Day: September 14, 2023

HE to Venice Film Festival viewer: “What’s with the soft-focus appearance of Wes Anderson‘s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Netflix, 9.27 streaming)? Not to mention the very slight blueish tint? Was it shot in 16mm or something? It looks odd.”

Venice Film festival viewer to HE: “That was not my experience of it in Venice at all — it was pristine, perfectly focused, and correct in color. [And yet} it apparently was shot in 16mm. But it didn’t look hazy in Venice. The whole color scheme as it appears in the trailer does tend to blue, but that’s as much a function of the art direction as anything else. You can’t judge the whole by the trailer.”

The Hollywood Reporter‘s Scott Feinberg has posted his first spitball projection of the Best Picture Oscar race (alng with other projections in other categories).

“HE truth bullet” commentary represents the kind of bottom-line reality check that Feinberg isn’t allowed to pass along at this stage, as he’s obliged to be diplomatic.

BEST PICTURE FRONTRUNNERS:

Oppenheimer (Universal) / HE truth bullet: Academy members have no choice but to nominate Chris Nolan‘s film because of the great reviews and excellent box-office. The bottom line is that despite its many commendable aspects, Oppenheimer is overly dense (i.e., it doesn’t breathe) and is rather punishing to sit through when you watch it for the second time. Plus Nolan wimped out by avoiding the horrors of Hirsoshima and Nagasaki.

The Holdovers (Focus) / HE truth bullet: A well-written, perfectly acted, old-fashioned ’70s relationship film…pure crowd pleaser, total home run, flawless within its realm.

Barbie (Warner Bros.) / HE truth bullet: Guaranteed to be nominated for the box-office explosion aspect alone, and it might even wind up winning, especially given its popularity among the quarter-of-an-inch-deep New Hollywood Kidz. But it’s pure feminist candy and is really too misandrist when you step back and think about it. Best Picture Oscars should be about more than just the mere earning of big money.

Poor Things (Searchlight) / HE truth bullet: A glint-of-madness feminist fantasy…wildly imaginative, Terry Gilliam-like sexual Barbie with actual fucking going on. The sexual current will put off some within the 45-plus community.

Killers of the Flower Moon (Apple/Paramount) / HE truth bullet: A highly respectable historical drama as far as it goes, but far from a home run. No strong point of view about anything. HE gives it a respectable B or B-minus.

The Zone of Interest (A24) / HE truth bullet: Searing moral perceptions by way of alluded-to Nazi horrors, but overly dry, chilly and oblique. Yes, I know — “oblique” is the basic idea.

Past Lives (A24) / HE bullet: Forget it — an unsatisfying, wafer-thin non-romance that lacks nutritional value. Not happening.

American Fiction (Amazon — haven’t seen it)

Anatomy of a Fall (Neon) / “Good’ European courtoom drama but too long, too protracted, no real surprises, doesn’t really pay off.

Nyad (Netflix — haven’t seen it but Oscar action sounds like a stretch).

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Director friendo #1 on the economic impact of the WGA and SAG/AFTRA strikes: “People are losing their homes. It’s happening all over town. I know a couple with two kids who’ve been forced to move out of their home and into a one-bedroom apartment. It’s awful. Writers, actors, crew people…everyone dependent upon any sort of industry-based income. Everything stops.”

“This is what the producers want, of course. They want to see this kind of desperation, this kind of pain.”

Director-writer friendo #2: “Indeed, people are suffering all over town, and not just below the line. The WGA was hellbent on a strike in a very different economic climate with transmuted players. Streamers aren’t vertically integrated studios.

“Yes, people are sinking. Some institutions are working with the casualties of this strike, which is akin to war, whilst others can’t due to still not recovering from the pandemic. Landlords need their rent and many didn’t receive the Covid subsidies.

“People are losing homes, cars and savings. Some are downsizing while others are fleeing the state or transitioning into other fields if they’re lucky.

“One young woman I met on the picket lines had been on a writing staff, but is now bartending again. That’s a job she’d left behind after becoming a writer.

“There is massive collateral damage from this strike.

“Nevertheless, with the dissolution of a traditional TV business and the marginalization of feature films, side hustles will soon become the primary sources of income for many…if they’re lucky.

“The WGA has a link on their page so striking writers can apply for food stamps. That speaks for itself about the state of things.

“Part of the problem is that WGA leadership, people like David Goodman and Patric Verrone, are outsiders steeped in animation. They’re not industry players like John Wells was.

“If someone like Chuck Lorre was a Guild president, the odds of avoiding a strike are always greater.

“I seriously doubt the WGA anticipated a strike would last this long, but they’re intractable in their positioning and this strike was preordained long before it occurred.

“The WGA guys couldn’t strike last time due to the pandemic, but were hellbent this time.

“When Goodman was previously Guild president, he fixated on eliminating packaging fees at the expense of other issues of greater importance.

“Goodman, Verrone and others enjoy being at the bargaining tables with power players because they’ll never meet these CEOs through their respective oeuvres.

“Of course artist need protections and more money, but they also need to be in a healthy business, which this isn’t. The corporations and conglomerates ruined it.

“That wouldn’t have occurred if the companies hadn’t thought of art as content. And a bottom line mentality also means that their content creators are disposable. They’re not thought of as artists wherein talent relations are important.

“Instead, the oligarchs are punishing creative serfs, determined to insure that this is the last strike in a very long time.

“Negotiating wise, the WGA has yet to send a more detailed response to what’s considered egregious about the last offer, but it appears the CEOs and AMPTP are desperate to try to mostly hold the other unions to the same deal the DGA received. That won’t work for writers and actors, since both have different needs.

HE: “What are the principal differences between what actors and writers want?”

Director-writer friendo #2: “There are many differences since writers originate projects while directors =execute them. Directors don’t create TV shows, as one example, but the directors of pilots tended to get perpetual fees. James Burrows is a wealthy man.

“I would surmise AI doesn’t pose a threat to directors since it’s a tool that can budget and storyboard. AI replacing writers and actors are different scenarios.

“One wants more guarantees, and both want more residuals and transparencies from streamers.

“There are also new provisions being sought for free work and online auditioning, but it’s all bupkis. Everybody wants more money.

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Please go to the 8:37 mark in this discussion between CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who recently declared she’ll be running for re-election in 2024:

Anderson Cooper: “Is Vice President Kamala Harris the best running mate for [President Joe Biden]?”
Nancy Pelosi: “He thinks so, and that’s what matters.”

In other words, Pelosi doesn’t think Harris is the best option but doesn’t want to rock the boat or stir up trouble.

Nakedly Honest Pelosi Translation: “Obviously she’s unpopular and not respected, and is therefore a terrible albatross for this president, but he appears to believe that he’s stuck with her and so we’re stuck with them both and it’s awful.

“People are truly terrified that President Biden, who, if re-elected, will be 82 when he takes the oath of office in January 2025, may become incapacitated or fall ill or worse sometime during his second term and that Harris will become president. If President Biden, in conversation, was as sharp and lively as myself, it would be a different story. But he can barely get through two or three sentences without stumbling.

“This is a truly terrible situation to present to American voters — a shuffling, muttering, forgetful, fuzzy-brained president, obviously diminished by age as we speak and sure to diminish further as the years takes their inevitable toll….a president who may or may not go the distance, God forbid, and so a vote for Biden-Harris is an automatic vote for a potential President Harris, and in the minds of tens of millions of voters, including a likely majority of Democrats, that is a terrible proposition to put forward. So obviously she is not the best running mate for President Biden.

“Honestly? Joe himself should give serous consideration to hanging up his holster and letting the far more age-appropriate Gretchen Whitmer or Gavin Newsom step in to the breach. But he won’t do that, of course. He can he drooling and half-conscious in diapers and pushed around a wheelchair and he won’t quit.”