Will "The Butler" Do It?

For Oscar I mean? Oscar winner Forest Whitaker was recently snapped on the set of 2013 Oscar hopeful The Butler, from Precious director Lee Daniels.  Given the The Weinstein Co will distribute the film and the subject is a long time White House butler and his relationship to the first families, one expects so.

Forest Whitaker shot on set by Anne Marie Fox

The Paperboy, which is nearly upon us, doesn't look like anyone's idea of a typical Oscar magnet, but neither did Lee Daniels' first film Shadowboxer (yes, that one. The one with Hitwoman Helen Mirren romancing Cuba Gooding Jr.). Perhaps Lee Daniels will be an every other film type Oscar player?

Have you given much thought to the starry cast of The Butler ... or any 2013 film's Oscar chances? It's always a struggle to stay in the now when it's so fun to fantasize about what's ahead of us.

NYFF: "Hyde Park On Hudson" Historical Oscar Fluff

Michael C here with my first dispatch from the 50th New York Film Festival. First up is one of the Fall's two big president-starring prestige pictures.

Roger Michell’s Hyde Park on Hudson is a perfect example of that particular type of high-end, finely crafted period piece that hits theaters every autumn on its way to an Oscar nomination for Costume Design. These titles exist to provide awards voters with two hours of comfort food nostalgia wrapped in a thin packaging of historical significance. In recent years this subgenre has provided us with films like Finding Neverland, Mrs. Henderson Presents, and My Week With Marilyn. This year it’s Hyde Park on the Hudson, a film on the low end of this particular style. To call it a dud would be too harsh - kinder to say that it’s a missed opportunity.

The story is narrated by Daisy (Laura Linney), FDR’s devoted mistress as well as his fifth or sixth cousin, depending on how you count. Their courtship leads to the presidential handjob scene that America was undoubtedly clamoring for, (ball’s in your court Lincoln) presented in a montage that verges on the unintentionally hilarious in the extent to which it goes to remain tastefully inoffensive. Think close-ups of wild flowers while the sound of FDR’s limo a-rockin’ is heard off-screen.

The set up: With the threat of World War II looming, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (Samuel West and Olivia Colman) have embarked on the first ever journey to America by British royalty in the hopes a meeting with Franklin Roosevelt (Bill Murray) at his upstate New York getaway can persuade the Americans to intervene. Other major players in the story include FDR’s busybody mother (Elizabeth Wilson), his stalwart assistant (Elizabeth Marvel) and the brash and outspoken Eleanor Roosevelt (Olivia Williams) who has little patience for the pomp and etiquette of royalty. All her bows are unmistakably sarcastic.

Of course, the main attraction here is Murray...

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From Link With Love

Pajiba wonders if The Master's insane per screen average this weekend will finally translate into mainstream box office dollars. (No P.T. picture has ever grossed more than $40 million in US theaters)
First Showing Melissa Leo prepping for a busy 2013. So many films, one of them (Prisoners) is with Hugh Jackman from the director of Incendies.
Cinema Blend Gong Li may become The Last Empress... but she needs a director first

The Guardian on Mitt Romney and his choice of favorite film O Brother Where Art Thou?
Geekologie impressive fan sculpture of He-Man 
Pajiba on the casual barely-trying success of the Resident Evil and Underworld franchises
Coming Soon has an exclusive with Oscar Isaac (Drive) singing songs from two new films 10 Years (it's a song he co-wrote) and the Coen Bros Inside Llweyn Davis. Here's the oft-covered "Dink's Song" from that forthcoming Coen Bros picture... 

...and we end with a little tangentially 007 related business (we'll have a Bond series soon with guest star Deborah Lipp of "Basket of Kisses" and "The Ultimate James Bond Fan Book" fame) 

Press Play Matt Zoller Seitz on From Russia With Love and Singin' in the Rain and "unsophisticated" audiences...
Monkey See responds to this article with more on the problem of contemporary audience's "ironic distancing" from older films. Very worthy topic o' discussion
Movie|Line a tale of two posters for Skyfall 

So I was watching Slacker (1991) yesterday...

and lo and behold, this popped up.

Political beliefs aside, you gotta admire the man for his tenacity.

Jodie Foster is Wrong. On the Mandatory Price of Fame.

Though I'm late to this discussion -- damn that day job! -- I'm curious how many of you read Jodie Foster's piece at The Daily Beast on the pressures of stardom and her feelings about the current Kristen Stewart media witch hunt? I am, by no stretch of anyone's definition, a fan of Kristen Stewart's but I agree that the treatment she's getting in the press is hideous. While it's not directly comparable the obvious sexism of the whole thing reminds me of the Janet Jackson / Justin Timberlake "wardrobe malfunction" fiasco. The woman is blamed and the man in the equation emerges unscathed -- in this case the Snow White and the Huntsman director keeping his sequel job while the actress loses hers. Men we are free to "tsk tsk" for a couple of seconds before they get back to work but Women? Women have to serve time as Human Dartboards of Shame before they are publicly allowed to yank the Scarlet "A" from their garments and go on living.

Deplorable really.

Foster has a right to defend her former co-star and I'm glad she did and with so much spirit, too. But does this mean we have to start reinterpreting Panic Room (2002) as a metaphor of the insatibale media mob vs the trapped movie star? Damnit, I hadn't thought of that...

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