Speaking as a huge fan of Bryan Fogel’s Icarus (‘17), I’m not all that impressed by Fogel’s follow-up, Icarus: The Aftermath. A tale of whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, a hunted man stripped of the usual emotional comforts, it mostly feels like one of those in-depth extras you might find on a Bluray. It’s interesting as far as it goes and certainly well made, but it’s recycled material.
I feel as badly as the next guy about the wounds suffered by Netflix in Venice — the stunning 53% Metacritic grade for Alejandro G. Inarritu’s Bardo (which I’ll be seeing tonight) + the meh reception to Noah Baumbach’s White Noise.
Speaking as a staunch Inarritu fan over the last 22 years, it is my intention to be as fair and merciless and forgiving and open-veined as possible. “Too long” doesn’t bother me if the filmmaker is imbued or on fire. Inarritu is incapable of mediocrity.
In a recent Interview q & a, Don’t Worry Darling director and costar Olivia Wilde disclosed that her film’s villain, Chris Pine‘s “Frank,” leader of a cult-like community, is based on “this insane man, Jordan Peterson, who is this pseudo-intellectual hero to the incel community.”
Peterson has never struck me as insane or “pseudo” or even eccentric — he’s always struck me as a routinely brilliant academic type and a more-or-less sensible fellow who doesn’t kowtow to fragile wokesters, and in fact has called out certain progressive behaviors and assumptions as untethered and even deranged.
Does Peterson have an incel following? Yes, but I’ve been listening to and half-agreeing with the guy for years and I’ve been living a somewhat robust sexual life for decades so what is Wilde talking about? I’m presuming that tens of thousands of non-incels feel the same way.
Now that Wilde has slandered Peterson, she clearly owes him a one-on-one debate in order to hash this out. Preferably on The Joe Rogan Show or Howard Stern or any forum that allows a semblance of free speech.
Wilde stated that incels are a community of “disenfranchised, mostly white men, who believe they are entitled to sex from women”…I guess. “They believe that society has now robbed them…that the idea of feminism is working against nature, and that we must be put back into the correct place.
“[And] this guy Jordan Peterson is someone who legitimizes certain aspects of [the incels] movement because he’s a former professor, he’s an author, he wears a suit, so they feel like this is a real philosophy that should be taken seriously.”
That’s really a mischaracterization — there’s much, much more to what Peterson has been saying for years than just (if you will) catering to incel realms…please.
Bones and All star Timothee Chalamet speaking to Variety‘s Nick Vivarelli on Venice red carpet: “To be young today…I can’t imagine what it is to grow up without the onslaught of social media. And at least here [in Bones] there are characters wrestling with internal blood lines [as opposed to struggling with] growing up with Instagram or Twitter…trying to figure out where they fit in with that.”
HE: I’m sorry and no offense but what’s Timothee saying? I for one would be horrified to be time-tripped back to the ’80s and the life of a cannibal. Thank God for the daily feed of social media streams, and of course HE’s contribution to that.
Chalamet: “I’m not casting judgement. You can find your tribe there.” But “it’s hard to be alive now. I think societal collapse is in the air. That’s why hopefully this movie will matter.”
Societal collapse because of the Trump faithful and the unfortunate likelihood of more random shootings (some politically motivated) and the probability of some form of civil war between bumblefucks and wokesters, he means….right?
9.2, 6:50 am: After 14 or 15 hours of somewhat uncomfortable travelling (including five hours on the carpeted floor at Washington National), HE pulled into Telluride yesterday afternoon around 4:15 pm.
What happened next was beyond thrilling. First the unpacking (I’m bunking at a spacious three-bedroom condo with Awards Daily‘s Sasha Stone), then a little shopping, then a 40-minute nap and finally an elegant dinner at La Marmotte, hosted by Santa Barbara Film Festival honcho and birthday boy Roger Durling.
Yes, that’s THR‘s Scott Feinberg to Roger’s right. The trio on the opposite side of the table (l. to r.) are Amazon’s Justin Balsamo, Netflix’s Kelly Dalton and IMAX’s Julie Fontaine.
What unannounced film will be shown at this afternoon’s Patrons screening at the Herzog? How can it not be Todd Fields‘ Tar, the film that everyone is dying to see after the unanimous Venice raves? The people want, demand…okay, they’re pleading for this.
I’ve never before stayed in a Telluride condo with a breathtaking view of the mountains; now I have.
Picking up the pass in an hour or so, and then the bus to the Telluride brunch. Three films today — the unannounced Patron’s screening around 2:30 or so, a 6 pm Sarah Polley tribute + screening of Women Talking, and finally Alejandro G.Inarritu‘s Bardo at 8:45 pm.