The Lost Son of Havana couldn’t be more relevant, what with the return of baseball and recent overtures by President Obama to Cuba to relax travel restrictions. This documentary depicts the return to Havana after 46 years of Luis Tiant, El Tiante the great, colorful Boston Red Sox pitcher of the ‘70s. Still with his trademark handlebar moustache (now white) and ever-present cigar, we journey with him back to Havana to his old neighborhood, to reunite with surviving relatives and old teammates from Cuban national teams. The dreary streets, the ramshackle houses, the vintage ‘50s cars, and the lack of stores along row houses is appalling. There are no pharmacies or supermarkets. We also get to look back at his magnificent baseball career, topped by being able to pitch in the World Series in front of his father, a great star in the Negro Leagues, permitted by Castro to leave Cuba in 1975 to watch his son at baseball’s pinnacle.
Every Little Step is another wonderful documentary but of a different sort; it’s the filmed record of the arduous audition process which went into the revival of A Chorus Line on Broadway two years ago. Bob Avian, who directed and co-choreographed the original production, is one of the talking heads reminiscing about the birth of what would become one of the greatest, most enduring musicals in Broadway history. Composer Marvin Hamlisch recalls how it was Marsha Mason who changed a vital element of the book of the show after she came by to see it down at the Public Theater. Donna McKechnie recalls the sessions with creator Michael Bennett in which she and the other original cast members poured out their heartfelt reminiscences growing up, finding themselves, and becoming Broadway “gypsies.” Most interesting is Baayork Lee, the show’s original “Connie” who is on the casting committee this time around, trying to find the perfect singer/dancer to portray her character and retell her own life. The filmmakers initially followed 400 of the more than 3,000 dancers who answered the first casting call, and eventually narrowed their focus down to a handful. You feel you’re in the casting process, given the chance to present the professional break of a lifetime to a very few aspirants, but also having to send away hundreds of others with your thanks, but with their hopes temporarily dashed. It’s exhilarating and those songs will be rattling around your head for days to come.
Little Ashes is one of those movies whose reach exceeds its grasp. It’s set in Spain in the early 1920’s, some 15 years before the bloody civil war, which would be a dress rehearsal for World War II. The story centers on three young university students; one is the future movie director Luis Bunuel, the second the brilliant surrealist Salvador Dali, and the third Spain’s greatest modern playwright Federico Garcia Lorca. Each had a different outlook on life, but a common bond of friendship. The movie postulates that a passionate romance took place between Dali and Lorca, something that has never been authenticated and is only explained in the movie as being something Dali proclaimed late in his life. But the problem with the movie is its casting. English actor Robert Pattinson quickly rose to fame last year in Twilight, setting teenage girls’ hearts atwitter. But casting him as Dali was absurd. To paraphrase Sen. Lloyd Bensten in his famous vice presidential debate with Dan Quayle in 1988, I knew Dali. Salvador Dali was a friend of mine. And young Mr. Pattinson is no Salvador Dali. Otherwise, the movie is full of endless prattle.
But Easy Virtue, based on a 1924 silent movie written by Noel Coward and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is a continual delight. Jessica Biel plays a feisty American race car driver who’s suddenly married into a rich English family. Her husband, portrayed by Ben Barnes, seems blissfully unaware of his family’s gathering economic woes and wants only to make her happy. Others in this exquisite cast include Kristin Scott Thomas as Barnes’ mother and Colin Firth as his sardonic father, still somewhat shell-shocked from the trenches in World War I. Biel acquits herself well among the English actors, and you get a sense of a disappearing lifestyle of between-the-wars decadence with the Depression and another war lurking.
Outrage is a shocking documentary about gay politicians who live double lives; voting against gays in the military, gay adoption, same sex marriage and other issues involving gay rights. Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho, former Rep. Mark Foley of Florida, and former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey are a few of those either interviewed or seen in shocking news clips. Mike Rogers, who runs a blog outing conservatives who vote against gay rights, is seen gathering evidence against the hypocrites. Michaelangelo Signorile, an author and radio talk show host, outed Malcolm Forbes after Forbes’s death, and tells us he saw how the gossip world “glamorized heterosexuality” but that lies used to be put out about gay celebrities. The film is provocative and its conclusions will stir debate. Rogers quotes openly gay Rep. Barney Frank: “The reason people hate gay people is that their leaders tell them to.” And we’re told that Reagan had many closeted gays in his administration, like Terry Dolan, who propped up virulent anti-gay legislators. This is an amazing film.
Jeffrey Lyons has been a film critic since 1970 and has reviewed nearly 15,000 movies and 3,000 plays. He is the son of Leonard Lyons, whose Broadway column, “The Lyons Den,” was the most respected of its day (1934–1974). Lyons is the critic at WNBC-TV, is seen on 200 NBC stations, and also co-hosts Reel Talk, NBC’s new nationally syndicated movie show.
His “Lyons Den” radio reports are heard on more than 100 stations nationwide.
