N.Y. Times reporter Sharon Waxman points out the existence of some obviously insincere anti-Semitic humor in Sacha Baron Cohen‘s Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (20th Century Fox, 11.3).
Waxman notes that Borat, “a racuous comedy, seems certain to raise hackles and induce squirming by making comic points by seeming to embrace sexism, racism, homophobia and that most risky of social toxins: anti-Semitism.” The operative term, obviously, is “seeming,” as in “putting on” and/or “placing within quotes.” And yet Waxman seems to be absorbing Borat‘s sense of humor in a fairly literal vein.
“In one scene Borat insists on driving to California rather than flying, ‘in case the Jews repeat their attack of 9/11,'” she writes. “As he tours the South, he becomes terrified when he learns that an elderly couple who run an inn are Jewish. When cockroaches crawl under the door of his room, he becomes convinced the innkeepers have transformed themselves into bugs, and throws money at them.
“In another scene Borat returns to his home village and participates in an annual ritual, ‘The Running of the Jews,’ complete with giant Jew puppets that the villagers beat with clubs.
“This anti-Semitic humor is mixed in with other outrageous behavior, including slurs against Gypsies and gays, and a nude wrestling match. But in a world in which resurgent anti-Semitism has become — sometimes literally — an explosive topic, the movie may well hit a particular nerve, especially in Europe.”
I didn’t see Borat at Cannes last May because it played at midnight, and I probably won’t see it tomorrow (Thursday) night at the Toronto Film Festival because it’s playing at midnight. Well, maybe I’ll go if I can find two or three Red Bulls to chug. I just hate getting to bed at 2:30 or 3 ayem and getting up at 7 ayem. Throws off the whole damn day.

“Ordinary parents protect their children; that’s an impulse the public can identify with in the celebrity game. Suri Cruise‘s parents might have gotten more mileage out of releasing a modest family snapshot and leaving it at that, shutting down the media frenzy without inventing a bigger show of their own. A show is clearly what they were looking for, but the entire over-the-top operation” behind the Tom Cruise–Katie Holmes-and-Suri Vanity Fair photo spread “involving the famous photographer and a photo so hyped it was revealed on Katie Couric‘s first newscast as CBS anchor Tuesday — carries a whiff of desperation. It reveals a media circus masquerading as ordinary life, and speaks to the devil’s bargain some celebrities make with the public.” — Caryn James writing in Thursday’s New York Times.

“Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck have crafted an insightful and heartfelt look at the experiences of the Dixie Chicks over the last three years, chronicling the often bizarre consequences of singer Natalie Maines‘ anti-Bush wisecrack on a London stage. Maines’ statement is captured in Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing, as are the meetings where they plot how to circumvent the core country audience and, eventually, how to reroute a tour and cancel shows due to poor ticket sales,” writes Variety reviewer Phil Gallo. It’s one of those “rare thorough documentary on a musical act whose dilemmas are faced in the here and now, one that should win over fans of the Chicks on the fence and of music docus and perhaps create a little cultural stir as well.”

“A well-crafted piece with a large ensemble cast featuring some big names, Bobby‘s success will depend on whether audiences respond to its rose-tinted view of Los Angeles in the late 1960s and its clear belief that Robert F. Kennedy was a saint. Whether or not RFK was the man his supporters believed him to be, Emilio Estevez ‘s new film makes a persuasive case that something important in America was silenced when he was gunned down.” — Hollywood Reporter critic Ray Bennett, writing from the Venice Film Festival.

Here’s what I see. I see a little Katie in there, but mainly I see the eyes of Cruise in All The Right Moves. You now, when he had his hair dyed black? I guess this photo belies all those rumors from way back when that Cruise shoots blanks.

Journal pal: Haven’t seen anything in the column about The Black Dahlia. Have you seen it yet? Me: Uhm, yeah, but I haven’t worked out a timing arrangement as to when I can write about it. But you know…it is what it is in that extremely talented, visually audacious way that De Palma specializes in. I can at least give it up for Josh Hartnett — he’s holds his end up — but I have to hold my water about the rest. Journo pal: Got it.

The Envelope‘s Tom O’Neill envisioning Peter O’Toole winning a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Venus, which is a notion I toyed with on or about May 9th after hearing about test-screening responses to Venus.
Once again, if MPI Home Video, that deplorable, ass-dragging outfit that has been delaying a release of a restored DVD of Becket for two and a half years, would release it sometime before Xmas or at least by January, it would (a) be catching the movie-pulse zeitgeist at precisely the right moment and (b) Academy voters would be reminded what a travesty it was that O’Toole’s performance as Henry II didn’t win Best Actor Oscar in March ’65 — Rex Harrison took it for his acting in My Fair Lady. And the sense that 41 years later it’s finally O’Toole’s time to take an Oscar home would be that much more acute.

It breaks my heart to pass this along, but a guy in the business who knows other people is telling me that Werner Herzog‘s Rescue Dawn has been seen and that the word isn’t very good. I’m mincing words — he says it’s pretty damn bad. Obviously this is just one observer writing what he’s writing, but he claims he’s expressing some kind of general consensus. I can only cling to a hope that this is cynical distributor talk and that the guy just isn’t seeing it.
“I’m a huge Herzog fan, but this one is really terrible,” he wrote earlier today. “People behind the scenes are just stunned. Companies are looking at it out of courtesy and respect for the man — but this movie is a joke. There’s nothing right about it — everything from Christian Bale‘s performance to horrible editing, structure and pacing. There’s no drama. The action scenes are ludicrous…flat. A few here tried to defend it while watching it, but no one could make it to the end without finally admitting it was a total trainwreck .
“I don’t know if you’ve seen a copy yourself, but I’ve noticed heavy coverage on your site and wanted to give heads up. It’s worse than straight-to-video. Now if they shot a behind-the-scenes documentary (as you know, the shoot was a fiscal and political catastrophe) well, they might have something to salvage.
“The film has been seen by others, and it sounds as if everyone feels the same. Rescue Dawn will be hard-pressed to find a large U.S. distributor. The cat will be out of the bag soon enough, even without the Toronto screenings. The post-production nightmare is even worse than reported. Herzog has yet to be paid, and there’s all sorts of finger-pointing over unresolvable issues with the film.”

If the guy who hired you gets whacked, you’re probably in trouble also…especially if the big guy who ordered the hit on your recently-departed boss is in one of those irascible, muscle-flexing, I’m-still- the-honcho-even-though-I’m-83 moods, which seems to be the case with Viacom chief Sumner Redstone.
By this usually reliable logic Paramount chairman Brad Grey, according to many of the journos who get all regularly hyperventilate about Hollywood hires and fires, is about to get capped just like Joey Gallo at Umberto’s Clam House. Wait a minute, wrong analogy… Gallo didn’t know it was coming. How about whacked like Burt Lancaster‘s “the Swede” in The Killers? And you know that if Grey is a goner, so is Paramount production president Gail Berman.
I’ve never found executive shuffles terribly exciting, but if you want to read what everyone’s saying — the list includes Hollywood Wiretap’s Tom Tapp, Variety‘s Chris Gardner, Hollywood Reporter columnist Anne Thompson, and N.Y. Times reporters Laura Holson and Sharon Waxman — have at it.

Apologies for not jumping on the Brad Grey-is-toast story earlier, but for me the Toronto Film Festival began this morning with a screening of Mon Colonel, a very assured and pared-down Costa-Gavras moral drama set in mid ’50s Algeria. Laurent Herbiet, formerly an assistant director, directed, but it’s mainly a Costa-Gavras show — it resembles State of Siege and Z in some ways, and Costa-Gavras produced and co-wrote it with Jean-Claude Grumberg .

It’s about an ethical conflict between a young French lieutenant (Eric Caravaca) and a ruthless Colonel (Olivier Gourmet) who are engaged in fighting a war of terror against Algerian rebels in 1956. The film is quite pungent, alarming and penetrating with all kinds of echoes and fingers pointed at U.S. attempts to battle insurgents in Iraq. It has a moralistically matter-of-fact tone, most of it is composed of black-and-white flashbacks, and the legendary Charles Aznavour comes in for a riveting cameo performance at the finale.
Costa Gavras co-produced with the Dardenne brothers. The film is an adaptation of a 1999 novel by Francis Zamponi. It was principally filmed in Paris and Algeria from February to April of ’06.
I picked up my press pass an hour or so after Mon Colonel. And then I went home and took a nap for some reason. I wasn’t tired exactly. I think it was the notion that there won’t be any decent sleep for the next 10 days and I might as well get some now.

The Toronto Film Festival begins tomorrow at 9 am with Jeff Garlin‘s This Filthy World, a documentary about filmmaker John Waters.