Day: December 20, 2020

Steve McQueen‘s Small Axe has won LAFCA’s Best Picture prize, with Chloe Zhao‘s Nomadland coming in second. Except Small Axe is not a film but a five-film miniseries made for British TV. What LAFCA really means is that some believe that the 128-minute Mangrove is the year’s finest feature, and others feel that the 68-minute Lovers Rock is the best.

In a perfect world Amazon would re-think their commitment to pushing Small Axe for Emmy awards, or at least separating Mangrove from the pack and pushing it for a Best Picture Oscar. They should definitely do this. There’s nothing wrong with changing your mind. Mangrove deserves the acclaim.

Robert: I’ll tell you what it is. It’s just that I can’t bear being back in London. I was happy…that’s a rare thing. Not in Venice, I don’t mean that. I mean on Torcello. When I walked about Torcello in the early morning I was happy. I wanted to stay there forever.

Jerry: (pause) We all…

Robert: Yeah, we all…feel that sometimes. (beat) Oh, you do yourself, do you? I mean, there’s nothing really wrong, you see. I’ve got the family. Emma and I are very good together. I think the world of her. And I actually consider Casey to be a first-rate writer.

Jerry: Do you really?

Robert: First rate. I’m proud to publish him and you discovered him, and that was very clever of you.

Jerry: Thanks.

Robert: I respect that in you, and so does Emma. We often talk about it.

Jerry: How is Emma?

Robert: Very well. You mist come and have a drink sometime. She’d love to see you.

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Ringo Starr turned 80 last July 7th, and you really have to hand it to the guy — he looks, sounds and talks like he’s 51 or 52. He could even be 49. When you pass 50 or 55 and you don’t want gray hair to dominate your appearance, you tell your hair-salon guy to allow a few gray strands to peek through around the temples. Because coloring your hair too darkly looks fake. Ringo just blows that shit out the window, and more power to him. Looks great, spirited attitude, sounds great, sings as well as he did a half-century ago, still playing the drums, etc.

The world-famous Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the most eccentric awards-giving group on the planet as well as the most food-obsessed because of their longstanding tradition of taking a brunch break in the middle of voting, is voting as we speak. This is who they are, what they stand for, what they care about most…cream cheese, wheat toast, fruit and potato salad.

No, seriously — they mostly care about defying Joe Popcorn slash Gold Derby mindsets. Which is cool.

HE acronyms (Yay), (Fine), (HRO) and (WTF) signify in this order hearty approval, moderate approval, “huh, really?…okay” and “what the fuck?”

So far the LAFCA foodies have awarded their Best Supporting actor to Glynn Turman for his performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. (HRO). Friendo: “How many times is Sound of Metal‘s Paul Raci going to get screwed over by these critics groups? Glynn Thurman? Really?” HE: “Thurman’s performance was fine, but Raci made a MUCH bigger impression. And they know this, of course.” Friendo #2: “This is so fucking weird. Does this mean Chadwick will win lead?”

3:29 pm: Best Picture: Small Axe (d: Steve McQueen‘) / (Yay)
Runner up: Nomadland (d: Chloe Zhao) / (Yay)

2:45 pm: Best Director: Chloé Zhao, Nomadland / (Yay)
Runner up: Steve McQueen, Small Axe / (Yay)

2:34 pm: Best Actress: Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman / (Yay)
Runner up: Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom / (Fine)

2:21 pm: Best Actor: Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom / (HRO)
Runner up: Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal / (Yay) — due respect and deep sadness for Chadwick and but Riz or Anthony Hopkins should’ve won.

2:06 pm: Best Documentary/Non-Fiction: Time (HRO)
Runner up: Collective (Yay)

1:55 pm: Best Screenplay: Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell) (Fine)
Runner up: Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman) (Fine)

[interminable brunch]

12:46 pm: Best Animated Film: Wolfwalkers (Apple TV Plus/GKIDS)
Runner up: Soul

12:40 pm: Best Supporting Actress: Youn Yuh-jung, the Minari grandma who started the fire (Fine)
Runner up: Amanda Seyfried, Mank (Yay)

Best Foreign Language Film:
Runner up:

11:09 pm: Best Cinematography: Small Axe (Shabier Kirchner) (Fine)
Runner up: Nomadland (Joshua James Richards) (Yay)

Best Music/Score: Soul (Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross) (HRO)
Runner up: Lovers Rock (Mica Levi) (HRO)

Best Production Design: Mank (Donald Graham Burt) (Fine)
Runner up: Beanpole (Sergey Ivanov) (Yay) (Fine)

Best Editing: The Father (Yorgos Lamprinos) (Fine)
Runner up: Time (Gabriel Rhodes)

Career Achievement: Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Harry Belafonte (Yay)

legacy Award: Norman Lloyd at age 106 (Yay)

From “Congress is racing to close a stimulus deal,” N.Y. Times: “Lawmakers are on the brink of agreement on a $900 billion compromise relief bill after breaking through an impasse late Saturday night, with votes on final legislation expected to unfold as early as Sunday afternoon and very likely just hours before the government is set to run out of funding.

“’We are winnowing down the remaining differences,’ said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader. ‘I believe I can speak for all sides when I say that I hope and expect to have a final agreement nailed down in a matter of hours.’

“But on a private call with House Republicans, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader, suggested that a vote may be delayed until late Sunday or Monday as negotiators rush to cement the final deal, but did not offer a concrete timeline, according to two people who disclosed the details on condition of anonymity.”

Plus the Russian super-hack stuff, etc.

In the comment thread for yesterday’s “For The Sake of Re-Emphasis” riff, “freek” wrote that “everybody in their right mind knew Parasite was exceptional…it was less of an upset than, say, Spotlight or The Shape of Water.” So I wrote the following response:

Parasite is 2/3 of a good film by a gifted, well-liked genre director (Bong Joon-ho), and yes, Oscar wins will sometimes reflect a broad consensus view about quality, and some will say that’s all that happened.

But the Parasite win wasn’t about “quality” per se, good as many found it to be — the win was mainly about newer, more diverse Academy members pushing back against established (boomer) Hollywood whiteness.

The fact, as any half-honest film lover will admit, is that The Irishman is a much better film — an epic, sprawling, old-school Martin Scorsese gangster pic about life, loyalty, values (family and otherwise) and the gradual envelopment of death — “Wild Strawberries with handguns” (New Yorker’s Anthony Lane).

The alternate fact of the matter is that the Parasite win was largely driven by woke political and cultural currents. The more broadly diverse membership (the New Academy Kidz, the surge in int’l membership) was more excited by a social metaphor drama (arrogant and oblivious 1% vs. desperate, scheming have-nots) than by a period gangster flick, and they wanted a film made by a person of color and/or a non-Anglo to win, and that’s what happened.

2019 (a year of ferocious industry woke-itude if there ever was one) just wasn’t an occasion for another Scorsese crowning.

The fact of the matter is that the last third of Parasite is beset by logic flaws (a huge secret basement that the wealthy owner of a lavish home doesn’t even know exists?) and an absurdly violent, drawn-out ending, and that it basically falls apart when the con-artist family, drunk as skunks, allows the fired maid into the house during a rain storm and thus ensures the collapse of the con — one of the stupidest plot turns in the history of world cinema. (And I don’t want to hear any of of that “they felt sorry for her because they’re from the same social class” crap — if you’re going to be a con artist, you have to commit 100%.)

There are no such errors in The Irishman (the only issue was that the de-aging CG was deemed insufficient) and the Academy membership didn’t care. They wanted a film of a diverse (non-white) international caste to win, and that’s what happened.