Podcast: Those Polarizing Wolves on Wall St.

Nick and Joe rejoin Nathaniel & Katey this week to talk about Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street. In the endless twitter battle over whether Wolf condemns or celebrates Jordan Belfort, several interesting questions have been swept aside or glossed over: does it earn its running time?; is Leonardo DiCaprio great or just better than he's been recently?; is Margot Robbie amazing or just sexy; "is it even well made?" Nick wonders, challenging its fans to name even three interesting shots. The gauntlet is thrown down!

Other (brief) topics / shoutouts include the WGA Nominations (Lone Survivor?), Philomena, and why American Hustle & WoWS lovers can't just get along.

Shea Wigham's Amazing 2013: American Hustle, Wolf of Wall Street, Boardwalk Empire, and Fast and Furious 6

Can't we all just get along? If only for Shea Wigham's sake!

Referenced Articles:

• Richard Brody's Wolf review
• Joe Reid on the aggressive defense of the Wolf camp
• Wesley Morris on August: Osage County
• Nathaniel & Katey on Frozen

Listen right here or download it on iTunes and join the conversation. Next Weekend: one last pre-nomination discussion.

Wolf of Wall Street Discussion

Team FYC: Stories We Tell for Best Editing

In this series our contributors sound off on their favorite fringe contenders. Here's Jose Solis on "Stories We Tell" It's winning Best Documentary critics prizes but let's talk another category.

Sarah Polley’s brilliant Stories We Tell isn’t as much a “documentary” as it is a psychological thriller. As the film begins she teases you suggesting this will be a simple case of “let’s find the truth about my mother” kind of film, only to then pull the rug from under your feet and reveal that she’s not exactly interested in delivering a beautiful conclusion tied up with a pretty ribbon. Delivering more twists and turns than any other film this year, Stories We Tell owes much of its success to its byzantine editing (by Mike Munn), which takes us on what feels like an emotional roller coaster ride.

Earlier this year, I spoke to Polley who explained how and why this structure came to be:

[instead of going for a traditional linear structure] what if we’re revealing information that is from before this story starts and reveal it halfway through this story, so that it gives a whole new meaning to what we’ve seen and for me it felt like it would give the audience a sense that was similar to mine. You know you hit bottom and a trap door opens, then you hit bottom again and another trap door opens and you never really got solid ground under your feet, because the amount that you can learn about something and its context is infinite.”

The fact that she wanted audiences to share her experience the same way she had lived it is admirable and humble, the fact that she pulled it off by reminding us that memory might very well be the essence of cinema is nothing if not brilliant.

Previously on Team FYC

Podcast: Spirited Spirit Discussion

In this week's episode,  Nick channels that THR Hollywood Actress Roundtable (previously live-blogged) and Nathaniel, Katey, and Joe join in but eventually it comes around to this week's topic: Spirit Award nominations.

We haven't seen all the films but the best thing about the Spirit Awards is advocacy for smaller titles you might not be familiar with. Are they shirking that privilege and responsibility with the focus on so many future Oscar nominees in the last few years? The discussion includes but is not limited to: Inside Llewyn Davis, Afternoon Delight, Mud, Upstream Color, Frances Ha, Fruitvale Station, All is Lost, Computer Chess, Short Term 12, Blue Caprice, and Spring Breakers.

You can listen at the bottom of the post or download it on iTunes. Join in the conversation in the comments.

Spirit Awards Nomination Chat

Two Graces at War

It's Julien your French correspondent to pass a bit of a contentious interview your way. After tampering with the ending of August: Osage Country and cutting 20 minutes off Snowpiercer, it seems Harvey Scissorhands is at it again. Grace of Monaco director Olivier Diahan spoke to French newspaper Libération (in an article published today) about his ongoing feud with Weinstein.

The disagreement is apparently the cause of the film's delay:

What’s complicated right now is to make sure that the critics will be able to judge my own version of the film, and not another one. But it’s not over yet, I haven’t given up. (…) There are two versions of the film: mine and his… which I found catastrophic.”

Quite a strong assessment from the guy who directed My Own Love Song, wouldn’t you say?

Click to read more ...

It's Kind of a Big Link

i09 King Kong the Musical - check out that enormous expressive ape puppet! But what's with that song and the vague speech-impediment style singing?
Bleeding Cool Harmony Korine is recutting Spring Breakers for a "sizzurped" version. Thankfully Bleeding Cool defines "sizzurped" for us
Coming Soon Anne Hathaway to star in The Lifeboat which is not a remake of the Tallulah Bankhead picture but does involve passengers in a lifeboat. Unfortunately since Hathaway is involved you know the internet will want her thrown off the boat or eaten by the other passengers first to survive.

Empire Robert Downey Jr signs up to be Iron Man until he's old and grey. The check must have been big
Empire and here's a handy infographic of the Marvel Universe plans but if you ask me Phase Two looks pretty UNAMBITIOUS considering what they pulled off for Phase One.
/Film the zombie apocalypse at cinemas will last forever. Arnold Schwarzenegger will soon star in Maggie about a father whose daughter is becoming a zombie. No word on who will play the title character just yet
The House Next Door "Poster Lab" takes on the teaser for Anchorman 2 - the 'stache!
Los Angeles Times on Michael Douglas's third act 
Playbill and as you've undoubtedly heard and probably griped about August: Osage County has been delayed and will now open on Christmas Day because the studios just can't help themselves with their Oscar contenders! Christmas or Bust

Off Cinema
Slate Simon Doonan on the American man's Freudian fear of the Speedo. So true and funny.
Vulture on a cute gender-flipped Robyn video "You Should Know Better". Love Robyn. Miss her. 
Towleroad Madonna debuts the trailer to #secretproject which plays like a modern dance music video without a song to go with it but with lots of black and white violence. Why? Who knows with that one. I prefer "Sex" to this "Violence"

Today's Watch
Since Takeshi Kaneshiro (House of Flying Daggers, Red Cliff) is so rarely on my big screens *sniffle* I will settle for watching the world's most beautiful man in an airline commercial for Taiwan.

I will buy a ticket for any destination in the world if Takeshi is complimentary with purchase.