Second Viewing of “West Side Story”

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Hollywood Elsewhere will catch an invitational screening of Steven Spielberg‘s West Side Story at the Bedford Playhouse on Thursday, 12.9. Blue-chip restoration guru Robert Harris oversaw the technical projection and sound quality at this recently recreated cinema (633 Old Post Rd, Bedford, NY 10506), so it’s a safe bet that this screening will be as good as the one I caught at Manhattan’s SVA theatre a week ago.

Which reminds me: There’s no other award-season film out there that delivers as fully as West Side Story does. Emotionally, I mean. So because my eyes welled up three or four times, it’s more than likely that WSS will take the 2021 Best Picture Oscar. Yes, 59 years after the previous version, directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, won the exact same prize.

I know everyone (myself included) said over and over that one West Side Story Best Picture Oscar was sufficient and that history doesn’t need to repeat itself and that it’s better to hand the big prize to another deserving film (but not The Power of the Dog — Jane Campion‘s Best Director Oscar is safe but that’s it). But I don’t see any way around a WSS win at this point.

Late to “Drive My Car”

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If I had any discipline, I would’ve streamed Ryusuke Hamaguchi‘s Drive My Car by now. But the 179-minute length kept giving me pause. Now that it’s won the New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Picture, I feel an extra urgency to just sit the fuck down and watch it.

I’ve decided to catch it tomorrow afternoon at the Film Forum (3:50 pm) after lunching at Shuka (38 MacDougal St., south of Houston) with SBIFF honcho Roger Durling.

The HE community is hereby requested to post whatever Drive My Car impressions may be rattling around.

Joe & Jane Dissing “Power of the Dog”

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We all understand that critics are total fools for Jane Campion‘s The Power of the Dog. (I’m a half-and-halfer — excellent craft, dullish story, pertplexing characters.) Joe and Jane Popcorn, on the other hand, are mostly negative — bored, appalled, “seriously?” This is partly because critics tend to be more thoughtful in their appraisals, and partly because they’ve been professionally instructed to admire all things Campion. Ditto the film industry. Campion is locked to win the Best Director Oscar early next year.

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Saluting Bob Dole

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Longtime Kansas Senator, former Senate Majority Leader and 1996 Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole has passed at age 98.

Dole was a classic Republican, or the kind of Republican that has all but disappeared from the Washington landscape. Another way of putting it is that Dole was a rational human being. I’m presuming Dole was disgusted by ex-President Donald Trump, and especially by what happened on 1.6.21.

Dole served in the House of Representatives for eight years (1961 to ’69), and represented Kansas in the U.S. Senate for 27 years (1969 to ’96). He served as Senate Republican Leader between ’85 and ’96. Dole and Jack Kemp unsuccessfully ran against Clinton-Gore in ’96. He also ran as Gerald Ford‘s vp nominee in the 1976 election — another losing effort.

Over the last hour I’ve been trying like hell to find a clip of former Sen. Al Franken imitating Dole (he did it at least once on Bill Maher‘s Politically incorrect in the ’90s), but I’ve failed. Norm McDonald‘s Dole was okay but not as good as Franken’s.

The Wrong Move

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Ex-CNN headliner Chris Cuomo crossed ethical lines by helping his brother, ex-New York governor Andrew Cuomo, to dispute, challenge or circumvent the latter’s accusers in the realm of alleged sexual harassment. A very stupid decision, in short, to choose brotherly love over journalistic integrity. And now it’s time to pay the piper. So what should Cuomo do next?

He Reported, They Said

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If you have three reliable sources providing the same or corresponding information, you’re almost certainly on solid footing with your story. Then again if you’re writing about the private voting process for the 2021 New York Film Critics Circle awards, your story is automatically suspect because there’s an ironclad, “if you talk you die” rule among NYFCC members not to discuss the voting.

So in the matter of Jordan Ruimy’s World of Reel story about this subject, it apparently became obligatory among certain NYFCC members (Jason Bailey, Sam Adams, Allison Wilmore, Kate Erbland) to try and discredit the story and trash Ruimy, etc. Full court press.


My limited understanding is that Ruimy’s story is either (a) highly accurate as far as his sources relayed or (b) a mostly accurate summary of what happened, regardless of who said what and who disagreed and/or disputed.

Ruimy statement:

Nonstop Refrain

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Two or three years ago I was lamenting the overload of “product” pouring out of the pipeline — theatrical features, major-app originals, limited series. Now it seems even worse. So much that a part of me almost crumples when I peruse the weekly rundown. My routine is to basically say “no, no, no, maybe, no, no, no, YES, no, no, possibly, no, no, no way, maybe,” etc.

Soprano Home, Holsten’s, etc.

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The Sopranos began 22 years ago; today I finally laid eyes on the actual abode of Tony, Carmela, Meadow and A.J. And then we hit Holsten’s, the death diner. Jett decided that Satriale’s (located north of Newark) is too far — his car, his rules.

How NYFCC Voting Went Down

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World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy is reporting — no surprise — that Jane Campion‘s The Power of the Dog almost won the NYFCC Best Picture prize. And that the winner, Ryusuke Hamaguchi‘s 179-minute Drive My Car, “barely edged” the Campion.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s respectable, moderately pleasing Licorice Pizza “finished a distant third.” And Hamaguchi “came very close” to winning the Best Director trophy.

Lady Gaga‘s Best Actress win “wasn’t a unanimous decision”, but she had more supporters than the far more deserving Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World) and Parallel Mothers‘ Penelope Cruz (my personal choice). The Lost Daughter‘s Olivia Colman finished fourth.

The Power of the Dog‘s Benedict Cumberbatch, the NYFCC’s Best Actor champ, will not overtake King Richard‘s Will Smith when it comes to the Oscars — trust me.