The Almost Man
(Mir Eller Mindre Mann)
Film Review by Kam Williams

Henrik Sandvik (Henrik Rafaelsen) is a slacker who’s never had to grow up. The 35 year-old underachiever is still doted on by a helicopter mom (Anne Ma Usterud) willing to wait on him hand-and-foot.

His equally-immature BFFs are the same guys he’s hung around since high school. Their boorish behavior ranges from snapping towels on each other in locker room showers, to getting wasted at parties where they proceed to pee off the balcony, flick their boogers, and engage in fistfights and homoerotic horseplay.

None of the above sits well with Henrik’s girlfriend, Tone (Janne Heltberg Haarseth), given how she recently learned that she’s expecting a baby. Her hope is that her beau will finally grow up, now that he’s on the brink of becoming a father. But that might prove easier said than done, considering that his favorite book is Peter Pan.

The impending arrival of the couple’s bundle of joy lurks over the horizon in The Almost Man, a sublime social satire written and directed by Martin Lund. Unfolding against the backdrop of a variety of visually-captivating Norwegian settings, the film focuses mostly on Tone’s escalating frustrations with Henrik, even after he grudgingly takes a confining corporate job.

It’s not enough that he’s bringing home the bacon, when he blames a temptress he’s caught kissing for having seduced him. He even has the temerity to suggest that Tone have an abortion. But that ain’t happening.

And with only a few months to make over a philanderer who freely admits that “I’m not sure how to behave,” the mad mommy-to-be has her work cut out for her. Will Tone run out of patience before reluctant Henrik is ready to accept his responsibilities?

A droll dramedy examining the male metamorphosis from bachelor to family man.

Very Good (3 stars)

Unrated

In Norwegian with subtitles

Running time: 77 minutes

Distributor: Big World Pictures

Zach Braff

The “Wish I Was Here” Interview

with Kam Williams

 

Zach to the Future!

Zach Braff was born in South Orange, New Jersey on April 6, 1975. He attended Columbia High School in Maplewood where he was friends with hip-hop diva-to-be Lauryn Hill.

Zach studied film at Northwestern University where he earned a B.A. before heading to Hollywood. As an actor, he’s best known as Dr. John “J.D.” Dorian on Scrubs, the Emmy-winning sitcom which enjoyed a nine-year run on network TV from 2001 to 2010. As a director, he made an impressive debut in 2004 with Garden State, a semi-autobiographical offering which he also wrote and starred in.

For Zach, Wish I Was Here is the culmination of personal filmmaking at its best. As the movie’s co-writer, director, star and producer, he was involved in nearly every aspect of the picture’s creative development. A decade ago, in Garden State, he perfectly portrayed the plight of a young man trying to find his place in a crazy world.

This go-round, he and his co-writer brother, Adam, examine what it means to have a family today. Zach plays Aidan Bloom, a struggling actor with a wife (Kate Hudson) stuck in a soul-crushing job. The couple have two kids (Joey King and Pierce Gagnon) who are being forced out of private school due to financial constraints, since Aidan’s dad (Mandy Patinkin)is facing life-threatening health issues. 

Despite such harsh realities, the picture nevertheless poetically weaves a wonderful tapestry of an enchanting world worth living in. This is in no small part thanks to the power of the imagination which has fueled Zach’s own evolution from a wide-eyed kid from New Jersey into a gifted filmmaker capable of connecting with his audience emotionally.

 

Kam Williams: Hi Zach, thanks for the interview. I’m honored to have this opportunity.

Zach Braff: Oh, thanks Kam. It’s nice to talk to you.

 

KW: I loved the film. Garden State made my Top Ten List for 2004, and Wish I Was Here is definitely one of my Top Ten favorite films of 2014 so far.

ZB: Thanks, man. You just put a smile on my face.

 

KW: Everybody in the small group I saw it with cried at the end and all the way through the closing credits.

ZB: That’s a good sign.

 

KW: I told my readers I’d be interviewing you and they sent in more questions than we could ever get to. Let me start with one who just said: He’s incredibly adorable and incredibly talented. Have fun!

ZB: [LOL] I don’t think that’s a question.

 

KW: Director Kevin Williams asks: Why a decade between movies?

ZB: It was just so hard. I tried my best, but I didn’t want to put out a picture that I wouldn’t want to put my name on. I didn’t want to let my fans down, and all the scripts that were coming my way were really commercial and felt like something we’d already seen a thousand times. A couple times I had movies put together, only to have the project fall apart because we lost a star or I lost the money. There are so many pieces that have to line up. And I was also still doing Scrubs, so I just couldn’t work it out with a piece of writing that I was willing to put my name on until I was able to collaborate on this original script with my brother.     

 

KW: Sangeetha Subramanian says: I watched Garden State almost every night for a year when I was in college. Often we see the final product but aren't aware of the creative process that goes into a script or filming. What does your scriptwriting process look like?

ZB: Well, it was different for Garden State, because I wrote that on my own. This one, I wrote with my brother, so we got together for about a month to hammer out the characters and the outline of the story. The main character’s sort of a combination of us. My brother’s about a decade older than I am. We wanted to write about a guy in his mid-thirties, so we were able to attack it from the angle of two men born ten years apart. He’d work on one scene while I’d work on another. Then we’d switch scenes and sort of give each other notes, and debate what was right and where it should go. And little by little, through all these conversations, the whole script took shape.   

 

KW: To what extent is this film autobiographical, given that it was written by you and your brother, and it’s in part about their relationship?

ZB: A lot of it is… the search for spirituality… the struggle to question how long you’re allowed to pursue a dream, especially when you have mouths to feed and a mortgage to pay. All of those things that my brother and I are asking. It’s also about relationships between fathers and sons and mothers and daughters.  We all have those battles with our parents where we want to be our own person but they’re still saying something else. A lot of it is autobiographical, although our father couldn’t be more supportive of our pursuing the arts, whereas the father in the movie is pretty against it. 

 

KW: Peter Brav says that while watching the film, he thinks he spotted a flaw, namely, a brochure at a Jewish funeral home offering the option of an open casket.

ZB: If that’s the case, it would be a prop master mistake, and I apologize for that. 

There is no option for an open casket at a Jewish funeral. For Peter to have detected that he must be able to speed read and have zeroed in on the pamphlet. The casket is always closed in Judaism, although the family is allowed to view the deceased before the ceremony, if they so choose.

 

KW: Harriet Pakula-Teweles was wondering what auteur message this film and Garden State seek to deliver?

ZB: I believe, personally, that this experience we have on Earth is finite, and that there is nothing else. I know not everyone agrees with me, but that is my personal belief. So, I think that the message is both about trying to celebrate the present, trying to get out of our heads, and about being present with the people we love. For me, that’s the great quest of life, the struggle to be in the moment. That’s why the film is called Wish I Was Here, meaning I wish I was here in the moment.

 

KW: Why the grammatically incorrect title?

ZB: I have a two-fold answer. First, it’s a play off the classic postcard salutation, “Wish You Were Here,” but switched around to reflect the perspective of the individual sending it. Second, the premise of the film revolves around a father who’s homeschooling his kids but doesn’t know how to teach them grammar. We see his daughter [Joey King] correct her mom [Kate Hudson] on the proper use of “who” and “whom,” and that’s something that he would get wrong as well.

 

KW: Hadas Zeilberger asks: How would you compare the experiences of shooting Wish I Was Here and Garden State? How many members of the cast and crew worked on both films?

ZB: I tried to reunite all the top creative heads from Garden State, and I got some of them. Others weren’t available. Both my cinematographer [Lawrence Sher] and my editor [Myron Kerstein], who do amazing work and are really good friends, are back for the film, and that was really crucial to me. And my producers were the same. As far as the cast, Jim Parsons is back and Michael Weston, who played the cop in Garden State, is back. And I tried to find as many cameos as possible for people I like to work with. In terms of the shooting, this one was unique because of the crowdfunding aspect of it. We had our incredible backers visiting us on set, serving as extras, and generally hanging around. That was fun because it gave us a chance to show them how movies are made. Ordinarily, you and the crew just get so caught up in doing it that you don’t ever pause to explain the process to people it’s foreign to. But here, you’d look over and see an electrician showing a backer why we are hanging a light a certain way. Or you’d look over and see Kate [Hudson] saying to someone else, “Oh, yeah, this is where my little hidden microphone goes.” The process was very educational for a lot of people.

 

KW: Kate Newell and Larry Greenberg had a similar question. They ask: Would you use Kickstarter again for your next film project?

ZB: No, this was always meant as an experiment, not as the permanent way in which I plan to finance my films. It was sort of like, “Hey, wouldn’t this be a crazy idea if this worked?” The dilemma in holding onto your artistic integrity is removing any corporate or other sort of involvement that might influence the art. The question for us was: What would it be like if we took that out of the equation? That was my vision, and it worked. So, it proved to be a wonderful experience, although it was always conceived as a one-off experiment.

 

KW: Hadas also asks: Are you friends with Donald Faison in real life?

ZB: Yeah, he’s my best friend. He truly is my best friend, and we do everything together. He’s so supportive of me that he’s been promoting the movie and making the rounds even though he only has a smart part in it.

 

KW: Lastly, Hadas would like to know how you got your hair like that?

ZB: [Laughs] My hair? People always like to talk about my hair. It’s just bed head. I often take showers at night. So, when I wake up, my hair’s crazy.

 

KW: Environmental activist Grace Sinden says:You've had an extraordinarily diverse and interesting career.  If you had to choose one or two of your favorite types of work could you do that, or is it the variety of your professional activities that gives you most satisfaction?

ZB: That’s a great question, Grace. I always think it’s good to shake things up. You know, I’m doing a big Broadway musical [Bullets over Broadway] right now at the same time that I’m releasing this indie movie. They couldn’t be more different from each other. But that’s what makes being a creator of entertainment so much fun. Shaking it up! I would be incredibly bored if I just did the same thing over and over. I like trying new things and really being brave. Doing the crowdfunding was a brave experiment, and singing on Broadway is another brave experiment. I like to attempt things that I’m fearful of.

 

KW: Grace also asks: Where do you see your career being ten years from now?

ZB: Well, I hope it won’t be ten years before I make another movie. My hope is to be making a lot more movies in the next decade. It’s certainly what brings me the most joy.

 

KW: Editor/Legist Patricia Turnier aks: What was the most challenging scene to shoot in Wish I Was Here?
ZB: Probably those fantasy sequences, because they were very elaborate and we didn’t have much time. We shot the whole movie in 26 days. The fantasy sequences involved a lot of special f/x and a costume built by a great company called Legacy Effects, and all sorts of camera toys. Those were the most challenging, especially since I had to direct from inside the suit, which was really hard. But I did have a body double for when my face wasn’t onscreen,

 

KW: Is there any question no one ever asks you, that you wish someone would?

ZB: Wow! That’s a great question… [Pauses to reflect] But I’ve been asked so many questions that I can’t think of one.

 

KW: The bookworm Troy Johnson question: What was the last book you read?

ZB: Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/031622135X/ref=nosim/thslfofire-20

 

KW: What is your favorite dish to cook?

ZB: I can’t cook, so I’ll say ice.

 

KW: When you look in the mirror, what do you see?

ZB: Someone who’s extraordinarily tired because he’s doing eight shows a week on Broadway while he’s releasing a film.

 

KW: The Ling-Ju Yen question: What is your earliest childhood memory?

ZB: I don’t even know. But I can remember my earliest movie memory. My father used to somehow get a hold of 35mm prints and project them on our living room wall way before I could understand them. My earliest movie memory is of my parents having a dinner party and showing Annie Hall which, to this day, is one of my favorite films. 

 

KW: Thanks again for the time, Zach, and best of luck both on Broadway and with Wish I Was Here.

ZB: Thanks for all your support, Kam. That really means a lot to me.

To see a trailer for Wish I Was Here, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCponfeWNOI

The Purge: Anarchy
Film Review by Kam Williams

Dateline: America, 2023. It’s now nine years since the country voted the New Founders of America into power. High on that elitist political party’s agenda was designating March 21st as the Purge, a day on which all law is suspended, meaning anything goes, rape, robbery, even murder.

Most citizens opt to stay inside for the duration of the annual ordeal, battening down the hatches with a Bible or a weapon in hand, since they can’t call upon the cops to come to their assistance in the event of an emergency. Yet, many turn vigilante to rid the streets of the dregs of humanity, others seize on the opportunity to even the score with someone they have a grievance against.

A couple of hours before the “fun” starts, we find Eva (Carmen Ejogo) rushing home from her job at a diner to be with her teen daughter, Cali (Zoe Soul). In the process, the attractive waitress ignores the crude passes of both a co-worker (Nicholas Gonzalez) and her apartment building’s custodian (Noel Gugliemi).

Elsewhere, Liz (Kiele Sanchez) and Shane (Zach Gilford) are driving to his sister’s while debating about whether to inform her that their marriage is on the rocks. But the two soon land in desperate straits when their car conks out on the highway only minutes before the siren sounds signaling the beginning of the Purge.

That moment can’t come soon enough for revenge-minded Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo) who’s itching to get even with the drunk driver (Brandon Keener) that not only killed his son, but got off scot-free on a legal technicality. However, soon after the Purge starts, the police sergeant reflexively comes to the assistance of Eva, Cali, Liz and Shane, all of whom are on the run from a bloodthirsty death squad.

So, he puts his plan on the backburner temporarily to protect the frightened foursome. That endeavor proves easier said than done in The Purge: Anarchy, a stereotypical horror sequel in that it ups the ante in terms of violence, body count, pyrotechnics and gratuitous gore.

Unfortunately, the film pales in comparison to the original, which was a thought-provoking thriller raising questions about poverty and privilege. This relatively-simplistic installment pays lip service to that intriguing theme in almost insulting fashion, envisioning instead a nihilistic U.S. which has merely degenerated into a decadent dystopia where blood-thirsty rich snobs relish slaying the poor purely for sport.

It is, thus, no surprise to witness the rise of an African-American guerilla leader (Michael K. Williams) who’s exhorting the masses to revolt by indicting the Purge as racist. An entertaining enough, if incoherent, splatterfest which unapologetically lifts familiar elements from such apocalyptic classics as The Hunger Games (2012), V for Vendetta (2006), The Warriors (1979), Escape from New York (1981) and Hard Target (1993).

A perhaps prophetic satire celebrating senseless slaughter as a natural national holiday in such a gun-loving country!

Good (2 stars)

Rated R for profanity and graphic violence

Running time: 103 minutes

Distributor: Universal Pictures

To see a trailer for The Purge: Anarchy, visit

Rosie Perez

The “Handbook for an Unpredictable Life” Interview

with Kam Williams

 

Everything’s Coming Up Rosie!

Rosie Maria Perez was born on September 6, 1964 in Bushwick, Brooklyn where she was raised in a Catholic orphanage after being abandoned by her mom and taken from her aunt. She made a most memorable screen debut as Spike Lee’s girlfriend, Tina, in Do the Right Thing, and later landed an Oscar-nomination for a nonpareil performance in Fearless. Her many other credits include White Men Can't Jump, Won’t Back Down and The Counselor.

 

Rosie serves as the Artistic Chair of Urban Arts Partnership and sits on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. Here, she talks about her career and her autobiography, “Handbook for an Unpredictable Life.”  

 

 

Kam Williams: Hi Rosie. I’m honored to have this chance to speak with you.

Rosie Perez: Absolutely, Kam.

 

KW: I really enjoyed the book!

RP: Oh, you’re one of the few journalists who actually read it before speaking to me. That’s wonderful!

 

KW: What inspired you to write your autobiography?

RP: I didn’t really know at first. I kept asking myself, “Why am I doing this?” because I’m such a private person. Then, one day, the head of programming at my charity, the Urban Arts Partnership, said she was excited that I was writing it, and she hoped I’d be giving copies to the students. My first reaction was “No,” since the subject-matter was really heavy, and because of some of the language I was using. But she then reminded me that I’d already shared my stories with them, and I almost burst into tears. I realized, “Oh my God! That’s why I’m writing it.” Those students had been the first people, outside of my inner circle, to hear my story. It happened when I participated in one of our programs called Life Stories, where we encourage the kids to open up and share so they can understand their lives. One day, I was challenged to share my story with them. That‘s where finding the inspiration and strength to write this book began.   

 

KW: I found it very moving, especially since I had no idea about any of it. I just thought of you as that bubbly, talented, attractive actress I’d seen in movies and on talk shows.

RP: And I am that person, but I’m also this one. And the reason I decided to share with the students was because I saw them come into the Academy so burdened by life every day. When you are a low-income, poverty-stricken, Title 1 kid, you have so much to endure just waking up. So, you may have a bad attitude or a chip on your shoulder before you even get to school. You may arrive so anxious, angry, hungry or apathetic that you may say to yourself, “Why should I pay attention in class?” You might be beaten-up on the way to school, because you live in a bad neighborhood. Still, I had to inform them, especially the seniors, that they didn’t have the luxury of bringing all that baggage into the world which they would be stepping into as adults. I’d say, “You need to come to terms with it, or let it go. One or the other. And if you can do both, then you’re golden.” If you are unable to get past that baggage, the opportunities that should be yours will not be yours.

 

KW: Well, I applaud you for overcoming so many obstacles. After all, the odds of making it in Hollywood are long enough for someone coming from a privileged background.   

RP: I hear you, since the odds were supposedly great. But you know what? I knew I was going to be successful from day one. From day one. That’s why it throws me whenever someone says it was such a fluke that I was successful.

 

KW: The Judyth Piazza question: What key quality do you believe all successful people share? 

RP: I would say tenacity and perseverance. You have to be like a dog with a bone. You can’t just let it go. And number one is belief. You have to believe in yourself. You need to have the audacity to be great.

KW: The Harriet Pakula-Teweles question: With so many classic films being redone, is there a remake you'd like to star in?

RP: Wow! No one’s ever asked me that question. I wouldn’t try it, but the only one that popped into my head is A Woman Under the Influence, the John Cassavetes film starring his wife Gena Rowlands. Her depiction of mental illness frightened me. Her performance shocked me, because it was so simple.

 

KW: Is there any question no one ever asks you, that you wish someone would?

RP: No, I can’t think of anything, although that question is probably out there.

 

KW: When you look in the mirror, what do you see?

RP: Me! I see me, and the reality of me gets clearer as I get older, and I’m loving it.

 

KW: The Ling-Ju Yen question: What is your earliest childhood memory?

RP: The crib, the peach bedspread, and the French doors at my aunt’s house when I was 2.

 

KW: What is your favorite dish to cook?

RP: Pollo guisado, it’s a Puerto Rican-style chicken stew.

 

KW: The Uduak Oduok question: Who is your favorite clothes designer?

RP: Oh, I don’t have a favorite.

 

KW: The Mike Pittman question: What was your best career decision?

RP: To go to college.  

 

KW: The bookworm Troy Johnson question: What was the last book you read?

RP: “White Girls” by Hilton Als. Blown away! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1936365812/ref=nosim/thslfofire-20  

 

KW: The music maven Heather Covington question: What was the last song you listened to? 

RP: To be honest, “Drunk in Love” by Beyonce’. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00HFWYA3E/ref=nosim/thslfofire-20

 

KW: If you could have one wish instantly granted, what would that be for?

RP: That my husband [Erik Haze] and I will be in premium health until we take our last breaths, so that we could enjoy every single second of our lives together.

 

KW: The Jamie Foxx question: If you only had 24 hours to live, how would you spend the time? 

RP: With my husband and my family. It wouldn’t matter what we were doing. We’d probably be telling each other how much we appreciate each other while watching boxing and eating a good meal. Of course, it would turn into a party. 

 

KW: The Kerry Washington question: If you were an animal, what animal would you be?

RP: A horse.

 

KW: The Anthony Anderson question: If you could have a superpower, which one would you choose?

RP: I have no idea.

 

KW: The Anthony Mackie question: Isthere anything that you promised yourself you’d do if you became famous, that you still haven’t done yet?

RP: Yes, to go back to school and get a degree.

 

KW: What was it like to skyrocket to fame?

RP: It was both difficult and wonderful. It was quite difficult for me because, being raised in a home, I’d come to hate being pointed at whenever we went out in public in a group. It’s still uncomfortable for me to be stared at, although I’ve learned to deal with it better. It makes me self-conscious. 

 

KW: The Viola Davis question: What’s the biggest difference between who you are at home as opposed to the person we see on the red carpet?

RP: I’m more guarded and shy on the carpet. At home, I’m the silliest cornball who talks way too much and wants to be quiet and left alone at the same time. And I love to entertain, but in a small, intimate way. But I feel like I can be myself on Craig Ferguson’s show. I have so much fun on his couch, because he’s an idiot. That man cracks me up. I think there’s a kinship in our silliness. I dance like he does in my living room all the time.  

 

KW: The Melissa Harris-Perry question:How did your first big heartbreak impact who you are as a person?

RP: You might think it was being abandoned by mother. But no, it was being taken away from my aunt at the age of 3, because I was self-aware by then and I knew what was going on. That was my biggest heartbreak, and it informed a lot. I didn’t want it to be my whole story as an adult. So, I’ve learned to heal that heartbreak and move on.

 

KW: The Columbus Short question: Are you happy?

RP: Yeah.

 

KW: The Teri Emerson question: When was the last time you had a good laugh?

RP: About an hour ago during a meeting at my charity. I laugh a lot. It’s disgusting how much I laugh during the day.

 

KW: What advice do you have for anyone who wants to follow in your footsteps?

RP: [LOL] I don’t know that I would encourage anyone to follow in my footsteps.

 

KW: The Tavis Smiley question: How do you want to be remembered?

RP: As someone that gave back, because the people I remember the most in my life are the ones that gave. 

 

KW: Thanks again for being so forthcoming and so generous with your time, Rosie, and best of luck with both the book and your career.

RP: Thank you, Kam. I really, really appreciate it.

 

To order a copy of Handbook for an Unpredictable Life, visit:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0307952398/ref%3dnosim/thslfofire-20

Wish I Was Here
Film Review by Kam Williams

As an actor, Zach Braff is most closely associated with the character J.D. from Scrubs, the Emmy-winning sitcom which enjoyed a nine-year run on network television from 2001 to 2010. As a director, he’s best known for Garden State, the quirky, semi-autobiographical feature film where he played a struggling actor who returns to his hometown in Jersey for his mother’s funeral.

Wish I Was Here is more akin to the latter, being another delightful, dysfunctional family dramedy which Zach directed and stars in. He also co-wrote it with his brother, Adam, and the offbeat adventure milks much of its mirth from Jewish culture in a manner often evocative of Joel and Ethan Coen’s A Serious Man (2009).

The point of departure is suburban L.A. which is where we find 35 year-old Aidan Bloom (Braff) in the midst of a midlife crisis. The fledgling actor is on anti-depressants and in deep denial about his dwindling career prospects, despite the fact that he last worked ages ago in a dandruff commercial.

What makes the situation problematical is that he futilely fritters away his time auditioning, oblivious to his breadwinner wife’s (Kate Hudson) resentment. She hates being stuck like a rat on a treadmill in a stultifying government job where she’s being sexually harassed on a daily basis by the pervy creep (Michael Weston) who shares her cubicle.

But she can’t quit her job because their kids, Grace (Joey King) and Tucker (Pierce Gagnon), won’t have food on the table or a roof over their heads. As it is, they’ve already sacrificed some luxuries, like the built-in pool that sits empty in the backyard.

Something’s gotta give when grandpa Gabe (Mandy Patinkin) suddenly announces that his cancer has returned, so he can no longer afford to subsidize his grandchildren’s expensive private education. Not wanting to subject them to the substandard, local public schools, Aidan grudgingly agrees to abandon his pipe dream of Hollywood stardom in order to homeschool them.

However, this affords him an unexpected opportunity to not only share some much-needed quality time with them, but to orchestrate an overdue reconciliation between his long-estranged brother (Josh Gad) and their rapidly-declining dad, as well. Soon, adolescent Grace develops the confidence to blossom from a repressed wallflower into a show off sporting a metallic purple wig, and 6 year-old Tucker finds fulfillment toasting marshmallows in the desert with his more attentive father.

By film’s end, expect to be moved to tears by this poignant picture’s bittersweet resolution and sobering, universal message about the importance of family. And don’t be surprised if the weeping persists way past the closing credits.

Excellent (4 stars)

Rated R for

Running time: 120 minutes

Distributor: Focus Features

To see a trailer for Wish I Was Here, visit