Beauty Break / Best Shot: "Making a Scene" with Oscar Contenders

One of my favorite Oscar traditions is the New York Times short films celebrating Oscar contenders, locked contenders and longshots alike. And by short films I mean very very short. Like one minute. You might remember that previous year's editions have given Casting Directors a ton of brilliant ideas which, for the most part, they've been slow to pick up on like Viola Davis as a frightening villain. Remember that?

This year's shorts, eleven in total, are all directed by two-time Oscar winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski who is most famous for shooting Steven Spielberg's filmography (and less famous for once being married to Holly Hunter but that's cool, too.) The shorts are sublime in concept -- they mismatch contender actors with one or two lines from screenwriting contenders (update: not from the writer's actual contending films, which I initially thought since the Bradley Cooper bit sounds like a near lift from the All is Lost's opening monologue) -- though not always in execution since this multiplied tradition can't help but be a bit uneven each year. 

Cate Blanchett with a line from the writer of "Computer Chess"

For fun, and as a shout back to the Hit Me With Your Best Shot series that's currently on hiatus, I've selected my favorite single image from each of the shorts [10 more after the jump]. But by all means go and watch the shorts. It'll only take you 15 minutes and there will be many delicious thanksgiving feasts for your eyeballs beyond the ones posted here.

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Looking & Linking

IndieWire wonders if VOD is the future of independent film
The Atlantic Wire Joe Reid looks back on the career of Holly Hunter
Twitter yes, it's true. Stevie Nicks, the white witch herself, to guest star on American Horror Story: Coven -- and yes, I'm aware I'm like forever behind in writing about that show which I'm loving. We'll try and catch up this week
Film Comment looks back on its 50 year history
Total Film Michael Fassbender believes that Prometheus 2 is still going to happen. I'd totally go. Loved his David8
The Playlist the first image from Dark Places starring Charlize Theron 
Express Jennifer Lawrence may have lost her Oscar. (Opportunity! Let's retcon that shit and give it to Riva)
Towleroad lesbians reacting to the sex scenes in Blue is the Warmest Color 

randomness
Gizmodo Photos of malls of the '80s. The memories! 
Time Out interviews peerless stage star Mark Rylance 

Today's Watch(es)
The extremely brief/insubstantial teaser for HBO's Looking starring Jonathan Groff. 

I'm terrified of this show as someone who was deeply embarassed by Queer as Folk which is basically it's only precedent, right? But the director of Weekend has to count for something so I'm also hopeful. In addition to Groff the cast includes other (lesser-known) lookers like Rául Castillo, Tanner Cohen (Were the World Mine), O.T. Fagbenie, Justin Chao, and in at least one episode that adorably worried werewolf from Being Human.

And here's a Young Hollywood panel featuring Michael B Jordan, Miles Teller, Dane DeHaan, Greta Gerwig and Brie Larson (aka the ones who'll be dominating our movies for years to come)  at the AFI Fest talking about celebrity and social media...

Teller making fun of Jordan's selfies is priceless and Greta Gerwig's fan crush on Jessica Chastain? Adorbs. 

Awkward!

By now you've already gawked at Zac Efron's naked body serving up a horizontal pee gag. The image has been shared relentlessly since the trailer of That Awkward Moment premiered a few days ago.

<-- Truth in Screencapping!  

I wasn't going to say anything in the interest of timeliness but it turns out the power of ___ compels me.  But it's not about Zac Efron.  That awkward NSFW moment plus a reader poll (I apologize in advance!) is  after the jump.

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Podcast: FYC Summer & Fruitvale Station

Season Something. Episode 2
A second consecutive week with Nathaniel, Nick, Joe and Katey ... can you believe it? (But, pssst, we recorded this one at the same time as last week's Blue Jasmine convo. As you listen Nathaniel is heading out of town for his first gay wedding, Bride & Bride division)

This week's headlining film topic is the divisive response to Fruitvale Station (previously reviewed) and whether or not it can bear the burden of its hype on "Oscar"'s march towards Oscar. We also weigh in on whether Octavia Spencer and Michael B Jordan deserve nominations for their work. But it's not all Fruitvale. We find ways to throw Short Term 12, World War Z, Blancanieves, and The Heat, into the conversation and a few old movies, text messages, and documentaries make cameos too  -- you know we like to keep it loose and rangey.  

P.S. Nick's DVD shelves make one more key appearance so to fully understand us you'll want to remind yourself of his chronological shelving and his idea of a Year Zero... 1982's Frances. 

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download it on iTunes.

Fruitvale and FYCs

Review: Fruitvale Station

This review was originally posted in my column at Towleroad

Fruitvale Station, the first legit* Oscar Best Picture contender of 2013, hit a few theaters last Friday after months of pre-release buzz.

The buzz was fueled by a double triumph at Sundance this past January where it took home both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize. The feature debut of 27 year-old writer/director Ryan Coogler tells the true story of the death of a 22 year-old African American man named Oscar Grant, who was shot by police on New Year's Day in 2009 at the Fruitvale BART Station in San Francisco. Watching it last Friday it felt like a modest success, a solid specific slice-of-life drama if not a great or ambitious one. But context is a funny thing. The very next day it was feeling much bigger.
 

Nothing exists in a vacuum and that includes the movies. On Saturday George Zimmerman was found "Not Guilty" in the death of Trayvon Martin, another unarmed black man (this time he was only a teenager), whose life was snuffed out nonsensically. The Weinstein Company who distributed the movie couldn't possibly have had better (or sadder) timing. If Fruitvale Station were a fictional drama, it might have felt unnervingly prescient opening when it did but since it is also based in fact it arrives like a stinging reminder of a shameful national pattern.[more...]

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