Posted in N.Y. Times on 11.22 — “Democrats’ Leadership Fight Pits West Wing Against Left Wing” by Jonathan Martin and Maggie Haberman: “Struggling to respond to Donald J. Trump’s victory, a group of shellshocked Democrats moved swiftly to endorse Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota for chairman of the Democratic National Committee, hoping that he would be a fresh face for a party with a depleted bench.

“But after steadily adding endorsements from leading Democrats in his bid to take over the party, Mr. Ellison is encountering resistance from a formidable corner: the White House. (It’s not highly significant to note that Ellison is African-American, but it does add to the intrigue.)

“In a sign of the discord gripping the party, President Obama’s loyalists, uneasy with the progressive Mr. Ellison, have begun casting about for an alternative, according to multiple Democratic officials close to the president.

“The battle pits the titans of the Democratic Party against one another, with Mr. Obama’s camp at odds with figures like Chuck Schumer, the new Senate Democratic leader, and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.”

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This “making of La La Land” video posted yesterday. A real pleasure. Moves right along, makes you want to see the film. Until producer Jordan Horowitz comes along at 2:02 and says the following: “We really wanted to cast someone out of the music world. For that Keith role. And John [Legend] came along…” Except Horowitz speaks in that infuriating 21st Century patois known as “uptalk” in which every sentence comes with a questioning tone (i.e, “is it okay if I say this?”), and so he actually says “we really wanted to cast someone out of the music world?? For that Keith role??” I’m unable to listen to the substance of any person’s thoughts when this vocal tick interferes. It goes without saying that real men don’t use uptalk. Never, ever.

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HE Quote #1: “Fences is straight, plain, direct. Life is hard, pain is passed along, pride is a burden, the burden is a bitch. This is a great film.” HE Quote #2: “Denzel Washington’s performance is eloquent, emotionally affecting, smooth and damn near close to perfect…heartfelt and beautifully refined.” HE Quote #3: “Fences for Best Pic, Best Director, Best Actor (Denzel), Best Supporting Actor & Actress (Mykelti Williamson, Viola Davis)…count on it.”

With Silence, Collateral Beauty and Passengers yet to be seen, HE’s 25 Best Films of 2016 are as follows & in this order — totally on a personal preference basis, zero consideration given to award-season politicking or Oscar predictions:

(tied for #1) Kenneth Lonergan‘s Manchester By The Sea and Damien Chazelle‘s La La Land;

(2) Denzel Washington‘s Fences;

(3) David Mackenzie‘s Hell or High Water;

(4) Luca Guadagnino‘s A Bigger Splash;

(5) Ezra Edelman‘s O.J.: Made in America;

(6) Paul Verhoeven‘s Elle;

(7) Paddy Breathnach and Mark O’Halloran‘s Viva;

(8) Robert Eggers‘ The Witch;

(9) Gavin Hood‘s Eye in the Sky;

(10) Barry Jenkins‘ Moonlight;

(11) Jim Jarmusch‘s Paterson;

(12) Karyn Kusama‘s The Invitation;

(13) Bob Nelson‘s The Confirmation;

(14) Vikram Gandhi‘s Barry;

(15) Peter Berg‘s Patriot’s Day (especially the Act Two Watertown sequence);

(16) Yorgos Lanthimos‘ The Lobster (even though it dies around the 75 minute mark);

(17) Richard Tanne‘s Southside With You;

(18) Whit Stillman‘s Love & Friendship (awaiting subtitled Bluray so I can understand everything Kate Beckinsale is saying with her blase, lah-lah British accent);

(19) John Lee Hancock‘s The Founder;

(20) Mike Birbiglia‘s Don’t Think Twice;

(21) Clint Eastwood‘s Sully;

(22) Todd Phillips‘ War Dogs;

(23) Jean-François Richet‘s Blood Father (best popcorn wanker B-movie of the year);

(24) Ben Wheatley‘s High-Rise;

(25) Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon‘s Sausage Party.

Most Overpraised Film of the Year, hands down: 10 Cloverfield Lane

Acknowledgment: This list is actually composed of 26 films, but I felt I couldn’t cut one of them out to even things off at 25. If and when Silence makes the cut (which I’m 95% sure it will) the grand tally will be at 27. No, I couldn’t in good conscience include Arrival, which I respected in certain ways but which mainly irritated me all to hell.

Two days ago I regretfully passed along a Boxofficemojo report about Warren Beatty‘s Rules Don’t Apply having averaged $59 per screen in 1100 situations last Tuesday night. The hope was that things would improve once the Thanksgiving family crowd began going to the plexes. Well, maybe the numbers will uptick today and tomorrow but yesterday Rules, playing on 2382 screens nationwide, earned $285K for a $120 average. Which represented a slight decline over Wednesday’s haul of $315K and a $132 average. Again, I’m sorry.

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I could post a David Poland-style piece about all the things I’m thankful for today blah blah, but it hit me the other night how enormously thankful I am to be able to see movies at a truly great movieplex that really knows how to make a film look and sound as good as it gets. That would be the Hollywood Arclight, which I hit every week or so or at least two or three times a month. A visited a couple of nights ago, and I popped my head into four or five cinemas just to check out the projection quality and sound levels, and everything looked and sounded perfect. I mean wowser, as in “how much better could this be?”

I was at the Key West Film Festival last weekend, and I have to say that the projection standards in that town’s main theatre didn’t hold a candle to what the Arclight delivers. (Too small screen, so-so sound.) The Arclight sound alone is a knockout, but also the light levels and the sharpness of the image on each and every screen. The Arclight experience (including the Sherman Oaks and Culver City plex) is absolutely first-class and top-of-the-line, and on this day after Thanksgiving (11.24) I’m truly thankful that I live in a town where I can routinely bask in this level of presentation.

Yes, I’m thankful for my friends and my sons and the many blessings of sobriety and the success of Hollywood Elsewhere and comfort of knowing how to write well and the fact I’ve led a life that has allowed me to repeatedly stroll the grand boulevards and back streets of Hanoi, Rome, Paris, New York, Zurich, Munich, Telluride, Prague, London and Boston as well as the winding country roads of Tuscany, northern rural California, Fairfield County and the Berkshires, but I am really, truly double-somersault happy for the pleasures of the Arclight. Thank you, God…thank you for this delight, this radiance, this completeness.

Due respect and condolences to friends, family and fans of Florence Henderson, who passed today (Thursday, 11.24) at age 82 from a heart attack. Everybody knew her as Carol Brady, of course — the soothing matriarchal figure on The Brady Bunch. Which, no offense, I avoided like the plague.  And which millions of viewers swore by during its four and a half year run (9.26.69 to 3.8.74).  The final episode of that ABC-produced, Nixon-era sitcom aired 42 and 1/2 years ago. 

Which of the 2016 Best Picture contenders meet the Howard Hawks’ definition of a quality-level film — “three great scenes and no bad ones”? HE nitpickers have tried to dismiss the Hawks criteria, but a movie that delivers three great scenes and no shitty ones is always a well-fortified Best Picture contender. Because people always tend to remember those extra-powerful or poignant moments. Because they always sink in.

1. Damien Chazelle‘s La La Land. Does it qualify? Yes, emphatically. Great scenes: (1) the freeway overpass song-and-dance number that kicks it off, (2) the Griffith Park observatory “dancing amid the stars” sequence, (3) Emma Stone‘s character sings a capella in front of the casting directors in Act Three, (4) Emma and Ryan Gosling spot each other in the latter’s L.A. jazz club (also in Act Three) and re-live their relationship as it might have happened if life was a happy MGM musical with no detours or disappointments.

2. Kenneth Lonergan‘s Manchester by the Sea. Does it qualify? You bet. Great scenes: (1) Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) says farewell to older brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) with a hug and a kiss in the hospital morgue, (2) The flashback when the staff hospital doctor informs the Chandler family that Joe has an incurable heart condition, (3) The hockey practice scene when Lee informs Patrick Chandler (Lucas Hedges) about his father’s death, (4) Lee discussing Joe’s will in the attorney’s office and the flashbacks that accompany this, (5) Almost all the scenes between Lee and Patrick including “Basement business,” “This could be good for both of us,” “You were a real help” and “Yeah, I know, they’re great but why can’t you stay?”, (6) the Big Kahuna of great Manchester scenes when Lee and his ex-wife Randi (Michelle Williams) run into each other near an outdoor staircase in Manchester and talk about buried hurt and broken hearts, (7) Lee weeps following the bar fight, (8) The smell-of-smoke-burning dream sequence on the couch, (9) Lee’s four-word explanation about why he can’t stay in Manchester.

3. Barry Jenkins‘ Moonlight. Does it qualify? Honestly? I don’t think so. Great scenes: (1) The kindly vibes showered upon “Little” Chiron (Alex Hibbert) by Juan (Mahershala Ali) in Act One (i.e., the swimming scene), although this atmosphere dispenses more in the way of warmth than a single great “hook” moment; (2) The Act Two handjob scene between teenaged Chiron (Ashton Sanders) and Kevin (Jharrel Jerome) is cathartic but not, in my eyes, great or all that affecting; (3) The confrontation scene between an adult Chiron (Trevante Rhodes) and his formerly drug-addicted mom (Naomie Harris). I honestly didn’t find the two Act Three scenes between Rhodes and Andre Holland (diner, motel room) to be great — more in the realm of honest, straight, respectable dramaturgy. All to say that Moonlight is a good, affecting film, but that’s all.

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Sean Penn‘s The Last Face was butchered like a steer during last May’s Cannes Film Festival. A tale of a torrid affair between attractive aid workers (Charlize Theron, Javier Bardem) as third-world horrors unfold, Face currently has a 12% Rotten Tomatoes rating. It will open in France on 1.11.17 but so far Summit Films hasn’t announced a domestic release date. AV Club‘s Mike D’Angelo: “By the time [Theron] wraps things up with a sententious speech about how dreams are more important than oxygen, both have been completely sucked out of the theater.” The Hollywood Reporter‘s David Rooney: “[A] stunningly self-important but numbingly empty cocktail of romance and insulting refugee porn.” Cole Smithey: “If ever there was a movie that could make you dislike relief-aid doctors, The Last Face is it.”

Back in my Westfield days there was a big, dark-haired beefy guy named Bob Simon who used to give me all kinds of shit in junior and senior high. I hated him with a passion, and I seem to recall hearing a few years back that he’s dead. God’s grace if true! I was once beaten by Simon in the back of a car on a trip back from Staten Island, where’d we’d go every weekend to get drunk as skunks. Admittedly I would act like an asshole after downing four or five cans of beer (“I’m a six-can man!” I triumphantly slurred one night) but that’s a side issue.

The animus between Simon and I began during 8th grade band practice. I played second trumpet; Simon was on the bass drum. During an attempt to perform a marching number, the headstrong music teacher (Mr. Buriss, called “Mr. Bur-ass” by some of his more spirited students) got angry with Simon for repeatedly missing a cue. He lost his temper, whacked his conductor’s stick on a metal bandstand, glared at Simon and blurted out “my God, man…you are thick!” I told the guys in our peer group about the incident, and for the next few days “Simon, you’re thick!” was a thing. From that moment on I was on Simon’s shitlist. The goadings, humiliations and degradings were constant.

The Westfield high-school climate was hellish, no question. I suppose on some level it sharpened or toughened my game, but I think I suffered from a kind of PTSD for a couple of years after our family moved to Wilton, Connecticut.

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