Breaking Baz: I wanted ‘Top Gun’ and ‘All Quiet’ to win – got half my wish; Why Paul Mescal Tried to Channel Humphrey Bogart

There is always a reckoning. There must be. A studio executive told me that next season before the awards show, they will recalibrate the way they are shown to voters “because there are a lot of movies that people don’t want to see. Good movies that people haven’t seen because they were attracted to the hype. And the sound won.”

See, billions of words have been written about the season, which finally ended with a best picture win for A24s at the Dolby Theater on Sunday Everything, everywhere, all at once.

Yes, it was a breakthrough for diversity and I won’t deny that even though I’m not the biggest fan of the film myself, I was moved by the victories of Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis. It did not warm me to the depths of my being.

I didn’t feel it in my bones like Richard Burton once told me about his abiding love for Elizabeth Taylor.

I don’t feel it Everything, everywhere, all at once is an Oscar-winning film for all ages.

I watched it 3 times because I wanted to fully embrace it, but we like what we like, right?

Victory at the Dolby was the result of a brilliant, surgically executed campaign by A24.

I can step back and admire it.

That’s what someone thought at the Vanity Fair Oscar party Everything, everywhere, all at once Winning the grand prize was kind of a compromise between Top Gun: Maverick And TAR. “You wanted popularity to win,” I was told. Everything, everywhere, all at once made over $100 million, what more could you ask for? Shut up and stop the stomach ache.

I wanted a big popular movie to win. I wanted to win a huge movie that people watched at home on their couches.

When I write, I avoid overwriting The whale. I have these yellow sticky notes on my hotel desk that say do not mention The whale. It won’t be nice. So I won’t mention it The whale because why ruin someone’s day.

OK. i wanted Top Gun: Maverick win. OK, I said so. If not then No news from the western front, although I was happy to win Best International Film. Every time I watch Edward Berger’s film, I think of the sons and daughters who will not come home from the wars fought, and I thank God that my own son is not involved in a theater of war.

I loved Avatar: The Way of Water at. What’s that guy smoking, I hear you mutter. I have a weakness for it. Sue me

Please note that I am a fan of the other nominated photos, but I enjoyed and enjoyed them Top Gun: Maverick more. I have little to no connection with Paramount Pictures, which pains me, but I do Top Gun: Maverick in my blood I saw it on a big Imax screen in London, not just once or twice, but several times. It amused the bejesus in me. I also saw it in Cannes.

What if busy Mr. Tom Cruise had just done a handful of carefully selected interviews – on TV, because he doesn’t care about print or digital, I understand – the film might have gotten a few more nominations; perhaps an important one for Joseph Kosinski in the directing category.

Heaven knows, Mr. Tom Cruise may have secured himself a Best Actor award!

They can go crazy with these what-ifs. But think about it. Just think of the roar out there in the real world Top Gun: Maverick took home the best photo.

People who pay to go to the movies would have noticed.

The message from the academy would have been: Yes, we listened. We’re so caught up in our own little bubble that we’ve forgotten that the movies are meant for you, the people out there, the pay go to the theater for a collective experience. But we listened and voted for the biggest damn blockbuster of the year to win the Oscar for Best Picture. We heard you!

I introduced myself to Disney’s Bob Iger at the Governors Ball and asked him to bring good mainstream popular films to theaters to bring audiences back.

He didn’t pay much attention to it because what I said was noise to him. Although I liked that he was talking to Michelle Yeoh and congratulating her on her Oscar.

I was at the 60th Annual ICG Publicists Awards on Friday Top Gun: Maverick earn the big prize for the film.

Walt Disney Studios’ Sara Hull was named Publicist of the Year. I was interested in what Hull had to say about how her mother took her to the movies when she was young and how she looked forward to the Oscars on TV.

I’m a bit older than Hull and grew up in London at a time before the entire Oscar show was beamed into our homes. I had to poke around and see the odd clip here and there on a movie show. I will look at all these big names, really giants. I mean big stars like Newman and Redford and Streisand and Hepburn (rarely) and Poitier and Hackman and Nicholson and Dunaway and Brando and so on.

Please note that I did not write her first name. It is not necessary. You know exactly who I mean.

I read about it in film magazines and newspapers. News about her was then as rare as hen’s teeth. They were not as easily accessible as they are now with Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and so on.

Brie Larson rightfully challenged me when I asked Idris Elba if I could photograph him at the Chanel/Charles Finch dinner in the Polo Lounge. “No, you don’t need it. Ask yourself why you need it,’ she said.

I was a little upset, but Larson was right.

There is no more mystique.

I know what stars eat for breakfast. I know when they farm because they tell us. Not all, but enough.

By the way, please don’t think I only like big studio movies. Not so. Not true. I like all kinds of movies avatar Unpleasant women talk. My only requirement is that I connect. That I can feel them in my bones. that I can love her

relief. I got through it without writing about it The whale.

As for the Oscars, do better next year and think about the people watching at home and stop patronizing them.

On the right side?

Paul Mescal is a bogie

On Sunday I posted a few photos on my social media feeds. The most popular was one of After sun Paul Mescal arriving at the Dolby.

He was stunning in a double-breasted white tuxedo with a black bow tie and a red rose in his lapels.

One fan said he looked like Sean Connery in a Bond film.

I mentioned this to the actor when I saw him in the bar during a commercial break at the awards shows.

“Well, it’s a shame when I tried to be Humphrey Bogart,” he laughed.

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