Everyone knows the set-up for Our Souls At Night, right? A pair of widowed 70somethings in a small town — Jane Fonda‘s Addie Moore and Robert Redford‘s Louis Walters — decide to forego loneliness and solitude by sleeping together. Not sexually but as a simple act of comfort and companionship.

Things are a bit awkward at first but not for long. They talk a bit and then a bit more, and they get to know each other, and they gradually come to everything good that you might expect to happen between two good people.

What happens doesn’t actually amount to a whole lot, but it seems like enough. The film isn’t about hanging with Louis and Addie as much as Bob and Jane, whom some of us have come to know pretty well over the decades. Louis and Addie are less wealthy and more conservative-minded than Bob and Jane, but otherwise there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of difference. Bob and Jane are good company for each other and for us.

What we get from their relationship are little comfort pills or, if you will, little spoonfuls of honey and squeezings of lemon in our tea. They speak quietly and gently to each other, never sharply or critically or sarcastically. Familiarity, trust…nobody’s in any hurry.

Our Souls At Night experiences a couple of mild downturns, mostly by way of Louis and Addie’s resentful grown children. Louis was a less-than-perfect father to his daughter (Judy Greer), and she reminds him of that for what I presume is the 179th time. Addie’s brief lack of vigilance led to a tragedy with her daughter, and so her alcoholic, occasionally abrasive son (Matthias Schoenaerts) reminds her of that also. Bluntly, hurtfully.

Schoenaerts’ character nearly destroys Louis and Addie’s relationship, and the film with it. He’s such an astonishing alcoholic asshole, and Addie, God help her, agrees with his view that she was the cause of her daughter’s death, and so Schoenharts, furious at Addie for her horrible non-error, pressures her into separating from Louis to make up for her mistake. What bullshit! Life is shorter than short, for God’s sake. If you’ve found a good thing, never let it go.

I wanted Addie to tell Schoenharts to go fuck himself, but she feels too guilt-ridden to do anything but indulge him. I wanted Schoenharts to bless his young son Jamie (Iain Armitage) by dying in a drunken car crash or slitting his wrists in the bathtub, but alas, no. Poor Jamie is living with an abuser, and is doomed to a life of anger and resentment and Al Anon meetings.

A movie that makes you wish for the absence or the death of a bad guy and then refuses to get rid of him is not, in my book, doing the right thing.

As I waited for the lights to come down and Last Flag Flying to begin, I was thinking the following: “This is a 30-years-later Last Detail sequel ** without Jack Nicholson or Randy Quaid and minus the names of the original characters, so it’s obviously going to feel hand-me-downish — not just older and saggier but lacking that Nicholsonian spark. But it still needs to deliver the spirit and character-rich humor and melancholy of Hal Ashby‘s 1973 original. And if it can’t manage that, it needs to invent something else that will work just as well.”

Well, forget all that.

Directed and co-written by Richard Linklater, Last Flag Flying (Amazon / Lionsgate, 11.3) is just a moderately passable older-guy road movie — a doleful, episode-by-episode thing about three ex-servicemen and former buddies — Larry “Doc” Shepherd (Steve Carell), Sal Nealon (Bryan Cranston) and Richard Mueller (Laurence Fishburne) — assessing their lives and the world around them as they escort the casket of Shepherd’s soldier son, recently killed in Iraq, from Dover, Maryland (or Norfolk, Virginia — not sure which) to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

This is nearly the same path, of course, that the original film followed when Badass Buddusky (Nicholson) and Richard “Mule” Mulhall (Otis Young) escorted Larry Meadows (Quaid) to the Portsmouth brig for the crime of having stolen $40 from a polio donation box. For whatever tangled reasons Linklater and original novel author and screenplay co-writer Daryl Poniscan chose to re-name Buddusky as Nealon, Mulhall as Mueller and Meadows as Shepherd. This led to ignoring the Last Detail origin story and making the trio into Vietnam vets with a shared history.

The difference is that (a) Nealon-Buddusky, as played by Cranston, is now an intemperate, pot-bellied drunk, (b) Fishburne’s Mueller-Mulhall has become a testy, sanctimonious prig with white hair, and (c) Carell’s Shepherd-Meadows has gotten shorter with age and become a quiet, bespectacled grief monkey (and who can blame the poor guy?)

The film mopes along in a resigned, overcast-skies sort of way, and after about 30 or 40 minutes you start saying to yourself, “Jesus, this thing is going to stay on this level all the way through to the end, and I’m stuck with it.”

There are two performances that merit special praise — J. Quinton Johnson‘s as a young Marine escort, disciplined but observant, who travels with the trio to Portsmouth, and Deanna-Reed Foster‘s as Mueller’s compassionate wife.

I know I’m supposed to say that Cicely Tyson‘s walk-on part as the mother of a deceased Vietnam vet rocked my realm, but it mostly registered as a “good enough but calm down” thing.

The Last Detail was based on Ponicsan’s 1970 novel. Last Flag Flying is based on Ponicsan’s same-titled 2005 novel, the main difference being that the book used the names and history of the original characters.

Here’s what I wrote to a critic friend the day after seeing Last Flag Flying:

“My instinct is not to dismiss this too quickly or abruptly. Sometimes less can be deceptively more, I’m thinking, and so perhaps I should give this meandering little film the benefit of the doubt by thinking it through a bit longer. But I can’t find anything beneath what my initial impressions were, which is that there just isn’t much here.

“I kept waiting for something truly intriguing, significant, jarring or emotionally moving to happen, but nothing ever did. It’s just a series of modest little road-trip episodes.

“The scene that pops the most, I suppose, is the airplane hanger scene when Carell witnesses his son’s dead and disfigured body and learns the truth about what really caused his death. I started to feel hopeful after this, but the film just settled back into a kind of lazy sluggishness after this, and nothing really happened.

“A very minor film, I’m afraid. If you compare it to Hal Ashby’s The Last Detail (and how can you not?), it falls short in every regard — story, dialogue, performances, flavor, humor, emotional impact.

“Remember that great marital argument scene between Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy in Before Midnight? I was hoping that Linklater and Ponicsan’s energy might try to go in the same direction and that something charged and confrontational might manifest at the end, but alas…no.

“I’m not calling Last Flag Flying a ‘bad’ or ineffective film, but it’s certainly underwhelming.

“What is it really saying? That it’s tragic and unbearably sad to lose a son, that official authorities are never to be trusted, that guilt can linger for decades or a lifetime, and that loyalty among men who’ve served in the military lasts forever.

“I’m quite irritated that the Last Detail character names have been changed…VERY irritated. Coarse & boozy Sal Nealon/Buddusky calls bullshit on everyone and everything. Mulhall/Mueller hobbles around on a cane, laments Buddusky’s alcoholism, and gradually lets his real self emerge. Meadows/Larry ‘Doc’ Shepherd weeps for his son and his recently deceased wife.

“I saw it Wednesday evening at 7 pm, and the after-vibe was one of vague confusion and befuddlement. The conversational huddles I heard were along the lines of ‘uhhm, what was that? Am I missing something? Did you read the book?,’ etc.

** The events of Poniscan’s “Last Detail” book, published in ’70, were supposed to be happening in ’68 or ’69, or just shy of 50 years ago. Ashby’s Last Detail film was released in ’73, which obviously makes it 44 years old. But the Last Flag Flying story takes place in ’03, or 30 years after the movie came out, which is why I used the above shorthand description — “a 30 years-later Last Detail sequel.”

I enjoyed Gary Oldman‘s heavily made-up, flamboyantly performed impersonation of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, but in much the same way that I relished Sir Laurence Olivier‘s Muhammad Ahmad (“the Mahdi”) in Basil Dearden‘s Khartoum (’66). Different characters, same bag of tricks, aimed at the balcony. But they’re both fun to watch — spirited, thumbs-uppy.

Odd but apparently true: There’s a tracking shot in the new Darkest Hour trailer that shows a couple of British kids wearing Hitler masks. With poor England fearing for its very existence what mask-maker would be perverse enough to manufacture such things for kids to play with? And yet a photo by William Vanderson, possibly snapped during the early war years, suggests that such masks existed.

Re–shuffling of tweets posted an hour ago: Hugh Hefner peaked as a progressive cultural figure sometime between the late ‘50s and the mid ’60s. Hef’s brand was over by the mid to late ‘70s, but respect must be paid on the occasion of his passing. Hefner was one of the key agents (if not the key agent) in the sexual-attitude liberation of Eisenhower-era America. Playboy, Hef’s brainchild, arguably did more to loosen the strings on the straightjackets that were being worn (or more accurately submitted to) by middle-class American males than any other cultural factor, and that was no small feat. Hefner is dead, but his legend — intense, pipe-smoking, white-collar guy ignites a libidinal revolution — will never die. Only in America.

Some day next year or the year after, the New Beverly will pair Luca Guadagnino‘s Call Me By Your Name with Bernardo Bertolucci‘s The Sheltering Sky, and for some viewers who never quite got Luca’s film (which is to say never quite let it all in) it will suddenly click into place. For both are first and foremost about that special region of life that has very little to do with order and discipline and accomplishment and freshly ironed shirts, and almost everything to do with dozens or hundreds or perhaps thousands of little sensual gleamings…aromas, caressings, fingertips, flavors, afternoon naps, architecture, fruit, splashes of water, magic hour sunlight, little hums and moans and grrrs that come and go.

A little more than six months ago an extended trailer for Alex Garland‘s Annihilation was shown at Cinemacon. It wowed a lot of journos (myself among them) and exhibs. I’d also been reading online that at the very least it has an absolutely killer ending.

But I have to be honest and say that the trailer that popped this morning [below] isn’t as grabby or intriguing as the Cinemacon reel. My reaction last March was “wow, okay…that was something.” My reaction to today’s trailer is “uhhm, okay, yeah…why does this seem less intriguing?”

It costars Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Oscar Isaac, David Gyasi and Sonoya Mizuno.

Megyn Kelly is not a social doofus. She’s been around media circles and knows what goes. Asking a nearly 80-year-old actress about the “work” she’s had done is an aggressive, even hostile thing to say. Kelly was probably feeding off some kind of repressed right-wing animus toward Hollywood-celebrity culture. We all know or can guess who’s gone under the knife (i.e., almost everyone), and the only way it’s cool to bring it up is (a) when you’re off-camera and off-the-record and (b) when you’ve had work yourself and are looking to compare experiences. Otherwise leave it alone. Redford has had a little work done, but no one ever asks him to comment.

When I read that Sony Pictures Classics had acquired The Wife, which a few of us flipped over after seeing it in Toronto a couple of weeks ago, I naturally figured they’d platform it sometime in late December and then launch a Best Actress campaign for Glenn Close in January along with a modest commercial opening.

Well, they’re not doing that. SPC has decided to open The Wife sometime in 2018 (probably next fall), and in so doing has forfeited what could have been a legendary Best Actress Oscar contest between two grand dames, Close and Meryl Streep, who will almost certainly be nominated for her performance as Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham in The Post.

Close’s performance as Joan Castleman, an under-appreciated wife of a best-selling, somewhat imperious author (Jonathan Pryce), would be a Best Actress shoo-in, trust me. She could even become the front-runner as no one wants to give Streep another Oscar. A nomination, okay, but not a win. Three Oscars on Streep’s mantle are enough.

SPC’s decision to withdraw Close from this year’s Best Actress contest has to be one of the most disappointing award-season calls of all time. They’re shutting down one of the hottest Best Actress contenders of the year in order to…what, save money? To give a better shot to Annette Bening, whose performance as Gloria Grahame in Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool has a dicey chance of being nominated, at best?

Close can win, guys! 70 years old and Oscar-nominated six times (The World According to Garp, The Big Chill, The Natural, Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons, Albert Nobbs) but never a win. That’s called a compelling narrative and a strong reason to vote for her. Who in the Academy is clamoring to give Streep her fourth Oscar? Frances McDormand, Saoirse Ronan and Sally Hawkins give award-calibre performances in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Lady Bird and The Shape of Water, respectively, but Close would out-point them, and not just because of her age and history.

She’s playing a steely, classy, soft-spoken lady who’s bitten her tongue and quietly endured career frustration so that her husband can play the role of the big swaggering author. This is a character and a situation that taps into the feelings of God knows how many women out there, middle-aged and old, who’ve had to cope with an unwarranted lack of respect or opportunity or lower wages their whole lives.

This plus Close’s personal narrative would strongly favor a win, and yet SPC is turning tail and giving up without a fight. What Academy or guild member will feel big excitement about Close this time next year? Everyone will be saying “oh, now they’re finally releasing the film and pushing Glenn? Where were they last year?”

The biggest winner in this decision is I, Tonya‘s Margot Robbie, who might be able to snag the fifth slot now.

Item #1: However mesmerizing or mixed-baggy Blade Runner 2049 turns out to be, it sounds as if dp Roger Deakins might finally be in an excellent position to win that Best Cinematography Oscar that he’s lost out on (or has failed to be nominated for) for so many years. Item #2: The running time is two hours and 44 minutes, so pack a light lunch. Item #3: Hollywood Elsewhere will not be reviewing Blade Runner 2049 until after I pay to see it on the evening of Thursday, 10.5. For years Warner Bros. publicity has refused to allow me to attend screenings that aren’t happening during the final week, which has meant being restricted to all-media screenings, which usually happen two or three days before opening. But there will be no Blade Runner 2049 all-media screening in Los Angeles, I’ve been told, so I’m on my own dime. When I asked about attending a screening in Burbank on Thursday, 9.28, I was told that “the theater…is very small and therefore unfortunately cannot accommodate everyone.”

Directed by Kevin Connolly and (this is key) written by Leo Rossi and the great Lem Dobbs, Gotti (Lionsgate Premiere, 12.15) looks fairly decent. It might be better than that. It’s obvious John Travolta has lucked into a choice opportunity; he might even be giving a great performance. Pompadour, threads, steely glare. The story spans three decades, but for some reason I’m not finding the running time. Costarring Kelly Preston, Stacy Keach, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Spencer Lofranco.

Now that the big festivals are done and I’m back in Los Angeles for the long haul, I’m determined to wade through all 18 hours of Ken Burns and Lynn Novick‘s The Vietnam War. I’m not thinking of buying the Bluray — it’s easy enough to upload all the episodes and watch at my own pace. Ten 90-minute episodes. Here we go.

“The Vietnam War is not [Ken] Burns’ most innovative film, but it is probably [his] saddest film. The Civil War was mournful, but at least the Union was preserved. The War ended with fascism defeated. The war in Vietnam offers no uplift or happy ending. It’s simply decades of bad decision after bad decision, a wasteful vortex that devoured lives for nothing.

“It was, the narrator Peter Coyote says, ‘begun in good faith by decent people out of fateful misunderstandings, American overconfidence and Cold War miscalculations.’

“The Vietnam War is less an indictment than a lament. The saddest thing about this elegiac documentary may be the credit it extends its audience. The Vietnam War still holds out hope that we might learn from history, after presenting 18 hours of evidence to the contrary.” — from James Poniewozsik’s 9.14 N.Y. Times review.