Like every teenager who ever walked the earth outside of the usual suck-ups, brown-nosers and goody-goodies, I saw myself in almost every sneering, anti-authoritarian character who came along. I began to grow past that in my early 20s, but I’ve always felt a certain kinship with outlaws, contrarians, rebels, malcontents.

And yet, paradoxically, the first movie character that I felt I truly understood was Gary Cooper‘s small-town marshall in High Noon, which I first saw on my parents’ TV. Because he embodied a kernel of an idea that had begun to chill my soul at an early age — that life is a solo journey**, and that when push comes to shove fair-weather friends aren’t worth a damn, and that you can’t count on anyone but yourself. Of course, I didn’t fully understand this until I hit my 30s.

What's the first film where you felt like you saw yourself on screen? pic.twitter.com/BQq2B1dpGf

— Film4 (@Film4) September 4, 2020

** Ida Sessions (over the phone): Are you alone, Mr. Gittes?” Jake Gittes: “Aren’t we all?”

In the wake of yesterday’s AMPAS announcement about new representation and inclusion standards for Best Picture Oscar seekers, I’m reposting a portion of a 2016 chat between The Daily Beast‘s Jen Yamato and director-writer Ethan Coen about #WhyIsHailCaesarSoWhite? Yes, again.

Pally: “The idea of Trump being re-elected is horrific, but it’s not as if I’m living in denial of that possibility, or of why it might happen. And as much as I dislike the New Woke Times, there has been plenty of analysis in there — or, at least, some — that acknowledges the possibility that Trump could win. I think the media recognizes that this is a genuine race, and that it’s going to be close.

“The mainstream media won’t say that the wokeness factor hurts Democrats. And yet, ironically, everyone who’s not a woke ditto-head knows this is true. Woke fascists like Mark Harris represent about three or four percent of the people. They speak for next to no one. Unfortunately, those woke fascists have infiltrated the media. But the people understand. I don’t think the people are in a bubble. Only the woke fascists are.”

Pessimist: “The other point of view [is that there are] people who think Trump is the better option. But you can’t find that [opinion] anywhere unless you listen to those people who are [regarded as] verboten. If 60% of people are afraid to say what they think online then we have no fucking idea what they think. If they’re afraid to say what they think online it’s likely about the left since there is not a very high price to pay online for not supporting Trump. 60% of this country are white people. Most of the swing states are white people. Trump’s voters are enthusiastic. So what I’m doing is looking at their side of things. Because I can no longer trust our side to tell me the truth about anything. We say what we want to be true.”

Pally: “With respect, I simply don’t agree with you. And the reason I don’t agree with you is that seeing Trump as the better option is a mental illness. It’s not rational. It’s cult thinking. There is no ‘reasonable’ defense of it.

“I don’t say that as a wokester. I’m a middle-of-the-road centrist-liberal, always have been. I’m willing to listen to ‘the other side’ and always have been. But two-fifths of the country is living in a cult of personality. That’s seriously what it is. I don’t think there’s a more empathetic explanation for it.”

Pessimist: “A lot of people see him as the better option simply because he [stands for] stopping the left. And if we do not understand this basic concept we are ignoring a major element in the race.”

HE to Perssimist: “I don’t know what kind of data you need to see in order to ease up on your doomsaying. Seriously — you seem determined to deny or refute all polls that strongly suggest Biden enjoys a fairly solid and steady lead. You nonetheless seem locked into a doom & gloom scenario because of the BLM rioters & wokester shitheads effect. It’s a very disturbing situation, agreed, but no one outside the idiotic Trump base is buying Trump’s claim that Biden is taking his marching orders from the radical Left.”

As I mentioned yesterday, the Dune trailer (which I saw last Friday in a Flagstaff multiplex) is somewhat impressive. Timothee Chalamet seems to be doing his own Paul Atreides. I recognize that the arc of Paul’s story in Frank Herbert‘s Dune trilogy is about more than fulfilling a head-spinning destiny and achieving heroism, but involves a gradual descent into a Messianic psychology. But that’s the second part, no?

The basic message of the Dune trailer is “here we go again with a story of a young lad imbued with a certain specialness, and discovering super-powers and carrying the old Joseph Campbell torch on a difficult path to greatness…leading a rebellion, defeating evil, ultimate triumph. Oh, and spices.”

In short it’s more or less the same old same old, and I’m astonished how the fanboys continue to cheer this musty, time-worn fable.

That aside, Greig Fraser’s subdued palette seems agreeable. And Chalamet’s costars appear to hold up their end — Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya Coleman, David Dastmalchian, Chang Chen, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa and Javier Bardem.

Due respect, but I can’t wait to suffer through this thing. Seriously.

HE to Pessimistic Friendo: “You’re too much of a doomsaying pessimist at this stage of the game. You’re really bringing me down. 38% to 42% of the voters support a monster, yes, but that leaves 58% of the voters who don’t. We’re all suddenly perched on the edge of totalitarianism, fascism, a race war. You have to believe in sanity, fairness and decency. Joe recently stood up the wokester shitheads in the streets, saying that lawlessness won’t be tolerated. He’ll certainly repeat this in the debates. You have to believe, have a little faith.”

Journo Pally to Same Pessimistic Friendo: “It was in March 2016 that I first predicted that Trump would win the 2016 election.

“By the time the 2016 conventions happened, I knew just how off-the-mark the media was. I thought Trump’s nomination-acceptance speech was, in its horrific way, an incredible piece of showbiz; it was panned by every journalist as a loser of a speech. Hillary’s nomination-acceptance speech, on the other hand, I thought was the pits — I turned to my wife and said, ‘There’s no fucking way she can win.’ But the journalists were ecstatic. It was then that I realized the media was becoming a series of agenda-driven wish-fulfillments.

“So I have the bona fides and battle scars to say, ‘I got what the media didn’t in 2016.’

“But I’m honestly sensing far more enthusiasm for Biden than I did for Hillary. And much, much more weariness about Trump. That doesn’t mean a lot of the same dynamics aren’t in play; they are. Members of the woke media still don’t get, and never will, why they strike everyone in the world (including those of us who consider ourselves liberals but not woke) as a bunch of elitist hypocrites.

“But the thing about Donald Trump is: He’s not a politician, or even a true dictator (though he could become one) — he’s a TV show. (That, in a certain way, is what Hitler was too; actually, Hitler was a movie.) And there’s an eternal rule about TV shows, even the most popular ones:

“They get old.

“People get tired of them. At a certain point, after one too many seasons, everyone says, ‘Next.’ I think Trump is reaching that point.”

I’ve never seen lions at the beach before pic.twitter.com/zzf6RKgEZe

— Theo Shantonas (@TheoShantonas) September 8, 2020

AMPAS (i.e., The People’s Wokester Central Committee) has announced new representation and inclusion standards for all would-be seekers of a Best Picture Oscar starting in 2024. The standards were emailed to everyone earlier this afternoon.

AMPAS Quote: “For the 94th Oscars (2022) and 95th Oscars (2023), submitting a confidential Academy Inclusion Standards form will be required for Best Picture consideration, however meeting inclusion thresholds will not be required for eligibility in the Best Picture category until the 96th Oscars (2024).”

The more I think about these new standards and the various ways they can be met, the less oppressive they seem. But still…

Hypothetical 2024 situation: Imagine that it’s September 2022, and that Manchester By The Sea or Call Me By My Name, to name two examples of recent racist or exclusionary cinema, had never before been made. They are about to go into production sometime in late ’22 or early ’23, with Kenneth Lonergan and Luca Guadagnino directing respectively. After skimming the new standards, ask yourself how they would affect the making of Lonergan and Guadagnino’s films, given their producers’ hope to market themselves by becoming Best Picture contenders.

Reader request: Then is then and now is now, but someone should really count how many previous Best Picture winners (1929 to 2019) would be eligible with these new rules. Less than 10%? Roughly 20%?

AMPAS Verbatim: “For the 96th Oscars (2024), a film must meet TWO out of FOUR of the following standards to be deemed eligible:

STANDARD A: ON-SCREEN REPRESENTATION, THEMES AND NARRATIVES

To achieve Standard A, the film must meet ONE of the following criteria:

A1. Lead or significant supporting actors

At least one of the lead actors or significant supporting actors is from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group.

• Asian
• Hispanic/Latinx
• Black/African American
• Indigenous/Native American/Alaskan Native
• Middle Eastern/North African
• Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander
• Other underrepresented race or ethnicity

A2. General ensemble cast

At least 30% of all actors in secondary and more minor roles are from at least two of the following underrepresented groups:

• Women
• Racial or ethnic group
• LGBTQ+
• People with cognitive or physical disabilities, or who are deaf or hard of hearing

Eight and a half years ago Variety‘s Jeff Sneider reported that DreamWorks and Working Title Films had agreed to pool forces on a remake of Alfred Hitchcock‘s Rebecca (’40). The plan was for Nikolaj Arcel to direct and Eastern Promises scribe Steven Knight to write the script, but that fell by the wayside along with Universal’s participation.

The project eventually wound up at Netflix with Ben Wheatley directing and screenplay credit shared by Jane Goldman, Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse. Armie Hammer has the thankless task of playing the snooty, brusque-mannered, deeply bothered Maxim de Winter (i.e., beaten by Laurence Olivier before he says a line) and a blonde-haired Lily James is the unnamed protagonist (Joan Fontaine‘s role some 80 years ago).

The trailer makes it clear that the tale is set in late 30s, pre-war England. Even so it seems as if the patronizing old-school sexism and upper-class chauvinism that Fontaine‘s character was subjected to (and was so intimidated by) will be a tough sell in this day and age. “What woman would be able to relate to this?” I asked. “Maxim is a totally arrogant and insensitive chauvinist, and that 1940 world (Manderley, servants, George Sanders, Mrs. Danvers) is but a musty memory. Our world has no ties or connections to it, or none to speak of.

“All you could do to juice up the new version would be to strengthen ‘Danny’s’ lesbian attachment to the dead Rebecca.

“The important thing for everyone to remember is to never visualize Rebecca — no actress, no flashbacks, no dialogue. Keep her abstract and ethereal.”

The trailer indicates that Wheatley ignored this advice. The late Rebecca de Winter is visualized as some kind of wispy ghost in one brief shot, and as a swarm of ghost bees in two others.

Her forthcoming Marvel film aside, director Chloe Zhao has focused twice on poverty-level, hand-to-mouth protagonists who are stuck in a no-way-out situation.

The Rider (’17) was about Brady, a former rodeo star who’s been told he can’t ride any more due to having suffered traumatic brain damage. The poor guy has nowhere to go, and the film, primarily a mood-and-atmosphere piece, ends on a note of resignation. In Nomadland (Searchlight, 12.4), which is debuting this Friday at three festivals simultaneously, Frances McDormand‘s Fern is stuck in an itinerant, job-to-job lifestyle, driving from place to place, barely hanging on. Heavy load, hard row, no rest for the weary, handsomely shot, quietly moving.

A Nomadland teaser was released this morning. Seemingly aimed at blogaroos, tastemakers and critics, it says “this film is not about narrative propulsion…it’s basically another Rider… an award-season hothouse flower…naturalistic tone, realistic downish mood, the refuge of the road.”

I caught the Dune trailer last Friday. It played right before Tenet in that Flagstaff Harkens plex that I mentioned. My first reaction was that it was selling a more solemn and meditative experience than David Lynch’s 1984 version (or at least my 36-year-old memory of it), and that Greig Fraser‘s cinematography was ace-level. I’m not looking forward to it, but the trailer (which felt more like a teaser) left me with a feeling that it might not be too bad.

Trailer tomorrow. #DuneMovie pic.twitter.com/6xulWsrpUr

— DUNE (@dunemovie) September 8, 2020

According to the Daily Mail‘s Daniel Bates, Michael Cohen‘s “Disloyal” — a tell-all by President Trump‘s ex-personal lawyer, fixer and bagman — contains an allegation that Trump regarded his marriage to Melania as “just another deal.”

Cohen has reportedly written that Trump was never all that bothered about Melania’s reaction to his alleged cheating. “I can always get another wife,” Trump allegedly said. “That’s no problem for me. If she wants to go, so be it.”

It pains me to say this, but for a proven liar and sociopath these quotes sound curiously honest.

Of course his marriage to Melania is “just another deal” — that’s been obvious from the get-go. Has there ever been another couple in the public eye with less of a caring or even half-sincere emotional current between them? She’s in it for the money (shocking!), and Trump wanted a trophy wife for p.r. appearance purposes.

After yesterday’s rave reviews from the Venice Film Festival, Regina King‘s One Night in Miami (Amazon) is suddenly looking like an award-season contender.

My immediate thought after reading Owen Gleiberman and David Rooney‘s reactions and especially Clayton Davis’s Oscar-race assessment was “cool, so where’s the mouth-watering trailer?”

For whatever reason King and Team Amazon decided to release a 65-second clip instead, and one that’s not all that stirring.

60% of it sidesteps the basic thrust of the film (four famous African-American cultural figures — Cassius Clay, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, Jim Brown — hash out the the state of American blackness) in favor of a familiar-sounding boast by Eli Goree‘s Clay, crooning about his boxing victory over Sonny Liston and preening in front of a mirror. The remaining 40% is about Kingsley Ben-Adir‘s Malcolm explaining in a low-key way that the evening’s agenda isn’t about partying but self-reflection. Fine, but we wanted a serving of what the film is altogether — visually, rhetorically, spiritually.

Compare this to a 2015 trailer [below] for a 2015 Denver Center for the Performing Arts production of Kemp Powers‘ stage play. More comprehensive, crackling energy. I’m sorry but Hollywood Elsewhere feels let down. Please assemble a tasty, crafty teaser, guys. And what about a release date?

L.A. friendo who’s seen it: “Very well written, good for what it is, and Leslie Odom, Jr.’s performance as Sam Cooke is the keeper. But Clayton Davis isn’t doing Regina King’s film any favors by over-hyping it. It’s not the Second Coming.”