2022. We all thought this crap would be over by now. Remember the “if we just stay home for 2 weeks we’ll beat this” days? Well here we are 2 years later and still wearing masks and worrying about travel and keeping our loved ones safe. 2021 was supposed to be everyone’s “year”, but it was just a continuation of horrible 2020. Covid has exhausted us physically, mentally, emotionally, financially, and every other major way. Our entertainment venues have opened back up, with varying restrictions. But many still fear the close contact of a packed house, sitting shoulder to shoulder with strangers and decided to stay home and continue to have our entertainment streamed to us.
So it’s been another since my first annual Marco Awards, where I nominate and reward the best entertainment that’s been streamed into our homes. And since most people have completely run the gamut dry and are still asking me what to watch next, I have organized everything I’ve watched and recommend into the 2nd annual 2022 Marco Awards.
Let’s take a minute to discuss what the general movie awards circuit has spiraled into this year out of desperation. Desperation to look safe, to look diverse, to look “woke” to all issues, or, more directly, to look relevant. What we’ve had was a round of forced awards ceremonies which should have embarrassed everyone involved. The Golden Globes couldn’t even get on the air over racist protests about the racial make-up of the Foreign Press and the fact that they nominated last season’s Minari only as best foreign language film, despite the fact that it was produced by an American company. The Oscars tried to be “responsible” in a train station with no clips and rearranging the order of the final awards to crown would-be winner Chadwick Bozeman with a post-humous salute award last. but ended up with egg of their face when the product turned out to be a bunch of old, white academy members handing awards to a bunch of old white winners. Examples of what the entertainment business thinks it is and what it actually is. Basically as I stated in a post-Oscar analysis last year, after all the shit and sacrifice we’ve had to go through, none of us are remotely interested when rich people congratulate other rich.
So, again , here is is a merely list of my best movie recommendations from the past year available in your living room, formatted into an awards show that makes sense.
The rules? I am the nominating committee and voting body. So if a movie appeared on its first in-home streaming run between March 12th and January 31st, and I saw it, it is eligible. I have lifted the “for free” mandate of last year and set a cap of under $5, or less than you’d pay to see it in the theatre. If you charged me $19.99 to $39.99 to watch your movie and didn’t include a delivery of popcorn and chocolate, it will debut next season. For $4.99 or less. And the 31st is a purely arbitrary date set by the nominating committee (me) giving the voting body (me) enough time to catch up and tabulate the results for release sometime around the anniversary of Covid shutdowns (now). In addition, last year’s Academy Award winners will not be eligible, so my awards are just never a regurgitation of another awards ceremony. Also, keeping it a little fresher, each season’s nominees will be a little of this year’s Oscar contenders with last years that didn’t premiere in streaming form in time to qualify, leading to some interesting new pair ups.
So, with that, Welcome to the 2nd annual Marco Awards for Excellence in Motion Pictures that appeared in your living room. Grab a drink. I’m your host, Mark Briner, and may the best pictures win (finally). The nominees are:
The 2nd Annual MARCO AWARDS 2022: the MOVIES
BEST MOVIE
Being the Ricardos—Not the movie one expects, it’s not a romp through the best of I Love Lucy, but a focus on one critical week of production after Walter Winchell branded Lucille Ball a communist on his radio show and the fallout. Not just good story telling, the movie gets its lift from great familiarity and great celebrity portrayals of Hollywood royalty. The big takeaway is not how good the celebrity impressions are (very good according to daughter Lucie Arnaz), but the way Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay shows how smart and business savvy Lucy and Desi were, visionaries in the television industry, and through it all, how much they really loved each other.
Don’t Look Up—A razor sharp satire that crucifies both sides of the political fence and exposes a single government that is only concerned with their own financial and personal welfare, at the expense of the nation. When a pair of astronomers locate a massive comet heading directly toward earth, the politicos (including Meryl Streep as an arrogant Trumpian President and Mark Rylance as her lame, hair-sniffing, Biden-like VP) and big business decide to watch and assess when they find the comet contains trillions of dollars worth of gold, diamonds, and other precious substances. If only we’d heed a wakeup call before it gets this out of control. It’s not Democrats vs. Republicans, it’s no one in government gives a shit about us.
Judas & the Black Messiah—Yet another exposé of how our government lied to us throughout our history, this time with regards to the Black Panther organization and leader Freddy Hampton. Not only labeling them “the biggest threat to our country, not Russia or Vietnam or communism”, it exposes a very little known program wherein the FBI took convicted criminals and, instead of serving jail time, offered them the opportunity to do field work infiltrating the Black Panthers and spying, planting lies and propaganda, and even assassinating from within. Further proof that our government has never cared much about being honest with us.
Nightmare Alley—Bradley Cooper and company delve into Guillermo del Toro’s noir tale of a shady carny with a talent for manipulation who learns the hack of fortune telling from a “seer” and her husband who have developed a pretty bullet proof code of prompts, but then falls into the hands of an unscrupulous psychiatrist who encourages him to abuse her wealthy clients for big money readings. By breaking his mentors’ one rule (“Don ‘t do the spook act”), he quickly learns the reason behind the caution.
Promising Young Woman—Not the movie the trailers made you think, it’s a finely woven tale of sexual assault, mental illness, and revenge, told as a dark comedy with very smart twists and turns to a completely unexpected end. Storytelling at it’s best with a smart and game cast along for the ride.
Shang Chi & the Ten Rings—A new Marvel franchise that doesn’t feel like a Marvel franchise (in the best ways), it’s the Asian American equivalent of the superior Black Panther franchise, and gives Asian American actors great opportunities, from a dashing new leading man, great comic sidekicks, and great martial arts sequences. It has all the pageantry of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the freshness of Crazy Rich Asians. Hopefully this opens a new field for Asian American actors and launches a promising movie career for Asian Canadian actor Simu Liu.
Ineligible: Last year’s Oscar winner Nomadland, which wouldn’t have taken a spot from any of these nominees anyhow, but also, sadly, Stephen Speiberg’s stunning remake of West Side Story, which would have most like produced a few wins in performance categories down the line. For some unfathomable reason, Disney stalled on the streaming release. The film big-time tanked at the box office and should have started streaming in early January, but in an attempt to drain $6 more from an audience that didn’t give shit, they kept it on single screens far too long, even missing the extended deadline I considered using just to accommodate the talent in this film. I know, Disney, money grabbing and showing no concern for the consumer. I can’t picture it either. Other contenders that didn’t’ make the cut in time include Belfast, Dune, and Licorice Pzza. See you all next year.
WINNER: Promising Young Woman. As much as it hurts me not to reward a movie historically based on I Love Lucy, Promising Young Woman is the best example of just good solid story telling and clever plot twists and an unexpected 11:00 final turn since Psycho or Planet of the Apes. This is the entry that feels like classic old time Oscar Winners as far as great performances, and taut storytelling of a full and complete story, not the prevailing trend of miniscule glimpses into fringe worlds and situations.
BEST ACTOR
Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal)—Ahmed is outstanding as a hearing impaired drummer suffering from addiction in a rock band. Coping with the rules of recovery of his specialized hearing impaired AA group may be more difficult than coping with deafness.
Bradley Cooper (Nightmare Alley)—Cooper proves he’s a leading man who can carry a movie on his broad shoulders as he navigates all the standard elements of del Toro’s noir world of carnies and mysticism.
Simu Liu (Shang Chi & the Ten Rings)—The Chinese Canadian actor brings legitimacy to his Marvel debut much like the late Chadwick Bozeman did with the Black Panther franchise, honoring Marvel lore as well as Asian culture and martial arts films. Liu is a natural leading man and a legitimate action hero. This should either become a franchise or at least open a lot of doors for him.
Daniel Kaluuya (Judas & the Black Messiah)—Somehow Kaluuya beat costar Stanfield for the best supporting actor Oscar at last year’s misguided Oscar ceremony. Here they compete in the category they belong in. If they are both the title characters, who is the star here? As Black Panther leader Freddy Hampton, Kaluuya is riveting as the charismatic leader, with plenty of big opportunity rally speeches to show off.
LaKeith Stanfield (Judas & the Black Messiah)—Stanfield as the FBI plant infiltrating Freddy Hampton and the Black Panther organization is a mixture of intensity and subtlety. His chemistry with Kaluuya is strong and we struggle along with him as he wrestles with his conscience carrying out the terms of his employment.
Andrew Garfield (Tik Tik Boom!)—The British golden boy scores big as the lead in Jonathon Larson’s autobiographical tale of the burdens of trying to create art. Garfield carries the movie on his own with surprisingly strong vocals and a heart-felt performance of a near-actual starving artist.
Ineligible: Last year’s surprise best actor recipient Anthony Hopkins in a powerful performance as a father descending into dementia. And while Daniel Kaluuya was a winner, it was inexplicably for Best Supporting Actor. Here he and titular costar LaKeith Stanfield are competing in Best Actor category where they clearly belongs, because we don’t need to artificially clear the field for a posthumous non-win by last year’s robbed Chadwick Bozeman.
WINNER: LaKeith Stanfield. Kaluuya beat him in the head to head at the disastrous Oscars, but while he for sure has the showier role with the big rally scenes and such, Stanfield has the more internalized role, subtly dealing with his conscience, his employers, and his friend. LaKeith in truth has the more difficult role and excels in executing it. No pun intended.
BEST ACTRESS
Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye)—The chameleon-like Chastain delivers a multi-layered performance in what could have been a cartoon movie of the week as a very sympathetic Tammy Faye Bakker, from her humble beginnings as the daughter of a Pentecostal church pianist to the queen of the PTL Club empire, stopping at all the business and marrital troubles along the way.
Andra Day (The US vs Billie Holiday)—Day makes a splash in her big screen leading lady debut in a role that gives her every opportunity to excel: music, addiction, business, love scenes, tantrums, all in another story we were never told, where the FBI harassed Holliday for performing “Strange Fruit”, a song about lynchings of black folk, to the point of harassment and censorship.
Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos)—Kidman gives us a glance behind the scenes of Desilu Productions and not only how involved Lucille Ball was in the production of her show, from her demands for character integrity in her line by line dissection of the script at the first table read to how smart and business savvy she and Desi were in business situations, never losing her cool in the face of the potential black list. And a couple of glimpses of classic I Love Lucy scenes just for kicks.
Carrie Mulligan (Promising Young Woman)—Mulligan elevates a sublime screenplay as a med school dropout suffering from depression who has made it her mission to teach men how to not take advantage of drunken women….in addition to another more personal agenda.
Kristin Stewart (Spencer)—I never thought I’d be filling out a bio for the Twilgiht heroine in this category, but Stewart has evolved into a compelling actress that the camera loves. She has Princess Diana down pat, not just the head tilt and bashful upward glance, but her devotion to her boys and her disdain for all the antiquated pageantry the Crown insists upon, not to mention her forever cheating louse of a husband.
Emma Stone (Cruella)—Stone makes a Disney villainess look easy, but her performance is complex and even sympathetic in this origin story of first tier Disney evil Cruella de Vil. Not to mention she looks stunning in the should-be Academy Award nominated houte couture costumes.
Ineligible: Last year’s winner and Oscar darkling Frances McDormand from Nomadland.
WINNER: Carrie Mulligan. While Kidman and Chastain gave two of my favorite performances of the year, Mulligan takes what could have been a Lifetime for Women Move of the Week and elevates it into the tale of a complex anti-heroine whose vigilante vow to women everywhere becomes her undoing. Fully in command of the movie, Mulligan initiates and navigates every hairpin plot twist and turn flawlessly all the way to an unforeseen 11:00 redemption. She’s the reason this delicious black comedy can even take side trips into serious issues like date rape and mental illness without pandering or preaching.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Bo Burnham (Promising Young Woman)—the millennial comic with the avant garde sense of humor turns in an unexpectedly grounded and subtle performance as a seemingly amiable love interest with something to hide.
Andrew Garfield (The Eyes of Tammy Faye)—In his second nomination, Garfield couldn’t be more removed from his best actor nomination in Tik Tik Boom or his other co-starring role in holiday action behemoth as an ultraverse Spiderman. His turn as Jim Bakker gives him plenty to work with, from charismatic preaching segments to all the backstage business and marital drama with Tammy Faye and his pansexual affairs.
Tony Leung (Shang Chi & the Ten Rings)—An action hero and a martial arts villain provide a great role for Leung to show his talents.
Mark Rylance (Just Look Up)—As a highly ineffective, hair-sniffing Joe Biden-esque VP in the corrupt government, Rylance gets lots of comic moments in this sort of, not as much as they want to think satire of our self-serving, constituent-loathing government.
J.K. Simmons (Being the Ricardos)—Simmons steals the show with the prime role of abrasive curmudgeon William Frawley. Whether day drinking, fighting on set with Vivian Vance, recreating comic sidekick Fred Mertz, or playing the observer from the outside, Simmons delivers. Best exchange to demonstrate his obnoxious behavior–LUCY: Desi works harder than everyone. He comes in here for the table read at performance level. He’s funny on Monday. Me, I’ll be funny by Friday. FRAWLEY: (To Vivian Vance) When are you gonna be funny?
Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog) The former child actor turns in his first major league supporting role, turning the tables on his bully step-uncle Benedict Cumberbatch
Ineligible: West Side‘s Mike Faist, as Jets gang leader Riff, who was at the top of most lists for the category.
WINNER: J.K Simmons. Simmons steals the entire movie from Oscar vets Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem while giving them plenty to work off of as Lucy and Desi. Whether playing actor Bill Frawley or his sitcom counterpart, the iconic Fred Mertz, Simmons is integral and strong from opening to credits.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Nina Arianda (Being the Ricardos)—As the legendary Vivian Vance, Arianda deals with on set fighting from costar J.K. Simmons’ William Frawley, and behind the scenes backstabbing from Nicole Kidman’s Lucille Ball, who was constantly preoccupied that Ethel Mertz never be as attractive as Lucy Riccardo and used her power as producer to guarantee she be a frump. Arianda shows the strength and professionality of this showbiz icon. Key line to understanding the dynamics—VIVIAN: So the premise of the show is that Lucy can get a hot, younger Cuban ladies’ man, but Ethel Mertz has to marry her grandfather and even then she still isn’t pretty enough for him.
Toni Collette (Nightmare Alley)—As a carny fortune teller with a conscious, Collette and her husband have no problem developing a cheat code between the star and the assistant, but at least has the scruples to never do “the spook show” (connect patrons with the dead).
Olivia Colman (The Father)—Colman, usually cast for her dry comic abilities in showy roles like The Favourite or The Crown displays her serious acting skills in this movie as a put-upon daughter dealing with a father in the latter stages of dementia.
Frances McDormand (The Tragedy of MacBeth)—When you wake up each morning and the woman across the breakfast table from you is the only living woman with three Oscars to her name, who else are you going to call to play tragedienne extraordaire Lady MacBeth in your new movie version? McDormand and costar Denzel Washington have an uncanny way with verse and iambic pentameter to make Shakespeare’s floral, stilted speech seem positively conversational. Plus she nails all the classic scenes, even if they did have to move the whole “Bring forth only male children” line to the past conditional tense since she is obviously 60+.
Julianne Moore (Dear Even Hansen)—Moore turns in a sympathetic performance as a single mother dealing as best she can parenting an anxiety-ridden teen who is suddenly thrust into the spotlight when a series of misunderstandings turns him into an unlikely hero. Moore could win the award for her single scene performing “So Big, So Small” as she attempts to clean up the mess as only a mother can.
Meryl Streep (Don’t Look Up)—Streep turns in one of her uniquely comic performances as a Trump-like President of the US as a planet-destroying comet is nearing the planet who, when they discover the comet contains trillions of dollars with of gold and diamonds and such, puts the needs of the rich and powerful above the safety of the world population with comic results. Make sure to stay for the last scene in the credits.
Ineligible: Oscar winner Yuh-Jung Youn, the Korean “not a real grandmother” from Minari.. But more sadly, because of Disney’s stall on the streaming release of West Side Story, both Ariana DeBose and Rita Moreno missed the deadline. Either of them could have won. Probably DeBose.
WINNER: With Ariana DeBose and Rita Moreno out of the way, it boils down to Arianda with a comic portrayal of TV legend Vivian Vance, and Colman with a tragic performance as a middle aged woman watching her father slip away to demetia. Give it to Nina Arianda for showing the drama behind the laughs as Vance struggles professionally with both a drunk and abusive Bill Frawley and an insecure Lucille Ball behind the scenes just trying to do a good day’s work, which time has proven she did as maybe the quintessential TV sidekick of all time.
BEST DIRECTOR
Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog)--Campion (The Piano), becomes the first woman to receive two Academy Award nominations as best director, tells another slow burn tale with a final payoff, at the pace of the Old West.
Joel Coen (The Tragedy of Macbeth)--Coen’s vision of austere black & white film with cavernous sets and severe, deliberate lighting sets a film noir tone to tell Shakespeare’s ultimate tragedy of greed and betrayal.
Guilermo del Toro (Nightmare Alley)--Del Toro pulls all the film noir tricks in the book for his tale of a rogue carny who is warned about attempting more than he is capable of. He also coaxes strong performances out of his game cast.
Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman)–Fennell directs her own superior screen play in this tale of a woman avenging toxic masculinity, which makes pit stops at date rape and mental illness. She obviously understands her material.
Shaka King (Judas & the Black Messiah)--King takes a strong hand in this civil rights tragedy and balances the highs of the black power rallies and sit-ins with the lows of the FBI manipulations and black ops.
Aaron Sorkin (Being the Ricardos)–Sorkin directs his own deft screenplay that chronicles a critical week in the production of the original TV phenomenon, I Love Lucy. Getting great performances out of his cast also allows him to shine a light on the behind the scenes gossip and events.
Ineligible: Grand master and always contender Steven Spielberg, again because Disney’s stall on releasing the film to streaming, almost as if that would negate the fact that it was a box office flop of the worst kind.
WINNER: Emerald Fennell. While every director nominated this season wrote their own screenplay or at least contributed heavily towards it, and did a superior job setting the mood of the piece, Fennell goes the furthest in storytelling to aid her cause and make leading lady Mulligan a star.
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Britney vs Spears—In what is still the most surreal career path of any pop icon ever, At the height of her career, Spears overbearing father Jamie had her independence legally stripped from her and put her in a legally binding conservatorship which controlled all her finances, spending, and career decisions for decades. Famously just recently reversed, this documentary chronicles the mad events that arose as the story unfolded.
Howard—A Valentine to master playwright and lyricist Howard Ashman, from his Baltimore youth through NY theatrical breakthrough with Little Shop of Horrors, and crowning glory as eventual Academy Award winning Disney lyricist/producer. Taken far too soon from AIDS, he finished his final work on Disney’s Aladdin blind from his hospice bed. If he had survived, he would have been the new benchmark for best lyrics ever, and I know and mean what I said there.
Longshot—In a truth stranger than fiction, this documentary deals with an average joe who, while at a Dodgers game with his daughter, was wrongly targeted for the murder of an ex-girlfriend and harassed by a bitchy prosecutor who, as usual, never looked past the ex-boyfriend as the only person of interest. His unlikely saving grace? He remembered somebody filming something at the stadium and it turns out that it was a classic episode of Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, wherein Larry picks up a hooker to take to the game in order to take advantage of the HOV lanes and avoid traffic. Upon reviewing ever foot of tape, the defendant is clearly seen in the last roll returning to his seat as Larry exits. And the bitchy prosecuter still tried to insist it was him. Another expose of our public law system failing miserably. (SPOILER ALERT: the real murderer was a drug dealer, but, hey, easy mistake because all 20-something Latino guys look alike. That bitch prosecutor should have lost her job)
JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass—Director Oliver Stone picks up where his controversial 90s film JFK leaves off. But this time, he takes advantage of hundreds of documents released through the Freedom of Information Act to back up his allegations. Even though still somewhat redacted, we see the actual typed words that proves so many shady CIA and government lies that have been hidden and swept away, including 2 alternate assassination plots in September and October of 1963 (in Miami and Chicago) that had identical casts of characters down to an Oswaldian substitute patsy with identical credentials to take the fall. And no speculation this time, he shows all the passages that tell us everything we should know in the documents. Why, 60 years later can’t we ever know the truth?
Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)--Not to be confused with the other major New York music event in the summer of ’69 just 100 miles to the north, the Harlem Cultural Festival in Mount Morris Park amassed over 300,000 spectators to celebrate black history and culture. Despite a line-up that rivaled Woodstock, including legends such as Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, the 5th Dimension, and Nina Simone, this concert was also filmed, but then i inexplicably stored in a basement, ignored for 50 years until unearthed for this documentary.
Tina—One of the most inspirational stories in rock and roll of the rise, fall, and rebirth of Tina Turner. We all know the story, from her country beginnings to Ike Turner to domestic abuse, and a long path to a comeback staged in Europe by a producer who believed in her. It’s all been documented before in What’s Love Got to Do With It, and despite cutting out the most fascinating part by refusing to talk any more about her history with Ike (“You all know the story and we’re not gonna talk about it anymore.”), it’s stills a compelling and inspiring work.
WINNER: JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass. All the showbusiness documentaries are fascinating in their own way, but again, Stone’s is another important expose about how our government is still lying to us and protecting their own interests, as usual. Why, 60 years after the events with no surviving players, cant’ we know the truth?
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission–The third theatrical release from the world-acclaimed Adult Swim anime franchise starring the vocal talents of local artist Justin Briner (yeah, my kid’s the lead), its another example of the art of anime not receiving the respect it deserves. Full disclosure: my son is the vocal star of the franchise, which means little in the merit it receives
Encanto–Disney’s third and most highly promoted offering is this year’s Soul, the least interesting and least deserving of all the attention, but on the top of everyone’s award list. But hey, as long as we don’t talk about Bruno….
Luca–Disney’s first offering of the season, a feel-good film about a sea monster who yearns to be a real boy on land (kind of a new-age, gender-swapped Little Mermaid) it’s cute but only B+ Disney.
Raya & the Last Dragon—Disney’s middle entry is an inspiring tale of a Chinese girl whose family was once protected by a powerful group of dragons. Down to the last one, if she can even locate her, Raya needs her help to defeat a rival family who has taken over their land.
WINNER: Raya & the Last Dragon—Making up for all the shortcomings of the other Disney films, this one fires on all the right cylinders as a tightly written girl-power buddy picture, and Awkwafina voicing the titular dragon gives the show a female sidekick with the Eddie Murphy-like off-the-wall, irreverent ad libs to keep the film contemporary and upbeat and done so well ou’e barely even aware of the political motives behind it. Sorry your grandma was mean, Encanto, but this girl is too busy saving China to care.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT RECOGNITIONS
While having nowhere the time to watch dozens of old movies as in homebound 2020, the biggest addition was a preoccupation with the master of Southern Goth Tennessee Williams. After last years Marcos theatrical sweep by the London National Théâtre’s streaming production of a very contemporary Streetcar Named Desire, I went back and rewatched the three major American releases: the original theatrical release starring Brando and Vivien Leigh, which will always merit a watch by profiting from the masterful performance of Leigh, film’s quintessential southern belle playing the stage’s quintessential faded Southern belle is a fascinating progression, plus Brando’s definitive animalistic Stanley. Also coupled with the underrated Miss Ann-Margret in what should have been her Emmy winning turn opposite Treat Williams, and the sublime Jessica Lange turning in a powerful performance with equally impressive Alec Baldwin. I followed that with alternate versions of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, both the original starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman plus and HBO version from the 80s starring once gain Jessica Lange and Tommy Lee Jones early in their prominent careers and just slightly green compared to the pros, plus a pleasant surprise from the 70s, a TV version starring a flawless Natalie Wood and husband Robert Wagner with Lawrence Olivier as Big Daddy. A first viewing of his dicey Suddenly Last Summer, an expose of the horrors of the era’s mental health facilities starring Katherine Hepburn at her finest and Elizabeth Taylor as the victim of her powerful wrath led to a top-notch 80s remake with Maggie Smith, Rob Lowe, and Natasha Richardson.
A fun Christmas Eve revisit of Grease brought back a ton of adolescent thrills and remembering what was my fist love of musical theatre. Say what you want, I don’t care how old anyone is, but Travolta, then newcomer Olivia Newton-John, and Stockard Channing are still benchmark casting for the piece, and the Patricia Birch’s dance numbers still rock, sepecially the “Born to Hand Jive” set piece in the gym..
See you back next week with part 2, the Marco Awards for Television.