Bret Easton Ellis Might Have a Memoir Coming Out

I'll look for it.

"The Worst Year EVER for American Film"?

Dinner with a filmmaker/cinephile last night and we both agreed: 2015 is the worst year EVER for American film. An infection has arrived...

— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) October 22, 2015

I don't think so. Not with Straight Outta Compton, The Intern, Minions, et al. But stinkers like Mad Max: Fury Road, American Ultra, and Hitman: Agent 47 do cause worry about the state of the movies.

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26 October update:
Armond White:

With the dreadful #Suffragette, 2015 movies hit bottom--for now. https://t.co/kw9EXKTWqf pic.twitter.com/TrJsL9oIla

— armond white (@3xchair) October 26, 2015

The Wall Steet Journal: "Huge Flops Hit the Box Office."

The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast Returns Next Week

The BRET EASTON ELLIS PODCAST returns next week on PodCastOne: Sentimental narratives & the fallacy of "relatability" pic.twitter.com/PrdxvMioIL

— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) May 1, 2015

Beyond the Lights: Future Cult Classic?

Missed this: BEYOND THE LIGHTS (2014; Gina Prince-Bythewood). A savvy pop fantasy, quietly compelling and touching. pic.twitter.com/rluLQDJJ68

— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) February 26, 2015

I missed this movie in the theater too. I'd probably have seen it at the Kress (missed). The box office was lackluster but it looks as if it will find a bigger audience on video.

Armond White's "Better Than" List

I like Armond White too, and don't always agree with him either. Nor did I always concur with John Simon.

I don't always agree with Armond White but he's probably the most important American film critic right now: http://t.co/meDL2lKlPl

— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) January 9, 2014

Movie Remakes

Why remake one of the greatest American movies of the 1970s? CARRIE 2013 was the most depressing filmgoing experience I've had this year...

— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) October 23, 2013

Not all movie remakes are bad, but generally they are. Paul Fussell wrote: "[A]mong the intelligent the threat of a remake was almost always a cause of sinking spirits as viewers experienced repeated disappointments comparing the 1964 Night Must Fall with the good one of 1937....Despite the obvious folly of trying to remake Modern Times, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, High Noon, or even On the Waterfront or Hud, someone ... is sure to try and then, when the contempt pours in, respond by designating the critics elitist."

This doesn't even cover what I call the "Hollywoodization" of foreign movies. Compare, for example, the 1996 Japanese movie Shall We Dance? about a salaryman who discovers the world of ballroom dance, with the brassy 2004 American version, starring Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez.

Gravity Looks Like a Heavy Movie

GRAVITY is technically brilliant but it's totally boring in just about every other aspect. It has become the most overrated movie of 2013...

— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) October 2, 2013

Based on the trailer playing on TV, that's much the vibe I get from this movie. It just doesn't capture my interest. But then I didn't think much of Turbo from its trailer, until I saw the movie and had my expectations exceeded.

2013: A Bad Year for Movies

2013 is undeniably, so far, the worst year ever for American movies.

— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) September 5, 2013

I don't know if it's the worst year for American movies, but we've had some really lousy ones. The movies I've seen that I like the most: The Heat, Monsters University, and Turbo.

9 September update: We saw Lee Daniels' The Butler yesterday. It's not a perfect movie (I see you, Field Negro) but full of superb performances (Forrest Whittaker, Oprah Winfrey, Terrence Howard, Lenny Kravitz, David Oyelewo) and inspired cameos (especially James Marsden as JFK and John Cusack as Nixon). And would you have recognized Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan? The direction is subtle for Daniels, and the music... is that a long-lost Gladys Knight song, or a new one?

"Mood and a World"

Apologies if I telegraphed any spoilers. But I think THE CANYONS is about mood and a world and not plot points. The best movies are.

— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) August 3, 2013

The Great Ghastly

I'm dreading the Baz/Leo version of The Great Gatsby tonight since it seems that every generation gets The Great Gatsby movie it deserves...

— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) May 14, 2013

Baz Lurhmann's awful "The Great Gatsby" seems like some kind of ghastly Illuminati prank with Leo fighting against it and losing, decimated.

— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) May 15, 2013

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20 May update: According to BoxOfficeMojo.com, The Great Gatsby has a budget of $105 million, and has earned a little over $90 million domestically. What is the point of all this?

Fifty Shades

Love the idea that Paul Ryan could be Christian Grey despite (or because of) the Ayn Rand obsession. It works for both "characters" Cool...

— Bret Easton Ellis (@BretEastonEllis) August 15, 2012

9/11

Tweets Favorites Following Followers Lists
» BretEastonEllis Bret Easton Ellis
Remember that September after dinner in Tribeca walking past the barricades at midnight and standing there thinking how small it all looked.
10 hours ago
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"May It Stay Fiction"
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As appropriate for the occasion as I could think of. Each evokes a certain mood of the event and its aftermath.

Don't go Garbo on us!

The event.

http://twitter.com/#!/BretEastonEllis/status/70020711078563840

@BretEastonEllis
Bret Easton Ellis
The last ever U.S. bookstore appearance of "Bret Easton Ellis" will be held at Skylight Books in Los Angeles on Thursday, May 19th, 2011...

Bret Easton Ellis on "Tavis Smiley"

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/201006/20100629_ellis.html?vid=1534066991#video

Bret Easton Ellis Interviewed

To promote his latest novel, Imperial Bedrooms, due 15 June, Bret Easton Ellis has done interviews with Vice and Movieline.

The Movieline interview unfolds over five days this week.

Oscar Predictions Half Right

From Bret Easton Ellis's Twitter

Oscar night 2010: George Clooney, Streep, Christoph Waltz, Mo'Nique...
10:42 AM Nov 30th, 2009 via web

Two out of four isn't bad.

Bret Easton Ellis's Tweets

Oh my.



I've been unconvinced either to join or to follow Twitter, but for him I'll make an exception. Not to say I'll join or become a Twitter follower, but I'll tune in regularly.

The Real Alison Poole

I never liked John Edwards and don't care about his affair. However, this item about his mistress details her earlier life as Jay McInerney's girlfriend and inspiration for the character of Alison Poole.

Lisa Jo Druck was born 20 March 1964 and changed her name to Rielle Hunter (first name pronounced "Riley") twenty years later. Her changing a perfectly fine name to one so pretentiously spelled makes me wonder if her character should have been called Alison Foole.

May It Stay Fiction

As we approach the first anniversary (August 16) of the release of Lunar Park, the recent news about the terrorist plot foiled in London reminds me of the pervasive terrorist violence described in the book. In a review of Lunar Park Popmatters notes:

Ellis's alternate reality stretches out much farther than just himself. In
Lunar Park, he imagines a world where terrorists stage not only big attacks on
familiar or important landmarks, but also in "...crowded Burger Kings and Starbucks and Wal-Marts and in subways at rush hour".
Ellis's apocalyptic vision continues: "Miles of major cities had been cordoned off behind barbed wire, and morning newspapers ran aerial photographs of bombed-out buildings on the front page, showing piles of tangled bodies in the shadow of the
crane lifting slabs of scorched concrete. More and more often there were 'no
survivors'. Bulletproof vests were on sale everywhere, because scores of snipers had suddenly appeared; the military police stationed on every corner offered no solace, and surveillance camera proved useless."

Fortunately, nothing like the aforementioned has happened (in America, at least) since 9/11, but airport security has been ramped up more than it's been in a while.