19 | June | 2016 | Through the Shattered Lens

Trash Film Guru

Of all our shameful pastimes here in the US — and let’s be honest, there are plenty to choose from — trashing on immigrants has to rank right at or near the very top of the list, and given some of the headlines we’re seeing coming from Europe in recent weeks and months, it appears we’re not alone in being way less welcoming than we should be to our new friends and neighbors. You can toss all the tired arguments at me you want — “these people don’t speak our language,” “they come from a totally different culture,” “they don’t share our customs,” “they don’t understand how we do things here,” etc. — the simple fact is that the exact same thing was said about your Irish, German, Italian, French, etc. ancestors, and I bet that if they knew their family lineage would end up producing the same kind of…

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Hi, everyone. You’re going to have to excuse me if I’m not as articulate as usual in this post but right now, I am in a state of shock. A few minutes ago, I took a look at twitter and I saw that Anton Yelchin was trending.

I joked to myself for a minute about how, whenever a celebrity is trending on twitter, it usually turns out to be something bad. I clicked Anton’s name and the first tweet that came up read: ‘Star Trek’ actor Anton Yelchin dies in car crash at age 27.’

I’m still trying to catch my breath.

Just last month, I saw The Green Room and I spent the whole movie thinking about what a truly great actor Anton Yelchin had become. I know that almost everyone knows Anton primarily for playing Chekov in the Star Trek films but my favorite Anton Yelchin performance remains his sensitive and often heart-breaking work in Like Crazy. That’s also my favorite of the films in which he appeared.

I’m sorry. I’m so stunned right now that I barely know what to say. Right now, I’m struggling to get my mind around the end of both a life and a career that held so much promise. 27 years old is too young for anyone to die, regardless of whether he’s an actor you like or just the neighbor two houses down.

Here are links to a few of the Anton Yelchin films that we have reviewed here on TSL. Some of the films are better than others but all were improved by Yelchin’s presence:

Though I haven’t written reviews of either of them (yet), I would also recommend Yelchin’s work in both The Green Room and Alpha Dog. In particular, his poignant performance in Alpha Dog was underrated.

My heart goes out to Anton Yelchin’s friends, family, and fans.

I’m going to watch Like Crazy later and cry.