Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Cat Fight!

Bacall Vs. Deneuve ~Interesting piece by Germaine Greer @ the Guardian about the devolution of screen women. The problem with the article is putting Lauren Bacall on a pedestal and cutting Catherine Deneuve down. I hear what the author is saying about the roles BUT Deneuve is a world class actor and Bacall is only a world class "star" so the argument falls apart from there.

Hudson Vs. Holliday ultranow has mashed up "And I Am Telling You (I'm Not Going)" Someone had to do it.

Travis vs. Walter & Bill OK, OK. this is not a catfight but Travis Hoover does list Pan's Labyrinth as #1 overrated (something I'm totally onboard with --shoulda made my list but it was the second viewing yesterday that clarified my "wow, this is overpraised" feelings) while Walter Chaw & Bill Chambers both have it at #1 and #2 respectively for their top ten lists @ Film Freak Central.

Beyoncé vs. AMPAS Music Branch -word comes via The Envelope that Ms. Knowles won't be winning an Oscar for her Dreamgirls original "Listen" after all. The song has several songwriters and, just as in the best picture nominations for producers, apparently they only allow so many credited people to be nominated. [thx, preston]

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Poor, poor Beyonce. I feel pretty bad for her since all of the Dreamgirls praise is essentially: Jennifer Hudson.

"Listen" is actually a good moment in the film, and it works well, and Beyonce does a good job with it, so there go her hopes and dreams with being an Oscar winner. Maybe she can smile and clap politely on the telecast...

...or curse and throw-down and scratch her way up to the podium. I can dream, right?

Anonymous said...

Aww poor B. So she didn't even help write the song?

Wierd.

NATHANIEL R said...

well she's credited as writing it so it must be a decision that she didn't write enough of it or something.

Anonymous said...

I think that Beyonce did more then any of those writers combined...she produced it, wrote it and performed it....There is seriously going to be some outrage for this...and if I were her I wouldn't sing that song on Oscar night just to show the AMPAS that many of their rules have got to go...(No more then ____ # of producers, writers or etc. for a film...that only one actor from a movie can be nominated in the catgory and if there is another actor they will have to go supporting)

Anonymous said...

I don't want to offend anyone, but have you founded some kind of "let's think the same way" club? I think "Shortbus" and "Marie Antoinette" are overrated by you. "Pan's Labyrinth" may not be better than "Volver" /that girl playing Ofelia is terrible, in fact/, but it's not that bad.
And some of the online critics should think twice before reviewing "Little children". If they are so experienced, what makes them dislike the narrator so much? His presence is simple to explain and you don't have to do a lot of searching, just look at the title of the film.
Well, I wish someone could explain to me what's so genius about "Marie Antoinette" and "Shortbus". I'd be grateful.

Jason Adams said...

I saw Pan's Labyrinth a second time this weekend too, and liked it even more, which I thought impossible, so I guess we're gonna be disagreeing on this one, Nat. And I think the near-universal abuse being lain on Baquero is totally unfair, too! So there! ;-)

Seriously, though, I think she does a fine job that fits in with the movie's tone perfectly. I'm not just being blinded by the visuals here, either; this thing really gets under my skin and breaks my heart.

Anonymous said...

I'm with Ja. Pan's Labyrinth is a terrific piece of filmmaking.

I'm also with anonymous re: Marie Antoinette and Shortbus. Ludicrous crap, both.

What really shocks me, though, is all the love for Babel, The Inland Empire and, ultimately, well-done as it is... Children of Men.

Jason Adams said...

I am with Nat on Marie Antoinette and Shortbus - they're both in my top five (though Pan's Labyrinth is numero uno).

And I'm much harsher on Little Children than Nat was - talk about being disappointed. Though Kate Winslet was, as always, the best thing going. I even liked her in The Holiday, god help me (hated the movie, though).

Don't get me started on Babel. Shudder.

Ah. I missed movie-talk! Good to be back.

Anonymous said...

ja - I liked Kate in The Holiday too. She's lovely.

Jason Adams said...

Even when I was watching Kate do the sitcommy, from the preview, cliched slapstick with call-waiting scene, and knew I shouldn't be loving her, I still did. She is loveliness personified and I am blinded to anything else in her presence.

Oh and I watched The Descent again the other night, for the second time, and it is really threatening to bump something outta my top five... it's one I will be watching more than any of the others, that much I am sure of.

I apologize for the word vomit here, Nat; I'm trying to get my groove back.

NATHANIEL R said...

anonymous --i'm desperate to hear who is in this "let's think the same way club" because, i'd love to hang with them.

i gotta tell you: it's pretty lonely loving marie antoinette and not loving: the queen, pans labyrinth, letters from iwo jima, united 93 and all of the other top ten regulars.

it's kinda the opposite of the consensus club...

just curious who you're referring to.

Glenn Dunks said...

Shame bout Beyonce. I like her and "Listen" is quite good. Why couldn't they bring this rule in and disqualify 2895478 of the 34823058 writers of Shrek 2's "Accidentally in Love".

It sure does sound like that Anonymous person (naturally) is the one thinking the same as everyone else.

Ja, The Descent is in my Top 5 atm, but I have yet to see Marie Antoinette, Shortbus, The Fountain or - the title most likely to push past stuff into a top spot - Inland Empire.

John T said...

God, Jennifer Holliday can sing the stuffing out of that song!!! I mean, Hudson was absolutely fantastic, really, really Oscar-worthy, but Holliday, it's, just, transcendent. I mean the power, the emotion, the voice-that has to be one of the best recorded performances in music history.

Also, I have to object to Bacall be demoted to simply a star-her turns in the forties were breathtaking, and my love for her is unwavering. Though, I agree, Deneuve is also one of the world-class talents.

adam k. said...

Jennifer Holliday is God.

I too love Marie Antoinette, but I wonder sometimes how much I love Shortbus. I need to see it again to clarify. I was giving it the benefit of the doubt every step of the way, cause it's JCM, but I'm actually not sure it was that great.

Haven't seen Pan's yet, or Children of Men or lots of others. But I respect the hell out of United 93 even if I don't love with it, and I suspect that if I see it again, I might love it more. I think Nat has some irrational aversion to it, personally... I hope it gets nominated for best pic.

adam k. said...

OK now I feel bad about saying Nat has an "irrational aversion;" that's kind of presumptuous and mean. I just think a B- is too low a grade for something so well-made and so visceral.

Anonymous said...

That piece on Deneuve was absolutely maddening. One the world's greatest reduced to a "barbie doll" stereotype. Christ, can't the woman be both beautiful and talented? Besides, Bacall is so overrated.

I have no reason to think so,and it's incredibly petty of me to say it, but the author of that article is probably incredibly homely.

;)

Sid said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Sid said...

I like Pan just fine though I'm on board with you about United 93, The Queen, LMS etc being overrated. I love Shortbus and Marie Antoinette more than all these "top ten regulars".

Loved Labyrinth though, which I thought was not only spectacular visually, but also had a superb narrative structure.

Still, this year's been pretty disappointing. Seeing Children of Men tonight which I hope redeems the year for me.

Glenn Dunks said...

It can't be expected that everyone jump on board with a film about September 11. Nat's made it quite clear that he doesn't like the fact that 9/11 is the central focus of films so it's completely understandable.

Anonymous said...

I'm so so devastated about the Beyoncé overruling - when did this retarded rule come into place anyway? Didn't the Return of the King song win an Oscar for its twenty songwriters (including Annie Lennox)?

Beyoncé SHOULD really kick up some fuss about this. I was really looking forward to hearing the words "Academy award winner Beyoncé" in the future. This just seems plain unfair as she is a credited writers on a potentially Oscar-winning song.

What makes it sadder is that I saw an interview she gave a year ago on MTV and she said one of her ambitions and dreams was to someday win an Oscar - but she said she still has plenty of time to make a stab at it.

The AMPAS music branch really need to change some of their crappy rules - like this one and the stupid one that meant A Love That WIll Never Grow Old was disqualified last year.

Re: Germanine Greer's article - it's poorly written and scantily researched. The woman doesn't really have a clue about film - she's an English Lit lecturer at Warwick University here in the UK. It's like one of my lit tutors suddenly deciding to write an overblown piece of film history crit - they wouldn't have a clue where to start. I hate the way the media likes to turn to established professors and lecturers like they're all-knowing oracles. They're not.

And add me to the I heart Marie Antoinette club - it's gorgeous and one of 2006's best.

Grrr about Beyoncé! That's really ruined my day!

StinkyLulu said...

Germaine Greer is a crackpot -- her acute alertness to pop culture is signaled by her agreement to be in the UK Celebrity Big Brother house and then being shocked at her roommates.

Her screed against Deneuve is just strange. Shredding one woman to -- ostensibly -- praise others? Cheap cheap cheap.

Glenn Dunks said...

Germain Greer doesn't really know much about anything. She should stick to discussing her own anatomy and how it makes her a greater person for not using it in 20 something years.

Sorry, but she's a worthless blight on journalism in all honesty.

Beyonce will probably have to settle for merely... a golden globe (probably).

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Kamikaze, that'll probably be the case. But, the thing is, every trailer-trash pop star has a Golden Globe - very few of them actually have Oscars.

And those who do are the ones regularly rolled out when the word 'legend' is bandied about - Barbra Streisand, Prince, Elton John, Bob Dylan, Annie Lennox, Eminem. It would've been nice to see Beyoncé join that elite pantheon of stars.



I've been playing B'Day and Crazy in Love on repeat on my iPod all day in mourning.

adam k. said...

Well, it's one of MY dreams to win and oscar, too, but that doesn't mean I deserve one. If she just wrote a couple words for the song, she doesn't deserve an oscar.

And I don't want Listen to win anyway. "I Need To Wake Up" is all kinds of deserving of best song.

Glenn Dunks said...

God I hate that song.

Considering it's Melissa Etheridge...

Glenn Dunks said...

Okay, "hate" is too strong. I'm just disappointed that Melissa freakin' Etheridge couldn't even mustre up something that sounded angrier and feistier and that wasn't so unsubtle.

Anonymous said...

I like Beyonce and all and she did a good job singing the song, but she didn't write a lot of it. She said that the song was already written before she signed on the project and she just changed some words.

I think Beyonce is overrated especially in songwriting. She didn't write half the things they say she did. "Crazy in Love" & "Irreplaceable" were both written by other people. (as well as the majority of the songs she sings, she only changes a word or two.)

Glenn Dunks said...

Well, apparently Beyonce wrote the bridge of "Crazy in Love" (after Jay-Z's rap. bridge/verse, whatever you call it) and that's the best part of the song (other than the horns), so... 'tev.