Director-writer pally: “What’s interesting is that despite the forehead-slapping quality of Last Night in Soho…what’s interesting is how the whole industry and especially every young exec…they’re all still lined up to work with Edgar Wright.”

HE to director-writer pally: “They don’t care how shitty his films are? Okay, the first two thirds of Baby Driver works, but have you seen Last Night in Soho? Once you get past the concept and the 1966 time-trip design, it’s really awful. Stupid, crude, ham-fisted, tedious, repetitive.”

Director-writer pally: “Edgar is a really nice, engaging, genteel person and every comedy executive, especially in TV and streaming, hold him in messianic esteem. He’s Teflon — even Scott Pilgrim tanking didn’t harm his rep, and is now viewed as some sort of classic. The mantra from his fans is ‘he’s one of us.’

HE to director-writer pally: “Yes, Wright is very likable and personable, very easy to chat with, a good bullshitter. I’ve listened to Edgar in interviews. He talks a good game.

“Unfortunately, his movies (the first two-thirds of Baby Driver aside) are awful to sit through. So things like taste, clever plotting, refinement, dialogue that makes sense, cinematic coherence, directorial finesse…none of that stuff matters to these guys, you’re saying? Because Scott Pilgrim vs. The World s one of the worst films I’ve ever seen IN MY LIFE.”

I am a sensible, left-leaning, wokester-despising centrist who is deathly afraid Terry McAuliffe is going to lose the Virginia governor’s race because he dismissed parental concerns about their kids being subjected to wokester teaching curriculums and critical race theory.

In my book, Frank Perry’s Play It As It Lays (‘72) is easily the most accomplished, mesmerizing and zeitgeist–capturing film he ever made. Hands down, no question. So did Criterion Channel programmers include this dark-heart-of-Hollywood film when they decided to pay tribute to the Perry canon? Of course not.

One significant reason is because this Universal release has apparently never been HD-scanned, and definitely never released to home video. To this day you can’t stream a quality-level 1080p. PIAIL It surfaced on the Sundance channel many years ago, and you can still watch a 480p version on YouTube, but that’s all. So bizarre.

Why is it that “The Rock” is so steadfastly opposed to appearing in good films, or even half-decent ones? As far as I can tell he’s never even tried to costar in a quality-level enterprise…not once.

Does Chris Heath’s Vanity Fair profile piece answer this question? Does it even allude to it? Of course not.

Snapped during a glammy dinner in honor of Australia’s Phillip Noyce, the current recipient of a ten-day tribute by the Cinematheque Francaise.

Attendees included Noyce, wife Vuyo Dyasi, daughter Ayanda, dp Svetlana Cvetko plus Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton and Gillian Bird, Australian Ambassador to France. The Australian embassy is located at 4 Rue Jean Rey, 75015 Paris, France.

I understood why Saving Private Ryan began with a closeup of a billowing, wind-flapping, desaturated U.S. flag. But what do the stars and stripes have do with Tony and Maria‘s love story in Steven Spielberg‘s West Side Story? Seriously, what is this?

Has Spielberg shifted the locale to Brooklyn’s Fort Hamilton? Is Tony a U.S. Army recruiter? Do Tony and Maria initially bond over their patriotic love of our country? Will West Side Story begin with the singing of “The Star Spangled Banner”? Will there be a 21-gun salute on the night of the big premiere?

The last time I checked West Side Story was not about the U.S. of A. or any uniquely American issue or theme. It’s a story about tribalism, racism, prejudice, territoriality and the glorious madness of hormonal love.

Arthur Brooke‘s “The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet“, set in Verona, was published in 1562. William Shakespeare‘s English-language version, also set in northern Italy, was written between 1591 and 1595. Until now no one has ever claimed that it’s a particularly American-type story.

Please explain why the red white and blue is mixed up in this…seriously, I’m lost.

The best I can come up with (and I’m just spitballing here) is that Spielberg and the Disney marketers are telling us that the above-mentioned bad stuff (racism, etc.) has a particular resonance with United States culture right now and that the citizenry needs to pay particular attention. We have to “woke” ourselves up to the problem and address it with progressive measures.

I’m sorry but when, if ever, are significant numbers of African Americans going to move past “the government is looking to poison or otherwise mutilate our community so don’t let them inject you with anything”?

The abhorrent Tuskegee Syphilis Study happened between 1932 and ’72, and everyone in the civilized world acknowledges what an atrocity it was. And it ended nearly 50 years ago. How does this inform or reflect upon government-issued Covid vaccines? I’ll tell you how it informs or reflects upon government-issued Covid vaccines. It doesn’t. At all. But try telling that to Ice Cube.

Friendo to HE: “Given the history of the medical experiments the CIA did on the black community in the past, they may have a valid concern here. But at some point they need to realize that while the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments were a local thing done in one area, the pandemic and the vaccine are global matters.

HE to friendo: “That distinction seems to be a bridge too far for some in the black community.”

Friendo to HE: “Don’t quote me on this. I don’t want to be accused of talking down to anyone.”

HE to friendo: “It’s too late. I’m afraid I have no choice but to alert Glenn Kenny. He’ll bitchslap you around but good.”