If you could make a case that the scene was *intended* to be comic, it might be hailed as a return to form. That wasn't what I saw happening. Like watching a night of one-acts at a senior center.

The film that Wally Shawn stars in (I haven't seen the whole thing) has a scene where two men holding smartphones exchange numbers. One of them asks to borrow a pen. Someone noted that Woody frequently tells on himself in his films, but now that tattling is on his age and being out of touch.

And you can talk about Jim Henson, George Lucas, and Stan Lee in the 60s, but all of them came after and were clearly inspired by Disney's unbridled, unparalleled ambition. None of them got even close to what Disney the Man made happen. And now most of that work has been absorbed into Disney's Wake.

Cinema and television became a means to an end once he got the park in his head.

Walt Disney, the man, had a prodigious talent for 1) understanding what would keep a family entertained, 2) hiring talented people, 3) wholesome absurdism. The pinnacle of that is not Mickey Mouse, Snow White, or Mary Poppins, but Disneyland, his true magnum opus.

Companies probably shouldn't live on beyond their progenitors like that. It's a questionable form of immortality.

Jim Henson personally invited DH to the Muppet Show at son Brian's suggestion, who suggested that she would at the very least look amazing. Henson sat his son near/next to DH at the weekly dinner party and gave the lad a sly wink.

Francesca is a good kid who wants to work closely with her elderly father who happens to be the planet's greatest living filmmaker, and one of the best of all time. People used to make fun of Sophia Coppola, too. Not so much the boys, you notice.

Howard grew up in Mayberry, but Andy was a legendary hardass, so that probably felt right to him.

Meade Roberts! Very cool.

@wychstreet.bsky.social I figure that Hughes cut out much of the sinus-clearing that Candy did in the hotel room to make room for Baker later on. Watching all of the extra stuff: there's little that's bad, only things that won't fit.

Sam Raimi cast him as Curt Connors who becomes "The Lizard" in the Spider-Man comics. I wish that would have paid off for him. For all of the faults in those movies, Sam Raimi elevated a number of brilliant actors to permanent full marquee status.

As for the Paul Dano thing, you can think whatever you want about an actor, but it's bad form for a working director to say anything like that about a living, working actor. Part of why I suspect he will never make that "last film" of his. He's done working in film.

Either that, or someone at Paramount messed with him and he decided to get revenge by writing a ST screenplay that he knew would never be produced, and forcing them to pay for it.

Tarantino is a fun filmmaker, but I also get the impression that he thinks out loud and it gets him into trouble. I imagine that's how the Star Trek thing came about.

I mean, none of them ever looked healthy past 30, but...

Junior is like, "what if chewing gum were leathery?"