Fans of Robert Duvall are mourning his passing on Sunday February 15 at age 95. The star of films including 1962’s To Kill a Mockingbird (he played Boo Radley), Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H, and Network began his career on stage, then working alongside fellow icons Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman. In the 1970s and ’80s, Robert Duvall was a big-screen mainstay, even winning the Academy Award in 1983 for his role as a down-on-his-luck country singer in Tender Mercies.
Below, find 28 images that barely scratch the surface of his epic career.
By the time I reached the fourth grade, Diane Keaton had already cemented herself as my preferred romantic heroine. Snow White and The Sound of Music’s Maria von Trapp paled in comparison to Erica Barry, the 50-something divorced playwright at the center of Nancy Meyers’s Something’s Gotta Give (2003)—coincidentally, one of the four DVDs my now 80-year-old grammy owned in the pre-streaming era.
Even in my prepubescent state (or perhaps because of it), something about Keaton’s version of falling in love in the movies resonated. Maybe it was the way she so openly resented Jack Nicholson’s aging playboy, Harry. While laid up in her Hamptons home after a heart attack, Harry asks Erica, “What’s with the turtlenecks?” She curtly replies: “I like ’em. I’ve always liked ’em, and I’m just a turtleneck kind of gal,” flippantly waving her hands in a way that’s always stuck with me. He then wants to know if she ever gets hot—and all that implies. “No,” Keaton’s character snaps, dismissively adding, “Not lately.” But there is also a hint of possibility—something Erica allows herself to express in the play she’s writing, but not the life she’s living.
Later in the film, the shedding of that same article of clothing signifies Erica’s sexual reawakening. “Cut it off,” she tells Harry, handing him a pair of scissors so he can slice open the beige turtleneck from navel to neck. With each inch of skin revealed, she breathes a little easier. “Erica, you are a woman to love,” Nicholson’s character rasps. And so was the woman who played her. “Diane Keaton, arguably the most covered up person in the history of clothes, is also a transparent woman,” as Meryl Streeponce put it. “There’s nobody who stands more exposed, more undefended, and just willing to show herself inside and out than Diane.”
Diane Keaton, the Oscar-winning star of “Annie Hall,” “The Godfather” films and “Father of the Bride,” whose quirky, vibrant manner and depth made her one of the most singular actors of a generation, has died. She was 79.
People Magazine reported Saturday that she died in California with loved ones, citing a family spokesperson. No other details were immediately available, and representatives for Keaton did not immediately respond to inquiries from The Associated Press.
The unexpected news was met with shock around the world.
“She was hilarious, a complete original, and completely without guile, or any of the competitiveness one would have expected from such a star. What you saw was who she was…oh, la, lala!,” Bette Midler said in a post on Instagram. She and Keaton co-starred in “The First Wives Club.”
Keaton was the kind of actor who helped make films iconic and timeless, from her “La-dee-da, la-dee-da” phrasing as Annie Hall, bedecked in that necktie, bowler hat, vest and khakis, to her heartbreaking turn as Kay Adams, the woman unfortunate enough to join the Corleone family.
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Her star-making performances in the 1970s, many of which were in Woody Allen films, were not a flash in the pan either, and she would continue to charm new generations for decades thanks in part to a longstanding collaboration with filmmaker Nancy Meyers.
She played a businessperson who unexpectedly inherits an infant in “Baby Boom,” the mother of the bride in the beloved remake of “Father of the Bride,” a newly single woman in “The First Wives Club,” and a divorced playwright who gets involved with Jack Nicholson’s music executive in “Something’s Gotta Give.”
Keaton won her first Oscar for “Annie Hall” and would go on to be nominated three more times, for “Reds,” “Marvin’s Room” and “Something’s Gotta Give.”
Keaton was born Diane Hall in January 1946 in Los Angeles, though her family was not part of the film industry she would find herself in. Her mother was a homemaker and photographer, and her father was in real estate and civil engineering.
Keaton was drawn to theater and singing while in school in Santa Ana, California, and she dropped out of college after a year to make a go of it in Manhattan. Actors’ Equity already had a Diane Hall in their ranks, and she took Keaton, her mother’s maiden name, as her own.
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She studied under Sanford Meisner in New York and has credited him with giving her the freedom to “chart the complex terrain of human behavior within the safety of his guidance. It made playing with fire fun.”
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“More than anything, Sanford Meisner helped me learn to appreciate the darker side of behavior,” she wrote in her 2012 memoir, “Then Again.” “I always had a knack for sensing it but not yet the courage to delve into such dangerous, illuminating territory.”
She started on the stage as an understudy in the Broadway production for “Hair,” and in Allen’ s “Play It Again, Sam” in 1968, for which she would receive a Tony nomination. And yet she remained deeply self-conscious about her appearance and battled bulimia in her 20s.
Becoming a star with “The Godfather” and Woody Allen
Keaton made her film debut in the 1970 romantic comedy “Lovers and Other Strangers,” but her big breakthrough would come a few years later when she was cast in Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather,” which won best picture and become one of the most beloved films of all time. And yet even she hesitated to return for the sequel, though after reading the script she decided otherwise.
She summed up her role as Kay, a “role she never related to” even though she savored memories of acting with Al Pacino.
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The 1970s were an incredibly fruitful time for Keaton thanks in part to her ongoing collaboration with Allen in both comedic and dramatic roles. She appeared in “Sleeper,” “Love and Death,” “Interiors,” Manhattan,” “Manhattan Murder Mystery” and the film version of “Play it Again, Sam.”
Allen and the late Marshall Brickman gave Keaton one of her most iconic roles in “Annie Hall,” the infectious woman from Chippewa Falls whom Allen’s Alvy Singer cannot get over. The film is considered one of the great romantic comedies of all time, with Keaton’s eccentric, self-deprecating Annie at its heart.
In the New York Times, critic Vincent Canby wrote, “As Annie Hall, Miss Keaton emerges as Woody Allen’s Liv Ullman. His camera finds beauty and emotional resources that somehow escape the notice of other directors. Her Annie Hall is a marvelous nut.”
She acknowledged parallels between Annie Hall and real life, while also downplaying them.
“My last name is Hall. Woody and I did share a significant romance, according to me, anyway,” she wrote. “I did want to be a singer. I was insecure, and I did grope for words.”
Keaton and Allen were also in a romantic relationship, from about 1968, when she met him while auditioning for his play, until about 1974. Afterward they remained collaborators and friends.
“He was so hip, with his thick glasses and cool suits,” Keaton wrote in her memoir. “But it was his manner that got me, his way of gesturing, his hands, his coughing and looking down in a self-deprecating way while he told jokes.”
She was also romantically linked to Pacino, who played her husband in “The Godfather,” and Warren Beatty who directed her and whom she co-starred with in “Reds.” She never married but did adopt two children when she was in her 50s: a daughter, Dexter, and a son, Duke.
“I figured the only way to realize my number-one dream of becoming an actual Broadway musical comedy star was to remain an adoring daughter. Loving a man, a man, and becoming a wife, would have to be put aside,” she wrote in the memoir.
“The names changed, from Dave to Woody, then Warren, and finally Al. Could I have made a lasting commitment to them? Hard to say. Subconsciously I must have known it could never work, and because of this they’d never get in the way of achieving my dreams.”
When Keaton met Nancy Meyers
Not all of Keaton’s roles were home runs, like her foray into action in George Roy Hill’s John le Carré adaptation of “Little Drummer Girl.” But in 1987 she’d begin another long-standing collaboration with Nancy Meyers, which would result in four beloved films. Reviews for that first outing, “Baby Boom,” directed by Charles Shyer, might have been mixed at the time but Pauline Kael even described Keaton’s as a “glorious comedy performance that rides over many of the inanities.”
Their next team-up would be in the remake of “Father of the Bride,” which Shyer directed and co-wrote with Meyers. She and Steve Martin played the flustered parents to the bride which would become a big hit and spawn a sequel.
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In 2003, Meyers would direct her in “Something’s Gotta Give,” a romantic comedy in which she begins a relationship with a playboy womanizer, played by Jack Nicholson, while also being pursued by a younger doctor, played by Keanu Reeves. Her character Erica Barry, with her beautiful Hamptons home and ivory outfits was a key inspiration for the recent costal grandmother fashion trend. It earned her what would be her last Oscar nomination and, later, she’d call it her favorite film.
She also directed occasionally, with works including an episode of “Twin Peaks,” a Belinda Carlisle music video and the sister dramedy “Hanging Up,” which she co-wrote with Delia Ephron and starred in alongside Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow.
Keaton continued working steadily throughout the 2000s, with notable roles in “The Family Stone,” as a dying matriarch reluctant to give her ring to her son, in “Morning Glory,” as a morning news anchor, and the “Book Club” films.
She wrote several books as well, including memoirs “Then Again” and “Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty,” and an art and design book, “The House that Pinterest Built.”
“I feel like it’s the wedding I never had, or the big gathering I never had, or the retirement party I never had, or all these things that I always avoided – the big bash,” she said. “It’s really a big event for me and I’m really, deeply grateful.”
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In 2022, she “cemented” her legacy with a hand and footprint ceremony outside the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, with her children looking on.
“I don’t think about my film legacy,” she said at the event. “I’m just lucky to have been here at all in any way, shape or form. I’m just fortunate. I don’t see myself anything other than that.”
Over the course of her career, Diane Keaton also won a BAFTA Award, two Golden Globes (Annie Hall and 2003’s Something’s Gotta Give) , and a Tony Award, among other honors. She was also well known as a style icon for her trendsetting mix of traditionally masculine garb in unexpected proportions. “When you think of Diane, you think of these great pieces of clothing,” designer Michael Korssaid of Keaton in 2014.
Diane Keaton on May 01, 2021 in Los Angeles,
BG004/Bauer-Griffin
Keaton was also a photographer and writer, penning memoirs Then Again, Brother & Sister, and Let’s Just Say It Wasn’t Pretty. Speaking with Vanity Fair in support of the latter book, Keaton said that her most marked characteristic was “Insecurity in conjunction with ambition.” When asked what her favorite occupation was, she responded “Seeing. As Walker Evans said, ‘Look! We don’t have that much time.’”
Nothing is better to toast the twilight of summer than these easy cocktails.
Summer fun is dwindling, but there is a three day weekend to celebrate and enjoy the last bits. Whether at a bbq, camping or just hanging at the house, these are the best cocktails for a fun Labor Day weekend. The holiday was an organized to celebrate the working man. As labor and union movements grew, their leaders proposed that day celebrate labor. Oregon was the first state ti make it an official public holiday. And when it became a federal holiday in 1894, 30 states had recognized it and made it a thing. Now you can kick back and enjoy a cool drink and a relaxing three day weekend!
While it is a huge travel weekend, not everyone can slip away. But this cocktail will let you mentally escape to the tropics. It is said it was concocted in 1944, according to Victor Jules Bergeron, aka Trader Vic, the owner of a tiki restaurant of the same name and one of the founders of tiki culture. Apparently he took a flavorful Jamaican rum and needed to mix it with something, so he took a fresh lime, some orange curaçao, a dash of rock candy sugar, and a bit of French orgeat syrup. He shook the mixture with shaved ice, placed half the lime shell on top of the drink and added a branch of mint to it to represent an island. The guest tasted it and declared, “Mai Tai-Roa Aé,” which means “Out of this world-the best” in Tahitian. There is where he decided to call the drink Mai Tai. Here is an easy version to enjoy.
Ingredients
1cupice cubes
3fluid ouncespineapple juice
2fluid ouncesorange juice
1(1.5 fluid ounce) jiggerspiced rum
½(1.5 fluid ounce) jiggercoconut-flavored rum
1teaspoongrenadine syrup
1 Maraschino cherry
Create
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice cubes
Combine pineapple juice, orange juice, spiced rum, coconut rum, and grenadine in the shaker then shake vigorously
Strain into a glass full of ice
Add cherry for garnish
The Amazon
Soju is Korea’s most iconic and consumed alcohol. While the average Korean downs 53 bottles a year, it is just becoming popular in the US and Canada. Made from distilled grains, it has 12 to 25 percent ABV (although there are stronger ones). It’s the best-selling liquor in the world, with 100 million nine-liter cases sold in 2022, which out-sold Smirnoff vodka. This is a popular drink in cities across North America and named after the company whose employees made it so.
Known as the working man drink, what better thing to drink this weekend? It’s believed the drink was named after the 1860s folk song “La Paloma,” Spanish for “the dove.” And who doesn’t need a little peace after a long day’s at work?
“I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse, a delicious, strong drink which will make you forget about the fall. The Godfather can deliver the goods with its namesake cocktail. It peaked in the 70s and 80s, but still delivers the goods.
Ingredients
2ouncesblended scotch or bourbon
1/4ounceamaretto
Create
Fill a mixing glass 2/3 full of ice. Add the scotch and amaretto and stir until well-chilled.
Strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice.
Sip into the weekend with these drinks and have a great time.
In his vast career, Francis Ford Coppola has made masterpieces (Apocalypse Now, The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, The Conversation), cult classics (Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Outsiders), and curious whatsits (The Godfather Part III, Peggy Sue Got Married). Which will Megalopolisbe? While the world waits to see the movie he’s had on his mind for decades, the writer-director is giving fans a few crumbs to go on.
Giancarlo Esposito Talks About the Coppola Movie You Might Never See, Megalopolis
In a statement provided to Vanity Fair, along with a first-look image you can see in the magazine’s X post below, Coppola—who invested $120 million of his own money in the project, and just turned 85—gave some hope to sci-fi fans by noting Adam Driver’s character has the “power to stop time.” That’s Driver, who plays an “idealistic architect and artist planning to rebuild a city that has fallen to ruins” and Game of Thrones’ Nathalie Emmanuel, who plays the daughter of the city’s corrupt mayor (Giancarlo Esposito) and who falls in love with Driver’s character, in the photo.
So we have a dystopian city, and a character who can “stop time” (literally or metaphorically?), as well as a cast that also includes Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne, Jason Schwartzman, and others. In his statement to Vanity Fair, Coppola outlined the influences he drew on in the 40-something years he was dreaming of making Megalopolis, including 1936 sci-fi classic Things to Come, adapted by H.G. Wells himself from his book The Shape of Things to Come. “[It’s about building the world of tomorrow, and has always been with me, first as the ‘boy scientist’ I was and later as a filmmaker,” Coppola told the magazine.
He also refers to his movie as “a Roman epic set in modern America,” tying in both ancient history and more recent New York City moments, as wide-ranging as September 11 and “the antics of Studio 54.” He did that “so that everything in my story would be true and did happen either in modern New York or in ancient Rome. To that I added everything I had ever read or learned about.”
While we wonder what Megalopolis will be, here’s what Coppola said he hopes audiences will take away from it: “It’s my dream that Megalopolis will become a New Year’s Eve perennial favorite, with audiences discussing afterwards not their new diets or resolutions not to smoke, but rather this simple question: ‘Is the society in which we live the only one available to us?’”
Megalopolis will debut at the Cannes Film Festival next month; hopefully it’ll then make its way stateside for theaters and streaming.
It is cold outside for the majority of the country, so here are so treats to keep warm
The first severe cold front is sweeping the country and it is flat out freezing. When out in below 32 temperatures, the body begins to lose heat faster than produced. Prolonged exposure will eventually use up your body’s stored energy. The result is hypothermia, or abnormally low body temperature. So why risk it? Why not find your favorite brown water and huddle inside with friends, loved ones or your favorite flick.
These bourbons will keep you warm on a cold day.
Bib & Tucker Double Char
This bourbon is great to sit by the fireplace or fire pit and let the warm slowly move through your body. Inspired by the turn of the century, when food was cooked on the open flame, this new bourbon is aged twice to create savory smoky notes and an exceptionally smooth finish. A touch of smoke with immediate notes of toasted oak and delicious dulce de leche, is has a background notes of cinnamon and clove. This is a great combination on a wintery day.
Barrell Dovetail Bourbon
Feeling trapped inside by the ice, snow and temperatures, this bourbon will take you on an adventure. Dovetail is blended to highlight some of flavor. Woody bourbon; terroir driven Dunn Cabernet; toasted French oak; Late Bottled Vintage Port pipes; black strap molasses casks; all working in tandem to create a buttery and deep whiskey as unique as it is delicious. This is like wrapping yourself in a blanket while dozing up inside.
This is a double gold winner can chase the chill away as you bing your favorite shows. The Godfather, The Expanse, or The Fast and Furious. The lights a fire in your gut and keeps you warm all day and into the night. The sweetness of chef-grade white corn—the same kind used in Austin’s famous tortillas—complements the spiciness of our high-rye mash bill. Notes of apple, toasted coconut and other flavors will treat you taste buds and your mind savors a good film.
Bourbon’s popularity began rising in 2010 and, according to the Kentucky Distiller’s Association, bourbon production has increased by 495% since 1999. We talked to Charles at the Total Wine in Seattle and he had some great suggestions, Feel free to open a bottle, plop on the couch and enjoy a leisurely day staying warm with your favorite beverage.
It’s unclear who thought the premise of Mafia Mamma would be a “fire” idea, but the fact that Toni Collette co-produced it indicates that she was one of the script’s biggest proponents. And why shouldn’t she be, what with it miraculously making her both forty years old and of Italian descent? But these are the more minimal aspects that pertain to “suspending disbelief” throughout the movie. One of the maximal ones, however, is that Monica Bellucci consented to decimating her culture so willingly. Then again, maybe that’s to be expected from someone who was famously photographed by Bettina Rheims in 1995 with a bottle of ketchup positioned over her pasta. Ultimate sacrilege—until now.
Her participation in Mafia Mamma is particularly affronting because it gives further license to non-Italians who delight in the firm Italian stereotypes that can’t seem to be shaken (least of all with Super Mario Bros. making a comeback thanks to its latest film version). License to view Bellucci’s presence as a “sanction” to keep wielding all the worst clichés about Italians. But surely, one would think, even the most uncultured swine couldn’t take what’s depicted within the frames of Mafia Mamma to heart…right? But to overestimate people is to be inevitably disappointed. Something Kristin (Collette) knows all about after discovering her husband, Paul (Tim Daish), having an affair with her son Domenick’s (Tommy Rodger) guidance counselor, Tracy (Claire Palazzo, possibly cast for her Italian last name). This being among the many shoddy, hastily-developed and ill-conceived plot points…ones that screenwriters Michael J. Feldman and Debbie Jhoon ostensibly cease bothering with altogether after a certain amount of time. Because perhaps they figured something so “hilarious” would “write itself.”
To be sure, the “mafia comedy” is nothing new, with Married to the Mob and Analyze This (or even Some Like It Hot, for that matter) being the “exemplars” of the hijinks that can result when “comedic tones” are taken vis-à-vis the mob. Maybe Mafia Mamma wanted to attempt something similar, adding to a canon that already needed to die, and this surely ought to put the nail in the coffin of the genre. But, of course, it won’t. For there seems to be no desired end to the madness. No courage on anyone’s part to “take a hit out” on tired Italian stereotypes, least of all the mafia one.
In most cases, that’s because it’s too profitable, even for the Italians who sell their own kind down the river to keep perpetuating it (*cough cough* Bellucci). Mafia Mamma seemed to want desperately to cash in on that usual profitiability that comes from bored, middle-aged women romanticizing changing their lives by spontaneously moving to Italy and “getting their groove back.” Like Frances Mayes in Under the Tuscan Sun or Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat Pray Love—and yes, both books/movies are shamelessly mentioned. In addition to the horrifyingly revealed “tidbit” that Kristin masturbates to Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy. This being what her requisite “bestie,” Jenny (Sophia Nomvete), reminds her of when she has second thoughts about going to Calabria (though most of the shooting was done in Rome) to honor her grandfather at his funeral and help Bianca (Bellucci) settle his affairs (ones that will, naturally, be mafia-related).
But Jenny keeps bringing up Eat Pray Love, changing the title, oh so “groundbreakingly,” to Eat Pray Fuck. Even if it’s Under the Tuscan Sun tropes that Mamma Mafia borrows from more overtly. In point of fact, a key catalyst in Under the Tuscan Sun for Frances to move to Italy was her husband’s infidelity. So, needless to say, hackneyed premises and lazy representations abound—especially when Italian culture is involved. Cue the scene where Kristin is invited by Bianca to help her crush grapes in a barrel using the “foot method.” Bianca is sure to explain, “We have machines to crush grapes now, but this is the classic way.” Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) certainly immortalized that much back in 1956 with the I Love Lucy episode, “Lucy’s Italian Movie.” Which is hardly as offensive as dialogue like Bianca’s as she tells Kristin, “You must stomp on the grapes to release their juices, and you must also take over as the Balbano family boss.” That’s pretty much all it takes to get her to agree, along with the promise of the hard dick she’s been told to seek by Jenny. A man who materializes in the form of Lorenzo (Giulio Corso). But before she can “eat pray fuck” him, Bianca insists she meets with the new don of the Romano family, Carlo (Giuseppe Zeno).
Upon arriving at the restaurant to talk business/territorial restructuring, Kristin’s primary interests quickly become eating (gnocchi) and fucking (Carlo). Because, since it’s apparently been three years since she’s had sex, Kristin starts acting like a crazed nympho with pretty much any man she comes into contact with. Her “whoreish” ways soon serve as a cautionary tale about women daring to seek pleasure when Carlo proceeds to poison her drink of limoncello (because, again, the writers must dig deep to pull out every cliché from the hat, presumably a fedora). An attempt that predictably backfires on Carlo.
Worse still, as part of Bianca’s bid to easily persuade Kristin into taking over, she says that Fabrizio (Eduardo Scarpetta), Kristin’s eager cousin, is not fit because “he’s a hot-head with a terrible temper…just like Sonny.” “Who’s Sonny?” Kristin asks in confusion. Bianca looks at her incredulously and says, “From The Godfather.” As though an actual Italian would be affronted by someone never having seen it. But no, it’s Italian-Americans who would be, who actually still hold up the trilogy as some kind of badge of honor (to confirm, Mario Puzo was Italian-American). Kristin, wanting to understand that badge, later brings up the movie as she thinks about how far she’s sunk on the morality scale of late while bemoaning, “I’m a good person.” Bianca assures, “Of course you are, you make peace.” Kristin balks, “Yeah but at what cost? I feel like Michael Corleone.” “You saw the movie!” “No, I read the Wikipedia summary.” Ha-ha. Mafia Mamma provides so many “laughs” just like that one.
But another real laugh is Bianca telling Kristin, “Just because you’re a mafia boss doesn’t mean you have to be a bad person.” Surely, the words Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) always wanted to hear from Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco). But Kristin seems to believe it as she uses her power for “good” by trafficking in pharmaceuticals (a holdover from the job she ended up getting fired from back in America) to help communities get the medicine they otherwise wouldn’t be able to, what with European laws being much stricter about what kind of shit can be sold to people to put in their body.
So it is that she becomes the supposed “ideal” mob boss with her “male business acumen” and “feminine nurturing.” Alas, to throw a wrench into Kristin’s transformation and the shedding of her “old life,” Paul shows up initially claiming he misses her before her goons torture him into admitting, “After you lost your job, our joint bank account is empty.” Of course, there’s no explanation for why Kristin would be with Paul in the first place, he being a deadbeat musician without even having the courtesy to write jingles to make money like Mark Loring (Jason Bateman) in Juno.
Finally gaining the courage to toss him out for good with the help of Bianca, Kristin has still learned nothing from her mistakes with Paul by deciding to give up everything she’s built for Lorenzo (who, in the end, will be revealed as an undercover agent for the Antimafia Investigation Department—what a shock). The message that gets lost in the shuffle of over-the-top stereotypes most of the time is that Kristin is a woman who has been repressed her whole life, allowing herself to be walked all over by men…from the ones she works for to her now ex-husband. So when she decides to give up her “donna” position in the family to be with Lorenzo, Bianca cautions her, “Never let a man dictate who you are or what you can do.”
This is a “positive” theme that could have been conveyed in so many other ways, even if the writers wanted to stick with this mafia stereotype. If Kristin had been given better character development, a better first act start to make her sympathetic as opposed to a two-dimensional suburban mom who just “falls into” mafia life because it’s “something to do,” maybe some (like a sliver) of Mafia Mamma would be more forgivable. None of it is. Least of all the fact that we’re supposed to believe everyone speaks English in order to accommodate Kristin’s lack of Italian-language knowledge (save to butcher it in the usual way Americans do by saying things like “grahts-ee” instead of grazie).
Then there is the offense to Catherine Hardwicke’s career. Once known for critical darling fare like Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown, Hardwicke adds what feels like a calculated miss to her filmography (in addition to Collette’s). Complete with “riffing” off The Godfather’s famous final shot featuring the door closing on Domenick to indicate Kristin is officially separating her real family from her mafia one. This occurring, obviously, with far less of a “profound effect” on the viewer.
In the first act of the movie, Kristin naively double-checks with Bianca (as they crush grapes for no other reason than to portray a stereotype), “Are we actually in the mafia?” She replies, “Your grandfather preferred to call it the ‘invisible family’?” Sounds like a loose description of Hereditary. A far better “family” narrative starring Collette than what this could ever hope to be. Save for yet another damning, insulting addition to American-made interpretations of Italian culture.
