Nearly 14 months after debuting at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, Jamie Dack‘s Palm Trees and Power Lines, a fearless film about teenaged sexual vulnerability if I ever saw one, is finally opening commercially.

I saw it on my computer 13 and 1/2 months ago, and raved…well, not actually. My initial review conveyed serious shock at how dark and sinister this film is. A “holy shit” rave.

I plan on seeing it sometime late tomorrow at the Village East Angelika. The reason it look so long to sell is that very few are going to want to sit through this stunning and ghastly film, albeit composed in a masterful fashion.

The Palm Trees review (1.24.22) by Variety’s Owen Gleiberman conveys a pretty good taste. I expect it to do less-than-zero business.”

“Hawk Swoops Down, Carries Away Prey,” also posted on 1.24: “Three days ago I stated that Jamie Dack‘s Palm Trees and Power Lines, a Sundance Film Festival Dramatic Competition entry, is among the festival’s three best films.

“I actually didn’t convey my true, deep-down feelings, which is that in the realm of stories about young girls dealing with predatory relationships and the sexual issues that always come with that, Dack’s film is one of the most shocking and upsetting that I’ve ever seen — period.

“I’ve already reported that it’s about a hugely creepy relationship between a fatherless 17 year-old (Lily McInerney) and a 34 year-old opportunist and latent scumbag (Jonathan Tucker), and that what happens would make any decent person gag. Without divulging specifics I should add that the film contains what I regard as the most odious and grotesque sex scene in motion picture history. And the ending is completely shattering.

“A friend doesn’t believe the ending, which again I can’t be specific about. But I can at least state that each and every dude in this film is either a dog or a beast. We’re talking implications of sexual cruelty, brutality and animality in every scene featuring a male of any age.

“I recently described the plot to a female friend with a 20something daughter, and she said, ‘This is basically how younger Millennials and GenZ see all white cis men…they think they are all rapists and assaulters.”

“I’m not disputing that many if not most younger males (late teens to mid 30s) are animals in terms of their sexual behavior. This view or judgement is certainly out there, so it wouldn’t be the craziest thing in the world for Dack to share this opinion.

“The shocking part of Palm Trees and Power Lines is the degree to which McInerney’s character is seemingly off-balance and emotionally starved for paternal attention and affection. Because right away you’re wondering how and why McInerney would go out with Tucker in the first place (there are all kinds of red flags). By the end of the film you’re left with an even more perplexing question. I thought McInerney might be safe at the end, and then she does something that made me go “oh my God!”

“You can argue that what she does is not entirely believable, but for me the dramatized horror outweighs the credibility.

“Friendo to HE: “I could totally buy that [McInerney] is damaged and would get seduced by this guy’s tricks…all of it. But as the movie portrays it, what she goes through in that motel room is so horrific, and in both that scene and the aftermath she is so filled with fear, that I just thought: The fact that she’s got daddy issues is going to transcend that?

“Her mother” — a good performance by Gretchen Mol — “seemed nice enough, not perfect but loving. Why would she be so alienated from that home situation?”

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Elementary school drag shows for toddlers is basically about soft-clay positive imprinting — acclimating little kids to the idea that gay or trans culture is cool and that homophobia is unacceptable, etc. But the school-board officials approving this stuff are obviously sexualizing grade-school atmospheres, and this is alarming if not horrifying to not just red-state parents but sensible blues.

Where is the upside in agitating parents over their kids being exposed to flagrantly sexual behavior?

Be honest: If you were running a school board in some rural or suburban community, would any of this stuff give you pause? Or would you just say “fine!” and wave it all through?

This is beyond crazy. I thought it was a bunch of Dame Ednas. Instead: this. When will gay organizations say no to this? Why the lockstep defense of the indefensible? The damage these extremists and crazies are doing to gay rights is incalculable. https://t.co/hp7BCwIHhZ

— Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) March 2, 2023

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The real Eddie Ginley has been an HE voice for some time and has posted 3900 comments. The fake Eddie_Ginley, a shit-talker and an all-around bad fellow, has an underscore between his two names and has posted 40 comments. Deep-sixing is obviously required.

Besides the obvious description, Sarah Polley ‘s Women Talking (‘22) is a long nocturnal discussion in a barn about whether or not a group of Mennonite women should more or less submit to an obviously intolerable situation or gather their things and split. You’re sitting there throughout the film and asking yourself “what’s to debate?”

Sidney Lumet ‘s 12 Angry Men (‘57) is about an all-male jury deliberating the guilt or innocence of a teenaged boy who may have stabbed his abusive father to death. And yet it’s really about the issue of reasonable doubt, which a single, well-educated, fair-minded juror (Henry Fonda) persists in exploring on a logical basis until he gradually persuades 11 fellow jurors that he has a point.

It started with a 3.1.23 Katie Herzog tweet. It sure feels good to know that EEAAO haters are legion.

Jeffrey Wells
If EEAAO wins, it will be like the meteor that slammed into the Yucatan during prehistoric times and killed all the dinosaurs.

Chris Nolan and Universal have strangely, curiously wimped out of a Cannes Film Festival debut for Oppenheimer (7.21). Okay, maybe Nolan’s post-production schedule doesn’t allow for a mid-May showing, but my gut tells me that he and Uni concluded that screening his adult-angled, IMAX-lensed historical drama in Cannes could possibly diminish the promotional push. Not in terms of critical response but possibly because it seemed too early. Either way what a drag! (Hat-tip to Jordan Ruimy)

Issue #1: I’m not predicting that Martin Scorsese‘s Killers of the Flower Moon will use narration, but if it does use narration, I realy don’t want to hear it from Jesse Plemons‘ “Tom White” (FBI guy, former Texas Ranger) or Lily Gladstone‘s “Mollie Burkhart”, wife of Leonardo DiCaprio‘s “Ernest Burkhart”…narration will not be appreciated under any circumstance, but it will be extra problematic if Plemons or Gladstone are the narrators.

Issue #2: The best Scorsese crime movies are those in which the audience identifies with or half-admires the lead-protagonist criminals or sociopaths (Mean Streets, Goodfellas, Casino, The Departed). We know they’re bad but we enjoy their attitude and energy.

Unfortunately there’s no apparent room for amusement or guilty identification in Flower Moon, as the bad guys — DiCaprio’s Burkhart, Robert De Niro‘s William Hale, Scott Shepherd‘s Bryan Burkhart — are racist yokel scumbags. It’s an “Oklahoma whiteys were really satanic back in the ’20s” movie, which falls in line with the woke narrative about all whites being evil or ethically derelict in one way or another. So where’s the fun in that?

HE to Academy members: Oscar voting starts tomorrow (3.2.23) and ends next Tuesday (3.7.23). Did you know that you won’t win any money or derive any career benefits if you happen to vote for the winners? It’s true — you won’t win a damn thing if you fall in with the mob. But you’re going to vote with the mob anyway, aren’t you?

HE is advising members to vote as follows, and I have no agenda whatsoever except for my seething, clenched-teeth hate for Everything Everywhere All At Once:

Best Picture: Top Gun: Maverick, not because it’s the “best” film but was the year’s most important because it really spoke to the popcorn munchers, and in fact lifted them up.

Best Director: Tar‘s dweeby Todd Field, for making the year’s most infuriating and vaguely dislikable brilliant film, which I’ve seen four times.

Best Actor: Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin. Easily the most likable and charismatic nominee in this category.

Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, Tár.

Best Supporting Actor: Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin.

Best Supporting Actress: Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin. Easily the most likable and charismatic nominee in this category.

Best Original Screenplay: Tár.

Best Adapted Screenplay: All Quiet on the Western Front.

Best Int’l Feature: Lukas Dhont‘s Close.

HE to Showbiz 411‘s Roger Friedman: “What you’re saying, Roger, is that the Academy members who love EEAAO and are going to vote for this fucking film starting tomorrow are not really voting for the film but for the mood of it….the mood or the vibe or whatever. These people are enot all that deep or inquisitive by nature, you seem to be saying, and their outlook is kinda sorta superficial…no? As in vaguely terrified of subtext or meaning or thought. As in go-alongy because it feels good to belong, As in kinda sorta moronic.”

Woody Harrelson‘s low-key depression vibe doesn’t announce “laugh at this!” but I actually laughed out loud, and I havem’t laughed at an SNL skit since the late 2016 election night skit.