PGA Nominations: No Winter's Bone

And for best Pro Golfer the nomin--- er, oh yes yes.
The Producers Guild of America. Righty-o.

Best Picture
127 Hours Danny Boyle, Christian Colson
Black Swan Scott Franklin, Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver
Inception Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas
The Fighter David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman, Mark Wahlberg
The Kids Are All Right Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, Celine Rattray
The King's Speech Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin
The Social Network Dana Brunetti, Cean Chaffin, Michael De Luca, Scott Rudin
The Town Basil Iwanyk, Graham King
Toy Story 3 Darla K. Anderson
True Grit Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Scott Rudin

The snubbee here in terms of Oscar buzz is Winter's Bone. But it's a tiny indie and maybe that's not what the PGA wanted to value? Still it's absence reminds us that the Best Picture race, is really down to those 11 films. Last year, there were only about 12 films standing before Oscar nominations were announced. Is it always going to be this simple to predict with the new widened Best Picture field. If so, sadness. Predicting should be tougher. But at least it's tough to say which of the 11 is getting the Oscar boot.



I'm currently assuming that it's either 127 Hours or The Town on the outs come January 25th but who knows? Maybe it'll be something that breaks my heart more like The Kids Are All Right or --GASP-- how will the internet go on living if it's Inception? When there is just one too many strong precursor candidates in any category (see also supporting actress) sometimes the person/film left out is not the one everyone thought was most vulnerable.

Animated Pictures:
Despicable Me John Cohen, Janet Healy, Christopher Meledandri
How To Train Your Dragon Bonnie Arnold
Toy Story 3 Darla K. Anderson

Despicable Me eh? I guess you have to give the producers credit for how good that looked and how successful it was despite a budget that was far lower than most of the animated films that were hits this year.

Documentary Pictures:
Client 9 Awaiting final credit determination
Earth Made of Glass Reid Carolin, Deborah Scranton
Inside Job Charles Ferguson, Audrey Marrs
Smash His Camera Linda Saffire, Adam Schlesinger
The Tillman Story  John Battsek
Waiting For 'Superman' Lesley Chilcott

I'm proud of them for not restricting themselves to only Oscar finalists here. Though I still don't really get the enthusiasm for Client 9, Inside Job and Waiting For 'Superman'... as they seem to be such straightforward docs. I guess I'm drawn to more creative / surprising let's informational documentaries.

Episodic TV, Comedy
30 Rock
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Glee
Modern Family
The Office

Episodic TV, Drama
Breaking Bad
Dexter
Lost
Mad Men
True Blood

Longform TV
Murder on the Orient Express
Pillars of Earth
Temple Grandin
The Pacific
You Don't Know Jack

I sometimes have nightmares that in the year 2014 people will still be nominating Temple Grandin for prizes. Isn't that already like 3 years old?

NonFiction TV
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations
Deadliest Catch
Intervention
Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List
Undercover Boss

Live Entertainment and Competition TV
The Amazing Race
The Colbert Report
Project Runway
Real Time With Bill Maher
Top Chef

A Lisa Kudrow Binge

"I don't need to see that."

This week I accidentally binged on Lisa Kudrow.

I've usually enjoyed her comic movie roles (especially in the Don Roos films The Opposite of Sex and Happy Endings) though I was a little unnerved by what seemed to be an encroaching bitterness in her comic persona the last time couple of times we visited (Kabluey and Easy A). I was starting to miss "Phoebe"'s sunniness on early seasons of Friends.

But I had somehow never seen The Comeback (2005) which I watched this week (two episodes left... maybe I should save them). Its very brilliance probably doomed it as it's an exceedingly uncomfortable showbiz comedy. Its comic impulses have satiric bite... one might call it comedy with real fangs. I was squirming even while laughing loudly. Immediately after watching those I tried a few episodes of Web Therapy, which I am also super late to -- hey, I'm too busy with the movies-- and now I'm fully back on Team Kudrow which I had somehow slipped away from. I got so nostalgic for past Kudrow glory that I even ended up looking up what Jennifer Aniston & Courtney Cox were up to, which I assure you I have never purposefully done before, though I do watch and enjoy Cougar Town on occasion.

Kurdow laughing at Streep's guest
role antics on Web Therapy

It's fascinating that Kudrow's big fame began with such a naive neo-Bohemian persona as Phoebe Buffay and now she so eagerly conquers these self-lacerating or unlikeable characters... It's almost like she's been morphing over the year's from Phoebe to Phoebe's misanthropic twin Ursula. Remember her?

My point is this: Lisa Kudrow is talented and underappreciated, even if she's not exactly underrewarded - hello gazillion$ in Friends residuals. She's probably only less of a mainstream presence now because her preferred style of comedy is of the take-no-prisoners variety.

Here's the first of the three most recent episodes of Web Therapy (episode #46) which starred Meryl Streep (as "therapist" Camilla Bowner) who is doing reparative therapy on Fiona Wallice's (Lisa Kudrow's) gay husband. Wickedly subtle humor courses under the less subtle verbal gags ... it's all in their nuanced line deliveries, reactive beats and funny expressions.



Are you now or have you ever been on Team Kudrow?

Related Reading:
Signatures: Lisa Kudrow
Monologue: "Michelle's Miracle Glue"

Screen Actors Guild Nominations

JoBeth Williams welcomes you! "They're heeeeeeeee--eeeere"

Giggly Rosario Dawson & Angie Harmon announced the SAG nominations at 9:00 AM EST after being introduced by JoBeth Williams.

Though this is the last major clue as to where Oscar acting nominations will go, it is not the "this is it!" twin that many like to claim.

Important Differences From SAG to Oscar: Contrary to what you often read on the internet there is not significant overlap in the voting pools between SAG and Oscar. Unless they've recently changed their rules, SAG randomly chooses a sliver of its membership each year to do the nominations. Some miniscule percentage of them might be Academy members but the numbers don't add up to a big percentage. SAG is a mammoth union, representing 200,000 film, tv and background performers and all dues paying members can vote on the winners. Oscar's acting branch is infinitely harder to join; it's a final club on steroids to use The Social Network as handy 2010 reference. There are 1,205 voting actors in the Academy who all get nominating ballots. All of the Academy's 1,000+ actors are or were SAG members (having acted in films for years) but the other 198,795 SAG members are definitely not members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Other key differences: SAG nominators are (statistically) fonder of child and very young adult actors than Oscar. They're also arguably more populist in their choices overall having given the big prizes to people from smash comedies like Renée Zellweger in Chicago (2002) or Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) and arguably more influenced by your place in the Hollywood food chain, choosing legends over newbies for wins in hotly contested contests like Bening beating Swank in 99/00, Day-Lewis over Brody in 02/03 or Christie beating Cotillard in 07/08.  They are also not allowed to vote their own mind when it comes to "lead" versus "supporting" issues. Oscar voters may vote for you in whichever category they personally feel is correct. SAG voters may only vote for you in the category that your studio submits you in (which explains Keisha Castle Hughes' bizarre "supporting" citation at SAG for Whale Rider).

Nominations with commentary after the jump

2010 NOMINATIONS TELEVISION

Best Female Actor (Drama Series)

• Glenn Close (Damages)
• Mariska Hargitay (L&O: SVU is a Comedy)
• Julianna Marguiles (The Good Wife)
• Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men)
• Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer)

This lineup is really gross to me, indicating that SAG voters really really love their procedurals. I do not. Procedurals are death to actors who want to dig in deep to characterizations.

Best Male Actor (Drama Series)

• Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire)
• Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)
• Michael C Hall (Dexter)
• Jon Hamm (Mad Men)
• Hugh Laurie (House)

Applause in the room for Michael C Hall. People sure do love his death-dealing. After Six Feet Under and Dexter... what can his third morbid series role be? Doesn't death come in threes?

Best Female Actor (Comedy Series)

• Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie)
• Tina Fey (30 Rock)
• Jane Lynch (Glee)
• Sofia Vergara (Modern Family)
• Betty White (Hot in Cleveland)

White continues her ubiquity. Didn't she win lifetime achievement last year? I haven't seen Cleveland otherwise this is a gorgeous lineup. I'd love to see Falco or Vergara at the podium though.

Best Male Actor (Comedy Series)

• Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)
• Ty Burrell (Modern Family)
• Steve Carell (The Office)
• Chris Colfer (Glee)
• O'Neill (Modern Family)

Another terrific lineup. Well chosen.

Best Female Actor (Miniseries/Movie)

• Claire Danes (Temple Grandin)
• Catherine O'Hara (Temple Grandin)
• Julia Ormond (Temple Grandin)
• Winona Ryder (When Love is Not Enough)
• Susan Sarandon (You Don't Know Jack)

It's like a Temple Grandin key party up in there. Could vote splitting make this a big comeback for Winona?

Best Male Actor (Miniseries/Movie)

•  John Goodman (You Don't Know Jack)
• Al Pacino (You Don't Know Jack)
• Dennis Quaid (That Special Relationship)
• Edgar Ramirez (Carlos)
• Patrick Stewart (Macbeth)

I didn't even know John Goodman was in You Don't Know  Jack. Remember when he was married to Roseanne or when he used to always be in the Coen Bros pictures. Carlos is confusing me. I do not like it when things get prizes in both film & television. Stop blurring the lines! Big screens or small screens. Me no likely medium sized screens.

Best Ensemble (Drama)

• Boardwalk Empire
• The Closer
• Dexter
• Teh Good Wife
• Mad Men

Best Ensemble (Comedy)

• 30 Rock
• Glee
• Hot in Cleveland
• Modern Family
• The Office

It wasn't enough to give Betty White one nomination when you can give her two. As much as I continue to love 30 Rock and admire Glee for casting actors who can actually sing... Modern Family deserves this ten-fold. Such a seamless cast, no weak spots; everyone is hilarious.

Stunt Ensemble (Series)

• Burn Notice
• CSI New York
• Dexter
• Southland
• True Blood

I'm confused how five series get nominated for stunts but only three movies? Last I checked movies had lots of stunts, too.

2010 NOMINATIONS FILM

Mother & Son (The Fighter). Can they both take home SAG & Oscar?

Best Female Actor (Supporting Role)

• Amy Adams (The Fighter)
• Helena Bonham-Carter (The King's Speech)
• Mila Kunis (Black Swan)
• Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
• Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)

You can consider The Fighter women and HBC all locked up. As for Kunis & Steinfeld... I'd say they still have to fend off the amazing sixtysomething ladies (Jacki Weaver, Dianne Wiest, Barbara Hershey). Check out Scott Feinberg's list of awesome relevant stats. Many people are saying that Kunis is locked up after Globes & SAG nods but that's just not the case. Someone is denied nearly every year in that situation (though usually only one person).

Best Male Actor (Supporting Role)

•  Christian Bale (The Fighter)
•  John Hawkes (Winter's Bone)
• Jeremy Renner (The Town)
• Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right)
• Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech

In a very rare occurences I like all five nominees in a supporting actor category. Two of them are probably leads but what can you do. I expect Oscar will embrace Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) here so one of these men will have to go. 

Best Female Actor (Leading Role)

• Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)
• Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)
• Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone)
• Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
• Hilary Swank (Conviction)

Hilary Swank's surprise appearance here is noteworthy in that it shows how (still) hotly contested the Best Actress race is. The way I see it there are 3 locks (Bening, Portman, Lawrence) due to support for both the performances and the films which house them and then there is 1 probable but vulnerable (Kidman) due to support for performance but not the film and then there are still 6 women (Williams, Rapace, Moore, Swank, Swinton, Manville) trying to nab 1 remaining spot. Theoretically, any of them might for various reasons and 1, at least, will.

Best Male Actor (Leading Role)

•  Jeff Bridges
• Robert Duvall
• Jesse Eisenberg
• Colin Firth
• James Franco

You can expect to see Eisenberg, Firth & Oscar host Franco nominated for Oscar but spots #4 & 5 are confusing; two spots for three men. Duvall, Bridges and SAG-shunned Ryan Gosling have to fight it out with one of them losing.

Best Ensemble (Cast)

•  Black Swan
• The Fighter
• The Kids Are All Rigth
• The King's Speech
• The Social Network

This is a huge huge get for Black Swan, which is arguably in some ways a one-woman show. The rest of the field is much closer to the type of film that one would expect to see getting ensemble attention, for better and for worse. Not that the Swan ensemble isn't terrific. It's just not the thing you'd usually see here so it shows their heat as a film. UPDATE: "When a Nomination is Still a Snub" further notes on this always bizarre category.
Stunt Ensemble

• Green Zone
• Inception
• Robin Hood

Why only 3 nominees? Is it because CGI are not stuntmen and movies have less and less reality and more and more coding? This was Inception's only nod today but we knew it was never going to be an 'actor's film'. They'll make up for it with votes from the tech branches of the Academy.

Your turn. Share opinions in the comments. Particularly about those crazy tight fifth spots in all four acting categories.

Related Post: SAG injustice (the ensemble category) BFCA & Globe nominations (good comparison points. In an unholy union of the three, you basically have your Oscar list)

The Most Hilarious Thing About The Globe Nominations Is...

... no, no, no. It's NOT that hideous Comedy/Musical best picture lineup. It's even more absurdist than that.  

The most hilarious thing about the Golden Globe noms is...

[photos from: Return to Cranford and The Client List]

Dame Judi Dench vs. Jennifer Love Hewitt

Only at the Globes, people, only at the Globes.

This is the first and last circumstance in which they'll ever be mentioned in the same breath. We hope. LOL, this is so not a fair fight. (FWIW, the other nominees for Best Actress in a Miniseries are: Hayley Atwell in Pillars of the Earth, Emmy winner Claire Danes for Temple Grandin and Romola Garai in Emma.)

Game of Thrones

Quick show of hands. How many of you have read the fantasy classic GAME OF THRONES by George R.R. Martin? HBO is making it into a series now which comes as such a relief. Long novels are so much better suited to series format than movies and yet they're rarely adapted that way. You can follow the production diary here. I'm only 650 pages into the first novel -- god this is long -- but it's a page turner: superbly paced, tense, multi-layered, fine prose, and unpredictable plotting (a rare thing in fantasy novels).

Peter Dinklage has quite a role in his hands. He plays Tyrion Lannister, the manipulative, whip smart "imp" of the royal house of Lannister (the Lannisters are the villains mostly... Martin does a fine job of making sure your allegiances shift on occasion.)  Tyrion  is possibly the most complex character in a book that's teeming with vivid personalities. Not all of them are multi-faceted exactly but they all pop out from the page.  Do you think other vertically challenged actors applaud or resent him? There aren't that many roles out there and doesn't he gets them all. I remember registering shock when I saw Jordan Prentice in In Bruges. I was like "Peter Dinklage missed out on a role?"

EW has a new photo gallery of the characters. Looking through it I'm a bit worried about the budget (something about the costumes or armor seems too simple?) and I don't like how they've visualized Daenys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) at all though that whole thread is my least favorite part of the stories many tentacles.

Are you excited for this production?

Gleeful Gwyneth

Last night's Glee. Do we need to discuss? Stunt casting, so flagrantly used on television and stage to yield press & ratings dividends is a completley unreliable tool for producing quality entertainment. Last night was a happy example of the times when it works. "The Substitute" reminded us how joyful Comedic Gwyneth Paltrow can be.

Somewhere after her Oscar for Shakespeare in Love, she started seeming super morose onscreen as if depressive gloopy drama was her true calling. And then she went yet GOOPier. But last night she glided through her role as "Holly Holiday", Spanish speaking catchphrase wielding Cee Lo loving totally irresponsible teacher with such relaxed shimmer, that it only reminded how radiant she was 12 years ago before she won the Oscar.

It's quite possible, if her subsequent career is any indication,  that she doesn't take her acting career too seriously but if so, why not move in that direction; funny, tossed off, 'I'm only here to have fun' treats for her starved fans? We've got plenty of actresses who can handle heavy dramatics... and some can do it with more pizzazz or more varied nuance than Paltrow. We've got too few who can get all sparkly while joking, singing and dancing. Oops, scratch the last part. Paltrow's dancing was even more clubfooted than Zeéeee's was doing the same number, Chicago's wondrous "Hot Honey Rag" finale. Well, at least Gwynnie sparkles when she sings!

Santana: What would you know about Cee Lo? You're like...40.
Gwynnie: Top 40, sweet cheeks.

Towards the end of the show there was a spot for Gwynnie's new movie Country Strong. I recently got a major thumbs down on the movie from a trusted industry source but I enjoyed hearing Gwyneth sing so much last night that I might be up for it anyway. I love the singing actresses, I do. It's just too bad that she's playing an alcoholic. No more crying Gwynnie, make it sparklier!  'It's kind of your thing.'

Here's Gwyneth singing "Country Song" at the CMA Awards last week.



You like? Maybe Best Original Song attention?

Related Posts

• Shakespeare in Love BPFTOI
• Best Actress 1998
• Gwyneth Loves Actresses in GOOP

TV @ The Movies: "Glee" and "The Walking Dead"

What is the ideal format for talking about tv? I'm beginning to think it's Twitter since even in the days of next day recaps and the 'watch it on your own time' DVR reality, people often watch it in great masses, round about the same time -- only staggered with everyone in their own slightly skewed time zones. I'm on NESST (Nathaniel's Eastern Stop & Start Time). TV has never been the all immersive experience that the movies can be... so it makes sense that people are now tweeting as they're watching. TV is jerry-rigged to withstand distractions: housework, phone calls, commercials. Twitter and Facebook only amplify this and now everyone has become their own tv critic, ringleader, announcer, omniscient narrator, diarist. I always wish that the movies were this accessible to people to enjoy en masse but... sigh.

With deeper immersion comes less accessibility I suppose.

If she's growling and decomposing, shoot her! 

Anyway, Sunday night I opted not to tweet through AMC's much ballyhooed THE WALKING DEAD. I was curious before the series even began how they would work around television restrictions, only to realize that there are no restrictions. You can apparently show anything on non-premium cable during prime-time hours including little girls and grown men getting their brains blown out (in slo-mo!) and men getting their heads smashed to bits with baseball bats as long as nobody says the naughty "F" word or shows the naughty boobies, butts or dangly man-bits.

[Lots on GLEE & more WALKING DEAD after the jump]

Otherwise it's all good!

I had planned to tweet but I didn't get any further than this.

Now that it's had time to settle I don't even know how to review The Walking Dead. It felt like every zombie movie that has ever been made cuisinarted together. Once it had become a fine slush, it was poured into a new TV sized mold slowly, slowly now... you gotta string it out over several episodes. While pouring, Chef Frank Darabont (he's writer, director, producer), described his "new" old concoction with a southern twang.

True to AMC's form, The Walking Dead is a well made show. It was scary, well acted, and intense. I can easily give it that. The only missing AMC ingredient was a unique identity. It even starts its zombie apocalypse just about the same exact way (homage?) as the chief revivalist of today's current zombie craze. In this film / tv show our hero "Jim" (Cillian Murphy, 28 Days Later) /  "Rick" (Andrew Lincoln, The Walking Dead) wakes up in an abandoned hospital, disoriented, sick, thirsty and totally unaware that while he was "sleeping" (coma?), the world basically ended from a zombie plague. The only difference? Rick wakes up buck naked in a stripped hospital bed and Jim wakes up under sheets and under those he's wearing a hospital gown and under that he's got boxer shorts on.

Twang, not wang!

I don't mean to be flippant. I don't expect to see nudity on television. But I'm being absolutely 100% serious when I say that I do not understand why the MPAA ratings or television board (I forgot the name) exist. They've always been, well, dumb. But theoretically their 'goddamn raison d'etre' is easy to understand. But if you seek to destroy a whole entertainer's career over a wardrobe malfunction but you can show a zombie movie on TV with all of the R rated violence intact (they pulled approximately zero punches) what the hell are you on about?

Are body parts (non bloody rotting ones I mean) and excessive profanity the only remaining taboos?

I know there's a lot of violence on TV shows (especially procedurals which really seem to get off on it) but it's usually more "described" than shown. I mean, I watch Dexter. I can handle some violence. But that's a pay cable series. I'm not sure I am okay with the idea that any little kid who wants to can watch The Walking Dead and enjoy all the grisly slaughter. It reminded me of something I'd long since forgotten: on the weekend that Zach Snyder's Dawn of the Dead (2004) remake opened, two teenagers approached me at the movie theater and asked me to buy them tickets. Apparently the theater was policing that R rating. I declined. I wasn't trying to be a jerk but I'd seen way too many parents leading their little kids (not even teenagers) into slasher movies in that same exact theater and so I had become ultra sensitive and judgey about what people were letting the newest generations watch. Just think, all those teens had to do was wait 6 years and they could see the same thing on regular cable for free.

a tough cop and  a hungry mom.

Back on topic. I might give The Walking Dead another episode or two -- again, it was well executed -- but I'm nervous.

I'm especially uncomfortable with what struck me as a pretty obvious (if unintentional?) misogyny: the first female we see is the little girl zombie. She's the first kill. We follow that with a jump backwards in time and we sit with two cops (Rick and his partner Shane, Jon Berthal, pictured above) and we discuss Rick's cruel nagging wife and how she wants him to share his feelings (god forbid!). We don't meet her then so she gets no voice of her own, just the one prescribed to her: cruel, nagging, relentless, one who causes emotional distress to her husband AND child. The next important female "character" we meet is another cruel mother; this one is a zombie who really wants to dine on her son. The boy's good heroic father is protecting him from her, though he still can't bring himself to kill his now-cruel wife. Later, we see a few living female characters (no names) and we discover that Rick's wife (the cruel nag) is alive and she's now sleeping with his former partner (pictured, left). In their defense they both think Rick is dead but basically what we have here is dead women, hungry dead women, and living unfaithful nags!

My rating has to be threefold thus far. Execution: B+ | Morality: D | Originality: F. So, I guess I'll have to go with a C for now.

I'll give it one or two more episodes on account of its fine acting/execution and to see if I'm wrong about the morality and originality problems. Maybe I am. (And, yes, sexism is a moral failing. But I notice on AMC's site that there are a couple of female principals so maybe things will be different soon.)

Meanwhile over on network television...

GLEE was also shoving our hypocrisy in our faces with its strange decision to do a tribute to the very R rated Rocky Horror Picture Show. That one I did tweet through. Glee is generally as horny as your average (gay) teenager -- the show is constantly seeking opportunities to show us the bare abs and chests of the male characters -- but in the same episode, they shamed the teacher (Mr Shue, Matthew Morrison) for his willing exploitation of teen flesh. "Pot." "Kettle." The show just doesn't seem smart enough to be aware of or intentionally presenting its own ironies or hypocrisies. The writing is way too inconsistent to give it that benefit of the doubt. If they can't even remember basic personality traits and motivations from episode to episode, how they gonna build complex story-telling with meta commentary while belting their show stoppers?

My overriding question is this: Why did they choose to do Rocky Horror in the first place when they couldn't even bring themselves to sing the words "transsexual" or "heavy petting" let alone commit to drag or same sex hedonism (Mercedes plays Frankenfurther, negating all of this. Happy to see her get a plum role, but...this one?)?

But, most importantly, I 'm not sure I can live in a world where everyone starts misquoting Rocky Horror's hilarious lyrics because Glee did them wrong; show tunes are sacred!

But for all of my frustrations with Glee, I dig it on some deep level and want it to be a million times better than it is. It's sometimes so embarrassing but every once in a while it transcends. At the very least there's usually a good quotable or three buried somewhere in each messy episode. Becky's "give me some chocolate or I will cut you" has already become a favorite.  And there's a certain amount of joy in the mass-sharing of a public phenomenon. #glee always sparks fun tweet conversations.

WonderRobbie always delights me and Glee's weird double standards on sexuality have escaped virtually no one -- though I hadn't noted, like Joseph wisely did, that the GQ photoshoot that everyone got their panties in a twist about, made an interesting duet with all of the punches they were pulling when doing Rocky Horror.

In the end, I realize I had a similar reaction to The Rocky Horror Glee Show that I had to The Walking Dead. I thought I was enjoying it while it was going on only to realize afterwards that I was totally disappointed. The little missteps and underlying weak foundation just piled up. So I have to hand it to the often brilliant critic Matt Zoller Seitz. We got into it on Twitter -- here's a little of our public back-n-forth...

I share this because, after his brilliant full length write-up of the show, I'm totally coming 'round to his point of view. Except, that is, when it concerns that Britney Spears episode which he liked and which to me was such a creative nadir that I am stunned that the show ever crawled back up again, let alone started doing high kicks and pirouettes like it had never fallen in the first place.

Sweet Transvestite
The Brilliant Tim Curry

I was never an obsessive fan of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). I brought toast and rice to throw and what not but I never dressed up in costume or made it a weekly midnight habit. But I did buy the soundtrack and went to 4 or 5 midnight shows over a 2 year period. And I got really fascinated by the overriding theme "Don't dream it. Be it." which scared the hell out of me at the time (late 80s in my case) as it would anyone who is repressed on any level.

So, I was happy to see it revived again in this major reaching-millions way. But since Glee doesn't really have the strength of its convictions, they should probably steer clear of randier material. Please, people, no more Sweet Transvestites from Transsexual, Transylvania. I mean, clutch your pearls, children could be watching! Why couldn't Glee just have gone with something wholesome like Sweeney Todd's throat slitting and cannibalism; you can't can do that on television!
*
*

Mad Men at the Movies: 'Adieu, Adieu, To You and You and You-ooo'

Previously on MM@M: 4.1 Live From Times Square 4.2 Sixties Sweethearts 4.3 Catherine Deneuve & Gamera, 4.4 Jean Seberg, 4.5 Hayley Mills & David McCallum, 4.6 Chaplin the Sad Clown 4.7 "No Bad Seats" 4.8 Peyton Place 4.9 "The Beautiful Girls"


In Mad Men at the Movies we investigate the cinematic references in the Emmy winning drama Mad Men. Though we accidentally took a one month hiatus from this series (due to a paucity of movie references) we shouldn't have. The series is mainly an excuse to talk about the show.  It's the best on television. In fact, I haven't loved a show as much as Mad Men since the heyday of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (circa 1998/1999)... inbetween those two titans only Battlestar Galactica and Once & Again got to me in similarly seismic ways. Which is to say, I love it madly. If I were to coincidentally receive an old engagement ring right before watching an episode, I would undoubtedly impulsively propose to it.

 "Mad Men, you make me very happy. Will you marry me?"

4.13 "Tomorrowland"
Season 4 has seen Don Draper (Jon Hamm) survive a tumultuous year filled with career highs intermingled with scary career scares but emotionally he's been hovering at the edge of the abyss for the entirety of 1965. In the season capper, he takes his kids to Disneyland (hence the title... and a sly one, too). He's already slept with his secretary Megan (Jessica Paré) in a previous episode but he invites her along as replacement babysitter since the ex Mrs. Draper has impulsively fired the children's life long nanny Carla. Don can't be expected to change diapers!

Though Don's sudden marriage proposal to Megan played like a shock -- I watched the episode at a party thrown by the Lipp Sisters and the room went audibly gaspy -- it shouldn't have; the whole season has been leading here.




Don has been flailing without a wife all season and, as Michael C at Serious Film brilliantly notes, Sally (Keirnan Shipka) already made the choice for Don in an incisive bit of foreshadowing in a previous episode.

Dr. Faye Miller (Cara Buono) may be exactly what Don needed as a human being but his very opening up to her spelled her doom; she got way too close to the real Don a.ka. Dick Whitman. "Don Draper," using the original Don Draper's engagement ring, is trying to reboot just like Betty did. This is not personal growth. His parts were fusing but there's safety in starting the charade all over again, marrying another woman he barely knows and who barely knows him and stealing Don's identity all over again albeit in miniature circular form. It's the circle of his life.

Not that Megan is a terrible choice per se. He seems genuinely moved and surprised that she's so warm and relaxed around the kids (the anti-Betty?) and he clearly needs a wife/maid/babysitter. The Sound of Music reference, when Megan teaches the kids a French song to sing to their daddy is pure bliss.

You said you had no experience but you're like Maria Von Trapp!

♪ A captain with seven children. What's so fe ♪ ♫ An admen with three children. What's so fearsome about that? I half expected Megan to bust out into song as she exited. "I Have Confidence" indeed. She's a sly one and I expect we'll get to know how sly when we return to her in 1966 or 1967... whenever Season 5 takes place.

The mammoth movie. The rich baron and his young bride.

The Sound of Music opened in 1965 (the year this season took place) and was an immediate sensation, becoming the highest grossing film of all time (at the time). What's extra fun about the reference is that it's a spoken reference to an actual movie scene so Don is being clever and self aware to a point. He knows he's the Captain Von Trapp of this mirror scene but he hasn't grasped that he's just hired this young girl to be his governess and he's fallen for her while ostensibly in a serious relationship with a older woman who isn't fond of children but who is unquestionably more of a social equal.

Sound familiar? We've got Captain Von Draper (a man who loves his children but has trouble being present with them), the singing Megan a la Maria (the children take to her and she, in turn, enjoys them and is in awe of their sophisticated rich important father) and Faye is... The Baroness. It might sound cruel to Faye -- and Don is -- but it's important to remember that The Baroness is not a villain even in The Sound of Music. She's just a little frosty and not naturally maternal. But in the end you have sympathy for The Baroness... or maybe for Eleanor Parker because she's a damn fine actress.

Season 4 ends not with the Von Trapp duet "Something Good" but with Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe" over the closing credits. Cher & Sonny were divorced by 1975.

Best Moment: Joanie & Peggy's sympatico giggle at their shared career-woman persona.
Second Best Moment: Betty Vs. Carla. Wow, was that intense. Deborah Lacey has been a huge quiet assett to the show as thoroughly observant maid/nanny Carla. So sad that we're now losing her but this series is not for people who need their favorite shows to regurgitate the same episode for years on end. Mad Men has never been content to stay the same or reboot to repeat itself. It just keeps barrelling forward. "There is no fresh start! Lives carry on." Henry Francis shouts. He's a smart man.
Third Best Moment: Megan realizing she still needs to answer Don's phone, post-engagement.
Fourth Best Moment: "I hope you have all the happiness that Peggy and I had signing this account." -Ken Cosgrove you delight me. I am so glad they brought Mr Cosgrove back. He's such a great "light" counterpoint to all of the crazy masculine angst in SCDP. He's the only man who understands work/life balance and not every character in a drama should be hopelessly f***ed up.
Low Key Pitch Perfect Moment: Don & Betty & the bottle.
Season 4 RIPs: Alison, Carla, Miss Blankenship.
Season 5 Question Marks: Faye? Cooper? Francine?
Sympathy For The Devil: I know I'm alone in this but Betty Draper continues to be one of the most fascinating characters and January Jones continues to be a fearless actress in exploring her, totally unconcerned with being loved (the great bane of so many actresses in sculpting complex characters). Betty really can't help herself. She's miserable but continually perplexed by her own misery, unable to see her own culpability in it.

 Goodbye Ossining.

How was Season 4 for you? Any favorite moments, developments, new characters or disappointments?

No Exit Through The Simpsons Shop

Did you catch this frankly amazing Banksy-adjusted opening to The Simpsons? Here it is in all its subversive glory.



This makes me think two things.

1. I probably should have seen this year's buzzy Banksy street art doc Exit Through the Gift Shop. Of the three documentaries at Sundance that garnered the most "you must see this!" buzz -- the others being Catfish (loved) and Waiting for Superman (did not enjoy) -- it's the one I skipped.
2. Maybe I should still be watching The Simpsons?

"Mary, did you see The Omen?"

I'm multi-tasking! It's a new episode of actors on actors, tv @ the movies and a monologue.

Recently after an accidental couch potato binge on The Golden Girls -- you all know what that's like, right? -- I realized that the boyfriend had never seen the classic 70s sitcom Soap, which is from the same creative team, so we've been watching. The main character is rich dotty matriarch Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond of Whos The Boss fame). She brings up movies and movie stars constantly. The fantasy of movies is a natural fit, since she doesn't have the firmest grasp of reality. She's basically a template for Rose on Golden Girls. Helmond, like White after her, has a very firm grasp of comic timing.

In this scene she wants to look through a family photo album because she believes they've all been cursed.

Jessica Tate: I think that in those pictures we'll find the answer. Mary did you see The Omen? Well, I mean nobody believed Lee Remick when she said that her son was the devil and he was trying to kill her and you know what happened? He killed her. And then, I mean, of course everyone said 'well, she was right' but it did her a lot of good, she was dead by then.

Ha. It's much funnier with Helmond's loopy train of thought speed delivery.

Have you ever gotten into an entertainment mood that you couldn't quite shake? See I've been in this broad yuks mood for like a month now. It's not a normal mood for me. I think it started when I caught the Off Broadway Hitchcock spoof The 39 Steps a few months back which had a lot of inspired slapstick. Recently this mood was reignited watching Mel Brooks Silent Movie (1976) on BluRay (from this terrific box set that). Lets just say I hurt from laughing... especially during Bernadette Peters repeat vavavoom number. Her hip swivels just knock audiences right over. Literally.

The success of any comedy is so dependent on your mood, isn't it?

Anyway, back to Emmy-winning Helmond. Here's another actressy bit when Jessica is accused of the murder of her young lover. Her husband promises her they'll get the best lawyer. "But what about that movie?!" she pleads confusing him, and she's off in her own world again. Instead of worrying about the trial she's worried about who will play her in the movie version she's certain they'll make.

Jessica: Promise me that you'll try to maintain some control. Because I just have a feeling -- I just have this awful feeling that they're thinking of having Shelley Winters play me! See I was thinking of someone like Catherine Deneuve --she's attractive enough. Or it could make a wonderful musical. Barbra Streisand could play me.

 

Shelley Winters, for those of you who are only familiar, was briefly a starlet and then an Oscar bait actress but as early as the 60s she had moved into her late period blowsy mouthy dame mode. She wasn't exactly an emblem of "class" in the movies.

If you were ever on trial for murder, would you worry about who would play you in the movie? 
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Links: "The 39 True Basterds Are All Right Network"

Warning: Teaser poster for True Grit bound to shame eventual actual poster with its gorgeous directness and simplicity. [Editor's Note: I've been in a very bad place/mood when it comes to movie posters lately. More on this soon.]

big screen
Scanners wonderful piece on the editing in Inglourious Basterds and what kind of choices Sally Menke was making.

Guardian I hadn't realized that The Kids Are All Right hadn't made it to the UK yet. But now that it's getting there: new articles! Lisa Cholodenko offers up an interesting theory about why women directors are few: It's not systemic sexism but based on what audiences value.
Cinema Blend an easter egg (we used to call them "inside jokes") in The Social Network for Fight Club fans.
Nick's Flick Picks has a brief encounter w/ none other than Roger Ebert
Our Stage the pop stars in big films this year
Boing Boing Yoda as Princess Leia. teehee

small screen
Deadline Wonder Woman via David E Kelley for television? There's a lot of snark in the comments on this post (I didn't know that Deadline had such conservative readership but I don't pay much attention to other sites...  a problem when you have to run your own). My mind unwillingly flashed to Michelle Pfeiffer playing the Queen of the Amazons (previously played to camp perfection by Cloris Leachman in the 1970s tv show.)
Daily Beast 'Why I Loathe Glee'. A compelling argument about what's wrong with the series (and why it's going to get worse)
Movie | Line The 3 worst stereotypes on TV this week

offscreen (I'm trying to avoid eyestrain)

Interview Naomi Campbell reminisces (lots of celebrities and history). Weird factoid: very few things remind Nathaniel of the early 90s more than "The Trinity": Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington.
REEAD I have no idea why this slide show arrived in my inbox under the heading "Is Madonna a religion?" but it just goes to show you that having a beautiful body can get you lots of page views... even if your headlines are misleading.
TCG Readers who are interested in theater might enjoy seeing which current plays are slated for the most regional production this coming year. I've been meaning to write about the Hitchcock spoof The 39 Steps forever. I guess I should. So many productions coming up.

MM@M: "The Beautiful Girls"

This week's episode of Mad Men "The Beautiful Girls" contained no movie references -- unless you count Faye calling Don "Mr Bond" (we think we heard that?) when he pried too much into her business with other ad agencies -- and a few celebrity name-droppings in a pitch meeting. What we did get is a lot of forward movement on Mad Men's quest to illustrate the 60s itself as a character. Vietnam is starting to scare these familiar faces and the burgeoning civil rights movement is starting to interfere with their perceptions of self.

Beautiful Girls: Joan, Peggy and Faye (Betty not pictured)

Mad Men probably won't win any new fans with that bad neighborhood mugging scene, since they've already been criticized in some quarters for the (mostly) all-white cast. But Mad Men's focus has always been a very specific type of people, ad men in midtown, and the show is doing a beautiful job of reflecting how people actually deal with change. I love Peggy's initial dismissal when confronted with racism "I'm not a political person!" and the way this bled into her own ideas about sexism and then to actual guilt about her culpability in working for racist organizations. This strikes me as an honest and realistic depiction of the way that people actually deal with change. Usually people respond to things based on how and when they affect them or their loved ones personally or they put off dealing with it at all until the social tide swings far enough towards a new way of thinking that they have no choice but to either jump on board or refuse the tide of progress and become ultra conservative. You can see this in the way straight people deal with the gay rights movements and you can see this in how native citizens deal with immigration issues in their own country, wherever that country may be.

Hopefully Mad Men will give us a movie to discuss soon... but this season is just on fire.

Further reading for Mad Men fanatics:

• all episodes of Mad Men at the Movies
• GIF - Sally Draper is the new boss of you
• Los Angeles Times interviews Cara Buono on playing Dr Faye Miller
  
• Times "Tuned In" on Peggy's women's rights march
• Movie|Line will Sally Draper get an Emmy nomination next year?
  
• p.s. i'm happy to take link suggestions for interesting articles if you have any in the comments.
  

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MM@M: Peyton Place (From Big Screen to Small)

Previously on Mad Men @ the Movies: 4.1 Live From Times Square 4.2 Sixties Sweethearts 4.3 Catherine Deneuve & Gamera, 4.4 Jean Seberg, 4.5 Hayley Mills & David McCallum, 4.6 Chaplin the Sad Clown 4.7 "No Bad Seats"

freelance creative Joey and name-dropping Harry discuss Peyton Place

Episode 4.8 "The Summer Man"
In yesterday's episode, Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) and Joan (Christina Hendricks) have a difficult showdown with Joey (Matt Long) the freelancer, another example of the show's study of sexism in the workplace. Joan turns on Peggy, despite Peggy's efforts to help. Joan is still in her downward spiral, less powerful in the office, helpless at home, and continually obsessing over Vietnam. Meanwhile, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) finally pulls himself out of his spiral. After last week's instant classic episode, which was very tightly focused, this was a rather uncharacteristic episode with prolonged narration from Don and a jumble of different scenes that felt like transitions away from old storylines.

<--- Mia Farrow and Ryan O'Neal in Peyton Place.

There were several cultural references in this episode such as Margaret Mead, Aesop's Fables, Life Magazine, Ray Charles but the closest we came to movies were two properties that had been or were to become movies. Broadway sensation The Odd Couple was cited with the classic "Are you an Oscar or a Felix?" question, but it would be another few years before that comedy transferred to the big screen. In another scene Harry Crane (Rich Sommer) tried to convince troublesome Joey to audition for a role opposite Ryan O'Neal on "Peyton Place" (1964) because he was so small screen handsome. Joey, unbeknownst to Harry, misinterpreted this as a gay come on.

Ryan O'Neal is a familiar name to anyone who lived through the 1970s when his fame was at its peak but in 1965 he hadn't yet made the jump from small to big screen. Peyton Place had just made the opposite journey. The original film adaptation of the novel (my review) was a Best Picture nominee in 1957 -- one of Oscar's most honored losers actually with 9 nominations and 0 wins -- but it became a series in 1964 catapulting both Ryan O'Neal and Mia Farrow into A List movie stardom once they moved on.

Clip. Mia is heavily featured. Ryan shows up until the 2:36 mark.

Have you seen either version?

The only connection that cropped up in my head with the movie version of Peyton Place and this episode is that Constance McKenzie (Lana Turner) is one (enjoyably) frosty bitch and Mad Men loves that type... though Betty softened beautifully in this episode just as Joan pulled her icy armor closer.
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Yes, No, Maybe So: Mildred Pierce (2011)

It's not intentional but today will be something of a TV day here at The Film Experience -- and to think how we were just bitching about all the false arguments in its favor -- and let's start with this trailer for the HBO Miniseries Mildred Pierce. [thanks to Sebastián for alerting me]



Like Angels in America seven years back, the director, cast and production values allow us to easily pretend that it's really just a feature film in disguise. It's just another part of The Great Convergence because what are today's franchises like Harry Potter and Twilight other than three season'ish long television series with bigger budgets?

YES I'll see anything -- and have seen everything -- that Todd Haynes directs. From subversive queer shorts like Dottie Gets Spanked to the inventive Superstar (the legally troubled Karen Carpenter bio with Barbie dolls) through to Oscar contending films like Far From Heaven and I'm Not There. His films never fail to excite the eyeballs, the intellect and hormones. Some people think he has trouble with the heart portion of entertainment, that his films are too heady, but to this complaint I say [insert expletive]. Even if that were true, better that problem than the far more common cinematic ailments of brainlessness, sexlessness and generic aesthetics.

NO I don't understand the casting of 23 year old Evan Rachel Wood as 34 year old Kate Winslet's nasty ungrateful daughter Veda at all. Aren't they too old and too young for their roles respectively, thus compounding the problem? Believable mother daughter chemistry won't be as important as usual since they're at odds, but still. Not sure I follow this. Plus, I've been aching for Evan Rachel Wood to get out of her bad girl rut. She has more range than this (or at least she once did).

MAYBE SO As much as I love Kate Winslet, performing in the shadow of Joan Crawford's signature role just seems so... foolhardy? It's one thing to star in an adaptation of a novel that's been adapted before. It's quite another to star in an adaptation of a novel that's been adapted before as an immortal and glamorous star's biggest hour.

I'm a yes given Kate + Todd + below the line players like DP Edward Lachman. Though I feel I should note that Todd's regular costume designer Sandy Powell did not work on this -- she told me her schedule conflicted when I interviewed her during the Young Victoria Oscar run.

My current plan: read the book in the next month or two so as not to be thinking of the gorgeous Michael Curtiz noir the whole way through.

Kate in her Emmy winning* role as Mildred Pierce.

You? Have you seen Joan Crawford's Oscar winning take on the Mildred Pierce role? If not, what are you waiting for?

*just guessin'
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