“We’re all accustomed to Piers Morgan being a tart, adversarial figure,” I wrote two days ago (4.18). And of course, several voices came out of the HE woodwork to slime the guy. (Not that he doesn’t have stuff to answer for.) The Morgan–Trump interview in question won’t air until 4.25, but his tarty, adversarial questioning has led to an angry walk–out.

I know this is an old-fashioned thing to say, but I like to watch movies that have moderately good-looking people in the lead roles. True, audiences are more accepting these days of average-looking types, and this, I think, is a sign of social maturity. The general assumption is that if your main characters are too drop-dead beautiful or ax-blade handsome, then the film is probably mediocre on some level. I subscribe to that formula also. And I have no problems with Seth Rogen in a lead role…he’s obviously not Cary Grant or Brad Pitt, but I like him. On the other hand there’s a reason why guys like Danny McBride, Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch aren’t regarded as leading-man types. It’s the same reason why Johnny Depp lost his marquee mojo when he…uhm, bulked up.

Continuing a chat covered in yesterday’s “Maher Complaints & Retorts.” As noted yesterday, Darryl Ponicsan is the creator of Badass Badusky, Mule and Larry Meadows — the Jack Nicholson, Otis Young and Randy Quaid characters from Hal Ashby‘s The Last Detail. (DP wrote the book — Robert Towne wrote the screenplay.) His solo and shared screenwriting credits include Cinderella Liberty, Nuts, Random Hearts and Last Flag Flying.

The Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial is basically an appeal to the entertainment industry by way of a televized performance. Depp knows that Heard’s side of this sad story isn’t going to be outright dismissed…he knows that everyone is going to continue to see him as a flawed guy who behaved angrily at times…who went through some bad times with alcohol and other drugs. But at the end of the day Depp hopes to be seen as a less-bad person. A good portion of the public views him sympathetically right now, but Depp wants the industry to ease up on the harsh judgment. He knows that’s a tough one given the general intimidation factor, but he hopes that things might ease up. Maybe.

Does anyone even remember I Love You, Phillip Morris, the somewhat weird, no-laugh-funny but certainly respectable Jim Carrey-Ewan MacGregor gay farce from 12 or 13 years ago?

Directed and written by John Requa and Glenn Ficarra and based on the real-life story of con artist, impostor and multiple prison escapee Steven Jay Russell, it was a bizarre but well-made effort for the most part — a ludicrous, laughless comedy tinged with psychodrama.

It debuted at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and didn’t open theatrically for almost another two years (12.3.10). It cost $13 million to make but only earned $20.7 million — a flop but not a wipeout.

What other films of the last, say, 20 or 25 years have (a) featured a big-name star or stars, (b) were about a controversial subject or an otherwise extreme story, (c) made a lot of noise when they opened but (d) are barely recalled today?

Critics weren’t allowed to say it then and they’re certainly not allowed to say it now, but the reason I Love You, Phillip Morris fizzled, I suspect, is that Joe and Jane Popcorn weren’t especially interested in watching Jim Carrey have obsessive, Olympic-style intercourse with young Obi Wan Kenobi. Plus Carrey wore a bad hairstyle.

Carrey was slowly on the way down at the time (his peak period was between Ace Ventura, Pet Detective (’94) and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (’04) but he was still “that guy.”

From HE’s original review:

“The tone of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa‘s I Love You Phillip Morris is hard to describe. It’s a kind of dark comedy (i.e., there are bits that are intended to draw laughter), but since it’s a tale of obsessive gay loony love there’s really not that much to ‘laugh’ at.

“But there’s conviction in it — the emotions are as real as it gets — and the performances by Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor as the lovers are intense and out-there and fully grounded. Nobody’s putting anyone on, I mean.

“The tone is somewhere between high-toned soap opera and hyper-real absurdism, but it’s more or less fact-based. And the things that make it respectable and worthy and bold (which I feel it definitely is) are the sad moments, the irrational I-love-you acts, the bad behavior, the hurt. It’s nuts, this movie, and that’s what I liked about it.

“Love is strange, silly, demeaning, glorious, heartbreaking. A drug and a tidal wave that can destroy as easily as restore. And I Love You Phillip Morris is not laughing at this. At all. It’s a movie with balls and dicks and loads of heart and soul.

“I like this line from the Sundance notes: ‘As a primer on the irresistible power of a man who is either insane or in love (is there a difference?), I Love You Phillip Morris surely serves to remind us of the resilience of the human spirit.'”

Update: Here’s another film no one ever wants to re-watch, much less talk about, ever again: Zack Snyder‘s Sucker Punch (’11). Pure torture.

My excitement about President Joe Biden running for re-election is no more than level 3 or 4. If I have no choice I will vote for him, of course, especially if Donald Trump snags the Republican nomination. I can’t accept that moderate independents would be so stupid or self-destructive as to vote for Trump again. The man is a criminal, a sociopath, an enemy of decency, a beast.

That said voters will be very dispirited at the prospect of another Biden-Trump race. Deep down people don’t care for Biden’s old-guy vibes. People naturally like their leaders to project strength and vigor. Bernie Sanders is a year older than Biden but he projects more of a sharp and commanding quality.

I would feel better if a sensible Biden-esque figure in their 50s or early 60s was running instead of Biden — Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper.

I’m very sorry about Ezra Miller having been arrested for second-degree assault last night. Miller reportedly threw a chair at a woman inside of a Pahoa home, according to Hawaii News Now. Last month Miller was arrested in a Hilo karaoke bar after allegedly ripping a microphone out of a woman’s hands and lunging at a man playing darts.

It would appear that Miller is having trouble controlling himself, and now he’s blowing his career to pieces. After the karaoke bar incident he obviously needed to calm down and not be violent again, but now he’s branded himself as Mr. Wacko. Look at the HNN photo of him [below] — he could be Charles Manson’s grand-nephew.

I’ve always sensed something fierce and immoderate inside Miller…I’ve felt this tendency all along. This is what gives him power as an actor, of course. The trick is not to let inner feral tendencies overwhelm your judgment as an artist.

11 years ago I saw Miller in Lynne Ramsay‘s We Need To Talk About Kevin. Miller’s titular character, the neglected son of Tilda Swinton, was driven by anger issues. I described his character as “a steely-brained, black-eyed Belezebub…[the audience is persuaded early on that] the only humane and compassionate response to this kid would have been to put him in a burlap bag, fill it with rocks and toss it off a pier.”

Two years later Miller, a standout in Perks of Being a Wallflower, took part in a Virtuosos Award Ceremony at the 2013 Santa Barbara Film Festival. He was joined by Ginger & Rosa‘s Elle Fanning, Compliance co-star Ann Dowd, The Intouchables‘ Omar Sy, Beasts of the Southern Wild‘s Quvenzhane Wallis and Les Miserables‘ Eddie Redmayne.

Here’s how I described Miller’s on-stage demeanor: “The eternally weird Miller, 20, leaned forward in the interview seat, hunched forward like a cat about to chase a mouse. I half-expected him to leave the stage on all fours. Miller has Haight-Ashbury hippie hair now, and was wearing a pair of almost shapeless brown serf shoes. And he smiled a lot.”

We all go through difficult passages. I hope Miller can somehow get hold of himself and stop behaving this way. He’s only 29 — he has his whole life ahead of him.

MGM’s Raging Bull Bluray has been in my library for a dozen years, give or take.

Having seen Martin Scorsese‘s raw and turbulent classic two or three times during the original run in late 1980, I can say without hesitation that the 2009 Bluray looks much sharper and cleaner. The texture and detail have always looked magnificent, and the sound is far superior to what I heard in theatres in the final days of the Carter administration — the levels were so low at times you could barely hear the dialogue.

And of course, you can stream it on Amazon, Apple +, Vudu, etc. If there’s a difference in quality between the 2009 Bluray and the streaming version, my eyes can’t see it.

I’m therefore having trouble feeling excited about Criterion’s forthcoming 4K/Bluray version (7.12). It’ll look first-rate, of course, and I’m guessing that a certain extra-vivid quality will be apparent in the 4K version, but Michael Chapman‘s Raging Bull compositions have always had a rudimentary, right-down-the-middle 35mm look. Raging Bull was never meant to be pretty. It can never look as dazzling as Pawel Pawlikowski‘s Cold War or Ida.

It would be one thing if it had been shot in black-and-white VistaVision (like The Desperate Hours and Fear Strikes Out were in the mid ’50s), but it wasn’t. So I can’t imagine a significant “bump” effect.