Red Carpet BFCA

Tonight the Golden Globes come and wash all memories of previous precursors away leaving basically only Oscar butterflies and mounting campaigns in their wake. So before they arrive, one last look back at the BFCA "Critics Choice" by way of the red carpet. I was wrong about the fuchsia being the color story -- the NBR threw me off -- as it seems like this year is going to be sedate with creams, whites and blackzzzz. But perhaps someone will go all bold red or crazy rainbow or something tonight at the Globes. 

Mystique, Lily, Sister of Dakota, Category Fraud

Comment Questions for y'all

1. Do you think Jennifer Lawrence is pissed that Mila Kunis and Hailee Steinfeld stole all her Hot New Must Have Actress buzz as precursor season revved up? I'd still be surprised if she was snubbed in Best Actress but not as surprised as I would have been.
2. Don't you think Mila is just biding her time till the Oscars. Obviously she has it in her to steal the show so why not steal the red carpet? We're waiting...
3. Elle Fanning's look: 70s Granny Ice Skater? I'm confused.
4. Best Dressed Here: Jennifer, Mila, Elle Fanning or Hailee?

God, Amazon, Freakshow, Belle of the BallMore blacks and whites.  More questions!

1. Does anyone look better in a plunging neckline than Julianne Moore? She's been favoring that look (on occassion) since the 90s and it still looks sensational on her.
2. Is Tilda Swinton's look an homage to Mildred Pierce or just plain ol' 'it's the Critics Choice I can't be bothered. Here, this unironic 80s look will do' (?)
3. Helena's purse: Hilarious, Obnoxious or 'The Rest of My Look Is Fairly Sedate For Me (For Me) And I Want You To Remember That This is Helena Bonham Carter You're Looking At!'?
4. How far along is Natalie Portman? We assumed it was earlybut she's already wearing flowing no-waist gowns and plump cheeks .

Her Majesty, Best of His Generation, Julia & Amy

We end with a random assortment about which we have no questions other than this: Isn't it disappointing that nobody has time to talk about how amazing Ryan Gosling is in Blue Valentine? There's only so many celebrities that can get omgtheirperformancechangedmylifeiwanttohavetheirbabieswhooooooo type praise each year, but he definitely should have been one of them, don't you think?

Recommended Reading "They're Off! Let the Second Guessing Begin"
The New York Times guesses what the stars will wear to the Globes tonight.

BFCA Live Blog

8:55 Keith Urban announces that he is "not afraid to cry." Good thing because he's married to Nicole Kidman! Not to imply that she's difficult but she can access the heavy soul-shattering stuff.

8:57 Oh hi! Live Blog. Why am I doing this? Does anyone watch this? Refresh your screens!

8:58 Jeff Bridges is doing his Rooster Cogburn voice for the press guy? Does he feel like a performing seal?

9:04 Arnold Schwarzenegger emerges to open the show. Noooo... I was about to predict that Ahnuld would say "I'm back" or "I'll be back" or some lame Terminator pun that we'd enjoy as a guilty pleasure but no. He's being sincere. [gasp]. That's no adjective with which to open a show.

9:06 Ahnuld...

"I invented not speaking English correctly"

Okay that was funny. Albeit subtle funny which is always a tough sell during awards show.

9:07 Quick show of hands. Who believes that Ahnuld saw Black Swan three times in the theater as he claims?

poll by twiigs.com

9:10 THE FIGHTER wins Best Ensemble. I'm glad they let Jack McGee accept. He was really special in the background, don't you think? He made you believe that he could handle and was even happily married to Melissa Leo's Crazy! That's an achievement in authentic masochism. Go McGee.

9:17 Hailee Steinfeld wins Best Young Actor/Actress. Chloe Moretz is undoubtedly pissed. Hailee thanks "everyone in here. And the Lord." I always think it's funny when celebrities thank God when they beat other celebrities to prizes. If God is that guy cares about who wins movie awards than... ohmygod. I AM GOD!

MORE AFTER THE JUMP including made for tv movie titles, blonde Emma, Natalie skinny/pregnant and armpit licking.

Click to read more ...

Red Carpet NBR

When The Beautiful People start collecting awards it's... heaven. It's only later when the same people have collected dozens of the same titles that we start getting bored. "And the Winner Is... The Most Recent Winner!"

"Mattie Ross", Michelle, Coppola Jr and Lesley Manville

Jessica Lange, Mrs Ben Affleck, Blake Lively

poll by twiigs.com

From the looks of the NBR evening -- minus the black dresses which never ever go out of awards style -- a certain color family was in. Something in the burgundy, fuschia, purples spectrum your next red carpet?

It's an homage to ___________ [Complete the Sentence in the comments]. You know you want to!

Cinematography Honors

The seasonal wheels keep turning. I can't keep up. I literally have three, count them, THREE interviews to type up. Plus the top ten list. But awards news waits for no man. Not even Nathaniel, man. If you don't peruse every awards website known to man, the following info regarding visual work that's somewhat safely on the Oscar nomination track will come as fresh news to you. If you do, you've already sussed out what you think it all means and you're ahead of us.

I Am Vertigo

First, a moment of silence for I Am Love's Yorick Le Saux who was not nominated for ASC's cinematography prize despite having better Vertigo hair bun homages than Black Swan! I only partially kid because both movies are byootiful (biutiful?) but...come on. I Am Love is not going to get any Oscar nominations and that is going to make me jump off my web cliff.

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS

ASC Feature Nominees

• Danny Cohen for The King's Speech
• Jeff Cronenwerth for The Social Network
• Roger Deakins for True Grit
• Matthew Libatique for Black Swan
• Wally Pfister for Inception

127 SpeechesThis list could transfer intact to Oscar -- they're all handsome movies for sure -- but you never know. ASC nominees, like all guild honors, generally differ a bit from the final Academy pronouncement. [2009 FLASHBACK - LOOKOUT!] Last year for example Oscar dumped Dion Beebe's ASC nominated work on Nine for Bruno Delbonnel's work on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. If you ask me it was a downgrade. Sure everyone hated Nine and blah blah blah... but awards aren't supposed to be about whether you loved the film (that's Best Picture) but what was done in that category. And Nine was beautifully shot. The weirdest thing about Rob Marshall's oeuvre is that the art directors are always getting credit for how well the DP's shoot those big cavernous somewhat empty stages.[/FLASHBACK] The King's Speech and The Social Network are probably the vulnerable ones here as they're the least showy and "best" often equates with "most" in awards season. You may see either or both of them replaced by Robert Richardson's work on Shutter Island (I'll never forget Nick calling that one "gangrenous") or the two gents from 127 Hours (who might get credit not just for the beautiful lighting but also for the inventive setups given the claustrophobic environs. But me, I'm rooting for a surprise foreign attack from I Am Love. Stop laughing! Popular foreign films sometimes show up here. Especially the visually wondrous ones.

The question on everyone's mind: Is Deakins EVER going to win an Oscar? It won't be an easy get this year either.

ASC TV Nominees
(announced last month)

• Eagle Egilsson for "Shell Game" Dark Blue
• Jonathan Freeman for "Home" Boardwalk Empire
• Christopher Manley for "Blowing Smoke" Mad Men
• Kramer Morgenthau for "Family Limitation" Boardwalk Empire
• David Stockton for "Pilot" Nikita
• Michael Wale for "Shield" Smallville
• Glen Winter for "Abandoned" Smallville

Sigh. I miss Mad Men so hard, don't you? The nominated episode is the one where Midge (awesome Rosemarie DeWitt) returns all drugged up.The ASC Awards ceremony is on February 13th.

Best Achievement in Messing With Josh Brolin's Face

Brolin as himself. Brolin as Jonah Hex. Brolin as Tom Chaney.

The Academy's makeup artist and hairstylist branch has announced their finalist list. Three films from their list of seven will likely go on to become Oscar nominees.

The Finalists

• Alice in Wonderland
• Barney's Version
• The Fighter
• Jonah Hex
• True Grit
• The Way Back
• The Wolfman
  

The makeup branch is among the hardest to predict each year because there never seems to be any rhyme or reason to their selections despite all of these rules. For example: How the hell did Black Swan miss? Never mind, I don't want to know. The answer would undoubtedly be depressing like "but those removable body parts in Alice in Wonderland that they wore to make Helena Bonham-Carter not feel bad about her CGI enlarged head were hilarious!". This branch also rarely remembers the "wigs and hairpieces" part of the equation always failing to honor the oeuvre of Nicolas Cage. They always ignore achievements wherein an actress becomes a total glamour goddesses with extra help from wigs and makeup. I mean they didn't even nominate Cate Blanchett wig-orgy Elizabeth: Turn Off The Dark (2007) sorry Joe, I'm using that podcast joke forever.

Nor, do they nominate "deglam" movies for actresses which definitely require the services of makeup artists and hairstylists. I still think the makeup on Monster (2003) is one of the great Oscar snubs of all time; Charlize didn't blotch her own skin or have dental surgery.

The official criteria for the "makeup" award is...

...any change in the appearance of a performer’s face, hair, or body created by the application of cosmetics, three-dimensional materials, prosthetic appliances, or wigs and hairpieces, applied directly to the performer’s face or body.

In other words, everything that Black Swan did (minus maybe the wigs).