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Richard Schertzer

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Exclusive: Breeda Wool opens up about her career and upcoming roles

by Richard Schertzer
written by Richard Schertzer

The Knockturnal was able to sit down with actress Breeda Wool who is currently in the newest Disney+ series National Treasure: Edge of History.

 

The Knockturnal: Where did you grow up?

Breeda Wool: “I grew up in Champaign-Urbana Illinois. I was a child of two professors. One in science, one in art and I think I lived around Europe when I was a kid. I lived in Paris and Italy and I had dreams of going to NYC, smoking clove cigarettes and wearing a black beret turtleneck and being arty. I did a Psychology and theater degree in Wagner College and then I became a performance artist and a street performer and I did a lot of weird movement dance theater and at some point my manager was like ‘I’m going to L.A. You wanna come?’ and I said ‘Yeah,’ and so then I came out here and I’ve just been trying to figure out the roads, ever since. I did a film called AWOL and it went to Sundance and now I’m on Disney [National Treasure: Edge of History]….with Catherine Zeta-Jones.” 

Credit: Courtesy of Disney

The Knockturnal: So what was that like? Do you play her [Jones] right-hand woman or second-in command?

Breeda Wool: “I’m second-in command, right-hand woman, bad guy #2. It’s magical. We shot it in Baton Rouge. Growing up, I always thought of her [Jones] as being this person who had great, wide, populous appeal but also tremendously deep and resonant art, which those two things combined is a very amazing thing to achieve, as any performing artist and she lived up to all the hype.”

The Knockturnal: Can you tell me more about the character you play in the show?

Breeda Wool: “Well, I’m Casey in the series and I am a part of the Billie family who is played by Catherine Zeta-Jones, and we are pursuing, viciously, a thing called the Pan-American Treasure. Mayan, Incan and Aztec women would protect all the gold in Mexico from Cortez and from the invading Conquistadors. As the story goes, in National Treasure: Edge of History, there’s this incredible Pan-American treasure, So, there’s a group of young, in-college, out of high school people who are, basically, going against a giant, private jet plane, secret society organization that I am a part of, but in this story I am also her [Billie’s] family. We are dedicated to a cause.”

Credit: Courtesy of Disney

The Knockturnal: ‘Mr. Mercedes’, as I heard from your interview with KTLA 5, is about a killer who controls people with his mind. You played Lou Linklatter.

Breeda Wool: “Yeah that story is based on a Steven King book trilogy called Mr. Mercedes of the same name and Steven King came and did a cameo in the first season and that series is brilliant. It was a magical mystery tour and that finished in 2019 and then a wild global pandemic happened and then I had a baby.” 

The Knockturnal: This past year you starred in the films ‘The Collection’, ‘Ultrasound’ and ‘Mass’ and won the Robert Altman award at the Indie Spirit Awards. Tell me about your time on those films.

Breeda Wool: “Mass is an incredible portrait of these four parents. One parent’s child was a victim of a mass shooting and the other parent was the shooter and they meet in a church basement to have a discussion. That premiered in 2020 at Sundance. My role in that film is I am the woman that works at the church who is sort of setting the stage and I think one thing that I explored in that film was the absolute awkwardness of regular people trying to hold space for deeply tragic events. How do people who aren’t involved in these extreme moments of tragedy able to create space for the people who are attempting repair. Fran Krantz who directed and wrote that film was inspired by the reparative justice system in South Africa and he was just so shocked and alarmed how people, after such an intense act of violence, move forward in the aftermath. That film, I think, is one of the greatest films I’ve ever seen or been a part of.” 

The Knockturnal: What about ‘The Collection’ and ‘Ultrasound’?

Breeda Wool: “We shot it [Ultrasound] two years ago and it came out last year. The Collection hasn’t come out yet, but I also made a film called Seven Faces of Jane and that’s coming out next month.”

The Knockturnal: Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?

Breeda Wool: I’ve co written and produced a film but I really would like to make more of my own shit. I feel like I might do a lot more action. 

 

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EntertainmentFilmThe Latest

My Experience with German Expressionism and how it affected my filmmaking

by Richard Schertzer
written by Richard Schertzer

As a young filmmaker that just recently graduated from Howard University, has made a number of short films, interviewed celebrities like Akon and has been working in the business of multimedia for a number of différent outlets like The Daily Caller and one America News, it can be hard, exhausting and draining for me to keep track of what I want from a shot, scene, actor, or screenplay when I am developing a story.

So, how do I figure out what tickles my fancy in the film department? It’s usually something dark, ethereal and fantastical. I am the type of director that likes macabre-like films with a soft center and movies that are, likewise, visually stimulating. Basically, if Tim Burton and Robert Zemeckis had a baby, that would be me.

Anyway, I have gotten off track. When I was a kid I grew up watching a lot of horror films and dark cinema. When I went to grad school at Howard University, I began to study films that were in the era of German Expressionism. They have included F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. 

I noticed that the films had a certain unique quality about them. For starters, they make for some incredible vintage viewing and they are a great teacher for how films were made back in the day. These films dazzled and terrified me at the same time. It was like being a little kid again and watching all my favorite monster movies like I did when I was growing up. 

German Expressionism has cast such a long shadow that it seems impossible to imagine what life would be without it. I remember getting older and being more interested in gory, dark films like Sweeney Todd. I took that stylistically darker approach to filmmaking and made darker films in college and grad school and I never noticed that I was making some really haunting films. 

I definitely see myself making darker films in the future and I have always been interested and inspired by the genre and I’m always going to look back on the films of the genre and think about the magic that it captured in its prime.

 

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EntertainmentFilm

Why ‘The Phantom Menace’ deserves more love

by Richard Schertzer
written by Richard Schertzer

Back in 1999, fans were greeted with the beginning of George Lucas’ prequel series and they were heavily divided upon the results. A lot of the criticism went into the lackluster dialogue, lack of character development and mostly Jar-Jar Binks.

Of course, that didn’t stop it from grossing $1 billion at the box office. However, now that the sequels have come out and fans have something new to hate, it seems only fair to look back on the first installment of the prequels.

The series began with two Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi and his master Qui-Gon Jinn, who land on a desert planet called Tatooine. From there, they meet a young child-slave named Anakin Skywalker and his mother Shmi. They take the child and train him to become a Jedi. Little did they know that the young boy would eventually become the tyrannical Sith lord Darth Vader.

The film is very vivid in its construction of the origins of Darth Vader and how he was as a child. The movie serves as a blueprint for how to build the foundation of an origin story.

Skywalker’s innocent and humble beginnings are detailed and they prove that the evil villain was once a young boy looking for purpose and meaning in a galaxy far, far away.

Moreover, the lightsaber battles are absolutely phenomenal with Kenobi and Jinn taking on the likes of Darth Maul. The sequence that became known as “The Duel of the Fates” has stayed rent-free in the minds of fans forever and doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon. 

Also, if I may point out, having Maul kill Jinn while Obi-Wan stands helpless is one of the most powerful scenes in the Star Wars saga. It comes so sudden and the audience gasps in the waking moment that the Jedi master is stabbed to death. 

Lucas might get flack for his dialogue, but it’s obvious that he is a master at emotional weight and making the audience care about characters. It stands to reason that this film is now considered to be a classic and it isn’t hard to understand why that is. Understandably, nostalgia has smoothed things over like a butter knife but that’s not the only reason.

The film hearkens back to a time of science-fiction that only began to take wing with 2001: A Space Odyssey, and while The Phantom Menace may not be on the same level of that film, it is still an ardent and prolific replica that pays homage to sci-fi in all of its glory. 

 

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EntertainmentFilm

Why 2016’s “The Jungle Book” is still the best live-action remake

by Richard Schertzer
written by Richard Schertzer

So, check this out. Six years ago, Disney had another smart idea to remake the 1967 film and the 1994 film The Jungle Book. That’s right. There have been three standalone Jungle Book films. Anyway, in 2016 Jon Favreau helmed the quasi-live-action film that followed a young man-cub named Mowgli (Neel Sethi) found by the Black Panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley) and raised by wolves becomes a target of the devious and arrogant tiger Shere-Khan (Idris Elba). 

The villainous tiger warns the jungle-dwellers that man is forbidden and attempts to kill the defenseless child. The man-cub is able to elude the frightening cat and comes across a friendly bear named Baloo (Bill Murray). 

The remake follows the same beats and rhythm as the 1967 version. I don’t remember much about the 1994 movie, so please don’t ask me about that. The 2016 remake adds a few details about Mowgli’s backstory and Khan’s death. However, the changes aren’t necessarily what make it great. It’s the fact that when I watched the film, it felt like I was watching a brand new film that was written and directed from scratch.

The remake never felt like a direct copy-cat of the previous films and decided to take its own creative license, while paying homage to its roots. It’s a film that is able to stand on its own two feet and do something différent with its execution. 

It has a certain uniqueness that many other remakes, even outside of Disney, don’t possess. The film is what happens when you take chances, while still shifting a few characters and doing-away with the silliness of previous Disney incarnations. 

The question comes into play for any movie released: Can this film stand the test of time? In the case of 2016’s The Jungle Book, yes it can. The visuals are as amazing as if they shot Sethi out with a bunch of animals and the story is a valiant testament to heroism, strength, friendship, and courage and that isn’t to say that the other incarnations didn’t have that, but 2016 was the year of The Jungle Book. 

 

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EntertainmentFilm

Why ‘Pinocchio’ and ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ are scarier than most horror films

by Richard Schertzer
written by Richard Schertzer

We all have our favorite horror film. It could be The Exorcist, The Omen, or the It movies. Those movies are known as the scariest films of all time. However, those films do not compare to the sheer horror of the most frightening films of all time: Pinocchio and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

I know what you’re thinking. You are puzzled that I chose these family-friendly movies that don’t even belong in the horror genre. It cam make one very befuddled when realizing that these movies might be scarier than other horror films, but I will do my best to explain. 

I’ll start by outlining the 1940 classic Pinocchio. In one particular scene that was cut from the 2022 remake, Honest John the Fox and Gideon the Cat are at a bar where they run into a mysterious coachman. John brags about selling the titular puppet to Stromboli for profit. The Coachman offers the two some good money, in exchange for some “stupid little boys”. 

However, when Pleasure Island is mentioned, John gets anxious and the Coachman flashes a frightening grin that scared the living shit out of me when I first saw it on VHS with my parents in that dark basement. If you don’t believe me, you can watch it for yourself.

Scary, right? I know. I remember when I first saw it and was scared out of my sheets that it traumatized me for a good long while. 

Before I saw that movie, I also remember seeing a movie by one of my favorite directors Robert Zemeckis entitled Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The scene that I remember was when Judge Doom was steamrolled and then reanimated into his true toon form and it was horrifying. 

Just check it out.

If only I could count the number of nights that that scene has kept me up. I bring up these two scenes and believe that they are truly scarier than other horror films, first, because of their genre. They are family movies and not horror. With that being said, people will watch these film with their guard down while they watch horror movies with their guard up because they know what to expect. They wouldn’t expect it from family movies. Also, since it is a family film and the majority if the film is good and wholesome, having a scare will make it stick out and be a nice reminder of the scene and make that scene all the more scarier. 

That’s reason number one. Reason number two is because of the quantity of scares. In horror movies, their are a litany of scares that the more scares there are in the film, the less likely those scares will be as memorable because they may dilute themselves. If you have one very good scare, it will be the most traumatizing thing ever because the film or scene was building up to that point and the payoff was worth it. 

Do you agree that Pinocchio and Who Framed Roger Rabbit are scarier than most horror films?

 

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EntertainmentFilm

Why ‘Welcome to Marwen’ is a great Robert Zemeckis movie

by Richard Schertzer
written by Richard Schertzer

About four years ago, legendary director Robert Zemeckis released a new film entitled Welcome to Marwen and looking back on it now, it seems like the precursor to the Pinocchio remake. 

The film follows the life of aspiring artist Mark Hogancamp after he is savagely beaten nearly to death by five white supremacists outside of a bar. As a way to cope with the trauma, Mark uses doll figures and builds a miniature town to vent his rage and frustration at his attackers. Mark uses the dolls to illustrate all of the people that are relevant in his life and creates his fantasy to escape the reality that he has been accustomed to.

First of all, when this movie came out, a lot of people thought of this film as a weird science experiment that was conjured up by Robert Zemeckis and, don’t get me wrong, it is at times. However, it remains as something of a next level up for the director, in terms of technological advancements. 

Zemckis has always been a fanatic of performance-capture since the olden days of The Polar Express and that feeling has not waned at all. The visuals remain as magical as the story that inspired it. 

Speaking of the story, the film is based on a true story where Mark Hogancamp was at a bar and began to talk with a few strangers at said bar. However, things took a turn for the worse when he mentioned to the men that he was a crossdresser. As a result, the men beat him within an inch of his life and he was in a coma for nine days. 

After waking up from his coma, he was forced to relearn everything that he had known, which included eating, writing and even readjust to his own life. 

This film works as a modest homage to Hogancamp’s struggles and illustrates those struggles with his CGI dolls coming to life. Zemeckis has had a propensity to use visual thrills to create a magical film. This Steve Carell movie is no exception. The film is an assessment into a tortured man’s mind and how he copes with hsi trauma and whether it comes off as corny or strange is all a matter of perspective. Art is always subjective and that’s all that matters.

 

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Film

Why ‘8 Mile’ is the best Rap Movie

by Richard Schertzer
written by Richard Schertzer

It has been 20 years since the phenomenal release of Eminem’s semi-biographical feature 8 mile and it has only grown in relevance with the forthcoming years.

I, for one, have always been a huge fan of Eminem. I appreciated his lyricism and artistry as a rapper and his body of work has only grown exponentially since the release of the film. 

The film takes place in Detroit where a young man named Jimmy “B-Rabbit” Smith (Eminem) attempts to break out into the rap scene. It becomes difficult for him as he is the only white man to attempt to compete in the 90s to early 2000s zeitgeist. 

This film had the muster and energy that you would expect from any high-octane Eminem single off of one of his fire albums. 

 

This film proves to be a gritty and raw look at the life of a young man making his way through a strange and dangerous world in Detroit. Its realism is what contributes to its artistry and makes it a thing of beauty that other hip-hop movies like Get Rich or Die Tryin’ failed to achieve. 

8 Mile is a feat in, not only the film genre, but also in songwriting, as Eminem became the first rapper to win an Oscar for Best Original Song. “Lose Yourself” is easily one of the greatest rap songs of the decade if not the century. It is played in every gym and almost every motivational video for a reason. 

The song has a unique quality that has remained ubiquitous in its use wherever it is played. The song, much like the film, deals with struggle and perseverance with a message of never giving up no matter what happens. 

That is what everyone needs to keep the drive and spark inside of them burning. It’s the only thing that gives up hope for a better tomorrow. That’s what keeps me up and running throughout the day. 

 

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Why ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” is the best werewolf movie ever made

by Richard Schertzer
written by Richard Schertzer

Of course, I am in no way, shape or form trying to disparage Lon Chaney’s work as the wolf man, but a lot of the old-timey have not seemed to age well over time. They obviously didn’t have computers to render the finalized werewolf believable instead of laughable, which is where the Alfonso Cauron 2004 film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban comes in. 

This third film in the Wizarding World franchise sees Harry Potter being haunted by a newly-escaped prisoner named Sirius Black, who has been said to have aided Lord Voldemort in the killing of Potter’s parents. 

The main plot of the film isn’t what I’m here to talk about, though. I’m here to talk about one scene, in particular, where the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher Remus Lupin turns into a werewolf after forgetting to take his potion to prevent the incident from occurring. 

 

In the course of the scene, Lupin is ready to attack and kill Harry, his friends and Professor Snape, until Black transforms into his dog disguise and takes on the hairy brute. 

This is all to say that this is one of the most intense sequences in the Harry Potter series. It takes the series into a darker turn for fans and audiences. It is also a milestone in the horror genre and, more specifically, a werewolf movie.

I have never seen a werewolf film honor its horror roots with such amazing CGI and a sympathetic character. This third entry in the series is something that many werewolf films don’t truly understand. It harbors a sympathetic victim of this werewolf curse. Other films before and after it have given generic characters to their horror pictures. They fail to connect with audiences and the characters come across as flaccid and lifeless that fail to resonate anything with audiences. 

Harry Potter’s third movie combines the dark macabre with a touch of comedy that is sorely missed from previous wolf movies. I am so happy that I grew up with this gem.

 

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EntertainmentFilm

Why I will always admire Tim Burton and his work

by Richard Schertzer
written by Richard Schertzer

Pretty soon, people will be greeted to Tim Burton’s next project entitled Wednesday, which is set to premiere on Netflix November 23rd. With his latest project nearing the horizon, it seems only fitting to look back onto the director’s body–nay– his mountain of work that captured millions of fans and made being goth look cool. 

Tim Burton began his career with Disney, drawing concept art for the company. Although most of his art went unused and he was getting paid to just conceptualize drawings that never materialized, that didn’t stop him from creating such classics in the 1980s like Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, and the Michael Keaton-led superhero film Batman. 

He has made some of the darkest and bloody films while adding his own touch of whimsy to them. His passion for German expressionism and macabre has never wavered and it has honestly only gotten stronger with time. 

I remember when I first saw Beetlejuice on VHS. When I first experienced this cult classic, I thought it was something of a fever dream to have witnessed a live-action movie mix in gothic elements and stop-motion. Of course, everything is différent and distorted when you are young. With that being said, I thought the film was a lot darker and less comedic when I first saw it than now. 

That wasn’t my only experience with Tim Burton’s work. I remember there was a time in summer of 2013, in fact, it was June 28th, 2013 on a Friday, that I saw  clips of Burton’s film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. This was the film that made me a Tim Burton and Johnny Depp fanatic. I remember how dark and beautiful the performances and landscape were. I was enthralled by each character and the storyline of vengeance and justice. 

I remember watching a documentary on Tim Burton and he claimed that he grew up as a weirdo and a loner, where people did not like him. Much like his characters, he was an outcast among other people. I can definitely relate with his plight and struggle. 

I remember having my heartstrings tugged when I watched Big Fish, Corpse Bride, and the live-action Disney remake Dumbo. I have never seen a director be so committed to the craft of macabre that he made it part of his entire life. I never felt more comfortable being in my own skin after seeing his work and knowing where he got his inspiration from. 

Tim Burton truly is one of the reasons that I always wanted to be a filmmaker and that feeling has not wavered since. 

 

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