BFCA Doc Nominee Blowoffs

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Before last night’s On The Basis of Sex guild screening I sat down with Bill McCuddy and Neil Rosen of “Talking Movies.” The topic was mainly the Broadcast Film Critics Association documentary awards, which are happening on Saturday in Brooklyn. A few docs that should have been at least nominated were blown off, for some reason. Eugene Jarecki‘s The King, a transcendent doc about Elvis Presley and American culture, was ignored. Matt Tyrnauer‘s 100% brilliant Studio 54 was also given the go-by…why? Ditto a pair of HBO docs — Marina Zenovich‘s Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind and Susan Lacy‘s Jane Fonda in Five Acts. Why didn’t they nominate Divide and Conquer, the phenomenal Roger Ailes doc?

Judd Apatow‘s The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling, my absolute favorite doc of 2018 and arguably the best film Apatow had ever made, has been nominated for Best Limited Doc Series. What does that mean? It’s not a series but simply a long film (i.e., 270 minutes).

I was torn over which film to choose in the MOST COMPELLING LIVING SUBJECT OF A DOCUMENTARY category. The nominees are Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, RBG, Free Solo, Bad Reputation, Quincy, Three Identical Strangers, John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection and Filmworker. I kept flip-flopping between Scotty Bowers and Leon Vitali, and finally went with Scotty because Leon wouldn’t answer my numerous inquiries about the 4K 2001: A Space Odyssey doc.

May God Protect

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My first thought after hearing about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg breaking three ribs last night was “good God, no…not another Supreme Court vacancy with Trump nominating another Kavanaugh-like partisan…Jesus, please!”

My second thought, of course, was concern for Justice Ginsburg’s well-being. It’s one thing to crack a couple of ribs in your 40s or 50s, but people in their 80s don’t hold up as well. I was actually heartened to read a N.Y. Times account that says Ginsburg “went home after her fall” in her Supreme Court office. In short she didn’t immediately call a doctor because she’s made of sterner stuff. I know it’s not appropriate to call her “a chip off the old Lee Marvin block” but this is how I would handle a fall if I was in her shoes — take the pain, suck it in, brush it off.

But Ginsburg “experienced discomfort over the night” and “was admitted to George Washington University Hospital, where doctors found three broken ribs on her left side,” according to a spokesperson. My head is worried but my heart tells me she’ll get through this.

I suppose I felt particularly startled because last night I watched Justice Ginsburg perform a heroic walk-on at the finale of Mimi Leder‘s On the Basis of Sex, the Ginsburg biopic that will premiere at AFI fest tonight. I attended a guild screening at the SVA theatre on West 23rd Street. The embargo lifts after tonight’s showing.

Man Up or Crawl Into Mouse Hole

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Members of the White House press corps will have permanently and irrevocably lost their honor and forfeited their Lee Marvin credentials if they don’t walk out of the West Wing in solidarity with CNN’s Jim Acosta. Nothing more to be said — they walk or they’re jellyfish.

CNN’s Jim Acosta following the cancellation of his White House “hard pass” earlier today: “This is a test for all of us. I think they’re trying to shut us down. I think they’re trying to send a message to my colleagues.”

Return of Tennis-Ball Head

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The Breaking Bad feature will be a sequel starring Aaron “tennis-ball head” Paul. An iFilm story: “Over the course of five incredible seasons, no one suffered like Aaron Paul‘s Jesse Pinkman, the meth-dealing loser who lost everything (and everyone) that mattered to him simply because he was unfortunate enough to enter the orbit of Walter White. And his suffering isn’t over yet. /Film has learned that the newly announced Breaking Bad movie will be a sequel set after the events of the series finale, following Jesse as he blazes a trail away from that horrifying finale.”

Dirty Dancing

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There’s so much new content pouring out of Netflix, so many features, docs, series, British and German miniseries, old miniseries and classic films, that I almost feel like I’m drowning. That said, Christian Alvart‘s ten-part Dogs of Berlin looks pretty good. Bloody and bruising and grayish in mood, but with a sense of dry humor.

Beto vs. Trump — Gotta Happen, No Other Way

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Beto O’Rourke vs. Ted Cruz “was political nitroglycerin from the minute this campaign started,” said Ted Delisi, a Republican political consultant in Austin. “Beto couldn’t have run this race against John Cornyn. He couldn’t have run this race against Greg Abbott. This race had to be run against Ted Cruz, and it had to be run this year. This was a once-every-20-years opportunity.”

Precisely the same dynamic awaits in ’19 and ’20 when Beto runs against Donald Trump for the Presidency, and wins. He’s the only guy with that vaguely Kennedy-esque quality, an Irishman with the right, scrappy stuff. A principled guy who can stand up to the beast. Seasoned, passionate. A charismatic, whoop-ass campaigner.

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews mentioned Beto vs. Trump last night. It’s on a lot of people’s minds, trust me. Young enough to engage younger voters but not too young. Played in a band, knows how to skate-board. The perfect opposite of Bloated Orange Cheeto.

HE commenter “East Side Guy” wrote that Beto “certainly seems like a good guy, but I don’t see how he wins the presidency two years after losing the Senate. VP, maybe.”

Will you get this through your head? Barely losing a Senate race in a stubbornly deep-red state like Texas (no Democrat elected to the Senate since ’88) is not a reputation compromiser. Beto ran an inspirational, great-guns campaign that gained national attention and turned people on in all 50 states.

There’s no Presidential training school, no academy. Even those who begin the job with supposedly sufficient qualifications have to go through a learning curve.

The most destructive, no-account asshole to ever occupy the Oval Office — a moron, a tyrant-worshipping fatso, a bullshit salesman, a fake tycoon, an ex-reality-show host — is systematically dismantling our democracy and doing everything he can to carbon-suffocate the planet, and you’re hung up on whether Beto is sufficiently seasoned because he’s a Congressperson and not a Senator?

How was Dwight Eisenhower perfectly prepared for the Presidency after leading uniformed troops in WWII? How exactly was JFK totally prepared after being a U.S. Senator? JFK was elected because he had that X-factor, rock-star thing that people liked and wanted. Same deal with Beto.

Beto is three years older than JFK when elected, and roughly Obama’s age in ‘08. He’s obviously a bright, responsible-minded, articulate lefty legislator who knows how to handle himself.

What was it about Trump’s background that qualified him for the Oval Office? The man is an ADD simpleton. Beto would obviously be an upgrade. He’s the guy, I’m telling you.

Man’s Fate

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Hollywood Elsewhere is due at a reputable Yale hospital for an 8:45 am appointment. You don’t want to know and I’d rather not share. And then down to Westport and into the city for some running around, a 5 pm podcast recording with Bill McCuddy, and finally a 7 pm screening of Mimi Leder‘s On The Basis of Sex (Focus Features, 12.25), the Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic with Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer. I won’t be filing until early this afternoon when I’m on the NYC-bound train, but that’s a narrow window. Playing it by ear.

What Kind Of People…?

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A house full of rabid, rightwing, Trump-supporting Jews at last night’s Israeli Film Festival award ceremony booed and heckled a liberal producer and award-recipient, Jason Blum (Get Out), because he was trashing Trump? In Los Angeles?

Yes, the Israeli Film Festival is sponsored by the Adelson Foundation, the rightwing charity launched by scumbag billionaire Sheldon Adelson, but how could a gathering of Jews do this in the wake of the Trump-inspired Pittsburgh synagogue massacre?

Dems Take House But Suffer Three Painful Losses

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Nobody was seriously betting on the inspirational Beto O’Rourke beating the loathsome, toad-like Ted Cruz, not really. And in the end he didn’t. Too many Texas bumblefucks.

Why did Andrew Gillum, the Democratic rock-star candidate for the Florida governorship, lose to the repulsive Trump ally Ron DeSantis?

Why did Stacey Abrams, the brilliant Democratic gubernatorial candidate from Georgia, lose to her odious, vote-suppressing Republican opponent, Brian Kemp?

Yes, the Dems have won control of the House of Representatives — excellent news, and an overall victory against the Trump corrosion. A lot of diverse new Dems will be heading to Washington. But they’ve lost two seats in the Senate.

Yes, many Dems have triumphed in many tough races all over. But while American voters generally leaned blue in many regions, they didn’t tip blue in a big, decisive way. Too many rural assholes voted in favor of the Asshole-in-Chief.

Dan Lavoie on Twitter: “Tens of millions of Americans looked at what has happened in this country the past two years and said, ‘Yes, more of this, please!'”

Beto ran a world-class campaign, and he could make the difference in 2020. He needs to return to El Paso and flop for a couple of weeks, but starting in early ’19 he needs to take a long hard look at running against President Trump. He could do it — he could win it — he really could. What other prospective Democratic presidential candidate is generating that crackling Beto excitement? Nobody.

Survivor

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Repeated: Nadine Labaki‘s Capernaum (Sony Pictures Classics, 12.14) is about a 12 year-old Lebanese kid (and a small-framed one at that, making him look eight or nine) going through hard-knocks destitution on the streets of Beirut.

Does it get you emotionally to watch a raw verite depiction of a parent-less, penniless kid struggle to survive while trying to take care of an infant boy in diapers? Of course it does, but I didn’t see Capernaum as manipulative because I didn’t sense any lying or exaggerating on the part of Labaki, the kid (Zain Al-Rafeea), the infant or any of the supporting characters.

What other way could a director possibly depict extreme poverty except in a plain, matter-of-fact way?

Capernaum isn’t really about a child who files a lawsuit against his parents for giving him birth, as the point is never vigorously or extensively argued in a courtroom setting. It is, however, a deeply affecting hard-knocks, street-urchin survival tale in the vein of Pixote or Slumdog Millionaire.

Honky Tonk Woman

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For three days in early October 2009 I visited the set of Rod Lurie‘s Straw Dogs in Shreveport, Louisiana. The time I spent chatting with the cast and crew and watching a couple of scenes being shot was interesting and occasionally fascinating. I was mezzo-mezzo with the film that resulted (no one thought it approached the level of Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 original) but we’ll let that go for now.

I actually don’t know why I’m mentioning Lurie or the film because the defining event of my Shreveport visit was hooking up with a 39 year-old blonde from Florida. Let’s call her Melissa.

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