Golden Globes Night: 11 Moments. 27 Winners. 3 Takeways.

by Nathaniel R

How was Globe night for you? We don't plan to rain on your parade if you loved it as we'll focus on the positive herein. That said a dark storm threatened to dampen the jolly proceedings from Ricky Gervais opening monologue. The joke gathering the cloud "I don't care anymore. Kidding, I never did." We have personally never seen an awards show host phone it in as much as Gervais did on the big night -- even James Franco tried harder at his famously disastrous Oscar co-host gig -- so good riddance to Gervais forever and ever. There's insult humor and then there's being a walking insult to anyone who deigns to watch you. BUT ON TO HAPPIER THINGS.

After the jump we'll share the key moments, winners, and takeaways...

Click to read more ...

35 days til Oscar

Edith Head is our icon of the day. She was nominated for 35 Oscars for Best Costume Design with an astounding run from 1948 through 1966 wherein she was nominated every consecutive season. It helped that they used to split the category into black & white / color (thus allowing 10 nominees per year)...

Click to read more ...

Chart Updates Complete

UPDATED CHARTS 
INDEX | PICTURE | DIRECTOR
ACTRESS | ACTOR | SUPP' ACTRESS | SUPP' ACTOR | 
SCREENPLAYS | VISUAL | SOUND | 
ANIMATED & DOCUMENTARY | INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

The shorts categories will be added soon and we'll allow ourselves one final update for last minute predictions this next weekend before the nominations are announced. 

Enjoy the Golden Globes tonight and we'll have coverage thereafter as fast as we can manage! 

 

Jake Gyllenhaal will be visiting 'Fun Home'

by Murtada Elfadl

Gyllenhaal with Tesori in 2018

Thankfully the box office failure of Cats hasn’t put the kibosh on green lighting musicals for the big screen. The latest Broadway sensation to get the big screen treatment will be Fun Home, based on illustrator Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir about her bittersweet relationship with her father. Yes that’s the Bechdel of the Bechdel test. Jake Gyllenhaal will produce and star as Bruce Bechdel, the role that won Michael Cerveris a Tony for best actor in a musical- one of 5 Tonys Fun Home won in 2015. The part is multi faceted as the elder Bechdel is a closeted conflicted gay man and the musical charts not only his daughter’s queer awakening but also his messy relationship with her and with his wife.

Sydney Lucas as Small alison with Cerveris on Broadway

I loved this show on Broadway and I'm excited to see a film adaptation, but with reservations about this casting. I hope Gyllenhaal can give it the pathos and depth it needs while not relying on the tics that have become a trademark of his performances since Prisoners (2013). On the other hand he has proven himself to be adept at musicals having starred in Sundays in the Park With George on Broadway and Little Shop of Horrors off Broadway. He will be taking Sunday to London next May.

Fun Home featured lyrics by Lisa Kron and music by Jeanine Tesori (Caroline or Change). On stage the part of Alison is played by three actresses at different ages but we don’t know if the movie would follow the same plan. Sydney Lucas was senastional on Broadway as the youngest Alison. That character gets the showstopping number, Ring of Keys. Another great part is that of the mother Helen Bechdel for which Judy Kuhn was Tony nominated. The Daily Mail which broke the news - Baz Bamigboye is reliable on theater and theater to film adaptations - credits Sam Gold, who directed the Broadway production, as the director but no news yet of who’s writing the adaptation. 

Have you got your Ring of Keys ready for this?

Best Animated Feature Contenders: "Ne Zha"

by Tim

Thus far in this round-up of 2019's animated features, we've been focusing on Oscar hopefuls and the more artsy side of animation. This week's subject, Ne Zha, is neither of those things, but in its own way, this is still as significant as any other film we've looked at. This is a blockbuster of the first order: the second-highest-grossing Chinese film in history (and the second-highest-grossing film made in a language other than English), with the highest single-territory gross for any animated film ever made. And even though stories about the Chinese box office always have to come with an asterisk attached (those numbers are often cooked a bit, especially when records are in play), that is by any means enough of a big deal that it's more than a little frustrating that essentially nobody in the United States has heard about any of this.

Ne Zha is a film the Chinese animation industry has been working towards for a long time. Along with the rest of Chinese cinema, animation has spent most of the last decade looking to beat Hollywood at its own game, providing the kind of opulent spectacle that for a long time was the exclusive domain of big-budget American filmmaking...

Click to read more ...