'The Batman Part II': Who Should Play Christopher Dent? Plus, a 'Crime 101' Review & James Van Der Beek Tribute

Happy Monday, folks. I hope all the lovers out there had a Happy Valentine’s Day.

Last week, I watched Andrzej Zulawski’s 1981 genre movie Possession for the first time, and it was a little too… everything… for my taste, though I’m down to check out Parker Finn’s upcoming remake, which is poised to star Callum Turner and Margaret Qualley.

I also watched Fred Schepisi’s 1978 revenge film The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, which was excellent, and potentially ripe for a remake.

Over the weekend, I saw a Bloomberg report that Warner Bros. “may” reopen sale negotiations with Paramount. Um… WB’s Board is considering it because they have to consider it, legally. There’s no way Paramount winds up with Warner Bros. Trust me, it’s much more likely that Warner Bros. doesn’t sell at all than it is that Paramount will get its hands on the studio. I still expect the Netflix deal to proceed, as the streaming giant has a binding deal and can match any offer that Paramount’s David Ellison makes.

Another yawn of a news story that crossed my feed was Ted Levine apologizing for his role as Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs, calling the film’s depiction of the vicious "transgender” killer as “fucking wrong.” I find this apology to be incredibly performative. Granted, Levine may actually still feel bad 35 years later, looking at his performance through a modern lens, but The Silence of the Lambs is a perfect film, and no one associated with it should be apologizing for anything.

Not only are there trans psychopaths, just as there are male psychopaths, female psychopaths, white psychopaths, Black psychopaths, Latino psychopaths, and Asian psychopaths, but as Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) himself says, it’s not even clear whether Buffalo Bill, aka Jame Gumb, was really even transgender.

Lecter says that Gumb has “tried to be a lot of things,” and the killer was caught because he was turned down for sexual reassignment surgery based on a mental examination, which no doubt probed his motivations.

It’s unclear whether Gumb wanted to “be” a woman or “possess” them, and I’ve always preferred to think of him — Gumb answered his front door as a man, and I doubt he used female pronouns — as a serial killer more than a “trans serial killer.” I don’t think Jame Gumb speaks for an entire community — he’s more like an aberration.

Levine did a brilliant job playing the character, and he should be holding his head high, not hanging it in shame.

Speaking of sex symbols-cum-serial killers, I saw Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights this weekend and plan to write about it soon, and I’ll pen a tribute to Robert Duvall later this week, too. I’ve found it hard to write the last few posthumous tributes, abandoning several in my drafts, but Duvall demands a few well-considered words, as he was one of the greats.

Today, I’ve got my thoughts on the still-uncast role of Christopher Dent in The Batman Part II, a review of the new Chris Hemsworth movie Crime 101, a tribute to James Van Der Beek, and a look at the teaser for David Fincher’s follow-up to Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

I also owe you a huge “Thank You” for all the kind birthday wishes last week, as they made the day feel extra special.

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