I moved to New York City 25 years ago. I came of age, fell in love, and became a father here. Seeing our City in so much pain breaks my heart.
Let’s fight for a future New York City that we can be proud of – together. Join us at https://t.co/TGnxwuBiHB pic.twitter.com/n9zxPybgbh
— Andrew Yang🧢🗽🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) January 14, 2021
Several 20something (i.e, Zoomer) students in a film appreciation class were recently asked to share impressions of Citizen Kane, which they’d all been asked to watch. Some remarks have been simplified or edited down and I threw in a few [sic] qualifiers, but what follows is otherwise verbatim:
Student #1: “I personally did not enjoy being confused by this movie. I need to watch the video breakdowns to understand it a little better. I did really like the camera angles and contrast in sizes. I liked Bernstein because he was a nice and ambitious man. I did not know the movie is 20 years away from its 100th year anniversary.”
Student #2: “I enjoyed this film, but I didn’t understand at first why this film has been called a masterpiece. It isn’t uncommon for us [huh?] the film that using multiple character points-of-view. However, at the time Citizen Kane was made the cinematography [seemed] sensational and it effected [sic] a lot of films later years. If I watched this film in the 1940s, I could have different thoughts. I found Susan’s perspective the most interesting. The impression of Kane from other characters’ perspective is [that he was] very confident, bold and sociable. In contrast, Susan’s perspective [tells us that he was] dignified, frightful and authoritative. This is because shooting from low angle intentionally in order to show how Kane looks from Susan. We can know what is Kane actually like or what did he ask for through his life from her perspective.”
Student #3: “Citizen Kane is a very confusing kind of film (in my opinion). I had to watch it twice to even get through it. The main character, Charles Foster Kane, is a very reserved and closed-off person whom nobody could figure out throughout his whole life. The whole movie’s plot threw me off on the whole last word ‘rosebud’ because it waited until the last possible second to tell everyone what it represented. I feel like this movie is an older kind of movie and I am a younger audience, so it didn’t appeal to me as much as any other kind of movie would. To be honest, I would not watch this again. It was way too confusing to me and I felt like they could have made this film way shorter.”
Student #4: “Although I personally liked the movie I completely understand it being a movie that requires a specific appreciation. I found it confusing and I did not really know what was going on. I need to watch it a couple more times to get a better understanding of the movie. I think it did not appeal to me because it was a movie from an older generation and I did not understand what they were talking about. I also feel it was a little long so I did not feel entertained while watching it. I think when I watch it again it will help me better understand it. I did like some of the angles of the shots they took. You could tell they used different styles of filming. I liked Mr. Bernstein the most because he was a really smart man and he was a really good actor. I liked him because he just wanted people to like him back and to help.”
Translation: I really want to detoxify the Trump brand. My family members and business buddies are worried, and so I’m giving this speech to try and turn things around. I especially want to recover the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump Bedminster, which was recently cancelled. That one really hurt. So let’s let bygones by bygones…okay? And forget about Impeachment 2.0. Partisan aggression, nothing more.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 13, 2021
I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s something incomplete about the trailer for Mike Cahill‘s Bliss (Amazon, 2.5). It feels like an Andrew Niccol head-scratcher.
HE to Friendo: “What’s with the flashlight gizmo with the nostril tongs? This is the MacGuffin flip switch, I realize — the transportation device — that’s propelling Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek into a digitally reconstituted reality. But is it…what, just an injection experience that lasts for a few hours or what? Are they actually sitting in some drab apartment the whole time? I’ve watched it twice and I’m not getting the geometry of it. Maybe I’m not intended to.”
Friendo to HE: “Apparently they’re plugging into some AI or VR system a la Strange Days, and you spend most of the movie being teased about which reality is the “real” one, etc.”
Boilerplate: “After recently being divorced and then fired, Greg (Owen Wilson) meets the mysterious Isabel (Salma Hayek), a woman living on the streets and convinced that the polluted, broken world around them is just a computer simulation. Doubtful at first, Greg eventually discovers there may be some truth to Isabel’s wild conspiracy.”
Many exotic overseas locations, but the film was lensed in Los Angeles and Croatia…nowhere else.
One of HE’s most anticipated 2021 films is Robert Eggers‘ The Northman (Focus Features). Several sites have described it as a 10th Century Viking revenge saga. Wikipedia calls it “a historical thriller.”
But it doesn’t seem to be any kind of ultra-violent Viking thing with axes and long ships and the worshipping of Odin. Because the basic bones of the script (cowritten by Eggers and Sjon) are based upon the Scandinavian legend of Amleth, which inspired William Shakespeare‘s Hamlet.
Alexander Skarsgård plays Amleth, and Nicole Kidman (to whom Skarsgard’s rich asshole character was turbulently married in Big Little Lies) plays his mother, Queen Gudrun. Anya Taylor Joy‘s character is unnamed, but she’s probably playing Ophelia. Ethan Hawke is the King, Claes Bang is Feng (a character straight out of Amleth), Willem Dafoe as Heimir the Fool, Bjork is the Slav Witch, etc.
Last February Northman dp Jarin Blaschke (who also shot The Lighthouse and The Witch) told JoBlo’s Mike Sprague that the film will be “dark and unusually violent,” and that it will be “bigger than the others.”
In a recent WTF interview with Marc Maron, Kidman discussed her Queen Gudrun role. “I just worked with Ethan [Hawke],” she said. “He played my king. And now I’m crazy about Ethan. He was always a great actor but just personally, what a great guy. And so much knowledge! Such an artist, such an actor. He’s a Renaissance man.”
I don’t like “crazy” being used to express great love or intoxication or enthusiasm. I know it’s commonly used but I don’t like it. Whenever I hear someone say “I’m crazy about that song” or “I’m crazy about my new girlfriend,” I always raise an eyebrow and take a step back.
2:05 pm Pacific: Okay, it’s done, ratified and carved into stone — Orange Plague has been impeached for a second time. The vote was 232 in favor (including 10 Republicans) vs. 197 opposed.
Earlier: For the first time in U.S. history an American President is facing a second impeachment vote in the House of Representatives. Never before and probably never again. The roll call begins around 4 pm eastern. A majority of House Republicans will be voting “no’, of course, mainly, I’m presuming, because they’re afraid of what the Bumblefucks back home will say or do if they vote to impeach.
HE is shocked and very sorry to read about the death of poor Jessica Campbell, known for Freaks and Geeks and her stand-out supporting role in Alexander Payne‘s Election. She was only 38. I loved her “Tammy Metzler” in Election…she just about stole the film. Condolences to Payne, Cameron Crowe and everyone who ever worked with her. Apparently she passed on 12.29 but her death wasn’t announced until today or yesterday. Not a Covid thing but otherwise unexplained and mystifying.
From “Pence Reached His Limit With Trump — It Wasn’t Pretty”, a 1.12 N.Y. Times report by Peter Baker, Maggie Haberman and Annie Karni:
Our brief national convulsion over Bruce Willis‘ mask-averse behavior at a West Hollywood Rite-Aid two days ago has mercifully come to an end. It is now time to move on and focus our attention on the House of Representatives’ impeachment vote.
Tuesday, 1.12, “Rite–Aid Mask Rebel“: [On Monday, 1.11] Bruce Willis showed those Rite-Aid bitches who the daddy is and how to stand your ground when it comes to mask refusal.
Willis actually roamed his ground while declining to pull his bandana up around his nose, and then he thought better of it and left the Rite-Aid like a man, striding out proud and tall.
I’m presuming that the altercation happened at the Rite-Aid at the SW corner of Fairfax and Sunset. I’ve been there many times so don’t tell me. When the employees tell a customer to mask up, they mean what they say and say what they mean.
But Willis apparently wasn’t in the mood to hear it, and so…well, nobody knows if he replied with actual words but his actions clearly said “you don’t tell me to mask up…you tell others maybe, but not me.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, easily the most evil and cold-blooded Republican in the Senate, and Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the most rabid and conniving Republican dog in the House, are both talking about throwing Donald Trump under the bus, according to N.Y. Times reporter Maggie Haberman.
Excerpt: “Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, has told associates that he believes President Trump committed impeachable offenses and that he is pleased that Democrats are moving to impeach him, believing that it will make it easier to purge him from the party, according to people familiar with his thinking. The House is voting on Wednesday to formally charge Mr. Trump with inciting violence against the country.
“At the same time, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader and one of Mr. Trump’s most steadfast allies in Congress, has asked other Republicans whether he should call on Mr. Trump to resign in the aftermath of the riot at the Capitol last week, according to three Republican officials briefed on the conversations.
“While Mr. McCarthy has said he is personally opposed to impeachment, he and other party leaders have decided not to formally lobby Republicans to vote ‘no,’ and an aide to Mr. McCarthy said he was open to a measure censuring Mr. Trump for his conduct. In private, Mr. McCarthy reached out to a leading House Democrat to see if the chamber would be willing to pursue a censure vote, though Speaker Nancy Pelosi has ruled it out.
“Taken together, the stances of Congress’s two top Republicans — neither of whom has said publicly that Mr. Trump should resign or be impeached — reflected the politically fraught and fast-moving nature of the crisis that the party faces in the wake of last week’s assault by a pro-Trump mob during a session to formalize President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s electoral victory.”
HBO should have cleared the decks in order to get Real Time with Bill Maher on the air last Friday, a week ahead of schedule. Two days after the Capitol insurrection, there was a dire need for the usual let-it-all-hang-out…the frank acknowledgments and deep-dive inquiries that Maher always tries to provide. In any event this Friday’s debut episode (1.15) should be…well, who knows. But given what’s happening right now, it’s not crazy to expect a “humdinger” of some kind.
The texting went as follows early this morning, World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy and myself…
JR: Did you read about the new Aronofsky? It’s about a 500-pound gay couch potato who’s been eating himself to death. Based on Samuel D. Hunter’s 2012 play. With Brendan Fraser as the fat guy.
HE: Oh my God…metaphor! The dead obese guy in Se7en comes back to life and merges with Mr. Creosote. And we get to watch it!
JR: Hah, Creosote is exactly who popped in my head the minute I heard about this. The Whale!
HE: Fraser isn’t heavy enough to play it without a fat suit.
JR: Very small budget
HE: Quality-brand fat suits can be costly
JR: Christian Bale could have put on 400 pounds easy.
HE: Fraser lost his A-list status because he put on too much weight and lost too much hair. I know it’s a cliche for me of all people to have this reaction, but I really, REALLY don’t want to see this.
JR: It’s described as a story of “redemption”. Similar thematically to The Wrestler.
HE: A Reddit guy says “the long-awaited Brenaissance has arrived!” Another says “hey, Brendan is getting work again!” Third guy: “He’s recently worked with Danny Boyle on FX TV show Trust and is the voice of a main character in the popular DC comic book TV show Doom Patrol. The Brenaissance already began, this is just the continuation.”
Consider Charles Isherwood‘s N.Y. Times review (11.5.12) of the play.
