It wasn’t just members of the AMPAS Directors Branch who blew off Barbie or didn’t feel super-enthused about Greta Gerwig‘s direction. Hillary Clinton has publicly sympathized with Gerwig and Margot Robbie over the snub, but if Barack Obama had done the same he would have looked like a hypocrite.

Doug Liman’s Roadhouse (Amazon, 3.21) is, of course, a remake of that 1989 Patrick Swayze original, directed by Rowdy Herrington and produced by Joel Silver. (Yes, I’m aware that it’s actually spelled Road House but I don’t like that spelling. Some people spell screenplay as Screen Play, and I don’t like that either.)

Chief Dan George was the first Native American actor to be Oscar-nominated (i.e., Best Supporting Actor, Little Big Man). He also won the New York Film Critics Circle trophy for this performance (“Old Lodge Skins”).

Spoken or written by Pauline Kael, presumably during the ‘70s or ‘80s. (It appears in “Conversations with Pauline Kael”, published in ‘96). She could have been talking about the ‘50s and ‘60s films of Stanley Kramer or the ‘60s films of Norman Jewison.

Thanks to Albert Finney (aka “Eddie Ginley”) for posting this quote.

L.A. Times film writer Jen Yamato, one of the most vocal and persistent advocates of diversity casting and the concept of identity and representation mattering as much if not more than merit in motion pictures, has been jettisoned by her employer in a major wave of dismissals.

On one hand I feel badly for any journalist who’s been cut loose, but on the other hand Yamato has sought to condemn and marginalize HE for reasons that I felt were rash, Salem-like, erroneous and cruel so I can’t shed too many tears. I hope she understands.

This morning’s Oscar nominations came from inside the bubble, and therefore reflected inside-the-bubble values up and down the line (cultural, cinematic, anti-Joe and Jane Popcorn).

Jeff and Sasha kicked their impressions around as best they could, and…well, here they are.

Again, the link.