Month: October 2016

From Huffpost‘s Daniel Marans, reported earlier today: “Attorney General Loretta Lynch wanted F.B.I. director James Comey to follow Department of Justice protocols and traditions and not reveal the discovery of new emails that might be pertinent to Clinton’s case, The Huffington Post was able to confirm on Saturday, following the account of a Justice Department official in The Washington Post.”

From “Comey, Clinton and This Steaming Mess,” a 10.29 N.Y. Times column by Frank Bruni: “Comey said in an internal memo that he was hoping, with his announcement, not ‘to create a misleading impression’ of some hugely significant discovery. But that’s exactly and predictably what he did.

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Eric is actually the guy in the UNITED T-shirt, not the BLACK GUNS MATTER one.

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Considering that I own a 65″ Sony 4K TV, it’s conceivable that I may eventually spring for a 4K Bluray player. Down the road, I mean. Because all the 4K Blurays on sale now are action-driven or CG fantasy spectacles, and almost none are aimed at serious film fans like myself. When and if I purchase a 4K Bluray player it’ll be great to own the 4K disc of Martin Scorsese‘s Goodfellas, which will pop in early December. The only problem, of course, is that this will almost certainly be a 4K rendering of Brownfellas, the remastered Bluray version of Scorsese’s 1990 classic that came out last year. This version looks like it was marinated in gravy, lentil soup and butterscotch sauce and then left to bake in the afternoon sun. So I’m sorry but no. If Warner Home Video was to announce a 4K version that will remove the brownish effect that covered last year’s remastering, fine.

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Five keepers from Robert Redford‘s “What I’ve Learned” quote piece, assembled by Matthew Belloni and published by Esquire in January 2011:

5 Robert Redford Quotes to Live By pic.twitter.com/wuSyaAiBVy

— Esquire (@esquire) October 29, 2016

Lesson/quote #1: “Life is essentially sad. Happiness is sporadic. It comes in moments and that’s it. Extract the blood from every moment.”

Lesson/quote #2: “I was in a small charter plane flying from Santa Fe to Santa Rosa, and the engines went out for nine minutes. You go through that checklist. Then you get down to what it’s gonna feel like. What’s it gonna feel like? I still wonder.”

Lesson/quote #3: “I grew up in a pretty cynical environment. All my friends gave each other a horribly bad time. We’d destroy each other with criticisms, but for me it was a sign of friendship. If someone gave me a hard time, I’d say, ‘Well, I guess he’s my friend.’ I think Paul and I had that relationship.

Lesson/quote #4: “Humor. Skill. Wit. Sex appeal. In that order.”

Lesson/quote #5: “People don’t remember who the critics were.” [HE response: Oh, yeah? Pauline Kael, A.O. Scott, Otis Ferguson, Anthony Lane, Penelope Gilliatt, Eric Kohn, Judith Christ, Joe Bob Briggs, Andrew Sarris, James Agee, Andre Bazin, David Denby in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, Vincent Canby, Manohla Dargis, Arthouse Trump, etc.

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From Kurt Eichenwald’s 10.28 Newsweek story: “Friday’s disclosure that the FBI had discovered potential new evidence in its inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s handling of her personal email when she was Secretary of State has virtually nothing to do with any actions taken by the Democratic nominee, according to government records and an official with knowledge of the investigation, who spoke to Newsweek on condition of anonymity.

“The revelation that the FBI has discovered additional emails convulsed the political world, and led to widespread (and erroneous) claims and speculation. Many Republicans proclaimed that the discovery suggests Clinton may have broken the law, while Democrats condemned FBI Director James Comey for disclosing this information less than two weeks before the election, claiming he did it for political purposes.

“There is no indication the emails in question were withheld by Clinton during the investigation, the law enforcement official told Newsweek, nor does the discovery suggest she did anything illegal. Also, none of the emails were to or from Clinton, the official said. Moreover, despite the widespread claims in the media that this development had prompted the FBI to ‘reopen’ the case, it did not; such investigations are never actually closed, and it is common for law enforcement to discover new information that needs to be examined.”

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Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg‘s Marathon: The Patriots Day Bombing (HBO, 11.21) screened at the just-concluded Savannah Film Festival, so it’s fair game. I was interested because I was looking to experience a doc that wouldn’t do the “Boston fuck yeah!” thing, which is what everyone expects from Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg‘s Patriot’s Day (CBS Films, 12.21). I wanted to sink into a film that would tell the real, ground-level story of the April 2013 Boylston Street bombing — the prelude, the motivational particulars, the aftermath and whatnot. The whole detailed blow-by-blow.

I was therefore surprised to discover that it’s essentially a documentary about the victims’ medical and emotional recovery from the bomb blasts, and only secondarily a detailed investigation into the whole story — who, what, when, where, why, how, etc. Shot over a three year period, the doc focuses “on a newlywed couple, a mother and daughter and two brothers — all gravely injured by the blast — face the challenges of physical and emotional recovery as they and their families strive to reclaim their lives,” blah blah. Coping with terror, shock, pain, missing limbs, prosthetics, health costs, feeling morose.

So instead of a “Boston fuck yeah!” film, Marathon: The Patriots Day Bombing is a “recovery fuck yeah!” thing. A movie that wears a banner across its chest that says “life can be brutal but the spirit of love and family lives on!”

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Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg‘s Patriot’s Day (CBS Films, 12.21), a drama about the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, will be the closing-night attraction at AFI Fest on Thursday, 11.17. Hollywood Elsewhere will be covering the Key West Film Festival (11.16 thru 11.20) that night, but maybe CBS Films will afford an earlier opportunity. Here’s hoping (and I mean this) that Berg/Wahlberg surprise us all by not delivering a “Boston fuck yeah!” rah-rah patriotism film, and that Patriot’s Day at least tries to simulate the antsy editing and fleet pacing of a Paul Greengrass– or classic Costa Gavras-styled thriller.

“’There is scarcely a star in Hollywood whose appeal I would not try to alter or develop,’ said Alfred Hitchcock, setting sail for Hollywood on March 1, 1939. ‘I am itching to get my hands on these American stars.’ Quite literally, [this quote echoes] Hitchcock’s relationship with his actresses following a sad declension — from secret admirer to Svengali to sex pest and stalker.

“Ackroyd does a lovely job of bringing a blush to the cheek of his early infatuation with Ingrid Bergman. ‘Whenever he was with her, I had the feeling that something was ailing him, and it was difficult to know exactly the cause,’ her co-star Gregory Peck said of shooting Spellbound, the first of a trio of films with the actress that Ackroyd rightly identifies as marking ‘an emotional sea change’ in both him and his films.

“’The woman is, for the first time in a Hitchcock film, the healing agent,” Ackroyd writes. “She is the blossom in the dust. As a child Hitchcock was terrified when a female relative peered too close into his cradle. Bergman’s close-ups in Notorious have the charcoal softness of a child recognizing its mother.'” — from Tom Shone‘s 10.28 N.Y. Times review of Peter Ackroyd’s “Alfred Hitchcock: A Brief Life.”

In short, that series of opening doors in that florid sequence from Spellbound [above] were Hitchcock’s own.

I just tried to add Ralph Fiennes‘ performance in A Bigger Splash to my Gold Derby list of Best Supporting Actor preferences. But I couldn’t because the Gold Derby guys don’t have him listed in the option column. Fiennes was glorious in Luca Guadagnino’s film, which I went nuts over last April — a giddy, goading rock ‘n’ roll motormouth. Why didn’t I say something earlier? Because I was behaving like a good little obedient Oscar prognosticator and focusing only on fall releases. No more — consider me woke. Fiennes’ performance is competitive with Lucas Hedges in Manchester By The Sea, Mahershala Ali‘s in Moonlight and Aaron Eckhart in Bleed for This, but the voltage he puts out is, in my opinion, way above the rest. And I was wrong not to beat the drum for him before today. And the Gold Derby guys who haven’t even listed him as an option should be ashamed. Incidentally: I’ve heard that Kevin Costner scores pretty well in Hidden Figures.

I don’t think this Julius Caesar scene was written by William Shakespeare. I think it was created by director Joseph Mankiewicz and particularly by Marlon Brando. Marc Antony’s seizing of Ceasar’s bust and turning it towards him and giving him the hard eye, tells you exactly what he’s feeling and where he’s going. With Caesar dead, he da man. Brilliant stuff, still exciting.

All right, fuck it — Bob Dylan has finally said he’ll be flying to Stockholm in December to accept his Nobel prize for literature (i.e., song lyrics). “Yes, [Dylan] is planning to turn up [at] the awards ceremony in Stockholm,” writes the Guardian‘s Edna Gundersen, who managed to get the reclusive legend on the phone. When she asked if he’d be attending, Dylan replied, “Absolutely, if it’s at all possible.”

Last night Paramount showed 45 seconds of Silence footage to an audience of media types in Manhattan. (Along with footage from Robert Zemeckis’ Allied, Denzel Washington’s Fences and Rupert Sanders‘ Ghost in the Shell.). The Silence teaser “included quick images of a famished-looking Liam Neeson praying, Japanese men being hanged on crosses and breathtaking landscape shots of the Japanese countryside,” according to Indiewire‘s Zack Sharf. (No footage of Andrew Garfield weeping?) So what about the rest of us? Hubba-hubba.