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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

BYOB 12613

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29 Responses to “BYOB 12613”

  1. michaelstublebubletubledubler says:

    Would anyone else consider Gerwig’s lack of an acting nod at the indie spirits a snub?

  2. YancySkancy says:

    michael, etc.: Sometimes it’s just how the numbers work out. FRANCES HA got two nominations: Best Feature and Best Editing. It hardly stands to reason that the voters thought it was a great movie, but didn’t care for the contributions of its lead actress and director, who also co-wrote the film. What’s the implied dig here? “To show our contempt for you, we’ll nominate your film for Best Feature, but snub you in your individual categories. MUAHAHAHAHA!!!”

  3. EtGuild2 says:

    The love for “Crystal Fairy” kinda shocks me. I liked it, but awards worthy? Uhh…are the Spirit people partaking with Michael Cera? Gaby Hoffman over Gerwig is a bit of a slap at Gerwig to me, especially once you realize the men had 6 nominees and the women only 5.

  4. scooterzz says:

    i’m pretty much okay with the spirit noms but a little surprised/dismayed by the general dismissal of ‘short term 12’….

    and on a completely unrelated subject, a group of us just watched ‘saving mr. banks’ and, in our tryptophanic stupor, all agree that emma thompson is a shoe-in for an oscar nomination (tom hanks: not so much)……

  5. movieman says:

    Am I in the minority thinking that “Blue is…” (which I finally had the chance to see this week) didn’t really need its “controversial” sex scenes?
    I was also a little puzzled by the shocked reaction to said scenes.
    Critics who described them as “hardcore” apparently have never seen an actual porno film. (Or Chereau’s “Intimacy,” Oshima’s “In the Realm of the Senses” or “Winterbottom’s “9 Songs” for that matter.)
    There aren’t any gynecological close-ups, no shots of tongues penetrating vaginas/anuses, etc.
    I thought the film was pretty great overall: it’s one of the truest, most touching stories of finding (and losing) love I’ve ever seen, and the two lead performances are tremendous.
    But the sex scenes (which ARE explicit if hardly “pornographic”) felt like an unnecessary distraction. Or maybe it was just their duration that seemed gratuitous.
    Again, am I the only one who had the same reaction?

  6. scooterzz says:

    no, you’re not alone (for once…lol)…. i was kinda shocked at how not shocked i was…
    that said, it sounds like you liked it more than i did…frankly, i wasn’t terribly impressed…

  7. Mariamu says:

    No.

  8. Hcat says:

    While Gerwig didn’t get a spirit nom isn’t she a likely candidate for a golden globe mention in comedy? i would think Julia Dreyfus is a lock, someone from Osage county, and then Hudson? (Though the reviews I have read have been terrible) Unless there is a double nomination for the Heat ladies it seems there is plenty of room for Gerwig.

  9. movieman says:

    Can someone explain why/how “Black Nativity” is tanking?
    It looked like a slam-dunk on paper: the star of “The Butler;” a
    church-y, holiday-themed film marketed to an underserved urban audience; Jennifer Hudson singing; Angela Bassett in a lead role.
    What am I missing here? How could this have bombed so badly?
    Anybody have any theories?
    Personally, I think Weinstein jumped the gun w/ “Philomena” and should have probably waited a few weeks (or longer: maybe even after the Oscar nominations were announced) to go as wide-ish as they did this Wednesday.
    Could wind up being a rare critical error in judgment for the almighty awards guru Harvey.

  10. glamourboy says:

    People keep trying to make Gerwig a THING, but like the word FETCH in Mean Girls…it’s just not happening.

  11. berg says:

    any civilian can vote for the Spirit Awards, all you have to do is pay their annual dues of $95, you can join by Dec 6 (Am Ex, Discover, Visa or MC) and vote this year … a real list of indie film nominees would read something like Sightseers, The Angels’ Share, We Steal Secrets, Dirty Wars, Zero Charisma, et al. ….

  12. Bulldog68 says:

    In the daily battle of the box office Catching Fire is ahead of Iron Man 3 by $9m after 7 days, after opening to $16m less. Wow.

  13. movieman says:

    “Homefront” isn’t bad.
    Franco and Bosworth are actually pretty good, and it’s got some nice local (Louisiana) flavor.
    Statham has done a lot worse.
    A LOT worse.
    The ‘plex I saw it at today was mobbed, but everyone was going to either (a) “Frozen;” or (b) “Catching Fire.”
    Crickets for everything else.

  14. scooterzz says:

    does james franco now hold the record for the most features released by one filmmaker in a calendar year? imdb lists 11 and i know i’ve seen 8….. seems like a tough record to beat….

  15. movieman says:

    I trust you’re including the (4, right?) 2013 films he directed or co-directed, Scooter.
    Franco’s truly the hardest working man in show business.
    I get tired just reading his credits.

  16. Joe Leydon says:

    Well, as an actor, I doubt even James Franco could match Ice-T’s record back in the day when he was cranking out made-for-video flicks back to back. LOL.

  17. scooterzz says:

    i was including franco’s work as a filmmaker/actor in features (didn’t include his tv stuff) and he still trumps anyone i can find (including ice-t)….remember, he also appeared in many of the things he directed….

  18. scooterzz says:

    but, that said, factor in tv appearances in the comedy central roast and the mindy show and, movieman nailed it with ‘the hardest working man in show business’….

  19. movieman says:

    Franco was great on “The Mindy Project.”
    He deserves Emmy recognition for his guest appearances.

  20. EtGuild2 says:

    @Scooterzz depends on if you count festival openings/don’t count theatrical opening from fests last year. Otherwise Franco really “only” has 8 this year.

    “Black Nativity” is so batshit crazy that maybe it turned audiences off? I enjoyed it…the most bizarre wide release in months. Kasi Lemmons’ features are always fun, but never make any money.

  21. arisp says:

    Watched Blue Jasmin last night. I don’t see how Blanchett can lose the best actress award this year. Her performance was brutally real and searing.

  22. movieman says:

    “Black Nativity” is so batshit crazy that maybe it turned audiences off?

    I agree that it’s wack-a-doodle nutty, Et (which is part of its charm).
    But how did prospective auds know that??
    The trailers/TV spots make it look like a warm-and-fuzzy, church-centric, urban Yuletide lollapalooza.
    …with music and revered A-A actors like Forest Whitaker (coming off “The Butler,” no less) and Angela Bassett, too.

  23. EtGuild2 says:

    My guess is that they knew most urban audiences would find it too out there, so they just didn’t market it. Or perhaps Searchlight, as evidence by “Baggage Claim,” really doesn’t know how to target black audiences. Of course, none of us are the target audience so who knows?

  24. movieman says:

    You could be right about Searchlight not knowing how to properly market films to black auds.
    As far as I’m concerned, they even fumbled the release of “movie-of-the-moment” “12 Years.”
    It’s barely holding onto screens in non-major markets where it’s essentially played out.
    I think they should have held it until mid-November, and not gone wide until the Oscar nominations were announced in January.
    It worked for “The Descendants” and “Sideways.”

  25. Triple Option says:

    movieman wrote:
    Can someone explain why/how “Black Nativity” is tanking?
    It looked like a slam-dunk on paper: the star of “The Butler;” a church-y, holiday-themed film marketed to an underserved urban audience; Jennifer Hudson singing; Angela Bassett in a lead role.”

    I kinda feel like you answered your own question. I’ve not heard/read any specific feedback re: quality or awareness but it just seems so generic. It’s like the studios don’t even care. “Just throw a buncha Black people on the one sheet. Have it set it a church. Get Jennifer Hudson to sing. And boom.”

    I’m pretty sure I saw a trailer for it a while back but there was nothing it in to make it distinguishable. I suppose Black musicals set in churches could be a separate genre or category like mobsters or buddy cop films but from the limited marketing I’ve seen it seems like it’s something I could just as easily catch by accident, flipping by TNT or Hallmark Channel. I suppose most people see a rom com based on who’s in it and not the plot or premise but if marketing doesn’t try to make it more intriguing than a BeBe & CeCe Winans Christmas special, I think it’s gonna get passed over.

  26. movieman says:

    Got a chance to see “Am. Hustle” today, and thought it was spectacularly entertaining.
    It’s like a great Scorsese movie (“Good Fellas” in particular), but w/ beefier female roles, a shorter run time and no Rolling Stones on the soundtrack.
    Everyone in the cast is tremendous, but special props to Jennifer Lawrence who richly deserved her NYFCC Best Supporting Actress prize.
    How ironic that audiences will have a choice of 2 “Scorsese Movies” this Xmas–“WOWS,” the actual Scorsese movie, being the other.

  27. EtGuild2 says:

    It’ll be her or Nyong’o most likely, who I loved despite having some reservations about SLAVE.

  28. Sam says:

    Is it just me or are the NBR picks shockingly interesting? This is an organization notorious for pandering to celebrities to get them to their banquet, and for trying to be the FIRST!! to call the Oscar races.

    Then they pick “Her” for Best Film instead of a more likely Oscar winner, refuse awards for the star-laden American Hustle across the board, and award actors like Bruce Dern and Will Forte.

    Would have thought that the NBR slate would ever feel more the product of genuine independent thought than the NYFCC picks?

  29. YancySkancy says:

    I still haven’t seen most of the likely Oscar nominees, but I’m surprised the NBR chose Octavia Spencer. She’s fine in the role, but it’s not a very “award baity” one.

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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