Did Steve McQueen‘s 12 Years A Slave (’13), which was filled with brutality and sadism, qualify as black misery porn?

No, it didn’t. Not once did I think to myself, “This is a real downer.” Partly because Chiwetel Ejiofor‘s “Solomon Northup” was and is a great character, and because McQueen’s film amounted to much more than subject matter — it was and is a masterful, deeply affecting human drama.

That said, read this Wikipedia page about Colson Whitehead’s “The Nickel Boys” (2019) and explain to me how RaMell Ross’s film adaptation (Amazon/MGM., 10.25), due to screen at Telluride and open the New York Film Festival a few weeks later…tell me how this doesn’t feel (from a distance at least) like Black Misery Porn in bold caps.

And who are the sons of Lee Marvin?

Kamala Harris‘s history with Willie Brown in the ’90s is, of course, a so-whatter.

Within the quiet corridors of power it is totally par-for-the-course for attractive women to climb the ladder by way of a relationship with a powerful dude. The film industry has long been rife with such arrangements — Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, Monica Vitti and Michelangelo Antonioni, Guiletta Masina and Federico Fellini, etc. Not to mention Caesar and Cleopatra, Napoleon and Josephine, Evita and Juan Peron, etc.

There is no one, no one at all
Never has been, and never will be a lover, male or female
Who hasn’t an eye on, in fact they rely on
Tricks they can try on their partner
They’re hoping their lover will help them or keep them
Support them, promote them
Don’t blame them, you’re the same

Has life ever been fair? I am shocked….shocked!…that people use each other for this or that gain.

…died three months ago at age 80, and few noticed until yesterday. Here’s my November 2013 piece about visiting the My Lai massacre museum in central Vietnam.

…due to “concerns over his workload.” What a gentle reed! Pussycat! Real men don’t turn down professional opportunities because they’re hard…Jesus. Send Mulaney to Lee Marvin boot camp.

So why are the owners of Saugatuck Sweets trying to convert heathens and existentialists?

Friendo: “I agree with this a thousand percent. Very glad you wrote it. Something seismic has shifted. To the point that I don’t think comparing the Harris movement to the ‘High Hopes’ JFK campaign is at all out of line. As in 1960, this is about the candidate, but it’s also about something much larger than the candidate — a major pivot from the place we’ve been (the darkness of the Trump years, which absolutely include 2020-2024). You can feel the LARGENESS of the coalition. And the votes of women — of all stripes — are going to add up to a tsunami. Trump, the showbiz con man, suddenly looks like the old, dark, grim establishment.”

The Hawk Tuah thing is over, right? But I’m too stupid to understand what Hawk Tuah meant to begin with.

It’s an oral sex riff, of course, but in plain, dumb-guy, not-hip-enough-to-comprehend-it language, does it mean (a) a woman spitting on a guy’s erect member prior to giving him a blowjob or (b) spitting after he comes in her mouth? Either way I’m not understanding the trigger. How is the act or spitting saliva or ejaculate of any particular interest to guys in the TikTok realm? Who cares?

[FAIR WARNING BUT CANDOR IS REQUIRED] I have been a happy recipient of hundreds of generous and glorious female favors over the decades, and not once has saliva-spitting (i.e., the kind you can hear) been a procedural factor. Not once. Just saying.

I’m sorry but I didn’t start this, and I wouldn’t have mentioned it on my own dime if it hadn’t become a thing.

@iamdlaney #funny #fy #foryoupage #foryou #lol ♬ original sound – Dustin Laney

Letter to brilliant anti-woke friend, sent this morning:

“As I wrote yesterday, I have concerns and trepidations about Kamala Harris, but I also believe that her candidacy has become, over the last few days and at least metaphorically, a spiritual and inspirational movement of sorts.

“It’ll be a huge, huge deal for a woman of color (African Jamaican and South Asian descended) to become President. JFK in ‘60, Clinton in ‘92, Obama in ‘08…Kamala’s campaign is one of those. It’s a social movement thing that’s stirring exceptional currents. It’s a seminal change-and-hope event.

“Just a few days ago my attitude was (a) I would prefer Gavin Newsom or Pete Buttigieg, and (b) Kamala may lose to Trump considering that cackle and how she was chosen by Joe as a DEI symbol and how she didn’t connect at all during the 2019 and early ‘20 primary season.

“But something has shifted and she’s somehow caught on over the past week — she’s become someone or something else via some kind of cultural flash flood.

“Freed from the context of the ‘20 primaries, she’s now the younger, much smarter, more spirited, more humane and embracing alternative to The Beast.

“Obviously Harris is imperfect or even thorny by way of wokeness and identity zealotry and demonizing ‘white dudes’, but the white dude thing means, in this context, angry Trump supporters.

“As you know I feel best about sensible left-moderates or classic moderate Republicans like Glenn Youngkin, but I also feel that standing with that deranged criminal sociopath (a McDonalds loyalist and the fattest would-be President since William Howard Taft) can only unleash the ugly.

“Will Harris unleash a form of woke aggression as far as anti-white guy mentalities are concerned? Maybe, but she’s not stupid and life has a way of tempering attuned people and dissuading them from going too far.

“The bottom line is that Kamala is nowhere near as toxic or malevolent or dangerous as Trump.”

And on the other hand something that should make any serious cinema lover cringe, if not feel nauseous over.

Honestly? My first reaction when I read McClintock’s report was “good God.” I kinda hate that this kind of Marvel vapidity has succeeded so overwhelmingly. But I’m not sorry that exhibitors are celebrating.

…coming from someone who feels that identity issues are truly annoying distractions, primarily in terms of Oscar campaigning but also, particularly right now, in the political arena.

But despite certain misgivings about Kamala Harris and despite my anger about droolin’ Joe Biden having robbed Democrats of an opportunity to choose a presidential candidate through a primary system, it hit me yesterday that the idea of this country electing, for the first time in history, not only a woman but one with an African-Jamaican and Indian heritage to serve as U.S. President…I think that this kind of historic decision will be a truly excellent thing from a certain metaphorical vantage point.

And so I hope it happens. It’ll be good for the country’s spirit and soul. The Harris candidacy is more or less on the same historical footing as Barack Obama‘s in ’08, Bill Clinton‘s in ’92 and JFK‘S in ’60.

In short and not because this “means” anything in particular (even though it sorta kinda does), Hollywood Elsewhere endorses Kamala Harris for the presidency. Not without qualms or doubts or trepidations but what the hell…in for a penny, in for a pound. Make it happen, make it real, push it through.

Initial answer: Uhm…not that much?

Alternate answer: Technically yes but not so you’d notice.

Third answer: Okay, she’s “black” but mainly exudes a daughter-of-India appearance…nice Coppertone tan, button nose, thick dark hair, friendly dark eyes. Nothing, in short, that really says woman of half-African descent..,she’s certainly no Whoopi Goldberg or Michelle Obama. She’s not even Gugu Mbatha-Raw.