Amaryllis August topless in episode 2 of Families Like Ours

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New, high-concept Danish mini-series. Original title: Familier som vores. The first two episodes have aired.

This show could be good. Writer-director Thomas Vinterberg is a highly talented auteur who has never quite broken through to universal recognition, despite being nominated for the Best Director Oscar a few years back. I have to confess that I don’t always like his work, but I admire his flair, his originality and his heart. Even when he strikes out, he always takes a good cut.

Countries disappear, love remains. Denmark, in a not-too-distant future. The rising water levels can no longer be ignored and the country needs to be evacuated. As people disperse in all directions, they must bid farewell to what they love, what they know, and who they are. Slowly but steadily, everything changes. All property becomes worthless, all fortunes shift, and luck favors only a few. Those who can afford it travel to affluent countries while the less well-off depend on government-funded relocation to more challenging destinations. Families, friends, and loved ones are separated. Some will be overcome by hatred and division, while others will nurture love and foster new beginnings. Against this backdrop we meet Laura, a high school student in love for the first time and on the cusp of graduation. When news of the evacuation breaks, the course of Laura and her family’s lives are changed forever, and Laura is forced into the impossible dilemma of choosing between the three people she loves the most.

Despite the nice things I said about Vinterberg above, I dislike how he shot this scene. I hate his choice of focus, and I hate the Stygian darkness. He was one of the original Dogme 95 adherents, and some of those principles linger in his distaste for Hollywood-style lighting. Frankly, I wish he’d scrap that thinking, head down to the Danish equivalent of Home Depot (Home and Herring?), and pick up a bunch of powerful light bulbs.


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Film clip here

Elon Musk was an illegal immigrant!

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I think there’s a simple solution: confiscate all his illegally-built wealth and deport him back to South Africa. Have the officers from ICE put him in handcuffs and drive him to the airport in one of these contraptions:

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Kidding aside:

Musk has denied everything, despite a paper trail of court documents, company filings, testimony from a half-dozen associates, and Musk’s own e-mails.

As with Nixon, it’s always the lies and the cover-up that gets these guys in trouble. Tricky Dick could have said, “A bunch of bozos who thought they were helping me crossed way over the line into criminal activity, and they will be prosecuted. I knew nothing about their plans in advance, I condemn their actions, and I apologize to the American public that such deeds were done in my name. If any of my advisers or cabinet members knew about this, they will be dismissed, and the DOJ will prosecute them if appropriate.” The ol’ Trickster didn’t say that, got personally involved in the cover-up, and had to resign in disgrace to prevent impeachment, conviction, and being removed from the White House by an official escort.

Similarly, if Musk had just said “Yeah, I gamed the system for a few months,” the story would end right there. Who cares? So he’s a hypocrite about illegal immigrants since he was one? Big deal. We’re all hypocritical about some issue or another. Affects nothing. Embarrassing, but ultimately meaningless. People who like him will shrug. People who hate him will hate him a little more. I don’t like him or hate him, and I just don’t care about this at all. He could have told the truth, then ignored follow-up questions for about 24 hours, whereupon the news butcher-shop would have put something else in the grinder for us to digest.

Instead, he goes Full Nixon, serving up more raw meat for the punditsphere.

Oh, the lies! These guys just can’t help themselves, can they?