Do The Right Thing -- Stand Up For Excellence
September 25, 2024
I Would Have Preferred A More Challenging...Okay, A More Insulting Tone
September 25, 2024
Opposite Peas in Polish Travel Pod
September 25, 2024
Friendo: “My wife and I thought Barbie’s opening riff on 2001‘s ‘Dawn of Man’ sequence was hilarious. We guffawed all through it, and yet we might have been the only ones in the audience who seemed to get it. Everyone else was stone-faced, no chuckling or tittering of any kind.
“I’ve since spoken to two well-educated women in their early 40s (one is a cardiologist) who’ve both seen Barbie, and they had absolutely no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned that scene.
“One has seen 2001 but has forgotten all about the opening scene (apes in the desert, animal bones, the black monolith); the other had never even heard of Stanley Kubrick‘s 1968 groundbreaker.
“What does this say about the average person’s film literacy?”
HE to friendo: Anyone who’s been educated at a good college or university should know at least a little something about everything, and hopefully everything about something.
I would say that your second well-educated woman (not the cardiologist) was either (a) cutting a lot of classes or (b) decided to stop educating herself after she graduated. I’m guessing it’s probably the latter.
And how the cardiologist could have possibly seen 2001 and not remembered the “Dawn of Man” sequence…she’s either lying about having seen it or was in the bathroom for the first ten minutes.
On a fine Sunday afternoon (i.e., yesterday or 8.13), Jeff and Sasha hopped around from topic to topic like Br’er Rabbit —- hippity-hop, hippity-hop. It’s a little early to call any Oscars, but (a) white male filmmakers will once again face an uphill challenge and (b) how does Greta Gerwignot land a Best Director Oscar EARLY next year? Plus a short riff on Jules, the white-skinned, black-eyed alien who befriends Ben Kingsley while sharing a move from David Cronenberg’s Scanners.
Monteverde: “I try to never look back into any regrets because there’s nothing I can do about it now. Jim came to the set. I’ve never seen somebody so committed and so professional on set. He came in and really bled for the film.”
Siegel’s follow-up question, obviously, should have gone something like this: “So your film won a fair amount of respect for sticking to the basics, for being a lean and mean thriller that was almost entirely free of rightwing talking points, and it’s made a ton of money — $173 million in the U.S. and Canada, which is higher than the domestic tally of Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning.
“So given all the this accomplishment and begrudging respect from at least the fair-minded critics and pundits out there, what is your understanding about why Angel Studios and Caviezel arranged a special golf-club screening for Donald Trump, who, you may have heard, is a proven criminal, a salivating sociopath and a deranged, egomaniacal Mussolini who’s under three criminal indictments and is facing a fourth in Georgia?
“Why, in short, did Angel and Caviezel poison the well by doing this? Why invite Hannibal Lecter into the chicken coop?
The below comment exchange appeared Sunday evening (8.13) in “MexicanObeisanceBefore Power,” otherwise known as the post in which Patton Oswalt settled the Barbie misandry dispute with one fell swoop…settled it with two drillbit words that will resonate throughout the known universe between now and the 2024 Oscar telecast — “manospherepiss–nado.”
“Sometimes there’s God, so quickly!!” — Blanche Dubois in AStreetcarNamedDesire.
I was asked why joyful reactions to certain audience-friendly films seem to rub me the wrong way.
“I’m not sure I want to be rubbed by you at all, young lady” — from Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Cleopatra (Rex Harrison to Elizabeth Taylor).
The look of endearment between the young Mexican couple as they munch on a single kernel of popcorn…that magical sparkle as their unexceptional clothing suddenly turns pink…and when they realize they’re actually sitting next to the great Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and America Ferrara…well! That little wink from Margot is so…what’s the word?…sisterly.
No, not literally the snarly Clint Eastwood detective of 40 or 50 years ago. No .357 Magnum action, no “do ya feel lucky, punk?”. But if you’re telling me you’re not fantasizing about a team of uniformed security guys stepping into this Nordstrom mob theft incident and tackling the bad guys and maybe busting them up a bit…if you’re telling me you’re totally cool with this shit, you’re either a wokester or a liar.
This retail theft mob happened at a Nordstrom in California today. Because of broken state laws, these crimes are considered “non-serious” and “non-violent” and nobody will go to state prison, even if caught and convicted. State laws need to be fixed and YES, many people need to… pic.twitter.com/nESaJSxj4p
Below is the humble, unassuming, easy-to-chuckle Greta Gerwig of yore. The woman I knew and really liked back between the late aughts and mid-to-late teens. This is her Lynn Hirschberg W interview, posted on 3.21.17.
Remember what it was like six and a half years ago? It was the calm before the storm. Mao’s cultural revolution of the ’60s and ’70s hadn’t yet migrated to our shores, and being a somewhat older white industry male wasn’t necessarily a felony. The N.Y. Times (Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey) Harvey Weinstein expose wouldn’t break until 10.5.17. Woody Allen‘s Wonder Wheel opened at the N.Y. Film Festival that same month and nobody said boo. The woke virus was a thing, of course, but still simmering in the frying pan and not yet coursing through the cultural bloodstream.