One of the coolest swag items — mementos — of the 2019/20 Oscar season…wooden, seemingly hand-crafted ruby slippers from LD Entertainment’s Judy. Presumably sent at the urging of Oscar strategist David Pollick, who has been with Garland-channeller Renee Zellweger from the get-go. Somebody worked very hard to create these. Real “ruby” sequins, etc. Now hanging from VW Beetle’s rearview mirror.

Sopranoscon (i.e., Comic-Con meets The Sopranos) is happening this weekend at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus. (Or, as Joe Pesci‘s Tommy pronounced it in Goodfellas, “SEE-kawkus.”) “Sopranos Sessions” co-authors Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall were the Sunday stars.

Sidenote: Among all the classic Sopranos lines immortalized on the wall [pictured below], I don’t see “they don’t sell hot dogs here — they took the bleachers out two years ago.”

Mike Bloomberg has entered the Democratic presidential nomination because he sees an opening. The top four candidates have serious weaknesses. No major consensus candidate is riding the crest of the wave. Younger voters don’t relate to Droolin’ Joe, African Americans are refusing to support Pete Buttigieg, the far-left agendas of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are scaring Midwestern battleground voters.

And so Bloomberg, who would certainly be a saner, restorative, more progressive president than Donald Trump and whom I’d vote for in a New York minute if he was the Trump-opposing candidate, is looking to buy his way in at this late date.

From “Peak billionaire: a billionaire tries to purchase a party nomination to outflank anti-billionaires so he can run against another billionaire,” posted by Boingboing’s Cory Doctorow on Sunday, 11.24.19 at 7:27 am:

“The plutocrats — Time‘s Anand Giridharadas calls them ‘plutes’ — spent 40 years telling us that anything that doesn’t embrace the above is ‘socialism,’ with the inevitable and totally foreseeable outcome that Americans now embrace socialism at rates not seen since the New Deal.

“As Giridharadas writes: “History is the story of conditions that long seem reasonable until they begin to seem ridiculous.”

“So now the plutes are panicking: the Business Roundtable is promising a new form of capitalism (but refusing to even consider kicking out or even censuring members who violate that promise). Michael Bloomberg is buying his way into the Democratic race because he’s worried that the frontrunners ‘aren’t plutophilic enough,’ leading to peak plute: ‘A billionaire deciding to possibly attempt to purchase a party nomination because of his fear that some candidates in the race aren’t plutophilic enough, and then running against a maybe–billionaire who promised that being a billionaire would make him specially incorruptible and now is in impeachment proceedings over his alleged corruption.”

I for one was seriously impressed with the Once Upon A Time in Hollywood clip of “Rick Dalton” playing Cpt. Virgil Hilts (the role Steve McQueen actually played) in The Great Escape. The implication is that Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) screen-tested for the Hilts role or perhaps had even been cast before director John Sturges changed his mind and gave the role to McQueen. McQueen’s voice was deeper than Dalton’s — he had the surly-insolence-mixed-with-confident-swagger thing down pat. The Great Escape clip wasn’t ready when OUATIH premiered in Cannes or, as far as I know, opened last summer. Thanks to Aurora for posting this a couple of days ago.

You can tell by the tone of the conversation that mouthy hoodie guy (white) and furious skull-cap, yellow-green parka guy (black) aren’t debating the merits of Melina Matsoukas‘ Queen & Slim or the obstinate, bordering-on-self-destructive refusal of African-American voters to give Pete Buttigieg a fair shake. I’m pretty sure hoodie guy is using the “n” word, and is therefore the asshole in this dispute. Yellow-green guy landed four or five punches before it was broken up. This doesn’t look like a New York MTA car — is it? If not, any guesses as to what city?

Ok, I kind of live for the ballsy white guy who jumps right in the middle and says “We’re on public transportation – get your SHIT together”

😂💀😂💀😂💀pic.twitter.com/CFHf4spkj7

— Adam Schiff is a cop 🚨 (@notcapnamerica) November 24, 2019

Hollywood Elsewhere will see Sam Mendes‘ 1917 Sunday afternoon (11.24). Many are impressed. Anxiously waiting other impressions from today’s trio of NYC screenings. Somebody on Twitter called it “World War One-kirk.”

Almost every time the Criterion guys deliver a Bluray remastering (4K or 2K) of a classic film, they make it look darker and inkier than in previous home video manifestations (Rebecca, His Girl Friday, Only Angels Have Wings). Look at the difference between their Rebecca Bluray and previous versions. And my review of their Friday Bluray.

So given this history I’m not understanding why their new All About Eve Bluray doesn’t do the same inky-dinky. Are they the Princes of Monochrome Darkness or not? Gary W. Tooze‘s DVD Beaver comparison shots tell us there’s no noticable difference between the Criterion and the previous Fox Home Video Bluray, and that the monochrome renderings are identically crisp and velvety.

In the view of Vanity Fair contributor Mark Harris, the Gold Derby pundits have made this year’s Best Actress race into a racially stacked deck. Partly or mostly because they’re currently favoring four white actors and one Asian actor — Judy‘s Renée Zellweger, Marriage Story‘s Scarlett Johansson, Little Women‘s Saoirse Ronan, Bombshell‘s Charlize Theron and The Farewell‘s Awkwafina. But more specifically because they’re relegated Harriet‘s Cynthia Erivo, Clemency‘s Alfre Woodard and Us‘s Lupita Nyong’o to slots #6, #7 and #8.

“This is how a narrative gets entrenched,” Harris complains. “There are those who are in, and those who are fighting to get in, and the implicit notion of a quota — the idea that there is one spot for ‘diversity’ — becomes a way of not looking at the performances.”

Here’s another factor to consider. Some would say it’s the dominant factor when it comes to acting nominations.

A noteworthy performance is a noteworthy performance, but the movie in which it lives and breathes is the springboard. If a film is great, excellent or very good, the standout performance in that film stands a very good chance of being celebrated in the usual ways. But if the movie is generally regarded as merely good, half-decent, downish, grim, so-so or stinky, the standout performance is less likely to poll well with the Gold Derby know-it-alls, critics groups, guild and Academy members.

My Gold Derby actress picks are Zellweger, Theron, Johansson, Ronan and Awkwafina.

I haven’t seen Clemency because I loathe the idea of watching another film about capital punishment. I’ll get around to it but I shudder. Then again Woodard might shoot to the top of my list after I catch it.

I haven’t seen Harriet because absolutely everyone on the circuit (African American critics included) has told me it stinks.

And in my opinion Jordan Peele‘s Us is an unusual, mildly spooky but minor horror film, and that Lupita Nypng’o delivers a sturdy double performance (predator and prey) but calm down — it’s primarily a Jamie Lee Curtis terrified-victim performance with a doppleganger side order.

Why the hesitancy about Chinonye Chukwu‘s Clemency, especially given the 97% Rotten Tomatoes rating and the fact that everyone’s been raving about Woodard’s performance as a guilt-ridden warden? Because no matter the angle it’s still a downerish flick about state-administered executions, and it’s just human nature to go “yeah, well, okay, I guess I’ll get around to see it one of these days.” I know that I count suffering through The Green Mile as one of the worst moviegoing experiences of my life.

In an 11.23 conversation with The Daily Beast‘s Marlow Stern, Irishman star (and Joker costar) Robert De Niro allies himself with Pete Buttigieg.

Stern: So who do you think beats Trump in 2020?

De Niro: “I don’t know [but] I like Buttigieg. Biden could get us into calmer waters, that would be a good thing. He means well, and to me, he’s a guy who would do the right thing, make the right decision. But Buttigieg I like a lot. He’s got all the credentials — Rhodes Scholar, Afghanistan veteran — even though he’s young, and if he could get a chance it could be something special, I think.

“As a gay person, he’s someone who comes from a marginalized community, so people from other ethnic groups can identify with him, even if they’re not gay, because they know what it’s like. I think he’s the best for what we need now. I have friends who really like him a lot, as I do.

“With Obama, he had the middle name ‘Hussein’ and a lot of things that people tried to use against him — including Trump with the whole stupid ‘birther’ thing — and he went right through it. It could happen with Buttigieg.”

HE to Michael Musto and Hollywood Reporter Oscar soothsayer Scott Feinberg: We’ve got a major conflict between you two as far as Greta Gerwig‘s Little Women (Sony, 12.25) is concerned. La Dolce Musto has Greta’s film at the very top of his Gold Derby Best Picture spitball list, and yet Scott has relegated Little Women to his second-tier “Major Threats” list, which is a Feinberg euphemism for “don’t bet the farm.”

You guys are obviously on opposite poles. One of you is probably missing or sidestepping something, and that person may be Feinberg — who knows? I realize that a lot of progressive-identifying women want to see Little Women triumph, but I wonder if it has the horses.

I’m a “yes but” admirer of Little Women. A month ago I called it “highly respectable, nicely burnished, well performed, lusciously authentic,” etc. On the other hand it never quite finds a groove, the flashback device is a bit confusing, the manuscript of Saoirse Ronan‘s Jo is burned once too often (regardless of whether or not Louisa May Alcott wrote it this way — did she?) and Timothee Chalamet‘s character doesn’t know who or what he wants, and when told “no, sorry” he flips over like a pancake.

In other words, I’m basically with Feinberg.

Michael, this is your chance to deftly and gracefully withdraw as Little Women‘s biggest booster. You don’t want to be the Japanese solder hiding out in a jungle cave after U.S troops have taken the island in 1945.

The domestically partnered Gerwig and Marriage Story director-writer Noah Baumbach are obviously the dominant award-season power couple, but Little Women‘s 12.25 release date is not what most handicappers would call particularly Oscar-friendly, at least by the way things have worked over the last decade or so.

I’m also sensing a bit of trouble waiting for Marriage Story, if you wanna know. Or more precisely for Baumbach.

Marriage Story will be Best Picture-nominated, for sure, but the dirty little secret of the pre-1917 Oscar community conversation is that the curious absence of a Spirit Awards Best Director nomination for Baumbach probably means something. A lot of us were surprised by this, as all along it’s seemed clear that Baumbach dug deep and has made his most compassionate and emotionally well-layered film. So what’s the issue?

All I can figure is that there’s some kind of whisper campaign than Baumbach cast his alter ego character, Charlie, in too charitable a light. That by depicting Scarlett Johansson‘s Nicole character as the angry, argumentative one who wants the divorce and takes the son to Los Angeles, he more or less stuck it to his ex-wife, Jennifer Jason Leigh, while failing to acknowledge…let’s leave it there.

So getaway driver C.W. Moss decided to parallel park while Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker were robbing a small-town bank — brilliant. And then when his gray-haired, overall-wearing daddy told him to “stay away from those two” and keep his mouth shut on a certain afternoon in rural Louisiana, C.W. did just that — a friend to the end.

I’m sorry about the passing of Michael J. Pollard at age 80, but I could never sort out my feelings about C.W.

Pollard’s other standout performance was opposite Robert Redford in Big Fauss and Little Halsy, which I haven’t seen in God knows how long.