What's streaming in December? You know the drill by now. We pick two handfuls of titles and freeze them on the scroll bar at a random place (no cheating) and share what came up. Then we list the other titles streaming. Let's go.
Everybody has a Jaws story. Mostly you hear them from boys who took ownership of that summer as their fanboy nation origin story. But girls -- we were there, too.
Chris here. Looks like the sequel to 2013 surprise megahit (and famously troubled production) World War Z is finally a go - and just landed some major directorial heft. After many rumors of star Brad Pitt's wooing the director were shrugged off, David Fincher is signing on to the film.
Already some Fincher fans and stuffy types are turning up their noses at the news, but it is a potentially inspired choice...
Today's movie news offered questions and head scratchers more than usual. So I’ll present you with the questions and maybe you can help me with the answers. Or just join in the bewilderment:
• Why would David Fincher want to direct the sequel to World War Z? Obviously Pitt is a favorite of his but a sequel, really? Is this related to the fact that HBO passed on the two series he was developing for the past couple of years?
• How will Margot Robbie play 4 foot 9 trapeze artist Lillian Leitzel in Queen of the Air? Will they employ the inverse of whatever they did to make Meryl Streep taller in Julie and Julia (2009)?
• Do we care about the feud between The Rock and Vin Diesel? And doesn’t “candy ass” sound like a euphemism for something?
• What was the extent of Tony Kushner’s involvement in the script for Fences? It was always known that they were working from an August Wilson penned screenplay that both Kushner and Denzel Washington worked on polishing.
• And finally, if you've googled "Who is Awkwafina?" after the news broke out about the cast for Ocean's 8, here's a clue:
Screencapping fun! We've frozen early 2013 releases* at the 20th minute and 13th second of their running times. Here's what we found. How many of these have you seen and do you think this moment is telling of the whole?
I had been drunk just once twice in my life and the second time was that afternoon."
In case you are illiterate, Baz Luhrmann's got you covered in his version of The Great Gatsby! (He sure is good at shooting party sequences, though. No filmmaker can touch him in that ultra specific place.)
This next screencap I had to lighten a bit so you could actually see it... Bed sheets are being yanked down... but by what/who?
The Academy has named ten films finalists for the visual effects Oscar and now the branch members will screen 10 minute clip packages from each film and make their selections. Half of these films recede into the ether and the other half enters the history books as "Oscar Nominated" on January 16th, 2014.
the cavalry in Iron Man 3... soon to be Oscar nominated
I am clearly not adept at predicting the finalists because two of the film's I had actually predicted for nominations did not even make the list: say goodbye to the Man of Steel and Oz: The Great and Powerful. Other films that Oscar won't even be considering now for this prize include: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Conjuring and The Wolverine.
Each of the ten films listed above will be able to hide their clunkiest CGI and just show the really great stuff to the branch. Which films will be nominated and share the honor of losing to Gravity? Time will tell but it might be too steep a wall for World War Z to scale since Oscar doesn't like zombie flicks (in any category) and a bridge too far for Thor since he wasn't nominated last time around. Franchise history suggests that the crews on Iron Man 3 and The Hobbit can start fitting their tuxes. If we still had only 3 nominees in this category the nominees would be Gravity, The Hobbit and Iron Man 3. Which means there are essentially only two spots open. Any combo of the others seems possible which means we'll soon be haunted by this agonizing possibility: will The Lone Ranger be forevermore referred to as 'The Oscar-nominated The Lone Ranger'?)
A final tangential thought: I'm glad that we don't have bakeoffs and "showreels" for acting categories. Could you imagine? Not that greatest hits clips aren't how some people experience the acting nominees in the age of YouTube but you can't properly judge a whole unless you've seen all the parts. Even the lesser parts. Each of these ten films will be able to hide their clunkiest CGI and just show the really great stuff. Which films will be nominated and share the honor of losing to Gravity? Time will tell.
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 at 11:07PM 
