Discussables: Lousy Animated Year, The TV is All Right, The Artistic Cast
Saturday, October 15, 2011 at 10:00PM 
Animation Magazine suggests that if the Czech Republic's Alois Nebel (recently submitted for Oscar's foreign language film race) also enters the Animated Feature race there might be over 16 eligible films and then that category could expand to five nominees. Christ, of all years to have enough films for a 5 wide race, this is not the year! That would probably mean that Pixar's Cars 2 got a nomination and who can live with that? NOT I! Can anyone even name 2 animated films that deserve to call themselves "Best Feature" this year? If Best Picture had the same ratio of release to nominees the Best Picture shortlist would be like 150 movies long. And the foreign language film nominees would total like 20. Seriously, the Oscar rules on the animated feature category are an unholy mess!
Whew, with that off my chest -- sorry, I h-a-t-e-d Cars 2 -- Happier things now!
Deadline I keep forgetting to mention this and I'm sure you already know but they're turning The Kids Are All Right into a TV series. On the one hand TV series thrive on character you'd like to spend lots of time with and on that front it's a total winning idea. On the other hand the movie thrived on how succinctly it captured one crucial timeframe (the summer before college which is a universal Important Time Frame for families when it happens) and plus, how the hell you gonna replace 3 of the best adult actors on the planet and 2 of the most promising teen actors on the planet?
Frankly My Dear... thinks that either Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained or Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby will have to move away from Christmas Day 2012. I dunno. Didn't Gangs of New York and Catch Me If You Can open right on top of one another for Christmas 2002? It worked out for both those films. Maybe the general public is okay with Leonardo DiCaprio double features.
The Lost Boy says the smartest thing we've heard said about the This Means War trailer. But maybe you should watch it before clicking over.
Broadway Blog reminds us that "Celebrity Autobiography is back for another season in NYC. In the show famous comedic celebrities read verbatim from the bios of famous self serious celebrities. I must go.
Twitch reminds me that I really should probably see Trespass even though the review is scathing and everyone agrees that it's a terrible movie. I keep putting it off but there is the Nicole Kidman Mandatoryness of it. What to do... what to do...
THE ARTIST TEAM: star Jean DuJardin, director Michel Hazanavicious, and the cast: Bejo, Miller, Grant and Cromwell
The Hairpin talks to character actress Beth Grant (who doubts your commitment to Sparkle Motion). I don't know if you were aware but Beth Grant is in the upcoming Oscar contender The Artist. She has a teensy tiny role in the excellent black and white / silent movie but at the press conference that followed its screening this past Friday, she made no bones about her excitement, calling it the pinnacle of her career even after name-checking No Country For Old Men, Rain Man and Donnie Darko. In short, she's totally besotted with it. A feeling that's easy to come by, actually.
If you believe the theory that SAG Ensemble Nominations go to The Movie That Actors Most Wish They Could Have Been In rather than the movies with the most ensembley of acting (DuJardin and Bejo totally hog this film) than this will be one of your five SAG Ensemble Nominees come January.
Reader Comments (12)
Catch Me If You Can came out in 2002 , so unless movie goers could time travel 2 years on Christmas, the movies weren't stacked against each other. =)
I think you meant Gangs of New York and Catch Me If You Can
BETH GRANT IS IN THE ARTIST???? How is this the first time I'm hearing about it? I love her, I'm in love with her, she's incredible. Not just in Donnie Darko or No Country for Old Men, but in Sordid Lives, Speed, Little Miss Sunshine....
I wonder... what percentage of the Animated Oscar branch has ties to Pixar. I've been wondering if cronyism would get Cars 2 into the nominees list no matter what. If that were the case, a Top 5 would make it worth it.
And who knows-- maybe Alois Nebel, Tintin, and Arthur Christmas are actually good... maybe.
that 5 slots should open for last year. This year I only like Rango and Winnie The Pooh.
Jean DuJardin looks good on red carpet. Wanna see him more.
yeah Gangs of New York and Catch Me If You Can had 5 days between them in 2002.
seeking & pike -- oopsie. sorry. my brain. it was GANGS & CATCH ME. so i've fixed the post. what i was basically trying to say is its not the first christmas with two oscar seeking Leonardo DiCaprio movies in competition.
I may be alone in this but am glad to see fade-fast early 90s phenom Penelope Ann Miller resurface -- she was delightful in The Freshman and The Shadow -- although that washed-out Heigl look does her no favors. I can't wait to see The Artist!
And, oh Reese, now is not the time in her film career to make haphazard script choices. (This Means War sounds TERRIBLE.)
I love your new name for the SAG ensemble, "The Movie That Most Actors Wish They Could Have Been In". Actually, I think that's a better way of looking at it. If you ask what's best, people kind of huff and puff, but ask what you would have died to have a part in, there's no hesitation.
I like that James Cromwell is in The Artist. One of the Artist's themes (?) is about weathering the changes in the movie business. Consider how movies have changed during Cromwell's career. I saw him recently in a 1950s Fred Astaire movie, where he was one of the dancers in the chorus. That he could have started in that genre and kept working for decades, is pretty impressive. I particularly loved his evil turn in LA Confidential.
As an aside, The Artist made me want to see James Cromwell play a dopey character. He's so good, but he usually plays these regal, classy, seemingly intelligent characters. What little there was of him in The Artist has me convinced that if he played a vulnerable old man, he'd be a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination.
@ Mareko: You're not the only one, I'm glad to see PAM back, too (what the hell happened to her career?) She looks so much like Marilyn Monroe in that photo, though, it's not even funny. (the resemblance is much closer than that of Michelle Williams IMO.)
And I love me some Beth Grant so this just ups my enthusiasm for The Artist, although I wish her role were not a tiny one.
@ Nathaniel: But if you see Trespass then you can write up one of your extremely funny and scathing bad movie reviews. And I could certainly use the laughs. (Not that I would want that to prevent you from more important work, like updating the Moulin Rou.....oh, never mind.)
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