Month: March 2023

HE commenter “freeek” has misspelled entertainment and is misreading the room when he says EEAAO is “aimed at teens brainfried by social media” — the target audience is an 80-20 blend of Millennials (born between 1981 and ’96, ranging from 27 to 42 years old) and Zoomers (hatched between 1997 and ’12, spanning between 10 and 25). But when the Oscar season finally ends and most of us can all blessedly forget about the Daniels for the rest of our lives, the title of this post will live on. Hopefully, I mean.

Francis Coppola’s Twixt, which I saw but can barely remember (sorry), was generally regarded as underwhelming horror film when it opened in 2011. But marketing-wise, the title was the main bugaboo.

The Wiki page says the original title was Twixt Now and Sunrise. An “authentic cut” version popped on Bluray on 2.28.23, and the title has added a B-apostrophe. It’s now called B’Twixt Now and Sunrise. Whatever.

I admire Coppola’s brass and obstinacy in continuing to tinker with this failed project. Lesser men would’ve thrown up their hands and walked away.

For what it’s worth today’s Oscar Poker podcast (3.4, 64 minutes) was and is my personal Jeff-and-Sasha favorite so far. I felt calm, level-headed and reasonably articulate. Feel free to listen.

I don't agree with this piece at all. EEAAO is the frontrunner, not the outsider. It is status quo for an industry that has become separate from the majority of the country. Bonnie and Clyde would be more akin to TAR or Triangle of Sadness. https://t.co/5mrvrZhxZe

— Awards Daily (@AwardsDaily) March 4, 2023

‘Bonnie and Clyde’ and ‘Everything Everywhere’: Sometimes the Oscar Season Game Changer Is Beaten by the Game https://t.co/K0HNz2Y47F via @variety

— Steven Gaydos (@HighSierraMan) March 4, 2023

The deeply loathed Everything Everywhere All at Once has triumphed at the Branch Davidian Spirits, and nobody fecking cares! It won all seven of the categories in which it was nominated, including Best Feature. Seven of its eight nominees won in their categories, I meant to say. Cultists!

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…what I know about the mindset of Stalinist wokesters and how they’ve injected fear and intimidation into the common creative bloodstream and have thereby helped bring about the all-but-total-collapse of the mainstream Hollywood industrial entertainment complex (i.e., the industry that used to occasionally make super-cool films) and the utter superfluousness of Oscar culture…if you knew what I know about the pernicious effects of David Ehrlich-ism you would definitely be whining about the all-but-certain coronation of Everything Everywhere All At Once…trust me.

If I was in Daniel Ellsberg’s situation, which I feel very sad and sympathetic about even though we all have to go sometime, I would find a nice friendly heroin dealer and start using a few weeks (but not too many weeks) down the road. Because what difference would it make? Plus he’d feel just like Jesus’s son.

Political columnist Stewart Alsop died of cancer in ‘74. Consider this passage from his Wiki page:

In a thread about “Dude Needs To Be Cancelled” (posted at 1:37 pm eastern), the excitable Vic Lizzy posted the following with a straight face: “Who’s saying it’s not okay to be white? There’s no significant groundswell of that sentiment. Calling out racism is not the same as being anti-white.”

An hour later Bobby Peru set him straight.

Peru: “Actually, there sort of is [a significant groundswell of that sentiment].

“I work for a large global firm and at least three times this week I heard the phrase ‘white male’ used in a dismissive and derogatory way. This was with respect to suggestions of antiquated leadership, exec team makeups of the past, “traditional” behaviors that need to be eradicated, etc.

“We had a work dinner this week with our CEO, who is a white woman, and she talked on and on about our recruiting efforts, and how we would not be focusing on white males. This type of discourse is considered to be politically correct, and progressive, and she is a huge advocate for diversity.

‘At this point in time there seems to be no distinction between vaulting diversity up as an important initiative and the takedown of white male leadership. A very common refrain over and over is this notion that we need to move past the ‘white male’ leaders of yesterday. Every time this is said everyone nods in agreement, even the white male leaders.”

High-speed chase scenes have been a staple of crime + action films since The French Connection, but this just-posted news-video sequence (a cop chasing a pair of teens, 14 and 15) has one of the greatest endings ever.

Has anyone ever seen a chase sequence end this way in some Gone in 60 Seconds-type film?

If William Friedkin had ended his big freeway chase sequence in To Live and Die in L.A. this way, the audience would’ve yelled “bullshit!” and thrown soft drinks at the screen.

The kids crashing through a chain-link bridge fence and then falling 20 or 25 feet to the ground is great enough, but then they get out of the car, unharmed, and run for it…amazing! They were wearing their seat belts!

The movie version would end with either (a) the kids being picked up by a friend on the road below and escaping to safety or (b) a live-free-or-die passerby stopping to see if the kids are okay, and the kids jumping into his car and telling him “hit it, man…please, just get out of here and tromp on it…we need to get outta here!…come on, man!”

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Foam-at-the-mouth wokesters** might shriek and howl about my having posted this, but putting aside the digital footprints of Scott Adams and MrsWalker613, I like the performer (whose name and Twitter/TikTok handle I’m still not sure about) and I respect his willingness to make a point that seems fair and logical.

pic.twitter.com/lPJs7he3g4

— MrsWalker613 (@MrsWalker613) March 2, 2023

** not Jeremy Fassler, who received his walking papers yesterday.

The late Tom Sizemore mattered in the ‘90s and will continue to matter forever because of two live-wire performances — Michael Cheritto in Michael Mann’s Heat (‘95) and Sgt. Mike Horvath, Tom Hanks’ second-in-command, in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (‘98).

Sizemore passed this evening (Friday, 3.3) at age 61. Hugs and condolences to friends, fans, colleagues.

He costarred in three Kathryn Bigelow films: Blue Steel, Point Break, Strange Days.

Natural Born Killers was bad for my emotional health, but I respect the passion that some feel for it. Sizemore played Jack (brother of Seymour) Scagnetti, the cop on the trail of Mickey and Mallory. Some have called it his strongest, most personal performance.

Sizemore was 33 when he made Heat in ‘94 — he had a stocky build and graying hair and looked at least ten years older. Genes, lifestyle, luck of the draw — it goes like that for some.

For a woman of 58, Monica Bellucci looks fairly trim and foxy. But Tim Burton, bless him, has never been even a half-sexy dude…ever. Even when he was youngish (i.e., the Beetlejuice days) he was kinda dorky-looking. And he’s never resembled a health-club fanatic.

So it’s the fact that he’s super-wealthy, right? What else could it be?

And anyone staying at the Ritz, where Hollywood superstars often bunk in Paris, isn’t looking to be “coy.” If you want to avoid photographers you’ll stay in a rented apartment in the Marais or Passy or Oberkampf or, you know, somewhere in the 3rd arrondisement…that line of country.