Page 6 August 19, 2021 EL SEGUNDO HERALD
Entertainment
Film Review
‘Annette’ is An Absurdly Odd Rock
Opera That Will Wow You
By Ryan Rojas for cinemacy.com
It may be best to know before watching
Annette (available to stream on Amazon
Prime this Friday) that it was not originally
intended to be a film. Rather, it was conceived
to be performed as a live musical production.
With an original story and music written and
composed by art pop band Sparks, Annette is
beyond anything that is or would have been
a conventional musical production.
To be prepared for what you’re getting
into with Annette is to know the particular
brand of oddball that the brothers who
make up the band Sparks are. Over the
entirety of their very long career, Ron and
Russell Mael have made brilliantly catchy
music. However, it’s not been without also
defiantly distancing themselves from commercial
compromise, to the point that true
mainstream success has eluded them (Edgar
Wright made the rock doc The Sparks
Brothers earlier this year as an ode to their
unsung greatness).
Always interested in charting new waters
rather than playing into expectations explains
why Annette came into existence as a musical
at all (initially, Russell would play the lead
role and Ron the supporting male role). That
is, until the duo met director Leos Carax
when he used one of their songs for his
film Holy Motors. And what happened next
is–eight years later–Carax would take their
story and bring it to the big screen.
With all of this in mind, it should be no
surprise to find that Annette is exactly what
you would expect a rock opera from Sparks
to feel like: a wonderfully strange and selfaware
circus that’s as infectiously catchy
as it is bizarrely confounding. But for as
much fun as it is, its pop music makeup is
also the thing that makes it unable to be
profound or deep in any real way (paying
less dividends the longer it goes on). But
I’d recommend managing those expectations
and going into this film headstrong anyways,
for it’s one of the most mind-blowing films
of the year.
Inspired by The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
and its “sung-through” storytelling, Annette
is sung from beginning to end, with “So May
We Start” (the film’s best song) kicking things
off in a very meta-musical overture in which
all of the characters tee up our film. Annette
tells the story of a stand-up comedian (Adam
Driver) and an opera singer (Marion Cotillard)
who fall in love (they sing “We Love
Each Other So Much” while on a motorcycle)
and have a child. And yet by the time the
child has come–gifted in its own right–the
couple’s love has fractured to the point that
it puts lives in danger.
Beyond its memorably wacky songs and
story, the unquestionable stand-out in the
film is Adam Driver. As Henry McHenry, a
tormented comedian whose darkly clouded
decisions lead him into a world of despair,
Driver makes the character his own, from
wild slapstick comedic scenes to the more
nuanced and commanding ones. Marion
Cotillard and Simon Helberg also star in the
film–and Cotillard matches Driver’s commitment
and star power as the opera singer
Ann–but one of the faults of the film is that
it underwrites the rest of the characters in
the service of Driver (perhaps because he
was attached to the film since Leos Carax
saw him in Girls eight years ago when he
was first pursued for the part).
And then of course, we need to mention
the nature of baby Annette herself, whose
hilariously marionette-like characterization
as an actual wooden puppet provides
the film’s silliest and un-serious depiction,
further poking at the charade of the whole
thing. And yet, there’s still a soft and gentle
beauty in Annette’s presence, which counters
Henry’s forgone depravity, but fails to reach
a real emotional impact. There are themes of
art and love and life and death interwoven
throughout Annette but you’ll have a much
more enjoyable time if, instead of looking for
an experience that will leave you emotionally
floored, you give yourself over to a strange
world that is sure to leave you in awe, for
better or worse.
2hr 21min. ‘Annette’ is rated R for sexual content
including some nudity, and for language. •
Annette, courtesy of Amazon Studios.
Ryan Rojas
Finance
Electric Vehicle? Lower Costs
and Easier Than You Think
(BPT) - Electric vehicles (EVs) are the future
of transportation, offering a fun to drive
alternative to traditional gas-fueled cars as
well as lower maintenance costs. Almost
every major automaker is introducing new
electric models - from SUVs and trucks to
sports cars and motorcycles.
EVs are becoming so widely available that
more than 500 different EV models will
be available globally by 2022, according
to estimates from Bloomberg New Energy
Finance.
To support this growing need for EV
recharging, significant investments are being
made concerning charging stations, making
it easier than ever to own an EV. The U.S.
Department of Energy reports that more than
42,000 total EV charging station locations
exist in the United States as of June 2021
- and the president has set a goal to reach
500,000 charging stations nationwide by 2030.
As the auto industry becomes more electrified,
learning about the basics of EV charging like
how and where to charge, is the first step in
helping drivers feel more comfortable - and
even excited - about the idea of switching
to an EV that fits their lifestyle.
Types of Ev Chargers
Charging at home, work and other public
locations all require different types of
chargers - and it’s important to understand
the differences.
Public Fast DC-Chargers
Currently, the fastest way to charge an EV is
with direct current (DC)-fast chargers, which
are usually found in public and commercial
settings like grocery store and shopping center
parking lots. These stations provide charging
speeds faster than what drivers would find
in home chargers, allowing them to get back
on the road more quickly.
Electrify America, for example - the largest
public ultra-fast DC charging network in the
U.S., with more than 640 charging stations
and more than 2,860 individual chargers -
offers the fastest available charging speeds
today, allowing capable EVs to add up to
20 miles of range per minute.
Home Chargers
One perk of an EV is the ability to power
up without even leaving the house. At home,
drivers use either a Level 1 or Level 2 charger,
with the difference being how long it takes
to get the car’s battery fully recharged.
Charging at Level 1 is most often used
overnight, as these chargers usually add, on
average, only 2-5 miles of range per 1 hour
See Finance, page 14
City Council from front page
general manager; Traci Minamide, chief operating
officer; Lisa Mowery, chief financial
officer, and Tim Dafeta, executive Hyperion
plant manager, delivered a presentation followed
by answering questions posed by El
Segundo City Council members.
Residents had a chance to speak at the
meeting and did so. Nikia Gonzales, a single
mother who lives in the city, talked about
how her daughter swam in the ocean at a
for-pay beach camp on Monday, July 12th,
at Dockweiler Beach. Beach camp personnel
notified her of the spill at 6:47 p.m. Monday,
July 12th, and she told the council and
members of the government agencies present.
She was appalled that no one had notified
her nor El Segundo city officials, nor the
county lifeguards who patrol the beach of
the 17 million gallons of sewage that had
been sent into the ocean from the plant’s
one-mile-long outfall earlier that morning.
“There’s no excuse for this,” she said, noting
that “…It’s August 17th. This (the council
meeting) shouldn’t be the first time we hear
from Hyperion.”
Throughout the meeting, Hyperion staff
apologized for its lack of communication
with El Segundo and its residents. They
dove into how the plant functions to provide
insight into what happened July 11-12
when the debris flow became too much and
overwhelmed the screens designed to catch
it, causing flooding in a plant facility called
the headworks and on roads inside the plant.
To deal with the flooding and prevent an
even greater catastrophe to the plant, sewage
was released through the one-mile outfall
into the ocean. That release contained “no
bypass of untreated raw sewage” “but ocean
water quality was affected,” said Minamide,
LASAN COO.
In addition to the sewage release, the plant
suffered major damage due to the flooding.
Plant Manager Dafeta said it “took about
a week to pump out water from all of the
buildings,” and equipment was damaged,
resulting in the plant’s inability to move
“solids” for three weeks, he reported. That
inability “caused the odor problems everyone
experienced,” he said, noting that August 1st
was the “worst day” in terms of odor. He
said the “last main challenge” for the plant’s
recovery is “air quality,” which should get
better “as we’re able to reduce that sludge
blanket.”
LASAN is offering a reimbursement
program to El Segundo residents and community
members who have purchased air
conditioning units, including fans, filters, air
purifiers, and related installation, or have had
to stay in hotels as a result of the air quality
triggered by the plant. The reimbursement
program deadline has been extended to August
26th and has been made retroactive to
July 12th. LASAN CFO said the department
has received “almost 2,900 applications” so
far, with a little more than 500 of those for
hotels and the remainder for air conditioning
related items. Anyone with questions on the
reimbursement program can call LASAN’s
24-hour Customer Care line at (800) 773-2489
or email sanhyperion@lacity.org.
Residents and council members addressed
how confusing the reimbursement program
had been, given ongoing date changes and
lack of response. One resident said senior
citizens living in the city needed to be reached
out to since they may not use email and/or
be aware of the reimbursement program and
Customer Care phone number. She noted that
residents who can’t afford to buy equipment
or stay in hotel rooms needed to be taken care
of and provided for. One resident took aim
at the South Coast Air Quality Management
District leadership, saying she was “really
disappointed” with the agency “for sporadic
air monitoring instead of continual” near the
plant where it meets El Segundo.
Tuesday night, the city council suggested
the plant’s handheld air monitoring done by
plant staff at the plant fence line with the
city should be turned over to SCAQMD
to avoid any perceived conflict of interest.
Council members also noted how other
large plant operations in the city, including
the Chevron Refinery, conduct large-scale
multi-entity drills to plan for emergencies
and catastrophes and suggested Hyperion
do the same and engage city staff.
Hyperion staff said they have now added
El Segundo city staff to its notification list
for future use. LASAN did meet the plant’s
regulatory standard of notification during the
emergency. Officials with the Los Angeles
County Department of Public Health have said
they dropped the ball in terms of notification.
The cause of the Hyperion plant failure
that caused the flooding on July 11-12 is being
investigated. A report is due to LA City
Council within 90 days, and LASAN said
it would keep the city updated on the plant
recovery and air quality and odor concerns. •