Day: April 27, 2024

…for bike riding in the tri-state area…that’s my crimson bike on the right…recently washed it off, re-filled the tires, etc.

From HE’s 2.25.16 review of the second season of HBO’s Togetherness:

“Never, ever confess to infidelity for any reason at any time…ever. The mere lure of infidelity is obviously a symptom of a relationship in trouble, but it always becomes a live ingredient once it’s acted upon.

“However enticing an exra-maritakl affair might seem, it’s really better to not go there. But if you do, take it fucking seriously. Becasue infidelity always makes things worse for a relationship that isn’t working all that well to begin with.

“Being honest with a wife/husband about cheating is like shoving a knife in their ribs, and if you love your partner/spouse you should never, ever do that. Unless you’re a sadist of some kind. You cheated once or twice? Hold that shit in and keep it there — live with it.

“You’re engaged in a full-on, emotionally entangled affair? Sooner or later your relationship will suffer as a result, but if you’re going to climb up on that high board and do that swan dive, do it like a pro. Either become an East German double agent in the early ’60s or don’t go there at all. Man up and show consideration for the feelings of your significant other by — hello? — protecting them from the hurt. Or, you know, from your selfishness or whatever the hell you want to call it.

“It’s your action. Don’t lay it on them. Keep it inside and grow a tumor if necessary, but bundle it up and keep it in a box. If you’re going to cheat, show a little decency.”

My first viewing of Tom Tykwer‘s Run Lola Run happened roughly 25 years ago, and man, it gave me such a huge rush…pure mainlined cinematic ecstasy. Live action plus animation…brilliant! I felt so aroused it actually made me want to visit Berlin and maybe even live there for a while. I wound up hanging there two or three times between ’09 and ’10 and ’11 or thereabouts.

Franka Potente‘s finest moment + Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup, Joachim Król, Nina Petri, etc.

Sony Pictures Classics will be re-releasing Lola theatrically on 6.7.24, boasting a new 4K restoration and a subsequent Bluray down the road. I could have asked for a link, but instead I’ll be catching a Manhattan screening a few days hence.

How many films has Nicole Kidman starred or costarred in over the last 35 years, or since her big debut in Phillip Noyce‘s Dead Calm (’89)?

She’s being AFI-tributed this evening, and given the fact that she’s shown excellent taste in choosing roles it’s hard to post a list of the very best as most of her films have been at the very least commendable or pretty good, and many have been very good or excellent.

She’s made very few stinkers or letdowns, which number about 12 by my yardstick — Far and Away, Practical Magic, The Stepford Wives, Bewitched, Fur, The Golden Compass, Nine, Stoker, Australia, Grace of Monaco, Destroyer and The Goldfinch.

A roster of Kidman’s finest films would have to include the following 15 — To Die For, Billy Bathgate, Eyes Wide Shut, Birthday Girl, Moulin Rouge, The Others, The Hours, Dogville, The Human Stain, Ranbit Hole, Birth, The Interpreter, The Family Fang, Bombshell, Being the Ricardos and The Northman (16).

I’m surely leaving a few out, but to me these are the gold-standard keepers.

…and except for the music industry, the entire culture has been put on alert and has adapted to the new militant mindset, which is basically (1) don’t fuck with women, (2) women will boil your ass if you step out of line, and (3) women are gaining considerable power so watch out.

One of the offshoots, however, is that younger males are feeling diminished, partly or largely due to their own lethargy over being elbowed aside and largely degraded if not tossed on the slag heap.

Every time I see or read about an attractive, accomplished, dynamic-looking woman in her 20s, 30s or 40s, I automatically presume she’s (a) on iffy or shaky ground with her significant straight-male other and/or (b) not all that interested in relationships with young straight guys…I presume that she’s fairly tough, resourceful and independent, which often means single mom or possibly bi or gay or divorced or at the very least self-supporting, and also at the very least skeptical of relationships with younger to thirtysomething guys, partly because younger guys aren’t doing as well and are certainly less stable.

Leaving aside the triumphant feminist strides in all the major social arenas (which everyone applauds), this is a major psychological offshoot of the #MeToo revolution — i.e., a consensus view that younger guys are generally immature assholes or worse, and therefore need to be diminished if not marginalized because they’re probably more trouble than they’re worth.

Which they may well be. I’m not a young guy and don’t hang out with them as a rule — a know a few young guys but the only ones I know well are my two sons

Remember that 1972 John Lennon song, “Woman is The [N-word] of the World“? Different world, man…52 years ago. Start by replacing “woman” with “young straight white dudes”.

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