Louis C.K. makes surprise stand-up appearance at NYC's famous Comedy Cellar, Twitter cries "Blasphemy!"

Late last year Louis C.K. was facing multiple sexual harassment claims against him (five women in a report by The New York Times) and even refused to lawyer up. Suffice to say, the industry swiftly backed away from the director, actor, and writer, but is his career done? 

His movie "I Love You, Daddy," which he wrote, directed and starred in, was scrapped from release with its original studio, The Orchard, parting ways with the comedian. Netflix, also cancelled a C.K. stand-up special they had lined up.

Last night, C.K. came out of hiding and appeared at NYC's famous Comedy Cellar for an impromptu 15 minute stand-up gig. Comedy Cellar owner Noam Dworman told the Times’ Melena Ryzik that “there can’t be a permanent life sentence on someone who does something wrong.”

The crux of the C.K. allegations had to do with the 50-year-old comedian's knack for chronic public masturbation. Yes, Good ol' Louis would whip out his lizard and just start stroking it whenever he had a woman to himself backstage. Of course, this kind of harassment isn't rape or stalking or fondling but it is disturbing behavior. It could easily traumatize people who witness it. Nevertheless, why can't he make a comeback? I condemn C.K.'s actions and do find his actions repulsive but he's not a murderer, he's not even a rapist, I more than welcome his return and hope that he uses the insane controversy to make some kind of therapeutic comedy out of it.

News of his comeback, and Ryzki's comments, didn't sit well on Twitter (does anything in the world appear fine and dandy for the chronic, rage-obsessed fiends that roam the Twitterverse?) CK was condemned for appearing out in public and doing his act. They are shouting "How dare he!!!" What do these people expect? For C.K. to be miserable the rest of his days? This isn't Weinstein or Cosby we're talking about here.

Due to white-male dominated film criticism, Rotten Tomatoes opens its doors to more than 200+ critics, including Youtubers, Vloggers, Bloggers and Podcasts.

The news today that Rotten Tomatoes has decided to add more "critics" to its aggregate site has been met with divisive reaction. This is basically RT trying to diversify and have more critics that aren't white and male, I'm fine with that, but not when you decide to add a bunch of Vloggers and bloggers to the equation. The definition of what a "film critic" is supposed to be has changed drastically based on today's events, not that it hadn't already before, with the news that over 200 new Tomatometer-approved critics have been added to Rotten Tomatoes.

The newly added 'critics' come from various different media platforms including Podcasts, and YouTube streaming shows. In addition, the site has now decided to add personal blog critics.

“The feedback we kept getting is that film criticism has changed,” said Jenny Jediny, Rotten Tomatoes critics relations manager. "Layoffs at major print publications and magazines have left a mark," she said. “More people are freelancing, but our site didn’t reflect that. We were only focused on the reviews they were writing for pre-approved publications.”

If you remember the backlash that Actress Brie Larson received earlier this year, for a speech she gave at the Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards, where she insinuated that lack of diversity in film criticism was to blame for the negative reviews of films which featured main characters of different races and/or backgrounds. She went on to give the terrible example of Ava DuVernay's "A Wrinkle In Time," saying “I do not need a 40-year-old white dude to tell me what didn’t work for him about ‘A Wrinkle in Time, It wasn’t made for him.” To which I stated that "A Wrinkle In Time" was almost just as hated by female critics as it was by males.

Why is the news of newly added critics to RT so important? Well, a fresh or rotten score has shown to severely impact the box-office of many marquee films . It is an uncontested fact that many millennials turn to Rotten Tomatoes for their weekend movie decisions.

According to a recent study by USC, White critics, male and female, "wrote 82% of the reviews of the top 100-grossing films of last year. Whereas critics with an "underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds penned a mere 18% of reviews. Just over 20% of the 19,559 reviews that the study’s authors evaluated were written by women."

Paul Yanover, president of Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes’ parent company, said the new additions will help create “a better product. More reviews means we’re including more points of view and more platforms… By opening the aperture wider, we’re being more reflective of where film criticism is going.”

John Goodman: Roseanne Barr is "Not A Racist," Talks About Being 'Depressed' After His Co-Star's Firing

I have really tried hard not to delve into the Roseanne Barr controversy that happened on May 29th of this year, alas maybe now, that the storm has calmed down a bit, I could chime in on this.

To briefly recap, earlier this year “Roseanne” was revived by ABC for a tenth season and premiered to incredible ratings, but the show was ultimately canceled after Rosseanne tweeted about former White House advisor Valerie Jarrett's physical features by comparing her face to a breed of “Muslim Brotherhood and ‘Planet of the Apes” having a baby. Of course, any comparison of a fairly dark-skinned personality to an ape will cause uproar, as it should, and ABC cancelled “Roseanne” just hours after the tweet. 

Barr's target, Valerie Jarett, is described on Wikipedia, not that it should matter, as having both her parents of "European and African-American descent. On the television series Finding Your Roots."  DNA testing indicated that Jarrett was of 49% European, 46% African, and 5% Native American descent. Her great grandparents were Jewish, like Barr.

Do I think Barr had serious and racist intentions with her tweet? No, but it sure came out wrong and she should have, of course, never tweeted those words. Ever since her firing, Barr has strayed far away from the spotlight and barely commented on her firing. Althought she still tweets a hell of a whole lot as she's become a sort of folk hero for conservatives. 

ABC is reviving the show, without Barr, as a spinoff titled “The Conners,” which seems like an odd thing to do as Barr was the driving force behind that show with her brash mouth and antics. The spinoff is set to launch in the fall on ABC, but what to make of the elephant in the room, the fact that the star of the show for 10 seasons is no onger there, how will the creators of the show deal with that?

John Goodman, who starred opposite Barr as her husband Dan Conner, confirmed that Roseanne's character will be killed off in "The Connors." Speaking to The Sunday Times, Goodman said his character will be “mopey and sad because his wife’s dead” and then revealed how those emotions translated into his own life after Barr was ditched from the show:

“I was broken-hearted, but I thought, ‘OK, it’s just show business, I’m going to let it go,'” Goodman said. “But I went through a period, about a month, where I was very depressed. I’m a depressive anyway, so any excuse that I can get to lower myself, I will. But that had a great deal to do with it, more than I wanted to admit.”

Goodman maintains that Barr is “not a racist” and seems to be indicating, in the Times interview, that he doesn't agree with the ABC response in the firing of his good friend.

Fall Movie Season Begins: Venice and Telluride Premieres Set For This Week

The Venice Film Festival will begin tomorrow at 8:30 am EST with a screening of Damien Chazelle's "First Man." The Telluride Film Festival will begin the day after, with the lineup only revealed that very day. 

What we do know, given all the sources and premiere status' I've put together, is that Telluride no-shows this year, premiering at Venice, include "Suspiria," "The Sisters Brothers," "Sunset," "Maya," "Kursk," "22 July," "Buster Scruggs" "The Nightingale" and "A Star is Born."  Meanwhile, Toronto can brag about snatching up world premieres for "Widows," "If Beale Street Could Talk," "High Life," "Beautiful Boy," "The Death and Life of John F. Donovan," "The Outlaw King," "Hold the Dark," "Mid90s," "Fahrenheit 11/9," "Ben Is Back," "Green Book," "The Land of Steady Habits" and many more.

Can we now conclude that this year's Cannes Film Festival had a fantastic lineup? Part of the complaints that derived from this year's pre-Cannes buzz was the fact that the festival failed to deliver the big namesl.

However, looking at all the Cannes rejects, and now the mixed buzz surrounding them, maybe Cannes Head Thierry Fremaux was right all along in not including "Peterloo," Loro," "The Death of John F. Donovan," "The Sisters Brothers," "Suspiria," "The Nightingale," "Sunset," "Maya," "Kursk" and many others. These rejections, and consequent pickups by Venice, could definitely detract from the quality of the films being presented at the Lido this year. 

Cannes has always strived for quality over anything else. None of the titles mentioned, safe for "Peterloo," are going to Telluride. A major red flag. Of course, a major mistake by Cannes was not having "Roma" and Netflix appear at the fest.

Venice buzz this year is enormous, with some impressive world premieres about to land in the next few days: Chazelle's "First Man," Alfonso Cuarron's "Roma," Joel and Ethan Coen's "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs," Yorgos Lanthimos' "The Favorite," Olivier Assayas' "Non-Fiction," Bradley Cooper's "A Star Is Born," and, of course, Orson Welles' "The Other Side of the Wind," which should-a been at Cannes.

Of course Telluride is the grandaddy of quality fall festival cinema, they always have a more intriguing lineup than Venice. With the aforementioned "First Man," "Roma," "Non-Fiction," and "The Favorite," you can add hotly anticipated titles such as David Lowery's "The Old Man and the Gun," Jason Reitman's "The Front Runner," Karyn Kusama's "Destroyer," Marielle Heller's "Can You Ever Forgive Me?," Yann Demange's "White Boy Rick," and Joel Edgerton's "Boy Erased."

Honest opinion on this fall's festival lineups? It looks like the only film with real, heavy, legitimate buzz is Alfonso Cuaron's "Roma." Other than that, Lanthimos' "The Favorite" is being heavily buzzed as well but given the director's divisive style this could most likely be a love it/hate it kind of movie. 

We will be keeping a watchful eye on what's happening at Venice and Telluride, that is until I head to TIFF in less than 10 days time.

‘True Detective' Looks to Bounce Back After Mediocre Second Season

I stopped watching episodes of HBO's maudlin Southern-Gothic soap opera “Sharp Objects,” which stars Amy Adams, although I heard tonight's episode was quite the 'shock.' I'll probably budge and catch up later this week. However, rather more intriguingly, the real news for me, in regards to last night's 'Objects' finale, was the surprise teaser trailer for the third season of Nic Pizzolatto’s “True Detective.”

Pizzolatto struck gold with season one of "True Detective," starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, but entered a sophomore slump with the abnormally bad second season starring Colin Farrell, Vince Vaughn and Rachel McAdams. That last season completely destroyed my perception of Pizzolatto, whom, at first, I thought might be some kind of creative genius but, on second thoughts, maybe not. 

The biggest difference for me, from that failed second season, safe for the poor script and plotting, was the absence of the original season's director, Cary Fukunaga. A California-born filmmaker, Fukunaga, just 41-years-of-age, started off his directorial career on the big screen with the success of "Sin Nombre," which was a scathing indictment of the MS-13 gangs ravaging Mexico, and the United States. However, "True Detective"made him a major player in Hollywood, so much so that Netflix immediately hired him, post 'Detective,' to direct "Beasts of No Nation," a critically acclaimed Netflix Original about child soldiers in Ghana which proved that Fukunaga was, in fact, the real deal. He is now teaming up with Netflix again for his next project, the mini-series "Maniac," starring Jonah Hill and Emma Stone.

Back to season three of "True Detective," the original director was supposed to be 

Jeremy Saulnier

 (“

Green Room

,” “

Blue Ruin

”) but “

creative differences

” with Pizzolatto, following the shooting of two episodes, had Saulnier scrapped from the project entirely. Enter

 the hiring of director 

Daniel Sackheim

, known for directing several episodes of  

FX

‘s “

The Americans,

” and Pizzolatto himself who will be directing around 60% of the show. Good God. You go from hiring a cinematic talent such as Saulnier to getting a TV director to replace him? 

This third season stars 

Mahershala Ali, Carmen Ejogo, Stephen Dorff, Ray Fisher, Scoot McNairy

and

Mamie Gummer

and will premiere on HBO 

January 2019.

Rodrigo Perez

over at The Playlist has this synopsis:

“True Detective” 3 plays out over several time periods. Set in the Ozarks with the ambitious story involving “a macabre crime” and “a mystery that deepens over decades and plays out in three separate time periods,” Ali plays police detective Wayne Hayes. Stephen Dorff plays his partner, Detective Roland West, an Arkansas State Investigator and Carmen Ejogo is Amelia Reardon, an Arkansas schoolteacher who has a connection to two missing children in 1980."

Can't say this doesn't sound, at the very least, intriguing.

'Crazy Rich Asians' is just called 'Crazy Rich' for the German cinema release

The film adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s bestselling novel "Crazy Rich Asians" topped the box-office for a second week in a row with just a -6% drop in ticket sales. As I've mentioned countless times, this film will change so much of the hidden fear  and racial bias for Asians working in the industry.

As the film is being released worldwide now, no doubt due to the film's success in the States, a Hamburg-based freelance illustrator, BoFeng Lin, noticed that the word “Asians” wasn't on any of the film's posters or, really, any of the promotional material related to the film in his native country of Germany:

“Not only can’t I watch #crazyrichasians in my city in Germany, they also removed the word ‘Asians’ from the title. Why Germany? #wtfgermany,” he shared on his social media. 

A little deeper investigation reveals that it's not just a German thing, in Italy the film's title has been changed to “Crazy & Rich.” Hell, even here in the U.S. executives had told director Jon M. Chu that he needed to change the title:

“People wanted to change the name of the movie. But the book is called Crazy Rich Asians. It’s a provocative title. I think it creates conversation, which I think is good,” he told Yahoo Entertainment.

So what gives? I'm sure most people won't want to talk about the obvious elephant in the room, you know *shock* racial scrubbing, but, yeah, that's what this is all about.

Ethan Hawke on how 'Logan,' and other Marvel movies, should not be considered 'art': "It’s not Bresson. It’s not Bergman. But they talk about it like it is."

The 'Black Panther' article I posted yesterday was shared by more than 1k people on social media. My basic conundrum had to do with Ryan Coogler‘s film being legitimized as a serious Best Picture contender by Disney and Marvel campaigning. Given the current zeitgeist, I still wouldn’t be surprised if it lands a Best Picture nomination, but it doesn't deserve it.

Ethan Hawke too seems to be having the same problems that I am in regards to Marvel/DC movies. Superhero movies being considered as 'art' is a risky proposition for the 47-year-old actor, who spoke to The Film Stage‘s Rory O’Connor about James Mangold's "Logan" and how it isn't necessarily a 'great' movie but rather a 'great superhero movie.' 

“We have the problem that they tell us Logan is a great movie. Well, it’s a great superhero movie. It still involves people in tights with metal coming out of their hands. It’s not Bresson. It’s not Bergman. But they talk about it like it is. I went to see Logan ’cause everyone was like ‘this is a great movie’ and I was like really? No, this is a fine superhero movie. There’s a difference but big business doesn’t think there’s a difference. Big business wants you to think that this is a great film because they wanna make money off of it.”

Hawke is having a great year with his triumphant turn in Paul Schrader's "First Reformed," no mistaking that film for anything but art, and his feature directing debut "Blaze," [review] which tackles the life of late great unsung country musician Blaze Foley.

As for 'Logan,' I really liked it. Yes, it had some of the flaws most Marvel and DC movies have, but less than usual. The action, acting, and directing was a notch higher, but the ending was still a problem. The last 15 or so minutes felt like an R-rated version of "Hook." Nevertheless, fantastic action sequences and that R-rating did indeed do wonders for the film's intensity and visceral nature.

Report: 'Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3' put on hold, Taika Waititi met with Disney to possibly replace James Gunn

Crewmembers for 'Guardians 3' have been told by Marvel and Disney they are free to look for new work.

According to an exclusive from THR, one person characterized the production hold as "temporary" and more of a "regrouping."

"The timeline has been pushed out," says a source.  "Marvel and Disney are taking a measured approach in their search for a filmmaker — one source says that "Thor: Ragnarok" director Taika Waititi recently had a meeting with Marvel, but it is unclear what project was discussed — and with good reason."

Touching & Tense ‘Searching’ Turns A Gimmicky Premise Into Something Cinematic

A few months ago I had really liked the inventive and entertaining 'Searching’, [Opening in theaters today] which has been dubbed as the movie “that’s completely set on a computer screen.” Ok, fine. However, an inventive gimmick can only go so far if the story doesn’t involve or make you care for the stakes at hand. Making his feature-debut, Aneesh Chaganty, a former Google commercials creator, overcomes those hurdles with this touching and tense movie worthy of Hitchcock. As a father tries to scramble and find his missing daughter, “Search” uses all the technological forms of communication to make a taut, tense and terrific thriller. If this is in fact how some stories will be told in the eventual future then so be it, the potential is there.

Dave Bautista Calls Out Disney by Retweeting Video of 'Troll' That Targeted James Gunn

Dave Bautista, aka Drax from 'Guardians of the Galaxy,' has been calling out Disney out numerous times for its decision to fire Director James Gunn. Bautista went calling for Gunn’s reinstatement. This is the fiercest of defense we have seen for Gunn, no other cast-mate of Bautista's  has been as vocal and passionate about the unfairness of Gunn's firing as the former WWE wrestler has been on social media.

Bautista has mentioned that Gunn was setup by a "cyber-Nazis," referring to conservative pundit Mike Cernovich, who had uncovered the old Gunn tweets.  Today Bautista pointed Disney to the ‘inspiration to humanity’ that is Cernovich, retweeting a video where Cernovich makes some rather sexist remarks on tape. 

Disney are, however, standing firm with their decision to fire Gunn after tweets emerged, dating back to 2006, which had Gunn making childish jokes about Pedophilia and rape. Disney has stated they will be using the script Gunn wrote for 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3' but that does not seem to be enough for many. 

Gunn is responsible for much of the success Marvel has had this decade by reinventing their cinematic universe with his irreverent and meta brand of humor. His axing from the Marvel Cinematic Universe will surely come with a price to pay for the studio given that Gunn has managed to do what most of the other directors of the MCU have failed to achieve: Inject an 'auteur' stamp on these corporate products, making a mainstream blockbuster still feel personal and fresh despite the creative restrictions.

Hey @Disney ! Here’s your guy!! What an inspiration to humanity! https://t.co/vBW7s1ZtQx

— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) August 24, 2018

LAT Report: Despite 'Popular Film' Category, Marvel Still Heavily Pushing 'Black Panther' for 'Best Picture' Nomination

There are many in the industry that will tell you the now controversial "Outstanding Popular Feature Film" category at the Oscars was introduced because of 'Black Panther.' All of this to prevent the 'embarrassment' of having Ryan Coogler's decent, but not Oscar-worthy, Marvel flick competing for the actual Best Picture prize. Suffice to say, Marvel was probably not happy about the decision the Oscars did by unofficially relegating their precious blockbuster to the "lesser" category. This was the Academy telling us 'superhero movies do not belong in the "Best Picture" race' and, know what, I'm fine with that. 

Yes, it does seem rather silly but I do believe Marvel has its first serious Oscar contender with "Black Panther." At the very least recognition in the technical categories, especially Best Costume Design, feels like a given, but the way critics have been, rather curiously, going gaga over this mediocre film does say everything we need to know about today's severely politicized film critic community.

The only superhero film that was ever worthy of a Best Picture nomination was 2008's "The Dark Knight," which, after shockingly not being nominated, had the Academy reinventing the rules by widening the Best Picture field from 5 nominees to this absurdist percentage system hat we have today, which can see anywhere between 7-10 nominees chosen. All of that so that a pop culture phenomenon like "The Dark Knight" could sneak into the Best Picture category in future years time and not have a fanboy backlash, not to mention low ratings, impede the race.

If you’re Disney, Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige, all those people, why would you settle just for the 'Popular' film category prize? According to the Los Angeles Times' Glenn Whipp, the awards team behind “Black Panther” is still very much aiming its sights at a Best Picture nomination. Whipp confirms that the new 'Popular Film' category will not deteriorate the push from Disney’s Oscar campaign for 'Panther'.' In fact, it's only made the mouse house hungrier for that ever elusive Best Picture nomination.

Marvel Head Kevin Feige had this to say to Whipp and the Times:

“I would like to see the hard work and the effort and the vision and the belief of the talented filmmaker Ryan Coogler, who sat across the table from us a few years ago and said, ‘I have been wrestling with questions about my past and my heritage and I think I really want to tell a story within this movie.’ That he did it so unbelievably well and with so much impact … seeing that potentially being recognized is what excites me the most,” 

An Oscar consultant quoted by the Times also said, “Right now, I think [academy Chief Executive] Dawn Hudson would crawl in a hole if ‘Black Panther’ gets snubbed for best picture and winds up landing in the popular film category. The funny thing is that Dawn would be way more disappointed than anyone at Marvel.”

'Panther' was an okay film,  but there is no way it should come close to the Best Picture category this year. If it is nominated/wins Best Picture then it'll be, in part, due to the PC campaign Disney will surely be pushing on us. The sheer amount of effort they are putting into this nomination coming into fruition is epic., they started the campaign back in February.

What was so special about 'Black Panther'? I guess the fact that it broke cinematic ground, being a Marvel movie with a majority black cast et all, but, in my books, that isn't enough for it to qualify for the top prize. 'Panther' is, at the end of the day, a product of corporate marketing devoid of the artful brush strokes that define cinema.  You can know exactly how 

I will feel about the film by reading my mixed review from last February.

Lena Dunham cast in Quentin Tarantino's “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood?”

Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” has added Lena Dunham to its already incredible cast. [Via THR] No doubt a strange bit of casting but in QT we trust. After all, Dunham, for all the hate she receives, is a talented actress that has defined a generation of millennials with her  brand of neurotic comedy. I do have to admit I enjoy her, flaws and all. 

She joins a cast which already includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell, Burt Reynolds, Dakota Fanning, Margot Robbie and Damian Lewis.

“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” will hit theaters on July 26, 2019.

Luca Guadagnino's 'Suspiria' remake could turn out to be this year's 'mother!'

Luca Guadagnino's “Suspiria” doesn't look to have a showing at TIFF this year, which is a real shame. It might even be absent at Telluride. As it stands There is only one festival showing for "Suspiria" and that's at the Venice Film festival. By all accounts, Guadagnino had in fact screened the film to Cannes head Thierry Fremaux, but who knows what happened after that. Guadagnino has his side that he's telling people and that's that. 

This latest endeavor for Guadagnino, who is mostly known for sunshine-filled Italian romantic fantasies, is a remake of Dario Argento’s 1977 horror film. Yup, Guadagnino playing outside of his comfort zone. 

The premise on paper seems to be the same as the original: A young beautiful dancer (Dakota Johnson) travels to Germany to learn ballet at a very high-end school, but then some weird stuff starts to happen, involving witchcraft and other inexplicable things. 

The 152 minute remake, or re-imagining if you will, is almost a whole hour longer than the original.  Thom Yorke of Radiohead wrote the music for the soundtrack. Sign me up! Then why is this not screening anywhere except Venice? I really think what we have here are the makings of a very divisive film, at least by the accounts I was given of people that have actually seen it. Maybe this year's 'mother!'?

“Suspiria” will be released in the U.S. on  November 2, 2018.

Park Chan-Wook’s ‘The Little Drummer Girl’ Set to Premiere, And Deliver Its Full 6 Hours, As a Three-Night Event on AMC This November

South Korea's Park Chan-Wook is a world-class filmmaker. Best known for “Oldboy,” and “The Handmaiden,” two indisputably great films, Park is about to embark into his first foray in American television. 

Park's upcoming mini-series, the AMC/BBC spy drama “The Little Drummer Girl,” will premiere in back-to-back 60-minute episode increments on November 19th, 20th and 21st. That's the show's full six hours all revealed in a span of three days on AMC.  The series stars Florence Pugh, Alexander Skarsgård and Michael Shannon. Need we say more?

Having such an incredible director taking on serialized TV storytelling is something no true film buff would ever want to miss. 

Here’s the official synopsis: 

"Set in the late 1970s, the pulsating thriller follows Charlie (Pugh), a fiery actress and idealist whose resolve is tested after she meets the mysterious Becker (Skarsgård,) while on holiday in Greece. It quickly becomes apparent that his intentions are not what they seem, and her encounter with him entangles her in a complex plot devised by the spy mastermind Kurtz (Shannon). Charlie takes on the role of a lifetime as a double agent while remaining uncertain of her own loyalties."

L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. currently determining whether a criminal investigation into Asia Argento is warranted.

What have we learned today about the Asia Argento/Jimmy Bennett fiasco? That Argento lied to the New York Times about not having had sex with Bennett.

Yesterday’s revelation that Argento had allegedly sexually assaulted Bennett, a young actor came to be a very serious blow on the actress' credibility as the leader of the #MeToo movement. Even worse, instead of apologizing, Asia released a statement denying the allegations had ever happened.

“I strongly deny and oppose the contents of the New York Times article…” Argento said in a statement sent to the NYT.

Well, today TMZ published a bunch of photos and texts that more than confirm Asia Argento's relationship with Jimmy Bennett. The photos and texts reveal a then 37-year-old Argento and 17-year-old Bennett cozying up in bed and freely admitting of a sexual relationship via text. 

In April, Bennett threatened legal action against Argento but the matter was settled with him for $380,000 which was, according to Asia, paid by her late boyfriend Anthony Bourdain.

Trouble could soon be brewing for Argento as the L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. is reaching out to Bennett for determination as to whether or not a criminal investigation is warranted. It's a crime in California for an adult to have sex with a person under 18 - even if consensual, which is what Jimmy and Asia seemed to have been having.

However, I find this next section of TMZ's findings to be the most intriguing. Asia seems to be switching the roles of 'victim' here, a possible upcoming game plan in the works? She is, after all, the #MeToo spokeswoman and would like to retain that title.

Text messages written, possibly just yesterday, between Argento and Bennett reveal the actress admitting to a friend that it may have been Jimmy that jumped on her: "It wasn't rape but I was frozen. He was on top of me. After, he told me I had been his sexual fantasy since was 12."

Argento also has Jimmy writing this note at the Ritz-Carlton hotel where they hooked up: "Asia, I love you with all my heart. So glad we met again and I'm so glad your in my life. Jimmy."  She texts her friend the note, saying, "He wrote me this afterwards and kept sending me unsolicited nudes all these years up until 2 weeks before the attorneys letter."

You know what I've learned from all of this? That Asia is a pathological liar, her ego having ballooned as the #MeToo movement grew to be the monster that it is today and now she's trying to skirt any blame directed towards her at other people. Good God woman! The fact that she doesn't even admit that it was, at the very least, a bad idea to sleep with 17-year-old Bennett is a red flag. She's still in #MeToo mode, trying to make us believe she was being manipulated and we don't know the whole story.

Damien Chazelle says his directing approach for "First Man" was influenced by 'cinema verite'

We are just a week away from Damien Chazelle's "First Man" debuting at the Venice Film Festival (on the 29th) and, probably, two days later at the Telluride Film Festival. 

Advanced screenings of "First Man," from numerous accounts that I have heard, hint at a very well-made but familiar space epic. 

In a Hollywood Reporter interview from Stephen Galloway, Chazelle claims that he tried to steer far away from the pastiche of "La La Land" and went for a style that resembles a 'cinema verite' film shot in the 1960's. You know, those D.A. Pennebaker ("Don't Look Back") and Frederick Wiseman ("High School") sorta shindigs. 

Galloway puts it down like this:

“Instead of turning to similarly themed films — even ones he admired, such as Apollo 13 
and 2001: A Space Odyssey — [Chazelle] drew inspiration from documentaries like For All Mankind and Moonwalk One, where hard facts and precise details were ‘baked into the archival.’"

“For gritty realism, he thought of other features. ‘We watched movies like Battle of Algiers and The French Connection, says editor Tom Cross. ‘A lot of our conversations had to do with the Maysle sand D.A. Pennebaker and Frederick Wiseman [all celebrated documentarians], and those cinema verite documentaries 
of the 1960s — how they were put together and the ways you could join shots in such a way that it felt emotionally continuous, but actually wasn’t."

With all that being said, Chazelle's third film is far and away the most important of his career. There is a lot riding with this one for the 33 year old writer-director who showed immense filmmaking prowess with "Whiplash" and then switched it up for his second feature; the beautiful cinematic valentine "La La Land." However, the backlash the latter gathered as Oscar season rolled along proved to be detrimental for Chazelle.

As I had pointed out a few weeks ago in an essay titled "How the "La La Land" vs "Moonlight" rivalry changed American pop culture":

"But what about poor "La La Land"? Did it deserve a better fate? Well, of course it did, Chazelle's film was a victim of bad timing. Its release coincided with an anger-filled political spectrum that would be unfavorable to La La's shiny aesthetics and free-wheelin' lets-go-where-life-takes-us melancholy. Of course, the film had its darker edges, it didn't even have a happy ending, but the fact that this was a love-letter to old-school Hollywood glamour, which is automatically connected to something very white, very masculine and very backwards, felt wrong to champion for many. After all, America's dark and discriminatory history was at the forefront of many pertinent conversation-starters by the time 'La La Land" and "Moonlight" hit screens nationwide."