Dante's Last

JA from MNPP here. Did you hear the news that the director Kevin Smith says he's retiring from movie-making after he makes a third Clerks film? I haven't seen the first Clerks in many a moon but it's the only film of Smith's I've ever actually liked (I simply cannot abide by Joey Lauren Adams, so there'll be no convincing me of the pleasures of Chasing Amy). And yet, even though his movies were often like nails on a chalkboard, he came off as such an amiable film-buff that he stayed on my good side all the same. There've been some nicks in that image over the past couple of years - a public fued with Bruce Willis and a rant againast critics was all a bit of a debacle. People seemed to either really love or really hate Red State, and that movie seemed to take a lot out of him. I'm curious where y'all stand on him, and whether he'll be missed at this point.

"Critics Choice" Nominations Full List

My last minute super-campaigning for Perks of a Wallflower's Logan Lerman in Young Actor (at least) appears to have paid off though my other pleas did not. Nicole Kidman's remarkable transformation in The Paperboy continues to be ignored in the rush to give all prizes to the same 12 movies so this is hardly a surprise though still disappointing. But the most gob-smacking, head-scratching utterly-embarrassing ommission has to be Michael Fassbender missing out on a nomination for  Prometheus as Actor in an Action Movie. It's the laziest star-fuckingest balloting ever by BFCA members -- none of whom should ever say a bad word about the Globes' tendency to do this in their columns ever again. They chose Bale as Batman and Downey Jr as Iron Man reheated do-overs of performance that were only great once or twice seven-ish years ago and they chose them while F***ing Fassbender was just off to the left mercilessly/scientifically wreaking havoc on humans while obsessing over Lawrence of Arabia. My fellow voters, I am sad to say, seem utterly without taste or at least are lost without the barometer of Oscar buzz to guide them; I don't know if you know this but The Academy Awards has no correlative Best Actor in an Action Movie category.

To cheer up myself up I'll just think about Annie and the 11 nominations for Les Miz.

She wore leg-bondage gear to the Les Miz premiere here in NYC! Speaking of Annie... I'd type up reactions to each Critics Choice race but for the fact that I'm due at a luncheon with the cast of Les Misérables right now. Obviously Anne & Hugh win the war of 'how should i spend my next couple of hours?' but more later today...

BFCA "CRITICS CHOICE" NOMINATIONS

Best Picture 
Argo  (7 nominations)
Beasts of the Southern Wild (3 nominations)
Django Unchained (2 nominations)
Life of Pi (9 nominations)
Lincoln (13 nominations)
The Master (7 nominations)
Les Miserables (11 nominations)
Moonrise Kingdom (5 nominations)
Silver Linings Playbook (10 nominations)
Zero Dark Thirty (5 nominations)

FULL LIST OF NOMINEES AFTER THE JUMP

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Curio: Holiday Gift List

Alexa here. Every year I spot gifts that I can't quite find the right person for (oftentimes I just end up buying then for myself).  This year I've spotted some truly clever film-themed gifts on etsy that simply don't work for anyone on my list. Is there someone in your life who fits these profiles? If so, support these independent sellers!

1. For the fan of creepy Javier Bardem, how about this porcelain bust of Anton Chigurh?  Although I would love for there to be a companion bust of Silva, too. Bookends, maybe?

Channing Tatum, Les Miz and more after the jump 

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The AFI Makes Its Oscar & Emmy Predictions

The annual unveiling of the AFI Top Ten List, which began in 2000 or 2001 as I recall, was originally an interesting effort to have a diverse prestigious panel select the ten key American films of the year. It, like most other year end lists, quickly morphed into something like a gratuitious press release celebrating everyone's favorite awards-buzzing titles (+ 1 requisite blockbuster). Now, they'll even cheat and include British movies. Les Miz is a British musical about France and was directed by a Brit and stars mostly British and Australian actors. I'm pretty sure that if someone lied to the panel and told them Michael Haneke was secretly born in Hawaii before being whisked off to Wiener Neustadt, Austria they would have found a way to include Amour too!

AFI MOVIES OF THE YEAR
ARGO, BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, DJANGO UNCHAINED, LES MISÉRABLES
LIFE OF PI, LINCOLN, MOONRISE KINGDOM, SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK and ZERO DARK THIRTY

AFI TV PROGRAMS OF THE YEAR
AMERICAN HORROR STORY, BREAKING BAD, GAME CHANGE, GAME OF THRONES, GIRLS, HOMELAND, LOUIE, MAD MEN, MODERN FAMILY, and THE WALKING DEAD

Again this is what I mean about too many groups. If you don't bring any individualism to the table just merge with other groups who already do this sort of thing and become a bigger supergroup, you're already part of the hive mind! (Note that the always enraging snub of Parks and Recreation by the Emmys continues here with the AFI as well.)

Having typed all that I must quickly admit that A) the easiest solution for those who are easily bored at all the repetition is to tune it out and B) my top ten list will have four or five of those titles on it. 

♩lovely ladies come along and join us ♬

Fantine & Cosette at the Les Miz premiere

Les Miz needs to just open already! 

Dying to see it in the theater with an adoring crowd again. An adoring crowd of two at home results in off key sing-alongs and that doesn't have quite the same effect.