#Owen Gleiberman

[slackville]

Released in cinemas on this day (7 November 1986): the late Jonathan Demme’s anarchic yuppie-in-peril screwball comedy / road movie Something Wild which I first saw as a teenager and had a HUGE impact on me. Demme’s diverse oeuvre encompassed everything from the wonderful women-in-prison exploitation flick Caged Heat (1974) to the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense (1984) to AIDS drama Philadelphia (1993) to his biggest hit Silence of the Lambs (1991), but I’d argue this twisted black comedy is his masterpiece. Jeff Daniels, Melanie Griffith (pictured), and a genuinely scary Ray Liotta (who - as Owen Gleiberman of Variety put it - “was so lean and mean it was like seeing the movie debut of James Dean’s evil twin”) are outstanding as the central romantic triangle. Why isn’t Something Wild celebrated as a 1980s cult classic? It boasts a killer post-punk soundtrack AND a memorable cameo appearance from John Waters himself!

[destinyc1020]

Wow...I keep seeing some of the same films on the list from VARIOUS outlets! 😁😅

👍��😁

[steelbluehome]

Variety

Trump Campaign Threatens Legal Action Over Sebastian Stan’s ‘The Apprentice’ Movie: ‘This Garbage Is Pure Fiction’

By Katcy Stephan

May 20, 2024 4:48 pm

Former President Donald Trump‘s campaign is hitting back following the premiere of the controversial film “The Apprentice,” which chronicles the 2024 presidential candidate’s early years as a real estate developer.

"We will be filing a lawsuit to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers,” the Trump campaign’s chief spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement to Variety. “This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked. As with the illegal Biden Trials, this is election interference by Hollywood elites, who know that President Trump will retake the White House and beat their candidate of choice because nothing they have done has worked.”

Cheung’s statement continues, “This ‘film’ is pure malicious defamation, should not see the light of day, and doesn’t even deserve a place in the straight-to-DVD section of a bargain bin at a soon-to-be-closed discount movie store, it belongs in a dumpster fire.”

A potential suit from the Trump camp wouldn’t be the first legal hit at “The Apprentice.” Dan Snyder, the billionaire former owner of the Washington Commanders who is an investor in “The Apprentice,” also objected to the film’s portrayal of the 45th president, Variety’s Tatiana Siegel reported on Monday.

Sources say Snyder, a friend of Trump’s who donated $1.1. million to his inaugural committee and Trump Victory in 2016 and $100,000 to his 2020 presidential campaign, put money into the film via Kinematics because he was under the impression that it was a flattering portrayal of the 45th president.

After screening the film in February, Kinematics’ lawyers were enlisted to fight the release of the project.

Sebastian Stan (“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”) stars as Trump, while Jeremy Strong (“Succession”) plays lawyer and fixer Roy Cohn and Maria Bakalova (“Borat 2”) portrays Trump’s first wife Ivana Trump.

The film, which earned an eight-minute standing ovation following its debut at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday, features a slew of unflattering scenes depicting Trump popping amphetamine pills, getting liposuction, having surgery to remove his bald spot, and, most controversially, a scene in which he violently throws his then-wife Ivana to the ground and proceeds to have nonconsensual sex with her.

The film is directed by “Holy Spider” filmmaker Ali Abbasi, and written by journalist Gabriel Sherman.

In his review of the picture, Variety chief film critic Owen Gleiberman praised the central performances by Stan and Strong but argued that the film doesn’t quite stick the landing after a strong start. “For its first half, ‘The Apprentice’ is kind of a knockout: the inside look at how Trump evolved that so many of us have imagined for so long, and seeing it play out is both convincing and riveting,” he writes.

“The Trump we see goes through a looking glass of treachery, leveraging his empire — and what’s left of his emotions — to within an inch of his life. And once that happens, we’re simply watching a well-acted TV-movie made up of familiar anecdotes built around the Trump we already know. At that point, ‘The Apprentice,’ good as much of it is, becomes far less interesting. The mystery the movie never solves is what Trump was thinking, deep down, when he chose to become Donald Trump,” Gleiberman concludes.

[lesbiancolumbo]

it's the time of year again where all of film twitter sets aside our differences and petty grievances and crosses the divide to take down our one true enemy: owen gleiberman

[unicornery]

shout out to Owen Gleiberman for your review of Home for the Holidays (1995)

[byneddiedingo]

Ned Bellamy and Danny Glover in Saw (James Wan, 2004)

Cast: Leigh Whannell, Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Ken Leung, Dina Meyer, Mike Butters, Paul Gutrecht, Michael Emerson, Benito Martinez, Shawnee Smith, Makenzie Vega, Monica Potter, Ned Bellamy, Tobin Bell. Screenplay: Leigh Whannell, James Wan. Cinematography: David A. Armstrong. Production design: Julie Berghoff. Film editing: Kevin Greutert. Music: Charlie Clouser.

James Wan's Saw is a prime example of an independent filmmaker's breakthrough into success and of a trend in horror movies, spawning numerous sequels. Film critics are typically hard on genre pictures, and they were hard on Saw when it was first released, though some reputable critics like David Edelstein and Owen Gleiberman reviewed it favorably. The truth is, now that I'm getting around to watching it, Saw is neither as good as I'd hoped nor as bad as I feared. The central plight -- two men trapped in a grungy bathroom, one tasked with killing the other in order to spare the lives of his wife and daughter -- is a compelling one, much better than those old teenagers-who-must-die-because-they-have-sex slasher movie plots. Gradually, with the help of good actors like Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, and Michael Emerson, the plot thickens. But then it goes haywire: Screenwriter Leigh Whannell (who plays one of the trapped men) and director Wan seem to think that if one plot twist is good, then half a dozen will be great. The result instead is incoherence, and the ending is such an obvious attempt to provide an opportunity for sequels -- we are now up to almost 10 -- that it feels like a cheat. It's also a measure of how far we've gone in almost two decades that the violence seems tamer than what's routinely presented now on even commercial television, where the serial killer with a taste for torture has become a weary character trope.

[averycanadianfilm]

A few whistleblower movies to watch

by Tyler Aquilina Updated July 27, 2022 at 10:20 AM EDT

1. All the President's Men (1976): Still the journalism movie all others aspire toward, All the President's Men tracks Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) as their diligent work steadily uncovers the full breadth and depth of the Watergate scandal with the help of an anonymous source, Deep Throat.

2. Silkwood (1983): Legendary director Mike Nichols (The Graduate) helmed this drama based on the life of Karen Silkwood (played by Meryl Streep), who died in a mysterious car crash while investigating harmful practices at the nuclear plant where she worked. Kurt Russell and Cher costar as Silkwood's boyfriend and housemate—which, on paper, sounds like the setup for the world's best sitcom. But, in practice, Silkwood is a powerful slow burn, deep-diving into its subject's everyday life and burgeoning crusade.

3. The Insider (1999): Pacino picked up the whistle again, this time alongside Russell Crowe, in The Insider, playing a 60 Minutes producer who pushes to bring Jeffrey Wigand's (Crowe) damning account of the tobacco industry's practices to light.

4. Erin Brockovich (2000): With Pacific Gas & Electric making headlines again for their role in California's spate of wildfires, it's an apt time to revisit Steven Soderbergh's legal drama (for which he lost the Best Director Oscar...to himself, for Traffic). Erin Brockovich stars Julia Roberts as the title character, who discovers PG&E has contaminated a small town's water supply and masterminds a legal crusade against the company.

5. North Country (2005): Before helming Disney's live-action Mulan, Niki Caro directed Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand to Oscar nominations in North Country, which follows mineworker Josey Aimes (Theron) as she spearheads the first class-action sexual harassment lawsuit in U.S. history. Somewhat tepidly received upon release (EW called it "the right movie at the wrong time"), North Country is a necessary watch in the #MeToo era.

6. The Most Dangerous Man in America (2009): and The Post (2017)A few real-life whistleblowers have had their stories told onscreen through both documentary and dramatization. One such example: Daniel Ellsberg, the military analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers and exposed secret U.S. government activity relating to the Vietnam War. The Oscar-nominated documentary The Most Dangerous Man in America tracks Ellsberg through the lead-up to the publication of the Pentagon Papers, while Steven Spielberg's The Post tells the story of the Washington Post journalists who published them, starring Meryl Streep as publisher Katharine Graham, Tom Hanks as editor Ben Bradlee, and Matthew Rhys as Ellsberg.

7. Fair Game (2010): If you want to relive more Bush administration-era outrages, allow us to recommend Fair Game, based on the 2003 Plame affair. That scandal revolved around the administration's outing of Valerie Plame (played by Naomi Watts) as a CIA operative, ostensibly in retaliation for her diplomat husband's (Sean Penn) criticism of the Iraq War. (He wrote a New York Times op-ed debunking the administration's WMD rationale.) The film shifts between spy thriller and domestic drama to explore, as EW's Owen Gleiberman put it, "What's greater, the price of hiding the truth—or telling it?"

8. We Steal Secrets (2013) and The Fifth Estate (2013): Remember when WikiLeaks was better known for whistleblowing than for helping interfere in U.S. elections? Alex Gibney's We Steal Secrets and Benedict Cumberbatch's The Fifth Estate can't help but look outdated now, but both fascinatingly chart WikiLeaks' history and paint vivid portraits of founder Julian Assange.

9. Citizenfour (2014) and Snowden (2016): Edward Snowden may be the most significant—and is certainly the most famous—whistleblower of the 2010s, with his revelations about the National Security Agency's surveillance practices reshaping our views on technology, privacy, and intelligence. Laura Poitras' Oscar-winning Citizenfour is an essential document, chronicling the days Snowden spent in Hong Kong making his initial disclosures to Poitras and two other journalists. Oliver Stone's Snowden, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the title character, is less essential, but helps illuminate the man himself and boasts a solid performance from Gordon-Levitt.

10. Official Secrets (2019): Official Secrets dramatizes a lesser-known (at least stateside) but no less vital whistleblower story—that of Katharine Gun (played by Keira Knightley). Gun, a British government employee, leaked a secret memo about an illegal NSA operation to pressure the UN Security Council to sanction the Iraq War. "What's interesting about this film is it's set in 2003...Yet it still feels like we don't have the conclusion of this story," Knightley told EW. "We're still very much living with it."

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 2.24

Beer Birthdays

Johannes Karl Fix (1832)

August Meiresonne (1842)

Georg Schneider II (1846)

Frederick “Fritz” Gettelman (1887)

Jim Patton (1953)

Five Favorite Birthdays

Wilhelm Karl Grimm; writer (1786)

Mitch Hedberg; comedian (1968)

Winslow Homer; artist (1836)

Edward James Olmos; actor (1947)

George Thorogood; rock guitarist (1950)

Famous Birthdays

Barry Bostwick; actor (1945)

George William Curtis; writer (1824)

Kristin Davis; actor (1965)

Rosalia de Castro; Spanish writer (1837)

Mary Coyle Chase; playwright, "Harvey" (1907)

Oscar de la Hoya; boxer (1973)

James Farentino; actor (1938)

Owen Gleiberman; film critic (1959)

Michael Harrington; writer (1928)

Steven Hill; actor (1922)

Rupert Holmes; English songwriter (1947)

Steve Jobs; Apple computers co-founder (1955)

Mark Lane; writer, attorney (1927)

Denis Law; Scottish soccer player (1940)

Michel Legrand; composer (1932)

Joseph Lieberman; politician, touche turtle impersonator (1942)

Marjorie Main; actor (1890)

George Augustus Moore; Irish writer (1852)

Chester Nimitz; navy admiral (1885)

Debra Jo Rupp; actor (1951)

Zachary Scott; actor (1914)

Michelle Shocked; pop singer (1962)

Britney Stevens; porn actor (1985)

John Vernon; actor (1932)

Abe Vigoda; actor (1921)

Honus Wagner; Pittsburgh Pirates SS (1874)

Teri Weigel; porn actor (1962)

Paula Zahn; television journalist (1956)

Billy Zane; actor (1966)

[influencermagazineuk]

The sequel by Ridley Scott, long overdue, for the 2000 classic, has been deemed a thrillerly spectacular yet very divisive story by critics. The film, which features Paul Mescal as Lucius-the illegitimate son of Russell Crowe's Maximus-has managed to pique viewers' interest and reactions have been varied, with the majority praising the talent of Paul Mescal but having a question in mind regarding whether it lives up to the iconic status of the original. It has been glorified as a "gobsmacking reboot" and "thrilling spectacle" by Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. He believes the film is "four-star material," commending Mescal as "a formidable lead," filling out Crowe's shoes with presence. Yet even as he admits that the film doesn't quite outstrip the Oscar-winning intensity of the original, it is wonderfully eye candy. Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Another saying echoed Robbie Collin of The Telegraph. In his four-star review, Collin thought of the film as "the year's most relentlessly entertaining blockbuster," but admits that it lacks depth compared to the first film. As much as Crowe's absence is felt to a great extent, Mescal captivates in his "brooding presence" and swarthy" demeanor. The Financial Times declared the leadership of Scott, with Danny Leigh labelling it as an expose of the director's "stubborn charm" and "belligerent swagger." Leigh told how Scott had turned towards a "pulpy and loopy" direction that would make it what it was, but questioned how it would survive the pop culture hype. Leigh scored it three stars but also pronounced it did not have the same feel of the original. Owen Gleiberman from Variety described the sequel as a "solid piece of neoclassical popcorn," though claimed it remains a "shadow" of the first feature. He also noted that Mescal, talented as he is, displays an anger that never quite simmers to a boil, further that the younger actor is a "millennial knockoff" of Crowe's intense Maximus. The Independent's Clarisse Loughrey gave it four out of five stars, saying this was a surprising event because 86-year-old Ridley Scott is prepared to make this part of the franchise non-serious as he is taking the presentation to ridiculous and campy levels. As, Loughrey wrote, Gladiator II is "weighted with metaphor," at times carrying a downright pure camp feel. Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter reported on the extravaganza the digital age brought in, some scenes of which include gladiators sitting on an accelerating rhinoceros and men literally falling into shark jaws while fighting in an intently dramatic Colosseum battle. One critic who was less than enthusiastic about Mescal's performance was David Rooney, who said it was sometimes "a tad flat" and that the star was relegated to "brooding intensity and simmering rage.". Kevin Maher of The Times had something brutally unkind to say about the film, calling it a "Marvel-esque sequel" that can't compare the emotional weight of its predecessor. It gets two stars; it's "a scattershot effort with half-formed characters and undernourished plotlines." For Maher, the storyline is merely disjointed and was only done for the sake of referencing the Crowe-led Gladiator. He said, "There is no substantial story this time around, and no driving ideas in the hotchpotch screenplay.". Similarly, William Bibbiani of The Wrap wrote that the film was missing some substance in its storytelling: "The whole thing hangs on contrivance and familiarity, not characters." Still, he said the fights lacked emotional investment, although he commended action elements. Still, many critics managed to make time for specific praise of Denzel Washington's turn as Macrinus, that Machiavellian ex-slave raking off the gladiators: "only ignites when Denzel Washington's brilliant, bisexual slave manager is on screen," Maher said. His electricity brought The Guardian to exclaim that Washington "almost steals the entire picture," and The Hollywood Reporter described his performance as "lip-smacking.". Other cast members fared quite well. Empire noted Pedro Pascal "remains as charismatic as ever." Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger portray the twin brothers who are Roman Emperors and rival Joaquin Phoenix's Commodus from the original in their "crazed volatility." They bring a reminder of Caligula's madness to the table. Where Gladiator II is dazzling audiences with its visual grandeur and epic battles, it left some critics nostalgic for the emotional depth and narrative impact of the original. The mix of camp, spectacle, and mixed performances makes this a memorable blockbuster for some but a striking lesser successor to Scott's 2000 masterpiece for others. Read the full article

[news-buzz]

Variety Goes Full Trump Derangement Syndrome News Buzz

Film critics bring their biases into the theater. Every time. Political. Cultural. Social. Heck, this critic adores horror movies and avoids period dramas when possible. (That said, “The Favourite” was wonderful.) It’s the critic’s job to acknowledge and set aside those biases. Films deserve nothing less. The same holds for film analysis. And it’s here where Variety’s Owen Gleiberman loses the…

[prithvi5521]

Now Streaming Online; ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ Is Now Streaming Online ?

Although it was just released in theaters in May, the fifth installment in the “Mad Max” movie franchise is ready to stream at home.

“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” in 4K Ultra HD is available to buy for $29.99 or rent for $24.99 online on Prime Video, Apple TV and other video-on-demand platforms.

As for the film itself, Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman praised the film for its “dazzling sequences.” He wrote in his review, “Miller creates a volatile world to wander around in, and I suspect a number of viewers and critics will respond fully to that.”Read More

[steelbluehome]

Variety

‘The Apprentice’ Review: Sebastian Stan Plays Donald Trump in a Docudrama That Nails Everything About Him but His Mystery (click for article)

Ali Abbasi's film is arresting when it shows us Donald Trump being schooled by Roy Cohn. But was that enough to make him the Trump we know?

By Owen Gleiberman

Alot of people would disagree with me, but I think there’s a mystery at the heart of Donald Trump. Many believe there’s no mystery, just a highly visible and documented legacy of bad behavior, selfishness, used-car-salesman effrontery, criminal transgressions, and abuse of power. They would say that Trump lies, slurs, showboats, bullies, toots racist dog whistles so loudly they’re not whistles anymore, and is increasingly open about the authoritarian president he plans to be.

All totally true, but also too easy. What it all leaves out, about the precise kind of man Donald Trump is, is this:

When Trump made “Stop the steal��� the new cornerstone of his ideology, arguing, from the 2020 Election Night onward, that Joe Biden had stolen the election, was it simply the mother of all Trump lies? (In other words, did he know it wasn’t true?) Or was it a lie that Trump told so often, in such an ego-shoring-up way, that he had come to believe it himself? The latter phenomenon would be far stranger than the former. And I would argue that it’s a profound question. I’d also argue that if you try to meditate too long on which scenario is correct, your head will explode.

If all you care about is behavior and its consequences, then maybe the answer is trivial. But if, like me, you think that what motivates people — even famous corrupt leaders — is the key to their reality, then knowing whether Donald Trump believes his own lies is part of our reality.

And that, in its way, is the hook of “The Apprentice.” Written by journalist Gabriel Sherman, and directed by Ali Abbasi (who made a splash two years ago with the Iranian serial-killer drama “Holy Spider”), the movie is a spirited, entertaining, and not overly cheeky docudrama about the years in which Donald Trump came to be Donald Trump. Which is to say: He wasn’t always.

“The Apprentice” is sharp and scathing, but it avoids cheap shots. It’s not a comedy; it’s out to capture what really happened. The film opens in 1973, when Trump (Sebastian Stan) is a 27-year-old playboy who’s vice president of his father’s real-estate company. In the first scene, Donald is seated at Le Club, the members-only restaurant and nightclub on E. 55th St. that he’d recently joined. He’s chatting up a model, but his eyes are fixated on the men in the room, people like Si Newhouse, who have what Trump craves: power.

And that’s when a pair of eyes fixate on him. Seated at a table in the next room is Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), the infamous HUAC lawyer and Red Scare architect who became notorious for being the man who sent the Rosenbergs to the electric chair. Twenty years later, he’s a private lawyer and fixer who’s friends with everyone that counts (mobsters, politicians, media barons). He eyes Donald Trump like a hungry dragon looking at a virgin. Cohn’s head is tilted down, his black eyes are tilted up (so that there’s half an inch of white at the bottom of them). This is the Cohn Stare, and it can accurately be described as a look of homicide. It’s not that he wants to kill you. It’s that he wants to kill something — it will be you, or it will be another party on your behalf.

Cohn summons Trump over to his table, and Jeremy Strong, speaking in a fast, clipped voice that fires insults like bullets, instantly possesses us. With silver-gray hair cut short and those eyes that see all, Strong does a magnetic impersonation of the Roy Cohn who turned bullying into a form of cutthroat vaudeville (and a new way to practice law), putting his scoundrel soul right out there, busting chops and balls with his misanthropic Jewish-outsider locker-room wit. He’s not just cutting, he’s nasty. And that’s to his friends! Trump, by contrast, seems soft — maybe shockingly soft if you’ve never seen a clip of him from the ’70s. He’s like a big shaggy overgrown boy, and though he’s got his real-estate ambition, his power-broker dreams (he drives a Caddy with a license plate that says DJT), he has no idea how ruthless he’s going to have to be to get them.

Cohn the reptile looks at Trump and sees a mark, an ally, maybe a kid with potential. He’s very good-looking (people keep comparing him to Robert Redford), and that matters; he’s also a lump of unmolded clay. As Trump explains, his family is in a pickle that could take them down. The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against the Trump Organization for discriminating against Black people when it comes to who they’ll rent their apartments to. Since the family is, in fact, guilty, there doesn’t seem to be a way out of it. But Cohn, right there, floats a plan for how to do it. He says: countersue the government. It’s part of his strategy of attack, attack, attack (the first of his three rules for living).

Trump goes back to his family’s home in Flushing, and as they’re having dinner, we see how the family works. The father and leader, Fred Trump (perfectly played by an unrecognizable Martin Donovan), dominates the business — and the family — like a Mob boss. He treats his sons with cruelty, especially his namesake, Freddy (Charlie Carrick), who’s like the Fredo of the family; his father openly mocks him for being an airline pilot. Donald is the Michael Corleone: innocent and untested, knuckling under to his father, but with a cool gleam in his eye. Through Roy, he thinks he’s found a way to save the family. More than that, Roy is the father his own father wouldn’t be: the one who teaches him to get power, instead of squashing it out of rivalry.  

That Roy Cohn successfully beat the government on behalf of the Trump Organization, neutering the discrimination suit, is a famous story. If Gabriel Sherman’s script is to be believed, “The Apprentice” tells an even more scandalous version. In the movie, Cohn is going to lose the case and knows it. (The Trump Organization has rent forms by Black applicants marked with the letter “C.”) So at a diner, he and Donald have a casual meeting with the federal official who’s authorizing the case. He won’t budge. But then Cohn pulls out a manila envelope. Inside it are photographs of the official frolicking with cabana boys in Cancun. Cohn, who is gay, turns his own closeted existence into a form of power. A deal is struck. And Trump is off and running, his empire built on a poison pill.

New York, at this point, is in its shabby edge-of-bankruptcy ’70s dystopian era, and Donald is determined to change that. His dream is to buy the boarded-up Commodore Hotel on 42nd St., right next to Grand Central Terminal, and turn it into a glittering luxury Grand Hyatt hotel. The area is so decrepit that most people think he’s nuts. But this is where we can see something about Trump: that he wasn’t just a charlatan with a big mouth — that he had a perception of things. He was right about New York: that it would come back, and that deals like his could be part of what brought it back. But the art of the deal, in this case, comes from Roy Cohn. He’s the one who greases the wheels to make it happen. And Donald is now his protégé.

Ali Abbasi stages the “The Apprentice” with a lot of jagged handheld shots that look a bit too much like television to my eyes, but they do the job; they convince us of the reality we’re seeing. So does the décor — as Trump starts to develop a taste for more lavish surroundings, the movie recreates every inch of baroque merde-gold vulgarity. And Sebastian Stan’s performance is a wonder. He gets Trump’s lumbering geek body language, the imposing gait with his hands held stiffly at his sides, and just as much he gets the facial language. He starts out with an open, boyish look, under the mop of hair we can see Donald is obsessed with, but as the movie goes on that look, by infinitesimal degrees, turns more and more calculated.

Donald is now the life of the party, rubbing shoulders with people like Rupert Murdoch, George Steinbrenner, and Andy Warhol, who he meets without even knowing who he is (though the film suggests they have a lot in common). At Le Club, he meets Ivana Zelníčková (Maria Bakalova), a Czechoslovakian party girl who’s every bit as tough as he’s becoming. He woos her through a combination of charm and stalkerish relentlessness. We see Trump absorb Cohn’s three lessons, the other two being: admit nothing, deny everything; and no matter how beaten you are, never admit defeat. But Cohn’s real lesson is one of attitude — that killer stance. We see it bleed, bit by bit, into Trump.

For its first half, “The Apprentice” is kind of a knockout: the inside look at how Trump evolved that so many of us have imagined for so long, and seeing it play out is both convincing and riveting. Yet I have an issue with the movie, and it all pivots around the mystery of Trump. I don’t think “The Apprentice” ever penetrates it.

There’s a moment when Trump is getting too big for his britches, ignoring another lesson that’s there in the Cohn worldview, which is that you have to maneuver in the real world. Cohn questions Trump’s obsession with building a casino in Atlantic City, a place Cohn says has “peaked.” He’s right. Trump winds up making bad investments, flying too close to the sun, and ultimately shutting Roy out ­— treating Roy the

way that Roy treats everyone else. It’s an evolution of supreme hubris, especially when you think back to the slightly sheepish kid from Flushing who lined up to kiss Cohn’s ring.

The trouble is, we don’t fully see where that side of Trump comes from. In a relatively quick period, starting from around the time of the Atlantic City deal, and building through the moment when he pisses off the Mobster and Cohn crony Tony Salerno (Joe Pingue), which results in the half-built Trump Tower being set on fire by Salerno’s goons, Donald turns into the Trump we know today: the toxically arrogant man-machine of malignant narcissism, who treats everyone around him like crap. His marriage to Ivana devolves into a loveless debacle. He turns on his downward-spiraling alcoholic brother like a stranger. He becomes so heartless that he makes Roy Cohn look civil. He turns on Cohn, in part because Cohn has AIDS, which freaks Donald out.

We know Donald Trump did all these things. But what we don’t see, watching “The Apprentice,” is where the Sociopath 3.0 side of Trump comes from. His daddy issues, as the film presents them, won’t explain it (not really). The fact that he gets hooked on amphetamines, popping diet pills around the clock, is part of it. Yet the Trump we see goes through a looking glass of treachery, leveraging his empire — and what’s left of his emotions — to within an inch of his life. And once that happens, we’re simply watching a well-acted TV-movie made up of familiar anecdotes built around the Trump we already know. At that point, “The Apprentice,” good as much of it is, becomes far less interesting. The mystery the movie never solves is what Trump was thinking, deep down, when he chose to become Donald Trump.  

[dankusner]

Woody Allen Reëmerges with a Movie About Getting Away with Murder

Actors Valérie Lemercier and Melvil Poupaud in “Coup de Chance.”

The director’s films have often specialized in denunciation and retribution, and the comedic thriller “Coup de Chance,” set in Paris, fits this pattern all too plainly.

Woody Allen’s French-Language Thriller ‘Coup de Chance’ Gets U.S. Release From MPI

Controversial director Woody Allen’s 50th film “Coup de Chance” is coming to U.S. theaters. MPI Media Group will release the movie on April 5 for North American markets, with a digital/VOD release on April 12.

The film, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September, drew both protests and an enthusiastic two-and-a-half minute standing ovation.

U.S. theatrical distributors have generally avoided Allen since the #MeToo movement resurfaced Dylan Farrow’s allegations of child molestation against him, and actors like Rebecca Hall, Timothée Chalamet and Greta Gerwig have expressed regret over working with him.

“Coup de Chance,” which translates to “stroke of luck,” stars Valerie Lemercier, Niels Schneider, Lou de Laage, Elsa Zylberstein and Melvil Poupaud in a tale of murder and intrigue that follows a beautiful couple living in Paris whose lives change when a former flame re-enters their orbit.

Variety’s chief film critic Owen Gleiberman hailed the film as Allen’s best since 2013’s “Blue Jasmine,” writing in his review, “If you’re looking for an inviolable law of cinema, one that you can more or less can take to the bank, the Venice Film Festival just confirmed an ironically delightful one. It is this: Murder agrees with Woody Allen.”

In an exclusive interview with Variety ahead of the film’s premiere, Allen revealed that “Coup de Chance” may be his last feature.

“I have so many ideas for films that I would be tempted to do it, if it was easy to finance,” he said. “But beyond that, I don’t know if I have the same verve to go out and spend a lot of time raising money.”

To a point, infidelity is the only “crime” committed in Coup de Chance, which may be opening locally this Fri/5 (Bay Area venues were unconfirmed as of this writing), and will be released to VOD/Digital platforms a week later.

This is reportedly Woody Allen’s 50th directorial effort, and his first in French—not just set in France (like Midnight in Paris), but with exclusively French characters and dialogue.

However you feel about him in the wake of various scandals, rumors, and accusations from 30-odd years ago, this latest is easily his best in a decade or more.

It would be a good one to go out on—after all, he’s 88, and most of his recent work has been, well, tired.

Not that the new film (whose title translates as Stroke of Luck) is any masterpiece.

Coming from another talent, it would seem solid enough if unremarkable.

For Allen, though, it’s a near-peak in the realm of relatively serious melodramatic intrigue that he’s already approached several times, sometimes well (Crimes and Misdemeanors, Match Point), sometimes badly (Cassandra’s Dream, Wonder Wheel).

It shares with the latter misfires some stilted dialogue that might’ve come out of a 1930s stage play—but even that stuff sounds better spoken in French with English subtitles, by actors very good at striking a naturalistic tone.

Fanny (Lou de Laage) has rebounded from a disastrous first marriage to a very secure, comfortable second one with wealthy financier Jean (Melvil Poupaud).

She’s quite aware of being viewed as a pretty younger “trophy wife,” though there is no doubt he truly loves her.

Yet some gap in Fanny’s life begins to ache when, walking to her job at a Parisian auction house one day, she’s accosted by Alain (Niels Schneider)—an old schoolmate who was too shy to admit his crush on her then, but as a successful writer has few such qualms now.

As they begin meeting regularly for lunch, she finds him attractive, charming, fun, persuasive, and sincere.

Fanny resists temptation… until she doesn’t.

But her guilty secret does not escape the awareness of possessive Jean, who’s hyper-sensitive to his adored wife’s moods.

And Jean is not a man who can take such things lightly.

More, he is—like Jay Gatsby, name-checked in the script—a man whose fortune is reputed to have roots in underworld connections, with one business partner having died an all-too-convenient “mysterious death.”

He does, in fact, “know people”—the kinds of people you would not want on your tail.

As before, Allen evinces no real instinct for suspense, or ingenious plot twists; it’s a measure of Coup’s overall strength that one particularly improbable turn at the end doesn’t sink it.

But his primary emphasis is psychological, on the workings of desire and guilt, morality and amorality among figures both bound to and conflicted with one another. (Eventually they include Valerie Lemercier as Fanny’s mother, who assumes an amateur detective role in the later going.)

While this isn’t a particularly profound film, it has an engrossing surety of plot and pacing this writer-director hasn’t managed for a while.

Though there are no bravura performances as in some Allen joints, the Gallic cast is expert, their breeziness downplaying occasional elements of creaky contrivance.

Vittorio Storaro’s cinematography is luminous as ever, albeit not so picture-postcard as to detract from what’s at heart a deadly noir potboiler.

And the soundtrack is happily full of vintage jazz tracks from Nat Adderley, Modern Jazz Quartet, and others.

“Coup de Chance,”

Reviewed:

Woody Allen Reëmerges with a Movie About Getting Away with Murder

The most recent movie directed by Woody Allen, “Coup de Chance,” which opens in theatres this Friday, April 5th, is the most prominent theatrical release that any of Allen’s films have had since “Wonder Wheel,” six and a half years ago.

But it’s not for lack of trying.

In the meantime, Allen has been busy.

In August, 2017, he signed a four-picture deal with Amazon.

He started shooting “A Rainy Day in New York” a month later, with a cast that included such prominent actors as Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Selena Gomez, Rebecca Hall, and Liev Schreiber.

But, that October, allegations of sexual abuse and harassment emerged against Harvey Weinstein—many of which were reported by Allen’s son Ronan Farrow, in The New Yorker—and against other powerful Hollywood men, energizing the #MeToo movement.

That December, days after the release of “Wonder Wheel,” Allen’s daughter Dylan Farrow, who had accused Allen of molesting her when she was a child, published a piece in the Los Angeles Times in which she went into detail regarding those accusations and asked why, at a time when other movie men accused of sexual misdeeds were being removed from positions of power, Allen appeared to continue his career with impunity.

(Allen has always denied the allegations.)

After Dylan’s L.A. Times piece appeared, Amazon sought to terminate its deal with Allen.

A small distributor, MPI Media Group, which specializes in horror films and stock footage and hadn’t had a significant theatrical release in more than a decade, acquired “A Rainy Day in New York” and released it in just a handful of theaters in the U.S. before bringing it to streaming services (including Amazon).

Several of the film’s actors, notably Chalamet, Gomez, and Hall, expressed regret for having worked with Allen (as did others, including Greta Gerwig, Elliot Page, and Colin Firth).

Allen’s next movie, “Rifkin’s Festival,” starring Wallace Shawn, was filmed in Spain, in 2019 and was again released by MPI, mainly via streaming.

That company is also distributing “Coup de Chance”—its title means “stroke of luck”—but, this time around, it’s arranging a more vigorous theatrical release.

Made in France with well-known French actors, “Coup de Chance” is a comedic thriller on a prominent theme throughout Allen’s œuvre: getting away with murder.

On a Paris street, a young French woman named Fanny (Lou de Laâge) bumps into Alain (Niels Schneider), a friend from high school.

They rekindle their friendship and then start an affair; Fanny’s husband, Jean (Melvil Poupaud), suspects her of infidelity, hires a private eye, learns the details, and hires hit men to get rid of Alain in such a way that his body is never found.

Fanny, heartbroken, thinks that her lover has simply abandoned her without warning, but her mother, Camille (Valérie Lemercier), suspecting foul play, conducts her own investigation, and plans to inform the police.

When Jean gets wind of his mother-in-law’s intentions, he arranges to have her killed, too.

Allen’s movies have often displayed an obsession with the nature of evil, a fascination with those who are able to do evil and go on living normally—whose powers of compartmentalization, rationalization, or simple self-righteousness are stronger than their scruples. “Coup de Chance” is only one of the more brazen films in this vein.

In “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” from 1989, a philandering husband conspires in the murder of his mistress; that he gets off scot-free is cited (by a character played by Allen) as evidence of the injustice and unfairness of the universe.

Allen addressed the theme again in “Match Point,” from 2005, a movie in which he doesn’t appear, and this time—from the other side of the divide in his life, post-accusations—he approaches the subject with a triumphalist sense of grace.

It’s the story of a down-and-out antihero who gets away with murder and thereby ends up a rich and successful socialite—a man on the make, eluding his fate by way of a concatenation of accidents that line up like a perverse theodicy.

In that film, Allen no longer frets about the dark injustice of the world; he sees it as, in effect, God’s will to enable a man with big dreams and desires to realize them unimpeded by the petty mechanisms of human justice.

The quandary that Allen’s own troubled situation poses for his work—for his moralistic art—is dramatized in the 2002 comedy “Hollywood Ending,” in which Allen plays a director whose career is threatened when, the night before shooting a film that’s supposed to be his much-needed comeback, he’s suddenly struck blind (psychosomatically, as it turns out).

What he does is pretend to direct while blind—an impairment that’s both the spark for some of Allen’s greatest physical comedy and a keen tragicomic metaphor for the desire not to see, not to bear witness, and for the artistic pretense that results.

That febrile, antic movie mines another of Allen’s longtime motifs: the plot point of hiding evidence.

In “Scoop,” from 2006, one of his liveliest latter-day comedies, only the supernatural intervention of a dead investigative journalist brings crucial evidence to light.

There, a man has murdered a woman who, he says, was blackmailing him; when Allen’s character, a magician, joins the investigation, he, too, gets killed.

In short, the movie’s subject is the danger of opening one’s mouth and not keeping omertà.

The big reveal of “Blue Jasmine,” from 2013, is that a middle-aged woman—whose husband was about to leave her for a nineteen-year-old—denounced him to the F.B.I. for financial chicanery.

In “Irrational Man,” from 2015, the protagonist murders a judge who ruled, he thinks, unjustly in a family-court case, and nearly gets away with it—not hesitating to bump off someone he suspects of planning to turn him in.

One of Allen’s strongest films, the ink-black tragedy “Cassandra’s Dream,” from 2008, centers on a rich businessman’s attempt to kill a business partner who is preparing to testify against him.

In “Wonder Wheel,” from 2017, a woman who informs against her mobster husband spends the rest of her life in fear and on the run.

The crux of “Coup de Chance” is what Camille plans to do with the information that she gleans.

But what tips her off in the first place to the possibility of Jean’s foul play isn’t physical evidence but a bit of gossip.

Jean, a decade or two older than Fanny, is rich, powerful, and well connected—he’s a financier of a murky sort who tells Fanny only, “I help the rich get richer.”

But his mysteries go deeper.

Years ago, Jean’s business partner vanished without a trace; Jean profited greatly as a result.

At the time, Jean came under suspicion but he was never officially implicated; now he dismisses those accusations as “a few weeks of gossip,” and calls his accusers “paranoid.”

Yet in his social circles there are whispers that Jean indeed had a hand in the disappearance.

One woman says, “Thank God for gossip. Without it we’d be stuck with real facts.”

But, belatedly getting wind of the rumors, Camille notes their foreshadowing of Alain’s disappearance, and her D.I.Y. snooping generates both suspense and comedy.

The film’s skitlike-ness is emphasized in its form, with its many single-take scenes and long takes, which in effect treat the settings like stages and the actors like theatre actors.

Allen clearly loves Paris—at least the cosseted parts, and he seems unable to see any other kind.

Even Alain’s relative bohemia of a furnished sublet is absurdly comfortable; if Jean’s circle of bankers and politicians reeks of money, Alain’s artistic one is perfumed by it.

The characters are stereotypes living their lives stereotypically; there’s no verve to the filmmaking.

Moreover, Allen doesn’t speak French, and it shows in the actors’ performances, which, for the most part, come off as undirected—skilled, of course, but flailing in a void.

Yet the movie, aesthetically as lumpy as a latke, nonetheless has a weird and lurid vigor that comes from an altogether different source: Allen’s pleasure in his own imagination—his delight in inventing the plot.

Though the movie’s actual protagonist is Fanny, it’s Jean who gets the bulk of Allen’s attention—and Camille who gets its finest role.

To put perhaps too fine a point on it, the mother-in-law in “Coup de Chance” is a stand-in for Mia Farrow, Allen’s current mother-in-law and his former partner, whose accusations, more than thirty years ago, had led to investigations of Allen.

Yet, as indicated in the title of the revelatory four-part documentary “Allen v. Farrow,” from 2021—which refers to the custody suit that Allen brought against Mia Farrow after Dylan’s accusations were disclosed—the focal point of Allen’s defense, and of his public hostility, has always been his ex-partner.

The vigor of Allen’s characterization of Camille, and of Lemercier’s performance, comes from the fact that “Coup de Chance” is essentially another of Allen’s Mia Farrow movies.

The character has the impulsive energy displayed by Farrow in “Broadway Danny Rose,” “Hannah and Her Sisters,” and the erstwhile couple’s other films together.

Allen’s films have always been sketchlike, but when he was younger they nonetheless seemed ampler.

They were filled with first-person and nearly present-tense experience and a nuanced view of his own milieu, which was both at the center of the New York cultural-social set and a myth being made in real time.

He was the nebbish hero, a man about town who floated above it, in tune with his carefully curated setting, and yet, with his noli-me-tangere chill, he also seemed somehow unreal.

Much of the tension in his better films comes from a certain air of theatricality; it’s also why his more sombre-toned movies were rarely satisfying—he couldn’t keep his face quite straight enough.

But his films’ sketchlike quality allows his voice to come through, directly, on the soundtrack, in action, even in direct address to the camera.

The fiction was a flimsy dramatic framework for his voice, which, in his recent movies, has become strained, vain, confined as if to an official self-promotional, self-justifying role.

“A Rainy Day in New York” is Allen at his most perfunctory—yet also at his most enraged.

Chalamet plays a trust-fund Bartleby, a chirpily discontented college student with the unlikely name of Gatsby Welles, whose girlfriend (Fanning) is sent by the school paper to interview a big-time middle-aged director (Schreiber).

In short order, the director hits on her, a screenwriter (Jude Law) hits on her, and a heartthrob star (Diego Luna) hits on her.

Allen’s dramatic assertions about the lusts of movie men for a nubile young woman are matched by his contemptuous depiction of her as a ditz out of her depth, especially as compared to the soulful rebel Gatsby, who throws her over for a younger girl (Gomez).

(Along the way, Allen also jabs at journalists as unprincipled gossipmongers.)

Above all, “A Rainy Day in New York” is a story about every middle-aged Hollywood man who pursues a twenty-one-year-old woman, which is to say, it’s Allen’s own version, or inversion, or perversion, of the phrase “me too” as a form of whataboutism: yes, he has had relationships with much younger women (including Soon-Yi Previn, whom he married), and, yes, his films are rife with May-December relationships, as in “Manhattan” and “Husbands and Wives,” but whoever would criticize him should also cast stones at the whole movie business.

And the world did, in effect, with the #MeToo movement.

“Rifkin’s Festival,” shot in 2019, is the story of an old man—a former film professor, played by Wallace Shawn, who sought the will-o’-the-wisp of art and culture and ended up a dried-out and lonely husk.

The drama is sodden and mechanical, but what gives the movie a glimmer of life is Rifkin’s fantasy world: he imagines himself into comical parodies of scenes from classic movies that he loves, including “Jules and Jim,” “Breathless,” “Persona,” “The Exterminating Angel,” and “Citizen Kane.”

In the light of Rifkin’s diffident anguish, the heartfelt whimsy of these scenes plays like Allen’s own nostalgic reminiscence of his early, funny stuff—and of the way that his life used to be.

In “Coup de Chance,” Allen borrows from another classic, John Ford’s Western “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” the story of a miscreant who has long evaded the law but eventually gets his extrajudicial, extramoral comeuppance.

The ending of “Coup de Chance” offers a tragicomic surprise that echoes the key plot point—the shootout—of Ford’s film.

Allen has suggested that “Coup de Chance,” his fiftieth feature, may be his last; if so, he goes out with a self-excoriating bang.

[denimbex1986]

'Cillian Murphy shouted out his “Oppenhomies” while accepting his leading actor BAFTA award.

After thanking the film’s director Christopher Nolan, producer Emma Thomas and Universal Pictures chief Donna Langley, Murphy said: “I want to thank my fellow nominees and my Oppenhomies and, in fact, all of you in the room. I know it’s a cliché to say I’m in awe of you, but I genuinely am in awe.”

Murphy played J. Robert Oppenheimer in Nolan’s biographical drama, which took home seven awards throughout the night, including best director for Nolan and best film. The film, which scored 13 nominations in total, chronicles the life and career of Oppenheimer as he develops the atomic bomb during World War II.

“Thank you for seeing something in me that I probably didn’t see myself,” Nolan told the director while accepting his award. “Chris, thank you for that extraordinary, exhilarating script and for always pushing me and for always demanding excellence.”

“Oppenheimer was this colossally naughty, complex character and he meant different things to different people,” Murphy continued. “One man’s monster is another man’s hero. That’s why I love movies, because we have a space to celebrate and interrogate and investigate that complexity. And it’s a privilege to be part of this community with you all.”

He was up against Bradley Cooper in “Maestro,” Colman Domingo in “The Rustin,” Paul Giamatti in “The Holdovers,” Barry Keoghan in “Saltburn” and Teo Yoo in “Past Lives” in the leading actor category.

Murphy was a 2007 nominee for the BAFTA Rising Star award. In 2023, he scored a leading actor nomination at the BAFTA TV Awards for “Peaky Blinders.” “Oppenheimer” is his first nomination at the BAFTA Film Awards. The Irish actor is also nominated for leading actor at the Oscars for his role in “Oppenheimer.”

“Cillian Murphy, with a thousand-yard beam, the half-smile of an intellectual rake, and a way of keeping everything close to the vest, gives a phenomenal performance as Oppenheimer, making him fascinating and multi-layered,” wrote Owen Gleiberman about Murphy’s performance in his review of the film for Variety. “His ‘Oppie’ is an elegant mandarin who’s also a bit snakelike — at once a cold prodigy and an ardent humanist, an aristocrat and a womanizer, a Jewish outsider who becomes a consummate insider, and a man who oversees the invention of nuclear weapons without a shred of doubt or compunction, only to confront the world he created from behind a defensive shield of guilt that’s a lot less self-aware.”

Despite the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon of last summer, after both “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” landed the same July release date, Greta Gerwig’s movie failed to take home a single award at the BAFTAs. Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro” was similarly shut out.'

[cinema-tv-etc]

The Truman Show 1998

He's the star of the show - but he doesn't know it! Jim Carey plays unwitting Truman Burbank, an ordinary man in a not-so-ordinary life. From the time he was born to the present, Truman's entire life has been broadcast live on national TV. Truman doesn't realize that his quaint hometown is actually a giant studio set - big enough to be seen from space - and that the folks living and working there are Hollywood actors. Even Truman's incessantly bubbly wife is a contract player. Gradually, Truman gets wise. And what he does about his discovery will have you laughing, crying and cheering as he finds his way to the truth.

Awards

1998: 3 Nominations for Oscar: Best Director (Peter Weir), Supporting Actor, Screenplay

1998: 3 Golden Globes: Actor Drama (Carrey), Supporting Actor and OST. 6 Nominations

1998: 3 BAFTA Awards: Best Director, Production Design and Original Screenplay. 7 Nom.

1998: National Board of Review: Supporting Actor (Ed Harris)

1998: Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Nominated for Best Production Design

1998: Critics' Choice Awards: Nominated for Best Film

Critics' reviews

"The underlying ideas made the movie more than just entertainment (…) It brings into focus the new values that technology is forcing on humanity (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)" Roger Ebert: rogerebert.com

"It's a satire/comedy/fantasy about the future of television and the people caught in its omnipresent electronic net (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)" Michael Wilmington: Chicago Tribune

"This is a film that can stay with one for a very long time, and even slightly change the way one looks at life and the world." Tom Keogh: Seattle Times

"Pretends to be daring while parroting what much of the TV industry already thinks about itself and its audience. But it's still pretty much fun to watch." Jonathan Rosenbaum: Chicago Reader

"A beautifully sinister and transfixing entertainment (…) Carrey turns Truman into a postmodern Capra hero." Owen Gleiberman: Entertainment Weekly

"One of the smartest, most inventive movies in memory, it manages to be as endearing as it is provocative." Rita Kempley: The Washington Post

"Jim Carrey's instantly iconic performance as the sweet, unsuspecting Truman will give his career deserved new impetus, but the real star of 'The Truman Show' is its premise." Janet Maslin: The New York Times

[shadowwingtronix]

BW Vs Variety> The Fall Of The Comic Book Movie Is Preventable

BW Media Spotlight Vs Variety> The Fall Of The Comic Book Movie Is Preventable

Here we go again. There are times I almost feel repetitive, bringing the same horse back for another post-mortem beating, but the problem is there’s always some new voice between me and the glue factory. Speaking of beatings, check out that metaphor! Our latest voice in the “superhero fatigue” movement is Variety contributor Owen Gleiberman and his article, “Why The Fall Of Comic Book Movie…