Woman Around Town’s Editor Charlene Giannetti and writers for the website talk with the women and men making news in New York, Washington, D.C., and other cities around the world. Thanks to Ian Herman for his wonderful piano introduction.
Every time we get a chance to get ahead they move the finish line. Every time.
Hidden Figures, directed and co-authored by Theodore Melfi (St. Vincent) about a team of African American women who helped do the mathematical work on NASA’s early space missions in 1961, is not only a really fun movie, but feels like a truly vital one as well.
Kevin Costner
Based on a true story, Hidden Figures was adapted from the best-selling book by Margot Lee Shetterly. Katherine Goble (Taraji Henson of Person of Interest and Empire), Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer of The Help, and Fruitvale Station), and Mary Jackson (recording artist and big screen newcomer Janelle Monae), were three ‘human computers’ and some of the best minds at NASA. They also all happen to be women of color which relegates them to second class status and segregated bathrooms. (A running theme, is that Katherine, after being assigned to the main task force, has to keep running all the way across the NASA compound to use the colored women’s restroom several times a day.) Besides such indignities and unequal treatment they’re also faced with the fact that the incoming IBM computer station threatens to make their jobs obsolete. At the same time Goble, Vaughn, and Jackson help make history by sending John Glenn into orbit, they were also crossing lines pertaining to race and gender as well. While the story of the former was well publicized, the story of the latter has been unknown until now.
Katherine G. Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), stands out amid her team of fellow mathematicians that helped send into orbit John Glenn.
It’s an expertly written and directed movie. Melfi may have been something of an unknown before, but based on this we can expect good things from him in the future as well. The casting is uniformly excellent. Kevin Costner as composite character Al Harrison plays the gruff, well meaning supervisor to a tee. Kirsten Dunst’s icy persona works in her favor for a change in the role of Vivian Mitchell, the white female supervisor who, while not an open emblem of bigotry, represents a subtler more insidious form of prejudice – indifference to obvious injustice. Janelle Monae is dynamic and sexy onscreen and Octavia Spencer as born leader and programming genius Dorothy Vaughn well deserves her Oscar nomination. However, it’s notable that Taraji P. Henson as lead character Katherine Goble nee Johnson is the movie’s heart and soul and notably was not nominated despite a performance that practically screams for Academy recognition. No offense to Meryl Streep, but Taraji’s work this year was clearly more deserving and this seems, like so much of the movie itself, to be another instance of a black woman not getting her due.
Photo Credit: Hopper Stone courtesy of 20th Century Fox
Legendary British thespian John Hurt passed away on January 27th, 2017 at the age of 77 years old. Born in a small coal mining town in Derbyshire, England to former actress Phyllis Massey and Anglican Minister and Mathematician Arnould Hurt. An apathetic student, he would later find his true passion was acting. He was admitted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and would make his stage debut in 1962. He only really began to rise to prominence though, with his performance as the conniving Richard Rich in A Man For all Seasons in 1966.
From then on he worked pretty much constantly. Indeed his career which spanned over six decades would include over 120 film roles not to mention dozens of television appearances. Here are a few highlights. In 1976 his performance as English heroin addict Max in Midnight Express for which he won a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 1979, he played Kane in Ridley Scott’s masterpiece Alien and was nominated for another BAFTA. In 1980, he played the titular character in The Elephant Man and was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, and also won—another BAFTA. In 1984 he played Winston Smith in 1984, which won Best British Film of the Year at the Evening Standard British Film Awards. In 1997, he starred as crusty old civil engineer Chuck Langer in the award winning The Climb. He was creepy wand-maker Mr. Ollivander in the Harry Potter franchise, kindly, wise, old Professor Broom in Hellboy, totalitarian fascist leader Adam Sutler in V for Vendetta, and ancient vampire Christopher Marlowe in Only Lovers Left Alive.
One of his most recent appearances was that of rebel leader and mysterious mentor figure Gilliam in 2013’s Snowpiercer. The last film he was featured in before his death was Jackie alongside Natalie Portman as Father Richard McSorley. But fans will still have another chance to see him as Neville Chamberlain in the upcoming British war drama Darkest Hour directed by Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride and Prejudice) opposite Gary Oldman and Ben Mendelsohn.
God speed John Hurt. You truly were an Actor for All Seasons.
Top photo from Bigstock: John Hurt attends The 66th Annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festival on May 25, 2013 in Cannes, France.
It’s an annual tradition; Oscar Season comes around and a Martin Scorcese picture is always sure to be getting plenty of buzz. This year the film in question is Silence starring Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man, Hacksaw Ridge), Adam Driver (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Inside Llewyn Davis), as missionary priests searching for their mentor (Liam Neeson) in feudal Japan. It’s not surprising that the movie has people talking; besides its all star pedigree, issues of faith particularly the priesthood often make for great cinematic drama. Consider the following.
Boys Town (1938) Spencer Tracy’s performance as Father Flanagan who founds a sanctuary for underprivileged and delinquent young boys named Boys Town, earned him an Oscar. The movie was nominated for four more Oscars and won for Best Original Story. It also brought a lot of public attention-and funding-for the real Father Flanagan’s work. Besides Tracy’s legendary performance, you also get Mickey Rooney, Henry Hull, and Gene Reynolds. Plus this was the movie, that originated, “He’s not heavy-he’s my brother!”
The Exorcist (1973) Directed by William Friedkin and based on the novel of the same name, this movie made pea soup a catch phrase and a certain set of steps at Georgetown University a place of pilgrimage. It’s not only considered not only one of the greatest scary movies of all time, but one of the greatest movies period, this one kicked off a whole genre of exorcism themed movies, none of which quite compare to the original. In great part that’s because it not only has Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair’s iconic performances, but Max von Sydow as well as Father Merrin. But the movie’s emotional heart and soul comes from Jason Miller as the tormented Father Damien who’s suffered a crisis of faith after the death of his mother.
The Name of the Rose(1986) Jean Jacques Anand (The Lover, Enemy at the Gates) directed this Italian-French-German mystery drama was adapted from the Umberto Eco novel of the same name. Young novice Adso (Christian Slater is his very early years,) and his mentor Franciscan Friar William of Baskerville (Sean Connery in one of his more memorable non-Bond roles) in 1327, journey to a remote Italian abbey for a papal debate. The abbey in question houses one of the greatest libraries in Europe; it’s also astir from the recent suspicious death of one of the monks. More bodies turn up and William races to solve the mystery before the Inquisition is called in. It won the Cesar Award for Best Foreign Film as well as two BAFTA awards including Sean Connery for Best Actor.
Black Robe (1991) Directed by Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, Double Jeopardy) this adaption of the Brian Moore novel tells the story of how young Jesuit priest Father LaForgue (Lothaire Bluteau best known to American audiences for his roles on 24 and Vikings) is sent to a distant Catholic mission in a Huron village. LaForgue is accompanied by non-Jesuit assistant Daniel (Aden Young of The Starter Wife and I, Frankenstein) as well as a group of Algonquin Indians. Along the way complications in the form of Daniel falling for an Algonquin girl, and interactions with other First Nation peoples who are less than sympathetic to Father LaForgue and his mission. It is considered one of the best researched films featuring indigenous peoples and it includes dialogue spoken in the Cree, Mohawk, and Algonquin languages. It won the Genie Award for Best Canadian Film as well as Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor.
The Crime of Father Amaro (2002) Directed by Carlos Carrera and starring Gael Garcia Bernal (Babel, Y Tu Mama Tambien) as the titular father and Ana Claudia Talancon (Fast Food Nation, Love in the Time of Cholera) as the young girl he begins a passionate affair with. As you can imagine it doesn’t end well. The movie created a firestorm in Mexico and the Catholic Church actually attempted to ban it. Despite or perhaps because of that, it became the biggest box office success in the country’s history and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
Monday, January 16th is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Instead of treating the occasion as just another federal holiday and long weekend, we might want to consider the greater historical significance of the occasion. For some of us that might mean participating in Martin Luther King Jr’s Day of Service by volunteering within the community. Opportunities can be found on this website. Or if you don’t have time, you can donate money, even small amounts are always welcome, to a worthwhile organization. But MLK Day is also a chance to reflect on our nation’s history, and this seems especially important at a time when our country appears to be more divided than ever. Consider adding the following books then to your reading list. Click on a title to buy on Amazon.
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (1963) While Baldwin is primarily remembered as one of America’s foremost novelists, (who also happened to be black and homosexual) he was a renowned essayist as well. The Fire Next Time contains two essays; one written in the form of a letter to Baldwin’s 14 year old nephew discusses the role of race in American History. The second essay deals with how race intersects with religion. It received enthusiastic critical reception and is considered one of the most influential books on racial relations to be written in the 1960’s. Indeed, Jacquelyn Dowd Hall used Baldwin’s work as the foundation for her article on the Civil Rights Movement then led…by Martin Luther King Jr.
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (1979) The late, great Octavia Butler, one of the most visionary authors in sci-fi, crossed genres in this best-selling novel that is one part time travel tale and one part slave narrative. African American woman writer Dana finds herself routinely being shuffled back and forth between her modern California life with her white husband and a pre-Civil war plantation. On the plantation she meets her ancestors; a spoiled, petty, unstable white slave owner and the proud black woman he forces to become his slave and concubine.
The Known World by Edward P. Jones (2003) Set in antebellum Virginia, Jones examines issues of ownership of black slaves by both white and black owners. Besides being a captivating account of parts of history now forgotten, Jones also uses incredible lyric prose with the ability to layer stories upon stories in a non-linear fashion that is truly magical. Small wonder it won the National Book Award AND the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2004.
The Rebellious Life Of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanna Theoharis (2014) The popular legend of Rosa Parks is that of a quiet seamstress who just refused to give up her seat, accidentally setting off a movement in the process. The real story though, as Theoharis exhaustively documents was that of a determined and dynamic activist whose act of rebellion on the bus that day was only one small part of a lifetime of resistance. Hailed by Henry Louis Gates Jr, Melissa Harris-Perry, and The New York Times Book Review, it also won the 2014 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work.
Between the World And Me by Ta Nehisi Coates (2015) Nehisi Coates is one of the most brilliant and insightful columnists/journalists alive today. (He also happens to be the current writer of Marvel Comic’s Black Panther series and his work there has been highly acclaimed as well.) This memoir styled as a series of letters to his teenaged sons, touches on his own childhood in the rough streets of Baltimore, his experience at Howard University, constructions of race, and Black Lives Matter among other issues. It was a New York Times Bestseller, a Pulitzer Prize Finalist, a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, winner of the NAACP Image Award Winner, Winner of the National Book Award and named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The New York Times.
Winnie’s book, The Dog-Walking Diaries – A Year in the Life of an Autistic Dog-Walker, can be bought for the dog lover in your life by clicking here to purchase on Amazon.
People may say I couldn’t sing, but no one can ever say I didn’t sing.
Florence Foster Jenkins (Meryl Streep in a performance that while not necessarily Oscar worthy is certainly charming) was a talented young concert pianist who dreamed of playing at Carnegie Hall. Unfortunately an injury to her hands killed that dream, so Florence decided to go to Carnegie Hall as a singer. There was, however, one problem: Florence couldn’t sing. She was not only bad she was unbelievably, almost hysterically terrible, a fact her nearest and dearest were determined to shield her from.
Stephen Frears (Philomena, The Queen) directs this quaint, bittersweet, little bio which serves as a fable as well. We live in a culture that constantly tells us to follow our hearts and pursue our dreams no matter what. But what if like kindly, sweet, generous, dedicated, but tone deaf Florence, your striving to do something you just can’t do? Scenes of Florence singing aren’t just hard on the ears, they take Cringe Comedy to all new levels. And isn’t indulging her denial just setting her up for a greater fall, as Florence, convinced of her greatness, books a night in Carnegie Hall?
Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant
These are the questions that come to haunt Florence’s chief enablers; her adoring husband, failed actor St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant), and her accompanist, Cosmo McMoon (Simon Helberg of The Big Bang Theory almost unrecognizable here and shockingly good in his first major big screen debut). While Cosmo fears his involvement with Florence dooms his chances of ever being taken seriously as a musician, St. Clair has a host of other complications. Florence and he adore each other, but having contracted syphilis from her first husband, their marriage must remain celibate and indeed St. Clair lives in a separate home with his beautiful young mistress, Kathleen (Rebecca Ferguson of The Girl on the Train).
As Florence’s health declines, St. Clair feels obligated to make her final days a happy dream. Hugh Grant reportedly came out of retirement just to work with Meryl Streep and it was well worth it. The man may have more grey hair and wrinkles than he did when he first charmed his way into American hearts as a gorgeous British leading man in Four Weddings and a Funeral, but he’s lost none of his charm, his comedic timing and, if anything, his skills at drama have only gotten better with time. It’s his best performance in years. Florence Foster Jenkins is not just the tale of a woman who couldn’t sing, but a love story for grown-ups.
I’ve been poor my whole life, like a disease passing from generation to generation. But not my boys. Not anymore.
Divorced father Toby (Chris Pine) and his ex-convict brother Tanner Howard (Ben Foster) begin a series of bank robberies in an attempt to save the family ranch. Texas Rangers Marcus Hamilton (the always superb Jeff Bridges) and half Mexican, half Native American Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham) are on the chase. It’s a simple enough set-up but director David McKenzie (The Last Great Wilderness, Asylum) has some fun with it anyway. (One robbery goes awry because a bank customer is carrying and fires off a few rounds at the thieves as they try to flee.) McKenzie also brings out unexpected nuances in the characters. Pine delivers his best performance yet and Foster’s a revelation.
Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham
Poverty itself is a character in Hell or High Water and racial tensions are never far below the surface in the West Texas communities we see here. Marcus mercilessly ribs Alberto over his heritage and in a sequence at an Indian casino, we learn that the true meaning of Comanche is “enemy to everyone.” In this land where the cowpoke legend lives on, a number of citizens are more inclined to side with the outlaws rather than the Marshalls; especially given their targets are the same banks who’ve been bleeding the community dry for years. Viewers feel this way as well and can’t help rooting for Toby and Tanner too – at least at first. McKenzie has a habit of subverting people’s expectations in films and he does so here as well, as the true cost of the Howard boys crimes becomes clear. With Hell or High Water McKenzie gives us a take an on the classical Western that both honors the traditional mythos and yet still seems fresh.
Photos courtesy of CBS Films Top: Ben Foster and Chris Pine
Abigail Tucker, a science correspondent for Smithsonian magazine, has in the past written on topics as diverse as archaeology of ancient beer, bioluminescent marine life, and vampire anthropology. In her debut book, The Lion in the Living Room, Tucker explores something far more mysterious and elusive: the question of how house cats came to be the number one domesticated species on the planet. Tucker, being the proud cat mama to a ginormous, 20 pound, orange furry lazybones named Cheetoh, takes a deeply personal interest in the subject.
First of all it’s not even clear that cats are domesticated. As Tucker details painstakingly, through visits and interviews with science that despite thousands of years living alongside humans, modern housecats aren’t much different from their wild ancestors Felis Silvestris that still roam freely today in southern Turkey, Iraq, and Israel. Indeed, inbreeding between Felis Silvestris and other species of wild cats with loose domesticated cats is quite common.
Secondly, cats, anti-social, nocturnal carnivores who are notorious for being virtually untrainable, were a very odd choice for domestication. In fact, the experts Tucker consults, and Tucker herself, eventually come to the inescapable conclusion that it was the other way around. Cats decided it was worthwhile to seek human company (or rather humans to feed them), and just moved in with us. This strikes me as especially likely since my brother and his former roommate one day were followed into their apartment by a mangy, stray, feral kitten, whom the roommate quickly adopted. Similar incidents appear to have been the means through which cats went on to inhabit the four corners of the globe.
Tucker’s book is under two hundred pages, divided into nine chapters for nine lives. She manages to cover an impressive array of material, from the sabretooth tigers at La Brea, to the Serengeti Lion Project in Tanzania, to Internet cat stars doing a show in Manhattan. Tucker talks with veterinarians, members of the Alley Cat Lobby, archaeologists who’ve excavated ancient cat skeletons and researchers into the cat borne parasite toxoplasmosis. Along the way, she learns things about our furry overlords that are funny, surprising, fascinating, and even disturbing. Like Tucker, at some point any cat owner will have to ask themselves, Why?
Why do we keep apex predators in our homes? Why do we enable what is considered one of the most invasive and destructive species on the planet to wreck ecological devastation on helpless bird and rodent populations? Why do we invest so much time, energy, and expense on creatures who offer nothing in terms of obedience and only the most meagre displays of affection? Why do house cats at all?
Oh wait, my rescue cat, Nena, is now rubbing herself against my arm purring like a carburetor, swishing her long, silky tail in my face. Her enormous, deep set golden eyes peer into mine as she determinedly butts her head against my hand for rubbing. What was I writing about before?
It certainly feels like 2016 has been a never ending parade of losses from Alan Rickman, David Bowie, George Michael, Florence Henderson and so many more. Carrie Fisher and her mother, Debbie Reynolds, now join that list as well. We were all reeling from Carrie’s death at age 60 on December 27, a day after she suffered a heart attack, when we learned that her mother died after suffering a stroke. It was a stunning turn of events, taking two stars, two Hollywood icons, a mother and a daughter, a day apart.
Debbie, 84, was known for her breakout performance as an ingenue in Singin’ in the Rain, going toe-to-toe with Gene Kelly. She was nominated for an Oscar for her role in The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Her marriage to singing star Eddie Fisher, Carrie’s dad, came to an end after his affair with Elizabeth Taylor. He would marry Taylor who would then leave him for Richard Burton.
While Carrie will forever be celebrated for her iconic role as Princess Leia, Fisher’s career was longer and far more diverse than Star Wars. She made her film debut in Shampoo, starring opposite Warren Beatty. She went on to make many more films, including The Man With One Red Shoe, When Harry Met Sally, and the far underrated Soapdish alongside Sally Fields, Whoopi Goldberg, Kevin Kline, Elizabeth Shue, and Robert Downey, Jr. Her greatest talents, though, were put to good use as a writer. Fisher was known as being one of Hollywood’s best “script doctors,” sought after to fix troubled screenplays. She used to say her job was to make the girls smarter, but that the male lead actors were always asking her not to make the women funnier. She didn’t always comply. Fisher’s doctored screenplays included such successful films as Sister Act, The Last Action Hero, Outbreak, and The Wedding Singer. She also worked on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles with her old colleague George Lucas.
Carrie Fisher at the Book Signing for “The Princess Diarist” at Barnes and Noble on November 28, 2016 in Los Angeles.
Her debut novel was the semi-autobiographical Postcards From the Edge,which she later wrote the screenplay for as well. (The movie version stars Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, and Dennis Quaid. Don’t miss it!) She would write four additional novels, and they were all to some extent based on her own life. Wishful Drinking was published as a memoir following her one-woman play which she performed on Broadway.It in that work that she would pre-write her famous obituary: “No matter how I go, I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by own bra.” Her last book, The Princess Diarist, was published on November 22, and she was busy promoting it, often with her loyal dog, Gary, at her side.
Fisher suffered from bipolar disorder and in the past had been addicted to cocaine and prescription drugs. She spoke honestly and bravely about all these issues, becoming an advocate for de-stigmatizing mental illness and the dangers of self-medication. Because of this Harvard University awarded Fisher its Annual Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism.
Go in peace Carrie and Debbie. Go in moonlight, dancing.
Photos from Bigstock. Top photo: Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds at at the “Debbie Reynolds: The Auction Finale” VIP Reception at Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio on May 14, 2014 in North Hollywood, CA.
