Yes… it’s that time again… and NBR still loves having dinner with celebrities they pretty much know will be in the awards race…
That said, I have to admit, it’s a lot more like HFPA whoring this time… no really extreme missteps just to get celebs to show.
Notably left out were Before The Devil Knows You
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20 Weeks To Oscar: Rush To Poor Judgment?
20 Weeks Extra: Could There Be One More Turn?
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
The Bucket List a top 10 movie? Call me skeptical. I didn’t see Jesse James, but the rest of the list I don’t really have any arguements with.
I haven’t seen all of the top ten, but like my top ten (so far) I’ve got both Assassination and Bourne there…
I’m pretty skeptical about The Bucket List though. I suppose that they want Jack to show up.
I know that there are places on the net that don’t think much of the NBR. But I do recall the NBR was the first group to see through the Dreamgirls hype, leaving Dreamgirls off its top ten list. This was at a time when some “experts” were still predicting a Dreamgirls Oscar BP win.
Bzzzt!
Cute, Roxane… but bullshit.
Didn’t Ellen Page rather conspicuously “break through” last year, courtesy of HARD CANDY and X3?
Also:
She needs to be more hot.
“NBR is truly irrelevant, except as copy.”
Sorry but that’s idiotic.
Please explain the significant import of NBR, Zimmergirl.
Who do you think it influences?
Who do you think will be talking about it in 10 days?
How much influence can a group that offers 20 films as “Best” be seen to be? Do you really think that No Country’s position has anything to do with NBR?
I mean, I know people in here like to tell me that I am being too severe by saying just how irrelevant NBR is… but no one seems willing or able to argue who and how it influences… other than to say it gets media attention.
Maybe they’re relevent for Ben Affleck who probably won’t be a big feature of the awards campaign. Or they’re relevent to the editors of Bourne who may get some attention because it can be deemed top ten worthy.
For me though it’s not that you don’t like the NBR – they are frivilous and silly – but, as you say, they gave their acting awards to none of the leading contenders of the categories. No Marion, No Johnny or Daniel, no Cate and no Javier. They may not be “relevent” to the Oscars but, as you yourself has said before, nothing is relevent to the Oscars anymore. Not even the Globes. So why fight it?
A quick look at the last 20 years reveals that the NBR has picked the eventual best picture winner 6 times, while the NY and LA critics have picked it only twice each.
I have absolutely no idea if Oscar voters pay attention to any of the above, but the numbers suggest NBR shouldn’t necessarily be ignored (anymore than the others).
“A big change from the good ol’ days, when The Weinsteins owned this group.”
Yes, but their former company has three films very well represented: No Country for Old Men, Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and Gone Baby Gone. Go Miramax!
I was a bit surprised to see I’m Not There get nothing whatsoever. I thought the ensemble prize was it’s for the taking.
Well, gee, David — NBR must be important because you devote so much space to it. Every year. Every single freakin’ year.
And I’ll go way out on a limb year to predict that, 10 days from now, we’ll still see the winners trumpeting their triumphs in advertisements.
Joe, Heat needs someone to fight. He has his game face on, a pimp ass gold chain, and he’s looking for an OSCAR FIGHT! Tom O’Neil better watch out. HE BETTER WATCH OUT!