Jeff Wells

This morning the House of Representatives approved giving Ukraine $60 billion for defense; ditto $26 billion for Israel.

The vote was 311 to 112. A majority of Republicans — 112 — voted against it and one, Representative Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania, voted “present”…coward. The Dems waved Ukrainian flags, which pissed off the righties.

The measure requiring either the sale of TikTok by its Chinese owner or banning the app in the United States passed 360 to 58.

N.Y. Times: “’Our adversaries are working together to undermine our Western values and demean our democracy,’ Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas and the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said Saturday as the House debated the measure.

“’We cannot be afraid at this moment. We have to do what’s right. Evil is on the march. History is calling and now is the time to act.’

“’History will judge us by our actions here today,’ McCaul continued. ‘As we deliberate on this vote, you have to ask yourself this question: ‘Am I Chamberlain or Churchill?’

“For months, it had been uncertain whether Congress would approve new funding for Ukraine, even as momentum shifted in Moscow’s favor. That prompted a wave of anxiety in Kyiv and in Europe that the United States, the single biggest provider of military aid to Ukraine, would turn its back on the young democracy.”

This CNET video includes a crudely animated reconstruction of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman on the night of 6.12.94. I’m uncertain as to when it originally aired — possibly in the mid ’90s or certainly more than 20 years ago.

I had never watched this horrorshow until after the death of O.J Simpson on 4.10.24.

The key portion begins around 4:35…ghastly.

It should be noted that the animated action doesn’t square with the earwitness account of local resident Robert Heidstra, who testified that he heard a male (almost certainly Goldman) yelling “hey! hey! hey!” around the reported time of the killings, or 10:35 pm.

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NEW: The man who lit himself on fire outside of Trump’s trial in NYC has been identified as Max Azzarello.

“My name is Max Azzarello, and I am an investigative researcher who has set himself on fire outside of the Trump trial in Manhattan,” his manifesto read.

“This extreme act… pic.twitter.com/xDjTgNDS6r

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 19, 2024

THIS IS HORRIBLE!

An unidentified individual has just set himself on fire outside the Trump Trial in Manhattan in front of the courthouse.

I will say this again. This is the most ridiculous form of protest you can do.

Let the trial play out. Stop listening to crazy people… pic.twitter.com/9kNaktofzp

— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) April 19, 2024

The eyes are the window of the soul…

(top) Donald J. Trump; (middle) Jeffrey Hunter as Jesus H. Christ in King of Kings (’61); (bottom) Robert Ryan as John the Baptist in same film.

…that I wish I’d been able to attend.

I liked Travolta better when he had some hair. The egg-bald-with-a-beard thing is okay, but not what I would call “preferred.”

I’m sorry but a very hotsy-totsy Hollywood screening of a 4K DCP restoration of Alfred Hitchcock‘s North by Northwest will happen two days hence, and I need to hear reactions from sophistos who can roll up their sleeves and evaluate the quality of the restoration like pros.

People have been waiting for a NXNW 4K restoration for many years. Talk about long-anticipated, pulse-quickening, etc.

What kind of a bump or enhancement does the new restoration offer, and in what way exactly? Be specific. Or is the restoration more in the realm of a sturdy, respectable capturing of what the currently purchasable Bluray already offers?

Those planning to attend the Saturday, 4.20 viewing at the TCL Chinese IMAX theatre (it starts at 2:45 pm) need to send reviews to HE as soon as possible.

A 4K UHD Bluray will “street” at year’s end.

44 years ago I attended a glorious Radio City Music Hall presentation of Kevin Brownlow‘s restoration of Abel Gance‘s Napoleon (’27) — a Francis Coppola-sponsored, once-in-a-lifetime cinematic happening that knocked everyone’s socks off…three 35mm projectors and a super-wide screen (those triptych sequences!), a live symphony orchestra conducted by Carmine Coppola…a magnificent trigger switch…genuinely exciting blood-pump cinema.

Many different versions of Gance’s masterpiece have been screened over the last century, and all were quite lengthy.

The world premiere version happened at the Paris Opera in April 1927, and it ran 4 hours and 10 minutes. A nine-hour version played the following month at Paris’s Apollo theatre. A six-hour, 43-minute version was sent to the U.S. in 1928. Many different cuts shown at varying film speeds were exhibited worldwide over decades. The Coppola-Brownlow version shown at RCMH in 1980 ran four hours with a longish intermission. It’s also viewable on Bluray, of course, with a running time of 333 minutes.

All to say that a brand-new Cinematheque Francaise version is premiering at next month’s Cannes Film Festival — seven hours total but shown in two parts. The first half (which will run three hours and 40 minutes) will screen on Tuesday, 5.14. HE will attend, of course.

Gance’s Napoleon is a much more vital and essential film than Ridley Scott and Joaquin Phoenix‘s Napoleon — I can tell you this without qualification. What ever happened to the idea of streaming a much longer version on Apple?

I never saw Jeannot Szwarc and Carl Gottleib‘s Jaws 2 (’78) because I knew it would be dogshit.

Even though it was produced by Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown and costarred Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary and Murray Hamilton, it was obviously corned beef hash. But before today, I had never seen a frame of it, and I must say that the water-ski-attack-meets-exploding-motorboat scene is hilarious!

Is there another scene as ludicrous? Does Hamilton’s mayor character get eaten? Answer: No — Murray is spared.

Jaws 2 cost $30 million to produce; it wound up earning $102,922,376 domestic and $105,978,000 foreign for a total of $208,900,376.

Richard Linklater‘s caper-esque Hit Man premiered…what was it, seven months ago? The big debut happened at last September’s Venice Film Festival, then a couple of weeks later at the Toronto Film Festival (where Netflix picked it up) and then the New York Film Festival.

Everyone loved Hit Man — the most popular light-hearted thriller of 2023. And then it kinda dropped out of sight, at least as far as advance screenings were concerned. Those not paying close attention might have thought it had opened. It never did, of course.

And now it’s back! Back to the future! One of 2023’s most likable hit movies is opening theatrically on May 24th, and will begin streaming on Netflix on June 7th.

I did a sitdown interview with Brian Wilson and then-fiance Melinda Ledbetter during the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. We were supposed to talk about Don Was‘s documentary about Wilson, I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times, which was having its big premiere up there, but we went all over.

I remember telling Wilson that I always loved the reverb guitar-and-keyboard intro for ““The Little Girl I Once Once Knew,” and he quickly agreed. (That same year he told a British interviewer that “the intro is the only good part of it.”) I then told Wilson how I once tried to learn to play the intro on keyboard but I couldn’t “hear” the separate harmonized notes in my head.

Wilson responded with disappointment and even a lack of patience — “You couldn’t figure that out?” That’s how geniuses are. When the stars are aligned they can swoop right in and solve any riddle, and if they’re in any kind of mood people who lack their gift can seem…I don’t know, tedious?

After seeing Love & Mercy I decided to buy a few songs from The Beach Boys Today!, which was recorded a little more than a year before Pet Sounds.

Today! is occasionally experimental and in some ways a kind of Pet Sounds forerunner. It contains similar elements — sophisticated off-rhythms and swirling harmonies, a feeling of sadness and vulnerability in the lyrics, that symphonic white soul thing — that Wilson built upon and made into something extra with Pet Sounds.

The track that knocked me out was “Kiss Me Baby.” It’s not so much a love song as a “we almost broke up last night so let’s not get that close to Armageddon again!” song.

The melody is a bit on the plain and familiar side, but the lyrics are so child-like and emotionally arrested…an immature boy-lover recovering from nearly losing his mommy-lover: “Please don’t let me argue any more…I won’t make you worried like before…can’t remember what we fought about…late, late last night we said it was over,” etc.

But when the chorus kicks in the harmonies and the general meltdown sound of this song are just amazing. This was Wilson’s unique realm — he made it sound just so, and with such exquisite balance and texture.

This instrumental track for “Let Him Run Wild” is also interesting for its resemblance to the instrumental Pet Sounds Sessions tracks.

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The Howard Dean “yeeaaahhh!” scream is perfect.

The only sensible thing to do with Trump's "Gettysburg, Wow" speech in Pennsylvania was to make a one-minute documentary film of it. These are all his real words. I added some "bing bongs" at the start. "Never fight uphill, me boys! Never fight uphill." #FunWithPhotoshop pic.twitter.com/xFQffyCa37

— Randall Stephens (@Randall_Stps) April 16, 2024

What’s the actual, no-bullshit reason for the Sundance Film Festival reportedly mulling the idea of pulling up stakes in Park City and relocating someplace else as of 2027?

Festival honcho Eugene Hernandez has offered a word-salad explanation that totally dodges whatever the actual situation might be.

Here’s the first half of Hernandez’s blah-dee-blah bullshit statement, as quoted by The Hollywood Reporter‘s Chris Gardner: “We are in a unique moment for our festival and our global film community, and with the contract up for renewal, this exploration allows us to responsibly consider how we [can] best continue [to] sustainably serve our community bullshit bullshit while maintaining the essence of the festival experience blah blah blah-dee-blah.”

Hernandez #2: “We are looking forward to conversations that center supporting artists and serving audiences as part of our mission and work at Sundance Institute blah blah blah blah blah, and are motivated by our commitment to ensure that the festival continues to thrive culturally, operationally, and financially as it has for four decades blah blah word-salad bullshit.”

HE admission: Hernandez’s statement didn’t actually include the “blah-dee-blah bullshit” stuff, but it may as well have.

Hey, Sundance Film Festival, are you listening? I’m shedding tears of joy over the news of your slow and inevitable demise. You’re essentially dead and nobody cares….in the words of the legendary J.J. Hunsecker, you’re a cookie filled with woke arsenic so get yourselves buried.

Okay, that’s a little too harsh. Let me try again. How about “you’re Frankie Pentangeli before he opened his veins and bled to death in a bathtub”? Does that work better?

Sundance will remain in Park City next January and in ’26, but they’re sniffing around for a new home. The festival isn’t decisively leaving Park City but something is prompting Hernandez and others to say “blah blah blah we’re happier and healthier than ever but we might leave,” etc.

If Sundance wants to extend its contract with Park City beyond ’26, the deadline is October 2024 — six months hence.

“Yes, Virginia…Sensitive Gargoyles Have Ruined Sundance,” posted on 12.27.21: