THE TALENT
by Charlie Finch



It is axiomatic in Hollywood nowadays that "the talent controls the industry." Thus Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt on their "talent" alone can market an existentially bad piece of shit like Mr. & Mrs. Smith -- premised on their characters’ wanting to off each other through every recycled bad car chase and machine gun battle -- at a cost of millions and millions, employing thousands to the benefit of nothing and no one. HBO plays the thing over and over again. Suckers in Third World countries buy into this cynosure of USA Kultur, and Tinseltown laughs at, with and for us: the audience, the sponge.

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