At almost every pivotal moment, in the last century of the struggle for civil rights, Rep. John Lewis has been there. This Fourth of July weekend, as we all reflect on the beginning of the United States of America, the Declaration of Independence, and the ideals upon which the document was written, “John Lewis: Good Trouble” comes to the Music Box Theatre virtual cinema.

The belief that “all men are created equal,” penned by Thomas Jefferson on the parchment signed by the Founding Fathers on July 4th, 1776, is more theory than practice today. As the Black Lives Matter movement continues to gain momentum, it also spotlights the egregious disparities than exist within our society. Thus, Dawn Porter’s documentary spotlighting the life and career of the legendary civil rights activist and Democratic Representative from Georgia is more timely than ever.

Via interviews and archival footage, the film chronicles the life of John Lewis and his more than six decades of social activism and legislative action on civil rights, gun control, health-care reform, and immigration. The core issue to which he is dedicated, and therefore the central focus of the film is voting rights.

Porter explores how Lewis is inextricably linked with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, how today’s Republican party gutted it, and the work that John Lewis and company have done to restore it. As the film shows, Lewis was on the front lines, fighting for social justice at almost every major moment of the struggle for racial equality: the March in Selma, the Montgomery bus boycotts, the Freedom Riders, the lunch counter sit-in strikes, and more.

The film’s title comes from this specific Lewis quote which arrives early in the film: “In 1955, the action of Rosa Parks and the leadership of Martin Luther King inspired me to get into trouble, what I call neccessary trouble, good trouble.”

The film includes a Lewis speech in which he says that he was arrested 40 times during the 1960s, and five more times since he became a member of Congress.

Now 80 years old, Lewis has truly lived a long and illustrious life, which began on a chicken farm in rural Georgia, as the son of a sharecropper. In addition to interviews with Lewis and his family, Porter’s cinéma verité film includes interviews with political leaders, Congressional colleagues, and others who figure prominently in his life. It’s a long list that’s a who’s who of today’s progressive moment including: Nancy Pelosi, Ilhan Omar, Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.

You can follow Banks, a former writer for Chicago Tribune.com, on Twitter and his cat on Instagram.

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This week we have another collaboration arriving: pickups for the “Christmas in July” variety beer pack from the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild. See below for details, though they may already be sold out.

Monday, July 6

Tuesday, July 7

Wednesday, July 8

Thursday, July 9

HAMILTON

Genre: Musical

Rating: PG-13

Running Time: 160 mins.

Where Can You See It?: Disney +

Premise: Filmed version of the Tony-award winning Broadway musical about Alexander Hamilton and the “damn fool that shot him” (Aaron Burr, sir), created by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Behind-the-Scenes: Filmed during one of the original cast’s final performances in June 2016. [Fun fact: I bought tickets for August 2016 and just missed the original cast – didn’t matter, the show and performers were still amazing.] Disney paid a pretty penny (approx. $75M) for the distribution rights. It was originally set to debut in theaters in October 2021, but due to the pandemic, Disney moved it up a whole year to coincide with the Fourth of July holiday.

The Good: If you’ve never had a chance to see Hamilton on stage – didn’t come to your city, too expensive, just got lazy, now you get to be in the room where it happened. And not just in the room – but sitting center orchestra level with a front row seat! I’ve always said Hamilton is one of the top 5 pieces of art (music, painting, movies, theater, books) of all time – don’t ask me the other 4, I just know Hamilton takes one of those slots – so any film version of that show is an automatic 5-star film. Just need to point the camera and shoot. How great then to be able to report that this film is pretty much perfect at what it is. Director Thomas Kail and his editors do a fantastic job of cutting between wide shots and close-ups on the actors, and it’s those close-up shots that really deliver the goods. Getting to see these actors in that way – the cast here is one of the finest assembled – is a thrill, and some of the songs really take flight in this format. Angelica’s (Renee Elise Goldsberry) “Satisfied” is a stunner, as is George Washington’s (Christopher Jackson) “One Last Time.” Daveed Diggs and Jonathan Groff steal every scene they’re in, and the film helps you appreciate all of the smaller comedic moments sewn throughout the show. And those songs! Each one a banger. Musicals just don’t get any better.

The Bad: I loved this, but it can’t quite match seeing it live, and I still want a movie adaptation of the show. Think that could be amazing.

Should You See It?: Uh, do you even need to ask? Of course, yes. I have to admit though it was super weird to finish this brilliant, ambitious, inspiring ode to America, while still living in the nightmare age of Trump. Hamilton feels like what we could be as a country, rather than what we currently are. I hope November offers us a new opportunity to “look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now.”

Star Rating: ***** out of 5 stars

Better Than: Every other movie this year

Worse Than: Hamilton on Broadway

* * *

For more movie/TV commentary and other mischief, follow me on Twitter: @Hammervision and on Letterboxd: @Hammervision

Eric Trump has been my favorite of Don’s children. I don’t count Tiffany and we media types aren’t suppose to acknowledge the little boy living on Pennsylvania Avenue, so I only consider the first three for my ratings.

Eric isn’t as blatant about his greed as his sister, Ivanka, who has made more than one hundred million dollars while holding a government position in daddy’s administration. He stays out of the limelight more than his brother Don Jr., who thinks he’s a powerful celebrity because he has the same name as his father. So while it may be by default, Eric gets my top spot among the Trump offspring.

I also think that at one time, Eric had a good heart and cared about other people besides himself. It was his idea to start the children’s cancer charity. Apparently Eric realized he was living a charmed life. He knew he was born on third base and it wasn’t his triple that got him there. The charity was his way to give back to humanity. It was doing great work, too…until dad got involved. Don saw a way to make money off sick and dying children. As usual, with Donald Trump greed takes precedent over everything.

Saturday Night Live has been doing political humor for more than four decades. No one is off limits. The adult children of politicians are fair game, especially if they are in the public eye and involved even slightly in politics. That describes the Trump children to a tee. For the last few seasons, the Trump brothers have been making regular appearances during the Weekend Update segment. Mikey Day plays slick big brother Don Jr. to Alex Moffat as child-like Eric. The portrayals are way over the top, especially Eric, who is almost always acting like a not so bright first grader. We’ve seen scenes such as Eric intrigued while playing with a fidget spinner and also trying to color between the lines. Word on the street is Eric isn’t too happy with how he’s being played….and can you really blame him? He can’t really be as dumb as SNL makes him out to be, right? After all, the dude has a degree in business and finance from Georgetown University, where he graduated with honors. You don’t get that playing with a fidget spinner for four years!

That brings us to Thursday. The FBI arrested Ghislaine Maxwell, the associate and madame for the late Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell was charged with sexual abuse of minors, as well as perjury. The FBI has been searching for her for a year and finally found her hiding out in an estate in New Hampshire. It was a good day for justice.

The good day for justice quickly turned into a bad day for Eric Trump. Epstein and Maxwell were known to hobnob with the rich and famous. It doesn’t get more famous than the Clinton’s. Eric found a photo of Bill walking his daughter Chelsea down the aisle on her wedding day. Looking on, with a red circle around her head, is Ghislaine Maxwell. Eric couldn’t help himself and tweeted out the photo with his caption:
“Birds of a feather”  

Oh My….what could possibly go wrong with that tweet?

Apparently Eric didn’t know that his dad also had a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein? Hell, we’ve all seen the quote to New York Magazine from 2002:

“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

Eric had to know about this, didn’t he? He couldn’t be that dumb, could he? And to make it worse, immediately after posting his tweet came the responses. Multiple photos of daddy with Epstein and Maxwell. Even Donald’s new BFF George Conway tweeted a photo of them together, with the question, “Why would he tweet this?” Eric, you want to answer that? You had to know these pictures existed? So, why Eric, why? You can’t be that dumb, can you?

It’s a good thing SNL is on hiatus for the summer….at least for Eric Trump. If they weren’t, you know that Don Jr. and Eric would be making a 4th of July visit to Weekend Update. You know they’d be playing this up big. Fake Eric would be spinning that fidget thingy hard. He’d have it moving in overdrive!

SNL isn’t due to return until late September. By then, this story will be long forgotten. We’ll be on to whatever is the next big news item. But if Eric Trump continues to act like he did on Thursday, I’m sure we’ll see him again on SNL. Keep that fidget spinner ready.

Related Post: Who has been watching Barron Trump this week?

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