I forgot to mention in my 9.9 review of Tom Ford‘s Nocturnal Animals, in which I shared mostly negative reactions, that the final scene is rather good. It’s decisive and final, and yet leaves the final interpretation in the audience’s lap. Otherwise my verdict stays the same: “I’m fully aware that Animals is an ambitious, experimental thing (certainly from a structural standpoint) but I never felt fully drawn in. It keeps you at a distance. Half 21st Century elite ennui and half ‘fictional’ flashback, it scores in a fleeting, in-and-out fashion but mostly sinks into mud.”
Day: September 15, 2016
Trump Is Most Appalling Presidential Candidate In U.S. History, and Yet Hillary Will Probably Only Manage A Squeak-Through Victory
Was this N.Y. Times survey of likely voters, which gives Hillary Clinton only a slight edge (46 to 44) over Donald Trump, conducted in the wake of Hillary’s fainting episode last weekend? If not the race could be even tighter. I’m guessing that the 100% accurate but ill-considered “basket of deplorables” quote is a factor in this. Millions despise her. Yes, Sasha Stone, she’ll almost certainly win, but it’ll most likely be a squeaker. Hillary needs to get down on her knees and thank God she’s not running against a semi-sane, sensible-sounding Republican lunatic. If that was the case she’d almost certainly lose. She plots, she deceives, she connives, she faints, etc.
Chilly Type-A Hardballer
I know next to nothing about John Madden‘s Miss Sloane (EuropaCorp, 12.9). Written by Jonathan Perera, it feels like a smart, flinty Aaron Sorkin-like piece about tough Congressional hombres in conflict. Apparently the plot has to do with Jessica Chastain‘s titular character trying to push through gun-control legislation. Strong, classy costars (Mark Strong, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Alison Pill, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sam Waterston, John Lithgow) but Madden’s previous liking for emotionally soothing material (Shakespeare in Love + two Best Exotic Marigold Hotel flicks) scares me a bit.
Friend #1 who’s seen it: “I liked it a lot. NRA will hate it. Chastain great.” Friend #2: “Miss Sloane is indeed very good: Michael Clayton by way of Aaron Sorkin. A super-smart Black List script written by a British-born lawyer who lives in Singapore. Chastain is phenomenal, but so is the whole supporting cast. And it’s probably the best directing of John Madden’s career. I was like…wait, John Madden directed this?”
Foods That Give Pause
What kind of mouth-breathing, mandal-wearing, three-toed sloth would even think of buying a bag of ketchup-flavored chips? Until yesterday I’d never heard of them. They were being offered free in the third-floor press room at the Bell Lightbox. Apparently Canadian Lay’s ketchup chips aren’t well known in the States. Buzzfeed ran a story about them 20 months ago — one of the quotes was that the ketchup chips “taste like a mistake.”
Yesterday afternoon I ordered a bowl of cream of broccoli soup at a sports bar on John Street. I don’t like sports bars, partly because they attract jowly conservative types who are living in the ’70s or ’80s and partly because Sports Bar food is always old-fashioned — too fatty, too meaty, lotsa fries — or otherwise doesn’t taste right. The below photos show what a standard bowl of the stuff looks like — little bits or chunks of broccoli floating inside a white creamy broth. The soup they served me yesterday was light brown and tasted like mushrooms.
HE to waiter: “No offense, dude, but what is this stuff? It’s okay but it sure isn’t cream of broccoli soup, I can tell you that.”
The guy offered to take it back & asked if I wanted to exchange it for something else. I politely declined. If you’ve ever worked in a restaurant you know it’s not unheard of for chefs to spit into dishes that people have asked to be reheated or exchanged. I’ve worked as a waiter and busboy in restaurants and charcoal grills, and I know what goes. If you don’t like the taste of something, just send it back and pay the bill and leave it at that.
Elderly Jews Rattled By Late ’60s Social Convulsions
I’ve never in my wildest dreams detected any reason to associate the cinematic realm of Woody Allen with Jefferson Airplane‘s “Volunteers,” a street-revolution song that was one of the standout tracks on their Volunteers album, which popped in late ’69. But rules are made to be broken. New York-area Jews are naturally liberal-minded, but like most Americans they didn’t know what to do with the radical mentality that permeated urban-left culture between early to mid ’68 (LBJ’s resignation, MLK and RFK’s assassination) and late ’74 (the resignation of Richard Nixon). Allen’s Crisis in Six Scenes, a half-hour Amazon-produced series, will debut on 9.30.
Note: That’s Elaine May and not her daughter Jeannie Berlin (The Night Of) in the role of Allen’s wife. They sound alike, look alike and are only 18 years apart in age.
Woody’s LBJ Doesn’t Sound Right — Same Folksy Drawl He Used In No Country For Old Men
I won’t be seeing Rob Reiner‘s LBJ until this evening, but it apparently covers Lyndon Johnson‘s transitions from ’60 to late ’64 — Senate Majority Leader to JFK’s Vice-President to the Oval Office after Dallas to the passage of the Civil Rights Bill. This is more or less what HBO’s Emmy-nominated All The Way covered, and that Bryan Cranston-starrer premiered only four months ago. If Reiner had focused on LBJ’s Vietnam War-related downfall (’66 to ’68), it would at least have a fresher feeling. But you can tell right off the bat that Woody Harrelson‘s accent ain’t right. He doesn’t have that Texas hill country drawl, which had a specific Huckleberry Hound-like tonality. On top of which Woody sounds awfully similar to Carson Wells, the bounty hunter he played in No Country For Old Men. (You know who came close to nailing Johnson’s accent? Randy Quaid in LBJ: The Early Years.) So right off the top, pre-viewing, there’s a certain amount of trouble.