Vice screened tonight for the SAG nominating committee and looks to do what The Big Short did last year, at least in terms of the acting. Although there is a review embargo up I can talk about the screening. In a packed theater in Westwood, there was some press – with Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Tyler Perry and writer/director Adam McKay all in attendance for the q&a. It’s not really a film where you leap to your feet with a standing ovation afterwards. It is too sobering and hard-hitting for that. Believe me, you will want to burst into tears more than you’ll want to do anything, despite the film’s “light touch” throughout.
The blackest of black comedies ran for roughly two hours and did seem to hold its audience in its thrall throughout. Christian Bale is, as the trailers promised, astonishing as Dick Cheney. So good you really do forget you’re watching an actor. At times I even thought I was watching Lynn Cheney, played so well by Amy Adams. Adams has finally gotten to a point in her career where she can play a woman passing through middle and old age. Her Lynn is hard, loyal, and as cold as ice as her husband.
The brilliance in Bale’s performance and in McKay’s film is that somehow you do end up having some sympathy for Dick Cheney. Bale plays him that way – in a way that we understand where he’s coming from even if we don’t agree with it. That is the kind of thing only the best of the best can do.
The Oscar race will have to make room for this film – though most of us had it down. Most definitely for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Screenplay, if not Picture and Director. Steve Carell might also be in for Supporting Actor. If I had my way, Sam Rockwell would get in too but his part might not be big enough.
It’s possible that there are four acting nominations from this one movie. But before we can make any Best Picture assessments, we really do have to wait for the reviews. I can’t wait to write mine. I have a lot to say about it.
The Best Actor race has no frontrunner currently, but it could be Bradley Cooper. It could be Viggo Mortensen. I think you have to put Christian Bale above both of them, at least for now, as I don’t know that there is a better male performance this year than Bale’s.
Supporting Actress might also be Amy Adams’ to lose. I think we need to wait and see a bit on this movie – to see how it lands, when it lands. As we know now, a lot can happen between a screening and a movie making landfall.
I will say this about it: The only way to get the truth out anymore is through art. You can’t get it from news. You mostly can’t get it from politicians. Artists are obligated to deliver the truth. Maybe some would say, well this movie is no better than a right-wing screed, or a “Clinton Cash” that exists only to smear someone. Some will see it that way. But they will be required, in their attack on the film, to find the lie. Find the part that isn’t true. Find the speculation and Pizza-gate-like exaggeration.
The truth is in short supply and sometimes it’s up to the satirists who must present the absurd in response to the monstrous.
Amy Adams in a frontrunner position for playing a dutiful wife role? blech. Hard pass, thank you, next.
supporting an abusive husband, cold as ice, she already that in The Master
The Vice people are almost BANKING on the GOP freaking out about this movie and Trump (despite his supposed hatred for the Bush administration) deciding to chime in as well.
Shoplifters probably has the second best reviews this year, behind Roma, yet it’s not a contender for best picture. I wish more foreign films were able to get into the race. Shoplifters, Capernaum, Woman at War, The Cakemaker and Burning are just brilliant.
Urgh Capernaum does not deserve in the same conversation as the rest of these. Otherwise I totally agree.
I can see why people wouldn’t like Capernaum but I loved it.
I highly respect Roma and it will almost certainly be on my top 10 list, but Burning and Shoplifters will be even higher. Some of my favourite TIFF screenings this year.
With the news over the weekend that Condi Rice is being considered for an NFL interview (ha) I hope she is treated as well in Vice as she was in Looming Tower. It’s been said that Don Rumsfeld is the only man ever to make Condi cry and leave the room. Wonder if Carell is up to that (Rice will be played by LisaGay Hamilton)?
The angle people are missing about this Rice/Cleveland story is that Browns ownership was trying to use Rice as a cynical workaround to the Rooney Rule, the one that decrees that qualified black candidates be interviewed for head coaching positions.
So the early word is that Mary Poppins Returns is actually great. Tapley, Ellwood and Indiewire are predicting it to be nominated in many categories. Apparently, Emily Blunt is a very serious contender for a nomination.
I’m calling it now, pre-precursors and all, the Oscar quintet in Best Actress will be Blunt, Close, Colman, Gaga, Ronan.
I only wish there was room for Pike and Knightley, delivering career-best work in timely and acclaimed films. Hopefully precursors won’t forget about them.
I honestly think Knightley has a shot she IF she wins precursor critics just to remind yhe Academy of her brilliant performance. Though I prefer her achingly beautiful performance in Atonement, Colette is one of her and this year’s best!
But the question is, will Bleecker Street even put up a campaign for it? They’ve done it with Trumbo and Beasts of No Nation, really hoping they gave Colette awards attention it truly deserves.
In Mary Poppins Returns, I’ve said it when the trailer was released, I see a double-digit Oscar nominated film and will never get tired of saying it as I trust Marshall as a filmmaker. Gosh, it could even get in as much as 9 nods at the Golden Globes! And glad that Streep is being considered despite limited screen time. Lot of people are gonna get pissed once she gets in Supporting Actress just like when she got in for Florence Foster Jenkins. I’m not!
They are overhyping Poppins. I read some reviews already (guess they don’t give a shit about embargoes) and even though they say Blunt is good, they said the movie was just okay. Sorry but Mary Poppins and Black Panther are both not getting Best Pic noms. They even say the songs are kinda weak so that leaves us with what. Maybe Best Actress and a few techs. Not really a contender.
Tapley, Ellwood and Indiewire report about the general positive reactions of industry voters. These are not just random test screenings but their official guilds screenungs of peers themselves. If it was just okay then they would have said it was just okay. And not a major player. Or wouldn’t have bothered to break the embargo and just wait for it to be lifted if it isn’t a contender across the board. But the fact that Tapley consider it more a player than Green Book which is what we’re projecting as the “crowd-pleaser” frontrunner, we have a “bona fide” late contender.
Tapley is also not the type of pundit who overhypes films. Yet again those where just a couple if industry screenings but the logic is it’s most possible to have the same kind of response from the industry especially now that its hiliday season.
I don’t see how everything everyone is predicting is going to get in. I don’t think they are going to nominate 10 films for Best Pic, since, well they never have every since they had to years ago. So nine slots and yet the same people are predicting:
Roma (despite that it will win for foreign)
A Star Is Born
The Favourite
BlackkKlansman (has missed Gotham and Spirits)
If Beale Street Could Talk
Can You Ever Forgive Me
Green Book
First Man (though it’s looking more unlikely)
Widows (I highly doubt this one but people keep listing it)
Vice
Black Panther (I still have my doubts)
Mary Poppins (according to these guys)
So that’s 12. So tell me which three will get cut? And that’s assuming you don’t expect any outliers to make it in like First Reformed, Boy Erased or Eighth Grade etc.
All I’m saying is at some point, people will have to start trimming the fat. I remember before Beautiful Boy debuted, the Gold Derby had it sitting up high sight unseen. I never bit on that one. Or Mary Queen of Scots or Basis of Sex. Etc. Hell, you even had some fools thinking The Front Runner was going to be a front runner. Haha
I’ll tell you right now, Mary Poppins, Black Panther and Can You Ever Forgive Me. Probably also Blackkklansman and we get 8 nominees.
I haven’t seen Mary Poppins of course but how wonderful would that be if it cracked the nomination circle? 🙂
I’ll have to see it before I make that call. I do really hope it’s good!
I’m curious. Why do you feel FIRST MAN is becoming more and more unlikely? I’m counting it as a sure thing myself.
It’s hard to think of a Best Picture winner that failed to earn back the money it cost to make.
It’s not going get any boost from nominations or critics awards either, because it’s due on DVD/Blu in January.
Fair enough Ryan. If it does not make it certainly those reasons would reign supreme. However because I feel that aside from A Star is Born, Roma and maybe two others the competition is even (and there may well be 8 or 9 nominees) I am still predicting it will edge its way in. Yeah, it is one of my own favorite films of the year so I am somewhat bias here. But unless it is talked down further I will predict it (for whatever that’s worth). 🙂 So far Sasha herself has it in the fifth spot, with Chazelle in fourth as director, but I am well aware we have six weeks left and things could change fast.
Oh, I thought we were talking a Best Picture winner, Sam.
My mistake. I misunderstood. I think First Man can and should be nominated.
Ryan, thank you, but I recognize I wasn’t clear enough, hence my mistake. Happy to get your welcome position here. 🙂
Ryan beat me to the answer, but yes, because it underperformed not just at the BO but with connecting to its audience in general. Sure, you have some people like yourselves and Sasha who love it, but overall I don’t think it is loved. And that’s what I was trying to point out with my initial comment. Being “professionals” at this, or even amateurs like ourselves, we have to leave our bias’s at the door. Whether that be political or otherwise, you gotta keep a level mindset. For instance, if I had my way, The Sisters Brothers would be winning Pic, Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Costumes and Score. But since it cost over 30 million and made only 3 million, Ive accepted the fact that that’s not going to happen, so be it. Like this crazy guy pushing Vice and Adam McKay like hisnlife depended on it….what’s the point of that? Nobody said you couldn’t love the movie. But if it doesn’t look like it’s gonna be a player for one reason or another, don’t try to fight everyone who disagrees. You may end up being right, but to act so sure ahead of time when there really isn’t anything to go off of is kinda foolish. Let’s just remember The Post last year shall we.
Circusfolk: I posted a 22 word super-polite inquiry expressing my curiosity at your statement. My innocuous comment was not intended to engender controversy nor to set myself up for a “I told you so” denouement. I made sure my post wasn’t confrontational, but rather to extend dialogue in a civil way. How did that end up to be me “fighting with everyone who disagrees” by me saying I see its nomination for BP a sure thing? I was fighting no one, just asking the reasons behind a statement which Ryan amiably responded to. And yet, you say “it doesn’t look like it will be a player for one reason or another.” and that “you have some people like yourself and Sasha who love it, but overall I don’t think it is loved.” I really must dispute that in a big way. Universal acclaim on Metacritic (54 to 0 with 2 mixed, and a sterling 8 “100” grades), spectacularly high grade on RT, lofty user grades at both, wildly favorable regard from nearly ever film blogger I’ve interacted with and a certainly it will finish on tons of Ten Best Lists at year’s end. Gold Derby has it solidly in the BP nomination race. As Ryan stated a final win is unlikely because of BO and other factors, but a nomination is probable and deserved. For me it is easily one of the best films of 2018 and I’m thrilled so many critics and film buffs are in accord.
Sorry Samjuliano, I wasn’t referring to you with the last part of my post. If you reread it, I say “like this crazy guy pushing Vice” in which I was referring to this Braylon Thompson guy who posts on here and other places always very aggressive about any negative attitude toward Vice when he hasn’t even seen it yet. I’m sorry, but no matter how much I love a director or certain actors, until I see a movie, I’m won’t proclaim it to be anything. Anyone can make a bad film at anytime, and I don’t know a director with a perfect record, so I’m not going out on a blind limb and risk my reputation and credibility which is why I don’t understand those who do. Now I can have my hunches and doubts just like everyone else prior to seeing films, but those obviously can change after I see it. For instance, before I saw Old Man and the Gun I don’t know why people were leaving Redford off their lists and the film out of Best Pic. Now that I have seen it, I completely agree. The film is too slight and Redford does an admirable job, but still is only really playing himself. And in the case of Widows, I never thought it was going to be an Oscar player and wondered why everyone else had it on their lists along with Viola Davis. Now that I’ve seen it, I found it to be less of a movie than I even expected it to be so I’m baffled at people who still have it as having a shot. And back to Mary Poppins, all I said was I’ve read some other reviews that weren’t as impressed with it or the songs for that matter, so I’m not putting it on my predictions other than Blunt.
Out of the films you mentioned, FOR NOW based on buzz, pundits consensus and what critcs precursors might support, there are 7 films most probably to get in Best Picture line up:
A Star is Born
The Favourite
First Man
Green Book
If the Beale Street Could Talk
Could You Ever Forgive Me
Roma
But any of these films still have the big possibility to get snubbed. That’s why I think the race this year is interesting and the reviews from the late arrivals proved that it’ll be an exciting one.
Sato, I think your choices here are smart. I also think in all probability Blackkklansman will get in.
I also agree Sato’s choices are the safest, but even when directing those, I could picture any of those films not making it for one reason or another. I honestly think the only two surefire bets are A Star Is Born and Green Book, with Star still in the lead.
Of the outliers you mention I feel BOY ERASED is the best film. The effects of FIRST REFORMED have oddly work off on me, and against all odds EIGHTH GRADE was the great film for me as others have proclaimed. Still I greatly respect those who love these films. My absolutely #1 favorite film of the year with six weeks to go is LEAN ON PETE.
I had a Boy Erased in my initial top five contenders at the beginning of the season before anyone saw it and especially after the first trailer. Then reviews seemed to be a bit mooted so I had to reign it back. But I always still felt out of the trio of it, Ben Is Back and Beautiful Boy, that it had the best odds. I haven’t seen it yet though so I can’t say for sure. So for now I have to keep it on the outside.
between Boy Erased and Ben is Back hedges is a sure bet for a nom
Well I just rewatched The Big Short (for the fourth time) and that’s right, it’s not good. It’s spectacular.
And look at how effective McKay was at conveying nearly the same message that Oliver Stone botched so incredibly in the Wall Street sequel. I suspect Vice will succeed at the same level that W failed to reach.
My God.
Right? Jesus wept.
I’m still quietly convinced that this is Amy Adams Oscar to lose. I haven’t – and probably won’t get to – seen If Beale Street Could Talk, and I’m sure Regina King is great in it, but Adams will be running on another solid performance, and five nominations with no win, and also not being nominated for Arrival – will that good will towards her outweigh the good will that King has for being a great seasoned actor who has never been rewarded?
same as pacino scent woman .. deserves an oscar but not for that film
If Amy Adams does indeed win the Oscar in February and the Emmy in September, could Scott Rudin just quickly whip together a “Same Time, Next Year” Broadway revival so she could complete her acting trifecta in the same year ? It would be also great to see her in a comedy again.
I’m curious, is this just your own notion or is there actually a “Same Time, Next Year” B’way revival that Rudin is casting? And are Rudin and Adams in negotiation? If it happened, I’d nab a ticket the first day they went on sale.
Nah, it was just pure wishful thinking on my part. Whenever I think of actors that don’t really do theatre but I would love to see them there, I think of Amy Adams in a potential Same Time, Next Year revival and Kate Winslet in A Streetcar Named Desire revival and since Scott Rudin is the go-to guy to deliver prestigious play revivals with movie stars, I figured if productions like the ones I just proposed were ever to happen, he would be the one to do them.
Amy Adams appears to be headed for double SAG and double Golden Globe, if Sasha’s opinion is universal. She is a lock for Sharp Objects.
Are you referring to Sharp Objects?
Yes
I wonder if anyone has won a TV and movie Golden Globe in one year before.
Helen Mirren (2007) – Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, The Queen (2006) and Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie, Elizabeth I (2005)
Joan Plowright (1993) – Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture, Enchanted April (1991) and Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries or TV Movie, Stalin (1992)
GG that year only major awards that recognized maggie gyllenhall sherrybaby
I wasn’t too impressed with Sharp Objects. I was mightily impressed with the first segment of Ben Stiller’s Escape from Danamora and with Patricia Arquette’s performance. (This is on Showtime)
ooops–It’s Escape at Dannemora—I guess in my haste I was thinking of a similar movie, Escape From Alcatraz.
Holy cow, you’re right. She’s perfect at this point for the Ellen Burstyn role. Outside the box idea for her co-star: Paul Rudd.
Vice better be damn good, it’s going to take a whole lot to make me want to pay to spend two hours watching a movie about that motherfucker.
any actor who is getting ready to play an evil man should study ‘Welcome To New York’
Always had him as the one to beat this year. I believe everything Sasha wrote about Vice.
This is going to between Bale and Mortensen
I cant wait to see vice, enough said
Cooper/Bale/Viggo …… we have a race!!!!!!!
Seriously, all the top contender have “something” against them.
-Cooper – Gaga stealing some spotlight, he may split votes between Producer/Director/Actor/Writer.
-Bale – Won an Oscar 9 years ago.
-Viggo – N word controversy.
-Gosling – Movie disappointed, subdued performance.
-Hawke – Could be critics darling, but didn’t he have his own little controversy earlier this year when talking about superhero films?
-Eastwood – Republican, and in a late-breaking film.
-Malek – Great performance in a movie with not-great reviews.
-Hedges – Great twice, but split votes and the films aren’t universally raved.
I also think that the GG winners will steer what happens …….
If only Cooper is in Drama and he wins, he’s the front runner.
And if its Bale vs. Viggo in Comedy/Musical, the LOSER over there REALLY takes a huge setback.
If I were Vice or Green Book, I’d look to be put into the Drama category to avoid being a “loser” at the GG and to be viewed as an equal/possible winner against Cooper over there. And of course, that also assumes that ASIB WILL end up in Drama, anyway.
Furthermore, as to the strengths of the contenders:
-Cooper – He’s been the front runner and just may take it ALL.
-Bale – The raves are real. A Lead win would be deserving of his career.
-Viggo – Beloved actor in the possible BP winner. Might be way ahead and we just don’t know it yet.
-Eastwood/Redford – If either of them wins BFCA or GG early … watch out. Their charm and age and narrative might just take them allllll the way once a televised speech in front of a large room occurs.
Exciting times.
I mean, if Hawke’s ‘controversy’ is that comment about superhero films* then really it’s a non-event. Nobody in the Academy is going to remember that, or if they do, they probably won’t care.
*“I went to see Logan cos everyone was like, ‘This is a great movie’ and I was like, ‘Really? No, this is a fine superhero movie.’ There’s a difference, but big business doesn’t think there’s a difference. Big business wants you to think that this is a great film because they wanna make money off of it.”
I agree that most wont remember it. But I did. And maybe some of the actors branch in the Academy does, too. Having said that, many would agree with him, too.
Yeah actually much of the academy is still very anti superhero so I would not be surprised if that “controversy” turned out to be positive for him with them.
I think the Oscar win for BA is going to be between Mortensen and Bale .
I think you have to include Cooper in terms of who has a chance of winning. He’s been a consistent frontrunner for two months. But yes, Mortensen and Bale both have a strong shot of winning.
bale already won an oscar playing a POS
I tell you guys the truth all the time. That’s why you all love me so much. lol It’s a shame that we haven’t been able to trust reporters for decades now. They’re more beholden to big money than politicians. Actual prostitutes are probably more reliable.
So I was a fan of THE BIG SHORT. I’ve said it before but Christian Bale isn’t only the best actor of his generation but when it’s all said and done he may turn out to be the GOAT. I highly anticipate reading your full review and seeing the film.
I’m very worried about his body after all these transformations honestly.
Okay but a reporter wrote The Big Short.
There would be no movie called The Big Short if a journalist had not first done the hard part of digging deep to uncover the truth and then writing a brilliant book about it.
I like McKay a lot. He’s fantastic at what he does.
McKay and Bale didn’t know shit about credit default swaps or Dick Cheney until they spent a couple of days listening to audiobooks of two books that took years for journalists to write.
True, but McKay ought to be commended for the vignettes in Big Short that quickly explained complicated financial concepts without derailing the rhythm of the film.
I covered that in my lil phrase “he’s fantastic at what he does”! 🙂
Dammit, how come I never get commended for my verbal vignettes that explain my complicated concepts without derailing the rhythm of my smartass attitude?!
You moderate a clean board!
Uh… a reporter is on the news. Authors write books. Duh. If this person wrote a book then they were doing whatever they want as an author, not a reporter. If they were on the news or writing for a newspaper, they’d be doing what their boss wants. So if a reporter writes a book on their own time they can temporary stop being a tool for The Man. If they go back to work for Whitey then they’re still a sack of shit. It’s really not that complicated.
Michael Lewis is a journalist and an author.
He’s able to write books the way he does because of his journalism skills and experience.
He gets paid to do both things and all the people who pay him to do his amazing work are the same people you seem to despise.
Michael Lewis is a reporter whose journalism appears in The Economist, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Slate, and Foreign Affairs.
You might not know much about any of those great publications, and even if you do you dismiss them–because Trump tells you they’re all fake news.
And Trump wouldn’t lie to you, right? Right?
Michael Lewis is a reporter who has served as editor for The Spectator in the U.K. and as senior editor for The New Republic.
That means he’s a reporter who’s so good at being a reporter that he’s also an editor for other reporters.
— so you’ll need to try to wrap your narrow mind around the fact that he’s an author and a reporter who is also “Whitey The Man.”
It’s really not that complicated.
Me, I never have any trouble figuring out which journalists to trust. The liars are mostly clustered on one channel and they’re not even journalists.
They’re barely even competent as shit-spewing clowns that are hired to stir shit by wallowing in it and flapping their arms around in the shit that made Murdoch rich.
I used to be curious to know where people who distrust legit journalists get all their ignorant mis-information and distrust of reliable sources.
But I can pretty much guess, so I quit wondering.
When I see otherwise smart people get bug-eyed and say weird crap like “I dont trust journalists!” it’s too sad for me to dwell on the insidious process by which their minds became so gunked-up and polluted.
It’s really not that fucking complicated:
They simply choose to listen to whichever sickening shit makes their resentment feel justified. They believe whatever shit has been flavored with the same bitterness that eats them up from inside—and that’s why they don’t choke when they swallow it.
So all those years ago when you started talking down to me like this, it was because I was listening to Trump? Is that what I’m to understand, sir? That I got all my information and ideas about life from random rich person/celebrity Donald Trump? Or is it that since he’s now President it gives him the incredible ability to go back in time and get me to think what he wants me to and wanted me to years ago? Cleary, I’ve never thought for myself. Being a woman I needed some man to tell me what I can and can’t think right? Thanks for explaining it to me.
But let me explain something to you now. I don’t trust anybody. I decide for myself. I thought that was pretty obvious after all this time. I guess not.
Years ago?
Never knew we even clashed before.
I know that you decide things for yourself.
I guess I do wonder: On what infomation do you base your decisions about news events and political issues?
Where do your facts and details come from?
You never knew we clashed before? lololol
Ok Ryan. I’ve told you before that I go out in the world and I live my life. I see other people’s lives. I talk to them. None of us are accurately represented in the media. I go based on reality. Not what I read. We’ve been through the facts, figures, and statistics dance several times. I’ve not changed my mind about them. I’m not the first person to tell you “don’t believe everything you read”. When you do read articles or watch reports you don’t hold it up to the light to see if it’s really true? You just trust it? I really doubt that.
“I see other people’s lives.”
Me too. I see Trump ruining American democracy and American lives on nightmarish scale never befor seen in my lifetime.
Now that you mention it, did you and I once butt heads about gun control and you told me I was living in a safe little bubble and I told you about how I’ve been robbed at gunpoint?
I go out in the world and I see good people in my life terrified the past 2 years and bad people being emboldened by Trump’s nonstop ego-trip hate rallies.
I see members of my family who got brainwashed into thinking Trump was a business genius and that Hillary was a satan-worshipper
— so of course the only good Christian thing to do was vote for the guy who paid porn stars to rake around in his Yeti pubes to find his toadstool. The guy who’s done nothing but cheat and lie and fraud and race-bait and money-launder and succumb to blackmail all his fucking life.
So no, I didn’t have a clue until recently that you might have voted for that jackass, for whatever weird reason that you might have, (– and I still don’t know who you voted for. None of my business, if you’re embarrassed to tell us.)
So no, you’re right, I wasn’t at Parkland and the synagogue to see with my own eyes the sick hatred that Trump stirs up and the sick way he shrugs it off those slaughters. I have to rely on reporters to tell me about massacres.
So no, you’re right, I’m not a climate scientist, but I trust the science I read that appears to prove climate change, and I trust the reporters who tell me that republican policies are doing nothing except make it worse and prevent us from finding solutions.
So no, I’m not invited to the White House or Trump’s KKK rallies to witness with my own eyes the way he makes a non-stop ignorant jackass of himself — so I need to rely on reporters to take cameras where he is so I can watch this fucking catastrophe on TV.
I don’t need to rely on anyone else’s opinion to decide what to think about this hellish nightmare that Trump voters have brought upon us
And I’m proud of my own conclusions that I reach.
You’re proud of your own conclusions too,
and yes, if that means you think America is doing better under Trump than we would have been with Hillary at the helm, then you are welcome to announce that belief right here.
So then we can all reach our own conclusions about you, and what led you to these attitudes in your life.
We can decide for ourselves what to think of each other.
With no help from any reporters.
Does anyone else see all the stuff that gets attributed to me that I never said? I literally come here to talk about movies. This time I basically agreed with what I thought was the sentiment of Sasha’s article and said I looked forward to reading her review and seeing the film and then this is what I get.
Look at all that response. To what? To what I said? I really don’t think so. This was article as far as I can tell was about the movie Vice and its subject Dick Cheney and the idea that artists, like filmmakers, have to tell the truth because those who are supposed to uncover truths don’t. That was what I was talking about.
I also really don’t remember saying that anyone lived in a safe little bubble. You seem to have a serious problem with a group of people that you hate. You want to hate a group then go ahead and put me in it. I would have said the same for anyone who hates any group majority or minority. Go ahead and hate me. I’m not going to return the favor. And I’m sure as hell not going to reach conclusions about you or anyone else based on someone else’s misplaced vitriol.
Yah I saw it. It was way too much scrolling though.. hurts the eyes. I think you both just need a room lol.
Yes, it happens. You’re right not to worry about it. I don’t know if you’re a right-winger in politics or not and I don’t care. All I know is that your posts are well-written and usually good to read.
i see Trump ruining the party for hollywood
(p.s. Not a slam on audiobooks. Love ’em, grateful for ’em. My day job has me on long road trips for hours at a stretch so I get to listen to smart narrators read me smart books by smart authors while I’m out there paying my rent.)
It is intriguing that Sasha is praising the movie and requesting that artists have to deliver the truth, but she wants the untruthful Green Book to win because it makes her “feel great.” White liberals really are something else. You have to see it to believe it.
What is untruthful about Green Book ?
I wasn’t aware Green Book is about Dick Cheney.
You need to pay closer attention to Clockwork.
The only thing that that any movie is ever about is “scary white liberals are brainwashing us!!!!!!!”
Ryan, the only Clockwork I can pay close attention to is Kubrick’s orange. The Clockwork commenting on Awards Daily is still orange but of a much more unpleasant kind.
Clockwork is apparently privvy to the same Libarry of Knowlidge where Trump learned how to be an exspurt on forest fires.
Never mind that the son of Mortensen’s character cowrote the screenplay.
Is that a deliberate typo?
wut typoo?
Exspurt
Not that I necessarily agree with Clockwork’s sentiment, but is the fact that Tony Lip’s son wrote GREEN BOOK actually supposed to make me think the movie is MORE honest, and not some glossy hagiography to his own beloved father? Nick Vallelonga surely had no bias when writing that script…
Funny sort of “glossy hagiography” that spends half its narrative depicting Tony Lip as a crude casual racist.
Is Nick proud that his father learned how to be a better man? No doubt, and rightly so.
How many authors would dare to spin an elaborate fiction about a father’s growth and redemption if that father started out as a racist, remained a racist, and died a racist?
Someone who doubts the veracity of this story will have to do better than say, “hmm, it’s probably mostly a glossy myth,” before they can convince me that it’s nothing but a brazen lie.
Tell me which parts are falsified, Clockwork.
Tell us the ugly truths that were left out, MrScreenAddict.
Hey, I get it. If someone is suspicious of a character’s charms, the impulse may be to say “nah, I don’t buy it.”
Trust me, I was irritated that The King’s Speech completely glossed over the fact that Bertie’s brother Edward was a dangerous Hitler appeaser and Nazi sympathizer — and that notorious Nazi appeaser PM Chamberin was invited to stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace alongside Bertie and Mum. Not very adorable.
That mess happened and it was ugly, but the facts interferred with the movie’s myth of the Windsors being 100% anti-Na-Na-Nazi.
So okay, skeptics, let me know what Green Book is lying about.
Wait, am I really being attacked for not taking a *movie* as the gospel truth? When it comes to ANY movie “based on true events” — whether it be GREEN BOOK or THE KING’S SPEECH or even ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (RIP William Goldman), I’m not the kind of person who leaves the theater thinking, “Huh, so *that’s* what happened!” I’m the kind of person who leaves thinking, “Huh, I wonder what *really* happened…” Especially when I find out the person who wrote the movie had a personal stake in it.
Even documentaries can reflect the bias of the person making them, and yet I’m supposed to take everything GREEN BOOK shows me at face value? You’re right, I am admittedly not a Tony Lip scholar, so I can’t speak to all of the movie’s inaccuracies. But as far as I know, you’re also not a Tony Lip scholar, so neither can you speak to the movie’s veracity.
I’ll give you one example of a scene that made the movie feel like a “glossy hagiography” to me (SPOILER ALERT): when Tony discovers Dr. Shirley’s sexuality. I have a very hard time believing that Shirley being gay wouldn’t have been just as big a deal — if not an even bigger deal — to someone like Tony Lip in that time period as being a black man. And yet it’s completely shrugged off. “Oh, I work at the Copacabana, I’ve seen it all.” Whether or not the real Tony eventually came around to accepting Shirley’s sexuality, this was a complete failure on the movie’s part to engage with the topic in any sort of meaningful way, and didn’t give me much faith that the rest of the movie was really examining Tony in any sort of critical or objective light.
No, you’re not being attacked.
You said you wonder if Green Book is a “glossy hagiography.” Just because Tony’s son wrote it.
(So the writer is under suspicion of lying because he had a story he wanted to tell about his dad? Really?)
That seemed to me to be an extreme speculation.
So I asked if you knew of any falsification in the film, any pretty myths that it fabricated, or any ugly truths that it covers up.
I have no idea. So I’m asking. Back up your reasons for claiming this movie wrongly paints Tony as saint. (By the way, it doesn’t.)
You or Clockwork know something or have read something to back up Clockwork’s claim that the movie is fake or “untruthful,” then let’s hear it.
I’m asking.
Dude, surely that’s not your definition of “being attacked,” is it?
Sorry that you feel so confident that every straight man in 1960 was freaked out about gay men.
Really? In midtown Manhattan? All straight guys were homophobes? I’m not so sure.
For example, I never got the impression that very many of the thousands of straight men who knew Truman Capote thought he had queer cooties.
Even the most provincial of them in Kansas seemed able to deal with it.
Did you find that hard to swallow in either of the Capote movies?
Working in a Manhattan night club seems like a pretty good way for a straight guy to get accustomed to seeing and accepting a lot of things.
Seems reasonable enough to me.
Fine. If you find that fishy, okay. I don’t.
I don’t believe I ever said anything about “every straight man.” In fact, I specifically said “someone like Tony Lip.” This is a person who is depicted as (at least initially) so prejudiced against people of color that he would literally throw glasses they used in the trash. Surely he also had some unkind opinions about gay people. But if he did, those edges are completely sanded off in the movie, which was disappointing to me.
Okay, I get it.
Thanks for explaining that all racists are automatically homophobes. And vice versa.
You don’t spend much time on 2018 grindr apparently.
…What?? I’m not saying that gay people can’t be racist, if that’s what you’re implying. (Although no, I don’t spend any time on Grindr because I’m happily married, thanks.) I’m saying that a person with hateful prejudices against large swaths of people typically tend to also have hateful prejudices against other large swaths of people. I don’t think this is a controversial stance.
If you think Tony is depicted as a “hateful racist” then you saw a different cut of the movie than I did.
You wouldn’t describe someone so disgusted by people of color that he would literally throw something they touched into the garbage as “hateful”? I guess we have different definitions of the word.
It’s a repulsive attitude. It’s not hateful.
You being married is an excellent excuse to stay away from the sexual/racial realities of grindr.
It’s not a good excuse for being unable to distinguish between eye-rolling mid-century cluelessness and hatred.
Everything we saw about Tony told me that he was brought up to casually accept a lot of bullshit that he was taught as a kid.
Everything we saw told me that he ignorantly accepted a lot of weird things but that he was equally open to accepting more enlightened attitudes.
People used to be afraid to hug people with HIV.
That was stupidity. Not hatred.
Grow the fuck up and stop trying to argue this weird-ass stance that a black man would ever hire a “hateful racist” to escort him through the South.
“Grow the fuck up”? Why are you so rude? Nothing I’ve said has been personal or antagonistic. I’m just trying to have an intellectual debate about a film. My mistake.
I don’t enjoy intellectual debates where I’m told that I don’t know hatred when I see it.
You try to make it look like I must have a fairly lax standard for “hate.”
“Look everybody! Ryan is shrugging off Racial Hatred!”
I don’t appreciate that shit, alright?
I take it personally.
You think Green Book is movie about a black guy who hires a dude that hates him.
I think that’s absurd.
You started my Monday telling me that I “attacked” you.
All I asked was: What are the lies that Green Book tells? Right?
You say that’s an attack. I say grow up.
Are you going to tell me about the Green Book lies, or not?
This is such Great news!!!
I love how everyone on GoldDerby is switching to Bale in their predictions.
Not necessarily everyone. Four switched to Bale. Then four updated their predictions are kept Cooper at #1, but all moved Bale to #2.
Adam McKay absolutely slaying. Can’t wait for it. If it’s half as good as The Big Short was, I’ll love it immensely.
I said a long time ago…not sure on which post, that this was Amy’s year. The Oscar in February and the Emmy in September.
Take it to the bank and ca$h it.
Time for Scott Rudin to quickly slap together a ‘Same Time, Next Year’ Broadway revival so we can 1. see Amy Adams in a comedy again 2. see Amy Adams win the acting trifecta in the same calendar year.
Jerm!!
You said it on April 22, the day we first posted HBO’s trailer for Sharp Objects.
Here’s Jerm, 7 months ago:
finest to date? better than Velvet Goldmine?
I was thinking ‘better than The Machinist’? But yeah, that too. We’ll have to wait and see if he has outdone himself. He strikes me as the kind of person who competes against himself.
Current Actor predictions:
Bale
Cooper
Hawke
Malek
Mortensen
Eastwood is snubbed a la Gran Torino.
I would replace Hawke with Gosling, and (maybe) Malek with Dafoe.
I don’t think Gosling makes it in. The support for First Man appears to be crumbling.
First Who?
I still have Cooper at #1 until somebody beats him head-to-head.
Don’t look now but Best Actor has turned into the most exciting of the Oscar races. Cooper vs. Bale vs. Mortensen. I am hyped AF.
Also, do think the Academy will be hesitant to award Best Actor to another portrayal of an overweight politician as they did last year for Winston Churchill? Or is anybody craving something organic and created from their own being?
you’re overthinking this
I bet many AMPAS members have probably forgotten who won last year already.
“Mel said some things but we’ve all said those things”
– Gary Oldman
raped by a pack of ni99ers .. put you in the ground you c*nt
Gary Oldman thinks we’ve all said things like that????????
I always thought Christian Bale would be in the Best Actor race but I still doubt the film will be. Especially after it crashes and burns at the BO.
On a side note, now that Green Book is out, it still only has a 70 on MC. And this is the film that will win Best Pic and get Peter Farrelly a Best Director nom?
Green Book also got 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, the more important thermometer.
G B only received a 60% score from the left leaning Guardian newspaper …it’s never going to win BP …voters are tired of the guilt trip of racism in the ”Ole South” routine
What guilt trip? Racism is rampant in Trump’s America. It is clearly worse in the Confederacy.
Voters are tired of being beaten up and morally intimidated by stories of racism ..it’s been covered so many times in movies already ..the Academy awards are in danger of becoming an inquisition of sorts to root out racism in society
Only racists are getting”beat up”.
With that logic, then BlacKkKlansman is dead in the water too, right?
I didn’t mean it’s going to win Best Picture, although it has, but to stay it’ll be snubbed in the major categories when it comes to nominations is ludicrous to say.
The current MC score of Green Book is based on roughly 40% of the reviews that will make up the final score, the final score that we will get probably around this time next week when the film will be in semi-wide release. Until then it can still go up and down a lot. For all we know it could sink to 63 as easily as it could shoot up to 80. My guess remains 74-76 range, clearly nothing to write home about as far as BP precedent goes, but definitely a respectable performance.
Eventful few days in Best Supporting Actress with both Margot Robbie and Amy Adams emerging as strong contenders not only for the nomination but for the win, too. Latter really should have won in lead for Arrival in 2016/2017. Oh well.
Best Actor is now shaping up to be a three-way race between Bale, Mortensen and Cooper. Cons are that 1. Bale already has an Oscar unlike his main competition 2. Mortensen is a co-lead 3. Cooper is a co-lead AND could split votes with himself considering he qualifies in 4 categories. It will be interesting to see how it goes.
Glad to see you liked it. I’m looking forward to this one.