• Vulture Allison Wilmore makes a good case that Don't Look Up is going to win Best Picture (uh-oh)
• The Daily Beast great far ranging interview with Steven Soderbergh - very exciting quote on the third Magic Mike movie "It’s as close to a full-blown musical as I’m ever going to get." And yes he also talks about superhero movies which all the A list directors are required to talk about now in interviews (sigh)
• Vogue "2022 Hollywood Portfolio" features lots of Oscar hopefuls and also some wildcards having a good year. Alana Haim, Simu Liu, Aunjanue Ellis, Dakota Johnson, Rachel Zegler, Dami Judi Dench, Jodie Comer, etc...
Razzie nominations, Plaza Suite, Mothering Sunday, American Born Chinese and more after the jump...
• / Film Immigrant, that poorly titled series about the founder of Chippendales starring Kumail Nanjiani is going to be directed by Matt Shakman who did a fine job with WandaVision so here's hoping it lives up to its potential
• THR interviews Tom Holland about Uncharted and Spider-Man
• Deadline American Born Chinese, a new action comedy for Disney+ will reunite Michelle Yeoh and director Destin Daniel Cretton after their Shang-Chi success
• Plaza Suite, the revival of the Neil Simon comedy starring Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker begins previews on February 25th
• Playbill remember that Marilyn Monroe musical "Bombshell" from the TV show Smash. It's still alive, in dreams, for a stage musical production. There's going to be a workshop this summer
• Deadline The first quarter of every year is when we are reminded of movies that dont exist but somehow are eligible for the Oscar. Sony Pictures Classics is the worst offender among all distributors in this regard. Last season they buried I Carry You With Me in qualifying and then an ever moving release date. And this season they might be doing that with Mothering Sunday. It's Oscar eligible but now arriving, supposedly on March 25th instead of late February. Don't be surprised if it moves to the summer!
These links are are older but we forgot to share them so they might be new to you!
• I Might Be Wrong "Ethan Coen" reviews Joel Coen's Tragedy of Macbeth
• EW Emma Thompson talks about the challenge of filming her nude scenes in Good Luck To You, Leo Grande
• Los Angeles Times a beautiful piece on elitism and awards and Drive My Car's best picture viability. Oh how I long to love this movie as much as most critics do. But alas, I think it's 'merely' quite good :)
• Variety "We Don't Talk About Bruno" has become the first Disney #1 hit since Aladdin's "A Whole New World"
• AV Club makes the case that it's Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and not any of the new characters that's the central problem of HBO's ...And Just Like That series (that's the Sex & The City sequel if you haven't been paying attention)
Finally the Razzies
We shouldn't care about the Razzies because they're too lazy for words each and every year. This year they've nominated two very good performances for "Worst" awards: Ben Affleck in The Last Duel and Amy Adams in Dear Evan Hansen. The latter in particular is doing pretty Herculean things to make her scenes/character work in that misbegotten musical so this is a case of voters just being a) dumb and b) mean-spirited about middle-age actresses and c) lazy because they've heard that the movie is bad so therefore, actors must be bad in it. But if you want to read the nominees they're here.
The only joy to take out of the Razzie nominations this year is that if House of Gucci's Jared Leto is nominated for an Oscar tomorrow he'll become only the fourth actor to receive Razzie and Oscar nominations for the same role. The other ones were James Coco for Only When I Laugh, Amy Irving for Yentl, and Glenn Close for Hillbilly Elegy