I’m not saying Irving looks unduly withered or in any way unattractive — by way of a certain inner radiance she actually looks and sounds great — but my God, the Carrie costar is only 71. It’s one thing for 92 year-old Ellen Burstyn to be entirely white-haired but Irving…this feels unsettling. Then again Bill Murray has snow-colored hair and he’s only three years older than Irving.
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will [attain] their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” ― H.L. Mencken, “On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe“.
Buncome or “bunkum” is apparently the original term from which “bunk” was derived.
On the evening of Tuesday, May 13, Robert De Niro will receive an honorary Palme d’Or (gold watch, lifetime achievement) at the opening ceremony of the 78th Cannes Film Festival.
The ceremony (which I may not be able to attend as I’ll only be checking into the pad that afternoon) will omit the fact that quality-wise DeNiro’s career slowed down in the 21st Century, and that over the last quarter-century he’s starred or costarred in only four blue-chip, award-worthy films — David O. Russell‘s Silver Linings Playbook (’12, Nancy Meyers‘ The Intern (’15), Todd Phillips‘ Joker (’19) and Martin Scorsese‘s The Irishman (’19).
He was excellent in Playbook, very good in the middle two, and magnificent in the sprawling Scorsese epic.
But DeNiro’s 20th Century hot streak was historic. He enjoyed a brilliant 27-year run between Bang The Drum Slowly (’73) and Meet the Parents (’00). One winner after another, especially during the first decade — Drum, Mean Streets (’73), The Godfather Part II (’74) Taxi Driver (’76), 1900 (’76), The Deer Hunter (’78…didn’t like it), Raging Bull (’80).
The ’80s weren’t quite as good but at least he made True Confessions (’81), The King of Comedy (’82), Once Upon a Time in America (’84), Falling in Love (’84), Brazil (’85), Angel Heart (’87), The Untouchables (ditto) and Midnight Run (’88).
And then came a second hot streak in the ’90s — Goodfellas (’90), Awakenings (ditto), Cape Fear (’91….didn’t like it), Mad Dog and Glory (’93….ace-level, character-driven dramedy), This Boy’s Life (’93), A Bronx Tale (’93), Casino (’95), the magnificent Heat (’95), Jackie Brown (’97), Wag the Dog (’97), Ronin (’97) and Analyze This (’99…the second gangster-goes-to-professional-therapist enterprise that year).
27 or 28 gold-medal winners in the 20th Century, and four in the 21st.
But if DeNiro had quit acting after Raging Bull, he would still deserve a career-achievement award. Anyone familiar with that famous wailing jail-cell scene knows the name of that tune. A crude and bestial man experiencing the absolute nadir of his bruising (and bruise-dispensing) life…his explosive feelings of absolute and overpowering self-loathing…this horrific episode results, for viewers, in something oddly cleansing and almost therapeutic.
This was DeNiro’s all-time peak moment…the kind of bravura acting moment that only a young or youngish fellow can capture or deliver.
With an estimated budget of $400 million, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning (Paramount, 5.23) is…you tell me. The same old same old, of course, but the trailer is too fast and frenzied for my taste. The first half is like an M:I greatest hits reel, and the second half is poppity-pop-pop…aaaggghh!…helter skelter stuff.
It’s good to see Holt McCallany as the Secretary of Defense, and I’m not scared of Nick Offerman this time as I’m fairly certain we won’t have to watch him step out of a bathroom wearing a bath towel or, you know, get blown by a bear.
Which 60something black actor is fatter or spends more time sitting down than Ving Rhames? I’m asking.
Two little biplanes…one red, one yellow, both freshly painted. Very handsome.
My favorite shot, seriously, is the one of Tom Cruise leaping out of a chopper and falling into choppy seas.
Final Reckoning is going to have to come up with something pretty hairy to top the dangling train-car finale from the last one.
4:45 pm update: I’ve just been informed by none other than Wes Anderson that The Phoenician Scheme (Focus Features, 5.30.25) will be presented with an aspect ratio of 1.5:1…and not 1.66:1, as I erroneously presumed and posted earlier today.
Is there any living filmmaker who is more of an instantly recognizable signature stylist than Wes Anderson?
I’ve been using the term “WesWorld” for a good 20 plus years, and there isn’t a soul on the planet earth who doesn’t know what means. And yet two years ago, Wes was quoted as saying…
“Not happening…way too laid back…zero narrative urgency,” I was muttering from the get-go. Basically the sixth episode of White Lotus Thai SERIOUSLY disappoints. Puttering around, way too slow. Things inch along but it’s all “woozy guilty lying aftermath to the big party night” stuff. Glacial pace…waiting, waiting. I was told...
I finally saw Walter Salles' I'm Still Here two days ago in Ojai. It's obviously an absorbing, very well-crafted, fact-based poltical drama, and yes, Fernanda Torres carries the whole thing on her shoulders. Superb actress. Fully deserving of her Best Actress nomination. But as good as it basically is...
After three-plus-years of delay and fiddling around, Bernard McMahon's Becoming Led Zeppelin, an obsequious 2021 doc about the early glory days of arguably the greatest metal-rock band of all time, is opening in IMAX today in roughly 200 theaters. Sony Pictures Classics is distributing. All I can say is, it...
To my great surprise and delight, Christy Hall's Daddio, which I was remiss in not seeing during last year's Telluride Film Festival, is a truly first-rate two-hander -- a pure-dialogue, character-revealing, heart-to-heart talkfest that knows what it's doing and ends sublimely. Yes, it all happens inside a Yellow Cab on...
7:45 pm: Okay, the initial light-hearted section (repartee, wedding, hospital, afterlife Joey Pants, healthy diet) was enjoyable, but Jesus, when and how did Martin Lawrence become Oliver Hardy? He’s funny in that bug-eyed, space-cadet way… 7:55 pm: And now it’s all cartel bad guys, ice-cold vibes, hard bullets, bad business,...
