Hannah Arendt
Film Review by Kam Williams

I’m not sure whether there’s a term for the Jewish equivalent of an Uncle Tom but, if there is, it would probably be applicable to Hannah Arendt (Barbara Sukowa). Born in Germany in 1906, Hannah studied philosophy at the University of Marburg, where she became both the protégé and the mistress of Professor Martin Heiddegger (Klaus Pohl), “the greatest love of her life,” a Nazi who went to his grave without ever apologizing for his support of Hitler.

In response to the rise of anti-Semitism across Deutschland, Arendt fled first to France in search of sanctuary, and later escaped to the United States with her mother and husband, Heinrich (Axel Milberg), on illegal visas secured from an American diplomat. She became a citizen in 1950 and subsequently made history as the first female lecturer at Princeton University.

However, as Shakespeare suggested in Julius Caesar, “The evil that men do lives after them: The good is oft interred in their bones.” Such is apparently the case with women, too, as Hannah appears fated to be forever remembered for a series of articles she wrote for the New Yorker magazine while covering the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem.

Like one of those weirdoes who falls for an inmate, she inexplicably sided with Eichmann, the architect of the Holocaust, buying hook, line and sinker his “I only followed orders” defense. Her coverage created a huge uproar as soon as it started hitting the news stands.

This is understandable because instead of calling Eichmann a monster, she merely referred to him as “a clown, a foolish little servant of Hitler who didn’t have a mind of his own.” The blowback from this “banality of evil” theory was deservedly severe since Hannah simultaneously had the temerity to indict Jewish leaders for supposedly cooperating with the Nazis.

A fascinating character study of an arrogant, cold-hearted, self-hating Jew who had the nerve to blame 6,000,000 of her own people for their extermination in concentration camps.

Excellent (4 stars)

Unrated

In English, French, Hebrew, Latin and German with subtitles

Running time: 113 minutes

Distributor: Zeitgeist Films

Man Up!
Tales of My Delusional Self-Confidence
by Ross Mathews
Foreword by Gwyneth Paltrow
Afterword by Chelsea Handler
Grand Central Publishing
Hardcover, $25.00
238 pages
ISBN: 978-1-455-50180-9

Book Review by Kam Williams

“This is how I define ‘man up’: you are what you are and the sooner

you stop hating what makes you unique, and start celebrating it and

using it to make you stand out from the crowd, the better your life will

be. For some reason, I was lucky enough to figure that out at an early

age…

This book, like my life, will be a bit of a roller coaster—you’ll

experience ups and downs, fits of laughter—and who knows, you

might even throw up! So keep your arms and legs inside the ride

at all times and, for goodness sake, stay seated until we come to

a complete stop.”

-- Excerpted from Prologue and Epilogue (pages xvi and 204)

In 2001, Ross Mathews was working as an unpaid intern for The Tonight Show when he was plucked from obscurity by Jay Leno and brought onstage as a last-minute fill-in for a no-show guest. The flamboyant ham made the most of the opportunity, instantly ingratiating himself with folks all across the country as bubbly, over-the-top “Ross the Intern.”

A natural in front of the camera, he’s been entertaining audiences ever since, whether on special assignment for The Tonight Show, guest-hosting for Chelsea Handler on Chelsea Lately, or interviewing celebrities on the red carpet for the E! Entertainment Network. And Ross recently landed his own talk show, Hello Ross, which is set to debut in the fall.

Now, he’s has published Man Up! Tales of My Delusional Self-Confidence, a laugh riot about his meteoric rise to fame. Inter alia, he recounts how he got the shock of his life when Gwyneth Paltrow said “Yes” when he asked her to be his best friend. They’ve remained close ever since.

Besides gushing about the celebrities he’s met, star struck Ross is fond of delivering heartfelt pep talks to youngsters who might be social outcasts. For he recalls having been the butt of teasing and homophobic slurs growing up in a tiny, rural town as a chubby, effeminate kid with a voice that squeaked.

But he relocated to the more tolerant environs of L.A. where he not only found the strength to come out of the closet but combined his Rubenesque figure and nasal whine into the recognizable trademark that’s endeared him to millions. The pages of this delightful tome are filled with plenty of personal anecdotes fleshing out Ross that will really leave fans feeling like they know him.

The revealing autobiography covers its subject’s love life in fairly intimate fashion, from his first girlfriend, Becky, a fifth grade classmate who “didn’t seem to mind my physical deformities,” to his longtime companion, Salvador, with whom he’s been in a committed relationship for the last five years.

An inspirational opus about a “boy least likely” who has achieved the American Dream without a makeover or having to compromise his integrity one iota.

To order a copy of Man Up!, visit

Evocateur: The Morton Downey, Jr. Movie

Film Review by Kam Williams

Warts and All Biopic Revisits Rise and Flameout of Controversial Flash in the Pan

            Morton Downey, Sr. was a wealthy, well-connected film and recording star who settled down with his family on Cape Cod in a lavish mansion located right next-door to the Kennedys. Although son Morton, Jr. was raised a liberal in the lap of luxury and tried for years to make it as a rock musician, in 1987 he made himself over as an arch-conservative populist presuming to be the voice of angry white males.

            Over the next two years, he would enjoy a meteoric rise as the host of an eponymous, nationally-syndicated, TV talk show. However, because the chain-smoking conservative-come-lately was an obnoxious loudmouth who cared more about ratings than an honest discussion of political issues, his hate-spewing, in your face interviewing style would grow tiresome just as fast as it brought him to the top of the Hollywood food chain.

            The stunt that proved to be Mort’s downfall transpired in a San Francisco airport bathroom where he cut his hair and his shirt with scissors and drew a swastika on his face in a bathroom before claiming to have been attacked by a gang of neo-Nazi skinheads. What’s ironic about the incident is the fact that a frequent guest on his show was Reverend Al Sharpton, a staunch defender of Tawana Brawley, who was similarly disgraced after being exposed as a fraud for falsely fingering a white district attorney for rape.

            Directed by Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller and Jeremy Newberger, Evocateur is a mix of archival footage and reflections by family, friends, fans and folks who made appearances on the program like Pat Buchanan and Gloria Allred. The old videos of Mort, who succumbed to lung cancer in 2001, remain every bit as compelling today as they were in his heyday.

            A riveting biopic about a rich kid-turned-rabid bully and pathological liar desperate enough for the limelight to sell his soul to the devil.

Excellent (4 stars)

Rated R for profanity and nudity

Running time: 90 minutes

Distributor: Magnolia Pictures  

To see a trailer for Evocateur, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw0cbBQrnDk     

Rochelle Aytes
The “Mistresses” Interview
with Kam Williams

Born in New York on May 17, 1976, Rochelle Aytes is quickly establishing herself as one of Hollywood’s brightest starlets with an impressive film and television career on the rise. Rochelle is now starring on Mistresses, ABC’s new, nighttime soap opera premiering Monday, June 3rd at 10 p.m. ET/PT (Check local listings).

Based on the British TV series of the same name, the show co-stars Alyssa Milano, Jess Macallan and Yunjin Kim. It is a provocative, thrilling, drama that finds four women with scandalous romantic lives caught in storms of excitement and self-discovery, secrecy and betrayal, and at the mercy of the complex relationships they’ve created.

Rochelle will play the lead role of April, a young widow raising two daughters and running a high-end linen shop on Robertson Boulevard. She was previously seen as a series regular on a short-lived but very funny sitcom for ABC entitled Work. And she starred opposite Christian Slater on ABC’s The Forgotten.

She enjoyed a recurring role on the hit series Desperate Housewives and Detroit 187. In addition, she has shot guest leads on TV shows like White Collar, Dark Blue, NCIS: Las Vegas, Daybreak, ER, CSI: NY, and on Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, as Allen Payne’s love interest.

Rochelle made her big screen debut in the summer of 2004 playing the love interest of Shawn Wayans in the romantic comedy White Chicks. More recently, she starred in a lead role opposite Blair Underwood, Tyler Perry and Boris Kodjoe in Madea’s Family Reunion.

Kam Williams: Hi Rochelle. Thanks for another interview.

Rochelle Aytes: Thanks for having me!

KW: Congratulations on landing a lead role on your own TV series! 

RA: Thank you, Kam. I am so excited for it to finally air.

KW: How would you describe the show in 25 words or less?

RA: Mistresses is about the lives of four women, each going through different versions of infidelity. Their longtime friendship is what gets them through extremely challenging times.

KW: Did you watch episodes of the British version of the program in preparation for the role?

RA: I have actually never seen the British version.

KW: What makes your character, April Malloy, tick?

RA: April is the more down-to-earth, motherly one of the girls. She gets so worked up over prank phone calls and starts to believe that it is the ghost of her dead husband.

KW: What message, if any, do you want the audience to take away from the series? 

RA: I hope that the audience is thoroughly entertained. Each story line is very relatable to the average person’s life and hopefully they will find comfort in knowing that they are not alone.

KW: What is your guiltiest pleasure?

RA: Coffee and wine.

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

RA: DeVon Franklin and Tim Vandehey’s book, “Produced by Faith.”

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1439171033/ref=nosim/thslfofire-20

KW: What is your favorite dish to cook?

RA: A cheese omelette with spinach and peppers, and home fries!

KW: The Sanaa Lathan question: What excites you?

RA: Planning a vacation on a beach somewhere!

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

RA: Working with my team. I have the best agent, manager, publicist, acting coach, and lawyer. Without them I wouldn’t have the opportunities that I’ve had.

KW: What was your first big break? 

RA: My first big break was White Chicks. I had only been acting for about two years and I certainly didn’t feel like I was ready for such an opportunity. It could only be the hand of God blessing me. I accept everything I’m given with great appreciation.

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

RA: To heal my mother. She has kidney failure and osteoporosis. It’s very sad.

KW: I’m so sorry to hear that, Rochelle. I’ll keep her in my prayers. The Jamie Foxx question: If you only had 24 hours to live, what would you do? Would you do the bad stuff, you never got a chance to do, or would you do good stuff to make sure you make it into heaven? 

RA: I would do the good stuff. I want eternal life with my father.

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

RA: A butterfly or a bird. 

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

RA: I remember being very young and going to AA meetings with my father in Brooklyn. I thought it was fun because they served hot chocolate and cookies.

KW: The Anthony Mackie question: Is there something that you promised to do if you became famous, that you still haven’t done yet?

RA: No, but I promised to buy my mother a house when I became rich. 

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

RA: I feel like I am pretty much the same, minus the extra hair and makeup. I may turn the energy up a bit, but I’m a silly person naturally and I love to laugh and have fun, so I tend to carry that same energy onto the carpet.

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

RA: That’s a hard one! It’s a tie between flying and healing.

KW: The Michael Ealy question: If you could meet any historical figure, who would it be?

RA: Jesus.

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

RA: Yes--Pretty Woman. I love Julia Roberts and that red dress. I actually had someone duplicate it for my high school prom. [LOL]

KW: Attorney Bernadette Beekman asks: What is your favorite charity? 

RA: Any one that has to do with saving children.

KW: Can you come up with a Rochelle Aytes question I can ask other celebrities? 

RA: If you could choose any other occupation what would it be?

KW: Thanks, and thanks again for the time, Rochelle, and best of luck with Mistresses.

RA: Thank you so much, Kam. I really enjoyed answering these questions. They were very thought provoking.

To see a trailer for Mistresses, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBE5pX6fLQk 

The Kings of Summer
Film Review by Kam Williams

Freshman year of high school has just ended for Patrick (Gabriel Basso) who isn’t looking forward to spending the summer under the same roof as his helicopter parents (Megan Mullally and Marc Evan Jackson), given their monitoring his every move and their merciless teasing about his raging hormones. The situation’s even worse for Joe (Nick Robinson) whose widowed father’s (Nick Offerman) way of grieving involves belittling and grounding him at the drop of a hat.

One night at a keg party, the best friends come up with a viable solution to their predicament when they discover a clearing in the middle of the forest. Why not build themselves a house out in the woods where they will finally be free from the abuse and control of meddling adults?

Swearing each other to secrecy, the malcontents hatch an impromptu plan to live off the land. And they are joined in the clandestine endeavor by classmate Biaggio (Moises Arias), a mysterious weirdo wiling to tag along and utter an occasional, odd non sequitur.

Next thing you know, they’re building a shack out of materials found on a construction lot, and also foraging for food by diving into a dumpster behind a restaurant. Meanwhile, their worried folks are calling the cops, convinced the missing boys must have been kidnapped.

That is the absorbing point of departure of The Kings of Summer, a quirky, coming-of-age comedy marking the magnificent directorial debut of Jordan Vogt-Roberts. His laugh-a-minute adventure is reminiscent of some the best of the rebellious adolescent genre, ala Stand by Me (1986), Superbad (2007), Ghost World (2001), Super 8 (2011) and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986).

The picture’s clever script by first-timer Chris Galletta is laced with lots of hilarious scenes like when Biaggio attempts to throw the police off their trail with a ransom note from the fictitious “Jamal Colorado” inspired by a combining a black first name with one of the fifty states. But human oddity Biaggio is basically around to provide intermittent comic relief.

At heart, the movie is about the intrepid trio’s struggle to survive while eluding the frantic search party. The plot thickens upon the sudden arrival of Kelly (Erin Moriarty) at the lad’s lair, a cutie pie Joe’s interested in dating.

Will the fetching femme fatale prove to be the boys’ undoing? Or will their bond remain intact? No spoilers here. Suffice to say that between a host of memorable performances by a cast of relative newcomers, and a haunting, grungy score by Ryan Miller, The Kings of Summer is a bona fide sleeper not to be missed.

Excellent (4 stars)

Rated R for profanity and underage alcohol consumption

In English and Italian with subtitles

Running time: 95 minutes

Distributor: CBS Films

To see a trailer for The Kings of Summer, visit