Day: December 8, 2012

Driving up to Santa Barbara was kind of exciting, and then we hit State Street and took a little walk and had a yogurt. We changed into evening wear in the bathrooms of the Hotel Santa Barbara and drove up to the Bacara Resort, and it was cool being there with all the swells. The Silver Linings trio — Robert De Niro, Bradley Cooper, director-writer David O. Russell — did the red carpet, and then gave nice speeches during the ceremony. The guy with the most soul, humor and pizazz? Kirk Douglas, who tomorrow celebrates his 96th birthday.

Grace Hightower, Robert DeNiro doing carpet at the SBIFF tribute at Goleta’s Bacara Resort — Saturday, 12.8, 7:55 pm.

Bradley Cooper.

Silver Linings Playbook director-writer David O. Russell.

Saturday, 12.8, 7:53 pm.

I have to buy some brick-colored lattice fencing at a nearby Home Depot and then get dressed and drive up to Santa Barbara around 2 or 2:30 pm for a Robert De Niro black-tie tribute event at Goleta’s Bacara Resort. De Niro is receiving the Santa Barbara Film Festival’s seventh annual Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film. The event is a fundraiser for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which runs from 1.24 through 2.3.

All smart politicians have a nose for which way the wind is blowing, and every now and then an exceptional pol will summon the character to say, “That strategy that kinda worked for me and my interests five or ten years ago? It’s not working anymore. I’m getting myself a new game.” I also suspect that part of the reason Charlie Crist is now a Democrat can be found in Kirby Dick‘s Outrage. Just saying. Good for Charlie & hail fellow well met.

Wells to Glenn Kenny (and everyone else putting me down because of last night’s riff suggesting that disdain of Silver Linings Playbook is at least partly a beefalo/lonely guy thing): I didn’t say if you don’t vote for Silver Linings Playbook you can’t get laid because you look and smell like Uriah Heep. I suggested based on honest, real-deal observation that this issue might be in play — I called it a “working theory” — if you blank SLP in terms of best of the year (i.e., not even putting it among the top ten, which is absolutely dead-to-rights ridiculous). BOFCA fucking blanked it so yes, I honestly and sincerely believe that a percentage of this org, no offense, might have a problem along these lines.

I honestly & truly believe (based on observation) that dweebs and beefalos have an issue with SLP because this is a film about extraordinarily fortunate romantic fate dropping into your lap (i.e., not some hotsy-totsy whoopsy-doopsy fuck fantasy but luckily meeting & connecting with a woman who’s upfront, loyal, vulnerable, tells the flat fucking truth and gives you the bone right through a diner window when the occasion calls for it) and life has sadly taught these Boston-residing dweebs and beefalos not to believe in that kind of luck, and indeed to disparage it. The notion of extraordinary romantic fate is a terrible, oppressive thing to carry around in their heads because it taunts them (“Sorry but this will almost certainly not happen to you, Mr. Heep”) and makes them even more quietly resigned to a life of dreaming about what probably won’t happen than they were to begin with.

The Boston Online Film Critics Association has gone for Zero Dark Thirty for Best Picture and Kathryn Bigelow for Best Director, Lincoln‘s Daniel Day Lewis for Best Actor, ZDT‘s Jessica Chastain for Best Actress, Lincoln‘s Tommy Lee Jones for Best Supporting Actor and Les Miserables‘ Anne Hathaway for Best Supporting Actress. Remaining winners can be found on the BOFCA site.

Zero Silver Linings recognition indicates (emphasis in the “i” word) that the BOFCA membership is dweeb-heavy — i.e., lonely/homely guys (including a certain percentage of beefalos) who haven’t been especially lucky or fortunate in affairs of the heart. God has favored them with brains, diligence and writing ability, but he hasn’t smiled on their sex lives. Slipshod as this may sound, this is HE’s working theory about the matter. Put another way, I have come to strongly suspect over the past several weeks that if SLP has a problem with any particular group, it’s with these guys.

A large Silver Linings Playbook dinner party happened last night (Friday, 11.7) at West Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont, and a very cool group showed up — David O. Russell, Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Jane Fonda, Richard Perry, a seriously slimmed down Val Kilmer, Diane Keaton, Phillip Noyce, Mel Gibson, Josh Brolin, Diane Lane, Melissa Leo, Nic Jarecki, Ava Duvernay, Penny Marshall, et. al. And for all of it, I didn’t get a decent shot of Russell and none of Cooper or De Niro.

Diane Keaton’s left footwear — Friday, 11.7, 8:20 pm.

Josh Brolin, Graemm McGavin.

Richard Perry, Jane Fonda.

Val Kilmer, Nic Jarecki.

Mel Gibson

(l. to r.) Graemm McGavin, Vuyo Dyasi Noycem, Phillip Noyce.

Melissa Leo