Andrew Stevens pays loving but not hagiographic tribute to his late mother, famed actress Stella Stevens, in his documentary recently showcased at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. The film convincingly makes the case that its subject, best known for her performances in such pictures as The Poseidon Adventure and The Nutty Professor, is severely underrated, both as an actress and social activist. Stella Stevens: The Last Starlet aims to rectify that perception and, thanks to numerous clips of her work and effusive commentary by the likes of Quentin Tarantino and Vivica A. Fox, it succeeds beautifully.

The filmmaker (who appears frequently) admits that his relationship with his mother was rocky, to say the least, in the early years. Born in Yazoo City, Mississippi, Stevens got married at age 16 and had Andrew, her first and only child, six months later. The marriage soon dissolved, and when she moved to Hollywood to pursue an acting career, she took Andrew to California with her illegally. His father and grandfather later showed up and spirited him away, resulting in an ugly custody battle and Andrew not having a real relationship with his mother until he turned 16.

Stevens was soon signed to 20th Century Fox, where she was groomed to be a starlet in the mold of Marilyn Monroe and Mamie Van Doren. Her sexpot image was further confirmed when she appeared as a Playboy centerfold, though she had desperately tried to purchase the nude images back from Hugh Hefner, who refused.

Her career quickly took off thanks to such films as Li’l Abner, in which she played the wonderfully named “Appasionata Von Climax,” and the musical Say One for Me with Bing Crosby, for which she received a Golden Globe award for New Star of the Year.

“Some of the most fun parts I’ve played are nymphomaniacs,” Stevens amusingly points out in one of many interviews featured here. Some of them are shown via archival clips from various talk show appearances, while others are recreated using a lookalike actress (Lindsie Kongsore). While the device is jarring at first, it admittedly breathes life into Stevens’ words. But the filmmaker gets too carried away with it at times, as when he unnecessarily uses an actor to play a film critic reading an excerpt from a review.

There are plenty of juicy anecdotes and revelations in the documentary, one of the most priceless being Stevens’ account of co-star Bobby Darin getting a much noticeable erection while they shot a kissing scene. She also reveals that she had no desire to appear with Elvis Presley in Girls! Girls! Girls! and only agreed to do it after she was promised that she would get to play opposite Montgomery Clift in her next film. The Clift project never materialized, and she could never bring herself to watch the Presley one.

We learn of her many romances, including an affair with the notorious and very much married Hollywood fixer Sidney Korshak and a lengthy relationship with actor Skip Ward, who took financial advantage of her and was frequently unfaithful.

The documentary makes a strong case for Stevens’ talent — particularly her formidable comic chops, as illustrated in numerous clips of her work, including from an episode of Bonanza for which she won acclaim. She held her own opposite Jerry Lewis in The Nutty Professor and sparkled in the old-fashioned comedy How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life opposite Dean Martin, with whom she had previously appeared in the Matt Helm spy spoof The Silencers. She received critical acclaim for her exuberant turn in Sam Peckinpah’s 1970 The Ballad of Cable Hogue, though the film was a flop. When she did appear in hits, such as the hugely popular disaster pic The Poseidon Adventure, it didn’t give her career much traction.  

She later became an iconic figure for Black audiences, thanks to her groundbreaking interracial love scene with Jim Brown in the blaxploitation hit Slaughter and her campy villainous turn in Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold. But what she really wanted to do, as they say, was direct. She finally got her chance in 1989 with an indie feature called The Ranch, starring her son Andrew (he later returned the favor, directing her in the 1991 B-movie The Terror Within II), and a feminist-themed documentary, The American Heroine, which was never released.

Besides the ample clips from her roles and television appearances, the documentary includes fascinating home movies, personal photographs, and insightful commentary from various figures including film historians Leonard Maltin and Courtney Joyner. But it’s Tarantino who unsurprisingly proves the highlight, articulately gushing about Stevens’ performances with the passion of a true fan. (Introducing The Last Starlet at the festival, Andrew admitted that he basically handed the ball to Tarantino and let him run with it.)

While Stevens’ big-screen career eventually fizzled, she never stopped working, appearing in dozens of direct-to-video movies and TV series until her final appearance in something called Megaconda in 2010. “If the idea of being an actress is to work, she worked. She worked a lot,” Tarantino points out.

Her final days were sad ones, as she slowly succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease until her death at 84 in 2023. Much to the consternation of her son and her many fans, she was not included in the Academy Awards’ annual “In Memoriam” segment and never received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The latter is a rebuff that should be corrected — especially if Stella Stevens: The Last Starlet gets the exposure it deserves.

Jesse Eisenberg delivers a story tethered to the human condition of longing for something “else” or “more” in the triumphant A Real Pain. Directed, written, and starring Eisenberg, the film perfectly balances dry humor and understated, character-driven drama. At a well-paced 90 minutes, the story never overstays its welcome. Instead, the story succeeds because, despite its brevity, it streamlines a beautifully executed narrative that needs no more or less than what it’s being given. 

A Real Pain follows David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin), two cousins who could be mistaken for brothers for how closely they grew up together. However, despite being born mere weeks apart, they’re polar opposites. Despite this, they share an often exasperated fondness for one another—with David, in particular, keeping a watchful eye out for Benji. In order to honor their late grandmother, the two embark on a tour of Poland to explore their family history while paying their respects at their grandmother’s childhood home. 

There’s a simplistic, linear structure to the film that could easily be mistaken as dull. But the rapid-fire dialogue and meditations on life and losses embolden the otherwise straightforward story with unexpected vigor. Eisenberg and cinematographer Michał Dymek shoot everything from the bustling airport to the Polish countryside with grace as we move forward along with these characters. 

However, while the direction is confident and observational, especially when highlighting the magnitude of emotions Culkin’s face bears while still withholding, the writing pulls it all together. The script is simply remarkable in its conscious depiction of vulnerability that’s almost too raw to watch. Eisenberg’s script feels personal, even if it’s fictional, and it’s best seen in the relationship between Benji and David. 

Despite his constant proclamations of how much he loves his cousin, how close they are, and how integral David is in his life, Benji is quick to punch down and belittle. He tells David that no one likes to walk alone when talking about another traveler, yet leaves him in the dust to speak with her instead. He calls out his insecurities in public while telling him that he has no problem with his cousin’s shortcomings. Eisenberg captures the grind of it, shoulders hunching further and further as he either apologizes for Benji’s behavior or watches in amazement as Benji somehow pulls off being a brazen ass with little consequence. 

And that’s because as impulsive and self-righteous Benji is, so many of his tirades have just enough truth to make them justifiable. Even while so many of us would shrink away from the kind of conflict he so vigorously chases, we can’t deny that he comes from a place of honesty. It’s the critical difference between Benji and David. David believes there’s a time and place to express pain and grief. Benji unleashes it all like a tidal wave. 

It’s what makes the centerpiece moment of the film, a taut and revealing dinner, all the more poignant. While it seems like David is getting his moment to unload and overshare, as Benji might, with no repercussions, the dynamics of the group tour remain unchanged. It’s a brilliantl sequence that shoulders the weight of the tension into a precarious position. We understand why Benji draws people in. And, aided by Culkin’s tumultuous performance, we feel for him and the hurdles he’s grappling with. But it’s hard not to feel how David wilts in his presence viscerally.

There’s just such honesty when David tells others or even Benji himself about the envy he harbors. It’s a profoundly relatable phenomenon. The ability to adore someone and yet be jealous of what you perceive they have that you don’t. In my pettiest, ugliest moments, I long to be prettier. I want to be thinner and have a life that affords me more time, money, and energy to achieve a desired weight. Sometimes, I wish to be more naturally funny and intellectual. I long for all of these elements that don’t matter in the grand scheme of things because we’re all largely longing for something that would make us, in our own mind’s eye, better than the sum of our parts. It’s so frustratingly human for us to do so. 

A Real Pain captures that bruising frustration. The film is still wickedly funny, with Culkin’s wry and motormouth delivery landing some searing punches. But any longevity the film has is due to the script, which is far more revealing and prickly than trailers might suggest. Introspective yet light on its feet, it speaks to any of us who’ve ever struggled to find our footing in a dynamic. To call the relationship between Benji and David toxic would dismiss the writing. Instead, it showcases the messiness of what comes when we grow up along someone only for our paths to minutely diverge over time until what we miss isn’t what have in the present but who we had in the past. 

Aided by two dynamic central performances, A Real Pain is a vibrant character study. With cutting humor and well-paced introspection, the film allows grief room to breathe without any easy answers. Love and mourning are messy, and Eisenberg’s script honors this. 

A Real Pain is out now in theaters. 

Images courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.

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Months after Kansas authorities confirmed they suspected no foul play in Cole Brings Plenty’s death, the “1923” actor’s family has publicly challenged the results of their investigation.

The deceased actor’s father, Joe Brings Plenty Sr., said he is still “fighting to find out” what happened to his son while speaking Sunday at the Red Nation Film Festival in Los Angeles.

“My boy, we have some work to do,” the Cheyenne River Sioux tribal leader said at the Beverly Wilshire event. “We want a full investigation done, a fair investigation, to find out what happened with Cole.”

Cole Brings Plenty was found dead April 5 after being reported missing by his family almost a week before when he did not show up for a Zoom meeting with his agent. He was 27.

Along with the call on Sunday for a “fair investigation,” Joe Brings Plenty Sr. talked about his son’s work as an activist, which he called “quite scary, because the Indian issue isn’t a popular issue.”

In May 2023, Cole Brings Plenty joined his uncle, fellow “1923” cast member Mo Brings Plenty, and other actors and advisors from the show in calling for Congress to investigate the federal government’s Native boarding school policies. Native children who were forcibly removed from their homes and enrolled in such schools throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries suffered physical, sexual, cultural and spiritual abuse and neglect, according to the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.

Joe Brings Plenty Sr. referenced the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement — an activist effort in response to the pervasive issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women across North America — saying, “We have a system that looks the other way when it’s dealing with the Indigenous populations.”

The family and others have criticized the investigation by Kansas authorities, especially Lawrence police’s early decision to treat the actor primarily as a criminal fugitive rather than a person in crisis or potential victim — which “put a big target on him,” Joe Brings Plenty Sr. said at Sunday’s event.

“The people who knew him knew what kind of person he was,” he said, calling his son a “very special” and “very bright individual.”

Following a days-long investigation in partnership with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, Lawrence police on April 10 released a statement saying, “There is no indication of foul play in the death of Cole Brings Plenty.” Neither a cause of death nor any autopsy details were disclosed.

The night before the actor is thought to have gone missing, Cole Brings Plenty attended a concert at the Replay Lounge in Lawrence, Kan. During the show, witnesses said, his braids got tangled in a microphone cable and a patron attempting to free him cut his hair off without his permission.

After leaving the bar around 1 a.m. March 31, Brings Plenty allegedly went to a nearby apartment, the Lawrence Times reported. There, officers later responded to “reports of a female screaming for help,” the Lawrence Police Department said in an April 2 Facebook post.

“Lawrence Police have submitted an affidavit to the District Attorney for the arrest of Cole Brings Plenty after an incident Sunday morning at an apartment in Lawrence. We’ve identified him as the suspect, have probable cause for his arrest, and issued an alert to area agencies,” the department said in the Facebook post, adding that “the suspect fled before officers arrived.”

Police also said that traffic cameras showed Cole Brings Plenty leaving the city immediately after the incident. They did not reveal the identity of the woman involved, though a friend of the family confirmed she was not the same woman who cut off Cole Brings Plenty’s hair at the Replay Lounge.

On the same day the police said there was no foul play, the warrant for his arrest was recalled. A little over a week later, a Douglas County District Court judge ruled the affidavit in support of the warrant — which was never executed — remain sealed, according to court documents reviewed by The Times.

A spokesperson for the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the death investigation “because of a court order.” A spokesperson for the Lawrence police did not reply to The Times’ request for comment.

Upon the April 5 declaration of Cole Brings Plenty’s death, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe — of which he was a citizen — called for “a full and thorough investigation into Cole’s disappearance and subsequent death” and said its attorney general would be contacting Kansas officials “to ensure this is accomplished.”

“Cole Brings Plenty, an Indigenous man, has tragically become another statistic in the alarming trend of violence against Indigenous people,” said an April Change.org petition demanding justice for the late actor.

The petition continued: “This personal story is not just about seeking justice for one individual; it’s about challenging a system that often overlooks the plight of our Indigenous brothers and sisters.”

On Sunday, a memorial slideshow — including photos from the set of “1923” — dedicated to Cole Brings Plenty played after Joe Brings Plenty Sr.’s speech.

“Who’d have ever thought that a young man from South Dakota, grew up in a place called Darkside, would be on a big screen?” the former Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe law enforcement officer said during his speech, choking up. “And he was just starting.”