Gratuitous Llama Movie Plug

If you haven't yet, may I strongly recommend that you go see "Ray" - the new movie about the life of Ray Charles. Abso-freakin-lutely fantastic. Jamie Foxx sticks Charles' mannerisms perfectly. And of course, the sound track is positively bitchin'.

I have no idea how accurate the bio materials are. But I assume that no one would be brazen enough to invent, for example, the drowning of Charles' brother when he was a little boy. And I'd heard before of his womanizing and heavy drug use. Whether and what the psychological connection might be among these items and the music he produced - heavily emphasized by the film - I simply cannot say. (The reason I'm slightly dubious is because a similar technique was used - with hilariously inaccurate results - in "Amadeus" many years ago.) On the other hand, from what I do know, the film is very good at exploring the roots of Charles' style - gospel, R&B and country - and the manner in which he fashioned them into a new sound.

Oh, one other very refreshing thing - no preaching. Not about handicaps, not about current events, not even about race. Charles' sharecropper background is treated as a matter of biographical fact, not as a platform for moral outrage. In fact, even the scene in which Charles refuses to play a segregated concert and gets himself banned from Georgia is handled without sanctimoniousness and hyper-piety. And as for the drug use that eventually drove him almost over the edge in the 60's, Charles is the victim of his own demons.

Seriously, go see this movie.