Steve Pond's Blog, page 1991
February 7, 2020
Warren’s 1-Word Mayor Pete Dismissal and 4 Other Big Moment’s From the 8th Democratic Debate
Things got fiery at the eighth Democratic debate hosted by ABC News Friday, which is to be expected given it comes right after the Iowa caucus debacle and just before the New Hampshire primary on Monday.
Among the highlights, Bernie Sanders doesn’t seem to think Trump will be able to make an issue out of socialism, Joe Biden paid tribute to a recently fired Trump administration employee, and both Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren went in on Pete Buttigieg — with Warren delivering one of the night’s most memorable, and shortest, moments in the process.
Here are five of the biggest moments of the night.
1) Bernie Sanders Doesn’t Think Being a Socialist Is a Liability in the General Election
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says he isn’t worried that Trump will go after him for identifying as a Democratic Socialist because, as he put it, “Donald Trump lies all the time.”
“It doesn’t matter what Donald Trump says,” he said, pointing out that the president has disparaged multiple people on the stage, too. “It’s a sad state of affairs. It really is. People say terrible things about Joe — he has — ugly, disgusting things about Elizabeth, about Amy, about anybody else who’s up here.”
The moment got the first big cheers of the night — though left unmentioned, Trump spent a great chunk of his state of the union address bashing socialism, also to big cheers from his supporters.
Asked why Democrats shouldn't be worried about Pres. Trump's attacks on him with the "socialist" label, Bernie Sanders says, "Because Donald Trump lies all the time." https://t.co/93QauZSK6e #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/v6JxiNp7qb
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) February 8, 2020
2) Klobuchar Clowns Mayor Pete Over for Wanting to “Watch Cartoons” Instead of the Impeachment Trial
One particularly intense moment came when Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar confronted Pete Buttigieg directly over his apparent dismissal of the impeachment trial. “What you said, Pete — as you were campaigning through Iowa as three of us were jurors in the impeachment hearing — you said it was exhausting to watch and that you wanted to turn the channel and watch cartoons,” she said.
She wasn’t making that up, by the way. He said it during a town hall campaign stop in Ames, Iowa, on Jan. 29.
Klobuchar then used her criticism of Buttigieg’s comments to make a larger point about Donald Trump, dinging Mayor Pete’s pitch as a Washington outsider in the process. “It is easy to go after Washington, because that’s a popular thing to do,” she said. “We have a newcomer in the White House, and look where it got us. I think having some experience is a good thing.”
Amy Klobuchar praises Mitt Romney's "courage" for impeachment vote, then turns to Pete Buttigieg: "You said it was exhausting to watch and that you wanted to turn the channel and watch cartoons." https://t.co/93QauZSK6e #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/O4wFL1cfZR
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) February 8, 2020
Also Read: Internal Fox News Document Warns That Pro-Trump Guests Are Amplifying 'Disinformation'(Report)
3) Joe Biden Requests Standing Ovation for Alexander Vindman
“Stand up and clap for Vindman,” the former vice president said at one point, referencing Ukraine expert Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a key witness in the House’s impeachment inquiry into Trump who was fired from the White House Friday. (For those keeping score, it’s just two days after Trump was acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial.)
Biden then dinged Trump for awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh during Tuesday’s State of the Union address. “He should be pinning a medal on Lt. Col. Vindman and not on Rush Limbaugh.”
4) Elizabeth Warren’s One-Word Dismissal of Pete Buttigieg
Mid-way through, moderator Linsey Davis made Pete Buttigieg stumble when she asked him point blank about the high rate of misdemeanor arrests of black citizens after he became mayor of South Bend, Indiana in 2012. Then she handed the floor to Elizabeth Warren, who shut Buttigieg down with a single word.
“How do you explain the increase in black arrests in South Bend under your leadership for marijuana possession,” Davis asked.
“Again, the overall rate was lower,” Buttigieg said.
“No, there was an increase. The year before you were in office it was lower. Once you became in office in 2012, that number went up,” Davis interjected. “In 2018, the last number year that we have a record for, that number was still up.”
Buttigieg didn’t actually address the specifics of the question. Instead, he appeared to attempt to continue his previous talking points. “And one of the strategies that our community adopted was to target where there were cases when there was gun violence, and gang violence, which was slaughtering so many our community,” he said. “Burying teenagers, disproportionately black teenagers. We adopted a strategy that said that drug enforcement would be targeted in cases where there was a connection to the most violent group or gang connected to a murder. These things are all connected. But that’s the point. So are all of the things that need to change, in order for us to prevent violence and remove the effects of systemic racism, not just from criminal justice but from our economy, from health and housing, and from our democracy itself.”
That’s when Davis turned t0 Elizabeth Warren and asked “Senator Warren, is that a substantial answer from Mayor Buttigieg?”
“No,” Warren said. Ouch.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg struggles to explain why there was an increase in Black arrests in South Bend, Indiana, under his leadership for marijuana possession. And Sen. Elizabeth Warren was not impressed by his answer. pic.twitter.com/9bv3LOj075
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 8, 2020
Also Read: Stephen Colbert Mocks Trump's State of the Union Address While 'Drunk at Work' (Video)
5) Tom Steyer Calls Out Joe Biden Supporter
Things took a slightly personal turn at one point when Steyer called on Biden to publicly disavow one of his supporters, South Carolina state senator Dick Harpootlian, who recently suggested that SC state representative Jerry Govan, a Steyer ally, had been bought by Steyer’s campaign.
“Is he pocketing the dough or redistributing the wealth?” Harpootlian tweeted Wednesday.
During the debate, Steyer called Harpootlian’s comments racist and said to Biden, “I’m asking you to join us, be on the right side.”
Biden didn’t disavow Harpootlian, but he did offer that “I believe he’s sorry for what he said.”
Related stories from TheWrap:
Mike Bloomberg Could Participate in Next Debate Thanks to DNC Rule Change
‘Spaceship Earth’ Director Matt Wolf on What Drew Him to Saga of Biosphere 2 (Video)
Director Matt Wolf said he was inspired to make his new documentary, “Spaceship Earth,” after seeing photographs of Linda Leigh and Mark Nelson in bright red jumpsuits in front of the massive early-1990s science experiment known as Biosphere 2.
“I was just doing research online and I saw these very compelling images of eight people including these two (Leigh and Nelson) in bright red jumpsuits in front of this enormous glass pyramid and I actually thought it was still from science fiction film and when I realized it was real,” Wolf told TheWrap’s Steve Pond at the Sundance Film Festival.
In 1991, eight men and women were sealed into Biosphere 2, an airtight terrarium in the Arizona desert containing a miniature replica of Earth’s environment. Funded by a Texas oil tycoon hoping to acquire licensable technologies for space colonization, the mission of Biosphere 2 was to maintain an isolated, sustainable environment for two years.
Also Read: 'Spaceship Earth' Film Review: Biosphere 2 Documentary Tells a Story Too Strange Not to Be True
“It was a groundbreaking project to re-create a slice of planet Earth and investigate how biospheres operate,” Nelson explained. “And the premise was can we do it sustainably and in a beautiful, healthy way.”
But the project became a dystopian simulation of ecological crisis, after which a corporate consultant took over the venture — and disappeared the data. The investors designed Biosphere 2 to generate a lot of press, but little was revealed about the people who created it — until Wolf assembled his film with the help of archive material and present-day interviews with surviving Biospherians.
Watch the video with Wolf and the former Biosphere residents/scientists above.
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Ashley Williams Sundance Short 'Meats' Gobbled Up for Streaming by Topic (Exclusive)
Tessa Thompson Sundance Film 'Sylvie's Love' Acquired by Amazon Studios
‘Possessor’ Stars Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbott Talk How They Got Inside Each Other’s Minds (Video)
Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbott are not on screen together much in Brandon Cronenberg’s sci-fi thriller “Possessor,” but they each had to adopt the other’s mannerisms and act as if they were one person.
In “Possessor,” Riseborough plays a world-class killer who uses an advanced brain implant technology to take over the mind of an unsuspecting host played by Abbott and commit the perfect crime. So, in a way, Riseborough and Abbott are each playing themselves and their co-star.
“She’s malleable and stealthy and spends her life really shape-shifting, occupying the psyche of people one after another in order to commit these crimes,” Riseborough told TheWrap’s Brian Welk at Sundance. “She is a person not really tethered to her own identity any longer when you come to meet her at the beginning of the film.”
Also Read: 'Never Rarely Sometimes Always' Director Explains Why Her Stars Auditioned in a Bathroom (Video)
Riseborough’s character starts off the film spying on Abbott’s, repeating back his words so that she can nail the inflections of his voice and his mannerisms once she takes control of his mind. But when the movie shifts to Abbott’s perspective, he had to be careful to act as though he was being possessed by Riseborough and specifically how she would do it.
“There’s a lot of conversations that we had together, a lot of talking about it, a lot of fun actor-y stuff of, little gestures that we can mimic, or I would ask Andrea, ‘How did you do this?’ Fun, little weird exercises like this that slowly but surely evolved into a strange duality.”
“And the really interesting and complex thing is that not just that she’s then occupying this character Colin, who Chris plays, but somebody is occupying this character Colin who really has no sense of self and really has so many identities and has occupied the brain of perhaps, I don’t know how many people, 100 or more,” Riseborough added.
Cronenberg, who is the son of filmmaker David Cronenberg, explains that the sci-fi trappings of “Possessor” are really just a metaphor for how people can feel as though they’re losing control over their own lives.
“It’s a movie that’s sort of designed to leave some space for discussion,” Cronenberg said. “But the sci-fi elements are essentially a metaphor for in some ways the way we construct our identities and maintain them and how acting and building character and narrative are fundamental to how we operate as people.”
Check out the interview with the team from “Possessor” above.
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Sundance 2020: Streamers Spent Big and Documentaries Are All the Rage
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'Minari,' 'Boys State' Win Sundance Film Festival's Top Jury Awards
New York Times Disputes Weinstein Lawyer’s Claim She Did Podcast Interview Before the Trial Began
A New York Times spokesperson said Friday that Donna Rotunno recorded her episode of the paper’s “The Daily” podcast on Jan. 28, in direct contradiction to what she told a judge in court.
The episode premiered Friday morning and instantly started trending on Twitter because of comments Rotunno, a defense lawyer for Harvey Weinstein, made about sexual assault victims. During a hearing on Friday morning, Rotunno said that she had recorded the podcast before the trial judge’s Jan. 6 order that the defense team “leave the witnesses alone” and avoid interviews.
“The interview was taped on January 28 and aired on Feb. 7,” a spokesperson for the Times told TheWrap via email.
“She’s calling our witnesses liars,” Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi said after the jury was dismissed for the day Friday. “It is completely in contradiction to your order, so, Judge, we are asking for you to order the defense to cease and desist any discussion about this case.”
Rotunno replied that the interview was taped a while ago, before Judge James Burke ordered the defense team to “leave the witnesses alone” during the trial’s opening day. She said she had “no idea” it would be released today.
“I got called this morning when a friend of mine heard it,” Rotunno said. “I have not spoken to anyone [for interviews] since we started this case.”
A rep for Weinstein told TheWrap, “Ms. Rotunno had no intention to misrepresent the date, as lately the days bleed together. It happened on a day when the judge ended very early. Donna Rotunno would never intentionally mislead, and never once did she talk about any individual.”
Also Read: Harvey Weinstein's Lawyer Says Number of Accusers 'Helps' Mogul in Criminal Trial (Video)
During the interview, after being asked if she had even been sexually assaulted, Rotunno responded by saying she has never “put” herself in the “position” to be sexually assaulted.
Listeners to the New York Times’ “The Daily” used Twitter to respond, tweeting “NO ONE puts themself in that position,” and noting they audibly gasped at her comments.
Her client, a former Hollywood producer who pleaded not guilty at his first indictment in August, faces five felony counts: two counts of predatory sexual assault, one count of first-degree criminal sexual assault, one count of first-degree rape and one count of third-degree.
Related stories from TheWrap:
‘Sergio’ Star Wagner Moura on His Ambition to Produce Films About Latins (Video)
“Sergio” actor/producer Wagner Moura and the filmmakers behind the film dropped by TheWrap Studio at Sundance to discuss the film’s subject — Brazilian United Nations diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello. Moura, who hails from Brazil like Vieira de Mello, opened up about his ambition to produce films about Latins.
“I have this ambition, this dream, of producing films about Latin people that don’t bring forth stereotypes,” Moura told TheWrap’s Steve Pond. “This film is kind of based on a book about Sergio and for me that was the best way to start that kind of dream.”
“Sergio is a Brazilian, and I’m Brazilian, and it’s very important, especially considering the moment of Brazil is going through now to have him as an example of a man who had empathy which is something that I feel many world leaders nowadays would benefit a lot from,” added Moura. “The great thing was to to make people aware, especially of who this guy was.”
Brazilian United Nations diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello has an extensive resume: assistant high commissioner for refugees, special representative of the secretary-general in Kosovo, transitional administrator in East Timor. It’s 2003 and his latest role as high commissioner for human rights sees him traveling to Iraq to lead peace efforts under President George W. Bush. As he tries to balance heightening tensions on the ground with his desire to spend more time with his partner, Carolina Larriera, the unexpected and tragic happens, forcing Sergio to reflect on his 34 years of service to the UN and, more importantly, on the woman he loves.
Festival veteran Greg Barker transforms his documentary of the same name (2009 Sundance Film Festival, Documentary Editing Award) into a gripping work of fiction that honors Sergio’s legacy by portraying him in his fullness.
Related stories from TheWrap:
Ashley Williams Sundance Short 'Meats' Gobbled Up for Streaming by Topic (Exclusive)
Tessa Thompson Sundance Film 'Sylvie's Love' Acquired by Amazon Studios
Sundance 2020: Streamers Spent Big and Documentaries Are All the Rage
Does ‘Birds of Prey’ Have a Post-Credits Scene?
The DC universe of movies has rebounded a bit in the last few years since the “Justice League” debacle, with “Aquaman” and “Shazam” getting audiences back on board with this whole thing Now we’ve got the R-rated “Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn,” which is sitting pretty with a very nice 86% score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
While the DCEU is not currently as interconnected as the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become — this current group of films has a shared backstory, but they don’t really interact with each other — this is still a franchise made up of other franchises. And if “Birds of Prey,” which has a much smaller budget than most comic book movies, manages to pull in a decent amount of money then we should be set for more Harley Quinn madness in the future.
So it’s worth wondering if “Birds of Prey” is looking ahead to future films in the series or the DCEU in general — remember, we also have “Wonder Woman 1984” landing this summer, and it very well could end up being the biggest movie of the year. While DC movies are not typically known to have bonus mid-credits or post-credits scenes the way Marvel movies are, the last three DCEU films have adopted the practice.
Also Read: 'Birds of Prey' Film Review: Margot Robbie Strikes a Mallet-Blow for Female Empowerment
So does “Birds of Prey” have a post-credits scene? The answer is yes, the film does feature a small bit of bonus content at the very end of the credits.
However, it’s really just an extra gag and not like a secret “Wonder Woman 1984” trailer or some other kind of big tease. So if you need to leave before the credits wrap up, you can do so knowing you didn’t miss some kind of major thing. The bit is funny, though, so I recommend sticking around if you can.
I’m gonna describe the joke below. I wouldn’t consider it any kind of spoiler, but if you want to experience the joke fresh you should bail out of this article now.
Also Read: Critics Gush Over 'Birds of Prey': 'If Only All Comic Book Movies Felt This Fun'
So the bonus scene is not actually a scene, but rather some narration from Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) that plays over the last few seconds of the trailer.
In the bit, Harley reveals that she has a “super duper secret” bit of information that she wants to share with the audience, but they can’t tell anyone about it. And that’s because it’s a Batman-related secret.
“Did you know that Batman’s–” she says, being cut off before she says whatever she was going to say. So what was she going to reveal? Batman’s true identity? Some mean and funny insult? Your guess is as good as mine.
Related stories from TheWrap:
Can 'Birds of Prey' and Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn Slay at Box Office?
First 'Birds of Prey' Reactions Call DC Ensemble Film 'Delightfully Devilish'
Every Key in Netflix’s ‘Locke and Key’ and What It Does
(Warning: This post contains spoilers through the Season 1 finale of Netflix’s “Locke & Key.”)
If you’ve already reached the end of the first season of “Locke & Key,” which launched Friday on Netflix, then you are familiar with the many keys that the Locke kids find throughout those 10 episodes, and just how important they are.
But we’re willing to bet that you may not actually remember — or even understand — exactly what all 12 keys collected by Bode (Jackson Robert Scott), Tyler (Connor Jessup) and Kinsey (Emilia Jones), and a few by Dodge (Laysla De Oliveira), do.
Well, don’t worry, because TheWrap kept track of what powers each key unlocked (sorry, not sorry, about the pun) for the siblings as they discovered them tucked away inside their ancestral home, Keyhouse, and we’ve rounded them all up in the handy list below. We even got “Locke & Key” showrunners Carlton Cuse and Meredith Averill to explain a few in detail for us.
Note: Fans of “Locke & Key’s” source material, Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez’s best-selling IDW comic of the same name, will notice a few changes to the keys have been made here and there by Cuse and Averill. So just know what you see below is a list of the keys from the show and what they do on the show.
Netflix
Anywhere Key
This key is the first key that Bode finds in Keyhouse. As Dodge explains it to him — back when she’s still trapped in the well house and claiming to be Bode’s “Echo” — this key lets you go anywhere in the world you want — but with a catch. Bode soon finds out that the key lets you travel to anywhere in the world you want to go — if that location has a door that you can picture in your mind. You have to know what a door looks like to travel through it, Dodge later tells Bode.
Echo Key
The Echo Key is used to summon an “echo” of a deceased person from Keyhouse’s well house. Ellie does it to bring back Lucas — which really unleashes Dodge. So, as we learn, while an echo appears to be a replica of the deceased, it’s not an exact copy. The echo also cannot leave the well house — unless they have the Anywhere Key.
Ghost Key
The Ghost Key allows the user to leave their body and become a ghost when inserted into a specific Keyhouse door, (the one with the same skull symbol printed on the key itself). While a ghost, the user can fly around and interact with other ghosts, but is unable to be seen by the living. It’s important to note that the door that goes with the Ghost Key must remain open while the key is in use, otherwise the person who has left their body will die.
Netflix
Head Key
This key allows the user to open a literal door to the inside of a person’s head, giving them access to that person’s memories, knowledge and emotions, which can become personified, like Bode’s Glee and Kinsey’s Fear. Each door and “head” space is different, complementing the personality of the person whose head you’re in. When using the key, you are able to put things into someone’s head and take things out.
Cuse told TheWrap the Head Key, which existed in Hill and Rodríguez’s comics, functions a bit differently for the show.
“There’s just certain elements of the comic that work perfectly for a comic that don’t work in a television adaptation,” he said. “So there’s the Head Key, which allows you to go inside characters’ heads. In the comic, it literally tilts the top of someone’s head open and you can look inside their head and see the inner workings of their brain. Now, that just did not feel like that translated– it looks fantastic and, in fact, the splash panel in the comics of what’s inside Bode’s head is maybe one of the greatest pieces of comic art of the modern-age comic, mind you. But it’s not something that I felt like we could do in the show. It would look like brain surgery using the key. So we had to come up with a metaphoric way to do the Head Key and so we thought that we’d think long and hard about what the environments we created look like with a little bit of inspiration from ‘Inception,’ worlds within worlds kind of thing. And that was the major deviation that is really something that we really liked that was different than the comics.”
Shadow Key
This key is incredibly powerful when combined with the Crown of Shadows. The key and crown together allow the person wearing them to control a group of shadow-like creatures, which is exactly what Dodge does when she sics them on the Locke children.
Also Read: 'Altered Carbon' Season 2 Teaser: There's a New Takeshi Kovacs in Town - It's Anthony Mackie (Video)
Mending Cabinet Key
This key has to be used with the Mending Cabinet itself to do anything, which isn’t something Bode figures out right away and so he thinks it’s useless. Nina later discovers its magic by accident and then attempts to resurrect Rendell by putting the urn containing his ashes inside the cabinet. And though he doesn’t come back to life, this allows the Locke children to later find the Omega Key in their father’s ashes.
Netflix
Music Box Key
This key lets the person who inserts it inside its accompanying magical music box to have complete control over others.
Matchstick Key
Really a fancy lighter. A really, really scary and effective, fancy lighter.
Identity Key
Allows the user to change the visual appearance of a person after inserting the key into the chin of that person. And you can change the “identity” of people other than yourself — as we tragically learn in the finale, when Dodge makes Ellie looks like herself to trick the Locke kids.
Also Read: Netflix Sets 'The Witcher' Anime Film 'Nightmare of the Wolf'
Mirror Key
Opens a mirror portal to “The Prison of the Self,” a location Dodge says many people have died trying to escape.
Plant Key
The key allows the user to control any plant. Teen Rendell and his friends a.k.a. the Keepers of the Keys used the tree as a hiding place for some of his little brother Duncan’s memories — including the one where Rendell killed Lucas/Dodge — which they extracted from his mind and placed into paint jars.
Here’s how Averill explained the Plant Key to us:
“Some of the keys that we used are actually only introduced in the comics in a single panel, they’re not even named. And that is an example of one of them. And the Plant Key functions in that if you kind of stick the key into any sort of plants or tree or root, you can manipulate that plant to kind of do whatever you want. And so the Keepers hid Duncan’s memories underground so that he would never find them. And so when Kinsey puts the key into the tree, it manipulates the roots to reveal the memory jars.”
Omega Key
This key opens the Black Door down in Matheson’s sea caves. We don’t know a lot about the world that lies beyond that door, but we do know it’s where the demon Dodge came from in the first place, back when Rendell and his friends opened the door when they were teens and a “glowing bullet” containing Dodge’s demon essence hit Lucas. In the Season 1 finale, the Locke kids and their friends throw Ellie (who they think is Dodge/Lucas) into the Black Door, not noticing that one of those glowing bullets hits Eden in the process. Viewers find out about what happened to the now-demon-possessed Eden when the closing moments of the episode show her meeting up with Gabe — who is revealed to have been Dodge in disguise this whole time.
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Cynthia Erivo Wants to Make Hits in the First Teaser for Nat Geo’s ‘Genius: Aretha’ (Video)
Have your first look at Cynthia Erivo as the Queen of Soul in the first teaser for Nat Geo’s “Genius: Aretha.” Watch it above now.
The clip is set to air on Nat Geo’s sister broadcast network ABC during Sunday’s Oscars telecast to promote the upcoming season of the anthology ahead of its May premiere.
Led by Ervio, who is nominated for multiple Oscars for her role in the Harriet Tubman biopic “Harriet,” “Genius: Aretha” is the third installment of the Nat Geo anthology dramatizing the lives of histories greatest innovators.
Also Read: 'Genius: Aretha' Star Cynthia Erivo Sent a Note of Congratulations to 'Respect' Star Jennifer Hudson
“Genius: Aretha” will premiere on Nat Geo across four consecutive nights, beginning Memorial Day, Monday, May 25. Per Nat Geo, the eight-part series will “explore Franklin’s musical genius and incomparable career — and the immeasurable impact and lasting influence she has had on music and culture around the world.”
Joining Erivo in the series is an ensemble cast including Courtney B. Vance, David Cross, Malcolm Barrett, Patrice Covington, Kimberly Hébert Gregory, Rebecca Naomi Jones and Sanai Victoria. Suzan-Lori Parks is showrunner on the new season, with Anthony Hemingway executive producing and directing. Imagine’s Brian Grazer and Ron Howard also return as executive producers.
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'Genius: Aretha' Star Cynthia Erivo Sent a Note of Congratulations to 'Respect' Star Jennifer Hudson
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Why Does ‘Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood’ Feature So Many Real-Life Pedophiles? (Guest Blog)
During his opening monologue at the Golden Globes last month, Ricky Gervais announced, “It was a big year for pedophile movies — ‘Surviving R. Kelly.’ ‘Leaving Neverland.’ (pause) ‘The Two Popes.'” The audience erupted in laughter but I felt sick to my stomach. What about “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” a film that went on to win three of the top awards that night, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy?
Quentin Tarantino’s new movie includes Timothy Olyphant in a supporting role as James Stacy, an actor on the real-life Western TV show “Lancer” (starring Leonardo DiCaprio’s fictional Rick Dalton in the film) who was a serial pedophile. Stacy, who is my great uncle, in 1995 pleaded no contest to molesting an 11-year-old girl and served six years in prison. Although he had a charming role in Tarantino’s latest film, Stacy has long been the villain in my family’s “Once Upon a Time.”
Stacy was promoted as the next James Dean whose career ended after he tragically lost an arm and a leg in a motorcycle accident (Tarantino references this in the film). E’s “True Hollywood Story” did a profile of the whole “tragedy,” but those who really knew Stacy sensed something closer to karma. He preyed on numerous young girls and sexually violated them; his victims include members of my family and their friends.
Also Read: Tarantino's 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood': How the Stars Compare to Real-Life Characters (Photos)
As a film studies professor, I am in awe of Tarantino’s use of film language; every image, every word, every color and angle, you feel his purpose and intention. Why had he included my great uncle in this film? What did he want to symbolically use this man for? I was in no way prepared for Tarantino’s endearing representation of Stacy in a movie that also normalizes the sexual desire for teenage girls.
Stacy is just one of at least three real-life men in the film known to have sexually abused young women and children, including Roman Polanski and Charles Manson. The film never mentions any of these men within the context of their historical crimes or calls alarm to sexual desire of minors. Quite the opposite: We are primed to accept and replicate their behavior.
Through the film language Tarantino chose, he forces the audience to visually desire teenage bodies while his plot and dialogue lead us to villainize and blame the girls themselves for their unhealthy proximity to older men. They are Lolitas tempting men to cross the line. The relationship between Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) and teenage Pussycat (Margaret Qualley) is most prominent, but we are also introduced to a child actor (Julia Butters) who’s thrown to the ground by DiCaprio’s Dalton and then lovingly climbs into his lap. And we meet various young Manson girls who frolic across the screen with their bouncing boobs and plump pregnant bellies.
As Cliff Booth drives around Burbank, Tarantino uses camera shots that have the audience take on Cliff’s point of view while he gazes at a row of young women (including Pussycat) mesmerizingly prancing across the street like they are in a lineup at a brothel. Later, Tarantino shows Pussycat sitting at a bus stop, and again we are thrown into Cliff’s head as his gaze pauses on her in a macramé crop top and short shorts with her legs sprawled open. Tarantino has her confidently strut over to the car, and, instead of experiencing their conversation from mutual point-of-view shots, we watch from behind her as she leans into the car. This places her sensuous bare back and ass spilling out of her cutoff shorts in the center of the frame; we are no longer in Cliff’s head, but our gaze is forced to visually devour her body. Tarantino also centralizes a shot of Pussycat’s bare feet on the dash of Cliff’s car; as the lens lingers here he is having us consume her through his own notorious kink: his foot fetish.
After we are conditioned to lust over young female bodies through the male gaze, Tarantino’s plot and dialogue places these young women as the active pursuants and abusers, taking advantage of much older men like Bruce Dern’s George Spahn. And again I found myself asking, “Why?” What does this add to our journey through “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” beyond the harmful narrative that young women are to blame for their own abuse? Isn’t this the opposite of what Hollywood’s #MeToo movement is about?
What’s the psychological impact of a film filled with hidden historical pedophiles and sexual abusers, that parades young flesh across the screen for our consumption, dares us to imagine how gratifying it would be to f— a teenage girl, makes them the Lolitas egging us on — but never mentions the possibility of abuse or acknowledges known abusers?
Also Read: Meet Julia Butters, the 10-Year-Old Scene Stealer From 'Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood'
Maybe Tarantino’s point was to force us to have a conversation about the hidden underbelly of sex abuse in Hollywood’s history and spotlight how movies themselves are responsible — but the threads are not clear, and, as the press tour and award season have dragged on, we are clearly not having that conversation. Perhaps Tarantino gave his opinion on the matter when he notoriously said of Weinstein’s horrific behavior and crimes, “We allowed it to exist because that’s the way it was.”
Here we are in the midst of the #MeToo movement, the “Great Awakening” to the saga of sex abuse, but a movie like “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” shoves bad behavior in our face and the industry doesn’t even bat an eye. What good does it do to take down individual men and continue with bias training if we can’t even see the systemic causes when they are under our noses? The film’s award season campaign declares, “Because You Love Movies.” For those of us intimately aware of predators, this film does not bring out our love of movies, but rather reminds us of their ability to normalize contemptible behavior like the sexualization of young girls.
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Tarantino's 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood': How the Stars Compare to Real-Life Characters (Photos)
Meet Julia Butters, the 10-Year-Old Scene Stealer From 'Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood'
February 6, 2020
‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,’ Regina Spektor Win Top Prizes From Guild of Music Supervisors
The music supervisors from “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” “Queen & Slim,” “Waves” and “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” and singer-songwriter Regina Spektor have won the top film awards from the Guild of Music Supervisors, which handed out its annual awards in Los Angeles on Thursday night.
The GMS categories for film are separated by budget. “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” won the award for music supervision on a film with a budget of more than $25 million, “Queen & Slim” for a film between $10 million and $25 million, “Waves” for a film between $5 million and $10 million and “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” for a film with a budget of less than $5 million.
The award for a song written for film went to Spektor’s “One Little Soldier” from “Bombshell.” The song category is the only GMS category that overlaps with the Academy Awards, but only one of the five nominees, “Into the Unknown” from “Frozen II,” was also nominated for an Oscar. (“One Little Soldier” was ineligible for the Oscar, reportedly because of a submission error.)
“Something Stupid” from “Better Call Saul” won the award for a song written for television, while other TV awards went to “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Euphoria,” “Songland,” “The Dirt” and “Native Son.”
The ceremony took place at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. Performers included Regina Spektor and Lola Marsh, while Kristin Chenoweth and Michael Bolton were among the presenters.
Also at the ceremony, longtime music executive Bob Hunka received the Legacy Award and songwriter Burt Bacharach received the Icon Award.
Also Read: Oscars 2020 Predictions: '1917' and 'Parasite' Will Go to War, But Who Will Win?
The winners:
FILM
Best Music Supervision for Film Budgeted Over $25 Million: Mary Ramos – “Once Upon A Time … in Hollywood”
Best Music Supervision for Film Budgeted Under $25 Million: Kier Lehman – “Queen & Slim”
Best Music Supervision for Film Budgeted Under $10 Million: Meghan Currier, Joe Rudge, Randall Poster – “Waves”
Best Music Supervision for Film Budgeted Under $5 Million: Terri D’Ambrosio – “The Last Black Man In San Francisco”
Best Song Written and/or Recorded for a Film: “One Little Soldier” from “Bombshell”
Writer: Regina Spektor
Performed By: Regina Spektor
Music Supervisor: Evyen Klean
TELEVISION
Best Music Supervision in a Television Drama: Adam Leber, Jen Malone – “Euphoria” – Season 1
Best Music Supervision in a Television Musical or Comedy: Robin Urdang – “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” – Season 2
Best Music Supervision in Reality Television: Jill Meyers – “Songland” – Season 1
Best Music Supervision in a Television Movie: (tie) Joe Rudge, Chris Swanson – “The Dirt”; Howard Paar – “Native Son”
Best Song Written and/or Recorded for Television: “Something Stupid” from “Better Call Saul”
Songwriter: C. Carson Parks
Artist: Lola Marsh
Program: “Better Call Saul”
Episode: #407 “Something Stupid”
Music Supervisor: Thomas Golubić
DOCUMENTARIES
Best Music Supervision for a Documentary: Tracy McKnight – “Halston”
Best Music Supervision in a Docuseries: Rudy Chung, Jonathan Christiansen – “Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men”
TRAILERS
Best Music Supervision for Trailers: Anny Colvin (Jax) – “Joker” Tease
ADVERTISING
Best Music Supervision in Advertising – Original Music: David Taylor, Scott McDaniel, Jonathan Wellbelove – Apple Watch “Hokey Pokey”
Best Use of Music Supervision in Advertising – Sync: David Taylor, Scott McDaniel, Jonathan Wellbelove – Apple iPhone “Color Flood”
VIDEO GAMES
Best Music Supervision in a Video Game: Cybele Pettus, Raphaella Lima – “FIFA 20”
Icon Award: Burt Bacharach
Legacy Award: Bob Hunka
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Oscars 2020: A Great Year in Film Means a Packed Party Schedule
32 Great Movies That Received Zero Oscar Nominations (Photos)
Oscar's Longest Losing Streaks: 12 People With 10-Plus Nominations and No Wins (Photos)
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