December is a bear, isn't it? It just keeps on coming at you and more intense as it goes, too. We're so far behind, we're just going to do this with no structure and no editing. Here is a list of lots of news-items or curiousities that are probably worthy of their own articles but they aren't going to get them! We need a big staff (now seeking volunteers!) Okay, here we go...
• Sasha at Awards Daily has a good piece on what the SAG noms tell us and why they're so populist. Sasha and I disagree quite a lot when it comes to Oscar's schedule. She always deems the move from March or April to February a terrible thing but I personally love it. Listen, all changes have bright and shadow sides. The shadow side IS, as she states, that voters have less time to change course which makes coming up from behind more difficult. The bright side is that there is far less qualifying-release or barely released in the calendar year shenanigans than there used to be and I'll personally take that trade off every time. I love that more people can see contenders from October through December instead of January through March like they used to. Statistically non December releases are doing much better than they used to in the days of the March/April shows. If that means Beale Street or The Post last year have more trouble than expected, so be it. Nobody is making movies choose these late December bows -- they're doing it to themselves!
• The team at Balder & Dash (at RobertEbert.com) have compiled a group top ten list with the obligatory auteur worship included (The Coen Bros, Alfonso Cuarón) as well as some of this year's ballsiest efforts (BlacKkKlansman, Sorry to Bother You, First Reformed). You know, the usual... but lots of good writeups, including a beautiful ode to If Beale Street Could Talk. I've had to chalk this film up as 'the one that got away' this year. I've tried twice and I'm heartbroken about it but I just don't feel anything about the central couple so the movie is, for me, a gorgeous failure. I agree (because I have eyes) that James & Layne are impossibly beautiful but the romance is a blank. I need more chemistry, the kind which struggles to emerge from repetitive adoring stares. Love everything that surrounds the couple though. The supporting cast and the craft displayed are wondrous!
• Also in Top Ten land the New York Times critics, Manolha Dargis and A.O. Scott have released their top ten lists. Manohla's top five are all foreign films and both lists share several titles (which is common among coworkers as we've noticed with top ten lists at various sites)
© Michael Kovacs
• Chris Pratt recently hosted an evening in honor of A Quiet Place. The Film Experience is headquartered in NYC so we dont get to many LA events (still looking for more LA team members) but it seems like there have been quite a few of these. Paramount is really trying so I suspect A Quiet Place might end up with a nomination or four. Though I do not think we'll see it in supporting actress as with SAG. My hope is that enough people scoff at that ridiculous category placement to make a fifth slot surprise just a bridge too far.
• We forgot to mention the AACTA Awards, Australia's cinematic and TV arts awards. They're now in their 8th year. Sweet Country won Best Film and several other prizes and Jirga won Best Indie Film. Boy Erased, was also a favourite with multiple nominations and won two major prizes: Best Supporting Actress for our beloved Nicole Kidman and Best Adapted Screenplay for Joel Edgerton (who was also nominated for directing). On the TV side of things the miniseries/telefilm favorites were programs called Mystery Road (starring Judy Davis!), Riot, and Picnic at Hanging Rock. And another one with an international profile: Hannah Gadsby won Best Comedic Performance for her concert film Nanette.
• While Netflix doesn't release their shows ratings or the movies box office results (on the rare occassion that they four wall a movie theater for them) they do still find ways to brag about their successes. Pictured above are the series that had the longest average viewing time in one sitting. This does not neccessarily mean that they were the most watched shows but of everything released this past year people found these ones addictive. I was wondering why Orange is the New Black was still on -- I haven't heard anyone in real life talk about that show for about 2 years now -- and here's why. People are still watching it in private even if it's no longer a "buzzy" public obsession. (I am, in theory, very against binge-watching because I've found I don't enjoy TV very much if I sit with the same show for more than 2 episodes at a time but I'll admit that I contributed to the numbers for Bodyguard! I watched it all in 3 nights which is a LOT for me.) As for movies, their most rewatched originals were The Kissing Booth and To All the Boys I've Loved Before. They don't release figures or any info at all about their non-originals because then they would presumably have to pay more for their contracts to other content providers if something was doing really well.
• Jordan Peele has been busy. The Oscar winning Get Out writer/director not only has that mysterious Us movie coming out in March -- the new poster is above though plot details are still virtually non-existent -- but he's also behind a new Nazi hunting TV series called The Hunt that will star Logan Lerman (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) whose name we haven't heart in a minute so that's exciting as he's a good young actor. So basically Peele likes titles that are impossible to google search because they seem so generic even if the work isn't generic at all in actuality.
• Finally there are two history pieces worth a look out there that I haven't made all the way through yet but I love this sort of thing. The AV Club dives deep into how the Captain America movies came to be and how miraculous they turned out given the hokier aspects of the character and The Hollywood Reporter has an oral history of another unlikely success, 1988's romcom classic Working Girl.
• Oh and Downton Abbey has a teaser now. My friend and I chortled that instead of star names at the end it lists character names. Lady Mary! Lord Grantham! Mrs Hughes! etcetera.