Day: August 13, 2019

Silverman Heroically Stands Up To Cancel Culture

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“Cancel culture”, which has been calling the shots for the last two or three years, is basically about a consensus view among p.c. progressives that ruining careers of this or that sexist abuser or criminal will send the strongest message to other potential abusers to stop and desist. Younger progressive women are understandably the main believers and drivers. Certain abusers obviously deserve cancelling, others are or were more deserving of temporary ostracism (Aziz Ansari), and a third group arguably doesn’t deserve to be on anyone’s hit list at all.

I’ve heard and read that “cancel culture” would love to deepsix Bill Maher, to mention one example, but they don’t have the horses.

As HE readers know, cancel culture deep-sixed my Sundance press pass late last year. I still covered Sundance ’19 by the good graces of my publicist pals, but it’s creepy nonetheless. I haven’t abused anyone — I’m just an opinionated bigmouth. Have I written five or six ill-advised or clumsily-phrased posts that I regret putting to pen? Yeah, but nothing I can’t mount a vigorous defense of if you wanna get into it. (Which I don’t at this point.) I’ve behaved like an asshole now and then, sure. The heaviest hits came from a couple of posts that surfaced a decade ago (partly due to an imbibing lifestyle I was leading at the time). I wish I could wipe it all away.

But these are zing blips on the screen compared to the torrents of material I’ve posted since the launch of HE in August ’04, not to mention the previous column material (Mr. Showbiz, Reel.com, Movie Poop Shoot) that I posted from ’98 to ’04. Not to mention my mainstream reportings in the bigtime ’90s and before.

Anyway, having actually felt the hot breath of the p.c. Stasi on the back of my neck, I damn near melted with love and gratitude when I read Sarah Silverman’s recent comments about cancel culture, as shared on an 8.8 Bill Simmons podcast.

Silverman: “I recently was going to do a movie, a sweet part, then at 11 pm the night before they fired me because they saw a picture of me in blackface from that episode. I didn’t fight it. They hired someone else who is wonderful but who has never stuck their neck out. It was so disheartening. It just made me real, real sad, because I really kind of devoted my life to making it right.”

However, Silverman said, cancel culture, which she has called “righteousness porn,” is “really scary and it’s a very odd thing that it’s invaded the left primarily and the right will mimic it.

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You Still Haven’t Seen This? Seriously?

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Roger Durling to David Crosby (1:04): “Then why do [this documentary]? You have nothing to prove. You’re successful”. Crosby to Durling: “It’s kinda like, okay…you’re alone in the house. And you know that you’re gonna die. You’re gonna die. All of you. It’s not something we talk about. Everybody’s uncomfortable with it, but you’re gonna. So let’s say you have an urge to clean your house. It’s kinda like that.”

Perfectly Cut, Timed, Phased

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Perhaps the most glorious aspect of Terrence Malick‘s A Hidden Life (Fox Searchlight, 12.13) is the truly wonderful eye-bath cinematography by Jörg Widmer, which more than lives up to Emmanuel Lubezski standards. The just-released trailer should be enough to convince even the most dire skeptic that the film is an absolute visual knockout.

Congrats to Mark Woollen of Mark Woollen & Associates for a truly exceptional trailer.

From HE’s 5.19.19 Cannes review: “Does A Hidden Life suggest there are strong similarities between Nazi suspicion of Jews and other races and the racial hate that Donald Trump has been spewing since at least ’15? Yeah, it does, and that’s a good thing to chew on.”

How Depressing Is This?

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From “Fox Feels the Pressure From Disney as Film Flops Mount,” by Variety‘s Matt Donnelly and Brent Lang: Taika Watiti‘s Jojo Rabbit, allegedly a doo-wacky, doo-wacky wah-wah satire of Nazism, “might prove a little too edgy for Disney brass accustomed to producing movies suitable for parents and kids. Searchlight has started to screen the film for its new parent company. Halfway through one recent viewing one [Disney] executive grew audibly uncomfortable, worrying aloud that the material would alienate Disney fans. His unease may have been over the film’s cutting-edge satire, but it was also an expression of the culture clash taking place as the two studios embark on their new union.”

Producer friend: “Recently went over to Fox to hear David Greenbaum and Matthew Greenfield , the co-presidents of Fox Searchlight, speak about the future of the company. They ran a short film montage before of the studio’s 25 years of making award-winning films. An impressive presentation. They both stressed that Searchlight made iconic movies for a price and won awards in the process, which promotes healthy box office. They said we’re looking for the original idea, not the obvious formula, and cited The Shape of Water as the film about the mute girl who has sex with the fish man. They got a standing ovation.”

Latest TIFF/Telluride Calculations

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Received from World of Reel’s Jordan Ruimy: “It seems as if Amazon Studios is taking The Aeronauts to Telluride and Toronto, and Fox Searchlight Pictures is taking Lucy in the Sky just to Toronto.

“But where’s Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow? Despite Venice boss Alberto Barbera stating that Cow was going to Telluride and Toronto, it was still not announced in today’s TIFF announcement containing the last wave of TIFF titles. Cow is definitely playing the New York Film Festival.

“Going to Telluride and Toronto are Trey Edward Schultz’ Waves and Michael Covino’s The Climb.

“Not going to Telluride: Hirokazu Kore-eda’s The Truth, Lucy in the Sky, Seberg, Olivier Assayas’ WASP Network, Mati Diop‘s Atlantics, Bacurau, Beanpole, Synonyms, About Endlessness.”

Screaming Spurt

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Scarjo to Entertainment Tonight Canada: “I did a job with Adam Driver recently” — i.e., Marriage Story. “We spent two entire days screaming at each other, brutally screaming and fighting for two full days. It was exhausting, but if I didn’t have as strong an actor as Adam to take all the stuff I was giving him I would have been lost. For me, working with other actors is a really important part of what I do…it’s everything.”

Just two days? I thought Marriage Story was supposed to be some kind of acrimonious, full-throttle story of a bitter divorce. The Wiki page says it shot between 1.15.18 and continued until April 2018, or roughly 11 or 12 weeks. Which would be…what, 55 or 60 shooting days? Two screaming days out of 55 or 60? Noah Baumabch‘s film runs 136 minutes.

“Little Women” Re-Energized, Wokeness in 1860s

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Greta Gerwig‘s Little Women (Sony, 12.25) is apparently…okay, obviously a Best Picture contender. The Gold Derby gang has been presuming this all along but here’s the first serious indication of same. Obviously and necessarily composed through the lens of contemporary woke-itude. Saoirse Ronan‘s performance as Jo will almost certainly result in a Best Actress nomination. Already adoring the rosey-amber tones in Yorick Le Saux‘s interior cinematography. I’ve been hearing all along that Florence Pugh delivers a striking supporting performance (she supposedly has a stand-out monologue moment) and is the strongest acting contender apart from Ronan. But the trailer cutters decided to focus on Saoirse, Timothee Chalamet and the Barry Lyndon-ish lensing.