Jeffrey Wells
Mia Farrow’s Best Performances?
Can’t decide which performance is better, although I’ve always leaned toward Tina Vitale, her cynical New Jersey moll behind the shades, in the latter film, which opened almost exactly 40 years ago (1.27.84).
The Purple Rose of Cairo opened just over 13 months later, on 3.1.85.
Less than a year later came Hannah and Her Sisters (2.7.86), in which Farrow also dramatically stood out (alongside Oscar-winner Dianne Wiest).
Perhaps Audiences Could Oblige In Some Way?
HE has a thing about Pedro Pascal also…hard to put my finger on “why?” but he’s definitely one of those guys who rankles on some level…perhaps not as aggressively as Mescal.
Sleet, Icy Rain
Finally some actual inclement weather. Took long enough. For the first time since cold weather began a few weeks ago I have my black leather gloves stuffed into my motorcycle jacket pockets.
$40 for 4K “McCabe” Disc?
…which can’t possibly offer a significant bump over Criterion’s 2016 Bluray version. Thanks but no thanks.
Not Interested
Ten minutes into last night’s opening episode of True Detective: Night Country, I was shaking my head, faintly groaning and muttering “nope…me no like.”
Set in the fictional village of Ennis, a grubby blue-collar hellhole in northern Alaska (but filmed in Iceland), it’s about a murder mystery (eight missing scientists) mixed with spooky horror jolts (a human tongue lying on a linoleum floor, a barefoot hippie wacko standing in a snowstorm) or, if you prefer, gulpy, uh-oh, nightmarish pan-flash stuff.
And I didn’t care…sorry. I was frowning. I actually watched episode #1 twice…well, nearly. But good God and Lordy Lordy. I hated the grimness and the gloom, the atmosphere of working-class gunk and chilly vibes, fleurescent lighting and the constant downer vibes…lemme out.
Miserable Me: “Who could stand living in this godawful one-horse town?”
I didn’t like any characters except for Jodie Foster’s “Danvers”, an aloof, flinty, sourpuss chief of police who’s no fan of the Beatles. I didn’t care for Kali Reis’s “Angeline Navarro”…didn’t like her sulking, sullen attitude or her cheek studs. There’s a young, good-looking cop (Finn Bennett) I took a shine to, but within a short while, as noted, I was sinking into a puddle of despair.
My spirit surged slightly when Reis came upon a CG polar bear on Main Street, but then we go in for the close-up and OF COURSE the bear is a bit scary due to a missing left eye. As soon as I saw that gnarly black eye socket I said to myself, “Fuck this show.”
Aftermath
It’s interesting (telling) that no one reporting about last night’s Critics Choice awards has mentioned any surprised, raised-eyebrow reactions about Emma Stone’s Best Actress win. Stone herself clearly didn’t expect it. Kyle Buchanan’s table “yelped in surprise”, he said.
And this morning, it seems, showbiz media reporters and columnists are all passing along the news in emotion-less, no-big-deal, police-blotter fashion.
Why is this? Because, I suspect, they’re probably terrified of acknowledging the Stone triumph as indicative of any kind of shift in the winds, as they don’t want to convey the slightest whiff of approval or excitement as that would go against “the narrative”, and hence might be read as an unfriendly-to-Lily sentiment.
The identity-counts-more-than-quality-or-depth-of- performance sentiment has been the foundational basis of the Gladstone campaign all along.
Stone’s Golden Globes win, last night’s score and her likely forthcoming win at the BAFTA awards will be three-in-a-row. If SAG gives it to Lily regardless then all bets are off — agreed.
Jordan Ruimy: “I think Stone wins the Oscar. If voters actually watch both films [Poor Things and KOTFM] Stone wins due to Lily clearly being a supporting turn.”
Friendo #1: “Academy voters might feel one person of color is enough with Da’Vine Joy Randolph and will not therefore feel obligated to pick Lily. That’s the best argument I can make for a Stone win.”
Friendo #2: “I’m not a fan of Gladstone’s performance, and even the misplacing of her in the lead actress category is a kind of performative identity bullshit. But sorry, I think she’s a lock to win the Oscar. (Might not be true if Stone hadn’t already won.)”
“Something Is Dying”
From Jonathan Dean’s London Times interview with Sopranos creator David Chase (1.12.24) about the 25th anniversary:
Imagine
…the N.Y. Post’s Dean Balsimini posting a dead-Hollywood-luminary map of Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery and ignoring Some Like It Hot director & co-writer Billy Wilder…shallow bastard. And yet Don Knotts and Roy Orbison made the cut.
What would Walter Matthau and George C. Scott say in heaven about being interred side by side?
Safe Space “Mean Girls”
“This isn’t your mother’s Mean Girls”, a marketing phrase for the same–titled remake that opened a couple of days ago, may have sounded to some like a taunt or a brag.
But according to screenwriter Tina Fey in a 1.10 N.Y. Times interview piece by Ashley Spencer, it was sorta kinda meant to reassure.
Having written the 2004 version as well as the newbie, Fey didn’t want her present-tense high-school bitches to violate current standards — no fatphobic or homophobic humor, for example.
Mean Girls is a critical bust on RT and Metacritic — 70% and 59%, respectively. And yet the somewhat-less-discriminating Joe and Jane Popcorn went for it over the last two nights — an estimated $31.5M weekend tally.
I re-watched the 2004 original a few weeks ago. For the usual HE reasons I decided to bypass the current version.