I’m holding this spot until 1pm when the “Tulip Fever” embargo breaks. That’s when the piling on will begin because good or bad, “Tulip Fever” has become a meme in social media. Justin Chadwick directed the movie based on the novel. Steven Spielberg was supposed to direct it years ago, but financing fell apart.

Why or how it proceeded from there is another story, but it’s here now after many release dates were missed. Alicia Vikander, Dane DeHaan, Jack O’Connell, and Christoph Waltz star. One thing is clear: “Tulip Fever” is beautiful to look at. There was no stinting on production design, costumes, lighting, scenics.

The screenplay is by Tom Stoppard, who counts among his many achievements “Shakespeare in Love.” This movie looks like that one, except without Shakespeare.

Is it “Days of Heaven”? or “Ishtar?” Any of the terrible misfires of 2017 so far, from “King Arthur” to “Rough Night”?  No. Nothing like that. But hold on. I’ll tell you more later this afternoon.

UPDATE WITH REVIEW

Is it good, is it bad, what’s the big deal? Sumptuous to look at, “Tulip Fever” is simply uneven and rushed. Justin Chadwick’s direction is all over the place. But that doesn’t mean the movie doesn’t have a lot of good things going for it. The acting is top notch. I really liked Jack O’Connell in the main supporting role. He actually has more chemistry with Alicia Vikander and Dane DeHaan.

You could ask, where have all the flowers gone? One thing “Tulip Fever” is missing is…tulips. You know if Martin Scorsese had shot this movie like “The Age of Innocence,” we’d be awash in them. Lots of them. You see, all of Amsterdam is engaged in buying and selling of tulips as commerce in the mid 1600s. They are passionate about it. and money is flowing.

Wealthy Mr. Waltz has married for the third or fourth time, to the much younger Vikander, desires an heir. He also hires a young Rembrandt like painter (DeHaan) to execute their portrait. It’s not much of a leap to see the younger people are going to get it on under the older husband’s nose. In a subplot, Vikander’s ladies’ maid (Holliday Grainger) is shtupping O’Connell, who’s come up with a way to make money in tulip trade.

“Tulip Fever” doesn’t know whether it’s a Judi Dench type historical piece, or a Cinemax Late at Night sex romp. There’s a lot of sex, at least in the first half, kind of gauzy and soft core. It’s like “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” with a Harlequin cover. It’s all rapidly told so we can get to the plot, and the mechanism that spurs us along to the third act. And that’s where things get wonky. The film has moved so fast that the big reveal is anti-climatic. And then no one knows what to do.

And still, for TV, for other platforms, “Tulip Fever” will play just fine. It’s far ‘less worse’ than a half dozen other big movies this season. Once Stoppard’s structure kicks in you can’t help but pay attention and even care some for Vikander’s peril. I think the biggest problem is here is what happened to the release. If “Tulip Fever” had just come out, no one would have cared. Now curiosity is piqued– for the wrong reasons. It’s a handsome little romp. There’s nothing wrong with that.

The first big film festival, Telluride, has opened. There’s already Oscar buzz and great reviews for Alexander Payne’s “Downsizing” with Matt Damon, and Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” with Sally Hawkins. “Dunkirk” was getting lonely sitting by itself on Oscar lists. Here’s the Telluride rundown. The big festival, Toronto, starts in one week.

• ARTHUR MILLER: WRITER (d. Rebecca Miller, U.S., 2017)
• BATTLE OF THE SEXES (d. Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton, U.S., 2017)
• DARKEST HOUR (d. Joe Wright, U.K., 2017)
• DOWNSIZING (d. Alexander Payne, U.S., 2017)
• EATING ANIMALS (d. Christopher Quinn, U.S., 2017)
• FACES PLACES (d. Agnes Varda, JR, France, 2017)
• A FANTASTIC WOMAN (d. Sebastián Lelio, Chile-U.S.-Germany-Spain, 2017)
• FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL (d. Paul McGuigan, U.K., 2017)
• FIRST REFORMED (d. Paul Schrader, U.S., 2017)
• FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER (d. Angelina Jolie, U.S.-Cambodia, 2017)
• FOXTROT (d. Samuel Maoz, Israel, 2017)
• HOSTAGES (d. Rezo Gigineishvili, Georgia-Russia-Poland, 2017)
• HOSTILES (d. Scott Cooper, U.S., 2017)
• HUMAN FLOW (d. Ai Weiwei, U.S.-Germany, 2017)
• THE INSULT (d. Ziad Doueiri, France-Lebanon, 2017)
• LADY BIRD (d. Greta Gerwig, U.S., 2017)
• LAND OF THE FREE (d. Camilla Magid, Denmark-Finland, 2017)
• LEAN ON PETE (d. Andrew Haigh, U.K.-U.S., 2017)
• LOVELESS (d. Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia-France-Belgium-Germany, 2017)
• LOVE, CECIL (d. Lisa Immordino Vreeland, U.S., 2017)
• LOVING VINCENT (d. Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman, U.K.-Poland, 2017)
• A MAN OF INTEGRITY (d. Mohammad Rasoulof, Iran, 2017)
• THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE (d. Aki Kaurismäki, Finland, 2017)
• THE RIDER (d. Chloé Zhao, U.S., 2017)
• THE SHAPE OF WATER (d. Guillermo del Toro, U.S., 2017)
• TESNOTA (d. Kantemir Balagov, Russia, 2017)
• THE VENERABLE W. (d. Barbet Schroeder, France-Switzerland, 2017)
• THE VIETNAM WAR (d. Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, U.S., 2017)
• WORMWOOD (d. Errol Morris, U.S., 2017)
• WONDERSTRUCK (d. Todd Haynes, U.S., 2017)

Uh oh.

After such a great year this past year with making the Academy more multicultural, trouble is on the horizon.

There are few potential black nominees for the Oscars. Very few. This is quite a snap back to reality after last season was such a success broadening out the Oscars. “Moonlight” won Best Picture, and the two supporting actors were black– Viola Davis and Mahershala Ali.

Denzel Washington has potential as the title character in “Roman Israel,” directed by Dan Gilroy. Octavia Spencer is always compelling, so her part in “The Shape of Water” could bring her back into the game. Washington and Spencer are past Oscar winners.

Otherwise, things look dim.

The thee big “black” movies have come out already: “Detroit,” “Get Out” and “Girl Trip.” “Detroit” scored nearly all rave reviews, but audiences didn’t see it. Kathryn Bigelow’s important feature could come back, but it might be an uphill battle.

“Get Out” and “Girls Trip” were terrific, but the first was a horror film and the second was a comedy. They’re just no Oscar material despite their big box office returns.

Only the indie, “Mudbound,” which has a black female director– Dee Rees– might come through. But the main actors in it are all white. The black actors, save for Jason Mitchell, have supporting roles. Mitchell is also featured in “Detroit.” This week he had a meltdown on a Delta flight that made it to TMZ. It’s unclear if that would affect his chances at awards (I should hope it wouldn’t– he was in the right.)

Combing through all the Oscar-level releases of 1017, including “Dunkirk,” it sure looks like another white out. Even a movie like “Murder on the Orient Express,” which could have been cast with people of any color, is basically a snow storm. The only black actor in it is Leslie Odom, Jr., and his part doesn’t seem particularly large.

But unless there’s some major surprise at one of the imminent film festivals, the situation for this coming awards season appears to be dire.