Posted on January 5, 2017 at 8:00 am
In tribute to Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, HBO has moved the premiere date of the documentary about them, a festival favorite, and it premieres on Saturday, January 7, 2016 at 8 pm Eastern.
Be sure to check out “Wishful Drinking,” Fisher’s one-woman show about her life, also on HBO.
Posted on December 29, 2016 at 9:41 am
This is a very sad time. One day after the death of her daughter, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds suffered a fatal stroke and now, suddenly, she is gone too.
Debbie Reynolds could do it all. She sang, she danced, she acted, she wrote, she produced. She was up for anything, always game, the ultimate show-must-go-on girl, and if she was not the girl next door, you wished she was.
Reynolds is one of the last of the classic era of movie stars. She has been an essential part of American culture since she was a teenager, starring opposite Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor in the #5 American Film Institute classic “Singin’ In the Rain” and keeping up with them tap for tap and an overturned sofa to boot.
No star ever showed more pure joy in performing. We see Gene Kelly fall for her and we happily join him.
She was best known as the all-American sweetheart with a series of sometimes sugary musicals and romantic comedies like “Tammy” and “The Singing Nun.” Here she is in “The Affairs of Dobie Gillis” with two more of the greatest dancers in movie history, Bobby Van and Bob Fosse.
In that movie, she sang a slow and sweet version of the same song she sang in “Singin’ in the Rain,” “All I Do is Dream of You.”
She co-starred with Frank Sinatra in the very retro “Tender Trap.”
She was a standout in the all-star cast of “How the West Was Won,” and she was perfectly cast in the title role of the brash musical “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” which she said was her favorite role.
I am especially fond of “The Mating Game,” with Tony Randall and Paul Douglas, about a happy-go-lucky farm family that lives on the barter system and the IRS auditor trying to investigate them.
She was a gifted dramatic actress, as we see in “The Catered Affair,” a gritty drama where she plays the daughter of Bette Davis and Ernest Borgnine.
I think one of her best performances is in the neglected gem “Divorce American Style,” a biting satire with Dick Van Dyke, Jason Robards, and Jean Simmons.
She was magnificent in the title role of Albert Brooks’ “Mother.”
She played Debra Messing’s mother on “Will and Grace” and Liberace’s mother in “Behind the Candelabra.” And she had an adorable cameo as herself in another neglected gem, “Connie and Carla.”
In addition to movies, Debbie Reynolds performed in nightclubs, theater, Las Vegas, on television, and had hit records and wrote best-selling books. She provided voices for “Rugrats,” “Kim Possible,” “The Family Guy,” and the title role in the animated “Charlotte’s Web.” She tried for decades to create a museum of Hollywood memorabilia and she was a tireless fund-raiser for good causes.
May her memory be a blessing.
Posted on December 28, 2016 at 1:36 pm
At The Daily Beast, Marlow Stern has an excellent list of the most overlooked movie performances of the year, including Ryan Gosling in “The Nice Guys” (a masterpiece of comic timing and physical grace — great work from everyone in that film), Ralph Fiennes in “A Bigger Splash” (he said he took the role because of the dance scene, and he clearly has a blast with it), and Craig Robinson in “Morris from America.” All worth watching at least twice.
Posted on December 27, 2016 at 3:55 pm
We mourn the loss of Carrie Fisher, who has died of a heart attack at age 60.
Her first two movie roles were in films that have becomes icon of their eras: “Shampoo” and the original “Star Wars,” now known as “A New Hope.” In both, she wore white. Other than that, they had little in common, introducing us to a performer with confidence and range. She has said that George Lucas gave her little direction as she had to watch a green screen that would some day have an image of her planet being destroyed. All he said was, “Look over there.” But, still a teenager, she instantly conveyed the fierce resolve that made Princess Leia a heroine to lift the hearts of boys and girls around the world and across the generations. She even survived one of the worst hairstyles in the history of movies.
She also survived a Hollywood childhood of chaos in the public eye. Her parents, Debbie Reynolds (who also became a movie superstar while still in her teens, when she made “Singin’ in the Rain”) and pop star Eddie Fisher were considered America’s sweethearts, until Fisher left Reynolds for the just-widowed Elizabeth Taylor (who would leave him for then-married Richard Burton). Fisher explored her relationship with her mother and her recovery from drug abuse in Postcards from the Edge, first a novel and then a movie starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine, and her relationship with singer Paul Simon, including a brief marriage, in Surrender the Pink.
She was an uncredited script doctor for many films, including “The Empire Strikes Back.”
If the heroine of a romantic comedy (or her sarcastic best friend) has a witty quip, more than likely that was written by Carrie Fisher. She reportedly sharpened up the dialog on “Sister Act,” “The Wedding Singer,” “Lethal Weapon 3,” and “Hook.” Perhaps her most apt role was as the quippy best friend in Nora Ephron’s When Harry Met Sally. Slate has a lovely tribute to that role.
I was lucky enough to see her one-woman show, “Wishful Drinking,” based on her memoir. I loved the story she told about what happened when her mother found out she had dropped LSD. “So, she called Cary Grant,” Fisher said with a dry edge. “As one does.” And no one could bring down the house with one syllable the way she did in describing some of the people on her very complicated family tree. She would assign them their legal relationship and then pause for just a beat to add, “ish.”
Fisher was fearless about her failures and challenges, from her struggles with bi-polar disorder and drugs to personal upheaval. She was a devoted mother to her Billie Lourd, who is following in the family tradition by appearing on the television series “Scream Queens.”
Like fans everywhere, I sighed with happiness to see Han Solo and Leia embrace in “The Force Awakens” last year. And like fans everywhere, I wept to hear that she left us today. The Force was strong with that one. May her memory be a blessing.
Posted on December 22, 2016 at 8:00 am
Anna Fricks stars in Wish for Christmas, a sweet Christian faith story about a high school girl who impulsively wishes that her parents were not so religious, mostly so she can go to a school dance on Christmas Eve. When her wish comes true, she is happy at first but then misses the compassion and warmth of her parents’ faith. Her mom and dad are played by the gifted comic actors Leigh-Allyn Baker (best known from “Will and Grace”) and Joey Lawrence (“Blossom”).
It was a pleasure to speak to Ms. Fricks about being in the film.
How did you first get involved with the movie?
I had a friend who was a director and she knew Alexandra Boylan, the co-writer and co-producer. She reached out to me and told me that she had these friends that were casting a movie and if I was interested then she could try to get me in the room for it. So, it kind of just fell into place. I was the first person to audition for the role of Anna and I went in and it just kind of fit. It was really awesome and I had a few more callbacks after that and I went to go meet them again to do a few more scenes and then I got the phone call.
What were they were looking for and how did they describe the character to you?
She was a mean girl. She is pretty straightforward like that and she’s very selfish, very conceited, and self-absorbed but she also had a big heart. That really helps me connect to the character, knowing that she still loves people even though she is very caught up in her own world and her own things. That’s what carries throughout the whole film. If you really pay attention you can see that even when she is not very nice to anybody she still treats people she cares about with love in her own way. So that to me was important to get across in my audition, her humanity. Mean people aren’t just mean people, they still have their loves and their joys. That was really important for me to show in her from the beginning. And as far as the change went and the way that she progresses throughout the movie, that was important as well. It’s easy to make it seem unreal. Because it’s a wish movie, you’re kind of like, “Oh that doesn’t really happen,” but it does have a little different twist because of the faith aspect of it. So making it real, making it seem really real was difficult but I really enjoyed that.
I particularly enjoy the interaction between your character and her parents, both before the wish and after the wish.
Yes, it was really fun, the first few days on set it was just me. And then they came in and it was totally different, not what I was expected because they just brought a new life to the set. There was never a dull moment. It was really fun. The first scene we did together was the scene at the breakfast table. It was interesting to just have that energy, and talking and laughing before the shooting and then they said “Action” and in an instant going into the character, but also including improv. We all added our own things and words and stuff and so that was really fun too. It made it a lot more loose and comfortable. So, they made it a lot easier to get work done.
Your parents are played by such experienced and talented comic actors. What would you say that you learned about acting from working with them?
Leigh-Allyn really helped me a lot just because she is very comedic and improvs a lot. I’m more of a traditional actress but working with her really made me love comedy and the improv aspect of it. So, talking with her about that and working with her on that just made me see the beauty of adding your own thing to the lines and just kind of having your own take on things, so that was really cool. It’s always inspiring to work with other actors anytime on any set and so when they’re really that good it’s absolutely awesome and I can walk away from that learning so much.
One thing I think that anybody who sees the movie can identify with is the stress between a teenage girl and her parents where she wants to do whatever she wants and they want to impose rules on it. Was that something that you could draw from your own life or people you observed around you?
Yes, I could totally draw from my own life. It was very easy to relate to that because I’ve been there, not as much anymore now that I’m older but when I was a preteen and a young teenager it was difficult. I grew up in a Christian home so it was very much that way when my friends could do things that I couldn’t and it just didn’t make sense to me. Now looking back, I think, “Thank goodness that they were like that because I would be a completely different person.” So, it’s really a “be careful what you wish for” type of situation that I can totally relate to.
When did you first know that you wanted to act?
The first time I ever did anything with acting, I was three years old and I somehow still remember being on that stage and loving it. So, it’s kind of crazy because I have been acting my whole life. I’ve always loved it. I’ve always wanted to do it. So when I was younger I don’t think I really knew what it meant to be an actress and to have a manager and agent. So my mom actually told me when I was younger, “Okay, we’ll wait until you’re about 16 and then, if you’re still serious about it, if you still want to, then we’ll pursue it.” So I took some classes in Atlanta, which is where I am from, all through my preteen years. I stayed serious about it, I learned about it, took classes, everything I could do and then when I was 16 I said, “Hey mom, you remember that promise you made me? I’m still interested. I want to do it.” So, that’s when I started pursuing it seriously, so sort of all my life but it definitely took some time to really start making it a career.
What’s the best advice you ever got about acting?
Just to make sure that you really love it because it’s a really difficult business to be in. Hollywood is a difficult place and the industry is kind of crazy at times. So make sure that you love it and make sure that it’s what you think you’re supposed to do. I think the only way that things have worked out for me is truly because of Jesus and following him because I’m striving to do it for His glory. So, I don’t know how else to explain that but I think if it’s truly what you think you should be doing then you should actually pursue it with all your heart.
Do you have a favorite Bible verse?
I do, Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
And Psalm 37:4, it is “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” In anything you do, delight yourself in the Lord and the desires of your heart will be His and not your own. So, He’ll make your heart full of His desires. So, that was really important for me to understand going into acting which was that this might be something I want but it’s also something that He has for me.
And you hope in your acting to exemplify some of the principles that are important to you?
Absolutely. I hope it will go far but for now I’ll just give Him the glory and I hope I can really be a light in the darkness that is Hollywood or on sets to be an example because you are actually going into people’s homes when you’re on their television screens or their computer screen. It’s like you’re a part of them for a second. So, I think it’s really good to be a good example for them and important as a Christian in this industry to really be that light and stay in Christ.
