Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

And here's Wells: Alejando Gonzalez Innaritu's Babel, which press-screened this morning, is, I believe, a lock to win the Palme D'Or. It's an incredibly shrewd and brilliant film about all of us...about frailty, interconnectedness, aloneness and particularly parents and children. It exudes compassi...

Nothing in Variety yet, but Hollywood Reporter here is a serious rave. For what it's worth, Jeff Wells reacts the same. I've been lukewarm at best on Innaritu, but it sounds like he's hit it out of the park. Babel By Ray Bennett Bottom line: Shattering and unforgettable. Tense, relentless and diffi...

The character name in Grand Hotel was a late add-on (she'd just been Charwoman during rehearsals); she wasn't exactly thrilled by the designation. As you might guess, the Nine role was her favorite. You can still see the clip of it on the PBS Broadway's Greatest Treasures. By the way, Magilla, I wa...

(My wife has appeared in more than one show that got mild reviews and still did very well at the Tonys) Mister Tee are we allowed to ask your wife's name? Or you would like to keep it secret? Reza, I'm not entirely comfortable splashing her name on the Internet, but here's what I'll tell you: she w...

I don't usually traffic in gossip, but... I'm not sure Lupone is as popular in the limited voting Broadway community as she is among show enthusiasts. She was actually favored to win for Anything Goes in '87, but scuttlebutt was, diva behavior backstage got in the way (a la Bacall at the Oscars). I...

With the caveat that judging by trailers is kind of pointless... This one suggests to me World Trade Center is going to be precisely what I was so grateful United 93 was not: an utter banalization of a personally traumatic event (complete with eye-popping special effects). Reducing this day to Holl...

I've been meaning to add to this thread since the weekend. Gee, was the panel stacked with Philip Roth fans? I like him alot, but, Jesus... (I actually had to stop reading American Pastoral about 60 pages in, because it threatened to cover subjects I was currently writing about in a play of my own....

I would be stunned if John Lloyd Young lost the Tony. Has he lost anything yet? All I see Young has won is the Outer Critics, for which Martin wasn't nominated (Outer Critics left out Foster, too). Is there something else I'm missing? As I said, this year I'm a detached observer, thus talking out o...

I read Da Vinci in its first week or two -- before it became de rigeur to slime it -- and found it enjoyable enough trash: zippy international thriller with enough amusing historical mumbo-jumbo to make it a bit different. I'm not surprised it's getting hacked to pieces by critics, since 1) all the...

As Broadway ticket prices rise, I see less and less, and, for I believe the first time in three decades, I've seen absolutely nothing nominated (or omitted, for that matter). Sonic, your memory is quite right: Color Purple's reviews were mediocre-to-sour. But the Tonys mostly nominate 3-4 musicals,...

Agreed there, okri. I wonder if the people who praised him in Pride were people who already had affection for him based on MI:5. I was actually less thrilled with Wright's direction. It struck me as overly frenetic -- all those scenes of people running around shouting seemed like an attempt to &quo...

criddic, what you posted, of course, is not an "article"...it's an op-ed piece by a partisan Republican. I challenge you: find an actual news article backing up any of your viewpoints from a mainstream source (that of course excludes Fox News, The Washington Times, NewsMax, and the assort...

Okay, this is why I rarely get into it with criddic, because his font of faulty knowledge is so full, it'd take a lifetime to correct him. Republicans ALWAYS outraise Democrats, usually by substantial margins. (That's what happens when you're whores for huge corporations) Dean's fund-raising has cl...

Ah, vindication so quickly for those of us who questioned ABC/Wash. Post's rushing out that hack-job of a poll. When you follow the normal rules of polling, the 67% approving mysteriously drops to 41% -- which would appear to be more than margin of error. New Newsweek poll: A majority of Americans ...

criddic, you pass off so much misinformation I mostly don't bother correcting you, but one post down there had two whoppers plus a ludicrous conclusion, so I feel the need to stage an intervention. "Democrats will have to do some changing, too, but with Howard Dean as their chairman they have ...