Category: Science and Medicine Page 1 of 6

Ryan Gosling is Ryland Grace in “Project Hail Mary”

On March 22, 2026

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews, Science and Medicine

Ryan Gosling has not had a release recently—not since “Barbie” in 2023, for which he was paid $12 and ½ million dollars (compared to the $29 million he earned for 2016’s “La La Land.”)to play Ken. “Project Hail Mary” was directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who are best known for “The Lego Movie,” “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” and the animated film “Spider Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”

PLOT SYNOPSIS

Science teacher Ryland Grace wakes up alone on a spaceship light-years from Earth. As his memory returns, he discovers he is on a mission to stop a mysterious substance (an astrophage) that is killing the sun. It’s a desperate Hail Mary ploy to save Earth. An unexpected friendship with an alien dubbed Rocky ends up being crucial.

Those who read the book were among the most supportive, but also the most critical of the Drew Goddard adaptation of the Andy Weir (“The Martian”) book. I have not read the book, so I’m out of that debate.

Andy Weird book “Project Hail Mary” is the basis for the film.

THE GOOD NEWS

Anthony Whyte of “The Movie Blog” was correct in saying, “Project Hail Mary” is about learning how to understand someone completely different from you. He describes it as “a warm, funny, and genuinely heartfelt sci-fi film that reminds you why these stories work in the first place.”

If it works, that is. For me, it did not, but “Project Hail Mary” opened at $33 million domestically on Friday at 4,007 locations. If it reaches $77 million by Sunday it will be the best opening for Amazon MGM ever, eclipsing 2023’s “Creed III,” which garnered $58 million. This means that, just like my opinion of “Plantman & Blondie” at SXSW as weak, I am the one out of step with the mainstream. So be it.

TONE

Given the previous films from this directing team the humor was a given. That part works. However, for me the movie at times couldn’t seem to make up its mind if it’s a comedy or a save-the-world serious epic. With Gosling, who was so good at light humor in 2016’s “The Nice Guys” (as well as during his guest stints on “Saturday Night Live”),I went into the film fully expecting lightweight banter and wry humor. I was looking forward to that. Did the humor mix expertly with the seriousness of the save-the-world mission? That’s the question.

Films like “Crazy, Stupid Love” (2011) and “Barbie” fed into this expectation of a humorous good time. There is humor in “Project Hail Mary”—perhaps too much of it, since the entire film, like “Independence Day” or any previous Save the World movie—is all about sending a team into space to certain death, a suicide mission— to save the planet and preserve the universe. A team of three people will be launched into space to find out why astrophages are draining stars in the solar system.

What is an astrophage and why should we care?

THE SCIENCE

Ryan Gosling plays a middle school teacher with a doctorate in molecular biology who is drafted to save the world in “Project Hail Mary.”

The science is explained well as mentioned in Anthony Whyte’s The Movie Blog review. It’s easy enough to understand to the extent that we need to remember any of these sci-fi explanations. As someone who dropped out of chemistry after one day (and physics in two), it was plenty detailed enough for me. Judging from math and science scores on tests nationwide, it will be adequate for the average audience member.

As Anthony noted in his TMB review: “Visually, the film is strong across the board. The use of color and lighting stands out immediately. This isn’t the cold, sterile version of space we’re used to. There’s warmth here. There’s texture. It feels lived in. The camera work and transitions are consistently engaging, with some shots that genuinely feel like they were pulled straight out of a comic book panel.The cinematography and sound design are the real stars of the show.” Agreed. Cinematographer was Aussie Greig Fraser who is known for Dune: Part One (2021), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and 2012’s Zero Dark Thirty

SOUND

Co-star Sandra Huller as Eva Stratt has a fairly big part early on and sings “Just stop cryin’, have the time of your life. We can meet again some day, Somewhere far away from here.” The music, in general, is very good. The sound adds immeasurably in ratcheting up tension. Composer was Daniel Pemberton, who also did the music for “Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse.”

THE CAST

Basically, it’s a one-man play, as Ryan Gosling’s character is the only one of the three astronauts who survives the blast-off into space. The two supporting NASA astronauts don’t survive the trip out and we learn very little about them.

And here’s where I have to get off the fan bus.

RYAN GOSLING FILMS

Ryan Gosling.

I’ve been a fan of Gosling’s since his performance in 2001’s Sundance film “The Believer,” which won the Grand Jury award at Sundance over 25 years ago. There is not a red-blooded heterosexual woman alive who hasn’t seen “The Notebook” (2004) and loved the romance with Kate Beckinsdale. Gosling’s star continued to rise with “Half Nelson” (2006), for which he was Oscar-nominated as Best Actor in a Leading Role, followed by “Blue Valentine” (2010). “Crazy, Stupid Love” (2011) saw Gosling lifting Emma Stone in the fashion of Patrick Swayze in “Dirty Dancing” and teaching Steve Carell how to be cool.

Then came “Drive” in 2011, “The Ides of March” (2011), “The Place Beyond the Pines” (2012), “The Nice Guys” (2016) and “La La Land” in 2016, (which we all thought had won Movie of the Year for a few minutes on Oscar night, thanks to Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.) “ Blade Runner 2049”—often mentioned as Gosling’s finest film—came out in 2017 and 2023’s “Barbie” cemented Ryan Gosling’s status as a hunk whom heterosexual women want to see romancing an equally attractive female lead.

ROMANTIC LEAD?

Project Hail Mary

So, who’s the female romantic lead in this one? Answer: nobody. “Gravity” (2013) at least had Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in space together, without pursuing their romance. So, could we have that version of things in this sci-fi space movie, please? Ryan doesn’t have to get the girl, but could there BE a girl for him to potentially court? (Do people still use the term “court” in 2026? No? Okay. Their loss.)

That lack of a romantic sub-plot explains why there IS no girl, no romance, and way more emphasis on getting along with intelligent alien life forms in the universe—a trendy topic in today’s news. Give me back a leading lady that our 45-year-old hero can at least flirt with, please. And aim for “Gravity’s” length (91 minutes).

It didn’t work for me (and neither did “Plantman & Blondie” at SXSW) but different strokes for different folks.

FATAL FLAW

Ryan Gosling in “Project Hail Mary.”

THE MOVIE IS TOO LONG. WAAAY TOO LONG. This is an interstellar sci fi comedy drama based on a book by Andy Weir (“The Martian”) that is meant to be light-heartedly amusing while taking us on a space adventure. It’s not “Oppenheimer.” Much of the film involves talk of space and one highlight is Gosling’s dramatic walk in space to secure a predator that will neutralize the star-eating effect of astrophages.

But the film ran over 2 and ½ hours. While I enjoyed the friendship between James Ortiz’s alien Rocky, I would have liked the movie much more if it had a backstory involving Ryland’s love life—or lack of one. Not true to the novel? A valid defense, but I haven’t read the novel, and I wish I hadn’t spent 3 hours seeing the movie, despite my admiration for Ryan Gosling’s body of work.

“Birth Is for P*ussies” Screens at SXSW 2026

By Connie Wilson

On March 17, 2026

In Pop Culture, Reviews, Science and Medicine, Television

“Birth Is for Pussies” is TV pilot at SXSW 2026.

Hannah Healy—actress, filmmaker, and doula—brought a TV pilot “Birth Is For P*ssies” to SXSW. The series focuses on giving birth and is based on Hannah’s ten years of experience as a doula in New York City. Hannah is an actor, writer and director based in NYC and London. As an actor she most recently appeared as Charlotte Astor in season 3 of HBO’s “The Gilded Age”.

Producing the TV pilot with Hannah is Celine Sutter, a writer, director, and producer born and raised in New York City. Celine recently earned her MFA in Writing/Directing from Columbia University. The original score was provided by King Princess.

PLOT SYNOPSIS

The synopsis of the first episode shows a rookie doula (Hannah Shealy) thrust into her first birth with a mother she’s never met. After a rocky start, she quickly learns that supporting women through labor is messier, funnier, and more profound than any doula training could have prepared her for.

I found Hannah Shealy very sympathetic in the role. I also loved the Tribeca penthouse where Hannah visits a pregnant couple (Danny Defararri and Madeline Wise), an apartment which had a jaw-dropping view. I’m not a New Yorker, but I was in town when JFK, Jr., tragically died on July 16, 1999. Residents of New York City were leaving flowers in front of his Tribeca building. I wondered if this location might have been near where young John F. Kennedy, Jr. lived. The view and decor were opulent.

CONfLICT

For me, Madeline Wise had already distinguished herself in the SXSW film “Chili Finger.” She was equally good in this as the pregnant wife who doesn’t want her spouse to know about her herpes diagnosis. That might set up some conflict to come (during delivery) but conflict has to be there. If I learned anything at all from the University of Iowa’s Writing program it is that. Conflict is not as prevalent as I think it needs to be in a series about giving birth.

While Hannah was lovely and the mother-to-be in a less-ritzy part of NYC was as stressed as you would expect anyone would be if they were in labor, the conflict quotient for the brief episode I saw was slim. I’m no expert on giving birth ( as the line goes, “I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout birthin’ no babies”) but this series needs a serious elevation in the conflict levels or I fear it will be DOA.

TREND

Hannah Shealy.

On the plus side, I do think that Hannah and her producing partner Celine Sutter are on to something in the zeitgeist. For decades the United States was one of the civilized nations whose birth rate was holding relatively steady. Then Donald J. Trump began his anti-immigrant ICE raids. His daily quotas of picking up citizens and non-citizens on the streets of cities nationwide and ejecting them from the country has certainly contributed to statistics that show the nation’s birthrate — that is, the number of live births per 1,000 people in a given year — is down by more than 25 percent since 2007, when the decline began.

“We spent decades shaming women for having kids under the wrong circumstances, for not having their ducks in a row,” said one expert. “Now they are holding up their end of the bargain.” Almost half of the country’s 30-year-old women are childless.

“SIXTY MINUTES” DID A PROGRAM ON THE IDEA OF WAITING TO GIVE BIRTH

Putting off having children in order to finish school or establish one’s self or simply to live life a little before “settling down” has become the norm. As one expert said, “It used to be that the only people who put off having kids were college girls from more privileged backgrounds. But now it’s everybody, with teenagers and less educated women leading the charge. “

Women in their early 30s now have the highest birthrate of any group. A woman in her early 40s is more likely to give birth than a teenager. It’s too early to say whether those pregnancies will be enough to help the U.S. reverse the ill effects of a falling birthrate. The number of children born to women by the time they turn 44 hasn’t dropped at all.

BIO

Celine Sutter

In my own case, my mother gave birth to me at 38, which was considered quite old for the times. Mom was a working woman who supported herself until she married at age 30 in 1937. Given the fact she was born in 1907, that means she was way ahead of the working woman trend. Also ahead of “have children later in life” current trend.

We can assume that the birth control gains of the sixties and seventies (now being reversed by the GOP) which gave women control over their own bodies has contributed to women deciding not to give birth as soon. Maybe they were too young. Maybe they were unemployed or alone. Maybe their own mothers were struggling to give their daughters the future they never got to have, because they got pregnant in their teens. “Biology was destiny” for years—until the 1960s and the advent of the birth control pill.

CONCLUSION

I gave birth to two children, a son and a daughter born 19 years apart. I was pregnant at 22 and 42. My youngest, a daughter in her thirties, is now hoping to give birth in the immediate future. She and her partner actually lost a baby to a rare anomaly very recently. The odds of a re-occurrence of that are astronomically high.

She has had the opportunity I did not have to travel the world, find herself, and figure out what she wants from life, thanks to the birth control pill and the hard-fought Roe v. Wade right to a legal abortion, (which I fought for in the seventies.) Now legal abortion is state by state. The blue states are often being selected by the more educated citizenry (doctors, lawyers and other professionals) since those individuals want, for their wives and daughters, the rights that women enjoyed for fifty years, until the conservative stacking of the Supreme Court.

MOTHERHOOD ON FILM

I’ve noticed that recent films and TV shows—like “Night Bitch” or the upcoming “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” on television—are depicting a more realistic side of motherhood—one might say “warts and all.” There was also the Charlize Theron 2018 film “Tully.” “Birth Is for P*ussies” might fit right into that trend.

I’m all for informing women about the process of giving birth in a way that is more realistic than the one depicted in films like 2007’s “Knocked Up.” Perhaps “Birth Is For P*ussies” will educate us all. I’m all for informing women about all aspects of their sexuality.

“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

“Matter of Time” Documentary at 56th Nashville Film Festival Features Eddie Vedder

By Connie Wilson

On September 10, 2025

In Education, Health/Medicine, Movies, Science and Medicine

Eddie Vedder performing in “Matter of Time” from Director Matt Finlin’s documentary, winner of the Jury Award for a Music Documentary, at the 56th Nashville Film Festival. (Photo by Tim Durkan).

In 2014, musician Eddie Vedder and Jill Vedder co-founded the EB Research Partnership ,a non-profit organization dedicated to finding a cure for the genetic skin disorder epidermolysis bullosa.^[135] Director Matt Finlin’s one hour and 46 minute documentary follows Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam fame as he gives a series of fund-raising concerts in Seattle in 2023 to raise money to find a cure for this horrible disease. Sixty million was raised for research that resulted in 140 research projects, over the past eleven years.

This is an absolutely heartbreaking look at a lethal disease. You might want to have some Kleenex handy if you make it through the 105 minute documentary dry-eyed. Half of the documentary features Vedder singing onstage at Seattle concerts, accompanying himself on acoustic and electric guitar and ukelele. (No Pearl Jam). I admit to knowing very little about Eddie Vedder going into this film, other than remembering his 3 year feud (1994-1997) with Ticketmaster. I knew that Vedder had composed musical scores for films like “Into the Wild” (2007) and the 1995 soundtrack for “Dead Man Walking.” The Pearl Jam debut album “Ten” Rolling Stone voted 209^th out of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time was on my radar . The thirteen times platinum sales with the song “Jeremy” coming in at #11 on VHI’s list of the 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s is another testimony to Vedder’s success.

Eddie Vedder.

I was always aware of the existence of Pearl Jam, but a huge fan I was not. However, after seeing how much good one entertainer has done over a period of more than 10 years, I am a fan. I also admired Vedder’s public stance on pro-choice and other issues and the candidates he supported during past presidential campaigns.

E.B.

Called “The worst disease you’ve never heard of” E.B. is also dubbed the “butterfly disease” because the slightest pressure on the skin of a child with the disease can mean agony. Open wounds can lead to an aggressive form of cancer; the patient often doesn’t have a long life. Septic shock can set in if the patient gets an infection, so measures must be taken to wrap the victim in gauze each day for protection. When clinical trials were discussed, one of the oldest patients that could be found to take part was only 27. We get to know another patient who dies at 16, which we learn near the documentary’s end.

PARENTS SPEAK

What the children and their parents go through is mind-boggling. As Eli’s mother says, “We just want someone to understand what we’re going through on a day-to-day basis.” Another mother says, “It tears you apart as a child and as a family. I would give anything for my child not to have E.B.” Things that we all take for granted are huge hurdles—like taking a bath. It can take 4 to 5 hours (and much gauze) for each mini-mummification application. Playing with Leggos or simply trying to crawl with such sensitive skin are impossibilities.

A young sufferer from E.B. in the award-winning Music Documentary at the 56th Nashville Film Festival “Matter of Time” from Direct

People stare at the children afflicted with E.B. which caused the 8-year-old sister of Eli to make a TikTok video and posters that read “Just say hi.” The social stigma is there. There are children, like Rowan, who say, “I just want the wounds to stop happening and for my life to be like everyone else’s.”

In the midst of all of this suffering (Charlie, who was abandoned at birth, and was “in pain from the moment he was born”) becomes the adopted child of one family after an orphanage initially gave the woman who would become his adoptive mother syringes of morphine and sent the newborn to her, essentially to die. Charlie surprised everyone by having a fighting spirit. He survived and went on to join the family as their much-loved adopted son.

CHILDISH ADVICE

One young sufferer, an accomplished artist, gave this advice: “Live each moment to the fullest and do not dwell on the things you can’t change.” Later, this artist—who lost an arm to the disease as the prosthesis did not “take”—says “Live your best life for as long as you possibly can.” It’s no surprise that terms like “resilience” and “fortitude” are used to describe the courageous children and parents who are interviewed onscreen and share their truth.

REMARKS

Eddie Vedder performing in “Matter of Time,” raising funds for E.B. research. (Photo by Tim Durkan).

As one parent said, “It tears you apart as a child and as a family. It pretty much turned our world upside down.” It is remarkable to learn that at least two sets of parents chose to adopt children with this disease when they had been abandoned by their biological parents and were left alone in an orphanage.

If this sounds like a terribly depressing film, you’re right. But there IS a light at the end of this particular medical tunnel. There is research attempting to “change dread into hope”. Because of celebrities like Eddie Vedder (in the credits, Adam Sandler and Meg Ryan are also noted) E.B. has made progress. E.B. is much closer to being cured than 95% of other such diseases, thanks to fund-raising efforts like Vedder’s. Thanks, also, to Director Matt Finlin and company, who brought this story to public view, winning the Jury Prize for Best Music Documentary at the 56th Nashville Film Festival.

BREAKTHROUGH

The 140 research projects have succeeded in identifying the specific gene that causes the disease and keeps the Collagen VII from doing its job effectively. There are three forms of the disease mentioned—EB Simplex, Juztional EB and Recessive dystrophic EB. The science is relatively straightforward. For some forms of the disease, there now is a treatment that involves injections of a live virus that goes into the skin cells and clips out the faulty gene, replacing it with a healthy one. It is stressed that this is a treatment, not a cure,–and that it only works on certain forms of the disease–but, as Jill Vedder (Eddie’s wife) and various researchers in the field tell us, “A decade ago, it was hard to imagine a cure. We are on the edge of a cure for E.B. We can now manipulate cells in a petri dish and we have a viral-based gene therapy.” Hence the title: “Matter of Time.”

Director Matt Finlin of DoorKnockerMedia accepting the Jury Award for Best Music Documentary at the 56th Nashville Film Festival on September 21st, 2025.

At the end of this informative and emotional documentary, this message appears onscreen:

“For millions living with rare diseases, time is not a luxury; it’s a race against bureaucracy, funding gaps and government priorities. It’s up to us to accelerate science and ensure that life-changing treatments reach the people who need them most.”

Among the diseases mentioned are Cystic Fibrosis, Muscular Dystrophy, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease, and ALS . With the current administration in power, the funding for research looks exceedingly bleak. Here is an NPR report that tells just how deep the Trump cuts are: Trump administration makes deep cuts to science funding : NPR

It is important to know the facts about whether or not your government is supporting the research to help vanquish diseases like E.B. Even more relevant, will the current CDC support vaccines to prevent measles, whooping cough, polio, Covid-19, bubonic plague and many other diseases that we all thought were gone forever? Under this administration, those diseases are coming back. The CDC has been co-opted by an unqualified anti-vaccine chief who is taking all of us down with him. I am a cancer survivor. With RFK, Jr. heading up the CDC, I am worrying about even being able to get a vaccine booster shot for Covid-19 before I return to Texas for the winter. I fear for the retirees heading for Florida, which has recently announced a cessation of vaccination programs. Keep all of this in mind when you next vote. Ask yourself whether the USPO, the FBI, the CDC, the (now demolished) Education Department, the Defense Department are being run in the most effective manner by experts in their fields, or whether we are now fully mired in a kakistocracy. (Kakistocracy: System of Government that is run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.)

This is a well-done look at a disease few of us know much (or anything) about. It is skillful in weaving Vedder’s concert footage into touching first-person testimonials to the progress that money for research has made and can make for these brave children and their families. I hope that everyone who goes to this one because they are Eddie Vedder fans gives him great credit for spearheading private efforts like this for over a decade and demonstrating compassion rather than the futile “thoughts and prayers” that we primarily get from the top.

KUDOS

Award-winning Director Matt Finlin (“Matter of Time”) with Weekly Wilson/ The Movie Blog reviewer Connie Wilson on Sunday, September 21st, at the 56th Nashville Film Festival.

Similar kudos to Director Matt Finlin and Blue Leach cinematography as well as Screenwriter/Producer Karen Barzilay for their hard work and vision in bringing information like this to the public’s attention. In addition to Vedder’s acoustic music, Composer Kevin Drew and Broken Social Scene composed the music, and James Yates edited. All are to be commended for bringing a difficult topic to the screen to add to the awareness of the public and, hopefully, to bring more financial support. All have done a good job with a difficult subject.

CONCLUSION

In 2022 at the 58th Chicago International Film Festival I reviewed Michael Burke’s documentary about ALS sufferer Brian Wallach, “No Ordinary Campaign,” at its World Premiere. “Matter of Time” reminded me of “No Ordinary Campaign.” Both were heartbreaking and well-done.

As one young E.B. sufferer articulated, poignantly, in the film, “I hope more people being kind to other people will come out of this.”

So do I. A change in leadership at the top is the first step towards that goal of going forward, not backward, in important health and science research.

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.

Make the Department of Health & Human Services Healthy Again: RFK, Jr. Report Fails

By Connie Wilson

On May 31, 2025

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

RFK, Jr.

By Joseph Gedeon/Airmail News

Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s flagship health commission report contains citations to studies that do not exist, according to an investigation by the US publication NOTUS.

The report exposes glaring scientific failures from a health secretary who earlier this week threatened to ban government scientists from publishing in leading medical journals.

The 73-page “Make America Healthy Again” report – which was commissioned by the Trump administration to examine the causes of chronic illness, and which Kennedy promoted as “gold-standard” science backed by more than 500 citations – includes references to seven studies that appear to be entirely invented, and others that the researchers say have been mischaracterized.

Two supposed studies on ADHD medication advertising simply do not exist in the journals where they are claimed to be published. Virginia Commonwealth University confirmed to NOTUS that researcher Robert L. Findling, listed as an author of one paper, never wrote such an article, while another citation leads only to the Kennedy report itself when searched online.

Harold J. Farber, a pediatric specialist supposedly behind research on asthma overprescribing, told NOTUS he never wrote the cited paper and had never worked with the other listed authors.

The US Department of Health and Human Services has not immediately responded to a Guardian request for comment.

The citation failures come as Kennedy, a noted skeptic of vaccines, criticized medical publishing this week, branding top journals The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA as “corrupt” and alleging they were controlled by pharmaceutical companies. He outlined plans for creating government-run journals instead.

Beyond the phantom studies in Kennedy’s report, NOTUS found it systematically misrepresented existing research.

For example, one paper was claimed to show that talking therapy was as effective as psychiatric medication, but the statistician Joanne McKenzie said this was impossible, as “we did not include psychotherapy” in the review.

The sleep researcher Mariana G. Figueiro also said her study was mischaracterized, with the report incorrectly stating it involved children rather than college students, and citing the wrong journal entirely.

The Trump administration asked Kennedy for the report in order to look at chronic illness causes, from pesticides to mobile phone radiation. Kennedy called it a “milestone” that provides an “evidence-based foundation” for sweeping policy changes.

A follow-up “Make Our Children Healthy Again” strategy report is due in August, raising concerns about the scientific credibility underpinning the administration’s health agenda.

“Andre Is An Idiot” Sundance Film Promotes Colonoscopies at 45

By Connie Wilson

On February 1, 2025

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

Andre Ricciardi appears in Andre is an Idiot by Anthony Benna, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

Andre Ricciardi was an eccentric advertising man who lived an interesting and unusual life. Even one of his daughters (Tallula and Delilah) described her father as “he looks like someone who lives on the street.” In this 88-minute film we learn that Andre has dubbed himself an idiot because he rejected his best friend Lee’s invitation to join him for a colonoscopy when they turned 50 (born in 1968). Roughly one year later. after ignoring some symptoms, Andre was diagnosed with terminal Stage 4 colon cancer that had spread to his liver.

Andre told his mother, “If I don’t defeat this, you’re right: I’m a fucking idiot.”

DATING HISTORY

Andre had a long history of doing idiotic things. While drinking in a bar with a girlfriend and a friend named Johnny D, Janice, the bartender, tried to get Johnny D. to marry her so she could stay in the country. Janice was Canadian and her green card was expiring. Johnny D was reluctant, but Andre stepped up, in return for a trip to Mexico contingent upon the promise that they would stay married, legally, for two years. Andre shared that “My girlfriend got drunk and spent the night in Golden Gate Park alone.”

Andre then arranged to have the new couple appear on The Newlywed Game Show, figuring that would be good practice for Janice’s INS interview. Since they didn’t know much about one another, they devised an elaborate scheme to win. This included always picking the nicer answer and, if there were two choices, pick the one with the highest letter of the alphabet. The couple won their episode and, with it, a trip to the Sonesto Beach Resort in Anguilla. The vacation was a success and they remained married until Andre’s death in 2023, which was a 28-year run.

FAMILY

Andre and Janice had two daughters, Tallula and Delilah. Best friend Lee (who looked a bit like Seth Rogen) shared a story about Andre reading “Helter Skelter” aloud to one of the girls when she was hospitalized. Janice and Andre married in 1995 and remained a couple until he died in 2023 at age 55, after being diagnosed at age 52.

ON DEATH & DYING

Andre undergoes 50 rounds of chemo, which he tolerated surprisingly well, something he attributed to a murky and complex relationship with drugs and alcohol. (“Nothing more serious than meth and heroin.”) Andre felt he tolerated chemo so well because of his 35-year relationship with hangovers, although he finally was told, “You’ve gotta’ start taking better care of yourself.”

We see Andre hitting his bong of a morning. When he needs someone to portray his reluctant father, Tommy Chong enters the picture. Andre says, “There is an awkwardness between people and death.” Friend Lee adds that the two “find humor in shitty situations.” Explaining that he anticipates that death will be nothingness, Andre says, “I’m not afraid the way so many people are of dying. I’m afraid for the people I’m leaving behind…Dying is surprisingly boring. This is like a vacation for me. I feel that everything should fall into this ‘I’m dying’ mode and it isn’t and it doesn’t. How mundane my own death is. It’s hard to think of a more serious topic than dying of cancer. I am using a proportionate amount of humor.”

CAUSES of CANCER

Andre offers up a variety of creative ways in which his cancer might have been contracted, including eating salami, ingesting rat poison, and his mother running behind DDT trucks when she was eight.

HUMOROUS SUGGESTIONS

Director Tony Benna of "Andre Is An Idiot"

Anthony Benna, director of Andre is an Idiot, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Traci Griffin Benna.

Andre and Lee embark on a van journey that reminds of “Will and Harper,” the documentary about Will Ferell and his trans-gender best friend Harper Steele. While traveling the country, the pair work on a death yell, as instructed by an online guru. Andre’s is “So long. Suckers.” Lee hollers “Come and get me, Spaceman.” After the two scream, vigorously, into the void of an echoing canyon in the desert, Andre observes, “You might actually die doing this.”

GAME SHOW IDEA: Peter, Andre’s therapist, listens to Andre’s latest off-the-wall idea of a game show entitled “Who Wants to Kill Me?” This actually isn’t such a unique idea. I reviewed a movie entitled “The Show,” (2017) directed by Giancarlo Esposito and starring Josh Duhamel, where people are paid to let others murder them, live, on television. Andre’s therapist, Peter, suggests, “You have the capacity to find the comedic in everything.” Andre is very interested in discussing having his head transplanted onto a healthy body, but he is too sick to make the lengthy journey. Andre’s eyelashes grow amazingly long due to side effects from one of his medications. He does well tolerating 50 rounds of chemo, but lost 20 pounds on radiation and says, “It was fucking hell.”

MUSIC

Dan Deacon provides some rhymes that amuse, including this verse: “Cancer’s always been depressing. It’s never been pleasant. It don’t care if you’re a royal. It don’t care if you’re a peasant.” We also hear a song in which the lyric is “Please remember to feed the cat. Please remember that I’m never coming back.”

PSA

Ultimately, Andre wants to encourage others to get life-saving colonoscopies. He approaches his old agency, Mekanism Ad Agency and Jason Harris, his former boss, to encourage them to mount a PSA campaign that would urge people to get a colonoscopy when they are 45. These PSA billboard ads are still in the works, but the meeting with his former employer is also humorous as Andre is pitched various creative ideas for the ads.

CONCLUSIONS

Andre’s last message, delivered by A.I. is this: “I sat with fear today. I didn’t run from it or try to defeat it. Instead, I greeted it like a friend and let it wash over me again and again, terrifying me. But it was okay. My fear is insignificant compared to the love around me. I wept for the first time in years. It was remarkable. I thought I needed suffering, but, instead, I got bliss. My heart has never been more open and my fear of death, also tapping at my window, feels a bit more familiar and a little less powerful.”

Also from Andre who is shown near the end stroking Waffles the Cat: “We paint the portraits we want people to see, but the most beautiful portraits are the ones that show the flaws within us.”

A great epitaph for a true original. The Q&A following the film was worthwhile, so here it is:

Q&A:

Q&A with best friend Lee and Director Tony Benna:

Q: How did you end up doing this film with Andre?

A: I worked with Andre over the years. Every project Andre ever had was insane. Cancer is not funny, but Andre definitely is. I wanted to get some of his outlandish stories on film.

Lee added: “We kind of signed in blood to do whatever he wanted us to do. Andre and I worked together for years. He always talked about making a really funny documentary about something really serious.

Q: How did you stay out of the way at the house?

A: Janice opened up her house. She would make muffins for us to take home. We just honored Andre’s wishes. I think that’s what kept him going. At the final point, when he kind of went downhill, it seemed just natural.

Q: Editing question about how much Andre was involved.

A: Andre got to see quite a bit of the scenes, including the Death Yell scenes. It was a four-year film project. He didn’t get to see a final cut but he felt it was in good hands.

Q: What would Andre think about this?

A: (Lee) He’d try to sabotage it somehow, saying, “How did we get here?”

Q: What’s the status of the PSAs?

A: They’re not out yet, but the idea is to get them out and to spread the word. From the beginning Andre said, “Let’s try to help people.” He had one idea that involved me getting a colonoscopy live while doing a Q&A, but that didn’t fly.

Q: What darlings did you have to kill?
A: We did radiation sessions. The head transplant guy in Italy Andre was really interested in, but he was too sick. It felt like Andre would have been proud of the edits. The puppets,. The animation. Something raw and amazing. This film is kind of representative of the kind of work Andre would have done in his life.

Q: Who did the animation?

A: (Tony Benna) I did the animation. We had 6 weeks to do 3 minutes of stop-animation. It was very rushed. It was very time comsumng.

See this one, if you can. It was well worth the time.

“Sally” & “Marlee Matlin” Screen at Sundance, 2025

By Connie Wilson

On January 29, 2025

In Movies, News, Pop Culture, Reviews, Science and Medicine

Sally Ride, first American female astronaut in space

Sally Ride appears in SALLY by Cristina Costantini, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by NASA.

The first two Sundance 2025 offerings I watched turned out to have very similar themes, although focused on two very different people.

“Sally,” was a 103 minute documentary helmed by Cristina Costa, which screened at the Ray Theatre in Park City at Sundance 2025 on January 28^th, 2025.

The second 97-minute documentary, directed by deaf director Shoshanna Stern, “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore,” helped open the Sundance Festival and profiled Marlee Matlin, the first deaf actress to win an Academy Award and the youngest at 21 to win in the Best Actress category. [My review of her story will follow “Sally.”]

While the films seemed, on the surface, as though they would have little in common, they both highlighted extremely dedicated individuals rising to the top of their respective fields despite the hurdles of culture, society and, in Matlin’s case, biology. Matlin’s two tattoos that read “Perseverance” and “Warrior” seemed relevant to each.

Both documentaries were helmed by talented female directors and each was at the height of their fame as U.S. cultural icons 35 years ago, in 1986-1987.

“SALLY”

Sally Ride appears in SALLY by Cristina Costantini, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by NASA.

“Sally” is the story of a woman who spent 27 years hiding the fact that, although she was briefly married to fellow astronaut Steve Hawley and had sexual relationships with other men, she spent 27 years of her life concealing her relationship with another woman. Her love for Tam O’Shaughnessy, a fellow tennis player she met at age 13 when Tam was 12, was something that Sally Ride didn’t come to accept about herself until later in her life.

MALE CHAUVINIST PIG

When women were first being allowed to become NASA astronauts, a fellow astronaut, Mike Mullane, a West Point graduate who served in Viet Nam, is heard articulating the same point-of-view of the newly-confirmed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Mullane says on camera that he was a product of his upbringing and the times and that when women were being introduced to the space program, he thought, “I just couldn’t see what they were going to be bringing to the table.” By the end of the documentary, the very same Mike Mullane writes the most heartfelt sympathy note to Sally’s life partner Tam, apologizing for his earlier views and extolling Sally’s expertise and excellence as a role model for his granddaughters.

Describing his earlier self as “a male sexist pig” Mike Mullane said he hoped that Sally’s life example would give his own granddaughters “a future in which women won’t be constrained from pursuing their own dreams.” “They can do the job as well as anyone else.” (One hopes that someone passes that message on to Pete Hegsoeth, who has articulated the exact opposite attitude towards women in the military.)

Billy Jean King, a gay icon who lost everything when her sexuality became public knowledge, was a good friend of Sally’s. She felt that what happened to her when she was “outed” served as an object lesson to Sally Ride. She lost everything and had to start over. As for Sally Ride’s competence in her job, Billy Jean says, on camera, “I think it’s time that women in this country realized that they can do any job that they want to do.. Sally proved it. Done.”

SOCIETAL EXPECTATIONS in the 50a, 60s, 70s, 80s

As the documentary emphasizes through Tam’s words, “I just feel bad that someone the world respected and admired felt they had to hide themselves from the world.”

RIDE’S FAMILY OF ORIGIN

Astronaut Sally Ride (Photo from Wikipedia.org).

When the documentary dives into early influences on Ride, some clues can be gleaned from the brief interview with Sally’s biological mother, a Norwegian woman who spent time as a volunteer prison counselor. She seemed very uncommunicative, very self-contained, very icy as a personality. My own mother was a first-generation Norwegian/Dutch child of immigrants. This stereotype is based on truth. Tam says, “Sally couldn’t share with the people closest to her, even her sister Bear. Sally never talked about it. I didn’t understand why Sally couldn’t or wouldn’t talk to her sister about being gay…“Sally was afraid about how her colleagues and friends felt about her, and how it would affect her work…The fear factor of being gay, of being who you are affected our work and our company. The world is not always kind.”

TAM O’SHAUGHNESSY

Tam, said, “I wanted the relationship validated. It took more of a toll on me than it did on Sally. It just ate at me.” She was gratified to receive the nation’s highest civilian honor from President Obama on Sally’s behalf, posthumously after Sally died of pancreatic cancer in 2012 at the age of 61. The two had filed and became certified domestic partners shortly before Ride’s death in 2012.

Said O’Shaughnessy, “Sally just couldn’t or wouldn’t talk about emotions, even with her sister, Bear, who also left a traditional marital relationship to live with a woman. Bear and her female partner both lost their jobs as Presbyterian ministers when they came out… “I just realized that I loved Sally and we had to find a way to work this out. We couldn’t change the way the world saw us, but we loved each other so much and we wanted to be together, come hell or high water.”

Following Sally’s death, Tam acknowledged their longstanding relationship in her obituary: “I’m just sick of hiding, I’m an honest person and Sally was an honest person. If somebody doesn’t like it, tough.” After Sally’s diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, the two shared 17 months during which “Every week she’d lose something…the ability to go up and down the stairs…In one second our lives totally changed. We were like zombies. It was such a shock.” Sally got the diagnosis one day after delivering a speech at the National Science Teachers Association Conference on March 11, 2011.

THE CHALLENGER EXPLOSION & INVESTIGATION

One of the areas in the film that was somewhat glossed over was the key role that Sally Ride played in discovering what had caused the Challenger to explode on January 28, 1986. Wikipedia has this explanation of the Rogers Commission findings: “After her death in 2012, Major General Donald J. Kutyna revealed that she had discreetly provided him with key information about O-rings, namely that they become stiff at low temperatures. This led to discovery of the cause of the explosion. The temperature at the time of the launch was 36. O-Rings were not safe below 50. To protect her source, this information was fed to Richard Feynman. Ride was even more disturbed by revelations of NASA dysfunctional management decision-making and risk-assessment processes. According to Roger Boisjoly, who was one of the engineers that warned of the technical problems that led to the Challenger disaster, after the entire work force of Morton-Thiokol shunned him, Ride was the only public figure to show support for him when he went public with his pre-disaster warnings. Ride hugged him publicly to show her support for his efforts.”

The Rogers Commission submitted the report on June 6, 1986. I remember how a good friend of ours who was roommates with “Smitty” (the Challenger commander, Michael Smith) at the United States Naval Academy, was shocked and saddened to learn of his good friend’s death, especially when it was preventable. I was then working for Performance Learning Systems, Inc. of Emerson, N.J., one of the nation’s largest teacher-training firms, and I had been assigned to interview Christa McAuliff, the teacher in space, upon her return. I had just spoken to her husband the night before the launch to confirm the various procedures I was to follow to send her the interview questions. I still remember coming out of the college class I was teaching at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, and turning on the radio to learn of the deaths of McAuliff and all seven of the crew members.

Sally Ride quit NASA in 1987, saying, “I am not ready to fly again now. I think there are very few astronauts who are ready to fly again now.” She commented on how astronauts have to have a real trust in NASA.

CONCLUSION: SIMILARITIES

Interestingly enough, Marlee Matlin (whose documentary I will review next) won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1987 for the 1986 film “Children of a Lesser God.” This is the same timeline, the same backdrop of historical events then affecting Sally Ride’s life, including her work with the Rogers Commission investigating the Challenger explosion. That investigation triggered Ride’s resignation from NASA and she spent the latter part of her life as a Professor of Physics at the University of California in San Diego, when Stanford snubbed her. (Sidney Drell, who had recruited her to come to Stanford, resigned from CISAC in protest when no department at Stanford was willing to offer Sally Ride a position.) Sally also remained a director of Cal Space until 1996, retiring as a Professor Emeritus from San Diego in 2007. Ride and O’Shaughnessy formed a company to encourage young girls to enter careers in math and science.

Another interesting 35-year-old fact is that the director of Marlee Matlin’s Oscar-winning performance in 1986-1987 was Rainda Haines. Haines was the first female director to have her film (“Children of a Lesser God”) nominated for Best Picture at the 1987 Oscars.

“Luki & the Lights” Helps Foster Understanding of ALS

By Connie Wilson

On September 12, 2024

In Editorial, Health/Medicine, Movies, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Reviews, Science and Medicine, Uncategorized

Luki & the Lights robot Luki from the Oscar-eligible animated film

This ten and one-half minute short, “Luki and the Lights” came to my in-box. I watched it while knowing that there would be no happy ending to this story. Here was the synopsis provided:”Toby Cochran’s LUKI & THE LIGHTS shares a charming and touching story of a robot named LUKi who is slowly starting to malfunction. But even with the struggles ahead, LUKi demonstrates unwavering resilience, painting a vivid portrait of what it means to truly live and the power to find light even in the darkest of times. This poignant animated short was made to raise awareness of ALS as well as to create a platform for children to understand what the disease is. It has qualified to be considered for the 2025 Oscars®.”

ALS ON FILM:

Sascha Groen and her husband, Anjo Snijders, were searching for a tool to help explain his recently-diagnosed terminal disease to their children. Director Toby Cochran is the founder and creative force behind Big Grin Productions. He has 20 years of animation and production expertise. Cochran’s roles span story artist, writer, and director and extends across various entertainment realms, including games, commercials, live-action, and animated series. His distinguished career includes collaborations with studios and companies such as Netflix, Marvel, Disney, ReelFX, Discovery Channel, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Nestle, Lego Universe, and Kuku Studios.

THE SHORT FILM “LUKI & THE LIGHTS“

The decision was made to have an active, charming upbeat robot named Luki shown being struck by ALS. Do robots get ALS? While I applaud the idea of helping children understand this horrible and debilitating disease, a robot is made by man and can be fixed by man. People are different from robots. Currently, the ability to “fix” a person who has ALS is beyond the reach of science.

This 10 and 1/2 minute short has won over 20 awards and claims the distinction of being “the first ever animated short film featuring the first-ever animated character to have ALS.” This sounds good until you stop and think that the “character” is not human, so it (he) could perhaps have been “fixed” by a trip back to the robot factory? Not the case with human beings.

To date, the film has taken home twenty awards including the “Audience Award” at the Florida Film Festival, the “Audience Choice Award” at Indy Shorts International Film Festival and Siggraph Electronic Theater, the Children’s Audience Award at Animayo Gran Canaria, “Best Animated Short” at the Phoenix Film Festival, and the “FilmSlam Student Choice Award for Best Short” at Cleveland International Film Festival.

Producer Adrian Ochoa is an award-winning producer, prior to joining Big Grin, Adrian worked at Pixar Animation Studios, PlayStudios, and Penrose Studios. His credits include Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Wall-E, Cars 2, Monsters University, Inside Out, and The Good Dinosaur. He also worked on various shorts including Cars Toons, live-action shorts, and the animated short Day and Night. He’s also produced over 45 mobile games, including three with Shaquille O’Neal and the award-winning VR animated short film Arden’s Wake.

Throughout the film, there is charming music, but there is no dialogue as such. More accurately, what we have as “dialogue” is mostly incomprehensible, just like the disease itself.

ALS PRIME DOCUMENTARY: “NO ORDINARY CAMPAIGN”

Back in 2022, Katie Couric produced an ALS documentary about the struggle of Brian Wallach, a worker in the Obama campaign who was a successful Chicago attorney at the time he was diagnosed with ALS. Brian was only 37 years old and had just returned to home with a new child with his wife, Sandra Obrevaya. (They have two children.) Chris Burke, a friend who was a filmmaker, set out to make a film about Brian’s struggle as the couple are thrust into the medical system where they must advocate for themselves and, hopefully, for others.

By the time this film came out the “Ice Bucket Challenge” was 8 years in the rear view mirror (2014). When diagnosed in 2017, Brian was given only 6 months to live. The couple chose to publicize Brian’s struggle to continue to survive by promoting a bill to fund research into this killer disease. He got some help from former President Barack Obama, who appears in the film. It was during Obama’s campaign in 2008 that Brian and Sandra had met while working to help elect our first Black president.

Normally, ALS kills you within 2 to 5 years. Brian has been fighting the good fight for the past 6 years. He is in the top 20% of survivors. From their home in suburban Chicago, the couple has seen their efforts to pass “Act for ALS” turn into $100 million for research for the next 5 years. Since Brian was diagnosed in 2017,and the law passed the Senate unanimously on December 16, 2021, is time running out on the additional funding to solve this huge problem?

If you are as sympathetic to this fight and for funding to continue as I am, you should follow up the 10 and 1/2 minute animated ALS short”Luki & The Lights” with the longer documentary. It is a Prime Video documentary entitled “For Love and Life: No Ordinary Campaign.”