How To Be Nice To Your Dragon

Here's an awards curveball for ya. We don't often hear about the Genesis Awards but this is their 25th year. They award media that promotes fair and kind treatment to animals. There are categories ranging from traditional news segments, to magazines articles, up to feature films and documentaries. Here are three major categories I thought might interest you, whether you're an animal lover, a committed vegan or just an awards junkie.

Feature Film
How To Train Your Dragon
The Switch

It's easy to see why Oscar nominee How To Train Your Dragon figured in as the whole plot revolves around learning to leave peacefully with another species. But the sperm donor comedy The Switch starring Jennifer Aniston? Is Jason Bateman turning into a wolf again? Goddamnit. I thought we were done with that in the 80s.

I guess you have to have seen that one to know why it's so honored. But I don't want to have to have seen it. Please explain in the comments if you have.

Feature Documentary 
The Elephant in the Living Room
Oceans 

I guess Banksy's Pink Elephant in the Gallery from Exit Through The Gift Shop was not a smart move if he wanted to win a Genesis. Painting or dyeing animals is usually not a good idea. I loved the "horses of a different color" in The Wizard of Oz but I'm guessing they didn't consult with them on how they were dealing with their makeup the way they had to deal with actors with skin rashes.

Television Series
Law & Order: Criminal Intent "Inhumane Society" -USA Network
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit "Beef" -NBC
True Blood "Hitting the Ground" -HBO

Okay. Someone who is up to date on True Blood (I'm behind since I don't get HBO) will have to fill me in on how this qualified. From what I've seen of the show don't animals get brutalized along with the humans in its dangerous swampy world? Last time I watched [Season 2 spoiler] Marianne, who liked to travel with a giant pig and was all into animal and human sacrifices and cannibalism was finally dispatched by the horns of a deified bull (not really. But she was ecstatically confused).]

And Kristin Davis of Sex & the City fame is getting a special prize.

Hug your pets! Bye.

"Certificate of Nomination For Award"

How oddly worded "Be it known that..."

But ain't it pretty? Toy Story 3's director Lee Unkrich posted it on Twitter.

Links Episode 14,000,000,000

Film "How classicaly trained are this year's acting nominees?" Cool topic, don't you think?
Austin Translation. Cuteness. Pixar was laying down new cement and they let their employees leave a permanent personalized mark.
The Wrap explains Oscar's weighted ballot again. It's much less complicated than people think. And voting a movie #10 doesn't hurt it.
Awards Daily is disgusted by a recent comment by an Academy member who is not voting for Melissa Leo.
Scott Feinberg makes a passionate defense of Melissa Leo, who he considers a friend. Honestly she sounds very cool from the personal anecdotes therein. I've met her only once so I have no stories.
Amiresque a dozen movies to look forward to in 2011. God, I still haven't even though of this.

Bring Mad Men Back sign an online petition. AMC is still jerking fans around. Why on earth are they letting their best show gather dust. This kind of thing can really turn viewers against a network and less committed viewers away from a show. I'm feeling the anger.
Cinema Blend Rosamund Pike is in talks for a Clash of the Titans sequel. Ugh. I want some meaty roles from her.
A Socialite's Life apparently Jude Law and Sienna Miller have broken up... AGAIN. Those crazy kids. Maybe they should star in a remake of Same Time Next Year because obvs they're fond of repetition.
Carpetbagger a disobedient anecdote on the scoring of The Social Network

Finally, you know that AMC is still doing that Best Picture Showcase/Marathon thingy they do each year, right? Even with 10 nominees, they're tackling it. Will you?  Have you ever gone before? I'd try it one year except for that I'm always burnt out on the Best Pictures by the time Oscar night arrives having obsessed over them for five months.

Reader Writes: David O. Russell and Keira Knightley *LIVE*

Wanted to share two recent e-mails I got from longtime TFE readers about their own cinematic-adjacent adventures seeing the stars live.

BBats recently took in a double feature of Citizen Ruth and Flirting With Disaster at Cinefamily and Oscar-nominated directors David O. Russell (The Fighter) and Alexander Payne (Sideways) spoke to the crowd.

Alexander Payne and David O. Russell at the Cinefamily event

BBats writes:

I was listening to your latest podcast (love it) and wanted to share Russell's answer to a question about Nailed and if it will ever come out.  Russell said that the production company used Nailed, Taylor Hackford's Love Ranch, and a Philip Noyce film that would have starred Scarlett Johansson (never shot) as a shell game, shifting money between the three when it was needed. Hackford wouldn't work on Love Ranch unless he got paid first, and Russell got shut down for the final time that same week -- they had been shut down 7 or so times.  When trying to get it going again, Russell shopped it around in rough state like a "two dollar whore" and nobody wanted it.  He said he wanted to move on and leave all the badness behind him.

And with the success of The Fighter, I guess he won't be needing to beg for much work (my opinion).

BBats also recommends attending any event that Russell speaks at because he's hilarious. I can vouch for this myself as mentioned in this post about his Museum of the Moving Image interview. Payne spoke about Citizen Ruth, the 1996 abortion-debate satire starring Laura Dern, which you MUST see if you haven't.

The original title for Citizen Ruth was "The Devil Inside." Mr. Payne said two of his favorite jokes he's written are when Ruth punches the kid and the helicopter scene where Ruth shouts at her mother. (I won't spoil the joke for those who haven't seen it). The movie was given the go ahead by Harvey Weinstein in a Lincoln towncar. He was being pestered by producer Cathy Conrad and he relented saying, "Oh all right."  It took five years to get the greenlight.

Meanwhile across the pond, Rami saw the new production of THE CHILDREN'S HOUR on stage in London during previews.

Elisabeth Moss and Keira Knightley in The Children's Hour

The star-studded affair (Keira Knightley, Ellen Burstyn, Elisabeth Moss and Carol Kane. Whew) opens officially tomorrow. As you may know this is the play which inspired the movies These Three (1936) and The Children's Hour (1961), the latter starring Shirley Maclaine and Audrey Hepburn. Maclaine is now embarrassed about her participation (see the documentary: The Celluloid Closet, 1995) The play is about a school girl who spreads a lesbian rumor about two teachers at her boarding school. The rumor isn't true except that it hits too close to home for one of the teachers and sets in motion a terrible series of events.

Rami writes:

Overall I thought that the entire production was strong. The set design was effective if sparse, with the boarding school set consisting of blueish grey wood panels and a very tall bookshelf.

The first half, which could use some pacing work, focuses mainly on the young school girls. I have to admit that Hannah grated as Mary, sticking to one note of  ‘lying angry little girl’ and rarely getting out of it. However, there is a wonderful pivotal scene in the first half between Moss and Carol Kane (who plays her aunt) where they discuss Karen's (Knightley's) engagement. Kane pushes and prods and Moss gets angry while trying to control her emotions, trying not to admit what she knows is true.  

The second half of the play is much stronger, Ellen Burstyn does nice subtle work as the grandmother who is inclined to believe the child's lie. The final scenes are very strong. Moss is nothing short of exceptional, from her initial despair, to her confrontation with her Aunt, to the joy when she thinks they've been saved to her utterly heartbreaking confession of love. Knightley never overplays it and is mostly reactive, but the moment when she lets all her rage and fury flow out lingers after you leave the theater.

Oh how I wish I could fly to London at the moment!

Have you ever seen The Children's Hour or Citizen Ruth?

My First Dean

JA from MNPP here with my first post in Nathaniel's renovated home. Over at my own, I just asked the simplest of queries about James Dean on this here 80th woulda-been birthday of his - that is, which character of his was the hottest, natch - but I avoided making one terrible admission therein.

See... we've all got holes in our cinematic histories, right? Like I've been in a well-documented Gary Cooper fit lately - how I made it this far into my life without gaping much at him I still haven't wrapped my head around. Every time the light catches his face and he bursts off the screen I boggle anew. Where have you been all my life, Gary Cooper? And it was only a couple of years ago that I finally watched the Godfather films. It seems nuts to me for the longest time that I hadn't plunked down and done then, and then I did, and all was fine. Everybody has such instances. You do! There's an obscure Venezuelan documentary about rice production that you haven't seen, you know it.

So don't judge me when I admit that -- Well, I haven't seen any of James Dean's films. Quelle horreur! Not exactly an obscure Venezuelan documentary about rice production, I know. But before you throw me all the deserved shade I got coming I'm looking to you folk, you kindly cineastes, to help me right my wrong. I'm asking you to tell me which of the three films which his legend rests upon - Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause, Elia Kazan's East of Eden, and George Stevens' Tex-epic Giant - that I need to sit down and watch immediately. 

And then I will go and watch this movie you tell me to go and watch, and then I will report back to you with my impression. Feel free to make your case (and scold me, of course) in the comments!

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poll by twiigs.com

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The poll ends on Saturday, so vote yourselves silly until then, and look for my report back next week.