I Link You Just the Way You Are

Just a heads up. I was pleased that people passed this around twitter after I posted it but DO NOT READ The New Yorker review of A Separation before seeing the film. I recently named the movie Best of the Year but one of the greatest things about it, that I was careful not to spoil in my review or any of my subsequent writeups or awards postings is how it keeps defying expectations and throwing more and more complications your way. That New Yorker review, which is meant to be an enticement to see it and is otherwise beautifully written, will significantly damage your viewing pleasure as it gives away several twists and nearly the entire plot. You're welcome. And for shame Anthony Lane! Why do that to readers and potential ticket buyers? 

Boy Culture Congratulations to actress Kristy McNichol, who is now out of the closet. That'll mean something to anyone over the age of like, um, 35 (?). Otherwise y'all might be like "who?". But she was a big deal in the late 70s/early 80s. Think "Family" or "Empty Nest" on television and summer camp classic Little Darlings (1980) wherein she was deflowered by Matt Dillon! 
Thompson on Hollywood Christopher Tellefsen on the rhythms of editing. He did such great work on Moneyball I think.
Hello Giggles has 100 Things You Should Know About Downton Abbey 
Deadline which films are popular in their home countries?
In Contention has the Central Ohio Critics film winners. But I can't deal with typing up ANOTHER list. No offense, Ohio!
Hey Deanie is not convinced by Bérénice Bejo in The Artist

NYT "Seeking the next red carpet knockout" interesting piece about young actresses trying to find the dress and what happens when they do. (Though it makes you appreciate actresses who never bother, too)
Rope of Silicon The biggest flops of 2011, budget to gross.
Flavorwire Audrey Hepburn's screen test for Roman Holiday. One of those first time's the charm Oscar smashes. Ah, I love that movie.
Electronic Cerebrectomy I love when people post super random extensive personal lists of their favorite things of a year. It's like a scrapbook of everything -- not just movies. I'd do that if I didn't have 100 other lists to make.
Serious Film 2011 Superlatives: Best use of profanity.
Google celebrates the centennial of Charles Samuel Addams best known as the creator of The Addams Family. 
City Arts Armond White releases his annually inane "better than" list. I shouldn't like. It's such obvious trolling link bait. But I can't help myself. I do find his distaste for Lars von Trier highly amusing since you'd think the provocations just for the sake of provocations (Jack & Jill > The Descendants et. all) would mark them as soulmates.

Ugh, I used to love blog-a-thons so much. And then there were too many of them and I gave up. But then every once in a while you find one that looks so fun and you didn't know about it and you just want to die a little inside. Have you seen the BlogalongaBond?

It's hosted by The Incredible Suit which I've been reading for a month (and love). But I didn't know about it. It's been going on for a year already! One Bond film a month counting down to the 50th anniversary of Bond with the release of SkyFall (2012)! They're up to Octopussy (1983) now which is the very first Bond film I ever saw so if I weren't a crazy OCD completist type person it would be a great time to join in but I already missed 12 movies and all the Connery ones. Boo! 

That said, how invested are you in James Bond movies, Bond Girls and the like? We might do something.

Naked Gold Man: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Competitive Season

I wish there were festive holiday songs for Oscar junkies. "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Steamroll", "All I Want for Oscars is You", "Let it Snub, Let it Snub, Let it Snub", "God Rest Ye Merry Shortlisters", "Do You Vote How I Vote" etcetera.... The mood is definitely upon us!

This weekend while LA, NY online, and Boston were handing out their prizes and BFCA voters were mailing in their ballots a certain movie that few had yet seen was screening for Oscar voters and it's likely to be a big deal (though whether it will make the BFCA due to the voting deadline today, remains to be seen). Let's just say that I heard sniffling and whispered "wows" during the credits at the guild screening here in NYC.

The AFI's TOP TEN LIST was also released this weekend. It went like so...

• Bridesmaids
• The Descendants
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
• The Help
• Hugo
• J. Edgar
• Midnight in Paris
• Moneyball
• The Tree of Life
• War Horse

It reads like an odd experiment in Oscar predicting from two months back before people had seen all the films (plus Bridesmaids. The AFI always includes at least one populist hit to represent the film year).

But bringing us back to the now, it's time for a chart update to reflect all of this madness.

These past couple of weeks have definitely proven to us that The Tree of Life has not been forgotten, that The Help is in a good place (The actors branch is large and we suspect they like it) that Thanksgiving is a very smart holiday to start your heavy Oscar campaigning (See: Hugo, The Descendants, My Week With Marilyn and The Artist). We're not aloud to talk about the three last films to arrive (War Horse, Dragon Tattoo, Extremely Loud) but let's just say when it comes to Oscar, I'm bearish on the first two and bullish on the last having now seen all three. I'm also pleased to note that Moneyball is well liked. At an Oscar dinner I attended for Rango recently, it was the consensus favorite of my table. 

Strangely the film that hasn't been coming up in conversation that much is Midnight in Paris but I blame this on the emergence of so many new films all at once. Moneyball doesn't always come up organically in conversation but when it does it's, in my experience, usually "oh, I love that." It's the job of the new films arriving to wow voters and erase memories of early favorites. It's the job of the early arrivals to remind voters how much they loved them in the first place; that's the push forward and the pull back.

PREDICTION INDEX | PICTURE | DIRECTOR | ACTRESS | ACTOR | SUPPORTING ACTRESS | SUPPORTING ACTOR | SCREENPLAYS | VISUAL CATEGORIES | AURAL CATEGORIES | FOREIGN FILM | ANIMATION, DOCS AND SHORT FILMS

The Amazing Linker-Man

Vanity Fairy Paul Mazursky, who made one of my favorite pictures (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice) recalls its critical reception and then starts his own film reviewing for VF:  J. Edgar and Melancholia.
Wall Street Journal  Baseball legend Yogi Berra sees Moneyball and reminisces about his own history with the movies. Fun piece.
Coming Soon Emma Stone's opening monologue on SNL last night. Andy Samberg's Spider-Man arrives to interrupt her with a new script. Love this bit.

Emma: Ok, Andy, aren't you just redoing the same monologue that Kirsten Dunst did like 10 years ago?
Andy: Uhhh, yeah. Aren't you just redoing the exact same Spider-Man movie from 10 years ago?

Hee.

Awards Daily on the unshakeable charms of The Artist.
Thelma Adams falls for Kirsten Dunst's beautiful bitterness in Melancholia.
Playlist multihyphante showbiz woman Rie Rasmussen is gaga for Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained which will "revolutionize Hollywood."
In Contention looks back at early Charlize Theron, pre Oscar Charlize in fact.
Funny or Die Ryan Gosling, the strong and very silent type. 
Serious Film on the makeup in J. Edgar
MNPP while looking at the new EW cover of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo this is what your eyes did.
Towleroad I had a brief chat with Dustin Lance Black about his screenwriting work on Milk and J. Edgar. 

stagey
NYT Hugh Jackman on Broadway review
La Daily Musto Hugh Jackman on Broadway review

Finally...
Let's end with this tribute to the title design of Saul Bass from Art of the Title...

The Title Design of Saul Bass from Ian Albinson on Vimeo.

There are few things we enjoy more than a good title sequence. Which have been your favorite this year? FYC me for those Film Bitch Awards which begin sooner than you think.

Link Basket

La Daily Musto turns out Lourdes is in her mamma's movie W.E.
Deadline does a post-mortem on Drive's box office failure. Young men didn't show up. Can we all agree that I'm a genius for my sure to be prophetic "people will love it ten years from now" post? Get back to me in 2021. 
Movie|Line talks to director Jose Padilha about his Brazilian Oscar entry Elite Squad 2 and the rumors of Michael Fassbender becoming Robocop

⇚ HF Magazine talks to Miles Teller (Footloose). Kidman & John Cameron Mitchell have high praise from Rabbit Hole.
Tom Shone Ten great things about Moneyball
Frankly My Dear Jamie Foxx sending Will Smith a fruit basket for pulling out of Django Unchained
Hark! a Vagrant, my favorite web comic, begins a Wuthering Heights adaptation just in time for the revival of Brontë Sisters fever in the film world. P.S. what's that about exactly? The renewed fever I mean. I know what Wuthering Heights is about ;)

Bizarre Caption Alert!
I'd seen the new Anne Hathaway as Catwoman photo a few times around the net and didn't think to share it (you've already seen it no doubt) but for whatever reason I actually read the caption at Daily Mail...

Um... Catwoman was famous before most of us were alive and before La Pfeiffer was even a tween. Just sayin'. (Don't think Julie Newmar or the ghost of Eartha Kitt would be pleased.)

Box Office: Brad vs. Simba. And Other Stories...

Brad on the greenThe lion is still the king of the jungle. Moneyball's opening was very respectable but a bit softer than Brad Pitt's usual opening weekend numbers. My guess is that too many people who are pushed toward ticket-purchases by perceptions of quality rather than celebrity or subject matter didn't expect it to be as good as it actually is. I'm guessing word of mouth is strong and Brad's very-real bid for Oscar (who'da thunk it?) finds its legs quickly. In baseball you have to do a lot of standing around and waiting for the excitement to accumulate. Or so I gather. 

Thus Disney's most popular picture roars again from its jutting cliff peak. 

Box Office (U.S.) Baker's Dozen -estimates
01 THE LION KING 3D [review] re-release $22.1 (cum $390.2)
02 MONEYBALL [review] new $20.6 
03 DOLPHIN TALE new $20.2 
04 ABDUCTION new $11.2 
05 KILLER ELITE  new $9.5 
06 CONTAGION [venice] $8.5 (cum $57.1)
07 DRIVE [review] $5.7 (cum $21.4)
08 THE HELP [review] $4.4 (cum $154.4)
09 STRAW DOGS  $2.1 (cum $8.8)
10 I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT  $2 (cum $8)

Talking Points: Weekend, the terrific gay romantic drama we've been raving about (read my interview with the director) had the nation's highest per sceen average which is promising for its expansion plans.

Chris New (foreground) offers an invitation to Tom Cullen in "Weekend"

We have always hoped it would expand quickly. You deserve to see it! According to Indiewire our hopes will become reality.

Sundance Selects said they’re “thrilled” with the opening numbers and will expand through the major markets in the next two weeks."

Dolphin Tale once again proves that family films don't need anything in the way of pre-release buzz to do well. I'm so weirded out that it almost equalled the gross of a really entertaining Brad Pitt movie! (I expect that Moneyball will have sturdy legs over the next month or two though.)

Uh... I did not throw that tomato!Will Abduction's super blah but not altogether embarassing opening and the terrible reviews be enough to put a stake through Taylor Lautner's career? My guess is no. Besides, stakes can't harm you if you're already made of wood. (Hardy-har-har). Nevertheless, unless his acting magically improves, he'll be given a headlining opportunity on a procedural on TV in ten years time on his name recognition alone. He'll be working his whole life on name recognition, actually. Such is the power of kicking things off in a blockbuster franchise. (See also: the inexplicably long career death rattle and similarly suspect acting of one Hayden Christensen.

What did you see this weekend?
If you saw Moneyball make sure to sound off over in the review. I'm a bit surprised that Brad Pitt didn't win the weekend since my theater was packed even early in the morning (which is not common in September in NYC).