Good Morning, Tom

(Have you checked out the Supporting Actor chart?)

Links: Secret Talents, Visual Effects, Best Girlfriends

Salon Why Rooney Mara can't win for Carol. Interesting piece on what really matters in Supporting Actress (Hint: Best Actor)
MCN David Poland looks at the writers branch and how the new Academy rules might affect them
Gurus of Gold interesting to see where the volatility is in the new charts: Best Picture and Best Director contain all the (seeming) drama 
Towleroad Jonathan Groff interviewed by Kevin Sessums talks sex scenes in the Looking movie, filming wrapped, and his Sutton Foster obsession 

 

AV Club The Flash will officially crossover with Supergirl despite different networks
Variety on the new warp speed market for television shows 
The Film Stage first clips and new images from Jeff Nichols's Midnight Special. I'm not watching them because I want to be surprised 
Variety Jessica Chastain still looking for her Oscar movie, in talks for Woman Walks Ahead, about a 19th century woman who advised Sioux chieftain Sitting Bull 
The Hairpin a listical "best friends of rom com heroines"  from Judy Greer through Joan Cusack and back to Carrie Fisher
Pajiba praises Helen Mirren's beer commercial 

Today's Watch
Secret Talents of leading ladies and more links after the jump

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Q&A Pt 2: Comic Winners? Revisiting Characters? Oscar Darlings of 2026?

Yesterday we got all the Leonardo DiCaprio questions out of the way so now on to other Reader Questions. Let's jump right in. Here's eleven questions from readers. You asked. I'm answering.

EUROCHEESE: What's your favorite comedy to win Best Picture?

NATHANIEL: Toss up between It Happened One Night (1934) and Tootsie (198---Damnit. Tootsie is >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Gandhi)

CHRIS JAMES: Sylvester Stallone now holds the record for the longest time between Oscar nominations for the same character (39 years between 1976 nomination and 2015 nomination). Which nominated roles would you love to see a sequel of 39 years after their original film with the same actor reprising the role? Is there some from the past year or are there any characters this year you would love to check in with 39 years down the road?

NATHANIEL: What a cool question! Unfortunately a lot of these characters might not be alive in 40 years... so we'll have to stick with (mostly) the younger players and wonder who still has story left in them? Brooklyn ends so winningly in the golden sunshine, so let's leave Eilis there. I'd say Ma & Jack from Room but I don't wish them anything but completely normal non-eventful lives after Room. 

Some of the "true life" characters died or died much sooner than 39 years after the events of the film.Which leaves us with Therese Belivet from Carol which is the correct answer. Rooney Mara will be 69 years old in 39 years so that puts her at the same age as Charlotte Rampling now...

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HBO’s LGBT History: The Case Against 8 (2014)

Manuel is working his way through all the LGBT-themed HBO productions.

Last week we talked about the thrilling and necessary anger fueling Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart, something not even Ryan Murphy’s at times clumsy direction could quell. From that we turn to what might be the limpest most inessential HBO LGBT film I have encountered in this entire series (sorry, The Out List, you had a good run): Ben Cotner and Ryan White’s The Case Against 8.

There’s a fascinating, informative, and entertaining doc to be made about the circuitous road to overturning California’s same-sex marriage ban, but Cotner and White’s film isn’t it...

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Interview: 'Rams' Director Grímur Hákonarson on Working with Sheep and Icelandic Idiosyncrasy

In Grímur Hákonarson’s darkly funny Rams, two brothers who haven’t spoken in decades must unite forces to save their legacy when the government demands all their livestock must be slaughtered to contain a disease. Hidden behind long beards and stubbornness, Gummi (Sigurður Sigurjónsson) and Kiddi (Theodór Júlíusson) take on the impossible task of trying to outsmart the government, making for a fascinating allegory about the things we lose in the name of progress. After premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the top prize in the Un Certain Regard category, Rams went on to being chosen as Iceland’s Foreign Language Oscar submission. As the film opens in the US, I got a chance to sit down with Hákonarson who spoke about how his childhood shaped the film, how Cannes changed his life, and shared interesting trivia about sheep.

JOSE: Your parents used to send you to the country to work during the summers. Did you ever think of this as a punishment in any way?

interview after the jump

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