4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking.
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy 63rd birthday to one of the last remaining movie stars, Tom Cruise!
While it’s tempting to celebrate this day by sharing a scene from a film like Top Gun: Maverick or one of the Mission Impossible sequels or maybe even something like Magnolia, Jerry Maguire, Edge of Tomorrow, or Risky Business, I am going to go with a clip from 2008’s Tropic Thunder. There’s a lot talent in this particular scene, with Bill Hader and Matthew McConaughey both giving good performances. But, of course, the whole thing is dominated by Tom Cruise’s wonderfully demented performance as Les Grossman.
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking.
I’ve been watching THE WHITE LOTUS series on Max, and today I started Season 3 co-starring a favorite actor in my household, Walton Goggins. Here are some movies I like him in (and one TV show)!
Any person who’s read much of my work knows that I love the Hong Kong director, John Woo. Way back in 1993, Woo made his American film debut with the action flick, HARD TARGET. It seemed every great Hong Kong director of the 80’s and 90’s would work with Jean-Claude Van Damme in their career, beginning with Woo here, and then moving on to Ringo Lam in MAXIMUM RISK (1996), REPLICANT (2001), and IN HELL (2003), as well as Tsui Hark in DOUBLE TEAM (1997) and KNOCK OFF (1998). It was almost a rite of passage!
With today being the 55th birthday of the beautiful actress, Yancy Butler, who co-starred in HARD TARGET, I get the chance to share a fun, bone-cracking scene from early in Woo’s American debut! Enjoy my friends, and happy birthday, Yancy!
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.
The great actress Karen Black would have been 86 years old today.
Karen Black does not receive a lot of screentime in Nashville but she definitely makes an impression as the driven, self-centered, and oddly likeable Connie White. (“She can’t even comb her hair” — Connie White on Julie Chrisite.) Here she is, performing one of the songs that she wrote herself for the film. The audience was largely made up of actual Nashville residents, who reportedly very much appreciated Black’s performance.
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
90 years ago today, Sydney Pollack was born in Indiana. Though Pollack got his start as an actor, he soon moved into directing and was one of the key television directors of the 1960s. He eventually branched out into film, making a name for himself as a director of intelligent and sensitive comedies and dramas. Though he only directed 21 films over the course of his career, his films received a total of 48 Oscar nominations and 11 wins. 1982’s Tootsie and 1985’s Out of Africa were both nominated for Best Picture. Out of Africa won. Pollack also returned to acting in the 90s, making a name for himself as a skilled character actor. I’ll always remember him from Eyes Wide Shut, intimidating Tom Cruise while playing pool.
In memory of Sydney Pollack, here are….
4 Shots From 4 Sydney Pollack Films
Jeremiah Johnson (1972, dir by Sydney Pollack, DP: Duke Callaghan)
The Yakuza (1974, dir by Sydney Pollack, DP: Duke Callaghan and Kozo Okazaki)
Three Days of Condor (1975, dir by Sydney Pollack, DP: Owen Roizman)
Out of Africa (1985, dir by Sydney Pollack, DP: David Watkins)
Last year I reviewed the 2009 documentary, THE WILD AND WONDERFUL WHITES OF WEST VIRGINIA, which focused on Jesco White and the out of control White family from Boone County, West Virginia. Today, I’m going back to the original 1991 documentary, DANCING OUTLAW that first introduced us to Jesco and his family. Directed by Jacob Young and premiering as part of the PBS “Different Drummer” documentary series, this program would go on to win a 1992 Emmy Award, as well as a 1993 American Film Institute Award for “Best Documentary.” It would also turn Jesco into a celebrity and pop culture figure in West Virginia. This amazing documentary is currently available on YOUTUBE, and I highly recommend it to any person who’s interested in seeing what poverty and unchecked drug and alcohol abuse will do to the human brain.
DANCING OUTLAW is where we first meet Jesco White, an amazingly talented mountain tap dancer, who has multiple personalities and a never ending love and respect for his dad, who gave him his talent and his dancing shoes, if not necessarily an outspoken love. The documentary is smart enough to show us Jesco performing on multiple occasions, thus establishing that Jesco is a truly talented and unique dancer. The multiple personalities seem to come from years of huffing gasoline and lighter fluid that has destroyed his brain. Despite his talent, we are able to observe that Jesco is completely lost as a human being, based on his own words that he willingly shares with us, as well as what we learn from others.
We meet Jesco’s mom Bertie Mae White, the miracle woman, for the first time in DANCING OUTLAW. One of the more emotional parts of THE WILD AND WONDERFUL WHITES OF WEST VIRGINIA was the fact that Bertie Mae passed away during the year the film was made. Here, however, we meet Bertie Mae almost 20 years earlier and get a better feel for what she was like as a younger, healthier woman. We find out how proud she is of her husband Donald “D.” Ray White. We also see that she’s fiercely protective of her kids, and that they love her, even if she can’t control them. I’ve said before that I can see some of my own Grandma Crain in Bertie Mae.
We also meet Jesco’s wife, Norma Jean White. This is not a match made in heaven, as they fight non-stop, with Jesco usually threatening to kill her at some point. Bertie Mae makes it clear that nobody in their family wanted them to get married, yet here they are anyway… married, divorced, married again. Norma Jean tells us some interesting stuff about Jesco, mainly filling us in on his three distinct personalities:
Jessie – She says Jessie is the most beautiful, perfect man you could ever ask for.
Jesco – She says Jesco is the devil himself.
Elvis – She says she has to be silent and just enjoy Elvis. Jesco comments that the Elvis side of his personality is what calms him down and keeps him from wanting to kill everyone else in the world.
I think there’s something to West Virginians and multiple personalities. My wife is from West Virginia, has the last name of White, and often references her different personalities. Luckily, the ones I’ve met so far are pretty nice! On a side note, I’m not sure what became of Norma Jean because she’s never referenced in THE WILD AND WONDERFUL WHITES OF WEST VIRGINIA. Based on all of their arguing, I’m hoping they just got divorced, and I pray that she’s not buried somewhere out there in a holler! (Author update – Jesco was married to Norma Jean up until her death in 2009).
One of the more interesting parts of the documentary is when Jesco, Norma Jean, and Jesco’s brother Dorsey tell us about the night their dad, D. Ray White, was killed. Prior to telling us the events that led to his death, we’re treated to some video footage of D. Ray singing and performing his 52 mountain tap dancing steps. He was a truly amazing performer, and you can’t help but think that Jesco will never be quite as good as his dad. However, the events that led to his death can easily be summed up as follows: all kinds of people were partying together, which means abusing alcohol and drugs, when a fight started, and a person out of their right mind blew him away. It’s a sad waste, but it’s also a natural result of a family and community that’s deep into poverty, drugs and alcohol. Not only do we see how profoundly this affects Bertie Mae, Jesco and the rest of the family in this documentary, but we can also see the aftermath of his death, and the unbroken circles of drug use and violence again in THE WILD AND WONDERFUL WHITES OF WEST VIRGINIA. It’s ultimately both sad and pathetic.
In DANCING OUTLAW, we first meet Jesco’s sister Mamie, as well as his brothers Poney and Dorsey. The only thing I want to say about these three is that we’re updated on each of them in THE WILD AND WONDERFUL WHITES OF WEST VIRGINIA. The passage of time hasn’t been real kind to Mamie, as she’s gone from a pretty, wild, fun-loving woman to a scary, unstable woman who will do anything, including illegal things, to make money. Dorsey is dead from an accidental shooting, and Poney has proven to be the smartest of the bunch by taking his kids and moving to Minnesota for a fresh start. At least there’s one success story since he was able to get away.
At the end of the day, the documentary just kind of ends where it began, with Jesco and Norma Jean sitting at their trailer and arguing. There really is no “happy” way to end a movie about people like Jesco White and his family. I follow a lot of Jesco’s family members on social media, and I think the notoriety they have received from these documentaries has done nothing but make things worse for them. They are almost all struggling with the effects of poverty and drug abuse to this day. In some ways, these people don’t seem real, but the truth is that they are real, and that we know people like them in our own lives. Heck, we may be people like them. Our issues may not be the same, but our lives often contain unbroken cycles of making the same mistakes over and over again and then wondering why we can’t be happy. If nothing else, watching the slow-motion train wreck of another person’s life can hopefully inspire us to get our own shit together!
I’ve included the YouTube link to the DANCING OUTLAW below if you want to see for yourself!
Last week Sierra and I had dinner with our kids, and as usual, at some point the conversation turned towards movies. Sierra has been watching a lot of terrible shark movies, so I asked the kids if they had seen any decent shark movies lately. Our son mentioned this movie UNDER PARIS, and both he and his wife agreed that they thought it was a good movie. We had not heard of it before, but being tired of the SHARKNADO’s of the world, we decided to check it out.
UNDER PARIS opens with marine biologist Sophia Assalas (Berenice Bejo) and her dive team, which includes her husband Chris, tracking a shark named Lilith. The divers go into the water to obtain a blood sample, expecting to find a normal sized Lilith, but instead discover that Lilith has grown to three times her normal size and is aggressively hunting with a pack of other sharks. Before they can get back to the boat, the divers are all attacked and killed. Three years later and still traumatized by the events of that fateful day, Sophia is now an employee of a Paris aquarium when a young environmentalist named Mika (Lea Leviant) approaches her and says that Lilith’s tracking beacon seems to be active in Paris’ Seine River. Skeptical at first since Lilith shouldn’t be able to survive in fresh water, Sophia changes her tune when a homeless man is found half eaten with wounds clearly caused by a shark. Sophia then works closely with the river police and Sergeant Adil (Nassim Lyes) to try to find the shark before it can kill other Parisians. Wouldn’t you know it, it seems that Paris is about to host a large triathlon that’s tied to the upcoming Paris Olympics. Concerned that the participants could turn into shark food, Sophia and the police meet with the Mayor of Paris (Anne Marivin) to ask her to put off the triathlon. The mayor, however, doesn’t want the bad publicity that would come from cancelling the triathlon due to a “shark problem” so she refuses to cancel and tells them to just deal with it. I think we can all imagine where the story goes from there!
UNDER PARIS is better than most of the shark movies that Sierra and I have been watching, but it’s also a bit of a mess. There are a few things I really did like about the movie. First, I liked the Paris setting, which is not your typical setting for a shark movie. It was fun seeing the Eiffel Tower in the background as our various characters went through all the familiar shark movie tropes, speaking in French no less. Second, I enjoyed the somewhat serious and suspenseful tone of the early portions of the film. Our main character Sophia, as played by Berenice Bejo, is dealing with real tragedy and the movie treats her grief seriously. I think Bejo is good in the film, and I felt for her through these early sequences. I also liked her relationship with Sergeant Adil. Of course he would be skeptical at first, but I thought actor Nassim Lyes did a fine job of balancing rationality with a desire to get to the truth no matter how outlandish it may seem. The suspense around the tragedy at the opening of the film, as well as the portions dealing with convincing the police that the shark is in Paris, are quite effective. Even though it’s a cliché at this point, it was a fun throwback to JAWS (1975) when the mayor of Paris didn’t want to cancel the triathlon due to the bad publicity it would cause. In other words, I really did enjoy a lot of the world that UNDER PARIS created as it was building to the catastrophic shark attacks
UNDER PARIS does have its share of problems. When the big set pieces start and the shark(s) start attacking Paris, the movie pretty much abandons the human stories for CGI shark attacks. I won’t deny that there is some excitement in these scenes, but while the effects are decent, they’re not great, and the non-stop carnage took me out of the parts of the movie that I was really enjoying. Some of the characters, I’m looking at you mayor and environmentalist Mika, are especially naïve and silly, and their downright idiotic decisions lead to the majority of death and destruction presented in the film. By the time half the environmentalists and triathletes have been eaten or severely disabled, I was already wondering how much time we had left to the end of the movie.
Overall, I do think UNDER PARIS is better than most of the shark movies you can find on the streaming services. The unique setting, serious tone, and strong performances get the movie off to a solid start. Unfortunately, it’s just not able to sustain its early momentum throughout to the end.
Through the Shattered Lens 