Two and two-thirds years ago (8.14.21) I posted "Signature Dialogue Lines", which got a lot of responses and then the day ended and everyone moved on.
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I have been a Ghosbusters vomit-bagger for almost 40 years now.
I hated at least 90% of Ivan Reitman’s 19884 original, and felt disgusted by the megaplex adoration. Some of Bill Murray‘s quips were amusing, sure, but I despised the third act with a passion — that idiotic demon dog, Sigourney Weaver‘s possession by “Gozer” and especially that huge marshmallow monster clomping around Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
A woman I was seeing at the time, a marketing exec, found it delightful. I think on some level this may have contributed to our eventual breakup. I remember taking a walk one afternoon and realizing that her Ghostbusters worship was a bridge too far.
Exactly five years later came Ghostbusters II (6.16.89), and the few aspects I found tolerable or vaguely amusing about the ’84 version had been more or less eliminated.
The public was spared any further 20th Century sequels, and for a long stretch the idea of a 21st Century Ghostbusters rehash seemed unlikely. Thank you, God.
Then came Paul Feig’s feminist version, Ghostbusters (7.15.16). The partly sexist fanboys hated it but I found it half-tolerable until the final godawful 35 minutes.
Review excerpt: “It’s formula bullshit, of course — what else could it be? — but if you can lower your standards and just sit back and take it, it’s 80 minutes of silly ‘fun’ — fun defined as nodding submission to a super-budget presentation of a franchise concept that’s moderately amusing here and there and doesn’t piss you off. And then, with 35 minutes to go, Ghostbusters becomes a massive CGI show to end all massive CGI shows — Zack Snyder‘s Man of Steel finale meets the Independence Day sequel meets the Pillsbury doughboy monster meets the end of the world.”
And that was it. I got off the boat and have never even flirted with the idea of getting back on. And so I blew off Jason Reitman‘s Ghostbusters: Afterlife (’21), and there’s no way in hell I’ll be watching Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire> (opening tonight).
Other than believing that A New Hope and especially The Empire Strikes Back are the only first-rate Star Wars films ever made, HE has no investment in the currently evolving Star Wars franchise.
And I couldn’t care less about the utter ruining of the material, the legend and the lore by Lucasfilm’s Kathy Kennedy (the Critical Drinker has been saying this for some time) and particularly her plan to launch an Untitled New Jedi Order film that will be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and star Daisy Ridley as Rey.
Average Joe fanboys hate this, of course. They’re up in arms. They don’t think the Star Wars franchise should be about pushing woke values or feminism but classic escapism, primal themes and the usual yaddah yaddah.
Obaid-Chinoy’s Wiki page describes her as “a Pakistani-Canadian journalist, filmmaker and activist known for her work in films that highlight gender inequality against women.”
Bradley Cooper‘s Maestro (Netflix, 11.22) is an even-steven two-hander about the occasionally turbulent marriage between conductor-composer Leonard Bernstein (Cooper) and Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan). Both are obviously playing leads.
I still haven’t seen it, but performance-wise the buzz since Venice has been that Mulligan decisively outpoints Cooper.
Netflix’s Maestro one-sheet clearly states that Mulligan owns the spotlight.
It sounds as if IndieWire‘s Ryan Lattanzio has seen the film, given that he’s written that “the show is stolen from Cooper by Mulligan.”
And yet two days ago Variety‘s Clayton Davis sugggested that Mulligan should go for Best Supporting Actress. This is advisable, he feels, because the competition from Killers of the Flower Moon‘s Lily Gladstone is too formidable.
Davis doesn’t mention, of course, that Gladstone’s campaign is pretty much about the woke identity militia, and that her actual performance is no more than sufficient. She certainly has no “big” moments. I could even call it an underwhelming performance (i.e., she mainly just seethes and glowers and lies in bed during the film’s second half) but the woke mob would resort to their usual inferences.
According to The Guardian‘s Charlotte Edwardes, and more specifically Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy, director Chris Nolan doesn’t have a telephone, an email address or a computer: “He’s the most analogue individual you could possibly encounter,” Murphy says.
About Oppenheimer itself, Murphy calls it “an extraordinary piece of work…very provocative and powerful…it feels sometimes like a biopic, sometimes like a thriller, sometimes like a horror. It’s going to knock people out…what [Nolan] does with film, it fucks you up a little bit.”
A journalist friendo knows a sketchy someone who’s claiming it’s “a bit dull.” (The source, I’m told, is not to be trusted.) Another journalist knows someone who saw Oppenheimer a few weeks ago, and this fellow has described it as “slightly pretentious but with a knockout 30-minute finale.”
On 3.21.23 I posted a warning…actually a feeling of anxiety and trepidation about Nolan’s sound mixing of Oppenheimer. Please God (or please Chris) — allow me to understand the dialogue in this upcoming film. Please don’t drive me crazy with the fucking mix…please. There is no one in the cinematic universe who would be more overjoyed than myself if the dialogue turns out to be audience-friendly.
The Empire Strikes Back climax with a Nolan sound mix:
An excellent exploration of the Nolan sound aesthetic going back to The Dark Knight:
Earlier today Jeff and Sasha sat down and played it by ear. At first they discussed Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, but they didn’t have anything novel or exciting to add to the conversation. So they kicked around the new Rock Hudson doc (All That Heaven Allowed, MAX) and then pondered some Telluride ’23 possibilities and recalled last year’s assassination of Empire of Light….I don’t know. It all just kind of mashed together after a while.
Link to Michael’s Telluride Film Blog.
Happy 4th of July! And again, the link.
The appearance of Haley Atwell in Mission: Impossible -- Dead Reckoning Part One (Paramount 7.12) threw me off slightly. For a few minutes it put me into a kind of Twilight Zone.
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All hail Richmond's historic Byrd Theatre, a theatrical jewel-in-the-crown if ever there was one. I haven't actually been there but I can certainly appreciate beauty and tradition.
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Magic Mike’s Last Dance director Steven Soderbergh to Rolling Stone's Marlow Stern (as transcribed by Jordan Ruimy): “This year’s [Oscar telecast] is going to be very telling. You cannot this year say, ‘Well, they didn’t nominate any popular movies!’ You cannot say that. So, we’ll find out if that’s really the issue or if it’s a deeper philosophical problem, which is the fact that movies don’t occupy the same cultural real estate that they used to. They just don’t.
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From Scott Feinberg‘s 1.28 Oscars Op-Ed — “Why Surprise Nominee Andrea Riseborough Is Unlikely to Face Sanctions for Unusual Campaign“:
“I don’t see how the Academy can penalize Andrea Riseborough because her friends and supporters have chosen to utilize [social media] platforms to champion a film or performance, especially when there is no evidence that they disparaged anyone else in the process. In the United States of America, we call this ‘free speech.’
“And to me, it’s particularly understandable why Riseborough’s friends and supporters adopted this approach. All of her higher-profile competitors who ended up not nominated on Tuesday — including Jessica Chastain for The Good Nurse (Netflix), Olivia Colman for Empire of Light (Searchlight), Viola Davis for The Woman King (Sony), Danielle Deadwyler for Till (UAR), Jennifer Lawrence for Causeway (Apple), Rooney Mara for Women Talking (UAR), Margot Robbie for Babylon (Paramount), Anya Taylor-Joy for The Menu (Searchlight) and Emma Thompson for Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (Searchlight) — had way more money spent on their behalf by the studios distributing their films.
“Riseborough’s friends and supporters had to act scrappier because they, unlike their competitors, didn’t have the resources NOT to.
“Christina Ricci: ‘So it’s only the films and actors that can afford the campaigns that deserve recognition? Feels elitist and exclusive and frankly very backward to me.’
“But beyond that, I think that the Academy should show a little faith in its own members. Riseborough’s friends and supporters didn’t have some magical potion that compelled other Academy members to vote for something, in the privacy of their own homes, that they didn’t actually like. They just mobilized voters to watch the movie so that they could, well, consider the performance at the center of it. And apparently, once voters did, they — like the critics whose raves propelled To Leslie to a 97 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes — were sold.”
Ringo Starr‘s version of Buck Owens‘ “Act Scrappier” is not purchasable, and is not on YouTube or Spotify.
In a 1.23 World of Reel post that riffs on a 1.13.22 Daily Mail interview, Empire of Light director-writer Sam Mendes laments the bombing or under-performing of not only his own film** but other auteur-stamped features that opened during 2022’s award season.
The comment thread that follows is fascinating, but I was particularly stirred by a post from “Andrew”, who compares the Miramax-dominated realm of 1998 (when well-educated boomers and GenXers were avid followers of critically-approved award-season flicks) to the coarse downmarket reality of today.
Mendes:
Andrew:
** Empire of Light is HE’s choice for the best film of 2022. And I’m far from alone in my admiration.
Jeff and Sasha‘s latest Oscar Poker (recorded two days ago) is up and running. For love, for formula, for comfort and for the joyful shirking of 2022 Best Picture nominees that many respect but nobody really loves…be honest. It was another weakish year, and the only film that really bull’s-eyed according to its own self-=imposed terms was Top Gun: Maverick. Stop arguing! Within the prison cell of general Academy preferences TG:M is the only hot mama that truly sings.
If you want 2022’s actual best films, I posted them on 12.30.22: 1. Empire of Light, 2. Close, 3. Happening, 4. Vengeance, 5. She Said, 6. Emily The Criminal, 7. Christian Mungiu‘s R.M.N., 8. Top Gun: Maverick; 9. Avatar: The Way of Water; 10. Tar (despite the many irritations). But we’re playing an Academy game now.
Posted on 1.21.23: “Sasha Stone and I just finished an hour-long chat about Tuesday morning’s (1.24) announcement of the ’23 Oscar nominations, and the obvious fact that Top Gun: Maverick, which will certainly be among the chosen few, is the only prospective nominee that feels truly commanding. Authoritatively, I mean.
“Despite the familiarity and the formulaic strategy, TG:M is the only finalist that feels home–runnish…not to mention the achievement of having joined forces with Avatar: The Way of Avatar to save and even restore a classic, life-giving Hollywood dynamic (thrills, popcorn, warm seats) to exhibition itself…there’s no ignoring the metaphor.”
Again, the latest Substack link.
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