 Joining us is our resident film critic, Michael Snyder. These are the movies he'll be talking about. Jackie, is this about a comedian? Oh yeah, Jackie Rogers Jr. starring the wonderful Martin Short as the, oh no, no, that's not it, excuse me. Jackie is a movie that offers Natalie Portman a virtual sure shot as a best actress nominee at the Oscars. She truly delivers the goods here as Jacqueline Kennedy in what I believe is a fresh take on this very, very familiar and tragic piece of American history. And again, it's pretty damned relevant today to see Jackie Kennedy in the 60s when the concept of the so-called best and brightest running the US executive branch embodied in the 60s by John Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline is now deemed quaint or outmoded. I mean, the role of president and first lady are about to be assumed by what appears to be the antithesis to JFK and his highly educated, articulate, stylish and classy wife. We'll say no more about that for the moment. But anyway, Portman portrays Jacqueline Kennedy right before, during and after her husband was shot in 1963 and Natalie Portman was the same age as Jackie was when her husband was shot around 34. So this is a pretty good combo of actress and role. It's directed by the Chilean filmmaker Pablo Lorraine who did the wonderful, also recent biopic Neruda about the poet from Chile, Pablo Neruda. And also the great political thriller, No, which was about the campaign to take down Chile's the military dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1988. This guy is wonderful. Pablo Lorraine makes wonderful films. His work is artistically bold and so far politically themed and Portman is great in this thing. It's truly a heartbreaker and some of the casting is top drawer starting with Portman as Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, even though he's a good actor. Peter Sarsgar did not convince me that he was Robert Kennedy. On the other hand, I'll be frank with you. It's really remarkable to see John Carol Lynch as Lyndon Johnson and Beth Grant as Lady Bird. They nailed it. And there's also a good turn by Greta Gerwig as Nancy Tuckerman who was Jackie's best friend. So for the most part, this thing is first rate. And one of the interesting conceits about the film is her conversations which are from transcripts in large part are instigated by a journalist unnamed who comes to interview her in Hiannisport after the assassination of Kennedy. Billy Crudup plays the journalist and he's quite good. There's also supporting work by Richard E. Grant and John Hurt, the great John Hurt who plays a priest and confessor to Jackie. And thumbs up for this, all of my thumbs because I believe it's a terrific piece of docudrama. And of course, plenty of biography instilled there as well. All one of your thumbs. All of my thumbs, yes. All one of them. We won't talk about your gambling problem. You're listening to highlights from the David Feldman show heard nationwide on Pacifica Radio or as a podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, and now YouTube. Please subscribe to this channel. For more information, go to davidfeldmanshow.com. Thank you for listening. The David Feldman radio program is made possible by listeners like you. You sad, pathetic humps.