Ethan Hawke‘s Dano riff begins at 1:35…Will Hawke’s Lorenz Hart performance snag the Best Actor Oscar?…it’s either him or Timothee Chalamet.

In a “live” chat this morning with Telos subscribers, Olivia Nuzzi’s seemingly revenge-driven ex-fiancé Ryan Lizza asked for and replied to various questions.

Here’s what I asked:

“Boiled way down, what in your view is Olivia’s default rationale or susceptibility when it comes to older guys…Olbermann, yourself, RFK, Sanford? One naturally presumes that her relationship with her dad is at the root of it, but what was the exact basic nature of that relationship? What precisely happened or didn’t happen? Surely you’re familiar with the backstory. This is the nub of it.”

Zip reply so far.

From Lizza’s latest Telos chapter (“Loyalty Test”, posted on 12.11):

“The acting in Hamnet feels stagey until the movie reaches an actual stage, at which point the earthen, feral, ardent work that Jessie Buckley has been doing reaches its apogee. Agnes witnesses, at last, what her absent husband has been up to in the wake of their family’s tragedy. And the way Buckley registers what’s before her is one of the great acts of beholding I’ve ever seen.

“Her spectator’s journey from rude belligerence to almost drunken bewilderment to chatty hypnosis to biblical revelation was pretty much mine. Through tears, I laughed at the odyssey of Buckley’s facial thesaurus. At some point, she extends a hand up to the proscenium and the actor (Noah Jupe) onstage clasps it, and the bereft epiphany that blasts out of her explains why Buckley’s work in the rest of the movie had felt so primitive: This is a human discovering the fire they call art.” — N.Y. Times critic Wesley Morris, posted on 12.11.

There’s an obvious affinity between Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Burks and George Tomasini‘s handling of the mountain road chase in To Catch A Thief (’55) and the Florida coast beach-speeding scene in Hitch’s Notorious, which was shot by Ted Tetzlaff and edited by Theron Warth.

Cary Grant riding shotgun both times; the laid-back Grace Kelly and Ingrid Bergman at the wheel, and the law on their trails.

Burks’ Oscar-winning VistaVision photography for Thief is handsome, beautifully balanced and easy on the eyes, and Tomasini’s editing makes the sequence feel centered, relaxed and at peace with the universe. The reactions of Grant and Kelly to the various intrigues and impediments are just right; ditto the insert shots of Grant’s nervous hands. In both films, I mean.

I saw Ella McCay a few hours ago. I was the only one there so I had my phone on the whole time, although I watched the film fairly closely and carefully. For a guy with his phone on.

It was agony to sit through, of course, but I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself. I felt sorry for the cast — Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Albert Brooks, Woody Harrelson, Jack Lowden, Kumail Nanjiani, Ayo Edebiri, Julie Kavner, Spike Fearn. They give it everything they had and then some, but they didn’t write or direct Ella McCay. It’s all the doing of James L.Brooks.

The constant undercurrent, the never-ending refrain in this film is that most of the men are pathetic, whiney, selfish asshats. Not Brooks’ “Governor Bill” but the characters played by Harrelson (Ella’s bad, former hound-dog dad), Lowden (Ella’s jerkoff husband) and Fearn (Ella’s ding-dong younger brother). All the women are consequential, open-hearted, protective, judgmental, proud as racehorses.

Actually, of all the actors I was sympathizing with, I felt the least sympathy for Jamie Lee Curtis. Ella McCay delivers a shitload of viewer anguish and pique, but Curtis brings the fingernails screeching on the blackboard. Her over-acting reminds me of her IRS agent performance in EEAAO. But like I said, it’s Brooks’ fucking fault. He wanted her to crank it up to level 11, and she gave him that. He did this to her.

This film has already been assassinated. No point in beating a dead horse, much less one that’s on its way to the glue factory.

Brooks’ performance as “Governor Bill” is the least problematic. He’s actually pretty good, considering. His final scene — a straight-talking sidewalk confession moment with Mackey — is rather satisfying. “Good for you, Albert,” I was muttering to myself.

I can’t write any more. McCay is too sad, too deflating. What a waste.

In addition to last night’s posting of HE’s 20 most anticipated films of 2026, here’s a rundown of 24 more…four that seem extra-interesting (Ben Affleck‘s Animals, Danny Boyle‘s Ink, David O. Russell‘s Madden, Laszlo Nemes‘ Moulin) plus 20 randomly chosen films that feel like vague problems or slight disappointments but what do I actually know? Not much or nothing.

Between last night’s 2026 post and today’s, we’re talking 44 films. I’m sure I’m overlooking quite a few that deserve attention and respect.

Possible Standout Exceptions: (a) Ink (d: Danny Boyle) — Guy Pearce as Rupert Murdoch back in the old days, based on a James Graham stage play….yes!; (b) David O. Russell‘s Madden, biopic of football coach and commentator John Madden w/ Nic Cage, John Mulane, Kathryn Hahn, Sienna Miller; (c) Ben Affleck‘s Animals, political crime thriller costarring Affleck, Gillian Anderson, Kerry Washington, Steven Yeun; (d) Laszlo Nemes‘ Moulin, French resistance WWII drama w/ Gilles Lellouche, Lars Eidinger, Félix Lefebvre.

Wuthering Heights (d: Emerald Fennell)…Bronte, dampness, erections.
The Bride (d: Maggie Gyllenhaal) — Seemingly extreme (grotesque?) feminist vengeance flick.
Out Of this World (d: Albert Serra) — “An American delegation travels to Russia in the midst of the Ukrainian war to try to find a solution to an economic dispute linked to sanctions”…nope.

The Long Winter (d: Andrew Haigh). Follow-up to Haigh’s All Of Us Strangers.
Bucking Fastard (d: Werner Herzog) — “Twin sisters Jean and Joan Holbrooke, in search of an imaginary land where true love is possible, start digging a tunnel through a mountain range”…nope.
The Dog Stars (d: Ridley Scott) — Another dystopian wasteland flick? No thanks.
Flowervale Street (d: David Robert Mitchell)
Ghostwriter (d: JJ Abrams) — Glen Powell, Jenna Ortega, Emma Mackey, Samuel L. Jackson.
October (d: Jeremy Saulnier)…horror-thriller…nope.
Project Hail Mary (d: Phil Lord & Chris Miller)….not a chance.
Narnia: Tne Magician’s Nephew (d: Greta Gerwig)…sorry, nope.

The Uprising (d: Paul Greengrass) — Braveheart 2?…14th Century action-battle flick w/ Andrew Garfield, Thomasin McKenzie, Katherine Waterston…thanks but no thanks.
Butterfly Jam (D: Kantemir Balagov)…Barry “beestung nose” Keoghan, Riley Keough…maybe. Balagov is a first-rate director.
The Beloved (d: Rodrigo Sorogoyen) — Javier Bardem, Victoria Luengo..estranged father-daughter drama.
Alpha Gang (d: Zellner Brothers)
Alone at Dawn (d: Ron Howard)…bravery & self-sacrifice in Afghanistan. Adam Driver, Anne Hathaway, Betty Gilpin.
The Invite (d: Olivia Wilde).

How to Rob A Bank (d: David Leitch)
A Colt is My Passport (d: Gareth Evans)
I Want Your Sex (d: Gregg Araki)

Herewith is a no-big-deal marking of the 14th anniversary of a classic HE Larry David food–court story.

Barack Obama’s first term was nearly 75% served. It was fairly late on a Sunday afternoon, and for some curious reason I chose this moment to stand upon — defend — a fundamental principle.

How quaint that I mentioned that a seat could be saved with a newspaper.