With Six You Get Link Roll

Imgur Les Miz synopsis with emoticons. 
Salon "welcome to the new civil war" On Lincoln, Django Unchained and modern political divides
MNPP 10 little reviews. It's the only way to keep up this time of year. The Perks of Being a Wallflower really does grow on you. I liked it so much better a month after watching it!
The Envelope on the continuing difficulties inherent in the Best Foreign Language Film category: so much French language, preferenced true stories, never any Asian films.
Timothy Brayton plans to review every English language feature-length adaptation of Les Misérables. Bon chance, Tim! 
Boston Globe Ty Burr's top ten with many of the usual suspects but a nice honorable mention shout out to Leslye Headland's Bachelorette 

I'm so far behind. Lots more coming soon. Have patience!

Things to Ponder Before Making Finally Final Oscar Nom Predix

I'm trying to decide how much to alter some of my current predictions when I post my final predictions (Tuesday night).  Here are some things I'm pondering. Ponder with me in the comments. It's a Ponder Party!

The Academy ♥ Tarantino? OR...
The Internet ≠ The Academy
The Globes ≠ The Academy
Quentin Tarantino is indisputably a god of the internet. Were the internet a person it would be his insatiable whore, his dresser, his boyservant, his entire yes man entourage. But the Academy is not the internet. They never have been. (If they were Chris Nolan would have five directing nominations and not zero and The Social Network and Brokeback Mountain would have trounced The King's Speech and Crash). Consider: zero nominations for Kill Bill Vol. 1 (my choice for his best film and unarguably worthy in technical fields even if you don't much care for it as a whole). Zero nominations for Kill Bill Vol. 2. One measly nomination for Jackie Brown. "But they loved Pulp Fiction (7 nods, 1 win) and Inglorious Basterds (8 nods, 1 win)" - shouts everyone in the universe. They did, it's true. [more...]

Click to read more ...

5 Days Until Oscar Noms!

nom nom nom

Whenever someone uses the abbreviation "Oscar noms" it sounds like they're referring to snacks at a party.

— Scott Renshaw (@scottrenshaw) January 5, 2013

Scott Renshaw is right!

I have received edible swag in the mail before, generally in the form of chocolate or popcorn (though not, regret to inform, chocolate-flavored popcorn) but this is the first time cold cereal has arrived. And it's even the first time for movie-appropriate edible swag since Silver Linings Playbook has some choice Raisin Bran product placement in a key "not a date!" scene.

Each time when a tiny piece of FYC mail arrives in a matryoshka-style series of boxes within ginormous boxes, I weep for the trees that have been cut down to provide me with it. The Waste. The Waste. 

So I did not waste the raisin bran. I owed it to the dead trees and to the landfills where all the unused detritus of swag the world over will eventually reside. I ate it.

nom-nom-nom

This should no way be construed as an endorsement of Silver Linings Playbook, but it tasted good. 

Podcast: A Look Back... and Forward. (What Movies Should Inspire Future Films?)

new podcast!
In part two of the conversation which began with Django Unchained and random final Oscar hunches, we hear about four actors that Joe Reid plans to snub, revisit looooooong Best Pictures that Katey Rich hasn't seen (The Last Emperor anyone?), listen to Nick detailing Viola Davis' future, and learn why Nathaniel hopes Hitchcock will inspire more films like it... even though most people thought it was terrible. [44 Minutes. With Nathaniel, Nick, Katey, and Joe.]

Topics include:

• Sixth spot snubs: Jennifer Ehle?
• Most recent Best Pics that we've each missed from The Green Mile to The English Patient 
• Susan Sarandon circa 1975
• Second-Guessing: Anna Karenina, Take This Waltz, Moonrise Kingdom
• 2012 Movies We Hope Inspire Future Movies from Magic Mike to... 21 Jump Street. (Hey, it was Channing Tatum's Year)
• Queen of Versailles repurposed. Make your own movie! 
• The Fog & Fatigue of Awards

You can download the podcast on iTunes or listen right here at the bottom of the post. Join in the conversation by commenting! 

2012 Inspirations. Future Movies and Retro Glories

Congratulations to the WGA Nominees

Before approaching the Writers Guild Nominations with Oscary enthusiasmbe forewarned: only guild members are eligible for these prizes which discounts a good chunk of the movies one might otherwise expect to see honored each year. Hollywood isn't nearly as averse to working with non-guild writers as they are about non-unionized actors (Beasts of the Southern Wild was the only significant "ineligible" situation when the SAG nominees were announced a month ago). One of the reasons for this is surely the prevalence of writer/directors who are often members of the DGA without being members of the WGA.

The benefit of this is that by their script eligibility rules they are forced to award films that have been largely ignored in the grand scheme of year end hoopla. The curse is that when you are nominated from a smaller field of potentials it might not feel as notable.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY  

• Flight, Written by John Gatins; Paramount Pictures
• Looper, Written by Rian Johnson; TriStar Pictures
• The Master, Written by Paul Thomas Anderson; The Weinstein Company
• Moonrise Kingdom, Written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola; Focus Features
• Zero Dark Thirty, Written by Mark Boal; Columbia Pictures (ARTICLE) 

not eligible and therefore unsnubbed so you could still see them on Oscar's list: 
Django Unchained, Seven Psychopaths, Amour, Your Sister's Sister, Take This Waltz, The Intouchables, Middle of Nowhere, Rust & Bone and The Impossible 

Typically we only here of what's been declared ineligible so it's tough to know what other films were competing although I'd feel worse for actor/screenwriter Reid Carolin's absence for Magic Mike above if he'd also played one of the Cock-Rocking Kings of Tampa. That'd be putting it all on the line for your movie!

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY 

• Argo, Screenplay by Chris Terrio; Based on a selection from The Master of Disguise by Antonio J. Mendez and the WiredMagazine article “The Great Escape” by Joshuah Bearman; Warner Bros. Pictures
• Life of Pi, Screenplay by David Magee; Based on the novel by Yann Martel; 20th Century Fox
• Lincoln, Screenplay by Tony Kushner; Based in part on the book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincolnby Doris Kearns Goodwin; DreamWorks Pictures
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Screenplay by Stephen Chbosky; Based on his book; Summit Entertainment (LOGAN LERMAN INTERVIEW)
• Silver Linings Playbook, Screenplay by David O. Russell; Based on the novel by Matthew Quick; The Weinstein Company

not eligible and therefore unsnubbed:
Les Miz, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Anna Karenina, The Deep Blue Sea, and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The nominee list for the WGA is highly plausible as the final Oscar list in this category too, don't you think?

DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY 

• The Central Park Five, Written by Sarah Burns and David McMahon and Ken Burns; Sundance Selects
• The Invisible War, Written by Kirby Dick; Cinedigm Entertainment Group
• Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, Written by Alex Gibney; HBO Documentary Films
• Searching for Sugar Man, Written by Malik Bendejelloul; Sony Pictures Classics
• We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists, Written by Brian Knappenberger; Cinetic Media
• West of Memphis, Written by Amy Berg & Billy McMillin; Sony Pictures Classics 

Sugar Man, Mea Maxima and The Invisible War continue to show real strength in the oncoming Oscar Best Documentary race.