The Furniture: Magical Unreality in "La La Land" and "Fantastic Beasts"

"The Furniture" is our weekly series on Production Design. This is the first of two columns discussing this year's Oscar nominees. Here's Daniel Walber...

At a pool party in La La Land, Mia (Emma Stone) is granted the unique misfortune of being introduced to a generic Hollywood screenwriter. “I have a knack for world-building,” he says, instantly conjuring spectres of a Game of Thrones economy. Mia quickly extricates herself, destined for a different man in love with his own talent.

The moment is fleeting, but it peels back the curtain on Damien Chazelle’s own view of world-building and filmmaking. His version of Los Angeles isn’t at all overstated, with the exception of its ever-present automobiles. The characters don’t quite inhabit an identifiable city. Rather, they exist against a backdrop of imagined Hollywood, built from relentlessly colorful skies and busy studio lots...

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First you watch it. Then you are short $15

Hidden Figures finally lept-frog La La Land this weekend at the domestic box office. With budgets around 25-30 million each they're both going to be very very profitable films for their studios and stars. They remain the biggest hits among the major Oscar nominees but Lion also had reason to celebrate this weekend. It finally went wide and landed in the top ten. But, since is the US box office, violent horror-tinged movies are seemingly always at the top of the charts and the weekend belonged to Split and the latest installment of the Ring franchise, inventively titled Rings this time. Its missing its original star Naomi Watts but the star of all horror franchises is actually the villain so "Samara" is back to kill people who watch her experimental art film shorts.

Samara is PISSED that Hidden Figures is more popular than Hacksaw Ridge and she wants you to suffer as she has!

TOP TEN 
01 Split $14.5 (cum. $98.7) 
02 Rings $13 NEW 
03 A Dog's Purpose $10.8 (cum. $32.9) Podcast
04 Hidden Figures $10.1 (cum. $119.4)  Podcast
05 La La Land $7.4 (cum. $118.3) on the Costumes, Reviewish, and How Rare It Is!
06 Resident Evil: The Final Chapter $4.5 (cum. $21.8) on the franchise  
07 Sing $4 (cum. $262.9)
08 Lion $4 (cum. $24.7) a cocktail with Nicole, Podcast, Review
09 The Space Between Us $3.8 NEW
10 xXx: The Return of Xander Cage $3.7 (cum. $40) 

 What did you see this weekend? 

Annie Awards Results. It's Zootopia vs Kubo for the Oscar

The Annie Awards have been happening for 44 years but after some bumpy years in which their loyalties to specific studios were questions, they seemed to have worked things out and their profile is higher each year. Yesterday's even at the UCLA's Royce Hall was a big night for Disney which took 10 prizes. Zootopia continued its dominance by taking the top prize.

Though we should quickly note that Kubo and the Two Strings is still a possible spoiler at the Oscars and took home a few Annies itself. As Kris Tapley recently noted, there is momentum for finally honoring Laika who have never missed a nomination in the Animated Feature category but have yet to win it. While I am in the minority that thinks Kubo is the company's weakest film to date (it's gorgeous, don't misunderstand -- I just think both the episodic plot and the voice work is weaker than in their other films) they're also rapidly outdoing Pixar who have fallen into repetition and sequelizing.

The winners with commentary are after the jump...

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21 Days Until Oscars: Oscar's Perennial Bridesmaids

Kevin O'Connell, 21 nominations to date21 days until Oscar! Since 21 is the magic number of the day we must note that two contenders this year, Andy Nelson and Kevin O'Connell, competing against each other in Sound Mixing, are both on their 21st nomination. (Take that Meryl with your 20!) Nelson, who seems likely to win for La La Land has already won two Oscars for Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Les Misérables (2012). O'Connell is still waiting for that elusive win. He must be frustrated and his tux must be well worn by now.

So for today's trivia after the jump... 

The Living People With The Most Oscar Nominations Who Have Never Won  (if I've missed anyone you'll let me know in the comments) 

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DGA & ASC Winners: La La Land and Lion

Last night was a huge night in Hollywood with three award events: The Directors Guild of America, American Society of Cinematographers, and the Annie Awards (which we'll get to later today). Which would you have attended if you had to choose?  La La Land continued its seasonal dominance but Lion unexpectedly roared, too.  

Some of the winners last night are names you'll recognize from different contexts. The list and comments are after the jump...

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