Sam Smith, 30, is the king of the world…a perfect person wearing nipple tassels. The only problem is that he’s put on too much weight. I liked him more when he was slender and dark-haired.
Jeffrey Wells
When She Was Hot
I’m not sure if Myrna Loy (1905-1993) ever gave a great performance. She shares a great “welcome home” scene with Fredric March in The Best Years of Our Lives (‘46), and is dryly amusing in a somewhat stiff-necked way in The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer (‘47). But she was certainly in full command of a sexy exotic vibe in her late 20s and early 30s. She also gave great vibe in the Thin Man series.
Previously unreported fact: I stood five feet from the still curiously radiant Loy at a National Board of Review awards ceremony in late ‘81 or early ‘82. Ragtime costar James Cagney was also there; ditto Warren Beatty, who said something flattering about Loy — something about her beauty still making his pulse race a bit.
What’s He Gonna Say?
Where’s the upside in saying anything else?
Craggy Tree (Serengeti)
Slight Slap On Wrist
Team Riseborough (i.e., Andrea and homies) has been more or less given a pass by the Academy. Okay, Academy CEO Bill Kramer has mildly snorted but declared there will be no punitive measures.
HE friendo: “Thank God. Now she wins. Maybe.
“What Andrea really needs right now is Danielle Deadwyler going classy by telling Clayton Davis to siddown and shut up while proclaiming that Riseborough ‘shouldn’t suffer because of over-zealous friends…hell, she’s got my vote.’
“Sadly, the safest choice at this stage of the game is Michelle Yeoh. Sadly, the great Cate Blanchett has probably lost the Best Actress Oscar, and certainly her momentum.
“And that’s fine with me. I hated that film but this is is a year when older voters will turn off Everything Everywhere 20 minutes in and STILL vote for Yeoh. They can separate the two.
“Okay, ‘hated’ is a little too strong. I admired that it tried to do something unique. I applaud that in fact. I think it’s just The Emperor’s New Movie. Older voters who don’t want to be seen as dust think it’s hip.”
More Friendo: “I definitely wouldn’t have seen To Leslie without all of this happening. I’m positive I’m in the majority on that.
“What kind of stuns me is that Alison Janney and especially Marc Maron didn’t do more to push their own legitimately worthy little movie. Especially Maron whose WTF podcast has a huge following. Apologies to him if he did that but I missed it if so.
“Ironically speaking, I wouldn’t be surprised if Riseborough herself is drinking heavily these days. I would be.”
“Something Happening Here…”
I was just as surprised by the Andrea Riseborough thing as anyone else, but to paraphrase Stephen Stills, “There’s something happening here.” Paul Schrader, Marc Maron, Rod Lurie…something has snapped.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences is just trying to placate the Riseborough conversation — we all understand that, no worries — but there’s an early groundswell thing happening regardless. Right here, right now.
What we’re all witnessing or at least sensing is the very early beginnings of the end of woke tyranny.
I am the groundhog — Hollywood Elsewhere is the groundhog.
Obviously the Riseborough thing (which is partially driven by the “hey, what happened to Danielle Deadwyler?” thing) and the climate of fear within film festivals are separate concerns. But they’re also linked in a certain oblique way.
When Eric Kohn, of all people, is noting that goose-stepping woke groupthink is inhibiting artistic freedom, you know something’s up.
Go ahead and chortle if you want, but I think we’re witnessing the nascent beginnings of a Spartacus moment. It’s some kind of boiling-water, bursting-tea-kettle thing — a combination of a lot of triggers (and not all them contributing to an articulate whole) but it’s some kind of emotional socio-political catharsis that boils down to “we’re tired of this Big Brother-esque, guilt-tripping, Great Cultural Revolution, Twitter tyranny shit and we’re not gonna take it any more…fuck you!”
Remember Kirk Douglas, John Ireland, Harold J. Stone and the others yelling “aahhggh!!” as they attacked the Roman guards inside Peter Ustinov’s gladiator school in Capua?
IndieWire’s Eric Kohn, one of the original woke commissars who once challenged me about the validity of the word “woke” — he suggested it was arguably an imaginary construct used by righties — Kohn actually posted the following paragraph on 1.29.23, and this definitely means something…it means that all the cowards who raise their damp fingers to the wind before saying anything…the cowards are now asking themselves if woke fascism might need to be walked back a bit.
Journalist to Jounalist: “Can you imagine how a movie like Neil LaBute’s In the Company of Men, which premiered at Sundance in 1997, would be received today?” Such a film (a blistering critique of misogyny) wouldn’t be shown today, of course. And that’s what’s the matter.
I Don’t Like It When People Fart Around
If a world–famous movie theatre is being discussed and some mild-mannered fellow asks where it’s located, you don’t play games like Facebook’s WT Solley did the other day. You man up and say it, plain and straight. You certainly don’t pussyfoot around by not mentioning the name of the city or the reason it became a famous venue to begin with.
RPatz Dior
Robert Pattinson’s career has obviously been damaged by this. Clearly he needs to sit down and watch Point Blank or, you know, a couple of ‘60s Steve McQueen films. Does the man have any self-respect AT ALL? Talk about total emasculation.
It’s not the baggy kilt (although it looks awful — the hemline of kilts should always be above the knees) as much as the heavy brown velour jacket with the ridiculous zipper and absurd elephant collar.
This photo is a metaphor about life on Planet Neptune. Surrounded by effete bumble bee assistants with ties to envelope-pushing fashion designers, famous actors live in separate realms and have no fundamental sense of street reality.
Yes, I’m aware this pic is a few days old.
