Taron Egerton, the absolute personification of arid robot 21st Century CG bullshit comic-book formula flotsam with his two Kingsman turns and lead performance in the forthcoming CG bullshit power-pop Robin Hood fantasy…Taron Egerton as Elton John in a forthcoming biopic called Rocketman? It sounds like a terrible idea. He doesn’t even begin to resemble the Real McCoy. Then again I suppose it’s possible that Egerton, who’s done a little theatre, has more up his sleeve than his movie roles so far have suggested.

Jamie Bell will reportedly play John’s songwriter partner Bernie Taupin. Dexter Fletcher, who did clean-up on Bohemian Rhapsody after Bryan Singer was canned, will direct the John-Taupin flick.

(l.) Taron Egerton; (r.) Elton John in the mid’70s.

Most of John’s present-day fans (i.e., the ones who know him from his Las Vegas shows or performing “Candle in the Wind” at Lady Di’s funeral in ’97) are probably unaware that once upon a time he was this slender, balding guy in platform shoes and oversized glitter glasses.

When I think of my favorite John-Taupin tunes…well, it’s a shifting and movable feast. But my top ten usually include “Someone Saved My Life Tonight”, “Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word”, “Captain Fantastic and the Brown-Dirt Cowboy”, “Your Song”, “I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues”, “Sad Songs”, “Mona Lisa and Mad Hatter”, “Honky Cat”, “Tiny Dancer” and “Funeral For a Friend.” And I’ve always hated “Daniel”…hated it.

If you search Rotten Tomatoes for “Cold War,” you’ll find seven titles. But there is only one Cold War — the latest Pawel Pawlikowski masterpiece, destined to win the Best Foreign Language Feature Oscar, HE’s favorite Cannes film by a country mile. Jewel-perfect, exquisitely photographed, tight as a drum.

Amazon will release Cold War on 12.21.

5.19 HE blurb: “Cold War is so perfectly composed, a masterwork on every level. Pawlikowski’s story-telling instincts couldn’t be more eloquent or understated. Every plot point is always conveyed in the most discreet and understated terms, but you’ll never miss a trick. And the economy! A story that spans 15 year sis handled within 84 minutes, and you never sense that you’re being rushed along.”

On 6.2.18 I posted my latest best-of-2018 piece — i.e., “Ten Serious Winners.” I was restricting myself to films that have commercially opened. If I were to include the Cannes entries, my list would read as follows: Cold War, First Reformed, Hereditary, A Quiet Place, The King, You Were Never Really Here, Filmworker, Happy as Lazzaro.

A 5.23.19 IMDB comment from “Lucywalkercats“: “There is perhaps no greater example in recent memory of a film that so successfully makes the political personal and vice versa. It is moving without ever once feeling contrived. This deserves the next Foreign Film Oscar by a longshot.”

Tweeted yesterday by Steve Schmidt, MSNBC consultant and former campaign manager for John McCain (Schmidt was played by Woody Harrelson in HBO’s Game Change): “29 years and nine months ago I registered to vote and became a member of The Republican Party, which was founded in 1854 to oppose slavery and stand for the dignity of human life. Today I renounce my membership in the Republican Party. It is fully the party of Trump.

“It is corrupt, indecent and immoral. With the exception of a few Governors like Baker, Hogan and Kasich, it is filled with feckless cowards who disgrace and dishonor the legacies of the party’s greatest leaders.

“This child separation policy is connected to the worst abuses of humanity in our history. It is connected by the same evil that separated families during slavery and dislocated tribes and broke up Native American families. It is immoral and must be repudiated. Our country is in trouble. Our politics are badly broken.

“The first step to a season of renewal in our land is the absolute and utter repudiation of Trump and his vile enablers in the 2018 election by electing Democratic majorities. I do not say this as an advocate of a progressive agenda. I say it as someone who retains belief in DEMOCRACY and decency.

“On Ronald Reagan’s grave are these words: ‘I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph and there is purpose and worth to each and every life.’ He would be ashamed of McConnell and Ryan and all the rest while this corrupt government establishes internment camps for babies. Every one of these complicit leaders will carry this shame through history. Their legacies will be ones of well-earned ignominy. They have disgraced their country and brought dishonor to the Party of Lincoln.

Given Ad Astra‘s officially announced opening date of 1.11.19, it always seemed obvious that it would actually open in late ’18 to qualify for Oscars, Globes and whatnot. According to costar Jamie Kennedy, 20th Century Fox and James Gray‘s sci-fi flick will, in fact, open on 12.25.18.

Kennedy actually said this several weeks ago on The Shift with Drex, a Canadian late-night talk show. Here’s a clip of Kennedy’s disclosure.

Ad Astra is a father-son space exploration drama involving extra-terrestrial intelligence. It stars Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Donald Sutherland and Kennedy. Boilerplate: “Twenty years after Clifford McBride (Jones) left on a one-way mission to Neptune in order to find signs of extra-terrestrial intelligence, his son Roy McBride (Brad Pitt), an Army Corps engineer travels through the solar system to find him and understand why his mission failed.”

Alternate title: It’s All About Maximum Branding and Stallone’s History. 2nd Alternate title: What A Tangled Web We Weave.

In Ryan Coogler‘s Creed (’15), you had Adonis Creed (Michael B, Jordan), son of the late Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), being trained for a big match by the aging Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), who, in his relative youth, fought and then befriended Apollo during the first three Rocky films (the ’76 original, Rocky II in ’79, Rocky III in ’82). But then in Rocky IV (’85), Apollo was pounded to death in a match with Russian superboxer Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), which led to a vengeance payback match between Drago and Balboa.

Now comes Creed II (MGM, 11.21), in which Adonis goes up against — who else? — Viktor Drago (Romanian actor Florian Monteanu), the son of his father’s killer.

Keep it personal, keep it familial, and always reference the early Rocky narratives and Stallone’s concurrent late ’70s and ’80s heyday. HE alternate plan: Keep the brand going but don’t reflexively make the narratives about personal revenge and payback. Because it feels overly schematic and mechanized when you do that. The world is a lot bigger and more fascinating than the one you dream of in your philosophies.

“Trump’s Small Hostages,” posted on 6.19 by N.Y. Times columnist Frank Bruni: “Why don’t we call the terrified children whose incarceration is riveting the country what they are at this point? Not migrants. Not detainees. Not pawns, although that comes closest to the mark.

“They’re hostages.

“President Trump is using them as flesh-and-blood bargaining chips, hoping that their ordeal and reasonable Americans’ disgust with it will get him what he wants.

“Give him his border wall [he’s saying], and he’ll give the country relief from the sight of caged children and the sound of their sobs. Deny him and his government will stay its heartless course, no matter how much trauma is inflicted on these kids, no matter how much shame is heaped on America, no matter how profound the betrayal of its promise, no matter how deep the interment of its soul.”

Eugene Jarecki‘s The King has gotten plenty of praise from this corner. It got me with a mix of insightful social commentary, good music, bittersweet lament and lots of heart — incisive, soulful, thoughtful, a bit sad. Earlier today I spoke with Eugene about Elvis Presley — why didn’t he stand up for the Civil Rights movement in the early ’60s?, did Eugene ever speak with Priscilla on background?, why does the Presley estate refuse to put out a Bluray of Loving You?, etc.

I caught The King a second time last night at the Sunset 5, and was surprised to hear during the q & a that the film has attracted a fair amount of pro-con reaction, some from neutral corners and a lot of it from old-school white guys. In the YouTube comment thread for the trailer, I mean.

Comment #1: “Elvis is and always will be the Greatest of All Time. If Elvis was alive today Elvis would be on the Trump Train…MAGA.”

Comment #2: “This is going to be great 👍I can tell just by the trailer.”

Comment #3: “Wait a second, a film about the world’s best entertainer who served his country and loved America starring Van Jones and Alec Baldwin?? and they’re saying how crappy America is???”;

Comment #4: “I have just watched this on Sky Atlantic in the UK. It’s a brilliant programme and does The King proud”;

Comment #5: “The faces in this documentary, if that’s what it is, don’t even belong in the same film frames with Elvis Presley. No matter what the film is about, I would not see it now, unless of course to further illustrate my point of how the left are working 24/7 to try and destroy anything left that is truly traditional Americana. Elvis had problems, no doubt about that, but he was also everything that the left and most musical entertainers today are not. There are millions and millions of us that know what the left is doing. Let them keep showing the masses just how anti-American they are.”

Comment #6: “It would be nice if all this politically correct cultural appropriation bullshit could be laid to rest. Elvis never stole a thing. But he did give a whole lot to the world with his music. The greatest entertainer that ever drew breath. There will NEVER be another like him.”

I’ve posted a few times about Matt Tyrnauer‘s Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood (Greenwich, 7.27), a 98-minute doc about Scotty Bowers, the amiable, formerly unsung go-between who wrote about servicing Hollywood’s gay and bisexual community during the ’40s, ’50s and beyond. His six-year-old memoir is called “Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars.”

I will once again share what I came to believe during the watching of it, which is that Bowers, whose tell-all book has been challenged and mocked and who’s been described here and there as highly imaginative, isn’t lying about anything.

For most of Tyrnauer’s surprisingly intimate, low-key, non-gossipy film is about old Scotty — a 90something, white-haired pack rat who owns two or three homes in the Hollywood hills and lives with a good-natured, seen-and-heard-it-all wife who loves him — and only intermittently about the mostly gay and bi movie stars and celebrities (Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy, Walter Pidgeon, Vivien Leigh, Charles Laughton, Vincent Price, Katharine Hepburn, Noël Coward, James Dean) who regarded Scotty as a trusted pimp and pleasure-giver who could and did set them up with same-sex lovers.

After studying Bowers for 98 minutes and listening to him talk about how terrifying things were for gay and bi actors in the intensely homophobic big-studio era, and considering the affection he has for his old gay friends and the strong feelings and immense respect they have for him…after the film is over you’ll probably be convinced, as I was, that Scotty is no bullshitter.

Last Friday (6.15) was the 30th anniversary of the nationwide debut of Bull Durham. And in a gesture of stunning arrogance and indifference Criterion’s notorious teal-tinted Bluray is coming out three weeks hence (July 10th). There’s no reason to presume that Gary W. Tooze‘s DVD Beaver frame captures are anything but accurate, and really…what a ludicrous joke of a color scheme. If Bull Durham dp Bobby Byrne was still with us (he passed last year) he’d say to the Criterion guys, “Good heavens, what the hell are you doing?” For the last time Kevin Costner or director Ron Shelton need to persuade Criterion to remaster Bull Durham correctly. I’ll say no more after this. If nothing changes I’ll never buy their damn Bluray, that’s for sure.

Next week Fox Home Entertainment’s Schawn Belston and James Finn are presenting a special 70mm screening of James Cameron‘s The Abyss (’89). I asked if they’re showing the original 140-minute theatrical version or the 171-minute special edition (i.e., the version that ends with shots of huge tidal waves) — no answer thus far.

I began to recall The Abyss in detail after receiving the invite. I can’t attend due to a screening conflict (the Sicario: Day of the Soldado all-media in Burbank) but even if I could I’m not sure I’d be all that enthused. It’s been 29 years, but I have two strong recollections: (a) The first two thirds are fairly riveting but (b) the last third drops the ball, especially when Mary Elizabeth Mastrontonio is brought back to life by Ed Harris after clearly drowning, and especially that dippy ending with the aquatic alien butterflies.

There’s never been a Bluray of either version of The Abyss, and you can’t stream them in high-def. Abyss Wikipage: “In July 2016, while promoting the 30th anniversary Bluray release of Aliens at Comic-Con, Cameron confirmed that he was working on a remastered 4K transfer of The Abyss and that it would be released on Bluray for the first time in early 2017. ‘We’ve done a wet-gate 4K scan of the original negative, and it’s going to look insanely good,’ Cameron said.” Okay, but something kept this from happening.

The hilarious part about Vertical Entertainment’s “hit back at the critics” ad is the chanting of the crowd…”GottEE!, GottEE!, GottEE!” Presumably the makers had to round up a few people to stand in front of a mike and chant. Were they professional actors (doubtful) or Vertical Entertainment employees or…? I wish I knew the story behind this.

Audiences loved Gotti but critics don’t want you to see it… The question is why? Trust the people and see it for yourself! pic.twitter.com/K6a9jAO4UH

— Gotti Film (@Gotti_Film) June 19, 2018