By Nate Bloom
Contributing Columnist
Two New Horror on Film/TV; Jacobs Opens; Surprise Musicians, and More
“They Will Kill You,” opens in theaters on March 27. It is tagged as a “horror-comedy-action” film. Zazie Beetz plays Asia, an ex-convict who has just got a housekeeping job in a fancy NYC building. Most of the residents are creeps who are looking to turn Asia into this month’s human sacrifice. PATRICIA ARQUETTE, 57, plays an important leader of the nasty residents.
“Marc by Sofia” also opens on March 27. The title is a cute way of saying that Sofia Coppola has directed a “bio-pic” about the life and career of MARC JACOBS, 62, an iconic fashion designer.
Jacobs grew-up in a secular Jewish home. His childhood was hard: his father, a talent agent, died when he was six. His mother was mentally ill and she married three more times. Fortunately, his paternal grandfather took him in when he was a teen.
Jacobs overcame these difficulties. His design talent showed remarkably early. He was only 24 when a “top” fashion line bearing his name was marketed (1986) and he won a major fashion award for that line (1987).
There have been many ups and downs in Jacobs’ career, and I can’t cover them all here. Overall, he is doing “just fine” — His much admired house in Rye, N.Y., was designed (1955) by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. His leather “totes” begin at $395.00 and they are selling — and so are many other Jacobs products.
“Something Very Bad is Going to Happen” premiered on Netflix on March 26. It is described as a limited honor series. All eight episodes “dropped” on the 26th. Here’s the ‘official’ premise: Rachel Harkin and Nicky Cunningham are engaged to be married in a week. Before they can tie the knot, though, something very bad happens to get in the way.
The trailers don’t really tell us much. I gather that JENNIFER JASON LEIGH, 64, plays Victoria, Nicky’s mother, and TED LEVINE, 68, plays Nicky’s father, Boris Cunningham.
Ted Levine’s parents were doctors. His father was Jewish and his mother was not. The actor is best known as the horrific “Buffalo Bill” in “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991).
I am guessing that Jules Cunningham is a brother of Nicky. Jules is played by JEFF WILBUSCH, 38. This actor has a very unusual background. He was born in Haifa, Israel, and grew-up in a Hasidic Satmar community in Jerusalem. He was the oldest of 14 children and Yiddish was his first language.
He received a masters’ degree (2011) in economics in Amsterdam and then turned to acting. He’s become fairly well-known by playing Jewish characters in intelligent films and series (“Unorthodox,” 2020, a Netflix original; “Oslo,” 2021 an HBO original film; and “The Calling,” 2022, an original limited Peacock series).
COUNTRY JOE McDONALD, a famous folk-rock musician, died on March 7. He was 86. He is best known for “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag,” an anti-Vietnam war song that he wrote and performed. (Their famous Woodstock performance of this song is online. Enter the song’s name in a search engine).
Joe’s band was called Country Joe and the Fish. The Fish was the nickname of BARRY MELTON, now 78. Joe and Barry were born 3,000 miles apart. But they had remarkably similar backgrounds. Their fathers were “WASPs” and their mothers were Jewish. The four parents were totally secular and very left-wing (Joe’s parents were Communists until about 1955).
Few know that McDonald enlisted in the Navy (age 17) in 1959 and that he served three years. Years later, the “anti-war guy” did benefits for troubled Vietnam War vets. Melton studied law in the late ‘70s and he still practices. Among other things, he was the chief public defender for Yolo County, near Sacramento. He also continued to make music, mostly with Country Joe.
I wrote about “The Gray House,” an original Amazon mini-series that premiered on Feb. 26. All 8 episodes have been released. The series focuses on a small group of upper-class Southern white women who opposed slavery and helped the Union.
Sadly, I agree with most critics. Variety said: “Though sprawling and highly detailed, [it] becomes so clunky and overrun with extraneous characters and narratives that the women at its center nearly get lost in the chaos.”
“Gray House” has one Jewish character: JUDAH BENJAMIN, the Confederate Sec. of State. Bad sources say that President John Quincy Adams said this about the pro-slavery Benjamin: “He is a Hebrew with Egyptian principles.”
Actually, Adams actually said this about David Yulee, a Florida Senator, and a 2nd cousin of Benjamin. Yulee was very pro-slavery. (Yulee converted away early in his career.)
Thought: At your seder, talk about current “Hebrews with Egyptian principles.”
