Bulworth

As soon as I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit hit number one, I knew Bush wouldn't be re-elected.

Runner-up quote of the day, from Bulworth:

You shouldn't make life or death decisions when you're feeling suicidal.

Darin and I went to see Bulworth today, after having lunch in Burbank. It was nice spending the afternoon together--we've been spending whole days in the house together, but it's usually him in his office and me in mine.

We both enjoyed the movie. Darin thought Beatty could have done away with some of the politics and concentrated on the story a little more, but I enjoyed it as is: it's funny, it's thought-provoking, it's flat-out strange. Extra bonus: Oliver Platt, who is a plus in any movie he's in.

The most amazing thing is the wholesale damnation Beatty throws toward everyone in this society, including (or especially) the hand that feeds him. A lot of people have criticized this movie as playing it safe and saying things we all "know," but I don't think we do know them as a society. The conservative Jay Bulworth is a lot closer to how we think and talk as a society today than is the radical Bulworth.

Also laudable is Beatty's willingness to make a complete ass of himself and actually let it be known that he's 60. Compare and contrast Redford in The Horse Whisperer.

In the original draft of yesterday's entry I mentioned that Michael Jordan and Phil Knight were retiring after this year. Nevin wrote me and asked, "Who's Phil Knight?" I thought about it some and realized that I meant to write Phil Jackson, who's coach of the Bulls.

Phil Knight is head of Nike.

As Darin said, how's that for a conflagration of cultural symbols? Michael Jordan is so identified with Nike I'm not even sure that counts as a Freudian slip.

Career Notes

You have no idea how happy this conversation made me. He had plenty of complimentary things to say about it. He did have changes he suggested, but nothing drastic--more along the lines of changing details instead of ripping out entire subplots or getting rid of a particular character or whatever.

I wanted to call Linda and tell her about what he had said, but I knew I couldn't. See, Linda also dropped off the new draft of her Thesis Script on Tuesday night, and I have a sneaking suspicion--ye olde intuition at work--that he hasn't read hers and that he didn't call her tonight. Because of this, I knew I couldn't call her, because she'd get bummed out: Len called me, not her.

I know, it's all very juvenile and elementary school, but it's the truth.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics