San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
ASK MICK LASALLE
If you could pick the Academy Award winners in the major categories, choosing from all the movies released in 2018 and not just the nominees, who would receive the Oscars?
Paul Sheinfeld, Novato
Best picture: “Vox Lux.” Best actor: Viggo Mortensen (“Green Book”). Best actress: Carey Mulligan (“Wildlife”). Best supporting actor: Rafael Casal (“Blindspotting”). Best supporting actress: Rachel Weisz (“The Favourite”). Best director: Yorgos Lanthimos (“The Favourite”). Best original screenplay: Brady Corbet (“Vox Lux”). Best adapted screenplay: Charlie Wachtel, Spike Lee, Kevin Willmott and David Rabinowitz (“BlacKkKlansman”). Thanks for asking. That was fun.
The Chronicle music critics are a lot tougher than you with their ratings guide. For example, in the Jan. 20 Pink section, you gave nine top ratings out of 25 reviews? Perhaps you need a new system, or how about expanding the current one?
Jack Williams, Santa Rosa
You checked the Pink section in January, coming off of the year’s best season for movies. Check again at the end of August, and if you see lots of highest ratings then, you’ll be right, but not now.
Much of the time I think you’re on the same wavelength as us locals. But sometimes you get New York on us. There’s something essentially New York about Lady Gaga that puzzles the rest of us. It might be the same with “The Godfather.” It’s like “The Godfather” is to New Yorkers what “Gone With the Wind” is to Southerners.
Kevin Steed, Oakland
In both cases, you’re talking specifically about Italian American New Yorkers. And while Lady Gaga and “The Godfather” have lots of fans who aren’t Italian American, it’s true that there may be a special connection there. Gaga, particularly in “A Star Is Born,” looks and acts like half the women in my family. As for “The Godfather,” that’s a complicated relationship. The Mafia is nothing to brag about, but the cultural aspects of those movies are accurate and often amusing. So if you’re from that region and culture, there are things you’ll recognize that others won’t (like the old guy singing at the wedding). As for your analogy, both “The Godfather” and “Gone With the Wind” present something bad from the past in a romantic way. The difference is that Francis Ford Coppola knew he was depicting bad guys, while Margaret Mitchell thought life on the plantation was just dandy.
I know you love Isabelle Huppert, and I think the only thing I’ve seen her in is “Heaven’s Gate,” so I was curious what you thought of her performance in that. Also, I know you love Jennifer Jason Leigh. Do they remind you of each other at all?
Matt Humphreys, Walnut Creek
They remind me of each other a lot. But “Heaven’s Gate” gives you no idea who Huppert is or what she can do. She’s all about perversity and macabre humor. See her in “La Ceremonie,” “Love After Love,” “Me and My Sister,” “Story of Women” and “Elle” to see what she’s about. Then, and only then, see “The Piano Teacher.” Leigh is the American Huppert, but there’s less room in American film for that kind of actress. Still, when she gets a role worthy of her fearlessness, she’s amazing.
Your dour appraisal of “Mary Poppins Returns” lacked any contagion of fun or joy created by this wonderful movie musical. Your inability to enjoy this movie on its own merits is deadly and disappointing. You need to take some drugs or go on a journey to wash the windows of your soul clean. Maybe you need both?
George Cohen, Albany
I’m afraid I have some bad news. “Contagion” doesn’t mean what you think it means. You must avoid all contagions, just as you must avoid loading up on drugs and then going out to wash windows. At the very least, if you do travel to take drugs and wash windows somewhere — a strange vacation, but who am I to judge? — please stay on the ground floor until the drugs wear off.
Have a question? Ask Mick LaSalle at mlasalle@sfchronicle.com. Include your name and city for publication, and a phone number for verification.