The Manhattan-Brooklyn-Bronx-Queens parallels hold water for the most part, but the Eagle Rock, La Canada, Altadena and Pasadena territories should have been labelled as Westchester County or maybe Long Island. And the flush Woodland Hills, Tarzana, Hidden Hills, Calabasas and Malibu Canyon regions are hardly analogous to Staten Island. New Jersey (Morris, Somerset and Union counties) would have been more like it.

Remember that prurient Cool Hand Luke scene with the hot blonde soapy-sudsing her car in front of the sweaty convicts? I’ll bet that was the inspiration for this British piece of shit, which came along four years later in ‘71.

Guy Lodge has called it — gay guys are contemplating (if not giving full consideration to) the muscular erotic allure of Paul Mescal’s Lucius in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II (Paramount, 11.22)

HE has been acknowledging the Gladiator sequel gay subtext for a while now. Last July I tapped out the following:

For what it’s worth, HE believes that Jeremy Strong’s haunting performance as Roy Cohn in The Apprentice is 2024’s most impressive performance in the Best Supporting Actor realm, and obviously deserving of rank-and-file Academy acclaim.

…about the recent announcement (which Jordan Ruimy was on top of early) that Martin Scorsese‘s Frank Sinatra project has once again been knocked off the rails…thank you, Jesus!

…when Star Wars storm troopers didn’t have gender identity issues of any kind? When they were just plain old storm troopers and nothing else?

Ann Telnaes, Washington Post:

Bong Joon-ho is the new Terry Gilliam, and I’m shuddering at the prospect. I say this knowing I’ll have to sit through this effing thing. You think it won’t be a miserable experience? Think again.

Owen Gleiberman’s Variety review shoves a blade between the ribs of Blitz.

Sasha Stone deleted the torch-carrying natives, added the heads of the Kodak Theatre swells. It just has to be up-rezzed, cleaned up.

In a brief summary posted this morning by CNN’s Jamie Gangel, Jeremy Herb and Elizabeth Stuart, it’s revealed that Bob Woodward’s “War” contains several juicy, profane quotes, many if not most of them spoken by President Biden.

One excerpt quotes Biden describing former President Trump as “that fucking asshole.”

Another stand-out excerpt is a privately conveyed judgment by Biden that former President Obama’s weak response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Crimea in 2014 motivated Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in early ‘22.