So who’s read it and what’s the verdict?

It is presumed that producer Sid Ganis will attend the 2022 Telluride Film Festival, and what would this elite Rocky Mountain festival be without him? But take what Sid may or may not say next weekend with a grain of salt. Just saying.

If Sid happens to choose a favorite Telluride film and if he happens to pass along his enthusiasm to Deadline‘s Pete Hammond, just remember what he said last year about Kenneth Branagh‘s Belfast. Branagh remembers, I can tell you, because Ganis calling it “one of the best films I’ve ever seen” almost surely torpedoed its chances as a Best Picture contender.

Because a significant percentage of Academy members went to see Belfast, expecting something phenomenal if not earthshaking, and they emerged two hours later muttering to themselves, “I don’t get it…Sid said this was one of the best ever…it’s okay in spots and the blonde kid was cute and we all like Van Morrison, but really?”

From “Matter of Personal Honor,” posted on 9.6.21:

Pretty much all of your sharper, tougher Telluride critics have problems with Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast. And yet the more obliging middle-of-the-road types (critics, columnists and industry folk alike) have oddly fallen for it.

You can’t grab people by the lapels and order them to have a sense of taste about such matters. If someone likes Belfast or finds it Oscar-worthy, okay — shrug and throw your hands up. But when someone says Belfast is “one of the best films [they’ve] ever seen,” all kinds of crazy reactions come to mind. Because it’s fair, I believe, to compare Belfast’s family dynamic with that of Fred Savage and The Wonder Years, as IndieWire’s David Ehrlich did today.

Either you’re the type who can tolerate or, God forbid, embrace cloying emotionalism, or you aren’t..

From a 9.5 Deadline column by Pete Hammond:

Now that the Sanna Marin party-video pushback thing has gone away, here’s a simple question that needs an answer.

If a Millennial-age head of state (she’s 36) chooses to have a couple of drinks and dance around with friends, fine. But what head of state in his/her right mind would be okay with someone taking a video of this? Is it some kind of unsuppressible Millennial urge to be performative no matter what? It’s crazy.

N.Y. Times columnist Maureen Dowd, dated 8.27: “What a grim, still-sexist world this is, when Marin is forced to tearfully apologize — and take a drug test — after video leaked of her letting loose.”

It wasn’t my idea, but the other night I watched an episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Episode 2, as it turned out — “Superhuman Law”.

I don’t what to say or even think. I knew I would never catch another episode so I watched with what you might call a dispassionate attitude. I didn’t hate it but I felt nothing….nothing at all. (I nodded off just before it ended, to be completely honest.) Yes, yes…some are calling She-Hulk woke Disney-corporate garbage and others approve of the feminist manifesto aspect. I have to admit that I liked hanging with the She-Hulk version of “Jen Walters” — tall, buff, striking, green — more than Tatiana Maslany on her lonesome.

That aside I don’t care. A window into the void. It didn’t flatline my soul — it just didn’t do anything.

…to save the listing ship? The movie is the movie — the Venice Film Festival verdict is just around the corner, nothing to be done. But Twitter-wise? I would post a supportive pro–Shia tweet: “I admire your naked honesty, your bravery…your commitment to change and healing…my respect is absolute.”

And then I’d sign to direct a film that is completely lacking any kind of female-empowered, anti-white-patriarchy attitude. No gay stuff. Maybe a Woody Allen-styled dark comedy about a headstrong director who falls for a rock star. Or do a Kathryn Bigelow…make a war film. Or some kind of Michael Mann crime thriller. Basically shift gears, become someone else.