His work most recently took him to Los Angeles, where he was the main writer for NFL Network's flagship show, NFL GameDay Morning. He has also directed content or written for CNN, Village Voice Media (where he served as columnist at Houston Press), New York Daily News, and Modern Luxury Media, where he was editor of Houston's first men's magazine. \u003Cbr/>Passionate about promoting Houston as the next great global city, he also co-hosts and co-produces the weekly CultureMap television and streaming segments on ABC13.\u003C/p>","identifier":"22243373","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://houston.culturemap.com/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8zMzIyOTk0MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTc2MzE0MTEwM30.SpKsPMbbo_XonejubDrsNYFeJ1ekjyalB_TuhZ_jDiA/image.jpg?width=210"},"name":"Steven Devadanam","url":"https://houston.culturemap.com/u/stevendevadanam"},"dateModified":"2022-01-08T18:00:31Z","datePublished":"2010-12-27T18:23:08Z","description":"Geriatric gaffe","headline":"James Franco tries to turn his grandma into the next Betty White, casting doubton his Oscar gig","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","height":600,"url":"https://houston.culturemap.com/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8zMTczMjk3OC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTc0NTUwMzE0NX0.TijlKXhSuG32_EoXKtOZaTtJlSPyCqQurmTPsKfQTcg/image.png?width=210","width":1200},"keywords":["unspecified"],"mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https://houston.culturemap.com/news/entertainment/12-27-10-james-franco-tries-to-turn-his-grandma-into-betty-white-putting-his-oscar-gig-in-jeopardy","@type":"WebPage"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://houston.culturemap.com/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8zMTczMjk3OC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTc0NTUwMzE0NX0.TijlKXhSuG32_EoXKtOZaTtJlSPyCqQurmTPsKfQTcg/image.png?width=210"},"name":"CultureMap Houston"},"url":"https://houston.culturemap.com/news/entertainment/12-27-10-james-franco-tries-to-turn-his-grandma-into-betty-white-putting-his-oscar-gig-in-jeopardy"}
James Franco tries to turn his grandma into the next Betty White, casting doubton his Oscar gig - CultureMap Houston
Geriatric gaffe
James Franco tries to turn his grandma into the next Betty White, casting doubton his Oscar gig
Christmas represents (for some) the birth of a popular deity, and for many, a day to reconnect with relatives and stock up on carbohydrates for the long winter. But for actor/artist/author James Franco, it's an opportunity to push his latest movie 127 Hours.
The film's earned a rep for its gory scene of self-amputation, so to diminish the stigma, James made a super cute at-home video for FunnyOrDie.com where his grandma declares that those who can't handle the bloody imagery are "a bunch of pussies."
The one minute and 20 seconds clip is rife with contradictions: The grandma is decked out in a bright yellow and orange shirt that says, "I KEPT MY EYES OPEN FOR 127 HOURS," but everyone knows that old people can never stay awake for an entire movie. Grammy Franco, while sporting a Santa hat, admits to being part Jewish as she declares, "I'm the number one Santa."
No doubt, the Ohio-native is a little off. The shaky camera panning to other anonymous, frumpy Francos doesn't help the video either. Clearly, we have a lot of questions:
Is that really James Franco's grandma? (Wikipedia says she owns an art gallery in Cleveland.)
Is James Franco's grandma the next Betty White?
Do grandmas use the term "pussy?"
Is James Franco saying pussies are a bad thing?
What does that say about James Franco?
Does James Franco need cash to pay for his graduate programs at Columbia, NYU, RISD, Brooklyn College and Yale?
There have been a number of films in the past decade or so that have confronted police brutality and/or corruption, detailing both fictional and real-life events. The seriousness of the topic has mostly kept stories confined strictly to the drama category, but the new film Rebel Ridgedares to take things into the action/thriller genre while still remaining thoughtful about the larger subject at hand.
As the film begins, Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre) is traveling by bicycle down a country road when he is followed and then crashed into by a police cruiser. Over his objections, the two officers conduct a search of his backpack, where they find a large amount of cash that Terry was going to use to bail his cousin out of jail. Without due cause, the cops confiscate the money and leave Terry to fend for himself.
While clearly upset about his mistreatment and the injustice heaped upon him, Terry continues to try work within the system to get his cousin released, only to be stymied at every turn. Left with no other option, Terry decides to confront the small-town police department, led by Chief Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson). His background in the Marines, especially a certain set of skills he learned there, make him a formidable threat, even in the face of a group of highly-armed men.
Written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier (Green Room), the film is striking in how calm Terry remains, even when he decides to resort to violent means. In his multiple interactions with the police in the first half of the film, he remains in control of his emotions at all times, refusing to give the cops any extra reason to take their anger out on him. This behavior rings true to life, a subtle but strong commentary on the expectations put on Black people in such situations.
With a low-but-pulsating score and a carefully-crafted building of tension, Saulnier gives the audience permission to want to see Terry enact his revenge on the cops. And yet, the film is far from exploitative. At the same time as he’s growing angrier by the minute with the police, he’s working with Summer McBride (AnnaSophia Robb), a court employee, to free his cousin legally. The combination of the two storylines works well, especially when the story takes a turn in the final act.
Saulnier is careful to keep the action in the film relatively realistic. While there are some moments when Terry shows extraordinary abilities, they make sense given the character’s training and never turn him into an unstoppable superhero. Even more pointed is how Terry eschews the use of guns. There are multiple times when picking up a gun is an option, and yet he picks something else every time, a moral code not often seen in films such as these.
Pierre proves to be the perfect actor for this particular role. While he’s big enough to be intimidating and has eyes that seem to pierce the soul, it’s the level-headed demeanor that he brings to the role that makes it a great performance. Johnson has just the right amount of charisma and malevolence for his part, and Robb shows a maturity that may signal the start of the next phase of her career.
Rebel Ridge plays with ideas formed from real life and similar movies to become a stirring film that hits almost all the right notes. It doesn’t necessarily have any answers for the systemic problems it includes in its story, but the righteous anger it provokes make it highly memorable.