Jeff Wells 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 this afternoon to Madame Web on Rotten Tomatoes. Not to mention Metacritic.
The Sasquatch makeup is pretty good, I have to say. I’m pretty sure I can spot Jesse Eisenberg under the stringy hair and prosthetics but I can’t identify Riley Keough. (Her name accompanies an image of one of the beasts, but I can’t “see” her.) The other two actors are Nathan Zellner and Christophe Zajac-Denek.
Sundance, Berlin, SXSW…Bleecker Street will release Sasquatch Sunset on April 12th.
Variety‘s Rebecca Rubin posted on 1.19.24:
I was never into Playstation and I certainly didn’t pay attention to Spyro the Dragon, a 1998 platform game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. (25 years ago!) But during a word game a few years ago my chronic hearing problem resulted in my sincere mispronouncing of the name as “Spyro the Jacket.”
The kids laughed at me and still bring it up on occasion, but let me explain something. Nonsensical as it sounds, Spyro the Jacket is better than Spyro the Dragon. A meme that makes no sense but at the same time transcends and in fact leapfrogs over the original.
Sometimes life flips on its side and bingo You have to be able to say “of course! and turn on a dime. Odd accidents sometimes open the doors of opportunity.
Spyro the Jacket isn’t just “better” than that Clinton-era Playstation game — it’s 10 to 15 times better. If I could afford it I would create a logo and manufacture “Spyro the Jacket” T-shirts and, yes, jackets.
I wasn’t paying attention to this “Dunkin’ The Dunking” ad during the Super Bowl…
1:40 mark:
Teenager to Ben Affleck: “Jennifer Lopez‘s husband…that’s cool.”
Affleck to teenager: “I had an influence myself.”
Teenager: “So what do you do?”
Affleck: “Aahhh, I do some…acting and writing and directing of movies, which were a kind of longform entertainment popular in the…20th Century.”
Jennifer Lopez is 54 (born on 7.24.69) and she doesn’t look a day under 32. Ben is 51…no biggie.
The expression on Mark Ruffalo‘s face in this Zodiac interrogation scene…his expression alone in this 5 minute, 48-second scene is ten to fifteen times better than his whole performance in Poor Things. Better in that it conveys an immense amount of information…he doesn’t move a muscle but his face is quaking with emotion and arousal and implication.
And that vaguely moaning, faintly growling sound we hear as the suspicion factor begins to build…fascinating. And the watch.
My God, what a brilliant film Zodiac is! All four guys in this scene are note perfect — Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards, Elias Koteas, John Carroll Lynch.
Plus Ruffalo is at least 20 to 25 pounds lighter in Zodiac than he is in Poor Things so there’s that also.
14:33 mark: “One thing we know for certain is this — we have two candidates who are chronologically outside the norm of anyone who has run for the presidency in this country, in the history if this country. They are the oldest people ever to run ever to run for president, breaking by only four years the record that they [themselves] set in 2020. They are objectively old…[and] are both stretching the limits of being able to handle the toughest job in the world.
“What’s crazy is thinking that we’re the ones, as voters, who must silence our concerns and criticisms. It is the candidate’s job to assuage concerns, not the voter’s job not to mention them.”
16:30 mark: “Look at me. Look what time hath wrought. [Stewart is 61.] Look at this. Give the kids the treat of a lunar surface here. I’m 20 years younger than [Biden and Trump]…this. Look at this. They wish.”
Talk about a total Barbie promotion. Looking to influence voters much, guys? It would have been a lot crazier and more visually exciting if this ad had used a Poor Things template…think of it. Jimmy Kimmel‘s head attached to the body of a golden retriever, stuff like that. But I do have to say that, once again, America Ferrara brings it with a rant about how difficult is is to be an Oscar host.
Funniest bit comes when Ryan Gosling says “that’s not gonna happen” regarding his chances of winning the Best Supporting Actor race…Downey Downey Downey.
Why didn’t they get Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie to participate?
The snow is thick and icy and slippery…love it as long as I don’t slip and fall and bruise my ribs like I did in the Sierras a few years ago. This is the kind of Hollywood snowfall you dream about…the kind of snowfall tailor-made for a horsedrawn sleigh with jingling bells…a snowfall straight out of The Magnificent Ambersons.
There’s nothing uncool about emotional fire and exuberance, but Travis Kelce behaved yesterday like a bellowing three-toed sloth. If you ask me he not only embarassed himself but Taylor Swift in the bargain. No sense of class or modesty. And I don’t like the Marine boot-camp hair and the long bushy-ass beard.
If I was in Swift’s boots I would be seriously re-thinking the situation. Who wouldn’t?
Brock Purdy is cooler, modest and moderate, better looking and a great quarterback.
I was amazed how cranked and excited I was by yesterday’s Super Bowl duel. I haven’t felt so crazily absorbed by a game of any kind, ever.
And — this is an Adam Carolla thing — I was reminded again about how wonderfully un-woke the sporting world is…no equity, no race bullshit, no DEI, no POCs complaining about not being shown the proper deference or accusing whiteys of fucking them over.
The players last night were on the field because they were good, period. They had proven their worth during the just-concluded season and were totally trusted by their coaches to perform well and to their utmost, and that’s all anyone cared about.
What’s that expression again? Oh, yeah, right — “merit over equity.”
Another thing about sporting competitions is that everyone accepts is that one team or another (or one golfer or tennis player or whomever) is going to lose, and that’s that. Life is hard, competition is demanding and certain competitors are going to feel gutted when they lose. But that’s life.
Imagine if Hollywood and the Oscars were to operate with this attitude. Talent matters! Only the best! Industry politics and high school popularity sentiments have always been a thing but equity standards are a whole different game —- an obstruction, a corrective.
…will happen today at 5 pm Pacific, 8 pm eastern. I for one have never watched a livestream of the Oscar nominee luncheon class photo thing…whatevs.
Five days after reporting that domestic distribution-wise “nothing is in the works” for Woody Allen‘s Coup de Chance, THR‘s Jordan Hoffman has reversed course by in effect announcing “oops, sorry ’bout that…Woody’s film will be distributed here after all, and within a couple of months.”
The cool-as-a-cucmber Coup de Chance, which debuted to mostly rave or approving reviews at last September’s Venice Film Festival, will debut theatrically in “North American markets” on Friday, 4.5.24, to be followed by a digital/VOD release on Friday, 4.12. The distributor is MPI Media Group.
Need I repeat that two and a half weeks ago (1.24.24) HE reported that “a certain U.S.-based distributor is looking to open (or at least stream) Coup de Chance a couple of months hence, give or take”?
Need I also repeat that on the same day as Hoffman’s “nothing is in the works” article I reported that Hoffman was “dead wrong about this,” and that “a distribution deal has been hammered out (at the very least involving streaming and possibly even a touch of theatrical)” and that “an announcement about same would happen sometime this week.”
The MPI announcement was delayed until today…no biggie.
A Woody Allen film opening theatrically two months hence obviously represents a #MeToo thaw or a lessening of woke Robespierre insanity. Hoffman’s story ignores the cultural significance of this. Why doesn’t Hoffman acknowledge this? I’ll tell you why he doesn’t acknowledge this. Because he’s not allowed to mention it because Penske Media, which owns THR, is totally in bed with the wokesters.
The last Allen film to play theatrically was Wonder Wheel (Amazon) on 12.1.17 — just over six years ago. Allen’s A Rainy Day in New York (’19) and Rifkin’s Festival (’20) received no theatrical exposure due to #MeToo condemnation of Allen over the Dylan Farrow accusations, although both eventually turned up on airplane flights and as streaming titles. Hoffman notes that Rainy Day became a surprise international hit ($28.3 million gross), “particularly in Asia.”
