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The possibility that our futures hold nothing remarkable for us can seem like a nightmare. In Saint Frances, 34-year-old deadbeat Bridget (Kelly OSullivan) is well aware shes not exactly where she should be in life, and anxiety over the fact cripples her self-esteem. Old friends are getting married, buying houses, and having babiesexperiences that for her seem hopelessly out of reach. An old acquaintance marvels at Bridgets ill fortune, claiming all her college peers supposed she would grow up to be the next Sylvia Plath. Yet Bridgets writing days are very far behind her. OSullivan, who also wrote the screenplay, and first-time director Alex Thompson arent interested in redeeming Bridget by tracing her triumphant return to the craft, by having her find love, or by breaking into a more impressive career. And Saint Frances, with its ample vulnerability and warm humor,is all the better for it.

B

Kelly O'Sullivan, Ramona Edith Williams, Charin Alvarez, Lily Mojekwu

Select theaters February 28

We meet Bridget as things are looking up, despite her ever-present feelings of inadequacy. A new romance with Jace (Max Lipchitz), a quintessential nice guy several years her junior, has brought loving support into her life even if she denies his efforts to make their relationship official. But the plot mostly hinges on the summer job Bridget lands as a nanny for a wealthy couple. Relative to her crummy waitressing gig, nannying is cushy and lucrative. But her ward, 6-year-old Frances (Ramona Edith Williams), proves unexpectedly difficult. Bridgets new employers, Maya (Charin Alvarez) and Annie (Lily Mojekwu), are as progressive as they come in the affluent suburbs of Chicago. A Black Lives Matter sign figures prominently in their front yard, and the two women appear to have already instilled in their small but clever daughter ideas about race (Maya is Latina, Annie is Black) and feminine anatomy beyond her years.

Frances takes it upon herself to be as pesky as possible to her new, inexperienced nannyopening up and destroying her tampons, crying out that shes being abducted at the park. But Bridget, initially unreliable, succeeds in winning over Frances, perhaps because the she offers a certain vitality and a gleeful, punkish attitude otherwise absent from the kids home life. Child actors, who often rely on instincts more than training, can make or break the illusion of a film. Thankfully, Williams isnt overly self-aware of her own adorableness, which grounds Saint Frances in a sweet naturalism that makes it easy to overlook OSullivans somewhat lackluster performance.

So, too, does Alvarez, whose Mayastuck at home tending to her newborn son while her attorney spouse works long hoursbegins to experience severe postpartum depression. Its the films most affecting performance; so deeply does Alvarez convey Mayas melancholy that when the character steps outside for a rare group outing with Bridget and the kids, merely the light on her face seems to imply a remarkable, resuscitative effect.

As screenwriter, OSullivan hones in on the rich, beautifully messy, and occasionally painful experiences of the female body. Always forgetful about when her period will occur, Bridgets sexual encounters repeatedly result in blood-stained sheets. Theres also an ugly Fourth Of July encounter where a catty neighbor scolds Maya for breastfeeding in public. Bridget eventually realizes shes pregnant; avoiding expressing her feelings to the plaintive Jace, she opts for an abortion without much deliberation. The morality (or lack thereof) of this decision doesnt weigh on her. Shes more troubled by the way pregnancy underscores how out-of-sync she is with other women her age, who have careers and could responsibly accommodate a child.

Despite its title, Saint Frances isnt too concerned with matters of God and religion, seeking instead to develop an understanding of grace, love, and empathy on their own terms. At the crux of its philosophy is OSullivans treatment of the female body, as something too often marginalized or rendered taboo. (Mens attitudes towards sex during menstruation is a marker here.) Perhaps this is why young, rambunctious Frances is so important. She jumps into ponds, tears through stacks of library books, screams when she wants things her way. Whats more difficult to control than a childs body? At the same time, what body deserves more compassion and protection?

Stray elements, like Bridgets pursuit of a sleazy guitar instructor or a nature walk consultation with her wise parents, feel obligatory, betraying the films somewhat formulaic nature. Particularly in the films conclusion, there are moments between Bridget and Frances that veer too close to the artificially precious, undermining the power of the bond between nanny and discerning child that hadnt yet been fully articulated. Yet Saint Frances goes down easy. Its refreshingly small and intimate, and is specific on the lives of very particular women without overreaching to look more politically salient or strike zeitgeist concerns. Bridgets personal growth is understated, and so, for the most part, are the pleasures of Saint Frances.

View original post here:
Saint Frances finds grace, humor, and an ode to the female body in a familiar indie premise - The A.V. Club

Photo: Mario Tama (Getty Images)

Im obsessed with race.

After much self-reflection and receiving no less than 2,238,934 accusatory emails, tweets and DMs (not that Im counting), I am willing to admit my personal preoccupation with racial issues.

Its not my fault.

Being a black man in America may partially contribute to my mania, but I had very little input on that decision. Much like the people at ESPN who are obsessed with sports, or the Fox News analysts who are obsessed with whiteness, the fact that The Root actually pays me to talk about race contributes greatly to my negro-centric neurosis. So, if youre reading this, youre part of the problem.

Because of my poorly funded fixation, I have noticed that the political narrative about raceespecially during this election cyclehas focused almost exclusively on four issues:

If one is lucky enough to catch the 91 seconds during each debate when candidates are asked to address racial issues, it is easy to assume that the entirety of black America is either poor, uneducated, unemployed, in jail or running from Nazis wearing MAGA hats. Debate moderators, media outlets and candidates condense the concerns of black voters down to four categories because they really dont care about black issues. They just want to look like they care.

In response, some of the presidential contenders usually resort to a sympathetic but canned aphorism about why they believe black lives matter. Others (Im looking at you, Bernie) contend that their economic plans to address all poverty will help all black people, even if their policies arent intentional about addressing institutional racism.

But the rising tide that lifts all boats only raises the vessels that havent been riddled with the holes of racism. This performative patronizing to people of color is not only reductive, but it also lets everyone off the hook from confronting, discussing and ultimately fixing the underlying causes that fuel white supremacy.

So, just in case you were wondering, as I sipped Hennessy and sorted through cookout invitations, I came up with a list of black issues that dont have anything to do with mass incarceration, cops or why LaKeisha cant read.

I know what I just said, but hear me out.

Whenever there is a discussion about education and race, white America tends to focus on the children who are left behind. We already know that majority-white school districts receive $23 billion more than nonwhite school districts, according to a groundbreaking study by Edbuild. Thats $2,226 per student per year. Even poor white districts get better funding than the average black school. In a quest to eliminate this disparity, educators and politicians rightfully focus on literacy scores and math proficiency, but there is another insidious injustice that we never discuss:

The smart, black kids.

Children who attend majority-minority schools have fewer honors and Advanced Placement (pdf) courses. And, according to the Department of Education (pdf) and the Federal Civil Rights Data Collection, even when they attend good majority-white schools, high-achieving non-white students arent selected for these courses, even if they test as well as their white counterparts.

For instance, most college-level courses require two years of algebra. Sadly, less than one-third of high-percentage minority-serving high schools even offer a second year of algebra, The Atlantic reports. So, even if a smart but marginalized black kid makes it to college, they are less prepared and less likely to earn scholarships because white privilege is baked into the system.

Again, its not class, its race.

Speaking of education, lets say those smart black students made it to college. How do they pay for it? Twelve years after finishing college, black grads owe 113 percent of their original student loan debt while white borrowers owe 65 percent of their original debt.

Earlier this month, the Student Borrower Protection Center released a study that explored another systematic inequality. They created a profile of a recent college graduate making $50,000 per year. Aside from changing the college attended by the hypothetical student, every other attribute was identical. Using these identical profiles, the researchers applied to refinance their student loans as graduates from predominantly white schools, HBCUs and even Hispanic-serving institutions.

They discovered that students who attend HBCUs were charged higher interest rates than any other category of schools, even when they had identical income. Simply attending school with black people means you incur more debt. Part of your credit score calculates debt. So, simply being blacknothing elsemeans you automatically have a lower credit score.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that auto lenders charge black borrowers higher rates but Congress rolled back these protections in 2018. When the Center for Investigative Reporting looked at 31 million mortgage loans (essentially every conventional home loan over a two-year period), they found that black borrowers were denied at three times the rate of white borrowers. A Berkeley study concluded that even when black borrowers applied for mortgages online, they were charged rates that were 5.6 to 8.6 points higher interest rates.

Over the course of a home, auto or a student loan, that is thousands of dollars in debt incurred by black borrowers for nothing except being black. Yet the Trump administration is erasing fair lending regulations.

Maybe someone could ask one of these questions:

We often talk about voter purges, but whats rarely mentioned is that black voters wait longer; polling places in black neighborhoods have longer lines, fewer voting machines and less reliable technology. Felony disenfranchisement may be related to criminal justice but it also is a political issue that disproportionately affects black voters. Most of the 1,200 polling places closed in recent years were disproportionately located in the minority areas of Republican states

But gerrymandering may be the most important political issue of our time. There are only six states that use bipartisan commissions to draw their political maps. And, while these maps are often challenged in court, Trump has filled federal benches with right-wing, inexperienced judges who always favor the GOP efforts to eliminate black voters, giving them advantages for years to come.

Every single form of voter suppression disproportionately affects non-white voters.

Yet, there has been nary a question about plans to revive the sections of the Voting Rights Act that were dismantled by Shelby v. Holder. Has anyone asked candidates about their proposal to standardize and secure voting machines? Why hasnt any candidate said that states that require voter ID should have to provide free identification cards? Why hasnt anyone proposed a standardized early voting period and procedure?

Its easier to vote for the Masked Singer than the president

Unless youre a Russian hacker.

You can vote for the Masked Singer, right?

This is a little wonky but, if youre not familiar with the concept (sometimes called adverse impact, or (disproportionate impact), allow me to explain the concept with another, more appropriate synonym:

Structural racism.

While most people have been led to believe that racism has something to do with hate, intent or belief, that is not the case. Legally, a policy, rule or action can be declared discriminatory even if the rule or policy itself doesnt have any discriminatory intent. If an action has a disproportionately negative effect on a legally protected group of people, then it is illegal, even if it is not intended to discriminate.

The concept is simple. Even if a thing is not meant to be racist, it is still racist if it systematically affects a protected class of people. It was enshrined in Title VI the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and has stood as a bedrock principle and the legal test for prejudice ever since.

Until the Trump administration.

Under Trump, officials at the Department of Justice, Education and even Housing and Urban Development have been searching for ways to subvert and eliminate the principle. Thats why they fight against affirmative action, race-inclusive admissions policy, housing regulations and race disclosures in financial institutions.

This is by no means a comprehensive list. I havent even gotten to environmental racism, access to nutrition, maternal and birth rate disparities or the fact that Rihanna stubbornly refuses to release R9 (theres gotta be something the president can do).

How many times must we bear the repeated dissection of the infinitesimally small differences between Joes public option, Sanders Medicare for all and Buttigiegs Medicare-for All-Who-Want-It-Unless-You-Dont-Want-to-Think-About-It-In-Which-Case-Its-Fine-As-Long-As-You-Vote-For-Me? When will it be black peoples turn?

Are non-criminal, educated, middle-class black people invisible? Has racism been eliminated except for black people who arent in prison, on food stamps or in high school? Did I somehow miss the memo?

But you know me, Im obsessed with race.

I just wish the future president was, too.

See original here:
Dear Debate Moderators, There Are More 'Black Issues' Besides Crime and Poverty - The Root

Garry Kasparov dominated chess until he was beaten by an IBM supercomputer called Deep Blue in 1997. The event made man loses to computer headlines the world over. Kasparov recently returned to the ballroom of the New York hotel where he was defeated for a debate with AI experts. Wireds Will Knight was there for a revealing interview with perhaps the greatest human chess player the world has ever known.

I was the first knowledge worker whose job was threatened by a machine, says Kasparov, something he foresees coming for us all.

Every technology destroys jobs before creating jobs. When you look at the statistics, only 4 percent of jobs in the US require human creativity. That means 96 percent of jobs, I call them zombie jobs. Theyre dead, they just dont know it. For several decades we have been training people to act like computers, and now we are complaining that these jobs are in danger. Of course they are.

Experts say only about 14 percent of US jobs are at risk of replacement by AI and robots. Nevertheless, Kasparov has some advice for us zombies looking to re-skill.

There are different machines, and it is the role of a human and understand exactly what this machine will need to do its best. ... I describe the human role as being shepherds.

Kasparov, for example, helps Alphabets DeepMind division understand potential weaknesses with AlphaZeros chess play.

The interview also yielded this gem of a quote from Kasparov:

People say, oh, we need to make ethical AI. What nonsense. Humans still have the monopoly on evil. The problem is not AI. The problem is humans using new technologies to harm other humans.

Its a fascinating read and one that should be done in its entirety, if only to find out why Kasparov thinks AI is making chess more interesting, even though humanity doesnt stand a chance of beating it.

See the article here:
Chess champion Garry Kasparov who was replaced by AI says most US jobs are next - The Verge

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton downplayed financial contributions to her political campaigns by Harvey Weinstein.

He contributed to every Democrats campaign, Clinton said when asked about the disgraced movie mogul's contributions at the Berlin International Film Festival, where she was attending a screening of her new Hulu documentary. He contributed to Barack Obama's campaign, and John Kerry's campaign and Al Gore's campaign and everybody's campaign.

I don't know whether that should chill anyone else from contributing to political campaigns, but it certainly should end the kind of behavior that he was just convicted for, Clinton added.

Weinstein, 67, was convicted Monday of first-degree sexual assault and third-degree rape in New York City. He faces a possible sentence of between five and 25 years. Weinstein also faces charges in Los Angeles after he was indicted in January, just after the first trial got underway. In that case, he is accused of raping one woman and sexually assaulting another in back-to-back nights during the week of the Oscar Awards in 2013.

Clinton received roughly $55,000 from Weinstein while running for Senate and the presidency, according to Federal Election Commission data. Weinstein also gave $72,000 to Barack Obamas presidential campaigns.

Clinton, who has had a well-documented friendship with Weinstein over many years, defended the relationship earlier this year by suggesting there was no way she could have known about Weinstein's alleged predatory ways.

How could we have known? He raised money for me, for the Obamas, for Democrats in general, Clinton said in January. And that at the time was something that everybody thought made sense. And of course, if all of us had known what we know now, it would have affected our behavior.

Journalist Ronan Farrow wrote in his book Catch and Kill that Weinstein reached out to Clinton to help kill Farrows investigation into sex crimes alleged against him.

Farrow claimed Clintons publicist wrote to him to say that the investigation into Weinstein was a concern for us.

President Trump made the connection between Democratic politicians and Weinstein when asked about the news of the conviction.

I was never a fan of Harvey Weinstein, Trump told reporters on Tuesday. The people who liked him were the Democrats. Michelle Obama loved him, loved him. Hillary Clinton loved him.

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Hillary Clinton: Harvey Weinstein 'contributed to every Democrat's campaign' - Washington Examiner

LONDON (Reuters) - Julian Assange tried to contact Hillary Clinton and the White House when he realised that unredacted U.S. diplomatic cables given to WikiLeaks were about to be dumped on the internet, his lawyer told his London extradition hearing on Tuesday.

Assange is being sought by the United States on 18 counts of hacking U.S. government computers and an espionage offence, having allegedly conspired with Chelsea Manning, then a U.S. soldier known as Bradley Manning, to leak hundreds of thousands of secret documents by WikiLeaks almost a decade ago.

On Monday, the lawyer representing the United States told the hearing that Assange, 48, was wanted for crimes that had endangered people in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan who had helped the West, some of whom later disappeared. [nL5N2AO0W5]

U.S. authorities say his actions in recklessly publishing unredacted classified diplomatic cables put informants, dissidents, journalists and human rights activists at risk of torture, abuse or death.

Outlining part of his defence, Assanges lawyer Mark Summers said allegations that he had helped Manning to break a government password, had encouraged the theft of secret data and knowingly put lives in danger were lies, lies and more lies.

He told Londons Woolwich Crown Court that WikiLeaks had received documents from Manning in April 2010. He then made a deal with a number of newspapers, including the New York Times, Britains Guardian and Germanys Der Spiegel, to begin releasing redacted parts of the 250,000 cables in November that year.

A witness from Der Spiegel said the U.S. State Department had been involved in suggesting redactions in conference calls, Summers said.

However, a password that allowed access to the full unredacted material was published in a book by Guardian reporters about WikiLeaks in February 2011. In August, another German newspaper reported it had discovered the password and it had access to the archive.

A spokesman for The Guardian said the authors were told the password was temporary and the book contained no details about the whereabouts of the files.

Summers said Assange attempted to warn the U.S. government, calling the White House and attempting to speak to then- Secretary of State Clinton, saying unless we do something, peoples lives are put at risk.

Summers said the State Department had responded by suggesting that Assange call back in a couple of hours.

The United States asked Britain to extradite Assange last year after he was pulled from the Ecuador embassy in London, where he had spent seven years holed up avoiding extradition to Sweden over sex crime allegations which have since been dropped.

Assange has served a prison sentence in Britain for skipping bail and remains jailed pending the U.S. extradition request

Supporters hail Assange as an anti-establishment hero who revealed governments abuses of power, and argue the action against him is a dangerous infringement of journalists rights. Critics cast him as a dangerous enemy of the state who has undermined Western security.

Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Gareth Jones and Giles Elgood

The rest is here:
UK court told Assange tried to call White House, Hillary Clinton over data dump - Reuters