What a Link. What a Lovely Link
Saturday, November 28, 2015 at 8:03PM BFI Check out the Sight & Sound poll for 2015. Not pleased that The Assassin topped the immeasurably finer twofer of Carol & Mad Max Fury Road but it is what it is. Perennial critical darling peculiarities abound like Blackhat placing about Ex Machina. Oh please. I didn't hate the former like some but one must assume that's solely on Michael Mann's reputation, the way some filmmakers get a competition spot at Cannes simply because they directed something.
HuffPo Reid Ewing from Modern Family talks about body dysmorphia and getting frequent plastic surgery
The Guardian on a Carol gift-wrapping promotion - it breaks my heart that people keep thinking this is a watch it on DVD film. It's SO breathtakingly cinematic. GO TO THE THEATER.
/Film Gremlins may take a page from Jurassic World/Creed and continue the story decades later
Coming Soon latest Star Wars The Force Awakens news & rumors if you're into that sort of thing. We made a very conscious choice not to watch anything beyond the teaser or to cover it until ti opens. We want to preserve the mystery and thus the possible joy.
Antagony & Ecstasy reviews the original Star Wars trilogy
MNPP Matt Bomer may play The Last Tycoon for Amazon
Vanity Fair Ryan Gosling may play Neil Armstrong for Damien Chazelle
In Contention how the critic awards can boost players in the Oscar race
/Film there are competing Evel Knievel movies on the way one from (possibly Martin Scorsese) and one from Channing Tatum. Do kids today know who Knievel is?
AV Club Michael B Jordan is up for another Creed movie. The movie is set to make back its budget this Thanksgiving weekend
Serving Cinema in defense of Angelina Jolie's By the Sea
Lip Sync Battle Anthony Mackie "2 Legit 2 Quit" versus Joseph Gordon-Levitt's "Rhythm Nation"
New York Times ABC actually cancelled a show! But this is a rare with TV's new ratings math
Towleroad two Brazilian actors share a kiss on live tv to combat homophobia. Our Brazilian readers should tell us if these two are as famous as this article implies.
The Hollywood Reporter has an articles about LGBT cinema losing its edge. That's a topic that can be argued about certainly but Carol is an absolutely terrible example since Todd Haynes hasn't lost one iota of his power or daring and the "frostiness" that people complain about with that movie is hardly pandering, you know.
Kevin O'Keefe skewers the article with one well placed barb.
Perhaps you are not the optimal person to be writing about CAROL then! https://t.co/16uLFtBVLF pic.twitter.com/v2NsDNGIgi
— Kevin O'Keeffe (@kevinpokeeffe) November 24, 2015
"Category Fraud" Has Gone Mainstream
I can't remember if I coined the term -- let's just say I did -- but I've been preaching against its evil like an obnoxiously pious mad prophet the entire time I've been Oscar blogging... which is quite a long time now. I've been seeing articles about it everywhere this year including this new one from The Hollywood Reporter. You know how when you love an obscure band and then everyone "discovers" them after the fact and you feel kind of betrayed? That. Don't get me wrong: I'm glad people are paying attention now -- perhaps we reached some sort of peak fraudulence where it became impossible to deny the problem anymore? But I also do not like that articles about this never address the media's own hand in creating this monster. (For this next sentence you'll remember that Nathaniel is playing the role of a mad pious prophet in this story and forgive his superiority complex). Other than The Film Experience practically every awards pundit / site has actively encouraged this 'all fraud all the time / end justifies the means world we're living in by regularly rationalizing leading roles as supporting in articles and actively encouraging studios and publicists to pursue fraudulent campaigns for "better Oscar chances"
Weekend Watch
Jake Gyllenhaal discussses his progressive upbringing and Brokeback Mountain. I love this. Yes, we'll be celebrating the movie soon for its 10th anniversary in December.
Sir Ian McKellen talks Dame Maggie Smith and Oscar good luck charms from his stage show in Los Angeles last weekend "Women I've Filmed With"
Reader Comments (25)
I'm happy that "category fraud" is a major conversation topic at this point. However, I wouldn't want the Academy to impose a rule like the one the HR article suggested: ≥50% screen time equals leading, <50% screen time equals supporting. There is no cut and dry way of determining lead or supporting placements, IMHO. Like you said, Nathaniel, Kate Winslet has more than 50% screen time in Steve Jobs, but she's still clearly supporting. The movie is NEVER about her. On the other hand, despite the fact that Hopkins only had 16 minutes of screen time in The Silence of the Lambs, he's clearly a lead. There's no cookie cutter way of determining lead or supporting placements. Can rules really fix the problem, or at least help ameliorate it??
Bruno Gagliasso it is one of the biggest brazilian celebs, that´s true. One of his works, soap opera JOIA RARA was awarded with an Emmy Award last year. He is leading man material since late Aughts. The other actor is a comedian that´s more famous for dating a former Big Brother star and for his work in Porta dos Fundos, the biggest brazilian Youtube Channel. He basically did some small parts in comedy movies.
I've gotten either really relaxed or really strict about my own personal lead/supporting classifications, depending on how you look at it. The way I see it, I'd rather a borderline case compete with leading roles than take a spot away from true supporting ones. So basically, if it's even debatable, I put it in lead. Anthony Hopkins winning Best Actor for Silence of the Lambs doesn't bother me nearly as much as Jamie Foxx getting a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Collateral. So to me, if it's even a little bit iffy, I'm inclined to go with lead.
Thank you for the link on LGBT cinema. I thought it was a very intelligent and aware discussion on the state of that sub-genre (which its very existence could be partially the problem, when LGBT movies need fit into that sub-genre). I agree with most of what they said, especially about Carol when one of them said they barely believe the characters even liked each other and the embarrassingly self-conscious sex scene. "I never looked like that" has to be the worst line of the year in any high-profile movie. That one would choose the joke about Chandler (not a funny joke, but a joke by a gay man about another male he is attracted to) to invalidate any intelligent argument is just part of the internet epidemic in which people will go at any lengths necessary to win a point, the point here being that because he made the joke, he is wrong about Carol. We must all love Carol!
How much pre-conceived ideas or fixed ideas influence one's likes or dislikes for a movie? I admire Todd Haynes' work a lot and I do Gaspar Noe's. But I'm not blinded by my admiration or by any element their movies might bring (actresses, themes, etc..). A bad movie is a bad movie and "Love" was a truly bad movie. Carol is not a "bad" movie, in my opinion, it just lacks self-awareness, which is another way to say it was badly directed, which is ok and doesn't make any of his greatly directed movies any less great.
As with all good causes eventually after a lot of thankless work - Everyone suddenly agrees!
Kudos to you for being tireless, and soak up some satisfaction. But be vigilant! Now would be the time to amp up the ridicule on twitter (and here) if you really want TPTB to take note.
As for a solution - not accepting a Studios placement, and clear any iffy nominations through a blue ribbon panel. A set % would not work.
Category fraud is a non-issue. Studios are owned by corporations. Everything is bottom line. What does it benefit the industry Octavia Spencer is an Oscar winner with zero prospects to move up the ranks? You love to ridicule the casting directors who are simply following orders. They keep their jobs by hiring the same white folk you get bored of seeing in every other movie.
Who would leave Kyle Chandler? Um, well, a lesbian probably.
My bf & I went to see Carol yesterday at the cinema offering the free gift wrapping promotion. Sadly we had nothing to wrap. We also got complementary whisky and ginger ale with our ticket. After the film my bf asked 'what does the film have to do with gift wrapping?' :S
/3rtful -- do you ever have a positive thought on any day of the week? it'd be shocking (but a good shock) to read one from you.
Choog -- i woulda bought a gift for myself if i had to just to say i did it.
Lady E -- TPTB ?
The Hopkins case is interesting if that film was out in 2015 you can bet the studios would campaign him in supporting due to screen time and you can argue that case I guess but his character looms over the plot and drives it so much he is the lead. It's similar to Weisz in the Constant Gardner who again is missing for large chunks of the film but her character drives the plot. I also think people look at lead and supporting categories in terms of whether is character is more active or passive in driving the story and that's partly why child actors who are leads get pushed into the supporting categories.
(The powers that be.)
And I'm with Lady E. You should take all the fraud talk as a personal victory and keep beating the drum. You've encouraged many to evolve on the topic.
You know what's fascinating to me? You hate when I have valid points. When I repeatedly said in various topics Hollywood is a patriarchal white supremacy not only did you discourage me from expressing this view you wrote an article in defense of older white men in the Academy. Which goes to show you resent ideas which are uncomfortable on the surface but prove to be right in actuality. Stop writing pity stories on women's lack of agency in the boy's club and the non-movement for nonwhite female talent in front of the camera. Accept the ugly truth and look for the good stuff without an expectation of systematic change.
Also, when you met me in person I wanted to have a real heart to heart with you there. You froze up. How can you ever have a real meeting of the minds when you rather ignore or shame me?
I love Blackhat, just saying
(This whole 3rt thing got scary now. He won't be ignored)
Mark Wraps large Anne Archer bath robe tighter.
Don't boil Monty!
In past years, I've been sick and tired of Nathaniel and other bloggers crying category fraud.There is definitely gray area; and gray areas are not fraud.
With that said, when the fraud is so blatant (like this year); I have no problem with it being called out :). Just please reserve whining for when it is actually unequivocally happening.
The Academy needs to look at hy it was created and maybe rethink things,work together,slanging hostile & unfounded accusations at the Host Is not the way to go..
Cal - lol. also like i said i don't dislike Blackhat at all really but it is not great.
Mark -- the weird thing about the Academy is that they clearly vote in some ways based on what they think is important enough to place in history books as "best" but they rarely seem to engage with their own history in a meaningful way or learn from it.
Agreed,films are looking back with all the franchise revivals etc,so why doesn't the most respected body lead the way,i say you are not whining merely pointing out the unfairness of it all,once Waltz won in 2012 I really thought it needed addressing.
There is no world or parallel dimension in which The Assassin is inferior to Mad Max. I also slightly prefer it to Carol at the moment but those are actually my Top 2 of the year so far so needless to say I am very satisfied with that Sight and Sound poll.
I also adored Arabian Nights, Cemetery of Splendour
I skipped Blackhat and I found Ex Machina pretentious and madly overrated so even those particular rankings don't bother me in relation to one another.
This is actually my favourite list of theirs in years. And I think they're usually pretty good.
I'm also very glad someone pounced on that ludicrous and cringeworthy LGBT film discussion in The Hollywood Reporter. Everything they said about Carol made me angry. I mean - along parallel lines: I hated The King's Speech. But in 2010 I still didn't go ahead and publish a discussion of the decline and sad lack of British royalty representation in mainstream cinema. Because that would have been insipid.
And that Kyle Chandler line? I was full-on ready to gay-bash those solipsistic airheads.
Posting this here and in the Imelda thread:
http://www.broadway.com/buzz/183018/imelda-staunton-led-uk-gypsy-revival-eyes-broadway-bow-in-2017/
PAUL - !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hoping it comes to pass.
BLACKHAT should only be allowed to figure on Worst Of 2015-lists,
and NOT on Best Of 2015-lists.
An absolutely awful movie, just saying!
Gotta love Jake and he is right "Brokeback Mountain" reminds of that cinema still has the power to change hearts and minds.