Men at Lunch
Film Review by Kam Williams
30 Rock Doc Unearths Untold Story behind Iconic Photograph
During the construction of Rockefeller Center in 1932, a photo was taken of 11 ironworkers taking a break from their arduous labors to eat, drink, smoke and talk to each other. Because they were sitting on a steel beam dangling perilously some 69 stories in the air with Central Park and the Manhattan skyline in the background, the iconic image would soon sear itself permanently into the country’s subconscious.
But who took the picture called “Lunch atop a Skyscraper,” how was it staged, and who were the guys posing for the camera? These are the questions which nagged director Sean O’Cualain ever since the day he and his brother saw the famous photo hanging on the wall while hoisting a few a world away in Whelan’s pub in Shanaglish, Ireland. A note next to the stunning snapshot identified a couple of emigrants to America from County Galway, Sonny Glynn (1903-1953) and Matty O’Shaughnessy (1901-1978), as the bookends on the far left and far right of the girder, respectively.
That chance encounter in the bar was the source of inspiration for Men at Lunch, an enlightening documentary narrated by Fionnula Flanagan which unearths a cornucopia of factoids about the picture’s previously unheralded subjects. Perhaps more importantly, the film also tells the greater story of the thousands of ironworkers who built skyscrapers during the Depression, a very dangerous undertaking indeed given the 2% annual mortality rate along with a 2% permanent disability rate.
Still, given the dire state of the economy back then, any able-bodied man was likely happy just to have a $1.50 an hour job, even if it was as thankless as it was treacherous. Plus, perched so close to the heavens, they seemingly enjoyed an elevated social status relative to the working-class men making an honest day’s pay down on street level.
A posthumous testament to the intrepid crew of immigrants who risked their lives in the sky over New York City to erect 30 Rock.
Very Good (3 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 67 minutes
Distributor: First Run Features
To see a trailer for Men at Lunch, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJaoSD3tAxs
Sharni Vinson
The “You’re Next” Interview
with Kam Williams
Vinson’s Vision
Born in Sydney, Australia on July 22, 1983, Sharni Vinson was raised in Cronulla Beach in New South Wales where she began singing, dancing and acting at a young age. She is best known for playing the role of Cassie Turner on the long-running Aussie TV soap opera “Home and Away.”
At just 17, she was signed to Roadshow Music to become a member of the R&B band, Foxfire IV. In 2008, she relocated to Los Angeles and was immediately embraced by the entertainment industry, booking guest roles in “NCIS,” “CSI: NY,” “My Boys,” and the pilot for “Austin Golden Hour.”
After an extensive search for a leading lady with amazing dance ability, Vinson landed the coveted lead role of ‘Natalie’ in Summit Entertainment’s Step Up 3D, which was released in August 2010. The plot revolves around a tight-knit group of New York City street dancers who found themselves pitted against the world's best hip hop dancers in a high-stakes showdown that would change their lives forever.
In 2011, Sharni starred in Blue Crush 2 for Universal Studios, the follow up to the hit film about a group of girls who worked as waitresses and chamber maids to finance their passion for surfing. Last year, she starred in the action- thriller BAIT 3D, a disaster flick about a freak tsunami which traps shoppers inside a coastal supermarket along with a herd of hungry sharks.
Besides performing, Sharni is also an accomplished athlete, having represented New South Wales at the National Swimming Championships. Here, she talks her latest film, You’re Next, a horror flick co-starring AJ Bowen, Joe Swanberg, Nicholas Tucci and Wendy Glenn.
Kam Williams: Hi Sharni, thanks for the opportunity to interview you.
Sharni Vinson: No, thank you so much, Kam.
KW: I really loved You’re Next. In fact, I’d have to say it’s the best horror flick of 2013 so far, in a great year for scary movies including The Conjuring, The Purge, and a few others.
SV: That’s great!
KW: And in my review, I don’t reveal any of the shocking developments, since this is a picture that has to be seen cold, with no knowledge of its unpredictable twists and turns.
SV: I agree. The element of surprise is everything.
KW: How would describe You’re Next in 25 words or less?
SV: As not your typical home invasion horror movie. It takes place at a family reunion where things quickly turn very dramatic. Basically, we all have to fend for our lives in the house. I don’t know if I can say too much more than that without spoiling it.
KW: That’s perfect. I loved your breakout performance. Your character Erin’s spunkiness very much reminded me of Katniss Everdeen, the heroine of The Hunger Games.
SV: Thank you. We wanted to keep the character likable, relatable, and still very strong and tough, so she’d be a very positive, female role model. There’s nothing in her that’s out of the ordinary in the sense that she’s not a superhero with superpowers. She’s just doing what she has to do in order to get the job done. I like the role for me and for the general audience because I think it shows how important it is to learn self-defense. So, I hope people can come out of this film getting into that more.
KW: I know you were a nationally-ranked swimmer as a teenager, so you’re already very athletic. But did you have to do any specially training for this physically-demanding role?
SV: Not really, because there wasn’t any time. We shot this film over four weeks, and I only had three days of training in the lead-up to rolling the cameras. So, it was very important to the producer and director to find a girl who was already physically capable of stepping into a role like this. And thanks to my swimming and dancing and very competitive sports upbringing, I had that physicality ready to go. So, we were more or less focusing on certain exact skills like reaction time, boxing, agility exercises, and how to twirl a knife and a fireplace poker. That was really a lot of fun. But overall, we devoted more time to developing the mentality of the character than her physicality.
KW: I noticed that a number of your fellow cast members, like Joe Swanberg and Amy Seimetz, are members of the Mumblecore movement here in the U.S. Are you familiar with Mumblecore?
SV: I really am not. It’s really a whole new experience for me, which has been so great, because Amy and Joe and Ti [West] are not only amazing actors but also incredible directors to this specific horror genre. It was mind-expanding to be able to work with them on a project of this scale. Having them on the set, made the director’s [Adam Wingard] and the rest of the cast’s work so much easier. I thought I was learning from the best with them.
KW: Harriet Pakula-Teweles asks: How do you prepare for and detox from a blood-and-guts thriller?
SV: It’s funny, because so many people assume it must have been a horrific experience making this movie. But because we were there every day, shooting on a night schedule from 5 p.m. until 7 a.m., bonding as a cast and watching how the prosthetic department put the props and blood and gore together, it was actually so much fun. It wasn’t scary because we were privy to the inside gag of how you create movie magic. And that just became the running joke on the set. You can’t help but laugh when you’re eating dinner at 1 in the morning next to someone with an arrow sticking out of his back. It was all so light off-camera, yet when we would roll, we would literally snap from a laughing, singing and joking moment into a totally serious mood. So, it never was scary during the film, just very entertaining because we were having such a great time.
KW: You started out as a singer in the R&B group Foxfire IV. Are you still singing?
SV: I started out learning all the different aspects of the entertainment industry: singing, dancing and acting. It was very much put to me from a young age that it benefits you to be a triple-threat in the business. I come from a line of performers in musical theater, my mom and my grand-mom, who encouraged me to train in all three areas of the arts. So, now it’s second nature in me, and I always keep those options open. At different points in my life, one has overtaken the others, but the great thing about acting is that you can find a way to incorporate any skill you have into a role. I’ve done a dance movie, maybe now we can do a musical. That would be really cool.
KW: The Harriet Pakula-Teweles question: With so many classic films being redone, is there a remake you'd like to star in?
SV: Oh, man, that’s hard to say, because anything classic-classic almost should not be touched. But sometimes you feel the passion that you’d like to be in that movie yourself. I’m not suggesting it needs to be remade, but if they ever redid A Chorus Line, I’d love to play Valerie. Who knows? Maybe one day. [LOL]
KW: Is there any question no one ever asks you, that you wish someone would?
SV: No, I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately that even I wouldn’t have ever thought of.
KW: The bookworm Troy Johnson question: What was the last book you read?
SV: “Conversations with God.”
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0399142789/ref=nosim/thslfofire-20
KW: The music maven Heather Covington question: What was the last song you listened to?
SV: “Blurred Lines” with Pharrell and Robin Thicke.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00DFBVJQA/ref=nosim/thslfofire-20
KW: What is your favorite dish to cook?
SV: Anything with a lot of garlic and a lot of chili, like a Thai chicken vegetable stir-fry. You’d be lucky if you can find the other ingredients under all the garlic and chili I use.
KW: The Uduak Oduok question: Who is your favorite clothes designer?
SV: Roberto Cavali.
KW: Haven’t you done modeling, too?
SV: No, that’s a bit of a myth. I read that in the press a lot, but I don’t know where that came from.
KW: The Mike Pittman question: What was your best career decision?
SV: Moving to America.
KW: When you look in the mirror, what do you see?
SV: The person I always wished I could be.
KW: If you could have one wish instantly granted, what would that be for?
SV: I would like to be able to fly.
KW: The Ling-Ju Yen question: What is your earliest childhood memory?
SV: Making all my cousins, even the boys, get dressed-up in these ridiculous outfits every Sunday, and then have them sing and dance for the family.
KW: The Anthony Mackie question: Isthere something that you promised to do if you became famous, that you still haven’t done yet?
SV: Yeah, I haven’t bought a house in Hawaii yet, and that’s been my dream for a dozen years now. I want my first house to be in Hawaii.
KW: You should’ve done a little house hunting when you made Blue Crush 2.
SV: I wasn’t there then. The original was made in Hawaii, but the sequel was shot in South Africa.
KW: The Kerry Washington question: If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
SV: A mole. I already am a mole in every sense of the word. Nothing gets past a mole. They’re like spies and detectives. So, the question’s not if I were an animal, since I’m already a mole.
KW: The Anthony Anderson question: If you could have a superpower, which one would you choose?
SV: I already said I’d like to fly. Do I have to pick another? Invisibility would be a good one.
KW: The Gabby Douglas question: If you had to choose another profession, what would that be?
SV: Something working with animals, like animal rescue. I’m very passionate about animals and the ocean. Maybe marine biology.
KW: Editor/Legist Patricia Turnier asks: Do you believe that with great power comes great responsibility?
SV: Yes, I believe it’s very important to be a positive role model. And yet, no, to a degree because you also can’t merely live your life purely from the aspect of “How will this affect others?” It’s like a balance. You have to take the public image into account, but not let it rule your life.
KW: Attorney Bernadette Beekman asks: What is your favorite charity?
SV: I’m very involved with the Guide Dog Association in Australia. I have a chocolate Labrador, and we do the walk every year to raise money for that. I also work with the World Wildlife Foundation.
KW: What advice do you have for anyone who wants to follow in your footsteps?
SV: Never give up! Most of life’s biggest failures are people who didn’t realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. If you believe that you were meant to do something, then you were. So, persist with it, have some patience, and stay true to your own beliefs. Don’t let others make decisions for you.
KW: Thanks again for the time, Sharni, and best of luck with You’re Next.
SV: I’m so glad you liked it, Kam. I really appreciate that.
To see a trailer for You're Next, visit: http://lionsgatepublicity.com/theatrical/yourenext/
Prisoners
Film Review by Kam Williams
Parents and Police Search for Kidnapped Kids in Mesmerizing, Multi-Layered Mystery
Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) is a rugged outdoorsman and family man with deep roots in rural Pennsylvania. He and his wife, Grace (Maria Bello), are raising their kids, 6 year-old Anna (Erin Gerasimovich) and teenage Ralph (Dylan Minnette) in the tiny town of Dover, an idyllic oasis seemingly far removed from big city afflictions.
It is Thanksgiving morning, and the doting dad has decided his son is ready to shoot his first deer, a rite-of-passage he’d shared with his own father upon coming-of-age a generation earlier. And after a telling tableau dripping with Christian symbolism reflected in a recitation of the Lord’s Prayer and a cross dangling from their pickup truck’s rearview mirror, we find the two deep in the woods where the boy does, indeed, bag his first buck.
“Be ready,” Keller ominously advises Ralph on the return trip, not because he has a premonition about any impending disaster, but due to the vague sense of paranoia he has cultivated over the years as an amateur survivalist. Still, a basement stocked with years’ worth of provisions would prove to be of no use in the calamity about to unfold later that day.
First, the Dovers travel to the home of Nancy (Viola Davis) and Franklin Birch (Terrence Howard), neighbors with a couple of kids around the same age as theirs. However, after sharing a satisfying Thanksgiving dinner, youngsters Anna and Joy (Kyla Drew Simmons) vanish without a trace while playing outside unsupervised.
The only lead is a suspicious RV parked down the street which the police trace to Alex Jones (Paul Dano), the mentally-challenged village idiot (Paul Dano) ostensibly incapable of pulling off such an abduction. With no other clues to follow, the investigating officer (Jake Gyllenhaal) puts the case on a back burner, much to the chagrin of the missing girls’ anguished parents.
Given that time is of the essence, it is no surprise when a very desperate Keller takes the law into his own hands, with his manic behavior cutting a sharp contrast to the relatively-measured approach of deliberately-paced Detective Loki. Will the frustrated father or the laid-back cop crack the case first? Or will they join forces and pool their resources? Will Anna and Joy be rescued alive, or found too late to save them? Or will the whodunit simply go unsolved.
That is the mystery at the heart of Prisoners, a mesmerizing, multi-layered masterpiece brilliantly directed by Dennis Villeneuve. Screenwriter Aaron Guzikowski deserves equal credit for the film’s intricately-plotted script which oh so slowly ratchets-up the tension in a compelling fashion guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat every step of the way.
A compelling character study of the emotional toll exacted by a kidnapping on the psyche of the victims’ loved ones.
Excellent (4 stars)
Rated R for pervasive profanity and disturbing violence
Running time: 153 minutes
Distributor: Warner Brothers
To see a trailer for Prisoners, visit:
Crazy Rich:
Power, Scandal, and Tragedy inside the Johnson & Johnson Dynasty
by Jerry Oppenheimer
Book Review by Kam Williams
St. Martin’s Press
Hardcover, $27.99
504 pages, Illustrated
ISBN: 978-0-312-66211-0
“Heirs to a Band-Aid and Baby Powder fortune, the Johnsons have enjoyed unimaginable wealth since Johnson & Johnson was founded in 1886—but their personal lives have been marred by bitter feuds, violent and costly divorces, sexual aberration, and myriad tragedies…
Their entrepreneurial prowess has brought them enormous power and success in business, but their private lives have been haunted by misfortunes through the generations… This scrupulously researched biography… places the Johnson & Johnson family under a journalistic microscope… [and] reveals the secrets behind their immense power, their extraordinary wealth, and their provocative dramas…
Based on exclusive on-the-record interviews with family, friends, business associates, lovers, and detractors, Crazy Rich serves up the first definitive and objective look at a platinum dynasty that was once termed ‘perhaps the most dysfunctional family in the Fortune 500.’”
-- Excerpted from the book jacket
If you’re curious about how the other half lives, have I got a book for you! While Robin Leach would have us believe that it’s all “champagne wishes and caviar dreams” for the well-to-do, the truth might be far afield from the fluff pieces the terminally-exuberant host of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous routinely served up on his syndicated TV show.
By contrast, Jerry Oppenheimer is a journalist just as obsessed with celebrity, but he’s staked his career on exposing the ugly underbelly of fame and fortune. He’s written unauthorized biographies of such public figures as the Clintons, Martha Stewart, the Hiltons, Barbara Walters, Jerry Seinfeld and Ethel Kennedy, to name a few.
The super sleuth’s latest expose’ is a warts-and-all biography of the Johnsons, heirs to the mammoth Johnson & Johnson Band-Aid fortune. While the multigenerational opus opens with a chapter on the heir who is currently most-visible, New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, the 500-page tome is fairly encyclopedic in nature, as it covers the history of the enduring dynasty from its inception right up to the present.
Listen, any family tree that stretches back to the mid-19th Century is bound to have its share of tragedy. After all, if immortality were something that money could buy, the rich would live, and only the poor would die.
Nevertheless, the Johnsons do seem to have been burdened with a Job’s worth of adversity, to make a Biblical allusion. For instance, you may remember the drug-related death of Woody’s 30 year-old daughter Casey, which was widely-reported in the tabloids in January of 2010. At the time, the openly-bisexual celebutante was engaged to Tia Tequila, the flamboyant star of her own reality television series.
You might find it interesting to learn that Casey’s parents divorced, and that while Woody acquired a pro football team, his ex, Sale, married a former football star, Ahmad Rashad. And Ahmad isn’t the only African-American mentioned in the book, somehow this critic ended up featured on a few pages. But you’ll have to shell out the bucks to buy it to find out exactly why.
Overall, Crazy Rich is a riveting page-turner you won’t want to put down, provided salacious stories about the bizarre behavior of the Jet Set are your cup of tea.
To order a copy of Crazy Rich, visit:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312662114/ref%3dnosim/thslfofire-20 Johnson
Watch film clip ( Spanish language subtitled version)
"When The Iron Bird Flies" Spanish language subtitled version is now available for digital download in High Definition 1080p.
“Ver este documental es una tremenda oportunidad para conocer la profunda compasión y valentía de los budistas tibetanos al enfrentar la realidad de la invasión de su país, y darnos cuenta de como han transformado ese dolor en beneficio para toda la humanidad… De un modo intimo, comprensible y emocionante la documentalista profundiza en ejemplos biográficos de lo que ha provocado el encuentro con el Budismo Tibetano.”
– Francesca Nilo Gatica, Directora del diplomado Mindfulness, Universidad Del Desarrollo, Santiago de Chile