Jeff Wells

….that have ever come out of Ethan Hawke’s mouth. Particularly the passage between 1:50 and 2:48, but the whole thing really. Posted four years ago.

Posting a live, film-sourced GIF of the DeMille theatre’s electrified PSYCHO billboard (Seventh Avenue and 47th) in June 1960 is an HE milestone — never before have I seen this GIF, much less tried to share it. 63 and 1/2 years ago. A very big deal.

The I Don’t Care Girl (’53) was a biopic about Eva Tanguay, a vaudeville superstar who peaked from around 1900 to the early 1920s. 21-year-old Mitzi Gaynor wasn’t a good fit for a film with that title, as it suggested a woman with a provocational, sexually liberated, Isadora Duncan-like attitude.

As I noted in my 10.21.24 Gaynor obit, “Thespian skills aside, most popular actresses of the ‘40s and ‘50s activated or at least hinted at some form of inner heat…some kind of bedroom intrigue or fantasy. Whatever it was that Rita Hayworth or Lana Turner or Maureen O’Hara or Lizabeth Scott or Anna Magnani or Jean Simmons or Gloria Grahame or pre-Cleopatra Elizabeth Taylor or even Deborah Kerr had that indicated a vigorous or perhaps even a hungry-python approach to sex, Gaynor had almost none of.”

Ollie Brenner hates the hoi polloi like I do, plus he hates Nosferatu (“terrible fucking movie”). My kind of cinema bro. 100% approval.

Ollie on the scent of Dayton cinemagoers at a certain Regal cinema: “There’s a certain smell that encapsulates them. A certain aroma, if you will, that follows them around. Kind if like,…I don’t know. Like musky, but also lilke a rusty coin kind of smell, Showering maybe a couple times a week. A certain smell that bombarded my nostrils when we entered the theatre.”

@olliebrenner Keeping it classy in the dirty dyt #dayton #daytonohio #ohio ♬ original sound – ollie brenner

12:47 pm: RaMell Ross’s Nickel Boys is a truly fascinating and innovative arthouse experiment during the first 30 to 45 minutes, delivering nervy and daringly out-there chops with its avoidance of traditional boilerplate camera strategies, going for broke with a tilt-a-whirl visual scheme .

But the determination to mostly go with a vaguely Emmanuel Lubezski-ish strategy of having the camera or audience directly experience the lead protagonist’s POV wears down after a while, and what little narrative tension it has dissipates before long because Ross and Joslyn Barnes’ screenplay, based on Colson Whitehead’s 2019 novel, isn’t following a linear plot line, and the film basically goes on way too long (140 minutes).

Ferociously ambitious young directors make this mistake from time to time, over-indulging their whims and darlings, etc. This doesn’t exactly constitute a felony but the film, which tells a sad and brutal tale about a notoriously corrupt Florida reform school in the ‘60s, is definitely hurt by RaMell’s over-reach.

Nickel Boys deserves an A for ambition, and the performances are quite good (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor is the big stand-out) but it really does tax your patience and gradually runs out of gas, and a few plot events feel a bit confusing.

The brilliant Babygirl has a middling 77% RT rating from critics, but it’s been handed an unmistakably failing grade — 54% — from Joe and Jane Popcorn, and particularly from women.

I’ve been swooning over Halina Reijn’s film since I first saw it two weeks ago, and these neghead responses have left me crestfallen. One of the absolute finest films of the year is a complete flop with too many women. A 54% grade is basically a thumbs down — it’s not much different than a 30% or 20% grade — fail! — people are holding their noses.

Study the RT auudience blurbs. Some dudes like it and some don’t, but almost all the women dislike or even hate it.

@blmxalimo my fault for seeing the words ‘delicious’ and ‘sexy’ in the trailer and immediately purchasing a ticket #acompleteunknown #timotheechalamet #nosferatu ♬ original sound – farhiya

Listen to this guy especially — the unpleasantness wasn’t the movie’s fault, but the audience’s.

@moviesaretherapy Babygirl movie review kinda #fyp #foryou #movies ♬ original sound – Kit Lazer

Remember that moment in Goodfellas when Joe Pesci shoves an ice pick into the back of the head of Chuck Low‘s “Morrie” Kessler, the hugely obnoxious wig guy who was part of the Lufthansa heist? And Morrie goes “ahrgggghhh“? That’s what happened to Madame Web on Rotten Tomatoes. Not to mention Metacritic.

 

Strictly for the ability to watch streaming computer links on the 65″ Sony 4K.

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…that the percentage of really good films he’s starred in has been fairly low. Hanks has said this plain and straight.

It’s a basic creative and biological law that only about 10% of your films are going to be regarded as serious creme de la creme…if that. Most big stars (the smart ones) are given a window of a solid dozen years or so in which they have the power, agency and wherewithal to bring their game and show what they’re worth creatively. We all want to be rich, but the real stars care about making their mark.

Most name-brand directors, producers and actors enjoy 12-year streaks when everything is cooking and breaking their way. Some directors and actors are lucky enough to last 15 or 20 years or even longer. Your task, should you choose to accept it (and I know I’ve posted about this before), is to list any number of Hollywood heavyweights and when their 12-year hot streaks (or better) happened.

I’m not talking about the ability to work or get work — I’m talking about the years of serious heat and the best years falling into place.

Cary Grant peaked from the late ‘30s to late ‘50s.

James Cagney between Public Enemy and White Heat — call it 20.

James Stewart between Destry Rides Again and Anatomy of a Murder — 20.

Clark Gable’s hottest years were between It Happened One Night (‘34) and The Hucksters (‘47).

Humphrey Bogart happened between High Sierra / The Maltese Falcon (‘41) and The Harder They Fall (‘56) — a 15-year run.

Robert Redford peaked between Butch Cassidy (‘69) and Brubaker and Ordinary People (‘80) — 11 to 12 years.

Elizabeth Taylor had 15 years — 1950 (Father of the Bride) to 1966 (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf).

Jean Arthur — mid ’30s to early ’50s (Shane) — call it 15 years.

Katharine Hepburn — early ’30s to early ’80s (On Golden Pond).

Meryl Streep — 1979 (The Seduction of Joe Tynan) to today…40 years and counting.

Martin Scorsese is the king of long-lasting directors — Mean Streets (’73) to Killers of the Flower Moon (’22)…a half-century!

John Huston had about 15 years — 1941 (The Maltese Falcon) to 1956 (Moby Dick).

Alfred Hitchcock had 23 years — ’40 (Rebecca) to ’63 (The Birds).

Steven Soderbergh‘s had 23 years so far — 1989 (sex, lies and videotape) to 2012 (Magic Mike) and he’s obviously still kicking.

John Ford enjoyed 27 good years — ’35 (The Informer) to ’62 (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance).

John Wayne had an amazing 37 years — 1939 (Stagecoach) to 1976 (The Shootist).

George Clooney‘s peak period lasted almost 20 years.

Tony Curtis‘s hot streak was relatively brief — 1957 (Sweet Smell of Success) to 1968 (The Boston Strangler).

Kirk Douglas had about 15 years — Champion (’49) to Seven Days in May (’64).

Richard Burton — 1953 (The Robe) to 1977 (Equus) — almost 25.

During my two viewings of A Complete Unknown I’ve understood and enjoyed a fair amount of Timothee Chalamet‘s Dylan dialogue. but only about…oh, 60% or 70% at most. But when I watch the YouTube teaser clips with headphones, I can hear each and every vowel and syllable. The Searchlight trailer makers have simply mixed the sound so you can really hear the words while James Mangold‘s feature mix…not so much.

Don’t tell me it’s my fucking hearing…the dialogue is sharper and cleaner in the trailers, and that’s all there is to it. No arguments and fuck off.

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The spectacular Wizard of Oz sequence when the cyclone approaches and then consumes the Gale farmhouse (2:06 to 2:23) wasn’t used for some idiotic reason…talk about exciting, believable, first-rate work. Hats off to A. Arnold Gillespie, Edwin Bloomfield, Marcel Delgado, A.D. Flowers, Corril Harris, Donald Jahraus and J. McMillan Johnson, among several others.

Good Adam Sadler: The Wedding Singer, Punch-Drunk Love, Anger Management, 50 First Dates, Spanglish, Reign Over Me, Funny People, Uncut Gems.

Not-so-good or problematic Sandler: Pretty much everything else he’s starred in over the last 30 years.

From Owen Gleiberman‘s “Could Babygirl Have Been Made by a Male Director?’, posted in Variety earlier today:

“Babygirl is a film about someone” — Nicole Kidman‘s CEO character — “who feels, and believes, that her deepest desires are wrong.

“It’s important to recognize what a common sensation that is. There’s an old saying that goes, ‘Sex isn’t good unless it’s dirty,” and I think what that expresses is that it’s intrinsic to the nature of human sexuality that people are drawn, in the erotic arena, to acting out things that feel ‘naughty’ or ‘bad’ or whatever. It’s whatever floats your boat. And it’s why we have porn, which Kidman’s character in Babygirl is addicted to. That’s the realm where her libidinous imagination can roam free.”

HE’s answer: No male filmmaker would DARE to try and make such a film, as this would be politically suicidal. And the mob that would lash and eviscerate this guy would, of course, be progressive women.

Woke female mission statement: “We’ve reached a position of power that allows Halina Reijn to make this kind of film, but woebetide any dude who would be stupid enough to try and make such a film himself.”

Gleiberman: “What if a man had made Babygirl You could certainly say it would be more controversial.

“[But] the real answer is: A male director would not and could not have made Babygirl the way that Halina Reijn made it.

“It’s not just about the cultural identity politics. It’s about how the film’s power emerges from a hard-wired female consciousness. Kidman’s performance is extraordinary (the best by a female actor this year, in my opinion), but part of what makes acting like this possible is that the role is conceived with an intimacy that renders Romy’s gaze more potent than ours. She’s gazing into the sadomasochistic abyss of her own longing.”