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On Rotten Tomatoes, the Bob Marley movie “One Love” has a 41% among critics and bloggers. It’s rotten, they say.
The audience doesn’t agree. “One Love” has made an astonishing $52 million in six days of release through today. The audience score is 93% on Rotten Tomatoes among filmgoers.
Sometimes, the numbers speak for themselves. Bob Marley has a zillion fans. And they’re all going to see this film.
On its first day, “One Love” scored $14 million. That should have been the giveaway. Even though it calmed down on Thursday and Friday when people were working and the weather was bad, the audience surged again over the weekend.
The critics didn’t get it, apparently. They didn’t realize there was a pent-up demand for Marley’s story and his music. It wasn’t about Scorsese-level story telling. As one song went in the 70s, “I don’t like reggae, I love it.”
All the reviews on RT from top critics were similar to Peter Travers’ on ABC News: “Kingsley Ben-Adir catches the spirit of the Jamaican legend who became the face and voice of reggae and the Rastafarian conscience of his people. But this safe, shallow, family-sanctioned biopic gives us only snippets of songs and scraps of a life.”
But the reviews couldn’t be heard over the din of Marley fans, wailing.
The result is also in the pop charts: Marley’s greatest hits are at the top of iTunes and Amazon.
It does seem likely that “One Love” will be a phenomenon like the Freddie Mercury movie, “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Paramount — for sale, and beleaguered — gets a nice boost on this one. They’re still in the game thanks to clever marketing and publicity. Well played!
Since I’m waiting for “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” I did turn to the moronic People’s Choice Awards.
This is a publicists’ showcase, negotiated by them and the studios. Voters may be in strait jackets when ballots are presented in the best sanitariums.
So who won Best TV Performance of the Year? Why, singer Billie Eilish, of course, LOL Come on. She wasn’t even nominated for Best Song! She’s on track win an Oscar for “What Was I Made For.” But the People’s Choice didn’t even include her for singing!
Who did Billie beat? I mean, besides Meryl Streep?
Adjoa Andoh, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story Ayo Edebiri, The Bear Billie Eilish, Swarm — WINNER Jon Hamm, The Morning Show Matt Bomer, Fellow Travelers Meryl Streep, Only Murders in the Building Steven Yeun, Beef Storm Reid, The Last of Us
All of these accomplished, award winning actors lost the Best TV Performance of the Year to a non actress who is, of course, a singing superstar. What were the chances?
And none of the other nominees were present! What a coincidence!
That this goes on from year to year, a total sham, is miraculous. Even better, that someone really young, who needs no money or promotion, was happy to play along. Insane!
Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” won 7 BAFTAs, or British Academy Awards, this evening in London.
The Universal Pictures release won Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Score, Cinematography and Editing.
At this point, “Oppenheimer” looks as though it will sweep the Oscars on March 10th in Los Angeles.
The two other big awards at BAFTA were Best Actress for Emma Stone in “Poor Things” and Da’Vine Joy Randolph in “The Holdovers.” A full list is below.
“Killers of the Flower Moon” was totally shut out. Also ignored was “Barbie.”
The BAFTAs aren’t necessarily a forerunner of the Oscars, but international voting in our Academy has suddenly taken on a much bigger importance. And “Oppenheimer” already has momentum among the American voters.
The wins are huge vindication for Nolan, who’s been making acclaimed movies since 2000 without any gold statues to along with them.
The Oscars may still vary from the BAFTAs in the categories of Best Actor and Actress. In the former, Paul Giamatti still has the edge among Oscar voters. And Lily Gladstone is thought to be the front runner for Best Actress. Next week’s SAG Awards will give a clearer picture of where the Academy is headed.
Whatever happens, this season is considered to be the most competitive in years, with the best selection of films and performances. Looking back, 2023-24 will always be considered a classic year for cinema. It’s in stark contrast to last year, especially, where the winners were all head scratchers.
keep refreshing…
“Oppenheimer” sweeping main categories: Best Picture, actor, director, supp actor, editing, cinematography, score.
UPDATE: We’re basically seeing the Oscars three weeks early.
The BAFTAs should be called the Daftas.
They’re not on TV yet in the UK but they kicked off there almost an hour ago. Huh?
They’ll be on TV there two hours after they started, and then sometime later we can see them in some edited form in the US.
The thing to love about Britain is that it’s always 40 years ago.
Anyway, so far “The Boy and The Heron” won Best animated film, and “The Holdovers” won for Best Casting.
Best editing goes to “Oppenheimer.”
Best cinematography to “Oppenheimer.”
Best film not in English: “Zone of Interest.”
Best adapted screenplay: “American Fiction.”
Best Supporting Actor to Robert Downey, Jr in “Oppenheimer”
Best original screenplay “Anatomy of a Fall”
Best supporting actress, Da’Vine Joy Randolph in “The Holdovers”
Best documentary “20 Days in Mariupol”
Best original score, “Oppenheimer”
Best Sound “Zone of Interest” (or sound you least want to hear)
Best production design for “Poor Things”
Best makeup and hair for “Poor Things” (this award should go to “Maestro”)
Among the ways Kanye West destroyed his career was supporting Donald Trump.
At the same time, Kanye lost his lucrative deal with Adidas for Yeezy shoes.
Tonight Kanye has put his imprimatur on a line of $399 sneakers launched by Trump — there’s also a $99 cologne — at a Sneakercon rally in Pennsylvania. You could say Trump put the con in Sneakercon. Outside of MAGA hats, Trump is renown for failures like Trump Steaks, Trump suits, and Trump University. On Trump’s website they say the sneaker run of 1,000 pairs is sold out. (They are already a collectible, especially if Trump goes to jail.)
West, whose album “Vultures 1” has been pulled off digital platforms after less than 2 days, endorsed Trump and his sneakers tonight. Posting a video of Trump being greeted by ecstatic followers carrying “Sneakercon” signs, Kanye said, “This made me smile.”
One fan wrote back: “Sometimes it be so hard to defend you brah”
Another said: “Kanye you’re getting on my f@cking nerves again”
Bette Midler wrote on Twitter: “They’re not Yeezys, they’re Cheezys”
On the website, Trump out and out lies about owning the sneaker line.
I can tell you exclusively that in fact CIC is registered to Trump’s lawyer, John Marion, in West Palm Beach, Florida. The authorized person is Nicholas Luna, Trump’s aide aka “body man” who testified in front of the January 6th committee.
Ariana Grande’s new album, “Eternal Sunshine,” is coming March 8th.
She’s just posted some of the song titles, and it looks like a break up and divorce album. Ariana was married to real estate broker Dalton Gomez for a couple of years before escaping to a new relationship with her “Wicked” co-star, the soon-to-be-divorced Ethan Slater.
The titles include: “Bye,” “Don’t Wanna Break Up Again.” “True Story,” “We Can’t Be Friends,” and “I Wish I Hated You.” Sounds like fun, right?
The Bob Marley biopic is heading to a $40 mil run from Wednesday. That’s mostly thanks to that big opening day with $14 million. Since then, it’s been a little dicey. Did everyone interested in this musical and political hero just go on the first day? Spread the word, folks!
Dakota Johnson isn’t weaving much of a spell with “Madame Web.” Panned left and right, “Madame Web” will gross just about $20 million for its four day run (Thurs-Sun). It will vanish into the ether after this President’s Day weekend.
Down the chart among the Oscar films, I’m sorry to say “American Fiction” isn’t doing a lot of business. Go see this movie, folks! So cleverly written, acted, and directed, Cord Jefferson’s debut is a winner.
Alas, most of the films in theaters right now are Holdovers, like “The Holdovers.” A new batch of entertainments is undoubtedly coming, just slowly! March will bring a new slate.
We’ve probably been here before, but what the heck.
Taylor Sheridan has plenty of shows cooking and shooting despite all the chaos with “Yellowstone.”
Now he’s a got a new series called “Landman” (terrible title) based on a Texas Monthly project called “Boomtown” (better title).
“Landman” sounds more like “Dallas” than any of Sheridan’s other projects. Set in West Texas, the official release describes “Landman” as “an upstairs/downstairs story of roughnecks and wildcat billionaires fueling a boom so big, it’s reshaping our climate, our economy and our geopolitics.”
The stars are Jon Hamm, Billy Bob Thorton, Demi Moore, and Ali Larter. Hamm will play Monty Miller (like JR Ewing maybe), “a titan of the Texas oil industry who has a long personal and professional relationship with Tommy Norris [Cliff Barnes?], played by Thornton.” The series is already filming in Fort Worth, Texas. It will be shown Paramount Plus. Hamm is coming off a hit run as a lawman on “Fargo,” so he’ll be more cowboy hat than ad man.
Let’s hope it has some of the humor “Dallas,” sorely missing from Sheridan’s other shows.
Kanye West finished at number 1 this week because of streaming. Otherwise, his “Vultures” was number 2. And now, sales have stopped by and large because his distributor has pulled the album.
West’s total sales were 152K sold in total, with just 16K in downloads (there are no CDs). Usher sold 91,375 copies of his”Coming Home.” Of that 54,000 were actual downloaded albums our purchased CDs. Technically he was number 1. Usher can’t be too happy about “Vultures” upstaging his album release and Super Bowl show.
As I wrote earlier, West’s request to upload “Vultures” was turned down by his distributor. Downtown/FUGA Music. He apparently waited until Saturday and went around them. The result is that Downtown/FUGA removed the album almost all platforms.
The result of getting pulled and starting 24 hours late: sales were down for the first week at least 55% from his previous release, “Donda.”
The one platform where you find most of the album is Spotify. So they’ve either ignored the takedown notice, or West has found a distributor who was willing to work with Spotify.
But with Apple, Amazon, iTunes and almost everyone else gone, West faces two issues. One is that he’s invisible in the retail market except for his own website. The other is that if he’s left with streaming on Spotify, the number 135K copies sold translates to very little revenue.
The Society of Composers & Lyricists Awards were held last week at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. The SCL Awards are always an eclectic, quirky night. What sets this unique event a step above the others is the music, the band that plays are some of the best musicians in the business.
Two-time Oscar Nominee and Grammy Winner Siedah Garrett hosted the evening. The night started with a tribute to Henry Mancini’s score from the TV series “Peter Gunn.” Speaking of the iconic Mancini, The Hollywood Bowl is opening their upcoming 2024 season with a 100th birthday celebration of the 20-time Grammy-winning composer and frequent conductor at the Hollywood Bowl.
Martin Scorsese and the late Robbie Robertson received The Spirit Of Collaboration Award. Marty (who explained he was on the road with “Killers Of The Flower Moon”) poignantly talked about their deep, longtime friendship with Robertson via video. “Robbie and me go back to when we first formed a bond and a friendship in 1976. We worked together, inspired each other. It went beyond music, we got to know each other well, a real love there. Out of that came these scores. I miss him greatly.”
Other notables at the event were writers and composers including Diane Warren, Billie Eilish & Finneas, Lenny Kravitz, Laura Karpman, Michael Abels, Mark McKenzie , Simon Franglen, John Powell, Lesley Barber, Gregg Field and Monica Mancini, Paul Antonelli and many more.
Martin Scorsese’s Acceptance Speech:
5thSCL AWARDS 2024 (Winners Highlighted in Red)
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A STUDIO FILM:
Anthony Willis SALTBURN
Joe Hisaishi THE BOY AND THE HERON
Ludwig Göransson OPPENHEIMER
Laura Karpman AMERICAN FICTION
Robbie Robertson KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN INDEPENDENT FILM:
Jon Batiste AMERICAN SYMPHONY
John Powell STILL: A MICHAEL J. FOX MOVIE
Daniel Pemberton FERRARI
Mica Levi THE ZONE OF INTEREST
Fabrizio Mancinelli MUSHKA
& Richard M. Sherman
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG FOR A DRAMA OR DOCUMENTARY:
Olivia Rodrigo/Dan Nigro, “Can’t Catch Me Now,” THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES
Jon Batiste/Dan Wilson, “It Never Went Away,” AMERICAN SYMPHONY
Lenny Kravitz, “Road to Freedom,” RUSTIN
Nicholas Britell/Taura Stinson, “Slip Away,” CARMEN
Sharon Farber/Noah Benshea, “Better Times,” JACOB THE BAKER
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG FOR A COMEDY OR MUSICAL:
Billie Eilish O’Connell/Finneas O’Connell, “What Was I Made For?,” BARBIE
Mark Ronson/Andrew Wyatt, “I’m Just Ken,” BARBIE
Diane Warren, “The Fire Inside,” FLAMIN’ HOT
Heather McIntosh/Allyson Newman/Taura Stinson, “All About Me,” THE L WORD: GENERATION Q
Jack Black/John Spiker/Eric Osmond/Michael Jelenic/Aaron Horvath, “Peaches,” SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A TELEVISION PRODUCTION
Nicholas Britell SUCCESSION
Natalie Holt LOKI
Martin Phipps THE CROWN
Carlos Rafael Rivera LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY
Gustavo Santaolalla THE LAST OF US
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL TITLE SEQUENCE FOR A TELEVISION PRODUCTION
Chanda Dancy LAWMEN: BASS REEVES
Nainita Desai THE DEEPEST BREATH
Kevin Kiner AHSOKA
Atli Örvarsson SILO
Carlos Rafael Rivera LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Stephen Barton, Gordy Haab STAR WARS JEDI: SURVIVOR
Winifred Phillips SECRETS OF SKEIFA ISLAND
Pinar Toprak AVATAR: FRONTIERS OF PANDORA
Austin Wintory STRAY GODS: THE ROLEPLAYING MUSICAL
Judge Engoron has ruled in Donald Trump’s fraud and overvaluation trial.
Donnie must pay $350 million to New York state. He’s also barred from doing business in New York for three years.
We are rid of him here, at last.
Trump will appeal but he’s very unappealing which is what he will be told.
Next up, criminal trial over Stormy Daniels and the $130,000 pay out. March 25th, which is always a day to celebrate the birthdays of Aretha Franklin and Elton John.
The tide has turned!
With the business gone, and the 21 Club closed, Trump is out of options here in New York. Trump Tower could be turned into a pinball arcade. Oh, the humanity!
