Quote of the Day posts

“The bottom line is this: Donald Trump built his career on a racist lie because he is a racist and a liar.”

-- Seth Myers, giving us a closer look at Trump's Birtherism: the big fat lie of it, the big fat lie he's propagating now. 

“Nobody loves good, crafty escapism more than myself, but when a lazy wank-off flick like The Magnificent Seven comes along and makes you feel drained and nauseous, people like Denzel and critic Lewis Beale say 'Hey, relax...it's just a movie!' But there's no relaxing when a film is flagrantly empty except in terms of the photography (Mauro Fiore's lensing is first-rate), and has nothing in the way of cleverness or fresh attitude up its sleeve. There is nothing so detestable as people who dismiss the potential of cinema by saying 'it's just a movie.' Can you imagine Arthur Miller saying 'it's just a play' or a respected architect saying 'it's just a home' or a clothier saying 'it's just a suit' or a gourmet chef saying 'it's just a souflee'?”

-- Jeff Wells, “'Just' is Obviously a Dismissive Term”

From the director of “Olympus Has Fallen”

“The wind will do with it as it does. All you can do is throw the kite in the air.”

-- Lin-Manuel Miranda on the success of “Hamilton” and art in general, in an interview with The Chicago Tribune, anticipating the Chicago opening of “Hamilton.”

“[Suicide Squad] does not care. It's just a commercial for itself and for the sequel. ... It plays like someone fast-forwarding something, stopping and starting but never actually arriving at a scene that they feel like watching. It's not unlike watching commercials for a movie strung together for an entire movie's length. Yes, Suicide Squad is even worse than Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice which was an actual movie, albeit a very very bad one.”

-- Nathaniel Rogers of Film Experience in his breakdown of the summer movies. Great takedown of a truly awful movie ... that is now at $300 million domestic. People will be ashamed about this someday. 

“But here's something about Rodriguez, something that even some of his foremost critics have said: He has been a different public person since returning from his suspension. He hasn't complained about his plight. He hasn't made excuses. He hasn't allowed himself to get embroiled in the controversies that, for him, are always ready to blossom.

”He has been, dare I say it, something like admirable. Even the way he handled the hacky retirement business with the Yankees — with the team forcing him out for roster spots that will be available in two weeks anyway — has been commendable. 'With all the screw-ups and how badly I acted,' he said, 'the fact that I'm walking out the door and Hal (Steinbrenner, Yankees owner) wants me (as) part of the family, that's hitting 800 home runs for me.'

“That's a pretty good statement filled with humbleness and regret.”

-- Joe Posnanski, “Why 696 is Better Than 700,” NBC Sports