Fin: The Philly critics vote, the meaning of awards voting, Jonathan Majors vs. Ezra Miller and don’t arrest The Grinch

This week’s notes column

A couple of housekeeping notes: I am going on vacation next week, Saturday to Saturday. But, before leaving I will have scheduled posts for all five weekdays. Also, after lots of delays, I will be turning on subscriptions around the new year. I will lay out how it will work once I return. 

Philly Critics pick the winners 

My Philadelphia Film Critics Circle colleagues and I gathered and voted last weekend for our 7th annual awards, and the big winner was Poor Things, which was our choice for Best Film, as well as Best Director, Script, and Actress. Oppenheimer won more awards, with five – Actor, Supporting Actor, Ensemble, Cinematography, and Soundtrack/Score, but Poor Things was the winner. 

We also gave our only-in-Philly Cheesesteak Award — essentially, best blockbuster — to Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One.

I’m happy with the awards and happy with what we’ve accomplished since the PFCC launched back in 2017 (Rich Heimlich and I are the cofounders.) We’re a small group, just 14 members, and we’re therefore able to try to talk one another into seeking out or supporting certain things. 

The other two groups I’m in, the Critics Choice Association and Online Film Critics Society, are very different, as both have hundreds of members spread out around the country and in some cases outside the country. Neither has announced winners yet this year, but CCA has put out its nominees — check out the Critics Choice Awards on January 14. 

There’s been a bit of consternation that voters for awards always pick the same things, with some even admitting they pick the movies that they think will be up for Oscars. But I don’t think that’s the dynamic that matters here. In CCA and OFCS, and the Academy for that matter, the decisions are being made by hundreds of people. There’s going to naturally be a bias towards the movies that most people have seen. Obscure, little-seen movies are less likely to sneak through that way. 

That said, when I fill out these ballots I never have any other consideration besides what movies, performances, and other things I liked the most. 

You may have also noticed that I rarely, in my reviews, go into awards speculation when it comes to performances, direction, and other things. That’s because I don’t see awards potential as the be-all and end-all of movies. And besides, it can get embarrassing to look up at the end of the year and realize you’ve called ten different performances “Oscar shoo-ins.”

Awards movie controversies and dogs not barking 

Speaking of awards, Maestro is out on Netflix now, and I’ve noticed something: The Bradley Cooper Jewface and nose controversies seem to have completely fallen off the radar. It’s like the arguments were all had 18 months before the movie came out, instead of at the time of its release.

Is it because Maestro doesn’t appear to have become an Oscar front-runner? Or is it because once you’ve seen the movie, the nose doesn’t look that bad and makes Cooper look like the actual Leonard Bernstein? Or perhaps it’s because we Jews have greater things to worry about these days? 

With The Color Purple movie arriving next week, I’m sort of surprised that author Alice Walker’s history of antisemitic conspiracism hasn’t come up at all. That seems certain to become an awards season shoe that drops, even though none of her comments have anything to do with this movie or even that book. Though I guess you could say the same thing about Roald Dahl if Wonka gets any awards nominations, or if the Wes Anderson Henry Sugar movie gets nominated in the live-action shorts category.

Also- get ready for another round of the discourse we already did about Oppenheimer, Barbie, and Killers of the Flower Moon. None of this will end up mattering, however. 

The Jonathan Majors/Ezra Miller non-double standard

Actor Jonathan Majors, who this time last year looked like a major rising talent, was convicted last week of assault and harassment following a trial in New York; he was acquitted on two other charges. As a result, Marvel has parted ways with the actor, who will no longer be playing Kang in the next several Marvel projects. 

This comes at the end of an ugly saga in which Majors’ team tried to undertake a pretty massive media manipulation campaign, similar to Johnny Depp’s, of strategically leaking all sorts of things, including false word at various times that his accuser was about to be charged with crimes. But either he didn’t hire the best people, or the facts were so damning that it ended up not mattering. 

But because everything has to be about what it means for Marvel (and, to a lesser extent, DC), the question has been raised several times in various social media spaces: “Why the double standard,” between Majors and Ezra Miller, who has been accused of numerous crimes. Why was Miller “allowed” to star in The Flash, while Majors’ career may very well be done? 

The truth is, there isn’t any such double standard. It’s likely that both of their careers, at least as major movie stars, are over. Miller was “allowed” to star in The Flash mostly because the film had mostly been shot before their incidents started coming to light, just as Majors appeared in various Marvel projects this year. If you think Miller “got off scot-free,” name for me, please, Miller’s future film projects. IMDB lists not one. 

I’m not going to say that Hollywood is or ever has been fair or consistent when it comes to this type of thing. But in this case, Jonathan Majors and Ezra Miller were both seen as talented and promising actors who have done outstanding work. And now they’ve each done enough bad things that it’s more trouble than it’s worth to even think about employing either of them. 

Warner and Paramount? 

Are we headed for another studio merger? It was reported this week that another landmark in Hollywood studio consolidation could be on the way, with Warner Brothers Discovery in talks to buy Paramount. 

A deal, if it happens, would put HBO and Showtime (or rather, what used to be Showtime) under one corporate roof, give Warner Brothers a broadcast network, and — because this is always the top consideration in these things — make it possible for Superman to headline a movie with the Terminator, or for Batman to team up with Mr. Spock. 

Of course, this would not be a good thing. Like when Disney bought Fox, this would combine two Hollywood studios that have been around for a hundred years or so, and chances are Paramount, as the acquired partner, would become an afterthought, the way “Twentieth Century Pictures” is at Disney. That’s fewer jobs, fewer opportunities for filmmakers, and of course, there’s no reason to trust David Zaslav to run an entertainment company in a way that’s ethical or respectful of art. 

If this merger happens and the government imposes conditions on it, may I suggest one? That Zaslav thing where he vaults a completed movie for write-off purposes? Let’s make that illegal from now on. 

Don’t arrest The Grinch 

Want to know a holiday season trope that I find extremely distasteful? This new trend for local police departments to stage photo ops where they “arrest” The Grinch. One department, in Canada, even paraded him around in a cage: 

I hate this so, so much. Mostly because it so severely misunderstands what the Dr. Seuss story is all about. The Grinch learns his lesson and redeems himself, without any incarceration required. I guess these stunts imply that it would be better if The Grinch’s heart had grown three sizes as he sat in jail. 

Below is a police department essentially doing sketch comedy — while retconning The Grinch as a “porch pirate” — and a local news station going along with it when they don’t need to.

However, that’s not the worst modern holiday trend of all. Do you know who DOES deserve to go straight to jail? Anyone who does anything like this: 

When I first saw this trend I assumed (or rather hoped) that no one I know would ever do that. But last year, a Facebook acquaintance did it.

Bloomin’ Onions cure paralysis 

Social media inflation discourse hit an amusing crescendo last week when political writer Sean Trende shared his recent $125 Doordash order from Outback Steakhouse and was thoroughly dunked on: 

Two Bloomin’ Onions for three people is a lot, even without all the other stuff. But the mention of that particular item made me suddenly remember an old Outback TV commercial that I thought I had imagined, but it turns out it’s real. 

It’s from 2003. The setting is a football game in which the game has been stopped because a player is lying prone on the field, in what looks a lot like a Damar Hamlin situation. John Madden, in the booth, speaks in mournful tones about how “when a player gets hurt, and you’re a coach, it doesn't make any difference if it’s your player or the other team’s player, everything stops until you’re sure he’s okay. 

And then… a trainer runs onto the field carrying a bag with some urgency. That trainer comes up to the player, PULLS A BLOOMIN ONION OUT OF THE BAG, WAVES IT IN FRONT OF THE INJURED PLAYER’S FACE, AND IT CAUSES HIM TO MAKE AN INSTANT RECOVERY:  

That’s really weird, right? And kind of tasteless too, considering there were quite a few incidents in the years before this when NFL players suffered paralysis or other career-ending injuries in similar situations. The Michael Irvin neck injury was just a couple of years earlier.

And besides, why would Outback imply that their popular appetizer has the same function as smelling salts, or that it cures paralysis or concussions? I’m reminded of Rob Reiner in The Wolf of Wall Street, screaming about “$26,000 worth of sides- what are these sides, they cure cancer?”

This week’s writings 

 This week, speaking of which, I looked back on 10 years of that film, The Wolf of Wall Street, and 30 years of Schindler’s List. And I reviewed both The Iron Claw and the documentary Great Photo, Lovely Life. 

Also, at Splice Today, I reviewed The Zone of Interest, and also The Color Purple. And if you didn’t get enough of me on Holocaust cinema, my JTA piece from last week on Life is Beautiful is up at The Times of Israel. For Living Life Fearless, it’s my annual countdown of the 20 best music documentaries of the year.

And for AppleInsider, here is my latest crime blotter column.

Have a Merry Christmas for those who celebrate and as always, thank you for your support.