Producer's Guild Nominations: Wonder Woman is this year's Deadpool

by Nathaniel R

The Producer's Guild, by "virtue" of the fact that they have more nominees than Oscar each year, often get fairly close to "predicting" the Best Picture list. This year they've chosen 11 titles. Recency bias surely helped give Molly's Game a winning hand and the PGA's love of the blockbuster delivered for Wonder Woman which is a good call here since it did help define the year and superhero movies are very much producer events. Last year Deadpool was nominated at the PGA and was the only film to drop off on Oscar nominaiton morning. The other 9 pictures selected are all then looking strong as Best Picture possibilities for the Oscar nominations on January 23rd. Nominations and more commentary after the jump...

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38 days til Oscar nominations. 1938 favorites?

by Nathaniel R

While I update some Oscar charts, let's talk 1938. The first decade of Oscar was tumultous with rule changes and size changes in the Best Picture category but it settled at ten pictures in 1936 and stayed there for most of its second decade until five became the norm in 1944 and stayed there for decades and decades. Here's what we got in '38... 

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SAG Predictions: Outstanding Ensemble

by Nathaniel R

The SAG nominating committe has to turn in their ballots tomorrow (Sunday, December 10th) and we're naturally very curious as to how their votes turned out. We'll find out this coming Wednesday. The bulk of the nominees are usually the obvious set who are carrying a ton of buzz. But that's just the bulk. SAG has been known to throw at least one total wildcard into the mix (remember Naomi Watts for St Vincent, 2014, or Sarah Silverman in I Smile Back, 2015, or Hustle & Flow for ensemble in 2005?).

Let's take a look at the truly competitive Outstanding Ensemble category...

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Tweetstruck

We have to start with this exchange since Chris' love of mother! is well known. 

Where the hell am I going to fit 100 sinks, Matt?

— Chris Feil (@chrisvfeil) December 5, 2017

After the jump our tweet roundup of amusements, provocations, and random movie-loving featuring Moonstruck, I Tonya, P.T. Anderson, Big Little Lies, Meryl Streep's forehead, and more...

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FYC: mother!

by Chris Feil

Has the world already forgotten about mother!? It may not have ever been a film built to be a formidable Oscar contender, but Darren Aronofsky’s film is one to hang the year on nonetheless. Now is time for a healthy reassessment, as it arrives on streaming today!

Or maybe it might be a first watch for some, after that all-too-brief run in theatres. The film was killed by a flurry of hot takes, sink bracing jokes (guilty), dissections of its marketing, and conversations on the value of Cinemascore. But now that the dust and clickbait have settled, the film still remains one of the most audacious and purely entertaining films of the year. And also one of the very best that we should keep talking about...

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