Day: November 10, 2013

The transforming of the TCL Chinese (formerly the legendary Grauman’s Chinese) into a stadium-seating theatre with a fake IMAX screen is one of the best renovations of this type I’ve ever seen. The plush red seats blend in with the walls and the red curtains and the classic Chinese artifact ceiling and everything else. It looks like it’s always been a stadium seating theatre. If Sid Grauman‘s ghost could see this, I think he’d be pleased. It may be the most beautiful-looking theatre around now. (200 seats and the old balcony were sacrificed by the designer — c’est la vie.)

I posted a Craigslist ad for someone responsible (i.e., not a 20something Indian guy) to stay here for free and feed the cats while I’m in Vietnam for 10 or 11 days. The following text exchange happened two days ago. Interested party: “Hi — I’m responding to your [ad]. Please call me back at your earliest convenience, please.” Me: “Are you an animal, vegetable or mineral?” Interested party: “A little of each.” Me: “Okay.” [I figured this person would follow up with some details — gender, age, job, phone number, etc. But nothing was offered.] Me: “Later.” Interested party: “Later what?” Me: “I’ll let you stay here for free in your next life.” Interested party: “Okay, weird.” Me: “You’re weird, or haven’t you noticed?” Interested party: “Wow! I feel sorry for the person that stays @ your place.” Me: “Wow! I’m going to be away, asshole. It’ll just be the cat-sitter and the cats.” Interested party: “LOL — seems you have anger problems. I feel badly for your cats.” Me: “The cats are fine, Sam. My only problem right now is with people who like to be vague and mysterious when they ask about staying at my place.”

Sebastián Lelio‘s Gloria (Roadside Attractions, 1.17.14) is about a spirited, attractive 50something divorcee (Pauline Garcia) with grown kids who doesn’t want to resign herself to loneliness and is therefore looking for an attractive, quality-level boyfriend. I knew going in that the film would have some nudity and sex scenes and whatnot, so I was secretly begging Gloria to please find someone youngish-looking (in decent shape, not balding or white-haired, white teeth) and at least as attractive in his way as she is in hers because I really, really don’t want to watch sex scenes with some moderately flabby, sagging older guy with gray or yellowish teeth who probably needs a pedicure. Please don’t do this to me…please.

Sure enough Gloria falls for some moderately flabby, sagging older guy named Rodolfo (Sergio Hernandez), and within 10 or 15 minutes there’s a sex scene. Good God! Due respect to Hernandez, a distinguished Chilean actor, but I don’t want to watch a going-to-seed male in his mid 60s having sex ever again.

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A friend just called to ask if I’ll be making special preparations for the Vietnam journey (the plane leaves on Wednesday night) considering that Typhoon Haiyan is hitting the coast of central Vietnam as we speak. “What do you want me to do?,” I asked. “Bring an inflatable life raft?” The latest report says Hurricane Haiyan, which has caused thousands of deaths in the Phillippines, has been reduced to a Category 1 event, which is very wet and windy but nothing that scary. By the time I arrive in Hanoi the ground won’t even be damp.

If I know anything about Joe and Jane Popcorn, they won’t be storming the megaplexes when Scott Cooper‘s Out of the Furnace opens on 11.27. I didn’t want to see it myself. “Who wants to sink into some violent rustbelt melodrama about grimy, morose working-class beardos and hillbilly druggies?,” I asked myself. “Driving around some Pennsylvania backwater in pickup trucks with Godzilla-sized smokestacks blowing tons of shit into the atmosphere? Later.” But guess what? I saw it last night and it’s a surprisingly accomplished (if gloomy) Terrence Malick-y melodrama — a smooth painterly atmosphere trip with good acting first and a portrait of characters who are stuck in a rust-belt gulag second.

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The first six minutes of David O. Russell‘s American Hustle (Sony, 12.13) were shown at the very end of last night’s AFI Fest tribute to Russell at the Egyptian, and of course it wasn’t enough to go on. Not a flicker of a hint of what the film might actually be. What do you expect from an hors d’oeuvre? But it was fine. I chuckled, I laughed, I was fascinated. And Russell talked a lot about his career and his process, and before the Egyptian event we (i.e, the invitees) were all hanging at a pleasant open-air party at the Hollywood Roosevelt that overlooked a big blue pool. Jennifer Lawrence (in a pixie haircut), Jane Fonda and Diane Lane attended along with Russell and a few of his Hustle collaborators. (TheWrap‘s Steve Pond reported that Bradley Cooper was lurking around.)

American Hustle director David O. Russell, costar Jennifer Lawrence at Hollywood Roosevelt party that preceded the American Cinematheque presentation

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