Q&A: Oscar Ceremonies, Sex Work, and... The Warlocks of Eastwick?

Soon, we'll be buried in an avalanche of awards news again so tonight a brief respite from the current Oscar race. It's Q&A time. Here are eight reader questions I chose to answer. I skipped anything on Category Fraud because I feel so exhausted by that fight ("though undeterred in my moral superiority!" he says arms akimbo and chin up, like a superhero with cape billowing behind him, sworn to upheld 'the Awards Way') and I might have to freak out all over again on nomination morning so let's ignore it for now.

MDA: What 2015 release that you were looking forward to watching disappointed you the most?

NATHANIEL: It feels stranger to answer with a film I liked, especially one that's already getting a critical rethink by way of surprise top ten placements but maybe Magic Mike XXL? While I admire its super cajzh vibe and its focus on female pleasure, I'm puzzled as to why they went more demure with the sequel when they kept promising it would be more stripperific i.e. what everyone expected from Soderbergh's first brilliant film (which you'll remember was a Bronze medalist for Best Picture right here.)

Another big disappointment was Sisters. It's totally funny don't get me wrong. But that's all it is. It's strange that we know that Tina Fey can write brilliant comic masterworks (30 Rock, Mean Girls) but keeps wasting her star power and comic gift on propping up other people's wildly underwritten cliché-filled scripts. I'm beginning to wonder is she even wants to make another comedy classic? Perhaps she's fine coasting until retirement. But it's hard to not wonder what could be if she'd only apply herself again. 

EZ: I hereby grant you special powers to go back in time and attend an Academy Awards Ceremony of your choosing. Which year do you choose and why?

NATHANIEL: This question sounds nice until you realize the genie has only granted you one wish instead of three.  So stingy!

Retro Oscar Races, Domnhall Gleeson, Bridget Jones's Baby, and more after the jump...

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McDreamy is Bridget Jones' Baby

Here's Murtada with some casting and sequel news.

Patrick Dempsey is joining Bridget Jones’ Baby, the third movie about the charming British singleton played by Renee Zellweger. Is this the first announcement about his movie? Filming starts pretty soon, October 2nd to be exact. Did we miss something? Is Zellweger returning to major movies and the headlines are about McDreamy? Both Zellweger and Colin Firth are expected back but not Hugh Grant hence Dempsey. Although there are no details yet on who Dempsey is playing, it’s clear from the casting this may be another love triangle.

Zellweger aside, are we ready for for Bridget to come back? It’s been more than a decade since the last movie. Are people really going to see this? From the recent long-after-first-few reboots and sequels people really wanted to see Jurassic World  while no one cared for the Terminator reboot. Like the latter the last Bridget was in the mid-aughts. Not a good sign. People who loved it at the time might not feel nostalgic for it yet while younger audiences wouldn’t care.

The first film, Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001), is a romantic comedy gem that came at a time when those were made regularly and some were made well. The book which of course came before the movie was a phenomenon. We loved Bridget’s self deprecating voice and wanted her to have the Elizabeth Bennet fantasy she dreamed of. Zellweger was aces in the part calming down everyone who was mad an American was cast as this quintessentially British woman. The second film, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) followed shortly. In addition to the preposterous title, it's a trifle. Coming with an unnecessary sojourn into a Bangkok prison (is this a remake of both Bangkok Hilton and Brokedown Palace?) it presented nothing new. Just went on repeating all the best beats of the original including the fun and childish rivalry between Mark Darcy (Firth) and Daniel Cleaver (Grant). Let’s just forget about it and watch that fight scene from Diary again.

Is Dempsey over Grant an upgrade? If we’re being shallow and judging just by how they look today Dempsey wins. However he’s not the caddish charmer that is Grant as Daniel and that's was proven way sexier. Remember his seduction of Bridget and the way he said “absolutely enormous panties”. Can Dempsey match that? Dempsey’s charm is different. Blandly handsome with no gravitas, i.e. the perfect foil for a Disney princess like he was for Amy Adams in Enchanted. He could lay on that wholesome charm but we all know everyone likes the bad boy more.

It’s clear where we stand on the Grant/Dempsey debate but tell us where you are and why.

Tweets o' the Week

Movie and showbiz tweets that amused / thought provoked most these past several days. Worth retweeting or sharing for you if you're not on twitter... 

"INTERSTELLAAAAAAAA" --FilmCritStanleyKowalski

— Ali Arikan (@aliarikan) October 29, 2014

You liked @PrideMovie? Good way to show it is to donate to a charity or NFP that "has nothing to do with you," then think about how it does.

— Nick Davis (@NicksFlickPicks) October 25, 2014

You think you know somebody then one day you come home and catch them watching EAT PRAY LOVE.

— Jenelle Riley (@jenelleriley) October 30, 2014

The sticker on the Japanese DVD box for The Paperboy pretty much sums up my thoughts pic.twitter.com/ePpYXdxriy

— Robbie Collin (@robbiereviews) October 24, 2014

 

WANT MORE? Click on for The Gummers, The Zeéeeee, Superhero priapism & "Carrie" hilarity

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Top Ten Most Important Things About This Photo of The Zeéeeee That Everyone Is Talking About Today

It's a special top ten day. List mania all day long...

10 Renée has reemerged again but there's still no firm word on future movies other than The Whole Truth with Keanu Reeves, directed by Courtney Hunt (Frozen River) which is due next year supposedly
09 Sarah Paulson looks AHMAZING
08 Long rectangular table at these events are terrible because you only get to talk to a couple of people except when everyone is milling about. 
07 If you squint really hard you can pretend Sarah & Renée are non-identical siamese sisters they're so squinched together...
06 Bet you anything they talked about American Horror Story - weird that Ryan Murphy hasn't asked the Zeéeeee to do it? (Although his tastes do run a little more 1980s/1990s than 1990s/2000s as actresses go.)
05 Everyone in this photo has major trophies except for Sarah Paulson and that ain't right!
04 Everyone looks like they color coordinated. Did Elle magazine send out a dress code?
03 Down With Love Reunion. Woot. Such a good movie
02 Warren Beatty Photobomb! Hi, Warren. 
01 If that's The Bening by Warren's side this photographer needs to be fined for cropping her out. Framing!   The photographer has apparently cropped out Jessica Lange (w/ Warren). You don't do that photographer. Framing! 

Weight Watching

Earlier today I read Matt Singer's essay at The Dissolve about audience's attraction to the flabbiness of Seth Rogen (vote on our related poll!) in Neighbors. I like this essay which raises good points but it's depressing that no one ever extends this kind of enthusiasm or 'justify our love' ink to seeing less than perfect physical women on the screen.

Unrelated but coincidentally apt: On the bus home from my weekend in Boston on Sunday night the guy across from me was watching Bridget Jones's Diary on his laptop. I haven't seen it in years and years and every time I glanced over (I know it's not cool to eaveswatch but screens hypnotize me) I just thought "Zeéeeee* looks so pretty" Of course this is the movie wherein she was meant to be 'unattractive'.

Weight is a tricky emotionally loaded topic but the truth, at least according to me, is that there's room for all physical types in the world and "ideal weight" can vary quite a lot from person to person at least in terms of aesthetic pleasure. Some people look good at any weight, the lucky bitches. I personally think I have a tiny range of weight wherein I look my best (and I'm 20 lbs over it right now so I'm in Rogen territory. sigh) but some people look their best with some chunk and others when they're razor thin. Zellweger was one of the actresses that launched a million essays about standards of beauty and aspirational anorexia and all of that in the Aughts but if you ask me she was never more beautiful than when she was meant to be frumpy. I've never understood why the producers of Chicago didn't actually want her Bridget Jones body (especially since the films were close together) since it would have been a lot more period appropriate, sexier while dancing, and a better physical match for CZJ's traditional beauty hourglass physique. 

As for me I'm desperate to get back to the gym. But that might just be because I've been trapped in my apartment for two days with this awful cold. Tomorrow I will go for a jog if I have any strength at all. I've been half tempted to start an email self-help group for those of us who want to lose some weight, using movies as inspiration. But then that might give Hollywood the wrong idea and suggest that we only want Efron-style bodies. Can't we have a happy medium? My ideal body type both to look at and to have is definitely between the superhero (way too much work and boring as f***) and the schlub (way too much letting yourself go and ice cream... sweet sweet ice cream)

*Yes, it's true the Smackdown did a whammy on us and we keep thinking about Renée Zellweger