Where are my two dollars?: An interview with Yano Anaya

AN INTERVIEW WITH YANO ANAYA

WHERE ARE MY TWO DOLLARS?
By Jerry Saravia 

Yano in "A Christmas Story" (1983)

Yano today

"Where are my two dollars?" is the famous phrase uttered by the paperboys in the highly regarded and offbeat 1985 cult comedy, "Better Off Dead" (which starred John Cusack and Diane Franklin). Yano Anaya played the role of one of the Paperboys, a small role but not an insignificant one when fans approach Yano nowadays and ask for two dollars (especially at fan conventions). Of course, one cannot forget Anaya's Grover Dill character, Scut Farkus's bullying sidekick, from the perennial Christmas movie, 1983's "A Christmas Story." You know the film is a cultural landmark, a film that is easily the definition of Christmas, when a major fan of the film approached his table at the Chiller Theatre convention in New Jersey back in 2006 and boasted about the film. This fan became Yano's wife, Selena Anaya. 

So what is Yano Anaya up to lately? And what about that popular Van Halen music video from back in the day? And why is 1988's "Blue Iguana" the last film he made in his career? Read further, but don't forget to give me the two dollars!

1. It has been thirty years since "A Christmas Story." What are your fondest memories of working on that film? and is this a film that you watch with your kids on Christmas every now and then?

"My fondest memory [having shot his scenes for 6 days out of a 6 week shoot] was meeting the cast members. It was a special event, my first big movie! I was staying at a hotel that had a rundown mall attached to it so you can imagine how much fun we kids had in there! Later on in life, my son, who was 10 at the time, invited some friends over to watch the movie. I was 10-years-old in that movie and my son looked just like me in the movie so the kids had asked my son, 'You were in this movie'?"

Yano (the one with the arrow on his face) in the 1984 music video "Hot for Teacher"

2. How did the role of a young Michael Anthony in the Van Halen video "Hot for Teacher" occur?

"A phone call from my manager, as it is often the case. I know who Eddie Van Halen was - the best guitarist in the world and my favorite band. I went to audition and rocked it. I went for the callback and rocked that. My dream came true. I was 13 at the time."

3. Your role as one of the "Paperboys" is hilarious in the 1985 cult comedy, "Better Off Dead." I assume if fans know you are in both that film and "A Christmas Story" they might ask for "two dollars" more often than not.

"I am recognized for Christmas Story more often than Better Off Dead. Sometimes I am spotted on the street and somebody asks for a photo holding two dollars. At conventions, fans are surprised to learn I was in Better Off Dead."

Yano with Dylan McDermott in 1988's "The Blue Iguana"

4. You are credited with just three films, the last being 1988's "The Blue Iguana." Were roles not as forthcoming or did you decide then you needed to do something else?

 "Blue Iguana was my last film and it never got a wide release. After that film, I appeared on some General Hospital episodes playing a troublemaker. I did a gig on The Gong Show which was a blast. Afterwards, I had four years of auditions but not a single job. Acting was my dream. I went to college and studied health and fitness. My mom influenced my interest in health and nutrition (Yano's mother had a masters in Human Nutrition). At age 4, I was already cooking, maybe not too well. By the time I was in 2nd grade, I knew the difference between a carbohydrate, protein and fat when almost nobody else knew what I was talking about."

5. I see that you were born in Cleveland but Yano sounds like a Japanese name. Where are your parents from originally or, more appropriately, what are your ancestral roots?

"I was born in Miami, Florida, in Dade County. We moved to the San Fernando Valley in California when I was 4 years old. My father was from Puerto Rico. My mother was German, Irish, Swedish, Dutch. I was the only child from my parents [Yano's parents did have other children before they met and got married, including Yano's half-sister named Katy Kurtzman, an actress]. My name Yano means Ya No Mas, translated from Spanish as 'no more.'

6. What motivated your interest in physical fitness, particularly with being Director of the personal trainer program at the Atlanta School of Massage?

"My wife is an anatomy and physiology instructor at the Atlanta School of Massage and opened up the door of opportunity by introducing me to the owner [Leticia Allen who founded ASM in 1980] The Atlanta Personal Trainer Program is the first of its kind in Georgia. [Yano Anaya is the Personal Trainer Program Director and manages a 600 hour program that gives 286 hours of hands on experience and 314 hours of class room instruction including Anatomy and Physiology, Exercise Physiology, Kinesiology, Nutrition, Wellness Coaching, Business and Sales, which meets the future requirements of mandatory Licensing for Personal Trainers]. Please visit the website at asmwellness.com for more information."

Once it is written, it becomes fiction

STORYTELLING (2001)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(Originally viewed in 2002)

Uneasiness is at the core of all Todd Solondz's work. "Welcome to the Dollhouse" was the uneasy tale of a young girl coming to terms with school, sex, and jealousy in her adolescent years. "Happiness" was the provocative, uneasy epic of sex and relationships in New Jersey, and the nature of pedophilia. "Happiness" remains the most provocative film of the nineties for touching on taboos that make people feel queasy and uncomfortable. "Storytelling" is the uneasy tale of sex, racism, and tabloid journalism crossed with media exploitation in New Jersey. Two of those themes are far more provocative than the last, a retread of ideas we have seen before and better.

The film is divided into two sections: "Fiction" and "Nonfiction." "Fiction" begins with college student, Vi (Selma Blair), who has a relationship with Marcus (Leo Fitzpatrick), who suffers from cerebral palsy. They are both working on stories for their writing class, but mostly they have sex rather than discuss writing. Marcus has changed the ending to his story but Vi doesn't want to hear it. He feels the relationship has passed their stormy affair phase into one where she is "kind" to him, no doubt due to his celebral palsy.

The day of the class comes where everyone has to read their stories. Marcus reads his (relating to his own relationship with Vi where he becomes a cerebral man), and is greeted with overwhelming praise by the students. The teacher, Mr. Scott (Robert Wisdom), a Pulitzer Prize winner, scoffs at Marcus's writing and calls it cliched and sentimental ("And that title, 'The Raw Truth'. Is that supposed to be some kind of joke"?). Marcus is upset but Vi tries to calm him down - she is attracted, however, by Scott's derisive put-downs and blunt criticism. One night, she inadvertently meets Scott at a bar. They talk. She goes to his apartment and they have anal sex. Solondz doesn't stop there - Scott has Vi say a racist phrase which will no doubt make him climax. The next day, Vi has written her own story about her ordeal with Scott. The class hates it and berates her for it, but Scott sees the seeds of a genuine talent. She defends her story to the students by saying it was an actual incident. Scott's own bluntness comes through perfectly in one great line: "The moment you write it down, it becomes fiction."

The next section called "Nonfiction" deals with an amateur documentary filmmaker, Toby Oxman (Paul Giammati), who wants to make a film about alienated youth at the local school. He finds a disillusioned slacker named Scooby (Mark Webber), who has no prospects or goals in life except to be on television. His family is one obscene lot. There is the father, Mark (John Goodman), who can't stand to talk about taboo subjects at the dinner table; his wife, Fern (Julie Hagerty), who merely tries to keep out of her husband's way; the jock brother, Brady (Noah Fleiss), who worries about his reputation, and the irritating Mikey (Jonathan Osser), the youngest brother who has one scene with the maid (Lupe Ontiveros) that will make you cringe with pure vitriol.

Toby has his own problems. He wavers from one job to the next, tries to hook up with a high-school classmate who has moved on to better things like marriage, and is trying to convince himself he can make a documentary that will be entertaining to everyone. The problem is that he is filming a reality that cannot be formatted for the masses in a digestible manner. He realizes this but insists on making it fun.

Scooby has his share of problems like any high-school kid. He refuses to take the SAT's, wants nothing to do with college, discovers he is gay, and realizes his life is being reduced to a film titled "American Scooby." And he has a remarkable scene at the dinner table where the conversation shifts to the Holocaust survivors. Scooby declares his mom as a survivor since they would never have existed if her parents did not escape from the concentration camps.

"Storytelling" is certainly uneasy and unnerving, and Solondz knows how to make his audience squirm in their seats. It is a good film, well-written but somehow unfocused. The first part of the film, "Fiction," is masterfully done, pure vintage Solondz. It is both serious and understated with maximum impact in witty dialogue (especially the classroom scenes which are undeniably honest). Vi and Mr. Scott are the most memorable characters in this section, and I would have liked to have seen more of them. The second half, titled "Nonfiction," seems like a cartoon minus the exaggeration. Scooby's family is underdeveloped, lacking the loopy, soulful qualities of the families in "Happiness." A lot of Scooby goes a long way, though the shot of his teary-eyed reaction to the documentary at a private screening is superb. But this section is almost futile compared to the first, seemingly truncated chapter (running a mere thirty minutes). "NonFiction" is Solondz's sardonic commentary on documentaries, the responsibility of the filmmaker to his subject, the media exploitation and, ironically, the film "American Beauty." It grows into a spoof and tries to place emphasis on how Scooby and his family are affected by this documentary, not to mention his father's rants about how Scooby should go to college. None of this feels remotely engaging or fulfilling, and a lot is recycled from other films with similar themes. One episode involving the poor maid feels out of line with the rest of the story, though it involves a denouement that is pure Solondz.

I admire "Storytelling" for its brave, honest emotions and some excellent performances. What I was left with were the indelible impressions of Mr. Scott and Vi and that was from the first, more powerful section that would have benefitted from more screen time. The rest of the film feels unfinished, underdeveloped, unfocused and wanting. I expected more, perhaps a better story.

Footnote: The theatrical version of the film features a red rectangle placed in front of a long shot which shows a sexual act between Vi and Mr. Scott. The MPAA rejected the scene and, of course, Solondz took advantage and made a mockery out of the ratings board. This review applies to the unrated version, which is more animalistic since you can see what is happening, and therefore angrier and more provocative. My guess is that the MPAA may have had some misgivings about Mr. Scott's race, not gender, since he is black and Vi is white. Of course, I could be wrong.

No honor among thieves and vampires

FROM DUSK TILL DAWN (1996)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(originally viewed in 1996)

After Tarantino's post-"Pulp Fiction" success in 1994, his future remained questionable. Here was a man who reinvented and rewrote the rules of gangster flicks forever - in retrospect, not so new were his rules or inventions as much as the energy he brought to them - and the question remained if he ever could top his crowning "Pulp" jewel. Tarantino didn't try to prove anything as he largely acted in some rotten films like "Destiny Turns on the Radio" and his own horrendous short film in a collection of bad ones called "Four Rooms." It wasn't until 1997 that Tarantino showed why he was a success in the first place. It was not the gore or violence as much as his sharp, clever writing and the introduction of the gangster as an ironic antihero. "From Dusk Till Dawn" was an early script by Quentin from long before "Reservoir Dogs," and it is actually two movies rolled into one. It is a silly, jagged and overlong pulp carnival that at times is entertaining and funny. From behind the cameras is Robert Rodriguez of "Desperado" fame, and you can clearly see where Tarantino's movie ends and Rodriguez's begins.

The opening scene is reminiscent of "Natural Born Killers" with George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino playing two brothers, Seth and Richard Gecko, who rob a convenience store and murder the owner and the police officer all in the space of less than ten minutes of screen time. The two antiheroes are two bumbling thieves wearing black suits with no particular direction in life other than robbing convenience stores. Seth is the calm, resourceful crook whereas Richard is a stupid, raging psychopath.

After the murderous robbery, the pair take a hostage from an earlier bank robbery to a run-down motel. Richard disposes of the hostage, and the twosome end up kidnapping a grizzled preacher, Jacob Fuller (Harvey Keitel), and his two kids, the teenage Kate (Juliette Lewis) and her adopted Chinese brother, Scott (Ernest Liu). Seth needs them as bait to cross the border to Mexico where he's supposed to rendezvous with his employer. At this point, the movie takes on an odd route and becomes a cartoonish "Evil Dead" flick when the incongruous group go to a bar named the Titty Twister run by vicious, grotesque, constantly morphing vampires! This is where the over-the-top histrionics of Rodriguez begins.

As enjoyable as "From Dusk Till Dawn" frequently is, it is disappointing. The first half of the film is terrific stuff, mixing in laughs, tension and surprises with ease, and all superbly written by Quentin Tarantino. Once the movie settles in for the horror aspect, it becomes slightly repetitive and mindless. The movie spends an eternity showing our heroes and anti-heroes shoving stakes into vampires' hearts, as well as chopping off their heads and limbs with an arsenal that includes chairs, beer glasses, crossbows and crosses. There is so much vampiric carnage that Rodriguez doesn't allow much room for Tarantino's trademark wordplay and that is a shame.

There are, however, some hilarious performances and understated acting to compensate. There's the 70's blaxploitation star Fred Williamson as a Vietnam Vet; Tom Savini (former make-up artist of "Dawn of the Dead" fame) as a leather-jacketed punk named Sex Machine; and Cheech Marin in three roles - the best is as the Titty Twister host who invites all the truckers and bikers to join in the fun of watching the sexy strippers do their snake striptease dances!

George Clooney made a successful transition here from television's "E.R." to the big screen, as evidenced by some of his later work post-"Batman and Robin." Here he projects a calm, relaxed personality as Seth, and makes a convincing, charismatic action star. Surprisingly, Tarantino does his best work here as the psychopathic, horny Richard who has the hots for Kate, the preacher's daughter. Harvey Keitel brings a level of humanity and quiet authority as the preacher who has lost his faith since his wife died in a car crash. Juliette Lewis is at her most restrained here and brings a sensual, sweetly innocent side that makes us care for her amidst all the flying vampire body parts.

In short, "From Dusk Till Dawn" is a rollercoaster ride of thrills and laughs that throws in everything from bits of "Pulp Fiction" and the Indiana Jones series to all those grade Z zombie/vampire thrillers. The special-effects are enthralling yet exhausting, and Rodriguez has still not learned what balanced rhythm is. With some spectacularly edited sequences and better-than-average performances, this is junky, fast-paced filmmaking at its best. Now if only Tarantino would direct his own screenplays more often.

Cloning to the infinite power

THE 6TH DAY (2000)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

There are great Arnold Schwarzenegger movies ("The Terminator I and II") and there are good ones ("Commando," "The Running Man" and "Total Recall") and there are decent flicks ("Red Heat"). Then there are outright atrocities and fair near-misses like "Eraser." "The 6th Day" belongs in the near-miss category. It has a great timely concept that fails to deliver on its very own potential.

Directed by Roger Spottiswoode ("Tomorrow Never Dies"), "The 6th Day" stars Schwarzenegger as Adam Gibson, a pilot who flies skiers to a distant resort. His partner is Hank (the dependable Michael Rappaport) and both are owners of Double-X Charters. Since this story is set in the not-so-distant future, Adam also has a remote that can activate a helicopter to fly without a pilot. One day, Hank stands in for Adam and flies a rich, powerful man, Drucker (Tony Goldwyn), to the distant ski resort until trouble ensues and everyone is killed by some skier armed with a laser gun. Apparently, Adam was to be killed, not Hank. It turns out that Adam's life is about to turn upside down when he discovers that his wife and daughter are living with an exact double of Adam! Welcome to the world of cloning, which is outlawed in the future except for animals and if you are caught cloning a human, you are subject to a stiff jail sentence and destruction of the clone. But Drucker and other assorted villains are always cloning themselves so in essence, the bad guys never actually die - there is always a replacement. Adam now has to contend with Drucker and his henchmen and a forlorn cloning scientist, Dr. Weir (Robert Duvall), who has his doubts about the future of this immoral experiment. But why did they clone Adam?

"The 6th Day" begins promisingly with a wonderfully imaginative scenario, and there are plenty of nifty ideas throughout. We are shown that in the future cars can drive by themselves, lifelike dolls can communicate similar emotions like a young child (though the one doll shown might make younger kids scream), you can order groceries through computerized refrigerators (which you can do now), and someone like Hank can have a virtual girlfriend who will do anything to please him. Yes, yes, we have seen some of these ideas before, the latter being the basis for "The Lawnmower Man," but rarely so engagingly or matter-of-factly.

The movie's basic theme is Frankenstein revisited, bringing up the moral questions of what happens when you bring back the dead. If someone is cloned, is the person still human and does he/she have a soul? And how does one separate one clone from the next, and what would it be like for a clone to co-exist with the original model? Such good ideas are introduced but left asunder in favor of plenty of laser gun fights and car chases galore. "The 6th Day" never bothers to explore the questions it presents. There are glimmers of the movie's theme occasionally, particularly in the touching scenes between Duvall's Weir and his dying wife who had been cloned once before. But it is hard to get a handle on Schwarzenegger's Adam who seems to be doing heavy breathing throughout and little else. The screenplay never allows much focus on Adam's family, who are left skirting the edges of the movie's blowout action scenes. Arnie still has the steely presence he always had but lacks the vigor and humor he usually brings to his roles. His last sentimental scene is a travesty and emotionally off-kilter when you consider one of the unsurprising twists in the movie's latter half.

The villains themselves are so threadbare that I could have cared less about them or their plight. They die, they are cloned, they die and they are cloned again. Big deal. Goldwyn's Drucker never seems like a real threat - the actor was a more convincing villain in "Ghost." Poor Michael Rooker played an exasperated assassin who also does a lot of heavy breathing but never seems involved.

"The 6th Day" is overlong and padded with excessive action scenes but it never actually takes flight. Don't get me wrong - there is some imagination at work here. It's just that with all the right tools and all the right notes, it never reaches fruition.

We are all f***ed up!

THE MILLION DOLLAR HOTEL (2001)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(Originally reviewed in April 10th, 2002)

"The Million Dollar Hotel" is the kind of film that is suffused with fantastic imagery, splendid cinematography, offbeat atmosphere and frankly little else. It's a film to feast the eyes but not the heart. Plainly put, Wim Wenders' new film flies off of the handle so often you wonder if it will ever sit to ponder. It never does.

Based on a story idea by good old Bono, "The Million Dollar Hotel" is set in the year 2001 in L.A., focusing on a fleabag hotel called The Million Dollar Hotel (the site of Bono's music video "Where The Streets Have No Name.") Apparently, a peculiar hotel guest named Izzy Goldkiss (Tim Roth) jumped off the roof of the hotel, but could he have been murdered or did he commit suicide? That is what an unlikable FBI agent (Mel Gibson) is out to discover, and not with the help of these hotel misfits. The most notable is a slow-witted, naive punk (Jeremy Davies) who is in love with a woman (Milla Jovovich) who claims she is not real - she is fiction, a nobody.

And that may be the problem with "Million Dollar Hotel" overall. These characters are shallow misfits with no interesting personalities or remarkable insights. Actors such as Jimmy Smits, Gloria Stuart and Peter Stormare (as a supposedly fifth Beatle) run through the screen without making much of an impression. It is like watching a wax museum of fuzzy, anonymous portraits with no pulse. However, it is nice to see Stuart cussing up a storm with the film's one memorable line: "We are all f***ed up!"

What saves the film somewhat is the tender love story between Davies and Jovovich, though it does become tedious after a while. I also liked Mad Mel who is far more restrained than usual, resembling the Frankenstein monster with scars in his back and sporting a neck brace. The slow pacing and long takes are often breathtaking (sometimes recalling Wenders' own "Wings of Desire.") The songs by Bono are pointed and haunting, and the film does fascinate. It just doesn't involve us.

Finding Rosebud in Kubrick Estate

STANLEY KUBRICK'S BOXES (2008)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

The genius of a film director like Stanley Kubrick can't be easily explained away. Most film directors give much insight into their work habits, stories that interest them, their driving impulses, and their themes in interviews. Kubrick revealed precious little, only what stirred his interest in making films but not necessarily revealing the source of ambiguity. Director and author Jon Ronson wants to uncover the mystery of the man himself, the rosebud that will help explain his genius. He may come close but most viewers will still be perplexed by the obsessive nature of this legendary director.

"Stanley Kubrick's Boxes" shows us the mini-warehouse at the Kubrick Estate (since moved to the University of the Arts in London) where Kubrick's boxes are legion. There are various photographs and stills from pre-production of "Eyes Wide Shut" and "A Clockwork Orange." There are also newspaper ads of his first-run theatrical releases where the measurements of the ads were in fact smaller than what the advertisers promised. Tony Frewin (assistant to Kubrick for more than thirty years) reveals how the box manufacturer was called to help make boxes that had lids that fit just right. There are also fascinating snippets involving boxes that held letters from fans, and crank letters of people who might assassinate Kubrick or people he at least considered somewhat dangerous! One so-called crank letter came from a writer named Vincent Tilsley who wrote to Kubrick after being disappointed with "2001" and with having his six-hour tv-movie "The Death of Adolph Hitler" truncated to less than 2 hours - Tilsley wanted to be in the Kubrick rank of great filmmakers (the writer later quit and became a psychotherapist).

Aside from fan letters, one fan actually made a video called "Shining Clockwork" which parodied Kubrick by having an actor play Kubrick who is paralyzed by some diehard fans who were disappointed with "The Shining." The videographer managed to contact Kubrick by phone and simply asked if the director received the videotape. Stanley said he did, and that was the end of that conversation.  

Most troubling are the stills shown from a Kubrick film that never was, "Aryan Papers," a Nazi Holocaust film adapted from a book entitled "Wartime Lies." According to Kubrick's widow, Christiane Kubrick, Stanley gave it up because the story depressed him (in the enlightening documentary, "A Life in Pictures," Christiane further stated that Stanley felt he couldn't pretend such a horrid tale of one of the worst human catastrophes of the 20th century). However, according Mr. Frewin, preproduction of the film lasted two years so when did Stanley have a change-of-heart, or is it because of Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List" that was released around the same time? The mind boggles.

"Boxes" is indelibly fascinating and absorbing as it pores over Kubrick's boxes and the treasures Ronson uncovers. There is everything from memos dictating the similarities between TV's "Space: 1999" and "2001," to found film footage showing Kubrick behind-the-scenes of "Full Metal Jacket" deciding how many tea breaks there can be in one day. Though Ronson might think he has found his Roseud, Kubrick is still a man of mystery with more quirks and eccentricities than even Bob Dylan. That may be the way Stanley wants to leave it.

Shelleys' swim in Russell's stinky swamp

GOTHIC (1986)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Ken Russell's "Gothic" is one of the crudest, most excessively overwrought, unimaginably worst films ever made - a travesty of the memory of Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron and anyone else involved in that hallucinatory evening back in the summer of the early 1800's. Yes, the film purports to be about that evening but I am sure it was a lot classier and civilized than Russell's version of it.

Not to say that it was not a sexual, druggy romp for all involved, as I am sure it was, but this often looks like wild outtakes from "Woodstock" crossed with "Caligula." Natasha Richardson is the tranquil Mary Shelley, Julian Sands is the laudanum addict Percy Shelley, and Gabriel Byrne is the laughably miscast, brutish, devilish Lord Byron, in exile at the Villa Diodati where all the hanky-panky takes place. Also on hand is the highly loony Dr. Polidori (Timothy Spall) and Mary's stepsister (Miriam Cyr), who all indulge in debauchery (free love as Percy calls it) and hallucinatory fever dreams where reality and fiction sort of cross over. There are snakes (a typical Russell visual), corpses, stillborn babies, hands puncturing nails, abortions and lots of sex. The question is that in all of Russell's mishmash of fiery, bloody images, when did Mary creatively think of her idea for "Frankenstein" or Polidori think of his "Vampyre" story? The film only shows the hallucinations but precious little time is invested in any of the characters. They are vapid, one-dimensional cartoons in Russell's universe, and the fact that these literate minds read horror stories to each other during a brutal thunderstorm is only barely hinted at. It's all fire and brimstone played to the hilt, and likely to bore anyone to tears who is not interested in a Heavy Metal music video with Thomas Dolby's overused electronic score groping for our attention.

"Gothic" has the stylish look of a rock video but none of the atmosphere or subtlety of a Universal horror flick. It sputters, spits itself out in stylistic strokes and tries to thrill us with nightmarish overkill, but it ultimately fails to enlighten. I admired some of Russell's other visionary trips but "Gothic" is strictly subterranean junk.