caracas1914
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NFL Thread
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31 minutes ago, Carey said:...While Jon Gruden couldn't undo what he did, and while no one's going to confess to that stuff, maybe don't post that stuff in the first place? ....
When sociologists look back at this time in history, they will say that so many clueless idiots couldn't grasp that what you do on digital media doesn't go away. The sense of entitlement that in 2010 Gruden could say such blatantly racist things "among friends" just reinforces that more things change, the more they stay the same.
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NFL Thread
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22 hours ago, Danny Franks said:I think the main difference, at least in the way these two things are being covered, is that Gruden is a long-time insider of both the NFL and the media that covers the NFL, while Meyer is a college coach without the same levels of inbuilt ass-covering.
On the other hand, top college coaches rule in their fiefdoms, get paid more then the college presidents, and many times they are untouchable and unaccountable for a lot of their actions.
What Meyer did would not be that much of a blip in college because he wouldn’t even feel accountable to his players. Palming everything off to his assistant coaches initially to try to clean things up sounds just about right , the difference is Meyer dealing with grown ass adult professional athletes and a national media that doesn’t fawn over his every move.
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NFL Thread
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The season is young, hoping for more Urban Meyers meltdowns & mini scandals. However simply going 0-17 would suffice for me.
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NFL Thread
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Isnt Tom slated to play until he’s 50? At this rate he’ll outlast Aaron Rodgers, Big Ben, Matt Ryan, and the next generation of NFL Quarterbacks… -
On 7/31/2021 at 10:02 PM, methodwriter85 said:
Pretty interesting. I do think ultimately nepotism can't give someone a long-term, sustained career if they're simply not that good, or they're unwilling/don't have the desire to put in the effort to stay in the game...I mean, it gets you in the door, but once you're there, you still have to hustle to maintain being there….
But there’s the rub. It’s not a matter of talent, it’s a matter of opportunity.
Understandably the Nepotism babies are going to push back against the perception that they don’t (a) work hard or (b) have talent.
Everyone wants to believe they would have succeeded regardless of their connections because of their hard work and talent. The proverbial “cream rises to the top”; that is what is apparent in the initial comments for their entitled positions of Stiller and Destry. Is that actually true? Not their fault, but that “foot in the door” looms harder in the scheme of things than many honestly care to admit, especially those of the Stiller/Spielberg ilk.
The reality is that there are countless talented and very hardworking POC in the industry who won’t ever get the chance because they are not well connected. That is where the frustration kicks in.
Meritocracy my ass, when not all get to even get a position on the starting line while with others it’s reserved ahead of time.
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The EPIC series: I would consider it more a reimagining because the HG Welles vision doesn't quite come through here However some of the elements such as the mechanical doglike killing machines have a chilling effect and the survival mode of the remaining humans has an appeal. There are enough hints that the aliens are also trying to somehow survive as opposed to conquest, which is why it's not exactly HG Welles. So for me there is enough in it to intrigue and it does have some good actors,
SpoilerThough I'm bummed Elizabeth McGovern gets killed off at the end of Season 1.
Plus as a Francophile I love how it's "bilingual" (though I hearya on the subtitles fleeting by).
Warning: it is dark and depressing and I can't recall any other recent series where children are killed on & off screen almost casually.
My biggest issue are the characters with the most questions about, the alien-like Emily and Sascha, for different reasons they are just infuriating characters. I get that for drama they don't have to be necessarily "good", but interesting, whereas for me both characters to varying degrees just come across as nonappealing.
Watching the 2nd season now, and goodness know I don't want slang bang action all the time but the this series is slow, it takes it's time.
The problem is IMO they are taking way too long to get to why the Aliens are all in for planetary genocide of our species. It seems to be in self defense over something we have done first to them, (in the future?) but still it's hard to have to wait forever because now that we've seen them and they are not just some abstract evil, coloring in their side would make things much more fascinating.
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On 5/28/2021 at 3:09 PM, raven said:
Everyone except Emmett does something dumb. I kinda felt bad for Emmett, who had 3 people + baby land literally on his doorstep and then he's guilted into going after one of them. Cillian Murphy's scenes with Millicent Simmonds were good though - honestly this felt like her movie and she made the most of it. Even doing dumb teen stuff, I was rooting for her. The expression on her face when Emmett told her she was like her dad spoke volumes.
Millicent Simmons (Regan) is amazing. Krazinski said he wanted a deaf actress and he got a real find in an actress in her.
Part of the appeal of the first film was how this family was uniquely suited to survive due to their daughter's deafness, ie they could communicate silently. I realized that they needed to open up this sequel with more characters, but somehow something was lost in the transition. Both the scavenging barbaric boat people and the seemingly idyllic utopian society on the island were a bit much for me,
Can't see how the 3rd film will work without answering some questions as to the WHY of things. Apparently these creatures from space all crashed onto different parts of the world simultaneously, (Maybe smaller island masses were spared?) and other than killing humans that make sounds, how would they survive if they killed everything?
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On 6/1/2021 at 10:20 PM, Hiyo said:
I just find most of his movies to be just too twee and a half.
West Anderson: while I personally love most of his films. I admit, I think he's an acquired taste. So with friends who can't deal with the overdose of twee I have no response, IOW, I can't look down at them for not liking Anderson, because I think the criticisms are legit. His films are too precious and quirky for their own good.
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On 7/12/2021 at 12:25 PM, Dani said:
It’s not about telling Filipino American stories but allowing Filipino American characters to exist. Right now Hollywood mostly has the mindset that it is either white characters or ethnic characters. The reality is that most of the white characters could be opened up to more ethnicities because being white has zero impact on the plot.
These actors get pigeonholed into to certain roles based on their name or how they look in a way white actors don’t. In a non-racist industry that would have to change automatically opening a lot more doors for actors like Lou Diamond Phillips. Fortunately we are seeing some improvements in this area but white is still the default in casting.As the article points out, Lou Diamond Philips, who grew up on naval bases with multiracial classmates, didn't define himself solely from his background ethnicity, as Philips considered himself American. While he had always embraced his Filipino roots once he got to Hollywood the others couldn't see past his "ethnic" look and HW was constantly trying to have him explain or define himself in narrower terms. OF course if he could have "passed" for white he wouldn't have had any of these issues.
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Lou Diamond Philips response to criticism as a Filipino American actor cast as the Mexican American singer Richie Valens in “La Bamba”.
QuoteAs for white actors playing characters of color, Phillips has a different take, which highlights for him why it’s different for white and non-white performers.
“I happen to agree that casting Caucasian people in what are supposed to be ethnic roles is not kosher, mostly because there is an authenticity issue,” he said. “But also because it’s a matter of opportunity. You cannot compare the level of opportunity that we get, you know?”
Interesting that along with playing a Native American on “Longmire”, he’s only portrayed explicit Filipino characters twice in a nearly 40 year career. So it makes his quote make even more sense in that context.
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3 hours ago, VCRTracking said:
The irony of Bonfire of the Vanities is all three leads would have been actually been perfect casting five years earlier. The audience would have bought it if it was Bosom Buddies/Bachelor Party era Tom Hanks, Something Wild era Melanie Griffith and Moonlighting era Bruce Willis. They could still be convincingly sleazy onscreen in 1985. However post-Big Hanks, post-Working Girl Griffith and post-Die Hard Willis they were the new nice guy, sweetheart, and hero.
I loved the book when it first came out and I was so disappointed when it was announced Tom Hanks was cast as Sherman McCoy. To me the character was a clueless white entitled preppy type , so someone like William Hurt would be a better fit.
As mentioned, the novel satirizes everyone and the British journalist and the smarmy British expats in NY that encompassed was lost with Bruce Willis, who isn’t exactly a nuanced actor. Has anyone else ever made such a long career from the ability to smirk on cue?
Melanie Griffith was simply a hot mess as Maria, the character seems easy enough to play but the caginess of the character eluded Griffith. I would have loved Kim Basinger to have given it a shot.
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On 6/20/2021 at 12:39 PM, Rinaldo said:
On Friday TCM is showing The Thief Who Came To Dinner from 1973. As far as I can tell, this isn't linked to any of their Pride Month themes, nor indeed does it have any definite LGBTQ+ content. But if anyone here happens to watch it, I would love to hear if anyone else shares my impression that this is one of the gayest movies Hollywood ever created. That's how it seemed to me at least, when it was new and I was newly out of the closet. I had never, and still haven't, seen another commercial movie that so blatantly paraded its leading man as an object of desire to all sexes. (Maybe Zac Efron has been used this way? I don't keep up with his movies.)
Even with the glamorous Jacqueline Bisset at his side, Ryan O'Neal is the one whom the camera feasts on, as he figuratively seduces the men in the cast. He defeats Austin Pendleton at chess, winning his admiration. He has a very weird and enigmatic wink-wink exchange with a teenage boy at a party. And he positively preens in front of Warren Oates, the investigator who wants to expose him as a jewel thief: he first welcomes Oates warmly into his house while half-dressed, twinkling at him, seeming to promise him a special friendship; then he greets him in a later scene while bathing, showing him (but not us) his body while asking for a towel. Ultimately Oates is dazzled enough (smitten enough?) to let O'Neal go.
But I never see it discussed in this respect. That's why I'd appreciate someone else's reaction.
I can see where the film presents him as the physical focal point.
The problem with that is that it's hard to get homoerotic vibes or any vibes from the cypher that is Ryan O'Neal. Even when offered good material or costars (The Paper Moon, What's up Doc, etc) he's at best competent, and there's almost a glaring lack of chemistry with whoever he's matched against, male or female.
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15 hours ago, Sarah 103 said:
To answer your question about Clara: It was the 1950s and almost no one outside of the entertainment industry or major cities had gaydar. She spent most of her life in this small little town, she was pretty sheltered, and she didn't spend much time in cities beyond day trips to go shopping in Memphis. She probably had no idea he was gay.
I hear ya, it's just that for me the film wants to present Clara as an intelligent, well read and educated woman who is not your stereotypical naïve waif. Clara is stuck in her small town as the daughter of an overbearing tycoon and doesn't quite know how to break free; she's aware her father wants to simply marry her off and resists that notion.
The film also has her being the aggressor with Richard Anderson, kissing him spontaneously, with hesitancy on his part. I get Clara may not be worldly wise but the film hammers home they have been courting for FIVE years. Certainly that isn't typical even in the perceived genteel South of the 50's , early 60's.
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On 6/4/2021 at 10:10 AM, Rinaldo said:
It's easy to hazily think that it was, isn't it? It has that feel. Indeed Wikipedia states that some elements were "inspired" by Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, on what authority I have no idea. But the official source is some Faulkner stories, mashed up.
This film: Talk about pulling elements from both "Cat on a hot Tin Roof " and " A Streetcar named desire". It's virtually a Tennessee Williams mishmash.
Hadn't seen this film in years and yes, Orson Welle's Will Warner is Big Daddy, laughably so. All they needed was for him to mention mendacity The film is almost a parody of bombastic deep voiced Orson Welles roles and it's like he's on the verge of having a stroke in every scene. Was that darkening makeup on him?
Richard Anderson as the suitor who "woos" Joanne Woodward is the prototypical 50's gay man stereotype, dominated by his mother, mouthing vague platitudes of appreciation for Woodward, and ending up being yelled at as "Sissy boy" by Welles. We are supposed to believe after 5 years Joanne Woodward portraying an intelligent woman, had absolutely no clue?
Anthony Franciosa as Jody Varner is a hoot, the emasculated son completely cowed and implied into sexual impotence. Don't get me started on 33 year old Angela Lansbury portraying Welle's weathered and worldwise long time lover, (Was Lansbury full grown at birth?)
The revelation is Lee Remick as Eulah, I daresay she out Maggie's Taylor's role in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as the sensuous southern Belle married to a "weak" man. Plus you add the boys in town howling her name at night and voila , the film evokes Blanche Dubois sexual appetites. However there is Joanne Woodward as the sort of sexually repressed school teacher who the film pointedly has state is not going to rely on strangers for fulfillment so she's the anti Blanche Blanche, and so forth and so on.
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Perhaps they are a perfectly nice couple, but...
It's obvious there is a try hard effort to make their couples chemistry the highlight of the show, but unfortunately the banter/interaction is just so banal and basic. Every time it focuses on them as a couple the show grinds to a halt.
As others have pointed out, the elephant in the room doesn't go away, in that Sid doesn't actually contribute anything substantial to the projects themselves. So there they go again with more banter. Commentary on how Sid loves to eat. Sid wishes he was back in California, etc, etc.
The makeovers themselves are fine, though as others have pointed out , a bit pricey for single room renos. Shea's aesthetic is nice, but again, fairly generic which isn't necessary a bad thing; one can see why she grew her brand successfully, but it doesn't make for scintillating TV or make it standout from every other makeover show out there.
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Tenet on HBO was enjoyable, an above average popcorn flick, but some of it just didn't make any sense to me. I don't mean the slingshot time travel, but the fact that the villain literally wanted to kill everyone including his son if his life was ending.
When you have such a no holds barred over the top megalomaniacal villain, and Kenneth at his best chewing scenery mode, I at least expect 007 to come out and save the day.
As others mentioned, Nolan is interested more in his mind-game/conundrum byzantine plots than any people in his movies. The "concept" IS the film for him, and while it might come across as sterile and cold, hey at least it's not mindless action like so many films today.
John David Washington I found a little wooden, in a Keanau Reeves Matrix kind of way, and calling him pretentiously "The Protagonist" didn't help matters. Plus unfair to Elizabeth Debicki but her role was sooo similar to what she played in "The Hotel Manager" on that tv miniseries that it was distracting to me. Strangely enough, I thought Robert Pattinson was the best salvaged/character out of this, because he somehow managed real screen presence and squeezed out some charisma.
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Just watched "The Mortal Storm" on HBO Max and I do have to say one of the more underrated screen teams is Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. This was the last of their 4 films together (including "The Shopworn Angel" and "The Shop Around the Corner"). The film holds up surprisingly well with it's relevant message that political rhetoric doesn't trump factual science, etc.
Sullavan was such a subtle "modern' actress. There a is scene where her half brothers are leaving the family home, after rejecting her father due to their Nazi allegiance, and Sulllavan's quiet understated "Get out." to them packs such a punch, I know studios fell into the rut of having her suffer/die in so many of her films, but she had such a light comic touch too.
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18 hours ago, Wiendish Fitch said:
If the Judy Garland biography Get Happy is to be believed, Garland felt woefully inadequate and unattractive compared to her frenemy, Lana Turner.
It pisses me off that no one pulled Garland aside and said, "Judy, not only do you dwarf Lana Turner in terms of class and talent, but you put that average-looking dullard to shame in the beauty department!
I'm sorry, but Turner was at best marginally attractive, and just barely made the grade as an actress. And what's with this ongoing narrative about Judy Garland not being beautiful?! Before drugs and alcohol destroyed her looks, she was gorgeous!
Read that Garland had a crush on band leader Artie Shaw and was devastated when he eloped and married Lana Turner. Could not have helped her self esteem.
In defense of Lana Turner, most of Judy Garland's issues can be laid on the toxic environment she grew up at MGM. There the male brass, from Louis B. Mayer on down, reinforced to Garland that she was too fat and not pretty enough. It was bad enough in memos, but they literally would tell the impressionable adolescent that she looked like a pig. Capping her teeth and inserting rubber discs in her nose to change the shape (yes, she WAS naturally pretty but all those glamour shots had no connection to reality and with lights, camera angles / shading and those rubber discs even altered her appearance)
Add an acquiescent mother who complicitly allowed the studio to put her on a starvation diet for years (and hired spies reporting back if she ate or drank more) and the MGM ploy of giving her amphetamines and barbiturates to keep her awake or go to sleep on brutally long filming schedules, It was almost the perfect storm of a defenseless minor at the whims of the so called guardian adults around her.
Who wouldn't have come out of that with major self esteem, addiction and health issues?
2 minutes ago, caracas1914 said: -
Gwyneth Paltrow's Oscar for her performance in "Shakespeare in Love" isn't some horrible, egregious mistake.
Thought she brought a special radiance to the role.
Wow, I feel better now.
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On 5/5/2021 at 12:24 PM, mariah23 said:
I always imagine that a reporter is interviewing Brando after he won the Oscar and asks Brando “Marlon Brando you have just won an Oscar for On the Waterfront what are you going to do now?! Like the Disney World commercials that air after the Super Bowl. Then Brando tells the reporter “I’m going to star in a musical!”
The reporter is dumbfounded and wonders if he’s on Candid Camera.
Did any actor ever have a hotter streak than Brando did in the early to mid Fifties? Someone who was both a box office star, critically acclaimed and a heart throb simultaneously. I could easily see someone who starred in "Julius Caesar" opposite heavyweights like John Gielgud and emerging relatively unscathed reasoning "why not a musical?"
The producer of "Guys and Dolls "Sam Goldwyn marketed that Brando and Jean Simmons would actually be singing the songs, so maybe it was to paraphrase the Garbo tag "Brando sings!" appeal to his fans.
From what I read, box office wise, casting Brando paid off, as G&D was the biggest box office hit of the year domestically and did very well worldwide, grossing at least 4 times it's original cost. I can see why Brando's casting is criticized today, though his warbling to me is more amusing than downright offensive, and Sky Masterson has to have charm/charisma which Brando had in spades back then. Also in hindsight, I think some like me prefer to have heard the actors' actual singing voices though I certainly get why dubbing was the standard practice industrywide . (Today , in the cases of Pierce Brosnan and Russel Crowe I wish they had been dubbed.)
OTOH, I thought Jean Simmons was wonderful in her co-starring role and her singing voice was surprisingly good.
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The good news: It’s Romeo and Juliet on the streets of NY.
The bad news: It’s Romeo and Juliet on the streets of NY.
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12 hours ago, Avaleigh said:
I I could just about believe that she'd turn down living with the sister. They don't seem close and there are other issues there. Fair enough. I'm less understanding of why she wouldn't at least give it a try to live in the guest house with the quasi boyfriend. If it doesn't work out, she can go back on the road. If it does work out then she has a little more security and comfort than she previously had. I didn't see any indication that she'd lose her freedom if she gave this living arrangement a chance.
That granny unit near the coastline to most of us would have looked sweet.
However, the character had a whole boatload of issues she was sorting through. My spin was that she was wary of the emotional commitment to the quasi boyfriend, as in she still was in a period of grieving/loss per her deceased husband.
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One of the many issues I have with this film is the casting of Ansel Elgort. In real life he may be a perfectly amiable person, but on screen he has the kind of resting face I just want to smack the hell out of.
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On 4/16/2021 at 11:07 AM, Charlie Baker said:
TCM is supporting this documentarian's search for the Orson Welles cut of The Magnificent Ambersons.
I suspect that the raison d'etre of this whole exercise is to get new material for the documentary,
This Vanity Fair article from 2010:
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2010/04/magnificent-obsession-200201
QuoteOn his own, Grossberg had made two trips to Brazil in ’94 and ’96 to investigate the possible whereabouts of the composite print of The Magnificent Ambersons. Grossberg is now a New York–based entertainment reporter for the E! Online Web site and an aspiring filmmaker. He says that while in Brazil he was introduced to a man named Michel De Esprito, who had worked in the archives of Cinedia in the 1950s and 60s, and who claimed that Welles’s print still existed in that era. “He swears that he saw an original print of Ambersons in a can, mislabeled,” says Grossberg. “I think he actually projected it. But when he returned a few weeks later to look at the film more intently, it was moved away.” De Esprito raised a number of possibilities as to what might have happened to the print—it could have been destroyed, pilfered, or transferred to a private collector. “We pursued some leads, even talking about tracking it through Gypsies,” says Grossberg, who has not abandoned hope that the print exists. “But after that, we kind of ran out of leads.”
I realize hope springs eternal but if they exercised all their search options 25 years ago I would think that any leads would be even more stone cold dead now.
NFL Thread
in Sports
Lamar throws for 4 TD's and 440 yards passing. He won it with his arm.
Or course he almost lost it with his hands (one fumble at 1 yard line and one near fumble)