The Carpetbagger has a fun theorizing piece on celebrity interviews
Actress Archives says goodbye to actor James Whitmore (RIP)
Low Res goes xenophobic (but has an archival point)
wipe that smirk off your face has really tough Oscar trivia. I'm stumped
Scanners on the ho hum controverseries for this year's Oscars
Silly Hats Only the Muriel Awards have begun
The NY Post on the New York Times strange sin of omission in regards to one the First Lady of MGM Norma Shearer. As you may have guessed, this is not okay with yours truly
Thompson on Hollywood the WGA winners. Stop this Slumdog train, I want to get off. I get that people like it but Best WRITING ??? ... and so often? I weep for our collective discernment skills. P.S. On a totally shallow note: How cute is Milk screenwriter, Dustin Lance Black?
Finally, I love this piece at Bright Lights After Dark that talks about the problem of "craftsmanship" in our prestige pieces. Erich Kuersten gets right at the heart of the problem I couldn't quite articulate concerning overly beautiful films like Doubt or Revolutionary Road ...
"ass-over-tit rock poetry" is a shockingly apt description of ...Woolf, is it not? I love reading Kuersten.Craftsmanship in cinema has become synonymous with stifled - when every aspect of your production -- every crew member-- is doing everything above and beyond to get the script quite right and enable them to win awards. When it's something that's meant to be kind of spontaneous and off-the-cuff, like a two person character drama, or some fly-on-the-wall sort of minor key mood piece, like Doubt or The Valley of Elah, for example, you can see the sterility of the Sundance film school-style stress on crafstmanship vs. say, the ass-over-tit rock poetry of something like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
...It has to do with film schools churning out competent gear-heads eager to show off their expensive educations with key lighting and tracking shots instead of dropping acid and going off to Vietnam or whatever heart of darkness is in vogue this year. People are scared of themselves, and it's just not interesting after awhile watching them avoid the mirror.
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10 comments:
Stop this Slumdog train, I want to get off. I get that people like it but Best WRITING ??? ... and so often? I weep for our collective discernment skills.
I don't know if Slumdog Millionaire is objectively a great script, but it's a FANTASTIC adaptation. It improves upon its source material (the novel Q&A) in every way imaginable. They really only share a premise -- unlikely game show contestant knows the answers based on life experience.
So for that reason alone, it would be a deserving winner.
The closest comparison, ironically, is Eric Roth's adaptation of Forrest Gump, which took a horrible book by Winston Groom and made it into something that, well, a whole lot of other people care about. Not a fan of the film, but I will admit that it's so much better than the novel.
I'm not sure about the merits of that arguement.
If you take the world's crappiest book and adapt it into a mediocre to average film, that is a huge improvement upon the book. It doesn't necessarily make it worth an Oscar. It just makes it a mediocre to average script.
If there is any justice in the world, The Reader will win Best Adapted Screenplay (though we all know there is no justice in the world).
As far as Mrs. Thalberg is concerned, I'm 100% with Crawford.
On a personal opinion: yes, Dustin Lance Black is quite cute ;)
I had the opportunity to speak with Dustin Lance Black at the PGA Awards 2 weeks ago and I have to say that he was very kind and humble. We spoke for only a few minutes but I noticed he was very excited and happy about this award season and am glad he won at the WGA.
He also got a standing ovation at the WGA last night when he won and talked about Prop 8, and I think that his Oscar speech will be very touching as well.
Thanks Nat for your link to the Muriel Awards. You've probably linked to them before, but this was the first time that I did so. I can't believe that I actually know the person behind them since we had a Geology class together at tOSU. I was wondering what happened to him since I lost contact with all of my AOL movie friends. It's a small world I guess. :)
Norma's had 26 years to grow claws...jungle red! Just imagine what she going to do with those claws once she meets this ridiculous reporter.
When I met him, I found Black to be gracious, if a bit self-satisfied, though I suppose that's natural for someone who's presumably getting as much dick as he is right now.
He's a young, blond, toned, attractive surfer dude who's now also an oscar nominee, and on February 22nd, he may officially become the first twink to win an Academy Award.
I've recently been told he's 34/35, which is insane, because when I met him, I could've sworn he was no older than 15.
You would be more than correct about Dustin Lance Black. I became a fan of his 'work' before I even saw Milk.
Yo! What it is, kid! Thanks for the nice link.
I haven't seen Slumdog, but the whole premise unnerves me, as does the popular support.
It's nothing against the film, which I am sure I'd probably like once I can see it without having to fight for an aisle seat against the ceaseless sell-out crowds of hipster couples at the Angelika, it's more the self-congratulatory vibe I catch off its upper crust supporters, like the rich wives who pool money together and announce proudly at the ball: "we're sending a poor Indian boy to school!" -- a few years ago they applauded themselves for accepting black actors as best picture winners (Ray and Monster Ball), then it was copping out on the gay issue by giving it up for fucking CRASH instead of Brokeback Mountain-- then it was Kiwi Lord of the Rings sweepstakes -- this year it's going to be Indian, it's like living in NYC with your batch of take out menus - "tonight, let's order Indian" that's fine, but when it's the Oscar bourgeoisie, they let the whole world know how forward-thinking they are by "going Bollywood" and you suddenly can't order Indian yourself without feeling sick.
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