I skip blogging about the Oscars for one year, and this happens? This has been the news all day. Not Ukraine, not Coronavirus. Twitter glommed onto this like a starving man set loose in a donut factory. So did I. Ever since I heard about it this morning (I didn’t watch the telecast, because of… Read More Will Smith is Not Okay
I may have made fun of it a while back, but honestly, I don’t hate the concept. I might scope it if it rolls through one of the apps I have. I cannot, however, promise that I will do that. Movies in this era are largely an individualized aesthetic exercise, not a community one. The… Read More Maybe I’ll see Nomadland, Maybe I Won’t
I don’t care how dead the horse; I’m gonna beat it more. Observe the nominees for Best Picture: The Father: Someone feeds Anthony Hopkins from his gruel bowl for two hours. Feels ensue. Judas and the Black Messiah: Did you Know that the FBI infiltrated groups hostile to the United States Government? I am shocked,… Read More Let Us Now Tap-Dance on the Grave of the Oscars
I have no intention of watching the Oscars (although my wife might persuade me to hate-watch them), but I’m curious to see if I can call these shots with any accuracy using my default cynicism as a guidepost. With each category, I’m going to call make a Probable Prediction, and a Sleeper Prediction. I’m not… Read More Not Everyone Gets a Statue: Oscar 2019 Predictions
A little under a year ago, I fisked a Variety article written about the day after last year’s Oscars. My purpose was to make fun of Variety’s substanceless click-bait, but as it evolved, I emitted a handful of sneering predictions. Which is to say, inasmuch as I participated in the anticipation of a program I… Read More How Good Were My Year-Old Oscar Predictions?
So Sayeth Variety: Another option being tossed around is not having any host at all, but rather “a bunch of huge celebs, something ‘SNL’ style, and buzzy people” to keep the show moving, the insiders said. A stunt like a group monologue was floated, one source added. What’s interesting, aside from the nap I’m going to… Read More And Now The Oscars Might Have No Host At All…
So here’s how the Kevin Hart thing went down: The Academy (whoever they are) offers a comedian a job being meh funny for a few hours while pretty people in gowns walk across the stage to announce other pretty people in gowns and then give each other shiny statues. Activists on Twitter (whoever they are) digs… Read More Do the Oscars Really Need a Host?
No, really. This is a real article. In this week’s edition of the Variety Movie Commercial Tracker, powered by the TV advertising attention analytics company iSpot.tv, Universal Pictures claims the top spot in spending with “First Man.” Is there some kind of contest for this? An award? Is there a reason I should devote a single brain cell… Read More “First Man” has a Lot of Advertising, and Variety Thinks That’s Worth Knowing
I don’t care about the Oscars. I didn’t watch them, and haven’t for some years. I don’t require some Star Chamber of Weinstein-enablers to direct my tastes in cinema. I noticed the article because it let the mask slip: there’s a formula to all this nonsense, and there’s been a formula for some time: there’s… Read More Variety Starts Telling Us What Movies We Should Care About Next Year: A Fisking
This episode of the Podcast was recorded the night of the Iowa Caucuses, but my opinions on the possibility Trump/Sanders matchup has not changed. I also rant for a bit about the Oscars. Listen below, or go here to listen on Podbean, and here for iTunes.
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