Daily

Not 195 minutes but 160 — two hours and 40 minutes. According to Wikipedia, at least.

SPOILER: With the exception of Raymond Ablack‘s “Nate”, the smiling, tender-hearted single dad whom Margaret Qualley refuses to sleep with, the male characters in Molly Smith Metzler and Stephanie Lamb‘s Maid (Netflix, now streaming) are bad eggs — abusers, drunks, emotionally brusque, etc.

And yet the series encouraged me to think that perhaps Billy Burke‘s “Hank”, Alex’s shaggy-bearded dad who was mean and boozy when she was small, might prove an exception.

Alex loathes Hank and rebuffs his offers of assistance all through the series, and yet he’s now a staunch AA devotee, and a sponsor of Nick Robinson‘s “Sean”, the wobbly ex-boyfriend and father of Rylea Nevaeh Whittet‘s “Maddy”, whom Alex is raising as a single mom.

In the final episode Alex mans up and asks Hank for help. She needs him to submit custody–hearing testimony about Sean’s abusive treatment of her, Hank having observed an ugly episode first-hand.

This is Hank’s redemption moment, you’re thinking. He knows all about Sean’s drinking problem, and what mean drunks can be like (having been one himself and presumably having counselled other abusers under the AA aegis)…it all fits. Hank will become a stand-up fellow, he’ll save Alex from Sean’s hair-trigger temperament and so on.

And then the moment finally comes and she asks him to protect her, and Hank shrugs and says “I can’t do that.”

Worse, at the very end Alex and Sean’s legal dispute miraculously evaporates when Sean decides not to contest. Because he’s suddenly realized that his alcohol problem will be harmful to Maddy.

He basically flips, in other words, like Meryl Streep‘s “Joanna” character in Kramer vs. Kramer, when she decided at the very last second that she didn’t want to interfere with the loving relationship between Dustin Hoffman and little Justin Henry.

We’re happy, of course, that Alex and Maddy have survived the Sean threat and escaped to Missoula, Montana. And it’s great that Alex wins a scholarship to attend college there. But the way the series throws Hank under the bus is curious and disappointing.

From CNN.com op-ed, dated 10.10.21, by Noah Berlatsky: “When Jonathan Kent, the new Superman, comes out as bisexual in next month’s issue of ‘Superman: Son of Kal-El,’ he won’t be the first queer superhero. But he’ll be one of the most visible.

“As such, Jonathan defies stereotypes about sexuality and masculinity that have shaped the character and the superhero genre for generations.

“In the new storyline — prompted by an aging Clark Kent passing the super-baton to his son — Superman shares a kiss with his friend and ally Jay Nakamura, a computer hacker and activist who admires Superman’s mom, journalist Lois Lane.

“A bisexual Superman is an important step for LGBTQ representation. It’s also a sign of how recognizing that there are options other than heterosexuality can change superhero preconceptions about goodness, masculinity and empowerment.”

Dean Cain on Fox & Friends this morning: “They said it’s a bold new direction, I say they’re bandwagoning. Robin just came out as bi — who’s really shocked about that one? The new Captain America is gay. My daughter in [The CW series] Supergirl, where I played the father, was gay. So I don’t think it’s bold or brave or some crazy new direction. If they had done this 20 years ago, perhaps that would be bold or brave.

“Brave would be having him fighting for the rights of gay people in Iran where they’ll throw you off a building for the offense of being gay,. They’re talking about having him fight climate change and the deportation of refugees, and he’s dating a hacktivist — whatever a hactivist is. Why don’t they have him fight the injustices that created the refugees whose deportation he’s protesting? That would be brave, I’d read that. Or fighting for the rights of women to attend school and have the ability to work and live and boys not to be raped by men under the new warm and fuzzy Taliban — that would be brave.

“There’s real evil in this world today, real corruption and government overreach, plenty of things to fight against. Human trafficking — real and actual slavery going on. It’d be great to tackle those issues.”

Read more

One of my favorite scenes in Olivier Assayas‘ Personal Shopper (’16) is when Kristen Stewart, aboard the Paris-to-London chunnel train, begins to receive vaguely creepy text messages from an unknown party. We’re allowed to consider the possibility that Stewart may be texting with her dead brother — a wonderful thought while it lasts.

The only thing I disliked about this first-rate ghost story, in fact, was Assayas insisting near the end that the mysterious texter was an actual person…no! Personal Shopper was 10 or 15 times more haunting with the brother.

I haven’t seen Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett‘s Scream, but obviously it’s a shameless button-pusher. I can smell it. Sight unseen this 1.14.22 Paramount release isn’t fit to scrape the mud off Stewart’s boots.

Read more

We all understand that Ridley Scott‘s The Last Duel (20th Century, 10.15) is a medieval #MeToo yarn about conflicting recollections of a brutal rape.

Two depictions are shown, one from the perspective of the victim, Jodie Comer‘s Marguerite de Carrouges, and a second from the perspective of the rogue perpetrator, Adam Driver‘s Jacques Le Gris. A third perspective from Marguerite’s husband, Matt Damon‘s Jean de Carrouges, is recited but not visualized.

A pair of 20th Century films offered likely inspiration with similar tales of violation. First and foremost was Akira Kurosawa‘s Rashomon (’50), which focused on four differing versions of the rape of a wife and the murder of her samurai husband. Decidedly inferior was Martin Ritt‘s The Outrage (’64), a Rashomon remake that costarred Paul Newman, Laurence Harvey, Claire Bloom, Edward G. Robinson and William Shatner.

Nobody wants to think about The Outrage now because (a) it has a mediocre reputation (I haven’t seen it in decades, and even that viewing was one too many), (b) it briefly tarnished Rashomon and (c) Newman played a heavily made-up Mexican with a broad Pancho Villa accent…a racist felony that probably requires posthumous cancellation for Ritt and Newman both and a permanent ghost status from the Academy Museum.

Still these films were forerunners of The Last Duel and perhaps warrant a looksee, etc.

There’s a decent-looking Rashomon Bluray from Criterion; The Outrage is only available as a 480p Amazon streamer.

“Cancel culture” is as real as the nose on your face, and speaking of noses mine is bruised and swollen after being slugged repeatedly by the woke terror brigade (“We need safe spaces”) over the last two or three years. I’m saying this not as a grotesque rightie but a sensible left-center moderate and a respectful, longtime fan of John Ladarola‘s “Damage Report” with The Young Turks. Ladarola needs to (a) bite his tongue and (b) apologize to all concerned.

The last special format release of T2 was a 3D version. (I think.) I don’t think anyone’s ever screened an 8K version. Excellent clarity. I watched this 1991 James Cameron film at least 10 or 12 times with the kids when they were toddlers, but I could go again if they could somehow project the same kind of 8K clarity that I’m seeing right now. (Credit Parliament Cinema Club 4K.)

Based on Stephanie Land‘s “Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother’s Will to Survive“, Molly Smith Metzler‘s Maid is a grim but compelling 10-part series about a single mom (Margaret Qualley) barely getting by somewhere in the northwest. Damp, rainy, ferries.

I’ve only seen episodes #4 through #7, but the sad fate of Qualley’s “Alex” character, it seems, is to be disappointed and undermined by those around her, On one hand she’s emotionally damaged goods, and yet she’s living on a sort of heroic noble island and therefore quite alone and isolated. 25 years old and struggling and perhaps stuck there until further notice.

She comes from a dysfunctional family (formerly brutal alcoholic dad, presently flaky hippie mom), has had a child with a sober dude who began drinking at age nine and who may fall off the wagon again. She’s treated brusquely by her cleaning business employer, and state assistance reps are their own odd trip except for the kindly woman who runs the abused women halfway house. Life is no picnic.

And yet — this is the interesting part — Alex constantly sidesteps romantic overtures from gentle, good-looking Nate (Raymond Ablack), a stable guy and a single dad of Middle-Eastern descent. Nate is easily the best option in terms of potential boyfriend material. The problem is that Alex doesn’t want to fuck him, apparently because he’s too stable and financially secure. Because she feels queasy about getting into an unequal relationship. Plus she doesn’t feel it.

There’s a moment where it appears as if Alex might be receptive to Nate’s delicate overtures. But nope.

Female Connecticut Friendo to HE: “I couldn’t escape the feeling I was watching someone who sees herself as a victim but actually isn’t. I really don’t buy Qualley in the role. She’s too pretty and too smart to only have the one option of cleaning homes. Like she could stay with her dad. She has that option. She chooses not to. She’s whining about not getting help from the government but she has options.”

HE to FCF: “Her dad was an angry alcoholic shit when she was a young child, but now he’s sober and it’s foolish to not give dad a second chance.”

FCF to HE: “She could get a job at the daycare place. They obviously need workers. She doesn’t have to clean toilets. It’s almost like she’s doing this shitty work so she can write that book.”

HE to FCF: “And she’s a monk. She not only rebuffs Nate’s advances but seems TERRIFIED by the idea of possible sex with him.”

FCF to HE: “And not to put too fine a point on it but when you’re a single mom like that you can’t just go around and be picky about everything. Hell, I’d go for that guy. He’s cute. He’s nice. Her daughter could have a home, a dad. She seems to only want to be on government assistance.”

HE to FCF: “She’s leading a tough life because that’s the idea behind the series. The series needs her to suffer and regard all men as bad eggs of one kind or another, and to abstain from sex. Until the end of episode #7, when she inexplicably fucks Sean. But she also blows off Nate, and this reminded me of a basic law of life, which is that if you’re a nice guy who likes a pretty girl, you can’t ‘nice’ your way into a sexual relationship with her. You need to BE ‘nice,’ of course, but ‘nice’ alone doesn’t get it.”

Read more

In a new IndieWire poll, 137 critics have cited 15 films as the best they saw at four recent fall festivals — Venice, Telluride, TIFF and NYFF.

I am telling you straight and true that the failure of said critics to include Reinaldo Marcus Green‘s King Richard is incontestable proof that a significant percentage of these critics are living deep inside their own heads and anal cavities. Because King Richard, trust me, connects, and will almost certainly become a top Best Picture contender. The critics also included Spencer (a surreal, all-but-unendurable immersion into the misery of Lady Diana), Red Rocket (a respectable Sean Baker film that traffics in depravity and Texas trashitude), Bergman Island and Dune.

The #1 critics pick, Jane Campion‘s The Power of the Dog, is going to be hated by Average Joes and Janes. I called it “a chilly and perverse cattle-ranch drama that insists over and over that it’s a very bad thing for toxic males to suppress their homosexuality. Campion is a top-tier filmmaker but Dog‘s milieu is grim and stifling and melancholy, like the dark side of the moon. Yes, Benedict Cumberbatch is excellent as the enraged and closeted Phil.”

IndieWire critics hot 15 (:

1. The Power of the Dog
2. Titane (HE says distinctive, respectably self-owned, overpraised by Cannes jury)
3. The Worst Person in the World
4. Drive My Car
5. Petite Maman
6. Memoria
7. Dune (HE alert)
8. Red Rocket (HE horror horn)
9. Bergman Island (HE alert)
10. The Tragedy of Macbeth
11. Spencer (HE horror horn)
12. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
13. Parallel Mothers
14. C’mon C’mon
15. The Lost Daughter

If Hillary Clinton had won in ’16 she’d probably be in her second term now. The noise on the right would have been horrible every step of the way. But would we be three years away from a more-than-likely rightwing coup d’etat?

Overheard: “As Bill Maher, Robert Kagan and others have now demonstrated with far more eloquence than I have, Trump’s takeover is all but guaranteed. American democracy ends in January 2025. Because the fascist left and the fascist right are now working together. They are both cults that despise freedom of thought, and they both, increasingly, despise reality.

“The right is ahead on the reality score. On the 1 to 10 scale (1 being reality, 10 being total wingnut through-the-looking-glass fantasy), they’re at about an 8. The left is now a 4 creeping up on 5. (As Andrew Sullivan captured in his revelatory column this week, the trans issue is what’s pushing the left to a 6, 7, or 8.)

“But the bottom line is that they’re united. They both want to kill American freedom (just by different means). They are colluding, and they will succeed.”

Or, as a friend put it this morning, “HAHA!”

me>