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Review: Robin Wright Goes Wrong with “Land,” A Beautiful, Well Intended Plotless Mess

Roger Friedman
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Review: Robin Wright Goes Wrong with “Land,” A Beautiful, Well Intended Plotless Mess

I’m a big Robin Wright fan, so there’s that.

But she chose “Land” to direct, Focus Features picked it up right away and Sundance took it as well. I see some reviewers are so in love with the idea of all this they’ve missed the problem. This “Land” is not your land.

Somehow Robin’s character Edee’s male model husband and gorgeous baby have been killed. She’s so bereft she’s bought a piece of property no one wants in the Canadian woods. This includes a shack without electricity and furniture. She brings her stuff and tells the caretaker to return her rental car, she doesn’t even want that. She wants to be alone.

I’m a city kid so these movies are not poignant to me. They are silly. The cinematography is beautiful– gorgeous woods and mountains and lakes. But now what? Robin’s character is a city kid, too, and she’s going to hunt and fish and make fire with two sticks because she’s grieving.

Well, we all grieve in different ways but there is no point to this set up. Eventually she makes herself sick. Lucky for her Damien Bachir and some native woman show up and bring her back to health. Now what? What have these people got against electricity? How will this possibly bring back the Marlboro Man and the kid? I didn’t get it. Plus, Robin has no food. So she’s hunting bears (yech) and trying to catch fish with her bare hands. She’s so contemplative she won’t go to the local supermarket.

I am cynical, yes. I can tell Robin Wright can direct. She’s smart. She has a good eye. But this material is a long cliche. Oh my god, a woman alone can survive! Is that it? I have no doubt she can survive. But why? It’s not like she’s forced to live there. She chooses it. And it’s impractical. And it doesn’t address the real drama of how her family died, or why. Also, sometimes Robin has dark brown hair and sometimes it has highlights.

Whether it’s a man or a woman, a survival movie has to have some greater point. And “Land” doesn’t. I’d like to see Robin Wright take on some juicy material. Did I miss something? Did Edee cause the deaths of her child and husband? I don’t know. Even if she did, everything about “Land” just seems self indulgent.

Maybe I’m annoyed because I suffered real tragedy this winter, and earlier in the year, with death all around me. I didn’t have the luxury of packing up for the Colorado Rockies to play Daniel Boone. I needed a dishwasher and indoor plumbing to get through it. So “Land” is clearly for someone who has time for this fantasy.

Number 1 on iTunes, 2 Million Views on YouTube: Mixed Message Right Wing “Fake Woke” Indie White Rap by Canadian Living in Los Angeles

Roger Friedman
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Number 1 on iTunes, 2 Million Views on YouTube: Mixed Message Right Wing “Fake Woke” Indie White Rap by Canadian Living in Los Angeles

The number 1 song on iTunes since Friday is a mixed message right wing rap. It’s called “Fake Woke” by a Canadian living in Los Angeles, a former wrestler named Tom MacDonald.

It’s a bizarre diatribe that most definitely leans right and evokes a Make America Great Again ethos without mentioning Donald Trump.

The song attacks feminism, Black Lives Matter, Cardi B, criticizes Eminem for maturing, and goes after cancel culture (Cancel culture runs the world now, the planet went crazy/
Label everything we say as homophobic or racist)

On Friday and Saturday, “Fake Woke” sold 8,000 copies, half of them streaming. The video on You Tube has 2 million views. “Fake Woke” is dangerously stupid. But it’s a sign of what’s lurking in plain sight. I’m assuming there will be no radio play, even if to make fun of it. That’s how you normalize.

McDonald’s statement of purpose, I guess you might say, is included here from his social media.

An Australian student website called  Honi Soit, wrote: “MacDonald is insistent, however, that he is not racist and has not participated in ‘racist activities’, which he mostly boils down to “owning a slave” or saying a racial slur. “You’re making me the villain by demonizing my race,” he effectively screams in the song’s third verse. He presents an incredibly outdated and one-dimensional view of racism. MacDonald seems to be more concerned with defending white people from online-degradation than legitimate systemic racism.”

There’s no label involved. MacDonald just uploaded “Fake Woke” to iTunes and YouTube. But he’s managed to find 8,000 customers. That should worry everyone. MacDonald has 10 songs streaming on Spotify including one, “Everybody Hates Me,” that has 20 million streams. Other titles include “White Boy” and “No Lives Matter.” So far, “Fake Woke” hasn’t registered on Spotify or on Apple Music.

 

 

“Fake Woke”

I think it’s crazy I’m the one who they labeled as controversial
And Cardi B is the role model for twelve year old girls
There’s rappers pushing Xanax at the top of the Billboard
But if I mention race in a song I’m scared I’ll get killed for it
It’s backwards, it’s getting exponentially dumb
It’s more difficult to get a job than purchase a gun
Eminem used to gay bash and murder his mom
And now he doesn’t want fans if they voted for Trump
We’re ashamed to be American, you should probably love it
‘Cause you have the right to say it and not get strung up in public
[Video version: “Cause you have the right to hate it and not get stoned to death public”]
As children we were taught how to walk and talk
But the system wants adults to sit down and shut up
Cancel culture runs the world now, the planet went crazy
Label everything we say as homophobic or racist
If you’re white then you’re privileged, guilty by association
All our childhood heroes got MeToo’d or they’re rapists
They never freed the slaves
They realized that they don’t need to change
They gave us tiny screens, we think we free ’cause we can’t see the cage
They knew that race war would be the game they’d need to play
For people to pick teams, they use the media to feed the flameThey so fake woke, facts don’t care about feelings
They know they won’t tell me what to believe in
They so fake woke, same old, safe zones
They so fake woke, facts don’t care about your feelings

I think it’s crazy how these people screaming “facts” but they fake woke
Hate their neighbor ’cause he wears a mask or he stays home
Has a daughter but his favorite artist said he slays hoes
Picks her up from school, music slaps on the way home
Censorship’s an issue ’cause they choose what they erase
There’s a difference between hate speech and speech that you hate
I think Black Lives Matter was the stupidest name
When the system’s screwing everyone exactly the same
I just wanna spend Thanksgiving Day with food and my family
Without being accused of celebrating native casualties
We got so divided as black and white and political
Republicans are bigots, libtards if you’re liberal
There’s riots in our streets and it’s just getting worse
Y’all screaming defund the police, y’all are genius for sure
They’re underfunded already, they’re way too busy to work
Order food and call the cops, see what reaches you first
Segregation ended, that’s a lie in itself
That was a strategy to make us think that we’re trying to help
They knew that racism was hot if they designed it to sell
We buy up every single box and divide us ourselves

They so fake woke, facts don’t care about feelings
They know they won’t tell me what to believe in
They so fake woke, same old, safe zones
They so fake woke, facts don’t care about your feelings

Use violence to get peace and wonder why it isn’t working
That’s like sleeping with a football team to try and be a virgin
Politicians are for sale and someone always makes the purchase
But you and I cannot afford it, our democracy is worthless
If a man has mental illness call him crazy, say it silently
When countries going crazy we accept it as society
Get sick and take a pill when the side effects get you high
You get addicted like these rappers dying fighting with sobriety
Censoring the facts turns our children into idiots
They claim it’s for our safety, I’ll tell you what it really is
Removing information that empowers all the citizens
The truth doesn’t damage points of view that are legitimate
They’re tryna amen to a-men-and-women
How’d we let them make praying a microaggression?
Instead of asking God for the strength to keep winning
We cheat to get ahead and then we ask ’em for forgiveness

Feminism used to be the most righteous of fights
But these days it feels like they secretly hate guys
I don’t trust anyone who bleeds for a week and don’t die
I’m just kidding, but everything else that I said is right

They so fake woke, facts don’t care about feelings
They know they won’t tell me what to believe in
They so fake woke, same old, safe zones
They so fake woke, facts don’t care about your feelings

Sirius XM Adds Four Channels for Black History Month: Aretha, Jimi Hendrix. Motown, and Miles Davis

Roger Friedman
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Sirius XM Adds Four Channels for Black History Month: Aretha, Jimi Hendrix. Motown, and Miles Davis

Sirius XM has added four channels to their service and now I will never leave the car!

The new channels are dedicated to Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, and Motown.

The Motown channel is a take over– I hope temporarily– of my favorite channel, Soul Town, 49.

Aretha’s channel is on Sirius app right now, and will move to the radio with its own channel soon, I’m told.

Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis can certainly support their own channels. Check the Sirius website for more information. There’s also a free preview.

I’m already addicted to Sirius, and now that’s it. In addition to these channels, I always recommend Little Steven’s Underground Radio, the Beatles channel, 1st Wave, Siriusly Sinatra, and the talk entertainment channels up around 104 or so run by Roger Coletti.

But right now I have to run. “Rock Steady” is playing!

Here’s an Aretha flashback to June 28, 2004:

Friday night in Manhattan, at the smallest venue she’s played in probably 30 or more years, Aretha Franklin made history.

Like James Brown at the Apollo and Sam Cooke at the Copa, Miss Franklin, Queen of Soul, perhaps the greatest performer who can mix R&B, soul, blues and opera, took over B.B. King‘s in Times Square, sold the place out to the rafters and delivered a spine-tingling 95 minutes that no one in the place will ever forget for the rest of their lives.

It was the kind of show in which a waiter trying quietly to take drink orders in the front rows actually stopped his work for a moment and started clapping wildly. Aretha, only a few feet away, had overpowered him.

It was a hot night in B.B. King’s, too, because Franklin insisted on keeping the air conditioning off in order to protect her golden throat. The crowd, which came in en masse around 7:30, had already started fanning themselves during an unexpectedly fine set by Franklin’s son, Teddy Richards, who bravely accompanied himself on electric guitar through several otherwise unornamented numbers. With a voice that falls between Terence Trent D’Arby and Lenny Kravitz, and catchy songs full of potential for bigger orchestration, it was kind of a shock that he didn’t already have his own big career.

But then it was time for Aretha. The ticket prices ran from $150 for standing to $450 for the best seats in the house, with no “comps.” This meant also no celebrities (they don’t like to pay), but Franklin did introduce old comrades like Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun and famed music publisher Allen Klein, who controls the rights to the early Rolling Stones hits and the songs of Sam Cooke.

This may be the only report you read of this show, since there was no press to speak of and only two photographers, one from Corbis and the other hired by Aretha’s publicist. This stealth show had been rescheduled from April, with some thinking it might never happen.

It did, though, as Franklin, dressed in a bejeweled, flowing lemon yellow-colored caftan and sporting a hair cut with bangs and a flip, came to occupy the stage. She placed a rather large beige Louis Vuitton pocketbook under the baby grand piano, picked up the mike and warmed up her voice with a pair of standards including “I Want to Be Happy” and “Skylark,” the latter featuring a protracted scat call just to show she wasn’t fooling around. She dedicated the song to Bob Mersey, her first producer at Columbia Records in her pre-Atlantic days.

And then the gloves, as they say, were off. She slammed through the rarely heard “Jump to It,” her 1980 comeback single for Clive Davis; a moving rendition of “Have You Ever Been in Love”; and a breezy version of her signature, “Respect,” getting the big hit out of the way for more important things. At this point she was drenched in sweat.

“There’s no Kleenex or handkerchief up here?” she asked rhetorically. “A lady is supposed to have one in her pocketbook.” A fan quickly handed up a linen hanky, and Franklin patted her face.

She introduced Ertegun, and said, getting her bearings, “I’m having a senior moment.” She laughed. “No, I’m not,” she said, adding, “I hope my top is intact, but if it’s not, just imagine it.”

She was referring to her voice, not her bosom, though, and launched into the first of two Puccini arias, “O Mio Babbino Caro,” to which she added a gospel flavor. During a real gospel number, “Holding On to My Faith,” Miss Aretha boogied across the stage, dancing with abandon like it was 1968. She was so swept up by the energy that she sighed, “Alright,” and laughed when the song was over.

“If you want to hear your music played correctly,” she announced with glee, “give it to New York musicians.”

Her own musicians — son Teddy, Richard Gibbs on piano, Darryl Houston, et al, as well as the four New York horn players — did not let her down.

With Michelle Ponder, one of three backup singers, Franklin then turned out a classic she rarely performs, “Ain’t No Way,” written by her sister Carolyn, with Ponder ably providing the counterpoint that Cissy Houston is famous for on the original recording. Of all the songs from her legendary Atlantic catalog, it’s Aretha’s most transcendent. She raised the hairs on the backs of every neck.

“What else do you want to hear?” she asked the audience. There were shouts for “Until You Come Back to Me,” “Think” and “Jimmy Lee.”

“Jimmy Lee?” she responded. “I’m finished with him.”

Instead she sat down at the piano, giving Gibbs a rest, and fell into what can only be called a trance state of delight as she delivered her own composition, “So Damn Happy,” plus an extended bluesy version of “Dr. Feelgood,” and Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me,” the last rendered in the style of Natalie Cole‘s “This Will Be.”

There is almost nothing in the world to compare to watching Aretha Franklin on the piano. She is rarely cited as a musician, but she is actually a virtuoso, with an innate sense of timing and intonation on the keys. For a big woman, her touch is forceful but light. She actually looks like she’s driving the piano as if it were a Bentley through an obstacle course of twists and turns. Her joy is immeasurable.

And then: “We’re going back to the Grammys,” she said, returning to the mike. Several years ago Aretha had to perform Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma” from the opera “Turandot” live on the stage of Radio City Music Hall when Luciano Pavarotti refused to come down from his dressing room and join her, as planned. (He was being petulant in general, not specifically about her.) The joint went wild when she was done, and the aria has since become another unlikely trademark. At B.B. King’s, this was the number that forced the waiter to put down his pad and begin cheering wildly as Franklin completed the strenuous exercise of beauty.

A fan yelled out a request when the applause subsided. “What a Difference a Day Makes!”

“I’m telling you,” Aretha said, shaking her head, and wiping sweat from her eyes. It was about 100 degrees on stage. “Tomorrow I’ll be horizontal!”

She finished then with “Make Them Hear You,” a song about the civil rights movement from the musical “Ragtime” that she’s never recorded, but should as soon as possible. (It’s so moving, I’d be surprised if the Democratic National Convention doesn’t ask her to sing this for them in Boston.) Like Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come,” this is a swooping, unsentimental anthem, with none of the fakery of a Diane Warren faux lament, but some very real emotions that Aretha — who marched with Dr. King — obviously feels down deep.

And what about the voice? So many people have asked me about it since Friday night. Can she still sing? Has her weight affected her voice? I’m telling you now, the answers are yes to the first and no to the second. Her voice is richer and deeper now, but her range is unaffected by time. On Friday night, sitting literally against a small speaker, I got to hear the real unadorned Aretha. Every bit of her textured, soothing contralto blossomed like a slowly opening rose.

When it was over, she moseyed off the stage. Would there be an encore? One of her assistants ran on stage and grabbed the Louis Vuitton bag from under the piano. That was it. Some people paid more than $100 a minute to hear Aretha Franklin sing on Friday night. I didn’t hear one of them complain when the show was over. All you saw were smiles.

Backstage, the Queen of Soul accepted a lucky few into her tiny dressing room, heated like a sauna about 20 degrees warmer than the stage. “I’m singing the national anthem in Times Square tomorrow,” said the living legend, “then I’m on vacation in Southampton.”

She took pictures with some fans, hugged Ertegun and then disappeared into the night, her legend intact.

 

RIP Dustin Diamond, 44, Troubled ‘Screech’ of “Saved by the Bell” Diagnosed 2 Weeks Ago with Stage 4 Lung Cancer

Roger Friedman
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RIP Dustin Diamond, 44, Troubled ‘Screech’ of “Saved by the Bell” Diagnosed 2 Weeks Ago with Stage 4 Lung Cancer

Terrible story: Dustin Diamond, the troubled actor from the teen show “Saved by the Bell,” has died at age 44 from stage four lung cancer.

Diamond played Screech on the popular teen show from the late 80s and early 90s. The show went on to have a perpetual life in reruns but Diamond– unlike the other regulars– never found an adult career.

In recent years he was involved in scandal after scandal propelled by substance abuse. When “Saved by the Bell” was recently revived on the Peacock NBC network, Diamond wasn’t invited to join in.

A couple of weeks ago it was revealed he had cancer. Now a tragic life has come to an abrupt end. Condolences to his family and friends.

 

Actor Danny Boaz Abruptly Fired from “The Young and the Restless,” Possibly for Political Reasons

Roger Friedman
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Actor Danny Boaz Abruptly Fired from “The Young and the Restless,” Possibly for Political Reasons

Actor Danny Boaz exits CBS’s “The Young and the Restless” today after 100 episodes and about 16 months playing Chance Chancellor.

A few weeks ago, his character was married in a lavish ceremony but he wasn’t there. Instead, the real life husband/actor of his on screen wife played the part. Boaz was home quarantining after testing positive for COVID-19. He missed the biggest event of his character’s on screen life. Talk about timing.

Boaz said in his original Instagram post that he got the news on Christmas Eve. Ouch! Really? They couldn’t wait until Monday? He also said in the post– which was subsequently edited– that “4 or 5 contract players” would be let go because of the expense of COVID testing at the studio.

That may not be true.

Boaz wrote: “I’d love to say that this was my choice, that I’ve booked the next big project and [am] leaving of my own accord… but that wouldn’t be the truth.” In the original post, he added: “I invested a year of my life into a storyline and didn’t get to see it through.”

His character will just not be seen on screen for a while. He was told he wouldn’t be replaced. But it’s likely we’ll see a new Chance in a couple of months.

Several fans responded that Boaz’s right wing Republican leanings, his support of Donald Trump after the election, and so on led to his dismissal. They were not unhappy about it, just surprised by the abruptness. CBS will never admit that, if it’s true. But the star of “The Young and the Restless,” Eric Braeden, is a staunch liberal, and has been adamant about in his criticism of Trump and his cronies. Most of the cast has been, as well. Boaz was raised in Texas on football and beer. It’s a shame to discover he was a MAGA. But if so, it couldn’t have been an easy time on set.

 

The Amazing Tony Bennett, Age 94, Reveals Alzheimer’s Diagnosis, Still Knows All the Songs, Has Twice Weekly Rehearsals

Roger Friedman
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The Amazing Tony Bennett, Age 94, Reveals Alzheimer’s Diagnosis, Still Knows All the Songs, Has Twice Weekly Rehearsals

Like a lot of you, I’ve just read John Colapinto’s story in the AARP Magazine about Tony Bennett. The beloved 94 year old singer has Alzheimer’s. His wife, Susan, says, he’s not the old Tony, and Colapinto confirms in the story that Tony is not that communicative anymore.

But the best and most poignant part of the story is that twice a week Tony’s accompanist comes over, they run through his 90 minute set as a rehearsal. Tony sings like he’s perfectly well, and remembers all the words. Just after his diagnosis, he recorded one more album with Lady Gaga — I’m assuming this is the Cole Porter album he told me about a while back. She’s known about his condition since 2016.

The diagnosis, according to the article, came in 2016. On August 3rd, his 90th birthday, I was lucky enough to attend Tony’s birthday party at the Rainbow Room. Dozens of celebrities came. As I wrote then: Paul McCartney and wife Nancy joined Tony and his wife Susan, plus Stevie at the main table. At the next table: Martin Scorsese with his daughter Francesca, Bruce Willis and wife Emma, John Travolta, Gayle King, Katie Couric and husband John. The great Harry Belafonte was there, so were Regis and Joy Philbin.

Lady Gaga performed. A month later, Tony taped a concert at Radio City, and the whole thing became his birthday TV special. That was far from his last show. The last time I saw Tony perform was in March 2019 at Radio City. It was a magnificent show considering he was three years into the diagnosis. It was so good I asked him backstage how he did it. He replied, without hesitation: “I love it!”

It should be remembered that Tony didn’t perform his second of two shows in June 2015 with Lady Gaga at Royal Albert Hall. It was said that he collapsed at rehearsal. I was assured that there was no soundcheck that day, he didn’t collapse, and just had a touch of flu. But for Tony, who never cancels, maybe that was the start of this thing.

It doesn’t matter. In the many years I’ve been lucky enough to know Tony and spend time with him, he’s always been so courtly and such a gentleman, so smart and articulate about not just his music and family, but his politics and his charities. He is erudite to a fault. He owes us nothing. He’s given everything, with a generous heart and spirit. He’s shown incredible humility for a man with the most enormous talent. We just wish him and his family peace, and send love.

Denzel Washington Has the #1 Movie This Weekend, So Disney Thought They’d Cash In and Re-release One of His Old Ones

Roger Friedman
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Denzel Washington Has the #1 Movie This Weekend, So Disney Thought They’d Cash In and Re-release One of His Old Ones

The number 1 movie this weekend was “The Little Things,” starring Denzel Washington and Jared Leto, from Warner Bros. It made about $4.8 million in 2,171 theatres. Like all new WB Movies it was also put on HBO Max.

Disney thought they’d cash in on a Denzel moment so they re-released “Remember the Titans” from 2000, for no special reason. It was just to confuse fans who were wandering around movie theaters. They picked up a mere $65.000 in 730 theaters, not really worth it in the end. The 20th anniversary of that film’s release was back in September. So what was the peg here?

“Wonder Woman 1984,” also from WB, previously on HBO Max, scooped up another $1 million bucks but couldn’t cross the $40 million line. Warner Media says HBO Max subs went through the roof when “WW84” was first shown, so maybe it was all worth it.

“News of the World” crossed $11 million. I hope Academy voters are watching this film at home. It should be one of the top 10 on their ballots including Nomadland, The Father, Soul, Minari, Chicago 7, Billie Holiday, Ma Rainey, One Night in Miami, Judas and the Black Messiah, and Sound of Metal. Two movies I really liked are sadly out of the conversation, but find them anyway: Let Them All Talk, and The Personal History of David Copperfield.

Sundance: “Mass” Is A Stone Cold Drama Acting Master Class for Quartet of Actors Including Martha Plimpton and Jason Isaacs

Roger Friedman
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Sundance: “Mass” Is A Stone Cold Drama Acting Master Class for Quartet of Actors Including Martha Plimpton and Jason Isaacs

Wanna see some acting? Like some real acting? Then you’ll have sit through the uncomfortable but searing “Mass,” written and directed by Fran Kranz.

Guess who he is? He’s the son-in-law of “Charlie’s Angels” star Jacklyn Smith. I met him a few years ago when he acted in “You Can’t Take it With You” on Broadway and stole the show. Ditto “Death of a Salesman.” Nice guy, very talented. I wondered what happened to him.

This is what happened: he’s written and directed a play for a quartet of actors that will find its way to Broadway after the movies and make a fortune. It’s easy to produce, and it’s important. And moving.

The “mass” here is a mass school shooting, and it seems that two couples must meet to discuss the aftermath of in which 10 children were killed. And the shooter, one of their fellow students. Ann Dowd and Reed Birney are parents of the shooter. Martha Plimpton and Jason Isaacs’s son was killed in the shooting. The latter couple wants no money. They want an explanation. What happened? Why did Hayden lose his mind and go on this shooting spree? What was the turning point in his life? They want their son, Evan, back. Unfortunately, Hayden’s parents have plenty of explanations and none. They tried to do everything right.

When the movie starts, it’s like a play that’s been opened to make a film. There’s a long preamble in which we arrive at an Episcopalian church that’s been chosen for this meeting. Only, we don’t know what the meeting will be, and don’t know for some time even after we meet the two couples. It’s all very Beckett or Ionesco, very existential. What’s happening? What is is that’s bringing this foursome to a table in a church office?

You know, we’re never going to get a satisfactory ending. Two young boys are dead. One killed the other, but it wasn’t “personal.” He was just shooting everyone. Yet it is personal to Evan’s parents. We’re deadlocked from the beginning. But Kranz’s script is unusually rich in the plumbing of this mathematical problem. And the actors are literally on fire. Ann Dowd will just break your heart. She and Isaacs, in opposite couples, are emotional wrecks. Birney and Plimpton are maybe more methodical, but they are equally devastated and devastating. The casting directors really deserve awards for assembling this foursome. They give a masterclass from which everyone could learn something.

See you all at the 2022 Oscars.

Clive Davis’s Amazing 5 Hour All Star Night of Stars Zoom Party With Bruce Springsteen, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Jennifer Hudson, Gladys Knight, Beyonce

Roger Friedman
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Clive Davis’s Amazing 5 Hour All Star Night of Stars Zoom Party With Bruce Springsteen, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Jennifer Hudson, Gladys Knight, Beyonce

Clive Davis couldn’t bring 2,000 stars and execs and celebrities to the Beverly Hilton tonight, so he put them on a Zoom call. All of them! Insane! It may have been the biggest Zoom call of all time!

Saturday night’s “call”/party, whatever– all the proceeds go to MusiCares and the Recording Academy. So Clive pulled out all the stops. His guests– I mean the people he interviewed through the five hour call included Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce, Alicia Keys, Carole King, Barry Gibb, Rod Stewart, who was hilarious, and the legend Gladys Knight. John Legend and Jennifer Hudson each sang live and wowed the crowd. Jamie Foxx was sensational.

And the crowd– yes, of the 2,000 people who watched the show, about 250 were in a “VIP” room and I was a fly on the wall. This group included LEGENDS, the heavy hitters of the music biz including all the label execs, plus — and this just in no order—Joni Mitchell, Dionne Warwick, Quincy Jones, Berry Gordy,  Roberta Flack, Herbie Hancock. Verdine White of Earth Wind and Fire, Carole Bayer Sager, Diane Warren, Jimmy Jam Harris. Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, Nile Rodgers, Lou Adler, TONY ORLANDO, kids, David Foster and Katherine McPhee, Sam Moore and his wife Joyce Moore, Lisa Loeb, Cynthia Erivo, Rob Thomas, Rickey Minor– who gave a great interview about Whitney Houston, Peter Asher, Melissa Manchester, Alan Parsons, Clarence Avant, LORNA LUFT — hello!, the great Michele Lee, Charlie Puth, Ray Parker Jr, and I’m pretty sure Lindsey Buckingham was in there.

Who else? Lorraine Bracco, Katie Couric, Sherry Lansing, Richard Weitz and his daughter Demi, 90 year old Laugh In impresario George Schlatter, Broadway’s Andy Karl and wife Orfeh, Cameron Crowe, Ari Melber, Shep Gordon, Bryant Gumbel, Tyra Banks, Martha Stewart, agent of all time Arnold Stiefel, Robert Weir of the Grateful Dead, the great songwriter Lamont Dozier, and Atlantic Records’ Pete Ganbarg, Craig Kallman, and Julie Greenwald, and BYRON ALLEN.

I’ve missed some– and this thing is still going on at 11:26pm with Sean Combs giving an interview about he signed Bad Boy Records to Clive at BMG and launched a million hits.

Again, this was to benefit MusiCares, which needs funds to keep helping musicians through the pandemic. If you listen to music, you must send them money. Harvey Mason Jr. of the Academy explained how they created a COVID fund with Steve Boom of Amazon Music.

Bruce Springsteen told Clive tonight, “Fifty years ago you changed my life.” He wasn’t kidding. Alicia Keys and Carole King were charming. Rod Stewart was hilarious.

I think Clive might be turning 88 this spring. If you saw him interviewing stars for four and a half hours tonight, you’d give him a talk show. He literally surveyed the whole of pop, rock, and R&B tonight with the biggest acts. He’s going to do another one of these on March 13th, the actual night before the Grammys, and then he can turn the whole thing into documentary to benefit MusiCares.

What a night! And it was just Part one!

Sundance Record Broken as “CODA,” Film About Singing Teen from Deaf Family, Breaks Record with $25 Mil Sale

Roger Friedman
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Sundance Record Broken as “CODA,” Film About Singing Teen from Deaf Family, Breaks Record with $25 Mil Sale

Apple has gotten to the core of Sundance.

The computer/phone company with a burgeoning film firm broke the Sundance record today. They bought “CODA” for $25 million.

They broke last year’s record of $22.5 million for “Palm Springs” bought by Neon and Hulu.

I told you in my review that “CODA” was big. Directed by Sian Heder and based on a French film, “CODA” stands for Child of Deaf Adults. In this case, the child is 18 year old British actress and singer Emilia Jones, who plays a teen who can sing like a bird. Only problem is her parents and brother are deaf, and can’t hear her.

Heder set her version among fishermen in Glouchester, Mass., and this gives the film a lot richness and texture. Luckily, she shied away from having a lot Boston accents. But the warmth of the characters and the situation– of course, the girl joins the high school choir, is discovered to be a phenom, and tries out for Berklee School of Music– add up to a home run of a film that everyone will enjoy.

Co-stars in the film include Oscar winner Marlee Matlin, and 21 year old Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, of “Sing Street” fame. “CODA” will be a major player in 2022 awards season, if we ever finish the 2021 awards season. I do hope Apple puts this film in theaters and doesn’t just relegate it to TV screens and computers. It deserves a big setting.

I can’t wait to see who picks up the soundtrack, and who signs these kids to record contracts.

PS You have to realize how Apple, Amazon, and Netflix have so changed the way deals are done now at places like Sundance. Those companies have unlimited cash. Plunking down $25 million is pocket change for them. It’s very different than when Miramax, or Fine Line, etc– the O.G. indie film companies– battled to get product. They were sweating it. Very new world we have here.

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