Sunday, November 17, 2013 at 5:34PM Congratulations to Angela Lansbury! Mrs Iselin is finally clutching her own deserved Oscar gold! You can see her acceptance speech if you haven't yet after the jump...
Sunday, November 17, 2013 at 3:58PM 
Between "Frozen" and "The Best Man Holiday" it's going to be a good year at the Diggs/Menzel householdI live in Harlem where bootleg copies of Tyler Perry movies are priced $2 higher than all other bootlegs. I only tell you this because I was hoping to have some choice 'overheard' tidbit about The Best Man Holiday to share with you, picked up on my street or elevator or some such since I knew it would open big. You can sometimes somehow hear future box office receipts, in the stale air of movie theaters when certain trailers play. But the only movie conversations I've heard on my street lately were about superhero movies (pick a movie, any movie) and, in my lobby, 12 Years a Slave... where three elderly women were complaining about how expensive the tickets were. "When did they raise the price?" I'd say those ladies don't get out to movies much but then I myself am often surprised at the ticket counter. I'm not sure what the algorithym is or the triggers to raise them but it's been happening so often lately I'm beginning to think the trigger is each new Matthew McConaughey movie. He's in another one? alright alright Raise it again, people!
BOX OFFICE BAKER'S DOZEN
01 THOR: THE DARK WORLD $38.4 (cum. $146.9) Review
02 THE BEST MAN HOLIDAY $30.5 *new*
03 LAST VEGAS $8.8 (cum. $46.9)
04 FREE BIRDS $8.3 (cum. $42.2)
05 JACKASS PRESENTS: BAD GRANDPA $7.6 (cum. $90.2)
06 GRAVITY $6.2 (cum. $240.5) All Posts
07 ENDER'S GAME $6.2 (cum. $53.7) Posts
08 12 YEARS A SLAVE $4.7 (cum. $24.9) Discussions
09 CAPTAIN PHILLIPS $4.5 (cum. $97.6) Podcast
10 ABOUT TIME $3.4 (cum. $11.5) Review
11 CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE... 2 $1.9 (cum. $113)
12 DALLAS BUYERS CLUB $1.7 (cum. $3.0) Posts
13 ALL IS LOST $0.9 (cum. $4.2) Review & Podcast
The Best Man Holiday came a lot closer to shearing Thor than I expect most expected. And with a budget exactly 10% of Thor's ($17 million vs. $170 million) it's got to be feeling pretty great about itself right now. In limited release, Nebraska opened at 4 theaters on the coasts. The Oscar-baiter won the highest per screen average (for context a better original per screen average than All is Lost or Dallas Buyers Club in their tiny opening weekends but not as good as 12 Years a Slave) but we'll know more about its box office prospects in the next couple of weekends. The last three Alexander Payne movies, buoyed by the chattering Oscar classes, have averaged $72 million in theaters. But can a black and white movie without a Jack Nicholson or a George Clooney at the helm do that well? Time will tell.
What did you see this weekend?
Saturday, November 16, 2013 at 8:08PM If you want to know why I have had such a hard time sharing my adventures in Los Angeles in real time from the AFI festival which wrapped on Thursday, blame Emma Thompson. She killed me!
Emma the night I met her / Mary Poppins party decor
The truth is that I get far less starstruck these days than I did a handful of years ago when I first began interviewing celebrities regularly. But sometimes my inner child still spazzes out, and comes bouncing to the surface like a squealing fanboy. I know I'm supposed to be embarrassed by this but the truth is that it feels good.
Enthusiasm is a form of social courage"
-Gretchen Rubin, Happiness Guru
I never want to be one of those jaded film critics who has seen it all and doesn't enjoy anything. So... back to that Saving Mr Banks party. After chatting with Colin Farrell I was introduced to Emma Thompson who is holding up really well at 54. She looks, I apologize in advance, practically perfect in every way. And as one of my formative actresses, I was quite taken aback to be face to face with her, sipping cocktails.
Small talk: we both love the decor at the party, little drawings from the making of Mary Poppins on each table and I pretend to lift one and shove it under my jacket. Eventually -- because I am me -- the conversation drifts to Howard's End (1992). I don't remember quite how we got there but Emma, politely sidestepped the questions about the past and, like a consummate pro, pulla it back to a soundbite ready encapsulation of both my movie nostalgia AND the theme of her new film, in which the author P.L. Travers (Thompson) has a really difficult time parting with her fictional nanny Mary Poppins:
Sometimes you just have to let things go."
-Emma Thompson
And then Emma Freaking Thompson places her hand on my shoulder ...and I died. Using me for balance, she removes her shoes! As if on cue, her assistant materializes from nowhere to grab them. What should she do with them?
"Throw them away. They're garbage." Emma instructs.
"Speaking of letting things go!" I interject awkwardly, amused that the theme has been literalized. As it turns out Emma quite likes the shoes and it's not from lack of sentiment but practicality - she got cement on them across the street at her handprint ceremony. I help her find Colin Farrell for a smoke break and they're off, Emma weaving through the cocktail party in her stockings.
I love this shot of Emma via HitFix (wish it were bigger!)Half an hour later director John Lee Hancock introduces his cast at the front of the giant Chinese Theater. Emma, who apparently can't let a running motif go, removes her new pair of shoes while walking to take her bow, doing a little sideways hopping dance in the process. At this point, though, I'm happily back where I belong, munching on popcorn in my movie seat dreaming about movie stars. The movie begins in the clouds but I'm already there.
Previously at AFI: "Harbringer of Hope" Colin Farrell, Agnes Varda's Cleo From 5 to 7, Anne Marie's Fest Part 1 and Part 2,
Tweet-Bits: Nathaniel & Niecy Nash share an awkward moment, Overheard in Movie Theater Lines pt 1, pt 2, and pt 3
Saturday, November 16, 2013 at 10:15AM 
June SquibbHaving recently seen Nebraska a second time (full review coming), I'm more confident that Alexander Payne favorite June Squibb (who played Jack Nicholson's wife in About Schmidt) can ride her scene-stealing laughs in the new film to a nomination. The film opened yesterday in limited release and though the Oscar attention is all on Bruce Dern at the moment, that could well change since the film is endearing on more than just the Dern-level.
Trivia Alert #1 If June Squibb is nominated she will be the third oldest nominee ever in the Supporting Actress category after Gloria Stuart (Titanic) and Ruby Dee (American Gangster)
August Osage County and Jennifer Lawrence trivia after the jump
Friday, November 15, 2013 at 8:29PM Inside Movies Andrew Lincoln looks back at "to me you are perfect" from Love Actually
MNPP wants to watch Only God Forgives again. Are you also experiencing these deviant feelings?
Ultra Culture anatomy of most Blue is the Warmest Color "reviews"
In Contention wonders if Will Forte can win Best Supporting Actor traction for Nebraska - well the category is amorphous still...
BuzzFeed saw fit to rank every episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Such a mammoth project so even if you quibble with the ranking -- and boy do I (love "Beer Bad") --you have to respect
Gawker weeping through The Best Man Holiday
Pajiba how to prepare yourself for the release of Nicolas Cage's nude photos
And while I was in Los Angeles earlier this week the Moët British Independent Film Award nominations were announced. I love little weird awards groups like this (the corporate titling not so much) because you can't tie them to "ooh, they're trying to influence the Oscars" which is just about the most boring thing you can possibly do if you're a group thinking of handing out awards. No matter what your group is, if it has no character, personality or purpose outside of predicting another groups awards, QUIT - the world doesn't need you! But anyway... here's a complete list of nominations in case you missed them as I did. They were big fans of the bleak with the violent Starred Up and Clio Barnard's festival gem The Selfish Giant leading the nominations. They also approved of Metro Manila which is the UK's Oscar submission. But they also found room for more mainstream senior Brit efforts like Philomena with Judi Dench and Le Week-End starring Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan.
What a World: Ralph Fiennes & Kristin Scott Thomas are co-stars again. But this time he's sleeping with her screen daughter. Here's why I spit out my Moët, though. They ignored 12 Years a Slave in "International Film" and had a reaction to Ralph Fiennes' The Invisible Woman that I find not only puzzling but deeply lazy. They nominated it only for Best Actress (Felicity Jones, whose appeal still escapes me like crazy) and Best Supporting Actress (Kristin Scott Thomas). Now y'all know I am an über fan of KST but if you're handing out acting prizes to that movie and you DON'T start with Joanna Scanlan, who plays the unloved wife of Charles Dickens, you're on autopilot with stars in your eyes. To which you might counter if you haven't yet seen the film "But KST is a great actress!!!" Well, yes, dear reader and BIFA voters, she is... but Joanna is this movie's MVP. And by a significant margin, too.
Of course the movie is marginalizing Scanlan, too. She doesn't appear or barely appears in the ads and none of the film's promotional stills include her; P&A has never been a meritocracy.
