Jeffrey Wells HE agrees with World of Reel’s Jordan Ruimy. If Antoine Fuqua is producing, Paul Schrader’s Three Guns at Dawn (great title!), Schrader should just direct it already. Stop pussyfooting around by worrying about cultural appropriation. Fuck ‘em if they don’t like it. Balls up.
In his most recent (12.27) Oscar prediction column, THR’s Scott Feinberg has capitulated to the advancing Macedonian army of Paul Giamatti, star of The Holdovers, and in so doing has merged with the advocacy campaigns of Awards Daily’s Sasha Stone and N.Y. Times columnist Kyle Buchanan.
The whole “you can’t penalize Donald Trump because he hasn’t been convicted of insurrection” argument is a dodge based upon ignorance.
The “leave the animal alone” argument is based upon a mistaken understanding that blocking him from appearing on primary ballots in Colorado and Maine is punitive — an unfair punishment, his defenders believe, because Trump hasn’t been found guilty of insurrection in a court of law.
In fact section 3 of the 14th amendment is not about bitch-slapping an alleged insurrectionist but defending the workings of government from what judges may believe to be potential malignancy.
Leading section 3 scholar Mark Graber (University of Maryland school of law) says the amendment is about “qualification for office, not a punishment for a criminal offense.”
— from a 12.26 Guardian essay by Sidney Blumenthal. The subhead reads, “The [Supreme Court] can only rescue Trump by shredding originalism and textualism. Will it?”
“A Crybaby Year For Men in Movies,” a 12.27 N.Y. Times piece by Natalia Winkelman, lists six 2023 films that featured whiny-ass males weeping and hissyfitting about “a perceived loss of power to a woman.”
The man-babies are played by Mark Ruffalo, Ryan Gosling, Alden Ehrenreich, Samuel Theis, Joaquin Phoenix, et. al.
But one significant crybaby has been overlooked.
Cillian Murphy’s titular physicist character in Chris Nolan’s Oppenheimer, set in the 1940s and ‘50s, never frets over anything to do with power dynamics between men and women.
He is, however, called a “crybaby” by Gary Oldman’s Harry S. Truman in a pivotal third-act scene, and he does weep about having figurative blood on his hands over the A-bomb having killed thousands in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
And so I figured that a Times article with “crybaby” in its headline…I naturally expected that J. Robert Oppenheimer would warrant some kind of side-mention…no?
“No” because Winkelman’s article is a feminist hit piece about shitty little men, not just in 2023 films but in all corners of the current culture. Oppie is therefore excused as his kind of wailing isn’t sexist in nature.
He does, however, whine about having “become death,” etc. Mainly, I would say, because he lacks a certain adult perspective. Oppie would’ve been fine with the A-bomb murdering tens of thousands of mostiy innocent Germans but he felt badly about tens of thousands of mostly innocent Japanese being wiped out. To this day I’m unsure about the difference.
What I’m really saying, I suppose, is that “crybaby” shouldn’t have been in the headline.
How and why could a smart industry columnist who knows what goes…how could anyone with a semblance of insight and rationality care about the emptiest, most nihilistic and thoroughly repellent franchise in the history of cinema?…what kind of person says “this franchise is important to me” and “I want it to continue”?
HE approves of Barack Obama’s decision to omit Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon from his 2023 Ten Best list.
Which probably means that if the 44th U.S. President were to select his five picks for Best Actress, Lily Gladstone would not be among them. Because Barack believes in merit more than equity (i.e., cruising on the identity gravy train).
Barack’s including Blackberry among his Top Ten also suggests he’s a fan of Glenn Howerton’s supporting performance.
HE is totally aghast that Barack has blown off Maestro and Poor Things. How could be reject either? The Lanthimos especially. Not cool.
She is, however, echoing the views of younger none-too-brights who don’t know much about Leonard Bernstein and who resent biopics that don’t adhere to the standard approach. And this suggests that your SAG-AFTRA dummies may be voting for more conventional fare.
