I watched about half of the ceremony and found it pretty tolerable compared to recent years. I guess it helps to have a good host.

I guess it isn't enough that the Academy could barely tolerate The Brutalist (kidding aside, it did have important wins for Cinematography and Music), but now people seem determined to find some very petty ways to hate on Adrien Brody for winning Actor.  Yes, he did apparently break the record for acceptance speech, well over five minutes, but, so what?  Some are even trying to blame Brody's expense of time for those Hulu viewers who got shut out before the final awards, even though this was clearly a problem with Hulu's poor service instead.  Worse than that, some people are criticizing Brody for "thanking Harvey Weinstein's children".  To be clear, Brody has been in a long term relationship with Georgina Chapman, who is Weinstein's ex-wife and mother of his two children.  Brody was thanking these children who he is now raising, and who now touchingly refer to him as "Popsie".  I don't think you can find a better example of motivated outrage than this.

Or maybe you can.  Because some people are also outraged that, taking the stage, Brody made the somewhat anxious decision to toss his chewing gum back to Chapman, who followed behind him to catch it.  I guess you could ask, "Why not put it in your pocket?"  I don't know, I guess them tuxes have a hefty security deposit?  Whatever.  Chapman didn't see very concerned about of any of this, but plenty of people have taken vicarious offence on her behalf, with the Daily Mail calling it a "disgusting act", and some even claiming it was worse than Will Smith's slap.

I guess some people really didn't like The Brutalist.
 

Rock wrote:

(the use of AI in the production)

Talk about a total non-issue.  A failure to discern between A.I. as a tool to aid the artist's vision, as opposed to a generative replacement of artists.  Whenever A.I. is mentioned, people presume it must always mean the latter, and for good reason there's valid anxieties about this.  (The LA Times just announced an A.I. fact-checking program after laying off hundreds of employees.)

The A. I. in Brutalist was an audio filter meant to help shape the Hungarian accents, and had no bearing on the performances - especially Brody's.  It's similar to Peter Jackson using A.I. filters to clean up the Get Back soundtrack tapes, or clean up the poorly recorded Lennon demo "Now and Then".  It did not create any new art on its own, only aided the artists' creation.  And for that they're prepared to throw a film under the bus which is fundamentally about the struggles of an artist's integrity in the face of commerce and industry?

And just 'cause I'm worked up now, I also gotta mention - the sex scene in Brutalist (the good one, not that other one) is much sexier than anything in Anora.

Rock wrote:

Different than a big budget movie trying to cut corners and avoid hiring people, IMO.

Also for a film with a less than $10 million budget, a 3 1/2 hour film that looks as good as this one, and shot on film no less, you know, let it slide.

The 2025 Cannes Fesitval is a couple of weeks away, and the line-up appears to be close to final.  The only missing slots seem to be the "classic" restorations to be screened.  Queen Juliette Binoche will be presiding over the jury, which raises the obvious question over why she hasn't been in charge this whole time.

I won't pretend to hide my bias that the main highlight will be Wes Anderson's premiere of his Phoenician Scheme.  I mean, I would be happy to be more open-minded, if anyone wants to offer me some free passes with airfare, swag and accommodations, but for the time being I'll be ruthlessly rooting for The Wesman.  Other Mericans on the list include Richard Linklater's Nouvelle Vague, his dramatic re-enactment of the filming of Godard's A bout de souffle (with Zoey Deutch as Jean Seberg), Ari Aster's Covid-Western Eddington, and Kelly Reichardt's art heist The Mastermind.  A late addition to the competition is Lynne Ramsay's Die, My Love, a post-partum "dark comedy" (which coming from Ramsay will either be a sigh of relief or not really funny at all) with Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson.  Here's hoping for a Mother! Redux.  A new film from Julia Ducournau, Alpha, about a "troubled 13-year-old" whose "world collapses the day she returns from school with a tattoo", which again seems like a severe de-escalation from the adolescent crises of her previous Raw and Titane.  Also new films from the Dardennes, Joachim Trier and Jafar Panahi (out of jail and still pissing off Iranian authorites with his illegally shot movies).

Out of competition, Spike Lee will debut his newest film, his first from A24, and the first with Denzel Washington in nearly 20 years, a remake of Kurosawa's High and Low, which he idiotically decided to call Highest 2 Lowest .  C'mon, man.  You could have gone back to the original book, King's Ransom, for a better title than that.  Ethan Coen's Honey Don't will get a midnight screening.  Also, will see the premiere of Juno Mak's action-thriller Sons of the Neon Night which has been sitting on Hong Kong mothballs for 7 years.

Also premiering are some directing debuts from popular actresses like Kristen Stewart, Scarlett Johansson and Harris Dickinson, as well as new documentaries from Andrew Dominik (on Bono, which I'll only watch because of Dominik, although I prefer the alternate titled suggested by Bono: Tall Tales of a Short Rock Star) and Raoul Peck (Lumumba, I Am Not Your Negro, Exterminate the Brutes) on Orwell 2X2=5.  A new cartoon, A Magnificent Life, from Sylain Chomet (Triplets of Belleville, L'Illusionnist).  Plus new films from Christian Petzold, Sebastian Lelio and Lav Diaz with a new take on Magellan starring Gael Garcia Bernal.  Diaz will only screen a three hour cut of the film at Cannes, but fret not, he's saving a 9-hour cut for a sequel Beatriz, the Wife (*not joking*).
 

Also, some of the pressers of interest....
















 

Toronto is opening tomorrow (anyone got tickets?), and I'm not sure from the categories what is and isn't in competition, but among the above Venice films which will also be screened are No Other Choice, Dead Man's Wire, Frankenstein, The Smashing Machine, The Wizard of the Kremlin, Cover Up and Landmarks.

From the earlier Cannes festival: Palm d'Or winner It Was Just an Accident, Eleanor the Great (Scarlett Johansson's directing debut), The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, Sirat, Sound of Falling, Orwell 2+2=5 (a doc from Raoul Peck, who previously made I Am Not Your Negro) and Magellan (Lav Diaz).  Also from Cannes, Richard Linklater's Nouvelle Vague, as well as an additional new Linklater film, Blue Moon.  As Vague is a dramatic rendition of the making of Godard's Breathless, Blue Moon recreates the night of the opening of the musical Oklahoma, and has Hart (Ethan Hawke), of Rodgers & Hart after being replaced with Rodgers & Hammerstein, in a drunken state of creative crisis.

Other films of note:

John Candy: I Like Me - (a doc which opens the festival, directed by Colin Hanks)
Glenrothan - (Brian Cox's directing debut - a "love letter to Scotland")
Good Fortune - (Aziz Ansari comedy with Keanu Reeves as a beneficent angel)
Hamnet - Chloe Zhao's period piece about Shakespeare and wife - Paul Mescal and Jesse Buckley - and their ill-fated son)
The Christophers - (Steven Soderbergh's newest "black comedy")

Some other directors, some of whom we haven't heard from in a while: Derek Cianfrance's first in a decade Roofman, his first comedy; Alejandro Amenabar's The Captive about Cervantes' time as a prisoner where he looks way too sexy for either one of those things; David Michod's Christy, in the recent vogue of boxing movies; Claire Denis' The Fence; Agnieszka Holland's Franz about Kafka; Christian Petzoid's Miroirs No. 3; Ben Wheatley's Normal, his first after making....The Meg 2?

You Had To Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution has exactly the kind of hyperbolic bullshit name which turns me off of so many modern documentaries, but it does focus on the rather fascinating 1972 production of Godspell which saw the likes of young talent like Martin Short, Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Paul Schaffer and Howard Shore and many other Second City/SNL alums.  Whether or not this amounts to "igniting a revolution" is up to your credulity, since Second City was already a comedy institution at this point, and exactly where and how we decide to draw the confines of this particular "revolution" in a comedy world where Pryor, Carlin, Tomlin, Klein, Steinberg and Monty Python were already killing it.  Let's just say that this production of Godspell is well worth a documentary without having to make-believe that it was the biggest greatest thing ever.

Other than that, I'm sure there are a couple dozen other films which are under my radar.  There's definitely more than a few that I will be trying to miss (mostly American).  I'm not sure what else.  Two Pianos has both Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Charlotte Rampling, and so that's enough for me.

 

Toronto is done, with Hamnet taking the top prize and del Toro's Frankenstein behind it.

If Rock doesn't mind, I'll link his list of viewings, as he was the only one privileged to attend.  And most of these films were not really on my radar.  I see where at least two films, Obsession and The Furious, came away with Midight Madness prizes.  And sorry to hear that you weren't so hot on Wizard of the Kremlin.  I was hoping that Jude Law could overcome the cuckitude of Paul Dano.
 

Talk about catching the big fish.

No matter who won or not, was there a happier man at this year's Emmy's?
 

We recently got both the Critics Choice Awards and some released "shortlist" ballots of potential Oscar contenders.

It doesn't really shift the scales much but among some observations: the Critic Choice selections in their comedy categories are vastly superior to those we saw from the Golden Globes.  South Park won the CC Animated Series award, and wasn't even nominated by the GGs.  The CC noms for "comedy special" also thankfully ignored Bill Maher and Ricky Gervais for spots for Marc Maron and Sarah Silverman, but also allowing, as "special", this year's Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary which ended up winning, probably rightfully since it was indeed better than at least my own low expectations had anticipated.  Stephen Colbert really should have gotten the Talk Show award, just on general principles.  I saw some shmuck say that Colbert had the "2nd worst" year for a talk show host, to the briefly cancelled Jimmy Kimmel.  Kimmel, correct me if I'm wrong, still has a show though, right?  I think maybe Colbert deserves the purple heart here.

Also I have a hard disagree with Naked Gun winning for Comedy Film.  And not just because it beat out Phoenician Scheme (which is not exactly 'lol' funny or the funniest of Wes' more recent films), and, sure, there aren't a ton of readily available comedies out there of late, and American critics do not have the class to nominate Quentin Dupieux anytime soon.  Maybe The Monkey?  Just saying.  Here's my problem: there is absolutely no cultural necessity for a Naked Gun reboot in 2025, and the glaring reality is that the only reason why it was made is because of Hollywood's terminal addiction to IP-molestation.  I'll give an example.  What if, let's say, Seth Macfarlane, or anyone else, decided to make a ZAZ-inspired genre spoof of something which actually was culturally relevant in 2025, like perhaps the 'vengence-action-thriller'?  You could still have Liam Neeson, who could still play the stone-faced self-parody.  You could salvage most of the best laughs from Naked Gun - biting the barrel off the pistol in the John Wick-style fight; trying to find a bathroom during a car chase; etc.  But such a project also opens up a lot of possibilities to skewer things which would be more familiar to modern audiences than the standard police procedurals of the '70s being skewered in the original Police Squad.  The only disadvantage is that it would not have the benefit of a familiar IP.  This defines Hollywood's current creative exhaustion in a nutshell.

It could be argued that Jacob Elordi is the best thing about this year's Frankenstein, but, frankly, so what?  Benicio is still the man.  I honestly don't feel any of these nominations, even in technical spaces, for films like Frankenstein or F1.  Certainly not for things like Cinematography, Editing or Production Design.  I said in my Frankenstein review that I found the look of it "suffocatingly ostentatious", and I stand by that.  One look at those fake-ass wolves should disqualify it for Visual FX as well.  Wasn't it just a couple of years ago when all of the Netflix films, even worthy ones like Bardo and Blonde, were being stonewalled from any award consideration?  And am I the only one who thought all of the laudable aspects of F1 - the visceral kineticism - was better in Ford Vs Ferarri?  And with a better Christian Bale performance to boot?

I was happy to see that Nouvelle Vague made the Oscar shortlist for Cinematography, because its loving recreation of those early low-budget B&W French films should be given greater recognition.  And this isn't just the textural qualities, the grain and lighting contrast, but the handheld, the pans and swoops, the faux-documentary affect.  It's a longshot, but I hope its profile gets traction.  As for Linklater's other film, Blue Moon, I'm not going to waste a lot of energy hating on Ethan Hawke (I hope he doesn't win, but good for him), but I'm more concerned that there hasn't been more attention paid to its screenplay by Robert Kaplow which is what fully gives the life and flavor to the film.  Whether or not it could be considered original or adapted, because it apparently is based to some degree on some private letters, I would like to see as a serious contender.  It is truly one of the best scripts of the year that I've seen.  Definitely better than, say, Weapons.

I have yet to see Sentimental Value, but if it manages to get a slot as one of the Best Picture contenders, I think it should be omitted from the International category.  This has been an issue going back to Parasite, and I'm definitely excited to see more international films being competive at the Oscars, but I think that, across the board, Best Picture nominees should not be included in the International category, and this is especially true this year when there are a number of international films worthy of those few slots.  (I've also had a longtime irritation towards the 'one film per country' rule for the International category.)

I'm just saying.  If Will Tracy's script for Bugonia gets nominated for an Oscar, I implore someone to kidnap and shave the bastard.  Please.

It's a shame to see a decisive lack of mention of several favorite filmmakers - Jarmusch, Soderbergh, Ramsay, Reichardt, Aster, Song - who have had well-received (if occasionally controversial) film offerings this year.  Has Jennifer Lawrence lost her shine for her tumultous performance in Die My Love?  I hope not.  

I want to stress that I do try to see as many of the acclaimed films as possible from a given year, but I will allow a little bit of my own prejudice here.  I'm not going to promise anyone that I will see The Testament of Ann Lee.  It's not just because I don't really want to see a religious musical, per se.  Maybe it's that, unlike some of the critics currently praising the film, I have some familarity with the Shaker cult, and, um, I don't really want to see a celibate religious musical specifically.  I appreciate that if you repress all of your sexual desires and expressions that you might end up speaking in tongues and stuff, or as the poster says, "fearlessly feral", sure.  I'm just not buying whatever the film seems to be selling.  All I'll say is that it would be a shame if this film, or Amanda Seyfried playing the role of the sect's founder Ann Lee, manages to squeeze out Lawrence's more erotically honest performance.  I will be openly crying 'foul' on that.