I didn’t have a chance to watch the Harris-Walz-Bash discussion in Savannah until this morning. She handled herself pretty well. Well-planted, self-assured. Looked and sounded like a person of some force and gravitas. Dignity, maturity, unruffled.

Heartfelt oogah-moogah to Santa Barbara Film Festival honcho Roger Durling for once again inviting me to his annual La Marmotte birthday dinner.

As per custom a splendid, flush time was had by all — Deadline’s Pete Hammond and enterprising, job-whispering wife Madelyn Hammond, IndieWire’s Anne Thompson, hotshot Hollywood Reporter columnist Scott Feinberg (a late arrival), Netflix award-season maestro Lisa Taback (an end-of-the-night joiner), Netflix talent relations and award season strategist Kelly Dalton, Miramax vp publicity Julie Fontaine, and Daniel Launspach.

These photos feature Roger + myself, and Roger and Lisa.

HE to Durling: “Thanks once again, o my brutha, for your profound generosity & kindness. You’ve always invited me to your Telluride birthday gatherings because we’re palsie-walsies but also because a seat at your table is a roundabout statement of support or at least respect for who I am industry-wise, my column and my opinions. And in fraught, turbulent times, this means a lot.”

I’m always been reluctant to pose for any photo hence my initial squeamishness when Madelyn suggested a shot, but it turned out okay or good enough. The Lisa-Roger photo is perfect.

Thank you, Venice naysayers, for stating opinions that seem to indicate that Pablo Larrain‘s Maria, which is screening this weekend in Telluride, is a half-and-halfer that isn’t quite worth the candle. Thank you bless you…now I can bypass Maria without a moment’s hesitation.

Jordan Ruimy: “You shouldn’t skip Nickel Boys! It’s going to be the talk of Telluride. I can almost guarantee that.”
HE: “Why? I don’t get it. Those poor reform-school lads had a miserable time at the hands of racist bastards. So?”
Ruimy: “I understand your reservations, but I’ve just heard too many great things about it. Watch it just to stay on the beat when the rave reviews drop.”
HE: “Jesus, you’re killing me.”
Ruimy: “Hah.”

Julie Huntsinger quote: Nickel Boys “is such a towering achievement. I couldn’t believe it. My jaw dropped to the floor. You almost can’t speak after because it’s cinematically engaging, arresting. It is emotionally rewarding. It should be one of the most talked about films of the whole year.”

Why would Angelina Jolie want to even try to simulate the voice of one of the greatest all-time opera singers? What’s the point? I’ve been presuming all along that Jolie’s singing would be Marni Nixon-ed.

Everyone’s here in cool, radiantly sunny Telluride, and there’s nothing much to do at 3:13 pm except plan which screenings to catch at which juncture. And take a nap. And smell that mountain air.

It all starts tomorrow, and over the four-day span most of us will catch not more than 15 or 16 films — it won’t be physically possible to see more. Which is a shame as almost everything scheduled (roughly 35 features) looks good to very good.

I’m hearing and presuming that at least two hot films not listed on the slate (The Apprentice and A Real Pain) will be screened on a TBA sneak basis.

HE has been invited to Roger Durling’s annual La Marmotte birthday celebration gabby-gab, which starts around 8 pm. (Seating is a very delicate matter so I’ll be arriving early.)

HE’s first viewing will be Friday afternoon’s (2:30 pm) secret patron screening at the Werner Herzog (A Real Pain?), followed by a 6 pm Herzog showing of Edward Berger’s Conclave, the Ralph Fiennes Vatican melodrama that’s sure to be an Oscar contender. I could catch Nickel Boys at 8:45 pm but no thanks…sadistic Jim Crow bastards make life hell for reform school lads of color in the ‘60s…later.

One film at a time, one day at a time…

>

…you’re in a very tough spot financially. We all understand this; even HE’s toxic commenters understand what extreme financial pressure feels like.

But Hammer suffering is a good thing…right, Elizabeth Wagmeister? Tie him to the Allman Brothers whipping post…lash, bash, attach the electrodes, turn on the current, etc.

Hope you're all happy with what you did to this man. I don't expect any sympathy from you or forgiveness. You like it this way, even if it's destroyed Hollywood. https://t.co/EO1cjaR37l

— Sasha Stone at Awards Daily (@AwardsDaily) August 28, 2024

I’ve posted the following twice, so here goes the third time…

Posted on 2.4.23 — 17 months ago:

For the first time since he was branded as a sexual cannibal-animal and wham-banished from the film business, Armie Hammer has presented his side of the story.

Ignore the Variety summary by Elizabeth Wagmeister because the Air Mail piece is about a lot more than just about the usual contrition and spin (i.e., “I was bad, and now forgive me”). What Hammer contends and what he offers in terms of compelling evidence is highly persuasive.

I’m not going to summarize the main points of James Kirchick’s 2.4 Air Mail article as anyone can read it (it’s not paywalled), but there’s no question that anyone with an open mind will emerge with their previous impressions strongly challenged.

HE’s Alamo Albuquerque rental, currently speeding north on 550. Looking at an 11 pm Telluride arrival, at best.

4 am update: I quit last night around 9:45 pm. Rented an Eisenhower-era motel room in Dolores, Colorado — 75 minutes south of Telluride. I could’ve hardcored it but I was feeling fagged and shagged, and couldn’t stand the monotony of driving on winding roads in pitch darkness. Not to mention missing all that visual Rocky Mountain beauty.

You can’t write if you’re not under the ice. Very thick ice. I was around 75 feet from my gate, headphones on, tapping away, half-listening for announcements, etc. 50 minutes ago I emerged from my Honore de Balzac membrane and noticed that the crowd around me had vanished. The gate had been moved (not cool!) and it was now too late to board.

No biggie — I’m now waiting for another Albuquerque flight, leaving at 3:30 pm.

Variety‘s Owen Gleiberman: “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is no Beetlejuice, but in the end it’s got just enough [Tim] Burton juice.

“The movie is just a lightweight riff on Beetlejuice — a piece of fan service, really. It doesn’t give you the full monster-kitsch jolt that the original film had. Yet there’s good fan service and bad, and as stilted and gimcracky as it can sometimes be, I had a pretty good time [with it].

“Burton’s once-skewed way of looking at the world long ago got baked into ours (that’s one reason he has struggled, at times, to give his movies that same buzz). But if Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is mostly a lark, kind of like the current hit Broadway version of Beetlejuice, part of what the new movie delivers is honest nostalgia for the moment when Burton’s clown-spirit-from-hell sensibility still had a frisson of shock value.”

And yet BBC.com’s Nicholas Barber is creaming all over the sequel — “surpasses the original in almost every respect.”

I’m sorry but I don’t trust Barber, not for a second.

Earlier today Venice Film Festival Life Achievement Award recipient Sigourney Weaver was asked if there might be a relationship between the heroic inspiration generated by Weaver’s Ripley character in Alien and Kamala Harris‘s current political campaign for the White House.

Woman Journalist: “To what extent are movies…[to that extent can] cinema make it possible that a woman like Kamala Harris could become President of the United States.”

Weaver: “I love that question. Because we’re all so excited about Kamala…to think for one moment that my work would have anything to do with her rise makes me very happy actually…it’s true that so many women come and thank me [choking up]….sorry. Give me my vodka. It’s been difficult since 2016.”