Since I last updated this blog (my end-of-year top ten films list notwithstanding), I started two new jobs in September of last year. I was hired as a website video editor at Comedy Central for
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, which has been a tremendous joy and an opportunity to work in a large, corporate edit office on a major television show. In addition, I began working as an after-school filmmaking teacher with CinemaKidz, teaching two classes on Wednesdays at Brooklyn Friends School.
Last semester, I taught alongside another great instructor, Bryn - one class comprised of elementary schoolers, the other comprised of junior high students. I was struck by the knowledge and aptitude of the students with filmmaking technology - we primarily use iPads to shoot in-class films, and the various filmmaking apps include iMovie, Filmic Pro, Green Screen and Stop Motion Pro. Many of the students were already very familiar with these apps, and it was an absolute joy to get to work with them and help cultivate their voices as filmmakers. They were particularly enamored with the green screen, which we set up before class most weeks - although for their final class films, we recommended using real locations around Brooklyn Friends School instead of relying on the green screen.
In order to focus on editing my web-series
Harvey's Last Night on the Avenue this spring, I am not teaching a weekday class during this current semester, but I continue to work CinemaKidz birthday parties on the weekends. The birthday parties often consist of four-hour shoots with a large green-screen set-up in a studio, in which the birthday party attendees shoot a music video or a short film in rapid-fire speed. It's invigorating and heartening to watch young people learn about collaboration and the art of filmmaking.
You can view my online staff profile and introduction video
on CinemaKidz's website, or watch the link below.
Meet Jack @ CinemaKidz from
CinemaKidz on
Vimeo.
My job with Comedy Central has been an incredible experience. I work four nights per week (the air dates for
The Daily Show), usually coming in at 6:00 PM and leaving at 2:00 AM. It's a rather ideal schedule, actually, as I'm able to edit
Harvey's Last Night on the Avenue during the daytime before work. I primarily edit the website material for
The Daily Show, along with some social media content and additional editing on other Comedy Central projects. The best part of the job is the lively camaraderie among the nighttime video editors - our edit room inside the Soho Viacom building is full of energy and ideas (and, often, food). It rarely feels like a late night when I'm working there, primarily because of everyone else in the room.
Because the show regularly has dark weeks (in which
The Daily Show does not air), the breaks and holidays are generous (although you can work daytime shifts during the dark weeks, too, which I have done). There are certainly perks to working with a large company. When there was a major snowstorm early last month, I was put up at the Hotel Hugo in Soho overnight after my edit shift to ensure I wasn't traveling home on dangerous roads. There's also a hoverboard in our office, to my great delight - although I'm not sure I'm very good at it.
Watching
The Daily Show every night is a lot of fun, too -
here's one of my favorite pieces Trevor Noah has done from the last year. We have guests in the edit room sometimes - after her interview on
The Opposition with Jordan Klepper, newly elected Virginia Delegate Danica Roem visited our office -
she made history with her win this past November as the first transgender person elected to a U.S. statehouse, and it was a joy to meet her.
In January, I had the opportunity to act in a Columbia University MFA film. Director Cooper Troxell found my acting reel on Columbia's casting website, and he cast me as a romantic lead, of all things, in his film
Hidden Gems. The picture centers around an office party where I'm at the center of a love triangle. We shot for two days in an architecture studio in the Flatiron District, and I was mightily impressed by the efficiency and professionalism of these MFA students. I've been on too many NYU film sets to count, but this was my first experience on a Columbia set, and I had a great time. I love to act whenever I can, and here, I was teamed with a great filmmaker and a fun script (and an opportunity for some successful improvisation). I look forward to seeing the final film.
Speaking of acting, no less than a few weeks ago, my effervescent girlfriend Sophia and I wrote a short play called
White Castle Valentine's Day 2018 on a whim. It takes place at a White Castle on Valentine's Day, which, let's face it, is exactly where we all want to spend that cherished day. Sophia submitted the rough draft to a few theaters in New York accepting play submissions, and Manhattan Repertory Theatre accepted the play as part of their New Works Short Play Event. In a rather fortuitous turn of events, we just performed the piece on Friday, February 16th and Saturday, February 17th at 6:30 PM - which was not only the week of Valentine's Day, but also fell on a dark week for
The Daily Show. Just like that, in a matter of days, a new project emerged seemingly out of nowhere! Here's what Sophia and I wrote for the 'About' section of our play's program:
"When Sophia and Jack stumbled into a White Castle for a late-night soda less than a month ago, neither of them could imagine that they'd leave ten minutes later with a potential short play percolating in their minds. Written over the course of a single weekend and reflecting the whims and idiosyncrasies of both writers,
White Castle Valentine's Day 2018 arrives near the one-year anniversary of Jack and Sophia's relationship. While this piece doesn't exactly reflect their love story in any real way, it's still a representation of their ideas and concerns, filled with generous helpings of bizarre humor and non-sequiturs. In the spirit of this holiday, you're invited to discover what it means to accept your romantic partner (flaws and all) in
White Castle Valentine's Day 2018."
I directed the play, with my friend and fellow Red Dragon Player alumnus Zachary Gamble leading the cast as Vincent (a stand-in, more or less, for me). Two extremely talented actresses, Nadira Foster-Williams and Audrey Harris, play Trash Lord (a character more or less standing in for Sophia) and Gloria (an ornery White Castle cashier), respectively. Rounding out the cast is me - I played Gene, a homeless man who lives in the White Castle, who gets a nice soliloquy before falling dead mid-play. I was overjoyed by the opportunity to perform in a live theatrical piece again, and even more excited to direct theatre for the first time!
We held rehearsals the last few weeks in spaces at the University Settlement, where Sophia works. She also constructed simple but elegant set pieces, namely a bullet-proof glass window separating Gloria from the rest of White Castle. I'm used to the directorial duties when it comes to filmmaking, but I'm rather new at some of the theatrical demands - creating a lighting and sound cue list, making a master blocking document, and furnishing the set with props that can be easily placed and stricken within minutes (since we were part of a series of plays).
White Castle Valentine's Day 2018 is a mysterious, romantic riddle wrapped inside an enigma. Sophia's brother Jack made the poster, and I think it's pretty great (additional publicity images were made by Jasmin James). I encouraged everyone
to come on by via our Facebook event, and I sincerely hope they were moved, exhilarated and surprised. Our wonderful guests included my roommate Bobb Barito; dear friend and fellow Red Dragon Player alumnus Cora Walters; my beloved high school English teacher Michael Blankenburg and his husband, Brandon Durham; fellow NYU alumnus Aaron Kodz; and Sophia's entire family. Backstage, I was able to do something I've always wanted to do - lead our cast in vocal warm-ups I learned from my Austin High theatre days.
In short, it was a glorious experience - the dress rehearsals, the thrill of performing live, the backstage camaraderie, the excellent after-party - it all came flooding back to me. And, of course, the opportunity to direct and act in a play I wrote with my incomparable girlfriend doesn't come along every day, and so this one meant a lot to me. Sophia and I really put our heart and souls into this piece, and I'm enormously proud of what we put together in a matter of weeks. Here was
the link for tickets, which I expect will expire in the coming days as new shows move into Manhattan Rep.
But never fear! Ken Wolf, the Artistic Director of Manhattan Rep, recorded a video of both of our performances. You can see our second performance in its entirety in the video below.
White Castle Valentines Day, Performance #2 from
Jack Kyser on
Vimeo.
One year ago on Valentine's Day, I had one of my first dates with the amazingly talented and stunning Sophia. I can't possibly express what a joy it is to have her in my life. I was beyond honored to have collaborated on this performance.
On December 29th, Sophia visited Austin for the first time, and stayed at my house for four nights over the New Years holiday. We had a packed and thrilling three days together - on our first night, we ate at The Tavern with my mom, and then travelled down South Lamar to check out Waterloo Records (where we both made some fine purchases) and Book People.
On Saturday the 30th, we went with my mom to the house of my wonderful uncle and aunt, John and Keni Neff, and then went to The County Line to have some of the best Austin barbecue out there. Sophia and I then took a trip down to the Hike and Bike Trail, where we visited Lou Neff Point, the beautiful overlook at Town Lake (or Lady Bird Lake) named after my grandmother (my mother's mother, Lou Neff). She, along with Lady Bird Johnson, started a beautification effort in Texas to plant wildflowers all along the Texas highways in the 1960s.
Here's an Austin-American Statesman article with a picture of Lou Neff Point from decades ago.
That evening, Sophia, my mom and I had tickets to an early screening of Paul Thomas Anderson's
Phantom Thread in 70MM at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz in downtown Austin. This was a perfect opportunity to not only see downtown, but to take in one of Austin's best cinemas (and see the newest work from one of our finest filmmakers on glorious celluloid). We were enraptured by the film - it's an astonishing study of two people in love, told mostly through glances and gestures, each of them trying to discern what the other is thinking. Daniel Day-Lewis and Vicky Krieps gave two of the best performances of last year. Anderson is such a treasure - and his taste, I might add, is so wide-ranging and unpretentious.
Here is someone who clearly loves movies and doesn't play into the Film Twitter game of taking films down a peg.
After the film, we walked down Congress to the Roaring Fork and had a delicious post-movie meal. We then headed down toward the Texas State Capitol and roamed around outside the beautiful structure.
On New Year's Eve, Sophia and I had lunch at Kerbey Lane Cafe on the Drag, and then roamed around the University of Texas campus. We ended up inside the Harry Ransom Center, one of the great archives and museums in this country, and studied their display
Mexico Modern: Art, Commerce, and Cultural Exchange, 1920-1945 (before inquiring about their copy of Paul Schrader's
Dark, a re-cut of one of his films only available at the Ransom Center and at UCLA's film archives).
We then went out to South Congress for New Year's Eve, meeting up with Zach (who was also in town for the holiday) at Guero's Taco Bar, one of the great Mexican establishments in Austin (and also heavily featured in Quentin Tarantino's
Death Proof). After dinner, we headed across the street to The Continental Club, a historic Austin music venue, and saw live music by the Peterson Brothers, who were positively electric. It was a stirring way to ring in the new year - a year in which I met Sophia, made
Harvey's Last Night on the Avenue, and got a few new jobs. We ended the night in the best possible way - by stopping by Magnolia Cafe and munching on late-night pie.
The next day, Sophia and I met up with Billy and Annie Dragoo, my high school theatre directors, who I consider part of my family. We looked around the Preas Theatre, the home of so many cherished memories, and then went out to lunch at Red's Porch on South Lamar. Sophia and the Dragoos clicked right off the bat, discussing their collective encyclopedic knowledge of plays and theatre. I was thrilled they had the chance to meet.
That evening, my mom, Sophia and I had a great dinner at P.F. Chang's, and then saw Ridley Scott's
All the Money in the World at Westgate Cinemas. Later, back at home, we opened Christmas presents with my mom, and I was overwhelmed by my mom and Sophia's generosity. My mom gave me, in addition to numerous Blu-Rays and books, a record player for my room in Austin. I put on my favorite album,
Exile on Main Street by The Rolling Stones (another Christmas gift), and it was a joyous way to end the trip before we all went to sleep. And Sophia gave me the sweetest gift imaginable - a hand-crafted book charting our relationship and the many memories we've had together. I will cherish this forever.
Austin is changing - the toy store of my childhood, Over the Rainbow, along with the Arbor Cinema and Vulcan Video North, are
all being consumed by rising property taxes. It's simply not Austin without these landmarks - we simply can't let this city become another anonymous metropolis. But at least Austin now has an In-N-Out Burger - God forbid we not have one of those. I have so many wonderful memories at the Arbor, as well as the Sunshine Cinema, which just closed in New York.
Speaking of the Sunshine, I said goodbye to perhaps
my favorite theater in New York in January during its last week of operation. Sophia and I paid pilgrimage the weekend before the cinema closed by seeing Scott Cooper's extraordinary
Hostiles, one of the most overlooked movies of the year, with an incredible Christian Bale. And then, the following weekend, we attended the last Saturday night at the Sunshine ever, joining a large groups of friends for a midnight screening of Sidney Lumet's
Dog Day Afternoon (1975). Now, the space is closed to make way for a shopping mall.
I saw more than forty films at this wonderful theater over the last eight years, and I'm understandably so sad to see this place go. I vividly remember seeing Kenneth Lonergan's
Margaret (2011) there for the first time - it was the only cinema in the city, to my recollection, that even played the film during its limited run. Months later, the Sunshine held the premiere screening of the Director's Cut of
Margaret. I couldn't go, as I was interning at Sikelia, but I remember Thelma Schoonmaker needed subway directions so she could be there. When I was walking home late that night on the Lower East Side (I lived on Broome Street at the time, my senior year of college), I passed by the Sunshine as folks must have been getting out of
Margaret. I walked by Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was unchaining his bike and about to head off into the night.
The first time I ever went to the Sunshine was for Joel and Ethan Coen's
A Serious Man (2009), which I saw on opening night with three friends from film school. This was less than a month into my first semester at NYU, and I could tell this cinema was a place I would return many times over the years. The staff threw out
A Serious Man t-shirts to the audience before the film - luckily, I still have mine. Let's protect the small cinemas we still have left.
In early October, on my first dark week from Comedy Central (I had only been working for two weeks), I directed my second film of 2017,
Four Play. I wrote a great deal about
Four Play in my last post, but in short, it's my first film that I didn't write. Ben Krevalin, an actor and producer with whom I share mutual friends, hired me to direct his screenplay early in the summer, and the early October shoot was a great learning experience. Even when I thought I had fully considered every aspect of a scene, there was something I hadn't thought of - such is the nature of directing someone else's script. I had a chance to work with some amazingly talented actors (Justin Danforth, Lizzie Stewart, McLean Peterson and Ben), and collaborate with some friends with whom I love working on set, namely production designer Maddie Wall and script supervisor Lain Kienzie, both extremely talented artists.
During our three-day shoot, we packed in
a lot of scenes, and in the months since wrapping the shoot, Ben and I have been in the edit room with our editor, Daniel Sorochkin, who has done a great job with the film. We just picture-locked this past weekend, and I'm very proud of the final movie. Once it's fully sound-designed, color-corrected and scored, we'll be sending it off into the film festival circuit.
Speaking of my films, I'm still chugging along with the edit of
Harvey's Last Night on the Avenue. I've been moving slowly but consistently - although I know most people prefer to make a rough cut of the entire project early in the process, I prefer to work on each individual scene at a time pretty thoroughly, resulting in a 'first cut' that's hopefully a little more refined. I'm not terribly far from a full first cut, but considering
Harvey's Last Night on the Avenue will be nearly double the length of
Four Play, I think the amount of time spent in the edit room so far is well-justified.
In September and October, I saw three films at the New York Film Festival - starting with the incredible North American premiere of Nancy Buirski's
The Rape of Recy Taylor. Sophia and I (as well as my friend Tommy Bernardi, who also provided voiceover work in the film) attended a pre-screening party for the film at Indie Cafe at Lincoln Center, before traveling across the street to the Walter Reade Theater to see the film on the big screen. It was a great experience, with a fantastic Q&A afterward with Nancy, Robert Corbitt (Recy Taylor's brother), Cynthia Erivo, Crystal Feimster and Danielle L. McGuire, moderated by Kent Jones. I will admit, however, that I was a bit taken out of the film when I heard my own voice - it was an odd sensation.
The Rape of Recy Taylor has received some wonderful attention in the last few months. The film was front and center of The New York Times' Holiday Movies section, listed as one of the must-see films of 2017. On Saturday, November 11th, Nancy was joined by Academy Award nominated actress Ruth Negga (
Loving) for a screening of the film at the annual MoMA Contenders Series with a post-screening discussion. On Friday, December 8th, the film opened for an Oscar-qualifying run at Laemmle Monica Film Center, followed by
a New York theatrical release on December 15th at the IFC Center. In late December, The New Yorker's Richard Brody
listed the film as one of the best pictures of the year, alongside
The Lost City of Z,
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected),
Phantom Thread and
Logan Lucky.
Recy Taylor passed away in late December at the age of ninety-seven. During last month's Golden Globes broadcast, Oprah Winfrey spoke about Ms. Taylor, which I hope shed even more light on her story and on Nancy's brilliant film. I'm extremely proud to be associated with
The Rape of Recy Taylor, and I highly encourage you to seek it out.
Later during the New York Film Festival, Sophia and I saw the Closing Night screening of Woody Allen's
Wonder Wheel, which I thought was Allen's best film since
Blue Jasmine (2013). It has some of the most imaginative staging and blocking in any of his movies, and Vittorio Storaro's cinematography is simply beautiful. Upon a second viewing in December, I was even more struck by Kate Winslet's performance and the strength of
Wonder Wheel as a whole. But just remember, Woody - I shot at Deno's Wonder Wheel Park first (see below)!
On the last day of the festival, I was quite astonished while watching Dee Rees's
Mudbound at the Walter Reade Theater. Not just by the film, which was beautiful, but by the audience, which was not. I have rarely seen as many cell phones or heard as much talking as I did at this screening. Not one, not two, but three different people in the row in front of me on their phones - and that was just one row. Was this at a multiplex, perhaps in Times Square? No. This was the Film Society of Lincoln Center, for crying out loud. The New York Film Festival. I know that no space is immune to this kind of behavior - look no further than Film Forum, which seems to thrive now on loud talkers - but I was surprised that nobody in the audience really seemed to care. Certainly not the narrator behind me. Is there not one employee who can monitor these screenings, particularly for films not yet released, and ask people to close their phones? I was dismayed. There are many good films coming out these days, but not nearly enough audiences that deserve them. At this point,
this song echoes through my mind nearly every time I sit down in a cinema.
There were several great films that played the New York Film Festival that I ended up catching elsewhere, including Todd Haynes's
Wonderstruck, an overwhelmingly beautiful film that was clearly too quiet, sophisticated and strange for the non-stop talkers at Village East Cinema on a Saturday afternoon. Special shout-out to the know-it-all dad who inundated his young son with useless comments the entire film.
Here's my review of Wonderstruck for Austin Family Magazine (you can read all of my reviews at the website, if you'd like).
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) was one of my favorite films of last year, continuing Noah Baumbach's streak of magnificent achievements. The film features Dustin Hoffman's best performance in years, with an equally amazing Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller.
Thanks in large part to Sophia, I've seen quite a bit of theatre the last few months. Most recently, we experienced one of the best plays I've seen in a long time, Bruce Norris's
The Low Road, at the Public Theater. In January, we saw Robert O'Hara's
Mankind at Playwrights Horizons, which was a wild ride overflowing with ideas. The first act finish was a delight, as all men in the audience stood and performed a prayer from a pamphlet hand-out. Earlier in the fall, Sophia's dad took us to see
1984 on Broadway at the Hudson Theatre, starring Tom Sturridge and Olivia Wilde, which was a horrifying and difficult-to-watch staging of George Orwell's novel.
I was most moved by the revival of
Torch Song, which was produced by Richie Jackson, a wonderful mentor and advisor to me through his fellowship. Written by Harvey Fierstein, directed by Moises Kaufman and starring Michael Urie and Mercedes Ruehl, the show closed on December 9th (I saw it during its final few days) at the Tony Kiser (no relation) Theater on 43rd Street. However, the play is opening on Broadway this fall, with previews starting in October.
Torch Song was truly one of the most imaginatively staged and beautifully acted shows I've seen in some time.
Sophia has had no shortage of her own live performances in the last year. Her play
Trash Lord: Domestication was performed in January at Sidewalk NYC, directed by Keith Paul Medelis of the
Upstream Artists' Collective, and she also staged her performance art piece
Body Fluids last fall at the University Settlement on Eldridge Street. This came after a whirlwind 2017, in which she held a packed staged reading of her play
Please, Mrs. West in January at the University Settlement; directed and starred in a production of her original play
Solo: An American Choreopoem at Dixon Place in April; and produced a film adaptation (which I assistant-directed) of
Please, Mrs. West in July.
In late October, we had a very fun Halloween. The night before, we went pumpkin-carving at Zach's apartment with some of his friends. As we didn't buy a pumpkin in advance of the party, we decided to temporarily "borrow" a pumpkin from a nearby bar (which had outside pumpkin decorations). We carved it impressively at Zach's apartment, and then we promptly returned the newly enlivened pumpkin to its rightful spot near the bar, with the message 'Do Not Judge Lest Ye Be Judged!' written onto its side. I like to think we didn't steal their pumpkin - we made it even better. We then travelled over to a party at another friend's apartment.
The next night, on Halloween, Sophia and I dressed up as our favorite movie couple - Howard Hughes and Katharine Hepburn. I had my aviator goggles and a piece of paper taped to my chest reading 'The Way of the Future,' while Sophia went full Hepburn in her costume choices. And then we headed off into the night, spending time at her friend's costume party in Harlem. All in all, it was a good way to honor
The Aviator (2004), which I watched (with Sophia) for the one-hundredth time early last year. You know, watching
The Aviator really puts things into perspective. For instance, there is no better movie than
The Aviator.
I returned to Austin for Thanksgiving, and I had a grand Thanksgiving Day with my dear friend Bolton Eckert and his family. My mom, Bolton's mom Leslie, his girlfriend Allie, grandmother Myr and other family members gathered at Leslie's house and had a great meal. Only a year prior, I had joined Bolton, Allie and the Eckert family for a celebration of the wonderful Horton Foote's centennial - but I'll write about that in a future post (where I'll go back to 2016 and fill in some gaps). Bolton had his new drone camera at Thanksgiving, so we played around with flying that thing around Austin and getting some really beautiful aerial footage. He's now started
a production company in Los Angeles where he'll be a drone operator and videographer.
Over Thanksgiving, I also saw some of my favorite films of 2017, primarily at the Alamo Drafthouse. In case I wasn't clear enough in my praise last time around,
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is likely my favorite American film since Martin Scorsese's
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). I have been positively thrilled by the film's awards season reception this year - seven Oscar nominations in total, although Martin McDonagh's omission for Best Director is disappointing.
Three Billboards won five awards at the BAFTAs, including Best Film, Actress (Frances McDormand), Supporting Actor (Sam Rockwell) and Original Screenplay. The film won the same four awards at the Golden Globes, and the Screen Actors Guild awarded the picture Best Ensemble, Actress and Supporting Actor. The film richly deserves each one of these accolades. I've been laughing a bit at the hit pieces on the film ever since it became a frontrunner this awards season - God forbid a movie not adhere strictly to the doctrine of political correctness and have a bit of a nuanced view on some complicated issues. Thankfully, there are plenty of
good pieces defending the film, as well as
year-end top ten lists with
Three Billboards out front I can get behind (I also particularly enjoyed John Waters's
top ten this year, where he included
The Wizard of Lies,
Wonder Wheel and
Wonderstruck).
I also saw Greta Gerwig's
Lady Bird while in Austin, which was so moving and true - particularly in its expression of only appreciating your hometown once you've moved away. It's a beautiful piece of personal filmmaking that deepens our understanding of Gerwig's brilliant work as an actress. Richard Linklater's
Last Flag Flying and
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) rounded out my Thanksgiving viewing - both of which deserved far more recognition this awards season.
The fall in general brought about quite a few excellent films - many of which didn't quite make my end-of-year top ten list. I'll write about a few of them here. I saw a killer Alamo Drafthouse double-feature in November of Yorgos Lanthimos's
The Killing of a Sacred Deer and Sean Baker's
The Florida Project - as always, A24 is giving us some damn fine work. For another Alamo double-feature, Sophia and I saw James Franco's
The Disaster Artist, which is a blast - one of the funniest movies in years, ending with an almost
The King of Comedy-style rise to fame. We followed it with Luca Guadagnino's
Call Me By Your Name, which is engaging and leisurely from start to finish. The film is a confidently directed and realized picture, with a supporting turn from the always fantastic Michael Stuhlbarg that sneaks up on you.
At our third-to-last date at the Sunshine Cinema before its closing (our first, by the way, was Jim Jarmusch's
Paterson early last year), Sophia and I saw Brett Morgen's
Jane, which has some of the most extraordinary, cinematic archival footage I've ever seen. The parallels between Jane Goodall's study of chimpanzee behavior and her own personal life is so well-done. The great thing about
Darkest Hour is that Joe Wright's inventive and exhilarating filmmaking is every bit as good as Gary Oldman's towering lead performance. And in Craig Gillespie's
I, Tonya, we get a haunting look at a life marred by abuse and scandal, with performances by Margot Robbie and Allison Janney that are among the best of the year.
I, Tonya is a film that continues to linger with me, and may very well find its way into my 2017 top ten after some reconsideration. If you're looking for more writing about my favorite movies of the year (in addition to my below blog post), check out
my end-of-year list for Austin Family Magazine.
In general, I've been pleased with the major awards this year (although we'll see what happens at the Academy Awards this weekend). In addition to the
Three Billboards love, I was thrilled Paul Thomas Anderson and
Phantom Thread received so much attention from the Academy. I was less thrilled that both Tom Hanks (
The Post) and Hong Chau (
Downsizing) were omitted. What does Hanks have to do to get nominated for an Oscar these days? Because apparently the answer isn't starring in five Best Picture nominees since his last nomination seventeen years ago and not being nominated for one of them. For the Golden Globes and SAG Awards, I wish Robert De Niro would have won for his incredible performance in Barry Levinson's
The Wizard of Lies. In general, there has been far too little praise this entire season for
Downsizing,
The Lost City of Z,
The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) and
Logan Lucky - all movies I feel certain are going to grow in esteem over the years (and are far superior to many of the nominated films).
In November, my hero Martin Scorsese turned seventy-five years old. He's currently shooting
The Irishman, which is essentially my favorite film of all time in the making. There have been endless amounts of exciting updates on the film -
Anna Paquin has joined the film,
set photos have emerged and much more.
Here's a few assorted Scorsese links and news items, all bundled together: he wrote
a great article last year about the danger of relying on Rotten Tomatoes and Cinemascore ratings when considering a film, using Darren Aronofsky's
mother! as an example (by the way, congratulations to Paramount Pictures for making something as bold and audacious as
mother!, which was brilliant and totally go-for-broke, and a great companion piece to Aronofsky's
Noah). Here's another important (and slightly older, at this point)
article, in which Scorsese and other great directors say we're getting ripped off at the cinema. Scorsese says, in particular, "... unfortunately, a few bad experiences in a movie theatre can lead to an audience ultimately deciding to stay home."
Last December 20th marked the 15-year anniversary of Scorsese's
Gangs of New York (2002). I remember opening day vividly - I was twelve years old, and it was my first Scorsese film in cinemas. My ticket cost $5.00, my friend Manny Munoz and I went with our moms, and as the lights went up, I felt as if I had just seen
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
on opening weekend. I am still in awe.
On September 21st of 2016, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio declared the day Martin Scorsese Day. Want more? Here's
a link to a history of Scorsese's love affair with The Rolling Stones. Here's a look at
the future of the movies from 1990, the year I was born, where Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas discuss with Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel where they see the movie industry headed. It's a fascinating watch. And for the 40th Anniversary of
Taxi Driver (1976),
here's Scorsese and his cast with an oral history of the film.
Lastly, boxer Jake La Motta, the subject of Scorsese's
Raging Bull (1980),
died in September at ninety-five years old - what a life. May he rest in peace.
Speaking of those we've recently lost, I'm still mourning the loss of Tom Petty. In addition to being one of the greatest musical artists of our time, Petty also made the best music videos I've seen. In particular,
Into the Great Wide Open and
Don't Come Around Here No More are really astonishing. If I had to make a top five Petty, it'd be:
Don't Come Around Here No More,
Into the Great Wide Open,
I Won't Back Down,
Learning to Fly and
It'll All Work Out, with a bonus nod going to
Handle with Care by the Traveling Wilburys. It's also worth mentioning how beautifully his music is used in the films of Cameron Crowe. We also lost one of the best actors around last year, Harry Dean Stanton, who appeared in so many great films.
Two of my all-time favorite directors passed away, as well.
Curtis Hanson died in September of 2016. His films
L.A. Confidential (1997) and
Wonder Boys (2000) are both among my favorite one-hundred movies of all time. He was a filmmaker who could seemingly work in any genre and make true art, as evidenced by films as diverse as
8 Mile (2002) and
In Her Shoes (2005). And then, last year,
Michael Cimino (
The Deer Hunter,
Heaven's Gate,
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot) passed away at 77. What an extraordinary director - seeing
The Deer Hunter (1978)
for the first time as a child was eye-opening. Like
Raging Bull, the film's power was beyond anything I had ever seen, and it remains one of my five favorite films of all time.
Last but not least, I wish to share with you what my friend Jon Annunziata, an ebullient taco of a human being, sent me in the mail in December. Arriving home after work, I found a top-secret package containing my long-lost copy of
The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh, a Travis Bickle t-shirt and a letter too pure for this world (plus some Carlos Santana memorabilia for Bobb). I can only express my gratitude to Jon by quoting the Reverend Al Sharpton: "Who among us has not showered with the dishes? For you are nothing but a mafioso waiting to take my breath away, and I for one couldn't be more surprised."
There is a shot near the end of the film in which the camera does a slow, nearly-360° rotation around Johannes (Preben Lerdorff Rye) and his niece (as her mother lays dying) that simply took my breath away. It was one of the most profound and haunting marriages of dialogue and camera movement I have seen in some time, and it will not leave my mind any time soon.
