Treat yo' self. She will hear her name read as a nominee during the upcoming Grammy Awards show. She's 23. She studied jazz in New York, She got her first booking at a club in the West Village. Her smooth voice and silky style call to mind great jazz vocalists such as Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Carmen McRae. Her name is Samara Joy -- and I hope she's a Grammy winner this coming Sunday. Take some time and listen to this sensational new singer do "Can't Get Out of This Mood.
Let's keep the jazz session going. Here is Sarah Vaughan's recording of "Can't Get Out of This Mood."
Here is Ella Fitzgerald doing Irving Berlin's "It's a Lovely Day Today."
Here is Carmen McRae singing a Cole Porter song that Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell danced to in the classic MGM musical, BROADWAY MELODY OF 1940. It's "I Concentrate on You."
Thanks for sharing this jazz joy -- especially Ms. Samara Joy.
My previous post is about the current box office blockbuster sequel, AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. It's made billions of dollars worldwide and is the 4th highest-grossing film in our box office history. James Cameron directed the visually stunning sci-fi fantasy with animated blue characters interacting with human actors. The story was pretty predictable and, to me, some action scenes with the blue natives went on too long -- basically to draw "oohs" and "ahhs" from Cameron's amazing filmmaking technology. I dozed off a couple of times during Cameron's epic fantasy that clocks in at 3 hours and 15 minutes. AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER is an Oscar nominee for Best Picture.
I would take AVATAR 2 out of the Best Picture Oscar race and replace it with BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER directed and co-written by the wonderful Ryan Coogler. I streamed it over the weekend. Wow. What a movie. That's a movie I wish I could have seen on the big screen. This sequel has a lot of action, a lot of heart and a lot of good acting. It's a sci-fi fantasy too. However, Mr. Coogler brings out a complicated humanity in the story. It surprises you. Also, he brilliantly blends in the death of BLACK PANTHER star Chadwick Boseman into the story. The loss of his character causes a deep grief that motivates surviving characters to make certain choices. We can emotionally connect to their heartbreak and challenges and also be awed by the special effects and action scenes. The movie is dedicated to Chadwick Boseman.
Angela Bassett is the heartbroken Queen drawn into a battle. Bassett totally deserves the Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination she got. She commands the screen. This is a gorgeous production in set design, costume design and cinematography. It runs 2 hour and 40 minutes. Did I doze off? No. If there was a cineplex near me, would I pay to see it again -- only, this time, on a big screen? Yes. In a heartbeat. Ryan Coogler is one of the most gifted directors currently working.
Coogler gave us the critically acclaimed 2013 independent feature, FRUITVALE STATION and the groundbreaking international box office blockbuster, BLACK PANTHER, in 2018. And now BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER.
I repeat: Director, writer, producer Ryan Coogler is wonderful and BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER should be an Oscar nominee for Best Picture.
It's called AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. It's an epic sci-fi fantasy sequel that combines live actors interacting with animated figures. When I was a kid, I thought live actors acting opposite animated characters was the height of new technology when I saw Disney's MARY POPPINS at the Academy Theater in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Well, this feature, produced and directed by James Cameron, is ultra-dazzling visually. However, I wondered the exact same thing I wondered when I saw AVATAR back in 2009: "Aren't there any full-figured blue characters in this thing? Are they all tall, slim and lacking body hair?"
In AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER, there's no blue person built like CBS late night host James Corden or like Queen Latifah. And most of them have dreds like Lenny Kravitz. As for the movie, it has shades and tones of Cameron's ALIENS, THE ABYSS and TITANIC. One of the coolest things about it was seeing Sigourney Weaver, star of ALIEN and ALIENS.
Plot-wise, for those of you who saw AVATAR, Jake Sully is a new family man living on Pandora. An old threat returns and Jake must launch into protective action. It's a predictable tale of colonization and cultural separation.
As I wrote, AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER is ultra-dazzling visually. The cinematic technology is amazing. That makes up for the predictable plot. And...seriously...couldn't James Cameron have delivered this predictable story in 2 hours and 15 minutes instead of 3 hours and 15 minutes? Jeez! It's the same running time as TITANIC.
AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER is now the 4th highest-grossing film in our box office history. Reportedly, AVATAR 3 is already in the works.
If there was ever a movie for which eyebrows got Oscar nominations in the actor categories and then got signed for representation by CAA in Los Angeles, it's THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. The title refers to the name of a music composition in the story.
"Why wouldn't he answer the door to me?" wonders a young man who lives on a remote island off the coast of Ireland. It's the kind of place where loneliness will definitely have a presence -- like a Catholic church and a pub.
The young man's longtime best friend is an older gent who plays the fiddle. When he's confronted by his young friend and asked why he didn't open the door, he responds "I just don't like you no more." The young man is taking aback by the comment. He's stunned. His eyebrows twitch,
I saw the movie last night. Weeks again, when I saw commercial for it on TV, I thought it would be a bit to high-tone and stuffy for me even though I've been a Colin Farrell ever since I was greatly impressed by the Irish actor's performance in the Vietnam war drama, TIGERLAND. In that film, released in 2000, Farrell played a draftee who opposes the war and is an unruly Army recruit. I liked him even more in Spielberg's MINORITY REPORT with Tom Cruise. I wanted to like him as Alexander the Great in ALEXANDER, but with the blond hair and his slim, hairless torso, I just couldn't buy him as an Ancient Greek. Back in New York City, I lived right next door to a diner run by two Greek brothers from Mykonos. You could have hidden Easter eggs in their chest hair. It was that thick.
I didn't initially think I'd connect emotionally to THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN, but I did. Back in 2019, a close friend in New York City abruptly stopped talking to me around Thanksgiving time. I still don't know why. He'd helped me and I'd helped him through some hard times during the Recession when we were both job-hunting. For that reason, I was deeply concerned when I stopped hearing from him. The last message I sent asked if he was ok, if he had work and a roof over his head. I was worried. The humility of social media is that you can see when folks are keeping in touch and replying to people -- just not to you anymore.
For Colin Farrell's character, I felt his pain from the sudden, unexpected end of a friendship and I watched how his niceness was abused. In Brendan Gleeson's character, the older and sullen fiddler, we see how such a rude, quick withdrawal from a good friendship is like a form of self-mutilation. He, too, has active eyebrows.
The story takes place in 1923. The nice young man grows angry at the new loneliness that has fractured his life. The anger will force him to act in a not so nice way.
Among the Oscar nominations it received are for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor (Brendan Gleeson). I love how Irishmen Gleeson and Farrell, close friends in real life and previous co-stars, connect in their acting onscreen. Farrell's characters shows the need for male intimacy and openness in man-to-man friendships.
Colin Farrell is now a Best Actor Oscar nominee for this performance. He deserves the Oscar nomination. If he wins, he needs to include his eyebrows in his acceptance speech thank-you list.
My Black parents, a working class couple in South Central Los Angeles, made me aware of the Holocaust before I started middle school (which we used to call "junior high school"). There was a feature about it on television one night. Mom and Dad invited me to watch it along with them because they felt I needed to be aware of that history, history which should never again happen.
Earlier, in my elementary school years, Mom introduced me to the wonderfulness of Danny Kaye. The Broadway, film and TV star recorded albums for children. Mom bought me one of those albums. He read children's stories and played all the characters. I loved those records. My love for him increased when I discovered his old movies on TV. Fabulous musical comedies from the 1940s such as UP IN ARMS, WONDER MAN and THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY. From the 1950s, I saw his WHITE CHRISTMAS, HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN and THE COURT JESTER. As a kid growing up in the 1960s, one of my favorite TV shows was his weekly musical variety show on CBS, THE DANNY KAYE SHOW.
This ultimate showman was also very moving dramatically. He moved me and educated me with his final acting role. He played a Holocaust survivor in the CBS TV movie, SKOKIE. The 1981 production was based on a real life story, one I remember hearing about in the news. Neo-Nazis wanted to march through Skokie, a heavily Jewish suburb in Chicago. Danny Kaye was Jewish, In SKOKIE, Kaye starred as "Max Feldman," a concentration camp survivor. Also in the cast and also delivering a solid dramatic performance is Carl Reiner of THE DICK VAN DYKE sitcom. Reiner played "Abbot Rosen," a man who feels the community should ignore the Neo-Nazis by employing a quarantine.
Here's a promo CBS aired for 1981's SKOKIE.
I watched SKOKIE when it premiered on the network, It's a production that should be seen. It's rooted in history, When you watch it, think of the men carrying torches through Charlottesville, Virginia during the Trump administration in 2017.
You can watch Danny Kaye and Carl Reiner with Eli Wallach, Kim Hunter and Brian Dennehy in 1981's SKOKIE for Holocaust Memorial Day. It's now available on YouTube.
This piece is about actress Alfre Woodard, actress Danielle Deadwyler and director Chinonye Chukwu.
Last year, in between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I noticed much film festival response on Twitter. Movie journalists posted high praise and Oscar buzz for Brendan Fraser. Out of the limelight for quite some time and known for roles in entertaining comedies, he has reinvented himself with an outstanding performance as a reclusive and morbidly obese English teacher dealing with MOBY DICK and the heartbreaks of his life in THE WHALE. Around the same time, there were also ecstatic reviews and Oscar buzz for an actress named Danielle Deadwyler who played the lynched teenager Emmett Till in the movie, TILL, directed by Chinonye Chukwu.
The notices about Brendan Fraser and talk about TILL made the network morning news shows and ABC's daytime talker, THE VIEW. Whoopi Goldberg, a host on THE VIEW, has a role in TILL and co-produced the film. The murder of Chicago youth Emmett Till, committed while he was visiting relatives down South, gave intensity to the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s.
The, one day two weekends ago, multiple rave reviews for a film and an actress I'd never heard of appeared on Twitter. Celebs such Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ed Norton were said to be among those tossing in acclaim for the actress. Was this sudden wave of praise postings orchestrated? Was it an overnight campaign? The movie is TO LESLIE. The lead actress is Andrea Riseborough.
The Oscar nominations were announced this week. Brendan Fraser was nominated for Best Actor. Andrea Riseborough was nominated for Best Actress. Danielle Deadwyler was not nominated.
I have been an Alfre Woodard fan ever since I saw her onscreen at the Oriental Theater on the East Side of Milwaukee. The theater was showing HEALTH, a 1980 Robert Altman film. After the movie, audience members were joyfully buzzing about the funny, sophisticated performance delivered by the young lady who played the somewhat stressed out public relations director at a deluxe Florida hotel during a health food convention. The fact that she was a screen newcomer getting audience buzz was impressive considering that the ensemble cast included Lauren Bacall, James Garner, Carol Burnett and Glenda Jackson.
Woodard played a domestic worker for an aspiring author in 1983's CROSS CREEK, a biographical drama, and got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. After that, she became one of the many Black actresses who got an Oscar nomination and then went to TV for steady employment and opportunities. She joined a list that includes Cicely Tyson and Diahann Carroll in the 1970s to today's Oscar nominated Black actresses such as Viola Davis, Taraji P. Henson and Gabourey Sidibe. Davis booked the ABC TV series, HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER, due to the lack of Hollywood script offers after she'd received her second Oscar nomination. But, after getting just one Oscar nomination, white actresses such as Julia Roberts, Renée Zellweger, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams would find their mailboxes stuffed with good script offers. They'd all have more than one Oscar nomination to the credits.
Go to IMDb.com and look at Cicely Tyson's roles following her superb performance in 1972's SOUNDER, the film that brought Tyson her one Oscar nomination. The Oscar went to Liza Minnelli for CABARET. After SOUNDER, Tyson's great work in THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MISS JANE PITTMAN, her performance in ROOTS, her portrayals of Coretta Scott King and Harriet Tubman were all given in TV productions. Hollywood did not offer her other big screen lead roles like it did 2-time Oscar nominee Liza Minnelli.
In 2019, Alfre Woodard starred as a prison warden dealing with the psychological and emotional drawbacks of her job in CLEMENCY. The warden must prepare death row inmates to face their executions. The emotional severity of the work begins to fray her marriage. Alfre Woodard was so outstanding in CLEMENCY that she made your jaw drop. The entertainment press did not give nearly enough to this performance in the film directed by Chinonye Chukwu.
To me, Alfre Woodard should have been an Oscar contender for CLEMENCY. She and its director should've been invited to be guests on network morning shows to discuss the film.
Ms. Chukwu got an equally brilliant performance from Danielle Deadwyler in TILL. You need to see Ms. Deadwyler's remarkable portrayal of a single working mother in a nice Chicago neighborhood who is forged into national Civil Rights activism due to an evil racist act.
Two extraordinary performances. Two fine films. Both directed by the same woman.
I wish stars such as Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ed Norton had praised and promoted the work of those three Black women in film the way they did TO LESLIE. Those three gifted Black women in film were also deserving of Academy Award attention.
Here's some Black women in film history: Angela Bassett, who was a Best Actress Oscar nominee for 1993's WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT, is now a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee for BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER.
She is only the 4th Black actress in Hollywood history to have more than 1 Oscar nomination to her credit. The others are Whoopi Goldberg, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. Also, even though many of us expected Ava DuVernay to get a Best Director Oscar nomination for her Best Picture Oscar nominee, 2014's SELMA, she was not nominated. No Black female filmmaker has ever been a Best Director Oscar nominee. Not yet.
"Ir's an honor just to be nominated." Every time I heard Oscar nominees say that, I wholeheartedly believed them. Some famous actors who consistently gave praiseworthy performances were never nominated. This year's list of Oscar nominees has been announced. Come March, the month the Oscars ceremony will be telecast, cable's TCM (Turner Classic Movies) presents its annual "31 Days of Oscar." Each film aired in prime time will be an Oscar winner or received Oscar nominations.
I pitched that TCM present "Never Ever Nominated" nights showcasing films starring actors who never heard their names announced as Oscar nominees. Here are a few examples of stars I'd showcase on those nights. When I was a kid, I thought for sure that Mia Farrow would be a Best Actress Oscar nominee for her stunning performance in the modern-day horror story, ROSEMARY'S BABY. She begins as a vibrant, young New York City wife in an apartment building who steadily grows pale and understandably paranoid during her pregnancy. She has no idea she's surrounded by Satanists who plan to possess her child. Ruth Gordon won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for this 1968 hit film directed by Roman Polanski.
She wasn't nominated. She then went on to deliver a series of stellar performances in films written and directed by Woody Allen: HANNAH AND HER SISTERS, THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO, ALICE, BROADWAY DANNY ROSE and RADIO DAYS. In the nostalgic RADIO DAYS, Farrow displayed her comedy skills as the clueless Sally who is determined to transform herself.
Diane Keaton, Dianne Wiest, Mira Sorvino and Cate Blanchett won Oscars for performances in Woody Allen films. Mia Farrow never even got a nomination.
The Academy made a rule change after 1945 when Barry Fitzgerald got two Oscar nominations for the same performance in the hit 1944 film, GOING MY WAY. He was nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. He won for Best Supporting Actor. Who did not get a nomination? Edward G. Robinson for Billy Wilder's film noir classic, DOUBLE INDEMNITY. He's the moral and skeptical insurance investigator who has no idea that a beloved co-worker killed a wicked blonde's husband. Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray co-starred.
He was a stand-out in LITTLE CAESAR, THE SEA WOLF, KEY LARGO, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, SOYLENT GREEN and THE CINCINNATI KID. Still, Robinson was never nominated for an Oscar. Neither was Myrna Loy whose film career started in the silent screen era of the 1920s and went up to 1980. She was perfect in MGM's THE THIN MAN franchise and dramatically effective in Fox's THE RAINS CAME co-starring Tyrone Power. Myrna Loy was excellent as the wife of a returning WW2 vet in William Wyler's THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES. It won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Fredric March), Best Supporting Actor (Harold Russell) and Best Director (William Wyler) of 1946.
Can you imagine THE RED SHOES without Anton Wolbrook as the sophisticated, stylish, manipulative and obsessed ballet company owner? I can't.
He's another one who was never an Oscar nominee.
Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott had been movie stars since the 1930s. They were both at their best in the 1962 western drama, RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY. This western is referenced in the Annie Proulx short story, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN.
Those two stars never heard their names read as Oscar nominees.
She gave a sublime performance in one of the best films directed by her husband, Federico Fellini. As the hardluck, lovable Italian prostitute who somehow manages to keep a sense of optimism when life has kicked her to the curb, Giuletta Masina was magnificent in 1957's NIGHTS OF CABIRIA. The hit Broadway musical comedy, SWEET CHARITY, was based on this film.
And there you have it. A few performances worth seeing given by actors who were never ever nominated for an Oscar. If you'd like me to post more, let me know.
By the way, I still think the idea I pitched to TCM is a good one.
If you like DICK, if you like ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, I think you'll like 18 1/2.
DICK, the 1999 fictional comedy starring Michelle Williams and Kirsten Dunst, is about two teen girls in Washington, D.C. who wind up becoming the notorious "Deep Throat" secret informant during Nixon's Watergate scandal. One of the girl's has a crush on Nixon and leaves an 18 1/2 minute love message on his tape recorder after they've gained access into the White House. ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford, is the 1976 political thriller drama based on the true story of how investigative newspaper reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, exposed the Watergate scandal for The Washington Post. Their journalism led to President Nixon's resignation from office.
18 1/2, the title, refers to the length of the gap on an incriminating White House tape. Secretary Rose Mary Woods "inadvertently" erased 18 1/2 minutes which should not have been erased. 18 1/2, the new movie, is not exactly a comedy like DICK but it is fictional and has comedy elements. It's not exactly a political thriller but it does have the tension of one. It's sort of a fusion from director/writer Dan Mirvish, a filmmaker who learned a lot from Robert Altman.
The story takes place in 1974, which is the year President Nixon resigned. Connie arrives for a rather clandestine lunch meeting at a Maryland seafood restaurant where "the WonderBread is on the house." She's meeting a bookworm-looking New York Times reporter who prides himself on being more handsome than Walter Cronkite. Connie is a stenographer who transcribes tapes for the White House. She happens to come across a tape that has the reportedly missing 18 1/2 minutes with Nixon and an aide making incriminating comments in the background. She knows this material needs to be heard. However, she also knows she needs to be careful. If the reporter writes about what's on the tape, he could win a Pulitzer Prize. She'd just be out of a job.
She has the tape with her, but they need a reel-to-reel machine on which to play it. The two unmarried characters pretend to be a married couple and check into an oddball motel. They rent the room to listen to the tape. However, there's a glitch. The reel-to-reel machine Connie brought with her doesn't work. They meet an older avant grade married couple also staying at the motel. The couple leans on them to come over for dinner. Connie and the reporter are leary, but the older couple has a reel-to-reel machine that they could possibly borrow.
Will Connie leak the tape? Will the reporter get the story? Will Connie romantically fall for Paul, the newspaper reporter? We shall see in this loopy, likable movie.
The section with Connie and Paul having dinner with the kooky older married couple feels like it runs a bit too long and diverts from the main story. But stay with it. There's a payoff. You will want to see Willa Fitzgerald as the whip-smart stenographer. She rocks that role and John Magaro matches her well as the New York Times reporter. As for the older married woman who is European and always seems a bit tipsy on wine, she'd be played by Jennifer Coolidge in a deluxe HBO production. The character has that kind of vibe. She's played by Catherine Curtin and Vondie Curtis-Hall stars as the bossa nova-loving husband.
During the dinner portion with Connie and Paul, European Lena rises from the table and has a long monologue in which she talks about Nixon and says "Everybody is looking at A when B is really happening...and no one is paying attention."
It's a good monologue. If you're a 40 or 50 something actress and seeking some new audition material -- and if you're willing to transcribe like Connie the stenographer does -- keep this piece in mind.
18 1/2 runs 90 minutes and premieres on Starz on February 1st. It's kooky and entertaining. Good work, Mr. Mirvish.
I wish I had come up with the idea for this new documentary. It begins by taking us to Goldeneye, Jamaica in 1952. We see a middle-aged man sitting at his typewriter, typing with a purpose and a passion. He is famed novelist Ian Fleming, the writer who gave us the world's most famous secret agent -- James Bond. In archival footage, we learn from Fleming that he got 007's name from the author of a book about birds.
Then we hear from a group of different real men who have the same name -- James Bond. The group includes a New York City theater director, a helicopter pilot, a computer programmer, a preacher, an oilman and an inmate. One tells us that having the name James Bond is "a blessing and a curse." He wasn't kidding. We see how the name got the theater director a guest spot on David Letterman's late night NBC show and we see how it got a Black man accused of murder. A Swedish man, whose father was German, took on the name in Sweden to deal with the paternal abandonment he experienced in his boyhood.
The stories are all fascinating. We hear from the ornithologist whose name was given to a fictional spy known for his hyper-masculinity and his license to kill. Produced, directed and co-written by Matthew Bauer, this documentary is called THE OTHER FELLOW. This feature takes us on an an interesting and surprising international trip. Some scenes are understandably reenacted or restaged -- like the ones involving a British mother who used the name to help her flee and survive a physically abusive marriage.
We also hear how the Bond name effected news coverage and racial attitudes, especially when fans suggested Idris Elba as a new 007 to follow Daniel Craig.
The cases of mistaken identity, masculine expectations and having the same name as a make-believe super-agent of print and film are often as exciting and intense as an actual James Bond movie. The idea for this documentary is most original. Take a look at the trailer for Matthew Bauer's THE OTHER FELLOW.
THE OTHER FELLOW runs a fast 1 hour and 15 minutes. It's well done, well shot and, musically, well scored. With real men telling their tales of mistaken identity and the drama it caused, THE OTHER FELLOW has a touch of the classic Alfred Hitchcock about it. Bauer's documentary calls to mind the 1950s thrillers that Hitchcock made about men who were the victims of mistaken identity -- THE WRONG MAN starring Henry Fonda and NORTH BY NORTHWEST starring Cary Grant.
THE OTHER FELLOW opens February 17th. It's very good and worth a look.
I have yet the see Billy Eichner's 2022 movie, BROS, heralded as Hollywood's first gay romantic comedy. Well, when it opened, I kept thinking about a 2000 release I saw -- a movie called THE BROKEN HEARTS CLUB: A ROMANTIC COMEDY. I loved and still love that movie. That romantic comedy focused on a group of gay male friends trying to navigate life in West Hollywood. I grew up in Los Angeles. In the 80s, I spent a lot of time, for work purposes, in West Hollywood. I recognized the Santa Monica Boulevard sites I saw in the movie. One of my favorite characters in that group of friends was played by an actor known to many of us theater-goers in New York City. His name -- Billy Porter. He stole just about every scene he had. My favorite was when his character had a hugely disappointing romantic experience and pleaded with his friends to put on some music that would make him realize they were empathetic to his feelings -- something like Judy Garland singing "The Man That Got Away."
Here's a preview trailer for 2000's THE BROKEN HEARTS CLUB: A ROMANTIC COMEDY.
When I had my weeknight celebrity talk show on VH1 in the late 80s, Whoopi Goldberg was one of my first guests. I made a good impression on her. In 2006, when she landed her own live weekday morning national radio show, done from New York City, she got me hired to be her weekly entertainment contributor and occasional sidekick. We got our cancelation notice two years later, in 2008. But the attention she got led to her being booked by Barbara Walters to become a new member of ABC's THE VIEW. The rest of us in Whoopi's on-air staff started looking for new employment.
My SAG-AFTRA Union held a job fair networking event in town. I went. While I was collecting pamphlets from one booth, I noticed the man standing next to me who was doing the same thing. I'd seen him on Broadway. Billy Porter needed work. I was stunned, considering how multi-talented he is. He recognized me from my TV work and we instantly became acquainted. After that meeting, we'd run into each other in the city and chat.
Online, he mentioned that he booked a role in the workshop for a new musical that, hopefully, would make it to Broadway. He loved the project, an Americanized musical version of a 2005 British film comedy called KINKY BOOTS. He was playing the drag queen character who helps a financially stricken small town get back on its feet thanks to festive footwear.
The show did indeed make it to Broadway in 2012 and it brought Billy Porter a Tony Award. His star was on the ascendant. He won an Emmy for his extraordinary performance in the mini-series, POSE, and he's now on the A-list of entertainers. As well he should be. I have enjoyed his work as an actor, singer and director. I appreciate how he represents our LGBTQ community.
Soon, that guy from the 2000 gay male romantic comedy movie in which he plays a character who loves Sally Field, the guy who was seeking employment in 2008, the guy who never gave up, will be seen on the big screen acting with Sally Field,Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno and Lily Tomlin in 80 FOR BRADY.
I saw on social media that today, January 20th, is the day the late, great Patricia Neal was born. Man, she was a good actress. A real steak 'n' potatoes, no frills, excellent actress. My mother loved her work and so did I. I first noticed Patricia Neal in my elementary school years thanks to local TV airings of the sci-fi classic from the 1950s, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. She played a widowed working mother in Washington, DC. Her husband, her little boy's father, was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. If you've seen the movie, you know that Michael Rennie played the tall, lean space alien who resembles an everyday man. He and a bad-ass robot have come to Earth in peace to stress the we earthlings need to get it together and stop making war. He meets the kind little boy and they strike up a fast and warm friendship. He meets the mother and is also taken with her warmth and concern about the world around her. He reveals his true self to her and his mission. She's a bit scared but she believes in his mission. In a critical moment, she protects the alien -- and saves the Earth -- by contacting his robot guard when he's become a victim of U.S.military aggression.
As a kid, I connected to Patricia Neal's looks and how she completely gave herself over to that character. She's an ordinary woman who performs an extraordinary deed. Look in Neal's eyes. She believes what she is doing
My absolute favorite pastime when I was growing up in L.A. was Rivers Family Night at the drive-in movies. We'd get into Dad's Plymouth -- Mom and Dad in the front seat and we kids in the back -- and head off to see a double feature at the Vermont, Compton, Century or Twin-Vue Drive-In. Those nights were like an early Christmas for me.
One week, I came up with an idea that would make for a night at the drive-in. I would do my weekend chores AND....I would mow the front lawn for Dad for some extra allowance and use that money to "treat" Mom and Dad to the movies. I made $5.00 -- big money for me back then. Adult ticket price at the Twin-Vue was $2.50 per grown up. Kids under 12 got in free. We 3 kids were under 12. Mom and Dad were touched by my manipulative thoughtfulness and picked out a movie -- HUD was the main feature on the Twin-Vue bill.
What a fabulous night. I was already a classic film fan by that young age. I was thrilled to see the name James Wong Howe in the credits. I recognized his name from the credits of YANKEE DOODLE DANDY when it aired on local Channel 9. Because we had had Asian-Americans as friends and neighbors, his name represented people who were part of my community. Paul Newman gave a classic performance as the self-absorbed, greedy modern cowboy and so did Patricia Neal as the wise, earthy, respected housekeeper who works for Hud's family and lives on the premises. It's truly a "kitchen sink" performance in more ways than one. She's fond of Hud's father and younger brother. They're fond of her. She knows that Hud is a heel and she can deal with him.
HUD was based on a 1961 novel by Larry McMurtry. In the book, housekeeper Alma was a Black woman. But Hollywood Studios were timid, shall we say, about interracial casting back then especially in lead roles, especially for Black actresses. (Can you just imagine what Ruby Dee could've done with the role had Hollywood offered her the opportunity?) Patricia Neal got the role in the 1963 release and did a terrific job.
When the movie ended, Mom enthusiastically said out loud, "She's gonna win the Oscar!" The nominations hadn't even been announced. When they were, Patricia Neal was a nominee.
She won the Oscar for Best Actress.
In the early 1990s, I was a regular contributor on a live weekend morning news program that aired on WNBC/Channel 4 in New York. One day, I attended a charity event. I heard someone say that Patricia Neal had just entered and I walked over hurriedly so I could see her up close in person.
She was walking through the crowd, spotted me and smiled. She shook my hand and said, "I watch you on TV. I know who you are."
That was one of the most thrilling experiences of my TV career. From growing up in South Central L.A. to that sweet moment in New York City. Wow. I couldn't wait to tell Mom about it.
I lived in the neighborhood and I walked by it often. The Bayard Rustin High School for the Humanities on West 18th Street in the Chelsea section of New York City. I would wonder if the school kids in attendance knew the story of Mr. Rustin. I wondered if they were aware of his significant role in modern American history. I wondered if they knew that he lived about 10 blocks away, also in Chelsea.
Back in 2013, I started blogging that Hollywood needed to give us a biopic about this iron-willed, outspoken, vital Black intellectual. We see Bayard Rustin standing on the podium right behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during Dr. King's now iconic "I Have a Dream" speech. Rustin, a college-educated Quaker from Pennsylvania who recorded albums and once sang on Broadway in a show starring Paul Robeson, was Dr. King's top advisor. He was called "the Architect of the March on Washington." He spoke at the historic 1963 March on Washington. He helped bring about the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
And he was openly gay. A few weeks before the March on Washington, Senator Strom Thurmond denounced him as a "Communist, draft dodger and homosexual." Thurmond was a proud pro-segregationist. Watch this.
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When Steven Spielberg recently walked onstage to accept a Golden Globes award, he warmly hugged presenter Colman Domingo. The actor had an important role in the first 15 minutes of Spielberg's Oscar-winning biopic, LINCOLN.
Now Colman Domingo will star in a biopic. He will play Dr. King's controversial top advisor in RUSTIN.
Watch this.
An openly gay Black actor will portray the openly gay civil rights activist. That is some LGBTQ history. I am thrilled that this upcoming Netflix feature is in production. Bravo, Colman Domingo!
On the 50th anniversary of Dr. King's March on Washington, President Obama conferred a Presidential Medal of Freedom on the late humanitarian who was the "architect" of that civil rights march.
"To be afraid is to behave as if the truth were not true." ~ Bayard Rustin
There is so much more to his resumé than his being the voice of Darth Vader in the original STAR WARS trilogy. I have an old yet relevant movie to recommend for Martin Luther King Jr. Day viewing. It's a movie I've seen and blogged about in an older post. James Earl Jones earned high praise from theater critics and a Tony Award for his towering lead role performance in the 1967 Broadway play, THE GREAT WHITE HOPE. He repeated the role in 20th Century Fox's 1970 film version -- and became one of the first Black men after Sidney Poitier to be an Oscar nominee for Best Actor. In 1974, he starred opposite Diahann Carroll in CLAUDINE. For that film, Diahann Carroll became one of the first Black women after Dorothy Dandridge to be an Oscar nominee for Best Actress.
In between THE GREAT WHITE HOPE and CLAUDINE, James Earl Jones gave an absolutely riveting performance in an ABC Movie of the Week, a network franchise that presented original 90-minute features. He played the lead role in THE MAN based on a best-selling novel of the same name. My parents had a paperback copy of the 1964 novel by Irving Wallace. The story was about the first Black man who becomes President of the United States and how that shakes up the socio-political scene of Washington, DC plus the rest of America.
THE MAN was probably intended to be a nationwide theatrical release but Hollywood execs were nervous about the plot. THE MAN seemed to get a modest budget despite its A-list cast and was aired as a Movie of the Week on ABC. Rod Serling, the genius behind TV's THE TWILIGHT ZONE, wrote the frank, mature screenplay. I called the budget "modest" because I remember seeing THE MAN on TV when I was a teen. Some exterior shots that were supposed to be Washington, DC were really Inglewood, California. I recognized them. I grew up in South Central L.A. and I had relatives who lived in the Inglewood area.
Senator Douglass Dilman (Jones) is successor to the Oval Office after the president is killed in an accident. Politically, he's a moderate. Suddenly, he has to contend with advisors, activists, extremists, racist political figures on the Hill and some disagreements with his independent, intellectual daughter. President Dilman refers to Dr. Martin Luther King.
The novel was published a year after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The movie adaptation aired four years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Joining James Earl Jones in the cast are Lew Ayres, Burgess Meredith, Martin Balsam, William Wisdom and Barbara Rush.
THE MAN is a strong 1972 TV movie that may occasionally feel like it was released in 2009, the year Barack Obama made history as the 44th President of the United States.
To see this outstanding and under-seen James Earl Jones performance, go to YouTube and search THE MAN JAMES EARL JONES 1972.
This was one of the saltiest, liveliest, jolliest and most informative half-hours I've ever seen on Netflix. And it has the perfect host. Actor Nicolas Cage is the host of Netflix's HISTORY OF SWEAR WORDS. If you're conservative or have delicate ears, you may want to avoid this first episode. It contains people who are proud to be profane as they frankly discuss...the F-word. Yes, that 4-letter word that can insult or seduce, be offensive or engaging and express pain or wonder. We hear from comedians, actors and a cognitive scientist. We see film clips and news clips. As we learn the etymology of the F-word, we're taken the 14th Century up to the 20th Century news-making controversy of gangsta rap lyrics from N.W.A. One of the people who speaks at length on the word's usage in films, its Hollywood history and how it was employed in a protest stage show presented by Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland, is noted critic Elvis Mitchell. I wrote about him in my previous blog post.
This HISTORY OF SWEAR WORDS 30-minute episode is like Monty Python meets the History Channel. Here's a short piece to give you a taste of the series. WARNING: Naughty words are said and seen in this trailer.
I recently posted my blog review of the new movie, BABYLON. It's a long, excessive Hollywood movie about Hollywood excess in the 1920s. The F-word was used so much in the first 15 minutes alone that I thought the screenplay had been written by Samuel L. Jackson. The delightful actress, Carole Cook, passed away last week at age 98. The beloved actress was in THE INCREDIBLE MR. LIMPET opposite Don Knotts, in SIXTEEN CANDLES and was known to Broadway audiences. On Facebook, a younger fellow actress who loved Cook wrote: "I once shared a dressing room with Carole Cook and Rita Moreno. I've never eaten so much caviar pizza bread or heard the word 'f**k' used in so many different ways before in my entire life."
And there you have it. This show was a 4-letter education.
He was a film critic for The New York Times. He was heard frequently on National Public Radio. He's lectured at Harvard. He's Elvis Mitchell. I'm positive that there was a time when, if you asked Caucasian TV viewers to name two Black film critics, they could probably only think of the gay Black film critic pair seen in sketches on the IN LIVING COLOR comedy series in the 90s. Remember "Men on Film" and their "Two snaps up!" ratings? That's because national TV rarely presented Black film critics on syndicated review programs or on network morning shows.
From 1978 when Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert made their SNEAK PREVIEWS film review show debut on PBS stations, to the film critic duos that followed them on syndicated TV...to the years when the NBC, ABC and CBS weekday morning shows each had a film critic who did reviews on Fridays, to 2008-2009 when Ben Mankiewicz and Ben Lyons were the film critic couple on AT THE MOVIES...the field of weekly film critics on television was predominately White male. No TV critic columnist ever questioned or investigated this obvious lack of racial inclusion that lasted for about 30 years. This gave the impression that we Black people only took an interest in "Black films" and cared little for other movies whether from Hollywood or overseas, whether new or old. The guest appearances of Elvis Mitchell changed that.
For decades, I never saw anyone on TV who looked like me review new movies or discuss classic ones. Reviews of films that focused on our Black lives and history -- films like THE COLOR PURPLE, DO THE RIGHT THING, BOYZ N THE HOOD, THE HELP, THE BUTLER and 12 YEARS A SLAVE -- were delivered via the White gaze and from a White voice. I'm acquainted with veteran critic Rex Reed. I saw him at a movie screening once and he told me he'd recently returned from 4 weeks of vacation in the South of France. When he wrote why we should all see 12 YEARS A SLAVE, I wanted to go upside his head with a skillet. Even though I began my professional TV career as the first Black weekly film critic on Milwaukee's ABC affiliate, a spot I did from 1979-1984, getting the opportunity to review films on TV in New York City was about as easy as getting a permit to open a gay bar in Vatican City. But I got the gigs despite White producers from 1992 to 2006 asking "Do you know anything about movies?" and being initially reluctant to consider me for the jobs. Other Black film critics in New York that I spoke to faced similar situations. They'd only get contacted by White TV producers to come on and do segments during Black History Month.
Even today, if you went on Twitter (especially the pre-Musk Twitter), you'd notice that liberal, established White film critics quote other film critics. But they never quote Black film critics like Elvis Mitchell or two Black men who have won Pulitzer Prizes for their criticism which includes movie reviews. Those men are Wesley Morris (winner in 2012 and 2021) and Hilton Als (winner in 2016). They never quote any of the classic film criticism written by James Baldwin or film comments from feminist bell hooks. The White film critics only quote other White film critics living or dead. By the way, how many times did you ever see a Black female film critic do reviews on national TV?
Independent Black cinema was marginalized. "Blaxploitation" was not as posh as "independent filmmaker." Hollywood would not extend equal opportunities to Black filmmakers but it would be impressed by money made by some Black films such as SHAFT and features starring Pam Grier. Black cinema changed the culture.
This is a reminder that the Elvis Mitchell documentary, IS THAT BLACK ENOUGH FOR YOU?, is still on Netflix and very much worth your time. It got -- and deserved -- excellent reviews for its look at the "evolution and revolution" of Black cinema going back to the 1970s. Here's a trailer.
Elvis Mitchell's fine documentary is not only a paean to the art and artists of Black cinema, it's also an unintended tribute to his own revolutionary, groundbreaking work as a knowledgable Black journalist who broke through the color wall to integrate the field of film critics that America saw on national TV. I, for one, am extremely grateful to him for that. Thank you, Elvis Mitchell. Diversity is needed in the discussion of the arts. Film is an art.
Here's an old reel of mine to show that I do know a little something about movies.
Fellow lovers of classic films may love this post. I'm highlighting ladies who made movies and made me swoon with the way they could deliver a song. Treat your ears and listen.
Shirley Ross sang "Thanks For the Memories" with Bob Hope in Paramount's THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1938. They played a divorced couple who later realize they're still in love with each other. It won the Oscar for Best Song and become Hope's signature tune. Ross had a lovely voice and an understated way with a song. Her delivery was like a whiff of a sublime perfume. She worked with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in movies but Paramount seriously under-utilized her singing and acting skills in the 1930s. Here she is singing "It Never Entered My Mind."
Lena Horne made her Hollywood studio acting debut in Vincente Minnelli's 1943 MGM adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, CABIN IN THE SKY. She appeared in other MGM musicals and, in 1943, the studio loaned her to 20th Century Fox so she could star in that studio's musical, STORMY WEATHER. MGM gave her the glamorous treatment in musical numbers. However, it denied the future civil rights activist the opportunity to act opposite the studio's White music stars such of Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Gene Kelly. Lena Horne starred in Broadway shows, was a Tony nominee for Best Actress in a Musical for 1957's JAMAICA. Her one-woman Broadway show in the 1980s brought her a special Tony Award. Today, there is a Broadway theater named in her honor. Here, Lena sings "Out of Nowhere" recorded in 1941
Betty Hutton was a singer with a band. She got featured work in Broadway shows and then headed for Hollywood. She became one of Paramount's biggest stars of the 1940s with her bouncy musical comedy talent. She had the lead female role in Cecil B. DeMille's THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, a circus epic that won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1952. That movie has significance in Steven Spielberg's THE FABELMANS. Known for her ability to belt out a tune, Betty's softer moments -- singing and acting -- were most effective. She proved that in Paramount's INCENDIARY BLONDE, a bittersweet 1945 biopic of famed 1920s nightclub owner/entertainer Texas Guinan. Hutton had a hit record with the standard she sang in that film, "It Had To Be You."
Peggy Lee was a singer with Benny Goodman's band. She went on to become a top solo singer and songwriter. She played the abused, alcoholic 1920s jazz singer in 1955's PETE KELLY'S BLUES and earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her performance. That same years, moviegoers heard the songs she co-wrote for Disney's classic animated feature, LADY AND THE TRAMP. Here's Peggy in PETE KELLY'S BLUES.
"You've been called back to Top Gun." When the commanding officer played by Jon Hamm says that to Captain Pete Mitchell, played by Tom Cruise, he's not just speaking to the man called "Maverick." He's speaking to all moviegoers of a certain age who went to see TOP GUN when it was new in 1986. TOP GUN was one of those Tom Cruise features that did major business at the box office and cemented his position as an international movie star. I saw the recent follow-up, TOP GUN: MAVERICK. My first thought was "Man, this would have made for a great Rivers Family Night at the drive-in back in the day." TOP GUN: MAVERICK is a highly entertaining, exciting, action-packed and touching movie. It's about aging -- specifically, the aging of those who were young adults and went to see TOP GUN when it opened. It's also about the memory of fallen comrades and passing on knowledge to the younger generation.
In opening shots, we see Tom Cruise doing some naval jet maintenance. His biceps, slim waist and well-sculpted torso are so awesome that a lot of us guys might want to say, "Really? He and I both have AARP cards? Really?" Cruise is now 60.
As for the plot, all you need to know is that Captain Mitchell has been a burr in the backside for some commanding officers. He's got 30+ years of distinguished service to his credit yet he's not been promoted and he won't retire. He's aware that he's older and feels a slight chill from the younger fellows. He's holding on to personal heartbreak from the past. Maverick is assigned to teach and train hotshot new top gunners. There's friction between him and one called "Rooster." We'll discover why. Plus, there will be an extremely dangerous mission Maverick and Rooster will have to fly.
A sequence that truly touched my heartstrings features Val Kilmer. The actor, who has had some serious health challenges in recent years, returns as "Ice." To me, that scene has Cruise doing some of his best acting work. He's vulnerable and sincere. He's got tears in his eyes as he seeks advice from a dear friend. Kilmer's brief appearance was a beautiful thing to see. I love how he was worked into the script.
As for the aerial sequences....wow! They are fantastic. Here's a trailer.
I had such a good time watching this movie. The TOP GUN: MAVERICK cast includes Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, Miles Teller and Glen Powell. Remember the volleyball scene in TOP GUY with all the shirtless, muscular navy dudes playing the game? There's a scene of shirtless, hot young navy dudes on the beach playing football in TOP GUN: MAVERICK.
I met and interviewed the charming Val Kilmer when I worked on VH1. At the time, he was promoting WILLOW. That 1988 fantasy movie followed 1986's TOP GUN. Val took me out to dinner one night. He was then represented by Michael Ovitz, a super-agent at Hollywood's powerful CAA talent agency. I asked Val how he got hooked up with Ovitz.
For him, it was simple. He was lucky. He told me that Ovitz's little girl had seen TOP GUN and thought Val Kilmer was "cute" as Iceman. She kept talking about how cute "Iceman" was and that was a good enough recommendation for her dad.
I've had a passionate love affair with the movies ever since I was in elementary school and learning how to read. One of the things I love most about the movie-going experience is the sense of community that can arise amongst strangers or friends and family seated together in the dark, facing a large blank screen and awaiting some kind of entertaining magic to happen. Since the early 90s, when I moved to Chelsea in New York City and lived there for there for 20 happy years, my neighborhood movie theater was the Chelsea Clearview Cinemas. In the years to come it underwent renovation and name changes. Nonetheless, it was my main place to go to see movie. Just two short blocks away from my apartment, it was located on West 23rd Street at 8th Avenue. Over the years, I spent a lot of time -- and money -- there laughing, gasping and crying in that movie house thanks to the magic and escapism on its big screens.
Today, that big and wonderful cineplex in Chelsea closes. I wish I was still back in Manhattan so I could've had one last moviegoer experience there. Even though I'm not there, I will miss that place not to mention the ticket prices when I first became a patron. Tickets were $5.00.
I'd like to share one cherished memory and, at the same time, recommend a film.
I went to the Chelsea Cinemas early one weekday afternoon to see Edward Norton and Naomi Watts in the THE PAINTED VEIL. The 2006 film story had been made previously by MGM in 1934 as a project starring Greta Garbo. Based on a classic novel by Somerset Maugham, it's the tale of a British marriage that collapses when a good doctor, not exactly a brawny athlete, discovers that his wife has been having an affair with a man who does fall into the category of brawny athlete. The husband gets his revenge via having the wife accompany him to mainland China where he will fight the cholera epidemic of the 1920s. While there, he hopes the virus that has infected their marriage will be conquered. Will the wife be redeemed?
The audience for that screening was not a large one. Just about all of us seated were middle-aged or a tad older. I wanted to see the film because it had made the end of the year "Top Ten" list from several well-known film critics. However, there was little talk about THE PAINTED VEIL and I didn't see any cast member promotional interviews on the network morning shows. When I got to the Chelsea Cinemas that day, I could see what the problem probably was. All the other cineplex screens were showing big budget action/fantasy features with caped superheroes. THE PAINTED VEIL was a more mature feature driven by dialogue versus long fight and chase sequences with special effects.
The movie started and we veteran moviegoers sat there in the dark in our individual seats. About 20-25 minutes into the film, patrons were turning to fellow patrons and enthusiastically whispering "This is really good." We strangers had become a community, thrilled at the quality of this film. So thrilled that it made us briefly communicate with each other, making us less strangers.
With its acting, its cinematography, script, musical score, costume design and stylish direction from John Curran, it reminded us of prestigious films we saw back in the day from acclaimed directors such as David Lean, Fred Zinnemann and William Wyler. Movie magic had occurred. We escaped into the story. Here's a taste of 2006's THE PAINTED VEIL.
An excellent film. That wonderful sense of community amongst a bunch of strangers seated in the dark that it sparked. What a joyful experience. That's why I love the movies. That's why I loved the Chelsea Cinemas cineplex. One more thing: Diana Rigg should've been a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee for her performance as the wise, slightly world-weary nun in China. She was terrific.
Sex. Drugs. Elephant poop. You get that in the first 10 minutes of this 3-hour Hollywood-on-Hollywood movie directed and written by Damien Chazelle, the young man who made white film critics go gaga with his 2016 musical love story, LA LA LAND which he also directed and wrote. This new movie of his, BABYLON, proves that this talented young filmmaker needs a cowriter. BABYLON is an opulent, action-packed fictional tale of Hollywood excess, decadence and creativity that begins in 1926 -- a year before THE JAZZ SINGER ushered in the sound era of films, thus drastically changing Hollywood technology -- and ends in 1952. It's got stylish production design and some excellent performances. However, BABYLON is basically 10 pounds of rhinestones stuffed into a 5 pound sack. Chazelle's overblown film rivals the overlong, "less is never more" size queen productions from Baz Luhrmann. Another thing: If you make a period piece such as this and have actors frequently using the F-word in their dialogue, you really don't have much to say and have lazily resorted to whipping out the 4-letter word to make your piece seem to have dramatic weight.
There isn't much of story to this 3-hour film -- and there could have been. We meet the disciplined, hardworking and creative Manuel, a handsome Mexican immigrant doing grunt duties for film executives. One such duty is the delivery of an elephant. Manuel, with his soulful eyes and quick brain is very well-played by Diego Calva. Then there's the hot mess of an aspiring movie star from New Jersey. She does not want to do the work. She just wants microwave stardom. She wants instant film fame. But she spends more time doing pills, cocaine and liquor than she does working on her craft. Margot Robbie burns up the screen making your think this role is better and more dimensional than it actually is. And there's Brad Pitt in fabulous form as a hedonistic top film star of the silent era. Of these three, the most interesting character is Manuel Torres, the disciplined person of color who wants to move up in the film production business. But we really don't start to learn anything about him until about 1 hour and 10 minutes into the movie because Chazelle -- an apostle of classic Hollywood films and folklore -- spends way too much time with the decadent Hollywood party scenes filled with naked extras, sexual fetishes and fabulous costumes. He seems out to replicate the joyfully overbaked orgy type scenes that were highlights of Cecil B. DeMille epics in the 20s and early 30s. But with his Quentin Tarantino-esque dialogue in the 1920s, Chazelle's party scenes come off like Hollywood-flavored Roman orgies recreated for nights at Studio 54 in the Disco Era.
Again, as in his LA LA LAND Chazelle shows a classic film influence. In the opening massive party scene, all is halted for some live entertainment. A lovely Asian chanteuse appears in a man's top hat and tuxedo. She sings a song called "My Girl's Pussy" and proceeds to stroll into the audience. I had a feeling she'd kiss a woman audience member on the lips they way Marlene Dietrich did during her nightclub number in 1930's MOROCCO. The Asian chanteuse did just that.
As for the Hollywood folklore, Chazelle has Robbie's wild child character become a movie star known for not wearing a bra and icing her nipples -- which reportedly was a Jean Harlow practice. She talks about the major endowment Gary Cooper was said to carry. The classic film Chazelle borrows from the most in BABYLON is SINGIN' IN THE RAIN. There's the pan of several different silent films being shot on the same soundstage just like in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN that leads into Donald O'Connor's "Make "Em Laugh" number, Robbie's Nellie LeRoy needs diction lessons like Lina Lamont did when the sound revolution rattled all Hollywood, and Pitt's silent screen star worries about his career when he sneaks into a screening of his new film which has sound. The audiences giggles at his repeated "I love you" in a romantic scene they way the sneak preview audience giggled at the new Lockwood and LaMont movie that had employed the new technology.
But is Chazelle's point to make a valentine -- although vulgar -- to SINGIN' IN THE RAIN the way Cameron Crowe's wonder ALMOST FAMOUS is a valentine to Billy Wilder's THE APARTMENT? We don't know. His long script does not seem to really have a point. But it does have its moments thanks to a talented cast that lifts it. There is one scene that I totally loved. Brad Pitt's debonair yet fading film star visits a top Hollywood gossip columnist to find out why the audience laughed at his movie scene. If the popular Jean Smart gets a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for BABYLON, do not be surprised. She is sensational as the show biz-weary but helpful gossip columnist. Her tough but honest conversation with the fading star about the reality of their business and the irony about the longevity of film is outstanding and beautifully-written. Notice there's no mention of the f-word in this strong sequence. That's because director/writer Damien Chazell has something of substance to say here.
Manuel Torres is hired to assist Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt) and that relationship is rather like the one between the Peter O'Toole and Mark Linn-Baker in 1982's MY FAVORITE YEAR. Manny and Jack wind up at MGM where Mexican immigrant Manny, a show biz visionary, brings a Black musician to the attention of the legendary MGM executive, Irving Thalberg. The Black musician becomes an MGM star with a huge Hollywood home and fancy car. Like Manny, he's also disciplined and hardworking. But MGM did NOT give Black talent the A-list star treatment in those days. Here's some L.A. history about racially groundbreaking architect, Paul R. Williams. In Los Angeles in 1923, the trailblazing Williams became the first African-American member of the American Institute of Architects. Williams designed homes for top Hollywood stars. White stars. Black folks, at that time, were excluded from having homes in Hollywood. The major Hollywood Studios employed talented Black actors such as Hattie McDaniel, lovely Theresa Harris, Louise Beavers, Butterfly McQueen, Ernest Anderson (of IN THIS OUR LIFE), Caleb Peterson (of ANY NUMBER CAN PLAY) and early Dorothy Dandridge and cast them often in uncredited roles, mostly as servants. With his singing voice, stage and screen acting talent and his handsome muscular frame, Paul Robeson should have been under contract to MGM. But he wasn't. Here's a trailer for BABYLON:
Had I co-written that screenplay, I would've put more focus on the Manny Torres character. I'd have made him a visionary -- like actor, singer, landmark TV executive producer and Desilu studio head Desi Arnaz in the 1950s. Torres would realize the Hollywood, seen as being loose and liberal, wasn't so liberal in giving equal opportunities to people of color and he would've done his best with his creativity at two Hollywood studios to change that, thus making a place for himself in Hollywood history books. It could've had relevance today given that Black and Latino talent is still fighting for representation, equal opportunities and equal pay.
Here's a Chazelle story: I love TCM (Turner Classic Movies). It's better now, but there was a span when you wondered if TCM was aware that Black people watch and can talk about classic films. We had a Black president in the White House for two terms before TCM hired a Black host. One of my favorite TCM features was when it invited a veteran actor or filmmaker on to be a Guest Programmer. The guest programmer would select 4 films to co-introduce and discuss. When critics were raving about LA LA LAND, TCM booked newcomer Damien Chazelle to be a guest programmer.
During that time, the rave LA LA LAND reviews were also posted on Twitter. Then one day on Twitter, I noticed a lot of buzz from critics of color about a new film screening at festivals. It was from a newcomer filmmaker who, like Chazelle, was highly influenced by Hollywood and foreign classic films. This Black filmmaker was Barry Jenkins. TCM never gave any attention to Barry or his film, MOONLIGHT. Chazelle's LA LA LAND landed 14 Oscar nominations including Best Picture.
Then came that now-historic, unexpected and memorable Oscar moment on live TV when the real winner for Best Picture was ...... LA LA LANDMOONLIGHT.
Back in the 90s, I did a TV interview of actor Brendan Fraser when he was promoting his comedy, AIRHEADS. I found him to be a big charming guy with an daffy sense of humor. He made me laugh as GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE, he made me laugh in the 2000 remake of BEDAZZLED and I'm a fan of his action hero work in THE MUMMY adventures. I also felt that he showed impressive dramatic skills opposite Ian McKellan in 1998's GODS AND MONSTERS and in the little-seen indie drama, 2013's GIMME SHELTER.
It's been a few years since he's had a lead role in a film that's received major attention. Until last year. You may have heard or read that he plays a reclusive English teacher who gives classes via Zoom. He lives alone in a sad apartment, He's a divorced dad who stimulates himself watching gay male porn. One more thing -- this English teacher is extremely obese. A grotesque, pathetic man who will not help himself even though there are people in his life who want to help him. One person is his regular pizza delivery man. This indie film is called THE WHALE with the Fraser cocooned in some very complicated make-up and padding. Fraser received more than one standing ovation at film festivals last year after his movie screened. The Oscar buzz was immediate.
If you've heard that Oscar buzz, if you read superlative reviews for his performance, those reviews are well-deserved. Brendan Fraser gives a stunning, heart-breaking and memorable performance as a troubled recluse who is like a stationary train wreck. You can't avert your eyes from the terrible sight you're seeing. This film is based on a play of the same name. It was directed by Darren Aronofsky who presented fringe, non-mainstream characters in REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, THE WRESTLER and BLACK SWAN. All three of those films earned Oscar nominations for their lead actors.
The title, THE WHALE, refers to the novel MOBY DICK. Fraser finds the humanity and pain in this character. But, man! This is a visually and psychologically dark film that shows the sad and ailing teacher suddenly start binge-eating with a frenzy. One scene of this would have been enough but the director shows him gorging himself more than once. You know he's eating to fill a hole in his heart or to kill the immediate pain. He's just killing himself. Those scenes are difficult to watch and they made me wonder if Darren Aronofsky really liked his lead character.
Charlie, the teacher, is visited by his ex-wife and his angry teen daughter. His most faithful visitor is his nurse/friend played with excellence by Hong Chau. One of the Academy's recent crimes with not giving her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her work opposite Matt Damon in the sci-fi/fantasy satire, 2017's DOWNSIZING. She was great as the one-legged woman who survived being a dissident in Vietnam and is now laser-focused on helping people in need. The actress followed that with another solid performance -- as the single working mom taking care of family matters at her late sister's suburban house and becomes friends with a retiree neighbor played by Brian Dennehy. 2019's DRIVEWAYS is a beautiful film, one of the best of that year, and it gave us Brian Dennehy's final film role.
I'm positive the Academy will grace Brendan Fraser with an Oscar nomination. Let's see if it also honors the wonderful Hong Chau. Here's a trailer.
