I’ve begun to watch Ava DuVernay‘s Origin. It’s all right so far (Trayvon Martin tapes, Nazis in Poland, assisted living, Finn Wittrock as August Landmesser, Blair Underwood) but I can feel what’s coming or have read warnings, I should say…135 minutes of forced-march instruction.

Scarier: “Origin is an historical journey into the caste system seen thru the eyes of a woman searching for herself and [social] truth. In that way it is more akin to Eat Pray Love than anything else. But with Ava, it is more to the spirit of Stanley Kramer.” — Journo friendo a few weeks ago.

The Reveal‘s Scott Tobias and Keith Phipps: “There isn’t a movie in Origin. Or, at least, there isn’t a movie that writer-director Ava DuVernay has the creative moxie to conjure from an unadaptable book.

“The source here is Isabel Wilkerson’s ‘Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents‘, a nonfiction bestseller that pieces together a grand unifying theory of societal oppression. That’s an argument built around a thesis, not unlike DuVernay’s persuasive documentary The 13th, which draws on powerful archival footage to make the connection between slavery and a prison-industrial complex that punishes Black people disproportionately. Yet fiction features don’t accommodate that sort of didacticism. They have to persuade through drama, or a little cinematic brio.”

“Why Origin Has Fizzled on The Oscar Trail,” posted on 12.15.23.

Lily Gladstone’s identity-propelled Best Actress campaign re Killers of the Flower Moon isn’t cutting any ice with the BAFTA gang.

To even HE’s surprise Gladstone has been flat–out snubbed in the just-announced BAFTA Best Actress nominations — six names (including The Color Purple ‘s Fantasia Barrino) but not a Gladstone among them.

A friend believes that BAFTA’s token woke nominee, Rye Lane ‘s Vivian Oparah, apparently elbowed Gladstone aside. The Native American “great reckoning” thing just isn’t resonating in England, I guess. That plus they’re probably not approving of Team Gladstone’s contention that Mollie Burkhart is a lead role.

And speaking of snubs. May December ‘s enigmatic Charles Melton, an early Best Supporting Actor favorite stateside (Gothams, NYFCC, NSFC), is also, in that category, a BAFTA MIA. Seven nominations and the Criterion closet Eo fan didn’t make the cut. And yet All Of Us Strangers Paul Mescal did; ditto The Holdovers’ Dominic Sessa.

I’m genuinely shocked that Barbie helmer Greta Gerwig was also blown off. Perhaps the BAFTA committee simply felt drained by the hype or something.

The fact that Poor Things got 11 nominations suggests that Emma Stone is a Best Actress favorite.

Killers of the Flower Moon helmer Martin Scorsese and lead actor Leonardo DiCaprio were also snubbed.

The Gladstone and Melton snubs are yet another indication that woke derangement syndrome may be on the wane. Which suggests, in a roundabout way, that woke scold critic Bob Strauss may need to pour himself a cup of coffee and rethink things.

On the other hand a SAG/AFTRA sympathy backlash may happen in Gladstone’s favor.

Under a brand-new “Milestone Movies: The Anniversary Collection” banner, Netflix began streaming 14 top films from 1974, 9 of which are definitely worth your time.

The five no-gos are Jack Clayton‘s The Great Gatsby (a totally misconceived washout), Martin Davidson‘s The Lords of Flatbush, Stanley Donen‘s The Little Prince (no one ever gave a damn about this musical back in the day), Robert Clouse‘s Black Belt Jones (blaxploitation bullshit) and Shigehiro Ozawa and Sonny Chiba‘s The Street Fighter (aka Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken), a total waste-of-time, bowl of steam-fried bullshit unless you’re Quentin Tarantino, in which case it’s great.

The nine keepers are Martin Scorsese‘s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Mel Brooks‘ Blazing Saddles, Robert Altman‘s California Split, Roman Polanski‘s Chinatown, Francis Coppola‘s The Conversation, Michael Winner‘s Death Wish, Karel Reisz‘s The Gambler, Larry Cohen‘s It’s Alive, and Alan Pakula‘s The Parallax View.

If locked-in licensing agreements weren’t an issue, the five that would replace the no-gos would be Coppola’s The Godather, Part II, Brooks‘ Young Frankenstein, Richard Lester‘s Juggernaut and The Three Musketeers, and Joseph Sargent‘s The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.

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…the AARP guys are suffering, no offense, from a taste deficiency. “Taste is a result of a thousand distastes.” — Francois Truffaut.

HE has a thing about Pedro Pascal also…hard to put my finger on “why?” but he’s definitely one of those guys who rankles on some level…perhaps not as aggressively as Mescal.

Finally some actual inclement weather. Took long enough. For the first time since cold weather began a few weeks ago I have my black leather gloves stuffed into my motorcycle jacket pockets.

This morning I was sharing a view that Apple’s Lily Gladstone team made a tactical mistake by not running her in supporting, and the person I was text-chatting with said the following:

“You’re assuming that Gladstone’s primary objective is to win. It’s possible, on the other hand, that she wants to be regarded as a leading lady moving forward, and that [her Best Actress campaign] better positions her for that.”

If so, I replied, that’s an understandable strategy.

In other words, perhaps Gladstone is gaming the Oscar system in the same way that The Favorite‘s Olivia Colman gamed the system when she ran for Best Actress despite having obviously played a supporting role (i.e., Queen Anne).

Posted on 10.11.18:

Two-thirds of the Iowa Republicans who caucused last night seriously believe that Joe Biden was not legitimately elected and that Donald Trump was rooked out of being re-elected.

In other words, two thirds of Iowa Republicans are in denial so deep that’ll probably never climb out of it. Total rabbit-hole wackazoid.

The flip side is that one-third of Iowa Republicans believe that Trump would not be fit to be President if convicted of the Jan. 6th charge (or the Georgia case or the documents case). Which translates into national vote and electoral college tallies that would fall short in the national election next November.

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