‘Tis the season for Oscar-bait films to get called on the carpet for their fidelity to the truth. Of course, not all films get this kind of scrutiny.

“My Week with Marilyn,” celebrated for its vibrant lead performance by Michelle Williams as the iconic Monroe, is currently under the microscope for not telling the whole truth.

It isn’t the first time a film with Oscar hopes has been questioned by the media. The 2001 film “A Beautiful Mind” got the cold shoulder for scrubbing the lead character’s less magnanimous side. Some argued John Nash, the inspiration behind Russell Crowe’s character, was both anti-semitic and a lousy father, charges Nash denied. The chatter threatened to derail the film’s Oscar chances, but it ended up winning multiple gold statuettes, including the coveted Best Picture award.

Some films which could use a bit of scrutiny, though, often get little or none.

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BOX OFFICE ANALYSIS:

The box office slump hit pretty hard over the holiday weekend. While retail sales everywhere else skyrocketed to record numbers, Hollywood took a 12% hit when compared to this time last year. It’s going to be difficult to predict how some of these films ultimately do. Now that we’re in the holiday season, something like “Hugo” that looks like a bust could have surprising legs straight through to Christmas and actually end up doing pretty well.

The upcoming competition doesn’t look overwhelming, especially for films aimed at kids. “Hugo,” “The Muppets,” and  ”Arthur Christmas” have the field pretty much to themselves until December 16 when the third “Alvin and the Chipmunks” opens.

1. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1: $62.3M — Keeping pretty close pace with its predecessor. With a $110M budget and a total take of $221M in just 10 days, the break-even is probably close to $300M, which is what “Eclipse” did domestically. Another $400M poured in from overseas. These movies are money-making machines.

2. The Muppets: $42.2M — Word of mouth almost assures this will have legs through Christmas. Everyone seems to love it.

3. Happy Feet Two: $18.4M — With a total take of $44M over 10 days, this is a genuine flop. Again, I think the politics of the previous entry turned off a lot of parents. People enjoyed “Happy Feet;” I know I did, but the liberal eco-messaging diminished the fun and left a bad taste. Especially off-putting is how that messaging was aimed at children. Hollywood used to teach universal values to our kids. Honesty, bravery, and loyalty were the themes of the day. Now it’s divisive issues like global warming and gay marriage. Hollywood overstepped on this one and 600 people lost their jobs.

4. Arthur Christmas $17M: — This has to be a disappointment. Because it’s the only offering this season with “Christmas” in the title, that might help as the season rolls on, but the overall concept seemed tired to me. How many movies are out there that promise to show us how Santa is able to deliver all those toys in just one night? Hollywood has to remember that home video is a reality. They might not have been born when it was released, but everyone over the age of eight has already seen “The Santa Clause.”

5. Hugo: $15.4M — Scorsese’s 3D entry had a terrific per screen take of $12,000, but that’s a wee bit less than the “Muppets” and far less than “Breaking Dawn” in its second week. There’s talk that the epic will expand closer to Christmas, but by then it will have to compete with Spielberg’s “Tintin.” Reportedly, the film cost well over $100M to produce.

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–CHARTER SOLVES THE PROBLEM! –

A extremely nice and patient tech professional from Charter spent the day with me and my Internets yesterday and refused to leave until the problems were solved. It took some doing, a few routers, phone calls and a little head-scratching — but he got it and now he’s my hero.

My Streaming streams my Internet internets. That’s all I wanted — you know, what I paid for and what I was promised. Only took five weeks, 922 phone calls and four service visits, but maybe my expectations were too high.

I was so thrilled after it was all working correctly that I forgot I wasn’t in California and tried to kiss the Charter guy on the mouth before he left.

In all seriousness, if every cable and Internet company in America cloned this man, the world would be a much better place.

OH NOES!: FOX KICKS OFF “THE GREAT FREE TV WEB PULLBACK OF 2010″

In an effort to keep the cable companies happy that pay the networks tons of cash, Fox will now wait eight whole days before making its shows available online. ABC will soon follow.

Well, whoop-de-freakin’-doo.  

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Here's a perfect illustration of the iconography of freedom. Marilyn Monroe displays a picture of Abraham Lincoln, The Great Emancipator, in a sleek convertible with the open road beckoning.

Automobiles represent freedom.

Try and remember when you were a teenager yearning for your driver’s license so you could hop into daddy’s car and go, go, go. It didn’t matter where, you just wanted to burn rubber and escape into the far horizon.

The brilliant, exhilirating and touching American Grafitti, 1973, is the ultimate expression of American car culture. Almost every single scene takes place in a car.

Los Angeles was the first America city built to accomodate the automobile. And the movie stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age, most born dirt-poor, expressed delight in their sudden prosperity and fame by purchasing and posing with their dream machines.

Contrast cars with trains.

Trains and subways are an expression of the collective. Individual identity is erased. You are at the mercy of a state run system that turns  the citizen into a small cog manipulated by unmotivated, inefficient government bureaucrats.

That’s why Progressives-Liberals-Leftists are obsessed with high-speeed rail. The freedom of the road is repellent to statists who want to regulate/control diet, education, light bulbs, health care, your very geography.

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The bright lights never seem to fade on Hollywood’s stars. Even at her memorial service, Elizabeth Taylor left instructions that she arrive 15 minutes late to make an entrance.  Friends and family remembered Taylor before she was finally laid to rest in the same cemetery where her longtime friend Michael Jackson is buried.  Well documented in the press, the relationship between Ms. Taylor and the King of Pop remains an enigma of sorts.  Twice, she stood by Jackson as he endured accusations of child abuse.  When the singer turned to prescription drugs to dull his pain, it was Taylor who convinced him to go to rehab.

No stranger to the perils of drug abuse herself, Taylor knew firsthand Jackson could indeed turn his life around.  After her own rehab stint made headlines in the early 1980s, Taylor was in a unique position to speak out to celebrities who abuse drugs to cope with fame and its pitfalls.  While Jackson eventually passed away, allegedly from a powerful prescription drug, there is something to be learned from the lives of both the King of Pop and Hollywood’s golden girl.

Even when she struggled with health problems, weight issues, and alcohol, the public maintained its fond fascination for Taylor, and she emerged from those challenges fully supported.  Then, she became one of the most active humanitarians in show business; utilizing her stardom to raise funds for AIDS research throughout the 1980s, which continued for several decades until her passing.  Unfortunately, the feel-good chapter at the end of Taylor’s story – one marked by altruism and charity – is uncommon for Hollywood’s brightest stars, who often fade as fast as they shine.

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It is perhaps a radical view of the Sphinx and its mystery, but if the impenetrable reality is a human being, two Hollywood legends that qualify as our unanswered questions are Marilyn Monroe and Marlene Dietrich.

Beginning with Ms. Monroe, there really are no classic, “dumb blondes” in Europe.

“Dumb blonde” is an exclusively American label.

However, no “dumb blonde” has ever or will ever receive so much attention from world renowned intellectuals, male and female, as Marilyn Monroe.

Norman Mailer, Arthur Miller, Joyce Carol Oates, Lee and Paula Strasberg and, of course, the Kennedy’s.

I’m not sure just how erotic were the powers of the ancient Sphinx but I doubt such magic could equal the sometimes inspiring fantasies provoked in headier corners of American culture by Marilyn Monroe. (more…)

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Oscar season approaches, which means that once again it’s time for the annual cry of … There-Are-No-Good-Roles-For-Women! Maybe “cry” isn’t the best word. ”Whine” is more suitable — from a self-inflicted wound. Here’s a taste of this year’s first-whine from a Hollywood Reporter story titled: Shallow Pool for Oscar’s Actress Contenders:

How shallow is the pool? Some are talking about performances such as Sandra Bullock’s in the feel-good film “The Blind Side

The lack of depth has led to a slew of awards-season chatter, from the expected downplaying — all categories are cyclical — to blanket explanations about studios making fewer awards movies in general. …

But it also highlights that, for all the strides made by the women behind the camera, the women in front of them can still be subject to the old prejudices. Indeed, the more cynical in town — including at least one actress awards-contender — say that the director and actress trends are hardly a coincidence. Many female directors, they argue, can feel pressure to cast a preponderance of strong male leads to negate the perception that theirs is a female-oriented film.

The article is simply wrong on one very important point. These aren’t “old prejudices,” these are new prejudices. (more…)

John Wayne walks the walk in Hondo, 1953.

It’s in the walk.

Think of Mae West, hands caressing her Rubenesque hips, head tilted, not just sauntering, but oozing forward, the exaggerated female.

Elbows cocked and angled at his hips, moving with concentrated energy, Jimmy Cagney looks like a coiled spring about to explode.

Joan Crawford, leading with her linebacker shoulders, like a tank on the battlefield, determined, dangerous, unstoppable. (more…)

During this Memorial Day Weekend Big Hollywood pays tribute those who have fallen, and those who sacrifice so much in the cause of freedom.

Remember when Hollywood celebrities flocked across the globe to entertain and support American troops? Remember when Hollywood—as a community—denounced tyrants, Jew-haters, and mass murderers?

Joan Crawford as Miss Liberty

My father was a Rabbi, a Chaplain in the 42nd Division during World War II and the Korean War. He often told me just how much the troops loved and respected their Hollywood supporters.

Here’s just a brief sampler of what Hollywood patriotism once looked like.

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Over the weekend, I was pondering why the low budget, standard genre pic The Haunting in Connecticut (Lionsgate) has become a nifty little box office hit. The film added almost $9.5M over the weekend for a new 10-day cume of $37M, and the only conclusion I have been able to reach is that it’s all about the poster.

Creepy, right? I have not seen Haunting and will probably wait for DVD or pay cable, but that is a weird, startling, attention-grabbing image. As a movie junkie, I love good movie art. The best movie posters are evocative. They capture what a movie is all about without giving away the mystery. There are certain movie posters that instantly put me back in that theatre experiencing the film for the very first time. The best movie posters are not just promotional tools. They stand as a work of art on their own. These are my favorites, buit it is by no means a definitive list. Feel free to add your favorites (and subtract any of mine).

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