Jeffrey Wells 
Doug Liman’s Roadhouse (Amazon, 3.21) is, of course, a remake of that 1989 Patrick Swayze original, directed by Rowdy Herrington and produced by Joel Silver. (Yes, I’m aware that it’s actually spelled Road House but I don’t like that spelling. Some people spell screenplay as Screen Play, and I don’t like that either.)
Chief Dan George was the first Native American actor to be Oscar-nominated (i.e., Best Supporting Actor, Little Big Man). He also won the New York Film Critics Circle trophy for this performance (“Old Lodge Skins”).
HE agrees that Barbie’s Greta Gerwig completely deserved an Oscar nomination for Best Director, certainly for the imagination, moxie and spunk that lifted her pink epic off the ground.
The idea of Anatomy of a Fall s Justine Triet or The Zone of Interest Jonathan Glazer taking her slot…I really don’t get it.
Unless the Academy’s mostly male director’s branch had a bug up their ass about Barbie’s misandrist satire…who knows? There’s no question that Barbie pretty much despises the XY community or at least regards them with a measure of contempt or pity…c’mon.
That said, “Marty the Martell”’s 1.23 Reddit post struck me as moderately sensible and perceptive as far as it went.
A 4K Italian Bluray of Woody Allen’s Coup de Chance will be released on 3.18.24 — roughly two months hence. Which means that the pirates will soon after be streaming it, which of course will lower whatever value it has stateside.
I personally regard Coup de Chance as a very valuable viewing opportunity. I’ve spent several months begging to see it.
I’m told that a certain U.S.-based distributor is looking to open (or at least stream) Coup de Chance a couple of months hence, give or take. That’s not going to work out too well once the Italian Bluray pops.
Spoken or written by Pauline Kael, presumably during the ‘70s or ‘80s. (It appears in “Conversations with Pauline Kael”, published in ‘96). She could have been talking about the ‘50s and ‘60s films of Stanley Kramer or the ‘60s films of Norman Jewison.
Thanks to Albert Finney (aka “Eddie Ginley”) for posting this quote.
L.A. Times film writer Jen Yamato, one of the most vocal and persistent advocates of diversity casting and the concept of identity and representation mattering as much if not more than merit in motion pictures, has been jettisoned by her employer in a major wave of dismissals.
On one hand I feel badly for any journalist who’s been cut loose, but on the other hand Yamato has sought to condemn and marginalize HE for reasons that I felt were rash, Salem-like, erroneous and cruel so I can’t shed too many tears. I hope she understands.
…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.
