20 Weeks to Oscar
Who Let the Dogs In?
by David Poland

Ladies & Gentlemen… children of all ages… seven Oscar nominees who really didn’t go into this season expecting to be attending the Academy Awards… Viola Davis. Courtney Hunt. Richard Jenkins.
Scott Hamilton Kennedy. Melissa Leo. Martin McDonagh. Michael Shannon. All deserving.  All appreciating.

The Charts
Best Picture | Director | Screenplay
Actor/Supporting Actor | Actress/Supporting Actress

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Oscar Outsider :
Who's the Best of the Best Director Nominees?
by Kim Voynar

Here we are 17 short days from Oscar, the "Biggest Movie Event of the Year," and over on the Gurus chart, they've got it nailed down to their top two picks in each category. I've written a lot of Oscar columns since coming on board here, covering the adapted and original screenplays, the acting categories, the foreigns, and the docs. Now, with less than three weeks to go until Hollywood's big hot date night with itself, I'm taking a look at the contenders in the Best Director category.

MCN DVD
Zack And Miri Make a Porno

Zack And Miri remains just another R-rated romantic comedy for teenagers in need of cheap laughs. The adult industry has repeatedly proven that it's perfectly capable of making fun of itself, while also lampooning mainstream entertainments. The best moments, here, actually take place away from the set, at a class reunion and in Z&M's darkened apartment. Indeed, some of the material included in the bonus package—a pair of faux making-of featurettes—is funnier than anything in the movie.

Also .. Lakeview Terrace, Soul Men, Oliver & Company, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, The Rocker, His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th, Bottle Shock

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Frenzy on the Wall:
Two Lovers
by Noah Forrest

With this film, James Gray has put himself back on the list of auteurs to watch. It seems as if he’s realized that Brighton Beach, rather than crime, seems to be his real muse. Life is complicated enough without introducing murder and corruption into the mix and with this film, Gray seems to have grasped that concept. They say you’re only as good as your last picture and with Two Lovers, James Gray has created an important, beautiful and wonderful motion picture.

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The Gurus give their number 1 and number 2 picks in every category ... including the shorts. Gurus - February 3, 2009

The Weekend Report
by Leonard Klady

Taken, produced by Luc Besson's company, was a major success internationally with a gross of close to $70 million last year. The domestic release initially seemed like an afterthought and release schedule filler but as its opening loomed interest appeared to perk up and expectations rose to a $20 million debut. Exit polls were also good and the film is now expected to be a highly profitable investment.
Weekend Estimates (Full List)
Domestic Market Share

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Voynaristic
Slumdog Millionaire and the Politics of Spin
by Kim Voynar

What is it with the media's insistence on attempting to spin stories to harm particular films?

After enjoying the bounce of positive buzz from the Telluride and Toronto film festivals, solid critical support and a box office take bigger than anyone could have dreamed for a subtitled Bollywood hybrid, Slumdog Millionaire finds itself the target of media attacks on several fronts, and once again, the language of spin is at the forefront, both in mainstream media publications and the blogosphere.

DP/30 Created & Presented by David Poland
30 Minute Chats With Oscar Nominated Directors
Ron Howard Frost/Nixon	Stephen Daldry The Reader	Danny Boyle Slumdog MIllionaire

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Wilmington on Movies
New In Town and The Uninvited by Michael Wilmington

New in Town‘s heart is in the right place but its head seems to be is somewhere north of Old Ulm. This movie is so bad that Minnesota, whenever it gets a U. S. Senator, might consider passing a law against it. I’m serious. I come from a small Midwestern town myself (pop: 1,171 or so when I was there) and I‘m getting sick of all these movie city slickers trying to love us to death. And mucking up perfectly good actors too.

Also ... Wilmington on DVDs

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The Ultimate DVD Geek
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
by Doug Pratt

It is said that flaws can be tolerated in friends and strangers, but not in one's parents, and that definitely seems to be everybody's opinion when it comes to the father of Star Wars, George Lucas. It is because the first movie was so good that the other films became so frustrating and their flaws so obsessively glaring (if only, in Phantom Menace, he had shown the mother killed, like Bambi's mother, the entire series might have been taken more seriously…).

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Defiance	-				-
Hotel for Dogs	-	-	-	-
Paul Blart, Mall Cop	-		-	-
Notorious	-	-	-	-
Chandi Chowk	-	-	-	-
Last Chance Harvey	-		-	-
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button	-
Revolutionary Road	-				-
Valkyrie	-		-	-
The Wrestler	-	-	-	-

285 Top Ten Lists tallied; 265 films listed; 106 films with a single vote -- proving there's some love out there for almost everything Updated Top Ten Scoreboard The Top Ten Lists

Headlines, Awards, Top Tens, Features and Reviews at MCN's Awards Watch.

Financial Times Drops Sport Coverage

Rupe Sez Baz's Oz Moolah Will Just Barely Top A Dilly Bag

SFX House Orphanage Shutters

Considering The Career Of Gary Kurfirst, 61, Music Entrepreneur, Produced Stop Making Sense, Managed Talking Heads, Eurhythmics, Rickie Lee Jones

The Daily Deadwood
NY Times Cutting 10% Of About.Com Staff As Well As Contributor Rates
And - NewsCorp's $8.4 Billion Writedown, Largely On Wall Street Journal
With - Murdoch's Quarterly Report (pdf)

"We're gonna be in the Hudson." ... "I'm sorry, say again."
The Audio As Flight 1549 Safely Lands On Water

Walter Isaacson, A Wealthy And Powerful Journalist, Lectures On "How To Save Your Newspaper" While Asserting He'd Be "A Fool Paying For" The NY Times

TIME Talks To Slumdog Maestro A. R. Rahman

Cleopatra Pushed Back, Soderbergh Bunts For Math-'N'-Baseball-Themed Moneyball: The Art of Winning An Unfair Game, Adapted By S. Zaillian, With Brad Pitt

The Making Of Laika, The Portland-Based Studio Behind Coraline

"It takes Hollywood to turn woman into an hysterical fashion-mongering man-craving anorexic caricature."

The NY Times Magazine's Great Performer Portraits Are Swell This Year (Kat Dennings #3, Anyone?)

Hollywood & Fine On Musing The Face

Ebert On Holding Your Tongue And The Classing Of The Reader As A "Holocaust Movie"

D-D'Arcy's Short History Of "Politicking The Academy"

As The Guild Turns
Sunday SAG Sesh Set; Expected to Fire Former Exec Director Allen A Second Time

Bill Wyman Notes NYTimes Does Steve Martin A Mitzvah Talking Banjo Music But Not PP2
Earlier - "Making movies may be the least interesting thing Steve Martin does."

Forry Ackerman's Estate Sale Includes Fritz Lang's Metropolis Monocle And Lugosi Loot

Hitchcock's Favorite Pooch, The Sealyham Terrier, Walked In His The Birds Cameo, Near Extinction?

Thank You For Cracking
Lionsgate Preemptively Sues WeinsteinCo Over Claims To Push: Based On The Novel By Sapphire
While - The Big Cieper Gets Unnamed Sources To Dish Its Commercial Hopes

London Critics Heart The Wrestler, And Slumdog And Kate And Button, Too

New Line Moots A Sorta-Remake For 2010 Of He's Just Not That Into You With Same Writers, Set In Garry Marshall's L.A.

Polanski On Trial Again

Explaining The Broadband Stimulus Proposal And How It Helps Media And Users

Warner Buys Into Seattle Games Developer

The Daily Deadwood, Late Edition
NYT Looking For Ways To Charge For Online Content Once More
And - Do Newspapers Need An Antitrust Exemption?
Plus - The Financial Times Has Tricks Up Its Pink Sleeve
And - Disney Net Income Falls 32%
With - Entertainment Choices In The Age Of Blogs, Twitter And Job Loss

Sir Roger Moore Recalls Days At Pinewood Studios, Along With Sir Ridley, Kubrick, Others

"Perhaps Slumdog will be the catalyst for a transformation, one that will make India shine for more of its people. It is certainly possible. Perhaps, even, it is written. But that depends on what we, the viewers and the world, choose to do next."

Lux Interior, Founder Of The Cramps, Covered "Fever" In Near Dark, Was 62-ish

Panasonic Powering Down 15,000 Jobs Worldwide

Time Warner Posts $16B Loss

The Dude Emits A Slender 10,000-Word Missive To Mr. Ebert On The "Spar-O At The Yarrow"
And - Don't Miss The Rock-'Em Sock-'Em Reenactment
Plus - Dowd's Version To Camera

Larry Clark On A Movie Sculpted From Outtakes

The Daily Deadwood
"Two weeks after threatening publishers with separate 7c-per-copy price hikes, a pair of major magazine wholesalers have decided to cease operations."
And - In First Layoffs Ever, Bloomberg To Ax 60 From Loss-Making TV Side
While - Globe & Mail Fires 30 After 60 Take Voluntary Leap
And - Wal-Mart Won't Pay Mag Middleman's Ransom; People, National Enquirer Among Titles They're Dropping

Helmering Absurdistan

"What is that? Nollywood means nothing. Say moviemaking in Nigeria, please."

Hoberman Sez Hard Times Won't Mean Good Times At The Movies Again
And - A Dozen Great Depression Double Features In NYC

Flush Netflix Considers Weekend Delivery

Dakota Fanning's Culture Shock

"To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder? In the most terrible and nimble stroke!"
Pacino To Radford's Film Of King Lear

Coraline And Her Other Mother

Maltin Interviews Ebert (And Sir Laurence) (video)
While - Ebert Celebrates Passed Colleague Scrivener Paul Galloway And The Sheep Story

A Loving Defense Of Revolutionary Road's Terrors

The Chance Meeting That Led To Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock

Chicagoans Invited To Fondle Oscar

Senate Stimulus Bill Stripped Of Breaks To That Conservative Straw Man Known As "Hollywood"

Miniature Knitwear In Coraline Knit With Itty-Bitty Needles

Screenwriter John August On "The Kevin Williamson Problem"

"One grasps these snapshots from Benjamin’s life as if, at the moment of their presence on the screen, they were already nothing more than memories."
A French Kiss For Benjamin Button
And - Fincher Sez No Better Place To Fail Upward Than H'wd

Are Auds Ready To Buy A Comic Shopaholic?

Rickey Goes In Depth With 3-D's Digital Techs

Eller Counters Waxman-to-Finke-to-Chance Reports Of Lionsgate-Summit Betrothal As Last Fall's Failed Flirtation

The Bagger's 90-Second Video Raspberry To Slumdog-Slappers

Terry Gilliam Thinks His Bafta Fellowship Nod Is Probably A Pity Party

"'If the industry sees Australia as a failure, send us more failures,' says Peter Howard, who runs cinemas in the New South Wales towns of Taree and Tuncurry."

Record Number Of Canadian Pics—15!—Off To Berlin Fest

Are There Only 55 Movie Remakes In The Hopper?

Roadside Browses Sundance Glamour Shot September Issue For September Release

Mother Superior: No Doubting The Walk-And-Talk Between Streep And Viola Davis

Spike Goes To Hell

Afghani Filmmakers Who Risk Their Lives To Make Movies

I Can Haz Arbitration?
Bankrupt Tribco's Announced Axing Of 300 At LA Times Delayed Over Failure To Get Approval From Bankruptcy Court

Trailering Chocolate, The New Tween-Girl Kickboxing Actioner From Director Of Ong Bak

Macy's Parades 7,000

Voynar Wraps Santa Barbara

"Why is that each time there is a somewhat negative portrayal of India in the western media, some people, in India and Indians in the diaspora, always freak out?"
An Indian Journo Sees Slumdog As A Picture Of Hope

Rights To Sundance Sensaysh Push: Based On The Novel By Sapphire Shared By Lionsgate, Oprah, Madea Triumvirate

More Bond Scorn From Mr. Bourne

"I remember telling Sally while we were shooting how relieved I felt to be a part of her revolution. How good it felt even if it was only imaginary."
Sally Potter Has Some Rage (And Jude Law In Drag)

IMAX Ramps Up 3-D Investment

Goyas Go For Del Toro, Cruz; Jess Franco

David Lynch In The Soul Detective

Waxman Rumors Lionsgate-Summit Merger Talks

SXSW Sets Its Sked

"If I spot Anna Wintour taking the subway, I’m immediately heading into the bunker with lots of water and canned food."
David Carr Counts The Contractions Of Premium Magazine Publisher Condé Nast

Olly Moss's Movie Poster Remakes

Hulu's Got The Superbowl Ads

"Look at Wizard of Oz, that tanked when it opened and it's worth a billion dollars. Citizen Kane almost didn't open. I'm not saying my movies are on that classic level, but hopefully that's what you're trying to do."
Fincher Unbuttons

The Big Cieper Sez There's All Sorts Of Suspense Over The Oscar Show

Carrie Fisher's Blogging The Funny For Free

"Clouseau's always been lovable, but he shouldn't be. He has a pettiness. He's egocentric, arrogant, bumbling and lacks a lot of intelligence."

Voynar's Santa Barbara Fest Dispatch Pt. 3

Lessons From The Art Of Storyboarding