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10/11/2024

Watching now.

Can't say why I woke up NEEDING to see this movie. But, I'm thankful to YouTube for making it happen.

A classic "B" western novelty. My mom likely saw it in theaters as a girl. She would have been 9 years old, sitting there eating her pickle and peppermint stick. THE TERROR OF TINY TOWN (1938) was released the year before THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) gave little people even more colorful roles.

TINY TOWN would be a fun double bill with BUGSY MALONE (1976).

10/09/2024

I didn't know the man. But, I met him.

The Signature Theater in NYC was hosting a production of playwright Leslie Lee's The First Breeze of Summer. Comps from playwight Leslie Lee got me in with my family. Sitting not too far behind us was Mr. Jones. I would have never spoken to the man during intermission, but for my celebrity-fearless brother-in-law Darryl, who broke the ice.

The legend presented as sweet and shy, but still possessed the imposing silhouette of a bouncer. His polite smile was quick to rise and childlike.

After Darryl's pleasantries, I thanked James Earl Jones for his body of work. He replied graciously before quickly taking the spotlight off himself and asking what brought me to the play.

"Leslie was my screenwriting mentor in college," I beamed.

"Really?" he said softly, as if thinking out loud. "I don't recall Leslie ever teaching."

"This was at the Frederick Douglas Creative Arts Center" I said. "In Times Square, back in the 80's. Leslie was one of my favorite teachers!"

Jones was certain I was mistaken, but was too courteous to challenge me outright, instead feigning polite confusion. "I've known Leslie for many years," he mused. "I don't recall Leslie ever...writing."

"Oh, Leslie is a wonderful writer!" I chimed.

This went back and forth one more round before it hit me. "Oh!" I said. "You're talking about Leslie Uggams!" She was starring in the play. "I'm talking about Leslie Lee, the playwright!"

We both laughed heartily. Our conversation had been so intimate and his warmth so genuine that before I realized what I was doing, my head and hand were coming off of his chest, breaking a kind of half hug. If he was bothered by the spontaneous moment of intimacy, his grace and laughter betrayed nothing.

I said it was an honor to meet him. He said he hoped I enjoyed the rest of the play, and we took our seats.

Here was this giant of a man, a towering figure in Black film and theater, a man whose name I've known my whole life, the most celebrated Black performer since Paul Robeson. An EGOT! The voice of Darth freakin' Vader! And he couldn't have been more polite and kind to this perfect stranger who appeared, for a moment, to be completely insane.

The news of his passing broke my heart. Like losing family. May you rest in power, Mr. Jones. And may The Force be with you...always.

10/09/2024

Who knew? What a story. ❤️❤️

06/09/2024

HUGE NEWS! The GEMA AWARDS -- TV's 'Oscars' for Marketing -- just announced their 2024 nominees. This competition is open to broadcasters across the US and Canada.

Of the six nominees for TV Streaming Local-Sizzle Reels, two are from NBC Connecticut. And both of those are mine! I am humbled, honored and enormously grateful. I still can't believe it!

Special thanks to our Senior Producer, Ryan Perri, who submitted my work on behalf of the company. Keep your fingers crossed!

29/08/2024

Day #10. Ten images, 10 movies that had an impact on me, 10 nominations.

My mom and I read a review in our local paper that panned this film. We went anyway. I specifically remember the reviewer writing, "If you like chocolate milk, don't see it." My mother and I didn't get this lame attempt by the reviewers lame attempt at humor. We were still talking about that comment when we came out of the theater, wondering what he was thinking. Despite that review, we both enjoyed the film.

It's wasn't perfect. But, for me, it was absolutely magical. And terrifying! The genius of Ray Harryhausen was on full display. To this day, I can see that figure-head breaking away from the ship's bow to menace our heroes. I can remember the chill I felt when the six-armed statue sprouted swords in each hands. I can still remember the audience reactions, their laughter, and applause. Every creature was a wonder. And the characters were drawn simply enough to play at the level of myth. And, despite being pretty young at the time, I didn't mind seeing the stunning Caroline Monroe in her skimpy outfit, either.

This film will always have a special place in my heart. It reminds me of my childhood, my fascination with cinema fantastique, and how much I enjoyed seeing movies with my mother, a fellow movie lover.

27/08/2024

PLANNING TO PAY A VISIT TO MY NOSIEST NEIGHBOR tomorrow. REAR WINDOW (1954) turns 70, y'all!

08/08/2024

REMEMBERING WIFEY
The Discovery

Cheryl found this location. It was a park somewhere we'd never been, in a town we didn't know. It was right on the water. That's why she picked it.

If memory serves, this was one of the first times Cheryl went out in her transport chair -- a kind of wheelchair with little tires that requires someone to push its passenger. We may have just purchased it.

Months before, she stood up at home and her legs were like lead. She began walking as if through waist-high water, slow and labored. Her chemo was cut short by her doctor out of fear this condition could become permanent.

That transport chair meant Cheryl would no longer be limited to the short distances she could walk before losing her strength. With my help, that chair opened up a world of possibilities.

Cheryl delighted in new places. The day she found this place was very special. It was lovely out, just the right temperature. At that point, we thought her muscle weakness might only be a setback. We'd make it past this inconvenience, we thought, and ditch the chair when she recovered. Or at least improved.

We didn't know.

It's amazing how much we can bear armed with hope.

We were delighting in each other's company when we took this ussie, basking in our shared new experience. In her final weeks, we talked fondly of this day and struggled to remember where this place was. I still don't remember.

Since her passing, I've come to realize that nearly every place we'd been to outside of home and my job, Cheryl had researched and discovered. Every restaurant. Every park (save one). Every healthy bakery, hidden treasure or charming eatery. Every new store, healthcare provider or landscape. And nearly every town outside of where we lived. That was Cheryl.

Chemo may have compromised her mobility. But, it never dimmed her sense of adventure.

I miss that.

02/08/2024

Headed to Damascus this weekend!!

08/07/2024

REMEMBERING WIFEY
The Healing Begins

The 4th of July marked one month since her passing.

On Friday I found among Cheryl's things, a birthday card I gave her in 2022. It featured an illustration of a brown-skinned couple walking across what looks to be a Harlem or Brooklyn street. She lived in Manhattan, worked briefly in Harlem. I was proudly living in Brooklyn when we met.

The front of the card read: "Happy Birthday, to my one-year-more wonderful wife."

The wording was significant. Whenever I'd share a story about something funny or thoughtful Cheryl did, I'd start by saying, "My wonderful, wonderful wife..."

Printed inside the card was: "From your one-year-even-more-in-love-with-you-husband! Have an amazing day." Below that I wrote in red pen:

"Those eyes, that smile, the sound of your laughter and that great face, they still do it for me. Ever grateful for another year of my favorite things. Your hubby, aka 'Hubber' XO"

'Husband' was her go-to pet name for me, spoken with equal parts pride and affection. 'Hubber' was my nickname's nickname.

The reference to her face? Well, that's what I said out loud to myself the first time I saw her across the room of a Black Filmmakers Foundation workshop. "Wow. She has a really great face." Hence my reference. It was a story we often revisited. The story of how Our Story began.

This picture, screengrabbed from a video Cheryl made but never posted, captures all those things I mentioned that enchanted me. Watching this video, something unexpected happened.

For the first time since her passing, I was able to see her, to listen to her voice, to take her in, to remember without tears, and smile like I used to when she didn't know I was looking.

For 32 years, she never failed to chirp a little giggle when she'd catch me.

02/07/2024

A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE
a spoiler-free review (sort of)

Last night, I decided to go to the movies. Still recovering from Sunday's heaving breakdowns, I needed a break from the sadness still do***ng me.

I was conflicted. I'd gone to the movies once since Cheryl's passing. It wasn't an easy decision. Cheryl and I were movie buddies since our very first date. Our have-to weekend errands were often interrupted by the spontaneous choice to catch a movie. We'd get giddy whenever get giddy every time we did this...as if we'd stumbled on a novel new idea.

After chemo ravaged her in 2018, going to the movies required more planning and forethought. Cheryl needed a lot of assistance. Did she have the strength? She needed her transport chair for longer distances. Were available seats close enough for her to get to with her cane-chair? Was there elevator access to the seats in the back? Even the negotiation of concessions to our seats needed a coordinated effort (Cheryl insisted on helping from her transport chair).

I decided to see A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE instead of INSIDE OUT 2. I was too raw for the guaranteed feels of Pixar. Gimme the Boogie Man, I thought. Something Cheryl would have never come with me to see. That might blunt the heartbreak of her absence.

I sat in the car before the show, talking to her. Asking for her permission to go in -- to do this thing we always did at this place we always did it -- without her. I thought sentimentally on the hotdogs we loved getting and our negotiation of snacks and her parking her transport chair where I could always see it and nearly went home.

In DAY ONE, to my surprise, Lupita Nyong'o plays a long-term care patient living through an end-stage crisis. The film makes it clear she's past her predicted life expectancy. Her life's become a dispirited waiting game. Concealing an ocean of leaking rage, she starts the film sullen and snippy. What she doesn't know is that her life -- and the world -- are about to get much, much worse with the arrival of monsters from space.

More significantly for me, the exquisitely beautiful, dark-brown skinned Nyong'o conveys all of this with her big, expressive eyes, which she uses to great effect. It was impossible not to see my beautiful wife in the actress's shifting expressions -- Cheryl's moments of weakness, anger, hopelessness, longing and clarity. I had gone to the movies to distract from the hole my wife had left in my heart, only to see Cheryl writ large on an IMAX screen.

Shortly after the film begins, Nyong'o's character attends a puppet show. The scene plays out in NYC theater after it's established her character has been wasting away for month inside an outer borough facility.

In this, the film's most exquisitely realized moment, an elderly puppeteer brings his childlike creation to life, making it inflate a balloon. Enchanting his audience, the puppeteer lifts the marionette's feet off the stage as if the balloon has given it flight. For the first time since her character is introduced, Nyong'o smiles quietly, thrilled by this fantasy of freedom and escape. Then -- POP. The balloon bursts and the puppet is brought down to earth.

The look on Nyong'o's face in that moment, her character's unexpected loss of hope, her sudden return to the reality of her prognosis, was powerful. Heartbreaking. It was at once a prediction of a world about to lose its innocence and a bracing metaphor for a dying person outliving their hope in real time.

I might have burst into tears had I not been distracted by the artistry of the scene's ex*****on. Rather than destroying me, the scene was strangely healing, validating of Cheryl's journey. Her final walk and her subsequent struggle to hang onto hope in the face of certain death felt less like a cruel and targeted fate and more universal. Such is the power of movies.

While I have no doubt A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE will disappoint moviegoers more interested in shrieking on a rollercoaster than watching an end of life parable (the entire movie is one, it can be argued). If auds stay open, they may find DAY ONE a surprisingly moving experience.

For me, the film turned out to be everything I was hoping to avoid...and everything I needed in that moment.

28/06/2024

REMEMBER WIFEY
The Memorial Video

If you don't follow my personal accounts on FB, you may not have heard the news. On June 4th of this year, I lost my beloved wife after a brief illness.

Cheryl was my silent creative partner. I rarely produced a commercial or made a video without seeking her input. She had a great intuition for what worked and what didn't. Her feedback was always honest, specific and practical. And she was my biggest cheerleader (often ending our cell phone screenings with a child-like clap and a, 'Yae, Bubie. Great job!').

Every video I screened for her improved with her input.

This brief memorial was our one 'collaboration.' It was the first time Cheryl was on the other side of the production equation. Cutting this video the night before her funeral was heartbreaking, but also unexpectedly comforting -- I got to hear her voice again, see her smile, hear her laughter, each as I remembered them. During the all-night edit, I felt no distance between us. And after years of feeling helpless in the face of her illness, I finally felt there was something I could DO for her that made a difference.

For everyone who never met her, this brief video will give you a glimpse of the wonderful, beautiful woman I fell in love with 32 years ago.

For those of us who knew Cheryl, this video was my way of giving her a chance to say good-bye, to share a word of encouragement, and leave this world in a way I know she would want to be remembered.

Rest in Peace, my beloved. Until we meet again.

03/02/2024

When your library browsing and the YouTube soundtrack rotation you're listening to collide.

28/01/2024

Just questioned the Vader scene in ROGUE ONE on Instagram.

Waiting for the black rain to fall.

24/01/2024

AMERICAN FICTION, a spoiler-free review

As advertised, filmmaker Cord Jefferson's AMERICAN FICTION is a breezy satire about a Black college professor and struggling author passing himself off as a subliterate ghetto savant to make money. And that ad campaign may prove costly.

Jefferson's film is more than what its trailer suggests, and quite a different film in kind. Audiences expecting a playful exploration of cultural stereotypes might be turned off when their ticket buys what feels like a leisurely gallery tour with adult siblings you're just not that close with.

What the film's trailer fails to convey is that AMERICAN FICTION, at its core, is a family drama. Actor Jeffery Wright plays an embittered, emotionally blocked author Theloneious "Monk" Ellison spending the majority of the film's running time navigating the aftermath of a sudden death, the return of an estranged sibling and his mother's costly cognitive decline. If none of that sounds funny, it's not, nor does director and co-writer Jefferson ever intend these things to be.

It's the family drama that animates the literary deception, not the other way around. As a result, the story that gets you in the theater feels largely unexplored beyond the beats revealed in the trailer.

And while the film contains some smart dialogue and nice beats, on the whole, AMERICAN FICTION suffers a similar identity crisis as it's main character. Like Jeffery Wright's conflicted professor, the film never feels comfortably settled in either world.

More than anything, Jefferson's film suffers from a kind of numbing safeness. This is most damaging in its imposter storyline. In the wake of Dave Chappelle and Key & Peele's work, AMERICAN FICTION needed to bring something different to avoid feeling late to the party. Less edge was maybe not the way to go.

Monk's mother's dementia is touched on, but never really complicates the plot. A wan romance fizzles before Jefferson gets us to invest in its outcome. And a conflict with his estranged older brother never rises above or sinks below the siblings' mutual annoyance.

The stakes start to build once Monk finds himself on the panel of a literary award committee unwittingly reviewing the my-life-of-crime opus Monk is passing off as someone else. But, even that dilemma comes and goes without exploration or consequence.

For his first feature, writer-turned-director Cord Jefferson gathered an embarassment of riches with his cast. Wright is joined by Sterling K. Brown, Tracee Ellis Ross, Leslie Uggams, Isa Rae and Erica Alexander. Each feels ideally suited for their roles. But, absent stakes and dramatic momentum, there's but so much they can bring to the table.

Satirical comedies that pivot on race are a tough needle to thread. For his first time out, Jefferson should be applauded for taking a swing at so ambitious a target.

Ambitions aside, the film's dry, self-serious tone ultimately leaves the feeling that a better film was in there somewhere. Maybe the film from the trailer.

11/12/2023

Cinemark Endfield Square 12, RENAISSANCE: A FILM BY BEYONCÉ (2023). A treat for my Mrs.' birthday. We loved the large screen, great sound system, and modest morning attendance. After the screening, we declared it our new 'COVID-safe' theater, having scaled back on our moviegoing routine since the pandemic. I commented on how much I dug its 80's-multiplex throwback vibe.

Little did we know, less than a week later, the theater would permanently close, a casualty of the half-deserted Enfield Mall not renewing its lease. The sobering lesson: even new joys can be fleeting.

30/10/2023

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
a spoiler-free review

When a movie strives to shed light on the biblical ruin of a people time and history have forgotten, it feels sinful to ask the question, 'Was that film entertaining?'

Film legend Martin Scorsese opens his western opus KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON with a personal thank you to viewers who have come to see his film in a theater (my weekday Imax screening was poorly attended).

Scorsese goes on to share how he worked with the Osage people to ensure they had a voice in the telling. More on that later.

Pulling double duty as star and executive producer, Leonardo DiCaprio plays returning war hero Ernest Burkhart. Welcoming him home is his uncle, cattle baron William Hale, played by lifelong Scorsese collaborator Robert DeNiro.

Very quickly, Burkhart learns the local Osage Nation have oil-rich land and the fortune that comes with it. And by God, his uncle is hellbent on getting his hands on both. And he's not alone.

By the time young Burkhart is enrolled in his uncle's schemes, the townspeople's conspiracy to murder or marry, then murder, the Osage is well underway. It's a crime spree so out in the open, only a nation hostile to native interest could have allowed it to flourish.

Hale wastes no time suggesting his nephew marry Mollie, an Osage beauty sitting on a fortune ripe for the taking. In the film's standout performance, Lily Gladstone is magnificent, delivering a performance so confidently subtle and delicately nuanced it never once feels like acting.

Unfortunately, it's director Scorsese who comes up short. By summating the crimes against the Osage in a pitiless montage at the top of the film, the filmmaker squanders the history's dramatic potential, making everything that follows dispiritingly redundant.

Despite the director's good intentions, KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON falls prey to the similar sins of filmmaker Alan Parker's 1988 revisionist history lesson MISSISSIPPI BURNING.

Like Parker's film, FLOWER MOON alternately presents the people of color at its center as child-like innocents or hapless victims. Worse still, the crimes against The Nation grow so predictable, the Osage start to feel like dim-witted cannon fodder.

Like MISSISSIPPI BURNING, FLOWER MOON is told exclusively through the eyes of its white characters, in this case, the sociopaths responsible for the film's unbroken spiral of violence and cruelty. That's a tough sell for the casual moviegoer.

How much more powerful might FLOWER MOON have been if the director had posited Gladstone, with her rare gifts, at the center of his story; a newly married woman who comes to recognize the conspiracy around her as family members perish and her husband's intentions come frighteningly into question?

Instead, Scorses delivers what has become his stock and trade across his recent films: unsparing violence without catharsis told without sympathetic leads or an ounce of tension-breaking humor.

Oddly, despite its period setting and handsome production design, FLOWER MOON feels like a BACK TO THE FUTURE 3-style sequel to GOODFELLAS with DeNiro reprising his role as crime boss Jimmy Conway triggering a dance of trust and betrayal with the protégé under his wing.

Scorsese does make good on his promise to give the Osage a voice in one of the film's most impactful beats. As a tribal leader, Yancy Red Corn recounts his people's suffering and their determination to seek justice with more dramatic power in that one scene than Scorsese manages with 3+ hours of screentime.

The film's tedium is mercifully broken when the always reliable Jesse Plemons enters the tale in its closing chapters as lawman Tom White of the newly established FBI.

However satisfying it feels to see the wheels of justice finally grinding into motion, there's no escaping the same white savior context that dogged Alan Parker's film since its release.

Much will be said of Scorsese's bold narrative choice in the film's final minutes, which is sure to divide audience. It is a daring and original choice that called to mind the unexpected movie-magic typically associated with young filmmakers trying new things.

Would that the film as a whole felt the same.

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STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951) | They Swap Murders Bruno Antony is one of Alfred Hitchcock's most memorable characters. There's no taking your eyes off actor Robert Walker's darkly comic performance as the film's twisted villain. Inspired by author Patricia Highsmith's character Charles Anthony Bruno, Hitchcock's antagonist imagines a relationship between himself and Guy, imagining his deadly proposition as an act of friendship. The film is enormously entertaining, startling, suspenseful and shocking in turn, with a number of unexpected laughs along the way. Tragically, the world lost Walker two months after this film's premiere to a fatal combination of alcohol and doctor administered (and by one account, doctor imposed) medication. https://youtu.be/IDEgI4aC-yw?si=D8f-JtiDLM640IVC

MONA LISA (1986) | An Unlikely Romance. Ex-con George (Bob Hoskins) and call girl Simone (Cathy Tyson) hit the mean streets of London's North End searching for a missing under-aged girl. Mortwell (Michael Caine) is the local crime boss prepared to kill them both if they find her in this dark, funny and surprisingly romantic British crime film. #shorts #monalisamovie #noirvember #mrkurtlovesmovies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDEgI4aC-yw&list=PLlPID-bGMYQgYTz8YttHXetSJ1_pYnE6Z&pp=gAQBiAQB

MONA LISA (1986) | Tailing the Call Girl | Mortwell (Michael Caine) gives ex-con George (Bob Hoskins) a job driving a high-class call girl to her clients. It's not out of charity. Mortwell wants something. And he's certain dim-witted, big-hearted George can get it for him. Check out more classic film noir recommendations at the link below. #shorts #noirvember #mrkurtlovesmovies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDEgI4aC-yw&list=PLlPID-bGMYQgYTz8YttHXetSJ1_pYnE6Z&pp=gAQBiAQB

MONA LISA (1986) | Street Walkin' Selling sex in a four-star hotel isn't easy for Simone (Cathy Tyson), a high-class call girl. She has to be discreet. That won't be easy with her new driver George (Bob Hoskins) in the classic neo-noir British crime film MONA LISA.

MONA LISA (1986) | "He owes me!" Fresh out of prison, George (Bob Hoskins) returns to his criminal roots looking for work. More specifically, he's looking for Mortwell (Michael Caine), the local crime boss he just did time for. And he's brought an unusual tribute. https://www.youtube.com/@mrkurtlovesmovies/videos

MONA LISA (1986) | Baby Momma Drama In this neo-noir classic, George (Bob Hoskins) is fresh out of prison and desperate to reconnect with his daughter. For a crime film, this introduction is priceless, giving our lead a sympathetic vulnerability while revealing his brutish nature...which will come in handy as George spirals into unexpected dangers.

GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL! Sort of....

Late night. Last minute shoot! Not how I hoped it would be. But what I can make happen...when I don't give up. Catch my latest episode of THE SKINNY ON THE GOOD STUFF on YouTube and Facebook posting later this AM! This will be a fun one. :-) * * * * * * * * * * * * * #mrkurtlovesmovies #theskinnyonthegoodstuff #mrkurtsravereviews #yourthinman #heavencanwait #superbowl #rams #dallas #bengals #warrenbeatty #juliechristie #jackwarden #quarterback #sofistadium #classicmovies #classicfilm

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10/11/2024

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GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL! Sort of....

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