Tweet Things 2

It's our weekly curated collection of a dozen or so showbiz-related tweets we think you might enjoy. Some are true and some are funny like these two.

Watch movies from before you were born. It's good for you.

— Diablo Hellalgo (@pablohidalgo) October 28, 2017

Guy at work orientation today: What was the most pirated movie last year? Hint. Blockbuster. Main character dressed in red?

Me: JACKIE.

— Cici Cooper (@danblackroyd) October 30, 2017

And others just make us smile.

There's more after the jump involving Richard Burton's diaries, Meet Me in St Louis, The Snowman, Winona Ryder, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri and more. But first how's this for an FYC plug? I mean is Sarah Paulson's asking us, we're considering...

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Talking About Passion and the Films of Stephen Cone

by Glenn Dunks

In some ways, Stephen Cone is an unlikely name to warrant a retrospective. And yet in other ways, he’s a perfect choice. Those who already know this writer-director likely typify him, not incorrectly, by the way he infuses queer-leaning narratives with themes of religion and faith. But considering Cone’s films – of which he is likely best known for Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party from 2015 – have rarely ventured out of the queer film festival circuit and his earlier works remain virtually unseen, Talk About the Passion: Stephen Cone’s First Act is actually a well-timed way to learn about a filmmaker who is clearly doing enough right to stick around for a little while yet.

His debut as a feature direct after several short and medium-length titles was In Memoriam, a film that sits rather out of place among Cone’s filmography. Following a man who becomes curiously obsessed with the story of a couple who fell from their roof while drunk and who decides to make his own movie about their love, it plays very much like a low-budget stereotypical first film full of artistic flourishes and awkward narrative beats. It’s not a bad film, but it is also hard to decipher exactly what it was that Cone was attempting to say beyond a very basic reading that everybody’s story deserves to be taken seriously.

He followed that one quite quickly with The Wise Kids, released in the same year. This was the first time his own life as the son of a Baptist minister came into play on a feature (many of his shorts dealt with religious themes) and mixed with what I assume is his experiences of growing up gay (correct me if I am wrong). While it is certainly not averse to some of the same directorial greenness that he showed in In Memoriam, The Wise Kids proves a significant step up...

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Honorary Oscars: Charles Burnett's "Killer of Sheep"

We will be revisiting work from this year's Honorary Oscar winners. Here's Tim on Charles Burnett...

For most of its existence, the 1977 Killer of Sheep existed more in the realm of legend than concrete film history. It was made for a paltry $10,000 by director-producer (-writer-cinemtographer-editor) Charles Burnett as his master's thesis project in UCLA, taking five years to complete. Owing to the substantial expense of securing rights to the music Burnett wished to use, the film was never able to acquire distribution, and for nearly thirty years remained more talked about than seen, though it was fiercely admired by those lucky ones who had attended a screening. It was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1990, but still could only be found mostly by accident, as it flitted around the film underground on increasingly degraded 16mm prints.

In 2007, 30 years after the film was completed, the UCLA Film & Television archive finally took steps to secure the future of the film, creating a new 35mm print from the 16mm negative. Milestone Films secured the music rights for $150,000, and the film finally had its first commercial release, to enormous critical acclaim. Burnett had never stopped working, but the restoration of Killer of Sheep unquestionably brought his reputation to new heights. It's hard to imagine him receiving his honorary Oscar this year without Killer of Sheep having so triumphantly risen from the ashes.

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Critics Choice Documentary Winners

by Nathaniel R

"Jane," now in theaters, took the top prize at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards

Perhaps if I'm too stay in the BFCA (home to the "Critic's Choice Awards") I should run for actual office within them. Why? Well, change from within. I literally never understand their decisions like awards ceremonies where there are no rules as to how large a category is or isn't. They have this same problem in their main movie awards to a small degree but their documentary competition is even more unruly/nonsensical. These awards, held last night in Brooklyn, had (pause for shuddering) 16 nominees for Best Documentary Feature but 10 nominees for Best Director and only 6 nominees for Debut Documentary and so on and so on. No rhyme or reason! 

But herewith, this year's winners (links go to reviews if we've covered them). All of the feature film winners are on Oscar's long list (previously shared):

Documentary: JANE
Director: [tie] Frederick Wiseman for EX-LIBRIS and Evgeny Afineevsky for CRIES FROM SYRIA
First Documentary: KEDI
Political Documentary: ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO JAIL
Sports Documentary: ICARUS
Music Documentary: CLIVE DAVIS: THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES
Most Innovative: [tie] LAST MEN IN ALEPPO and DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME 
Best Song: "Jump" from STEP 
Limited Series: THE VIETNAM WAR on PBS
Ongoing Series: AMERICAN MASTERS on PBS

There was also a non-competitive category called "Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary" and the following people/creatures were honored: The cats of KEDI, Al Gore for AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL, Etty for ONE OF US, Dolores Huerta for DOLORES, Gigi Lazzarato for THIS IS EVERYTHING: GIGI GORGEOUS, and The Sung family for ABACUS

Related:
Oscar Prediction Documentary Chart
Glenn's series "Doc Corner"

121 sea-faring days 'til Oscar

Oscar night will be here before you know it! It's time for your daily Oscar trivia. Today's is Biblical epic style... sort of.

So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
-Genesis 1:21

Oscar's favorite sea-faring and/or sea-creature adventures are after the jump but soon we will have to add The Shape of Water (now opening December 1st -- one week earlier than as originally planned) to this list. Where do you think it will land in the following list:

OSCAR'S DOZEN FAVORITE 
SEA-FARING or SEA-CREATURE MOVIES

01 Titanic (1997) - 14 nominations | 11 wins including Best Picture

02 Life of Pi (2012) - 11 nominations including Best Picture | 4 wins

03 Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) - 8 nominations | 1 win for Best Picture (and by extension it's remake Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) 7 nominations including Best Picture...

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