Stream Selected Films of Holly Hunter
Broadcast News 1987 Directed by James Brooks. A well written dramedy. Passionate newswoman Jane Craig (Holly Hunter) is appalled at the trajectory news has taken towards soft subjects and manipulation. When anchorman Tom Grunick (William Hurt) is hired at the station, her suspicions that he’s just a pretty face turn out to be true. Tom has not a clue about news and is happy to read what’s written. Despite herself, Jane is attracted and agrees to mentor him. This upsets longtime best friend, reporter Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks – terrific), who wants the anchorman position and secretly loves his buddy.
Jane and Aaron learn that Tom has edited an interview to reframe a story. He earns unmerited kudos and things change, but not in neat Hollywood fashion. Good characters, good acting. Wry and too true. With Robert Prosky, Joan Cusack, and a cameo by Jack Nicholson. The character of Jane Craig was based on journalist and news producer Susan Zirinsky who served as associate producer and technical advisor for the film. Rent on Amazon Prime.
Raising Arizona 1987 Directed by Joel Coen. Quirky. Small time robber H.I. “Hi” McDunnough (Nicolas Cage) and police officer Edwina “Ed” (Holly Hunter) meet when she takes his mug shot. He gets out of prison, hears she’s single, and promptly proposes. They move into a desert mobile home. Ed really wants kids, but Hi is infertile. They read about a local couple who have quintuplets and kidnap one of the babies. Hi’s old cellmates Gale (John Goodman) and Evelle Snoats (William Forsythe) escape from prison. He agrees to hide them despite Ed’s objection.
Hi punches his offensive boss Glen (Sam McMurray) and loses his job. Glen deduces the truth and blackmails Hi about the baby. Thinking to help, Gale and Evelle kidnap the child from their friends. There are botched robberies, chases, an accidental death, and oh, that baby gets passed around. The Coen Brothers purposefully made an upbeat, optimistic film following Blood Simple. According to David Denby of New York Magazine, it was a “deranged fable of the New West” which turned “sarcasm into a rude yet affectionate mode of comedy.” Rent on Amazon Prime.
Always 1989 A remake of 1943’s A Guy Named Joe set in WWII which was, Spielberg said, one of the films that inspired him to become a movie director. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Hotshot pilot Pete Sandich (Richard Dreyfuss) and pilot/dispatcher Dorinda Durston (Holly Hunter) are the sweethearts of a southwest aerial firefighting facility. Because of Dorinda’s fears for him, Pete begrudgingly takes another job, but flies one last fatal mission. In doing so, he saves best friend/fellow pilot Al Yackey’s (an excellent John Goodman) life and dies. Dorinda is shattered.
Pete wakes up in a kind of grassy limbo and is told by “guide” Hap (Audrey Hepburn) he’s to go back to help another pilot. Al wants Dorinda to move on, but though she can’t see or hear Pete, she can feel him, preventing just that. New firefighter Ted Baker (Broad Johnson) is drawn to her, but she can’t let him in. Pete has to learn to let go while carrying out his “mission.” Several critics consider this over sentimental. I think it works in a solid, old fashioned way. Rent on Amazon Prime.
Miss Firecracker 1989 Based on Beth Henley’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, The Miss Firecracker Contest. Directed by Thomas Schlamme. Moving. Every year, awkward, insecure Carnelle Scott (Holly Hunter) enters the Yazoo City, Mississippi Miss Firecracker Contest. No one ever thinks she has a chance. Her confident, pretty, selfish cousin Elaine (Mary Steenburgen), a former celebrated winner, comes back to give a speech at the Fourth of July event, taking every bit of needy attention away from Carnelle.
Meanwhile mentally unbalanced cousin Delmount (Tim Robbins), is selling the house which Carnelle shares with him. If she wins, prize money would solve things. The film centers on relationships and acceptance. Free with Amazon Prime.
The Piano 1993 Written and Directed by Jane Campion. Psychologically mute since the age of six, Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter) is sold by her father as frontier wife to Alisdair Stewart (Sam Neill). She and young daughter Flora (Anna Paquin), the result of a misinterpreted liaison with a teacher who then left her, travel to a remote part of New Zealand to start their new lives. Ada “speaks” through sign language interpreted by Flora. Left on a beach with luggage and her transported piano, they’re met by George Baines (Harvey Keitel), who takes the women to the house.
When Ada’s told there’s no room for a piano, she completely withdraws infuriating her new “owner.” Baines has traded for the instrument. He proposes that Ada earn it back at a rate of one piano key per “lesson”, provided he can observe her and do “things he likes” while she plays. She agrees, but denies him. Baines develops feelings for her and finds the situation “wretched.” He gives up. Ada misses him. She visits and they finally consummate. Alisdair discovers the couple and demands she never see Baines again. When she does, there are painful consequences. Some emotion is reconciled, some not. The film ends in tragedy.
Dark and stirring. Three Academy Awards including Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay. Sigourney Weaver turned down Hunter’s role, Jennifer Jason Leigh had a conflict. An open audition for girls nine to 13 focused on one short enough to play the diminutive Hunter’s daughter. Rent on Amazon Prime.
Woman Wanted 2000 Based on a novel by Joanna Glass. Directed by and featuring Kiefer Sutherland. Emma Riley (Holly Hunter), in her thirties, divorced, and at loose ends, answers an ad titled “Woman Wanted” placed by conservative, widowed physicist Richard Goddard, in his fifties, (Michael Moriarty). The academician wants someone to take care of him and problem son, Wendell (Kiefer Sutherland), in his twenties, back living at home. A complex back story reveals Mrs. Goddard to have been mentally ill and committed when she died. The relationship between Richard and Wendell has been terrible since the father emotionally abandoned his son.
Emma is capable, upbeat, and a good listener. Gradually both men lower their walls and respectively fall in love with her. Despite their initial resistance, she improves both lives. Richard declares himself to her first. One can’t help but wonder at her warm compliance. Still, a large issue (for her) looms. Then Wendall succumbs to his feelings. The outcome is unexpected. After much drama, Emma gets what she wants. Rent on Amazon Prime.
Breakable You 2017 Based on the novel by Brian Morton. Directed by Andrew Wagner. The story of a smart, creative, dysfunctional family and a matter of ethics that doesn’t quite rise to the skills of its lead actors. Just divorced therapist Eleanor Weller (Holly Hunter) is not coping well with her hugely egotistical playwright ex-husband Adam (Tony Shaloub), their oddly self-destructive (20s) daughter Maude (Cristin Milioti), and creating a new life.
Suffering from writer’s block, Adam plagiarizes his best friend’s work. Eleanor has an affair with her ex’s sweet brother (Alfred Molina), who’s always had the hots for her, and Maude throws herself at insecure actor/carpenter Samir (Omar Metwally). Rent on Amazon Prime.
Saving Grace Season One, Season Two: Terrific series about Grace Hanadarko, a fatalistic, hard-drinking, promiscuous, homicide detective out of Oklahoma. At the scene of a fatal accident she causes – which may or may not have happened – Grace reflexively calls out to God. Earl (Leon Rippy) appears, spreading his wings to make a point. The spirit looks and sounds like a beat-up, old bluesman. After that, he manifests regularly in an attempt to help Grace become less self-destructive. Their conversations are priceless. Grace spins out and solves crimes. Great characters, good writing and direction. On Amazon Prime.
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