With apologies to Nate Silver…
I’m still not over the presidential elections… so in that spirit, our first ever national critics map. I’ve broken up California and Texas. If anyone is feeling that part of their state is being misrepresented, feel free to speak up and I will address it in the next edition.
Anyone who is wanting to put in claims about which state is leaning which way is also welcome to voice that opinion.
amit on: Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
Christian on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: Review: Marriage Story (spoilers only in the broadest sense)
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
YancySkancy on: Review: Little Women (no spoilers)
Hcat on: Why You Should Be Afraid Of The End Of The Paramount Decree
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: I Should Be Doing Box Office
Review: Little Women (no spoilers)
Why You Should Be Afraid Of The End Of The Paramount Decree
Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
Review: Marriage Story (spoilers only in the broadest sense)
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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
Unskewed polls says Last Once of Courage and The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure are clearly going to carry the day. You say tomato, I say a joke from 2 months ago.
In case of ambiguity …
Argo: Florida, Oklahoma, Phoenix, San Diego, St. Louis
Zero Dark Thirty: Austin, Chicago, New York, Utah, plus also Washington DC (not shown on map), Boston (not shown on map)
Lincoln: Dallas/Fort Worth
Silver Linings Playbook: Detroit
The Master: San Francisco, Kansas City (shown as Kansas on map)
Safety Not Guaranteed: Indiana
Amour: Los Angeles
Life of Pi (assigned a yellowish-green color on map, but not labeled in legend): Las Vegas
Nevada Film Critics Society today went with Argo, so I guess just the Vegas section should be assigned Life of Pi.
Anybody else think Reacher would have opened bigger with the Rock in the lead instead of Cruise? That casting also would have been a little closer to how he’s portrayed in the book. To me this was a tone deaf attempt at box office pandering, ala casting Tyler Perry in Alex Cross, and it failed miserably. I saw the trailer and a couple of people in the audience said, “when is he gonna give it up?”
The South Carolina Pee Dee Critics Association* gave it on the first ballot to Skyfall.
*covers the Florence-Myrtle Beach metro corridor, including Lake City and Olanta
Yeah, “Jack Reacher” is a tremendous movie and like other people in here, the “Jack Reacher” trailer played great in my “Skyfall” screening.
What the hell is in the water in Indiana? I mean, cute movie and all, but in what universe is “Safety” a contender for any critics’ award?
Ditto how I feel about SLP.
Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, Texas and Utah all agree on Zero Dark Thirty being Best Picture. If that’s not a bipartisan collection, then Doctor Who shouldn’t have bothered forestalling our Mayan Apocalypse.
I concur with the WTF responses to “Safety”. If not for Aubrey Plaza I would’ve considered it a waste of my time and $1.20 rental fee. But it was still terribly predictable and I decided halfway through that a) we will see a time machine at the end, and b) it will work, for one simple reason: the machine’s creator was portrayed as “Hollywood crazy”, meaning cute and quirky and easy to like, as opposed to “bag lady crazy”, where you just want to run away from this horrific beast while trying without success to scrub their insane ramblings from your brain.