Oscar Symposium Day 3: Big Finale Remix

Previously on the Symposium: Nathaniel was talking about Tarantino's mastery of 'The Moment' and how it excuses his messy indulgences elsewhere. As a filmmaker he's a perfect match for our DVD chapter-menu culture


Guy Lodge: I think it's a spot-on point, and I'm both intrigued and troubled by the idea of Basterds being a success story of latter-day audience inclination to edit their own movies. My problem is that, while I'm as capable as anyone else of filleting out treasurable moments -- -- "Attendez la crème!" -- from the sheer morass of stuff in the film, my brain can't blithely discard the missteps as you imply others can. For much sorrier reasons, the wincingly awful appearance of Eli Roth burns as brightly in my memory as that exquisitely extended opening sequence, so much so that one can't eclipse the other.

But I think you've latched onto a selectivity that has boosted the fortunes of a number of contenders this year besides Basterds: everyone has cut out and stuck the 'Married Life' sequence of Up into their cinematic scrapbooks, but who really wants the rest? Precious, whatever your take on it, is made for mental re-editing -- Joe Klotz's baffling nomination notwithstanding.

Tim Robey: What we're basically saying here is that a lot of these movies are screener-friendly. They can be browsed. And I have to say this faintly depresses me as an old-fashioned, packed-audience-on-opening-night, communal experience sort of guy. This is where I think the 3D selling point of Avatar is quite a canny ruse -- a trick to get people going back out to the movies rather than waiting for the inevitably diminished experience on their home TV -- and it's a ruse for which I have some respect. Did Cameron send out screeners for Avatar? Did he need to? To lesser extents, Up and District 9 (and to be fair, even The Blind Side) are films that audiences discovered together in their first few weeks of release, whether in a mall in Kentucky or the Odeon Leicester Square (where The Blind Side has yet to be unveiled, actually -- Sandy or no Sandy, UK distributors are understandably never in much of a hurry to release anything to do with American football. We get confused! Don't ask me what a Tight End is.)


Read the rest at Day Three of the Symposium
In which we discuss "the Ten", The Hurt Locker, Where the Wild Things Are, the scores, missing foreign films, screeners vs theatrical and wrap up this three-day party with Meryl Streep vs. Sandra Bullock and Nathaniel's favorite movie game "Re-Casting Couch"

Return and comment. It keeps the conversation going!
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Stanley Tucci Rising "Gird Your Loins!"

On the same day I sat in the presence of Tilda Swinton (which I already told you about), I also attended the similarly formatted Stanley Tucci event at the New Yorker festival. You can read my article about the experience over at Tribeca. I love that they festooned it with an old Levi's ad of Tucci's. So weird to see him like that.

As you may have noticed in past conversations, I'm fairly fond of Tucci and I've been happy to see his (supporting) star rising. I knew nothing about him personally so the event was my first reveal of what he was like off stage: serious but funny (and punny as the case may be). He's often referred to as a Character Actor which he dubs a

redundant term. What they mean is you're not a leading man. It's like saying that someone is heavyset or 'she's a handsome woman!'

That perception frees him up since he doesn't have to worry about the parts drying up with age. "It's like I feel very fortunate in a weird way that I lost my hair." he told us joking "I had it all plucked. It was a conscious plucking."

Tucci & Streep as co-workers in The Devil Wears Prada
and spouses in Julie & Julia. Here's to team-up #3. His
comments on Streep are in the article.

When it came to the very standard topic of straight-man-playing-a-gay-man (zzz, why is this still so amazing to people?) as he did in Prada, Tucci was relatively inoffensive although he couldn't resist joking about his (late) wife ribbing him about it "Well, that was pretty easy for you wasn’t it?". He told a great story about the making of the film involving his famous "Gird your loins!" line, which marked the impending arrival of Miranda Priestley.. Maybe this is on the DVD commentary -- I haven't checked -- but each take the director had him utter a different line to keep the cast on their comic toes. One time, Tucci recalls laughing, he even yelled...

'TITS IN!' which doesn't even make any sense!

'Gird your loins' for that Oscar campaign, though. The New Yorker event showed a lengthy clip of Tucci as George Harvey from The Lovely Bones. The clip wasn't exactly what you might call "subtle" -- Peter Jackson not being a demur director -- but it showcased Harvey cleaning up after the murder of Saorsie Ronan and frantically 'straightening up' his place (chillingly not in the way one would normally straighten up, quite the opposite) when the police come knocking.

Do you see Tucci as being in play for Oscar... or are you holding out for the actual film evidence?

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Julie & Julia Inspires Katey & Nathaniel

Contrary to appearances --I look so sinister in this photo (!) -- I am not about to whack Katey over the head with a sizzling frying pan. I was actually quite happy to be making her an omelette breakfast (which was really lunch) as we discussed Julie & Julia for the vodcast. Breakfast is the only thing I know how to make and otherwise I am banned from the kitchen. I accidentally melt things on top of toaster ovens and burn water. It's true.

Julia & Julia opened eight whole days ago now, which means its anathema to most websites. I'll continue to do my small part in swimming against the stream of the mainstream movienet which deems movies worthy of intense discussion for years before they open but not a moment past opening weekend. That's when discussions should be kicking off, y' know?



Did you enjoy the double finding-yourself-through-cooking tale? Would you have deleted the whole Julie part or just spiced it up a bit? I'm asking too many questions but I'm just a nosey person. What do you know how to cook? Remember to make enough for everyone.

Related: Nathaniel's Review and Katey's Cooking Adventure
Previous: Vodcasts with Katey

de Havillink

Go Fug Yourself "well played" Kirsten Dunst & Demi Moore
Noh Way for counter programming purposes, here's a good piece from a writer who is not joining the Meryl Streep Julie & Julia love-in
Slate "the many accents of Meryl Streep" I wish this video was quicker and more inclusive but it's still kinda cool to hear the voices in close succession
My Internet... finally sees Reservoir Dogs
babblebook is not happy about the revisions to The Time Traveller's Wife
Cinema Blend Iron Man 2 footage leaked
Deep Focus on Dollhouse Season One. I'm itching for Season Two to start, aren't you?

three John Hughes pieces
NYTimes AO Scott's fine appraisal of John Hughes (RIP)
We'll Know When We Get There "Sincerely, John Hughes" an article from a John Hughes' fan turned pen pall
The Spy in the Sandwich on the poetry of John Hughes writing

Finally...


Finally, I neglected to spot this lengthy interview with the great Olivia de Havilland (The Heiress, Gone With the Wind and many more classics) when it was published last month. She's 93 years old and still trying to finish her memoirs. She wants people to understand what the 30s were really like in Hollywood, the sexual mores, the fame, the studio control. Unfortunately it sounds as if this book will exclude her much gossiped about multiple decades estrangement from her sister Joan Fontaine

That is one subject on which I never speak. Never.

Oh gods, please let her finish this book before she passes away. One nitpicky note, though. She is not, as this article implies, the oldest living Oscar winner. I believe that's Luise Rainer who, like Olivia, is a two-time winner (The Great Ziegfeld) who is still walking this good earth. She's 99 years old.

Streep at 60: Julie & Julia

Bonjour! My weekly column at Towleroad is up in which I fall for the trap of using food puns to talk about Julie & Julia. Hey, my life is as bifurcated as this movie lately. I'm working with tight windows of time here and the food words are so easy to sprinkle and stir into the review batter. Consider this the last review for my dormant "Streep at 60" series which I will continue when I can finally find a free day.

The Review
If you generally catch dinner after your weekend movie, rethink the order before catching Julie & Julia. It'll help you passively enjoy this foodie's dream movie rather than drooling on it actively. Though the movie shares its title with Julie Powell's blog-turned-novel "Julie & Julia" which chronicled her attempt to cook all of the recipes in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", the narrative is doubled. The movie version also includes the origin story of Julia Child as she journeyed from culinary student to famous chef. The parallels between Powell (Amy Adams) and Child (Meryl Streep) are broadly and pleasurably drawn by the movie: two restless women with devoted, patient husbands, find self-fulfillment through cooking. And cooking. And cooking some more. I suspect the double stuffed film will be easiest to enjoy while leisurely digesting.

If there's a missing ingredient in the movie's fun recipe, it's dramatic conflict...

READ THE REST

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Stweeps #3

More Meryl Streep Tweets. Yay, Sunday filler!


I love the variety of emotions Meryl brings out in people: reverence (wallpaper) awestruck fear (brain eating!), overrated annoyance (poopy), respect (badass)


Meryl Streep @ 600! Hee. It's a retrospective that only Methusaleh could write.


Agnes Moorehead???? No one ever speaks of her but I smile on the rare occasions that people do. If you've never seen The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) you must. I know it's hard to find (every time I search for it I get the blasphemous remake) but Moorehead gives one of the best performances of all time -- it's more than worth seeking out.

frannylovesfigs was right. It looks like Meryl really is on the cover of is Mastering the Art of French Cooking but please tell me that's a removal paper wrap? I love Meryl but if that's an actual cover that's so wrong. Julia Child... RESPECT.

Tomorrow (June 22nd) is Meryl's actual 60th birthday. We'll have a celebratory post and video and then a couple days break from Streep -- there's current cinema to discuss -- before we wrap up Meryl Month (June 11th ~ July 10th). I got off to a late start, so we're extending through July 10th.

Txt Critic on Julie & Julia

My insatiable moviegoing friend was back to his old tricks, texting me last night with a message regarding the new Amy Adams / Meryl Streep film Julie & Julia. Here he is...

in spite of its ghastly trailer, it was quite good, solid. in typical ephron/meyers/etc fashion, it's a bit too long for a film without much plot (exactly 2 hours), but it was pretty well paced, while rarely-to-never wading into unnecessary sentiment or cheap stupid humor

meryl's great (duh), but it's really more of a "fun" performance than anything substantive -- they throw her an extremely short "oscar clip" dramatic scene where she responds to her sister being pregnant, but almost everything else she has is fun/light/funny/enjoyable. that said, i'm sure she'll still get a nomination. i have no idea how they're going to campaign her when the time comes, but it's unquestionably a co-lead. Streep and Adams both evenly split the screen time, and if anything, Streep gets a bit more. Also the movie opens and closes with her, so it feels a bit more like "her" story

Well, technically her famed Miranda Priestley performance in The Devil Wears Prada only had one traditional "clip" scene also and were it not for Helen Mirren's awards steamroll in 2006, I'm guessing Streep would have actually taken the statue. Exactly how many times has Meryl been in the runner up position on Hollywood's High Holy Night? Four times, I think. Though it's highly debatable.

Oscar vote totals are never released but wasn't she probably runner up for:
French Lieutenant's Woman (81), Adaptation (02), Prada (06) and Doubt
(08)? Maybe even Out of Africa (85) and Bridges... (95)

But back to my point: "fun/light" isn't really an Oscar detriment for Streep in the way it is for other performers. The campaign issues on the other hand might be. The current studio plan is a supporting campaign for Julia (presumably to avoid competiting with her lead role in the Untitled Nancy Meyers Project) but there is a very slim possibility that the drawn out Kate Winslet Rev Rd/Reader situation from last year may signal that the Academy is a little less willing than in years past to honor forced categorizations... even when the precursor voting blocks urge them to do so. Another possibility is that the studio will go for double leads or switch Adams to supporting once they have a better idea of their competition. We'll know when we know.

Oscar predictions updates on the way (working on them right now)
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Julie & Julia, Twin Teases

Today, just as I was hard boiling eggs both brown and white this poster arrived (thx Ziyad) in my inbox. I'm not making this up! Is it coincidence or a cosmic sign to pay attention to this movie? [Meryl Streep's third massive summer hit and 16th Oscar nomination coming your way]. For what it's worth, I've just talked to somebody who has seen the movie and he says 'Two leads. Meryl might even be in the movie more than Amy' so I guess my early Oscar predictions were unsound and they really did alter the book as significantly as previously suspected. And I guess that's why the tagline is "Based on Two True Stories" and I guess that's why they're crediting the source material as not just the book that shares the film's title (Julie & Julia) but Julia Child's autobiography My Life in France. And I guess that's why I'm saying "Mea culpa".

There's nothing better in the world of movie marketing than the teaser poster. 89% of the time the teaser is better than the eventual, and eventually generic, official poster. This poster is too/two adorable. Julia Child taught me how to make omelettes so it's touching, too. Soon these tiny delicious ovals of joy will be replaced by the giant floating heads of Amy & Meryl . Dairy products can't sell movie tickets but those ladies can.
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Breakfast With... Julia and Meryl

How about a nice omelette?

True story: Julia Child taught me to make them.

Julia Child in "The Omelette Show" and
Meryl Streep as that great lady in Julie & Julia

They're the only thing I know how to cook but I am a wiz with the eggs. I can make them all sorts of ways and with all sorts of ingredients. I even make new kinds up on the spot with whatever I find in the fridge. Beyond omelettes I leave all kitchen duties to others. It's safer that way.

How this happened is a long story that I won't bore you with but it traces back to Julie & Julia which was a blogging experiment which became a book which is now a movie which will debut in theaters this August. Amy Adams plays "Julie Powell", a blogger who decided to cook her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Meryl Streep plays the famous cook who inspired her. From nuns to cooks. And, yes, Meryl Streep now has an annual summer box office slot. Who does she think she is, Will Smith?

If La Streep doesn't win her third Oscar this year for Doubt, maybe she'll win it in February 2010 for this? We all know that Oscar loves a good mimic and Streep has always had a gift with both physical and vocal shape-shifting. They'll be essential skills if she hopes to capture this very familiar distinctive American icon for the screen.