We’re less than two weeks away from receiving this year’s Oscar nominations, and though none of the major categories are completely predictable just yet, each has at least three or four certain favorites. Meanwhile, the final slots for Best Picture, Best Director and the acting and screenwriting categories may be simply a random grab from small handfuls of rotating contenders. As of now, it doesn’t appear we’ll be seeing any huge surprises come the morning of January 22nd, when the Academy announces the nominees. The Dark Knight is sure to become the first comic book film up for Best Picture, and it won’t even be a shocker if animated feature Wall-E is listed alongside it in the same category.

But the ballots don’t need to be mailed out until Monday, so I’m taking one last chance to reach out to the procrastinators within the Academy membership. If you still don’t know who and what to write in, and you’re unwilling to go the safe route and nominate the expected bunch of films and talent, then consider some of these underdogs, under-appreciated and pretty much unlikely possibilities:
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• While at the Dubai International Film Festival over the weekend, Terminator Salvation director McG “announced” that a fifth installment of the Terminator franchise is definitely in the works, although The Halcyon Co. revealed over a year ago their plans for a trilogy. That McG is back to helm the installment must mean Halcyon is happier with the way Salvation looks than some of us are.
• As rumored, Chris Weitz will indeed take over the Twilight franchise from exited director Catherine Hardwicke. And yes, for those who agreed the job was only appropriate for another woman, Chris is short for Christopher.
• F/X artist-turned-director Stephen Norrington is finally following up The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with the remake of The Crow that’s been talked about in Hollywood for awhile. I wonder if Jason Statham is still interested in playing the lead.
• The Dark Knight seems to be for Blu-Ray what The Matrix was for DVD a decade ago.
• Oh yeah, the weekend’s box office results: well, The Day the Earth Stood Still managed to just barely edge out The Happening to be the higher grossing of the year’s lame eco-sci-fi films. The animated film you never heard of, Delgo, couldn’t make a million bucks on more than 2,000 screens, while the Bollywood film you never heard of, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, cracked a million bucks on about 100 screens. And a ton of limited specialty films, including new releases Gran Torino, Wendy and Lucy, The Reader, Doubt and Che, all had better per-screen-averages than did the #1 film, The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Wendy and Lucy, Kelly Reichardt’s follow-up to the much-acclaimed Old Joy, stars Michelle Williams as Wendy, a young woman traveling across the continent in search of a canning job in Alaska. Wendy has little to her name but a car, some pocket money and Lucy, her dog. When problems arise with one pole on that trinity, the others follow, as Reichardt takes us through an intimate procedural examination of how quickly a life can unravel when balanced on a precipice.

With Wendy and Lucy opening in New York tomorrow, I sat down with Riechardt to discuss Michelle Williams’ desire for invisibility, smashing the indie film glass cieling, and the “ever-evolving American Dream.”

Karina: I saw the movie in Cannes, and obviously every month it seems like a movie about economic despair is becoming more and more relevant.

Kelly: Give it a week.

Karina: [laughs] When you think about some of these economic problems, so many of them seem to stem from people being in denial, and just sort of a general unwillingness to talk about the how the way that we live has consequences.

Kelly: Yeah. The consequences are like the guy who got trampled at the Wal-Mart.

Karina: Yeah. So when you think about getting the film out there, what audience are you hoping it will speak to?

Kelly: I don’t really have a plan for the audience, just questions. Like, are we related and do we owe each other anything? Are we supposed to take care of each other to any degree?

And we know we’re connected. Because I didn’t run up my credit card, and now my 401K is disappearing. So, we’re clearly connected. I guess, it’s just that question of are strangers… Are we supposed to do anything for each other, or is it each man for himself? What is the American Dream?

Karina: Do you think that the American Dream is something that even exists anymore? This idea of being able to go West, and if you work hard enough you’ll be fine?

Kelly: I think it’s an ever-evolving thing. I once heard a show about this guy who coined the phrase “The American Dream.” Do you know who he is?

Karina: No. I’ll look him up. [Ed: it's this guy]

Kelly: Yeah. I need to look him up. Because I believe that what it was all about was that it was like a frontier kind of idea. And the American Dream at that time was, let’s say it was a really harsh winter, but my crop survived. Your crop died, but my crop is enough to feed both of us. That was the American Dream.

But, that guy never foresaw class. Like he didn’t imagine that there would be class divides in this country. He didn’t anticipate that there would be such a vast divide.

I guess that the idea of the American Dream is an evolving thing, or devolving thing. Has it really just come to my TV is bigger than your TV? What is it? What do we want this country to be - the great experiment? What’s it supposed to be? We just lived through such incredibly dark days. And even though the economy’s crashing now, there is like at least there’s hope. We’re living in the days of hope. [laughs]

Karina: Just because of Obama?

Kelly: I think, he is redefining - he talks about us being connected. He doesn’t talk about poverty a lot, I’ll admit that. But, just to change the conversation from something other than, “Go out and shop.” Or to give the impression that opportunity is just at everybody’s feet and all you have to do is bend down and lift it up. You know, it’s not the same for someone who grows up with an education to someone who doesn’t. At least he’s more aware of that. To not have a total elitist asshole running the country, I think will be somewhat better.

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Herewith, our semi-regular round-up of notable film events coming up in New York City:

MONDAY

It’s time for another installment of Flaherty NYC at Anthology Film Archives. This time out they’re showing work by Lee Wang and Laura Waddington, with a conversation moderated by Ariella Ben-Dov. 7:30 PM, Anthology FIlm Archives.

Also: Rooftop Films is showing a program of Wholphin shorts at Chelsea Market. The program is free, and includes free beer. 7pm.

TUESDAY

Legendary documentarian Richard Leacock will be at a special Stranger Than Fiction, to “present and discuss film clips that accompany the autobiography that he’s been writing for several years.” 8pm, IFC Center.

WEDNESDAY

Kelly Reichardt and Michelle Williams will be on hand for a Q & A after the premiere of Wendy and Lucy at Film Forum. 8pm.

THURSDAY

Nothing seems to be happening on Thursday. If you know otherwise, correct us in the comments.

FRIDAY

Back to Anthology, for a new episode of Catching up with the Kuchars, their recurring showcase of new and old work from brothers George and Mike. 7:30 pm.

Also: the Che roadshow begins at the Zeigfeld. With pretty printed programs!

Admittedly, I haven’t seen Kelly Reichart’s Wendy and Lucy since Cannes. But I’m still going to stand by the contention that it seems just a little weird for a film about a girl and her dog–nudity-free, with some moments of tension but very little violence as I recall–-to receive an R rating (for “language”), while Richard Kelly’s horror film The Box, said to contain “some violence and disturbing images,” gets a PG-13.

This is probably not worth getting upset about. I’m not even sure if cutting off a teenage audience will really hurt Lucy’s theatrical success––Michelle Williams’ adolescent fan base has had a good five years to come of age since Dawson’s Creek, although one does imagine that there are a lot of teenage girls following the actresses seemingly unwanted appearances in the tabloids. But at least, it’s testament to that old chestnut about how Hollywood productions have an unfair edge over indies in the ratings game. If anything, Kelly was probably contractually obligated to deliver a PG-13 and engineered his cut of The Box to comply, while Kelly Reichart, who made Wendy and Lucy without a distributor on board, simply made the film she wanted to make. Too bad she had to put so many swear words in it.

As you can see above, Floridian turned Brooklynite Holly Herrick knows a thing or two about flowers, but this is just where her expertise begins. The programmer of Sarasota’s quickly emerging film festival has taken up programming duties at the Hamptons Film Festival, which kicks off on Wednesday. We spoke recently about why Agnes Varda’s new film shook her up, the new record from The Walkmen and why she’s looking forward to Examined Life so much. …Read more

• Oscilloscope, the fledgling distribution label spearheaded by the Beastie Boy formerly known as MCA, has picked up Kelly Reichardt’s Wendy and Lucy, which premiered at Cannes to raves from some but measured praise from me. It’ll open at Film Forum on December 10. If his boys don’t try to push Michelle Williams for an Oscar nod the same year her baby daddy has a posthumous nomination all but locked down, Adam Yauch needs to check his head.
• People are still spending money they don’t have on a movie they don’t need. Also: Christian Bale says he didn’t hit his sister and mom, and London police released him yesterday after questioning. Does that mean he’ll show up at Comic-Con to promote his new Terminator movie?!!?? You’re a horrible person for even suggesting such a thing.
• Ted Johnson has details on the many film oriented events happening at the Democratic National Convention next month––or, as he calls it, “the Sundance of politics.” I think I might go and cover them. Would you like that?
• Sophia from Golden Girls, ie Estelle Getty, has died.
• Blah blah blah the guy who made Hancock, blah blah blah something about Hercules…?

In chronological order:

• James Toback’s Tyson
• Indiana Jones premiere, and Everything is Fine
• In the market: Uwe Boll goes to Vietnam
• How to throw a renegade karaoke party in Cannes
• In the market: Sex and Breakfast
• Raymond Depardon’s La Vie Moderne
• James Gray’s Two Lovers
• Che distribution speculation, and the French Forrest Gump
• Pre-Che jitters
• Post-Che fallout
• Olivier Assayas’ Summer Hours and Terrence Davies’ Of Time and the City
• Quentin Tarantino <3s Quentin Tarantino
• Philippe Garrel’s The Frontier of Dawn
• In the market: Abel Danger
• Abel Ferrara on the Bad Lieutenant remake
• Wendy and Lucy and the too-bright spotlight
• Chelsea on the Rocks and Nick Nolte: No Exit

Who would have thought, in 2006, when Old Joy spent a year slowly gathering critical steam after having been all but ignored at Sundance, that Kelly Reichardt’s next film would occasion an item in PEOPLE Magazine? “Michelle Williams Dazzles at Cannes Film Festival,” goes the headline of the story by Brenda Rodriguez. Last night’s Wendy & Lucy red carpet was the first that the actress walked since the death of former partner Heath Ledger, and for the tabloids that’s a major hook. Looking down from the balcony last night at the Debussy, it was a trip to watch the Chanel-clad former Dawson’s Creek star stand on the stage at one end of a line that included Reichardt, Old Joy/Wendy & Lucy producer Anish Savjani, and filmmaker/Wendy & Lucy producer and co-star Larry Fessenden.

When a film this small gets thrust under a spotlight this bright, you worry that the movie itself will be overwhelmed. I do hope this unlikely attention helps Wendy & Lucy get seen, but coming in with high expectations(Old Joy was one of my favorite films of its year), I was a bit underwhelmed.

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