Inland Empire: Volume II :: Twin Peaks Gazette Message Board

While impugning FoxNews (knee jerk reactionarily), let's see what else ROGER FRIEDMAN of FoxNews had to say and if we all agree what a jerk he is because he WRITES a gossipy movie column for the FoxNews website.

And then, if you really think ROGER FRIEDMAN is a jerk, why not direct the wrath toward the source of the HORRIBLE insult to Inland Empire -- ROGER FRIEDMAN? After all, there ARE plenty of critics who do not work for FoxNews who disliked Inland Empire.

Spirits Really Go Indie

The 2007 Independent Spirit Awards should be pretty interesting this year. With one exception — "Little Miss Sunshine" — the audience will have heard of just about none of the nominees. Hurray!

In the last few years, the Spirits came under fire for including too many movies that had been bought and distributed by major studios. The lines blurred between what was actually indie and what was big budget. All that is over this year.

"Little Miss Sunshine" and "Half Nelson" both got five nominations yesterday, including Best Picture, but the difference between them is great. "Little Miss Sunshine" was sold at Sundance for $12 million and has two Oscar nominees in its cast (Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear) not to mention a huge comedy star (Steve Carell) and a beloved vet (Alan Arkin). It's made about $60 million at the box office.

"Half Nelson" has made a fraction of that with a cast that includes two up-and-comers (Ryan Gosling and Anthony Mackie) and a total newcomer in Shareeka Epps. It deserves to win in all its categories, and Gosling should pick up Best Actor. There's an outside chance he'll get an Oscar nomination as well. His performance, which I wrote about here last January, is mesmerizing.

More good news from the Spirits: "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints," which First Look has all but abandoned, picked up three nominations. Conversely, First Look's "The Dead Girl," directed by Karen Moncrieff ("Blue Car") got two nominations for film and director. And Robert Altman, just about the original indie director, got a posthumous nomination.

There were some serious omissions, though, like Maggie Gyllenhaal in "Sherrybaby" and "Saints" director Dito Montiel (the nomination for Steven Soderbergh for "Bubble" is beyond bizarre).

The best award is definitely for David Lynch and his star Laura Dern. They're getting the "Special Distinction Award" for making "Inland Empire," one of the worst, most self-indulgent pieces of junk ever to be shown to an audience. Cool.

Scandalous those lame FoxNews writers, huh?

Susan