Clouds Slightly Parting?

by

The Telluride Film Festival is in the best position of all the early fall film festivals as it has no red carpet or paparazzi presence, and so the SAG/AFTRA strike won’t be as much of a hindrance as it will be for the Venice and Toronto festivals.

I’m not 100% certain what this Duncan Crabtree-Ireland statement (from Sean McNulty’s 7.24 Ankler column) means but it seems to indicate that there might be a little leeway in the matter of actors promoting product at fall festivals, at least as far as “independent” films (like Woody Allen’s Coup de Chance?) are concerned.

Jordan Ruimy informs that Telluride had been planning a special Annette Bening career tribute, which would have included a special screening of Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin‘s Nyad, a “you go, girl!” drama about 60ish long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad, which Netflix will distribute. Nyad will apparently debut at Telluride, but no Bening tribute unless the strike is settled. Jodie Foster (as Nyad’s partner Bonnie Stoll) and Rhys Ifans costar.

Jelly Roll Train Doesn’t Stop Here

by

If I was walking down a street and I saw Jelly Roll coming my way, I would quickly cross to the other side. Obese, tattoo face, drug history…later.

“In a country riddled with crises — the opioid epidemic, mass incarceration, the mental health crisis and gun violence among them — Jelly Roll’s music is an expression not just of musical tastes, but also of a desperate national hunger for healing and recovery.” — from Crispin Sartwell‘s “Can Jelly Roll Heal the Broken Soul of America?,” posted in the N.Y Times on 7.23.

“I Went To Hell and Back”

by

HE to Jamie Foxx: You’re mostly recovered & out of the woods…great. But what happened, bruh? Did you have the sniffles or a fever and then it got out of hand? Were you stabbed by your wife? Did you accidentally swallow a pellet of plutonium? Did gangbangers shoot you down in a hail of bullets?

Oscar Poker: “Barbenheimer” Bait & Switch

by

Yesterday afternoon Jeff and Saha discussed the Barbenheimer Bait & Switch — the two films having been sold as one thing only to reveal their true colors during actual screenings.

Hey, maybe it’s me. I mean, maybe I’m a little fucked up or something. But yesterday’s HE comment thread consensus seems to be (a) yes, no film in Hollywood history has conveyed such a high degree of misandrist contempt for straight white dudes (men of color and mixed ethnicity being, of course, not only blameless but glorious), and yet (b) none of this matters because Barbie is a huge hit so all those grumpy misogynist dissers are the problem, not the film itself.

Do I have this right? Toxic gender-hate cinema is totally fine as long as it’s popular?

Again, the link.

I Have To Acknowledge

by

…that while Roland Joffe‘s Fat Man and Little Boy (’89) is a far lesser film than Chris Nolan‘s Oppenheimer in several ways, this Trinity explosion scene is decently shot…it looks and feels classically cinematic.

Except for two bonehead errors. One is the ridiculous notion of J. Robert Oppenheimer lighting a cigarette at the exact instant of detonation; second is an absurd suggestion that just as the golden explosion is seen and felt and heard, Oppie would behave like a euphoric Wolf of Wall Street broker who’s just closed a huge sale.