11:55 am: As we speak the New York Film Critics Circle has decided upon four awards: The Power of the Dog‘s Kodi Smit-McPhee for Best Supporting Actor (I don’t get it), The Tragedy of Macbeth‘s Kathryn Hunter for Best Supporting Actress (haven’t seen it), Joachim Trier‘s The Worst Person in the World for Best Foreign-Language Film (excellent choice!) and Flee for Best Non-Fiction film.

No updates until the mid-afternoon — Variety‘s Clayton Davis is keeping tabs.

11:30 am: Hollywood Elsewhere will finally shake hands with Sutton Wells early this afternoon. I’ll be leaving Manhattan within the hour, taking the Holland Tunnel to New Jersey and over to West Orange. Staying the weekend, etc.

Ebenezer Scrooge to daughter-in-law: “Can you forgive a pig-headed old fool for having no eyes to see with nor ears to hear with all these years?”

John Huston‘s Noah Cross to Belinda Palmer‘s Katherine Mulwray in Chinatown: “Katherine, I’m…I’m…I’m your grandfather.”

The title of Paul Verhoeven‘s upcoming Washington, D.C.-based thriller implies that most sinners aren’t “young” — they tend to come into their best sinning in their mid 30s, 40s and 50s. The title also reminds me of The Young and the Restless. It also reminds me of Young Frankenstein.

From World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy…

HE’s #1 mantra: If a movie ends well, that’s half the ballgame. Let no one ever argue that Guillermo del Toro‘s Nightmare Alley (Searchlight, 12.17) doesn’t end well. It ends perfectly, in fact. It reiterates the basic film noir theme, which boils down to the main character fatalistically admitting that he’s doomed, and in fact has been doomed all along. He never had a chance, and his dark fate is so irrefutable that it’s funny.

Film noir basically says that none of us have a chance. Which we don’t if your definition of having a chance means escaping death. We’re all going to die. But if I had accepted this fatalistic, fuck-me doctrine when I was in my teens or 20s my life wouldn’t have worked out. So noirs are basically films with a bad attitude. They all say that noir protagonists are fucked and can’t “win” because they’re essentially self-destructive by way of some basic flaw or weakness, and that most of our dreams and schemes will never pan out.

Let no one say that Nightmare Alley hasn’t been masterfully composed — it’s all visually harmonized (the dp is Dan Laustsen) and exquisitely designed. Half of it radiates a rural travelling carnival vibe, the other half a snow-blanketed, pre-war urban (deco-moderne) gloom. And yet all of a piece…persistent and narcotizing and finally overwhelming.

HE to friend outside multiplex: “Yo…what are you seeing?”
Friend to HE: “Nightmare Alley. I’m a Guillermo fan, and I don’t care if it has no monsters.”
HE to friend: “I just saw it.”
Friend to HE: “And…?”
HE to friend: “Great cinematography and production design, lotsa gloom, good performances.”
Friend to HE: “But how is it?”
HE to friend: “You’re on your own, man. I’ll tell you this much — Bradley Cooper smokes 50 or 60 unfiltered cigarettes. Every damn scene he lights up, and it’s infuriating.”

When and if you watch Nightmare Alley (and I am recommending that you do) you need to accept from the get-go that Cooper’s Stan Carlisle is fucked — an asshole and a cruel hustler who’s determined to downswirl and self-destruct, and that how he manages to ruin his life as well as kill or maim those around him is just a matter of time, circumstance and opportunity.

But the ending, man…that ending is exquisite.

Issues-wise I’m closer to Vice-President Kamala Harris than any potential Republican opponent, of course, but I’m scared to death of her running with 81 year–old Joe Biden in ‘24. Because her approval numbers are quite low, and she seemingly has nowhere to go but down. She won’t enhance the ticket — that’s a given. In ‘20 she proved ineffective as a campaigner (whiny speaking voice, testy attitude now and then, dropped out before Iowa). She has to somehow go away — seriously.

I’m telling you right now that Paul Thomas Anderson’s Citizen Pizza is (a) HE-approved as far as it goes, (b) a well-crafted, moderately engaging ‘70s episodic with a really good ending, and (c) a highly eccentric choice for a 2021 Best Picture award.

Am I enraged that the National Board of Review picked it earlier today, and that they gave their Best Director award to PTA? Of course not — it’s fine, not a problem at all. But this was a very New York Film Critics Circle thing to do, guys. You can choose whatever and whomever you wish, but the Movie Godz are watching, and they know what you did.

World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy is persuaded that A24 is putting out vague, inconclusive signals about Joel Coen‘s The Tragedy of Macbeth:

…for my early-evening date with Guillermo del Toro‘s Nightmare Alley (which is getting raves for its cinematography and production design), and a little running around after, so I need to delay some of the posts I have planned. But in the meantime…

The night before last I had an excellent time re-watching Spike Lee‘s Inside Man, which is now 15 and 1/2 years old. One of my thoughts was “jeez, Denzel looks so young!” — he was around 51 or 52 during filming. No spring chicken, but much more buoyant looking compared to his 2021 constitution.

Anyway, the HE community needs to assemble a list of the best crime or heist films in which the “bad guys” get away with it**. The first of these would have to be Lewis Milestone and Frank Sinatra‘s Ocean’s 11 (’60) — no, they didn’t get to keep the money at the end but they weren’t caught or punished by the law, and were free to try again. Peter Yates‘ Robbery (’67), to some extent. Norman Jewison‘s The Thomas Crown Affair (’68), of course. Thieves get to keep the loot in Peter Yates‘ The Hot Rock (’71), and of course the cops never get wise.

What are the other big titles in this realm?

** Not Rififi, not Topkapi…a lot of gangs got busted or went home empty-handed in the ’50s and early ’60s.