People who play dress-up for a living are not serious people and are not essential to society. The old movie stars understood that. The modern movie stars, unfortunately, will probably never learn that.
Time for ’The emperor has no clothes moment’. Their condescension and sanctimony reveals zero self awareness in favor of narcisistic virtue-signalling. I’ll miss the oscars again. Oh well.
I wonder how Hollyweird and the Woke Left will take Taylor Sheridan's new series, "The Madison"? He absolutely skewers Woke/DEI culture and the silly inanity and attendant mean nature of cityfolk, thus demonstrating why the left's moral vanity is what makes them so damned contemptible. By the way, the show is magnificent with Sheridan's reliably excellent script-writing.
Good to know, thanks. I was reading about it (and Kurt Russell, who wonderfully believes "celebrities should keep their political opinions to themselves, believing that it negatively impacts their work") just last night. I will check it out.
And yet millions of people in this country give these uninformed narcissists power and validation. When Hollywood started calling movies "films," you knew how important and elevated they thought they were. It is terrifying and disgusting to know that so many people in this country allow themselves to be influenced by such ilk.
One of the smartest things Kamala did (I noticed because she does so few of them) is enlist/pay the Hollywood elite to advocate for her. It didn't work, thank God, but there are so many people who care what these blithering morons think that they actually listen to them.
I was tempted to ignore this, but I worked in natural resources management, specifically timber production. Providing raw materials to build things is about as essential as it gets.
I have no intention of watching the Oscar's. I only saw one movie, Sentimental Value and walked out of it. It was a miserable and dreadful waste of time. I got a refund as I didnt want my $7.00 matinee money to fund a second of that film.
I find the movies depressing, the actors ugly, and the not so subtle political DEI crap intolerable .
To quote Clark Gable in Gone With The Wind, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!"
I’m a 73 year old man who like most Americans of my generation watched movies and sports as a kid and enjoyed them. In more recent years as “wokeism” took over media and entertainment I have completely abandoned both movies and sports. I’m sure there are countless others who feel similarly.
One Battle After Another arrives draped in prestige, praised to the rafters, and buoyed by the sort of critical consensus that now reliably signals a politically correct group hug. That doesn’t make it brave; it makes it safe. At best this is a 3 out of 10, a movie that wants to lecture before it persuades and allegorize before it understands the world it’s pretending to critique.
Director Paul Thomas Anderson gives us something that isn’t so much a story as a parable with a smug grin. The problem is that the film makes bold claims about power, rebellion, and the state while refusing to anchor itself in anything resembling historical reality. We’re never told when this takes place. It opens like a throwback to 1970s radical chic, flirting with the Symbionese Liberation Army vibe, then jumps sixteen years forward and still doesn’t feel remotely like 2025, the year of its release. Time, apparently, is just another bourgeois construct.
Some defenders insist the revolutionaries are meant to evoke ANTIFA. That’s generous. What Anderson actually gives us are cartoon radicals frozen in amber, relics of a half-remembered New Left fantasy. Missing entirely is the modern political ecosystem: the rhetorical arson by mainstream politicians, the academic and cultural machinery that normalizes radicalism, and the ordinary voters who enable it. None of that exists here. Instead, we get generic “revolutionaries” who are violent, yes, but in a lovable-loonies way that asks us not to think too hard about consequences.
When a security guard is murdered during a bank robbery, the film barely pauses. Sympathy is reserved for the perpetrators, whose biggest flaw is that they’re oversexed. After each revolutionary act, they must kiss, grope, or tumble into bed, as if the real danger isn’t bombs or bullets but excessive libido. The message is clear: they mean well; they just can’t help themselves. That posture peaks with Perfidia Beverly Hills, played by Teyana Taylor, whose reign of manic absurdity is meant to read as transgressive but lands as indulgent.
Her confrontation with Steven Lockjaw, a cardboard martinet played by an aging and oddly unconvincing Sean Penn, is where the film abandons any pretense of coherence. She doesn’t kill him. She sexually humiliates him at gunpoint. He complies. Later, when he catches her attempting to bomb a building, the two have sex, because of course they do. This results in a pregnancy, a child, and the film’s next great moral shrug.
Perfidia dumps the baby on her partner, Ghetto Pat Calhoun, then rats out her comrades to save herself and enters witness protection in Mexico. Sixteen years later, all is basically forgiven. The revolutionaries are redeemed, domesticated, and charmingly dysfunctional, their violent pasts quietly rebranded as youthful excess—some even resurfacing as sanctified caretakers, like the ex-radicals now cosplaying as nuns. Pat, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, has become a stoner slacker dad, a Big Lebowski cosplay with a bombmaker’s résumé. Politics no longer matter much to him, which is convenient, because the movie no longer wants to talk about politics either, just vibes.
The film then leans hard into its black-comedy shtick, most notably in a running gag where Pat is ordered to recite a revolutionary password he can’t remember. It’s meant to signal the absurdity of aging radicals trapped by their own mythology, but the joke drags on long past its welcome. What starts as a wry observation curdles into self-indulgence, a placeholder for tension that never arrives. Instead of sharpening the satire, the scene exposes the film’s broader problem: Anderson mistakes repetition for insight, and whimsy for wit.
Meanwhile, every government figure is either a neo-Nazi, a fascist creep, or a member of a secret white supremacist Christmas club that sounds like it wandered in from a rejected sketch. Lockjaw’s Achilles’ heel is that he once slept with a Black woman, which makes him unacceptable to his fellow racists and guarantees his eventual disposal. Complexity is for suckers.
The second half devolves into a pedestrian manhunt that raises questions it has no interest in answering. Lockjaw disappears for long stretches, reappears when needed, and somehow wields instant DNA tests in the field. An Indian scout with a conscience sacrifices himself so the heroine can escape. A Hispanic sensei, played by Benicio del Toro, stands in for the “good illegals” persecuted by cartoonishly evil feds. Eventually, bodies drop, Lockjaw gets shot, survives, and is then murdered by his own side. Pat and his daughter escape, and—here’s the real magic trick—the federal government just… stops looking for them. The daughter even attends a political rally in Oakland, unbothered, unnoticed, free as a bird.
This isn’t realism. It isn’t even sharp satire. It’s a biased fantasy that flatters one side’s self-image while turning the other into straw men. Allegory can be powerful, but only when it’s honest about the world it’s abstracting from. In this case, Anderson’s refusal to grapple with contemporary realities feels less like artistry and more like irresponsibility. In an era where people routinely confuse fiction with truth, this kind of lazy moral pageant isn’t just bad storytelling—it’s an invitation to believe nonsense, dressed up as courage.
You reminded me why I haven't seen a Hollywood movie in many many years now. I think the last one was that remake of the Schwartzeneggar movie set on Mars. Can't even remember the name
The sixteen year jump had me wondering why the Sensei hadn't bought beds for the illegal immigrants. After sixteen years, they still had to sleep on the floor.
Want to see a terrific film that is not only engrossing but makes you think? Check out Sam Peckinpah's incomparable "Cross of Iron"(1977); here's the cast: James Coburn, Maximilian Schell, James Mason, Senta Berger, & David Warner. Peckinpah directed a good many films with men in conflict with one another; "Cross of Iron" is the only one where they wore uniforms. Told from the viewpoint of German soldiers on the Russian Front in 1943, it's a tour de force as far as story & action. Met Coburn by chance in 2000 just as he was gearing up to do "Affliction" & he expounded on it @ length; he considered it - not only his - but Peckinpah's finest work ever. He said it was no stretch to call it the "All Quiet on the Western Front" of the Second World War. Script was by Julius Epstein who wrote "Casablanca". It's an overlooked classic that got buried by "Stars Wars" (like everything else) that summer of '77. It has become a cult classic since & yes I give it a higher rating than SPR because it has a more believable story & no typical - & tired - war movie cliches. On Amazon Prime.
Glad to be of service. Hope you enjoy the ride. How I met Coburn was just one of those things; was working @ an entertainment mag on the west side & we got an invite for a Nespresso event (was the debut of Nestle’s espresso machines) @ L’Ermitage BH. So I go with a friend & we hit the rooftop bar & I get an elbow in the ribs, “That’s James Coburn over there in the corner.” Sure enough it was. She encourages me to go talk to him. A bit star struck - he was always one of my personal faves & considered him last of “the greats” (“Old Hollywood”) I slam a shot of Bourbon to calm my nerves & go over to him. Don’t recall exactly what I said but “Sam Peckinpah” & “ Cross of Iron” came tumbling out. He gives me that trademark sh** eating grin of his, leans over - pushes out the chair next to him - & gestures to it, “sit down!” For the next four or five hours we sat there, talking about the production, Peckinpah himself, acting, & movies. He bought rounds, I bought rounds, how the hell I made it home in one piece was by God’s Grace. No airs, no Hollywood BS, he was just one kool kat. One of the benefits of working @ the mag was I got to write profiles from time to time (besides selling ad space) & was going to do one on him but he got busy with “Affliction” so - in the meantime- I did one on his Manager, the legendary Hilly Elkins who was one hell of a guy in his own right. Elkins had two supreme star clients - Coburn & Steve McQueen - their entire careers.
In another "famous adjacent" story... I was a TV writer and got a chance to work briefly with Peckinpah's son. He offered me a great gig, but it was a lousy TV show, so I turned it down.
Oh he was indeed! If you watch any documentaries (older ones that is; there’s a terrific one called “Steve McQueen: Man on The Edge” that was narrated by James Coburn no less! Coburn & McQueen were friends) Hilly usually makes an appearance. He’s an older, white haired guy with a white Van Dyke beard.
We do that a lot. Fill the gaps with old Seinfeld reruns. Once we pick a show out, I invariably wait for THE moment: Female character mentions her wife (or male his husband); notice a deep voice and a big adam's apple on the female star and oh yeah: trans; female characters always the "boss" and "of color" (colored people), and white characters non-existent (or invisible); and a host of other tells. Once spotted, away we go.
Thanks! I just put Cross of Iron on my movie queue. Another excellent movie is the 1981 movie "The Chosen" with Robbie Benson, Rod Steiger, and Maximillian Schell. (It's available on TUBI) It's based on the Chaim Potok novel.
👍🏻Also another one to check out is “The Driver”(1978) with Ryan O’Neal. Written & directed by Walter Hill who was a protege of Sam Peckinpah. Was written for Steve McQueen but he turned it down since he already did “the car” thing in “Bullitt” & “The Getaway”. O’Neal has maybe a dozen lines in the entire film. Best acting think he’s ever done. He plays a getaway driver for bank robbers hounded by a creepy, fixated police detective (Bruce Dern).
Fun fact: In ancient Rome, actors were considered to be in the same social class as prostitutes. On another note, the BAFTA video of those two self righteous pricks being "verbally assaulted" by the guy with Tuoretts as they were honoring the movie about the guy with Touretts... and then touting themselves as victims of a hate crime- That should win for Best Comedy. I so loved that!
How Green Was My Valley is a flat-out masterpiece. Whether it was really the best picture is debatable, but there was no scandal in its winning the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. However, the proof that Welles and Kane got screwed was the Best Actor award going to Gary Cooper instead of Welles, whose performance as Kane was not only the best of 1941 but in a class by itself.
I’ve never understood hate watching. People that do it are directly supporting that which they hate? And at the expense of their own well being? Seems so dumb and self defeating.
The moment that the idiot De Nero shreiked "F--K Trump" on stage on live TV was the last straw for me. The self agrandizing, egotistical, under educated, over paid, thinking that because they occuppy a stage we deserve to hear their moronic blathering. NOPE...I can hardly wait until AI replaces every single oneof them.
The so-called Movie Stars ⭐️ that I used to love have all become a bunch of indoctrinated Liberal-snobs who are socialists communists Dems! I vow to never pay them by buying tickets to see their movies 🎥 🍿again! #BoycottPedoWood #BoycottRobertDinero & the rest of the brainwashed Liberals
Same. Never heard of it. We saw F1 as a family in the theater, and that’s the only one on the nominee list I ever even heard of. We will be seeing Project Hail Mary later this week. My husband is a huge fan of the author (he also wrote The Martian) and has been excited for it for months. I’m hoping they don’t crush him. And we aren’t grumpy old folks - we are in our mid forties! Why is everything a remake or sequel? Or a horror movie? Would it kill them to make an original comedy, drama or even rom com? Give us a reason to go!!
We saw the Redgrave thing too, along with her various other appearances for the Palestinian cause. And AT THE TIME, if we do say so, had a premonition that her views would come to dominate western taste-making. Which made it hard to fully appreciate the movie Julia, even though both she and Fonda were brilliant.
I saw Sinners a few weeks ago and it was utterly forgettable. (Seriously, I barely remember it lol) It did nothing for me and had a forced wokeness on the viewers.
Delroy Lindo is a hard-working actor who's come a long way from silliness in Get Shorty to stiff line delivery in Heist (one of Mamet's most overwrought scripts) but I never felt compelled to see it. A bedazzled, more lavish self-serious version of from Dusk till Dawn, but of course, with a racial component.
We loved him in Get Shorty! Along with everything else about that movie.
Sinners did remind us of FDTD too, except for the sense here of just how fragile the ground was under the feet of black entrepreneurs in those days. But that sympathy of ours mostly dissipated in all the racial cliche-mongering that took over the story.
Yeah I don’t get the hype. I love the blues and saw some bright spots, but it certainly didn’t warrant the hype. Maybe the masses are just that starved for mediocre movies.
My favorite actor is Timothee Chalamet so I did see Marty Supreme. His final scene deserves the Oscar, though I can’t recommend this film as it’s too lewd. Chalamet should’ve won for A Complete Unknown (2024), in his role as Bob Dylan, which convinced non-fans of Dylan, including me, to like his music. That said, IMO the only watchable emcee for the Oscars is Ricky Gervais. Since they won’t invite him back, I’ll be rewatching Downton Abbey or Top Gun Maverick while the celebs fawn over movies nobody wants to see.
Note to Hollywood: We have opera performers in our family and don’t hold Timmie Chalamet accountable for not promoting ballet and librettos. Try to stop being so petty. Peace out.
The only movie on your list that I have seen is "One Battle After Another." I thought it was a truly horrible movie, I found the cast unappealing and ugly.
It’s true that Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn aren’t very handsome anymore, but that usually happens with age. Not everyone can be Ryan Gosling or Tom Cruise. The older stars (especially Brando) didn’t get by primarily on looks. I’d actually argue that one of Hollywood’s many problems currently is the elevation of physical perfection over human relatability.
Thank you Sasha. The best film from last year, in my own personal opinion, is HOMO ARGENTUM from Argentina. This movie didn't win awards; it was not nominated for anything at all; it was rejected by lots of progressive idiots, journalists, and politicians. But President Javier Milei highly recommended it and even hosted a private exhibition for his cabinet. Despite the negative input from journalists, it became very popular. It is a great and unusual movie, criticizing woke culture (including award shows). Of course, it is in Spanish but you can see it for free right here:
People who play dress-up for a living are not serious people and are not essential to society. The old movie stars understood that. The modern movie stars, unfortunately, will probably never learn that.
Time for ’The emperor has no clothes moment’. Their condescension and sanctimony reveals zero self awareness in favor of narcisistic virtue-signalling. I’ll miss the oscars again. Oh well.
I've never missed the Oscars. Never seen them, either.
ba-dum!
What a waste of time!
I wonder how Hollyweird and the Woke Left will take Taylor Sheridan's new series, "The Madison"? He absolutely skewers Woke/DEI culture and the silly inanity and attendant mean nature of cityfolk, thus demonstrating why the left's moral vanity is what makes them so damned contemptible. By the way, the show is magnificent with Sheridan's reliably excellent script-writing.
Good to know, thanks. I was reading about it (and Kurt Russell, who wonderfully believes "celebrities should keep their political opinions to themselves, believing that it negatively impacts their work") just last night. I will check it out.
Only problem with "The Madison" is that it's going to make even more cityfolk want to move to Big Sky country.
The Horse Whisperer did that for me!
Understandably, so. I "escaped" to Alaska almost 45 years ago.
One of the two remaining states for me to travel to. The other is North Dakota. Not sure I’ll ever manage to get to either.
Thanks for letting us know about this show! Can't wait to start watching!
Finally, something besides South Park to call out the insanity!
I continue to be surprised how far ahead South Park is with the culture….
Thanks for the recommendation- I enjoyed Landman also. I went to one move this year & loved it “ Song Sung Blue. Now streaming.
In my opinion, "The Madison" is Sheridan's best work, yet... as long as it doesn't turn into a Hallmark-type soap opera.
Just watched the 1 episode. Love it, Michelle Pfieffer so good.
And yet millions of people in this country give these uninformed narcissists power and validation. When Hollywood started calling movies "films," you knew how important and elevated they thought they were. It is terrifying and disgusting to know that so many people in this country allow themselves to be influenced by such ilk.
One of the smartest things Kamala did (I noticed because she does so few of them) is enlist/pay the Hollywood elite to advocate for her. It didn't work, thank God, but there are so many people who care what these blithering morons think that they actually listen to them.
I can’t think of a better way to turn off “white dudes” than to put together a group called “white dudes for Kamala”
They play dress up and they recite words that were written for them by other people.
The arts are essential. Acting is important. Actors are important.
The current Hollywood ones are not.
how are you essential to society?
I was tempted to ignore this, but I worked in natural resources management, specifically timber production. Providing raw materials to build things is about as essential as it gets.
I have no intention of watching the Oscar's. I only saw one movie, Sentimental Value and walked out of it. It was a miserable and dreadful waste of time. I got a refund as I didnt want my $7.00 matinee money to fund a second of that film.
I find the movies depressing, the actors ugly, and the not so subtle political DEI crap intolerable .
To quote Clark Gable in Gone With The Wind, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!"
I hope at least the popcorn was hot and buttery!! That’s all a theater has to offer at this point!
Lemmelle...fresh popcorn snd buttet..
LOL why did you go in the first place? 😂 As for actors being ugly, you should not throw stones in a glass house 😂
My girlfriend's insisted. I walked out and we t across the street for beer and pizza
I’m a 73 year old man who like most Americans of my generation watched movies and sports as a kid and enjoyed them. In more recent years as “wokeism” took over media and entertainment I have completely abandoned both movies and sports. I’m sure there are countless others who feel similarly.
This💯🎯👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻
Went for a long walk last night. Immeasurably more enjoyable than watching the woke and fashionably anti semitic!
I believe exactly what you said. I have done exactly what you’ve described the only difference is our ages, I’m 6 years younger.
Well said sir.
Film Review: One Battle After Another
When Political Fantasy Masquerades as History
3/10
Spoilers
One Battle After Another arrives draped in prestige, praised to the rafters, and buoyed by the sort of critical consensus that now reliably signals a politically correct group hug. That doesn’t make it brave; it makes it safe. At best this is a 3 out of 10, a movie that wants to lecture before it persuades and allegorize before it understands the world it’s pretending to critique.
Director Paul Thomas Anderson gives us something that isn’t so much a story as a parable with a smug grin. The problem is that the film makes bold claims about power, rebellion, and the state while refusing to anchor itself in anything resembling historical reality. We’re never told when this takes place. It opens like a throwback to 1970s radical chic, flirting with the Symbionese Liberation Army vibe, then jumps sixteen years forward and still doesn’t feel remotely like 2025, the year of its release. Time, apparently, is just another bourgeois construct.
Some defenders insist the revolutionaries are meant to evoke ANTIFA. That’s generous. What Anderson actually gives us are cartoon radicals frozen in amber, relics of a half-remembered New Left fantasy. Missing entirely is the modern political ecosystem: the rhetorical arson by mainstream politicians, the academic and cultural machinery that normalizes radicalism, and the ordinary voters who enable it. None of that exists here. Instead, we get generic “revolutionaries” who are violent, yes, but in a lovable-loonies way that asks us not to think too hard about consequences.
When a security guard is murdered during a bank robbery, the film barely pauses. Sympathy is reserved for the perpetrators, whose biggest flaw is that they’re oversexed. After each revolutionary act, they must kiss, grope, or tumble into bed, as if the real danger isn’t bombs or bullets but excessive libido. The message is clear: they mean well; they just can’t help themselves. That posture peaks with Perfidia Beverly Hills, played by Teyana Taylor, whose reign of manic absurdity is meant to read as transgressive but lands as indulgent.
Her confrontation with Steven Lockjaw, a cardboard martinet played by an aging and oddly unconvincing Sean Penn, is where the film abandons any pretense of coherence. She doesn’t kill him. She sexually humiliates him at gunpoint. He complies. Later, when he catches her attempting to bomb a building, the two have sex, because of course they do. This results in a pregnancy, a child, and the film’s next great moral shrug.
Perfidia dumps the baby on her partner, Ghetto Pat Calhoun, then rats out her comrades to save herself and enters witness protection in Mexico. Sixteen years later, all is basically forgiven. The revolutionaries are redeemed, domesticated, and charmingly dysfunctional, their violent pasts quietly rebranded as youthful excess—some even resurfacing as sanctified caretakers, like the ex-radicals now cosplaying as nuns. Pat, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, has become a stoner slacker dad, a Big Lebowski cosplay with a bombmaker’s résumé. Politics no longer matter much to him, which is convenient, because the movie no longer wants to talk about politics either, just vibes.
The film then leans hard into its black-comedy shtick, most notably in a running gag where Pat is ordered to recite a revolutionary password he can’t remember. It’s meant to signal the absurdity of aging radicals trapped by their own mythology, but the joke drags on long past its welcome. What starts as a wry observation curdles into self-indulgence, a placeholder for tension that never arrives. Instead of sharpening the satire, the scene exposes the film’s broader problem: Anderson mistakes repetition for insight, and whimsy for wit.
Meanwhile, every government figure is either a neo-Nazi, a fascist creep, or a member of a secret white supremacist Christmas club that sounds like it wandered in from a rejected sketch. Lockjaw’s Achilles’ heel is that he once slept with a Black woman, which makes him unacceptable to his fellow racists and guarantees his eventual disposal. Complexity is for suckers.
The second half devolves into a pedestrian manhunt that raises questions it has no interest in answering. Lockjaw disappears for long stretches, reappears when needed, and somehow wields instant DNA tests in the field. An Indian scout with a conscience sacrifices himself so the heroine can escape. A Hispanic sensei, played by Benicio del Toro, stands in for the “good illegals” persecuted by cartoonishly evil feds. Eventually, bodies drop, Lockjaw gets shot, survives, and is then murdered by his own side. Pat and his daughter escape, and—here’s the real magic trick—the federal government just… stops looking for them. The daughter even attends a political rally in Oakland, unbothered, unnoticed, free as a bird.
This isn’t realism. It isn’t even sharp satire. It’s a biased fantasy that flatters one side’s self-image while turning the other into straw men. Allegory can be powerful, but only when it’s honest about the world it’s abstracting from. In this case, Anderson’s refusal to grapple with contemporary realities feels less like artistry and more like irresponsibility. In an era where people routinely confuse fiction with truth, this kind of lazy moral pageant isn’t just bad storytelling—it’s an invitation to believe nonsense, dressed up as courage.
my husband and i watched ten minutes of it and turned it off
Good on you. My wife and I made about 5 minutes.
Same here
Wow. That was a magnificent critique.
You reminded me why I haven't seen a Hollywood movie in many many years now. I think the last one was that remake of the Schwartzeneggar movie set on Mars. Can't even remember the name
Sounds like I haven't missed much.
Total Recall.
The sixteen year jump had me wondering why the Sensei hadn't bought beds for the illegal immigrants. After sixteen years, they still had to sleep on the floor.
Yeah, it wasn't that good..
Whew I’m so happy to read what I did not want to watch !! Thank you ! Seriously 🙏
"Time, apparently, is just another bourgeois construct."
What a cutting review, LMAO.
I just wish they wouldn't do that annoying AP Style book "Black". Either capitalize everything or lower case everything.
Excellent review. Pin-point accuracy. Thank you.
Want to see a terrific film that is not only engrossing but makes you think? Check out Sam Peckinpah's incomparable "Cross of Iron"(1977); here's the cast: James Coburn, Maximilian Schell, James Mason, Senta Berger, & David Warner. Peckinpah directed a good many films with men in conflict with one another; "Cross of Iron" is the only one where they wore uniforms. Told from the viewpoint of German soldiers on the Russian Front in 1943, it's a tour de force as far as story & action. Met Coburn by chance in 2000 just as he was gearing up to do "Affliction" & he expounded on it @ length; he considered it - not only his - but Peckinpah's finest work ever. He said it was no stretch to call it the "All Quiet on the Western Front" of the Second World War. Script was by Julius Epstein who wrote "Casablanca". It's an overlooked classic that got buried by "Stars Wars" (like everything else) that summer of '77. It has become a cult classic since & yes I give it a higher rating than SPR because it has a more believable story & no typical - & tired - war movie cliches. On Amazon Prime.
Thank you! Last night I tried to find something watchable on both Hulu and Netflex and ended up watching a dumb interview on youtube.
Glad to be of service. Hope you enjoy the ride. How I met Coburn was just one of those things; was working @ an entertainment mag on the west side & we got an invite for a Nespresso event (was the debut of Nestle’s espresso machines) @ L’Ermitage BH. So I go with a friend & we hit the rooftop bar & I get an elbow in the ribs, “That’s James Coburn over there in the corner.” Sure enough it was. She encourages me to go talk to him. A bit star struck - he was always one of my personal faves & considered him last of “the greats” (“Old Hollywood”) I slam a shot of Bourbon to calm my nerves & go over to him. Don’t recall exactly what I said but “Sam Peckinpah” & “ Cross of Iron” came tumbling out. He gives me that trademark sh** eating grin of his, leans over - pushes out the chair next to him - & gestures to it, “sit down!” For the next four or five hours we sat there, talking about the production, Peckinpah himself, acting, & movies. He bought rounds, I bought rounds, how the hell I made it home in one piece was by God’s Grace. No airs, no Hollywood BS, he was just one kool kat. One of the benefits of working @ the mag was I got to write profiles from time to time (besides selling ad space) & was going to do one on him but he got busy with “Affliction” so - in the meantime- I did one on his Manager, the legendary Hilly Elkins who was one hell of a guy in his own right. Elkins had two supreme star clients - Coburn & Steve McQueen - their entire careers.
How’s that for a talent roster? ;<)
In another "famous adjacent" story... I was a TV writer and got a chance to work briefly with Peckinpah's son. He offered me a great gig, but it was a lousy TV show, so I turned it down.
That's such a great story! Thanks for sharing. Now I need to do some digging on Hilly Elkins... sounds like an interesting character himself.
Oh he was indeed! If you watch any documentaries (older ones that is; there’s a terrific one called “Steve McQueen: Man on The Edge” that was narrated by James Coburn no less! Coburn & McQueen were friends) Hilly usually makes an appearance. He’s an older, white haired guy with a white Van Dyke beard.
Yay! I love documentaries (that's mostly what I watch these days). I'll check that one out.
You win best comment on Substack since its inception.
We do that a lot. Fill the gaps with old Seinfeld reruns. Once we pick a show out, I invariably wait for THE moment: Female character mentions her wife (or male his husband); notice a deep voice and a big adam's apple on the female star and oh yeah: trans; female characters always the "boss" and "of color" (colored people), and white characters non-existent (or invisible); and a host of other tells. Once spotted, away we go.
Exactly what I’m doing.
Thanks! I just put Cross of Iron on my movie queue. Another excellent movie is the 1981 movie "The Chosen" with Robbie Benson, Rod Steiger, and Maximillian Schell. (It's available on TUBI) It's based on the Chaim Potok novel.
👍🏻Also another one to check out is “The Driver”(1978) with Ryan O’Neal. Written & directed by Walter Hill who was a protege of Sam Peckinpah. Was written for Steve McQueen but he turned it down since he already did “the car” thing in “Bullitt” & “The Getaway”. O’Neal has maybe a dozen lines in the entire film. Best acting think he’s ever done. He plays a getaway driver for bank robbers hounded by a creepy, fixated police detective (Bruce Dern).
The ‘70’s was a bonanza of terrific films.
I don't know if you've ever seen the war movie "Come and See".
I could only watch it once.
“Sarah's Key” is a Holocaust movie with an ending so nightmarish that I’m sorry I watched it even once. I think I'll avoid “Come and See.”
Great movie
Yes, agreed!
Fun fact: In ancient Rome, actors were considered to be in the same social class as prostitutes. On another note, the BAFTA video of those two self righteous pricks being "verbally assaulted" by the guy with Tuoretts as they were honoring the movie about the guy with Touretts... and then touting themselves as victims of a hate crime- That should win for Best Comedy. I so loved that!
How Green Was My Valley is a flat-out masterpiece. Whether it was really the best picture is debatable, but there was no scandal in its winning the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. However, the proof that Welles and Kane got screwed was the Best Actor award going to Gary Cooper instead of Welles, whose performance as Kane was not only the best of 1941 but in a class by itself.
I have watched How Green Was My Valley more times than I can count, including recently.
The book is also wonderful, and as is usually the case, better than the movie.
My husband, a Swiss immigrant, LOVED that movie. I have never watched it myself.
Not even worth the hate watch anymore.
I’ll watch it again if they let Ricky Gervais host.
I always check out the highlights (lowlights?) on YT.
I’ve never understood hate watching. People that do it are directly supporting that which they hate? And at the expense of their own well being? Seems so dumb and self defeating.
Thank You!
The moment that the idiot De Nero shreiked "F--K Trump" on stage on live TV was the last straw for me. The self agrandizing, egotistical, under educated, over paid, thinking that because they occuppy a stage we deserve to hear their moronic blathering. NOPE...I can hardly wait until AI replaces every single oneof them.
The so-called Movie Stars ⭐️ that I used to love have all become a bunch of indoctrinated Liberal-snobs who are socialists communists Dems! I vow to never pay them by buying tickets to see their movies 🎥 🍿again! #BoycottPedoWood #BoycottRobertDinero & the rest of the brainwashed Liberals
like your sentiment
I have never heard of Sinners. I can't remember the last time I was inside a movie theater.
Same. Never heard of it. We saw F1 as a family in the theater, and that’s the only one on the nominee list I ever even heard of. We will be seeing Project Hail Mary later this week. My husband is a huge fan of the author (he also wrote The Martian) and has been excited for it for months. I’m hoping they don’t crush him. And we aren’t grumpy old folks - we are in our mid forties! Why is everything a remake or sequel? Or a horror movie? Would it kill them to make an original comedy, drama or even rom com? Give us a reason to go!!
Saw it last night. It's wonderful.
We watched every Oscar show starting when the celebs walked the red carpet. I do remember the Vanessa Redgrave thing.
I quit watching it when it became a collective bitch session about Trump from Hollywood elites.
We saw the Redgrave thing too, along with her various other appearances for the Palestinian cause. And AT THE TIME, if we do say so, had a premonition that her views would come to dominate western taste-making. Which made it hard to fully appreciate the movie Julia, even though both she and Fonda were brilliant.
I saw Sinners a few weeks ago and it was utterly forgettable. (Seriously, I barely remember it lol) It did nothing for me and had a forced wokeness on the viewers.
Delroy Lindo is a hard-working actor who's come a long way from silliness in Get Shorty to stiff line delivery in Heist (one of Mamet's most overwrought scripts) but I never felt compelled to see it. A bedazzled, more lavish self-serious version of from Dusk till Dawn, but of course, with a racial component.
We loved him in Get Shorty! Along with everything else about that movie.
Sinners did remind us of FDTD too, except for the sense here of just how fragile the ground was under the feet of black entrepreneurs in those days. But that sympathy of ours mostly dissipated in all the racial cliche-mongering that took over the story.
I’ve always liked Delroy. He belongs to the same gym as me and I see him there once in a while.
Yeah I don’t get the hype. I love the blues and saw some bright spots, but it certainly didn’t warrant the hype. Maybe the masses are just that starved for mediocre movies.
My favorite actor is Timothee Chalamet so I did see Marty Supreme. His final scene deserves the Oscar, though I can’t recommend this film as it’s too lewd. Chalamet should’ve won for A Complete Unknown (2024), in his role as Bob Dylan, which convinced non-fans of Dylan, including me, to like his music. That said, IMO the only watchable emcee for the Oscars is Ricky Gervais. Since they won’t invite him back, I’ll be rewatching Downton Abbey or Top Gun Maverick while the celebs fawn over movies nobody wants to see.
Note to Hollywood: We have opera performers in our family and don’t hold Timmie Chalamet accountable for not promoting ballet and librettos. Try to stop being so petty. Peace out.
Downton Abby is my comfort over and over again 🥰
Ditto! DA is on a loop over here! 😊
I honestly loved Marty Supreme.
Loved “A complete Unknown” about early Bob Dylan & the Folk music scene.
Ethan Hawke gave a wonderful performance in Blue Moon. A gem of a movie. Ethan Hawke has had a solid career and deserves recognition
The only movie on your list that I have seen is "One Battle After Another." I thought it was a truly horrible movie, I found the cast unappealing and ugly.
It’s true that Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn aren’t very handsome anymore, but that usually happens with age. Not everyone can be Ryan Gosling or Tom Cruise. The older stars (especially Brando) didn’t get by primarily on looks. I’d actually argue that one of Hollywood’s many problems currently is the elevation of physical perfection over human relatability.
Thank you Sasha. The best film from last year, in my own personal opinion, is HOMO ARGENTUM from Argentina. This movie didn't win awards; it was not nominated for anything at all; it was rejected by lots of progressive idiots, journalists, and politicians. But President Javier Milei highly recommended it and even hosted a private exhibition for his cabinet. Despite the negative input from journalists, it became very popular. It is a great and unusual movie, criticizing woke culture (including award shows). Of course, it is in Spanish but you can see it for free right here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL8JB4K43co&t=3s&pp=ygUNaG9tbyBhcmdlbnR1bQ%3D%3D