Cougar Concern

Former Rocket Kenny Smith wonders where's the Houston in Tom Penders' program

Former Houston Rockets guard Kenny Smith still loves Houston — and he’d like to love the University of Houston’s basketball team. He just doesn’t see a lot of the Bayou City in the Tom Penders’ program to embrace.

Which is one of the reasons why Smith expects Maryland to beat the Cougars rather easily in tomorrow night's 4 vs. 13 game in Spokane, Washington.

"No, Houston gets no upset love from me," Smith told CultureMap in an exclusive phone interview. "I don't have any ties to the program anymore, so no love."

Smith isn't just talking about the fact that Clyde Drexler, his former Rockets teammate, found himself pushed out after two largely disastrous seasons as the Cougars head coach in the late 90s. Instead, it's more of a lament of what Smith sees as a lack of Houston in UH basketball.

"I wish U of H well. It's to good to see them back in the tournament," Smith said. "I'm just not sure that program's connected to the city though ... I don't think people realize what a draw the city of Houston is for basketball players. Houston is really a basketball mecca that people don't talk about. High school, college, NBA guys, (Houston) draws them all in. It's one of the top spots in the country where guys get together and play over the summertime.

"You have pro and college guys coming in from all over the country to train in Houston."

While Smith only spends a few weeks a year in Houston these days, he's still connected to the city's basketball pulse through his ties to the Fonde Rec Center, the legendary, old historic gym in the shadow of I-45 in the city's Sixth Ward. A plaque on Fonde's wall reads, "To play here, your game has got to be established, your desire must be proven and your love for the game had better be pure."

Whenever Smith is in town, this is where you can find the former New York City school boy star with the Jet nickname. These days in his role as a TNT analyst and Charles Barkley sparring buddy, Smith is probably best known by those in the know for the incredible parties he hosts (Smith's annual NBA All-Star Weekend bash is one of the hottest events, and hardest tickets, of the NBA's showcase).

But when the Jet comes to Houston, he comes to work.

"Houston is one of the best places in the country for a basketball player to be," Smith said, as he worked this interview in-between takes of some TV spots. "The training and innovations that guys have come up with here ... You have some of the best trainers in the country in Houston. The top basketball guys.

"You're fortunate if you're a basketball player in Houston."

Yet, Penders continues to be hounded by the perception that he doesn't recruit Houston high school players well — or put all that much effort into it. This current NCAA Tournament Cougars team has three players from Houston on its 14-man roster. That includes the nation's leading scorer, Aubrey Coleman. All three city Cougars (Coleman, Sean Coleman and Jamon Wilson) went to a junior college before coming to UH though.

Penders told the New York Times this week that he plans to continue to lean on JC players.

And even with the Cougars having made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 18 years, the joke about UH not even being the best basketball team in the city continues — with undefeated state champion Yates High School drawing mention as a superior.

"There is definitely better basketball in Houston," Smith said.

Not that the guy who helped make Clutch City is dwelling on it. Smith's already penned in a first-round knockout of the Cougars on his bracket.

"I don't think Houston will be around that long at all in the tournament," Smith said. "What else do you want to talk about?"

unspecified

Movie Review

New horror movie Faces of Death puts a modern twist on cult classic

Photo courtesy of of IFC Films

Dacre Montgomery in Faces of Death.

True horror fans will likely be familiar with the 1978 cult film Faces of Death, which purported to be a documentary showing real-life killings in gory detail. It didn’t, of course, but that didn’t stop rumors from continuing to spread for decades. Now, almost 50 years and multiple sequels later, comes a new version of Faces of Death, an actual movie that pays homage to the original in interesting ways.

Margot (Barbie Ferreira) works at a YouTube-like company called Kino as a content moderator, flagging videos that violate the company’s policies. This means her job often involves seeing some truly despicable things from all manner of depraved people. One day, though, she comes across a video that seems a little too real, and after seeing more similar videos, she starts to believe they’re genuine murders.

Going against her company NDA, she starts to investigate the videos on her own, which puts her on the radar of Arthur (Dacre Montgomery), who is actually kidnapping people and killing them on camera through methods seen in the original Faces of Death film. It’s not long before Arthur tracks her down, with a plan to make her one of his next victims.

Written and directed by Daniel Goldhaber (How to Blow Up a Pipeline) and co-written by Isa Mazzei, the film is not so much scary as it is creepy, with the occasional gross-out sequence. The idea of having someone emulate the killings in the cult film is a good idea, and pairing it with the modern-day attention economy — in which content creators go to increasing lengths for clicks — is a clever twist on a concept that other films have done.

The film as a whole is a commentary on how social media and video sharing sites have often decided to prioritize profits over the well-being of their users. Margot is shown allowing videos involving violence and sexual assault to stay on the site while nixing ones depicting how to use Narcan or demonstrating putting on a condom on a banana. Josh (Jermaine Fowler), Margot’s boss, is even explicit in the company mandate that outrageous videos drive views.

While Arthur has the makings of a good villain, there are few attempts to make him seem truly diabolical. His kidnappings often seem more spur-of-the-moment than calculated, and even though he has a well thought-out dungeon at home, the house’s location in the suburbs seems to make him vulnerable to easy discovery. Goldhaber and Mazzei leave more than a few unanswered questions along the way that take away from the intensity of the story.

Ferreira is yet another actor from Euphoria who’s capitalizing on her exposure from that show. She plays Margot’s increasing anxiety well, and when the action ratchets up in the final act, she meets the moment in a satisfying way. Montgomery returns to the vibe he had while playing the evil Billy on Stranger Things, and even though his character doesn’t fully live up to his potential, Montgomery sells his evil for all it’s worth.

The new Faces of Death may not be what some are expecting given the reputation of the previous films, but it’s a solid horror/thriller that uses the brand as a launching pad into something different. It doesn’t make much of a dent in the scare department, but it does give its violence and gore a degree of relevance in today’s often desensitized world.

---

Faces of Death is now playing in theaters.

movies film