Friendo: “Have a great time at Telluride. Keep it real.”
HE: “I try to respond plain and straight every day, and double especially whenever the Crazy Town nutters go on the attack, which is every other day.”
Friendo: “I don’t trust many opinions that come out of that festival except yours and maybe two or three others. Most of the Telluride critics are dishonest whores. Anyway, I’m hoping a few winners pop up.”
HE: “I’m going to dislike Rustin — I can feel it in my bones. I know I’m going to love The Holdovers, and I can’t wait to re-experience The Pot au Feu, or the unfortunately re-titled The Taste of Things.”
Friendo: “Keep your eye out for Saltburn, The Holdovers, All of Us Strangers and Poor Things. Oh, and all the humorless NYFF elitists fell head over heels for Annie Baker’s Janet Planet.”
HE: “Strangers might work. A gay guy conversing with his deceased parents…interesting idea. What doesn’t work for me is watching the problematic Paul Mescal in any context. I don’t know what the solution is. Maybe if Mescal were to pop one too many tabs of mescaline and suffer an overdose.
“Isn’t Poor Things supposed to be a problem film? I read that somewhere.”
Friendo: “Oh yeah? Who said that? I’m surprised since Venice, Telluride and NYFF all selected it.”
HE: “It’s in the wind.”
Every sane person feels an alignment with Carlos, of course, but liberal-minded types are afraid to say otherwise for fear of wokester retribution.
Maestroleon concept poster is, at the very least, an excellent start. Visual designer: “I couldn’t find a good high-rez Leonard Bernstein so I just enlarged Joaquin’s nose and gave him glasses.”
I know this expression. I’ve worn it myself a few times. It says “I’ve been practicing this hard-ass glare in my Bedminster bathroom since this morning.”
Borrowed from the N.Y. Post…thanks.
He clearly rehearsed and refined the glare and achieved a certain “don’t tread on me” theatricality.
He’s an animal but you have to give the devil his due — he’s been performing in front of cameras for decades and knows what works and what doesn’t in terms of conveying that tough mafia boss persona.
What wasn’t intended but came through anyway: the man looks cornered, like a defiant rat. James Cagney’s Cody Jarrett on top of that huge oil refinery tank — “Come and get me!”
A possibly wiser way to go would have been to flash that big, beaming, pasted-on smile that he uses when posing with fans and allies. That would have said “they can book me but they can’t deter me or quash my spirit.”
He’s well past “playing it smart”, of course. His basic psychology took over a long time ago.