Month: August 2026

In 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, the 52 year-old Jennifer Connelly played the 60-year-old Tom Cruise‘s romantic interest. That fell under the headings of “no biggie” and “so-whatty” — an eight-year age difference.

But in the forthcoming Days of Thunder reboot, in which Cruise will once again play Cole Trickle and which will shoot next summer and open on 6.2.28, the currently 44-year-old Anne Hathaway will step into Connelly’s shoes. Cruise will be 65 during filming; Hathaway will be 20 years younger. The Cruise-Connelly age difference has been multiplied by a factor of two-and-a-half. But nobody cares.

Days of Thunder, which everyone called Top Car back in the day, is now 36 years old.

The late James Horner‘s score for Ron Howard‘s A Beautiful Mind (’01) and particularly this nearly five-minute-long track titled “A Kaleidoscope Of Mathematics” is arguably one of the most beautiful and transporting segments of motion picture music composed in the 21st Century.

A Beautiful Mind is a reasonably good, well-written film with a great ending (the pens scene), but Horner’s score injects something levitational, even heart-melting, into the brew — it elevates and deepens the whole enterprise.

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“You have to show the world who you are…Sylvester Stallone. Like Peter Parker.”

Not even the lingering Green Book haters will be able to stop Peter Farrelly‘s I Play Rocky (11.6.26) once it lands and starts spreading around.

Hanks’ #1 underdog movie (unspoken) is Peter Yates‘ Breaking Away (’79).

One of HE’s all-time-favorite underdog flicks: Point Blank (’67).

…and the surfer pulls it off brilliantly and triumphantly, I instantly feel a slight stab of depression. But when he/she wipes out, I am cresting on a wave of euphoria. Joy floods my system. No, I’m not worried about the surfer’s health because one of the first rules of the internets is that depictions of real, actual death are never shown, including WWII executions of Nazi war criminals.

…plus their wives, friends, relatives, in-laws and perhaps even their kids…now that everyone and their uncle has seen David Kittidge’s instant classic about an ambitious art-horror film that gradually morphed into a disaster film of epic proportions…a Warner Bros. flick that both God and the Devil agreed to jointly curse…a film that would make David “the Poland curse” Poland tremble in his boots and shake the cosmic rafters for decades if not centuries to come….now that it’s sunk into the bloodstreams of the best and the brightest, what’s the verdict?

But the comments have put the hook in.

But God, I would love it sooo much if somebody would make a really good one. One that gets the tone and the attitude in just the right restrained way.

I’ve been waiting patiently to see a tight, snappy trailer for Anton Cobijn‘s A Talent for Murder for many, many months. And yet Corbin’s Switzerland-set drama was blown off by the Venice Film Festival…hmmmm. It will debut at the Toronto Film Festival. How can Helen Mirren not rule as Patricia Highsmith?

This afternoon I stared deep into the crevasse of my soul and asked myself, “What are the odds that I’ll find The Dog Stars even partially nourishing?” I was going to catch it anyway for the most cynical of reasons, but I couldn’t…I just couldn’t. The Scott brand used to mean absolute attendance, and as early as possible. I’m sorry.

Two days ago the Venice Film Festival announced that Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor‘s NAZA, a documentary about Israel’s bombing campaign against Gaza, would be screened on Thursday, 9.10 — a last-minute addition. Abraham and Szor also directed the Oscar-winning No Other Land (’24).

Produced with Jim Wilson and executive produced by Jonathan Glazer, NAZA is the only doc that will compete for the festival’s Golden Lion.

I for one was crestfallen upon hearing this news. Because I had been hoping that the 9.10 slot might be filled by Michel Franco‘s Circles, a 90-minute, Hebrew-language, black-and-white drama about the early stirrings of the state of Israel (i.e., early to mid ’50s) and particularly the exploits of IDF commando Meir Har Zion and his sister Shoshana.

Had the Franco film been chosen there probably would have been a furor, as Circles apparently (presumably) adopts a pro-Israel or at least a neutral stance. NAZA is sure to be harshly critical of the Netanyahu government’s blitzkrieg slaughter of Gaza residents, and will therefore be preaching to the anti-Israel choir (most of the journalists, industry players and jury members at the festival). The Franco film would have almost certainly rocked the boat by challenging status quo mindsets and generally making waves.

I’m not indicating any sort of disagreement with the reported content of NAZA. I’m just saying that adding it to the 2026 Biennale schedule was an easy, path-of-least-resistance choice.

389 confirmed deaths in Nepal so far; more than 1000 people missing; 63 Americans missing. The final death count will almost certainly climb much higher.

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Norwegian small-town wokeys to Sebastian Stan: “Uhhm, basically yes…that’s the deal.”

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