2ND UPDATE: I love awards season because my email and voicemail get filled with negative campaigning about all the Academy Awards hopefuls. (Such holiday cheer is out here!) Over the years, I’ve reported on the studio badmouthing of heavyweight Saving Private Ryan to better the Oscar chances of lightweight Shakespeare In Love. And the planting of “He’s an anti-Semite and adulterer” allegations against the schizophrenic Princeton professor who was the sympathetic subject of biopic A Beautiful Mind. And more recently, the efforts to scuttle Blood Diamond and Slumdog Millionaire‘s chances because of unfounded charges the filmmakers callously exploited locals.
So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that this race is already turning nasty, nasty, nasty…
First, there’s some truth and some not in the Hollywood buzz that was emailed to me within minutes of today’s Golden Globes nominations by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Here’s one message I received from a rival campaigner: “Leo threw his good pal Tobey a party last week to which 40 HFPA went. They among others received some sort of fab parting gift, like a Blu-ray player. Thus the Tobey nom for a movie otherwise ignored.”
Yes, it’s true that Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire have known each other since they were 10 years old. Yes, they’re good pals even still. So Leo came back into town last week and told the Brothers fimmakers he was blown away by Maguire’s performance and wanted to throw an awards party for him. Yes, HFPA members were invited (but 15, not 40) along with a slew of Academy members like Sean Penn, Robert DeNiro, Gary Ross, Paul Rudd, Jon Favreau, and Shirley MacLaine. According to an attendee, “The most scandalous thing to happen at the party involving the HFPA was one of the more ancient members asking Shirley MacLaine if her legs were still in good shape — and Shirley taking her pants down to show the woman for herself. Revealing underpants in blue velvet/velour. No shit.” Relativity’s Ryan Kavanaugh, who underwrote the film, also paid for the party and the truffle bar and the gift bags which just happened to contain a Samsung BD-P1600 Blu-ray player.
Now, Hollywood knows well that HFPA has a long tradition of voting for whomever gives them the best swag. But that supposedly ended after the uproar when Sharon Stone gifted members with expensive Coach watches before she picked up a nomination for the little seen The Muse. I’m told that, the morning after Leo’s party for Tobey, the HFPA phoned Kavanaugh and said the Blu-ray goodie violated the group’s rules. So all 15 HFPA had to give back the DVD player.
Yes, it’s true that Tobey did indeed receive a nomination afterwards. But that was probably more because his acting was on point and because his publicist Kelly Bush lobbied relentlessly and would have gifted her kidneys to the HFPA to get it for him.
Then I keep hearing from studio execs what little money Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker and Clint Eastwood’s Invictus have made, and how that should prevent both films from winning Best Picture. This falls under the badmouthing category known as “Oscar voters don’t want to look out of touch with moviegoers”. Size does matter when it comes to box office, but that’s something Academy Motion Picture Arts & Sciences members ignore with ridiculous regularity. Sometimes it seems they purposely vote for the little known pics just to fuck with Hollywood’s head. For the record, Summit Entertainment’s drama hasn’t made much money since its release June 26th: domestic $12,671,105, foreign $3,436,487, worldwide $16,107,592. But it’s still very much an Oscar-worthy film. As is Invictus which opened soft last weekend with only $9M.
But then there’s Avatar, which is under attack from rivals for supposedly being the most expensive film in history and won’t ever make its money back. And who in Hollywood isn’t jealous of Jim Cameron and his seemingly unlimited resources and time to make that film his way. Then there’s the negative campaigning depicting Cameron as an asshole who needs to be taken down a few pegs. Same with Fox because of its arrogance. At least those are debatable gripes. Because the British press was leaked some nonsense that Avatar‘s 3-D makes moviegoers nauseated when the studio says it hasn’t heard one complaint. Yet it was a big Internet story over the weekend.
Then there’s Up In The Air and the criticism of Paramount for trying to “buy” Oscars for the film. That’s because of residual negativism from last year’s overspending on Benjamin Button.
There’s badmouthing of Precious director Lee Daniel for “shooting his mouth off” and “crazy talk” about racism during interviews. There’s also resentment over Tyler Perry associating himself with the movie because he fired writers and fought with the WGA. I’ve even heard that Lionsgate is concerned enough about the latter that they’ve asked him to keep a low-profile during awards season.
This year, the always delicate Jewish issue in Hollywood has taken a new and unexpected turn. Producers, agents, executives, and other major players will complain (privately, of course) that the movies An Education and A Serious Man depict Jews in a contemptible way. A recent article in The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles lashed into An Education saying the film’s depiction of its Jewish character is reminiscent of the parasitical Jew in the infamous Nazi anti-semitic propaganda film of the 1930’s, Der Ewige Juden (The Eternal Jew). Similarly, Hollywood is incensed privately by the Coen brothers’ A Serious Man and its Jewish stereotypes. Trust me, this will bubble up to the surface before too long if either film looks to be in serious contention for Best Picture.
Which brings me to Harvey Weinstein. Funny, in the good old days when he ran Miramax and ruled at Oscar time, he was perhaps the most adept Academy Awards badmouther around. But now that his financially embattled indieprod The Weinstein Co took home the most Golden Globe nominations of anyone, the worm has turned. Now Hollywood has started negative campaigning against him. Because there are a lot of pissed off co-producers who this morning didn’t see their names among the official HFPA list of nominees for Weinstein Co films. Omitted were Universal for Inglorious Basterds, and Relativity Media, Marc Platt Productions, and Lucamar Productions for Nine.
Immediately, my phone began ringing with studio publicists pointing an accusatory finger at Harvey for the strange oversight “because he wanted to hog all the credit for himself”. *UPDATE: I just received a call from Weinstein Co bigwigs acknowledging that the credit omittances on both films was their fault> They said they failed to scrutinize the forms filled out by a consultant. “It was an honest error. It was not Harvey trying to take the credit.”*
So the Oscar badmouthing has begun!
The true spirit of Hollywood comes out at awards time. Sharpen your knives ! Gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling for the holidays.
I’m not o the inside on a red carpet list, just rank and file member. Interested in the movie and then who did what. People make movies, people are not without their complexities; all hues. Avatar is a worthy candidate to feature in any category the Academy has. It’s well made, visually stunning and seamless as to real/digital, great story in the classic mould, great acting real/digital. A wonder.So ‘step off’ and give a visionary his due; those who created, to enable that vision come true their recognition. Easy to take an axe to people’s aspirations, be it Copenhagen or at a multiplex.
It Christmas too, remember.
Hey Bobby, try spellcheck! Avatar writing sucked, there are much better movies that could and should take any of the awards.
And I thought Hollywood was such a nice town.
You gotta love Harvey, even while his ship sinks around him he’s still swinging, and usually hitting the people he’s supposed to be in business with. I’m sure all of them will be glad to work with Harv in the future.
The biggest problem with the Golden Globes is that people take them way too seriously. I mean it’s movies picked by a tiny, easily swayed group that’s less open with their procedures than the Freemasons. The Oscars aren’t much better, and I don’t know why they are now so concerned about appearing out of touch with the movie going public, it’s been a source of pride for them for years.
The sad fact is that the badmouthing often becomes more entertaining than the movies in question.
The Freemason analogy isn’t really fitting: If one wants to become a Mason, all one has to do is ask one how to join. If only it were so simple with the Hollywood Freeloading Press Association…
A Serious Man is ABSOLUTELY Anti-semitic. I mean, have you ever seen bigger Jew-Haters than Joel and Ethan Coen? They’re a notch above Mel Gibson when it comes to hating the Hebrews. And where did they get the source material for this treatise on the evils of Jews? I mean where did they get this idea? I wonder if any of it came out of them growing up as Jews in Minnesota in the late 60’s.
Here’s the deal: Jews can make fun of other Jews. That’s how it works. Deal with it.
Would you explain to me why so many people think Mel Gibson is anti-semetic?
Couple of years ago , Gibson was pulled over for a DUI apparently the cop was Jewish. Mel said something to the effect” Jews are the cause of all the problems of the world” Pretty bad.
Ryan – Yes – becaise Giobson made anti-Semetic comments you tool!
Maybe the saw The Passion?
I think it has something to do with him saying “Fucking Jews…Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world”. That may have come into play. Plus, I’m pretty sure some people found the portrayal of the Jews in “The Passion of the Christ” to be a tad, what’s the term, horrendously cartoonish.
But let’s stay on topic: “A Serious Man” is not anti-semitic and the Golden Globes are horseshit.
“The Passion of the Christ” didn’t portray Jews as cartoonist any more than any recent or older film by Jewish directors on religious themes portrays Philistines or any “others” in “horrendously cartoonish” ways.
The irony is that 99% of conspiracies are imagined, but in Gibson’s case there was clearly an organized effort against him specifically by Jewish organizations, and by Jewish players in Hollywood, around his film whcih was no more prejudicial than most film with religious references and was NOT antisemitic.
BTW the Jewish leaders of the time and high priests were cartoonist, hateful, superstitious, betraying their own people to the Romans, and generally hateful and intolerant of others, celebrating genocides of non Jews, and modern Judaism has rightfully pretty much completely, and thankfully, changed from the “religion” of that time.
It is impossible to accurately portray high priests in Roman times or for that matter in 1000 BCE or any time between without portraying them as cartoonish hateful idiots
Even before the DUI incident and The Passion of the Christ, Gibson was noted for being a staunch Traditionalist Catholic. Traditionalists believe many things should be restored to pre-Vatican II status, like prayers in mass that ask for the conversion of Jews, etc. I believe there’s a recording floating around of his father speaking at an event years ago where he makes many anti-Semitic remarks, as well. So this was out and about for awhile.
Uhhh…”Cartoonish”, Rabbi? It’s a freakin’ MOVIE and last I checked, it wasn’t exactly the Muslims that had Jesus Christ put to death. History is history sir. If you don’t like the actions of a particular sect, talk to that particular sect or plain deal with it.
I’m growing soooo tired of all the “offended” out there. Waahhh.
I think the Coens are just generally misanthropic with their characters, many of them, no matter their ethnicity, range from childishly petty, to downright criminal, and all downward steps in between.
Coens misanthropic? Maybe, but think it`s more like revenge of the nerds. Ever get a good look at those goobers – u know they weren`t getting laid in school….any school.
1. Well, his anti-Semitic blast during his DUI arrest
2. His father was a Holocaust denier, and Mel hasn’t exactly disavowed that.
3. His script for the Passion was supplemented with text from the writings of Anne Catherine Emmerich, a notorious anti-Semitic Catholic Mystic. Gibson has never exactly explained just why he picked her of all people to punch up his words.
4. His Aramaic script for the Passion left the “blood libel” in. Sure, the subtitles were changed to remove the offensive line, but the Aramaic was left intact.
Or, how about that he claims the holocaust is just Jewish propaganda and never really happened? (just like his father) And is building his own compound for like thinkers? (BTW, wasn’t it his church that “annulled” his previous marriage?)
To quote, he’s a “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot”.
I’ll take a serious man over Precious any day.
Non-jews can make fun of jews too. It happens all the time.
Nonsense……….It was a wonderful depiction of everything I remember growing up Jewish in suburban Los Angeles in the 1950’s. I never for one minute thought that it was anti-semetic…….
Sorry Rabbi!
All of what you wrote just shows what a fraud movie awards are.
The Oscar win is really about the money bump at the box office and fees going up and access to material. Oh, yes, the prestige.
This is the Hollywood that kisses each other on the lips while driving the knife into each other’s backs. And what is really sick is they don’t care about the collateral damage like John Nash (A Beautiful Mind).
This has gone on for decades, but never has it gotten as bad as the last few years. Why not out every publicist, agent, studio exec and producer who tries to muddy up each other?
The list wouldn’t be that long. It’s always the same group of hypocrites doing it privately and then denying it and condemning it publically.
I saw “Brothers” and regardless of Tobey Maguire got the GG nom, it was more than well deserved. Hopefully the Academy is noticing as a Tobey snub at Oscar time would be criminal.
Denzel over Bill the Butcher was criminal…but, “Members must have their ballots returned to PricewaterhouseCoopers by 5 p.m. on Jan. 23, 2010.”
Isn’t anyone gunning for UP? I wouldn’t be surprised if this brilliant movie surprises everyone at the Oscars.
Doug: “I just met you and I love you.”
Did anyone write a better line all year?
@ Duke: Are you KIDDING me? Hilarious. Best line of ’83.
Right, the Coen brothers are anti-Semitic because they told a less-than-glowing story about their own father….oy,already.
And I thought it was all about the talent! Dummy me. Not. This is every theory about the Oscars, confirmed. The awards can be bought and sold just as easily as the people in Hollywood.
I feel that George Clooney is the most overrated actor in America. Did anyone watch the overbloated “Michael Clayton?” Talk about your hot air. He only gets nominated for his damn good looks, and he’s not exactly the nicest guy to the press.
Finally! Someone gets it right about George Clooney. This guy never could act! So full of himself and his opinions…as if he’s some sort of authority.
Mav–I’m a member of the press and have interviewed Clooney on many occasions. He’s always a good sport.
Just a quick question…How can something be over-bloated? It’s either bloated, or it isn’t. Perhaps you meant “overblown”?
Re: Clooney, There was only 1 Cary Grant but his handlers are in denial and try very hard to mold him so. Agree that GC (not CG) is overrated as an actor and nearly an empty suit, even in Armani. He`s no Cary Grant, no Steve McQueen. More like having the chops of a Tom Selleck w/a coke-high career.
Hollywood has lost it’s flavor long ago. The backbiting is nothing when it comes to the trash that is on the screen. There are times I see an advertised movie and I think this time I will give my bucks, but there are so few.. Hollywood has been making movies for themselves for years and the public has been ignored with what we want to see.. The true family picture has died a horrible death. We have instead; murder, meyhew, screw you honey movies, dark forboding tomorrow is not coming movies,politics according to the left and morality according to the hollywood standard, so we are not in Kansas anymore is a definite..
So whichever they pick means little to the man in the small towns with the familes and grandma and grandpa Jones What hollywood does is usally for themselves, by themselves. They want our dollars, but do not want to make movies we wish to see. So bring on the awards they give themselves, the pat on the backs for themselves and when they wonder why no one wants to see anything, just maybe they might think of the real old days when they made movies people still call wonderful and see over and over again. Not this tripe they call movies now.. Cynthia Marsh
I shouldn’t get sucked in but I really hate fake populism. There’s a lot of truth to the fact that Hollywood often makes crappy movies and cries victory and pats themselves on the back. But the idea that family movies are dead is a bit silly, as there’s a well liked Disney movie Frog Princess in the theaters right now, not to mention that the movie Up was fantastic, not to mention things like Beverly Hills Chihauha or Blind Side or The Proposal or any number of pretty safe and sweet movies.
Complaining about the moral decay of Hollywood is as old as Hollywood itself. And it’s uninformed, as most movies are apolitical, and most movies are considerably less violent than the offerings of the 70s and 80s. There are some left leaning movies out there, (Rendition? Who knows, Hollywood really does avoid politics). They aren’t the box office bonanazas that define the Hollywood system.
As for the award season, Up in The Air is the current frontrunner. It’s about the importance of family and grounding yourself in true relationships. The movie is good, not great, but it’s not really reflective of anything you’re complaining about. But you just want to echo the same tired complaint, even if it doesn’t reflect reality. Faux populism, stop doing it please. thanks.
Yeah no-one wants to see anything these days, then why is 2009’s Box Office about to step over the $10B mark for the first time
Inflation. Ticket sales have steadily declined since a high of 1.58 billion tickets sold in 2002. True, this year had a 50 million ticket-sold up-tick to 1.42 billion, so one could hardly say no-one wants to see anything these days. But the Pavlovian response of moviegoers who have to see the latest cranked out sequel or overhyped, brainless stimulation machine, complete with doofy glasses, help prop up the numbers (the Transformers sequel sold the fewest tickets of any year-end #1 grosser in the last 8 years, excepting Spiderman 3, another pitiful sequel). I can’t help but think this will lead to an eventual desertion by ticket buyers because of the severe disappointment these hallow movies leave them with. Maybe people will start reading books again to see how grownups actually behave.
Hi, Drudgebot.
So, the “family” film is dead huh? Is that why the generally G-rated Animated Oscar category has TWENTY eligible films this year?
Yep. Another Drudgebot Troll like the the anti-Semitic ranters above (“Passion wasn’t anti-Jew… Jews ARE cartoonish caricatures!”).
Remember not so long ago in the run-up to the strike when like 90% of the people posting/bickering/exchanging ideas and swapping gossip were people who work in the business? Those days are gone and it’s kind of a bummer. Like when your email tracking group of friends and friends-of-friends became a board and then became utterly useless.
Look in just about any article now and you’re going to find your ditto-heads ranting about liberal Hollywood, choking of actual dialogue and veering wildly off-topic with only the most tangential relationship with things like “facts,” “history” or “grammar.” Fan-fucking-tastic.
Love your post. The Last Picture Show did not have one explosion. Neither did Picnic, or Notorious, and if Hollywood ever had the nerve to remake any of these pictures, believe me, you’d see three or four cars exploding in each one.
Not that these are family pictures, per se. David Mamet’s excellent “Bambi vs.Godzilla” which I read last night in a couple of hours, says it all, darling. Where is the story these days in films? I will never watch SAW, etc.
to Cynthia Marsh: Love your post. The Last Picture Show did not have one explosion. Neither did Picnic, or Notorious, and if Hollywood ever had the nerve to remake any of these pictures, believe me, you’d see three or four cars exploding in each one.
Not that these are family pictures, per se. David Mamet’s excellent “Bambi vs.Godzilla” which I read last night in a couple of hours, says it all, darling. Where is the story these days in films? I will never watch SAW, etc.
Both “An Education” and “A Serious Man” are amazing films. I loved the traditions that the Coen brothers saw fit to embrace through their main characters as they spun their post-modern yarn of woe and warning (anybody read the book of Job lately?), with a fantastic final shot that I still think about. It’s not “No Country,” but then few movies are that great!
“An Education” is fantastic (my vote for best of the year). The Jewishness of Peter Sarsgaard is not displayed as venal in the slightest. If anything it reveals the WASP guilt subtext that Alfred Molina wrestles with as a concerned albeit easily impressed/swayed parent. The fact that his (Sarsgaard’s) character is a douche is what’s relevant. As a goy boy who has seen his Christian faith ridiculed for decades by Hollywood regularly, methinks these folks protest too much.
I luvsummeu to use Ms. Henson’s ( Benjamin Buttons Mom)tag line. We luv Nicky should be a t-shirt or button doing the awards season.
I also love this quote from Nicky. “just to fuck with Hollywood’s head.”
Yeah let’s start with the head and work are way down to the toes.
First how can the Coen brother’s be anti jewish doing Chanukah.
Secondly have the brothers ever featured any jewish characters in any of their films ( maybe Barton Fink) So cut them slack they don’t do a Sandler ( Zohan, which I loved)
As for Tyler he just lost his mom, so cut him some slack too.
As for rest of Hollywood. I cannot think of the last film I slapped down five let alone 15 dollars in the last eight months so step up your game. Sell it but sell it with class. Make Thalberg proud.
Secondly have the brothers ever featured any jewish characters in any of their films ( maybe Barton Fink)
I take it you’ve never seen The Big Lebowski: “I don’t roll on Shabbos!”
Walter was a faux Jew, his ex was the Jew, get your Lebowski facts right…I don’t think there was one Jew IN that film….or in Fargo…or Blood Simple…
Is ‘TAKEN’ nominated for anything? Action movie or not that flick simply kicked ass from top to bottom.
‘Liam Neeson’. Rhymes with ‘super star mutha f*cka’.
oh man, Taken sucked in my opinon. don’t get me wrong, LUV Liam Neeson, but whoever the actress was who played his daughter – she looked about 28, and had to play 16(?) and acted like a giddy twit. apparently they had to be sure and have an adult actress to play the underage girl with the movie’s sexual themes, but it was way too annoying!
Yes, I hated her – I looked her up after and vowed to never watch another movie with her in it. And WHY did she have to run head first into everything/one? otherwise though, loved the movie. it is badass and I have watched seven times this year – but she really ruins it if you let her.
The teenage daughter in “Taken” was a horribly-written character whose naivete solely serviced the entire premise of the film. If the daughter character wasn’t dumb and scared sh**less, and consistently so, then Daddy Neeson would have no reason to rescue her. I don’t know a single upper class teenager who would travel to a foreign country and act so naive (especially while sober!). Affluent kids are sheltered, but not like that. And what parents would send their presumably ditzy, dumb child to a foreign country on a whim and a hug? That said, Maggie Grace–of “Lost” ilk–is not a horrible actress. (If you’ve seen her in other roles, you would know).
I love Liam Neeson and feel he can do no wrong, but come on, people. “Taken” played like a Bruce Willis flick that should’ve been filmed in the mid-90s but ended up collecting dust until someone decided to change the sell-by-date and throw it back onto the sales floor. Why the hell is a nearly 60-year-old man (who presumably thrived at a 25-yr desk job) going after the bad guys…by HIMSELF? So many unrealistic plot devices, so little time…
This movie set the clock back on female characters fighting for themselves, or at least showing some inclination to fight for their lives. (Another reason why the film felt so antiquated). We’ve gone from Rachel McAdams bashing Cillian Murphy with the field hockey stick and Alison Lohman clawing at the gypsy lady to…this.
I hope Taken 2 doesn’t feature the same dumb daughter getting herself into the same situation. That would be unforgivable. Maybe Neeson’s character goes around rescuing other people’s ditzy/sober traveling daughters?
Just saw that film on DirecTV- WOW you are so right-what a ride and Neeson was astoundingly good!
Speaking of Globes-Nikki, why was superb FX effort Sons of Anarchy so overlooked by the GG (Gilt grabbers aka Golden Globules?)
“It was an honest error. It was not Harvey trying to take the credit.”*
*cough* bullshit! *cough*
When a movie makes less than $13 million domestically in 6 months of release, that tells me one thing; audiences simply rejected it. It was the latest in a long conga line of Iraq war films that none of ’em made any headway with ticketbuyers. Gawker.com said it would be suicidal for the Academy to vote Hurt Locker as their best picture. I agree, considering the uproar over the snub last year of The Dark Knight, the 2nd most popular film in history because of genre bias and jealousy over its tremendous appeal with the average moviegoer. There needs to be a balance between critics/moviegoer appeal vs. just art-house stuff. And the problem here is that they went to 10 BP nominees in a year where 5 would do just nicely. Like Avatar (sight unseen by me, yes), Star Trek, The Hangover (the most popular comedy of all time), Up in the Air and Hurt Locker.
If a movie is the Best Picture of the year, it needs to stand on its own merits regardless of success. Not all the winners were big hits. Hurt Locker did pretty good in limited release.
Do you recall the Hurt Locker scene in the Humvee when they have like three days left in rotation, turn to each other and question what they’re doing and note (surprise!) they could die every day?
THAT SCENE is so lame, like a year in they would bring it up…wha? Erm ain’t that a DAY ONE or sooner conver? Seemed like a punch up scene a producer requested to me that marred an otherwise most excellent film.
Just went and saw “The Hurt Locker” here in Australia and thought it was a great film…..Perhaps it hasnt done well in the US because its an Iraq/war film….and there is a lot of anti war sentiment there…I hope that it does well in Australia because it deserves too!
Hollywood/the Oscars — it’s over. The stars/their agents know they are widely despised, hence their ravenous hunger for acclaim/awards.
I guess it falls under badmouthing then to say that having TEN(!) movies nominated for best picture is an abomination. It was only done because Hollywood can’t stand to see the independent and small movies get nominated taking away votes from them. Having 10 nominations makes it next to impossible that the small films will win, and makes for great marketing – “Nominated for Best Picture”. The entire Academy awards has become what it started out as – a marketing gimmic.
I love these type of stories come Oscar time – the back biting is truly a sight to behold, and most of the time is more interesting than the movies in contention!
who cares. all the nominated movies suck anyway. thought macguire was decent in a pretty boring movie. hurt locker kicked ass, besides that, skip the rest
Terrence, you must be another ‘friend of tobey’ because at least 50% of reviewers (and this viewer agrees) thought he was miscast and unconvincing in the role.
julia roberts nod is also very suspect. but, as nikki says, hey – it’s the golden globes. what should we expect?
50% of reviews certainly did NOT think he was miscast. The film itself got mixed reviews, but the performances have gotten stellar notices. Is that your thing though, Tom? You go on message boards and just make stuff up?
not making stuff up, Terence
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1213999-brothers/?critic=creamcrop
some critics liked the performances yes, but i’d suggest you are the one bending the truth if you say ‘all the performances got stellar notices’. many reviewers took issue with the acting. to quote just one top critic:
‘With the exception of Jake Gyllenhaal, whose shambling self-disgust hits the only genuine note, the movie is a classic of Hollywood miscasting and ambition gone askew’.
Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2009/12/14/091214crci_cinema_denby?currentPage=2#ixzz0ZsPZ4kSn
not saying the movie is all bad, – i am a sheridan fan. but certainly not one of the best acting performances of the year.
Does anyone still give a crap about Hollyweird and the Oscars?
not to state the obvious, but obviously you care enough to post on a hollywood industry site.
Marine43–Apparently you still care because you’re on this site.
I’d take Jeremy Renner over Tobey Maguire anyday. His performance in The Hurt Locker was nothing short of amazing. The fact that he was left out is absurd. He is low on the totem pole because no one knows him and not many people saw The Hurt Locker but he should be up there with the rest of them.
Solid business acumen from the Weinstein Co. keep gunning for awards and continue to edge closer to being out of business