Paul Schrader’s Facebook page is a delirious must-follow for any cinephile out there. The legendary writer-director has a, more or less, “fuck it” attitude towards everything. This could sometimes be a dangerous balancing act, especially when it comes to today’s P.C. attitudes online — I mean, at some point last year, during A24’s “First Reformed” awards campaigning, he was put in “Facebook jail,” as he put it, by the indie studio because of his all-too-honest approach on social media.
Yesterday, on a FB thread, which actually started with a discussion of my mid-year critics poll and its winner, Jordan Peele’s latest film “Us,” Schrader decided to reply to a comment about Peele’s film being an “obvious homage to Brian De Palma.” I didn’t expect Schrader to shred fellow 70’s maverick De Palma on his page, but he did, calling De Palma a “trite” and “artistically weak” artist. Yikes.
“Don’t get me started on Brian DP,” Schrader said. “I rewatched Redacted last night because thought that given total artistic freedom he could reach for the stars. And he did. But the stars were beyond his reach. The script is trite, it is weak. That’s because is Brian is trite, Brian is artistically weak. Skate fast on thin ice. That’s his story. That’s his con.”
I wrote back in June about De Palma’s legend and his fading star:
“I have not seen De Palma’s latest critical bomb “Domino” (31% on RT) but I am a completist and I intend to give it a fair shot in the coming week. I do hope millennials know that there is more to De Palma than just the infamous stinkers he’s given us in the aughts and twenty-teens (“Passion,” “The Black Dahlia,” “Redacted,” “Femme Fatale” and “Mission To Mars.”) His last five movies also happen to be the five worst of his career (“Bonfire of the Vanities” notwithstanding.) Regardless, the De Palma I will always remember is the man that was on such a roll, between 1976-1993, that you might say his winning streak was as almost as good as that of Scorsese's or Woody's during that same time-period.”
“He’s a time-capsule worthy director for the sheer fact that he is responsible for directing, in no particular order: “Blow Out,” “Carrie,” “Dressed To Kill,” “Scarface,” “The Untouchables,” “Carlito’s Way,” “Body Double,” “Mission: Impossible” and “Casualties of War.” “
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