Sundance 2020: The Highlights So Far [Podcast]

I spoke to Hollywood-Elsewhere’s Jeffrey Wells about Sundance 2020 and what looks to be the “keepers” that have emerged so far. We tackled “Palm Springs,“ which sold for a record-breaking $15 million (breaking the original record set by Nate Parker’s “The Birth of A Nation” in 2016). Florian Zeller’s “The Father,” a dementia drama which will surely position Anthony Hopkins as a Best Actor frontrunner next year, and much more.

The mp3.

Podcast: ‘The Irishman' Won't Win Best Picture

I chatted with Hollywood Elsewhere‘s Jeffrey Wells about my belief that the leading Best Picture Oscar candidates are 1917, Parasite and Once Upon A Time in America. I am also, sadly, giving up on “The Irishman” winning Best Picture, I just don’t think it can happen and I lay out the reason why.

Here’s the podcast mp3.

Oscar Poker: Martin Scorsese's ‘The Irishman' is Unveiled

Hollywood-Elsewhere’s Jeffrey Wells and I spoke about “Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” as part of this morning’s Oscar Poker podcast.

We need to stop complaining that this is “yet another Martin Scorsese mob movie.”

Movies that are mob/crime/violence related in the Scorsese canon: Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Mean Streets, Casino, Goodfellas, The Departed, The Wolf of Wall Street, Cape Fear, and The Irishman.

That's only 9 out of the 25 movies in his filmography. If Scorsese had only made The King of Comedy, After Hours, The Age of Innocence, The Last Temptation of Christ, Silence, Bringing Out the Dead, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Shutter Island, and The Aviator, he'd still be regarded as a top-tier director.

Again, the mp3

Oscar Poker: TIFF & Telluride 2019

Oscar Poker with Hollywood-Elsewhere’s Jeffrey Wells went on for 90 minutes this week, so he decided cut the discussion in half — part 1 and part 2, each about 45 minutes.

“We talked about everything — William Friedkin (Sorcerer and To Live and Die in L.A.), the Safdies and Uncut Gems, The Irishman (“Goodfellas by way of Silence”), Jojo Rabbit, Stanley Kramer and Judgment at Nuremberg, Renee Zellweger and Judy Garland, wokester critics vs. movies about white male milieus (The Irishman, 1917) and a general reluctance to settle into whiteness…wokesters prefer POCs and multicultural environs as a rule.”

Once again, part 1 and part 2

Oscar Poker: Fall Movie Preview

This morning’s hour-long discussion with Hollywood-Elsewhere‘s Jeffrey Wells was another Oscar-filled conversation about the cinematic nirvana being unleashed these next few weeks via Venice, TIFF, Telluride and NYFF.

“Discussion of Joker trailer and themes therein, echoes of present-day shooters lost in despair; Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg‘s fight scene in The Yards; The King with Timothee Chalamet, “perhaps not the greatest casting call.” All eyes on Venice Film Festival. Ad Astra and Marriage Story screening tomorrow [Thursday, 8.29]. How will Marriage Story compare with Kramer vs. Kramer? Strong emotional current. Flinty, aggressive vibes emanating from ScarJo character? Attention spans have definitely weakened, hence sporadic complaints about The Irishman length, and why didn’t Netflix ask Scorsese (who spoke of “300 scenes” in the film during a May 2018 appearance) to create a six-episode Irishman miniseries? Reactions to The Laundromat, and Steven Soderbergh‘s wonderfully low-key sense of humor. A surprise Telluride flick? Not Dark Water but something? Jay Roach‘s Bombshell is more of a story of the Fox women who suffered through Roger Ailes‘ aggressions than a saga of the aggressor. Problematic gender quotas at film festivals.”

Again, the mp3.

Oscar Poker: ‘The Irishman' and Oscar

I don’t want to call this podcast “Oscar Poker” without Sasha Stone being involved, but, I had a nice chat with Hollywood-Elsewhere’s Jeffrey Wells this afternoon [mp3]. We couldn’t help but start talking about Martin Scorsese’s upcoming “The Irishman,” which remains the most anticipated movie of the fall festival season and, yet, it’s skipping Telluride, Venice and Toronto in favor of New York. Go figure. We also re-assessed the first batch of potential Best Picture nominees so far this year. It was a breezy chat, we didn’t go past the hour mark, but it does feel like awards season is finally upon us, which means -cross your fingers- there are plenty of great movies ahead.

Oscar Poker: Sundance 2019

“I had a discussion with Hollywood-Elsewhere’s Jeffrey Wells about the continuing Best Picture puzzlement, the fact that only two out of 25 Gold Derby know-it-alls are picking Green Book to win at this stage, the mysterious disappearance of Vox Lux, the coming importance of Lulu Wang‘s The Farewell, the inescapable impact of the forthcoming Leaving Neverland when it plays on HBO in early March, the fact that Nicole Kidman‘s raspy-voiced Destroyerperformance never made it into the Oscar conversation and other pressing matters.”

[Note: This conversation has no musical intro, no bells and whistles….just straight talk.]