INTERVIEW: JODY HILL

Drop dead funny doofus Fred "King of the demo" Simmons (Danny McBride) during one of his better moments.

The Fist Foot Way of Jody Hill

By John Esther

Anyone out there ever wanted to see someone like Frank Burns or Napoleon Dynamite open up a cup of whoop booty under the direction of someone who worships cinematic skewing a la the late film director Robert Altman (MASH; Nashville). Then meet writer-director-actor Jody Hill and his film, Foot Fist Way.

Fred “King of the demo” Simmons (co-writer Danny McBride) is a jerk. Fred has no idea how big of a jerk he is because he is a master of Tae Kwon Do (translated “the foot fist way”) who runs his own dojo. Fred bosses around his young male students, ogles the older female ones and could not give a flying kick to the left flank what anybody thinks of him. Even when his wife (Mary Jane Bostic) cheats on him; his hero, Chuck “The Truck” Wallace (co-writer Ben Best) screws him over, and a mother (Erica Owens) screams him a new one after he beats her son (Nicholas Stanley), Fred still thinks he is the freshest.

Fred is the kind of ridiculously-delusional idiot savant Will Farrell (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby; Blades of Glory) has made some of his career out of, so it is not a wonder that Gary Sanchez Productions, the company Farrell and creative partner Adam McKay founded, are backing the movie. Will The Foot Fist Way #2 feature Ferrell as Simmons’ sensei? Only box office sales will say.

An irreverent somewhat funny film co-writer/director/actor Hill – who knows Tae Kwon Do – knees and elbows at the myth of the American martial artist.

In this exclusive interview, we spoke to Hill.

JEsther Entertainment: Why did you want to tell this story?
Jody Hill: I grew up doing martial arts. When I was 17 I opened a Tae Kwon Do club. When I went away to film school (North Carolina School of the Arts) I gave away the memberships to this guy who opened a full size school, which is where we shot the film. We got to use his students; they’re all real people. I wanted to show there’s a business element to martial arts schools. A lot of times in movies you see martial arts as something holy/artsy/Zen-type thing. There are a lot of things like signing up new students, making your monthly lease; then it’s weird to see adults bowing to other adults and calling them “Sir.”

JE: Or kids, if they outrank the adults.
JH: Right, if a kid outranks you like Julio (Spencer Moreno). I’m a fan of 1970s films, those character pieces like Five Easy Pieces. I wanted to nail martial arts like Robert Altman nailed the military in MASH, the recording industry in Nashville.

JE: What do you have in common with Fred Simmons?
JH: [Laughs]. I was always careful not to make fun of Tae Kwon Do. The breakup. There are certain elements you get when you break up with a girl. From my experience in movies, like Swingers for example, you get dumped and then you meet the next girl and everything’s okay. It didn’t happen to me like that. It’s not like a lesson I’m trying to teach, but the main character is not going to get the girl, but he’s going to be okay.

JE: Have people protested at your portrayal of Tae Kwon Do?
JH: A little bit, yeah. Some people get offended no matter what you do.

JE: The film was a success at Sundance 2006. Why did it take so long for a release?
JH: It was pretty frustrating for me because of the [delays]. It’s different and if studios can’t pinpoint numbers they get scared of it. Something like this, which is new and doesn’t have any stars, it’s only natural they would have a knee-jerk reaction to releasing something like this. Now after all this time the film has some word-of-mouth legs; it seems natural to release it.

JE: McBride and Best are funny guys. Did the low budget prohibit some comical material from getting into the film?
JH: I’ll tell you a little bit about that. I wrote up drafts and then those guys came on. Both of them are fans of British comedy, the droll kind. American comedy sucks. A lot of times it’s somebody saying something “crazy” and there’s a counter shot where somebody makes a face. It’s disposable, throwaway. With the budget – I put the film on my credit cards – basically we did it very raw and include the roughness and make it a part of the thing; like it was coming from somebody’s backyard, or the gutter. Overtime people will see that as a cool thing, like early punk rock bands with hissing on the tape and guitar feedback, but now it’s a style people try to get. It’s feeling over professionalism.

JE: You say, “American comedy sucks” but you got two well-known American comedians backing your film. How did they get on board? How did that help your film?
JH: Will Farrell and Andy McKay are the exceptions. Those guys have vision. They’re really into what we’re doing. They got the joke before most people did. At Sundance the studios didn’t get this movie. They didn’t understand like Fred isn’t telling jokes but yet it’s still funny. Will Farrell got it right away.

JE: Why do you think your film received an R-rating?
JH: That always surprised me. When I was growing up seeing movies I never thought of that. Out here in Hollywood you think about that. It’s cool.

JE: How accurate were the board breakings?
JH: We scored it. We had Ben and Danny train for three weeks. We had stunt doubles. A lot of old school stunt double tricks. We didn’t have computers.

JE: What can you tell us about your upcoming film, Observe and Report?
JH: It’s about a security guard who gets in a turf war with the cops when a perpetrator strikes the mall. Ray Liotta plays his nemesis. Michael Pena is in it and he’s funny. It might be a big breakout role for him.

JE: Lastly, what do you think about these interviews? Do they serve the work? Should the work speak for itself?
JH: That’s a good question; probably the cool answer is “the work should speak for itself.” I grew up talking films with my buddies so as long as it’s like that and I’m not asked about “the state of independent film,” which I don’t think I should say.

LITERATURE: LOS ANGELES TIMES FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

Legendary author Gore Vidal signs copies of his book. Photo by Ed Rampell.

The Woodstock of literature

By Ed Rampell

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is one of L.A.’s top yearly cultural events, drawing 150,000 people to UCLA’s campus to experience authors reading, speaking and signing (euphemism for “selling”) tomes. At the free (if you ignore that parking fee) April 26-27 literary happening there were also booths galore for bookstores, publishers, scribblers and sundry groups and causes. This is the 13th annual bookfest, which is ballyhooed as America’s largest, belying the notion that La-La-Land is a vast wasteland of illiterate moviegoers.

I’ve attended half of these festivals, and kicked off this year’s coverage with a Saturday morning Ackerman Ballroom panel on “Comics Superheroes of the Page & Screen” featuring Jeph Loeb (co-executive producer of NBC’s Heroes, writer of comics such as Spider-Man), Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and Steve Niles of DC and Marvel. The good humored panelists described how authors and their fans are viewed by the hoity-toity literati: “You’re not a comic book writer – you’re a ‘graphic novelist.’ Good fun!

The same venue featured a more serious discussion moderated by KPFK’s Jon Wiener on “Defining American Character,” with Pacifica Radio’s Amy Goodman, activist/author Tom Hayden, conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt (author of Blog) and way overexposed Howard Fineman of NBC, Newsweek, etc. Goodman, host of Democracy Now, wowed the crowd with an excoriating critique of mainstream media’s biased, fictional coverage of Iraq, which “reached an all time low.” It was interesting to observe Fineman during Goodman’s tongue lashing; he seemed lost in thought at how he and his colleagues were un-indicted co-conspirators who’d neo-conned America into war. Fineman actually confessed his pro-war role as an “analyst” (i.e., “pitchman”), but if you’re truly sorry, hey Howie, why not resign your lucrative and influential media posts and give them to a truth teller like, say, Goodman?

Next was a Moore Hall “Reinventing Hollywood: The 1960s and Beyond” panel moderated by uber-reviewer Leonard Maltin with Peter Biskind (Easy Riders, Raging Bulls), Mark Harris (Pictures at a Revolution about 1967’s Oscar nominees) and the Times’ Kenneth Turan. I experienced déjà vu during this discussion; Biskind – an annual book fest fixture -- wrote one of the best film histories ever, but how many times does one want to hear him re-chew the New Hollywood of the 1960s/1970s? Realizing this really wasn’t the festival’s fault, I resolved to seek out some different authors Sunday, and closed Saturday at a reading by Sherman Alexie, who has made a career writing about Native Americans, but doesn’t seem to want to be reminded he is one.

The following morning I arrived looking forward to hearing Joe Conason at a “Current Interest” panel, but when the New York Observer/Salon columnist’s nameplate was removed from the speakers’ table, I removed myself from Ackerman, happily relocating to a historians’ panel at Haines where I had the pleasure of hearing Michael Eric Dyson discuss Dr. King, whom Dyson noted, “whites wanted clawless and blacks wanted flawless.” Bruce Watson brought the 1920s’ executed anarchists alive, discussing Sacco and Vanzetti: The Men, the Murders and the Judgment of Mankind. Monkey Girl author Edward Hume resurrected the same decade’s Scopes Monkey Trial vis-à-vis a recent evolution court case. Douglas Brinkley, who wrote The Great Deluge, condemned Bush’s post-Katrina flyover of Louisiana as “a low moment in presidential history.”

Fee-fi-fo-Frum, I smelled the blood of a neo-con at the second of two panels featuring that laughable buffoon, David Frum, who coined the idiotic ”axis of evil” phrase. I wanted to ask Bush’s ex-speechwriter if he even knew which side North Korea’s Kim Il Sung fought on during WWII (answer: with the Allies, against the Axis power of Japan). Thankfully, our man Bob Scheer (editor of TruthDig, author of Playing President) made mincemeat of Frum, as moderator/Times editor Scott Kraft didn’t take a single question, cutting off public interaction -- even though an hour remained before Her Royal Highness Julie Andrews’ ascension to Royce Hall’s stage.

TRAVEL: HAWAII

Native son covers culture to the west

By Ed Rampell

A common lament among travelers is: “Hawaii’s too expensive!” As an ex-resident, I’m akamai (“in the know”) about what one can find free or discounted at Oahu, from nature to culture to rapture.

Arrive at Honolulu International Airport during daylight sitting portside to enjoy jaw-dropping views above Earth’s most far-flung archipelago, as Big Island, Maui and Molokai glisten like jade jewels set in sun sparkled seas. During final approach, Oahu’s verdant Waianae Coast, Pearl Harbor, Diamond Head and Koko Head craters beckon to the world wearisome.

Entered the art designed Wyland Waikiki Hotel which incorporates the marine life sculptures and graphics of Robert Wyland, a scuba diver-cum-painter internationally renowned for 100ish “whaling wall” murals depicting cavorting humpbacks, orcas, manatees, dolphins at Honolulu, Hollywood, New Zealand, Japan, etc. Each modern unit is a suite, but you don’t have to be a guest to enjoy the artwork outdoors and in the lobby, where the Wy-Bar and Kimobean Coffee bar serve the public.

With its maritime subjects the recently opened Wyland is perfect for Hawaii, setting the stage for whale watching, an ideal cure for the blahs and blues; even the most jaded humans “ooh” and “ahh” at these leviathans. At a ton per foot, beholding the sometimes 50-foot mammals is a breathtaking, awesome, almost religious experience, as they snake in and out of waves and, if you’re really lucky, breach. During winter months the humpbacks’ make their annual 10,000-mile Alaska-Hawaii migration to mate, give birth and nurse their calves. Whaling cruises take place aboard the Star of Honolulu and twin-hulled Navatek. But one doesn’t have to spend gold doubloons to hear cries of “Thar she blows!” and see the behemoths of the deep. Landlubbers often watch pods from ashore because whales prefer shallow waters no deeper than 600 feet.

Whale watching requires perseverance, as the creatures frequently submerge, reappearing on the surface for air only after minutes that make time stand still. Spotting techniques include patiently scanning low on the horizon for spouts, flukes, dorsal humps, etc., visible with binoculars or the naked eye. Plumes of water indicate they are on or near the surface and probably readying to emerge, perhaps even breach – a spectacular skyward leaping that makes Nureyev pale in comparison.

Hawaii is a maritime society, and whether swimming, boogie boarding, surfing, paddling an outrigger, or crisscrossing the archipelago on Norwegian Cruise Line, the Pacific Ocean is a quintessential element of the Island experience. Partaking of Hawaii from the sea is like experiencing the isles as the primordial Polynesians did.

Atlantis Submarine transports passengers beneath the waves. The world’s largest privately owned submersible dives around 120 feet off Waikiki, revealing airplane and shipwrecks, manmade and natural reefs – a panoply of sea life. At the seabed, superb visibility in crystal clear waters revealed white tipped sharks at repose, tuna, floating stingrays, rare spotted eagle rays, etc. The thrilling expedition is like being transported to another world; the perfect way to celebrate the Year of the Coral Reef.

Waikiki may have Manhattan-like skyscrapers, but Waikiki Beach itself is a stunning urban oceanfront crowned by Diamond Head. To beat the maddening crowd, rent a car, chart your own course and circumnavigate Oahu at your own pace. (This is Hawaii, so “hang loose, mongoose!”) Most of the 500-square mile isle can be traversed in several leisurely daylong jaunts; the price of gas and vehicle rental is probably less expensive than guided tours moving at their own speed. The public bus is also an option.

Remarkably, there’s no charge for the 50th State’s top attraction: the visitor center and launch transporting passengers to the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, where Japan struck Dec. 7, 1941.

The Hawaii State Art Museum displays multimedia works by local artists such as an oil painting depicting a traditional indigenous drummer by Jean Charlot, who’d taught Mexico’s Diego Rivera how to paint fresco murals. The collection is located in Downtown Honolulu -- opposite the volcano-shaped State Capitol Building and the Iolani Palace -- in the 1928-built Spanish Mission-style Armed Forces YMCA. Admission: free.

The new Waikiki Beach Walk is a two-story open-air plaza featuring upscale eateries and shops selling $110 Aloha Shirts. As it involves the locally owned Outrigger Hotels, the promenade has a Polynesian ambiance. Working with the State’s Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Outrigger provides lease assistance for Mana Hawaii, a Kanaka collaboration of five indigenous-themed enterprises including Native Books and Ukulele House. The “bou-tiki” offers Hawaiian products from literature to musical instruments to less pricey Aloha Shirts, in addition to complimentary cultural activities, such as lei making, plus ukulele and hula lessons. A recommended gift is the new book Don Ho, My Music, My Life, co-written by Ho and Jerry Hopkins shortly before the musical legend’s 2007 death.

These free Hawaiiana happenings include the Na Mele No Na Pua (“Music for the Generations”) Hawaiian Music Heritage Program, which is presenting a weekly “Sunday Showcase” of up and coming musicians at the Waikiki Beach Walk Plaza’s Stage. Na Mele extends to the adjacent Embassy Suites Hotel, which exhibits a 50-foot long display case with artifacts highlighting Hawaii’s musical legacy in an oceanside hallway. In the mountainside corridor the recently unveiled Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame display honors Hawaiian composers, lyricists, singers and musicians.

Upstairs, in the Embassy Suites’ Grand Lanai, periodic concerts featuring Hawaii’s award winning musicians are held, emceed by Hawaii’s top hosts, Kimo Kahoano and Brickwood Galuteria. I enjoyed slack key guitar maestro Ledward Kaapana there; as the endorphins released by the Hawaiian music becalmed me, I faced an existential dilemma. I could close my eyes and surrender to the serenity inducing strumming and crooning or observe the showman’s deft finger work as Kaapana adroitly placed his hands on the guitar’s frets, strings and neck to produce mellifluous melodies. What’s a reporter to do? It’s a good thing the news never sleeps; otherwise I would’ve missed a dozen wahines spontaneously rising to hula during the Grand Lanai’s grand finale. Hula-la! Locals and tourists attend these complimentary concerts featuring top talents.

Free breakfast buffets, including a cook-to-order omelet station, are part of the package for Embassy Suites guests, as are poolside manager’s receptions offering pupus and tropical drinks. All accommodations are, as the name implies, en suite. Just a block from Waikiki Beach my rooms offered an ocean view, flat screen TVs, wet bar, fridge, microwave, comp cable high-speed Internet, local and domestic long distance calls and business center.

Across from the Embassy Suites and directly on Waikiki Beach is the Outrigger Reef, currently undergoing $100 million worth of renovations. The Reef’s classy lobby ranks among the world’s most aesthetic and is free to behold. Filled with maritime-themed artwork, there’s Herb Kane’s paintings depicting ancient Hawaiian mariners plus Melanesian artifacts, such as the ultimate hood ornament: a Papua New Guinea crocodile head for attachment to a canoe prow. Classic Pacificana books are in the sitting area for browsing.

The luxurious Reef Suite I stayed in included three lanais with spectacular unobstructed panoramic views stretching from Diamond Head to the Waianae Mountains. With lanai doors open, Waikiki’s waves played a lyrical lullaby. Creature comforts include a whirlpool, two plasma flat screen TVs, gigantic king-size bed, fridge, wet bar and a glass wall shower with dead ahead Diamond Head view. (During construction, Reef accommodations are steeply discounted.)

The Reef’s surfside Shore Bird provides a sumptuous breakfast buffet with delicious tropical fruits. Coupons make dining just feet from the sand very reasonable. For supper, diners grill their own meat, fowl and fish on a barbecue, accompanied by a salad bar and live Hawaiian music followed by karaoke.

Waikiki Beach strollers are frequently serenaded by Hawaiian music, from the Shore Bird to the Royal Hawaiian to Duke’s at the Outrigger Waikiki to the Moana’s Banyan Tree courtyard. On Monday and Thursday evenings beachside promenaders can revel in the sights and sounds of a Polynesian revue during the Royal’s luau. Dancers garbed in grass skirts and sarongs perform the “hip-notizing” Hawaiian hula and Tahitian tamure -- a frenzied pagan blur of swaying hips, swirling coconut bra-clad breasts and thrusting thighs -- with a Diamond Head backdrop.

Towards the end of my recent Oahu sojourn, I saw an arched rainbow stretching over Waikiki like a sublime barrier reef. Price of the rainbow: like most of the best things in enchanting Oahu, such as whale watching, ethereal sunsets or catching waves -- completely free.

Best and freest of all is Oahu’s Aloha Spirit, the loving, welcoming, hospitable, caring fond embrace that’s the hallmark of what James Michener called Hawaii’s “golden people.”

For more information:

Wyland Waikiki Hotel -- 877/WYLAND; www.thewylandwaikikihotel.com.

Embassy Suites Waikiki -- 800/EMBASSY; www.embassysuiteswaikiki.com.

Outrigger Reef – 866/733-6420; www.outriggerreef-onthebeach.com.

Star of Honolulu – 800/334-6191; info@starofhonolulu.com; www.starofhonolulu.com.

Navatek – 800/548-6262; ores@atlantisadventures.com; www.atlantisadventures.com.

Atlantis Submarines – 800/548-6262; ores@atlantisadventures.com; www.atlantissubmarines.com.

Hawaii State Art Museum – 808/586-0300; www.hawaii.gov/sfca.

Mana Hawaii – 808/923-2220; www.manahawaiinei.com.

Waikiki Beach Walk Cultural Activities -- www.waikikibeachwalk.com.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: AYELET ZURER

Ayelet Zurer offers peace in Fugitive Pieces.

Here she comes again

By John Esther


In writer-director Jeremy Podeswa’s screen adaptation of Anne Micheals’ novel, Fugitive Pieces, Ayelet Zurer’s character, Michaela, briefly appears near the end of the film yet her character instills a feeling of transcendence on the viewer.

Michaela is the second saving grace in the life of Jakob Beers (Stephen Dillane), a man still scarred by the personal tragedies he witnessed as a young boy (Robbie Kay) during World War II. Jakob’s first saving grace was Athos (Rade Serbedzija), a Greek archaeologist who excavated then preserved Jakob through the bitter years.

Athos and Jakob are close and dear yet only when Jakob meets Michaela can he come to terms with those tumultuous emotions he has been living with since the destruction of his childhood family.

A small but significant role for the Israeli actor Zurer, Fugitive Pieces will be one of possibly four films of hers to be released in the United States this year. The first one was Vantage Point, where she played a mysterious woman with international ties. Later this year director Jeff Balsmeyer’s Longshot and director Paul Schrader’s Adam Resurrected are set to showcase Zurer’s talents.

In this exclusive interview we spoke to Zurer about the film, violence, propaganda and more.

JEsther Entertainment: Why did you want to make Fugitive Pieces?
Ayelet Zurer: I found it touching and beautiful and profound and unique in a fashion you only see in classical writing. Then I ran and bought the book and fell in love with it.

JE: What do you think you have in common with your character?
AZ:That’s a hard question because she’s very high up there in the people rank [Laughs]. I can understand where she’s coming from, I guess. She saw many things in life. She is, not like me, very educated in history and art and she is able to accept other people as they are. She’s a much better person than I am [Laughs].

JE: Why do you say that?
AZ: Because she is [Laughs}. She’s just more complete in a way. She is less judgmental. I feel like she’s fearless. I was always laughing at my character. Everybody in the film was afflicted by pain and she probably never had any, although she’s seen life and seen the world because she’s traveled, but she was not hurt and therefore not scarred and therefore fearless.

JE:Considering her name and the author’s name, do you think she is perhaps the alter ego of the author?
AZ: I would assume so. I didn’t ask her.

JE: Jakob Beers is trying to get over the violence he witnessed as a kid. As someone who grew up in Israel you might have seen your share of violence. How have you overcome those encounters with violence?
AZ: I was lucky enough not to have the same kind of misfortunes. I never lost anybody to war or any kind of violent act. He did, however, at a very young age. I think about my son having to go through that kind of thing and my heart is crushing. I saw violence. I lived in a very intense environment, but in a different way.

JE: These conflicts will create what Jakob is going through down the line.
AZ: Oh, always. Conflicts and wars bring more conflict and more war. That’s how it is.

JE: How will Fugitive Pieces address the issue of how war lingers on?
AZ: I don’t think films change the world. They represent the period of the time where they are made in more than changing something. I am not hopeful that way.

JE: You do not see films in any way as influential on people’s behaviors?
AZ: I wish I could say, yes, but I truly don’t believe any film that I saw really changed the way I think. Well, influence me maybe in the way I think, but never changed the way I do things. Unless films like Hotel Rwanda. I was not aware of what happened there (to the extent) until I saw that film. It does serve a certain knowledge but I don’t know if it changes the world.

JE: If films could do that than they could be used as negative means, propaganda. Not to make the world better, but rather worse.
AZ: Propaganda is different. Propaganda works, doesn’t it? You can see it everywhere in politics. In the past and in the future you will see it.

JE: Do you see a line between propaganda and film?
AZ: Sometimes no [Laughs].

JE: Then film must influence us in some ways.
AZ: In some ways, but I don’t know if it changes. Particularly with this film, it talks about the past. It begins during the Second World War and so I’m thinking, “Okay, that’s done.” So the only way it can influence someone is by lifting its spirit or thinking, “What a small deed towards someone’s soul can do. If you can save one soul then maybe you should do it.” That’s maybe the only way I can really see it making a difference, but this movie is also about love and it’s a inspiring one more than a life changing one.

JE: Here we are 60 years after World War II yet film constantly refers back to that time in terms of the massacres and the genocide. Yet there have been over 50 genocides worldwide since the end of World War II. Why do we keep referring back to that one?
AZ: Somehow it’s the last more universal trauma we went through. It was a very long one. So many died in it that had nothing to do with war. It wasn’t really about the politics anymore; it was about homicide. But you can see films about Africa, Sarajevo and, after San Francisco [referring to the Olympic protests this summer], you might see films about China [laughs].
Zurer plays a nurse in the upcoming Paul Schrader film, Adam Resurrected.

JE: What can you tell us about your upcoming film, Adam’s Resurrected?
AZ: [Laughs]. It’s directed by Paul Schrader and stars Jeff Goldblum. I play a nurse in an asylum falling in love with Jeff Goldblum’s character who use to be a clown in a circus and becomes a dog in a camp. He entertains the Gestapo by acting like a dog. I’m playing a nurse many years later and will do anything to be with him, including playing a dog, too. She’s a more disturbed person than he is.

JE: What do you do when you are not working?
AZ: I’m not working [laughs]. I am a mommy. That’s my thing.