Hurrah!

Lynnette Howell Taylor is the new president of the Motion Picture Academy.

Already a Governor in the Producers’ branch, Taylor has great taste. She is responsible for a number of great movies including “A Star is Born,” “Captain Fantastic,” and “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”

She’s also a big supporter of indie director Derek Cianfrance. She co-produced “Blue Valentine,” “The Place Beyond the Pines,” and the upcoming “Roofman.” I met her 20 years ago when she co-produced (with Jamie Patricof, often her partner) Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s wonderful “Half Nelson” starring Ryan Gosling and Anthony Mackie.

Lynnette knows her way around the Academy. She produced the 2020 Oscars. She’s the youngest person ever elected president of the Academy. Bravo!

Also elected to 2025-2026 officer positions by the Board: Lesley Barber (Music Branch), Vice President (chair, Membership Committee), Jennifer Fox (Producers Branch), Vice President (chair, Awards Committee), Simon Kilmurry (Documentary Branch), Vice President/Treasurer (chair, Finance Committee), Lou Diamond Phillips (Actors Branch), Vice President (chair, Equity and Inclusion Committee), Howard A. Rodman (Writers Branch), Vice President/Secretary (chair, Governance Committee).

“Lynette has been a vital part of the Academy Board of Governors for many years, most recently revitalizing our awards work as chair of the board’s Awards Committee. I so look forward to working with her as our new Academy President, as well as with these incredibly dedicated and strategic board officers. This is an exceptional group of Academy members who will advance the Academy’s mission, support our membership around the world, ensure our long-term financial stability, and celebrate the achievements of the global filmmaking community,” said Academy CEO Bill Kramer.

The Oscars return next March 15th, 2026 on ABC with Conan O’Brien as host again after a triumphant turn this past spring. Are there going to be big movies involved? You bet. We already have “Sinners” and a couple of others from the spring. Wait til you see the torrent starting after Labor Day.

There’s a documentary about Francis Ford Coppola’s flop film from last year, “Megalopolis.”

“Megadoc,” directed by Mike Figgis, will open in September. “Megalopolis” was a total disaster that no one could follow. But the doc looks pretty interesting.

Maybe we’ll finally understand all of this. I sure hope so!

More to come…

Reviewers and bloggers are so happy to have a comedy, and a seemingly irreverent one, that they’re jumping up and down for “Naked Gun 2025.”

The bad news is that the reboot is a pale reminder of the Zucker-Abrams-Zucker movies we all loved so much, like “Airplane!” and the original “Naked Gun.”

The good news is that Liam Neeson gets a chance to send up his mostly preposterous resume of hard core melodramas in which he plays a detective trying to avenge a dead wife and save a kidnapped daughter (or some play on all that).

The other good news is that Pamela Anderson, fresh off her dramatic star turn in “The Last Showgirl,” is wearing makeup, looks like a million bucks, and is funny as heck. She also gets to show off her zany side with self-awareness. Her scene stealer is when she must fake being a confident jazz singer on stage. It’s comedy magic that actually hearkens back to the original films.

Unlike the original ZAZ movies, this “Naked Gun” attempts clever but but doesn’t often hit the target. A lot of the movie comes off as crude and scatological where it could have been much more sharply amusing. A lot of sequences don’t pay off. About halfway through, “Naked Gun” loses momentum and struggles to find a way home.

Some things are downright weird, like a split second cut to an unrecognizable Priscilla Presley, who was late star Leslie Nielsen’s romantic foil in the original movies.

But there are funny enough jokes to propel the first 45 minutes or so. Some of them have already been seen in the trailers. I liked the “take a chair” bit better in the commercial, frankly, because it’s cut to make sense. In the movie, there’s too much time between the set up and the payoff.

A lot of the really clever stuff in the ZAZ movies was kind of MAD Magazine material. Contrasting jokes in the foreground and background of a scene don’t really work here. I was disappointed that director Akiva Schaffer didn’t take advantage more of that element. A background sign in one scene just says something like “No Parking” when you’re hoping it will contain a sight gag.

There are nice tributes to Nielsen and George Kennedy, and the uncomfortable nod to OJ Simpson (again, seen in the trailer, so not a surprise). Again, seeing Liam Neeson is ridiculous situations is a lot of fun. But some of the gags — like constantly breaking phones or eating props — repeated way too often. What’s missing, though, is the ZAZ whimsy that made the original films so endearing.

The main thing is, the new “Naked Gun” is a relief from the painful political real life drama around us, and from the seriousness of every movie that’s come down the pike recently. Neeson’s Frank Drebin never stops to ponder the universe, there’s no navel gazing super hero stuff. He just keeps plodding along, unafraid to embarrass himself in the pursuit of an ending. It’s silly, and stupid, but I’ll bet word of mouth is great simply as a much needed salve this summer.

Suggestion: go back and see “Airplane!” and 1988’s “Naked Gun.”