If Emily (Jungle Cruise) Blunt has anything to do with it, it’s not funny — this is HE’s hard and fast rule.
Give Clayton Davis credit for at least admitting out of the gate that The Fall Guy (Universal, 3.3) is empty jizz-whizz. I proudly steered clear of last night’s all-media showing, and will mournfully submit to it Wednesday night like an Egyptian sphinx. I don’t care how many easy lays come out of the woodwork to insist how “funny” or “purely pleasurable” it is. So much of present-tense movie life is about spiritual drainage. Douse me with anhydrous butter fat, Leitch…pour gasoline, light match.
The Fall Guy rocks. Everyone involved is having the time of their lives and it shows. Ryan Gosling channels his performance in The Nice Guys to great effect. The action is strong, the comedy is stronger, and it’s so much fun. This deserves to be a big ole hit.@TheFallGuyMoviepic.twitter.com/UNT4Nn61n1
Life is good on Tetiaroa! Only for fat-wallet players, but as Max Bialystock said in The Producers, “That’s it, baby..if you’ve got it, flaunt it!
I’m on location for TFH in French Polynesia on Marlon Brando’s beautiful island of Tetiaroa so I can spend the week talking about the 3 epic movie versions of Mutiny on the Bounty where all the action took place! First up — Brando’s 1962 extravaganza: https://t.co/kWhLH8dGEwpic.twitter.com/1fyRETJUFE
“This is the result of the extreme left and p.c. crap and people worrying so much about offending other people. When you write a script and it goes into four or five different hands, committee, groups…’here’s our thought about this joke’…well, that’s the end of your comedy.”
HE to psychotic, head-in-the-sand, comment-thread wokesters (“Radewart” and that ilk): Here’s your chance to bash on crazy, wackjobby Jerry Seinfeld and his baffling tendency to view everything with a preconceived bias against the progressive left.
Jerry Seinfeld: PC culture and fear of offending people is killing funny shows.
"When you write a script and it goes into four or five different hands, committee, groups—'here's our thought about this joke'—well that's the end of your comedy." pic.twitter.com/YZuWo5HlJu
HE comment #1: Dunaway’s career hit a kind of pothole when Mommie Dearest came out, agreed, but I just re-watched it a couple of weeks ago and certain portions are still a hoot. For my money the film is a hugely pleasurable serving of classic Hollywood Kabuki theatre.
I saw it with several gay guys at the old Columbus Circle Paramount screening room in late August of ’81, and on the down elevator they were all shrieking with laughter, and I don’t mean the derisive kind. They were in heaven…delighted.
Alas, Mommie Dearest has been called an “unintentional comedy” by none-too-brights for so long that it looks like up to me, and I’m sorry but that judgment is just as wrong today as it ever was.
The Mommie Dearest “comedy” is not unintentional. The film basically serves a form of hyper-realism with a campy edge. It’s extreme soap opera, at times overbaked but winkingly so with everyone in on the joke.
If director Frank Perry had modulated Dunaway’s performance, some of the great lines — ‘No wire hangers EVER!,’ ‘Don’t fuck with me, fellas!’ — wouldn’t have worked so well. Those lines are the stuff of Hollywood legend, right up there with Bette Davis saying “what a dump!” and Vivien Leigh saying “I’ll never be hungry again.”
HE comment #2: Dunaway has been a first-rate actress since the early ’60s, and at age 83 is still at it, of course. But her peak years were close to 15 — Bonnie and Clyde (’67) to Mommie Dearest (’81). Her other highlights include The Thomas Crown Affair (fellatio simulation with a chess piece), The Arrangement, Little Big Man, Puzzle of a Downfall Child, The Three Musketeers, Chinatown, The Towering Inferno (the second best ’70s disaster flick, right after Juggernaut), The Four Musketeers, Three Days of the Condor and Network (Best Actress Oscar…the absolute peak).
Please understand that while some superstars have enjoyed 20-year peaks (Cary Grant, James Stewart, George Clooney), 15 is far more common so there’s certainly nothing tragic or mortifying about Dunaway’s career cooling down in the early Reagan era. Remember also that she rebounded with her Barfly performance in ’87, and that she landed three Golden Globes in the ’80s and an Emmy in ’94.
Clark Gable’s hottest years numbered 13 — between ItHappenedOneNight (‘34) and The Hucksters (‘47). Humphrey Bogart happened between TheMalteseFalcon (‘41) and TheHarderTheyFall (‘56) — a 15-year run. Robert Redford peaked between Butch Cassidy (‘69) and Brubaker and OrdinaryPeople (‘80) — 11 to 12 years. Tony Curtis‘s hot streak was relatively brief — 1957 (Sweet Smell of Success) to 1968 (The Boston Strangler). Kirk Douglas also had about 15 years — Champion (’49) to Seven Days in May (’64).
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…over 40 years and counting.
It’s a basic creative and biological law that only about 10% to 15% of your films are going to be regarded as serious cremedelacreme…if that. Most big stars (the smart ones) are given a window of a solid dozenyearsorso in which they have the power, agency and wherewithal to bring their game and show what they’re worth creatively. Dunaway certainly managed that and then some.
I’m sorry but my all-time favorite flamethrower scene is still the one in William Friedkin‘s Deal of the Century (’83)…the one in which Gregory Hines torches the enraged Latino guy’s car. Because it’s easily the most pleasurable.
HE’s #2 is the Once Upon A Time in Hollywood poolside scene in which Rick Dalton immolates Manson Family psychopath Susan “Sadie Glutz” Atkins. #3 is Sigourney Weaver torching Mama Alien and all of her eggs in James Cameron‘s Aliens (’86). #4 is vAl Pacino using the “flame” word during his Scent of a Woman third-act rant. #5 is Mel Gibson flamethrowing the bad guys in The Road Warrior. #6 is the singed hair-and-wardrobe scene in John Carpenter‘s The Thing (’82).
Kidman Tribute Friendo Commentary: “Nicole specifically named and thanked each and every director she’s ever worked with, and reminded the audience of her directors who’ve passed, including Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella.
“Thoughts from Meryl Streep and fellow Aussie Naomi Watts were exceptionally moving. Ditto a confessional from her husband, Keith Urban.
“‘Four months into our marriage, I’m in rehab for three months,’ Urban said, addressing Kidman and their two teenage daughters, who joined her on the red carpet for the first time. ‘Nic pushed [away] every negative voice, I’m sure even some of her own, and she chose love. And here we are 18 years later.’
“Cate Blanchett and Hugh Jackman tried a comedy routine via a prerecorded Zoom link with Jimmy Kimmel, but it was baffling and didn’t really come off.
“The audience seemed surprised that Mike Myers was an on-stage praiser of Nicole. His connection was never explained. But overall it was a room full of love and tributes, lapped up by a Hollywood-centric crowd seated at tables in the same theatre where the Academy Awards are presented.
“There was a Sunset Tower Hotel after-party that went on till the wee hours.
“AFI had sold tickets to Nicole’s fans from outside the business, and they filled the second-level balcony seats and got to watch the in crowd eating and drinking and toasting their Queen for the night.”
If only Joe Biden had decided to represent the executive branch in a sensible, forward-looking but moderately liberal way…if only he’d said “the woke stuff is fine and good, more power to them, but I’m trying to see to the interests of all the various groups that constitute this great nation of ours and not just the progressive wackos, and so I’m going to be a JFK-style, left-center President.”
If he’d done that Joe would be fine right now. But of course he chose not to, and that’s why that angry, beefy, working-class guy down below…just listen. He’s furious about hearing the same big-media narrative over and over….”white guys are bad news but all hail women, POCs and LGBTQs”…that’s why he’s saying what he’s saying.
"Can we just acknowledge how refreshing it is to see a President of the United States at an event that doesn't begin with a bailiff saying, 'All rise?'" jokes host Colin Jost at the 2024 White House Correspondents’ Dinner. pic.twitter.com/FyKMsNgPUn
“Never, ever confess to infidelity for any reason at any time…ever. The mere lure of infidelity is obviously a symptom of a relationship in trouble, but it always becomes a live ingredient once it’s acted upon.
“However enticing an exra-maritakl affair might seem, it’s really better to not go there. But if you do, take it fucking seriously. Becasue infidelity always makes things worse for a relationship that isn’t working all that well to begin with.
“Being honest with a wife/husband about cheating is like shoving a knife in their ribs, and if you love your partner/spouse you should never, ever do that. Unless you’re a sadist of some kind. You cheated once or twice? Hold that shit in and keep it there — live with it.
“You’re engaged in a full-on, emotionally entangled affair? Sooner or later your relationship will suffer as a result, but if you’re going to climb up on that high board and do that swan dive, do it like a pro. Either become an East German double agent in the early ’60s or don’t go there at all. Man up and show consideration for the feelings of your significant other by — hello? — protecting them from the hurt. Or, you know, from your selfishness or whatever the hell you want to call it.
“It’s your action. Don’t lay it on them. Keep it inside and grow a tumor if necessary, but bundle it up and keep it in a box. If you’re going to cheat, show a little decency.”
My first viewing of Tom Tykwer‘s Run Lola Run happened roughly 25 years ago, and man, it gave me such a huge rush…pure mainlined cinematic ecstasy. Live action plus animation…brilliant! I felt so aroused it actually made me want to visit Berlin and maybe even live there for a while. I wound up hanging there two or three times between ’09 and ’10 and ’11 or thereabouts.
Franka Potente‘s finest moment + Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup, Joachim Król, Nina Petri, etc.
Sony Pictures Classics will be re-releasing Lola theatrically on 6.7.24, boasting a new 4K restoration and a subsequent Bluray down the road. I could have asked for a link, but instead I’ll be catching a Manhattan screening a few days hence.
How many films has Nicole Kidman starred or costarred in over the last 35 years, or since her big debut in Phillip Noyce‘s Dead Calm (’89)?
She’s being AFI-tributed this evening, and given the fact that she’s shown excellent taste in choosing roles it’s hard to post a list of the very best as most of her films have been at the very least commendable or pretty good, and many have been very good or excellent.
She’s made very few stinkers or letdowns, which number about 12 by my yardstick — Far and Away, Practical Magic, The Stepford Wives, Bewitched, Fur, The Golden Compass, Nine, Stoker, Australia, Grace of Monaco, Destroyer and The Goldfinch.
A roster of Kidman’s finest films would have to include the following 15 — To Die For, Billy Bathgate, Eyes Wide Shut, Birthday Girl, Moulin Rouge, The Others, The Hours, Dogville, The Human Stain, Ranbit Hole, Birth, The Interpreter, The Family Fang, Bombshell, Being the Ricardos and The Northman (16).
I’m surely leaving a few out, but to me these are the gold-standard keepers.
