Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25 years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach. This is the only book that gives a true picture of the character of John Wooden and the influence of his assistant, Jerry Norman, whose contributions Wooden  ignored and tried to bury.

Compiled with more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach. The players tell their stories in their own words.

Click the book to read the first chapter and for ordering information. Also available on Kindle.

Thumbnails Aug 19

by Tony Medley

Honeyland (9/10): Runtime 90 minutes. NR. There is no script because the movie was shot over three years (400 hours of film) in real time of the people involved, all of whom are illiterate. Hatidze lives in a wild region of Macedonia with her dying mother, Nazife, who is blind and paralyzed, and keeps bees the ancient way handed down from generation to generation. The directors started shooting and were well on their way when another family moved in and horned in on Hatidze’s bee-keeping business, upon which she relied to survive. It is true cinéma-vérité in the strict sense of the term, that there was no script and no direction and no actors; the small crew was actually just shooting things as they happened and I was overwhelmed, with tears in my eyes as it ended.

Brian Banks (9/10): Runtime 99 minutes. PG-13. It is gut-wrenching to watch the unfairness Banks (Aldis Hodge), a high school football star falsely accused of rape, endured and Hodge’s performance is amazingly true to life. With a typical fine performance by Greg Kinnear, the two actresses who really shine are Xosha Roquemore as his hateful accuser, Kennisha, and Monique Grant, who plays Kennisha’s mother. I would give them both Best Supporting Actress nominations, even though Grant is only in a couple of scenes. This is one of those films that could stay with you forever.

Marianne and Leonard: Words of Love (8/10): Runtime 102 minutes. R. Directed by Nick Broomfield, it is definitely not an unbiased film made by someone without a point of view of rock star Leonard Cohen and his seven year affair with Marianne Ihlen mostly on the island of Hydra, as Broomfield was one of Marianne’s lovers after Cohen left Hydra. So the POV of this film is pretty sympathetic and non-judgmental, although it does not hide the facts, just soft-pedals them. Telling how he morphed from an unsuccessful poet into a huge star thanks to Judy Collins, the film shows that Cohen was a rock star of low moral tone, existing on drugs and sleeping with as many women as he could, which was, apparently, limitless. k. d. lang’s rendition of Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” is still one of my favorites, though.

Yesterday (8/10): Runtime 113 minutes. PG-13. If you are a Beatlemaniac, as am I, you will be rewarded with fine versions of a cornucopia of Beatles’ hits sung by Himesh Patel in this fantasy about “what if the world had never heard of The Beatles?” But for me the person who steals the movie is Kate McKinnon. Playing Debra, Patel’s Hollywood agent, she is suitably overbearing and aggressive and dominates every scene in which she appears. I wanted to see a lot more of her. I’d go so far as to give her an Oscar® nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Mike Wallace is Here (8/10): Runtime 90 minutes. PG-13. While this contains clips from throughout Wallace’s long career as an interviewer including many from the ground-breaking “60 Minutes” for which he and Harry Reasoner were the first two interviewers, if you want to get to know what made Wallace tick, this is not the place for that. Included is raw footage (some never-before-seen) of some of his memorable interviews. It’s a treat to watch these, whether you’ve seen them before or not.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (7/10): Runtime 159 minutes. R. Writer/director Quentin Tarantino’s sheer fantasy (using real names) on 1969 Hollywood and the changing of an era. Terrific performances by tough guy stuntman Brad Pitt and his boss TV/movie star Leonardo DeCaprio (is he supposed to be Burt Reynolds?), Damian Lewis (as Steve McQueen) and others highlight a film with good pace that doesn’t peter out as it leads to a climax with the Manson Family.

Stuber (1/10): Runtime 90 minutes. R. There are bad movies…and then there is Stuber. It’s absurdly violent with ludicrous fights with virtually no negative consequence to the participants even though as few as one of the innumerable blows would be enough to incapacitate or kill anyone other than an actor in a film. As to humor, it is so juvenile that it’s unlikely that any reasonable adult could be brought to even a smile; groans are more likely. The best part of this film is the fadeout.

The Great Hack (1/10): Runtime 113 minutes. NR. I bet you didn’t know it if you voted for Donald Trump, but according to this film, everyone who did so vote, did so because they were swayed to do so by a devious manipulation of “fake news” masterminded by an outfit called Cambridge Analytica. At least that’s what this Machiavellian piece of propaganda would have you believe. “Targeting voters” is pictured as a devious Trumpian conspiracy but it’s a valid campaign technique used for ages by both parties, including the democrats of Clinton and Obama. Produced by Geralyn Dreyfous, who is a big democrat contributor, more than $40,000 to Obama and other democrats, it’s inherently biased, dishonest filmmaking at its apogee.

Recommended reading: “Seduction: Sex, Lies & Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood” by Karina Longworth and “Neon Prey” by John Sandford.