Have Link Will Travel

New York Times on Paul Thomas Anderson's secretive new movie The Master. It's about... something.
MNPP Charlize Theron and Alexander Skarsgård are dating? The Mayans were right about 2012 
Your Movie Buddy interviews The Hunter's storied leading man Willem Dafoe 
Draw Adrian Draw isn't happy about Anne Hathaway as Catwoman but is sketching her anyway
Michael Musto "who's your favorite Taylor?" fun question except there's only one appropriate answer. La Liz! Not that I don't appreciate Taylor Mac...

The Incredible Suit unexpectedly loves The Avengers ... even the Hulk part.
Awards Daily Sasha Stone loves HBO's Girls and Lena Dunham in particular
Stale Popcorn meet the Cannes class of 2012. Serious Thespians (lol) 
Flavorwire always finds interesting things. Did you know that crazy auteur Werner Herzog didn't realize that crazy auteur John Waters was gay for 30+ years. lol
Gold Derby who will Laura Dern (Enlightened) knock out of the Emmy Best Comedy Actress race this season? 

Today's Most Oscary Discussable:
Stranger Than Most looks at the oddest Best Picture snubs of all time. i.e. films that were nominated in the always Best Picture related fields (Dir+ Editing + Screenplay + Acting) and still missed out. Incidentally I love every single one of the "top five" that weren't actually top five (They Shoot Horses Don't They, Hud, Thelma & Louise, Bullets Over Broadway, and My Man Godfrey)  Like crazy 'would run away with them for lost sex-weekend' kind of love. That's how much!

Hud (1963), for example, is a movie I continuously feel guilty about not forcing upon people at every opportunity -- we should totes do it for "Hit Me" but I keep forgetting to put it in the schedule. It's just a freaking masterpiece. And it's weirdly underdiscussed given how many of Paul Newman's films endured.

April Foolish Predictions: Best Picture

Every year in the first week of April we try to mentally project ourselves forward several months. This is not easy to do due to the pesky problem of films being so much different on screen than they are "on paper". Drama is Oscar's favorite category and the year has already produced two hit dramas in The Grey and The Hunger Games, one a surprise the other a bonafide phenomenon but they're both essentially genre movies so that's one strike against them. And they'll be old news when voting occurs. Strike two.

We're projecting forward anyway.

The Oscar race doesn't actually begin until summer's end anyway when media and pundit types (guilty!) get all respective about 'the year thus far'. At that point box office and critical heat will hopefully combine for one or two of the blockbusters or sleepers and give us our first real contenders. Fans who never forgave the Academy for leaving The Dark Knight out of the 2008 Best Picture field will surely hope that the magic strikes again for The Dark Knight Rises but I personally can't see it happening. It would have to surpass that film, I think, and even if it does it won't have the unrepeatable tragic connections that elevated the reception of the earlier film. Since I'm doubtful that that could possibly happen and don't particularly think Oscar should feel guilty about that omission (I'm much more pissed that WALL•E missed the list that year) I'd rather dream about an Oscar bid for a certain wild-haired princess. Can Pixar regain their "do no wrong" magic with Brave or did that era run out of gas [*cough Cars 2*] or will Merida strike a bullseye? Sorry to mix metaphors but archery is so hot this year (see also: The Avengers and The Hunger Games).

Late year curiousity and prediction battles after the jump

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Burning Questions: Lifetime Passes

Michael C. here. This week’s Burning Question came to me when my heart sank upon seeing the poster for Woody Allen’s latest.

Maybe it's the inexplicably prominent placement of Roberto Benigni. Maybe it's because the Committee to Blandify Movie Titles reduced the movie's name from the interesting The Bop Decameron to the acceptable Nero Fiddled to the yawn-inducing To Rome With Love. Or maybe it was just the beige Nancy Meyers-ness of the whole thing. Whatever the reason, my gut tells me this is a return to the lifeless, script-out-of-the-bottom-drawer rehashes that have been the rule and not the exception for Woody’s output over the last decade. 

Of course this would all be a lot less distressing if I didn’t know there was no way I would miss seeing it. Why? Because I, like many others, have issued Mr. Allen a lifetime pass out of gratitude for Annie Hall and Manhattan and a dozen other titles that constitute a large chunk of the foundation of my love of movies. Therefore I will keep setting myself up for disappointment, like Charlie Brown forever returning to kick that football.

Annie Hall by Al Hirschfeld

Would it not make more sense to ignore the completist in me that insists I see every title Woody releases even when it's an obvious gutterball? Does anyone really deserve a lifetime pass?

First off, lets be clear what constitutes a lifetime pass...

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Sleeping Beauty or Sleeping Gaudy?

In the past few days you may have heard that Elle Fanning is in talks to play Sleeping Beauty and you may have wondered why I haven't said a word. All things Sleeping Beauty send me into instant hyper sleep until I have the strength to deal.

As often confessed, I am an über fan of Disney's Sleeping Beauty (1959) which is easily among their tippity-top achievements as a studio and my personal favorite (at least of their pre-Lil'Mermaid history). A live action Maleficent could go wrong in about a million ways even though it will meet animation halfway by starring everyone's favorite Cartoon Movie Star* Angelina Jolie.

*since she can't be real she must have been drawn that way.

It's always a bit strange to watch the way Hollywood gloms on to certain actresses and right now it seems like if you aren't Chloe or Elle you simply don't exist to them in the teen bracket. But if it has to be one of them, yes please 1000 times on Fanning. The strange thing about the internet's / entertainment world's fascination with Elle Fanning is her absence of any distinct persona. I bet you can describe Dakota Fanning and even Saoirse Ronan and definitely Chloe Moretz's personalities (or your projections of them) right this second but try telling us who Elle Fanning is (outside of "Dakota's little sister") without using the generic term of  "fashionista" which describes 87% of all young actresses with substantial income / fame.

We'll wait.  [more after the jump]

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"Burtonjuice. Burtonjuice. Burtonjuice."

Tim Burton was one of my very first movie loves. I fell out of love abruptly when Planet of the Apes crash-landed but the divorce was lengthy and complicated. My lawyers cited irreconcilable differences (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), emotional neglect (Sweeney Todd) and physical visual abuse (Eyesore in Wonderland) and we thought we had a great case. But somehow Burton still won in court and our alimony is now paid in movie tickets; we are required to see all his movies no matter how terrible!

But by returning to his first stab at greatness with the upcoming Frankenweenie expansion in October and reuniting with his Batman Returns superstar Michelle Pfeiffer for the upcoming Dark Shadows in May, how can we not feel nostalgic for our failed marriage to that wild haired auteur?

A retrospective calls.

BURTONJUICE begins March 15th and we'll do it each Thursday until we finish the movies and/or we can't stand it anymore whichever comes first. (My bets on the latter.) Will you relive the ecstasy and torture with me? I can't go through it alone! If I ask you to "hold me" by the Christmas decorations, the proper response is (say it with me) "_ ____" even if you don't have scissors for hands.