Where The Crawdads Sing (2022)

I went to see this movie knowing nothing about the story - I had not read the book nor knew anything about what happens. 

But I liked it. It definitely kept me in suspense, and left me trying to put together all the pieces in my head throughout the movie. I liked the performance by David Strathairn who plays the lawyer. He's good, but I don't think this is an Academy-Award nominated role (even though I think he definitely deserves an Oscar). 

I liked the main lead, and thought she looked alot like Anne Hathaway to me, so much so that I wondered why the real Anne Hathaway couldn't have been cast (is she too old - gasp!).  The marsh where she lives was depicted as so serene and secluded and safe...until the threat comes - a crazy ex.  

The only likeable people in the town is the Black couple who own the local variety store in town. I liked those characters, and wished their characters had more screen time and were somehow more involved.  

I liked the scene when the brother comes back. And I liked how they showed all her drawings and illustrations, and I wished the movie focused on them some more.

Trivia - the actor who played "Angus" in the 1990s movie Angus has a small cameo in a bar at the beginning. Not sure how he got involved, but I also wish his part was way longer. Can we say "comeback"?

Sigh! Maybe another director would have had more vision. 

But otherwise I recommend the movie. Even if it feels like something that might be made-for-tv.

Matewan (1987) with James Earl Jones, Chris Cooper

This real-life incident of the coal miner's strike (and subsequent shootout between them and their bosses) could have been lost to history, perhaps only seen as a boring piece of history to read or study in school. But this movie makes the story exciting, suspenseful and thrilling, with interesting characters and terrific performances by David Strathairn (a police chief who may or may not be an ally to the workers), James Earl Jones (one of the workers), Chris Cooper as the union organizer and Mary McDonell as his wife. I recently watched this film, and loved it. It feels very realistic, and holds up remarkably well 35 years after its release, in my opinion. It really gave me a sense of what it is like to live in this coal miner's town in 1920; many of the residents lost their homes and had to live in tents. The director, John Sayles, plays a part in the film as a strict fundamentalist/conservative clergyman who preaches that unions are communist. Seems like very little has changed in 100 years, as we still have preachers and politicians against unions saying the same thing.

Some recent (2022) video & news clips that spotlight union workers in America, to help explain labor movements.

Unions vs. Amazon: A David and Goliath story (CBS This Morning, April 2022)

 

 

Gen Z is driving the Starbucks unionization movement (Washington Post, April 2022)

 

  Why Starbucks Workers Fought to Unionize (Bloomberg, April 2022)  

 Starbucks' Union Busting Tactics Show They're Getting Desperate (Majority Report, September 2022)