Random Bits & Open Thread
Friday, January 30, 2015 at 3:00PM 
• A Little Chaos with Kate Winslet, that I told you about at TIFF, has moved to Dec 31st. Worst release date evah. I will assume from now on that all Dec 31st releases are the Oscar contractual eligibility equivalent of the January dumping ground for mainstream movies
• ♪ This shit, that ice cold, Michelle Pfeiffer, that white gold ♫
• Speaking of January garbage, I find this poster for Wild Card wildly pornographic. (Like every image of Jason Statham. Shut up)
• Is the Superbowl this weekend? Guess that means blockbuster movie trailers hit web Sun/Mon & we get backed up on YNMS
• Woody Allen's 2015 is called Irrational Man. The best (potential) news is that Parker Posey is in the cast. And since every other Woody movie is terrible and we just got through a dire one maybe this one will be good?
• I promise I'll go see Paddington this weekend. Need my Nic'
• Why haven't you voted on the Beauty vs. Beast: Hud edition yet. This one is a close match.
• WHAT'S ON YOUR (CINEMATIC) MIND?
Reader Comments (45)
- Leviathan, which I'm seeing on Tuesday;
- Nashville, The Late Show and Flirting with Disaster because Lily Tomlin;
- The Devils and Witchhunter General because The Witch;
- Jeff Stryker because Jason Schwartzman.
I'm so confused.
What is on my mind the final weekend of January every year: how am I going to get through all of these movies in the 31 Days of Oscar marathon? I've written down 50 I need to find room for on my DVR!
Also, I get to see the Doc and Live Action short nominees this weekend-hurrah!
Just found out about that Will Smith movie Concussion. Keeping an eye on it as an Oscar prospect.
The Devil Wears Prada has been on HBO A LOT lately. It has no business being as good as it is. Every time I watch it though, the more it becomes clearer to me that Andy's friends are the real villains of the movie, not Miranda. They aren't at all supportive, and really are just jerks for the most part. It doesn't help that I also think that Adrian Grenier and especially Tracie Thomas are just god awful in it. At worst, those are the kinds of roles that generally just don't pop out at you, so I think it's saying something that come off as grating as they do.
TV, most specifically Lee Daniels's "Empire," but it still relates cinematically as it features three former Oscar nominees. I haven't looked forward to TV this much in ages. Has anyone else been watching it?
Is anyone NOT watching it?
Watched TGBH again yesterday. So many underrated features, including the absolutely mesmerizing score.
I still can't live in a world where Fiennes isn't nominated for this.
I gave up on Empire after the first episode. All that SINGING, I couldn't do it. Is anybody condensing all of Taraji's scenes down to clip-reel length though? because I would watch the hell out of that.
I'm going to go see All That Jazz on a big screen while the Super Bowl is happening. You'd think with what I just said about singing turning me off this would be nonsensical, but Fosse kinda trumps logic.
Russell Wilson. Woof.
Val - that's so true. The friends in that movie were terribly written as a way to add conflict to her life. Friends in real life don't act like that. A boyfriend MIGHT act like that if he's a douchebag, but that doesn't seem to be how the movie viewed him. It basically supported his viewpoint. So lame.
But this movie couldn't even make Simon Baker sexy. The only things it got right were by way of Streep, Tucci and Blunt. If you could cut the movie down to the scenes only set at the job it would be much better.
I've been doing an Oscar death race, the only ones I'm not sure I'll be able to see are 'The Salt of the Earth' and 'Song of the Sea'.
This week I watched:
'The Hobbit' - ugh. Good sound mixing I guess. We're over the whole 'pretending like it's not so bad' thing that happened with the first one, right? I mean I can just say in public that this movie is straight-up terrible?
'Whiplash' - liked it a lot. I was thinking that Andrew had some kind of mental illness well before the movie brought in the fact that a previous student had depression and anxiety due to his time at the school. It read to me like a less outre version of 'Black Swan' with a villainous foe.
'Maleficent' - dumb. Costumes were fine, I guess.
'Virunga' - oh man, this one hit me hard. It's really touching, and also made me angry.
Rebecca - ooooh, that comparison of Whiplash to Black Swan is brilliant. Ugh, I really need to watch Black Swan again.
brookesboy-100% agreed. That is a pretty man.
On my cinematic mind:
With all the heavy sighing about Duvall's nomination, are people forgetting what a genius he was in his heyday? Just rewatched Apocalypse Now, MASH and The Godfather. The man has undeniable presence no matter what he's doing. Is it just that The Judge is such a bad film that no one wants it rewarded in anyway? (I'm going to watch The Judge this weekend).
San FranCinema: Pretty much. I actually think Duvall is a little too good IN IT for an F to really make sense (this isn't Norbit people), but it's still the worst movie I've yet seen in 2014, cliched by the pedophilia-incest gag involving RDJ's daughter.
I'm also loving the Pfieffer-sance on the radio lately. And now there's a Fall Out Boy ode to Uma Thurman (that even samples The Munsters theme song!) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBswx7GEARc. I can only hope this means we'll get a Glenn Close jam to complete a Dangerous Liaisions trifecta.
Volvagia: The WHAT gag? I hadn't heard. Oh, no....
JA: It's about a record label, so I'm sort of confused about what you expected. However, I will agree with you that Taraji P. Henson absolutely kills it every time she's on screen. I hope beyond hope that she's Emmy nominated this year, though I can't imagine any lineup that would include three blacktresses at once, assuming that Kerry Washington repeats and Viola Davis makes the cut as well. That's not how the industry works unfortunately.
Nope. Nothing is on my cinematic mind this week.
Because it is Broadway Week! Two-for-One tickets, y'all!
Actually, that's a lie. What's on my mind is still that I only have two films left to watch to have all the major Oscar nominees covered, The Imitation Game and Selma (well, technically three with Inherent Vice but I'm just not interested and never have been), and when in the hell I'm going to have the time to see them! I've been annoyingly busy recently.
denny, i recommend you go see Imitation Game when you need a good nap. Works like a charm.
@Troy H
I see Kerry Washington missing come nomination time. Henson is a previous Emmy nominee for a TV movie. Which means she is a plausible long shot. Davis is a lock for a nomination. And will certainly be a threat to win.
Troy H - I had no idea what it was about before I watched the first episode actually, I hadn't seen any previews; all I knew was everybody was going nuts for Taraji swanning around like some sort of Dynasty creature. And she's totally fun! Once I got 20 minutes in and there was the first musical interlude with the brothers performing together I knew the show wasn't going to be for me though.
But not all Dec 31 movies stink. Why would anyone try to bury A Most Violent Year!?
I do agree, however, that the Dec 31 release strategy is horrendous. It's amazing how much difference there is in Oscar success between a Christmas release and a NYE release.
Why the hell hasn't Keri Russell been nominated for her role in The Americans?
The video of Lady Edith, Mrs. Pattmore and Mrs. Hewes playing Cards Against Humanity.
Galavant, one of the most ridiculous and hilarious things on TV.
Excited for Kingsman: The Secret Service, because I miss Colin Firth and the trailer amuses me (and I like Matthew Vaughn's work too.)
Another thought: why don't all Foreign Language nominees get released before the Oscars? For example, the Estonian entry Tangerines has approximately 0% chance of winning the Foreign Language Oscar. I would think its inevitable loss / the end of Oscar season will lower its box office from what it would be if it had opened between Nomination Day and Oscar Night. Obviously, they can't bank on a nomination, but you think somebody would try to have a contingency plan to rush its release should it have received a nomination. Bullhead's distributor did it.
What happens instead is that the Oscar fanatics who would have gone to see the movie in theaters are forced to resort to other means to find it or (more likely, especially for the casual Oscar watcher) simply do without. After February 28, it drops way down on the list of "must-sees." The niche box office for this type of film becomes even smaller.
It occurred to me that the four Oscars for acting can go to actors who played professors. Julianne Moore was a linguistics professor. JK Simmons a music professor, Patricia Arquette a psychology professor, and Eddie Redmayne... well, Hawking!
Isn't this odd?
Nat: The lyric is "This HIT", not the expletive. It's a drug reference.
The Judge tonight, A Most Violent Year tomorrow. And I am kind of excited about The Judge, because I need to see if it's as bad as you all say.
Also, why isn't everyone watching The Americans?
"Is the Superbowl this weekend? Guess that means blockbuster movie trailers..."
I love that that's what the Superbowl means to you, Nathaniel :)
And now Kate Winslet is on my cinematic mind. Can she get another great role soon? She's still so young and I have faith that this post-Oscar slump of hers is only temporary.
If, as widely anticipated, Moore wins Best Actress, does this, combined with last year's win, mean that all Oscar-desiring actresses should push to sign up in any movie where they play Alec Baldwin's wife?
TPKIA, it coulda been worse. Kate coulda been in Reitman"s last film.
@The Pretentious Know it All: She has The Dressmaker and Triple Nine coming out this fall. Both are excellent roles for her, the former especially. They're the kind of roles she can sink her teeth into, as is her buzzed role in Steve Jobs which comes out next year.
2013-2014 was a weird little slump for her (A Little Chaos is technically 2014). But if you look at the upcoming work I mentioned, she's making bold choices again so I think she has crossed over her slump.
volvagia -- the internet lied to me!
Black Swan >>>>>>> Whiplash. It pains me to see them even mentioned together in the same sentence. Whiplash is decidedly anti-artistry, whereas Black Swan offers multiple points of view on ideas about perfection, training, performance, and Natalie Portman crying on the phone in a bathroom stall. It is miles ahead of the ludicrous and bloated Whiplash which masquerades abuse as "training hard." (end rant)
I'm watching the Cohen release of the restored Queen Margot. God I love this film.
Empire ROCKS!!! Taraji forever. And she is Emmy and Oscar nominated. I'll be curious to see how Murder does against Black List.
Russell WIlson; woof woof woof
The Judge sets the tone for how awful it is with the first scene in the bathroom. And I would love to know the reasoning behind the older bro being almost white headed, the younger bro being heavily salt & pepper and middle child RDJ having a bad dye job. Vera Farmiga should sue over the wig they made her wear. Love the mandatory "see how flat my ads are" shot.
I've been watching Empire! I don't even usually watch TV shows but it's just too juicy. The last episode kinda bored me...it almost feels like the same thing every week at this point. But Taraji is too good to look away from. Gabby has absolutely nothing to do (and I heard the role was even smaller and supposed to be for a small white girl before) but at least she's working and can pay her bills, I suppose.
I really hope Taraji will get nominated at the Emmys. Three black actresses, 50% of the field, would be nice but won't happen. It seems like Kerry Washington could be out this year though. As soon as Viola was invited to the SAG Awards and Golden Globes, Kerry was left out. But Taraji still seems like more of a longshot than her. Here's to hoping...
Yay for Parker Posey in Woody Allen's next film! Let's hope it's a meaty role [in an actually good Allen film] and she can become one of his award-winning supporting actresses.
On paper there are juggernauts this year for supporting actress including Judy Davis for that Winslet vehicle, Parker Posey, and Cynthia Nixon (from Sundance)---the possibilities are vast.
A Little Chaos is just a so-so movie but there are a few nice scenes, particularly between Winslet and Rickman, and there are some nice costumes, too. Not sure why they are releasing the movie so late.
Paddington was pure pleasure for me. I understand why it was such a hit in the UK.
I'm fascinated by Victoria Will's tin type photos of actors at Sundance, on Esquire.
Some of the photo subjects have a real sense of how different cameras work and how to portray themselves with this particular technique. I particularly liked Hugo Weaving, Vincent Cassell, Ewan McGregor, Sam Elliot, Scott Weiland, Alexander Skarsgard.
Robert Redford and Nick Nolte are great but scary tintypes.
Jason Segel and Kevin Bacon understand the technique enough to give it a fun twist.
The women are not as successful in finding a style suited to the technique, maybe because there's more of their body showing (so posing decisions) while the men are mostly face close ups. For the face, not the pose, I liked Jennifer Connelly, Cobie Smulders, Julianne Nicholson.
But my favorites, no contest, are Michael Shannon and Patrick Fugit. Those guys have soul and intensity that is era defying.
3rtful - Cynthia Nixon? Ooh yay. Maybe she'll come for that EGOT??? ;)
I'd be here for that. She's such a talented actress.
I watched "Batman Returns" this weekend with Tim Burton on commentary. I will never not be amazed by how much they got away with in that movie -- in terms of innuendo and violence -- and still tried marketing it to children. I wasn't allowed to see it yet I was allowed to have the official Batman Returns sleeping bag. At the end, Tim Burton basically admits that the reason he didn't do a third movie was because the studio was unhappy with the nature of the second film because the fast food companies (he doesn't explicitly say McDonald's) weren't comfortable with it.
But, SERIOUSLY. I thought I had seen it 20 times and I had *never* noticed the line of Penguin telling Catwoman "just the pussy I've been looking for" or Selina Kyle noticing Bruce Wayne's boner when they're at the Maxquerade ball. That movie was DIRTY. And amazing. And dark and sad and depressing and weird.
I would DIE if Parker Posey gets an Oscar. I assume you mean Irrational Man? I wished she got more traction for House of Yes ages ago.
How do you know that A little Chaos has been moved to Dec 31, I haven't seen a clue that it will open in US at all, lots of speculation about straight to video