Remember that moment in Goodfellas when Joe Pesci shoves an ice pick into the back of the head of Chuck Low‘s “Morrie” Kessler, the hugely obnoxious wig guy who was part of the Lufthansa heist? And Morrie goes “ahrgggghhh“?
That’s what happened this afternoon to Madame Web on Rotten Tomatoes. Not to mention Metacritic.
The Sasquatch makeup is pretty good, I have to say. I’m pretty sure I can spot Jesse Eisenberg under the stringy hair and prosthetics but I can’t identify Riley Keough. (Her name accompanies an image of one of the beasts, but I can’t “see” her.) The other two actors are Nathan Zellner and Christophe Zajac-Denek.
Sundance, Berlin, SXSW…Bleecker Street will release Sasquatch Sunset on April 12th.
Variety‘s Rebecca Rubin posted on 1.19.24:
I was never into Playstation and I certainly didn’t pay attention to Spyro the Dragon, a 1998 platform game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. (25 years ago!) But during a word game a few years ago my chronic hearing problem resulted in my sincere mispronouncing of the name as “Spyro the Jacket.”
The kids laughed at me and still bring it up on occasion, but let me explain something. Nonsensical as it sounds, Spyro the Jacket is better than Spyro the Dragon. A meme that makes no sense but at the same time transcends and in fact leapfrogs over the original.
Sometimes life flips on its side and bingo You have to be able to say “of course! and turn on a dime. Odd accidents sometimes open the doors of opportunity.
Spyro the Jacket isn’t just “better” than that Clinton-era Playstation game — it’s 10 to 15 times better. If I could afford it I would create a logo and manufacture “Spyro the Jacket” T-shirts and, yes, jackets.
I wasn’t paying attention to this “Dunkin’ The Dunking” ad during the Super Bowl…
1:40 mark:
Teenager to Ben Affleck: “Jennifer Lopez‘s husband…that’s cool.”
Affleck to teenager: “I had an influence myself.”
Teenager: “So what do you do?”
Affleck: “Aahhh, I do some…acting and writing and directing of movies, which were a kind of longform entertainment popular in the…20th Century.”
Jennifer Lopez is 54 (born on 7.24.69) and she doesn’t look a day under 32. Ben is 51…no biggie.
The expression on Mark Ruffalo‘s face in this Zodiac interrogation scene…his expression alone in this 5 minute, 48-second scene is ten to fifteen times better than his whole performance in Poor Things. Better in that it conveys an immense amount of information…he doesn’t move a muscle but his face is quaking with emotion and arousal and implication.
And that vaguely moaning, faintly growling sound we hear as the suspicion factor begins to build…fascinating. And the watch.
My God, what a brilliant film Zodiac is! All four guys in this scene are note perfect — Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, Elias Koteas, John Carroll Lynch.
Plus Ruffalo is at least 20 to 25 pounds lighter in Zodiac than he is in Poor Things so there’s that also.
14:33 mark: “One thing we know for certain is this — we have two candidates who are chronologically outside the norm of anyone who has run for the presidency in this country, in the history if this country. They are the oldest people ever to run ever to run for president, breaking by only four years the record that they [themselves] set in 2020. They are objectively old…[and] are both stretching the limits of being able to handle the toughest job in the world.
“What’s crazy is thinking that we’re the ones, as voters, who must silence our concerns and criticisms. It is the candidate’s job to assuage concerns, not the voter’s job not to mention them.”
16:30 mark: “Look at me. Look what time hath wrought. [Stewart is 61.] Look at this. Give the kids the treat of a lunar surface here. I’m 20 years younger than [Biden and Trump]…this. Look at this. They wish.”
Talk about a total Barbie promotion. Looking to influence voters much, guys? It would have been a lot crazier and more visually exciting if this ad had used a Poor Things template…think of it. Jimmy Kimmel‘s head attached to the body of a golden retriever, stuff like that. But I do have to say that, once again, America Ferrara brings it with a rant about how difficult is is to be an Oscar host.
Funniest bit comes when Ryan Gosling says “that’s not gonna happen” regarding his chances of winning the Best Supporting Actor race…Downey Downey Downey.
Why didn’t they get Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie to participate?
The snow is thick and icy and slippery…love it as long as I don’t slip and fall and bruise my ribs like I did in the Sierras a few years ago. This is the kind of Hollywood snowfall you dream about…the kind of snowfall tailor-made for a horsedrawn sleigh with jingling bells…a snowfall straight out of The Magnificent Ambersons.
Putting aside Travis Kelce’s unfortunate troglodyte behavior, which is a whole problem in and of itself and one that would give pause to any woman of brains and perception, he is now facing a deck of cards that will probably not pan out in his favor.
For when his fame and power inevitably begin to recede with age, Taylor Swift will begin to value him less. Unless, that is, he somehow becomes a troglodyte macho movie star like John Cena, in which case things will probably be fine. (I honestly don’t think he’s smart or clever enough to fill those shoes — he’s too much of a Midwestern oaf.)
We all know Taylor’s deal as she seems to go through boyfriends like potato chips and uses relationship breakups as song-lyric fodder and probably is, in all likelihood (although I’m obviously not claiming familiarity with her deep down stuff), a fair–weather lover.
Hey, the world’s full of them.
I’m not trying to pigeonhole Swift, but she seems like a leggy, musically banal version of Mary Astor, Tallulah Bankhead, Isadora Duncan…it’s all about impulse and dough and the lyrics in her head.
“A woman must have everything” — a mid ‘70s Joni Mitchell lyric that is probably even more true in 2024, especially when it comes to super-famous, glammy, high-earning, high-maintenance women.
They’re obviously exciting wowser types (hoo-hah!) but they’re mainly about their own self-articulated dreams and creations and are always “hungry for those good things, baby” (Paul Revere and the Raiders w/ Mark Lindsay) and are not your true pallies — if you want a friend, get a dog or turn to your mom or your older sister or the bruhs you’ve known since your teen years.
Super-wealthy, power-pop Swiftian girlfriends can only be happy and satisfied with boyfriends and husbands who are just as rich and powerful as they are and preferably more so. (Think Elizabeth Taylor and Mike Todd in the mid to late ‘50s)
At best they’re your social ally and mutual sexual celebration partner for as long as the BMW engine is highly-tuned and rumbling along and the good times are flush, but when the music begins to quiet down and the electric generator dynamic begins to downshift into a mild, mid-range hum, watch out.
For “that’s when your heartaches begin” (a Fred Fisher–William Hill–William Raskin song, sung by Elvis Presley).
Joni Mitchell, Paul Revere, Mark Lindsay, Elvis Presley, Al “hoo-hah” Pacino, Isadora Duncan, Elizabeth Taylor…they’ve all been through it.
In short, the Kelce-Swift romance isn’t long for this world unless they get down, get married and have a baby…this is the only thing will save them…the only profound product of their union. A baby will also mean an end to the great sex, of course, but that’s life.
If I were Swift I would find a guy more like Brock Purdy, but that’s me.