Contrarian Corner: Age is Just a Number As J.Law Dazzles in 'Joy'

Jose continues our new series Contrarian Corner in which team members who feel very off-consensus about a particular topic can work through it... 

One of the most surreal moments in my life occurred when I was able to speak to Winona Ryder about Jennifer Lawrence. Like J.Law, Ryder became the “it girl” early during her career, and during the early 90s earned back-to-back Oscar nominations and critical/commercial adoration. Unlike J.Law, Ryder wasn’t able to make the most out of what fame and screen maturity had granted her, as she was denied serious parts because of her age. She looked “too young” to play “older parts”, and reached a point (i.e. her 30s) where she was “too old” to play younger parts. Perhaps because she has the good fortune of staying away from social media, Ms. Ryder was unaware of the constant criticism J.Law faces whenever she teams up with David O. Russell.

I don’t even know how old she is. I always thought she was the age of her characters”

Kudos to Ms. Ryder for reminding us that films are all about suspending our disbelief.  [More...]

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Eight Hateful Links

• New Now Next Jesus. I can't believe we haven't mentioned this but the First Wives Club actresses are finally reuniting - Goldie, Bette, & Diane will star in a Netflix film called Divanation, as a former pop trio reuniting. I was going to shout "when can we buy tickets?" but it's Netflix so...
• Salt Lake Tribune the Utah Film Critics took Fury Road to Best Picture but how's this for fun: They gave Rose Byrne in Spy their Best Supporting Actress prize.
• Cinematic Corner Sati doesn't like Carol (wha!?!?!) but she still makes great lists so we'll pretend we hadn't just learned this about her. Anyway... this one is on her favorite things about Mad Max Fury Road

• Forbes suggests that Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth etc... give you the most ROI at the box office given their salaries per film. The list is kind of interesting but bankability is so intangible since many of today's stars don't have colossal box office because they are selling tickets but because they are playing characters who sell tickets -- notice how many Marvel superheroes make this list.
• MNPP Colton Haynes and Luke Evans have something in common
• /Film Star Wars may be the only franchise getting ink this month but James Cameron won't want to see his records destroyed. He is still promising Avatar 2 for 2017
• The Wrap has been experimenting with Oscar math for years trying to see if we'd ever get a 10 wide year under the new system. This year their experiment ended with 10 pictures. And this plays like sound reasoning on what type of year we'd need to get ten nominees:

A larger-than-usual number of films got votes, but a smaller-than-usual number of them had strong support.

So the question is: do you think it's that kind of year? Here's our current Best Picture Chart

• and finally... 
I don't plan to review Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight since I've been slagging it off on Twitter and gave it the #2 spot in my Worst of 2015 list and who needs to be so toxic during the holidays? In short my review goes like this: "the best part was intermission". So to make amends to the Tarantino devotees among you, please enjoy Joe Reid's 50 Best Performance in Tarantino Movies list. I would naturally quibble with the order. Bridget Fonda's awesome "Melanie" in Jackie Brown and Amanda Plummer's hysterical "Honeybunny" from Pulp Fiction are among my favorites and neither even make the top 35! Both are lower than Jamie Foxx in Django Unchained which is puzzling as he gives the weakest of leading performance in the Tarantino filmography (think about it). The top three are all marvelous Oscar worthy choices and I'm pleased that most of the Kill Bill players rank highly. Over the years Kill Bill has sliced such a distinctive but clean and familiar path through the center of Tarantino's filmography that I now consider it his best work, hands down. Or limbs off as the case may be for so many of its unfortunate extras.

If you must know I'd rank the principle performances in The Hateful Eight like so: Samuel L Jackson ≥ Walton Goggins >>> Kurt Russell > Demian Bichir >> Jennifer Jason Leigh (sorry, she's never done much for me as an actor. I'm aware that this is an unpopular opinion amongst film critics) > Bruce Dern > Tim Roth >> Michael Madsen (who sadly is given very little to do). If you plan to see the sadist western over the Christmas break, we would be interested in hearing your opinion despite feeling hateful ourselves. 

Star Wars & Oscar. How Will "The Force Awakens" Fare?

The second that people started realizing that everyone was actually loving the new Star Wars episode, you could feel the Oscar buzz wave building and building and broke with lots of "Best Picture nomination! demands online. The BFCA even announced a ridiculously embarrassing extra ballot measure to ask the members if they'd like to add the movie into their Best Picture lineup after the fact. In short: no one will ever take this group seriously again. (Sigh) 'The Force Awakens will be swimming in Oscars!' the internet seems to have proclaimed en masse.

But not so fast young padewans.

Oscar nominations can prove elusive, especially for franchises, family films, and genre films three groups to which Star Wars belongs. People will cite "Oscar voters grew up with the franchise -- they'll be nostalgic!" but, consider: I grew up with the franchise. I loved episode 7. And I wouldn't vote for it. 

This is not to say that I would make a typical Oscar voter. I would not. But typical Oscar voters tastes lie somewhere in the space between critics and general audiences. Put more plainly: there's a difference between totally enjoying a spectacle and wanting it honored as the very "Best" of its year.

Let's look back at Star Wars Oscar history to get some clues as to how The Force Awakens will fare after the jump...

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Team Experience's Most Popular Tweets o' The Year

Year in Review Party!

Just for silly quick fun I thought we'd list our most popular tweets this year. Not necessarily the best but the ones that caught on somehow. It's like a very quick 140 character scrapbook of the film year.

Our 15 Most Popular Tweets of 2015 after the jump... 

Opening Twitter. pic.twitter.com/2s2JKHoco4

— Kyle Stevens (@cinementalist) October 12, 2015

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Pt 2. Oscar Editorials to Make the Blood Boil: The Holiday Glut

Two recent trade editorials have driven us crazy enough to write long hair-pulling screeds in response. We're bald now! The first was a 'dishonorable' defense of our #1 gripe Category Fraud and we'll be quicker about this one which is about our second biggest pet peeve of Oscar season: 'the holiday glut' aka the ghettoization of adult movies into the final quarter of each year.

The Hollywood Reporter's "Everybody Cannibalized Each Other" - Harvey Weinstein
Weinstein begins his guest editorial by calling the final quarter glut of awards-hopefuls a "pet peeve" which is fine if we say it... but him?!? He championed it for 20 years with his own actions!

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