Depp-Heard closing arguments which I didn't watch

In a happier time.

I looked on You Tube. I could have watched the closing arguments in the Johnny Depp/Amada Heard trial, but, no.

I watched a little of the testimony. One psychologist spoke freely in psychological gobbledygook, not simplifying for the jury, which must have been refreshing.

I know that Johnny Depp fans have overwhelmed Amber Heard admirers online, but, in theory, that shouldn't affect the outcome. I'm rooting for Amanda just to see Depp's fans struggle to cope with the verdict. Marrying a drug addict/alcoholic couldn't have been easy for her.

Think of Ronnie Howard, Ricky Schroeder or---I don't know---Booboo Stewart. Ronnie and Ricky now call themselves Ron and Rick. Mr Stewart now puts "Booboo" in quotation marks. Maybe there's already an actor named "John Depp" which leaves Depp with little choice but continue calling himself "Johnny" into old age.

You know what good names would be for aspiring actors? Tonto Depp for boys and Amber Depp, Jr, for girls.

Vampire's Kiss (1988)

My friends and I watched this around the time it came out on videotape. I don't remember why we picked it. Watched it again on Pluto. 

Nicholas Cage gives an uninhibited performance as a yuppie literary agent. He hangs around clubs at night, brings home strange women, and he's being treated for depression. After a bat comes fluttering into his apartment, through a mixture of mental illness and misunderstanding, he comes to believe he's a vampire. 

I admired Nicholas Cage after seeing this. I don't remember seeing any of his movies for years after that, but I heard that his acting had become weirder and weirder, although that's hard to imagine. I read a few years later that he had taken up bodybuilding so he could do action movies. 

At one point, he's shot with a gun loaded with banks which confirms in his mind that he's now undead. I think audiences now would know or suspect that the blanks would have killed him.

I don't know how people in small towns would have reacted to Cage's character, but New Yorkers seemed rather kind at times, helping him when he collapses on the street at the sight of a cross.

How should we react to a horrible, soulless yuppie who commits terrible crimes but only after becoming insane?

Brits charge Kevin Spacey, 62

And now Kevin Spacey is in trouble with the law in Britain. According to Variety:

The decision was unveiled Thursday by the U.K.’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which has spent over a year reviewing a file passed to them by the Metropolitan Police.

“The CPS has authorized criminal charges against Kevin Spacey, 62, for four counts of sexual assault against three men,” said Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS Special Crime Division. “He has also been charged with causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent. The charges follow a review of the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police in its investigation. The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against Mr Spacey are active and that he has the right to a fair trial.”

Sounds like he was making a bit of a comeback with Peter Five Eight and a movie called Gateway to the West. 

Don McLean: This is weird

After the mass murder of nineteen children and two teachers in a Texas grade school, Don McLean has backed out of performing at a National Rifle Association annual meeting in Houston.

McLean is listed alongside several other musicians for the NRA’s Grand Ole Night of Freedom concert on Saturday at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Also included in the lineup are country artists Danielle Peck, T. Graham Brown, Larry Gatlin, Larry Stewart, Jacob Bryant and Lee Greenwood, whose song “God Bless the U.S.A” has become a conservative anthem and is played regularly at Republican events, including rallies hosted by former President Donald Trump.

Like Greenwood, McLean is best known for one song, the iconic and lengthy 1971 hit “American Pie.” Unlike Greenwood, McLean has not been linked to conservative causes.

Why would he take that gig in the first place?
 

And Soon the Darkness (UK, 1970)

A British movie filmed in France and at a studio near London. There was a remake in 2010. 

Had a small cast, only nine speaking roles. And there was only one scene with any extras.

Two young English women are bicycling through France. They're on a side road going through farm country. They get into an argument, split up and one of them goes missing.

The girl searches for her friend, learns there was an unsolved murder there a few years earlier. There's a language barrier and the French all seem unnecessarily suspicious. She doesn't know who she can trust.

The story covers a period of just a few hours.

Even if I wanted to bicycle through France I wouldn't do it. By the time you realize you've made a terrible mistake it would be too late. You'd be miles from nowhere with no choice but to carry on. I'm not talking about the danger of being murdered---just having to ride a bike. Always give yourself a way out.

Free on Movieland Tv.

 

Kevin Spacey back

At Cannes.

Someone thinks it’s a good idea to produce a thriller starring Kevin Spacey, accused and sued as an alleged sexual predator. He hasn’t been seen in a movie in five years.

“Peter Five Eight” indeed marquees Spacey, wearing something dead on his head, a strange guy in a small town who stalks one woman and beds Rebecca DeMornay. (It’s hard to imagine she needed money this badly or couldn’t get other work.)

The director is first timer Michael Zaiko Hall.

Spacey’s co-star, Jet Jandreau, who, no you’ve never heard of, is listed as a producer. There is no distributor so far.

This was from Showbiz 411.

There must be a better way to bring back a #MeToo guy, to exploit a disgraced star at a deep discount. Maybe have a him play an ex-cop kicked off the force for being a sexual predator. He now has to work as a private eye while going through therapy for his problem.

Richard Linklater's SubUrbia (1996)

I'm sure there are people who achieve success in a creative field at a young age who are perfectly nice guys. And there have to be at least some losers in the world who can't conceal their bitterness or are violent racists. So the film is plausible enough.

A successful singer-songwriter in his 20's returns to his hometown. Most of his slacker friends from high school are happy to see him.

The ones who succeed or have hope of success are the good ones. Lack of ambition is the hallmark of a bad person in this thing. There's a pleasant but unambitious guy who is rewarded anyway.

I hope my seeing it this way doesn't say more about me than it does about the movie.

Based on the play by Eric Bogosian.

Available on the Criterion Channel.