LOUIS GOSSETT, JR (1936 - 2024)

Louis Gossett, Jr., the groundbreaking actor who found great success on the stage and screen passed away on March 29th. He was eighty-seven. No cause of death has been given to date. Gossett, Jr. became the first African-American actor to receive the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1982 for his performance of a hard-driving Marine Sgt. Foley in "An Officer and a Gentleman". He had won an Emmy Award  for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama six years earlier for playing Fiddler in the acclaimed television miniseries, "Roots".

The Brooklyn born actor began his career on the Broadway stage; first appearing in the play, "Take a Giant Step" in 1953 before becoming a part of the original cast in Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" six year later. Gossett Jr. would reprise his role of George Murchison in the film adaptation of "Raisin" in 1961, making his feature film debut. Also that year, he appeared in the Off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's "The Blacks" which featured an impressive cast that included James Earl Jones, Roscoe Lee Browne, Cicely Tyson, Godfrey Cambridge and Maya Angelou. During this time, Gossett Jr. was also dabbling as a musician, recording and performing folk music and co-writing the anti-war protest anthem, "Handsome Johnny" with Richie Havens in 1966 which Havens would later perform live during his set at the Woodstock music festival.

But acting was where Gossett Jr. put most of the focus throughout his career. He appeared in the films, "The Landlord" which was Hal Ashby's directorial debut; George Cukor's "Travels with My Aunt"; "The Choirboys"; the sci-fi drama, "Enemy Mine"; the Air Force adventure, "Iron Eagle" with three sequels and the underwater thriller, "The Deep". Gossett Jr. made many television appearances on series ranging from "The Six Million Dollar Man" to "Good Times" and playing the late third President of Egypt in the 1983 miniseries, "Sadat". Recently, Gossett Jr. did acclaimed work in the HBO series, "Watchmen" and appeared in the musical remake of "The Color Purple".

DRIVE AWAY DOLLS (2024)

Written by Ethan Coen & Tricia Cooke



Directed by Ethan Coen



Where & When: Landmark Theatres Sunset, West Hollywood, CA. February 27, 2024 5:45 PM



For his first narrative feature film without his long-time collaborator (and sibling), Joel, Ethan Coen has delivered "Drive Away Dolls", a dark-edged, queer positive, road trip comedy-thriller that captures some of the style that this team of filmmaking brothers have been crafting for almost forty years. And while the film begins promising, the tone of "Dolls" shifts abruptly midway through, creating a disjointed, rough-and-tumble farce.

Set in 1999, a man named Santos (Pedro Pascal) waits nervously at a Philadelphia restaurant clutching a briefcase. Attempting to make a hasty exit, Santos is chased into an alley by a gang of intimidating thugs who forcefully remove the case from his person.

Meanwhile, in another part of town, Jamie (Margaret Qualley), a charming yet horny gal from Texas, is a notorious skirt-chaser. But one person who has had enough of her womanizing and sexual inappropriateness is Sukie (Beanie Feldstein), Jamie's police officer girlfriend who kicks her out of their apartment. Jamie's friend, Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) is her polar opposite: uptight, anxious and sexually repressed. Marian plans to visit a relative in Tallahassee and Jamie, now without a home, decides to tag along. She talks Marian into getting to Florida using a drive-away service which offers free use of a car by transporting the auto to a specific location for a client. But a mix-up by the owner, Curlie (Bill Camp) has the girls in the wrong car which was supposed to have gone to a nefarious trio of criminals lead by a man named Chief (Colman Domingo).

As they travel down the freeway, Jamie makes detours to local lesbian bars, actively trying to loosen up Marian to help get her laid, where she is met with much resistance from her road buddy. Yet unbeknownst to the girls, this ruthless gang is hot on their trail. A flat tire leads Jamie and Marian to discover the briefcase and a box, which contains the most recognizable part of Santos on ice, in the car trunk.

As part of a team with his brother, Coen has been an effective cinematic storyteller, together creating their own distinctive, offbeat style of filmmaking. Now with Tricia Cooke, his partner in life and film, Coen seems to want to explore a new direction. Yet with "Drive Away Dolls" (which began with the much better and more accurate title, "Drive Away Dykes"), this team, with Cooke also serving as editor, struggle with coherence and inventiveness. The film's pacing is sluggish and as the story moves along, these plot developments come across as more baffling than intriguing.

So what exactly is inside of this briefcase? Let's just say that the contents are probably the last thing you would ever have imagined. And while I will give points for this unexpected silly gag, the real problem lies with this not making much sense in regards to the relentless pursuit of these girls nor require the amount of disturbing bloodshed and mayhem involved in the desperate retrieval of the case. From this point to the conclusion, "Drive Away Dolls" turns into a weirdly violent and strangely wacky comedy with no real connective tissue to the provocative, mildly humorous mystery in the first part of the film.

There are certainly a few laugh-out-loud moments and some engaging, cerebral conversations to be found in the film. And Qualley and Viswanathan have a great connection on screen. Yet visually and thematically, "Drive Away Dolls" comes across like of a poorly conceived imitation of a Coen Brothers movie.

THE 96TH ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS

After two lengthy strikes last year that brought the movie business to a grinding halt, the industry is ready to get back to work and celebrate themselves. The 96th annual Academy Awards brings an official end to award season and honors the best in cinema from across the globe.

For his fourth time as host, Jimmy Kimmel seemed even more at ease, playfully joking with his irreverent humor about this year's movies and nominees. The host was in great form and offering nothing too mean spirited except a bit later in the show with him reading aloud a nasty comment about him made on social media by a former President with Kimmel delivering a well deserved, perfect comeback. Following his monologue, Kimmel paid tribute to the below-the-line crew (the folks who handle much of the technical work behind the camera and who are on the cusp of their own contract renegotiations with the studios) and brought out to the stage the show's own crew.

It was fifteen years ago the first time when five previous Oscar winners came out together to present in each of the acting categories. It was thrilling and deeply moving at that time and the return of this remains highly effective. My favorite moment from this was when the amazing ninety-two year old, Rita Moreno was speaking about Best Supporting Actress nominee, America Ferrera and sang a few bars of "America" from the movie version of the musical, "West Side Story" which she won her Oscar for her performance. Now I'm not sure if I would really want to see this every year, for I do enjoy seeing clips from the nominated performances, but this is still a wonderful thrill to witness and honor Oscar winners from the past.

In the most shocking moment of the evening, Emma Stone received Best Actress over the front-runner, Lily Gladstone for her performance in "Poor Things", making her become a two-time winner. It is certainly disappointing for Gladstone but I still strongly believe that she was in the wrong category as her role in "Killers of the Flower Moon" was much more supporting than lead. And if Gladstone had been competing for Best Supporting Actress, it would have been even more of tight race against Da'Vine Joy Randolph who won the award for her emotional performance in '"The Holdovers" and gave one of the most touching speeches of the night. 

"Oppenheimer" had lead with the most nominations with thirteen and ended the evening with the most wins at seven which included Best Picture. Now this would not have been my pick for this award (that would have been "Killers of The Flower Moon") but it is a solid choice and certainly will not be looked back years later as an unfortunate Best Picture selection. Christopher Nolan finally received the Best Director award while his wife, Emma Thomas shared the win for producing the movie. Cillian Murphy won his first Oscar for Best Actor playing the real-life theoretical physicist while Robert Downey, Jr. received Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Lewis Strauss, a high-ranking member of the US Atomic Energy Commission.

One of the biggest hits of last year, "Barbie" managed to take home only one award for Best Original Song for Billie Eilish and her brother, Finneas O'Connell who also became two time winners this night. But another nominated song from "Barbie", "I'm Just Ken" was performed on the show with a very game, Ryan Gosling capturing the spirit of the film. In one of the most rousing performances of the nominated songs, Gosling sang and danced in an extravagant production number surrounded by co-stars, Simu Liu and Kingsley Ben-Adir, a large number of dancing men with even Slash, the guitarist of the band, Guns N Roses, making an appearance. Another moment on the program was when stand-up comedian, John Mulaney came out to present Best Sound. I was wondering why he was actually there (in fact, I don't he's even been in a movie) but Mulaney was hilarious with his bit on "Field of Dreams" that was a highlight of the show. Perhaps he was auditioning for a chance to host a future Oscars? If so, I say give him a shot.

There were a few disappointments; The traditional In Memoriam was poorly conceived this year with the segment feeling extremely rushed with some Oscar winners and nominees omitted while other performer's names were regulated to small print on a screen blocked by the dancers on stage. And when Al Pacino arrived on stage to announce Best Picture, he simply opened the envelope without mentioning the nominees or any acknowledgment of the producers involved in each movie. What makes this even worse is that Pacino has later stated that the producers of the show instructed him to just say the winner.

This year, the show began an hour earlier and ran about twenty-three minutes over the intended three hour runtime. Yet the ratings were up by 4% this year with 19 million viewers tuning in. This uptick of viewership might be the "Barbenheimer" effect but who can know for certain. During this ceremony, there was no slapping, no opening of the wrong envelopes, no overtly political speeches and no streaking (boooo, John Cena). What we had was a fairly standard, traditional Oscars telecast. Now this perfectly fine with me however as we closely approach the centennial of the Academy Awards, what will it take to keep viewers engaged with the Oscars? I do believe the concept of "Barbenheimer" with two original films in the marketplace at the same time is one answer but another bolder vision is what Best Adapted Screenplay winner, Cord Jefferson said in his acceptance speech which in essence is that studios might want to get back to investing less money on films and take a chance on a new filmmaker with a fresh, innovative script.

Here is the complete list of the winners of the 2024 Academy Awards:

Best Picture: "Oppenheimer"
Best Director: Christopher Nolan, "Oppenheimer"
Best Original Screenplay: Arthur Harari and Justine Triet, "Anatomy of a Fall"
Best Adapted Screenplay: Cord Jefferson, "American Fiction"
Best Actress in a Leading Role: Emma Stone, "Poor Things"
Best Actor in a Leading Role: Cillian Murphy, "Oppenheimer"
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Da'Vine Joy Randolph, "The Holdovers"
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Robert Downey Jr., "Oppenheimer"
Best Cinematography: Hoyte van Hoytema, "Oppenheimer"
Best Editing: Jennifer Lame, "Oppenheimer"
Best Production Design: James Price and Shona Heath, Production Design; Zsuzsa Mihalek, Set Decoration, "Poor Things"
Best International Feature: "The Zone of Interest" (United Kingdom)
Best Animated Feature: "The Boy and the Heron"
Best Animated Short: "War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko"
Best Documentary Feature: "20 Days in Mariupol"
Best Documentary Short: "The Last Repair Shop"
Best Live Action Short: "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar"
Best Original Score: Ludwig Göransson, "Oppenheimer"
Best Original Song: "What Was I Made For?" from "Barbie" Music and Lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell
Best Sound: Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn, "The Zone of Interest"
Best Costume Design: Holly Waddington, "Poor Things"
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston, "Poor Things"
Best Visual Effects: Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji Nojima, "Godzilla Minus One"

Academy Honorary Awards: 

Angela Bassett
Mel Brooks
Carol Littleton

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award: Michelle Satter

COMING SOON

A new teaser trailer has just dropped for "The Fall Guy", an upcoming action-comedy that features two of this year's Oscar nominees, Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. It's a modern revisit of the '80's television show starring Lee Majors about a Hollywood stunt man who moonlights as a bounty hunter. Gosling stars as Colt Seavers, a veteran action choreographer working on a film when the leading man, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, mysteriously disappears. Seavers begins to investigate to find him and save the film for the director (Blunt) who also happens to be former girlfriend of Seavers and the current girlfriend of missing actor. The director David Leitch is a former stunt man turned filmmaker (behind the first "John Wick", "Atomic Blonde, "Bullet Train") and "The Fall Guy" seems like the perfect fit. And Leitch looks like he's using the irresistible charm, comedic timing and sex appeal of Gosling to the full advantage of the film.

"The Fall Guy" is due in US theaters on May 3, 2024

OSCAR MADNESS

In a matter of days, we will finally know the winners of The Oscars. In the meantime, here's a bit of information regarding the film industry that I found interesting:

The Criterion Collection has long been considered the gold standard for films as they focus on recognizing and preserving classic and contemporary films from across the globe. With their collection of over 1200 thoughtfully curated movies on DVD, filmmakers long to be a part of their prestigious catalog while cinephiles covet to collect each of their selections. Criterion pioneered the special features found on DVDs that included the use of trailers, deleted scenes, alternate endings and, most importantly, commentary tracks. The New York Times has examined the company, founded in 1984, from when Criterion began with laserdiscs, the short lived, home video format and has grown to now having their own subscription streaming service.

Please click below to read:

How the Criterion Collection became the film world’s arbiter of taste

After many years of campaigning for recognition by the Oscars, casting directors have finally succeeded and the Academy have created a new category (the first in twenty-four years) for Best Casting and will be presented during the 2026 ceremony. Another group that have also been vigorously fighting almost as long to have a category for themselves during the Academy Awards are the stunt people, the men and women who have risked their well-being to create realistic looking falls, fights and crashes. So far, they remain unsuccessful but with casting now being honored, hopefully stunt work will not be far behind and will soon have their moment. In the meantime, Vulture have created the Stunt Awards to make up for this oversight. This began last year and was such an astounding success that the awards has been expanded with more entries and a larger voting body.

Please click below to read:

And the Winners of the 2024 Vulture Stunt Awards Are …

Here's a photographic look back at the history of one of the most coveted afterparties on Hollywood's biggest nights; Vanity Fair's Oscars party. The magazine looks back at their first party in 1994 which came together not long after the passing of talent agent, Irving "Swifty" Lazar who had held an exclusive Oscars viewing and after party for many years. Graydon Carter, then the editor of Vanity Fair, and the producer Steve Tisch came together to fill the void and these parties have been going on, becoming bigger and more glamourous, ever since. They have put together an incredible collection of photos from these gatherings with all of the beautiful movies stars, athletes, musicians and celebrated figures of the day all having a grand, extravagant time.

Please click below to read:

30 Years of Vanity Fair’s Oscar Parties

And finally, Vulture has ranked fifty of the most memorable, crazy, thought-provoking and moving acceptance speeches from all of the many awards shows over the last fifty five years. Not surprising, The Oscars have a large number of entries here but all of them are wildly entertaining.

Please click below to read:

The 50 Greatest Awards-Show Speeches

AWARDS NEWS: THE FINALS

As we are quickly approaching the final awards presentation which will bring an end to award season: the Oscars, here is a rundown of the many awards given out by guilds and film organizations over the past few weeks:

The acting branch, which is represented by the Screen Actors Guild, handed out their awards on February 24th. The 30th annual event gave the actors in "Oppenheimer" the top prize of Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. The rest of the acting awards in the film categories were given to the front runners throughout award season:

Here are the winners of the 2024 Screen Actors Guild Awards (Film):

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture: "Oppenheimer"
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role: Lily Gladstone, "Killers of the Flower Moon"
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role: Cillian Murphy, "Oppenheimer"
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role: Da'vine Joy Randolph, "The Holdovers"
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role: Robert Downey Jr., "Oppenheimer"
Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture: "Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning"

Celine Song and her melancholy romantic drama, "Part Lives" took the top prizes of Best Feature and Best Director at the 39th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards, held on February 25th on the beach in Santa Monica, CA. with host, Aidy Bryant. A. V. Rockwell received Best First Feature for her moving drama, "A Thousand and One".

Here are the winners of the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards (Film):

Best Feature: "Past Lives"
Best Director: Celine Song, "Past Lives"
Best Screenplay: Cord Jefferson, "American Fiction"
Best First Feature: "A Thousand and One"
Best First Screenplay: Samy Burch, "May December"
Best Lead Performance: Jeffrey Wright, "American Fiction"
Best Supporting Performance: Da'Vine Joy Randolph, "The Holdovers"
Best Breakthrough Performance: Dominic Sessa, "The Holdovers"
Best Cinematography: Eigil Bryld, "The Holdovers"
Best Editing: Daniel Garber, "How to Blow Up a Pipeline"
Best Documentary Feature: "Four Daughters"
Best International Feature: "Anatomy of a Fall" (France)

The Producers Guild of America Awards were established to honor the visionaries who produce and execute motion picture and television production. Christopher Nolan, his wife, Emma Thomas and Charles Rovan received the top prize for Outstanding Producers of Theatrical Motion Pictures for their work on "Oppenhiemer.

Here are the winners of the 35th annual PGA Awards (Film):

Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures: Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan, "Oppenheimer"
Award for Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures: Avi Arad, Amy Pascal, Phil Lord & Christopher Miller and Christina Steinberg, "Spider-man: Across The Spider-Verse"
The Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures: Lauren Domino, Matthew Heineman and Joedan Okun, "American Symphony"

The 77th annual British Academy Film Awards were given out on February 18th which honors the best national and foreign films of the previous year. Christopher Nolan's biographical thriller, "Oppenheimer" began with the most nominations at thirteen and left the ceremony with the most wins with seven, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor for Cillian Murphy. The actress, Samantha Morton received this year's BAFTA Fellowship which is a lifetime achievement award.

Here are the winners of the 2024 BAFTAs (partial):

Best Film: "Oppenheimer"
Best Director: Christopher Nolan, "Oppenheimer"
Outstanding British Film: "The Zone of Interest"
Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer: Savanah Leaf, "Earth Mama"
Best Original Screenplay: Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, "Anatomy of a Fall"
Best Adapted Screenplay: Cord Jefferson, "American Fiction"
Best Actress in a Leading Role: Emma Stone, "Poor Things"
Best Actor in a Leading Role: Cillian Murphy, "Oppenheimer"
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Da'Vine Joy Randolph, "The Holdovers"
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Robert Downey Jr., "Oppenheimer "
Best Film Not in the English Language: "The Zone of Interest"
Best Documentary: "20 Days in Mariupol"
Best Animated Film: "The Boy and the Heron"
Best Casting: Susan Shopmaker, "The Holdovers"
Best Cinematography: Hoyte van Hoytema, "Oppenheimer"
Best Editing: Jennifer Lame, "Oppenheimer"
Best Production Design: Shona Heath, James Price and Zsuzsa Mihalek, "Poor Things"
Best Original Score: Ludwig Göransson, "Oppenheimer"
Best Sound: Johnnie Burn and Tarn Willers, "The Zone of Interest"
Best Costume Design: Holly Waddington, "Poor Things"
Best Make Up & Hair: Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston, "Poor Things"
Best Special Visual Effects: Tim Barter, Simon Hughes, Dean Koonjul and Jane Paton, "Poor Things"

The César Awards are the national film award of France and the 49th annual event was held on February 23rd. "Anatomy of a Fall", Justine Triet's riveting courtroom drama, swept the awards, winning six Césars including Best Film and Best Director, making Triet only the second female filmmaker to receive this award. French filmmaker, Agnès Jaoui and British filmmaker, Christopher Nolan both received Honorary Césars.

Here are the winners of the 2024 The César Awards (Partial):

Best Film: "Anatomie d'une chute (Anatomy of a Fall)"
Best Director: Justine Triet, "Anatomie d'une chute (Anatomy of a Fall)"
Best Original Screenplay: Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, "Anatomie d'une chute (Anatomy of a Fall)"
Best Adaptation: Valérie Donzelli and Audrey Diwan, "L'Amour et les Forêts (Just the Two of Us)"
Best First Feature Film: "Chien de la casse (Junkyard Dog)"
Best Actress: Sandra Hüller, "Anatomie d'une chute (Anatomy of a Fall)"
Best Actor: Arieh Worthalter, "Le Procès Goldman (The Goldman Case)"
Best Supporting Actress: Adèle Exarchopoulos, "Je verrai toujours vos visages (All Your Faces)"
Best Supporting Actor: Swann Arlaud, "Anatomie d'une chute (Anatomy of a Fall)"
Best Female Revelation: Ella Rumpf, "Le Théorème de Marguerite (Marguerite's Theorem)"
Best Male Revelation: Raphaël Quenard, "Chien de la casse (Junkyard Dog)"
Best Cinematography: David Cailley, "Le Règne animal (The Animal Kingdom)"
Best Editing: Laurent Sénéchal, "Anatomie d'une chute (Anatomy of a Fall)"
Best Documentary Feature: "Les Filles d'Olfa (Four Daughters)"
Best Foreign Film: "The Nature of Love" (Canada/France)
Best Animated Feature Film: "Linda veut du poulet! (Chicken for Linda!)"