Podcast: Now With Three Dream Layers

Actually it's just a reg'lar ol' podcast. But Nick, Joe and Katey are three and they're dreamy so that counts. My blog pals are back to discuss the Oscar race with me (if you're new I'm Nathaniel). Topics covered include...

• "Best of Sundance"
• Katey's interview with James Marsh
• Melissa Leo's personal FYC ads (see below -via)
• Just how many Oscars can The King's Speech win?
• Banksy for Exit Through The Gift Shop and other Docs
  
• The Social Network's editing
• David Fincher's frankness
• The Color Purple reunion on Oprah
• Toy Story 3 and the over-arching Pixar narrative
• Chris Nolan and Inception's Oscar hopes
• And more silliness...

Listen to podcast located at the end of this post. Join in the dreamy conversation in the comments.

wake me up. wake me uppppppppp

Melissa Leo's personal FYC ads

Podcast: The King's Kick

The Drama, Tragicomedy and Mystery of This Year's Oscars.

Over at Tribeca Film in my weekly Oscar column I'm examining where we are now Post-SAG with ballots out and just two precursors left (BAFTA & The Spirit Awards) which aren't really precursors in the classical sense (they don't deal with the same pool of films, exactly). My personal feeling is that this year's season is headed toward tragicomedy in its final lap as The King's Speech takes off its underdog disguise.

Read it

Are you laughing, crying, or scratching your head over the recent awards season developments?

P.S. for a lighter take on this post SAG climatemy friend Katey has an amusing rundown of "likelihood to win"

"I Have a Link!" "Yes You Do."

The Pixar Blog Toy Story 3 gets a huge billboard in LA.
Basket of Kisses John Barry, oft-Oscared composer passed away at 77. RIP. True story: When I first became obsessed with the movies in the mid 80s, Out of Africa was one of the first LP film scores I ever bought.
The Telegraph Should you revisit beloved Disney films from childhood? Retrospectives have Tim Robey wondering. I've been contemplating revisiting the Disney oeuvre myself.
Your Movie Buddy plays an Oscar nominee name game. Love the finale.
The House Next Door 'The Conversations' takes on Coen Bros True Grit What's the hashtag for this? Oh yes, #longreads
Cinema Blend offers up a Sundance Sales Guide. I've been waiting for someone to compile this rather than report solely on them as they happen. Thank you!
Kenneth in the (212) lusts after Henry Cavill, our new Superman. Agreed that Cavill (of The Tudors fame) is a fine specimen but Brandon Routh was so perfect in Superman Returns. And his recent cameo in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was so funny that I longed ridiculously for him to take back up the cape.
Boy Culture I've been so consumed with awards season I keep missing other stuff. Like Geri from The Facts of Life coming out of the closet. She can't even walk straight!

It's Bertie's World. You're Just Living In It.
Playbill The King's Speech was conceived as a play and may head to the stage.
Gawker The Best Picture nominees in Legos. Figures that TKS is the most boring one (but I love the one for 127 Hours.)

"why should i waste my time listening to you?" "BECAUSE I HAVE A VOICE"

Finally, Tom Shone, a critic I personally love, has an unfortunate affection for The King's Speech. But his piece about the Oscar race upheaval and the falsity of projected versions of Oscar as either old fuddy duddies or young hepcats is fun.

The academy haven't lost their taste for Oscar bait. They just haven't been let near a healthy enough specimen. They're like drunks who've managed to stay dry for several years not because they have lost their taste for alcohol but because nobody has offered them a drink.

Though I warn you: this may be a depressing read if you've been convincing yourself that the Academy has changed due to the last few winners.

SAG Live-Blog. Less Painful Than Oral Surgery?

 6:10 Here we are again. Another weekend, another awards show. Three more to go: SAG (tonight), BAFTA, and then the big Kahuna, Oscar Oscar Oscar. I warn you all up front that I am live blogging tonight with a terrible toothache. I fear I need a root canal. I've heard they're very painful but having lived through so many Oscar races, I figure I've had so much psychic pain -- Crash anyone? -- that my nerve endings are probably shot anyway. Hi Tom Hooper! So, what's a little oral surgery?

Armie Hammer is a dork, an adorable dork.

What's the word for someone who is just genius at something without trying to be, an idiot savant? That doesn't sound flattering. Soooo the flattering version of that. Whatever the term is. That's what Hailee Steinfled is. Hailee is home schooled and Mean Girls taught us that that makes for smart girls, Mathletes even. Every single time she's worn something amazing and she's not repeating looks either. She looks even better tonight in a bright colorful stripey thing that only a 14 year old could pull off at a big deal Hollywood event and still make it look glam. Who are her acting heroes?

Besides Jodie Foster, Natalie Portman is somebody I've always looked up to. Diane Lane I love. I don't know I just love the fact that they love what they do. They bring such joy to their work.

The Diane Lane answer totally surprised me. She gleeks out over blonde himbo Chord Overstreet from Glee who Guiliana (from E!) then grills about his hair. He claims "I just get out of the shower and shake it." That's what I do, too!

6:20 Guilina interviews Jesse Eisenberg. Asks him 'how did you get here?'

On a airplane. It's very efficient.

Ha. Love it. He just can't play the 'I love this inane IQ free banter.' game.

READ THE WHOLE LIVE BLOG

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Hooper Wins DGA. In Other News, The Fat Lady Sings

Who'da thunk it? I realize some people predicted that Tom Hopper would win the Directors Guild of America prize for The King's Speech but these predictions were surely made in panic, given the obvious Oscar love for the film on nomination morning. But I mean a week ago who would have suspected that his able direction of British actors  in a light royalty drama would be heading into the Oscars looking like a sweeper, even for direction, even with an overdue genuine giant of the industry leading  like David Fincher (The Social Network) leading up until now. Not me. I'll be the first to admit it.

I'll also come right out and say that I don't understand it. Fincher captured lightning in a bottle; Russell resuscitated a tired genre with humor, humanity and noisy originality; Nolan displayed skyscraper sized ambitions and vaulted technical obstacles; Aronofsky went for broke, chasing his ballerina's madness in his own inimitable way. What did the Director's Guild see in Hooper's work that surpassed these achievements? I'm genuinely curious.

The King's Speech is well directed so this isn't the travesty of a situation like Ron Howard beating four auteur legends for his own muddled work on A Beautiful Mind. But it's still... well... "people just love this film," one must admit, shrugging one's shoulders and calling it a year for a cute British triumph-over-personal-adversity film.

Next up: Winning SAG tonight (live blogging right here starting at 7 PM EST), BAFTA soon and then on to 8 or 9 Oscars apparently (sigh). The night we wait for all year just got super monotonous 28 whole days in advance.