Fin: SBF: The book and movie, the Swift reporter, and political ads about dirty jokes

My weekly news and notes column

First off- happy end of the SAG-AFTRA strike, to all who celebrate!

Last week, disgraced crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted on all charges in his trial in New York, with seven counts including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and securities fraud. 

Around the same time, I finished reading Michael Lewis’ book about Bankman-Fried and his rise and fall, Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon. The story first broke, around the time of Bankman-Fried’s arrest, that Lewis had been embedded with him in the Bahamas during those events. But then the initial reviews were tepid, with the word out that Lewis was way too sympathetic to his subject. (This happened around the same time that the narrative around one of the author’s other books, The Blind Side, essentially fell apart.) 

Reading the book, I just don’t see it. I’m not sure how anyone could read this book and come away with the impression that Sam Bankman-Fried was a good guy, was worthy of admiration, or was innocent, much less that Lewis was trying to convince the reader that he was any of those things. I think this a Donald Trump/Maggie Haberman situation, where a lot of people falsely believe that because a journalist doesn’t frequently interject with “see that bad guy? He’s bad, bad!” that somehow makes them a shill.

The book did convince me, even more than before, that crypto is ridiculous, that effective altruism is a cult full of doofuses, and that people will swallow a great deal of nonsense from anyone if they have a ton of money.

What’s most notable here is that while most of Lewis’ other business books were about big swingin’ dick types, SBF is, for lack of a better description, a huge weirdo. Sure, he got laid a lot — although the book never quite nails down whether the “polycule” stuff is true — but he mostly comes across as an overgrown manchild who has no idea how to wash or dress himself and can’t even give a media interview without playing video games at the same time. He and his girlfriend/coconspirator Caroline Ellison, meanwhile, were prone to sending each other paragraphs-long emails about the pros and cons of whether to break up. 

It’s not Lewis’ best book by any means- for one thing, it’s way too short. Lewis probably should have taken another six months to a year to tell more of the story, and not nearly as much interesting stuff as you’d think is added by the author being present at the time of SBF’s arrest. 

There’s already a movie deal, through Apple, and I’m wondering how exactly that movie will work. Wolf of Wall Street, except with nerds? The Big Short, except every character is Michael Burry?

Jonah Hill at this point is probably both too old and too thin to portray SBF, although Rachel Sennott absolutely has to play Caroline Ellison. I’m sure it’ll end up being directed by Adam McKay, but let’s get real: There’s only one director alive who could accurately portray people who are that weird in their interactions with each other: Yes, that’s right: Yorgos Lanthimos.

Introducing the Swift correspondent 

I wrote a few weeks ago about the announcement that Gannett and The Tennessean were hiring a full-time reporter on the Taylor Swift beat. This drew a bit of mockery, but I thought the idea sounded fun- there were all kinds of directions such a beat could go in, and the person getting the job could probably eventually write a great book about the whole thing. 

Now we have the word: The job has gone to Bryan West, a 35-year-old man who appears to be a big Taylor Swift fanboy. Those applying included, per The Tennessean, “veteran news journalists and a White House beat reporter”- but instead they hired West, a TV news reporter. 

I’m sure West is a very nice guy and he might even be a good journalist- and no, it’s not a problem that he’s a male. But I don’t think the job should go to someone who would say “Our ears touched at a meet-and-greet.” And it’s pretty clear that they’re looking for a local TV news-level analysis of the Swift phenomenon, and not a serious one.

Journalist Max Tani made a good point: “This job was a trap: media people don't respect this guy because he's a stan, the swifties don't respect him because he's not the right kind of stan.”

Dirty jokes and book bans 

The “off-year” elections were Tuesday night; it was a good night for the Democratic Party. A couple of interesting notes from here in Pennsylvania: 

About a decade ago there was a wild political scandal here in the state called “Porngate”: A group of high-level people in Pennsylvania politics, law, and the judiciary maintained a listserv over a long period in which they emailed each other porn, dirty jokes, and vulgarity on their government-issued email addresses. 

The probe of this grew out of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, and later ended a bunch of careers, including Kathleen Kane, the state attorney general who was convicted of wrongdoing — for her actions while investigating the scandal – and forced from office before the end of her first term. Also among those forced to retire was Justice Seamus P. McCaffrey, known in another life as the judge in the criminal court that was once set up in Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium. 

This year McCaffrey’s brother, Dan, ran for the state Supreme Court, and the Porngate scandal was used against him in commercials. What did Dan McCaffery do that was wrong? 

“TV Ad Hits McCaffrey on Nepotism, Porn in PA Supreme Court Race,” one headline said. The ad states that when Dan McCaffrey received one such email on his government account, he told his brother to instead send it to his personal email. At any rate, it doesn’t appear anyone in Pennsylvania much cares anymore about that scandal that dates back to the Obama Administration, and McCaffrey was elected to the state Supreme Court. 

Also in Pennsylvania, the Central Bucks School District school board race had an election which, per the Inquirer, “was marked by deep partisan divisions, intense personal attacks and a surge in spending.” Even though I live nowhere near Central Bucks, I somehow got on a mailing list for a right-wing group funding this race, and that was some batshit nonsense of the anti-CRT, anti-drag, anti-LGBTQ paranoid variety. 

That Moms of Liberty nonsense is one of the more malevolent forces in American politics today, and I was happy to see it go down to defeat in many places on Tuesday- including in Central Bucks, where the Democratic slate swept. 

Burying Saltburn

Saltburn, one of my favorite movies of the year, will be released later this month, and as pointed out by journalist David Poland, the Los Angeles premiere will take place at a cemetery. 

Why a cemetery? It’s because of something that happens later in the movie, which I wouldn’t dream of spoiling. But I wish I could be there to see the reaction of an audience that first notes the shock of what they’re watching, and then get the joke about why they’re in a cemetery. 

This week’s writings 

First off: The Critics Choice Documentary Awards are this Sunday night. I’ll be there at the event in New York, and I also voted, as a newly minted member of the documentary branch. You can stream the awards on YouTube, starting at 7 p.m. Eastern, and check the CCA home page here for the links (or click the YouTube window below). And now that the strike is over, maybe we’ll get some famous presenters. Richard Kind was there last year, and I was sad I didn’t get to meet him.

Here on the Substack, I offered a peak at screener season, looked back on Role Models on its 15th anniversary, and reviewed The Marvels and Albert Brooks: Defending My Life.

For Splice Today, I reviewed The Holdovers, which I seemed to love a bit less than everyone else.  

For the Philadelphia Inquirer, I previewed the Philadelphia Jewish Film and Media Fall Fest, which starts Saturday night with Remembering Gene Wilder. I focused on Alliance, the story of the long-running Jewish farming colony in South Jersey that I wrote about the Jewish Exponent earlier this fall.

Last week, I neglected to include my monthly preview of repertory screenings in Philadelphia, for Broad Street Review. 

For Living Life Fearless, I talked about the end of Billions, and why I thought it nailed the landing.

For 19FortyFive, I wrote about Democratic candidates eying the post-Biden future, Trump going nuts in court, and why AOC doesn’t want to take away your burgers.

Coming next week: A robust defense of Steven Spielberg, a look back at a 20-year-old movie in which oceans are now battlefields, the best of a documentary festival, and a new movie that probably doesn’t delve into this:

As always, thank you for your support.