There's bathroom reading- when one is sitting on the throne, letting nature take its course. This is a tradition as old as the printing press.

Bathroom viewing- now there's a recent innovation. A decent smart phone, a fast wireless connection and youtube or HBOWhatever and you're all set.

Along with my T-Mobile account comes a free subscription to NetFlix, and that's good, because I wouldn't pay those mooks a dime.

Scorsese's The Irishman is three hours long and and it's great bathroom viewing because, just like great bathroom reading material, you can start it at the beginning, the middle, whatever, and it keeps you company when you would otherwise be staring at a wall or whatever. As an aside, I could listen all day to Martin Scorsese speak on the subject of film; never boring, always interesting.

A long time ago I dated this girl who one day told me that she saw an interview with Robert DeNiro and he was shockingly inarticulate. I didn't take her seriously because DeNiro is a very good actor, but since then, I've come to realize two things. First, as Truman Capote once pointed out when speaking about Marlon Brando- acting talent is a fluke of nature, and not necessarily a sign of greater intelligence (Capote said Brando was a phenomenal actor, but he was also "dumb as a rock.") Secondly, the girlfriend was right. When Robert DeNiro doesn't have a script to work with and he has to rely on his own thoughts, he comes across like a dimwit.

His acting ability, though, is such that I can look past his juvenile political views and his willingness to let teh stoopid flow like water when speaking publicly about such things.

Taking all of this together- the talented Martin Scorsese, the freak of nature DeNiro, Netflix, the iPhone, high-speed internet connections and my fortress of intestinal solitude- what you get is a man who's never bored on the can.

There were some really good actors and performances in that movie but I really liked Ray Romano in it. I enjoyed his sitcom when it was on and I’ve seen his standup before so I already liked him, but I thought he worked well as Bill Bufalino.

I’ve been meaning to watch this but dropped Netflix a year or so ago so I’ll have to figure out a way to do this.

I read somewhere that it’s interesting to watch the de-aged DeNiro carefully, he looks young, but he does not move like he’s young, that’s the giveaway.

In that steak clip I noticed it was a Food Fair meat department portrayed. That was a real Pennsylvania supermarket chain in the 1950’s which turned into Pantry Pride by the 1970’s and then became defunct sometime in the 1980’s.

There aren’t many Scorsese films I don’t like. One of the best to ever direct. I loved the film. Stark contrast to Disney pew pew.

Joe Pesci was stunning in it. This was my favorite scene:

https://youtu.be/lDQ3sY8Na7g

Bo Dietl had me lmao.

I have to eat crow a little bit. Not a DeNiro fan, but I have to admit, those scenes are impressive.

Sometimes you have to separate the person from the craft. DeNiro's an idiot whose idiocy is masked when he has the words someone else wrote for him, and a director to direct him, and that's all the credit he'll ever get from me.

Take Sean Penn, for example. I happen to think Penn is a very fine actor with an impressive range, but his politics are absolute shit. In order to enjoy his work, you have to separate the person from the craft.

Some actors, I can't manage to do this. Gwyneth Paltrow, for example. She's a decent actress but., my God, what a spoiled little know-nothing. If her face pops up on the screen, I have to shut it off or walk away.

Regarding Ray Romano in The Irishman- that's evidence of savvy casting. I never would have even considered him for such a role, but he did quite well. Casting by Ellen Lewis, who has cast quite a few Scorsese films.

It's too bad most of the actors in the world are on the left and some of them, so far left and demented, it's hard to handle.

Concerning DeNiro, he seems to me to always play the same part. In other words, his acting ability didn't seem to show. Albeit, I'm not a super film buff and obviously I hadn't seen him in enough rolls to see some of his other side. The examples above raise him a few notches in my mind as an actor.

quote:

It's too bad most of the actors in the world are on the left and some of them, so far left and demented, it's hard to handle.

True enough, and as Para said you have to watch the movie and separate the actor from the person acting..

The question is how many are pretending publicly or just not making the case for the left in order to keep working. Show your conservative viewpoints in Hollywood and you get blacklisted by many of management in the film/tv industry.

Its one place where you simply can't exercise your opinion unless it is in lockstep with the group.