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‘The Iron Claw’ uneven tale of wrestling family

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:00:56 GMT

Writer-director Sean Durkin has become perhaps by accident an auteur of wrecked families with such films as “Martha Macy May Marlene” (2011), TV’s “Southcliffe” (2013) and “The Nest” (2020). He continues to explore them in “The Iron Claw,” a film I had a hard time taking seriously because it insists on presenting professional wrestling as a genuine competitive sport.Based on the true story of the Von Erich family originally of Texas, “The Iron Claw” asks us what to think of a father of four sons who is happy to rank them to their faces. Fritz Von Erich (the always impressive Holt McCallany in a problematic role), whose real last name is Adkisson, is the patriarch of a professional wrestling family. The “iron claw” of the title is a wrestling move invented by Von Erich with which you grab your opponent by the head, placing your hand on his face and using your thumb and middle fingers to grasp the temples and squeeze. I’m skeptical, but I’ll take it on trust. Fritz h...

Editorial: Harvard holds president to different, double standard

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:00:56 GMT

Harvard University is offering a master class in double standards.As the Herald reported, Harvard President Claudine Gay will need to make three corrections to her Ph.D. dissertation amid plagiarism allegations, according to multiple reports.The school’s Honor Code is clear: “Cheating on exams or problem sets, plagiarizing or misrepresenting the ideas or language of someone else as one’s own, falsifying data, or any other instance of academic dishonesty violates the standards of our community, as well as the standards of the wider world of learning and affairs.”Harvard means business: “Students who, for whatever reason, submit work either not their own or without clear attribution to its sources will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including requirement to withdraw from the College,” according to Harvard’s web site.Except for Claudine Gay.School newspaper the Harvard Crimson noted that the Harvard Corporation revealed, in part: “The m...

Franks: Colorado ruling could boost Trump momentum

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:00:56 GMT

The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that former President Donald Trump will not be allowed on the ballot in the state due to his alleged breaking of the insurrection clause of the 14th Amendment.The clause was meant to prevent Jefferson Davis, among other confederate leaders, from seeking political office again following the Civil War. Trump has already appealed and the case will be taken up in the U.S. Supreme Court for a historic ruling.When the judicial branch of government attempts to surpass its boundaries by pushing for hurried trials by federal prosecutors and canceling a candidate (Trump) from the ballots, it can and will have the opposite intended effect: It will likely give Trump a political surge.The best way to make Trump “go away” is to beat him at the polls in the Republican primaries. Correction: The only way you get rid of him is to fairly beat him in those races. Got it.Trump is making the election not about his policies but about the unprecedented treatment he has...

‘Fallen Leaves’ a charming Finnish romance

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:00:56 GMT

“Fallen Laves,” the Finnish entry for best international feature film this year, is the latest film from deadpan romantic minimalist Aki Kaurismaki (“The Match Factory Girl,” “The Man Without a Past”). The charming little effort makes a “meta” case for romance on the big screen and in our little lives and how the two interact. Ansa (Alma Poysti), the film’s romantic heroine, is a not very young worker at a Helsinki market, who gets canned for taking expired food headed for the garbage bin. Ansa lives alone in a small flat. Holappa (Jussi Vatanen), the film’s unlikely hero, drinks at work, where, dressed in a kind of primitive spacesuit, he sandblasts metal. Yes, it’s a hellish way to make a living, which might be why Holappa drinks while doing it. He gets caught boozing and gets fired. For a second, you might think the film is set in Communist Russia. The two characters suggest a pair of crushed proletariat types.“Fallen Leaves” exists in a kind of permanent past, ...

Alma Poysti navigates Kaurismaki method for ‘Leaves’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:00:56 GMT

At 66, Aki Kaurasmaki reigns as Finland’s most well-known, idiosyncratic and creative filmmaker.Ever since he stepped on the world stage with his 1989 mockumentary “Leningrad Cowboys Go America,” his unique, often deadpan humor and offbeat storytelling has become its own category, like Coppola, Scorsese or Nolan in America.“Fallen Leaves,” a critics’ favorite that opens today amid Oscar predictions, is a spellbinding look at a pair of middle age blue collar workers finding, amazingly, romance.Ansa (Alma Pöysti, the character’s name means “trapped”) lives independently by supporting herself with menial jobs. She meets Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) whose alcoholism is often a barrier to steady employment. Can they click? Can they endure together?“I never saw this coming. It was like a dream come true that I didn’t even think was possible to dream about, to work with him. Because he’s such a legend in Finland,” said Pöysti, 42, in a Zoom interview in English.  “Like, everybody kn...

Latest ‘Aquaman’ stays afloat with retreads

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:00:56 GMT

Writer-director James Wan is known for everything from “Saw,” a 2004 film that made torture entertaining, to “Furious 7,” whichever one that was, a couple of “Conjuring” films and an “Insidious.” He’s also the director of “Aquaman,” the 2018 debut of the DC character played by Jason Momoa. Wan directs mediocre to bad screenplays and fills the screen with excessive CG imagery, fights, crashes, fiery explosions, witches, monsters, flying cars and, of course, superheroes and other things that blow up and make loud noises. Chief among these screen-filling loud noises here is Momoa himself, a gifted comic actor with the size, strength, reflexes and athleticism that would have gotten him into the NFL if he had chosen.As Arthur Curry aka Aquaman, the king of Atlantis, Momoa makes his entrance on a bad-looking giant CG seahorse. It’s not very impressive. But the bearded Aquaman with his skintight golden scaled tank top, his golden trident and iridescent sea-green gauntlets is. H...

Dear Abby: Hey buddy, stop texting my wife

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:00:56 GMT

Dear Abby: I am a 42-year-old male, married for 19 years with three teenage children. My wife recently decided to return to work after staying home with the kids as a full-time mom. She’s an elementary school teacher and has a male co-worker.For six months, this co-worker has been texting her constantly, sometimes every day for several weeks at a time. Along with work-related texts, he asks for advice regarding his recent breakup with a longtime girlfriend. He has also been sending random texts late at night asking how she’s doing, and “checking in” messages.Two weeks into summer break, he messaged her asking her how her summer was and telling her what’s going on in his life. I have confronted her about the borderline inappropriate texts he sends, and she assures me nothing is going on between them. She says she’s “handling” it by not responding to his texts but will not tell him to quit texting her.I have never met this guy, but feel ...

Man stuck under concrete on side of cliff may have been there for days: SDFD

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:00:56 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- First responders on Thursday are working to rescue a middle-aged man who slipped and fell under broken concrete sections on the side of a cliff in Ocean Beach. Fire officials believe he may have been stuck there for up to three days.Around 3:42 p.m., a rescue team reported to Cable St. and Orchard Ave. about a medical emergency after someone heard him calling for help, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFD). During a news conference Thursday evening, SDFD Battalion Chief Craig Newell says someone heard him they discovered the man underneath a rip rap tunneling, attempting to create a shelter. San Diego police sergeant shot in head transported out-of-state for treatment While tunneling, he slid further down and is now wedged underneath the rock on the bottom of the tunnel, which is about 12-15 feet down in the hillside, according to Newell.The victim has been able to communicate with first responders, per SDFD. First responders have not given him foo...

Prized pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto agrees to $325 million deal with Dodgers, according to reports

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:00:56 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prized free-agent pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto has agreed to a $325 million, 12-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, according to multiple reports.Yamamoto is set to join Japanese countryman Shohei Ohtani with the Dodgers, who signed the two-way superstar to a record $700 million, 10-year deal last week.The Dodgers did not confirm the agreement with Yamamoto on Thursday night. MLB.com and ESPN were among the outlets citing anonymous sources in reporting the deal.Yamamoto was 16-6 with a 1.21 ERA this season, striking out 169 and walking 28 in 164 innings. He is 70-29 with a 1.82 ERA in seven seasons with the Orix Buffaloes. Yamamoto struck out a Japan Series-record 14 in a Game 6 win over Hanshin on Nov. 5, throwing a 138-pitch complete game. Orix went on to lose Game 7.Orix posted the the 25-year-old right-hander on Nov. 20 and Major League Baseball teams had until Jan. 4 to sign him.Yamamoto’s deal with the Dodgers would be the largest and longest eve...

More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, Gaza health officials say

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:00:56 GMT

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The war in Gaza has killed more than 20,000 Palestinians, health officials in the Hamas-run territory said Friday, a new reflection of the staggering cost of Israel’s military offensive as pressure grows to scale it back.The figure, amounting to nearly 1% of the territory’s prewar population, is just one measure of the devastation wrought by the conflict, which over 11 weeks has displaced nearly 85% of Gaza’s people and leveled wide swaths of the tiny coastal enclave. Gaza’s Health Ministry said it has documented 20,057 deaths in the fighting. It does not differentiate between combatant and civilian deaths. It previously said that roughly two-thirds of the dead were women or minors. It said 53,320 Palestinians have been wounded.Israel declared war after Hamas militants stormed across its border on Oct. 7 and killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped 240 others.Israel has carried out thousands of airstrikes as well as a fierce ground offensive in what it says is...