Film critics who in their prime operated as honorable members of the Great Middle Community (i.e., those who criticized in a measured, perceptive, fair-minded way) are rarely remembered when they’re gone. The critics people do remember are those who seemed overly gracious and forgiving (i.e., often erring on the side of accommodation) or who seemed unreasonably cruel and heartless. The consensus view is that theatre, movie and book critic John Simon, whose influence peaked in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s but is still at it at age 93, belongs to the latter category. This is underlined in a portion of an Andrew Goldman Vulture interview with Anjelica Huston.

Goldman: A Walk With Love and Death was not well received. The critic John Simon wrote, ‘There is a perfectly blank, supremely inept performance by Huston’s daughter, Anjelica, who has the face of an exhausted gnu, the voice of an unstrung tennis racket, and a figure of no discernible shape.” I had to look up what a gnu is.
Huston: Wasn’t that pretty? That’s good, isn’t it?
Goldman: Coming as it did when you were 18, did it stick with you?
Huston: It sticks with you. And now that you’ve reminded me, it will stick with me for another ten years.
Goldman: I probably wouldn’t have quoted it had you not included it in your memoir.
Huston: No, I completely accept that. I think the news there is he’s dead and I’m not.
Goldman: You think he’s dead?
Huston: He must be.
Goldman: I was curious myself. I looked him up. He’s 93 years old. He’s alive.
Huston: He’s dead as far as I’m concerned.

“The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, pushed Attorney General William P. Barr twice to release more of his investigative findings in late March after Mr. Barr outlined the inquiry’s main conclusions in a letter to Congress, citing a gap between Mr. Barr’s interpretation and Mr. Mueller’s report, according to a letter released on Wednesday. The letter, from Mr. Mueller, revealed deep concern about how Mr. Barr handled the initial release of the special counsel’s findings.” — from N.Y. Times story by Michael S. Schmidt, titled “Mueller Pushed in Letter for Barr to Release Report’s Summaries.”

A 4.30 N.Y. Times report states that a month ago special prosecutor Robert Mueller expressed disagreement with Attorney General William P. Barr‘s pro-Trump whitewash summary of the Russian investigation’s conclusions.

If this in fact happened, why the hell is Mueller being quiet about it? Is he a stand-up patriot and a believer in the rule of law or not? And why have “senior Democratic lawmakers been unable to secure a date” for Mueller’s testimony about this and related matters before the Senate Judiciary Committee, as the Times story reports? Mueller has been frequently described as a straight-arrow traditionalist, but who the hell hides in his study or allows himself to be restrained from testifying when a Democracy is being dismantled by a lying, authoritarian brute?

From the story by Mark Mazzetti and Michael S. Schmidt: “Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, wrote a letter in late March to Attorney General William P. Barr objecting to his early description of the Russia investigation’s conclusions that appeared to clear President Trump on possible obstruction of justice, according to the Justice Department and three people with direct knowledge of the communication between the two men.

“The letter adds to the growing evidence of a rift between them and is another sign of the anger among the special counsel’s investigators about Mr. Barr’s characterization of their findings, which allowed Mr. Trump to wrongly claim he had been vindicated.

“It was unclear what specific objections Mr. Mueller raised in his letter, though a Justice Department spokeswoman said on Tuesday evening that he ‘expressed a frustration over the lack of context’ in Mr. Barr’s presentation of his findings on obstruction of justice. Mr. Barr defended his descriptions of the investigation’s conclusions in conversations with Mr. Mueller over the days after he sent the letter, according to two people with knowledge of their discussions.”

Five days after the first commercial viewings of Avengers: Endgame began and 48 hours after the first weekend of worldwide play, Variety‘s Guy Lodge is sincerely (no bullshit) disappointed that Thor’s weight gain has been spoiled by a Guardian headline. HE to readership: What levels of depression or anger (if any) were experienced due to the “fat Thor” thing?

In the not-so-distant past Jett and I were talking about an important job interview he had coming up. It was set for the following day or whatever, and Jett was a bit anxious. He confessed that he’d blown a couple of previous interviews because he was overly nervous and on-edge, and that he didn’t want that to happen again. I suddenly had a thought. Just before the interview, I told him, slip into a bathroom at a Starbucks and rub one out. It’ll make you feel calm, centered and anxiety-free. And perhaps even serene.

[Click through to full story on HE-plus]

Since Sunday night’s Apocalypse Now: Final Cut screening at the Beacon, I’ve read four or five articles that mention the forthcoming 4K Bluray (streeting on 8.27) that will contain Final Cut, the Redux version, the original theatrical cut, and what some have casually referred to as Eleanor Coppola‘s Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (’91), a doc about the making of Apocalypse Now.

I guess I need to remind everyone that the actual auteurs of Hearts of Darkness were the late George Hickenlooper (whom I knew as a trusted acquaintance and a good fellow) and Fax Bahr. Eleanor Coppola shot the 1976 location-photography footage and narrated some of the doc, but not too much else.

Hearts of Darkness co-director George Hickenlooper, Barack Obama during the ’08 campaign.

The Wiki page explains the basics: “Using behind-the-scenes footage shot by Eleanor Coppola, the doc chronicles how production problems delayed the film [and] nearly destroyed the life and career of Apocalypse Now director Francis Coppola, who was and remains Eleanor’s husband. In 1990 Coppola turned her material over to Hickenlooper and Bahr, who subsequently shot new interviews with the original cast and crew, and intercut them with her existing material. After a year of editing, Hickenlooper, Bahr and Coppola debuted their film at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival to universal critical acclaim.”

Two days after Hickenlooper passed on 10.29.10 I posted a piece that contained Hickenlooper’s recollections about the true authorship of Hearts of Darkness. Here’s how he put it:

“I think the more appropriate way to look at it is that Hearts of Darkness is Eleanor Coppola’s story. It’s not her film. Hardly. It’s her story. But that’s because I decided to make it her story.

“When I got involved with this project [in 1990], Showtime was going to make it a one-hour TV special called Apocalypse Now Revisited. It was going to be basically an hour-long special about how they did the war pyrotechnics. It was going to be dull and stupid.

“At the time I told Steve Hewitt and my partner Fax Bahr that ‘nobody cares about the making of a movie, especially one that is 11 years old.’ I argued that the film had to have an emotional component. At the time, no one was familiar with Eleanor’s diary ‘Notes.’ My father had purchased it for me on my 16th birthday. I ate it up.

“When I got involved with HoD, I advocated using her diary as the narrative thread. I got incredible resistance from Showtime, and I got initial resistance from Eleanor. Not much, but some.

Hillary Clinton did this to us. Unlocked the gates, set free the bats of hell. She was the change agent — the bringer of the horror that plagues us to this day. She and her enablers. They’ll all have to deal with this for the rest of their lives.

Loveless composer Evgeny Galperin, whom I met in Cannes two years ago, says that he “worked” for (presumably composed the musical score for) Kantemir Balagov‘s Beanpole, which will show in Cannes under Un Certain Regard.

Evgeny will be in Cannes for a couple of days to attend the Beanpole screening and, I presume, take a few bows. He assures that Beanpole, a melodrama about two women struggling to survive in the 1945 aftermath of the German siege of Leningrad, is an “absolute masterpiece.” He’s also urging that I see Kirill Mikhanovsky‘s Give Me Liberty, which will screen at Directors’ Fortnight.

Balagov’s controversial Tesnota (Closeness) screened in Cannes two years ago. The 26 year-old director’s decision to include footage from an actual snuff film prompted some press-screening walkouts, and resulted in the ruffling of critical feathers. Todd McCarthy‘s Hollywood Reporter review reflected this reaction.

Tatyana saw Tesnota/Closeness at Telluride ’17. She told Evgeny this morning that she found it “brilliant” and a “true masterpiece” and knew right away that “a new, very talented Russian film director had been born.”

Long Beanpole synopsis via Wild Bunch: “1945, Leningrad. World War II has devastated the city, demolishing its buildings and leaving its citizens in tatters, physically and mentally. Although the siege – one of the worst in history – is finally over, life and death continue their battle in the wreckage that remains. Two young women, Iya and Masha, search for meaning and hope in the struggle to rebuild their lives amongst the ruins.

“26-year-old Kantemir Balagov follows Tesnota, winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, with a powerful period drama.”

At long last, World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy has posted results of a top-rated films of the 20-teens poll. Not entirely critics but 250 “critics, programmers, academics and distributors“, as Ruimy puts it.

George Miller‘s Mad Max: Fury Road — a high-grade, brilliantly choreographed apocalyptic action flick — has emerged with the highest tally. Terrence Malick‘s The Tree of Life came in second, Barry Jenkins‘ overpraised Moonlight ranks third, Richard Linklater‘s Boyhood is fourth and David Fincher‘s The Social Network emerged as #5.

Of the top 20 favorites, a little less than half — Fury Road, Moonlight, Jordan Peele‘s Get Out (#10), Todd Haynes‘ Carol (#12), Spike Jonze‘s Her (#18) and Luca Guadagnino‘s Call Me By Your Name (#19) — could be called Joe Popcorn-friendly.

The others are studied, formidable, sophisticated, in some cases ultra-dweeby, New York Film Festival-y, non-popcorny “critics movies” such as Jonathan Glazer‘s Under the Skin (#12), Kenneth Lonergan‘s Margaret (14), Maren Ade‘s overpraised Toni Erdmann (#15), Apichatpong Weerasethakul‘s Uncle Bonmee (#16), Joshua Oppenheimer‘s The Act of Killing and Leos Carax‘s brilliant Holy Motors.

#6 through #10 are The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson), Roma (Alfonso Cuaron), Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson…get outta town!), A Separation (Asghar Farhadi…yes!) and the perfectly composed Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel Coen).

HE opinion (reposted): Moonlight is a very good film, but it was over-showered with praise by way of virtue-signalling and p.c. kowtowing. Now that the post-Twilight Zone truth about Jordan Peele has begun to settle in, Get Out‘s rep is almost certainly undergoing a reassessment.

HE’s TOP ELEVEN OF THE LAST NINE YEARS: Manchester By The Sea, A Separation, The Social Network, Zero Dark Thirty, Call Me By Your Name, Son of Saul, The Wolf of Wall Street, Leviathan, The Square, Moneyball, Diane.

Friend: Time to stop your crybaby whining and get on the Biden train. We have to take Trump out and Joe is, at least right now, our best bet.

HE to friend: “At least right now” — yeah, you said it.

Joe is Mr. Wrong for 2020. Mr. Out of Time. Bruce Dern in Coming Home. All he has going for his candidacy is Name Recognition & an association with Obama Comfort. He’s always been a gaffe-master extraordinaire, but he will out-do himself over the next 12 months. Sooner or later he’ll collapse like a deck of cards. Because he’s 10, 15 or 20 years too late. Because the train has left the station and he’s not on it. Partly or largely because he’s TOO DAMN OLD.

Mayor Pete, Mayor Pete, Mayor Pete.

Friend: You’re a fucking idiot. You’re just helping Trump. You should stop talking about politics.

HE to friend: Yeah, I was dead-ass wrong when I said over and over that while I’d be voting for Hillary Clinton, she was nonetheless without the right charismatic stuff and actually hugely dislikable. Obviously the only sane Presidential candidate in the ’16 general election, but that cackle and those eye bags were toxic. And then she fainted at that World Trade Center event. And her stupid email server. After the fact I spelled out what went wrong.

“It took President Trump 601 days to top 5,000 false and misleading claims in The Fact Checker’s database, an average of eight claims a day. But on April 26, just 226 days later, the President crossed the 10,000 mark — an average of nearly 23 claims a day in this seven-month period, which included the many rallies he held before the midterm elections, the partial government shutdown over his promised border wall and the release of the special counsel’s report on Russian interference in the presidential election.” — from “President Trump has made more than 10,000 false or misleading claims,” a 4.29 Washington Post report by Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo and Meg Kelly.