Video News

Dallas Videofest to bestow award on comedian and ex-Senator Al Franken

Al Franken

Photo courtesy of Al Franken

For 2022, Dallas VideoFest will present its coveted comedy award to comedian and former US Senator Al Franken, of Saturday Night Live fame.

Franken will receive the Ernie Kovacs Award on Thursday September 22 at 7:30 pm, at Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff at 231 W. Jefferson Blvd.

The Ernie Kovacs Award recognizes television's greatest visionaries, and has been a key component of the Dallas VideoFest since the Festival began in 1987. With the festival currently retired, The Ernie Kovacs Award is now the primary component.

Franken will attend to receive the award from Dallas VideoFest founder Bart Weiss; Joshua Mills, son of Edie Adams and keeper of the Kovacs flame, will also attend.

Immediately following the award presentation, DVF will show the 2006 documentary, Al Franken: God Spoke. There'll also be a VIP meet-and-greet reception with Franken at Oak Cliff Cultural Center. Tickets can be purchases at VideoFest.org.

Al Franken the man the genius
Throughout the 15 years Franken was associated with Saturday Night Live, starting with the very first show in 1975, he wrote, performed in, and produced hundreds of sketches, including the well-known and often recited "Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley." Franken won five Emmys for writing and producing during his 15 seasons with SNL.

Franken was also author of four No. 1 New York Times bestsellers, including Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them – A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, and Al Franken, Giant of the Senate.

Franken served Minnesota in the Senate from 2009-2018, "clobbering" his first opponent, incumbent Senator Norm Coleman, by 312 votes. But he won his second election by well over 200,000 votes. Franken served on the Judiciary, Energy, Indian Affairs, and HELP (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions) Committees where he routinely embarrassed badly prepared witnesses and was a fierce opponent of media concentration, mandatory arbitration, and Betsy DeVos.

His career was on a fast track until he was forced to resign by fellow Democratic Senators following accusations of sexual misconduct during photo opps. Half were made anonymously and he denied them but never got a chance to settle in court. The New Yorker did a good story running down the facts.

He's since founded "The Al Franken Podcast," one of the top politically-themed podcasts with guests like Malcolm Nance, Sarah Silverman, Paul Krugman, and Chris Rock. His political action committee, Midwest Values PAC, supports progressive Democrats and voting rights.

The first Ernie Kovacs Award was handed out in 1997. Recipients have included comedian Joel Hodgson, Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, Robert Smigel, Paul "Pee-wee Herman" Reubens, Martin Mull, Mike Judge, George Schlatter (Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In creator) Harry Shearer, Michael Nesmith, Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald (The Kids in the Hall), and Amy Sedaris, the first woman to receive the Ernie Kovacs Award in 2018.

Franken says in a statement that he feels honored to receive the award.

"Ernie Kovacs' influence on comedians of my generation is not often told these days," Franken says. "I was maybe 10 years old when I first watched The Ernie Kovacs Show. Like many young avid fans of comedy, I was immediately struck by his wholehearted and brilliant embrace of absurdity."

Weiss traces the connection between Dallas VideoFest and Ernie Kovacs thusly:

"The very first program of our festival in 1987 was Edie Adams showing the work of Ernie Kovacs," Weiss says. "Ernie's innovative spirit has been with us these 35 years. The Kovacs Award became the perfect way to honor those whose comedy change the way we look at TV/Video much like Kovacs did."

Joshua Mills, Edie Adams’s son and keeper of Ernie Kovacs Estate, traces the connection between Ernie Kovacs and Al Franken thusly:

"Al Franken's humor, his dry wit and his irreverent characters are part of a long comedy continuum that connects everyone and everything from Ernie Kovacs to Monty Python to David Letterman, Conan O’Brien and others who helped shaped modern comedy," Mills says. "From Stuart Smalley to Medieval Barber Theodoric of York, it’s about time we usher in the Al Franken Decade in 2022 with The Ernie Kovacs Award."

festivals awards comedy

Movie Review

Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney go off in trashy film The Housemaid

Photo courtesy of Lionsgate

Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney in The Housemaid.

Both Amanda Seyfried (the upcoming The Testament of Ann Lee) and Sydney Sweeney (Christy) are starring in movies with Oscar ambitions this year. By sheer coincidence, the two actors are also co-starring in The Housemaid, a thriller coming out within weeks of their more ambitious works, one that is likely to be seen by many more people than those prestige plays.

Sweeney is given top billing as Millie, a down-on-her-luck ex-convict looking to land any type of job so as not to break her parole. She finds a too-good-to-be-true lifeboat with Nina (Seyfried), who hires her to be a housemaid for her large house on Long Island, where she lives with her husband, Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), and daughter, Cecilia (Indiana Elle).

After a warm interview, Nina almost immediately becomes highly erratic, whipping back-and-forth between happy-go-lucky and rageful. It seems clear that Nina is suffering from mental health issues, as she’ll often accuse Millie of misplacing or stealing items that she didn’t take. Andrew, apparently used to Nina’s tirades, tries to protect Millie from the worst, something that grows increasingly difficult as Nina ups the ante.

Directed by Paul Feig (A Simple Favor) and adapted by Rebecca Sonnenshine from the bestselling book by Freida McFadden, the film is likely the trashiest mainstream movie to come out in 2025. The first half of the movie relies not on story but on moments as Nina embodies the word “hysterical” to an unbelievable extent. The resigned acceptance of the abuse by Millie, as well as the saintly patience of Andrew, make almost every scene laughable, as nobody seems to be acting anywhere close to how a person would normally react to such extreme situations.

The scenes and the performance of Seyfried are so over-the-top, in fact, that it’s clear that the filmmakers are in on the joke. It’s next to impossible not to have a little bit of fun while watching the actors react to outrageous incidents as if nothing is out of the ordinary. The worse Nina acts, the more Millie and Andrew retreat into their chosen roles, and the funnier the film becomes.

Fans of the book will know that the story changes course, eventually turning into a more stereotypical thriller that also has some relatively gnarly visuals to offer. But the trashiness continues, with Sweeney’s, um, assets repeatedly on display in both clothed and unclothed ways. The sex appeal of the R-rated movie makes it an outlier, as recent studio films have shied away from asking their big stars to disrobe completely.

Both Seyfried and Sweeney are far from their Oscar hopeful roles here. Seyfried is given free rein to act as brazenly as she pleases, and she takes full advantage of that ability. Sweeney seems to have been told to be much more reserved, and unfortunately that results in too many wooden line readings. Sklenar continues his breakout streak (It Ends with Us, Drop) with a role that allows him to show more range than either Seyfried or Sweeney.

The Housemaid is an unusual type of movie to be released at a time of year when most films are either those aiming for awards or more family-friendly fare. Despite its many flaws, it’s still an enjoyable watch that features a variety of crazy scenarios not typically seen in movies nowadays.

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The Housemaid is now playing in theaters.

movies film

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Movie Review

Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney go off in trashy film The Housemaid