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Helen Mirren works her magic to make ‘Golda’ shine

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:25:09 GMT

“Golda” is a reminder of what a brilliant and charismatic leader, in this case a chain-smoking elderly woman aka “the Iron Lady of Israeli politics,” Golda Meir (Helen Mirren), means to a country fighting for its life. The film takes on more meaning at a time when Ukraine is in such a dire fight against the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and his army. “Golda” mentions in its opening the Six-Day War of 1967, which ended with Israel defeating a coalition of Arab armies and gaining territory four times its original size, creating a lasting resentment among the Arab world.“Golda” begins a la “Oppenheimer” with a political investigation into actions taken by Prime Minister Meir during the latter Yom Kippur War of 1973. A frail, but grim-looking Meir (we learn that on top of everything else, she is receiving cobalt radiation treatments for cancer during the conflict), faces a group of nameless white-haired men who want to know why she did what she did and obviously second-guess her choic...

‘The Hill’ hits some, misses some

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:25:09 GMT

An inspirational, baseball-centric, 1960s-70s-era tale based on the true story of Rickey Hill (Colin Ford, TV’s “Walker” as an adult), “The Hill” features an oxygen-depleting, central performance by 69-year-old Dennis Quaid (“The Right Stuff”) as Rickey’s bullying Baptist pastor father James Hill.James wants his younger son Rickey (played as a boy by the gifted Jesse Berry), who is encased in ankle-to-groin leg braces, to grow up to be a preacher like his daddy. Rickey is James’ and wife’s Helen’s middle child with older brother Robert (Mason Gillett) and younger sister Connie (Hailey Bithell). The three Hill siblings are mostly inseparable growing up in rural Texas. In spite of his immobilizing braces, Rickey can whack small rocks with a stick and send them sailing away like “homers,” according to Rickey’s friend Gracie (Gracie (Mila Harris). Gracie, whose father Earl (James Devoti) is an abusive drunk, has declared that Rickey is her boyfriend, ...

‘Retribution’ drives suspense gimmick into the ground

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:25:09 GMT

Liam Neeson hits a heavy bag in the opening shots of “Retribution.” That’s about all he does that’s heavy in the movie. Do you, like me, find scenes in films in which the characters drive from one place to another annoying? Get ready.In the Berlin-set action movie/thriller “Retribution,” all Neeson does is drive around. Some genius screenwriter came up with the idea of writing an entire film in which the main character does nothing but drive. We recently saw this abomination in Steven Knight’s “Locke,” a 2013 Tom Hardy film that my colleagues praised to the skies (I hated it). Apparently, screenwriter Alberto Marini loved “Locke,” too, and reused this plot line in “Retribution,” a 2015 film starring Spanish actor Luis Tosar.Some genius on Neeson’s team thought that the big Irishman should remake it: paychecks all around. After hitting that bag, Neeson’s Matt Turner has an awkward, morning encounter with his cold-as-ice wife Heather (Embeth Davidtz) in t...

Editorial: South End can’t keep bearing Mass and Cass burden

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:25:09 GMT

It should go without saying that the solution to a problem shouldn’t entail making the problem worse.For Boston, finding a solution to the humanitarian crisis playing out daily at Mass and Cass has been an endless loop of one step forward, two steps back.Now the city is taking three steps back.On Tuesday, Hub officials announced a plan to clear the encampments on Atkinson Street in the South End, as Boston 25 reported.  This sounds like a good idea, especially as violence has been on the rise in the area.But there’s more.The city is looking to open up a new “safe sleeping area” and clinical services site at 725-727 Mass. Ave. near Albany Street, said Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, Executive Director of the Boston Public Health Commission.Welcome to Mass and Alb.“All we’re trying to do is find a safe place for a small group of people to exist and sleep temporarily while we bring some order to that street,” said Dr. Ojikutu.City leaders have been trying to bring order to that street ...

Dear Abby: Wife worried as hubby ignores his health

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:25:09 GMT

Dear Abby: My husband and I are in our 30s. I love him, and I’m worried because he has a “laissez-faire” attitude about everything — especially his health. He has had high cholesterol for five years and has done little to nothing about it. He found out only because I kept hounding him for a year to get a physical.To say I’m “concerned” is an understatement. When I asked him how he can be so complacent about something so dangerous, I got this blank stare and “I don’t know what you want me to say.” Or he says I’m being rude. I can’t understand why this doesn’t scare him. Should I try to force him to go back to the doctor and deal with this, or must I sit and wait for the consequences of him ignoring his health to happen? — Wife Who Cares in IowaDear Wife: Try this: “I love you. But I’m worried sick about the state of your health. I need US to start being more health conscious because WE are...

Former residents of a New Hampshire youth center demand federal investigation into abuse claims

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:25:09 GMT

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Frustrated former residents of New Hampshire’s only youth detention center are pushing for a federal investigation into allegations of decades of abuse.The Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester, previously called the Youth Development Center, has been under criminal investigation by the state since 2019. Ten former workers and an 11th who worked at a pretrial facility in Concord were arrested in 2021.Close to 1,000 men and woman have sued the state alleging physical, sexual or emotional abuse. But the slow pace of the criminal and civil proceedings has some calling for the federal Department of Justice to step in.“Get the state out of it, because they’re not looking to give us real justice,” said Charles Glenn, who spent several years at the facility in the mid-1990s. “They’re complicit to sexual physical violence in this institution for over 40 years because for over 40 years, they’ve done nothing.”Glenn, 42, helped organize a rally planned for Friday afte...

What is Stockholm syndrome? It all started with a bank robbery 50 years ago

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:25:09 GMT

STOCKHOLM (AP) — It’s a common term these days, deployed to describe the bond that victims of kidnappings or hostage situations sometimes develop with their captors: “Stockholm syndrome.” And it got its name 50 years ago this week, during a failed bank robbery in Sweden’s capital. Stockholm syndrome — dubbed by its founder “Norrmalmstorg syndrome,” after the square where the bank heist took place — has since been used in connection with hostage-takings around the world, including the kidnapping of newspaper heiress Patty Hearst in the 1970s.Here’s a look at Stockholm syndrome and how it got its name.WHAT IS STOCKHOLM SYNDROME?It refers to the bond that can develop between hostages and their captors in hostage-taking and kidnapping situations. In some cases, hostages may develop sympathies for their captors and their cause — and even turn against the police. Rather than a diagnosis of a disorder, experts describe it as a psychological coping mechanism used by some hostage...

Civil case over Cardinal Pell abuse allegations allowed to proceed against church in Australia

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:25:09 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — An Australian court on Friday allowed a civil case to proceed against a Catholic archdiocese involving child sex abuse allegations against late Cardinal George Pell.The Victoria state Court of Appeal in Melbourne refused to hear the church’s challenge to a judge’s ruling that a father, identified in court documents as RWQ, was entitled to sue for damages for the nervous shock he suffered when he learned of allegations his son had been abused.Pell was the third highest-ranking cleric in the Vatican when he was convicted in 2018 of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys in a Melbourne cathedral in 1996 when Pell was an archbishop.Pell spent 13 months in prison before the convictions were overturned on appeal. He maintained his innocence until his death in Rome in January.Victoria law prohibits media from identifying alleged victims of sexual offenses or any reporting that could identify such a person. The prohibition prevents the father being named.The f...

GOP support for gun restrictions slips a year after Congress passed firearms law

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:25:09 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican support for gun restrictions is slipping a year after Congress passed the most comprehensive firearms control legislation in decades with bipartisan support, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s led to a gap between Democrats and the GOP on the issue of guns that has widened in the last year. Democrats have consistently outpaced Republicans and independents in their belief that gun laws in the U.S. should be strengthened, but GOP support has dropped even further behind, the poll found. Most Democrats, 92%, want gun laws made stronger, in line with their views in a UChicago Harris/AP-NORC poll conducted in July 2022. But Republican desire for more expansive legislation has dropped to 32% from 49% last summer and independents’ support also declined slightly to 61% from 72%. “We’ve tried to legislate things for years without a lot of success, and I don’t really think law and regulation are the a...

Visitors to Lincoln Memorial say America has its flaws but see gains made since March on Washington

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 11:25:09 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fencing and construction workers greet visitors to the Lincoln Memorial, signaling that — for the moment — the monument to the nation’s 16th president is a work in progress. And so is the nation Abraham Lincoln saved and the dream that Martin Luther King Jr. envisioned at its steps nearly 60 years ago at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.The spectrum of visitors to the Lincoln and MLK memorials and the African American Museum of History and Culture ranges from a 10-year-old elementary school student born in Colombia to a 70-something college advisor and retired military veteran. At least one visitor was at the original march as a child. They agree that portions of King’s speech have become a reality while some remain unrealized. Several note as well that the gains took a multiracial coalition to achieve. Washington Resident and 1963 March ParticipantDiane Miller was 12 years old when her mother gathered up Miller and her siblings “and had us march from 3...