Day: September 3, 2021

I’ve been advised that I need to surgically remove the crab-head tone of certain Hollywood Elsewhere posts and to forsake the idea of assessing the deep-down reality of things as I understand them, and instead adopt a glowing positive outlook.

“Don’t say this or that aspect of a film doesn’t cut it,” I’ve been told. “Talk only about what’s good and what’s glorious…focus on the award-worthy, admirable, soothing, stirring, uplifting. Celebrate, don’t denigrate. Refuse to acknowledge mediocrity. Accentuate the positive. Re-tool Hollywood Elsewhere into the ultimate ‘safe space.’”

Okay, but if I do this I’ll probably have to rename the site…right? Because my head will no longer be “elsewhere”, so to speak, but concentrating on alpha stuff. Remember that 1930s song “I Want To Be Happy”? A tinny recording of that tune could activate each and every time you visit the site. I’m getting chills just thinking about it.

What does everyone think about re-christening the site as Hollywood Lobotomy?

Will Smith and Reinaldo Marcus Greene‘s King Richard (Warner Bros./HBO Max) is effing aces, and Smith will obviously be Best Actor-nominated and almost certainly win. I’m sorry but that’s simply the truth of it — the man has hit a grand slam.

It’s not just a first-rate sports drama (the story of how Richard Williams launched his tennis star daughters Venus and Serena Williams in their teen years) but a supremely effective, crowd-pleasing, character-driven “fall movie” — you know, those things they used to make for award season and that people would go to see in theatres and root for in terms of potential Oscar triumphs?

I was sitting there in a state of near-amazement and muttering “wow, this is so great and so unusual for this day and age…a first-rate, phenomenally well acted, sagely written, smartly edited, adult-angled film that isn’t infantile or depressing or diseased and is not just engrossing but rousing on a spiritual and emotional level…whatever happened to movies like this? Because corporate Hollywood has all but stopped making them.

There will be no King Richard haters…trust me. It radiates the right kind of vibes…the kind everyone wants.

…if this is in fact true.