Yesterday HE commenter “Lazarus” suggested that others might want to “raise their hand if they think ‘New Academy Kidz’ is the dumbest HE catchphrase in…5 years? Ever?”

HE response: The NAKs are (a) new members, (b) their views are for the most part politically and culturally distinct, (c) they’ve heavily impacted the Best Picture game, (d) traditional boomer-friendly Oscar bait movies have all but lost their cachet, (e) they’re as invested in representation as much as this or that definition of quality if not more so, and (f) earlier this year a good percentage of them insisted with a straight face that an Ira Levin-styled satirical spooker about how wealthy, Barack Obama-loving whiteys might be just as odious as Charlottesville supremacists…many NAKs declared un-ironically and with total sincerity that this decent-enough film was the most deserving Best Picture contender.

They’re a major new award-season factor and deserve some kind of shorthand that describes who they are & where they’re coming from. What do you want to call them? Crusty traditionalists? The harumphs?

They were invited into the Academy specifically to bring about change and inject organizational viewpoints that would counter-balance those of the older-white-guy, OscarsSoWhite heirarchy (average age of 62), and that’s what they’ve done. Since the initial formation of the Motion Picture Academy in the late 1920s, there’s never been a voting bloc brought into the fold this suddenly, especially one this invested in representational change. The New Academy Kidz (including the NAK acronym) are here to stay. Get used to it.

An Indiewire piece by Zack Sharf has listed 34 movies “you need to keep an eye on during fall film festival season,” blah blah. Hollywood Elsewhere knows, believes or strongly suspects that 18 of these are actual hotties, and that 16 are interesting possibilities that require a “wait and see” attitude for now.

Good To Go: Alfonso Cuaron‘s Roma, Damien Chazelle’s First Man, Pawel Pawlikowski‘s Cold War, Lee Chang-dong’s Burning, Paul Greengrass‘s 22 July, Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born, Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria, Marielle Heller’s Can You Ever Forgive Me, Nadine Labaki‘s Capernaum, Julian Schnabel‘s At Eternity’s Gate, Asghar Farhadi’s Everybody Knows (minor Farhadi but it’s still Farhadi), Yorgos Lanthimos‘ The Favourite, Jason Reitman‘s The Front Runner, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s No Known Author, David Lowery‘s The Old Man and the Gun, Orson Welles‘ The Other Side of the Wind, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Shoplifters and Jonah Hill‘s Mid90s (18).

Hedging bets, not entirely sure, hopeful but who knows?, etc: Steve McQueen’s Widows, Joel and Ethan Coen‘s The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Joel Edgerton‘s Boy Erased, Wash Westmoreland’‘s Collette, Barry Jenkins‘ If Beale Street Could Talk, Felix Van Groeningen‘s Beautiful Boy, Xavier Dolan‘s Death and Life of John F. Donovan, Denys Arcand‘s The Fall of the American Empire, George Tillman Jr.’s The Hate U Give, Mike Leigh‘s Peterloo, Jacques Audiard’s The Sisters Brothers, László Nemes’ Sunset, Brady Corbet’s Vox Lux, Yann Demange’s White Boy Rick, Paul Dano‘s Wildlife (16).

Posted on 7.12: In what particular ways could Widows fit into the ’18/’19 awards season? From what I’ve been told, Viola Davis is more or less a slamdunk for a Best Actress nomination. A guy who allegedly saw an early cut has said that “Viola is the standout, a force of nature in a showcase lead role…and she’s so respected as an actress.”

I’ve assumed all along that McQueen, an esteemed art-film director (12 Years A Slave, Shame, Hunger), wouldn’t go slumming by directing a boilerplate robbery caper flick. I’ve been told that he hasn’t done that. I’ve been told that he blends the Chicago-based robbery plot with political commentary involving police brutality, governmental corruption (Colin Farrell‘s character racking up odious points in this regard) and Black Lives Matter. So you should most likely put out of your mind any thoughts of Widows being an Ocean’s 8 companion piece.

Kris Tapley and Ramin Setoodeh‘s 8.14 Variety piece about the recently announced “Best Achievement in Popular Film” Oscar (“Will Oscars’ Popular Film Category Generate Ratings or Just Controversy?“) is somewhere between sufficient and reliably dull, an article that says “buh-dop-buh-deep” over and over. But Rob Dobi‘s illustration made me see red.

My instant reaction: “Go eff yourselves, beasties…you are the low-rent apocalypse, the end of the road, the servers of formulaic jizz-whizz to the brah masses. If the ghosts of George Stevens, William Wyler, John Huston, F.W. Murnau, John Ford, Howard Hawks, King Vidor, Billy Wilder, Victor Fleming, Charles Laughton, Ernst Lubitsch and Ida Lupino were to somehow manifest and stumble into your presence, they would all spit in your faces. Leave by the side door, get outta town and stab yourselves with kitchen knives when you get home.”

Funny auteur Peter Farrelly (There’s Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber, Three Stooges) leaves Bobby behind for his first solo venture, and a mostly dramatic one at that. The New Academy Kidz won’t like this — too calculated, too boomerish, too awards-baity — but I’m sensing the right stuff. The Universal release will play Toronto, and then open commercially on 11.21.

Boilerplate: “Inspired by a true story, the 1960s-era film, which is co-written by Farrelly, Nick Vallelonga and Brian Currie, follows Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen), a rough-and-tumble Italian-American bouncer from the Bronx, who is hired to drive a world-class Black pianist named Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South. Along the way, while being confronted with racism and bigotry, these two men from radically different backgrounds develop a genuine fellowship and mutual affection for each other.”

Driving Mr. Shirley?

Update from distribution guy: “Green Book has supposedly been testing through the roof for months, big time. This will be the next Help or Hidden Figures, you can be sure.”

Bill Cosby apparently isn’t objecting to the charge of being a sexual predator as much as the notion of being a violent one. Overpowering women by doping them and sticking your gross animal member in this or that orifice…that’s a form of violence, I think. The arrogance is breathtaking.

“A hole in one” doesn’t precisely convey anything, but if you step back, start chanting “ohm” and let it pass through you, it signifies everything

60 years ago Teenage Caveman, a Roger Corman-directed exploitation film starring Robert Vaughn, was released to the sub-runs. Vaughn once described the pic, originally shot under the title Prehistoric World, as “the worst film ever made.”

To go by Owen Gleiberman‘s Variety review, Albert Hughes‘ Alpha (Sony, 8.17), which apparently could be subtitled I Was a Teenage Paleolithic EMO Brah, is much better than Teenage Caveman. But in some ways it’s seemingly cut from the same cloth.

“A tale of a young hunter stranded in the wilderness who becomes best friends with a wolf, Alpha is “like a Disney adventure fueled by a higher octane of visual dazzle, with a gnarly texture wrought from elements like blood, excrement and maggots,” Gleiberman writes.

Maybe, but the blood and maggots are half-mitigated by the Late Stone Age hipster apparel worn by star Kodi Smit-McPhee. Look at those nice-fitting corduroy pants, those expensive Ugg boots, that cool animal-hide hoodie poncho pullover and not one but two shoulder-slung handbags. John Varvatos meets Gant Rugger meets Rag & Bone.

Darren Aronofsky also went a little wacko with garments worn in Noah. They were the work of costume supervisor Margret Einarsdottir. Russell Crowe wore animal-skin duds that were way too high-style and intricately woven for a guy living during the time of the Great Ancient Flood.

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The 2018 Toronto Film Festival has announced a list of North American or World Premieres, none of which will be going to Telluride first. David Mackenzie‘s The Outlaw King…yay. Jonah Hill‘s Mid90s…ditto. Jeremy Saulnier‘s Hold the Dark…no comment. Peter Farrelly‘s Green Book…what about Bobby? Thomas Vinterberg‘s Kursk…son of Das Boot. Paolo Sorrentino‘s Loro…allegedly a problem, I’ve heard. Sebastian Lelio‘s Gloria w/ Julianne Moore. Nick Hamm‘s Driven…no comment. Paul Greengrass‘s 22 July…formerly Norway, allegedly a tough sit.

Mike Leigh‘s Peterloo is listed as a Canadian premiere, so it’s apparently going to Telluride.