Acting Out

How ‘bout this guy? Headline from nypost.com: “This Ukrainian professor is teaching his class remotely — from the front lines of war.” Fedir Shandor’s specialty, besides combat, is tourism and hospitality. Photo from Google Images:

Friday night’s movie fix courtesy of Netflix by mail was inspired by curiosity, a 2004 adaptation of 1999 book. Several months ago I read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, an excellent account of the effects of rape on a high school freshman to be. Kristen Stewart, 14 at the time but looking older, is fine in the lead, as are Elizabeth Perkins and D.B. Sweeney as her baffled parents, whose role is trimmed from the novel. Steve Zahn, a terrific supporting actor, gives another stellar performance as an art teacher passionate about his subject. Prolific character actor Robert John Burke has the thankless task of playing a bigoted history teacher. The adaptation is about as faithful as a movie gets to its prime source. I’m not returning to the novel to confirm what I suspect is a concession to PC. It’s brief. Jessica Sharzer and Annie Young Frisbie share screenplay credit. Sharzer also directed, her first full length feature after three shorts. She also has credits as a producer and editor. She has been nominated for three Emmys, shared with many other producers, for her work on American Horror Story. 27,000+ users at IMDb have rated Speak, forging to a consensus of 7.2 on a scale of ten. Made on a budget estimated at a million, I assume it turned a profit, any loss at the box office made up in DVD sales and rentals and streaming. It runs just shy of 90 minutes, another plus. Three of the younger members of the cast are doing very well, piling up credits: Brooklyn’s Michael Angarano, Allison Siko and Hallee Hirsh. Curiously, Eric Lively, brother of Blake, who plays the rapist, was doing very well but has no credits after 2014. Stewart has become a big star. She was nominated for an Oscar for her performance as Princess Diana in Spencer (2021). She has directed music videos and is in the final stages of a documentary about herself. Here she is in character in Speak:

Since Chicago-born Mike Hagerty’s death notice aligned him with Friends, I didn’t bother researching his credits, as I’d never seen more than a minute or so of any episode. Dumb mistake. He was in five of that beloved series, and he did so much more. There are 115 titles under his name at IMDb in a career that spanned 1973 to the present. A graduate of the University of Illinois, alumnus of the Second City comedy troupe, he did guest shots on a slew of popular prime time fare, including Seinfeld, where he plays the store owner who burns Frank Costanza’s used, insect-infested clothing. He also appeared in two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, playing a different character in each. On the big screen he appeared in these popular films: Red Heat (1988), Dick Tracy (1990), Wayne’s World (1992) and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999). Gone too soon at 67. Well done, sir.