Gervais is Golden again

Bucking the would be trend of hostless awards ceremonies, Ricky Gervais will host the Golden Globes this year on January 5th on NBC. The ceremony is noteably two days before final Oscar ballots are due so those speeches could matter. This is the fifth time Gervais has hosted and his blurb sounds threatening if you know how harsh his humour can get with Hollywood’s A list…

 This is the very last time I’m doing this, which could make for a fun evening.”

We like the idea of Hollywood titans having a sense of humor about themselves but we much prefer the kind of ribbing that say Tina Fey & Amy Poehler are willing to do than the more scorched earth vibe of Gervais. But to each their own. Perhaps some of you love Gervais in this particular gig? If so speak up and tell us why.

"Midway" tops the weekend while "Honey Boy" opens strong

Weekend Box Office [ESTIMATES] Nov 8th-10th 🔺 = New or Expanding / ★ = Recommended
W I D E	PLATFORM / SPECIALTY TITLES
MIDWAY	HONEY BOY
1 🔺  MIDWAY  $17.5 *new*	1 🔺 PARASITE $2.5 on 603 screens (cum. $11.2) PODCAST ★
2 🔺 DOCTOR SLEEP $14.1 *new*	2 🔺 PAIN & GLORY $397K on 266 screens (cum. $2.6)  REVIEW, PODCAST ★
3 🔺 PLAYING WITH FIRE $12.8 *new*	3 🔺 HONEY BOY  $288k on 4 screens *new* ★
4 🔺 LAST CHRISTMAS  $11.6 *new* REVIEW	4 HOUSEFULL 4 $124k on 85 screens (cum. $2)
5 TERMINATOR DARK FATE $8.4 (cum. $85.2) PODCAST	5 LINDA RONSTADT... $43k on 59 screens (cum. $4) REVIEW

In a not quite as usual as you'd expect occurence all four new wide releases, were lined up 1-2-3-4 with no interruption from holdovers at the top of the box office. None of them really lit the box office on fire but Roland Emmerich's latest action epic did decent business up top. For platform titles, the big story was Honey Boy's surprisingly robust debut, earning $75k per theater despite being a very personal film and niche topic. A strong opening was by no means a sure thing so well done Shia Labeouf and Amazon!

Meanwhile Parasite continues to be all the rage (it's a rare foreign-language film that hits 8 figures in the US marketplace) while Pain & Glory is a steady performer. Jojo Rabbit expanded very well with a nearly $5,000 per screen average as it moved into just-barely wide release at 802 theaters with a $4 million or so weekend; all three of those titles are moving confidently into awards season. What did you see this weekend?

Horror Actressing: Kirsten Dunst in "Interview With the Vampire"

by Jason Adams

All of the best moments in Interview With the Vampire belong to the eleven-year-old. Re-watching the film now here on its 25th anniversary there's a lot to like (Tom Cruise allows himself to be camp in ways that he usually is but this time purposefully, and Neil Jordan floods everything with opulent blood-red atmosphere) and there's a lot to hate (it's a slog and Brad Pitt is awful) but there's really only one thing to love, and that thing is Kirsten Dunst every single second she's on-screen as the immortal vampire trapped in a little girl's perpetual curls.

The story goes that Dunst was the first girl that they auditioned for the role of "Claudia" but that she auditioned twice -- her agent supposedly told her she was terrible the first time through and forced her back into the room to do it all over again. "How avant-garde," indeed. Still that gambit worked, and one of our greatest actresses got her start by slashing up multiple nannies and kissing Brad Pitt on the mouth -- an experience Dunst maintains was "gross," speaking for exactly zero other people aged eleven to one hundred and eleven...

Click to read more ...

Austria's "Joy" is out of the Oscar race

by Cláudio Alves

...And then there were 91...

As we predicted back when Nigeria's Oscar submission was disqualified from the Best International Feature race, the same fate has befallen Austria's Joy. Despite some German dialogue, most of the film is in English, due to the fact it tells the story of Nigerian immigrants living in Europe. After all, Nigeria's official language is English. Once again, such news makes us ask ourselves if this is a fair predicament. One thing's for sure – it's ridiculous that the Academy doesn't vet the country's submissions before announcing the list of eligible films. It'd certainly avoid a great deal of scandal.

Even if it's amply justifiable, such disqualification is unfortunate, even a bit sad, because Joy's an achingly poignant triumph. The sort which deserves to be celebrated by the Academy, but seldomly is…

Click to read more ...

Podcast: JoJo Rabbit and Oscar's Screenplay Races

with Murtada Elfadl & Nathaniel R 

Index (38 minutes)
00:01 Taiki Waitit's JoJo Rabbit. Is its satire successful? We're mixed on just about everything within it including the actors though we both loved Scarlett Johansson as the mother to a little Nazi boy.
16:00 A Parasite tangent "It's so metaphorical!" 
19:20 JoJo Rabbit's Oscar chances hard to read, right? It could be anywhere from 2 to 8 noms
21:50 Adapted Screenplay - The Irishman, JoJo Rabbit, Little Women, etc?
27:00 Original Screenplay - Marriage Story, Parasite, Bombshell, etc?
35:00 Randomness: Hustlers, Dark Waters, and Cats
37:00 Off to Campaign Events!

Related: Oscar Screenplay charts

 You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

JoJo Rabbit and Screenplays