The Equalizer [2014)

Transmission received.

Obama Presidency.

Half mark.

Rumblings of military coup.

Possible Defense Intelligence Agency PSYOP.

Prefiguring QAnon.

A continuation.

Provenance not revealed till 2018.

Those most responsible for the fall of America.

Mark Zuckerberg
Sundar Pichai
Susan Wojcicki
Zuckerberg
Liang Rubo
Xi Jinping
Zuckerberg
Wu Hai
Liu Yunli
Pony Ma
Steven Newhouse
Donald Newhouse
Elon Musk
Bill Gates
Robin Li
Jeff Bezos
Narendra Modi
Vladimir Kiriyenko
Vladimir Putin
Zuckerberg
Donald Trump

Denzel Washington is the best male actor to ever set foot in front of a motion picture camera.

Harvard and MIT.

Heroes:

John Grayken?

Follow the money.

Steve Tisch?

Todd Black?

Find Boston.

Find Dallas twice.

Clapper thrice.

DIA.

Trump massive failure on COVID vaccines.

Trump massive failure on Gaza/Israel.

It pains me to include Putin, Xi, and Modi on that list.

Far from exhaustive.

Not airtight.

58% America was its own undoing.

25% a Chinese operation.

17% shared by the rest of the world (with Russian and Indian contributions being notably egregious).

Who curtailed CIA hegemony in Hollywood after Safe House (2012)?

https://youtu.be/KKn_ucvHoRM?si=2UowycccscWbOnb_

Home Depot.

Progress, not perfection.

Normcore.

Insomnia.

24 hours.

Nighthawks (Hopper).

Closest thing he had to a friend.

RFK Jr.–massive success on vaccines, massive failure on Israel

Michael Flynn–massive success on vaccines, massive failure on Israel (took six figures to consult for which company?)

Cornel West–massive success on Israel, massive failure on vaccines

Joe Biden–massive failure on vaccines, massive failure on Israel

Donald Trump–massive failure on vaccines, massive failure on Israel

So why doesn’t Biden make the list at the top?

Because he’s inconsequential.

A puppet.

But there’s more.

He only coerced.

Those on the list made decisions.

They all had a choice.

They all made essentially the same decision.

The wrong decision.

For America.

For Americans.

All on that list consigned America to failure.

In a very specific way.

Not too hard to figure out.

Some brought America to its knees more than did others

Some did it in other ways.

Biden did it in other ways.

He can be on another list.

A worthless President.

All things considered, RFK Jr. is the best option for U.S. President in 2024.

Cornel West is the second-best option.

All things considered, Michael Flynn is a good man.

Trump has done immense good.

But the sobering fact is that the harm he has done (do no harm) has outweighed that good.

Do the right thing.

Do something about it, Trump.

You have a choice.

Apologize regarding the vaccines.

Tell the truth.

And stop being a moron on Israel.

Moron on vaccines–moron on Israel.

In such situation, give me RFK Jr.

Or even Cornel West.

But give me Trump before you give me Biden.

Nothing worse than Biden.

No redeeming qualities.

Old man gotta be the old man.

Fish gotta be the fish.

Special talent for reading license plates.

Khartoum.

Connect Cofer Black (CIA) to Mitt Romney.

Now connect to Burisma.

https://open.spotify.com/album/11Wzm0XHozgjD5Zfz45Sv7?si=R5rcNVsRS-iz2D55NcNxjw

Putin has done immense good…and very little harm.

I think more at fault is Vladimir Kiriyenko or his predecessor.

In spite of everything, I believe Xi Jinping to be a truly honorable man.

Like Putin, he has done immense good…much more good than bad.

The real problem, then, is Liang Rubo.

Likewise, I believe Narendra Modi to be a truly honorable man.

More likely at fault is Virendra Gupta and/or Umang Bedi.

And don’t forget about fake fuck Chris Pavlovski and shitnose Devin Nunes.

They deserve to be on that list more than Trump does.

But no one has done worse on vaccines and Israel than Trump.

Then again, perhaps the first list need not even exist.

It could just be replaced with the name Joe Biden.

But Trump has not done the right thing.

His window in which to change course is closing.

Trump loves his COVID vaccines.

Trump loves the IDF and Netanyahu (who fucked him over at least as fast as did Boris Johnson).

Stay cool.

Be a cucumber.

In a factory of pickles.

Do not become.

Stay cucumber.

16 seconds. 4 seconds per man.

So-called men.

LINE.

Surprise. Kill. Vanish.

A bit rusty.

Minus 9.

Still 3 slow.

Marker A: 3:22’08

The absolutely indispensable acting performance of Marton Csokas.

We who?

Investigate Tony Schaffer for being a good person.

Suspected of being on the side of good and right.

Yet still so much bullshit about 9/11.

Hijack the hijackers.

Investigate Ezra Cohen.

AKA Ezra Cohen-Watnick.

[intern for Joe Biden in high school]

Minimum age for Defense Clandestine Service?

JBAB.

Squelched to save.

You don’t know your own power.

We saved your life.

Know your enemy.

Know yourself.

Home field advantage.

Weapons of opportunity.

Antoine Fuqua best director working–tied with Edgar Wright.

It’s even.

Fuqua more damage with less punches.

But a bit of a moron when it comes to voting in Georgia.

JFK 1961.

Yes.

-PD

Bronson [2008)

Three hospitals.

Three towers.

Alan Franey running Broadmoor on recommendation of Jimmy Savile.

From 1968 onwards, Jimmy Savile had his own room at Broadmoor for his “charity” work.

Savile had a personal set of keys to Broadmoor from 1968 till 2004.

Or 2009.

Unsupervised access to some wards.

Mad max.

Black hawk down.

Tom Clancy.

I got close to Luton.

In the rain.

Wandsworth.

Gary Glitter.

James Earl Ray.

Julian Assange.

Oscar Wilde.

Pete Doherty.

Broadmoor 1982.

With that fucker Jimmy Savile on the loose.

Who’s the real criminal?

Wormwood Scrubs.

Babyshambles.

True romance.

She’s marrying Brian.

Brixton.

Mick Jagger.

Glenn Danzig.

New Jersey.

Bristol.

Rock and roll part II.

Belmarsh.

GITMO as a verb.

WikiLeaks.

Tommy Robinson.

Budgie.

Motorboating.

Nicolas Winding Refn.

Christina Hendricks.

Lively and Reynolds in New Orleans.

Honoré soon gun-grabbing again like in Katrina.

Most certainly masterpiece.

Birds.

Pajaros.

Magritte.

Un Chien andalou.

Bronson Salvador.

Jung death wish.

Verdi.

Refn Jewish Dane.

Wagner.

Little-known Attila.

It was my destiny like Rachmaninoff.

Ring cycle.

Stolen.

Richard Strauss.

Bruckner 4.

Delibes.

Deliberate.

Puccini.

Watch for Bregenz.

Q ear piece.

Lapel.

-PD

Dahmer [2002)

I almost didn’t make it through this one.

Several times.

Not exactly light viewing for me.

Some people…obsessed with gore.

I’ve never been that way.

But there is something fascinating about serial killers.

Not in an adolescent worship rebellion way.

Stories about serial killers are like car crashes.

Sometimes we can’t look away.

Perhaps we feel compelled to go into that deep place within ourselves.

We want to know the horror of truth.

We want to be able to handle the truth.

The truth is sometimes disgusting.

Panic-inducing.

If you live in a war zone, you are used to blood.

If you are a soldier who’s fought in a war, you’ve seen the worst kind of dying.

Dahmer is a different sort of death.

It is a feast for psychologists.

We want to learn how these things happen so that we can prevent them.

I’m no psychologist.

Far from it.

I’m just a student of life.

And so in order to really appreciate wild sunflowers growing by the railroad tracks, we must face Dahmer.

Let me just say that this film puts Ted Bundy to shame.

First because of director David Jacobson.

It is a masterful film. An artful film. Everything that Schindler’s List is not.

In stories like this…there is nothing more important to remember (as an auteur) than the banality of evil.

But Dahmer introduces a star: Jeremy Renner.

But you know who really deserves some credit?

Those people that auteur theorists often forget about.

Production designer (Eric Larson).

Art director (Kelley Wright).

Costume designer (Dana Hart).

These functional elements are essential here.

You think The Nice Guys has a cool look to it?

It ain’t shit compared to Dahmer.

And Ryan Gosling (that fucking guy annoys me…Ryan Reynolds with a mustache)…

Funny thing is, The Nice Guys looks like a good film.

But it’s vanilla…beige…compared to the cinema under discussion.

I’m not going to be wanting to see Dahmer again anytime soon, but it’s an essential film.

If you want to understand his crimes.

Bruce Davison is excellent as Dahmer’s father.

Artel Kayaru is really good!

Don’t discount the horror medium.

The “greatest creator of forms of the 20th century” (to quote Godard) kicked it off in earnest with Psycho.

Darkness is inextricably wound up in the light of cinema.

-PD

2 Comments

Pumpkin [2002)

This is almost a perfect film.

Because it’s better than perfect.

Like Napoleon Dynamite, what should have been a larf was generally a sobfest for me throughout.

If you’re having problems in life, you need to see this movie.

Hollywood is so denigrated these days because the vast majority of popular cinema is utter shite.

From the very beginning, Pumpkin is different.

We should thank American Zoetrope.

And for that we have to thank Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas.

Do you even know what a zoetrope is?

Well, I do.

And they did.

And it was le mot juste.

A zoetrope is special.

Let’s call it retarded cinema.

A more pure form. Slowed down.

Pumpkin grossed $308,552 at the box office.

No, I didn’t forget a comma and an additional three digits.

But the Bureau of Labor Statistics has no way of predicting the sort of inflation Pumpkin will experience in the annals of cinema history.

For any who have ever doubted Christina Ricci: this is her masterpiece.

As lead actress and coproducer, she gives a performance which goes deeper than even the esteemed Thora Birch in Ghost World.

Yes, this is that sort of film.

Indispensable.

I have overused it of late.

But there is no other word. Pumpkin and Ghost World and Napoleon Dynamite are not second-class films to such as I fidanzati. No. They are equals with Ermanno Olmi’s masterpiece.

But don’t get confused.

Pumpkin goes in a direction completely “other” than any film I’ve ever seen.

Sure…it starts out tongue-in-cheek.

It is perhaps a dystopia which is best summed up by the saccharine mise-en-scène of The Truman Show. But where The Truman Show fails (and that is in many places), Pumpkin succeeds at telling a timeless story.

The story is the cast.

[Thank you Marshall McLuhan.]

Ricci is a thespian goddess here. Real skill. Real goddamn skill!

But neck-and-neck is Hank Harris.

I can’t nail it.

It’s something I saw long ago.

At my college orientation.

A bit of Sam Shepard and some other playwrights.

Sure. It is Steinbeck. Of Mice and Men.

But it’s more.

Sweeter. More optimistic. More frothing with disgust.

All three.

A concoction.

Frozen yogurt and 1400 on the SAT.

Harry Lennix is indispensable to the story. [start counting]

He is the angry poet. Not a college professor. And this is not a class.

This is a poetry workshop, motherfucker!

Even Julio Oscar Mechoso is indispensable in his short role as Dr. Frederico Cruz. [where we at?]

But let’s talk about some buttresses.

Melissa McCarthy is indispensable (truly) as Julie.

It’s not an easy role.

And yet, she’s not as bad off as Pumpkin.

Who’s Pumpkin?

Is it Christina Ricci with her jack-o’-lantern-perfect bob–her Chantal Goya -meets- David Bowie Low surf perm? That one little curl…so perfect…all the way ’round?

No.

It’s Hank Harris.

He’s Pumpkin. Napoleon. Lothario.

But Sam Ball is especially indispensable here. [Ugh…]

He is Ken (actually Kent) to Ricci’s Barbie.

Tennis pro.

Spitting image of Ryan Reynolds.

Or Whitney Houston…

Anyway.

This cast brings it together.

Bringing it all back home are directors Anthony Abrams and Adam Larson Broder (neither of whom have a Wikipedia page).

BLOODY HELL, HOLLYWOOD! HOW COULD YOU CHURN OUT SO MANY FILMS AND NOT SEE THE BRILLIANCE OF THESE TWO BLOKES!?!?!?!?!

But in the end it’s just Ricci and Hank Harris.

The brilliance of a duo.

A truly timeless film.

I’m inclined to agree with many (including Dr. Steve Pieczenik) that Adam Lanza did not exist.

But Pumpkin Romanoff (a nod to Michael Romanoff, the storied Lithuanian restaurateur of 1940s/50s Hollywood?) most certainly did exist. For me. Tonight. When I needed him most.

This is immortality.

-PD

4 Comments

paulydeathwish

musician and film critic

Tag Archives: Ryan Reynolds

Bronson [2008)

Dahmer [2002)

Pumpkin [2002)