Alissa Walker, the urbanism editor at Curbed.com, to THR‘s Kirsten Chuba: “It just seems like [Oscar night at Union Station will be] one of those nights where it’s going to be hugely chaotic. It would be worth it if at least more celebrities took the train to the event, a promise to take transit in solidarity with transit riders.

“Otherwise you’re just going to have this horrible town car parade of people trying to come up to a train station, which is just so comical. It gives us another great reason to make fun of Los Angeles.”

“Perhaps in one sense this guilty verdict will be remembered as the inverse of another landmark verdict — in O.J. Simpson’s 1995 murder trial. When O.J. was found not guilty in 1995, public response split along racial lines. The reaction to today’s decision, by contrast, could be fairly unified — a largely shared feeling of relief that justice has been done. After all, the protests after the killing of George Floyd last summer had broad public support.” — N.Y. Times‘ Emily Bazelon, posted around 2:20 pm Pacific.

“At George Floyd Square, the memorial to where Floyd was killed, a woman nearly collapses in tears. When she straightens, she manages to croak out, ‘We matter. We matter.” — N.Y. Times‘ Shaila Dewan.

At the risk of sounding repetitive, we’re all on the verge of concluding the grimmest, most under-charged and minor-seeming Oscar season in Hollywood history.

The following was spoken by “Producer #1” in a 4.19 Anne Thompson Indiewire story focusing on what the industry is thinking and feeling about the “does anyone really give a shit?” Oscars.

From “Scott Rudin ‘Stepping Back’ From Film, Streaming Work Due to Abuse Allegations,” a 4.20 Variety story by Brent Lang and Matt Donnelly:

“Rudin is one of the most successful producers in entertainment history, having won an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy, and 17 Tony Awards. His films include No Country for Old Men, The Social Network, Lady Bird, The Firm and The Truman Show. He was still active in the prestige space, recently acquiring the rights to the best-seller ‘Shuggie Bain,’ but no longer had the major studio support that he once enjoyed.

“Tastes [have] shifted from the pedigreed dramas and comedies that Rudin preferred to make in favor of superhero fare, though he’s continued to work regularly.”

Rephrasing: “Taste in movies has shifted from movies written and directed by the Coen Brothers, David Fincher, Greta Gerwig, Sydney Pollack and Peter Weir to blow-the-doors-off popcorn fare directed by Zack Snyder, James Gunn, Taika Waititi, Jon Favreau, Adam Wingard, Ryan Coogler, etc.”

HE reaction: Stab me in my carotid arteries with a pen knife.

Variety‘s Matt Donnelly and Brent Lang are reporting that Searchlight co-chairpersons Nancy Utley and Stephen Gilula are “retiring” — i.e., have been shown the door by Disney management.

Another way to put it is that Gilula and Utley have been whacked like Joe Pesci‘s “Tommy” in Goodfellas. Disney management comment: “And that’s that. We had a problem, and there wasn’t nothin’ we could do about it.”

Gilula-Utley will be replaced by David Greenbaum and Matthew Greenfield, who are now co-presidents. They will report to Disney Studios Content chairman Alan Bergman and chief creative officer Alan Horn. Disney purchased Searchlight as part of its 2019 deal for the Murdoch family’s entertainment assets.

Excerpt from 1.14.20 interview with Gilula by Box Office Plus‘s Kevin Lally:

Intro: Much of the credit for Fox Searchlight’s remarkable performance must go to Gilula and Utley, co-chairmen of the studio since July 2018. Twenty-year veterans of the company, they were named presidents in 2009, succeeding Peter Rice, who took the helm in 2000. Now they’ve entered a new era with Disney’s acquisition of Fox this past March. Gilula, a former exhibitor who co-founded Landmark Theatres, recently took time out of his busy schedule to talk about Searchlight’s latest chapter and its highly successful run.

Lally: Here we are, nine months into the merger with Disney. Can you give me a status report on how things are going and what has changed?

Gilula: Well, the status report is all signs are really positive. It’s been really quite good. At a top-line level, as far as the kinds of movies we’re making and acquiring and how we’re releasing them, there’s a hundred percent unequivocal support. What was represented to us in the year-plus before the deal closed has all come true—everything that Disney indicated that they liked about Searchlight they want us to continue.”

HE comment: Either things suddenly changed or Gilula, not surprisingly, was wearing a “political” hat when he spoke to Lally.

Gilula: On the practical side, the logistical and organizational side, as with any merger we’re working through all the bureaucratic and administrative things in terms of policies that we operate under. But the core business of the kinds of movies we make, how we release them, and what our campaigns are, we have full support and we continue to have the same independence that we had under Fox. So that’s been fantastic.”

HE comment: I think it’s fantastic that things were so “fantastic” 14 months ago.

Bergman and Horn statement to Variety about the booting of Gillula and Utley: “Thanks to the stewardship and pitch-perfect creative instincts of Steve Gilula and Nancy Utley, Searchlight has cemented itself as one of the finest film studios in history, and we commend and thank them for their incredible leadership, especially throughout the integration of Searchlight at Disney. They are leaving the studio in the talented hands of Matthew Greenfield and David Greenbaum, who have been a critical part of Searchlight’s success over many years and we’re confident they will continue to set a course that keeps Searchlight on the industry’s leading edge.”

HE comment: Whatever prompted Disney to eject Giulula and Utley, Bergman and Horn aren’t inclined to share at this point in time. They felt a certain rapport with Greenfield and Greenbaum that was lacking with Gilula-Utley?

Walter Mondale, the moderately liberal Minnesota Senator (’64 to ’76) who served as Jimmy Carter‘s vp (’77 to ’81) and who was severely trounced by Ronald Reagan in the ’84 presidential election, has passed at age 93.

Soundbite-wise, Mondale is probably best known for undermining Gary Hart‘s 1984 presidential primary campaign with that famous “where’s the beef?” line.

Mondale also made history that year by selecting Representative Geraldine Ferraro of New York as his running mate — the first woman to run for the vice presidency.

The Bluray of Warner Archives’ 4K restoration of Michael Curtiz‘s Doctor X (’32), which will arrive on 4.20, has both the two-color and the black-and-white versions, which were filmed separately. It stars Lionel Atwill in the title role (actual name: Xavier), pre-King Kong Fay Wray and Lee Tracy as a snappy news reporter.

WhySoBlu review, 4.8.21: “The amount of work they have gone [through] to give this film new life is fairly astounding. Check out the featurette on restoring it for all the nifty details and examples. It has a painterly quality. Details are strong as can be given the age and type of film process.

“The monochrome version also features an impressive restoration with good details and crisp image.”

There are 26 Gold Derby Oscar “experts”…experts, I should add, who know absolutely nothing except for the intriguing bouquet of their own anal cavities and the wing-flapping sound of flying pigs when they try to divine which nominees might prevail.

Okay, they’re almost certainly correct in predicting that the late Chadwick Boseman will win the Best Actor Oscar…fine.

As you might expect, their Best Picture predictions are all over the map. (Which may reflect Academy sentiments also.) 14 are predicting the triumph of Nomadland, 8 are predicting victory for The Trial of the Chicago 7, 3 are predicting Minari (not a chance in hell!) and one (Chris Rosen) is predicting that Promising Young Woman will take the prize.

For what it’s worth, Carey Mulligan reigns supreme when it comes Gold Derby predictions about the Best Actress race. 12 experts are siding with the star of Promising Young Woman, 7 are standing behind Ma Rainey‘s Viola Davis, 5 are predicting victory for The United States vs, Billie Holiday‘s Andra Day, and 2 are predicting a Best Actress trophy for Nomadland‘s Frances McDormand (her third if she wins).

In the Best Supporting Actress category all but three are predicting victory for Minari‘s Yuh-Jung Youn. In the Best Supporting Actor realm it’s Judas and the Black Messiah‘s Daniel Kaluuya, Daniel Kaluuya, Daniel Kaluuya, Daniel Kaluuya, Daniel Kaluuya, etc.

When the anti-disco revolt began in the spring of ’79, advocates were derided as both homophobic and racist. If you wore a “Death to Disco” T-shirt…if you liked The Who‘s “Sister Disco” or Bob Seger‘s “Old Time Rock ‘n’ Roll,” you were behind the curve and maybe a chip off the old asshole block**.

I explicitly recall my friend Stuart Byron, an “out” Village Voice columnist who later worked for producer Ray Stark, telling me to my face that I’d be wise to keep my loathing of disco under wraps lest I sound like a homophobe.

40-plus years later the disco haters have been totally vindicated by history and the tradition of good musical taste, and nobody even alludes to homophobia as any kind of lingering undercurrent.

This hasn’t stopped today’s reverse-racist wokesters from using the same bullshit against anyone who doesn’t fall into line in the movie realm. If you dare to apply seasoned judgment in the assessing of this or that film that happens to be POC-focused…if, say, you’re a devout admirer of Lakeith Stanfield‘s performance in Judas and the Black Messiah or Steve McQueen‘s 12 Years A Slave, Widows and Mangrove (as I am) but you have reservations about the late Chadwick Boseman winning the Best Actor Oscar for his “okay but no great shakes” Ma Rainey performance or Viola Davis‘s blustery, obviously supporting lip-synch fatsuit performance (as I do), you might have an attitude problem.

I first met and chatted with Jim Caviezel 22 and 1/2 years ago, during the press junket for Terrence Malick‘s The Thin Red Line (’98). (He played Witt, the lead character.) I sensed he was a conservative traditionalist, but also a decent, polite fellow. I liked him.

Lately, it seems, Caviezel has gone around the bend. Three nights ago (4.16) the 52 year-old actor, who played Yeshua in Mel Gibson‘s The Passion of the Christ (’04) was pushing child blood-harvesting adrenochrome QAnon bullshit at a lunatic COVID-19 conspiracy “health and freedom” conference in Oklahoma.

The first time I heard of adrenochrome was when Hunter S. Thompson wrote about dropping some on his tongue during his Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Actor Jim Caviezel appeared at a right-wing COVID conspiracy theorist conference yesterday and promoted the QAnon blood-harvesting conspiracy theory (https://t.co/9RgU0ORDVI) about "the adrenochroming of children." (clip 1/2) pic.twitter.com/JZWxpFbjFY

— Eric Hananoki (@ehananoki) April 17, 2021

Women scream when King Kong breaks free on a New York City stage. Joan Davis screams a lot in Hold That Ghost! Doris Day screams just before the Albert Hall assassination attempt in The Man Who Knew Too Much. At the end of Vertigo James Stewart asks Kim Novak “why did you scream?” during that fateful moment at the top of the San Juan Batista bell tower. A nameless woman in Some Like It Hot screams when Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon run across the lobby of the Seminole Ritz. Janet Leigh screams, of course, when the shower curtain is ripped aside in Psycho. One of the witches screams when a knife-wielding Mia Farrow enters the Castevet’s living room at the end of Rosemary’s Baby.

No doubt about it — there was a lot of female screaming going on in 20th Century movies. Which suggests there was some actual real-life, rip-roaring screaming going on from time to time. But you know what? For the most part female screaming was an invented dramatic device that had no abundant basis in fact, and perhaps not even an incidental basis.

In my entire life I heard a woman “scream” exactly once, and that was when I was two or three years old and my mother had opened the driver’s side door on a busy street and a passing car slammed into it and ripped the door off the hinges. And even that wasn’t really a scream — it was more like a frightened “oooggghhh!”

There was another moment on a LAX-to-JFK flight in ’02 or thereabouts that half-qualified. Our 757 jet hit a sizable air pocket and the plane plunged a couple of hundred feet in a twinkling, and a woman sitting next to me went “aawwwhhh!” — another gulpy moan.

When’s the last time a woman screamed in a movie? I can’t actually recall. 20 or 30 years ago? Longer?

I know that women “screaming” has definitely disappeared from the landscape. And that guys, oddly enough, have rushed in and taken their place. The last I heard anyone let go with a falsetto scream was when Lady Gaga‘s dog-walker, Ryan Fischer, was shot during that recent dognapping incident on Sierra Bonita Ave. The last time before that was when that Vietnamese doctor was dragged off that United flight in 2017.

Chris Walken, hands down. I’m presuming that the 78-year-old legend still has the necessary vim and vigor. That said, when I say “Walken for Jeopardy host” I mean the Walken I saw on Broadway in A Behanding in Spokane (2010) or, more exquisitely, his sociopath dad in At Close Range (’86).