And it’s quite clear that Rudy Giuliani was actively interested in Maria Bakalova during the hotel-interview sequence. He joins Maria in the bedroom for a drink, he gives her a pat on the hip, he asks for her contact info, etc. And then for some curious reason he tucks his shirt into his pants while lying on the bed. I’ve never done that in my entire life. If my dress shirt needs a good tucking, I stand up, loosen my trousers, push the shirt in and tuck tuck tuck!
Does Rudy do anything lewd or offensive? No, he’s gentlemanly and polite. But he’s also into the possibility that he might be into something good a la Herman’sHermits.
During a recent walk through Beverly Hills, I came upon a demonstration staged by Armenian locals. The protest was in front of the Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Wilshire Blvd. About 300 people were there, and a lot of young people. The protesters loudly chanted against Turkey’s intervention in the armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The dispute is over Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), a landlocked region and an unrecognized republic in the South Caucasus (red color on the map). Armenia considers Nagorno-Karabakh to be part of their country while Azerbaijan insists that it belongs to them. Each side has its own arguments and historical proofs.
According to several media outlets, the first missile strike on civilians was initiated by the Azerbaijani government. It happened in the morning of September 27, 2020. Armenia made a retaliatory strike. Heavy fighting continues to this day. Civilians have been dying, including children. The fire does not stop for a minute. Many people had to leave their homes. And those who can’t leave are hiding in basements.
…would ever say they “love Jesus.” Lefties believe in love, kindness and charity as much as any decent human being, but they would never declare themselves to be devout Christians. Them’s fightin’ words — the same as saying “I’m a staunch rightwing traditionalist” or words to that effect. Pratt was asking for trouble from the wokester left when he wrote this. It was like waving a red cape before a bull. Pratt is totally allowed to love whatever and whomever he wants, of course, in the privacy of his own heart, but if he was smart he’d leave religious figures and labels out of it.
Eduardo Ponti‘s The Life Ahead stars Sophia Loren as a 70something resident of Bari, Italy**, who takes in a feral street urchin. The trailer tells you where the story goes except for the last couple of beats.
The Life Ahead is the second filmed adaptation of Romain Gary‘s “The Life Before Us” (’75). The first version, Moshe Mizrahi‘s Madame Rosa (’77), was set in the Belleville section of Paris and starred Simone Signoret. It won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
Ponti, 47, is the son of Loren and late producer Carlo Ponti.
Select journos will be given a look at The Life Ahead fairly soon. It will begin streaming on Netflix on 11.13.20.
Sam Elliott’s “The Stranger”: “Way back east there’s this fella…fella I wanna tell ya about. Fella by the name of Orange Plague. At least that’s the handle that seemed to apply, but he’s never had much use for it himself. Mr. Trump, he called himself ‘Cadet Bone Spurs‘. Naah, not really. He actually called himself ‘Mushroom Dick‘. Kiddin’ again…sorry.
“Now this here story I’m about to unfold takes place back in the year 2020, or the year of our national Covid nightmare…no work, too much TV, face masks, hand sanitizer. I only mention it because sometimes there’s a man…I won’t say a hero, ’cause what’s a hero? But sometimes there’s a man. And I’m talkin’ about Trump here. Sometimes there’s a man…well, he’s the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that’s Donald Trump, in Washington, D.C. And even if he’s a lazy man who watches a whole lot of Fox News, and Trump was most certainly that. But sometimes there’s a man….sometimes there’s a man. Wow. I lost my train of thought there. But…aw, hell. I’ve done introduced him enough.”
So News of the World (Universal 12.25) is a Searchers-like tale (bookish 60ish beardo paid to deliver precocious, parentless, Kiowa-raised girl to relatives in old San Antonio) with a touch of True Grit. All kinds of adversity and prejudice slow their progress, including white slave traders looking to exploit the poor girl.
Paul Greengrass‘s western is some kind of allegory, he says, for our presently divided culture. You don’t have to reassure me — Tom Hanks will do the right thing.
Amazon synopsis of Paulette Jiles’ same-titled 2016 novel: “In the wake of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kidd (Hanks) travels through northern Texas, giving live readings from newspapers to paying audiences hungry for news of the world. An elderly widower who has lived through three wars and fought in two of them, the captain enjoys his rootless, solitary existence.
“In Wichita Falls, he is offered a $50 gold piece to deliver a young orphan, Johanna Loenberger (Helena Zengel), to her relatives in San Antonio. Four years earlier, a band of Kiowa raiders killed Johanna’s parents and sister; sparing the little girl, they raised her as one of their own. Recently rescued by the U.S. army, the ten-year-old has once again been torn away from the only home she knows.
“Their 400-mile journey south through unsettled territory and unforgiving terrain proves difficult and at times dangerous. Johanna has forgotten the English language, tries to escape at every opportunity, throws away her shoes, and refuses to act “civilized.” Yet as the miles pass, the two lonely survivors tentatively begin to trust each other, forming a bond that marks the difference between life and death in this treacherous land.
“Arriving in San Antonio, the reunion is neither happy nor welcome. The captain must hand Johanna over to an aunt and uncle she does not remember—strangers who regard her as an unwanted burden. A respectable man, Captain Kidd is faced with a terrible choice: abandon the girl to her fate or become — in the eyes of the law — a kidnapper himself.”
A version of Lesley Stahl‘s 60 Minutes interview with Donald Trump will air on Sunday. This morning Team Trump released the raw version (38 minutes) because they anticipated that 60 Minutes would either downplay or ignore the Hunter Biden stuff.
CBS News statement: “The White House’s unprecedented decision to disregard their agreement with CBS News and release their footage will not deter 60 Minutes from providing its full, fair and contextual reporting which presidents have participated in for decades. 60 Minutes, the most-watched news program on television, is widely respected for bringing its hallmark fairness, deep reporting and informative context to viewers each week.
“Few journalists have the presidential interview experience Lesley Stahl has delivered over her decades as one of the premier correspondents in America and we look forward to audiences seeing her third interview with President Trump and subsequent interview with Vice President Pence this weekend.”
Ryan Murphy‘s The Prom (Netflix 12.11) might be an excellent thing on its own terms, but the trailer is really rubbing me the wrong way.
Too flashy, too pushed, too glitzy and sparkly, too “aren’t we wonderful?”, too James Corden-influenced, too instructional, too Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, too shallow, too self-congratulating, too Fosse-ish, doesn’t seem to touch bottom, not my cup of tea.
Four Broadway stars reeling from a career crisis (Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, Andrew Rannells) come to the aid of Emma (Ellen Pellman), a gay teenager from a small Indiana town who’s been told she can’t take her girlfriend Alyssa (Ariana DeBose) to a high-school prom. Jaded New Yorkers visit Bumblefuck town, open people’s hearts, discourage anti-LGBTQ bigotry, make the world a slightly better place. Awesome.
I admired several things about Celebrity. Sven Nykivst‘s black-and-white cinematography, of course. I occasionally felt amused and invigorated by Leonardo DiCaprio‘s manic superstar behavior (partly his character as written, partly drawing from his own post-Titanic popularity). Donald Trump‘s droll little cameo about tearing down St. Patrick’s Cathedral is a decent chuckle. A lot of stuff works. Woody keeps trying and trying.
I was never bored and was somewhat taken with the flavor of Allen’s screenplay (i.e, forlorn acidity), and everyone loved the last shot. But otherwise Celebrity is less than masterful.
If only Woody had taken Kenneth Branagh aside before shooting and said, “You’ve obviously developed a half-decent imitation of my way of speaking — I respect that, it’s pretty good — but play this role as yourself. Use your own British accent. Playing me is too on the nose, critics won’t like it for that, and I wouldn’t blame them”
This in itself would’ve improved things considerably.
The other problem is the deflating drift of the thing. The repetitive moralizing. Branagh’s Lee Simon could be wry and sharp and self-aware in a fleeting, in-and-out way, but it was clear within the first 20 or 30 minutes that he was also overly anxious, obsequious and stricken with a lack of self-awareness.
After a while you knew the film had no intention of doing anything more than making sure that Lee Simon wasn’t going to experience an epiphany of any kind…that a breakthrough wasn’t in the cards
Todd McCarthy called the film “a once-over-lightly rehash of mostly stale Allen themes and motifs,” and noted that “the spectacle of Branagh and Judy Davis doing over-the-top Woody impersonations creates a neurotic energy meltdown…Branagh is simply embarrassing as he flails, stammers and gesticulates in a manner that suggests a direct imitation of Allen himself…Celebrity has a hastily conceived, patchwork feel that is occasionally leavened by some lively supporting turns and the presence of so many attractive people onscreen.”
