Dragon Magic Takes Hold in New 'Onward' Trailer

I know Pixar can do high concept, but this still looks odd to me. If they’re on a quest to bring back their dead dad, why have the bottom half there at all? It just looks dumb. But at least this is an original movie and not a sequel. Then again, so was The Good Dinosaur. And Pixar has another movie, Soul, coming out next year just a few months after this one (in their more reliable summer release date), so which one is the turkey?

Christopher Nolan's New Movie 'Tenet' Seems Like Another Riddle to Solve

You cannot tell what this movie is about from this trailer, but I suppose that fits into Christopher Nolan’s oeuvre. Probably something like Inception and Interstellar? Some kind of thriller, anyway. To be honest, I’m not one of his biggest fans. I love The Dark Knight but that’s about it and I’ve never been a fan of his “puzzle box” movies. This one doesn’t strike me as too intriguing.

Amy Adams Spies on the Neighbors in 'The Woman in the Window'

This movie was originally scheduled to come out a few months ago, but the studio pushed it back to next spring on account of terrible test screening reactions. So that’s bad enough, but I’ve actually read the book that this is based on, and it’s trash. Derivative, predictable, just really bad. I wouldn’t expect a whole lot of out of this one (and the director Joe Wright, has notably not had success when working for a major studio- see The Soloist and Pan for examples, or rather, don’t).

Keira Knightley Disrupts the Miss World Pageant in 'Misbehaviour'

This looks interesting. It’s a movie about the 1970 Miss World pageant, which was the subject of several controversies, including being interrupted on live television by feminist activists and crowning the first black pageant winner in its history. It comes out in March in the UK, but I’m not sure when we’ll see it here in the US.

USC Scripter Nominees Include 'Jojo Rabbit,' 'Little Women'

This isn’t a guild, but finally some support for Little Women somewhere. The USC Scripter is an award given for the screenplay AND the source material, and is usually a pretty good bellwether for the Adapted Screenplay Oscar (last year was the exception, as BlacKkKlansman won it and was amazingly not nominated for the Scripter). But these are some interesting nominees- I’d kind of expect The Irishman to win, but I suppose JoJo Rabbit could pull it off too.

USC SCRIPTER NOMINEES

• Dark Waters (Matthew Carnahan and Mario Correa) based on the New York Times Magazine article “The Lawyer Who Became Dupont’s Worst Nightmare” by Nathaniel Rich

• The Irishman (Steven Zaillian) based on the non-fiction book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt

• JoJo Rabbit (Taika Waititi) based on the novel Caging Skies by Christine Leunens

• Little Women (Greta Gerwig) based on the novel of the same name by Louisa May Alcott

• The Two Popes (Anthony McCarten) based on his play The Pope

'1917' and 'Joker' Nominated for MPSE Golden Reel Awards

Ah, the sound editing guild. I long for the day when the Academy decides to combine sound editing and mixing into a single category simply called “Best Sound” (like they do at BAFTA), but until then, the two individual sound guilds will weigh in with their own honorees. 1917 is the expected frontrunner for sound editing, as action/war movies tend to do well in this category, while Joker continues to steamroll the guilds and looks to pick up quite a few Oscar nominations in January.

MPSE GOLDEN REEL NOMINATIONS

SOUND EFFECTS & FOLEY

“1917”
“Avengers: Endgame”
“Ford v Ferrari”
“A Hidden Life”
“John Wick 3”
“Joker”
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”

DIALOGUE & ADR
“1917”
“Avengers: Endgame”
“Ford v Ferrari”
“The Irishman”
“JoJo Rabbit”
“Joker”
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
“Rocketman”

Maverick Becomes a Teacher in 'Top Gun 2' Trailer

For all those 80’s Top Gun fans, here’s a little more of the plot for the upcoming sequel. I don’t think the first movie’s that great (sacrilege, I know), so I’m meh on this, but maybe people have been wanting to see Maverick’s return for decades, who knows.

All Oscar Frontrunners Make it into ACE Eddie Nominations

The Editors guild is the other important guild to hand out nominations today, and all the expected frontrunners made it in to either drama or comedy. I don’t see any egregious snubs or surprises (not even 1917, as the editors are famously averse to nominating movies that did one-take trickery, like Birdman and Roma- which makes me think editors really have a hard time understanding the process of editing, but that’s another story). And yet again, Little Women is bordering on a complete guild shut-out, so I think that one’s out for a Best Picture nomination now.

Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic)
“Ford v Ferrari”
“The Irishman”
“Joker”
“Marriage Story”
“Parasite”

Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy)
“Dolemite is My Name”
“The Farewell”
“Jojo Rabbit”
“Knives Out”
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”

Best Edited Animated Feature Film
“Frozen 2”
“I Lost My Body”
“Toy Story 4”

Best Edited Documentary (Feature)
“American Factory”
“Apollo 11”
“Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice”
“Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound”

'Parasite' Nominated for SAG Ensemble

Wow! Parasite getting nominated for the big SAG ensemble award is awesome. I never thought that would happen, as foreign-language films rarely make it in here (in fact, the only one that ever did was Life is Beautiful twenty years ago, so this is finally the second), and that means Parasite is strong enough with the guilds to possibly win Best Picture at the Oscars. So cool. Bombshell also did surprisingly well today, with four nominations, even for Nicole Kidman, despite its actual reviews turning out to be pretty middling. And Taron Egerton made it into Best Actor (the actors snubbed Robert DeNiro though, lowering his Oscar nomination chances for The Irishman, despite its three nods otherwise- is the role too subtle?) The SAG nominees match the Oscar acting nominees about 90% most of the time, so there’s room for maybe one miss in each category. Lupita Nyong’o getting in for Us is pretty cool, but I wonder if Saoirse Ronan can still make it at the Oscars (once again, Little Women snubbed entirely by a major guild). Scarlett Johansson gets two nominations, as Jojo Rabbit is strong here, and it looks like J-Lo is indeed on her way to that Oscar nomination for Hustlers.

2019 SAG NOMINEES

Best Ensemble

• Bombshell

• The Irishman

• Jojo Rabbit

• Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

• Parasite

Lead Actor

• Christian Bale, Ford v. Ferrari

• Leonardo Dicaprio, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

• Adam Driver, Marriage Story

• Taron Egerton, Rocketman

• Joaquin Phoenix, Joker

Lead Actress

• Cynthia Erivo, Harriet

• Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story

• Lupita Nyong’o, Us

• Charlize Theron, Bombshell

• Renee Zellweger, Judy

Supporting Actor

• Jamie Foxx, Just Mercy

• Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

• Al Pacino, The Irishman

• Joe Pesci, The Irishman

• Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Supporting Actress

• Laura Dern, Marriage Story

• Scarlett Johansson, Jojo Rabbit

• Nicole Kidman, Bombshell

• Jennifer Lopez, Hustlers

• Margot Robbie, Bombshell

This is kind of my favorite nomination because I loved the movie- I keep hoping Egerton sneaks in for Best Actor at the Oscars too, but this category is sooo crowded

'Rocketman' Makes the Costume Guild and Cinema Audio Society Nominees

Rocketman had a good morning with the guilds, as it got nominated with both the costume and sound industry awards. And Joker hits yet another guild too, with that sound mixing nomination (also good for Ford v. Ferrari, while 1917 is a surprise miss there- war movies almost always make the sound categories). Little Women seems to be the one having a pretty bad guild run, making its chances lower to get into Best Picture, but we’ll see how everything does at SAG tomorrow, one of the most important guilds.

CDG NOMINEES (COSTUMES)

Excellence in Contemporary Film

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Hustlers
Knives Out
The Laundromat
Queen & Slim

Excellence in Period Film

Dolemite’s flashy 70’s costumes were nominated by the CDG

Dolemite is My Name
Downton Abbey
Jojo Rabbit
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Rocketman

Excellence in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film

Aladdin
Avengers: Endgame
Captain Marvel
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

CINEMA AUDIO SOCIETY NOMINEES (SOUND MIXING)

Motion Picture - Live Action

The racing scenes in Ford v. Ferrari exhibited impressive sound

• Ford v. Ferrari

• Joker

• Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

• Rocketman

• The Irishman

Motion Picture - Animated

• Abominable

• Frozen II

• How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

• The Lion King

• Toy Story 4

Motion Picture - Documentary

• Apollo 11

• Echo in the Canyon

• Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound

• Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool

• Woodstock: 3 Days That Changed Everything

Nostalgia All Around in Jason Reitman's 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' Trailer

Well, this looks weird. Is this what the people who were so offended by a female Ghostbusters movie wanted instead? Something that looks more or less like a Stranger Things episode, with a bunch of kids finding relics of the old Ghostbusters movies hanging around in a farmhouse that belonged to Egon Spangler (Harold Ramis)? It doesn’t even look like a comedy. I don’t know. Apparently the original actors are going to be in this, but there’s no sign of them in this trailer.

Art Directors Guild Nominations Like 'Joker,' 'The Irishman'

Our first guild nominations are in! (Okay, maybe not- the Hair and Makeup guild did go first a couple weeks ago). Production designers have spoken and I think the period ones are most likely to make the cut for Oscar, but we usually combine these with some of the BAFTA nods (if they’re different). Surprising they didn’t go for Little Women though (and neither did the Globes, so that movie may not prove to be so popular after all).

PERIOD FILM

“Ford v Ferrari” 

“The Irishman” 

“Jojo Rabbit” 

“Joker” 

“1917” 

“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” 

FANTASY FILM

“Ad Astra”

“Aladdin”

“Avengers: Endgame”

“Dumbo”

“Maleficent: Mistress of Evil”

“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”

CONTEMPORARY FILM

“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”

“John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum”

“Knives Out”

“Parasite”

“Us”