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February 10, 2020
Colbert Tries Real Hard to Make Sense of Joe Biden’s Weird Insults (Video)
On Monday’s “The Late Show,” Stephen Colbert tried to make sense of the weird insults Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden likes to deploy, and the explanation he landed on is, basically, that the former vice president has a faulty brain computer.
First though, Colbert talked about how Biden seems to use his former boss Barack Obama as a synonym for “good,” imagining him rating a fast-food burrito as “a real Barack Obama” but the establishment’s bathroom as “no Barack Obama.”
Then Colbert brought up the insults. See, on Sunday during an appearance in New Hampshire, a woman in the audience asked Joe Biden about his poor showing earlier in the week during the Iowa caucus fiasco. Biden asked the woman if she had ever attended a caucus and when she said she had, he responded “No you haven’t! You’re a lying, dog-faced pony soldier,” which, uh, ok.
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“What’s going on inside Biden’s head when he comes up with these insults,” Colbert asked after a short, highly surprised pause. That’s when a photo of Biden appeared on screen and the camera zoomed in on his brain, which displayed the words “insult generator” in the “Joystix” font.
“Hmmm, let’s see, what should I call her,” Colbert said, imagining the thoughts in Biden’s head. Then came several alternate insults the ex-VEEP could have deployed. Biden’s brain first tries “Devious Squirrel-Kneed Kangaroo Mailman,” then “Tricky Cat-Fingered Panther Chef,” before landing on the “pony soldier” crack.
“Good one Joe, that insult was a real Barack Obama,” Colbert joked. Watch the clip below:
TONIGHT: Joe Biden has had some weird moments on the campaign trail this week, even by Joe Biden’s standards. #LSSC pic.twitter.com/ApcEFYDO87
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) February 11, 2020
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‘Darling Grenadine’ Theater Review: Daniel Zaitchik’s Original Musical Is Wonderful and Unabashedly Romantic
With “Darling Grenadine,” composer-lyricist Daniel Zaitchik emerges as a songwriter not only to watch but to enjoy at this very early moment in his career. Two years ago, he won the Kleban Prize for most promising musical theater lyricist, and with this new musical, it’s clear that his music is every bit as wonderful as his sophisticated word play.
That latter literary talent somehow does not extend to his coining a great title for this show: “Darling Grenadine,” which opened Monday at Roundabout’s Off-Off-Broadway space, the Black Box Theatre. But there hasn’t been a new score this unabashedly romantic and soaring since Adam Guettel gave us “The Light in the Piazza,” which hit Broadway back in 2005.
The Roundabout’s Black Box houses well under a 100 seats in its current configuration, with Zaitchik’s musical being performed in the round. The cast of six doesn’t have more than a bed, a bench and a liquor bar to support them. Nevertheless, Michael Berresse’s fluid and low-key direction creates a vivid sense of time and place by surrounding the audience with screens (set design by Tim Mackabee) that drop us into a black-and-white Manhattan fantasy world (projection designs by Edward T. Morris). It all makes for a most unusual in-the-round experience.
Zaitchik also writes the book here, and typically that triple threat is not a good sign. It’s nice that he provides us with an original story, and not one based on a famous movie. The score is so attractive from the get-go that the very ordinary romance of Harry (Adam Kantor) and Louise (Emily Walton) engages even as you wish something highly unusual would happen between them. She’s a featured actor in a Broadway musical titled “Paradise” and he’s a songwriter of TV commercials who has enough money to invest in his step-brother’s bar, where he sometimes performs standards at the piano. At Louise’s insistence, Harry finally consents to perform an original song, “Manhattan,” and she’s duly impressed by his talent.
It says much about Kaitchik’s talent that “Manhattan” and the show’s two other stunning melodies, “Suspended” and “Paradise,” are not woven into the story. “Manhattan” is essentially an audition, and the other two songs are from the musical “Paradise” within the musical that is “Darling Grenadine.” Maybe Zaitchik the songwriter needs to be freed from Zaitchik the book writer? This barroom-sink story doesn’t always give full expression to what are very operatic aspirations.
The simple story told here does have its charms and, ultimately, its dark secrets. I prefer it to the complicated narrative mess that is “Moulin Rouge!” or “Jagged Little Pill” or “Girl From the North Country,” three musicals that tell too much story as if to make up for their lack of original scores.
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Eventually, something significant does take place between Harry and Louise. And Kantor is so charmingly headstrong in his pursuit of love that, like his new girlfriend, you might find yourself making excuses for him.
It’s possible that Zaitchik judges Harry more harshly than the character deserves. The book would be stronger if Harry’s enabling step-brother (Jay Armstrong Johnson) shared some of the guilt. Despite Walton’s winning performance and gorgeous vocals, Louise remains a cipher, and her “All About Eve” moment doesn’t resonate.
More successful is the depiction of Harry’s attachment to his dog, Paul. It’s very of-the-moment that many citizens of this city think of their pets as people. Totally enchanting is the way in which the Trumpet Player (Mike Nappi) evokes Paul while also providing musical segues between scenes.
Now, about that title, “Darling Grenadine.” Lose it.
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‘Hamlet’ Theater Review: Ruth Negga Delivers Bard’s Danish Prince as Joker Jr.
He’s black and he’s female, but the real stunner is how young this Hamlet appears to be.
The Gate Theatre Dublin’s production of “Hamlet” opened Monday at Off Broadway’s St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, and Ruth Negga’s performance is alternately impetuous, hot-headed, giddy, silly, petulant, but always really, really boyish. Like 16- or 17-years-old boyish. This is Hamlet as Joker Jr.
It’s an accomplishment that no teenage male actor would have the technique to pull off, but being a 38-year-old talented female actor (Oscar-nominated for her “Loving” performance in 2016), Negga makes that interpretation work.
This Hamlet keeps rubbing his butch haircut, unable to get over the fact that the king and queen finally let him cut his long Danish pageboy. He’s most at home on stage when in the presence of his father’s ghost (Steve Hartland), perhaps after dropping acid for the first time. His relationship with Ophelia is an absolute mess, with way too many hormones on both sides of that love affair. He happily treats “The Mousetrap” as the biggest goof of his life. And like a very underage criminal, he bungles one murder only to end up killing the wrong guy.
What’s missing is gravitas, that tragic element. Is what this Hamlet does much different from a 13-year-old stabbing a Columbia University student in Morningside Park? It’s shocking, ghastly, profoundly sad and pathetic — but is it tragic? Director Yael Farber attempts to make up for that missing ingredient by turning her “Hamlet” into an extremely dark and foggy affair. John Torres’ lighting continually offers exquisite moving sculptures of mist. (Among all the fog, carbon, incense and burning herbal cigarettes, I regretted not bringing my face mask from a recent 13-hour airplane ride from overseas.) Susan Hilferty’s sleek black-lacquered set presents a series of doors that open to other doors leading nowhere. And if all that weren’t baleful enough, Tom Lane’s original music underscores almost every word. Imagine a Kaddish “Carmina Burana.”
Negga’s take on the Dane rivets because it’s so unique. But after the thrilling fiasco that is “The Mousetrap,” with Hamlet not killing Claudius (Owen Roe) and then killing Polonius (Nick Dunning) by mistake, the supporting actors fail to engage in scenes when Negga disappears from the stage, as Hamlets are prone to do in the play’s second half. Except for Gaynor’s powerful Claudius and Aoife Duffin’s very grating Ophelia, they lack Negga’s idiosyncratic energy, and, in the end, deliver standard-issue performances that wouldn’t be out of place in the most ordinary of “Hamlet” productions.
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After a visually stunning first half, Farber and her design team also run out of visual tricks. Duffin’s full-frontal nudity for her mad scene doesn’t entice or shock. The three Players and Gravemakers (Will Irvine, Ger Kelly, Gerard Walsh) wear white makeup and derbies in a nod to Laurel & Hardy, an absurdist trope that became an instant cliché as soon as Buster Keaton starred in Samuel Beckett’s only screenplay, “Film,” in 1964. And a floating translucent curtain makes a repeat appearance at the play’s conclusion, delivering considerable less visual impact than when it first appeared to envelop the Ghost in Act 1.
Nothing here comes close to the breathtaking moment in Sam Gold’s 2017 staging of “Hamlet” at the Public Theater when Ophelia morphed into one of the Gravemakers — or when Oscar Isaac made an unexpected trip to the john.
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The Short Oscar Season Was Tough for Hollywood, but Good for Box Office
With the historic victory of “Parasite” at the Oscars on Sunday, the book has been closed on the most compressed awards season ever. But while it is unlikely that the Academy will have the Oscars this early again, several films took advantage of the shortened run to Hollywood’s biggest night and, as a result, find box office success.
Fears about moving up the 2020 Oscars to the week after the Super Bowl were allayed when several films altered the calendar to their advantage thanks to a mix of smart marketing and release strategy, combined with buzzy word-of-mouth.
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The prime example was Universal’s war film “1917.” While the studio failed to capture a second straight Best Picture victory, the studio gave the Sam Mendes film a flawless release strategy. As a result, it will cross $300 million at the global box office in the coming week. The World War I-set “1917” grossed $92 million in North America between nomination day and now, higher than the $84 million that 2017 contender “Hidden Figures” made in its Oscar season period, which was a week longer. “1917” is also on pace to approach that film’s $169 million domestic total despite its R rating.
For Best Picture nominees that are released in December or have a wide release in January, the period between nomination announcements and Oscar Sunday is a critical one for their box office goals, as they hope to bring in moviegoers that gain interest from their newfound awards status. Smaller art-house films also try to take advantage of this important time, as distributors return them to hundreds of theaters even if they were released in October rather than the holidays.
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The shorter season also didn’t stop the art-house contenders from getting a good box office bump. “Parasite” has helped put its growing American distributor, Neon, on the map with a domestic total of $35.5 million, a new record for the 3-year-old company and among the best ever for a non-English film in America. Just over $10 million of that total came since the film’s nomination, after which Neon expanded the film to just over 1,000 screens. By comparison, 2017 Best Picture winner “Moonlight,” which like “Parasite” was released in mid-October, grossed $6.3 million between its nomination and victory.
“It’s always going to be difficult to make direct comparisons to different Oscar films in different years because the subject matter and box office competition are always different,” Comscore media analyst Paul Dergarabedian said. “But the changes in the Oscar calendar didn’t have any negative impact on the nominees still in theaters, and ‘1917’ was probably best able to take advantage of being expanded right as it was winning all these awards.”
As TheWrap’s Steve Pond noted, this new calendar was very unpopular with nominees and their handlers, who had to deal with a much more hectic travel schedule because of the truncated awards season. Some of the awards shows, such as the Writers Guild Awards, also had few nominees turn up because they had to compete directly against other awards like the BAFTAs booked on the same weekend.
For those reasons, it’s likely that the Oscars will return to the old schedule for the foreseeable future: nominations in mid-to-late January for a late February show. Obviously, we won’t know until around the end of 2020 exactly how many nominees will have serious theatrical viability when nominations are announced. But those potential contenders will be competing a much stiffer February slate than this year, specifically in the form of the Marvel Studios film “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” set for release on Feb. 12, 2021.
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Raphael Coleman, Child Star of ‘Nanny McPhee,’ Dies at 25
Raphael Coleman, who starred as Eric in the 2005 Emma Thompson movie “Nanny McPhee,” died suddenly last Friday at the age of 25.
His stepfather, Carsten Jensen, shared the news on Facebook, noting that Coleman “collapsed without prior health problems in the middle of a trip and could not be restored.” Coleman’s mother, Liz Jensen, added on Twitter, “Rest in peace my beloved son Raphael Coleman, aka Iggy Fox. He died doing what he loved, working for the noblest cause of all. His family could not be prouder. Let’s celebrate all he achieved in his short life and cherish his legacy.”
Coleman quit acting not long after the film came out and he went on to devote himself to environmental activism.
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In her Twitter post, Coleman’s mother linked to an essay he wrote for Extinction Rebellion, an organization dedicated to fighting climate change. That essay, entitled “This Is Why I Rebel,” has now been updated with a mention of Coleman’s passing.
Coleman made his screen debut in “Nanny McPhee” at the age of 11 playing Eric, a boy who had a penchant for playing with explosive ingredients. According to Jensen, he could have stuck with acting but decided to “save the planet” instead.
“When I think of Raph, I see something that will never die, a blunt of eternity, a light beam that lives forever in young people,” Jensen wrote in his Facebook post. “We believe that it is us, the older generations who have something to give the young people. We believe that we are the ones who pass the baton of life to them. But I think it’s the other way around. The young people remind us why we’re alive. They remind us of the purpose of life that this is the gift we must not in distraction until we have unpacked it.
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Oscars 2020 Party Report: Oscar Night Celebrations Bring Out Hollywood’s Biggest Stars (Photos)
Oscar night parties began with viewing soirees at hotspots all over Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon, then picked up speed as the show ended with Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” historic win. Once the Dolby Theatre emptied out, Hollywood’s hottest started the bouncing, going from party to party well into the wee hours. Here are a few of the stops the stars hit along the way.
Every winner’s first after-party was the Governor’s Ball, where they had to stand in line at the engraving stand behind Bong Joon Ho, whose golden boys filled up the table. Renée Zellweger (pictured) wasn’t complaining, not were Taika Waititi or Joaquin Phoenix, who had a bonding moment while they waited. Everyone was wowed by producer Cheryl Cecchetto’s “Filmscapes” theme that presciently featured images from world cinema. How did she know South Korea was going to win Best Picture?
It was a family affair both at the Oscar ceremony and beyond, as winners like Brad Pitt and Joaquin Phoenix brought their mothers along for the ride. And Joaquin went one step further and brought the whole clan to the Vanity Fair party, set up at the Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills, which remains the most sought-after ticket of the night. From nominees and winners like Bong Joon Ho, Renée Zellweger, Laura Dern, Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver and Florence Pugh to the Kim Kardashian-Kanye West clan, this was the place to be Sunday night. Rain Phoenix, Arlyn Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix, Summer Phoenix and guests are pictured together above.
At the 28th Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Viewing Party, IMDb broadcast a live stream from the bash, which raised over $6.4 million for the global effort to end AIDS. The “Queer Eye” Fab Five kept things going, while the assemblage bid on both silent and live auction items. When Elton John and Bernie Taupin (pictured above with David Furnish) triumphantly arrived with their Oscars in hand, the crowd went crazy; as Sharon Stone commented to TheWrap, it was one of the biggest turnouts she’s ever seen at the bash. John gave kudos to Taupin, saying, “That bond from the day we met has only gotten stronger to the current day. I love him more than you’ll ever know!” Feeling the love at the packed West Hollywood Park venue were Billy Porter, Christina Ricci, Heidi Klum, Christina Hendricks and a slew of other stars.
Viewing parties actually happened all over Beverly Hills, with the Mercedes-Benz Oscars Viewing Party one of the top choices, with its elegant setting in the ballroom of the Four Seasons Hotel. They even had an astrologer on hand to do some predicting for guests, who included Jon Hamm, Linda Cardellini, Jane Lynch and Martha Stewart. Stewart didn’t do any twerking during the show, but she sure giggled when we chatted with her about her recent dance cameo in Snoop Dogg’s video remake of “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” saying, “That was so much fun! It’s cute, isn’t it?” Tracee Ellis Ross drew stares with her fascinating nose-to-earring (pictured), while most of the crowd went more traditional with tuxedos and sparkly gowns.
Byron Allen brought Adam Levine and Maroon 5 to his fourth annual viewing and after-party at the Beverly Wilshire, which of course drew a crowd to the ballroom, who also gave generously to the cause. Benefitting Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the bash raised $1.5 million for the hospital, as Tiffany Haddish (pictured) and Chris Tucker helped Allen run the live auction and kept the crowd laughing while they opened their pockets. Quincy Jones, Garcelle Beauvais, Paris Hilton, Russell Peters and former Lakers player Derek Fisher made the scene, with Fisher taking the mic to remember his teammate Kobe Bryant in an emotional moment.
Dennis Quaid (pictured) brought some raucous rock ‘n roll to Daphna Ziman’s Children Uniting Nations Cinemoi 21st Annual Oscars Celebration, Viewing Dinner and After Party held at the Harry Warner Estate in Beverly Hills. Metta World Peace, Maya Ford, Ray Lewis, Corey Brooks and other notables attended, with an eye to giving back to at-risk children while celebrating Oscar’s big night.
Netflix took over the San Vicente Bungalows for their Oscars after-party hosted by the company’s chief content officer, Ted Sarandos. And while their 24 nominations only netted two wins, including Laura Dern’s (pictured with Sarandos) for “Marriage Story,” everyone at the party was still in high spirits, including Martin Scorsese and his daughter Francesca as well as many other stars in Netflix’s ever-growing stable.
Michael K. Williams (pictured) served as the welcoming host for the 3rd Annual Griot Gala Oscars After Party, held at Ocean Prime restaurant in the heart of Beverly Hills. Celebrating “diversity, inclusion and equality,” the gala honored David Steward II, the CEO of Lion Forge Entertainment and the producer of “Hair Love,” which snagged the Oscar for best animated short. Vanessa Bell Calloway was also honored, as friends like Anne-Marie Johnson, Tzi Ma, Glynn Turman and MJ Rodriguez stopped in to enjoy the restaurant’s delicious seafood bites as they rehashed the excitement of the 92nd Annual Academy Awards.
‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ Enlists Jennifer Kaytin Robinson to Update Script
“Thor: Love and Thunder” has enlisted Jennifer Kaytin Robinson to assist Oscar winner Taika Waititi update the script prior to its August production start, according to an individual with knowledge of the project.
Waititi — who took home the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for “Jojo Rabbit” — will return to write and direct. The filmmaker directed the third film in the installment, “Thor: Ragnarok,” which was written by Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle and Christopher L. Yost. Waititi also portrayed Korg in “Ragnarok” and “Avengers: Endgame.”
The plot remains under wraps, but at the end of “Avengers: Endgame,” Thor leaves New Asgard on Earth and hitches a ride to parts unknown with the Guardians of the Galaxy. As they get ready to depart, Thor jokingly refers to the group as the “Asgardians of the Galaxy,” leading to a funny exchange with Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) about who really leads the team. So we know at least where Thor might be when he returns.
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“Thor: Ragnarok” grossed $854 million at the worldwide box office since its November 2017 release, and scored rave reviews from critics, achieving a 93% “fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes, as well as an “A” CinemaScore.
“Thor: Love and Thunder” will hit theaters November 2021.
Robinson wrote and directed “Someone Great” for Netflix, which starred Gina Rodriguez, Brittany Snow and DeWanda Wise.
Robinson is repped by CAA and Gotham Group.
Marvel had no comment.
Variety first reported the news.
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James Bobin in Talks to Direct ‘Clue’ Reboot With Ryan Reynolds
“The Muppets” director James Bobin is in early talks to direct Ryan Reynolds in the movie reboot based on the board game “Clue,” an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.
Back in September, TheWrap reported that Jason Bateman was in talks to direct and potentially co-star in the film, but his deal never closed, as the actor had a conflict with his obligations to the Netflix series “Ozark.”
“Clue” is set up at 20th Century Studios and has Reynolds attached to star and produce via his Maximum Effort banner. Hasbro’s AllSpark Pictures is also producing.
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“Deadpool” writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick are writing the script for “Clue,” which is a comedy and murder mystery inspired by the popular board game from Hasbro.
“Clue” was first adapted into a movie in 1985 directed by Jonathan Lynn and starring Tim Curry as a butler leading Col. Mustard, Miss Scarlet and the other characters from the game on a chase to discover which one of them killed Mr. Boddy. Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd and Lesley Ann Warren also starred in the movie that has since become a cult hit for its dark, slapstick humor.
Bobin last directed Paramount’s family adventure film “Dora and the Lost City of Gold,” which earned $120.7 million worldwide on a $49 million budget. He’s represented by UTA.
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February 9, 2020
Bong Joon Ho Calls ‘Parasite’ Oscar Win ‘Really F–ing Crazy,’ and 4 Other Things You Didn’t See on TV
Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” won Best Picture and made history by winning four Oscars, the first for any Korean film and the first non-English language movie to win Best Picture. So how does Bong really feel about his victory?
“It’s really f—ing crazy!” Bong said backstage. All season he’s been going around with his interpreter Sharon Choi, but he didn’t need an interpreter for that one.
Bong and producer Kwak Sin Ae came back late to the Oscars press room at the Loews Hollywood Hotel, brandishing their four Oscars for “Parasite,” and they both agreed that they’re still waiting to wake up from some sort of dream.
“I can’t imagine the atmosphere in Korea and what will happen when we get back,” Kwak said.
Also Read: 'Parasite' Win Rescues a Predictable Oscar Show With a Shot of Exuberance
Bong’s previous film, “Okja,” was a co-production between Hollywood and Korea, but he said this film is making him rethink the types of films he wants to make, to pay more attention to his surroundings and tell more local stories in the hopes that future films might be received the way “Parasite” has.
But Bong also added to his comments he made onstage at the Golden Globes, about how audiences need to overcome the “one-inch barrier” of subtitles. Now that his film has won, he realizes that maybe people already have.
“I feel like I was already a little late. People already were overcoming these barriers, from streaming services, YouTube, social media. And in the environment that we’re currently living in, I feel we’re all connected,” Bong said. “So naturally, I feel we will come to a day when a foreign language film or not, it doesn’t matter. A foreign language film like this won’t be much of an issue hopefully.”
Here are some other things you didn’t see on TV from the Oscars broadcast:
Also Read: Oscars 2020 Winners: The Complete List
Brad Pitt Is Ready to ‘Disappear For a Little While’
Now that awards season has come to an end and Brad Pitt has won virtually all the awards, including tonight’s Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, he’s ready to get out of the spotlight for a little while. Speaking backstage in the Oscars press room, Pitt was asked if this has been the best time of his life.
“Uhhh… no, I hope not. I hope I got other s— going on. But it has been a really special, really special run,” the “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood” star said, adding that he wanted to avoid taking a victory lap. “I think it’s time to go disappear for a little while now and, you know, get back to making things.”
Pitt admitted that although he’s an A-list star, being in front of massive crowds is not necessarily his thing. He had skipped out on the Golden Globes press room earlier this year, so his appearance as the first person backstage was a welcome surprise to an eager press room.
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Taika Waititi Demands the WGA ‘Do Something’ About Apple’s Keyboards
Hollywood is buzzing about what could be an impending writers strike, so as the winner of both the WGA prize and the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, Taika Waititi had some very strong thoughts about how the WGA should act and respond to a crisis in the industry.
“Apple needs to fix those keyboards. They are impossible to write on. They have gotten worse, makes me want to go back to PCs because PC keyboard, the bounceback for your fingers is way better,” Waititi joked with some real urgency. “Just got to fix those keyboards. WGA needs to step up and actually do something.”
He’s got shoulder problems you know, and he proceeded to give a brief anatomy of the human vertebrae. We would know; we’re all journalists hunched over Mac laptops. He even took an informal poll of the room and found that very few were actually working on PCs.
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Waititi also joked that his acceptance speech was the most “truthful” of all the winners that evening because he didn’t take the time to thank his agents and lawyers.
“If I have to go up, I’m not going, ‘Thank you.’ Because why should I? I did all the typing. No one else did it. And all the words came from my head,” Waititi deadpanned. “So, bottom line, I’m not going to thank my lawyer for that. I love him. He’s done great stuff for me, he got me a bloody good deal on ‘Thor: Love and Thunder,’ but he didn’t type anything on ‘Jojo Rabbit.'”
Even if he lost though, he said his movie was validated when Mel Brooks gave his film the “seal of approval” at the AFI luncheon in front of all of Hollywood.
“This whole awards season can go down the drain as far as I’m concerned,” his producer told him. “This is our Oscar.”
‘1917’ Sound Mixing Team Behind Merging Oscar Categories
Among all the Oscars ideas that have come and gone in the past few years for the Oscars, one idea that has picked up steam is the idea to merge the categories of Sound Mixing and Sound Editing.
After winning the Oscar for Sound Mixing for “1917,” Mark Taylor, along with Stuart Wilson, said they would support the merger.
“100 percent behind that,” Taylor said. “The difference between sound editing and sound mixing has become so blurred now. There’s so much input from sound editors prior to us getting something mixed that I think it’s a good thing. 100 percent.”
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Don’t Forget About Bernie Taupin!
Between his Oscar win and FaceTiming with his children in Australia, Elton John managed to sneak in two questions with the press room. But he begged, please don’t forget about Bernie Taupin. John already had an Oscar, but this particular award, he stressed, was for Taupin.
“This is for him. This is for my partner of 53 years. Without him, I wouldn’t be here,” John said. “This is the man who started the journey.”
“It’s like a marriage, it really is,” Taupin added. “And one of the things that makes it work is being different, having different lives, leading different lives. But we always come back together for the music. Music is the thing that has run through the bloodlines of our veins ever since we first met.”
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‘Parasite’ Win Rescues a Predictable Oscar Show With a Shot of Exuberance
“Parasite” made history at Sunday’s Academy Awards on a number of different levels. It was the first Korean feature to ever win an Oscar, the first Palme d’Or winner to also win Best Picture since “Marty” did it 64 years ago — and, biggest of all, the first film not in English to win the top award in the 92-year history of the Oscars.
The twisted black comedy about class differences, from a director known for horror movies and never before taken seriously by the Academy, beat Sam Mendes’ “1917,” which had won the Producers Guild and Directors Guild awards, usually sure-fire Oscar indicators. It also beat two epics from two massively influential American directors of different generations, Martin Scorsese’s elegiac “The Irishman” and Quentin Tarantino’s consummate “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” as well as the unexpected crowd-pleasers “Jojo Rabbit” and “Joker.”
None of this came as a real surprise, since director Bong’s film had been one of the Oscar frontrunners for months, though it went into the ceremony as a slight underdog to “1917” in the eyes of pundits and bookies. Its road to the stage of the Dolby Theatre at the end of Sunday’s show — which until the end was one of the most predictable Oscar shows in many years — was a long and winding one.
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But it was one that ended with multiple ovations for Bong and his movie. And it was one that ended with the feeling that the Academy simply loved the movie and felt really, really good about honoring it.
It took a while to get there, though. At first, the question was whether a Korean film could finally land a nomination in the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film category, something the country was never able to do despite 30 previous submissions to what was then called the Best Foreign Language Film category.
But within a month or so of the Cannes Film Festival premiere of “Parasite” in May, and its subsequent Palme d’Or award, it was clear that the international-film category was a given, and more was possible.
The question changed to “Can it get a Best Picture nomination?” and then to “And how about Best Director?” and then, slowly but surely, to “Can it actually win Best Picture?”
So what happened? In a way, you can thank #OscarsSoWhite from 2016 and Alfonso Cuarón from last year. The #OscarsSoWhite protest movement, which arose after two consecutive years of all-white acting nominees, pushed the Academy into an extraordinary push to add women and people of color — and to do that, it reached out around the world and brought in more than 1,000 international members in the last four years. A transformed Academy acknowledged last year that maybe it shouldn’t use the word foreign in referring to non-American cinema, and for the last two years, the organization has been more open than usual to films that were made outside the United States.
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This led to Cuaron’s “Roma” being one of the Best Picture frontrunners last year, the first time since “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” in 2000 that a non-English film made a serious run at the top prize. “Roma” ended up losing to “Green Book,” a sign that the Academy was still dominated by older white voters — but by staying in the conversation all season long, eventually winning Best Director and Best Cinematography in addition to Best Foreign Language Film, it proved that an increasingly international Academy was increasingly receptive to international cinema.
And that laid the groundwork for “Parasite” to be taken seriously as an Oscar contender. First, though, it had to survive the barrage of awards movies that came out of Cannes (“Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood”) and out of the fall festivals (“Joker,” “Jojo Rabbit,” “Marriage Story,” “The Irishman” … ).
The two biggest contenders, for a time, appeared to be Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” and Scorsese’s “The Irishman.” The former film may have peaked too early and may have been overestimated by pundits who are convinced that the Academy automatically goes for movies about Hollywood. (They did that with “The Artist” and “Argo,” but more recently they didn’t with “La La Land.”) While it won the Golden Globes comedy award and the Critics’ Choice Award for best picture, it won almost none of the many guild awards for which it was nominated, suggesting that Brad Pitt aside, it was never quite as popular as we thought.
As for “The Irishman,” the Netflix release started strong at the New York Film Festival and got the theatrical run that Martin Scorsese wanted. But by the time voting came around, it was largely available on the streaming site. The deliberately paced three-and-a-half-hour movie could be engrossing on a small screen to viewers who were paying attention, but the format also made it awfully easy to walk away from, or to split up into smaller pieces that didn’t pack the cumulative punch that the entire work does in one sitting.
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(It’s also worth noting that the Academy has never particularly warmed up to Scorsese, who has only won Best Picture and Best Director once, for “The Departed,” and whose most-awarded films are “The Aviator” and “Hugo,” not generally thought to rank near the top of his canon.)
As the biggest contenders faded, the field opened up for something new, which was the late-breaking “1917.” For voters who were still inclined to keep a non-English film in the Best International Feature category, Sam Mendes’ war movie stormed into the race with its bravura single-shot approach — it was a movie-movie that could attract all the below-the-line branches in the Academy. It felt like an Oscar movie, and it was backed by the same studio, Universal, that had steered “Green Book” to a victory last year.
So when it won the Producers Guild and Directors Guild, “1917” seemed to be the movie to beat — and yet the wins for “Parasite” never stopped. It won the SAG ensemble award, the all-important American Cinema Editors’ ACE Eddie Awards, the Art Directors Guild, the Motion Picture Sound Editors and then, crucially, the Writers Guild Award for original screenplay, followed a day later by the BAFTA screenplay award as well.
(Unlike the WGA Award, for which “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” was ineligible, “Parasite” beat “Once Upon a Time” head-to-head at BAFTA, which had embraced Tarantino in the past.)
Bong received yet another ovation at the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday — and every place he went and every award he won, there was palpable enthusiasm that outstripped the cheers for almost anybody else.
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Over the course of the season, it seemed, Academy voters learned not just to love “Parasite,” but to also love giving it awards, which led to the screenwriting, international feature, director and picture awards that made it Sunday’s most-honored film.
If Jane Fonda’s announcement that it won Best Picture came as something of a shock, it wasn’t because people thought it didn’t have a chance — it was because after last year, there was still doubt that the Academy would go all the way and give its top prize to a film that isn’t in English.
Maybe that means this really is a new Academy. Or maybe “Parasite” is just an anomaly, the right film from the right director at the right time.
Whatever it is, the win added a shot of exuberance to a ceremony that until then had been workmanlike in the way it gave awards to the people and films we thought would get them. The four acting races were sealed long ago, and most of the other awards went to clear favorites, even in the always-tricky sh0rts categories.
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And the show itself was steady enough — though for a ceremony that opted to go without a host, it sure acted as if it wanted a host: extended bits by Steve Martin and Chris Rock at the top of the show, Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig later in the show, Julia Luis-Dreyfus and Will Ferrell after that; presenters whose only job was to introduce other presenters; and a mid-show recap (albeit from a rapper).
Meanwhile, Netflix, which had led all studios with 24 nominations for the first time ever, only managed two wins, one for Laura Dern in “Marriage Story” and one for the documentary “American Factory.” That’s two less than it received last year with 15 nominations — and its crowning glory, “The Irishman,” became only the fourth film to land 10 nominations and not win a single award. To make matters worse, and to reinforce that Scorsese isn’t exactly the Academy’s bag, two of the four 0-for-10 films are now by Scorsese, “The Irishman” and “Gangs of New York.” (The record for Oscar futility is shared by “The Turning Point” and “The Color Purple,” both of which went 0-for-11.)
Was the predictability a byproduct of the shortened season, with the Oscars taking place on the earliest-ever date of Feb. 9? Quite possibly: Once favorites were established, there was precious little time for dark horses to come along and change the narrative to any appreciable degree.
But there was time for the Academy to fall in love with the idea of loving “Parasite.” And that’s exactly what it did.
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