HE’s American LAX-to-JFK jet touched down around 8 pm Thursday night. I’m now (10:18 pm) parked on Metro North train to Westport. Public transportation almost always lets me down in some way — this time it didn’t — thank you.
Trans Wokesters Have No Power
The days when an actor like John Lithgow could be shamed into not playing a role over Stalinist trans outrage rhetoric are over. A couple of years ago trans terror was a force to be feared. Not so much these days. In my view J.K. Rowling is a woman of backbone.
Gulf of Axolotl
Gulf of Emptiness? Gulf of Nowhere? Gulf of Infinite Nothingness?
I’ve always liked the sound of the Gulf of Mexico. Everyone should revert to that when Trump leaves office on 1.20.29. He won’t die in office — of that I’m fairly certain. German genes.
Gulf of Jose Jimenez?
Is It Okay…
…if I skip this one? Can’t hurt, right? Sorry but I’m 95% sure that I’m not stupid enough to really enjoy it. I know, I know…just sit through the damn thing and then trash it, if you’re so inclined.
This is a life-size mannequin, sitting in the lobby of the AMC Grove, where last night I caught a 7:15 pm screening of Becoming Led Zeppelin.**
** I first saw the Ledzep doc in Telluride in ‘22 (or was it ‘21?). It was 16 minutes longer then. It’s nothing close to a probing documentary — it’s more like a fan-created infomercial.
Be Honest — Would You Want To Live Inside “The Brutalist”?
If you could somehow magically migrate yourself into The Brutalist…if you could somehow penetrate that membrane and suddenly find yourself actually hanging with Adrien Brody‘s Laszlo Toth and all the rest of those miserable characters…if you could push a button that would allow you to actually gain entry to and live in their world…would you?
Answer: Of course you wouldn’t because (a) theirs is a grim, grief-stricken world…a morose “lemme outta here” underland if there ever was one, and (b) the characters aren’t “real” (by which I mean relatable in a recognizable, everyday, human being sense) but Brady Corbet constructs.
Living inside The Brutalist would be, in fact, hellish. That’s precisely how I felt as I watched it…trapped in a cold hell cave.
Not So Fast
An HE commenter claimed a week or two ago that I had ranked Emilia Perez among my top five films of ’24. Not true — in my final 12.21.24 wrap-up I ranked it in 15th place.
1. Sean Baker‘s Anora / HE review (5.22.24)
2. Edward Berger‘s Conclave / HE review (8.31.24)
3. Payal Kapadia‘s All We Imagine as Light / HE review (5.24.24)
4. Alice Rohrwacher‘s La Chimera / HE review (4.24.24)
5. James Mangold‘s A Complete Unknown / HE review (12.10.24)
6. Luca Guadagnino‘s Queer / HE review (9.18.24)
7. Halina Reijn‘s Babygirl / HE review (12.10.24)
8. Steven Zallian‘s Ripley / HE review (4.27.24)
9. Robert Lorenz‘s In the Land of Saints and Sinners / HE review (4.5.24)
10. Ali Abassi’s The Apprentice / HE review (5.20.24)
11. Tim Fehlbaum‘s September 5 / HE mini-review (10.24.24)
12. Jesse Eisenberg‘s A Real Pain.
13. Alex Garland‘s Civil War / HE review (4.9.24)
14. Halfdan Ullmann Tondel‘s Armand / abbreviated HE non-review (11.18.24)
15. Jacques Audiard‘s Emilia Perez (audacious but calm down) / HE review (6.18.24)
16. Steve McQueen‘s Blitz / HE review (11.5.24)
17. Magnus von Horn’s’s The Girl With the Needle
18. Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune: Part Two.
19. Coralie Fergeat‘s The Substance
20. Christy Hall‘e Daddio (Sony Pictures Classics, 6.28)
21. Rose Glass‘s Love Lies Bleeding
22. Brady Corbet‘s The Brutalist.
23. Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire‘s Asphalt City (formerly Black Flies)
24. Clint Eastwood‘s Juror No. 2
25. Luca Guadagnino‘s Challengers
26. Ridley Scott‘s Gladiator II.
27. Yorgos Lanthimos‘s Kinds of Kindness
28. Wes Ball‘s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
29. RaMell Ross‘s Nickel Boys
30. Greg Kwedar‘s Sing Sing
31. Zellner Bros.’ Sasquatch Sunset.
Final SBIFF Event…Shally!
7:35 pm: HE will drive back to Ojai this evening following the Timothee Chalamet interview/tribute (8 pm to 10 pm). I’ve enjoyed a warm, nourishing, profoundly soothing six days in Santa Barbara — thanks to HE’s own Roger Durling for the gracious and generous hospitality!
11:20 pm update — HE to guest moderator Josh Brolin: “The Brolin-Chalamet show was the greatest SBIFF interview hang EVER…hilarious, honest, surreal, liberating.
“James Mangold called it ‘the Phil Donahue show’. I for one laughed and whooped my ass off. You were brilliant!! Your repeated jokes about Timothee’s green floral-print shirt were perfect, and when he left to take a leak…”that is art”…I almost fell out of my seat.
“In a way Mangold kind of brought everyone down with his par-for-the-course praisings. He was fine and eloquent, but you and Timmy were on a whole ‘nother level. You were on mescaline!”
Brolin replies to HE: “Jeffrey! So glad you had a nice time. I knew Timmy and I would [enjoy some] nice, real (if not quite mescaline-infused) banter. I was honored to do it.”
HE back to Brolin: “Not to mention Timmy lamenting the ticking of the clock at age 29 and the career pressure that comes with his being on the cusp of old guy-hood. Which will kick in, you remarked, when Timmy turns 31.’.
”This prompted you, of course, to joshingly imply resentment at this while announcing that your 57th birthday is imminent (actually today!…happy birthday!). Followed by Timmy and the entire Arlington audience singing the proverbial song…a truly joyful moment.
”The audience and I didn’t have a ‘nice’ time — we had a euphoric time. Last night will live in the SBIFF annals.
”I absolutely love that you sent your reply to my initial euphoric email at 4:10 am.
”Forgive me for not having not read ‘From Under The Truck’ yet. I meant to buy it after watching you talk about it on Joe Rogan.”
“You’re a Lying Irish Whore From Portland…”
“…and you used me to get Jack Reed to marry you.”
HE is preparing for a forthcoming podcast withh Sasha Stone about Warren Beatty‘s Reds. Immersing myself.
Snow Woke & The Seven CGI Abominations
Arguably the best Hitler video in years…best editing, best dialogue…made me very happy, restored my soul.
Demi Moore’s Best Actress Sympathy Narrative Is Bunk
Bunk, I tell you! Don’t fall for it!
Scowly-faced Kris Tapley is basically asking “if Anora is locked in for Best Picture, why on earth would Mikey Madison not win the Best Actress Oscar?”
HE answer: I’ve said this two or three times but it has to be drilled in. Demi Moore is apparently going to win because SAG and AMPAS members have all accepted the narrative voiced by Moore after winning a Best Comedy/Musical Actress Golden Globe award five weeks ago (i.e., January 5th).
“Thirty years ago, I had a producer tell me that I was a ‘popcorn actress,’ and at that time, I [took] that to mean that…I could do movies that were successful and made a lot of money, but that I couldn’t be acknowledged, and I bought in and I believed that,” Moore said. “That corroded me over time, to the point where I thought a few years ago that maybe this was it, maybe I was complete, maybe I had done what I was supposed to do.
“And [just] as I was at kind of a low point, I had this magical, bold, courageous, out-of-the-box, absolutely bonkers script come across my desk called The Substance. And the universe told me that ‘you’re not done.’”
For the sixth or seventh time, Moore’s narrative is dishonest. She was not forced into a popcorn box by mean old Hollywood executives. She walked right into that box of her own volition, and she totally reaped the spoils (mainstream fame, huge paychecks, flush lifestyle) until she aged out. And then she pivoted into a body horror flick just like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford pivoted into hag horror in the early ’60s.
In the ’80s and ’90s Moore went for big, attention-getting, high-paying roles in mainstream films, and she became rich and famous from this. She chose this path while the choosing was good.
I’ve never read or heard that Moore tried to prove her arthouse mettle by appearing in edgy Sundance films, and she never tried to be in a critically-approved, Cannes-worthy, outside-the-box feminist statement film, and certainly not in a body-horror film.
She only took the lead in The Substance when she calculated that she’d aged out (duhhh) and a role like this was her only likely shot at revitalizing her career.
“Brutalist” Pity Vote
Everyone knows by now that The Brutalist and Brady Corbet are finished as far as the Best Picture and Best Director Oscars are concerned…nice try, you’re not winning, maybe next time.
What this portends, unfortunately, is that the remaining Brutalist sympathizers will be voting to hand the Best Actor Oscar to Adrien Brody as a make-up.
This is a really misguided idea, of course, as the lead performances by Conclave’s Ralph Fiennes and A Complete Unknown Timothee Chalamet are far more transporting than Brody’s…please, c’mon.
In my book, Brody’s boo-hoo weeping scene at the bus station with Alessandro Nivola…this scene alone requires instant Oscar disqualification.
