Page 2 December 19, 2019
Entertainment
Film Review Check It Out
Reviewed by Desiree De La Cruz-Miller,
Library Assistant
For this week’s book review, I picked
Mindy McGinnis’ latest Young Adult novel,
Heroine. This book deals with a heavy
topic. Mindy does a powerful job involving
the reader in the story as she describes in
detail what the protagonist, Mickey, experiences
in her struggles with opiate addiction.
Although heavy, this book has left me still
pondering the story weeks later because I
became emotionally attached to the young
character and her struggle to overcome her
opioid addiction.
Mickey is a star athlete on her high
school’s softball team. It is her senior year
and Division 3 colleges seek to recruit her.
Her high school career is halted when she
is involved in a catastrophic car accident
that lands her in surgery to repair damage
done to her hip and leg. She is devastated
by this news since she is the team’s catcher.
To help with the pain, her doctor prescribes
her OxyContin. After taking the first pill
she realizes that not only does the medicine
help take the pain away, but she likes how it
makes her senses feel. As she continues to
take the medication, she feels an increased
need for it. Once her prescription runs out,
she finds another means to acquire it. She
justifies the continued use by telling herself
it is helping her get through the pain that
physical therapy has intensified, and to help
her body get where she physically needs to
be for the season that begins in two months.
As she spirals out of control, her addiction
to Oxy soon becomes an addiction to heroin
-- one of the hardest addictions to give up.
Heroine humanizes addiction and made me
think about how easy drugs can take over a
person’s life. It is an eye-opening read that
I will not soon forget, as it left an imprint
on my mind. For more good reads, please
visit us at the El Segundo Public Library.
Also, check out the display at the front of the
library of Staff’s Favorite Books of 2019. •
A Hidden Life Dares to Celebrate,
Examine the Costs of One’s Ethics
By Ryan Rojas for cinemacy.com
After exploring the experimental edges
of narratively formless cinema with films
like Song to Song and Knight of Cups, director
Terrence Malick returns with his newest
film, A Hidden Life: a meditation on morality
that, both intimate and expansive, achieves
wondrous results.
Those familiar with Malick will know what
his films have in store: melancholic humans
searching for life’s answers in stories that range
in vastness and ambition. At 2 hours and 53
minutes long, A Hidden Life, now playing in
select theaters, ranks among his more ambitious
works, and I’m happy to say that it’s every
bit as epic in its narrative and artistic scope.
What makes this meditation so transfixing
is its setting and place in time: based on a
true story of a German conscientious objector
in WWII, A Hidden Life centers around
the life of Franz Jägerstätter (August Diehl),
a German villager and husband to Franziska
(Valerie Pachner). It’s a life that we see is full
of infinite, simple beauties; they cut wheat in
the most amazing golden fields, spin around
vibrant green grass, and stare longingly into
each other’s eyes under the rich blue skies.
Children soon form to show a happy family.
But when the creeping subsiding of war slowly
moves in like waves reaching higher tides,
Franz is forced to assert an ethical stance that
soon enough tears him apart from his family.
With a camera that gracefully glides through
scenes, seeking and capturing spontaneous
moments of Diehl and Pachner’s quiet emoting
and performing, Malick’s distinguishable
cinematography is on welcome display here.
And assembled with its jump-cut editing, A
Hidden Life feels like a film that’s simultaneously
unfurling in real-time as well as if
remembered like a trace-memory, altogether
an impressionistic tapestry of real feeling that
cannot be imitated. Mixing this modernized
look with its period-accurate era captures a
timeless quality to the nature of ethics that
gives it new life and resonance.
While Malick’s latest experimental adventures
didn’t tap into the cultural conversation
for their understandably formless structures, A
Hidden Life is bolstered by having a narrative
center that organically moves the film forward,
which is a welcomed element. Putting forward
a meditation on such a universally important
question as morality and inspiring people to
ponder it is an ambitious, if not just plain admirable,
task. The artistic achievement that is A
Hidden Life is one that – like the devastatingly
moving quote by George Eliot that the film
ends with – should be seen and celebrated. •
Heroine by Mindy McGinnis
Desiree De La Cruz-Miller
Photo courtesy of Fox Searchlight
Ryan Rojas.
Heroine by Mindy McGinnis
Huber’s Hiccups
News for the City of Good
Neighbors from an Old Guy
Named Norb Huber
Caving In or Standing Up?
The Hallmark Channel caved to
pressure from special interest groups
and are planning to allow commercials
that advertise wedding services for same sex
couples, with one commercial ending with
two women kissing. Now, family groups
are up in arms because they thought that the
Hallmark Channel was a family safe place to
watch movies with the whole family. Some
of these protests and politically correctness
stuff is going too far. A lot of celebrities and
organizations cannot take a public stand on
anything for fear of offending some group and
igniting a boycott or public outcry. I guess
I don’t have to worry about that crap. With
11 or 12 or 13 loyal, devoted readers I have
nothing to lose except all of my readers. I
can say what I want. I can say that there is
a God and He loves us. I can say that Jesus
came to save us from our sins. I can say that
there is absolute truth and there is a right and
wrong. I can say that there are many things
our society is allowing and condoning that is
sinful behavior. I can say that I pray for our
nation and for my fellow Americans that more
people would come to know Jesus as their
savior. The contrast between the world and
the truth we find in God’s Word is becoming
more and more clear. God gave us the Ten
Commandments. The world is rationalizing
and accepting and condoning behavior that is
directly opposite to the commands of God.
We are led astray to follow the pleasures, the
luxuries, and the devices of this world or we
find peace and contentment in the love
that God through his commands has
for us. I am not ashamed to stand for
the truth. It may not be politically
correct to speak up for marriage as
God has intended it to be, between
one woman and one man. It may not
be cool to fight for the rights of the
unborn babies who are being killed. I may
not be popular if I say that some celebrities
or sports stars are not good role models for
my grandkids. People may look at me strange
if I actually sing the national anthem and put
my hand over my heart at a baseball game.
I know that there are a lot of Americans who
believe. They put God, family and country
ahead of self serving interests that work to
destroy God, family and country. Look for
the truth and stand up for it. Pray for the
good and truth to shine through. Finally, have
a cold one and relax. God is in charge and
that is the truth.
Something A Little Lighter
I met a professional Santa Claus recently.
He travels to malls each year to have little
kiddos sit on his lap and tell him all of the
great stuff they want for Christmas. He
works for a photography company. He says
the biggest problem is that every mommy
wants to just take cell phone photos of their
kids with Santa and forgo the buying of the
photos. He does receive a few tips from
some generous parents. He never says, “Ho,
ho, ho” anymore since those words seem to
mean something entirely differently than being
jolly. Crying kids are common, afraid of
this strange guy with a long gray beard. At
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