During the pandemic an empty Main St at Disney World
I actually think it’s going to be worse than what the analysts are predicting. Trump won’t shut his trap and now they’re detaining foreigners at airports who haven’t done anything wrong. It’s dangerous here.
International travelers concerned about President Donald Trump’s trade policies and bellicose rhetoric have been canceling trips to the United States, depriving the U.S. tourism industry of billions of dollars at a time when the economy has started to appear wobbly.
Canadians are skipping trips to Disney World and music festivals. Europeans are eschewing U.S. national parks, and Chinese travelers are vacationing in Australia instead.
International travel to the United States is expected to slide by 5 percent this year, contributing to a $64 billion shortfall for the travel industry, according to Tourism Economics. The research firm had originallyforecast a 9 percent increase in foreign travel, but revised its estimate late last monthto reflect “polarizing Trump Administration policies and rhetoric.”
“There’s been a dramatic shift in our outlook,” said Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics. “You’re looking at a much weaker economic engine than what otherwise would’ve been, not just because of tariffs, but the rhetoric and condescending tone around it.”
It’s pretty clear that Trump and his cronies and henchmen are hostile to all foreigners and they are not welcome here unless they are Russian oligarchs or white South Africans (and no I’m not just talking about Elon Musk.). That’s it. I can’t blame anyone else for staying away. Why take the chance?
The world is crashing down around us and here is your president hard at work:
Just a reminder, even though it’s hardly the most important thing at the moment:
“Golf is like bicycle shorts: It can reveal a lot about a guy,” said Rick Reilly, the sportswriter who hit the links with Trump for his 2004 book “Who’s Your Caddy?” — in which Reilly lugged clubs for several of the world’s best golfers and VIP amateurs.
As for Trump? “When it comes to cheating, he’s an 11 on a scale of one to 10,” Reilly said.
Trump is the most famous and powerful man on earth. He has tens of millions of people who worship him like a god. But it’s not enough. It’s never enough.
Donald Trump takes great pride in his golf game. Shinzo Abeand Tiger Woods and countless others can tell you about that. He once tweeted “I don’t cheat at golf” but added that Samuel L. Jackson does and “with his game he has no choice.” The president’s official USGA handicap index is listed as 2.8, though he seldom posts scores. Any visitor to the ornate men’s locker room at his club here, Trump International Golf Club, can see small rectangular brass plaques on his locker, recognizing him as the 1999, 2001 and 2009 club champion, and the 2012 and 2013 senior champion.
And now there’s a new plaque on his locker, screwed into its stained wood with two small Phillips head screws, to commemorate his latest title. It reads:
2018 MEN’S CLUB CHAMPION
President Trump’s locker at Trump International in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Yes, Trump was president of the United States for all of 2018.
Yes, Trump turned 72 last year, which would be an impressive age to win even a senior club championship.
But there the plaque is, identifying Trump as the reigning club champion at his spectacular Trump International course.
His most recent win brings Trump’s club-championship haul — all won at clubs bearing his name — to an even 20. That includes senior and super-senior titles, too.
But to be precise about it, the plaque on his locker is two letters short of accurate. Trump is not actually the men’s champion at the club. He’s the co-champion. While that distinction is not found on his locker, it is made elsewhere at the club.
As for Trump’s path to No. 20, it was not conventional.
Originally, a man named Ted Virtue, the 58-year-old CEO of a New York investment firm called MidOcean Partners, had the 2018 club championship title all to himself. […] After Virtue won the championship, Trump ran into him at the club, according to multiple sources who recounted the story. Having some fun with him, Trump said something like, “The only reason you won is because I couldn’t play.” The president cited the demands of his job, although he was able to make 20 visits to the club in 2018, according to trumpgolfcount.com. Trump then proposed a nine-hole challenge match to Virtue, winner-takes-the-title.
You could say there wasn’t much in it for Virtue, and you could argue that this is not how these matters are typically, if ever, settled. But consider these factors:
1. Trump owns the course;
2. Trump is the president of the United States;
3. Trump is not your typical golfer.
Virtue said yes.
They played match play (each hole as its own contest) and straight up (no shots were given). As in nearly all amateur golf rounds, no rules official was on hand. Golf’s tradition calls for players to police themselves and, if necessary, one another.
Trump won.
In victory a magnanimous Trump said to Virtue something like, “This isn’t fair — we’ll be co-champions.”
Why people aren’t embarrassed to support such an obvious liar I will never understand. He has literally cheated at everything in his life.
Bessent: "The American dream is not, 'let them eat flat screens' … the American dream is not contingent on cheap bobbles from China." pic.twitter.com/6a3Sm0AUN4
Everyone’s always saying that the Democrats need to learn to talk like Real Americans and appeal more to their economic needs and desires. I guess this must be what they’re talking about. Billionaires babbling about how Americans don’t need any more “baubles” and evoking Marie Antoinette.
Duly noted.
Here’s the transcript of most of Bessent’s interview. He is a tool. He either knows better and is lying or he’s a fool. If there’s one thing we’ve learned it’s that some of these guys can be billionaires but it doesn’t make them smart so who knows? Maybe he actually believes that painted orange freak knows what he’s doing.
KRISTEN WELKER:
And joining me now is Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Secretary Bessent, welcome to Meet The Press.
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT:Kristen, good to see you.
KRISTEN WELKER:
It’s wonderful to have you here. Thank you for being here in person. Let’s start off by talking about the big picture on the economy. A majority of Americans say they disapprove of President Trump’s handling of the economy. Consumer sentiment plunged this week to a 29-month low. JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs slashed growth expectations. Why are all of those folks wrong and President Trump is right about his tariff policy?
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT:
Well, Kristen, and thanks for having me here. And look, what I am not going to say that went on for a long time under the Biden administration and for a lot of the media, and I’m not going to point fingers. But they used to say it was a “vibecession,” and the American people don’t know what they talk about. And Donald Trump, his administration, myself all believe that the American people know what they’re feeling. And that we believe that our policies will change that. Clearly, they are traumatized from what’s happened with this affordability crisis that was brought on by the previous administration. They want relief. We’ve been in for eight weeks. We are putting the policies in place that will make the affordability crisis go down, inflation moderate. And that as we set the sails, I am confident that the American people will come our way, even if some of the media narrative doesn’t.
KRISTEN WELKER:
Well, and just to be clear, I mean, these are polls that are taken two months into President Trump’s presidency. But let’s talk about what happened in the stock market this week. Worst week for the market in two years. Does that worry you, Mr. Secretary?
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT:
Not at all. I’ve been in the investment business for 35 years. And I can tell you that corrections are healthy. They’re normal. What’s not healthy is straight-up, that is euphoric markets. That’s how you get a financial crisis. It would have been healthier if someone had put the brakes on in ’06-’07. We wouldn’t have had the problems in ’08. So I’m not worried about the markets. Over the long term, if we put good tax policy in place, deregulation, and energy security, the markets will do great.
KRISTEN WELKER:
I hear you say you’re not worried about the markets. But nearly 60% of Americans are invested in the markets. That’s their retirement savings. What do you say to Americans who have real concerns that their retirement savings may be in jeopardy?
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT:
I say that one week does not the market make. As Warren Buffett says, over the short-term the market is a voting machine, over the long term, it’s a weighing machine. And again, Kristen, it would have been very easy for us to come in, run these reckless policies that have been happening before. We’ve got these large government deficits, 6.7% of GDP. We’ve never seen this when we’re not in war time, not in recession. We are bringing those down in a responsible way. We are going to have a transition. And we are not going to have a crisis.
KRISTEN WELKER:
Let me play you what some business leaders all around the country have had to say in response to President Trump’s tariffs. Take a look.
[BEGIN TAPE]
JOSH GACKLE:
It would be difficult for U.S. farmers to try and get through some type of long-term trade war that affects our bottom line.
ETHAN MCGARY:
Building the average house is going to cost more.
RUSS KLISCH:
I don’t really understand the goal or the end play here on what’s all trying to occur.
[END TAPE]
KRISTEN WELKER:
Mr. Secretary, you heard that business owner say he doesn’t understand the end goal of these tariffs. So help bring some clarity if you can. Are these tariffs a temporary negotiating tactic or are they a permanent policy here to stay?
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT:
So Kristen, thanks for the question. And I can tell you. So April 2nd is going to be a big day. We’re going to roll out reciprocal tariffs. But what I can tell you, and I would encourage your viewers and the public and the media to follow, going into April 2nd and already now, we’ve seen some of our most imbalanced trading partners come forward and want to drop their tariffs. So, by President Trump pushing forward with a tariff plan, reciprocal tariffs, “If you drop yours, we’ll drop ours,” we are already seeing some of the worst offenders come down. April 2nd is an important day. But I would also tell everyone to look what happens from April 2nd to, say, June 30th as the other countries come down too. And President Trump’s created a win-win situation here. Either the tariff barriers come down. The U.S. can export more. Trade is fairer. It’s always been free, but not fair. And then we, or, if they don’t do it, we’ll take in substantial revenues.
KRISTEN WELKER:
I want to ask you about something that you actually said last week. And we’ll discuss it on the other side. Take a look.
[BEGIN TAPE]
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT:
Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream. The American dream is rooted in the concept that any citizen can achieve prosperity, upward mobility, and economic security.
[END TAPE]
KRISTEN WELKER:
Mr. Secretary, are you there essentially saying that the Trump administration is comfortable to have consumers pay more for goods in America?
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT:
Not at all, Kristen. What I’m saying is the American dream is not, “Let them eat flat screens.” That if Americans, American families aren’t able to afford a home, don’t believe that their children will do better than they are. The American dream is not contingent on cheap bobbles they get from China. That it is more than that. And we are focused on affordability. But it’s mortgages, it’s cars, it’s real wage gains.
KRISTEN WELKER:
Do you acknowledge though that tariffs will ultimately drive up prices, at least in the short-term? That’s what economists, that’s what business leaders, that’s what CEOs say.
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT:
Well, look, they don’t have to because I believe especially with the China tariffs that China’s manufacturers, they will eat the VAT, will eat the price or eat the tariffs. I believe that the currency adjusts. And I believe if we look during President Trump’s first term, that the all the other things we do, if we’re deregulating, if we’re energy prices down, then, if we look across the spectrum, Americans will realize lower prices and better affordability.
KRISTEN WELKER:
As you know, the administration has been pressed repeatedly on the prospects of a recession. The messaging has been a little mixed. Let’s look at some of what we’ve heard.
[BEGIN TAPE]
PRES. DONALD TRUMP:
I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition.
SEC. HOWARD LUTNICK
There’s going to be no recession in America.
VICE PRES. JD VANCE
Well, look, you never can predict the future.
[END TAPE]
KRISTEN WELKER:
Mr. Secretary, can you guarantee the American people here and now that there will be no recession on President Trump’s watch?
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT:
Well, Kristen, you know that there are no guarantees. Like, who would have predicted COVID, right? So I can predict that we are putting in robust policies that will be durable. And could there be an adjustment? Because I tell you, this massive government spending that we’d had, that if that had kept going, we have to wean our country off of that. And on the other side, we are going to invigorate the private sector. I had a meeting with small bankers last week. And they are ready to start lending. And I can tell you that Main Street is going to do well.
KRISTEN WELKER:
So, what exactly do you mean when you say adjustment? Could that potentially lead to a recession?
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT:
There’s no reason that it has to. But I can tell you that if we’d kept on this track, what I could guarantee is we would have had a financial crisis. I’ve studied it. I’ve taught it. And if we had kept up at these spending levels, that everything was unsustainable. So we are putting the – we are resetting and we are putting things on a sustainable path.
KRISTEN WELKER:
Well let me ask you about some of these cuts to the federal government. Obviously President Trump’s been very clear. He thinks that no agency should be spared, a lot of focus on the IRS. How much of the workforce do you think will be cut from the IRS?
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT:
Well, again, and Kristen, I used to – when I was on the other side of the wall, I didn’t like the term “fake news.” Now that I’m on the inside, I got to say it might not be strong enough. Because some of the numbers that I’ve seen thrown out–
KRISTEN WELKER:
I didn’t give you a number. I’m letting you tell me.
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT:
No, no, no. But but —
KRISTEN WELKER:
You tell me.
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT:
Some very large print media is throwing out big numbers. That just doesn’t exist. So —
KRISTEN WELKER:
What is the number? That’s what I want to ask you.
SEC. SCOTT BESSENT:
Well, I will tell you that there were 15 – about 15,000 probationary employees that we could have let go. We kept about 7,500, 8,500 because we viewed them as essential to the mission. And, you know, we will know once we get inside. But what I can tell you, is that we are doing a big review. We’re not doing anything – we’re not doing anything. Right now is playoff season for us. April 15th is game day. And even employees who could take voluntary retirement, the rest of the federal workforce, their date was in February. Our date for them is in May. So I have three priorities for the IRS: collections, privacy, and customer service. And we’ll see what level is needed to prioritize all those.
DOGE/SSA marked this person dead and removed his savings from his bank account, cancelled his social security and Medicare. It took a huge amount of effort but he got his Medicare reinstated. Imagine how hard it’s going to be to correct the DOGE “mistakes” once the huge cuts take effect. I’m actually surprised he was able to get any of it straightened out considering all the turmoil.
An Oklahoma City retiree says his Social Security benefits were suspended without warning — and with no explanation given when he reached out. He worries it may have to do with the place he was born, and ongoing Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cutbacks.
The man, James McCaffrey, who was born to an active-duty U.S. soldier at an overseas Army base, says because of recent comments from DOGE leader Elon Musk, he’s worried his benefits were cut because of his foreign birthplace.
Earlier this month, Musk, the billionaire head of DOGE, pushed for major cuts to Social Security, calling it a “Ponzi scheme,” claiming the system is rife with people fraudulently receiving benefits.
Particularly, Musk claimed during an interview with Fox Business, with no evidence, that many illegal immigrants are receiving benefits, calling for them to be removed from Social Security rolls.
Maybe this stuff happens all the time, I don’t know. But I think we can be sure that it will be happening constantly going forward and that’s part of the plan.
The biggest sign that Musk is serious about destroying Social Security is this:
A private equity investor who is one of Elon Musk’s closest confidants has taken a new role in the Social Security Administration, a development that could be politically combustible given the program’s popularity with voters and Mr. Musk’s apparent intent to make major changes at the agency.
The investor, Antonio Gracias, who has served on the boards of Mr. Musk’s businesses Tesla and SpaceX, has started a job at the administration as part of the Musk-led cost-cutting effort known as the Department of Government Efficiency, according to documents seen by The New York Times and two people informed about his appointment.
Of the more than 50 people who have joined Mr. Musk in Washington, almost none have as extensive a history with him as Mr. Gracias. The men met around two decades ago and in that time, Mr. Gracias has become one of Mr. Musk’s most trusted advisers.
The involvement of such a close ally with the Social Security Administration suggests that Mr. Musk has made overhauling the agency a priority; in recent weeks, the tech billionaire has regularly talked about supposed fraud inside the system. Two weeks ago, he referred to Social Security as “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” and this week he claimed that fraud in the program and other major entitlement spending was “the big one to eliminate.”
Musk has been going around saying that all the federal programs are scams designed to attract illegal immigrants so they will get on the government dole and vote for Democrats.:
He called entitlements “a mechanism by which the Democrats attract and retain illegal immigrants by essentially paying them to come here and then turning them into voters. That’s why Democrats are so upset about this situation. If we turn off this gigantic money magnet for illegal immigrants, then they will leave and they will lose voters.”
Everything about that is wrong. It’s nothing more than the bogus Great Replacement Theory. But here we are. He’s going after it and going after it with a chainsaw. And it appears no one is going to even try to do anything to stop him.
The Trump administration has transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations under an 18th century wartime declaration targeting Venezuelan gang members, officials said Sunday. Flights were in the air at the time of the ruling.
U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg issued an order Saturday blocking the deportations but lawyers told him there were already two planes with migrants in the air — one headed for El Salvador, the other for Honduras. Boasberg verbally ordered the planes be turned around, but they apparently were not and he did not include the directive in his written order.
“Oopsie…Too late,” Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, a Trump ally who agreed to house about 300 migrants for a year at a cost of $6 million in his country’s prisons, wrote on the social media site X above an article about Boasberg’s ruling. That post was recirculated by White House communications director Steven Cheung.
Our only hope to slow this down is the Supreme Court. Yeah:
Trump to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts last night after his presidential address to Congress: “Thank you again. Thank you again. Won’t forget it.” pic.twitter.com/EOblPpe6MQ
As President Trump imposes tariffs on products from countries around the world, foreign governments are answering back with tariffs of their own.
China has targeted corn farmers and carmakers. Canada has put tariffs on poultry plants and air-conditioning manufacturers, while Europe will hit American steel mills and slaughter houses.
The retaliatory tariffs are an attempt to put pressure on the president to relent. And they have been carefully designed to hit Mr. Trump where it hurts: Nearly 8 million Americans work in industries targeted by the levies and the majority are Trump voters, a New York Times analysis shows.
The figures underscore the dramatic impact that a trade war could have on American workers, potentially causing Mr. Trump’s economic strategy to backfire. Mr. Trump has argued that tariffs will help boost American jobs. But economists say that retaliatory tariffs can cancel out that effect.
The other countries are right to target them. They did this to all of us, the whole world.
When you combine this with the federal layoffs, massive cuts on programs and loss of services, it’s going to be quite a whammy on those red states. Well, on everyone, but it looks like the red states will get hit hardest.
One might expect him to care about such things but he doesn’t intend to run again. It’s not as if he actually cares about anyone but himself. You’d think other Republicans would care but I guess they’ve all just thrown their fates into Superhero Trump’s hands. So, I doubt it will change anyone’s mind. But there’s a tiny bit of justice in it anyway.
“A video released Friday shows the moment federal immigration agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate student whose detention alarmed free-speech advocates.” – Associated Press.
“What did they do?” a relation asked Saturday after hearing about two arriving foreign nationals detained for deportation at Boston’s Logan Airport.
Trump needs a reason? He’s doing it because he can, to show who’s boss, and to intimidate the rest of us into submission. (Do not obey in advance.)
To recap a busy weekend:
Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 35, a researcher at Brown Medicine on an H-1B visa, was detained at Boston-Logan airport for unknown reasons upon returning from visiting family in Lebanon. Immigration officials deported her in defiance of a federal court order. 1/www.providencejournal.com/story/news/l…
Fabian Schmidt, a German electrical engineer, was detained at Logan for unknown reasons upon arriving from Luxembourg. He's in Mass General after (mother claims) being pressured to surrender his green card, “violently interrogated,” stripped & put in a cold shower. 2/#www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2025…
Those actions were Thursday and Friday, and on top of the Trump administration’s March 8 detention and jailing Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate and green card holder over political speech.
On Saturday, the administration published an executive order invoking the law, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, to target Venezuelan gang members in the United States.
But shortly after the announcement, James E. Boasberg, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., said he would issue a temporary order blocking the government from deporting any immigrants under the law.
The judge ordered any planes that had departed to return.
A little before 7:00 p.m. Saturday, a federal judge issued an order temporarily stopping deportations set in motion by President Donald Trump hours earlier when he announced that he had invoked a law last used to justify Japanese internment camps.
With planes departing nearly immediately following Trump’s announcement that he had invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — planes full of people the Trump administration would be deporting with no process — Chief Judge James Boasberg said at the conclusion of a Saturday evening hearing, “I am required to act immediately.”
Boasberg issued a nationwide temporary restraining order blocking removal of “all noncitizens in U.S. custody who are subject to [Trump’s order]” — people who the government decides are members of Tren de Aragua (TdA), a Venezuelan gang — for the next 14 days or until a further order from the court.
At the hearing, Boasberg added that planes in the air were to be turned around, telling the Justice Department lawyer that his clients needed to be informed of the TRO “immediately.”
Yeah, good luck with that. The Times follows up with a report that “As of early Sunday morning, it was unclear whether any such planes had departed or returned.”
The ACLU and Democracy Forward filed suit to stop the deportations under the law, arguing that the law “plainly only applies to warlike actions: it cannot be used here against nationals of a country—Venezuela— with whom the United States is not at war, which is not invading the United States, and which has not launched a predatory incursion into the United States.”
Furthermore, the filing states, “The government’s Proclamation would allow agents to immediately put noncitizens on planes without any review of any aspect of the determination that they are Alien Enemies. Upon information and belief, the government has transferred Venezuelans who are in ongoing immigration proceedings in other states, bringing them to Texas to prepare to summarily remove them and to do so before any judicial review—including by this Court.”
Except the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, suggests (posted to Twitter at 8:13 AM ET this morning) DHS may have defied the federal court (depending on the flight timing). Bukele states that “238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua” arrived in his country last night along with “23 MS-13 members wanted by Salvadoran justice.” It appears that the U.S. is paying El Salvador for jailing the Venezuelans.
If indeed these people are criminals in the U.S. illegally, as the Trump administration claims — it also declared Ned Johnson, 82, of Seattle dead, deducted Social Security deposits from his bank, stopped future Social Security checks, and cancelled his Medicare insurance — few will regret their removal. But Americans will have time to regret the administration’s ignoring a federal court at their leisure. And likely sooner rather than later.
First they came for the noncitizens, etc., is going to get old really fast. Trump is looking for an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act and declare martial law. With his invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, he’s not even trying to conceal his intentions.
Did Elon Musk and his DOGE hackers never have to produce answers for grades?
David A. Fahrenthold and Jeremy Singer-Vine reported last week how Musk’s DOGEes “repeatedly posted error-filled data that inflated its success at saving taxpayer money. ” Called out on it by people who don’t reflexively believe what’s spit out by a computer, DOGE has made its exaggerated claims impossible to reality-check. They removed embedded identifiers from their “wall of receipts”:
The New York Times, at first, found a way around the group’s obfuscation. That is because Mr. Musk’s group had briefly embedded the federal identification numbers of these grants in the publicly available source code. The Times used those numbers to match DOGE’s claims with reality, and to discover that they contained the same kind of errors that it had made in the past.
And then the identifying codes were gone. Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, tells the Times, “They responded by giving less information publicly, so that it’s harder to question them … without doing anything to suggest that they’re actually correcting the mistakes, or learning from them.”
But the Times had downloaded what was live before DOGE stripped the data. The paper’s team used it to match savings claims with the actual programs.
At least five of the 20 largest “savings” appeared to be exaggerated, according to federal data and interviews with the nonprofits whose grants were on the list.
The largest item on the list was savings of $1.75 billion, which the group said it achieved by cutting a U.S. Agency for International Development grant. But the organization that got the grant — a public-health nonprofit called Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance — said that information was wrong twice over.
For one, the grant had not been terminated. Second, the government had already paid out all the money it owed. So even if the grant had been terminated, the savings would have been $0.
In other cases, Mr. Musk’s group seemed to misunderstand a key figure in U.S.A.I.D. grants.
Nonprofits said these grants often contain a ceiling value — an upper limit on what the government might pay. But the groups said that this top amount is not always guaranteed. In some cases, the actual payments are worked out separately, they said, and often total far less.
“It’s not a promise, in any sense,” said Traci Baird, the chief executive of a nonprofit called EngenderHealth.
There’s more in the reporting, including the White House claiming that terminating the grants saves what might have been spent, blah, blah, blah.
In other words, the DOGE naifs don’t know what they’re looking at and don’t know that they don’t know. Or don’t care, if it hastens the techbro efforts to install a techno-monarchy and quash “political dissent [using] algorithms that no citizen can vote against and no court can oversee,” warns The UnPopulist:
If we do not act now, we may wake up one day to find that democracy was not overthrown in a dramatic coup—but simply deleted, line by line, from the code that governs our lives.
With Saint Patrick’s celebrations in full swing this weekend, I thought I’d help you get your Irish up and drive those snakes from your media room with 15 grand film recommendations.
Sláinte!
The Commitments – Casting talented yet unknown actor/musicians to portray a group of talented yet unknown musicians was a stroke of genius by director Alan Parker. This “life imitating art imitating life” trick works wonders. The Commitments can be seen as a riff on Parker’s 1980 film Fame; swapping the locale from New York City to Dublin (there’s a bit of a wink in a scene where one of the band members breaks into a parody of the Fame theme).
However, these working-class kids don’t have the luxury of attending a performing arts academy; there’s an undercurrent referencing the economic downturn in the British Isles. The acting chemistry is superb, but it’s the musical performances that shine, especially from (then) 16-year old Andrew Strong. In 2007, cast member Glen Hansard co-starred in John Carney’s surprise low-budget hit, Once, a lovely character study that would make a perfect double bill with The Commitments.
Darby O’Gill and the Little People – Sean Connery…in a film about leprechauns?! Well, stranger things have happened. Albert Sharpe gives a delightful performance as lead character Darby O’Gill in this 1959 fantasy from perennially family-friendly director Robert Stevenson (Mary Poppins, The Love Bug, The Absent-Minded Professor, ThatDarn Cat!).
Darby is a crusty yet benign b.s. artist who finds himself embroiled in the kind of tale no one would believe if he told them it were true-matching wits with the King of the Leprechauns (Jimmy O’Dea), who has offered to play matchmaker between Darby’s daughter (Janet Munro) and the strapping pre-Bond Connery. The special effects hold up surprisingly well (considering the limitations of the time). The scenes between Sharpe and O’Dea are especially amusing. “Careful what you say…I speak Gaelic too!”.
A Date for Mad Mary – Seana Kerslake makes a remarkable debut in Darren Thornton’s 2017 dramedy (co-written by the director with his brother Colin) about a troubled young woman being dragged kicking and screaming (and swearing like a sailor) into adulthood. Fresh from 6 months in a Dublin jail for instigating a drunken altercation, 20-year-old “mad” Mary (Kerslake) is asked to be maid of honor by her BFF Charlene. Assuming that her volatile friend won’t find a date, Charlene refuses her a “plus one”. Ever the contrarian, Mary insists she will; leading to an unexpected relationship.
Garage – At once heartbreaking and uplifting, this 2007 character study by director Leonard Abrahamson and writer Mark O’Halloran is an underappreciated gem. It’s a deceptively simple story about an emotionally stunted yet affable thirty-something bachelor named Josie (Pat Shortt), who tends a gas station in a small country village (he bunks in the garage). When he befriends a teenager (Conor Ryan) who takes a summer job at the gas station, it unexpectedly sets off a chain of life-shaking events for Josie. Shortt (a popular comic in his home country) gives an astonishing performance. I like the way the film continually challenges expectations. An insightful and affecting glimpse at the human condition.
Hear My Song – This charming, quirky comedy-drama from writer-director Peter Chelsom (Funny Bones) concerns an Irish club-owner in England (Adrian Dunbar) who’s having a streak of bad luck. He’s not only on the outs with his lovely fiancée (Tara Fitzgerald), but is forced to shut down his venue after a series of dud bookings (like “Franc Cinatra”) puts him seriously in the red. Determined to win back his ladylove and get his club back in the black, he stows away on a freighter headed for his native Dublin. He enlists an old pal to help him hunt down and book a legendary tenor (Ned Beatty, in one of his best roles) who has hasn’t performed publicly in decades. Fabulous script, direction, and acting. Funny, touching and guaranteed to lift your spirits.
I Am Belfast -I try not to use “visual tone poem” as a descriptive if I can avoid it…but sometimes, there is no avoiding it. As in this case, with Irish director Mark Cousins’ meditation on his beloved home city. Part documentary and part (here it comes) visual tone poem, Cousins ponders the past, present and possible future of Belfast’s people, legacy and spirit.
I’m fairly sure Cousins is going for the vibe of the 1988 Terence Davies film Distant Voices, Still Lives, a similar mélange of sense memory, fluid timelines and painterly visuals (he waxes poetically about the aforementioned film in his epic 15-hour documentary, The Story of Film). Lovely cinematography by Christopher Doyle. A rewarding experience for patient viewers.
In Bruges – OK, full disclosure. In my original review, I gave this 2008 Sundance hit a somewhat lukewarm appraisal. But upon a second viewing, then a third… I realized that I like this film quite a lot (happens sometimes…nobody’s perfect!).
A pair of Irish hit men (Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell) botch a job in London and are exiled to the Belgian city of Bruges, where they are ordered to lay low until their piqued Cockney employer (an over the top Ray Fiennes) dictates their next move. What ensues can be best described as a tragicomic Boschian nightmare (which will make more sense once you’ve seen it).
Writer-director Martin McDonagh (who deftly juggles “fook” as a noun, adverb, super adverb and adjective) re-enlisted In Bruges stars Gleeson and Farrell as the leads for his Oscar-nominated 2022 dramedy The Banshees of Inisherin (also recommended!).
Into the West – A gem from one of the more underappreciated “all-purpose” directors, Mike Newell (DanceWith a Stranger, Enchanted April, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Donnie Brasco, Pushing Tin). At first glance, it falls into the “magical family film” category, but it carries a subtly dark undercurrent with it throughout, which keeps it interesting for the adults in the room. Lovely performances, a magic horse, and one pretty pair o’ humans (Ellen Barkin and Gabriel Byrne, real-life spouses at the time).
Miller’s Crossing– This 1990 gangster flick could only come from the unique mind-meld of Joel and Ethan Coen (with shades of Dasheill Hammet). The late Albert Finney is excellent as an Irish mob boss engaging in a power struggle with the local Italian mob during the Prohibition era. Gabriel Byrne (the central character of the film) portrays his advisor, who attempts to broker peace.
You do have to pay attention in order to keep up with the constantly shifting alliances and betrayals and such; but as with most Coen Brothers movies, if you lose track of the narrative you always have plenty of great supporting performances (particularly from Marcia Gay Harden and John Torturro), stylish flourishes, and mordant humor to chew on until you catch up again.
My Left Foot – The first (and best) of three collaborations between writer-director Jim Sheridan and actor Daniel Day-Lewis (1993’s In the Name of theFather and 1997’s The Boxer were to follow). This moving 1989 biopic concerns Christy Brown, a severely palsied man who became a renowned author, poet and painter despite daunting physical challenges.
Thankfully, the film makers avoid the audience-pandering shtick of turning its protagonist into the cinematic equivalent of a lovable puppy (see Rainman, I Am Sam); Brown is fearlessly portrayed by Day-Lewis “warts and all” with peccadilloes laid bare. As a result, you acclimate to Day-Lewis’ physical tics, allowing Brown to emerge as a complex human being, not merely an object of pity.
Day-Lewis deservedly picked up an Oscar, as did Brenda Fricker, who snagged Best Supporting Actress as Brown’s mother. Don’t let Day-Lewis’ presence overshadow 13-year old Hugh O’Conor’s work as young Christy; he gives an equally impressive performance.
Odd Man Out – An absorbing film noir from the great director Carol Reed (The ThirdMan, The Fallen Idol). James Mason is excellent as a gravely wounded Irish rebel who is on the run from the authorities through the shadowy backstreets of Belfast. Interestingly, the I.R.A. is never referred to directly, but the turmoil borne of Northern Ireland’s “troubles” is definitely implied by word and action throughout F.L. Green and R.C. Sherriff’s intelligent screenplay (adapted from Green’s original novel). Unique for its time, it still holds up well as a “heist gone wrong”/chase thriller with political undercurrents. The top-notch cast includes Robert Newton and Cyril Cusack.
Older Than Ireland – With age, comes wisdom. Just don’t ask a centenarian to impart any, because they might smack you. Not that there is violence in Alex Fegan and Garry Walsh’s doc, but there is consensus among interviewees (aged 100-113) that the question they find most irksome is: “What’s your secret to living so long?” Once that hurdle is cleared, Fegan and Walsh’s subjects have much to impart in this moving and entertaining pastiche of the human experience. Do yourself a favor: turn off your personal devices, watch this wondrous film and plug yourself into humankind’s forgotten backup system: the Oral Tradition. (Full review)
The Quiet Man – I’ll admit to never having been a huge John Wayne fan, but he’s perfect in this John Ford classic as a down-on-his-luck boxer who leaves America to get in touch with his roots in his native Ireland. The most entertaining (and purloined) donnybrook of all time, plus a fiery performance from gorgeous Maureen O’Hara round things off nicely. Although tame by modern standards, romantic scenes between Wayne and O’Hara are quite fervid for the era. The pastoral valleys and rolling hills of the Irish countryside have never looked lovelier, thanks to Winton C. Hoch and Archie Stout’s Oscar-winning cinematography.
The Secret of Roan Inish – John Sayles delivers an engaging fairy tale, devoid of the usual genre clichés. Wistful, haunting and beautifully shot by the great cinematographer Haskell Wexler, who captures the misty desolation of County Donegal’s rugged coastline in a way that frequently recalls Michael Powell’s similarly effective utilization of Scotland’s Shetland Islands for his 1937 classic, The Edge of the World. The seals should have received a special Oscar for Best Performance by a Sea Mammal. Ork, ork!
Song of the Sea – This 2014 animated fantasy from writer-director Tomm Moore centers on a melancholic lighthouse keeper named Conor (voiced by Brendan Gleeson), who is raising his young son and daughter following the tragic loss of his wife, who died in childbirth.
After his daughter is nearly swept out to sea one night, Conor decides the children would be better off staying with their grandmother in the city. The kids aren’t so crazy about this plan; after a few days with grandma they make a run for it. Before they can wend their way back home, they are waylaid by a succession of characters that seem to have popped out of one of the traditional Irish fairy tales that Conor’s mother used to tell him as a child.
Moore’s film has a timeless quality and a visual aesthetic on par with the best of Studio Ghibli. There is something in Moore’s hand-drawn animation that I find sorely lacking in the computer-generated “product” glutting multiplexes these days: genuine heart.
