Jeff Wells

HE thinks it will be a better thing if American Fiction‘s Sterling K. Brown wins the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and in so doing denies Barbie‘s Ryan Gosling his moment in the sun. Because the outraged reactions to Greta Gerwig not being nominated for Best Director have been excessive, and Gosling, I feel, needs to be disciplined for throwing fuel on the fire.

Now, appropriately, there’s a pushback against that pushback. No whining or stamping your feet if you’re not nominated in your category. Suck it in, congratulate the nominees and let it go. Let the caning of Gosling be a lesson to all future would-be complainers.

“We’re just a shittier people than we used to be…sorry.” — Bill Maher, last night’s “New Rules” rant.

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From Doug Liman‘s 1.24.24 Deadline essay, in which he explains his decision to not attend Road House‘s SXSW premiere on March 8th:

“The action [in Road House] is ground-breaking. And Jake Gyllenhaal gives a career-defining performance in a role he was born to play.

“Alas, Amazon has no interest in supporting cinemas. Amazon will exclusively stream Road House on Amazon’s Prime. Amazon asked me and the film community to trust them and their public statements about supporting cinemas, and then they turned around and are using Road House to sell plumbing fixtures.

“That hurts the filmmakers and stars of Road House who don’t share in the upside of a hit movie on a streaming platform.

“And they deprive Jake Gyllenhaal — who gives a career-best performance — the opportunity to be recognized come award season. But the impact goes far beyond this one movie. This could be industry shaping for decades to come.”

HE to Liman: I’ve always loved Jake and I’ve loved many of your films (Swingers, Go, The Bourne Identity, Fair Game, Edge of Tomorrow, American Made), but there’s no way in hell Jake’s Road House performance will be part of the Best Actor discussion at the end of this year. You can’t play a Zen-minded bouncer in a Florida Keys bar and expect any kind of award-season attention…forget it, man.

For what it’s worth, I’d love to see Road House in a theatre.

There’s a tough, no-holds-barred essay by an anonymous industry person named “LIBERTAS CONSCIENTIAE” that popped on 1.24.24. I called around yesterday and tried to identify the author (unsuccessfully), but I’m 95% convinced that he/she doesn’t work in craft services, wardrobe, makeup, transportation or payroll.

If I’d been the author I would have toned down the bombast, but it’s still utterly required reading.

Posted just after Tuesday’s announcement of the Oscar noms, the piece basically says (a) DEI has all but ruined the entertainment industry and the Oscar brand in particular, and has to be jettisoned like a bad habit, and (b) former Academy honcho Dawn Hudson is the arch villain behind all the woke Stalinist guilt-trip measures that have been instituted over the past five or six years. It’s titled “Requiem for the Oscars: The Academy Awards on the Precipice.”

Consider the below excerpted paragraph about Oppenheimer, American Fiction and the Academy’s Oscar inclusion mandate, which kicked in this year. There is no way in hell such a paragraph would ever be posted on Deadline, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter or TheWrap because those publications have been entirely bought off and are presently confined to a social-political ideological corral that they have to stay inside of. They’ll never admit this, of course.

FAIR is an acronym that means Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism, the difference being that it refers to woke intolerance and anti-white-male racism.

Variety‘s Brent Lang is reporting that North American rights to Mark Bristol‘s Accidental Texan have been acquired by Roadside Attractions. Costarring Thomas Haden Church and Rudy Pankow, pic will open theatrically on 3.8.24.

I’m sorry but the fact that this buddy-relationship drama was previously titled Chocolate Lizards, arguably the most bizarre movie title in motion picture history…the fact that Bristol or an associate was seemingly invested enough to create a poster…I’m sorry but this is a matter of some concern.

This morning’s Oscar nominations came from inside the bubble, and therefore reflected inside-the-bubble values up and down the line (cultural, cinematic, anti-Joe and Jane Popcorn).

Jeff and Sasha kicked their impressions around as best they could, and…well, here they are.

Again, the link.

“It Can’t Happen Here” was published during the heyday of fascism in Europe, which was reported on by Dorothy Thompson, Lewis’ wife.

“The novel describes the rise of Berzelius ‘Buzz’ Windrip, a demagogue who is elected President of the United States, after fomenting fear and promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and ‘traditional’ values.

“After his election, Windrip takes complete control of the government via self-coup and imposes totalitarian rule with the help of a ruthless paramilitary force. The novel’s plot centers on journalist Doremus Jessup‘s opposition to the new regime and his subsequent struggle against it as part of a liberal rebellion.”

From Sasha Stone‘s “Oscars 2024: Oppenheimer Takes the Lead as Outrage Rises Over Gerwig“, posted earlier today but cut down to size here or, you know, partly Jeffrey Wells-icized:

“The Oscars have a branding problem. One, for the last six or seven years the awards have been used as a propaganda delivery device for sensitive lefty values (most white folks are bad, almost all POCs are wonderful, brainwashing school kids is good, LGBTQ trans-pregnant-men values are absolutely glorious). And two, the Oscars are now under the “inclusivity mandate” that was implemented this year. Most films had already wokified themselves but now that it’s official, it’s olly olly in come free.

“Boiled down: We all have the evil seed inside us, and the only way to rid us of it is to mandate that we vote a certain way — we have to like certain movies, read certain books and accept the changes the industry made to cover their own ass so they wouldn’t be called racists. Example #1: The critical opinions of Bob Strauss.

“The climate of fear we’ve all been living through since ’18 or thereabouts goes almost entirely unaddressed by people who cover film. They (we) just pretend like it wasn’t happening, that people weren’t losing their jobs, that every word uttered has to be carefully monitored so as not to commit a thought-crime.

“One of the reasons our country is divided is that Hollywood abandoned most of the country to chase sensitive-lefty, Barbra Streisand-approved utopia. And the people who cover awards and the industry aren’t saying boo. They never have and never will. ‘Just keep your head down, make the best of it,’ they say.

“But you can’t solve a problem you can’t even name. If you’re relying on the most high-profile outlets to talk about the truth, you’re wasting your time. They won’t. They can’t. All they can do is what most of us are supposed to do, write from within the walls of the royal court and forget about the masses beyond the castle walls. At least until heads roll.”

There may be something to the rumor about Paul Thomas Anderson having rewritten significant portions of Killers ot the Flower Moon, at least during the later stages. After reading a Charles Bramesco tweet that passed along the PTA rumor, I checked with a person with ties to the KOTFM show, and he didn’t pour water on it. He called Anderson “an artist” and said “anything he may have done [rewrite-wise] could have only helped.” That’s a little vague but it’s certainly not a blanket denial.

Jordan Ruimy update: “I don’t want to name names here, but two sources of mine, one of which worked extensively on Scorsese’s film, are confirming Bramesco’s claim — PTA did, in fact, take part in rewriting a good portion of the script. There might, or might not, be a few trades reporting on this soon. If I was able to corroborate it then it’ll be very easy for them to do the same.”

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Posted this morning: “I need to create a list of noteworthy narrative films that were regarded as unmistakably ‘important’ in their day.

“Films whose advocates and defenders said to naysayers ‘no, no…you need to sink into this film and try to understand…the subject is really important…seeing and understanding this movie will be good for our souls…the fact that it’s simply been made has improved our standing in the eyes of God.. we are better people for it.'”

Off the top of my head: Killers of the Flower Moon (anti-Native American racism), The Public Enemy (prohibition-era gangsters), I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (flawed justice system), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (governmental corruption), The Best Years of Our Lives (returning WWII veterans), Gentleman’s Agreement (anti-Semitism), Crossfire (anti-Semitism), Home of the Brave (racism), The Lost Weekend (alcoholism), Inherit The Wind (religious yokels), To Kill A Mockingbird (deep-yokel racism), Seven Days in May (rampant militarism, Curtis LeMay), Brokeback Mountain (homophobia)…what others?