Chaotic Merge Magazine

 Chaotic Merge Magazine has just published their latest issue with 4 of my drawings. You can view the PDF at this link. My work are on pages 7, 11, 27 and 65. 


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rJxJT75XjNdNFccoAy5rEs_zitg6LYjT/view

Cicely Tyson 1924-2021

 

Intouchables, Lupin and Omar.

It would be easy for some to dismiss this feel good French movie from 2012 as coy, insulting and yes racist, but I was pretty much charmed by the whole thing mainly because of Omar Sy. This is an early film of his, and he became a major star in France because of it, winning a Caesar award. I never heard of him until I watched Lupin and then took a try at Intouchables the other night. In this one Sy plays a tough street thug with big problems who becomes the caregiver to a very rich man (we never know how he made his big bucks) and who was badly hurt in an accident. Driss played by Sy is a no thank you wise guy who doesn't take nothing from anyone. The movie is a buddy buddy film, French and full of charm and delight. I couldn't help but be taken in by it, mainly because of Omar who has all the makings of being a huge international star. He is a wonderful presence in this and also in Lupin, try taking your eyes off him when he's on screen. There are two marvelous sequences in the film one involves his boss played by Francois Cluzet who takes him along to the opera, where hysteria breaks out from Omar's laughing at the male opera singer dressed as a tree, you have to see it it yourself to get the humor of it, and a sexy dance he does to an Earth,Wind and Fire song. He would be a perfect choice to take on James Bond but I'm not holding my breath for that to happen. In the meantime we have 2 splendid examples of why he is on his way to becoming a very big movie star. Check out Lupin and Intouchables to see why. Both are streaming on Netflix.

Cloris Leachman 1926-2021

 The wonderful actress Cloris Leachman has passed

sold

 

Barry Le Va 1941-2021

 

Walter Bernstein 1919-2021

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/walter-bernstein-dead-oscar-nominated-screenwriter-front-blacklist-victim-was-101-1074748?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR%20Breaking%20News&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_breakingnews

Jimmie Rodgers 1933-2021

 

First Cow 2020

The film opens in present day as a young woman and her dog discover something shocking in the deep woods of Oregon. Suddenly we are back in the early 1800’s in the same woods as a young man ragged and worn searches the woods for mushrooms and other things to eat. He is cookie which is his nickname because he is a cook for a rough and rowdy band of men who are traveling thorough the land looking for better lives, money and women. Cookie is sensitive and aware, while the men he must cook for are vulgar and dumb and is beautifully acted by John Magaro. Late one night as he scrounges through the woods looking for more edible things he comes across a naked (don’t ask) young Chinese man King-Lu played by Orion Lee hiding from murderous Russians who are after him for a deadly self-defense act that he committed. 

Cookie takes him under his wing and hides him until it is safe and soon they have forged a short lived bond. The Chinese young man, smart and welcomed is soon gone, but later down the road they meet up again, and this time their bond tightens to the point where they start sharing their lives together. Is it just platonic or more, we never find out, but it is a tasty and tantalizing thought to ponder. Cookie it seems wants to open a bakery and a hotel in San Francisco and soon King-Lu is encouraging him in his dreams and pushes Cookie to bake his cakes and maybe they can go into the rough fort town to sell his wonderful baked goods.

The problem is there is no milk to bake with and the one cow around is owned by the fort’s commander “Chief Factor” played perfectly by Toby Jones.  No problem King Lu says they will go into the place where the cow is kept late at night and cookie will milk her while King-Lu sits up in a tree like an owl standing (sitting) guard. What they are doing is such a small crime but will of course have much larger ramifications down the road. Kelly Reichardt the director, co screenwriter and editor of this little gem of a film uses the 4.3 old Hollywood square ratio which boxes in the action and brings the scenes closer to use still giving her landscapes and images a majestic glow thanks in large part to her regular cinematographer the great Chris Biauvelt. 

Artists and lovers of art will appreciate these images that will bring to mind paintings of the 19^th century and film lovers might recognize her film quotes and references most notably for me Robert Altman’s “McCabe and Mrs. Miller” and Jim Jarmusch’s masterwork “Dead Man”. She also adds to the memories of these two directors by casting actors Rene Auberjonois and Gary Farmer who worked for the directors in small but memorable parts. Cookie’s baked goods are a big success and soon the two friends are packing in money and trinkets into their private bank account set in a tree trunk. Cookie using his loving care and talent to make these oily cakes (think 19^th century donuts) sprinkled with cinnamon and brushed with honey are such a big hit, that  Jones who swoons over them (they’re like London) hires Cookie to make a special blueberry cake called a a clafoutis for a tea that he is giving to show up a pompous military commander. The troubles begin here, we know it and so do the young men, who realize that they will have to get out of town fast. This film is an unexpected joy with sadness sprinkled on it like Cookie’s cinnamon sprinkled on his oily cakes. There are maybe too many scenes that take place at night so dark that I could barely make out the action, but that’s a very small criticism of this wonderful film. One of the ten best films of that awful year 2020 and quite possibly the best film of that year.    

Hank Aaron 1934-2021

 

Lee Breuer 1937-2021

 

Robert Hossein 1927-2020

 Missed his passing in December. His life should be noted. 

Jackie Saccoccio 1963-2021

 

Joan Micklin Silver 1935-2021

 

Babes In Arms 1939

There is a hell of a lot of talent rolling around in this musical, but it shows its age and some of the political inferences and references are disturbing to say the least. Its the old hey let’s put on a show in the barn to save the farm but this time its to keep the babes out of institutional homes for wayward babes and to help out their vaudevillian parents who are lost and floundering because of the invention of talking movies and the demise of vaudeville. Margaret Hamilton is back with a new broom to bother and threaten them all but gentles out at the end. The babes are led by Mickey  Rooney and Judy Garland both of whom were the right age for their roles and were at the top of their games. Rooney was maniac and Garland was sweet and gentle with her magnificent voice in rich tones, she soars especially when she sings “I Cried For You” on a bus (yes a bus)  with a sleeping car no less that is as big as all outdoors. Based on the hit Rogers and Hart Broadway musical the producer Arthur Freed left out many of the memorable songs including “My Funny Valentine”, “The Lady is A Tramp” (heard as an instrumental only) the lyrics were probably too hot for 1939 movie audiences, “Johnny One Note”, ”I Wish I Were In Love Again”, and is instead stuffed with a horrible long racist Minstrel number with Mickey and Judy in black face that is cringe worthy. I suppose seeing it today serves a purpose; it slaps us in the face of what African Americans were faced with back in the day. I wasn’t expecting this number and it really jarred me. There is also a Babes In Arms number that is a combination of Left and Right wing ideology that is confusing and also quite disturbing as hordes of young folks flock together in a fascist like march with torches and they start a fierce bonfire in which anything and everything is thrown in meanwhile singing hysterically that they are not going to take it any longer.  Rooney for some reason got a best actor Oscar nomination for this, probably for his imitations of Clark Gable and Lionel Barrymore which to be fair are hysterically funny. Directed by Busby Berkeley who seemed to be lost without his dancing girls and kaleidoscopic camera designs. With blonde curly haired  June Preisser who plays a former child star who comes on hard and strong doing pinwheels and incredible contortions during her first rehearsal for the show as “Lady Is A Tramp” plays in the background. Has to be seen  to be believed. The entire spectacle comes to an end with a large production number staged on Broadway where the babes are a big hit and save the world, the farm, their parents and themselves from the poor house by putting on a patriotic number called “In God’s Country” in which they sing the praises of how great America is and how the rest of the world is falling apart. This is where Mickey and Judy play Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt in a Berkeleyesque dream or nightmare of a number. The film was one of the big hits of 1939 making more money than The Wizard Of Oz.