If I’d known last year or even last January that life as I knew it for decades and decades, a life that involved occasional joy and parties and adventure and travel and great restaurant meals and watching movies inside first-class theatres…if I’d known all of this would suddenly come to a crashing halt as of last February and that it would stay that way for many subsequent months…if I’d known this was in the cards I would have savored life as it used to be a lot more. I would’ve said to myself and to friends over and over, “I know this sounds sappy, but from a certain perspective our lives are fairly wonderful right now.”

The opening Mexico City action sequence in Sam Mendes‘ Spectre (’15) is arguably the coolest and certainly the most visually ambitious in the entire Bond canon. But there’s a dividing line.

If you’re a serious film monk you prefer the opening four minutes, which is purely about exciting design and atmosphere, perfectly executed choreography and dazzling camerawork — a grade-A Scorsese moment. And if you’re a popcorn-level goon you’ll prefer the second clip, which goes crazy with CG and outlandish action starting at the 1:50 mark.

I don’t know the exact figures but the goons probably outnumber the cineastes by an approximate ratio of 20 to 1, and that’s why action films are made the way they are these days. But kudos to Mendes for at least delivering the opening four.

As I understand the current formula or mindset, anyone spitballing the 2020 Best Picture nominations needs to favor progressive-minded contenders as liberally as possible, regardless of how good they might be on their own terms or what the Movie Godz might say. At least three or four out of ten, and preferably five. An Oscar handicapper ignores or under-values wokester favorites at his or her own peril. Just ask Tom O’Neill and the Gold Derby crowd.

Right now the rock-solid, no-special-consideration contenders are five — Chloe Zhao‘s Nomadland, David Fincher‘s Mank, Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, Florian Zeller‘s The Father and Lee Isaac Chung‘s Minari (although the latter is a little more of a Spirit Awards thing than a great-guns Oscar contender, even with Steven Yeun‘s performance warranting a potential Best Actor nomination).

In all candor and conviction I believe that Azazel Jacobs‘ French Exit and Rod Lurie‘s The Outpost also belong in this category because they occupy and inform their respective territories (sardonic-fatalistic dry humor and hyper-frenetic, true-life battle jitters) with great style and strong characters. They don’t need any favors. Both stand on their own two feet and look you right in the eye.

I also believe that Chris Nolan‘s Tenet, for all the difficulty understanding the dialogue or plot particulars (and I really can’t wait to watch it with subtitles when the Bluray hits on 12.15), is a major accomplishment — a daring, highly original, high-powered action film with eye-popping sequences that I’ve never before seen in my life.

So that’s five rock solids and three “totally owning their own turf” films that deserve Best Picture contender status. Eight altogether.

I’ve seen Ron Howard‘s Hillbilly Elegy. It’s a familiar-feeling people movie about a guy struggling to walk his own path despite a dysfunctional family upbringing and dispiriting cultural influences. A lot of difficult behavior from Amy Adams’ character, but the story is the story and the film accomplishes what it sets out to do. And Glenn Close is great as “Mamaw.”

Due respect for Regina King‘s One Night in Miami, but it’s a well-written, well-acted ensemble film that is more good than great.

Nobody’s seen News of the World, The Prom, Judas and the Black Messiah or Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. And I haven’t gotten around to Ammonite or Promising Young Woman.

Good or even brilliant as it may be, Soul is animated and therefore ineligible for the Best Picture Oscar.

I’m not stupid. I understand what I should say (or would be wise to say) in order to curry favor with all the distributors and publicists. You have to blow with the prevailing winds to get along — I realize that. But who else is respectfully standing outside the kneejerk wokester hivemind cabal like Hollywood Elsewhere? Who else among Oscar prognosticators assesses the situation with at least a semblance of backbone? Like it or not, but there are many Academy and guild members who see things as I do, which is to say straight and true without any p.c. blather or tapdancing. And that is HE’s value.

TYT’s John Iadarola: “I think the Republican mind is flexible in that it is empty. And thus, like a garden hose…when a garden hose is empty it can be bent for whatever you need it to do.”

James Carville: “Pennsylvania’s gonna be fine. I’m not at all worried about Pennsylvania. Arizona is done. Nevada’s done. I’m keepin’ my eye on Georgia right now. At the end of the day this is not gonna be a particularly close election. Biden will win the popular vote by more than Obama did in 2012. He will probably…not certainly but probably end up with 307 [electoral] votes. I know it’s been nerve-wracking for a lot of people, but it’s not that close.”

True story: In early ’75 I was working for a Los Angeles tree-trimming outfit. (This was right at the end of my “secret genius” period.) We needed the owner to unlock a large gate to the back yard. I rang the front-door bell a couple of times…nothing. We went over to a screened-in patio area on the side and knocked on the screen door. A high-pitched woman’s voice said “come in!” I explained who we were, etc. “Come in!” I’d begun to suspect a Mynah bird, but just to be polite I repeated that the gate had to be unlocked. “Come in!”

The bird also did a great wolf whistle.

The name of the company was A. Kelley Tree Service. The owner was Bob Kelley, a muscular, dark-haired Irishman with a temper problem. He stuck the “A” in front of his last name so the company would be listed first in the Yellow Pages. Bob could be a charmer when he turned it on, but his anger would always pop through under stress. A co-worker named Nick explained to me once that “when Bob gets angry, it’s mainly because he’s angry at himself.” Bob was married but had a girlfriend on the side. He also had a suspicious or disapproving attitude about non-Anglos.

Trump: Help me, Jesus…help me vanquish my enemies and lend a hand. I mean, I won and they’re trying to steal it.
Jesus: You sure?
Trump: I won it all. Georgia, Florida, North Carolina…look at the map. A wonderful, glorious thing.
Jesus: But Georgia’s still in play, no? The Atlanta vote is being counted as we speak.
Trump: But they’re trying to steal Pennsylvania, and it’s mine. I won it and they’re crooked thieves.
Jesus: Is Philly counted? Not until Friday or Saturday, I’ve heard.
Trump: The Democrats are evil. They’re manufacturing fake votes and throwing my ballots out.
Jesus: What’s my name?
Trump: Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus: Do you really expect me to step in and just…what, change your life with a wave of my hand?
Trump: It would be a good thing. The right thing.
Jesus: I don’t fix elections. I’m here to help you spiritually.
Trump: Can you get the Southern District of New York prosecutors off my back?
Jesus: I don’t do that either.
Trump: But I need your help. Or…you know, your guidance. I need to serve for another four years. I’m trying to fulfill God’s plan, as you know.
Jesus: You think?
Trump: The Evangelicals love me. They want me to strike down Roe vs. Wade. It’s my destiny.

I am a true lover and dedicated fan of Italian and French cuisine.

I tasted my first French dish in 1998, during my first and most unforgettable visit to Paris. I’ve been back since then, but I distinctly remember the first-time aroma of magical Paris streets. This most beautiful city in the world smelled so wonderful and romantic. Quiche, ratatouille, rooster in wine, snails, foie gras, truffles, cheeses. Quel délicieux repas!

I tried Italian cuisine later. and fell in love desperately, irrevocably and forever. Ravioli, Lasagna, tortellini, fritata, risotto, tortelloni. Che pasti deliziosi!

Italian and French cuisine is the most exquisite and balanced for me. In all respects.

I don’t know how to cook and frankly don’t enjoy it. But I admire men who know how, and who love the business of cooking and serving.

In the below photo is a pasta dish I prepared in a Roman apartment (via di Monserrato, 154). It was a rare case when the cooking spirit was suddenly upon me on Italian ground. I bought some handmade pasta in Venice but didn’t prepare it until we moved into our Rome abode.

Click here for the remainder of the essay at tatiana-pravda.com.

Pesto Tatiana, prepared and served in Rome in May 2017.

Paris — May 2019.

This is a brief apology for not caring all that much about seeing Scott Frank and Allan Scott‘s The Queen’s Gambit, a seven-episode Netflix miniseries that began almost two weeks ago (on Friday, 10.23).

I was initially intrigued when I realized it was an adaptation of a 1983 novel by Walter Tevis, author of three novels that became noteworthy films — The Hustler, The Color of Money and The Man Who Fell To Earth. But somehow the idea of a period saga about a young chess wizard (Ana Taylor Joy) who stands up to entrenched sexism but succumbs to drug and alcohol dependency when she enters her late teens or whenever…somehow it just didn’t flip the light switch.

It nonetheless has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating and is no doubt worth the effort. I’ve admired and respected Frank’s work for many years. I’ll drop in soon.

Kanye West, 43, is a mentally unstable an eccentric celebrity rapper. For most of us his half-assed campaign for President wasn’t even worth deriding as a joke. And yet 60,000 idiots voted for him. I could understand 600 or 6000 votes, but 60K? Imagine all of them packed into a sports stadium and singing spiritual hymns.

According to the AP, Kanye’s biggest state-wide vote tally — 10,216 — came from Tennessee. The second largest was Minnesota, where he received 7,789 votes. The third and fourth highest counts happened in Kentucky and Colorado — 6,259 and 6254, respectively.

Kanye quote #1: “I don’t give a fuck if I win the presidency or not. I am in service to God. God has a plan for us and his people to be finally free. Trump, Biden, or Kanye West cannot free us.”

Kanye quote #2: “When I’m president, let’s also have some fun. Let’s get past all the racism conversation, let’s empower people with 40 acres and a mule, let’s give some land, that’s the plan.”

From Thomas Friedman‘s “There Was a Loser Last Night. It Was America,” posted in the N.Y. Times on 11.4.20:

“But Democrats have a lot to rethink as well, notes Michael Sandel, a professor at Harvard and author of ‘The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good.’

“’Even though Joe Biden emphasized his working-class roots and sympathies,’ Sandel told me, ‘the Democratic Party continues to be more identified with professional elites and college-educated voters than with the blue-collar voters who once constituted its base. Even so epochal an event as a pandemic, bungled by Trump, did not change this.

“‘Democrats need to ask themselves: Why do [so] many working people embrace a plutocrat-populist whose policies do little to help them? Democrats need to address the sense of humiliation felt by working people who feel the economy has left them behind and that credentialed elites look down on them.’

“Again, while Biden made small inroads with working-class voters, there seems to be no huge shift. Maybe because many working-class Trump voters not only feel looked down upon, but they also resent what they see as cultural censorship from liberal elites, coming out of college campuses.”

In other words, wokester scolding.

“As Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review, wrote in an Oct. 26 essay, ‘Trump is, for better or worse, the foremost symbol of resistance to the overwhelming woke cultural tide that has swept along the media, academia, corporate America, Hollywood, professional sports, the big foundations, and almost everything in between.’

“’To put it in blunt terms,’ he continued, ‘for many people, he’s the only middle finger available — to brandish against the people who’ve assumed they have the whip hand in American culture. This may not be a very good reason to vote for a president, and it doesn’t excuse Trump’s abysmal conduct and maladministration.'”

And yet these assholes voted for him regardless. Despite all the horror and arrogance and the collossal pandemic mismanagement, they stuck with him. And that not only makes them idiots and fools but socially subversive chaos agents. They’re voting like children. Worse, like delinquents.

man… he called it WORD for WORD. pic.twitter.com/9uBn1Sm8xa

— hector (@onikasgivenchy) November 4, 2020