I consider it a sacred duty to attend a commercial screening of The Interview sometime on Christmas Day, and I don’t even like the film (which I saw about two weeks ago) all that much. It’s all about (a) celebrating First Amendment freedom and (b) doing my small part to make sure that independent exhibitors showing the Seth Rogen-Evan Goldberg film earn as much revenue as possible. I haven’t felt this patriotic in a long time…seriously. On top of which I feel sorry for them having eaten Sony’s reportedly tough terms (exhibitor-unfriendly percentage splits, no theatre security provided).

The curious aspect is that while a fair number of Los Angeles theatres will be playing The Interview, there are apparently only two small Manhattan venues showing it — the Cinema Village and Quad Cinema 4. (Or at least this seems the case as of 10:30 pm on Tuesday, 12.23.) I was going to take a Metro North train up to Yonkers and catch it at an Alamo Drafthouse cinema up there, but the West Village obviously trumps that.

Other New York-area options are the Hudson Mall Cinemas (701 New Jersey 440, Jersey City, NJ 07304) and Big Cinemas Columbia Park 12 (3125 Kennedy Boulevard, North Bergen, NJ 07047).

Some of the Los Angeles-area venues showing the film are the Egyptian, Sundance Cinemas, Los Feliz 3 and Cinefamily plus reportedly 10 Regency cinemas throughout Southern California.

This documentary short by Josh Paler Lin, posted on 12.22, comes to a very affecting conclusion between 2:07 and 2:35. I won’t say how — you’ll see what I mean. A taste of that old-time Charles Dickens holiday spirit with a little touch of O. Henry. But Paler Lin blows it by not ending it at 2:35, which would have been perfect. Instead he keeps rolling for an extra two minutes and seven seconds so he can demonstrate to viewers (a) how emotionally affected he was by the surprise and (b) that he’s very generous when moved. The other wrongo is the pasting of JOSH PALER LIN on the lower right corner of the frame for the entire fucking video. This guy needs to take ego-diminishing meds immediately. Is he Justin Lin‘s kid or nephew or something?

This is a portion of a photo gallery on the wall of an old-style Italian delicatessen in Hoboken. I took the shot yesterday afternoon (Monday, 12.22). I understand that anything from The Godfather is considered highly romantic by Italian Americans. Okay, by everyone. But who frames a still of a guy being garroted in a place where people buy stuff to eat and take home? I’ll tell you who. People who are basically saying to the public and to themselves, “This, in a sense, is who we are. Okay, used to be. Now we just look back on it.”

The last time I wrote about this upcoming Kevin Costner sports drama I called it “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Hoosiers.” I see no reason to change or alter this impression. It is what it is, and that’s probably going to be fine with Whale Rider‘s Niki Caro at the helm. Maybe, I meant.

A lot of people were okay with Interstellar‘s sound mix, but a lot of others weren’t — let’s be honest. People were tweeting from sea to shining sea when Chris Nolan‘s film opened in early November, complaining that much of the dialogue was buried by Hans Zimmer‘s score. It was enough of an issue that Nolan felt obliged to address it in an 11.15 Hollywood Reporter interview with Carolyn Guardiana. In the piece Nolan more or less said, “Yeah, it’s a little bit different and so you can’t hear every single line of dialogue, but that’s how I decided to design the sound….deal with it.”

I was therefore surprised — the actual word is stunned — to see Interstellar‘s sound mix as one of Gold Derby‘s Oscar contenders for Best Sound Mix. An explanation from GD editor Tom O’Neil: “There’s no question that Interstellar had the most widely criticized sound design of all the 2014 films, but the Oscars are never about deciding the best of anything. We’re not suggesting that Academy members are going to vote for it for quality, but they do often vote for the loudest. It should probably not be nominated for sound mix, but there’s this classic Oscar bias for loudness so that’s why it’s listed.”

The following statement was released today (Tuesday, 12.23) by Birdman composer Antonio Sanchez about the decision by the Academy’s music branch to disqualify his undeniably brilliant all-percussion score for a possible Oscar nomination:

“It was an honor to work on this wonderful film and collaborate with a brilliant director like Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu on Birdman. I’m deeply disappointed that the music branch of the Academy did not recognize my score as eligible, even after receiving a detailed cue sheet, a letter from the president of music at Fox studios, and a description of the process from both Alejandro and myself.

“The disqualification seems to stem from the perception that my score was diluted by the incidental music on the film. I strongly disagree with this idea. The music that people remember after watching the movie is the sound, originality, character and strength of my score, which seems to be the reason it continues to receive attention, nominations, and awards, which I’m deeply humbled by. Some of the finest composers are members of the Academy and I’m saddened my score didn’t resonate with the decision makers.”

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg‘s The Interview will open after all on Christmas Day, but at very few venues — the Plaza Atlanta theatre and Tim League‘s Alamo Drafthouse are the only ones to announce bookings so far on Twitter. This is a total and very welcome reversal from Sony Pictures, which totally caved on releasing the film after an Asian hacker threatened U.S. theatres with 9/11-style incidents. On top of which Variety‘s Dave McNary is reporting there us “growing speculation that the studio will [also] offer the film via VOD.” Which they should have done immediately after canceling theatrical bookings.

A statement from Sony chairman and CEO Michael Lynton: “We have never given up on releasing The Interview” — he was just pretending to have done so last week? — “and we’re excited our movie will be in a number of theaters on Christmas Day. At the same time, we are continuing our efforts to secure more platforms and more theaters so that this movie reaches the largest possible audience.”

It is essential, of course, that Rogen, Goldberg and Interview costar James Franco fly to Austin and Atlanta to take bows and raise their fists in honor of the film’s theatrical debut. I would fly to Austin in a heartbeat to attend the showings and cheer along with everyone else. The Austin and Atlanta bookings (along with the others) will be nothing less than (a) a celebration of First Amendment freedom, (b) a rousing “fuck you” to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un and (c) an “attaboy” back-pat to Sony for its better-late-than-never show of backbone.

Where will The Interview screen in New York City on 12.25? It’s not a very good film (here’s my 12.13 review) but I’ll be there with bells on if somebody screens it. I’ll buy a ticket and a buttered popcorn and everything. Update: It’ll play at the Cinema Village, the 13th Street Quad, at a plex in Williamsburg and an Alamo Drafthouse in Yonkers.

In a 12.22 N.Y.Times piece about a startling echo effect between the Sony hack and Michael Mann‘s Blackhat (Universal. 1.16.15), Brooks Barnes and Michael Cieply report that “no effort” is reportedly “being made to tie Blackhat to the Sony hacking in trailers, TV ads or other promotional materials.” This is because Universal “is slightly concerned that the Sony attack might actually hurt Blackhat — ticket buyers could be tired of hacking stories after weeks of media attention on Sony, and a film that is too topical might strike potential viewers as less entertaining.”

Beefalo to girlfriend: “Hey, you wanna see Blackhat? Hotshot computer hackers, gunfights and shit…you know Michael Mann, right? The guy who made Heat?” Girlfriend to beefalo: “Naaah, sounds too topical.”

I’m not saying the Obama administration arranged for North Korea’s internet activity to go completely dark as payback for the Sony hack, but if they did it’s a very cool gangsta move. A few hours ago N.Y. Times reporters Nicole Perlroth and David Sanger wrote that North Korea’s internet completely died today. CloudFlare, an Internet company based in San Francisco, confirmed Monday that North Korea’s online access was “toast.” I think we all know…er, suspect what happened.

It would be inappropriate for Michael Lynton and Amy Pascal to assume or say anything, but behind closed doors I’m sure they’re exchanging high-fives.

The Times story notes that “while perhaps a coincidence, the failure of the country’s computer connections began only hours after President Obama declared Friday that the United States would launch a ‘proportional response‘ to what he termed an act of ‘cybervandalism’ against Sony Pictures.”

The legendary Joe Cocker has passed from lung cancer at age 70. Here was a monumental British blues singer with a great growly voice and a world-famous jerky-palsy performing style who lasted pretty long for a ’60s-era musician…hats off. Three peak moments — Cocker’s performance of “A Little Help From My friends” at the 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair, singing along with John Belushi on that classic mid ’70s Saturday Night Live performance, and singing “Up Where We Belong” (long associated with An Officer and a Gentleman) with Jennifer Warnes on the 1983 Oscar telecast.

I would have avoided Get Hard (Warner Bros, 3.27) anyway but the trailer locks it down. Will Ferrell is fairly tall (roughly 6’3″) but until five minutes ago I didn’t realize Kevin Hart is only 5’4″. Alan Ladd, at 5’6″ one of the shortest stars in Hollywood history, would tower over Hart. Then again Hart edges Mickey Rooney.