Bostonians

So I've been in Boston for over 24 hours now for Christmas festivities and there have been no Affleck spottings whatsoever. It's so unfair. Ben, Jennifer, Casey, Matt: hidden from view! I regret to inform that despite the lack of starpower to be seen Amy Ryan as "Helene McCready" in Gone Baby Gone types have wandered into view.

What sights have you been seeing on your holiday break?

All I Want For Christmas Is...

• that Michelle Pfeiffer will stay now that she's back
• for next year to have some grade A movies, no reservations just plenty o' masterpiece. Not that this cinematic year wasn't very rewarding
• more time to write and create, less time in the other daily grind
• more days like the one I'm having today with my dearest friends. It's merry!
• a successful launch of my first podcast (coming your way this week)
• for There Will Be Blood to be as good as I'm hearing. Wednesday...

I'll quit there. Don't wanna be greedy. I'm away from the computer (mostly) for Christmas but I'll try to check in once or twice over the next few days. What are you wishing for this holiday season?

Linking Out in the Evening

IndieWire critics polling. There Will Be Blood dominates
Guardian John Patterson reshoots this year's cinema history. I love this post.
Towleroad Channing Tatum and the surge of fight movies
Deep Focus says that There Will Be Blood is a flat out masterpiece, although Boogie Nights is dissed in the process. Which...well, that just ain't right.
The Reeler ...speaking of PTA. He's only in his 30s and he's getting a retrospective in NYC next month. So is his contemporary Apitchatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul
Jim Emerson's Scanners really interesting "guess the top ten list" I can only figure out the top 5.
OMG Kevin Spacey's full moon. omg it's hilarious
Being Boring greatest things about 2007 in no particular order
Lazy Eye Theatre a Christmas wish list
Hollywood Elsewhere on audience shock when Sweeney Todd starts singing. I've long since given up hope on American audiences but it's not like the studios aren't partially to blame. They encourage the ignorance.

I was gazing at this 1948 Life Cover on Flickr "New Male Movie Stars Montgomery Clift". It made me smile and made me curious. That was a plural. Who was on the inside? Didn't anyone know who they were by 1955? And then I got a little sad. And it reminded me of the Vanity Fair series I'm doing... everything that's new today will be yesterday's news will one day be classic and then will one day be gone. *sniffle* This is hardly revelatory news. Just a reminder. god, what is it about holidays that bring out less than totally joyous feelings?

Actress Psychic -Point Distribution Frenzy!

Early bird Actress Psychic Oscar Contest --updated point totals here. We last updated on December 5th when Juno was opening and the NBR had just barely kicked off the "best" blather. Much awardage has happened since. Points are flying everywhere finally...

TFE reader Vincent S overtakes longtime leader Victor S (for now). The V boys have been neck and neck the whole time. Yours truly (who couldn't win anyway as the host, falls out of the top ten. Ouch) Stephen G, lodged far below for months suddenly joins the leaderswith a wicked combo of Blanchett/ Christie/ Cotillard/ HB-C December point gobbling. Stéphane L and Thomas V round out the top five but boy did this month scatter the players about. Where do you stand now?

major point gains since last update
+ 31 nominated for Globe, SAG (+2 first nom other than ensemble), BFCA and won the NYFCC and several minor critics awards (point top out at + 3 there) Julie Christie (Away From Her)

+ 31 nominated for Globe (+2 first nod), SAG (+2 foreign language), BFCA and won the LAFCA. + 1 one minor critics award (Boston) Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose)

+ 21 nominated for Globe, SAG and BFCA Angelina Jolie (A Mighty Heart)

+18 nominatd for Globe (deductions for 6th nom), SAG and BFCA Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth the Golden Age)

+ 13 nominated for Globe (+2 first nod), BFCA nominee (young actress) Nikki Blonsky (Hairspray)

+11 nominated for Globe and film opened Helena Bonham-Carter (Sweeney Todd) and Keira Knightley (Atonement)

minor points since last update

+8 nominated for Globe and SAG (deductions since it wasn't for lead) Cate Blanchett (I'm Not There)

+7 nominated for Globe (deductions for 6th nom) Jodie Foster (The Brave One)

+3 film opened plus a shared EW cover Julia Roberts (Charlie Wilsons War)

+3 film opened and box office points Nicole Kidman (The Golden Compass)

+1 film made the AFI Top Ten list: Laura Linney (The Savages) --she's the only one, can you believe it?

+1 film opened Vanessa Redgrave and Romola Garai (Atonement)

point oddities: Julia Roberts got no points for her Globe nomination due to the formula of +10 Globe nod, -7 if it's supporting instead and -3 if it's the candidates sixth nomination or higher. so nuthin' for Ms. Roberts because the HFPA is just too sweet on her. Ellen Page and Amy Adams got lots of points but nobody picked them last March so there you go... nuthin. Awards gobbler Cate Blanchett reached both her 5th and 6th nomination at the Globes this year so I opted to deduct the points for The Golden Age rather than I'm Not There --editor's executive decision since she's more of a frontrunner for I'm Not There in supporting.

All that's left is one big critics prize (NSFC), a few media point possibilities, the film bitch nominations, box office of the things that are just opening, rotten tomatoes scores and then ...da dum... The Nominations themselves. Do you you have a shot at winning?


Speaking of Next Year... (Workable) suggestions on how to improve the game are welcome. if you are scratching your noggin in a "what the hell is going on?" fashion that means you weren't around in March when we started playing this game. To get the fullest film experience you have to stick with the site after the last Oscar statue is handed out in February. There's daily hijinx here ...just a friendly reminder from your hardworking film bitch. [Best Actress Predix -last updated 12/16 prior to the SAG news]
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Attend the Tale of Sweeney Todd

For the legion of hardcore fans of composer Stephen, the wait for the film version of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has been excruciatingly long. There have been precious few true Sondheim musicals that have made the transfer to the screen and this grand guignol piece has been a long time in coming. Earlier this decade Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Jarhead) was to direct and numerous names were bandied about for the infamous roles of the demon barber and his accomplice Mrs. Lovett. The wait for the film version has also been more than a little frightening (who would direct? Who would star? Who could possibly due it justice?) as perhaps befits the horrific tale of a man who slits multiple throats in gory unfocused vengeance and the woman who bakes the bodies into meat pies to dispose of the evidence.

Once Tim Burton took over the reigns, auditions continued for reasons unbeknownst to many who found it impossibly obvious (in retrospect) which way the casting would go. The famously whimsical and gothic-loving auteur settled on the two actors he always settles on: Sweeney would inhabited by Johnny Depp (his six-time leading man and friend) and Mrs Lovett would be played by Helena Bonham-Carter (his five-time co-star and lady love). That neither could sing didn’t seem to worry the director though it worried Sondheim disciples not a little.

"The Ballad of Sweeney Todd," the glorious choral number that opens the original stage show foreshadows the narrative while painting a rather thrilling shrieking picture of the man in question (Sondheim has acknowledged the influence of Bernard Hermann, of Psycho fame, on his most acclaimed score). Burton’s first move is to slash "The Ballad" from the film version (it’s the cut that will be most obvious to Todd fanatics) in favor of a slower reveal of this bloody man through expository dialogue, general close up visualization --you can't get that on stage -- and sung through flashbacks, perhaps to surprise the uninitiated. To quote the tale end of the original number

What happened then, well that’s the play,
and he wouldn’t want us to give it away…

Not Sweeney
Not Sweeney Todd
The demon barber of Fleet
Street

Thankfully the number remains in spirit and is used admirably well in the underscoring. Though it’s my personal favorite song in the show I found that I hadn’t really missed it once the tale was told.

Read my full review @ Zoom In

Have you seen the movie?
I'd love to hear whether it met your expectations as well.

Jane Fonda: Awesome Then, Awesome Now

Happy birthday to the "Arguably Most Deserving Actual Double Best Actress Oscar® Winner Ever "


whew, that's quite a title. But it's so (maybe) true. I mean I love Bette Davis, Liz Taylor, Olivia DeHavilland, Ingrid Bergman, etcetera... Oh, yes. OK, OK. Vivien Leigh trumps her... Gone With the Wind and Streetcar Named Desire = probably impossible to beat from here until the apocalypse. But still... Coming Home and Klute? Yes please!

Jane, enough with the Georgias and Monster In-Laws. Please go win #3. You know you have (at least) one more classic in you.
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20:07 (When Marie Met Louis)

Screenshots from the 20th minute and 7th second of a movie
I can't guarantee the same results at home. I use a VLC

Marie: please, please don’t. don’t be unhappy. I’m terribly sorry
Louis: You won’t say anything will you -- to the king or that woman?
Marie: I won’t say a word to anyone.
Louis: You promise?
Marie: I promise faithfully whatever happens.

These two were a lot more chatty and forthcoming in 1938 than they turned out to be in 2006. Times have changed.

Links

Sometimes you just gotta back slowly away from Oscar... (it's good for you)
NewNowNext likes the actress comedy odds of 2008
popbytes Jake Shears meets Dolly Parton. How special
Drawn! spotlights that absolutely adorable RankinBass style Mac ad. Lurve it
A.V. Club -worst of the year. Enjoy the drubbings
Acidemic -great piece on Last Tango In Paris. I don't even like the film and this made me eager to see it again. Which is a mark of great film writing I think
Forbes -25 biggest web celebs. ModFab and I do not appear. We're too niche or sexy or genius to be understood and powerful in our time. They'll be all "modfab" this and "Nathanielesque" that after we die though. We'll get our own adjectives! That's what I'm telling myself through the crying jags

OK a teeny bit of Oscar
Film Otaku
-on France's probable strong showing with Oscar. Viva le France
HotBlog Poland makes some interesting correlations to previous SAG races and wonders, like I always do, about why movies wait so long to lauch. We're talking to you Atonement (held back from American viewers for so long)

One danger of loving musicals too much

...is that you end up with show tunes playing constantly in your head. There are worse things to be lodged in the brain than masterful Sondheim ditties but still...

More annoying yet is that I just have one line of the classic "A Little Priest" on repeat, not the whole song. For about 5 days now. I've tried listening to the entire Broadway cast recording (both). I've tried listening to other music: Amy Winehouse, Tom Waits, Madonna, Christmas compilations. I even tried Hairspray's catchiest showstoppers. And still all I hear and all I hum is one single line (in bold below)

Sweeney Todd:
For what's the sound of the world out there?

Mrs. Lovett:
What, Mr. Todd?
What, Mr. Todd?
What is that sound?

Todd:
Those crunching noises pervading the air!

Lovett:
Yes, Mr. Todd!
Yes, Mr. Todd!
Yes, all around!

Todd:
It's man devouring man, my dear!

Both:
And who are we to deny it in here?

I blame the TV commercial which lets that one line sing out louise
...oh please make the ∞ stop. I heart Sweeney Todd but this is too much. Your medical/mental recommendations are most appreciated. How can I escape?

My Sweeney Todd Review
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Screen Actors Guild Nominations

Updated Post The SAG Nominations have now been announced. Guild nominations are essentially the final and most telling pieces of pre-Oscar prediction puzzles so once they announce you have the bulk of clues you're going to get before the Academy has its say names its nominees... Just how does this affect the predictions?

ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett -Elizabeth the Golden Age
Julie Christie -Away From Her
Marion Cotillard -La Vie En Rose
Angelina Jolie -A Mighty Heart
Ellen Page -Juno

This is probably your Oscar line up. But it's disappointing that actors, who use their imagination so frequently in their day jobs, have such poor imaginations when it comes time to judging acting. Blanchett's cartoon performance (Elizabeth) is not superior to Amy Adams cartoon performance (Enchanted) if you know what I mean... And that's just for starters. Cate's hurricane strips awards groups bare apparently. Even when they have other places to honor her in deserving ways (see: supporting)

ACTOR
George Clooney -Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis -There Will Be Blood
Ryan Gosling -Lars and the Real Girl
Emile Hirsch -Into the Wild
Viggo Mortensen -Eastern Promises

The surprise snub here is Johnny Depp as the demon barber in Sweeney Todd. But starpower for Depp and/or Washington (American Gangster) could still knock someone out of this interesting and respectable lineup (sigh) It's not my five but I'd be fine with this as the Oscar shortlist. Not a bad performance or even a truly mediocre one here.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett -I'm Not There
Ruby Dee -American Gangster
Catherine Keener -Into the Wild
Amy Ryan -Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton -Michael Clayton

Supporting Actress has been a question mark all year in one way or another and continues to be with this SAG announcement. Only Blanchett, Ryan and Swinton are named every time out. Those 4th and 5th slots are still highly competitive...We can now officially worry for little Saorsie Ronan (Atonement): typically SAG is even kinder to the young ones than Oscar itself. Not good news for her or Atonement today. Fighting for two volatile spots with Oscar: Ruby Dee, Kelly Macdonald, Saorsie Ronan, Vanessa Redgrave and Catherine Keener. Jennifer Jason Leigh (see: my interview) , Jennifer Garner and Marisa Tomei probably saw their last hopes dashed here with the SAG snubs.

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Casey Affleck -The Assassination of Jesse James
Javier Bardem -No Country For Old Men
Hal Holbrook -Into the Wild
Tommy Lee Jones -No Country For Old Men
Tom Wilkinson -Michael Clayton

This indicates end game for John Travolta in Hairspray (if it was going to happen, wouldn't SAG have played along?) But I still wouldn't count out Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Charlie Wilson's War) giving the boot to one of these superior performances. If there's a surprise coming --occassionally things that don't get any precursor love do end up in the Oscar shortlists-- your options are but two: Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood) and Max von Sydow (The Diving Bell and Butterfly)

ENSEMBLE
3:10 to Yuma
American Gangster
Hairspray
Into the Wild
No Country For Old Men

These don't look so bad as ensemble choices. I'm happy to see them think about what constitutes an ensemble as opposed to what means "Best Picture"

* Updates to Oscar pages later tonight. For now, have it out in the comments.

Vanity Fair's Hollywood ~Episode 3 (1997)

Playing the Hollywood Historian...

The third year of "Vanity Fair's Hollywood" led us to believe that they'd be alternating the all girl / all boy lineups forever. They'd soon disrupt the formula but it was back to a 10 girl lineup for 97. This time they were christened "The Next Wave" At the time I wasn't terribly wild about this cover. It's hard to remember why but every year when the cover premieres you have someone in particular that you feel is overlooked. I should have written it down. Now...who knows who was snubbed? 1997 isn't that clear. Looking back, though, it's the first cover that really coheres. Isn't this a beautiful color palette? Plus, nobody is pulling too much focus from anyone else either, or dressed in such a way that they don't quite fit (Hello Gwyneth Paltrow in 1995).


The collaborating cover girls were...

Cameron Diaz, who heading towards 25, still had residual heat from her successful debut in The Mask (1994) with Jim Carrey. Subsequent films hadn't achieved any impact but My Best Friend's Wedding was about to open. People were stunned that she dared a charisma-off with Julia Roberts and even more dazzled that that blinding Julia star wattage didn't burn the young upstart to a crisp on the spot. Instead it lit her up and onto the A list. Heady days of worshipful Golden Globe nominations, audience pleasing rump-shaking (Charlie's Angels) and endless Justin Timberlake carousing were just ahead. But doesn't it seem like things have gotten awfully quiet since 2002? She's only 35... where's the second act surge?

Kate Winslet was already going places at 22. She had revealed to us the brilliance of Peter Jackson (casting this particular unknown in Heavenly Creatures was his first masterstroke, don't you think?) and was the only Oscar nominee on the cover (Sense & Sensibility). You'll notice that she also had red hair. Which means, Titanic was filming. That's probably all you need to know about what happened next. Although I think it bears repeating (after the discussion of the peaks and valleys of one Ms. Kidman) that people tend to forget the valleys in tremendous careers. Nobody would ever admit to this now but there were people back in the day that felt her choice to do Hideous Kinky after Titanic was a "career killer", that she was too fat for Hollywood, etcetera. People have always been trying to tear great actresses down, particularly when they've embraced acting above the demands of being a sex symbol.

Claire Danes specialized in making me cry like a baby in the 90s. She was turning 18 here and she had already jerked my tears around in My So Called Life, Little Women, To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday and Romeo + Juliet. To virtually anyone paying attention she looked like the next big thing. Ten years later the fame persists but the career is disappointing. Mileage may vary but I think there are two problems. 1) Choice of roles. 2) She hasn't rid herself of those formerly endearing fidgety mannerisms (and nearing 30, they're distracting. Maybe it's just me but I want to see a mature actress emerge from the memories of the A list teenager.

Renée Zellweger -that's right I said the name. We're time travelling remember? This was long before she became one of my arch enemies... She Who Must Not Be Named. She was but 28 and had won many hearts and probably came thisclose to her first Oscar nomination just months before, having "completed" Tom Cruise's Jerry Maguire (1996). Previously she had also starred in The Whole Wide World (1996) and was one of several rising stars to be seen in the very funny 70s high school comedy Dazed and Confused (1993). Major stardom followed and strange things eventually began to happen... A couple of quiet years may have sufficiently doused the raging backlash that was occurring but can she regain control over those calcified mannerisms? Let's hope she's Bridget Jones squinty and not Miss Potter squinched in Leatherheads with George Clooney. (That's right, I'm calling truce. Win me back Renée... or at least don't get in the The Clooney's way. I love him best in comedies.)

Alison Elliott, 27, might be the lone member of this cover you didn't recognize. 1997 remains her biggest year. She was fresh off the Sundance surprise The Spitfire Grill (1996) but it underperformed once regular audiences got a hold of it. Later in 1997 she was in fine form as Helena Bonham-Carter's kind rival in The Wings of the Dove. Some critics called for an Oscar nomination. That didn't pan out and very strangely, Wings of the Dove was her last high profile film role.

Minnie Driver, 27 and reclining awkwardly on one elbow--Ouch Minnie-- was about to win Matt Damon's troubled heart both onscreen and off Good Will Hunting --though it'd shortly be off off. She won an Oscar nomination for her efforts as 'the girl'. At the time of this cover she was surfing good buzz from her performance in Circle of Friends. Lately she's been singing and starring on the critically acclaimed The Riches on TV.

Jada Pinkett was not yet Jada Pinkett Smith at 25 but almost. Will Smith and she made it official at the tail end of this very year. Her acting career had taken off round about 1993 with the one two punch of Menace II Society and her recurring role on television's A Different World. The previous year had been a big one for her in the movies, arguably her peak, starring in The Nutty Professor and Set it Off with Queen Latifah and this year she was in the first kill position (hi Drew Barrymore!) in Scream 2. You'll mostly see her in supporting roles these days and on the red carpet, usually in stunning metallic colors.

Jennifer Lopez was nearing 28 and Selena and Anaconda were opening, making her an instant star. She had famously been paid 1 million for Selena making her the best paid Latina actress ever at the time (if I recall correctly). She was on her way to mega stardom and becoming so famous you only needed two syllables ~ "JLo" Next up: Out of Sight (1998) which remains her best performance by so wide a margin one wishes Steven Soderbergh would cast her again.

Charlize Theron was only 21. My god, that seems like it must have been 10 years ago. oh... um... She had made a big splash in Two Days in the Valley (1996). The film wasn' t a big hit but people were really talking about her. Mostly about her hotness. It was very Jessica Alba a few years ago. Theron proved her acting chops were on par with her beauty, quickly surprising people with her intensity and believability in the otherwise ludicrous The Devil's Advocate which came out in the fall of '97. She is one of only two eventual Oscar winners (thus far) on this cover --the other being She Who Must Not Be Named. Coincidentally, they both won on the same night in 2004, seven years after this cover shoot saw the light of day --the next wave, indeed.

Fairuza Balk -had been a child actor in Return to Oz (1985) and showed a lot of maturing promise in the under seen indie Gas, Food, Lodging (1992) but was still transitioning to adult roles at 23. The year previous she had been an overcooked hoot as a witch in The Craft (still what she's most remembered for) and she would soon co-star in American History X (1998) with Ed Norton. She's been effective in some notable films or roles like Almost Famous (2000) and Personal Velocity (2002) but stardom didn't really materialize save for devoted cult pockets and she isn't in many pictures these days.

median age: 24, youngest: Claire. oldest: Renée
collective Oscar nominations before this cover: Just 1... Kate Winslet in Sense & Sensibility
collective Oscar nominations after this cover: 10 nominations with 2 wins: Charlize's Monster and Renée on Cold Mountain
fame levels in 2007, according to famousr, from most to least: Cameron Diaz, Charlize Theron, Jada Pinkett Smith, Claire Danes, Minnie Driver, Fairuza Balk and Alison Elliott. * famousr proved very unreliable this time around. No listings for Kate, Jennifer or Renée. That's some major snubbage there given the household name status.
see also: 1995 ,1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001
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