January 19, 2024

Malia Ann — AKA Malia Obama — hopes her film makes you feel "a bit less lonely."


It's "an odd little story," we're told, and, judging from the photographs and the voiceover, it seems to be about man who needs to follow instructions left in his mother's will to do something with her heart — her actual physical heart, which we see him holding in a jar.

What are some interesting possibilities for what could be done with a dead person's heart? I asked Grok. First, I got a list of 10 things that were all supposed to be funny — stuff like: "Use it as a prop in a low-budget horror movie called 'The Tell-Tale Heart 2: Electric Boogaloo.'" I said I wanted ideas for a fictional drama where it was the dead person's wish and the heart is carried around in a clear glass jar. The best it could do was to bury it under an ancient tree, plant a new tree there too, and with the "mother's heart as a source of nourishment for the young tree," the ritual would symbolize "the continuation of life and the eternal bond between mother and son."

ADDED: Chatting with Grok motivated me to work on my own ideas about what the story could be. What I came up with is that the mother directs the son to carry her heart around in their own town. He can't understand why, but he does it and ends up in one conversation after another with various people who want to know what he's doing, and these people turn out to be kind and wise, and he realizes his mother wanted him to learn to expose his own heart to the world, and it turns out, that's exactly what he needed.

62 comments:

R C Belaire said...

Do we have to be interested in the next generation as well?

Odi said...

The children of the rich, even those with no appreciable talent, are always provided opportunities that the children of the common man can never earn. It's Green Privilege.

rhhardin said...

I hold your hand in mine, dear,
I press it to my lips.
I take a healthy bite
From your dainty fingertips.
My joy would be complete, dear,
If you were only here,
But still I keep your hand
As a precious souvenir.
The night you died I cut it off.
I really don't know why.
For now each time I kiss it
I get bloodstains on my tie.
I'm sorry now I killed you,
For our love was something fine,
And till they come to get me
I shall hold your hand in mine.

Tom Lehrer

n.n said...

A metaphor for love, a secular totem, or a "burden" of evidence sequestered in a sanctuary state.

frose said...

Love your story idea! Maybe this could be a new interactive blog exercise (somewhat similar to the F. Scott Fitzgerald activity from a while ago). Pick a blogged item as a prompt for a 1-paragraph story...

Kate said...

When I was a film student we made little art movies like this all the time, only we shot on super 8 and spliced actual film stock, leaving glue residue on the finished product. Maybe Malia's work is charming. And maybe the jury committee really didn't know this was Obama's kid's project.

The first supposition is possible. The second is preposterous.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

I actually feel sorry for her. She's going to spend her life douche-riding her parent's name, Clinton and Pelosi style, and she'll never hear a whisper of push-back.

MadisonMan said...

Coasters might pay to view this -- so they can talk it up at cocktail parties -- as a way to funnel money to the Obama family. In that aspect it's rather like that Hillary book that everyone bought for display, but no-one bought as a Kindle to, you know, actually read.

Perhaps it's a good movie, and Ms. Obama has talent as a film-maker. Her last name probably opened doors. And I have to say, having known a bunch of NYU Film Grads (I know, I know, she went to that school in Cambridge), that her image in the screenshot of this blog post is waaay too "I'm a serious film maker"

tommyesq said...

Sounds like the "Hunter Biden paintings" of the Obama children. Who paid for this and how much?

Dave Begley said...

This important film by an important person will win the TOP prize at Sundance.

Ice Nine said...

She's incredibly grateful to Sundance for giving her the opportunity to share her film with everyone. Because, it was touch and go whether Sundance would accept Malia Obama's film, you know.

And she will be just over the moon when Sundance gives her that four star trophy for it that is currently sitting in the closet there with her name on it.

Humperdink said...

A bit on the gruesome front for my taste. Ashes are one thing, body parts are quite another. I noticed that Malia has her mother's inviting smile.

AlbertAnonymous said...

Hard pass…

Lilly, a dog said...

I can't remember. Is Malia the uppity one, or is it Sasha?

mccullough said...

Harvey Weinstein taught her well

Will Cate said...

"It was the beating of the old man's heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage."

rehajm said...

The youngsters are in to making these odd art house kind of films. I’ve funded a couple, definitely not expecting an ROI or having to but a dress for awards night

n.n said...

The tell-tale heart is a reference to [elective] abortion, the wicked solution, human rites, Gosnell, Sanger, Cecile et al.

Mason G said...

"Meet the Artist"? You mean the privileged child of a politician with an attitude? No thanks.

Aught Severn said...

Let our love be a flame, not an ember
Say it's me that you want to dismember
Blacken my eye
Set fire to my tie
As we dance to the Masochism Tango

At your command
Before you here I stand
My heart is in my hand
(Yeechh!)
It's here that I must be

My heart entreats
Just hear those savage beats
And go put on your cleats
And come and trample me

Also Tom Lehrer

tommyesq said...

That is quite the haughty look she is sporting. Looks just like her dad.

Howard said...

I'd like to hear what Katt Williams thinks about Ms. Obama's artistry.

Robert Cook said...

"The children of the rich, even those with no appreciable talent, are always provided opportunities that the children of the common man can never earn. It's Green Privilege."

It's the only reason King Charles is! (And so many royals and "beautiful people" (sic) around the world for, like, always.)

Butkus51 said...

She had some great teachers including family friend Harvey Weinstein. He taught her the "ins and outs" of the biz. Or tried. Damn SS agents.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

“…people who want to know what he's doing,“

But he can’t tell people what he’s doing, because if he does, then they’ll do it to themselves.

victoria said...

all of the comments could be just as applicable to DJT's children. Living off of their father's fame, never, NEVER able to live independently. He even picked out his daughter's good for nothing husband to be her spouse.


Just remember, when you trash the children of the elite that are not of your political persuasion, there are ALWAYS those on the other side as well.


Vicki from Pasadena

Craig Mc said...

I wonder if Bill Ayers wrote this too.

robother said...

Not one of the Organ Donor options on the Colorado Driver's License. But with Malia's film, I have every confidence it will be after this next legislative session. And to think I used to consider it tacky when someone sported a heart tattoo of on their arm saying "Mom". Now, every Starbucks will feature Gen Z-ers scrolling their iPhones with a glass jar literally holding Mom's heart.

Wince said...

…it seems to be about man who needs to follow instructions left in his mother's will to do something with her heart — her actual physical heart, which we see him holding in a jar.

In the Realm of the Senseless?

“In the Realm of the Senses” is based on a sensationalized true incident taking place in the militaristic regime of 1936 Japan, where an ex-geisha wandered the streets of Tokyo while clutching the dismembered organ of her lover after some extremely passionate lovemaking. The film, an erotic masterpiece more than a classic masterpiece, has been banned on its release in Japan, America and Great Britain for its explicit sex.

gilbar said...

serious question.. Imagine be RICH, and FAMOUS and as ugly as She is.. That'd kinda suck

Quaestor said...

A piss-poor derivative from medieval Scottish literature, "The Bruce" by John Barbour, and not even a citation. Malia might as well considering Daddy's attitude regarding plagiarism.

As he lay dying, Robert the Bruce bequeathed his heart, his actual circulatory organ, to his trusted lieutenant, Lord James Douglas. After securing Scotland's independence, the Bruce planned to make a pilgrimage to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in penance for killing John Comyn in the Greyfriars Church of Dumfries, a journey the king's imminent demise would preclude. Therefore, Douglas was charged to carry the king's heart -- enclosed in a silver reliquary suspended from a chain -- to Jerusalem where his liege lord's body could not go.

Eva Marie said...

rhhardin: best poem ever
Malia Ann: best of luck, take advantage of every opportunity life gives you. Nothing wrong with that.

Balfegor said...

Hearts made me think of the Herzgruft in Vienna, which then led me down a chain of wikipedia articles because I was surprised that Franz Josef's heart wasn't in the Herzgruft (apparently he is intact, in the Kapuzinergruft nearby). Karl I is buried elsewhere. In a bit of a reversal, Otto von Habsburg, the heir to the Dual Monarchy, is buried in the Kapuzinergruft, but Wikipedia tells me his heart was buried in Hungary, at an abbey to which he had some sort of connexion when he was a child.

Which suggests the sort of thing one might ask to have done with one's heart -- that it be buried separately from one's body, perhaps in a place of particular significance, like the church in the town where one was raised, or in the same grave as one's husband, or something like that.

Oligonicella said...

tommyesq:
Sounds like the "Hunter Biden paintings" of the Obama children. Who paid for this and how much?

Much like the unspoken question that follows affirmative action, this will follow everything she does.

Quaestor said...

Between the presentation of that major award, the MacArthur Fellowship, and Kathleen Kennedy's contract offer, here's the applause all good folks long to hear.

wildswan said...

Building on Althouse's idea: Maybe it's a scavenger hunt for the burying place - he follows clues around the town his mother lived in and meets a girl who helps him and he decides not to run for office but to settle down in that small town in Georgia.


Midnight Train to Georgia - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0F9lh8TiSM

Aggie said...

When you're the kid of a famous person, how is it possible to do something ground-breaking on a way that is already so richly paved? Still... however hard, it's better off than having to clear your own path yourself. Pity the poor little entitled rich girl....

Vicky from Pasadena sez:"He even picked out his daughter's good for nothing husband to be her spouse...." Assuming this is Jared you're speaking of, this is the first I've heard of such a thing. Perhaps after you provide your evidence, you'd like to share your contributions to humanity, and other notable personal achievements - you know, for comparison?

So bitter & twisted.

gilbar said...

reminds me of back when NBC decided to pay Chelsea Clinton $600,000/yr to make coffee.
Well; not to make coffee, really.. it was more like $600,000/yr to GET coffee

William said...

There's an old Yiddish story or joke told by Philip Roth in one of his stories. A young man is devoted to his mother. Too devoted. The young woman who he wants to marry tells him that. She asks him to cut out his mother's heart and bring it to her. He does so and goes running with it to bring to his beloved. On the way there, he trips and falls. His mother's heart suddenly speaks to him: "My son, why are your hands so bloody. Did you hurt yourself when you fell. Don't run so fast."....I guess the moral of the story is that there's no escaping a mother's guilt even if you murder her. Or anyway, that's the moral Portnoy found in the story....I don't think this is the tale of a mother's heart that Malia has in mind. Her film is probably very uplifting and the reviews are sure to be positive. If anyone sees the movie, it will be out of a sense of duty to her father, and most people will be skeptical of the reviews....She carries around with her not just the love of her parents, but the love people direct towards her parents. Maybe that's why she's attracted to the metaphor.

tommyesq said...

all of the comments could be just as applicable to DJT's children. Living off of their father's fame, never, NEVER able to live independently. He even picked out his daughter's good for nothing husband to be her spouse.


Just remember, when you trash the children of the elite that are not of your political persuasion, there are ALWAYS those on the other side as well.


The Trump children made their money/business working within the Trump empire. Maybe nepotism, maybe well trained by the master/father/elite education, probably some combination of both. But they did not make their livings off of other people's fawning graft to their father, and they didn't get invited to place their first film in a prestigious festival or the like.

Also, the suggestion that it is wrong for the father to choose the daughter's spouse (assuming that this is true in Ivanka's case, I have no idea) basically slanders much of the customs of the world throughout history and through many cultures in present times - arranged marriages are historically more the norm than the "true love"-based marriages of modern America.

Maynard said...

That extremely privileged young woman (Malia) looks really depressed.

I wonder why.

Narayanan said...

if Michelle is Barack's beard whose children are these two girl princess?

Narayanan said...

has the film relieved her own loneliness feeling ? or is she doing field experiment?

Smilin' Jack said...

In the Desert
BY STEPHEN CRANE
In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered;

“But I like it
“Because it is bitter,
“And because it is my heart.”

madAsHell said...

Didn't Hunter Biden attempt this same stunt?

Jerry said...

Ah, the usual tilt of the head, the haughty sneer...

Damned peasants - they just don't realize how 'special' she is. Luckily, other 'elites' are willing to give her the recognition she deserves...

MayBee said...

There was a song, "Jar of Hearts" by Christine Perri around 2010. It made it's debut on So You Think You Can Dance and it was a beautiful hit. I wonder if that inspired her.

glacial erratic said...

The picture struck a chord of familiarity with me. The challenging stare, the cocked head, the out-thrust jaw, and the sneer of belligerence. It seems more like a police lineup photo than anything else.

My guess is, that pose is intended to remind us that even though she is the child of literally unimaginable privilege, she's still a black woman in Amerikkka, and by gosh, she's angry.

I know I've seen that same pose many many times lately. There must be some common factor, but darned if I can imagine what it is.

Ann Althouse said...

"A piss-poor derivative from medieval Scottish literature, "The Bruce" by John Barbour, and not even a citation. Malia might as well considering Daddy's attitude regarding plagiarism.... "

No. You're wrong for 2 reasons.

1. The stills from the movie show the man carrying the heart in a plain clear glass jar, like a lab specimen. But that Bruce story is very much like the story Grok kept pushing on me. The heart needs to be taken to some significant, symbolic place to be buried. Grok repeatedly pushed the idea that it was in an ornate box of some kind. I don't think this is the story and I was hoping Grok would give me something more interesting. I thought this was too obvious (and that it didn't fit the stills we saw).

2. Storywriters can draw on myths and history and old tales and riff on them. This is done and should be done... all the time. It's not plagiarism unless you repeat the form of the expression and don't give credit. And you don't even know the extent to which Malia will credit other sources when people ask her where did you get the idea. It's where you take it and the finished product that matters.

You sound like you're out to get her. I appreciate the recounting of "The Bruce," but not your uncharitable presentation of it to crush a present-day filmmaker.

Ann Althouse said...

"That extremely privileged young woman (Malia) looks really depressed."

The offspring of prominent people are often depressed.

You may envy them, because their life is not yours. But their life is the only life they've had and can ever have.

Ann Althouse said...

"The challenging stare, the cocked head, the out-thrust jaw, and the sneer of belligerence...."

How much of this is projection? You look at a black woman who is not smiling warmly and you see anger and nastiness.

I think there is a photographer there, trying to get the right angle and expression for a person who wants to be considered a serious artist and not just the President's cosseted child of 8 years ago. I believe she is trying to look intriguing and vulnerable and a little wary.

It's not good to be too suspicious and hostile toward the young. You haven't seen the movie, but you are destroying your credibility as a judge of it.

Humperdink said...

AA said: "How much of this is projection? You look at a black woman who is not smiling warmly and you see anger and nastiness."

Not to worry, Malia will win every award available at the Sundance Festival. I am surprised Hunter Biden hasn't been awarded the Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts. Sugar daddy Kevin Morris needs to toss some cash around.

Chick said...

She's mastered the Obama upward head tilt.

Iman said...

I see that face, I think of Haiti.

boatbuilder said...

Nothing wrong with riffing on an established story line. It's what Shakespeare did.

She has her father's cadence down cold. Could sell ice to Eskimos. It's a gift.

boatbuilder said...

"Eleanor Rigby, wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door/
Who is it for/
All the lonely people"

stlcdr said...

She’s done nothing to receive any scorn. It looks like she’s not using her last name to disassociate from the role - or not - as a presidents daughter.

I wouldn’t know who she was unless the Obama qualifier was added. As it should be. She should stand on her own merits. Shame that cannot be said for other presidents children.

victoria said...

I understand now, you can only slam the left for "nepotism" or uselessness, but not the right. DJT's kids "worked" in his businesses because they were either so useless (Eric) or so coked up (Donnie JR) that no one else would hire them. Jared has never done a lick of work outside either his father's (A convicted felon) or his father-in-laws businesses. Waste of space. When you're a millionaire or a purported billionaire, on either side, you can prop up your children. Shame on you all for only seeing one side.

And, for gillie, Perhaps after you provide your evidence, you'd like to share your contributions to humanity, and other notable personal achievements - you know, for comparison?
i really don' t have to do that. I'm not comparing myself to Jar4ed. Can you give me i example of him "making contributions to humanity"? Heck no, waste of space.

Again, shame on all of you

Vicki from Pasadena

JAORE said...

Sigh. No Obama fan here. But I'll wait to see the film before I declare it only made/well received (or not) because of her last name.

Sure doors open with famous parents. It's a Hollywood, political, shoe factory tradition.

glacial erratic said...

AA said: "How much of this is projection? You look at a black woman who is not smiling warmly and you see anger and nastiness."

Once again, I am guilty of the crime of noticing. Please don't tell me you aren't aware that this exact pose is endemic among young black people?

AA said "It's not good to be too suspicious and hostile toward the young. You haven't seen the movie, but you are destroying your credibility as a judge of it."

I will never see the movie. Such matters hold no interest for me. My comment was directed only to the artist's photo.

I try to dole out my suspicion and hostility judiciously. But directing it at the scion of a family that has done immense damage to my country seems justified.

RigelDog said...

Malia is surprisingly well-spoken. I say surprisingly because her modulation, enunciation, pleasant tone, and lack of vocal fry and of up-talk is NOT common among even highly-educated young women these days.

I'm not likely to watch the movie but think that Malia's claim that the movie is meant to convey some heart-warming messages sounds like an excellent goal.

Jim at said...

Again, shame on all of you.

Take your finger of shame and shove it somewhere.