hollywood deluged by political fireworks!!!

The politicization of, well, just about everything - but of Hollywood in particular - has been the defining event of twenty-eighteen. Inarguably.

The prevailing phenom of the year has been an on-going, ubiquitous reality show that's virtually inescapable because (1) it airs on every network and cable channel and (2) it can never be canceled, per Executive Privilege. For better or worse (actually, much worse), we're stuck with it.

There was no way that any other entertainment-based medium could compete with it or its 24/7 exposure. Consequently, the achievements of Hollywood seem vague and piddling, despite the focused efforts of both industry and critics groups to prove otherwise with year-end accolades.

And it's hit me, too! (Poor me.) My own humble take on what mattered, entertainment-wise, in 2018 is somewhat scattered and much more personal (and political) than usual, but here goes anyway...

Favorite Film → "True Stories"

For me, the year's best movie was actually released by Warner Bros. in 1986: The Criterion Collection's 2018 Blu-ray release of David Byrne's wildly inventive, willyfully oddball, new-style movie musical, "True Stories." (This is an invaluable, much-needed corrective to the DVD that Warner Bros. itself released in the '90s, a transfer of the pan-and-scan version made for syndicated television and formatted for the old box TV sets.)

Set in Virgil, Texas - an open-air location that's strangely airless - Byrne's film (his first and only directorial effort) acts as a series of vignettes seemingly inspired by the kind of stories headlined in supermarket tabloids, all connected by Virgil's planned Celebration of Special-ness.

There are yarns here about the world's most desperate bachelor (John Goodman), the world's biggest liar (Jo Harvey Allen), the world's laziest woman (Swoozie Kurtz) and a happily-married couple (Annie McEnroe and Spaulding Gray) who haven't spoken directly to each other in years.

Supermarket tabloids aside, there is something Almanesque about Byrne's little movie, written by playwright Beth Henley and actor Steven Tobolowsky (who were an item at the time). And much like Altman's "Nashville," it's driven by a marvelous song score - by The Talking Heads ("Wild, Wild Life" and "People Like Us," among others).

Included in Criterion's Blu-ray packaging is a CD of the film's first, complete soundtrack, including Byrne's eccentric background melodies. At the time of the film's release in '86, Byrne released two albums - one of the film's background score and one of The Talking Heads' versions of the songs.  So, it's a pleasure to hear John Goodman on "People Like Us" and Annie McEnroe's wonderfully loopy reading of the hauntingly evocative "Dream Operator," sung during a wildly weird fashion-show sequence that's one of the highlights of the movie.

David Byrne and company were downright prescient. The singular strangeness of "True Stories" and especially its delusional middle-of-the-country characters have caught up with the times. One can easily imagine these "little people" being whipped into a frenzy at a modern political rally.

My self-indulgent reasoning for highlighting it aside, "True Stories" really is "The Movie of 2018!"

That said, there were a few other worthy titles, rare movies (and TV series) that I actually wanted to see for a second or third time...
  
 "Isle of Dogs" → 
     "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" → 
           "The Bookshop" →  
                "Pose" →  
                     "Double Lover" ("L'amant double") →  
                           "A Simple Favor" →
                                "Eighth Grade" → 
                                     "Jonathan" →  
                                          "Three Identical Strangers" 

 

Favorite Performers →  Matt Damon (as Brett Kavanaugh) / “Saturday Night Live” (September 29^th, 2018 episode)                                                 
and → Melissa McCarthy  (as Lee Israel) / “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”

and → Robert Redford (as Forrest Tucker) / "The Old Man & the Gun"

and → Julia Roberts (as Holly Burns) "Ben Is Back"

And nine others... 

     Ansel Elgort / “Jonathan” →

          Mj Rodriguez / “Pose" →

              Jonah Hill / “Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot" →
                   Lucas Hedges / "Boy Erased" & "Ben Is Back" →
                         Patricia Clarkson / "Sharp Objects" →
                                Richard E. Grant / "Can You Ever Forgive Me?"→
                                     Andrea Riseborough / Nancy" →

                                           Blake Lively / “A Simple Favor” →

                                               Rami Malek / “Bohemian Rhapsody" 
                                                                                

Favorite Line of the Year  → The Commander in Chief during a  moment in the Helsinki episode of the reality series when he described the current Russian President as "extremely strong and powerful."  Which sounds exactly like something that Jane Russell would have said about Robert Mitchum in their hot 1952 Josef von Sternberg/Nicholas Ray collaboration, "Macao."

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~images~
(from top)

 ~Fireworks overtake Holywood
~Photography: Getty Images

~Clever publicity art for "True Stories"

~Photography: Warner Bros. 1986© 

~John Goodman singing "People Like Us" in the film
~the fashion show at the Virgil Shopping Mall

~photography: Warner Bros. 1986©

 ~Matt Damon as Brett Kavanaugh on SNL

~photography: NBC 2018©

 ~Melissa McCarthy as Lee Israel in "Can You Ever Forgive Me?"

~photography: Fox Searchlight Pictures 2018©

~Poster art for "Macao"

~photography: RKO Radio Pictures 1952©