Working Class in US's slight uplift, Ozark

The poorest half of Americans—the much-discussed but largely powerless US working class—are in the strongest financial position in a generation. The bottom 50%, generally households with net worth of $166,000 or less before the pandemic, now hold a bigger share of the nation’s wealth than they’ve had for 20 years, the Federal Reserve estimates. Their collective net worth, $3.73 trillion, has almost doubled in two years and is more than 10 times higher than in 2011, the nadir after the last recession. The improvement is a result of trillions of dollars in Covid-19 relief and a strong labor market that remains hottest for the lowest-income workers. “For the first time since the late 1990s, low-wage workers are gaining ground compared to other workers,” says Columbia University economics professor Suresh Naidu. “If we’re able to have tight labor markets for another year or so, you can imagine a lot of low-wage workers in previously dead-end jobs are going to be able to break into something new—saving, relocating, going to school, and opening up a path into the middle class.” An analysis of Fed data shows the average household in the bottom 50% saw its net worth rise to $57,346 at the end of 2021, from $30,378 at the end of 2019. The number of job postings requiring “minimal” qualifications has surged 53% since early 2020, according to a real-time tracker created by Harvard’s Opportunity Insights. The trend accelerated through the first several months of 2022. 

The intense competition for so-called unskilled labor has pushed up pay: Wages have risen the most for the bottom quarter of the workforce, 6.4% in the 12 months through April, according to Atlanta Fed data, almost three points more than for the best-paid quartile. The inflation spike after the Ukraine invasion ate up many recent gains, but at the bottom of the wage scale, pay has been rising faster than prices. An inflation-adjusted measure of income by the University of California at Berkeley’s Realtime Inequality site shows the bottom 50%’s pay climbing at an annualized rate of 3.4% in the first quarter of 2022 even as other groups lost ground. Source: bloomberg.com

Ozark creator Chris Mundy details what the future looks like for Marty and the rest of the Byrde family, 5 years after the events of the finale. Mundy explains that he thinks the Byrde family will have moved out of the Ozarks and gone to the Midwest, where they will continue to use their political influence, but now on a national scale: "The Byrdes run to the Midwest, and in some ways, they're going to have the political clout to dictate national politics." Although Mundy's explanation is short on details, it's very clear the Byrdes remain a family unit and they continue to exert influence on the political stage. It remains to be seen whether Ozark will ever return, either as a movie, or revival series, but Mundy's explanation is sure to be interesting to fans of the show looking to know what's next for the Byrde family. Fortunately, Mundy's explanation does leave plenty of room for the characters to return in some form, making clear that the Byrdes aren't finished blazing new trails and likely making a few enemies in the process. 

Also, Mundy felt the final moment of the popular Netflix drama was, to him, “pretty unambiguous.” While some fans believe young Jonah (Skylar Gaertner), son of lakeside kingpins Marty and Wendy Byrde (Jason Bateman and Laura Linney), shot down the cookie jar full of incriminating evidence, Mundy said “No, I think he shot Mel [the cop], and Mel is dead. And I think they went to their crematorium, just off screen.” Playfully throwing in his interpretation of the ending, Jason Bateman, who also directed the final episode, said the gun the young man was holding “was probably a buckshot too, so the cookie jar went down as well. There’s a lot of scattering.” Source: indiewire.com

Ozark actress Julia Garner has been offered the role of Madonna in a forthcoming biopic about the pop icon, sources familiar with the project told Variety. Garner has emerged the favorite from over a dozen candidates, one insider added, and has for months been speculated as a frontrunner for the part—a performance Madonna will shepherd herself as director. The film is set up at Universal Pictures, and will follow the early days of the oft-controversial artist and queen of perpetual reinvention. Universal Filmed Entertainment Group chairman Donna Langley won the script in a multi-studio bidding war, and Amy Pascal is attached as a producer. Upon announcement, Madonna said she hoped to “convey the incredible journey that life has taken me on as an artist, a musician, a dancer—a human being, trying to make her way in this world. The focus of this film will always be music. Music has kept me going and art has kept me alive. There are so many untold and inspiring stories and who better to tell it than me. It’s essential to share the roller coaster ride of my life with my voice and vision.” Langley praised Madonna as “the ultimate icon, humanitarian, artist and rebel.” Source: variety.com

Jason Bateman has exited from the director’s chair on Project Artemis, the big feature film package starring Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans that Deadline detailed in March that Apple had swooped in to acquire a $100 million-plus deal. Scarlett Johansson is producing with Jonathan Lia and Keenan Flynn through their These Pictures production company, which commissioned and developed the script. We’re hearing from several sources that Jason Bateman and These Pictures amicably and mutually have chosen to part ways on the film due to creative differences. Plot details for Artemis are being kept tightly under wraps, but the project is set against the space race. The screenplay hails from Rose Gilroy, daughter of writer-director Dan Gilroy and actress René Russo. Bateman just wrapped the fourth and final season of his Netflix series Ozark. Source: deadline.com

Thinking about female characters like Wendy Byrde (Ozark) it comes to mind the odd Warramaba virgo grasshoppers, which are exclusively females and they have an ability to create perfect clones of themselves. According to CBC Radio, Scientists at the University of Melbourne did a deep dive on the Warramaba virgo, a type of grasshopper that's been reproducing asexually for 250,000 years, in a phenomenon known as parthenogenesis. Parthenogenesis is a form of asexual reproduction in which an embryo develops without fertilization from sperm. It is extremely rare in the animal kingdom, though not unheard of. Kearney estimates it occurs in about one in 1,000 species.  Mammals can't do it at all. On rare occasions, birds can adopt this technique when the females don't have access to males, though it tends to result in short-lived and unhealthy offspring. But W. virgo has got it down to a science. "It's evolved a way of getting rid of the males. It's actually tweaked its meiosis, which is the way the sex cells are produced, so that it it actually doubles the chromosomes," Kearney said. 

"It basically means perfect cloning. So they are able to just produce eggs that are all female, that are identical to themselves, with no males necessary." And they really are identical, he said. A genetic examination of the population suggests they've all evolved from a single female, about quarter of a million years ago. That female, Kearney said, was the product of hybridization, or cross-mating, between two similar grasshopper species. What's more, sexual reproduction has its disadvantages. "Finding a mate takes time and energy," Ary Hoffman, a co-author of the study, said in a press release. "If we can do away with males and still have viable offspring and the species thrives, then why do we bother with sex at all?" Source: www.cbc.ca

“The Switch” takes a sitcom concept and humanizes it to a lovely degree. It’s not the funniest film or the most emotionally engaging, but there’s a charisma in play that keeps it awake, boosted by efforts from Jennifer Aniston and especially Jason Bateman, who brings a good amount of personality to a potentially virulent comedy. Kassie (Jennifer Aniston) and Wally (Jason Bateman) have been together for quite some time, finding life easier more as close friends than lovers. When Kassie announces her intention to have a baby, the move triggers odd feelings inside Wally, who can’t quite come to grips with her decision. Screenwriter Allen Loeb (adapting a story by Jeffrey Eugenides), takes special care of this delicate situation. Much of The Swtich stays examining wacky miscommunications along with issues of jealousy and longing. The picture offers an unexpected sweet side, exploring the experience of newfound parenthood. Finding the needed colors to pull off such a neurotic, lonely guy, Bateman makes Wally a believably conflicted character, not just a sarcastic fellow playing hard to get. I was won over by Bateman’s performance, enhanced greatly by his chemistry with co-star Aniston, who also provides a good comedic pulse in a less complicated role. Though sold as pure silliness, the picture has an encouraging weight to it that makes it float evenly, pushed along by actors and filmmakers invested in extracting the sincerity out of a coldly wacky premise. Source: blu-ray.com

 

Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy are so fabulous, and obviously above the material, that they do not warrant the treatment they get in Identity Thief. Bateman's character's manhood is denigrated because of his allegedly girlish name (Sandy) or mocked because he’s cautious and gentle. Note to Hollywood: Jason Bateman is sexy. Because he’s attractive, smart and funny. Stop acting like he isn’t. True, he's a bit of a dork, he said he would like to have lunch with Beethoven if time travel was possible and his favorite TV show was Treehouse Masters. But his leading man potential has been overlooked. McCarthy's character is portrayed as a cartoonish caricature of consumerism run amok… until she’s suddenly supposed to be an authentic and sympathetic person. At the flip of a tonal switch, she goes from a sociopath who couldn’t care less about the people she’s been hurting (Sandy is not the first person whose identity she has stolen), to a wounded creature? The “comedy” here comes down to a lot of on-the-road stuff that Midnight Run did much better 20 years ago. Poor Jason Bateman. How did an actor so charming, talented, and handsome get stuck in so much dreck? Identity theft is a real plague that is happening so often that people tremble every time they approach an ATM. It’s a deserving subject that should be explored in a more viable film, but Identity Thief is so boorish it’s hard to believe it wasn’t directed by Judd Apatow or the Farrelly Brothers. Source: observer.com

David Graeber, Michel Foucault, Parasocial Interaction, Ozark's dastardly characters

An inquire after the origins of inequality necessarily means creating a myth, a fall from grace, a technological transposition of the Book of Genesis – which, in most contemporary versions, takes the form of a mythical narrative stripped of any prospect of redemption. In these accounts, the best we humans can hope for is some modest tinkering with our inherently squalid condition – and hopefully, dramatic action to prevent any looming, absolute disaster. The only other theory on offer to date has been to assume that humans are naturally somewhat thuggish creatures and our beginnings were a miserable, violent affair; in which case ‘progress’ or ‘civilization’ was itself redemptive. It’s hardly surprising that most people feel a spontaneous affinity with this tragic version of the story, and not just because of its scriptural roots. The more rosy, optimistic narrative – whereby the progress of Western civilization inevitably makes everyone happier, wealthier and more secure – had also its disadvantages. During the nineteenth-century heyday of European imperialism, everyone seemed more keenly aware of it. While we remember that age as one of naive faith in ‘the inevitable march of progress’, Turgot-style liberal progress was actually never really the dominant narrative in Victorian social theory, let alone political thought. Few nowadays read the ‘traditionalists’ of the nineteenth century, but they’re actually important since it is they, not the Enlightenment philosophes, who are really responsible for modern social theory. It’s long been recognized that almost all the great issues of modern social science – tradition, solidarity, authority, status, alienation – were first raised in the works of authors like the theocratic Vicomte de Bonald, or the philosopher Edmund Burke as examples of the kind of stubborn social realities which they felt that Enlightenment thinkers (Rousseau in particular) had refused to take seriously, with (they insisted) disastrous results. These nineteenth-century debates between radicals and reactionaries never really ended; they keep resurfacing in different forms now. By embracing the notion that events unfold in cumulative sequences, as opposed to recapitulating some deeper pattern, has rendered us less able to weather the vicissitudes of war, injustice and misfortune, plunging us instead into an age of unprecedented anxiety and, ultimately, nihilism. The political implications of this position are, to say the least, unsettling. Historian Mircea Eliade had been close to the fascist Iron Guard in his student days, and his basic argument was that the ‘terror of history’ had been introduced by Judaism and the Old Testament – which he saw as paving the way for the further disasters after the Enlightenment thought. What we can now see is that the first two freedoms – to relocate, and to disobey commands – often acted as a kind of scaffolding for the third (freedom to create or transform social relationships). It’s clear that something about human societies really has changed, and quite profoundly. The three basic freedoms have gradually receded, to the point where a majority of people living today can barely comprehend what it might be like to live in a social order based on them. How did it happen? How did we get stuck? How did we find ourselves stuck in this form of social reality, and how did relations based ultimately on violence and domination come to be normalized within it? Perhaps the scholar who most closely approached this question in the last century was an anthropologist and polymath named Franz Steiner, who died in Oxford (UK) in 1952. In essence, Steiner's theory appears to be precisely about the collapse of what we would term the first basic freedom (to move away or relocate), and how this paved the way for the loss of the second (the freedom to disobey). Steiner's observations are also directly relevant to debates about the origins of patriarchy. Social theorists have a tendency to write about the past as if everything that happened could have been predicted beforehand. This is somewhat dishonest, since we’re all aware that when we actually try to predict the future we almost invariably get it wrong. Participatory democracy is natural in small groups but cannot possibly scale up to anything like a city or a nation state. —A New History of Humanity (2021) by David Graeber

Michel Foucault's overarching contribution to post-modernism is his theory on the way that power circulates in a society, not just the way power is delivered top down, but the ways in which people on the bottom actually subject themselves to power. Therefore, Foucault was also critical of the popular discourse that dominated the debate over sexuality during the 1960s and 1970s. During this time, the popular discourse argued for a "liberation" of sexuality from a cultural and capitalistic oppression. Foucault, however, argues that peoples' opinions about and experiences of sexuality are always a result of cultural and power mechanisms. To "liberate" sexuality from one group of norms only means that another group of norms takes its place. Although Foucault considered it impossible to step outside of power-networks, he thought it is always possible to change these networks or navigate them differently. According to Foucault, the body is not only an "obedient and passive object" that is dominated by discourses and power. The body can also be the "seed" to resistance against dominant discourses and power techniques. "The body is never fully compliant, and experiences can't fully be reduced to linguistic descriptions. There is always a possibility to experience something that is not possible to describe with words, and in this discrepancy there is also a possibility for resistance against dominant discourses." —The History of Sexuality (1976) by Michel Foucault

Parasocial interaction (PSI) refers to a kind of psychological relationship experienced by an audience in their mediated encounters with performers from the mass media, particularly on television and on online platforms. Some viewers even come to consider a few of these media personalities as friends, despite having no real interactions with them. PSI is described as an illusionary experience, such that media audiences interact with personas (celebrities, fictional characters) as if they are engaged in a reciprocal relationship with them. The term was coined by Donald Horton and Richard Wohl in 1956. A parasocial interaction, an exposure that garners interest in a persona, becomes a parasocial relationship after repeated exposure causes the media user to develop some type of identification. Positive information learned about the media persona results in increased attraction, and the relationship progresses, by observing and interpreting their appearance, gestures, conversation, and conduct. Noticing the importance of media in the area of psychological research, academic David Giles (University of Winchester) asserted in his 2002 paper that there is a need for PSI research to move away from the field of mass communication and into the field of psychology. In the past two decades, people have become increasingly interested in the potential negative impacts media personalities have on people's behavior. A study done by Keren Eyal and Alan M. Rubin in 2003 examined aggressive and violent television characters and the potential negative impacts they may have on viewers. The study found that more aggressive viewers were more likely to identify with aggressive characters and further develop parasocial relationships with them. More skeptical researchers share the idea of current Hollywood/TV as a social instrument mainly designed to "generate apathy or discord" through exhibitionism and mass manipulation.

Parasocial interaction has been linked to psychological attachment theory and its consequences have seen the same dramatic effects as real relationship breakups. However, the emotional distress experienced after the parasocial breakup was usually weaker than that of a real life interpersonal relationship. Though PSI with disliked figures occurs less likely than with heroes and positive characters, the situation of "love/hate" relationship with disliked characters still occurs. The positive aspects of PSI: media user's bond with media personas can lead to higher self-confidence, a stronger perception of their problems, and a stronger sense of belonging. Some results indicate that parasocial relationships with media personas intensify because the media user is lonely, dissatisfied, emotionally unstable, and/or has unattractive relationship alternatives. Experiencing negative emotional responses as a result of an ending parasocial relationship, i.e. death of a television persona in a series, is known as a parasocial breakup. 

According to Professor Jonathan Cohen (from the Department of Communications in University of Haifa), the level of distress to the individuals experiencing parasocial breakup depends on the strength of their bond. For other people, parasocial breakups can be as simple as avoiding the content concerning the subject of their parasocial bond. The most used measurement is the Parasocial Interaction Scale (PSI Scale), which was developed by Rubin, Perse, and Powell in 1985 to assess interpersonal relationships with media personalities. In 2012, Mina Tsay and Brianna Bodine developed a updated version of Rubin's scale by addressing that parasocial relationship engagement is dictated by the media user's motivations. They identified four distinct dimensions that address engagement with media personas from cognitive, affective, behavioral and moral perspectives. For example, if a scandal were to occur with an actor, individuals who had parasocial connections to the character they played, the media users may reevaluate their opinions on the fictional character. A parasocial breakup may occur with a fictional character, as a result of a scandal. However, the reverse, where a positive impression of an actor is created, does not apply the same way. Fictional characters, in this case, are seen as separate from the actor's good personality or behaviour outside of their role. Source: journals.sagepub.com

There’s been a lot of talk about why we watch (maybe even root for) dastardly characters, and the answer is because they’re such nuanced, compelling figures we become magnetized by their contradictions and mixture of charm and malice. Ozark challenges that assumption by giving us an antihero so plainly ordinary that there’s no sheer glee or revulsion in watching Marty try to outsmart his foes. When Mason tells Marty, “There’s gotta be a god, because there’s the devil. I think you’re the fucking devil.” That statement is a shock to Marty—and maybe the audience too. Marty is a drab fellow whose best quality is his ability to lie his way out of conflict. Jason Bateman takes his usual dry comedy style and turns it into a darker, more bitter tone. His forte is showcasing a non-chalant pessimism, delivered in a furtive manner that actually deepens it. Bateman addresses the possibility of a season 5 of Ozark or a movie down the line. First airing on Netflix in 2017, Ozark quickly became one of the streamer's most critically-acclaimed series. Much to the surprise of many viewers, the Ozark finale sees the entire Byrde family make it through alive, with Jonah shooting private investigator Mel Sattem. While the Ozark season 4 ending isn't what many audiences would call "happy," it does certainly leave the door open for additional stories in the Ozark universe.

Jason Bateman touches on the possibility of an Ozark revival, saying he's receptive to the idea. Bateman, who also served as executive producer on the show, explains: "Any job or work environment that was positive, and where you loved the people you were working with and you loved the product you were creating, you’d love to return to it. It’s hard to maintain something that is really pleasurable all the time. And we had that with Ozark. So I’d do it again in a second, because what we had just doesn’t happen often." Ozark season 5 or even an Ozark movie would provide the opportunity to further explore the Byrde family, since Jonah shooting Mel in Ozark's final moments sets up potential trouble for the Byrde family down the line. Source: screenrant.com

Justine Bateman: "The top TV Netflix show right now has numbers that would have had it cancelled after its first episode had it aired in the ’80s. Family Ties had a 32.7 rating at its height, meaning 32.7 percent of all Americans who owned a TV set (practically every household) had the show on every week during that period. The population in the US then was about 242 million, so that’s about 62 million people watching me every week. It was the Emmys, 1987. My second nomination. My companion was my younger brother Jason. I had bought my gold dress in the Mark Wong Nark store on Beverly Boulevard. Designers didn’t send you dresses for the awards shows yet. No one had stylists back then for awards shows. My Gold Dress landed me on the dreaded Richard Blackwell’s worst-dressed list. But this photo has been the identifying Wikipedia entry for “1980s in Western Fashion” for years. A real honor. Just sorry Mr. Blackwell isn’t alive to see that. One day, I’m in a movie theater, there by myself. I notice that a very famous actress is sitting in the row in front of me. This is a pretty big “sighting.” I lurch forward and tap her on the shoulder. “I love your work,” in a loud whisper. “Thank you,” she smiles back. Now, I didn’t like her work at all. So why did I do that weird thing? What was with the sycophantic “I love your work” from me? Regardless of my opinion of her work, she was spectacularly famous. I guess I just reached out compulsively, because it was Fame, right in front of me. It happens. 

Writer Buck Henry told me about this time he was at one of Colleen Camp’s famed parties at the Sunset Tower. Lots of actors and actresses there. He finds himself face to face with a very famous blonde star. He says that a few minutes later, he felt like he was “having an out-of-body experience.” He was there, outside of himself, watching himself, prattling on and on with this star who didn’t know who Buck Henry was. The prolific Buck Henry (The Graduate, What’s Up Doc?, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Heaven Can Wait, The Player)? So he can’t stop talking to her, outside himself. Fame is just this strange, societally made structure we keep alive so that we can have the hope that things can get better for us. The Fame structure in our society is really just us imposing our self-will, trying to force some “nice provision” for ourselves. As if to say, “I heard your music/I watched your film. I opened a vulnerable part in myself and I let you in. You are some artist that I don’t know, someone who acted vulnerable through their music, their acting. You and me, meeting in that place. I let you in and we felt safe.” That’s the best part of Fame. That creative identifier." —"Fame: The Hijacking of Reality" (2018) by Justine Bateman

Marty and Wendy Byrde's atypical love story

Wendy and Marty Byrde have such a complex relationship in Ozark. Their relationship was definitely done in a very atypical and tumultuous way, however they were capable of showing us throughout that deep down they understood each other's motivations and therefore they really did love each other. Oddly, theirs is a love story indeed. In Season 1 they were dealing with the trauma and fallout of Wendy's cheating but it culminates with a rekindling of their intimacy bond in the episode fifth, then a subsequent argument in the sixth episode where they get to the crux or their marital issues at the time.

Marty had shut himself down emotionally within their marriage after starting to launder for the Cartel, and Marty justifies his detachment saying to Wendy: "I was trying to protect you." Marty also confesses Wendy's resultant affair had broken his heart. At the end of season 1 they manage to apologise to each other. Starting off Season 2 they look like they're happy and in a good mood, Marty observing her with desire while she is doing her political maneuvers in the first episode. Episode 7 - Wendy has to stabilize Marty through dealing with having killed Mason. Marty seems to accept half-heartedly a convenience kiss from Rachel while he's being spied by the FBI and feeling low.

Season 3 - They are still at loggerheads to an extent at the beginning but in episode 4 Wendy eventually breaks down and is devastated at the thought of losing Marty when he is kidnapped and taken to Mexico. Likewise Marty feels terribly upset at the thought of not seeing his family again. They share a beautiful tender moment when he gets back home in episode 5. In episode 6 they are back to explosive rows in front of psychotherapist Sue and they seem to split up for a while. But not for long though because in episode 8 Wendy includes him in her speech during the Foundation event at the casino, and Marty is there for her when she has to get Ben committed at a mental health facility. After all the turmoil regarding Ben in episode 9, Marty assures to Wendy she is their whole life and that he and the kids love her and need her. 

Marty comforts Wendy through her grief, he calms her down when she is panicking. And when she comes back in episode 10 Marty acts so tender with her and gives her exactly what she needs; he listens to her, and offers her relief from guilt. Ultimately she pulls herself together and they share a smile with each other in the bathroom as they move forward with their plan in regard to Helen at the end of the episode. In Season 4 they are working together on the FBI deal and looking forward to their future together. Marty is also there for her through it all when her awful father Nathan reappears and tries to take their kids. Marty even doesn't seem particularly fazed when he finds out as he is just leaving for Mexico in episode 9 that Omar Navarro had threatened to kill them before Wendy got him moved but he clearly trusts her instincts. When Marty finally arrives back from Mexico in episode 11, he is looking at her while he's hugging Charlotte and they are just looking at each other with mutual admiration and affect.

In the episode 11 when Marty gets into the road rage fight, they are angry with each other but he defends her anyway against a jerk who doesn't know with whom he's dealing. The music accompanying this scene as soundtrack is about someone who experiences a moment of clarity where they realize that they do love a significant other, and as in the song, "they see the light." As he's walking away to avenge Wendy, the lyrics are pretty telling: "But I love you best/It's not something that I say in jest/'Cause you're different, girl, from all the rest/In my eyes/And I ran out before/But I won't do it anymore/Can't you see the light in my eyes (in my eyes)." This theme totally fits with the conflict that Marty has been fighting about Wendy during their marriage but then it's this road rage incident leading him to defend Wendy what solidifies in his mind that he does in fact love her.

Then when he picks her up after she gets out of the psychiatric unit in episode 14 Marty tells her he basically loves her unconditionally. After the car accident when she takes a little longer to wake up, the thought he might lose her reaffirms to him that she and their family come before everything else. Which sets it up beautifully for the ending where Marty appears so resolute about Ruth's demise being an inevitable sacrifice (like Wendy's sacrifice of Ben), necessary to protect their family. Then we have their subsequent conversations while at the gala where they reaffirm that they are on the same page, they reaffirm their love for each other in the car as they arrive home, and they both appear to mean it when they say I love you.

It's a story arc that spans the entire series from start to finish and there are just so many little moments, both spoken and unspoken where you can see the attraction and love between them. The complexity of their relationship is what makes it so fascinating to watch. And both actors, Jason Bateman and Laura Linney have such understated chemistry that you can see how they feel about each other just by watching them interact with facial expressions. Their more tender moments are made even more special by the fact that they’re few and far between and are actually deep moments - not a gratuitous display of sex scenes. They grew closer together through all of this and truly learned who the other was. And in spite of the negative things they may have done to each other, they both chose to stay together because they love each other. 

It was refreshing to see a married couple go through and overcome issues that are common to a lot of couples (albeit not as extreme or life threatening) like infidelity, parenting struggles, mental health problems, distrust, different goals, and come out stronger than ever, loving each other in spite of/because of those flaws. Some characters as Ruth or Rachel regularly projected their own dislike of Wendy on their relationship because they saw how much he loved her and they couldn't handle it. Ruth calls once Marty "cuntstruck". Rachel is visibly jealous of Wendy too. The scene where Marty threatens Ruth and she asks 'is this Wendy?' and he points at himself -- we knew then that it would always be Wendy over anybody. A big part of the show is that inexplicable level of love Marty has for Wendy, no matter how crazy she drives him or how 'hard to love' she is sometimes. Source: medium.com

Juno's 15th Anniversary, Ozark: Fade to Black

It’s been 15 years since Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman graced our eyes and ears with the story of a 16-year-old Juno MacGuff (Elliot/Ellen Page) who gets accidentally pregnant and gives her baby up for adoption. During these years we’ve discussed the soundtrack, the performances, and the dialogue that seems to have come from a mushroom trip. The film is even used in the Irish secondary school curriculum. However, an element of the film that hasn't been as easy to discuss but is now more relevant than ever is its portrayal of abortion. Within the first ten minutes of the film, we’ve established that Juno, much to her dismay, is pregnant and it's "one doodle that can’t be undid." She rings her best friend, Leah (Olivia Thirlby), to tell her she’s pregnant and Leah doesn't ask Juno if she’s going to get an abortion but rather which clinic she is going to go to. They discuss it as if Juno is simply going to get her nails done and the discussion of the issue seems to be pretty painless. In 2007, abortion had been around a long time and the future of its legality wasn’t in doubt like it is now in USA. Juno seems to be feeling pretty good about her decision until she meets classmate Su-Chin (Valerie Tian) who is protesting alone outside the clinic shouting “All babies want to get borned!” Diablo Cody seems to be purposely making anti-abortion protesters out to be somewhat stupid, not using the correct grammar in their preaching statements. 

"Juno" (2007), directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody, starts with Juno MacGuff, played by Ellen (Elliot) Page walking to a drugstore in a small suburb of Minnesota while drinking a gallon of Sunny Delight. She is a 16-year-old burn-out who was named Juno after Zeus’s wife: "She was supposed to be really beautiful but really mean. Like Diana Ross." Michael Cera's character Bleeker will appear intermittently throughout the film as a loyal—if at times paralyzed—lovable nerd who supports Juno unconditionally, despite of her defiant attitude. Juno decides not to interrupt her pregnancy and instead she begins to look for a suitable couple to raise her future child, reading the classified ads in the Penny Saver. Juno chooses a well-off couple, ex-rocker musician Mark Loring (Jason Bateman) and his straight-laced wife Vanessa (Jennifer Garner), who live in upper suburban St. Cloud.

Beyond their yuppie image and clean-cut marriage façade, Juno will discover the reverse side of conjugal happiness between Mark and Vanessa, differences that only intensify with Juno's arrival in their lives. Juno alternates her chats with Vanessa about maternity issues and jam sessions with Mark (while they make snobby references to horror cinema or discuss the peak of punk genre, indie music, commercial jingles, and Sonic Youth's noise). The film's soundtrack is mostly an off-beat collection of The Moldy Peaches (Anyone Else but You), The Velvet Underground (I'm Sticking with You), Sonic Youth (Superstar), and oldies from Buddy Holly (Dearest), The Kinks (A Well Respected Man), and Mott the Hoople (All the Young Dudes). 

Obviously impressed by Mark's knowledge about rock culture, Juno pushes Bleeker away from her adventures, encouraging him to go with another girl ("Soupy Sales") to prom dance. After her disappointment with Mark's immature behaviour, Juno remembers how much Bleeker likes orange tic-tacs and she'll come back to him because she realizes Bleeker is 'the coolest person ever'. Professor Nicholas Emler, author of "The Costs and Causes of Low Self-worth" (2001), quantifies in his essay the cost of low self-esteem: "relatively low self-esteem is a risk factor for suicide attempts, depression, teenage pregnancy and victimisation by bullies." Nicholas Emler (Professor of Social Psychology at the London School of Economics) also notes: "Cultural stereotypes, cinema and advertising all play their part in shaping our opinion on beauty. While in one group the majority can agree on what they find attractive, it's difficult to say why one person stands out." 

Juno approaches Mark Loring (Jason Bateman) clumsily, not in a seductress way, but the intimacy shared during their simulated prom dance is designed to leave the viewers uncomfortable, disoriented, and even feeling a bit dirty. It's also the scene that turns the seduction game upside down and Mark Loring suddenly becomes an entirely different man, embodying an adult temptation for Juno. Although the director Jason Reitman explains that Mark develops romantic feelings for Juno, actually Mark represents a darker, threatening part of the male universe unknown to her. Given that their aborted relationship turns into a testing of the most basic principles of her personality, Juno is left deeply confused, crying inside her van, her nonchalant façade collapsing after confrontating Mark. Juno recognizes at that moment Mark's self-alienation as her own. She realizes Mark is exactly the person Juno imagined herself growing up to be like. 

There is a peculiar discussion between Mark and Juno. Mark suggests the best year of rock and roll was 1993, but Juno says it was 1977. In the essay "Funky days are back again: Reading seventies nostalgia in the late nineties rock music" (2004) by David Sigler, this issue is addressed: "Nostalgia for the Seventies in the late Nineties was especially the preoccupation of male artists. Janice Doane and Devon Hodges have argued that nostalgia is a predominantly male construct representing the pull of conservatism, an intrinsically 'antifeminist impulse'. Nineties nostalgia resists the logic of late capitalism and compensates for it: if American popular culture has become a common coin for the new globalization, then nostalgia counteracts this in that it 'demands a different currency'. It would be easy to attribute the phenomenon to the acceleration of economic and cultural globalization, the pressures of a music industry enduring major-label mergers, the NASDAQ boom, the ahistorical pastiche demanded by postmodernity, or the vacuum left by the 1994 suicide of Kurt Cobain. Gordon Downie describes the Seventies as a golden age of innocence, discovery and naïvete that, although it has since crumbled, left a message that reminds us of 'a timeless goal upon the world'." Source: english.ucalgary.ca

Juno's father, Mac MacGuff (J.K. Simmons) philosophically rebukes Juno's attraction for the mysterious and shady Mark Loring, and she'll forget her idealization of him, since Mark isn't "the kind of person that's worth sticking with." In some instances both (Juno and Mark) spoke similarly: "So that’s cool with you, then?" (Juno asks Bleeker about her first idea of nipping the baby.) "But I thought you’d be cool with this." (Mark tries to justify a separation from his wife Vanessa.) The depiction of Juno and Mark's attraction strips away the illusion of moral conventions, ignoring the trend of overstylized romances or cautionary lusty tales. It seemed very clear that the renewed prom-dance scene between Juno and Mark was not only affirming their mutual desire for each other, it set them apart from the conventions of "reel": the deteriorated innocence of two slackers is here shown bluntly, yet briefly romanticized. Quoting poet Robert Graves: "Love is a universal migraine / A bright stain on the vision / Blotting out reason.” After struggling with her demons and choosing love above herself, Juno still must sacrifice her son to the replicant mom, the woman who symbolizes the politically correct caregiver, the the grand-scale morality, Vanessa.  —"Juno and The Female Memes" (Weirdland) 

Months before Juno was shot in Vancouver, Canada, Jason Bateman and his wife had just welcomed their first child, Francesca Nora. Jason Bateman reflecting on his character Mark Loring: "Well, the idea of making sure that you are an adult before adult stuff comes into your life, that is optimum. And I did. I was pretty good about getting a lot of crap out of my life before I got married and had a kid. Things work out better that way. This guy, Mark, the character I play, did not get that memo so he’s still sort of stuck in arrested development and his life is not going so great as a result. He finds somebody that somewhat enables that in Juno and maybe that’s what that last scene is about. That he wants to continue being a much closer friend with her outside of the relationship with Vanessa. I don’t know if because he wants to date her or just simply hang out with her. I don’t know. I begged Jason Reitman to tell me which side is it. I’ll play it ambiguous if you want me to, but let me know and he never did." Source: collider.com

Jason Bateman hesitates to declare if the Byrdes are the real winners in Ozark. Rather, he claims that the show gives them a happy ending—one that comes with a caveat or curse. “In true Ozark fashion, there’s a scarlet letter attached to it,” Bateman says. “It wasn’t mapped out at all. One of the advantages of doing something without a predetermined ending is you can react to the actors and the characters and see what storylines and what characters are getting attention and which ones aren’t working. Then you adjust accordingly. In terms of how it all ended, Chris and I talked about whether we should have the Byrdes pay a bill or not? Do they get away with it or don’t they? 

We kicked around a bunch of different endings. Laura Linney chimed in with one, as well. Ultimately, we wanted Chris to make the decision and he was really excited about coming up with a happy ending, but adding some sort of smudge on it. There’s something sticky about it. Because once we fade to black, we see that they got away with it but at what cost? Mel Sattem, the investigator who has been tracking the Byrdes for most of the final season, has a great line at the end: “You don’t get to win.” Maybe Wendy’s plan to gather enough political capital so she can turn their money into something helpful, something altruistic, will work. Who knows? But that is a big question. The truth is that the Byrdes are arrogant enough to think they can maintain all of this a little bit longer than they actually can. So it’s good for them that the camera shut off right now.” Source: variety.com

Jason Bateman: the ending of Ozark is "opaque"

Believe it or not, Anna Gunn (Skyler White in Breaking Bad) won three Emmy Awards. Laura Linney (“Ozark”) has yet to win an Emmy for playing Wendy Byrde. A two-time Best Drama Actress nominee for the Netflix series (2019-20), she was the odds-on favorite to win for her banner third season in 2020, but was bested by “Euphoria” star Zendaya that year. Again, she is eligible for the show’s fourth and final season, and as of this writing, Linney is in second place in our Drama Actress odds, trailing only Zendaya. For starters, Zendaya is now a victor in a category that seems to no longer favor repeat winners. 

Coming off of her dynamite performance in the third season—especially in her highly acclaimed 2020 Emmy episode submission, “Fire Pink”—she once again has Emmy clip after Emmy clip in the show’s farewell installment. Plus, she could get extra points for making her directorial debut with the season’s 11th episode, “Pound of Flesh and Still Kickin’,” which should win her an Emmy for the road rage scene alone. Laura Linney has been on fire since the very beginning of Ozark and the way she embodies the character is just amazing. It also wouldn’t be the first time that Netflix carries someone across the finish for their final season of a show under the popular vote system. Although the show has so far nabbed only three wins—two for supporting actress Julia Garner (2019-20) and one for star Jason Bateman for directing (2019)—this savvy release strategy, coupled with Season 4 being the show’s last, could help yield more successful results, including a long-awaited victory for Laura Linney. Source: Goldderby.com

Jason Bateman’s goal to direct all of Season 1’s 10 episodes proved to be too ambitious due to time and budget, so he’d settle for the first and last two. While he says he’s now even more eager to eventually have that “full immersion” experience, his role as executive producer supplied enough daunting challenges to keep him busy, starting with winning over the only person he had in mind to be his on-screen partner in crime, Laura Linney (whom Bateman thought would fuel a dramatic counterpart to his character). Linney first met with Jason Bateman in New York, in 2016, to discuss what would arguably turn out to be the most fruitful onscreen partnership of their respective three-plus decades in the industry. Linney, already a three-time Oscar nominee, still can’t exactly pinpoint why she agreed to play Wendy, the wife of Bateman’s character, Marty—she just had a feeling that she should. Showrunner Chris Mundy credits Linney for that “huge leap of faith,” considering the focus of the first two scripts—penned by cocreators Bill Dubuque and Mark Williams—was primarily on Marty. “There wasn’t a big road map for Wendy’s character,” Mundy admits. 

“The day that Laura signed on, I really feel like me, Jason, and the writers were, like, ‘That’s a level that we’re all going to have to live up to.’ And she was pretty exhaustive in terms of building who this person is. It was the best partnership.” In a recent conversation, Bateman said, “You’re really being foolish if you don’t give Laura Linney as much work as possible inside of any show she’s a part of. To just delegate her to some cliché, traditional wife role would simply be bonkers.” “The central questions that Chris and I posed to each other as we were thinking about how to end Ozark were, ‘Should it be a cautionary tale? Should it be a victory? Should it be a failure? There’s an obvious way to state whether they got away with it or not, and then there’s a more of an opaque way to communicate whether they get away with it or not.” Bateman pauses, carefully considers his words, and continues. “I don’t think it’s any spoiler to say that we stayed consistent in keeping things a bit opaque in everybody’s mind. As far as whether this is a win or a loss, I’ll leave it up to you to decide.” Source: www.vanityfair.com

Jason Bateman has a firm and unflattering opinion about having been a celebrity kid, having been saddled with being a major breadwinner in his family. He called it an unhealthy situation, and he fired his father Kent Bateman from a managerial role as he neared adulthood. Bateman has said his relationship with his parents remains “off-and-on.” He recalls Dawn Garrett was his first girlfriend in highschool, but his busy schedule separated them. Bateman starred in his first feature film in 1987—a project he would quickly regret. The movie was Teen Wolf Too, a spin-off of the 1985 hit film Teen Wolf that had starred a very bankable Michael J. Fox. Bateman’s father produced the poorly received sequel that grossed less than $8 million in the box office. And dissolving the business relationship with his father led him to more personal and professional uncertainties. 

Bateman knew that, in a callous environment like Hollywood, playing hard to get and acting indifferent—like some cocky high school kid—went farther with industry people than being his authentic self. Bateman has offered some practical tips for a successful marriage. He believes that he got lucky because her wife is his best friend and he thinks it's important to maintain that kind of complicity; his wife Amanda Anka knows when to “bug” him. Bateman is hugely protective of his two daughters, Franny and Maple. For a man who was a successful child actor—but who really didn’t enjoy his childhood—it’s telling when Bateman says he’s “not a fan of kids acting.” 

Months before Juno was shot in Vancouver, Canada, Jason Bateman and his wife had just welcomed their first child, Francesca Nora. Jason Bateman reflecting on his character Mark Loring: "Well, the idea of making sure that you are an adult before adult stuff comes into your life, that is optimum. And I did. I was pretty good about getting a lot of crap out of my life before I got married and had a kid. Things work out better that way. This guy, Mark, the character I play, did not get that memo so he’s still sort of stuck in arrested development and his life is not going so great as a result. He finds somebody that somewhat enables that in Juno and maybe that’s what that last scene is about. That he wants to continue being a much closer friend with her outside of the relationship with Vanessa. I don’t know if because he wants to date her or just simply hang out with her. I don’t know. I begged Jason Reitman to tell me which side is it. I’ll play it ambiguous if you want me to, but let me know and he never did."

"With being an adult comes a more substantial relationship with a woman that might not be some incredible arm piece but somebody you can actually get along with longer than sleeping with her a few times. Then thinking about having a kid and maybe a better job. One you might not like as much but pays better and offers you a better future. There’s that moment when a guy's got to start becoming a man and it’s a little scary, especially if you don’t have a teacher or a father motivating you to do that. That’s a lot of self-motivation and this guy (Mark) doesn’t really have the work ethic to do that and he is somewhat a little pathetic. Mark was definitely into Juno and the way she made him feel. You can tell when he says "I'm leaving Vanessa, and getting a studio in the city. What do you think?" When Juno follows that calling him 'old' it is like he is forced to snap back into his age. When he replies "How do you see me?" it was just his way of saying "I thought you saw me as a man". I hope it’s somewhat interesting to watch as opposed to just being sort of one dimensionally just kind of a prick." Source: collider.com

Courtney Love offers her empathy to Amber Heard

Courtney Love regrets weighing in on Depp v. Heard on Instagram. At the center of the case is a defamation lawsuit Johnny Depp filed against his ex-wife Amber Heard for calling herself a survivor of sexual violence in a 2018 op-ed for The Washington Post. Heard, who is countersuing, claims Depp’s team ran a smear campaign against her after she came forward with abuse allegations against Depp in 2016. A number of public figures have jumped at the chance to discredit and publicly ridicule Heard—including Ireland Baldwin, Bill Burr, and Chris Rock. Courtney Love recalled that Johnny Depp had given her CPR after she’d overdosed at a club in 1995 and he'd supported her daughter, Frances Bean, while Love was struggling with addiction. 

While Love said she had “empathy” for Amber Heard, she suggested Heard was taking advantage of the Me Too movement. It seems Love has since thought better of sharing her opinion. She quickly addressed it in a post on her Instagram account. “I engaged in expressing thoughts online. The platform accidentally posted a story I didn’t want public,” she wrote. “Is it any of my fucking business? No. What about the times I’ve been publicly defamed? My true friends have done so much to help me during these public ritual systemic humiliations? I think of my mentors in morality, whose high opinion of my actions are important to me. While I recover, I borrow the values, moral compasses of those I look up to who do the right thing. I certainly don’t always do the right thing. In my program of recovery, ‘when we were wrong, we promptly admitted it.’ I was wrong. The only important takeaway, of what was posted, is that I expressed that we should all stop having ‘fun with schadenfraude’ (look it up: ‘Delight in another’s down fall’) and show sincere empathy for both parties. If I hurt anyone, please accept my amends.” Source: www.thecut.com

Ozark finale review: A Story of Self-Preservation amidst Late-Stage Capitalist Chaos (Spoilers)

The Season 4 (the last season of TV drama Ozark) is officially finished. And it seems there are quite a few things some fans would have wanted to change about its heartbreaking conclusion. The most important, probably, Ruth Langmore's death at the hands of Camila Navarro (the ruthless sister of Omar Navarro, boss of a Mexican drug cartel). Sadly I think it felt inevitable, due to Ruth's self-destructive bent during her last days, shown very effectively by Julia Garner. Ruth Langmore's affective bond with Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman), her renewed friendship with Rachel Garrison (Jordana Spiro), and her longing to escape the Langmore curse made her demise even sadder to accept. Many fans of Ozark probably looked forward to a final comeuppance for Marty and his wife Wendy (Laura Linney). But Ruth's actual death wasn't directly related to the Byrdes. Ruth had killed Camila's son Javi, and the Byrdes tried to placate Ruth's wrath, but the young Byrdes' mentee had lost her sanity after learning her vulnerable cousin Wyatt had been killed by the cartel. The Byrdes knew they couldn't save Ruth or they all would have gotten killed by Camila's henchmen.

At the beginning of Ozark Martin "Marty" talked to the viewers about economics: "Money as a measuring device. That which separates the haves from the have-nots. You see, the hard reality is how much money we accumulate in life is not a function of who's president or the economy or bubbles bursting or bad breaks or bosses. It's about the American work ethic. The one that made us the greatest country on Earth. Patience. Frugality. Sacrifice. What do those three things have in common? Those are choices. Money is, at its essence, that measure of a man's choices. Half of all American adults have more credit card debt than savings. 25% have no savings at all. And only 15% of the population is on track to fund even one year of retirement. Suggesting what? The middle class is evaporating? Or the American Dream is dead? You wouldn't be sitting there listening to me if the latter were true. I think most people just have a fundamentally flawed view of money. Is it an intangible? Security or happiness, peace of mind." 

Stanislaw Ulam had been a member of the Manhattan Project (that produced the first nuclear weapons during World War II), and once challenged Paul Samuelson (the first American economist to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences) to name one theory in all of the social sciences that was both true and nontrivial. Samuelson responded with David Ricardo's theory of Comparative Advantage: "That it is logically true need not be argued before a mathematician; that is not trivial is attested by the thousands of important and intelligent men who have never been able to grasp the doctrine for themselves or to believe it after it was explained to them."

Marty Byrde started laundering money for a drug cartel because he saw it all as a mere business of supply and demand, which operated in his view not very different from Purdue Pharma's shady practices. Marty had suggested this idea of cooperating with a Mexican drug cartel to his seemingly bipolar wife Wendy, thinking only about the potential benefits and taking for granted his low-profile behind these illicit enterprises. Although Jason Bateman was formidable and dryly funny as Marty, for me, it's Laura Linney as Wendy who made this show worthwhile. Her astoundingly vivid and unforgettable performance is truly deserving of an Emmy at the next celebration of the 74th Emmy Awards (September 12, 2022). 

Wendy Byrde is the dark soul of Ozark, my favorite character of the show. Laura Linney is capable of etching on our memory each moment of doubt, mental anguish, courage, and manipulative decisions that passed across Wendy's disturbing mind in impeccable dramatic fashion. Linney embodies Wendy Byrde's psyche through memorable thespian work, making Wendy into the most theatrically developed character in Ozark. At the end of Season 2, we witness how fast Wendy evolves from bored housewife into an egotistical, unpredictable, power-thirsty anti-heroine. In a recent interview with Harper's Bazaar, Linney explained: "She's a wildly complex character that you can't quite figure her out. Is she sociopathic or just emotionally immature? The authentic part of her is hard to pin down."

Wendy teaches her son Jonah a hard-won lesson: “You need to grow up. This is America. People don’t care where your fortune came from.” And when trying to persuade Clare Shaw (CEO of Shaw Medical Solutions) to associate with the illicit Navarro cartel, Wendy affirms: “It’s the only way to make the bad mean something: Bury it. Pile good on top of good.” This scene is key to understand Wendy's unstable personality. Wendy had suffered as a kid from abusive treatment by her alcoholic father Nathan, which provoked in her a deep distrust towards the society; she thought the system had failed her when she most needed it. So now she is on a mission to prove that this system had always been broken, and in a twisted way to self-justify and compensate for her personal unhappiness.

As the Byrdes become a political power couple, many viewers might think their win-at-all-costs ethos, their lack of moral scruples and metastasized hubris, would inevitably lead them to a terrible comeuppance for their amoral actions. The Byrde clan, according to some analytical critics, certainly seems to represent the complicity of a corrupt family with the systemic corruption rooted within the USA's capitalist system. But why then the Byrdes win in the end? The answer is a heightened sense of perseverance. The answer might be "Comparative Advantage." Or the answer might be reformulated as a question: are they really the bad guys? The FBI have made tricksy deals with Omar and Camila Navarro. The politicians voted by the average Joe are mostly corrupt. The reality is the Byrdes win because they are the smartest players in the capitalist game. They are soberer than their rivals and know exactly when the light fades down the tunnel. In fact, they have distinguished from other TV criminal characters by manipulating people who are often much worse than them. Article published previously as The Master Manipulators: "Ozark" Season 4 (Finale/Spoilers) on Blogcritics.