Kiki Kryptonite Presents: The Farewell!!! (Part 2)

Here’s where it gets interesting! I highly suspect that Awkwafina aka Nora Lum’s fathers are father and son in The Farewell and Crazy Rich Asians….

Somewhere I have a photo of Ken’s son who was kind enough to greet me in Los Angeles when I arrived and we went into The Hard Rock Cafe. If I find it I’ll post it. This is apparently an acting family but I suspect Nora is adopted aka embraced into this family. Stay tuned if I can figure out any of the others in the family but I suspect many are including the director Lulu Wang who I suspect is also a family member extended or otherwise.

Stay tuned…

Hi Kiki!!!

Kiki Kryptonite Presents: The Farewell!!! (Part 1)

Movie Review: The Farewell is a terrific little family film which has received great reviews! It is an endearing film which wikipedia describes as:The Farewell is a 2019 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Lulu Wang. The film stars Awkwafina, Tzi Ma, Diana Lin, Zhao Shuzhen, Lu Hong, and Jiang Yongbo and follows a family who, upon learning their grandmother has only a short while left to live, decide not to tell her and schedule a family gathering before she dies.

It received positive reviews from critics, including praise for Wang’s storytelling ability and Awkwafina’s performance.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 99% and an average rating of 8.78/10, with 195 out of 196 reviews being positive. The site’s critics’ consensus reads: “The Farewell deftly captures complicated family dynamics with a poignant, well-acted drama that marries cultural specificity with universally relatable themes.”[15] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 90 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating “universal acclaim”.[16]

I had to look up Awkwafina’s history. Apparently… “Lum was born in New York City[3] to an ethnic Chinese-American father, Wally,[4] and a South Korean immigrant mother, a painter.[5][6][7] She grew up in Forest HillsQueens.”

I guessed Awkwafina might have been one of those Orientals adopted into the U.S. by some Jewish couple from NYC but it appears she was born there!

I enjoyed the film immensely, with a terrific cast and great direction. I give it 5/5. It’s not a blockbuster but then again…does everything have to be?

See Part II for more!!

Kiki’s Korner Presents: Julie Andrews!!!

This was a good find Patricia Hodge plays Mirada Pelham on Downton Abbey turns out to be Julie Andrews who is the eldest daughter of Walt Disney. I guess if you’re going to end a blockbuster series like Downton Abbey you need to pull out someone like Julie Andrews. Julie would be somewhere around 85 years old today, give or take.

Kiki’s Kalamaties: Thomas Barrow…The Underbutler!

So I’m wrapping up season 6 of Downton Abbey and Thomas Barrow has just attempted to kill himself.

Rob James-Collier as Thomas Barrow in Downton Abbey
Thomas Barrow’s failed suicide attempt, “I can’t even get that right!!!”
Thomas calls in Harley Quinn of “Suicide Squad” to help with his failed suicide attempt…isn’s she cute!!!!

Not a particularly likable character, Barrow was under the stress of fighting off self loathing and the impending doom of being fired in a downsizing at the Abbey by the hand of Lord Robert Crawley, the 7th Earl of Grantham, usually a much nicer fellow. You can always tell when someone is going to die on the show by absurd holes in the script.

Now if I were Lord Grantham the last person I would ever fire would be Thomas Barrow. I would get rid of everyone else first before I would ever touch Thomas. This would include: Mr. Carson, Mrs. Hughes, Mrs. Patmore, Daisy, Anna and Norman Bates, Mr. Molesley, and all those other nameless souls in service who sit around in the kitchen and are grateful they even get a moment on the screen. I would even get rid of Cora before I got rid of Thomas. Why is that? Because he’s so good-looking? NO! Because he saved Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones? NO!!

Then why???

He ran through a fire and carried Lady Edith out to safety and saved Downton Abbey!!

Thomas Barrow (Rob James-Collier) rescues Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) from a fire that he himself did not start!!!

Admittedly he happened to be there for scurrilous reasons but who cares. He saved Robert and Cora’s daughter and frankly there aren’t that many of them to go around anymore!!!

I would keep Thomas on at Downton Abbey forever and I wouldn’t even make him work!! He could sit around, eat Heath Bars and Clotted Cream all day. I’d also hire some cute guys for him to lure and satisfy his prurient interests. Frankly if I was Robert I’d blow him myself and then serve him breakfast in bed in the morning.

If he was keen on Conversion Therapy I have him sleep with Ladies Mary, Rose and Edith all together!!! That should cure him…if that’s what he wants.

Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary, Lily James as Lady Rose and Laura Carmichael as Lady Edith.

Cora could assist in the therapy by either watching and instructing or joining it!!!
The yummy Mary Steenburgen in some film that featured her in hot black underwear.

Ed Out

Kikiti Kik Presents: Howes and Clive

I’m going out on a limb with this but I believe that Thomas Howes (William Mason of Downton Abbey) is a descendant of Colin Clive (Dr. Viktor Frankenstein).

He’s also a guy named Nobby Clark from of all places…Moor Hall Studios!!

This is from Moorhallstudios.com BTW the guy in the top left corner is in fact the great George Reeves who is Nick Spargo at Moor Hall Studios

Kiki Presents: Ed’s workout girlfriend!!

Me and my gym girlfriend. Her son gave me some crap cause he wasn’t sure of my intentions and tried to warn me off but I didn’t care what he said, this was the coolest person ever to work out with!! Very funny lady!! Sadly she moved near New Orleans, keep hoping she’ll return.

Kiki’s Peter Max Summary

Addendum: August 4, 2019 I strongly suspect that Ron Howard continues to act in the role of Peter Max perhaps not all the time but being a successful artist is a particularly great accomplishment and something Ron would be loath to give up.

Kiki Kunningham (that was bound to happen) Presents: Peter Max!!!!

OK so I was pondering a few days ago…who is Peter Max and while I have not found the smoking gun I think I have enough to put me over 90% without sure proof. I was fortunate enough to catch “British Invasion Years” friday night in Cape May NJ and Peter Max art abounded!!! I had already suspect we were looking at the work of Ron Howard but I decided to take a look at Peter Max and see what he looked like. Looking at Kliban was no help since Kliban is the work of both Ron and Cheryl in my estimation. Ok so here’s Peter Max…

I saw a copy of this in one of the antique stores in Cape May, sort of wish I’d bought it, the Baby Boutique and the best tea store in Cape May was there.
Ok, so I’m thinking we hit pay dirt here since he looks quite a bit like George Harrison who we know is Ron Howard. Let’s get a picture of George up…
Ok…this is way too close, I know this is George Harrison but I had to check if I in fact had Peter Max on Life magazine above, so let’s put up another photo.
Yep that’s Peter Max, looks like we have a match. Now when confirming a theory such as Peter Max is Ron Howard it’s actually easier than just randomly looking for matches. Now as an augmenting factor, Ron Howard’s nickname among several is “Max!” So here we see that Max is Max.

Peter Max now aka Ron Howard focused a lot on the Beatles which was good since Ron Howard was in the Beatles as George Harrison.

Peter Max aka Ron Howard illustrated Yellow Submarine
I believe this is the poster from the film Yellow Submarine
This is what Peter Max looks like now. I don’t know if this is Ron. Sometimes a character is played by one person then taken over by someone else for example…Jon Voight. I’m a big fan of Voight. Ron was Jon Voight in Cruising but the guy playing Jon Voight in the show “Ray Donovan” is not Ron Howard but he is a terrific actor, really super!! Or Joe Namath, Ron Howard started playing Joe Namath after the actual Joe Namath’s football career ended. Ron is 6 inches shorter at least than the actual football player Joe Namath but if it’s any consolation, Ron was Mike Schmidt of the Phillies and was a world class baseball player.

Kiki and Ed Out