THB #93: The Batman (no spoilers)
| March 6, 2022
Even as Sundance is a snowball’s throw from setting alight the fireplace of 2021’s release calendar, the Gurus o’ Gold take their first crack at sensing the shape of the extended, elongated, ever-lovin’ 2020 Oscars procession leading to the 93rd awards on April 25, produced by Jesse Collins, Stacey Sher and Steven Soderbergh.
For their first burst, The Gurus bow to Best Picture and then take the long view toward Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor and Best Animated Feature. There’s unexpectedly strong sentiment toward The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Promising Young Woman overall, and some interesting instincts offered in Best Picture and in the acting slots
| Rank | Last Chart | Best Picture | Adams | Bahr | Ellwood | Howell | Johnson | Karger | Morales | Patterson | Poland | Pond | Rogers | Sneider | Stone | Votes | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Nomadland |
1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 141 | ||||
| 2 |
The Trial of the Chicago 7 |
8 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 12 | 97 | ||||
| 3 |
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom |
6 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 11 | 96 | |||||
| 4 |
Minari |
3 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 12 | 95 | ||||
| 5 |
One Night in Miami |
5 | 5 | 3 | 10 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 9 | 11 | 88 | |||||
| 6 |
Mank |
2 | 11 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 12 | 3 | 11 | 85 | |||||
| 7 |
The Father |
4 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 11 | 10 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 11 | 69 | |||||
| 8 |
News of the World |
12 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 12 | 9 | 4 | 11 | 63 | |||||
| 9 |
Promising Young Woman |
9 | 8 | 9 | 6 | 12 | 10 | 1 | 10 | 11 | 4 | 8 | 11 | 55 | |||||
| 10 |
Da 5 Bloods |
7 | 10 | 12 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 30 | |||||||
|
Judas And The Black Messiah |
9 | 8 | 9 | 5 | 9 | 10 | 6 | 28 | |||||||||||
|
Soul |
7 | 11 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 6 | 27 | |||||||||||
|
Never Rarely Sometimes Always |
11 | 2 | 2 | 13 | |||||||||||||||
|
Sound Of Metal |
11 | 12 | 12 | 6 | 12 | 5 | 12 | ||||||||||||
|
First Cow |
10 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 12 | |||||||||||||
|
Tenet |
10 | 5 | 2 | 11 | |||||||||||||||
|
Malcolm & Marie |
11 | 12 | 2 | 3 | |||||||||||||||
| One Vote Wonders | |||||||||||||||||||
|
The United States vs. Billie Holiday |
9 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
|
The Outpost |
11 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
|
On The Rocks |
11 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
|
Palm Springs |
11 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
|
I'm Thinking Of Ending Things |
12 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
|
Let Them All Talk |
12 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| Rank | Last Chart | Best Director | Adams | Bahr | Ellwood | Howell | Johnson | Karger | Morales | Patterson | Poland | Pond | Rogers | Sneider | Stone | Votes | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Chloe Zhao Nomadland |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 81 | ||||
| 2 |
David Fincher Mank |
2 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 68 | ||||
| 3 |
Lee Isaac Chung Minari |
3 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 12 | 39 | ||||
| 4 |
Regina King One Night in Miami |
7 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 39 | |||||
| 5 |
Aaron Sorkin The Trial of the Chicago 7 |
6 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 30 | ||||||||
|
George C. Wolfe Ma Rainey's Black Bottom |
5 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 20 | |||||||||||
|
Spike Lee Da 5 Bloods |
4 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 15 | ||||||||||
|
Paul Greengrass News of the World |
3 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 14 | ||||||||||||
|
Florian Zeller The Father |
4 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 10 | |||||||||||||
|
Emerald Fennell Promising Young Woman |
4 | 3 | 2 | 9 | |||||||||||||||
| One Vote Wonders | |||||||||||||||||||
|
Lee Daniels The United States vs. Billie Holiday |
4 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
|
Christopher Nolan Tenet |
5 | 1 | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
|
Kelly Reichardt First Cow |
6 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
|
Shaka King Judas and the Black Messiah |
7 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
|
Darius Marder Sound of Metal |
7 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| Rank | Last Chart | Best Actress | Adams | Bahr | Ellwood | Howell | Johnson | Karger | Morales | Patterson | Poland | Pond | Rogers | Sneider | Stone | Votes | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Frances McDormand Nomadland |
1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 75 | ||||
| 2 |
Viola Davis Ma Rainey's Black Bottom |
3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 12 | 72 | ||||
| 3 |
Carey Mulligan Promising Young Woman |
4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 63 | ||||
| 4 |
Vanessa Kirby Pieces Of A Woman |
6 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 12 | 45 | ||||
|
Andra Day The United States Vs. Billie Holiday |
6 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 22 | |||||||||
| 5 |
Zendaya Malcolm & Marie |
5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 22 | ||||||||
|
Michelle Pfeiffer French Exit |
5 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 8 | |||||||||||||
|
Meryl Streep Let Them All Talk |
7 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 7 | |||||||||||||
|
Sidney Flanagan Never Rarely Sometimes Always) |
2 | 7 | 2 | 7 | |||||||||||||||
|
Sophia Loren The Life Ahead |
7 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 6 | |||||||||||||
|
Kate Winslet Ammonite |
5 | 6 | 2 | 5 | |||||||||||||||
| One Vote Wonders | |||||||||||||||||||
|
Elisabeth Moss Shirley |
7 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
|
Anya Taylor-Joy Emma. |
7 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
|
Yeri Han Minari |
7 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
|
Robin Wright Land |
7 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| Rank | Last Chart | Best Actor | Adams | Bahr | Ellwood | Howell | Johnson | Karger | Morales | Patterson | Poland | Pond | Rogers | Sneider | Stone | Votes | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Chadwick Boseman Ma Rainey's Black Bottom |
2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 81 | ||||
| 2 |
Anthony Hopkins The Father |
5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 63 | ||||
| 3 |
Riz Ahmed Sound of Metal |
1 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 12 | 56 | ||||
| 4 |
Delroy Lindo Da 5 Bloods |
3 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 12 | 50 | ||||
| 5 |
Gary Oldman Mank |
4 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 12 | 34 | ||||
|
Tom Hanks News of the World |
4 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 17 | |||||||||||
|
Kingsley Ben-Adir One Night in Miami |
5 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 17 | ||||||||||||
|
Steven Yeun Minari |
6 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 12 | ||||||||||
| One Vote Wonders | |||||||||||||||||||
|
Lakeith Stanfield Judas and the Black Messiah |
6 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
|
Ben Affleck The Way Back |
6 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
|
Andy Samberg Palm Springs |
7 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
|
Tom Holland Cherry |
7 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
|
John David Washington Malcolm & Marie |
7 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
|
Mads Mikkelsen Another Round |
7 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||
| Rank | Last Chart | Best Animated Feature | Adams | Bahr | Ellwood | Howell | Johnson | Karger | Morales | Patterson | Poland | Pond | Rogers | Sneider | Stone | Votes | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Soul |
2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 80 | ||||
| 2 |
Wolfwalkers |
1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 76 | ||||
| 3 |
Over the Moon |
6 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 11 | 46 | |||||
| 4 |
Onward |
3 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 10 | 38 | ||||||
| 5 |
Earwig and the Witch |
7 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 22 | ||||||||
|
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon |
5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 8 | 21 | |||||||||
|
The Croods: A New Age |
7 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 11 | |||||||||||
|
The Willoughbys |
4 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 9 | |||||||||||||
|
Trolls: World Tour |
6 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 7 | |||||||||||||
|
Bombay Rose |
5 | 6 | 2 | 5 | |||||||||||||||
| One Vote Wonders | |||||||||||||||||||
|
Feels Good Man |
3 | 1 | 5 | ||||||||||||||||
|
The Wolf House |
4 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||||||||||
|
Demon Slayer |
6 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
Your Friendly Neighborhood Gurus
Thelma Adams: Author, Top Critic on Rotten Tomatoes, Oscar Expert Twitter
Robyn Bahr: Freelance (Washington Post, GQ, Hollywood Reporter, Vanity Fair, Guardian) Twitter
Gregory Ellwood: The Playlist Twitter
Peter Howell: Toronto Star Twitter
Mark Johnson: Awards Daily Twitter
Dave Karger: TCM, IMDb Twitter
Wilson Morales: BlackFilmAndTV.com Twitter
Michael Patterson: Michael’s Telluride Film Blog; Twitter
David Poland: Movie City News Twitter
Steve Pond: The Wrap, Twitter
NathanielR: The Film Experience Twitter
Jeff Sneider: Collider Twitter
Sasha Stone: Awards Daily Twitter
-30-
May 1, 2022
"Netflix, the great disrupter whose algorithms and direct-to-consumer platform have forced powerful media incumbents to rethink their economic models, now seems to need a big strategy change itself. It got me thinking about the simple idea that my film and TV production company Blumhouse is built on: If you give artists a lot of creative freedom and a little money upfront but a big stake in the movie’s or TV show’s commercial success, more often than not the result will be both commercial (the filmmakers are incentivized to make films that will resonate with audiences) and artistically interesting (creative freedom!). This approach has yielded movies as varied as Get Out (made for $4.5 million, with worldwide box office receipts of more than $250 million), Whiplash (made for $3.3 million, winner of three Academy Awards), The Invisible Man (made for $7 million, earned more than $140 million) and Paranormal Activity (made for $15,000, grossed more than $190 million).From the beginning, the most important strategy I used to persuade artists to work with me was to make radically transparent deals: We usually paid the artists (“participants” in Hollywood lingo) the absolute minimum allowable by union contracts upfront, with the promise of healthy bonuses based on actual box office results—instead of the opaque 'percentage points' that artists are usually offered. Anyone can see box office results immediately, so creators don’t quarrel with the payouts. In fact, when it comes time for an artist to collect a bonus based on box office receipts, I email a video clip of myself dropping the check off at FedEx to the recipient."
Jason Blum Sees Room For "Scrappier" Netflix
| April 30, 2022
"As a critic Gavin was entertaining, wry, questioning, sensitive, perceptive"
Critic-Filmmaker Gavin Millar Was 84; Films Include Cream In My Coffee, Dreamchild
April 29, 2022
| January 24, 2022
DP/30 Audio: Bombshell, Jay Roach
| December 13, 2019
DP/30 Audio: The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Jonathan Majors
| December 4, 2019
DP/30 Audio: The Mustang, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre
| December 4, 2019
Stands out that one could fill out a fine list of directoral nominees with women and minorities, set these aside, and have another excellent list of minority and female nominees, and still have several other excellent choices left.
Covid has made everything bizarre, of course. I have to say, in baseball, NFL, NBA, these feel like authentic seasons to me, authentic champions. No asterisk, despite the weirdness of the lack of fans, playing in the bubble, lack of travel, guys getting sick etc. etc. Still felt like real seasons and earned championships. These Oscars…asterisk city, man. Feels so weird, like Pretend Oscars. All the big movies got postponed! Not saying it’s good or bad, just saying it’s weird getting worked up about this motley assortment of low-budget stuff we watched on television. Whoever wins, it’s basically kind of a fluke, for the most part. It’ll be “Francis McDormand has 2 Oscars and that weird 3rd one that doesn’t really count from the year no movies came out.”
I don’t believe News of the World would be in anyone’s predictions without the Universal publicity team. I have long (for nearly 20 years) believed this team of publicists uses access and ad money to promote their films to the Oscar prognosticators who, in part, depend upon them. The appearance of conflict of interest is glaring. The Academy should consider addressing it. The prognosticators are powerful players in the awards season.
Thinking of the radio payola scandal and investigations of the late 50s. I don’t think we are talking about direct cash payments, Ad buys accomplish as much, but there is so little transparency about the inner workings of awards campaigns, how would we know what is going on?
Jeez, why don’t they just give everything to Nomadland and call it a day?
I and everyone i know who has watched “Trial of the Chicago 7” believes it to be an unrelenting, hacky piece of crap. Shocked at its presence in award consideration. Should I watch again?
Signs point to “No.”