According to a recently-deleted CNN report, President Biden allegedly told Ukranian president Zellensky that a Russian invasion is “imminent”…virtually certain come February…and that Kiev could be “sacked.” There’s a suspicion that “journalists were covertly fed Russian intelligence disinformation, so [CNN] removed it once they realized the mistake.”
BREAKING: We have recovered the Ukraine call report that @JakeTapper and CNN just deleted
A bit less than 30 years ago I profiledBridget Fonda for the N.Y.Times. The piece, largely based on my visiting the Arizona set of Bodies, RestandMotion and sharing a nice dinner with her, ran in August ‘92. I liked Bridget a lot; I even felt what you might call a semi-profound kinship with her.
And so, three decades on, I have no comment about the alleged, recently snapped photos of her that have just surfaced. No comment except I literally cried out when I saw them. We all get older but…well, bear with me. Sorry but I’m startled, partly because she’s the niece of Jane Fonda and there’s a certain image or association that comes with that.
That said, I hope Bridget is happy. Maybe the Mail made a mistake. Saying no more.
But of course, Joe Biden's condescending, less-than-supportive attitude towards Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings is an episode he won't want to revive by nominating her to fill Justice Breyer's seat on the Supreme Court.
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I’m suddenly feeling hugely depressed by the announcement of the five 2022 DGA Awards nominees. The Big Five are Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Licorice Pizza, Kenneth Branagh‘s Belfast, Jane Campion‘s The Power of the Dog, Steven Spielberg‘s West Side Story and Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune.
Does this mean these films will come to be regarded as the leading Best Picture nominees? Not necessarily but quite possibly, and this is what has sent me into a howling tailspin.
Because among these five and in the eyes of the egalitarian Movie Godz, only West Side Story and Licorice Pizza are really and truly good enough in a genuinely discriminating, emotional, full-hearted sense to warrant top-five status, and yet we all know they probably won’t win because, according to conventional thinking, (a) WSS wasn’t really necessary to begin with plus it died at the box-office and (b) Licorice Pizza, which I liked for the most part, is regarded as too catch-as-catch-can, too meandering.
I’m also gloomed out because the DGA gang has rejected King Richard — HE’s pick for 2021’s finest film. Seriously, this is very, very upsetting.
Im short, it’s suddenly hit me like a waffle iron crashing into the left side of my face that the three films most likely to win the big prize are Belfast, The Power of the Dog and Dune. We all know that Dune can’t win (too many people hated it) so it’s down to Belfast and The Power of the Dog.
Here are HE’s picks for the ten best films of ’21 — King Richard, Parallel Mothers, West Side Story, Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Worst Person in the World, A Hero, Riders of Justice, No Time To Die, The Beatles: Get Back and Zola. The second ten are Cyrano, Licorice Pizza, The Card Counter, In The Heights, The Last Duel, No Sudden Move, Titane, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Drive My Car and Summer of Soul.
I can’t believe this is happening, but it is happening. I’m shocked, I’m stunned, I’m out of breath, etc. Some where in West Los Angeles, Sid Ganis is chuckling.
If these five are indeed the hottest Best Picture contenders, HE believes that the only truly justified winner in the eyes of the Godz would be West Side Story.
WGA Original Screenplay noms: Being the Ricardos, Don’t Look Up, The French Dispatch, King Richard, Licorice Pizza.
Drive My Car knows exactly what it's doing, and it delivers on that mission and self-knowledge over a period of 179 minutes, which is unnecessary. A two-hour film that lasts 179 minutes can't be uplifting or transcendent. DriveMyCar is a thoughtful, melancholy slog for griefmonkeys, and with way too many cigarettes smoked. It warrants respect but it shouldn't leapfrog out of the Best Int'l Feature category. Meditative smarthouse material for Justin Chang-level elites and hoity-toities. Hollywood Elsewhere says "sorry but no Best Picture nomination."
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It is Hollywood Elsewhere’s contention that West Side Story‘s Mike Faist is the most deserving contender for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. He gave the only “wow!”performance…the only one that really popped or generated any excitement.
Most of the award-season sheep are predicting that The Power of the Dog‘s Kodi Smit-McPhee is the most likely winner of the Best Supporting Actor award. Basically for playing a deceptive little candy-ass…Benedict Cumberbatch‘s obscure object of desire and a passive, sneaker-wearing wimp with a hidden agenda up his sleeve. Are you telling me there was even a slight tremor of excitement about his performance after Dog popped last fall?
The sheep are resolute about Jane Campion winning the Best Director Oscar (we all understand this is totally locked-in), and just to fortify this they’re supporting as many Dog contenders as possible, and so Smit-McPhee gets a free ride on her coattails.
Bradley Cooper‘s “Jon Peters” in Licorice Pizza is not a supporting performance — it’s a cranked-up cameo. While Ben Affleck‘s congenial, low-key uncle in The Tender Bar is intermittently charming, his fake Long Island accent diminishes the performance — it reminds you that he’s acting. CODA‘s Troy Kotsur…if you say so. Because people have no taste, the broadness of Jared Leto‘s performance in House of Gucci makes it a likely nominee. Belfast‘s Ciaran Hinds delivered on auto-pilot — he could have played the kindly grandfather in his sleep.
I’m a huge Jeff Daniels admirer — have been for 40 years now, despite his having blown me off for an interview ten years ago. But even if you’re not a huge fan, this is one of the best career-recap recollections I’ve ever seen, and I don’t care if it’s two months old. Every engaging story delivers some kind of choice insight or kernel of wisdom or killer anecdote. (Jack Nicholson on the set of Terms of Endearment: “This isn’t Broadway — this is the pro game.”) I’m very sorry I never caught Daniels in To Kill A Mockingbird, and I apologize for the fact that I’ve never paid the slightest attention to Showtime’s American Rust, a Dan Futterman series that Daniels exec produced and stars in.
Nominees for the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures were announced this morning by the Producers Guild of America. And they blew off Spider-Man: No Way Home…brilliant! The PGA members, in league with the stodgy and harumphy Anne Thompson, Scott Feinberg and Steve Pond, aren’t letting an emotional explosion superhero flick into their little fraternity….no sirree!
But they have nominated Being the Ricardos, Belfast, CODA, Don’t Look Up, Dune, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, The Power of The Dog, tick, tick…BOOM! and West Side Story.
The PGA snooties are 100% aware that most people who’ve sat through Dune were either dead bored or hated how it made them feel, or at least looked at their watch six or seven times. They know this, and they nominated it anyway because it was a big-vision CGI flick based on a seminal sci-fi novel. They’re also aware that the expertly produced Spider-Man: No Way Home levitated millions of ticket-buyers and sent them out smiling and ecstatic and ready to see it again. They know this for a fact and yet they blew it off. Because they’re foo-foo snooties. Because they’re lazy-minded dicks at heart.
HE to PGA voters: You honestly and sincerely believe that tick, tick…BOOM!, which was mostly agony to sit through, is a more worthy recipient of the Zanuck award than Spider-Man No Way Home? You realize you’re living in complete denial, right? You realize that celebrating the tiresome tick, tick…BOOM! over the mesmerizing whoosh of the second hour of Spider-Man is absurd, and that history will judge you fools and dilletantes?
The 2022 Producers Guild Awards ceremony will happen on Saturday, March 19.
Footnote: Sony has so far decided against sending out screeners of Spider–Man: .NoWay Home. This may not be the cause it wasn’t among the ten PGA noms, but it was probably a deciding factor.
