STRANGER THAN FICTION and EVERYTHING MUST GO, based on a Raymond Carver story, are pretty good.
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STRANGER THAN FICTION and EVERYTHING MUST GO, based on a Raymond Carver story, are pretty good.
AMERICAN GIGOLO is a terrific film. A character study disguised as a mystery. Nobody could have played that role as well as last-minute replacement Richard Gere (even John Bernthal failed). It's part of Schrader's Bressonian movies along with the underrated LIGHT SLEEPER (Dafoe) and, not so underrated, THE WALKER (Harrelson). His recent MASTER GARDENER could also be included.
Also, stylistically, AMERICAN GIGOLO was influential on subsequent movies, like De Palma's SCARFACE.
Oh, yeah, Stranger Than Fiction was fun. And I'll admit to liking Anchorman as well. I was probably exaggerating a bit, but there are just too many films with Ferrell I've seen where I found him a total irritant.
I think he is. He’s been in pretty every comedy genre from mainstream stuff like SNL to Tim & Eric.
Yeah same. I’ve always found it to be pretty terrible with the odd rare funny sketch(Adam Driver oil barren or the Avatar front with Ryan Gosling.
Elf is great watch for Christmas. Also its a children movie which somehow has both James Cann and Artie Lange in itI actually like Will Ferrell a lot
The Gray Man, starring Ryan Gosling.
Were not some of you talking about this movie? I’m a big Gosling fan and gave it a whirl tonight. I made it to 1hr 17min, and I think I had about 51 minutes left. Little things started annoying me, like the sheer amount of physical exertion Six can do without breaking a sweat, every scene having sped up drone shots, then everything being cut like a Fast N Furious movie. I hung in there for awhile longer, then realized I had no idea why they were in Croatia , then Prague, Khazakhstan, Singapore (?), or anywhere else. It was like a Bourne movie where they took out all subtlety. And Czechs don’t speak English with German accents, you cnuts!
Not that this movie was trafficking in subtlety or originality, at any point. If you asked an A.I. to write you a generic Europe-trotting action movie about a secret agent/hitman who gets double crossed, you get this. Except actual humans who have lived actual human experiences and emotions wrote this. Not a good look for humans.
It also was slavishly devoted to Tarantino’s aesthetic (e.g., old mellow tunes during violence, stylized violence played for laughs, actors who have watched Pulp Fiction too often) but was unable to pull it off. The kid/teenagers girl in the movie is really getting on my nerves cuz every film they feel compelled to write an extended snappy dialogue scene for her (cf: Once Upn A Time In Hollywood). fecking let the kid grow up and become a star or not. But these hey-look-this-kid-is-acting!!! scenes are getting on my tits. Chris Evans was hammy, Billy Bob was hammy, and Gosling had no personality. The guy who played the CIA was fecking dire too. I wondered why I was still watching.
Gratuitous torture, physics-defying fights and explosions, craaaaaaaazy villains. La Femme Nikita, 100 years ago was interesting because they trained a woman to be a killer, against genre stereotypes. Now they switched it back to dudes. Boring. Maybe the ending is so shocking, unpredictable, and insane it redeems the whole thing - but I doubt it.
3/10
Were not some of you talking about this movie? I’m a big Gosling fan and gave it a whirl tonight. I made it to 1hr 17min, and I think I had about 51 minutes left. Little things started annoying me, like the sheer amount of physical exertion Six can do without breaking a sweat, every scene having sped up drone shots, then everything being cut like a Fast N Furious movie. I hung in there for awhile longer, then realized I had no idea why they were in Croatia , then Prague, Khazakhstan, Singapore (?), or anywhere else. It was like a Bourne movie where they took out all subtlety. And Czechs don’t speak English with German accents, you cnuts!
Not that this movie was trafficking in subtlety or originality, at any point. If you asked an A.I. to write you a generic Europe-trotting action movie about a secret agent/hitman who gets double crossed, you get this. Except actual humans who have lived actual human experiences and emotions wrote this. Not a good look for humans.
It also was slavishly devoted to Tarantino’s aesthetic (e.g., old mellow tunes during violence, stylized violence played for laughs, actors who have watched Pulp Fiction too often) but was unable to pull it off. The kid/teenagers girl in the movie is really getting on my nerves cuz every film they feel compelled to write an extended snappy dialogue scene for her (cf: Once Upn A Time In Hollywood). fecking let the kid grow up and become a star or not. But these hey-look-this-kid-is-acting!!! scenes are getting on my tits. Chris Evans was hammy, Billy Bob was hammy, and Gosling had no personality. The guy who played the CIA was fecking dire too. I wondered why I was still watching.
Gratuitous torture, physics-defying fights and explosions, craaaaaaaazy villains. La Femme Nikita, 100 years ago was interesting because they trained a woman to be a killer, against genre stereotypes. Now they switched it back to dudes. Boring. Maybe the ending is so shocking, unpredictable, and insane it redeems the whole thing - but I doubt it.
3/10
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Total irritant if you’re lucky.
Heavy (1995), starring Liv Tyler.
Liv was like 18 in this movie and so innocent looking, the new “it” girl. She has never been much of an actress, and this is no exception. Her doe eyed beauty is all this has going for it. Ostensibly it’s about an overweight, awkward man who makes pizzas at his mom’s diner, where all the customers are abusive jerks (and Debbie Harry is a waitress), and Liv is a college dropout who wants to be a waitress and has Evan Dando as a boyfriend.
The heavy guy has about two words per sentence. Mutter, furtive glance. Apparently the actor has an eye / muscle tremor that causes his eyes to constantly swing left and right, as if he was were reading a book printed on cue cards held behind the camera. It makes him shifty and dodgy, and they don’t address it in the film, you have to google it.
It plays like the pizza guy is going to abduct Liv and keep her as a sex slave. It’s not heartwarming, or you get to see this shy loser blossom - ya don’t. It is shot in super-econo style, like a student film. Crist, another fecking miss. I thought it was going to be a sweet , human film, like The Station Agent, but it was ultimately pointless, unbelievable, and boring. There is a scene that plays like Liv has never heard of the concept of date rape, like she lets this weirdo drive her home and then he suddenly veers off and parks at a make out spot by an airport. In the real world, the girl should be freaking out at that point. Liv then acts like she’s never seen an airplane before. fecking weird.
This movie would be better with the sound off, and basically delete every frame without Liv in it.
2/10
Liv was like 18 in this movie and so innocent looking, the new “it” girl. She has never been much of an actress, and this is no exception. Her doe eyed beauty is all this has going for it. Ostensibly it’s about an overweight, awkward man who makes pizzas at his mom’s diner, where all the customers are abusive jerks (and Debbie Harry is a waitress), and Liv is a college dropout who wants to be a waitress and has Evan Dando as a boyfriend.
The heavy guy has about two words per sentence. Mutter, furtive glance. Apparently the actor has an eye / muscle tremor that causes his eyes to constantly swing left and right, as if he was were reading a book printed on cue cards held behind the camera. It makes him shifty and dodgy, and they don’t address it in the film, you have to google it.
It plays like the pizza guy is going to abduct Liv and keep her as a sex slave. It’s not heartwarming, or you get to see this shy loser blossom - ya don’t. It is shot in super-econo style, like a student film. Crist, another fecking miss. I thought it was going to be a sweet , human film, like The Station Agent, but it was ultimately pointless, unbelievable, and boring. There is a scene that plays like Liv has never heard of the concept of date rape, like she lets this weirdo drive her home and then he suddenly veers off and parks at a make out spot by an airport. In the real world, the girl should be freaking out at that point. Liv then acts like she’s never seen an airplane before. fecking weird.
This movie would be better with the sound off, and basically delete every frame without Liv in it.
2/10
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You won't be surprised to hear that it doesn't. What irritated me most about this film, though, is that they had a few moments where they had the beginnings of a great shot (in terms of things like camera/light; not a great scene obviously), and would just completely waste that, by changing away abruptly and not coming back to it. As if they couldn't even recognize that potential as filmmakers.
Anybody seen Talk To Me? Horror movie in cinemas today in the UK. Stellar reviews online, didn't even know it existed until now.
I'm looking to see this soon. Looking forward to it and I've deliberately tried to avoid any spoilers/videos/anything of that sort online.
That’s a good way to put it. I agree. There were some good instances of set and lighting design, particularly the opening New Year’s bit. This movie reminded me too much of that other steaming Netflix turd Six Underground. It too was about 30 minutes too long, was crammed full of soul-crushing “action”, and was completely up its own ass. Then you get the filmmakers furiously paring down their 3 hour magnus opus to a svelte 2 hours 9 minutes, and they get there by hacking the shite out of every scene - baffling with bullshit because they can’t dazzle with brilliance.
I saw the full thing but don't remember it in that much detail (it's really not that kind of movie!), but two instances bothered me in particular. I can't find a clip of it online, but at the beginning of the scene where Six is in Miranda's car (I had to look this up cause I misremembered the context), there's a quick flying shot over a street, where the camera makes a hard turn left and then reaches Miranda's car. It's a cool shot that could be used for all kinds of action purposes - but here it just serves to get the watcher inside Miranda's car, where Six and Miranda will have a conversation. Nothing particularly special about it. So the shot is really wasted: it's just stylish nonsense in the way it's actually used.
And here is the final fight (of course there's a final fight). Look at 0:44: it's a beautiful shot against the sunrise that could have been used to frame the entire fight scene and give it something more than 'hard guys hitting each other, making hard-guy comments'. But no, the angle isn't used for even a full second, and even the general lighting of that time of day plays no cinematographic role. It's just kinda there. Again, a total waste.
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Wow, that was bad.
Talk To Me
A group of friends use an embalmed hand to conjure spirits but things get out of hand (pun intended) when one of them takes it too far. I usually end up not loving horror films that get massive hype due to my expectations going in (Babadook, Barbarian etc), but this lived up to the hype and then some.
There was a genuine narrative that felt weighty and fed into all the scare moments, it dealt with the theme of substance abuse to get over grief and it handled it with aplomb. This isn't a standard teens/possession horror flick, it actually had depth.
The main characters were great and the actors really knocked it out of the park, particularly the lead actress, who has a very bright future ahead of her. There was the right amount of gore, scare scenes and jumpy moments, it didn't rely on any of these, instead it used them appropriately.
I genuinely can't believe this was a directorial debut, A24 are a real gift to cinema, I love that they give opportunities for films that don't fit the usual Hollywood model. Can't wait to see what the directors do next 8/10
A group of friends use an embalmed hand to conjure spirits but things get out of hand (pun intended) when one of them takes it too far. I usually end up not loving horror films that get massive hype due to my expectations going in (Babadook, Barbarian etc), but this lived up to the hype and then some.
There was a genuine narrative that felt weighty and fed into all the scare moments, it dealt with the theme of substance abuse to get over grief and it handled it with aplomb. This isn't a standard teens/possession horror flick, it actually had depth.
The main characters were great and the actors really knocked it out of the park, particularly the lead actress, who has a very bright future ahead of her. There was the right amount of gore, scare scenes and jumpy moments, it didn't rely on any of these, instead it used them appropriately.
I genuinely can't believe this was a directorial debut, A24 are a real gift to cinema, I love that they give opportunities for films that don't fit the usual Hollywood model. Can't wait to see what the directors do next 8/10
Watched Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man (2005) definitely up there as one of his best works. Incredibly poignant and thought provoking.
Cocaine Bear.
The trailer for this movie is great and makes the movie look like it's going to be wild. It's not. It's actually kinda slow, but gory. I have friends that are more fun after sniffing a brick of cocaine than this bear was. I tried but failed to get my kids to take a chance on They Live or The Thing, but they insisted on Cocaine Bear.
The characters are pretty arch and unrealistic, which is to be expected from a film with a bear protagonist. Not sure what this movie is: a comedy, a horror, or merely campy fun. I personally didn't find it very funny. The part where the paramedics show up to the ranger station, and then the bear chases the ambulance (seen in the trailer) is the best part of the movie by a far distance.
There's a subplot of drug dealers / mules attempting to recover the bricks of cocaine, and those scenes are "against type" with sensitive gangsters and an affable tweeker kid. They should have gotten the guy who did Mousehunt to direct this, because it should be madcap and way over the top, but it isn't. The actors are all taking it pretty easy, except for Keri Russell who has to go find her missing daughter. Everyone else is just phoning it in, and the script itself appears to have been written on the spot right before filming.
4/10
The trailer for this movie is great and makes the movie look like it's going to be wild. It's not. It's actually kinda slow, but gory. I have friends that are more fun after sniffing a brick of cocaine than this bear was. I tried but failed to get my kids to take a chance on They Live or The Thing, but they insisted on Cocaine Bear.
The characters are pretty arch and unrealistic, which is to be expected from a film with a bear protagonist. Not sure what this movie is: a comedy, a horror, or merely campy fun. I personally didn't find it very funny. The part where the paramedics show up to the ranger station, and then the bear chases the ambulance (seen in the trailer) is the best part of the movie by a far distance.
There's a subplot of drug dealers / mules attempting to recover the bricks of cocaine, and those scenes are "against type" with sensitive gangsters and an affable tweeker kid. They should have gotten the guy who did Mousehunt to direct this, because it should be madcap and way over the top, but it isn't. The actors are all taking it pretty easy, except for Keri Russell who has to go find her missing daughter. Everyone else is just phoning it in, and the script itself appears to have been written on the spot right before filming.
4/10
Someone should do a mashup of Grizzly Man and Cocaine Bear.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Loved the art style but soon it felt overly dark and I was squinting to see what's going on. There was loads of 90s flair and nostalgia and also things for the current generation but this is probably a bit too dark for children. There was some depth to the story and the action scenes were fun but the comedy didn't do much for me. They had a bunch of cultural reference gags that didn't work (like calling Drake "cool"...no he's fecking not). I hope this was a springboard to a better sequel 5.5/10
Loved the art style but soon it felt overly dark and I was squinting to see what's going on. There was loads of 90s flair and nostalgia and also things for the current generation but this is probably a bit too dark for children. There was some depth to the story and the action scenes were fun but the comedy didn't do much for me. They had a bunch of cultural reference gags that didn't work (like calling Drake "cool"...no he's fecking not). I hope this was a springboard to a better sequel 5.5/10
All that pop culture referencing, like in the Shrek movies, is exhausting. Also, did you lose a bet or something? Why would you go see this?
Family outing. The plan was to watch Elemental but it clashes with swimming so it had to be this. I'm a fan of Turtles so was excited, but it was not what I hoped.
Jennifer's Body
Lesbian/feminist Godzilla directed by Karyn Kusama.
Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried put in brilliant performances. The cinematography is beautiful at points. Importantly the movie understands the true evil that is the indie rock band influenced by Maroon 5. I’m pretty sure there’s even a Tarkosky reference and a bit about the 2008 housing crash. It’s also very funny and incredibly mean.
Once again the critics and the mass population know nothing about pure cinema.
10/10
Lesbian/feminist Godzilla directed by Karyn Kusama.
Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried put in brilliant performances. The cinematography is beautiful at points. Importantly the movie understands the true evil that is the indie rock band influenced by Maroon 5. I’m pretty sure there’s even a Tarkosky reference and a bit about the 2008 housing crash. It’s also very funny and incredibly mean.
Once again the critics and the mass population know nothing about pure cinema.
10/10
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Such a great movie. And Megan Fox is also 10/10 in this.Jennifer's Body
Lesbian/feminist Godzilla directed by Karyn Kusama.
Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried put in brilliant performances. The cinematography is beautiful at points. Importantly the movie understands the true evil that is the indie rock band influenced by Maroon 5. I’m pretty sure there’s even a Tarkosky reference and a bit about the 2008 housing crash. It’s also very funny and incredibly mean.
Once again the critics and the mass population know nothing about pure cinema.
10/10
I've never seen it and always assumed it was shit. Was it another Spring breakers, i.e. totally mismarketed and misunderstood?Jennifer's Body
Lesbian/feminist Godzilla directed by Karyn Kusama.
Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried put in brilliant performances. The cinematography is beautiful at points. Importantly the movie understands the true evil that is the indie rock band influenced by Maroon 5. I’m pretty sure there’s even a Tarkosky reference and a bit about the 2008 housing crash. It’s also very funny and incredibly mean.
Once again the critics and the mass population know nothing about pure cinema.
10/10
Yep she really should have won some awards for her performance.
Have you seen Abel Ferrara Ms.45 ? From the 80’s but very similar.
Yep. Original the marketing was aimed at teenage boys and around the sex appeal of Megan Fox. All of which was against the wishes of the two main stars, director and writer.
Some critics just missed what the film was trying to go for and the ones who sort of got it where oddly far more interested in making horror puns or slagging off Fox for her role in the Transformers series.
I also think Diablo Cody self aware and cultural reference writing style has aged far better in the last 10+ years. While there are wild misses with the dialogue resulting in terrible flops….. I once saw Paul Scholes blaze a 30 yards shot over the bar in 2006. When your going for bangers all time then the odd fluff is acceptable. The film had more hits than misses.
They Cloned Tyrone. A new Netflix film starring John Boyega, Teyonah Parris, and Jamie Foxx. It starts out as a ghetto crime drama, and then soon turns into a kind of (darkly) humorous sci-fi social commentary on how poor populations are kept satisfied. It's pretty on the nose, but I don't want to spoiler the plot, so I'll stop there. It's pretty good conceptually (@entropy, I think you'll like this) and the humour works, but it's a little thin as a film. After an hour or so, I felt like I had kinda seen all there is too it, and the rest (which tries to resolve the situation) didn't convince me otherwise. 3/5
thanks for the recommendation. I’ll be sure to give it a watch.
Do you feel the same way about Juno? I loved it when it came out but on a recent rewatch I found it quite obnoxious.
Last time I rewatched it I remember it as weirdly anti abortion.
Yeah I would agree with you on obnoxious characters. Diablo Cody writing sits far better within a feminist revenge plot than with pipe smoking and guitar playing Wes Anderson fans. But also I guess in real life these characters would be incredibly obnoxious so it fits I guess.
I tended to dislike Juno on the rewatch because of the directing more than the writing. Although I still for the most part love the soundtrack.
opinions and all, but I thought Jennifer‘s Body was campy and ridiculous. Poorly written, poorly directed, ham handed.
She’s still god-awful, homeskillet, go grab a jug of Sunny D and chill.
Michael Cera is always good. The movie - not so much.
I thought the same when it came out but rewatched (most of) it after the above review and quite enjoyed it. Its aged well. It has a time capsule quality to it.
Either that or I'm stuck in a nightmarish groupthink thats convinced me crap like Miami Vice and shit teen movies are great Cinema.
CUBAN FURY
Watched this with my daughter last night and enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. Absolutely nowt groundbreaking but imagine the b*stard love child of Karate kid, Footloose and almost any Romcom.
Usual story of put upon underdog coming good and getting the happy ending he deserves. Lovely.
Nock Frost is great in it and superbly supported by Ian McShane, Olivia Coleman, Chris O Dowd (Hilarious) and that cool dude Kayvan Novak (even hilariouser). It’s just good romantic fun with a very good heart to it and some really funny scenes.
And I think Rashida Jones is incredible
8/10
We watched it last night. Not terrible but also a bit underwhelming given the cast - so much promise all not quite nailed due to plot/script/direction flaws. Nick Frost is also just too fat (sorry but true) to dance competitively. I've watched far worse mind. 5/10
Yeah, the soundtrack is great, Kimya Dawson is delightful. The stylised dialogue struck me as much too tryhard on rewatch.
Of course NF was a ridiculous lead, I thought that was half the funny. Plus as an ex dancer I found some of the little in jokes amusing.
CoD I really enjoyed in his alpha bellend role. Same with Kayvan Novak.
Dunno dude, glad you found some enjoyment around the many plot and direction faults but this film tickled my bits anyroad
Was looking for something 'light' to watch this week and came across They Cloned Tyrone. It's not really something that's been on my radar recently, but the cast seemed pretty good and the overall impressions online swayed me that it might be worth a watch. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It evolves quite well, I'd say. It does start off seemingly like one type of drama before swerving and becoming something else, in the same sort of sense as a film like The World's End does. This movie was made for Jamie Foxx and his lines were just gold throughout. Really liked John Boyega's performance, too. I thought it was fun and it has elements of blaxploitation, sci-fi and comedy which gel well together. I imagine it'll remain one of those 'slightly lesser-known' films, but that may help to serve it well. Overall, glad I watched it and it's worth recommending.
We've had After Yang on our list for a while. I can't remember why we added it exactly or why we haven't got around to seeing it yet. Again, I knew very little about this film before going into it, even what sort of genre it fell into. All I have to say is that I came away from it very impressed and consider it a marvellous feat of cinema. It's just gorgeous. The film has an odd, slow-natured pace to it, including when some of the main characters communicate with each other. There is something quite off about the setting and there are little hints throughout that suggest the world has undergone some significant changes prior to the start of the film. It's my ideal sci-fi film in that the science-fiction acts as a backdrop to tell a more human story. The final 30 minutes are just magnificent, particularly with how certain effects are shown, notably during the 'memory' sequences. I found the ending very impactful and it's one of those types of films that stays with you a long while after watching it. The story is nice and compact without ever going off on any unusual tangents or stretching itself too far, and I loved all of the performances of the characters, notably the main four family members. My wife watched it with me and she utterly adored it, too. One of my favourite films that I've seen this year.
We've had After Yang on our list for a while. I can't remember why we added it exactly or why we haven't got around to seeing it yet. Again, I knew very little about this film before going into it, even what sort of genre it fell into. All I have to say is that I came away from it very impressed and consider it a marvellous feat of cinema. It's just gorgeous. The film has an odd, slow-natured pace to it, including when some of the main characters communicate with each other. There is something quite off about the setting and there are little hints throughout that suggest the world has undergone some significant changes prior to the start of the film. It's my ideal sci-fi film in that the science-fiction acts as a backdrop to tell a more human story. The final 30 minutes are just magnificent, particularly with how certain effects are shown, notably during the 'memory' sequences. I found the ending very impactful and it's one of those types of films that stays with you a long while after watching it. The story is nice and compact without ever going off on any unusual tangents or stretching itself too far, and I loved all of the performances of the characters, notably the main four family members. My wife watched it with me and she utterly adored it, too. One of my favourite films that I've seen this year.
Promising Young Woman. 2020 film by Emerald Fennell featuring Carey Mulligan as a woman who makes her life about revenge after her best friend was raped in med school and ultimately committed suicide. I don't want to give away too much else since the film goes through quite a few twists and turns, but I'll add that it's a drama-thriller with a fair bit of dark humor.
I thought it was great. Ultimately very depressing, but also great, both in how the films is put together (including the contrasts between tone and message; I laughed out loud a few times) and regarding the acting, and how it shows how men are privileged in sexual situations and what women have to put up with in that context (including when they're abused and try to accuse someone).
I'm just not sure the ending really does the film justice - but then I saw Fennell had had to compromise for the film studio, so it's not necessarily what she wanted either. In any case, while the current ending fits the dark humor of the film, its message might have hit harder if nothing happened at the wedding and it was just a 'happy ever after' for Al, and for Joe.
4/5
I thought it was great. Ultimately very depressing, but also great, both in how the films is put together (including the contrasts between tone and message; I laughed out loud a few times) and regarding the acting, and how it shows how men are privileged in sexual situations and what women have to put up with in that context (including when they're abused and try to accuse someone).
I'm just not sure the ending really does the film justice - but then I saw Fennell had had to compromise for the film studio, so it's not necessarily what she wanted either. In any case, while the current ending fits the dark humor of the film, its message might have hit harder if nothing happened at the wedding and it was just a 'happy ever after' for Al, and for Joe.
4/5
Great film. I feel like Carey Mulligan has dropped off the radar a bit, unless I've just missed whatever she's been in. Too busy living it up with Mumford no doubt.
Watched that a while back, and enjoyed it. Always appreciate watching something that is both well-crafted and doesn't follow a conventional storyline.
If I look at her filmography on Wikipedia, she has been averaging about a film per year since 2011, so with Promising Young Woman in 2020, The Dig in 2021, She Said in 2022, and a couple of upcoming films, she seems to be pretty much at her usual pace. (She's anyway been married to Mumford since 2012.)
Promising Young Woman is also a great film title btw, assuming it references that California guy that got a relatively short prison sentence for sexual assualt because he was after all a 'promising young man'.