Being Elmo: The Man Behind the Muppet

Being Elmo is the story of Kevin Clash, one of the most famous men you have probably never heard of. He gave life to Elmo, Sesame Street's beloved furry red muppet, and his story will delight you. Because it is very simply the story of a man who loved puppets.

Clash became obsessed with puppets from an early age, starting with his love for Captain Kangaroo and then an obsession with Sesame Street as soon as it premiered in 1969. He watched every TV special featuring Jim Henson, the genius responsible for the Muppets, and watched Henson and his colleagues discuss simple puppet-making techniques on various TV specials. Finally, one day he saw the fur lining in his father's coat and inspiration struck. Without further thought, he cut it up and fashioned a monkey puppet, the first of many. Terrified at what his father would say when he saw his decimated coat, Clash was shocked to hear his father's response, "You could have just asked!" In fact, his parents knew then and there that Clash had a gift and they supported him 100% as he proceeded to fill up the house with dozens of puppets. You can't help but admire parents like these - they were so excited to see his talent that it never once crossed their mind that puppeteering might be considered an odd career choice.

In high school, Clash continued to play with puppets and performed at various venues in Baltimore to entertain children. He was spied by a local TV producer and started appearing on a children's TV show on Channel 2 with his collection of puppets in tow. During his senior year of high school, he had a class trip to high school, and his mother made one of his greatest wishes come true. She got in touch with Kermit Love, one of Jim Henson's main collaborators and designers of many of the Sesame Street Muppets, and arranged a meeting with him at the Muppet Studios. This was in 1978 and it seems almost ridiculous to imagine such a thing happening now. How would you ever be able to call up a high-profile man like Kermit Love and just ask him if he had the time to see your son? But it was a simpler time and Kermit was a man brimming with good will and an eagerness to meet young puppeteers. Clash got to tour the studios, learn all about the Henson stitch, and find out what materials they used to make the Muppets. The next year, he was invited back to New York to serve on the Sesame Street float for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade as the puppeteer for Cookie Monster.

During the 1980's, Clash worked on various shows in New York, including his beloved Captain Kangaroo, and finally in 1984, the stars aligned and he became an official puppeteer for Sesame Street. One day, the puppeteer who was trying to make something out of a furry red Muppet named Elmo got frustrated and threw the puppet onto Clash's lap. Clash picked Elmo up, decided to give this character a second life, and the rest is history.

Man or Muppet?

What is so remarkable about this documentary is how jam-packed it is with people who are supportive, encouraging, and determined to help Clash achieve his dreams. This is no sad-sack documentary about overcoming the odds. Instead, it fiercely champions the idea that if you love something and have a genuine passion for it, you can go all the way and realize your most impossible dreams. The mentors that Clash picks up along the way, men like Kermit Love and Jim Henson, are all the more remarkable because they just open their arms and welcome in this hitherto unknown boy. They recognize his immense talent and that is the only thing they care about. They teach him everything they know about puppeteering and designing the Muppets, and in return he gives them everything's he's got.

Elmo's defining characteristic is love. All he wants is to hug and kiss the kids and celebrities he meets on Sesame Street or around the world, and that is what makes him such a universally loved character. No one even seems to notice Clash as he works the puppet, their eyes are solely on Elmo. However, Elmo is simply an extension of Clash, his parents, and the people who have loved and supported him through the years. Elmo's unconditional love is just a reflection of the love that Clash has received through his journey to Sesame Street. And now that he's made it, we get to see how he passes on the legacy by inviting the future generation of puppeteers to the Muppet workshop and answering all of their questions about materials, stitches, or puppet manipulation.

Sesame Street has always been a warm and welcoming place. It is now clear that this is because the men and women behind those Muppets are every bit as warm, loving, and wonderful as the characters they portray.

Beginners: A Slice of a Rather Interesting Life

I've been wanting to see Beginners ever since I saw the theatrical trailer in front of some movie (maybe Jane Eyre?) in March. It looked interesting: with Ewan McGregor, Melanie Laurent (of Inglourious Basterds fame), and Christopher Plummer (that's Captain von Trapp, Sound of Music lovers), I couldn't help but be intrigued. But sadly it had a terribly limited release sometime in the summer and I never got around to seeing it until now.

This movie is decidedly not going to please everyone. You could argue that not a lot happens from the beginning to the end as you follow the life of Oliver (McGregor) who is learning to deal with the death of his father and starting up a tentative relationship with Anna, a French actress he meets at a party (the incandescent Laurent). But while Oliver's tale might be slow, the story of his father Hal (Plummer in a wonderfully whimsical and upbeat guise) is what makes the movie so special. 

After his wife's death, Hal, who is now 75, comes out to his son Oliver. Through a series of flashbacks, Oliver gives us the story of his father's coming out, the way he threw himself into Gay Pride, found a new circle of friends and embarked on the second act of his life the way he had always wanted to live it. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with lung cancer and died 4 years after coming out. But during those 4 years, he lived his new life joyously, calling Oliver up in the middle of the night to talk about his visit to a gay bar, his discovery of house music, and discussing the personals ad he wrote to find a man who would be interested in a relationship with a newly gay man in his 70s. It's both ridiculous and sublime, and it's little wonder that Plummer got a Golden Globe nomination for his work in this film. You've never seen a man happier than Hal is to come out of the closet.

Oliver is much more quiet and subdued, but he clearly adores his father. He is supportive, loving, indulgent, and takes great care of him till the very end. He is also an artist who tells his story more through his art than his actions. Throughout the movie, whenever Oliver mentions a year, e.g. the year his father was born, he will further illustrate it with photographs that reveal, "This is who the President was," "This is what the sun looked like," "This is what 'pretty' looked like," etc. It is surprisingly effective to see whole swathes of history reduced to these still images that do such a wonderful job of capturing the essence of their era. And really, that's what Beginners feels like. An attempt to capture this moment in history with a series of beautiful images, warm characters, and love stories.

The movie is actually autobiographical for writer-director Mike Mills, which lends a valuable dimension of authenticity to the story. Beginners is a loving tribute to his father and also an ode to the visual spectacle of cinema as a storytelling medium. Sometimes these slice-of-life stories can be a drag, but by giving us slices out of the lives of so many extraordinary characters, Mills has crafted a much more intricate movie that reveals how much things can change in the course of a lifetime. And that you are never too old to begin again.

Hal & Oliver: a father-son duo that will gladden your heart 

Seminar: Snape Swearing at Students, What More Do You Need to Know?

I'll admit, Harry Potter is somewhat of an unhealthy obsession in my life. I went to see How To Succeed in Business just so I could see Daniel Radcliffe in the flesh, and it's the reason I went to see Seminar, the Broadway play starring Alan Rickman, aka Professor Snape. But even if you can't tell your Philosopher's Stone from your Deathly Hallow, you would have to be seriously devoid of any sense of humor to not enjoy this play. The show's run ends in February, so get to the Golden Theatre at once!

Seminar is the story of four writers who have hired a famous writer/editor (Rickman) for 10 weekly sessions of a private writing seminar. The play opens with these four people and at first, you are hard-pressed to find anything to like about them. Douglas (Jerry O'Connell) is the pretentious nightmare, the one who uses words  like"interiority" and "exteriority," expounds upon the shimmering beauty of Nature that led him to the genre of magical realism, and has decent connections in the literary world courtesy of his uncle. Kate (Lily Rabe) is quick to be offended, a somewhat militant feminist who disdains any mention of Jack Kerouac and is forever referring to her years spent in Bennington College. Izzy (Hetienne Park) is the free-spirited Asian girl who doesn't think twice about using her sexuality to get ahead. Which leaves Martin (Hamish Linklater), who hates Douglas's pretentions, knows Kate from high school, is nursing a secret crush for Izzy, and likes to expound on the importance of language and the craft of writing. This could easily become snooze-inducing stuff, but the one-liners, character eviscerations, and witty sarcasm considerably enliven the proceedings.

Once Alan Rickman swans onto the stage, the laughs don't stop coming. He is a pompous, arrogant, and brutally honest critic, who completely decimates Kate's manuscript during the first session after reading just the first 5 words on the page. He likes to give long monologues about all the things he's done, like roaming around war-torn countries and meeting HIV-ridden beggars in Rwanda. When he announces that he's leaving for a 2-week trip to Somalia, Kate declares, "I hope they shoot him!" He is thoroughly unlikable, but that's why you like him so much, which is a mind-bending feat of acting skill.

The play abounds with high-brow writerly language that is then instantly cast aside for furiously hurled expletives. Over the course of the hour and forty minutes, the characters' relationships evolve or devolve as necessary. All the relationship stuff is amusing, but the real joy of the play is to just watch these 5 people mock each other, mock other writers, mock literature, and mock the world. The playwright, Theresa Rebeck, has a real knack for being able to craft a joke out of anything. Just when you think things are getting a little too heavy, someone will make a wry declaration that elicits a chuckle and the comedy is back in full force.

Writers as a group are heartily inclined to take themselves too seriously. Seminar is a wonderful reminder that even though fine prose, poetry, and plays are great things, sometimes a hearty insult is the best manifestation of the beauty of the English language.

A decidedly cheery Rickman with his Muggle co-stars

Downton Abbey: Disastrous Events Are No Excuse To Forget Your Manners

Last night marked the triumphant return of Downton Abbey to the PBS Masterpiece Classic schedule. Created by Julian Fellowes, the Oscar-winning scribe of Gosford Park, the series was a breakout hit when it aired stateside last January. The second season aired in the fall in the UK, but US viewers finally have the chance to (legally) watch it now.

If you have been living under a rock this past year and did not catch Downton fever, let me catch you up. The series begins in 1912 and revolves around the aristocrats and servants who live at Downton Abbey, a lavish Yorkshire estate. The fictional Downton is filmed at the very real Highclere Castle and that setting alone will make you gasp. A mere 100 years ago, people actually lived like this, and part of Downton's appeal is how it gets you to yearn for this life and then realize you'd go insane if you had to live with that many rules and regulations.

The heads of the household are Lord and Lady Grantham, a loving couple with three daughters. Unfortunately, their daughters cannot inherit Downton because it is tied up in entail and can only go to a male heir. They've sorted out this problem because the eldest daughter, Mary, is engaged to her cousin, the son of the heir presumptive, so the estate will ultimately be kept in the hands of the family. Unfortunately, it's 1912. Remember what big historical event took place in 1912? The Titanic sank. And in the world of Downton Abbey, this is a devastating tragedy because the heirs to the estate sank along with it. So now they have to scramble to figure out who the next heir is. Enter Matthew Crawley, a lawyer who lives with his mother in London. Now he finds himself poised to inherit a title, an estate, and the enmity of all these people who think it is terribly unfair that a relative stranger will get to take away their home.

This is just how the show begins. And that's just the plot for the first half hour or so. The rest of the series proceeds in whiplash-inducing fashion, with twists and turns in every episode and a plethora of hysterical one-liners courtesy of the Dowager Countess (Lord Grantham's mother) played with searing sarcasm by Dame Maggie Smith. These are just the problems with the upstairs characters. Downstairs, there's a whole mess of intrigue, jealousy, and romance raging among the various footmen, butlers, maids, cooks, dogsbodies, etc. that make up the household staff.

If you haven't watched Downton Abbey yet, you are genuinely missing out on a cultural phenomenon. This is an impeccably written, hugely entertaining, vastly enjoyable piece of television history and you need to at least give it a try before you completely dismiss it. One of the best things to happen on the Twitterverse over Christmas was that comedian Patton Oswalt started watching the Season 1 DVD of Downton and proceeded to regale his Twitter followers with his instant love for the drama. This was his first tweet and if you care to scroll through his subsequent revelations, his enthusiasm is quite catching. You have until Jan 17th to watch the entire first season on the PBS website and then you can get started with the second season which takes place during World War I and sees Downton transformed into a convalescent home. The stakes are even higher, the drama (and the comedy) get even more exhilarating, and I loved every minute of it. Yes, I found a way to watch the entire second season already and it was a highlight of my fall TV schedule. And the Christmas special that wrapped up the season was the most astonishingly feel-good bit of TV I had experienced all year.

The series won a bunch of Emmy's in September and is nominated for a bunch of Golden Globes this Sunday. If I have anything to say about it (which I don't) they are definitely going home with some trophies, especially Maggie Smith. Now go ahead. You have a lot of amazing television to watch, and if this is your first time at Downton Abbey, I truly envy you.

The gigantic cast, all of whom deserve a Golden Globe of their very own

Friday Night Lights: Football Like You've Never Seen It Before

I would be the first to admit that I think football is a ridiculous sport (for the benefit of non-US readers, let me just clarify that I mean American football, the kind that rarely involves a foot touching the ball). I have never watched an entire game, I don't understand any of the rules, all I know is that it involves running on a field and carrying the ball to the end to score a touchdown. I don't understand the scoring system, I'm not entirely sure how many players there are, and I only know the names of some positions. So the idea that I would watch Friday Night Lights, a show that is all about a Texas high school football team, seems rather ludicrous.

However, for the past 5 years I have been hearing non-stop praise for this show. The critics were particularly effusive this year when the show finished its fifth and final season and was nominated for some Emmys. The show had been snubbed so often that people were desperate for it to gain recognition in its final year, and luckily it did pick up awards for Kyle Chandler as Outstanding Lead Actor and Jason Katims for Outstanding Writing. Since I was finished with all available seasons of Mad Men, I figured it was about time to give FNL a chance, so I loaded up the first season on my iPad and set off for the gym.

It took precisely one episode for me to become a raving fan. The show might profess to be about football, but it is really about the people in this small town of Dillon, Texas, where football reigns supreme and is the main chance for these kids to make something of themselves. The series begins as Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler) arrives in Dillon as the new Head Coach of the high school football team, the Dillon Panthers. He has a solid relationship with star quarterback, Jason Street (Scott Porter), but is facing immense pressure from the townspeople and the press who need him to take this team all the way to the state championships. Anything less would be a failure. With his loving wife Tammy (Connie Britton) and weary-of-moving daughter Julie (Aimee Teegarden) by his side, Coach Taylor forges ahead, trying to instill the importance of football in his players and make them forget all the other stuff. All that matters is the game and their team motto: Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose. Off the field, he is the consummate family man, engaging in sincere, often hilarious conversations with his daughter as he attempts to give her "fatherly advice" and placate his much put-upon wife.

In the very first game of the season, Jason Street is involved in a horrible accident and has to be carted off in the field on a stretcher. While the town reels with the shock, Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford) the back-up quarterback has to take the reins and lead his team. He is shy, underconfident, has never started in a game, and is terrified. No one expects anything from him at all. But you, the viewer, have been sucked in at this point. As the game proceeds, interspersed with montages of Jason being operated on at the hospital, your heart is in your mouth. When Matt throws that last desperate pass that may or may not win the game, I almost fell off the elliptical in the gym and elicited a lot of weird looks from other people as I desperately tried not to cheer, "Go Panthers!" All this from a girl who doesn't know the first thing about football.

Kyle Chandler & Connie Britton, aka Coach & Mrs. Taylor:
the best TV couple EVER

The rest of the season proceeded to amaze me every bit as much as the first episode. After the Emmys, some critics wistfully declared their wish that Connie Britton had managed to win Outstanding Lead Actress as well. At the time I thought they were being greedy, but now I am outraged that she didn't win an award for her performance as Tammy Taylor, a woman whose picture should be in the dictionary as the sole definition of the word "sassy." Tammy can praise you or eviscerate you with a single sentence and as the loving but determined school guidance counselor, she provides just as much support for the entire town of Dillon as she does for her family. The actors playing the high schoolers are absolute marvels, with Scott Porter bringing strength, resilience, and vulnerability to the character of Jason Street, while Zach Gilford evolves from nobody to star quarterback right in front of your eyes. Sure these kids seem to have way more adult problems than even the adults of Dillon, but that's what you get with high schoolers on TV. And these kids are always dreaming about how to get out of Dillon and worrying about their future, so it's little wonder that they grow up so fast.

I also have to mention the soundtrack. The opening theme is composed by W. G. Snuffy Walden who composed all the original music for the series. Even after 22 episodes, I still get goosebumps when listening to the opening swell of music that promises so much heartfelt drama, humor, and action up ahead. The episodes are filled with amazing songs, particularly "Devil Town," which I will never be able to hear again without recalling the noble and desperate town of Dillon. 

I've heard that the second season is a bit of a letdown, and given the sheer brilliance of the first season, it really does have a lot to live up to. I just saw the first few episodes and it has wandered into dangerously Gossip Girl/Beverly Hills 90210 territory. But the next three seasons are supposedly back to form, so I will persevere. I was terribly disappointed to discover that the second season is only 15 episodes long due to the Writer's Strike of 2007-8, and the subsequent seasons were only 13 episodes since NBC shuttled the show off to DirectTV. But I'll save my complaints for when I get to the series finale. And given how invested I've already become in these characters, I foresee some massive Friday Night Lights withdrawal up ahead. 

Sherlock: Solving Crimes Has Never Been More Stimulating

I've already raved on this blog about Steven Moffat and his genius knack for writing the best TV episodes on either side of the Atlantic. So it should come as no surprise that I watched the return of Sherlock (by the way, what a brilliant way to ring in the New Year, well done BBC!) and am here to tell you to drop everything and watch it right away.

Some background - Sherlock is the modern-day retelling of Sherlock Holmes, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman playing Holmes and Watson. It is hilarious, sophisticated, and displays a complete understanding of these characters, so that even though the world they inhabit is far removed from Victorian England, you couldn't care less. There has never been more a more accurate depiction of Holmes and Watson than in this series, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would probably have to concede that Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss were was the only writers fit to carry on his legacy.

The first series lasted all of three episodes and was mindblowingly fantastic. Cumberbatch deserves an award just for the tongue-twisting dialogue that he has to utter on a regular basis. Freeman is perfect as the sensible Dr. Watson, newly returned from Afghanistan with a psychosomatic limp that Holmes quickly diagnoses. The modern-day setting is a revelation because it allows Watson to blog about his adventures with Sherlock, send him texts, discuss cases via Skype, and come up with all sorts of ways to keep Sherlock in the loop without needing him to leave 221B Baker Street for long. We were also introduced to Holmes's brother, Mycroft, his assistant (who may or may not be the future Mary Watson), the much put-upon landlady, Mrs. Hudson, and of course, consulting criminal and Holmes's arch nemesis, Jim Moriarty. Each one of these characters is a loving ode to the originals, with nice twists to keep them fresh and funny for the modern age.

The second series which premiered on New Year's Day is also only going to last three episodes. But these are 90-minute episodes, so really it's like watching a movie every week for three weeks. A very smart, impeccably crafted, Oscar-worthy movie. The first episode, "A Scandal in Belgravia," introduces Holmes' only romantic interest, Irene Adler. And what a worthy woman she is. Sparkling with wit, intelligence, and dominatrix charm, she plays Sherlock like a fiddle, giving him an endless array of puzzles to challenge and excite him. Lara Pulver is absolutely stunning and someone needs to give the woman a show of her own. As for the episode itself? Well. I don't even know where to begin. Let's just say it was utterly preposterous to see how brilliant it was. Moffat has fully outdone himself and this is only the first episode. Every minute counts and there are no wasted scenes, which you will find out as you hurtle towards the denouement. And as ever, it is wickedly funny with lashes of sarcasm, danger, and suspense. There are intricate mysteries that are solved with Holmes's trademark finesse and your jaw will hit the floor as you learn all the answers, which is probably how most people react when they read any Sherlock Holmes story.

Frankly, instead of watching Robert Downey Jr. punch people on the big screen, just buy the Sherlock DVD and indulge in quality entertainment. The next episode will be "The Hound of the Baskervilles" and I can't wait to see what Moffat and Gatiss's take is on this story. I've never been looking forward to a Sunday night more in my life. 

The Descendants: It's Not All Fun and Games in Hawaii

The first thing I did on New Year's Day was go see The Descendants. Believe me, it might be the best thing you do all year.

The story is about Matt King, a lawyer from Honolulu who is devastated when his wife Elizabeth is in a boating accident and rendered comatose. He has two daughters, 10-year old Scottie who has a smart mouth and exhibits some wildly inappropriate behavior and 17-year old Alex who has had issues with drinking and drugs and has been shipped off to boarding school. Matt is the self-described "back-up parent" and with his wife lying unresponsive in a hospital bed, he finds himself struggling to take control of the household and care for his daughters. Once he finds out that his wife is not going to make it and will be taken off life support according to the wishes stated in her living will, Matt has to start visiting friends and relatives to break the news and let them say their last goodbyes to Elizabeth.

Matt enlists Alex's help, telling her that he will need her to accompany him on some visits and or care of her sister when he's away visiting other people. At this point, Alex finally reveals why she and Elizabeth fought earlier that year. It turns out Elizabeth was having an affair, which Matt had absolutely no idea about. As you can imagine, he does not take the news well.

Adding to Matt's troubles is the fact that he is the sole trustee of his family's trust that stretches back several generations to his great-great-grandmother who was a Hawaiian princess. The trust owns a pristine piece of 25,000-acre property on the island of Kaua'i, which needs to be sold before it is lost due to laws against perpetuities. Matt has to deal with various cousins who need the money from the sale while the whole of Hawaii is eagerly following his family's decision on who to sell the property to. No one wants to see a Walmart built in the middle of that astonishingly beautiful area and the family is largely agreed upon selling it to a developer from Kaua'i, who knows the land and will be least likely to maim it. Unfortunately, Matt eventually learns something about this developer that might make him re-think the whole idea.

I know that nothing I've outlined so far sounds particularly funny and that is precisely what makes this movie so enchanting. It could easily have gone down the hard-luck sob-story road, but instead it takes the far more realistic path, where sorrow can be intertwined with humor and farce. Alex's incredibly dense friend Sid accompanies the family on their various road trips and provides much-needed comic relief with his stupid observations and strange ideas. Their attempts to stalk and confront the man that Elizabeth was having an affair with are hysterical and there are plenty of jokes amidst the very real tragedy that is enveloping this family. I heard plenty of sniffles in the audience and many people were blowing their noses in their handkerchiefs, but then two scenes later, they were laughing out loud as Sid did something ridiculous or Scottie said something insane.

Ultimately, the film is a masterclass in acting, with George Clooney imbuing Matt King with just the right amount of haplessness, strength, bewilderment, anger, and love. His one-sided dialogues with his comatose wife are simply stunning, going through emotions that you didn't even know humans could express. And Shailene Woodley is riveting as Alex, the foul-mouthed, alternately supportive and resentful daughter who is struggling with the awfulness of her mother's betrayal when there's nothing she can do about it now. Amara Miller is wonderful as the 10-year old Scottie who traipses through the movie with seemingly no idea that her mother is actually going to die until the very end in a scene that will break your heart.

Lest I forget, the whole story takes place in the jawdroppingly gorgeous setting of Hawaii with a lilting Hawaiian soundtrack to score the proceedings. But as Matt points out in the very beginning of the film, just because he lives in Hawaii, it doesn't mean he lives in Paradise. The entire film illustrates the point that people living in so-called Paradise are still subject to all the tragedies and woes of human life. A beautiful beach is little comfort when your wife is lying in the hospital and you are stalking her lover.

The Descendants is the kind of Oscar movie I absolutely love. A sad-funny story with some brilliantly realized characters and an ending that is just perfect. Clooney is definitely getting a Best Actor nomination for his role in this film and he has a solid chance of winning. And a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination is almost certainly coming their way. Interestingly, the movie was directed and co-written by Alexander Payne of Sideways fame, but one of the other co-writers is Jim Rash who plays the ridiculously over-the-top Dean Pelton on NBC's Community. I would happily vote for The Descendants to win Best Adapted Screenplay just to see Dean Pelton accept the award. So, bring on the nominations, and bring on the awards, because this is one of those must-see movies that make the bleak winter months feel like Paradise.

This is the property that Matt has to sell in the movie. Who wants to chip in and help me buy this place? We only need half a billion or so.