And The SAG Awards Go To:
CODA
Jessica Chastain, Will Smith
Michael Keaton, “Dopesick”
Kate Winslet,”Mare of Easttown”
Lee Jung-jae, “Squid Game”
Jung Ho-yeon, “Squid Game”
Ariana DeBose, West Side Story
Troy Kotsur, CODA
Stunt Ensembles, “Squid Game,” No Time To Die
Jason Sudeikis, “Ted Lasso”; Cast, “Ted Lasso”
Jean Smart, “Mare of Easttown”; Jean Smart, “Hacks” 

“Critics matter. That’s how I interpret the love the Academy showed for Drive My Car this year, nominating the three-hour Japanese drama in four separate categories. Sure, other non-U.S. films have been widely recognized by the Academy before. Parasite scored six nominations and won best picture just two years earlier, but that film was also a huge commercial phenomenon, earning $25 million by the day nominations were announced in 2020. Drive My Car, by contrast, hadn’t yet cracked $1 million.”
Peter Debruge On The Power Of The Dogged Critic

Austin’s Ritz Gets Joe Rogen Comedy Room At Former Drafthouse Locale

“Robert Pattinson took a decade-long detour through arthouse and auteur cinema, through offbeat roles – the freaks and weirdos, the feckless and the fundamentally untrustworthy – before he finally circled back, via scene-stealing supporting performances in The King and Tenet, into the kind of lead role which cements an actor’s A-list status. It could be viewed as a risky strategy, but it is one that paid off handsomely. Pattinson, who is now 35, has honed his mercurial talent. He is not just a movie star, he’s a thrillingly unpredictable and daring character actor. And he has nurtured something that is in short supply in his generation of groomed and polished media-savvy contemporaries: a refreshing oddball eccentricity.”

Joel Wachs: “I knew a lot of gay people in the industry — the most well-known ones like Rock Hudson, but many lesser-known people as well.  Everyone in those days, people were hiding, because the consequences of coming out would be so great. So much has changed since then, for the good.  I’m actually glad that Anderson did use my name In Licorice Pizza, because now we can have these discussions.”

NPR Hectors Oscar With Disastrous, Screenplay-Format “Humor” Piece That Would Embarrass Even Andy Borowitz

The West Side Story “One-er” Clip With Nearly Three Million Views

Edgar Wright: “This shot, among many more, broke my brain when I saw West Side Story. Truly brilliant staging.”

Transgressive Filmmaker Nick Zedd Was 63

Oscar Envelopegate Turns Five; Here’s A 2018 Oral History

Chris Licht, Showrunner Of CBS’ “Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” To Be Named Next CNN President

Spielberg Project List Revs Up Again With Possible Frank Bullitt Vehicle

Richard Brody: “Leos Carax winning the Best Director César for Annette is like Martin Scorsese winning his Oscar for The Departed: far too late and far from his best, but I hope that it has the same beneficial effect on his career.”

Sally Kellerman Was 84

Louis CK Kyiv Shows For Friday And Saturday To Go On

Ducats Now Thirty-Percent Off

“David Zaslav Pledges Cost Discipline After WarnerMedia Merger As Streaming ‘Spending Wars’ Intensify”

Toronto Names Five New Programmers: Jane Schoettle, Lead Programming ,Special Presentations; Jason Ryle Indigenous-Made Films; Kelly Boutsalis, Associate Programmer, Canadian Features; Ravi Srinivasan, Senior Manager, TIFF Programming; Robyn Citizen, Director of Festival Programming & Cinematheque; Andréa Picard, Senior Curator, TIFF & TIFF Cinematheque

“The upcoming Academy Awards have decided to relegate the score Oscar — along with seven other categories — to an off-air segment prior to the three-hour broadcast. It is a slap in the face to the hundreds of composers, arrangers, orchestrators, musicians, engineers and other professionals whose work provides the emotional foundation for so much of today’s cinematic storytelling.”

“Too many of these Oscar decisions seem motivated by bone-deep insecurity — a sort of self-loathing from the Academy about what the show really is, let alone what it ought to be.”

Mark Harris: “The Academy should back off from this quickly and completely. It’s a bad idea, rammed through with only a show of consulting members, and their anger is justifiable.”

Alan Heim, President, Motion Pictures Editors Guild: “We understand the Academy’s desire to make a more arresting show, but this move renders the ‘invisible art’ of editing even less visible. The Oscars should be a night to celebrate all of the labor and artistry that combine to bring stories to life on the screen, and we think deserving craftspeople have more than earned their time in the spotlight.”