But in the meantime, consider this verdict from Smart Critic Friendo: “Most overpraised movie of the millennium. For all the obvious reasons.”

Photos, I mean. Out of thousands. Chiesa di San Rocco. Taken in early June of ‘14. The tallest person in the group of six is my son Dylan.

Friendo to HE: “C’mon C’mon was so mediocre. I can’t get over critics digging this Mike Mills film.”

HE to Friendo: “I’ve never been much of a Mills fan. That Santa Barbara movie with Greta Gerwig was kind of a drag. 20th Century Friendos….Women, I mean. 20th Century Women.”

Friendo to HE: “I’m no fan either.”

HE to Friendo: “Smooth and mellow Joaquin doesn’t wash. I don’t want to hang with a nice, sensitive, caring father figure played by that fucking guy. To me Joaquin is a twitchy, flakey, cigarette–smoking weirdo. I can’t accept him as a kind, gentle, soft-caressing fellow.”

Friendo to HE: “I wrote this: ‘As much as I’ve championed Phoenix as one of the great living actors, it pains me to say that he’s miscast here. The actor tries to, for once, embody a ‘normal’ character but it just doesn’t work. He’s best at playing unstable eccentrics rather than any kind of subdued, big-city schlub a la Mark Ruffalo.”

Amazon previously offered Otto Preminger‘s Advise and Consent (’62) as an HD streamer, but no longer. Which means that someone (Kino Lorber?) is preparing a Bluray release.

Don Murray‘s closeted gay character, Sen. Brig Anderson of Utah, winds up killing himself over a gay blackmail attempt, which tells you how plugged-up the original 1959 Allen Drury book was.

“This was the first commercial film to include a scene in a gay bar, and I have to admit that even today the vibe is a bit much. (It reminds me of a Palm Springs gay bar I accidentally walked into once, and the smell of strong cologne was almost suffocating.) The first gay film that I really enjoyed and relaxed with was William Friedkin‘s The Boys In The Band (’70), but I’ve mentioned that once or twice.

Steve Hayes (“Tired Old Queen at the Movies”) delivers a savvy assessment:

Read more

I took one look at this snap of screenwriter Daniel Waters and immediately thought of Francis Bacon‘s screaming pope paintings. And I thought “this could be a horror film character…a subdued, stay-at-home house dad who fancies himself as a gourmet chef, and suddenly he loses his mind,” etc. Just remove the spatula and replace it with a butcher knife or meat cleaver.

Ten weeks after Kenneth Branagh‘s Belfast had its first showing at the Telluride Film Festival and after constant latherings of praise from film critics and festival audiences, it’s finally playing before ticket buyers in the gladiator arenas. Reactions from the HE community would be greatly appreciated. Please focus part of your writings on the music — to what extent does the musical score (i.e., the Van Morrison songs) make a difference? Anyway, that’s it. Thank you.

On 10.21 the House of Representatives voted to hold Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress over defying the January 6th committee and refusing to cooperate, etc. Attorney General Merrick Garland had no choice but to seek an indictment, but the House vote was over three weeks ago. From this corner it seemed as if the Justice Department was dragging ass. I don’t know if it could have been fast-tracked or not. I only know that a lot of activist Twitter types seemed irked and annoyed at the pace of things.

..and had witnessed the devastating toll that The Great Depression took and had personally witnessed how so many millions were suddenly without a pot to piss in, you would have probably felt some degree of sympathy and support for the ideas behind Communism and the party’s general anti-capitalist theology.

Hence a lot of people attended meetings, flirted with supporting the party (at least nominally), and in some cases confirmed their support with a signature on this or that form. Like Lucille Ball did in 1936. And Elia Kazan and many other left-leaning Hollywood types did. Even my mother, who became a mildly conservative moderate after marrying and raising a family, was a kind of “red” in her college years.

The same type of impressionable teens and 20somethings who believed during the ’30s that Communism was a more humane system than capitalism were cut from the same cloth as ’60s street radicals (i.e., Students for a Democratic Society, Yippies, Chicago 7 supporters) as well as today’s wokester terrorists. But of course, younger people gradually grow out of that shit.

Classic line “If you’re not a communist at the age of 20, you haven’t a heart. If you’re still a communist at the age of 30, you haven’t a brain.”

If and when the hair-trigger Twitter mob tries to to revive that idiotic Ansel Elgort + “Gabby” narrative about alleged statutory rape, just remember that the whole story was completely fraudulent. ‘

The story ignited in June 2020 and ran out of gas after three or four days.

Ansel and “Gabby’s” relationship happened in New York State in late 2014, when she was old enough (17) to consent. Elgort turned 20 on 3.14.14. He and Gabby were sexual and then Elgort hurt her feelings by ignoring her messages in some kind of passive-aggressive way. That’s all it was. It was nothing. Relationships will occasionally leave bruises. I know what it feels like to be casually dumped or abruptly ignored by a lover, but it happens. Tough shit, life in the big city, etc.

“Canyon Coyote” responds: “My point isn’t that Elgort did anything wrong but there is a perception that he’s part of the ‘bad men’ group. It seems like dudes who fall into that lot, fairly or unfairly, consistently have to cope with whisper campaigns against them for years. The Aziz Ansari bad-date story is still a thing and he did was act in a presumptuous or less-than-fully-sensitive manner.