The final hour of Black Panther really nails it. It delivers the same kind of junkie fix that Marvel fans are accustomed to paying for, but it’s escapism fused with social vision and progressive identity politics — African pride, honor, heart, nativism, community. The last hour saves the day, but the first 75 is mainly about set-up and diversion — hidden Wakanda, vibranium, action detours (including a mad car-chase scramble in South Korea) but mostly set in a kind of tribal, primal heaven-on-earth.

Best Stormy-to-Jimmy quip: “I thought this was a talk show, not a horror movie.” Second best: “Define true.” Stormy Daniels has a seven-year-old daughter, born in January 2011.

And A24 won’t open Ari Aster’s horror film, in which Toni Collette is said to be phenomenal, until 6.8

If David Lynch‘s Wild At Heart is so great, why can’t I remember a single scene or shot from it? Okay, I remember a closeup of Laura Dern‘s crazy feet on top of her bed, excitedly “running” without moving. But literally nothing else.

I didn’t actively dislike Wild At Heart. I remember sitting there and saying to myself, “Yup, this a Lynch film, all right.” I vaguely recall feeling underwhelmed and letting it go as soon as I left the theatre, but that was 27 and 1/2 years ago.

Nic Cage‘s Sailor Ripley is a southern outlaw borrowed from mid ’50s Elvis mythology, Dern’s Lulu Pace Fortune is constantly anticipating sex or panting about something or other, and they both embody the title.

I can’t honestly say I have the slightest urge to check it out again. I certainly wouldn’t buy this Bluray. Okay, I might stream it someday to remind myself which aspects I didn’t care for 27 and 1/2 years ago. I’d watch a Bluray of Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, The Elephant Man or The Straight Story without a moment’s hesitation.

Early this morning a post by Brent Budowsky, opinion columnist for The Hill, stated that he “now strongly believe[s] that President Trump will soon fire Robert Mueller.”

Trump will “use the upcoming report of the Justice Department inspector general as a pretext to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein,” Budowsky warned, which would pave the way to fire Mueller, which would guarantee the most extreme constitutional crisis in American history.

“With an 85 percent probability, I now believe that President Trump will never agree to be questioned by Mueller and his special counsel team. The fast-moving time schedule to resolve whether Trump does or does not agree to be questioned by Mueller will be a precipitating event for Trump firing Mueller if indeed this occurs.

“I assign a probability to these warnings because they may not be proven correct. However, because there is a significant prospect they are, and because the consequences for America would be so dangerous and dramatic if they are, it is time to issue a warning in the strongest possible terms that a great constitutional crisis may be imminent for the republic.”

I’m telling you right now that I’m more down with Peyton Reed‘s Ant Man and the Wasp, sight unseen, than Ryan Coogler‘s allegedly slambang Black Panther, which I won’t see for another two or three hours. Because it’s (a) obviously invested in the same wry comedic attitude that the original had, and (b) it’s clearly not solemn or portentous. The only thing I’m not sure of is Evangeline Lilly, who seems a little too snitty and frosty.

Ant-Man: “Hold on, you gave her wings?” Hank Pym: “And blasters.” Ant-Man: “So you didn’t have that tech available for me?” Pym: “No, I did.”

Is it really all that important to have Twitter-follower bragging rights? To some it obviously is, even to the extent of paying to acquire “fake” followers, as a 1.27.18 N.Y. Times story reported.

But if you’re a big-city, brand-name film critic like Richard Roeper, who’s been a Chicago Sun Times columnist, critic and book author since the late ’80s, who cares if you have 25,000 or 250,000 followers? If I were to pay for an extra 20K followers, how would this help my game in the great scheme?

It was reported yesterday that the Chicago Sun-Times will no longer be publishing anything by Roeper until it completes an investigation of his Twitter followers. Roeper was named in that Times story about the buying and selling of fake Twitter followers.

Chicago Sun Times editor-in-chief Chris Fusco: “We became aware over the weekend of issues relating to Rich Roeper’s Twitter account. We’re investigating these issues. We will not be publishing any reviews or columns by Rich until this investigation is complete.”

Ryan Coogler‘s Black Panther had its big Los Angeles premiere last night. Right after a chorus of invested, eager-beaver critics tweeted what could modestly be described as over-the-rainbow responses. But you can’t rely on media types who were primed to worship it going in (along with those who were inclined to love it for reasons of representation and whatnot). Remember the ecstatic, holy-moley, touching-God tweets that poured into the twitterverse after the Last Jedi premiere at the Shrine?

The only thing that matters in the end is the opinion of the hard guys (those who assess a film straight from the shoulder sans agendas, and primarily in terms of filmmaking expertise and classic chops), and you’d better believe that Hollywood Elsewhere is among this fraternity. HE is seeing Black Panther tonight on the Disney lot, and then we’ll see what goes. Harumph.

If I were Diane Keaton I would have tweeted “Thank God for #MeToo and Lordy, it’s about time, but the fact that Woody Allen is my friend isn’t why I’m convinced that he’s innocent of any accusations in the matter of Dylan Farrow. I’ve known Woody since the late ’60s, and I haven’t the slightest wisp of a doubt that he’s a man of honor in every respect. Check out his 60 Minutes interview from 1992 and see what you think.” Instead she said she “continue[s] to believe him” because he’s her friend, which most would translate as “I believe in loyalty above all else.”

It felt like mid-July earlier today. In late January. No jackets, strictly T-shirts, almost sweltering. When I saw a guy walking down Beverly Blvd. with his shirt off, I pulled over and asked if I could take a shot. He wrote his name and Instagram handle on my iPhone notepad, and then it somehow disappeared. High ’70s for the rest of the week. Motorcycle weather. We like it like that.

Access Hollywood producer Scott Mantz has announced on Facebook that he and Access Hollywood are parting ways after 17 years. The tone of the announcement seemed almost joyful, which struck me as odd. I asked Scott and some friends what had actually happened. A friend passed along a version. Scott never got back to confirm or deny or fill in the blanks.

Apparently Scott hadn’t been happy at Access Hollywood and vice versa for some time. Access Hollywood is apparently “evolving” to the point that they’d like to drop the Hollywood part and just be about access…a show about gossipy personality tabloid bullshit. And then management got wind of Scott having co-launched the LA Online Film Critics Society. They allegedly felt that Scott’s involvement represented a potential conflict, but apparently they were looking for any kind of excuse. The relationship had run its course.

On top of which Mantz is also getting a divorce from actress Andrea Sabesin, whom he married in November ’09. Losing your job is tough enough, but a divorce at the same time!

Mantz’s Facebook announcement — Mantz, Paul McCartney, Access Hollywood exec producer Rob Silverstein, Billy Bush.

Please re-review HE’s rundown of 70 films that are likely to be in the smarthouse conversation over the next 11 months. Hard information solidifies, assumptions and speculations fade, etc. What films am I giving too little or too much emphasis to? And which seem most likely to end up in contention as Best Picture nominees? It goes without saying that the following have been/are being made by serious filmmakers and that they exclude mind-melting, idiot-brand, superhero franchise CG Asian-market slop:

Topliners: 1. Martin Scorsese‘s The Irishman (Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Bobby Cannavale, Harvey Keitel, Ray Romano); 2. Adam McKay‘s Back Seat (Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell); 3. Damien Chazelle‘s First Man, a space drama about NASA’s Duke of Dullness, Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Corey Stoll, Kyle Chandler, Jason Clarke); 4. Saoirse Ronan in Mary, Queen of Scots (w/ Margot Robbie, David Tennant, Jack Lowden, Guy Pearce); 5. Clint Eastwood‘s The 15:17 to Paris (Jenna Fischer, Judy Greer, Bryce Gheisar, Alek Skarlatos, Thomas Lennon, Jaleel White, Tony Hale, P.J. Byrne).

6. Steve McQueen‘s Widows (Viola Davis, Cynthia Erivo, Andre Holland, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez, Daniel Kaluuya, Liam Neeson, Colin Farrell); 7. Terrence Malick‘s Radegund (August Diehl, Valerie Pachner, Michael Nyqvist, Matthias Schoenaerts, Jürgen Prochnow, Bruno Ganz; 8. Alfonso Cuaron‘s Roma (Marina de Tavira, Marco Graf, Yalitza Aparicio, Daniela Demesa, Enoc Leaño, Daniel Valtierra); 9. Jacques Audiard‘s The Sisters Brothers (Jake Gyllenhaal, Joaquin Phoenix, Rutger Hauer, Riz Ahmed, John C. Reilly); 10. Barry Jenkins‘ If Beale Street Could Talk (Kiki Layne, Stephan James, Teyonah Parris, Regina King, Colman Domingo, Brian Tyree Henry, Diego Luna, Dave Franco).

11. Bryan Singer‘s Bohemian Rhapsody (15-year period from the formation of Queen and lead singer Freddie Mercury up to their performance at Live Aid in 1985) w/ Rami Malek, Ben Hardy, Gwilym Lee, Joseph Mazzello, Allen Leech, Lucy Boynton. 20th Century Fox, 12.25.18; 12. Bjorn Runge‘s The Wife (Glenn Close‘s Best Actress campaign + Jonathan Pryce, Christian Slater, Annie Starke. Max Irons); 13. Felicity Jones as Ruth Bader Ginsburg in On The Basis of Sex; 14. Gus Van Sant‘s Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot (costarring Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara, Jonah Hill, Jack Black, Mark Webber); 15. Felix von Groeningen‘s Beautiful Boy with Steve Carell and Timothy Chalamet.

16. Xavier Dolan‘s The Death and Life of John F. Donovan (Kit Harington, Natalie Portman, Jessica Chastain, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates); 17. Asghar Farhadi‘s Todos lo saben (Spanish-language drama w/ Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Barbara Lennie, Ricardo Darin, Inma Cuesta, Eduard Fernandez Javier Camara); 18. Spike Lee‘s Black Klansman (John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, Topher Grace, Corey Hawkins — Focus Features); 19. Woody Allen‘s A Rainy Day in New York (Timothee Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Selena Gomez, Jude Law, Diego Luna, Liev Schreiber); 20. Stefania Solluima‘s Soldado (Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, Catherine Keener — Columbia, 6.29.18).