Fin: M. Night, Michael, Francis, Bobby and Spike
Thoughts on some recent brushes with greatness. Jesus movies, the case for an Eric Adams biopic, Clooney and Pitt’s folly, and more in this week’s notes column.
I’ve been around quite a few interesting and well-known people of late, both in person and virtually. A few thoughts:
A Little Night Music
Last Friday, I went to see the Philadelphia Orchestra, which presented a special music program from M. Night Shyamalan’s first eight movies, composed by James Newton Howard. The Orchestra played, Howard conducted, and M. Night hosted, while Howard and Shyamalan also had a brief on-stage conversation.
It was a great night, as the Orchestra is just about the best there is, and Marian Anderson (formerly Verizon) Hall is a beautiful venue.
M. Night is a Philly guy, one of those local celebrities who will always be loved in town. I remember one event in 2013, elsewhere in the same building, where Shyamalan appeared and was roundly cheered throughout the night, even though it was at the absolute nadir of his career.
Also, they announced that M. Night’s daughters were in attendance, which means… Lady Raven was in the house! I just hope there wasn’t a serial killer on the loose in the Kimmel Center.
The Michael Vick Experience
Last Friday, I had a 30-minute Zoom call with former NFL quarterback Michael Vick. I was interviewing him, along with director FredAnthony Smith, about Evolution of the Black Quarterback, a three-part documentary that Vick is the host of and debuted earlier this week on Prime Video. Here’s my Philadelphia Inquirer feature.
It’s a fascinating project, tracing the history of the quarterback position in the NFL, where, for decades, Black players didn’t get a fair shake and were often pushed to play other positions.
In the film, we see Vick traveling around the country and interviewing decades of quarterbacks, from long-ago stars like James “Shack” Harris, Doug Williams, and Warren Moon to his contemporaries and today's quarterbacks. He even talks to Steve Young who, while a white guy, pioneered the running style that would later influence the position.
Philadelphia, it’s clear, has a great tradition of Black quarterbacks, including Randall Cunningham, Rodney Peete, Donovan McNabb, Vick himself, and now Jalen Hurts.
All are interviewed except for Cunningham, who wasn’t available; McNabb even shares a story about how he was told the Cleveland Browns didn’t draft him #1 overall in 1999 because someone in the front office wasn’t comfortable starting the new franchise with a Black quarterback. If the Browns had picked him, many things would have gone very differently, both in Cleveland and Philadelphia.
It was clear in the doc that all of the men Vick interviewed treat him with reverence and that any discomfort about that whole dog thing is pretty far in the past.
The documentary is a worthwhile watch for football fans; all three episodes are streaming on Prime Video now.
Before Megalopolis
On Monday night, before I saw Megalopolis, they beamed in a Q&A from the New York Film Festival, where Francis Ford Coppola was interviewed before the film by film programmer Dennis Lim. Joining the festivities were Robert De Niro and Spike Lee.
The feed kept cutting in and out, so I missed a lot of it, but the last few minutes came through clearly.
You can watch the whole thing here:
There were a few crazy highlights:
Lee pointed out that De Niro has never been in any of his movies, which is crazy but true. Although I’m pretty sure he was on the Italian-American Wall of Fame in Do the Right Thing.
Coppola repeated that line about not wanting to be “woke” with the casting and being willing to cast certain people who are “voting the other way” or have been “cancelled.”
De Niro, on multiple occasions, changed the subject from other things back to the need to defeat Donald Trump. We all know That Guy, and he’s That Guy.
Lee made a “they’re eating dogs and cats” joke and was so proud of himself for it that he got out of his chair and laughed. Then Coppola went on a tangent about having included a “Haitian subplot” in an earlier version of the film and expressed his praise for the Haitian people.
Coppola shared that he and Trump “went to the same military academy,’ although Coppola is older so it wasn’t at the same time.
De Niro said “imagine Donald Trump directing this movie,” although to be fair it’s hard to imagine anyone other than Coppola directing Megalopolis.
A LOT of nervous laughter in the crowd throughout.
In all, a glorious mess, much like Megalopolis itself.
I’ve said it before, but these Q&As with famous people are almost always boring and uneventful, so even when it goes wildly off the rails like that, it’s a beautiful thing.
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