The national nightmare continues until those tens of million of idiots who’ve said they won’t get the vaccine…the plague won’t really lift until these assholes change their tune.

I am one of the many columnist-critics who regard Spike Lee‘s Do The Right Thing as one of the finest films of the ’80s. I have it ranked sixth on my current ’80s roster. I decided that the instant that Mookie threw that garbage can through Sal’s Bed-Stuy pizza parlor window. It therefore comes as no surprise to me or anyone else that World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy announced yesterday that Do The Right Thing was the #1 choice among over 200 critics.

If this or that critic insists that Lee’s film is the best of the Reagan decade, fine. Ditto others choosing Platoon or Local Hero or The King of Comedy or Prince of the City or Raging Bull. Or HE going with Risky Business. Whatever. But when you hear that Do The Right Thing topped “almost half the lists,” as Ruimy puts it, one can at least wonder why. Most of us agree that people (and especially critics) tend to judge films according to whatever cultural winds may be blowing at a given moment, and right now Spike’s 1989 film seems to fit right in.

Ruimy: “Lee’s film no doubt benefited from an abundance of relevance over the past year in a socially and politically tumultuous America dominated by racial issues.”

HE ’80s faves: Risky Business, The Hidden, Drugstore Cowboy, Raging Bull, Local Hero, Do The Right Thing, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Prince of the City, Blue Velvet, Platoon.

#11 through #16: Full Metal Jacket, Scarface, Thief, Lost in America, Die Hard and Aliens.

An assortment of clips from New York-centric films of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s might suggest a portrait of grime, grit and squalor — a city that used to scare the shit out of tourists who dared to venture out of the Times Square area. But Jonathan Hertzberg‘s “Dirty Old New York” is not that. It’s mainly a portrait of old analog Manhattan — dicey-looking black dudes with big Afros, gas guzzlers, gaffiti-covered subway cars, dial pay phones, trash on those John Lindsay-Abe Beame streets, vinyl turntables, tube television sets, a co-residing Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow, 3/4″ video tapes, VCRs, etc. A nice time-trip thing, but I wouldn’t call it “dirty.” [Originally posted on 3.27.14.]

I have a certain affection for films shot in Ultra Panavision 70 and Camera 65, processes from the ’50s and ’60s that yielded aspect ratios of 2.76:1. (They were technically identical or damn near.) Actually, there were 11 such films in all, but I only have a fondness for three — Ben-Hur (Camera 65), Mutiny on the Bounty (UP70) and The Fall of the Roman Empire (ditto).

I never got around to seeing Raintree County, which also was shot in Camera 65.

Bounty and Empire were shot by the great Robert Surtees, and the framings and lighting are quite elegant. Empire was shot by Robert Krasker (Odd Man Out, Brief Encounter, The Third Man).

I have no affection at all for Quentin Tarantino‘s The Hateful Eight, which squandered the UP70 potential by mostly shooting inside the darkly lighted Minnie’s Haberdashery.

I’ve never seen Ken Annakin‘s The Battle of the Bulge (UP70, released on 12.16.65), and after watching this Smilebox trailer it’s possible I may never set the time aside.

The dialogue conveys stodginess, or what I would call an overdose of “officer-talk”. You can tell the whole thing smells. Any mid-’50s-and-after movie costarring Dana Andrews is something to be feared. German soldiers speaking German-accented English was outlawed after The Longest Day, but Annakin went there anyway. The Wikipedia page features a long list of historical inaccuracies. Dwight D. Eisenhower came out of retirement to denounce the film for gross inaccuracies. It was shot in Spain with little or no snow on the ground, and too many scenes feature the wrong kind of typography (I’ve been to the the Ardennes forest) and not enough pine trees.

Six Dr. Seuss books by Theodor Geisel (1904 – 1991) have been zotzed by the p.c. police.

Earlier today Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced the cancellation of “If I Ran The Zoo,” “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street”, “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!” “Scrambled Eggs Super!” and “The Cat’s Quizzer” because portions of said volumes “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong” by way of “offensive imagery.”

Everyone wants hateful images erased and hate speech squelched, but how aggressive and widespread will future cleansings be? And when will the dragnet extend to movies?

If there’s to be any consistency how can certain films that contain offensive content within a certain context — Martin Scorsese‘s cameo scene in Taxi Driver, for one, not to mention huge chunks of Quentin Tarantino‘s Django Unchained and portions of The Hateful Eight….how can these films be left alone while the legacy of Dr. Seuss is shamed and to some extent dismissed?

Friendo #1: “What’s weird is that under Obama Seuss was praised, understood and wildly appreciated. In 2021 not so much. I guess no one can really argue with this. Our culture has simply and dramatically changed where the past is no longer tolerated. Or understood.”

Friendo #2: “Ugh…I want to move to Neptune. Fortunately, those aren’t classic Suess titles, but still: Erasing the past is a Marxist-fascist paradigm. You don’t erase a work of art because of stereotypes. What’s next — erasing Taxi Driver because of Scorsese’s back-seat rant? This is madness.”

Friendo #1: “Yeah, good point.”

Friendo #2: “I think most liberal/progressives think that doing this is common sense — right in line with the idea of making blackface or the N-word verboten. They don’t seem to realize that this is book burning. You don’t erase the past. At least, not in a free society. I’m also outraged at the demonizing of Laura Ingalls Wilder.”

Friendo #1: “It’s really the corporations that buckle.”

Friendo #2: “The corporations love wokeness. Most of them are run by racists (i.e., the bro ‘libertarian’ fascists of Silicon Valley), but wokeness has turned out to be the greatest means of dividing and conquering their workers, and controlling their every move, that has ever been devised.

“Robin DiAngelo isn’t a racial-sensitivity guru. She’s a highly paid, whip-wielding corporate disciplinarian who cloaks her control-freak ideology in race propaganda. It’s no surprise, really, that her latest book is an attack on white progressives. I have no doubt that she’s a closet Republican.”

Friendo #3: “Even Biden broke tradition by not mentioning Dr Seuss in his ‘Read Across America Day’ proclamation He’s woke! Or at least scared of the wokesters.”

HE: During last year’s election campaigns I was nursing an idea that wokesterism and cancelling might begin to ease when Trump is finally gone. Now I’m not so sure.”

Who in this country constitutes the core rooting audience for the Meghan and Harry show? Who cares? Not guys, I’m presuming. Late teens to early 30something women? The same would-be TikTok and Instagram influencers who follow Taylor Swift, Kylie Jenner, Charli D’Amelio, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ariana Grande, Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez, et. al.? I’m not getting what the thing is. Followers are hoping some of that residual British royalty aura might rub off?

When Meghan Markle and Prince Harry withdrew from their royal responsibilities in England and moved to this country, it was agreed they would no longer receive “sovereign grant” money and would earn professional income. Settled in Montecito, they’ve “founded their own production company” and “signed a multiyear deal with Netflix,” says Business Insider. Harry is worth between $30M and (according to townandcountrymag.com) $40M — an inheritance from Princess Diana plus an annual allowance from Prince Charles. Markle is allegedly worth around $5M.

I addressed Harry’s thinning thatch last fall — no need to go there again.

Remember the “creepy handsy kissy Joe” problem, which began to be a thing about two years ago? The recent accusations of overly intimate flirtation and touching on the part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo sound vaguely similar, perhaps with a the dial turned up a bit. Or not. What do I know?

The descriptions and complaints make Cuomo sound (emphasis on the “s” word) like many male politicians of a certain age, like alpha lions who like to subtly (or not so subtly) sniff, sample and paw their way through a room.

I’m wondering if Cuomo drinks. If so that could be a factor. Guys who’ve had a couple tend to be less restrained, more impulsive.

Either way it appears as if Cuomo is about to be Al Franken-ed. With every new accuser the pressure intensifies all the more. We know how this goes.

>> @ChrisCuomo at the top of @CuomoPrimeTime tonight: “Obviously I am aware of what is going on with my brother. And obviously I cannot cover it because he is my brother. Now, of course CNN has to cover it. They have covered it extensively and they will continue to do so.” pic.twitter.com/G49mZYTG4D

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 2, 2021

Received today at 1:21 pm (Pacific): “Good afternoon, Jeffrey. I hope you and your family are doing well. I am reaching out to family members who have cremated remains in our care at Shaughnessey Banks Funeral Home. I found your contact information on your mother’s obituary from a few years ago. We currently have your brother Anthony’s cremated remains in our care. They came into our possession in 2010. Is there someone who would like to come and pick them up? — Brendan McKeon, Shaughnessey Banks Funeral Home.”

My brother’s ashes have been sitting in a box for 11 years and nobody said boo until today? If I was in the region I would drop by and suitably dispose. I could have sworn that I made arrangements after his passing (an accidental blend of swine flu, alcohol and Oxycontin) on 10.19.09. We were never especially “close”, but I attended a small farewell gathering of Tony’s friends at a Georgetown saloon.

When my sister passed from cancer in the spring of ’08 Tony and I scattered her remains into the Atlantic, right next to the Barnegat Lighthouse on Long Beach Island. My mother saw to my father’s remains when he died three months later. When my mom passed in ’15 I sprinkled her ashes around the Wilton Playshop, where she’d acted and directed in the ’60s and ’70s.

Tony was a good guy who fancied himself an X-factor prole. He was into healthy foods (wheat grass) and had excellent taste in films. He led something of a lonely life (no wife or girlfriend, no dog, no cat). The poor guy ran into a rough patch when the ’09 recession hit, Tony passed 11 and 1/4 years ago (10.19.09) in Georgetown, Connecticut.

Yesterday a much-anticipated retort from Robert Weide, the documentarian and Curb Your Enthusiasm producer who’s been steadfastly defending Woody Allen in the years-long battle with the Farrows (Dylan, Mia, Ronan) over that allegation of child molestation on 8.4.92, appeared.

It deals with the alleged moving electric train set that Dylan described in some detail in a 2.1.14 N.Y. Times article, written by Nicholas Kristof.

Weide’s rebuttal surfaced concurrent with the airing of episode #2 of Kirby Dick and Amy Zeiring‘s Allen v. Farrow, a four-part series about same. On 2.22 or exactly a week ago, Weide accused Dick and Zeiring of either being “half-assed researchers” or “inherently manipulative and dishonest.” He pledged on Twitter that he would explain in due time.

The gist of Weide’s 2.28 argument, directly drawn from testimony from pro-Farrow nanny Kristi Groteke, who was working at Frog Hollow on the day of the alleged assault, is this: There was no electric train, moving or stationery, in the attic that day, but there was a non-electric plastic train toy — something for a two-year-old to push around and play with.

Does this constitute a ‘holy shit!” Perry Mason moment? No, but it does warrant a certain puzzlement.

Weide: “Dylan specifically recalls the train set ‘travel[ing] around the attic.’ Then why does the police diagram show the track having a circumference of only 4 feet at its widest? Maybe Dylan didn’t literally mean ‘around’ the attic, but around in a circle, in the attic? Maybe we should give her the benefit of the doubt here. But the question remains: was there such a functioning train set in that space? Moses says there wasn’t even an electrical outlet in the crawl space. So was the electric train battery-operated? Is there anyone who can untangle this conundrum at the center of Dylan’s accusation?

“In fact, there is.

“Kristi Groteke, a nanny in the Farrow household who was on duty that day, testified in the 1993 custody trial, Allen v. Farrow, from which the HBO series takes its title. Groteke appeared as a friendly witness for her employer, Mia Farrow, and was asked about the content of the attic during direct examination by Mia’s attorney, Eleanor Alter. This means Groteke’s answer would have been known by Mia’s defense team prior to questioning her on the stand. (This is the recollection of a 23-year-old woman, less than a year after the alleged event, versus a woman recounting her memories as a 7-year-old, 23 years after the fact.)

“When asked about the content of the crawl space, Groteke recalls [as follows]: ‘There are some pictures and there is a trunk where things are stored, and there is a train set which the children take out and play with sometimes.’ When asked to describe the set, Groteke replies, “They are big, heavy plastic, green tracks and they fit into each other like puzzle pieces, and the train is a train car that is made for a child to sit on and ride.’ Alter asks, “Have you ever seen the train set in any of the rooms?” Groteke: “Yes. I have seen it downstairs in the living room, but more recently in the past year in Mia’s room and in the children’s room, through the hallways.” Alter: “’So they take it out of the crawl space?’ Groteke: ‘Yes.'”

HE comment: In short, for whatever reason Dylan apparently invented the recollection about a toy train moving around the attic or travelling along an oblong-shaped train track. You can put this down to the occasional vagueness of memory. I would put it down to unnecessary invention, which makes the water seem a bit murky.

A discussion of the merits happened this morning between myself, Friendo #1 and Friendo #2:

Friendo #1: “This doesn’t feel like the smoking gun Weide promised. I had thought, reading his implication, that we were going to discover the police drawing was some sort of fake. He raises an interesting issue, in terms of the nature of the train set. It wasn’t some electric train spinning around; it was larger and plastic — a notable discrepancy. But if anything, his post does serve to confirm that there was some sort of train set in the attic.

From Richard Rushfield‘s latest Ankler column, dated 3.1,.21 and titled “Morning After Report: Global Warning”:

“Not to get too maudlin and dramatic about it, but last night I felt like I was witnessing the death of Hollywood before my very eyes,” Rushfield writes.

Excerpt: “Hollywood’s awards circuit has always been interesting in that it shows the face that the industry wants to present the world. Glamorous! Caring! Creators of myths and spectacle! Good looking! Conscience of the world! You name it, as Hollywood’s vision of itself has evolved.

“Last night, at a moment in which the world is truly in enormous pain, the face of Hollywood was selfish, self-obsessed, small, petty and incompetent; thinking about itself, thinking about its causes, thinking about anything but what the audience might be looking for from its entertainers at this moment.”

HE to Rushfield: As you know, progressive Hollywood is riding a wave of woke evangelical fervor. Artists of color, LGBTQs, the #MeToo community and various supporters throughout the Twitterverse have grabbed the reins and are leading the San Juan Hill charge, and the goal they’re pursuing — the hill they’re looking to conquer and plant their flag upon — is nothing less than the transforming of American society into a better, more open-hearted, less Republican, more compassionate and forward-looking place.

Well, not American society as a whole but the upscale, moderate-minded urban blues — those who are theoretically capable of modifying their thinking and social behavior.

In a certain sense it’s a myopic realm that progressive Hollywood is operating out of, and at the same time they’re reaching out and looking to touch people where they live. “Entertaining” Average Joes is what a good portion of the streaming and theatrical industry is still trying to do. But this, by and large, is not what the award-season community is focused upon.

Friendo: “I don’t know if you’ve seen Richard Rushfield’s Ankler column this morning, in which he basically calls last night’s Golden Globes the Worst Thing Ever, the Death of Hollywood, and other crimes against humanity.

“I watched the Globes and thought they were fine. They were the COVID-era Globes — no more, no less. That’s why they were what they were. Should they have been cancelled (as Rushfield apparently seems to think)? No. That would have been dumb. Better a compromised show and a compromised Oscars, than giving up the ghost.

“And I thought it was interesting — actually rather humane — to see a bunch of glamorous showbiz folks try to put on a glitzy awards ceremony on Zoom.

“Why was this a disaster? It’s Covidthat’s the disaster, for Chrissake.

“Rushfeld is having his cake and eating it too. ‘The Globes don’t matter! No one takes them seriously!” So is it okay if they go on? No! It’s a fatal compromise! It’s the end! Of everything!’

“The subtext of his columns is that he wants all this stuff to die. He’d deny it, but it’s there.”

Click here to jump past HE Sink-In

Most of us would call losing one of our five senses — sight, sound, smell, taste, touch — an unmitigated tragedy. This, at least, would be our first thought. Gutted by loss, driven to tears — our ability to savor the joy and wonder of life sharply reduced and never to return.

But of course, the body gradually compensates. And so does the spirit.

Darius Marder‘s Sound of Metal tells the story of a heavy metal drummer, Ruben (Riz Ahmed), suddenly confronted with all-but-total hearing loss. And of course, freaking out and desperate for a cure, he sinks into denial and despair, before ultimately learning how to live with his new identity.

Ruben’s power-chord-playing partner Lou (Olivia Cooke) takes him to a sober house for the deaf, a bucolic retreat for hearing-loss victims run by Joe (Paul Raci), a 60-something Vietnam veteran. Ruben settles in, learns to “sign,” and even becomes a member of the family. Joe eventually offers him a permanent job at the house, but Ruben is determined to get cochlear implant surgery. He sells his touring van and drums and has the surgery, but his subsequent “hearing” is tinny and agitating.

The long and short is that Ruben finally comes to understand that deafness is not a handicap, but, if accepted and engaged with, a doorway to a certain enhancement.

Sound of Metal is a home-run for Ahmed, a performance that says “wait…this is it…this is me.”

The first time I noticed Ahmed was at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2010, when I saw him play a homegrown British terrorist in Four Lions. The next standout was his performance as Jake Gyllenhaal‘s half-assistant, half-colleague in Dan Gilroy‘s Nightcrawler (’14). Then came Rogue One (’16), in which he played Bodhi Rook, an Imperial cargo pilot who defects to the rebels. Then a bizarrely named 19th Century character (Hermann Kermit Warm) in Jacques Audiard‘s nihilistic, negligible The Sisters Brothers. And then, finally, Marder’s Sound of Metal.

I also believe that Paul Raci, Ruben’s straight-shooting mentor at the sober house for the deaf, deserves a Best Supporting Actor nom. Raci, whose parents were deaf, intimately understands the deaf community, and is perfect in the part. Like Harold Russell was perfect in The Best Years of Our Lives, I mean. Raci is actually a blend of Russell and Lives costar Hoagy Carmichael.

Sound of Metal is an absorbing and quite delicate film about using tragedy to transition from one world to another, and one that offers a doorway into a spirit world — a realm of cosmic serenity and stillness…a place that expresses the age-old axiom “never speak unless you can improve upon the silence.” Radiance is everywhere.

The bottom line is that Sound of Metal is easily the most spiritual Best Picture contender. It’s the only contender that says “look beyond the noise…look within.” It contains arias, symphonies, multitudes.

Sound of Metal uses innovative sound design to mimic the experience of hearing loss. Marder and Supervising Sound Editor Nicolas Becker drew upon extensive research into how hearing loss actually sounds, and began work on it a year before any other crew members were brought onto the film. The sound design team — lead by Becker and production sound mixer Phillip Bladh — definitely deserve Oscar noms, and…oh, hell, the Oscars themselves.

Also excellent are Olivia Cooke as Lou, Ruben’s singing-bandmate girlfriend who insists that he go to the sober house for the deaf, and Mathieu Amalric as her wealthy French dad.

There’s a moment when Ruben and Lou realize that they can’t resume their relationship, and it’s performed without a single line of explanation or descriptive dialogue…it’s one of the saddest breakup scenes I’ve ever seen.

In his assessment of last night’s Golden Globes telecast, THR’s Scott Feinberg notes that in the wake of negative aspersions cast by a recent L.A. Times article about an absence of African-American members in the HFPA, the GG winners were “remarkably diverse.”

He could have added that given the timing of the article, HFPA members felt understandably intimidated.

One could infer that HFPA members were prodded into voting for as many “diverse” nominees as possible in order to refute or muddy the implication of the L.A. Times article.

One could conclude, in other words, that they apparently wanted to say to the community at large that while the L.A. Times piece offered a certain implication, their GG winners offered another. We’re as woke as you want us to be, we’re not unaware of the current industry narrative, we’re totally on the bus, etc.

Feinberg excerpt: