THB#9: Ennui-nsday

I have spent the last 18 hours or so with the goal of writing a fun, upbeat mid-week column at a time when all the chatter is quite uncomfortable.

Can’t find one.

I’ve been thinking that I should write a column about all that is great about Netflix… and there is plenty. But it just feels like the wrong week.

I’ve been waiting to fall in love with a movie. No luck. Lots of interesting ideas and production and cinematography and acting. I even got to see a big movie on a big screen with which I have a long, loving relationship. But no. I would be thrilled to find something as flawed and delightful as Free Guy or Shang-Chi. But no luck.

I am enraged beyond my ability to explain fully about the HFPA and their weaseling their way back into the public eye, abetted by their Penske-partnered masters (meaning the trades will support whatever happens). I don’t need HFPA to die, but if it’s going to live, it needs to become what it says it is, a home for the Hollywood Foreign Press, which means h…