Andre Braugher is one of those actors that just makes everything better. Taken from us way too soon, Braugher passed away back in 2023 at just 61 years of age. You get the feeling that he still had some great work left in him…
Happy Birthday in cinema heaven, Andre! Thanks for all the amazing work! Enjoy this scene between Andre Braugher and Dennis Quaid in one of my all-time favorite movies, FREQUENCY.
Actor Richard Thomas turns 74 years old today. He’s especially important to me because of two specific roles. First, he co-starred with my favorite actor Charles Bronson in the 1991 Christmas movie, YES VIRGINIA, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS. Along with IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, I watch YES VIRGINIA every year during the Christmas season. Second, he filmed a movie in central Arkansas back in 1977 called SEPTEMBER 30, 1955. Part of the movie was filmed along the Arkansas River in Toad Suck, AR. This is the community I grew up in, and my parents still live there. As a matter of fact, I’ll be spending Father’s Day with my Dad in Toad Suck. In my “scene of the day,” I share a scene from SEPTEMBER 30, 1955 where Thomas’ character learns of the fatal car crash of James Dean. Notice in the scene that his shirt has the initials ASTC, which stands for Arkansas State Teachers College. My dad received his teaching degree from ASTC. This college is now called The University of Central Arkansas (UCA), and that’s where I received my Finance Degree. The entire scene is filmed on the campus of UCA, and I’ve played tennis on those courts many times. I’ve attended football games at that stadium. The campus has been completely updated since this move was filmed in 1977, but it still looked a lot like that when I began my college years in 1991. It’s a trip down memory lane for me.
Happy Birthday, Richard Thomas!!
Happy 71st Birthday to Dennis Quaid. He’s been in a lot of good movies over the years, but I’m quite partial to a movie he made in 1977 called SEPTEMBER 30, 1955. He stars alongside Richard Thomas, Tom Hulce, Susan Tyrrell, Deborah Benson and Lisa Blount. The movie is about a group of friends at the Arkansas State Teachers College, which is my Alma mater the University of Central Arkansas, who deal with the death of James Dean. It’s a good movie that was filmed all around central Arkansas, including my home community of Toad Suck, Arkansas. In the picture above he’s sitting on a “beach” along the Arkansas River in Toad Suck. I’ve been there many times. The movie was written and directed by the talented Arkansan James Bridges, of THE PAPER CHASE and URBAN COWBOY fame. It’s a film well worth searching out. I’ve included the trailer below.
I CAN ONLY IMAGINE (2018) is the story of Bart Millard, the lead singer of the band MercyMe. He also wrote the song of the same name that inspired the movie. I remember when the song was released in 2001 as it immediately became a huge hit. As a person who attended church regularly and listened to contemporary Christian music, I heard it often either on radio or when other people would sing it at church. There was no getting away from the song as it was so popular. I really liked the song, but to be completely honest, it wasn’t especially meaningful to me. I just really liked it as a beautiful song. Fast forward to March of 2018 when the movie came out. 2018 was probably the most difficult year in my life, and I was needing hope. I saw I CAN ONLY IMAGINE at the movie theater, and its message of redemption and reconciliation provided glimmers of hope for me when my life had gotten really dark.
The movie provides us snapshots of Bart’s early life. We see him at church camp where he meets the girl who would go on to be the love of his life, Shannon. We see him as a boy dealing with the fact that his mother has left the family because she was no longer able to deal with the abusive behavior of his dad, Arthur (Dennis Quaid). We also see how that abuse has extended to Bart himself. We see him as a high schooler (actor John Michael Finley) playing football in Greenville, TX, to try to please his dad. When he gets injured playing football and turns to the school’s music program, we see him hide the fact that he got the lead in the school production of “Oklahoma” because he knows his dad will make fun of him. Arthur is the kind of man who never has a nice word to say to his son. When he does find out about Bart performing in the musical, he tells him that it “sounds like a good joke.” It all boils over when the two get into a fight before Bart heads to church one morning, and Arthur smashes a plate over his head. Bart leaves for good, he thinks.
With his love of music and great singing voice, Bart joins a band in need of a singer. Now we get snapshots of this portion of Bart’s life as the band hits the road and performs at different places, trying to sell as many of their homemade records as possible. Through sheer determination, Bart is able to convince Scott Brickell (Trace Adkins) to take over management of the band. After traveling with the group for a while, Brickell believes that they have a shot at making it in Nashville, so he secures the band, now known as “MercyMe,” a showcase in front of a group of top record executives. Unfortunately, the executives aren’t that impressed, with one even going so far as to tell Bart that he’s just not good enough. With those words bringing back all of the doubt that his father had instilled in him, Bart decides to quit the band. Sensing that Bart needs to resolve his family issues, Brickell asks him to take some time for himself. Bart asks the band to give him some time so he can go home for a while, not knowing what might be in store for him.
When Bart returns home, he finds his dad Arthur acting really strange… he’s being nice. He makes his son breakfast and then tells him about a project he’s hoping they can work on together, which is the restoration of his old Jeep. Bart doesn’t know what to make of this and even confronts his dad. Arthur tells him that he has become a Christian and even goes so far as to ask Bart for forgiveness for the way he has treated him in the past. Bart refuses to forgive him and gets in his dad’s truck to leave. While looking for the keys, Bart sees papers in his dad’s truck that reveal a terminal pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Discovering this information allows Bart to soften his heart towards his dad, and he even begins the process of forgiveness. The two men would be inseparable up to the point that Arthur passes away. Bart would say of his dad during this time that “he went from being a monster to the man I wanted to be.” At the funeral, Bart’s grandma (Cloris Leachman), who he called Me Maw, tells Bart, “I can only imagine what your dad’s seeing right now.” Ultimately inspired by his Me Maw’s words, as well as his own journey of grief and healing with his dad, Bart would write the lyrics that would turn into the most-played song in the history of Christian radio as well as the best-selling Christian song of all time (linked just below).
Movies that feature relationships between dads and sons always get to me, and I’m not even sure why that is. My dad and I have always had a great relationship. We were inseparable when I was growing up. My dad was my coach in sports, we always worked together on his projects, and he loved to take us fishing. My dad has always shown unconditional support and love towards me, and he continues to do so to this day. Maybe it’s my appreciation for my dad that leads me to this sort of emotional response when those relationships are presented on screen, but I think it’s even deeper than that. There’s a scene near the end of I CAN ONLY IMAGINE where Arthur shares his conversion experience with his son that always makes me cry like a baby. It seems that same day that he smashed that plate over Bart’s head, Arthur listened to his son sing at church on the radio and decided to turn his life over to God. Watching Arthur admit to his faults and become a man who shows great love and kindness to Bart is a beautiful sight to behold. And watching Bart accept that love and show that forgiveness may even be more beautiful. As a deeply flawed Christian myself, I think that’s why this movie means so much to me. I never tell other people how they should live their lives. In my opinion, each person has their own journey, and their lives will be based on their own decisions and actions. But it’s my personal belief that God is in the business of making things that seem impossible, possible, and He does it all while showing unconditional love and forgiveness. I can honestly say that when I’ve been at my lowest points in my own life (here’s looking at you 2018), it has been the process of turning things over to God that has opened me up both spiritually and emotionally to opportunities for meaningful, life-changing connections with other people. This movie tried to tell me that, and my own life is proving it out.
Check out the trailer below:
In Reagan, Dennis Quaid stars at the 40th President of the United States.
Framed as a story being told by a former KGB agent (Jon Voight) who is attempting to make a younger politician understand why Russia lost the Cold War, Reagan starts with Reagan’s childhood, includes his time as an actor and as the anti-communist head of the SAG, and then gets into his political career. Along the way, several familiar faces pop up. Robert Davi plays a thuggish Russian leader. Mena Suvari plays Reagan’s first wife while Penelope Ann Miller plays his second. Xander Berekely plays George Schultz (who was just previously played by Sam Waterston in The Dropout miniseries.) C. Thomas Howell, Kevin Dillon, Dan Lauria, and Lesley-Anne Down all have small but important roles. And the usual suspects when it comes to conservative filmmaking — Nick Searcy, Kevin Sorbo, and Pat Boone — are there to compliment Voight and Davi. I was a little surprised to see that Dean Cain was not present.
As usually happens to films that feature sympathetic Republicans, Reagan was slammed by critic but better-appreciated by the audience for which the film was made. I wasn’t particularly surprised. Movie critics tend to be liberal and Reagan is very much not that. For a professional film critic, a film like Reagan must be met with snark and derision because otherwise, one would risk cancellation. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that there aren’t things to criticize about Reagan the film. I’m just saying that one should always keep in mind that critics have their own individual biases. One reason why the Rotten Tomatoes score is such an unfortunate development is because it ignores the fact that most films have things that work and things that don’t work and that quality is often in the eye of the beholder. Instead, it just tells us that a film is either a 90% or a 10%.
As for Reagan, it’s definitely a bit on the heavy-handed side but, then again, I think the same can be said for just about every political film that’s come out over the last few decades. For those who claim Reagan is somehow more heavy-handed than most, I invite them to sit through Rob Reiner’s LBJ. Indeed, the only director who has really shown a willingness to admit that a President can be both good and bad was Oliver Stone and when was the last time anyone watched Nixon? Reagan is at its weakness when it tries to recreate Reagan’s time as an actor. Dennis Quaid gives a good and charming performance throughout the film but he’s also 70 years old and, in the scenes where he plays the youngish Ronald Reagan, all of the soft-lighting and Vaseline on the lens ends up making him look like a wax figure. Once Reagan gets older, Quaid is allowed to act his age and both he and the film become much more convincing. I enjoyed the film once Reagan became President, though you should understand that I have biases of my own. I’m a fan of low taxes and individual freedom, which is why I’m also not a fan of communism or, for that matter, any extreme ideology that attempts to tell people how to live or think. “Tear down this wall!” Regan says while standing in front of the Berlin Wall and it’s a rousing moment, both in reality and on film.
In the end, Reagan is a film that will be best appreciated by people who already like Ronald Reagan. Yes, the film is heavy-handed and the framing device is a bit awkward. But Dennis Quaid’s heartfelt (and, towards the end, heartbreaking) performance carries the film. The film is not at all subtle but you know what? I’ve seen a countless number of mediocre films that have portrayed Reagan negatively, often with as little nuance and just as heavy-handed an approach as Reagan uses in its positive portrayal of the man. I sat through The Butler, for God’s sake. There’s nothing wrong with having a film that looks at the man from the other side. Those who like Ronald Reagan will feel vindicated. Those who don’t will say, “What was up with that Pat Boone scene?”
There’s a brilliant scene that occurs towards the end of 1983’s The Right Stuff.
It takes place in 1963. The original Mercury astronauts, who have become a symbol of American ingenuity and optimism, are being cheered at a rally in Houston. Vice President Lyndon Johnson (Donald Moffat) stands on a stage and brags about having brought the astronauts to his supporters. One-by-one, the astronauts and their wives wave to the cheering crowd. They’re all there: John Glenn (Ed Harris), Gus Grissom (Fred Ward), Alan Shephard (Scott Glenn), Wally Schirra (Lance Henrisken), Deke Slayton (Scott Paulin), Scott Carpenter (Charles Frank), and the always-smiling Gordon Cooper (Dennis Quaid). The astronauts all look good and they know how to play to the crowd. They were chosen to be and sold as heroes and all of them have delivered.
While the astronauts are celebrated, Chuck Yeager (Sam Shepard) is at Edwards Air Force Base. Yeager is the pilot who broke the sound barrier and proved that the mythical “demon in the sky,” which was whispered about by pilots as a warning about taking unnecessary risks, was not waiting to destroy every pilot who tried to go too fast or too high. Yeager is considered by many, including Gordon Cooper, to be the best pilot in America. But, because Yeager didn’t have the right image and he had an independent streak, he was not ever considered to become a part of America’s young space program. Yeager, who usually holds his emotions in check, gets in a jet and flies it straight up into the sky, taking the jet to the edge of space. For a few briefs seconds, the blue sky becomes transparent and we can see the stars and the darkness behind the Earth’s atmosphere. At that very moment, Yeager is at the barrier between reality and imagination, the past and the future, the planet and the universe. And watching the film, the viewer is tempted to think that Yeager might actually make it into space finally. It doesn’t happen, of course. Yeager pushes the jet too far. He manages to eject before his plane crashes. He walks away from the cash with the stubborn strut of a western hero. His expression remains stoic but we know he’s proven something to himself. At that moment, the Mercury Astronauts might be the face of America but Yeager is the soul. Both the astronauts and Yeager play an important role in taking America into space. While the astronauts have learned how to take care of each other, even the face of government bureaucracy and a media that, initially, was eager to mock them and the idea of a man ever escaping the Earth’s atmosphere, Chuck Yeager reminds us that America’s greatest strength has always been its independence.
Philip Kaufman’s film about the early days of the space program is full of moments like that. The Right Stuff is a big film. It’s a long film. It’s a chaotic film, one that frequently switches tone from being a modern western to a media satire to reverent recreation of history. Moments of high drama are mixed with often broad humor. Much like Tom Wolfe’s book, on which Kaufman’s film is based, the sprawling story is often critical of the government and the press but it celebrates the people who set speed records and who first went into space. The film opens with Yeager, proving that a man can break the sound barrier. It goes on to the early days of NASA, ending with the final member of the Mercury Seven going into space. In between, the film offers a portrait of America on the verge of the space age. We watch as John Glenn goes from being a clean-cut and eager to please to standing up to both the press and LBJ. Even later, Glenn sees fireflies in space while an aborigines in Australia performs a ceremony for his safety. We watch as Gus Grissom barely survives a serious accident and is only rescued from drowning after this capsule has been secured. The astronauts go from being ridiculed to celebrated and eventually respected, even by Chuck Yeager.
It’s a big film with a huge cast. Along with Sam Shepherd and the actors who play the Mercury Seven, Barbara Hershey, Pamela Reed, Jeff Goldblum, Harry Shearer, Royal Dano, Kim Stanley, Scott Wilson, and William Russ show up in roles both small and large. It can sometimes be a bit of an overwhelming film but it’s one that leaves you feeling proud of the pioneering pilots and the brave astronauts and it leaves you thinking about the wonder of the universe that surrounds our Earth. It’s a strong tribute to the American spirit, the so-called right stuff of the title.
The Right Stuff was nominated for Best Picture but, in the end, it lost to a far more lowkey film, 1983’s Terms of Endearment. Sam Shepard was nominated for Best Supporting Actor but lost to Jack Nicholson. Nicolson played an astronaut.
Between Revenge and now The Substance, French filmaker Coralie Fargeat is two for two.
If you are a fan of body horror along the lines of most of David Cronenberg’s films (Scanners, Rabid, Videodrome) and have also managed to dodge any information about Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, stop reading and give it a watch. Easily the best film of 2024 in the “What the hell did I just witness?” category, The Substance is a total experience from start to finish. The winner of Best Screenplay in this year’s Cannes Film Festival, It’s a mix of Death Becomes Her and Multiplicity, but I highly recommend watching it without knowing too much about the film. This makes it hard to write since there are some wild surprises abound and I’m refraining from giving too much away.
Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore, Charlie’s Angels 2) was once a popular star in Hollywood, but that light has faded since she’s grown older. Working in a line of fitness videos isn’t quite the same as making movies, but it helps to keep her afloat. When she overhears her manager, Harvey (Dennis Quaid, The Day After Tomorrow) talking about dropping her for a younger, fresher face, her spirits are hurt. During a doctor’s visit, she is gifted a flash drive labelled “The Substance”, which explains a set of rules to unlock “a better version of yourself”. Elisabeth eventually takes the plunge and as a result, her better version is revealed. The rules for The Substance are as strict as the ones in Gremlins, requiring great care for both bodies to maintain an optimum efficiency for the week each one gets to play.
After giving her new self a name, Sue (Margaret Qualley, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) decides to take on the duties and auditions that Elisabeth couldn’t get. As Sue’s popularity grows, so does her desire for more time. This leads to changes for both Sue and Elisabeth, as each side fights to hold on to their life (or lives). Can Sue and Elisabeth find a way to coexist without going at each other’s throats?
For The Substance, Fargeat’s filming style is a mix of colorful extreme close shots and fast changes between scenes. At least, this is how I perceived it. Dennis Quaid’s character is made to seem larger than life and repulsive, so we tend to get close ups of him eating and smoking while talking. Sue’s scenes are bright, rich and colorful. Elizabeth’s scenes are more standard. All in all, it gives the whole film a creep factor in that most of the shots feel nearly intrusive on their subjects. The horror starts off small, but escalates quite well. Fargeat has a way of making even the smallest of scenes (like throwing out garbage) something to cringe over. The sound quality in this movie is wild, reminiscent of what Leigh Whannell used for Upgrade. The creaking of bones echo. The voice on the phone feels like it’s right in your ear and fluids are extremely squishy. I winced, I laughed, and most importantly, I found myself muttering “What the hell?!” a few times.
Performance wise, the film belongs to both Moore and Qualley and they carry the film effortlessly. As Elisabeth, Demi is both haunted and courageous. At 62, this is a performance unlike anything I’ve see her do before and it reminded me of Nicole Kidman in The Hours or Charlize Theron in Monster. While her changes might not be as great for the Golden Globes with both Amy Adams, Mickey Madison and Cynthia Erivo in the mix, she deserves the accolades for what she puts herself though. I also wouldn’t be shocked if Moore’s name reaches the Oscars. Qualley is just as great, with Sue equally enjoying her fame and finding herself disgusted with who she’s sharing this life with. Note that there is a lot of nudity in the film, but given the situations both characters are in, I felt it made sense for the film.
Overall, The Substance is a wonderful off-kilter showing by Coralie Fargeat. It makes for a great late night film to watch that may make you wince, shudder and perhaps even cover your mouth once or twice. .
I find it difficult to write about my favorite movies, because it can be hard to put into words why I love them so much. It seems that nothing I can say will do the movie justice. FREQUENCY is one of those movies that I abolutely love, and I’ll tell any person who will listen that it’s one of my all-time favorites. Sadly, I run into quite a few people who aren’t even aware of the almost 25 year old film at this point. That just doesn’t set right with me, so I’m here today to sing the praises of FREQUENCY!
FREQUENCY stars Jim Caviezel as homicide detective John Sullivan, a guy who lives in the same house he’s lived in his entire life. John is still dealing with emotional scars related to the death of his firefighter father Frank (Dennis Quaid), who died fighting a fire 30 years earlier. One night John’s hanging out with his buddy Gordo (Noah Emmerich), when they come across his dad’s old Ham radio. Some of John’s fondest memories of his dad include him speaking with people around the world on that old radio. They hook it up not even sure if it even works anymore. Sometime later that night when he’s there alone, a man’s voice comes across the airwaves. John starts talking back, and that’s when the greatness of this movie starts for me. The two guys start talking about baseball, and the voice on the other end of the line wants to know what John thinks about New York’s Amazin’ Mets chances to win the 1969 World Series. It seems that somehow through movie magic and the “mother sunspot of all time,” John is talking to his own father at the same location, separated by 30 years of space and time. John tells his dad about the specific fire that he dies in on that fateful day 30 years earlier. With John’s warning, Frank is able to survive the fire, and John gets a bunch of new memories that show him growing up with his dad in his life. Unfortunately, the changing of the past has real world consequences in the present. Now, John’s mom Julia (Elizabeth Mitchell) is gone, killed by a serial killer whose “Nightingale murders” had ended with 3 nurses in 1969, but has now ballooned to 10 in 1999. Separated by those 30 years, and not knowing when their connection on the radio might end, John and Frank work together to try to stop the Nightingale killer and save Julia, not knowing what other things they might change in the process.
FREQUENCY is a cross-genre concoction. It’s a fantasy film in the way that it brings people together from two different timeframes. The exact way this is done is never spelled out and shouldn’t be thought about too much. We just know that the phenomenon known as the aurora borealis, which is a natural light show that occurs when charged particles from the sun interact with Earth’s magnetic field, is going on in both 1969 and 1999. This natural phenomenon is somehow allowing John and Frank to talk to each other. It’s also a solid dramatic thriller as John is able to first save Frank’s life from the fire, and then as the two work together to catch a serial killer (Shawn Doyle) before he takes out Julia. This is put together extremely well by director Gregory Hoblit, who gets solid performances from Jim Caviezel, Dennis Quaid, and Elizabeth Mitchell as the Sullivan family. I also want to shout out Andre Braugher, who plays Frank’s best friend Satch in the 1969 timeframe, and who’s John’s cop partner in 1999. He’s so good in FREQUENCY. Despite winning two primetime Emmy awards, I still believe that Andre Braugher was an amazing actor who was underused during his lifetime. Sadly, he passed away in 2023 at just 61 years of age.
But the reason that I love FREQUENCY is the fantastic notion that a son who’s lost his father would somehow have the chance to talk to him again. Father-son relationships in movies affect me more than anything else, and I’m all in for the way it is addressed here. I cry like a baby every time I watch FIELD OF DREAMS with Kevin Costner, and I also cry like a baby every time I watch FREQUENCY. I mentioned earlier that John is dealing with emotional scars from not having his dad growing up. In this film, we get to hear their conversations and put ourselves in that same position. The film really leans into the joy of this unique opportunity to change the past and erase much of the pain that came with such deep emotional wounds. This shared desire to right past wrongs and erase past pain elevates the film even when logic fails. FREQUENCY got on my radar back at the turn of the century when I read articles about grown men crying in theaters as they watched. I remember telling a friend of mine, a friend whose father had died when he was young, about this film. He told me later of his own emotional experience watching it. There really is something universal about wanting to connect with our parents once they are no longer with us. As of this writing, my own father is still here, yet I am still emotionally overwhelmed every time I watch FREQUENCY. I can’t even begin to imagine what it will feel like if there’s a time that I’m still here, and he’s gone.
Through the Shattered Lens 