On WOMEN TALKING

 Forgive or forfeit their place in Heaven? Stay and fight or leave? One woman says, "We have been preyed upon like animals." That's a line from the powerful and riveting new film, WOMEN TALKING. The fascinating Sarah Polley, actress turned filmmaker, directed WOMEN TALKING and wrote the screenplay. The screenplay is based on a 2018 novel of the same name. The novel, from what I read, was based on a 2011 story. Seven men from an ultra-conservative Mennonite colony in Bolivia were convicted of drugging and raping over 100 women from the colony.

In this film, eight women from an isolated country Mennonite colony grapple with blending their reality with their faith after its revealed women in the colony have been sexually abused.

Back in the 80s, when Meryl Streep was promoting POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE, she commented on a new trend in movies. The male-dominated action movies starring Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Mel Gibson were popular overseas which made Hollywood happy. With action movies, there could be less talk which meant less money spent on subtitling and dubbing. Sarah Polley's muscular new film is female-dominated and driven by....well, women talking. WOMEN TALKING is not specifically a "Me Too" movie like SHE SAID, the recent film about the Harvey Weinstein story and the women who spoke out, but it sure fits into the modern "Me Too" era times.

WOMEN TALKING displays strong ensemble acting. There's no leading lady although Oscar winner Frances McDormand is in the cast. McDormand is one of the film's producers. Claire Foy, who was so commanding and charismatic as young Queen Elizabeth II in Netflix's THE CROWN, is one of the strongest and most strident voices in WOMEN TALKING. Claire Foy hits this film like a bolt of lightning. She's stunning to watch in the role. Also in the cast is Judith Ivey. I've seen her onstage in New York. I interviewed on VH1 when I had a talk show and she'd appeared onscreen in COMPROMISING POSITIONS, based on the best-selling Susan Isaacs murder mystery comedy of the same name, and in HELLO, AGAIN, a reincarnation original screen comedy also written by Susan Isaacs. Sarah Polley directs Ivey in one of the best screen roles Ivey's ever had. Ivey is the colony member who yells at the arguing women to "...shut your pie-holes! Please!" If there's justice in Hollywood, WOMEN TALKING should bring Judith Ivey a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.

I was awed by the strength of Polley's film, a film that gripped me from from the beginning with its opening line "This story ends before you were born." The movie is in color but the colors are muted. You will not see any bright reds, blues or golds. As serious as the issues in it are, there is also humor and love. And hope. 

In order to get a better idea on how talented filmmaker Sarah Polley is, make seeing WOMEN TALKING half of a double feature. The other film is one of my favorite holiday movies. It's a 1999 comedy crime movie called GO. Another title could've been IT'S A BLUNDER-FUL LIFE. The story takes place in a ho-hum, unsophisticated section of Southern California. It's Christmas Eve. Sarah Polley plays Ronna, a supermarket clerk whose job has drained her of all holiday cheer. Ronna is a smart, responsible young woman who needs that dead-end job because she low on funds. She's so broke that she becomes involved in the sale of some Ecstasy for an Xmas rave at one of the popular clubs. Of course, everything that could go wrong, goes wrong. Two clueless TV actors doing undercover community service work and a cop who has a side gig as a salesman are some of the other characters involved in this drug sale. 1999's GO co-stars Taye Diggs, Timothy Olyphant, Katie Holmes, Jay Mohr, Jane Krakowski and Melissa McCarthy. Look for a trailer or clips on YouTube.

Canadian Sarah Polley went on to adapt an Alice Munro story about a long marriage challenged by Alzheimer's disease into a screenplay called AWAY FROM HER. Polley directed the film version of her screenplay. Her work on the 2006 film brought Julie Christie another Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

And that's why I am fascinated with actress/filmmaker Sarah Polley.

Trevor Noah with Will Smith

This morning, I awoke to the entertainment news that Oscar winner Will Smith was a guest on "The Daily Show" hosted by Trevor Noah. Smith has a new film, EMANCIPATION, opening early December. It will be available to stream on Apple+. Will Smith's appearance with Trevor Noah this week was probably the actor's first TV appearance since he turned the Oscars telecast in March into the worst ever episode of EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS. 

I'll be looking for the Trevor Noah online interview online. I am curious to see how Smith eases his way back into public view after he assaulted Chris Rock on live TV. When Smith yelled objectionable language at Rock, it was bleeped on American television, Overseas Twitter tweeted the un-bleeped footage. The Oscars telecast is a global one.

Noah pressed him about the notorious Oscar moment. Smith replied that he was "going through something that night" adding that his bad behavior made it "hard for other people."

I was hoping Will Smith would win the Oscar for Best Actor. He was outstanding in KING RICHARD as the devoted, complicated working class father of future tennis greats, Venus and Serena Williams. He did win -- minutes after slapping the taste of out Chris Rock's mouth.

As I wrote months ago, I hated -- and still hate -- what Will Smith did in defense of his wife. When Chris Rock made the joke of Jada Pinkett Smith looking like she could follow Demi Moore as G.I. JANE, I thought it was a light poke at her close-shaven hair, similar to Moore's in her popular 1997 military movie. Moore shaved her hair off for the the part and got lots of entertainment press at the time. I thought Jada's close-shaven hair was, if you will, a casual choice. I know Black women who have been clean-shaven and then let their locks grow back. I had no idea Jada Pinkett Smith has alopecia. I wonder if a lot of other TV viewers knew that she has alopecia. I wonder if Chris Rock knew that. 

Comedian Wanda Sykes was one of the Oscars hosts that night. If she had made the joke about Jada's lack of hair, would Will Smith have stormed the stage, slapped her and shouted offensive language at her as he returned to his seat?

Something about that embarrassing incident and the actor's apology/explanation still doesn't quite connect for me. To see what I mean, go to Netflix and look for the David Letterman interview series, MY NEXT GUEST. One episode is with Will Smith as his sole guest. The episode, with a studio audience, was taped in Hollywood when Smith's movie, KING RICHARD, and his memoir were being released. Smith was in full ebullient Smith mode and Letterman introduced him to the audience as "America's friend."

Watch that hour-long show. In his youth, Will Smith's home life was troubled. However, he said that his father taught him "integrity and discipline." He tells about how meeting Nelson Mandela taught him "forgiveness." Smith extensively reveals how he took two years off from big money movie-making to go on a "spiritual journey." This journey involved taking a foreign substance under supervision. Sort of like Cary Grant's supervised experiments with LSD back in the day.

In the Letterman interview, Will Smith talks about being a dad but he never once mentions Jada Pinkett Smith or even says the word "wife." Will Smith went from getting lessons on "integrity and discipline" and "forgiveness" and going on an intense "spiritual journey" to slapping Chris Rock on a live international network telecast. I don't get it. I just don't get it. Here's a clip from his David Letterman interview on Netflix via ET Canada.

Will Smith has been banned for 10 years from attending the Oscars. He resigned his Academy membership. But he is still eligible to be nominated again.

This is all most unfortunate. The former FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIR sitcom star had grown into a very impressive dramatic actor.

TREVOR NOAH on Netflix

 One of my first thoughts when this hour-long Netflix comedy special ended was "George Carlin would have loved this.

Trevor Noah has deservedly acquired a large American TV audience as host of THE DAILY SHOW on Comedy Central. I needed some laughs over the weekend and checked out his Netflix special, TREVOR NOAH: I WISH YOU WOULD. His one-man show was performed in Toronto, Canada. The infectious charm of his Comedy Central show personality carries over to this very funny special. He's engaging, witty, smart and insightful. 

He opens with somewhat of a German lesson. This comes about after he tells the audience that his mother is a Black South African woman and his father, whom he'd not seen in awhile, was a white man from Switzerland who spoke German. Trevor went to visit his dad and learned some German in order to surprise him.

In the one-hour special, we'll realize that Trevor has a gift for accents. His comments about characters who deserve to die in horror movies broke me up as did his accurate assessment of how the pandemic didn't always bring about our most honorable feelings while we were in months of lockdown.

After a sweet bit about how Canada's Justin Trudeau's reported "scandals" were not so scandalous, he launches into a bit on American presidents and their vocal patterns. This is after he skewers the empty-headed presidential statements from Donald Trump.

This special was performed post-Queen Elizabeth's death. Noah does a routine about colonialism vs the royal funeral.

One of the funniest and most brightly-written pieces he performs is about his boyhood Indian and how that friendship influenced his Indian restaurant habits when he dined with friends while in Scotland for a popular and annual comedy festival. About Scotland, Noah says "...the people are lovely and warm. The place isn't -- but the people are."

I loved that story. You must pay attention to the previous one about his Indian friend, about Justin Trudeau and the tale about learning a German word following his wacky encounter in a German sandwich shop during his journey to visit his father.

To me, Trevor Noah's piece on our pandemic behavior was very George Carlin. Fabulous.

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN Screenplay

 It's Sunday, Nov. 27th. Director Ang Lee's 2005 masterpiece, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, makes it premiere tonight -- uncut and commercial free -- at 10p ET on TCM (cable's Turner Classic Movies). It follows a brief discussion from the TCM host and a guest about the film's social impact and relevance. The screenplay is based on a short story by Annie Proulx, a story that first appeared in The New Yorker Magazine in 1997. I thought BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN would win the Oscar for Best Picture. I'm sure a lot of other people did too. It lost to CRASH. Ang Lee won for Best Director. His film took home Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay, a screenplay co-written by Larry McMurtry. Novelist Larry McMurtry wrote HORSEMAN, PASS BY which became the basis for the movie, HUD, starring Paul Newman. He also wrote THE LAST PICTURE SHOW and TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, both novels turned into acclaimed films.,

I first heard about BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN from a guy at Crunch gym in my New York City neighborhood. He'd been on a treadmill reading the gym's copy of The New York Magazine, the publication in which the short story appeared. The short story had gotten lots of buzz. That came up in our brief chat. His comment on the story was, "Don't make the mistake I did. Don't read it in public. Read it at home." Of course, that made me curious. I bought a copy of the magazine, took it home and read Annie Proulx's short story. One can read the story within a half-hour. I got to a certain passage near the end of the engrossing tale of two men in love and burst out crying at one heartbreaking, unexpected revelation. Two men of minimal education in Wyoming in the 1960s and a love that continues as they enter into socially-approved traditional marriages that increase their emotional deprivation. The next time I saw that guy at the gym, I told him I wept reading the story. He smiled and replied "The same thing happened to me -- only I was sitting by myself in a diner."

To me, the screenplay is just as moving, just as brilliant as the short story. Annie Proulx did not work on the screenplay, by the way. Ang Lee's BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is in the category with TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST -- movies that are faithful to their literary source. The way in which the BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN screenwriters expanded the story to show the 20 years that progressed in the lives of Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar is a master class in screenwriting. Not only is the screenplay faithful, it improves a small detail at the end with the placement of two shirts. That piece of visual business in the movie made me gasp. Such an inspired, memorable, subtle change. The film is brilliantly directed, acted and written.

When BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN was in theatrical release, there was a book available that contained the Annie Proulx short story and the film's screenplay. If that book is still available, if you're interested in being a screenwriter, get that book. See if you can purchase it or look for it in a library. For aspiring film writers, it's a great instructional item. It makes one wonder why Hollywood doesn't seek more good short stories to turn in new films.

Heath Ledger received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Jake Gyllenhaal was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Michelle Williams was up for Best Supporting Actress. Gyllenhaal won the BAFTA (Britain's Oscar equivalent) for Best Supporting Actor.

Ledger, an extremely gifted Australian actor, followed that stunning performance by playing the Joker in the 2008 Batman story, THE DARK KNIGHT. We lost Ledger way too soon, at age 28. His performance in THE DARK KNIGHT brought him a posthumous Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

I Saw THE INSPECTION

 "You really think we can turn that faggot into a monster?" ~ from THE INSPECTION

Last week, I posted a piece about the LGBTQ story in the new indie movie, THE INSPECTION. The film was inspired by the life of its director and writer, Elegance Bratton. In addition to that, an openly queer Black actor is playing a Black queer character based on the life of its Black queer director/writer. That's some history.

Two-time Tony nominee, Jeremy Pope, plays Ellis French. Ellis is a homeless young man who joins the Marines. Enduring and surviving the brutality of boot camp, Ellis finds significance and his own voice. I saw THE INSPECTION. Wow. What a strong film and what equally strong performances from Jeremy Pope and Gabrielle Union who plays Ellis' mother.

The story starts in Trenton, New Jersey in 2005. Ellis lives on his own because his mother kicked him out of the house because he was gay. She feels he ruined her dreams for his life. As the film opens, he goes to see her because he needs his birth certificate to fill out forms for Marine recruitment. She lets him in, however she neither hugs nor kisses him. She's cooking but doesn't offer him anything to eat or drink. Their relationship is quite frayed. She scoffs at his goal, believing that the Marines is a bastion of heterosexuality. She gives her son his birth certificate. He leaves and boards a bus to start a military life.

Director/writer Bratton avoids the unnecessary homoeroticism veteran filmmakers have inserted into films focused on men in all-male groups. Think of the shirtless, slow motion military volleyball games in Tony Scott's TOP GUN. Think of the prison shower scenes Oliver Stone wrote into MIDNIGHT EXPRESS and the explicit NFL locker room scenes he directed in ANY GIVEN SUNDAY. There are brief scenes of same-sex attraction in THE INSPECTION but they occur in Ellis' mind. Sort of a break from the blistering treatment he receives in boot camp. It's hell at first, but brotherhood will be achieved.

We see him survive, grow and evolve into a Marine. We wonder if his mother will grow and evolve too in her feelings towards him.

This was not an easy movie to make. It was shot in Jackson, Mississippi in 100+ degree summer heat. And it was shot in 19 days. The hard work paid off. In Pope's performance, we see Ellis transform not only in his uniform, but in the looks behind his eyes and in his physicality. Notice his body language in his encounter with his mother at the beginning of the story and later on after he's passed inspection.

As for gorgeous Gabrielle Union, who is one of the film's executive producers, this supporting role is one of the meatiest dramatic roles she's ever had in a film and she totally delivers. I'd give Gabrielle Union an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. There's also mighty fine work from Bokeem Woodbine as the hard-ass drill master and Raul Castillo as supportive Rosales. Director/writer Elegance Bratton is a fan of cable's TCM (Turner Classic Movies) and said that the 1950s remake of IMITATION OF LIFE inspired a tone in his film -- especially scenes with Black actress Juanita Moore and Susan Kohner (as the daughter passing for white) in the 1959 Douglas Sirk film.

THE INSPECTION is a film worth seeing.

SOME LIKE IT HOT on Tap

Early yesterday, I posted a piece about tap dancing. There's a lot of energetic tapping in the current original holiday musical, SPIRITED, streaming on Apple+TV. The hip twist on Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL stars Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds. They tap dance too. The chorus tap dancers were dressed in rather unisex attire. I wrote that I missed seeing a feminine flair on a female who could match the men as dance partners. I posted four examples of what I meant using clips from classic movie musicals.

Then, later yesterday morning, I saw a number from Broadway's new musical version of SOME LIKE IT HOT and I was so delighted that I wished I was in New York to buy a ticket. A feminine flair was in the tap number! Even a man had a feminine flair as he played the bass fiddle.

If you've seen the classic Billy Wilder comedy that starred Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe, you know the story. It's the 1920s. Lemmon and Curtis play best buddy musicians in Chicago who witness a mob murder on St. Valentine's Day. In order to keep from being killed by the head gangster, they disguise as dames, join an all-girl band and head to Florida for a gig with the girls. Then they see the gorgeous and delectable band singer, Sugar Kane (played by Monroe). They'd love to woo her but they're disguised as dames to save their lives. The leader of the band, Sweet Sue, is strict and suspicious.

The new Broadway musical version is in previews and opens soon. Friends of mine who have seen it, rave about it. Natasha Yvette Williams is Sweet Sue and Adrianna Hicks is Sugar. Here's the number done for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' 'bout. This show looks like it's gonna be a Broadway hit.

4 Ladies on Tap

Last weekend, I blogged a review of Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds in the new, original holiday musical streaming on Apple+ TV. It's called SPIRITED and it's a hip twist on Charles Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL. I blogged that the entertaining SPIRITED is packed with musical numbers. There's plenty of tap dancing in it. Even Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds tap dance in it. In those well-choreographed and brightly performed numbers, the male and female tappers are in rather unisex attire and the tap dancing is of the STOMP style -- if you're familiar with that popular Broadway show and group.

I hope I do not come off as sexist, but I miss seeing an obvious feminine flair in tap dancers. A flair with a style and talent that can match their male partners. I will now give you classic film examples of what I mean.

Before she became an international Hollywood legend as GILDA, Rita Hayworth starred in two original movie musicals with Fred Astaire. Here's a clip from 1941's YOU'LL NEVER GET RICH -- music and lyrics by Cole Porter.

Astaire's most famous partner was Ginger Rogers. Of the several musicals they danced in for RKO in the 1930s, the original 1936 SWING TIME was an Oscar winner -- and one of their best. Here they are after they introduced the new song, "Pick Yourself Up."

Eleanor Powell was one of the best female dancers on the MGM lot. She teamed up Fred Astaire for BROADWAY MELODY OF 1940 with music by Cole Porter.

Another dazzling dancer on the MGM lot, one who followed Eleanor Powell, was Ann Miller. Rita Hayworth's singing was always dubbed. Ginger and Eleanor has pleasantly limited voices. But Ann Miller -- she could dance, act and belt out a tune. Here she is in the 1953 MGM musical, SMALL TOWN GIRL.

 

 

 

SPOILER ALERT with Sally Field

 We're now into the holiday season, a season that promotes not being alone. On the November 22nd edition of CBS MORNINGS, there was a feature early in the 8:00 hour about people in the AARP category finding love again. The theme was "It's Never Too Late." Being in that category, I was interested. Most of the folks in the feature used online dating to get back into the love game.

I've been romantically unattached for a long, long time. I tried online dating a couple times and the experience taught me this: Online dating when you're well over 40 is a circle of Hell that Dante never encountered. I went out with guys I connected with via online dating and realized that the only thing we had in common was the right to trial by jury.

My first and, so far, only romantic relationship was a too-short one with a wonderful guy named Richard. We met through a mutual friend in 1992. Six months after our brief meeting, he asked me out on a date. I was quite reluctant to go with him because I thought I'd be relocating from New York to California in six months for work and because the age difference between us was exactly the same age difference between the Tom Ewell and Marilyn Monroe characters in Billy Wilder's THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH. Richard was Marilyn. We met for a Sunday brunch...and he changed my life. I no longer felt like a subject in search of a verb. We stayed together until he died 18 months later. I loved Richard and he loved me very much.

Through the years, I have been seriously interested in a few fellows. But the interest was never mutual. So, romantically, I've been a solo act ever since 1994 when Richard passed away.

Would I like to be be half of a two-some instead of a solo act, especially during the holidays? Absolutely. Which brings me to Sally Field. I saw this trailer in a TV commercial for a movie that opens in December. Maybe it's the sentimentality of the holiday season coupled with my longing to leave solo status...but this commercial put a tear in my eye. Sally Field and former CBS sitcom star, Jim Parsons, are is SPOILER ALERT.

Two men in love. A terminal illness. Sally Field plays the mother of one of the men in love.

The film's title may sound like something you'd read in a film or TV review. There's a good reason for that. The movie is based on a memoir by TV critic and journalist, Michael Ausiello. Ausiello was a frequent presence on Twitter in the pre-Musk days.

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas. May you have someone with you who always makes you feel significant.

The Black LGBTQ Story in THE INSPECTION

 Elegance Bratton. That is the name of the Black queer man who directed and wrote the new indie film, THE INSPECTION. He must be thrilled with the excellent reviews his film has received. THE INSPECTION, the story of an ostracized young gay man who finds significance and self-worth when he joins the Marines, had already opened in Los Angeles and New York when the tragedy in Colorado Springs happened. An armed man entered a gay club, shot and killed five people. The gunman was taken down by the heroic action of a decorated Army veteran who is a straight ally to our LGBTQ community. He knew one of the patrons who was killed. The vet's daughter was in the club and he told a network news reporter that he considered all the people who frequented the club to be his family. Heaven bless that American hero.

THE INSPECTION is based on the life of Elegance Bratton. In his frayed relationship with his single mother, he was kicked out of the house for being gay and became a homeless gay youth. He joined the Marines. Two-time Tony nominee Jeremy Pope plays "Ellis French," the homeless young man who joins the Marines. Gabrielle Union plays his single working mother, a woman who worked hard to pursue the American dream. Recently, on the CBS Morning Show, Jeremy Pope was a guest. He talked about the film and told anchor Gayle King that he was often told, early in his career, to not tell people that he was queer because the revelation could result in unemployment. Many of us were told to keep quiet about being queer because it could lead to unemployment. I've been there. Today, Jeremy Pope has made history. He's a Black queer actor of stage, TV and film who is now playing a Black queer character in a film based on the life of its director/writer. Actress Gabrielle Union has a trans daughter and is very supportive of her.

THE INSPECTION is a film I want to see. Maybe you do too. Here's a trailer.

By the way, Elegance Bratton is a fan of TCM (cable's Turner Classic Movies). He said that one classic film that made a great impression on him as a filmmaker is the Douglas Siri 1959 remake of IMITATION OF LIFE and one particular scene with Juanita Moore and Susan Kohner in a segregated nightclub inspired an element of THE INSPECTION. Bratton shot his film in 19 days in the summer heat of Jackson, Mississippi during the pandemic.

Jeremy Pope was previously seen in the Ryan Murphy 2020 Netflix mini-series, HOLLYWOOD. He played the aspiring 1950s screenwriter who becomes the boyfriend of a handsome Hollywood newcomer whose name was changed to "Rock Hudson."

Zac Efron with Koala Poop

 Zac Efron has become a world traveler and he's quite good at it as he brings us along for the trip. I went to Netflix to revisit Zac Efron's DOWN TO EARTH series. Season 2 is up and, during some Sunday evening leisure time, I watched Episode 1 of Season 2. This second season is eco-friendly. We learn about other cultures in other parts of the world and realize that, as Efron says, "We are all connected." Season 2 stresses conservation and urges us all to protect and support our national parks. And, yes, during the first episode he does indeed touch koala poop.

He takes us to Australia where he reunited with his on-air partner and production team. This happens after the COVID-19 lockdown when folks could interact again. The focus of Episode 1 is Habitat Conservation and it's a totally fascinating 40-minute episode. It's extremely educational and I'd urge parents to watch it with their kids. Efron does say a couple of naughty words while out in the wilds, but they are bleeped.

We begin with him and his partner visiting aborigine territory. As outsiders, they are required to tell the aboriginals who they are and they're intent while visiting. There is a ceremony they must participate in, a ceremony that may look odd with its face paint and smoke, but it is beautiful. Efron, who is also executive producer of the series, obviously has a great respect for other peoples and cultures. I felt that this entrance ceremony should be practiced by people here in the U.S. who want to enter land of our Native Americans. 

We get history of Australia. This is why today's kids should watch -- we see the massiveness and majesty of our planet as we learn how and why to help take care of it. The koala population was severely reduced by extreme wildfires. In order to find koalas, local habitat workers introduce Zac to a friendly dog that sniffs out koala poop. Where there's koala poop, there's a koala.

There's kangaroo grass in the wilds. Colonists though kangaroo grass was just a bunch of weeks. Wrong. It can be used to make bread. Efron's guide gives the history of this then makes a loaf of bread from kangaroo grass. He also grills some local seafood that looks just like the face huggers in the movie ALIEN. However, the look of Efron's face when he eats one tells us that it is absolutely delicious.

The most thrilling and frightening segments is when Efron and his partner go to see and feed Tasmanian devils. Both men admitted that they only knew of this animal because of classic Warner Bros. cartoons. You'll be a little afraid for Zac when he's taught how to enter an area and feed Tasmanian devils. You'll be glued to that footage. Zac was understandably a bit afraid too when he learns how powerful their jaws are. You've got to see these little animals go after a raw piece of meat. Your jaw will drop. Here's a sample of the series.

Zac Efron is a great and respectful travel guide as he promotes conservation and eco-friendly practices. And the photography is gorgeous. Not only is DOWN TO EARTH entertaining, it's educational. If you get Netflix, give it a look.

The Tasmanian devil segment made me gasp. Watch this trailer.

Ferrell & Reynolds Are SPIRITED

 If you're in the mood for a new Christmastime musical that features a singing and tap dancing Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds, I've got just the movie for you. (Yes. They tap dance.) Go to Apple + TV and stream SPIRITED, a modern day musical comedy derived from Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL This handsome, brisk and truly funny original musical runs 2 hours and 7 minutes. At times, it feels like an overstuffed Christmas stocking -- but that's better than a heavy holiday meal that makes you feel sluggish afterwards. SPIRITED is like a recent Broadway musical, popular with tourists, that was cleverly expanded in its stage to film adaptation so that it doesn't feel stagey. 

Will Ferrell plays the Ghost of Christmas Present. He's nearing retirement age within the Afterlife work community. In this story, directed and co-written by Sean Anders, the Ghost of Christmas Present gets to see how the humans he haunted have changed for the better. Every Christmas Eve, he gets to choose a new mortal who needs to be redeemed. But Christmas Present is afraid of retiring and he's reluctant to accept the opportunity to be a mortal for a spell to see how it feels centuries after his death. This year, instead of choosing a jerk of a hotel manager, he becomes fascinated with the handsome and young marketing strategist who speaks at a convention of the National Association of Christmas Tree Growers. Clint Briggs  (Ryan Reynolds) is slick, self-absorbed and successful. He's determined to start of culture war pitting those who love real trees versus those who purchase fake trees. Christmas Present is dazzled by Clint and his shallow charisma. He sees him as a combination of Mussolini and Ryan Seacrest. He had no idea that his Afterlife boss will be against this idea because Clint is listed in an Afterlife book marked "Unredeemable." Still, Christmas Present goes after Clint. He's joined by Christmas Past, deliciously played by the hilarious Sunita Mani, and Tracy Morgan as Christmas Future. With lots of songs, lots of well-choreographed dance numbers and lots of time travel, they delve in Clint's backstory to uncover his broken heart. Clint and Christmas Present become, in a way, unlikely buddies. Clint's assistant is the only mortal who can see Christmas Present. She's played by Oscar winner Octavia Spencer. It's a good role and she gets a good song to sing. Spencer is lovable in the part. During all the time travel, Christmas Present will fall in love and we'll discover that he inspired Dickens to write A CHRISTMAS CAROL.

Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds are not singers in a league with Josh Groban and Hugh Jackman. But they commit to and sell the songs. The same goes for their commendable tap dancing. Octavia Spencer has a song called "The View From Here" about the substantial ordinary things in life one bypasses or ignore in order to climb a corporate ladder. She has sweetly romantic reprise of it later in the story. It's a song that could be pulled out and added to cabaret acts. It's a good song. During one of the time travel segments, Clint and Christmas Present go back in time to jolly olde England. They had a big rude and totally delightful production number called "Good Afternoon" that reminds one of the "Consider Yourself" number from the movie OLIVER! Only this number is full of bad manners. The phrase "Good afternoon" is the British equivalent to a Southerner taking on an insincere smile and saying "Bless your heart" to someone annoying.  The number made me laugh out loud. So did a scene of Clint's life at a shopping mall back in the 1980s.

Is this a great holiday musical? Is it as smooth as SCROOGE, the original big screen musical that starred Albert Finney? Well, no. As I wrote earlier, it does feel overstuffed and too eager to please, But, overall, it's fun and all the actors fit their roles very well. If SPIRITED aired during the holiday season on one of the senior networks, I'd watch. A few naughty words would have to be removed. Reynold's first song has the lyric"...with all the trolls and a-holes out there" for instance. But I would prefer SPIRITED over 2 hours of THE BACHELOR in a heartbeat.

One more thing: SPIRITED made me think that we could also use a modern-day twist on A CHRISTMAS CAROL with Elon Musk as Scrooge.

Swanson's SUNSET BLVD Musical

"I am big. It's the pictures that got small." That's one of the famous movie lines uttered by Gloria Swanson as faded silent screen star, Norma Desmond, when she encounters a modern-day Hollywood screenwriter who's down on his luck. We can tell we're in for a dark story during the opening credits. We see the title of the Billy Wilder classic in the gutter of a Hollywood street. Rich, secluded Norma Desmond is like a man-made monster in a big creepy house. She's a predatory cat in the Hollywood jungle determined to claw her way back onto the big screen.

 Norma falls in love with the broke Hollywood screenwriter, a younger man who schemes to get money from her while working as sort of a "script doctor" on the awful screenplay she's written to be her return to the screen. Of course, tragedy will ensue. She still sees herself as able to play a young vamp. She's 50 at a time when a woman being 50 meant she was as old and sexually attractive as the pyramids. Think about how times and society have changed. Norma Desmond was 50. Today, Jennifer Lopez is 53 -- and yummy. And getting work.

If you want to see a fascinating life-imitates-art documentary that's chock full of previously uncovered classic Hollywood history, I've got a recommendation for you. You can stream it on Amazon Prime. In the 1950s, after she had been a Best Actress Oscar nominee for her brilliant performance in Billy Wilder's SUNSET BLVD., Gloria Swanson planned to go to Broadway with a musical version of SUNSET BLVD. Songs were written by a talented gay male couple on the West Coast. Like Norma Desmond in the movie, she contacted Paramount Pictures to help fuel her project. She performed one of the songs on TV. Oh...and another thing she did that echoed Norma Desmond. She fell in love with one of the young songwriters -- even though he was in a relationship with his composer partner, another man. Friction ensured. This 2021 documentary has footage of Swanson singing a song from her planned BOULEVARD on TV. We hear recordings of her singing other sings from the score. Of course, we see and hear from the two songwriters. One had been a contract player at MGM, a handsome actor who did scenes opposite June Allyson and Janet Leigh. Swanson's granddaughter is interviewed. This documentary is called BOULEVARD! A HOLLYWOOD STORY.  It's from the director of the also excellent and revealing TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL.

Yes, long before Andrew Lloyd Webber musicalized this Hollywood-on-Hollywood classic, Gloria Swanson pushed to do it. BOULEVARD! A HOLLYWOOD STORY gives us a rarely-heard story. It's revealing, bizarre and juicy.

Broadway's SOME LIKE IT HOT

 I'm sure I am not alone in admitting that Billy Wilder's SOME LIKE IT HOT is one of my all-time favorite classic film comedies. I love the story's cleverness of the public identity covering up the true self coupled with sexual attraction. You know that the film stars Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe. At the time, Monroe (a master at playing big screen comedy) was the top international blonde bombshell sex symbol of her day. Men all over the world from major political figures to the average working class guy who lived next door to you fantasized about being alone with her. In SOME LIKE IT HOT, Lemmon and Curtis each, under their assumed identities, gets to be alone with her and next to her at night in a dimly lit space. But both must pretend to not be sexually attracted to and stimulated by her because it'll blow his cover. The two musician buddies are fleeing blood-thirsty gangsters who committed a deadly crime the buddies witnessed.

There's a running theme of pretending to be someone or something else in SOME LIKE IT HOT. Jerry and Joe pretend to be Geraldine and Daphne. The lovely but unlucky at love ukulele player, Sugar Kowalczyk, has turned herself into Sugar Kane, vocalist for an all-girl band.

And there's the all-girl band with its strict leader, Sweet Sue. The band has to play syrupy, white bread, Lawrence Welk-like dance music at a gig in Florida. But, when we hear the girls play "Runnin' Wild" on the train, we can tell they're big fans of the kind of hot jazz Louis Armstrong was recording in the 1920s. Those gals can really swing it.

Years ago, one summer's night while I was watching my DVD of SOME LIKE IT HOT, I mentally cast the Sugar Kane role if Marilyn had not been available to play her. I put Dorothy Dandridge in the role in a racially diverse version of Wilder's classic. As Lena Horne once said about Dandridge's movie star significance to the Black community, "She was our Marilyn Monroe."

In 1972, there was a Broadway musical based on Billy Wilder's 1959 classic. The musical was called SUGAR with a score by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill. Those two men also gave us the score to FUNNY GIRL starring Barbra Streisand. Now there's a new musical based on the classic film. The original score is by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, the gifted pair that turned the John Waters movie comedy, HAIRSPRAY, into a Broadway musical hit,

This new version of SOME LIKE IT HOT gives us a brown Sugar. I have heard fabulous things about it from friends back in New York who saw the show which is now in previews. I'd love to see it. Opening night is set for December 11th,.

Here's a taste of it now. Adrianna Hicks plays Sugar in Broadway's new SOME LIKE IT HOT. Here, she sings a song from the show -- "A Darker Shade of Blue." Enjoy.

Daniel Craig Dances

 I still recall the screening that nice evening in New York City. The exciting British crime thriller was called LAYER CAKE and I was totally engrossed thanks to the performance by an actor named Daniel Craig. I was unfamiliar with his previous work but what glued my attention to him in that 2004 movie was  his movie star handsomeness and charisma. Like a new Steve McQueen.

The next time he had my eyes pinned to the screen was in the very mature 2003 drama, THE MOTHER. In that, he was a brawny and bearded handyman doing work on a home. In the home is the married daughter of THE MOTHER. The mother, staying with her daughter and now a widow, is quite middle-aged and has allowed herself to fall into a visual state of dumpiness. But there's something about her that attracts the younger handyman. They talk. Eventually, he reignites her spark of creativity and sexual feelings. She hits the beauty parlor for a makeover. They start dating. Of course, this works the daughter's last good nerve.

       

As you know, Daniel Craig went on to great international success as the newest James Bond. I totally dug   him as Agent 007.  However, I really loved him in the hit mystery/comedy KNIVES OUT as the Southern American detective who sings Sondheim show tunes to himself. Craig not only rocked that role, he seemed to be having extreme fun playing that character. He'll reprise that role in the eagerly-awaited follow-up.

In the meantime, the handsome and talented actor is showing off a few dance moves. He's doing it for an upscale vodka. Keep this in mind come cocktail time.  

You can thank me during Happy Hour. Make mine a double. Mr. Craig made me......thirsty.

KANE Detail

 Recently, before the Musk man took over Twitter, there was a posted request from a film fan that got plenty of attention. A young woman posted: "Give me a tiny detail in a film you absolutely love that you're pretty sure no one else notices."

Well, I posted one -- but I am positive I am not the only person who noticed it. However, I noticed it for the first time two years ago. It's in the sci-fi horror thriller, ALIEN. I saw ALIEN the first day it opened nationwide. I've seen it numerous times since. But it wasn't until my umpteenth viewing a couple of years ago that I noticed a bit of foreshadowing. It's at the beginning of the story. We're inside the space craft and we pods. Crew members are asleep in the pods. The pods opens and the crew members awaken. As they are scantily clad, we can see torso movements as they breath and awaken. 

Ash's torso does not move. That's a brilliant little detail in 1979's ALIEN.

There's another detail in another classic that I've seen several times. It's in the 1941 film, CITIZEN KANE. All classic film fans are familiar with the famous end scene. There's a close-up on Charles Foster Kane's mouth as he utters "Rosebud" and then a snow globe falls from his hands.

Again, this was a film I'd seen several times yet always assumed that snow globe was an artifact from his emotionally fractured boyhood. Then I watched it one afternoon on TV -- and gasped. I noticed it in the scene where the married Kane meets the unmarried Susan and goes into her apartment to offer her help with her toothache. They chat. The scene cuts to the image of Susan in a full length mirror as she speaks. To the left on her vanity...in front of a framed photo...is the snow globe! After that scene, there's a circular visual motif we see in CITIZEN KANE. In street lights shaped like the snow globe. In stage lights.

Look at this scene:

And there you have it. For me, films are like literature. You can revisit works by Shakespeare, Dickens, Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Anne Tyler, James Baldwin and discover new things, have new realizations. It's the same with films -- if you truly pay attention.

Jazz Genius, Louis Armstrong

It got a theatrical release. I watched it thanks to Apple+. The new documentary on jazz genius, Louis Armstrong, hits several high notes. It's titled LOUIS ARMSTRONG'S BLACK & BLUES. The documentary opens with a friend on a network TV talk show giving him an introduction before he enters as the show's next guest. The friend is famed filmmaker Orson Welles who introduces "the greatest influence on jazz of all time." Armstrong was -- and still is -- the greatest. A brilliant musician, a globally beloved showman and a disrespected American. Disrespected because he was Black. By the 1920s, his recordings had revolutionized the American art form of jazz. By the early 1930s, he was performing tour dates in Europe. Also, by the 1930s, he showed his natural acting ability in some Hollywood roles -- minor roles that rarely displayed his sophistication, intelligence and his stature as a master in jazz. One example is the 1938 musical/comedy from Warner Bros., GOING PLACES. In that, Armstrong introduced the song "Jeepers Creepers." It got an Oscar nomination for Best Song. In the movie, Mr. Amstrong is cast as a stable worker. He sings the song to a horse. In other 1930s movies, he was basically a special guest as the trumpeter in a musical number.                                                        

He got better roles in the 1950s and, especially, in the 1960s. In the 1960s, he topped the Beatles in the Billboard charts with his recording of the extremely popular Broadway showtune, "Hello, Dolly!" His vocal was such a huge hit that he was incorparted into the film version of HELLO, DOLLY! so he could sing it opposite Barbra Streisand. In that era, the Civil Rights decade, Armstrong became a controversial figure with younger Black American entertainers -- like trumpeter/composer Wynton Marsalis -- who saw his early Hollywood image as passive and designed to entertain White folks more than trying to break  racial stereotypes. Those young Black performers would come to learn learn Armstrong's racial angers, how much of an outspoken radical he really was and how relevants his struggles were to theirs. He was not just the constantly smiling horn player with the gravelly voice.                                                                                                                  

We see clips of Louis Armstrong speaking frankly on American and British talk shows. We hear his wisdom and racial angers in previously unheard personal tape recordings. We learn accounts of the racial disrespect he challenged at peaks of his fame not only down South but in Southern California while he's on movie sets in Hollywood. We hear from his wife. We see him with famed journalist Edward R. Murrow. We hear a comment about Armstrong from novelist/essayist James Baldwin after Armstrong performs "The Star Spangled Banner." Ossie Davis reveals the evolution of his regard for Armstrong that starts with anger at the musician's 1930s Hollywood image. We see movie clips of Louis Armstrong in THE GLENN MILLER STORY, THE FIVE PENNIES, HIGH SOCIETY, GLORY ALLEY and HELLO, DOLLY! This documentary from Sacha Jenkins gives us more grit on Louis Armstrong than we get in Ken Burns' excellent JAZZ in 2000 and in the 1989 AMERICAN MASTERS documentary presented on PBS.

If I was Jenkins, I would have included a film clip from Martin Ritt's progressive 1961 movie, PARIS BLUES. It was Armstrong's smartest, most sophisticated role -- one that respected his natural acting ability. He played "Wild Man" Moore, a figure who -- like Armstrong -- was an internationally beloved jazz great and a music scholar to whom a young jazz composer, played by Paul Newman, goes to for advice. The films also stars Sidney Poitier, Diahann Carroll and Joanne Woodward as fellow Americans in Paris. In its casting and the material given him, PARIS BLUES was the first film to treat Armstrong as an intelligent, dapper, famous master in an American musical art form. It's a movie you should see. Compare Armstrong's role in 1961's PARIS BLUES to his role in 1938's GOING PLACES.                                          

LOUIS ARMSTRONG'S BLACK & BLUES is a totally fascinating and powerful documentary. It explains his jazz genius and it explains the remarkable man.