Day: November 9, 2019

11.9, 2:25 pm: Simultaneous parties were thrown Friday night (7 to 11 pm or later) by the Apple and A24 guys. The Apple bash was hosted at the recently opened, bucks-up Edition hotel; the A24 soiree happened at the Sunset Tower. The Apple event was very pleasant as far as it went and certainly well-catered, but the atmosphere felt more corporate than Hollywood-y. The Sunset Tower affair was a relaxed and familial industry affair — Adam Sandler, Robert Pattinson, Waves director Trey Edward Shults, Colleen Camp, et. al. Beautiful outdoor pool, lots of cigarette and pot smoke, everyone just chillin’.

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Indiewire‘s Eric Kohn has tut-tutted his way through an essay about the rank aroma of toxic masculinity in such award-season contenders as The Irishman, Marriage Story, Parisite, Honey Boy, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.

Such ugliness, and so upsetting to wokesters who need their safe spaces, of course, and who may need to take breaks from these films in the lobby with, you know, neckrubs and counselling.

My favorite part is Kohn’s kicker paragraph, to wit: “If these movies all probe toxic masculinity from a male perspective, the season is poised to balance out with some of its most anticipated titles around the corner. Greta Gerwig’s Little Women adaptation and Jay Roach‘s Bombshell are both poised to address the other side of the equation.

“As moviegoers navigate a sea of toxic masculinity, these late-season entrants may deliver a lifeline — or at least the opportunity to widen the cultural frame. They can’t come soon enough.” Thank God…a lifeline!

I don’t want to speak out of turn or sound like a contrarian, but there might be a strain or two of toxic masculinity in William Shakespeare‘s Othello, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, A Winter’s Tale, etc. I think it also appeared in the works of other playwrights, novelists, screenwriters and directors. Certainly over the last couple of centuries. Or am I mistaken?

If you’re the least bit invested in Trek lore, this “Inglorious Treksperts” chat with director, screenwriter, script doctor and creator of Sledgehammer and Bullet in the Face Alan Spencer is pretty good. Spencer reveals some stuff that most people don’t know. Like how Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and Twilight Zone maestro Rod Serling were friends, and how Roddenberry eulogized Serling at his funeral at the behest of the family, etc.

I’ve re-watched this scene 20 or 30 times, and could watch it another 20 or 30. Hell, make it 50 or 100.

I love the seven-second delay between the first mention of “old times” and the second, and especially Ben Johnson‘s decision to pick up a stick in the interim…perfect. The camera begins to track forward at the 54-second mark (“More than 20 years ago”) and begins its retreat to the original position at 1:53 (“I bet she’s still got that silver dollar”).

The Last Picture Show was shot in the small northern Texas town of Archer City, sometime in late ’70 or early ’71. Almost a half-century ago.

It may sound cruel to say this, but director Peter Bogdanovich never delivered a sequence as good as this over the rest of his career. It’s arguably the finest shot ever captured by dp Robert Surtees, although some would say his work on Mike Nichols‘ The Graduate was just as noteworthy.

According to Scott Feinberg‘s account of last night’s American Cinematheque tribute to Charlize Theron, David Oyelowo shared a curious recollection that happened during the making of Gringo, in which Theron and Oyelow costarred.

Oyelowo: “The first thing Charlize ever said to me was, ‘David, what is your opinion about anal bleaching?’ She’s the only person I’ve ever known who laughed so hard that she pissed herself…she ran out, I looked down at her seat and it was wet.”

Anal bleaching is funny on what planet? In what kind of upside-down, twisted-pretzel universe is the dampening of a canvas chair due to leaked urine…how is that even smirk-worthy?

Jokes “land” because they reveal or allude to some suppressed or unacknowledged truth about our shared experience. Mentioning that someone busted a gut about this or that is flagrantly unfunny. As I’ve pointed out repeatedly, watching or listening to someone laugh hard is extremely unfunny if you’re not sharing in the mirth, which in my case is often.

Seth McFarlane, on the other hand, did allude to suppressed or unacknowledged truths. He joked that Theron “is proof that, at long last, African-Americans are thriving.” (Theron is from South Africa, grew up on a farm near Johannesburg) He also suggested that “‘Charlize’ sounds like a brand of champagne enjoyed by rednecks in Florida.” Well, it is kind of a girly-girl name.

Referring to her Oscar-winning performance in Monster, McFarlane said that “Charlize played a monster who committed unspeakable acts…Megyn Kelly.”

The best line alluded to Theron’s costarring role in McFarlane’s A Million Ways to Die in the West (’14) as well as her romantic pairing with Seth Rogen in Long Shot, to wit: “Theron has made a cottage industry of playing a lover of guys named Seth who could never land her in real life.”

Tragedy is when Scott Feinberg slices his finger with a steak knife. Comedy is when Oyelowo is poking at a Ceasar salad while listening to McFarlane.