You know The Chair and Holly have been dealing with A LOT in the last few weeks when events in our REAL LIVES prevented us from weighing in on the Oscar nominations.
But rest assured both Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie will be just fine, and have probably already recovered from not receiving nods in the directing and lead actress categories for this year’s unprecedented worldwide box-office champ ($1.44 billion and still counting) – Barbie.
In fact, they can add the nominations they did receive this year for best picture (Robbie as producer) and best adapted screenplay (Gerwig and Noah Baumbach as co-writers) to the ones they previously received from the Academy in the last few years for directing (Ladybird) and acting (I, Tonya and Bombshell).
This, of course, is already old news because it fails to address the big, fat watchable mess of a limited series that debuted THIS week on FX from producer Ryan Murphy, Feud: Capote vs. The Swans.
If you thought it couldn’t get any gayer, campier or more salacious than the Academy Award nominations, well….of course you knew it could!
We’re not sure exactly what director Gus Van Sant and writer Jon Robin Baitz were thinking when they signed up for this – a new summer home? A Tesla prior to X? But at the end of the day it doesn’t matter. Truman Capote and the society dames he once upon a time betrayed are given an array of bitchy, though not quite witty or wise enough dialogue, and a cast of talented middle-aged actresses we don’t get to see co-starring in high profile projects often enough (Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Chloe Sevigny, Calista Flockhart, Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald) seem to be enjoying themselves immensely.
Admittedly, it’s hard to look away even though midway through the first two episodes one sort of wonders, when will this pathetic, superficial debauchery all end? Yet after the final credits of that week’s installment are done one also finds oneself pissed off that it’s going to take a whole week of waiting to discover what they (Capote, the Swans AND the cast and crew) will do next.
Such are Ryan Murphy and company’s perverse talents – making us miss something we don’t even much like.
Speaking of which, Sunday, February 4th marks the arrival of what promises to be the very wet Grammy Awards in rainy L.A. on CBS. So many artists so many baby boomers and Gen Xers do not listen to yet claim to know. Well, this is the one night of the year we – okay I – can catch up!
Besides, Joni Mitchell will be there singing for the first time….ever.
As will we next week since, truly, there is only so much real life we can take.
notes from a chair 