Day: January 25, 2025

As Alannis M. would say, “Isn’t it ironic?”

The Academy created the 10 Best Picture nominee list to include the more commercial films like The Dark Knight (that they passed on nominating) so the Joe and Jane Popcorns of the world would tune in for bigger ratings, which drives their income.

But by inviting all those international filmmakers to become members, the Academy defeated the purpose of the 10 nominees because now those invitees are voting for more int’l films.  Oh man.  What a quandary.  

And here’s the thing: if you’re going to nominate foreign films for Best Picture Oscar, then why have an international category at all?  Just eliminate it or, better yet, restrict any foreign films from competing for the BP category (along with animated films which also has its own separate category).  That way more deserving American films can get in (and British).

I’ll be catching Steven Soderbergh‘s Presence this evening, but why does it have a lousy C-plus rating on CinemaScore and a 54% ticket-buyer rating on Rotten Tomatoes? I know that general audiences don’t tend to like elevated horror. Too subtle or cerebral? Not enough in the way of standard-issue jolt moments?

I’ve read the Wiki synopsis twice, and it seems at least psychologically intriguing.

Friendo: “It’s your kind of creepy cool. Cold and sterile. Well done.”

From Owen Gleiberman’s 1.20.24 Sundance review:

Matt Zoller Seitz:

Deadline‘s Anthony D’Alessandro:

…are not “wrong ones.” There is very little public support when it comes to deporting people in the country illegally who have not been convicted of a crime. The Trump plan will reportedly initially focus on immigrants who’ve committed crimes. To what extent will ICE agents start rounding up illegals with a clean record? No telling.

Ancient Chinese movie director’s curse: “May you peak during your first six years, and then experience a long, very gradual, mostly erratic decline over the next 25 years.”

Friendo: Did you ever get to meet/interview Michael Ritchie? Yes, he made stinkers like The Golden Child and The Island. but don’t you miss the guy who directed The Bad News Bears, Smile, The Candidate and Downhill Racer?

HE: Downhill Racer, The Candidate and Smile comprise Ritchie’s masterful trio. In late ’23 I finally saw and had an okay time with The Bad News Bears, but I don’t swear by it. Plus I was agreeably amused by Semi-Tough (’77).

Friendo: You don’t think BNB was his masterpiece?

HE: No — Downhill Racer and The Candidate, both starring peak Robert Redford, are the top two. Smile is a close third.

Friendo: Disagree, pal. Ritchie’s best, in the correct order, are BEARS, SMILE, CANDIDATE, FLETCH, RACER, DIGGSTOWN and SEMI-TOUGH. I might add AN ALMOST PERFECT AFFAIR to the mix as Monica Vitti is my #1 time-travel crush.

HE: Diggstown?

EW‘s Chris Willman on 4.26.01: “It’s difficult to think of any director, ever, who had a more consistently uneven career.”

Ritchie died of cancer in 2001, at the age of 62.

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Just about everything that ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said last night was incisive, spot-on, brilliant.

Posted on Axios on 1.19.25: “The $TRUMP memecoin — a financial asset that didn’t exist [last] Friday afternoon — now accounts for about 89% of Donald Trump’s net worth.

“Why it matters: The coin (technically a token that’s issued on the Solana blockchain) has massively enriched Trump personally, enabled a mechanism for the crypto industry to funnel cash to him, and created a volatile financial asset that allows anyone in the world to financially speculate on Trump’s political fortunes.”

Posted on The Byte, also on 1.19: “The whole thing reeks to high heaven. Trump’s crypto isn’t shooting up in value because of any intrinsic technical or business acumen; it’s doing so because investors believe — rightly, in all likelihood — that it will be a lucrative conflict of interest over the next four years.”

Just saw it minutes ago…”Buster!”

1.25.25 update — posted this morning in below comment thread:

The idea behind yesterday’s “Anguished, Scowling, Bitter” post was not hate per se. I was mostly okay with Emilia Perez, remember, when I first saw it in Cannes eight months ago, and I don’t hate it now.

But it certainly DOES flirt with mediocrity during the second half. And the bottom-line truth is that if not for the trans signpost factor, Perez would simply not be a Best Picture nominee.

This is a plea for Academy voters to emerge from the cultural woke cocoon of the past six or seven years, and to finally put aside sexual-identity or gender issues as deciding criteria. Enough with the social justice warrior crap.

Please consider voting for the Best Picture nominee that doesn’t do the woke two-step (please give that nagging “revolutionary” ethos a rest) while actually fulfilling and delivering a certain kind of high on its own emotional and cinematic terms. Which is what Anora, Conclave and A Complete Unknown manage to do, handily.

Joe and Jane Popcorn voted for Trump in order to get rid of the crazy wokey or at least keep it on the sidelines. For the love of God, smell the coffee. The woke point has been made, and now it’s time to set that bird free.

HE commenter K. Bowen: “It seems like the Academy is about to hand the trophy to a movie no one actually likes.”

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