** "I wanted to actually be Eddie Murphy - I'm a work in progress..."

Michael Rapaport Talks De Niro, Christopher Walken, periods and commas, and the strikes against Hollywood East and West. The actor, broadcaster and standup comedian likewise rants about how it 'takes a genius to play a fool' - and the politics of what's for dinner.

** "What we wanted to do was show US power in the world economy - doors into a secret world that very few people knew existed..."

Underground Empire - How America Weaponized The World Economy. In this Crime Scenes episode on the show, a conversation unraveling among other global secrets, 'the mystery of the door marked 641A at 611 Folsom Street, at the San Francisco AT&T Building...'

** "I was initially interested in the origins of the drive-in's reputation as a passion pit...what soon became clear tended to say less about the films than for instance - where people would get their laundry done while the movie played."

The Drive-In: Outdoor Cinema In 1950s America And The Popular Imagination. Brett Gregory's unique journey at our UK Desk with author and guide, Guy Barefoot. Referencing James Cagney, The Lords Of Flatbush, Grease, Thunderbolt And Lightfoot - and sneaking into the drive-in screening of Night Of The Living Dead...

Plus...Who exactly is Las Vegas Democrat candidate turned Ukraine leader Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, national military code name 'Blonde'...A tale of two Daniels: Mitchel Cohen's anti-war memory lane excursion, past and present... 

What You Wish For Review: Food For Thought Fascism On The Menu

Economic Crisis Cinema has detoured into an unanticipated direction lately. And though the artificial heroics of Wall Street financed Hollywood East and West have continued unabated with the lucrative financial infusion from the Pentagon as big and small screen propaganda ploy to convince everyone that the US controls the world in perpetuity, outsider cinema has more on its mind as perhaps subconscious reflection of the mass mood in this country. Or let's just say in the case of What You Wish For -  food for thought fascism on the menu. 

In other words, writer/director Nicholas Tomnay serves up a dish best served cold, in terms of a parallel popular mood that has moved on from an eat the rich rebellious optimism, to dreams deferred if not destroyed, and eat the poor predominating. And with a deepening sense of powerlessness exacerbated rather than rooted in the recent pandemic crisis. And reflected increasingly in movies created by a younger generation of filmmakers, as a collective future bereft of possibility, but likewise locked into an involuntary servitude both financially and psychologically to an oppressive system.

And in the case of Tomnay's masterfully crafted, elegantly muted banquet of elaborately conceived horror, his combo prey and predator protagonist of choice Nick Stahl as Ryan, as with his generation in the real world - finds himself hopelessly trapped in debt and danger as a jobless chef and gambling addict entangled with loan sharks in pursuit. 

But with a greater threat ensuing, from a capitalist consumer entity with criminal hunger - that may be destined to find Ryan himself on their proverbial, hideously lavish banquet - metaphorical or not, even while unwillingly serving as captor feeding their fascistic appetites. To say more about What You Wish For, would diminish the anticipated revelations of this fascinating political allegory on the menu.