I attended the 2016 Santa Barbara Film Festival screenwriters panel on Saturday afternoon (2.5), which was moderately engaging. I then tried to write it up but it wouldn’t come. So here, at least, is the full video. Anne Thompson moderated; the participants were Ex Machina‘s Alex Garland, Inside Out‘s Pete Docter (who really does look like a cartoon character), Room‘s Emma Donoghue, The Martian‘s Drew Goddard, Straight Outta Compton‘s Jonathan Herman (one of the four white writers), Anomalisa‘s Charlie Kaufman, Carol‘s Phyllis Nagy, The Big Short‘s Charles Randolph and Spotlight‘s Josh Singer. Watch it or don’t, but…well, I’ve already described it.
8:02 pm: Will The Revenant steal the Best Picture — Drama from Spotlight? Yes, that’s just happened. Shocker — really, really unexpected. What a mindblower, what an unexpected triumph…whoa. Who predicted a three-award sweep for one of the roughest sits of the year? The Revenant is the show’s wowser winner. The Spotlight guys must be in shock…sorry but again not sorry.
7:55 pm: The Revenant‘s Leonardo DiCaprio wins Best Actor – Drama. Huge cheers and screams inside the Fox tent. Fully deserved, obviously paving the way to Best Actor Oscar. Leo concludes his “thank you” speech with a little Marlon Brando flourish, paying tribute to Native Americans.
7:53 pm: Room‘s Brie Larson wins for Best Female Performance — Drama. Heavily predicted. I would have preferred Brooklyn’ s Saoirse Ronan. I’ll bet the vote was close.
7:41 pm: Jim Carrey wickedly mocking the “two-time Golden Globe winner” intro. And the Best Motion Picture Comedy award goes to The Martian, hands down the biggest laugh riot of the year. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the realm of the Golden Globes. HE to readership: What are your favorite laugh-riot moments in this wonderfully satisfying film? Seriously, The Martian is a very well-made entertainment. Cheers for any win it manages to get from the HFPA, no matter how loony the classification might be.
7:32 pm: Another surprise win — Jennifer Lawerence takes Best Actress Comedy award for Joy. Did anyone see this one coming? Thank God they didn’t give it to The Lady In The Van‘s Maggie Smith. I would have preferred a win by Trainwreck‘s Amy Schumer but this is fine.
7:23 pm: Alejandro G. Inarritu wins Best Director award for The Revenant! What a weekend for The Revenant with the unexpectedly huge box-office and now this. Sorry, Scott Feinberg, but no Gold Watch award for Ridley Scott. Fucking wifi just died in Fox Pavillion so I’m on the iPhone now. Okay, it’s back now. What a shocker. Did anyone see this coming? Very happy and gratified.
7:04 pm: Congested, cold-afflicted Tom Hanks introducing Denzel Washington, recipient of this year’s Cecil B DeMille Award.
6:57 pm: Mr. Robot wins for Best TV Series. No comment. Okay, I have a comment: Congrats!
6:53 pm: Ricky Gervais announcing that he’s “in the awkward position of having to introduce” Mel Gibson again after insulting him some years back. Kicker: “I’d rather have a drink with [Mel Gibson] tonight, in his hotel room, than with Bill Cosby.” Another: “What the fuck does ‘Sugartits’ even mean?” Best Golden Globes moment so far?
6:39 pm: Laszlo Nemes wins Best Foreign Language Golden Globe for Son of Saul! This is the first time tonight that things have really gone Hollywood Elsewhere’s way. It’s been a bit of a weird show so far. Hooray for Lady Gaga, whose facial features I’m still trying to assimilate and hang onto. Nobody cares about Best Song.
6:28 pm: Aaron Sorkin wins Screenplay Award for Steve Jobs, a movie that wasn’t especially lovable or satisfying and which tanked when it went wide? Spotlight was supposed to win this handily. This is the second Jobs shocker of the night after Kate Winslet winning for Best Supporting Actress, all but stealing it from Alicia Vikander.
6:19 pm: J.K. Simmons and Patricia Arquette announcing winner of the Golden Globe Best Supporting Actor award, and…Sylvester Stallone takes it. Okay, roll with it — Sly was very,very good in Creed. Kicker: “I’m gonna thank my imaginary friend Rocky Balboa for being the best friend I ever had.” But he doesn’t thank Ryan Coogler.
6:15 pm: Kurt Russell and Kate Hudson announced Golden Glove for Best Animated Feature: Inside Out. No joy in Mudville about this one. Anomalisa should have won. Bored with Pixar dominance.
I dawdled all morning and now I’m fucked with only four hours to file before going to the Golden Globes awards, which in my case means driving over to Century City for a shuttle that will take at least 15 minutes to navigate the barriers surrounding the Beverly Hilton garrison state . The 20th Century Fox viewing party begins around 4 pm, I guess. Black suit, black tie, cool shoes, cruel shoes…as long as they’re not brown.
Best Motion Picture — Drama: Will Win — Spotlight / Should Win — Spotlight…even though I have to say that The Revenant has continued to grow and grow in my head and Mad Max: Fury Road, my third place favorite, is an epic apocalyptic action film that will be part of the streaming conversation for many years to come.
Best Motion Picture — Comedy or Musical: Will Win — I know I should predict The Martian but the more hoo-hah that accumulates around this smart but lightweight rescue flick, the more I feel like putting it down. Plus there’s no way that the biggest and whoriest HFPA contortionist can call The Martian a “comedy”…get outta here! So I’m going to predict The Big Short because its rep has been ascending for the past couple of weeks. The question is whether or not HFPA members have been hip enough to pick up the signals.
Best Director — Motion Picture: Will Probably Win — all hail Ridley Scott (a.k.a., Mr. Gold Watch) for totally succumbing to corporate escapism and betraying the impulses that led to the making of one of his greatest films, also for 20th Century Fox — The Counselor. Should Win — Alejandro G. Inarritu for The Revenant and/or George Miller for Mad Max: Fury Road.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama: Will Win/Should Win: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant. He’s rich, he shoulda won it for The Wolf of Wall Street, he’s due, he’s been slamming it for 23 years, he suffered in Alberta, ate the liver, etc. Who could vote for The Danish Girl‘s Eddie Redmayne? Somebody tweeted this morning that they deserve an Oscar for watching Tom Hooper‘s film.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama: I know I should predict Room‘s Brie Larson, but I hated, hated, HATED so much of Lenny Abrahamson‘s film (except for the escape-and-salvation sequence and the touching finale) that I just can’t do it. I can’t do it! Should Win/Might Win: Brooklyn‘s Saoirse Ronan, a consummate pro who totally deserves the prize.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Comedy or Musical: Should Win/Oughta Win — Trainwreck‘s Amy Schumer. She touched bottom and found the ache and the longing in this smart, impudent Judd Apatow comedy, and truly out-pointed her competitors (Grandma‘s Lily Tomlin, The Lady In The Van‘s Maggie Smith, Joy‘s Jennifer Lawrence, Spy‘s Melissa McCarthy) in the bargain. I don’t want to hear about any kneejerk Maggie Smith sentiment. Way too many trophies and accolades…enough.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Comedy or Musical: Will Win — Matt Damon, The Martian. I would prefer to see Steve Carell or Christian Bale win for their Big Short performances, but I know it’s not gonna happen.
The big BAFTA news this morning, if you want to call it that, is that the Big Short momentum we’ve all been sensing (insect antennae vibrations, tingling neck hair) is looking real, and as a result the Spotlight guys might have reason to start biting their nails. Maybe. Or maybe not. Adam McKay‘s wonky housing-mortgage dramedy landed five BAFTA nominations, including Best Film and Best Director, while Tom McCarthy‘s journalism drama snagged just three — Best Film, Best Original Screenplay and a Best Supporting Actor nom for Mark Ruffalo. Then again N.Y. Post critic Lou Lumenick tweeted this morning that The Big Short “is the new Wolf of Wall Street — lots of noms but won’t close the deal.”
The Spotlight and The Big Short teams are also competing with a pair of pre-Golden Globe parties this weekend only a night apart — a Spotlight dinner this evening in Beverly Hills vs. The Big Short‘s Saturday night soiree at the Chateau Marmont. And you know who will be at these parties? The same journos and Academy members who’ve been attending all the award-season events over the last couple of months. Journo: “What…you again? I just saw you at that Bryan Cranston party.” Academy member: “My thoughts exactly, pal. No offense but have you ever considered doing something with your evenings besides schmoozing at parties and jostling for celebrity face-time?” Journo: “Same to ya, fella….oh, wait…ooh! ooh! There’s Steve Carell!”
Carol landed nine nominations, as did Bridge of Spies — a completely decent, middle-ground espionage drama that no one will be watching or talking about six months or a year from now, much less five or ten years hence. The Revenant landed eight noms. The Martian‘s Ridley Scott — “Sir Ridders” — got his gold-watch nomination for Best Director, and Matt Damon was nominated for Best Actor along with The Revenant‘s Leonardo DiCaprio (pretty much locked to win), Steve Jobs‘ Michael Fassbender, The Danish Girl‘s Eddie Redmayne (anybody with a smidgen of taste hates this movie but the none-too-brights are impressed with Redmayne’s open-hearted transgendering) and Trumbo‘s Bryan Cranston.
Mad Max: Fury Road and director George Miller got the shaft — no major noms, just tech stuff.
The BAFTAs blew off Charlotte Rampling! The 45 Years star is much more in the conversation than Lady In The Van‘s Maggie Smith but they nominated Smith and not Rampling? This is bullshit.
BEST PICTURE: 1. Spotlight; 2. The Revenant; 3. Love & Mercy; 4. Mad Max: Fury Road; 5. Carol.
BEST ACTOR: 1. Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant, 2. John Cusack, Love & Mercy, 3. Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs (even though I didn’t like his company).
BEST ACTRESS: 1. Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years; 2. Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn; 3. Rooney Mara, Carol.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: 1. Paul Dano, Love & Mercy; 2. Michael Shannon, 99 Homes; 3. Sylvester Stallone, Creed.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: 1. Jane Fonda, Youth; 2. Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl; 3. Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs (even though she bothered me).
BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS: 1. Jacob Tremblay, Room; 2. Whatsername, the little girl in Joy; 3. Any suggestions?
BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE: 1. Spotlight; 2. The Revenant; 3. Youth.
BEST DIRECTING: 1. Alejandro G. Inarritu, The Revenant; 2. Tom McCarthy, Spotlight; 3. George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road.
BEST SCREENWRITING (Original): 1. Spotlight; 2. Trainwreck; 3. Inside Out.
BEST SCREENWRITING (Adapted): 1. Carol; 2. Brooklyn; 3. The Big Short.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: 1. The Revenant; 2. Mad Max: Fury Road; 3. Carol.
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association — often contrarian as far as old-fart Academy thinking is concerned, often looking out for their pet ponies, sometimes preciously inclined — has done the right thing, I feel, by giving the org’s Best Picture award to Tom McCarthy‘s Spotlight. Ditto their honoring Max Max: Fury Road‘s George Miller with their Best Director award — yay, George! LAFCA also gave their Best Actor trophy to Michael Fassbender for his hard-hammer performance in Steve Jobs (Son of Saul‘s Geza Rohrig came in second), and their Best Actress award to 45 Years‘ Charlotte Rampling (who edged out Brooklyn‘s Saoirse Ronan).
Ex Machina/Danish Girl‘s Alicia Vikander was named Best Supporting Actress and 99 Homes/Freeheld‘s Michael Shannon was handed LAFCA’s Best Supporting Actor award. The Best Screenplay award went to Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy for Spotlight, and Asif Kapadia’s Amy was named best documentary. Anomalisa won the Best Animated Film award over Inside Out — somebody finally said “sorry, not this time” to Pixar! John Seale‘s cinematography for Mad Max: Fury Road was also awarded; ditto Colin Gibson‘s production design for that film. Carter Burwell won for best musical score for both Anomalisa and Carol. The Best Editing award went to The Big Short‘s Hank Corwin. LAFCA’s previously announced recipient of their 2015 Career Achievement honoree is editor Anne V. Coates.
From a participant: “Just so you know, there was no sense of consensus for Best Picture. The votes were spread all over the place, more than any other year I’ve witnessed. There was no clear frontrunner.”
Three days ago the New York Film Critics Circle creamed over Carol, and now the Boston Online Film Critics Association has tumbled for Mad Max: Fury Road to the tune of five awards — Best Picture, Best Director (George Miller), Best Cinematography (John Seale), Best Editing (Margaret Sixel) and Best Original Score (Junkie XL). And Creed took two awards — Michael B. Jordan for Best Actor and Sylvester Stallone for Best Supporting Actor. Will this be a regional critics group trend for the next two or three weeks — to honor films that haven’t been heavily favored by the Gurus of Gold or Gold Derbyites, to deny Spotlight any Best Picture awards, to ignore The Revenant, to favor genre films about physical conflict, to celebrate Kristen Stewart‘s performance in a negligible Olivier Assayas film that peaked during the 2014 film-festival season? Other BOFCA honors: Best Actress — Brooklyn‘s Saiorse Ronan, Best supporting Actress — Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria, Best Documentary — Amy, Best Animated Film — Inside Out.
A Carol cabal almost totally dominated the New York Film Critics Circle today, resulting in wins for Best Picture, Best Director (Todd Haynes), Best Screenplay (Phyllis Nagy) and Best Cinematography (Ed Lachman). We all love Carol & sincere congratultations to these four, but boy, that Carol cabal!…they really strong-armed this normally eclectic, spread-the-wealth-around group into submission. I was expecting a Spotlight win but whatever. Obviously this ups Carol‘s stock among the Academy and guild members — a very welcome gift for the Weinstein Co.
Spotlight‘s Michael Keaton won for Best Actor — a welcome but somewhat confusing surprise given that Spotlight is totally an ensemble piece — there are no leads in that film & the NYFCC definitely knows that. Brooklyn‘s Saoirse Ronan won for Best Actress (brilliant, agreed). Kristen Stewart (Clouds of Sils Maria) won for Best Supporting Actress — a rich performance but the film (which doesn’t work at all) belongs to 2014 — I’m telling you straight out that the NYFCC is wrong to regard Stewart’s performance as better than Jane Fonda‘s in Youth or Elizabeth Banks‘ in Love & Mercy. Bridge of Spies‘ Mark Rylance won for Best Supporting Actor — fine.
Inside Out won for Best Animated Film (the NYFCC should have gone against the grain and given it to Anomalisa). Frederic Wiseman‘s In Jackson Heights won for Best Non-Fiction Film (really?). Timbuktu won for Best Foreign Film (a bit of a head-scratcher but fine). Laszlo Nemes‘ Son of Saul won for Best First Film.
With the exceptions of the Keaton, Rylance and Wiseman awards the NYFCC rule seems to have been that if a film/performance was seen or released after 9.1.15, it didn’t qualify. Carol was Cannes (May 2015), Brooklyn was last January (Sundance 2015), Clouds of Sils Maria was May 2014 (Cannes), Inside Out was last May (Cannes), Timbuktu was May 2014 (Cannes), Son of Saul was last May (Cannes).
Keaton is superb in Spotlight and all power to him and the proud and gifted Spotlight team (HE worships this film body and soul), but giving him a Best Actor trophy is category fraud, plain and simple. And that’s not a slam against Keaton at all. He simply doesn’t give a “lead” performance by any standard or criteria I’m familiar with.
168 film critics have voted for what they consider to be the year’s finest film achievements in the 2015 Sight & Sound/BFI poll, and the results are about what you might expect. I partly admire this crew and am partly shaking my head at the ivory-tower-ishness of their choices. No Spotlight, Revenant, Love & Mercy, Brooklyn? The Assassin is their top dog followed by Carol (HE-approved), Mad Max: Fury Road (HE approved), Arabian Nights (what?), Cemetery of Splendor (come again?), No Home Movie (haven’t seen it), 45 Years (HE approved), Son of Saul (totally HE approved), Amy (entirely decent but calm down), Inherent Vice (absolutely not HE approved…hated it), Anomalisa (fine), It Follows (HE approved), Phoenix (still haven’t seen it), Girlhood (haven’t seen it), Hard to Be a God (come again?), Inside Out (good film but calm down), Tangerine (included mostly because it was shot on an iPhone 5), Taxi Tehran (seeing it soon), Horse Money, The Look of Silence, et. al.
Four days after the Gold Derby gang posted their annual gut-instinct, know-nothing award season predictions, the good old Gurus of Gold have weighed in with their spitballs. But this time they’re splitting the chart into three categories — (1) Already Widely Seen/Festival-Premiered, (2) Making The Festival Run and (3) Coming in Mid-October or Later.
The most exciting Guru news is an apparent conviction (shared by all except for The Hollywood Reporter‘s Scott Feinberg, Indiewire‘s Anne Thompson and Susan Wloszczyna) that Martin Scorsese‘s Silence will be released this year. That’s not what I’m hearing but if it is, great! But who have these gurus been talking to?
Todd Haynes‘ Carol is the most highly-rated in the first category — no surprise — followed by Inside Out (forget it), Mad Max: Fury Road (thumbs up, agree with Kyle Buchanan), Youth and Brooklyn.
Among the Making The Festival Runners the highest ranked are The Danish Girl, Steve Jobs (current HE fave), Spotlight, Black Mass, Trumbo and Suffragette. The follow-ups in this category are Our Brand Is Crisis, I Saw The Light, Where To Invade Next, The Program, Room, The Lady In The Van, Legend and Beasts of No Nation.
Gold Derby‘s Tom O’Neil has launched the 2015 Oscar season speculation with a poll of “experts” (which I contributed to last night) along with a user/reader poll. The users poll is mostly bullshit, of course, but it gives you a rough idea about which films and actors have the heat among the pseudo-informed, industry-watching outliers. I don’t know much more but I can offer some strong positive or negative suspicions here and there, particularly in the Best Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress categories.
Best Picture: The Revenant will most likely emerge as the industry front-runner before long, and it has the vague advantage of being an unknown until it starts screening around, I’m guessing, 11.20 or thereabouts. Having read the script and seen a live reading of The Hateful Eight, I have very little belief in its Best Picture chances. Joy and The Danish Girl are inevitable; ditto Carol and Steve Jobs. If you ask me the first-rate Brooklyn is also a fairly strong contender, but not so fast when it comes to Bridge of Spies and Suffragette. Forget Inside Out — it’s relegated to Best Feature Animation and that’s that. Nobody in my realm knows squat about Spotlight and Black Mass. I agree with Kyle Buchanan that Mad Max: Fury Road deserves a Best Picture nomination but who knows who that’ll play? Beasts of No Nation, an allegedly strong entry, will probably never snag a Best Picture nomination, given the gruesome subject matter.
Marshall Fine has posted a piece about the primal welling of tears when the right movie does the right thing. He naturally lists a few films that have melted him down — Inside Out, Field of Dreams, E.T., My Dog Skip, Cyrano de Bergerac (even an amateur staging will do, he says) and…wait, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Who cries at an acrobatic, roof-jumping martial-arts film? Worse, Fine says he once watered up during a certain undescribed scene in Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants.
I’m sorry but by the authority vested in me by the Internal Fraternity of Guydom, I hereby place Marshall Fine on a compassionate 30-day probation. This is not a slapdown or a suspension or demotion. He’s just being asked to contemplate the meaning of a seasoned critic weeping at a Hillary Clinton movie…that’s all. For his own health and that of his readers.
Everyone has written a piece about movie weeping. I tapped out my last one around eight years ago. I ran a quote from Owen Wilson that said most guys “choke up over loss. Stuff you once had in your life…a girlfriend or wife, a beloved dog, naivete…that’s now gone and irretrievable.”
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