…except for the riffs about Poor Things (#2) and Fallen Leaves (#5). Putting Past Lives in the #1 position represents a break from reality that is almost surreal. Nobody feels this way….stop it.

In May ‘22 “Paramount Presents” released a 4K Bluray of John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (‘62) that didn’t pass muster. Restoration guru Robert Harris called it technically flawed (de-grained with an overlay of fake amoeba swirls). Three months hence (3.5.24) a remastered 4K disc (sans amoeba) will go on sale.

HE reminder: The last name of John Ireland’s “Cherry Valance” in Red River (‘48) is pronounced Val-ANCE while the surname of Lee Marvin’s arch-villain in TMWSLV is pronounced VAL-unce. Exact same spelling.

Bad 4K Valance:

Good 4K Valance (3.5.24):

My first thought was “oh, poor Dean Baquet” in She Said (‘22). Tough break. Too young. Startling and quite sad.

“Meditations,” Book 3, page 20:

This is a reach, I realize, but if Harmony Korine “has been coming over” to the North Miami home of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump “to study the Torah,” then it’s probably within the realm of social possibility that Korine’s employee, former IndieWire critic and editor Eric Kohn and current honcho of Korine’s EDGLRD…it seems at least socially possible that Kohn might also one day break bread with the Kushners somewhere in that region. Imagine…Kohn occupying only a short social spitting distance between himself and The Beast.

There’s a rumor swirling around that Kushner is the main funder of EDGLRD.

There’s every reason to assume that last week’s research screening of Steve McQueen‘s Blitz, an ensemble narrative about the Nazi bombing of England in the early 1940s, was encouraging to all concerned.

A viewer told World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy that Blitz constituted a “major achievement…both epic and intimate with some jaw-dropping [visual] filmmaking [chops].”

London filming began in November 2022; shooting also took place in Greenwich last February.

Perhaps a Cannes premiere six months hence? McQueen is a friend of that festival.

The Blitz cast includes Saoirse Ronan, Leigh Gill, Harris Dickinson, Erin Kellyman, Stephen Graham, Paul Weller, Kathy Burke, Benjamin Clementine, Hayley Squires= and Sally Messham.

Brian Becker and Marley McDonald‘s Time Bomb Y2K is a fully archived (no present-tense interviews) recap of the bizarre concerns within media and governmenty circles that were felt throughout ’99 about the Big Turnover from the 20th to 21st Century.

“Bizarre” because nobody I knew expressed the slightest concern about any of it. (I listened to the frettings of one or two Nervous Nellies…nothing.) The kids and I flew to Europe in late December. We stayed in Paris (a little place on rue Durantin in Montmartre), Brussels and in the medieval town of Rothenberg, Germany, and then returned to Paris for a New Year’s Eve crescendo. Nobody cared, all cool, nothing happened, etc.

Jamie Lee Curtis‘s praising of Taylor Swift happened some time ago, but it inspired a kneejerk response today. I tapped this out at 7:30 am this morning:

She’s not a “fantastic talent.” Swift has obviously tapped into something huge over the years, despite what any fair-minded critic would be forced to call a mediocre musical repertoire (with the exception of ‘Lover” and two or three others).

Sorry, man, but her music just doesn’t have the punchy hooks or the occasional angularity or the exciting textures and all those side doodles, mad swerves and whizzing fastballs that we expect from major performers.

But you know what? The Swifties like what she’s serving just fine. Because they are uncencumbered by taste.

Swift’s songs lack soul, depth, complexity, even occasional stabs at poetry. She’s a rural singer-songwriter at heart, one who began in he country-music field (which in itself speaks volumes), and who basically sings about ex-boyfriends.