Monday, December 22, 2025
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NY Film Fest on Hyper Drive: Not Just Springsteen, But DDL Return, Jodie Foster, Scorsese, Ben Stiller, Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke

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The New York Film Festival 2025 has gone into hyper drive.

Yesterday they announced the Bruce Springsteen film, “Deliver Me from Nowhere,” as the spotlight gala.

You know Bruce will be there, which will cause mayhem.

Now added to the list of galas Daniel Day-Lewis’s return to film in his son’s movie, “Anemone.” (This is the spell check word of the season!)

Ronan Day-Lewis directs from his own script.

Family affair? DDL’s wife, and Ronan’s mother, director Rebecca Miller will unveil her five part “Mr. Scorsese” documentary about everyone’s other favorite filmmaker Martin Scorsese.

Then there’s Ben Stiller’s documentary about his parents, “Stiller & Meara,” which I already want on a DVD, called “Nothing is Lost.”

Plus Richard Linklater has two movies! “Blue Moon” and “Nouvelle Vague.” The former is said to Ethan Hawke’s best performance ever, and also features stellar supporting work from Andrew Scott (who won the Silver Bear for best supporting performance at the Berlinale), Margaret Qualley, and Bobby Cannavale.

What do we do? Sleep at the Empire Hotel across the street? Get $400 box lunches from Tatiana?

It’s a conundrum!

Plus, Jodie Foster, who’s fluent in French, stars in Rebecca Zlotowski’s “A Private Life,” which is all in that language with subtitles. So Jodie’s gunning for a third Oscar.

Whew!

There’s also a 39 minute documentary about actress Carol Kane and her 98 year old mother, Joy, from director Nathan Silver, who made the lovely “Between the Temples” last year with Carol. Plus, of course, many full length and short docs that all look pretty tantalizing.

Off to the races!

Box Office “Weapon”-ized with $42 Mil Opening for Horror Film, Plus a “Freakier Friday” Than Guessed Gives Sequel $29 mil Weekend

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Everyone’s digging “Weapons.” Especially Warner Bros.

The horror film starring Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, and of all people, Amy Madigan, hit the sweet spot this weekend.

Total box office: $42 million. Yes, you read that right. Another hit for Warner’s, which has done no wrong this year (except for “Alto Knights,” which got no love). Everything is booming, with “Superman” leading the way.

A Freakier Friday than the rest of the weekend was very good for “Freakier Friday.” The Jamie Lee Curtis-Lindsay Lohan reunion was great for families and girls, bringing in $29 million. It turned out to be easy money. “FF” should play well right through Labor Day and the start of school.

Not so great: “Naked Gun” fell 50 in its second weekend, leveling off to just $33 mil. They’ll get to $50 mil but the novelty of the possible romance between stars Liam Neeson and Pam Anderson has cooled considerably. Good for Paramount marketing to front load the whole show and put on a full court press. Great launch, better than anyone could have hoped.

Angel Studios, right wing Christian based, finally sent out a good movie and no one went. “Sketch” had a measly $5 million weekend. I guess Angel didn’t get church crowds in by giving them free tickets the way they wrangled $250 million for the awful “Sound of Freedom.” Poor Tony Hale, star of “Veep,” was a star and producer, I don’t know why he chose this as his move away from TV.

Trump Edict: “The Homeless Have to Move Out IMMEDIATELY” of Washington, First Ethnic Cleansing, Now Illegal Relocation of Citizens

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Donald Trump has been practicing ethnic cleansing for six months, kidnapping, detaining, and removing immigrants whether they’re here illegally or not. He’s not sending them home, but to dangerous third world countries.

Now he’s going to start relocating American citizens without homes. He wrote this morning on his sewage system social media:

“I’m going to make our Capital safer and more beautiful than it ever was before. The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY. We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong. It’s all going to happen very fast…”

Incompetent, ill qualified Jeannine Pirro will likely help him carry out this debacle. He’s sending fair warning. Will the ACLU and other groups listen today?

All this insanity to distract from Epstein. First he paved over the Rose Garden. Now he’ll pave over Washington at large

Restaurateur Keith McNally’s Ex Wife Leaves Postcard of the Year After Dining at His Famed Balthazar Restaurant in Soho

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Keith McNally is the owner of several famed restaurants in New York including Balthazar in Soho.

His bestselling memoir, “I Regret Almost Everything,” details his many successes and failures in business and romance. McNally also bravely tells the story of his stroke and recovery. You can’t put this book down for its honesty and humor.

McNally also runs a self-deprecating, refreshingly candid Instagram account where nothing is off limits. Today he offers this post card from his first ex wife, Lynn, who won a bunch of the restaurants they started together in their long ago divorce. It may be the postcard of the year. And McNally gets kudos for publishing it.

The ex couple can “dine out” on this story for years to come!

Bob Dylan, 84, Hits the Recording Studio in Albany With His Band For What Could Be His 41st Album, First Since 2020

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The last time Bob Dylan released a new album was in 2020.

That was “Rough and Rowdy Ways,” which was a big hit and produced a 17 minute single that briefly went to number 1.

“Rough and Rowdy Ways” also has been the foundation of Dylan’s touring act for the last five years.

Now White Lake Recording Studios in Albany, New York reports that Bob and the band worked there recently.

Could Dylan be making his 41st album? Sure. Why not? He recently recorded with Barbra Streisand on her new duets album. He’s also been sounding great vocally after years of garbled singing. Plus, there’s lots to write about unless he’s doing an album of covers.

Also, this has been a banner year for Dylan with the released of the Oscar nominated “A Complete Unknown.” He hasn’t sold so many records in years. 

Whatever the case, a new Dylan is more than welcome any time. So far in 2025 the total comes to just under 500,000.

“South Park” Epiode Shredding Kristi Noem and ICE Doubled the Ratings of Previous Show, with 860,000 Viewers on Comedy Central

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Wednesday night’s episode of “SOuth Park” on Comedy Central was huge.

Just in that first viewing on the home channel, “South Park” picked up nearly twice the number of the prior episode.

The number was 838,000 people tuned into see Kristi Noem and ICE torn to shreds.

The first episode, about Trump his teeny penis, scored 430,000 viewers. Then combined with later viewings on Paramount Plus, the total was 7 million.

The new one, called “Got a Nut,” will inevitably go higher as more views on Paramount Plus are counted.

In real life, ICE tried to capitalize on the episode, but it backfired. Except for has-been actor Dean Cain, no other potential thugs were announced as new employees.

How could they? ICE robots were mocked mercilessly on the episode.

The next episode comes August 13th. The way “South Park” is made is so nimble that it can be topical and fresh almost up to the moment of airing. That means trouble for Trump and cronies. Things are only going to get worse and worse.

Watch Has-Been Actor Dean Cain Lie to Fox News’s Trace Gallagher About His Career: He Hasn’t Been in Movie with Box Office Since 2014

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It’s fun to watch new ICE agent Dean Cain lie to Fox News’s Trace Gallagher about his career.

Cain hasn’t been in a movie that was reviewed by critics since 2018’s “2050,” a movie that no one saw. It had a 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That year he was also in a movie no one saw called “Gosnell,” that zero bos office but did muster a low 62% with critics.

The last movie he made that earned box office was 2014’s “God’s Not Dead,” which managed to reap $60 million on the Christian faith circuit but had no reviews of any kind.

Before that it was 2003’s “Out of Time.”

He’s completely delusional and Gallagher is along for the ride. Cain is known for one thing, his “Lois and Clark” series than ran for four seasons three decades ago.

He tells Gallagher he doesn’t need the ICE salary and who knows, he may be right. But money earned from movies? Laughable. Most of his show biz income would be from getting small parts in canceled TV shows.

To quote Elvis Costello: Blame it on Cain.

Honey Don’t! See This Movie: Rotten Reviews for the Second Ethan Coen Solo Movie Begs for a Return with Brother

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Ethan Coen is such a talented writer, but his two indie directorial jobs have been flops.

First came “Drive Away Dolls,” which drove over a cliff.

Now comes “Honey Don’t!” which begs the rest of the headline — see this movie!

Critics have filed in with 42% so far and sinking. That’s not good. The reviews are brutal. Focus Features will have trouble keeping this in theaters.

Coen can do anything he wants. He and his brother Joel have made dozens of classic films that will last forever. I’ll bet in future collaborations we’ll see elements of Ethan’s films and realize they were brilliant notebooks for things to come.

Box Office: “Weapons” Extends Warner’s Hot Streak, “Freakier Friday” Soft in Thursday Previews, “Fantastic Four” Still Fantastic

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Warner Bros. is having quite a year, with “Sinners,” “Minecraft,” and of course, “Superman.”

Now comes “Weapons” with $5.7 million in Thursday previews. Ka ching! Julia Garner gets her first big movie hit, Josh Brolin is of course in another one. Nicely done.

“Freakier Friday” stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan in the sequel to their long ago film.

This is family fare, but still made $3 million on Thursday. which it ain’t bad. Kids and girls will find “Freakier Friday” fun even if reviewers were tepid about it at 73%. Audiences loved it — 94% so there will be return business.

“Fantastic Four” and “Superman” are still the big deals. They saved the summer. What are super heroes for, anyway?

Kamala Harris Book, Set for Late September, Already a Bestseller While Cheryl Hines (Kennedy) Memoir Languishes at the Bottom of Amazon

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Here’s a tale of two books.

Kamala Harris announced hers, “107 Days,” a week ago on Stephen Colbert. Pub date is end of September.

That night the book went to number 1 on amazon, and remained at 1 or 2 until today. Right now, it’s number 43. This is all based on advance sales.

Meantime, this week actress Cheryl Hines — married to Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. — announced her memoir. It’s called “Unscripted.” The book is sitting at number 49,867. No one wants it and no one is buying it.

Let’s get real. Hines’s book is a waste of time and money. She’s not going to fess up about her bizarre marriage to a philandering, bear-eating kook who’s anti vaccine. We won’t find out what it’s like to be an outcast in the Kennedy family. Hines is also not going to tell us anything about Larry David we don’t know. He’s a curmudgeon? Shocking/

Former vice president Harris’s book hopefully has some juice in it. We want to know about Joe Biden’s mental state, how Kamala got into a race without primaries, and how she survived it. The people who’ve bought the book want answers. What did this election look like from inside out? How could it have gone better?

Harris’s book is going to be taken seriously until it’s proven otherwise. Hines’s book is going to be included in the next stage production of “Celebrity Autobiography.” Maybe Hines can play herself.