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ACADEMY AWARD® 6 NOMINATIONS
BEST DIRECTOR BONG JOON HO
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY BONG JOON HO AND HAN JIN WON
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN LEE HA JUN AND CHO WON WOO
BEST FILM EDITING YANG JINMO
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JANUARY 21, 2020 US $9.99 JAPAN ¥1280 FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION CANADA $11.99 CHINA ¥80 UK £ 8 HONG KONG $95 EUROPE €9 RUSSIA 400 AUSTRALIA $14 INDIA 800
SUNDANCE 2020 SNOWFLAKE NOBODY’S NOBODY’S
Taylor Swift is no longer ‘polite at all costs.’ In her Sundance doc, ‘Miss Americana,’ the pop superstar finds her (political) voice. By Chris Willman P.4 0 “ LET EVERYTHING HAPPEN TO YOU: BEAUTY AND TERROR. JUST KEEP GOING. NO FEELING IS FINAL.” RAINER MARIA RILKE
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION IN ALL CATEGORIES
JojoRabbitFYC.com
Untitled-25 1 1/16/20 11:38 AM CONTENTS
“I don’t really operate very well as an enigma. It’s not fulfilling to me. ... I think that it makes me feel completely unable to do what I had gotten in this to do, which is to communicate to people.” Taylor Swift, P.40
P.4 0 Why She’s Speaking Now Sundance documentary “Miss Americana” charts Taylor Swift’s evolution as a political activist. By CHRIS WILLMAN
P.4 8 A Road Less Traveled Director Julie Taymor tweaks the rules of biopics with “The Glorias,” her film about Gloria Steinem. By MATT DONNELLY
P.5 2 A Difficult Choice Eliza Hittman’s “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” takes on the polarizing topic of abortion. By BRENT LANG CASSELL/SWA; MAKEUP: LORRIE TURK; HAIR: JEMMA MURADIAN/THE WALL GROUP; SET DESIGN: SHAWN PATRICK/ACME BROOKLYN PATRICK/ACME SET DESIGN: SHAWN GROUP; JEMMA MURADIAN/THE WALL HAIR: TURK; LORRIE MAKEUP: CASSELL/SWA;
P.5 5 Contenders: Best Picture Variety looks at what each of the Oscar hopefuls has in its favor and what might trip it up with voters. By JENELLE RILEY (COVER AND THIS PAGE) PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARY ELLEN MATTHEWS; STYLING: JOSEPH JOSEPH STYLING: ELLEN MATTHEWS; MARY BY PHOTOGRAPHS AND THIS PAGE) (COVER
VARIETY 3 CONTENTS
P.7 1
Kitty Green directed TOP BILLING the Sundance-bound “The Assistant,” one of several #MeToo-related 17 COOLING TREND? projects at the fest. Will buyers be more cautious at Sundance on the heels of last year’s spending spree?
19 PEACOCK PREENS NBCUniversal’s streaming offering is getting raves from Wall Street
20 PRESS PLAY The New York Times is expanding its reach by making documentary films
22 STREAMING SPOTLIGHT Oscar-winning helmer Tom McCarthy switches gears with a Disney Plus kids movie ALSO INSIDE EXPOSURE
10 29 PARTIES FIELD NOTES “Star Trek: Picard,” “Troop Musings Zero,” “Bad Boys for Life” on hot topics premieres; TCA events 12 36 DIRT PLUGGED IN Larry King gets $15.5 million What’s trending for his Beverly Hills mansion at Variety.com
102 FACETIME FOCUS St. Vincent and Carrie Brownstein 82 SLAMDANCE FILM FEST Event continues to grow after 26 years, with its focus on P.3 6
nurturing emerging talents ERSTOCK Snowboarder Shaun White puts Malibu ARTISANS property up for sale
93 DEAD RECKONING Production crew of WWI pic “1917” had to find creative ways to depict corpses
94 HEIGHTENED TAKE British class system played a role in the look of Guy Ritchie crime drama “The Gentlemen”
96 SUNDANCE SCOOP P.9 9 Production pros talk about their work in films bound for “The Goop Lab” the Park City festival review
REVIEWS “When I entered this business, I did not enter it with awards in mind. I entered it to be a storyteller and to 99 TV be an artist, and I think that’s what “The Goop Lab” we need to focus on.” Viola Davis, at the Los Angeles premiere of 100 FILM “Troop Zero,” reacting to the lack of diversity “Bad Boys for Life” among this year’s Oscar nominees P.31 GREEN: SUNDANCE INSTITUTE; WHITE’S HOUSE: MATTHEW MOMBERGER/MIKE HELFRICH; GOOP LAB: ADAM ROSE/NETFLIX; DAVIS: MEDIAPUNCH/SHUTT DAVIS: ROSE/NETFLIX; HELFRICH; GOOP LAB: ADAM MOMBERGER/MIKE HOUSE: MATTHEW WHITE’S INSTITUTE; GREEN: SUNDANCE
4 VARIETY Untitled-25 1 1/16/20 4:16 PM Lovingly hand-made by , the st
“Missing Link deserves to be a frontrunner for Animated Feature. A masterpiece One of the most ambitious ” animated films ever created. -AWARDS DAILY
Untitled-31 1 1/17/20 10:09 AM udio that created AND
For more on this extraordinary film and a schedule of where you can see it go to missinglinkguilds.com. Also available to stream now on
Untitled-31 2 1/17/20 10:10 AM Michelle Sobrino-Stearns
GROUP PUBLISHER & CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER
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Untitled-25 1 1/17/20 3:30 PM FIELD NOTES
VARIETY IS OWNED & PUBLISHED There’s Nothing That’s BY PENSKE MEDIA CORPORATION Jay Penske Normal About Harvey CHAIRMAN & CEO GEORGE GROBAR CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER GERRY BYRNE VICE CHAIRMAN SARLINA SEE CHIEF ACCOUNTING OFFICER CRAIG PERREAULT EVP BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT TODD GREENE EVP, BUSINESS AFFAIRS & GENERAL COUNSEL DEBASHISH GHOSH MANAGING DIRECTOR JENNY CONNELLY CAN YOU BELIEVE all of the shenan- him from getting a fair trial in New SVP, PRODUCT igans surrounding the Harvey Wein- York. The judge also rejected the lead KEN DELALCAZAR SVP, FINANCE stein rape trial in New York? And prosecution’s request to revoke Wein- TOM FINN opening arguments haven’t even stein’s bail and jail him for the dura- SVP, OPERATIONS begun. That drama will kick off this tion of the trial because she thought he NELSON ANDERSON week now that jury selection is com- was a flight risk. That same day, Burke VP, CREATIVE JONI ANTONACCI pleted, which in and of itself was a bit reprimanded Weinstein repeatedly for VP, PRODUCTION OPERATIONS of a nightmare. using his cellphone. “Is this really the REBECCA BIENSTOCK This has been a shit show from day way you want to end up in jail for the VP, TALENT RELATIONS STEPHEN BLACKWELL one! Weinstein’s defense team, which rest of your life? By texting in violation HEAD OF PORTFOLIO SALES has changed multiple times, tried pull- of an order?” he scolded. GERARD BRANCATO ing out every stop to delay the crimi- Appalled that the judge had threat- VP, PMC DIGITAL ACQUISTION nal trial, move it (twice), oust the judge, ened their client with jail time for ANNE DOYLE VP, HR ban the media from jury selection and using his mobile phone in court, Wein- MARA GINSBERG sequester the jury for the eight-week stein’s attorneys tried to get a new judge VP, HR trial — all motions the judge denied. assigned to the case, arguing Burke’s YOUNG KO VP, FINANCE A recap is in order, given all of the comments were “prejudicial and inflam- GABRIEL KOEN bizarre ins and outs of this spectacle. matory” and were promoting a narra- VP, TECHNOLOGY On the first day of jury selection, tive of guilt. Naturally, Burke refused to KEVIN LABONGE it was announced that Weinstein step down. VP, GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS & LICENSING NOEMI LAZO was being charged in Los Angeles I asked our senior media reporter VP, CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE with raping one woman and sexually Gene Maddaus if he’d ever heard of such AND MARKETING OPERATIONS BRIAN LEVINE assaulting another within a two-day a thing as a request for a new judge, as VP, REVENUE OPERATIONS period in 2013. He faces four charges: well as what he thought of the other out- JUDITH R. MARGOLIN forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, landish requests: VP, DEPUTY GENERAL COUNSEL sexual penetration by force and sex- “This is way outside the norm,” he told JULIE TRINH VP, GLOBAL TAX ual battery by restraint. In New York, me. “Normal trials don’t work this way.” LAUREN UTECHT he faces five serious charges and the VP, HR & CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS potential of life in prison. MIKE YE VP, STRATEGIC New York Justice James Burke PLANNING & ACQUISITIONS struck down Weinstein’s lawyers’ CHRISTINA YEOH “This has been request to push back the trial after VP, TECHNICAL OPERATIONS JULIE ZHU a shit show the L.A. charges were filed, saying Claudia Eller VP, AUDIENCE MARKETING & from day one!” the new charges wouldn’t preclude Editor-in-Chief SUBSCRIPTIONS NICI CATTON ASSOCIATE VP, PRODUCT DELIVERY KARL WALTER ASSOCIATE VP, CONTENT GURJEET CHIMA SENIOR DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL MARKETS EDDIE KO Uncovered SENIOR DIRECTOR, ADVERTISING Photographed Dec. 16, 2019, at The Plaza Hotel, New York OPERATIONS ANDY LIMPUS SENIOR DIRECTOR, TALENT ACQUISITION AMIT SANNAD “ We brought the snow, we brought the wind — OK, a fan. SENIOR DIRECTOR, DEVELOPMENT We brought skis, snowshoes, poles and more snow to a suite CONSTANCE EJUMA high atop the Plaza Hotel to create a winter wonderland for DIRECTOR, SEO LAURA ONGARO Taylor Swift,” says Mary Ellen Matthews, the photographer EDITORIAL & BRAND DIRECTOR, for “Saturday Night Live” for the past two decades and a top INTERNATIONAL entertainment portraitist. She adds of Swift: “She’s always so KATIE PASSANTINO DIRECTOR, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT much fun to work with, and this early Monday morning did not DEREK RAMSAY disappoint. We forgot the hot chocolate though.” SENIOR PRODUCT MANAGER
10 VARIETY Untitled-25 1 1/17/20 9:56 AM PLUGGED IN
PLUGGED IN WHAT’S ON VARIETY.COM
News Stars of Upcoming Deborah Releases Dugan Ousted 81 AS THE MUSIC INDUSTRY reeled in the wake of Deborah Dugan’s sudden removal Ken Jeong from her post as president-CEO of the Elsewhere He’s drawn a wave of buzz Recording Academy on Jan. 16 — a mere five since Jan. 1 prior to this months after she’d taken charge, and just seaside dramedy. 10 days before the Grammy Awards — even insiders were stunned by the abruptness of the move and perplexed by the purported reasons for it. Whatever the cause, it threw 755 the Academy, which was preparing for its first show under a new boss with big ideas, Colin Farrell into chaos. The Gentlemen His score has been An official statement reads in part, “In smokin’ — up three points light of concerns raised to the Recording since Dec. 1. Academy Board of Trustees, including a for- mal allegation of misconduct by a senior female member of the Recording Acad- emy team, the Board has placed [Dugan] on 655 administrative leave, effective immediately.” But sources close to the situation tell Mackenzie Davis Variety that what may have taken place was The Turning Her Vscore has taken a a “coup”: a move by entrenched Academy classic spin ahead since veterans to discredit and remove Dugan, December. who came in promising significant changes to the organization before she could estab-
lish herself with a successful first show. Vscore, powered by Variety Business Intelligence, identifies the social footprint, familiarity and availability of over 25,000 actors. For more info please • For the full story, head to Variety.com. visit Vscore.com DAVIS: MASATOSHI OKAUCHI/SHUTTERSTOCK; ERIVO: SHUTTERSTOCK ERIVO: OKAUCHI/SHUTTERSTOCK; MASATOSHI DAVIS:
Variety Poll SaySay What?W Who Will Lead “Hopefully“Hopefully more work gets seen by people who are making really good Grammy Wins? wwork,ork, anandd I feel like this year we had a flurry of beautiful pieces by people whwhoo are diversed in nature — black women, women in general. I think you’re When Grammy nominations were seeseeinging mmore of it on TV, HBO in particular, [where] you have Regina King on announced, Lizzo led the pack with eight ‘Watc‘Watchmen,’hme who’s incredible. And I think that opens the doors and opens our nods — and Billie Eilish, Lil Nas X and
eyes to ttheh people who are making the work.” KEN MCKAY/ITV/SHUTTERSTOCK; FARRELL: /SHUTTERSTOCK; Ariana Grande were close behind. We CynthiaCynthia ErivoEr asked Variety.com readers which one will win the most Grammys on Jan. 26. “I“I have a rrelaxation that I didn’t have [my first time on the awards circuit]. I was veveryry anxious and quite competitive, so I remember the first go around, 7% I bouboughtght into it. But it can overwhelm you. It’s not good for the reason why Lil Nas X we’re aallll here — to make good art.” “The“The Two PoPopes” writer Anthony McCarten 21% Ariana “I“I trutrulyly neneverv prepare my [awards show] speeches, but I do have the advantage Grande 49% of havinghaving a translator. So I would say my first line, and while the translator Billie translates,translate I would think of my next line. So I always have time to come up Eilish withwith mmyy sspeeches.” 23% BongBong JoonJoon Ho Lizzo DUGAN: JUSTIN LANE/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK; JEONG: RICHARD SHOTWELL/INVISION/AP LANE/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK; JUSTIN DUGAN:
12 VARIETY ACADEMY AWARD® NOMINEE BEST ANIMATED FEATURE Produced By BRADFORD LEWIS p.g.a. | BONNIE ARNOLD p.g.a. Written And Directed By DEAN DEBLOIS
“DEAN DEBLOIS BRINGS HIS WONDROUS DRAGON TRILOGY TO A SPECTACULAR FINISH. THE COURTSHIP BETWEEN TOOTHLESS AND LIGHT FURY IS A THING OF BALLETIC BEAUTY THAT BRINGS OUT THE DAZZLING ARTISTRY OF THE ANIMATION.”
WINNER BEST ANIMATED FEATURE NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW
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Untitled-25 1 1/17/20 11:54 AM Untitled-29 1 1/15/20 11:37 AM Untitled-29 2 1/15/20 11:37 AM ACADEMY AWARD® 10 NOMINATIONS BEST PICTURE
BEST BEST ORIGINAL DIRECTOR SCREENPLAY SAM MENDES SAM MENDES & KRYSTY WILSON-CAIRNS
BEST BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY ROGER DEAKINS ASC, BSC PRODUCTION DESIGN DENNIS GASSNER BEST SOUND LEE SANDALES MIXING MARK TAYLOR BEST SOUND STUART WILSON AMPS, CAS EDITING OLIVER TARNEY BEST RACHAEL TATE ORIGINAL SCORE THOMAS NEWMAN BEST MAKEUP AND BEST VISUAL HAIRSTYLING EFFECTS NAOMI DONNE TRISTAN VERSLUIS GUILLAUME ROCHERON REBECCA COLE GREG BUTLER DOMINIC TUOHY
Untitled-25 1 1/17/20 3:58 PM TOP BILLING
Sundance 2020: Will the Market Be Colder After Last Year’s Spree?
WITH TAYLOR SWIFT, HILLARY CLINTON AND LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA, THE STARS AT THIS YEAR’S
FILM FESTIVAL COULD ECLIPSE THE DEALS By Ramin Setoodeh and Matt Donnelly
WHEN IT COMES TO BIG acquisition deals performances in Puerto Rico to raise films they wouldn’t have had access to, but I for independent movies, Sundance is the funds for hurricane relief efforts. also think that’s awakening an appetite for room where it happens, to borrow a lyric “We now have video proof that I’m the these stories across all spaces.” from “Hamilton.” So it’s a lucky coinci- slacker of my family,” Miranda says with At least, that’s what movie buyers and dence that Lin-Manuel Miranda will be a a laugh. The documentary, directed by John sellers are hoping. The annual gathering guest at this year’s film festival. James, took three years to make. Miranda in the snowy mountain town sets the For the first time, Miranda will hit the considers himself a fan of the movie — LET’S DANCE temperature for the indie business. slopes in Park City, Utah, to rub shoulders and the genre. “What’s exciting is how the Lin-Manuel Miranda “Sundance is still the best place to sell an with film aficionados and industry resurgence for the love of documentaries will be at the fest independent film, because it’s at the top of to talk about a trio executives. He’s attending the festival as an and real-life stories has spilled into box of docs including one the year and not serving the awards season interview subject in three documentaries, office success, like ‘RBG’ and ‘Won’t You Be about his father, launches that you might see in Toronto,” including “Siempre, Luis,” about his father, My Neighbor?,’ two wonderful documenta- Luis A. Miranda Jr., says Rena Ronson, co-president of UTA with whom he’s seen Luis Miranda, a dogged political consultant ries,” he says. “The streaming revolution here at the 2017 Independent Film Group. who helped organize a series of “Hamilton” has absolutely helped people have access to Imagen Awards. But experts say there are reasons why CHELSEA LAUREN/VARIETY/SHUTTERSTOCK CHELSEA
VARIETY 17 TOP BILLING
bidding war, earned $18 million in domes- tic theaters, although it’s struggled to rep- licate that success overseas, particularly in China, where the film is set. Even if money isn’t flowing as freely, there will be no shortage of star power at Sundance. Taylor Swift will be onstage to kick things off with her opening-night Netflix documentary “Miss Americana.” Hillary Clinton has agreed to trek in the snow for the launch of “Hillary,” a four- hour, in-depth docuseries that will pre- miere on Hulu in March. And there will be more politics in “The Fight,” a documen- tary about the ACLU standing up against Donald Trump’s policies. The project, which is produced by Kerry Washington, is from the team behind “Weiner.” Numerous insiders have tipped Max Barbakow’s “Palm Springs” as a potentially sizable sale. Cristin Milioti (“How I Met Your Mother”) and Andy Samberg portray reluc- HEAT SEEKERS David Oyelowo frolics with Keira tant wedding guests in a desert getaway Chansa, Jordan Nash and Reece whose odd connection fuels chaos. Yates in “Come Away”; Michael Keaton In a rare offering for kids, Angelina Jolie and Stanley Tucci in “Worth.” and David Oyelowo play the parents of a grieving family in “Come Away.” Their two Sales youngest children escape despair at home to Watch in an inventive fusing of “Peter Pan” and “Alice in Wonderland.” Agents and buyers peg these titles as Prestige dramas could lure major stu- prime deals dios looking for awards bait, such as “Worth,” inspired by the true story of the Bad Hair Washington lawyer appointed to oversee Director: Justin Simien and distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. Michael Keaton takes Come Away the lead role, fighting off cynical bureau- Director: Brenda Chapman crats and learning how to possibly equate monetary value to individual lives. The Dissident Anticipated follow-up films include Director: Bryan Fogel one from Miranda July, who has not been to Sundance since 2011. Her “Kajillion- The Glorias aire” teams Evan Rachel Wood, Debra Director: Winger, Gina Rodriguez and Richard Jen- Julie Taymor kins in a story about grifters who intro- Palm Springs duce a new member to their team. Almost Director: a decade after “Martha Marcy May Mar- Max Barbakow buyers might exercise caution in 2020. As a longtime Sundance veteran, lene,” Sean Durkin returns with the fam- Last year’s gathering was marked by some Vachon knows better than to predict buy- Falling ily psychodrama “The Nest,” starring Jude of the biggest splurges in the 41-year ers’ habits until the closing credits roll. Director: Law as an ’80s-era businessman. Viggo Mortensen history of the festival. Amazon Studios “There’s always something that comes Indeed, for most independent filmmak- spent more than $40 million on a slate — from nowhere,” she says. “The fact that Ironbark ers, you can always go home to Park City. “Late Night,” “Brittany Runs a Marathon,” there are all these different buyers besides Director: Justin Simien, who sold “Dear White Peo- Dominic Cooke “The Report” and “Honey Boy” — that saw traditional theatrical buyers does make the ple” there six years ago, is bringing his sec- weak box office results. (According to a market a lot more lively.” Worth ond feature to the festival. “Bad Hair” is a January memo from studio chief Jennifer The sale at Toronto last fall of Hugh Director: horror story — with an added layer of social Sara Colangelo Salke, these titles reached record eyeballs Jackman’s “Bad Education” to HBO for commentary — about a killer weave. at home on Prime Video.) The streaming nearly $20 million, plus a massive world- Four Good Days “There’s a lot of really interesting original studio has since revised its distribution wide marketing commitment, could be Director: movies that are in the marketplace that are Rodrigo García strategy, stepping back from releasing all of enough to persuade others to consider TV female driven or minority driven or black its movies on thousands of theater screens. pacts. It’s also possible that most tradi- The Nest driven,” Simien says. “But at the same time, “Will it self-correct this year?” asks tional movie distributors will simply not Director: that same fear to take a chance on some- Sean Durkin Christine Vachon, the producer and have the cash to compete with new players, thing that’s different is prevalent. I think the co-president of Killer Films, which has two whether it be Apple or Netflix. Of all the streamers m ake things really interesting, movies — “Zola,” a drama about an exotic movies sold at Sundance 2019, the most but this could really work in theaters. I’m dancer, and “Shirley,” a psychodrama star- prominent success story was “The Fare- enthusiastic about its prospects for sure. It’s ring Elisabeth Moss — at the festival. “I well,” Lulu Wang’s drama starring Awkwa- a powerful piece. But it’s also a ride.” know that’s what people are whispering. fina. The A24 release, which the New York And no matter what the price tags, so
But I don’t know if that’s what happens.” indie bought for roughly $6 million in a is Sundance. INSTITUTE MADRIVER PICTURES/SUNDANCE WORHT: INSTITUTE; SUNDANCE COME AWAY:
18 VARIETY PETER KRAMER/PEACOCK Bright for Wall Street Peacock’s Colors Shine NBCUNIVERSAL STREAMING SERVICE GETS ANENTHUSIASTIC RECEPTION tent, earlier-windowtent, availability and4k; Premium, whichoffers twice asmuchcon- gramming; $4.99amonthfor Peacock andSpanish-languagenews, pro- sports TV, daily curated programming, library of includingcurrent-season content, for 7,500hoursfree andad-supported lyst Kannan Venkateshwar. lying drivers of value,” wroteBarclays ana- uniqueness andtheunder- of theproduct outintermsofthought Peacock stood Disney Plus, HBOMaxandPeacock —we tive useof …advertising. withitsinnova-for industry thestreaming setting mightbe anewinflectionpoint out, oldest traditionalbroadcasters, itturns vice broughtto you by oneof America’s company’s 16investor Jan. day. Theser- to anall-timehighafteritsunveiling at the sent sharesof Comcast corporate parent new over-the-top platform entertainment eager toembrace NBCUniversal’s Peacock. dull thesenses, butWall Streetisrather might launched being services streaming YOU’D THINKTHAT
The service comes inthreevarieties:The service “Across thethreemajorlaunches— By ElaineLow the steady drumbeat of drumbeat the steady on Jan.16. in NewYork day presentation the investor Peacock during lineup on programming is backedbythe Content Studios, NBCUniversal chairman of Bonnie Hammer, WALL OFSHOWS Brewster” and“SavedBrewster” by theBell.” of titleslikein additiontoreboots “Punky Kevin Amy Poehler Hart, andMindyKaling, nals; initscase, fromthelikes of TinaFey, and others, Peacock willalsohouseorigi- fly abroad.) PeacockJuly 15.(At willalso somepoint, 15, whilethenational on rollouthappens customers get access April totheservice Premiumcock for Comcast $9.99.Certain and acompletely ad-free version of Pea- from itsplatform an butfamouslyspends gocock aftertheadvertising piece.” like Pea- asmoreservices tial turningpoint analyst toapoten- DanIves, speaking “thus viewership,”30% of allTV wrote Wedbush represents20%- ing althoughstreaming tostream- [are]allocated budgets globally worldcord-cutters’ afterall. that advertising mighthave aplace inthis Live” moments, however —it’s theidea channelof “Saturday Night of of” a“best aspunchisn’tmunity pleased theidea Netflix, forNetflix, example, commercials bars “We believe less than3%of advertising What’s makingtheinvestment com- Like Disney Plus Plus, Apple TV HBOMax, tle over thecoming years.” bat- inthis streaming trajectory subscriber Netflix and its theleader disrupt clearly unveilingsoon service, will itsstreaming istic Peacock goal), andApple, withHBO 40 millionsubsby endof 2020now areal- believe thetrifecta of Disney (we believe we togaintraction, continuestreaming to time for thelikes of Peacock andApple Netflix fromitslong-held perch. ing battle tocome: totopple thepotential market themost presentspossibly interest- crowdedcock tothealready streaming wrote Venkateshwar. tocommunicate,”(like iseasy Netflix does) of simultaneoususersor capsonnumber onadsorno(asHuludoes) ing based to communicate withoutuse, buttier- of content volume ornature isdifficult theexperiential differenceview because tially moreproblematic. subtler thansomeof itspeers, ispoten- more content costing moremoney —while its tiers—i.e., window earlier availability, cock’s of differentiation method between goal. 12-18 monthsasa“realistic” hesees20millionsubsoverprint, thenext of contentbreadth anditsdistribution foot- believes isconservative. Given Peacock’s by 2024,anestimate that Wedbush’s Ives 30 millionto35active accounts resulting in$2.5billionrevenue. adsandsubsby then, userfromboth per it projects, into$6-$7of average revenue by theendof 2024;that shouldtranslate, evenexpects tobreak onthiscommitment Peacock over thenext two years, and upcoming Olympics.” includingthe content, proprietary pelling but Comcast com- entersthefray withvery content greenlighted, being in mediocre aggressive,juncture is“too andwillresult oncontent isspending at this industry toacceptstreamers ads.” will“likely for testthe service theappetite ing peers, wroteinanotetoclientsthat fromitsstream- setsPeacockmodel apart premium sentiment that thead-supported hour,every say analysts. around9-10minutesof commercialsruns For Hulu’s comparison, tier ad-supported have intheindustry.” the“lightest adload Peacock hourof will programming, per says that withless thanfive minutesof ads Guggenheim Partners’ Mike McCormack ads. Furthermore,also donotsupport that figuretoexceed $17billion.) year.tent every expect (In2020,experts ever-increasing amountof money for con- Says itwilltake Ives: some “While Nevertheless, of Pea- theintroduction abittrickytopulloff inour canbe “This thatThere istheconcern, Pea- though, NBCUniversal expects Peacock tohave Comcast $2billioninto planstopour He alsobelieves that theamount Venkateshwar’s whoechoes McCormack, Disney PlusandAmazon Prime Video VARIETY 19 Goes to the Movies The New York Times IS GETTINGINTO THEDOCUMENTARY FILMBUSINESS WHY THENATION’S MOST PROMINENT NEWSPAPER 20 for sometimethat theTimesisn’t onlya administration,the Trump it’s true been digital subscriptionshave under soared business. As feature-length documentary States. intheUnited newspaper Square, inthehomeof themost prominent heroffice Instead, isinTimesnetwork. at amovie company production oraTV But that vision. shedoesn’tported work the film’s producers, Kathleen Lingo, sup- morecommerciallyand perhaps —oneof chapters, thingsaren’t resolved.” was how muchmoreabout inlife’s final I wanted tomaketional. itsomethingthat awaydirection, fromthemoreinforma- “I wanted topushthemovie inacertain films. sixshort who is23andhasdirected many different things,” says Oppenheim, the Sundance Film Festival. of Heaven,” whichpremieresthisweek at of “Some hisfirst Kind film, feature-length hours of footage, to seetheoutline hebegan ida. But of after18months andhundreds in aretirementcommunity incentral Flor- chronicling agroupof seniorcitizens living whenhestarted 83-minute documentary LANCE OPPENHEIM LANCE TOP BILLING
The New York Timesisgetting intothe ofInstead urginghimtothinktidier— “I thinkthemovie could have so been By RaminSetoodeh VREY VARIETY didn’t setouttomake an istic style,” projects toldwithacertain says fromanoverseas correspondent. reporting onwith anOscar-nominated directorbased umentaries, includingoneindevelopment for upcoming doc- recruited ers arebeing platform.a streaming Andmorefilmmak- play toaudiences inmovies oron theaters sothatare seekingdistribution, they can able ontheTimeswebsite. they Instead, playingthe docs at Sundance avail- willbe from a60-year prisonsentence. Neither of in Louisianaattempting tofreeherhusband by Bradley, Garrett directed about awoman the venerable journalismbrandhas“Time,” ries. Inadditionto“Some Kindof Heaven,” ing itsfirst two documenta- feature-length renewed for asecond season). connectionsand missed (itwas recently columnpopular fleetingromances about onthe Amazon seriesbased anthology get Love,” enough of “Modern ascripted tigations. Andromanticcomedy fanscan’t oninves-to tag alongwithTimesreporters Weekly,” anFXdocu-series, invites viewers of thelatest WhiteHousescandals. “The 2 millionlisteners aday withitsanalysis by MichaelBarbaro, morethan reaches newspaper. Daily,” “The hosted apodcast “We for arelooking ambitiousjournal- At Sundance, debut- theTimeswillbe practice of documentary filmmaking.”practice of documentary makers withjournalists tosupercharge the guide. want What film- Ireally todoispair havereally morethere asaspirit thembe to make movies,” Lingo says. isto idea “The ourjournalists offble ifIpulled theirjobs the director’s chair. “Iwould get introu- to transitioninto many expect too reporters But don’tevolve fromTimes reporting. journalistic standards. to ensurethey adheretothenewsroom’s fact-checker at theTimes, whovets them they aresubmittedtoaies arecompleted, ture, Concordia Studio).Afterthemov- was Davis“Time” Guggenheim’s newven- (onecollaborator for partners producing to applyfor grantsandbringonother Directorsstill need for production. each or howmean itwas going towork.” knowingout really what that was going to my sherecalls. feature?’” “Isaidyes with- to come tomeandsay, ‘Can you produce tor for filmandTV. “Filmmakers started and now direc- hasthetitleof editorial step for Lingo, whopreviously ranOp-Docs these movies longer was thenext logical to landthreeOscarnominations. Making films,through short whichhave gone on series—journalismtold Op-Docs ongoing, itssuccessful,2011, whenitlaunched and exploringThe Timesbegan in thespace from HBOtoNetflix toFocus Features. company entertainment by almost every asever, filmsareaspopular tary coveted of aslice offul portraits theworld.” some that just arenotat kindof all, delight- that areprettydocumentaries newsyand kind of documentaries. We’re doingsome and TV. “We’re notasdrawn totalking-head tor at the Times whooversees audio, films theassistant managing edi- Sam Dolnick, Ideally, moreof thefutureprojectswill The Timesdoesn’t foot theentirebill It makes documen- sensebecause subject DennisDean, and TV,isadriving Kathleen Lingo,the Heaven,” herewith docs development. Times’ editorial Sundance (left); force behindits director offilm will premiereat SLICE OFLIFE “Some Kindof
SOME KIND OF HEAVEN: DAVID BOLEN/NEW YORK TIIMES; LINGO: CELESTE SLOMAN/THE NEW YORK TIMES Congratulations to the Winners of the 2019–20 Alfred P. Sloan Film Awards
THESE AWARDS, IN SCREENWRITING, FILM DEVELOPMENT, AND FILM PRODUCTION, recognize exceptionally talented work that explores ěŢ Ţ Ę Ţ Ę ě ľĽĸŢĝŢŢě
Film School Winners 2019 Film Institute Winners 2019
AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE THE ATHENA FILM FESTIVAL Tuition Award ɖ Development Award ǡǣĘ Production Award SPACESHIP Ţ Sloan Fellowship ACTIVATED Ę Production Award ģ Nikolay Sysuev Sloan Fellowship ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT Ę
CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY FILM INDEPENDENT Screenwriting Award LOVE, GENOMEěĘ Episodic Grant WELCOME TO THE SCENE ěĘ Screenwriting Award DUST TO DUST Ę Fast Track Grant Ę Screenwriting Award THE FRIENDS I MADE AND THE ZOMBIES I HAD Producing Grant MALPELO Ę Ę Screenwriting Award HOT STUFF ěěĘ THE NORTH FORK TV FESTIVAL Pilot Development Grant DISTEMPER Ę COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY Production Award SOUND TO SEA Ęī SFFILM Production Award WOOD THRUSH Ę Science in Cinema A BRIDGE BETWEEN US Ęī Fellowship Screenwriting Award THE EIGHTH WONDER Ę Screenwriting Award MALPELO Ę Science in Cinema SOMETHING IN THE WATER Ęī Fellowship
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY Science in Cinema Prize THE AERONAUTS Ę $100K Feature Film MABEL ĘĘĘī Stories of Science BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA Award Development Grant Ęī Screenwriting Award Ę Stories of Science THE FUTURIST ĘĝīĘ Development Grant Screenwriting Award WHITE COFFINS Ę Ęĝ Production Award Kamila Daurenova, Stories of Science Ę ī Development Grant Production Award THE FOG CATCHER Ęī Stories of Science START A FIRE Ę Development Grant Production Award WIRE & CLOTH Ę ǢǠǢǠ UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES Commissioning Grant THE PLUTONIANS Ę Screenwriting Award SHE SELLS SEA SHELLS Ę Episodic Grant HIGHERĘ Screenwriting Award SCARCEĘ Sloan Lab Fellowship TIDAL DISRUPTION Ę Episodic Award Ę Feature Film Prize TESLAĘī
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TRIBECA FILM INSTITUTE Animation Award MASS EXTINCTION Ę Student Grand Jury Prize Production Award Ęī Ę Production Award Ę Ęī Student Grand Jury Prize BARETIA Ę Honorable Mention Screenwriting Award THE BONE WARS Ę Screenwriting Award Ę ěĘ Student Discovery Prize PLUS Ę Filmmaker Fund Award WIRING UTOPIAĘĘīĘ Ę Filmmaker Fund Award ASIA A Ęī Filmmaker Fund Award BOLICHICOS ĘĘ Ę
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stops believing for a minute in his own greatness. There’s a sweetness there.” Oscar-Winning Finding the right Timmy was no easy task. McCarthy and his producers auditioned thousands of kids, and the director began to grow worried that he had started preproduc- ‘Spotlight’ Director tion without the right actor in place, some- thing that would have ultimately doomed the project. McCarthy says it was fortunate that he found Winslow Fegley, the brother of “The Jumps Into the Stream Goldfinch” star Oakes Fegley. The actor was quickly able to identify with Timmy. TOM MCCARTHY HEADS TO SUNDANCE FESTIVAL WITH INDIE “Winslow has his own rhythm in life,” KIDS FILM FOR DISNEY PLUS By Brent Lang says McCarthy. “He has this facility with lan- guage that’s very adult in some ways. He worked hard, and we worked with him hard. And even though it’s early in his career, he was ready to carry a movie.” McCarthy, best known for intimately observed slice-of-life dramas such as “Win Win” and “The Station Agent,” took a sim- ilar approach to “Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made.” Timmy may ride around town with a polar bear in tow, but the director wanted to ground his adventures in realism. Timmy’s single mom, Patty, is struggling to stay afloat financially. A hipster at heart, she often acts more like a friend than a parent as she strives to find the right balance between supporting her unusual son and instilling discipline when he gets in trouble at school. It’s not the kind of relationship that’s usually seen in a Disney film. “Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made” will be the first of McCarthy’s movies not to debut in theaters. However, he seems fine with the idea of audiences enjoying his latest work in the comfort of their living room. “I just feel fortunate that I got to make the movie I wanted to make with the resources I needed to make it,” he says. “That’s my pri- mary interest. You can’t ignore that Disney Plus feels like the first wave of something new, and it’s exciting to be part of that.” MOST DIRECTORS wouldn’t follow up a best the ticket after they started screening the McCarthy will continue his shape-shift- picture Oscar victory with a children’s movie for test audiences. ing ways with his next project, “Stillwater,” movie produced by and distributed on a “Many of the people had never seen an a crime drama that stars Matt Damon and new streaming service. But that’s exactly indie movie before,” says McCarthy. “When Abigail Breslin. what Tom McCarthy did after “Spotlight,” we asked them what it reminded them of, “A big part of what I like to do is to have his powerful 2015 drama about sex abuse they didn’t really have a frame of reference. some variety,” says McCarthy. “You need to in the Catholic Church, became an awards LOADED FOR BEAR It made me think that we needed to do mix it up and not go back to the same well season darling. His latest feature, “Timmy Winslow Fegley (top) some work to find our audience.” again and again.” Failure: Mistakes Were Made,” will be one stars in Disney Plus’ McCarthy first got intrigued by the proj- of the first films to debut on Disney Plus “Timmy Failure: ect after a colleague leant him a book, Mistakes Were Made,” when it drops on Feb. 7. “Timmy Failure,” by Stephan Pastis that directed by Tom “I’ve never been too concerned with mak- McCarthy (inset). was geared toward middle school stu- ing career moves,” says McCarthy. “I’m more dents. It follows the adventures of a preteen concerned with telling stories and finding detective whose partner is an imaginary projects that I find compelling. In the long 1,500-pound polar bear. The story may “You can’t ignore run, that’s taken me to interesting places.” have been pitched at preteens, but it was that Disney Plus feels “Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made” also fresh, original and subversive. will also be the first Disney-branded movie “I’m always looking for something in like the first wave to premiere at the Sundance Film Festi- a protagonist that sets him apart,” says of something new, val. The studio, best known for making McCarthy. “There was something about sprawling global blockbusters, usually the blind spot that this kid had in terms of and it’s exciting to be steers clear of the indie gathering. How- his sense of self. He has such an outsized part of that.” ever, McCarthy and his producers began to vision for who he is, and it’s unmovable in a Tom McCarthy feel that a Park City unveiling could be just way that is funny and appealing. He never CHELSEA LAUREN/VARIETY/SHUTTERSTOCK DISNEY+; MCCARTHY: TIMMY FAILURE:
22 VARIETY Untitled-25 1 1/17/20 4:08 PM The Icelandic film community congratulates Hildur Gudnadóttir for her nomination for the Oscar for Best Original Score for Joker.
A Hverfisgata 54, 101 Reykjavík Iceland T +354 562 3580 E info@icelandicfilmcentre.is W icelandicfilmcentre.is FRANCOIS DUHAMEL/ANNAPURNA PICTURES Behind the Camera Olivia Wilde Goes DIRECT ANDHELMEDTHECOMING-OF-AGE INDIE‘BOOKSMART’ THE MOVIE STAR SHOOKTHEMINDSET THAT WOMEN CAN’T Academy voters. strong contenders butwere shutoutby Wang Farewell”) (“The were considered (“Little Women”)Greta Gerwig andLulu aremale.of thenomineesincategory inations were 13.All announced onJan. was frontandcenter whentheOscarnom- next Scorsese.’” Steven orMartin Spielberg one day you’ll Maybe you’ll direct. the be saysboy heloves movies, it’s like, ‘Maybe of theconversation.not apart But ifalittle don’t‘Why you It’s become adirector?’ just amoviebe star.’ No onetellsalittle girl, ‘You told, they’re love movies —you should way for because many in, young women … tells me. “Ialways actingwas assumed the of themoviemaking apart process,”be she thelens.behind to herthat shemightalsoenjoy stepping she was Itnever 20years old. occurred OLIVIA WILDE Thelackof indirecting gender parity “Ialways wanted tomake movies and began actingin2004when began In theRunning Marc MalkinM awards for season “Booksmart,” herfea- stein andDever’s charactersfor Halloween. incostumeswhere dressed by Feld- inspired culture phenomenon:Young every- people that themovie apop andbecame resonated a 97%score onRotten Tomatoes. sign Atrue to theDolby, butitwas acriticalhitandhas may nothave madeit “Booksmart” uation. before grad- onewildnightofleast partying lyn Dever) whodecidethey want tohave at Feldstein seniors(Beanie school andKait- twoture filmdebutabout straight-A high and Stefon Bristol (“See You Yesterday”). Last BlackManinSanFrancisco”)(“The Climb”), Kent Jones (“Diane”), Joe Talbot along withMichaelAngelo Covino (“The istheother—upfor firsttang”) best feature, — LauredeClermont-Tonnerre Mus- (“The Feb. 8.Sheisoneof two women directors diverse group. That’s whereWilde on willbe Spirit Awards’ nomineesareamuchmore Unlike theOscars, theIndependent Wilde was alsoacontender inthe early in “Booksmart.” Feldstein directs Beanie Olivia Wilde ACTION SHOT many followers they have media.” onsocial way. acertain had tolook No oneasked how a star. We didn’t have astudio saying they didn’t have astudio saying you have tocast outof theprocess,”people Wilde recalls. “We of color intherace. istheonlyactorCynthia Erivo (“Harriet”) among thecurrentcropof Oscarnominees. tures andcommunities, somethinglacking arainbow of cul- —whorepresented acted young —someof whomhadnever people and make itmy own.” this story. They allowed metotake thison thatchomping at Iwanted totell thebit, film could be. [Annapurna]could tellIwas fortion andsuchlofty ideals what their to thefilmmaker whohassuchambi- cient,’” Wilde says. “Someone isattracted the thingthat you orsuffi- sellasdoable This feels moredoable.’” could make probably itsomethingsimpler. financiallyirresponsible,is probably soI early.punches too We say thingslike ‘This directors dotoourselves —we willpullour says. Ihave “What noticed iswhat female pitch themost ambitiousplan,’” Wilde to make, notthemovie you canmake. Just Pitchthemovie you out. your want heart greenlit by ‘Pitch Annapurna.“She said, key toWilde’s ability toget “Booksmart” “Meadowland” directorReed Moranowas it andrelyonit.” and how in muchdo we actively participate which are:what isthepatriarchythis point, themes that women aregrapplingwithat touchon thelarger itdoes Up era,because as apsychological thrillerfor theTime’s most aptway itis “The todescribe mind. about awoman whomay losingher be ring in“Don’t Worry, Darling,” athriller directing.”clue that tobe Iwas supposed lovewhat Ireally istheprocess. That was a I’ll doanything.’ That was evidence that she says. “Iwas just like, ‘Ilove everything. improvised indie“DrinkingBuddies.” tothe sci-fi adventure Legacy” “Tron: range fromtheno surprisehercredits exploring awidevariety of genres. Soit’s days sherealizes that of shecraved acting, That casting anensembleof included “Reed saidtome, ‘No oneisgoing tobuy But doableisn’t enough. good Seekingguidance frommentorslike her Next upfor Wilde isdirectingandstar- “I never wanted topigeonhole myself,” onherearly WhenWilde back looks “We removed that keep thebarriers most of theconversation.” become adirector?’ “No onetellsalittle girl, ‘Why don’t you
It’s justnot apart VARIETY TOP BILLING Olivia Wilde 25 ACADEMY AW 10BEST
“+++ THE BEST PICTU A CLASSIC F
THE BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR
Untitled-31 1 1/17/20 11:58 AM
Wishes to thank the hosts of its
23 RD ANNUAL ACTORS ONLY BRUNCH RACHEL BROSNAHAN – IRONBARK GARRET DILLAHUNT – SERGIO COLMAN DOMINGO – ZOLA RICHARD JENKINS – THE LAST SHIFT, KAJILLIONAIRE LOGAN LERMAN – SHIRLEY SUNITA MANI – SAVE YOURSELVES! ANDREA RISEBOROUGH – LUXOR, POSSESSOR MIRIAM SHOR – LOST GIRLS ROBIN THEDE – BAD HAIR
and the hosts of its
23 RD ANNUAL FILMMAKERS LUNCHEON
MAX BARBAKOW – PALM SPRINGS RADHA BLANK – THE 40-YEAR-OLD VERSION ALEX HUSTON FISCHER – SAVE YOURSELVES! LIZ GARBUS – LOST GIRLS NATALIE ERIKA JAMES – RELIC BRADEN KING – THE EVENING HOUR LAWRENCE MICHAEL LEVINE – BLACK BEA ELEANOR WILSON – SAVE YOURSELVES!
This is a sanctioned 2020 www.sagindie.org Sundance Film Festival Event.
Untitled-25 1 1/17/20 10:22 AM EXPOSURE
EDITED BY MARC MALKIN
NAKED AMBITION Channing Tatum hits the stage at the opening of “Magic Mike Live” at Club Theater in Berlin on Jan. 16. It’s the third production of the male dance show inspired by the “Magic Mike” film franchise, following residencies in Las Vegas and London. PEOPLE PICTURE/FOUDRE/SHUTTERSTOCK PEOPLE
VARIETY 29 EXPOSURE
‘Star Trek: Picard’ Premiere
Arclight Cinerama Dome, Hollywood, Jan. 13
As premiere festivities got underway, Variety asked the stars of the new CBS All Access series which “Star Trek” character they’d love to get drunk with. Patrick Stewart cracked, MEDIAPUNCH/SHUTTERSTOCK ; PERRY/FRYE: “Your question suggests that that hasn’t happened.” He added, “There are a lot of new characters with me now, and they are without exception delightful people. So a glass or two of something pleasant with any of them would be a treat.” Isa Briones teased, “I shouldn’t answer Wilson Cruz and Patrick Stewart that because I’m not 21 for a few days, [but] Akiva Goldsman hypothetically, Guinan [Whoopi Goldberg’s character from ‘The Next Generation’], because she would get me drunk in the right way!”
Alison Pill and Joshua Leonard
Evan Evagora, Isa Briones and Brent Spiner Michelle Hurd
CORE Gala (5) LATOUR/VARIETY/SHUTTERSTOCK ROB PENN/GEORGE: S. PENN/H. PENN, MODER/ROBERTS/DICAPRIO, D. O’BRIEN, LEWIS/BECK, SHUTTERSTOCK;
The Wiltern, Los Angeles, Jan. 15
Sean Penn hosted the 10th-anniversary benefit for the international disaster relief organization, which he founded after the catastrophic earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010. “Ten years of experience at this event tells me that sometimes people like to take selfies, and I am so uncomfort- able with that. But for the rest of the night, I am anxious to do it,” Penn said before offering a cre- ative solution that would benefit CORE. “We’ll go $5,000 a pop. So bring your checkbook if you’re talking to me.” Penn and his A-list guests ultimately raised more than $5 million for the initiative. Jenny Lewis Linda Perry and and Beck Soleil Moon Frye
Conan O’Brien Sean Penn and Leila George
Danny Moder, Julia Roberts and Dylan Penn and Leonardo DiCaprio Hopper Penn CRUZ/GOLDSMAN, STEWART, SPINER, EVAGORA/BRIONES/HURD: CHELSEA LAUREN/SHUTTERSTOCK (4); PILL/LEONARD: WILLY SANJUAN/INVISION/AP/ WILLY PILL/LEONARD: (4); LAUREN/SHUTTERSTOCK CHELSEA EVAGORA/BRIONES/HURD: SPINER, STEWART, CRUZ/GOLDSMAN,
30 VARIETY EXPOSURE
‘Bad Boys for Life’ Premiere Tiffany Haddish and Queen Latifah
TCL Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, Jan. 14
Twenty-five years after their first outing, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are back for the long- awaited third film in the franchise. “Of all the movies I’ve done, when people walk up on you on the street and say, ‘Hey man, when are you gonna do another one?,’ it’s ‘Bad Boys,’” Smith told Variety. “Nobody’s asking for ‘Pursuit of Happyness 2.’” Lawrence said it was an easy deci- sion for him, adding, “We wanted to give the people what they wanted.” But in a change from the way they made the first film, he quipped, “We used our stuntmen.”
Charles Melton, Alexander Ludwig and Vanessa Hudgens
Joe Pantoliano
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah
Jaden Smith and Trey Smith
King Bach, Will Smith, Martin Lawrence and Nicky Jam : ERIC CHARBONNEAU/SHUTTERSTOCK (3); (3); : ERIC CHARBONNEAU/SHUTTERSTOCK AMSON/JANUARYIMAGES/SHUTTERSTOCK
Mckenna Grace, ‘Troop Zero’ Bella Higginbotham and Jim Gaffigan Premiere
The Grove, Los Angeles, Jan. 13
The comedy, helmed by directing duo Bert & Bert, Allison Bertie, stars Viola Davis and Allison Janney Janney and Bertie along with a group of tween actors. “When we were reading the script, we realized that there’s Lidya Jewettwett and Johannana CoColónlón never been a girl adventure film where it’s a Viola Davis group of girls who go on an adventure to achieve and daughter something greater than themselves by work- Genesis Tennon ing together — not because of boys but because they want to be greater than themselves,” Ber- tie told Variety. “Girls need to see themselves on screen working together and seeing the power in that. That was one of the most fundamental things about this film and being a filmmaker.” GRACE/HIGGINBOTHAM/GAFFIGAN, BERTIE/JANNEY/BERT, DAVIS/TENNON: STEWART COOK/VARIETY/SHUTTERSTOCK (3); JEWETT /COLON: TODD WILLI TODD (3); JEWETT /COLON: COOK/VARIETY/SHUTTERSTOCK STEWART DAVIS/TENNON: BERTIE/JANNEY/BERT, GRACE/HIGGINBOTHAM/GAFFIGAN, SMITHS, PANTOLIANO, ARBI/FALLAH: STEWART COOK/SHUTTERSTOCK (3); HADDISH/LATIFAH, MELTON/LUDWIG/HUDGENS, BACH/SMITH/LAWRENCE/JAM MELTON/LUDWIG/HUDGENS, (3); HADDISH/LATIFAH, COOK/SHUTTERSTOCK STEWART ARBI/FALLAH: PANTOLIANO, SMITHS,
VARIETY 31 EXPOSURE
Television Al Pacino at Amazon Issa Rae and Prime Video’s Jay Ellis at HBO’s Critics “Hunters” panel “Insecure” panel Assn. Winter Press Tour
The Langham Huntington, Pasadena,Jan. 7-17
Hillary Clinton was a big draw at the annual event when she presented her four-part bio docu-series for Hulu. “There was nothing off-limits,” she said. She also expressed hope that the Nanette Burstein-directed project will inspire people to “take your vote seriously.” Janelle Monáe opened up about joining “Home- coming” Season 2, saying, “I consider myself a storyteller, and when I saw Season 1 and I listened to the podcast, I was a fan.”
Janelle Monáe at Daveed Diggs at TNT’s Amazon Prime Video’s “Snowpiercer” panel “Homecoming” panel
Liz Tigelaar, Reese (7) BUCHAN/VARIETY/SHUTTERSTOCK DAVID CLINTON: AWKWAFINA, MONAE, DUVERNAY/TYSON, DIGGS, N/GRANT, Witherspoon and Kerry Ava DuVernay and Washington at Hulu’s “Little Cicely Tyson at Fires Everywhere” panel OWN’s “Cherish the Day” panel
Awkwafina at Hillary Clinton Giancarlo Esposito Comedy Central’s at Hulu’s at AMC’s “Better “Awkwafina Is Nora “Hillary” panel Call Saul” panel From Queens” panel
André Benjamin and Nicole Kidman and Sally Field at AMC’s Hugh Grant at HBO’s “Dispatches From “The Undoing” panel Elsewhere” panel PACINO, RAE/ELLIS, ESPOSITO, BENJAMIN/FIELD: WILLY SANJUAN/INVISION/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK (4); TIGELAAR/WITHERSPOON/WASHINGTON, KIDMA TIGELAAR/WITHERSPOON/WASHINGTON, (4); SANJUAN/INVISION/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK WILLY BENJAMIN/FIELD: ESPOSITO, RAE/ELLIS, PACINO,
32 VARIETY Make-up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild Local 706
Congratulates our Guild Award winners
Feature Length Motion Picture – Television Series, Mini-Series Television Special, One Hour or More Live Best Contemporary Make-up or New Media Series – Program Series or Movie Made for Television – Bombshell Best Contemporary Hair Styling Best Period And/Or Character Hair Styling VIVIAN BAKER Big Little Lies Deadwood: The Movie CRISTINA WALTZ JOSE ZAMORA MELISSA YONKEY RICHARD REDLEFSEN LORENA ZAMORA LAINE TRZINSKI LONA VIGI JOSE ZAMORA Feature-Length Motion Picture – Best Period And/Or Character Make-Up Television Series, Daytime Television – Joker Best Make-Up NICKI LEDERMANN Mini-Series or New Media Series – The Real TANIA RIBALOW Best Period And/ MELANIE MILLS SUNDAY ENGLIS Or Character Hair Styling UZMEE KRAKOVSZKI Fosse/Verdon MOTOKO HONJO-CLAYTON Feature-Length Motion Picture – CHRISTOPHER FULTON Best Special Make-Up Eff ects CHRISTEN EDWARDS Daytime Television – Bombshell CHRISTINE CANTRELL Best Hair Styling KAZU HIRO The Real VIVIAN BAKER Television Special, One Hour ROBERTA GARDENER-ROGERS RICHARD REDLEFSEN or More Live Program Series NOOGIE THAI or Movie Made for Television – RAY DODSON Feature Length Motion Picture – Best Contemporary Make-Up Best Contemporary Hair Styling Children & Teen Television Programming – Bombshell Saturday Night Live Best Make-Up ANNE MORGAN LOUIE ZAKARIAN A Series of Unfortunate Events JAIME LEIGH MCINTOSH AMY TAGLIAMONTI RITA CICCOZZI ADRUITHA LEE JASON MILANI TANYA HUDSON KRISTA SELLER Feature-Length Motion Picture – Television Special, Best Period And/ One Hour or More Live Program Children & Teen Television Programming – Or Character Hair Styling Series or Movie Made for Television – Best Hair Styling Downton Abbey Best Period And/ A Series of Unfortunate Events ANNE NOSH OLDHAM Or Character Make-Up JULIE MCHAFFIE ELAINE BROWNE Saturday Night Live DIANNE HOLME MARC PILCHER LOUIE ZAKARIAN Commercials & Music Videos – Television Series, AMY TAGLIAMONTI Best Make-Up Mini-Series or New Media Series – JASON MILANI Pose: Promo Campaign Best Contemporary KERRY HERTA Big Little Lies Television Special, SHERRI LAWRENCE MICHELLE RADOW One Hour ERIN GOOD-ROSENMANN or More Live Program Series Commercials & Music Videos – or Movie Made for Television – Best Hair Styling Television Series, Mini-Series Best Special Make-Up Eff ects Pose: Promo Campaign or New Media Series – Saturday Night Live JOE MATKE Best Period And/ LOUIE ZAKARIAN FERNANDO NAVARRO Or Character Make-Up JASON MILANI BARRY LEE MOE Fosse/Verdon TOM DENIER JR. DEBBIE ZOLLER Theatrical Production (Live Stage) – DAVE PRESTO Best Make-Up JACKIE RISOTTO Television Special, Cats the Musical One Hour or More Live JAKEY HICKS Television Series, Mini-Series Program Series SIERRA PETERSON or New Media Series – or Movie Made for Television – Best Special Make-Up Eff ects Best Contemporary Hair Styling Theatrical Production (Live Stage) – Chernobyl Dancing with the Stars Best Hair Styling DANIEL PARKER MARY GUERRERO Hamilton BARRIE GOWER KIMI MESSINA CHARLES LAPOINTE PAUL SPATERI GAIL RYAN DARYL TERRY
www.local706.org
0121 local 706.indd 1 1/16/20 4:41 PM SAG-AFTRA WOULD LIKE TO APPLAUD AND THANK ALL OF THE ACTORS FOR THEIR OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCES IN 2019
We are enormously grateful to PEOPLE Magazine and Stand Up to Cancer for their generous support of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation.
We also would like to thank all of the individuals who helped make the 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards a success, especially our colleagues at the studios, networks and agencies; the media; the DGA, WGA, AFM and IATSE; our sponsors; our networks TBS & TNT and our SAG-AFTRA and SAG Awards staff.
#SAGAWARDS
SAG-AFTRA and Screen Actors Guild Awards are registered trademarks and the Actor statuette and SAG-AFTRA logo are TM and © SAG-AFTRA. © 2020 Screen Actors Guild Awards, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Untitled-23 1 1/14/20 2:25 PM Nicely Booted Fleeced --and Be to OK It’s At Sundance, Moda Operandi’s Peskowitz. try athinpuffer underneath atailoredvest overcoat or blazer, says Laque UltralightDown Puffer. For amore body-conscious look, ideas includehighshineandmetallics,such asHerno’s glossy Genius collaboration(spotted inDrake’s “War” musicvideo). Other For men,considerMoncler’s recently launchedandhighlyanticipated inspired by fashion insiderbrandNanushka,whichstartedthetrend. leather stylesare thenewest ideainthe modernparkacategory, Puffer jackets andSundancegohand inhand. For women, vegan Moncler Deimosjacket,$2,020 après-ski knitwearandMr. Rogers-worthy cardigans. fresh spinonwinterwear, fromvegan to parkas leather andNatasha Lyonne.Gerwig Herearefive ways toputa whodresses thelikesEhrlich, Greta of LauraDern, but still want tohave auniform avibe,” andcreate says Cristina “You Ehrlich. withtheelements aredealing accordingfuse fashionandfunction, tocelebrity stylist Pieces thatwinter weather make isreal. to thecutneed fashionable whilegrapplingwith tolook The struggle PUFFER PARTY AND PARK CINEPHILES CITY STYLE TIPSFOR THEAPRÈS-SKISET
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Sorel, whosecream-colored updatetoitsfaux fur-trimmed JoanofArctic styleisaproven winterwinner. Moda Operandi,swears by ItalianbrandDiemme,whilecelebstylistIlariaUrbinatifavors Kurt Geiger and mountain bootfrom L.A.’s Aether incollaboration withFracap. JoshPeskowitz, men’s fashion director at or military-inspired versions from thelikes ofCopenhagen’s Ganni,orthecity- andsnow-worthy Dolomite part oftheSundanceuniform you needtofindfor yourself,” shesays. For statementpieces,optfor hiking says Ehrlich,supportingthenotionthatsnow bootsnolongeronlywork for denim.“Thebootbecomes weather. “Bootsare majorrightnow andwomen are unafraid towear astrong bootbacktoaballgown,” Warm, water-resistant footwear withtread sole from ThomBrowne. sweater andastatementpiece Michael Kors pearl-embellished Julia Louis-Dreyfus, includinga Sundance-bound clientssuchas favors novelty sweater stylesfor keep theminstock.) Ehrlich, too, buyer for ColeSport, isbattlingto ski-inspired phrases.(Kathy Burke, and pullovers emblazonedwith scores withoversize knitcardigans Statesman. For women, Gogo sweaters from thelikes ofTheElder women, asare cardigan-style a bigcomebackfor menand Evans in“Knives Out”)ismaking Chunky knitwearChris (think boot,$400 Fracap +AetherWDolomite GET YOUR KICKS PUT AKNITINYOUR KIT SIMPLIFYCOLORS GRIN ANDBEARIT
Toni SailerJacquieteddyjacket,$699 cropped Jacquieteddyjacket. third reorder ofToni Sailer’s plush, silk blendcoat.Burke isonher Mara’s Teddy iconcamelhairand version, looknofurtherthanMax leopard print.For anoversize shades ofcreams, browns oreven well withdenim,whetherin the cozy jackets andcoatsplay more fashion-infused varieties, pullover stylesfrom Patagoniato and women. From theclassic continuing totrend for bothmen iterationare“teddy bear” Fleece jackets andthenewer striped cashmerecardigan,$2,300 The ElderStatesmantelevision s isaprerequisite for ParkCity’s unpredictable winter An and gray cashmere sweater. charcoal wool pinstripetrouser herringbone coat.” Pairitwith a “a gorgeous Dolce&Gabbana Already catchingUrbinati’s eye: aviator-style houndstooth bomber. knit sweaters —aswithCoach’s with wools, cashmere andcable- like houndstoothandherringbone winter season,mixingpatterns monochromatic dressing for the and DonaldGlover, swears by Rami Malek,Andrew Scott red-carpet regulars including flatter most.Urbinati,whostyles year todeterminewhich hueswill your complexion atthistimeof suggests takingintoconsideration is powerful,” says Ehrlich,who conviction inhead-to-toecolor in your luggage.“Dressing with way thecold-weather tounify items An editedcolorpaletteisagreat removable shearlingcollar,$695 Coach checkbomberjacketwith VARIETY edi ted co lor pa let EXPOSURE te is ag rea 35 t
EGYPTIAN THEATRE: DANNY MOLOSHOK/INVISION/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK DIRT
$11m
MALIBU 2,200 SQ. FT. 3 BEDROOMS
2 BATHS
Behind gates on just over an acre, the mod- Shaun White in Sales estly proportioned and fully renovated cot- tage-style two-story residence offers three bedrooms and two bathrooms in a little less than 2,200 square feet. An open-plan liv- Run on Malibu Hillside ing and dining room features lustrous exotic wood floors, a fireplace and a wall of win- dows that opens to a large deck with elevated FAST ON THE HEELS OF SELLING a bluff-top estate on Malibu’s Point Dume in an views over the ocean. The separate, high- off-market deal for $11.8 million — he bought the place six years ago for almost $9 end kitchen is fitted with professional appli- million from “The Bachelor” creator Mike Fleiss — famously peripatetic Olympian ances and includes a cushioned banquette under a picture window that perfectly frames Shaun White has officially listed a neighboring spread for a bit less than $11 mil- a photographic view of the ocean. Upper- lion. The half-pipe master, who made the property available in 2018 as a rental at level bedrooms open to the outdoors, while more than $27,000 per month, won’t see much — if any — profit on the property he a lower-level family room spills out through snapped up just over three years ago for $10.75 million. French doors to a spacious covered patio with built-in barbecue. Beyond the resort- style swimming pool and spa, a huge lawn stretches out to the bluff’s precipitous edge. MARK DAVID The property is listed with Compass agents THE REAL ESTALKER Aaron Kirman and Chris Cortazzo. WHITE'SHOUSE: MATTHEW MOMBERGER/MIKE HELFRICH; WHITE: JASON MENDEZ/INVISION/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK HELFRICH; WHITE: JASON MOMBERGER/MIKE MATTHEW WHITE'SHOUSE:
36 VARIETY BUY YOUR TICKETS
TODAY
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Untitled-2 1 1/6/20 3:07 PM DIRT
Diahann Carroll’s WeHo Condo Comes up for Sale
The longtime West Hollywood condominium of late and legendary entertainer Diahann Carroll — in 1962, the first African American woman to win a Tony Award as best actress for her starring role in the Broadway musical “No Strings” — has come for sale at $4.2 mil- lion. Property records indicate Carroll owned the not-quite-2,000-square-foot aerie on the 17th floor of the famously celebrified Sunset Towers building, on the border between West Hollywood and Beverly Hills, since 1997. Listings held by Angela Roessel of Sotheby’s Intl. Realty indicate the sun-filled corner unit has two bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. Light from an elaborate chandelier shim- $15.5m mers off antiqued mirrors behind a built-in dining banquette in the undeniably glamor- BEVERLY HILLS ous (if slightly dated) unit, which also features stenciled doors, coffered ceiling treatments 9,600 SQ. FT. and upholstered walls. Wrapped in floor-to- 6 BEDROOMS ceiling windows that provide unobstructed 8 BATHS views from the downtown skyline to the Pacific Ocean, the combination living and din- ing room spills out through full-height glass $2,700 per month — to cover a wide variety 13 years ago. Embellished with symmet- sliders to a long, slender balcony that’s also of white-glove amenities: an attended lobby, rically aligned arched windows, baronial accessible from both bedrooms. Roomy and valet parking, a saltwater swimming pool stone columns and stodgy stone quoins, the well maintained, the kitchen could use a bit and a fitness center. A short list of the scads hulking, Tuscan-inspired main residence of an update. The master suite includes a lav- of other past and present high-profile own- measures in at almost 9,600 square feet ish marble bathroom and what listing details ers of condos in the 1960s modernist tower with six bedrooms and eight bathrooms. describe as “an ensemble of closets.” include Carroll’s “Dynasty” co-star Joan An approximately 1,200-square-foot pool- Residents pay high monthly fees — Collins, Courteney Cox, Sandra Bullock, side guesthouse adds another bedroom and Carroll’s unit carries HOA dues of more than Sidney Poitier, Elton John, David Geffen, bathroom, plus a workout room. Vincent Gallo and Cher. A pair of floridly scrolled wrought-iron driveway gates slide open to a horseshoe driveway lorded over by a stout pair of Larry King Sells palm trees. Wrought-iron and glass doors tucked into a deep, arched loggia open to a Beverly Hills Villa conspicuously ostentatious double-height In the wake of a surprise divorce filing in rotunda entry with an elaborately carved early 2019 after almost 22 years of marriage, wood sweetheart staircase and a domed veteran radio and television broadcaster ceiling topped by a gigantic, delicate-look- Larry King has sold an opulently appointed ing skylight. Elegant formal living and din- Beverly Hills mansion for $15.5 million. The ing rooms flank the foyer. Upstairs, five en sale price is a notable bit under the slightly suite guest bedrooms join a plush master $4.2m shy of $17 million price tag but still a small suite replete with a separate sitting room fortune above the $11.75 million he and his and two bathrooms. The listing was held by substantially younger, about-to-be-seventh- Kurt Rappaport at Westside Estate Agency; WEST HOLLYWOOD 2 BEDROOMS ex-wife, Shawn Southwick, plunked down the buyer was repped by Gregory Dean of 2,000 SQ. FT. 2 BATHS for the not-quite-half-acre spread about The Dean Co.
DIGS Decorate Your Home apparent penchant for odd With Some Steinbeck home decor, with items like Some odd knickknacks once an elephant-foot trash can, a Duke and Duchess of owned by literary giant John macabre hummingbird totem Sussex to Keep Cottage Steinbeck will be auctioned and a blond lock of his baby Prince Harry and Meghan Marklrkle on the wordsmith’s birthday, hair. Last year, among items will split their time between thee Feb. 27, via Curated Estates. for more than two decades originating from the same U.K. and North America but planan to The belongings of the author before being recovered by collection, a handwritten keep historic Frogmore Cottagee as of “East of Eden,” made the family of Steinbeck’s letter from Jacqueline their headquarters. Since they’re’re into a 1955 film starring third wife, Elaine. The Kennedy to Steinbeck sold no longer official royalty, theym aymay James Dean, were kept in collection includes items for an eye-popping $18,750.
have to pay rent. MAE HAMILTONON a Manhattan warehouse that show Steinbeck’s MAE HAMILTON MATTHEWS/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK BEBETO STEINBECK: SHUTTERSTOCK; PRINCE HARRY/MARKLE:
38 VARIETY
2020 SUNDANCE
BIRTH
OF
Taylor Swift used to steer clear of controversy and politics. Now, at 30, she wishes she’d spoken up sooner
STORY BY CHRIS WILLMAN PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARY ELLEN MATTHEWS
AN
ACTIVIST
40 VARIETY GUTTER CREDIT VARIETY 41 who thought she was secretly their champion). “I think what’s going on out in the world is bigger than who gets a prize at a party.” It was not always thus for Swift — as the detrac- tors who dragged her for staying quiet during the last presidential election eagerly pointed out. If you had to pick the most embarrassing or regret- table moment in “Miss Americana,” it might be the TV clip from “The Late Show With David Let- terman” in which the host gets Swift to essentially advocate the “Shut up and sing” mantra. As the
SUNDANCE studio audience roars approval of her vow to stay apolitical, Letterman gives her what now looks like history’s most dated fist bump. Thinking back on it, Swift is incredulous. “Every time I didn’t speak up about politics as a young person, I was applauded for it,” she says. “It was wild. I said, ‘I’m a 22-year-old girl — people don’t want to hear what I have to say about pol- N ‘Yeahhhhh!’ itics.’ And people would just be like, ”
2020 At that point, Swift was already starting to “NOT A SHOT. Not a single chance. Not a snowball’s record isolated pop tracks, taking baby steps chance in hell.” that would soon turn into full strides away from Taylor Swift — who, at 30, has reached a Zen her initial genre. But whether she had designs state of cheerful realism — laughs as she leans on switching lanes or not, the lesson of the Dixie into a pillow she’s placed over her crossed legs Chicks’ forced exile after Natalie Maines’ com- inside her suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, lean- ment against then-President George W. Bush ing further still into her infinitesimal odds of win- had branded itself onto her brain at an earlier age, ning a Golden Globe, which will zero out when she when she’d overheard the lamentations of fellow heads down to the televised ball in a few hours. songwriters about how the Chicks had thrown it Never mind whether or not the tune she premiere of the Sundance Film Festival before all away. co-wrote, “Beautiful Ghosts,” might actu- it reaches the world as a day-and-date theatri- “I saw how one comment ended such a power- ally have been worthy of a trophy for best orig- cal release and potential streaming monster on ful reign, and it terrified me,” says Swift. “These inal song (or shortlisted for an Oscar, which it Jan. 31. The doc spends much of its opening act days, with social media, people can be so mad was not). Since the Globe nominations were juxtaposing the joys of creation with the aggra- about something one day and then forget what revealed, voters could hardly have been immune vations of global stardom — the standard stuff of they were mad about a couple weeks later. That’s to how quickly the film it’s a part of, “Cats,” in pop docs, if rendered in especially intimate detail fake outrage. But what happened to the Dixie which she also co-stars, became a whipping — before, in its last reel, focusing tightly on how Chicks was real outrage. I registered it — that boy for jokes about costly Hollywood miscal- and why Swift became a political animal. It’s the you’re always one comment away from being culations and creative disasters. Not that you’ll story of an earnest young woman with a self-de- done being able to make music.” hear Swift utter a discouraging word about it scribed “good girl” fixation working through Maybe the most transfixing scene in “Miss all. “I’m happy to be here, happy to be nomi- her last remaining fears of being shamed as Americana” is one where Swift argues with her nated, and I had a really great time working on she comes to embrace her claws, and her causes. father and other members of her team about that weird-ass movie,” she declares. “I’m not Given that the film portrays how gradually, the statement she’s about to release coming out gonna retroactively decide that it wasn’t the and sometimes reluctantly, Swift came to place against Blackburn and — it’s clear from her ref- best experience. I never would have met Andrew herself into service as a social commentator, erences to White House opposition to the Equal- Lloyd Webber or gotten to see how he works, and “Miss Americana” is a portrait of the birth of an ity Act — Donald Trump too. The comments were now he’s my buddy. I got to work with the sickest activist. Director Lana Wilson sets the movie up so spontaneous that Wilson wasn’t there to film dancers and performers. No complaints.” so that it pivots on a couple of big letdowns for its If this leads you to believe that the pop super- subject. The first comes early in the film — and star is in the business of sugarcoating things, in the morning — when Swift’s publicist calls to consider her other new movie — a vastly more sig- update her on how many of the top three Grammy nificant documentary that presents Swift not just categories her 2018 album “Reputation” is nom- sans digital fur but without a whole lot of the var- inated for: zilch. She’s clearly depressed by the nish of the celebrity-industrial complex. The Net- snub, as just about anyone who’d previously won flix-produced “Taylor Swift: Miss Americana” has album of the year twice would be. a prestige slot as the Jan. 23 opening night gala But she suffers an even greater blow toward the end of the film. After she comes out of the closet politically to intervene in a crucial sen- atorial election in her home state of Tennessee, enlisting tens of thousands of young people to register to vote, her candidate of choice, Demo- crat Phil Bredesen, loses to Republican Marsha Blackburn. “Definitely that was a bigger disappointment for me,” Swift says of the 2018 midterm election, in which she considered Blackburn an enemy of feminism and gay rights (her activism dash- ing the hopes of young Republicans everywhere
42 VARIETY “I NEEDED TO GET TO A POINT WHERE I WAS READY, ABLE AND WILLING TO CALL OUT BULLSHIT RATHER THAN JUST SMILING MY WAY THROUGH IT.” —TAYLOR SWIFT CASSELL/SWA; MAKEUP: LORRIE TURK; HAIR: JEMMA MURADIAN/THE WALL GROUP; SET DESIGN: SHAWN PATRICK/ACME BROOKLYN PATRICK/ACME SET DESIGN: SHAWN GROUP; JEMMA MURADIAN/THE WALL HAIR: TURK; LORRIE MAKEUP: CASSELL/SWA; STYLING: JOSEPH JOSEPH STYLING:
VARIETY 43 44 VREY VARIETY
GUTTER CREDIT the moment, but the director had asked people to turn on the camera if anything interesting trans- pired, and here it most certainly did: “For 12 years, we’ve not got involved in politics or religion,” an unnamed associate says to Swift, suggesting that going down the road of standing against a president as well as Republican guber- natorial and Senate candidates could have the an acceptance speech. West’s is not a name that effect of halving her audience on tour. Her father ever publicly escapes Swift’s lips, so it might be chimes in: “I’ve read the entire [statement] and … surprising to fans that these events are recapped right now, I’m terrified. I’m the guy that went out in “Miss Americana,” although Swift says the and bought armored cars.” filmic decisions were all up to the director, who But Swift is adamant about pressing the but- S explains that Swift’s reaction to the episode was ton to send a nearly internet-breaking Instagram important to include. post, saying that Blackburn has voted against “With the 2009 VMAs, it surprised me that reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act as SWIFT WAS RECENTLY announced as the recipient when she talked about how the whole crowd was well as LGBTQ-friendly bills: “I can’t see another of a Vanguard Award from GLAAD, and she name- booing, she thought that they were booing her, commercial [with] her disguising these policies checked the org in her basher-bashing single “You and how devastating that was,” says Wilson. “That behind the words ‘Tennessee Christian values.’ I Need to Calm Down.” Part of her politicization, she was something I hadn’t thought about or heard live in Tennessee. I am Christian. That’s not what says, is feeling it would be hypocritical to hang out before, and made it much more relatable and we stand for.” Pushing back tears, she laments with her gay friends while leaving them to their own understandable to anyone.” not having come out against Trump two years devices politically. In the film, she says, “I think it is Swift acknowledges how formative both inci- earlier, “but I can’t change that. … I need to be on so frilly and spineless of me to stand onstage and dents have been in her life, for ill and good. “As the right side of history. … Dad, I need you to for- go ‘Happy Pride Month, you guys,’ and then not say a teenager who had only been in country music, give me for doing it, because I’m doing it.” this, when someone’s literally coming for their neck.” attending my very first pop awards show,” she Says Swift now, “This was a situation where, A year and a half later, she elaborates: “To cel- says now, “somebody stood up and sent me from a humanity perspective, and from what my ebrate but not advocate felt wrong for me. Using the message: ‘You are not respected here. You moral compass was telling me I needed to do, I my voice to try to advocate was the only choice shouldn’t be here on this stage.’ That message knew I was right, and I really didn’t care about to make. Because I’ve talked about equality and was received, and it burrowed into my psyche repercussions.” She understands why she faced sung about it in songs like ‘Welcome to New York,’ more than anyone knew. … That can push you such heated opposition in the room: “My dad is but we are at a point where human rights are one of two ways: I could have just curled up and terrified of threats against my safety and my life, being violated.” decided I’m never going to one of those events and he has to see how many stalkers we deal with Her increasing alignment with the LGBTQ ever again, or it could make me work harder on a daily basis, and know that [I’m] his kid. It’s community wasn’t the only thing raising her con- than anyone expects me to, and try things no one where he comes from.” sciousness to a breaking — i.e., speaking — point. expected, and crave that respect — and hopefully So did the sexual assault trial in which judgment one day get it.” was rendered that she had been groped by a DJ Swift starts her album “Lover,” released in “I SEE THE MOVIE AS LOOKING in a backstage photo op (for financial restitution, August, with a West-allusive romp pointedly AT THE FLIP SIDE OF BEING Swift had asked for $1). called “I Forgot That You Existed” that seems to Her experience with the trial was crucial, she bring closure. “I don’t think too hard about this AMERICA’S SWEETHEART.” says, in finding herself “needing to speak up stuff now,” she says. —LANA WILSON, DIRECTOR OF about beliefs I’d always had, because it felt like What’s not in the film is any mention of her an opportunity to shed light on what those tri- other most famous nemeses — Scooter Braun “TAYLOR SWIFT: MISS AMERICANA” als are like. I experienced it as a person with and Scott Borchetta of Big Machine Records, with extreme privilege, so I can only imagine what it’s whom she’s scrapped publicly for several months. like when you don’t have that. “
One of the themes that emerged in the film, 2020 SUNDANCE she notes, is that being someone who is a peo- ple-pleaser and respectful of authority figures, as she is, can have its downside. “I still think it’s important to be polite, but not at all costs,” she says. “Not when you’re being pushed beyond your limits, and not when people are walking all over you. I needed to get to a point where I was ready, able and willing to call out bullshit rather than just smiling my way through it.” That came into play when Kanye West stepped into her life and publicly shamed her a second time. In the video Kim Kardashian released in 2016, you can hear the people-pleasing Swift on the other end of the line sheepishly thanking him for letting her know about the “Me and Tay- lor might still have sex” line he plans to include about her in a song — only to regret it later when the eventual track also includes the claim “Why? I made that bitch famous.” The boast, of course, referred back to the moment when he inter- rupted her and stole her spotlight at the MTV
VMAs six years earlier as she was in the middle of
VARIETY 45 A Wider Voice Sundance doc “Miss Americana” reveals Swift to be a cultural icon discovering how she fits within that space: “I don’t really operate well as an enigma.”
“THE BIGGER YOUR CAREER GETS, THE MORE YOU STRUGGLE WITH THE IDEA THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE SEE YOU THE SAME WAY THEY SEE AN IPHONE OR A STARBUCKS.” –TAYLOR SWIFT NETFLIX (3)
46 VARIETY “The Big Machine stuff happened pretty late in she thinks and feels about politics and the United our process,” says Wilson. “We weren’t that far States,” says Swift’s co-writer and co-producer on from picture lock. But there’s also not much to the song, Joel Little. say that isn’t publicly known. I feel like Taylor’s “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince” put the story out there in her own words already, doesn’t actually appear in the documentary, but and it’s been widely covered.” Wilson says the film’s title is understood by fans Still, the way Swift has been willing to as an obvious reference to political themes in the stand up politically for others parallels the song. manner in which she stood up for herself in O “Even if you don’t know the song, I see the movie regard to Braun, et al., at the recent Billboard as looking at the flip side of being America’s sweet- Women in Music Awards, where she gave an heart, so I like how the title evokes that too,” says altogether blistering speech, naming names ONE THING Taylor Swift can’t bend to her deter- the director. The doc doesn’t lack for its own pro- and taking no prisoners, going after the men mined will is her family’s health. She revealed a few test songs though. In the wake of her midterm dis- who now control her six-album Big Machine years ago that her mother, Andrea, a beloved figure appointment, Swift is seen writing an anthem for back catalog. Certainly Swift was aware among the thousands of fans who’ve met her at road millennials who might have come away disillu- that, along with supporters, there were many shows and, for Swift, “the guiding force for almost sioned with the political process: “Only the Young,” friends and business associates of Braun among every decision I make,” is battling breast cancer. Many which plays in full over the end credits, will be the VIPs in the Hollywood Palladium who would who view “Miss Americana” will look for signs of how released as a digital single. Key lyric: “We were out- not be pleased with what this very reformed peo- she’s doing. numbered — this time.” ple-pleaser had to say. Says one fellow honoree But the answers come in Swift’s touring activity So is the film aimed at satisfying the fan base or who works in a high position in the industry (and for “Lover.” She plans to limit herself to a handful teasing the unconvinced hordes who might dial it who’s worked with some high-profile Braun cli- of stadium dates in America this summer and a up as a free stream? “I think it’s a little bit of both,” ents): “People were excited for her at the begin- trip around the festival circuit in Europe (includ- Swift says. “I chose Netflix because it’s a very vast, ning of the speech. But once she started going in ing Glastonbury). She confirms that the reason for accessible medium to people who are just like, ‘Hey, a negative direction at an event that is supposed abbreviating her traditional yearlong tour is her what’s this? I’m bored.’ I love that, because I do so to be celebrating accomplishments and rah-rah need to be there for her mother. many things that cater specifically to fans that like for women, I felt it fell flat with a good portion of Swift candidly addresses her mom’s health in my music, I think it’s important to put yourself out the room, because it wasn’t the appropriate place the anguished album track “Soon You’ll Get Better.” there to people who don’t care at all about you.” to be saying it.” She’s just as candid now. Her mother was undergo- In the wake of the last round of Kanye-gate, Wasn’t it intimidating for Swift, knowing she ing chemotherapy while the film was being made, stung by the backlash of those who took his side, might be polarizing an auditorium full of the which, as Swift says, “is a hard enough thing for a Swift took a three-year break from interviews. The most powerful people in the business? “Well, I do person to go through.” Then it got harder. Things mantra of her 2017 album “Reputation” and subse- sleep well at night knowing that I’m right,” she have taken a turn since filming wrapped. Speaking quent tour was “No explanations.” But her Beyon- responds, “and knowing that in 10 years it will about this latest development publicly for the first cé-style press blackout was a passing phase. With have been a good thing that I spoke about artists’ time, Swift quietly reveals: “While she was going “Lover” and now, especially, the documentary, she rights to their art, and that we bring up conver- through treatment, they found a brain tumor. And could hardly be more about the explanations. sations like: Should record deals maybe be for a the symptoms of what a person goes through when “I don’t really operate very well as an enigma,” shorter term, or how are we really helping artists they have a brain tumor is nothing like what we’ve she says. “It’s not fulfilling to me. It works really if we’re not giving them the first right of refusal ever been through with her cancer before. So it’s well in a lot of pop careers, but I think that it makes to purchase their work if they want to?” (Braun’s just been a really hard time for us as a family.” me feel completely unable to do what I had gotten camp did not respond to a request for comment.) Among the topics the film addresses is, in one in this to do, which is to communicate to people. I Swift is well aware that taking a stand one way fascinating section, the physical expectations live for the feeling of standing on a stage and say- or the other is never going to result in unanimous placed on celebrities, Swift being no exception. ing, ‘I feel this way,’ and the crowd responding with praise. “But that’s what forces you to be brave,” “Women are held to such a ridiculous standard of ‘We do too!’ And me being like, ‘Really?’ And they’re she says. “And that’s what’s different about the beauty, and we’re seeing so much on social media like, ‘Yes!’” way I live my life now.” that makes us feel like we’re less than — or we’re Swift believes talking it up isn’t a form of giv- not what — we should be, that you kind of need a ing in to narcissism — it’s a way of warding off
2020 SUNDANCE mantra to repeat in your head when you start to commodification. have unhealthy thoughts.” “The bigger your career gets, the more you strug- If there’s a feminist agenda in “Miss Ameri- gle with the idea that a lot of people see you the cana,” Wilson and Swift wanted it to emerge nat- same way they see an iPhone or a Starbucks,” she urally, although the director admits it was pretty muses. “They’ve been inundated with your name blatant from the outset, given that she set up the in the media, and [you’ve] become a brand. That’s film (which is co-produced by Morgan Neville, inevitable for me, but I do think that it’s really nec- her “sounding board”) with an all-female crew. essary to feel like I can still communicate with peo- Or nearly all-female, says Wilson, laughing, “I ple. And as a songwriter, it’s really important to still will say that we did always have male production feel human and process things in a human way. assistants, because I like trying to show people The through line of all that is humanity, and reach- that men can fetch coffee for women.” ing out and talking to people and having them see The film borrows its title from a song on the things that aren’t cute. “Lover” album, “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak “There’s a lot that’s not cute in this documentary.” Prince,” that’s maybe the one fully allegorical song Swift has ever released — and, in its fashion, is a great protest song. The entire lyric is a metaphor for how Swift grew up as an unblinking patriot and has had to reluctantly leave behind her naiveté in the age of Trump. “There are lots of little hidden messages within
that song that are all pointing toward the way that
VARIETY 47 Abandoning the dusty biopic format, Julie Taymor brings the ‘uncontrollable’ story of Gloria Steinem to vivid cinematic life
RoadRoad Warrior
By Matt Donnelly
48 MARCO GROB AGAINST THEGRAIN Julie Taymorset kind ofbiopic. a different out tomake past andthefuture. in herlife, meettoparsethe Steinem atpivotal points where four actors,allplaying seen onlyinblackandwhite film’s events —avehicle therealm oftheoutside Greyhound thatexists narrative device: arusty Taymor dreamed upherown forlifting moviegoers. So thatdotheheavyshortcuts locations, amongother with years andgeographic fond offlashingtitlecards Hollywood whichare biopics, conventions ofsweeping says shecould notbearthe behind“Across the Universe” 50 presidential conventions. comprise halfthedelegatesto1972 women to news conferencethatoneoftheirgoalsisfor Chisholm andBettyFriedanannounceataWashington Steinem, Rep.BellaAbzug(standing),Shirley National Women’sPoliticalCaucusmembersGloria FAMILY PORTRAIT ¶ Except whenthey don’t. in chronological order. icon GloriaSteinemunfold 80 years inthelife offeminist “TheGlorias,”Sundance entry In JulieTaymor’s official The visionary director Thevisionary VREY VARIETY
especially thewidelydisseminated imageespecially of herinbunny gear. Steinemsays shenever unionized staff. Vikander’s tothestory, Gloriagrappleswiththe sensational response Manhattan’s Playboy Club. working Theactivist subpar conditions exposed for thenon- undercover 1963Show magazinepieceread for whichSteinem reported asawaitress in Steinemwould rather forget.story untilMidler’sis brutal inwithajoke). Abzug breaks Therearealsosomechaptersof her The Village PintheCockonFeminist, Voice; gamecalled asaparty billed thelampoon, inculture (ascene inwhichthestaff ofMs. ofherthat appeared shows Steinemacartoon of theEqual RightsAmendmentandthevulgarityfeminists inpopular, faced misogynistic camaraderie allthetime. at thetopmovies Look thisyear.” That that isalove we aswomen story don’t You get. seemovies malebuddiesandwar about andoutthere tochange theworld idealistic, women, that theywho aresmart visionary see. a salutation onofficial forms for women unmarried over 18(only“Miss”). reminderthatcringe-inducing less than50years ago, thefederal government didnothave cation by co-founded SteinemandPitmanHughesin1972.Thesequence alsobringsa says offilmingscenes aroundthelaunchofMs. magazine, thelandmarkfeminist publi- Nation), BellaAbzug (MonicaSanchez). (Bette Midler)andDoloresHuerta Guerrero,(Kimberly chiefof thefirst whoportrays theCherokee woman principal elected (Janelle Monáe),FloKennedy LorraineToussaint), (ascene-stealing Wilma Mankiller of theirwhitecounterparts. Themulticulturalreformers include:Dorothy PitmanHughes when infactit’s always blackwomen.” disproportionately been thewomen’s because hoped, movement aswhiteormostly portrayed white, hasoften been [Julie’s] process,” says whohaslongsaidthat blackwomen Steinem, “I taughtherfeminism. change. thenarrative Sogoes of herlife, shesays. theyences arenotalone, learning ofoppression, that actingtogether andrealizing inspires places, Steinemsays they typicallycome down sitting inacirclesharingexperi- topeople heronthefrontline.women thosebeside asawhole—especially that anythe directorfundamentallyunderstood movie herwould about have about tobe of contention inshow business andbeyond. race inconversations sexism, about thewar points onreproductive rights—arestill boiling decadesago intheworkplace, —genderraised equity sexual theminimizingof harassment, downside” of DonaldTrump’s win. Women’s MarchonWashington, upsideof the on“the herrousingspeech whereshefilmed They “Itwas werelogue totheupcoming film. devastating,” wrong. Taymor says. Clinton’s shewould captureHillary anticipated when both epi- andthusaperfect victory Taymorten, preemptively acameratorollfootage took of Steinemonelectionnight2016, little interest Steinem’s inreturningtothegenre untilsheread book. walked before, thebiopicpath withthe2002Academy Award winner“Frida,” butshehad the latter contextualize theentirewomen’s movement by way of hertravels. Taymor has family,as anenlarged aswell asourown family. Iwanted that tocome across.” intime.thematic point Inasense, it’s amovement, about andwhat really tous that means father.an OB-GYN picture,” says thedirector, whoisthedaughterofafeminist author-activist motherand says, ofwhat Steinem’s itisasymbol drama.It’s life “Not atidythree-act hasbeen: aroad aprominentface ofwhen shebecame second-wave But feminism. beyond Taymor that, has taken tomarchesandconventions 1960s, andralliessince andspeeches theearly and self-recriminations.” little Ryan KieraArmstrong —“connect inaconversation momentsofinnerconflicts about the scenes, whereallof herGlorias—JulianneMoore, Alicia Vikander, teenLulu Wilson and “For me, thekey tothemovie iswhat Icallthebusoutoftime,” Taymor tells Taymor hadtoconvince herthat themovie could notoverlook “A Bunny’s Tale,” ahighly Steinem’s in“Glorias” path withhistorical islittered landmines, defeat like thecrushing thefilmashaving “aThe directordescribed different of kindof women energy towomen, charismaof thesewomen together,“The thejoy —we hadthe camerasflying,” Taymor Taymor’s movie elevates adiverse groupofactivists who have notenjoyed thecelebrity “I was hopingthat my story, around me, of of thepeople would part andthestory be Asascholarandanarchitectofsystemic movements like thefightfor work- equitable One of the reasons Steinem entrusted Taymor Steinementrusted One ofthereasons withherlife story, shetells Glorias”arrives inSundance at“The atimewhensomany oftheissues that Steinem The footage Taymor was never instead, used; 2017 followed SteinemtotheJanuary Steinem instantly toTaymor’s agreed Before writ- pitch. asinglepage of scripthadbeen Taymor’s source material was Steinem’s 2016memoir“MyLife ontheRoad,” whichsaw Steinem elaborates: “It’s anunusualfilminthat itwasn’t relationship or onespecific The busitselfisanobvious reference toinnumerable journeys Steinem that thereal Variety Variety , isthat of
(THIS PAGE) CHARLES GORRY/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK; (OPPOSITE PAGE) GLORIAS: DAN MCFADDEN; STEINEM 1972: FAIRCHILD ARCHIVE/PENSKE MEDIA/SHUTTERSTOCK; ALLEY/STEINEM: DAVID BOOKSTAVER/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK
GETTING THERE Smith College white girl with a lock jaw, which is what Clockwise from top: people thought about her, and the moment she talks Julianne Moore, about abortion is one of the most important moments cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto and Taymor on the of our time. Gloria inspired Dolores Huerta to become set of “The Glorias”; pro-choice. Is Gloria pro-abortion? No! There is to be a Steinem with Kirstie distinction, and I want this movie to profoundly make Alley, who played her in the 1985 ABC TV that,” Taymor says. movie “A Bunny’s Tale,” Coincidentally, principal photography on “The at the Ms. offices in Glorias” began in January 2019 in Savannah, Ga. Two 1984; Steinem at a National Women’s Caucus months later, after filming had wrapped, state law- event during the 1972 makers would vote in HB 481, the “heartbeat bill” that Democratic National outlaws abortion after six weeks. Hollywood revolted, Convention in Miami threatening to pull up a decade of infrastructure it had laid in local productions thanks to the state’s gen- erous tax incentive program. (Steinem approves of all those who left, saying economic boycott is one of the most “peaceful, effective means of change.”) Taymor says she’d like to bring her finished film back to the state “as a protest,” once it secures the domestic distributor it will seek in Sundance — the final hill to climb in a filmmaking process that she cautiously con- cedes was not easy. “We didn’t get the money from Hol- lywood. We did not get the support from Hollywood to make the movie that I made,” she says. International rights were sold by Glen Basner’s Film- Nation to pad the production budget, pegged at $20 mil- lion by insiders familiar with the project, though the production disputes that figure. Taymor says the film owes the majority of its purse to an anonymous finan- cier. Neither Taymor nor numerous parties associated with the film will name the benefactor. “They believed in Gloria, they knew her and they loved the script. That doesn’t mean we didn’t struggle with money,” says Taymor, whose penchant for highly stylized visual sequences and practical effects like masks and stunts do not come cheap — at least not out- side of well-financed tentpole factories like Marvel Stu- dios and DC Films. Taymor believes the few women directors work- ing today get a bad rap for pointing out elephants, but couldn’t resist noting the hypocrisy of the industry talking a gender equity game, but not walking with its checkbook. She says no potential suitor was willing to spend more than $10 million to make the movie . “I felt, how many LBJ movies do we need?” she says. “How many biopics of Martin Luther King have I seen? How many Winston Churchills?” She’s incredulous outran the piece, or the image of herself in a skimpy uniform and detachable rabbit tail. over the resources given to movies about revered male “I’m glad that I did the story, because it did change the working conditions for the Bun- figures, compared with movies that honor great Amer- nies, but it has often characterized my whole life,” she says, adding that a Broadway pro- ican women. ducer pursued her for years to adapt the story for the stage. Even at 85, when people “want “The Glorias” is Taymor’s fifth feature, excluding to put me down they say, ‘She’s just an ex-Bunny.’” filmed versions of the Tony Award winner’s stage produc- Hard as those moments may be to swallow, the on-screen Glorias and the woman her- tions (including the hit musical take on “The Lion King”). self convey a sense of stillness not commonly associated with agents of turbulent change. While initiatives like the studio-backed 4% Chal- “She has a remarkable power in her inability to be rash. It’s not something that is very lenge, which demands gender equity behind the cam- dramatic, in terms of what we expect in theater and film. People expect a lot of emotion era, have made noise over the past two years, Taymor’s and movement,” Moore says of playing Steinem. “But there’s something about Gloria. The struggle to finance “The Glorias” suggests a lack of sig- challenge was how to embody that and let it be dramatic.” nificant progress. Steinem sees this quality as more circumstantial, saying, “It may just be that I come from The silver lining, she says, is that her mystery finan- the Midwest, where you have to be on LSD to know that we’re angry.” cier structured its backend deal so that any profit Taymor depicts other events as hard confrontations but ones that ultimately helped the it received from a domestic rights sale and subse- movement — as when Moore’s Gloria convinces staunch Catholic Huerta to support a pro- quent box office grosses will go to a fund dedicated to choice point of view. women’s issues. Steinem will choose which causes get “I tried to show Gloria’s ability to cross racial and cultural boundaries. She wasn’t a the money.
VARIETY 51 A Journey of Choice
Director Eliza Hittman, whose work features stories of teens dealing with emotional trauma, returns to Sundance with a first time actor starring in the tale of a 17-year-old who must cross the state line to get an abortion
By Brent Lang
Eliza Hittman’s “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” follows Autumn, a 17-year-old girl in rural Pennsylvania, who is pregnant and desperate to get an abortion. A minor in a state that requires parental consent, she embarks on a dangerous journey into SINGULAR New York City, accompanied by her cousin, VISION to find a clinic where she can have the Participating in the 2017 Women’s procedure done. “Never Rarely Sometimes March inspired Eliza Always” will debut at this year’s Sundance Hittman to return to a story that had fest on Jan. 24 with a fierce sense of moved her five urgency, arriving in a presidential election years earlier. year that could determine the makeup of the Supreme Court and with it a woman’s right to choose. Focus Features will release the film theatrically on March 13, at the height of primary season. ¶ Despite that backdrop, Hittman says she doesn’t expect to change many attitudes around a polarizing issue. She was more interested in capturing the human drama — the fear and anguish of a young woman facing a monumental decision without a strong network of support. She wanted to immerse viewers in blue-collar communities, several freeway stops from major urban areas, which aren’t always depicted on film. She also wanted to avoid making a polemic. Hittman sees the movie as forming part of a loose trilogy with her previous works, “Beach Rats” and “It Felt Like Love,” which also examine teenagers grappling with emotional traumas.
52 VARIETY Can you explain the title? While I was doing research, Would you ever make a big studio movie? I would consider it. I don’t know I met with social workers. They told me a little bit about what that is. It has to be the right movie for me. It’s a new decade, and I want to how they would interact with a minor who came from try new things. out of town and what their concerns would be. They would want to make sure they were safe and to deter- Sidney Flanigan is a revelation in this film as Autumn. Has she acted before? mine whether consent was involved in the pregnancy. Her first day acting was her first day filming. But I wrote it with her in mind. I They found that asking yes or no was not successful, met her when she was 14 in South Buffalo. My partner, Scott Cummings, who is because it didn’t give people an opportunity to talk also an experimental filmmaker, was making a film about Juggalos [a subculture about what was going on. So instead, they do this inter- built around a love of hardcore hip-hop]. Sidney was at this very debaucherous personal violence test where they ask questions that backyard wedding. She was dating a guy there, and I felt immediately she was in can be answered with the words in the title. It made over her head. She was an aspiring musician, and I followed her Facebook page, me think about how complicated it is to decide under and she posted videos for years. I thought they were compelling because they what circumstances women should be permitted to have captured a teenage point of view. Sidney just seemed like a real person. It was access to abortions. So, for me, it spoke to the larger a massive risk. But when I met her, I knew there was a real story inside her that issue, but it also spoke to this character and her crisis. would leak out in the production, and it did.
When I watched this movie, I kept getting irritated It’s a meaty role. There must have been more experienced actors who were by how many questions Autumn gets asked by social interested in the project. Everybody auditioned for it. I thought Sidney would workers and doctors about her decision. It felt need- bring something that no one else could. There were a lot of really talented young lessly invasive. They’re questions that men never get actresses who came in and read for the role, but I felt like if I made a very pol- asked in the course of their lives, and they’re questions ished version of this movie with some actress you recognized, it would be a dif- that women are asked every gynecological appointment ferent movie. It would maybe push into the propaganda zone where it’s a glossy from the age of 15. movie with some Hollywood starlets. I didn’t think it would work.
How did you come up with the idea for the movie? I first started thinking about the film in October of 2012 FREEDOM RIDER as I was editing “It Felt Like Love.” I was reading the First-time actor Sidney Flanigan stars as Autumn in “Never Rarely Sometimes Always.” Hittman says she wrote the film with Flanigan in mind. news, and a woman in Galway, Ireland, died after being denied a lifesaving abortion. She had a septic miscar- riage. Her death stunned me. I went out and bought a book called “Ireland’s Hidden Diaspora: The Abortion Trail,” and started reading all about the journey that Irish women would take to London in one day. I thought about how far these women had to travel and the bur- den of that. It seemed like a movie I hadn’t seen. I wrote two treatments. One was set in Ireland and the second was about people coming to New York. I followed them as they were grappling with all of these issues while they were navigating a city that they’d never been to.
Several years passed since you started mulling the project. What made you come back to this story? I was at Sundance, where “Beach Rats” was premiering, and I was standing in the Women’s March over the inaugu- ration of Trump and I just was inspired. It felt like the right moment to come back to the idea. What would the glossy version of this story be? Would it have been more of Your movies deal with tough subject matter — homo- an “issue movie”? It is an issue movie, but it’s also a character study. It’s about phobia, teenage sexuality, abortion. They’re not very a woman’s journey. The glossy version of the movie wasn’t telling that story. I commercial. Is it hard to get funding? They’re not com- wanted to push the audience into an unfamiliar world, and sometimes casting mercial. Every movie has its own challenges. I was very can work against that. clear on this one that I wanted to cast non-actors. That filters into what the market value of a movie is. We’re There’s not a lot of dialogue in the movie. Was that a conscious choice to very lucky to have a distributor in Focus who knew that strip that away? Yes, always. Part of the writing process for me is to pare down and was still willing to give us a theatrical release. and push things to be told through behavior and images rather than dialogue.
When I saw this movie, I couldn’t help thinking about “Obvious Child,” which “SIDNEY JUST SEEMED LIKE A REAL premiered at Sundance in 2014 in a much different political atmosphere and presented a comic take. Six years later, with the potential for Roe v. Wade to PERSON. IT WAS A MASSIVE RISK. be overturned, the climate feels so different. BUT WHEN I MET HER, I KNEW The intention of that film is different. It’s to show a low-key, destigmatized abor- THERE WAS A REAL STORY INSIDE tion. It’s not about barriers. For me, the movies that I like are all about the bar- riers and obstacles that human beings face. HER THAT WOULD LEAK OUT IN THE PRODUCTION, AND IT DID.” Do you hope this movie will change minds about whether or not abortion should be legal? I don’t know if the film will have that impact. People around this
HITTMAN: VICTORIA STEVENS; NEVER, RARELY, SOMETIMES, ALWAYS: FOCUS FEATURES FOCUS ALWAYS: SOMETIMES, RARELY, NEVER, STEVENS; HITTMAN: VICTORIA Eliza Hittman issue tend to be stuck in their perspective. I don’t know if they’ll even watch it.
VARIETY 53 DEAD TO ME
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‘WOMEN’ POWER Saoirse Ronan earned her fourth Oscar nomination, one of six for “Little Women.” WILSON WEBB/COLUMBIA PICTURES WILSON WEBB/COLUMBIA
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CONTENDERS |BEST PICTURE screen forindustry. big contendersto was thelastof The wardrama“1917” BETTER LATE By JenelleRiley VARIETY CONTENDERS Awards hadannounced theirwinners.) ner. went topress (Note: before thePGA Thisstory andtheSAG side, andwhat itmay toovercome need towalk away the win- at theOscars. Sohere’s abreakdown of filmhasonits what each aSAGa filmneeded ensemblenomination towinthetopprize of Water,” Shape and“The Book” destroyed thehypothesis that recently disproved that theory. two Andthepast winners, “Green but“Birdman,” nom, picturewithoutanediting win best most cles toovercome. Inprioryears, itwas nofilmcould believed hasperceived obsta- Andeach onthefinalballot. aspot earned the onlyoneleftoff theOscarlist was RianJohnson’s “Knives Out.” picturerace.in thebest All ninefilmswere alsoPGA-nominated — biggest surprisemighthave that therewere been surprises noreal When thedust onthemorningof settled Oscarnominations, the Each nominated filmhasmuchinitsfavor,Each nominated whichiswhy it
UNIVERSAL PICTURES LARRY HORRICKS/FOX probably muchmore accessible. pull itofflast —though“Irishman”year is Netflix filmfor bestpicture? “Roma” couldn’t break theNetflixbias,it’s “Irishman.” the technicalaspects.Ifever there was afilmto the actingbranch,alongwithappreciation for landed noms,showing thelove isthere from race, hisco-starsAlPacinoandJoePesci both De Niro couldn’t crack acompetitive actor watched Netflixfilmof2019. ThoughRobert figures indicatingthefilmwas thefourth most all aspectsofthestoryandNetflixreleased running timequicklyfaded ascriticspraised all thekey categories.Talk aboutthe3½-hour with 10Oscarnominations,includingnomsin Martin Scorsese’s gangsterepicwalked away (Netflix) screenplay categories. — andmissedoutinkey acting,directing and has thefewest ofany bestpicture nominees sting ofbeingshutoutSAG nominations. Globes and10Oscarnomshadtoeasethe best picture anddirector winfrom theGolden performances withgut-wrenching emotion.A in real time,asifinonetake, was matchedby impressive technicalachievement, it’s filmed way —war filmwithitsown pointofview, with of Skywalker.” Anold-fashioned —inthebest big openingweekend, displacing“TheRise scene withecstaticcriticalresponse anda The lastfilmtoscreen, “1917” burstontothe (Universal) a bestpicture win. editing nomination,oftenseenasnecessaryfor the filmnobodyhates.Italsolandedacoveted cast, thefilmisabonafidebox-office hitandit’s Matt DamonandChristianBaleheadagreat assembled tobeatFerrari intheLe Mansrace. in thetruestoryofteamAmericans have tocare aboutcarracingtogetinvested A solid,feel-good crowd-pleaser, you don’t (Fox) and 2016’s “Hacksaw Ridge.” on thetopprize asoflate:see2017’s “Dunkirk” on alotofvoters’ ballots. greatest livingfilmmakers, it’s bound tobehigh entertainment. the movie, aperfect blendofprestige and people’s minds. dual Globeswinshave itattheforefront of craftsmanship aswell asitsheart,andthose THE IRISHMAN OBSTACLES: ADVANTAGES: OBSTACLES: ADVANTAGES: OBSTACLES: ADVANTAGES: 1917 FORD VFERRARI Are voters ready torecognize a With four Oscarnominations,it Heralded war filmshave missedout A heraldedepicfrom oneofour There’s nothingtodislike about It’s beingcheered for its will probably benumberone onalotofballots. and thosewholove “Jojo Rabbit”really love it;it across theboard. and WGA nomsshow strong guildsupport Johansson andtheensemble,alongwithDGA winner, “Green Book.” SAG nomsfor Scarlett prize nabbedby lastyear’s bestpicture Award attheToronto filmfestival, thesame dark comedy. Itwon thePeople’s Choice the aforementioned Hitlerinthesubversive directed, co-produced andeven starsas in itself, anachievement. Taika Waititi wrote, Hitler towalk away withsixnominationsis, Youth andfeaturing awacky (imaginary)Adolf For adarkcomedycentered onayoung Hitler (Fox Searchlight) Director/co-writer Todd Phillips(adualnominee) noms, more thanany otherfilm)andbox office. from there hasracked upaccolades(ithas11 the GoldenLionatVenice Film Festival and comic-book villain,“Joker” kicked off by winning The darkoriginstoryofperhapsthe greatest (Warner Bros.) sans theNetflixfilms. it hasthelowest gross ofany ofthenominees, nom andat$30millionbox office worldwide, OBSTACLES: ADVANTAGES: JOJO RABBIT JOKER Waititi missedoutonadirector
It’s toughtoignore thatTIFFwin
VARIETY earned three Oscarnoms. before, mostrecently a1994 adaptation that and thatstarturnby Phoenix. contender, themostnominationsofany film from JoaquinPhoenix. descent, buoyed by afantastic performance is unflinchinginhisportraitofanordinary man’s though shewas overlooked in the director race. script alsoscored WGA andOscarnominations, since itsChristmasDay release. AndGerwig’s having mademore than$100millionworldwide film hasalsoproven tobeahitwithaudiences, with five BAFTA andnow sixOscarnoms.The classic aboutfour sisters hasralliednicely, Gerwig’s adaptationoftheLouisa May Alcott recognized by theGoldenGlobes—Greta only thescore andstarSaoirse Ronan were the filmwas shutoutofSAG completelyand Though woefully ignored inprecursor races— (Sony) nominee is“BlackPanther.” has ever won bestpicture —theonlyprevious and nofilmadaptedfrom thecomicworld superhero film,ithailsfrom theDCUniverse, a well-liked andhighlyregarded filmmaker. OBSTACLES: ADVANTAGES: OBSTACLES: ADVANTAGES: LITTLE WOMEN CONTENDERS |OSCAR NOMINEES
The storyhasbeentoldonfilm Genre bias.Thoughnotreally a Thebiggestbox officeofany A criticalandbox-office hitfrom CONTENDERS in both“JojoRabbit”and dual nomineeforherwork Scarlett Johanssonisa “Marriage Story.” LUCKY ‘RABBIT’ 57 branch. branch. film shows supportfrom thebiggestvoting 58 savvy —butnotheartlessdivorce lawyer. has beensnappingupawards leftandrightasa are battlingwitheachother, whileLauraDern their careers asparents wholove theirsonbut Johansson earnedsomeofthebestreviews of of thosefor itsstars.Adam Driver andScarlett Gotham Awards. Itlandedsixnominations,three Globe andCritics’ Choiceandwinningfour earning bestpicture nomsfrom BAFTA, Golden divorcing couplehashitallthemajorprecursors, Noah Baumbach’s heartbreaking take ona (Netflix) screenplay. Bothloving homageandincisive nominations, includingfor director and Tarantino’s latestwalked away with10 hittingtheatersinJuly,Despite Quentin (Sony) director nomcouldbetough. breaker, thecombinedNetflixbiasandlackofa OBSTACLES: ADVANTAGES: MARRIAGE STORY ONCE UPONATIMEINHOLLYWOOD CONTENDERS |BEST PICTURE leads thepack. Todd Phillips’“Joker” nominations thisyear, With 11,themost LAUGH TRACK Though neitheroneisadeal
VARIETY More actingnomsthanany other CONTENDERS
no individualactingnominations,butitsSAG screenplay and,significantly, editing.There are landed sixnominationsincludingdirecting, a poorfamily infiltrating theirwealthy employers, the year. TheSouthKorean thriller, centeringon reveal itsmany twists)andwhollyoriginalfilmsof filmmaker BongJoonHobeggedviewers notto most-talked-about (or nottalked-about, as Yes, it’s aforeign film,butit’s alsooneofthe (Neon) nom in2015. land oneeitherand“Birdman” won withouta traditionally spellstrouble —still,“1917” didn’t the GoldenGlobesandCritics’ ChoiceAwards. worldwide andwas namedbestpicture by both The filmhasgrossed over $372 million andBradPitt,bothalsonominated. DiCaprio performances from noneotherthanLeonardo filled withtensionandlaughtercareer-best themoviestudy ofagoldenageHollywood, movies aboutHollywood. lovesincluding itsensemble.AndHollywood wins, thefilmhasthree SAG nominations, PARASITE OBSTACLES: ADVANTAGES:
The lackofaneditingnomination In additiontothosebestpicture “‘Joker’ kicked offby other film.” 11 noms,morethanany Festival and...has Lion at theVenice Film winning theGolden a “Parasite” win. others willsay thatpichelpedpave theway for losing lastyear as proof nofilmcan,while won bestpicture. Somewillpointto“Roma” director contenderandachancetomake history. worldwide box officeof$132million,astrong the filmanditsdirector isclear. never underestimate the#BongHive; supportfor Neon, thatjustaddstoitsunderdog charm.Also, while it’s beingdistributedby afairly newstudio, “Life IsBeautiful”tolandinthatcategory. And is there —it’s onlythesecondforeign filmafter ensemble nomshows thesupportfrom actors OBSTACLES: ADVANTAGES:
No foreign-language filmhasever A passionatefan base,a
NIKO TAVERNISE/WARNER BROS. CONTENDERS | VARIETY VAULT
SPECIAL DELIVERY Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” is one of the latest films to tackle the subject of economic disparity.
between rich people and their servants. Its anteced- ent was Universal’s Depression-era “My Man God- ‘Parasite’ and the 1% frey” (1936). In “Godfrey,” a rich young socialite (Carole Lombard) brings home a “forgotten man” — HOLLYWOOD’S DEPICTION OF THE HAVES AND HAVE-NOTS i.e., a homeless war veteran — so she can win a scav- enger hunt. Godfrey (William Powell) provides the GOES BACK TO THE SILENT ERA By Tim Gray family with a crash course in sensitivity training, long before that phrase was invented. It’s a screw- ball comedy, but makes serious points about the gap between the self-centered upper classes and the rest EVERY FILMMAKER hopes to make a good movie, but anti-romance about a man who slowly realizes he will of us. (The Gregory LaCava-directed production was sometimes the impact is bigger than expected. never fit in with the upper crust that he aspires to. the first film to earn Oscar nominations in all four Neon’s “Parasite” is one example of a 2019 film The subject has been given film treatment multiple acting categories.) hitting a nerve. Writer-director Bong Joon Ho’s film times, especially during the Depression, the 1960s- In the 1970s, there were plenty of films about has been praised for its originality and daring shifts 70s — and now, with “Parasite” and the others. working-class lives, including “Rocky,” “Ameri- in tone. It also has resonance due to its subject mat- In theory, Warner Bros.’ “Joker” is rooted in DC can Graffiti,” “Halloween” and “The Deer Hunter,” ter: the gap between the haves and the have-nots. Comics, and many have cited the influence of “Taxi but the movies didn’t focus on economics. The gap “Parasite” is only one of the year’s films that address Driver” and “The King of Comedy.” But its real her- was often used as a barrier for romance, ranging this zeitgeist subject, also including “Hustlers,” “Joker,” itage is in earlier WB films. During the Depression, from “Sabrina” and “How to Marry a Millionaire” to “Knives Out” and the French “Les Miserables,” to name WB offered gangster movies about men who fought “Pretty Woman” and “Titanic.” a few. It’s not a new theme: In prehistoric times, some to rise above their poverty-stricken backgrounds, in However, there were notable explorations of the people were no doubt troubled that other cave dwellers such films as “The Public Enemy” and “Little Cae- subject, including United Artists’ 1969 best pic- had more than they did. sar.” The Depression loomed large even in WB musi- ture winner “Midnight Cowboy,” a sort of “Lower But the subject found new expression in 19th cen- cals including the Oscar-nominated “Gold Diggers Depths” in Manhattan. In the years after “Cowboy,” tury novels from writers including Victor Hugo and of 1933,” about a group trying to put on a Broadway WB released films such as “Mean Streets” (1973) Charles Dickens. In 1902, Maxim Gorky’s play “The musical. The film is centered around the jaw-drop- and “Dog Day Afternoon” in which characters were Lower Depths” was a sensation with its depiction of ping Busby Berkeley choreography, but all the char- driven to desperate acts by their need for things they people at a homeless shelter. (Criterion Channel offers acters — the chorus members, the director, the couldn’t afford. a don’t-miss double bill on Jan. 31 of Jean Renoir’s producers, even the show’s stars — are haunted by “Parasite” is the film of the moment, in a year of 1936 and Akira Kurosawa’s 1957 film adaptations.) the Depression and frightened of their future if the wage gaps, the homeless crisis and college-admis- Film versions of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 “The show doesn’t succeed. sion scandals. It’s a classic theme, but sometimes it
NEON Great Gatsby” often treat it as a romance; in fact, it’s an Lionsgate’s 2019 “Knives Out” looks at the gap takes a piece of art to bring home the message.
VARIETY CONTENDERS 59 CONTENDERS | DGA AWARDS
ALL IN THE FAMILY Alma Har’el, nominated for first- time director for “Honey Boy,” sits with her cast members Lucas Hedges and Shia LaBeouf.
Guild TWO MONTHS AGO, the Directors Guild of Additionally, the percentage of episodes America heralded a major milestone in its long helmed by directors of color rose to a new high push for inclusion in the television industry. of 27%, increasing more than 40% in the past five Marks The DGA’s episodic television director inclu- years. The report also found that 49% of first-time sion report found that half of all TV episodes in hires in the 2018-19 season were women, an the 2018-19 season were directed by women or increase from 41% in the 2017-18 season. directors of color for the first time. The DGA report also contained the caution- Milestones “Inclusion has been a priority of our guild for ary note about employers giving “perk” directing a very long time as we’ve pushed the studios, net- assignments to series insiders — those employed ON THE EVE OF ITS AWARDS works and producers to do better in their hiring,” on a series in another capacity —- who are far DGA president Thomas Schlamme said. “While less diverse as a group than non-affiliated direc- CEREMONY, DGA HERALDS change had been glacial in past years, we’re tors. Employers hired insiders for 55% of the first- SUCCESSES IN INCLUSION EFFORTS pleased and incredibly encouraged to see the time TV directing jobs last season and Schlamme recent commitment undertaken by the industry.” called on producers to revise that practice. By Dave McNary The DGA’s report noted that the overall per- The DGA also saw progress on the feature film centage of women and people of color had front with three women among the first-time increased from 2018’s prior high of 42.5%, and feature film nominees: Mati Diop for “Atlantics,” from 21% five years ago. The percentage of epi- Alma Har’el for “Honey Boy” and Melina Matsou- sodes directed by women grew to a record 31%, kas for “Queen & Slim.” There had been only two more than doubling in the past five years. female nominees in the previous four years. JOEL C RYAN/INVISION/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK
60 VARIETY COCONTENDERSNTENDERS “New voices bring with them the fresh perspec- Tipsheet tives and unique storytelling that help drive our All Due Credit industry into the future. That’s the spirit of this WHAT: 72nd annual award, and we’re proud to shine a light on the DGA Awards The nominations for the 72nd Directors Guild of America Awards, which range WHEN: Jan. 25 from film to television and commercials, may often hew closely to the subse- standout directorial achievements of these first- WHERE: Ritz-Carlton, quently announced Oscar nominations — and this year, four of the DGA’s five fea- time feature directors,” added Schlamme. Los Angeles ture nominees are reflected by the Academy — but the guild’s top selections offer WEB: dga.org The 72nd annual Directors Guild Award will plenty of wrinkles nonetheless. Most notably, the DGA’s award for first feature (not be held Jan. 25 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in down- an award offered by the Academy) features a majority of female directors, a hope- town Los Angeles. Much of the attention will be ful sign for the systemic dominance of male helmers that has been reflected by focused on the five feature film nominees: Bong most awards bodies for decades. The DGA is also unique in singling out the direc- Joon Ho for “Parasite,” Sam Mendes for “1917,” tors’ teams for recognition, an acknowledgement that filmmaking is always a thor- Martin Scorsese for “The Irishman,” Quentin oughly collaborative endeavor. Tarantino for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and Taika Waititi for “Jojo Rabbit.” Bong, Mendes, Scorsese and Tarantino were nominated for Oscars on Jan. 13. The DGA Award has been among the most accurate prognostication measures for the Acad- emy Award directing winner with matches in all but seven years. “Roma” filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón scored both trophies last year. This year’s DGA feature award is also unique FEATURE FILM TAIKA WAITITI (Roadside Attractions) NOMINEES “Jojo Rabbit” due to a new eligibility rule that excluded films Unit production managers (Fox Searchlight Pictures) Manu Gargi; first assistant released on other distribution platforms on the BONG JOON HO Unit production managers: director: James Grayford; same day and date as their premiere in theaters. “Parasite” Václav Mottl, Pavel Voráček; second assistant director: The goal was to recognize the “unique cultural (Neon) first assistant director: Dee Jones; second second importance of the theatrical experience.” Unit production manager: Mark Taylor; second assistant director: Michael Park Min Chul; first assistant assistant director: Martina McKay Schlamme, who has won nine Emmys and director: Kim Seong Sik Götthansová; second three DGA trophies, is in his third year as presi- second assistant director: JOE TALBOT dent of the guild. He was reelected by the accla- SAM MENDES Martina Frimelová “The Last Black Man in “1917” San Francisco” mation of 155 delegates at the DGA’s convention FIRST-TIME (Universal Pictures) (A24) in June to a two-year term. DGA presidents FEATURE NOMINEES Unit production managers: Unit production manager: typically serve for two two-year terms, as did Callum McDougall, Hannah Natalie Teter; first assistant MATI DIOP Schlamme’s predecessor Paris Barclay. The DGA Godwin; first assistant director: Hilton J. Day; “Atlantics” represents more than 18,000 members. director: Michael Lerman; second assistant director: second assistant director: (Netflix) C Dominic Martin; second Focus in the upcoming months will be on the Joey Coughlin First assistant director: second assistant director: successor deal to the DGA’s master contract as Vincent Prades Jeremiah Kelleher; MARTIN SCORSESE terms of the DGA deal often serve as guidelines additional second second “The Irishman” ALMA HAR’EL for the SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild contracts. assistant director: Alex (Netflix) “Honey Boy” Gilbert The current DGA pact expires on July 1. Jon Unit production managers: (Amazon Studios) Unit Avnet and Todd Holland were named co-chairs John A. Machione, Carla production manager: DOCUMENTARY Raij; first assistant director: David Grace; first assistant of the negotiating committee last year. NOMINEES DGA gains in the current deal included residu- David Webb; second director: Sean Vawter; assistant director: Jeremy second assistant director: STEVEN BOGNAR als on programs made for High Budget Subscrip- Marks, Trevor Tavares; Colin Flaherty; second AND JULIA REICHERT tion Video on Demand — covering such services additional first assistant second assistant director: “American Factory” as Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu — along with resid- director: Ryan Robert Sarah Balboa (Netflix) uals payments for related foreign SVOD services Howard; location manager: Kip Myers MELINA MATSOUKAS FERAS FAYYAD and significant increases in the residuals for “Queen & Slim” “The Cave” high-budget feature-length projects. QUENTIN TARANTINO (Universal Pictures) “Once Upon a Time Unit production managers: (National Geographic in Hollywood” Pamela Hirsch, Max Documentary Films) (Columbia Pictures) Berryhill (Los Angeles unit); ALEX HOLMES Unit production first assistant directors: “Maiden” managers: Georgia H.H. Cooper, Joe Suarez Kacandes, Nathan Kelly; (Los Angeles unit); second (Sony Picture Classics) first assistant director: assistant director: James ‘New voices bring with them the William Paul Clark; Roque, Johnny Recher (Los LJUBOMIR STEFANOV second assistant director: Angeles unit); additional AND TAMARA KOTEVSKA fresh perspectives and unique Christopher T. Sadler; second second assistant “Honeyland” second second assistant directors: Sumner Boissiere, (Neon) storytelling that help drive our director: Brendan Tami Kumin (Ohio unit) “Bear” Lee; additional NANFU WANG industry into the future.’ second second assistant TYLER NILSON and AND JIALING ZHANG directors: Debbie MICHAEL SCHWARTZ “One Child Nation” Thomas Schlamme Chung, Katie Pruitt “The Peanut Butter Falcon” (Amazon Studios)
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and director nominations for Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” — as yet unreleased in the U.K. — Kudos Follow may have surprised the public more than the industry, where the Palme d’Or-winning South Korean crowd-pleaser has been marked as an awards-season dark horse for months. American Cousin It was “Joker,” however, that caught peo- ple slightly offguard with its field-leading 11 BRITS PICK 11 NOMS FOR ‘JOKER,’ BUT WILL nominations — again foreshadowing its top- dog position in the Oscar lineup. Todd Phillips’ HOMEGROWN ‘1917’ PREVAIL? By Guy Lodge billion-grossing supervillain origin story was certainly seen as a player in major categories, and a lead actor front-runner for its galvaniz- ing turn by Joaquin Phoenix. But few expected the film, which has proved as critically polar- izing as it is profitable, to emerge as the sin- gle leading contender. For an institution that has proven itself even more wary of comic- book fare than the American Academy — last FOR ANY AWARDS PUNDITS reading the BAFTA days later, Oscar voters largely matched their year’s “Black Panther,” a best picture Oscar nominations as tea leaves for the impending choices with those of their British counterparts. nominee, netted only a single BAFTA nod for Oscar race, 2020’s nomination slate held rel- No eyebrows were raised by 10 nominations visual effects — this marks an out-of-character atively few surprises. Unlike in certain years apiece for Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” and populist swerve. when BAFTA has piled nominations upon wild- Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hol- Or perhaps not. Often forgotten in the reams card contenders (“Drive” in 2012, for example), lywood,” for example, nor by the nine mentions of critical and media debate over the block- this year’s top selections in the major catego- for Sam Mendes’ propulsive long-take World buster’s representation of toxic masculinity — ries more or less align with their perceived War I thriller “1917” — the only British con- is it condemnatory, sympathetic or complicit? status across the pond — and sure enough, tender in the best film lineup. And best film — is the fact that it won top honors at the
ON A ROLL “Parasite” helmer Bong Joon Ho (left) on-set with the film’s Song Kang Ho NEON
626 2 VARIETY COCONTENDERSNTENDERS WE’RE IN IT FOR THE WIN. ARE YOU?
VOTERS’ GUIDE
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A precisely timed print Awards and digital guide that will Voters’ Guide assist voters during their selections for the Oscars.
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artsy Venice Film Festival, from no less high- Leaders Red-Faced brow a jury president than Argentine auteur Lucrecia Martel. It has also netted glowing Over Lack of endorsements from such industry luminar- ies as Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Greta Ger- Diversity in Noms wig — herself a BAFTA nominee this year for her “Little Women” screenplay, though BAFTA NOT ALONE IN her film was controversially left out of the best film and director races. IGNORING MINORITIES If “Joker” takes the top prize, we shouldn’t By Guy Lodge be surprised twice. While the Oscars’ complex preferential balloting process in the best pic- ture category counts against contenders as divisive as Phillips’ film — favoring instead the most broadly liked nominee — the BAF- TAs work on a simpler popular vote, mean- #BAFTASOWHITE WAS NOT THE HASHTAG THAT ing the many ardent “Joker” admirers who BAFTA brass was hoping would trend on Twitter netted it all those nominations won’t neces- within minutes of nominations being announced. sarily be cancelled out by its detractors. Yet there it was: an incensed public response It has formidable competition, however, to a slate that, for the fourth time in a decade, yielded all-white nominees in the four top acting from the hometown favorite. “1917” landed categories, including two apiece for actresses in the BAFTA race on a full head of steam the all-male director lineup was widely noted, as Margot Robbie and Scarlett Johansson — at the from its semi-unexpected triumph at the was the absence of female-driven stories in the expense of heavily buzzed contenders including best film category. Others bemoaned the general Golden Globes, and is conveniently storming Lupita Nyong’o, Golden Globe winner Awkwafina sidelining of British independent filmmaking in a the U.K. box office smack in the middle of and even British star Cynthia Erivo. slate largely in thrall to Oscar front-runners. the balloting process — the weekend after Erivo would scoop an Oscar nomination A face-saving BAFTA email circulated the nominations were announced, it topped days later, making the BAFTA omission all the to members trumpeted the four individual the chart with a massive $9.5 million. more jarring. nominations for Iranian director Waad Al-Khateab Mendes, who received a publicity-boost- In a bitter irony, the inaugural nominees for for the wrenching British documentary “For ing knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in the new casting award — BAFTA’s one well- Sama,” though three of those nods came in December, is a two-time BAFTA winner, hav- received move this year, it seems — included jury-determined, British-only categories. Jessie Sarah Crowe for “The Personal History of ing won the director prize in 2000 for “Amer- Buckley’s surprise lead actress nomination for David Copperfield,” a Dickens adaptation that ican Beauty” and best British film in 2013 “Wild Rose” marked the only mention for a local has received praise for its diverse, color-blind for “Skyfall.” As the only title nominated indie in one of the major general fields, while ensemble led by former BAFTA winner Dev Patel. Joanna Hogg’s critically acclaimed memoir “The in both the best film and British film cat- When none of its individual actors made the cut, Souvenir” — which topped the prestigious annual egories this year, “1917” is surely a shoo-in however, it’s fair to say BAFTA is delivering mixed Sight & Sound critics’ poll — was frozen out of all for the latter award. But it must fancy its messages about inclusion. categories, even British film. chances of being only the third Britpic in The white-out in the acting races was only Major industry figures voiced their discontent. the past decade — following “The King’s the most blatantly visible misstep in a year that Steve McQueen, a BAFTA winner for “Hunger” Speech” and the U.S. co-production “Three fell short on diversity in multiple other respects: and “12 Years a Slave,” was particularly damning. Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” — to “If the BAFTAs are not supporting British talent, if take BAFTA’s top prize. you’re not supporting the people who are making This must be regarded as the tightest race LOCKED OUT headway in the industry, then I don’t understand ”Harriet” star Cynthia Erivo (top) what you are there for,” he says. “It’s not just in some time: “Once Upon a Time in Hol- and “Us” topliner Lupita Nyong’o British talent, it’s talent in general.” lywood,” in the U.K. as in the U.S., inspires were snubbed by BAFTA. He cited Nyong’o’s omission as another “crazy” adoration from insiders who recognize its failure to recognize outstanding diverse talent. milieu with affection, while “The Irishman” Meanwhile, Erivo, who had been invited can count on a loyal Scorsese fanbase that to perform at the BAFTA ceremony, pointedly has given him no fewer than three best film declined: “I felt like [the offer] didn’t represent BAFTAs (“Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” people of color in the right light.” “GoodFellas” and “The Aviator”) in the past. BAFTA CEO Amanda Berry, after professing Meanwhile, despite its comparatively modest herself “very disappointed” by the situation, has haul of four noms — BAFTA’s craft branches pledged renewed “efforts to affect real change,” ignored the film, though the Oscars did not while their film committee head Marc Samuelson — critical darling “Parasite” remains the dark has promised a “careful and detailed review” of horse looking to upend the entire race. the voting process in time for next year’s awards. What that might entail is anyone’s guess: Still, in a year when many in the U.K. Outsiders have proposed dramatically expanding industry have complained that BAFTA gives US: CLAUDETTE BARIUS/UNIVERSAL US: CLAUDETTE the membership as AMPAS has recently done, or ; too little recognition to its own, a sweep for a committee-oriented nomination process similar “1917” would put something of a Band-Aid to that used by the more diversity-inclined British on that wound. And if the noble heroism of Independent Film Awards. the war drama trumps the nihilistic villainy Fast action is required, if there are to be of “Joker,” at least some onlookers will heave fewer red faces (and, indeed, white ones) next a sigh of relief. awards season. ARRIET: GLEN WILSON/FOCUS FEATURES ARRIET: HARRIET: GLEN WILSON/FOCUS FEATURES; US: CLAUDETTE BARIUS/UNIVERSAL US: CLAUDETTE GLEN WILSON/FOCUS FEATURES; HARRIET: H
64 VARIETY COCONTENDERSNTENDERS CONTENDERS | ASC AWARDS CONTENDERS | PGA AWARDS
WALK THIS WAY “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” DP Robert Richardson and Margot Robbie
The 25 directors of photography nominated by the American Society of Cinematographers for The Camera their upcoming 34th annual awards gala display a deep understanding of that concept. In each case, a trained eye was put in service of a director’s Tells the Story vision. In all cases, the results drew praise. While streaming content continues to erode strict categories, the work of this year’s feature DPS NOMINATED FOR ASC AWARDS THIS YEAR TURNED IN film nominees tends to hark back to classical techniques in filmmaking if not in the tools used SOME TRULY VIRTUOSO PERFORMANCES By David Heuring to achieve it. For example: Rodrigo Prieto’s work on Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” sometimes echoes shots from “The Godfather.” On James Mangold’s “Ford v Ferrari,” Phedon Papamichael took inspiration from 1960s rac- ing films such as “LeMans,” hard-mounting the camera and rejecting a more modern, remote- head approach. In “1917,” helmer Sam Mendes and DP Roger Deakins obsessed for months on getting the cam- A central truism of cinematography holds that for every scene there is a era in the right place at the right time, within a single optimal camera placement. Going all the way back to the work of single-shot aesthetic that invites comparison to Alejandro Iñárritu’s “Birdman” and Alfred Hitch- pioneers such as director D.W. Griffith and his go-to cinematographer Billy cock’s “Rope.” Bitzer, the choice of where to place the camera at any given point in the With “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” direc- COLUMBIA PICTURES COLUMBIA / story is considered crucial to how the audience will perceive that story. tor Quentin Tarantino and DP Robert Richardson NDREW COOPER ANDREW COOPER/COLUMBIA PICTURES ANDREW COOPER/COLUMBIA A
VARIETYV ARIETY CONTENDERSCONTENDERS 65 CONTENDERS | ASC AWARDS
marinate in a nostalgic visual style with colors through subtleties of the human face. ‘ With all the technology and contrast that effectively evoke a bygone time “ ‘Ford v Ferrari’ is, of course, a racing movie, and place. and we wanted to bring audiences into these we have, we can really In Todd Phillips’ “Joker,” Lawrence Sher envel- death traps, loaded with fuel and doing 200 capture natural light in ops the character in a sodium-vapor dread that miles per hour,” says Papamichael. “But really, the echoes Scorsese’s own “Taxi Driver.” power for me is in the strong characters created. a beautiful way.’ Sher, who won the Golden Frog at the influen- Mangold embraces being physically close to the nominee Natasha Braier tial Camerimage festival in Poland, shot in 5K res- space of the actors. With the combination of wide, olution using the larger-format Arri Alexa 65. “For close-focus lenses and the bigger sensor, even if most of the time that we’ve been living in a digi- you’re in tight, you’re not isolating your actors. tal world, the idea of gaining front-end resolution You always feel the environment and are able to wasn’t really a major factor,” he says. “But I think compose with all their surroundings. You feel the there’s been a tipping point this year. Warner proximity of the other cars.” Bros. seemed to appreciate having a 4K master — The close-and-wide approach also worked well something that wasn’t usually an option just a for nominee David Luther, whose work on “Das year or two ago. With everything that comes into Boot” is now airing on Hulu. Luther is nominated play — the various deliverables, future-proofing, in the episodic, non-commercial television cate- and archiving — whatever the reason, I felt that gory. He previously took home the cinematogra- this year there was a shift at the major studios.” phy prize at the German Television Awards, as His daunting task was to update a landmark, Phillips and Sher agreed on the format in part well as the German Camera Prize for his work on the 1981 feature film “Das Boot,” directed by Wolf- because the larger sensor facilitated using depth the project. gang Peterson and claustrophobically shot by Jost of field to isolate the titular character, played by Vacano, who earned an Oscar nomination. Joaquin Phoenix, in the frame. “We generally shot very close to the actors, “It’s a character study, and we knew it would with a Vantage T1 lens, almost never wider than be told a lot in close-ups,” says the cinematogra- 25 mm,” Luther says. “We could control the depth pher. “A 40 mm can give you a medium-lens feel, Tipsheet of field, with nice fall-off and the ability to rack but still have the field of view of a wider lens, and focus when the script called for it. it allows the camera to be physically closer to the WHAT: American Society of “We used a completely different and more actor, which conveys a certain feeling.” Cinematographers Awards classical approach for the scenes on land, which WHEN: Jan. 25 Mangold and Papamichael have leveraged the depict the resistance in France. But we were con- WHERE: Ray Dolby Ballroom, power of wide-and-close shooting over the course Hollywood & Highland, scious of the audience’s need to adjust between of six pictures together. Mangold calls it “being in Los Angeles the two worlds. We developed our own, modern the arena” with the actors, reading their emotions WEB: theasc.com visual language while respecting the original.” Meanwhile, the ASC’s Spotlight Award, inau- gurated six years ago to acknowledge cinematog- raphy in films in festivals or limited commercial release, continues to bring attention to fresh, inno- vative filmmaking. The nominees this year are Jarin Blaschke for “The Lighthouse,” Natasha Braier for “Honey Boy” and Jasper Wolf for “Monos.” Braier, the first Latina to become a member of the ASC, is nominated for an autobiographi- cal tale based on Shia LaBeouf’s childhood. Her task was to balance documentary improvisation with narrative dictates. She emphasizes that the humanity and sensitivity required were much more important to the success of the film than the tools she selected. “As a mature cinematographer, you know you can do a good job technically,” she says. “With all the technology we have, we can really capture nat- ural light in a beautiful way — on a certain level, it’s easy. What is difficult is to do good cinematog- raphy that supports the story, that has coherence with the content and the performance — cine- matography that makes you feel things, that pulls you in.” WWI EPIC Roger Deak- Braier sums up: “That’s why most of us decided ins (left) to make films. We are interested in character and and Sam emotional journey and empathy, and in giving Mendes on “1917” set people different windows to see the world from a different perspective.” 1917: FRANÇOIS DUHAMEL/UNIVERSAL 1917:
66 VARIETY CONTENDERS CBC and Montreal Olympics. ASC Nominees GATHERING He is a former governor of STREAM “Honeyland” the TV Academy. In addition Winners will be named at the from North to teaching numerous ASC org’s annual awards on Jan. 25 Macedonia is Master Classes, his dedication at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at nominated to the Society includes Hollywood & Highland. in the doc race. serving as chairman of the annual Awards Committee. FEATURE FILM
WERNER HERZOG TO THEATRICAL RELEASE RECEIVE ASC BOARD OF Roger Deakins, “1917” Phedon Papamichael, GOVERNORS AWARD “Ford v Ferrari” The American Society of Rodrigo Prieto, “The Irishman” Robert Richardson, Cinematographers will “Once Upon a Time bestow its Board of Governors in Hollywood” Award to Oscar and Emmy Lawrence Sher, “Joker” Award nominee Werner Herzog. The tribute is the SPOTLIGHT AWARD only ASC Award not given Jarin Blaschke, to a cinematographer and “The Lighthouse” is reserved for filmmakers Natasha Braier, “Honey Boy” Jasper Wolf, “Monos” who have been champions
of directors of photography DOCUMENTARY and the visual art form. BRUNO DELBONNEL ASC Honors Five “Werner Herzog is truly a Fejmi Daut and Samir Ljuma, INT’L AWARD unique storyteller, and we are “Honeyland” Nicholas de Pencier, at Its 34th Awards The five-time Oscar nominee honored to recognize him for his prolific contributions to “Anthropocene: The Human for “Darkest Hour,” “Inside Epoch” cinema,” says ASC president Llewyn Davis,” “Harry Potter Evangelia Kranioti, ACCOLADES WILL BE HANDED OUT and the Half-Blood Prince,” Kees van Oostrum. “Obscuro Barroco” Herzog has produced, AT THE GALA TO ELMES, MORGAN, “A Very Long Engagement” and “Amélie,” Delbonnel has written and directed TELEVISION DELBONNEL, HERZOG AND MCCUAIG received accolades from more than 70 feature and Episode of a Series for ASC, BAFTA, Camerimage, documentary films, earning Non-Commercial Television European Film Academy, awards and nominations David Luther, “Das Boot,” “Gegen over seven decades. He Academy of Cinema Arts die Zeit” (episode 6) (Sky) FREDERICK ELMES DONALD A. MORGAN and Techniques in France, received an Oscar nom for M. David Mullen, “The Marvelous LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT CAREER ACHIEVEMENT IN and critics associations. documentary feature for his Mrs. Maisel,” “Simone” (Amazon) AWARD TELEVISION AWARD Earlier this year, the Cannes work on “Encounters at the Chris Seager, “Carnival Row,” End of the World” (2009), and “Grieve No More” (Amazon) This visionary DP has made A 10-time Primetime Emmy Film Festival bestowed the Brendan Steacy, “Titans,” winner, his wins include Pierre Angénieux ExcelLens “Little Dieter Needs to Fly” significant contributions “Dick Grayson” (DC Universe) in Cinematography Award on (1997) was Emmy-nominated to independent cinema. seven for ABC’s “Home Colin Watkinson, “The for nonfiction special (1997). His career began with Improvement,” two for Netflix Delbonnel. His next projects Handmaid’s Tale,” “Night” (Hulu) The filmmaker’s career has collaborations with pioneering series “The Ranch,” and a include “The Woman in the focused equally on features directors David Lynch statue for his work on “Mr. Window” by Joe Wright, and Episode of a Series for and docs. Herzog, whose (“Eraserhead,” “Blue Velvet”) Belvedere” that was shared Joel Coen’s adaptation of Commercial Television films have been cited for Dana Gonzales, “Legion,” and John Cassavetes (“The with George Spiro Dibie in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.” “Chapter 20” (FX) Killing of a Chinese Bookie,” 1985. His noms also honor his their surreal and subtly exotic C. Kim Miles, “Project Blue Book,” work on the series “Bagdad quality, is hailed as one of the “Opening Night”). His feature DON MCCUAIG “The Flatwoods Monster” (History) Café,” “Girlfriends,” “Retired most innovative contemporary film work includes pics for PRESIDENTS AWARD Polly Morgan, “Legion,” directors. His volatile love- Ang Lee (“The Ice Storm,” at 35,” “Saved by the Bell” “Chapter 23” (FX) “Ride With the Devil”) and Jim and “Last Man Standing.” A veteran of television and hate relationship with the Peter Robertson, “Vikings,” Jarmusch (“Night on Earth,” Over the course of his career motion pictures, McCuaig brilliant but emotionally “Hell” (History) “Coffee and Cigarettes”). the cinematographer has has more than 75 narrative unstable actor Klaus Kinski David Stockton, “Gotham,” “Ace Chemicals” (Fox) Other collaborators include garnered nearly 130 credits, TV credits and has shot resulted in some of the best Bill Condon (“Kinsey”), Charlie including over 100 episodes second unit on countless work from both men. Herzog Motion Picture, Miniseries, of numerous popular TV features. With this expertise, celebrated their partnership Kaufman (“Synecdoche, or Pilot Made for Television he founded a production with the documentary film New York”), Mira Nair (“The favorites. In addition to John Conroy, “The Terror: Namesake”) and Jim Sheridan episodic TV, Morgan has company that was contracted “My Best Fiend.” In addition, Infamy,” “A Sparrow in a (“Brothers”). Elmes also shot shot telefilms and specials, by Fox to provide second unit Herzog occasionally takes Swallow’s Nest” (AMC) TV projects, receiving an including a decade of live resources for nearly a decade. acting jobs himself, with roles P.J. Dillon, “The Rook,” Emmy for Steve Zaillian’s shows for the NAACP’s His career began at NBC on such as the stern father in the “Chapter 1” (Starz) Chris Manley, “Doom Patrol,” HBO miniseries “The Night Image Awards. He has always “The Andy Williams Show” experimental drama “Julien pilot (DC Universe) Of.” Current work includes sought to have diverse crews in the staging department, Donkey-Boy,” the criminal Martin Ruhe, “Catch-22,” and serves as chairman of transitioning to electronic mastermind in actioner “Jack an untitled documentary by “Episode 5” (Hulu) Bennett Miller and “The Jesus Diversity at IATSE Local 600 broadcast at ABC, before Reacher,” and most recently Craig Wrobleski, Rolls,” a feature written and and as a member of the ASC becoming a newsreel and as the Client in the Disney “The Twilight Zone,” directed by John Turturro. Vision Committee. sports photojournalist for the Plus hit “The Mandalorian.” “Blurryman” (CBS All Access) NEON
VARIETY CONTENDERS 67 Up the Volume the Up Teamwork Turns RANGE OFSOUNDS FOR MOVIES ANDTV CAS AWARD NOMINEESCOLLABORATED TO CREATE AWIDE 68 CAS. “Our honored filmmaker, our career achievement award recipient, andour sound mixing. Irishman.” “Ford,” “Joker” and “Once” Academy alsolanded Award“Joker,” nominationsfor “Once aTimeinHollywood” Upon to “Rocketman,” inadditionto “The achievement award attheceremony. part oftheCAS nominated team on “The Irishman,” will receive theorg’s career rari” director James Mangold thehonored willbe filmmaker andTom Fleischman, non-fiction, variety andpost-production. ormusic seriesor specials “Ford vFer- andhalf-hour shows, small-screen one-hour movie TV orlimited series, television nious finished product. re-recording mixers, Foley to andADRartistry work together to create aharmo- plishments insound mixing, acollaborative disciplinethatrequires sound editors, fornees theCinemaAudio Society Awards, which recognizes outstanding accom- THERE’S ANEXCEPTIONAL LEVEL “This year’s themeisclearly diversity ofcontent,” says Karol Urban, VPof 2020’s live-action CAS span nominees awiderange, from “Ford vFerrari,” The categories considered are: live action, features, animated anddocumentary Ferrari” for CAS-nommed“Fordv Christian Baleonset James Mangoldand Matt Damon(left), SOUND OFWINNING CONTENDERS |CAS AWARDS VARIETY CONTENDERS of craftsmanship amongthis year’s nomi-
By JazzTangcay
Los Angeles Society Awards Tipsheet WEB: WHERE: WHEN: WHAT: cinemaaudiosociety.org Jan.25 Cinema Audio Intercontinental, society.org. feel natural andorganic. their lavalier mics.” ears aswell aseach other’s vocals by way of earwigs ofthemusic track fed into being their actors indifferent in rooms real time, wearing tricky,be sowe developed aplanto put thetwo Netflix series,the period “knew thisscenewould singing “The NeverEnding Story.” season’s key involved sequence Dustin andSuzie mixer onnominee “Stranger Things,” says the heighten ofwhat’s heranxiety to come,” hesays. subtle changes intheworld she’s stuck inhelp world slightly from to episode episode. “These goal was to change Nadia’s (Natasha Lyonne) repetition. Rerecording mixer Goldstein’s Lewis meanwhile, was developing about asoundscape mixed theminto theredub. breathy ticsfrom Egerton’s live rendition and In production audio, they lifted out thenervous workedSheehan withthesound mixingteam. sequence, supervising sound editor Danny vocals inpost, andinthe “Crocodile Rock” and we’re back to KHJRadio,’ ” hesays. radio announcement: ‘5 o’clock Angeles, inLos moment when he’s driving offand you hear the music isreintroduced. asCliffisnavigatingthat sequence his thatexit incorporating sound. It’s notuntiltheendof opted for atwisted approach when itcameto as asound designeronthefilm, explains he accompaniment. Wylie Stateman, who worked son family attheSpahn Ranch lacksmusic scene inwhich Cliff(Brad Pitt) visits theMan- key part ofits emotionalthread overall, the aTimeinHollywood.”Upon While music isa the voices.” admits. “We didn’t want to affect thequality of “It was thetrickythingto get right,” Fleischman pushed thesound team scenesquiet. onkeeping days. U. York with MartinScorsese date back to theirNew scene is,” says Fleischman, whose collaborations that’s because as possible where theheart ofthe intimate thoseperformances andkeep aspure mances. “He wanted to thequietscenes keep as viewers didn’t get distracted from theperfor- for “The Irishman” was to quietthesound so of thepower sound hasto emote thenarrative.” engaging sound. This year istruly acelebration and techniques thatallexemplify impactful and ofincredibly tapestry orful richgenres, styles, thisyearnominees display animpressive col- For list ofnominees, afull go to cinemaaudio The idea, heexplains, was to make thescene He andtheDuffer brothers, showrunners on Michael Rayle, who served asproduction The challenge for nominee “Russian Doll,” Taron Egerton rerecorded his “Rocketman” “That scene hasnomusic untilthefinal Silence was alsokey to CAS nominee “Once The film’s editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, often Fleischman says Scorsese’s mainobjective
MERRICKMERRICK MORTONMORTON/20TH/20TH CENTURY FOX CONTENDERS | ANNIE AWARDS Biz Sees Toon Evolution
ANNIE AWARDS KEEP AHEAD OF TRENDS AS IT EXPANDS REACH By Terry Flores
THE ANNIES, started by animation orga- TOONED UP RACE that fit into what we do and how we judge “We have individual groups that are ask- nization ASIFA-Hollywood nearly 50 years Oscar nominees whether something’s a theatrical release or ing us to consider awards for their disci- “Missing Link” ago as a dinner to honor toon veterans Max (from below) this or that. That’s been what’s been going plines,” Gladstone says. and Dave Fleischer, has today morphed into and “I Lost My on lately. We are obviously once again in the “I can only speculate, but there’s a good a major awards season event, honoring Body” will be midst of change.” chance that awards will be added. In that vying for Annie achievements in 32 categories as well as a Awards on Jan. 25 “We know the rules are going to have case, depending on how many awards we number of juried kudos. at Royce Hall on to solidify over a few years” with regard to give, we’re going to have to start thinking “We keep growing every year,” says Frank the UCLA campus. streaming, Gladstone says. “But we put our about a second ceremony.” Gladstone, executive director of ASIFA-Hol- toe in the water this year.” How that would come about is yet to be lywood. This year it will be held on Jan. Another change ASIFA-Hollywood may determined. “It all requires careful improve- 25 at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus, its have to contend with, and soon, is the inclu- ment steps. So we have to be aware of that,” home for the past several years. sion of even more categories as new tech- Gladstone says. “Every year, for the last few years, we’ve nologies bring new jobs into the animation While the Annies are ASIFA-Hollywood’s had between 10% and 20% growth. Not industry, spurring calls for recognition. signature event, the org’s leaders emphasize only in how much it costs, because that’s that it is much more than the kudos. true too, but in the amount of submissions. “We like to remind people that ASIFA This year, we had almost 2,000 submissions. is not just the Annie Awards,” Beck says. That’s a lot of submissions!” “That’s our biggest and most visible event. More entries, more award categories, We love it. We’re proud of it. But we don’t more impact, more cachet. do just the Annies. We do outreach, we go “We’re getting to be an award that peo- out and give lectures and we are there as ple are paying attention to,” he says. “I saw an industry resource. We’re also there for a billboard the other day that said ‘Nomi- the community as a resource. I’m very, very, nated for Seven Annies.’ Whether the entire very proud of the group and I’m very, very industry takes us seriously or not, I’ll never proud of the animation community in gen- know. But I think they do because we’re get- eral. I’m just so happy we’re in a wonderful ting more interest.” state right now.” Jerry Beck, president of ASIFA- Hollywood, notes the org and the Annie
Awards are evolving along with the anima- HIGH-PROFILE NOMINEES tion industry as a whole. “We’ve changed a lot,” he says. “The BEST FEATURE INDIE FEATURE whole animation universe has really, really “Frozen 2” “Buñuel in Walt Disney the Labyrinth changed. It’s a whole new world. I feel like Studios Animation of the Turtles” we’re on the cusp of some new industry “How to Train Sygnatia, leaders. It’s just an unusual period.” Your Dragon: The Glow, Submarine, Some of these changes are driven by the Hidden World” Hampa Animation DreamWorks Studio entry of streaming into the entertainment Animation “I Lost My Body” landscape. Netflix projects picked up 39 “Klaus” Xilam for Netflix Annie noms, far outpacing the usual leaders Netflix presents a “Okko’s Inn” Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks Animation. production of the Madhouse Spa Studios and “Promare”
I LOST MY BODY: NETFLIX MY BODY: I LOST “We change with what’s going on in the ; Atresmedia Cine field,” Beck says. “We either follow, or some- Trigger, XFlag “Missing Link” “Weathering times we try to be ahead of what’s going Laika With You” on. We try to be ahead. If streaming is the “Toy Story 4” Toho, Story, CoMix new thing, we try to figure out how does Pixar Wave Films ISSING LINK: ANNAPURNA PICTURES MISSING LINK: ANNAPURNA PICTURES; I LOST MY BODY: NETFLIX MY BODY: I LOST MISSING LINK: ANNAPURNA PICTURES; M
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VARIETY 71 Untitled-30 1 1/16/20 4:12 PM Storytelling with serious altitude.
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Untitled-30 2 1/16/20 4:13 PM 50 Cent accused herof “going afterblackmen” following Dec. 13askinghertostop thedocumentary, andrapper Reaction was swift: SimmonssentWinfrey aletter on day before Sundance 25premiere. announced itsJan. toutingWinfrey’spress release one roleintheproject, tive allegations. Bothmenhaveharassment. therespec- strongly denied as CEOof Sony’s EpicRecords of sexual amidst reports rassment allegations. Reid was fromhispost dismissed well victims. asotheralleged rassment allegation exec against musicindustry Reid, as pioneerSimmonsandasexual-ha-tion against hip-hop comes totheNew forward York allega- Timeswitharape follows exec former musicindustry DrewDixon as she tion since araftof #MeToo scandals broke infall2017, onasadistributor inJuly.signed inproduc- Thefilm, Record” asastandalone feature, Plus andApple TV by June, Winfrey toexecutive decided produce“On the of herfirstseriesfor Plus. limited Appleas part But TV toairKirby DickandAmyand planned Ziering’s work ering workplace issues, tentatively “Toxic titled Labor,” by themovement.work shaped hasbeen plus veteran filmmakers includingMirandaJuly, whose Green’s Weinstein-inspired Harvey Assistant”), “The on (EmeraldFennell’s “Promising Young Woman,” Kitty Taymor’s Glorias”)andtackleharassment head “The by #MeToo-related issues (Janicza Bravo’s “Zola,” Julie otherSundancebehind filmsthat have impacted been the contentious We situation. alsospoke withtalent with thedirectorsandasource closetoWinfrey about the hour, butpriortopress timeonFriday, weeks before itsSundance Film Festival premiere. music execs Reid —just Russell two SimmonsandL.A. tion) from“On theRecord,” allegations afilmabout against by withdrawingheadlines hername(andApple’s distribu- down, OprahWinfreydied putthemtorest whenshemade al-harassment exposés against andbacklash themhad 74 FOCUS IF THEREWEREANYDOUBTS THAT THEM MAKEHEADLINES FILMS, ANDTHESTORIES BEHIND MISCONDUCT PLAY OUTINSUNDANCE STORIES ABOUTSEXUAL MOMENT SUNDANCE MOVEMENT’S #METOOTHE
Apple andWinfrey’s Prods. Harpo aDec. issued 3 accused of multiplesexual-ha-Simmons hasbeen cov-On March25,Winfrey announced adocumentary developing that filmhasbeen behind byThe story By GreggGoldstein SUNDANCE FILMFESTIVAL VARIETY the impact of sexu-the impact Variety spoke unspool atSundance. Julie Taymor’s“TheGlorias”(top),and JaniczaBravo’s“Zola”both DIFFICULT DISCUSSIONS
GLORIAS: DANIEL MCFADDEN/SUNDANCE INSTITUTE; ZOLA: ANNA KOORIS/ SUNDANCE INSTITUTE FOCUS SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL
“Everything had been approved and vetted by every- body [at Apple and Harpo] and they had signed off enthusiastically” after the film was picture-locked in November, Ziering says. “We were very surprised and disappointed, [and] we still remain kind of perplexed about the decision.” A source close to Winfrey responded to Variety: “A film is never locked and it was Oprah’s desire to have the film be opened up to expand on several of the women’s stories.” In an interview with the New York Times published on Jan. 17, Winfrey said that Simmons “reach[ed] out multiple times and attempted to pressure me. I told him directly in a phone call that I will not be pressured either into, or out of, backing this film. I am only going to do what I believe to be the right thing.” For her part, Ziering says: “It was never suggested that this film needed any additions prior to [its Novem- ber] picture-lock, which was signed off and vetted by three incredibly impressive legal teams.” “We feel from our test screenings we learned the entire range of issues, and then worked very closely with Ms. Winfrey and Harpo to [address them],” Dick adds. “And when the film was picture-locked, it had com- pletely addressed all those [issues].” The filmmakers add that Winfrey didn’t ask them for the film to include Simmons or Reid, who declined to be interviewed. “Oprah’s only desire was to get the women’s stories right,” a source close to her says. “As a survivor her- self, she knows all too well what these women have gone through. The decision to withdraw from the film was solely based on creative differences. Oprah did not want to feel that she, or the filmmakers, should be pressured by the timing of Sundance.” Ultimately, Ziering is worried about how the incidents around the film might reflect on alleged victims. “There started to be an intimidation and harassment campaign against the women in our film, and we felt strongly that any change in course would call their testimonies into question,” Ziering says. “Once a lot of public attacks came, they were very, very rattled, and we assured them: ‘We are not going to succumb to this kind of intimidation and bul- lying. The film is going to Sundance and we will weather this.’ … You can’t alter distribution paths with films about sexual assault. The time for that decision is well before you make public announcements, because we don’t want anything to impugn the voices in the film in any way.” The U.S. Dramatic Competition dark comedy “Zola” has also been affected by the #MeToo movement. In Febru- ary 2016, James Franco was announced as director and a her 2019 interview with Michael Jackson’s alleged sex producer of this wild tale of a stripper’s road trip, which abuse victims from the HBO doc “Leaving Neverland.” went viral as a 2015 Twitter thread. But Franco left the On Jan. 10, Winfrey issued a statement saying that project in early 2017 — about a year before sexual-harass- while she “unequivocally believe[s] and support[s] the ment accusations against him began surfacing on Twitter women” in the film and would continue to work with the in January 2018, according to Bravo (“Lemon”), who came Time’s Up org that helps harassment victims, she was aboard as director and co-writer in May 2017. Franco has withdrawing the doc from Apple TV Plus because there denied all harassment accusations. was “more work to be done on the film to illuminate the His brother Dave came on as a producer and A24 as full scope of what the victims endured,” and that “given its distributor around the same time as Bravo. Yet Franco the filmmakers’ desire to premiere the film at the Sun- remains tangentially involved. His production company dance Film Festival before I believe it is complete, I feel it’s Ramona Films, which he founded with his brother Dave, best to step aside.” The directors say they were informed is still a credited producer on “Zola” alongside Killer just 20 minutes before the statement was issued. Films and Gigi Films.
VARIETY 75 EmeraldFennell “#MeToo was notnews toany woman.” probing how women don’t neces a way any woman I’ve ever metwould. I’m in interested butI’dsubject, never seenfemale protagonists behave in have alotof“There revenge been thrillersaroundthis #MeToo[yet] was notnewstoany woman,” Fennell says toturnthetables onwould-be attackers.drunk features Carey Mulliganasawomanentry whofakes being from “KillingEve” Fennell. showrunner ThisPremieres than thedarklycomic thriller“Promising Young Woman” adrivingforcebe rightnow,” says. Cooper films addressing #MeToo-related issues. vie’s Love” assomeof theU.S. Dramatic Competition Sometimes Always” andEugene Ashe’s romance “Syl- Eliza Hittman’s teenpregnancydrama“Never Rarely chronicle“MissPeoples’ pageant Juneteenth,” beauty ming directorKimYutani cite“Zola,” ChanningGodfrey [our] amazingpieces of work.” ing over] felt like thingtodoprotect thenecessary company] istarnished,” Sakstold Glorias.”which isnow “The producing herownSaks launched Page Fifty-Four Picturesshingle, buy outDuncan’s stake inJune, andthreemonthsbefore false.”] That was two months before to Saksarranged claims, callingthem“either ordemonstrably distorted [He’stions against Duncanwere reported. the denied and ahalfbefore multiplesexual-harassment allega- amonthners AndrewDuncanandAlex Saksproducing, 2017withJune Picturespart-announced inSeptember tothisyear’sroad Premieres Thefilmwas section. bumpy hadanequally Steinem, tiple actresses portray #MeToo Taymor’s fallout. Glorias,” “The inwhichmul- I’m I’mability notbecause —notbecause awoman.” black, something upthat felt unsavory. of Igot my itbecause says. “Iwas notbroughtontoreplace James orpatch andthat’scame out], for metostress,” important Bravo there’s aneight-month window before [theallegations 76 FOCUS the charges) — dominated dealmaking forthe charges) dealmaking —dominated decades. But by morethan90womenor rape (Weinstein hasdenied execwhere thereviled —accused of sexual harassment stein-like filmexec, toresonate makingitcertain at afest Assistant,”“The whoseprotagonist works for aWein- certain films.” at Onewillbe ascreeningof Green’s momentaround moreof create animpactful “to panels Futures,Imagined toselectQ&Afilm by addingexperts inawayempowered, that’s become asassy trope.” I thinkit’s that we’re important notalways as portrayed “Part of thismovie was the#MeToo conversation, the#MeTooBut nofilmembodies perhaps erabetter tendsto to victim[hood], “Empowerment, asopposed Sundance fest directorJohn andprogram- Cooper “Unfortunately, whenallegations like that exist, [the Even feminist pioneerGloriaSteinemwasn’t spared “He wasn’t and therewhenIcameonboard, really Cooper saysCooper addressing they’re thisyear’s theme, SUNDANCE FILMFESTIVAL VARIETY sarily have to Variety in2018.“[Tak- be good. features ayoungHollywoodassistantdealingwithHarveyWeinstein-esquefilmexec. Matthew MacFadyenisoneofthetoplinersinKittyGreen’s“TheAssistant,”which CONVERSATION STARTERS exciting tome. That’s change.” real a queerwoman of color programmer[Yutani] is really among allcompetition titlesthisyear. we now “That have she says, astark contrast to the46%of women directors two movies made by women outof 16incompetition,” and Everyone We Know.” before makingher2005feature debutwith“MeandYou distribution programJoanie 4Jackie for adecade founded andrantheundergroundfemale filmmaker July (thePremieres crimedrama“Kajillionaire”), who these different workplaces,” shesays. the samestories were upallover popping theworld in women inseveral industries. 100 withnearly Green says itoninterviews shebased “The first timeIshowed upat“The Sundance, Ihadoneof And hiringYutani hasencouraged writer-director “We didtake inspiration fromtheWeinstein Co., [but]
TY JOHNSON/SUNDANCE INSTITUTE Untitled-25 1 1/17/20 10:06 AM FOCUS SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL
A GOOD ‘HAIR’ DAY
VARIETY’S CREATIVE IMPACT HONOREE JUSTIN SIMIEN RETURNS TO SUNDANCE WITH COMIC HORROR FILM
By Calum Marsh Photograph by Shayan Asgharnia
JUSTIN SIMIEN understands the value of a compelling story. Before he broke out with his award-winning indie sat- ire “Dear White People” in 2014, the 36-year-old Ameri- can filmmaker worked in publicity, doing gigs at studios including Paramount and Focus Features. It was this experience, working on massively successful hits such as “Brokeback Mountain” and “Paranormal Activity,” that taught Simien the art of selling an idea to an audience. “I learned that the story about the story is really important,” Simien says, as he prepares to bring his latest picture, the comic horror film “Bad Hair,” to Sundance. Variety is honoring him with its Creative Impact Award at the festival. “You have to prepare people to watch some- thing — not only help an audience find a film, but help them understand the kind of film they’re walking into. That was extremely enlightening.” Simien’s breakthrough was “Dear White People,” an acerbic comedy about black students enduring ignorance and racism on their predominantly white college cam- pus. The film’s progressive politics and mordant sense of humor are certainly familiar in the world of “Get Out” and “Sorry to Bother You,” but when Simien was trying to get the project off the ground at the start of the previous decade, he had a hard time selling it. “There was literally nothing in the marketplace like it at the time,” he says. “I instinctively knew that people wanted something like that — because I knew I wanted something like that. I knew it was speaking to some- thing in the culture, but it was difficult to explain. The explanations were a necessary part of that film’s life and trajectory.” Things have changed somewhat in the years since, for the better — as Simien notes, this kind of “millennial take on black experience in America” has been done so often Tipsheet Since “Dear White People” debuted, Simien has mainly since that “it’s almost passé now. But when I was trying been honing his chops as a director on his TV series of the WHAT: Variety bestows Creative to get that movie made, it felt impossible. Not only to get Impact Award on Justin Simien. same name. Netflix ordered a long-form adaptation of the financing, but to even argue that a movie like this could WHEN: Jan. 24 series in 2016, and Simien and his team are writing the be successful and that people would get it.” WHERE: Park City, Utah fourth — and he insists — final season. But while the success of films such as “Dear White Peo- WEB: variety.com “I haven’t said everything I want to say with this show ple” has helped get more movies about the black experi- yet, but I think after this season I’ll feel it’s complete,” ence made, Simien is quick to point out that this is “still Simien says. “I’ve been using the show as a laboratory as Hollywood,” with all that entails. “It’s still very difficult a director. I’m able to keep making cinema on a consistent being a person of color trying to tell stories about people basis with the series, even though it remains difficult to of color within the confines of the marketplace we’re in,” make actual feature films.” he says. “We’re still having the same conversations, trying His latest has been a long time coming. Indebted to to convince producers that people will show up for casts of “Rosemary’s Baby” and “The Stepford Wives,” among color.” other classic ’70s horror pics, “Bad Hair” is set in the late
78 VARIETY CONVERSATIONS AT SUNDANCE
MOISES ARIAS ZAZIE BEETZ RACHEL BROSNAHAN STEVE BUSCEMI HILLARY CLINTON GLENN CLOSE TONI COLLETTE WILLEM DAFOE BRYAN FOGEL JULIA GARNER ANNE HATHAWAY ETHAN HAWKE RICHARD JENKINS JOE KEERY JUDE LAW SOPHIA LILLIS DIEGO LUNA SIENNA MILLER LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA VIGGO MORTENSEN ELISABETH MOSS CAREY MULLIGAN DEE REES ANDY SAMBERG JUSTIN SIMIEN BILL SKARSGÅRD GLORIA STEINEM TESSA THOMPSON ST. VINCENT EVAN RACHEL WOOD
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FOLLOW US/ VARIETY #SUNDANCE #VARIETYSTUDIO ‘I wanted tomake an 80 forsee how “BadHair.” anaudience prepared willbe by therestand thendiscarded of society.” thatgroup of for people aresooften mined theirideas and Ifelt saidabout this tobe like somethingneeded thriller. I’m butI’m notablackwoman, ablackgay man, within thecontext engaging of psychological areally society. “Iwanted tomake anindictmentof thesystem in thiscase, it’s of about thetreatment blackwomen by built aroundit.” B-moviethose great concepts, world butwitharealistic astaple ofKoreanlong been horrorcinema.“It’s oneof murderous, whichSimiennoteshas wig, supernatural gets “aon herluck, literalkillerweave” —akindof cutthroat music-television world.” Theheroine, down 1980s inLosAngeles, as“the inwhat Simiendescribes Justin Simien psychological thriller.’ of anengaging within thecontext indictment ofthesystem FOCUS “Dear WhitePeople.” “Bad HairDay”(top)and Justin Simienhelmed THE NEWSTYLE For that’s Simien, thestory. about thestory Andyou can As in“Get Out,” theme, thereisastrong social — too SUNDANCE FILMFESTIVAL VARIETY scared ofallthedifferent elementsthatIhad modulate herperformance for thescreen. torelaxZainab Jahwithhelpingherlearn and Ntareand co-stars GumaMbahoMwineand on camera.Shecredits director Ekwa Msangi film, italsorepresented herfirsttimeacting the country. With theexception ofastudent and kizomba,astyleofdancepopularizedin required Lawson tomasteranAngolanaccent month’s SundanceFilm Festival. Thefilm were firstseparated,willdebutatthis they two after nearly decades United States lan CivilWar andtheirdifficult reunion inthe drama aboutafamily by torn apart theAngo- “Farewellmilestone. Amor,” alow-budget she’scountry), upfor gearing anothercareer adventure isfilming(herfirsttimeoutofthe offto she heads London where thesuperhero recognizableinstantly face. Buteven before nymity before “TheBatman” makes heran can changeinaninstant.” andinyourimportant dreams, everything if you keep investing inthethingsthatare outlookinglikestart it’s goingoneway, but ataBrooklynan interview coffee shop. role inMattReeves’ “TheBatman.” andakeycide/When theRainbow IsEnuf” “For Colored GirlsWhoHave Considered Sui- inthePublicTheater’s part a showy revival of Amor.” shenabbed Then,inquicksuccession, later, shewas castinherfirstindie,“Farewell Lawson graduatedfrom Juilliard. Amonth impressive array ofaccomplishments.InMay, transpired over thepast12months.Itwas an wanted thathad tooutlineallthebigchanges Jayme Lawson satdown tomake alist.She RIGHT BEFORE NEWYEAR’S DAY JAYME LAWSON BOWS ‘FAREWELL AMOR’ AS BLOCKBUSTERS BECKON FROM PARK CITY TO GOTHAM TO CITY PARK FROM
“I was nervous,” says Lawson. “Iwas so Lawson isenjoying herlastgaspsofano- “It's how your trulyatestament life can “It’s beenquiteayear,” Lawson says during By BrentLang ,
Lawson says. ture hadInotany experience at all,” way more scared tobejoiningthisbigven- beforehand,well Amor’ becauseIwould be Colin Farrell (thePenguin). (the Riddler),Zoe Kravitz and (Catwoman) will play thetitlerole, aswell asPaulDano with A-listers suchasRobert Pattinson,who man” willrequire Lawson toholdherown was just,‘Oh thankGod,Ihave anotherjob.’” moved on.Inthatmoment,my firstthought she was atthegym,finishingupaworkout. ent roles. Whenshegot thecallinNovember, York inSeptember, reading for several differ- rounds ofauditions for “TheBatman” inNew process theturnofevents. Shedidtwo higher. Rightnow, shesays shecan’t even evensucceeds, itshouldpushthisrisingstar even say whatrole she’ll play. Butifthefilm man” iscloaked insecrecy. Lawson can’t andtime.Thatmakestance ituniversal.” by thescarsleft this family dis- toheal trying tomaketrying endsmeet.It’s mostlyabout focused of ontheirimmediatechallenges trauma they’re It’s escaping. noteven before,” shesays. “It’s notfocused onthe it provided auniqueperspective. mute,” shejokes. from where Lawson lives. “Itwas anicecom- Heights, andwas primarilyshotblocks away buildings, streets andbodegasofCrown “Farewell unfolds Amor” intheapartment in onmy firstfilm.” to juggle.Iwas like, we’re goingtopackitall “I’m sorelieved thatI was abletodo‘Fare- course,it’sOf notjustany gig.“TheBat- “I was shocked,” shesays. “Ithoughtthey'd As withmostcomic-bookmovies, “TheBat- “It’s thatIhadn't animmigrantstory seen Lawson was drawn totheproject because wereOther thingsaboutthestory familiar. DEPARTURES ANDARRIVALS Jamye Lawson(right)stars in “FarewellAmor.”
FAREWELL AMOR: BRUCE FRANCIS COLE/SUNDANCE INSTITUTE; LAWSON: TODD ESTRIN; BAD HAIR: SUNDANCE INSTITUTE; DEAR WHITE PEOPLE: ASHLEY BEREIS NGUYEN/LIONSGATE CONNECT WITH THE ENTERTAINMENT & MEDIA COMMUNITY
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SLAMDANCE FESTIVAL CONTINUES TO ELEVATE EMERGING TALENTS By Nick Clement
FOR 26 YEARS, debuting filmmakers have traversed the the overall quality of the work is getting better and better wintry landscape of Park City, Utah, to screen their films at due to more accessible tools being made available to film- the Slamdance Film Festival, and this year’s crop of selec- makers,” she says. tions promises to showcase significant talent. Taking place Last year’s sensation was “The Vast of Night,” a small- Jan. 24-30, this celebration of cinema continues to be, as town science-fiction drama that became one of the Peter Baxter, co-founder and president, calls it, “the pre- most-discussed films in recent years at Slamdance. Direc- mier film festival by filmmakers and for filmmakers,” with tor Andrew Patterson signed with WME, and the movie an emphasis on creating a community for emerging inde- was purchased by Amazon, which will release it this year. pendent artists. “We’re an artist-led festival where every- Patterson also struck a development deal with the stream- one nurtures each other’s visions, while always looking for ing outlet, and will be participating in a master class new ways to explore and evolve as storytellers.” panel at which he’ll discuss his journey, alongside Ted The 2020 feature competition boasts 16 premieres, Hope, co-head of movies at Amazon. with projects originating from Belarus, Canada, Germany, “There was tremendous passion over ‘The Vast of Japan, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Russia, South Africa and Night,’ and every year there’s that breakout film with that the United States. As always, all films are feature-length flashpoint moment of excitement about a new directorial debuts with budgets of less than $1 mil- filmmaker. We can’t wait to see what that is this year,” lion and that lack U.S. distribution. “We’ve been work- Baxter says. ing behind the scenes year-round to ensure that we have “Big Fur,” a quirky documentary with tons of heart and another fantastic festival. We’re always looking for strong humor from director Dan Wayne, has definite break-out and distinct storytelling voices,” says Alina Solodnikova, potential given the cult-y subject matter. festival manager. “I set out to make a movie about taxidermy and it Titles were selected by a team of Slamdance alumni ended up taking unexpected detours into the subculture via a blind submission process, after which it was up to of Bigfoot,” Wayne says. He’d “never thought twice about Solodnikova to begin the programming process. MR. BIG STUFF Bigfoot before. It’s a fascinating world that I knew “We received 2,000 more submissions this year than Dan Wayne’s taxidermy nothing about, but now of course I’m immersed in it. doc “Big Fur” takes last year — 8,000 in total — making it an extremely chal- detours into the I’m excited about screening in Park City because this lenging year to decide on what to ultimately program, as culture of Bigfoot. project always felt like a Slamdance movie.” DAN WAYNE/WEDGE FILMS WAYNE/WEDGE DAN
82 VARIETY Untitled-25 1 1/15/20 9:57 AM FOCUS SLAMDANCE FILM FESTIVAL
“Sammy-Gate,” from director Noel Lawrence, who on the creators of the Spike & Mike Film Festival, and co-wrote the script with Darius James, is a dark satire an overall greater emphasis placed on of psychedelic history, revolving around the unique animated content in general. relationship between Sammy Davis Jr. and Richard Nixon. Notable Slamdance alumni who first gained notice It questions whether the entertainer had anything to at the festival include Ana Lily Amirpour (“A Girl do with Watergate. The film, which will world premiere at Walks Home Alone at Night”), Ari Aster (“Midsom- the 2020 Rotterdam Film Festival, was a true Slamdance mar”), Sean Baker (“The Florida Project”), Bong Joon community collaboration, as Baxter served as Ho (“Parasite,” “Okja”), Dana Nachman (“Pick of the an executive producer. Litter”), Christopher Nolan (“Dunkirk”), Jeremy Saul- “‘Sammy-Gate’ is an example of how Slamdance’s ‘by Tipsheet nier (“Green Room”), Lynn Shelton (“Sword of Trust”) filmmakers for filmmakers’ ethos continues to work year- and Marina Zenovich (“Robin Williams: Come Inside My WHAT: Slamdance Film Festival round,” Baxter says. “Though film culture tends to focus Mind”). WHEN: Jan. 24-30 on the director, filmmaking is a collective effort. It espe- WHERE: Park City, Utah “This is a place of discovery, and every year cially matters on a microbudget project without commer- WEB: slamdance.com filmmakers emerge from the festival and the industry cial or institutional support, essentially being forged into takes notice. These are fiercely independent film existence through sheer willpower and creative labor.” makers taking risks and getting their stories told,” Lothar Herzog’s “1986” puts a genre spin on topical says Baxter. material, centering on a woman who must repeatedly drive into the “forbidden zone” of Chernobyl in order to make shady deals for her father, with her life seemingly becoming more and more contaminated by a destructive force. “It will be great to show the film outside of Europe, as I’m curious to see the American response to the story,” Herzog says. “My hope is that people who enjoyed the television series ‘Chernobyl’ will be interested to see more of the historical facts about that incident, except set 30 years later.” “Tapeworm,” from filmmakers Milos Mitrovic and Fabian Velasco, is a witty, multicharacter Canadian com- edy that uses style to inform its content. “We shot the film on Super 16, which gave it a great texture with lots of grain. We really wanted to make a film that showed how bleak it can be to live in Canada. We’ve been making movies for 10 years, and we put so much of our passion for cinema into this project, so it’s very special,” Mitro- vic says. The 2020 shorts lineup will showcase 81 films in six categories from 26 countries around the world, and will include 18 world, 10 North American and 11 U.S. premieres. Shorts in the narrative, documentary and animation sections are eligible for the 2020 Oscar quali- fying competition. “It’s an exciting time for short filmmakers because some of these projects end up getting developed into features or a television series. There are so many outlets out there for content,” says Baxter. The Russo Fellowship returns for its third year, again giving out a $25,000 grand prize to a deserving film- maker, and the opportunity to continue their journey with mentorship from festival alumni Anthony and Joe Russo. The 2019 fellowship was awarded to Hannah Peterson, who has since screened her short, “East of the River,” at the Tribeca Film Festival, and has signed with Paradigm for representation. She’s also been hired by the Duplass brothers to direct the Disney Channel web series, “Shook.” The festival will also bring back its popular Break- outs section. Launched in 2019, Breakouts are films by NEW VOICES feature directors who are no longer rookies and who “East of the River” (top), “Sammy-Gate” demonstrate a determined vision that is instinctively and “Tapeworm” all becoming their own by pushing the expected boundar- hope to break out at ies of content and form. There will also be a Special Mid- Slamdance. night Screening of “Animation Outlaws,” which centers EAST OF THE RIVER: CHRISTOPHER MESSINA/SLAMDANCE; SAMMY-GATE, TAPEWORM: SLAMDANCE (2) SLAMDANCE TAPEWORM: SAMMY-GATE, MESSINA/SLAMDANCE; CHRISTOPHER OF THE RIVER: EAST
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Drive up California’s iconic ribbon of bedrooms ranging from 2,810 to 5,017 Pacific Coast Highway, off the golden square feet, each residence presents avenue known as Sunset Boulevard, high-end finishes and exquisite and you’ll discover One Coast’s enclave interiors that serve as the ultimate of beautiful townhomes and single- canvas for a glamorous soirée or a level flats tucked into the bluffs night of relaxing alike. And the all- overlooking the ocean. Beyond a 24/7 encompassing sense of ease? It’s guarded entrance — the first of the further amplified by One Coast’s lock- many five-star features that afford and-leave services and amenities. Allow dwellers priceless peace of mind — dedicated elevators to sweep you One Coast’s modern architectural style from your 2- or 3-car garage straight is revealed, boasting seamless indoor- to your front doorstep. Gather at the outdoor living spaces that celebrate an observation deck’s citadel for fireside idyllic Golden State lifestyle. sips, hand over your daily to-do list to Here, wake to dramatic ocean vistas personalized concierge services, and framed by window walls. Meander reach Pacific Palisades’ best beaches among airy, well-appointed interiors via controlled hillside access. and savor the West Coast’s most As one can imagine, claiming a home breathtaking sunsets and sea breezes in the Pacific Palisades between Malibu from expansive outdoor spaces — and Santa Monica means easy access which, for most top-floor residences, to LA’s most sought-after destinations, is a rooftop deck fit to accommodate with coveted restaurants and golden sands to its coastal headlands— For more information on One Coast, spas and barbecues. entertainment available at your whim. with simplicity. call 310.230.0101 or email Designed to impress in both scale At One Coast, luxuriate in California’s Priced from the high $2 millions. [email protected] and design, with the three- to five- most iconic natural wonders—from its Opening this spring. liveonecoast.com
Two- to five-bedroom townhomes and single-level flats starting in the high $2 Millions. Anticipated occupancy Spring 2020. Schedule your private showing today. VARIETY.COM/REAL-ESTATE 310.230.0101 | [email protected] | liveonecoast.com
$OOLQIRUPDWLRQ LQFOXGLQJEXWQRWOLPLWHGWRSULFHVFXUUHQWYLHZVDYDLODELOLW\VFKRRODVVLJQPHQWVDQGUDWLQJV%URNHUSURJUDPVLQFHQWLYHVȵRRUSODQVVLWHSODQVIHDWXUHVVWDQGDUGVDQGRSWLRQVDVVHVVPHQWVDQGIHHVSODQQHGDPHQLWLHVSURJUDPVFRQFHSWXDODUWLVWVȇUHQGHULQJV and community development plans) is not guaranteed and remains subject to change, availability or delay without notice. Community improvements, recreational features and amenities described may not be an actual representation and are based upon current development plans which are subject to change and which are under no obligation to be completed. Maps and plans are not to scale. Square footage and all dimensions are approximate and may vary in actual construction. As-Built Condition will control. Prices may not include lot premiums, XSJUDGHVDQGRSWLRQV&RPPXQLW\$VVRFLDWLRQRURWKHUIHHVPD\EHUHTXLUHG$FWXDOSRVLWLRQRIKRXVHRQORWZLOOEHGHWHUPLQHGE\WKHVLWHSODQDQGSORWSODQ$OOLOOXVWUDWLRQVDUHDUWLVWȇVFRQFHSWVRQO\QRWWRVFDOHDQGVXEMHFWWRFKDQJHLQDFWXDOSURGXFWLRQ0DUNHWLQJPDWHULDOV GRQRWUHȵHFWDUDFLDODJHIDPLOLDOVWDWXVRUHWKQLFSUHIHUHQFH)ORRUSODQVDQGHOHYDWLRQVDUHDQDUWLVWȇVFRQFHSWLRQDQGDUHQRWLQWHQGHGWRVKRZVSHFLȴFGHWDLOLQJ)ORRUSODQVDUHWKHSURSHUW\RIHWFR+20(6DQGLWVDɝOLDWHVDQGDUHSURWHFWHGE\86FRS\ULJKWODZV1RSXUFKDVH DJUHHPHQWPD\EHQHJRWLDWHGRUVLJQHGE\DSURVSHFWLYHEX\HUIRUWKHSXUFKDVHRIDKRPHXQWLOWKHFRPPXQLW\ȇVDSSOLFDEOHFRQGLWLRQDORUȴQDOSXEOLFUHSRUWKDVEHHQLVVXHGE\WKH'HSDUWPHQWRI5HDO(VWDWH &DO'5( 7KLVLVQRWDQRHULQJLQDQ\VWDWHZKHUHSURKLELWHGRURWKHUZLVH UHVWULFWHGE\ODZ&DO'5(OLFHQVHkHWFR+20(6 JANUARY 21, 2020 JANUARY
90 SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION
WWINTERINTER REAL ESTATE GUIDE Stonewall Pond, Martha’s Vineyard
TEA LANE ASSOCIATES, CHILMARK, MA
This spectacular waterfront house first-floor views of Stonewall Pond oboist with the Boston Symphony Together they create a five-bedroom and guest house in Chilmark is sited and the Atlantic, while the rooftop Orchestra and conductor of the family compound that allows both on nearly four private acres, with deck offers 360 degree views Boston Pops. Upgraded in 2017, the separation and the ability to come breathtaking yet intimate water views encompassing Quitsa Pond and the open floor plan and extensive south- together at any time. Relax in the across Stonewall Pond out to the ocean. Formerly the boathouse to the facing windows maximize the views. serene setting or enjoy sailing, Atlantic Ocean. Walk to the water’s property, the guesthouse is perched A field-stone fireplace anchors the kayaking, swimming and paddle edge and take in the beauty nature on the water’s edge over Stonewall great room, making it warm and boarding directly from your yard. offers in your front yard. Walk, boat Pond, offering a unique experience inviting at any time of year. The guest Boat from Stonewall Pond out to or drive to your private association close to nature. Both homes have house was lovingly transformed, Quitsa, Menemsha and the Vineyard ocean beach nearby. been expanded and upgraded but creating a full kitchen with a private Sound. Whether you are enjoying a The property consists of a three- retain their original charm. bedroom, bathroom, living room, sunrise or sunset, the ever-changing bedroom, three-bath main house The current owners call the main sleeping loft and waterfront deck. views will always amaze you. This and a two-bedroom, one-bath guest house “Lenom”, after the former These two homes, with their property is on the market for the house. The main house has stunning owner Clement Lenom, a well known unique vistas, are privately situated. first time in over 50 years. Exclusively offered for $4,950,000.
www.tealaneassociates.com/ stonewallpond
TEA LANE ASSOCIATES o: 508.696.9999 e: [email protected] www.tealaneassociates.com VARIETY.COM/REAL-ESTATE Tea Lane Associates Luxury Sales and Rentals
508.696.9999 West Tisbury tealaneassociates.com 508.645.2628 Chilmark JANUARY 21, 2020 JANUARY
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The advent of 3D technology helped in terms of time and efficiency on the set of Designers Create Big “1917.” Versluis knew he couldn’t live-cast the number of people the shoot required, so he and his crew used a 3D model of a Body of Work for ‘1917’ generic human, cut it into sections, and replicated body bits such as arms and tor- FINDING WAYS TO MAKE CASUALTIES LOOK REAL KEPT SPECIAL sos. “We could make lots of joints, and we could make them quickly,” he notes. EFFECTS MAKEUP TEAM BUSY ON WWI EPIC By Jazz Tangcay Being able to show their ideas to Mendes on a computer helped speed production, PRIOR TO WORKING ON “1917,” special Versluis and his team had to change their Versluis says. “We also modeled the horses effects artist Tristan Versluis had designed approach to their work. Instead of pros- in 3D positions lying down. Sam signed off no more than five or six corpses. But thetic pieces for front or back camera and we took them to print.” Sam Mendes, director of the WWI drama, angles, he opted to use full dummies. Research was integral to the process. which has garnered 10 Oscar nomina- “We had 360-degree shots. The camera Over the years, Versluis had built up a back tions, needed Versluis, who picked up one could turn anywhere,” says Versluis, who catalog of images of real corpses, which of those noms in the hair and makeup cate- was introduced to Mendes via hair and came in handy when his team hadto start gory, to create 30 corpses and dead horses, makeup artist Naomi Donne. The two had designing the various stages of decay. The all at different stages of decomposition. worked together on Julius Avery’s 2018 art department also provided him with It was important that entire corpses action-horror film “Overlord.” research, as did on-set historian Andrew rather than just body parts were created Versluis, whose credits also include Robertshaw. “We could sit down with him to allow Mendes to make changes when “Game of Thrones” and Tim Burton’s and quiz him about anything. We got as it came to shooting. “We had to be able 2007 “Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber much factual research as we could,” Ver- to turn the bodies and move them in of Fleet Street,” has seen prosthetic DRAMATIC EFFECTS sluis says, adding that Google turned out ase any tweaks needed to be done,” material change over the years. Silicone, George MacKay fords a to be helpful with images of rotting horses Versluis explains. for instance, has gotten lighter, he says. river strewn with war and humans. casualties — dummies And because the director decided to “You can get close to the consistency of created by the hair Krysty Wilson-Cairns, who shares assemble the film as one continuous shot, human skin.” and makeup team. credit — and an Oscar nom — with Mendes FRANÇOIS DUHAMEL/UNIVERSAL PICTURES PICTURES FRANÇOIS DUHAMEL/UNIVERSAL
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for writing the script, read the diary of a World War I soldier who compared decomposing bodies with rotting cheese. In the film, there’s a moment where the soldiers are crossing through muddy waters, and as protagonist Lance Cpl. Schofield (played by George MacKay) places his hand down for balance, it plunges into a corpse. “We nicknamed it the Camembert Man,” says Versluis, whose own research was particularly use- ful when preparing for the scene toward the end of the movie in which Schofield is swimming in a river and reaches a bank of dead soldiers. MADE TO ORDERER Mendes shot the scenes in the Tees The suits for Matthewhew McConaughey’s drug kingpinpin River, and the team had to anchor the Mickey Pearson mix Englishish dummies so they wouldn’t float away. tailoring with a modern fit.it. The idea was to depict soldiers who had been tossed in the water or had died and floated, piling up against the bank in a tableau of the casualties of war. Class Style Defines Guy “We shot that over a few days,” Versluis says. “The real river debris collected and added to that reality. But it was just so Ritchie’s ‘The Gentlemen’ incredible to design that sequence. Sam got emotional when we shot that.” Designer team delivers a heightened aesthetic for the clothes and sets of crime drama
BEAKER OF HOPE By Jazz Tangcay Rosamund Pike in “Radioactive” FOR GUY RITCHIE’S NEWEST crime-meets- things down in realism. Wilkinson calls Jack- action film “The Gentlemen,” about an Amer- son’s design sensibility “witty and fun,” add- ican drug kingpin living in Britain and trying ing, “She’s great at capturing the essence of to sell his business, the director turned to his modern London.” “Aladdin” team of costume designer Michael Jackson’s color palette had dark and lush Wilkinson and production designer Gemma tones. The apartment of Hunnam’s Ray was Jackson. But the backgrounds and looks they painted a deep eggplant and a vibrant blue. created had less to do with Arabian Nights “Much of this set was shot at night, which than with an irreverent, heightened portrayal made the color even richer,” Jackson says. of the British class system seen in earlier “As you step out with Fletcher [Grant] to cook Ritchie films like his career breakout, “Lock, his steak, it was a perfect visual transition Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.” into dark greens and the deep night.” HAIR-RAISING Wilkinson produced many of the ensem- Both Jackson and Wilkinson chose to keep bles from scratch, including those for Mickey their colors muted. “That helped with the Makeup artist Tristan Versluis has worked on a Pearson, the wealthy drug lord (played by visual storytelling of this unsavory tale,” number of notable fantasy and action projects. Matthew McConaughey); his right-hand man says Jackson. Radioactive Harry Potter (Charlie Hunnam); a mob boss (Henry Gold- Jackson used the film as an opportunity to 2019 and the Deathly ing); a street gang leader (Colin Farrell) and feature London in a new light. While a news- Director: Hallows: Part 1 a working-class narrator (a cast-against-type paper office shows the ultra-familiar view of Marjane Satrapi 2010 Director: Hugh Grant). “Each character has an iconic, the River Thames and the city, other iconic Game of Thrones David Yates memorable look — a little larger than life,” he locations include Billingsgate Fish Market 2014-16 says. “We had fun with the costume choices.” and the pitch at Emirates Stadium, home to 20 episodes The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Fit and fabric selection was key to the class the Arsenal soccer team. The film’s produc- The Revenant Caspian 2008 distinctions. “Matthew McConaughey’s suits tion crew helped the locations pop. “They 2015 Director: were chosen to exemplify classic English tai- had this great innate style, but they still Director: Andrew Adamson Alejandro G. Iñárritu loring, but the silhouettes had a more relaxed needed work from myself and my art depart- Sweeney Todd: modern shape,” Wilkinson says. Similarly, his ment,” Jackson says. 2014 Ex Machina The Demon Barber team designed and manufactured the plaid To build Mickey’s weed empire, the pro- Director: of Fleet Street Alex Garland 2007 tracksuits worn by Farrell’s Coach and the duction designer researched cannabis farm- Director: outfits of his street gang, the Toddlers. “We ing, which led to her discovering the practice 2013 World War Z Tim Burton based them on classic English suiting fabrics, of subterranean container installations. So Director: Marc Forster Hot Fuzz 2007 which we then enlarged, made more vibrant Jackson set out to build an underground sys- Director: and printed onto a modern quilted technical tem of subterfuge. “It added a sense of magic The Dark Knight Edgar Wright fabric,” Wilkinson explains. and hallucination to a world that existed Rises (2012) Director: Whether it was production design or cos- beneath this old paddock somewhere in the
Christopher Nolan tume design, it was important not to bog countryside,” she says. STUDIOS AMAZON RADIOACTIVE: ENTERTAINMENT; RAPHAEL/STX THE GENTLEMEN: CHRISTOPHER
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Artisans Add Spark to LIGHT SHOW Ethan Hawke stars as inventor Nikola Tesla in Michael Almereyda’s film, which DP Park City Film Festival Sean Price Williams filmed with a dark, period feel.
Below-the-line artists share creative visions behind buzzy Sundance titles
By Daron James
AT THIS YEAR’S SUNDANCE, 118 features is inspired by the young couple she and her will make their debut. Here are five hotly husband take in as boarders. anticipated films that will be in the mix and Composer Tamar-kali conjured the sto- some of the artisans behind them. ry’s music. “Josephine [Decker, the director] was very interested in the female voice, and BAD HAIR (Midnight) as a vocalist, I was able to go to a place that Costume designer Ceci reconnects with I wouldn’t normally go,” says the musician, Justin Simien (“Dear White People”) on who added a string quartet, piano and other a satirical horror set in 1989 Los Ange- synthetic elements to the track. “Because les, where ambitious Anna (Elle Lorraine) it’s a psychological thriller, I needed to hopes to be the next on-air talent for a create layers, as so much is going on inside music video TV show. Her new boss, Zora of Moss’ portrayal of the character.” (Vanessa Williams) wants Anna to change her natural hair, and she acquiesces by get- TESLA (Premieres) ting a weave. One problem: The strands Director Michael Almereyda tapped cinema- have a mind of their own. tographer Sean Price Williams (“Marjorie Ceci fully developed the look of each Prime”) to invent the visual grammar of this individual role down to the smallest detail. film about inventor Nikola Tesla. “My intention is that the viewer can read- Williams paired a Sony Venice camera ily identify, relate or understand who the with smoothing Super Baltar lenses to pho- characters are and the story being told,” tograph the period film with a stylish yet she says. “Before Anna gets her first weave, mannered frame that added scope to the her wardrobe is reflective of her ethnocen- ambitious project. For lighting, the DP used tric upbringing coupled with her homespun, tungsten and LED fixtures on some scenes, WENDY (Premieres) budget-conscious, individual style.” with others featuring candlelight. “The look “Beasts of the Southern Wild” director Benh does have a dark quality to it, but you feel Zeitlin returns to Sundance with an imagi- SHIRLEY (U.S. Dramatic Competition) the fire and the heat of the lights through native adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan.” Based on the book by Susan Scarf Merrell, the warm color palette,” he says. “We wanted Guiding its eye-popping aesthetic was this adaptation adds an atmosphere of psy- to be faithful to the time, but we did take production designer Eliza Zeitlin, who chological menace to the tale of a writer liberties in props and history. We were not co-wrote the screenplay with her brother. (played by Elisabeth Moss) whose new novel strapped to the period.” The buried city of Plymouth on the island of Montserrat became a central part of the
1 2 3 4 story, with a homogeneous color palette underlining the look. The philosophy was to IN PRODUCTION build complete sets. “It allows the children and non-actors the freedom to move around and for the camera to capture unexpected
Grace and Sulphur Springs Maternal Fatman things,” says the production designer, who Frankie DISNEY CHANNEL not only constructed 360-degree sets but (SEASON 7)/NETFLIX sank a 50-foot salvage boat and hand-built a giant underwater puppet. “I’m always GENRE Comedy Drama Horror Comedy adamant about it being the real thing,” she PRODUCTION Skydance Media Disney Channels Worldwide, Ideal Entertainment, Rough House Pictures adds. “The emotional impact is just deeper.” Gwave Prods. Red Hill Entertainment, 16/11 Films WORTH (Premieres) Editor Julia Bloch balanced pacing with DIRECTOR/ Marta Kauffman, Howard J. Chuck Pratt (showrunner), Megan Follows (director) Eshom Nelms, Ian Nelms emotion to detail a narrative about a lawyer SHOWRUNNER Morris (showrunners) Jennifer Phang (pilot (directors) appointed to distribute funds to 9/11 victims. director) “The lead character [played by Michael Keaton] is someone who’s routine-oriented and unflappable. His comfort zone is cal- CAST Jane Fonda [1], Lily Tomlin Kyliegh Curran [2], Amybeth McNulty [3] Mel Gibson [4] Preston Oliver culators and spreadsheets, but when he comes face-to-face with the victims, he’s a SHOOT START 1/27 2/3 1/26 1/29 little lost for words,” notes Bloch. “As a law- yer, his very definition of ‘winning’ changes: LOCATION Los Angeles New OrleansHamilton, Ontario Ottawa It becomes not just about the numbers but
Data provided by Variety Insight. For a complete list of films in production, visit varietyinsight.com. what he needs to do to help the people.” CURRAN: JOHN SALANGSANG/SHUTTERSTOCK; ANDREW H. WALKER/SHUTTERSTOCK; FONDA: ENTERTAINMENT; TESLA: HOWE/GEM CARA BARON/SHUTTERSTOCK GIBSON: MATT GOLDBERG/SHUTTERSTOCK; SHAWN MCNULTY:
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THE GOOP LIFE Gwyneth Paltrow is the host of the Netflix unscripted series.
TV REVIEW documenting her post-science pursuit of their lives have been changed by it. BY DANIEL D’ADDARIO an optimized life, she’s a diffident presence, It all goes down so smoothly that there is allowing her employees to receive various legitimate cause for concern, as when a guest The Goop wellness treatments while she observes preaching the power of psychedelic mush- them. But perhaps the greatest sign of her rooms criticizes the use of psychiatric medi- success in using the aspects about her cation, noting, “As a culture, we’re hungry for Lab that some cannot stand is that although something to help us heal.” (The presump- she herself is often absent, her sensibil- tion that antidepressant SSRIs, for instance, ity is recognizable, and — on the show as, don’t do exactly that is somehow still disap- increasingly, in our culture at large — it is pointing despite how obvious it seems that DOCU-SERIES: NETFLIX (SIX EPISODES; everywhere. Our perception of Paltrow may it’d be put forth here.) On at least one occa- ALL REVIEWED); JAN. 24 WITH: GWYNETH PALTROW, ELISE LOEHNEN not be positive, but “The Goop Lab” makes sion (the episode dealing with female sexual clear we’re swimming in the culture she health), the topic of the day is legitimate and personifies. worthy, as if to inoculate the show against “The Goop Lab” follows a relatively charges of pseudoscience. Other times, it’s “BEING THE PERSON PEOPLE BELIEVE ME unadorned format: A self-styled expert on less troubling than daffy, as when a medium to be,” Gwyneth Paltrow says in the first epi- a method of healing or growth that exists compares those who don’t believe in psy- sode of her new unscripted series, “is inher- beyond known boundaries shows up at the chics to flat-earthers: “Ideas are laughed ently traumatic.” Goop offices — a sort of Wonka chocolate at before they’re accepted, right?” To all of The fact that this remark will likely factory of California boho culture, with rose- these visitors, Paltrow exhibits a creamy, induce eye rolls proves the point. Paltrow, toned upholstery and leafy plants framing implacable curiosity, stopping short of ever in her period of fame as perhaps the most all who enter — to speak with Paltrow and seeming truly sated by what she learns or of prominent embodiment of wellness culture, her top editorial staffer, Elise Loehnen. The giving much insight into the ways in which is followed as or more closely by detrac- expert explains his or her methods, often the projects intersect with her own life. We tors as admirers. Enduring life as both per- taking a shot at the medical establishment, meet her as ringleader but not, really, as par- son and persona has its purposes though: and then Paltrow’s employees try out a ticipant; her quest perpetually goes on. For one thing, it can be weaponized. On version of the practice, interspersed with This, perhaps, is what the general cri- “The Goop Lab,” Paltrow’s new Netflix show testimonials from non-Goopers about how tique of Paltrow tends to miss: She is widely ADAM ROSE/NETFLIX ADAM
VARIETY 99 REVIEWS
“Snake oil was Paltrow, in her thrillingly flat, disengaged FILM REVIEW tone, says, “Oh, I’m back to my french fries,” BY OWEN GLEIBERMAN successful long a statement that so contradicts what came before Paltrow before as to make a fitting end to the epi- Bad Boys sode. Why go on from there? discovered it.” These are the moments Paltrow’s crit- ics tend to grab onto — when the avatar of a for Life sort of superior wholesomeness insists, to a perceived as a self-satisfied or smug celeb- less than perfectly convincing degree, that rity evangelist, but it is hard to recall a pub- she still eats junk food. But “The Goop Lab” DIRECTORS: ADIL EL ARBI, BILALL FALLAH lic figure who has made more grist out of also makes evident what Paltrow’s ultimate, WITH: WILL SMITH, MARTIN LAWRENCE, VANESSA being dissatisfied with herself. Loehnen powerful advantage is. Insisting on certain HUDGENS, JACOB SCIPIO refers to her boss as “G.P. — Guinea Pig,” truths — that existing on soup and tea is not and the analogy is apt: Paltrow’s entire healthy, that pharmaceuticals help people in body of work in the time since she’s largely ways mushrooms or doing yoga in the snow walked away from acting has been an obses- cannot, that many psychics are charlatans — “BAD BOYS FOR LIFE” is the sort of thing sively granular remaking of herself, a proj- is productive. But anyone who’s ever fanta- we’re going to be seeing more and more of: ect about which she uses Goop to beam out sized about self-improvement may be able the sequel to a long-dormant franchise that updates. (The brand has risen to great suc- to see how it seems not just unsporting but may now be an all-too-obvious cash grab, cess thanks to general interest in Paltrow’s grimly humorless to press the point in the but doesn’t play that way. Will Smith and body and what she does to it, but one senses face of Paltrow’s pose of simple curiosity and Martin Lawrence bring their A game, never she’d be doing this regardless.) One of the just-asking-questions. There’s a reason that letting us feel like they’re going through most striking elements of “The Goop Lab” snake oil was successful long before Paltrow the motions. They hit their marks with fury is the rare “experiment” in which Paltrow discovered it: Slick things are shiny too. and flair. takes part, a “fast-mimicking diet” in which “The Goop Lab” is only the latest iteration The buddy movie as we know it came she seems to subsist off soup brewed from — a word Paltrow, with her Silicon Valley-bor- into being in 1969, kicked off by “Butch Cas- powders and tea. In one self-shot video, rowed tendency to treat the human body as sidy and the Sundance Kid.” Over the next Paltrow says to the camera, “I feel oddly a tech problem, might particularly appreci- decade, films like “The Sting” and “Thun- weak,” before being corrected by her hus- ate — of a long-term trend in American life. derbolt and Lightfoot” became a new kind band, Brad Falchuk, that there’s nothing odd The lack of understanding of humanity’s one of bromantic caper, exciting and even dra- about it at all. Wrapped in a chunky sweater unfixable bug, that we all must die, is a lacuna matic in a loose, joshing, nimble-spirited she can’t stop pulling around herself, she that is easily filled with charisma. Paltrow way. In the ’80s, the era of “48 HRS.” and the tells her daughter Apple, “I’m dying for chia is a compelling host — not giving too much “Lethal Weapon” films, the genre evolved pudding. Nothing has ever sounded more of herself away, ever stopping short of pure into a crackerjack breed of racially hostile decadent or delicious to me.” endorsement of any topic even as she gives action cop comedy — amped formula fun There’s a chilly blast of reality here: A it air — on what is a carefully structured, ele- that was, in its way, starting to fray around Hollywood star who looks like Paltrow does gantly built, compulsively watchable show the edges. By the time of “Bad Boys,” in so because she goes on fasts, and looping about, mainly, complete nonsense. No won- 1995, it had become an almost self-referen- her teenage daughter in on the process is der she makes people so very mad, and too tial form of escapism, one that now played just what comes naturally. (Paltrow admits bad getting mad at someone who insists she’s like carbonated nostalgia for the ’80s. in the episode that she restricts her food just trying to figure things out like you are is Produced by Don Simpson and Jerry intake frequently, a habit her children hate about the least effective tactic available. Pal- Bruckheimer, “Bad Boys” was Michael Bay’s because of its effect on her mood.) After trow may still be on her quest. But she’s got a first film as a director, and just hearing that one period of privation (which a blood few things totally figured out. can make you wistful for the Hollywood that
draw suggests has added years to her life CREDITS: Executive producers: Gwyneth Paltrow, Elise Loehnen, existed before Michael Bay. So what does Shauna Minoprio, Andrew Fried, Dane Lillegard. 30 MIN. — a claim it barely feels worth contesting), With: Gwyneth Paltrow, Elise Loehnen that make the reuniting of Smith and Law- rence as middle-aged cops, with 25 years of grudges and tough love between them, in “Bad Boys for Life”? In its grabby open- ing sequence, the film invites us to expe- rience it as a throwback to the ’90s — the nostalgia equivalent of a double-stuffed ice cream cake. Miami narcotics detec- tives Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Bur- nett (Lawrence) are racing around in Mike’s glinting blue Porsche, doing hairpin turns in the sun (actually, Mike is racing; Marcus is getting ready to throw up), with lots of room for bad-boy banter so corny it’s camp. (To a crowd of white people on a beach: “We’re not just black! We’re cops too!” “We’ll pull ourselves over later!”) JUST CURIOUS If that’s all the movie was — a copy of a Paltrow with Goop copy, implanted with jokes about Viagra and chief content officer Midnight Cocoa Bean dye for graying goa- Elise Loehnen and VP of marketing tees (though rest assured, it’s got plenty of Wendy Lauria those) — then it might have gotten old fast.
But “Bad Boys for Life,” directed by Adil ROSE/NETFLIX ADAM
100 VARIETY El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, is in many ways a shrewder package than you’d expect. It’s been 17 years since “Bad Boys II,” and what you feel in the muscles of the new movie isn’t just the old mouthy good cop/bad cop routines but the shadow presence of a blockbuster series that was only, back then, just coming into being: the “Fast and the Furious” films, with their genres-in-a-Mix- master-in-overdrive approach. “Bad Boys for Life” is a lavishly conven- tional cop movie and a comedy of cranky fast camaraderie. It’s a meditation on the fine-wine élan of its two veteran stars. It’s a Mexican-drug-cartel thriller in the vein of the “Sicario” films, with a weirdly personal twist. It’s an over-the-top Bruckheimer highway-chase-and-gigantic-gun-and-ex- ploding-hacienda blowout. That it works at all is a testament to how even an enter- tainment rooted in this much formula extravagance can now seem comfortingly old-fashioned. Mike and Marcus, for much of the first half, are cruising on opposite paths. Marcus, slower and more wide-faced than before, has become a grandfather (the two are speeding to the hospital in that opening scene), and he wants to do nothing so much as retire. Whereas Mike, still lean and mean, is a solo vessel who plans to chase crooks for the rest of his life — it’s his purpose, and his high. What brings the pair back together is Isa- bel (Kate del Castillo), the wife of the Mexi- can drug lord Mike put away years ago, and her hothead son, Armando (Jacob Scipio). The two have devoted themselves to the vengeful cause of assassinating everyone involved in the case — judge, forensic inves- Marcus comes alive, and Lawrence teases become something that’s easy to give in tigator and Mike. his partner with a cynical knowingness to. It’s high-powered trash with a (slight) Smith acts with his old fast-break buoy- that’s as dry as a perfect martini. There’s human touch. ancy, and he looks ageless, but he plays a third-act reveal that works well, upping Mike with a harder edge than before; that OPPOSITES the stakes — or, at least, giving us some- CREDITS: A Sony Pictures Releasing release of a Columbia Pictures, 2.0 Enter- tainment, Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Overbrook Entertainment pro- ATTRACT duction. Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer, Will Smith, Doug Belgrad. Executive gives the film its tiny semblance of emo- thing “real” to fasten on amid all the flash- producers: Bill Bannerman, James Lassiter, Chad Oman, Mike Stenson, Barry H. Will Smith and tional stakes. At first, you may think that ing gymnastic ballistics of the climax. “Bad Waldman. Directors: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah. Screenplay: Chris Bremner, Peter Martin Lawrence Craig, Joe Carnahan. Camera (color, widescreen): Robrecht Heyvaert. Editors: Dan Lebental, Peter McNulty. Music: Lorne Balfe. Reviewed at AMC Empire, New Martin Lawrence has lost his mojo, but he’s star in “Bad Boys Boys for Life” should find an audience, York, Jan. 14, 2020. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 124 MIN. Cast: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Jacob Scipio, Alexander Ludwig, Kate del just biding his time. As the film goes on, for Life.” because it builds on its predecessors to Castillo, Joe Pantoliano, Charles Melton, Paola Núñez, Nicky Jam, DJ Khaled
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VARIETY 101 FACETIME
SOME MAY HAVE assumed when St. Vincent — aka Annie Clark — pro- duced an album last year for Carrie Brownstein’s band, Sleater Kin- St. Vincent and ney, that it was all these friends had up their mutual sleeves. In fact, by then they’d already quietly written and acted in a feature film, “Nowhere Inn,” playing heavily fictionalized versions of themselves. Carrie Brownstein In a combination of showbiz satire and psychological thriller that’s kind of like “Portlandia” meets “Mulholland Drive,” Brownstein is seen attempting to direct a documentary about St. Vincent, only to slowly go mad as Clark turns into a monstrous parody of a narcissis- ‘You’ve Got to tic rock star. The film premieres Jan. 25 at Sundance.
Does this have any origins as social media where the new cur- a real documentary? rency is relatability, it’s “Let me Watch This CLARK: At the end of 2017, I pull back the curtain, and look, begged Carrie to do a tour doc- I’m really normal” — or nor- umentary with me. The ini- mal-slash-aspirational. It makes tial idea was that it would be a actually being normal impossi- Bonkers Film’ partially straight-ahead tour ble to parse and discern. doc, but there would also be comedic, weird interstitials The movie gets extremely By Chris Willman Photograph by Dan Doperalski that stitched the show footage meta about how the act of together. Then the idea went observation changes the way more involved and bon- people being observed. kers and thoughtful. CLARK: It took me a very long BROWNSTEIN: It started to feel time in years of watching doc- like there was a disconnect, umentaries to watch them with going from Annie’s St. Vincent any kind of discerning eye. I persona and performances, was like, “Well, this is the truth which are so heightened and — it’s a documentary! There’s embrace a certain amount a slide-y blues guitar score of artifice, to these casual under this! It’s authentic.” sketches. It would have been BROWNSTEIN: One of our explo- a jarring viewing experience. rations was of how what is Also, when you already have couched as a real documentary “Spinal Tap,” you never want to is completely artificial anyway. do something that’s going to Most of the time artists are in be compared to that. And we charge of what’s being filmed were uninterested in sort of and how they’re being por- commenting on other people’s trayed. … I think this [fictional- music documentaries. So we ization] services Annie’s music thought: Let’s make something more than just a straight-ahead that is multi-genre and a little film and puts her squarely in more, almost in a ’70s thriller that Bowie category, which has vein, like “Privilege” or always been a fair comparison. “Performance,” where you’re adhering to a story but also What kind of life do you taking the audience on an imagine this film having? unexpected ride in which they BROWNSTEIN: Although I think have to buy into the weirdness it doesn’t quite exist anymore, of what you’re doing. my goal would be that mid- night-movie feeling of some- As St. Vincent, you’re the thing that’s a cult classic, exception among contem- where people watch it again porary rock stars, in doing and circulate it among their something as theatrical and friends: “You’ve got to watch dramatic as a David Bowie this bonkers film.” or a Kate Bush. Most rockers CLARK: Yeah, I want kids in 20 now flaunt their normalcy. years to say, “Oh, my God, you CLARK: It’s something that Car- didn’t see ‘Nowhere Inn’? rie and I have talked about ad It’s bananas.” nauseam for a lot of years. Espe- BROWNSTEIN: Yeah. “Bananas” cially with the proliferation of is a good pull quote.
THINGS YOU DIDN’T AGE: St. Vincent, 37; Brownstein, 45 KNOW ABOUT HOMETOWN: St. Vincent, Tulsa, Okla.; Brownstein, Seattle ST. VINCENT AND FIRST STEPS: The two met at SXSW 2006, though they CARRIE BROWNSTEIN didn’t become friends until several years later.
102 VARIETY SEE YOU IN BERLIN [email protected] www.berlinaleseriesmarket.com 24 – 26 FEB 2020
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