 Good afternoon. Welcome to coronavirus and our mental health. Today is September 28th, 2022. And I'm Ken Burtness coming to you from Hollywood on the North Shore. Today, our show is entitled It's Showtime. And we're going to have a good time talking about the joy of movies. It's part of our recent focus on being replacing negativity that's been brought on by coronavirus and everything else that we've been facing the last two years. And dealing with that negativity by focusing on positivity. So we've been focusing on a lot of joy. And today we get to focus on the joy of movies. I call it enter movies and exit COVID. So hopefully we'll have a good time with that, I'm sure. But first, before I get into that, I need to update you on the coronavirus situation. Now, the last two weeks, things continue to go down, both for the country and for Hawaii. We're going down in number of new cases. We're going down in hospitalizations. And our deaths are going down slower than the first two, but they're going down. We still have a way to go, however, because our lows were in February and March of this year. At that time, Hawaii was averaging about 50 new cases of COVID a day. Right now we're averaging about 150 something 53, I think it is. And that's a 9% decrease from two weeks ago. And I talked to you when we were averaging 168 new cases a day. So we're coming down. But we've got a long way to go. We're still three times what we were in January, not January, but February and March. So but we're getting there. Take take comfort in that. But the way we're going to get there is through the new booster. So I've got to talk about those for a minute because people are tired of shots. And shots, frankly, are the only way we're going to beat coronavirus right now because our masking has been loosened up. Our social distancing is disappearing. The quarantines, all the tools that we had to fight coronavirus, they're disappearing on us. But the boosters are here. And these are new boosters. That's why you need to consider getting them. These are by variant boosters. Half of them tackles the stuff that our boosters and vaccines have been successful with the original coronavirus. But the new half is aimed at the Omicron variants B5 and B4, which are very infectious. And it promises that they're going to be effective against that. So you got a double protection in that one shot. What's really important is if it's been six months or more since you've had your last shot, if it's been more than six months, then that means that those antibodies are probably going down and you really need this booster. So do yourself a favor and do the people around you a favor. Please go get that booster. Okay, let's get positive. Let's talk movies. And to do that, I've got my good friend, Greg McDonald here. Once again, we've talked about movies a while back in June, actually. And here's he's here again today because holiday movies are coming and lots of new things. And people are going back into the theaters. So welcome to the show, Greg. Thank you very much. All right. Now last time Greg was here, we sort of got into love stories, which is pretty easy to get into. We talked about, especially three of them, the shape of water. We talked about her and we talked about midnight in Paris, which were all different. They're all very different types of stories. They're monster stories, they're stories in the future, stories in the past, marginalized characters, people who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Lots of difference between those three movies. But in the end, they were all love stories. So Greg and I are going to talk about some different genres. And Greg, I think you're ready to talk about musicals. So maybe we can start there. Yeah, I'm not somebody who craves musicals. If I if I happen to see one that I really like, then that's great. And when I started thinking about musicals, I think about movies in general, I usually think of ones that I like, maybe more, more difficult to follow more action and that kind of thing. I don't usually think of people singing to each other. And but in the context of this show, and COVID, and dealing with all the stuff that it's brought upon all of us. For me, I find myself wanting, wanting relief from, from the everyday stuff that we face, whether it's COVID itself or the consequences of work and friends or all of the other things that go along with it. Right. So I had thought, you know, and I caught up by mistake. They were running grease one night on TV. And I hadn't I thought I was ready to flip it. I didn't care. And I started watching it. And the more I watched it, the more I felt happy. I thought, Yeah, you know what, this is really my kind of movie. But they're all singing these songs. There's all these friends that are together. And yes, it's very fanciful and, and, and so forth and unrealistic in many ways. But it made me think a little bit back of that period of time. I was a kid during, during the time of Greece. I don't know how old I was. Ken, do you remember when it came out? I don't remember the year off the top of my head. Was it 50s or 60s? Or do you know? I think I'm sure was in the 60s. And I'm a little older than Greg. So I was not quite that young. And but Olivia Newton John, she was beautiful, terrific actress, great singer, and a joy to watch in the dancing. You know, with John Travolta, you can't go wrong with dancing. Yeah. Yeah, everything, everything just worked for me, including the ending where I think if I'm not mistaking, they're in a car that they take off into the air and go away. At least that's the last scene I remember. And that's how far it pushed the fantasy element of the whole thing. And so what I just reminded me of another time, and I have to admit, you know, on days where I get kind of bummed out about when is if are we ever going to get back to normal? I, I long for those times again. And I, I have a feeling we're never going back to anything close to that. But maybe. So anyway, movies, okay, the long story short is movies like that make me remember that even though times in my opinion are pretty bleak right now on many levels. I was I was fortunate to live in a time when they weren't so bleak. And that leaves me with hope that we can still have some of that back, I guess. There isn't any particular part of Greece. A lot of times, there's a scene that stands out to me when we talk. But for me, it's the whole, it was the whole thing, Greece, just that period of time that took me out of now and back to when things were really good. Yeah. And you know, the interesting thing about Greece is that it's also, of course, a love story, you know, there's always that. And there's nothing that sort of makes us feel good, besides love, except when I was, you know, when you had mentioned musicals, I went back on some of the musicals that I really like, like, for instance, Mary Poppins. That was not a typical romance where she gets the man at the end of the picture. But she tackles a problem that people are having with and she tackles it with music that gets us breathing with that joyous music and our feet tapping and wonderful stuff like that. Chorus line is another one, you know, there's not, there's individuals, but there's a group of them and they're doing these wonderful dances in wonderful costumes. And not only are they doing that, but you're rooting for them because they're overcoming a lot of things. You see at the very beginning where so many people don't make the chorus line. But those who do, we're sitting there and we're rooting for them and we're feeling good because they're making it and they're enjoying it. Great stuff. I love them. You know, yeah, I hadn't thought about that, that particular one. I would completely agree with you. I remember seeing it on stage. I remember seeing it on TV and I liked it. I've liked it every time I've seen it. There's just a lot of good stuff in there, good characters and good dancing and things like that. You know, yeah, go ahead. Yeah. I don't know how long you want to spend on musicals, but you you made me think of one which was far more recent that I think both of you liked, which was burlesque, burlesque burlesque. I don't think I've seen that. Yeah, tell me about it. Oh, OK, well, it's Cher and I forget a young pop singer who's coming from a faraway town has a dream of being a dancer. Subbles into L.A. Takes a job as a waitress in this burlesque show and she really wants to be on the stage and but they're just treating her as a server get back and serve. You're you're not doing good with the customers. And so one night I think something happens where somebody doesn't show up and she said, let me do it. I've been here long enough. I know the words. I can do it. And she jumps up and she does it. And, you know, because it's that kind of a movie, a happy kind of a movie, of course, she gets hired and she becomes one of the best dancers. And in it is really some impressive. It's basically about her. So it's a lot and there's a lot of burlesque kind of shows, the kind that the old style almost like you like you would see in what's that what's a German one that nightclub that is kind of like a burlesque thing where she dances with this can be out there on a chair and they are dressed in Nazi outfits. Oh, I think yeah, I think I know who you're talking about. But I'm not pulling it up. The one I just saw the other night from the the forties was Anchors Away, which is exactly the same plot. I don't know if you've seen that, but that's Frank Sinatra and Jean Kelly know exactly the spot. The third lead who I don't remember her name. She was mostly a singer, but she's just a terrific singer, almost operatic. And she can't get an audition. And so between Frank Sinatra and Jean Kelly, they do. And you see a lot of great dancing and a lot of great music. And it's it's uplifting. It's the it's the conundrum are the problem that's being solved. You know, and music can get us there. It's like joy can get us through negativity that there's a joy in music that transcends words. It just I can say the same words to you, but if I could sing, which I can't, I could sing up to them, sing them to you. And I would feel better. And I think you would feel better. And I think that's a key to those musicals. Speaking of that, because I know I know you're right. We've got limited time. And there's a number of things I want to talk to you about. You mentioned Cher at this movie and that. And we've got it's more obviously more recent than things like Anchors Away. But we've got a lot of new movies coming out. And I was going to ask you about actors and actresses. For instance, Cher, you know, I mean, I loved some of the stuff that Cher did. So if she was doing a movie, I'd be interested in seeing what she's doing. This holiday season, there's a Kate Blanchett movie coming out. And I love her work. I think she's a terrific actress. So I'm going to see that movie. And I was going to ask you, are there any actresses or actors that you would go see the movie even even if other people didn't like it. But do you like that particular actor or actress? Can you can you give us some of that? Well, like many of those kind of questions, it's always hard to pick one. So yeah, well, give us a couple. But oh, OK. I usually go with whoever pops in my head. And I've always thought if I had a list of all the movies I've ever seen and all the movies there ever were, I could be more specific. But I can only be specific in the moment as my memory will allow. Well, I'm ready for the moment. Give it give me the moment. Sure. OK. Ed Norton is somebody that I would see no matter what he did. He seems to be doing less these days. I don't know what his backstory is, but we're not here to talk about that. There was two of his movies that popped in my mind as I was just thinking about him. One was Fight Club with Brad Pitt. And the other was Primal Fear, which is the first time I ever saw him. And he was kind of accused of some kind of murder in a church and he was in jail and being questioned. And he seemed like somebody who wasn't all mentally there. And all the way through, you're going, this everything points to this guy, you know, being innocent. He's just too. He can't plan a man a murder. So anyway, if you remember the movie at the end, near the end, when he's being questioned, he flips completely into who he really is. And he really was the murderer. And he was really very clever throughout the whole movie. And I thought, wow, I thought this kid is good. It's the first time I ever saw him. Now, I in a way, Fight Club was similar because Fight Club was about this guy that was trapped in a nowhere job and a nowhere world lived by himself. But a thumb through furniture catalogs at night and ordered furniture that he thought would impress people if they ever came over to his house, which they never do. And then he would go to A.A. and anonymous meetings at night because he had no friends. So he would go to all these meetings and say, I'm one of you, including one which was testicular cancer, which he didn't have. But he went anyway, because I gave him a sense of friendship. Now, why am I spending so much time? I'm comparing these two movies, actually, in that they show ads. What I like about it is they show his ability to switch on you, at least in these samples, because at the end of Fight Club, he gets in a fight after losing it. He loses everything. There's a fire in his apartment, long story short, and he meets Brad Pitt in the bar. And Brad Pitt's, they're both drunk. And Brad Pitt says, hit me, hit me. And they start this fight in the parking lot, which only lasts a few minutes. And it's painful to both of them. And as they're walking down the street, and that scene that scene is over, they sit down on the curve. And Ed Norton says to Brad Pitt, can we do this again? And I thought, there's a switch again. There's a guy that your whole movie, you have met a guy who is so out of touch with reality that for him to get punched was the first time he was experiencing any reality whatsoever. And then the movie begins to be about the Fight Club. Yeah. And we were late to that. That's the key thing. You know, the thing about Ed Norton to me is that he's every man. Oh, yeah. He's not a big movie star. You don't see him as sweeping women off their feet. He's not a big action hero star. He's us. He's us there who's got his limitations and his faults. And he makes mistakes. And he looks very normal. And those are wonderful actors to follow because we're so hooked into them. You get hooked into Ed Norton and most of the pictures that I've seen him in that really stands out for me that I can really identify with him. Cool. How about actresses? You know, actresses that you want to see in a movie, that you would see anything that they were in? How about ones I would like to see in the passenger seat of my car? Right, exactly. Well, give me one of those. Amy Adams. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And when I think of Amy Adams, of course, that there's so many things to think about her in, I think of Enchanted, which was the first time I saw her, which was kind of based on the Walt Disney Cinderella kind of a story and it blended other elements. So anyway, I didn't know who this person was, but I had I remembered the movie Cinderella and I remember how Cinderella moved and kind of took steps and how her hands moved. And I thought, who is this Amy Adams? Because it's almost like did they did they CGI her? And it wasn't she she nailed it so good. Then later on, I see you do it. I guess what I like is a turnaround when I see an actor or an actor. So I like the fact that they'll go someplace else rather than just hang on to whatever their. Their main type of movie is. So then I remember I remember her as in the fighter. I don't know if you saw the fighter and she was a New Jersey kind of. Not so great, you know, hey, baby, give me a cup of water, you know, I mean, she was this kind of low down low life. And I thought, wow, what a change. And then I and then she goes from there to being a nun in the movie where she played a nun. And I thought at that point, I thought, as far as I know, I don't think she can do any wrong. You know, absolutely. I'd see her. I don't know. She's one of those ones you hear him sometimes say, I'd go. I'd go to a performance by her if she read the phone book. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Wonderful actress and beautiful on top of it. Yeah. Yeah. Don't no wonder you'd want her in your passenger seat. So yeah, I would too. You know, the interesting thing about Amy is that she's gotten. She continues to surprise people and she's you know, when we saw Enchanted, she was over the top. That was an over the top role. And she was just having so much fun that she carried the audience with her. And that's a marvelous thing to do to to bring joy to you. But the other movies, you know, she's gotten older. She's gotten into movies with much more serious type of things and interesting roles. And she can handle all of them. And that's one of the things that's amazing about an actress. You know, I know Greg and I talked before the show and one of the actresses that we both liked a lot was Jodi Foster. And it's maybe a good point to segue into her because she's also a director. Yeah, and I have a number of directors that we would see anything that they directed. You know, wonderful people who just carry us along. Well, Jodi's done that too. Jodi's done everything from being a child star up to being in her most recent movie, the Hotel Artemis in older heroin, to more to speak, and plus being that marvelous character in the Hannibal Lecter story in Silence of the Lambs. Tell us a little bit about your take on Jodi. Well, I guess, you know, I mean, I think some of the things that I mentioned about Amy are what I like about Jodi in that it's you you see them going into roles that you wouldn't expect them in. I mean, you see them in a movie and you figure the next movies are going to be similar because that's what you liked about them. And then all of a sudden they're playing a character that you don't particularly like. And and and yet they they draw you in to the character in any way. And with Jodi, of course, like you can't help but remember Silence of the Lambs as probably people's first memory of her other than Taxi. And but then didn't she do Cosmos or something called Cosmos where it was a science fiction thing? She did it. It was a rival. No, no. Yeah. But that one, too. But there was another one where she goes to another planet. I don't know. Yeah. But yeah. OK. Yeah. Arrival was was another shock. Well, so was Hotel Art. I mean, what can I say? I'll tell you. OK. Here's something and then I throw it back to you. Oh, I got it. Contact. You're talking about I flipped it back to Amy Adams. But if we're talking about Jodi Foster, it's contact where she was marvelous. That was Foster, right? Yeah. Yeah. And I think she was part of the production or director in it. I don't think she was just starring it. I think she had a role in it in the movie production. Anyway, when I think about Jodi Foster, there's something that stands out to me and I would be, you know, today you got to be careful if you use the word feminism or any. Protected group, right? Because then everybody's wanting to pounce on you. So I'm going to be careful here and I think I'm OK. Jodi Foster in all of her roles to me, I think sort of portrays what I'd like to think a feminist is. She's always strong, but she's not so strong that she's militant and angry and screaming in the streets. And she seems to be able to take on difficult problems without meaning to have a man help her necessarily. Not that that's a bad thing, but I mean, she didn't fall back on that like help me, you know? So for me, she almost typifies, at least in my head, a definition of feminism. She's a problem solver. You know, and that I think is a key part to both masculinity and femininity is that you take problems and you come up with solutions. I mean, panic room was one of the ones that Jodi Foster was amazing in. You know, she's sitting there against this, you know, invasion of three really shady characters who want to do her some real harm. And she's got this kid who's Kirsten Stewart. You know, I wonder if her first role is in Stuart. Oh, my Christian Stuart. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, she's very she's got medical problems and Jodi's got to take care of her and not only do that, but deal with these guys who are invaded your house. It's terrific. And she finds the way to do it. She finds the way to address Hannibal Lecter. She comes in and she doesn't get thrown by him. She's got nobody there in the room with him when she first meets him in that great, great scene at the at the, you know, when she first meets Hannibal, he's in the cell and she's sitting outside, you know, she's doing it herself. And that's what she does in these movies, like Hotel Artemis and all the other movies that we see her in. We're there and we're identifying with her, whether we're male or female, because she's faced with something and something difficult and she's got to deal with it and she does. And we think we dealt with it. Yeah. OK, Jodi. You just made me think of the close to the ending of Hotel Artemis where she's finally making it out. Everything's falling apart. She's making it out. She's with this guy, the one of the patients who's a criminal that she helped and he's not helping her. And he's taking her to the car so they can get away and get out of the town that's going insane. And she stops and she turns and she says, you know, for it's about it's about sunrise, maybe 530 in the morning. She turns and she says. It's a nice morning. I think I'll just go for a walk. You go ahead and leave. I'd have to hand that to the writer, but she also delivered it in such a great unexpected way. I mean, when you see what she's been through, it's kind of the last thing you would say. It's a nice morning for a walk. You'd be sitting in hell. Get me in the car and get out of here. You hear me with that scene? Oh, yeah, it's a great scene. And it's one of the things about movies like books. You've got a great beginning and a great ending. That movie is going to be super and that movie is going to be one that you remember. Clearly at the end, the other guy is going a different place than she is. Yeah, right. And she's going to be hindering him and she doesn't want to do this. And this is a great way to say, I've got to do this. I got to do the exit my way. I've got to live my way and you've got to live your way. And she does it so beautifully. And we're sitting back there and the sun is rising and we're saying, oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You turned me on to that movie, by the way. I'd never heard of it. So thank you for that. Well, Greg, we're coming to the end of our show real quick. Any recommendations for the fall movies coming up? Any things that you're looking forward to? I don't even know what's coming up. I don't know. I don't know what's coming up. I don't know. Read me a list. I don't know. Yeah. I'm looking forward to the Kate Blanchett movie where she's she's conducting a Philharmonic Orchestra. She's a conductor and I'm looking forward to that. There's a number of other ones coming up as well. I think the important thing is that we protect ourselves and those people around us in the theater by keeping some social distancing and being aware of other people. So I think that that's real important. But I know that you've gotten back to the movies and I've gotten back to the movies a little bit. And the movies we've been seeing, there's not many people in the audience, so it looks good. But there's going to be more people in the audience and which is good for the movies. We need the movies. We need this feel good thing and we need to feel good after we've been in the movies. Yeah, even though there weren't a lot of people, I still felt like everybody was picking based on social distancing. Yeah. Yeah, it felt safe. I was a little afraid first, you know, but it's felt safe. Yeah. So that's a good place to end the show. Let's feel safe and joyous. And we can deal with this coronavirus. Greg, thanks again for being on the show. My pleasure. And to all of you out there, thank you for being with us and thank you to the ThinkDecawai staff with Eric and Michael and Hailey and Jay. Thank you all. Aloha. Thank you so much for watching ThinkDecawai. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at ThinkDecawai.com. Mahalo.