Category: Movies Page 45 of 57

Connie has been reviewing film uninterruptedly since 1970 (47 years) and routinely covers the Chicago International Film Festival (14 years), SXSW, the Austin Film Festival, and others, sharing detailed looks in advance at upcoming entertainment. She has taught a class on film and is the author of the book “Training the Teacher As A Champion; From The Godfather to Apocalypse Now, published by the Merry Blacksmith Press of Rhode Island.

“Soundbreaking” @ SXSW: Painting with Music in 8-part PBS Documentary Special

By Connie Wilson

On March 18, 2016

In Movies, Music, Pop Culture, Reviews

Over 10 years ago, famed record producer George Martin, who is often referred to as “the 5th Beatle,” used his considerable influence to start the ball rolling on a series of interviews with famous record producers and musicians.

Martin’s influence led to an 8-series PBS piece that will air in mid-November, entitled: “Soundbreaking: Stories from the Cutting Edge of Recorded Music.” It premiered at South by Southwest and documentary producer Julia Marchesi was with the film to explain its genesis. Marchesi told the audience at the Alamo Drafthouse (Slaughter Lane) on St. Patrick’s Day that some of the interviews were done as long ago as 2006. This is clear when we see the legendary Johnny Cash, B.B. King, and Martin, himself, all now gone.

Among the record producers who discuss their role in making music are Brian Eno, Jimmy Iovine (U2), Quincy Jones, Don Was, Jimmy Jam (Janet Jackson), Paul Epworth (Tom Petty), Rick Rubin (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Johnny Cash), Darryl McDaniels (Run DMC), Tricky Steward (Rihanna, Beyonce), Martin himself, and a host of others, plus some of the artists associated with these world class producers.

“When it comes to making a hit record, one of the biggest mysteries is the role of the producer,” the movie tells us, and 150 famous folk dive into that mystery, giving us a peek at producers of yesteryear like Mitch Miller (Tony Bennett) and Sam Phillips, the legendary owner/producer of Sun Records in Memphis.

Phillips is heard to say of his work with Elvis Presley, “The next thing I knew, Elvis cut loose on ‘That’s All Right, Mama.’ If I couldn’t make it with this, I could never make it on anything!” The legendary B. B. King is seen commenting on the raw black sound that Phillips was intent on recording for the world. “The essence of Sun Records was to get these artists to display their God-given talent…For Sam (Phillips), it was about pulling whatever they had inside out.”

Tom Petty relates how producer Paul Epworth helped shape “Free Falling,” even contributing the title of the song and says, “That’s the whole point of having someone sitting in the booth.”

George Martin relates how, when he first met the Beatles, they had been turned down by every other recording studio. He was older than the Fab Four and thought they had charisma. Says Martin, “When I first met them, they knew nothing about the studio. George had not even played rock and roll.” All agree that Martin added himself into the picture, inserting instrumentation suggestions and other improvements because he was “older and wiser.” Martin relates how Paul McCartney brought him the melody for “Yesterday,” which he said he had heard in his head. McCartney’s question was whether he had unconsciously picked it up from another artist, but Martin assured him it was a new song. Martin also suggested they needed to put strings on “Yesterday.” This initially frightened McCartney, who associated strings with classical music, which he was frightened of, feeling he was out of his depth. When Paul brought Martin “Eleanor Rigby” and Martin suggested the lush instrumentation that was the first time the band had not played on their records. Early in their recording career, it took them only 12 hours to cut their first albums, which were comprised, essentially, of the songs they played onstage. Says Questlove: “It was just so smart. George Martin obviously knew his stuff. He knew how to put it on a Beatles record. It’s a very different art than performing live. His influence was so mighty.”

The film moved on to the influence of Phil Spector and his “wall of sound.” We hear “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” by the Righteous Brothers and see him working with Tina Turner on “River Deep, Mountain High.” In order to get the lush sound, Phil would hire 2 or 3 times the musicians. Says Roger Waters of “Pink Floyd,” “One violin sounds like shit. Even 8 is crappy. Double the musicians.” Although Spector would frequently require 29 or 30 takes on a song, he often would return to the third or fourth take to use on the record. “He abused the technology, the musicians, to get the sound.”

DIY musicians like Joni Mitchell (she had it put in her contract that she would not have to use a producer), Sly of “Sly and the Family Stone”, and Tom Scholz of “Boston” were discussed. Said Questlove, “You couldn’t think of anyone telling Sly what to do in the studio. On his 5th album, ‘It’s A Family Affair,’ he played all the instruments and sang all the parts. He was a huge musical innovator back in 1971, setting the gold standard for funky music.” Scholz actually made the record and then formed the band, getting Brad Delp to sing the lead vocals.

The influence of “Pet Sounds” and “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” is discussed, and the rappers like Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg are included.

The big conclusion in the second installment of the 8-part series is that, although Les Paul invented it, the multi-tracking possible with computers has forged music that can be made in one’s basement with a computer. Gradually, with multi-tracking, songs came to be made that were no longer just a simplistic recording of the group singing. “Magnetic tape just changed music completely.”

Martin reappeared later in the narrative to say that when the Beatles quit touring, they were better able to focus on recording in the studio. The music they made early on was pretty basic, but it evolved when they had more time in the studio and they were “over that basic phase by 1966 making music that could not exist outside a record. The Beatles revolutionized the way records were made. The rule book was out the window.” He reveals that the Beatles always looked for other sounds on their records, sounds discovered by making loops and speeding them up or slowing them down. For the recording of “Tomorrow Never Knows,” John Lennon wanted to sound like the Dalai Lama, chanting from a mountain top. The revolving speaker was created for this purpose and it kicks in on the record about one and one-half minutes in. Martin called it, “A prophecy of pop music in one song—sampling, scratching. We were creating a new kind of music, fantasy stuff.” When the Beatles recorded “A Day in the Life” they created an album that was like a theatrical construction. It opened a Pandora’s Box for everyone. You have to throw your musical imagination into it.”

Among the other artist we hear from are Annie Lennox (“the Eurythmics”), Elton John, who says there was “an explosion of creativity in the 60s to mid 70s that I don’t think will ever be matched again,” Patrick Carney of “The Black Keys,” Beck, Bon Iver (who created his music on a Mac 0S9 with ProTools, and St. Vincent. My daughter’s favorite band, “Radiohead” are also featured.
Said Producer Julia Marchesi, “Because of George Martin’s influence we were able to get 116 interviews that cover voice and recording vocals; electrification; sampling; evolution of musical formats and, as George Martin termed it, “Painting with sound.”

Marchesi described the 8-part series as “a huge undertaking” and said the initial meetings were very contentious, with each producer fighting for the inclusion of a different artist.

It promises to be a musical feast for viewers in mid-November on PBS.

Duke Lacrosse Team Ordeal Chronicled in ESPN Film @ SXSW

By Connie Wilson

On March 18, 2016

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews, Sports

“Fantastic Lies” is an ESPN film directed by Marina Zenovich that explored the Duke Lacrosse case that exploded into the public consciousness 10 years ago. Most television viewers or newspaper readers know that the 48 white, privileged Duke Lacrosse team members had the bad judgment to hold a party at their rented house in Durham and hired two African-American females to dance and strip at the party. The girls were contacted through an escort service and were to be paid $400 each.
What happened after that, if anything, was the crux of the criminal case that almost saw 3 young men go to jail for 20 to 30 years for a crime they did not commit. The female who accused the young men of rape was emotionally unstable. She had had treatment for same in 2005. She was also the single mother of 2 young children. When she showed up at the Lacrosse party high, she and her fellow dancer performed for less than 10 minutes, then locked themselves in a bathroom. Later, the woman making the complaint, Crystal Mangum, got drunk and passed out. She made a visit to the emergency room with minor injuries and a rape kit was administered. That visit might have led to questioning her line of work and her failure to be a proper parent, with possible loss of her 2 children to DCFS, so charging the team with rape may have seemed like a way to deflect authorities from knowledge of her line of work. [In 2013, Mangum ended up in jail for the second-degree murder of her boyfriend.]
The 28-year-old Crystal is described by her former Sunday school teacher as “someone who made up reality as she went along.” Crystal was not emotionally or psychologically stable. She was used as a pawn by the District Attorney’s office to gain publicity for the re-election campaign of prosecutor Mike Nifong. Nifong was not only fired for his railroading of the three boys, but was disbarred and spent one night in jail.
Many peripheral truths are revealed in the documentary. The presumption of guilt of the 48 players—none of whom had sexual contact with either woman—was drummed to a fever pitch by TV talking heads like Nancy Grace and Bill O’Reilly. One of the boy’s parents said, “It was as though a Molotov cocktail landed in the community.” Reporter Ruth Sheehan wrote an article saying, “We know. We know you know,” suggesting that the team members needed to rat out the three suspects within their ranks who were allegedly guilty. She later wrote an apology for making an assumption that is proven to be totally false.
Three young men from the team were ultimately selected from a photo line-up (a line-up which violated the North Carolina Durham Police Department’s own rules, as there were no non-lacrosse players pictures in the mix) by the accuser. She singled out Collin Finnerty, team co-captain Reade Seligmann and Kyle Dowd as the three who had raped her and claimed to be “100% certain.” The chief investigator on the case, Detective Mark Gottlieb, doctored Crystal’s initial descriptions of her assailants to fit the three she selected from the pictures.
Mark Gottlieb left the police department in 2008. He committed suicide in 2014. During his career, he had a long history of overly aggressive prosecution of alleged criminals.
The three families of the accused, most from Northern locations like Long Island, now entered the fray to try to save their young sons’ lives. Said one parent, “This was an all-out war that had to be won.” As one of the defense attorneys said to the defendants, “Whatever life you had before March 13th (the date of the party) is gone. That life is never going to happen.” One young man’s father is quoted: “Had they gone to a North Carolina prison for a week, they’d either be dead or wish they were.” The three families “lawyered up.” Teams of lawyers began poring over the DNA evidence, the cell phone records of both the accused and the accuser, and other evidence. The three law teams worked together for their clients.

A neighbor testified that the women had arrived at midnight. The cell phone records proved that one of the defendants, Dave Evans, was not even in the house when the attacks were supposed to have occurred (he was at an ATM machine and is seen on the video) and the other boys accused were on their cell phones when Ms. Magnum claimed they were assaulting her, (as was she.)
Sixty-three days after the party, Dave Evans, co-captain and one of the three defendants, said, “You have all been told some fantastic lies. This case has been taken out to the news media by a person seeking public office.” Even Mike Nifone’s campaign manager said, “I knew in my heart that day that all of this was a lie.”
The case really fell apart when one of the attorneys cross-examined the DNA expert. This particular attorney (Bradley Bannon) had bought the equivalent of a “DNA for Dummies” book and was absolutely obsessed with understanding and making sense of the over 2-foot high pile of papers involving DNA results dumped on the defense during discovery. This young attorney was able to get the DNA expert to admit that the District Attorney told him to exclude any evidence except that which would convict the accused. There were physical DNA traces of between 7 and 11 other men on fingernails. There was more DNA from the DNA analyst, Brian. Meehan, who conducted the tests, than from all of the 48 members of the lacrosse team combined.
When Brian Meehan admitted in court that there was no DNA evidence linking any of the lacrosse team to Crystal, “all of a sudden a central truth erupted. They had to work to get the place where these kids were.” Brad Bannon, the attorney who had made it his mission to understand the electrofarrigam charts of DNA evidence in a marathon week-long session, capably cross examined Mr. Meehan and said, “I felt like I was in a sports movie.” This was a reference to the fact that none of the defense team was aware that the DNA expert for the prosecution was going to be testifying that day, and only Brad had studied up on the DNA to such great lengths to be able to point out where the tests exonerated his clients.
As they left the courtroom after Brian Meehan’s testimony, Judge Smith staring at District Attorney Mike Nifong sternly, the defense attorneys said, “He (Nifong) seemed to not realize that a calamity had just occurred. I wondered if he knew his case had imploded.”
A JOURNALISTIC TRAGEDY
As one of the accused boy’s fathers said, during testimony, “There are no Walter Cronkites or Edward R. Murrows any more.” Even the local paper admitted, “We should have tamped our outrage and waited to see.”

Another telling quote from the film with political ramifications this presidential season was this: “None of it was true, but it got reported as truth over and over and then it became true.” Said another parent, “They wanted it to be true.” The usual suspects who come out of the woodwork—Jesse Jackson, Bill O’Reilly, Nancy Grace—were all over the case and all were wrong in rushing to judgment.
The team was forced to cancel its entire season and they had been an NCAA contender. Lacrosse head coach Mike Pressler, who stood by his team, was forced to resign; he had been at Duke for 16 years.
None of the lacrosse team members accused would be interviewed for the documentary, although their parents were quoted. Dave Evans, the co-captain of the team who spoke for his teammates during a press conference, said, “My ultimate aspiration moving forward is to make everyone know that they defended the truth. The facts are the facts. The truth is the truth.”
The University settled out of court with all members of the lacrosse team. The three accused players have become involved with the Innocence Project, which seeks to use DNA evidence to prove that criminals were unjustly imprisoned. Already, a former conviction of District Attorney Mike Nifong, a man who had served 20 years in prison, was exonerated by DNA evidence. Authorities are looking back over all of Mike Nifong’s cases to see if he railroaded more than one innocent person.

“Shovel Buddies” Premiers @ SXSW

By Connie Wilson

On March 17, 2016

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

Prior to attending “Shovel Buddies” at SXSW, I thought the most creative use of the song “I’m on Fire” (Bruce Springsteen) might have been the month my AC went out at work. After trying to get the landlord to fix the air conditioning at 1035 Lincoln Road in a timely fashion, we began dedicating songs to the realty company on a popular radio station: “Great Balls of Fire.” “Hot Time in the City.” “Summer in the City.” “I’m on Fire.” It worked. They finally fixed the air conditioning, (although I’m convinced they were sending the missing part by pack animal, since it took so long, and we had pretty much exhausted our “hot” songs repertoire by the time the landlords got on it).
But now I’ve seen the new film “Shovel Buddies” at SXSW and, as the credits roll, the song is heard again, played over a scene at a construction site where 3 teenagers and one boy’s younger brother, Lump (Anton Starkman) are seated, covered in cement, having just weighted down a body and thrown their dead classmate into wet cement.
“Wait!” you’re saying. “What’s this about a dead classmate and wet cement?”
Sammy Hanes (Philip Labes) has died of cancer at a young age. He’s a high schooler and the film opens at his funeral, with his best friends, Jimmy (Alex Neustaedter) and Daniel (Kian Lawley) at the visitation. Jimmy is also in charge of his younger brother, Lump, since his parents are out of town, and both boys lust after the dead boy’s sister, Kate (Bella Thorne).
Daniel seems to be a bit of a dick, saying things to his friend, Jimmy, like, “It’s gonna’ be okay.”
“How do you know?”
“People keep saying it,” is the response, at which point Dan, stuffing his mouth with potato chips that are situated quite near the coffin, says, “Welcome to the rest of your life.”
Bella Thorne as the dead boy’s grieving sister (“I couldn’t find something to wear that said, ‘Sad, not broken.’”) refers to Daniel as “Captain Obvious” at one point; that line scripted by Jason Mark Hellerman brought a chuckle, anyway, although Daniel’s eulogy later was ill-advised.
The plot quickly turns into a “Weekend with Bernie”-like escapade that had theater patrons outside the Alamo Drafthouse on Slaughter Lane in Austin (TX) saying, “Wait: how long is it before rigor mortis sets in?”
Not a question you hear every day, but one that is relevant to this film, if the quartet is going to honor a Snapchat Last Will & Testament wish from their dead buddy Sammy. Sammy wants to be buried in his favorite high school athletic jersey (which is conveniently framed on the wall of his bedroom.) When the two friends (Jimmy and Daniel) tell Sammy’s parents that their son really wanted to be buried in his jersey, the parents are not helpful or accepting and, in fact, they are resentful that the request was not made to them directly. Instead, Sammy is to be cremated the next day. (Keep that 2 to 6 hr. rigor mortis fact uppermost in your mind at this point.)
This sets up the plot, which involves Jimmy leading the charge to get the jersey onto Sammy’s dead body before he is toast. As more than one astute movie-goer was heard to say following the film, “How long IS it before rigor mortis sets in?”
The answer? 2 to 6 hours. And it starts with the eyelids, jaw and neck, usually, just to give you a nice visual that isn’t in the movie.
Basically, from that point on, the plot has problems, because no way would the boys have been able to dress Sammy with ease and cart him around from place to place like a sack of potatoes, at times in the back of Jimmy’s parents’ car (which is ultimately totaled) and at other times just slung over their shoulders (“like a Continental soldier,” as the old song lyric went).
The title “Shovel Buddies” refers to the clean-up of Sammy’s room that the 2 fast friends undertake, removing incriminating items from Sammy’s computer, as well as girlie magazines, drugs and anything else he wouldn’t want his parents to find (Sammy’s father is a cop).

From that point on, the movie is about keeping promises and focuses on the way(s) in which Jimmy—who is initially thought to be the “good guy” in the cast—treats both his brother (Lump) and Sammy’s sister, Kate (Bella Thorne). Daniel just remains a dick. (Once a dick, always a dick.)
The movie was directed by Simon Atkinson and Adam Townley (as Si & Ad) and the 85-minute film moves along pretty smoothly, including the denouement at the recently demolished high school that is giving way to a new football stadium.
James C. Burns, actor/cinematographer, does a respectable job playing Sammy’s father, although his ultimate decisions regarding his son’s final resting place might draw some flak from the Mrs., if she were ever informed.
This was a World Premiere and the 85 minutes passed quickly, with original music by Germaine Franco (which got inexplicably LOUD at one point in the film), adequate (if inscrutable) acting by all the leads, good cinematography and editing, and an interesting premise.
The crowd outside was still asking those pesky technical questions that viewers of 1989’s “Weekend at Bernie’s” probably never asked, and the use of Snapchat and text messaging convinced me I’m definitely Old School and unlikely to get with the 2016 program any time soon, but the film, shot in California (Culver City, Santa Monica) had its moments, although the Final Words spoken by Daniel (“Sammy liked his drinks to be like his dick: stiff” and “Sammy knew the inherent beauty of a naked woman” might have been better left unsaid.)
Still, not a bad movie, start to finish, for a first film, with enough interesting things going on and enough interesting characters to keep you watching: good pacing, good acting and fine cinematography/editing. For a first film, a good start.

John Daly: Golfer Still Grips It, Rips It & Sips It

By Connie Wilson

On March 15, 2016

In Movies, Music, Pop Culture, Reviews

Getting Started

Golfer John Daly took the golf world by storm when he won the 1991 PGA, entering play as the 9th alternate. As Daly tells you in the documentary “Hit It Hard,” which showed on Tuesday, March 14th at SXSW in Austin and was helmed by filmmakers (and non-golfers) Gabe Spitzer and David Terry Fine, “I got to town about 2 a.m. and got a phone call the next day telling me, ‘You’re in.'” This film will ultimately be shown on ESPN, which bit when the two filmmakers asked about doing a 50 minute documentary about the colorful golfer.

When asked after the screening how long it took to get Daly to agree to become the subject of this film, the duo said they followed him around for “8 to 10 months” and finally “found him selling his gear outside a Hooters at Augusta.” He soon agreed to appear in the movie. Films of this sort for ESPN can be 50, 77, or 100 minutes long, but the cost of getting the rights to Daly’s greatest filmed golfing moments were prohibitive and kept the pair from making a longer film.

It’s like watching a new species.

We see Daly, wearing a colorful patchwork quilt of a jacket (red, white and blue) saying, “Take the chances. Be aggressive. That’s the way I was raised. You can’t change for others; you gotta’ do it for yourself. Some people just never grow up and I could say I’m one of ’em.”

The film opens with Daly’s triumph at the PGA in Carmel, Indiana at Crooked Stick Golf Course in 1991, coming in as the 9th alternate and blasting his way to victory. David Feherly of NBC, commenting on Daly’s massive 300+ golf drives, said, “It’s like watching a new species.”

Growing Up In Arkansas

Born in Carmichael, California, Daly grew up in Dardanelles, Arkansas, where he taught himself to play golf from Jack Nicklaus videos and practicing on a baseball field near his house and at the Bay Ridge Boat Club, beginning at the age of 4. He attended high school in Helias, Missouri. Golf was not really the sport his contemporaries were interested in, so Daly also played football in Missouri and still holds some high school records for kicking field goals. (He demonstrated his barefoot kicking style for the camera.)

Daly’s father was an alcoholic who was often abusive. Said Daly, “My brothers and I would come home from school and he’d just start beating on us. My mom, too.” Daly spoke of his father once putting a gun to his eye and beating his children with garden hoses, switches and other objects. He said, “It’s tough to forget.”

He went on to say, “I got a scholarship to Arkansas, but they told me I had to lose some weight. I lost 67 and 1/2 pounds in 2 months on a diet of Jack Daniels and popcorn.” If that sounds like a crazy diet, at one point not shown in the film, Daly told the filmmakers that he sometimes put beer on his Wheaties “to save money on milk,” which, the filmmakers noted, wouldn’t really be an effective cost-saving measure.

Daly has always had a drive that fans crave seeing.

According to official performance statistics kept since 1980, Daly in 1997 became the first PGA Tour player to average more than 300 yards per drive over a full season. He did so again every year from 1999 to 2008; he was the only player to do so until 2003.

Daly confessed to the camera, “My life changed in 4 days, but I wasn’t ready for it. I wasn’t taught how to be successful. Look–I did it my way. You only have yourself to blame.” Daly’s swing coach, Butch Harmon, quit in March of 2008, saying that “the most important thing in (Daly’s) life is getting drunk.” Daly responded by saying “I think his lies kind of destroyed my life for a little bit.” It is undeniable that Daly seems to have an addictive personality. Among his addictions: golf, women, alcohol, Coca Cola, cigarettes and chocolate. When he won one tournament while on the wagon, he filled the winner’s cup with chocolate ice cream and ate all of it.

This feasting to excess led to lap band surgery, which allowed Daly to lose as much as 80 lbs., but may have contributed to loss of muscle and an accompanying decline in his golf game (although Daly, himself, blames poor eyesight, which affected his putting.)

As for women, the three-times married Daly (his fiance now is Anna Cladakis, following Betty, Sherrie, and Paulette) says, “I love pleasin’ a woman a lot every day.” He also hopes to play on the Senior Tour, as his 50th birthday arrives on April 28th.

One sportscaster described him as “the first charismatic golfer since Jack Nicklaus” and worried, openly, that he might burn out like a comet. Said another, “Sometimes, he can’t get out of his own way.” Arnold Palmer once told him, “We all respect your game, but we want to respect you.”

Daly claims, in the film, to have won $45 million, while losing $98 million gambling. The stories of his gambling are as legendary as the stories of his antics on various golf courses, which earned him the nickname “The Wild Thing” at St. Andrew’s, where he won a four-hole play-off against Constantino Rocca in 1995.

Although there have been many low, low moments in Daly’s colorful life, he has three children and says, “I feel like my life is surrounded by good things. I kind of love the way it turned out. I care and I’m still gonna’ be John Daley. I’m gonna’ hit it hard and I’m gonna grip it and rip it.” And, as he says during this short, entertaining documentary, “I don’t give a shit what people say.”

He sings too.

The film ends with Daly singing over the credits. He has released 2 albums of music and sings well. The following is John’s perspective on his music:

“The album itself is really my life. All of the songs have a meaning. Most of the record is happening or has happened in my life. I hope people can relate to some of the troubles I have had along the way. Everyone around the world has problems, and I want to connect with those people.”

(John’s first album, ‘My Life,’ included guest vocals by Darius, Willie Nelson and Johnny Lee.)

A very enjoyable short film. Watch for it on ESPN–but not on ABC.

The Ruby Slippers: The True Story told in SXSW Documentary

By Connie Wilson

On March 12, 2016

In Movies, News, Pop Culture, Reviews

A Little About the South By Southwest Film and Music Festival

I’m here in Austin, Texas, attending some of the festivities associated with the South by Southwest Film and Music Festival. Actually, there are third and fourth components to the festival, as there was an education portion held prior to the beginning of the film and music, which kicked off with an appearance by President Barack Obama. (Michelle Obama arrived for the music portion today).

I’d heard about the film festival here for years and, having covered the Chicago International Film Festival for a decade (and one in Vancouver years ago), I learned that a top-of-the-line ticket to everything would have cost me $1,745. A ticket just for the film portion is $695. In other words, this is a far pricier proposition than attending the film festival in Chicago, which is exclusively film and doesn’t attempt to involve Austin’s version of Silicone Valley (3D printers) nor music venues galore. However, if you are a resident, as we have been since January, locals can purchase wristbands for either $65 or $95, depending on the length of time the wristband covers.

The Slippers

The documentary “The Slippers” by Canadian filmmaker Morgan White was a 5-year labor of love based on Rhys Thomas’ book The Ruby Slippers of Oz. Toronto native and director White co-scripted the film with Derek LaJeunesse. The film was, in a sense, a tribute to a man director White dubbed The Robin Hood of Hollywood, Kent Warner. “Once I read the book, I knew I had to do the movie,” said filmmaker White.

Warner, a Hollywood fixture who really knew his movies, was hired to help organize the sale of MGM’s large warehouse full of film artifacts and costumes when new owner Kirk Kerkorian, Las Vegas multi-millionaire who did not care about the Hollywood history that was going to be auctioned off became the studio owner back in 1970. It is estimated that Warner, who probably liberally “helped himself” to the important dresses and props of the era, discovered the shoes in February or March of 1970. Warner, himself, told an embellished story about retrieving the cache of what may have been as few as 5 pair of ruby slippers or as many as 10. Warner kept the best pair for himself, but often stole things “for Debbie,” meaning Debbie Reynolds, who, for years, was buying props and costumes of yesteryear for a Hollywood Museum that never materialized.

The Rising Cost Of Nostalgia

Debbie Reynolds’ son, Todd Fisher, is interviewed in the film and told stories of how his mother was cheated time and time again at auctions when she bid on bits of motion picture history, detailing one particular purchase of what was to have been the original blue-and-white Judy Garland dress from the 1939 film. When she went to pick up her purchase, she had been given a plain blue dress that was a “test” dress. Similarly, Debbie ended up only with a pair of ruby slippers that were rejected for the film but made initially to test the concept of a pointy-toed elf-like design, (which was ultimately rejected).

Director Morgan White described his regret at not being able to interview Debbie Reynolds in person but said he talked to her on the phone and said, “She sang to me and sort of trailed off. I think she may have been drunk.”

The rising cost of owning a pair of the ruby slippers was tracked. The shoes probably cost only $13 or $14 to make, originally, in 1939. A woman named Roberta Bauman who won a pair of the ruby slippers in a contest kept them for years and then cashed in by having them auctioned by Chrstie’s. They brought $150,000 in 1988. In 2000, a pair sold for $666,000. Prices today, if a pair were to be put up for auction, are estimated as bringing as much as $2 million or more. The 2012 auction of Debbie Reynolds’ accumulated treasures brought in $27 million. The film is as much about the rising cost of nostalgia as it is about the iconic ruby slippers.

Different Pairs In Different Locations

One pair is on display at Disney, given them for display by the owner (Anthony Landini). One pair is on display at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. One pair was bought for the Academy by investors including Leonardo DeCaprio. A woman in the Austin audience asked about a pair on display in Austin and the filmmaker sighed and said, “I’m going to be really sorry if there is an original pair on display here in town and I didn’t know about it when I was making this film.”

A large part of the film covers the loaning of a pair of the slippers to a Judy Garland (real name at birth: Frances Gumm) Museum in her hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. After successfully loaning the slippers to the Museum for years for an annual festival, they were stolen in August of 2005. The small town Museum supposedly had security, but the security alarm did not notify police and the security camera had been switched off. The thieves were inside the structure for just a few moments in a smash-and-grab robbery and the film shows scuba divers searching a nearby lake (created from an abandoned iron ore pit), on suspicion that the shoes may have been stolen by some local youths who then threw them away.

Filmmaker Morgan White said the most disappointing thing was the Academy of Motion Pictures’ refusal to allow him to film the slippers that were donated to them by the mystery donors (guesses beyond DeCaprio include Stephen Spielberg and possibly Oprah Winfrey). He described the film as a tribute to Kent Warner, the knowledgeable Hollywood insider who smuggled out so many iconic items. Warner died of AIDS in 1984 at the age of 41 and had to sell off most of his treasures to pay for his treatment. (Shots of Warner’s grave were poignant). White considers Warner an unsung hero of the Hollywood memorabilia movement, one who is not acknowledged or even known.

Dwight Bowers of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., who has a pair on display, explained:

“What makes the shoes so valuable is not necessarily what they are (i.e., size 5 to 6 shoes covered in 2,300 handsewn fish scale sequins dyed red—a change from the original plan to have silver shoes inspired by the advent of color to movies—) but what they represent.”

“Hail, Caesar!” Is a Joy from Start to Finish

By Connie Wilson

On February 11, 2016

In Movies, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews

I had been looking forward to the new Joel & Ethan Coen movie, “Hail, Caesar!” which is based on the novel plot point that the lead actor in a huge studio spectacle is kidnapped and held for ransom just as the film is in the midst of shooting. The time frame for the film is the early 1950s, which means that musicals and religious spectacles (think “The Robe,” “Spartacus,” etc.) were big. Anyone old enough to know who Esther Williams was will like this movie.

I was lucky to see the film at a theater that showed clips from some of these old movies prior to the feature film. There were clips from an old Frank Sinatra/Gene Kelly film, complete with dancing and singing. There were several choreographed swimming movies with Esther Williams (and others) looking every bit as good in her spangly swimsuit as any of today’s starlets. All of these snippets of films of yesteryear helped establish the tone and mood for the feature film.

And the feature film was a doozy! Outstanding amongst a terrific cast, for me, were the new face playing cowboy actor Hobie Doyle, Alden Ehrenheich. Alden is shown as a terrific horseman who can ride and rope with the best of them and can also sing. Because westerns were big in that era, Hobie has a career in westerns, but is suddenly traded by his studio to play the lead in a romantic drawing room comedy drama entitled “Merrily We Dance,” being directed by the oh-so-cultivated (and probably gay) director Laurence Laurentz, played by Ralph Fiennes. Since Hobie can barely speak, the scene where Fiennes tries to coach Hobie on how to deliver his lines is a comic delight. It goes without saying that Hobie cannot understand half of the terms Director Laurentz uses (words like “importune”). As we know from the clip that portrays Hobie’s dilemma, if asked to rope a cow, he would be in his element. If asked to dress up in a tuxedo and talk in a refined manner: not so much. The best Hobie can say, in trying to please his director, is, “I’ll give it a shot.” (His task: speak the line, “Would that it were so simple.”)

Josh Brolin plays the hard-working head of the studio who must put out fires on and off the lot. Ed Mannix must deal with the kidnapping of the lead in his Biblical epic, an actor called Baird Whitlock (George Clooney). The group that has kidnapped Baird (Clooney) calls itself “the Future.” It is a group of egghead Communists, and the leader of the group is a reveal when it comes.

The cast is uniformly great and the send-ups of what the old studio culture was all about is genius. Tilda Swinton plays two gossip columnists, an homage to the dueling gossip columnists Dear Abby and Anne Landers, probably. There is a veiled reference to the old story of Loretta Young’s love child (supposedly by Clark Gable) being adopted by its own biological mother. The rumors of gay stars and directors having to conceal their homosexuality are legendary.

On the evening talk shows, co-star Channing Tatum shares the difficulties he faced in his part, since he had to learn to tap dance. The tap dance sequence is great. The swimming sequences that mimic the Esther Wiliams movies of old are wonderful, especially when Scarlett Johanssen speaks.

Noah Hill doesn’t have enough to do (nor does Frances McDormand) but lines like this kept me wanting more: “God doesn’t have children. He is a bachelor—and very angry.” The send-up of the old westerns with singing cowboys (“Lazy Ol’ Moon”) was equally good.

I really needed a light-hearted comedy that realizes there are a few adults left in the world who go to the movies. I’ve been seeing what looks like a re-boot of “Animal House” updated to the seventies. No offense to its Austin-based director Richard Linklater, based here in Austin, who helmed the classic “Dazed and Confused,” but I’d rather stroll down memory lane with the Coen Brothers. This movie was thoroughly entertaining, from start to finish.

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMqeoW3XRa0

Haskell Wexler: Activist and Cinematographer Par Excellence

By Connie Wilson

On February 1, 2016

In Editorial, Movies, Politics, Pop Culture

Haskell Wexler, world-famous cinematographer and liberal political activist, died 2 days after Christmas in his sleep at his Santa Monica home at the age of 93. It was a big loss to the world of cinema, and, on a personal level, I regret postponing the interview I planned (which he agreed to) that I never got around to conducting. He goes right up there with Christa McAuliff as (yet another) celebrity who I should have spoken with sooner.

On the even of the Monday, February 2 caucuses in Iowa, I think back to Wexler’s work on behalf of liberal causes and sneak in the prediction that Hillary will (probably) win Iowa but Bernie could take her in New Hampshire before mentioning some of Wexler’s accomplishments and quoting his son, Jeff, who works in the industry, as does his movie producer son Mark.

Haskell Wexler was still filming (the 2012 NATO demonstrations in Grant Park) at the age of 90, and that is when the picture accompanying this article was shot, in Grant Park.

This is me, in Grant Park, with Haskell Wexler. I was star-struck to realize Haskell was shooting film there (as was I) during the big NATO trade meeting (and demonstrations in Chicago in May, 2012.) He was 90 then and still working; we should all be so lucky. Haskell died in his sleep in Santa Monica this past December 27th, (2015). He was 93.

I ran all the way across the park to meet him and have this photo taken, bailing on a Vietnam veteran I was interviewing who was going to return his medals during the Occupy protests. Later, I had the photo framed, wrote a thank you note for the hours of entertainment that his movies provided to all of us, and gave it to him, in person, at a Chicago Film Festival I was covering. I asked him if I could interview him at that time, and he was very gracious and gave me his e-mail. I planned to do it, but I first needed to do more research on his many outstanding films, a few of which I had not seen (especially his documentaries, which are sometimes hard to obtain).

That didn’t happen and now he is dead. “Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.”

During his rise to prominence, Haskell met such future luminaries as a young George Lucas (he advised him to go to film school) and William Friedkin (“The Exorcist,” “The French Connection”) when he was working as an usher in Chicago.

Chicago was a big part of Wexler’s life. He was a native son (born at 2340 Lincoln Park West to a father (Simon “Sy” Wexler) who worked for Allied Radio, a progenitor of Radio Shack. From an early age he began filming, working as an assistant to Mickey Pallas, who chronicled unions and civil rights groups—causes which Wexler would believe in and document all his life.

Probably his most famous chronicling of politics occurred in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic Convention when actor Robert Forster (last seen on “Breaking Bad”) starred in his film “Medium Cool” and actual protesters and police appeared in the film. Haskell wrote, directed, shot and produced the film, getting his cousin, blues guitarist Mike Bloomfield, to do the music. Wexler’s “cinema verite” hand-held camera style on the film, much like Costa Gravas’ “Z,” has been much studied in film schools since, and, as Glenn Erickson, writing for Turner Classic Movies said, “His footage looked so good that one would think the confrontation lines had been pre-lit for his camera.” Haskell himself described how he would coach the young female lead to go right up to the barricades and ask, nicely, if she could duck underneath them and go where the action was, with Wexler shooting her every step of the way. He captured the brutality of the thugs beating protesters against the Vietnam War in Grant Park, across the street from the Hilton on Michigan where the DNC was taking place at the time. When “Medium Cool” opened, film critic Roger Ebert called it, “The only feature film to really capture the life of Chicago’s neighborhoods.”

Haskell Wexler had a life-long love affair with Chicago, saying he always wanted to make his first film in Chicago because “Chicago is a real place and L.A. is a motel. I am a Chicagoan.”

The scenes Haskell Wexler gave us, including the black-and-white squabbling of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and the lush grassy grace of a young Richard Gere in “Days of Heaven” stay in the memory. Faye Dunaway’s sexy chess game with Steve McQueen in the original “Thomas Crown Affair” (with its split-screen shots); “Coming Home” and Bruce Dern’s walk into the sea; “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” with Jack Nicholson (from which he was fired by Milos Forman); “In the Heat of the Night,” where he discovered that the lighting for black actor Sidney Poitier must be adjusted to suit African-American actor’s skin tones; “The Conversation” with Gene Hackman; “American Graffiti” with a young Harrison Ford and Ron Howard. The list goes on and on, and is enumerated below.

Haskell’s son, Jeff, who works in sound for movies, was Oscar-nominated himself for “The Last Samurai” and “Independence Day.” He relates, “Steve McQueen would come by the house and pick me up in one of his new Ferraris. Pop would take me to work. It was just terrific for me to visit the set. If they hadn’t put the camera on the dolly yet, he’d let me ride on the dolly. I was in heaven.”

Two things that few knew about Haskell Wexler, says his son Jeff, “Dad was color-blind. He kept it a secret for the longest time.” Also, when WWII began, Haskell joined the Merchant Marine, was torpedoed, spent two weeks in a lifeboat, and had to swim through burning oil to survive. That sort of sealed the deal as far as his anti-war stance.”

Wexler is survived by his son Jeff, his movie producer son Mark, a daughter, Kathy, and his third wife, actress Rita Taggart.

R.I.P., Haskell Wexler. You were truly a visionary and one of a kind.

From IMDB:

Two-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler was adjudged one of the ten most influential cinematographers in movie history, according to an International Cinematographers Guild survey of its membership. He won his Oscars in both black & white and color, for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and Bound for Glory (1976). He had served in the merchant marine with Arlo Guthrie. (He actually won the very last Oscar for b&w cinematography that was awarded.)

He also shot much of Days of Heaven (1978), a gorgeous Richard Gere film directed by Terence Malick, for which credited director of photography Nestor Almendros — [who was losing his eye-sight], won a Best Cinematography Oscar that Wexler felt should have been jointly shared by both. “Days of Heaven” was not a commercial success but is now considered a seminal film of the seventies, especially because of its gorgeous cinematography. (Sam Shepherd was also in the film). In 1993, Wexler was awarded a Lifetime Achievement award by the cinematographer’s guild, the American Society of Cinematographers.

He received five Oscar nominations for his cinematography, in total, plus one Emmy Award in a career that spanned six decades and lasted into his nineties, as I saw him shooting film in the park on May 22, 2012, during the NATO meting/protests. He was 90 when this picture was taken, and he was still working. Haskell suggested to George Lucas that he go to film school, and Lucas never forgot this helpful advice.

Weskell is one of only 6 cinematographers to have a star on Hollywood’s Starred Walk of Fame and once formed a business with famed director Conrad (Connie) Hall. (One of the other 6 cinematographers to have a star and whose last film was “Road to Perdition.”)

In addition to his masterful cinematography, Wexler directed the seminal late Sixties film Medium Cool (1969) and has directed and/or shot many documentaries that display his progressive political views. He was the subject of a 2004 documentary shot by his son Mark Wexler, Tell Them Who You Are (2004).

Films:

Stakeout on Dope Street, 1958 (credited as Mark Jeffrey due to problems with his Guild membership
The Savage Eye, 1960
Hoodlum Priest, 1961
Angel Baby, 1961
Face in the Rain, 1963
America, America, 1963
The Best Man, 1964
The Loved One, 1965 (also producer)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 1966
In the Heat of the Night, 1967
The Thomas Crown Affair, 1968
Medium Cool, 1969 (also director and screenwriter)
American Graffiti, 1973 (as “Visual Consultant”)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 1975 (replaced by Bill Butler)
Bound for Glory, 1976
Coming Home, 1978
Days of Heaven, 1978

Second-Hand Hearts, 1981
Lookin’ to Get Out, 1982
The Man Who Loved Women, 1983
Matewan, 1987
Colors, 1988
Three Fugitives, 1989
Blaze, 1989
Other People’s Money, 1991
The Babe, 1992
The Secret of Roan Inish, 1994
Canadian Bacon, 1995
Mulholland Falls, 1996
The Rich Man’s Wife, 1996
Limbo, 1999
61*, 2001
Silver City, 2004
The Writer with No Hands, 2014 (appearance as self)

All-Star “Spotlight” Is One of the Year’s Best Films

By Connie Wilson

On November 24, 2015

In Movies, Reviews

The Tom McCarthy-directed movie “Spotlight” makes me remember why I wanted to become a reporter after I graduated from high school. I did, in fact, go off to the University of Iowa on a Ferner/Hearst Journalism Scholarship. I had visions of becoming a female investigative reporter like Rachel Adams’ character of Sacha Pfeiffer in this compelling drama about how a team of four reporters known as “Spotlight,” working as a special investigative unit within the Boston Globe newspaper, broke wide open the decades-old story of pedophiles in the Catholic priesthood. Not everyone in predominantly Catholic Boston appreciated their efforts, least of all the Catholic Church.

At the conclusion of the film, the screen is filled with three screens of the names of cities where pedophile priests have been “outed.” I noticed Davenport and Dubuque among those cities scrolling by. I seem to remember that one of those Dioceses declared bankruptcy in the wake of the punitive damages awarded victims by the courts.

In 2002 over 600 stories were published about the pedophile priests just in Boston (87 is the number there) and, ultimately, 249 priests who had molested over 1,000 survivors were found guilty in courts of law. This was, indeed, a story on the scale of that icon of investigative reporting, “All the President’s Men.”

The cast here is uniformly great. In fact, the ensemble won a Gotham award and it was named the Audience Favorite at the recent Chicago Film Festival I covered. To name just the familiar faces: Mark Ruffalo (who may well score an Oscar nod for his part as Mike Rezendes), Michael Keaton as Walter “Robby” Robinson, Rachel McAdams as Sacha Pfeiffer, Liev Schreiber as the new Jewish editor from Miami, Marty Baron, John Slattery (“Mad Men”) as Ben Bradlee Jr., Stanley Tucci (“The Hunger Games”) as lawyer Mitchel Garabedian, Billy Crudup as lawyer Eric Macleish and Jamey Sheridan as public defender Jim Sullivan.

The film has the unenviable task of making the tough work of backgrounding the news (a class I once took at the University of Iowa) and interviewing subjects seem riveting, when it is more often a task that takes place in a room full of filing cabinets and computer terminals. Yet it succeeds.

A disembodied voice that sounds so much like character actor Richard Jenkins (“Six Feet Under”) that, if it isn’t him, it should be, gives us some background on pedophiles in the priesthood. The voice belongs to a psycho-therapist who works with pedophile priests in a treatment center. He tells the investigative quartet that only about 50% of priests honor their vow of celibacy. The Jenkins-sound-alike voice (I could not find the name of the person who is heard on the phone in the credits) tells the team that 6% of priests act out sexually with minors. If Boston has 1,500 priests (as it did at that time in the seventies), 90 would be the 6% figure. (The team finds 87). He says, “Pedophiles are a billion-dollar liability” to the church, but attorney Billy Crudup later lays out the liability, per case: $20,000 limit for molesting a child with a 3-year statue of limitations. In other words, the deck is stacked in favor of the molesters.

With lines (scripted by Director Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer) like, “If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a village to abuse one,” and “Knowledge is one thing; faith is another,” the audience understands the bind the Boston-based newspaper is facing in a town so thoroughly Catholic that they seem to control everything. A disgusted survivor who has formed a therapy group called S.N.A.P. for those abused by priests puts it bluntly: “What this is is priests using the collar to rape kids.” Young boys are more often the targets, because a young boy, embarrassed, is less likely to reveal the molestation, but girls were not immune. One family had 7 children molested by the local clerics.

Probably the most intense acting is turned in by Mark Ruffalo as Mike Rezendes because he has a great scene opposite Michael Keaton as is boss, where he is urging that action be taken faster. However, it is difficult to single out one outstanding member of a cast this good in a movie this good. Look for this one to get lots of Oscar nods on February 28th.

Michael Moore’s New Film “Where to Invade Next” Steals Good Ideas of Other Nations

By Connie Wilson

On October 25, 2015

In Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Movies, Politics, Reviews, travel

One of just three showings in the country of Michael Moore’s new documentary, “Where to Invade Next?” took place in Chicago during the 41st Annual Chicago International Film Festival on Friday, October 23, 2015.

What has lured Michael Moore, the documentary genre’s most entertaining rabble-rouser, back to feature films after a six-year hiatus? Only the future of his country, naturally. Where To Invade Next is a light-hearted, informative, and subversive comedy in which Moore, playing the role of “invader,” visits a host of nations (Tunisia, Iceland, Germany, France, Italy, Slovenia, et. al.) to learn how the U.S. could improve in coping with similar problems. The director of Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine is back with this hilarious, eye-opening call to arms. Where To Invade Next demonstrates that the solutions to America’s problems already exist in the world; those solutions are just waiting to be co-opted by the U.S..

The newest documentary offering from Moore—whose films have been among the most profitable documentaries ever produced—won the Founders’ Prize at this year’s Chicago Film Festival. Moore was present to accept it in person on October 23rd.

Attired in his usual rumpled just-fell-out-of-bed baseball cap, tennis shoes and casual gear, Moore looked over the group assembled at the AMC Theater on Friday, October 23rd at 7:00 p.m. and, noting the balcony, said, “It’s like aerobics to get up there.” He proceeded to say this was the first time a Midwestern audience had seen the film, as it had previously shown in the Hamptons and at the Toronto Film Festival, where it was widely praised (only 3 showings, to date).

As the film has not yet opened wide, the capsule above will suffice as a sneak peek, while the Q&A he offered to filmgoers on Friday, October 23rd, gives a look at Moore’s mindset now, 26 years after his film “Roger and Me” about the crash of the Detroit auto industry was filmed with the $58,000 Moore won in a settlement from “Mother Jones” magazine following his termination as its editor (for putting a fired auto-worker on the cover, rebelling against orders not to do so).

Q1: How can we in the United States get back our greatness?
A1: Sometimes it’s as simple as voting for a guy from Chicago whose middle name is Hussein. Seventy-eight % of this country is composed of women and minorities. You can turn off the angry white guy vote and concentrate on what this country is becoming.

Q2: (from Chaz Ebert, widow of Roger Ebert, functioning as moderator) Your film seems very patriotic…
A2: Will they say that on Fox News? (Laughs) I get death threats all the time. I get death threats and I’m happy to get them, because that means I can prepare. An AK47 went off in Rockford from some guy who wanted to assassinate me. His assassination list included Hillary Clinton, Janet Reno, and Rosie O’Donnell: a list of lesbians and me! I’m proud, but I’m puzzled.

Q3: You seem to be a one-man band. How much autonomy do you have in making your films and releasing your films?
A3: “Bowling for Columbine” was a Canadian release. “Sicko” was the first film made with American money out of the gate. Before then, from 1989 to 2007, money didn’t come to me. Then, the Weinsteins and Paramount got into distributing my films. Now, these are entities that I don’t believe in. Money is the most important thing to them. I’ve done nothing but make them money—half a billion dollars worldwide. What is that old saying: “A capitalist will sell you the rope to hang yourself if it makes them a buck.” For this film, my agent broke the Number One Rule for agents, which is not to invest in your clients’ films and his company loaned me the money to make the film.

Q4: You and Steve James (“Hoop Dreams”) started showing the industry that a documentary could be entertaining. Do you have any advice today for documentary filmmakers?
A4: I hate the term documentarian. It’s just a film. We need to honor that. We need to tell a story, as with “An Inconvenient Truth” or Errol James’ work. I’m always making this for the audience. This isn’t finished without them. I’m just their stand-in. It’s just really not what I wanted to do with this body (laughs), making myself 50 feet high. I didn’t make my first documentary until the age of 35. Because of Roger (Ebert0 going to the mat for us, the world of making documentaries changed. Both Gene and Roger teamed up in 1989 and supported me and Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing.” I was discovered by Roger at Telluride. He was supposed to be going to the Opening Night film, “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.” They put up opposite the opening night movie in a tiny theater at 1:00 p.m. (the Nugget). But Roger and I found each other at the food in the middle of the street. I begged him to come see my film and he seemed to be offended that I’d pushed so hard, as this was its world premiere, but when he came, he looked at me and said, “Don’t say a word. I’m only here because there was a crazy look in your eyes. Ebert took this picture of me (my first fan picture) with his little camera. The next day, in the Chicago paper, he wrote that “Roger & Me” was “One of the best films I’ve seen in the last 10 years.” So, I really owe a debt of gratitude to Roger Ebert, your late husband.

Q5: Why did you choose to make this movie?
A5: People would say to me, “You point out all the problems we have, but you never point out the solutions.” A documentary is to give information. I wanted to show what’s wrong in the U.S. but none of the film is shot in the United States, except for the archival footage. And I wanted to pick the flowers, not the weeds. It’s been really well received. People say, “It’s a happier film. Mike’s in a better mood…” I think it’s going to reach a lot of people. Obviously, there are 20% on the far right who will never like anything I do. I think I didn’t make this film for a long time because it’s so unbelievable when you go out and find out how other countries deal with the same problems we face. Check my website for factual accuracy.

Michael Moore and producers on the Red Carpet on Oct. 23 in Chicago.

Q6: What will your next film be?
A6: I’ve written 2 screenplays and my next film may be a fiction film.

Q7: You visit Germany in the film. What did you think about Germany’s austerity, vis-a-vis Greece?
A7: There’s no Paradise among these countries. My personal opinion is that Germany has been a little bit harsh on Greece, but it’s amazing what the Germans are doing to take in refugees. They are doing some of the most amazing things, including teaching their young people about the Holocaust. They actually have little plaques embedded in the sidewalks outside the homes that were confiscated by Nazis in World War II giving the names of the original Jewish owners. They are not trying to keep their past secret, they are trying to change. If they can change their way of thinking around, certainly we can; we’re not Nazis. I don’t want that to be our new national motto: “We’re not Nazis! We can do better!” (laughs)

Q8: You support the union and there are union logos at the bottom of the screen at the end of the film. Are your films all staffed by union members?
A8: All my films have been made with union workers. During the film on “Capitalism”, I was finally able to convince the camera and sound people to join their unions. I’m a big supporter of people joining unions. There is a tip of the hat in the film to May Day and Chicago, because Chicago in 1886 was the birthplace of the union movement.

Michael Moore, recipient of the Founders’ Award, at the 51st Annual Chicago International Film Festival.

Sarah Silverman Shows She Has Dramatic Chops in “I Smile Back”

By Connie Wilson

On October 25, 2015

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews

Comedienne Sarah Silverman showed up at the Chicago Film Festival showing of her serious drama “I Smile Back” on October 16th and answered some questions from the audience following the showing of the film that was one of the best indie films I saw during the 51st Chicago Film Festival.

Silverman portrays Laney Brooks, a mom who is so devoted to her children that she draws pictures on their lunch bags, but so screwed up from her own unhappy childhood, that her attempts to forge a solid nuclear family are sabotaged by self-loathing, addiction(s) to drugs, sex and alcohol, and the fear that “Every moment of beauty, it goes away, it fades…Nobody tells you that it is terrifying to love something so much.”

Director Adam Salky (the film “Dare”) assembled a top-notch cast, headed by Silverman but also featuring Josh Charles (“The Good Wife,” “Masters of Sex”), Thomas Sadoski (“The Newsroom,” “Life in Pieces”) and Chris Sarandon (“Dog Day Afternoon”). The source material is Amy Koppelman’s novel “I Smile Back”, which Koppelman adapted for the screen with the help of her writing partner Paige Dylan (wife of Jakob Dylan). When Koppelman heard Silverman on Howard Stern’s radio program talking about her own experiences with depression, she sent Silverman the novel on a whim. “I write these really small dark books and I just thought she would understand what I was trying to say… It was a miracle she opened it,” Koppelman said in an interview with “Variety’s” Allison Sadlier.

Silverman, herself, came out to introduce “I Smile Back” attired in a tight red dress with small cape-like sleeves and to accept the Breakthrough Award. Her introduction to the movie was, “I don’t like it when people talk before a movie. I think it taints the film.” And then she left, apparently to change into more ordinary clothing and eat spaghetti and French fries.

When she returned, following an impressive performance onscreen as the pill-popping wife, Laney Brooks, of Bruce Brooks (Josh Charles)—a woman who is bi-polar and off her meds— the audience had watched a woman in deep psychological trouble try to deal with her inner pain through self-medicating with pills, cocaine, alcohol and sex with Donnie (Thomas Sadorski), the husband of her pregnant friend and neighbor. She also finally is driven to try Rehab. But, throughout, she attempts to also play the role of perfect suburban wife and mother to two adorable children, Eli (Skylar Gaertner) and Janey (Shayne Coleman).

Laney’s comment, “I don’t see why anyone bothers loving anything. Don’t act like everything’s gonna’ be okay when, nothing is gonna’ be okay” gives a good idea of the film you’re going to see. It’s a film about depression. As we gradually learn, Laney has had issues for years, going back to when her father (Chris Sarandon) abandoned the family and never bothered to contact her after leaving. It is only later in a visit to dear old dad that we learn that her father left her mother because Mom had the same black streak, the same issues with substance abuse.

My only criticism of the film was the “Sopranos”-like ending, which I found unfulfilling. Up to that point, Silverman and the excellent supporting cast were riveting in their roles and held your attention throughout the depressing but realistic film.

As the film progresses, we learn that Laney is feeling dead inside. Without her lithium, she seems incapable of following Nancy Reagan’s advice to “Just say no.” She also feels shut out of her marriage, saying, “We used to be in this together. We used to be on the same team” to husband Bruce. [Silverman is currently in a real-life relationship with Michael Sheen of “Masters of Sex” —and talking about it much less than her previous widely-publicized relationship with television host Jimmy Kimmel).]

Here were some of Silverman’s candid answers to questions asked of her following the Chicago premiere of “I Smile Back,” which opened in select theaters October 23rd and will be available on demand on November 6th. It’s worth a look, containing one of the strongest female performances this year; the film was a sensation at Sundance.

Q1: How did you approach playing Laney?
A1: How you feel about Laney depends on the prism of your own experience—you may feel empathy, compassion or pity. (Silverman then cracked a joke that she now felt “sluggish” after downing spaghetti and French friends while the audience enjoyed the film.)

Q2: How long was the shoot and what was its budget?
A2: It took 20 days to shoot and the budget was $100,000. (The school scenes are shot at Five Towns’ College in Dix Hills, New York) I’m glad it was 20 compact days. It would have been really rough to do that for 3 months. I don’t have easy access to my emotions. I had convinced myself that between scenes it would be fun, but it wasn’t like that. The emotions were on my lap all the time. (Joking: “Try to go to sleep with the gentle tones of soft core murder.”)

Q3: How much did you rehearse beforehand?
A3: We rehearsed before each scene. We didn’t really have dedicated rehearsal time.

Q4: Was your work in comedy a past influence?
A4: Everything I’ve done before this sort of informed everything. It has to do with skills—timing. In my comedy, I’ve enjoyed playing the arrogant, self-involved idiot. Laney is self-loathing. She is self-obsessed because she is living in that future of “what if?” The only thing she really has control of is her own bad behavior.

Q5: How does the family in the film compare to your own family?
A5: I grew up in a house with few boundaries and almost too much freedom. I didn’t really learn to be guarded, to have the traditional family dynamic. I feel that Laney is a woman who gave up her job to marry. She is bored and depressed. Nothing is as idyllic as it seems. This is life behind closed doors.

Q6: What was it like working with the child actors?
A6: I loved working with the kids. Skylar (Eli, the son) is like a young Ron Howard. He was never bored. He was fortified by the set. Shayne, the little sister Janey, wasn’t aware of anything. The conversation she has with Josh Charles about sugar and how it’s bad for you was all Shayne just chatting.

Q7: Do you think you will be doing more serious roles in the future? (Silverman’s cousin asked this from the back of the room).
A7: I’m getting discovered and I’m only 44! (laughs)