The Angriest Man in Brooklyn with Robin Williams, Melissa Leo and Mila Kunis (2014)

It’s not easy for a film to be charming, poignant and funny all at once; but that’s exactly what this film is. It is the story of a man so infuriated by the hand that life has dealt him that he can longer see beyond his own anger at; well, everything.

On his way to the doctor’s office one day Henry Altman, played by Robin Williams, has a minor car accident with a cab. This is seemingly the last straw for him. His older son died 2 years ago, leaving him and his wife, played by Melissa Leo, in a loveless marriage filled with blame and dissatisfaction. And when he gets to the doctor’s office, where he will be getting the results of a brain scan, things don’t get much better.

With her life spinning out of control, the doctor he sees is forced to give the bad news of a fatal brain aneurysm to Mr. Altman. He literally forces her to do it by screaming at her and taking out all of his life’s inequities out on her. She cracks and tells him he has 90 minutes to live. Infuriated he leaves the office in search of what he should be doing with only 90 minutes left to live.

During the next 60 minutes or so of this movie he chases a dram of piecing his family back together, wondering how it ever went so wrong. Meantime, everyone is chasing him as he darts about Brooklyn looking for his younger estranged son. Even the doctor; who may be in serious trouble for the way she handled the encounter with Mr. Altman, is searching for him. She desperately wants to get him to a hospital.

This movie is a pleasure to watch. It has 2 of my favorite actresses in it; Mila Kunis, who bears watching as her talents grow from film to film; and Melissa Leo, who I have been following since she did theater at Fell’s Point in Baltimore before landing some of her early TV roles. In this film she takes on a whole new persona as the beleaguered wife of a very angry and self-destructive man. That she is able to blend the comedy with the tragedy of the role so well speaks to her abilities as a true actress. Peter Dinklage, as his loving younger brother, is remarkable; as he is in any film. It's also interesting to note that al  the stars in this film first honed their craft working TV sitcoms.

As for Robin Williams; what can you say about a guy whose lines in this film include, “”1951—2014; that’s what it will say on the headstone. It’s not the numbers that count- it’s the dash in between.”  I wonder what thoughts went through his mind; easily as troubled as his character Mr. Altman’s. I know that I am glad he got to make this film. To see him as a fully matured actor rather than an extension of his stand-up routines, as in “Good Morning Vietnam”, is one of the best tributes an actor could ever hope for.

Excellent direction and a lively story and screenplay make this one hell of an enjoyable experience. And it all happens in Brooklyn; my home town.

"Moscow On the Hudson" with Robin Williams (1984)

It’s hard to believe that this film is almost 30 years old already. And it’s not dated at all. The absence of cell phones and laptops is hardly noticeable in this carefully directed comedy/drama by Paul Mazursky; in which Robin Williams plays a Russian saxophone player, Vladimir Ivanoff, on tour with the Moscow Circus, and his sudden decision to defect.

The film is extraordinary in that it shows the lines in Moscow for consumer goods in the last days of the Socialist Soviet Republic. When walking down the street and seeing a line, you simply joined it; no matter if was a line for toilet paper, or food; both were in short demand. So, when Vladimir is slated to go to New York as part of a cultural exchange, he has no basis with which to compare the abundance of the west with his homeland in Russia.

Ironically, Vladimir is not even interested in defecting, as is a friend of his who is a fellow circus performer. The choice to make this character a “sad clown” was brilliant, and his face, as he leaves for the airport without having defected, is hard to forget. Vladimir; on the other hand; is quite believable as a jazz enthused musician whose soul cannot possibly endure a return to Moscow.

The real “meat” of this movie occurs when the circus troupe stops by Bloomingdale’s; a symbol of western decadence; for a shopping trip on their way to the airport on the way home to Russia, Vladimir is seized by all that he has seen and heard in New York City. After he has been to Harlem, and played in a jazz club, how could he ever go home again? The artistic freedom is the magnet which lures him to his most bold and daring act; he defects in Bloomingdale’s, leaving his Russian KGB handlers baffled as to what; if anything; they can do about it. And as Vladimir watches his friends departing for the airport, he is standing outside of Bloomingdale’s, screaming “Freedom!” in English and Russian to his friends.

This film came out when I was still working aboard ships, and so I missed it at the time it was released. For one reason or another, I have never seen it until now. And what a pleasure to find that it still rings true. With all of our differences; and in spite of our seeming disengagement from one another; both politically and socially; we are; as shown in the final moments of the film; a nation of immigrants. And I find a strange sort of comfort in that.

Wendell Berry: "Manifesto"

Wendell Berry was born on August 5th, 1934, in Kentucky. He is best known as an American man of letters, political activist, and a farmer. He has written countless novels, short stories and poems. He is a recipient of The National Humanities Medal. He has even been quoted on TV's "Law and Order" in the episode starring Robin Williams. In that show, Mr. Williams, acting as his own defense counsel, quotes from the following poem, which made me an instant fan of Mr. Wendell's. I have italized the portion which was quoted, so aptly, in that episode.

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.

Listen to carrion -- put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go.

Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.