Amy Winehouse, Nina Simon, Michael Moore, Laurie Anderson, Scientology, Malala, Marlon Brando are among the filmmakers/subjects of the 15 documentaries on this year’s Oscar short list. How to pare them to five? It’s going to have to be a mix of politics, entertainment, and culture. The Michael Moore film has to be in, that’s a cinch. Amy vs. Nina? I can’t choose. Malala? So important. Ukrainians? Also. “The Hunting Ground”? Great song by Lady Gaga and Diane Warren. “Best of Enemies”? So enjoyable. Tough choices.

“Amy,” On the Corner Films and Universal Music

“Best of Enemies,” Sandbar

The reaction this afternoon to the National Board of Review awards is hilarious bordering on the ridiculous. The NBR, as I’ve written in the past, is a shill for their president and CEO Annie Shulhof and her reindeer games. The NBR’s devotion to Warner Bros. is now stretched beyond belief as their Best Picture choice is “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Schulhof has devoted herself to choosing Warner films, actors and directors for the last decade or more. Since 2003 WB has won five times. No other studio has won more than once otherwise. Schulhof has a long friendship with outgoing head of distribution Dan Fellman. Is this her last sop to him? We’ll see.

Schulhof is also tied to indie filmer A24. Last year she gave their “A Most Violent Year” Best Picture and its star Oscar Isaac, Best Actor ( in a tie). Neither the film nor the actor in that role won anything else last year from any other awards organization. This year, Schulhof handed Best Actress to Brie Larson in “Room,” an A24 film, and best documentary to “Amy.” I wrote that this would happen several times, and Tweeted it out as a prediction. Just so we’re all on the same page. Even though Larson and “Amy” are fine, they were expected in this situation.

The NBR is a fraud, and should be disbanded. There is no reason for them to exist as a 501 c3. Last year they paid $225,000 in salaries from their coffers, and gave $32,000 as grants for film students. Publicists regale me with stories constantly about Schulhof calling in advance of awards distribution to make sure potential winners will come to her lavish dinner at Cipriani, and to see how much studios will pay for their tables. This year, Fox was her mark. “The Martian” is the perfect NBR movie– big cast of stars, prestigious director, studio to foot the bill.

That “Spotlight,” which won the Gotham Awards last night and is the lead choice for the Oscar, didn’t win at NBR is no shock. Open Road is a small studio and they weren’t going to buy out Cipriani. But it just shows the dearth of understanding by the NBR as to what constitutes great filmmaking and what makes for their entertaining evening.

As for “Amy,” fine, it’s very entertaining and made a lot of money. It was so easy to call, though. Predicting the NBR is kind of a joke parlor game at this point. Imagine if they had chosen a doc on an important social subject.

More: http://www.showbiz411.com/2014/12/02/national-board-of-review-chiefs-family-business-paid-u-s-24-6-mil-in-fraud-case

“Joy” starring Jennifer Lawrence, directed by David O. Russell, is just starting to screen. I can’t review the film until next week, but I can tell you now that Lawrence is back in the Oscar race, and Russell has outdone himself.

There are some surprises in “Joy” for soap opera fans, too. In the film, Joy’s mother watches one soap opera for years in the background while the main action is going on. Virgina Madsen plays the mom, and she’s a hoot.

Russell decided to film scenes from his own fake soap rather than use clips from a real one. So he tapped the most famous soap star of all, Susan Lucci, aka Erica Kane from “All My Children.” She’s joined in the scenes by Laura Wright and Maurice Benard, who play Carly and Sonny on “General Hospital.” Their antics go on and on in the background and it’s all very amusing. It’s not throwaway either– they are featured.

There are some other interesting cameos in “Joy,” too– notably Melissa Rivers doing a dead on impersonation of her mom, the late great Joan Rivers on the set at QVC, where Joan is the number 1 pitchwoman of jewelry. Kudos to Melissa.

One thing about “Joy” no one can figure out– the name of her product, Miracle Mop, is never mentioned. Neither is Joy’s family name, Mangano, although the real Joy Mangano is promoting the movie on her Twitter account. There have to be legal reasons, and I guess we’ll know them soon enough.

Advance screenings of Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu’s epic “The Revenant,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, are producing all kinds of reactions, all wildly favorable, albeit with caveats.

The Fox movie, based on Michael Punke’s “novel of revenge,” takes place near Yellowstone, Montana, in 1823. It begins with the same bloody incident that launches the book– the gruesome attack by a grizzly bear on trapper Hugh Glass. Innaritu has taken essentially the following sections of Punke’s book and enlarged them into a feasting by animal on man. The bear flips Glass over on his belly and molests him– dry humps him actually– as he nearly devours him. How Innaritu and DiCaprio did this is a movie mystery because it is as real feeling as Bruce the shark in “Jaws” 40 years ago. It’s as real looking as it could be, and maybe the most frightening moment I’ve seen in a film in eons.

You can see a little bit of the frightening bear attack in this trailer:

Here’s the passage from Punke’s book. Nothing is spared in the filming:

First the bear attacks Glass:

The grizzly dropped to all fours and was on him. Glass rolled into a ball, desperate to protect his face and chest. She bit into the back of his neck and lifted him off the ground, shaking him so hard that Glass wondered if his spine might snap. He felt the crunch of her teeth striking the bone of his shoulder blade. Claws raked repeatedly through the flesh of his back and scalp. He screamed in agony. She dropped him, then sank her teeth deep into his thigh and shook him again, lifting him and throwing him to the ground with such force that he lay stunned— conscious, but unable to resist any further. He lay on his back staring up. …

Then Glass is found after the attack by Harris, one of the trappers:
…he had never seen human carnage like this, fresh in the wake of attack. Glass was shredded from head to foot. His scalp lay dangling to one side, and it took Harris an instant to recognize the components that made up his face. Worst was his throat. The grizzly’s claws had cut three deep and distinct tracks, beginning at the shoulder and passing straight across his neck.

Another inch and the claws would have severed Glass’s jugular. As it was, they had laid open his throat, slicing through muscle and exposing his gullet. The claws had also cut the trachea, and Harris watched, horrified, as a large bubble formed in the blood that seeped from the wound. It was the first clear sign that Glass was alive. Harris rolled Glass gently on his side to inspect his back. Nothing remained of his cotton shirt. Blood oozed from deep puncture wounds at his neck and shoulder.

His right arm flopped unnaturally. From the middle of his back to his waist, the bear’s raking claws left deep, parallel cuts. It reminded Harris of tree trunks he had seen where bears mark their territory, only these marks were etched in flesh instead of wood. On the back of Glass’s thigh, blood seeped through his buckskin breeches. Harris had no idea where to begin….

It’s not the only shocking moment in “The Revenant.” Later in the movie– and the novel– Glass (DiCaprio) comes upon a dead horse, removes its insides, takes off his clothes and climbs inside the carcass for warmth during a storm. If you’ve already survived the bear scene, this is the coup de grace.

And what will Fox do with two potential Best Picture nominees with lead actors and directors in direct competition? They already have a huge box office crowd pleaser with an Oscar performance by Matt Damon in “The Martian.” Every studio should have these problems! They’re almost un-bearable!

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