During the last third of Manchester By The Sea, Patrick Chandler (Lucas Hedges) visits the home of his estranged, recovering-alcoholic mom (Gretchen Mol) and her Christian boyfriend Rodney (Matthew Broderick). Soon after Patrick receives an email from Rodney, the content of which I won’t go into but which basically says “your mother is a fragile soul who needs more time to get used to things,” etc.

As Patrick reads the email director-writer Kenneth Lonergan shows us a couple of shots of the text, and in the third or fourth paragraph (which nobody in the world will ever look at but which I spotted the last time I saw the film) Broderick uses the word “privilege” in some context or another.

Except Broderick — Lonergan, I should say — spells it with an “a” — privalege. Unless it was an honest spelling error on Lonergan’s part (which I strongly doubt), this is Lonergan suggesting that Broderick’s character is less wise and disciplined than he seems, and that he probably hasn’t been graced with an elegant, first-rate education. A man who knows his Bible and believes in the healing power of Jesus, but who lives in his little bubble (as, God knows, all too many liberals do, which SNL satirized last weekend). A decent man but limited in certain ways, and perhaps intentionally so.

All of this, I swear, is contained in that one misspelled word.

The suggestion is that a fellow who doesn’t know how to spell privilege (or who isn’t careful enough to use spell-check after writing a letter) is not only under-educated but is perhaps a little reluctant to know the world more than he already does. Rodney likes the realm that he lives in , and if that means he’ll occasionally mis-spell a word, so be it.

For some reason the Key West Film Festival booked my return flight from Key West to Los Angeles by way of Charlotte, North Carolina. I was at Charlotte-Douglas Int’ Airport for about 90 minutes last evening, and as I made my way to the departing gate I noticed a row of white rocking chairs along a longish corridor. And I said to myself, “Wow…that’s a nice touch. I wish I had time to sit in one of those chairs for five or ten and just be at peace for a bit.” But I didn’t. Because that’s how I live my life for the most part. I’m not really a rocking-chair type of guy, but I love the concept. I’m actually thinking of buying a rocking chair for my living room now.

An Eric Kohn Indiewire piece reports that Steve Bannon, the Lucifer-like alt-rightist who became the honcho of Donald Trump‘s presidential campaign last August and who will become Trump’s chief strategist and senior counselor as of 1.20.17, worked in indie film distribution in 2004 and ’05.

Bannon’s company, American Vantage Media Corp., bought Wellspring Media in ’04, which led to his overseeing distribution of (a) Jonathan Caouette’s Tarnation (a critically admired, low-budget gay-identity film that was made for next to nothing with loads and loads of found footage), (b) Vincent Gallo’s The Brown Bunny (notorious for that Chloe Sevigny blowjob scene, and directed by a fellow Republican!), Todd Solondz’s Palindromes (which I never saw as I kind of hate Solondz, no offense) and Alexander Sokurov’s Russian Ark.

Which of these four films would arouse President-elect Trump’s interest the most, presuming he hasn’t seen any of them? Three guesses and the first two don’t count.

Kohn also reports the somewhat embarassing information that Bannon worked in ’04 and ’05 with Cinetic Marketing’s Ryan Werner as well as The Orchard’s Dan Goldberg, whom I was just hanging with last weekend with at the Key West Film Festival. The seeming horror of the association! But no one should look askance at these poor guys for being strange bedfellows with Bannon 11 and 12 years ago. One has to maintain a sense of humor about such things. Back then Bannon, who split his time between New York and Santa Monica, was politically obliged to go along with the indie mindset. Now he’s about to become a modern-day “Thomas Cromwell in the court of the Tudors,” as Bannon described himself in a recent Hollywood Reporter interview.

The first 60% of Chris Santana’s 2016 compilation reel feels superficial as fuck. Way too much emphasis on CG/animated “whoa!” moments. No attempt to suggest underlying currents or themes or meditations. No adult perspectives or side angles. Pure funhouse. Then it settles down during the last third. But not enough for me. Basically depressing. Thumbs down.

It’s time to spitball what the Best Picture hotties will be twelve months hence.

Every January I begin to compile a list of likely or at least promising-sounding goodies. I thought I’d start a little earlier so that by New Year’s Day I’ll have a half-decent 2017 roster to build from. It’s always hard to cut through the smoke and try to figure out what might poke through. Right now I can’t see much out there. If you check the usual sites and sources (Wikipedia, Box-Office Mojo release schedule) it’s all the same old nauseating crap — the usual mind-melting, idiot-brand, animal-friendly superhero franchise CG Asian-market slop.

Theatrical films are slowly dying, certainly if you go by the product being cranked out by the five families these days, but never say die. Netflix, Amazon, Megan Ellison, A24, Scott Rudin, Sony Pictures Classics…anyone and anything that turns the key. Ambitious theatrical fare…what is that these days? Most believe the form can only go downhill, but the discipline of having to put it all together and cram it into 95 or 110 or 125 or 140 minutes (as opposed to the relative ease of sprawling Westworld-like longforms)…there’s something so vivid and extra-feeling when movies somehow manage to do that thing and deliver like it matters. I wouldn’t want to live in a realm in which people aren’t trying like hell to keep doing this, each and every year.

I’m looking to spitball a rundown of (a) the possible standouts at Sundance 2017, (b) at the Berlinale in February, (c) possible outliers from the winter, spring and even summer seasons that might go against the grain by being actually good, (c) potential Cannes headliners, (d) the Toronto, Venice, Telluride poppers, and (e) the Thanksgiving-Xmas films. No fucking franchises, no Marvels, no horror unless we’re talking Witch or Babadook-level, no monsters, no zombies, no end-of-the-world dystopia, no action-for-action’s-sake, no comic-book adaptations, no anime. And I don’t want to hear (much less think) about family-geared animation unless it’s some extra-level Pixar thing.

I’ve asked a few friends who usually hear about stuff, and now I’m asking the HE community. Any hints or clues of any kind would be appreciated. A couple of months hence I should have a list of 25 or 30 films that will at least start things off.

If I believed in Christian mythology, I would be greatly concerned right now about the very distinct possibility that Donald Trump is the Anti-Christ.  I’m half concerned about this anyway, and I couldn’t be less invested in Christian bullshit if I tried. I can’t help it — the thought is spooking me on some level. At the very least he’s Gregg Stillson.

Serious jihadists surely understand that an optimum time to strike the U.S. with a major terrorist act will be after Donald Trump takes the oath of office. Optimum because there’s a high likelihood that Trump will strike back all the harder, that he and his hardline advisers will go ballistic, and in so doing they will greatly intensify the U.S.-vs.-Islam divide that terrorists have been hoping for all along. For them, Trump will be the gift that keeps on giving. You know this is what the ISIS guys are telling each other now. A blustery, trigger-happy loose cannon in the Oval Office? Allahu Akbar!

“I’m afraid the adversaries overseas see us as a sitting duck of provocation…with a person who will lash back,” Ralph Nader told The National‘s Wendy Mesley. This is indicated by the president-elect is hiring “warfare people,” Nader explained.

Despite a reported decision by Paramount to screen Martin Scorsese‘s Silence for members of the National Board of Review on 11.19 (i.e., yesterday) and members of the New York Film Critics Circle and Los Angeles Film Critics Association on 11.30, the studio is declining to screen it for the Broadcast Film Critics Association prior to the org’s initial nomination deadline of 11.29.

A Paramount rep informed me a week ago that BFCA honcho John De Simio was told in early November that the studio “would not be able to screen for BFCA consideration due to the fact that its 350 members are located in over 40 cities in 2 countries.” This was apparently due to Scorsese still working on the film as of 11.14 (per Scorsese’s 42West rep), the lateness of which apparently made screenings for BFCA hinterland critics a logistical impossibility.

If I were running the BFCA I would have asked Paramount to at least screen Silence for the 130 BFCA critics who live in New York and Los Angeles. This would have allowed those 130 members (i.e., a little less than half of the total BFCA membership, but better 130 viewers than none at all) to vote yea or nay on whether to nominate Scorsese’s film for general balloting by December 9th.  

It hasn’t been made clear to me that the BFCA in fact sought such an arrangement, but they certainly should have. It’s just not cool to be silent on Silence when other players are seeing it and voting within the vicinity of 12.1.

Right now, to repeat, three major orgs — NBR, NYFCC and LAFCA — will see and vote on Silence within their respective deadlines, but the BFCA has been left out in the cold.

Remember also that 11.8 Deadline report about Paramount screening Silence for 400 Jesuit priests in Rome before the end of this month.

A few bad apples have made it into White House over the last 200-plus years (Warren G. Harding, Millard Fillmore, George W. Bush, Ulysses S. Grant, James Buchanan, Andrew Jackson), but Donald Trump is a breed apart — temperamentally unhinged (how many angry Hamilton tweets so far?), flagrantly corrupt ($25 million Trump University settlement), flagrantly racist (Jeff Sessions nominated as Attorney General), nakedly opportunistic (“stay to play” hotel promotion with Indian businessmen), climate change-denying (Myron Ebell is his chief environmental adviser), a believer in hardcore ideological adherence over measured temperance (Steve Bannon as White House Cromwell, Islamopohobic Michael Flynn and Mike Pompeo named as National Security Adviser and CIA chief, respectively)…the cray doesn’t stop and Trump is just getting started. And who helped bring this about in a minor but undeniable way? Jimmy Fallon. And you know who else? To some extent the Clinton-colluding Democratic National Committee.

Yesterday morning there was an Academy member screening of Damian Chazelle‘s La La Land, and then a buffet luncheon at Craig’s on Melrose. A few hours later producer Jonathan Dana wrote on Facebook that he felt “fortunate to experience La La Land, one of the leading contenders for Oscar in about a dozen categories. When you see talent like this at play, it’s hard to stay totally bummed, at least until you pass a TV tuned to any sort of news. Go see this movie. Soon. It will enliven your spirits.

“And the filmmakers are the nicest people. And Emma Stone? Beautiful, smart, engaged and endearing. Lunch was great too. Lucky me.”

Jonathan Dana, La La Land star Emma Stone during yesterday’s luncheon at Craig’s on Melrose.

Nobody is a bigger fan of La La Land than myself, and while I’ve never chatted with Stone Dana is 100% correct in describing Chazelle as an entirely likable guy. I know Chazelle very slightly and can say he skillfully hides the fact that, like all accomplished artists, he’s a bit of a fretter and a worry wart. But also a straight shooter. Chazelle looks you in the eye and seems to actually mean what he says, which is unusual in Hollywood circles. But to Hollywood Elsewhere the word “nice” is like chalk on a blackboard.

Wells to Dana: “Sorry I missed the luncheon. One question, Jonathan: The La La Land guys are ‘the nicest,’ you say. Good to hear. We should all strive to be nice every day of our lives and twice on Sundays. But what else are they gonna be at an Oscar-season luncheon? Snippy? Snide? Sullen? Saying they were ‘the nicest’ is like saying the snowfall that fell last night in Moscow is ‘the whitest.'”