First, the movie....
This movie is yet another look at 1960's culture and history, a la "Trial of the Chicago 7" and "One Night in Miami." This is the story of Fred Hampton, Vice Chairman of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1969, and it is surprisingly relevant today in 2021 when police overreach and #BlackLiveMatter are very much a part of our culture. It is also the story of Bill O'Neal, a small time car thief in Chicago who gets busted and is given a way out: infiltrate the Black Panthers and serve as an informant for the FBI in order to get the goods on the Panthers in general, Hampton in particular, whom Director J. Edgar Hoover deems to be a "Black Messiah" who must be stopped at all costs, even if it means doing away with such pesky little details as civil liberties, due process, and equal justice for all. O'Neal becomes the "Judas" of the title in this excellent film.
The cast is terrific with "Get Out" co-stars Daniel Kaluuya as Hampton and LaKeith Stanfield as O'Neal, Jesse Plemons as the straight arrow white bread Hoover-era FBI Agent, and Martin Sheen as old J. Edgar himself. Great performances all around.
The "what happened to" titles at the end of the movie are especially jarring, particularly as they concern Bill O'Neal. Pay attention to those.
Oh, and to settle something that has niggled at me since I saw "Get Out" two years ago, I Googled for the proper pronunciation of Daniel Kaluuya's name. It's Kuh-Loo-Ya. So there.
Three Stars from The Grandstander.
Now for the books, both of which have movie and show biz tie-ins.
I have long considered Carl Reiner, who died last year at the age of 98, to be one of the true authentic comic geniuses of our times. Back in 2003, when Reiner was a young pup at age 81, he penned this memoir. It is an easy read, but it is everything that you would expect from Carl Reiner: Funny, insightful, funny, poignant, and did I mention funny?
Great stories about Mel Brooks, Sid Caesar, Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore (his story about a distraught Moore coming to him to tell him that she and her then husband were going to divorce is a classic!), terrific stories about his father and his brother, and even some tales about his first born son, Robbie, who would go on to a very successful show biz career of his own fill this book.
Four Stars from The Grandstander.
Writer, humorist, novelist, screenwriter, and director Nora Ephron died in 2012 at the age of 71, a cancer victim. This slim book is a collection of essays of hers that was published in 2010. I get the feeling that Ephron knew that she was dying when these essays were written because many of them deal with aging and getting old. The final two essays in the book are especially moving. One is titled "What I Won't Miss" (E-mail, My closet, Bras, Clarence Thomas, The sound of the vacuum cleaner) and the other "What I Will Miss" (My kids, Waffles, Bacon, Reading in bed, Coming over the bridge into Manhattan). She also includes a very frank story of her divorce from her second husband whom she doesn't name, but whom we all know is Carl Bernstein. Not sure how she had the guts to go into such detail. It's not all bad stories and melancholia, her trademark wit is included in just about every essay in this very brief book.
Reading these essays prompted me to seek out and find her 1983 novel, "Heartburn", which tells the story of a successful writer who discovers that her husband is cheating on her while she is pregnant and leads to a divorce. Yes, it is based on her experiences with Bernstein. It was made into a successful 1986 movie - Ephron wrote the screenplay; Mike Nichols directed - starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson, and I will probably seek that movie out once I finish the book.
Three Stars from The Grandstander for this one.
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