Like, WHOA. The Queeniest of Queens

WHOA! a.k.a. Weekly History of Oscar / Awardage
New series? Maybe. Why do I need gimmicky acronyms? I know not.

Jan 9th the first flight of the Avro Lancaster (no relation to Burt) took place in World War II in 1941. This famous plane, the most successful of British bombers, later had a starring role in The Dam Busters (1955) with Richard Todd in the cockpit. The film was Oscar nominated for Best Visual Effects and supposedly inspired the Death Star climax of Star Wars (see video comparison below). Peter Jackson was prepping a remake in 2009 but obvs The Hobbit (2012) has taken over his life.

Jan 10th Youth sensation Sal Mineo, the youngest two-time Oscar nominated male actor (honored for Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Exodus (1960) by the time he was 22), was born on this day in in 1939. You can see his Rebel screen test with James Dean and Natalie Wood above (such amazing trio chemistry). Love that movie.

After the jump, the first Oscars, Cate Blanchett and Pixar...

Click to read more ...

Podcast: "You Haven't Seen The Last of Us" Pt. 2

You listened to Part One already, right?

PART TWO (23 min)
Topics Include:

• Why is 127 Hours still falling like a rock?
• Will there be a surprise nominee Best Pic nominee? If so, what?
• Deep thoughts about the rise of James Franco
• Art Direction & Costume Design: Alice in Wonderland, Inception
• Nick predicts an Oscar night Black Swan gag from Anne Hathaway
• Original Score: Alexandre Desplat, Hans Zimmer, Trent Reznor, Daft Punk?
• Debra Granik and Best Director
• "Hip Young Directors" Chris Nolan, David Fincher, Darren Aronofsky
• Burlesque

Podcast: You Havent Seen Pt 2

Podcast: "You Haven't Seen The Last of Us" Pt. 1

Consider this a reboot. A retooled second (third?) season, if you will. With a brand new website, awesome technical support (aside from blog import issues -- still working on it -- Squarespace has been a dream thus far), and the countdown to Oscar, it's time for the lost podcast to return home.

Katey, Joe and Nick have returned to help me kick off this year's audio Oscar-madness. Having been quiet for too long, our conversation spilleth over. Second part coming up shortly.

PART ONE (40 min)
Topics include:

• the rebirth, the return, general silliness
• Katey's Top Ten List and the drama and trauma of sculpting them
• Rabbit Hole the actors, the screenplay, the direction
• Helena Bonham-Carter escapes from Tim Burton (in the movies)
• Hailee Steinfeld's stacked deck in True Grit (which category?)
• Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine
• Golden Globe zaniness and the Precursor Police
• Matt Damon over and underappreciated.

Podcast "You Haven't Seen" Pt 1

NSFC Loves France, Olivia Williams, The Social Network

The National Society of Film Critics, founded in the 1960s, remains one of the most prestigious critics groups. Though they follow numerous critics groups to their "best!" declarations each year, they don't usually take orders so well. You can always count on a surprise or two though there's still no denying The Social Network.

Olivia Williams takes her first prize for The Ghost Writer

Picture The Social Network (runner up: Carlos and Winter's Bone)
Director David Fincher for The Social Network (ru: Olivier Assayas for Carlos and Roman Polanski for The Ghost Writer)

Actress Giovanna Mezzogiorno in Vincere (ru: Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right and Lesley Manville in Another Year)
Actor Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network (ru tie: Colin Firth in The King's Speech and Edgar Ramirez in Carlos)
Supporting Actress Olivia Williams in The Ghost Writer (ru: Amy Adams in The Fighter and tied for third: Melissa Leo in The Fighter and Jacki Weaver in Animal Kingdom)
Supporting Actor Geoffrey Rush in The King's Speech (ru: Christian Bale in The Fighter and Jeremy Renner in The Town)

The actress categories are especially interesting for the names and the order. As you may remember, I'm fond of Olivia Williams in The Ghost Writer (though I have too many candidates for Best Supporting Actress and I'm still debating who I shall proclaim "best!") No sign of Natalie & Hailee at NSFC though they've been hogging the conversation this week. Lesley Manville sure could've used this win though for a late push. As discussed on the podcast, that 5th spot in Best Actress is still very volatile.

Screenplay Aaron Sorkin for The Social Network (ru: David Seidler for The King's Speech and Roman Polanski & Robert Harris for The Ghost Writer)
Cinematography Roger Deakins for True Grit (ru: Matthew Libatique for Black Swan and Harris Savides for Somewhere)
NonFiction Inside Job (ru: Exit Through the Gift Shop and Last Train Home)
Foreign Language Film Carlos (ru: A Prophet and White Material)
Film Heritage Awards 1. The Film Foundation (20th Anniversary) 2. "Chaplin at Keystone" Flicker Alley, "Elia Kazan Collection" (Fox) 4. Upstream rediscovered 1927 film directed by John Ford (National Film Preservation Board) 5. On the Bowery (Milestone) and 6. Word is Out (Restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and distributed by Milestone)

I'm a francophile myself but found it surprising that all three of their favorite foreign films winner Carlos, Oscar nominee A Prophet (pictured left) and Claire Denis' White Material are Gallic. Crazy! What about Mother? I Am Love? Vincere (since they loved Giovanna)? Dogtooth?

Start Your Weekend With Pretty Pictures

Good morning.

I'm spending this Saturday, behind the scenes: writing, podcast editing (yes, it returns!), skimming through previously adored movies (FB Awards about to start), interview transcribing (two soon-to-be-nominated people I've long admired), and the like. Next week = busy busy busy.

While you're here why not check out my 33 all time favorite actresses? (Just click on any photo to start the slide show). Feel free to share yours. I was going to put up a Top 100 up but that seemed... extravagant (as well as time consuming). If there's enough interest I'll add more galleries throughout the year. Mmmmm eye candy.

Got any movie plans this weekend?