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“Ozark” star Julia Garner may indeed play Madonna one day if the matronly Material Girl ever gets a decent screenplay together and finds a director other than herself. (I’m not sure it’s a good idea, but there it is.)
Garner has garnered a raft of awards for playing the hell out Ruth Langmore on “Ozark” and Anna Delvey in “Inventing Anna.” She is a startling presence in whatever she does, a pistol, as they used to say. (The first role I saw her in was Lily Tomlin’s spitfire granddaughter in a terrific film called “Grandma.”
So I was thrilled to meet her at the Critics Choice Awards. She’s a petite blonde who sounds nothing at all like hillbilly Ruth or Eurotrash Anna. I was delighted to learn that she’s a nice Jewish girl from the Bronx. She told me: “If you’re blonde and from the Bronx, you’re either Jewish or Irish!”
So what’s she going to do next? The Madonna thing is sort of out there in the mist. Meantime she says, “Im ‘just turning everything down.” She’s got to choose the right material after two such celebrated roles.
And “Ozark” fans, two important things: Garner’s favorite character on the show was Darlene, played also with effortless grit by Lisa Emery. Julia told me: “I was very sorry when they killed her off.” Also, Garner has still never been to Lake of the Ozarks despite seeming like she was born there. She has no immediate plans to visit, either. She’s a Bronx girl, after all!
Last night on the Critics Choice Awards you may have heard Cate Blanchett praise British actress Andrea Riseborough and her indie film “To Leslie.”
Over the weekend, the movie and actress were mentioned by Kate Winslet, as well, and Jane Fonda and Frances Fisher plugged it on social media.
Last week there was a screening at CAA hosted by Demi Moore, with Gwyneth Paltrow in attendance among others. All of CAA seems to have awakened at the last minute to push “To Leslie.”
But it may not be enough.
The smart indie was released in October and scored 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. I never heard of it until the other day, and neither had most critics or press. I received one email about it in November for a Los Angeles screening, and nothing ever again.
The problem now is, Oscar nominating ballots must be returned tomorrow. Most voters have never heard of this movie. Why? is a good question. The distributor, Momentum Pictures, is a subsidiary of the very well fixed Entertainment One, from Canada. They’ve released a lot of movies and know who all the publicity people are. They could certainly have launched a campaign of some kind. It’s not even clear if it was released in the US for eligibility. All I can find is a UK release that netted $1,429.
Momentum bought “To Leslie” after the South by Southwest Festival last March 2022. So why didn’t they show it at Tribeca or Toronto? (I mean, they’re Canadian, of all things.) Why did it get no press all year? Riseborough isn’t well known, but Oscar winner Allison Janney is in the film. She’s a big TV star from “Mom.” Certainly something could have been done.
“To Leslie” is directed by Michael Morris. Riseborough plays a familiar character: an addict who’s trying to straighten out her life. Writer Ryan Binaco based Leslie on his own West Texas mother, who won the lottery and spent the money in every wrong way. You can catch is on streaming services.
But “To Leslie” probably won’t make the Oscars. It barely made the Spirit Awards with Riseborough scoring a nomination for Best Actress. Yet Momentum didn’t try to capitalize on that either. Right now, the Oscars leading actress category is pretty set with Michelle Williams, Cate Blanchett, Michelle Yeoh, Danielle Deadwyler, and Viola Davis the likely five finalists. So maybe Riseborough will get something good out of all this in the way of another, bigger role that will net her buzz next time around. She deserves it.
Last night’s Critics Choice Awards show was everything one of these big star studded affairs should be: the most fun ever. Host Chelsea Handler deserves a lot of the credit, she set the tone right from the start without putting anyone down but making gentle fun of the news as it intersected with Hollywood. I hope she’ll return next year.
The big surprise was the Best Picture– “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and its directors, the Daniels, all won. The estimable Cate Blanchett won Best Actress for “Tar,” Brendan Fraser– who most of us thought was out of the race– won Best Actor for “The Whale.”
The supporting actor winners were emotional. Ke Huy Quan continued his run for “Everything Everywhere” and Angela Bassett became the first ever actor in a Marvel movie to win the CCA. They are likely repeating at the Oscars.
The ballroom at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel had a very chill vibe to it. Stars mixed with critics, producers, directors, and so on. The place was at maximum capacity but the commercial breaks allowed a lot of socializing, especially among people who hadn’t seen each other in a long time.
I got to meet some actors I really admired but are relatively new to this world. They included Julia Garner, Danielle Deadwyler, Anya Taylor Joy, Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri, plus I spoke to Jennifer Coolidge, Andrew Garfield, Glenn Powell, Miles Teller, and my old friend Giancarlo Esposito, who won Best Supporting Actor in a Drama for “Better Call Saul.” This was a long awaited award, and much, much deserved. (Coolidge, by the way, having a big year thanks to “White Lotus,” says she doesn’t know what her next job will be. I heard that from a lot of actors this weekend.)
Viola Davis and husband Julius Tennon commanded a table near mine with her “Woman King” director Gina Prince-Bythewood, and “The Fabelmans” with Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Judd Hirsch, and Gabe Labelle were between our table and the stage. Williams brought her BFF, Busy Phillips, one of my favorite people, who always lightens the tension with a warm sense of humor.
And this was just a quarter of the room. Scattered throughout the ballroom were Julia Roberts, Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Kaley Cuocco and Tom Pelphrey, director Martin McDonagh, James Cameron, Michelle Yeoh, and the folks from “RRR” (they won Best Foreign Language Feature and Best Song), plus the great writer Tony Kushner, Sarah Polley, Austin Butler of “Elvis” fame, and …you get the idea.
I loved running into Bill Nighy, the popular and famed British star of “Living.” He’s about to get an Oscar nomination. Nighy came to prominence in the US playing the goofy rock star in “Love Actually.” Since then he’s been in dozens of films including “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” with Judi Dench. So how is Dame Judi, I wondered? (She just turned 88.)
“I just saw last week in London,” Nighy told me. “She made lunch. Lamb chops, green beans, and potatoes.”
I said: “You mean she had someone make it for you?”
Nighy shook his head. “No she did it herself, in her own kitchen and it was marvelous. She’s something else.”
She sure is– and so were the CCAs. Finally, someone got an awards show right!
WINNERS OF THE 28th ANNUAL CRITICS CHOICE AWARDS
FILM CATEGORIES
BEST PICTURE Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24)
BEST ACTOR Brendan Fraser – The Whale (A24)
BEST ACTRESS Cate Blanchett – Tár (Focus Features)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Ke Huy Quan – Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24)
Lisa Marie Presley wanted to have a music career but it never really happened in a big way.
Sadly, with her death this week, Lisa Marie is finally getting recognition and sales.
Her three solo albums are in the top 21 of iTunes, rising there from literally nowhere. The order is “Storm and Grace” at number 16, “Now What” at 20, and “To Whom it May Concern” at 21. If only she could have seen that when she was alive.
Lisa Marie’s death combined with the “Elvis” movie has put three of her father’s greatest hits collections on the top 100 also. Ironically, Elvis’s family will receive less in sales moneyfor his records than Lisa’s Marie’s will for hers.
Meanwhile, there are two existing official Elvis Presley foundations. Their total assets come only to less than $200,000. The Presley fortune of $100 million was whittled down by bad management, mismanagement and bad advice over the years. Their only successful entity is Graceland, which has not closed for a minute since Lisa Marie died.
It wasn’t a very successful weekend for new films at the box office.
Gerard Butler’s “Plane” literally crashed. (It’s a movie, and it failed, so you can say literally.) The total was $11 million through tomorrow, although just $10 million for the four days from Thursday through Sunday. What’s it about? I guess, a plane. They couldn’t call it “Airplane!” for obvious reasons, and if they’d called it “The Plane,” there would have been “Fantasy Island” memes. Maybe they should have called it, “Winging It.” Or, just “Plain.”
Warner Bros. released a dead on arrival remake of “House Party” involving LeBron James as producer. Critics hated it, and audiences weren’t interested. Total b.o. for the weekend was around $3.5 million, Also the audience score was just 62%. LeBron James’s name is a pull for basketball but not for movies. Live and learn.
Meanwhile, “Avatar The Way of Money” is heading to $2 billion worldwide. The US part of that is $562 million, which sounds like a lot (and it is ) but it’s no “Black Panther” (the first, good one) or “Top Gun Maverick.” Never underestimate the international audience. They like images. And apparently, blue ones.
First the Golden Globes banned Critics Choice reporters from their show on Tuesday.
Now it seems like their event was a super spreader for COVID. At least three CCA nominees have tested positive and will miss tonight’s show on the CW Network.
JamIe Lee Curtis was felled and won’t be on hand for her nomination for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
Now come reports that Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson of “The Banshees of Inisherin” will be out, too. They all got infected at the Globes.
The COVID restrictions are much tighter for the CCAs tonight. Everyone setting foot in the Fairmont Century City hotel has to present a negative test and a vaccination card. Everyone has complied, I am told.
There will be plenty of stars on the show and on screen tonight. I’m told Chelsea Handler’s monologue is hilarious — and it won’t diss the hotel as Globes emcee Jerrod Carmichael did to the Beverly Hilton on Tuesday. He called the Hilton “the hotel that killed Whitney Houston.”
“Glass Onion” director Rian Johnson told me Saturday afternoon he’s too busy with his “Knives out” series to think about doing another “Star Wars” movie. U told him that online fans had suggested actors like Elliot Gould and Patricia Clarkson for the next installment.
Johnson was all for it. I asked him if he’d consider bringing characters from the first two movies into the third, aside from Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc.
“I’ve had so much fun and luck coming with each new group,” he said, “I don’t think so.”
That would be took bad for his star, Kate Hudson, who made a rare appearance at the annual BAFTA tea party at the Four Seasons Hotel. Hudson is a successful businesswoman but she was nominated for an Oscar 20 years ago for “Almost Famous.” I told her it was a shame she didn’t act in more films.
“It’s not my fault!” she said. “It’s getting the material. Also, it was getting my kids off to school. I want to work! I think some things are coming up!”
The BAFTA tea party was cheek by jowl despite roaring rain outside, flooded streets, and a cold wind. Cate Blanchett made a brief appearance, and several BAFTA and Critics Choice nominees mingled with civilians including Angela Bassett, Janelle Monae, “Top Gun Maverick” producer Jerry Bruckheimer, the very cute and talented Amber Ruffin, Danielle Deadwyler, Dolly De Leon, Guillermo Del Toro, Ke Huy Quan, Michelle Yeoh, “Fabelmans” star Michelle Williams, Bill Nighy, “Till” star Danielle Deadwyler and the movie’s producer Barbara Broccoli and director Chinonye Chukwu, Judd Hirsch, Brendan Fraser, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, and so on and so on. In other words, the place was packed like a sardine can full of celebs. Pretty wild.
I ran into Wayne Knight, who will always be known as Newman from “Seinfeld.” Such a nice guy. He gets no money from “Seinfeld” reruns, how do you like that? Whenever we hear about “Seinfeld” raking in the the bucks in syndication, Knight isn’t part of it. And yet, the Newman-Seinfeld greeting remains key to the show. How does he like seeing himself over and over from 30 years ago? He likes it, but wishes audiences would appreciate him now in 2023. We’ll keep an eye out for him!
Ke Huy Quan has become the awards poster boy for 2023, from “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” He’s won a bunch of awards. He may win today. He played Short Round in 1984’s “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.” The following year he was in “Goonies.” Both films were from Steven Spielberg. Then he had 30 years in the wilderness, so to speak. He is so genuinely excited and moved to have a new shot at an acting career, everyone gravitates to him. He still doesn’t have new gigs, but he’s hoping for some. If his career takes off now, will he remember all of us down the line? “Absolutely!” he said. “I’m not going to change.” I believe him. His wife is a doll, by the way.
And Angela Bassett? She’s on her way to an Oscar, at last, as Queen Ramonda in “Black Panther Wakanda Forever.” She’s also in her sixth season of Fox’s “911” series. She had a whole episode devoted to her character earlier this season. If only Emmy voters would consider network TV for awards, Bassett would be getting two statues this year. Hello, Emmy Awards!
Some of the talk last night at the big Universal party: how many reminder calls Academy members have already gotten to vote and return their ballots.
Oscar voting nominations began two days ago and ends on Tuesday night. If you think the town is otherwise quiet it’s because viewing marathons are going on even we speak.
I confirmed with a couple of Academy members that they’ve gotten at least three reminder calls so far. One of the calling centers is in Minnesota, which surprised some voters. “They’re telling us to hurry up!”
Luckily everyone at the Universal pary had seen all that studio’s movies. They’ve also all seen “Elvis” and “Top Gun Maverick,” from what I can discern. Some others that are better known to film critics, like “The Whale,” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” were still on to-do lists.
I did tell Universal’s chief, Donna Langley, that even though I’m a fan of Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere” Left me a little confused. She shook her finger at me. “I watched it three times,” she said, “I really enjoyed it!”
It’s not even from her studio! You see, that’s why she’s in charge!
Steven Spielberg, stars of his “Fabelmans” movie Michelle Williams and Paul Dano, plus Jordan Peele, Cate Blanchett, Keegan Michael Key, and dozens more A listers all gathered last night for an old fashioned Hollywood soiree at the Sunset Tower Hotel.
It was really like old pre-pandemic times as the movie world got together to celebrate Universal Pictures and its dynamic, ultra-successful chief, Donna Langley. She’s not just the most powerful woman in Hollywood, she’s the most everything. Langley, like a a great card player, has all the hits in her hand! Fabelmans, Tar, Puss N Boots, She Said, even Bros — she’s had quite a season.
So there was Spielberg et al, plus Nina Hoss from “Tar,” Judd Apatow, Patricia Clarkson, Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan, Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon, the whole gang from “RRR,” The Bangles’ Susannah Hoffs and director husband Jay Roach, Beverly D’Angelo (currently have a major Renaissance) plus the Fabelmans star kid Gabe Labelle, award winning composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, director Adam Rifkin, the directors of She Said and Puss n Boots, and so on.
The evening was a toast to Langley in between the Golden Globes (which everyone in the room agreed was a disaster on Tuesday) and the coming Critics Choice Awards on Sunday night (on the CW Network).
Speaking of Kumail, I did ask him about his incredible buff up for Marvel’s “The Eternals.” He got plenty of press for turning into a gym rat, building up muscle so he could be a superhero. “I’m losing it now,” he said, with a sigh. “It’s going away!” PS I asked– he did not use those kettle bells you read about. He didn’t go that far!
Michelle Williams was glowing after so much acclaim for “The Fabelmans.” I told she perfectly captured the real life Leah Spielberg, who she plays in the great film. After four Oscar nominations she’s ready for a win, deservedly so. Williams was one of the guests also on Thursday night at the amazing discussion on stage between Spielberg and his 90 year old composer, John Williams. They’ve been working together for 50 years!
Spielberg, by the way, stayed at the party until the end. He’s our greatest filmmaker and he’s reaping the rewards of a landmark film. What an achievement!
PS I took that picture– that’s the very attractive Ms. Langley sandwiched between Spielberg and Peele.
U2 is releasing a new 40 song collection of reimagined songs from their catalog. It’s called “Songs of Surrender,” and it’s a companion to Bono’s upcoming “Surrender” tour, which was a companion to his best selling book. There’s also a David Letterman special for Disney Plus. The trailer is below.
The band has released a new version of their song “Pride (In the Name of Love)” which you can also hear below. There are several versions of the album, super deluxe CD and LP, clear vinyl, all kinds of things including a regular two CD set for $19.99 of the greatest hits reimagined. I’m in! Love U2!
