Friendo who attended last night’s Acadeny screening of Sean Baker’s Anora:

“Unmistakably enthusiastic audience response. Particularly for lead actress Mikey Madison. And Mark Eidelstein, [who plays] the young Russian playboy.

“But the house was only about a quarter full. At an official Academy screening. Disappointing for a major Cannes winner.”

HE to friendo: “It’s fairly difficult to go broke by under-estimating the sophistication of Academy members. They’re always slow to respond to edgy, smaller-scaled films.

“I’ve seen it twice and can’t wait until my next viewing. No other 2024 film has gotten me off like Anora. I laughed like a hyena, and I’m generally an LQTM guy. I believe it to be the freshest and most confident, most brilliantly constructed powder-keg dramedy in years. 

“It takes a while to get rolling but after the 55-or 60-minute mark it pays off like a slot machine

“The word of mouth has been rhapsodic since the Cannes debut and you’re telling me the Academy theatre was only one-quarter full last night?  Are Academy members really that slow to wake up?  That slow to smell the coffee?”

HE-posted on 10.3.24:

@jasonthechao I’ll post deeper dissections #joker #jokerfolieadeux #filmtok #movies ♬ original sound – jasonthechao

@jasonthechao Replying to @jasonthechao #jokerfolieadeux #joker #filmtok #movies ♬ original sound – jasonthechao

But love the ostriches. A warm, sunny day in Buckingham, Pennsylvania —- not too far from Trenton. Such a beautiful region except for all the bumblefucks.

Jessica Savitch death canal in New Hope.

Sasha Stone and I are hastily assembling an award-season spitball forum, callled GATE CRASHERS. It’s kind of an anti-Gold Derby thang. Only journos and filmmakers of character, no whores or corporate ass-kissers, no raising damp fingers to the wind.

We’ll have the participation of least three or four anonymous filmmakers plus Chris Gore, Jeff Sneider, Jordan Ruimy, myself, Sasha, Bill McCuddy, Ed Douglas, and one or two more. 10 or 12 people thus far. We’re hoping to land at least two or three women of consequence besides Sasha.

Sneider will post a special link in advance with each updated posting. Ruimy will also post the chart.

Participants will just have to fill out a dropdown menu form with their gut predictions every two weeks. They won’t have to have seen every last film — they can spitball, fantasize and instinctually project like the Gold Derby members do. We’d all be taking it one step at a time.

The great Mark Frenden is assembling a King Kong logo as we speak.

We’re looking to get rolling on this fairly soon.

All hail Payal Kapadia’s All We Inagine As Light!

The 2024 woke manual says that characters in mainstream films aren’t allowed to point to negative consequences due to weight issues. Because there are no negative consequences from same — sporting a bulky bod is a lifestyle choice, not a health issue. Such judgments were allowed 29 years ago when Crimson Tide was released, but no longer. Understood?

…I am a confirmed, committed, dyed-in-the-wool upper level guy. I like to glance at the big blue-white sky and the deep blue Hudson as I’m crossing over. The lower level feels too confining.

Friendo who attended last night’s CAA screening of Luca Guadagnino and Daniel Craig ‘s Queer:

“Unless the movie itself doesn’t accumulate sufficient enthusiasm (it’s a pungent, sensual trip movie and anything but bland), it will be hard not to nominate Daniel Craig‘s emotionally vulnerable tour de force performance.”

HE will be seeing Queer at the NYFF on Monday, 10.7.

In a post-screening discussion with a Vanity Fair guy whose name escapes, Craig said he’d spent a year getting his mind “wrapped up into the character.”

HE to friendo: “Who was the guy sitting in front of you with the big fat head?”

…I would probably be inclined to vote for him/her over Kamala Harris. But of course they haven’t. They’ve nominated an animal, and that’s why standing by Kamala is a necessity.

If you go to movies hoping for quaalude highs, Joker: Folie a Deux is definitely not a Lemmon 714. But you have to respect it. Really–it’s anything but a throwaway.

In all my years of searching for tantalizing color snaps of Times Square marquees from the ’40s, ’50s and 60s, I’d never once glimpsed a shot of The Guns of Navarone marquee at the Criterion (B’way at 44th). But I did this morning. Hat tip to GorillsaDontBlog.

The Carl Foreman-J. Lee Thompson pic was press previewed on 5.16.61 (the screening curiously began at 8:30 pm). It opened at the Criterion on 6.23.61 and lasted through the summer.

Gung-ho, super-confident progressive team captain Michael Moore is predicting a decisive loss for Donald Trump on Tuesday, 11.5. He’s saying, in fact, that Trump is “toast.”

But in what universe is a Kamala Harris 270 electoral vote tally over 268 for The Beast…in what realm is this not an all-time squeaker?