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By C.C. Burnikel
©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
11/21/18
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
11/21/18
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Wednesday, November 21, 2018
ACROSS
1 Plane engine
housing
4 Hindu philosophy
10 “Don’t leave”
14 Previously
15 Signals for
firefighters
16 Only state with a
non-rectangular
flag
17 Big beverage
server
18 Church official
20 “I’m game!”
22 Business abbr.
23 Singer Mann
24 Vermont senator
since 2007
28 Gambling city on
the Truckee
29 Golden Delicious,
e.g.
30 Hosp. recovery
area
32 Prepared
33 Add to the staff
37 With 39-Across,
seed money ... or
what 18-, 24-, 48-
and 58-Across
each has
39 See 37-Across
41 Jedi master with
pointy ears
42 Twaddle
44 Business losses,
figuratively
45 Biting desert
lizards
47 Buddhist temple
bell
48 “Thus with a kiss
I die” speaker
53 Amazon Echo’s
voice assistant
54 Youthful fellow
55 Difficult journey
58 Baked pasta dish
62 “__ you alone?”
63 Flood-anticipation
precaution, briefly
64 Was nearly empty
65 Fabric flaw
66 Dollars for
quarters
67 Word from a
poser
68 Thus far
DOWN
1 Folklore
lumberjack
Bunyan
2 Fantasy meanie
3 “Chin up!”
4 Touch lightly
5 Harlem
Renaissance
writer Locke
6 C.S. Lewis’
fantasy world
7 Bench press
beneficiary
8 White House’s
132: Abbr.
9 Firepit detritus
10 Three-
dimensional
11 __ park
12 Broadcaster
13 Oxen
connectors
19 Stick for a walk
21 Nissan sedan
25 Ginger or
ginseng
26 Builder’s
guideline, briefly
27 Ring exchange
place
28 __-Rooter
30 “Gangnam Style”
musician
31 Festival in the
month of Adar
33 Holed up
34 Travel plan
35 Hit the bell
36 Caribou cousin
38 Sport for
equestrians
40 Simon who
co-wrote and
co-starred in
“Shaun of the
Dead”
43 Sun worshiper’s
mark
45 Nanny __
46 Bread or butter
48 Not so well-done
49 Salade niçoise
morsel
50 Fox of
“Transformers”
51 Precise
52 “Until next time”
56 Cleveland’s lake
57 Held on to
59 Tolkien monster
60 “Don’t think so”
61 Little lamb’s
mom
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20TH CENTURY FOX
FILM REVIEW
Running down the “Widows”
cast list is like running down
a who’s who of in demand
Hollywood
talent.
There’s
dramatic powerhouses like Viola
Davis (“Fences”) and Carrie Coon
(“The Post”), action genre favorites
like Michelle Rodriguez (“The
Fate of the Furious”) and Liam
Neeson (“The Commuter”), major
TV players like Brian Tyree Henry
(“Atlanta”) and Jon Bernthal
(“Marvel’s The Punisher”) and
spotlight newcomers like Daniel
Kaluuya (“Black Panther”) and
Cynthia Erivo (“Bad Times at the
El Royale”). It’s an insane group
of insanely talented performers
director Steve McQueen (“12
Years a Slave”) has assembled,
one that could easily could have
gone undeserved, as any number
of stacked casts do every year. The
foundation of “Widows” isn’t in
its cast, though; it’s in the script
written by McQueen and Gillian
Flynn (“Sharp Objects”).
For a story that, at times, is
almost intimately focused on the
internal lives of its leads and even
its side characters, thematically
“Widows” is an epic work that
examines inequity in all its forms,
from racism to class to the pitfalls
of capitalism. The world is founded
on viciously abusive cycles, it
argues. Everyone is indebted
to someone higher up the food
chain. In what is destined to be the
movie’s most memorable moment,
McQueen mounts a camera on
the hood of a car to make his
film’s heart manifest and shoots
a tracking shot that takes viewers
from a poor, predominantly Black
neighborhood
to
ritzy,
white
mansions in the space of just a
few blocks. It’s a breathtaking
bit of filmmaking not just for its
technical merits, but for what it
says without saying anything at
all.
This is also a crime film,
however, one sold on car chases
and
gunplay,
and
from
the
immediately
visceral
opening
scene, “Widows” establishes itself
as a thrill ride just as concerned
with the character beats in
between the heists as it is with the
heists themselves. We’re treated
to quiet, idyllic shots of Davis and
Neeson in bed together, juxtaposed
without warning with scenes of
frightening
violence,
cracking
gunshots and screaming. The rest
of the movie proceeds in much the
same way; even at its most internal
moments, the specter of a bloody
death – personified with terrifying
psychotic energy by Kaluuya – is
never far removed from the minds
of the characters. It takes its time
establishing its story and its huge
cast of characters, which only
makes the breathless second half
that much more enthralling.
It’s on this foundation of
smart writing and direction that
McQueen’s cast soars. It would
be easy to imagine Davis, one of
the most wildly talented actresses
alive, stealing the show, and while
she’s as commanding a presence
as ever, the spotlight just as often
belongs to Elizabeth Debicki
(“The Cloverfield Paradox”) as
Alice, a woman struggling to claim
her own agency after the death of
her abusive husband forces her to
find work as an escort. For how
brutal and cold “Widows” can be,
in Alice’s arc there is an ounce of
catharsis without which the film
may have proven too bleak.
And make no mistake, for all the
popcorn thrills that are promised
and eventually delivered upon,
“Widows” is a hard movie, one
that forces its viewers to look at
society and reckon with its flaws
and injustice. You’ll gasp at its
twists and turns just as you’ll sit
back and think long and hard
about what you’ve just seen.
JEREMIAH VANDERHELM
Daily Arts Writer
‘Widows’ soars with one of
the best casts of the year
“Widows”
Ann Arbor 20 +
IMAX, Goodrich
Quality 16
20th Century Fox
Had Desiree Akhavan not
explicitly said that she dislikes
being
called
the
bisexual
Lena Dunham, I might have
compared her excellent new
show on Hulu, “The Bisexual,”
to HBO’s “Girls.” It’s a difficult
comparison to resist — there’s
something
awfully
familiar
about
the
pithy,
neurotic
dialogue, fumbly sex scenes
and skittish, scruffy characters
who straddle the line between
being in on the joke and being
the punchline.
But
“The
Bisexual”
manages to do what so many
introspective
mumblecore-
type shows — “Girls” included
— often struggle to pull off: It
finds something to say. Despite
having all the trappings of a
show about nothing, it’s very
much a show about something;
it’s a new sort of coming-out
story that muses thoughtfully
on
intergenerational
and
cultural tensions.
Leila (Akhavan, “Appropriate
Behavior”)
is
an
Iranian-
American woman living in
London with her longterm
girlfriend
and
business
partner, Sadie (Maxine Peake,
“Silk”).
Together,
they’re
working on an app they market
as “Shazam for clothing.” But
just before the app’s launch,
Sadie
proposes,
and
Leila
gets cold feet about the whole
relationship. They decide to
take a break, and Leila is left to
reflect on her own history and
identity.
We know from the show’s
beginning that Leila is the
titular bisexual — following
her breakup with Sadie, she
begins to explore her attraction
to men. But it’s Leila herself
who is most afraid to adopt
the label. “It’s tacky,” she says,
balking at the term when a
new roommate uses it. “It’s
gauche, it makes you seem
disingenuous, like your genitals
have no allegiance. Like you
have no criteria for people, just
an open door policy.”
Her reluctance stems from
a few places: her judgmental
social
circles,
her
own
insecurities and, most of all,
the fact that she has only
identified as a lesbian her
entire life. “Everyone under
25 thinks they’re queer,” Leila
explains to a college student
who can’t understand why
identifying as bisexual is such
a big deal. “When you have to
fight for it, I think that being
gay can become the biggest
part of you. You’re gay or you’re
straight and one comes with an
entirely different lifestyle than
the other, like different clothes
and different friends, and you
can’t do both.”
And indeed, to Sadie, who
is several years older than
Leila,
Leila’s
bisexuality
comes as a kind of betrayal,
a flippant position to take on
something loaded with trauma
and struggle. “Have you any
idea what it takes to be a dyke
growing up in the ’80s?” Sadie
yells.
Though “The Bisexual” is
steeped in raw, uncomfortable
vulnerability,
it
is
also
intensely,
mordantly
funny.
We’re
given
some
comic
relief in Gabe (Brian Gleeson,
“Love/Hate”), Leila’s painfully
straight roommate who goes
to dinner with Leila’s lesbian
friends and immediately asks
them what they thought of
“Blue is the Warmest Color.”
The
show’s
best
zingers,
though, are reserved for Leila’s
friend Deniz (newcomer Saskia
Chana), who compares Leila to
a girl in a Judd Apatow movie
when she begins socializing
with straight people. “I didn’t
realize you were so familiar
with his oeuvre,” Leila snipes
back. In another episode, an
employee accuses Leila and
Sadie of filling the office
bathroom’s
Aesop
bottles
with Imperial Leather. It’s
the sort of reference you’ll
only
understand
if
you’re
well-versed in the world of
expensive hand soaps, but the
joke’s unapologetic nicheness
almost makes it funnier.
It’s the humor that lends
“The Bisexual” its emotional
authenticity, with motivations
that feel real and lived-in.
Despite being the sort of people
who could easily be unlikable
— the type that goes to bizarre
performance art shows and
buys plantains at the farmers
market — everyone on “The
Bisexual” is endearing and
appealing. Careful plotting and
Akhavan’s own tender writing
let each character have their
own awakening, big and small.
MAITREYI ANANTHARAMAN
Daily Arts Writer
Hulu’s ‘The Bisexual’ is the
new mumblecore queen
TV REVIEW
“The Bisexual”
Hulu
Thanksgiving is a time for
family. A holiday with no religious
affiliation, a day filled with food
and pie and football. The day
begins with cooking and ends with
cleaning. Somewhere in there
the Lions will probably lose and
someone will proclaim that Jim
Harbuagh “really hasn’t been given
enough credit.” Tears will be shed,
a toddler will hit their head on a
foosball table and the family will
take their collective ability to talk
at the speed of light and use it to
verbally berate some politician or
ghost of the family’s past. Once the
tryptophan starts wearing off and
everyone has woken up from their
mid afternoon naps, only one thing
remains: choosing a movie to watch
that night.
Choosing a movie to watch with
any group larger than two can be
difficult. Studies have shown that
the more options human beings
are given the more difficult it is for
them to make a decision. When
faced with only two options it is
much easier for our brains to weigh
the pros and cons of each and by
directly comparing the two come to
a decision. This is why sometimes
you find yourself having analysis
paralysis when staring at your
Netflix, unable to make any kind
of decision. It’s hard enough for a
single person to decide on a movie
to watch when the entire history
of cinema is available to them at
the touch of a button, but throw in
10 more people of varying ages and
dispositions and you’ve just created
the perfect recipe for endless
arguing.
My grandparents have a taste
that consists almost exclusively
of really bad romantic comedies
from 2004. My uncle always
wants to watch “Ferris Bueller’s
Day Off.” Some people like action
movies and some hate them. My
mom won’t watch anything that
doesn’t pass “the Mom scare test.”
Harry Potter barely passes. I have
a cousin who went through a long
period of time where he would only
watch Disney’s “Miracle.” Trying
to find a movie that is suitable for
everyone is a Sisyphean task not
worth the trouble. Soon someone
will tell me, “You’re the movie guy,
Ian, find something everyone will
like.” Right. Because that’s what
they’re teaching me in my film
classes, where to find the list of
movies that are suitable for both
70-year-old women and teenage
boys.
They used to make movies that
fit this description. We’ve watched
them all. “Back to the Future.” “The
Karate Kid.” “Ferris Bueller.” There
is a whole genre of what I like to
call “true family comedies” that
no longer exists. Films that have a
real story and real characters that
are funny and intelligent and can
be enjoyed by all ages. There aren’t
really movies like this anymore.
Nowadays there are three kinds of
comedies made and none of them
check all the boxes. There are super
raunchy R-rated films like “The
Hangover”
and
“Bridesmaids,”
there are movies like “RV” that are
unwatchable if you’re over the age
of nine and there is whatever Adam
Sandler crapped out most recently.
None of these appeal to everyone in
my family.
The sheer number of options
available today makes finding a
movie an endless quest that will
make you wish you had never
suggested it. My grandfather has a
penchant for scrolling mindlessly
through the new releases on
Comcast OnDemand. With no real
knowledge of what any of these
movies are about, you’ll often find
him proclaim some R-rated raunch
fest to “look kind of interesting” or to
go “What is Ant Man? Is that a real
movie?” Don’t even get me started
on my dad’s strange obsession with
Robert Downey Jr. despite having
not watched anything starring the
man in almost a decade. “I heard
the new Robert Downey is good,
maybe everyone will like that”
he’ll proclaim before my brother
reminds him that he wouldn’t
understand
“Avengers:
Infinity
War” if we gave him a Marvel
encyclopedia to keep next to him
the entire time. Inevitably someone
will remember that “Cheaper by
the Dozen 2” exists and will try to
convince the rest of the family that
we haven’t seen it a dozen times
before.
In the end, a “Seinfeld” DVD
will hit the back of the player and
everyone will be more or less
content. After an episode and a
half the grandparents are basically
asleep, my parents aren’t far behind
them and the Wii is calling and it’s
saying let’s play “Madden 2008.” If
anyone reaches the third episode on
the disk they’ve made it farther than
any of us could have anticipated.
Slowly the beds are filled. A last piece
of pie is snuck out of the kitchen. An
aunt laughs over a game of Scrabble
as my grandfather tries to play
the word “Hrot” claiming that it
is an “obscure plant that can only
be found in Thailand.” Discarded
movies that had no chance of being
chosen litter the ground. Tomorrow
will see the usual criticism of Black
Friday,
bewilderment
at
how
quickly the apple crumb pie was
eaten and discussion of a possible
trip to the movies. That might lead
to an argument too. Most of the
movies in the theaters are bad after
all. Why not just stay in and watch
something at home? What should
we watch? No one knows. It all
begins again. We don’t really care
though, because it’s never really
been about the movie. It’s just about
being together. Year in and year out,
that’s still something to be thankful
for.
How to choose a
Thanksgiving movie
DAILY ENTERTAINMENT COLUMN
IAN HARRIS
6A — Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com