Jeffrey Wells Native American history, identity and (if the New Academy Kidz along with Variety’s Matt Donnelly have their way) inevitability.
Sorry but the concept of merit needs to step aside; bigger, more important social fish need to be fried.
But Leonardo DiCaprio never had a shot at a Best Actor nom. No way. Certainly not after that “idiot” quote from Paul Schrader got around.
No more Iron Eyes Cody-resembling Native American mannequins wearing deerskin and moccasins, living in forest-shrouded teepees and armed with spears and bows-and-arrows….displays of this sort in various museums are now history, thanks to the sensitive policies of the Biden administration.
Perhaps museums could replace these horrific displays with depictions of suburban habitats of middle-class Americans during the Eisenhower, Kennedy and LBJ administrations? You know…white-bread types watching 18-inch black and white TVs while eating dinners of meat loaf and mashed potatoes?
When I was a young buck I had this primal thing for Jovan musk cologne, which hit stores sometime in the mid ‘70s. The scent did something to me, and perhaps for me. I had this possibly bogus idea, you see, that occasional Jovan slap-ons might have upped my batting average, which was in the .350 to .400 range during the Ford, Carter and Reagan administrations.
Yesterday I bought a reduced-cost bottle of the stuff (CVS discount) and the scent just time-travelled me…whoooosh! Decades were erased in a flash. I was suddenly Marty McFly, driving my 1975 VW Fastback and wearing flared jeans and puka shells and Frye boots. Aromas are as good for time travel as Rod Taylor’s valour-seat, spinning-wheel device in George Pal’s The Time Machine (‘60).
…which included an unoriginal self-description: “Left conservative.” (Norman Mailer coined the term in the ‘70s.) 29 years ago! Jett was six, Dylan was four.
Doug Liman’s Roadhouse (Amazon, 3.21) is, of course, a remake of that 1989 Patrick Swayze original, directed by Rowdy Herrington and produced by Joel Silver. (Yes, I’m aware that it’s actually spelled Road House but I don’t like that spelling. Some people spell screenplay as Screen Play, and I don’t like that either.)
Chief Dan George was the first Native American actor to be Oscar-nominated (i.e., Best Supporting Actor, Little Big Man). He also won the New York Film Critics Circle trophy for this performance (“Old Lodge Skins”).
HE agrees that Barbie’s Greta Gerwig completely deserved an Oscar nomination for Best Director, certainly for the imagination, moxie and spunk that lifted her pink epic off the ground.
The idea of Anatomy of a Fall s Justine Triet or The Zone of Interest Jonathan Glazer taking her slot…I really don’t get it.
Unless the Academy’s mostly male director’s branch had a bug up their ass about Barbie’s misandrist satire…who knows? There’s no question that Barbie pretty much despises the XY community or at least regards them with a measure of contempt or pity…c’mon.
That said, “Marty the Martell”’s 1.23 Reddit post struck me as moderately sensible and perceptive as far as it went.
A 4K Italian Bluray of Woody Allen’s Coup de Chance will be released on 3.18.24 — roughly two months hence. Which means that the pirates will soon after be streaming it, which of course will lower whatever value it has stateside.
I personally regard Coup de Chance as a very valuable viewing opportunity. I’ve spent several months begging to see it.
I’m told that a certain U.S.-based distributor is looking to open (or at least stream) Coup de Chance a couple of months hence, give or take. That’s not going to work out too well once the Italian Bluray pops.
