When Viola met Julius

I’m reading an article from Times travel writer Christopher Reynolds titled “How to Travel Better, Smarter and Cheaper in 2023” and, without going beyond the headline, I already have one idea of my own.

Don’t fly Southwest.

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times, host of The Envelope’s Friday newsletter and the guy wondering what are you doing New Year’s Eve. (I’m staying in because it’s supposed to rain. And drop below 50 degrees! Damn you, arctic vortex!)

Great love story leads to one of the year’s best films

Get Viola Davis and Julius Tennon talking about how they found each other and the conversation instantly turns into one of those couples interviews you see in “When Harry Met Sally,” with the husband and wife finishing each other’s sentences while making sure that the details are relayed just so.

On their first date 23 years ago, Tennon took Davis to the Crocodile Cafe on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica. Tennon says they didn’t go there for any particular reason. Davis reminds him: “You said you loved the bread basket!” Tennon remembers. “Oh, yeah ... the bread was fresh and gooood.”

After dinner, they walked to the Santa Monica Pier, Tennon wrapping Davis in his coat because of the cool ocean air. “He drove me home in his Nissan Maxima,” Davis says. “My new Nissan Maxima,” Tennon interjects. “Oh, it was so clean,” Davis continues. “And he drove me to the front curb and he shook my hand. He said I was beautiful and that he’d had such a beautiful time. And he stayed there until I got to the door of my apartment. He was such a gentleman.” Tennon smiles. “Texas hospitality.”

Davis and Tennon have been together ever since, marrying in 2003 and forming their own production company, JuVee Productions, in 2011, which has generated a plethora of projects, including “The Woman King” — an action epic about the Agojie, the all-female unit of warriors who protected the African kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s — a film Tennon calls their “magnum opus.” The American Film Institute recently named it one of the 10 best movies of 2022.

“I’ve never met a couple more in sync about the work they want to put into the world and with their beautiful energy, who they are together,” says “Woman King” director Gina Prince-Bythewood.

Hyperbole? Read our conversation, one of my favorites from the year, and decide for yourself.

Viola Davis and Julius Tennon met on the set of the CBS series “City of Angels.”

(Oye Diran / For The Times)

Will you be voting for ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ for best picture?

“Top Gun: Maverick” has grossed nearly $1.5 billion at the global box office since opening in May. The National Board of Review just named it the year’s best film. Can recognition at the Oscars — if, for nothing else, propping up the ailing theater business — be far behind?

I put together a 20-question quiz — very scientific — for you to take to see if you’d be voting for “Top Gun: Maverick” for best picture. Here’s a sample question:

Take-away after watching “Top Gun: Maverick”:
Tom Cruise never ages! (4)
Do not put your phone on the counter of a naval air station bar unless you want to buy everyone drinks (4)
“America, F— Yeah!” (6)
AARP-age dudes are not obsolete. In fact, they can solve all the world’s problems and will 100% kick your ass if you doubt them! (7)
All of the above (10)

Curious for more? Take the damn quiz!

Tom Cruise could be riding into the awards season.

(Chris Morris / For The Times)

How Judd Hirsch steals ‘The Fabelmans’

When I saw Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” for a second time at its AFI Fest premiere, I loved how the audience broke into applause after Judd Hirsch’s powerhouse scene in which, as the family’s cantankerous uncle, he lays out the theme of the movie. “Family, art, life — it will tear you in two!”

What can I say? Movie love brings me joy. We don’t have enough of it these days.

Times contributor Chris Vognar interviewed the 87-year-old Hirsch, zeroing in on that one great scene he shares with Sam (Gabriel LaBelle), the teenager who serves as the movie’s Spielberg surrogate.

“I have no idea why he cast me,” Hirsch recently told Chris before a SAG screening of “The Fabelmans” in Hollywood. “The last thing I said to him was, ‘Thank you for parachuting me into this movie.’”

“For me, it was a real honor to work with him,” Spielberg said. “He’s a grand master of stage, film and television, and a joy to work with. He’s ferocious and funny and heartbreaking, and he has an incandescent soul.”

Judd Hirsch delivers a brief, rousing turn in “The Fabelmans.”

(David Billet / For The Times)