Let no press or industry person overlook the simple fact that for weeks and weeks Hollywood Elsewhere stood resolute and alone against the stiff winds of seeming indifference…the only name-brand columnist who stood up and waved weekly flags for the beautiful Penelope Cruz and her deeply rooted performance in Parallel Mothers. Who else consistently stood hard and faithful as much as I? Who else single-handedly generated a Cruz bandwagon on a week-by-week, never-say-die basis?
All the other award-season Yodas and semi-dispassionate handicappers were either Doubting Thomases or cautious fence-sitters…damp-finger-to-the-wind equivocators. If you want to make it in this business you have to have heart.
Penélope Cruz:
-Didn’t get a Golden Globe nod -Didn’t get a Critics Choice nod -Didn’t get a SAG nod -Didn’t even make the BAFTA *LONGLIST*
A few days ago Santa Barbara Film Festival honcho Roger Durling posted a chat with Parallel Mothers star and Best Actress contender Penelope Cruz. I meant to post it right away, but I let other stuff overwhelm and I failed to muster the discipline…my deepest apologies.
But this really has to be said and withoutequivocation to all Academy members: Penelope Cruz gave the deepest, richest, most emotionally fulfilling lead female performance of 2021…by far. Way, way above the realm of her illustrious competitors (Kidman, Gaga, Stewart, Chastain, Colman). You simply can’t watch Parallel Mothers and not come to this very conclusion. It’s not possible — not if you’re honest with yourself.
Remember that Penelope has already won 2021 Best Actress awards from the National Society of Film Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the San Diego Film Critics Society as well as the Venice Film Festival’s Best Actress award last September.
Everyone thought Kristen Stewart's shot at a Best Actress nomination was toast. Spencer is roundly despised so how did she pull it off? Variety's Owen Gleiberman called it, I suspect, when he posted a 1.15.22 column titled "Why SAG’s Best Actress Snub May Have Done Kristen Stewart a Favor."
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All hail director, special-effects wizard and high-frame-rate advocate Douglas Trumbull, who has passed at age 79. His SFX bona fides include 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Blade Runner and The Tree of Life; he directed Silent Running and Brainstorm. I remember the 60 fps Showscan process….first saw it in ’83!
“Visit to Trumbull Village,”‘ posted on 8.10.18: “Restoration guru Robert Harris and I spent most of today (Friday, 8.10) visiting the legendary Douglas Trumbull — special-effects designer and innovator (Close Encounters, Blade Runner, Tree of Life), director of Brainstorm and Silent Running, the Thomas A. Edison of knockout movie concepts and visuals — on his sprawling estate in Southfield, Mass.
“The highlight was experiencing (watching sounds too bland) Trumbull’s Magi, a mindblowing digital 3D projection system that delivers images at 120 frames per second and hefty woofer shake under your seat, and which turns you around in a way that feels pretty damn unique.
Douglas Trumbull, Robert Harris outside Magi projection facility.
“Harris picked me up this morning at the new Danbury train station. (The old train station, located 150 feet to the east, is where Robert Walker‘s Bruno Antony disembarked in “Metcalf” in Alfred Hitchcock‘s Strangers on a Train.) We drove up interstate 84, over to Route 8, northwest on 44 and then due north on 272.
“We pulled into Southfield a little after noon. We stopped at the Southfield Store for a rest and a light lunch, and arrived at the huge Trumbull compound (four or five large residences, a “mad genius” workshed, a couple of soundstages, a projection facility, a couple of garages, meadows with grazing donkeys and goats and towering trees all around) at 12:45 pm, give or take.
“The Trumbull compound seemed larger than George Lucas‘s Skywalker Sound facility in northern Marin County. Try 50 acres. It’s homey and at the same time a kind of high-tech village. You need to drive to get from one end to the other.
“Full of energy and sharp as a tack, Trumbull led us over to a “Magi pod” theatre, which seats 60 and uses a large, curved concave screen. He explained that Magi integrates virtual reality and augmented reality (seat rumblings), and that it’s the kind of thing that could re-energize moviegoing in an era of fading cinema attendance.
Boilerplate: Magi captures and projects images in 3D, 4K HD and 120 frames per second. Trumbull has developed a prefabricated “Magi Pod” theater, as most theatres are incapable of delivering the right stuff. Magi Pods can be shipped and assembled in a week. Each seat faces the center of a 36-foot-wide by 17-foot-tall screen. A 32-channel, surround-sound system provides strong, needle-sharp audio. The system produces a picture that’s way more immersive than regular 3D or IMAX.
“Trumbull and a collaborator are writing a script called Lightship. I didn’t grill him on the specifics, but it’s some kind of high-tech, high-dynamic, eyeball-popping hair-raiser. Trumbull intends to direct Lightship with most of the principal photography to be captured in the compound.
“Harris and I pushed on a little after 3 pm, and were both back at our respective homes less than three hours later.
My sincere apologies for late wake-up — I couldn’t fall asleep until 2 am. But all hail HE’s own Penelope Cruz (Parallel Mothers) for having snagged a richly deserved Best Actress nom, and in so doing having seemingly stolen Lady Gaga‘s ardently-campaigned-for Best Actress nom. Further cheers for King Richard‘s Will Smith, an almost certain lock to win Best Actor. Congrats to The Power of the Dog and director Jane Campion — obviously locked to win Best Picture and Best Director. Congrats also for Netflix having finally overcome fogeyish anti-streaming sentiments. Congrats to Drive My Car (four noms), director Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Best Director) and Justin Chang. Congrats to Guillermo del Toro for his Nightmare Alley being Best Pic-nominated. And…first cup of coffee, updates and additions as the wake-up process continues.
SNUBBING the obviously deserving Spider-Man: No Way Home is shameful, obstinate, ignorant, narrow-minded and blind. Sony should’ve offered streaming & screeners earlier in the game.
BEST PICTURE
“Belfast”
“CODA”
“Don’t Look Up”
“Drive My Car” / hats in the air for the Uncle Vanya-stamped grief monkeys! And that red Saab! And the 87 cigarettes smoked during the 179-minute running time.
“Dune”
“King Richard”
“Licorice Pizza”
“Nightmare Alley”
“The Power of the Dog” / OBVIOUSLY LOCKED TO WIN
“West Side Story”
SNUBS: “Being The Ricardos”, “tick, tick…BOOM”
BEST DIRECTOR
Kenneth Branagh, “Belfast”
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, “Drive My Car’ / SURPRISE!
Paul Thomas Anderson, “Licorice Pizza”
Jane Campion, “The Power of the Dog”
Steven Spielberg, “West Side Story”
SNUB “Dune”‘s Denis Villeneuve
BEST ACTOR
Javier Bardem, “Being the Ricardos”
Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Power of the Dog”
Andrew Garfield, “tick, tick, BOOM!
Will Smith, “King Richard” / CERTAIN TO WIN
Denzel Washington, “The Tragedy of Macbeth”
BEST ACTRESS
Jessica Chastain, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” / Tom O’Neil was right! The others were wrong!
Olivia Colman, “The Lost Daughter’
Penelope Cruz, “Parallel Mothers”
Nicole Kidman, “Being the Ricardos”
Kristen Stewart, “Spencer” / EVERYONE THOUGHT SHE WAS TOAST…what happened?
SNUBS: Lady Gaga, “House of Gucci” / GAGA MAFIA STUNNED!
Jennifer Hudson, “Respect”
Tessa Thompson, “Passing”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Ciarin Hinds, “Belfast”
Troy Kotsur, “CODA”
Jesse Plemons, “The Power of the Dog”
J.K. Simmons, “Being the Ricardos”
Kodi Smit-McPhee, “The Power of the Dog”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jessie Buckley, “The Lost Daughter”
Ariana DeBose, “West Side Story”
Judi Dench, “Belfast” / WTF?
Kirsten Dunst, “The Power of the Dog”
Aunjanue Ellis, “King Richard” / YES!!! HE’s choice to win!! Because she stood up and stood out!
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
“CODA”
“Drive My Car”
“Dune”
“The Lost Daughter”
“The Power of the Dog”
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
“Belfast”
“Don’t Look Up”
“King Richard”
“Licorice Pizza”
“The Worst Person in the World”
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
“Dune”
“Nightmare Alley”
“The Power of the Dog”
“The Tragedy of Macbeth”
“West Side Story”
BEST FILM EDITING
“Don’t Look Up”
“Dune”
“King Richard”
“The Power of the Dog”
“tick, tick…BOOM!”
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
“Dune”
“Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
The Tragedy of Macbeth
West Side Story
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
“Cruella”
“Cyrano”
“Dune”
“Nightmare Alley”
“West Side Story”
BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
“Coming 2 America”
“Cruella”
“Dune”
“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”
“House of Gucci”
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
“Don’t Look Up”
“Dune”
“Encanto”
“Parallel Mothers”
“The Power of the Dog”
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“Be Alive,” “King Richard”
“Dos Oruguitas,” “Encanto”
“Down to Joy,” “Belfast”
“No Time To Die,” “No Time to Die”
“Somehow You Do You,” “Four Good Days”
BEST SOUND
“Belfast”
“Dune”
“No Time To Die”
“The Power of the Dog”
“West Side Story”
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
“Dune”
“Free Guy”
“No Time to Die”
“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”
“Spider-Man: No Way Home”
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM
“Drive My Car” / Guaranteed winner
“Flee”
“The Hand of God”
“Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom”
“The Worst Person in the World” / HE’s favorite!
Asghar Farhadi‘s “A Hero” snubbed!
BEST ANIMATED FILM
“Encanto”
“Flee”
“Luca”
“The Mitchells Vs. The Machines”
“Raya and the Last Dragon”
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
“Ascension”
“Attica”
“Flee”
“Summer of Soul…or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised”
“Writing With Fire”
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
“Audible”
“Lead Me Home”
“The Queen of Basketball”
Three Songs for Benazir”
“When We Were Bullies”
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
“Affairs of the Art”
“Bestia”
“Box Ballet”
“Robin Robin”
“The Windshield Wiper”
BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT
“Ala Kachuu – “Take and Run”
“The Dress”
“The Long Goodbye”
“On My Mind”
“Please Hold”
I’ll definitely be watching this limited Hulu miniseries, which launches on 3.3.22. The Dropout stars Amanda Seyfried as Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, a young biotechnology entrepreneur who was busted for frauding data concerning her now-defunct blood-testing tech company.
The alarm bells and the downswirl happened between 2015 and 2018. Holmes is now looking at several years in a federal slam, plus potentially paying out millions in restitution and fines; sentencing is scheduled for 9.26.22.
The Dropout costars William H. Macy, Laurie Metcalf, Elizabeth Marvel, Kate Burton, Stephen Fry, Michel Gill, Michael Ironside, Hart Bochner, James Hiroyuki Liao, Sam Waterston, Kurtwood Smith, Anne Archer and LisaGay Hamilton.
Hollywood Elsewhere is also rooting big-time for West Side Story's Mike Faist to snag a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Because his performance leaps out and burns through. Everyone has said this.
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I’ve been aware of The Bride of Frankenstein‘s ginger-red hair (worn by Elsa Lanchester) for quite a few years. Which goes, of course, with the light-green tint of the skin of Boris Karloff‘s monster.
Steven Spielberg‘s Munich opened a little more than 16 years ago. I’ve just re-read my initial review, posted on 12.8.05, and my reaction was somewhere between thumbs-up, mezzo-mezzo and thumbs-down. I was certainly respectful. But I was really bothered by that way-too-chummy Time magazine cover that trumpeted Munich as Spielberg’s masterpiece — the all-but-consecrated winner of the Best Picture race, the equivalent of tablets chiseled out of Mount Sinai, the very definition of “the one.”
And so I pretty much embarked on a determined detractor campaign to “get” Munich, not because I didn’t admire it as far as it went (although I felt that the third act was underwhelming) but because Time magazine had to be defied and defeated.
I re-watched Munich a few nights ago, and I have to admit that it plays better now. Taken out of the context of Oscar campaigns and whatnot and just absorbed on its own terms, it’s a fascinating thriller — not perfect but mesmerizing — that basically says “murder is bad karma, no matter who’s killing whom and for what reasons.” So I’m stating for the record that I’ve warmed up to it somewhat, and I’m a little bit sorry that I wasn’t more fair-minded when it first came out.
“Munich Shortfall,” posted on 12.8.05: I’m not trying to be a hard-ass for the sake of being a hard-ass, but I can’t get on the Oscar boat for Steven Spielberg’s Munich (Universal, 12.23).
It’s a pretty good movie, but the Best Picture hoo-hah seems a tiny bit forced given what this film truly is in the light of day. If you ask me those prognosticators who’ve already said “this is it!” are conning themselves.
Directed by Spielberg and written (for the most part) by Tony Kushner and Eric Roth, Munich is a longish (160 minutes), thoughtful drama about Israel’s revenge campaign against the perpetrators of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games killings of Israeli atheletes. It’s strong, meaningful and well-intended…but I don’t get all the jumping up and down. I’m talking about the proclamations about it being the new Best Picture front-runner. It’s in the running, I guess, but it sure as shit is no shoo-in.
I spoke last night to a guy who’ll be voting this Saturday with the L.A. Film Critics, and we had both just seen Munich and were talking about the Best Picture Oscar contest, and he said, “I don’t know if [Munich] will even get nominated.”
He may have been overly dismissive, okay, but any seasoned film guy making such a statement should give you a hint about what’s going on here.
I felt the euphoric current at the DGA theatre last year after seeing Million Dollar Baby — I was levitating — but nothing like this kicked in last night inside theatre #5 at the AMC Century City.
It happened during a June 1985 hearing about the nomination of William Reynolds to be Associate Attorney General. The Biden utterances begin at the 39-second mark. He was quoting a political adversary as a way of deploring their racial attitudes; context was obviously crucial in this instance. But if a U.S. Senator were to do the same today he/she would have to resign by sundown.
This is not an n-word thing. I’ve posted this because it’s quite striking how much sharper, younger and more vigorous Biden’s voice sounds…listen to him. Today his voice sounds soft and halting and grandfatherly with the coughing and whatnot. There’s no substitute for the aliveness of youth, or in this instance the larynx and voice box of a 40-year-old.
Apparently Kenneth Branagh's Death on the Nile (20th Century, 2.11) is (a) fairly mediocre but (b) not bad enough to be regarded as an albatross around Branagh's neck. It won't get in the way of his Best Picture and Best Director Oscar campaigns, I mean.
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Early tomorrow morning our suspicions and predictions about what the none-too-hip, stay-at-home-except-for-groceries, life-has-mostly-possed-them-by Academy members are preferring as far as the allegedly finest film accomplishments of 2021 are concerned.
I can attempt to describe the pit-of-hell depression I’m feeling about what will happen tomorrow, but I’m not sure I can do it justice.
All I know right now is the bottom line, which is that Hollywood Elsewhere has staked out three hills that I’m ready to die on or die for…three contenders that will have to be at least nominated for the Academy to maintain at least a smidgen of respect in my eyes.
Hill #1 is Parallel Mothers‘ Penelope Cruz for Best Actress — apparently a dicey situation but who knows? Hill #2 is Spider-Man: No Way Home for Best Picture — an apparent no-go despite the obviously necessary hosannah response to a single film having kept exhibition alive in late ’21 plus Anne Thompson saying last weekend that she’s heard that Academy members are having trouble coming up with ten nominations…God! Hill #3 is King Richard‘s Will Smith for Best Actor — a safe bet. (Smith will probably win, in fact.)
It would be outrageous, of course, if West Side Story fails to nab a Best Picture nomination, but it probably will.
Everyone is depressed about the Oscar noms…about life, the pandemic, wokesters working overtime to ensure that the Republicans will take the House and possibly the Senate next November, inflation, everything. Barring a huge surprise or two, the only thing anyone will be talking about tomorrow are the snubs. HE lives for the snubs.
Cutting to the chase, here are Sasha Stone’s predictions plus my own comments in the form of an NGE classification (i.e., Not Good Enough). What that really means is that an Oscar contender should ideally represent an exceptional or transcendent or highly combustible effort. If the effort in question is just respectable or professional or moderately approvable, then it’s not good enough for an Oscar nom. Another NGE factor is a contender who is very popular or even locked in for political reasons. (You know who I mean.) If a contender doesn’t have an NGE, it’s more or less okay in my book,
Best Picture
Belfast (Globes/Critics Choice/PGA/SAG/DGA/BAFTA pic) / no comment The Power of the Dog (Globes/Critics Choice/PGA/DGA/BAFTA pic) Licorice Pizza (Globes/Critics Choice/PGA/DGA/BAFTA pic) / NGE, although it’s okay Dune (Globes/Critics Choice/PGA/DGA/BAFTA pic) / NGE West Side Story (Globes+/Critics Choice/PGA/DGA) Don’t Look Up (Globes/Critics Choice/PGA/SAG/BAFTA pic) King Richard (Globes/Critics Choice/PGA/SAG) CODA (Globes/Critics Choice/PGA/SAG) / NGE tick, tick…BOOM! (Globes/Critics Choice/PGA) Being the Ricardos (PGA) Alternates: Nightmare Alley (Critics Choice), Drive My Car, House of Gucci.
Best Director
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog (DGA) Kenneth Branagh, Belfast (DGA) Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza (DGA) Denis Villenuve, Dune (DGA) / NGE Steven Spielberg, West Side Story (DGA) Alternates: Guillermo del Toro, Nightmare Alley; Adam McKay, Don’t Look Up; Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car
Best Actress
Nicole Kidman, Being the Ricardos / NGE Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter Lady Gaga, House of Gucci / NGE Jennifer Hudson, Respect Alternates: Rachel Zegler, West Side Story; Tessa Thompson, Passing; Kristen Stewart, Spencer.
Best Actor
Will Smith, King Richard Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog Denzel Washington, The Tragedy of Macbeth / NGE Andrew Garfield, tick, tick… BOOM! / NGE Javier Bardem, Being the Ricardos Alternates: Leonardo DiCaprio, Don’t Look Up; Peter Dinklage, Cyrano
Best Supporting Actress
Ariana DeBose, West Side Story / NGE Caitriona Balfe, Belfast Kirsten Dunst, The Power of the Dog / NGE Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard…SHOULD WIN!! Cate Blanchett, Nightmare Alley / NGE Alternates: Rita Moreno, West Side Story; Marlee Matlin, CODA; Nina Arianda, Being the Ricardos; Ann Dowd, Mass; Haley Bennett, Cyrano; Martha Plimpton, Mass.
Best Supporting Actor
Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog / NGE Troy Kotsur, CODA / NGE Ciaran Hinds, Belfast Jared Leto, House of Gucci…too broad, Al Pacino was better. Bradley Cooper, Licorice Pizza
Alts: Ben Affleck, The Tender Bar / NGE; Mark Rylance, Don’t Look Up / NGE; Mike Faist, West Side Story…SHOULD WIN!!; Jonah Hill, Don’t Look Up; J.K. Simmons, Being the Ricardos.
Again, HE’s top films of 2021:
1. King Richard
2. Parallel Mothers
3. West Side Story
4. Spider-Man: No Way Home
5. The Worst Person in the World
6. A Hero (Amazon)
7. RidersofJustice
8. No Time To Die
9. The Beatles: Get Back
10. Zola
11. Cyrano
12. Licorice Pizza
13. The Card Counter
14. In The Heights
15. TheLastDuel
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I finally saw Walter Salles' I'm Still Here two days ago in Ojai. It's obviously an absorbing, very well-crafted, fact-based poltical drama, and yes, Fernanda Torres carries the whole thing on her shoulders. Superb actress. Fully deserving of her Best Actress nomination. But as good as it basically is...
After three-plus-years of delay and fiddling around, Bernard McMahon's Becoming Led Zeppelin, an obsequious 2021 doc about the early glory days of arguably the greatest metal-rock band of all time, is opening in IMAX today in roughly 200 theaters. Sony Pictures Classics is distributing. All I can say is, it...
To my great surprise and delight, Christy Hall's Daddio, which I was remiss in not seeing during last year's Telluride Film Festival, is a truly first-rate two-hander -- a pure-dialogue, character-revealing, heart-to-heart talkfest that knows what it's doing and ends sublimely. Yes, it all happens inside a Yellow Cab on...
7:45 pm: Okay, the initial light-hearted section (repartee, wedding, hospital, afterlife Joey Pants, healthy diet) was enjoyable, but Jesus, when and how did Martin Lawrence become Oliver Hardy? He’s funny in that bug-eyed, space-cadet way… 7:55 pm: And now it’s all cartel bad guys, ice-cold vibes, hard bullets, bad business,...
