hopeful ending, and by the end, I was sufficiently invested in the shows characters that it was almost a pity there wasnt a postscript to summarise what happened to them in the years and decades after the events portrayed.

Its not a wholly watertight musical. Some of the accents need tightening, for instance, and Im not sure what Yenta (Toni Green) does all day other than worry and complain. Its also slightly surprising that its not until some way into the second half that someone anyone in a religious community utters a prayer. Overall, though, its a bold and sincere musical work, which doesnt sugar-coat the sheer reality of the complications and risks involved in starting a new life.

Review by Chris Omaweng

Set on the brink of war, SOVIET ZION is about an American family and a European family who each move to Siberia as pioneers, participating in the real-life endeavour to create there a Yiddish-speaking, socialist utopia. The stories of a spoilt girl from Malibu who must adjust to her new Siberian life intertwine with those of a woman who, manipulated into betraying the man she loves, must strategize her every move. How can they escape? And where can they call home?

The rest is here:
Soviet Zion Concept Album | Review - London Theatre 1

These days it has become a common invective to denounce particular popular actions as political or politicised in order to delegitimise them. This is a tactic that has traditionally been employed by all ruling parties in Indias political history, but has become an especially handy tool for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its supporters within the media and public.

The allegation of politically motivated currently being hurled at the farmers protests fomenting around Delhi as well as other parts of the country is the most recent example of the same. This is just the latest use of the bogey in the last 12 months.

It has previously been used to, among other things, attack the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protesters, the raising of concerns about stranded migrant labourers being charged for being ferried by the railways to their homes during the lockdown, the opposition to the conduct of NEET and JEE exams amidst the pandemic, the questioning of the Union governments response to border incursions by China, and the protests against the shocking ill-treatment of the gang-rape victims family in Uttar Pradeshs Hathras.

The question that begs to be asked is: what is this politicisation, and is it indeed a bad thing?

Politics is serious matter

Politics is not just the domain of political parties contesting and competing with each other in elections. Understood holistically, the term refers to all the activities associated with the governance of a country, especially (but not limited to) the contestation of power among political parties, as well as deciding how that power to govern is wielded. It is reductive to treat politics simply as a horse race, a pro-wrestling match, a who will be the next PM/CM reality show, or BJP versus INC/AAP/TMC.

Politics affects all of our lives, especially those of our fellow citizens who rely on the State for their material needs. This is why if something significantly affects the lives of citizens and is either ignored or not sufficiently dealt with by the State, it must be politicised.

This need for politicisation through participation in the political process is sanctioned by the Constitution of India, not only through the right to participate in elections through voting in and contesting them, but also through the fundamental right to assemble peaceably and without arms, to form associations and unions, and to move freely throughout the territory of India.

Also read: Success of Farmers Protest Renews Hope in the Politics of Mass Mobilisation

This is why anyone can form a political party; indeed, we have thousands of political parties across the country. It wouldnt be incorrect to hold that our constitutional and legal framework provides every citizen with the freedom to hold political thoughts, and to participate in political activities.

It is, therefore, quite puzzling, then, that political parties are derided for doing politics or politicising public concerns and issues. Is that not their raison detre? Every single party is guilty of it, especially during election campaigns, so why does it become a pejorative only when someone opposes the governments narrative and raises uncomfortable questions?

People, including members of opposition parties, gather in central Delhi for a protest against the governments decision to withdraw Rs 500 and Rs 1000 banknotes from circulation, November 28, 2016. Credit: Reuters/Cathal McNaughton

Good politics versus bad politics

A distinction must be drawn, then, between good politics and bad politics. As outlined by professor Sadanand Shahi in an editorial in Hindustan, bad politics is of the kind that attempts to disengage the citizenry from politics by making them apolitical. This is precisely because an apolitical citizenry can easily be convinced that politics is sleazy territory to be stayed away from.

Such citizens get conditioned not to expect or demand better governance from their political representatives or the State that improve their lives, and can consequently be swayed by narrow identitarian or parochial concerns that invoke passion but ultimately have no impact on their material living conditions.

Such bad politics is evident, for instance, in the politicisation of the gotra or religion of a prominent politician, the unfortunate suicide of a Bollywood actor, and the rabble rousing over marriages between Muslim men and Hindu women.

Conversely, good politics is the kind that articulates legitimate public grievances, and policy issues that have a bearing on the public good.

This is why every government decision that impacts lives detrimentally must be contested, and Opposition parties must challenge those decisions in the political domain. After all, that is how government policy improves in the first place, through the exertion of popular pressure.

Even seen from the prism of cold electoral logic, it makes sense for Opposition political parties to politicise citizens unrest and differences with the government: Different political parties are supposed to represent distinct and diverse ideologies and political stances, and Opposition parties must organise and canvas support for positions on which they diverge with the government in order to set themselves apart and hope to win votes at the next election.

After all, if every Opposition party goes along with the governments narrative and doesnt stand with citizens when they voice differences with the governments policies, then why would citizens vote for them?

In fact, if the Opposition can be faulted for something, it is that they dont politicise enough matters of government failures crushing citizens lives, be it, for instance, the unchecked police brutality against citizens, the non-payment of salaries for several months to teachers and doctors, the resistance towards ASHA workers demand to be paid at least a minimum wage, the unemployment crisis that has enveloped the country for the last few years but has especially exacerbated due to the twin blow of the pandemic and the national lockdown, the central governments failed response to the pandemic which has caused untold avoidable deaths and heaped misery on so many more people, and the education deficit being faced by students who cannot go to schools and are outside the limited privileged circle of those who can afford schooling via smart tech devices.

Also read: Why Todays India Needs a Resurrected Swatantra Party

These are issues that affect voters lives, and will find more resonance with public as opposed to petty bickering over a politician being asked to leave government accommodation that she doesnt even need, or shameful resort politics of the sort we have seen in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan since the pandemic took root in India.

After all, in a democracy, politicians work for us, and have an obligation to explain themselves and answer our questions. Whats wrong with an Opposition party member or, indeed, a citizen, posing those questions and asking for information? Pointing out flaws in the policies of the government of the day and providing an alternative narrative is exactly the Oppositions job!

Opposition parties protest against the handcuffing of farmers in Andhra Pradesh. Photo: Twitter/@JaiTDP

The public good must be politicised

Calls to not politicise issues are meant to divert attention from peoples legitimate demands, and reduce the governments accountability. If the Opposition is attempted to be shut out or dismissed under the canard of politicisation, be it in the parliament, in TV news channel studios or on the streets, then we are only left with the governments narrative. In a parliamentary democracy like ours, however, every party, and, by extension, every persons voice counts, not just the ruling partys. The weakening of the Opposition, therefore, by equating genuine dissent and questioning with narrow political attacks, weakens democracy.

Politicisation of trivial matters must be called out and criticised. Politicisation of peoples grievances, on the other hand, must not only be encouraged, but also expected from opposition parties, in a healthy democracy.

Vineet Bhalla is a Delhi-based lawyer.

More here:
Why Politicisation of Public Grievances Is Not the Bad Thing It Is Made Out to Be - The Wire

Another Round as it is popularly a Danish comedy-drama was praised last year. Here are some other movies like it.

Druk or Another Round as it is popularly known is a Danish comedy-drama that swept audiences and critics last year with its fresh narrative and energetic performances. Leading man Mads Mikkelsen has had his fair share of intensely dramatic roles. In Another Round, he collaborates with director Thomas Vinterberg to play a similarly flawed character, but with a certain playfulness never seen before in his filmography.

RELATED: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Mads Mikkelsen

Mikkelsen and his co-stars portray ordinary school teachers who grow dissatisfied with their mediocre lives. When one of them mentions an experiment that proposes drinking a limited amount of alcohol every day increases productivity, all of them readily agree until the side-effects start kicking in. The film is a quirky and unconventional tale on alcoholism and the after-effects it can leave on one's life and relationships.

Nicolas Cage is a household name with a plethora of mainstream films but Leaving Las Vegas might arguably be one of his lesser-known films, ironically being his only Oscar win for acting. Cage features as a down-on-luck screenwriter who is struggling with alcoholism. Giving up on life, he decides to head out to Las Vegas to drink himself to death until a sex-worker (Elisabeth Shue) offers a new perspective of life.

Researching for his role, Cage engaged in binge-drinking in Dublin, asking his friend to videotape him so that he could study his own drunk speech to get into character.

Interestingly, the aforementioned Elisabeth Shue plays a fictionalized version of herself in Hamlet 2, a film that focuses on a production of Hamlet that's intended to be a sequel to Shakespeare's classic play. The film is as random as it gets as a failed actor-turned-drama teacher (Steve Coogan) ambitiously directs a pop-culture driven, politically incorrect version of Hamlet.

Coogan perfectly represents the character's hopeless fall into alcoholism, as he needs an outlet to channel his unaccomplished dreams and to escape from his mid-life crisis. To an extent, Hamlet 2 can be seen as an R-rated variant of School of Rock.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Aaron Paul play a dysfunctional couple with drinking issues in the film very aptly titled Smashed. However, after Winstead's character hits rock bottom, she decides to get sober and joins an Alcoholic Anonymous group. Rather than delving into the same, old, alcoholic stereotypes, Smashed offers a fresher perspective of a woman who is willing to introspect on her past.

True to the emotional nature of director James Ponsoldt's other films (The Spectacular Now, The End of The Tour), Smashed values moving, grounded character studies instead of over-the-top dramatic caricatures, that are otherwise aplenty in films on addiction/alcoholism.

Perhaps the film that brought wine-appreciation back in fashion was an underrated gem from Netflix called Uncorked. Unlike Sideways which featured wine enthusiasts, the lead in Uncorked (Mamoudou Athie) is committed to becoming a top-class sommelier (a professional wine taster in layperson terms). But when his father wishes for him to manage his family restaurant, a conflict of interest arises.

The film is a love letter to the world of wines, while also touching on how such arenas of culture are often reserved for the elites. So, the protagonist isn't just fighting his family to come closer to his dreams, but also his own financial limitations.

Sideways is a film that actually contributed to the economics of the wine industry. When Miles (Paul Giamatti) appreciates Pinot Noir over Merlot, the sales of the former actually increased by 16% in American outlets, while Merlot's sales fell. Such has been the impact of Sideways.

RELATED: Sideways: 5 Scenes That Made Us Laugh Out Loud (& 5 That Hit Us In The Feels)

The road film deals with two friends, one of whom is getting married and hopes to engage in extramarital escapades in his journey. Meanwhile, Miles as mentioned above is just interested in tasting good wine. He's shown a failed writer and an amateur wine-taster, with his appreciation for wines serving as the only thing that offers him hope.

Several films on alcoholism depict the alcoholic character as a burden to their romantic partner. In the case of Days of Wine and Roses, the alcoholic ends up sharing his habit with his lover! Joe Clay (Jack Lemmon) is a PR man, and owing to his job, he frequently drinks with his clients. Eventually, his teetotaler girlfriend (Lee Remick) also ends up binge-drinking leading to a toxic relationship, fueled with alcoholism.

RELATED:10 Most Underrated Netflix Original Movies From The Past 5 Years

The film is adorned with chilling performances from both the leads, with Lemmon breaking typecast as he was earlier known mainly for his feel-good comedies.

While Another Round found Mads Mikkelsen merrily dancing and drinking to the fullest, Thomas Vinterberg's previous collaboration with the actor was much more serious in its nature. Mikkelsen yet again stars as a teacher in a small Danish town. One of his kindergarten students wrongly seems to think that her teacher sexually abused her. This leads to mass hysteria with the teacher being ostracized by the society around him.

The Hunt can be an uncomfortable watch for some as it doesn't offer any easy, straightforward answers. Additionally, Another Round's Thomas Bo Larsen and Lars Ranthe also appear in the film.

An overdose of anything can be lethal. So, when a wealthy yet vulnerable man ends up loathing his comfortable life, he decides to dose on a newfound lust for life. He retires from his job and leaves his wife in this process, only to go down a dark rabbit hole of drugs and unstable relationships. In the end, he faces the conflict of choosing one path in life, both of which seem extreme.

RELATED: Ben Mendelsohn's 10 Best Roles, Ranked

Yielding stunning performances by ever-reliable character actors like Ben Mendelsohn and Edie Falco, The Land of Steady Habits doubles as a case study in addiction and existentialism.

Ryan Gosling has played a charming gentleman in many a film but in Half-Nelson, he dons the guise of a disgruntled middle-school teacher with crack addiction. When one of his students (Shareeka Epps) discovers his secret, she strikes an unlikely friendship with him that ends up being oddly therapeutic.

With subtle underacting and a bittersweet exploration of human loneliness, Half-Nelson is a good-enough indie drama. It's also amusing to see a less-popular Gosling in a pretty unique role (the remnants of which could probably be seen in his performance in The Nice Guys).

Clocking at just an hour and a few minutes, the Netflix original film 6 Balloons is an intense drama that takes place over the course of one eventful night. Abbi Jacobson stars as Kate, a woman who is simply spending her day preparing for her boyfriend's birthday party. But a call from her brother Seth (Dave Franco), a drug addict, compels her to come to his aid for the rest of the film.

6 Ballons might be devoid of the visual prowess of Requiem For A Dream or the power-packed dramatics of Beautiful Boy, but still, the film succeeds at presenting a raw and real account of how addicts end up impacting their loved ones. Given a chance, Kate can leave Seth at a rehab facility and forget about him altogether, but she still keeps on looking after him like he's a naive child. Is this familial love or a toxic obligation on her? That's left open to interpretation.

NEXT: 10 Best Mads Mikkelsen Films, Ranked (According To Rotten Tomatoes)

Next Harry Potter: 10 Mistakes JK Rowling Made In The Chamber Of Secrets Book

Hailing from and based in India, Shaurya Thapa harbors interests in freelance journalism, cultural diversity, and critical analyses on films and TV of varied genres.

Excerpt from:
10 Films To Watch If You Liked Another Round | ScreenRant - Screen Rant

Ward is the executive director of the Center for Respectful Leadership. He lives in La Mesa.

During the first day of his presidency, Joe Biden conducted a virtual swearing in of a group of White House appointees over a videoconference call. He then presented them with a very stern warning: Im not joking when I say this, the 46th president of the United States said. If youre ever working with me, and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot. On the spot. No ifs, ands or buts. Everybody, everybody, is entitled to be treated with decency and dignity.

Wow! Essentially, President Biden is commanding a culture of respect in his administration and doing so very, very directly. Given the amount of disrespect in political and public discourse weve been seeing and hearing in the last few years, this is a breath of fresh air.

And yet its not often that leaders make such clear and unequivocal statements about respectful behavior, not to mention what will happen if people dont comply. This is because many of them dont value respect, or assume its unimportant, or dont understand how respect is a key driver of partnership, performance and productivity. This is a shame, because respect is a far more important organizational success factor than most people think.

But can you really command employees to respect each other and expect that to work? Maybe.

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Part of creating a respectful organizational culture means ensuring that most, if not all, employees share the same definition and understanding of respect, as well as the same values and practices around decency, integrity, honesty, kindness and what are known as the three Cs: courtesy, civility and consideration.

But bringing employees to common agreement, and to a high level of understanding and practice around respect, requires education and training, collaboration and patience, trial and, yes, error. And given that the Biden administration is only a few days old, its a safe bet that these things havent happened, yet.

So President Biden appears to be jump-starting the process, by making his expectations of his appointees behaviors, and the consequences for not complying, achingly clear. This could have the desired impact, especially since the commander in chief is saying it.

But within his command to respect is a threat: if you dont comply, you lose your job. In some organizations, such a ham-fisted approach could backfire and result in everyone tiptoeing around each other on eggshells, afraid to be outed by their colleagues as politically incorrect or disrespectful. In this kind of environment, known as a too nice culture, most people wont speak their minds or give each other candid feedback, or theyll replace honest appraisal and openness with sugar-coated nuance and passive aggressiveness. The reality is a too nice culture is almost as destructive and as costly as an openly disrespectful culture.

Successful organizations are balanced. They are workplaces where respect is genuinely valued and practiced with consistency and authenticity, while at the same time they are places where people feel safe enough to argue a point passionately or call each other out on disrespectful behavior without a proverbial sword of Damocles hanging over offenders heads.

President Biden has been clear with his intentions, and hes made a good start on respect. Now he needs to ensure theres concrete training and follow up so that everyone in the Biden administration understands, values and practices respectful leadership every day.

See original here:
Opinion: President Biden's call for civility in the White House could backfire. Here's how to ensure it won't - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Every year, we take up the sordid task of skimming through the bottom-of-the-barrel of the years entertainment. Although this year was slim pickings, that didnt stop bad content from being, well, bad. Heres to the bad, worse, and downright unwatchable, and hoping that you didnt have to endure them.

What The Love! With Karan Johar (Netflix)

Unwatchability meter: Quite unwatchable, but could be a great watch when drunk or high.

Firstly, the title of the show is definitely not as intelligent as the team must have thought it to be. This is a show about finding love so lets take what the fuck and then change it to love hahaha, so funny. Secondly, the show was terribly sanitised and scripted, really boring, and had no goal. Six couples will find love at a random bar, and go on fake dates with celebrities who only did the show because they are KJos friends. Wow. So this is woke Splitsvilla on a budget? Thirdly, when KJo doesnt realise a young chap is gay (while he is evidently flamboyant so that the college kid sitting in Bilaspur does not need any hand-holding to spot the stereotypes while watching this aspirational show about rich kids and stylists finding love at a singles party, on his mobile subscription) and is pleasantly surprised and employs his laziest acting skills you know that this show is going to be forgettable AF.

Betaal (Netflix)

Unwatchability meter: Very unwatchable, might make you think of cancelling your subscription.

The Red Chillies-Netflix marriage didnt take off with Bard of Blood. So, when the South Korean zombie-themed series did so well, I am guessing it was time to try out an Indian iteration too? Because if it works in one market, why shouldnt it work in another? Id like to make both the teams write this a 100 times on a chalkboard VFX does not maketh a show.

Mrs. Serial Killer (Netflix)

Unwatchability meter: Unwatchable max, can induce beheading tendencies, starting with the films team.

The height of bad decisions made in 2020 is for Mrs. Serial Killer to get a release. It is the Arjun Kapoor of films so bad that it is really, really bad. Also, can we just keep Jackie F limited to dancing in Badshahs music videos?

A Suitable Boy (Netflix)

Unwatchability meter: Watchable, if you are hyper-privileged, educationally challenged, uninformed about culture and history, write clicking selfies under Occupation in your Tinder bio, and think Rajasthans contribution to India is being the countrys Instagram capital. Basically, if you are a moron. Politically incorrect, insensitive, callous adaptation, and boring with a capital B (Mira Nair, peddling Indian rivers-and temples-and-ghazal-soiree nostalgia is so last decade. Most of your white audience have already done the Agra-Rajasthan-Bombay-Goa backpack trip and know that theres more to India than that) are some of the accusations against this show. But what overtakes is an aged tawaif speaking in English, the colonial masters language, right after Independence. Is it a joke? Is it an insult? Cant decide.

Durgamati (Amazon Prime Video)

Unwatchability meter: If you have endured Sadak 2 and Laxmii, very watchable. Otherwise, unwatchable AF.

The trailer was enough for us to know that this was going to be a bad film. But how bad, we couldnt predict. At one point in the film, a psychiatrist informs us that the protagonist suffers from Kakorrhaphiophobia, the fear of failure. Evidently, the film-maker doesnt suffer from the same infliction.

Sadak 2 (Disney + Hotstar)

Unwatchability meter: Shamefully unwatchable, ensuring that Kalank is not the low point of Alia Bhatts filmography.

Whose idea was it to make a sequel to a film from two decades back, which isnt top-of-mind pop culture recall right now? Was Mahesh Bhatt just becoming too much of a nuisance at home that family, and dear friend Sanju Baba, came together to just keep him occupied and out of the house? How else can anyone explain this colossal waste of money and acting talent? How does Makarand Deshpande sleep at night after delivering the worst acting performance of the decade? Film-makers are still using death by trishul insertion as a method of killing the villain in the climax, and no one objected to it? Questions, so many questions.

Virgin Bhanupriya (Zee5)

Unwatchability meter: Watch it only if you need a sure shot entry for your Worst Films and Shows of 2020 piece.

I love it when item girls and Instagram influencers start believing that they are actors. It is such a positive vibe. Look at Urvashi Rautela ditching her sexy avatar to play a bespectacled, fully clad, sexually inert toddler. Now, thats what we call Art Cinema. Tomorrow, Nora Fatehi might star as the lead in an Indira Gandhi biopic. Mr Faizu will do an adaptation of Macbeth. I am stunned that Virgin Bhanupriya wasnt Indias entry for the Oscars. What a sad snub.

Laxmii (Disney + Hotstar)

Unwatchability meter: It is, irrefutably, the worst thing you will ever see unless Akshay Kumar takes it up as a challenge to beat that (which I hope he doesnt, for the countrys mental health).

And, the worst film or show or extended cut of a TikTok video goes to *drum roll please* Akshay Kumars Laxmii. If you watched the film, you must have sobbed for days, or gone on a killing spree, or both. Laxmii is such an abomination of a film, hitting a low point in every department of film-making, that it is in competition with Gunda and assorted Ramsay Brothers films and it might even beat them. Id like to start crowdfunding to pay for the Laxmii teams therapy, and also for a care package for Twinkle Khanna. And Kiara Advani, darling, even if you are getting the Burj Khalifa, can you please pick films that will add to your filmography, and not turn you into another Katrina Kaif? Unlike her, you actually can act.

Read more:
Next Worst Films And Shows Of 2020 - Man's World India

Are you tired of the now-boring weekly Zoom quiz or wanting to add some extra fun to your family catch-ups?

For many of us, I think it's right to say that we want to leave Zoom quizzes back in the first national lockdown and move on to something a little different.

Estate agents across Norfolk are using technology such as video calls to keep in touch with clients, conduct virtual house tours and even make initial valuations. Picture: Getty Images- Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

There are many virtual games made for multiplayers so that friends and families cankeep in contact and combat boredom during the coronavirus pandemic.

Through video conferencing appslike Zoom and Microsoft Teams, participants can share their screenand invite multiple online users into their calls.

Here are some suggestions for socially-distant fun games to play with your friends and family while staying at home.

The Jackbox Party Pack series consists of various party game collections that are easy to play and absolutely brilliant.- Credit: Jackbox Games

The Jackbox Party Pack series consists of various party game collections that are easy to play and absolutely brilliant.

Highlights include Quiplash, which challenges players to come up with the most hilarious answers to various prompts, and Fibbage,a fib-til-you-win trivia party game.

Each Jackbox Party Pack is available on PC, mobile, Xbox, and Play Station, and only requires one person to own the game, with up to eight players participating from their phones.

The host can easily share their screen over Zoom or Skype.

Cards Against Humanity say it's a party game for horrible people.- Credit: All Bad Cards

Cards Against Humanity say it's a party game for horrible people.

In the game,which is strictly for adults, players complete fill-in-the-blank statements using words or phrases typically deemed as offensive, risqu orpolitically incorrect.

There is now a way to enjoy the card game with up to 50 friends virtually, with All Bad Cards.

In order to start the game, head to the website and clickNew Game. The site will then ask you to type in your nickname. Youll get a shareable link to invite other people

Then all that's left to do is video call your friends and watch each other reacting to the hilarious answers.

Monopoly is now available on the app store- Credit: App Store

Many board game classicssuch as Cludeo and Uno have private multiplayer features online, meaning you can set up a game and choose who can enter.

The same goes for the much-loved Monopoly board game, which has been added to the app store for families to play remotely.

If you've ever played Balderdash, you'll get the gist of Psych!- Credit: Psych!

If you've ever played Balderdash, you'll get the gist.

Join the game remotely from your phone with your friends, choose from a number of categories, and start making up fake answers.

All you have to do is simply voice or video call each other to discuss your hilarious answers.

Tabletopia has more than 1,500 board games- Credit: Tabletopia

Tabletopia has more than1,500 board games, ranging from classics like chess and digital card packs, all the way through to modern games likebirdwatching card game wingspan.

Some of the games do require a subscription but the majority are free to play with your friends.

The rest is here:
5 virtual games to play with family and friends over Zoom - Dereham Times

Australia Day used to be an obvious and uncontroversial occasion for brands to endear themselves to Australian consumers. No longer.

There has been a decided shift over the past decade in commercial attitudes to January 26, acknowledging the problematic nature of the dates choice as our day of national celebration to our First Nations.

Nothing demonstrates this more conclusively than Cricket Australia dropping references to Australia Day in its promotions of Big Bash League fixtures.

Its a significant step. The BBL doesnt need to appease inner-urban lefties. Its customer base is as middle-Australia as you can get. Nor can this be dismissed as corporate timidity, running for cover lest woke activists on social media make a fuss. Indeed the decision has likely excited more controversy than would have business as usual.

Well, its not cricket, declared Prime Minister Scott Morrison when asked about the move. I think Australian cricket fans would like to see Cricket Australia focus a lot more on cricket and a lot less on politics.

News Corps outrage machine has been running even hotter. The greatest betrayal of this country by a sporting body, fumed Sky News host Chris Smith.

Both Morrison and News Corp know something about appealing to core audiences. In this case, Cricket Australias attunement to its stakeholders is probably a better barometer of national feeling.

Brands have never been shy about using national holidays for commercial gain.

Take Anzac Day a date (on April 25) far less controversial than Australia Day, but one still fraught with sensitivities.

The Australian Football League has leveraged the Anzac spirit since 1995 through its Anzac Day match betweeen Collingwood and Essendon. Though not without its critics, the league has mostly managed to avoid running afoul of community sentiments in balancing commodification with commemoration.

Other brands have not been so artful. Woolworths, for example. In 2015 the Fresh Food People ran an Anzac Day campaign involving an image generator by which people could upload a photo of a relative who served in World War I or a more recent war to create a social media profile picture overlaid with the phrase Fresh in our Memories and a Woolworths logo.

Woolworths executives were shocked to discover many people thought this distasteful, and quickly dropped the promotion.

But it generally takes a lot for brands to back away from commercialisation opportunities. Carlton & United Breweries also copped criticism in 2015 over its Victoria Bitter beer brands Raise a Glass campaign (running since 2009) but was unapologetic.

It defended its association with Anzac Day citing a photo of Australian soldiers serving in Egypt during World War II who made a VB made out of Victoria Bitter beer bottles, and the money it contributed to the Returned & Services League and Legacy.

It did, however, drop the campaign in 2016. And now, of course, CUB is owned by Japanese conglomerate Asahi, which makes such promotions somewhat awkward.

Read more: Should we be consuming more than just patriotism on national days?

This may explain why VB has clung to its Australia Day promotions.

It used January 25 in 2018 to launch Knock Off Times campaign. Last year it marketed VB-branded thongs the ultimate fashion accessory for the Australia Day long weekend.

The reason is simple: its a sales opportunity.

The national public holiday is a day to have a party with family and friends. Barbecues are popular. Its a useful date for alcohol brands and others to time promotional campaigns that position themselves as dinky-di.

Coopers, now the largest Australian-owned brewery, has also used the day to promote its true-blue credentials. In 2017 it ran a national billboard campaign with the slogan: Australia Day. Australian-owned. Perfect.

Even brands with tenuous connections to barbecues (or Australia) have gotten in on the act. A Mercedes-Benz promotion in 2018 featured sausages on a grill in the style of the German luxury car brands three-pointed badge

But for brands attuned to middle Australia, waving the flag around Australia Day is losing its explicit appeal as community attitudes change.

Lets not forget the date has never been universally embraced. Marking the date of arrival of the First Fleet at Port Jackson in 1788, January 26 was only nationally adopted as Australia Day in the mid-1930s. Given the dates association with colonisation and dispossession, Indigenous Australians have lamented the choice ever since. In 1938 the first Aboriginal Day of Mourning and Protest was held in Sydney. Counter-commemorations of the day as Survival Day and Invasion Day are hardly new.

To appreciate how attitudes have shifted, think about lamb.

No advertiser has leveraged Australia Day more adroitly than Meat and Livestock Australia. It has pegged its advertising campaign promoting lamb as the national meat to the holiday for two decades, with former AFL player and lambassador Sam Kekovich fronting the campaign from 2005 to 2014.

The longevity of the campaigns timing with January 26 indicates the strategys success.

The campaigns have been consistently irreverent, appealing to the larrikan sense of humour. But in recent years theyve also become far less politically incorrect. Gone are explicit appeals to nationalism and skewering of easy targets such as vegans. Instead their messages are about sharing and togetherness.

This years campaign, Make lamb, not walls, is a comical take on border closures. Notably it makes no mention of Australia Day.

Last week pollster Essential Research, which has been surveying Australians annually since 2015 about their feelings of Australia Day and celebrating it on January 26 published data showing 53% of Australians regard it as just another public holiday (compared with 40% in January 2015).

Opposition to moving Australia Day to another day is still quite significant (35%) but, tellingly, just 17% of those aged 18-35 are opposed, compared with 55% of those 55 or older. Even among Coalition voters, more support a separate day than oppose it (49% to 45%).

The waning attachment of market-sensitive mainstream brands such as MLA to the day may be just as telling, in the same way betting markets are a useful adjunct to polls to accurately measure the popular mood.

Read more: New research reveals our complex attitudes to Australia Day

Cricket Australias detachment may be the most significant of all barometers. Its hard to think of a brand more acutely aligned with Australian identity.

True, not all the BBLs franchise teams are on board. The commercial and marketing manager of the two Melbourne teams, Nick Cummins, is batting on with promoting this years January 26 fixtures at the MCG as Australia Day matches. It was, he said a complex issue that needs time and extensive engagement.

But the writing is on the wall. As Indigenous cricketer Dan Christian put it, there comes a time to to read the room.

More here:
It's not just cricket: Australia Day isn't the commercial winner it used to be - The Conversation AU

The Private Sydney Australia Day Dishonours list is dedicated to the shameless, the unintentionally hilarious, the idiotic, the buffoonish and the self-absorbed of our great land.

And theres no shortage of contenders, as a quick scroll down the Daily Mails right-hand column of shame would testify on any given day and at any given hour.

This year's honour for Services to Indolence goes to Kyle Sandilands. The radio star, who is almost as famous for the amount of days he has off work than he is for his tawdry love life, became headline news again after he slept in and turned up to work an hour late last week.

Sierra uploaded a video to social media outlining the couples experience and said they had been kept in the dark after multiple training sessions were cancelled at the last minute.Credit:YouTube/Vanessa Sierra

PS's nominees for Services To Shameless Attention Seeking have to be Aussie tennis star Bernard Tomic and his latest squeeze, an OnlyFans adult entertainer named Vanessa Sierra.

Rebel Wilson with her beer baron boyfriend Jacob Busch in Monte Carlo last year.Credit:Instagram

They've been "locked up" in hotel quarantine ahead of the Australian Open and according to them, the conditions have been unbearable. (Sierra now says she was joking when she started posting on social media about the hardship of having to wash her own hair, which the next day she claimed had generated 500 death threats.)

Sierra scaled the dizzying heights of Aussie celebrity as an also-ran on the torturous dating show Love Island, but last week she became headline news all by herself on Channel Seven. The network played her heavily edited video, apparently skipping Sierra's "punchline", though to be honest she's no Joan Rivers.

Comic Rebel Wilson is being inducted today into the Order of the Ultimate Bogan Betrayers.

Wilson has been applauded for shedding kilos during her year-long health kick, but judging by her highly-orchestrated Instagram feed it would appear she now has little in common with the woman her fans originally fell in love with.

Wilson got her big break in Fat Pizza 20 years ago, in which she unapologetically played overweight Greek-Australian Toula. Last year she admitted she would be "crucified" if the politically incorrect show went to air today.

Wilson also wrote and starred in the series Bogan Pride, playing the character Jennie Cragg as she embarks on a quest to win $10,000 in a local dance battle to pay for her morbidly obese mother's stomach stapling operation.

No more fat-shaming, culturally insensitive cheap laughs for Wilson these days though.

Wilson now flies around the world's most exclusive resorts on a seemingly endless fleet of private jets, parties on superyachts with billionaires, and hangs out with European royalty and Hollywood A-listers. She is dating a hot beer baron with a penchant for Gucci mules and regularly poses in sexy photo shoots showing off her new, svelte figure.

For Services to Injectibles, Lip Fillers and Fabulousness, PS can't look past former child star Jack Vidgen, who has recreated himself into an androgynous Lolitaesque character. He appears to have kissed his squeaky-clean, boy next door persona goodbye, along with his legion of 80-year-old grandmother fans.

During his time on I'm A Celebrity. . . Get Me Out Of Here! Vidgen opened up about the many cosmetic procedures he had undergone, saying: "If someone's happy... and they look like a circus clown... if they're happy, they're happy."

Jack Vidgen, then 14, blew everyone away with his audition on Australia's Got Talent in 2011.Credit: Nine

Clearly not as happy are this years inductees into the Order Of Repressed Angry White Men who have valiantly been waging their battles on the gender, race and sexuality fronts since Moses was a boy: NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham and unintentional humorist, Christian lobbyist Lyle Shelton.

Latham has given up trolling former Australian of the Year, domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty, and focused his hyperventilation on ensuring school kids remain in their scientifically-proven gender camps (sorry Jack, you and your false eyelashes and luscious lips are not welcome).

Meanwhile like-minded Shelton has been waging war against story book reading drag queens in Brisbane when he's not posing in selfies with local Proud Boys. He insists he was joking after he managed to absorb valuable Queensland police time when he tweeted he had a "sneaky run across the border and back" and "avoided the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] virus police" in the process.

However you intend to commemorate, commiserate or simply ignore Australia Day, and regardless of your views on Shelton, Latham, Sandilands, Tomic, Sierra, Wilson et al, we should never forget how lucky we are to live in a place where deliberately mischievous columns such as this can be written.

That's reason enough to let all us Australians rejoice every day of the year.

Andrew Hornery is a senior journalist and Private Sydney columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald.

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The most UnAustralian Australians of the Year - Sydney Morning Herald