If nothing else, Xavier Dolan‘s Mommy has made it clear that a 1:1 “pure box” aspect ratio doesn’t look perfectly square. It looks a wee bit higher than it is wide. Which was my very first thought when I saw it last May in Cannes. The next time an enterprising director shoots a film this way, he/she would be wise to deliver an aspect ratio of, say, 1.1:1 or 1.15:1. Then it’ll look right.

A good 70% to 80% of Lena Dunham‘s statements in this video are delivered in standard female uptalk style. As a longtime Girls watcher, I can say with rock-solid assurance that nobody uptalks more than Dunham. Honestly? I’m unable to listen to the substance of any person’s thoughts when this vocal tick interferes. By the way: Dunham is wrong about death-contemplation being a somewhat healthy thing, at least in a spiritual sense. All living is obviously and necessarily about the adamant denial of death, and anyone who spends even five minutes a day going “wow, I’m going to die” is succumbing to one of the lamest impulses in the history of our species.

“The Little Death does have one terrific ace up its sleeve: a fifth story, almost completely unconnected to the others, featuring Monica (Erin James, a bit of a Sally Hawkins lookalike), who works at a Skype-like video service translating phone calls for the deaf. On a slow night, she winds up on a call with Sam (T.J. Power), only to find that he wants her to mediate his conversation with a phone-sex operator (Genevieve Hegney). What ensues is a perfectly timed, beautifully structured verbal and gestural farce that manages to be at once raucously funny, sweetly touching and genuinely romantic. Rife with awkwardness and miscommunication, and keenly attuned to the reality of what a mixed blessing technology can be, the story would work well as a stand-enough short; as such, it’s easily the most promising evidence here that Lawson the writer-director may yet have bigger and better things ahead of him.” — from Justin Chang‘s 9.11.14 Toronto Film Festival review.

I saw Birdman again last night. The two-hour masterpiece screened at the Little Theatre on the Fox lot at 7:45 pm. An outdoor reception followed with Michael Keaton and producer John Lesher. The silver-haired Keaton has shaved that scraggly goatee he wears in the film; plus he looks thinner, sleeker, healthier. Lesher looks a little silvery himself these days. I asked him about Glenn Zoller‘s Telluride gondola story (“I financed Birdman“) but he said he wasn’t the guy. Nice vibe, good food, cool nighttime air.

I spoke to Keaton a bit about Tom McCarthy‘s Spotlight, a Catholic Church child-molestation drama that he’ll begin shooting in Boston in a few days. Keaton’s last foray into movie journalism with in Ron Howard‘s The Paper. Participant is producing with DreamWorks having turned tail. The script has been cowritten by McCarthy and Josh Singer (The West Wing). It’s about a team of Boston Globe journalists who exposed a long-covered-up history of Catholic priest diddling of choir boys. Keaton’s costars reportedly include Mark Ruffalo, Liev Schreiber, Stanley Tucci and Rachel McAdams. Pic will almost certainly be part of next year’s Oscar conversation.

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I’m updating HE’s Oscar Balloon this morning with the following. As always, disputes, corrections and beyond-the-ballpark suggestions are welcome. “HE approved” obviously means favored status, rooting factor, etc.

Best Picture Likelies (in this order, right now): 1. Birdman (HE approved); 2. Boyhood; 3. The Theory of Everything; 4. The Imitation Game; 5. Foxcatcher; 6. The Grand Budapest Hotel. Unseen Best Picture Spitballs: 1. Interstellar; 2. A Most Violent Year; 3. Gone Girl; 4. American Sniper; 5. The Gambler; 6. Into The Woods; 7. Selma; 8. Inherent Vice; 9. Unbroken; 10. Big Eyes; 11. Mr. Turner; 12. Fury.

Most Visually Ravishing, “Painterly” Best Picture Contender: Mr. Turner, although I’d like to see it with subtitles sometime down the road.

Best Director: Alejandro González Inarritu, Birdman (HE approved); 2. Richard Linklater, Boyhood; 3. James Marsh, The Theory of Everything; 4. Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game; 5. Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher; 6. Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Best Director Maybes: Christopher Nolan, Interstellar; JC Chandor, A Most Violent Year; Angelina Jolie, Unbroken; David Ayer, Fury; Clint Eastwood, American Sniper; David Fincher, Gone Girl.

Best Actor: 1. Michael Keaton, Birdman (HE approved); 2. Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything; 3. Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game; 4. Steve Carell, Foxcatcher; 5. Tom Hardy, The Drop/Locke. 6. Timothy Spall, Mr. Turner (despite my inability to hear half of Spall’s dialogue due to his all-but-indecipherable British working-class accent); 7. Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler; 8. Joaquin Phoenix, Inherent Vice; 9. Ben Affleck, Gone Girl; 10. Bill Hader, The Skeleton Twins.

Tragic Absence of Sublime, World-Class Lead Performance due to (no offense to Roadside) an overly cautious release strategy: Paul Dano as Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy.

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After praising John Ridley‘s Jimi: All Is By My Side (XLrator Media, 9.26) during the 2013 Toronto Film Festival, it’s gratifying to note that most critics seem to agree. It has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 92% so far; the Metacritic score would be nearly as good if it weren’t for The Playlist‘s Kevin Jagernauth. “Andre Benjamin‘s performance as the late Jimi Hendrix is one of the year’s stand-outs,” I wrote some time ago. “The role is more about layers than revelations. The film doesn’t deliver conventional dramatic moments as much as a low-key immersion into a guy who lived deep within his soul but wildly and exuberantly transformed when he performed. Benjamin (i.e., Andrew 3000) totally captures Hendrix’s manner, vibe, voice…that gentleness, that ambivalent but spiritually directed mood-trip thing.”

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Last night I went to the Grove Apple store and held the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. They didn’t seem to weigh enough, and I’m sorry but that disappointed me. My iPhone 5S with the Mophie juice pack weighs a bit more than either phone. If I’m going to spend several hundred bills on a new device I want it to feel dense and solid and substantial. I don’t need it to feel “heavy” exactly but all my life I’ve associated quality-level electronics with a certain gold-bar feeling. The iPhone 6 and the 6 Plus almost feel like they’re made of dense balsa wood inside a light plastic case. If I was running Apple I would tell my engineers to add lead to the casing just to give people like me a feeling of heft.

“My filmmaking education consisted of finding out what filmmakers I liked were watching, and then seeing those films. I learned the technical stuff from books and magazines, and with the new technology you can watch entire movies accompanied by commentary from the director. You can learn more from John Sturges‘ audio track on the Bad Day at Black Rock laser disc than you can in four years of film school. Film school is a complete con because the information is there if you want it.” — Paul Thomas Anderson, obviously speaking some time during the mid ’90s.

The jacket for Kino’s Run Silent, Run Deep Bluray promises a 1.85:1 aspect ratio — it’s actually 1.66:1. The Juggernaut Bluray jacket says 1.66:1 — it’s actually 1.85:1, which in my book is incorrect. The Elmer Gantry Bluray says 1.66:1 and — surprise! — actually delivers that aspect ratio. Ditto the Short Eyes Bluray — 1.85:1 on the jacket and on the disc itself.

Sure enough, first-rate sound really made a difference when I caught my second viewing of Michael Roskam‘s The Drop. It really does enhance things when you can hear all the dialogue and not just 60% or 70% worth, which is what happened at Toronto’s Princess of Wales theatre. Every scene, every line, every plot point fits right in. It deserves more than to be called “one of those low-key neighborhood personality soup bowls,” which is how I put it earlier. Tom Hardy is truly stellar as Bob Saginowski, the bartender with a lot more constitution and perception than people give him credit for. Maybe The Drop is one of those films you have to see twice to really appreciate or maybe I was too shagged and fagged to appreciate it in Toronto or maybe it was just the sound. I saw it last night at The Grove. There were about 12 people in the theatre. I understand that Monday is always a slow night but still…

The word around the campfire is that the NYFF surprise screening will be Noah Baumbach‘s While We’re Young, which many of us saw and admired in Toronto. But you know what would really be cool? A screening of Baumbach’s other new film, the Greta Gerwig-starrer that has never had a title other than Untitled Public School Project. I don’t know anything but if it turns out to be Young…well, okay. Sloppy seconds after Toronto but a dry, highly engaged New York social comedy. It ends with a scene at Lincoln Center so the math is in its favor.

Here’s the only color photo of John Hurt in his “John” Merrick makeup on the set of David Lynch‘s The Elephant Man. Pic was taken in 1979 by make-up designer Christopher Tucker. The Paramount film (produced by Mel Brooks!) opened in October 1980. Why haven’t I re-watched it since? Because I was hugely irritated by the sadistic carnival worker (Freddy Jones) who treats Merrick like an animal, and to whom Merrick is strangely (i.e., nonsensically) attached. But I loved the widescreen black-and-white photography by Freddie Francis (Room At The Top, The French Lieutenant’s Woman). I’m therefore thinking about purchasing the Bluray.