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Their ages vary. But a conspicuous handful of filmmaking lions in winter, or let’s say late autumn, have given us new reasons to be grateful for their work over the decades — even for the work that didn’t quite work. Which, yes, sounds like ingratitude. But do we even want more conventional or better-behaved work from talents such as Francis Ford Coppola? Even if we’re talking about “Megalopolis” ? If Clint Eastwood’s “Juror #2” gave audiences a less morally complicated courtroom drama, would that have mattered, given Warner Bros.’ butt-headed decision to plop it in less than three dozen movie theaters in the U.S.? Coppola is 85. Eastwood is 94. Paul Schrader, whose latest film “Oh, Canada” arrives this week and is well worth seeking out, is a mere 78. Based on the 2021 Russell Banks novel “Foregone,” “Oh, Canada” is the story of a documentary filmmaker, played by Richard Gere, being interviewed near the end of his cancer-shrouded final days. In the Montreal home he shares with his wife and creative partner, played by Uma Thurman, he consents to the interview by two former students of his. Gere’s character, Leonard Fife, has no little contempt for these two, whom he calls “Mr. and Mrs. Ken Burns of Canada” with subtle disdain. As we learn over the artful dodges and layers of past and present, events imagined and/or real, Fife treats the interview as a final confession from a guarded and deceptive soul. He’s also a hero to everyone in the room, famous for his anti-Vietnam war political activism, and for the Frederick Wiseman-like inflection of his own films’ interview techniques. The real-life filmmaker name-checked in “Oh, Canada” is documentarian Errol Morris, whose straight-to-the-lens framing of interview subjects was made possible by his Interrotron device. In Schrader’s adaptation, Fife doesn’t want the nominal director (Michael Imperioli, a nicely finessed embodiment of a second-rate talent with first-rate airs) in his eyeline. Rather, as he struggles with hazy, self-incriminating memories of affairs, marriages, one-offs with a friend’s wife and a tense, brief reunion with the son he never knew, Fife wants only his wife, Emma — his former Goddard College student — in this metaphoric confessional. Schrader and his editor Benjamin Rodriguez Jr. treat the memories as on-screen flashbacks spanning from 1968 to 2023. At times, Gere and Thurman appear as their decades-young selves, without any attempt to de-age them, digitally or otherwise. (Thank god, I kind of hate that stuff in any circumstance.) In other sequences from Fife’s past, Jacob Elordi portrays Fife, with sly and convincing behavioral details linking his performance to Gere’s persona. We hear frequent voiceovers spoken by Gere about having ruined his life by age 24, at least spiritually or morally. Banks’ novel is no less devoted to a dying man’s addled but ardent attempt to come clean and own up to what has terrified him the most in the mess and joy of living: Honesty. Love. Commitment. There are elements of “Oh, Canada” that soften Banks’ conception of Fife, from the parentage of Fife’s abandoned son to the specific qualities of Gere’s performance. It has been 44 years since Gere teamed with Schrader on “American Gigolo,” a movie made by a very different filmmaker with very different preoccupations of hetero male hollowness. It’s also clearly the same director at work, I think. And Gere remains a unique camera object, with a stunning mastery of filling a close-up with an unblinking stillness conveying feelings easier left behind. The musical score is pretty watery, and with Schrader you always get a few lines of tortured rhetoric interrupting the good stuff. In the end, “Oh, Canada” has an extraordinarily simple idea at its core: That of a man with a movie camera, most of his life, now on the other side of the lens. Not easy. “I can’t tell the truth unless that camera’s on!” he barks at one point. I don’t think the line from the novel made it into Schrader’s script, but it too sums up this lion-in-winter feeling of truth without triumphal Hollywood catharsis. The interview, Banks wrote, is one’s man’s “last chance to stop lying.” It’s also a “final prayer,” dramatized by the Calvinist-to-the-bone filmmaker who made sure to include that phrase in his latest devotion to final prayers and missions of redemption. “Oh, Canada” — 3 stars (out of 4) No MPA rating (some language and sexual material) Running time: 1:34 How to watch: Opens in theaters Dec. 13, running 1in Chicago Dec. 13-19 at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St.; siskelfilmcenter.org Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.
Indiana aims to run its winning streak to five games Friday night when Nebraska welcomes the Hoosiers to Lincoln, Neb. Indiana (8-2, 1-0 Big Ten) has lost the past three meetings with Nebraska after winning seven straight. The Hoosiers are led by center Oumar Ballo, a transfer from Arizona who averages 13.2 points and 9.1 rebounds per game, and forward Malik Reneau (team-best 15.5 points and 6.4 rebounds). Reneau, according to Indiana, is one of five major-conference players to average at least 10 points per game with a field goal percentage of at least 60 and 80 percent from the free-throw line. Off Indiana's 82-67 home win over Minnesota on Monday, head coach Mike Woodson said there are things to work on going forward. "When you get a team down 15, 20 points, you got to remember how you got them down and continue to do the same things that got you the lead," said Woodson, "and I don't think we did that coming down the stretch." Nebraska's best win this season was over then-No. 14 Creighton in an in-state battle last month. But the Cornhuskers (6-2, 0-1) haven't played a very difficult schedule, and were blown out 89-52 by current No. 21 Michigan State on the road last weekend. The Spartans became the first team in 25 games to make more than 50 percent of their shots against Nebraska, so improved defense will be key for the Huskers. Nebraska was also outrebounded 48-19. "That hadn't been us all year, and that was the disappointing thing," coach Fred Hoiberg said. "The physicality of the game in this league ... we're going to see it every night. I've been pleased with how they've responded, but we'll see how they step up to the challenge Friday night." If Nebraska can turn things around on offense, it is 38-2 under Hoiberg when scoring at least 80 points, including 4-0 this season. Brice Williams is Nebraska's leading scorer at 17.5 points per game. Connor Essegian adds 13.0 ppg and shoots 42.6 percent from 3-point range. --Field Level Media
Dow ends at fresh record as oil prices pull back on ceasefire hopesPhiladelphia (9-2) at Baltimore (8-4) Sunday, 4:25 p.m. EST, CBS BetMGM NFL Odds: Ravens by 3. Against the spread: Eagles 7-4; Ravens 6-5-1. Series record: Baltimore leads 3-2-1. Last meeting: Ravens beat Eagles 30-28 at Philadelphia on Oct. 18, 2020. Last week: Eagles beat Rams 37-20; Ravens beat Chargers 30-23. Eagles offense: overall (3), rush (1), pass (25), scoring (7) Eagles defense: overall (1), rush (7), pass (3), scoring (6) Ravens offense: overall (1), rush (2), pass (3), scoring (2) Ravens defense: overall (24), rush (2), pass (31), scoring (10) Turnover differential: Eagles plus-3; Ravens plus-2. RB Saquon Barkley. Barkley has not only turned the Eagles into legitimate Super Bowl contenders, his numbers could make him the first non-QB to win MVP since Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson in 2012. He had a career-high 255 yards on 26 carries and two rushing TDs against the Rams. It was the ninth-best single-game rushing performance in NFL history. Barkley has only played against Baltimore once, and finished with 83 yards rushing and a touchdown in October 2022. RB Derrick Henry. Not to be outdone, Henry is close behind Barkley in the race for the NFL rushing title, trailing 1,392 yards to 1,325. His 15 total TDs lead the league. This is the first meeting between players with at least 1,300 yards rushing since Week 16 of 2012, when Peterson's Minnesota team faced Houston and Arian Foster. Baltimore's Lamar Jackson vs. Philadelphia's top-ranked defense. Jackson has been particularly good with ball security this season. He's thrown only three interceptions. The Eagles lead the league with 46 points off turnovers since Week 8. Eagles: Philadelphia lost the heart of the team when DE Brandon Graham announced after last week's game that he was out for the season with a torn triceps. He said previously this would be his final season. Graham has 3 1/2 sacks this season, his 15th with the Eagles. ... The Eagles should know closer to game day if CB Darius Slay (concussion) and WR DeVonta Smith (hamstring) will play against the Ravens. Ravens: Star LB Roquan Smith (hamstring) did not play against the Chargers, but he was back at practice this week. The past three meetings between the teams have been decided by a combined four points. In fact, only one matchup in the series — Baltimore's 36-7 win in 2008 — has had a margin of more than five. ... The past two meetings came down to 2-point conversion attempts by Philadelphia near the end of the game, and both times the Eagles failed. ... John Harbaugh spent a decade on the Eagles' staff before becoming Baltimore's head coach in 2008. The Eagles have started 9-2 or better in three consecutive seasons. ... Nick Sirianni is the first Eagles head coach with winning seasons in each of his first four years with the team. ... Over the past 30 years, only five coaches have opened 9-2 or better in three straight years: Sirianni (2022-24 Eagles), Sean Payton (2018-20 Saints), Bill Belichick (2014-17 Patriots), Tony Dungy (2005-07 Colts) and Mike Shanahan (1996-98 Broncos). ... Philadelphia’s seven-game winning streak is tied for its third-longest stretch in a single season since 2004, trailing only the 2017 (nine) and 2022 (eight) seasons. ... The Eagles are second in the NFL with a .719 (23-9) road winning percentage since 2021, trailing only Kansas City (23-8) in that span. ... The Eagles have held opponents to fewer than 300 total yards for seven straight games, their longest streak since 2008. ... The Ravens have at least two sacks in 15 straight games. That's the longest active streak in the NFL. ... Jackson is 23-1 in games started against the NFC. ... Baltimore has scored TDs on 78.7% of its red zone trips, tops in the league. ... The Ravens are the first team in the Super Bowl era with at least 3,000 yards passing and 2,000 yards rushing through the first 12 games of a season. ... Jackson is the first player since 2020 (Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers) with at least 3,000 yards passing and a passer rating of at least 115 entering Week 13. ... Odafe Oweh and Kyle Van Noy have eight sacks apiece for Baltimore. The Ravens, Texans and Vikings are the only teams with two players who have reached that total. ... Baltimore has gone three straight games without scoring in the first quarter. Ravens TE Mark Andrews has a TD catch in two of his past three games and appears to be Baltimore's top option at that position despite the presence of Isaiah Likely. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
British Journalism Awards winners 2024: Channel 4 News named best news provider, Caroline Wheeler is journalist of the year
France's Macron vows to stay on, promises PM in 'coming days'Sean “Diddy” Combs was denied bail on Wednesday as he awaits a May sex trafficking trial by a judge who cited evidence showing him to be a serious risk of witness tampering and proof that he has violated regulations in jail. U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian made the decision in a written ruling following a bail hearing last week, when lawyers for the hip-hop mogul argued that a $50 million bail package they proposed would be sufficient to ensure Combs doesn’t flee and doesn’t try to intimidate prospective trial witnesses. Two other judges previously had been persuaded by prosecutors’ arguments that the Bad Boy Records founder was a danger to the community if he is not behind bars. Lawyers did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on the decision. Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to for years, aided by associates and employees. An indictment alleges that he silenced victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings. A federal appeals court judge last month denied Combs’ immediate release while a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan considers his bail request. Prosecutors have insisted that no bail conditions would be sufficient to protect the public and prevent the “I'll Be Missing You” singer from fleeing. They say that even in a federal lockup in Brooklyn, Combs has orchestrated social media campaigns designed to influence prospective jurors and tried to publicly leak materials he thinks can help his case. They say he also has contacted potential witnesses through third parties. Lawyers for Combs say any alleged sexual abuse described in the indictment occurred during consensual relations between adults and that new evidence refutes allegations that Combs used his to induce into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances with male sex workers known as “Freak Offs.”
Effective family planning key to national development – stakeholdersHostage Families Call on President-Elect Trump for 'Reagan Moment' to Free 101 Hostages in Gaza as Time Runs Out
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