Moments That Made The Movies by David Thomson – I will refer here to Payday by Don Carpenter, which is one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made – there are multiple notes on films from The NYT 1,000 and other lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

Moments That Made The Movies by David Thomson – I will refer here to Payday by Don Carpenter, which is one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made – there are multiple notes on films from The NYT 1,000 and other lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html

 

 

8 out of 10

 

Payday is not just one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made, it has made it on my own list of favorites, and it should be among the first 200 or so, it reminds me of This Is Spinal Tap https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/01/this-is-spinal-tap-written-by-and.html another formidable film, though the latter is a comedy

 

Rip torn is phenomenal in the leading role of Maury Dann, a country music singer, I have been wondering why this extraordinary thespian has not had more chances like this, I mean being cast in the anti-hero or hero roles…yes, we have seen him in The Insider, Marie Antoinette, but supporting, not leading the cast

 

At the beginning, we see Maury Dann at this show, where a young woman is talking to him – she had been brought there by a man who will show up later in the narrative, with tragic consequences, so there goes the spoiler alert now – and because she is star – struck and he could see it, the performer invites her to his car

This is where he would take advantage – the man mentioned above would learn about it, and there would be a dramatic confrontation, at the climax of the feature – have sex with her in the parking lot…mind you, the fellow is not even ‘consecrated’, he is not your Prince, Bad Bunny, albeit he is on the way up

 

Indeed, at some stage, he has to stop in this small town, to get to the local radio host – this is happening in the 60s, 70s – and talk to him about the family, because he still needs whatever advertising he can get, however, when the local DJ talks about Dann coming to some event a few weeks later, the latter is refusing

Mayleen Travis is the woman that tries to support this large ego – he is a version of the Orange Monster from what used to be The White House, becoming the Orange House now – but the eejit is abusive, violent, slaps her, there are insults, infidelity in the open: he will have sex with another, in the same…car with his alleged girlfriend

 

Nonetheless, he is not exactly one dimensional – in other words, he would not become president, head of the MAGA group of ‘lunatics’ – he has moments of some grace, when he visits his mother, though he is sour and unpleasant, he gives her some pills (maybe cocaine, heroin) and then there is the trouble with the poor dog

The animal is tied up, with no food water, feces all around, and his mate is appalled, insisting he wants to buy the dog, to save him, the antihero, in his trade mark obnoxious state, refuses, and they even fight and kick each other, until the singer accepts the idea, and then allows the dog to get some decent treatment, away from this family

 

Now the philanderer is attracted by Rosamund McClintock, who looks so young it is an issue if she is of age, and she is, we understand, notwithstanding that, the man who will become a star – or maybe he is already, if of a lower rank – pushes, ad eventually copulates with this girl, just as Mayleen is asleep in the corner of the travelling car

Maury Dann kicks his ‘former lover’ out of the car, then he is in this restaurant, where a man confronts him over the other woman, mentioned above, and when they are out, after a brief altercation, the fellow is dead, and thus the singer makes his driver take the blame, because he is so arrogant and Trump-like, he can do whatever he wants, or maybe not everything….

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence

Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’