Monday Morning Critic Podcast

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(Episode 254) "Better Off Dead..." Actor: Diane Franklin. Sep 27, 2021

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Episode 254.
"Better Off Dead..."
Actor: Diane Franklin.
Diane Franklin is an iconic 80s American film actress, known for her dark curly hair, and dialects. Beginning her acting career at the age of ten, Diane started with modeling, theater, commercials, and soap opera work. She then won the lead role of the dream girl, Karen, in cult classic THE LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN (1982) and soon after played the daughter, Patricia Montelli in AMITYVILLE II: THE POSSESSION. Her break-out film role was the spirited French-exchange student, Monique Junot, from the off-beat comedy BETTER OFF DEAD. And her most notable commercial success was playing the medieval Princess-babe, Joanna, from 1980s iconic comedy, BILL & TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE. Diane sang the NATIONAL ANTHEM at Dodger Stadium in 2004, and wrote two autobiographies about her career: Diane Franklin: The Excellent Adventures of the Last American, French Exchange Babe of the 80s (Amazon/Kindle), and Diane Franklin: The Excellent CURLS of the Last American, French Exchange Babe of the 80s (Amazon/Barnes&Noble) Her other acting credits include episodic television, such as Charles in Charge, Murder She Wrote, Matlock and Dallas : The Early Years. She also re-curred in televisions series, and movies made for television, such as SummerGirl and Deadly Lessons. Over the years Diane has also performed in her daughter/filmmaker, OLIVIA DELAURENTIS' award winning comedies: HUMANIZED (L.A. Film Festival,) MY BETTER HALF (Soho Film Festival,) and more recently a comedy web-series on YouTube titled SUGARBABIES (Barely Legal Comedy). Diane returns to acting, on the big screen, in 2018 with the following films: WALLY GOT WASTED, WAKING NIGHTMARE, THE FINAL INTERVIEW and THE AMITYVILLE MURDERS: THE HAUNTING ON LONG ISLAND.

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Welcome, Diane Franklin.

(Episode 253) "Return of the Jedi" Actor: Tim Rose. Sep 20, 2021

Show notes

Episode 253.
"Return of the Jedi"
Actor.
Tim Rose.
Tim Rose is an actor and puppeteer, best known for playing the role of Admiral Ackbar in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, and upcoming in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Rose puppeteered the characters of Sy Snootles and Salacious Crumb in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, and has been involved with other Lucasfilm and Jim Henson Studios movies, including The Dark Crystal, Howard the Duck, Labyrinth, and The Great Muppet Caper. Tim recently performed as Nekross King in Wizards vs. Aliens, and did animatronic work for Doctor Who, and Muppets Most Wanted. Tim worked as a designer on the original The Muppet Show, and helped in puppeteering the character of Tik-Tok in Disney's Return to Oz.
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Welcome, Tim Rose.

(Episode 252) "Green Book" Actor: Dimiter Marinov. Sep 12, 2021

Show notes

Episode 252.
"Green Book"
Actor.
Dimiter Marinov.
At the age of five, Dimiter believed that the classical violin would be his future. Since the age of 11, he became first violin in a youth symphony orchestra and traveled all over Europe, the US and Central America. In 1979, Mr. Marinov performed at the United Nations Circle Hall in New York conducted by maestro Lenard Bernstein. Following the completion of an Associate Degree, he discovered his passion for acting. At the age of 18, Dimiter was drafted into the Bulgarian Army which was mandatory during the Communist era. He was assigned to an Artillery Intelligence Unit. Within a year of his service, Dimiter was detained by the Peoples' Military Tribunal. He was accused of conspiring against the Peoples' Republic and trying to escape to the West. The verdict was three years political imprisonment. Regardless of the difficulties that followed after his prison term, Dimiter graduated with a Master's Degree from the Bulgarian National Academy for Theatre and Film in Sofia. In 1990, Dimiter traveled throughout Europe, Canada and the United States as an actor-singer in a Bulgarian folk-jazz stage anthology entitled - Mystery Voices. Following the last performance in the United States, Dimiter defected as a political refugee in Knoxville, Tennessee. This new-found emigrant's life would challenge Dimiter for a number of years. Without money, friends and relatives, he struggled to support himself while learning the language he never knew and trying to fit in. He took on various jobs including dishwasher, air-brush artist and a handyman. In 1993, Dimiter drove across country in his Volkswagen Bug to San Diego, California. The diverse environment helped Dimiter to find new venues to grow and establish himself as a "new American". Playing his violin and singing in a vast number of restaurants while working as a coffee barista, he managed in 1996 to become an owner of a coffee shop, a restaurant and expend it into a catering business. Dimiter began his US acting career on the stage at the San Diego Repertory Theatre in 1999. In addition, he venture into another passion of his: educating children and teens. Dimiter created, developed and taught numerous children educational programs for the YMCA and the San Diego Zoo. In 2009, Dimiter decided to expand his acting career in commercials, television and film. In the Bandito Brothers production Act of Valor (2012), which was his very first US film audition (2009), Dimiter made his big screen debut as the diabolical Kerimov: the Russian scientist and smuggler. Dimiter's "big break" was in "Green Book" (2018), a Universal Pictures/DreamWorks/Participant production directed by Peter Farrelly. Ranked fifth in the principle cast, Dimiter co-stars with Viggo Mortensen and Mahershela Ali. The film has won "People's Choice Award" at TIFF 2018 in Canada, 3 "Golden Globe" awards and 3 Academy Awards including the "Oscar" for Best Picture in 2019.
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Welcome, Dimiter Marinov.

(Episode 251) "Leave No Trace" Author: Pete Rock. Sep 04, 2021

Show notes

Episode 251.
"Leave No Trace"
Author: Pete Rock.
Peter Rock was born and raised in Salt Lake City. His most recent novel, The Night Swimmers, was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award; it involves open water swimming, fatherhood, psychic photography and the use of isolation tanks as a means to inhabit the past. He is also the author of the novels SPELLS, Klickitat, The Shelter Cycle, My Abandonment, The Bewildered, The Ambidextrist, Carnival Wolves and This Is the Place, as well as a story collection, The Unsettling. Rock attended Deep Springs College, received a BA in English from Yale University, and held a Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University. He has taught fiction at the University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Deep Springs College, and in the MFA program at San Francisco State University. His stories and freelance writing have both appeared and been anthologized widely, and his books published in various countries and languages. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, an Alex Award and others, he currently lives in Portland, Oregon, where he is a Professor in the English Department of Reed College. Leave No Trace, the film adaptation of My Abandonment, directed by Debra Granik, premiered at Sundance and Cannes and was released to critical acclaim in 2018.
Leave No Trace can currently be found on Hulu.
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Welcome, Pete Rock.

(Episode 250) "Dangerous Toys" Lead Vocalist: Jason McMaster. Aug 30, 2021

Show notes

Episode 250.
"Dangerous Toys"
Lead Vocalist: Jason McMaster.
Jason McMaster is a heavy metal vocalist from Austin, Texas. He gained fame singing for influential progressive metal band Watchtower from 1982-1987.

In late 1987, he joined the southern sleaze rock act Dangerous Toys, who achieved moderate success. Dangerous Toys, their self-titled debut in 1989, spawned the hits Scared and Teas'N Pleas'N , helping the record go gold and receiving airplay on rock radio and MTV. They would go on to release three more studio albums (giving them an additional gold record) and one live album. Although no longer writing new material, Dangerous Toys regroups for live performances several times a year.

In 1999, McMaster and Dangerous Toys guitarist Paul Lidel formed Broken Teeth, an Austin-based hard rock band (Lidel parted ways in 2006). Broken Teeth tours consistently and has released five albums, the most recent being the critically well-received Viva La Rock, Fantastico! in January 2010.

In 2011, Jason joined the thrash metal act Evil United, which also features members of Pitbull Daycare, SA Slayer, Riot, and Murderdolls.
Welcome, Jason McMaster.
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(Episode 249) "Can't Buy Me Love" Actor: Courtney Gains. Aug 26, 2021

Show notes

Episode 249.
"Can't Buy Me Love"
Actor: Courtney Gains.
Courtney Gains first achieved success during the 1980s with a variety of roles in films such Children of the Corn (1984), Back to the Future (1985), Can't Buy Me Love (1987), Colors (1988), The 'Burbs (1989) and Memphis Belle (1990). His most recent credits include Sweet Home Alabama (2002), Benny Bliss and the Disciples of Greatness (2009) (which he also produced), Faster (2010), L.A.Noir (video game) , _Field of Lost Shoes and Fun House Massacre.
In addition to his film work, Gains has guest-starred on several notable television shows including Seinfeld (1989), Monk (2002), In the Heat of the Night (1988), Tales from the Crypt (1989), ER (1994), JAG (1995), Nash Bridges (1996), Charmed (1998), Alias (2001), The Guardian (2001) (recurring role), _"My Name Is Earl" (2005)_, Bones , The Middle, and Mini -Series Texas Rising.
Gains has also worked as and acting coach and a musician. He once performed live on stage with Phish and has a solo album. He release an EP with his band Ripple Street in 2013 and a Full LP is coming out in 2016.
With over 100 credits to his name in a wide variety of roles, Gains celebrates 30 + years in the film and television business.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Courtney Gains

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(Episode 248) "The Suicide Squad" Actor: Lynne Ashe. Aug 20, 2021

Show notes

Episode 248.
"The Suicide Squad"
Actor: Lynne Ashe.
Lynne Ashe is a Georgia-born character actress known for playing quirky characters with big personalities. Classically trained in Shakespearean and British Restoration theatre, Lynne was primarily a stage actress until 2011, when she was approached by a stage director she’d formerly worked with asking her to audition for a film he’d written. She landed a supporting role in “Crackerjack” and thus began her screen career.

Lynne was one of the first two graduates of the nationally acclaimed theatre program known as the Gainesville Theatre Alliance, a joint program between UNG and Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia. Her graduate studies (in Theatre) were at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, where she studied under the tutelage of James Dodding and thereby fell in love with Shakespeare and Restoration Theatre. Through Wake Forest, she obtained a grant to study for a summer in Stratford-upon-Avon with the Shakespeare Institute and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

Lynne is also a writer (poet, playwright and screenwriter) and jewelry artisan, selling her hand-make jewelry under the name “Ashelyn Designs” on Etsy.

Lynne finds it ironic that the southern dialect she strove so hard to overcome/neutralize during her high school and college theatre training was the very thing that helped land her first few screen roles. She had to re-train an accent she’d formerly tried to restrain.

Lynne is an advocate for raising awareness about an adipose-tissue and lymphatic disorder known as Lipedema, which primarily affects women, a condition which causes the body to create a type of fat on the lower half of the body which cannot be metabolized.
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(Episode 247) "Minari" Cinematographer: Lachlan Milne. Aug 16, 2021

Show notes

Episode 247.
"Minari"
Cinematographer: Lachlan Milne.

Lachlan’s work has premiered at Toronto, Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, SxSW, Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals. He was the cinematographer for New Zealand auteur Taika Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople which premiered at Sundance in 2016 and remains the highest grossing New Zealand film of all time. In 2018 he shot 4 episodes of the Netflix giant Stranger Things, which went on to become the most streamed TV show in Netflix history. Shortly after that Lachlan worked again with Academy Award nominated production company 21 Laps on Monster Problems for Paramount Studios. In 2019 he filmed Minari for Un Certain Regard nominated director Lee Isaac Chung alongside A24 and Plan B. Later the same year he again teamed up with Taika for Next Goal Wins, a film about the American Samoa soccer team starring Michael Fassbender and Elizabeth Moss. Minari won both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, a Golden Globe, BAFTA and was nominated for 6 Academy Awards. Lachlan recently completed his work as show running cinematographer for Season 4 of Stranger Things and is re teaming with A24 for another project in the summer of 2021.

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(Episode 246) "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Actor: Wayne Duvall. Aug 09, 2021

Show notes

Episode 246.
"O Brother, Where Art Thou"
Actor.
Wayne Duvall.
Born in Silver Springs Maryland, Cousin to Robert Duvall, Wayne Duvall has enjoyed a successful career. Somewhat of a late bloomer, Duvall got his first acting job in 1991 on an episode of the Andy Griffith legal drama "Matlock," in a small role as a desk clerk. Throughout the 1990s, Duvall kept busy with bit parts in several films and TV shows, including "Apollo 13," "ER," and "Chicago Hope." In 2000 he was cast in arguably his most prominent film role when he appeared as Homer Stokes, a blowhard gubernatorial candidate in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?," Joel and Ethan Coen's loose interpretation of Homer's "Odyssey." That same year he joined the cast of the lighthearted legal drama "The District" as Sgt. Phil Brander, a Washington, D.C., police officer, and appeared throughout the show's four-year run. After its cancellation in 2004, Duvall bounced around as a guest star on such shows as "CSI: NY" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" before being cast in Paul Haggis's Iraq War film, "In the Valley of Elah," in 2007 as a police detective. The next year, he co-starred with George Clooney and John Krasinski in the period comedy "Leatherheads," as a football coach in the early years of the sport, and had a supporting role in the police corruption film "Pride and Glory."
Wayne's filmography also includes the iconic "Prisoners", "Richard Jewell", "The Hunt", "Fargo", "The Leftovers", "Hell on Wheels", "Lincoln" and so many more.
Welcome, Wayne Duvall.
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(Episode 245) "The Walking Dead" Actor: Steve Coulter. Aug 03, 2021

Show notes

Episode 245.
"The Walking Dead"
Actor.
Steve Coulter.
Born in Canada, Steve grew up in South America and Cleveland Heights, Ohio. An actor and writer, his television appearances include recurring roles on House of Cards, Brockmire, The Purge, The Walking Dead and Kevin Costner's Yellowstone. He also appeared in two HBO films directed by Barry Levinson: Wizard of Lies with Robert DeNiro and Paterno with Al Pacino.
Film appearances include The Hunger Games, The Conjuring 1 & 2, Birth of a Nation, Insidious 2 & 3, Damien Chazelle's First Man, The Front Runner, and Charlie Day's El Tonto. He was the head writer for both of Tyler Perry's television series, House of Payne and Meet the Browns, where he supervised over 100 episodes and won two consecutive NAACP IMAGE Awards for Best Comedy Series. He is a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts.
Welcome, Steve Coulter!
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