comment #1

Ulysses says ...

I can just see the ghastly sequence during the Oscar-cast featuring the June Taylor dancers "interpreting" the Best Costuming Nominees.

comment #2

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Assuming for half a second this could happen, who would even be in line to accept the award? The animators ("I'd like to thank my mouse for being right there for me while drawing this tweedy jacket...")? Mr. Absentee himself, Wes Anderson?

I'm all in favor of animated films being given more love by the Academy (I'm actually hoping Coraline slides in as a #10 BP nominee, but I know it ain't happenin'), but this is just a dumb idea.

comment #3

corey3rd says ...

When will Jeff give us pics of the puppets in the storefront in Manhattan?

comment #4

DeeZee says ...

Personally, I'd like Black Dynamite to win Best Costume, and Best Set Design, but I know that ain't happening.

Ulysses: Furry-capades? I think they've already planned for it, actually. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCcaMIcwz30
NSFW, of course.

Anyway, Digital Bits notes the UK BD of "Let The Right One In" has the accurate subs, for those interested. And after seeing Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call: New Orleans, I've come to realize that Inglorious Basterds is for man-children desperate to appear debonaire and sophisticated, while BL is for adults who want to see movies with real-life situations which aren't just re-enacted in people's basements. And I seriously hope the former pulls a BP upset over IB, because it fucking deserves it a lot more, just like Shawshank deserved PF's box office and WOM.

comment #5

TheJeff says ...

"Assuming for half a second this could happen, who would even be in line to accept the award? The animators ("I'd like to thank my mouse for being right there for me while drawing this tweedy jacket...")?"

This is not a CGI film, and the costumes are not drawings. This is a stop-motion film made with puppets, sets, and models. That includes 285 handmade costumes. Mr. Fox's costume was cut from one of Anderson's corduroy suits. They had special miniature needles custom-made to knit some of the costumes. Anderson and his model supervisors designed the look, which is truly remarkable.

comment #6

Doug Pratt says ...

No, Coraline deserves a best costumes nomination

comment #7

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

I stand corrected. You're right, Jeff, and my bad. It should definitely be in awards consideration seeing how those are actually physically-designed costumes.

And Dee, you're high as usual if you think a Bad Lieutenant re-imagining has a real shot at a BP nomination.

comment #8

DeeZee says ...

Kane: It has a better chance than IB, especially since Herzog's overdue for one, and his flick's artsier than IB.

comment #9

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

You're clearly out of your mind, and have been for quite some time.

Having said that, I am looking forward to seeing BL: PoC.

comment #10

TheJeff says ...

^ Since when is "artsier" helpful in getting a BP nomination? Herzog and AMPAS go together like chalk and cheese. Bad Lieutenant wouldn't be nominated if there were 30 nominees. I love Herzog, but that's absurd.

comment #11

The Winchester says ...

DeeZee: Bad Lieutenant would have a shot at BP if it didn't fall apart at the end. A nice ride while it lasts, but with a DVD release date set for early February, I don't think there's much of a chance of derailing the Inglorious Basterds juggernaut.

(But I would love to see the iguana scene to represent the film during a montage)

comment #12

The Winchester says ...

Isn't Wes Anderson's tailor the man who designed the costumes? At least for Mr. Fox, I believe, is what he said.

comment #13

DeeZee says ...

TheJeff: "^ Since when is "artsier" helpful in getting a BP nomination?"

It's been fairly helpful with The English Patient, Shakespeare in Love, and CTHD.

Winchester: I kind of like where it finishes, for some reason. It feels like an existential adaptation of GTA. Speaking of which, I think Jeff should suggest to Herzog, the next time he sees him, that they try to pitch a video game tie-in, since Cage has financial issues ATM.

comment #14

LexG says ...

Considering he posted rather early in the day about just having seen BAD LT, and it's only on a couple screens in LA, it is entirely possible I was in the same room with DeeZee today at the Chinese. I don't know how to feel about that.

I wonder if he was the weird bald guy by himself who switched seats every 10 minutes within his row for no reason.

Also: BAD LIEUTENANT is pure awesomeness. And it has nothing to do with this thread, so...

I see no reason why the FANTASTIC costumes couldn't be nominated. None.

comment #15

TheJeff says ...

"It's been fairly helpful with The English Patient, Shakespeare in Love, and CTHD."

The English Patient and Shakespeare in Love aren't "artsy," so much as they are middlebrow pablum Oscar bait. Would you really consider those of a piece with Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call: New Orleans? Crouching Tiger is a lot closer to being "artsy" but a wuxia film seems kind of odd to cite as precedent. In fact, I can't think of three more bizarre choices to rationalize the idea that Bad Lieutenant could get an Oscar nom.

comment #16

DeeZee says ...

Lex: I ain't bald, and I saw the matinee. If you were there at that time, they fucked up the stage curtains to close near the beginning of the film, and somehow managed to play their clip of the theater's promotional cartoon upside down and backwards. And I'll be nice and mention the Egyptian's screening Parnassus early next month, along with Gilliam's other stuff, which hopefully means he'll do an appearance. [Their schedule's not clickable ATM.]

TheJeff: They're pseudo-artsy, so it's a start. But how about Chocolat? Does that count?

comment #17

LexG says ...

I was indeed at that very show, at 1:20, and the curtains closed for 30 secs. during Cage and Kilmer bickering over rescuing the prisoner in the flooded wing.

So I guess I can semi-confirm to the readership that DeeZee exists and actually sees movies.

Yay! FWIW, BAD LT would easily make my 5 or 10 for the year. And Herzog's work is being undervalued by the people saying he half-asses the procedural elements or skimps on style. In hindsight, every choice is sort of brilliant. Good movie.

comment #18

DeeZee says ...

Lex: BTW, whatever happened to the tentpole movies premierin' at the Chinese? Ever since the management let the Sucklight steal Sith on opening weekend, so that Adam Sandler sports movie could play an extra week, the people running tha place appear to intentionally ignore just about every banner flick since then, while only screening the low-profile stuff like BL.The sound, projection and seating are so much better at the Grauman than at the Pacific Theater monopoly, and it's being wasted on shit you'd catch at one of those Landmark or Laemmle off-shoots. I'm just wondering how you stay in business that way.

And yeah, Bad Lieutenant was what a crime drama was like, before they started being saddled with comic book and noir homage geek bullshit, anti-hero cops, and expository dialogue and extraneous supporting characters. Man, if only Herzog adapted A History of Violence, it would suck so much less.

comment #19

Gordon27 says ...

That last sentence is the first time I've ever agreed with DZ. I'm sure 'History of Violence' is popular 'round these parts, but I was not a fan at all. And I dig Cronenberg. And all the stuff he said in the sentence before that one.

Hey, wait a second, are you saying Cage isn't an anti-hero cop? I haven't seen it yet, but that's strange.

comment #20

LexG says ...

DZ: I love the Arclight usually, but at least at the Chinese I CAN CHOOSE WHO I HAVE TO SIT NEXT TO.

I realize I'm a minority of one on this, and every LA film geek swears by "I can buy my favorite seat and show up at the last minute!", but to me NOT BEING ASSIGNED TO SIT NEXT TO AN ANNOYING ASSHOLE is more important than sitting dead center.

comment #21

DeeZee says ...

Gordon: AHOV sucks, because of how it deviates from the source material. And yeah, I know the trailers make Cage look like an anti-hero, but he's not like that in the movie. He's too much of a fuck-up and an asshole to be respectable. But that's sort of what I like about the flick. Too many of these psycho cops in other flicks always come off like they got their shit together. And their unorthodox methods tend to be validated, to boot. But BL's more about the everyday pressures of Cage's character than it is about him "fighting" crime.

Lex: You can't even call in advance for the Sucklight anymore. They've changed the system so you have to be there at least two days before opening day, thus defeating the whole purpose of assigned seating. And I hear you. I didn't like having to sit in front of the dickhead who had his PDA/cell phone on during "Capitalism", either. Shit, I just came from the midnight screening of Easy Rider where this annoying bitch tried to dress up like Peter Fonda, but came off more like Joey Ramone, and he wouldn't stop talking and texting during the entire fuckin' flick.

comment #22

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Must you always compare everybody/everything to somebody/something else, DeeZ? Good Lawd.

In other news, this is off-topic, but I know you're a big Zodiac fan, Jeff, so I thought I'd let you know Michael Phillips just put it #6 on his list of 10 best of the decade.

comment #23

The Winchester says ...

New Moon made $72 million yesterday alone. This is sad news for all of us.

comment #24

Charlie Horse says ...

My own favorite off the wall nomination would be Paul Rudd for I LOVE YOU MAN. Kinda the male equivalent of ANNIE HALL.

comment #25

Gordon27 says ...

"AHOV sucks, because of how it deviates from the source material."

Whew, the world makes sense again; in all the ways 'A History of Violence' wasn't good, the original comic book was significantly worse.

comment #26

bluefugue says ...

>while BL is for adults who want to see movies with real-life situations

I dug Bad Lieutenant, but "real-life situations" is not exactly how I'd describe the action that unfolds. It's just a stylized and artificial as Inglourious Basterds, in its way. Anyway, anyone who limits the acceptable aesthetic experience of adults to simulations of "real-life situations" is being way too limiting. Is the Iliad not good enough for adults, or Paradise Lost, or a Midsummer Night's Dream?

comment #27

DeeZee says ...

blue: "It's just a stylized and artificial as Inglourious Basterds, in its way."

Perhaps, but it has a sense of tangibility to it which IB does not.

"Anyway, anyone who limits the acceptable aesthetic experience of adults to simulations of "real-life situations" is being way too limiting. Is the Iliad not good enough for adults, or Paradise Lost, or a Midsummer Night's Dream?"

Most of those stories aren't for adults, though. They're just stories adults can appreciate. And while I appreciate fantasy, too, that artform works better with some sense of realism, or at least a pesonal connection with the concept. That's why I just walked out of "Where the Wild Things Are" tonight: Because BL's close-ups of the iguanas and fish demonstrate a better sense of childlike wonderment than that entire Jonze film. I wanted a decent adaptation of the Wild Things book, not some shitty hipster hybrid of the Smurfs and H.R. Pufnstuf.

comment #28

mtgilchrist says ...

what the fuck does inglourious basterds have to do with bad lieutenant except as a completely arbitrary point of reference? and lex, who is criticizing bad lieutenant for "skimping on procedure?" that's like saying people didn't like speed racer because it didn't get into the pit crew stuff enough. bad lieutenant is NEVER going to get a best picture nomination - it's entertaining as hell but it's batshit crazy, and by herzog's own admission it's not about anything at all - and championing it as some sort of substantive or remotely authentic look at grown-up behavior is equally batshit. let's see - what else? oh yeah, hating history of violence because it deviates from the source material is just as shitty and hipsterish as you accuse spike jonze of being. and if you don't think that cage's character is an antihero you have no clue what that word means.

comment #29

DeeZee says ...

gil: "what the fuck does inglourious basterds have to do with bad lieutenant except as a completely arbitrary point of reference?"

They're both R-rated sdrama featuring corrupt leads, and getting lots of buzz?

"it's entertaining as hell but it's batshit crazy,"

That didn't stop The Exorcist.

"oh yeah, hating history of violence because it deviates from the source material is just as shitty and hipsterish as you accuse spike jonze of being. "

Except hipsters don't give a fuck about the source material, or they wouldn't jerk off to the Kubrick Clockwork Orange.

"and if you don't think that cage's character is an antihero you have no clue what that word means."

He's not an antihero, since you don't root for him, in spite of him being an asshole. Nor does he do anything noble in spite of his shitty behavior.

comment #30

DeeZee says ...

*dramas*

comment #31

Gordon27 says ...

I always think it's funny when DZ finds one thing is his post that he needs to correct, as opposed to all the other stuff.

comment #32

Gordon27 says ...

"Except hipsters don't give a fuck about the source material"

Yeah, not like Werner Herzog, showing so much fidelity to 'Bad Lieutenant'.

comment #33

DeeZee says ...

Gordon: BLPCOFNO is intentionally meant to be a different take on the source material. Herzog does not try to make you think it has anything to do with the Ferrara film.

comment #34

DeeZee says ...

Oh, and Digital Bits was wrong about the "Let the Right One" UK BD having accurate subs.

comment #35

Gordon27 says ...

So it's okay to deviate from the source material, as long as its intentional?

comment #36

Colin says ...

Herzog should have done the right thing and called it: Nawleans is Fuckin' Nuts.

Although it does serve to remind the public what a great actor Keitel was in the original.

comment #37

DeeZee says ...

Gordon: It's ok to deviate from the source material if you don't imply otherwise.