Specific thoughts will be tapped out later this afternoon…

I’m planning on seeing Paris Barclay‘s Billy Preston: That’s The Way God Planned It, although not today. (Screening conflict with Wicked.) Recapping Preston’s glory years is worth the ticket price, but I’m wondering to what extent, if any, the film will get into how Preston’s heavily Christian background led to intense inner conflict over being gay, and how that seemed to usher in a pattern of drug abuse.

Preston’s highly charged performance of “That’s The Way God Planned It” during George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh is easily the highlight of Saul Swimmer’s 1972 doc.

DocNYC boilerplate: “Mega-talented keyboardist and songwriter Billy Preston was often referred to as “the best musician in the room.” Stylistically influenced by the Black church, Preston’s illustrious career includes collaborations with Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, Elton John, the Beatles, etc.

“A private man who turned to drugs to dull the pain of personal trauma, Preston’s poignant story unfolds through insights from Billy Porter, Eric Clapton and whomever, complemented by rare footage and an original score by Robert Glasper.”

Wiki excerpt: “Preston had become close friends with musician Sly Stone around the same time he was engaged to actress and model Kathy Silva. Preston was devastated when he came home one day to find Stone in bed with Silva (who later married Stone on stage at Madison Square Garden). According to Preston’s manager Joyce Moore, Silva’s affair with Stone was the trigger that led Preston to stop having relationships with women. It was after this incident that he began using cocaine and having sex with men. Moore saw his drug abuse as his way of coping with the conflict he felt about his sexual urges.”

How about “some the Gold Derby gangbangers aren’t cool enough to be part of the Gate Crashers“? How about them apples?

Jeff “insneider” Sneider posted this last night:

…are set for New York and Los Angeles on 11.25, and in damn near every major city across the country in early December. The review embargo lifts on Tuesday morning, December 10th.

“Democrats became the party of ‘you can’t say that’…” Look where they are now.

…through the second half of Brady Corbet‘s The Brutalist, and I would be…well, not happy but accepting of a chance to attend a Manhattan screening of same at the earliest opportunity. (Or obtain a streaming link.) But if I can’t manage this I’ll have to wait until Corbet’s morose, torture-chamber flick opens commercially on Friday, 12.20, or nearly five weeks hence.

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Two or three days ago Cameraimage festival director Marek Żydowicz made a huge political error by writing, boiled down, that enforcing DEI gender quotas (i.e., more women directors and dps) could lead to “mediocre film productions” in place of the proverbial good stuff.

Industry progressives have freaked out over this. Directors Steve McQueen (Blitz) and Coralie Fargeat (The Substance) have bailed on attending the forthcoming Polish festival as a protest against Zydowicz’s statement.

Zydowicz has offered an apology and an explanation, but let’s cut to the chase.

Politically ill-advised as Zydowicz’s 11.8.24 article obviously was, saying that DEI quotas allow for potential mediocrity in the ranks is not a lie or a misstatement. It’s true in theory, and anyone who states that artistic quality is more important or more valuable than equity and representation is not standing on shaky ground.

An excerpt from Zydowicz’s mea culpa:

Bad Day at Black Rock (‘55) is a good, strong John Sturges film except for one thing. Nobody in that tiny little desert backwater is doing Anne Francis.

It makes no sense that Francis would even BE there, as a woman this fetching would never settle for a grim existence in a dinky little ghost town like this. Life is short — you have to go for the gusto and the goodies.

But even if you accept that Francis’s “Liz Wirth” would be content to live in this dusty hell hole, human nature dictates that someone in that miserable hamlet would’ve stepped up to the plate and said to her, “I’m your man and we can make beautiful music together and have all kinds of nice plants on the patio.”

Someone always steps up and seals the deal in these situations. It happened in each and every cave settlement in prehistoric times, in every village in ancient Judea, in every clay-hut, grass-roof settlement in medieval Europe. Not that a knockout like Francis would’ve rubbed shoulders with everyday European villagers or Judeans or cave-dwellers.

If I was Spencer Tracy, I would’ve sized things up and sauntered over to Robert Ryan or Lee Marvin or Walter Brennan or Wirth’s brother Pete, who works at the hotel, and said, “Are you telling me that no one’s giving Anne the high, hard one, or at least trying to? Because that really goes against basic human nature.“

Anne Francis passed in 2011 at age 80.

I recognize that Wicked‘s appeal is primarily to under-40 women (right?), but what kind of box-office is it likely to earn? I’m sensing it’s going to connect big-time but what do I know?

@thedejonreid Replying to @shhhhhh Happy Halloween Eve ‍♀️ #wicked #movie #fyp #theatre #play #halloween #arianagrande #cynthiaerivo #viral #trending #xyzbca #popular #debate #film #wizardofoz #greenscreen #greenscreenvideo ♬ Love You So – The King Khan & BBQ Show