/Film James Franco making another poetry film. From behind the camera this time.
MCN Halle Berry's Frankie & Alice to get Oscar qualifying release. Have I ever told you how much I hate the one week qualifier rule? "YES. SHUT UP," the readers shout in unison. I'm just sayin' movies should be eligible only if the year of their real release. It's the only way a calendar year 'future history!' eligibility system actually means anything.
Serious Film wonders where the critical bar is set for Best Picture nominees in the wake of the cool response to Hereafter. As some of y'all know I don't put much stock in rotten tomatoes scores as Oscar signifiers (partially because all positive or all negative scoring (the dread thumbs!) is an inherently flawed system for reflecting worth and even true opinion. Unless of course everyone is all "A"s and "F"s these days and I realize that's the sad way it's been heading.
The Spy in the Sandwich reviews an interesting-sounding film I hadn't yet heard of called Le Fil (The String), a gay film with Antonin Stahly and Claudia Cardinale (!)
Hell on Frisco Bay looks at the explosion of film festivals over the last decade. I suspect this is our future since distribution has become so impossible for so many films. My guess: people attending festivals these days are the people that used to frequent their neighborhood arthouses.
Paul C wrote a (spoiler-heavy) review of Never Let Me Go that I think is really interesting and perceptive ...though he likes the movie much more than I.
offcinema just cuz
Before Glee revives The Rocky Horror Picture Show mania for the next few days, why not a peak at Russell Crowe in fishnets in 1987 playing Eddie & Dr. Scott. Whaaaaa? [hat tip: Cinemablend]
I wish I knew who was playing the other roles. Anyone else famous on that stage?
Everything I Know a perceptive review of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson which I just saw on Broadway (see "crush of the moment" in the sidebar.) I wish movie biopics had this much irreverent invention.
ONTD Madonna to open fitness centers around the world. "Hard Candy"! Ha, I love this idea. Sometimes when celebrities branch out into other fields it's a big "No!" head scratcher. But this one makes perfect narrative sense.
Luc Latillipe awesome drawing of Yvonne Craig's Batgirl. There are no other Batgirls if you ask me.
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11 comments:
showing my age -i saw that touring production of rocky horror a year later when a friend of mine took over the role of rocky. on the night i went russell crowe covered for frankenfurter (he was pretty good)
Frankie and Alice-I hate it too. (The rule, that is.)
Hereafter-Not a Best Picture nominee. I agree with his logic, and Hereafter got a Rotten score, has one critic who loves it, outside of Clint it doesn't look very Oscar-bait, and it made little money. So long, Hereafter.
Regarding Hereafter, have pseudo-anthology films ever done particularly well at the Oscars. I know they can get nominated if they seem weighty, worldly, and important, like Babel and The Hours. But was there ever a time when this portmanteau format was in favor?
Halle Berry new entry in the Best Actress race? the category seemed already too much crowded (Bening-Moore, Portman, Lawrence, Manville, Wonderful Kidman, Williams, Hawkins, Lane, Swinton, maybe Paltrow...and Swank). Good for Academy Award Winner Halle if she succeeds in getting one spot...
The role is awards baity and I'm sure she will be willing to campaign hard for the movie but she needs strong reviews (anyway the few ones from Cannes were quite positive with her)
mirko -- given the crowd we've already got I'm guessing that any one week qualifier at this point is just filling contractual obligations. If only AMPAS would get rid of this rule, distribution would just happen when it's meant to and no sooner or no later if at all.
otherrobert -- CRASH? I'd say Oscar was quite a bit fond of the converging network films in the Aughts. But maybe that's because there were so many of them in recent years that they'd have to cave eventually ;)
... Ouch grade for Women on the Verge..... Had such high hopes for a Lincoln Centre Theatre Production with that cast.
Guess I'm the only one that liked "Hereafter" then. It's nowhere near the abomination that critics would have you believe about it. Don't know how it'll measure up against the other heavyhitters or at the Oscars, but this has its moments and has some incredibly moving sections to it.
Oh right, Crash. Even though I don't mind that film, I always forget it. Again, though, it's a serious, weighty, look how with it we are kind of film the Academy can pat themselves on the back for recognizing. Hereafter is a series of ghost stories.
arkaan -- i'll have to write about it obviously.
As far as gauging the critical success required for an Oscar nomination it's fun to ballpark things but it's impossible to make rules. With the Oscars everything is a rule until it isn't.
It's worth noting that if there was a chart last year measuring the box office success necessary to win Best Picture, The Hurt Locker wouldn't have come close to making it.
Hoping for a big Halle Berry comeback!!!
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