Brett Goldstein Faces Life After ‘Ted Lasso’ – The New York Times

By Jeremy Egner

• • Published March 11, 2023Updated March 12, 2023

9 MIN READ

“LONDON — A few minutes into coffee last spring, Brett Goldstein wanted to show me something on his phone.

I leaned over and saw puppeteers sitting on skateboards while they hid behind a table, rolling into one another in apparent bliss as their hands animated a clowder of felt cats above their heads. For Goldstein this represented a kind of creative ideal, as pure an expression of fun, craft and unbridled glee as any human is likely to encounter.

“Imagine this is your actual job,” he said, his breathtaking eyebrows raised in wonder.

Goldstein shot this behind-the-scenes video during his time as a guest star on “Sesame Street,” an experience this Emmy-winning, Marvel-starring comic actor and writer still describes as the single best day of his life.

The clip is inarguably delightful, but Goldstein hardly has to imagine such a job. As the breakout star of “Ted Lasso,” the hit comedy about a tormented but terminally sunny American coach winning hearts, minds and the occasional football match in England, he is part of an ensemble that brought as much bonhomie, optimism and warmth to the set as Ted himself, played by the show’s mastermind, Jason Sudeikis, brought to the screen.”

‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ Is Big Winner at the Oscars – The New York Times

By Brooks Barnes

• March 13, 2023Updated 2:51 a.m. ET

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“In the late 1960s, young cineastes shook up a moribund film industry by delivering idiosyncratic, startlingly original work. The moment became known as New Hollywood.

When film historians look back at the 95th Academy Awards, they may mark it as the start of a new New Hollywood. Voters honored A24’s head-twisting, sex toy-brandishing, TikTok-era “Everything Everywhere All at Once” with the Oscar for best picture — along with six other awards — while naming Netflix’s German-language war epic “All Quiet on the Western Front” the winner in four categories, including best international film.

The Daniels, the young filmmaking duo behind the racially diverse “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” won Oscars for their original screenplay and directing. (The Daniels is an oh-so-cool sobriquet for Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. They are both 35.) The film, which received a field-leading 11 nominations, also won Oscars for film editing, best actress and best supporting actor and actress, with Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis honored for their performances.”

David Lindsay Jr.

Hamden, CT  NYT Comment:

I enjoyed the Oscars, and especially the work of the MC, Jimmy Kimmel, but went to bed at about the half-time, im honor of morning tennis. I will watch the rest very soon. I’m happy for Michelle Yeoh, she was my first choice for best actress, but then, I only saw five of the 10 movies nominated for best picture. Everything Everywhere, all at once was shockingly funny and entertaining, and yet, with plenty of pathos, and brilliant comedic martial arts. It could have been called, A Satire on Everything, including Jackie Chan Chinese Martial Arts comedies.

I saw Avatar, the way of water, Everything Everywhere, all at once, The Fabelmans, Elvis and Top Gun Maverick. I offer two of my own Oscars, I give an Oscar to Avatar, the way of water, for being the most environmentally concious movie of the year. It remains my favorite of the five I saw. I give an oscar to the most deserving film that was overlooked, to Talking Women. Everyone should see both of these films. They are both important on different but major topics. My Lady and I predict that Talking Women will grow in fame with the passing of time for its timeless discussion of women’s rights and responsibilites. The only oscar recipients who can receive full credit from me, an A+, besides for not being boring, must acknowledge that all the other contenders in their category were also worthy of recognition, so the real honor is to be in their company. It is important to remind the audience that many movies are so unique, it is a stretch to compare them to another which is of another type. David blogs at InconvenientNews.net

Mick LaSalle Review: Michelle Yeoh beats Marvel in the multiverse game in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ | Datebook

Mick LaSalle March 21, 2022,  sfchonicle.com

“. . . .  Without question, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is a remarkable piece of work, one of the most original and creative films of the past couple of years. It’s so much its own thing that it’s hard to imagine how it was ever put together — how it was conceived, written, filmed and edited. Directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (known collectively as Daniels) had nothing to fall back on, no genre conventions, no established patterns. They made this one up on their own.

If the movie has one weakness, it’s that it’s not nearly as enjoyable as it is brilliant. A movie like this is a full meal, and after two hours and 12 minutes, viewers may start to feel as force-fed as a goose on a French farm. “Everything Everywhere All at Once” never slows down and never wastes the audience’s time, and yet it’s safe to say that no one will walk out of the theater wishing it were 10 minutes longer.

It stars Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn, a harried middle-aged woman trying to run a struggling laundry business. Her tax returns are being audited, and she feels that she’s not getting enough help from her sweet-natured husband (Ke Huy Quan). She tends to take her frustrations out on her lesbian daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu), whom she can’t stop criticizing for everything, including her weight.

In the early minutes, “Everything Everywhere All at Once” could be a Chinese film. It’s almost entirely subtitled, and it has the frenetic pace of a Chinese comedy. As it goes on, it never quite loses that feeling, but it broadens. On the elevator, heading to the IRS office, Evelyn is told by a messenger from another universe that she is the only person with the power to save all the millions of universes from chaos and destruction.

This notion of a multiverse is getting a lot of traction in recent movies, but “Everything Everywhere All at Once” does it more and does it better — way better than the Marvel movies. The idea here is that the various Evelyns collectively have all the talents and capabilities that this Evelyn needs to possess in order to fight a war single-handedly. She just has to get more adept at establishing a mental connection with each Evelyn as required.”

Source: Review: Michelle Yeoh beats Marvel in the multiverse game in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ | Datebook

Donna Brazile | Give Kamala Harris the Credit She Is Due – The New York Times

By Donna Brazile

Ms. Brazile teaches in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Georgetown University and is a contributor to ABC News.

“Vice President Kamala Harris occupies an office that can be the butt of jokes and criticism. The only duties of the vice president spelled out in the Constitution are to cast tiebreaking votes in the Senate and to become president if the office becomes vacant.

I’ve never run for government office, but as a Black woman who has spent my life working in politics — including as manager of Vice President Al Gore’s unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2000 — I know what it’s like to be underestimated, over-scrutinized and unfairly criticized, just as Ms. Harris has been. Yet I’ve never been under such a glaring spotlight as hers.

I have watched politicians up close for decades. And‌ I have known Vice President Harris for years and urged Joe Biden to make her his running mate in 2020. I ‌believe that the criticism of her is unrelated to her performance as vice president and fails to account for the role she plays in the White House.

As a consequential and successful vice president himself for eight years under Barack Obama, President Biden has a keen understanding of the job he once held and he has tasked Vice President Harris with major responsibilities. She has done an outstanding job and her record in two years stands up to that of her predecessors. Has she solved every problem? No, but name me one vice president who has.”

David Lindsay Jr.

Hamden, CT        NYT comment:

Thank you Donna Brazile, for a the positive piece on Kamala Harris. I’ve been thinking she had been scapegoated for some time. It is probably that most of what you say is true, and yet the commenters here have their own list of faults and weaknesses. I agree that the vice president is under intense scrutiny, and is extremely qualified. For me, the biggest problem is her public speaking skills are usually terrible, to the point of unacceptable. She takes an important sentence, or paragraph, and reads it so slowly, that I fear I will die of either old age or boredom before she finishes. She destroys every subject she speaks about, if their is a microphone and a reporter present. If she can’t deal with her speach impediment, and get a speach, acting, and eloqution coach, and learn to be fluent, or just pick up the pace, in public, she should take a more back office job, or go back to being a prosecutor, where she might be more comfortable. She seems so afraid of miss speaking, that she speaks with all the brakes on to prevent forward motion. That her message is usually brilliant, or brave, or important, gets lost in the empty spaces, and pauses, and timing pot-holes. David blogs at InconvenientNews.net

‘80 for Brady’ Review: Remember These Titans – The New York Times

By Amy Nicholson

Feb. 1, 2023

3 MIN READ

80 for Brady

Directed by Kyle Marvin

Comedy, Drama, Sport

PG-13

1h 38m

“Tom Brady, the oldest starting quarterback in N.F.L. history, has said he is retiring “for good” at the age of 45. But at a combined age of 335, Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Sally Field and Rita Moreno muscle “80 for Brady,” a comedy about a fan club’s frenetic Super Bowl weekend, over the goal line. The setup is that Lou (Tomlin), who is living with cancer, is adamant that she and her besties will attend a Super Bowl before she returns an urgent message from her oncologist. Betty (Field), a math professor, calculates that they have a .0013% chance of winning a call-in contest to see the 2017 showdown between Brady’s New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons. But wish fulfillment is in their favor, as is the director Kyle Marvin’s choice to treat obstacles like breakaway paper banners to be torn through by its winning team.”

Gina Lollobrigida, Italian Movie Legend, Is Dead at 95 – The New York Times

By Anita Gates

Jan. 16, 2023Updated 9:59 a.m. ET

4 MIN READ

“Gina Lollobrigida, the Italian movie actress who became one of the post-World War II era’s first major European sex symbols, has died. She was 95.

Gennaro Sangiuliano, Italy’s culture minister, confirmed Ms. Lollobrigida’s death on social media.

Ms. Lollobrigida had already appeared in more than two dozen European films when she made her first English-language movie: John Huston’s 1953 camp drama, “Beat the Devil,” in which she played Humphrey Bogart’s wife and partner in crime. That film, and the attention she garnered in “Fanfan la Tulipe,” an Italian-French period comedy released in the United States the same year, were enough to put her on the cover of Time magazine in 1954.

She went on to unqualified American movie stardom, exuding a wholesome lustiness in a handful of high-profile films. She starred in “Trapeze” (1956) with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis; “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1956), as Esmeralda, Quasimodo’s beloved Gypsy beauty (Anthony Quinn played Quasimodo); “Solomon and Sheba” (1959), a biblical epic with Yul Brynner; “Come September” (1961), a romantic comedy with Rock Hudson; and “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell” (1968), a comedy about an unwed mother.

Throughout her career, however, she continued to make many more European films than American ones. She starred with the continent’s leading men, including Jean-Paul Belmondo, Marcello Mastroianni, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Yves Montand.”

‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ Review: Big Blue Marvel – The New York Times

“Way back in 2009, “Avatar” arrived on screens as a plausible and exciting vision of the movie future. Thirteen years later, “Avatar: The Way of Water” — the first of several long-awaited sequels directed by James Cameron — brings with it a ripple of nostalgia.

The throwback sensation may hit you even before the picture starts, as you unfold your 3-D glasses. When was the last time you put on a pair of those? Even the anticipation of seeing something genuinely new at the multiplex feels like an artifact of an earlier time, before streaming and the Marvel Universe took over.

The first “Avatar” fused Cameron’s faith in technological progress with his commitments to the primal pleasures of old-fashioned storytelling and the visceral delights of big-screen action. The 3-D effects and intricately rendered digital landscapes — the trees and flowers of the moon Pandora and the way creatures and machines swooped and barreled through them — felt like the beginning of something, the opening of a fresh horizon of imaginative possibility.”

David Lindsay: I took my family to Avatar, the way of water, on Christmas day in the afternoon. Kathleen and I loved this film, as we did the first Avatar. My son and daughter both liked it very much, but thought it was too long, or way too long.

I liked it way more that AO Scott, who gives it something like a 7, I give it a 9/10. I would have given it a 10, if it had only had an intermission, since it runs 3 hours and 12 minutes, with over 25 minutes? of previews.

I want my tennis buddy from Exxon Mobil to see Avatar 1, followed by this sequel, #2, to learn a little of the religious philosohy called deep ecolgy. Deep ecologist, like the aliens on the magical moon-planet, in this movie, do not see themselves as more spiritual than other species, but equals to all ofther forms of life, in an intricate web of sustainable, and not polluting, existence in harmony with nature. Both films are many things: including good stories, and a call to a return to a sustainable way of life, that would protect our wonderful life and delicate ecology from dying.

‘The Crown’ Could Have Damaged Charles. Becoming King Has Helped. – The New York Times

By Mark Landler

Mark Landler is the London bureau chief of The New York Times.

Dec. 2, 2022

“LONDON — Six months ago, the new season of “The Crown” was shaping up as another public-relations headache for Prince Charles. The timeline of the popular historical drama had reached the 1990s, which meant that it was going to dissect the collapse of his marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales, an unwelcome exhumation of the most painful, mortifying chapter of his adult life.

Some advising the prince were pondering how to counter the narrative, according to people with knowledge of the workings of Buckingham Palace, worried that it could tarnish the reputation of a man who, in recent years, had come to be known less for his peccadilloes than for his embrace of worthy causes such as climate change.”

Who Is Jennifer Lawrence Now? – The New York Times

By Kyle Buchanan

• Published Nov. 2, 2022Updated Nov. 3, 2022

To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

“Visitors to the Greenwich Village gay bar Pieces can look forward to strong drinks and loud drag shows, but what they might not expect — what there simply isn’t a section for on Yelp — is the sight of Jennifer Lawrence, the most famous actress of her generation, tackling a friend to the ground after losing a very important game of musical shots. Oh, and the friend happens to be Adele.

For what it’s worth, Lawrence didn’t expect any of that to happen at Pieces, either. It all went down in March 2019, not long after she had begun dating her now-husband, the art dealer Cooke Maroney, and just a few months into Lawrence’s still-ongoing project of trying to move through the world like a normal human being again. At the white-hot height of her fame fronting the “Hunger Games” franchise, any night out in public would have required security guards, but Maroney often asked to meet Lawrence at dive bars, and she wasn’t about to spoil those places by showing up with two hulking bodyguards.

What she found, to her pleasant surprise, is that the world allowed her to re-enter it without being too weird. That was the lesson she tried to impart to Adele when the British singer texted Lawrence suggesting they go to a concert, the sort of place where they’d be ensconced in a VIP section away from the rowdy masses. Lawrence countered that she was already drinking at Pieces, where Adele should come meet her.”

Moonrise Kingdom – Wikipedia

Moonrise Kingdom is a 2012 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Wes Anderson, written by Anderson and Roman Coppola, and starring Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Bob Balaban, and introducing Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward. Largely set on the fictional island of New Penzance somewhere off the coast of New England, it tells the story of an orphan boy (Gilman) who escapes from a scouting camp to unite with his pen pal and love interest, a girl with aggressive tendencies (Hayward). Feeling alienated from their guardians and shunned by their peers, the lovers abscond to an isolated beach. Meanwhile, the island’s police captain (Willis) organizes a search party of scouts and family members to locate the runaways.

In crafting their screenplay, Anderson and Coppola drew from personal experiences and memories of childhood fantasies as well as films including Melody (1971) and The 400 Blows (1959). Auditions for child actors took eight months, and filming took place in Rhode Island over three months in 2011.

Moonrise Kingdom premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and received critical acclaim, with its themes of young love, child sexuality, juvenile mental health, and the Genesis flood narrative being praised. Critics cited the film’s color palette and use of visual symmetry as well as the use of original composition by Alexandre Desplat to supplement existing music by Benjamin Britten. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and the Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy. In 2016, the BBC included the film in its list of greatest films of the twenty-first century.

Source: Moonrise Kingdom – Wikipedia

David Lindsay: What a wonderful movie, Moonrise Kingdom, recommended by Cynthia Whear, after we discussed our appreciation for art works and musicals that reference Noah’s Flood.