Character Should Bond With Character

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HE to friendo earlier today: “Timothee Chalamet’s next actual film, I’ve read, is James Mangold‘s Bob Dylan thing. Allegedly an August start, according to Mangold. But the Kylie Jenner thing…why in heaven’s name would Chalamet, a man of at least some depth and aspiration, want to go out with an utterly empty vessel like Jenner, who does nothing except pose for semi-nude photos next to swimming pools and earn tons of money and party and so on? She doesn’t even act.”

Friendo to HE: “What’s his interest in her? Gee, I wonder.”

HE to friendo: “That’s it? Even in the throes of hormonal madness in my 20s and 30s, I always wanted to be with someone who had a little something internal going on…something in terms of exceptional style or artistic edge…a hunger for something more than just the usual temporary pleasures.”

Beware of Those In Awe of Genius

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2001 costar Keir Dullea, speaking in 2001 video essay (1:58): “Working with Stanley Kubrick blew my mind. You just were aware that you were in the presence of genius.”

I’ve always felt that genius is an overused and certainly an imprecise term, because it’s not any kind of fixed or constant condition within this or that individual.

What genius is, basically, is profound receptivity…an open door or window through which genius-level stuff flashes from time to time. Sometimes it blows hot and stormy, sometimes it’s just a whisper or a tap on the shoulder, and sometimes it’s both. It’s mainly just something that certain people channel or become a conduit of, and no more than that. It’s mostly a kind of fearless electric current… a crackling quality in the mind and spirit.

I felt it when I had lunch at The Grill with Leonardo DiCaprio in the summer of ’93. He was 18 and 1/2, and I knew right away that he had that snap-crackle-pop going on inside. But you know who doesn’t have it? Anyone who says that this or that person is flat-out imbued with eternal genius. I’m sorry but no.

In a riff called “Genius Visits When it Wants To,” I attempted to explain the same thing to Ringo Starr. His statement that Peter Jackson was a “genius” irritated me as much as Dullea did in the 2001 video.

Some HE commenters were appalled and irate that I had the temerity to offer this knowledge in a tweet. “Hold moley…How dare you discuss the limits of genius with a famous ex-Beatle!” they seemed to be saying. “You’re just a journalist…it’s not your place! You need to be obsequious!”

What I said: “As you know, Ringo, genius comes and goes. Sometimes it ignores, and then it changes its mind and suddenly flies into the room, and it’s wonderful when that happens. But you don’t tell it what to do — when you’re lucky it tells you.”

Anyone who uses the word “genius” should be regarded askance. It’s in the same league as “awesome”, “amazing”, “totally” and “absolutely.”

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Ringo Starr’s “The No-No Song”

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Danny Boyle‘s Steve Jobs premiered on 9.5.15 at the Telluride Film Festival. There was a thing that happened at Universal’s after-party that I’ll never forget. The reactions to Boyle’s film were up and down, this and that. Outside of the gladhanders, nobody I spoke to in the immediate aftermath was 100% about it.

I knew as I approached the gathering at 221 South Oak I knew I’d have to be careful not to say anything too candid. But I nonetheless found myself speaking quite honestly to First Showing‘s Alex Billington, and I soon realized he felt as I did, to wit: Jobs was a good, respectable, well-acted film, but it wasn’t very likable.

Boyle, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, costars Kate Winslet and Seth Rogen, three or four Universal publicists and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak were right nearby but we were cautious and careful. We kept our voices down to a murmur.

The small party began to fill up, and then Hollywood Reporter award-season columnist Scott Feinberg walked in and I went “hey, Scott!” and motioned him over, and without giving the invitation a moment’s thought Scott smiled but at the same time shook his head and went “noooo…no, no” (in a gesturing sense at least) and kept on walking toward the rear of the restaurant.

“What was that about?,” Billington asked.

“He doesn’t want to discuss anything with the filmmakers standing ten feet away,” I speculated. “He probably figured I’d challenge or debate him and he doesn’t want to do that within spitting distance of Seth Rogen. He’s just being careful.”

The general after-party etiquette is as follows: (1) An invited journo is obliged to be as fawning and gracious and complimentary as possible when speaking to talent or studio reps, although he/she is not obliged to lie outright about his/her reaction to the film in question; and (2) It is permissible for journos to mutter their true opinion of the film with colleagues if they happen to be out of earshot of talent or studio reps.

Poor Gentlemanly Chuck

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In a 1997 speech called “Fighting the Culture War in America”, the late Charlton Heston, whom I regarded in the ’90s and early aughts as a wrong-headed guy because of his NRA representation, said something I agree with in a present-day context. Here, with edits, are Heston’s words:

“The law-abiding, Caucasian, middle-class Protestant or even worse, rural and apparently straight, or even worse, an admitted heterosexual, or even worse, a male working stiff…not only don’t you count, you are a downright obstacle to social progress. Your voice deserves a lower decibel level, your opinion is less enlightened, your media access is insignificant, and frankly, you need to wake up, wise up, and learn a little something from your new America. And until you do, would you mind shutting up?”

I didn’t relate to these words 26 years ago, but I do now. I didn’t even relate that much to the prickly political resentments that spawned Bill Maher‘s Politically Incorrect (’93 to ’02), or its title at least. I didn’t get on the anti-woke train until 2017 or thereabouts. What a difference a quarter-century makes.

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“Flower Moon” Shaved to 206 Minutes!

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Deadline‘s Michael Fleming is authoritatively reporting that Martin Scorsese‘s Killers of the Flower Moon is not three hours and 54 minutes, which is what the Movie Database had or reported on or about 4.14, but three hours and 26 minutes. Nearly a full half-hour shorter — not so bad!

Here’s Jordan Ruimy’s rundown of the various reported running times over the last several weeks.

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Duelling Slowboats

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Taika Waititi‘s Next Goal Wins, a fact-based sports saga, and Terrence Malick‘s The Way of the Wind, a Jesus flick, share two similarities. They’re both between three and four years old, principal-photography-wise, and both are unreleased.

It was recently announced that Searchlight will release the Waititi film, which began shooting in November 2019 and wrapped in January 2020, on 11.17.23.

The Malick film, which wrapped in the fall of ’19, has no distributor and may not even peek through at a film festival this year, although that situation could change. This is par for the course for Malick. Typical post-production periods for his films occupy an average of a couple of years.

On 3.30.22 I wrote facetiously that “if Malick sticks to his usual post-production timetable, The Way of the Wind…will most likely open sometime in ’23.” It’s now almost certain that won’t happen and that a ’24 release date is the earliest possibility.

Delays of this length are fairly unprecedented. Both films are basically regarded as jokes at this stage, but Malick is the king of this realm.

“Born Again” Ritchie?

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It is my considered belief, supported by many years of arduous viewing, that Guy Ritchie is a highly skilled but superficial-minded hack. I’m not using the term “soulless whore,” but if someone were to accuse Ritchie of same I wouldn’t argue strenuously against this. And yet…

In the view of Variety‘s Owen Gleiberman, The Covenant (MGM, 4.21) is proof that “against all odds, Guy Ritchie has become one of the best directors working.”

This Afghanistan war thriller “isn’t another Ritchie underworld caper,” Gleiberman claims. “He has put his confectionary flamboyance on hold. [For] The Covenant unveils something new: Ritchie the contempo classicist. We’re seeing a born-again filmmaker.

“The Covenant is a superbly crafted drama, [and] yet the most eyebrow-raising aspect of the movie, in light of Ritchie’s career, is the bone-deep humanity that animates the story. This is a war film dotted with heroism but dunked in despair.

“As a rescue thriller, it’s tinglingly suspenseful and real. What gives the film its power is the way that its climactic final act grows out of an organic metaphor for the flawed vision of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. We came in with the best of intentions, but got too lost in the quagmire to follow through on our promise to the Afghan people. And so we stranded them.

“In The Covenant, Ritchie tells a story of two men, but he’s really giving this war that never succeeded a kind of closure. He uses the power of movies to coax out the heart that fueled our actions, and that made our loss so hard to bear.”

Groans of Disappointment — Huge Letdown

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It would have been heavenly if Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News had gone to trial. “Money is accountability,” of course, but the courtroom drama aspect is gone. Dominion had accused Fox of airing relentless bullshit charges about Dominion having allegedly fixed the results of the 2020 presidential election in Joe Biden‘s favor, and the case looked terrible for Fox and, by extension, Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Rudy Giuliani, Sydney Powell and all the other fantasists who had insisted all along that the charges against Dominion had merit.

Alas, Fox and Dominion have settled and the fun factor has been sucked out the room. Fox will pay Dominion $787.5 million, Dominion has said. Over three quarters of a billion dollars.

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Would Woke Academy Blow Off “French Connection”?

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This is a fairly absurd hypothetical, but let’s imagine that somehow the raw, abrasive verite cop genre (Serpico, Report to the Commissioner, Busting, Prince of the City) never manifested in force during in the ’70s and ’80s, and that The French Connection was an explosive new film in 2023. Same style, same story, younger cast. Would it have a chance of winning the Best Picture Oscar, or would it be dismissed as impossibly racist and coarse and insensitive, etc.?

I know it’s a ridiculous supposition but kick it around anyway.

Note to 87 year-old director William Friedkin: I’ve scolded others about this before, but if you’re an over-70 celebrity interview subject you should never wear gray comfort sneakers or any kind of footwear that says “worn by an old guy because his feet would hurt otherwise.” Even if it hurts you should always wear uptown, expensive-looking, Italian-crafted leather footwear. And you should never wear baggy pants or dad jeans or anything in that realm — stick to fairly tight slacks, the kind that Thierry Fremaux always wears.

Two other things: Friedkin would also look a bit younger if he would wear his usual tinted distance glasses. And he should use a little hair thickener (Crew).

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Curiously Low Energy

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Update: At long last IFC films has finally invited media members to a couple of BlackBerry screenings. The highest profile one is also open to the public — a 7 pm screening at the IFC center on Thursday, May 4th. Director, cowriter and costar Matt Johnson will sit for a post-screening q & a. Pic opens on 5.12.23.

Earlier: It’s been two full months since Matt Johnson‘s BlackBerry played the Berlinale and all kinds of “oh, wow!” responses were heard. Ever since I’ve been gently pestering IFC Films about Manhattan BlackBerry screenings or at least links. The film opens on Friday, May 12th, or three and a half weeks from now. It’s just around the corner and I’ve asked a few critic friends if they’v heard anything…zip. Actually there was a positive tweet yesterday by the Albany-based Lights Camera Jackson (i.e., Jackson Murphy), but I’m not sensing a lot of energy or enthusiasm from IFC Films.

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