Campaign Cocktails: Youth & Spotlight

oh it's just me and Jane. just an average Thursday night.More adventures from Oscar's holiday festive campaign trail. This time the Oscar frontrunner (Spotlight) and an Oscar possibility too many people are sleeping on (Youth)...

Should Jane Fonda ever tell you you have good tastes in movies, it'll get you drunker than whatever cocktail is in your hand. My personal guarantee to you! If, hypothetically speaking, you're a self-proclaimed actressexual cinephile Oscar pundit (ahem) and two of your favorite movies of all time happen to be They Shoot Horses Don't They (1969) and  Klute (1971), and Jane Fonda says this aloud to you, you might feel a little like you've peaked.  Is this real life...?

The 77 year-old American icon, along with her Youth co-stars Paul Dano and Michael Caine were the glitziest guests of Fox Searchlight's holiday party in New York City last week. (If the star's of the company's buzziest contender Brooklyn were at the sprawling extravaganty catered party at the Park Hyatt  -- truffle shavings? why not! --  I unfortunately didn't spot them).

True legends aren't often as accessible as Jane Fonda was at this particular party, gladly taking selfies with multiple fans and chatting about her movies and Youth, too. Many people have referred to Fonda's work in Youth as a "cameo" including probably myself at one point or another and while that might be factually true it's not spiritually true. You'll hear everything from 4 minutes to 9 minutes about her screentime depending on who you're talking to but screentime is rarely an accurate barometer of impact. Youth spends so much time obsessing on her character, the Fonda-like "Brenda Morel" (not coincidentally also a multiple Oscar winning bonafide legend who has recently made a new home in television) that when she arrives it's with the power of a rumbling fault line, tectonically shifting the movie's entire landscape. Youth as a film experience is basically pre-Fonda and post-Fonda in the telling. I fully expect her to be nominated and have for months now.

Paul Dano is the only actor in Youth that is not working some strange voodoo of their own persona fused with character work. He's playing a full fledged movie star best known for a franchise he despises... and though I expected Keitel to be winning the traction as Supporting Actor, it appears that some people are in Dano's corner. He was in good spirits at the party, and possibly filled with spirits from the open bar (sorry, that was me - I'm projecting)  Dano keeps being paired with estimable superstars or genuine acting powerhouses: Day-Lewis, Jackman, De Niro, Caine, Fonda (though he doesn't share scenes with the latter). I asked him if this trend was disconcerting or intimidating for him on set? 'Are you kidding me?' he answered, excited. 'I love it. I hope it'll make me better.' I won't spoil one of Youth's most disturbing surprises which involves Dano's actor character preparing for a new role but I asked him about that soon to be infamous scene. As it turns out he filmed it on his 30th birthday which is now, he admits,  'the weirdest birthday of my life.' 

Thomas McCarthy and Michael Keaton... (photo from the internet, not this particular event)

Less celebrity hobnobbing occurred at the last party I attended in Los Angeles which happened to be for  Spotlight (you know how sometimes you're shy and sometimes you're extroverted? Same) but the "light supper" event was well-attended and the town's love for the movie was palpable. Writer-director Thomas McCarthy was surrounded by well wishers, a nice mix of Academy members (former 80s Best Actress nominee spotted!) and journos the whole night. I did say a brief hello to Michael Keaton who I had met a couple of times during his Birdman run last season. "Welcome to Round Two!" I said stupidly. Was he ready for all this again, so soon? He assured me it felt much different this time -- the pressure was off since it wasn't so focused on him. It's too soon to say if the  "all supporting" Oscar campaign for Spotlight will pay off with the acting branch, but I personally think it was the right call. It's the very definition of an Ensemble Picture. Can anyone beat that team for SAG's upcoming top prize? 

Kieran Gives Thanks

Kieran, here wishing all TFE readers a very Happy Thanksgiving.  Being part of Team Experience these past few months has been a sheer joy. I’m thankful for a place to share my writing where the discussions are always interesting, thoughtful and fun. Thanks to our gracious host, Nathaniel for providing this space.

I'm thankful for

...Shameless and more specifically Emmy Rossum on Shameless. After her breakthrough in 2004’s Phantom of the Opera, it seemed that Rossum found herself underutilized and underserved in a lot of films. After that rocky slate of film roles, seeing her cast against type on Shameless and doing some of the best, criminally ignored work on television today is absolutely thrilling.

more...

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HBO’s LGBT History: Cinema Verite (2011)

Last week we reminisced about Vito Russo with two related docs: the essential The Celluloid Closet and the 2011 HBO doc Vito. This week we turn from a pivotal figure in silver screen LGBT history to a pivotal one for the small screen. I’m talking, of course, of Lance Loud, who famously came out in An American Family in 1973 when the Loud family became the subject of a PBS docuseries, what many deem to be one of the first reality shows in American TV. Directed by Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini, Cinema Verite (watch on HBOGo) follows the behind-the-scenes drama behind that infamous and breakthrough program.

For Americans, as we saw last week, many of the images they saw of homosexuals on movie screens were outright stereotypes. But they really paled in comparison to the images they were getting from the media. In 1967, CBS aired The Homosexuals an episode of CBS Reports. Here’s a sampling of Mike Wallace’s voice-over in the show:

“The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. He is not interested or capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage. His sex life, his love life, consists of a series of one–chance encounters at the clubs and bars he inhabits.”

That by 1973 audiences got to see Lance Loud being openly gay and accepted within his family was a huge step forward (even if, given the time period, his homosexuality was used to further vilify the Louds in the press). More... 

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Murtada Gives Thanks

Hello it's me. Murtada. Adele and Aidy Bryant doing Adele are two things I'm thankful for this year. There is more

I'm thankful for...

...Nathaniel and The Film Experience. For the readers and those who engage in the comments. For this lovely oasis of a community.

...all the feelings Carey Mulligan made me feel this year. On stage in Skylight. On screen in Far From the Madding Crowd and Suffragette.

...the emotional high Meryl Streep gave me with the last few minutes of Ricki and the Flash.

...Dee Rees finally making another movie after Pariah.

...for the girls of Girlhood singing and dancing to Rihanna's Diamonds.

there's more...

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Red Carpet Lineup XXL: Nicole, Jada, Paz and Kate(s)

Jose here. Nicole Kidman won another award! Nathaniel recently praised her work in Photograph 51 in London, and the voters at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards agreed with him, for they gave her a Best Actress award to go with her Oscar, Globes and other statuettes.

Nicole wasn't the only movie-related winner: James McAvoy and Imelda Staunton, also won awards for their work in The Ruling Class and Gypsy, respectively. At the event Nicole was simply majestic in an Alexander McQueen design.

...and before you all whine about how Cate wore it better (she did wear a similar McQueen to the Robin Hood premiere at Cannes in 2010),  be reminded that...

a) McQueen should be worn by all screen queens
b) Nicole is flawless!
c) Cate was in Robin Hood...
d) most importantly, Cate and Nicole love each other as proved by this image to your left.

Before I lose you to fantasizing about Nicole and Cate in Carol Part Deux, let's move on to our other looks of the week...

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