April 26, 2024
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Review: Little Women (no spoilers)
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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
rarely seen BBC doc directed by Julien Temple … https://youtu.be/mXpSrT7jVb0
I don’t know what to say about CIVIL WAR. The Russo Brothers’ Marvel movies fall outside of the studio’s other work. For me there’s really 4 tiers of Marvel Studios movies.
Bad: Iron Man 2, Incredible Hulk, Thor 2
Disappointing but well executed: Avengers 2, Thor 1
Mostly Fun: Iron Man 3, Ant-Man, Cap 1
A blast: Avengers 1, Guardians, Iron Man 1
The Russos’ two flicks exist in some nebulous space. They are well made films…the new one is probably a better movie, objectively, than all but the first Iron Man and Guardians for me. There are occasional flashes of brilliance and fun. But their attempts to inject morality and heft just fall flat and are a grind for me. Yet I can’t call it disappointing because I simply can’t imagine someone making a better CIVIL WAR or Winter Soldier espionage movie.
Perhaps it’s just the fact I can’t get past the inherent goofiness of the Marvel Universe. As ridiculous as malevolent mental patients sporting clown makeup and masks were in Nolan’s trilogy, I could buy it for some reason.
What I will say is they better not bring this moral sensibility to INFINITY WAR, because I’m not interested in how post-9/11 relativism relates to the equivalent of Michael Jackson’s glove if it were infused with universe-destroying powers.
DP — what number does Civil War open to domestically? I say 210+
any guesses on it’s worldwide gross? 1.5b+? I think it could go pretty darn high
Et, I get what you’re saying about Cap 3. I think I agree. Beyond that, the movie is filmed weirdly. The opening sequence, which I thought was awful, looked like Michael Bay crossed streams with Paul Greengrass. Shaky cam sped up shit where you can’t tell who is doing what to who. Then there’s the BRILLIANT AWESOME FUN airport sequence that is everything opposite that opening. Problem for me is the movie couldn’t recover after the airport sequence. You just know it’s all downhill from there. And that was also the problem with the stuff before the airport. We’re all just waiting for the Big Bang. And Spider-Man, who was fantastic and Marvel wins: I wanna see that movie right now. I can’t believe they explained the fucking eyes.
I also agree on the inherent goofiness of the MCU. I remember seeing Winter Soldier getting annoyed every time a costumed person interfered with the cool action thriller I was watching.
Alden Ehrenreich is the new Han Solo. As awful as the idea of a young Han Solo movie originally sounded, it’s quickly becoming my most anticipated film of the otherwise soulless Star Wars 3.0 universe.
Agree, Pc.
Ehrenreich is the real deal.
I still remember being totally knocked out by him in Coppola’s “Tetro,” Been waiting for his “Moment” to arrive ever since.
@Amblin agree on the eyes and that Holland is great. I would have never guessed he was this rambunctious ball of twisty energy based his performance in THE IMPOSSIBLE…kid’s got range. Of course, no one is talking about Chadwick Boseman (stoic and regal in a good way) now, other than the accent probably. Cmon Marvel…you’ve got the first solo movie starring a non-white male in 17 attempts and this is the best you can do?
Ehrenreich is a good choice, but yeah, its still a bad concept, and I’m not feeling the combination of Lord/Miller’s direction with Kasdan’s screenwriting.
NO WAY you should be as excited for this as an episode directed and solely written by Rian Johnson.
@Et, Boseman was fine. The character is a bit of a dud. Spidey definitely had the better showcase but that’s almost unfair to Panther. It’s not a very dynamic character type (athletic-karate superhero).
On that note, what am I missing with Black Widow? Why hasn’t Marvel tried a solo movie at this point? They are obviously making efforts to make non-white-led superhero movies, wouldn’t a Black Widow movie be far less risky than Black Panther? (Sorry, don’t mean to devolve this into a minority-off but from a pure cynical studio perspective I would think Johanssen > Boseman.)
I hope it is allowed to not talk about Marvel or Star Wars here as both put me to sleep. I didn’t really like any of those movies listed above (though to be fair I have not seen Ant-Man or Guardians).
Anyone else see and not love Green Room? (If I missed a discussion of it here I apologize.) After all the hype I was insanely psyched to see it and left feeling pretty disappointed. The writing isn’t very good and having skinheads as villains feels like lazy shorthand. By the end people are doing dumb shit just like they do in most horror fare. Stewart isn’t given anything interesting to do and makes no impression whatsoever. It doesn’t have much to offer save for well-executed violence. I expected much more than that.
Well if you find this summers slate underwhelming, you can always visit the ghosts of cinema past. Blue Max turns 50 this June and there are certainly worse ways to spend an evening.
@amblin, you’d think. Even more bizarre is the choice in female leads, starting out by giving Evangeline Lilly a co-lead as the Wasp, the least interesting of the 4 female superheroes we’ve seen on screen (Widow, Scarlett Witch and Gamora are the others) and then going with a CAPTAIN MARVEL movie, a character that on its face doesn’t fit in with this universe whatsoever.
@Stella, really? I thought GREEN ROOM took an interesting approach in not really making the band likeable, or good, but just good enough to stand in the face of (yes, occasionally cartoonish) evil. It’s one of the best movies I’ve seen in what’s a pretty mediocre start to the year. Here’s my top 10 so far:
10. The Invitation
9. April and the Extraordinary World
8. Green Room
7. A War
6. The Lobster
5. Sing Street
4. Embrace of the Serpent (US release is this year)
3. Krisha
2. Zootopia
1. The Witch
A24, my dream studio, has 4 of my top 8. Was hoping GREEN ROOM and the criminally overlooked KRISHA (go see it!) would do better.
KRISHA is part of a two-picture deal with the filmmaker; A24 is a producer on his new movie.
stella’s i didn’t find ‘green room’ that interesting either, a bit cliché and typically overwrought, so there you go (building/maintaining tension is the delicate art of turning the screw rather than a sledgehammer to the face)
re these superhero wars: are we there yet. i say nuke the entire site from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure
RE: EtGuild2’s Top Ten
Black Phillip, Black Phillip
A crown grows out his head,
Black Phillip, Black Phillip
To nanny queen is wed.
Jump to the fence post,
Running in the stall.
Black Phillip, Black Phillip
King of all.
EtGuild2 it’s not that the band isn’t good or likeable or whatever, but that they are nothing. There’s literally nothing to them. Same with the skinheads. By the end it’s clear that we’ve seen nothing more than well-staged slaughter. It’s so incredibly thin. I don’t think it’s a bad movie. It just isn’t very good either. Especially when you consider all the hype. I do agree that A24 is great and love The Witch.
bitches be witches
Fair enough Stella.
Ray…excellent news!
@Pete, the acting in WITCH is so good, I think Black Philip is in contention for Best Supporting Actor at this point.
Yikes, Et.
What about “Everybody Wants Some!!,” “My Golden Days,” “Hail, Caesar!,” “Cemetery of Splendor,” “The Treasure,” “A Bigger Splash,”
“Eisenstein in Guanajuato,” “Aferim!,” “Mountains May Depart,” “Francofonia,” “Neon Bull,” “High-Rise,” “Belladonna of Sadness”….?
I’ll just put it there. It’s a Saturday and Sunday movie. Ignoring this, is a bit rich.
A lot of movies in there I respect but really didn’t enjoy (Caesar, Aferim!,Belladonna of Sadness, The Treasure) “Everybody Wants Some!!” is close…gotta catch up with “Neon Bull,” “Splash” and “High-Rise.”