Last Minute Oscar Linkage

Serious Film 3 wishes for the ceremony aside from wins
Wild Lines roots for a movie they weren't rooting for. "I take it all back" interesting post
<--- James Franco Oscar Morning footage. Adorable.
THR six things to watch for tonight.
Wesley Morris if you suffer for your art (Natalie Portman) you end up celebrated for it. In depth piece about the perceptions of screen acting changing. Liz Taylor, today's birthday girl, even gets a casaul shout out.
NPR good informative listen as Andy Trudeau runs down the nominees for Best Score. Did you know that How To Train Your Dragon uses a penny whistle and a dulcimer at the same time in its score? I did not.
Bohemea Best thing about the Spirit Awards? John Hawkes and Dale Dickey (Winter's Bone)
IndieWire Melissa Leo has a breast tattoo. #thingswedidntknow
Sunset Gun "Bette Davis Defines... Oscar" Love this.

And if you're just tuning in, YES, we will be live-blogging the Oscars tonight. See you at 6 PM EST. It's also the last couple hours to vote on the readers choice "should" wins so get clicking through the categories.

My Own Private Franco

In his ongoing hipster efforts to become the gayest straight man of all time, or maybe just the most storied and/or most interesting celebrity of the new millenium, James Franco recently joined  forces with his Milk (2008) auteur Gus Van Sant for another look at the gay hustler drama My Own Private Idaho (1991) starring Keanu Reeves and the late great River Phoenix. They've collaborated on a two film exhibit for the Gagosian called "Unfinished". It opens this saturday so that Franco may completely own the weekend. He's hosting the Oscars on Sunday.

The films are called Endless Idaho, which is 12 hours long featuring unused footage from the film shoot as well as footage shot years before that Van Sant showed Franco during the Milk period, and My Own Private River, which is described like so.

My Own Private River consists largely of shots of Phoenix 's character, Mike, woven into a compelling portrait. Franco describes being mesmerized by Phoenix 's "uninhibited acting" in this unreleased footage, and his edit captures the gifted actor at his most emotionally expressive and physically dynamic. The score is by Michael Stipe, who is an art school drop-out.

If I were in Beverly Hills, I'd gladly take this in. River Phoenix's "Mike" is one of the best performances of the Nineties if you ask me, and he was criminally denied an Oscar nomination (the film was completely snubbed though River did win the Independent Spirit Award). I still vividly remember receiving the news of his death, a shock so sudden and dispiriting for the cinema that I have (gratefully) only ever experienced it's like one other time (Heath Ledger).

Leon, Angel, Adam, Edward and Andrew

This post is titled by the middle names of Oscar's BEST ACTOR nominees because here at The Film Experience we are always trying to find ways to keep things interesting. It would be much easier to title this blog post "Javier Bardem, Jeff Bridges, Jesse Eisenberg, James Franco and Colin Firth" but where's the fun in that? If you enjoy a challenge, try to guess which middle name goes with which best actor, before you click over to the BEST ACTOR PAGE.

I include the trivia (and more) because this race is a done deal yet we have to stay interested for nine more days. Colin Firth's Coronation is proceeding exactly like Helen Mirren's a few years back, isn't it? It's like I was saying in that Tribeca Film article, each year there's generally one candidate who is granted immunity about whom no one ever bitches and who just sails through like it was always meant to be their year and their prize.

UPDATED: Includes Reader Poll "Who Should Win?"

Anne & James Lifting Oscars... And Spirits?

Should baby kittens, cupcakes and dimples be getting nervous, phoning their publicists? James Franco & Anne Hathaway continue to make bold claims to a future shake up of the Cute Hierarchy! In their latest Oscar promo they go right on suggesting that on Oscar night they'll be dazzling us with fizzy bff chemistry and (if we're lucky) contemporary screwball energy.

James: We took some photos.
Anne: ...with statues!
James: We held some Oscars.
Anne: We held Oscars. It's heavy.
James: It's really heavy. It's really heavy.
Anne: It's really heavy. It feels important though.

Hathaway plans to break a toenail. Here's the latest promo.

Finding Linker-Land

The Film Doctor 10 questions regarding 127 Hours
Cinebeats Tura Satana (RIP)
Slant  new book on Spike Lee's classic Do the Right Thing.
Latino Review EEEeeeee. "Ursa" could be the villainess of the rebooted Superman. Good luck trying to top Sarah Douglas's bitchery in Superman II (1980). Although, I'm heartened that Rosamund Pike is in the running. She deserves a big high profile movie star breakthrough.

Ursa (Sarah Douglas) and Zod (Terence Stamp) in Superman II

Go Fug Yourself reveals their SAG best & worst dressed from their substantial readership polling. Was I supposed to know that Rooney Mara was Kate Mara's sister? The things that slip by you...
Pajiba "Top 5" Stars Unworthy of Their Status
Cinema Blend wonders if James Franco isn't spreading himself dangerously thin. He might be Oz: The Great and Powerful now in addition to nine other projects.
Pop Matters reviews the box set "The Films of Rita Hayworth". Ugh, why didn't I get a copy for review? Incidentally, if you ever happen to see Tonight and Every Night (1945) you'll feel a strange sense of deja vu. It's the same story as Oscar nominee Mrs Henderson Presents (2005) albeit told in a different tone and from a different angle.

Finally, be very afraid: Finding Neverland The Musical is heading your way soon. I'm only joking about being afraid. The songwriting team employed here did the enchanting music to Grey Gardens and Peter Pan is a long time stage tradition so why stop now? Plus, if you think about it certain gaggy, twee or pushily sentimental projects could (hypothetically) work much better with the distance from reality that song and dance can provide in much the same way that animation lowers our guard to things we'd think weren't soggy with sentiment in live action. I actually think that The King's Speech, which I think is a good film but no "best", would make a fine musical; the King doesn't stutter when he sings so right there embedded in your concept is the opportunities to show songs as transcendent rescue from daily troubles.  Sounds perfect for a movie musical... though you'd have to have had a different cast. I'm not sure anyone would have wanted to see/hear Colin Firth (Mamma Mia) or Helena Bonham-Carter (Sweeney Todd) singing again, now would they?

P.S. Unrelated: Pixar's 25th anniversary was just a few days back. Some words coming up this week.