San Antonio actor Jonathan Joss, known for his work on King of the Hill and Parks and Recreation, was fatally shot in a June 1 altercation outside his 200 Dorsey Dr address. The local celebrity was 59.
San Antonio Police say officers were dispatched to the scene for a shooting in progress. Joss was found outside the roadway at the South Side location and pronounced dead on the scene after life-saving measures failed. Suspect Sigfredo Alvarez Ceja has been detained and booked for murder.
Joss is best known for voicing John Redcorn on Fox’s animated series King of the Hill. During a May 30 panel at the ATX TV Festival in Austin, show creator Mike Judge confirmed he would be reviving the character in an upcoming Hulu reboot. Joss was in attendance at the event but not on the panel.
The ‘90s classic led to other Hollywood gigs, usually portraying Indigenous American roles. He memorably had a recurring role as Chief Ken Hotate on the NBC sitcom Parks & Recreation and acted in Westerns like the remakes of True Grit and The Magnificent Seven.
In January, an accidental blaze destroyed Joss’ South Side childhood home, killing three of his dogs. A fan raised $10,000 through a GoFundMe campaign to help the actor recover.
Family members have not released funeral details for the actor at press time. San Antonio Police say the criminal investigation is still ongoing.
The opening scenes of the new drama Dreams are bracing, fictional sequences that call to mind real-life scenarios. In them, a young Mexican man named Fernando (Isaac Hernández) goes through a somewhat harrowing journey from the back of a semi truck in South Texas all the way to San Francisco. It’s a familiar immigrant story that seems to set the stage for a film with something interesting to say.
It turns out, however, that Fernando has not made the long and arduous trek for a job. Instead, it’s to be with Jennifer McCarthy (Jessica Chastain), a rich woman who helps lead a foundation dedicated to multiple things, including funding dance academies. Fernando, a talented dancer, and Jennifer have been in an off-and-on affair for years, with Jennifer wanting to keep their relationship a secret.
Although both are drawn to each other in an inexplicable, lustful way, their bond is tenuous, with each of them dissatisfied for different reasons. Fernando clearly sacrifices much more of himself than Jennifer, who wants for nothing except maybe more affection from her father, Michael (Marshall Bell), and brother, Jake (Rupert Friend).
Writer/director Michel Franco seems to try to inject tension into Fernando and Jennifer’s relationship from the start, an attempt that is only halfway successful. It’s clear from the way they greet each other - not to mention a steamy sex scene shortly thereafter - that they have known each other for a good length of time. Franco is able to get across this familiarity with an economy of scenes, and the intensity of their bond holds for a while.
But as the film progresses and both of them grow disenchanted with their arrangement, Franco starts taking the story in some odd directions. The biggest issue is that it’s never clear at what point in time the story is taking place. Fernando ends up making multiple trips back and forth across the border, with Jennifer doing the same at one point, and Franco’s use of flashbacks muddies the waters, wrong-footing the audience when he should be trying to draw them further into Fernando and Jennifer’s complications.
Revelations in the final act make the story even more confusing, as both main characters start saying and doing harsh things that seem to come out of nowhere. That would be all well and good if Franco actually committed to their changes of heart, but he keeps things wishy-washy for most of the final 15 minutes, resulting in an ending that makes little sense for either character.
Despite the story issues, both Chastain and Hernández give compelling performances. Chastain has been a little under the radar since winning an Oscar for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but she keeps this character interesting longer than it should have been. Hernández has limited credits and appears to have been cast for his dancing ability, but he goes toe-to-toe with Chastain on more than one occasion and acquits himself well.
Dreams had all of the ideas to explore a more in-depth story about the complicated immigration policies between Mexico and the U.S., or how wealthy people take advantage of those less fortunate. But Franco never finds the right footing, settling instead for a titillating and somewhat mystifying relationship story that feels half-baked.
