Emmy Nominations Tomorrow

I just remembered that the Emmy Nominations are nearly upon us. I try not to think about them too much because I am always sorely disappointed.

Lost Causes I'm Rooting For: Anything Friday Night Lights -- yegods that show is brillz but particularly Connie Britton and Zach Gilford. Plus Enver Gjokaj for season 2 of Dollhouse. It seems like that was cancelled a hundred years ago but it only ended this past January. He was quite awesome/rangey as Victor even doing impersonations that were on par with several Oscar winning mimicry efforts. Because he was doing excellent work in the genre of sci-fi though, nobody noticed. He has only done 1 (just 1!!!) guest spot job since Dollhouse's cancellation. I am normally not this cocky about things I've never done but I swear to god they need to fire that entire town's casting departments and just replace them with me because they are CONSTANTLY ignoring people who've already proven their worth. That's like burning money!

Nail Biter: All three principle Mad Men women (and a few of the guest stars too) and 30 Rock's Jane Krakowski. The shows are popular with Emmy, the actors less so. But so much deserve.

Shows That Will Do Well That I Like: The United States of Tara, Modern Family, Nurse Jackie, Mad Men and Glee will obviously be there but in what numbers? I cracked myself up reading my review of the Glee pilot this morning. I was worried that they wouldn't let Matthew Morrison sing?!? Hee. I also said the show had a light touch. Wow, that turned out wrong. I love the show but boy did they abandon that light touch for full throttle AND YOU AND YOU AND YOU YOU'RE GONNA LOVE ME!!! belting in record time.

UPDATE: the nominations have arrived.
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Just Link With It.

/Film Chris Evans offered Captain America? I like Evans but I hope his management doesn't take this as some sort of sign that they were right to ween him off of the beefcake. He did it so well. That'd be like asking Hollywood's young actresses not to maximize the power of their cleavage. That'd be wrong. It'd be positively un-American!
Dear Jesus offers alternative Alice in Wonderlands she'd prefer to Tim Burton's.
Just Jared Penélope Cruz's role in 4th Pirates of the Caribbean revealed
i09 Enver Gjokaj (Dollhouse's MVP) is headlining a new web series he describes as "Twin Peaks Meets Clue" Two great tastes... but will they taste great together?
Film Essent Uppity liberal Kym Voynar lets Mississipi have it for cancelling their prom. GO KYM! (Now, I realize she spells her name "Kim" but after Rachel Getting Married I'm just changing the spelling for everyone else now. You're welcome, Kym Basinger!).
Guardian pokes fun at the Best Actress Oscar Curse. How should today's A-Listers avoid it?
IFC Some people don't want to let Precious-bashing go. It's a handy way for them to feel superior to those who love it. But the blatant willingness to disregard any element of a movie that doesn't fit your critical thesis (in write-ups like this and those before it) only reminds me of the sick state of US politics. It's all spin.

bummer news (for me at least)...

Keith, Sunday and Nicole at some airport or another last week

I was all ready to roar back to the Nashville Film Festival next month (I'm on the New Directors jury) when I got the bad news. Nicole Kidman, who was a likely attendee, will not *sniffle* be there after all. I don't know which upcoming movie is likely to blame for stealing her away (the travel-heavy lives of the rich, famous and well employed you know) but it better be a Moulin Rouge! and not a Stepford Wives if I have to go without her. It's hard to tell with Kidman because she always has so many projects lined up and the line-up is never very stable (not that anybody's is in Hollywood with start dates always shifting and people always bolting for new offers). After the grief drama Rabbit Hole (which she's already wrapped) there's the romantic comedy Just Go With It but that one is already filming and I'm assuming her role is small or even a cameo. Based on plot descriptions, Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler appear to be the leads. They're pretending to be a couple -- Sandler enlists Aniston to help win him some other girl -- which means that they are the real couple of the movie. You know how predictable rom-coms are. Somewhen during their charade, they'll realize that their pretend feelings are real!!! I'm sorry. I forgot to shout SPOILER. But you know as well as I do how these plots go.

Dolls, Toys and Links

The House Next Door Did you read any of these "Pixar Week" articles arriving to coincide with the Toy Story 3-D release? Interesting stuff therein and not all of it is the typical media fawning over all things Pixar. Though I'm kinda miffed that there's a defense of Cars and takedown of WALL•E. Sometimes there's no need to be contrarian. Every once in a while the general consensus is correct
Rotten Tomatoes Martial arts star Tony Jaa (Ong Bak 2) picks his five favorite flicks. Very mainstream tastes (The Dark Knight. Yep. Forrest Gump?! Ewww)
TV Munchies "15 TV characters who never came out of the closet (but should have)"
MTV Spider-Man 4 is nearing a start date (March, 2010) and a release date (May, 2011). Watch out here comes the Spider-Man (and Mary Jane) Not sure if this is a good idea but #2 was so wonderful that I'll just pretend #4 is #3. Good plan or...?


My New Plaid Pants fine piece on The White Ribbon "The Answer is the Question is the Answer"
The Auteurs Daily chooses the best film sites. I'm truly honored to be among the 57 cinephiles listed
Empire Kristen Bell has joined the cast of the already intriguingly cast Burlesque: Cher, Christina Aguilera, Stanley Tucci. So many possibilities
Erik Lundegaard pens a lovely review of the evocative Bright Star
Coming Soon Mia Wasikowska is going from leading Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland to leading Gus Van Sant's Restless. Can you think of a bigger aesthetic leap? Burton to Van Sant, oh my. Please pray that the largely audience-untested actress is as versatile as she sounds.

Finally... the AV Club has nice things to say about the low-rated second season of Dollhouse. I'm not as sad that the show will probably be cancelled as I once was but I'm definitely disheartened. A Dollhouse failure will only serve to teach the broadcast networks not to take chances on shows with cult followings and that's a sorry lesson to learn. They need to be moving towards the cable model which is, generally speaking, more nurturing to small audience shows with ambition.

I haven't covered Dollhouse this year because I'm trying to find a way to cover tv that's more in line with the goals of the site (movie love!) hence the switch to movie referencing tv coverage of Mad Men or stray episodes of other things. And, let's be frank, I've also been disappointed that this fascinating Joss Whedon series is still awkward and has stumbled back to early Season 1 stand-alone business. The strengths of the first season were all in the long-form storytelling and I thought that they'd realized this as well as found surer footing as they went along.

Weirdly in the comment discussion following this AV post some fans seem to only now be realizing that Enver Gjokaj (who plays Victor) is the best actor on the show. It took a gay dancing scene to convince them? We've known he was the MVP for a long time. He's virtually the only "doll" that doesn't seem like he's acting a role once imprinted... he merely is the new person he thinks he is. He does spot on impressions of people you wouldn't think you could mimic -- like fellow actor Reed Diamond -- and he's engaging in blank state, too. None of this can possibly be easy, as the uneven performances elsewhere indicate. If you ask me he should have been in the running for a Supporting Actor Emmy nomination last year. I'd like to predict a huge career for Gjokaj post-Dollhouse but Hollywood has a weird self-defeating way of putting blinders on when it comes to newish actors doing great work within the sci-fi world. For instance, in anything resembling a sane world Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica) would be a huge star by now, inundated with film and tv offers. Instead she just has to work the ensemble on aging TV shows like 24 or Nip/Tuck? Boo. If I were a casting director, I'd have Gjokaj and Sackhoff on speed dial.
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