Dennis Cozzalio at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule (a blogger after my own heart who loves baseball, spaghetti westerns and movies) has come up with yet another cool cinephiliac quiz. Your task: fill out the quiz with questions attached and cut and paste it as a comment here. I'm still working on mine, which is a work-in-progress on the jump. Yes, this is my idea of a good time. Enjoy, and have a Happy New Year.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2008 PROFESSOR KINGSFIELD'S HAIR-RAISING, BAR-RAISING HOLIDAY MOVIE QUIZ

1) What was the last movie you saw theatrically? On DVD or Blu-ray?

2) Holiday movies— Do you like them naughty or nice?

3) Ida Lupino or Mercedes McCambridge?

4) Favorite actor/character from Twin Peaks

5) It’s been said that, rather than remaking beloved, respected films, Hollywood should concentrate more on righting the wrongs of the past and tinker more with films that didn’t work so well the first time. Pretending for a moment that movies are made in an economic vacuum, name a good candidate for a remake based on this criterion.

6) Favorite Spike Lee joint.

7) Lawrence Tierney or Scott Brady?

8) Are most movies too long?

9) Favorite performance by an actor portraying a real-life politician.

10) Create the main event card for the ultimate giant movie monster smackdown.

11) Jean Peters or Sheree North?

12) Why would you ever want or need to see a movie more than once?

13) Favorite road movie.

14) Favorite Budd Boetticher picture.

15) Who is the one person, living or dead, famous or unknown, who most informed or encouraged your appreciation of movies?

16) Favorite opening credit sequence. (Please include YouTube link if possible.)

17) Kenneth Tobey or John Agar?

18) Jean-Luc Godard once suggested that the more popular the movie, the less likely it was that it was a good movie. Is he right or just cranky? Cite the best evidence one way or the other.

19) Favorite Jonathan Demme movie.

20) Tatum O’Neal or Linda Blair?

21) Favorite use of irony in a movie. (This could be an idea, moment, scene, or an entire film.)

The rest of the quiz is here.

IndieWIRE polled a group of indie industry insiders and its own editors for their Top 10s for 2008.

UPDATE: Fast Company posts a headhunter's guide to the top ten films of 2008, from The Dark Knight to Horton Hears a Who!:

8. HORTON HEARS A WHO! PROTAGONIST: Horton the Elephant JOB SKILLS: Persistence, protectiveness, resourcefulness. Horton has considerable experience in a wide variety of sought-after traits, stemming from his efforts to keep the microscopic community of Whoville from being destroyed by his peers, all of whom do not believe such a place exists. His sweetness, unabashed belief in the goodness of all living things, willingness to do what is right, loyalty and faithfulness would be an asset to any organization fortunate enough to hire him. IDEAL JOB: No current openings for someone with these assets

Here's the Village Voice Weekly film poll, led by Wall-E.

While Gus Van Sant's biopic Milk, starring Sean Penn as the murdered San Francisco gay activist, is enjoying a strong award-season run, many are also discovering Rob Epstein's classic 1984 doc, the Oscar-winning The Times of Harvey Milk. And they're finding it online, thanks to the unremitting efforts of Cinetic Digital Rights Management.

Cinetic's Matt Dentler helped to forge a deal with New Yorker Film's Dan Talbot to release some of their library titles in the video space online. With the combination of Milk's opening and the controversy over the passing of the gay marriage ban Proposition 8, "it was a perfect storm," Dentler says, to release The Times of Harvey Milk, a history of gay rights in California. Cinetic rushed to make the film available on iTunes, and VOD on Amazon.com. To promote the doc, Dentler did a number of Facebook blasts, posted a 90 second excerpt of the film on YouTube channel, and Epstein did interviews on blogs and gay social networking sites.

The movie swiftly moved to Amazon's number one doc rental, and iTunes' number two indie rental (after Ed Burns' Purple Violets). As soon as the pic hit Hulu Monday, it soared to the top of their charts as well. "It's a way for a lot of people to consume a movie that they otherwise wouldn't have," says Dentler.

Naturally, all this exposure leads people to links so that they can watch the trailer, and buy or rent the movie. Another classic, Richard Linklater's Slacker, is Cinetic's other digital space hit on YouTube, Hulu, iTunes and Amazon VOD. "This proves that different portals attract different audiences," says Dentler.

Billy Wilder is one of those tough unsentimental directors whose films get better with time. Years later, they still feel contemporary. And the Oscar-winning The Apartment, reviewed here on video by the NYT's A.O. Scott, is on my All-Time Top Ten List.

Scott picked up some video performance skills while guest-reviewing on Ebert & Roeper; he also recognizes that video reviews are where online criticism is heading. He should do more of these; it works.

Judging from the latest round of voting from the Gurus O' Gold, the top four Oscar sure shots are not at all surprising:

1. Slumdog
2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
3. Milk
4. Frost/Nixon

And the consensus on the fifth slot is Dark Knight, with two actor-friendly dramas, Doubt and Revolutionary Road, nipping at its heels. Now's the time that the Academy voters are actually looking (or not looking) at their stacks of DVDs.

Which leads me to wonder why Revolutionary Road waited until the day after Christmas to open? It's not an overtly commercial movie, although many seem to regard it as a big-studio vehicle because of its two stars. (They helped the movie grab a high per-screen-average in limited release.) So it would have been a dicey, costly proposition to hold it in theaters a long time, risking that it would lose steam, as Frost/Nixon has done. But the Academy still likes Frost/Nixon--in this case, its lack of commerciality will be boosted by multiple Oscar nominations, so Universal just has to hang in there.

Usually you can get away with a late entry if you have names like Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio because Academy voters will be sure to watch the movie. Rev Road is just the sort of well-executed high-end literary drama the Academy usually goes for. That's why I'm missing that sense of growing momentum that it should have right now.

By waiting so long, the movie may have lost the opportunity to be explained and supported by critics and press. I feel much of the media stories were more about literary assessments of author Richard Yates than the movie itself. (Discovering Yates was my interest too.)

The movie scored a 70 on Metacritic, which is good, not great. (Benjamin Button got a 69, but it has epic scale and scope; all the tech branches will go for it.) Among Rev Road's champions are Rolling Stone's Peter Travers, who praises DiCaprio, and New York's David Edelstein, who admires Mendes' direction of actors:

Though I’ve never been sold on Mendes’s films (the waterlogged Road to Perdition, pulp plus metaphysics, is an eye-roller), the theater work of his I’ve seen has been uniformly wonderful. Onstage, he has a grasp of design as metaphor, and every dramatic beat is on the nose (without being too on the nose). Revolutionary Road plays to his strengths. The visual set pieces, like the sea of hats emerging from the New York train station, are self-conscious, but get Mendes in a room with quick-witted actors and the crosscurrents are dizzying.

I also like this line in Owen Gleiberman's EW review:

The best thing about Revolutionary Road, a cool-blooded and disquieting adaptation of Richard Yates' 1961 novel about a powerfully unhappy Connecticut couple, is that it doesn't end with that rote vision of bourgeois anomie. It only begins there.

Other Rev Road supporters include the LAT's Ken Turan, Newsweek's David Ansen, and the Village Voice's Scott Foundas, who damns it with faint praise:

Revolutionary Road isn't a great movie -- it lacks the full, soul-crushing force of the novel -- but what works in it works so well, and is so tricky to pull off, that you can't help but admire it.

The WSJ's Joe Morgenstern calls the movie "stifling, all right, and depressing in the bargain."

The New Yorker's David Denby echoes the opinion of his mag's literary editor Roger Angell, who refused to ever acquire a Richard Yates short story:

There's a sourness, a relentlessness about the movie which borders on misanthropy. In both the social and the personal scenes, the conversational tone veers between idiotic pleasantries and fathomless bile, with nothing in between.

A movie like Rev Road may need more enthusiastic support than this. Rev Road is shaping up as more admired than beloved. At the Academy screening this weekend--the year's last--not many voters showed up, although it did get applause. (Many folks are away and will watch it on DVD.) Among those I've talked to who have seen the film, some say it's a tough slog. The Golden Globes helped Winslet and DiCaprio, but the critics groups did not; SAG went for Winslet only; they did not nominate Revolutionary Road for ensemble cast.

Winslet could win--it's her year (thanks to the double-whammy of Road and The Reader) and her competition is weak. (The indie gals may be deemed lucky to be nominated and many do not consider Oscar-winners Cate Blanchett or Streep's performances to be their best.)

Clint Eastwood could steal DiCaprio's best actor slot. And Michael Shannon, despite not getting the SAG love, should get a supporting actor nom.

Will the writers go for Justin Haythe? Will the directors anoint Sam Mendes? Mendes was a new kid on the block with American Beauty. Now he's a mix of outsider/insider--he's a lauded, respected British theater director, but many people, like Edelstein, consider him to be great with actors, but more theatrical than cinematic. I thought he did a great job with this movie. But I'm willing to suffer more than most. The upcoming WGA and DGA noms will be instructive here.

Powerhouse theater dynamo Viola Davis, 43, keeps showing up in tiny movie roles--the crackhead in Antwone Fisher, the mother in the hospital in World Trade Center, the anxious Mrs. Miller in Doubt--and each time blows them out of the park. While filming Doubt, Davis was so worried about holding her own in her one 11-minute confrontation with Meryl Streep that she completely failed to recognize that her nose was running. Although writer-director John Patrick Shanley convinced the studio to let him reshoot the scene in order to slow down the pacing, the snot remained. The pivotal confrontation comes as Sister Aloysious tries to find out what Mrs. Miller knows about her son's relationship with Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman).

As the two women walk quickly down a windy street, the nun presses and the mother, always politely deferential, clearly reveals her fleeting emotions: love for her son, gratitude to the priest for looking after him, fear that his homosexuality will be discovered or punished, not just by his peers, but his father. "My boy came to your school because they were going to kill him in the public school," she says. "His father don't like him. One man is good to him, this priest. Do I ask the man why he's good to my son? No."

Davis is one of those chameleons who disappears into each role. In person she is diminutive, glam, and not surprisingly, intense. She wowed my Sneak Previews group with her story: she grew up in "abject poverty" near Providence, Rhode Island, where her father groomed horses at the race track. She and her sisters play-acted as escape, pretending to be Zsa Zsa Gabor and Sophia Loren, and inspired by Cecily Tyson's Miss Jane Pittman, Davis eventually worked her way through Juilliard, where she performed the same range of Shakespearean and classic roles as everyone else. Her attitude: having survived "finding your weakness" at Juilliard, she can do anything.

Still, it's hard to believe that this skilled actress, whose Hollywood champion Steven Soderbergh has cast her in four films, is out looking for a job like every other working actor. Good roles for African-American women are hard to find, though, so Davis jumped at the role of Mrs. Miller. So did many other black actresses. But Davis got the part and is sure to nab a supporting actress nomination on January 22. And she could win.

To learn more, check out this podcast by Oscar blogger Scott Feinberg; David Cohen featured her here and here.

The 2003 BBC six-part series State of Play (directed by Harry Potter's David Yates) was a terrific mystery thriller that pitted the Brit political and journalistic establishments against each other, not to mention the police. Nobody came out particularly clean. David Morrissey, Kelly McDonald and Bill Nighy starred.

So while I think the world of Working Title, director Kevin Macdonald and writers Tony Gilroy and Matthew Michael Carnahan, after watching the trailer below I got that sinking feeling. Not all Hollywood remakes have to be bad, but how often does a whip-smart six-part BBC series with great Brit talent wind up better as a two-hour American film? I'm relieved to see Helen Mirren in there. But how did all these people wind up in the same movie?

I have been a frequent critic of the new At the Movies movie reviewing team, Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz. In fact, at a screening of Tropic Thunder at Comic-Con, I was sounding off on Lyons to my colleagues when a man turned around from the seat in front of me and said, "Hello, I am Ben Lyons." Was my face red. Later, Lyons approached me in one of the convention hallways as I was sitting on the floor juicing up my laptop, and I snapped the picture above.

Clearly, he's a genial telegenic young fellow who loves movies and film fests (he was all over Toronto, getting his picture taken with celebs he was interviewing, like Keira Knightley). But these qualities do not necessarily a good film critic make. I couldn't help wondering, when Lyons recommended that audiences see Valkyrie (I also liked the movie, btw), if he wasn't keeping future E! access to Tom Cruise in mind.

The LAT went after Lyons last week, as others happily piled on. (UPDATE: here's Kim Voynar.) Does he have any supporters, as ratings plummet? Well, the one demo that seems to like him is 20ish young men like him. And I confess that when I visited Charles Fleming's USC entertainment journalism class, a few of the kids admitted to watching the show.

But how long can Lyons last against this barrage of naysayers? The other Ben, Mankiewicz, would be so much better if he had someone sharper to play against. I'd take even youngsters Matt Singer or Karina Longworth over Lyons any day. They are capable of a little depth of discourse, at least.

Twentieth Century Fox badly needed a winner this Christmas season, and got one with Marley & Me, a shamelessly heart-tugging commercial dog movie. (Here's Variety's weekend boxoffice report.) But let's give credit where credit is due. While Fox co-chairmen Tom Rothman and Jim Gianapoulos will happily take credit for this win, it does not necessarily lift them out of the doghouse. The real winner is Fox 2000 chief Elizabeth Gabler, who year in, year out, consistently delivers strong modestly-scaled commercial features. She made director David Frankel's The Devil Wears Prada, too. 27 Dresses grossed $160 million worldwide. Alvin and the Chipmunks was a huge hit at $360.5 million worldwide. So was Oscar-winner Walk the Line. There were some clinkers over the years, but at this point Fox 2000 is making more money than the big studio.

The good news for MGM/UA: Valkyrie opened pretty well, $30 million over four days. It's off to a good start. MGM/UA turned around the bad press that was launched about a year ago with ill-advised photos of Tom Cruise in a Nazi uniform wearing an eye patch. There are two versions of how that photo got sent out: One says UA marketers sent out the photo and said, "Don't worry, they'll get used to it;" the other says UA didn't want to release the photo and Cruise insisted it would be fine. In any case, under new prexy Mary Parent MGM/UA has made some smart moves. They brought in marketing consultant Terry Press and hired her old DreamWorks partner-in-crime Mike Vollman away from Paramount. The studio pushed up Valkyrie's release to December, not only to qualify for the expiring Showtime Pay-TV deal, but to capitalize on the prime-time adult-moviegoing holiday period.

It helped that Valkyrie is a commercial thriller and earned decent reviews (62% on Rotten Tomatoes) for Bryan Singer's direction and Tom Cruise's lead performance. They weren't the kind of money reviews that would have positioned the movie for awards consideration, though. But MGM/UA smartly didn't go for that, saving themselves both money and grief. (I hear Cruise went along with this, while Singer was disappointed.) Will the movie make it's money back? With a negative cost from $90 to 110 million, plus a hefty P & A spend of some $70 million domestic alone, the picture will have to keep building strong WOM---and do very well overseas.

Here are interviews with the Valkyrie principals by the LAT's Rachel Abramowitz and the LA Weekly's Scott Foundas.

[Photo of Chris McQuarrie, Tom Cruise and Bryan Singer courtesy the Los Angeles Times]

Herewith, the WPIX yule log:

[Hat Tip: TempDiaries.]

Friday afternoon six of us went to see the Memento remake Ghajini, a new big-budget picture starring my fave Indian star, Aamir Khan. Bollywood movies know no shame. They aim to please. The three-hour Ghajini did not disappoint.

It's Memento on steroids, literally, as Khan has bulked up nicely. He's a revenge-crazed short-term amnesiac out to kill villainous thug Ghajini in one story, and in the flashback he's a clean-cut mobile phone CEO pretending to be regular guy in order to romance a sweet young model. Bad things happen, needless to say.

Like many Bollywood pictures, Ghajini is two movies in one: a violent action thriller for boys, a romance with love songs for girls. And the percussive score by A.R. Rahman drives the emotions, as usual. In short (and the movie is three hours), three middle-aged women, one middle-aged film critic and two college girls all had a blast.

One high-minded friend of mine has complained that Slumdog Millionaire is "melodramatic." (That charge has also been lobbed at Darren Aronofsky's hugely entertaining The Wrestler.) Sure--Slumdog's Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy borrowed a few tricks from Bollywood, mixing up cultures, west and east, letting Rahman go for broke with the music, seeking to entertain. Is that so bad?

These Bollywood movies often throw in everything but the kitchen sink. Their movie stars are still bigger than life, gorgeous, sexy, romantic, heroic. They not only stay in shape to do action scenes, but to dance as well. As preposterous and over-the-top as these movies can be, they are almost always fun in a way few Hollywood movies ever are these days.

The movie my family and I went to see on Christmas Day was chosen by many others over the holiday: Marley & Me, a cannily crafted family film starring a restrained Owen Wilson, a charming Jennifer Aniston and a series of delightful rambunctious Labrador retrievers as the titular dog, Marley. My family made fun of me for crying so hard.

Written by Don Roos (The Opposite of Sex) and Scott Frank (Get Shorty) and directed by David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada), this movie delivers both a romance between a handsome couple plus their relationship with their dog. This well-calibrated studio tear-jerker doesn't go overboard on the sentimentality, hews close to the original material (the bestselling memoir by newspaper columnist John Grogan) and keeps the performances natural. Both stars are well-matched to their roles and each other; Wilson gives his most mature performance to date. (Here are diametrically opposed reviews by Todd McCarthy and Stephen Holden.)

Also doing well over the holiday, after Marley & Me, was The Curious Life of Benjamin Button, which also drew opposite reviews from Scott (a rave) and the LAT's Turan (a dismissive pan). Its Metacritic average was 70%. That's just ok, but it should score with Oscar voters for its sheer technological virtuosity in any case.

EW's Dave Karger reviews the post-Christmas Oscar landscape. Needing a serious boost from critics was Revolutionary Road, reviewed Friday. The LAT's Turan loved it. Rotten Tomatoes' top critics give it 80%, which is good, but Metacritic is at 71%. I'm not feeling the Academy love for this movie, except for Kate Winslet, who could win the best actress Oscar for the double whammy of Road and The Reader. And Michael Shannon has a shot at a supporting actor nom.

It hasn't been a good year for film criticism. Here's a round-table interview with established film critics. And here's David Poland's plaint about the LAT hiring former L.A Times entertainment editor Betsy Sharkey as film critic. With so many unemployed professional critics out there, it seems a shame to deny one a prime slot. But that's not what's going on. The LAT doesn't want to let one of their good people go, and gave her an available gig.

Going forward, film criticism is going to be in the hands of folks like Defamer's Stu Van Airsdale, who doesn't like what he's seeing at year's end, and Reel Geezers, who prove that it's not so much a question of age as format: the future is free video. Here's their review of Milk:

Turn on the Schadenfreude: the richest media moguls got a little poorer this year.

It's the holidays, and the paparazzi are staking out famous people in bathing suits. Here are the Obamas in Hawaii.

'Tis the season for Oscar publicists/campaigners/consultants/hob-nobbers. You never know who's repping what. They're everywhere. The Washington Post tries to make sense of it all.

Part of what's at stake are the careers of several high-profile movie stars who would dearly love to have critics and media and Academy members deem their holiday performances way above the ordinary...from Brad Pitt in The Curious Life of Benjamin Button to Tom Cruise in Valkyrie and Leonardo DiCaprio in Revolutionary Road.

Other holiday stars are just hoping their movies don't go in the crapper. Newsday's John Anderson examines the major stars whose careers are on the line this season.

[Photo of Lisa Tayback courtesy Washington Post]

As if Warners' Oscar campaign for The Dark Knight weren't enough--they're not just buying ads and courting the media but deluging press with soundtracks, printed scripts and other materials---check out this viral fan-driven Oscar campaign for The Dark Knight. Dark Campaign is sending postcards to Variety to drum up support for their cause.

I'm not sure what that will accomplish: in any case, the movie itself has already inspired considerable media support, not just from the likes of me but from awards givers like AFI. Here's an early Variety feature story about why the Academy should consider superhero performances.

While Heath Ledger and a rash of Dark Knight nominations are inevitable, my sense is that Dark Knight, Revolutionary Road, The Reader and Doubt are vying for the fifth best picture slot (assuming that Slumdog Millionaire, Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon and Milk occupy four). Each of these film has supporters--and many other films do as well. The one to get the most passionate support will gain that fifth spot on the ballot. Does Wall-E have a chance? Too many people--especially actors--assume that it gets an animation nom--and likely win. And I've heard people argue, also, that features and animation should be considered as different kinds of films. I don't believe in the animation ghetto. But it's how things are set up now.

Mike Jones and I went to check out one agency's Sundance line-up and all they could talk about was a doc they didn't think they could sell. They weren't as excited about their own projects. We Live in Public tells the story of dot.com millionaire Josh Harris, a man who was slightly ahead of his time:

We Live In Public TRAILER from We Live in Public on Vimeo.

The holiday trend this year: less swag, more company E-cards, but mine weren't as a good as this Mad Men spoof:

[Hat Tip: Defamer]

In cased you missed it, here are the Twilight Puppets, performing the entire Saga in just three minutes:

[Hat Tip: EW Popwatch.]

Wendy and Lucy tops Film Comment's annual critics poll of 20 best films of 2008:

1. Wendy and Lucy Kelly Reichardt, U.S. 580
2. Flight of the Red Balloon Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan/France 564
3. A Christmas Tale Arnaud Desplechin, France 557
4. Happy-Go-Lucky Mike Leigh, U.K. 538
5. WALL·E Andrew Stanton, U.S. 534
6. Still Life Jia Zhang-ke, Hong Kong/China 521
7. Paranoid Park Gus Van Sant, France/U.S. 465
8. Waltz with Bashir Ari Folman, Israel/France/Germany 424
9. My Winnipeg Guy Maddin, Canada 406
10. Milk Gus Van Sant, U.S. 356
11. Let the Right One In Tomas Alfredson, Sweden 351
12. The Duchess of Langeais Jacques Rivette, France/Italy 335
13. The Class Laurence Cantet, France 334
14. Synecdoche, New York Charlie Kaufman, U.S. 297
15. Hunger Steve McQueen, U.K. 289
16. Silent Light Carlos Reygadas, Mexico/France/Netherlands 286
17. Ballast Lance Hammer, U.S. 283
18. Man on Wire James Marsh, U.K. 282
19. The Exiles Kent Mackenzie, U.S. 257
20. Gomorrah Matteo Garrone, Italy 253

I do love Wendy and Lucy, which made the AFI Top Ten American movies of last year, and did well with the Alliance of Women Film Journalists as well.

Here's my Top Ten:

1. Wall-E
2. Slumdog Millionaire
3. Milk
4. Everlasting Moments
5. Happy-Go-Lucky
6. A Christmas Tale
7. Man on Wire
8. Waltz with Bashir
9. Wendy and Lucy
10. Appaloosa

Many of us are addicted to GreenCine's daily blog, written from Berlin by David Hudson. He's moving blogs--if not location--taking over the IFC Blog--and I hear he'll get considerably more money. Typically, these sites underpay so egregiously that they lose good people. Here's Hudson's farewell.

Cinephiliac film freelancer Aaron Hillis (Premiere, IFC, Village Voice, LA Weekly) will replace Hudson as a freelance blogger, starting January 1. Hillis plans to build on Hudson's following, but won't attempt to duplicate his exhaustively obsessive daily aggregating. Hillis will do it in his own way and add more original content. And Hudson will bring his inimitable erudition over to IFC.

So in this case, I suspect, more will be more.

Valkyrie played well at the DGA Premiere Thursday night. Seeing it the second time, I was struck by how meticulously made the movie is. They spared no expense, though. It went way over budget on location in Berlin and cost some $100 million. The studio is claiming $75 million---and praying the movie scores overseas. It has to. (Here's my review.)

Tom Cruise was there with his two older kids (talking on his cell to Katie Holmes) and taking congrats from the likes of producers Kathy Kennedy and Frank Marshall and director J.J. Abrams, who directed the last Mission Impossible movie. Going forward at UA without long-time partner Paula Wagner, Cruise said he is working with the team at MGM led by prexy Mary Parent and taking it slow on picking the right projects.

I talked to Bryan Singer, Superman writer Dan Harris and Warners exec Polly Cohen at the after-party. Singer has been so obsessed with getting Valkyrie out the door--and he still has to promote it next year when Fox opens it overseas--that he won't even start to think about Superman again until after he takes a holiday vacation. He has absolutely no commitment to any project, including Superman, Singer said. Everywhere he goes to talk about Valkyrie, everyone asks him about Superman. He hasn't considered any writers' pitches. No Warners meeting on the film is planned at this time. Solving the next one is all about the villains, the trio agreed.

What's interesting about this weekend's match-up is that one star who is off his game is starring in a role that is inside the audience sweet spot. That's Jim Carrey in Yes Man (which grabbed 35% rotten on Rotten Tomatoes so far). The other, Will Smith, is starring in a movie, Seven Pounds (which earned 33%), that pushes the edge of what audiences want to see him do. (UPDATE: The NYT's A.O. Scott eviscerates it.) Here's Variety's b.o. forecast.

And, continuing another trend, the animated movie The Tale of Desperaux could do better than the films starring expensive movie stars (it scored 41% on the Tomatometer). But while Will Smith is getting his $20-million price these days, at this point, Jim Carrey is willing to take his money on the back end--and will likely earn a pretty penny. Moviegoers like Carrey best when he's funny. Duh. It's when he goes dark that he tends to get into trouble--Cable Guy, for example, The Number 23, The Majestic. Stars are usually rewarded for doing what their fans want them to do--until they get tired of the same old same old.

Just to make sure he keeps folks guessing, Carrey also has some artier movies on tap, such as I Love You, Phillip Morris, in which he conducts a prison affair with Ewan McGregor. (CAA is selling it at Sundance.) Here's Carrey's profile in The Atlantic.

Here's Fandango's latest poll:

64% of moviegoers on Fandango say they will see Seven Pounds’ Will Smith in any new movie, regardless of the subject matter;
72% say that The Dark Knight was the film “most overlooked” by today’s SAG Awards nominations for the Best Ensemble Cast category;
53% say they’re more likely to watch the 81st Annual Academy Awards with Hugh Jackman as this year’s host.

Whatever happened to "The show must go on?" When I ran into Jeremy Piven at the Toronto Film Festival, he was miffed that I was asking him about HBO's Entourage, when he was starring in a Feature Film (Guy Ritchie's Rocknrolla). Excuse me. Doesn't he know that HBO's programming is often better than most movies?

Piven may not want to admit that he was born to play Ari Emanuel Gold, at the same time that he may not be made of the stern stuff required to trod the boards on Broadway. After missing several performances of the well-reviewed revival of David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, Piven's doctor diagnosed him as too ill to forge on.

Mamet gave this response to Variety:

"I talked to Jeremy on the phone, and he told me that he discovered that he had a very high level of mercury. So my understanding is that he is leaving show business to pursue a career as a thermometer."

Norbert Leo Butz, and then Bill Macy, will fill in for Piven.

Ever since I saw early footage of Frank Miller's The Spirit at Comic-Con, I've been underwhelmed by the materials on the movie, which I haven't had a chance to see. Justin Chang delivers a pan.

Miller may work best with directors like Zack Snyder and Robert Rodriguez who are executing his vision. Miller has been writing a follow-up for Snyder to 300. And I can't wait to see Sin City 2, if it ever gets made. Last time I spoke to Rodriguez, he said it was not on the front burner at Weinstein Co.

My Comic-Con interview with Miller re: The Spirit is on the jump:

Doubt scored a much-needed boost from the SAG nominating committee, earning five noms for Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Viola Davis, Philip Seymour Hoffman and ensemble cast; John Patrick Shanley's adaptation of his hit play is also likely to do well with Academy actors. Kate Winslet added a supporting actress nom for The Reader to her best actress nom for Revolutionary Road, but her co-star Leonardo DiCaprio was snubbed.

Among the ensemble cast nominees, Frost/Nixon, Milk, Slumdog Millionaire and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button are all considered front-runners for best picture Oscar noms. But SAG voted in Doubt over The Dark Knight or Revolutionary Road.

In the actors category, Richard Jenkins and Brad Pitt got a leg up in their bids for Oscar noms, while the screen actors chose to snub Clint Eastwood's growly performance in Gran Torino.

Left off the best actress list was Kristin Scott Thomas for France's I've Loved You So Long, which many voters may not have seen, along with the minimalist Wendy and Lucy, starring long-shot Michelle Williams.

The actors gave a surprising supporting nom to Dev Patel for Slumdog Millionaire. They also supported Robert Downey Jr.'s comic turn in Tropic Thunder (which after all is all about acting) and continued the drumbeat for Josh Brolin in Milk and Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight.

Penelope Cruz is looking unstoppable for an Oscar supporting nom for Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Taraji P. Henson is also gaining strength for her turn in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

See the SAG nominations list on the jump:

A lot of folks used to living large at the top of the Hollywood food chain are getting a serious dose of reality these days. Whether it's the plummeting value of stock portfolios or 401Ks or real estate, nobody is as rich as they used to be.

Steven Spielberg, for one, had one of his foundations hit by the Madoff Ponzi scheme. And suddenly the fact that DreamWorks raised $500 million in equity from India's Reliance Big Entertainment doesn't mean quite so much when JPMorgan is struggling to raise the rest of the planned $750 million in today's horrific credit environment.

But it's Steven Spielberg! It doesn't matter. The banks aren't lending to anybody. It's sheer bad luck. That pesky old Paramount deal is probably starting to look cushy indeed.

At the rate DreamWorks is going, Spielberg and Stacey Snider could wind up running another Amblin Entertainment. Here's my story.

Quite a few people in Hollywood, not unlike the soft roly-poly humans in leisure chairs in Wall-E, are going to be unprepared for what's coming: a leaner meaner tougher smaller world.

Tech Crunch's Michael Arrington wants to end review embargoes. Not sure this would work in our Hollywood world.

Here's the latest internal Variety memo from Jon Weisman updating critics' group awards:

Surging: Heath Ledger and "Let the Right One In"

Honorors of the Day: Toronto Film Critics
Honorees of the Day: "Wendy (You had the dogfood money in your pocket!) and Lucy" and Jonathan (Twenty Minutes of Wedding Toasts) Demme

- Jon

PICTURE
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
St. Louis Film Critics

“The Dark Knight”
Austin Film Critics

“Happy-Go-Lucky”
Satellite Awards (comedy/musical)

"Milk"
New York Film Critics
San Francisco Film Critics Circle
Southeastern Film Critics

"Slumdog Millionaire"
Alliance of Women Film Journalists
Boston Society of Film Critics
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics
National Board of Review
New York Film Critics Online
Phoenix Film Critics Society
San Diego Critics SocietySatellite Awards (drama)
Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics

"Wall-E"
Boston Society of Film Critics (tie)
Los Angeles Film Critics

“Wendy and Lucy”
Toronto Film Critics

ACTOR
Clint Eastwood
National Board of Review

Ricky Gervais
Satellite Awards (comedy/musical)

Richard Jenkins
Satellite Awards (drama)

Sean Penn
Alliance of Women Film Journalists
Austin Film Critics Boston Society of Film Critics (tie)
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics
Los Angeles Film Critics
New York Film Critics
New York Film Critics Online
Phoenix Film Critics SocietySt. Louis Film Critics
San Francisco Film Critics Circle (tie)
Southeastern Film Critics

Mickey Rourke
Boston Society of Film Critics (tie)
San Diego Critics SocietySan Francisco Film Critics Circle (tie)
Toronto Film Critics
Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics

ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway
Austin Film Critics Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics
National Board of Review
Southeastern Film Critics

Sally Hawkins
Alliance of Women Film Journalists (tie)
Boston Society of Film Critics
Los Angeles Film Critics
New York Film Critics
New York Film Critics Online
San Francisco Film Critics Circle
Satellite Awards (comedy/musical)

Angelina Jolie
Satellite Awards (drama)

Meryl Streep
Phoenix Film Critics SocietyWashington, D.C. Area Film Critics

Michelle Williams
Toronto Film Critics

Kate Winslet
Alliance of Women Film Journalists (tie)
St. Louis Film Critics
San Diego Critics Society

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin
New York Film Critics
National Board of Review

Heath Ledger
Alliance of Women Film Journalists
Austin Film Critics Boston Society of Film Critics
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics
Los Angeles Film Critics
New York Film Critics Online
Phoenix Film Critics SocietySt. Louis Film Critics
San Diego Critics SocietySan Francisco Film Critics Circle
Southeastern Film Critics Toronto Film Critics
Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics

Michael Shannon
Satellite Awards

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz
Boston Society of Film Critics
Los Angeles Film Critics
New York Film Critics
New York Film Critics Online
National Board of Review
Southeastern Film Critics

Viola Davis
Alliance of Women Film Journalists
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics
St. Louis Film Critics

Rosemarie DeWitt
Satellite Awards
Toronto Film Critics
Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics

Taraji P. Henson
Austin Film Critics

Marisa Tomei
Phoenix Film Critics SocietySan Diego Critics SocietySan Francisco Film Critics Circle

DIRECTOR
Danny Boyle
Alliance of Women Film Journalists
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics
Los Angeles Film Critics
New York Film Critics Online (with Loveleen Tandan)
Phoenix Film Critics SocietySt. Louis Film Critics
San Diego Critics SocietySatellite Awards
Southeastern Film Critics Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics

Jonathan Demme
Toronto Film Critics

David Fincher
National Board of Review

Mike Leigh
New York Film Critics

Christopher Nolan
Austin Film Critics

Gus Van Sant
Boston Society of Film Critics
San Francisco Film Critics Circle

Funny or Die has the Season 2 premiere of Flight of the Conchords free online. It doesn't air on HBO for a month.

Season 2 Online Premiere - Flight of the Conchords (US Only)

[Hat Tip: Cast TV]

It had to happen sooner or later. Will Smith has been inside the fluke zone where he can do no wrong for seven years now. (His last flops were Ali, The Legend of Bagger Vance and Wild Wild West.) Well, Seven Pounds will be the end of that extraordinary run.

Scott Foundas's pan broke the review embargo in The Village Voice, followed swiftly by Todd McCarthy, whose review is only slightly less devastating:

Given Emily's vulnerability, Ben's gentle patience with her, Smith's and Dawson's attractiveness, the lushly intimate widescreen images devised by Muccino and lenser Philippe Le Sourd, and Angelo Milli's literally incessant button-pushing score, "Seven Pounds" offers either seductive emotional appeal or indigestible mawkishness, according to taste.

The movie will open on Smith's name but it's hard to imagine good word-of-mouth spreading after that. Smith's okay in the movie, but he cannot carry it alone. The object of his affections, Rosario Dawson, has to carry it too, and she can't. But even a far more talented actress would have had a hard time with this sentimental hokum.

I liked Gabriele Muccino's last collaboration with Smith, Pursuit of Happyness. The strength of that movie was that it was based on a true story, which grounded it. This fable is too contrived. It's possible that audiences will buy it and fall for its heartstring manipulations. But I doubt it.

Forget chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Here are my fave holiday rituals:

1. My first Christmas card, every year, is something tastelessly provocative from John Waters. Postmark: Baltimore, Maryland.

2. The second is a donation-in-your name card from Jerry Bruckheimer. Will his annual classic Christmas wreath follow? Suspenseful.

3. Christmas music. Diana Krall, Mel Torme and Louis Armstrong's Christmas jazz. Handel's The Messiah (see video on jump). Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Johnny Cash. And Sean, a fellow-DJ from WHCL-FM, the Hamilton College radio station, always sends a Christmas CD. They started out as audiotapes. After 30 years, they're really arcane.

4. Jim sends a Mrs. Grace's Lemon Cake. Yummyboo.

5. Tangerines in the toes of Christmas stockings. A family tradition, along with trimming the tree on Christmas Eve under the influence of hot buttered rum. We've moved it up to December 23.

6. A Christmas Story. We also watch, on occasion, It's a Wonderful Life, Meet Me in St. Louis, Holiday Inn (where White Christmas comes from) or Love Actually. But A Christmas Story we ALWAYS watch. Sadly, I can't get anyone to watch the Alistair Sim A Christmas Carol anymore, which my brother and I grew up on.

7. Aljean's Christmas brunch. She actually serves eggs bacon orange juice bagels lox cream cheese and coffee to three rooms of people sitting and talking on Christmas morning. But you better be on time.

8. Christmas movie. It's what we can all agree on. Maybe The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The last two years we couldn't get into the movie we wanted at the AMC and happily watched DVDs on Joan's giant flat screen instead--which tells you something.

9. Alessandra's Italian celebration, with home-baked pies and cakes. Italian Bingo. Wine. Tombola!

10. New Year's: Eve is chez Jane, who cooks a girls-only sumptuous dinner accompanied by plenty of high-end champagne; Day is at Julia's, who supplies a pianist, sheet music and lyrics so we can all sing, whether or not we know the tune.

Emma Thompson has won Oscars for both acting (Howard's End) and writing (Sense and Sensibility). And she is coming to accept how satisfying both can be. "I always thought acting was my compulsion," she says," but that writing was a different form of creativity because it is so back to the knuckle. Acting is a natural thing because you are using your body, it's like singing. I was wrong about that. Both can answer the same need. I feel better after writing for two hours."

Thompson is back in her fave Bel Air Hotel bungalow promoting Last Chance Harvey, an unassuming romantic comedy that Joel Hopkins wrote for her some eight years ago. She revived it by bringing in as her leading man her co-star on Stranger than Fiction, Dustin Hoffman. "There are no special effects, no sub-plots, no heroes, no villains," she says. "It's just people talking and acting and falling in love and the obstacles that arise within the soul."

Meanwhile she's still pursuing her other muse, adapting the classic Lerner and Loew musical My Fair Lady for the screen for Columbia Pictures. She writes long-hand for the first draft, then moves to the computer, she says. "There is a connection between the brain and the arm and the pen."

Keira Knightley is signed on to star as Eliza Doolittle. While Thompson's old Cambridge cohort Hugh Laurie is her first choice for Henry Higgins, she has to finish the script first. And that choice will be made by the film's eventual director. (She won't be ready to direct, although she has some projects in mind, until her 8-year-old daughter is grown.)

Thompson revelled in checking into the source, George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion. "I love it," she says. "You can't contemporize this. I love that period anyway. I loved investigating Shaw himself and his relationship with women and actresses."

My My Fair Lady Higgins poll was a pitched battle between fans of Colin Firth and Jeremy Northam, who finally won. Who do you want to play him?

In the meantime the sequel to the family fantasy comedy Nanny McPhee is getting under way in January, written by and starring the snaggle-toothed Thompson. It's about "two sets of children and war between two families who don't understand each other," she says. And it stars a baby elephant.

As the transition from print to online media gains momentum, new media start-ups are spreading like kudzu.

Entertainment site HitFix will launch this week. Founded by ex-Reed Business Information development execs Jen Wilhelmi Sargent and ex-Latimes.com and MSN.com film editor Gregory Ellwood, the start-up boasts the calendar application Forecast, which enables consumers to track and customize their upcoming entertainment options based on their own zip code and taste. Last week the HitFix team made the rounds of studios to talk advertising to their target 18 to 34 demo (which is split 50/50 male/female) as well as access to new trailers, sets and talent.

HitFix also offers breaking movie news and blog content from Ellwood (whose blog will focus on awards coverage) and AICN reviewer Drew McWeeny (who retires his “Moriarty” monicker after 12 years), TV reporting from Zap2It’s Daniel Fienberg, and music info from ex-Billboard music maven Melinda Newman. Sports will come online soon. HitFix editors will comment on newsfeeds supplied by A.P. “There’s a gap between the insider trades and the TMZ gossip side,” said Sargent. “We’re catering to consumers, like Entertainment Weekly.”

All Forecast events are downloadable to Yahoo Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, iPhone, and Google. HitFix has already made deals with partners Live Nation, Fandango, StubHub!, Netflix and Amazon.com. Facebook and iPhone apps will launch in February, followed by other mobile devices such as BlackBerry. “The idea is, ‘Come here and get your entertainment fix,’” said the L.A.-based McWeeny, who is looking forward to making a decent living wage. HitFix will hit its stride at Sundance, McWeeny said.

Also check out start-up Wopular, created by Rotten Tomatoes cofounder Senh Duong. It aggregates and presents breaking news in a slick user-friendly interface that makes The Drudge Report look positively 20th century. The deceptively simple site showcases constantly updated stories and a newspaper rack of rss news feeds from top media outlets. Ads, video and widgets will follow when traffic warrants it. “I’m like the editor of a newspaper picking interesting stories I think people should read,” said Duong.

Wopular offers no original content or commentary (except from readers), but as compared to the reported millions sunk into Tina Brown’s cluttered media behemoth The Daily Beast, the price was right for Duong to launch this site by himself, with no staff, in one week: $10.

Peter Morgan is parlaying his current status as the hottest screenwriter in Hollywood into his first directing gig, the third installment of his Tony Blair trilogy, starring Frost/Nixon's Michael Sheen as the British prime minister. Kathy Kennedy, who set up Morgan's script Hereafter at DreamWorks for director Clint Eastwood, will produce.

The question is, who should play Bill Clinton? John Travolta played him in Mike Nichols' Primary Colors. Got any suggestions?

Hugh Jackman has range: romantic lead in Australia, People's Sexiest Man Alive, Oscar host, starring as X-Men Origins: Wolverine---and producing the pic as well. He looked at the first cut at the studio last month; the movie opens wide May 1st.

Here's the new trailer:

Variety's Jon Weisman assembled these revealing lists of critics group awards. Remember that while these wins help to build momentum and throw attention on films and talent, boosting the possibility that Academy members will check out a film, critics and Academy voters do not always think alike. I don't think Slumdog Millionaire, Dark Knight, Wall-E or Milk have anything to worry about. But thanks to critics, more people will look at Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Rachel Getting Married, The Wrestler, Man on Wire, The Visitor and Happy-Go-Lucky.

PICTURE
“Happy-Go-Lucky”
Satellite Awards (comedy/musical)

"Milk"
New York Film Critics

"Slumdog Millionaire"
Boston Society of Film Critics
National Board of Review
New York Film Critics Online
Satellite Awards (drama)
Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics

"Wall-E"
Boston Society of Film Critics (tie)
Los Angeles Film Critics

ACTOR
Clint Eastwood
National Board of Review

Ricky Gervais
Satellite Awards (comedy/musical)

Richard Jenkins
Satellite Awards (drama)

Sean Penn
Boston Society of Film Critics (tie)
Los Angeles Film Critics
New York Film Critics
New York Film Critics Online

Mickey Rourke
Boston Society of Film Critics (tie)
Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics

ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway
National Board of Review

Sally Hawkins
Boston Society of Film Critics
Los Angeles Film Critics
New York Film Critics
New York Film Critics Online
Satellite Awards (comedy/musical)

Angelina Jolie
Satellite Awards (drama)

Meryl Streep
Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin
New York Film Critics
National Board of Review

Heath Ledger
Boston Society of Film Critics
Los Angeles Film Critics
New York Film Critics Online
Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics

Michael Shannon
Satellite Awards

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz
Boston Society of Film Critics
Los Angeles Film Critics
New York Film Critics
New York Film Critics Online
National Board of Review

Rosemarie DeWitt
Satellite Awards
Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics

DIRECTOR
Danny Boyle
Los Angeles Film Critics
New York Film Critics Online (with Loveleen Tandan)
Satellite Awards
Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics

David Fincher
National Board of Review

Mike Leigh
New York Film Critics

Gus Van Sant
Boston Society of Film Critics

I voted on the best films of the year with two very different groups this week, The Alliance of Women Film Journalists and the AFI Awards. One movie that did surprisingly well with both groups was Frozen River (pictured), whose stars Melissa Leo and Misty Upham and writer-director Courtney Hunt were all singled out for praise.

Soon, I will come up with my own top ten list. Even though I obsessively want to make sure I have seen everything, there's no way I'll be able to catch up with all the films that have slipped through the cracks, among them Gomorra, Chop Shop, Cadillac Records, Foot Fist Way, Ghost Town, and Stronger, Bigger, Faster.

Here's the AFI list. Yes, we left off Slumdog Millionaire--the creators and backers of the film must be primarily American. It's the American Film Insititute! (And they also don't include docs.)

Here's the AFI top ten:

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

“The Dark Knight”

“Frost/Nixon”

“Frozen River”

“Gran Torino”

“Iron Man”

“Milk”

“WALL-E”

“Wendy and Lucy”

“The Wrestler”

On this list, the strongest potential Oscar contenders are Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, Frost/Nixon, and Milk. And you know the other strong Oscar suitor: Slumdog Millionaire. Although Revolutionary Road, Changeling, Rachel Getting Married, Doubt and The Reader did not make the AFI cut, they all have a shot at some Oscar noms, particularly from the actors branch.

The AWFJ awards are listed on the jump:

With an Oscar nomination for Doubt at stake, Meryl Streep gamely turned up to do her stint on Letterman even though she was clearly under the influence of a serious head cold:

Summit Entertainment is announcing that Chris Weitz will direct the sequel to Twilight, New Moon, based on the book by Stephenie Meyer.

Weitz isn't a bad choice, not so much because he delivered the rather flat fantasy adventure Golden Compass (which served to demonstrate that he could handle VFX) but rather that he is a good screenwriter with a light touch who can handle relationships (About a Boy). As reported, Summit plans to open the film at the end of 2009 or beginning of 2010. So far Twilight has grossed $142 million in North America.

"Chris very much understands the world of New Moon and has the skill set required to bring the book to glorious life as a movie," said Summit production chief Erik Feig. Weitz promised to protect on Twilight fans behalf "the characters, themes and story they love," he said. "This is not a task to be taken lightly, and I will put every effort into realizing a beautiful film to stand alongside a beautiful book.”

Why would Weitz want to do this? Well, he hasn't yet really proved his directing chops separate from his brother Paul, who directed About a Boy with him, and directed the very good In Good Company with Chris producing. They wrote and directed American Pie, but Chris Weitz took a producer credit.

A juicy franchise hit would give Weitz a lot of breathing room.

Here's Summit's synopsis of the next Twilight movie:

In New Moon, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is devastated by the abrupt departure of her vampire love, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) but her spirit is rekindled by her growing friendship with the irresistible Jacob Black. Suddenly she finds herself drawn into the world of the werewolves, ancestral enemies of the vampires, and finds her loyalties tested.

Michael Moore, child of Flint, Michigan, whose breakout film, Roger and Me, took on General Motors, is fighting mad. He's now working on a doc about Wall Street greed.

Friday, December 12th, 2008

Friends,

They could have given the loan on the condition that the automakers start building only cars and mass transit that reduce our dependency on oil.

They could have given the loan on the condition that the automakers build cars that reduce global warming.

They could have given the loan on the condition that the automakers withdraw their many lawsuits against state governments in their attempts to not comply with our environmental laws.

They could have given the loan on the condition that the management team which drove these once-great manufacturers into the ground resign and be replaced with a team who understands the transportation needs of the 21st century.

Yes, they could have given the loan for any of these reasons because, in the end, to lose our manufacturing infrastructure and throw 3 million people out of work would be a catastrophe.

But instead, the Senate said, we'll give you the loan only if the factory workers take a $20 an hour cut in wages, pension and health care. That's right. After giving BILLIONS to Wall Street hucksters and criminal investment bankers -- billions with no strings attached and, as we have since learned, no oversight whatsoever -- the Senate decided it is more important to break a union, more important to throw middle class wage earners into the ranks of the working poor than to prevent the total collapse of industrial America.

Brad Pitt channels Jacques Tati in this 30-second Japanese cellphone commercial directed in characteristic one-take style by Wes Anderson:

[Hat Tip: Slashfilm.]

Valkyrie is a well-made, entertaining thriller that had me on the edge of my seat in its second half.

It's old-fashioned, in the sense that Hollywood used to make more movies like this: straight-ahead, engrossing World War II action dramas that pit an alliance of noble heroes against pitiless Nazi villains. The danger is real. The story is based on historical events. Clearly, this plot to assassinate Hitler did not succeed. But why not? And how close did they get?

Tom Cruise is fine. The movie is fun. In today's marketplace, though, it becomes clear that it's harder than ever to take the risk that an expensive period epic like this will work with audiences. Like Australia, there's no knowing. Maybe part of what's going on with the devaluing of movie stars is an increasing demand for authenticity. Does Cruise lend authority to Valkyrie? He's fine because he's a good actor, not because he's a movie star. Will audiences want to see him in this role?

Cruise had a good day yesterday, landing a surprise Golden Globe supporting actor nom for his role in Tropic Thunder as foul-mouthed producer Les Grossman. Don't expect a repeat on January 22.

One thing to keep in mind with Stephen Daldry and David Hare's adaptation of The Reader is that Bernhard Schlink's novel was written for German audiences. These British filmmakers faced a gauntlet of challenges in translating the movie for global viewers, not to mention American ones. Here's my column.

Greencine collects reaction to the movie; Thelma Adams questions the relationship between the 35-year-old woman and a 15-year-old boy. This never bothered me. Writer David Hare thinks Americans are a tad Puritanical in this regard.

The Bagger reports on one Reader party in NYC; Karina Longworth and Patrick Goldstein react to Manohla Dargis's NYT pan. Here's the NYT's feature. UPDATE: The Guardian publishes Hare's take.

My take on the movie: maybe it should have been done with German actors. Even in English. But even better in German. Odd that The Reader comes out at the same time as Valkyrie, which is actually pretty good. It too has a mix of actors with a wide range of authentic and inauthentic accents. What if cool Brits Kate Winslet (who is very good) and Ralph Fiennes had been replaced by Germans like David Kross and Bruno Ganz?

According to our VFX honcho David Cohen, the two movies left off this short list of 15 for VFX consideration for the Oscars are Speed Racer and Wanted. In January, the members of the Academy's visual effects branch exec committee will narrow the list to seven--which will be presented and voted on by the committee at the annual bake-off on January 15, where they will pick the final three to be announced January 22 on nominations morning.

Just because Speed Racer was ahead of the curve and a bad match of visual effects and story --I fervently believe that the Wachowskis should never have attempted a family film--doesn't mean it shouldn't be rewarded by its peers for its technological virtuosity. I guess this means the VFX committee doesn't believe that it worked, finally. And Wanted had great, innovative effects, but they were done outside the Hollywood/San Francisco Beltway by Russian director Timur Bekmambetov. (That doesn't stop Peter Jackson's Weta from getting nominations.) But honestly, don't those two films deserve more consideration than Australia, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, or The Spiderwicke Chronicles?

The films in alphabetical order are:

"Australia"
"The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian"
"Cloverfield"
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“The Dark Knight”
“The Day the Earth Stood Still”
“Hancock”
“Hellboy II: The Golden Army”
“The Incredible Hulk”
“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”
“Iron Man”
“Journey to the Center of the Earth”
“The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”
“Quantum of Solace”
“The Spiderwick Chronicles”

Let's call the final three:
Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

Applause. We can count on this year's Oscar rookie show producers, Laurence Mark and Bill Condon, to take advantage of the full range of chops of first-time host Hugh Jackman, who won an Emmy as host of the Tonys and is a skilled musical singer/dancer. I can't wait to see the Australia star's opening musical medley.

Instead of going back to recent list of comedian hosts, the producers approached the Wolverine star and People's Sexiest Man Alive, 40, who not only looks great in a tuxedo but can do just about anything they throw at him. The Oscars will be telecast on February 22. I've seen Jackman work a room; nobody does it better.

UPDATE: Word is that the new producer duo plan to slash many of the show's musical numbers. But with Jackman on board, they've got to take advantage of what he can do, no? Here's Tim Gray.

The curvacous 50s pin-up Bettie Page, beloved by men everywhere, has died of a heart attack. She was portrayed by Gretchen Moll in the disappointingly unsexy 2005 biopic, The Notorious Bettie Page. One lug I know had a postcard collection, a coffee table book with provocative photos and a standee. The camera loved her.

Here's the A.P. obit and the NYT.

Posted by Steven Gaydos

In a time of downsizing and daily economic traumas, perhaps one shouldn't sympathize too much with filmmakers and stars who are schlepping from one screening/Q&A after another in order to get the awards season traction essential for specialty film recoupment. But damnit...I feel their pain.

Last night I chatted with The Wrestler gang; director Darren Aronofsky and costars Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood. They'd just Q'ed and A'ed down the street before zipping into the UCLA Sneak Preview chat, but all were chipper and game to go through yet another grilling about onscreen stripping (Tomei's), pummeling, smashing, stapling, etc. (Rourke's) and general filial angst emoting (Wood's). The team has been doing the dog and pony circuit for the film since it won the Golden Lion award in Venice and that includes jumping through other festival hoops in Toronto and New York. And we haven't even really geared up for the main event, the Oscars, where the film seems certain to get some love, especially after the Golden Globe noms for Tomei and Rourke.

The audience at our screening, which demo's in at around the 44-64 age segment, seemed to get past the graphic violence and was keen to know more about Rourke's regimen for bulking up and into the role of fictional wrestling star "The Ram." Rourke first joked around about "not being tell you what I did," before a detailed explanation of how he gained about 40 pounds for the role. "Lots of protein drinks, 6000 calories a day and a lot of daily weightlifting for about seven months" was his serious explanation. "And that's how I did it," said Rourke, but sitting next to Rourke and getting a look behind his ubiquitous shades, I saw a mischievous glint that indicated maybe it wasn't so simple. At least there was no chihuahua involved in the process so I let it go at that.

Despite the bad reviews on the remake The Day the Earth Stood Still, I am still going to see the movie tomorrow night for one reason: Keanu Reeves. He isn't the best actor in the world. One set story I heard about Reeves had him saying, "I suck, I suck," after every take. But he doesn't always suck. He can be very good, from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and Speed to Little Buddha and The Matrix. (To be fair, you could do the same thing that Vulture does here with any actor. But it's funny.) And the footage I saw at Comic-Con looked promising. Moviegoers seem hot to see it.

The movie is tracking to score big at the boxoffice this weekend. As we all know from Four Christmases to Sex in the City and Mamma Mia!, there is often a disconnect between reviews and ticket sales.