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Here’s HE’s latest Best Picture chart. I’m honestly split 50/50 on the merits of Chloe Zhao‘s Nomadland and David Fincher‘s Mank, and so they’re tied for second place. (At least for the time being.) They’re both excellent films, and in a Mangrove-free world either could easily occupy the #1 slot. But Steve McQueen’s film happened, and there’s no question it’s 2020’s finest.

Curious as it may seem to some, I regard Roman Polanski‘s J’Accuse (i.e., An Officer and a Spy) as a 2020 feature, even though it never opened (and probably never will open) stateside.

It had its world premiere at the 2019 Venice Film Festival, and began to illegally stream earlier this year. In my book that makes it a necessary 2020 release, as there was no other way to see it. The Polanski stamp demanded the attention of film mavens the world over. Even if J’Accuse was streaming right now on Amazon, Netflix or HBO Max, would most critics ignore it all the same? Probably. The applicable terms are “fear” and “cowardice.” Or, if you will, “playing it safe.”

I have nothing but disgust and condemnation for any sexual abuser in any realm, but in this instance it’s also unconscionable, I feel, to not separate Polanski the artist from Polanski the flawed individual. Brilliant filmmaking is brilliant filmmaking, and it’s completely derelict for critics to ignore this film, as almost all of them have over the last year or so.

I had to give J’Accuse the third place slot — it’s too mesmerizing, too exacting and too searing to be designated any other way.

The Mangrove irony, of course, is that Amazon has decided not to go for Oscars but Emmys, which I regard, due respect, as a mistake. If I’d been in Amazon’s shoes I would have submitted the other four Small Axe films — Lovers Rock, Education, Alex Wheatle and Red, White and Blue — for Emmy consideration while declaring Mangrove to be a theatrical, Oscar-qualifying, stand-alone feature.

There’s no theatrical realm to speak of these days so any half-decent streamer can (and in Mangrove‘s case, definitely should) be regarded as a Best Picture contender. If any 2020 film deserves to be so regarded, it’s Mangrove.

If not for the pandemic Mangrove would have premiered in Cannes last May, perhaps played a couple of early fall festivals besides NYFF ’20, and gone on to a semblance of theatrical glory. It would’ve certainly emerged as a top-ten favorite on all the lists. Academy and guild voters would’ve had no choice but bestow a Best Picture nomination, as they did six years ago with McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave.

I’ve never seen Michael Mann‘s L.A. Takedown, a 1989 TV pilot that told more or less the same story used for Heat (’95), but without the tone of expansive meditation and all the character emdroidery. And why would I? Why would anyone want to watch a shorter, cruder, nowhere near as good version of a classic?

“What ultimately makes Heat so much more than a cops-and-robbers movie is Mann’s huge canvas, which has room for plotlines and characters that could sustain films of their own: Hanna’s suicidal stepdaughter, the money launderer who makes the mistake of tangling with McCauley’s crew, the thief who moonlights as a serial killer, the noble ex-con trying (and ultimately failing) to go straight.

“Viewed in retrospect, L.A. Takedown (’89) underscores the eventual genius of Heat: When you boil this narrative down to its basics, to plot and even some dialogue, it’s a fairly plain (pedestrian, even) crime picture.

“It was all of Mann’s subsequent flourishes, all the details and atmosphere and character touches, coupled with the game-raising skill of a once-in-a-lifetime ensemble cast, that made Heat the classic it has become.” — from Jason Bailey‘s “Heat and the TV Movie That Paved Its Way to Becoming a Classic,” posted in the N.Y Times on 12.16.20.

Listen to Tom Cruise’s recently posted Mission Impossible 7 Covid rant, and then proceed.

I’ve been tongue-lashed by superiors. It’s not pleasant but neither is getting caught outdoors in a rainstorm. You grim up and get through it. Yes, of course — we’d all naturally prefer a quieter, less belligerent form of correction or admonishment.

But what if the superior is yelling about a rational or sensible point of view (i.e., “people who don’t respect Covid safety rules are endangering our movie shoot, and if I see this kind of reckless behavior again the offenders are going to be fired“)? If so I would listen and nod. I sure as shit wouldn’t go all fluttery and Millennial and say “waahhh, yelling!”

Yelling is unfortunate, of course, but as long as it’s not part of a habitual pattern it’s not that big of a thing. It’s just volume and impatience and pent-up anger. And it evaporates like that.

I’m presuming that rules and warnings were clearly conveyed by Mission Impossible 7 producers and senior staff all along, and that Cruise blew his cork when he saw a couple of people ignoring the basics. Not that big of a deal. Decibel levels, stare at the floor, acknowledge message, back to work.

Millennials and Zoomers who’ve said that “this kind of workplace yelling is unacceptable” are focusing on the manner of expression rather than what’s being said. Bosses get angry and they yell from time to time…big deal. Welcome to the rough and tumble.

And you know what? If more people who’ve ignored Covid safety protocol for months on end…maybe if they’d been read the riot act by a Cruise-like figure once or twice, maybe the pandemic wouldn’t be surging as we speak. Or at least not as badly.

As we speak, Wonder Woman 1984 (Warner Bros., 12.25) has an encouraging Rotten Tomatoes rating of 88%. Suggesting that most critics are in no mood to gripe and have fallen into line. But there’s one noteworthy pan from Vulture‘s Angelica Jade Bastien, who carries a certain weight and authority.

Excerpt #1: “This sequel had almost everything going for it. Its empathetic predecessor is likely the most beloved and critically successful of the slate of beleaguered DC Comics films. Its time-skipping story offered a way to expand the superhero genre’s usual plot beats — which was desperately needed — and arrived buoyed by an excellent cast. Perhaps its lopsided universe was not perfect; there were lackluster villains and a noticeable absence of racial diversity and sensuality, and the sequel had to contend with a significant jump from WWI-era Europe into early 1980s Washington, D.C. But these issues were surmountable.

“Sadly, all that glittered in the franchise’s first outing is gone in Wonder Woman 1984. The disappointing sequel highlights not only the dire state of the live-action superhero genre in film, but the dire state of Hollywood filmmaking as a whole.”

Excerpt #2: “Wonder Woman 1984 is a turning point in the history of Hollywood’s business, what with Warner Bros. banking big on the hope that the film’s Christmas Day release will be the push its (admittedly good) streaming service, HBO Max, needs (in the U.S., at least).

“But the film is indicative of the larger pitfalls of an aging superhero genre. Watching Wonder Woman 1984, I couldn’t help but think of the utter hollowness of representation and how corporations have adopted the language and posture of political movements in order to sell back to us a vacant rendition of the change we actually want. In many ways, studios have trained audiences to view the bombast of their blockbusters as possessing inherent worth — especially when they place reflections of us on the big screen. This isn’t good filmmaking. And as more and more exciting directors get caught up in the gears of this mammoth genre, I can’t help but reflect on how their talents would be better utilized elsewhere.

“If only Hollywood gave them real control over stories, rather than treating their work as mere conduits for content the studio can replicate and sell.”

From World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy, an early summary of the most anticipated films of 2021. Many of these were bumped from 2020, of course. All the copy is on Jordan’s side. What’s missing?

1. Paul Thomas Anderson‘s Soggy Bottom
2. Martin Scorsese‘s Killers of the Flower Moon (will this even be finished by late ’21?)
3. Joel Coen‘s The Tragedy of Macbeth
4. Wes Anderson‘s The French Dispatch
5. Guillermo del Toro‘s Nightmare Alley
6. Andrew Dominik‘s Blonde
7. David O’Russell‘s Amsterdam
8. Adam McKay‘s Don’t Look Up
9. Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune
10. Sean Baker‘s Red Rocket
11. Edgar Wright‘s Last Night in Soho
12. Robert Eggers‘ The Northman
13. Leos Carax‘s Annette
14. Apichatpong Weerasethaku‘s Memoria
15. James Gray‘s Armageddon Time
16. Jane Campion‘s The Power of the Dog
17. Ridley Scott‘s The Last Duel
18. Terrence Malick‘s The Way Of The Wind
19. Paul Schrader‘s The Card Counter
20. Damien Chazelle‘s Babylon
21. Paul Verhoeven‘s Benedetta
22. Mike Mills‘ C’mon C’mon
23. Taika Waititi‘s Next Goal Wins
24. Celine Sciamma‘s Petite Maman
25. Steven Spielberg‘s West Side Story
26. Mia Hansen-Løve‘s Bergman Island
27. Tom McCarthy‘s Stillwater
28. Baz Luhrman‘s Elvis
29. Adrien Lyne‘s Deep Water
30. Jeremy Saulnier‘s Rebel Ridge
31. Kogonada‘s After Yang
32. Ruben Östlund‘s Triangle of Sadness
33. Steven Soderbergh‘s No Sudden Move
34. Ridley Scott‘s Gucci
35. Doug Liman‘s Lockdown
36. Clint Eastwood‘s Cry Macho

Matthew McConaughey to Good Morning Britain‘s Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid

“We need liberals…what I don’t think we need [are] illiberals” — i.e., wokesters. “What I don’t think some liberals see is they’re being cannibalized by [the Khmer Rouge].

“Where the water line is gonna land on freedom of speech, what we allow and what we don’t, where this cancel culture goes, is a very interesting place that we’re engaged in as a society and are trying to figure out. We haven’t found the right spot.

“You’ve got to have confrontation to have unity. That’s when a democracy works really well. I would argue we don’t have true confrontation right now, confrontation that gives some validation and legitimizes the opposing point of view.

“[Instead of giving] a legitimacy or validation to an opposing point of view, we make it persona non grata, and that’s unconstitutional.”

Best wishes, hail fellow and “hang in there” cheers to The Beloved Dude, whose lymphoma battle has resulted in a temporary shearing of his silver mane.

Chris Nolan‘s Tenet pops today on 4K Bluray and Amazon streaming. Both will presumably offer subtitles. So starting today, anyone on the planet can watch this thing with at least a fighting chance of understanding the particulars, not to mention the mostly obscured dialogue.

I didn’t even try to make heads or tails of the story when I saw Tenet in Flagstaff three and a half months ago (a late afternoon screening on Friday, 9.4).

First paragraph of Tenet‘s Wiki synopsis: A CIA agent, the ‘Protagonist’, participates in an undercover operation at a Kyiv opera house. His life is saved by a masked soldier with a distinctive red trinket, who ‘un-fires’ a bullet through a hostile gunman. After seizing an artifact, the Protagonist is captured by mercenaries. He endures torture before consuming cyanide. He awakens to learn the cyanide was a test of his loyalty; his team has been killed and the artifact lost.”

Last night Variety‘s Clayton Davis reported that Emerald Fennell and Carey Mulligan‘s Promising Young Woman (Focus Features, 12.25) “has been submitted to the Golden Globes in the comedy or musical categories.”

Every year some award-seeking distributor tries to expand the Golden Globe definition of what a comedy or musical might be. Trust me, swear to God, take it to the bank — there’s nothing the least bit amusing about Promising Young Woman, and I mean not “ironically”, not darkly comedic or comedy of horrors…none of that.

It delivers a certain dry, flinty attitude that some might interpret as arch, but arch has never been synonymous with funny. (Not in my book, at least.) The film is admirably dry and deadpan, true, but deep down it’s cold and frosty. It’s a feminist Death Wish but with a certain flair or flourish — Fennell and Mulligan are basically saying “death to all insensitive scumbags and date rapists out there, including a certain fellow who initially seems like he might be a decent human being.”

In his article Davis called Promising Young Woman “darkly comical” — a flat-out lie.

From “Promising Surprise“, posted on 11.22.20: “This is a really well-made film…carefully honed, brittle attitude, super-dry dialogue, well shot…rage, nihilism, chilly and icy but highly controlled…deliberate glacier-hood, calculating.

“It’s been described as a kind of #MeToo Death Wish thing, but it’s a much finer creation than Michael Winner’s 1974 film. And yet God, the ice water in its veins! So angry at chauvinist prick fuckheads that it can’t…well, it can see straight but it can’t cut anyone a break. The evil parties must pay and die, and the feeling of vengeance and wrath is such that it just HAS to splash over and soak Carey’s character…I’ll leave it at that.

“And yet one mark of exceptional artistic achievement is not being afraid to go all the way. PYW definitely goes for broke and then some. It doesn’t just despise the young male tribe of insensitive assholes out there — it wants them exterminated like insects.”

…about agreeing to star in a new Dungeons and Dragons film? Apart from the paycheck factor, I mean.

Pine is a formidable actor. He knows his craft. Twice I’ve watched him deliver like a pro at the Geffen Playhouse — in a 2007 production of Neil Labute‘s Fat Pig and in a 2009 production of Farragut North. Four years ago he was excellent in Hell or High Water. In August ’19 it was announced he’s “attached” to play Walter Cronkite in Newsflash.

I wouldn’t exactly call Pine’s willingness to do Dungeons and Dragons tragic. It’s basically just a financial portfolio move. He probably sees it as analogous to Harrison Ford starring in Cowboys & Aliens. But it does seem silly and wasteful.

When this or that celebrity expresses strong disapproval of some person or policy or behavior, the tabloids constantly use the transitive verb “slam”. To slam someone is to assault them with the verbal equivalent of a right cross…right? Except when criticisms are voiced or more often tweeted, they often feel more like taunts or glares or jabs. HE “slam” substitutes: backhand, side-eye, upbraid, zing, reproach, poke, scold, diss, badmouth, stiff-arm, ding.

…knows how to assemble a good trailer.

HE-posted on 9.12.20: