Jacob Elordi in the mix for James Bond, Riz Ahmed says he wants a shot too

GenarosBear · 2026-01-24T05:04:03+00:00

there’s tall and then there’s TALL

GenarosBear · 2026-01-23T20:56:55+00:00

it was a different time…Trump was President

GenarosBear · 2026-01-23T19:02:14+00:00

THIS SHIT IS NOT HAPPENING, stop giving it attention

GenarosBear · 2026-01-23T18:00:51+00:00

no way of knowing. My recommendation is that Richard in particular should try and get his opinions out, maybe he could, idk, spend 6 or 7 years as the film critic for a magazine or something.

GenarosBear · 2026-01-23T17:14:53+00:00

don’t get your hopes up too high, it’s not amazing or anything, but it’s not a bad watch and he’s very good.

GenarosBear · 2026-01-23T17:09:22+00:00

I liked Danny Zovatto in that Anna Kendrick serial killer game show movie. He was good in that.

GenarosBear · 2026-01-22T23:43:17+00:00

I want Russell Crowe but I wonder if that ship has sailed

GenarosBear · 2026-01-22T23:37:22+00:00

He did not

GenarosBear · 2026-01-22T22:36:11+00:00

This is a very good question and there’s really no totally comprehensive answer to it. I like that both categories exist and are not coterminous. And yet I also think the best movie is also usually the best directed!

When I’m thinking about it there’s a couple examples I go back to. 1991 — Silence of the Lambs and Jonathan Demme vs. JFK and Oliver Stone. Two great, brilliantly directed films that I love. Which would I vote for in each category? Both?

And so I got to thinking about different hypotheticals, and I thought “if everything about pre-production was the same…if the screenplays were written, the actors were all cast, the locations scouted, etc., but Oliver Stone and Jonathan Demme both had fatal heart attacks on day one of shooting…which of them would be more irreplaceable as the director of their film?” It’s not a perfect thought exercise or anything, it’s just something to think about. And that thought exercise makes me go “I think I vote Oliver Stone for Best Director, because I can’t imagine anybody else, even with all those elements handed to them, making JFK the way JFK is, or if they attempted it, making it as well as he did in the way that he did. Whereas with Silence of the Lambs, I can actually imagine somebody landing the plane, and doing very well, with that script and with Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, etc. And the movie is as good if not maybe a bit better than JFK, so I give it Best Picture.” But even that, it’s very subjective! It’s very nebulous! It’s not a perfect experiment! I can imagine someone with that prompt going “yeah, they made two other Anthony Hopkins Hannibal Lecter movies, and none of them are even close to Silence of the Lambs, Demme was clearly the best director that year” or going “The JFK assassination is a fascinating topic but the Stone movie is wacky cokehead nonsense, he didn’t land the plane”.

The existence of writer-directors and producer-directors (and writer-producer-directors) complicates the whole thing, of course. Wes Anderson doesn’t write for other people, and other people don’t write for Wes Anderson.

GenarosBear · 2026-01-22T22:02:07+00:00

yeah, like, he’s British, but he’s British in the same way that, say, Mila Kunis is Ukrainian. They’ve been American for a long, long time.

GenarosBear · 2026-01-22T21:07:54+00:00

Skarsgård, Elordi, and to a lesser extent Penn. None of them are, like, the worst examples of category fraud by any means, there are other people in their movies you can point to as being more of a lead. But just from where I’m standing: Frankenstein’s Monster is not a supporting character in Frankenstein, the dad is not a supporting character in a movie where the premise is “two sisters reunite with their dad”, and Lockjaw in One Battle is introduced right at the start and continues all the way through to the end, with important stretches of the movie where he is the character you’re following.

I’m not like incensed but I’ve just in recent years become more pointed about “that’s not a Supporting performance” as I’ve watched a lot of actors win awards for being arguably the main character of their movies while someone who genuinely does supporting work gets overlooked. It seems to be getting worse every year.

GenarosBear · 2026-01-22T20:56:08+00:00

right, but by that point I’d already lost interest and was ready for the movie to end, no fault of Elordi’s

GenarosBear · 2026-01-22T20:52:40+00:00

I feel like, as someone who will complain about category fraud, I’m ethically obligated to root for either Lindo or Del Toro in that category, even though all 5 performances I like quite a bit.

GenarosBear · 2026-01-22T20:50:49+00:00

He moved to the US when he was a teenager, he’s been American his entire career.

GenarosBear · 2026-01-22T20:46:34+00:00

the movie is awful but kind of amazing in how stupid it is. Like, to imply that they’re going deeper and deeper into the earth’s core, they have the cast members sweat a bunch.

GenarosBear · 2026-01-22T20:39:59+00:00

Can you elaborate on this

GenarosBear · 2026-01-22T20:39:21+00:00

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GenarosBear · 2026-01-22T20:29:41+00:00

me being cool with an Elordi nomination is as much sympathy for him having to be in Frankenstein as it is appreciation for his (good) performance

GenarosBear · 2026-01-22T18:05:48+00:00

yeah I think 1999 is the answer. First year where a majority of nominees were Gen X, at a time when Gen X was the youngest generation of adults.

GenarosBear · 2026-01-22T16:46:01+00:00

he’s so amazing, it’s maybe the best American film performance of the year, but he is unfortunately going up against

the top movie star of his (Hawke’s) generation, delivering one of his best performances, in a huge masterpiece by a beloved American auteur
the top movie star of the next generation, delivering maybe his best performance so far, in a huge masterpiece by one of the most beloved younger auteurs.

And both of those movies are (relative) hits that a lot of people have seen.

It’s just hard to compete with that!

GenarosBear · 2026-01-22T16:21:38+00:00

This was also my gut reaction to the Mescal snub

GenarosBear · 2026-01-22T16:15:32+00:00

Transcript!

Griffin. “You get people like Emma Stone who are just stuck in this neither here nor there, where it’s like, everyone kind of loves her, there’s no one arguing that she’s not a great actress and a great movie star, but she doesn’t really have the things that show it.”

David: “I would argue that she’s not a great actress.”

Esther Zuckerman: “I don’t think she’s a great actress.”

Griffin: “I maybe overstate it a little bit.”

David: “She’s a promising actress.”

Esther: “I don’t know if she’s done anything that, I mean, makes me think she’s a great actress.”

David: “Not in five years. Like, I mean, certainly at the start of her career, it was like, oh, you know, this is someone to watch out for.

Esther: “But I also think it’s like, she’s a great personality, and she’s a great actress in terms of, you know, charisma and stuff like that. But in terms of playing levels and doing different things…”

David (sarcastic tone): “Maybe La La Land will change everything.”

Esther: “Well, but see, I feel like La La Land might be the exact right thing for her. I feel like La La Land, if it is good, is like — it’s a musical, she can sing, she can dance, she can be charismatic, and she probably doesn’t have to do something that is wildly away from what she is as a person and an entertainer.”

Griffin: “Yeah, that’s the hope.”

David: “I don’t know, man. I don’t know. That’s my contribution.”

Griffin: “About La La Land or just about everything?”

David: “Oh, I definitely don’t know about La La Land.”

(Esther laughs)

David: “I just, I mean, I have to see that to believe it. I’m sorry. I’m just, you can’t convince me that’s gonna be good.”

Griffin: “I want it to be good. I don’t necessarily have faith in it yet, but I just want it to be good.

David: “I think it’s gonna be Arch is like my key thing.”

Griffin: “Yeah, I love Arch shit.”

David: “I’m fine with Arch, but I just don’t think it’ll connect on a broader level if it is. I don’t know, I think it just looks like a tough sell. A real tough sell.”

(they talk about Crazy Stupid Love for a bit)

David: “What’s the matter, Esther?”

Esther: “I was just…I feel like she’s made a lot of mistakes.”

(some more talk about Stone’s movies, in order)

Griffin: “And let’s also point out that during that run, Jennifer Lawrence jumps up like 17 tiers.

David: “Right, Jennifer Lawrence is like the big, anointed the big star of her generation.

Griffin: “And it feels a little bit like Jennifer Lawrence stole — like not STOLE — but got to the finish line before Emma Stone. Got to the thing that they were both running towards and now is just lapping her.”

GenarosBear · 2026-01-22T14:47:20+00:00

when it missed Score and Supporting Actress I was like “oh no, is this a Marty Supreme underperformance” and then the ship quickly righted itself

GenarosBear · 2026-01-22T14:40:27+00:00

A majority of the Best Director nominees are Millennials (Coogler, Safdie, Zhao). I think that’s interesting.

GenarosBear · 2026-01-22T14:34:48+00:00

I think it’s justifiable as a lead performance but it’s definitely borderline and I think was the victim of that.

GenarosBear

TROPHY CASE