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    Director in Houston

    Emergency situation: The Waiting Room examines health care — and the lack of it— in America

    Joe Leydon
    Oct 16, 2012 | 6:17 pm
    • The waiting room at Highland Hospital in Oakland, Calif.
      Courtesy photo
    • Peter Nicks, director of The Waiting Room, will be on hand at the SundanceCinemas Wednesday night and will speak at a luncheon on Thursday.
      Courtesy photo

    Call it the real-life St. Elsewhere, and you won’t be far off the mark.

     Highland General Hospital is where the neediest of Oakland, Calif., often wind up when they’re most in need of medical care. Trouble is, people who arrive at its understaffed and overcrowded emergency room often must wait for hours to see a physician. And the wait only gets longer if there’s a sudden influx of trauma patients — gunshot victims, auto mishap survivors, whatever — who take first priority over those with injuries or maladies that aren’t immediately life-threatening.

     

    During the contentious congressional battles, Nick felt compelled to focus on people “stuck in waiting rooms at underfunded public hospitals all over the country” because they lacked the wherewithal to seek help elsewhere.

    Under normal circumstances, the Highland ER is the last place on earth most patients would care to be. And for some of them… well, it really is the last place on earth they ever visit.

     The Waiting Room, the acclaimed documentary opening Wednesday in Houston at the Sundance Cinemas, offers audiences an uncomfortably close view of working and waiting at Highland, a public hospital that, as one of its doctors notes, is “an institution of last resort for so many people.”

    The film, shot over a period of five months in 2010, has been shaped and structured by director Peter Nicks to render a composite day in the lives of patients and caregivers. Eschewing narration and titles, Nicks takes a cinéma vérité approach to detailing the barely contained chaos of a place where staffers and resources routinely are stretched to the breaking point while dealing with the desperate demands of a mostly poor and black – and, not surprisingly, uninsured – clientele.

    And while doing so, Nicks forces us to consider just how accurately and extensively Highland reflects all that is wrong with the American health-care system.

     The Waiting Room, Nicks says, “is a story and a symbol of our national community — and how our common vulnerability to illness binds us together as humans."

    The film was inspired by stories Nicks’ wife, a Highland speech pathologist, told him about “the struggles and resilience of her patient population.” During the contentious congressional battles over what supporters and detractors alike have come to call Obamacare, Nick felt compelled to focus on folks who weren’t participating in the public debates — people “stuck in waiting rooms at underfunded public hospitals all over the country” because they lacked the wherewithal to seek help elsewhere.

     

      Nicks will be on hand to discuss these and other issues covered in The Waiting Room during a Q&A session after the 6:15 p.m. Wednesday screening at the Sundance Cinemas.

      “By following the caregivers and patients as they passed through the waiting room,” Nicks said, “we felt we could shed some light on the challenges of delivering primary health care in an environment designed for emergency medicine. What we found was that the uninsured were more likely to be hospitalized for avoidable conditions because there is virtually no continuity of care — no regular doctor to get a detailed medical history and then [schedule] a follow-up visit to make sure the prescribed treatment is working.

    “And because the wait times are so long — both in the emergency department and to see a doctor in the clinics — simple conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes can escalate to severe life-threatening emergencies like strokes or kidney failure. These true emergencies end up back in the emergency department but at a much higher personal and financial cost.”

    Nicks will be on hand to discuss these and other issues covered in The Waiting Room during a Q&A session after the 6:15 p.m. Wednesday screening at the Sundance Cinemas (he will also speak at a luncheon Thursday at La Colombe D’Or sponsored by a consortium of local health care organizations, including the San Jose Clinic). But, really, he hopes the film speaks – clearly, objectively and thought-provokingly – for itself.

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    Movie Review

    New Superman movie forges into the future while honoring the past

    Alex Bentley
    Jul 11, 2025 | 3:30 pm
    David Corenswet in Superman
    Photo by Jessica Miglio
    David Corenswet in Superman.

    When the character of Superman was invented in 1938, it was perhaps easier to see the world in good and bad terms. Fascism was already on the rise in Germany under Adolf Hitler, and the idea of an all-powerful superhero who stood up for people in need was a welcome one. In the nearly 90 years since, though, the world and the character have undergone multiple evolutions, and the thought of someone who is purely good is often met with cynicism or worse.

    The new Superman, written and directed by James Gunn, puts the superhero (or metahuman, as the film calls him and similar creatures) squarely in the midst of the modern world, with geopolitical conflicts, mega-corporations, and social media all combining to make the altruism of Superman/Clark Kent (David Corenswet) questionable. That skepticism even extends to his coworker/girlfriend Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), whose knowledge of his exploits puts her in a tricky position personally and professionally.

    Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) is out to dominate the world and take down Superman, with his eponymous corporation and vast group of underlings dedicated to doing both. Superman is generally a one-man fighting crew, but he’s occasionally aided by a group calling themselves the Justice Gang, comprised of heroes many have never heard of like Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), a version of Green Lantern; Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), a flying metahuman; and Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi), who knows all kinds of technology.

    One of the best things about this new version of Superman is that it mostly dispenses with introductions, putting the audience in a world where Superman is already a well-known quantity who’s adored by many and hated by some. Gunn has used his new position as co-CEO of DC Studios to honor the past of the hero and take him into the future. With the 1978 John Williams theme song echoing throughout and Corenswet giving off Christopher Reeve vibes, it’s clear Gunn wants audiences to feel nostalgia while still getting something new.

    He also appears to want viewers to fight against the negativity that the modern world can bring. The plot involves manipulation of the public, usually at the hands of Luthor, through bombastic talk shows, political theater, and social media, the latter of which — in a great joke — comes to involve hundreds of typing monkeys. The film could be read as a rebuttal of many real-world ills as, despite Luthor’s machinations, many choose to continue to believe in the goodness of Superman.

    There is a lot going on in the film, but somehow it never comes off as overly complicated. Superman’s relationship with Lois Lane and Luthor’s attempts at taking him down are given the most prominence, with everything else supporting those two main things. The Justice Gang is a fun addition, with Mr. Terrific becoming the breakout hero of the group. The addition of the (CGI) dog Krypto provides levity, poignant moments, and unexpectedly great action scenes. The only part that gets somewhat short shrift is the crew of The Daily Planet, with everyone besides Lois and Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) getting little more than face time.

    Being the new Superman is a lot to live up to, but Corenswet is completely up to the job. He, like Reeve, plays the character as someone who is earnest but not naive, a quality that comes through even when he’s in the middle of fight scenes. Brosnahan is also fantastic, providing a nice balance to the relationship while also proving the character’s own worth. Hoult makes for a great new version of Luthor, and Gathegi nearly makes the case that Mr. Terrific should get a starring film of his own.

    Just as he did with the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, Gunn has shown that success can be found through making characters people want to see. Not everyone in this Superman will be familiar to viewers, but in the end a group of people working together toward a goal that serves the common good is one worth watching and cheering for.

    ---

    Superman is now playing in theaters.

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