Jeffrey Wells …partly in order to nominate Anatomy of a Fall ‘s Justine Triet? This really doesn’t feel right, man. C’mon! And when you boil down Jonathan Glazer’s direction of The Zone of Interest, it’s basically a one-trick thing — chillingly imply rather than show. A bit surprising that Barbie’s Greta Gerwig got the shaft but them’s the breaks.
Deserved nominations but not universally foreseen.
…for standing by American Fiction through thick and thin. The enthusiasm for the respectable but not great Anatomy of a Fall has eluded me for months. I had resigned myself to a Past Lives nomination…fine. And Maestro got nominated along with Bradley Cooper!
Another surprise nomination…no real enthusiasm for his Rustin performance…pretty much ignored by handicappers…doesn’t add up but fine. Congrats to all.
Whom no one expected to be nominated for Best Supporting Actor. A very pronounced, amusing, take-it-or-leave-it performance. Charles Melton dismissed. Sorry about Dominic Sessa but I never expected that to happen.
Certain performances leap out and grab you, and you just know they’re keepers. Your follow-up thought, of course, is that everyone will recognize same and agree wholeheartedly.
This didn’t happen with Penelope Cruz’s hellcat performance as Laura Ferrari in Michael Mann’s Ferrari. It should have (the Movie Godz know this with absolute certainty…Cruz revives the spirit of Anna Magnani in The Rose Tattoo) but Ferrari was rejected by industry-centric Joe and Janes and that was that.
Cruz’s name won’t be announced this morning, and God, talk about pain in the heart.
What do these characters have to smile about? I look at these bizarre expressions and I’m asking myself “why?…what for?…what the hell?”
DeNiro: “I’m here to even things out, so to speak…the Osage need to spread some of that oil money around, if you get my meaning, and I’m the one to make it happen.”
Leo: “I’m a dumb-as-a-fencepost greedy murderer, and ready to do whatever my scumbag uncle wants done…yeah!”
Gladstone: “Boy, he sure is one handsome devil…look at him! Except he’s kinda major-league stupid. Worse, I’m not smart enough to understand that he’s just as much of a ne’er-do-well as his conniving uncle.”
Last weekend Sutton (26 months) made it through her first full-length movie in a movie theatre — Wonka. When Jett was two he watched Lawrence of Arabia (i.e., “camels”) at least two or three times; ditto E.T., The Extra–Terrestrial (i.e., “E.T. home”).
Nobody is more queer for movies dealing with neurofibromatosis than myself, but an instinct is telling me to give this puppy a pass…no offense.
Bill McCuddy: “Tuesday morning’s Academy nomination are going to lean into Maestro more than you think.”
HE to McCuddy: “Carey Mulligan will be nominated, of course. Anything above and beyond will be surprising but welcome. I’ve been a devout worshipper from the get–go, but so many people have a bug up their ass about it. “
