Daisy Coleman, a sexual assault survivor turned activist and one of two subjects in the Netflix documentary “Audrie and Daisy,” has died by suicide. She was 23.
Her mother, Melinda Coleman, shared the news on her Facebook Tuesday night.
“My daughter Catherine Daisy Coleman committed suicide tonight,” Melinda Coleman said on Facebook (via People). “If you saw crazy messages and posts it was because I called the police to check on her. She was my best friend and amazing daughter. I think she had to make it seem like I could live without her. I can’t. I wish I could have taken the pain from her! She never recovered from what those boys did to her and it’s just not fair. My baby girl is gone.”
Also Read: Pete Hamill, Legendary New York Journalist, Dies at 85
The 2016 “Audrie and Daisy” documentary looked at the effects of online bullying. In it,...
Her mother, Melinda Coleman, shared the news on her Facebook Tuesday night.
“My daughter Catherine Daisy Coleman committed suicide tonight,” Melinda Coleman said on Facebook (via People). “If you saw crazy messages and posts it was because I called the police to check on her. She was my best friend and amazing daughter. I think she had to make it seem like I could live without her. I can’t. I wish I could have taken the pain from her! She never recovered from what those boys did to her and it’s just not fair. My baby girl is gone.”
Also Read: Pete Hamill, Legendary New York Journalist, Dies at 85
The 2016 “Audrie and Daisy” documentary looked at the effects of online bullying. In it,...
- 8/5/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Pete Hamill — the celebrated journalist, novelist, columnist, and a titan of the New York City tabloid and journalism world — died Wednesday morning, the New York Times reports. He was 85.
Hamill died after his kidneys and heart failed while in the hospital, his brother, journalist Denis Hamill, confirmed. Hamill had fallen Saturday, August 1st, and was rushed to the hospital where he underwent emergency surgery; he was then placed in the intensive care unit.
Hamill was born in Brooklyn in 1935 to immigrants from Northern Ireland. He got his first newspaper job...
Hamill died after his kidneys and heart failed while in the hospital, his brother, journalist Denis Hamill, confirmed. Hamill had fallen Saturday, August 1st, and was rushed to the hospital where he underwent emergency surgery; he was then placed in the intensive care unit.
Hamill was born in Brooklyn in 1935 to immigrants from Northern Ireland. He got his first newspaper job...
- 8/5/2020
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
Pete Hamill, the Brooklyn-born journalist whose street-savvy writing style and editorial hand lent an authentic, even quintessential voice to city tabloids The New York Post and The Daily News over a 50-year-career, died today in his native borough. He was 85.
His brother, the writer Denis Hamill, told The New York Times that Hamill fell at home on Saturday after returning from a dialysis treatment. He was taken to Brooklyn’s Methodist Hospital were he died apparently from kidney and heart failure.
Hamill began his newspaper career at the Post in 1960. Over the next decades he would write for the Daily News, Newsday, The Village Voice, The Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, Playboy, Rolling Stone and many other publications. Along with columnist Jimmy Breslin, Hamill popularized a streetwise writing style that could seem equal parts Norman Mailer, Damon Runyon and the millions of outer borough residents he both championed and chronicled.
The...
His brother, the writer Denis Hamill, told The New York Times that Hamill fell at home on Saturday after returning from a dialysis treatment. He was taken to Brooklyn’s Methodist Hospital were he died apparently from kidney and heart failure.
Hamill began his newspaper career at the Post in 1960. Over the next decades he would write for the Daily News, Newsday, The Village Voice, The Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, Playboy, Rolling Stone and many other publications. Along with columnist Jimmy Breslin, Hamill popularized a streetwise writing style that could seem equal parts Norman Mailer, Damon Runyon and the millions of outer borough residents he both championed and chronicled.
The...
- 8/5/2020
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Pete Hamill, the New York newspaperman who went to bat for the disenfranchised and became a larger-than-life personality during the city's last great era of print journalism, has died. He was 85.
Hamill died Wednesday in Brooklyn, his brother, Denis Hamill, told The New York Times. He had taken a fall at his home on Saturday after returning from dialysis and was in intensive care at Methodist Hospital when "his kidneys and heart failed him," he said.
A high school dropout who was a hard-drinking man's man before he quit alcohol at age 38, Hamill was a New ...
Hamill died Wednesday in Brooklyn, his brother, Denis Hamill, told The New York Times. He had taken a fall at his home on Saturday after returning from dialysis and was in intensive care at Methodist Hospital when "his kidneys and heart failed him," he said.
A high school dropout who was a hard-drinking man's man before he quit alcohol at age 38, Hamill was a New ...
Pete Hamill, the New York newspaperman who went to bat for the disenfranchised and became a larger-than-life personality during the city's last great era of print journalism, has died. He was 85.
Hamill died Wednesday in Brooklyn, his brother, Denis Hamill, told The New York Times. He had taken a fall at his home on Saturday after returning from dialysis and was in intensive care at Methodist Hospital when "his kidneys and heart failed him," he said.
A high school dropout who was a hard-drinking man's man before he quit alcohol at age 38, Hamill was a New ...
Hamill died Wednesday in Brooklyn, his brother, Denis Hamill, told The New York Times. He had taken a fall at his home on Saturday after returning from dialysis and was in intensive care at Methodist Hospital when "his kidneys and heart failed him," he said.
A high school dropout who was a hard-drinking man's man before he quit alcohol at age 38, Hamill was a New ...
It’s been quite a week for the fourth estate, or the enemy of the people, depending on your viewpoint. Most notably, BuzzFeed has had a bipolar ride and NBC’s Savannah Guthrie took heat for being either too tough or too soft on the Kentucky high school student accused of harassing a Native American man. So consider it a momentary balm that three classic 20th century journalists — about whom few questioned their honesty and craft — are back in the news.
Speaking about Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill in the HBO documentary “Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists,” new Oscar nominee Spike Lee says, “These guys were superstars.” Breslin and Hamill were as colorful as any characters they covered in their long New York City newspaper careers. They — and the film — were even mentioned in the New York Times obit for Russell Baker, another award-winning New York-based columnist, who passed away...
Speaking about Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill in the HBO documentary “Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists,” new Oscar nominee Spike Lee says, “These guys were superstars.” Breslin and Hamill were as colorful as any characters they covered in their long New York City newspaper careers. They — and the film — were even mentioned in the New York Times obit for Russell Baker, another award-winning New York-based columnist, who passed away...
- 1/25/2019
- by Mary Murphy and Michele Willens
- The Wrap
“Revolutionary,” “superstars,” “the voice of true New Yorkers” — that’s how Spike Lee and other influential figures describe journalists Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill in the trailer released for HBO’s “Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists” documentary.
The film, which premieres Jan. 28 at 8 p.m. Et/Pt, follows the two newspaper columnists whose dedication and wit spoke for everyday people and transformed reporting about New York City and the country.
The doc also aims to take viewers back to the charm of the old New York, while delving into issues of race, class, and the practice of journalism that resonate powerfully in our own time. It will also touch on classic stories like the Bernhard Goetz, Son of Sam, Central Park Five, and Crown Heights cases, as well as many of the major events of the last half century, including the Kennedy assassinations, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, Watergate, and...
The film, which premieres Jan. 28 at 8 p.m. Et/Pt, follows the two newspaper columnists whose dedication and wit spoke for everyday people and transformed reporting about New York City and the country.
The doc also aims to take viewers back to the charm of the old New York, while delving into issues of race, class, and the practice of journalism that resonate powerfully in our own time. It will also touch on classic stories like the Bernhard Goetz, Son of Sam, Central Park Five, and Crown Heights cases, as well as many of the major events of the last half century, including the Kennedy assassinations, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, Watergate, and...
- 1/17/2019
- by Rachel Yang
- Variety Film + TV
Even Murphy Brown has Trump fatigue. In last week’s episode, she threw down her remote and said, “I’m not watching anymore!” Ironic, of course, since millions of viewers stopped, or didn’t start, watching the new edition of CBS’ “Murphy Brown.” Conservatives figured, correctly, that she’d be trashing their leader weekly, and it seems liberals would rather watch Rachel Maddow.
Creative folks are learning they need to tread carefully doing anything dealing with politics these days, even if only tangentially winking at the chaos in the current White House. Despite possible resonance with the Stormy Daniels brouhaha, “The Front Runner,” a movie about the sex scandal that brought down Sen. Gary Hart, was a quick bust at the box office. Despite constant Nixon-Trump comparisons, Charles Ferguson’s documentary “Watergate” made little noise. “The Parisian Woman,” a Broadway show from the man who gave us Netflix’s “House of Cards,...
Creative folks are learning they need to tread carefully doing anything dealing with politics these days, even if only tangentially winking at the chaos in the current White House. Despite possible resonance with the Stormy Daniels brouhaha, “The Front Runner,” a movie about the sex scandal that brought down Sen. Gary Hart, was a quick bust at the box office. Despite constant Nixon-Trump comparisons, Charles Ferguson’s documentary “Watergate” made little noise. “The Parisian Woman,” a Broadway show from the man who gave us Netflix’s “House of Cards,...
- 12/7/2018
- by Mary Murphy and Michele Willens
- The Wrap
America’s largest documentary festival, Doc NYC, has revealed its full lineup for its ninth edition, running November 8 – 15 at the IFC Center in Greenwich Village and Chelsea’s Sva Theatre and Cinepolis Chelsea. The 2018 festival includes 135 feature-length documentaries among over 300 films and events overall, including 42 world premieres and 17 U.S. or North American premieres.
Today’s lineup announcement follows the fest’s previously announced Short List titles, which include 15 of the year’s award contender documentary features and an inaugural list of 12 of the year’s leading nonfiction shorts.
Read More: The Doc NYC and Oscar Documentary Feature Short Lists: How Close Will They Match Up?
The festival will close out with the world premiere of HBO’s “Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists,” following the beloved New York City journalists Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill, while the festival’s Centerpiece presentation will go for a touch more humor, thanks to...
Today’s lineup announcement follows the fest’s previously announced Short List titles, which include 15 of the year’s award contender documentary features and an inaugural list of 12 of the year’s leading nonfiction shorts.
Read More: The Doc NYC and Oscar Documentary Feature Short Lists: How Close Will They Match Up?
The festival will close out with the world premiere of HBO’s “Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists,” following the beloved New York City journalists Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill, while the festival’s Centerpiece presentation will go for a touch more humor, thanks to...
- 10/11/2018
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Doc NYC, the documentary film festival set to run Nov. 8-15 in New York City, will open with the New York premiere of John Chester’s The Biggest Little Farm, which recounts efforts to establish a biodynamic farm, and will close with the world premiere of Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists, a portrait of journalists Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill directed by Jonathan Alter, John Block and Steve McCarthy. Its centerpiece presentation will be the world premiere of Original Cast Album: Co-op, an episode of IFC’s Documentary Now! series that parodies D.A. Pennebaker’s classic doc Original Cast Album: Company, followed by a ...
- 10/11/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Doc NYC, the documentary film festival set to run Nov. 8-15 in New York City, will open with the New York premiere of John Chester’s The Biggest Little Farm, which recounts efforts to establish a biodynamic farm, and will close with the world premiere of Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists, a portrait of journalists Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill directed by Jonathan Alter, John Block and Steve McCarthy. Its centerpiece presentation will be the world premiere of Original Cast Album: Co-op, an episode of IFC’s Documentary Now! series that parodies D.A. Pennebaker’s classic doc Original Cast Album: Company, followed by a ...
- 10/11/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Luke Haines has revealed the tracklisting of his upcoming double studio album 21st Century Man/Achtung Mutha. As previously announced, the follow-up to 2006's Off My Rocker At The Art School Bop will be available in the UK from November 2. The limited-edition double-cd gatefold release will be supported with a full UK tour. Album tracks '21st Century Man' and 'Peter Hamill' are available to stream from the singer-songwriter's MySpace page now. The full tracklisting of both discs is as follows: 21st Century Man'Suburban Mourning''Peter (more)...
- 9/16/2009
- by By Mayer Nissim
- Digital Spy
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- Three unlikely companions, all misfits in their own minds, take a road trip through the backwaters of post-Katrina Louisiana to New Orleans in The Yellow Handkerchief, a sometimes insightful and other times sentimental slice of Americana.
Four terrific performances make the transition to a U.S. setting go smoothly for British director Udayan Prasad. William Hurt, back in a lead role after a succession of smart supporting turns, makes the most of his opportunity. He anchors the drama with an acutely observed, nicely nuanced performance as a man just out of stir and uncertain of his bearings. Maria Bello, seen almost entirely in flashbacks, and young actors Kristen Stewart and Eddie Redmayne (a British actor with a spot-on Yank accent) create memorably idiosyncratic characters that round out this four-hander.
The film is too slow-moving to engage many outside of art houses. The film also seems overly eager to emphasize its regional identity, slipping in a 'gator, water snake and a boat ride through the bayou. Otherwise, cinematographer Chris Menges and composers Eef Barzelay and Jack Livesay superbly catch the mood and characters of that countryside torn up by Katrina.
Released from prison after six years, Brett Hurt), a quiet -- some would say withdrawn and uncommunicative -- man drifts into a small town looking for a bus heading south. In a small restaurant, he watches the interaction among a group of teens. He senses that one of them, Martine (Stewart), has been spurned by a boy and that another, Gordy (Redmayne), is both self-conscious and defiant over his geeky awkwardness.
When he sees them again at a river ferry, Martine has gone with Gordy as her "ride" to make the other boy jealous -- unsuccessfully it would appear -- and now she is stuck with the geek. She eagerly invites Brett to join them, just to have another person in the car.
Circumstances, including a pouring rain, cause the three to spend several days on the road together. This gives everyone time to spill their guts about what ails them. This can be summed up in Gordy's line: "I never felt part of anything either." No one here does.
A confrontation outside a general store with a white-trash couple and Brett's subsequent arrest -- both somewhat contrived situations -- alert the two teens that their passenger is an ex-con. So when he is released by the cops, he relates his sad tale as a reclusive, blue-collar guy who fell for a boat seller, May (Bello), yet blew his one chance at happiness.
Meanwhile, Martine is mostly ignored by her dad and feels generally unloved. Gordy is all too aware of his nerdiness yet aggressively pushes his most unattractive characteristics at people.
Brett proves to possess an innate wisdom that belies his own troubles in life. Martine is at times herself wiser beyond her years, and even Gordy shows flashes of normalcy beneath his deliberate facade of abnormality.
Of the four, Bello's May never comes fully into focus in all the flashbacks, but she too is someone who has made her share of mistakes and is never sure whether to blame herself or the person who wants to get close to her.
The script by Erin Dignam from a short story by Pete Hamill is a little too slick in how it works everyone's troubles out, leading to a tearful happy ending presaged by the film's own title. (Think Tony Orlando and yellow ribbons.) Dignam overly crafts her scenes with characters coming up with just the right words at the most telling moments. Consequently, the well-made polish of her writing sometimes works against the backwater naturalism established by Prasad.
But his actors save the day. There's a painful honesty in all the performances that gets across the hurt everyone endures in life and the helplessness one feels when the remedy is never clear, even when it's close at hand.
THE YELLOW HANDKERCHIEF
Arthur Cohn Prods.
Credits:
Director: Udayan Prasad
Screenwriter: Erin Dignam
Story: Pete Hamill
Producer: Arthur Cohn
Executive producer: Lillian Birnbaum
Director of photography: Chris Menges
Production designer: Monroe Kelly
Music: Eef Barzelay, Jack Livesay
Costume designer: Caroline Eselin
Editor: Christopher Tellesfen
Cast:
Brett: William Hurt
May: Maria Bello
Gordy: Eddie Redmayne
Martine: Kristen Stewart
Running time -- 103 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- Three unlikely companions, all misfits in their own minds, take a road trip through the backwaters of post-Katrina Louisiana to New Orleans in The Yellow Handkerchief, a sometimes insightful and other times sentimental slice of Americana.
Four terrific performances make the transition to a U.S. setting go smoothly for British director Udayan Prasad. William Hurt, back in a lead role after a succession of smart supporting turns, makes the most of his opportunity. He anchors the drama with an acutely observed, nicely nuanced performance as a man just out of stir and uncertain of his bearings. Maria Bello, seen almost entirely in flashbacks, and young actors Kristen Stewart and Eddie Redmayne (a British actor with a spot-on Yank accent) create memorably idiosyncratic characters that round out this four-hander.
The film is too slow-moving to engage many outside of art houses. The film also seems overly eager to emphasize its regional identity, slipping in a 'gator, water snake and a boat ride through the bayou. Otherwise, cinematographer Chris Menges and composers Eef Barzelay and Jack Livesay superbly catch the mood and characters of that countryside torn up by Katrina.
Released from prison after six years, Brett Hurt), a quiet -- some would say withdrawn and uncommunicative -- man drifts into a small town looking for a bus heading south. In a small restaurant, he watches the interaction among a group of teens. He senses that one of them, Martine (Stewart), has been spurned by a boy and that another, Gordy (Redmayne), is both self-conscious and defiant over his geeky awkwardness.
When he sees them again at a river ferry, Martine has gone with Gordy as her "ride" to make the other boy jealous -- unsuccessfully it would appear -- and now she is stuck with the geek. She eagerly invites Brett to join them, just to have another person in the car.
Circumstances, including a pouring rain, cause the three to spend several days on the road together. This gives everyone time to spill their guts about what ails them. This can be summed up in Gordy's line: "I never felt part of anything either." No one here does.
A confrontation outside a general store with a white-trash couple and Brett's subsequent arrest -- both somewhat contrived situations -- alert the two teens that their passenger is an ex-con. So when he is released by the cops, he relates his sad tale as a reclusive, blue-collar guy who fell for a boat seller, May (Bello), yet blew his one chance at happiness.
Meanwhile, Martine is mostly ignored by her dad and feels generally unloved. Gordy is all too aware of his nerdiness yet aggressively pushes his most unattractive characteristics at people.
Brett proves to possess an innate wisdom that belies his own troubles in life. Martine is at times herself wiser beyond her years, and even Gordy shows flashes of normalcy beneath his deliberate facade of abnormality.
Of the four, Bello's May never comes fully into focus in all the flashbacks, but she too is someone who has made her share of mistakes and is never sure whether to blame herself or the person who wants to get close to her.
The script by Erin Dignam from a short story by Pete Hamill is a little too slick in how it works everyone's troubles out, leading to a tearful happy ending presaged by the film's own title. (Think Tony Orlando and yellow ribbons.) Dignam overly crafts her scenes with characters coming up with just the right words at the most telling moments. Consequently, the well-made polish of her writing sometimes works against the backwater naturalism established by Prasad.
But his actors save the day. There's a painful honesty in all the performances that gets across the hurt everyone endures in life and the helplessness one feels when the remedy is never clear, even when it's close at hand.
THE YELLOW HANDKERCHIEF
Arthur Cohn Prods.
Credits:
Director: Udayan Prasad
Screenwriter: Erin Dignam
Story: Pete Hamill
Producer: Arthur Cohn
Executive producer: Lillian Birnbaum
Director of photography: Chris Menges
Production designer: Monroe Kelly
Music: Eef Barzelay, Jack Livesay
Costume designer: Caroline Eselin
Editor: Christopher Tellesfen
Cast:
Brett: William Hurt
May: Maria Bello
Gordy: Eddie Redmayne
Martine: Kristen Stewart
Running time -- 103 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/21/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARK CITY -- The makers of "Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story" tackle the issues, controversy and lingering effects of one of the most famous deaths in the sport of boxing with rigorous inquiry and open mindedness. The death of Benny "Kid" Paret at the lightning-fast hands of Emile Griffith in 1962 touches on themes ranging from violence in sports and the cult of machismo to media sensationalism, the role of fate and forgiveness and the taboo of homosexuality in virtually all sports. While looking at these issues, producers- directors Dan Klores and Ron Berger also create a profound portrait of a man haunted by a single moment in his otherwise glamorous past.
NBC has acquired the film for broadcast on USA Network, probably in April. It makes a great big screen movie, however, so a small theatrical release might bring in an interesting mix of sports fans and students of American cultural history.
On Saturday night, March 24, 1962, a national TV audience looked on in horror as challenger Griffith caught welterweight champ Paret, exhausted in the 12th round of their fight in Madison Square Garden, in a lonesome corner. In a pummeling that seemed interminable but in reality lasted only seconds, thus denying referee Ruby Goldstein a chance to intervene, Griffith knocked Paret senseless. He lapsed into a coma and died 10 days later. It was the first live death on in network television history. The sport was taken off the air for ten years.
Defying expectations, Griffith, actually a very gentle soul who admits he hates to get hit, went on to win and lose championships throughout the '60s and '70s. He retired in 1977.
Over the years, the story surrounding the tragedy has grown and deepened, and this is what the filmmakers explore. The bout was the third and final showdown between the fighters. Bad blood had grown between them since the first bout, which Griffith won.
An illegal immigrant from the Virgin Islands, Griffith attracted the attention of trainers due to his astonishing physique. He proved a quick study and his rise was meteoric. Yet whispers soon circulated in boxing circles that Griffith was gay. Nothing, of course, could be more at odds with a boxer's image. Nor could any boxer expect a career if such were the case.
Paret, a Cuban exile, taunted Griffith at the second fight and the weigh-in for the third with the Spanish slur maricon, which in American lingo means "faggot." What impact this really had on what happened is hard to say. Griffith and his trainers still insist the fighter, a superb professional athlete, only followed orders to batter his opponent until the ref intervened.
The film offers a much more telling fact during an interview with Gene Fullmer, who had all but destroyed Paret in a bout 100 days earlier. Fullmer says Paret's manager had no business letting his fighter back into the ring so soon after such a thrashing.
The movie ends with a touching and tearful meeting between Griffith, now physically and mentally weakened due to a brutal beating outside a bar in 1995, and Paret's now grown son, Benny Paret Jr.
As to the issue of his sexuality, Griffith admits he goes occasionally to gay bars and shrugs off questions about his homosexuality. People can think what they want, he says.
This is a magnificent and emotional look at a sports tragedy. It is enormously aided by commentary from such figures as Pete Hamill, Jimmy Breslin, Neal Gabler, Norman Mailer and a host of boxers as well as use of archival footage and popular music of that era that capture a time when America still largely dwelled in self-imposed innocence. The most telling song is the first one: James Brown's recording of "It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World."
RING OF FIRE: THE Emile Griffith STORY
Hole in the Fence Films in association with Shoot the Moon Productions
Credits: Directors/producers: Dan Klores, Ron Berger
Executive producer: Lewis Katz
Co-producer: Jack Newfield
Director of photography: Buddy Squires
Editor: Michael Levine
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 87 minutes...
NBC has acquired the film for broadcast on USA Network, probably in April. It makes a great big screen movie, however, so a small theatrical release might bring in an interesting mix of sports fans and students of American cultural history.
On Saturday night, March 24, 1962, a national TV audience looked on in horror as challenger Griffith caught welterweight champ Paret, exhausted in the 12th round of their fight in Madison Square Garden, in a lonesome corner. In a pummeling that seemed interminable but in reality lasted only seconds, thus denying referee Ruby Goldstein a chance to intervene, Griffith knocked Paret senseless. He lapsed into a coma and died 10 days later. It was the first live death on in network television history. The sport was taken off the air for ten years.
Defying expectations, Griffith, actually a very gentle soul who admits he hates to get hit, went on to win and lose championships throughout the '60s and '70s. He retired in 1977.
Over the years, the story surrounding the tragedy has grown and deepened, and this is what the filmmakers explore. The bout was the third and final showdown between the fighters. Bad blood had grown between them since the first bout, which Griffith won.
An illegal immigrant from the Virgin Islands, Griffith attracted the attention of trainers due to his astonishing physique. He proved a quick study and his rise was meteoric. Yet whispers soon circulated in boxing circles that Griffith was gay. Nothing, of course, could be more at odds with a boxer's image. Nor could any boxer expect a career if such were the case.
Paret, a Cuban exile, taunted Griffith at the second fight and the weigh-in for the third with the Spanish slur maricon, which in American lingo means "faggot." What impact this really had on what happened is hard to say. Griffith and his trainers still insist the fighter, a superb professional athlete, only followed orders to batter his opponent until the ref intervened.
The film offers a much more telling fact during an interview with Gene Fullmer, who had all but destroyed Paret in a bout 100 days earlier. Fullmer says Paret's manager had no business letting his fighter back into the ring so soon after such a thrashing.
The movie ends with a touching and tearful meeting between Griffith, now physically and mentally weakened due to a brutal beating outside a bar in 1995, and Paret's now grown son, Benny Paret Jr.
As to the issue of his sexuality, Griffith admits he goes occasionally to gay bars and shrugs off questions about his homosexuality. People can think what they want, he says.
This is a magnificent and emotional look at a sports tragedy. It is enormously aided by commentary from such figures as Pete Hamill, Jimmy Breslin, Neal Gabler, Norman Mailer and a host of boxers as well as use of archival footage and popular music of that era that capture a time when America still largely dwelled in self-imposed innocence. The most telling song is the first one: James Brown's recording of "It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World."
RING OF FIRE: THE Emile Griffith STORY
Hole in the Fence Films in association with Shoot the Moon Productions
Credits: Directors/producers: Dan Klores, Ron Berger
Executive producer: Lewis Katz
Co-producer: Jack Newfield
Director of photography: Buddy Squires
Editor: Michael Levine
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 87 minutes...
- 1/27/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
AFI Fest
Terrific performances by Anthony LaPaglia, Eric Stoltz and Caroleen Feeney infuse this well-written comic drama with a realistic ease. Director Mike Bencivenga and his co-scripter, Richard Levine, have crafted a Manhattan-set tale that strikes a fine balance between sardonic banter and poignancy. Centered on the last days of an alcoholic, "Happy Hour" deftly avoids the grimness and maudlin sentimentality one might expect. With a much truer take on the disease than such showier fare as "Leaving Las Vegas", the Davis Entertainment production, which is screening in the AFI Fest's American Directions section, deserves art house exposure.
LaPaglia plays Tulley, a middle-aged copywriter devoted to drink, his faithful colleague Levine (Stoltz) often beside him at the bar. An acclaimed short-story writer in his youth, he has been working on a novel for 17 years, living in the shadow of his father (Robert Vaughn), the kind of successful scribe who lunches at the Algonquin with Pete Hamill, Steve Dunleavy and Jack Newfield (all in for cameos). Tulley's "carefree, pointless life" takes on new meaning when he meets Natalie (Feeney), a spirited schoolteacher, at his watering hole and when he's diagnosed with advanced liver disease.
The film captures the workaday emptiness, politics and open hatreds at the ad agency Tulley calls "drudgery's cathedral." Thomas Sadoski has an effective turn as a cliche-spouting brown-noser who's sleeping with the gorgeous boss (Sandrine Holt). Tulley and Levine get back at the back-stabbing young wannabe with a couple of inventive pranks involving a colostomy bag and a porn tape.
LaPaglia's hard-boiled voice-over notwithstanding, the real focus of "Happy Hour" is Levine, and Stoltz portrays him with an appropriate ambiguity. An aspiring writer who hides himself behind a low-stress numbers-crunching job, he's effete and urbane, the consummate fifth wheel to Tulley and Natalie's relationship and possibly in love with his friend. Stoltz and Feeney convey the fallout and the rewards for people who attach themselves to alcoholics, while LaPaglia's Tulley is charming, awful and utterly believable. Malachy McCourt makes the most of his brief appearance as Tulley's gruff, disappointed literary mentor.
Terrific performances by Anthony LaPaglia, Eric Stoltz and Caroleen Feeney infuse this well-written comic drama with a realistic ease. Director Mike Bencivenga and his co-scripter, Richard Levine, have crafted a Manhattan-set tale that strikes a fine balance between sardonic banter and poignancy. Centered on the last days of an alcoholic, "Happy Hour" deftly avoids the grimness and maudlin sentimentality one might expect. With a much truer take on the disease than such showier fare as "Leaving Las Vegas", the Davis Entertainment production, which is screening in the AFI Fest's American Directions section, deserves art house exposure.
LaPaglia plays Tulley, a middle-aged copywriter devoted to drink, his faithful colleague Levine (Stoltz) often beside him at the bar. An acclaimed short-story writer in his youth, he has been working on a novel for 17 years, living in the shadow of his father (Robert Vaughn), the kind of successful scribe who lunches at the Algonquin with Pete Hamill, Steve Dunleavy and Jack Newfield (all in for cameos). Tulley's "carefree, pointless life" takes on new meaning when he meets Natalie (Feeney), a spirited schoolteacher, at his watering hole and when he's diagnosed with advanced liver disease.
The film captures the workaday emptiness, politics and open hatreds at the ad agency Tulley calls "drudgery's cathedral." Thomas Sadoski has an effective turn as a cliche-spouting brown-noser who's sleeping with the gorgeous boss (Sandrine Holt). Tulley and Levine get back at the back-stabbing young wannabe with a couple of inventive pranks involving a colostomy bag and a porn tape.
LaPaglia's hard-boiled voice-over notwithstanding, the real focus of "Happy Hour" is Levine, and Stoltz portrays him with an appropriate ambiguity. An aspiring writer who hides himself behind a low-stress numbers-crunching job, he's effete and urbane, the consummate fifth wheel to Tulley and Natalie's relationship and possibly in love with his friend. Stoltz and Feeney convey the fallout and the rewards for people who attach themselves to alcoholics, while LaPaglia's Tulley is charming, awful and utterly believable. Malachy McCourt makes the most of his brief appearance as Tulley's gruff, disappointed literary mentor.
AFI Fest
Terrific performances by Anthony LaPaglia, Eric Stoltz and Caroleen Feeney infuse this well-written comic drama with a realistic ease. Director Mike Bencivenga and his co-scripter, Richard Levine, have crafted a Manhattan-set tale that strikes a fine balance between sardonic banter and poignancy. Centered on the last days of an alcoholic, "Happy Hour" deftly avoids the grimness and maudlin sentimentality one might expect. With a much truer take on the disease than such showier fare as "Leaving Las Vegas", the Davis Entertainment production, which is screening in the AFI Fest's American Directions section, deserves art house exposure.
LaPaglia plays Tulley, a middle-aged copywriter devoted to drink, his faithful colleague Levine (Stoltz) often beside him at the bar. An acclaimed short-story writer in his youth, he has been working on a novel for 17 years, living in the shadow of his father (Robert Vaughn), the kind of successful scribe who lunches at the Algonquin with Pete Hamill, Steve Dunleavy and Jack Newfield (all in for cameos). Tulley's "carefree, pointless life" takes on new meaning when he meets Natalie (Feeney), a spirited schoolteacher, at his watering hole and when he's diagnosed with advanced liver disease.
The film captures the workaday emptiness, politics and open hatreds at the ad agency Tulley calls "drudgery's cathedral." Thomas Sadoski has an effective turn as a cliche-spouting brown-noser who's sleeping with the gorgeous boss (Sandrine Holt). Tulley and Levine get back at the back-stabbing young wannabe with a couple of inventive pranks involving a colostomy bag and a porn tape.
LaPaglia's hard-boiled voice-over notwithstanding, the real focus of "Happy Hour" is Levine, and Stoltz portrays him with an appropriate ambiguity. An aspiring writer who hides himself behind a low-stress numbers-crunching job, he's effete and urbane, the consummate fifth wheel to Tulley and Natalie's relationship and possibly in love with his friend. Stoltz and Feeney convey the fallout and the rewards for people who attach themselves to alcoholics, while LaPaglia's Tulley is charming, awful and utterly believable. Malachy McCourt makes the most of his brief appearance as Tulley's gruff, disappointed literary mentor.
Terrific performances by Anthony LaPaglia, Eric Stoltz and Caroleen Feeney infuse this well-written comic drama with a realistic ease. Director Mike Bencivenga and his co-scripter, Richard Levine, have crafted a Manhattan-set tale that strikes a fine balance between sardonic banter and poignancy. Centered on the last days of an alcoholic, "Happy Hour" deftly avoids the grimness and maudlin sentimentality one might expect. With a much truer take on the disease than such showier fare as "Leaving Las Vegas", the Davis Entertainment production, which is screening in the AFI Fest's American Directions section, deserves art house exposure.
LaPaglia plays Tulley, a middle-aged copywriter devoted to drink, his faithful colleague Levine (Stoltz) often beside him at the bar. An acclaimed short-story writer in his youth, he has been working on a novel for 17 years, living in the shadow of his father (Robert Vaughn), the kind of successful scribe who lunches at the Algonquin with Pete Hamill, Steve Dunleavy and Jack Newfield (all in for cameos). Tulley's "carefree, pointless life" takes on new meaning when he meets Natalie (Feeney), a spirited schoolteacher, at his watering hole and when he's diagnosed with advanced liver disease.
The film captures the workaday emptiness, politics and open hatreds at the ad agency Tulley calls "drudgery's cathedral." Thomas Sadoski has an effective turn as a cliche-spouting brown-noser who's sleeping with the gorgeous boss (Sandrine Holt). Tulley and Levine get back at the back-stabbing young wannabe with a couple of inventive pranks involving a colostomy bag and a porn tape.
LaPaglia's hard-boiled voice-over notwithstanding, the real focus of "Happy Hour" is Levine, and Stoltz portrays him with an appropriate ambiguity. An aspiring writer who hides himself behind a low-stress numbers-crunching job, he's effete and urbane, the consummate fifth wheel to Tulley and Natalie's relationship and possibly in love with his friend. Stoltz and Feeney convey the fallout and the rewards for people who attach themselves to alcoholics, while LaPaglia's Tulley is charming, awful and utterly believable. Malachy McCourt makes the most of his brief appearance as Tulley's gruff, disappointed literary mentor.
- 11/11/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In olden days of romantic comedy, couples met cute. In the anything-goes '90s, or at least in this frothy entertainment, they meet hostile. But other than that modern update, there's little difference between 20th Century Fox's "One Fine Day" and some of the finest merriments of the romantic comedy classics.
With appealing star performances from Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney, this charmer should attract very fine days at the boxoffice. It's not hard to conjure up Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant or elements of such classics as "His Girl Friday" or "The Awful Truth" when viewing this smartly pedigreed movie. It's high praise to group Pfeiffer and Clooney in that league, but their crustily silken performances are delightfully enticing.
In this present-day scenario, they're both harried divorcees, single- parent/professionals who are thrust into one not-so-fine day in which both their professional and personal lives are stretched to the limits. She's Melanie, an architect with a career-making presentation; he's Jack, a newspaper columnist whose job hinges on clearing up a controversial column he did linking the mayor with organized crime.
They're thrust together through their kids -- he has a girl, she a boy -- when, owing to the overstretched natures of their modern lives and a string of circumstances, they find themselves not only battling their big-day battles but having to bring their elementary-age kids along with them. For their mutual benefit, they agree on a kid-sharing plan -- she watches them during his critical press conference while he takes them during her architectural presentation.
Unlike the traditional screwball comedy formula where the male was the repressed straight-arrow and the female was the wacky free spirit who loosens him up, the straight man here is Melanie, whose compulsive organizational traits put her at odds with Jack's breezy nonchalance. She thrives on order, he thrives on chaos; and in the baffling chemistry of romance, opposites-attract sparks start to fly.
Perhaps the only flaw in this well-wrought romance is that the sparks start a little prematurely. Although we readily see their differences, scenes of each character grudgingly, or surprisingly, admiring the other are scant and other than the characters' surface physical desirability, their emotional attraction is somewhat underdeveloped and unconvincing.
Still, niggling aside, screenwriters Terrel Seltzer and Ellen Simon have concocted a brainy, madcap amusement with decidedly sympathetic characters. The certain proof -- you root for these two to get together.
The supporting characters are a terrific blend of sweet and sassy types. In particular, both kids, Mae Whitman and Alex D. Linz, are adorable, regular-type tots with no gloss of Hollywood sheen. On the adult side, Charles Durning is perfect as Jack's gruff, big-hearted editor, while sports scribe Pete Hamill is creatively cast as a spacey, perceptive land developer.
With his hand expertly on the narrative accelerator, director Michael Hoffman has fashioned a fast-paced, warm-hearted movie. With a frothy mix of wipes and split screens, as well as a keen eye for visual hilarity, Hoffman has cut a near-perfect crystalline comedy.
ONE FINE DAY
20th Century Fox
Fox 2000 Pictures presents
a Lynda Obst production
in association with Via Rosa Prods.
A Michael Hoffman film
Producer Lynda Obst
Director Michael Hoffman
Screenwriters Terrel Seltzer, Ellen Simon
Executive producers Kate Guinzburg,
Michelle Pfeiffer
Director of photography Oliver Stapleton
Production design David Gropman
Editor Garth Craven
Co-producer Mary McLaglen
Music James Newton Howard
Costume design Susie DeSanto
Casting Lora Kennedy
Special visual effects by VIFX
VIFX visual effects supervisor
Richard Hollander
Sound mixer Petur Hliddal
Color/stereo
Cast:
Melanie Parker Michelle Pfeiffer
Jack Taylor George Clooney
Maggie Taylor Mae Whitman
Sammy Parker Alex D. Linz
Lew Charles Durning
Yates Jr. Jon Roin Baitz
Elaine Lieberman Ellen Greene
Manny Feldstein Joe Frifasi
Frank Burroughs Pete Hamill
Running time -- 108 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
With appealing star performances from Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney, this charmer should attract very fine days at the boxoffice. It's not hard to conjure up Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant or elements of such classics as "His Girl Friday" or "The Awful Truth" when viewing this smartly pedigreed movie. It's high praise to group Pfeiffer and Clooney in that league, but their crustily silken performances are delightfully enticing.
In this present-day scenario, they're both harried divorcees, single- parent/professionals who are thrust into one not-so-fine day in which both their professional and personal lives are stretched to the limits. She's Melanie, an architect with a career-making presentation; he's Jack, a newspaper columnist whose job hinges on clearing up a controversial column he did linking the mayor with organized crime.
They're thrust together through their kids -- he has a girl, she a boy -- when, owing to the overstretched natures of their modern lives and a string of circumstances, they find themselves not only battling their big-day battles but having to bring their elementary-age kids along with them. For their mutual benefit, they agree on a kid-sharing plan -- she watches them during his critical press conference while he takes them during her architectural presentation.
Unlike the traditional screwball comedy formula where the male was the repressed straight-arrow and the female was the wacky free spirit who loosens him up, the straight man here is Melanie, whose compulsive organizational traits put her at odds with Jack's breezy nonchalance. She thrives on order, he thrives on chaos; and in the baffling chemistry of romance, opposites-attract sparks start to fly.
Perhaps the only flaw in this well-wrought romance is that the sparks start a little prematurely. Although we readily see their differences, scenes of each character grudgingly, or surprisingly, admiring the other are scant and other than the characters' surface physical desirability, their emotional attraction is somewhat underdeveloped and unconvincing.
Still, niggling aside, screenwriters Terrel Seltzer and Ellen Simon have concocted a brainy, madcap amusement with decidedly sympathetic characters. The certain proof -- you root for these two to get together.
The supporting characters are a terrific blend of sweet and sassy types. In particular, both kids, Mae Whitman and Alex D. Linz, are adorable, regular-type tots with no gloss of Hollywood sheen. On the adult side, Charles Durning is perfect as Jack's gruff, big-hearted editor, while sports scribe Pete Hamill is creatively cast as a spacey, perceptive land developer.
With his hand expertly on the narrative accelerator, director Michael Hoffman has fashioned a fast-paced, warm-hearted movie. With a frothy mix of wipes and split screens, as well as a keen eye for visual hilarity, Hoffman has cut a near-perfect crystalline comedy.
ONE FINE DAY
20th Century Fox
Fox 2000 Pictures presents
a Lynda Obst production
in association with Via Rosa Prods.
A Michael Hoffman film
Producer Lynda Obst
Director Michael Hoffman
Screenwriters Terrel Seltzer, Ellen Simon
Executive producers Kate Guinzburg,
Michelle Pfeiffer
Director of photography Oliver Stapleton
Production design David Gropman
Editor Garth Craven
Co-producer Mary McLaglen
Music James Newton Howard
Costume design Susie DeSanto
Casting Lora Kennedy
Special visual effects by VIFX
VIFX visual effects supervisor
Richard Hollander
Sound mixer Petur Hliddal
Color/stereo
Cast:
Melanie Parker Michelle Pfeiffer
Jack Taylor George Clooney
Maggie Taylor Mae Whitman
Sammy Parker Alex D. Linz
Lew Charles Durning
Yates Jr. Jon Roin Baitz
Elaine Lieberman Ellen Greene
Manny Feldstein Joe Frifasi
Frank Burroughs Pete Hamill
Running time -- 108 minutes
MPAA rating: PG...
- 12/2/1996
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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