This morning Vulture‘s Kyle Buchanan posted a sensible-sounding speculation piece about the ’50s fashion drama that Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day Lewis are going to make. Buchanan believes the film will be about the legendary egomaniacal fashion designer Charles James (1906-1978), who, to judge by a recent A.G. Nauta character profile, didn’t give a shit about anything or anyone except what he wanted, what he dreamt of and needed to create, and where his hunger for conquest and excitement led him.

A Dali-esque portrait of designer Charles James, snapped sometime in (I’m guessing) the 1930s, as James appears to be no older than 30 here and was born in ’06.

In short, Anderson and Lewis may (I say “may”) be contemplating a revisit to the terrain of crazy Daniel Plainview, only this time with a gay Plainview doing whatever and conquering whomever (including the occasional woman) amid the metaphorical oil fields of midtown Manhattan in the 1950s. Instead of “I drink your milkshake!”, think “I swallow your horse cock while designing a dress for Babe Paley!….viff-viff-viff-viff-viff!”

Michael Bay‘s The Rock opened on 6.7.96. It was co-produced by Don Simpson (whom I used to speak to late at night while half-bombed on vodka and lemonade, and who died five months before it opened) and Jerry Bruckheimer. I’m a serious fan of some of the smart-ass action films produced or co-produced by Bruckheimer between ’94 and ’02 (Dangerous Minds, Crimson Tide, Con Air, Enemy of the State, Armageddon, Gone in Sixty Seconds, Black Hawk Down) but I’ve never been a huge Rock admirer. Yes, I’ll remember to my dying day Sean Connery‘s “your best?” line but that’s just one line, man…c’mon. All that aside, here’s a Rock tribute piece by Nick “Action Man” Clement.

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (’69) is certainly Sydney Pollack‘s darkest film, but also his finest and flintiest, one could argue. Released a year after his almost-as-interesting Castle Keep, Horses was Pollack’s first and last truly ballsy “take it or leave it…life sucks” drama. Three years later he began his swoony Robert Redford partnership with Jeremiah Johnson (’72), The Way We Were (’73) and Three Days of the Condor (’75). These set the tone for the undeniably well-crafted Hollywood mainstream films that followed — The Yakuza, Bobby Deerfield, The Electric Horseman, Absence of Malice, Tootsie, Out of Africa. Horses was also the first big dramatic breakout film for Jane Fonda. There’s no Horses Bluray and it’s not streaming in high-def either — there’s only a 2004 MGM/UA DVD.

We all know what a Danny McBride movie (or series) is. It’s a movie or series in which McBride gets to play the same asshole he’s played since The Foot Fist Way, the only exception so far being the semi-human, semi-relatable guy he played in Jason Reitman‘s Up in The Air. The only interesting thing about Vice Principals, which is obviously more of the same, is that Walton Goggins, whom everyone (including Rod Lurie) was calling the hot new cool guy when The Hateful 8 was on the promotion trail last year, has decided to build on that heat by playing McBride’s dumbshit sidekick.

Just after noon I was making my way south down Robertson, heading toward the Culver City Arclight for a 12:30 pm LAFF screening of Caitlin Parrish and Erica Weiss‘s The View From Tall. Bright sunlight, blue sky, mildly heavy traffic. I was doing my usual weaving and bobbing between lanes, and suddenly there was a guy driving a small black SUV who was angry about my having cut in front of him. Dickhead thought balloon: “Whoa, hey…you don’t cut in front of me! My girlfriend just broke up with me and I’m paying $479 a month plus tax to drive this brand-new SUV, and if anyone’s cutting anyone off it’s me…I cut you off, Steve McQueen!” The next thing I know he’s roaring alongside, determined to go faster and maybe cut me off in the bargain when all of a sudden the traffic stops dead and Mr. Aggression slams on the brakes and just barely avoids crashing into the guy in front of him. I kept going, of course, weaving through the traffic and leaving this pathetic dick fuming behind the wheel. As I was being careful in my driving I didn’t have the chance to flip him the bird. I don’t think that was necessary, given what happened.

Just reminding that while we sit and sprawl our way through the annual ritual of cinematic soul-draining known as the summer season, 57 films of at least some adult intrigue or constitution are sitting in the bullpen and waiting for the annual award season to open. Not 20, 30, 40 or 50 films — the number is 57, and all slated to open during a 14-week period between mid September and New Year’s Eve, which works out to three per week and closer to four.

What I’m basically doing is re-posting the Oscar Balloon rundown to ask about any disputes or write-downs that may have surfaced over the last several weeks. Please advise about anything I should add or subtract.

Straight from Oscar Balloon (in order of confidence or expectation): 1. Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester-by-the-Sea [locked Best Actor nomination for Casey Affleck]; 2. Martin Scorsese‘s Silence; 3. Steven Gaghan‘s Gold (Matthew McConaughey, Bryce Dallas Howard, Edgar Ramírez); 4. Ang Lee‘s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk; 5. Tom Ford‘s Nocturnal Animals; 6. David Frankel‘s Collateral Beauty (Will Smith, Keira Knightley, Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren, Edward Norton); 7. Olivier Assayas‘ Personal Shopper (Kristen Stewart); 8. Clint Eastwood‘s Sully (Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney); 9. Denzel Washington‘s Fences (Washington, Viola Davis, Mykelti Williamson, Russell Hornsby). (9)

Every Monday I try to remind myself that I have not only a life but a semblance of a pulse, and one of the ways I do that is to review screening lists. Right now I have Nicholas Winding Refn‘s The Neon Demon (Broad Green, 6.24), 7:30 pm tonight. Michael Grandage‘s Genius (Summit, 6.10, costarring Colin Firth, Jude Law) tomorrow night. On Wednesday night is the all-media for James Wan‘s The Conjuring 2 (Warner Bros., 6.10). Thursday night is a screening of Susanna White‘s Our Kind of Traitor (Lionsgate, 7.1).

This morning I happened to watch this beginning-to-end capturing of the Cannes Film Festival press conference for Olivier Assayas‘ Personal Shopper, and realized for the first time that I was given a little camera time when I asked my question about 6 and 1/2 minutes in. IFC Films hasn’t announced a domestic release date. The ghost thriller won’t open in France until mid-October.

Gary Ross‘s Free State of Jones (STX, 6.24) opens in two and a half weeks, and yet STX apparently hasn’t shown it to anyone of note. Well, they had their press junket in early May (5.11 to be precise) but many of the in-the-loop media types who usually get a peek at films three or four weeks from release haven’t seen this puppy. Or so I’ve been told. Which means that STX has determined that (a) a word-of-mouth boost isn’t in the cards and (b) they’ll get a bigger box-office opening if they just rely on trailers, ads (print, online) and social media effusions. If anyone has seen it, I’d love to read a three- or four-paragraph assessment. Repeating: this Civil War-era film is selling more or less the same thing as Nate Parker‘s The Birth of a Nation — the saga of a revolt against the Confederates over slavery, except that Jones, to go by the trailer, delivers more in the way of kick-ass battle scenes than Parker’s film.

My spirits are sinking but I’m a realist. I know Bernie isn’t going to make it tomorrow. I know he’ll probably wind up three to four points behind Hillary at the end of the day. I am nonetheless a registered Democrat who is eligible to vote (as it says right here) in the 6.7.16 Presidential Primary Election at West Hollywood Park (647 No. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069). I’m voting for Bernie regardless of likely outcome because you don’t win a prize if your candidate wins. You wouldn’t believe how many tens of thousands of idiots don’t vote because they’ve calculated that their candidate will lose so why bother?

Yesterday President Bill Clinton told jeering Bernie Sanders supporters at a campaign rally in Boyle Heights that they would be “toast” on Tuesday. “I don’t want to pick a fight but if I were them I’d be screaming, too, ’cause if you figured this out, they’re toast for Election Day,” Clinton said. “So have a good time.”

“The reason they are screaming is ’cause,…here’s the point, she got 73% of the vote in South Carolina with the white working class, as well as with African-Americans because they know what she did there,” Clinton explained.

“You know the only thing that bothers me about it is? They say that everybody that disagrees with them is part of some nefarious establishment. It’s a pretty big establishment. It includes the United Farm Workers, because she voted for immigration reform when he didn’t.

“They can shout all they want, those are the facts, and she has bent over backwards to be positive in this campaign.”

It took me three and a half years to watch it, but Olive Films’ Bluray of Sidney Lumet‘s Long Day’s Journey Into Night (’62) is 85% to 90% satisfying from a purely visual standpoint. I only saw about 40 minutes’ worth but it’s clean and crisp enough. It could look a little sharper and more refined here and there, but it’s certainly not a “problem.” I’m looking forward to watching the whole thing next weekend. I was cupping my ears to hear certain portions of the dialogue when I caught the still-running Broadway version in early May. It’s a pleasure to not have to do that in my living room.