james toback poll

have seen all except love and money and two girls and a guy -- voting for Exposed, easily. i was surprised it was so good!

btw ive even read the book dude wrote abt jim brown -- not surprisingly, it's really self-indulgent! like beyond even what you think it would be when he titles it JIM: The Author's Self-Centered Memoir On the Great Jim Brown

I've only seen the first, the last, and Exposed. He was there to introduce Fingers when I saw it at a hole-in-the-wall theatre in Toronto 25 years ago. Quite entertaining--a better Bogdanovich than Bogdanovich, with the same kind of endearingly inflated sense of self-importance. Anyway, Fingers' excellent soundtrack aside (highlighted by the Jamies' "Summertime, Summertime"), Tyson; I was quite surprised by how good and how unshowy it was.

Two Girls and a Guy. Still RDJ's best performance.

that movie is terrible, though!

i guess i don't really belong in this thread

can i just say, harvard man is insane?

^yes^

there is also the doc abt him the outsider which is p awesome if just to hear RDJ talk abt not selling out

would've voted bugsy but am voting two girls a guy and a pizza place cuz of great rdj performance, despite being a terrible movie. am i correct in remembering the pickup artist drawing crazy heat at the time due to being 'irresponsible in the aids era', etc? lol at marlins cap.

well he didnt direct bugsy so i didnt include it

that sounds vaguely familiar re: the pickup artist. i wouldve been ok w/ rdj's character getting aids tbh, he was v annoying

bump 4 workday folx

was thinking abt why i like this dude despite not thinking v. highly of many of these movies -- i do enjoy his overstuffed plotting & how he handles pacing and i feel like he could make much better movies than he has if he could get out of his own headspace a lil, maybe collaborate w/ some writer who hed actually listen to

lol nice marlins hat bro

i think i found pick-up artist really charming once upon a time but i watched it again recently and it felt really flat and lame so idk

voting black & white cuz lol brett ratner cameo

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he lives with brett ratner???

http://www.deadline.com/2011/08/james-toback-on-the-gambler-remake-rudeness-and-disrespect/

i think that's probably the least-surprising factoid i could ever learn about toback.

kinda weird that Scorsese is willing to remake a personal auteurist work, instead of pulp like Cape Fear and Internal Affairs.

'Infernal'

it's odd but idk, that film has a fair bit in common with 'saturday night and sunday morning' and 'raging bull'. it's not like toback invented self-destructive individualists.

stopped reading @ 'masterpiece of a screenplay'

i dont necessarily have a problem with leo, but i really wish he'd give the guy a rest. he could be working with any actor he wants!!

The Gambler preceded Raging Bull by 6 years.

Anyway I was glad to read it's OOP on DVD, bcz I just reserved it at the NY library as you can bet it's not gonna be reissued til after a remake.

i havent even seen the gambler/didnt realize toback wrote it. is it good?

The Gambler preceded Raging Bull by 6 years.

i know. they're both good films. they have similarities. toback and schrader both dug dostoyevsky, for one.

my read on this is that like most marty projects that get announced this will never happen, hence toback never got a call.

like today monahan is said to be writing 'sin city 2' so.

hope marty goes with 'they paint houses' or w/e it's called.

im p sure the Silence adaptation w/DDL is on his plate next

it's not really any good, imo. i have it on dvd

toback is a huge blowhard w/ a giant ego

The Gambler used to play on TV all the time through the '70s, then it completely disappeared--haven't seen it for ages, but I really like it. It came out close enough to California Split that Simon or somebody reviewed them together.

i like the gamber, gut-wrenching movie imo.

anyhoo, of the stuff he's directed I've only seen Black and White & The Pick-up Artist, both of which I rather detested (except for Tyson slapping Downey -- excellent).

voted fingers

You haven't seen Two Girls and a Guy? That's his best.

Tyson slapping Downey -- excellent

Downey was never better.

I would have voted for Tyson--thought Toback did a surprisingly good job of staying out of the way and keeping the focus on Tyson (not a given with Toback).

id still encourage ppl to watch 'exposed', if u can find it

the comparison w schrader is interesting cos both are presented as creepyass creeps in bks by p biskind

'exposed' is still one of the only films i've ever walked out on.

Good job, guy:

http://gawker.com/5939264/james-toback-strikes-again-i-have-to-cum-at-least-seven-times-a-day

I'll shoot out a word and then I want you to rap on it.

seduced & abandoned is really fun & well put together

p good if you dont have time/ability to watch the doc -http://www.vulture.com/2013/10/alec-baldwin-james-toback-seduced-and-abandoned-interview.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMgpH5BEjQg

16 views

"Fingers" is kinda sloppily made but the soundtrack and Keitel are dope

Yeah, Fingers is like a poor man's '70s Scorsese film.

there's a couple weird ass scenes with Jim Brown in 'fingers'. Toback is one demented mfer imo.

there hafta be cut out scenes from Mississippi grind, tho his 1 brief scene is 1 of the better ones in the whole film

a friend used to see him at screenings with Pauline Kael in the '70s

def weirdest Paulette, Armond included

When Will I Be Loved: weird, not terrible, far from being any good, silly ending--what were the people who invested in it hoping for? It's basically an echo of Fingers, with grifters still walking around New York as girl-group music plays, 30 years after it made sense to make a film like Fingers (which, when it came out, before I knew who James Toback was, I thought was a horror film).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBYnePACb8k

Finished

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-mn-james-toback-sexual-harassment-allegations-20171018-story.html

And thank goodness for that.

how unexpected for a guy who idolizes Mike Tyson

the stuff that is clearly autobiographical in his films makes this the least surprising thing ever. he's always been disguising his shit as auteurism. which could describe a fair number of filmmakers but he's just so boring. i guess i thought Fingers was solid but that was mostly due to Keitel and Michael V. Gazzo.

looking forward to Armond White's leaps of logic defending him after assailing Hollywood on the Weinstein tip.

I've watched Fingers three times, to no avail. Two Girls and a Guy was his best movie. I liked The Pick-Up Artist!

Since the piece published this morning, 15 more women have contacted me about Toback. (4/5)

— Glenn Whipp (@GlennWhipp) October 22, 2017

that Pauline Kael could pick em

Zoomcast on the music in Fingers, Casino, Licorice Pizza, and Succession. We do take a minute upfront to acknowledge Toback's considerable baggage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0wEODQubPg

Had a dream that I put on a mini-film festival of early ‘00s IFC staples. Two Girls and a Guy was the headliner followed by The Anniversary Party (Alan Cumming & Sarah Jessica Parker) and Morvern Callar but I don’t actually remember IFC showing the latter.

And fuck that guy once more:

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/james-toback-verdict-sex-assault-suit-40-women-1236365217/

Toback did not attend the trial. Earlier in the case, he issued a blanket denial, including a claim that any sexual activity was consensual. He was acting as his own attorney at the time.