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Connie will review the thriller/mystery/horror books of others and will keep you posted on her own writing.

“Bugonia” at CIff Continues Yorgan Lanthimos Quirky Tradition

By Connie Wilson

On October 24, 2025

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews, Scary stories, Uncategorized

PLOT

Director Yorgos Lanthimos

“Bugonia,” the new film from Yorgos Lanthimos, follows two conspiracy obsessed young men, portrayed by Jesse Clemens as Teddy and Aidan Delbis as Don. They kidnap the powerful CEO of Axiolith, Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone) because they believe she is an alien planning to destroy Earth. Cue the weird, the quirky and the bizarre: Lanthimos is back!

THE KIDNAPPING

Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone) in her office at Auxolith, where she is CEO.

The kidnapping sequence itself is worth the price of admission. Kidnapping Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone) is no easy task! She puts up one hell of a fight. That doesn’t prevent her from being restrained in the basement of Teddy’s ramshackle ranch house or from having her head shaved. (Teddy believes that it is through her hair that Michelle can communicate with the Mother Ship of her Andromeda alien Emperor and people.) The lunar eclipse is fast approaching and Teddy wants Michelle to take him aboard her Mother Ship to meet the Emperor of the Andromedans.

Teddy’s firm belief in how right he is and how wrong everyone else is rivals the MAGA movement’s acolytes. Trying to have a civilized debate with him can end in violence very quickly and often does. We are acutely aware of the danger that Michelle Fuller is in at all times. We worry for her every second that she is captive in Teddy’s basement.

Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone) held captive by Teddy and Don in “Bugonia” at the 61st Chicago International Film Festival.

One interesting promotional sidelight: the Culver Theatre in California offered free admission to anyone bald or willing to become bald (hairdresser on the premises beginning at 6 p.m.) on October 20th to see “Bugonia.” Culver Theatre also had a treadmill screening of “The Long Walk” when it opened, another creative concept.

Michelle outside her home, just before being kidnapped by Teddy and Don.

DIRECTOR

Yorgos Lanthimos honed his skills as a director working for television and has since released “Kinetta” (2004), “Dogtooth” (2009, which won “Un Certain Regard” recognition as Cannes), “The Lobster”(2015), “Killing of a Sacred Deer” (2016), “The Favourite” (2018) and “Poor Things” (2013). “Dogtooth”was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 2011 Oscars.

His films earn well-deserved adjectives such as tense, darkly funny, absurd, odd and weird. All apply to “Bugonia.” Lanthimos has said, “Me, personally, what I want is to allow people to be engaged actively in watching the film. I like to construct films in a way that makes you feel a bit uncomfortable, be able to enjoy them, be intrigued, start to think about the meaning of things – and hopefully by the end of it, you’ll have some strong desire to keep thinking about them.” There is a theme of the media’s power, as well as of the ability of large corporations to walk away from catastrophes they have created. He has amassed 5 Oscar nominations with 72 wins in other competitions and 193 nominations.

The film marks the fourth collaboration between Writer/Director Yorgos Lanthimos and Stone, with Emma Stone winning the Best Actress Award in 2023 as Bella Baxter in Lanthimos’s “Poor Things.”

SCREENPLAY/SOUND/CINEMATOGRAPHY

The writing, based on a 2003 South Korean cult film entitled “Save the green planet” is credited to Will Tracy and Jang Joon-hwan. Robbie Ryan is credited as the cinematographer and Jerskin Fendrix composed the score. I enjoyed the use of the Pete Seeger/Joe Hickerson song “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” near film’s end, which ties into Teddy’s work as a bee-keeper and his obsession with saving the planet.

THE CAST

Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and Don (Aidin Delbis) in the basement of Jesse’s home, questioning Michelle (Emma Stone).

Jesse Plemons finally gets to sink his teeth into a lead role. He is a consummate supporting character actor, having started young, playing roles such as Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son in “The Master” in 2012. Plemons also played a younger version of Matt Damon’s character in “All the Pretty Horses” in 2000. A Mart, Texas native who is the great, great, great, great, great grandson of the sister of Stephen F. Austin (for whom Austin, Texas, is named), Plemons is in the Texas Acting Hall of Fame as of 2016. He was nominated for the Best Supporting Oscar for his role in “The Power of the Dog” in 2021, a year when he also appeared in “Judas, the Black Messiah,” another Oscar-nominated film.

More remarkably, he has appeared in 7 films that were nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, starting with “Bridge of Spies” (2015) and continuing through “The Post” (2017), “Vice” (2018), “The Irishman” (2019), “Judas and the Black Messiah” (2021), “The Power of the Dog” (2021) and “Killers of the Flower Moon” (2023.) Perhaps most memorably, for me, was his appearance as stone cold killer Todd Alquist in Season 5 of AMC’s “Breaking Bad” television series. His earlier television work was as Landry Clark on “Friday Night Lights” from 2006 until 2011. (He was the only cast member who had actually played football.) He had a small role as a bad guy in “Civil War,” which starred his wife Kirstin Dunst in the lead role.

Jesse Plemons with wife Kirsten Dunst.

Plemons is great in “Bugonia” as a completely over-the-top psycho who has been brainwashed into his weird beliefs by his mother, Sandy, played by a mature Alicia Silverstone (“Clueless”). Teddy (Plemons) is so convincing saying “We are not steering the ship. They (aliens) are,” that cousin Don agrees to be chemically castrated so that he can focus solely on the task at hand. (“It’s all neurons, Dude. Kill the urges and be your own master.”) His co-star, Aidan Delbis, described as “a young actor on the autism spectrum, Lanthimos and Plemens met when he was only 17. Plemons said of him, “He brought so much to the movie and elevated it in a way that nobody else could have.” Considering the proficiency of Jesse Plemens and Emma Stone, this newcomer in his first feature film role was a key component of the film and definitely held his own.

Teddy and Don make the “Dumb and Dumber” 1994 team of Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels look like Fulbright Scholars. In between Teddy’s focus on his bee hives and CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) we get a glimpse of a tragic home life that has essentially wiped out Teddy’s own family of origin, although his mother Sandy still clings to life in a care facility while attached to tubes and ventilators. Whether verbally sparring with Michelle about who she truly is (Is Michelle human or an alien from Andromeda?) or convincing both his cousin Don and the Sheriff’s deputy Rick (J. Carmen Galendez Barrera) who babysat Teddy in his youth and admits to molesting him back then, Plemens’s Teddy is totally convincing.

Aidan Delbis as Don in “Bugonia.”

THE BAD

The script leaves us wondering about the totality of the back story of Teddy and Don. It is not completely clear who did what to whom. What, exactly, did the Auxolith Corporation do to Teddy and Don’s nuclear family? Who were these family members, besides Sandy? There is the implication that a large payment for malpractice because of a drug administered to Sandy that had horrible side effects was paid. Who were the others affected? There could have been a more transparent explanation of this important plot motivation for Teddy’s actions.

Similarly, Don’s exact relationship to Teddy (yes, he’s his cousin, but…) is only lightly explored. Even the nature of the hospital-like structure in which Teddy visits his invalid mother is not completely clear. Is it a rehabilitation hospital….a regular hospital…an asylum…what? These may seem like minor points, but much of what happens in Teddy’s attempt to “save the world from the aliens” seems born of a revenge motive, not unlike Luigi Mangioni’s recent actions against the United Health Care CEO. Shouldn’t we have a better understanding of who did what to whom, when, and why? The themes of truth in the media, lying versus truth, people locked inside echo chambers of belief who cannot break out of their closed belief systems because of the hype of Infowars- like sites: all topics are relevant and timely.

I also share the concern that Emma Stone of “La La Land” (1988) not be lost forever in a symbiotic partnership with just films in collaboration with Yorgos Lanthimos. We don’t want to see a talent like Emma Stone confined to playing psychotic odd-balls in every film. She has gone to the wall in this one, shaved head and all. Her stellar performance speaks for itself. However, I’d still like to see her as a normal girl in somebody else’s future film.

THE FINALE

For me, the end, the finale, was the weakest part of this psychological thriller. Select whichever ending you desire, but the depiction of the one ultimately chosen was hokey. It was staged in a less-than-convincing manner. More significantly, it undercut the true real-world terror of Michelle’s lengthy captive ordeal.

Someone else expressed the sentiment, “I liked it, but I wanted to love it.” Thinking back over Lanthimos’s body of work, I’d express a similar opinion about most of the creatively odd plots from Lanthimos over the years, with the exception of 2013’s “Poor Things,” which I did love.

From the perspective of a demonstration of acting by two professionals at their creative peaks, “Bugonia” was perfect.

Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” Dazzles at the 61st Chicago International Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On October 15, 2025

In Best Paranormal Stories Online to Read | Paranormal Podcast, Movies, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Reviews, Scary stories

I saw Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” today, in a screening room packed with critics. I’m very glad I did see it on the big screen because it is only going to play in theaters beginning October 17th through November 5th and then will head to Netflix on November 7th.

I am going to share some personal history with the Writer/Director of this amazing project, Guillermo del Toro, and with the lead actor, Oscar Isaacs, who plays Victor Frankenstein. After these two personal bits of my own film history over the 55 years I’ve been reviewing, you get a synopsis of the press notes that testify to the amazing effort this film represents, from having actually built the ship that is featured in one section to the color schemes and what they represent. Fascinating stuff.

But first, a couple of true stories.

Oscar Isaac and me in 2013 at the 49th Chicago International Film Festival, as the 61st Chicago International Film Festival is about to kick off tomorrow (Oct. 15-26, 2025.)

Back in 2013, Oscar Isaac was an unknown, coming to Chicago to promote the Coen Brothers film “Inside Lleweyn Davis,” which co-starred Carrie Mulligan. He was the nicest, most cordial, pleasant star I’ve met since 2008. Somehow, hours after the film screened (and became his break-through film) I was at the post-party at the City Winery, if memory serves, in Chicago. He was so kind and thoughtful and nice to me that I became an instant fan.

You just knew that someone this nice and this talented, the Julliard graduate who did all of his own playing of the songs in that film, a true talent, was going to go far. He was 34 years old. Oscar is 46 today and is still five feet, eight and one-half inches tall, versus Jacob Elordi’s freakishly tall (by comparison) six feet five inches.

The year that Guillermo del Toro came to town for the Premiere of “The Shape of Water,” which I absolutely loved was 2016. He came with his good friend and frequent collaborator Ron Perlman. Again, there was a party somewhere, which, in those days, Press occasionally lucked into (not any more).

He, too, was such a nice, kind gentleman. My favorite moment was when he was being ushered down the Red Carpet. I had published a collection of reviews from a “real” newspaper ( Quad City Times) entitled “It Came from the 70s: From The Godfather to Apocalypse Now.” Knowing of his fondness for monsters and with an emphasis on horror films of the decade I gifted him with a copy. [I had been writing a novel trilogy entitled “The Color of Evil” and was, at that time, an active voting member of HWA]. He was genuinely enthused to receive the book, so much so that he stopped dead in his tracks and did not budge in his progress down the Red Carpet. His handlers returned to guide him.

At that point, one of those assisting him noticed his shoe was untied. Guillermo said, “Oh, no! Fat man with untied shoe!” and laughed while his handlers assisted him in retying and moving down the Red Carpet. Later, at the after-party, he was very genial and kind and nice. I can’t say that of all talent who have walked the Red Carpets.

Oscar Isaac in 2022.

Both are huge talents who know what they are doing and do it well. In the case of Guillermo’s films, you can tell that no effort or expense has been spared. That remains true of this version of “Frankenstein.”

Below are some of the Press Notes (synopsized) from the 2025 new version of “Frankenstein.” Guillermo has envisioned a super-strong “Frankenstein” with Terminator tendencies. “Frankenstein” will show at the Music Box Theater at 6 p.m. on Friday, 10/17, and again on Monday at the New City AMC (10/20) at 1:30 p.m. See it on the big screen, if you can. “Bravo!” once again to these two formidable talents. There will be many costume and set design Oscar nominations and it will qualify for most of the other Oscar categories, as well, so don’t miss it in its big-screen glory.

Tomorrow night, at the iconic Music Box Theater, the opening film of the 61st Chicago International Film Festival at 6:30 p.m. will be “One Golden Summer” about the 2014 Chicago Jackie Robinson West Little League team that became the first all-Black team to win the U.S. Little League Baseball Championship.

PRESS NOTES FOR “FRANKENSTEIN”

This sprawling epic takes audiences from the remote reaches of the Arctic to the bloody battlefields of 19th-century Europe, as Frankenstein and his Creature go on their own search for meaning in a world that can seem quite mad. Also starring Mia Goth as the luminous Elizabeth and two-time Academy Award®-winner Christoph Waltz, Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” is a reminder of how, at heart, we are all creatures, lost and found.

I was given this Oscar Isaac doll for Christmas, the year he appeared in the “Star Wars” episodes, because my family likes to give me a hard time about my chance encounter with Oscar Isaac.

Oscar Isaac stars in the new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic sci-fi/horror novel as Victor Frankenstein, with Jacob Elordi as The Creature, Mia Goth as Elizabeth Harlander, Christoph Waltz as Heinrich Harlander, and Felix Kammerer as William Frankenstein.

“I’ve lived with Mary Shelley’s creation all my life,” del Toro says. “For me, it’s the Bible, but I wanted to make it my own, to sing it back in a different key with a different emotion.”

Since making his feature film debut with 1993’s Spanish-language vampire tale “Cronos,” the visionary writer-director has repeatedly conjured visually stunning, magical stories, all of which celebrate the beauty that can exist within darkness. With such films as “The Devil’s Backbone” (2001), “Hellboy” (2004), “Pan’s Labyrinth” (2006), and “The Shape of Water” (2016), del Toro has forged a reputation for a nuanced portrayal of all types of beings — be they monsters and demons, ghosts, or even an amphibious river god saved from extinction by a mute cleaning lady.

“Ever since I was a kid, since my first Super 8 movie to now, I’ve dreamt of making two movies, “Pinocchio” and “Frankenstein”… I thought we were telling the same story: what it is to be human, what it is to be framed in a life by eternity and death, both forces. I wanted to make Frankenstein as personal as it could get.”

Having spent decades contemplating his vision, del Toro had a fully conceived approach to the film, which he set against the backdrop of the Crimean War. After undertaking an extensive scout across Europe to find the most ideal settings for the project, he began filming “Frankenstein” in Toronto in early 2024, later visiting numerous sites in the UK for location and miniatures filming.

Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein in “Frankenstein” directed by Guillermo del Toro.
Photo Credit: Ken Woroner / Netflix

The House of Frankenstein is actually four different residences: Gosford House in East Lothian, Scotland; Burghley House in Lincolnshire, England; Dunecht House in Aberdeenshire, Scotland; and Wilton House in Wiltshire, England. The elaborate staircase at Wilton House is also used and Stanley Kubrick filmed in one of the castles used, which gives it a special prominence/significance.

During the 100-day shoot, del Toro pored over every detail with thoughtfulness and passion, rooted in love and respect for Shelley’s novel. “The subject matter is humanistic,” says producer J. Miles Dale, who also collaborated with del Toro on “The Shape of Water” and “Nightmare Alley,” among other projects. “This is existential, about life and death. When you talk about legacy movies, this is that for Guillermo. Having been on his mind for most of his life, he’s seen this movie in his head — we’re not leaving anything on the table in terms of what we’re doing, who we’re doing it with, how we’re doing it, and what the result will be. We wanted to make an old-fashioned, beautiful production of operatic scale made by humans.”

This culminates a cycle — operatic, ornamental, camera moving very precisely — all those things [are] out the window from now on a little bit, at least is how it feels.

THE MONSTER

Jacob Elordi plays the monster. His head and shoulders alone required 12 separate, overlapping silicone rubber appliances — additionally, Elordi’s eyebrows were glued down and a bald cap was placed over his hair. The actor is 6′ 5″ and del Toro wanted a tall creature (which he got).

ALEXANDRE DESPLAT SCORE

“To have a good score,” Desplat says, “you have to find the soul of the film and create another dimension of sensation, of poetry, of spirituality, that follows the film and amplifies the emotions.”

LIMITED RELEASE IN THEATERS UNTIL NOV. 5 (On Netflix Nov. 7^th)

The film is only playing in theaters from October 17 – November 5, which would make sense given it’s coming to Netflix just two days later. It is in limited release in major cities, only. If you’re not near a big city, good luck in finding this visual feast to see it on a big screen, which is definitely the best way for a movie like this, if only for the fantastic costuming.

Said one reviewer,“Frankenstein is absolutely breathtaking, with imagery and set pieces that instantly embed themselves in your memory. It showcases del Toro’s strength as a filmmaker, creating immersive worlds that enhance what he does best: championing monsters and their tragic humanity instead of using them to scare us.” (“Bloody Disgusting” review).

“Frankenstein” was the second favorite audience favorite (runner-up) at TIFF in Toronto. What beat it? This year’s winner, and the first filmmaker to take home two People’s Choice Awards, was Chloé Zhao for her “Hamnet,” which is also playing in Chicago. (The filmmaker previously won in 2020 with her “Nomadland.”)

Count me as liking this beautiful film a lot. Specific observations after October 17^th.

“The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick” at Nashville Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On September 14, 2025

In Health/Medicine, Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Movies, Reviews, Scary stories, Science and Medicine

Zoe Chao in The True Beauty of Being Bitten By A Tick

Zoe Chao as Yvonne in “The True Beauty of Being Bitten By A Tick” at the 56th Nashville Film Festival.

I missed “The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick” when it premiered at SXSW. As it turns out, that was probably for the best. Director Pete Ohs is having much more success with his newest film, “Europcja,” starring Charlie Xcx at TIFF in Toronto, where it has been described as “delightful.”

When “The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick” premiered in Austin (henceforth to be referenced as TTBOBBBAT) it was described by critics as “intriguing but tedious,” “not cohesive” and “creepy.” It was also called a “sunny-yet-claustrophobic” nightmare. Critics remarked on the “intense sense of discomfort” that the contrasting moods of sinister versus serene evoked.

COMPARISONS

TTBOBBBAT reminded a bit of the 2019 horror film “Midsommar” by Ari Aster (“Hereditary,” “Eddington”), where there was a plot involving a young girl similarly grieving a personal loss.She travels to be with others to recover. In TTBOBBBAT, Yvonne has joined Camille to try to forget about and recover from the loss of her dog Jerry. “Midsommar” was known for unsettling visuals and psychological tension. We could say the same of TTBOBBBAT.

Another film that we might compare TTBOBBBAT to is “Get Out,” once the veneer of sociability and normal life is peeled away.The difference between those two films (“Get Out” & “Midsommar”) and this 80 minute film, however, would be the logic of the story the film is attempting to tell.

THE SCRIPT

Supposedly the four leads wrote the script, which means credit or blame goes to Zoe Chao (Yvonne), Callie Hernandez (Camille), James Cusati-Moyer (A.J.) and Jeremy O. Harris (Isaac). Audiences prefer movies that make sense. True, Yorgos Lanthimos and Ari Aster have done well with some outrageous plots, but they may be the exception that proves that rule. I admit that some scripts have holes wide enough to drive a Mack truck through, but I had issues with the screenplay even before the lead played her part without ever cracking a smile.

PLOT BY GROUP MEETING

In the tick movie, throwing the plot together in a collaborative, spontaneous group fashion did not work well. I can believe that sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It was not the first time this method has been used by the Director.

Ohs films are known for unsettling visuals and psychological tension. In this one, the farmhouse rural setting is beautiful, but even more important is the sound. The eerie noises are extremely important in creating a suspenseful mood. Sound designer Danny Madden and Sound mixer John Bowers deserve special mention and kudos for their work. Isabella Summers composed music for the film and flutist James King is credited.Without the eerie and strange sounds that cue whatever action exists in TTBOBBBAT the film would be nearly devoid of momentum.

Zoe Chau as Yvonne in “The True Beauty of Being Bitten By A Tick” at the 56th Nashville Film Festival.

PLOT

So, what is the plot?

Yvonne (Zoe Chao)—who initially presents as hysterical and rarely smiles or appears to be enjoying herself—joins old friend Camille (Callie Hernandez) by invitation in a lovely pastoral countryside setting. She is urged to join Camille after suffering the loss of her dog Jerry and reaching out to Camille for support . She seems consumed by grief and guilt–almost hysterically so— and, later, by a tick bite she suffers while walking in the woods near the farmhouse setting.

When Yvonne arrives at Camille’s house, there are two gay realtors already in residence, which does not please her. However, nothing really seems to please Yvonne. I can’t remember her smiling. There also was a mysterious ghost-like sighting of a figure in the woods that is never developed, just as the doors opening and closing somewhat mysteriously are thrown in once or twice, but never really pursued.

A.J. (James Cusati-Moyer) and Isaac (Jeremy O. Harris) apparently know Camille as a result of helping her find the house in this bucolic pastoral setting, which causes A.J.,in particular, to wax rhapsodic about the “farm-to-market” advantages of living in the country. A.J. is a bit of a holistic healer and an all-around Master Chef. The dishes he prepares look like road kill. Yvonne initially seems very reluctant to sample one of A.J.’s masterpieces, but, in later scenes, she consumes a plateful with great gusto after initially pronouncing the dish as bad.

That is a complete shift from her earlier opinion of A.J.’s cooking. Yvonne’s change of heart towards A.J.’s food is similar to Camille’s change of heart from a woman who never wanted children to one who suddenly announces her pregnancy, but never reveals who the father is, despite being asked. The best we can get from Camille is, “The father died as soon as we had conceived.” That odd remark doesn’t draw the follow-up questions you would expect.

TICK BITE

The trailer for the film tells us that Yvonne should not be concerned about the tick bite because, “Fear controls us. It ruins us. And that is the true beauty of being bitten by a tick. Because, after that, there’s nothing left to fear.”

Does that explanation hold water? Is a tick bite the worst thing that can happen to you? Yes, tick bites can become serious, but treating them with antibiotics is effective, if done promptly. When I was a business owner I left my second-in-command in charge of my business to go off for a franchise-required event for a week. I was upset to learn, upon my return after 7 days, that my Number One employee had—without asking me or telling me—designated someone else to take over running the place so that she could fly to Michigan to be at her mother-in-law’s hospital bedside. What was wrong with her mother-in-law? Tick bite. (No, I’m not making this up.)

I immediately began trying to find out the answer to the question, “How serious is a tick bite?” It was apparently serious enough that my employee risked her position to fly off, (without permission from or prior notification to me), to be at the bedside of her husband’s mother, who recovered quickly. Was a tick bite really THAT serious? If Lyme disease goes untreated, you can develop serious heart and nervous system problems, including the following:

Nerve pain and tingling
Drooping on one or both sides of your face
Heart failure
Memory loss
Dementia

The symptoms above are the result of untreated tick bites, which can cause Lyme Disease, a disease called STARI, or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. In most cases, the effect of a tick bite is more like that of the flu. So, why doesn’t Yvonne march out to her car and go see a doctor? Good question. Never asked or answered. Yvonne’s failure to seek medical treatment is mystifying and—even more mystifying in what passes for a plot—when did being bitten by a tick lead to a 9-month nap?

THEMES

One theme in the film is the over-emphasis on staying healthy (which, given the current status of the CDC seems merited). Does the word “pandemic” not justify a certain amount of care be given to paying attention to one’s health? One reviewer (Alison Foreman, 3/8/2025, in “IndieWire”) dubbed TTBOBBBAT “a strange self-care thriller.” Another theme that emerged late in the plot: “We’re all part of a cycle. Eventually I’ll die and just feed the worms. We’re meant to return to the dirt.” The lengthy title was dubbed as “Generally useless as a dramatic question.” The narrative was termed “wobbly.”

Pete Ohs, Director of “The True Beauty of Being Bitten By A Tick” at the 56th Nashville Film Festival.

When four people “collaborate” on a plot, the plot can become incomprehensible. “Wobbles” can lead to collapse. However, Director Pete Ohs has been working a long time and has achieved some notable successes, including the recent premiere at TIFF of “Eurupcja,” which was dubbed “delightful.”

Not all of the plots Ohs has developed came off as well as “Eurupcja.” I watched an interview with Ohs and his wife and collaborator Andrea Lauren Sisson where he shared a plan for a different plot, a story about a character wandering a desolate landscape carrying a robot head. Ohs went on to say that the character is attempting to rebuild his robot girlfriend. O….K….

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS

Accents I have heard, but not identified:

Callie Hernandez (Camille), who was in Damien Chazelle’s “La La Land” and Ridley Scott’s “Alien: Covenant” was born in Jacksonville, Florida, but said she considers her home to be Austin, Texas. There were many points in the film where she seemed to be speaking with an accent, which sounded most similar to an Aussie accent. There were so many times that her accent came through that I set about trying to find out where she grew up to find out what accent I was hearing. For instance, the two words “Not yet” came off as “Not yit” (when transcribed phonetically.) When Camille asks “What’s the matter?” she again seems to have an accent. Since this was a bit of the improvised dialogue the quartet created, it might be time to give the rest of that dialogue exchange with Yvonne.

Dialogue example:

Camille: “What’s the matter?” (weird pronunciation)

Yvonne: “I can’t stop thinking about dying.”

Camille: “Everything’s OK.”

Biodynamic enzymes & mugwart?

There was also talk of “biodynamic enzymes” right after this exchange. That made almost as much sense as A.J. chiming in that he was going to “burn some mugwort” (used in witchcraft, I have learned, and potentially a sleep aid).

Strangely choreographed scene: The discussion above was followed by a strangely choreographed scene where the others tell Yvonne that she is going to experience a wonderfully “restorative sleep” while they are performing a little syncopated hand jive. Nine months of “restorative sleep?” Nine months later, Yvonne awakens and dresses up in a nice outfit, including donning Camille’s pearl earrings. And she learns that everybody is pregnant (except Yvonne.) Right. This seems reasonable.
The Title Design was almost impossible to read. Pick something different.

I have to admit that the review I read during SXSW where someone described the plot as “hanging on like a confused parasite” kept me from attending. From the reviews of Pete Ohs’ latest film “Eurupcjas”, which are quite good, it’s safe to say that everyone doing anything creative has some hits and some misses and I’ll hold out for that one described as “delightful” by the majority.

Here’s to many more future hits for Pete Ohs and his collaborators.

CAST

Director: Pete Ohs (Also Cinematographer/Editor)

Zoe Chao – Yvonne

Callie Hernandez – Camille

James Cusati-Moyer – A.J.

Jeremy O Harris – Isaac

Julian Sanchez – Tristan

Jack Ferver – Jude

Maia Novi – Julia

Jack Mikesell – Stephen

Stella Schnabel – Alice

Emily Deforest – Emma

Ben Brewer – Luke

Danny Madden – Sound Design

Sound Mix – John Bowers

Composer – Isabella Summers

Flutist – James King

Jessie Reed – Title Design

“Bark” Short to Screen at Nashville Film Festival on September 19, 2025

By Connie Wilson

On September 11, 2025

In Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Movies, Reviews, Scary stories

Bella and Roger meet his parents.

Directors Steven Lai and Leonardo Giovenazzo wrote and directed an 11-minute short entitled “Bark.” It will have its Southeast Premiere at the 56^th Nashville Film Festival on Friday, September 19^th at 9 p.m. in Regal Green Hills Theater #4. The film features veteran actor Eric Roberts as Albert, the father of Roger (Kiser Shelton). Roger has invited his girlfriend Bella (Brianne Tju) home to dinner to meet his parents. Albert’s wife is played by Karen Culp.

Brianne Tju, who appeared in “I Know What You Did Last Summer” (2021).

As Bella is driving to her boyfriend’s house, she accidentally hits and kills a large Black Labrador Retriever that is smack dab in the middle of the road. She then has to put the dog out of its misery using a large rock. By the time Bella arrives at Roger’s house, she is in no condition to enjoy the meal or the dancing afterwards that Albert (Eric Roberts) suggests, and is having flashbacks involving the sudden appearance of the hapless animal in the middle of the road.

ERIC ROBERTS

GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 07: Eric Roberts attends the 7th Annual HAPA Awards at Alex Theatre on October 07, 2023 in Glendale, California. (Photo by Olivia Wong/Getty Images)

On June 4, 1981, Eric Roberts was driving in Connecticut with then-girlfriend Sandy Dennis’s German Shepherd in the passenger seat when he crashed his jeep into a tree. While the dog escaped serious injury, Roberts spent 72 hours in a coma and was hospitalized for more than a month, forcing him to drop out of the Broadway show Mass Appeal. I wondered if the “Bark” plot involving a car crash and a dog spoke to the veteran actor and factored in his decision to take the small, but necessary part. Roberts is known for having more IMDB credits than anyone, listed today as 882.

When I interviewed Eric and Eliza on my Weekly Wilson podcast (#6 on this blog) during the pandemic, as he was appearing in the indie film “Lone Star Deception,” a 2019 film, he had 569 IMDB credits. In the intervening six years, Eric Roberts has racked up 313 more credits, which means an average of 52 roles per year, or roughly one role a week. Needless to say, these are not leads, nor are they necessarily feature films. When I asked Roberts about leisure time back during that interview, he said he hadn’t had any “leisure” time in 5 years. (He used to enjoy horseback riding, but had given it up, he said.)

I asked Eric about his work ethic in deciding what parts to take (something which his wife, Eliza, handles). He answered, “Once you’ve established yourself as someone who’s worth their salt, who’s good, you have to live up to it. So every time you’re offered something, you have to ask yourself, ‘Can I be my best?’ And if you can, you take it.”

OTHER CAST

In this 11-minute short, the photography by William Albu was good, the Production Design by Claire Huber was superior, and the music (“Meet Me Halfway” by the Black Eyed Peas) was more than adequate. I watched Kiser Shelton as Roger wolf down a dessert in an overdone fashion from a beautiful piece of china and realized that this was my mother’s pattern, “Allure” (Japanese Noritake). Since Mom was born in 1907, this was definitely antique china and beautiful. It’s odd to see weird things you identify with in a film, whether it’s Tony Soprano’s bedspread ( I own it in Texas) or the silverware fork that was supposedly used by JonBenet Ramsey in 1996 the night she was murdered, (which was also my mother’s pattern.) I found the production design—the house, the setting, everything about the house and table to be extremely well-done. Kudos to Claire Huber!

THE BAD?

I have only one small criticism, which can perhaps be attributed to the fact that “Bark” is described as both comedy and horror. Three of the four actors played it straight. Kiser Shelton went for the comic aspect and came out looking and sounding over-the-top.

Since “Bark” is billed as a comedy/drama, the overacted (and overwritten) proposal by Roger to Bella in the dining room (“You are the sunshine in my garden“) can be attributed to Kiser Shelton’s attempt to ham it up for comic purposes. For me, it would have been better to follow the lead of Eric Roberts, Brianne Tja and Karen Culp and play the part straight.

There is an interesting ending for the short and it was professionally done and enjoyable.

Printers’ Row on Saturday & Sunday, 9/6 and 9/7/2025

By Connie Wilson

On September 8, 2025

In Books, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology

Printers’ Row on 9/6, Saturday.

Today was the final day of Printers’ Row 2025.

It is the third largest outdoor book sales event in the United States. I’ve done Printers’ Row at least 5 times, always with limited success, because the expense to participate is substantial and most of the other vendors are offering books for as low as $5. If you bring the book you worked on for years to the table and try to charge the price listed on it, good luck to you.

Also, if you drive down and park, it costs a bundle. Buying something to eat while present for 8 hours in the streets of Chicago is also a fairly pricey proposition.

I think the cost to be present at the Illinois Association of Penwomen booth this year was $145 for 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and $135 for the same 8 hours on Sunday, which would be a total of $280 to be present for 16 hours in the streets of Chicago for the two days. If you bought the 2 days, all day, the price was lowered to $250, I was told, when I asked to be reminded today. (Yikes!)

The other problem I have is that I find it extremely taxing to spend a full 8 hours in the streets of Chicago, outside. I am not a morning person. Getting set up by 10 a.m. is bad enough. What I used to do was split the 8 hours with a second writer, taking the 2 to 6 p.m. shift myself and letting the 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift go to another writer who found the price tag for the full day rather high, as I do, and perhaps didn’t also want to spend 8 hours in the streets of Chicago (4 hours is about my limit). Cancer treatments from December of 2021 and on through 2023 definitely stopped me from participating those years. Last year (2024) I was still in Texas following our annual Family Fest over Labor Day. This year, we planned to exit Austin (Tx) in time to fly to Chicago on Thursday so I could participate on the following Saturday and Sunday. But it sounded like a lot; it is and it was.

My organization, which I have been a member of since 2002, routinely has a tented booth in a great location, but up until now they only allowed you to purchase an entire day, You could then split the 8 hour day with another interested writer—if you could find one. That is what I have done every other year I have participated.

But the number of published writers from the Quad Cities who were ever interested in participating has bottomed out from zero to minus zero. I could never talk my friend David Dorris into participating in Chicago and he is now deceased. The entire event used to be held in June on the same day as Sean Leary’s birthday, so no dice there ever, despite several overtures to Sean.

Sometimes, I would find a Chicago writer—usually a total stranger—who wanted to split the 8 hours (and the fees) but driving 7 hours for meetings of the group has not been easy and my primary participation hs been selling my books at Printers’ Row. (Although I did serve as the official photographer at the national convention in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 2019.)

So, this year, I bit and paid the freight for two days of sales, primarily for the collegiality and community of participating. Art & Sue Brauer always do a bang-up job of setting up the tent, (BIG THANKS to both of them). I tried setting up a table by myself one year, a year that it rained non-stop. That was totally miserable. Pam, my college roommmate, and I spent much of the time huddled inside the Dearborn Station, which was then a restaurant site, which I think may have closed.

There was one year that we had a mini-tornado and our booth nearly blew away! Doing the entire 8 hours in the sun if you did not have a tented canopy was also grim. It is necessary to have a canopied tent in case it rains (as it did my first year) or the weather is truly hot. Today was 66 degrees, cool in the shade, and there was a 25 to 30 mph wind. I took 2 coats. For most of the day, I wore both of the lightweight jackets.

I roused myself on Saturday to make it to the booth by 10 a.m. pulling my weighty books. I was there until 20 minutes before closing at 6 p.m.. I knew my BEE GONE book with Trump’s visage on the cover would draw attention, and it sure did! I started out with about 50 books and tonight I have 5 left. They were not a pricey purchase ($10); that was also a good thing.

I even sold a couple of sets of “Obama’s Odyssey: The 2008 Race to the White House” , one set to a woman about my age who had worked for the Obama campaign. We shared our feeling of optimism when the United States elected its first Black president and how much we miss him now. I hope she enjoys the books.

I knew that, with troops massing on the edge of Chicago, a book with BEE GONE and DJT’s face on it would be a hit, and it was. It is a unique book. The illustrations by Gary McCluskey are Top Notch. The sentiment on the streets of Chicago was definitely not pro Trump today or yesterday.

I have heard that, next year, the PTB may decide to sell the days in halves, which would be good news for someone who spent 2 years doctoring for cancer and turned eighty this summer. Eight hours in the streets of Chicago is still a tall order. I get tired (and bored) after 4 hours. I came home both days, took a hot bath, and had a lengthy nap. I did not have enough energy to go out to eat either day, but ate food we had picked up at the grocery store on Friday. I also hosted my nephew Chris and his son Owen, who wanted to go to a baseball game, so the condo got some real use this weekend.

I did better this year than in any previous year. My little BEE GONE book seems to have made an impression. Someone said to me that he thought the book had had “national attention.” Not that I know of, although I did my best to get it into the hands of Seth Meyer when he played Chicago for his TV special. I also negotiated with the Biden campaign, getting to the right people to have a conversation just prior to Joe Biden’s run against Trump. The campaign intended to use the e-book as a reward for Democratic donors, but the pandemic moved the needle to facemasks, instead.

I also traded a film review for the e-mail contacts of people working behind-the-scenes for some of the late-night talk shows that Trump is now doing his best to get canceled (Stephen Colbert, anyone?). When Trump won the election (over Hillary) neither Facebook nor Amazon allowed me to advertise the book unless I changed the cover, which I refused to do, so my small protest against Trump 1.0 has languished ever since. Maybe it will live to fight again?

I feel like I worked very hard today and yesterday, even though, today, I did not show up until 1 p.m. I closed down the entire open air festival at 6 p.m., one of the last to pack up my old kit bag and leave. I did not completely sell out all of my books, but I did have to scavenge books from my book shelf in the condo in order to have some to sell today.

Printers’ Row on Sunday, 9/7/2025.

Did I make any money? Well, I used the Square successfully, which, in itself, was a Small Miracle. It showed about $200 of sales, which, obviously, would not be “a killing” if I paid $250 to be present. There were other cash sales. I spent zero dollars on parking, as my spouse kindly consented to drop me off and pick me up, and, as per usual, I packed a sandwich, some pop, and an apple for an economical lunch.

Selling books in the streets of Chicago is interesting, however. I met some lovely folks who applauded my continuing efforts to underscore the need to oppose DJT and I sold quite a few of the actual children’s book that inspired BEE GONE, which was intended for my granddaughters, initially, via Ingram Spark Publishing, the sixth in “The Christmas Cats in Silly Hats” series.

Check out the other five books in the six-book series at www.ConnieCWilson.com.

“Mercenaire” Is Riveting 15-Minute Short At HollyShorts

By Connie Wilson

On August 3, 2025

In Local, Movies, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Reviews, Scary stories

Marc-Andre Grondin in Mercenaire

Out of the 427 short films being screened at HollyShorts—one that will stand out for me— is the Canadian offering “Mercenaire,” which also showed at TIFF in 2024. University of Montreal Graduate Writer/Director Pier-Philippe Chevigny has directed Marc-Andre Grondin as Dave, an ex-convict, in a totally absorbing 15 minute film about a parolee who is hired to work on the killing floor of a meat processing plant, slaughtering pigs. Chevigny, who graduated in 2014, has had 48 awards nominations and 29 wins. He also edited.

Writer/Director Pier-Philippe Chevigny of “Mercenaire.”

The short piece is as riveting as anything you’ll see anywhere. It is fifteen minutes of a man trapped in hell. He MUST have a job, or he goes back to prison. The work is grueling, demanding, dangerous, bloody and completely debilitating for David, although others on the plant floor say, “You get used to it.” As we are learning firsthand in the United States of America in 2025 you can get used to a lot regarding man’s inhumanity towards others. If Dave is too tender-hearted, there will be ten even more desperate applicants waiting to take his place, if the pay is right.

I grew up in the Midwest (Independence, Iowa). My father grew up one of eight children on an Iowa farm (Fairbank, Iowa). I know pigs from visiting my uncle’s farms. They are very intelligent animals and quite cute, when young. Of course, the 2001 “Hannibal” sequel put pigs in a very different light. Indian film censors demanded that the close visual of a pig putting Mason’s (Gary Oldman) face into its mouth be excised to achieve an ‘A’ (adults) rating. It has remained cut ever since. And it is true that pigs will eat almost anything.

Despite that, a family friend even kept a pig as a pet and I seem to remember that George Clooney used to have a pet potbelly pig. Iowa friend Mary (Siesseger), who grew up in Clear Lake (Iowa), trained her pet pig to let her ride on its back. The Siessegers incorporated it into the family unit—until it got too big.

And what happens when a pig gets too big?

It goes to the slaughterhouse where a stun gun is used to knock the animal unconscious and it is slaughtered and bled. (Plus other steps outlined in the instructional video for meatpacking equipment. No trailer for “Mercenaire” up on YouTube at this time).

Man’s inhumanity to beast is displayed. I have used a very sanitized YouTube video about raising and slaughtering hogs that is NOT from this film. It presents the same steps that we see in much more graphic detail in “Mercenaire.” Hog farms and whether the animal is allowed free movement has changed since my father’s interest in raising pigs for slaughter. Whether the slaughtering process is “humane” is open to debate.

My cousin was taken on a tour of the Rath Packing Plant in Waterloo, Iowa, as a high school student (a plant that has given way to much bigger corporate operations like Tyson and Smithfield in 2025). She immediately became a vegetarian after the trip. My father actually wanted to establish one of the modern-day factory pig farms. Mom was adamantly opposed to the idea. Dad stuck to the banking business. Even my farm familiar father was somewhat taken aback by the news that the stressed pigs he saw on a local farm were biting the tails off of other pigs (something that this YouTube video seems to suggest is avoided by breaking off their teeth.) Two thousand pigs a day can be processed in just one plant, according to the video.

Pig prices

USA – Iowa/Minnesota

31 Jul

2.350

Germany

31 Jul

0.000

China

23 Jul

0.130

Spain

31 Jul

0.020

One of the most harrowing experiences of my young life (age 10) involved a trip to a neighbor’s farm where it was discovered that one of the pigs had broken its leg. The animal was strung up by its hind legs from high up, outside the barn, and its throat was slit to “bleed” the animal. The memory of the noise the terrified animal made and the horrifying sight of its body twisting in agony, bleeding out, has never left my brain. After watching this stroll down memory lane inside a pig slaughtering plant—similar to one located in Illinois near where I am writing this—it probably never will.

Map of pork processing plants in the United States.

As a teacher in an 82% Hispanic district (only one professional family in the entire district) my Latino students often ended up working at the meat processing plant after high school or after 8th grade. It paid well, you needed no advanced degree (not even a high school diploma) and the authorities weren’t as particular about immigration papers in those days. But the price those students paid is clearly delineated in this graphically brutal short. I will never forget the sounds of the terrified animal I witnessed being murdered on that neighbor’s farm. You may find this bloody and graphic film too much.

The end of the film depicts a man in a no-win situation whose very soul is in hell. Dave tries to find work on a construction crew. He tries to convince the boss to move him to a different duty on the killing floor. (The boss responds that the demand is for slaughtering animals on the killing floor.) You sense that Dave is at his wit’s end. The only question is whether he will, indeed, re-enter prison rather than continue re-enacting man’s inhumanity to God’s creatures.

Enjoy your bacon (if you can). Fair Oaks Foods has been building a $134 million-dollar new bacon processing facility in northwest Davenport, Iowa, meant to employ 250 people, since 2022. City officials hope it will be open by spring of 2026. And, of course, bacon comes from pigs—right? Anybody remember how, during the pandemic, meat processing plants like these were severely impacted as the employees fell victim to the deadly virus.

Meat-eaters, be warned. The excellent “Mercenaire” goes right alongside a British documentary about cow slaughtering (“Cow”), filmed completely without dialogue. But it got its message across quite clearly. So does “Mercenaire.”

Bravo, Pier-Philippe Chevigny!

FBI Agent Says FBI Is Being Destroyed From Within

By Connie Wilson

On July 18, 2025

In Editorial, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology, Interviews, Local, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Politics, Scary stories

David Frum (“The Atlantic”)

From David Frum’s podcast entitled “The Wrecking of the FBI,” sub-titled “How President Donald Trump is destroying U.S. counter-intelligence from the inside, published in “The Atlantic” on July 16th comes a disturbing picture of the FBI in Trump 2.0. The interview lasted an hour (and can potentially be heard in its entirety on YouTube.) This is only a small segment, with editorial comments.

Frum was a speechwriter for George H Bush who coined the term “axis of evil” and a stalwart in the neo-Conservative movement from Reagan through McCain. In 2016, Frum announced that he was voting for Hillary Clinton and subsequently became one of the founding members of the No Labels movement and a Never Trumper. He is now an Editor at “The Atlantic” and also has a podcast.

Summarized below are some snippets from the interview with former FBI counter-intelligence officer Peter Strzok. As someone who has actually been inside the FBI offices in New York City (as part of a Book Expo America presentation for writers of crime fiction), the entire interview is informative and absolutely terrifying in its implications. It makes me even more convinced that those born when I was born (Baby Boomers) have gotten the best this country has to offer, whether that means weather, salaries, progress towards equality for all, leadership, or, as in this interview, a competent FBI protecting United States citizens.

The interview led off by admitting that the FBI of the past had some notable excesses, especially under J. Edgar Hoover, as when he pursued Martin Luther King or during the McCarthy Era hearings of the 50s. However, in the 70s, safeguards were put in place, which Frum enumerates. Whether any of those guidelines and rule changes are being adhered to by the current Trump 2.0 group, which seems to feel that no set of rules (including the Constitution) applies to them, is a relevant question. And one that the interview answers with a negative slant. These appointees who are spectacularly ill-suited for their job(s) need to be relieved of their positions, whether as Secretary of Defense or as the non-medical person causing measles to come back with a vengeance. (And there are many more…too many to list them all. In fact, during the interview, Strzok did discuss the “play acting” that people like Kristi Noem seem intent on displaying, dressing up in outfits and sharing all with social media—even if what is shared is inaccurate or an outright lie,)

You won’t sleep well at night if you listen to the entire interview…and this is only about 10% of the interview’s content.

Former FBI agent Peter Strzok.

Strzok: “All of those people you see having these different sorts of formal and informal pressure placed upon them to move them out of the way, either by resignation, retirement, firing whatever the case may be,” said Peter Strzok, former FBI counter-intelligence officer, currently involved in two lawsuits against the Department of Justice for unfair firing (much like the daughter of James Comey, Maurene Comey).

Strzok was interviewed by David Frum, the 65-year-old Editor of the “Atlantic” on July 16th on his podcast, and the news from behind-the-scenes on the current state of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is not encouraging. Strzok sketched an agency that has lost its experts and is promoting totally unqualified people into top positions, people who Strzok says are unqualified, lazy and have no idea what they are doing.

David Frum: This question from Frum made me laugh (and then it made me cry): “The special genius of Kash Patel is he just doesn’t care. He has no regard for the FBI as an institution. No, I mean, if we say there’s a special Nobel Prize for Bobby Kennedy Jr. as maybe the worst Cabinet secretary, not just of this administration but of all time, the most inappropriate, the most “who shouldn’t have the job,” Kash Patel may not quite match a pro-polio secretary of Health and Human Services, but he’s an honorable mention, right?” (And let’s not forget Patel’s truly Crazy Eyes!) Trying to pick the most tragically unqualified among the Trump appointees is difficult, since 90% are so inept. (I had a few moments where I thought Marco Rubio might acquit himself with honor, but those moments passed.) We are now a kakistocracy.

Strzok responded: “And it’s not only malevolence and lack of care; it’s also lack of competence.” He went on to say, “Clearly Donald Trump is the motivating force and at the FBI, it’s Kash Patel and to a certain extent Dan Bongino who are motive force, but there are people around them who are taking care of the particulars or informing them of the particulars to be acted on. But for Kash, it’s not just a lack of caring; it’s an utter lack of knowledge.”

Oh, good. A Know-Nothing is calling the shots at the FBI.

How does that stack up with the mission to keep our country safe that the FBI faces?

Strzok: “There are not enough FBI agents and analysts and investigators to counter all the threats of terrorism, counterintelligence, white-collar crime, public corruption, gangs—all of it. You name it, there’s not enough. So it is very much, one, you’re having to prioritize which threats you do work, and it is essentially very much a zero-sum game. If you take people off of one topic, you’re putting them on another, but you’re losing somewhere else…Look—if we move these people to work immigration, you’ve got to understand we’re going to not be working on this or not be working on that, and your exposure and your threat in those areas, your call at the end of the day, but if you do this, this is the cost that you’re gonna have to pay in the way that trickles out down the line.”

Oh. Great, (she said sarcastically.) So, with Iran mad as a wet hen about our bombing of their nuclear facilities, the FBI is not fully staffed and not totally on alert for terrorist actions aimed at U.S. cities and U.S. citizens?

Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic book cover by David Frum

Frum soldiered on, asking the question we should all be asking about all of the agencies that DOGE and DJT have attacked and attempted to destroy. “What is the state of our counterintelligence facilities? There are a lot of reports that suggest there have been important resignations, that there are less qualified people running counter-terrorism. How does that look to you?”

Strzok: “Well, I think there is very much a greater vulnerability than there was prior to Kash Patel showing up…The people who arrive, traditionally, at the senior level of the organizations have gone through a variety of assignments, both in the field as an investigator, as well as at headquarters doing a variety of things to gain expertise, to run larger programs, to interact with the inter-agency community and to understand, say, you’re a counter-terrorism agent.”

As you can imagine, this former counter-intelligence agent thinks the current crop of agents is woefully under-prepared and, on top of that, they may be lazy. (That rumor has actually gained credence with Bongino, the former podcaster, complaining about how “hard” the job is.)

Strzok: “I don’t want to turn this into a gripe session about the senior management of the FBI—Dan Bongino goes on Fox News and he acts astonished that everything we face is a 10 out 10, like the nines out 10, we don’t even hear about. And says ‘I barely get home to see my wife and it’s like we’re divorced.’ Dude, what the hell do you think has been going on for the past 20, 30, 40 years by all the people at the FBI and you’ve been on the job for five minutes and you’re complaining?” (Italics Frum’s).

Strzok: “Yeah, and I think they’re fundamentally lazy, and I’m talking about Kash Patel and Dan Bongino. I think Kash Patel has spent the entirety of his life cozying up to political figures that he could hitch his wagon to, whether it’s Devin Nunes and then Donald Trump and otherwise selling God knows what on various podcasts, whether it’s, you know, things that are not of substantive value.”

Buttressing the basic argument that the current crop of agents may not be the most qualified or experienced is this further Strzok quote: “And so by the time it gets to the point where you’re on that senior staff advising the director and deputy director what to do, you’ve had probably 20 years of various experience learning this and doing this. Well, when you come in with purges, and you’re Patel and Bongino and trying to get rid of everybody so you can bring in (loyalist) people…The deputy director of the FBI traditionally has always been an agent—Dan Bongino is the first in memory who isn’t—who has a deep understanding of how the bureau works and an accomplished track record within that organization.”

BEE GONE book by Connie Wilson

So, who’s minding the FBI store?

Strzok: “We are supporting in many ways Israeli efforts against Iran—that when it comes to a potential Iranian response, whether that’s through proxies, whether they have sleeper personnel here, whether they have visitors capable of coming into the United States, whether they have established capabilities out of the Iranian intersection or the mission to the UN. The people who know that, the people who are on the street who have that knowledge, one, at a senior level may be gone; two, at a street level, may have gotten pulled to go work elsewhere (and declined a reposting to Alabama, in Frum’s example).”

The expertise drain, either through re-settlement as a form of firing, or by actual firing of qualified agents (see the Maureen Comey story this week) is hurting the FBI.

Strzok: “Part of what you do is, there’s a continuum of that sort of lesson as a baby investigator, as a probationary agent learning to understand what things are worth doing and what things are kind of spinning your wheels.”

But things are improving, right? We don’t have to lose sleep at night about the FBI being completely ineffectual?

Strzok: “And the problem is: If you don’t have that expertise, you are going to tend to flail. And if you’ve gotten rid of all the other people who can act as sort of wise consiglieres to tell you, Look, boss—it sounds bad, but this really is probably not what we should be focusing on. Let whoever run this out. Here are the things that you really need to focus on. Those people, those voices don’t exist anymore. And there’s only so much you can do to reach down and pluck somebody up—again, there are a lot of really great agents and analysts, but they just, they don’t have that benefit. You can’t suddenly bestow on somebody an extra five years of senior experience. You can’t do that.”

scales of justice

“All of those things are going on. And so when you say we’re going to take 30 percent of our workforce and move it over to rounding up immigrants, not even violent immigrants—we’re just going to round up immigrants so we can get our numbers up—those people come, not entirely, but one of the places they come from are all those folks who are doing it. So not only do you have,,, a brain drain, particularly at a senior level of people who are getting forced out because a lot of them, by the way, senior counterintelligence people happen to be involved with the investigation of Donald Trump allegedly maintaining illegally classified documents at his place at Mar-a-Lago but you have any number of people who were in some way, shape, or form looking at combating foreign influence in our elections.”

“And so whether it was 2016, whether it was things like the Hunter Biden laptop, perhaps it was whether or not the Chinese were or weren’t trying to influence our election, the people who had the expertise and knowledge to do that are getting forced out. Units are getting disbanded. In the case of foreign influence, there’s an entire task force that was disbanded with a corresponding set of folks at DOJ reportedly that were all reassigned somewhere else. And so you’ve got both expertise loss, and on the ground you’ve got investigative-manpower loss. And so those things, there’s no question in my mind that we are more vulnerable than we were.”

“Jurassic World: Rebirth”: Is the Series Over?

By Connie Wilson

On July 14, 2025

In Movies, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews, Scary stories

Orlando Bloom

I tried very hard to go into “Jurassic World: Rebirth” without reading any of the reviews beforehand. Therefore, when I saw Rupert Friend onscreen, at first I thought it was Orlando Bloom. As I discovered during the “check on that” phase of the festivities, the “bad guy” was actually Rupert Friend (pictured below). Given the fact that Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry just broke up after years (and a child) together, leading her to some teary moments onstage, [and , after that news came out, there were reports that Bloom was miffed that his flirtation with Sydney Sweeney while at Jeff Bezos over-the-top Venice wedding was nipped in the bud by none other than Tom Brady acing him out]—well, Orlando could have been the PERFECT “bad guy” for this film, And we’d hardly notice the switch. But Rupert Friend got the bad guy role and more-or-less delivers as Martin Krebs. You just know that Krebs-y will eventually be eaten by dinosaurs, since he is “the bad guy” and must pay the price (even if, IRL, that doesn’t seem to be happening recently.) You can figure out which of the others of the supporting cast is likely to be eaten pretty quickly, as well.

I was shocked to see the female character deemed most expendable busily arranging things on the beach and paying NO attention to the gigantic dinosaur menacing her from the nearby water. I mean—-take a look around, girl!

Rupert Friend

With the characters Zora Bennett, Henry Loomis, and Duncan Kincaid, it seems like Jurassic World Rebirth is trying to recreate the iconic trio from the original “Jurassic Park.” It didn’t work. We just don’t learn enough about the many characters to relate to or care much about any of them, which isn’t surprising given how many characters the plot involves.

I’m guilty of trying to make readers care about too many characters at once. It doesn’t work well. However, with the accomplished writer of the original “Jurassic Park,” David Koepp at the helm, it was surprising that he fell into this amateur trap. Critics described the characters as boring, one-dimensional and lifeless—which, come to think of it, could be a common complaint of a lot of the summer’s big studio releases.

DINOSAURS ONSCREEN

There are definitely a lot of dinosaurs in Jurassic World Rebirth. However, many critics agree that the real dinosaurs, such as the T-rex, the mosasaurus, and the spinosaurus’, are scarier and more fun to watch than the hybrid dinosaurs. This suggests that the franchise needs to finally abandon the idea of hybrid dinosaurs. They may have worn out their welcome.

Cinematography (John Mathieson) and visual effects, while good, do not eclipse this 7^th-in-the-series follow-up to the 1993 film, which seems odd since the first Steven Spielberg film is thirty-two years old. Music by Alexandre Desplat was fine, but not as impressive as Hans Zimmer’s in “F-1.”

THEN AND NOW

I went into the film without reading any other critics’ reviews. I loved the original Steven Spielberg film (who didn’t?) and hoped this sequel would be just as good as the original film. As is almost always the case, the sequel is not as good, despite the presence of a bona fide Academy Award winner (Mahershala Ali) in a key role as Duncan Kincaid and the usually excellent Scarlett Johansson as Zora Bennett. Other major characters are the already mentioned Rupert Friend as the bad guy and Jonathan Bailey, fresh off “Wicked,” as the good-guy nerdy dinosaur expert. [Bailey and Mahershala Ali carried off the acting honors, for me.]

I did find the near-misses with the dinosaurs exciting, but the cute little hammerhead creature just made me wonder if, because Bella (the young girl character who ultimately saves them all, of course) had touched the creature, the baby hammerheaded dinosaur would later be rejected by its own kind (which is what would normally happen in the wild.) I did not find the baby dino to be “cute,” but, then, I don’t find creatures that could kill me “cute” most of the time.

SCREENPLAY ISSUES

I was struck by the fact that screenwriter David Koepp, who did the screenplay for the original “Jurassic Park” as well as the “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” seems to have run out of steam. He is a well-known and well-respected scribe, also responsible for “Mission Impossible,” “Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and “Spider Man” by Sam Raimi. Having just seen “F-1,” I heard the same exact scripted nugget in “Jurassic World: Rebirth” that was just used in “F-1.”

In “F-1”, screenwriters Ehren Kruger and Joseph Kosinski gave Brad Pitt this line to deliver to his co-star, the young race car driver Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris): “Don’t be shitty to yourself. There are plenty of people out there who will do that for you.” In “Jurassic Park: Rebirth” David Koepp inserts this line: “Other people may talk shit about us, but we don’t have to do the job for them. Otherwise, it comes true.”

GMTA?

Scarlett Johannsson

Is this a case of Great Minds Thinking Alike, or is there a shortage of true originality and creativity going on in these two recent big studio releases? The latest “Jurassic World” is currently raking in $530 million worldwide (on a budget of $180 million) so critics be damned. The critics didn’t praise “F-1” for originality, either. Sign of the times. The studios will still laugh all the way to the bank. But I’m looking for originality and creativity, not a script or a concept created by a committee and judged to be acceptable to the masses (i.e., no controversial deep thoughts articulated.)

Since I have a life-long habit of scribbling down the memorable lines from the films I’m reviewing (since 1970), here are a few more gems from “Jurassic World: Rebirth.:” They (the dinosaurs) may be through with us, but we’re not through with them.” (This one might turn out to be wrong; maybe audiences ARE through with them.) Another possibly prophetic gem was, “Nobody cares about these animals any more.”

Or we have the pithy exchange, “What do we do now?”

Followed by “Try not to die.”

DOUBLE TROUBLE

Many reviewers have pointed out the folly of having two sets of characters who ultimately merge. The first set, of course, was the family of Reuben Delgado (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo). The protective father, his older daughter Teresa (Luna Blaise), her ne’er-do-well boyfriend Xavier (David Iacono), and her younger sister Isabella (Audrina Mirande). Their boat is rammed by a giant sea creature. They are then rescued from their sinking boat by the rig being piloted by Duncan Kincaid (Mahershala Ali).

After the family group is separated from the group of scientists, all of the remaining characters (8? 10?) ultimately end up on the beach for the finale, which, hopefully, will involve a helicopter rescue.

CONCLUSION

Pacing issues, weak script, CGI we’ve seen before, too many characters to follow—there are still some thrilling moments, especially the rappelling down the cliff segment and the finale. It wasn’t the worst movie of the summer, but it wasn’t the best, either. Enjoy the close calls and re-watch the original for the fresh spirit of Michael Crichton’s original creative tale.

Trump As Sociopath: Check the Signs

By Connie Wilson

On July 13, 2025

In Books, Editorial, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology, Health/Medicine, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Politics, Scary stories, Science and Medicine

by Brent Molnar ( Voice of Reason ~ “The Man-Child in Chief: Why Donald Trump’s Behavior Isn’t Just Alarming—It’s Clinical”

Donald J. Trump

“At this point, calling Donald Trump a sociopath feels like stating water is wet. But throw that term around too loosely and people stop hearing it. So let’s be precise.

What if the erratic cruelty, the compulsive lying, the open disdain for rules and empathy—it’s not just some quirky political branding. What if it’s a documented, diagnosable pattern? Because it is. And understanding it might be the first real step toward protecting what’s left of American democracy.

Sociopathy—officially known as Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)—isn’t some cartoonish label you slap on a villain. It’s a well-defined clinical condition. It starts early, often appearing in childhood as conduct disorder—aggression, deceit, a lack of remorse—and fully emerges in adulthood as a complete disregard for others, rules, and basic morality. It’s not about being mean. It’s about being wired to harm without guilt.

Trump’s entire life fits that arc. His father, a distant real estate baron who valued dominance over decency. His mother, emotionally unavailable. A home life that trained him not in compassion, but in conquest. And what we see now—what we’ve always seen—isn’t a break from that past. It’s the fulfillment of it. Trump isn’t unwell because of power. He got power because he was unwell in a way that ruthless systems reward.

Look at the checklist: No remorse for pain caused? Check. Disregard for laws, norms, and human dignity? Check. Chronic lying, even when it gains him nothing? Bullying those beneath him, worshipping those above? All boxes checked. And still, millions confuse his behavior for “strength.” In reality, it’s a toddler in a suit with the nuclear codes and a permanent grudge.

Trump & Putin

The tragic twist? Authoritarians and autocrats abroad have figured this out. Trump’s second-term travel itinerary is a map of manipulation. NATO leaders learned: flatter him, and he’ll do whatever you want. Putin knew it. So did MBS. So does Musk. His emotional development stopped sometime before junior high, and it shows. If you coddle the ego, you get the policy.

But let’s not sugarcoat this: Trump’s inner circle is now filled with people just like him. Not sober adults with institutional memory or democratic instincts—but fellow man-babies with vendettas, fragile egos, and no ethical guardrails. And when developmentally stunted men hold real power, they don’t just throw tantrums. They break countries.

We’re already seeing it. Arresting political opponents. Threatening judges. Openly demanding revenge. Surrounding himself with yes-men willing to torch institutions to stay in his good graces. This isn’t just a moral collapse—it’s a psychological time bomb.

So what do we do? First, call it what it is. Trump’s behavior isn’t “eccentric.” It’s pathological. Then we build movements—not just to oppose policies, but to inoculate ourselves against this style of politics. Because this isn’t just about Trump. It’s about a system that rewards antisocial traits and mistakes immaturity for strength.

BEE GONE book cover

We need voters to stop falling for tough-guy cosplay. We need to educate people about what this kind of psychological profile actually looks like—and why it’s disqualifying, not admirable.

We need to rebuild civic life around empathy, truth, and shared responsibility. And we need to do it fast.”

https://www.weeklywilson.com/unfit-by-director-dan-partland-documents-trumps-mental-health/

We Need to Act on Weather Issues NOW

By Connie Wilson

On July 13, 2025

In Editorial, Education, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology, Local, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Scary stories, Science and Medicine, Texas

[Excerpts from “Flash Floods and Climate Policy in the New Yorker, by Elizabeth Kolbert (7/12/2025)]

Flash flooding in Davenport, Iowa on July 11, 2025

As anyone who has read my blog knows, I am with Greta Tunberg, the Swedish activist for climate awareness, in feeling that we must do what we can to stop the frightening proliferation of weather catastrophes, brought on by the global warming that former Vice President Al Gore has tracked for decades. It isn’t a matter of not believing it is happening any more. We are in the midst of it happening.

On Friday, July 11th (2 days ago) the area where I am currently living (Iowa/Illinois border) was hit by an EF2 tornado. The area where we spend the harsh Midwestern winters, Texas’ Hill Country and the Guadalupe River, has now lost over 110 lives to the rampaging river. Experts say that the warming atmosphere allows more precipitation to be held in the clouds and be dropped during flash floods very quickly.

Areas all over the planet are experiencing flooding. (Italy, China, etc.) We are not immune here in the United States. Obviously, moving 1,000 miles from one area to another in the U.S., as we did in May, has simply exposed us to flooding in both places. It’s raining in Texas in the Austin area right now on Sunday, July 13th.

Camp Mystic, Texas on the Guadalupe River. Over 110 dead and many still MIA.

Read the excerpts from the article (below) and tell me that this isn’t a problem that needs to be addressed with slogans other than “Drill, baby, drill!” And it needs to be addressed NOW!!!

The Trump Administration has made no secret of its disdain for science, and on June 30th it recommended cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from projects aimed at improving climate and weather predictions. Among the many research centers the Administration wants to shutter are the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, the National Severe Storms Laboratory, and the Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations. The last two of these are based in Oklahoma; all are funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is part of the Commerce Department. “I cannot emphasize enough how disastrous closing the National Severe Storms Laboratory and CIWRO would be—for ALL of us,” Stephen Nehrenz, a meteorologist with the CBS affiliate in Tulsa, posted on X after the budget proposal was released.

Nearly six hundred people have left the agency since President Trump took office, many because they were fired and others because they took early retirement. Among those in the latter group is Paul Yura, the warning-coördination meteorologist at the Weather Service’s office in New Braunfels, Texas, which handles forecasts for Kerr County. A story that ran on the weather blog of KXAN, Austin’s NBC affiliate, in April, when Yura announced that he was leaving, noted that he had “tremendous experience understanding local weather patterns while ensuring timely warnings get disseminated to the public in a multitude of ways.”

flash flooding in Davenport, Iowa on 7/11/2025

Davenport, Iowa, Friday, July 11th, 35th St. area and near Duck Creek area were hardest hit.

The amount of rain falling on so-called “extreme precipitation days” has, during the past several decades, increased by twenty per cent in the region that includes Texas, by almost half in the Midwest, and by a staggering sixty per cent in the Northeast. European researchers concluded that the Kerr County floods in Texas bear the fingerprints of warming. “Natural variability alone cannot explain the changes in precipitation associated with this very exceptional meteorological condition,” the researchers wrote.

In a sane country, information like this would prompt two responses. First, steps would be taken to limit the dangers of climate change by reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Second, more resources would be devoted to preparing for weather extremes. Unfortunately, that is not the sort of country we live in now.

The federal government is openly trying to maximize fossil-fuel consumption—and, hence, emissions. On Monday, as twenty more deaths were reported in Texas, Trump signed an executive order aimed at further hobbling the solar- and wind-energy industries, which had already been kneecapped by previous executive orders, as well as by the provisions of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, approved by Congress earlier this month. On Tuesday, as the death toll climbed by another ten people, the Environmental Protection Agency held hearings on a proposal to scrap Biden-era limits on emissions from coal-fired power plants. Trump and congressional Republicans have put an end to, as one commentator put it in Forbes, “any notion that a true energy transition is happening in the United States.”

Meanwhile, the White House is actively undermining the nation’s ability to predict—and to deal with—climate-related disasters. In April, the Administration dismissed nearly four hundred scientists who were working, on a volunteer basis, to draft the next climate-assessment report, which is due, under law, in 2027. Late last month, it shut down the website of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, where the Fifth Assessment report and its predecessors used to be available. It has cut off grants to climate scientists, kicked nasa climate researchers out of their offices, and hired climate-science deniers to fill key government positions.

Category: Books Page 1 of 29

PLOT

THE KIDNAPPING

DIRECTOR

SCREENPLAY/SOUND/CINEMATOGRAPHY

THE CAST

THE BAD

THE FINALE

PRESS NOTES FOR “FRANKENSTEIN”

THE MONSTER

ALEXANDRE DESPLAT SCORE

LIMITED RELEASE IN THEATERS UNTIL NOV. 5 (On Netflix Nov. 7th)

LIMITED RELEASE IN THEATERS UNTIL NOV. 5 (On Netflix Nov. 7^th)