Links: Misunderstood Meryl, Angry Leo, Cheap Deadpool

• MNPP All is well since Jason has seen The Witch and loves it. It's so spooky, guys. Go see it this weekend
• Pajiba "11 Things I Learned from 'Star Wars and the Power of Costume' Exhibit"
• Playbill Bull Durham: The Musical (?) may be headed to Broadway soon
• Scriptnotes how to introduce characters in screenplays without being mocked on Twitter. (For those of you are like what? This is in reference to a recent writing controversy that we spoke of right here)
• i09 says Zootopia is the best film Disney Animation has made in 20 years (!) 

• MNPP freaks out over the new Pee Wee Herman Netflix trailer
• Simply Streep Screencaps of Meryl Streep in the Florence Foster Jenkins teaser
• Boy Culture have you heard about Strike a Pose, the documentary about the Madonna documentary Truth or Dare?
• Boy Culture your semi-annual reminder that Miriam Margolyes is an international treasure and gay hero 
• Awards Daily "everyone owes Meryl Streep an apology"
• /Film Julianne Moore offered the villain role in The Kingsmen 2. This historically hasn't gone well for her (See: The Seventh Son or Hunger Games) Why Julianne? You already have tons of money.
• Hairpin "how not to write something" 
• Toyland the coolest stuff from Toy Fair 2016 including *gasp* female action figures

Deadpool at #1
• i09 everything they cut out of Deadpool to get the budget way down (which now means its going to be insanely profitable)
• /Film Rumors are that Wolverine 3 is considering an "R" rating following Deadpool's success 

And James Gunn, who did the superheroes being mocking and sarcastic before Deadpool, took to Twitter to hype his forthcoming blockbuster...

Official Photography on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has begun. You're very welcome. pic.twitter.com/741upZ21g7

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) February 17, 2016

Oscar Mania
• The Guardian on why The Big Short should win Best Picture. I haven't to admit I couldn't follow this argument at all (perhaps you can?) but maybe I was just thrown because they start the video talking about surprise winners and cite Forrest Gump. Forrest Gump? Of all movies. That was a behemoth that year and couldn't lose. People say such strange things when they're talking about the Oscars!
• THR Robert Richardson and other cinematographers calling for a separate category for VFX heavy films. I absolutely agree that this is a problem - this year not so much but usually
• RED CARPET RAMPAGE. Help Leonardo DiCaprio finally win his Oscar! I tried to play this on my phone last night. It's actually hilarious. Especially the bonus round "Act Harder!" LOL...

Best Actor: The Year of the Ham

As noted by the recently departed Alan Rickman on his BAFTA win for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves "Subtlety isn't everything." As far as Oscar is concerned, this year Best Actor was go big or go home. Take a look the leading men outside the bubble and you'll find mostly nuanced performances like those from Michael B. Jordan, Tom Courtenay, and Tom Hanks with their scenery unchewed. Rewarding more broad work has made this the Year of the Ham.

Some of the bigger choices have been more welcome than others in this field, so let's have some fun assessing the hammage:

Bryan Cranston - Trumbo
Clearly the most guilty of going big for its own sake, Cranston's nomination leaves quite a sour taste in your mouth. The performance feels built upon arched shoulders and mustaches, even if Cranston is a game actor admirably going along with the film's schlocky tone. It's not just the scenery getting chewed, but the script, the costumes, the camera, and poor Diane Lane. It's so hammy, he even shows us his hams in a prison scene.
Level of Ham: SPAM - some people like it? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Matt Damon - The Martian
Here's a role that actually calls upon the actor to be a ham. Matt Damon gets to use more of his natural charm than he has in anything outside of the Ocean's franchise and spends much of his performance breaking the fourth wall. He leans in on the nerd humor that's heavy on puns and dirty words, but thankfully never goes full broski. Everything lands, including his unexpected emotional moments, but this a performance playing right to the crowd. The visible hams are an obvious emaciated stunt double.
Level of Ham: Honey-Baked - generally pleasing to everyone

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Q&A Part 1: Leo's World.

Dear Readers, Last week I asked for more reader questions but since three of them at least were about Leonardo DiCaprio let's get them all out of the way as an appetizer to the main Q&A post. Ready... here we go.

LADY EDITH: Now that you have experienced the "Jonas blizzard" so recently how do you feel about giving "The Revenant" Oscars? [More]

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Podcast: Sundance Buzz and SAG Awards Chatter

Nathaniel,  Nick, Katey, and Joe vape with Leonardo DiCaprio at the SAG Awards. Also we share the Sundance titles we're most curious about...

39 minutes 
00:01 Sundance Winners: Swiss Army Man, Netflix and Amazon
09:30 Birth of a Nation and other black films that could take the pressure off of it as the #OscarsSoWhite corrective
13:52 Most anticipated titles
16:30 SAG: Boosts for Spotlight, Alicia Vikander
22:20 Don's Plum vs. Flora Plum
25:15 Brie & Leonardo & final SAG thoughts

Related Reading For Context:
• Best Ensemble Choices -From Nathaniel
• Best Ensemble Choices -From Joe
• Nick's SAG Blogging - a first for him
• Leo's Vaping - via E!

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes soon. 

SAG Reactions

SAG Awards Live Blog

Let's talk about you for a second...

7:11 This is the face Sarah Silverman made after hearing "Let's talk about you for a second" which is... sublimely funny, a perfect encapsulation of the faux humility #blessed of superstars attending awards shows in which they all fawn on each other. You're great. No, no, you're great.

07:14 Rami Malek doesn't know who he was wearing. Alicia Vikander says 'I've only watched this on YouTube' before. Idris Elba is working the grey in his beard. Everyone is adorable x3 is my point.

07:22 Saoirse is in light pink and Brie in baby blue and I'm not sure what to make of that.

07:25 Jesse Tyler Ferguson and E! Brad talking to each other 

- "Are you a nervous nellie."
- "Yaaas"

(hugs)

"-I hope I didn't get any contour on you"

This is the gayest thing I've ever seen on television. Which is saying a lot.

07:31 Nicole Kidman has arrived. [More...]

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