Blog Archives
It’s Oscar Season…La La La
Will La La Land be Titanic at the Academy Awards way back in 1998?
Or Titanic the ship in reality…
The musical sensation La La Land has tied James Camerson’s cinematic epic Titanic (and All About Eve) with 14 Oscar nominations. Released at the end of 2016, the film starring the much-awaited Crazy, Stupid, Love reunion between Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone is the it movie in Hollywood right now. Critics love the movie and, most importantly, fans love this movie. La La Land looks amazing.
Will the romantic musical dominate the 89th Academy Awards?
We’ll find out Sunday, February 26, 2017.
Until then, let’s watch star Oscar nominee Ryan Gosling (Actor in a Leading Role) discuss his experience making La La Land as Sebastian during a recent interview.
Hollywood is defined as a city of stars.
But the question is which stars will forever shine a little brighter than the rest on the night of February 26th?
Literary Literalness
Words have a way of taking on a life of their own, grasping the pen or keystrokes from the writer and venturing off into far and away tangents with no rescue line back to the original point in the first place. This, of course, begs the question of what was attempting to be answered in this evolving collection of increasingly obscure sentences? Where is the clarity, the weapon of choice for wordsmiths to make simple of the mysteries around us that results in before unknown and, therefore, profound revelations?
Let me take a second pass at this.
A scene from the upcoming film Genius starring Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Laura Linney captures the contentious, even torturous, relationship between writer and editor.
The process for great writers is often unconventional. Bottling the inspiration for the next great American novel is impossible to predict and anticipate. It happens when it happens for that patient, and ironically persistent, author. In rare circumstances, a finished product, after dozens of scratch-outs, edits and Whiskey splotches, upends the literary world.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby comes to mind.
Fun Fact: Speaking of the late great Mr. Fitzgerald, Max Perkins (portrayed by Colin Firth) was his editor.
Returning to the clip above, Jude Law plays author Thomas Wolfe in what looks like a fascinating journey back to an age of literary giants in the early 20th century. Set for a June 10th release date, Genius is based on National Book Award winner Max Perkins: Editor of Genius.
Get ready to engage in another book vs. movie debate with notes of your own…
or edits, if you will.
Happy Monday!
For a while, there appeared to be no gravitational pull against Best Director Alfonso Cuarón’s space masterpiece as the film soared with Oscar after Oscar after Oscar (7 in total), except for the two it should have collected at the end of the night (especially for Best Picture).
Still, Gravity made a bold statement in 2013 and early into 2014. And we cannot neglect the other triumphant winners in Frozen (including Best Original Song), Dallas Buyers Club (Jared Leto & Matthew McConaughey), The Great Gatsby (3 golden statues) and 12 Years a Slave (Best Actress: Lupita Nyong’o & Best Picture).
The 86th Academy Awards was a night full of speeches, tributes and celebration (and pizza!). If only there was a single picture that captured the spirit of the entire evening…
I am proud to say I was among the millions of people who retweeted this photo that set the record as the most retweeted picture in history (it even broke Twitter for a little while: true story).
And, let it be known that the words Caddyshack, Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day were spoken on the Oscars stage last night.
Thank you Bill Murray (and of course Harold Ramis).
Let your imagination run wild today, this week and far off into the future!
Happy Monday!
A Comedy Icon with a Golden Legacy
In a show about virtually everything, Emmy-winning writer Chuck Martin and his good friend and boss Jerry Seinfeld rocked the Ohio Theatre last night with daily observations that left the audience with nothing but pure laughter, joy and appreciation for two men from the world of entertainment that hilariously exposed all the annoying things in life that they and we encounter and comment on on a daily, continuous basis.
One example?
How about how we directly define our own personal energy with the precise battery percentage on our phones (you know it’s true!). Once it gets below 20%, the game’s over. Your day has ended. Sadly, it’s only 2:17 p.m.
The show (and the 2nd row seats: a sincere thank you to my sister!) were the real deal and it was all spectacular.
Now, here’s a juxtaposition for you to contemplate this Friday before the Oscars: What would Jerry Seinfeld be like hosting the Academy Awards?
He would be the host of an awards show about nothing.
Genius.
Jimmy's Daily Planet 