The Savages

The Savages
Academy Award winner?(r) Philip Seymour Hoffman* and Academy Award?(r) nominee Laura Linney** deliver unforgettable performances in this hilarious coming-of-middle age story from Oscar?(r) -nominated writer / director Tamara Jenkins***. Until recently, all John and Wendy Savage (Hoffman, Linney) had in common were a lousy childhood and a few strands of DNA. But after years of drifting apart, they’re forced to band together to care for the elderly, cantankerous father who made their formative “challenging.” In the process, both of these aimless, perpetually adolescent fortysomethings may just, at long last, have to grow up! *2005: Best Actor, Capote **2007: Best Actress, The Savages; 2004 Best Supporting Actress, Kinsey; 2000: Best Actress, You Can Count on Me. ***2007: Best Original Screenplay, The Savages.

Customer Review: Neurotic, sad and wonderful.
Sad at times, witty and stragely funny the next. The movie is phenomenal.

The Savages are a brother and sister, that are not that close, that come together to take care of their ailing father. They must decide what to do with him considering he has dementia. They did not have the best childhood, yet they never questioned the idea that they were responsible for their father.

Laura Linney and Phillip Seymour Hoffman offer us spellbinding performances, their characters are so tightly wound, so incredibly stressed and self-contained, that unraveling their emotions is an experience onto itself.

Phillip Bosco, as Lenny Savage, the father, manages to portray a man suffering from dementia. His performance is brilliantly sad and heart breaking. The loneliness and sense of loss that this man feels radiates through this actor. He managed to perfectly capture the essense of his character and delivered it to the lens.

The movie is excellent because it offers us a very well paced movie that allows us time to contemplate the scenes rather than absorbing them as they are. It reaches into our thought process and makes us think about what is going on in the movie.

Customer Review: The Inevitable Indignities of Aging Masterfully Played Out Like an Intimately Orchestrated Sonata
It’s been nearly a decade since her first film, 1998’s idiosyncratic Slums of Beverly Hills, but writer/director Tamara Jenkins’ 2007 drama really hits the nail on the head this time with this trenchant look at the inevitable indignities of aging for not only a father slipping into dementia but his two emotionally stunted children, both hovering around forty and dealing with their own personal issues which are preventing them from moving forward with their lives. I saw the preview for this movie several months ago and expected a black comedy with a deadpan toward death and euthanasia. While there are some laughs, it is really the pervasive and empathetic sadness of the situation that draws you into a very human-size story of three flawed people.

The character-driven story begins in the famous Del Webb retirement community of Sun City, Arizona, where Lenny Savage has been living with his now-severely ailing girlfriend Doris for twenty years. When Doris passes away, Lenny’s two children are contacted since he is being evicted and no longer able to live on his own. His son Jon is a professor of theater in Buffalo working on a book about German playwright Bertolt Brecht, while his daughter Wendy is ironically a struggling playwright applying for a multitude of grants while doing demeaning temp work in Manhattan. Although they are both smart with similar artistic aspirations and a common phobia when it comes to long-term commitments, the siblings have become estranged from each other as well as their father. They jointly decide to take Lenny back to Buffalo where Jon has reserved a room in a rather depressing (though typical) nursing home. Naturally, the full extent of their dysfunctional family unit comes to the fore now that they are all within close proximity of one another during a particularly unforgiving winter.

What Jenkins does exceptionally well is depict the small moments, both private and shared, as Jon, Wendy and Lenny each come to terms with the inevitable. The dialogue scenes have a realistic, unsentimental edge as long-dormant feelings of resentment percolate into both vitriol and humor. The three leads are note-perfect. As the more insular Jon, Philip Seymour Hoffman accurately captures the simmering states of denial and hostility of a man whose innate brilliance is deliberately camouflaged by his disheveled, disconnected life. Playing Wendy as a self-loathing variation on the emotionally uptight character she played in Kenneth Lonergan’s brilliant You Can Count on Me, Laura Linney proves again what a master she is at sharply balancing a messy bundle of neuroses like a precarious house of cards. Despite their physical dissimilarity, Hoffman and Linney are completely convincing as tension-rattled siblings in a constant state of mutual misunderstanding.

In his brief scenes, Broadway veteran Philip Bosco manages to paint the fury and confusion in Lenny with forceful, affecting strokes. On the sidelines, Peter Friedman plays Wendy’s married lover with just the right amount of smarmy neediness, while Gbenga Akinnagbe has a couple of nice scenes with Linney as a sympathetic caretaker. There is nice camerawork from W. Mott Hupfel III, who effectively makes the abrupt visual transition from the color of sunny, open-spaced Arizona to the grayness of Buffalo in winter, while the eclectic music selections on the soundtrack dramatically bridge the story well. Film trivialists may recall the opening song, “I Don’t Want to Play in Your Yard”, as the one Diane Keaton sings during one of the more idyllic scenes in Warren Beatty’s Reds. This movie will not be everyone’s cup of tea, but anyone with aging parents will undoubtedly be affected by it.

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Men’s Diabetes “Seed Planter”
Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. It is estimated that 90 to 95 percent of all diabetic cases are type 2 diabetes. (RealAge Diabetes Center)

Plant the seed and watch it grow. Needs little water, but does require a lot of wear and tear. Best suited for people with shoulders and a desire to help spearhead advocacy.

Unification of a Slave State: The Rise of the Planter Class in the South Carolina Backcountry, 1760-1808
This book describes the turbulent transformation of South Carolina from a colony rent by sectional conflict into a state dominated by the South’s most unified and politically powerful planter leadership. Rachel Klein unravels the sources of conflict and growing unity, showing how a deep commitment to slavery enabled leaders from both low-and backcountry to define the terms of political and ideological compromise.

The spread of cotton into the backcountry, often invoked as the reason for South Carolina’s political unification, actually concluded a complex struggle for power and legitimacy. Beginning with the Regulator Uprising of the 1760s, Klein demonstrates how backcountry leaders both gained authority among yeoman constituents and assumed a powerful role within state government. By defining slavery as the natural extension of familial inequality, backcountry ministers strengthened the planter class. At the same time, evangelical religion, like the backcountry’s dominant political language, expressed yet contained the persisting tensions between planters and yeomen.

Klein weaves social, political, and religious history into a formidable account of planter class formation and southern frontier development.
List Price: $24.95
Amazon Price: $24.95
Used Price: $3.50

Progress Lighting P5968-33WB 5W Cobblestone Incandescent Address Light
Progress Lighting P5968-33WB Address Lights allow your house number to be seen at all times, even in dark evening hours. Large block letters and numbers ensure prime visibility from a distance. Features: -Polycarbonate construction accepting 4″ number tiles -Slim profile -Lamps supplied -Covers any outlet box, when used -Stainless steel mounting hardware included -Must be connected to an approved 120v/16v -10 VA transformer -Two 5 watt Xenon lamps (supplied) are in series, resulting in 50,000 hour lamp life -Wedge based lamps and sockets -8″ leads -UL-CUL wet location listing -Width/Diameter: 12-1/2″ -Height: 6-3/4″ -Depth Extension: 2-1/4 -Lamp Quantity: Two -Lamp Type: T-3/1/4 Xenon wedge -Lamp Wattage: 5w -Low Voltage: Yes Notes: Address numbers & letters sold separately Specifications

Swivel Plant Bracket, 10″ Brass
10″ planter bracket holds up to a 14″ pot. Swivels 180 degrees for even sun. Easy installation.
Price: $3.49