Thursday, March 28, 2024

Telluride: Movie Press Becomes Hyperbolic, Giving Everyone Oscar Nominations

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Between Venice and Telluride, the 2014 Academy Awards are over. Just like that. Staying in New York this Labor Day weekend, I’m getting a kick out of reading completely over the top reports from the festivals. Is everyone drinking too much coffee? As far as I can tell, Variety, THR, Deadline and The Wrap are falling over themselves to proclaim one movie “stunning” and another “a definite Oscar winner” — or some such nonsense.

Some of this comes from the writers not having been in Cannes, so they’re seeing some films like Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska” and Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Inside Llewyn Davis” for the first time. Yesterday’s mania came with “12 Years a Slave,” which is supposed to be pretty good. But to read Chris Willman in The Wrap, he needs a Valium. i could be just the altitude.

THR, of course, is already setting up Oscar predictions. And GoldDerby.com has put out its spread sheets. Kids, it’s September 1st. The Oscars aren’t until March 2, 2014. This is all a little premature. There are plenty more movies to see and performances to evaluate. It’s impossible to start drawing up lists now. Maybe around October 15th. But today? Keep Calm and Refrain from turning this into a circus.

I am a little amused that one article already predicted four of five Best Actor nominees. You know, a lot has to happen before we get to that point. Of movies released to the public so far, only three this season merit awards talk- “The Butler,” “Blue Jasmine,” and “Fruitvale Station.” Otherwise, really, get a grip. Both the Coens’ movie and the Payne movie looked like contenders in Cannes. Robert Redford was outstanding in “All I Lost.” Now word is that “Gravity” and “12 Years a Slave” are quite good. But few have seen these, they’re not released, and there’s a lot more to come.

The downside is that the general public doesn’t want to think about this for six solid months. And it’s going to spoil appreciating the good films. And there are plenty of those this season.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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