Month: December 2023

“The N.Y. Times’ problem has metastasized from liberal bias to illiberal bias, from an inclination to favor one side of the national debate to an impulse to shut debate down altogether. All the empathy and humility in the world will not mean much against the pressures of intolerance and tribalism without an invaluable quality that Sulzberger did not emphasise: courage.” — from James Bennet‘s “When the New York Times Lost Its Way.” posted on 12.14.23 in 1843 magazine.

Bennet’s article is a rehash of what happened during the woke Times upheaval of mid July of 2020 (“Weiss Exits Over Woke Torquemada Brutality“), or roughly two months after the George Floyd riots that began in late May of 2020.

Read more

“History is brutal, sad and full of wrongs. Was it unjust that even a single Arab family was forced to move upon the [1948] founding of the Jewish state? Yes. But it’s also not rare. Happening all through history, all over the world, and mostly what people do is make the best of it. Eventually everybody comes to an accomodation.”

“[But] it’s hard to negotiate when the other side’s position is ‘you all die and disappear.'”

Honest Ukraine question: We all know that the Ukraine-Russian war (which began in February 2022) almost certainly won’t with the complete rout of Russian forces. Putin’s willingness to sacrifice the lives of tens of thousands of Russian troops in a conflict that can’t end with Russia triumphing absolutely…the death and destruction toll is sickening. But how does it eventually end?

I’m sorry but this “Overtime” passage made me feel good and settled and among friends. It mnade me feel the exact opposite of how I usually feel when I consider 50% or 60% of the acrimonious denial brigade on HE any given day.

Read more

Imagine being honestly, sincerely persuaded that May December is 2023’s finest film…imagine.

It is HE’s solemn opinion that anyone arriving at this conclusion is in the grip of a serious aesthetic fetish or an obsessive imbalance of some kind.

HE is earnestly supportive of Fallen Leaves (#4) and half-heartedly supportive of Showing Up (#2), Killers of The Flower Moon (#3) as far as it goes, Pacifiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Afire and The Zone of Interest (#5 through #8).

On 12.8 Ava DuVernay‘s Origin, an instructional drama about a writer exploring the racial caste system in this country, opened theatrically.

I had instinctively decided against seeing it because I regard DuVernay first and foremost as an agenda filmmaker — she has racial scores to settle and is not open to cosmic light and happenstance, at least by my understanding of the term.

On 12.13 Variety‘s Clayton Davis lamented the apparent fact that Origin is getting the cold shoulder from award-season handicappers.

Last night The Hot Mike‘s John Rocha and Jeff Sneider discussed Origin and Clayton’s column. The discussion happens between the 70-minute and 82-minute mark.

HE opinion: Ava DuVernay was seriously damaged after A Wrinkle in Time and has never recovered. She’s made her own reputational bed, and people are pretty much persuaded that she’s an agenda-driven filmmaker who isn’t fully honest (which Selma wasn’t, and one can at least question When They See Us in terms of characterizing the Central Park Five as utterly blameless victims), and who basically makes Black-favoring instructionals which stack the deck or otherwise put her thumb on the scale against historical and present-day racism.

DuVernay is basically a professional-grade woke Black female filmmaker and a symbol of fighting the power. And if you don’t like her films then YOU’RE a racist. People know who she is, and that, I believe, is why they’re not giving Origin the time of day.

Ava is about valiantly fighting the wrongs and the psychological plagues of racism perpetrated by white shitheads, the only problem being that she’s into anti-white portraiture more than honesty. And the industry can smell another Ava harangue in Origin.

Friendo: “I think it’s significant that the REVERSE example — that is, one line uttered by a sympathetic WHITE character that maligned the integrity of blacks (eg., ‘Don’t trust anyone, especially black people’) — would NEVER be excused or brushed aside by the likes of Glen Runciter. Not in a million years.

“We have different rules of behavior for people based on skin tone. And the fact that more of us don’t see how culturally destructive this is…this is absolutely mind-boggling.

“I mean, where do the Glen Runciters of the world see this going eventually? Anyplace good?”

pic.twitter.com/WxyIYmzGOH— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) December 11, 2023

Immediately after Matthew Perry‘s passing a friendly narrative began circulating — Perry was no longer using, and was clean and on the mend. Well, not so much.

Back in the days of reserved–seat roadshow engagements of big-budget, prestige-level films during the ‘40s, 50s and 60s, theatres would sell glossy, cardboard-fortified booklets that had lots of high-end images and smelled of fresh publisher’s ink.

This is the Spartacus program they sold at the DeMille theatere (B’way at 47th) when it opened on 10.6.60 — a month before JFK’s election.

They charged at least 75 cents if not a buck for these souvenir programs -— in 2023 terms they were charging $7.50 to $10 a pop.

What an absolute bummer life was in late 2020 — a feeling of dull suffocating horror enshrouding the country in every corner…masks, masks, masks. In December we threw caution to the winds by flying to NYC for four or five days. It helped a littie bit.

Last night I watched a little more than half of Sam Esmail’s Leave The World Behind (Netflix, now streaming).

As quietly creepy apocalyptic dramas go, I decided right away this is a lot better than M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin.

There’s no story tension to speak of, but all the spooky happenings (including the deer, the flamingoes, the smashing cars and the big tanker crashing into a beach) feel spacey and illogical and disconnected from any sort of scheme, rational or otherwise.

It’s more impressionistic (Bunuelian) than plotty, which is fine.

Mahershala Ali: “No one is in control…no one is pulling the strings…there is no going back to normal.”

I’d never seen Julia .Roberts in any sort of horror film…noteworthy.

The critics are mostly positive but Joe and Jane aren’t goin’ for it.

Barack and Michelle Obama exec produced, and my understanding is that Rumaan Alam’s 2020 source novel was inspired by Trump dystopia so you have to consider the political criticism angle.

12:45 am update: I’ve watched it to the end. Definitely a decent film.

Posted a day or two ago by “TC Rice“: