Gotham Awards: Moonrise on The Loneliest Planet

Michael C. here. The Gotham Awards announced its slate of nominees yesterday. The National Board of Review and the NYFCC are generally considered the starting pistol to Awards Season, but The Gothams slip in a few weeks early with their tiny pool of voters and eclectic mix of nominees. This year's roster is no different: 

Best Feature:

• Bernie (Richard Linklater)
• The Loneliest Planet (Julia Loktev)
• The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)
• Middle of Nowhere (Ava DuVernay)
• Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)

The Gotham have proved themselves a fair indicator of which titles will end up the year's critical darlings highlighting such past films as A Serious Man, The Hurt Locker and Winter's Bone. Ever since the Best Picture category expanded at least two of the Gotham's five nominees have gone on to Oscar nominations. Last year it was The Descendants and Tree of Life. This year The Master is clearly the big dog in this category, but is it wishful thinking to hope that Moonrise won't be overlooked in the deluge of year end accolades?

As for snubs it is tough to say... [Continue]

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Oscar Horrors: "Max Schreck"

HERE LIES... The actor-or-is-he Max Schreck, brought to vivid undead-or-is-he life by Willem Dafoe in 2000's Shadow of a Vampire, nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

JA from MNPP here. When I started rewatching E. Elias Merhige's 2000 film Shadow of the Vampire the other day for the umpteenth time I was convinced that we first see Willem Dafoe's Max Schreck is when he's first being filmed by Murnau & Company - when he emerges from his deep dark tunnel, aka the hole where Murnau says he found him. I was wrong. The first time we see Schreck is a few minutes earlier when Murnau leaves a caged mink sitting outside said hole as tasty bait and Schreck's hands - white as moles, fingers long and sharp as stalactites - appear in the background and snake their way around the bars, enveloping their innocent prey.

Now I'm not one to talk about how an actor uses their hands - it makes me feel like Guy Woodhouse telling Roman Castavet about that "kind of an... involuntary reach" - but Dafoe's performance demands it...

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That's Gotta Be Some Cockroach

JA from MNPP here. A wise man once said, "Aim for the flat-top!" No wait... that wasn't it. A wise man once said, "This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions... Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!" Eh close enough. The point is, much like a testy Gozarian I know, you can't keep a prehistoric bitch down. The prehistoric bitch in question, the one bringing on all the cat-on-dog stuff, is a third Ghostbusters movie. It's like the longest episode of Moonlighting ever - will they or won't they? And will Agnes DiPesto ever find love? What about Janine Melnitz, for that matter? Maybe those two should've tossed down the corded phones of their imprisonement and found sweet neurotic love together...?

I am letting this get away from me. The rumor that refuses to die, a third Ghostbusters movie, is alive again. Director Ivan Reitman is making sure his schedule's clear next Summer in order to shoot it, says Deadline. Bill Murray will of course not be involved. Unless he decides to show up on set randomly, in which case they write him in. You never know.

Anyway, I think you'll excuse me for thinking that this time the city will be attacked by the largest ever grain of salt. What do we think? Will this ever happen?

How long can Russell Crowe hold a note?

I had an errant random and one might say spoilery thought involving Les Misérables just the other day. Read no further if you're the type of (possibly very young) person who was like "OMG. ANNE HATHAWAY DIES?!?!?" when people first started talking about the film version en masse...

...

Okay we lost two of you.

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During Javert's (Russell Crowe) final number "Javert's Suicide", after Jean Valjert (Hugh Jackman) has inadvertently humiliated him by saving his life, he leaps to his death due to his twisted sense of honor -- apparently bayonets aren't so good with the hari kari -- and stage productions have to come up with some suggestive way to show this while the final note of the song falls with him. Whatever he jumps from, even if it's just a few feet off the stage, it's a long way down cuz his note will go on. and on. 

How on earth will they film this, sung live, without it looking and sounding absolutely ridiculous? Anyone want to guess?

First & Last: Is this legend true?

the first and last images & lines from a motion picture (minus the credits)

first

We live in a new time."

last

He'll always be with us."

Can you name the movie?