Day: November 13, 2021
Joaquin Phoenix Discussion
Friendo to HE: “C’mon C’mon was so mediocre. I can’t get over critics digging this Mike Mills film.”
HE to Friendo: “I’ve never been much of a Mills fan. That Santa Barbara movie with Greta Gerwig was kind of a drag. 20th Century Friendos….Women, I mean. 20th Century Women.”
Friendo to HE: “I’m no fan either.”
HE to Friendo: “Smooth and mellow Joaquin doesn’t wash. I don’t want to hang with a nice, sensitive, caring father figure played by that fucking guy. To me Joaquin is a twitchy, flakey, cigarette–smoking weirdo. I can’t accept him as a kind, gentle, soft-caressing fellow.”
Friendo to HE: “I wrote this: ‘As much as I’ve championed Phoenix as one of the great living actors, it pains me to say that he’s miscast here. The actor tries to, for once, embody a ‘normal’ character but it just doesn’t work. He’s best at playing unstable eccentrics rather than any kind of subdued, big-city schlub a la Mark Ruffalo.”
Bad Old Days
Amazon previously offered Otto Preminger‘s Advise and Consent (’62) as an HD streamer, but no longer. Which means that someone (Kino Lorber?) is preparing a Bluray release.
Don Murray‘s closeted gay character, Sen. Brig Anderson of Utah, winds up killing himself over a gay blackmail attempt, which tells you how plugged-up the original 1959 Allen Drury book was.
“This was the first commercial film to include a scene in a gay bar, and I have to admit that even today the vibe is a bit much. (It reminds me of a Palm Springs gay bar I accidentally walked into once, and the smell of strong cologne was almost suffocating.) The first gay film that I really enjoyed and relaxed with was William Friedkin‘s The Boys In The Band (’70), but I’ve mentioned that once or twice.
Steve Hayes (“Tired Old Queen at the Movies”) delivers a savvy assessment:
Daniel Waters’ “Howl”
I took one look at this snap of screenwriter Daniel Waters and immediately thought of Francis Bacon‘s screaming pope paintings. And I thought “this could be a horror film character…a subdued, stay-at-home house dad who fancies himself as a gourmet chef, and suddenly he loses his mind,” etc. Just remove the spatula and replace it with a butcher knife or meat cleaver.
