Jeffrey Wells

“And particularly to females 35 and under” — from Pamela McLintock’s 6.29 THR box–office report about the 7.21-to-7.23 weekend, which foresees Greta Gerwig’s social-metaphor comedy trouncing Chris Nolan’s historical horror film about the A-bomb by at least $25 to $30 million.

Congrats to Team Barbie for achieving a successful sell, even as they privately acknowledge what I’ve been saying all along, which is that Barbie’s mostly Millennial and Zoomer female fans will be lining up “for the wrong reasons,” or certainly going in.

“The alteration of the [Zapruder] film in two instances proves its worthlessness as a document of anything other than deceit.”

So writes respected director-writer David Mamet in a 6.24.23 Unherd article titled “The Power of the Kennedy Myth.” The piece is partly about theories and suspicions about the JFK Assassination, which Mamet is co-writing a screenplay about (his co-writer is Nicholas Celozzi, great-nephew of late Chicago mob boss Sam “Momo” Giancana) and will begin to direct in September.

The costars include Viggo Mortensen, Shia LaBeouf, Al Pacino, Courtney Love and John Travolta.

Mamet and Celozzi will basically be passing along a “JFK was murdered by Momo and the mob” saga. This will put Mamet at loggerheads with Dealey Plaza conspiracy maestro Oliver Stone, who’s claimed for years that it was a CIA black ops job.

Mamet writes that he’s fond of “The Great Zapruder Film Hoax: Deceit and Deception in the Death of JFK,” a 2003 book that was edited by James H. Fetzer. I haven’t read it, but Mamet’s Unherd article says it asserts a claim that may arouse suspicions among JFK assassination buffs. It is, in fact, absolutely dead wrong.

“What’s wrong with the [Zapruder] film?,” Mamet asks, apparently leaning on the Fetzer book but possibly indicating his own suspicions. “To begin, several frames are missing,” Mamet states, “”No one has ever suggested a logical reason for their excision other than suppression of evidence.”

Then comes the Fetzer whopper. which Mamet is apparently on board with: “The blood-spatter explosion of the President’s head is, goes the claim, clearly painted on. It exists only for one frame, 0.04 of a second. In frame 312 it is absent, in the following frame it’s there, and in the next frame it’s gone — not dispersed or dispersing, but gone.”

This claim is absolutely incorrect, and the proof can be found by anyone examining this Zapruder file access page, which contains images of all 486 frames of the 8mm Zapruder assassination film.

All you have to do is examine frames #312, #313, #314 and #315.

#313 shows the initial blood-and-brain-matter explosion, and it’s quite a good job of “painting” given that it not only shows the eruption of tissue in different directions but also a hazy watery mist hovering above JFK and Jackie Kennedy’s heads.

But #314 clearly shows the continuation of the initial grenade-like impact with red-orange tissue continuing to shoot out to the right, along with the persistence of the blood-water-brain matter spray effect above.

$315 shows less spray but the left-to-right tissue surge continues.

Say it again: Mamet’s statement about the blood-spatter explosion “existing only for one frame, 0.04 of a second” is flat-out wrong. “In frame 312 it is absent, [but] in the following frame it’s there, and in the next frame it’s gone,” he incorrectly writes. “Not dispersed or dispersing, but gone.”

C’mon, David…look at frame #314! You and your pal Fetzer need to rethink and recalibrate.

Again, an easy link to all 486 frames.

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…at Westport’s AMC Royale, and so far (5 pm) 31 seats have been sold. What does this tell you? It tells me that this James Mangold film will only do decent business this weekend…okay, better than decent, perhaps even brisk. But nothing to write home about.

But Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One (Paramount, 7.12) is totally wowser — a shot of grade-A adrenalin and nothing but breathtaking elements top to bottom, plus some of the action sequences struck me — this was surprising — as almost Buster Keaton-ish in a welcome way. But the Austrian train wreck finale is in a knock-your-socks-off category by itself — an INSTANT CLASSIC.

Subhead for Eliana Dockterman’s 6.27 Time cover story about Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (Warner Bros., 7.21): “The year’s most surprising movie finds humanity in the iconic doll.”

“Surprising,” in this context, means that rather than celebrating and reveling in flush-pink, girly-girl materialistic splendor, which is what 97% of the film’s audience will be gleefully anticipating and paying to see, Barbie will unfurl feminist-inclusive-gay-trans colors.

It will not only push a satiric attitude of the pinker-than-pink aesthetic but perhaps (if the new Time cover story is any indication) even endorse a soulful renunciation of same. Those retro-fest values are strictly in the packaging and will not be fulfilled. Surprise! Barbie is Maoist wokey-wokey.

But of course, as anyone who routinely visits TikTok can and will tell you, Barbie’s bottom-line message is going to be ignored nationwide and worldwide. Because the most ardent Barbie fans are going to enjoy it, as I’ve recently stated, for “the wrong reasons.”

HE sadly notes the passing of Frederic Forrest, 86. For most of us, Forrest’s best and biggest role will always be “Chef” in Apocalypse Now (‘79), a colorful supporting character whose head was chopped off by Marlon Brando’s Colonel Kurtz.

Forrest had starring roles in One From The Heart (‘81) and Hammett (‘82) — neither took off.

Jordan Ruimy reports that a pair of special Barbie screenings happened last night on both coasts, but the idea was fans-only — no critics or smart-asses or possible contrarians of any kind. So where are the tweets calling Greta Gerwig’s latest an absolutely blazing pink cinematic orgasm?

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