September 26, 2022

"In conversation with fellow actress-director Maggie Gyllenhaal for Interview magazine, Olivia Wilde asked, 'You know the incels?'"

"She was explaining to Gyllenhaal how she based a character in her latest film, 'Don’t Worry Darling,' on Jordan Peterson, a professor-turned-proselytizer whom Wilde described as 'this pseudointellectual hero to the incel community.' Gyllenhaal responded with a concise, 'No.' She did not know the incels...."

[T]he thriller follows a 1950s housewife as she descends into what men around her decry as madness, despite it actually being a state of enlightenment.

Spoiler alert.  

The dysfunction she becomes suspicious of in her once-perfect life is revealed to be the result of glitches in the virtual world she is trapped in....
The women are brainwashed into believing this is reality, while the men remain aware of its artificiality. The big reveal, it turns out, is that some insecure men still cling to the misogyny of a bygone era.... 

ADDED: Kicking the Seat has an absolutely fascinating transcript of at Zoom conference between the director Wilde, the screenwriter Katie Silberman, and writer/filmmakers Carey and Shane Van Dyke (who worked on the story and who are grandsons of Dick Van Dyke). If you want to feel deeper repulsion toward filmmaking, go to the link and read the whole thing. I'll just excerpt the part where they talk about Jordan Peterson:

Katie Silberman: [Heavy sigh, more scrolling] Last major point, I guess, is the Jordan Peterson thing. 
Shane Van Dyke: The what? 
Olivia Wilde: Frank the cult leader. Chris Pine? Katie and I thought the version you pitched us was a bit one-note, so we put our heads together and figured out a way to really bind all the hard-hitting social commentary we’re trying to get across. WB thought we should let you know, just so there’s no surprises when the movie comes out. 
Carey Van Dyke: And what does Frank have to do with Jordan Peterson? 
Olivia Wilde: You know…white male pseudo-intellectual. Leader of the incels. Spouts weird shit about chaos and lobsters? 
Katie Silberman: That’s Frank all over. 
Shane Van Dyke: No disrespect, gang, but have you read Jordan Peterson or listened to any of his lectures? 
Olivia Wilde: Um, eww! I’ve never drank bleach before but I know it’s poison! 
Shane Van Dyke: It’s just that…first off, Jordan Peterson hates incels. 
Katie Silberman: Citation, please? 
Shane Van Dyke: Give me just one sec. Someone actually sent me a compilation of his the other day. I can play some of it for you…right…here. [Jordan Peterson speaking] “If you’re irritated at women, you know, as a class of creature, there’s something wrong with you—’cause they’re right. You’re wrong. They’re right to not pick you. If they’re not picking you, it’s because they’re right.” “What do you expect from women? If you got pregnant, you’d be pretty damn choosy, too. So, you know, clue in a bit. And if they don’t find you attractive—maybe you’re not! Have you paid attention to how you dress? Do you have a plan? Are you as educated as you could be? Are you a liar? Are you a rabid pornography user? ‘Cause that’s undermining your motivation.” 
Olivia Wilde: But the guy’s obsessed with lobsters! So stupid… 
Shane Van Dyke: Again, it’s your movie, but I just think you’re aiming at the wrong target with a broken rifle. 
Olivia Wilde: PleasepleasePLEASE don’t mansplain to us. And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t talk about G-U-N-Ses. 
Carey Van Dyke: I guess Shane and I are just confused as to how incels play into the script. It definitely wasn’t part of what we sold to you. 
Katie Silberman: Did you miss the Jack character completely? He sent Alice into this fake reality in order to control the strong-willed girlfriend he couldn’t keep at home in the real world. 
Carey Van Dyke: Right, but Jack has a girlfriend. 
Katie Silberman: Uh-huh, and…? 
Carey Van Dyke: Again, not trying to be a jerk or anything, but do you know what an incel is? 
Olivia Wilde: Of course we do! They’re entitled little man-babies who think women belong in the kitchen. They love Trump. They’re preoccupied with lobsters— 
Carey Van Dyke: Sorry to interrupt, but “incel” stands for “involuntary celibate”. Typically referring to a guy who can’t—for whatever reason—form successful relationships with the opposite sex. An incel wouldn’t have a live-in girlfriend. Or any girlfriend, probably. 
Katie Silberman: No idea what you’re talking about. Not surprising coming from a Jordan Peterson fan… 
Shane Van Dyke: Ladies, all due respect, we’re not trying to be combative here. We just think it’s a bit weird to turn a simple WandaVision/Get Out/Ex Machina/Hail, Caesar! homage into some kind of misguided man-hating soap box. If you wanna do that, fine, but it should at least make sense. Believe me, if anyone gets wind of this thing being rickety before it comes out, the studio’s gonna come knocking with some pretty weird requests to help boost those opening weekend numbers. 
Olivia Wilde: Weird requests? 
Shane Van Dyke: If you start seeing lots of news stories about on-set drama, or if someone taps one of the stars on the shoulder and asks him/her to pull a bizarre stunt at a film festival—then you’ll know. And I would definitely keep your thoughts on Peterson under wraps…at least until you’ve absorbed his material outside the context of Salon hit pieces. 
Olivia Wilde: Gee, thanks, Dad! 
Katie Silberman: I think I speak for both Liv and I when I say, “Thank you for the notes.” We’ll take this back to Warner Brothers and hopefully keep moving forward with the shoot. But I don’t think we’ve got anything to worry about here. I mean, our last collaboration was almost nominated for the Oscars. 
Shane Van Dyke: Cool, well…sounds like you’ve got this. If you need any more input from me and Carey, our mutual people can set that up. We might be a bit unavailable for the next couple weeks. Prepping for our version of Black Adam. It’s called— 
Olivia Wilde: No! That’s okay. You don’t have to say it.

Wow! What a dynamic! How would you like to be a man in Hollywood these days?

Um, eww! I’ve never drank bleach before but I know it’s poison! 

ALSO: This transcript is so good, I suspect it of being fictional writing. I've read the intro to it, by Ian Simmons, and if he's the author of the whole thing, I salute him. It's brilliant. But he presents it as real:

Exactly 24 hours after attending an advance screening of the film (which included a remote-broadcast live Q&A with director Olivia Wilde and [most of] the cast), I received an email containing a link to a private video chat.... I have verified the content through means I’d rather not disclose, and to protect the anonymity of my source, I have opted to transcribe the conversation rather than share the video publicly.

What follows is the full, unedited conversation, which appears to be an emergency mid-production story meeting between the Van Dyke brothers and the Booksmart creative team of Silberman and Wilde.... I’d considered writing a traditional review of Don’t Worry Darling, but as the saying goes, “An illicitly obtained private Zoom call is worth a thousand words.”

Do you see clues in there that he wrote the whole thing? This is not "a traditional review." 

Everyone in the discussion sounds either too smart or too dumb. It's just too good. 

83 comments:

Owen said...

Drive-by smear. Who is this fool?

Ralph L said...

"You know the incels?" said The Beard Lady.

Kay said...

The drama surrounding and leading up to the release of this film has been so thoroughly mediocre (as far as tabloid drama goes) that I expect nothing more from the film itself. It would appear that the pr people in charge of promoting this film are doing so in a chaotic way in which any attention the film gets is good attention. Is this the new way forward for hollywood?

Buckwheathikes said...

Women seem awfully angry that they've priced themselves out of the market for long-term stable relationships and have to rely on free fuck apps like Tinder to get some cock.

Jeff Vader said...

Good thing Olivia Wilde is somewhat attractive as she appears to be as dumb as a box of rocks

Saint Croix said...

Poor WaPo writer is capitalizing White now.

"I believe in equality so White people are capitalized too."

"But when I see White I think you are in the Klan."

"Well, that is not good."

Enigma said...

Peterson a pseudointellectual? How the worm turns. He's a direct intellectual descendent of mid 20th Century self-help and actualization psychology. See Carl Jung and Maslow's hierarchy of needs. He'd have been considered left of center or left wing until 10 to 20 years ago. Be aware that many people in his tradition were European Jews...this was not a right wing group, not an incel group, and one of the most intellectual subcultures in human history. Check the Nobel prize winner counts.

But, Olivia Wilde's ignorance is bliss.

https://www.simplypsychology.org/carl-jung.html
https://www.simplypsychology.org/self-actualization.html

Cappy said...

Huh?

gilbar said...

The women are brainwashed into believing this is reality, while the men remain aware of its artificiality.

Serious Question, for all the women out there...
Don't You Get Tired? Of having the powers that be (Hollywood, MSM, Jo Biden :) belittling you?
Don't you get tired of being second hand people?
Don't you get tired of being told that people with penises are BETTER than you?
You're MOST of the people in the country, quit acting like a minority

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Sounds tedious and lacking in entertainment. I’m so impressed that Hollywood has resolved to get the business going again. They are making and releasing films but are overlooking the purpose of film. It’s called the Entertainment Industry. Films should entertain first then inform if that’s possible. I’ve seen other articles and apparently Olivia is steering this production and she wanted to make political agitprop and succeeded. But few people out here on the customer side will hand over money to be propagandaed by the amoral assholes of Hollywood. This movie has already had more articles written about it than theaters making money showing it.

Saint Croix said...

"I am trying to believe in the sisterhood and you are off fucking a man."

"My sex life with my actor is none of your business, and if I want to have sex with a man, I will have sex with a man, you will not make an incel out of me."

"Why did you spit on my buddy Chris Pine?"

"Did I? Did I spit on your buddy Chris Pine?"

"Yes, they did a slow-motion replay, and you spit on my buddy Chris Pine."

"Well, why don't you go fuck your buddy Chris Pine?"

"I am feminist! You do not tell me to fuck another man. That is something I decide."

"Well go fuck yourself then."

"That too is something I decide! Not you."

Kai Akker said...

These names, the other vocabulary, and the source all make my eyes glaze over. Signed, one of your silent majority.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

In order to be woke you have to shut yourself up to the world.

Achilles said...

A video I just watched the other day about men and women interacting.

It is a reaction video where a woman watches a room full of women get educated about what they are doing wrong.

Women have expectations for how men approach them that are wildly off.

Women did not understand if you are hanging out with another man who isn't your boyfriend for example, that 90% of men will not approach them.

And the only men that do are "Chads" and "Tyrones" which are interesting colloquialisms.

Women set up conditions where they will only be approached by a certain type of male, then they decide that all men are like that type of male.

Dagwood said...

Olivia Wilde is your typical pseudo-actress.

narciso said...

Her mother is crazy moonbat leslie cickburn of the christic institute fame

Achilles said...

Just doing a quick search and wow, Olivia Wilde is a moron.

Mike Sylwester said...

Jordan Peterson, a professor-turned-proselytizer whom Wilde described as 'this pseudointellectual

Why would anybody say that Jordan Peterson is a "pseudointellectual"?

He obviously is a real intellectual.

The Wikipedia article about Peterson summarizes his academic career as follows:

-------

From July 1993 to June 1998, Peterson lived in Arlington, Massachusetts, while teaching and conducting research at Harvard University, where he was hired as an assistant professor in the psychology department, later becoming an associate professor. During his time at Harvard, he studied aggression arising from drug and alcohol abuse. An article in The Harvard Crimson said he possessed a "willingness to take on any research project, no matter how unconventional".

While at Harvard, he switched his primary area of research from familial alcoholism to personality and authored several academic papers. .... Following his associate position at Harvard, Peterson returned to Canada in July 1998 and eventually became a full professor at the University of Toronto.

Peterson's areas of study and research within the fields of psychology are psychopharmacology, abnormal, neuro, clinical, personality, social, industrial and organizational, religious, ideological, political, and creativity. Peterson has authored or co-authored more than a hundred academic papers and was cited almost 8,000 times as of mid-2017 and more than 18,000 times as of 2022.

Beginning in 2003,[8] Peterson appeared on television, speaking on a subject from a psychological perspective. On TVOntario, he appeared on Big Ideas in 2003 and 2006, and in a 13-part lecture series based on Maps of Meaning, aired in 2004. In a 2007 BBC Horizon documentary, Mad but Glad, Peterson commented on the connection between pianist Nick van Bloss' Tourette syndrome diagnosis and his musical talent. From 2011, TVOntario's The Agenda featured Peterson as an essayist and panelist on psychologically relevant cultural issues. For most of his career, Peterson maintained a clinical practice, seeing about 20 people a week.

------

This is a pseudointellectual ???????????

Christopher B said...

Oh, so it's a The Truman Show remake with gender swap?

Bob Boyd said...

Sounds like a variation on the Stepford Wives.

narciso said...

Gylenhaal made me root for her death in dark night

Kate said...

Good for Maggie. I hope the rest of her side of the interview is as professional and concise.

Bill R said...

Is there a way to "short" a movie? Y'know, like a failing company's stock?

Leland said...

Hating the audience and then blaming the audience while making obvious and bland movies has been a Hollywood staple for over 5 years now. Wilde was fine in House, because she could be herself while the rest of the cast could carry her. Otherwise, she plays the same character type in each movie with a less capable supporting cast.

Ryan said...

Come on Althouse, that transcript must be a satire.

retail lawyer said...

"Katie and I thought the version you pitched us was a bit one-note, so we put our heads together and figured out a way to really bind all the hard-hitting social commentary we’re trying to get across. "

There's the problem in a nutshell! Its ruining museums, art, college humanities . . .OK in printed newspaper comics, where it properly belongs.

Jeff Gee said...

That transcript is mind blowing. If it's really a transcript and not heavily edited to make the ladies look incredibly stupid, the ladies are incredibly stupid.

Carol said...

Jesus. The lobster comment - the opening of the 12 Rules book. That's as far as she got? Only, she didn't even read that much because she can't even. These ladies are whack.

Peterson's trying to put things right again but between this prejudice and the trans juggernaut, I'm afraid things are too far gone.

Big Mike said...

Shane Van Dyke: If you start seeing lots of news stories about on-set drama

That’s interesting. Just yesterday I stumbled across an online article about Florence Pugh getting fed up and screaming at Wilde on the set of “Don’t Worry, Darling”. I saw the 38% rating for the movie on Rotten Tomatoes and decided to give it a pass. I’m worried a bit about the survival of our local theater if Hollywood doesn’t start turning out movies that are fun to go see.

Wa St Blogger said...

Amazing lack of class and intelligence. Showing contempt for people you only know through other people who have contempt for those is the epitome of cattiness. Her brazen trumpeting of her ignorance is amazing. She would look like a bratty child if she ever got into an honest conversation with Jordan Peterson. He would treat her with the respect she did not deserve.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

I don't know anything about the Kicking The Seat website, but I'm pretty sure that 'transcript' is review in parody form.

Mica said...

I read the original full transcript at Kicking the Seat -- and I am semi-convinced that this is an imaginary transcript (which is probably by now a literary genre), in lieu of an actual review. It is very humorous and exactly as one would imagine participants contributing ... The reveal is that JP's video was available at such a short notice.

Amadeus 48 said...

There is a lot of stupid in that transcript, and it isn't coming from Shane and Carey.

Laslo Spatula said...

Regarding the Kicking the Seat Zoom Call:

"But we think calling the new movie The Wives of Fordstep” might be a bit—again, hate to say it—on the nose."

I think it is a put-on. It is a writer making fun of the people involved, and doing a great job of it.

He's criticizing the shallowness of the movie by imagining the behind-the-scenes conversation.

Read it again with this in mind and see how the dialogue is too absurdly perfect in comic timing.

I am Laslo.

Buckwheathikes said...

Bill R asked: "Is there a way to "short" a movie? Y'know, like a failing company's stock?"

Actually, yes.

You have to short the movie theater chain that it's likely playing at. For example, AMC is a public company you can short. Good money to be made by shorting AMC.

So first, find out which theater chain is booking this film (compared to ones that aren't.) You can do so here:

https://www.comscore.com/Products/Movies/US-and-Canada-Box-Office-Reporting

Drago said...

Mike Sylwester: "Why would anybody say that Jordan Peterson is a "pseudointellectual"?"

New Soviet Democraticals call Peterson a "pseudointellectual" for the same reason conservative blacks are called Uncle Toms/stupid and Latinos who don't buy into the leftist/dem/NeverTrump (but I repeat myself) insanity are called White Hispanics.

If you deviate only slightly from any, and I mean ANY, of the leftist/dem/NeverTrump policies/narratives/shibboleth's then you are immediately cast out and denigrated by the lessers who are often astonishingly ignorant and walking Dunning-Krugers.

You know, like a Howard or an Inga.

Remember, it was Joe Biden's Earpiece and Mouthpiece (KJP) that announced quite openly that anyone who departs from the "mainstream" set of opinions issued by the New Soviet Democraticals is a dangerous extremist and terrorist.

Drago said...

Wa St Blogger: "Her brazen trumpeting of her ignorance is amazing."

We see the lefties/dems/NeverTrumpers (but I repeat myself) do it everyday at Althouse blog....and everywhere else as well.

Michael K said...

The lesson of "Top Gun" is still too much for these ladies to get.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Big Mike said...

That’s interesting. Just yesterday I stumbled across an online article about Florence Pugh getting fed up and screaming at Wilde on the set of “Don’t Worry, Darling”.

There've been stories about Florence Pugh having it out with Wilde on set and Wilde fired Shia LaBeouf from the film early on because she couldn't get along with him. Then there's Harry Styles pretending to spit on Chris Pine at this year's Emmys. That 'transcript' is a review or a commentary, it's not real.

JK Brown said...

I like how the ones making the movie don't want any information that would give depth to their caricatures.

But really, she has to spell G-U-N-S? Are we to think that she'll never use them to promote murder and mayhem in a movie?

Joe Smith said...

The movie is getting massively panned.

I saw the preview in the theater and me and my wife both rolled our eyes.

It had a 'Stepford Wives' ripoff feel to it...

Jeff Gee said...

I think Mica and Laslo are correct. It's a fabrication. Everyone staying on point, no hesitations, all the information we need to follow it coming exactly when we need it. Very well done. It's like one of those expertly staged YouTube videos of a fight breaking out where the main Tell is that the (shaky)camera is always in the right place.

Joe Smith said...

I've listened to many of Peterson's off-the-cuff remarks in both speeches and debate formats.

Whatever you may think of him, he is decidedly very bright.

Anthony said...

all the hard-hitting social commentary we’re trying to get across

See, having read this I have no desire to see it because it's probably stupid.

But Olivia Wilde can spank my naked ass up and down the decks of the good ship Lollypop if she wants. . . .

Krumhorn said...

The reason why anyone would think this conversation is real is because that’s exactly how good parody works. It plays on the same instrument but in a different key. From a factual standpoint, studio legal would not be involved in the way it was stated at the outset.

There is zero chance that any of this was a real conversation other than the fact that we would believe it to be true OF THEM. The Jason Sudekis reference was a dead giveaway.

Our hostess has beautifully trolled us….unless she was sucked in too. Nah.

- Krumhorn

Randomizer said...

"Everyone in the discussion sounds either too smart or too dumb. It's just too good."

The transcript reads like a script for a satire mocking the Left. Any part of the discussion is plausible, but everyone is too knowledgeable about Jordan Peterson. Wilde and Silberman perfectly capture what could plausibly be Salon's opinion on Peterson. The Van Dyke's have reference material on Peterson, without actually defending him.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Boycott Leftwing Hillarywoodland.

Jim Gust said...

I just read the WSJ article about this movie, and it convinces me that the "transcript" is clever fiction.

William said...

I go with elaborate put on. No one could be that stupid and still be able to dress and feed themselves. Okay, there's Joy Behar but she has custodial help.....Courtly love narratives and poems had a long run. They started in the 14th century. The chaste knight goes off on a noble quest at the request of the wife of his Lord. She's supposed to be a stylized version of Mother Mary. The chasteness of his devotion to her adds to the purity and nobility of his quest.....Hollywood is actively engaged in subverting the courtly love narrative. I'm thinking of the Daenyrs and how they fucked up her story in GOT. Then there's The Last Duel and the current season of House of Dragon....I don't think this Stepford Wives, Handmaid Tale narrative will carry on for six hundred years.

Jim Gust said...

I just read the WSJ article about the controversies attending this film, and it convinced me that the "transcript" is clever fiction.

cf said...

Perhaps we have finally come to a spot where we can say the Worst Ruling Class Ever and the corresponding Worst Womens Movement Ever have NO ROBES, and are in fact RUBES, and we can start making real fun of them.

If this is real, it is spectactularly revealing of our current assembly pussy-hatted #MeToo clown train that's been rolling down the tracks unmanned.

If it is a spoof, it joins the Canadian shop teacher as a hilariously big-boobed trans. We are overdue for calling our Ruling Class Women (& their pet transies) for their outsized self-glorification.

Krumhorn said...

Sorry, I was just getting off with Harry. I mean Jason! Shit, I mean Jason!

We just finished shooting all that stuff on Tuesday. Four weeks casting; two weeks shooting. No way. We’ll tell WB it’s staying in. Write that down, Katie.

Katie, we can circle back on this offline. I’ve got detox and goat yoga in twenty.



C’mon! Brilliant stuff.

- Krumhorn

holdfast said...

So Peterson is the “prophet of the incels” because he tells depressed young men to get a haircut, clean their room, get a job and go out and meet women in the real world. So essentially he is counseling the people whom Wilde would deride with the term as “Incels” to grow up and be something better. And she finds that problematic?

And then Wilde, who publicly cucked her husband for a cross-dressing pop star, can go out and complain about toxic masculinity?

Howard said...

That's right. Every single minor transgression paints half the country with shame and blame. Of course we still haven't heard anything about the world famous Trumper and red state hero Brett favre stealing money from the poorest of the poor in Mississippi for his vanity projects. Be sure to exit the zoo at the gift shop.

Narr said...

IDK. The women sound like every ignorant lefty slut I've ever encountered, and the van Dykes sound like intelligent, well-informed scions of a fine family, doing their best to save a couple of women from their own folly.

tim maguire said...

This transcript is so good, I suspect it of being fictional writing.

I'm always suspicious when someone says something in casual conversation and then, when called on it, has the perfect example at the ready. Unless Candy Crowley is the moderator, of course. Then it's all obviously on the up and up.

PLEASE don’t mansplain to us.

Of course. He's showing you to be an ignorant tool; fortunately he's a he so you can just dismiss him as sexist.

n.n said...

The socioliberals are upon in arms that after cancelling the Twilight Amendment, human rites on a forward-looking basis will be performed as a State solution a la slavery and diversity in the Democrat model.

Martin L. Shoemaker said...

It’s a review in the form of a parody transcript.

veni vidi vici said...

The transcript may be more of an "inspired by" than an actual truth but based on what I've seen and heard of Ms. Wilde elsewhere over the years, it is quite true and accurate that yes, she really is that insufferably ideological (and largely as ignorant about the things she judges most harshly).

The irony of her fierce feminism springing from a lass whose birth surname was "Cockburn" cannot be oversold, however.

veni vidi vici said...

This and the teeth-gratingly cloying "Bros" ("Remember straight people? - Heh; they had a good run.") also released in the same window shows Hollywood is really committed to the ideological warpath it's on. Only ruinous commercial defeat will give an impetus towards reflection and course adjustment.

I doubt they'd make the adjustment anyway, tbh. Especially if a single "Top Gun Maverick" covers the spread over the panoply of box-office losers. They're all working for the narrative now, after all.

Bill Peschel said...

It's a fake and should be treated as such. If he had the video, he could have converted it into an MP3 (audio only) and released that. No way to trace it back to the original file.

The MSM lies. Public figures lie. Women who report hate crimes lie. Ask BYU and Gibson's Bakery.

It must be axiomatic that receipts must be provided if a story is to be believed.

PM said...

Incels are males who are actively aiding a woman's right to choose.
btw, Maggie Gyllenhaal getting spanked in "Secretary": A+

ccscientist said...

Jordan Peterson a pseudo-intellectual? He is thoroughly published in his field and is one of the most articulate people I have ever seen. Is he always right? Don't know but he sure tweeks the woke in the nose. hahaha. Actors really should not try to judge things about which they know nothing, which is most things.

Rollo said...

Olivia Cockburn is exceedingly tiresome.

I suppose Maggie's husband, Peter Sarsgard, does have sex, voluntarily or not, but he does seem to have an incel personality, so it shouldn't be that hard for Mags to understand the concept.

Jupiter said...

Maybe the movie is trying to say "Why are you sitting here in the dark, looking at this pretentious tripe?" But it's difficult for it to say that, because no one sits in the dark to look at tripe any more.

Rabel said...

Having seen her stripper scene in the movie "Butter" I find it very difficult to criticize Ms Wilde.

Smilin' Jack said...

Olivia should be seen and not heard.

Ann Althouse said...

As I say in the second update, I lean toward finding the transcript a work of fiction.

The one thing that cuts in the other direction is that he's "quoting" real people and I would be afraid of liability. I would think a writer would be more risk averse and at least do a reveal in the end.

EAB said...

This is a movie review delivered through a completely fictional transcript. He found the movie stupid and derivative. And is making fun of the drama around the movie as made-up drama. And he’s tweaking Wilde’s idiotic comments about Jordan Peterson. It’s very clever - it gives us an accurate representation of his view of the movie. Well done.

JaimeRoberto said...

"I mean, our last collaboration was almost nominated for the Oscars."

"I mean, our last album was #12 in Japan!"

Drago said...

Howard: "That's right. Every single minor transgression paints half the country with shame and blame. Of course we still haven't heard anything about the world famous Trumper and red state hero Brett favre stealing money from the poorest of the poor in Mississippi for his vanity projects."

Howard takes time out from supporting the New Soviet Democraticals financing of Putin's war in Ukraine and financing an accelerated iranian islamic supremacist nuke and allowing the ChiCom's to ship millions of pounds of fentanyl across our southern border to complain about............(wait for it) ...... (wait for it) .........Brett Favre!

Hey Howard, have you guys "fixed" the baby formula shortage yet? Or are you still awaiting approval from Soros and Gates to do that?

Michael said...

An actress calls a professor a pseudo intellectual. Rich.

Ceciliahere said...

Olivia Wilde is slap worthy!!’ How annoying can a person be?

M said...

Everything I’ve heard or read about coming out of Olivia’s mouth tells me she is a pseudo “artiste” and a nasty, shallow, stupid skank. Another embarrassment for all women.

cubanbob said...

Laslo, great comment. I'm reasonably confident the "transcript" is far better than the movie.

The studio should have made the movie as a movie about a movie using the parody as the basis of the film. That would have been entertaining.

Gospace said...

As I tap away on my phone commenting on this I see 74 comments already. On a movie. I may or may not scroll through through them. Althouse blog commenters often have interesting takes on things.

Anyway, there was a review of this very movie on a Facebook group I belong to. Summed up the review was :”DON’T SEE IT!” I left a comment: Since I hadn’t heard about this movie until just now I don’t think I’m in any danger.”

And now, a discussion on Althouse the very next day of a movie I’m not in danger of seeing. So the movie seems to be generating a buzz, but not one that’s going to increase it’s box office draw.

n.n said...

Olivia’s mouth tells me she is a pseudo “artiste” and a nasty, shallow, stupid skank. Another embarrassment for all women

All women, no. There is no basis for a correlation between cretin and female sex. Let's not exercise liberal license to scavenge diversity's depth.

God of the Sea People said...

"Wilde was fine in House, because she could be herself while the rest of the cast could carry her"

Her role in Portlandia seems to be the most true to life.

God of the Sea People said...

"Wilde was fine in House, because she could be herself while the rest of the cast could carry her"

Her role in Portlandia seems to be the most true to life.

Ted said...

This is clearly fiction. If nothing else convinces you, this line should:

"If you start seeing lots of news stories about on-set drama, or if someone taps one of the stars on the shoulder and asks him/her to pull a bizarre stunt at a film festival—-then you’ll know."

That's exactly what happened, AFTER this conversation supposedly took place. So the writer is making it absolutely clear that this wasn't a real meeting. But congrats for creating such a convincing work of satire that many people apparently think it's real.

Lurker21 said...

This is not a real transcript.

Olivia Wilde: Um, eww! I’ve never drank bleach before but I know it’s poison!

This does sound like a former cheerleader with intellectual pretentions, which is what Olivia is.

I did think Booksmart, which she directed and Silberman co-wrote, was pretty good. That's because they were depicting a world they more or less knew and poking fun at people much like themselves. With the new movie they are aiming at social commentary (which may not amount to much more than hating men and the 1950s) and they are in over their heads.

I guess when Olivia was making an appearance at a film convention and was served with court papers by Jason Sudeikis it might be a turn on for some people, but lately she's too much like a schoolteacher who runs around with an underaged student for kicks.

I also hope that "Frank" isn't Liv's way of getting back at Sudeikis, the way that Woody disses Mia in his movies.

Ex-PFC Wintergreen said...

I lean toward the “work of fiction” interpretation too, if for no other reason than the Hail, Caesar! comment - the “transcript” is just as much satire as the Coen’s fabulous movie. We’ve seen the previews for Wilde’s movie a couple of times, and my spouse and I had the exact same reaction: (1) “Doesn’t this look like a Stepford Wives ripoff?”; followed closely by (2) “You couldn’t pay me enough to see this drek!”

Ralph L said...

Seems like a good time for "Jane, you ignorant slut!"