So is the competition among Best Actor contenders a little weak this year, as a colleague recently suggested? When you get past Casey Affleck‘s performance in Manchester By The Sea (locked) and Denzel Washington‘s in Fences (likely), maybe.

The others comprise a roster of approvable-but-not-greats — Tom Hanks in Sully (sober, believable, sturdy), Ryan Gosling in La La land (skillful and affecting but the film belongs to Emma Stone), Andrew Garfield in Hacksaw Ridge (a respectable if “actorish” performance), Joel Edgerton in Loving (not up to Ruth Negga‘s level), Dev Patel in Lion (a decent turn but not as good as the little kid who stars in the first third) and Robert De Niro in The Comedian (which no one has seen).

Jonah Hill as former arms dealer Efraim Diveroli in Todd Phillips’ War Dogs.

Remember War Dogs? I know — not serious enough, released in August, a Todd Phillips film, etc. But if you ask me Jonah Hill was a remarkable stand-out as 20something arms dealer and stone-cold sociopath Efraim Diveroli. Not one of those “maybe” or “pretty good” performances, but extra-level. Really.

From my 8.17.16 review: “Hill’s rascally, conniving performance is the big reason to see War Dogs this weekend. Jonah, Jonah, Jonah…back in Superbad territory but with less schtick and colder blood. The highs, lows and demonic detours of a sociopathic, three-card-monte hustler!

“Jonah is in charge of the surge moments. Half the time you’re thinking ‘okay, this is good, moving along but where’s Jonah?’ or, you know, ‘what’s Jonah’s next big bullshit play gonna be’?

Hollywood Elsewhere will be attending the Santa Barbara Film Festival’s Cinema Society gathering for Neruda and Jackie director Pablo Larrain on Sunday, 10.30. Both films will be shown at the Riviera theatre (2044 Alameda Padre Serra, Santa Barbara) — Neruda (The Orchard, 12.16) at 10am, and Jackie (Fox Searchlight, 12.2) at 2 pm. In between guests will attend a reception at the Riviera Park Reflecting Pool for a luncheon and q & a with Larrain.

Yes, I’m queer for backstage color photos taken during the filming of classic black-and-white films. Yes, the Marlon Brando-in-Julius Caesar shot below is a fake — i.e., digitally colored. And yet the marble looks accurate; ditto the blood smears. And red wardrobe is, of course, often used on black-and-white films as it photographs well in that process. Yeah, it’s fake but I wish it wasn’t.

Several weeks ago I tapped out a piece called “Whither La La Land‘s Encounter With Joe Popcorn?“. The gist was that (a) Tom Hanks was spot-on when he said “if the audience doesn’t go and embrace something as wonderful as this then we are all doomed,” but that (b) I was concerned about Bobby Peru‘s prediction that Damien Chazelle’s 21st Century musical (Summit, 12.9) will only do arthouse-level business.

La La Land director-writer Damien Chazelle (r.), Access Hollywood‘s Scott Mantz (l.) outside SCAD Trustees theatre prior to last night’s La La Land screening.

Well, I saw La La land again last night at the Savannah Film Festival, and while the audience was a mixture of elite film lovers (which all film festivals attract) and SCAD students, it went over like gangbusters. Cheering, whoo-whooing, a standing ovation for Chazelle. Three SCAD kids (two girls and a guy) were sitting next to me, and they were all having kittens. Delighted, emotionally affected, planning to buy the soundtrack and see it again with their parents, etc. Everyone in the house was blissed, floating.

Bobby Peru’s response would presumably be “naaah, people who go to film festivals are foo-foos…real popcorn types aren’t going to embrace this because musicals are regarded as arcane exercises in nostalgia, especially those that don’t feature major music stars.”

Nobody has seen Robert Zemeckis‘ Allied (Paramount, 11.23), but the trailers have told us it’s a WWII espionage-and-assassins drama. But this new poster conveys a kind of swoony champagne vibe from High Society (’56). This is what Zemeckis wanted. Sexy stars, romantic vibes, perfect hair and wardrobe, Alfred Hitchcock‘s Notorious, etc. An aura of flush, pampered glamour.

Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra in High Society.

All hail the late Tom Hayden, reigning lion of ’60s-era activism, principal author of the 1962 SDS Port Huron statement, a Chicago 7 defendant and a California Assemblyman and Senator for almost 20 years. Hayden has passed at the age of 76 after suffering a stroke last year, and his absence is no small thing. Hayden was the George Washington of the rabble-rousing antiwar left from the mid ’60s to mid ’70s. The man was graced with exceptional smarts, vision and a pair of steel balls.

Hayden was also the only anti-establishment activist to marry a brilliant, sexy, major-league Hollywood actress — Jane Fonda. To the best of my knowledge no other SDS superstar, megaphone speech-giver or Chicago 7 defendant (Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, John Froines, David Dellinger, Bobby Seale, Rennie Davis, Lee Weiner) even dated a world-class, Oscar-winning Hollywood headliner. I’m sorry but that means something. Hayden was a political star and his 16- or 17-year partnership with Fonda was a significant part of that lustre.