Election Anxiety and Joy

Monday November 3rd
Are you calm, antsy, angry, bored, scattered, scared, totally zen? I'm not sure what I am but I can't turn away from the TV. I can think of little else. Tomorrow I shall vote early, go see a movie, then get together with friends to watch the results.

Your plans?

In the past ten years we've had movies about Clinton (Primary Colors) and Bush (W.) How soon do you think we'll get a movie about our next president?

Update Tuesday November 4th
Get out the vote! I'm done after a three hour wait. It was so chaotic and jubilant in the school where my district votes that I almost forgot to feel the historic rush of that lever pull. I know that NYC is a bubble and we can get a distorted view of how willing the country is to heal, reassess and progress but this crowd was so hopeful, tearful and proud to be there... I can only hope for the best in terms of a new direction for this country.

We'll be back to movies right here tomorrow but enjoy this election day. Non US readers can just sit back and marvel at the bizarreness that this US election is even half as close as it supposedly is.

Update Wednesday, November 5th
Last night was absolutely joyous here on the streets of Harlem. Everything felt so good and hopeful and in January we'll finally have a president that's forward thinking, intelligent, community oriented, calm and inclusive --that acceptance speech was a marvel, wasn't it? Final results on Prop 8 in California, the night's other big battle for the soul of America, aren't in... but it's not looking so good. Even as the nation elects its first black president -- it's still having issues about deciding which of its citizens are "lesser than" and how to appropriately demean them within constitutions. That was a sobering stab of pain underneath tears of happiness last night.

Now, back to movies.

23 Days Until Australia Opens...

...and how many more after that until someone gives Hugh Jackman a movie musical role at last? Here he is performing Andrew Lloyd Webber's Sunset Boulevard on Australian television some years back...



It may not be much of a song but he still sells it. Bless him.

Do We Want Kate to Have an Oscar?

You bet your @#*%king ass we do!

(P.S. NSFW but tasteful VF photo here. Va Va Voomslet)
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Red Carpet Rendezvous

premiere-ish-ness from the past week or so...


From right to left, just to be backwards: Patty Clarkson at the "Speed the Plow" premiere in NYC (Elizabeth Moss from Mad Men is playing the old Madonna role from the 80s in this David Mamet revival), Elizabeth Banks all old school glam at a W. party, former Goonie and currently ubiquitous stage star Martha Plimpton as well as my movie-retired film experience iconKathleen Turner were also at "Speed the Plow". Parker Posey at some gala or another --we haven't seen her in a while what with the movie career slowing down but she's always worth looking at.

Finally, fragile and slightly spooky Kristen Stewart strikes a pose at the Twilight premiere and Amy Adams attends the Doubt launch.

<-- But did she bring her man? Or whoever it was she brought to the Hollywood Film Festival in mid October. He looks too much like blurb whore automaton Ben Lyons for my comfort. If he's anything like that "critic" run away Amy, run away... Doubt.

Underappreciated: Tom Lenk

So another Halloween passed us by and I barely mentioned the greatest show ever (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). It's been off the air for five years but it's about the undead so I figure this justifies obsessing on it many years after its demise. After my third time chronologically through the series sometime in 2007, the Boyfriend demanded that I put the DVDs away for a good long while (even though he loves the show too). I'm a year sober now. Maybe in the spring he'll let me start from Season 1 Episode 1 again!?

Is this post filler? You'll be surprised to hear that it's not. I'm just rambling on my way to a new series recognizing underemployed/underappreciated actors in the hopes that some day some where some casting director will say 'that Nathaniel... he's so right!'. And here's where we begin.

I want to say congratulations to actor Tom Lenk who is now officially out of the closet. He's most well known if not famous for his recurring role as "Andrew" super-villain turned Scooby gang fringe-dweller on seasons 6 & 7 of Buffy. Joss Whedon was probably too much of a softie when it came to fan favorites on that departed show. He often let them take over and some overstayed their welcome (obviously Spike did --he was a great character but he made less and less narrative sense to keep around) and some would place Lenk's Andrew in that category, too. But when the show used Andrew sparingly to spike a scene with geeky amoral humor, Lenk always came through. So here's the very funny and talented Tom Lenk in two small doses, satirically embracing two icons of the gays, Britney with a great cabaret version of "Gimme More" and Madonna's "Hung Up".



Another reason to love Tom Lenk... he played "Tommy", a.k.a. 'Floyd's Boy' in the great Boogie Nights. See -- there he is!

These are the next stars. These are real people in the world.
-Floyd Gondoli, Boogie Nights (1997)

Anything connected to Boogie Nights is worth loving ...give or take f***in' idiot "Scotty" (Philip Seymour Hoffman)

I Link I Do

Thompson on Hollywood is Jon Hamm the next George Clooney? It's a great question
Goatdog Kate Hepburn in Morning Glory (1933)
Nick's Flick Picks is in London having an interesting time
Coming Soon Spider-Man 4 might get a Pulitzer'ed writer. Hopefully the acclaimed playwright won't be asked for a retread of the last three. It's time for a new emotional arc
Club Silencio highlights from the great Mad Men
Welcome to LA "still my idea of scary"
Hollywood Loves Broadway This Saturday, Catherine Zeta Jones hosts a benefit in California with a ton of stars doing show tunes (Hugh Jackman, James Marsden, Amy Adams and more. Wheeee)
Stale Popcorn gets angry about AFI's treatment of festival hit Three Blind Mice
i09 Four reasons why you need to be watching Pushing Daisies
In Contention chooses the ten best directors working in the English language
BBC News Magneto & Charles Xavier to star in Waiting for Godot
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25 Days Until Australia Opens...

Long wait.

But how long will Baz Luhrmann's epic feels once the projector is running? Hollywood Elsewhere suggests that the final running time is nearly 3 hours. More alarming is the news that there's apparently still no final print. I'm no great fan of the marathon movie and I always worry about rushed post-production but I still can't wait. About that three hour running time: With Baz working his mojo, Hugh all heroic and Nicole in period finery I suspect it will fly by. Especially because that killjoy voice in the back of my head keeps reminding me that we're not going to get Bazmark's next film until at least 2013, you know? I suppose good things come to those who wait.

She's Got Bette Davis Size

Imagine risking comparison to Bette Davis. Just go ahead and imagine it. ZOINKS! Scary stuff, right? It'd take an actress of significant theatrical heft, self-satisfied chutzpah, and A list poise to do so. I guess it would take... The Bening.

from today's NY Times Arts section

She'll be playing Davis' signature role, theatrical grand dame "Margo Channing", in All About Eve next Monday right here in NYC. $1500 for a good seat, eh? Oh, to run with the deep pocketed arts loving crowd --or sit with them rather. Even if you don't jones for The Bening the way I do, the ticket also brings you her American Beauty sausage Peter Gallagher, Oscar & TONY winner Joel Grey, the legendary Angela Lansbury, Sex & The City's Cynthia Nixon and silver fox John Slattery (Mad Men) among others. What's not to fork over $1500 for? If you carry that kind of cash.

I doubt that I've seen enough classic films in my lifetime to do justice to a "best screenplays ever" type of list but if one were to be drawn up, All About Eve's would rank quite highly. The sharpness, wit and steel of those words ... don't you just love?

The Reader is Coming. So is Everything Else

Though it's impossible to be surprised when you see footage of Kate Winslet that suggests 'Fine Performance', it delivers a nice little jolt nonetheless.

The movie looks beautiful too but with Chris Menges behind the camera (a three time cinematography Oscar nominee for The Killing Fields, The Mission and Michael Collins) that's also not shocking. Whether or not the movie is merely pretty & well acted or something greater we'll have to wait until mid December to find out.

So, yeah, The Reader is coming. But then again, so is awards season. 2008 is looking like 2002, a frustrating year in which studios just refused to show their hopefuls until the tail end of the year. If you're like the stereotypical Oscar voter, cursed with short term memories, this is probably fine with you and your favorites of any given year probably all bow in December. You're used to it. But if you're the other type of moviegoer, that likes to think about movies for awhile after seeing them and tends to love their favorites even more the more time they spend with them, this release system is torturous.

The Brave and The Early
The following films have to hold or grow their Oscar buzz in order to fight off the late year challengers. They all have solid shortlist shots in at least two Oscar categories unless the holiday films trample their golden dreams. In order of release: The Visitor, Iron Man, The Dark Knight, WALL•E, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Rachel Getting Married, Happy Go-Lucky and Changeling.

• Recent "Best Pictures" that opened October or earlier: Michael Clayton (07) * Babel, The Queen, Little Miss Sunshine, The Departed (06) * Capote, Crash, Good Night and Good Luck (05) * Sideways, Ray (04) * Mystic River, Seabiscuit, Lost in Translation (03) * Moulin Rouge! (01) * Erin Brockovich, Gladiator (00) * American Beauty, The Sixth Sense (99) * Saving Private Ryan, Life is Beautiful (98) *
  

As you can see from this list, and contrary to studio strategist belief, releasing before the holidays does not eliminate Oscar contention.

Here's the current calendar of When to Expect whatever it is that you're expecting, Oscar-wise. I've removed the non-Oscary movies but it's worth noting (and Oscar campaigns tend to forget this) that the media doesn't only focus on Oscar in December and there's a lot of coverage that smaller movies can't get because the media has to clear a lot of room for Reese Witherspoon, Jim Carrey and other A Listers in potential Off-Oscar blockbusters. Awards-wise it's slim pickings until after Thanksgiving this year. That's unfortunate for movie lovers but not surprising.

November (first half)
Slumdog Millionaire

November (second half)
Australia
Milk

• Recent "Best Pictures" that opened in November: No Country For Old Men (07) * Finding Neverland (04) * Master and Commander (03) * In the Bedroom (01) * The Insider (99) * Elizabeth (98) *
  

Dec 5th
Frost/Nixon
Hunger -why oh why? this tiny difficult thing will be crushed by more middlebrow epics
Dec 10th
The Reader
Wendy and Lucy -why oh why? this tiny moving thing will be smothered in December prestige
*Dec 11th GOLDEN GLOBE Nominations *

Dec 12th
Che (both parts)
Doubt
Dec 17th
Gran Torino
The Wrestler
Dec 19th
Nothing but the Truth
Seven Pounds

• Recent "Best Pictures" that opened prior to the Christmas holiday in December: Atonement, Juno (07) * Letters From Iwo Jima (06) * Brokeback Mountain (05) * The Aviator, Million Dollar Baby (04) * Return of the King (03) * Gangs of New York, The Two Towers (02) * The Fellowship of the Ring, A Beautiful Mind (01) * Chocolat, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (00) * The Cider House Rules, The Green Mile (99) * Shakespeare in Love, The Thin Red Line (98) *
  

Dec 25th & 26th
The Class
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Last Chance Harvey
Revolutionary Road
Waltz With Bashir -because this worked so well for Persepolis last year... whaaaaat?

• Recent "Best Pictures" that opened December 24th, 25th or 26th: There Will Be Blood (07) * Munich (05) * Gosford Park (01) *
  

Dec 31st
Defiance
Good

• Recent "Best Pictures" that opened the 27th or after: Chicago, The Hours, The Pianist (02) * Traffic (01) *
  

I just thought we should give it a little perspective. Though of course that doesn't paint the whole picture since the vast majority of people don't have access to these films until the next year entirely... and this chart does not include snubs from those various release strategies. Someday when there's more time... And my oh my I drifted off topic. What do you think of The Reader's chances now that you've seen the trailer? And if you could control the calendar what would it look like?
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