Inside the Dolby. AFI Fest Begins!

Anne Marie and I had a stupendous time tonight at the premiere of A Most Violent Year which we were  mpressed by: tense, gorgeously shot, with a fiery Jessica Chastain and an ice cool Oscar Isaac. I'll tell you about it tomorrow. But for now -pics & tweets.

(We got there early and couldn't resist geeking out a bit inside The Dolby, the home of Hollywood's High Holy Night each year, The Oscars. [More photos after the jump]

I am inside the Dolby, land of Hollywood's High Holy Night. Streep is amused.

A photo posted by Nathaniel R (@nathaniel_tfe) on Nov 11, 2014 at 6:46pm PST

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Steve Martin: 2015 AFI Life Achievement Award Honoree

Manuel here with some Steve Martin news.

Did you all hear? Not content with having been pegged for an Honorary Oscar just last year (and a Kennedy Center Honors back in 2007 as well as an American Cinematheque honor in 2004), our favorite silver-haired comedian slash banjo enthusiast has been named the 43rd recipient of the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award. This past June, they feted Jane Fonda, only the eighth woman to receive the honor, a statistic that would look surprising if it only it weren’t so familiar. Did you know women comprised 16% of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors working on the top 250 (domestic) grossing films of 2013 while females accounted for 15% of protagonists, 29% of major characters, and 30% of all speaking characters of said films? No wonder Reese, Gillian, heck even John Cusack, have been so vocal about this issue lately, following Geena Davis’s example.

But I got side-tracked.

We are here to celebrate Martin’s AFI Life Achievement news which will surely be a raucous affair come June 2015, and a well-deserved one at that. From The Jerk (1979) to Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), from Parenthood (1989) to It’s Complicated (2009), Martin has been delighting big screen audiences for decades. His silky smooth sense of humor, which can be quietly self-deprecating or explosively excoriating, is one of a kind. I’m personally attached to the Father of the Bride films, and while lately Martin has been playing it quite broad (Cheaper by the Dozen, Pink Panther), I can’t be the only one who hopes he has another Shopgirl in him, for those furrowed brows can definitely sell pathos as much as they can barter laughs. That wisp of a film is much too fragile (ever since I first saw it and was enamored by it I’ve been afraid to see it again lest it turn to salt) but it’s the type of small-scale human examination that so much of Martin’s humor can seamlessly tap into.

What’s your favorite Martin performance? Who are you hoping will be tapped to host; may it be frequent AFIer Mary Louise Streep? And who would you suggest AFI look into for next year?

Streep Honors Fonda at AFI

To your left you'll see Meryl Streep speaking about Jane Fonda at the AFI ceremony in her honor which will be broacast on television next Saturday night. (A post birthday weekend treat!)

It's funny because I strike this exact same pose of joyous reverie and 'I can't even believe this exists' prayer-eyes enthusiasm when I speak about Jane Fonda's best work! (In fact, maybe we should do Fonda once we're done with Seasons of Bette?)

Meryl Streep is one of many stars that showed up and there are already several articles floating around about the highlights but I shan't read them because I like to watch these things like a virgin and pretend it's live television and we're all experiencing it together for the first time. But it's true I cheated a little to watch this sneak peek of Meryl talking about her first onscreen appearance in Julia (1977), a debut I've written about previously.

But here's one more Streep photo with the best caption lolz.

The Tribute special will air Saturday June 14th at 9 PM ET/PT on TNT with encores on TCM.

The AFI Lists. Useful or Redundant?

Earlier today we heard the AFI Lists for film and television. I immediately wondered what purpose they served. There are so many lists these days that are like spotlights on "CONSENSUS!" that the very act of publishing them feels redundant. With so many talking heads commenting on the Oscar race each year, both full time specialists and average reporters who become part time "experts" by virtue of, um, grist for the content mill, consensus is no longer an interesting thing to "find" or "capture" because it is so very inescapable.  AFI's list looks EXACTLY like an Oscar pundits chart, whereas in year's past they seemed to be about 70% Oscary 10% populist and 20% random. In fact, it looks the Gurus of Gold made it!

The AFI Top Ten (Motion Pictures)
12 YEARS A SLAVE
AMERICAN HUSTLE
CAPTAIN PHILLIPS
FRUITVALE STATION
GRAVITY
HER
INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
NEBRASKA
SAVING MR. BANKS
THE WOLF OF WALL STREET 

In fact it's identitical to the current Gurus of Gold top ten chart but for one switcheroo: the pundit chart includes Lee Daniels' The Butler instead of Fruitvale Station. Interestingly enough, both Best Picture hopefuls come from the Weinstein Company who are our usual Oscar champs but seem to be struggling with traction this year. In fairness, The Butler was never expected to place during "critic's week" but if it doesn't perform well at SAG and the Globes in a couple of days, it's Oscar dreams will die.

This can only mean two things:

1. The AFI committee this year is secretly composed of only BFCA members and they're aiming to exactly predict the Best Picture race.
2. It's a weak year for British pictures in terms of American traction. Since the AFI only looks at American pictures, strong British Oscar contenders sometimes automatically make the AFI list more interesting because they have to look elsewhere to fill the top ten. The only exclusion that might not be worrying awards strategists today is the exclusion of Philomena (also from Weinstein Co!) which is directed by, written by and stars Brits... and therefore ineligible. 

The American Film Institute also releases a television list for some reason despite the name of their organization. That went like so...

The AFI Top Ten - Television
THE AMERICANS
BREAKING BAD
GAME OF THRONES
THE GOOD WIFE
HOUSE OF CARDS
MAD MEN
MASTERS OF SEX
ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK
SCANDAL
VEEP

And I think it's a (slightly) more interesting list in that it looks a little more like the AFI lists of yore in that it's partially awardsy but also kind of guilty pleasure buzz-sensitive. Or maybe it's just more interesting because people can actually enjoy these shows instead of the movie list which is (sigh) heavily titled towards movies that have just opened or haven't opened... just like the critics awards. It's still fairly Emmy correlative but there's no Homeland or Modern Family so that's something. I haven't had time to write about it but I am head over heels in love with / in lust for /  in awe of Masters of Sex, which is the single best show on television at the moment. It's so assured, so fresh, so perfectly cast... and weirdly gets better every single week. I really can't get over it. I look forward to each new episode like I haven't looked forward to any tv show's new episode in years. 

AFI Memories: Emma Thompson's Shoes

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