R.I.P. 2015

This remembrance of some of those we lost in the art of filmmaking in 2015 leaves a lot out, as often happens, including those who died after they made it (like the great Haskell Wexler) but, it still includes a lot I'll miss, and this year even more of them I met, worked with or actually knew from my Hollywood years...

KENNEDY CENTER HONOREES (ARETHA'S TRIBUTE TO CAROLE KING)

I watched the Kennedy Center Honors last night and like any awards show there were moments when folks were patting themselves and each other on the back, but as also in any shows to honor creative folks there were moments of brilliance and exhalation as amazingly talented people did what they do best, and this may be the peak moment that expresses that...and if you don't know why Carole King is freaking out at the start and our president is wiping away a tear it's because Aretha has not only survived her major health challenges but comes out and tops her younger self with spirit, skill, and musical genius that will not be denied...watch it to the end to see the true impact of King's and Aretha's unique talents...and I bet you're eyes will be wet too...

ABOUT SUMS IT UP

MEADOWLARK LEMON R.I.P.

THE BIG SHORT

THE BIG SHORT is so brilliantly directed, edited and acted that it feels like a seminal cinematic experience, like movies will change as a result of this one. The pacing is so heartbeat consistent and rhythmically compelling that I left the theater amped and it took a while for my own rhythms to calm down.

And it's all the more incredible since the story is one I know, and we all know the ending, and yet the narrative drive is so insistent I felt like I was watching a thriller that kept making me feel tense about the outcome, which I already knew!

And the movie manages to do this with repeated monologues to the audience breaking the fourth wall and even using celebrities to explain the complicated, deliberately, terminology of Wall Street and the banks. It's like the most entertaining history and economics (and politics, though more subtly at that level) lesson anyone will ever get.

Based on the real facts of the economic collapse of 2008 and what caused it and why, it's incredible how engaging it turned out to be. So much so that right now it is at the top of my favorite films of the year, a year which was great for revelatory stories made into artistic triumphs as films, like BROOKLYN, SPOTLIGHT and THE DANISH GIRL to name just a few.

THE BIG SHORT. I would advise seeing it in a big theater with others (the show I saw was packed) so you can get that great communal connection when everyone laughs or sighs or mutters under their breath at the same moment. Yeah, we all got screwed by Wall Street and the banks and it's still happening, but at least when your Fox-watching relatives want to know why you're so sure of that, you can tell them to watch this movie, or else.

[PS: The editor deserves an Oscar nomination at least, and the director Adam McKay—best known until this for Anchorman and Tallledega Nights—who also co-wrote the screenplay (with Charles Randolph from the book by Michael Lewis) deserves a nomination for both directing and screenplay adaptation, and though all the acting was superb—especially Ryan Gosling and Christian Bale—Steve Carell deserves an Oscar nomination for Best Actor and Jeremy Strong for Best Supporting Actor.]

FOR WHICH I'M HUMBLY GRATEFUL

[the great poet and songwriter/musician (and my great friend) Terence Winch posted this photo I took and gave him back in the 1970s on Facebook yesterday with the following gracious remarks:]

A Christmas gift from a while back from the great poet (and my great friend) Michael Lally, featuring his book Rocky Dies Yellow, which, toasted or fried, is one fantastic book of poems. Anyone familiar with the 1938 Jimmy Cagney classic "Angels with Dirty Faces" will get the reference in the book's title. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nld4DcRHME0

THE PLAID GANG WISHES ALL A MERRY XMAS

[with my friends Sue and Norm on Xmas Eve]