Not Quite 74 Reasons to Love Billy Crystal

No one can deny that Billy Crystal is a big-time comedy legend. After a career lasting for nearly half a century, he continues to make audiences laugh, or as he would say “fool” them. (His book “Still Foolin ‘Em: Where I’ve Been, Where I’m Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys?” published in 2013.) In honor of the fact that his 74th birthday was last Monday, March 14th, 2022, and to commemorate April 20th, 2022 Broadway opening of his new musical Mr. Saturday Night (based on the 1992 film), I thought today we could explore reasons why Billy Crystal is one of the world’s most beloved comedians.

• His movies (The Princess Bride (1987), When Harry Met Sally (1989), and City Slickers (1991)) are classics and have huge followings.
• Whenever he tells a joke, you can always sense his passion and emotion within the joke; it always gets a laugh. 
• He’s an exceptional impressionist, known for his impressions of Muhammad Ali and Fernando Lamas. 
• He lent his voice to Mike Wazowski in Monsters, Inc. (2001) and Monsters University (2013), making Mike Wazowski one of Pixar’s most endearing characters.
• He helped raised money for homeless people in the United States when he co-hosted the HBO Program Comic Relief in 1986, with good friends Whoopi Goldberg and the late-great Robin Williams.
• His original aspiration before becoming a stand-up comedian was to be New York Yankee, but he never achieved that dream until his 60th birthday, March 14th, 2008, when he signed a one-day contract with them. Clearly, that’s a reminder that it’s never too late to pursue your lifelong dream.
• Most of the characters he’s played on screen have clever sarcastic sides. (I.e. “Mike Wazowski,” “Harry Burns,” and “Mitch Robbins.”)
• He’s a jack or a “Billy” of all trades, having co-written, co-produced and directed four movies: Mr. Saturday Night (1992), Forget Paris (1995), 61 (2001), and Here Today (2021).
• He’s appeared in every medium of entertainment, Broadway (700 Sundays in 2004 and Mr. Saturday Night in 2022), Television (Soap (1977-1981)), Film (“Princess Bride” “City Slickers”and also Analyze This (1999)), and he’s also written books, including his memoir Still Foolin’ Em in 2013. He’s also written Children’s books, I Already Know I Love You in 2004 and Grandpa’s Little One in 2006. 
• He’s hosted the Oscars nine times: 1990, 1991, ’92, ’93, ’97, ’98, ’00, ’04, ’12. That’s 2nd place under Bob Hope who’s did it 19 times.
• Throughout his career he’s collaborated with some great people: In “Princess Bride,” and “When Harry Met Sally,” he was directed by Rob Reiner, and he co-starred with Bruno Kirby in “When Harry Met Sally,” and “City Slickers.” He also co-starred with David Paymer in “City Slickers,” and “Mr. Saturday Night.” Crystal’s direction of “Saturday Night,” earned Paymer a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his performance as Crystal’s on-screen brother, Stan, and both Crystal and Paymer will be reuniting in the upcoming Broadway musical production of “Saturday Night.”
• Billy is someone who takes all of our collective emotion and helps us laugh even when it hurts.

All in all, Billy Crystal is a great comedian, period. He’s had a remarkable career in Hollywood and he’s clearly showing no signs of slowing down. It’s difficult to determine whether his most iconic role is Harry Burns in “When Harry Met Sally,” Miracle Max in “Princess Bride,” or Mike Wazowski in “Monsters, Inc.” Or perhaps his best contribution is as the second most frequent host of the Oscars. Even if it’s all of the above, there’s no question his sense of humor has been a wonderful gift to the entire world.

Review: "Turning Red"

Domee Shi first began her career at Pixar, interning as a storyboard artist in 2011. Her first Pixar film credit was as a storyboard artist on the Oscar-winning Inside Out (2015), written and directed by Pete Docter, her mentor. She was also credited for her work on The Good Dinosaur (2015), Incredibles 2 (2018), and Toy Story 4 (2019). During her time on “Inside Out,” Shi pitched to Docter the idea for the shot film Bao (2018), about a dumpling magically coming to life. He approved the project, making Shi the very first woman to direct a short film for Pixar. “Bao” won the Oscar for Best Short Film Animated, a fact that led Docter to approve her first feature film project, Turning Red, which was released on Disney+ on March 11th, 2022. Here’s my review of “Turning Red.”

“Turning Red,” is the story of 13-year-old Meilin Lee, who lives in Toronto with her family  in a temple that they all help take care of in tribute to their late ancestor, Sun Yee. Meilin is close to her family, though her mother, Ming Lee, is overprotective and expects her daughter to be perfect all the time. The stress she endures from her mother, the excitement of her first crush in school—maintaining her friendships with school mates Abby, Miriam, and Priya—ultimately cause Meilin to magically transform into a giant Red Panda. It continues to endure throughout the film whenever she experiences strong feelings of emotion, and leads to her learning about her family’s remarkable connection to Red Pandas.

Domee Shi based “Turning Red,” on her own real-life upbringing in Toronto. As a 13-year-old-, Shi never turned into a Red Panda, but in the Disney+ Documentary Embracing the Panda: Making Turning Red (2022), you’ll hear her talk about how she had an overprotective mother and how being 13 was a “turbulent” time in her life. Back then, she also binge-watched anime shows, i.e.: Ramma 1/2 (1986-1997), Sailor Moon (1992-1997), Inuyasha (1996-2008) and Fruits Basket (1998-2006), which influenced the looks of the movie. Shi’s movie is inspiring because it acknowledges how the stress in life often brings out the monster in all of us, and we often don’t know to handle it, especially teenagers. I can certainly identify with that for being on the Autism Spectrum.

“Turning Red,” is in a sense, a more mature “Inside Out,” except it’s not about the emotions within, it’s about dealing with stress in life that causes us to have the emotions within.  As human beings we might struggle to be a certain way, and there might be things in life that we desperately want, but ultimately we have to accept that life doesn’t always work out exactly how we want it to. Hopefully, we can learn to embrace every side of ourselves, and will have family and close friends to help us through, exactly what Meilin has.

“Turning Red’s” voice cast includes newcomer Rosalie Chiang as the voice of Meilin and Emmy Nominee Sandra Oh as Ming Lee. The voice cast also includes Orion Lee as Mei’s father Jin Lee, Ava Morse, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Hyein Park respectively as Miriam, Priya, and Abby, and James Hong as the Lee’s neighbor, Mr. Gao. (Fun Fact: James Hong and Sandra Oh both voiced characters in Disney’s Mulan franchise: Hong voiced Chi-Fu, the Emperor’s Royal Advisor, in Mulan (1998) and Oh voiced Ting-Ting, Ling’s love interest in the direct-to-video sequel Mulan 2 (2004)). “Turning Red’s” music was scored by Ludwig Goransson who won the Best Original Score Oscar for scoring Marvel’s Black Panther (2018). The film’s Production Design was done by Rona Liu who also collaborated with Domee Shi on the production designing for “Bao.”

All in all, “Turning Red,” is a great movie. It’s one of the best animated films that I’ve seen in a really long time as well as being quite inspirational. As someone on the Autism Spectrum, I can relate to putting pressure on one’s self to be perfect all the time. This movie made me feel inspired to embrace my imperfect side and to not fear messing up. I imagine this movie can do the same for you to, whether you’re on the Autism Spectrum or not. 

   

 

 

Review: "The Batman"

This past weekend, Robert Pattinson donned the bat suit in Warner Bros. The Batman (2022), the next addition in a very long line. Bob Kane and Bill Finger co-created Batman in the 27th issue of the comic book Detective Comics on March 30th, 1939. 27 years later, the “caped crusader” was incarnated into television on Fox/ABC’s sit-com Batman (1966-1968), of course portrayed by Adam West. Michael Keaton portrayed him 23 years later in Tim Burton’s Batman film released in 1989. In addition to West, Keaton, and Pattinson, Batman has had other incarnations: Val Kilmer in Batman Forever (1995), George Clooney in Batman & Robin (1997) and by Oscar-Winner Christian Bale in The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005-2012). And let’s not forget Kevin Conroy voiced Batman in Warner Bros. Batman: The Animated Series airing on television from 1992-1995. Here’s my review of the latest take on Batman.

When Edward Nashton, otherwise known as “The Riddler,” begins murdering political figures in Gotham City and leaving riddles to solve them, Batman joins forces with Selina Kyla, aka “Catwoman” and Commissioner James Gordon to sniff out and stop The Riddler. Things get more complicated for Batman, however, when his alter ego, Bruce Wayne, discovers that the Riddler has evidence acknowledging that Bruce’s deceased parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne, weren’t always the decent human beings Gotham City believed them to be. It turns out that Martha suffered from mental illness and Thomas hired someone to murder a journalist who was going to reveal the condition, hurting Thomas’s chances of being elected mayor. (This even leads him to reconnecting with another old nemesis, Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot, aka “The Pengquin.”) Overcome with confusion by the Riddler’s riddles, Batman struggles to find hope within his own life (all the while reconnecting with another old nemesis, Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot…aka “The Penguin.”)

Directed by Matt Reeves (Director of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)) and co-written by Reeves and Peter Craig (writer of The Town (2010) and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and 2 (2014-2015)) this film is extremely dark and confusing. It’s also quite scary at times. Compared to “The Dark Knight” trilogy, however, it’s hard to know which is darker, but it does manage to be entertaining from the perspective of a comic book movie. And one can appreciate Bruce Wayne’s sentiment in the film of not wanting to give up hope, despite having to accept complicated/hurtful truths sometimes.

This film’s supporting cast is tip-top from Zoe Kravitz as Selina Kyle, to Colin Farrell as the Penguin, to Paul Dano as the Riddler, to Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon, they all deliver exceptional performances. The film was co-produced by Reeves and Dylan Clark who also produced “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” and “War for the Planet of the Apes.” The film’s Cinematography was done by Greig Fraser who received Oscar nominations for the Cinematography for Lion (2016) and was nominated this year for Dune: Part One (2021). The music was composed by Michael Giacchino who also composed Marvel’s Spiderman: No Way Home (2021) and the costumes were designed by Two-time-Oscar-Winner Jacqueline Durran who won Oscars for Anna Karenina (2012) and Little Women (2019), though Robert Pattinson’s bat suit was co-designed designed by David Crossman and Glyn Dillon.

Robert Pattinson is the youngest actor every to portray Batman on the big screen and what makes his performance special is that he makes the “caped crusader” more human. Although the villains he faces are diabolical in every sense of the term, Batman/Bruce Wayne himself also is an arrogant schmuck who thinks he was born into the perfect life, Batman himself uncovers his own arrogance. As someone who thinks he was born into the perfect life with perfect parents, feeling that he lost them too soon makes him bent on revenge. This film is his discovery that his family was anything but perfect, and he needs to let go of his desire for vengeance and become hopeful, bringing that hope into Gotham City.

All in all, “The Batman,” is an intense but well-made movie. The intensity does make it hard to process but ultimately it carries an overall positive message. I would recommend it if you enjoy comic book movies, but I wouldn’t rank it as one of my all-time favorite movies of 2022.