This is the thread where we discuss matters pertaining to the detrius that accompanies the "End of the Year in Cinema" -- 2023

Cruz and McAdams running up make me all the more irritated that Randolph has 100% run the table (and will continue to do so for the next two months)

Well!

It was nice to see Anatomy of a Fall win the screenplay award, but otherwise the Golden Globes went about as expected. Oppenheimer solidifies its front-runner status in picture, director, actor, and supporting actor.

I do wonder whether Barbie might have won in comedy if the new "cinematic and box office achievement" award didn't exist, allowing voters to give it a consolation prize.

Maybe, and I know reading any kind of tea leaves from the Globes is a fools' errand, but I can't help but wonder if there's a bit of a Barbie backlash brewing now that people (men) are getting to the "wait, are we really going to award ... this?!" stage

And yep, Anatomy winning screenplay was the one single jolt of genuine energy in the movie awards. Murphy winning actor, while successfully blocking Cooper from winning any of his bids, was still the dullest possible outcome

Worst Golden Globes ever. I started watching Withnail and I again.

The inevitability of Oppenheimer sweeping the Oscars has fully settled in now ... expecting anywhere from 8 to 10 wins (sigh). My last remaining wish for the season is that Maestro implodes entirely.

https://i.imgur.com/s0fsqLD.gif

SAG:

Motion Picture cast

American Fiction
Barbie
The Color Purple
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer

Male Actor in a Leading Role — Motion Picture

Bradley Cooper, Maestro
Colman Domingo, Rustin
Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction

Female Actor in a Leading Role — Motion Picture

Annette Bening, Nyad
Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
Carey Mulligan, Maestro
Margot Robbie, Barbie
Emma Stone, Poor Things

Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction
Willem Dafoe, Poor Things
Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon
Robert Downey, Jr., Oppenheimer
Ryan Gosling, Barbie

Female Actor in a Supporting Role — Motion Picture

Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple
Penélope Cruz, Ferrari
Jodie Foster, Nyad
Da'Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture

Barbie
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
John Wick: Chapter 4
Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning, Part One

Yay on Brown, boo on Domingo.

SAG always finds fun ways to set the awards cycle back a few steps, but I'll at least give them credit for blanking SALTBURN

But, of course, not TOO much credit because goddamn ...

Herein lies the rub in the entire framing of KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON as some kind of a breakthrough in terms of representation. 5 out of 7 actors nominated for the #SAGAwards Ensemble prize are white. You can't make this up. #SAG #SAGAFTRA https://t.co/1hmSQqMgc5 pic.twitter.com/fnScvc101y

— Ankit Jhunjhunwala (@fuzzyyarns) January 10, 2024

Typing Domingo and Brown's names I realized: first time two Black actors earned SAG nods for playing gay Black men.

It's probably among the first times period that any gay actors earned nods for playing gay men

So, the SAG ensemble rules are that only actors who appear on a single card in the credits are included in the ensemble. I'm guessing the women who played Mollie's sisters were grouped together on a card.

SAG really didn't like May December huh?

Or Past Lives, which I get not landing an ensemble nod, but I would've thought Greta Lee might've moved past Bening. NYAD has the feel of a classic SAG contender that doesn't move to the final round (Oscars).

Some speculation that actors aren't too happy with the portrait of acting May December presents, but also, it's a Todd Haynes movie — built for critics, not the industry.

As for single card, that's a dumb rule and it's an utter embarrassment that Brendan Fraser's performance in Killers of the Flower Moon is nominated for anything anywhere

You can generally crank the dial a few more tics toward respectable when it comes to translating the SAG slate into the Oscar one, but I do think the May December mirage ends here.

I still think Hüller has a shot, esp over Mulligan.

xp I think you're probably right, especially now that Sterling K. Brown is in the mix for supporting actor. Ruffalo didn't even make the cut for SAG.

And yeah, agreed about Hüller, who's going to appeal to the international Oscar voters. I'd predict her over Bening.

It's probably among the first times period that any gay actors earned nods for playing gay men

― Wack Snyder (Eric H.),

Out ones at any rate.

otoh I hadn't counted Cruz in at all, but now I'm sure she'll earn a nod. She doesn't do well with precursors yet lands nominations when she's in the mix.

Yep, swap Huller for Bening and I think that's your slate.

Supporting actor is between Brown, Dafoe, De Niro, Downey, Gosling, Ruffalo with I'd argue De Niro maybe in the weakest position (that category has been double-nominating movies almost every single year of late, so I see Dafoe and Ruffalo as being both in).

It's killing me that Andrew Scott is, at best, hanging on by a thread.

And, yes, Cruz is (like Dafoe) a "never count 'em out" prospect. I think given how diffuse that race is beyond Randolph and Blunt, she's got to be considered as strong as anyone else.

Nathaniel (whom I just read):

Are these are five? It’s a good five though Leonardo DiCaprio could still spoil the party for his grumpy-faced coasting in Killers of the Flower Moon and one longshot that could theoretically still make it is Andrew Scott for All of Us Strangers who is peaking at the right time. But on the other hand Oscar has rarely honored actual LGBTQ actors for playing LGBTQ characters so even Domingo feels vulnerable.

Almost every pundit has been ranking Domingo 6th and Scott 7th, but they've also been bending over backwards to point out what a shame it would be that two came so close, and that it's awful that McKellan remains the only gay man Oscar's nominated thus far for playing a gay role. But even that invites potential vote splitting. (FWIW, I think Scott absolutely buries Domingo, but part of the problem is the latter's movie is as bad as just about any this year.)

Buries him under a blanket serenaded by Frankie Goes to Hollywood?

I didn't even know until now that Domingo is gay.

Todd Haynes, destroying civilization pic.twitter.com/zfa2LffmR1

— Adam Nayman (@brofromanother) January 10, 2024

the kindliest character is the overgrown stud Joe Yoo (Charles Melton, in a wooden performance), the abused manchild still seen as weak and immature, despite fathering four children with his miscreant wife. That Haynes carelessly exploits Joe, switching the boy’s racial identity from Samoan to Korean, reveals some racism hidden within progressive politics. (And what’s up with that obvious prosthetic phallus, if not a dusky racist stereotype?) Haynes’s indifference to the harm of childhood sex-grooming (a Drag Queen Story Hour staple) explains why male psychological dangers go unexplored (there are no Samoan or Korean box-office stars)

Arm0nd has been despicable for decades, he's never had a strong legitimate POV as much as he's always had something pathologically wrong with him (expressed in ways which fooled some into thinking he had a strong POV.) but his descent is still kind of astonishing, the slow reveal of who he was making him persona non grata to his peers, making him eager to be easily weaponized by the extreme RW fascist elements.

there are no Samoan or Korean box-office stars

https://www.wrestlinginc.com/img/gallery/one-thing-dwayne-the-rock-johnson-misses-about-being-a-part-of-wwe/intro-1700173897.jpg

DGA nominees

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film
Greta Gerwig, Barbie
Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
Alexander Payne, The Holdovers
Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Theatrical Feature Film
Cord Jefferson, American Fiction
Manuel Martinelli, Chile '76
Noora Niasari, Shayda
A.V. Rockwell, A Thousand and One
Celine Song, Past Lives

Asteroid City getting utterly ignored this awards season isn't it? I actually forgot it even came out this year until this morning and I really liked it.

Hard to tell between Wes Anderson and Todd Haynes which '90s wunderkinds is more anathema to them

can't wait for this year's interview with the Anonymous Oscar Voter.

Especially if The Zone of Interest gets nominated

Which ... I guess it will? I don't see anything else scraping together a solid drive for that 10th slot. May December is clearly an industry non-starter, The Color Purple is now toxic waste so far as Oscar buzz goes, SAG said no to Saltburn despite that being the likeliest place for it to reign, BAFTA big-time shrugged at Society of the Snow, and Spider-Man is still a cartoon fighting against Miyazaki. What even else is there to stop Zone?

Anonymous Oscar Voter Season Approachin’, Fuck Whatever You Been Watchin’

(Sorry)

I've cracked the top 100 in the Vulture Movie Fantasy League.

I'm toast there unless somehow Barbie and Poor Things start tying for all the awards

Where do people post about Anatomy of a Fall?

Perfect film, although a little clinical for me to really love it. (If you do, I guess that's one of its strengths.) I'll have to give Anatomy of a Murder another look--they would seem to share more than their titles. Not a classical-music scholar, but the piece that plays over the end credits (and earlier in the film: the mother and son play it together on the piano) is the same piece that Nicholson's character plays in Five Easy Pieces, right?

One of Chopin’s 24 Preludes iirc

I knew it would be super-famous and I'd embarrass myself just by asking--it's like, "What was that early rock and roll song about the hound dog the one character sang?"

I'll hide a couple of things here.

Not that it's The Sixth Sense or anything, but I picked up on the central issue pretty early, which was made crystal-clear in their taped argument: she was successful and prolific, he wasn't. Also, I'm glad there wasn't any kind of a twist at the end like I half-expected. I started to think for a minute that we'd find out the son completely made up the story of his conversation in the car with his father (although it's presented in language that seemed slightly beyond his age), acting on the advice of his court-appointed watchdog.

That last thing you mentioned: I'm glad it wasn't spelled out one way or the other, but I did come to believe that's what happened.

I agree the ending is ambiguous enough that it’s possible to have different interpretations.

No surprise, but Anatomy of a Murder does seem to be lurking in the background:

“Anatomy of a Fall,” the new French mystery film, takes its title directly from “Anatomy of a Murder,” Otto Preminger’s 1959 courtroom drama starring Jimmy Stewart. Director Justine Triet saw the Preminger classic about a decade ago and kept the film in her mind as she was developing her own modern tale of intrigue, secrets, and marriage on trial.

https://www.thewrap.com/anatomy-of-a-fall-ending-what-it-means-director-interview/

Interesting interview...I think Sarris called the Preminger film a masterpiece of ambiguity, or something like that.

It's my favorite Preminger. I wouldn't call it ambiguous, certainly not with that ending. But it's fair, almost serene, about the consequences.