Marielle Heller‘s Can You Ever Forgive Me? should have been nominated for Best Motion Picture — Drama. It warrants this distinction more than BlacKkKlansman, Bohemian Rhapsody or If Beale Street Could Talk, all of which have problems. Heller’s film is just about perfect.

And yet I placed a special stamp of approval on Bohemian Rhapsody, not because it’s a great film but because I really enjoyed it. So much that I paid to see it a second time after the press screening. A few weeks back a critic friend confided that he liked Bohemian Rhapsody better than A Star Is Born. Even though Bradley Cooper‘s film is of a higher dramatic and cinematic pedigree, I feel the same way.

Why did the Hollywood Foreign Press Association fail to nominate Pawel Pawlikowski‘s Cold War for Best Foreign-Language Film? That’s not an oversight but a face palm.

It’s still seems bizarre that Bohemian Rhapsody — a biopic that is largely about musical creativity, and is filled with songs and performances — was submitted by 20th Century Fox as a straight drama and duly nominated as same by the HFPA. Ditto A Star Is Born. Black Panther‘s nomination in this category probably foreshadows what will happen with the guilds and the Academy.

(HE) = special Hollywood Elsewhere approval.

Best Motion Picture — Drama
Black Panther
BlacKkKlansman
Bohemian Rhapsody (HE)
If Beale Street Could Talk
A Star Is Born (HE)

Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy
Crazy Rich Asians
The Favourite
Green Book (HE)
Mary Poppins Returns
Vice (HE)

Best Director — Motion Picture
Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born
Alfonso Cuaron, Roma (HE)
Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman
Peter Farrelly, Green Book (HE)
Adam McKay, Vice (HE)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama
Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born
Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate (HE)
Lucas Hedges, Boy Erased
Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody (HE)
John David Washington, BlacKkKlansman

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama
Glenn Close, The Wife (HE)
Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born
Nicole Kidman, Destroyer
Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me? (HE)
Rosamund Pike, A Private War

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy
Christian Bale, Vice (HE)
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mary Poppins Returns
Viggo Mortensen, Green Book (HE)
Robert Redford, The Old Man and the Gun
John C. Reilly, Stan and Ollie

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy
Emily Blunt, Mary Poppins Returns
Olivia Colman, The Favourite (HE)
Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade (HE)
Charlize Theron, Tully
Constance Wu, Crazy Rich Asians

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture
Mahershala Ali, Green Book (HE)
Timothee Chalamet, Beautiful Boy
Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman
Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me? (HE)
Sam Rockwell, Vice

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture
Amy Adams, Vice (HE)
Claire Foy, First Man
Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
Emma Stone, The Favourite
Rachel Weisz, The Favourite

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture
Roma, Alfonso Cuaron (HE)
The Favourite, Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara
If Beale Street Could Talk, Barry Jenkins
Vice, Adam McKay (HE)
Green Book, Peter Farrelly, Nick Vallelonga, Brian Hayes Currie (HE)

Best Original Score – Motion Picture
A Quiet Place
Isle of Dogs
Black Panther
First Man (HE)
Mary Poppins Returns

Best Original Song — Motion Picture

Best Animated Feature Film

Best Foreign-Language Film:
Capernaum (HE)
Girl (HE)
Never Look Away
Roma (HE)
Shoplifters

Four hours ago I was driven home from Smilow to Wilton. As noted, the surgery began around 2 pm yesterday and ended four hours later. Basal cell carcinoma removed from an area behind my left ear, and skin from my left shoulder grafted onto the half-dollar-sized vacancy. As we speak there’s a drainage tube inserted within the shoulder wound. It feels like I’ve been stabbed, and the knife was never pulled out. Or like I’ve been shot. A guy who recently went through something similar says “it’s the anesthesia that you really need to recover from.” I tried writing a couple of things at the hospital and again after I got home, but my system was too dopey. I kept nodding off and coming back. Mobility-wise I am Kharis, the mummy. This might be my lightest filing day since launching HE 14 years ago.

The headline quote was allegedly voiced by Donald Trump in early 2017, when senior officials tried to explain the ominous nature of the burgeoning national debt (currently at $21 trillion), including a “hockey stick” spike sometime in the mid 2020s. In response, Trump allegedly noted that “the debt would reach a critical mass only after his possible second term in office.” This according to a first-hand source who spoke to The Daily Beast‘s Asawin Suebsaeng and Lachlan Markay. Trump said “Yeah, but I won’t be here.”

I was under a strong anesthetic when the news broke yesterday about Kevin Hart hosting the Oscars, and today was mostly about states of woozy-groggy, pain medication, slipping in and out of the cave and not glancing at my reflection in a mirror of any kind. So let’s pretend the Hart announcement happened a few hours ago. The first reactions were approving. Then came the short Oscar jokes followed by the unrepentant homophobia stuff. I presume Hart is going to weather the pushback, but you can bet he’ll be taken to task over the next several weeks. Thoughts?

A director-writer pally has seen Clint Eastwood‘s The Mule, and shared the following:

“I can confide this is B-level Eastwood in the tradition of Gran Torino — a star vehicle for the aging actor and compelling because of his iconic presence and star lineage.

“It’s also in the tradition of Space Cowboys in that it’s a well-made programmer with a certain emotional resonance based on longtime feelings about a star whose career is probably near the end.

“Seeing Eastwood play an actual old man is somewhat jarring to see — to his credit. Think of The Shootist in John Wayne‘s canon.

“The Mule isn’t as elegiac as Unforgiven, but is much more compelling than, say, Trouble With The Curve.

“Bradley Cooper adds some contemporary resonance as it’s compelling to see a current triple threat pursuing an older auteur, lending a unique subtext.

“And yes, there’s a song — ‘Don’t Let The Old Man In’ by Toby Keith.”

12.4, 7:30 pm: I’m out of surgery and all stitched up. I’ve been awake for roughly 90 minutes. Physically thrown for a loop or what? I seriously underestimated (under-anticipated?) how traumatized I would feel. Groggy, woozy. Surgery began at 2 pm. Three and a half to four hours under the knife. As I was coming out of the cave I was wondering if I might be dreaming. My gradual realization that this fog state was real-world was very slow in arriving. My brain was operating in slow-mo; my ability to form words and speak with any clarity was limited, to say the least.

11 pm: I’m back to my usual lucid self. Well, 85% to 90%. The MacBook Pro is plugged in, etc. I didn’t begin to snap out of it until 9:30 or 10 pm or thereabouts.

Tweeted on 12.3 by Hanna Blanke: “One of my students has used the word ‘fucktangular‘ in an informal essay to describe a situation that was complicated and messy in multiple unpleasant and difficult ways. I am in the presence of greatness and I am stealing this word.”

The message of the new Captain Marvel trailer, which I’ve seen but can’t paste in this space because I’m lying on a hospital gurney, is “here comes more Marvel flashbang jizz-whizz…you know you want it, you know you do. And even if you don’t, you’re gettin’ it.”

From Randy Newman‘s “I’m Dead But I Don’t Know It”: “I got nothin’ more to say / I’m gonna say it anyway.”

Hotshot director to HE: “Joanna Kulig has to be among the Best Actress front-runners. Astounding performance in Cold War. Unfortunately voters will not see her. Academy cinema was almost empty [during last weekend’s] Academy members screening.”

HE to hotshot: “Really? I love her.”

Hotshot to HE: “And the film itself is easily the year’s best.”

HE to hotshot: “Agreed.”

Because I go to several film festivals each year, I get to watch the finest feature films under the best of technical circumstances (perfect projection, tip-top-sound) and with the most attuned and responsive audiences in the world — i.e., journalists, distributors and filmmakers.

It doesn’t get much better than that, but the quality plummets when you sink into the realm of commercial cinemas and ticket-buyers. And I guess I’m wondering if viewing conditions will be any better in theatres, or will the slovenly gorilla factor take over exhibition entirely?

[Click through to full story on HE-plus]

It’s not a reach to say that 25 or 50 years hence, Ryan Coogler‘s Black Panther will be the only 2018 Best Picture contender to be routinely referenced by film historians. Respect, admire, like or love it, there’s no question it’ll be regarded as one of the most important 21st Century films ever made. Because it became a major cultural game-changer, and because the scale of its financial success made history.

[Click through to full story on HE-plus]

Snapped on 12.1, the Arc de Triumph image was taken by Veronique de Viguerie of Getty Images. What are the Parisian protests about? Emmanuel Macron’s intention to impose a “carbon tax” on petrol and diesel with the aim of funding changes that will try to remedy climate change and transition the French economy to green energy. But rural French workers are fuming as they will bear the brunt of the tax, and will be forced to pay a higher percentage of their income on fuel.