“You’re A Bad Hombre, Bob”

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At long last, a reasonably decent trailer for Paul Thomas Anderson‘s One Battle After Another (Warner Bros., 9.26) has finally surfaced.

The first reaction to Leonardo DiCaprio‘s Bob Ferguson character — a grizzled, anti-government leftie blowhard — is that he’s overly verbal about everything, and that Leo seems to be half-improvising his dialogue.

Obviously a must-see for people like myself, but what will Joe and Jane Popcorn say and do? I smell trouble in this regard.

Having suffered grievously from the watching of Inherent Vice, HE stands foursquare against any further Thomas Pynchon adaptations.

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Remember This Title: “Nuremberg”

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It’s apparently not playing Venice and perhaps not even Telluride, but James Vanderbilt’s Nuremberg (Sony Classics, 11.7) will have a gala premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, and it’s a hot ticket, I’m told.

Me to Friendo: “If Nuremberg is so good why isn’t it premiering in Venice or Telluride? Why launch it at TIFF, which is but a shadow of its former self?

Vanderbilt did an excellent job with Truth (‘15), which he wrote, directed and produced.

If the buzz is correct, Nuremberg could be a great comeback vehicle for Russell Crowe, who plays overweight Nazi luftwaffer commander Hermann Goring. A good get for costar Rami Malek also.

Who The Hell Would Want to Watch

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…a “sexually candid, open relationship comedy” starring these two mooks? The guy especially. I wouldn’t even want to imagine this bear-like beardo in any vague state of intimacy or arousal or even, God forbid, with his shoes off….ugh!

“I’m Doing Well — Let Me Screw This Up Somehow”

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Last night I caught Part One of Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin‘s Billy Joel: And So It Goes (HBO Max). It runs 140something minutes but flies right by.

I was a little worried at first — the beginning is way too obsequious and celebrative and adoring — but it soon after settles down into the basic story of Joel’s youth and early career (late ’60s to early ’80s). And it motors right along.

And it’s really not half bad. It generally feels honest, fairly raw. I didn’t feel the least bit distracted or bored. It’s a solid, well-crafted, first-rate thing. No shade or complaints.

I was reminded what a shrimp Joel is — 5’5″. Which is the same height as James Cagney and Dustin Hoffman, and one inch shorter, even, than Alan Ladd, who was very hung up about standing only 5’6″.

Part One mainly examines Joel’s New York area upbringing (Hicksville, Long Island) and how he had tightly curled, Afro-like hair, and how his mother insisted that he learn the piano, etc. Then comes his deep plunge into suicidal despair (he tried to off himself twice) and then his gradual rocketing to fame between the early and late ’70s (“The Stranger,” “52nd Street”), focusing mainly on his relationship with longtime wife and business manager Elizabeth Weber, from whom he split in ’82.

It ends before Christie Brinkley (four inches taller than Joel and almost certainly with bigger feet than his) strolls into the arena in ’83.

The most surreal moment is Weber recalling how there was a “Stranger” listening party with a few Columbia Records execs and other cool cats in ’77, the idea being to pick which tracks would sell best as a single. And guess what? Nobody responded with much enthusiasm to “Just The Way You Are.” Joel himself didn’t think it was good enough to put on the album, but was persuaded to include it at the last minute.

“Just The Way You Are” is the song that put Joel over the top and made him into a superstar. Paul McCartney says it’s the one Joel song he really wishes he had written and performed himself.

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Rahm and Megyn Converse and Agree on A Few Things

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Rahm Emanuel is understandably antsy about defying the fanatical Stalinist wokeys by saying a man can’t be a woman, but you know what? I for one understand and believe that certain men can and do become “women”, so to speak. Because of what they feel in their hearts. They just can’t compete against biofemales in sporting events, and no prompting or goading minors to take hormones or have bottom surgeries….not until they’re 18 or better still 21. And if some of them feel depressed or anguished, say, because they’re stuck in the wrong body…well, poor baby. Man up and tough it out.

Rahm doesn’t have that special X-factor charisma that Barack Obama and Bill Clinton have or at least had in their prime….true. But he’s obviously sensible, tough and brilliant, and he understands the importance of good educational basics and ditching all the fucking woke pronoun bullshit, and he believes that wokeys are essentially an insane cult…that they’re the reason Average Joes and Janes despise the Democratic party these days.

Given an academic choice between Emanuel and that authoritarian sociopathic blowhard in the White House, are you telling me that most Americans would prefer Trump over Emanuel? Or that they’d rather elect Vance to succeed Trump rather than elect a sensible, practical-minded Democrat like Rahm or Gavin or Pete?