Christopher Schroeder

Author: Christopher Schroeder

  • Nowhere to Go

    Nowhere to Go

    Motor City is an unnecessary movie with little entertainment value.

    This crime drama, which was written by Chad St. John, offers a familiar story. A small-time drug dealer (Alan Ritchson) who falls in love with a more powerful dealer’s (Ben Foster) girlfriend (Shailene Woodley) is falsely imprisoned, escapes with help from his friends, and spends the lives of this girl and his friends, and the rest of his life, obtaining revenge.

    This movie, which is set in 1970s Detroit has next to no dialogue, which obviously foregrounds the acting, designing, and directing (Potsy Pocirocoli). These elements strain and crumble under the pressure.

    The most convincing performance is Woodley’s, who plays a supporting character. The leads are often comical.

    The settings sometimes evoke 1970s Detroit even though the movie was filmed in New Jersey. The problem is that this setting has little if any significance to the story unless it vaguely suggests something mechanical about the main characters.

    The costumes were conventionally cliched. The sound design, and the classic 1970s rock sound at its center, is often loud, and seemingly supposed to support the narrative although again in unclear ways.

    These limitations and others suggest questionable directing decisions. These are limited however by the predictable plot and cliched script.

    I initially wondered whether the story was just starting slowly, and soon suspected that the dialogue restriction was an intentional challenge. If so, it was more than this movie could meet, which makes it both unappealing and unnecessary.

  • Why We Work and What We Need

    Why We Work and What We Need

    Don’t retire, says oncologist, bioethicist, and Affordable Care Act advisor Zeke Emanuel in his new book. This recommendation, which is considered his most controversial, reflects the reality that jobs provide purpose, structure, and socialization, which must be replaced by those who do decide to retire or otherwise leave the workforce.

    Emanuel reportedly wrote this book as a result of his frustration with the wellness industry that he argues offers unproven, and expensive, health recommendations, such as the recent peptide craze. Emanuel instead wanted to provide a science-based, and straightforward, approach to healthy living, such as sufficient and satisfying sleep, healthy and balanced diet, and adequate physical activity.

    Emanuel isn’t wrong about the part jobs can play in preventing cognitive decline. However, he overlooks the precarity and other risks of anchoring purpose, structure, and socialization to employment for anyone, including older workers.

    Perhaps this suggestion reflects the challenge of find these elsewhere as my retirement experiences revealed. Other retirees seem to have similar challenges finding encore careers, which are often more about impact instead of income.

    Such pursuits needn’t be as elaborate as the ones at Harvard for example or Stanford where participants spend a year and $50,000-$60,000. Still, more options, or sources of structure, purpose, and socialization, need to be available for everyone, including older people.

    Otherwise, our society risks more widespread cognitive decline, especially given the numbers of Baby Boomers and Gen Xers. These might feel more pressure to stay in jobs, and spending the one life they get doing something that should be a means, and never an end.

    That could actually apply to all Emanuel’s recommendations as well.

  • Some Vital Signs

    Some Vital Signs

    Chicago Public Media could be showing encouraging signs of life.

    It recently announced the release of a new website about Chicago for its residents. This space, which reportedly reflects a passion for this city and confronts its fractured communities, is based upon a central public media belief that some “civic infrastructure” cannot come from, and depend upon, the marketplace.

    This site at the moment is basic. It features slick testimonials about the city, a donation link, and a contact form link for those who want to contribute to its development.

    The most exciting element is the link to its rationale, which explains that CPM hopes to offer “trusted local information, communication knowledge, civic and cultural resources, and new opportunities for participation” from its “trusted organizations” — the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ. Like these, this new space will be driven not by profit but by the public media mission, and will consider its members not as “number[s]” but as “neighbor[s]”.

    This proposal suggests an awareness of its challenges. However, the proof obviously will be the ways these principles are converted into practices.

    The world has obviously changed, and these changes seem to be accelerating. CPM exists in a world for example where fewer people read newspapers and listen to the radio, and do these if at all online.

    At the same time, the last few years have been challenging. CPM seemed unprepared for instance to integrate the newspaper and to compensate for the predictable federal funding loss.

    Perhaps more challenging has been the inconsistency between its assertions and its actions in small and big ways. Most if not all of these efforts to confront such inconsistencies have been frustratingly ineffective and resulted in maddeningly inadequate responses if any at all.

    Public media are essential, especially in this disinformation era (McQuade 2024, e.g.). Chicago Public Media must retain the best of its previous purposes, such as providing reliable information and curating news stories, and reconfigure its contributions for a fluid future.

    That could go far in restoring my confidence in, and restoring my reduced financial contributions to, this important Chicago institution.