June 6, 2019 Page 5
Entertainment
Check It Out
Film Review
American Spirit: Profiles in
Resilience, Courage and Faith by
Taya Kyle with Jim DeFelice
Reviewed by Roz Templin, Library
Assistant, El Segundo Public Library
You may be familiar with the story of
“American Sniper” Chris Kyle from the book
published in 2012, the movie starring Bradley
Cooper in 2014 and other publicity over the
recent years. Chris was murdered in 2013 and his
widow Taya has been in the process of reclaiming
her life through public speaking and in service
to others, heading a foundation and inspiring
other charitable groups with her words and deeds.
American Spirit is a celebration of what
is good in our country: the people who still
believe that helping those less fortunate and/or
in trouble is an instinctual response. Taya tells
the stories of more than 30 individuals who
pay it forward and establish means to address
those struggling with disease, homelessness,
hunger and the varied ills we all face in our
society. Many of these “working class heroes”
saw a need and filled it, no matter the hardships
they faced themselves in establishing methods
of serving those who are desperate for help.
She also includes a few of the rich and famous
who have donated time and money to causes
and people that touch their hearts.
Santa Monica-based Angel Flight West is a
network of more than 1,400 volunteer pilots
who transport non-emergency medical patients
and their families across the country for treatment
in faraway hospitals and medical centers.
Even victims of domestic violence are assisted
in their quest for a new life in another city.
The pilots fly their own planes and pay for all
costs out of their own pockets, so that those
whose lives are in turmoil can more easily cope.
Helping veterans who have sacrificed so
much for our country and its people is very
close to Taya’s heart. She shines a light on
Operation Safe Haven, a tiny house community
for homeless veterans in New Jersey.
Donnie Davis served in the Air Force and as
a police officer before becoming a pastor for
the Amazing Grace Community Church. He
led an initiative for the church to purchase an
abandoned 277-acre campground with a 65-
acre lake. Tiny houses are built by volunteers
in order to give shelter to veterans who are
battling mental trauma and homelessness.
There are other feel-good stories such as
the couple who started a program that helps
kids who are aging out (at the age of 18) of
the foster care system. When she was just four
years old, Alex Scott held her first childhood
cancer fundraiser in her front yard and raised
over $2,000. By the time of her death in 2004,
Alex raised $1 million and inspired a legacy of
hope and cures for childhood cancer – Alex’s
Lemonade Stand. And there’s the blind veteran
whose work with disabled bike riders inspired
a volunteer organization that takes blind bikers
on rides through New York City. These and
other accounts will make you smile through
your tears. We can all make a difference in
someone else’s life.
This book is available as a book on CD and
is read by the author. There are many other
books in the library on the topic of helping
those less fortunate: ask our library staff for help
in locating these items and do a good deed! •
American Spirit: Profiles in Resilience, Courage and Faith by
Taya Kyle with Jim DeFelice
Roz Templin
The Last Black Man in San
Francisco: A Stirring, Winning
Love Letter to Home
By Kailee Andrews
This balance between character-driven drama
and grand meditations makes The Last Black
Man in San Francisco an absolute dream of
a film. And while autobiographical content
doesn’t always make for a great film, the odyssey
of Jimmie Fails (whose name the actor
shares) and his quest to come home feels so
mythic and resonant when summarized that
it’s hard to imagine a film that stems from
that not being worthwhile. And of course, the
Jonathan Majors and Jimmie Fails in The Last Black Man in San Francisco. Photo by Peter Prato/Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
filmmakers aren’t married to autobiographical
reality. They use their lives and observations as
a leaping-off point for their narrative creation.
Fails likes to show up unannounced at his
childhood home. Usually, he has a can of paint
in tow, but this could easily be changed out
for gardening equipment or cleaning supplies.
Whatever he carries, it’s all in the service of
realizing the image in his head. In his mind’s
eye, there exists a glowing picture of the
craftsmanship and colors of this house, which,
legend has it, his grandfather designed and
built as one of the first black men to prosper
in San Francisco. And Jimmie won’t let that
history be chipped or faded. So even though
his family sold the house decades ago, he keeps
coming back to faithfully recreate it as it was,
new owners wishes be damned.
The white couple that currently owns the
swanky Victorian house would describe Jimmie’s
visits as incessant. But Jimmie considers
them a passion, a service and a way to stay
close to the house he hopes to someday buy
back. You see, Jimmy was happy there, for a
time, and The Last Black Man in San Francisco
suggests that the financial dissolution
that led to selling the house was a precursor
to a more general dissolution as Jimmie’s
family dispersed and their bonds weakened.
So, Jimmie skateboards over with his friend
Montgomery (Jonathan Majors) anytime he
can – often getting found out by the white
couple as he weeds their garden or spruces up
their trim. It’s a brisk, even funny introduction
to a story with interests that naturally encompass
gentrification, environmental racism, the
physical and psychological constrictions that
come with being a black man, and the crisis
of values and, ultimately identity, in which San
Francisco is currently embroiled.
At Sundance, many echoed the sentiment
that The Last Black Man in San Francisco is
hard to fully appreciate on first viewing because
it combines so many ideas and genres. It’s a
buddy comedy, character study, tragedy, social
commentary and tone poem whose visuals are
so splendid and real-world relevance so immediate
that it demands the deeper engagement
that comes with re-watching, discussion and
contemplation. The tapestry of city life and black
masculinity weaved onscreen here is certainly
dense, but that dense and branching narrative
only makes me more excited to watch the film
over and over again -- and more importantly,
for the world to watch along. Because like
the film itself, the discussion of it should be
a stirring symphony of voices.
120 min. Rated R for language, brief nudity
and drug use. •
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