Atlanta Journal Constitution editor Kevin Riley is concerned about the paper’s reputation having been “severely tarnished” ** by Clint Eastwood‘s Richard Jewell (Warner Bros., 1.13). Hence the AJC has hired Los Angeles pitbull attorney Marty Singer to convey objections to Warner Bros., Eastwood and others involved in the film’s production.

The AJC and Singer are “asking” that the producers “issue a statement acknowledging that some events were imagined for dramatic purposes, and that artistic license and dramatization were used in the film’s portrayal of events and characters,” as Riley has explained in a 12.9 email. “In addition, we’re requesting a disclaimer to that effect be added to the film’s credits.”

The AJC beef is basically about an implication in the film that AJC reporter Kathy Scruggs, portrayed in Richard Jewell by Olivia Wilde, used sexual favors to obtain information from law enforcement sources.

Riley’s email includes an attached a copy of Singer’s letter to WB, Eastwood, screenwriter Billy Ray, etc.

Riley: “We welcome the accurate telling of Richard Jewell’s story. In fact, the AJC worked closely with the Atlanta History Center on a recent program that focused on a definitive new book on the subject by a former Wall Street Journal reporter and the former U.S. Attorney who handled the case. We recognize that the AJC, and the news media in general, are not above criticism.

“We can’t be silent when a film that purports to take the media to task engages in the very behavior that it criticizes. I feel compelled to stand up for the dedicated journalists who work for the AJC — otherwise a deceased reporter will be maligned in movie theaters across the country and around the world. This is especially concerning at a time when the nation’s leading news organizations are being attacked.”

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If this morning’s Golden Globes nominations said any one thing, it’s the fact that Netflix has kicked everyone’s ass with 17 nominations (more than double the second-place finisher). Another thing is that we’re all living in a streaming, streaming, streaming world these days, and that images projected out of a theatre booth and onto a big screen in front of popcorn eaters is no longer the primary thing…no longer the dominant way in which the art and transportation of cinema is dispensed and contemplated.

It breaks my heart to say it (although we’ve all felt this building over the last decade or so), but theatres are no longer the churches of our culture, the places where it all shoots out and caresses and coagulates and massages and comes together — living rooms are. For megaplexes are essentially zoos, gladiator arenas, amusement parks, video arcades, comic-book mythology salons. The communal experience survives to some extent, yes, but screening rooms and film festivals are the only decent way to go, certainly for anyone seeking a pure and unsullied experience.

Living rooms diminish the current between filmmakers and audiences, mainly by diluting the concentration levels. Which fits right in with the generally fragmented ADD thing — food breaks, bathroom breaks, walk-the-dog breaks, take-out-the-garbage breaks and deciding to watch the 209-minute Irishman in two or three installments rather than the whole thing in one setting. Not to mention texting and surfing while watching Robert DeNiro pop some guy.

Three Netflix features landed Golden Globes nominations in the Best Motion Picture, Drama category — Martin Scorsese‘s The Irishman, Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, Fernando Meirelles‘ The Two Popes — and Craig Brewer, Eddie Murphy, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski‘s Dolemite is My Name was nominated in the comedy or musical category.

Many of us were presuming that Netflix would probably do better than anyone else with the GG noms, but I didn’t think Marriage Story would snag more noms than The Irishman. But it did, six to five.

And yet MS‘s Noah Baumbach didn’t land a Best Director nomination, and neither did partner Greta Gerwig for Little Women.

I think it’s vaguely shitty (or vaguely clueless) of the Globe guys to blank Uncut Gems‘ Adam Sandler and The Irishman’s Robert De Niro in the Best Actor, Drama category, but that’s what they did.

The Irishman‘s Al Pacino and Joe Pesci are eyeball to eyeball in the Best Supporting Actor category (and also threatening to cancel each other out), but as Pesci isn’t a campaigner and Al is a brilliant one, we probably know where this is heading.

Ricky Gervais will host the Golden Globes ceremony from the usual Beverly Hilton location on 1.5.20.

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Gal Gadot: “My lieyeefe…(beat)…hahsn’t been whutyouproblythinkithahs….(bump-bump-bump-bump)…we ahll have our strahggles.”

Kristin Wiig: “Yehvuhbeeninlohhf?

GG (smiling): “A lohnng time agooh.”

I guess I’m wondering why Chris Pine‘s Steve Trevor character, a mortal in his mid 30s when he ran into Wonder Woman during the first World War and who sorta kinda blew himself up in Act Three…I’m not only wondering how he escaped death, but how come he isn’t at least 105 years old in 1984? Obviously there’s an explanation.

I mostly hated the first Wonder Woman. I was okay with Gadot and Pine’s romantic scenes, but I hated the D.C. Amazonian-destiny-mythology bullshit. I found Robin Wright‘s Antiope and Connie Nielsen‘s Hippolyta irksome, and I couldn’t stand Danny Huston‘s Erich Ludendorff and David Thewlis‘s Ares. Their turgid dialogue, I mean.

Welcome to 1984…to big hair, shoulder pads, no smart phones or iPads, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Reagan in the White House, Huey Lewis and the News‘ “The Heart of Rock & Roll”, shitty 480p TVs, Lionel Richie performing “All Night Long” at the close of the Los Angeles Olympics, etc. Oh, and disco was dead in ’84 — it flourished from ’76 to ’80 or ’81.

I was still the proverbial lad in ’84…no marriage, no kids, driving a beater, living in Beachwood Canyon.

The Toronto Film Critics Association (TFCA) have given Bong Joon-ho‘s Parasite their Best Picture and Best Foreign-language Film award, and also their Best Director trophy….c’mon! Parasite is a worthy, well-made film but it’s not without issues or speedbumps. What purpose does it serve to pour this much award syrup over it? If they’re going to give their Best Picture and Best Director awards to Parasite, why not give the foreign language award to Les Miserables or Portrait of a Lady on Fire? As in, you know, “spread it around”?

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Martin Scorsese‘s The Irishman has scored 14 nominations for the forthcoming Critics’ Choice Awards, and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood has been handed 12 noms.

Not to make any rash predictions, but do you know what this means? I’ll tell you what this means, given that the Critics Choice Awards have generally tended to mirror Oscar noms and winners. It means that the odds strongly favor The Irishman winning the Best Picture Oscar, and that Quentin’s film…who knows? Some kind of split vote outcome. Possibly a Best Director of Best Screenplay makeup…something like that.

The CC gang has given The Irishman noms for best picture, director, best actor (Robert De Niro), best supporting actor (Al Pacino and Joe Pesci) and best acting ensemble, among others.

The other heavyweight CC contenders are Little Women (nine nominations), Marriage Story (eight) plus Jojo Rabbit and Parasite (seven noms each).

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The foodiest critics group in the world is now voting. This is who they are, what they stand for, what they care about most….toasted bagels and fruit and potato salad. No, seriously — they mostly care about defying Joe Popcorn mindsets. Which is cool.

HE acronyms (Yay), (Fine), (HRO) and (WTF) signify hearty approval, moderate approval, “huh, really?…okay” and “what the fuck?”

Best Film: Parasite / (HRO). Runner-Up: The Irishman. HE commentary: Parasite is a far lesser film than The Irishman, but the people who have been doing Parasite handstands since last May can’t be stopped. They know it’s a less-than-perfect film, but they won’t back off because it focuses on vast social inequity.

Best Director: Bong Joon-ho, Parasite / (HRO). Runner-Up: Martin Scorsese, The Irishman.

Best Actor — Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory / (Yay). Runner-up: Adam Driver, Marriage Story / (Fine).

Best Actress — Mary Kay Place, Diane / (Yay). Runner-Up: Lupita Nyong’o, Us. HE commentary: Insisting that Nyong’o’s scream-queen-meets-bug-eyed-zombie performance is award-worthy…I give up. It makes no sense to me. I never so much as flirted with the faintest fantasy that it might be an awards contender. In my mind it still isn’t. Nyong’o is a top-tier actress and she sold the dual-role thing, but genre-level performances don’t belong among award finalists. Because they’re defined by jizz-whiz and genre tropes.

Best Supporting Actor — Song Kang Ho, the father/limo driver in Parasite / (HRO). Runner-up: Joe Pesci, The Irishman. HE commentary: Due respect but Song Kang Ho’s performance is on the broad, over-emphasized side. It doesn’t begin to approach the skill and absorption factors in Al Pacino and Joe Pesci‘s supporting turns in The Irishman, and lacks the confident charisma of Brad Pitt‘s Cliff Booth in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. HE preference: Torn between Pacino and Pitt, leaning toward Pacino.

Best Supporting Actress — Jennifer Lopez, Hustlers / (Yay). Runner-Up>: Zhao Shuzhen, The Farewell.

Best Cinematography — Claire Mathon, Portrait Of A Lady on Fire and Atlantics / (Fine). Runner-up: Roger Deakins, 1917 (Yay). HE preference: Jarin Blaschke, The Lighthouse.

Best Production Design — Barbara Ling, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood / (WTF). Runner-up: Ha Jun Lee, Parasite. HE commentary: What was so noteworthy about the Once Upon A Time production design? Rick Dalton’s Cielo Drive ranch-style pad? The rickety shack that Bruce Dern‘s George Spahn lives in? Lighthouse production designer Craig Lathrop built a rustic 19th Century home plus a worn-looking brick lighthouse from the ground up — nothing in OUATIH or Parasite compares to this.

Best Musical Score — Dan Levy, I Lost My Body / (Fine) HE preference: Robbie Roertson, The Irishman.

Voting among members of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, arguably the flakiest and most whimsically oddball major critics group in the country, is expected to begin at 10 ayem. Or somewhere in that vicinity. HE readers know the LAFCA drill. They’ll vote on five or six categories in the late morning, and then take a 45-minute brunch break, and then return to vote on the last four or five or whatever, including the Best Picture prize.

Posted on 12.9.18: The year-end awards decided by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association are almost always outside the box. When they champion a film or a performance that I happen to share admiration for, I go ‘yay.’ But more often my reaction to their left-field picks is (a) ‘huh, really?…okay” or (b) ‘what the fuck?’ I will therefore signal my reactions today with either (Yay), (HRO) or (WTF).” Same deal today. Naturally I’m hoping for at least a few yays, but you know LAFCA.

I’m not saying LAFCA isn’t dedicated to celebrating quality (I was elated when they gave last year’s Best Actor award to First Reformed‘s Ethan Hawke), but they have to do that LAFCA thing, that “hey, look at us, we’re nervy and different” between bites of bagels and lox and cream cheese and small chunks of fruit. Deciding to award some kind of arbitrary, socially progressive notion or belief scheme of the moment, I mean. A choice that will feel like the right kind of politically correct fulfillment or projection — a choice that will point the way and incidentally defy the Gold Derby-ites.

Outside the Amazon holiday party — Saturday, 12.7, 9:25 pm.

Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite, which everyone saw a year or so ago and then flushed out of their heads after the 2.24.19 Oscar telecast, is back in the news. The arch period comedy has won three big trophies at the 32nd European Film Awards — Best Film, Best Comedy and Best Actress for Olivia Colman‘s portrayal of Queen Anne.

The other Best Film nominees were Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory, Marco Bellocchio’s The Traitor and Roman Polanski’s An Officer and A Spy. It was nearly a foregone conclusion that Polanski’s film wouldn’t win anything because of the recent #MeToo Paris protests, so the race was basically between Pedro, Marco and Yorgos.

Pain and Glory‘s Antonio Banderas, who won the Cannes Film Festival’s Best Actor award last May, won EFA’s Best Actor award.

Ladj Ly’s Les Miserables, which won the jury prize at Cannes and is representing France at the Oscars, won the European Discovery award.

Celine Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire won the European Screenwriter prize.