Day: January 2, 2019

I know some people have issues with Netflix, but Hollywood Elsewhere is genuinely grateful for their constant delivery all kinds of complex feature-length movies for adults.

Okay, so their selective investment in four-walled theatrical bookings for certain high-end films prior to streaming isn’t what it could be in the eyes of theatrical purists. Do I wish Netflix was more like Amazon in this regard? Yes. A friend said the other day that Netflix has conveyed to the industry that they don’t “need” the traditional give-and-take relationship that has existed between films and paying, popcorn-munching audiences for the last century or so, and that there’s something about the Netflix label that seems a little inorganic or over-digitized in this respect.

I’m not indifferent to these concerns, and yet I still say “thank God that a Daddy Warbucks entity like Netflix is investing, developing and streaming the kind of films and occasional longforms that I want to see” — Roma, Carey Mulligan‘s Collateral, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead, Triple Frontier, The Irishman, etc. Yes, I know that serious streaming competition from Disney, Apple and others is just around the corner, and no one knows, of course, how this will shake out in five or ten and what kind of tremors or upheavals will result, etc.

Earlier today I spoke to an old friend about all of this, and I have to admit that I laughed when he drew a vague analogy between what seems to happen to newish Netflix features and what happened to the Ark of the Covenant at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I don’t agree with the analogy because the above-mentioned upsides kind of balance everything out (or so it seems to me), but I guffawed all the same.

I would be down with two more Avatar films — a trilogy — but the idea of sitting through four upcoming Avatar films turns me right off.

The HFPA glamwhores will most likely give Lady Gaga two Golden Globe awards this Sunday — the Best Actress (Drama) award for her Star Is Born performance plus a Best Original Song award for “Shallow.” I know this, you know this, Paul Sheehan knows this, etc. But let’s be honest for a brief moment. All Lady Gaga did in A Star Is Born was give a slightly better-than-decent performance — she didn’t re-invent the acting wheel or blow the acting gates open, but she did a good job for a first-timer. But over the last couple of months the fact that she was somewhat better than pretty good has somehow morphed or transferred into a consensus that she had delivered a world-class, knock-your-socks-off performance.

Chuck Schumer says he asked Trump to give "one good reason" for continuing the government shutdown as while they debated their differences on homeland security. "He could not give a good answer." Via CBS. pic.twitter.com/FZO27K5R6T

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 2, 2019

I’ve said many times on this site over the last 14 years that there’s no organized community that’s more foul or diseased or deserving of being eaten by lions than rightwing Christians, and so any time I read anything that more or less agrees with this basic view, I tend to re-post it.

“I have attended dozens of Christian nationalist conferences and events over the past two years. And while I have heard plenty of comments casting doubt on the more questionable aspects of Donald Trump’s character, the gist of the proceedings almost always comes down to the belief that he is a miracle sent straight from heaven to bring the nation back to the Lord.

“I have also learned that resistance to Mr. Trump is tantamount to resistance to God.

“This isn’t the religious right we thought we knew. The Christian nationalist movement today is authoritarian, paranoid and patriarchal at its core. They aren’t fighting a culture war. They’re making a direct attack on democracy itself.

“They want it all. And in Mr. Trump, they have found a man who does not merely serve their cause, but also satisfies their craving for a certain kind of political leadership.” — from “Why Trump Reigns as King Cyrus,” a 12.31 N.Y. Times piece by Katherine Stewart.

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Why would any self-respecting 40-plus male have the slightest interest in watching Matt Walsh, of all people, try to find romantic salvation with some poor woman in Europe? Look at him and the guy he’s playing — not my idea of handsome or even moderately appealing, red-haired, pale complexion, freckle monster, seriously balding, emotionally unstable (proposing on his knees to a 26 year old?), nobody you’d want to hang out with and certainly no one I could even remotely identify with.

I wouldn’t watch Under The Eiffel Tower (The Orchard, 2.8) on a bet.

You can be aloof or snide and dismiss the views of regional film critics. Who, be honest, will sometimes choose oddball award winners for eccentric outlier reasons, or to otherwise get themselves some big-city attention.

But you can’t dismiss a fact that Variety‘s Kris Tapley reported earlier today, which is that Ethan Hawke‘s performance in First Reformed has won Best Actor trophies from no less than 22 regional critics groups. Not to mention having already won Best Actor awards from the Gothams, LAFCA and NYFCC.

I’m starting to ask myself why Hawke isn’t the most likely Best Actor Oscar winner at this stage. Well, why isn’t he? Are you going to sit there and tell me with a straight face that Bradley Cooper‘s drawlin’, laid-back, booze-sippin’ Kris Kirstofferson impersonation was more emotionally affecting or galvanizing than Hawke’s spiritually bothered, booze-sipping small-town minister?

Tapley also reports that Vice‘s Christian Bale has won four regional Best Actor award, and Cooper and Bohemian Rhapsody‘s Rami Malek have won three each.

Hollywood Elsewhere approves of anything that might hinder the Golden Globe or Oscar prospects of A Star Is Born. In a 12.26 piece titled “Due Respect, But A Star Is Born Must Be Stopped,” I asked “Is this who we are? Are we really going to give a Best Picture Oscar to the fifth version of a showbiz saga that dates back 85 years?”

And so HE heartily approves of 13 out of 20 Gold Derby spitballers (myself included) having predicted that Bohemian Rhapsody‘s Rami Malek will snatch the Best Actor in a Drama Golden Globe trophy, and in so doing slow or perhaps even stall the Oscar momentum of competing nominee Bradley Cooper, the director-star in A Star Is Born.

This is exactly and precisely what the doctor ordered. Stop Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga and A Star Is Born…stop Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga and A Star Is Born…jump in, the water’s fine…stop Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga and A Star Is Born, stop Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga and A Star Is Born, etc.

Walk over to their Golden Globes table, give them the biggest and warmest hug in the universe and say “guys, you delivered a very good remake and earned a shit-ton of money but we can’t give you Oscars, and we’re saying this with love and respect. We can’t shower the fourth remake of a 1932 inside-baseball melodrama with Little Gold Men…we just can’t.”

Perspective: Golden Globe and Oscar predictions are two different realms. Out of 30 Gold Derby predictions for the Best Actor Oscar race, Malek is sitting at the top of exactly two lists — that of Fox TV’s Tariq Khan and TCM’s Alicia Malone. Two out of 30, and yet 13 out of 20 are going with Malek for the Golden Globe Best Actor Drama award. Not Comedy or Musical but Drama. How to explain? The Golden Globe awards are about champagne highs and goofing off but the Oscars are sober and serious…something like that?

Hollywood Elsewhere has joined the Malek movement in the Golden Globe realm, but has him in fifth place on the GD Oscar ballot. Because I honestly believe that the top five Best Actor contenders are, in this order, Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Ethan Hawke, Viggo Mortensen and Malek.

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