I watched Mattfleck’s The Rip this morning on the iPhone 15. Half of it, I mean. Smartly written, well cut, reasonably decent. Until the Joe Carnahan guns start blazing. Automatic weapon shoot-outs are boring. The fewer bullets, the better. Shane understood that.
HE’s 2026 GoFundMe Campaign Stalls…Supporter Passions Aren’t Where They Were in ’24 and ’25
Last weekend the GoFundMe and Venmo donations to HE’s 2026 GoFundMe campaign (a Cannes and Venice double-header, looking for $8K total) was going great guns. I was at $3K last Tuesday and presumably climbing, and then it just…effing…stopped.
I’ve got enough to chip in my share for the Cannes pad ($1300) and buy the NYC-to-Nice air fare with a few hundred left over, but hater sentiments are apparently gaining steam or at least are thriving.
I’ll keep the current campaign going until, say, Valentine’s Day and see where things are at that point. If the donations haven’t moved I’ll have to figure out the Venice situation in March or April. One step at a time, I’ll get there, etc. Not the end of the world but I feel a bit hurt or…what’s the word?….drained?
Thanks so much to the longtime supporters who’ve quickly and generously coughed up over the first three or four days, and a pained congratulations to the haters who’ve been slugging it out in the HE batting cage for free for all these years and who currently have zero interest in turning the other cheek….there’s not much I can say at this point except “gee, I love you too” and I’ll never effing back off.
Tried Reading Stephen King’s “11/22/63” When It First Appeared in 2011
But I fucking gave up. “Interesting” and in some ways fascinating in a surreal sort of way, but too long, too labrynthian, too complicated, too many odd tangents. distractions and trail-offs. Plus I’ve never been a fan of King’s rural, inelegant writing style.
A decade ago I tried watching JJ Abrams’ Hulu adaptation when it first popped on 2.15.2016, partly because I knew James Franco (whom I came to know slightly around 15 years ago) and Chris Cooper would be excellent. And they were. But I gave up after two or three episodes. Again, too labrynthian, etc.
Last night I finally watched the last three episodes, and holey moley! I found myself melting down from the dance-hall ending with old Sadie (Constance Towers**) giving her “Texas Woman Of The Year” speech….touching, affecting…hell, devastating. Absolutely one of the most poignant sum-up poems about the pain and joys of life to be used in a filmed drama.
One one level, the finale of 11.22.63 radiates a kind of yogi wisdom about letting things play out according to their own roulette wheel scheme and basically letting the chips fall.
On another level it says “if there’s a choice between saving the life of your beloved, blonde, true-heart girlfriend (young Sadie is played by Sarah Gadon) and preventing President John F. Kennedy from suffering a bloody, brain-splattering death in Dealey Plaza, the blonde wins. Partly because letting Kennedy live means George Wallace will be elected president in ’68.
** Shock Corridor, The Horse Soldiers, Sgt. Rutledge, married to John Gavin…still with us at age 92.
Old Sadie Dunhill’s poignant speech at the finale:
“We did not ask for this room or this music. We were invited in. Therefore, because the dark surrounds us, let us turn our faces toward the light. Let us endure hardship to be grateful for plenty. We have been given pain to be astounded by joy. We have been given life to deny death.
“We did not ask for this room or this music. But because we’re here, let us heed the words of the great David Bowie — ‘let’s dance.’”
Let’s Hear It For “The Bride!”
Director Magggie Gyllenhaal and actor Jessie Buckley finished The Bride! (Warner Bros., 3.6), a social-justice re-imagining of The Bride of Frankenstein which began filming in March 2024.
Soon after wrapping Buckley flew to England to begin work on Hamnet, which began lensing in July 2024 (London, Herefordshire and the village of Weobley).
Gyllenhaal’s horror musical-slash-revenge saga takes place in 1930s Chicago but was shot in New York City.
The Bride! was originally set to open on 9.26.25 and then 10.3.25, but then Warner Bros. distribution apparently freaked and bumped it into a 3.6.26 opening.
The Bride! will probably be applauded by feminist wokey lah-lahs, but it’s obviously going to tank theatrically as far as Joe and Jane Popcorn are concerned. That spilled-inkwell tattoo on Buckley’s right cheek…nuff said.
Will HE’s Kristi Coulter bend over backwards to praise it, or will she bring out the tough love?
Pleistocene Era Grind Circuit
I always avoided the 42nd Street grindhouses like the plague.
In my mid teens I would grab a Westfield-to-Port Authority bus on Saturday mornings and then roam around Times Square and maybe catch an afternoon show, but I almost always restricted myself to the first-rate, reserved-seat houses — Criterion, Loews State, Rivoli, Capitol, DeMille, Warner.
Okay, except for now-and-then visits to the Paramount, Astor and Victoria, which were regular popular-price theatres.
When I look at the grindhouse marquees I think mostly of older gay guys accidentally bumping into me and copping a feel.
Post-Cynthia, Lennon Should’ve Married This Hottie Instead of Yoko Ono
If she’s still with us, the blonde in John Lennon’s arms is probably around 80, give or take. If Mark David Chapman hadn’t come along, Lennon would be 85 today.
Notice the almost total lack of similarity between the very young Paul McCartney (born in June 1942, 22 when this shot was snapped in March ’65) and the about-to-turn-30 Paul Mescal, who has a hawk nose, a pointy chin and tufts of gray in his hair.
The Marietta hotel (Ringstrasse 8, Obertauern, Austria) is still a going concern, although it’s now called [PLACES] Obertauern by Valamar.
John Lennon quotes from his 12.70 Rolling Stone interview, eight months after the Beatles broke up:
“The circle around the band was a portable Rome of money, sex and drugs…when we hit a city we really hit it, and everyone wanted in.
“Don’t take away our portable Rome, where we can all have our houses and our cars, our lovers and our wives, and our office girls and parties and drink and drugs.”
“If we couldn’t land groupies, we hired whores…whatever was going.
“There were photos of me crawling round on my knees coming out of whorehouses in Amsterdam with people saying ‘good morning, John.'”
Birds-of-a-Feather Action Thrillers That Costar Ben Affleck
Written this morning: I haven’t yet seen The Rip (Netflix, 1.16), but it’s certainly interesting that topliner and co-producer Ben Affleck costarred a few years ago in a vaguely similar action thriller — J.C. Chandor’s Triple Frontier.
Basic-concept-wise, Triple Frontier is fundamentally The Rip’s older, south-of-the-border brother — struggling working-class, loaded-for-bear professionals who stumble upon a huge pile of criminal cash that’s been stashed in a home.
This in itself is quite striking.
HE was a huge instant fan of Triple Frontier, a Netflix show which opened in March 2019. Since then I’ve re-watched it a good five or six times.
“Marty” Beginning To Kick “OBAA”, “EEAAO” Ass
A 1.14.26 Pamela McLintock THR story says that Marty Supreme–ola has earned more domestic coin than One Battle After Another.
It’s also on track to beat the b.o. total of Everything Everywhere All At Once, she reports.
Marty Supreme has shattered one record after another since opening over the holidays. Its latest box office milestone came Tuesday when it passed Leonardo DiCaprio’s rival Oscar contender One Battle After Another to end the day with an estimated cume of $72.27 million, according to A24.
“From director Paul Thomas Anderson and Warner Bros., One Battle After Another has earned slightly north of $71.6 million to date domestically (unlike Marty, it’s already playing in the home as its theatrical run winds down.) Internationally, One Battle is still far ahead, earning $154.5 million at the foreign box office for a domestic total of $206.1 million.
“But Marty Supreme is only now beginning to roll out in earnest overseas, where it has earned nearly $10 million to date from just a few markets, including a best-ever showing in the U.K. for an A24 pic with north of $8.4 million. Based on early returns, box office experts believe Marty Supreme could do substantial business overseas and end up north of $170 million to $180 million globally, if not higher.
“And it is now just days away from overtaking Oscar best-picture winner Everything Everywhere All At Once ($77.2 million) to rank as A24’s top-grossing film domestically of all time. Marty will also become Chalamet’s top-grossing original film this weekend at the global box office when passing up last year’s Oscar contender A Complete Unknown, which grossed $75 million in North America (the Bob Dylan biopic’s global total was $140.4 million).”
Straight Talk on Showroom Floor
Who’s the actor who played the bald moustache Globe Motors salesman in “Everybody Hurts“, the 45th episode of The Sopranos?
The salesman who tries to interest James Gandolfini‘s Tony Soprano in a Mercedes, I mean, but who quickly jettisons this idea when Tony inquires about Annabella Sciorra‘s Gloria Trillo. The salesman gives Tony the lowdown — i.e., that Trillo, a former Globe salesperson, is not only deceased but by her own hand.
I’m asking because he’s terrific, this guy. A gravelly New Jersey voice, plain-spoken but a bit sleazy, and yet nakedly honest as far as it goes. And you can tell at the end of the scene that he knows Tony was somehow involved with Gloria.
Directed by Steve Buscemi and written by Michael Imperioli, “Hurts” aired on 10.20.02.
“I’ve Been Waiting All My Life To Fuck Up Like This”
I haven’t yet seen Joe Carnahan, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon‘s The Rip (Netflix, 1.16), but some snarky comment-threader who’s apparently seen it…he/she wrote this morning that it’s okay but no great shakes…a morally conflicted, slightly-better-than-generic programmer.
I’m tapping this out from memory as I can’t find the URL, but the guy basically said that The Rip is “intriguing at first but soon devolves into a generic Netflix thriller, somewhat in the vein of the last Artists Equity boilerplate crime flick, The Instigators.”
The problem with that dismissive remark was that the latter film, produced by Damon and Affleck’s Artists Equity and streamed by Apple, was and is a totally first–rate stand–alone feature.
The comment-threader was wrong, make no mistake, because The Instigators, a downbeat Boston noir comedy, is no boilerplate ho–hummer! On 8.18.24 I called it “a true American original —- The Friends of Eddie Coyle meets deadpan screwball fatalism.”
The only thing that doesn’t work about The Instigators, I said, is the humdrum title. If it was my show I’d have called it I’ve Been Waiting All My Life To Fuck Up Like This — yes, a line stolen from Karel Reisz and Robert Stone‘s Who’ll Stop The Rain? (’78).
Essence of my review: “Despite the downish tone of this heist-gone-wrong ensemble chase thriller, it’s fundamentally a low-key noir comedy…sardonic sarcasm meets ‘fuck our lousy luck and Jesus, have we fucked things up or what?’ meets a kind of loser Keystone Cops mentality.
“It’s basically about the oafish shenanigans of a squad of half-assed, not-smart-enough but not altogether disreputable guys, principally played by Damon (who produced through Artists Equity) and Casey Affleck (who co-wrote the script with Chuck Maclean). Their performances are sweet, sublime, spot-on.
“I was truly delighted by this existential crime sitcom, which is darkly hilarious without ever quite announcing that it’s a hah–hah ‘comedy‘. It’s certainly too smart and cool for the idiots out there who hate the idea of mixing humor and loser-stamped noir. It almost delivers the same kind of tonal balancing act that Pulp Fiction was about.
“And the supporting cast is aces — Hong Chau, Paul Walter Hauser, Michael Stuhlbarg, Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina, Toby Jones, Jack Harlow, etc.”
Daughters Who Have Brutally Talked Him Down and Sliced Him Into Sushi…
…for being a malevolent, homophobic, old-school, white-guy oppressor and a general all-around pig. Because that’s what woke Zoomer kids do. Bring the whip! Apply the lash!
