And this is as it should be. Because of the horrible wacko karma that Jolie created when she hatched and orchestrated the virulent anti-Brad Pitt discord within her own family. She did this, and now she owns it.

Cynthia O’Neal‘s performance as Cindy, a chilly, highly perceptive opportunist and she-wolf wearing the clothing of a sexy, high-toned girlfriend, was astonishing. Her manner was cool and cynical and altogether commanding.

The odds are highly against the possibility of audiences ever seeing another performance of this type, especially given that women these days aren’t allowed to play users or takers — only victims and revenge-getters.

Born in 1934, O’Neal was 36 in this scene. She’s still with us.

I hope it’s also understood that poisoned relationship argument scenes like this will never be seen again either…not in movie theatres, not on cable or streaming. Fucked-up sexist characters like Jack Nicholson‘s Jonathan Fuerst have been outlawed.

Let history note that when it came to sentencing Donald J. Trump for his Stormy Daniels felony convictions, Judge Juan M. Merchan wimped the hell out.

He decided on “a rare and lenient alternative to jail or probation“….shame….shame!

From N.Y. Times reporters Ben Protess and Kate Christobek:

1.4.25 update: I re-watched Moonstruck last night, and my basic feeling was that as effective as the performances and John Patrick Shanley‘s screenplay are, parts of it are a little too broad and on-the-nose. It’s a good film, but it could’ve been better if director Norman Jewison had toned things down somewhat.

1.3.25: Cher’s bulls-eye Moonstruck performance landed a Best Actress Oscar in ’88, and good for her. But the real reason she won was because of (a) the film’s dead-perfect poster, (b) a single line of dialogue that she said to costar Nic Cage — “Snap out of it!”, (c) a back-and-forth between Cher and Olympia Dukakis — OD: “Do ya love him, Loretta?” / Cher: “Ma, I love him awful” / OD: “Oh, God, that’s too bad”, and (d) the fact that Moonstruck‘s ensemble cast was spot-on to the nth degree.

So it was a group effort, really. Cher, Cage, Norman Jewison, John Patrick Shanley, Vincent Gardenia, Danny Aiello…they all won it together.

That’s Rob Camilletti, Cher’s 22 year-old “bagel boy” boyfriend, reacting to her win.

What exactly is a movie musical? Wikipedia defines it as “a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film’s themes or characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks in the storyline.”

Therefore James Mangold‘s A Complete Unknown is obviously and unmistakably a movie musical. The songs aren’t personal-expression songs in a classic musical sense, and yet on another level they are, certainly in Bob Dylan‘s case. They also express themes and feelings that emanate from the social-political climate of the early to mid ’60s. It’s a magical mystical tour of that era.

The bottom line is that Mangold’s 141-minute film is wall-to-wall singing and performing. According to producer Fred Berger, Chalamet sings 40 Dylan songs in the film, and that’s obviously not counting the Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and Johnny Cash songs that are also performed. (The Complete Unknown soundtack vinyl album contains 16 tracks; the CD version contains 23 tracks.)

Wicked is also a musical, of course, but a bit less of one in terms of the humber of stand-alone musical compositions. If you don’t count the orchestral opening and finale, 12 songs are performed by Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jeff Goldblum and others.

And yet the insanely corrupt Golden Globe nominations have categorized Wicked as a musical but A Complete Unknown as a drama.

The Globe nominees for BEST MOTION PICTURE – MUSICAL OR COMEDY are Anora (sporadically hilarious but hardly a “comedy”), Challengers (doesn’t even flirt with being a comedy or a musical), Emilia Perez (obviously a musical), A Real Pain (contains amusing dialogue while while adhering to a light farcical tone), The Substance (an exploitation body-horror film) and Wicked (a full-on musical).