In August the world bid a fond farewell to number of stars of the silver screen and the small screen. In brief, shown below, is my passing tribute to those stars who leave an indelible mark on the entertainment industry, and in particular the world of film and television. May you all Rest In Peace, and thanks for the memories . . . .
Neil Simon, Aretha Franklin and Barbara Harris.
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Marvin Neil Simon - was born on July 4th 1927 and died on 26th August 2018, aged 91. He was a prolific American Playwright, Screenwriter and Author. He wrote in excess of thirty plays and nearly the same number of movie Screenplays which were mostly adaptations of his own plays. He received more combined Oscar and Tony nominations than any other Writer and all up had eight award wins and eighteen nominations for his film and television work alone including four Academy Award nods, four Primetime Emmy nominations, two BAFTA nominations, two Golden Globe nods and a win, and a further six nominations and four wins bestowed by the Writers Guild of America. His movie Screenplays included
'The Odd Couple', 'The Out-of-Towners', 'Plaza Suite', 'The Heartbreak Kid', 'The Sunshine Boys', 'Murder by Death', 'The Goodbye Girl', 'California Suite', 'Brighton Beach Memoirs', 'Biloxi Blues', 'Lost in Yonkers' and
'The Odd Couple II'. Additionally, he wrote eight made for TV movies based on his own plays, and was a regular writing contributor to many television shows throughout the 1950's including
'Caesar's Hour' and
'The Phil Silvers Show'. In 1983 he was the only living Playwright to have a theatre named after him - The Neil Simon Theatre on Broadway, in 1991 he was awarded The Pulitzer Prize for Drama and in 2006 The Mark Twain Prize for American Humour. He was born in the Bronx, New York City, married five times and died in Manhattan, New York City.
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Barbara Densmoor Harris - was born on July 25th 1935 and died August 21st 2018, aged 83. She began her stage acting career treading the boards while still an aspiring teenager in Chicago. Harris graduated to television in 1961 appearing in a single episode of
'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' and from there she appeared in select television and film roles throughout the '60's, '70's, '80's and '90's. Her first feature film role came in 1965 with
'A Thousand Clowns', followed up appearances in more noteworthy films including the Neil Simon penned
'Plaza Suite' alongside Walter Matthau,
'The War Between Men and Women' in 1972 with Jack Lemon, Robert Altman's famed
'Nashville' in 1975 starring an ensemble cast, Alfred Hitchcock's
'Family Plot' in 1976 with Bruce Dern and
'Freaky Friday' that same year with a young Jodie Foster,
'The Seduction of Joe Tynan' in 1979 with Alan Alda and Meryl Streep,
'Peggy Sue Got Married' in 1986 with Nicolas Cage and Jim Carrey,
'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' in 1988 with Michael Caine and Steve Martin and her last film role in 1997
'Grosse Pointe Blank' with John Cusack and Minnie Driver. All up Harris had just 28 Acting credits but was highly acclaimed winning a Tony Award for her Leading Actress Performance in a Musical on the 1966 Broadway Production of
'The Apple Tree'. She was also nominated for an Academy Award for her supporting role in '
Who is Harry Kellerman, and why is he saying those terrible things about me?' in 1971, and a further four Golden Globe nods for her film work. Thereafter she retired from acting and began teaching which she found more interesting! She was born in Evanston, Illinois and died in Scottsdale, Arizona.
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Aretha Louise Franklin - was born on March 25th 1942 and died on August 16th 2018, aged 76. Dubbed the 'Queen of Soul' at the end of the '60's when she had achieved fame and recognition for her singing and songwriting prowess, she first started singing as a child in a gospel choir at a Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan where her father was the Minister. In 1960, aged 18, she signed up with Columbia Records as a solo artist but had only modest success, however, signing to Atlantic Records in 1966 she enjoyed far greater success. She remained with Atlantic Records until 1980 when she signed to Arista Records with whom she remained until 2007. Franklin recorded 112 charted singles on Billboard, including 77 Hot 100 entries, seventeen top ten singles, one hundred R&B entries, and twenty number-one R&B singles, becoming the most charted female artist in history. She won eighteen Grammy Awards having been nominated for 44, including the first eight awards given for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance from 1968 through to 1975, and she is one of the best-selling musical artists of all time, having sold more than 75 million records worldwide. Her catalogue includes perhaps her signature song '
R-E-S-P-E-C-T', and, amongst an extensive collection,
'Chain of Fools', 'Think', '(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman', 'I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)', 'I Say a Little Prayer' 'Who's Zoomin' Who', and
'I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)' which was recorded with George Michael. Aside from a stellar and widely acclaimed singing and songwriting career, Franklin also appeared in a small number of feature films and documentaries. Perhaps her best movie turn came as Mrs. Murphy in the 1980 John Landis Directed
'The Blues Brothers' with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. She would go on to reprise her role in the 1998 sequel
'Blues Brothers 2000'. Her songs, her albums, her awards and her lifetime of achievements accumulated over seven decades are way too many to do any justice to here. She was born in Memphis, Tennessee and died in Detroit, Michigan where her career in music began.
Turning then to this weeks current theatrical releases, coming to an Odeon near you we have seven new films. We start with the fifth film in this successful horror franchise and the spin-off from the second film that takes us back to the '50's and two papal envoys sent to a Monastery far away to investigate the mysterious suicide of a young nun - be prepared to have the bejeezus scared out of you. We then have a change of pace with a comedy drama offering based on another big screen adaptation from this popular British novelist about an ageing rocker, and unlikely romance and the partner caught in the middle who just happens to be the biggest fan of the rockstar of yesteryear. Next we turn to a gun for hire vigilante who only takes on very specific cases and always get results, but is plagued by visions of his troubled past that might just be his undoing. These are followed by an Aussie comedy set in a remote country town where a former AFL (Australian Football League) legend has gone into 'retirement' only to be brought out of it by a confluence of circumstances and the newly arrived displaced talent from far away lands. We then wrap up the week with a trio of documentaries, the first of which is about three identical triplets separated at birth as part of a clandestine experiment who accidentally rediscover each other almost twenty years later. Then we have a look inside the life and times of an Australian motorcycle racing legend and former world champion, before concluding the week with a look inside the life and relatively short lived times of a British fashion icon whose influence is still felt today, eight years since his untimely death.
Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the seven latest release new movies as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release and as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead.
'THE NUN' (Rated MA15+) - the recently released teaser trailer for this film has caused quite a stir with some members of the online audience almost shatting themselves out of sheer fright, that YouTube actually pulled the trailer, allegedly. And so this American gothic supernatural horror film is the fifth film in
'The Conjuring' franchise and a spin-off from
'The Conjuring 2'. The series launched in 2013 with
'The Conjuring' and was Directed by Aussie James Wan, who repeated his efforts in 2016 with
'The Conjuring 2'.
'Annabelle' came in between in 2014 and is a prequel to
'The Conjuring' and in mid-2017
'Annabelle : Creation' was released. Those first four films in the franchise cost a combined US$82M and grossed worldwide US$1.203B, so it's no wonder that James Wan is Co-Producer and Co-Writer on the majority of films so far, and those in the works too for future release.
This instalment is Directed by Corin Hardy in only his second feature length film after his 2015 horror offering
'The Hallow', and tells the story of
a young nun at the cloistered Carta Monastery in Romania who mysteriously takes her own life. A priest with a haunted past and a novice on the eve of her final vows are sent by the Vatican to investigate further. It is 1952, and together, they uncover the order's unholy secret. Risking not only their lives but their faith and their very souls, they confront a malevolent force in the form of a demonic nun. Damian Bichir stars as Father Burke, Taissa Farmiga (younger sister to Vera) as Sister Irene and Bonnie Aarons as the Demonic Nun.
'JULIET, NAKED' (Rated M) - this comedy drama offering Directed by Jesse Peretz is based on the 2009 Nick Hornby novel of the same name. Hornby has had other novels adapted for the big screen -
'High Fidelity', 'Fever Pitch' and
'About A Boy' and now this one gets the cinematic treatment. The film Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January this year, and was released Stateside in mid-August. It centers on the story of Annie (Rose Byrne), and her unlikely romance with singer-songwriter Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke), who is also the subject of her boyfriend Duncan (Chris O'Dowd) long-standing musical obsession. When an acoustic demo of Tucker’s hit record from 25 years ago comes to light, its release leads to a life-changing encounter with the elusive and ageing rocker himself. The film has garnered generally positive press.
'YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE' (Rated MA15+) - here Lynne Ramsay Directs, Co-Produces and wrote the Screenplay based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Jonathan Ames. The Scottish Lynne Ramsay's previous works include
'Morvern Caller', 'We Need To Talk About Kevin' and
'Swimmer'. This film first screened at Cannes back in May 2017 where Ramsey won the Best Screenplay Award and its lead Actor, Joaquin Phoenix won the Best Actor Award for his portrayal of Joe, a gun for hire who rescues trafficked girls using often brutal methods against the perpetrators. Joe cares for his ailing mother in the New York City home he grew up in, and has graphic flashbacks to his childhood, abuse he and his mother faced from his violent father, his brutal past in the military and FBI, and has suicidal thoughts. When a teenage girl goes missing he accepts the assignment to locate her and bring her back to her New York State Senator father. But along the way he uncovers corruption, the abuse of power and a bloody trail of corpses. Also starring Ekaterina Samsonov, John Doman and Judith Roberts, the film received a seven minute standing ovation when it screened at Cannes, was released in the UK back in early March and the US in early April and has so far taken US$7M at the Box Office and has garnered widespread acclaim.
'THE MERGER' (Rated M) - back in the day, Troy Carrington (played by Damian Callinan who also wrote the screenplay here) and Directed by Mark Grentell, was a legend of Australian Rules Football. But since those heady days, two decades have past by, and now living an almost recluse like life in the small country town where he grew up, Bodgy Creek, he has turned his back on football forever. Until now, that is! When young local lad Neil (Raffety Grierson) whom Troy forges an unlikely friendship with following the recent death of his father and Angie (Kate Mulvany), Neil's Mum, enters his life and asks him to come to the rescue of the well regarded but nonetheless struggling local AFL (Australian Football League) team, The Bodgy Creek Roosters, Troy knows that he must step up, man up and own up to the inner demons that have kept him away from his once beloved sport for twenty years or so. Putting on the years and seriously lacking any real talent, Troy comes to realise that his teams salvation may be right in his own backyard in the shape of the a bunch of recently arrived refugees. Also starring Josh McConville, John Howard, Angus McLaren and Fayssal Bazzi, this feel good comedy about the Australian game, life in a country town and the spirit of community overcoming adversity has received generally positive Press.
'THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS' (Rated PG) - this American documentary film Directed by Tim Wardle, Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January this year where it took out the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Storytelling. The story in question here surrounds three brothers born to a single mother in 1961. At the direction of a Jewish adoption agency the infant triplets were intentionally placed with families of different economic levels — one blue-collar, one middle-class, and one upper-class — which had each adopted a baby girl from the same agency two years previously. The separations were done as part of a scientific 'nature versus nurture' twin study to track the development of genetically identical siblings raised in differing circumstances. The brothers were raised by their respective adoptive families as David Kellman, Bobby Shafran, and Eddy Galland. They discovered one another by chance in 1980 aged nineteen, and subsequently became very close, but all three struggled with depression throughout their lives. The documentary explores how the brothers came to discover one another and then sought to understand the circumstances behind their separation. The film has generated widespread praise from Critics and audiences alike and has so far taken US$11M at the Box Office since its late June release in the US.
'WAYNE' (Rated M) - this documentary is Directed and Co-Written by Jeremy Sims, and tells the story of motorcycle racing legend Wayne Gardner. From growing up in Wollongong, New South Wales in the 1960's, Wayne Gardner secured his first bike for five dollars. He began his motorcycle racing career in 1977 at the age of 18 and by 1987 he was the Motorcycle Racing World Champion. Gardner enjoyed a career in racing that had never been experienced by an Australian before, and helped define the high-octane sport both at home and abroad. Described as a free-spirited, introspective, honest and cheeky account of Gardner's life in which he shares details of his professional and personal life freely, as do those who know or had known him – family, friends, sponsors, team mates and even rivals. Combined with an abundance of archival footage, this film offers an insight into a defining piece of Australian sporting history.
'MCQUEEN' (Rated MA15+) - in our third Documentary release this week, here we have Directors Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui recounting the life of British fashion designer Lee Alexander McQueen, who started his career in his teens before gaining notice as designer for Givenchy and launching his own label, which continues to this day. It's an emotional telling of his remarkable journey from working-class boy in London's East End to one of the world's most celebrated – and controversial – designers, until his suicide in 2010. His story is recounted by the friends, family and collaborators in whom he inspired such fierce loyalty, and features never before seen home videos of McQueen discussing just about everything from the concepts of his fashion shows to dodging social security inspectors. Nothing is off limits in this tell all of a fashion icon that has been highly acclaimed.
With seven new release films this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the week ahead at your local Odeon.
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
'THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS' which I saw earlier this week is an American documentary film Directed by Tim Wardle. The film Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January this year where it took out the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Storytelling. The film has generated widespread praise from Critics and audiences alike and has so far taken just over US$11M at the Box Office since its late June release in the US.
The film opens with the talking head of 56 year old Robert (Bobby) Shafran in what is at first a feel good movie with him recounting his first day on campus at his new Community College somewhere in New York State. He was pleasantly surprised and somewhat taken aback when other students whom he didn't know from a bar of soap, came up and seemingly were genuinely pleased to see him, patting him on the back, asking him how his Summer break was, and with girls openly greeting him with welcoming kisses and hugs. However, the then nineteen year old Bobby's initial excitement quickly turned to confusion, when one of the students ventured into his new dorm, and called him Eddy. When Bobby turned around somewhat perplexed, the other student announced that he looked identical to another student from the year before who had made the decision not to return to College that year, hence everyone's surprise at seeing him again. That same student asks Bobby if by chance his birth date was July 12, and whether he was adopted, to which Bobby responds with a 'yes' to both questions.
Within no time the student packs Bobby into a car and they drive to the nearest phone box to call Eddy at his Long Island home, and the suspicions come home to roost at that point. The pair then drive the two hour journey to Eddy's home arriving late at night to discover that Eddy Galland and Bobby are indeed identical twins separated at birth. Their reunion after nineteen years quickly becomes almost an overnight media sensation having been picked up in a number of local newspapers and The New York Post. There is however, another twist to this story that turns it from 'amazing' to 'incredible'!
In just a few short days after the article appeared in The New York Post, Bobby and Eddy were surprised once more by the news that they weren't in fact identical twins but a set of identical triplets, with the third identical brother David Kellman joining the media frenzy after reading about it in The New York Post. The media went well & truly into overdrive with the three identical siblings being the darlings of the New York social scene, chat shows, print media articles and TV appearances. After all, what's not to like about three young fresh faced, good looking broad shouldered cheeky likely lads with black curly locks and a sense of humour.
Following the euphoria of the '80's for the brothers, things began to take a darker turn. Disagreements ensued about work ethics, management style and company decisions surrounding the day to day operations of the restaurant. Furthermore, it also came to light that all three brothers had struggled with depression during their earlier teen years possibly brought about by their separation and the sense of being disconnected. Each spent time in psychiatric hospitals. Added to this, questions were being raised about the Louise Wise adoption agency, why they kept it a secret that each of the brothers had siblings, why all three were not offered up for adoption to a single family, and what about the fate of other twins or triplets born throughout the '50's and '60's that were similarly put up for adoption and have yet to discover their own siblings? And more questions besides.
Tim Wardle has here created an intriguing film that starts off as a feel good movie with the joy, excitement and emotion of three young men discovering each other as identical triplet brothers completely by accident, which then slowly burns away to reveal a real life horror story underpinned by scientific experimentation, human lab rats, lies, deceit and lives torn asunder. The story is so outlandish that you would be forgiven for thinking it a work of fiction were it not for Wardle's excellent research and reporting; the compelling nature in which this stranger than fiction story is delivered; the attention to detail and keeping it real; the big reveal and its true life aftershock factor and the questions it raises that will keep you thinking about it long after the credits have rolled. The two surviving brothers remain on a journey that to date has been 57 years in the making and still with no real closure - let's hope that they find it soon and can move on . . . finally!
