Hollywood is a Flat Circle
January 29, 2025 3:21 PM Subscribe
If you're a fan of True Detective, this will touch something within you. Written and directed by Nic Pizzolatto, with Matthew and Woody coming back, it certainly is Pepsi Blue. But so good. Enjoy.
"you don't like what Hollywood's been dishing? Then let's take over the kitchen. Yeah."
posted by valkane at 3:51 PM on January 29 [1 favorite]
posted by valkane at 3:51 PM on January 29 [1 favorite]
Until the state of Texas protects the rights of women and trans people who live in or visit Texas, it doesn't deserve anyone's business.
posted by eraserbones at 4:00 PM on January 29 [48 favorites]
posted by eraserbones at 4:00 PM on January 29 [48 favorites]
Mmm, starting with a small rant about regulations being cumbersome doesn't really thrill me. But this is clearly targeted at the Texas legislature, who apparently didn't realize subsidies have a good RoI.
posted by Bryant at 4:04 PM on January 29 [4 favorites]
posted by Bryant at 4:04 PM on January 29 [4 favorites]
What a day on MeFi, we get this and the Harry met Mayo. No thanks to either.
posted by stevil at 4:21 PM on January 29 [2 favorites]
posted by stevil at 4:21 PM on January 29 [2 favorites]
Just came in here to deliver my heartiest, most deeply felt, passionately enthusiastic:
FUCK TEXAS.
[I presently reside in Texas. Can't leave fast enough, but I'm working on it.]
posted by ZakDaddy at 4:41 PM on January 29 [16 favorites]
FUCK TEXAS.
[I presently reside in Texas. Can't leave fast enough, but I'm working on it.]
posted by ZakDaddy at 4:41 PM on January 29 [16 favorites]
It's amazing how quickly Dennis Quaid poisons the well for anything I see his face in.
posted by Shepherd at 4:42 PM on January 29 [9 favorites]
posted by Shepherd at 4:42 PM on January 29 [9 favorites]
Has anyone ever lucked out like Nic Pizzolatto did with these guys? They really are magic together. You could have them saying just about anything and get chills. I'm just saying, you know, no reason.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:54 PM on January 29 [6 favorites]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 4:54 PM on January 29 [6 favorites]
I don't really have a strong opinion one way or the other about Texas getting projects. I feel a little ehhhh...I don't know iffy about the possible underlying politics of this ad, but on the whole I am in favor of Hollywood not having a stranglehold on American film. I'm not sure how much money film production really brings into a community, though; major films have been shot here in my city and, other than traffic getting messed up for weeks on end, and some civic pride that tends to run hottest right at the beginning and end of those weeks (the long middle, people start to get frustrated when they can't get places on time), I'm not sure how much it's done for us, really. I have a feeling it's a much better deal for the production.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:03 PM on January 29
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:03 PM on January 29
What state in this great nation _doesn't_ fund a 'State Film Commission' these days?
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 5:22 PM on January 29 [4 favorites]
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 5:22 PM on January 29 [4 favorites]
I don't really have a strong opinion one way or the other about Texas getting projects. I feel a little ehhhh...I don't know iffy about the possible underlying politics of this ad, but on the whole I am in favor of Hollywood not having a stranglehold on American film.
You might be surprised to learn that Canada has long had a surprising hold on American film and television.
posted by srboisvert at 5:59 PM on January 29 [7 favorites]
You might be surprised to learn that Canada has long had a surprising hold on American film and television.
posted by srboisvert at 5:59 PM on January 29 [7 favorites]
> You might be surprised to learn that Canada ...
If I could pick any production city to live in, it would be Vancouver. I should put a visit on my bucket list.
On the one hand, I'm like "Meh, fuck Texas". I live here and I'm not proud of my state at the moment. I also live in a city where the rents are finally going down and if we get an influx of people, that may push them right back up again.
On the other hand, I remember when people were shooting (films) here in Texas and everyone was excited and the sky was looking up, etc. Actors being employed (even minimally) and studios being build or planned. Fun times. We're kind of dead in the water at the moment.
I don't really pay attention to Dennis Quaid's politics (Randy is … special) so I don't have an axe to grind there.
I kinda hope they can get something going, but I dread it, too.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 6:13 PM on January 29 [1 favorite]
If I could pick any production city to live in, it would be Vancouver. I should put a visit on my bucket list.
On the one hand, I'm like "Meh, fuck Texas". I live here and I'm not proud of my state at the moment. I also live in a city where the rents are finally going down and if we get an influx of people, that may push them right back up again.
On the other hand, I remember when people were shooting (films) here in Texas and everyone was excited and the sky was looking up, etc. Actors being employed (even minimally) and studios being build or planned. Fun times. We're kind of dead in the water at the moment.
I don't really pay attention to Dennis Quaid's politics (Randy is … special) so I don't have an axe to grind there.
I kinda hope they can get something going, but I dread it, too.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 6:13 PM on January 29 [1 favorite]
Heather Cox Richardson has a really interesting perspective on the cowboy as a historical icon in American politics in her book, "how The South Won the Civil War". The cowboy is cast as an independent rugged individualist that just wants the government to leave them alone, when in reality the development of the American West relied heavily on Federal infrastructure projects like dams, highways, militia support. The cowboy mythology ignores the cooperative development of towns with laws, ignores racial dynamics and the contributions women made to social growth. She talks about the mythology of television shows like the Rifleman and Bonanza, the Cowboy Western contributing to the post Civil War conservative agenda. The rise of Cowboy President Regan was really a nexus for this ideology. I couldn't help thinking of her remarks while watching this clip. I think of the 'sovereign citizens' like Cliven Bundy who racked up a million dollars worth of cattle grazing fees, then precipitates an armed standoff with Federal agents because he doesn't want the government meddling in his life. This True Detective inspired clip has a lot of these elements as a subtext.
posted by effluvia at 6:15 PM on January 29 [9 favorites]
posted by effluvia at 6:15 PM on January 29 [9 favorites]
If there's an online video of McConaughey's "holy shit, this guy is going to be a movie star" early-career cameo in John Sayles' Lone Star, I haven't been able to find it.
posted by Lemkin at 6:15 PM on January 29 [2 favorites]
posted by Lemkin at 6:15 PM on January 29 [2 favorites]
The ugliest landscapes of California rival the most beautiful landscapes of Texas, but sure, if you're into two-bit revival churches on every corner, dry counties and navigating your way through all the gun-totin' red hats while you drive 45 minutes to get anywhere, Texas is right for you!
posted by Chuffy at 6:18 PM on January 29 [3 favorites]
posted by Chuffy at 6:18 PM on January 29 [3 favorites]
So Texas makes a commercial about extracting wealth based on a Louisiana-based property.
Sounds about right.
posted by eustatic at 6:24 PM on January 29 [3 favorites]
Sounds about right.
posted by eustatic at 6:24 PM on January 29 [3 favorites]
similarly, shut the hell up about Oklahoma.
posted by eustatic at 6:27 PM on January 29 [1 favorite]
posted by eustatic at 6:27 PM on January 29 [1 favorite]
Definitely reads like Nic Pizzolatto, from the kitchen line to the shackled prisoner.
posted by doctornemo at 6:43 PM on January 29
posted by doctornemo at 6:43 PM on January 29
Was this plagiarized from Thomas Ligotti, too?
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:56 PM on January 29 [1 favorite]
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:56 PM on January 29 [1 favorite]
As a confirmed Horror Guy, I would simply like to say that accusations that Pizzolatto ripped off Thomas Ligotti have never held water for me, the main reason why being that I straight up do not get why people are so into Thomas Ligotti. Like, the dude has a book called Grimscribe, that's...that's just too much, man. I don't know. I feel like his whole deal is some sort of parody that people took super seriously and he just rolled with it. But more to the point, this guy did not invent nihilism. I'm not saying Nic Pizzolatto is an especially original or even great writer -- I meant what I said, I think he got luckier than basically any writer has ever been when these two dudes were cast -- but I feel like suggestions that he ripped off Ligotti are based, probably, on Thomas Ligotti being the only horror writer a bunch of people ever read or something. (If anything, Nic Pizzolatto owes a fantastic debt to the DC/Vertigo comics of the '90s.)
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:20 PM on January 29 [11 favorites]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:20 PM on January 29 [11 favorites]
They can leverage Texas's bountiful public lands for filming locations. /s
posted by neonamber at 7:34 PM on January 29 [1 favorite]
posted by neonamber at 7:34 PM on January 29 [1 favorite]
I don't really pay attention to Dennis Quaid's politics (Randy is … special) so I don't have an axe to grind there.
Dennis Quad's speech at Trump Rally, October 2024
posted by Saxon Kane at 8:11 PM on January 29 [1 favorite]
Dennis Quad's speech at Trump Rally, October 2024
posted by Saxon Kane at 8:11 PM on January 29 [1 favorite]
I like the first and third seasons of True Detective. The visual language of the first season is extremely Lake Charles, which a bunch of I dunno, Crowley? and some New Iberia and more sugar cane areas thrown in. The mood of the first season, the plot of the first season, with the vampire family in charge of things, is extremely Louisiana and Lake Charles. And the kid grew up in Lake Charles.
There are fewer and fewer people living in Lake Charles, as Louisiana is emptied from decades of ecological devastation, illness, and poverty, Hurricane Rita. People live with incredible amounts of dioxin in their blood. Of course, you can't discuss these things in Lake Charles, the political suppression by these families is intense, but you can make them into fiction, but I feel it goes way over the heads of most people watching the show. It is difficult to convey a landscape that is busy dying, and that US presidents command to die by executive order.
So, give Pizzolatto that one series, it was amazing, he's writing what he knows, he's invoking unspeakable things that actually exist, about the illness in the land of his youth. The land is a character in that first series, at least I felt that, having worked in the area for over a decade.
(I was talking with two of my colleagues who were born in Lake Charles the other month, they are African American, and decently into their careers, and neither had realized until last year that Lake Charles is not majority white; this is also not represented in the tv show, and yet somehow that's true to life, but just to give you the idea of the repression and unfinished business going on.)
But stuff like the LSU baseball star who is crippled with a chronic illness, that is very Lake Charles, but also very DC/Vertigo. You can be young and breathe refinery waste, but in your 30's, it will catch up to you
The villain who is the caretaker of the sick land, and properties, like coonass royalty, that is Vertigo, yeah. I want to re-read Swamp Thing to see if alan moore ever had a villain like that.
So, while i agree the actors are important for that season, and Texas is beautiful, but that first season is shot in Louisiana, written about the land of Pizzolatto's youth, and it's about being surrounded by poisoned ground. And they filmed in locations that may not be totally safe to breathe or grow crops.
So, if you want to re-shoot the horror of True Detective but Texas, let's see some location work in Pasadena, Texas City, Quintana Island/Surfside, Brownsville, Point Comfort, Orange, fucking Vidor, let's show people some poisoned ground. Texas has a lot of it.
Don't just shoot your pretty drone footage in the Black Prairie (and the footage is gorgeous, yeah), let's see some drone footage from the places where you get reported to homeland security for taking video!
posted by eustatic at 8:33 PM on January 29 [14 favorites]
There are fewer and fewer people living in Lake Charles, as Louisiana is emptied from decades of ecological devastation, illness, and poverty, Hurricane Rita. People live with incredible amounts of dioxin in their blood. Of course, you can't discuss these things in Lake Charles, the political suppression by these families is intense, but you can make them into fiction, but I feel it goes way over the heads of most people watching the show. It is difficult to convey a landscape that is busy dying, and that US presidents command to die by executive order.
So, give Pizzolatto that one series, it was amazing, he's writing what he knows, he's invoking unspeakable things that actually exist, about the illness in the land of his youth. The land is a character in that first series, at least I felt that, having worked in the area for over a decade.
(I was talking with two of my colleagues who were born in Lake Charles the other month, they are African American, and decently into their careers, and neither had realized until last year that Lake Charles is not majority white; this is also not represented in the tv show, and yet somehow that's true to life, but just to give you the idea of the repression and unfinished business going on.)
But stuff like the LSU baseball star who is crippled with a chronic illness, that is very Lake Charles, but also very DC/Vertigo. You can be young and breathe refinery waste, but in your 30's, it will catch up to you
The villain who is the caretaker of the sick land, and properties, like coonass royalty, that is Vertigo, yeah. I want to re-read Swamp Thing to see if alan moore ever had a villain like that.
So, while i agree the actors are important for that season, and Texas is beautiful, but that first season is shot in Louisiana, written about the land of Pizzolatto's youth, and it's about being surrounded by poisoned ground. And they filmed in locations that may not be totally safe to breathe or grow crops.
So, if you want to re-shoot the horror of True Detective but Texas, let's see some location work in Pasadena, Texas City, Quintana Island/Surfside, Brownsville, Point Comfort, Orange, fucking Vidor, let's show people some poisoned ground. Texas has a lot of it.
Don't just shoot your pretty drone footage in the Black Prairie (and the footage is gorgeous, yeah), let's see some drone footage from the places where you get reported to homeland security for taking video!
posted by eustatic at 8:33 PM on January 29 [14 favorites]
Has anyone ever lucked out like Nic Pizzolatto did with these guys? They really are magic together. You could have them saying just about anything and get chills. I'm just saying, you know, no reason.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:54 PM on January 29
Robert Redford and Paul Newman come close to True Detective, IMO. The they are the best buddy movies I've ever seen, though Reservoir Dogs is up there also, the love story of Harvey Keiteil and Tim Roth; it's absolutely beautiful but maybe not pretty, wear clean underpants before the lights go down.
Can I stop without Cool Hand Luke? Dare I? Good god, don't thikt it[s a prison movie, or a buddy movie, it is both of those butwhat it really is is a man standing u0 against god. He loses, except he dooesn'.
posted by dancestoblue at 9:12 PM on January 29
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:54 PM on January 29
Robert Redford and Paul Newman come close to True Detective, IMO. The they are the best buddy movies I've ever seen, though Reservoir Dogs is up there also, the love story of Harvey Keiteil and Tim Roth; it's absolutely beautiful but maybe not pretty, wear clean underpants before the lights go down.
Can I stop without Cool Hand Luke? Dare I? Good god, don't thikt it[s a prison movie, or a buddy movie, it is both of those butwhat it really is is a man standing u0 against god. He loses, except he dooesn'.
posted by dancestoblue at 9:12 PM on January 29
Stephen Dorff driving along side woulda been cool.
posted by clavdivs at 9:44 PM on January 29 [1 favorite]
posted by clavdivs at 9:44 PM on January 29 [1 favorite]
Man, I really want to rewatch that first season of True Detective now.
eustatic: Thank you for those insights about Louisiana. I had no idea the place was that badly polluted. Didn't Moore's Swamp Thing run include a half-human creature whose body was rotting away from consuming illegally dumped nuclear waste? Maybe some the issues you mention were what he had in mind there - a walking metaphor for the state's real ecological woes.
Tell me, have you ever read James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels and, if so, what do you make of how he presents the state? It's a romanticised picture of Louisiana's environment for sure, but beautifully written, and I'm wondering how that strikes someone who knows Robicheaux's New Iberia and its surroundings in real life.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:10 AM on January 30 [1 favorite]
eustatic: Thank you for those insights about Louisiana. I had no idea the place was that badly polluted. Didn't Moore's Swamp Thing run include a half-human creature whose body was rotting away from consuming illegally dumped nuclear waste? Maybe some the issues you mention were what he had in mind there - a walking metaphor for the state's real ecological woes.
Tell me, have you ever read James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels and, if so, what do you make of how he presents the state? It's a romanticised picture of Louisiana's environment for sure, but beautifully written, and I'm wondering how that strikes someone who knows Robicheaux's New Iberia and its surroundings in real life.
posted by Paul Slade at 12:10 AM on January 30 [1 favorite]
A friend worked/works in the Texas film 'industry' and it was humming along nicely until five(?) years ago when the legislature decided to cut all the tax breaks and etc. There was a lot filming in and around Austin - lots of sun year 'round, good quality of life (well, ten years ago at least), good work-force: the whole thing was 100% ok. Then... Republicans ("Republicants!" AmIRight?! Heh heh (because of course Troublemaker/Robert Rodriguez is in Austin))
So, best of luck Texas Film industry, hope it works out. My friend had a looooong think about moving to Atlanta, but then found work on some YouTube-Jesus show. (Says it's the best set ever because the producers don't know what they could be getting away with.)
posted by From Bklyn at 3:35 AM on January 30 [1 favorite]
So, best of luck Texas Film industry, hope it works out. My friend had a looooong think about moving to Atlanta, but then found work on some YouTube-Jesus show. (Says it's the best set ever because the producers don't know what they could be getting away with.)
posted by From Bklyn at 3:35 AM on January 30 [1 favorite]
Was this plagiarized from Thomas Ligotti, too?
Nah. Ligotti's very focused on Detroit, when his writings surface to Earthly geography, blinking like shiny new puppets.
posted by doctornemo at 4:00 AM on January 30 [1 favorite]
Nah. Ligotti's very focused on Detroit, when his writings surface to Earthly geography, blinking like shiny new puppets.
posted by doctornemo at 4:00 AM on January 30 [1 favorite]
I am quite alarmed by Billy Bob Thornton's transformation into Ice T.
posted by Kitteh at 5:16 AM on January 30 [3 favorites]
posted by Kitteh at 5:16 AM on January 30 [3 favorites]
Billy Bob Thornton's transformation into Ice T
I've been going with "Pirate's Skeleton That Mom Tells Me I Will Have To Be Nicer To If We're Going To Make This Work"
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:51 AM on January 30 [2 favorites]
I've been going with "Pirate's Skeleton That Mom Tells Me I Will Have To Be Nicer To If We're Going To Make This Work"
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:51 AM on January 30 [2 favorites]
« Older "Lunch and a show. How 'bout that?" | Wendy’s “Feast of Legends” Revisited Newer »
posted by chavenet at 3:33 PM on January 29 [3 favorites]