Annette Bening, Queen of Santa Barbara

My loyal subjects,

Since I know each and every last one of you will want to stand and wave to our procession as we receive the "American Riviera Prize" for our invaluable contributions to the cinema, we wanted to give you ample warning. [We're told you don't have private jets (?) and will need to plan ahead?] The blessed event will happen on January 28th. It's a fitting prize since the American Riviera has long been known as the work and playground of Movie Royalty like ourselves.

Last year the Festival gave this honor to a woman who once worked for the mass transit system! Incredible but true: buses and trains. Now, I was both Queen of England and the American First Lady at the time, essentially ruling over the entire globe, but no matter; it's unkind to compare !

She makes us laugh, bless her!

The year before the delightful Ms. Bullock's win, the Santa Barbara Festival gave this prize to ... well, we'd rather not discuss that. It did not end well for that man at the final ball.

Signed,

Her Majesty Annette.

*

Curio: Wes Anderson's Bad Dads

Alexa from Pop Elegantiarum here with your weekly arts and crafts.

There is a very cool exhibit coming up for those in San Francisco. As I've noted many times, Wes Anderson is a bottomless source of inspiration for visual artists. So Spoke Art, a transient art gallery and publishing house based in the Bay Area, is taking advantage of the bounty by putting on an art show tribute to Wes Anderson titled Bad Dads ("as nearly every Wes Anderson character has family issues, notably father issues"). The exhibit opens this Saturday at LoPo Gallery. And apparently there will be prints available soon from Spoke's online store!

Here's a preview of some of the images. It's not surprising that Royal Tenenbaum (of, well, The Royal Tenenbaums) figures largely.

Lauren Gregg

Dave Greco

Tim Doyle

Max Dalton

Kevin Tong

Caia Koopman

Walk of Fame Newbies: Spacek, The Derns, Oprah

I know that a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has to be (literally) bought. But I still find the whole thing weird, exciting and confusing. People get one when they're barely established, others when they're legends, some never. Oprah Winfrey is getting her star for television next year. Yes, the Oprah. She's been ruling the small screen for so long that she's as synonymous with it as Philo T Farnsworth. And it's only happening now?

Nevertheless, I love those photos of stars holding their stars. It's so meta. Plus, it's fun to see who comes out in support of them.

Anyway, the 2011 crop was announced. Two music acts that I'd love to see biopics on despite my aversion to the genre made the list: The Go-Gos (I've discussed that one already) and Oscar winner Melissa Etheridge.

Here's the complete "movie" list for 2011: Penélope Cruz (good time in her career for this. Nice) Bruce Dern & Laura Dern & Diane Ladd (listed separatedly but ♪ ♫ its a family affair... it's a family affair ♪), Ed Harris (maybe he'll be an Oscar winner for The Long Walk Home by the time that ceremony is held?), The Muppets (who already have a star for television), Reese Witherspoon, Kenny Ortega (wait, who?), Gwyneth Paltrow and three major players you'd have thought would have had them since the 70s or early 80s: director Ridley Scott, Carrie herself Sissy Spacek and the enduring Donald Sutherland.

Whose star will you end up visiting?
*

Yes, No, Maybe So: Somewhere

The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette. Second generation auteur Sofia Coppola hasn't failed us yet. Her perceptive ethereal films about delicate girls with faraway looks in their eyes are stunning to behold and deeply felt, too. Here's the trailer to her fourth film Somewhere (2010).

This is one of those cases where I need to water down my expectations lest I wet myself. I love her movies. So I'll divvy it up as to what makes me most excited (yes), most worried (no), and somewhere in between (maybe so) for the appropriate "I Shan't Be Controlled By Marketing" balance.

yes
Coppola understands how to convey both unexpected intimacies (Bob & Charlotte in Lost in Translation) and painful estrangements (usually familial but sometimes spousal as seen in Suicides and Marie-Antoinette) which should serve her tremendously well in the telling of this story of actor/father (Stephen Dorff) and tween daughter (Elle Fanning) who suddenly comes to live with him at the Chateau Marmont. Coppola's films obviously use her own life as inspiration and she knows from being the daughter of a famous showbiz person, as we all know. The shot of the underwater tea party is unexpected, charming and gives me great hope that this will be variable in mood and so specific that it will read universal.

no

On the other hand, who can relate to leisurely wealth and scads of downtime? There's so many shots of actor and daughter lounging, sleeping or barely mobile in their luxury environment. Now, I don't have the same problem as some viewers do with Coppola's hermetically sealed worlds and their wealthy almost slothful protagonists. After all, nobody complains when male auteurs make movies about the same male character types each time yet Sofia catches heat for her continual emphasis on upscale lost girls. Double standard! So, I hope she makes dozens more features about whatever the hell she wants. But, since this looks to be the closest to her own experience of all of the films, given the subject matter and movie industry backdrop, it could bring out excessive navel gazing. Sometimes it's just a navel no matter how hard you look. Showbiz played into Lost in Translation, too, but it did so in a more offscreen way.

maybe so

We know that Sofia Coppola is a natural in the director's chair and that cinematographer Harris Savides, one of the best in the biz, will help her provide beautiful vivid imagery. But whether or not Somewhere touches viewers in any substantial way will depend greatly on the father/daughter chemistry of Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning. We won't know if that's poor, adequate or sensational until we're actually watching the movie. There are some things you can never learn from a trailer.

Are you a "yes, no or maybe so?"

Care to make any Oscar guesses? The movie is currently set for release on December 22nd, which blows. You'll have to try not to be jealous of the hazy downtime of Dorff and Fanning while you're at maximum stress levels during the holiday rush and the prestige movie glut. Hopefully they'll move this to the usual Sofia spot in the early fall.