Link in Sixty Seconds

Carpetbagger Oscar envelopes get a makeover. Er... it looks like McDonalds is handing out the prizes.
AV Club Michel Gondry is adapting Philip K Dick's Ubik. I predict that before the end of civilization every sentence Philip K Dick ever wrote will be put on the big screen.
The Wrap Adrianne Palicki will be TV's next Wonder Woman. I wish nothing but happiness and success for everyone who has ever been on Friday Night Lights. I do.
Just Jared another collaboration for Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio. They just won't stop!
i09 Zach Snyder's Superman may be in trouble.
fourfour "wagon wheel watusi" Oh, Burlesque.
My New Plaid Pants the moment I fell for.... Andrew Garfield
Scott Feinberg is still pushing Melissa Leo for the gold. Here are some statistics to consider.

Finally Empire Online is hosting a "Done in 60 Seconds" contest in which readers have submitted one minute films spoofing some of hte greatest movies of all time. There are 20 finalists, one is even made by a regular Film Experience reader (who alerted me to the contest -Congrats!). Quite a few of them show real ingenuity but my favorites are the ones that don't merely recreate but remold the film in some other image. There's a spoof of The Terminator that cleverly uses Toy Story characters. It obviously cost nothing but, then, neither did the original Terminator. Ghost is similarly lowfi with teddy bears but totally works and I loved the voicework even if it did seem to be taking its cue from those 30 second bunny films.  The Wizard of Oz short is really more of a redo of a trailer of a hugely popular 90s movie (I'll leave you to guess which one). And there's two Social Network films. One of them (contestant #9) is an amusing send up of Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher rather than the movie itself.

Did you like Benjamin Button? Do you wanna go back to that?

It totally had me giggling. The last musical cue is hilarious. So, that's the one I voted for. Are you going to vote?

Interview: The Editors of The Social Network

Meet Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter of The Social Network. They were my own gold medalists this year for Best Editing and they're Oscar nominated together for the second time for David Fincher's riveting classic. You won't know their faces but they've contributed significantly to major moviegoing pleasures in the last few years: their assembly skills kept all the difficult pieces of Zodiac's mosaic rubbing together; their attention to detail augmented those complex setpieces in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; their sense of rhythm and performance shaping kept The Social Network racing along without running roughshod over its dramatic soul. In short, they're quite a gifted team. 

Left: Angus Wall. Right: Kirk Baxter

Herewith some highlights from our conversation. 

When I spoke with them last week, they were on a wee break from working on the day's footage for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. 

Nathaniel: David Fincher has been shooting The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo during the awards season madness. How is this even possible? It must be exhausting.

Have you had any time to enjoy the accolades yourself or does Fincher keep you both locked up in the editing bay?

[read the whole interview]

Click to read more ...

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"

Link Shop

Fandor Sheila O'Malley on Melissa Leo's career and her ship coming in.
Movie|Line 5 Ways The Social Network can reclaim its Oscar mojo.
Observations on Film Art Facial acting "less with the eyebrows" in The Social Network.
Playbill Actress Jane Lynch releasing a memoir in the fall. Fun.Vulture Harvey Weinstein's canny talking points to win The King's Speech votes. Not to be an ass but should anyone really hold up John Travolta as a taste-maker with a straight face? Yes, that filmography sure shows hisimpeccable taste in movies!
Movie | Line Sundance 11's Most Likely to Succeed

Self-Styled Siren "For the Love of Film Noir" blog-a-thon and restoration fundraiser in mid February
AV Club asks if they'd ever really give Banksy the doc Oscar for a heavily fictional oddity like Exit Through the Gift Shop
Pop Matters - Interesting piece on the fallible businees of naming "bests" and awardage in general.

We don’t sort art, it sorts us. Which piece of art tops the list says less about the quality of the art than who made the list. The shiny statuettes are shaped like human beings, because they signify the very human process by which they are awarded.

Finally, JA at MY NEW PLAID PANTS has begun to announce his annual Golden Trousers honors which includes "moments of awesomeness" like this one from Sofia Coppola's Somewhere...

My favorite part of SOMEWHERE

They're always good wacky fun to be had peering into JA's inimitable fever-addled brain.

And the Link Goes To...

General Entertainment
Big Shiny Robot is AMC going to bring all three of their big shows (Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead) back at once? That'd be a switch.
Movie|Line hot trend at Sundance: Actors directing movies. I'm hearing good things about Vera Farmiga's efforts.
Focus Features ooooh pretty Jane Eyre photos.
Go Fug Yourself Well Played Kirsten Dunst

Telegraph Tim Robey gives a rasberry to the lazy Golden Rasberries.
Mr Hipp X-Women. Yay.
Kenneth in the (212) Hugh Jackman taken a cab. Just cuz.
Zombie Toenails [NSFW] the only reason to see Love and other Drugs right here on loop. I never talked about that movie once I saw it but my goodness it was a mess.

Oscar Stuff
LAMB looks at the Oscar Foreign Film race.
New York Magazine a fine profile on Darren Aronofsky
The Hollywood Reporter Mark Zuckerberg on The Social Network's Oscar nods
Movie|Line The Social Network backlash is officially in full swing. Even James Franco is taking shots at it! Although if you want to bitch about "conventional" films, why choose that one when The King's Speech has more nominations? This is what sometimes happens to films when they're out front for too long. People get uppity about their "status".
Reddit Coen Bros ensemble infographic... fun! It's kinda like my "familiar faces" series only more visually enticing.
Alt Film Guide discusses the preferential balloting system and what it means for Oscar.
Antagony & Ecstacy offers up "The Antagonists", Tim's own awards.

Finally, have you seen this clip from Newsweek about pregnancy at the Oscars? I love The Bening's humor and Natalie's wonder about her own experience as well as Nicole Kidman's minor interjections "golly!" haha. Cuteness.