Mum’s The Word

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Last Friday’s Real Time with Bill Maher contained two mildly startling statements, one from Maher and the other from guest Bret Stephens. They both said that Kamala Harris is probably going to beat Donald Trump. Which nobody on any news network, of course, is allowed to say or consider as a possibility or vaguely fiddle with.

Scorsese’s Exploitation Detour

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Martin Scorsese has been directing for roughly 57 years. Everyone has passionate opinions about which films are his finest**, but I’ve never heard a single opinion from anyone about Boxcar Bertha (’72), a 1930s outlaw crime film that Scorsese directed for Roger Corman.

It was basically an exploitation flick with a veneer of something extra.

I’ve only seen it once, and I mainly recall (a) the sex and violence footage, particularly the couplings between costars Barbara Hershey and David Carradine (Hershey told People‘s Karen Jackovich they were filmed “without having to be fake anything”), and (b) the fact that it felt personal and passionate.

Until this morning I had no recollection of the crucifixion finale.

John Cassevetes to Scorcese after catching an early rough cut: “Marty, you’ve just spent a whole year of your life making a piece of shit. It’s a good picture, but you’re better than the people who make this kind of movie. Don’t get hooked into the exploitation market. Just try and do something different.”

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Nightmare Maroon

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We are truly living through a dark age in men’s fashion. IMHO maroon suits and tuxedoes are almost as bad are those ugly-ass dark blue tuxedoes. Both colors are felonies. There can only be classic black tuxedoes…no variations.

That’s It For “The Substance”

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Somebody needs to put this guy into a Substance debate with David Ehrlich.

@bobbydotube Substance starring Demi Moore possibly the worst movie I’ve ever seen in my life! It made absolutely no sense whats so ever! Waste of money and time on top of that? Nobody knew who Debbie Moore was and after this movie, I wish I didn’t know her either you should be ashamed of yourself, Demi Moore.! ##substance##demimoore##worstmovieever ♬ original sound – Bobby DoTube

Weakest Oscar Year in Decades?

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I haven’t yet seen The Brutalist or Joker: Folie a Deux, and my fingers are crossed for A Complete Unknown…go, James Mangold and Timothee Chalamet!

But there’s no question that Anora, Conclave, All We Imagine As Light and A Real Pain are first-rate knockouts and likely Best Picture nominees.

So if you want to think hopefully or liberally that’s seven that appear likely to make the cut early next year. Okay, eight if you include the better-than-decent Emilia Perez, which has nonetheless been overpraised by the whoo-whoo brigade.

I’ve no faith in Gladiator II, certainly not with the dreaded Paul Mescal in the lead. It’s my humble opinion that Ridley Scott’s peak years are behind him.

Yes, I admired Dune: Part Two but let’s not get carried away.

A formidable cinema year always has at least 15 if not 20 films that qualify as very good to excellent. As I’ve just indicated, it’s a push to name more than ten 2024 films that make the grade.

Forget The Substance. It’s a passable Cronenbergian social-satire horror flick, but guys like David Ehrlich need to calm down.

2007 boasted 25 top-of-the-liners. 1971 saw the release of 27 grade-A releases, and 55 if you want to be gracious about it. Face it — ‘24 has proved to be a weak sister.

Sasha Stone‘s latest roster:

Cries Out For Details

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A decades-old Manhattan story from producer Mike Kaplan was posted a day or two ago by renowned film scholar and book author Joseph McBride.

HE to McBride: Fascinating story but what year did this happen? Or at least what decade? The ‘60s or 70s? Were they on the Fifth Avenue downtown bus? Lexington or Third Avenue? The great and confident Lillian Gish felt intimidated by an odd bus moment or by Garbo or what? How long were they together on that bus? How many average folks were with them? Was it raining?

This story cries out for more detail!

I’m thinking of Tom Cruise’s Collateral story about that dead guy doing laps around Los Angeles on a bus or metro car and nobody noticing. We live alone, and we’re gonna die alone…take it or leave it.

I Wouldn’t Mind Seeing “Wolf Waffles” This Weekend

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This George Clooney–Brad Pitt programmer is obviously a shoulder-shrugger.

Several weeks ago I equated Wolfs with a marginally soothing plate of warm waffles, but that 73% RT rating is concerning. If a movie has a problem or two it’ll end up with a score in the mid-to-low 80s, but a low 70s rating means “uh-oh.”

Plus it’s not playing in Fairfield or Westchester counties — you have to catch it in the city this weekend or not at all. Apple will begin the streaming on 9.27.

“Sing Sing” Was Dead From The Start

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After seeing Sing Sing early last June I didn’t have the courage to say what I really thought about its Best Picture chances. I said it would “probably end up with a Best Picture nom…maybe.”

Be honest — the words “probably” and “maybe” are sometimes squishy chickebshit terms used by equivocating jellyfish.

What I wrote may have been an accurate assessment of where Oscar pundits and industry voters might be coming from as the second half of 2024 unfolds, but I chickened out by not saying what I really thought, which is that achey-heart, leaky-eyed Colman Domingo delivers a stand-out performance but the movie more or less just lies there. It’s a well-intended shoulder shrugger, and everyone knows this.

9.19 World of Reel comment thread:

HE to Rufus: Maestro is a masterful, one-of-a-kind biopic. Bradley Cooper tried so hard, achieved so much. Portions are dazzling, swoon-worthy, genius-level. Carey Mulligan’s performance is for the ages.There’s something deeply wrong with anyone calling it “a complete dud.” In all honesty, YOU’RE a complete dud in this respect. Throw yourself upon the church steps, weeping, and beg God the Father for forgiveness.

“Sexting” Between Nuzzi and RFK Jr. Spills Over

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Over the decades many of the Kennedy men (Joe Sr., JFK, Teddy) have been hounds, and RFK Jr. has been no exception.

But nothing apparently “happened” between himself and New York‘s doghouse-dwelling Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi (no hugging, no hand jobs, no lips or tongues). They just…what, text-flirted? This, in any event and in the view of her employers, constitutes a serious breach of journalistic ethics on her part.

There’s more to this than what’s been said. Don’t reporters and profilers routinely try to get famous people to lower their guard by vibe-flirting with them? (Not with any sexual intent but with a charm-school attitude.) Don’t famous people routinely try to get journalists to “fall” for them, so to speak, in order to be more favorably profiled?

New York magazine statement sent late yesterday to THR‘s Carly Thomas and Katie Kilkenny:

“Recently our Washington Correspondent Olivia Nuzzi acknowledged to the magazine’s editors that she had engaged in a personal relationship with a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign while she was reporting on the campaign, a violation of the magazine’s standards around conflicts of interest and disclosures.”

In HE’s book, a “personal” relationship alludes to fluids.

THR: “New York Magazine didn’t name Kennedy, but people familiar with the matter told Status‘ Oliver Darcy that Nuzzi did not proactively disclose her alleged relationship with Kennedy (Darcey clled it “inappropriate”) and that the magazine only recently learned of it. Darcy reported that the alleged relationship started around the new year, after Nuzzi’s November 2023 profile on the former presidential candidate.