Wild Thoughts on Film – Is Giancarlo Esposito required to be in EVERYTHING?

Wild Thoughts on Film

When we launched FilmsGoneWild.com in January 2017, one of the “draws” of the site was me throwing out my (often grumpy or indignant) opinions on the film industry, indie films, regional film festivals, and more. I had a lot on my mind, and I was very happy to open my head up and let all of it come out for everyone else to read and think about.

We got away from that as the PR stuff and other stuff dominated my time and limited how much bandwidth I had. Justina Walford and I tried a video dialogue for a bit, which amused people because they got a real insight into how we talk to each other (By the way, you can get a little bit of that from the Fog Of Truth podcast she and I co-host with the great Bart Weiss talking about documentary film. Those are posted here on Films Gone Wild, or you can find them where better podcasts are sold (as we would say if we had a commercial for Fog of Truth).

Anyway, we’re going to try to do something here, which is have me weigh in on film news, and other things in little bite-sized nuggets of thoughts the way the old-time newspaper columnists used to do. We’re going to call it Wild Thoughts on Film. I don’t know how “wild” they will be, but sometimes, I can come up with ‘em.

WILD THOUGHTS ON… MOVIES I’VE SEEN RECENTLY

AIRPORT ‘77

So, I routinely do this thing called “Movies With Mom” where I pick out a film I think my 93-year-old mom and I can both enjoy.

The most recent choice was AIRPORT ’77, directed by Jerry Jameson, which we streamed on Amazon. In this third installment of the AIRPORT franchise, Bad art thieves come up with a plan to steal priceless paintings by gassing the crew and all the passengers, landing the plane on an island, and leaving them all to wake up art-less.

But wait, they happen to be flying over the Bermuda Triangle and they happen to have a pilot co-hort who can’t figure out the concept of flying through fog, finds the one random radio tower thing to hit and ends up landing the plane under the water.

After that, the expected randomly collected cast of famous names and faces including Jack Lemmon, Lee Grant, Joseph Cotton, Brenda Vaccaro, Christopher Lee, Darren McGavin (those last two should have done a Night Stalker episode together instead of this), Olivia De Havilland, Kathleen Quinlan, and Monte Markham chew all the scenery they can pull off the sides of the plane without letting the water flood in.

Oh, did I mention Jimmy Stewart and George Kennedy almost literally phoning it in from the mainland? You could almost make a drinking game out of every time Jack Lemmon goes running/stumbling through the plane yelling at everyone to calm down because he’ll make sure they don’t all drown.

It’s just the best fun. I mean, not the way they intended it to be…but still…great fun!

FLY ME TO THE MOON

Went to the theater (The Angelika in Dallas) to see this one and it was perfectly light and enjoyable and as “popcorn” a movie as it gets.

Directed by Greg Berlanti, the movie struck me very much as a throwback to 50s/early 60s ear romantic comedies, and I could easily see Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum’s roles played by Doris Day and Rock Hudson.

Berlanti is TV slick with the direction, and while no depth and some opportunities for bigger moments are allowed to enter the building – or the Apollo space capsule, he lets his leads do their charming, attractive thing and all the couples out on dates should leave the theater reasonably satisfied.

ABIGAIL

The little ballerina vampire movie. Watched this one on Amazon and it hit enough decent notes as it gave its version of vampire mythos and rules and regulations. That, to me, is always the trick with a new vampire movie. What are you going to do to keep us guessing just enough, yet keep it familiar just enough, and give us what we “demand” in a vampire outing?

Couple interesting points (to me) is Giancarlo Esposito’s appearance, as I think it’s a SAG requirement now to either cast him or Esai Morales to get some kind of funding kickbacks because they seem to be in EVERYTHING now.

And the second was Dan Stevens, who I will forever be a fan of due to his performance in THE GUEST. He has such a combination of ease and intensity he brings to each role that he just makes it fun, regardless of anything else.

BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F

The fourth outing in the BEVERLY HILLS COP franchise plays the hits so consistently I’m a little surprised you couldn’t buy tickets through Ticketmaster.

Directed by Mark Molloy, the film pretty much delivers what you would want, if maybe not hitting the comedy bullseye as much as you might be hoping for. (And to be clear, I enjoyed it all just fine. Everyone “did their jobs” and delivered what they were supposed to, whether it was Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Paul Reiser, Bronson Pinchot, Kevin Bacon, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, or Taylour Paige)

Eddie Murphy seemed relaxed but engaged and enjoying being in Axel Foley’s skin again.

WILD THOUGHTS ON… RECENT FILM CELEBRITY DEATHS

It seems like we’ve had this sudden spate of celebrity deaths recently. And while no one needs me (or this site) to do the full-on obituary thing, I do have some thoughts about the ones whose fame came from the world of film or at least had a presence in film.

Shannen Doherty

Yes, Beverly Hills 90210, and yes, Charmed. But HEATHERS was a distinctive film “moment,” right? And she was the one (other than Wynona Ryder, of course) that came out of that little iconic klatch. (I mean, to be fair, Kim Walker might have gone on to having the big career, but she died not that long after of brain cancer.

But whatever Doherty’s successes on the TV screen were, they were frankly, pretty much eclipsed by her getting fired (or…leaving because it was her idea…?) from those jobs pretty publicly. I don’t remember exactly and don’t care to look it up.

Point is, there was always something going on with her, it seemed. Well, at least there was MALLRATS.

Shelley DuVall

Of course, there is THE SHINING and the torturous 200 takes that Stanly Kubrick would do of each scene.

But I think of the bit she did in ANNIE HALL with Woody Allen and his joke about getting the feeling back in his jaw after her taking so long to orgasm when he went down on her, and of course, I think of her teaming up with Robert Altman for multiple films and how perfect she was to be one of the incredibly rare and distinctive presences he thrived on turning loose on film.

Jon Landau

Not much to say on Jon Landau as far as personal grace notes are concerned. Of course, he has A LOT of responsibility for the Oscar-winning success of TITANIC and AVATAR.

I remember being at a special press preview during SXSW for ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL and he was kinda doing the PT Barnum sales thing with us. I hadn’t really thought of him as that kind of producer, but he definitely had some “show” in him pitching the goods.

Robert Towne

One of the screenwriters who every screenwriter since invoked the name of while aspiring to any kind of magic or genius on the page, right?

He was an honoree at AFI DALLAS when that film festival was a thing before AFI dumped it in an idiotic move because they didn’t understand the value of film festivals thanks to a stodgy board of old veteran film producers who believed there was only one film festival ever and it was called Cannes and you only went there to see starlets pose wearing next to nothing on the beach.

Anyway…Towne came to AFI DALLAS and while dubious on the whole getting honored thing, was still quietly good humored about it and was a pleasure to work with (and they ain’t always, if you know what I mean).

WILD THOUGHTS ON… WHAT ELSE?

This week, Jeff Lipsky brings his latest indie idiosyncratic cinematic vision, GOLDILOCKS AND THE TWO BEARS to Los Angeles (following a world premiere in Las Vegas and screenings in NYC. He and some cast members will be at the Laemmle Royal and the Laemmle Town Center in Encino. We’ll do some photos and stuff and post those on Films Gone Wild (from each of the appearances in the three cities. Als – check out Luke Thompson’s Ten Burning Questions interview with Jeff. It’s a great one.

Also, this week is the debut of the Waco Independent Film Festival. That’s the new name of the very popular Deep in the Heart Film Festival. It’s one of those fests where filmmakers tell each other that if they have a chance to go, they should because they “do it right”.

Then next week with be the Asian Film Festival of Dallas, one of the last remaining decent film festivals in a city that used to have 26 of them thriving in a co-supportive film community eco-system. No so much now, but AFFD…? That one is a winner.

Final word on Giancarlo Esposito being in EVERYTHING. I mean, seriously… I saw the trailer for CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD (which he is in) not long after I saw ABIGAIL (which he is in), and then the trailer for MAXXXINE (which he is in too). And then on TV! The Boys (He’s in that.), and The Gentlemen (Yeah, he’s also in that), and Parish (That one too!) I’m not going to include the animated stuff because it’s just too much. He’s like the acting version of Michael McDonald in the 70s singing on everyone’s records (Anyone out there remember that Rick Moranis SCTV sketch or is grampa dating himself here?).

Wild Thoughts… So…that’s the first try at some wild thoughts on film. Let’s see what I come up with next week…