April 25, 2024
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Review: Little Women (no spoilers)
Why You Should Be Afraid Of The End Of The Paramount Decree
Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
Review: Marriage Story (spoilers only in the broadest sense)
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
Jeff Wells is taking over the blog! Can we get a titty shot somewhere?
Did you move to The Grove, DP?
That man is so hot. I love bear daddies!
haha
This Spring’s “Michael Jackson Storytellers” series begins today at Barnes & Noble. Dad, mom and his three sisters had a grand old time today, but for Little Timmy Caldwell it was a different story completely.
(See that tree on the left… that’s where I stood in line for The Fountain.)
Maybe I should have called it, “Tom Cruise, Five Years and Four Kids Later”
Whatever year it is, someone ought to take that poster down.
could it be that MI3 is actually good, as rumours have it? or am i just being scammed by carefully placed plants (such as Harry K)?
If Wells truly took over, you’d get some icky shot of a woman’s foot. The man has a fetish.
This is stupid. Did you get permission to post his pic. Maybe you should post a pic of your man boobs.
Had no interest in MI 3, but the buzz is making me interested.
By the way, the difference between Shyamalan’s AmEx commercial and Wes Anderson’s is that the Anderson one is great.
Add a few more roman numberals to the movie poster display and you’ve got yourself a winner.
In truly poor taste…
Does this image remind anyone of the fake Dannon lickables ad?
I so didn’t want to be the guy to bring that up.
It all looks very carefully choreographed…those two kids in their near-handstands…the father standing like a demented ring master.
The Anderson commercial is brilliant, because unlike Shyamalan, he can manage self-parody. Shyamalan’s commercial takes itself completely seriously, whereas Anderson plays the worst possible version of himself deadpan, but with tongue firmly in cheek.
Let us all hope that in 2026 Suri Cruise and Grier Shields tell their parents they’re lesbians and are going to get married and if they don’t accept it they’ll run away and elope.
It’s the only forseeable conclusion to this whole mess that will be surprising AND funny.
Kellie Pickler says:
Darn it, ya’ll. Now I’m off American Idol. I’m a mink. That pix is mah future, ya’ll. That’s mah baby daddy Troy with Troy Jr, Sarah, Hannah, David, and Vanessa, ya’ll.
In what context am I supposed to know who Maggie Q is, from MI3? Her biggest credit is Rush Hour 2, it appears.
No more blog entries?
As long as there’s a lull in movie discussion here, lemme say that I cannot believe the Texans are taking Mario Williams over Reggie Bush tomorrow (according to espn). That’s insanity.
Now if only the Saints and the Titans can be equally insane (oh please, oh please..).
Did DP fall in love last night? Is that why he’s left us with this dumb Tomkat entry to use for discussion?
I saw United 93 today and I think DP doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about. He’s broken Ebert’s old rule of critics reviewing the movie they thought it should be instead of the movie it is. United 93 is all about catharsis. It’s the release that a lot of us haven’t really had since that day. We may think we have, but, trust me, we haven’t. Greengrass turns the fear of that day into anger and almost unbearable sadness. You leave the movie in tears, but also cleansed, as if you’ve entered the next stage of grieving. It’s not a movie one talks about in terms of awards. (At least, not right now.)
The story is so raw and immediate that I think most people won’t really see the amazing crafsmanship of Greengrass and his team. Greengrass may be the first true diciple of Oliver Stone. He understands, like Stone, that audiences are capable of processing information without even realizing what they’re comprehending. The violence has a sting that is impossible to forget. At times the movie acts as a kind of deconstruction of every terrorist-action made in the last 30 years. (It’s like Executive Decision played straight.)
I predict people will see this movie. It’ll have the stangest word-of-mouth campaign ever. United 93 is the kind of movie you have to see even if you don’t want to.
I don’t know if it’s insanity. For one thing, Domanick Davis is a servicable RB. Bush may sell tickets (and with consistent sell-outs, I don’t know if that’s a problem), but he’s not going to get the Texans past the Colts in a shootout.
Also, the Texans defense has been terrible. They need stud defensive players far more than they need a running back, even an RB as good as Reggie Bush, if they’re going to get back on track. Kubiak, the former offensive coordinator in Denver, apparently knows a thing or two about getting rushing yards out of a bunch of nobodies judging by Denver’s recent RB-by-committee success.
Last year alone, the Texans (with the 31st best defense in the NFL) lost six games in which they led in the 2nd half. They gave up more points than any other team in the League (nearly 100 points more than they gave up the year before when they won seven games). Their offense had plenty of issues, it’s true. But when you’re defense is the bottom of the barrel, you have to address that. And a player like Mario Williams is addressing that.
As a Texans fan, I’m glad to see more attention paid to building a defense. As much as I would love to root for the next Earl Campbell as hard as I rooted for the first one, I’m painfully reminded of how frequently the Oilers’ high-powered offenses would get steamrolled by just about any above-average defense in the playoffs.
“I saw United 93 today and I think DP doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about. He’s broken Ebert’s old rule of critics reviewing the movie they thought it should be instead of the movie it is. United 93 is all about catharsis.”
Uh…. aren’t you doing exactlty what you are accusing me of? “It’s about catharsis?” Isn’t that about something completely other than the movie?
Ironically, my point is exactly that. It may be an experience some people want, but it’s not much of a movie, although very well made.
The above is a much better review from DP on the movie than he provided in the “United 93” thread. I can actually tell what he thought of the movie now.