The road to hell is paved with good intentions, someone once said. Ryan Murphy certainly had plenty of good intentions in adapting a mediocre Broadway musical for Netflix with big stars. “The Prom” was fun on Broadway but enervating. Even though it’s a tribute to inclusion, its songs– which are still the biggest part of a musical– were never much more than billboards for the plot. Sorry. The show wasn’t a hit when it ran a couple of years ago.

How did it keep going as long as it did? The cast, led by Beth Leavel and Brooks Ashmanskas, was just like the characters they played: terrific Broadway performers who were now down on their luck a little. In the show, they’ve just closed a huge flop on opening night, a musical about Eleanor Roosevelt. Convinced they must come up with a cause to help them win good publicity, they head– with friends– to Indiana to help a gay high school girl gain acceptance to her prom.

But now we have Meryl Streep and James Corden, plus Nicole Kidman, Andrew Rannels, not to mention Kerry Washington, Keegan Michael Key, guest spots from Mary Kay Place and Tracey Ullman. We’ve also got the two young lesbians in love: the excellent Jo Ellen Pellman, and Ariana de Bose (soon to be in Spielberg’s “West Side Story” and a lock for a movie about Meghan Markle).

The opening is a sparkling kind of “Forbidden Broadway” as it’s all about inside stuff satirizing the Great White Way. Broadway enthusiasts will love the lyrics to the opening song, “It’s Not About Me,” because of course, it IS all about them. And there’s nothing better than when this posse arrives at a two star hotel and Streep presents her Tony Awards in order to get a suite (which they don’t have– and I don’t understand why we don’t actually see the rooms after all this fuss).

Within the first hour, Emma’s prom occurs, she’s tricked, and the show, I’m afraid, is over. This is what happened on Broadway. The plot is so thin that once we’ve crested to the reason we’ve all come to this town, we are done. The next almost hour is taken up with trying to fix the problem of the prom having just occurred and the gays not getting in. Plus Emma’s girlfriend, Alyssa, has thrown her under the bus. In the live theater I lost interest, and I did here, too.

Nicole Kidman, who’s just had a big success with “The Undoing” on HBO, has a tertiary role here– third billed, and her character of Angie, the has been chorus girl, remains underdeveloped. Kidman has a terrific number in the second hour, a satire of Bob Fosse and “Chicago,” that I could watch as a separate clip. But she’s a little wasted in this film. I think she just wanted to have fun, and it’s clear she does.

I’m seeing a lot of criticism for James Corden in other reviews. I liked him. Am I wrong? I think he has great musical talents, and he certainly can keep up with Streep, who’s his main scene partner. Streep is spot on playing all the notes she can find, but they’ve put her in an odd romantic situation with Keegan Michael Key, who’s 20 years her junior. On stage, that relationship made sense because the school principal and Dee Dee were the same age and the same points in their lives. Much as I love KMK, this was a part for Glynn Turman.

(Here’s an irony: Turman and Michael Potts, the original actor from the stage who played Key’s part, are featured in a great movie, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Potts was good enough for that film, but not a big enough name for this one, the role he created. Crazy.)

Netflix is the right place for “The Prom.” In theaters this would not have played after a big first weekend in main markets. On Netflix, it can find a long life and many Golden Globe nominations. Oscars? I’m not so sure. Ironically, Meryl Streep is in another streaming movie, Steven Soderbergh’s “Let Them All Talk,” which could be Academy fodder if HBO Max steps up to that idea.

I think about Francis Ford Coppola a lot. He’s our Orson Welles, isn’t he? He made these two masterpieces, the first and second “Godfather” movies. They’re like the Beatles of the movies. Then he made “Apocalypse Now.” Genius again. The rest of his resume is good and bad, with highlights and disappointments, and it doesn’t matter. (I really liked “Peggy Sue Got Married,” actually.) His work is done.

Why he made “The Godfather III” in 1989, released in 1990, remains a sticking point. Why not just leave perfection alone? But I guess the money was too good, and he had most of the actors, so why not? The movie was met with derision. The biggest problem was his daughter, Sofia, who replaced Winona Ryder at the last minute playing Michael Corleone’s daughter, Mary. She had no acting experience and retained an 80s Valley Girl stance. She was reamed in reviews. No one could have guessed that Sofia would go on to become a talented and important film director in her own right.

“The Godfather III” was also very convoluted. What was it about? It was like taking Hamlet and adding another act to his story. When we left Michael Corleone, he’d had his brother, Fredo, killed for betraying him, Kay, his wife, had left with their children. His brother, Sonny, and father, Don Corleone, were dead. He’d taken the family to Vegas, bought casinos, and wound up alone. It was a chilling end to a tragedy. So now what?

For “Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone,” Coppola gets a rare second chance to fix his own mistakes. He digs 40 minutes into the original film and pulls out a plot-defining moment between Michael (Al Pacino) and Archbishop Gilday. the priest in charge of Vatican funds, at St. Patrick’s Cathedal (the amazing Donal Donnelly). Now the new version begins with Michael proposing basically that the Corleone’s divest from Vegas and buy the Vatican’s debt. So we at least know what the movie is about.

From then on, Coppola shortens the movie by about 20 minutes by cutting away his old, former opening  that ponderously recapped Fredo’s death and included a ceremony at which Michael gets a big award. Instead. we go straight from St. Patrick’s to Michael inviting his estranged grown kids to a family party celebrating the Vito Corleone Foundation. Whew! The party, which arrived later in the original film, reflects the original film’s wedding. Various people come to Michael for favors. There’s an intimation of trouble brewing with the other mob families, and we launch ever more quickly into “Coda.”

The good news is that Sofia Coppola, with the long knives no longer out for her, is fine. She’s not a great actress, but she makes Mary convincingly vulnerable. The central plot turn in both films remains Mary’s incestuous relationship with Vincent, the bastard son of Sonny and the girl he knocked up at his own wedding, Lucy Mancini. (Page 27 in the hardcover, I was 13.) It’s still very creepy, this relationship. But Andy Garcia is outstanding as Vincent. I think he would have had a bigger career if not for the way “The Godfather III” was received.

Now that the plot has been resolved, you can sort of calm down and enjoy other aspects of the film. Al Pacino is just stunning. I don’t know what Coppola’s other cuts were (it doesn’t seem like many) but Pacino, to me, is mesmerizing. He carries the film, of course, and he’s magnetic. In the film, it’s been 18 years since he left Michael Corleone to grieve, and he knows the character is dying (diabetes, other medical issues). He’s trying to save his family and prepare them for the future. But their time is over. The romance of the mob is becoming a legend, not a sustainable plan. And of course, the film still gives Pacino one of his great movie lines in history: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!”

Some things remain bewilderments. Bridget Fonda was miscast as Vincent’s one night stand. Fonda stands out like a sore thumb because you think, she’s a star, she’ll turn up later. She just disappears. But mostly there are just some real gems here: Talia Shire, Eli Wallach, Joe Mantegna, and George Hamilton are all rather terrific in their supporting roles. (Wallach is really sensational.) Diane Keaton, I love her, but she’s dressed and coiffed like Annie Hall, not Kay Corleone. Keaton the actress comes through, though: her look of anguish and grief in the movie’s big climax is incendiary. Look at her eyes. They are wild with the horror of what her participation in this family has cost.

“Coda” is supposedly playing in theaters somewhere beginning December 4th. If it’s not at the Ziegfeld, I don’t care. Blu Ray, DVD. and streaming commence December 8th. If you’re a Godfather fan– and who isn’t?–you must return once more to the scene of the crime.

The Monday after Thanksgiving usually brings the Gotham Awards. Much more important that the Spirit Awards, the Gothams kicked off the awards season. They were also the first gathering of the New York film community after a week off, so there was always a little extra buzz down at Cipriani Wall Street, where they’ve been held the last few years.

Alas, the Gothams have been moved to January 11th, if they happen at all in person because really that’s a short time from now to vaccinate the 1,000 people who will turn up for this event. I’m really bereft but since we’re having a hurricane today in New York, I guess it’s just as well.

When and if the Gotham Awards ever do happen, “Nomadland” will win and so will Frances McDormand. I just watched “Nomadland” again on my press link, and it’s essentially the Best Picture. Much will happen between now and April, when the Oscars come, but Chloe Zhao may be the first female Best Director, and Asian to boot. Her work is exceptional.

Chadwick Boseman will win Best Actor at the Gothams posthumously for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” He deserves it, and here he’s not in competition with Anthony Hopkins (whose film, “The Father,” everyone will see shortly). Best Doc will go to “Time,” from Amazon Prime.

Well, I’ll miss standing outside Cipriani tonight, it’s usually very cold. I really miss friends from Frank PR, Lina Plath and Clare Ann Darragh, and their amazing staff, and Mike Zimet, who runs the world and keeps everyone safe. Until a couple of years ago we always had an awkward comedian who tried to make jokes about the movies, so I’ll miss him, too.

The one great tragedy of this awards season is not being able to meet people from the movies. If this were a regular year, I’m sure Searchlight would bring all the real people/actors like Swankie and Linda May from “Nomadland.” It’s our loss that we don’t get to meet them. I salute you, Nomads!

Want to cause upset and wreck havoc? Just make a list of the best anything: singers, actors, baseball players. There will be howls of objections from all corners. The New York Times today has made a list of the 25 Best Actors of the 21st Century. It’s specious and nutty. Their list omits several people with serious theater chops, includes some who are popular but not exactly thespians. And where is Meryl Streep? They’ve excised her just to cause trouble. They’ve included several foreign actors and one of two total unknowns just to make you Google them. And of course, in the article, the tributes are written by their friends. Give me a break.

So first their list, then mine. My list includes three gentlemen who have passed away, but recently enough that their 21th century resumes are substantial:

1. Denzel Washington
2. Isabelle Huppert
3. Daniel Day-Lewis
4. Keanu Reeves
5. Nicole Kidman
6. Song Kang-ho
7. Toni Servillo
8. Zhao Tao
9. Viola Davis
10. Saoirse Ronan
11. Julianne Moore
12. Joaquin Phoenix
13. Tilda Swinton
14. Oscar Isaac
15. Michael B. Jordan
16. Kim Min-hee
17. Alfre Woodard
18. Willem Dafoe
19. Wes Studi
20. Rob Morgan
21. Catherine Deneuve
22. Melissa McCarthy
23. Mahershala Ali
24. Sonia Braga
25. Gael Garcia Bernal

Now mine:

1. Meryl Streep
2. Daniel Day-Lewis
3. Nicole Kidman
4. Philip Seymour Hoffman*
5. Denzel Washington
6. Judi Dench
7. David Oyelowo
8. Isabelle Huppert
9. Viola Davis
10. Saoirse Ronan
11. Julianne Moore
12. Joaquin Phoenix
13. Tilda Swinton
14. Oscar Isaac
15. Chadwick Boseman*
16. Cate Blanchett
17. Alfre Woodard
18. Willem Dafoe
19. Al Pacino
20. Robert De Niro
21. Catherine Deneuve
22. Jennifer Lawrence
23. Mahershala Ali
24. Michelle Yeoh
25. Jessica Chastain

And my list, if it had gone on, would have included Octavia Spencer, Anthony Hopkins and Frances McDormand (they’re going to win Oscars next April), Ethan Hawke, Claire Foy, Forest Whitaker, Dianne Wiest, Cherry Jones, Diane Keaton, Glynn Turman, Juliette Bincoche, Cicely Tyson, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, and so on and so on and so. Too many people discount Leonardo DiCaprio’s work, but it’s excellent, top notch, and never to be excluded. If Dustin Hoffman hadn’t been forced into early semi-retirement, he’d be at the top. Jane Fonda, Shirley MacLaine, Annette Bening are superstars. Don Cheadle will blow you away. The Times’s limitation of 25 simply isn’t fair, and even my extended list doesn’t do justice to the dozens, hundreds of great talents from every country. I’ll give the Times, credit for one name: Alfre Woodard. We can’t live without her.
PS If Philip Seymour Hoffman had lived and continued to work, he was the best actor of his generation. He would have been number 1.