On this
date in 1993, Brandon Lee — the then-28-year-old son of the legendary Bruce Lee
— was killed in an accident while filming The
Crow.
When I interviewed him for Rapid Fire in 1992, he told me how much he was looking forward to making The Crow -- and to breaking stereotypes
by becoming a bankable Asian-American leading man.
Few
things in life are sadder than a promise forever unfulfilled.
Forty
years ago yesterday, I interviewed Lee Marvin at the USA Film Fest in Dallas. I
joked with him that he had shot the President – Ronald Reagan – back in The Killers (1964), Reagan’s last movie “Yeah,”
he responded with a wolfish grin, “but he wasn’t President yet when I shot him.”
Forty years
ago today, John Hinckley tried to gatecrash into history by taking aim at the Commander in Chief. I was interim A&E editor for The Dallas Morning News, so I wound up working on the first and
only “Extra” edition of my newspaper career. (It hit the streets that afternoon.) People may forget this now, but
the early reports indicated Reagan was a goner. Film critic Philip Wuntch was
out in L.A. for the Oscars, and he filed an absolutely brilliant overview of
Reagan’s movie career on about one hour’s notice. And our theater critic Diane
Werts went over to SMU where the USA Film Fest was taking place, to get a quote
from Marvin. Team work, folks.
I
forget who it was, but someone showed up that afternoon, along with their
publicist, for a previously scheduled interview to promote their next movie. I
think I may have raised my voice few octaves when I explained that we had more
important things going on. They left, but only reluctantly. Priorities,
people.
Looks like the Landmark River Oaks 3 — not just the last remaining vintage movie theater in Houston, but H-Town’s last dedicated arthouse of any sort — is in danger of closing again. I’ve been invited by genial host Craig Cohen to join him and Houston Film Critics Society president Doug Harris to discuss this dire situation Thursday on the KUHF radio program Houston Matters.
The conversation begins around the 36:44 mark here.
I am now old enough to see Spike Lee, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ethan Hawke and a Bill & Ted movie all nominated for the Movies for Grownups Awards annually bestowed by AARP The Magazine. And I’m feeling good about that. No, seriously.
As a founding member of the
Houston Film Critics Society, I am proud to say director Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland has
been designated
a multiple winner during final balloting for the 14th annual HFCS
Awards. In addition to copping the Best Picture prize, Zhao’s artful mix of
fact and fiction — inspired by the
nonfiction bestseller of the same title by Jessica Bruder — earned top honors in
the categories of Best Director and Best Cinematography (Joshua
James Richards).
Searchlight Pictures currently plans to open Nomadland Jan. 29 in a limited number of IMAX locations nationwide, expand to more IMAX theaters over the next two weeks, and then add other theaters Feb. 19 with simultaneous streaming on Hulu.
Other HFCS winners include:
Best Actor in a Leading Role: Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal
Best Actress in a Leading Role: Carey
Mulligan, Promising Young Woman
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Leslie
Odom Jr., One Night in Miami
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Maria
Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Best Original Screenplay: Promising Young Woman
Best Animated Feature: Soul
Best Documentary Feature: My Octopus Teacher
Best Foreign Language Feature: A Sun (Taiwan)
Best Original Score: Soul
Best Original Song: One Night in Miami, “Speak Now”
Best Visual Effects: Tenet
Best Stunt Coordination Team: Tenet
Best Movie Poster Art: Da 5 Bloods
Outstanding
Cinematic Achievement: Sound of Metal (for its Immersive Sound Design)
“We look forward to further spotlighting all of our award winners,” Harris added, “during our first television broadcast on January 31, 4 p.m. CST, on Houston’s KUBE 57. That programming will also celebrate our Texas Independent Film Award nominees and feature the announcement of the winners of our special honors for filmmaking in the state.”
This year’s nominees for the TIFF honor include Boys State, Miss Juneteenth, Ready or Not, The Vast of Night, and Yellow Rose.
The 40 members of the Houston Film Critics Society are working film journalists for television, radio, and online outlets, and in traditional print. Together, they reach millions of people each week across the United States with their critiques and commentaries on film. The organization’s mission is to promote the advancement and appreciation of film in the Houston community and beyond. For a list of members, visit the HFCS website.
And if you would like to cast a ballot of your own in this year’s awards race, remember: You can vote for the Fourth Annual Cowboys & Indians Magazine Movie Awards here. How do I know this? Because in my other life, I am a cowboy.
This just in from the Houston Film Critics Society — an organization of
which I am a founding member:
Minari –
director Lee Isaac Chung’s study of a family from Korea starting a farm in
Arkansas – leads nominees for the 14th annual awards from the Houston Film
Critics Society (HFCS). The film is nominated for seven HFCS honors including
the Best Picture of 2020.
Three
female filmmakers – Chloé Zhao (Nomadland), Regina
King (One Night in Miami) and Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman)
– are nominees for Best Director. Some 18 categories of film
excellence will be recognized by the prestigious body of film journalists and
announced on January 18th. The winning films, along with nominees and winners
in the Society’s Texas Independent Film Awards, will be spotlighted in the
Society’s first televised awards programming on January 31, 2021, at 4 pm CT on
Houston’s KUBE 57.
“From
a year that most of us would love to forget, comes an impressive collection of
movies we will always remember,” says Doug Harris, HFCS President. “For the
film industry, 2020 will be recalled as much for works that nourished our souls
as for the ways world events changed movie habits. The impact of the artistic
expression from this year’s nominees reminds us that the size of a screen, or
where we view it, matters less than the quality of what we see.”
In
addition to Best Picture, Minari is nominated for Director,
Actor (Steve Yeun), Supporting Actress (Youn Yuh-jung), Screenplay,
Cinematography and a Cinematic Achievement honor for seven-year-old actor Alan
S. Kim. Following the film in overall nominations is Sound
of Metal – the chronicle of a heavy metal musician’s hearing loss –
with six nods including Picture, while three films – Nomadland, One
Night in Miami and The Trial of the Chicago 7 –
received five nominations each, also including Picture. Other contenders for
that top award are Da 5 Bloods, The Father, Never Rarely Sometimes
Always, Promising Young Woman and Soul, also a
nominee for Animated Feature.
The
late Chadwick Boseman is a double nominee for Leading Actor for Ma
Rainey’s Black Bottom and Supporting Actor for Da 5 Bloods. His
performance in the lead category joins Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal),
Anthony Hopkins (The Father), Delroy Lindo (Da 5 Bloods) and
Yeun; Sacha Baron Cohen (The Trial of the Chicago 7), Bill Murray (On
the Rocks), Leslie Odom, Jr. (One Night in Miami) and
Paul Raci (Sound of Metal) are also nominated for supporting honors.
“The
performances of our nominees bring to life, through film, the strength of the
human mind, body and spirit,” observes Harris. “We are invited to walk in the
steps of an incredible range of people who demonstrate their resilience in the
face of challenge. Imagine what this work says about the strength of the human
soul in a year filled with tragedy and uncertainty.”
Competing
for the 2020 award for Leading Actress are Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s
Black Bottom; Sidney Flanigan, Never Rarely Sometimes
Always; Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman; Frances
McDormand, Nomadland; and Carey Mulligan, Promising
Young Woman. Nominees for the Supporting Actress honor are Maria
Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm; Ellen Burstyn, Pieces
of a Woman; Olivia Colman, The Father; Amanda
Seyfried, Mank; and Youn Yuh-jung for Minari.
The
40 members of the Houston Film Critics Society are working film journalists on
television, radio, online and in traditional print. Together, they reach
millions of people each week across the United States with their critiques and
commentaries on film. The organization’s mission is to promote the advancement
and appreciation of film in the Houston community and beyond. For a list of
members, visit www.HoustonFilmCritics.com.
2020
Houston Film Critic Society Nominations
(With
Outstanding Cinematic Achievement, Best Movie Poster Art and the HFCS Lifetime
Achievement Award winners to be subsequently announced)
Best
Picture
Da 5
Bloods; The Father; Minari; Never Rarely Sometimes Always; Nomadland; One Night
in Miami; Promising Young Woman; Soul; Sound of Metal; The Trial of the Chicago
7
Best
Director
Lee
Isaac Chung, Minari; Chloé
Zhao, Nomadland; Regina King, One Night in Miami;
Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman; Darius Marder, Sound
of Metal; Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago 7
Best
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Riz
Ahmed, Sound of Metal; Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey's Black
Bottom; Anthony Hopkins, The Father; Delroy Lindo, Da 5
Bloods; Steven Yeun, Minari
Best
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Viola
Davis, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom; Sidney Flanigan, Never
Rarely Sometimes Always; Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman;
Frances McDormand, Nomadland; Carey Mulligan, Promising
Young Woman
Best
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Chadwick
Boseman, Da 5 Bloods; Sacha Baron Cohen, The Trial of the
Chicago 7; Bill Murray, On the Rocks; Leslie Odom Jr., One
Night in Miami; Paul Raci, Sound of Metal
Best
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Maria
Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm; Ellen Burstyn, Pieces
of a Woman; Olivia Colman, The Father; Amanda Seyfried, Mank;
Youn Yuh‑jung, Minari
Best
Screenplay
Minari; Nomadland; One
Night in Miami; Promising Young Woman; Sound of Metal; The Trial of the Chicago
7
Best
Animated Feature
The
Croods: A New Age; Onward; Over the Moon; Soul; Wolfwalkers
Best
Cinematography
Mank;
Minari; News of the World; Nomadland; Tenet
Best
Documentary Feature
Boys
State; Collective; Dick Johnson is Dead; My Octopus Teacher; Time
Best
Foreign Language Feature
Another
Round (Denmark); Bacurau (Brazil/France); Beanpole
(Russia); La Llorona (Guatemala); A Sun (Taiwan)
Best
Original Score
Mank;
The Midnight Sky; News of the World; Soul; Tenet
Best
Original Song
All
In: The Fight for Democracy, “Turntables”; Life Ahead, “Lo
Si”; One Night in Miami, “Speak Now”; Over the Moon,
“Rocket to the Moon”; The Prom, “Wear Your Crown”
Best
Visual Effects
Tenet;
The Invisible Man; The Midnight Sky
Best
Stunt Coordination Team
Birds
of Prey; Mulan; The Old Guard; Tenet; Wonder Woman 1984
Texas
Independent Film Award
Boys State; Miss Juneteenth; Ready or Not; The Vast of Night; Yellow Rose
) and The Sprinkler Sprinkled (arguably the first slapstick comedy, involving a man, his garden hose and a practical joker). 
On Election Day twenty years ago, I
was at Ground Zero in Florida’s Broward County when the chads started hanging.
And thereby hangs a tale.
I was in the area to attend the 2000
Fort Lauderdale Film Festival, one of several regional festivals that once
invited me to partake of their hospitality — and their films — back when I used
to be somebody. On Election Day, however, a colleague and I slipped away from
the festivities (at her urging, I must admit, though she didn’t have to work
hard to convince me) so we could do volunteer work
at the local Florida Democratic Party headquarters. Mostly, I fielded phone
calls from senior citizens who needed transportation to voting places. Later in
the day, I also went door to door to pass out flyers, in the hope of driving
late deciders to the polls.
That night, as my
colleague and I watched the election returns in my hotel room, I… I… well, I
went absolutely nutzoid when the first reports came in that Al Gore had won Florida, and therefore was projected
as the next President. You think Tom Cruise did some couch jumping back when he
was sweet on Katie Holmes? Hah! My colleague actually tried to quiet me down,
for fear people in other rooms would complain about the racket while I hopped
up and down on the couch, the coffee table, the kitchen breakfast bar, etc.
But then, of course, the
first reports were “corrected,” and the Florida projection was withdrawn. And
then... Well, that’s when I put down my glass, and picked up the bottle. And
when that one was empty, I picked up another one. And after my colleague left,
I uncorked a third.
The next day, I awoke
with a very bad hangover. My condition improved only slightly when colleague
called to awaken me with what, at the time, seemed like very good news: Gore had withdrawn his concession. Everything
was still up in the air when I left Fort Lauderdale, but there was hope. A hope
that was not dashed until a few weeks later, when, while I was at a movie
junket in New York, I turned on the TV in another hotel room to learn Gore had
turned in the towel.
I am not at all ashamed
to admit that, for days and weeks and months and, yes, years afterward, I sporadically caught myself thinking: “Dammit! If
only I had managed to get more vans out for voters! If only I had placed flyers
on more doors! If! If! If!” Yep,
another textbook example of Catholic guilt experienced by the eldest child of a
dysfunctional family: It was all my fault.
Postscript: Seven years
later, I was introduced to Al Gore at the Nashville Film Festival. Someone told
him I had written a rave review of his Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth as a free-lancer for the Tennessean newspaper — no, really, it was somebody else who did the
mentioning, not me — and he smiled graciously while shaking my hand. In fact, I swear to God, he actually bowed
slightly. For about a nanosecond, I thought of telling him the story of my
seven-year guilt trip. But then I came to my senses, and made polite small talk
instead during our brief encounter.
So now I am telling you
the story I lacked the nerve to tell Al Gore. Because as much as I feel
optimistic about Election Day 2020, I can’t totally banish nagging fears
that Election Night might have some nasty surprise in store. I have champagne
on hand to celebrate. But I also have a few bottles of the cheap stuff to dull
the pain of possible disappointment. On the other hand, this time I know: If something terrible does happen, it won't be my fault. Honest.
Saw it for the first time tonight during the World Series broadcast. Bet it won’t be the last time we see it before Election Day. Joe Biden abides.
Along with fellow members of the Houston Film Critics Society, I am spreading the good word about our latest project: POTUS Fest: Cinema in Chief, an overview of movies about real or fictional Commanders in Chief. And as part of that project, I’ll be taking part in a Zoom discussion about depictions of American Presidents in motion pictures at 3 pm CT Sunday, Oct. 25, with my HFCS co-conspirators Joshua Starnes (Coming Soon) and Donna Copeland (Texas Art & Film). The discussion will be accessible at no charge to those who reserve a ticket — while supplies last — here.
But wait,
there’s more: At 9 am CT Tuesday, Oct. 20, I’ll be on the wireless with host Craig
Cohen of Houston Matters on KUHF to
talk even more about POTUS Fest: Cinema in Chief. You will be able to live stream the show here.
POTUS Fest: Cinema in Chief gives movie buffs and
political junkies the opportunity to view comments and reviews by HFCS members on
the organization’s website about movies dealing with U.S. Presidents (like Thirteen Days, with Bruce Greenwood as JFK, pictured above). Participating
members are choosing these films — ranging from docudramas to fictional
narratives — based on ways they illuminate the demands, disappointments and
determination that define our Chief Executives.
, one of my favorite films, Ned Beatty – playing a parks and recreation worker on the verge of retirement – marvels to a younger colleague played by Liv Schrieber that, somehow, when he wasn’t looking, several years slipped away: “Time goes by, and it seems like a little time. You turn around, and it was a big time.” How true.
, a melodrama about drug-dealing surfers starring a very young George Clooney. (For the record: the other two were Revenge of the Radioactive Reporter and something called A Girl’s Guide to Sex.) One week later, Variety ran my review of another WorldFest/Houston offering, Chopper Chicks in Zombietown
, a spoofy sci-fi B-movie that showcased a very young Billy Bob Thornton in a supporting role. And two weeks after that, I reviewed yet another WorldFest feature: Across the Tracks
, a dysfunctional family drama co-starring a very, very young Brad Pitt.
