HE sadly notes the passing of Frederic Forrest, 86. For most of us, Forrest’s best and biggest role will always be “Chef” in Apocalypse Now (‘79), a colorful supporting character whose head was chopped off by Marlon Brando’s Colonel Kurtz.

Forrest had starring roles in One From The Heart (‘81) and Hammett (‘82) — neither took off.

Jordan Ruimy reports that a pair of special Barbie screenings happened last night on both coasts, but the idea was fans-only — no critics or smart-asses or possible contrarians of any kind. So where are the tweets calling Greta Gerwig’s latest an absolutely blazing pink cinematic orgasm?

Were it not for the crazy-ass ending of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Disney, 6.30), I would be standing with the half-and-halfers, saying “yeah, not great but not bad” and so on.

But the mescaline-fueled ending is so wackazoid that it kicks the entire film up to another level. So if you factor this in Indy 5 becomes a “yeah, okay…not half bad!” instead of just a “whatevs, passable, good enough.”

Guaranteed — you haver never seen a crazier ending of a major tentpole film in your life.

Here’s the most relevant portion of my 5.19.23 review, filed from Cannes:

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a mega-budget serving of silly, rousing, formulaic, high-energy, fuck-all Hollywood wankery. If you pay to see it with that understanding in mind, it’s “fun” as far it goes, largely, I would say, because it also feels oddly classy…a well-ordered, deliciously well-cut exercise in which Mangold does a better-than-decent job of imitating Spielberg’s psychology, discipline, camera placements, cutting style, easy-to-follow plotting and generally pleasing performances.

The pans that broke last night were written by soreheads. It is what it is, and it delivers the hand-me-down goods in a way that very few will find bothersome or underwhelming.

In his 5.18 review, Irish Times critic Donald Clarke writes that “nobody with a brain in their heads will compare Dial of Destiny favorably to the first three films.” He’s right about that, but it’s definitely better than 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. That may not sound like much, I realize, but at least it has this distinction.

The plot is basically another “Indiana Jones vs. frosty, cold-blooded Nazi fiends in search of a priceless archeological artifact” thing. Ford is steady, restrained and solemnly earnest in a gruff (okay, grumpy-ass) sort of way. Mads Mikkelsen is the chief German baddy-waddy, Phoebe Waller-Bridge is Indy’s younger half & partner in adventure and derring-do, Ethann Isidore is the new “Short Round” (the spunky Temple of Doom character, played by a young Ke Huy Quan) and so on.

One minor HE complaint: Waller-Bridge’s feisty-grifter character, Helena Shaw, is said to be the daughter of Toby Jones‘ Basil Shaw. There is, of course, no way on God’s good, green, chromosonal earth that the short, pudgy, gnome-like Jones (who stands 5’5″) could be the biological dad of the leggy, wafer-thin PWB (who stands just under 5’10”). No way in hell. I bought the crazy ending in a “is this really happening?” sort of way, but not this.

This isn’t bullshit or hot air — an actual armed rebellion against Vladimir Putin’s leadership of Russia, led by mercenary leader Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, is happening as we speak.

Putin has vowed “decisive actions” to suppress Prigozhin’s coup, whose forces have “claimed control of the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and are moving north toward Moscow,” according to N.Y. Times reporters Victoria Kim and Anton Troianovski.

In a brief address to the nation, Putin called Prigozhin’s rebellion “treasonous” and “a stab in the back of our country and our people.” Prigozhin — a longtime Putin ally and fierce critic of Moscow’s military leadership, who has helped lead Russia’s assault on eastern Ukraine — rejected the treason charge of treason and said, in an audio message, that his forces were “patriots of our motherland.”

In short (and please correct if I’m wrong), Prigozhin believes that Putin’s waging of the war in Ukraine hasn’t been savage enough. My reasoning is telling me that if his coup succeeds (which at the very least will be dramatically satisfying) things will get a lot tougher for Ukraine.

N.Y. Times: “’We’re blockading the city of Rostov and going to Moscow,’ Mr. Prigozhin said in a video that surfaced early Saturday, verified by The New York Times, showing him in the company of armed men in the courtyard of the headquarters, asking for the chief of the General Staff of the Russian military and the Russian defense minister, Sergei K. Shoigu.”

Peter Boghossian, 56, is a sensible-minded American philosopher and pedagogist. He was a philosophy professor at Portland State University for a decade. As an academic who despises faith-based fanaticism (his focus is atheism, critical thinking, pedagogy, scientific skepticism and the Socratic method), Boghossian is not only deeply appalled by wokesters but also by faith-driven Republicans and evangelicals. At the very, very least, the man embodies “parrhesia” — he isn’t cowed by the Stalinists, and has the balls to say what he truly and sensibly believes.