Thursday, February 19, 2026
Home Blog Page 1096

Review: The Extraordinary “Two Popes” Starring Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce Will Give Netflix a Third Oscar Nominee

0

I know that theater owners are going crazy, in a tug of war with Netflix over 30 days or less windows in cinemas before the TV streaming service pulls their movies and puts them basically on TV, computers and phones.

But this year, this year, not next, we’re going to have to deal with the Netflix situation. They are going to have three of the nine Best Picture nominees at the Oscars, not to mention all the people who worked on them. And I’ll tell you what’s happened: before Harvey Weinstein lost it, he was kind of mentoring Ted Sarandos. Not in being a predatory fool, but in quality movie making and in good taste. Everything Netflix is doing now mirrors Miramax’s heyday. It took chutzpah to think “Roma” was going to win the Oscar. Sarandos went for it. Harvey would have done the same thing.

Now Netflix has a triumvirate of films carved right out of the Miramax playbook. Martin Scorsese’s grand, essential “The Irishman,” Noah Baumbach’s intimate, funny “Marriage Story,” and Fernando Mereilles’s gorgeously made “The Two Popes.” I saw the latter Sunday evening at the Hamptons Film Festival, and I was floored by its magnificence. It’s A plus work.

Don’t forget, Mereilles and his crew received four Oscar nominations in 2004 for “City of God,” including Best Director. If, if, if…if Miramax or The Weinstein Company still existed, “The Two Popes” would be their movie. It’s that high quality, from beginning to end and everything in between.

This is also a “What if” kind of story, a historical adventure that mixes fact and supposition in the most charming way. Working at the top of their games, Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce play respectively Pope Benedict XVI and the current pope, Francis. Benedict ruled from 2005 to 2013. He was the first Pope to step down since 1415. He is still alive at age 92. Francis, upon succeeding Benedict, became a worldwide sensation. I went to with Aretha Franklin to meet him in Philadelphia a few years ago. It was a remarkable experience.

When the German born Benedict (whose given name is Joseph Ratzinger) was getting ready to retire, screenwriter Anthony McCarten imagines a meeting between him and the would-be Francis, the Argentinian cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Their burgeoning friendship, and the story of Bergoglio’s political life in Argentina, is the center of “The Two Popes.” Ratzinger is clear: he doesn’t like any off Bergoglio’s opinions or stances. So they are an odd couple. But Ratzinger realizes Bergoglio is the future. So he’s smarter and more with it than we think.

Mereilles has made another film with Hopkins– “360”– which received harsh reviews and a very low critics score. His other English language film was “The Constant Gardener,” which won Rachel Weisz an Oscar and also starred Ralph Fiennes. Maybe knowing Hopkins helped here, because the Oscar winning star of “Silence of the Lambs” does his best work in eons, harkening the beautiful, elegant turns in “Howard’s End” and “The Remains of the Day.” Pryce, who was overlooked last year in “The Good Wife,” is every bit his equal, and Pope Francis should be sending him champagne and flowers. They are each stunning performances. You can’t get enough of them. (The only thing better would be Judi Dench playing a nun who chats with them.) And the work below the line– set and production design, costumes, etc is going to rack up nominations. Kudos to Mark Tildesley, who went from this movie to the new James Bond.

PS I don’t know if Mereilles or McCarten actually know if the popes like the Beatles, but they use the Fab Four as a kind of running gag. In the movie, Benedict seems to be ignorant of the group, but in real life he absolved John Lennon from his famous “The Beatles are bigger than Jesus” line in 2010, well before this imagined meeting takes place. Later, Pope Frances gives Benedict a Beatles gift that’s a pretty good plug for “Abbey Road.” Maybe McCarten and McCartney are friends, who knows? But Sirius XM’s Beatles channel should get an audio clip to play before “Eleanor Rigby.”

Disney Releases List of Films for Streaming Service But Omits Most Live Action Hits, as Well As Famously Racist “Song of South”

0

Disney has released a list of films from its catalog headed to their streaming service. The list includes all of the “Star Wars” films — to give a push for the upcoming final installment — plus some of their classic animated titles like “Fantasia,” “Lady and the Tramp,” and “101 Dalmatians.” There’s also “Wall-E,” which I will watch first.

But there are many, many titles missing from Disney’s release. To begin with, “The Lion King,” “Aladdin,” and “Dumbo”– all recently rebooted in live action versions — are MIA. Disney is still selling them as front line movies. So the animation versions remain off line.

But also not included are Disney’s great Bette Midler movies from the 80s including “Down and Out in Beverly Hills,” “Ruthless People,” “Outrageous Fortune,” and “Hocus Pocus.” Also, “The Insider,” the much awarded Michael Mann movie about “60 Minutes” taking on the tobacco industry. For a time, Disney through its Touchstone label made some great films for adults. I hope they’re coming soon.

And very definitely not on the list: “Song of the South,” Disney’s infamously racist 1946 animated feature based on the Uncle Remus stories. It’s been dead and buried for years, and it’s not coming back.

Listen to Ringo Starr’s Wonderful New Version of John Lennon’s “Grow Old with Me” Featuring Paul McCartney on Bass, Vocals

0

Here’s a Columbus Day surprise! We can now listen to Ringo Starr’s new version of John Lennon’s “Grow Old with Me,” featuring Paul McCartney on bass and background vocals. It’s really wonderful. Ringo’s new album, called “What’s My Name,” has two or three standout tracks in what I’d say overall is his best collection in years.

“I sang it the best that I could,” Starr said of the recording in a statement. “I do well up when I think of John this deeply. And I’ve done my best. We’ve done our best. The other good thing is that I really wanted Paul to play on it, and he said yes. Paul came over and he played bass and sings a little bit on this with me. So John’s on it in a way. I’m on it and Paul’s on it. It’s not a publicity stunt. This is just what I wanted. And the strings that Jack arranged for this track, if you really listen, they do one line from [George Harrison’s] ‘Here Comes The Sun.’ So in a way, it’s the four of us.”

Funny PS: Colin Hay from Men at Work is on the album and co-wrote a song. Hay was the favorite singer of Paul McCartney’s mistake wife Heather Mills. She told me years ago about how she dragged Paul to his shows. I wonder if any of that came up in the studio.

Hamptons Film Fest Update: “Human Capital” Sleeper Hit, “Song of Names” Soars, Brian DePalma Takes Victory Lap

0

Here are some quick notes on the Hamptons International Film Festival, which has had a heavy schedule of good films and conversations despite raw weather and quality celebrity guests..

This year’s HIFF has impressed. “The Irishman” caused long lines on Friday and seemed to soak up a lot of attention. But an indie film that has no distributor yet, “Human Capital,” proved to be a sleeper hit. A kind of omnibus story with connected character, the Marc Meyers directed, Oren Moverman written movie is a crowd pleaser. Once again, Maya Hawke, 19 year old daughter of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, lights up the screen and steals the show from excellent elders like Liev Schreiber, Peter Sarsgaard, and Marisa Tomei. The two younger guys in the story, Alex Wolff and Fred Hechinger, are equally good. This is a perfect February-March release. Hello, Bleecker Street, Neon, Focus.

In a more serious note, audiences were moved last night by “The Song of Names” from Sony Pictures Classics. Coming out December 25th, the music branch must nominate Howard Shore for a gorgeous score that took two years to compose. “Song of Names” is tangentially a “Holocaust movie” produced by Robert Lantos and directed by Francois Giraud (“Red Violin,” “Boychoir”). Forget that idiotic “Jojo Rabbit.” This is the real deal. Our Regina Weinreich will have a longer piece on this in days to come.

HIFF has had lots of nice parties, and conversations with filmmakers also including a talk with Alfre Woodard, star of “Clemency.” Alfre is certainly on the list for possible Best Actress nominees this year. Alec Baldwin interviewed legendary director Brian DePalma at Guild Hall, and DePalma’s 23 year old daughter Piper– named for actress Piper Laurie, star of DePalma’s “Carrie”– presented him with HIFFs Lifetime Achievement Award. DePalma’s long list of great movies is stunning in clip reel. From “Carrie” to “The Untouchables” to the first “Mission Impossible” movie and all his great quirky films like “Dressed to Kill” and “Body Double,” what a resume!

DePalma certainly had a good time, too. He, Woodward, and Baldwin among others turned up later in the day at Silvercup Studio owner Stuart Match Suna’s glittering annual gathering in East Hampton, where the canapes were good but secondary to the smart talk.

 

Shepard Smith Ousted from Fox News, NY Post Denounces Fox News Impeachment Poll: Is Judge Napolitano Next?

0

On Thursday Attorney General William Barr, Donald Trump”s henchman, met with Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch in New York.

Why would such a meeting occur? Because Trump sent Barr with a message. In the last few weeks, both Fox News and the New York Post had gone against Trump.

Not only were Fox News on air personalities dissing Trump, they were also cutting away from his rallies. Then Fox News ran a poll saying 51% of Americans were in favor of impeachment and removal of Trump. That was the last straw. Barr was clearly sent to reset the situation with Murdoch because Fox is the Trump approved network.

Since the Barr-Murdoch meeting, Shepard Smith, the network’s number 1 news anchor and chief critic, has been forced off the network after 23 years. Why he would agree to say he was resigning instead of telling the truth I guess has to do with money. I’m sorry if that’s the case. I thought Shep had more dignity than that. But he had a year and a half to go at least on his contract, and wanted that pay out.

Shep’s ouster is disgusting. It does mean that neo-Nazis Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity won the war. It also means that Lachlan Murdoch caved to his father. The Murdoch children would like all the bad stuff to go away. James Murdoch, aka Michael Coreleone, is trying to make the crime family seem legit by investing in things like Vice Media and the Tribeca Film Festival. But getting rid of Shep is like the killing of Fredo.

Meantime, the New York Post has been brought to heel also. Last night they posted a story claiming that the Fox News impeachment poll was a fraud. “A poll weighted for party affiliation would have concluded that 44.9% favored impeachment and 44.4% opposed it, a Post analysis has concluded.”

The next person on the chopping block, I’m afraid, will be Judge Andrew Napolitano. His screen time has been cut way back since he turned against Trump and started actually explaining the law to his audience. Judge Napolitano is the last person at Fox News to speak truth to power. He’s a brilliant and brave man. But without Shep as cover, the Judge is a marked man. I expect to see him on CNN soon.

Someone wrote yesterday that Roger Ailes would never have allowed this to happen. They are wrong. Ailes was a coward, and did whatever Murdoch told him. Lots of good people came to and left Fox when their true colors — that they were decent, human professionals — were exposed. In the end, Ailes cherished his power and money more than any kind of integrity. If Murdoch had told him to garrote Shep on air during an anti-Trump news report, Ailes would have sent John Moody down with a rope and a piano wire.

Box Office: “Gemini Man” Zodiac Killer, “Joker” Nears $200 Million, Cannes Winner “Parasite” Sets Foreign Film Record

0

Cannes prize winner “Parasite,” from South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho set a record this weekend for foreign films. In just three theaters, the social satire made $376,264 or $125K per theater– one of the top openings ever. Little distributor Neon Pictures, which began ignominiously with a Michael Moore documentary and no logo, has a big hit on its hands. They’re headed to the Oscars, where they’ll have to take on Pedro Almodovar’s “Pain and Glory” with Antonio Banderas. Not bad.

“Parasite” is indeed a social satire about a family of grifters inveigling themselves into a wealthy household. It’s sort of like a soap opera on steroids, and the audience quickly begins rooting for the lower class family to get away with, well, murder. Things turn dark about halfway through, and then eschewing a happy fun ending, Bong Joon-Ho really goes for it Tarantino style.

Kudos to Neon for recognizing that this movie would strike a chord with American audiences.

Meanwhile, “Gemini Man” starring Will Smith eked out $20.5 million for the weekend, a little more than expected if the numbers hold. But it’s once of Smith’s poorest openings ever, and doesn’t bode well for its future.

In loftier worlds, “Joker” will cross $200 million US in the next day or so, by Tuesday. It’s now up to around $600 million worldwide with no end in sight.

At the other end of the spectrum, “Lucy in the Sky” from Fox Searchlight made nothing over the weekend and has a two week cume of $154,612.  Seeing the critics response, parent Disney has just buried this completely. It’s a tough deal for the actors and everyone who made it,

RIP Robert Forster, Oscar Nominee for “Jackie Brown,” One of Hollywood’s Unsung Heroes, Dead at 78

0

So Robert Forster: he was a great guy, I’m not kidding. Everyone loved him. He was the opposite of someone who makes it in Hollywood and then becomes inaccessible, walled off. After his Oscar nomination for “Jackie Brown” in 1997, he shrugged it off, appreciated what Quentin Tarantino did for him, and went to work with one terrific performance after another.

The announcement of his death last night, from a very sudden brain cancer, really shook me. I’d been a fan all through the 70s and 80s. Check him out from his TV appearances on shows like “Police Story” and “Bannon.” Then Tarantino rescued him from obscurity and made him the star of “Jackie Brown.” That’s when I met him, and we fell into an easy occasional friendship. I think everyone who knew him felt the same way probably. When he saw someone he liked, he really liked them: handshakes, hugs, a big wide smile. If he really really liked you, he gave you his favorite gadget, a silver letter opener with a wide handle. “This is the greatest thing  I’ve ever used!” he’d exclaim. He meant it.

Bob was from Rochester, New York but he had a nasal, flat, Chicago accent for some reason. You thought he was going to say “Da Bears,” when he spoke. With his height, and enthusiasm, the accent, he was so unlike everyone else in Hollywood. How could you not like him? He’d seen the highs, the lows, new highs. He was not impressed by the trappings of fame. He was just an actor.

I cheered, along with his other friends, when we saw him in Alexander Payne’s “The Desecendants” or in the revived “Twin Peaks,” basically replacing his old friend, Michael Ontkean. “Twin Peaks” was so nutty, I had to ask him one day, did he know what was going on?

“I didn’t understand a word of it!” he told me. “But I love David Lynch. This guy is a genius. You just have to trust him.” And so he did.

In 1990, to pick a year and a credit, Bob starred in a great little indie film called “Diamond Men” with Donnie Wahlberg. If you can find it online, watch it. His old, dear friend Kathie Berlin, one of the great publicist in Hollywood history, got everyone ginned up about it. We thought Bob would get another award. But there was money behind it, so “Diamond Men” faded into history as a lost gem. But just watch him in it. There isn’t a false note.

Bob had another long friendship in Hollywood, with Dani Janssen, the widow of “Fugitive” star David Janssen. He’d known David, who died way too young, and Dani was the doyenne of Hollywood for decades, so they palled around and accompanied each other to a lot of parties in the 2000s, before Dani– also much beloved– retired from the scene. They were a great pair to hang with because they knew everything, and said very little. They could have been characters out of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” survivors of their own golden era who wouldn’t stand down. And I was so glad they didn’t.

Bob has a great girlfriend, Denise, and a big family of kids and grandkids. He  has fans from all his shows, too. But he leaves a legacy of friends, from actors and journalists to just a lot of people he handed that letter opener to, who will never forget him and always clap when they see him pop up on their screens. I will really miss him.

Will Smith’s “Gemini Man” Tanks with $5.9 Mil Friday, May Fall Short of Low End Predictions, “Joker” Kills with $17 Mil

0

Box office Friday:

“Joker” killed it Friday night with another whopping $17 million. That’s now a total of $154 million in 8 or 9 days, depending on how you count it. So Warner Bros. is celebrating a huge win after a disappointing summer and early fall counting “The Goldfinch.” That bird has flown. They should use all this money to pump “Just Mercy,” their Oscar movie with Jamie Foxx and Michael B. Jordan.

Will Smith’s “Gemini Man” is DOA. The real Friday number is $5.9 million, plus the $1.6 million it made Thursday. Paramount may fall short of their low end $19 million prediction. But you know, Will Smith has survived worse outings. And this year he already starred in “Aladdin,” a big hit. He’s had tons of flops but they don’t seem to matter. Plus, he’s set for life, and he’s married to a very bright, talented actress (Jada Pinkett Smith). Maybe Gemini was just the wrong sign.

“Downton Abbey” crosses $80 million tonight. “Hustlers” flirts with $100 million this coming week, maybe by Monday or Tuesday.

 

Will Smith’s “Gemini Man” Makes Just $1.6 Mil in Previews, Heads to Disappointing $19 Mil Weekend

0

Will Smith’s “Gemini Man” didn’t draw much buzz last night in previews.

The Paramount film with weird visuals took in just $1.6 million. They’re now aiming for a third place, $19 million opening over four days.

“Gemini Man” doesn’t have much help from critics, who gave it a 29% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Smith’s sci-fi adventure should finish third behind “Joker,” again at number 1, and “The Addams Family” animated film (also panned with a 36%).

But even though $19 million isn’t great, it’s better than some of Smith’s other recent films like “Collateral Beauty” with $7 million opening, “Concussion” with $10 million, and “Focus” with $18.6 million No one remembers those films and they were less than five years ago.

 

Global Lyme Alliance Raises $2.5 Million at Glittering Fundraiser Featuring “Tootsie” Tony Winner Santino Fontana

0

A glamorous crowd packed Cipriani 42nd Street for the fifth annual Global Lyme Alliance gala: sparkly gowns and tuxes for a stellar event put together by the incomparable Lawrence Scott (if you want a great event, go to him). Hosted by Good Day New York’s irrepressible Rosanna Scotto, the benefit, to end the insidious and sneaky Lyme epidemic, featured speeches from Lyme survivors and performances by a Big Apple Circus juggler who did amazing work with pink umbrellas.

The big star of the night was “Tootsie” Tony winner Santino Fontana. Lucky for us “Tootsie” is dark on Thursday nights.

Fontana’s wife, it turns out, just had a baby girl two weeks ago, a blessing considering she also suffers from the debilitating Lyme disease. What we learned about Lyme survivors from the moving speeches: you can’t really tell someone has it, enduring invisible symptoms so that often specialists in the medical community poo poo their patients’ complaints about low energy and brain fog. Who knew in Cipriani’s vast expanse, which among the glittery diners were sick and which were not.

One thing was for sure: the well-heeled crowd, owners of lawns where the disease may be tick-borne, was happy to raise $2.5 million at the live auction, including $60,000 to spend some time with Avril Lavigne when she performs her Live in the Vineyard in Napa Valley. Lavigne had to take a break from her own thriving career to heal, and now she’s all in on getting information and medicine to fellow sufferers.