Even more alarming, when I was looking for that quote, Google threw this at me: Fly cheap. Daily departures from Kennedy to Poland.

I don’t think I can handle this on a daily basis.

Kennedy expresses deep concerns about Poland. 1960 or 2008?

Kennedy: “I know some of the people will say that all this is a wasted effort, that the people of Poland, however brave, are in a prison from which there is no escape, but is this the reason to ignore their needs? Is this an excuse for inaction?”

Kennedy: “I don’t remember what all the evidence was because my eyes started to glaze over and I’m pretty sure at one point I felt my soul actually trying to leave my body in an attempt to escape the utter drudgery of Poland’s peanut-picking Oscar obsession.”

One powerful Kennedy remark is from 1960 and the other historic Kennedy statement is from 2008. Although pretty much interchangeable, can you identify which is which? (10 points.)

Poland (and Wells and their ilk) are good examples of what not to write/read. If film critics are really failed artists, what exactly are they? Failed film critics? Failed journalists?

I know the Oscar season “begins” in September with the Toronto FF, but recent years have shown that earlier releases do just fine – Gladiator and Crash (May), Seabiscuit, LMS, even the The Departed all came out earlier than the Nov/Dec rush, and those are just BP nominees off the top of my head. My point being, a September release date should not be considered an Oscar hazard, even if it might have done in Jesse James (that’s just speculation and excuse-fishing on my part).

And there Chuck pretty much nails it on the head.

Personally, I’m with the Coens (in case anyone doubted).

Now if all of you would stop being interesting for a while, I’d appreciate it. I really do have work to do. (just kidding, talk amongst yourselves)

You know it’s true because you were told by a journalistic never-was.

Obviously a Coen Brothers comedy is normally Oscar-bait, so them dumping it in September is clearly a sign that it’s going to fail at the Awards this Winter.

Yeah, I stopped reading Poland not long after I started, with his whole Eli Roth/Hostel 2 review where he admitted to watching a pirated, unfinished non-theatrical cut of the movie then berated Roth for his clear violations of ethics and morality as writer and director of the film.

Poland is a hack and it’s amazing how far he has carried his hacking, even to the extent of getting numerous publicists to grant him video interviews with their clients. The mind boggles.

And he was the last person to concede Daniel Day-Lewis to be the frontrunner in the best actor race.

Sam sums Poland up perfectly.

I kind of think of Tom O’Neil along the same lines. I mean, really, anyone who refers to themself as an ‘Oscarologist’ can’t be taken seriously. At all.

On the other hand, he simultaneously acts like he couldn’t care less and he’s just reporting the facts of it all. In this case, Focus is “dumping” Burn After Reading.

As many of the posters over there rightly note, a Coen comedy, even with Pitt and Clooney and McDormand and Swinton, is unlikely to gain much Oscar traction.