Welcome to WeeklyWilson.com, where author/film critic Connie (Corcoran) Wilson avoids totally losing her marbles in semi-retirement by writing about film (see the Chicago Film Festival reviews and SXSW), politics and books----her own books and those of other people. You'll also find her diverging frequently to share humorous (or not-so-humorous) anecdotes and concerns. Try it! You'll like it!
Now playing at our local cinema is Director Mark Mylod’s paen to over-priced food and uber pretentious foodies, “The Menu.”
The film stars Ralph Fiennes as Chef Slowik, a native of Waterloo, Iowa, who once slung burgers as the Employee of the Month at Howie’s Hamburgers, but has now become an elitest snob even more superficial than his wealthy customers.
The film opens with the truly elitest group boarding a boat to sail to a private island for a dinner priced at $1,250 per person. Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) is a foodie of the first class who has been following Chef Slowik’s career for years and has been( corresponding with him for 8 months, (as we later learn,)
First question: if someone who was going to cook for you told you that by accepting the invitation to come to the island to eat, you were signing your ow death warrant, would you still accept the invitation? No. I didn’t think so. It is those lapses between reality and the deux machina that makes this movie work that are the negatives, but there are many positives, including Anya Taylor-Joy as the female lead accompanying young Tyler to dinner.
As it turns out, Anya Taylor-Joy (“The Qheen’s Gambit,” 2020; “Split,” 2016) is a substitute for Tyler’s original date. As you get to know Tyler, thanks to the witty script from Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, it is easy to see why none of the cool girls ever wanted to go to Prom with him, and why he hired Anya Taylor-Joy’s hooker, Margo, to accompany him to the island, after his original date broke it off. [Tyler is the kind of date whose obsession with the topic and annoying devotion to the entire concept of Chef Slowik dserves breaking off.]
The clip from the film shows the apparently Mad As A Hatter Chef Slowik telling the guests at his fabled restaurant, that the men will be given 45 seconds to run for their lives. Ergo, we know fro the start that this is no ordinary dinner party with high-priced food that may be close to inedible to the average palate. After all, these palates are not “average” or ordinary. These are exceptionally rich people who feel that they are just slightly better than others who cannot afford this kind of food.
My feeling about Anya Taylor-Joy’s character, like the chef himself, is that she is a working class stiff—a service industry caterer like Ralph Fiennes. He recognizes her as “different” from the others because of that, but also accuses her of ruining his entire presentation by being present on this finale night. Margo is a no bullshit kind of gal. She does the most to attempt to save herself. She basically calls out the phoney baloney food (or lack of food) and demands a cheeseburger, at one point in time. And she gets it.
The set decoration (Gretchen Gathuso), art direction (Lindsey Moran) and production design (Ethan Tobman), as well as the cinematography by Peter Deming were all exquisite. The restaurant’s interior reminded me of a hotel I stayed in once, in a town I shall not name, which was so sterile and uncozy that I was tempted to check out in the middle of the night. The costuming is also fantastic and the entire film is so well-done that I can recommend it when it streams as well-paced (John Leguizamo is a joy, always) and fun to watch, even as we recognize that it is really all style and no substance. It works for “The Glass Onion,” why not this film?
I watched the taped last program of “The Voice” that selected the winner.
What a colossal disappointment!
As I relayed in a previous article, they had already kicked off the two best singers. The two best were African American singers who were spectacular and, instead of them, we had one truly impressive voice remaining (Omar) and 4 others who were okay, but not that impressive.
Of the 4 others, at least 2 were selected because they were “cute,” even though one of them (the young fellow who had never really sung before this) finished last, the entire program was so jam-packed with filler and performances from people you’ve barely heard of that it was not a good finale for Blake Shelton’s last show, his 9th win. I wonder how the show will do with Blake Shelton departing? They also inserted so much “filler” (Howie Mandel teaching Camilla to tell jokes?) that they ran out of time to tell us who finished in 3rd and 2nd place, after they blurted out that the cowboy had won. We were left with the blonde, the Bodie guy and Bryce Leatherwood and less than 2 minutes to announce the culmination of literally weeks of run-offs and duets and votes. W-H-A-T?
It was nice, for Blake Shelton, that the country and western singer with the good name (Leatherwood) won, as he was on Blake’s team, but all THREE of Blake’s team made the cut, when the Brodie person was average and the cowboy hat wearing country singer who won (Bryce Leatherwood) seems very likeable, but was simply not as good as the two Black singers kicked off in the previous program when there were 8 left.
There was also a blonde from Cemilla Cabello’s team, who was among the top three.
The program had so much “filler” and so many guest performances by nobodies (well, two were somebodies) that I was glad to have it on tape so I could fast forward through the short guy in orange whom I had never seen or heard of before and the Spanish-speaking performer whose name started with the letter “M.” (If my daughter had been here, she could have filled me in on how out-of-it I am and provided names for me to give you here.)
I was shocked at Adam Lambert’s appearance, as he wore a baggy white suit and really looked heavy and old (and he sang a totally depressing song, mostly in falsetto, on a totally weird set.) Carson Daly also appears to need to join the same gym as A
dam Lambert, as both of them have packed on the pounds. I say this as someone always dieting, but I’m not on TV, so—–
Best performance of the evening by a contestant was Omar’s Stevie Wonder medley, but the entire program was really depressing and even poorly planned, time-wise.
We rented “Poker Face,” Russell Crowe’s directorial debut, on the advice of someone who identified herself as a Russell Crowe fan.
The synopsis for the film read as follows: “A tech billionaire hosts a high-stakes poker game between friends, but the evening takes a turn when long-held secrets are revealed, an elaborate revenge plot unfolds, and thieves break in.”
I was glad I had read that Russell Crowe, portraying Jake Foley (the billionaire), had a terminal disease (pancreatic cancer). It took quite a while for this plot point to make its way to the screen. In that interim, the plot moved very slowly and there were far too many characters to try to follow the misdeeds or betrayals of each and every one of them.
Who were these boyhood friends that Russell summons to his expensive lair high above Sydney to play poker (and, as it turn out, to poison them)?
Mikey (Michael Nankervis), played by Liam Hemsworth, a fellow Australian actor.
Drew – (Andrew Johnson), played by RZA.
Paul – Steve Bastoni as Paul Muccino.
Alex – Aden Young as Alex Harris.
Sam (McIntyre) played by Daniel MacPherson.
That is way too many “leads” to follow in such the necessary amount of depth to find out who has done what to Russell to justify his inviting them all to his luxury penthouse to play high stakes poker.
The female lead is the wife of Liam Hemsworth’s older brother Chris: Elsa Patacky as Penelope.
Other main female characters were Brooke Satchwell as Nicole Foley and Molly Grace as Rebecca Foley.
The leader of a group that breaks into the billionaire’s house to rob him was Paul Tassone as Victor.
For me, there were too many characters to keep track of and some of the important plot points (like Jake Foley’s terminal illness) were not clear immediately. It also seemed as though there were two plots competing for attention. Wouldn’t the poker game and Russell Crowe’s vengeance against his old friends have been enough? Did we really need the additional gang of thugs planning to rob the tech billionaire at the very moment they are assembled in the luxurious penthouse to play poker?
The film had many musings on one’s mortality, including these scripted lines:
“All living things die.”
“Answers don’t always have the structure we expect. Sometimes the insistence of the question can drown out the response. Let’s go and untie some knots.”
“You will know when it’s time.”
“Opening up to others is one thing. Opening up to yourself may be hard.”
“Some people take comfort in knowing that they have some means of control.”
“They might not be the best decisions I’ve ever made, but at least I won’t live to regret them.”
Russell’s advice to his daughter: “Friendship and love start when you forgive imperfections. Listen to Drew the most.” (from the reading of the will).
If you want a more thrilling recent Russell Crowe film to stream try “Unhinged,” instead. It was the first film we saw after movie theaters opened up again post pandemic. It is best compared to “Duel.”
Currently watching the Finale episode of “White Lotus.”
Please read no further if you don’t want to know too much about the series.
I don’t know he answer to that “Who is dead?” question, either, but, currently, my top speculation had been running towards Lucia, the older of the two hookers. When she got in the car with her (irritated) pimp I feared that she would only be seen washing up on the beach after that. However, there she was in a later scene, alive and well, so….
Now, as the finale unfurls, I am wondering if the two married couples are going to be the answer to the question, “Who killed whom?”
The more sedate of the two married couples, Ethan and Harper, may figure in the outcome. The husband of Aubrey Plaza, played by Will Sharpe (Ethan and Harper Spiller) is obsessing over his former roommate, Theo James’ as Cameron Sullivan has an ongoing flirtation with Harper, just as Cameron always used to steal Ethan’s girlfriends when they were roommates in college. Ethan seems to be building up an imaginary scenario where his former roommate has slept with his wife. This could lead to a fight in the water and the drowning of Theo James. Does it?
Then there is the entire gay group revolving around Stiffler’s Mom, i.e., Jennifer Coolidge as Tanya Mc-Quaid Hunt. Tom Hollander (who plays Quentin) may be setting Tanya up for a sting. She has noticed that a photo in Quentin’s room greatly resembles her husband Greg, except that it was taken years before when Greg had hair. Interesting.
Then there is the sleazy Leo Woodall as Jack. He is definitely a bad influence and we hope that Portia (Haley LuRichardson) doesn’t get herself in deep with the possibly criminal element. Portia has a feeling that “something bad is going to happen.” Quentin is not rich at all, but is posing as a rich person. Does the picture of Greg in his youth mean that he and Quentin are in cahoots. Are Quentin and Greg plotting to murder Tanya to get past the pre-nup that would give him no money if they divorced but give Greg her wealth if she dies? We know that Greg is not true blue because he was on the phone having a clandestine conversation with someone who sounded as though he/she was an alternative love interest of some sort, before he left.
It appears that Jack’s “job” may be to keep Portia away from Tanya, so Tanya can be murdered? Or not.
“Enjoy the Ionian Sea while you still can.”
I must pay attention now, as things are winding down.
Another blog asked readers to vote on who SHOULD have been eliminated, with these results:
Brayden Lape 28.9%
Bryce Leatherwood 17.53%
Parijita Bastola 11.53%
Kim Cruse 10.03%
Justin Aaron 9.64%
bodie 8.69%
Omar Jose Cardona 8.3%
Morgan Myles
In years of yore, I used to be a faithful devotee of “American Idol” during the Simon Cowell years.
I’ve not been a faithful watcher of any talent show since, but I did catch the last few shows of “The Voice” and was truly impressed with the singing of the two African American contestants, in particular. The best of the lot was Kim Cruse, who was a large woman with an even larger voice. She was spectacular on the program where she covered “Summertime” and “All By Myself” was just as good. Yet she was eliminated, which has to be chalked up to teeny-boppers voting for “cute” boys.
The second contestant who deserved to go forward was Justin Aaron, a former teacher’s aide, who delivered every single time he sang and was nearly as amazing as Kim Cruse.
After that, I would have placed Omar Jose Cardona (Team Legend) and Morgan Myles (Camilla Caballo’s team) in the final five.
Brayden Lange, the high school kid who hadn’t done much singing prior to this show, was not that good. He was that cute, but his singing was not that good. The weird guy with the white hair or wig, whom Blake Shelton seemed fond of, Bodie, was not that good, either.
The Final Five should be Kim Cruse, Justin Aaron, Omar Jose Cardona, Morgan Myles and probably Bryce Leatherwood. Leatherwood wasn’t, technically, as good a singer as Pariita Bastola (he was often flat), but the C&W group must be served and the country singer in the cowboy hat filled that bill.
I was embarrassed by the final five as chosen by teenagers nationwide. Eliminating both Kim Cruse and Justin Aaron was a grave miscarriage of justice. It reminded me of the presidential election of 2016 when the wrong candidate won under mysterious circumstances.
I’m watching the Channel 5 news from Chicago here in Austin and beginning a week of supervision of our twin granddaughters. (age 13). We won’t starve, but I am definitely going to have to learn how to turn the thermostat up from 70. [I can take 70 if I’m in bed sleeping, but I’m going to have to have it warmer when I’m just sitting around, and I have on 3 layers of clothing right now!]
There is talk of watching a movie tonight, although the Crawdads movie is in competition with the “Everything Everywhere” film. We watched two movies last night that were among the weirdest I’ve seen in a long time.
One was called “The Wave” and starred Justin Long. Very weird.
The other one was even weirder, “Vivarium.” Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots are a couple seeking a new house. They tour a new development with a realtor. All the houses are green and identical. The only problem is that they are not able to leave. They also are saddled with an annoying automoton/robot child that grows throughout the time they are imprisoned in this not-that-ideal community.
The film was directed (and co-written) by Lorcan Finnegan, and it is easy to infer that the “trapped-in-daily-life” vibe from Vivarium is meant to emulate the dull, boring and hum-drum lives that most of us live. Nevertheless, point taken, it was a strange and weird movie. I could relate to the housing development’s completely uniform appearance and the ways in which the couple try to escape are interesting, but the character portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg begins digging in the front yard for reasons that are not very clear. It reminded me of the old saw about how you might dig your way through the Earth and wind up in China if you dug deep enough, and it certainly might have occurred to Eisenberg’s character, since he and Imogen had tried about everything else including climbing up on the roof and writing “Fuk You” in large letters in attempts to escape. A very weird commentary on how life just tends to go on in a routine that you can’t escape, no matter how hard you true.
On other news fronts, I am learning to play Mah Jong (m joined Newcomers Club and this is how desperate I a to try to make friends in a community when we (a) don’t have jobs (b) don’t have kids in school and (c) aren’t particularly “church-y.” I resumed my playing of “Hand-and-foot-canasta” that I learned pre-pandemic. I like the latter, but the vote is out on the former.
In watching the evening news from Chicago we are seeing projected temperatures of 11 degrees It was 84 here 2 days ago, although it has dropped off into the fifties since that record-setting day.
The two films I mention (above) are both Amazon films and free, so that earns them a Gold Star, but be prepared for a couple of weird sci-fi flicks if you try out either of them.
The life of American music icon Elvis Presley, from his childhood to becoming a rock and movie star in the 1950s while maintaining a complex relationship with his manager, Colonel Tom Parker.
After thirty years, Maverick is still pushing the envelope as a top naval aviator, but must confront ghosts of his past when he leads TOP GUN’s elite graduates on a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those chosen to fly it.
Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth.
Set in the international world of Western classical music, the film centers on Lydia Tár, widely considered one of the greatest living composer-conductors and first-ever female music director of a major German orchestra. Seems like it is based on this woman whose documentary I reviewed previously:
The 18 films mentioned above (in no particular order) represent some of the best and/or most-promising of those released from January 1, 2022, and December 31, 2022. Since it is only November 27th, there are obviously some that have yet to screen, and I’ve missed a few, like “Till” or Viola Davis’ outing as a female warrior in “The Woman King.”
I’ve not seen “Avatar” (has anyone ?) and “She Said” is next on my list of films that are screening just up the street. (I polished off “The Fabelmans” yesterday).
Still, I’ve probably seen more of this year’s new offerings than most, as I’ve covered the Nashville, Denver, Chicago and Austin film festivals, so far, with Sun Dance and SXSW upcoming.
Of the ones above, all of which I have seen, I will give you some candid impressions, in order.
“The Banshees of Inisherin” – This one was a weird one, but it represents 2 excellent performances, which I think might earn Colin Farrell a nomination as Best Actor of the Year, with Brendan Gleeson earning Best Supporting Actor accolades. The title has relatively little to do with the film, as it is simply the title of a song that Brendan Gleeson is working on. This film from the “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” director is either going to amuse you in a horrific way or completely repulse you. Look for the female lead portraying Colin Farrell’s sister, Kerry Condon, to earn a Best Supporting Actress nomination.”
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” – An excellent cast, but, to me, seemed to be all style and not much substance. Janaelle Monae was the standout of the many famous cast members.
“Elvis” – Austin Butler’s portrayal of Elvis—although somewhat cleaned up from reality—is nothing short of astonishing. The Baz Luhrmann movie bites off a bit more than it can comfortably chew, but it is exciting whenever Austin Butler is center stage.
“Top Gun: Maverick” – Is this the movie that will earn Tom Cruise an Oscar? Think about it, when viewed in the light of his long career. The visual stunts worked and Mils Teller was a welcome addition to the cast.
“Nope” – one of the most layered films of the year, and one of my favorites. See my review here:http://www.weeklywilson.com/nope-is-jordan-peeles-summer-movie-here-are-some-helpful-explanations/
The Whale” – Brendan Fraser is outstanding in this much-lauded Cannes standout, but it’s all set in one room and is Major League depressing. Look for Fraser to snag an Oscar nomination and the film to make the Best Pictures of the Year list.
“Inside Man” – There are numerous plot holes in this one, but it’s a good evening’s entertainment.
“The Fabelmans” – See review here: Steven Spielberg’s memoir to his family of origin.http://www.weeklywilson.com/the-fabelmans-is-steven-spielbergs-memoir-moment/
“The Good Nurse” – Hard to beat Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain. I still want to know why the good nurse murdered so many people, however.
“Tar” – Cate Blanchett was good and will probably get a nomination, but the movie, itself, was not as good as the documentary on the first female director that I reviewed here:http://www.weeklywilson.com/the-conductor-about-1st-female-conductor-screens-at-denver-international-film-festival/
“My Policeman” – This is the third film with Harry Styles that I’ve seen. It’s worth seeing for that, alone. A star is born?
Dad Arnold, played by Paul Dano, is presented as a genius light years ahead of his time in working on and designing computers. He also seemed to be more “in charge” of making decisions on where the family would live and work. You have to feel some empathy for the man whose wife left him for his best friend after 21 years of marriage.
Spielberg has said his father was a workaholic. His parents eventually divorced when Steven was 19. His mother, Leah Posner Adler, divorced his dad in 1966 and married one of his best friends, Bernie Adler, in 1967 in Phoenix. Portrayed as Uncle Benny Loewy in this film, Seth Rogen plays “the other man” within the Spielbergs marriage, and Rogen said he shaved his hairline back to play the part (commenting that nobody noticed and that they just thought he was balding!)
Steven stayed on in California with his father. He was not the brainiac his father had been in engineering complicated computer systems. He did not like the academic life, especially mentioning his dislike of algebra. From the beginning, he wanted to be a filmmaker. Uncle Boris, portrayed by Judd Hirsch in another Oscar-caliber role, perhaps nourished that seed more than any family member beyond Spielberg’s mother. According to Wikipedia, Spielberg was diagnosed as dyslexic at the age of 60; his creativity and imagination via his film work are legendary.
I usually take notes during a movie (a throwback to the days before IMDB, when you had to take notes, even if it was in the dark), I forgot my notebook this evening, or I would have recorded, verbatim, the line spoken by Michelle Williams as Spielberg’s Mom, which basically said that people should follow their hearts and nobody should give up their own life to satisfy others. We are told that his classical pianist mother gave up a promising career to marry in 1945, with young Steven born in December of 1946.
The film suggests that Steven’s Mom loved two men at the same time, one of them her husband, one of them his best friend Bernie Adler, dubbed Uncle Benny. Since Steven’s father had moved the entire family from Phoenix to California without much family discussion of whether his wife and the four children were in favor of that program, his mother’s departure in the film to return to Phoenix and Bernie (Uncle Benny) with Steven’s three younger sisters (while Steven stayed in California with his Dad) made sense.
The film addresses Spielberg’s being bullied because of his Jewish background, especially when he was the new kid in high school in Phoenix (a move from New Jersey, although the Spielberg roots in Cincinnati seems to have been glossed over). Once again, the young Spielberg (or Fabelman, here) turned to film, making a film for the Class of ’64 Ditch Day. He got revenge against all those who had been mean to him in high school onscreen; his film was well-received, but that segment of the film is not as interesting as the family divorce dynamic or, perhaps, some of his success in later life. Getting David Lynch to play Director John Ford, a true story, was more interesting than the Beach Blanket Bingo feeling of Spielberg’s Ditch Day project.
I have to believe that the anecdote involving filmmaker John Ford that ends the film is true (sources confirm it is) and that his mother really did buy a monkey; my neighbor across the street bought a monkey, so, to me, that was not the most outlandish concept to wrap my mind around. Otherwise, the office interaction of a young Steven Spielberg with an old John Ford bears little relevance to the plot itself, which traces the young filmmaker’s genesis from nerdy Jewish kid cast adrift in a Christian world right up to the very brink of his success in Hollywood. You almost feel that this should be a series that traces Spielberg’s soon-to-come successes, one by one.
The usual suspects aided Spielberg in this autobiographical memoir film. The cinematography is, once again, Janusz Kaminski, who has received multiple Oscar nominations and wins while working with Spielberg. Tony Kushner co-wrote the screenplay. The music by John Williams is their 29th collaboration. Williams has done the score for all but 5 of Spielberg’s films.
In addition to a nearly sure-fire Oscar nomination for Best Picture, the standoouts in their respective roles are Michelle Williams as his mother and Judd Hirsch as his Uncle Boris. The 20-year-old Canadian actor Gabriele LaBelle as Sammy Fabelman scored the role from among 2,000 applicants and does a very credible job. LaBelle has recently appeared in the television version of “American Gigolo,” portraying the younger version of Julian Kaye, the gigolo character portrayed by Jon Bernthal.
“Director Danny Wu takes us back to the 1940s with a collection of stories leading to the year 1947. Most notably exploring the life and politics of Orson Welles from his days at the Todd School for Boys in Woodstock, Illinois, to his shocking decision to leave for Europe in the prime of his career.” So says the IMDB synopsis, but there is a story about Civil Rights pioneer Isaac Woodard and Japanese interment in WWII also shoe-horned into this interesting documentary.
Chinese director Danny Wu can (and has) done it all. He is listed as a producer, director, cinematographer, editor on this 102 minute documentary and apparently did everything except the music, which is credited to Sean William. The Canadian picture was akin to watching one of the documentaries that Ken Burns releases, which inform us and educate us while entertaining us. The documentary was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Austin Film Festival; it was released October 20th in the U.S.
There is so much information crammed into this film that explains some of the enduring cache of “Citizen Kane,” long regarded as one of the best (if not THE best) films of all time. I came away feeling that it wasn’t just the quality of “Citizen Kane,” —-although, for a director releasing his first picture, the excellence was astounding—but the crucifixion of Orson Welles at the hands of William Randolph Hearst and J. Edgar Hoover, finally leading to his exile from his native land for the last 20 years of his life, that may account for some of the enduring popularity of “Citizen Kane.”
For me, the realization of how politics shaped the world’s reception to “Citizen Kane” was akin to the realization that Elizabeth Taylor deserved to win an Oscar, but probably not for “Butterfield 8.” Why then, did Taylor win in 1960, when she didn’t win in 1957, 1958, or 1959 (“Raintree County,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Suddenly, Last Summer.”) Explanation: she nearly died just prior to her win in 1960 and suffered a tracheotomy. Was her role as Oscar-worthy in “Butterfield 8” as it was in “Raintree County,“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” or “Suddenly, Last Summer?” No. Politics entered the decision.
In Orson Welles’ case, born in 1915 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, he was exceptional early on. His mother’s death when he was 9 and his alcoholic father’s death at 15 left him in the care of the Todd School at a time when its new director, Roger Hall, had taken the boys’ school in a very progressive direction. The school had a very good drama department and young Orson excelled at acting and directing and became the drama department head’s right hand man while very young.
Following his schooling, the young Orson went to Ireland and was hired to be the villain (Jew Suess) in a production at the well-regarded Gate drama school. While the job did not last, later, at a cocktail party hosted by the University of Chicago, he met Thornton Wilder and, when telling Wilder about himself, learned that the playwright had seen the performance and been quite impressed by it. Wilder put him in touch with drama mavens Katharine Cornell and Alexander Woolcott and his performance in a Shakespeare play was seen by John Houseman, who believed in him deeply. Orson Welles’ early luck was quite fortuitous.
However, Orson Welles’ early good luck would turn to bad luck when media baron William Randolph Hearst took offense at “Citizen Kane,” feeling it was modeled on his own life. With the assistance of J. Edgar Hoover, Hearst began a campaign to attack Welles’ reputation. The fact that the attack was largely political is supported by the fact that an FBI file on Welles was not opened after the world famous Mercury Theater “War of the Worlds” broadcast, which made Welles an international celebrity. The file did not start after that October 30th, 1938 broadcast, but, instead, in 1941, when Hearst had become more and more disenchanted with FDR, especially FDR’s plans for a graduated income tax, which Hearst vehemently opposed.
Welles was a big supporter of FDR and, in fact, once stood in for him in a debate with opponent Thomas Dewey. It was Orson Welles who gave an eloquent eulogy at FDR’s funeral. FDR’s WPA project, which gave the arts in the United States $6 million 700 thousand dollars to put unemployed Depression-era citizens back to work, was a great impetus to painters and actors and artists of all kinds in the U.S. During the WPA’s hey day, Welles was put in charge of the Negro Theater at the age of 19 and produced a historic version of Macbeth with a huge cast.
Unfortunately, one of the victims of Hearst’s wrath, was the WPA funding, which fell victim to Hearst’s conservative beliefs. Hearst had originally supported FDR for the presidency, but he had fallen out of love with FDR; the axing of the money for the arts was offered up to placate Hearst. Hearst also blocked “Citizen Kane” from appearing in any of the theaters he owned, and that ultimately led to the film incurring a loss of $150,000 as a result of being available in so few theaters of the day.
Nelson Rockefeller approached Welles, soon after he had filmed (but not edited) his second movie, “The Magnificent Ambersons,” to travel to Brazil and do a somewhat light-hearted look at Brazil at Carnival time in Rio. This was part of FDR’s concerns about Latin America possibly selecting the wrong side to support in WWII.
Welles thought he would be able to edit his second film while in Brazil, but things were taking a turn for the worse and he was not only evicted from his Mercury Theater but the studio—which was supposed to have given him Final Cut on all his film projects—took over his second film and ruined it. There had also been a change of ownership at the top of RKO and the previous head of the studio, who had stood behind Welles’ auteur-ship, was replaced by a hostile force.
All of Welles’ previous good luck seems to have turned to bad luck after “Citizen Kane” and, with the formation of the House Unamerican Activities Committee, with 4 screenwriters actually sent to jail and many others hounded about Communist ties, Welles saw the writing on the wall. Famous names like Ring Lardner, Jr., and Dalton Trumbo had their lives ruined. Orson decamped for Italy for an acting role and remained there for the rest of his life.
At this point, two other documentary topics enter the Orson Welles story. One of them is fairly well-connected, because the abuse of Isaac Woodard, a decorated soldier in the Pacific theater in World War II, was a cause that Welles took up at the request of the NAACP.
Woodard was in uniform and riding a bus in the South, when he asked to use the rest room on the bus. The driver objected, based on the “whites only” Jim Crow laws of the time. Welles was opposed to all such racial inequality and began broadcasting the story of Isaac Woodard on his radio show, reading Woodard’s affidavit to the police on July 18, 1946, aloud and continuing to inform the U.S. public about Woodard’s ordeal (until Welles lost his radio show and was removed from the air in October of 1946, a continuation of Hearst’s persecution.).
Woodard continued on the bus to the next stop (after his bathroom request) where police confronted him and asked him if he was still in the Army. Unfortunately, he admitted that he had just been mustered out; the police who confronted him beat him and gouged out his eyes, blinding him. Welles campaigned to find out the name of the assailant (Lynwood Shull), but the kangaroo Southern court took only 20 minutes to acquit the assailant, falsely claiming that Woodard had been “drunk and disorderly.”
Welles was also instrumental in the benefit concert for Woodard, at which performers like Nat King Cole, Billie Holliday and Joe Louis sold 36,000 tickets, turning away another 10,000 would-be attendees. The money raised helped Isaac Woodard to start a foundation to fight for racial equality. Julian Bond—a hero of the Civil Rights movement of the Sixties—said that Isaac Woodard was a true originator of the Civil Rights movement that consumed the 60s.
This nominee for the Grand Jury Award at the Austin Film Festival does lose its way a bit when, into the mix of Orson Welles’ career and his assistance to black Civil Rights pioneer Isaac Woodard an entire segment about the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima and the interment of Japanese American citizens during World War II is inserted.
The information was riveting and interesting, involving, as it did, the eye witness testimony of a Japanese American survivor of the Hiroshima blast who was at the very epicenter, yet survived with his brother and his grandparents. It detracts from the focus of the film. The film is supposed to be primarily about the career and times of Orson Welles. The Japanese interment during WWII deserves a documentary of its own. Its inclusion and the testimony of the Hiroshima eye witness, one of the few survivors at the epicenter of the blast, seems to lack focus.
Peter Bogdanovich
Having said that, the documentary is a terrific achievement to have gathered all this archival footage and all the testimony of the best scholars and authors who have written about Welles. I couldn’t help but think of the appearance of Peter Bogdanovich at the Chicago International Film Festival in 2018. He was there with Orson Welles‘ long-delayed film The Other Side of the Wind, which was filmed in the 1970s and featured a prominent supporting role by Boganovich. Bogdanovich had long hoped to complete it, was released by Netflix to critical acclaim and shown at that year’s Chicago International Film Festival. Bogdanovich, who began life as a film historian, would have been a great interview subject for Director Wu, but, unfortunately died in January of 2022 from Parkinson’s Disease at the age of 82. “American: An Odyssey to 1947,” through rare archival footage and 3D modeling, immerses the audience in the era. We do discover much about one of cinema’s most iconic directors, and how he shaped the culture of Hollywood. The information about his enlightened views on race relations were welcome, but the Japanese segment needs (and deserves) its very own documentary, my only criticism of an excellent and absorbing documentary.
Ohio mother-of-two Judy Malinowski was doused in gasoline and set on fire by her crazed ex-boyfriend, Michael Slager. Judy would go on to become the first person to testify at the trial for her own murder. “The Fire That Took Her” is a 94 minute documentary directed by Patricia Gillespie that examines the defects that exist in protecting abused women like Judy from their abusers.
As Gillespie told “Screen Rant” in an October 20th interview the day before the film began screening in theaters, “The police, try as they might, didn’t have the systems in place to protect her or the laws in place to prosecute repeat domestic violence offenders like Michael Slager. You can clearly see in his records that he was ramping up to commit a crime like this, and he was pretty much uninterrupted.”
Gillespie, with the assistance of cinematographers Tom Hurwitz, Martina Radwan and Lisa Rinzlerloin and the astute editing of Emiliano Battista, goes inside the landmark case with extensive interviews with Malinowski’s family, including her mother, Bonnie Bowes, her children (daughters Maddie and Kaylyn), her siblings, and the police and justice systems involved in bringing Judy’s murderer to trial.
Judy Malinowski in “The Fire That Took Her.”
Danielle Gorman, Judy’s sister, upon seeing her in the hospital immediately after the assault, burned over 95% of her body, went into the hallway of Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University and vomited. As the film says, “Nothing could possibly prepare you for the condition she was in.”
Judy had begun dating Slager after they met on the Internet. His many tattoos caused mother Bonnie to urge her rebellious daughter not to let her children near Slager. But Judy, over the years, which began with having two children in her twenties and continuing through a drug dependency brought on by surgery for ovarian cancer, had become addicted to pain pills and was in a downward spiral. Still, meeting Michael Slager was the beginning of the end. Said her mother, “Everything went downhill when Michael Slager came into her life.”
Slager, it turns out, was the kind of man who made a practice of preying on women with addictions. He would then become their “supplier” and be able to manipulate them in any way he wished, including physical abuse. Slager had something like 38 convictions for everything from receiving stolen property to domestic abuse to burglary to rape (plea-bargained down) and even attempted to manipulate Judy’s mother, leading her to believe that money she would give him to “take care of” Judy was being used for that purpose, when he actually was securing drugs for her with the cash, moving on to heroin.
The couple began dating in April of 2015 and Slager moved in with Malinowski and refused to leave. Near the end, Judy is trying everything she can think of to rid herself of the toxic relationship, including telling the police that Michael had threatened to kill her if she left him. Nothing was done, because he would paint her as a drug-addicted liar.
Finally, Judy decided to enter Parkside Rehabilitation Center on Sunday, August 2, 2015. Michael offered to drive her to the rehab center, where she hoped to escape from him once and for all. On the way there, he pulled his truck into a gas station near the Heartland Bank. They argued and Judy threw a cup of pop on Slager. Retaliating, he went to his truck, took a full gas can from it, and poured gasoline over her body, from the head down. He then went to his truck but returned to the woman in 32 seconds, now on the ground. Witnesses said it looked as though he intended to punch her. Instead, he used a green plastic lighter to set fire to his ex-girlfriend, who said, “I just remember crying and begging for help. His eyes turned black.”
Later, Slager—who refused to admit that his actions were intentional—would say that Judy had asked him for a cigarette and he had no idea that lighting it would set her on fire, although Judy’s testimony was that Slager said, “How do you like this, bitch?” among other taunts. Judy’s remembered some of the gasoline going down her throat, burning her internally, which would put the lie to his story, even if cameras at the nearby Heartland Bank had not captured the entire incident on film.
Said Chad Cohagen, the lead detective who is filmed asking Slager about his actions, “I had never seen trauma like that to a human body that wasn’t deceased.” When Judy reached the hospital she was “clearly processing” her ordeal and detectives tried to get a statement right away, in case she should die immediately, which most thought would be the case. Judy, when asked about the attack said, “I don’t think I can express what it feels like to have your whole body set on fire. It was beyond excruciating.”
It should be noted that Michael Slager reached out to the film’s director, Patricia Gillespie, and wanted to be interviewed, but each time she showed up at the prison to interview him, he had committed some new offense that made him unavailable. The best summation of Michael Slager came from Judge Julia M. Lynch, when Slager agreed to plead “no contest” rather than risk having a jury trial. Judge Lynch said, “You’re one of those people who has no soul. You need to be incarcerated. Take him out.”
Unfortunately, under Ohio law, the maximum sentence she could give Slager for his attempted murder of Judy Malinowski was 11 years. Recognizing the gross injustice of this light a sentence for such a heinous crime, Franklin County Attorney General Ron O’Brien and Warren Edwards, Franklin County Prosecutor, set about to try to make it possible for Judy to testify in Slager’s trial from beyond the grave, via videotaped statements made from the hospital bed she occupied for nearly 2 years before dying.
The Ohio House Bill 63, known as Judy’s Law, passed the Ohio house and moved on to the Senate, where it passed, making penalties for such acts much more severe and acknowledging harsher sentences for those who intentionally attempt to mutilate or disfigure their victims in the course of an attack. Judy also testified that, in her opinion, a just punishment for her former boyfriend would be life in prison without the ability to be paroled, as she did not believe in the death penalty. The film ends by saying that they hope Judy’s Law will become national law in 2022; I have heard no talk of that happening and the year will be over in 2 months.
Judy Malinowski courageously began weaning herself off pain medication in order to be allowed to testify. The question was not only about whether she would be coherent and lucid, but also was an attempt to keep from embarrassing both the victim and the prosecutor’s office. When she did get the green light to testify on her own behalf for the first time in a court of law, a precedent-setting opinion that will affect future trials, Judy went without many pain pills to keep her comments coherent and testified for 3 full hours. Her assailant demanded the right to be present in the room and to cross examine the woman he tried to kill; that motion was denied. One thinks about victims like O.J. Simpson’s wife Nicole and wonders if she had left more than just photos of the abuse she suffered at O.J.’s hands, would the verdict have been different?
Judy spent nearly 2 years in the hospital, undergoing over 50 surgeries and coding 7 times. Her nurse, Stacy Best, testified to her courage and spirit in working towards the goal of testifying in her own murder trial. As one prosecutor said, “It’s the first time I ever had a conversation with a homicide victim.” Her mother said, “It’s terrifying to feel this way. There’s nothing that’s okay about this. I want him to be sorry because she’s a human being.”
Judy’s Down’s syndrome younger brother is shown reciting some of the lyrics to the Beatles song “Let It Be” and the family is shown accepting the verdict of life without parole, because that was what Judy wanted, and, more importantly, in the words of the chief investigator, “I wanted Judy’s voice to be heard as quickly as possible.”
After years of trying to get help against pure evil, Judy emerges as a courageous voice for all abused women, a force for change. Human interest stories in the Columbus Dispatch and other papers followed the case and even defense attorney Bob Krapence admitted that what his client had done was inexcusable.
As Judy’s mother says more than once in the film, we don’t want to accept that anyone could willfully do that to another human being. Yet it is clear that this horror completely destroyed Judy Malinowski’s life and that of her family and loved ones.
The documentary is 94 minutes long, but it is well-paced, a tribute to the editor. The MTV documentary certainly makes its point, aided by Katy Jarzebowski’s music and the testimony of all involved (with the notable exception of the convicted murderer.)
One particularly effective stroke—beyond the actual footage of the attack—is the use of frames of film that appear to be burning up. “TheFire That Took Her” was shown at the Austin Film Festival on October 29, 2022, and will be screening on Paramount Plus in late November. Don’t miss it. The truth is not always pretty, but, as Chief Investigator Chad Cohagen said, “We are about the truth.” This documentary was truly disturbing. To quote Cohagen of the attack on videotape, “That scene has played out in dreams more times than I can count.”
The film suggests that Steven’s Mom loved two men at the same time, one of them her husband, one of them his best friend Bernie Adler, dubbed Uncle Benny. Since Steven’s father had moved the entire family from Phoenix to California without much family discussion of whether his wife and the four children were in favor of that program, his mother’s departure in the film to return to Phoenix and Bernie (Uncle Benny) with Steven’s three younger sisters (while Steven stayed in California with his Dad) made sense.
However, Orson Welles’ early good luck would turn to bad luck when media baron William Randolph Hearst took offense at “Citizen Kane,” feeling it was modeled on his own life. With the assistance of J. Edgar Hoover, Hearst began a campaign to attack Welles’ reputation. The fact that the attack was largely political is supported by the fact that an FBI file on Welles was not opened after the world famous Mercury Theater “War of the Worlds” broadcast, which made Welles an international celebrity. The file did not start after that October 30th, 1938 broadcast, but, instead, in 1941, when Hearst had become more and more disenchanted with FDR, especially FDR’s plans for a graduated income tax, which Hearst vehemently opposed.
