52 | NOVEMBER 18 • 2021 

YOU KNOW WHO TO CALL 
— AGAIN; THE WILLIAMS 
SISTERS; BONDING TRIP
Ghostbusters: Afterlife 
opens on Nov. 19. It’s 
a sequel to the two hit 
Ghostbusters movies that 
opened in the ’80s. Afterlife 
makes many references to 
the first two Ghostbusters 
films. It doesn’t reference 
Ghostbusters: Answer 
the Call, a 2016 “reboot” 
film that was a critical 
and financial failure. Most 
advance reviews of Afterlife 
are good, if not great. 
“Charming” and “funny” 
are words used in many 
reviews. 
The Afterlife cast includes 
all the surviving, original 
main cast actors: Bill Murray, 
Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, 
Sigourney Weaver and 
Annie Potts. Their roles are 
larger than a cameo, but 
new characters are the stars 

of this film. 
Harold Ramis, who 
co-wrote the first two films 
with Dan Aykroyd, died in 
2014, at age 69. Ramis also 
co-starred in both films as 
Dr. Egon Spengler. I have 
to say that it is laudable that 
the screenwriters have paid 

homage to Ramis by making 
Spengler (Ramis) almost a 
major character in Afterlife. 
In the new film, Spengler 
appears in several clips from 
the first two Ghostbuster 
movies. The Afterlife char-
acters refer to these clips 
as “historical documents.”
Spengler also lives on in 
the plot of Afterlife. As the 
film opens, we learn that 
Spengler is deceased and 
that his daughter, Callie, is 
the single mother of two 
kids: Trevor, 15, and Phoebe, 
12. Financial problems force 
Callie and her kids to move 
to rural Oklahoma and live 
in a decayed farmhouse 
that Spengler lived in and 
left to his daughter. Not 
long after their move, weird 
things happen near their 
new home, like unexplained 
earthquakes.
The earthquakes are 
followed by supernatural 
phenomena (ghosts, etc.) 
in their Oklahoma town. 
While poking around the 
farmhouse, the “kids” find 
Grandpa’s old ghost-busting 
equipment and learn about 
his Ghostbuster career. 
Phoebe and Trevor then 
enlist Mr. Grooberson (Paul 
Rudd, 52), a schoolteacher, 
and others (like the original 
Ghostbusters) to help save 
their town and maybe the 
world. 
Jason Reitman, 43, is 
the director of Afterlife and 
the co-writer of the Afterlife 
screenplay. His directing 
credits include the hit films 
Juno and Up in the Air. The 
other writer is Gil Kenan, 
44, a screenwriter/director 
who was born in the U.K. 
and raised in Israel. Afterlife 

was produced by Ivan 
Reitman, 74, Jason’s father. 
He directed the first two 
Ghostbusters movies.
King Richard, which also 
opens on Nov. 19, is a bio-
pic that follows the early 
years of the amazing tennis 
careers of Venus Williams 
and her younger sister, 
Selena. The title refers to 
their father, Richard Williams 
(Will Smith), “a controlling 
father” who saw his daugh-
ters potential when they 
were about 5 years old and 
began coaching them. The 
Williams family lived then in 
Compton, a poverty-stricken 
city in Los Angeles County. 
In 1987, Williams called 
tennis coach Paul Cohen, 
now about 80, and asked 
him to coach his girls. 
Cohen went to Los Angeles, 
and after seeing them play, 
agreed to coach them. He 
was their coach until 1991, 
when they were 10 and 11. 
(Cohen was a top college 
player, a touring pro and 
coached John McEnroe, 
among other greats. He also 
advised the Israeli Davis 
Cup team.)
Tony Goldwyn plays 
Cohen. Goldwyn’s paternal 
grandfather was the famous 
filmmaker Samuel Goldwyn 
(Tony’s only Jewish “grand”). 
Jon Bernthal, 45, plays 
the sisters’ next coach, 
Rick Macci. In 1991, Richard 
Williams moved his whole 
family to Florida so his 
daughters could attend 
Macci’s tennis academy. By 
1997, the sisters were top 
pros. (Advance reviews of 
this film are quite good). 
Also opening on Nov. 19 
is C’mon, C’mon. Joaquin 

Phoenix, 47, stars as a 
radio journalist who is left 
to care for his precocious 
young nephew, and they 
bond during a cross-country 
car trip. Advance reviews 
are good and praise the 
sensitive way in which the 
star characters’ emotions 
are portrayed. The film was 
directed by and written by 
Mike Mills. He showed a 
deft hand in directing and 
writing the acclaimed films 
Beginners (2010) and 20th 
Century Women (2016). 
In Beginners, the father 
of the lead character, Oliver, 
comes out as gay in his 70s, 
after his wife dies. Oliver 
tells his Jewish girlfriend 
(Melanie Laurent, 38) that 
his maternal grandmother 
was Jewish, and his mother 
identified as Jewish until 
she wed his non-Jew-
ish father. She agreed to 
her husband’s request to 
never mention her Jewish 
background, and his father 
agreed not to act on his gay 
orientation. This is Mills’ par-
ents’ story in “real life,” too. 
(Christopher Plummer 
won an Oscar for his perfor-
mance as Oliver’s father.) 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

HARALD KRICHEL VIA WIKIMEDIA

Joaquin 
Phoenix

JUSTIN HOCH PHOTOGRAPHING FOR HUDSON UNION SOCIETY

The late 
Harold Ramis 

