Alan Arkin, the highly honored actor and director with a distinguished career that spanned eight decades, has passed away on June 30th at the age of eighty-nine. Born Alan Wolf Arkin in Brooklyn, he began pursing acting as a child, taking lessons and attending various drama academies. Arkin joined the Second City comedy troupe, honing his improv skills. He made his stage debut on Broadway in 1963 with the comedy, "Enter Laughing", winning Arkin a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.
This lead to Hollywood taking notice and he was cast in Norman Jewison's 1966 comedy, "The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming", earning Arkin his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and winning a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical. Arkin would go to appear in "Inspector Clouseau" (briefly taking over the role from Peter Sellers in 1968), "Catch-22", "Popi", "Wait Until Dark", The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" (earning him a second Best Actor Oscar nomination), "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" and "Freebie and the Bean".
In 1972, Arkin returned to the stage but this time as a director with the original production of Neil Simon's now-classic comedy, "The Sunshine Boys" and received a Tony nomination for Best Director. But Arkin didn't stay away from performing long, returning to appear on the big screen with some remarkable supporting work in "Edward Scissorhands", "Slums of Beverly Hills", "Grosse Point Blank", "Glengarry Glen Ross" and "Little Miss Sunshine" which would help him finally take home an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2006. He would continue to work, appearing in "Argo", "Marley & Me", "Going in Style" and on television, lending his voice in the animated series, "Bojack Horseman" and appearing with Michael Douglas for two seasons in the Netflix series "The Kominsky Method".
Glenda Jackson, the extraordinary British actor who was the recipient of two Academy Awards, the BAFTA, three Emmys and a Tony Award, has sadly passed away on June 15th following a brief illness. Jackson, who had only returned to acting since 2015 after serving a lengthy career in politics for over twenty years, was eighty-seven.
Named after an American film performer, Glenda Farrell, Jackson came from a working-class background and began acting as a teenager in a drama group at the Townswomen's Guild. She would later attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, making her professional stage debut in "Doctor in the House" in 1957. After initially failing to be accepted in the Royal Shakespeare Company, Jackson struggled for a few years with no acting work, taking on odd jobs to make a living. She was finally able to join the RSC in 1963, appearing in several productions most notably "Marat/Sade" in 1965 and starring in the film version of the play two years later.
Jackson's first starring film role was in Ken Russell's adaptation of the novel by D.H. Lawrence, "Women in Love". Her captivating performance would earn Jackson an Oscar for Best Actress in 1969. This would make her become a sought after performer in movies with some of her more notable film appearances include "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Mary, Queen of Scots", "The Maids", "House Calls" and the 1973 romantic comedy, "A Touch of Class" which would win Jackson a second Best Actress Oscar.
Jackson would also work in television, with appearances ranging from "The Muppet Show" to playing fellow Oscar-winner, Patricia Neal and her recovery from a stroke in 1981's "The Patricia Neal Story" to shaving her head to play Queen Elizabeth I in the 1971 BBC series, "Elizabeth R" winning Jackson two Emmy Awards for her efforts.
And throughout her career in front of the camera, Jackson would continue to work extensively on the stage, mostly in London but did venture occasionally to Broadway. Her most recent performances in New York were in the 2018 revival of Edward Albee's "Three Tall Women" with Jackson winning the Tony Award for Best Actress and a 2019 production of "King Lear" which she had done to tremendous acclaim at the Old Vic four years earlier.
In 1991, the boldly outspoken Jackson decided to retire from acting so she could devote herself full-time to politics. She was elected to Parliament the following year as a Labour Party lawmaker. She later served as the minister for transportation under Prime Minister, Tony Blair's government in 1997. Jackson decided not to seek re-election in 2011, leaving Parliament five years later and at the age of eighty, making a triumphant return to acting.
Yorgos Lanthimos, the Greek filmmaker who has an impressive gift of making his absurdist, dark comedies like "Dogtooth", "The Lobster" and "The Favourite" appealing and poignant to a wide audience, will be returning soon with his latest offbeat comedy. "Poor Things", based on the 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray, has Emma Stone (reuniting with Lanthimos following her Oscar-nominated performance in "The Favourite") playing a recently deceased 19th century young woman who is resurrected by a scientist (Willem Dafoe). With a strong desire to explore the world, she tales off with an unscrupulous lawyer (Mark Ruffalo) and begins to live life on her terms, demanding equality and liberation.
Ramy Youssef, Margaret Qualley, Jerrod Carmichael, Christopher Abbott and Kathryn Hunter also star.
"Poor Things" is due in US theaters on September 8, 2023 December 8, 2023
Where & When: Regal LA Live 14, Los Angeles, CA. May 29, 2023 3:20 PM
When the animated feature film, "The Little Mermaid" arrived in theaters in 1989, the glory days of Walt Disney Studios was far behind them with many of their recent family-friendly, animated movies failing to generate much critical acclaim or inspire box-office excitement. With an engaging script by the directors, John Musker and Ron Clements and lively, original songs written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, "The Little Mermaid" went on to revitalize Disney animation, winning over critics and becoming a worldwide blockbuster. More popular hits followed and Disney Studios would once again become the dominate force in animated feature films.
The astonishing advancement of visual effects has given Disney the opportunity to reimagine their animated classics into live-action movies. The latest is the film that began the studio's renaissance with this remake of "The Little Mermaid". Rob Marshall, the director who brought the razzle-dazzle to the Oscar-winning adaptation of the Broadway musical, "Chicago", is the guide of this version, driving the film impressively with a magical visual style that thrillingly has us in a believable underwater world. And what made this musical feel even remarkably modern was the casting of the dynamic r&b vocalist, Halle Bailey as our beautiful mermaid, Ariel who is fascinated by the human world and ends up falling in love with a prince. Yet does this extravagant production do enough to make a twenty-first century "Little Mermaid" feel actually necessary?
If you're not familiar with the first film, here is a rundown of the story which has essentially remained the same. Ariel (Bailey) is the youngest of seven daughters of King Triton (Javier Bardem), the ruler of Atlantica where merpeople live under the sea. With Triton not wanting anything to do with humans due to one killing his wife, Ariel must keep secret her determined desire to see the surface world and the collection of human objects she has found from wrecked ships that have sunk to the bottom.
After overhearing the kind and thoughtful Eric (Jonah Hauer-King), the prince of a royal kingdom on a Caribbean island, Ariel becomes smitten and after saving his life when his ship crashes during a violent storm, she falls in love. When Triton discovers Ariel's involvement with a human, he becomes outraged, demanding that she never go near them again. And when his daughter refuses to make that promise, he destroys her collection of objects.
But appearing out of the murky depths is Ursula (Melissa McCarthy), the sea witch who is also Triton's sister and had been banished from the kingdom. Well aware of Ariel's dilemma, Ursula makes an offer; she will transform her into a human for three days and if she can receive a true love's kiss from her beloved in that time, she will be able to remain a surface dweller. However, if Ariel fails, she will return as a mermaid and belong to Ursula. The deal is agreed upon but Ariel will not be able to speak while she is human with her voice being held captive in a shell by the sea witch.
With Ariel's friends, Sebastian the crab (Daveed Diggs), a píntano named Flounder (Jacob Tremblay) and Scuttle (Awkwafina), a scatter-brained gannet, all banding together to make sure she succeeds in her quest after discovering that Ursula has cheated by not having Ariel remember she must be kissed.
There have been tweaks to the plot and a few of the songs of this "Little Mermaid". Lyrics have been slightly altered (with the help of Lin-Manuel Miranda, teaming with composer, Menken since original songwriter, Ashman passed away in 1991) and character motivations have been updated in an appeal to modern sensibilities. Still far removed from the much darker original 1837 Danish fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, this film feels more mature than the animated film, wanting to attract even more broadly to the entire family. But we have ended up with just a colorless yet tasteful remake, far too cautious and fearful in alienating fans of the hand-drawn version. The actions may be live yet there isn't much life to be found in this updated musical.
Bailey, who first found fame as part of a musical act with her sister, Chloe, is absolutely captivating in her first starring role. She perfectly embodies Ariel's sweet yet determined nature, willing to defy anything that stands in the way of what she desires. And not surprisingly, Bailey delivers potent, expressive vocals that beautifully enhance these classic songs. Less impressive is Hauer-King as our Prince Eric. Handsome in the expected princely way, with a cute dimple on just one cheek which surely helped get him cast, yet regrettably bland in the screen presence department. And while the actor can carry a tune, his singing, much like the new song by Miranda, "Wild Uncharted Waters" that Hauer-King performs, lacks vivid power to make it memorable. But there is a lovely chemistry between Bailey and Hauer-King making it easy to root for this inter-species couple. And McCarthy came in knowing the assignment, bringing a deliciously campy vibe to her Ursula. But she has also added dimension to the evil sea witch by making her more sympathetic, revealing a painful backstory to help explain the motivation behind her not-so-nice behavior.
I was certainly charmed and entertained by this flesh and blood animated version of "The Little Mermaid" yet I'm still struggling to understand a real purpose for this film to have been made beyond the obvious motivation by Disney to find a new way to bring in a fresh infusion of cash from a beloved film in their library. Without any true inventive update to the plot and the lack of memorable, new music (with another of Miranda's contributions, "The Scuttlebutt" that has Scuttle and Sebastian rapping not really adding much), "The Little Mermaid" is more promotional product than motion picture, designed to inspire merchandising than a film that will delight viewers for generations.
Abel Ferrara has long made a career of making indie films set in worlds he knew and interested him: dark, gritty stories filled with deranged, low-life characters that engaged in bad, dangerous behavior. The American Cinematheque will honor this maverick director with a week-long screening of seventeen of his highly provocative films from June 9th to 15th at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica and Los Feliz 3 in Los Angeles. This event will feature Ferrara in person for a discussion as well a concert performed by the seventy-one year old filmmaker and his band Flyz.
Much like his fellow New York filmmaker, Martin Scorsese, Ferrara's work would be heavily influenced by his Catholic upbringing. He studied at the San Francisco Art Institute with one of his teachers was avant-garde director Rosa von Praunheim. Ferrara scraped together funds to make several short films before making his first feature, a porno called "9 Lives of a Wet Pussy" under the name, "Jimmy Boy L" and starred his then-girlfriend in 1976. The resourceful filmmaker followed that up with a couple of low-budget yet artful slasher films, "The Driller Killer" and "Ms .45".
Ferrara's breakthrough was in 1984 with the neo-noir, erotic thriller, "Fear City" that featured Tom Berenger, Melanie Griffith and Billy Dee Williams. This lead to him connecting with Michael Mann and directing the pilot of the now-cult television series, "Crime Story" and a couple of episodes of "Miami Vice".
In 1990, Ferrara directed the crime drama, "King of New York" with Christopher Walken, Laurence Fishburne and Wesley Snipes which earned him critical praise and the film would become a cult classic. He followed this with "Bad Lieutenant" which starred Harvey Keitel as a NYPD lieutenant who becomes entwined with the criminal element he's supposed to be trying to stop. Ferrara went on to receive award recognition and another controversial film (originally rated NC-17) that later achieved cult status.
Hollywood courted him but he only managed to make two studio films; "Body Snatchers", a 1993 remake of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "Dangerous Game", a Hollywood-set drama with Keitel and Madonna.
Other film highlights that will be screened include "The Addiction", "New Rose Hotel", "Mary", "Go Go Tales", "4:44 Last Day on Earth", "Welcome to New York", "Tommaso", "Siberia", "Zeros and Ones" and Ferrara's latest, "Padre Pio" from 2022 which is currently in theatrical release in the US.
Please click below for the complete list of films, to purchase tickets and additional information:
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