Jeffrey Wells

…what I know about the mindset of Stalinist wokesters and how they’ve injected fear and intimidation into the common creative bloodstream and have thereby helped bring about the all-but-total-collapse of the mainstream Hollywood industrial entertainment complex (i.e., the industry that used to occasionally make super-cool films) and the utter superfluousness of Oscar culture…if you knew what I know about the pernicious effects of David Ehrlich-ism you would definitely be whining about the all-but-certain coronation of Everything Everywhere All At Once…trust me.

If I was in Daniel Ellsberg’s situation, which I feel very sad and sympathetic about even though we all have to go sometime, I would find a nice friendly heroin dealer and start using a few weeks (but not too many weeks) down the road. Because what difference would it make? Plus he’d feel just like Jesus’s son.

Political columnist Stewart Alsop died of cancer in ‘74. Consider this passage from his Wiki page:

The late Tom Sizemore mattered in the ‘90s and will continue to matter forever because of two live-wire performances — Michael Cheritto in Michael Mann’s Heat (‘95) and Sgt. Mike Horvath, Tom Hanks’ second-in-command, in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (‘98).

Sizemore passed this evening (Friday, 3.3) at age 61. Hugs and condolences to friends, fans, colleagues.

He costarred in three Kathryn Bigelow films: Blue Steel, Point Break, Strange Days.

Natural Born Killers was bad for my emotional health, but I respect the passion that some feel for it. Sizemore played Jack (brother of Seymour) Scagnetti, the cop on the trail of Mickey and Mallory. Some have called it his strongest, most personal performance.

Sizemore was 33 when he made Heat in ‘94 — he had a stocky build and graying hair and looked at least ten years older. Genes, lifestyle, luck of the draw — it goes like that for some.

For a woman of 58, Monica Bellucci looks fairly trim and foxy. But Tim Burton, bless him, has never been even a half-sexy dude…ever. Even when he was youngish (i.e., the Beetlejuice days) he was kinda dorky-looking. And he’s never resembled a health-club fanatic.

So it’s the fact that he’s super-wealthy, right? What else could it be?

And anyone staying at the Ritz, where Hollywood superstars often bunk in Paris, isn’t looking to be “coy.” If you want to avoid photographers you’ll stay in a rented apartment in the Marais or Passy or Oberkampf or, you know, somewhere in the 3rd arrondisement…that line of country.

I hate guys like this. I mean, I really hate them. Pompeii?? They’re enemies of decency, of goodness.

Read more

The real Eddie Ginley has been an HE voice for some time and has posted 3900 comments. The fake Eddie_Ginley, a shit-talker and an all-around bad fellow, has an underscore between his two names and has posted 40 comments. Deep-sixing is obviously required.

Besides the obvious description, Sarah Polley ‘s Women Talking (‘22) is a long nocturnal discussion in a barn about whether or not a group of Mennonite women should more or less submit to an obviously intolerable situation or gather their things and split. You’re sitting there throughout the film and asking yourself “what’s to debate?”

Sidney Lumet ‘s 12 Angry Men (‘57) is about an all-male jury deliberating the guilt or innocence of a teenaged boy who may have stabbed his abusive father to death. And yet it’s really about the issue of reasonable doubt, which a single, well-educated, fair-minded juror (Henry Fonda) persists in exploring on a logical basis until he gradually persuades 11 fellow jurors that he has a point.

It started with a 3.1.23 Katie Herzog tweet. It sure feels good to know that EEAAO haters are legion.

Jeffrey Wells
If EEAAO wins, it will be like the meteor that slammed into the Yucatan during prehistoric times and killed all the dinosaurs.

Chris Nolan and Universal have strangely, curiously wimped out of a Cannes Film Festival debut for Oppenheimer (7.21). Okay, maybe Nolan’s post-production schedule doesn’t allow for a mid-May showing, but my gut tells me that he and Uni concluded that screening his adult-angled, IMAX-lensed historical drama in Cannes could possibly diminish the promotional push. Not in terms of critical response but possibly because it seemed too early. Either way what a drag! (Hat-tip to Jordan Ruimy)