Posted on 9.7.21: Written by Mike Rutherford and Christopher Neil, “All I Need Is A Miracle” is about a guy who’s been indifferent and even abusive to his ex-girlfriend, but now he realizes what an asshole he was and desperately wants her back. If she decides to forgive him and return, it’ll be because God has smiled and lent a hand.

If you believe that a certain someone agreeing to be your boyfriend or girlfriend constitutes a “miracle”, you’ve got the wrong attitude, man. You might even be a loser afflicted with low-self-esteem. If you’re a good person with character and inner value and whatnot, you shouldn’t need a miracle to make things right in terms of a desired relationship. Some guy saying “left to my own devices my would-be boyfriend or girlfriend might blow me off or find someone better, but if a ‘miracle’ happens I’ll be saved!”…c’mon, man.

I had the same attitude back in my hormonal heyday. If I was the object of some woman’s intense desire and if she believed that if I reciprocated her feelings that a “miracle” would be at hand, my response would be “hold on a minute…there’s nothing miraculous about me or being with me…I have my good and not-so-good qualities but if you think that our falling in love or moving in together or whatever…if you think that would be some kind of miracle, then you’re dreaming.

Nobody is a miracle, nobody’s a perfect catch…it could be a good or better-than-good relationship or not, but come down to earth….we’re all flawed, all struggling…nobody’s a gleaming prize.

Clint Eastwood: “Show me a drop-dead beautiful woman with an elegant education and great business acumen, and I’ll show you a guy who’s tired of fucking her.”

Nikki Haley’s statement about pardoning Trump was disgusting. She and Ron DeSantis can go to hell. Chris Christie was the best of them — a blunt-spoken classic Republican who talked straight and plain about The Beast and the horrific threat he poses.

And a tough break for Maestro’s Bradley Cooper, who absolutely delivered a more dynamic, reach-for-the-skies dazzler than…well. Scorsese anyway. KOTFM is a reasonably good film, but it saddles us with an idiot and drags on and on. HE commenter Mike: “Scorsese is [one of the five] because his film is about indigenous struggle.”

I won’t divulge his name or even the country where he operates from, but yesterday HE spoke to a real-life, honest-to-God streaming pirate.

I was poking around about the pirating of Fast Charlie and the apparent inability or unwillingness on the part of Vertical Entertainment to do very much about it.

I’d been told that Vertical’s communications with pirates basically boils down to AI threats and warnings. Pirates don’t listen because AI threats are bullshit. So I asked this guy…call him Long John Silver…about who, if anyone, he might actually be afraid of? Who does he take seriously?

Long John Silver: “We don’t know much about Vertical. We know Muso and other similar services, and we know that they use AI for notices but (a) they don’t follow up, and (b) what can they do when our servers are in countries they have no control over? Servers change so much, and it’s not worth it for them to chase one or two movies.

“Plus takedown notices only come when we host on services such as Dropbox or Google drive. They’re not effective when chasing torrents.

“Why should we take companies like Vertical or anyone else seriously? It’s been 25 years and they haven’t done anything. They can’t do a thing if they don’t know who/where we are.

“If it’s a genuine movie or a fake movie pretending to be real, we still earn from ads. You might find it interesting that when fakes are floating around, real movies get downloaded much less.”

Ed Harris‘s “happiness is bullshit” rant is a glorious retort to Sally Hawkins‘”Poppy” character, an emotional fascist who taunted people left and right with “are you happy?” sentiments, in Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky (’08).

It’s from the under-appreciated Kodachrome, and was written by Jonathan Tropper.

I hated Jason Sudeikis‘ character, an overly sensitive 40ish candy-ass who still can’t get past his dying dad’s (Harris’s) show of parental indifference when they were both younger.

Sudeikis to Harris: “When’s my birthday?” 

My father wasn’t much in the affection department either, weenie.  Man up.

I’m trying to figure out how Lesley Gore‘s “You Don’t Own Me” ties in with Jeremy Allen White doing gay pull-ups on a lower Manhattan rooftop. The ad is saved by the very last bit…flopping on the couch, doves fluttering off, the camera arcs northward.

May December has been snubbed, snubbed, snubbed by the SAG Awards nominations. It’s not that I’ve been against Charles Melton as much as unable to understand the bizarre enthusiasm for his sufficient but no-great-shakes performance by Gotham Award suck-ups, New York Film Critics Circle, etc. Now, alas, it’s all gone south. No SAG-AFTRA support, no Oscar nom.

And how, by the way, does director Andrew (All Of Us Strangers) Haigh fit into this? Curious trio. If this was my show I’d have Stiller and Farrell switch roles.

…based primarily on merit, depth, artistic distinction.

HE 100% agrees in the matter of Jeffrey Wright’s American Fiction performance.

…eyes that seemed alert and perceptive but also warm and a bit vulnerable as opposed to the chilly, frozen-eyed, alien-from-Tralfamadore features of Cillian Murphy.

Yes, I’ve finally borrowed “American Prometheus”…better late than never.

HE’s favorite local workspace, the Wilton Library, is closing two hours early this evening because of wet weather…good heavens! For it’s not only raining but windy outside…batten down the hatches!…mommy!

What are wind and rain? Nothing…nothing at all. Wear a hoodie, carry an umbrella. It’s not like we’re in Act One of the sepia-colored The Wizard of Oz and a twister is coming our way. Tomorrow it’ll be dry and fair skies.

This isn’t about rain, of course. This is about a lack of intestinal fortitude among the local 50-plus administrative class. Where are the men?