How Hollywood Is Screwing Over Movie Fans This Oscar Season

Everything we can’t stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. [View in Browser]( [Subscribe]( [Image] with Kevin Fallon Everything we can’t stop loving, hating, and thinking about this week in pop culture. This Week: - Movie fans screwed by the Oscar calendar. - Judging Ken Jennings’ first week on Jeopardy! - Freaking loving WandaVision. - Remove Trump! - Anne Hathaway <3. The Plight of the Movie Fan at Oscar Season This week, the world as I know it was turned upside down by the news. [Sex and the City is being rebooted](, sans Kim Cattrall. On the one hand, that’s like having sex without… having sex. On the other hand, I will devour every episode of this and have already drafted a grassroots army to help fashion voodoo dolls of any and every person caught speaking ill of this show. I bring this up because of how quickly the news passed. Since this was announced: Armie Hammer has been [alleged to be a sex cannibal](, Azealia Banks [exhumed her dead cat]( and boiled its skull, Brian from the Backstreet Boys may have been [lost to Q](, pandemic deaths keep climbing, the vaccine rollout endures with all the careful organization of a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party, insurrectionists continue to be utterly shocked at being [arrested for staging a deadly coup](, taxpayers discovered [they’ve paid $100K]( so that Javanka’s Secret Service detail can take a shit, members of Congress are [throwing hissy fits]( over having to walk through metal detectors on their way into the Capitol (which is apparently less secure than the Celine Dion concert I attended pre-COVID, or a typical American middle school), and, oh yeah, the [president was impeached](. Again. That is to say this weekend is the perfect time to decompress with the greatest winter pastime: Curling up with a blanket on the corner of the couch and watching some good movies. Only, because of this cursed year, even that is frustrating. [Alternate text] It’s the time of year when [critics’ Top 10 lists]( fade into film awards groups setting their nominees, as Oscar buzz whips into a tailspin. In a normal year, there’s an annoying lack of access for the average movie fan to these films, which typically open in a very limited capacity in December before being available for the rest of the country to watch later in the winter. That means that people who are reading about the year’s best movies and watching award shows that honor them are not able to watch them. That’s incredibly annoying! No wonder people scoff at award shows! On Friday, one of those movies, [Promising Young Woman](, finally comes out on VOD, which means you can rent it from home. That’s about three weeks after it had its release in theaters—whatever that means in pandemic times—over a month after it began popping up on everyone’s year-end lists, maybe two months past when film writers began tweeting their raves and [sharing their glowing profiles]( of the creative team, and almost a full year after its original debut at Sundance. [Alternate text] That’s a long-ass time to hear that you should watch a film that you are in no way able to watch. It’s a bizarre quirk of award-season release schedules that movie fans are the audience that is specifically screwed. And it’s even worse this year than in years prior, as the pandemic forced the Academy Awards to push back its ceremony to April. As such, after their perfunctory end-of-December qualifying runs, all those movies you’ve already been hearing about for months won’t be available to watch until the spring, in some cases. And even then, only if you’re willing to go to a movie theater to see it. Do you like good movies? Do you like hearing from influential writers and awards voters about how good they are? Would you like to see those movies? TOO BAD!!! Here’s a rundown of what I’ve been able to compile about those great movies from last year (???) that you’ll be able to watch, finally, at some point this year. Nomadland: The sensational film about the empty promise of the American dream is my top movie of 2020, and will likely win Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actress (Frances McDormand), and Best Director (Chloé Zhao). It will debut on IMAX Jan. 29—which, interesting—and then simultaneously in theaters and on Hulu on Feb. 19. Minari: Another gorgeous standout, which recently made waves for being relegated to Foreign Language categories at some awards despite being an American film about a distinctly American story. Minari will have a limited theatrical release Feb. 12 and wider rollout on Mar. 15. The Father: Want to weep uncontrollably as Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman make plays for their second Oscars? It will be released Feb. 26. News of the World: What a holiday treat! Tom Hanks was starring in a sweeping Western that garnered the icon some of the best acting reviews of his career, and it was being released on Christmas Day. Unfortunately, you could only see it in theaters, should you be a COVID gambler. It’s finally coming out on VOD this Friday, Jan. 15. Malcolm & Marie: The Zendaya-starring romantic drama shot during quarantine only screened for a handful of tastemakers before the end of the year, making its addition to some Movies of the Year lists intriguing. It hits Netflix on Feb. 5. Judas and the Black Messiah: Initially planned for the summer, the film, which could make Daniel Kaluuya a Best Supporting Actor frontrunner, will be released on Feb. 12. Ken Jennings Did Good! Given how the last year has gone, perhaps it should not be a surprise that [Alex Trebek’s last episodes]( as host of Jeopardy! that aired last week as counterprogramming to our shameful democratic Armageddon, triggered, at least on my part, [somewhat of an emotional breakdown](. Spreading pillows to soften the crash landing, however, was [Ken Jennings’ first week as guest host](, kicking off a rotating roster of fill-ins, all of whom are presumably auditioning for the impossible job of the late Trebek’s replacement. [Alternate text] The all-time champion opened his first show with a heartfelt tribute, a pitch-perfect salute to transition into the uncertain post-Trebek era. “Not many things in life are perfect, but Alex did this job pretty much perfectly for more than 36 years,” Jennings said, seeming visibly verklempt, as were we all. “Like all Jeopardy! fans, I miss Alex very much. And I thank him for what he did for all of us. Let’s be totally clear, no one will ever replace the great Alex Trebek, but we can honor him by playing the game he loved.” That call—to focus on playing the game he loved—wasn’t just a healing mechanism. It was a necessary tonic to counteract the ugliness, ego, and scandal that typically follows any “race” to replace a beloved host. Think of all the tabloid headlines mined from The View’s frequent searches for new panelists, or the ringer that Kelly Ripa was put through to score her Live! perch, succeeding Kathie Lee Gifford. It’s absurd to even place an institution enshrined in dignity like Jeopardy! in the crosshairs of the modern cancel-culture food fight, but that’s the sad inevitability as possible hosts are vetted. Jennings, for example, has [come under fire for inappropriate tweets]( from his past and controversial statements he’s made since becoming a public figure—all of which are fair game for parsing, and merit consideration as he’s considered for the Jeopardy! gig. (One six-year-old tweet mocked the disabled community. He’s [since apologized](, in a way that, at the very least, satisfies me.) [Alternate text] Divorced from that controversy, however, I’d argue that in his first week he was perfectly fine. For those of us reeling and skeptical in the wake of Trebek’s absence, that’s a ringing endorsement. He basically is doing an approximation of Alex. He’s not yet as articulate, nimble or effortless. He’s starting to pepper in those Trebekisms, little asides and explanations for why things were wrong. But he’s still missing the ease. How can you be authoritative and wily at once? It’s why the word singular exists, and why it’s used to describe Alex. Jennings needs to be more present. He’s nervous! It’s understandable, and there’s a learning curve that should be allowed to get over that. This is a show that people have a deep personal connection to. The host should have the same. A Jelly Belly’s variety pack of celebrities was [recently announced as future guest hosts](, a random red carpet that stops just short of my cynical fear that they’d go with someone obvious and boring like Ryan Seacrest, or someone absurd like Kevin Hart, or a lady who invented a TikTok dance instead of someone with actual ties to the game—or, at the very least, the spirit of the game, and of Alex Trebek. Set to follow Jennings are Katie Couric, NFL star Aaron Rodgers, 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker, and Blossom herself, Mayim Bialik. I will only tune in if she and every contestant wears a bucket hat. (They are, dear god, apparently “back.”) WandaVision Rules My favorite tired writing joke is to call a super-gay gaggle of fun people “The Avengers,” a pseudo-branding exercise cementing my apathy toward the actual Marvel universe. The Real Housewives of Potomac?: My Avengers. The contestants of RuPaul’s Drag Race? Avengers assembled, hunty. The cast of Book Club? Go ahead and tell me Candice Bergen, Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, and Mary Steenburgen aren’t motherfucking superheroes. This is all context for my saying that the new Marvel series WandaVision on Disney+ is my favorite Marvel project since Black Panther. It is, of course, nothing like Black Panther. In fact, it is supremely weird. Elisabeth Olsen (Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch) and Paul Bettany (Vision) play versions of themselves masquerading as a homemaking married couple in odes to classic American sitcoms. The first episode is a meticulous recreation of The Dick Van Dyke Show, for example. The second, Bewitched. The premise, that these superheroes are attempting to hide their powers and appear normal, is basically the plot of Bewitched. So they’re just making Bewitched. Whatever, it’s fun! [Alternate text] It’s not clear why they or Marvel is doing this, save for a mystery that is teased at the end of the ’70s-set third episode. I was only given three episodes to watch, so I have no idea if this mystery pans out in any satisfying way. Nor did I catch any of what I’m sure are dozens of Marvel Easter eggs in the episodes, because I do not care. And maybe for these reasons, I actually enjoyed it. I have, of course, done my due diligence as a critic and seen most of these films, typically as they’re meant to be seen: on a 4-inch screen on an airplane after taking a sleeping pill and downing a tiny bottle of wine. So in theory I’ve seen Scarlet Witch and Vision before. Yet I have never cared for them before. I do now! Also let it be known that Kathryn Hahn is in this as the nosy neighbor and she is, of course, incredible. Kathryn Hahn, she’s my Avenger. Make Home Alone Trump-less Again? As Donald Trump is impeached a second time, efforts have turned to removing him from another hallowed American institution: Home Alone 2. Even star [Macaulay Culkin has endorsed the petition](. [Alternate text] Here’s the thing: The Home Alone films are about imbecilic crooks so craven in their pursuit of looting, self-destructively myopic about revenge, and too narcissistic to consider repercussions that they end up battered, bruised, and incarcerated because of their own ineptitude. I see no reason to remove Donald Trump from this film. Anne Hathaway Is Always Good Excuse me for thinking that a movie in which Anne Hathaway takes advantage of everyone being trapped at home during the pandemic to steal a $3 million diamond would be fun. (Locked Down, unfortunately, [is a drag](.) That is why instead of watching the film, I recommend you gaze serenely [at these iconic photos]( of Hathaway modeling in her backyard the designer gowns she would have worn to the film’s premiere should the world have been in any way normal. [Alternate text] This is an Annie ([she is Annie now]() House of Worship, Hathallelujah. [Alternate text] - WandaVision: Finally a Marvel project for people who hate Marvel. (Friday on Disney+) - One Night in Miami: It’s Regina King’s world, and we’re just lucky to be in it. (Friday on Amazon) - The Inauguration: That’s happening! (For the love of god, watch virtually and don’t go in person.) (Wednesday on many channels) [Alternate text] - American Skin: Nate Parker’s new film has been shelved for over a year. There’s a reason. (Friday on VOD) Advertisement [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( © Copyright 2021 The Daily Beast Company LLC 555 W. 18th Street, New York NY 10011 [Privacy Policy]( If you are on a mobile device or cannot view the images in this message, [click here]( to view this email in your browser. To ensure delivery of these emails, please add emails@thedailybeast.com to your address book. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, or think you have received this message in error, you can [safely unsubscribe](.