Just about everything that ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said last night was incisive, spot-on, brilliant.
Posted on Axios on 1.19.25: “The $TRUMP memecoin — a financial asset that didn’t exist [last] Friday afternoon — now accounts for about 89% of Donald Trump’s net worth.
“Why it matters: The coin (technically a token that’s issued on the Solana blockchain) has massively enriched Trump personally, enabled a mechanism for the crypto industry to funnel cash to him, and created a volatile financial asset that allows anyone in the world to financially speculate on Trump’s political fortunes.”
Posted on The Byte, also on 1.19: “The whole thing reeks to high heaven. Trump’s crypto isn’t shooting up in value because of any intrinsic technical or business acumen; it’s doing so because investors believe — rightly, in all likelihood — that it will be a lucrative conflict of interest over the next four years.”
But it certainly DOES flirt with mediocrity during the second half. And the bottom-line truth is that if not for the trans signpost factor, Perez would simply not be a Best Picture nominee.
This is a plea for Academy voters to emerge from the cultural woke cocoon of the past six or seven years, and to finally put aside sexual-identity or gender issues as deciding criteria. Enough with the social justice warrior crap.
Please consider voting for the Best Picture nominee that doesn’t do the woke two-step (please give that nagging “revolutionary” ethos a rest) while actually fulfilling and delivering a certain kind of high on its own emotional and cinematic terms. Which is what Anora, Conclave and A Complete Unknown manage to do, handily.
Joe and Jane Popcorn voted for Trump in order to get rid of the crazy wokey or at least keep it on the sidelines. For the love of God, smell the coffee. The woke point has been made, and now it’s time to set that bird free.
HE commenter K. Bowen: “It seems like the Academy is about to hand the trophy to a movie no one actually likes.”
I sympathize with owners of burnt-to-the-ground homes who want to clean up and remove debris as quickly as possible. I’m no Trumpie but The Beast telling L.A. mayor KarenBass that residents should be allowed to start clearing out rubble with all due haste…that’s a good thing. Don’t keep them from doing so because of this or that nickle-and-dime regulation…regulations which always slow things down by weeks if not months.
From Zack Sharf‘s 1.24.25 Variety story about Sophie Hyde‘s Jimpa, a story about “queerness and queer joy and trans joy,” according to costar Aud Mason-Hyde, Hyde’s non-binary son.
Mason-Hyde plays the gender-ambiguous Frances, Olivia Colman portrays Frances’ mom Hannah, and John Lithgow becomes Jimpa, Frances’ Amsterdam-residing gay granddad.
Sharf: “One of the most notable aspects of Jimpa is that it features full-frontal nudity from Lithgow, who is 79 years old.
“The actor says that ‘nudity is an extraordinary tool in creating an impact…it’s the one thing all of us hide from the rest of the world…it’s the one thing we keep guarded and very much to ourselves [but] if you’re willing to expose that for a good reason in the telling of a story, then there’s nothing more powerful.’”
Thanks to Scharf and Lithgow for their candor. I wasn’t all that interested in seeing Jimpa, frankly, but now I’m really not interested.
“I wouldn’t want to see a nude scene with anyone who’s too old or saggy or out-of-shape. There are very few older actors whom I’d be willing to watch without clothing, but think about the possibilities. Imagine, for example, if Neil Young or Jack Nicholson decided to star in a film that called for full-frontal schlongola. My reaction would be filled with terror.
“Even a nude scene with a muscular, rugged-looking old actor like Harrison Ford…even that might be a problem.”
If Joe Biden had kept his word about being a one-term “bridge” president and encouraged a competitive Democratic Party primary process to start in the summer of ’23, a strong candidate (possibly Kamala Harris, possibly someone better) might have emerged…a candidate who might have defeated Donald Trump on 11.5.24.
But of course, Joe turned arrogant and decided that God wanted him to successfully run for re-election, and that decision basically doomed democracy in the U.S. of A., and here we are. Joe caused it, Joe did it…Joe is the bad guy. Which is precisely what James Carville said to Al Hunt a couple of days ago.
Penned by Sasha with significant Jeff edits: The film industry and the Oscars have dug themselves into a hole, and that hole is called “not celebrating movies for normal people.” They celebrate movies made for themselves. They make movies to look good to define who they are…their utopian diorama.
In the late teens they brought in international voters, who don’t care about the film industry here. They don’t care about movies that we care about. Or if our movie theaters survive. That’s not their ultimate goal. They like to pick movies that they like, which is fine. Nothing wrong with that.
Oscar voters have shown “not just their disdain for the public but also the American studio system. This is the second year in a row in which two films from the International Feature category hav also landed in Best Picture, taking slots away from A Real Pain, September 5 and Sing Sing. Why? Why can’t there be any way to recognize American studio films to help, you know, salvage a collapsing empire? Revive a corpse? Save movie theaters? Just spitballing here.
So the Oscars are going “international” and on streaming, specifically Netflix, which is also international. How convenient for them, eh? Shame about Hollywood though. Shame about movie theaters. Shame about all of us who love them.
I don’t think there is any bringing back the industry we all knew and loved, and I mean one that was somewhat vibrant and semi-humming along as recently as ten years ago.
12 days hence HE will fly to Los Angeles for the Santa Barbara Film Festival (2.4 thru 2.15), and in so doing will enjoy a glorious respite from sub-Arctic Connecticut weather.
I’ll do roughly a week’s worth (2.5 through 2.12). As many films as I can fit in plus the 2.7 SBIFF screening of Kevin Costner‘s Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 2plus the Writers and Directors panels (2.8) plus Arlington events for Angelina Jolie (2.5), Ralph Fiennes (2.6), the 2025 Virtuosos (Kieran Culkin, Harris Dickinson, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez Ariana Grande, Clarence Maclin, Mikey Madison, John Magaro) plus Outstanding Directors panel (2.10) plusTimothee Chalamet (2.11) plus whatever else shakes loose.
Perhaps unwittingly, idiot arsonists probably started the Pacific Palisades fire. I know nothing, but a voice in the back of my mind is whispering that the new Hughes fire was almost certainly ignited by one or more sociopaths. The only way this really stops is a decent rain, but are the odds? Let’s not even think about the possibility of more Ventura County fires causing havoc in Fillmore, Santa Paula, Camarillo, etc.
President Trump having pardoned all of the 1.6.21 animal hooligans..the low-life assaulters, window-smashers and defecating slimeballs who invaded the U.S. Capitol a little more than four years ago…it doesn’t get much more reprehensible than this. Ditto the righty legislators and commentators who’ve stated their approval of same. Mad militias, political goon squads, vigilante mob rule…go for it, guys!
In a 1.16.25 Protect Democracy poll, it was reported that (a) 73% of Americans oppose pardons for those convicted of assaulting Capitol Police officers, including 54% of Republicans, (b) 56% of Americans oppose pardons for those convicted of organizing and directing violence on January 6th; and (c) 55% of Americans oppose pardons for those convicted of crimes by a federal court. And Trump has decided to let them all skate.
In the wake of Sebastian Stan being Best Actor-nominated for his Donald Trump performance in The Apprentice, new critical light is being shed on “those small-minded, quarter-inch-deep publicists who forbade their clients from participating in a Variety ‘Actors on Actors’ segment with Stan” last November.
Stan: “I had an offer to do Variety‘s Actors on Actors, [but] I couldn’t find another actor to do it with me. [I’m] not pointing at anyone specific, but we couldn’t get past the publicists or the people representing them because they were too afraid to talk about this movie.”
Paul Schrader once told me in an interview that “cowardice doesn’t require a conspiracy“…meaning that cowardice springs up naturally on its own…it’s a trait that’s built into people or certainly built into the less secure.
It goes without saying that none of the twitchy reps who kept their clients from chatting with Stan for the proposed ‘Actors on Actors’ segment will ever admit to having done so, and even if exposed they sure as hell won’t explain what exactly their thinking may have been at the time.
But if just one of these publicists were to come forward and make a clean breast of things by admitting to having wimped out, I would take my hat off in respect. What are the odds of this happening? Zilch.
“‘All hail Sebastian Stan‘s Trump, a note-perfect capturing of this amiable, malevolent psychopath, who apparently exuded a certain naivete and behaved in a semi-understandable fashion and may have been half-human when he was working in a senior capacity for his father’s real-estate company in the ’70s.’
“Last May Variety‘s Tatiana Siegelquoted an ‘insider’ saying that ‘audiences may find The Apprentice to be an oddly humanizing portrait’ of Trump. Excuse me? Young Trump seems like a semi-tolerable fellow at first, but he gradually morphs into a fuckhead…a killer. The truth is that Abassi’s film is an oddly humanizing portrait of Cohn as it invites the audience to share Cohn’s sense of betrayal…you actually feel sorry for this icon of evil when Trump gives him the cold shoulder.
“Strong’s Cohn is magnificent — he should definitely win the Cannes Film Festival’s Best Actor prize, the size of the role be damned. Cohn to Trump at film’s halfway point: ‘You’ve got a fat ass. You should do something about that.’ Strong is wonderful!”
8:48 am: Sebastian Stan‘s Donald Trump performance has also been nominated for Best Actor! A triumphant Apprentice moment, and shame on those small-minded, quarter-inch-deep publicists who forbade their clients from participating in a Variety “Actors on Actors” segment with Stan.
Stop Emilia Perez and Karla Sofia Gascon, stop Emilia Perez and Karla Sofia Gascon, Stop Emilia Perez and Karla Sofia Gascon, etc.
HE strongly approves of Conclave‘s Isabella Rossellini being nominated for Best Supporting Actress.
What happened to Hard Truths’ Marianne Jean-Baptiste snagging a Best Actress nom? I’ll tell ya what happened. One, nobody saw it. Two, Jean-Baptiste’s character was too pissed off, too hardcore, too Donna Downer.
HE strongly disapproves of Queer‘s Daniel Craig having been elbowed aside by Sing Sing‘s Colman Domingo in the Best Actor category. Nobody saw or much liked Sing Sing (be honest), and Domingo was nominated mainly because of (a) the widely-agreed-upon necessity of nominating at least one person of color in major categories, if at all viable, and (b) that sensitive-watery-eyes thing that Domingo uses all the time.
Stan and Strong aside, the morning’s big wow is Walter Salles‘ I’m Still Here being nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best International Film.
The Best Director nomination that went to The Substance‘s Coralie Fergeat (gender tokenism) apparently bumped the entirely deserved and 100% necessary Best Director nomination for Conclave‘s Edward Berger. Stern disapproval. Gender tokenism would not have been a factor if Babygirl‘s Halina Reijn has been Best Director nominated — it would have simply been deserved.
A Real Pain obviously should have been among the ten Best Picture nominees. Yes, Pain‘s Kieran Culkin was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but this was locked in several months ago.
We all knew AngelinaJolie‘s bad personal karma (i.e., encouraging court-mandated hostility against Brad Pitt) had eliminated any chance of her Maria Callas performance landing a Best Oscar nom, but now, glory be to God, this is an official, AMPAS-certified reality.
