Day: October 13, 2014

One thing I gathered after telling friends how knocked out I was by Laura Poitras‘s Citizenfour (Radius/TWC, 10.24) was that some of them (including, to my slight surprise, my older son Jett) have reserved if not skeptical attitudes about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Honestly? I was a bit on the fence myself about the former NSA contractor before catching the doc, but now I feel differently. I’m now persuaded that Snowden is a highly moral, exceptionally intelligent guy with cast-iron cojones. His life right now is anything but simple and is obviously fraught with uncertainty, but he seems rock-steady in his belief that he did the right thing. If nothing else the doc will probably convince you, the future viewer, of Snowden’s integrity also. Not to mention the fact that Citizenfour, as noted in my 10.11 review, is a great piece of spooky cinema — a real-life, real-time noir about how Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald broke the story. Here’s a chat I had with Poitras late Sunday afternoon.

Citizenfour director Laura Poitras

Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald during their initial discussions in Hong Kong.

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My apologies to Kino Lorber and publicist Sasha Berman for not posting my recent chat with Vanessa Lapa, director of The Decent One, until today. Lapa has assembled a fascinating and commendable film, and deserves respect for having devoted six years to making it happen. I posted a short riff about the Heinrich Himmler doc after catching it at Manhattan’s Film Forum. Evil always carries a certain fascination, but Lapa’s film dilutes this effect somewhat by constantly quoting Himmler’s views of himself, which of course were positive. As noted earlier, “We all understand that evil always figures out a way to justify or at least live with itself…so Himmler’s letters and journals merely underline the human capacity for self-delusion.” In short, all monsters see themselves as decent guys who did what needed to be done. Again, the mp3.

The Decent One director Vanesa Lapa during last Thursday’s chat at the Farmer’s Market (i.e., right outside Dupar’s).

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Update: The guy who did a little digging about Box-Office Mojo‘s mysterious Ray Subers has “just heard from someone who has heard from Ray, and and he is still at Box-Office Mojo as Editor,” he says. “I’m not quite sure why Subers didn’t just say what the deal was instead of being all enigmatic and not just making a clear statement.”

Previously posted: A friend who’s done a little digging has offered a working theory about the recent vanishing of Box-Office Mojo and Ray Subers‘ mysterious refusal to explain what happened. With no explanations from Suber, IMDB or Amazon it’s all guesswork but here’s the leadoff: “Look at these screenshots I got from last Wednesday, 10.8 [i.e., the second image] and compare it to the site now [i.e., the top image]. What’s missing in the most recent capture? The entire ‘Top Stories’ section written by…Ray Subers.

“The next day [i.e, Thursday, 10.9] Ray tweeted a bunch of things about Dracula Untold and then this very enigmatic tweet:

Ray Subers @raysubers · Oct 9
“Raymond and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”

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With The Gambler (Paramount, 12.19) set to world premiere on Monday, 11.10 during AFI Fest, it’s time for a trailer. Or at least a teaser…something. Everyone’s expecting a little Mark Wahlberg Best Actor action, right? That’s the presumption. Absolute worst thought of the day (from In Contention‘s Kris Tapley): “I wouldn’t be surprised if part of the thinking on campaigning The Gambler is to keep Wahlberg happy and on board for another rock ’em sock ’em robots charge.” Jesus…yecch!

The remake of Karel Reisz and James Toback‘s 1974 original was directed by Rupert Wyatt, written by William Monahan and produced by Wahlberg, Stephen Levinson, David Winkler, Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff. Costarring John Goodman, Brie Larson, Michael Kenneth Williams and Jessica Lange.

Posted last night as part of a thread about the seeming lack of grizzly Wild Bunch-type actors (William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Jaime Sanchez): “I know this is a common refrain where we all say how all the Gen X and Y actors are bunch of 90s blonde pretty boys or 00s weirdos or (at the moment) asexual British dweebs like Eddie Redmayne or Domnhall Gleeson…

“But The Wild Bunch was played by a bunch of awesome, stinking, grizzled character actors in their 40s and 50s, no? People leap to this argument, but it’s not like today’s ERNEST BORGNINE is somehow DANE DE HAAN or the LQ JONES of 2014 is ANDREW GARFIELD. It’s kinda not fair to say “THE WILD BUNCH TODAY WOULD BE A BUNCH OF PANSIES!” because the Wild Bunch of 1969 weren’t [that era]’s 20-somethings. It would probably be more warhorses in the Jeff Bridges-Viggo Mortensen-Woody Harrelson character wheelhouse.

“Plus this whole ‘everyone today is a pussy!’ thing always vaguely smacks of the OLDER BROTHER FROM 1977 WHO PULLS HIS SISTER’S PIGTAILS by goofing on her Leif Garrett posters.

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