Of all the side-eye being thrown in the direction of Donald Trump’s inauguration this afternoon, one of the most elegant and subtle digs has come to us from Turner Classic Movies, of all places. The Turner-owned cable network is “celebrating” today’s “festivities” by airing The Fountainhead, King Vidor’s 1949 film about an architect obsessed with big buildings and personal advancement by any means necessary. It’s based on the book by Ayn Rand, patron saint of fucking over the less fortunate, and, as Patton Oswalt put it on Twitter:
Or, as Leonard Maltin puts it in his review of the film on TCM’s website, “cast does what it can with the script.” The movie started about an hour ago, so tune in now if you want to see Gary Cooper delivering monologues about never compromising for the common good. TCM will follow The Fountainhead with Breakfast At Tiffany’s at 3:45 p.m. ET and A Face In The Crowd at 5:45, both of which are also just coincidences.
The Fountainhead is only available for paid rental on streaming sites, because Netflix is for communists.