edited by Jonathan Doyle

Mafioso (The Criterion Collection, 3.18.2008) Nino Badalamenti is a supervisor in a car manufacturing plant who hasn't taken a vacation in over two years. On his way out the door to visit his beloved childhood hometown of Sicily -- with his blonde wife and daughters -- Nino is handed a package by his boss and asked to deliver it to a powerful and influential Sicilian gangster named Don Vincenzo. Once in Sicily, Nino has a hoot seeing friends and family, but his wife has trouble fitting in and is unfairly dismissed as a snob by Nino's family. Even more worrisome, Nino finds himself entangled in an intricate web of secret mafioso dealings and is eventually sent on an unexpectedly... elaborate errand. (continued)

Upcoming

July 2

Hancock

July 3

The Whackness

July 4

Diminished Capacity

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson

Holding Trevor

Kabluey

We are Together

July 9

Full Battle Rattle

July 11

A Man Named Pearl

August

Eight Miles High

Garden Party

Harold

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Meet Dave

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired

The Stone Angel

July 18

A Very British Gangster

Before I Forget

The Dark Knight

The Doorman

Felon

Lou Reed's Berlin

Transsiberian

July 22

Two Tickets to Paradise

July 23

Boy A

O'Neil on crunch time

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The Envelope's Tom O'Neil asks if too many year-end releases are causing distribs to crunch Oscar voters and thereby hurt their films' chances. "With a glut of quality late-December releases this year, would-be contenders find themselves struggling to attract attention...and Academy and guild voters find themselves facing an onslaught of screenings and screeners," etc. Tom talks to Hollywood Wiretap's Pete Hammond, the Hollywood Reporter coumnist Anne Thompson and...well, myself.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on December 29, 2006 at 11:14 PM

comment #1

Edward Havens says ...

The late release of films like Million Dollar Baby and The Aviator just two years ago (one of 44 films to be released in December 2004) didn't seem to hurt their chances for Oscar glory. Plain and simple truth, the glut of last minute releases only hurts the smaller films. If an Academy voter has to choose between seeing, say, Letters from Iwo Jima or The Dead Girl, dollars to donuts says 95% of them choose the Eastwood movie. Why? Because the Eastwood movie has the better chance of being nominated for something. While I agree with Tom that the herd mentality of releasing many films in December can hurt more than help, his ways of getting there, and many of the examples he uses, are far too one-sided to make an effective argument.

Oh, and Crash didn't win because it wasn't a part of the glut. It won because Lionsgate effectively flooded everyone with screeners like no one had ever done before. I wonder what there were more of made last year... AOL CDs or Crash screener DVDs.

Posted by Edward Havens at December 30, 2006 12:12 AM

comment #2

Hallick says ...

"Will 'Letters from Iwo Jima', 'The Painted Veil', 'Dreamgirls', 'Factory Girl' and 'The Dead Girl' get a fair shot at Oscar consideration?"

What's Dreamgirls? Is that one of those old lady pornos Sharon Waxman just wrote about? Who's ever heard of a movie named Dreamgirls? Golly, Tom O'Neil is smart.

Posted by Hallick at December 30, 2006 05:34 PM