52 | OCTOBER 5 • 2023 J
N

COUP ‘FUN,’ DO I LIKE 
YOU ‘THAT WAY?’ 
CAINE, REDUX
Freelance and Cat Person 
are films that open 
in theaters on Oct. 6. 
Freelance is a comedic 
action film. Here’s the basic 
plot: Former Special Forces 
operator Mason Pettit (John 
Cena) takes a job providing 
security for journalist Claire 
Wellington (Alison Brie, 
40) as she interviews Juan 
Venegas, the president of 
the (fictional) country of 
Paldonia. 
A military coup breaks 
out as the interview is 
happening. The three are 
forced to escape into the 
jungle together.
Brie’s credits include 
starring roles in the TV 
series Community and 
GLOW. Brie’s father is not 
Jewish. Her mother is 
Jewish. She’s been married 
to actor Dave Franco since 
2017. Franco, 38, has the 
exact same background as 
Brie.
Cat Person is based on 
a 2017 New Yorker short 
story that got a huge 
response. Basic plot: 
Margot (Emilia Jones), a 
college sophomore, works 
at a movie snacks counter. 
Robert (Nicholas Braun), a 
regular moviegoer, asks for 
her number. He’s about 35. 
Margot likes the witty 
and funny texts that 
Robert sends her, and he 
frequently mentions his 
cats. Finally, they go out on 
a “real date” and — well, I 
won’t really spoil things — 
like telling you how their 
date goes. One hint: This 

is a drama, not a romantic 
comedy.
Fred Melamed, 67, 
has a supporting role as 
a psychiatrist. The film 
was directed by Susanne 
Fogel, 41. She directed 
A Small Light, a 2023 
Disney series about Anne 
Frank, her family and those 
who helped the Frank 
family. Fogel got an Emmy 
nomination (2021) for 
writing an episode of The 
Flight Attendant (HBO), and 
she wrote the hit movie 
Booksmart (2021).
Also opening on Oct. 6 is 
Exorcist: Believer, a sequel 
to The Exorcist (1973), a 
huge box-office hit. Ellen 
Burstyn, 90, who played the 
mother of a possessed child 
(Linda Blair) in the original, 
plays the same character 
— this time she’s a kind of 
“exorcism consultant.” 
Burstyn, who was born 
and raised in Detroit, isn’t 
Jewish, as many think. Her 
second husband, actor 
Neil Burstyn (1939-78), was 
Jewish. He suffered from 
schizophrenia and that 
destroyed their marriage. 
The director of the 
original Exorcist film, 
William Friedkin, died last 
August, age 87. Burstyn and 
Blair praised Friedkin. They, 
like many others, called 
him a “genius.” On Oct. 6, 
Showtime will premiere The 
Caine Mutiny Court Martial, 

an original new film. The 
director is William Friedkin. 
Advance reviews of the 
Showtime film are mostly 
good, but some respected 
critics gave it a “thumbs-
down.”
The Caine Mutiny began 
as a 1952 novel by Herman 
Wouk (1915-2019). Wouk 
was a best-selling writer 
and a Pulitzer Prize winner. 
In 1954, Wouk, a religious 
Jew who had served on 
a WWII U.S. Navy mine-
sweeper ship, turned his 
novel into a Broadway play. 
The same year, a hit film 
called The Caine Mutiny 
opened. Humphrey Bogart 
gave a great performance 
as the captain of the Caine, 
a WWII U.S. Navy mine-
sweeper. 
Barney Greenwald, a 
(Jewish) U.S. Navy fighter 
pilot who was a hot-shot 
civilian lawyer, is a major 
Caine character. The Navy 
mutiny members were tried 
right after WWIl ended, and 
Greenwald was assigned as 
their Navy defense lawyer. 
The 1954 movie left out the 
facts that Greenwald was a 
fighter pilot and that he was 
Jewish. Non-Jewish actors 
played Greenwald in the ’54 
movie, in a 1988 TV movie 
and in the Showtime film. 
At the end of the original 
novel and the Broadway 
play, Greenwald references 
the (recent) Holocaust. I 

doubt that reference will 
be in the Showtime film: 
The time period has been 
moved from WWII to the 
Persian Gulf War.
It came as a surprise to 
me that Friedkin directed 
the Showtime film. He was 
quite old, and he didn’t 
have a box office hit after 
The Exorcist. (His other 
big hit was The French 
Connection, 1971). Then 
I realized that Showtime 
was owned by Paramount 
and Friedkin’s wife, Sherry 
Lansing, 77, was the 
very successful head of 
Paramount (1992-2004). 
She probably put in a 
“word.” 
I wondered why Friedkin’s 
career crashed after 
Exorcist. I heard he was 
often very abrasive and 
always sure he was right. 
Then I came across a two-
minute YouTube video titled 
William Friedkin and the 
Birth of a Nation. Friedkin 
defended Birth, a 1915 film 
that showed the 1860s 
Klan in a heroic light. Birth 
helped revive the Klan in 
the 1920s. 
Friedkin actually forcefully 
repeated the racist myth 
that the Klan’s mission 
was to protect women 
from recently freed black 
slaves. You could sense 
that Friedkin viewed, with 
contempt, anyone who had 
another opinion. 

CELEBRITY NEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

ARTS&LIFE

GAGE SKIDMORE

Alison Brie

LOUISE PALANKER 

Fred Melamed

GUILLEMMEDINA 

William Friedkin

