11/6: 'Files' Sharing

• OSCAR HOPES FOR "ADAM" STAR GOLDBLUM RESURRECTED Based on this "For Your Consideration" advertisement, it appears that — contrary to earlier reports indicating otherwise — Jeff Goldblum, the veteran actor who has never been nominated for an acting Oscar (though he did get a best short film nod in 1995), may get his shot at gold this year after all. Goldblum's performance in "Adam Resurrected," a "Life Is Beautiful"-esque WWII film directed by Paul Schrader, generated buzz for Goldblum at this year's Telluride and Toronto film festivals, but failed to find a distributor and was presumed dead.

  Then, last week, Bleiberg Entertainment, the studio that financed the film, apparently got fed up with waiting and decided that they themselves would finance an Oscar-qualifying run for the film in New York and Los Angeles. This could produce nothing (like a similar attempt last year to generate Christopher Plummer some best actor love for "Man in the Chair"), or it could start people talking ... particularly when you consider that Goldblum's character is a former circus clown whose wife and child are sent off to die in a concentration camp while he is spared to provide amusement for the camp commandant (Willem Dafoe).

• DOH! BART WANTS A SHOOTOUT WITH "OSCAR SAVANTS"? It turns out that Variety editor in chief Peter Bart really dislikes "Oscar Savants," but really loves the movie they've championed, "Milk." On his blog — er, "online column" — Bart writes, "Wherever you go at this time of year, the self-anointed 'Oscar Savants' are whispering at you. I’m never quite sure who they are, or what they do for a living, but they know everything that’s happening on the Oscar front. They’ve also magically seen every movie. 'Button' works big ... I’ve just seen it,' one will confide. 'Revolutionary Road's' heavy going,' another will murmur. I don’t believe either of them, but the intelligence is out there and the Savants know it all. I lay no claim to being an Oscar Savant, but I actually did see 'Milk' last night and here’s my 'inside' assessment: Sean Penn just soared to the top of the kudo list. ... Penn owns the show. Even the Oscar Savants will have to acknowledge that."

  And, with that, Peter Bart — anybody know what, specifically, he does for a living? — joins the ranks of us "Oscar Savants."

• I'VE KNOWN YOU SO SHORT! This afternoon, yours truly had a nice half-hour chat on the phone (now a podcast) with 36-year-old Parisian Elsa Zylberstein, who stars opposite 48-year-old Brit Kristin Scott Thomas in the critically-acclaimed French film "I've Loved You So Long," and who is in Los Angeles for a week doing press and being feted by the French Embassy (She is France's goodwill ambassador to the U.N.).

  In the film, Thomas, who is well-known stateside for her best actress nominated performance in "The English Patient" (1996), gives a terrific performance as a woman who moves in with her sister after spending 15 years in prison for a mysterious crime. Thomas' work has won well-deserved kudos, but has also unfairly overshadowed the fine work of Zylberstein as the sister who, as the actress explains, spent those 15 years in a prison of a different sort. The quality and screen time of the women's performances are really about the same, so I wouldn't be surprised if voters who support Thomas in lead also back Zylberstein in supporting.

• TWO DAVES ARGUE OBAMA'S WIN IMPACTS OSCAR RACE! Two days after the presidential election, Obamania continues to sweep the country, and to sweep away Oscar prognosticators. David Poland of MovieCityNews, in his regular column counting down the weeks until the Oscars (it's 17, for the record), argues, "A film like 'Slumdog Millionaire' — well, actually, a film exactly like 'Slumdog Millionaire' — is likely to get a further boost from the Obama win. Underdog. Young. Exotic. Brave. Winner. If I had to pick a movie to win the Oscar today — and I don't ... and I'm not — it would be 'Slumdog.'" (I agree that if I had to pick a movie to win the Oscar today — and I don't ... and I'm not — it would also be "Slumdog," but I digress.)

  Meanwhile, Dave Karger of Entertainment Weekly derives from Obama's victory a different conclusion: namely, "Obama helps Batman"... and Harvey Milk. He prefaces his argument by stating, "Usually I'm not the kind of guy who thinks that outside events have too much influence on the Oscar race. I generally think it's about the movies, more or less in a vacuum. But I do think that this week's election-day results may have a profound effect on the Best Picture chances of two films." (He also makes the strongest case for why Obama matters to Oscar: Nomination ballots are due on Jan. 12, just a week before the presidential inauguration.) Karger then identifies "The Dark Knight" as potential-beneficiary No. 1, singling out the scene in which neither convicts nor civilians are willing to blow up the others' boat to save themselves, which "speaks to the innate goodness of human behavior." True.

  He then names "Milk" as potential-beneficiary No. 2, suggesting that the passage of Proposition 8 in California (revoking the right to gay marriage) has led — and will continue to lead — to "large rallies protesting the outcome, events that look very similar to the staged rallies in 'Milk.' And outrage among the entertainment community to this decision may serve to fuel the Academy's support for a moving biopic about a murdered gay-rights activist and politician." Way to spoil the ending, Dave! Just kidding. But I think he's on sturdier ground with the first example, rather than the second, which really has no ties to Obama ... except — except — for its constant invocation of the word "hope."

• IN RELATED NEWS In Tuesday's "Files Sharing" post, I referred to my LAT colleague Patrick Goldstein as the self-appointed "ombudsman" of Oscar bloggers. Let me rephrase: Patrick hates our guts.

  Today, he turned his attention to the aforementioned Obama/Oscar speculation, and began his post: "Anyone who doesn't believe that the Oscars haven't been thoroughly hijacked by a gang of daffy, clown-suit-clad Oscar bloggers making endlessly moronic best picture predictions just hasn't been paying attention." And we're off!

  "But now apparently every world news event qualifies as having a seismic influence on the Oscar race."

  Target  No. 1, Dave Karger: "I have to admit that I read his post four or five times, worried that I'd somehow missed the gag. But apparently Karger is serious, claiming that because part of the film 'speaks to the innate goodness of human behavior' and because Oscar ballots are due Jan. 12, that 'most Hollywood types' will be swayed to give awards to the picture. What is the magical significance of Jan. 12? you're probably asking. IT'S JUST A WEEK BEFORE BARACK OBAMA IS ELECTED, YA DUMMY! Don't you think you'll be in a mood to reward innate human goodness right about then? And when you think of innate human goodness, don't you immediately summon up your favorite scenes from 'The Dark Knight'? DON'T YA?"

  At about this time, a blood vessel in Goldstein's right temple popped, but he forged on. "Frankly, I don't know whether to laugh or weep. If I were a conservative, I'd be tempted to say all this pie-in-the-sky blather is a perfect example of how liberal media types are swooning over the kumbaya spirit of the new post-Bush era. Or deluded into thinking that handing 'Milk' an Oscar would actually for a second change the minds of all the closed-minded people out there who seem threatened or offended by the idea of two gay people in love being allowed to say their vows. All this probably tells us is that Oscar watchers are so obsessed by, well, their obsession with the awards racket that they assess every event through the golden statue prism. (It's not so different than the way my Great-Aunt Toots used to react to the news, be it of Russia electing a new premier or a department store going out of business, by remarking: 'Is this bad for the Jews?')" And, with that, Goldstein plugged himself into the wall to recharge.

• TROUBLE THE FILMMAKERS Joe Leydon, the Variety film critic and operator of the MovingPictureBlog, recently interviewed documentary filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin about their film "Trouble the Water," which chronicles one couple's experience during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and which is generating a lot of heat for a best documentary feature nomination. Leydon's chat helps explain how the woman (and then her husband) and her remarkable footage of the rising floods came to the filmmakers' attention, and why the filmmakers subsequently decided to make her experience of Katrina — rather than Katrina itself — the subject of their documentary.

• ARTICLE ABOUT BIG MOVIES QUOTES LITTLE BLOGGER To follow up on Michael Cieply's recent piece in the New York Times that indicated that big-studio movies like "Iron Man" will get awards pushes in light of the dearth of conventional awards fare on the market this year, Daniel Holloway of Metro News wrote this piece. (Incidentally, count me among those who believe that "WALL-E" could be every bit the contender that most people assume "The Dark Knight" is.)

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Photo: Willem Dafoe and Jeff Goldblum in "Adam Resurrected." Credit: Bleiberg Entertainment

Comments

[Katie]

i really like your blog, and agree with you wholeheartedly most of the time. but i have to say that Goldstein has a point, he should have avoided being an a**hole about it, but he does make some good points.