Screen Test

Toheeb Jimoh (from left), Brett Goldstein, Karine Jean-Pierre, Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, and Brendan Hunt in a White House briefing last week.  Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images After weeks of starts and stops, I finally abandoned efforts to write about the Oscars. A buddy had reminded me that it used to be part of my job description to Monday-morning quarterback the wins and losses of Hollywood's Big Night … but then I remembered, hey, I'm retired now. No more skin in the game, besides this blog that some of you tell me you enjoy when awards season rolls around. Amidst the glitz and the gossip, the adoration and the snubs, the gowns and the snarky jokes from the emcee, the Academy Awards are a reminder that the movie industry is, and always has been, in the business of creating illusions.  Virtue signaling is a big one. The ceremony is always a balancing act between glittery excess and proclamations on behalf of the less fortunate. Still, it was a little disconcerting t...

  https://youtu.be/HJm-RpPk16M Thanks to all who have shared encouragement for  Chain Link Zen . Your thoughts are much appreciated! Sales are brisk – I think we sold one yesterday, or maybe it was Monday. But this blog isn't about that. This morning, this YouTube video appeared on my computer. It must have been linked to something, but I have no idea what, or from where, or why. It's an hour-long video of a concert Peter Paul and Mary did on BBC in 1965.  It's in black and white, no frills, in front of a studio audience seated on risers. The sound is crystalline, the camerawork and editing unexpectedly superb. While I'm not, as a rule, given to fanboy behavior, I'm sharing it motivated by the question, is it just me, or is this the greatest concert/film ever? It's close, that's for sure. Despite occasional lapses into dorky humor – a staple of hootenannies and folk concerts of the era – the songs have the power to stop time. And that's even before they ...

                                                                                Lisa Kristofferson photo Me: How you feelin' these days? Him: Old. I got a visit Friday from old friends, Kris Kristofferson, his wife Lisa and their son Jody. They were in Arizona for a Valentine's Day wedding in Scottsdale, and for visits with their Salvadoran daughters in Tucson. Kris and Lisa raised a bunch of kids out in Hana, and now have full schedules catching up with them all over the Mainland. Jody, their second oldest, was a champion wrestler at Hana High before turning professional for years. A gentle giant, he's a good guy to have around for all sorts of reasons. Some of Kris's fans are in their twilight years now, but Jody's still got the ink tattoo on his back from the little old lady who attacked...

Book now available at Amazon or barnesandnoble.com. Huge thanks to all of you who played such invaluable roles helping make it happen! https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/chain-link-zen-rick-chatenever/1142982697?fbclid=IwAR25g2zjHYCwm6Q3DEZE68C5x-TUEzzJ-ayu8Jer4tlJ4iMe8qZP0INayXc

     Daniel Craig in “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.”  John Wilson/Netflix photo via IMDB Times are lean for film reviewer swag. Last year Hawaii Film Critic Society head Barry Wurst and I were comparing notes about all the big colorful boxes we were receiving from Netflix over the holidays. They contained not only screener DVDs but also giant, glossy-paged coffee table books, sweatshirts, bottles of wine and other knickknacks embossed with movie logos. Barry speculated that the lavish payola may have contributed to Netflix's studio fortunes, which were teetering on the brink at the time. This year's freebies have been fewer and far between, perhaps stemming from revelations about the bestowers of the Golden Globes, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association,. Despite their impressive title, the association members – there were less than a hundred of them – turned out to be a bunch of freeloaders with cool accents. Nonetheless, Netflix didn't entirely dispense with ...

Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan in “She Said.”  Universal Studios photo via IMDB Last time an American tyrant was taken down, “All the President's Men” couldn't save him. This time it's what “She Said” that provides the ammunition. The two movies essentially follow the same script – intrepid investigative journalists, in this case with The New York Times rather than the Washington Post, put themselves and their interview subjects in harm's way and psychological peril to tell the story of corruption at the highest level.  Only the genders, and the decades, have changed in these journalistic thrillers. We're not talking about a president this time, although our previous one has been dogged by reports of predatory sexual behavior and rape throughout his career. Between threats, bullying and paying to make it go away, he's been able to live a remarkable, frightening life in arrogant disdain for truth. But although one act of his sexual abuse followed by his election to...

  Margot Robbie in “Babylon.”  Paramount Pictures/Scott Garfield photo via IMDB Not since the Bible has wretched excess looked as excessive – or as wretched – as it does in “Babylon.” Damien Chazell's three-hour epic vision of the birth of the movie industry shows what can happen when a young filmmaker experiences too much success – six Oscars out of 14 nominations – too early in his career.  Granted, all those prizes were well deserved for “La La Land,” a shimmering, singular work that updated vintage movie musical formulas for a new millennium. But in this return visit to Hollywood mythmaking, he takes us behind the screen to watch the studio machinery cranking out the magic. It's an inadvertent reminder that sausage doesn't taste as good after you realize how it's made. The story begins in 1926 when, on a dusty dirt road through the palm trees and sprawling citrus orchards of greater Los Angeles, Kinoscope studio is making movies.  The “studio” is actually a conve...