Red Carpet: Palm Springs Film Festival

Jose here with great news. Apparently Cate Blanchett decided to listen to my prayers (yes, I pray to her) and - after a good, but slightly underwhelming fashion run - finally went back to wowing us. She is the epitome of Kate Hepburn-effortless-glamour in a sky-hued Marc Jacobs gown, with a stunning gold applique-Rorschach-test that screams "Awards season Queen is here, biatches" (And screams it right in other celebrities ears. See tweets from Carol's genius screenwriter Phyllis Nagy, Cate's Best Actress competition Brie Larson and images of Rooney Mara, too.)

Cate was benevolent enough to also let Alicia Vikander out of her leathery/earthy Louis Vuitton curse, and allow her to wear a delicious Erdem gown that's the most playful we've seen her yet. My usual quandary with Vikander comes in her usually meh choice of footwear, which always seem to be inspired by Charlotte York. Ooh, interesting game here, which of these ladies whould be which Sex and the City character? Dame Helen is of course the Samantha, in yet another elegantly sexy design by Alberta Ferreti. The lovely Saoirse Ronan in a multicolored/multipattern Duro Olowu is all kinds of perfect and age appropriate.

Less impressive, yawn inducing even, are potential Oscar winners Rooney Mara and Brie Larson, both of whom exist only within the confinements of an "if it ain't broken" universe. They're both beautiful, but I bet I could have found any picture of any other ceremony they've attended, inserted it here, and fooled everyone. Mara is in Lanvin, Larson in Jason Wu. Just a thought, would their styles become slightly more exciting if we Freaky Friday-ed them? It's about time Rooney did some more color, and Larson put her hair in a bun, or anything other than her usual pulled back, wet look

How would you improve these two soon-to-be awards season fixtures? 

The Greatest Pick Up Line in Movie History

Mic drop. No really. 

Imagine you're Therese. It's 1952, you look like Rooney Mara, you're wearing a Santa hat, you're hawking a pile of terrifying looking but also freakishly gender-normative dolls, there's a sign behind you that says "Mommy's Baby," and you've got the span of one sale to signal your romantic viability to customer and apparent goddess Carol.

What's your move? Coquettishly mention that her daughter's chosen doll, Bright Betsy, has a capacity for secretion? No? And that's why Cate Blanchett's not your girlfriend.

ACE Noms Ignore Spotlight, Love Joy. What is Happening?

The ACE Eddie Nominations are out and as usual there are some real head-scratchers. The guild nominations that precede Oscar noms tend to throw something or other for a loop in terms of perceptions of what the industry loves. Or perhaps it's less complicated than we always assume and it's merely that those who vote on awards just don't see that many movies. Guild types are often more busy making movies than watching them after all.

One head scratcher: I'm not sure how we've ended up in a world where Joy, David O. Russell's latest ode to Jennifer Lawrence, is nominated for its editing. I don't mean to pick on the picture as I actually think it's far better than its reviews imply and am happy to have company with Nick and Jose on this; it seems fairly obvious that the nation's film critics are working through their David O. Russell issues now that he's made a woman's picture. But for all of Joy's underdiscussed strengths the editing is not one of them. This is no mark against any of its four editors who've done great work in the past but it's fairly obvious that they're struggling with a film that is so multi-toned and multi-authored and possibly unfinished and trying to make the most of its competing impulses and weird detours. The picture struggles to find its rhythm throughout. 

But let's not pick on Joy because people have been way too mean to it. The nominees and more thoughts are after the jump. 

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National Society of Film Critics: Love for Spotlight, Carol, Creed....

The last important critics awards have been announced and in the week of Oscar nomination voting too. Though they went with many of the names that have previously mentioned at other stops, they made one particularly welcome new call in Michael B Jordan as Best Actor? But are Oscar voters still looking for suggestions? When you've got a field as potentially anemic as this year's Best Actor race where no one seems all that enthused about the very famous probabilities, dig a little deeper. It can only help! The NSFC, formed in 1966 and the third most important US critics group outside of NYFCC and LAFCA (yes some members overlap since "National" includes multiple cities) spread the wealth. Only Spotlight and Carol took more than one prize. 

The winners and runners up are after the jump...

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BB-8 is Basically Round WALL•E

Chris here. One of the most exciting elements of The Force Awakens is the fresh heroes we have to idolize. But Rey, Finn, and Poe aren't the only new blood worth obsessing over: we also have fan favorite BB-8.

So much of The Force Awakens relies on our collective nostalgia for the originals, but BB-8 seems to be his own charming creation. If you're thinking of C-3PO and R2-D2 as sources for our new friend, they're not the droids you are looking for. Delivering more humanity than his droid predecessors and drawing the most laughs, his extroverted connection to the other characters embodies the optimistic spirit of hope that is the staple of the franchise.

And yet something still felt too familiar. Who did BB-8 keep reminding me of?? And then, it clicked...

A playful breakdown after the jump...

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