Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

McCarthy, as usual, the least-positive of he trades -- but well above decent. Babel A Paramount Vantage (in U.S.) release of a Paramount Pictures and Paramount Classics presentation of an Anonymous Content, Zeta Film, Central Films production. (International sales: Summit Entertainment, Santa Monic...

Sonic usually posts Cannes reviews as they pour in, but he seems to be incommunicado at the moment. I have access to Variety, but I'm too busy at work to post everything. Howver...anyone wants to see particular films reviewed, let me know, and I'll try to accommodate. I assume everyone who's follow...

And a story from the BBC: A film in four languages and set on four continents has become the strong favourite to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Babel is directed by Alejandro Inarritu and stars Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and a host of unknowns. On Tuesday it was being hailed in Fran...

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...