Nathaniel Rogers (Gurus of Gold pundit and otherwise brilliant human) has begun his Oscar Symposium. He kindly invited a few of us to chat along with him. Mostly we try to stay focused on the acting races. It does sort of swerve outside the lines at times. Check it out.
The New York Times features screenplay excerpts from some of the year’s most vividly written screenplays. They smartly include Kill Your Darlings, one of the best and most underrated writing of the year. Ten years of honing and rewriting birthed something close to perfection, especially from a writing standpoint. They also highlight Nicole Holofcener’s Enough Said, Julie Delpy/Ethan Hawke/Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight and Spike Jonze’s Her. NY Times
Gold Derby’s Tom O’Neil chats with Marty Scorsese — it’s that time of year when we have to worry about what Academy members will think. Too bad that’s become every time of year.
Frozen overtook the US box office this past weekend leading journalist Susan Wloszczyna to post this on her Facebook page:
OK, Hollywood: With Frozen topping the box office in its 7th week and Catching Fire poised to bump Iron Man 3 as 2013’s top grosser, can we please hire more female directors and make a bunch of movies with women in the lead that are more than just romantic comedies? And how about a lady person to direct Wonder Woman while we are at it?
re: endorsement — WTF? Whose damn idea was that? O_o
It’s KT for the win! 100% agree.
@Chris
I agreed with you on the acting. I can’t imagine anyone else taking on this role and won’t make it look completely ridiculous…
I guess the best scenario, this “endorsement” might just be a contractual obligation to get the rights to the movie… but it does look bad doesn’t it.
@Dragon: That video has definitely been biting Leo (and the movie itself to a degree) in the ass as of late. I wouldn’t be surprised if it has a negative affect on his Oscar chances, which is a shame since he’s sensational in the film.
I personally think Wolf of the Wall Street is much more an expose than the “glorification” that the critics claimed it to be, and that’s why I loved it.
But I stumbled on to this just last night and not quite sure how I, or many other people should/would feel about this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYXB8crww0I
any thoughts people?
So two of the best movies of the past two years, Zero Dark Thirty and now Wolf of Wall Street, have controversies constructed around them? This is no coincidence. Oscar smear campaigns have gotten out of control, really, with rival studios, filmmakers and their publicists going to insane ends to decimate their competition for Best Picture. It happened last year when the clearly superior film of similar subject matter threatened the Affleck pity party. How anyone can get up on the Oscar stage and accept that Best Picture award knowing they smeared great work by many people without guilt or remorse baffles the mind. Truly, there is little integrity for filmmakers/campaigns to go after such accomplished films behind closed doors…and to smear Scorsese, probably the greatest living director in American cinema for pete’s sake. I don’t think he would ever do that to someone’s work; and you can see that in his interview with Tom O’Neill above. When asked about Oscar voters, he doesn’t know what to say. This movie wasn’t made for them, he doesn’t really care about them—it was made to exist, to be seen and discusses, to stay in the conversation.
Why do people follow these controversies like sheep rather than make their own interpretations? The message in Wolf is much more profound and searing than that in American Hustle, and actually shows us where we are as a society today, as Scorsese explained in his recent Deadline interview with Mike Fleming. Yes, it bothers people and it ABSOLUTELY SHOULD! The Academy should be cracking down on this nonsense and limit spending and smearing, but it unfortunately does not because the organization is profiting. Sounds oddly similar to those Wall Street banks….
My bad.
Toy Story 3 was up for Best Pic too 🙂
Since Marvel tapped Game Of Thrones’ Alan Taylor to direct Thor 2, and the Russo brothers who directed Community and Arrested Development are doing Captain America 2, I officially nominated Breaking Bad’s Michelle MacLaren to direct Wonder Woman. MAKE THIS HAPPEN.
No, unlikely hood, Toy Story 3 was also nominated for Best Picture.
Disney should have campaigned harder for Frozen – they had better than a snowball’s chance of it making the BP 10 if Disney had tried. (5 years ago, animation companies had been among the biggest lobbyists to expand the BP category – they knew they would never get into a BP 5 while animation had its own category. Since then only “Up” has taken advantage.) Instead, Disney may well miss out with both Frozen and Saving Mr. Banks. #droppedball