I didn't link it, but if i'd linked it, how could you tell me that i was wrong?
Monday, November 24, 2014 at 10:00AM The New Yorker Anthony Lane on Mike Nichols
Playbill congratulations to Chicago which became the 2nd longest running Broadway show of all time tonight surpassing Cats
Screen Crush bitches about the long uneventful Part 1s of modern franchise culture as I've been bitching about forever. But as long as audiences keep buying tickets, why should Hollywood stop? They make double the money this way.
YouTube first TV spot for Jurassic World. It's mostly Chris Pratt & Bryce Dallas Howard's faces and you know what they look like. But a brief flash of dinosaurs, too.
Critic Wire the terrifying children's book in The Babadook (opening Friday!) is now a real book you can buy
Vanity Fair since I officially stopped watching How To Get Away With Murder I said goodbye by reading / enjoying / giggling through this post on the "who killed Sam" episode
Empire more new projects for Channing Tatum and his creative partner Reid Carolin (who you'll remember as the sister's date in Magic Mike)
Variety why did Mockingjay Part 1 perform below Hunger Games expectations (which were sky high)
Interview Michael Shannon interviews Amy Ryan (currently onscreen in Birdman)
THR is excited about those Lana Del Rey songs in Big Eyes but I only remember the title song (which is played somewhat inside the movie but not enough of it to have a firm opinion of it) I remember the lines being something like "Big Eyes.... and your Big Lies..."
Film School Rejects looks at connections between the documentary and best picture category this year
LA Times Jennifer Aniston on 'drunk singing' for Cake
In Contention The Fault in Our Stars finally does some campaigning for Shailene Woodley
Samuel L Jackson The Hateful Eight cast have met
Deadline checks out the numerous very dark horses in the Best Actress race: shout-out to Sally Kirkland and Gena Rowlands from the veterans. An interviews with the former and possibly the latter coming up. Stay tuned...
Pic of the Moment
Jake Gyllenhaal submerged. I wish it were in Oscar buzz! [src] (I was horrified to get blank faces from Oscar voters when I brought up this movie at a recent luncheon. They weren't in the actor's branch but still. How had they not heard of his remarkable performance?)
Chart Updates?
Best Actress & Supporting Actor made minor adjustments following Into the Woods & Big Eyes screenings. Unbroken screenings just after Thanksgiving as we enter the final month of the film year. So exciting.
Whither Nicole Kidman?
I missed Before I Go To Sleep in theaters (it left town instantly) and despite wrapping her roles on five more films we don't have firm release dates on any of them! If you're keeping track they are: Queen of the Desert, Strangerland and Grace of Monaco (lead roles) and Paddington and Genius (supporting roles). Here's a teaser for Strangerland.
It's an Australian drama with Hugo Weaving and Joseph Fiennes in which a couple's daughter goes missing. They freak out, naturally. Looks intense. Might it actually be good? I have high hopes for Queen of the Desert, too, given that Werner Herzog is behind the camera but she probably needs one of these films to be at least a minor hit.
Reader Comments (30)
You're gonna meet her? Beyond jealous.
It says trailer removed. Is it on Youtube?
Cpuld you ask her hod did she felt when Almodovar dedicated All About My Mother to her and wrote Huma Rojo inspired in her part in Opening Night? Did she see the movie?
PADDINGTON will at least be a hit in places that aren't America!
UPDATE -- i fixed the STRANGERLAND with another embed. so you can all see it now.
Thank you!
Hey at east her work is diverse.
I think Kidman's also wrapped The Family Fang , with Justin Bateman (in a very, ahem, Bateman role), hasn't she?
"Big Eyes.... and your Big Lies..." You kill me.
"They freak out, naturally." You're the best.
So you've finally seen INTO THE WOODS. I think it's appropriate that Emily Blunt has moved down to the 8th position on your predictions. She's lovely, effective and intelligent as the Baker's Wife but it just doesn't shine as bright as some of these other big roles.
I think it's interesting you think Kendrick is MVP. Hmmmm. I did like how un-Cinderella she was. I actually thought Chris Pines delivered absolutely the right "bigger than life" charm, humor and real-life smarm which helped place the movie in the right "frame of mind" - no fairy-tale princes here even if they do look gorgeous. The prince duet - which is always a highlight - was the best moment of the film in my opinion. At the preview I attended it came pretty darn close to being a show stopper!! And God were both men sexy/handsome!!
As for Streep - she's still in the top SA five, huh? Interesting. I look forward to your review. I am one of those drooling Streep fans who wants her to win 5 Oscars and get nominated all the time BUT...well....I just think there are some really solid performances by supporting actresses out there that deserve the recognition more than Streep for this role in this film. People like Dern, Watts (her work in Birdman is really special I think) and maybe Ejogo. I might even prefer Russo or Thurman. And certainly it might be nice to see V. Davis get a nomination this year instead of Streep (a tiny bit of cosmic payback).
Of course, I know you're taking into account a lot more than preferences with your predictions and Streep certainly does deliver some "glamour" to the film. But still...she just didn't break my heart like she should have (like Bernadette did/does/would).
I do think Midler would have been a very interesting choice but, of course, she doesn't have Streep's box office allure.
Anyway - I'm glad I don't have to be quiet anymore. Can you believe how AWFUL and STUPID the Depp/Wolf hoople was? OMG I thought he was pretty awful and the sequence did NOT work. Of course, I don't know how much is left in the final cut. Maybe they never even show his face. LOL
My wife LOVED Jack. I didn't so much (I didn't feel like the sexual awakening part of his song were conveyed sufficiently - but I guess it is a Disney film). I do think the girl who played Red Riding Hood was great.
Oh well - I have a feeling this is a movie I'd love to chat and argue with you about. I really look forward to your review.
Really glad you moved Adams back in your top five after seeing BIG EYES. However, with Moore in the race I don't think this will be Adams year again. Maybe her JANIS JOPLIN film will finally get her her Oscar.
The Deadline piece is terrific. Everyone should read it. I saw the Benning movie last week on the tube. Had never heard of it but she was so fine. Some very difficult moments to make ring true.
I think Rowlands will take the last spot (knocking out Adams). Great work, over due, serious push behind her being honored for her career and did I mention they are actually pushing it? Anniston and Swank will work their magic too. Pike better pop that baby soon or she might get left out.
Actress makes me so sad-- not because there aren't good performances to nominate, but because they're overshadowed by higher-profile milquetoast ones. Jones a lock and Swank/Adams sitting on the fence for those films? ::tear::
Can we please start the Marion Cotillard campaign? There's no way otherwise that voters are even going to see Two Days, One Night. She has even less Oscar buzz this year than she did for that failed attempt at a nom for Rust & Bone.
All the handwringing and beast-beating over Hunger Games' "paltry" take is sickening. The greed behind these split movies should have more dire financial consequences. No wonder audiences are so jaded. Maybe they're tired of being milked. Memo to execs: Here's a thought--try being creative.
To be honest it's a shame Swank isn't higher.she's is far better than Jones & Pike,not seen Moore or Reese.
brookesboy: The only time I've heard of this and thought "they'll have enough plot, character AND spectacle to fully justify it as a balanced crowd-pleasing piece" is Avengers splitting their Infinity War story in two. Deathly Hallows was a long book, but should have been way more sliced down than it was due to most of it being structured around the isolated camping ground stuff that was really boring. Breaking Dawn also had a lot of nothing that should have been trimmed. And this Mockingjay split borders on Peter Jackson's completely bizarre "three films of The Hobbit" decision due to only being a 390 page book. I actually kind of like it more than either prior film, even if it's still not great (Katniss actually fights here, unlike last time (Catching Fire) where she's almost entirely passive (the only time she fires an arrow is during a weird, tensionless, holographic training sequence) until the last five minutes, such that I really wish what we were actually seeing was a movie that pushed Katniss to the background to focus on the people actually participating in the Games this time. It still would have been scrubbed and bloodless, but at least there'd be tension, menace and mystery in that approach), but the split is likely the most excessive yet and I understand the detractors of the split.
I do think there's a fundamental difference between Avengers Infinity War Film and ALL of the other examples mentioned... it's not a book adaptation. So while it's certainly "adapted" from comic stories and whatnot the creators have the flexibility to actually create two "self-contained" and satisfying stories unlike Hobbit, Mockingjay, Breaking Dawn which are hampered by literally stretching out one self-contained stories into two or more films.
bilybil: In Contention is already talking about Streep as if she's about to get her fourth Oscar, so I think it's safe to keep her in the Top 5 for now.
I'm way more excited for a new Jurassic Park movie than I am for Star Wars. But I'm also way more nervous about Jurassic World sucking.
RYAN T -- it seems like a really strange decision to call the Avengers sequels Pt 1 and Pt 2 since you're going to turn off people who don't like the new bloat and greediness -- it's a small portion of the populace, sure, but that portion will grow with each thin padded movie that bores people so since they're basically making 2 movies based on SEVERAL comic books why not just give them different titles, you know?
Jestifer: Really? All that (justified) disappointment over the Academy clearly choosing her last year for category filler and shutting out Brie Larson did NOTHING to curb the "maybe we SHOULDN'T unrelentingly worship her over people who are genuinely MVP's of their year" tendencies in ANYONE? Sigh. I guess, especially if it gets masterpiece reviews, we can expect that fourth Meryl statue for Ricki and the Flash next year.
Volvagia: Yep-here's the article: http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/can-meryl-streep-actually-win-a-fourth-oscar-for-into-the-woods
I've missed seeing Sally Kirkland at the Oscars lately. Iconoclastic and unbroken and very much her own person. Hurrah for her and her new movie! I hope it catches attention.
You're definitely right Nathaniel and you know... who knows? It's hard to talk about films that are being released 4-5 years from now. Maybe they want to make it intro a "trilogy" of sorts with the third epic storyline cut into 2 films. Again, who knows? Regardless, my original point though was at least in this specific case they don't have the limiting factor of having to adapt their storyline from a single book.
Volvagia, the best thing that could have happened was that Mockingjay:Intro to Film made less than a third of what it did. It's the only way that profit-fixated studios will get it that audiences won't stand for being spoon-fed "prefab product" at any cost, no matter the nonexistence of ideas, originality or even the semblance of prioritizing entertaining the audience over greed. These blatant money grabs passing for movies will be the nail in the coffin for theaters. And the studios will only have themselves to blame.
Nathaniel -- Is it too late for Into the Woods to switch Streep to lead instead of Blunt?
brookesboy: I got the best of both worlds. Saw this kind of stupid cash grab, but with points tickets. Boom!
Lol!
All I can say Jestifer is I hope IN CONTENTIOIN is wrong.
I saw "Before I go to sleep" & although it's no masterpiece it was very entertaining. Nicole was great in it, to me she's one of those rare actress who is incapable of being uninteresting. Even in movies that don't work she always bring a little "je ne sais quoi" that makes the movie watchable. Even when it's not (Fur, That Nicolas Cage kinnaping mess, That Daniel Craig "Body Snatcher" just to name a few)