I can’t imagine anyone being persuaded to vote for any Presidential candidate based on what Bruce Springsteen says or doesn’t say, but The Boss is apparently not going to be endorsing Hillary Clinton, to go from what he said at an 8.25 concert at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The quote is from an 8.25 post from Backstreets, a Springsteen-endorsed fansite: “But while Bruce was content to let his lyrics do the talking, tonight we get his first direct comments on this election season, which he calls ‘the ugliest I’ve ever seen.’ So many people, he reminds us, ‘have been hurt so hard by American de-industrialization, by globalism, by NAFTA — and that can get lost in all the noise.” Hillary is something of a pro-NAFTA globalist, right?

In the view of more than a few in the Hollywood community, Birth of a Nation director-writer Nate Parker has become Black Bart — a demonic figure whose lack of sensitivity during a Penn State episode 17 years ago resulted in a charge of rape (i.e., an unwanted menage a trois that the drunken victim properly regarded as a violation) and whose behavior may have contributed, certainly to some extent, to the suicide of the victim 13 years later. A rash verdict if you ask me, but the crowd wants what it wants.

The Birth of a Nation is almost certainly award-season toast — everyone seems to believe that. It even appears as if Parker himself might be persona non grata, industry-wise, for the next few months. But what he, Jean Celestin and the late victim got into during the 1999 incident in question was, however repulsive or appalling from her P.O.V., probably not hugely different from the bacchanalia that hundreds of thousands of inebriated college students got into in their dorm rooms going back to the mid ’60s, or the dawn of the libertine era.

Here, in an 8.27 interview with Ebony‘s Britni Danielle, is how Parker sees the differences between then and now:

Britni Danielle: “You started out tonight addressing the controversy, and you talked a lot about male culture and toxic masculinity. So I want to kind of compare. What, at 19, did you know about consent?”

Nate Parker: “To be honest, not very much. It wasn’t a conversation people were having. When I think about 1999, I think about being a 19-year-old kid, and I think about my attitude and behavior just toward women with respect [to] objectifying them. I never thought about consent as a definition, especially as I do now. I think the definitions of so many things have changed.

“Put it this way — when you’re 19, a threesome is normal. It’s fun. When you’re 19, getting a girl to say yes, or being a dog, or being a player, cheating. Consent is all about — for me, back then — if you can get a girl to say yes, you win.”

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One way or another you have to witness some kind of natural, jaw-dropping vista every two or three years, if not more frequently. If you don’t or can’t, you’re missing something primal. All three videos were shot during a May 2012 visit to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland with Jett and Dylan. #1, a pan of the Bernese Alps that tower over the village (Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau) was taken during a day-long hike. #2 is a pan of Lake Brienze (Brienzersee). #3 is of Staubbach Falls.

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A capsule description of April Mullen‘s Below Her Mouth, a 2016 Toronto Film Festival attraction, from Toronto Star film critic Peter Howell: “Erika Linder and Natalie Krill play illicit lesbian lovers in a made-in-Toronto film that promises to push the boundaries for cinematic sex, as Blue Is the Warmest Color did before it. Shot by an all-female crew, the TIFF program calls it ‘one of the boldest and sexiest dramas of the year.'”

Wells thought: “If this scene was about (a) a guy attempting to make out with a cute girl in a bar, (b) the girl changing her mind and running outside and darting down an alley and (c) the guy chasing her down and more or less saying ‘wait, you can’t run away, I really want to fuck you’ and putting the moves on her again, a viewer might presume it’s about a predator engaged in a kind of aggressive date rape. But because it’s about lesbians, nobody raises an eyebrow.”

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Reaction among execs running A24, the distributor of Andrea Arnold’s American Honey (opening on 9.30.16): “It’s so great when this kind of buzz gets around. This is why we love this business because when a movie has the right kind of chemistry and the right kind of chops, something magical happens and it just takes off with ticket buyers…it becomes this mystical, unstoppable act of art and nature that people feel they just have to see.”

Reaction among execs running IFC Films, the distributor of Olivier Assayas‘s Personal Shopper (no U.S. release date): “Why don’t guys like Lawson leave us alone? We’re letting the Toronto and New York film festivals show Personal Shopper, fine, but we’re not sure how we feel about it. Some people in Cannes weren’t fans and that gives us the willies. The concept of releasing Personal Shopper intimidates us financially, if you want to know the truth, and so we’re almost sorry we acquired it and we’re not sure we even want to release it any time soon. Okay, maybe sometime next spring. But please, just stop it. We hate tweets like this. They just make things worse.”

Audiences took one look at Montgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun and said, “He’s cool, an okay guy, decent, I trust him, reminds us of a friend from college or high school, obviously good looking.” If I were gay I would think “hmm, in my dreams.” I took one look at Joe Alwyn, the lead in Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, and said, “Ang Lee chose this guy to be the lead? He looks like he doesn’t get it, like he can’t get it for lack of brain cells. I’ve seen guys like this working at yogurt shops, and I certainly have no interest in hanging with him…at all.”

Roughly 15 years ago I was having a chat with a professional woman of some size, and I was about to allude to people of girth when I realized I might get myself in trouble. I needed to put on my tiptoe shoes. Before I knew it I was scrambling and a bit anxious. I obviously didn’t want to say “fat” or “obese” or “overweight” — all shaming terms. It would have also been wrong to say “person with a weight problem” because in p.c. circles excess weight isn’t a problem. I also knew that “rotund” was out because it sounded snide. This was all whirring through my brain within three or four seconds, mind. So I seized on the term “calorically challenged.” It seemed respectful, no attitude or judgment implied — the equivalent of calling a short person “height-challenged.” And you know what? The professional woman took offense. She didn’t say in so many words that I was being an insulting smart-ass, but that’s what she was thinking. It was then that I realized that there’s no winning in this atmosphere. You just have to live and think in denial. Overweight people don’t exist. All shapes and sizes are beautiful. You just can’t say anything else. You realize what I’m describing, don’t you? In a sense we’re all living in that 1961 Twilight Zone episode called “It’s a Good Life,” and all the p.c. militants are a version of Anthony.

Here are my initial stabs at award-season acting contenders, as posted on Gold Derby. I’ve been saying since catching Manchester By The Sea last January that Casey Affleck is a cast-iron lock for Best Actor, but I’m also presuming that one of the stand-out supporting performances — by 19- or 20-year-old Lucas Hedges or veteran Kyle Chandler — will generate awards chatter. Likewise, Manchester‘s Michelle Williams will almost certainly be a Best Supporting Actress contender; ditto Moonlight‘s Naomie Harris, who’s allegedly the standout in Barry Jenkins‘ film. Best Actress-wise, it still seems that the likely headliners are Loving‘s Ruth Negga (saw it/her in Cannes) vs. Fences‘ Viola Davis.

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I don’t know for a fact that Clint Eastwood‘s Sully (Warner Bros., 9.9) will have its first public showing at the Telluride Film Festival, but signs are pointing in this direction. I was told a while back that a major American release about a true-life saga would debut there. Plus a certain East Coast critic has been hearing Sully-at-Telluride rumblings. As I understand it one of the factors is that Sully producer Frank Marshall has a home in Telluride and that feelings of regional loyalty and kinship kicked in. (Or something like that.) So that’s it, fellas — the other 20 (give or take) plus Sully. Sure, I could be wrong about this. But I doubt that I am. I sure wish I could attend tonight’s special Sully junket screening in Los Angeles, but that’s only for “interview” press.

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Among the Gurus of Gold spitballers, the “friends” of Birth of a Nation (i.e., those who’ve afforded it a marginal recognition) are Vox.com’s Gregory Ellwood, Toronto Star critic Peter Howell, TheWrap‘s Steve Pond, The Film Experience‘s NathanielR, Susan Wlosczyna (a.k.a. “Suzie Woz”), L.A. Times‘ pulse-taker Glenn Whipp and Daily Beast‘s Jen Yamato. In this, the first round of all-but-meaningless Oscar speculation, Manchester By The Sea, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, La La Land, Fences, Arrival, Loving and Moonlight are leading the Best Picture pack. The Gold Derby gang is just starting to be heard from, but Birth of a Nation support is faint with them also. Right now GD honcho Tom O’Neil is Nate Parker‘s best friend with Birth in sixth place among his Best Picture spitballs.

I’ve just committed to the second biggest Hollywood Elsewhere travel expenditure for the purpose of seeing an award-season movie with the first wave. I’ll be flying to Manhattan in early October to catch the New York Film Festival’s 10.14 world premiere of Ang Lee‘s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. That’s right — no concurrent showing for Los Angeles critics. I’ll actually be arriving on 10.7 to catch a few NYFF attractions as well as hang in Connecticut a bit, but Billy Lynn at 120-frames-per-second will be the main order of business. HE’s flight to London in October 2013 to catch an early showing of Saving Mr. Banks remains the most exorbitant thing I’ve ever done for professional purposes.

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