Hats off to Netflix marketing — this Roma trailer (released this morning) is fleet, nimble, darting — as strikingly artful within its own realm as Alfonso Cuaron‘s film is a major arthouse film in the big-screen arena. And don’t kid yourself — Roma is a movie you really ought to see on a big-ass screen in a sizable theatre somewhere. I’m not saying it won’t work on your 65″ or 75″ OLED screen at home (I’m actually looking forward to the 4K Ultra HD Bluray), but trust me — it would be a shame to miss seeing it the way hundreds of us did in Telluride and Toronto. Argue if you want.

Suddenly the entire civilized world is aware of Baraboo, a modest-sized town in Wisconsin that’s being probed and investigated after a photo was tweeted showing dozens of high school students — guys, of course — offering a “seig heil” salute.

They were probably doing it as a jape — as a way of being intentionally, ironically rude and outrageous. They probably thought they were saying “fuck political correctness” or something in that realm. But seriously, what kind of young squealing pigs would throw a “seig heil” without thinking twice?

The photo was allegedly taken last spring. The students were reportedly told to offer the salute by the photographer. And they did it laughingly, without hesitation? A tweet with the photo claimed “we even got the black kid to throw it up.”

One guy (top row, upper right) refused to join in — cheers and salutations.

Posted on HE-plus on 10.19, reposted here out of general respect and affection: I missed Lukas Dhont‘s Girl in Cannes last May, but I caught it last night at a special Peggy Siegal-orchestrated screening at the Quad.

Stop the presses — this Belgian submission for Best Foreign Language Film felt like the most assured, immersive and delicately effective drama about a transgender person that I’ve ever seen in my life, or am likely to see in the future.

It’s the kind of film that could have conceivably been awful if it had been written or directed by the wrong kind of button-pushing American director (Dan Fogelman, say), but it feels deft, assured and completely right with Dhont at the helm.

Seriously — I was knocked out by how good Girl was, by how clean and upfront and non-manipulative the whole thing played (with the exception of a traumatic third-act scene that I won’t describe), and how much I felt for the character of Lara (Victor Polster), a 15 year-old dude who clearly ought to be female — he has the emotional timbre of a quiet, gentle, impeccably mannered young woman who was well-raised.

The story is about how poor Lara, who has a loving, understanding dad (Arieh Worthalter) and a highly emotional younger brother, is trying to do two difficult things at the same time — become a top-ranked ballerina in one of Belgium’s most prestigious ballet schools and prepare for transgender surgery.

Polster’s screen time isn’t especially verbal — he has a fair number of lines but mostly his performance is conveyed with his eyes (often glistening, anxious, conflicted) and his half-smile and a general look of Grace Kelly-like composure that he’s struggling to project at every turn.

I was told last night that Polster had to learn the ballet moves (which are considerable) from scratch, that he had no background in dancing whatsoever. All the more reason to praise. Polster won the Un Certain Regard Jury Award for Best Performance,

Girl was directed by Dhont, whom I enjoyed speaking to during the after-party. Shot in Brussels and co-written by Dhont and Angelo Tijssens, pic will be streamed by Netflix down the road. Please don’t overlook it. It’s one of the finest Best Foreign Language contenders I’ve seen this year. Curious as this may sound, but it’s accurate to describe Girl as “straight-guy friendly.” It projects sensitivity, dignity, poise and class. I liked it right away.

A24 will open Sebastian Lelio‘s Gloria Bell on 3.8.19. It was my opinion last September that Julianne Moore‘s lead performance as the titular character — a single, middle-aged woman looking for love — would almost certainly snag a Best Actress nomination. And I wasn’t the only one saying this.

But A24 is a play-it-safe outfit — they’re not exactly known for passionate, balls-out, never-say-die Oscar campaigns (just ask Paul Schrader and Ethan Hawke), and so they’ll be opening Lelio’s film in the dog days of March and then hope for some Gotham/Spirit Awards action in late ’19 and early ’20. They’re basically giving Moore the bum’s rush,

Posted on 9.13.18, or before A24 announced their 2019 release plan: Sebastian Lelio‘s Gloria Bell, a nearly shot-for-shot remake of his 2013 original, is once again a very good film — emotionally relatable and affecting, wonderfully acted, a bit sad.

And I’m sorry but there’s no way Julianne Moore, who knocks the lead role out of the park, can be elbowed out of Best Actress contention. Like it or not she’s in the running alongside Lady Gaga, Melissa McCarthy, Glenn Close, Viola Davis and Ben Is Back‘s Julia Roberts.

Some will say “hold on, she won the Best Actress Oscar for Still Alice only four years ago” but she’s really superb here with a truly appealing role. The only thing that might prevent Moore from being nominated will be if A24 doesn’t step up to the plate with a serious commitment to Moore’s Best Actress campaign. Do I think she’ll win? Perhaps not, but once people see Gloria Bell they’ll know there’s no choice here.

Is it okay if I say that the Americanized Gloria Bell seems a tiny bit better — riper, funnier, more relatable — than Lelio’s Chilean-produced original? It’s not a stretch to call it a shot-for-shot remake of the 2013 original, and yet I found the actors in the new version more engaging.

Spider-Man, the Hulk, Doctor Strange, the Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Black Panther, X-Men, and co-creator of Ant-Man, Iron Man and Thor — Stan Lee lived a rich and bountiful life. Attention and respect must of course be paid and Hollywood Elsewhere is offering both. That’s all I’m going to say because I’m not a comic-book guy and I can’t pretend that I have a lot of personal stuff to share so let’s just leave it there. Hail to a good man who worked hard and pulled a lot out and put it down on paper and had a huge impact upon the Hollywood entertainment realm, particularly this century. Tip of the hat. We should all live so long, or as fully.

Last night I watched Peter Jackson‘s They Shall Not Grow Old. The enhanced-footage doc (colorized, digitally sharpened, converted to 3D) is about the arduous experience of British troops in the European trenches during World War I. I’m not a WWI buff but this is probably the first doc to emphasize the grisly aspects of the Great War. Ugly, muddy, bloody, cold, miserable, damp…men living like pigs. Not to mention horrific head wounds, the stink of dead bodies (including horses), no latrines, only two pairs of socks per soldier, no change of underwear, etc.

Roughly six million British troops were sent to fight in Europe between August of 1914 and September 1918. Just over 700,000, or 11.5% of the total, were reportedly killed. Then again the World War I Wiki page says 1,114,914 Brits died in the conflict — who knows?

An awful lot of young men in their teens and early 20s had bad teeth back then. Or missing teeth. Smiling wasn’t a good idea.

It begins and ends with conventional black-and-white footage of young troops preparing for battle and then a closing section depicting the aftermath and return to the home front. Only the brutality of war section. which lasts a bit more than an hour, is shown in color and 3D. The opening black-and-white section lasts around 19 or 20 minutes, and then into the colorized carnage and then a wrap-up that last between 10 and 12 minutes, not counting closing credits. The film runs 99 minutes.

The color on the version that I saw didn’t look as good as the tinting in the official trailer. I’m presuming this lack of subtlety is not what the film will deliver when Jackson’s plays theatrically in the U.S. on 12.17 and 12.27. I intend to see it that way, especially for the 3D.

The U.S. presentation of They Shall Not Grow Old is a co-presentation between Fathom Events and Warner Bros.

I’m about 20 years late to the White Album demo tapes thing. In May ’68 the Beatles recorded 27 songs at George Harrison‘s home (Kinfauns) in Esher, southwest of London. Most of the tunes were included on the White Album. All 27 (spiffed-up, fresh sounding) are part of the deluxe 50th Anniversary White Album reissue. All are on YouTube as we speak.

I’m thinking it’s the best unplugged Beatles album ever, including Let It be …Naked. I’m especially taken by (a) the acoustic “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” a song I’ve long despised for its whiny, morose, “woe is me” tone, and (b) “Revolution 1 (Take 18)”, which delves into Primal Scream howls just after the five-minute mark.

Pawel Pawlikowski‘s Cold War has snagged five (5) European Film Award nominations — best film, best director and screenwriter (Pawlikowski), best actress (Joanna Kulig) and best actor (Tomasz Kot). As the only Gold Derby member to include Kulig on my Best Actress list, I’m especially pleased to report her triumph. It’s also my humble opinion that Cold War should win the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar on 2.24.19.

HE picks in various categories: Best European Film — Cold War. 1st runner-up: Alice Rohrwacher‘s Happy As Lazarro. 2nd runner-up: Lukas Dhont‘s Girl.
Best European Documentary — Bergman — A Year in a Life (dir: Jane Magnusson)
Best European Director — Pawel Pawlikowski, Cold War
Best European Actress — Joanna Kulig, Cold War
Best European Actor — Victor Polster in Girl, hands down.
Best European Screenwriter — Alice Rohrwacher, Happy as Lazzaro
BestEuropean Comedy — No preference.
Best European Discovery — Girl (dir: Lukas Dhont)

The E! People’s Choice Awards — aka “the Empties” –were held last night in Santa Monica. The list of winners was pure Eloi, pure American nightmare — a celebration of the most vapid and insipid actors, celebrities and movies as well as a portrait of the spiritual vistas and values of the voters (God help us).

Typical acceptance speech by winners: “I’d like to thank all the brainless ditzoid teenage girls who voted for me…it’s a great honor.”

Did Melissa McCarthy win for her landmark performance in Can You Ever Forgive Me? Of course not — she won the Comedy Movie Star of 2018 award for Life of the Party, which many people of taste didn’t even see. The leading Best Movie of 2018 contenders were Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther, Incredibles 2, Fifty Shades Freed and A Quiet Place. Did the morons choose Panther or Place, which would have bestowed a thin veneer of respectabilty? Of course not — they chose Avengers: Infinity War. And so on. Less than zero.

The roster of Hollywood supporters of Jimmy Carter, compiled during the winter-spring of ’80, told you he was in trouble. Kennedy, Anderson and Brown had all the cool people. Willie Nelson, Sylvia Miles, Stephen Stills, Johnny Cash, Mary Tyler Moore, James Dickey, Harold Prince, Shana Alexander…the writing was on the wall. Incidentally: Andy Williams was an insincere, wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing Kennedy supporter, having been a Republican all along. He became a serious rightwing asshole in the aughts. In 2009, Williams was quoted by The Daily Telegraph as accusing President Barack Obama of “following Marxist theory” and “wanting the country to fail”. He was also chummy with Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. Williams passed in 2012.