Any time an Oscar contender comes along that dabbles in real-life situations and circumstances, you can see the take-down measures coming from a mile away: accuracy gripes. It’s a story as old as time. Films like “The Hurricane,” “A Beautiful Mind,” “The Hurt Locker” and, just last year, “The Social Network” have come under fire during the Oscar race for liberties taken with the narrative, and it’s always just such a tiresome, tedious argument. So you can bet baseball fan Steve Pond’s recent piece, linked in today’s round-up, which addresses the gripes from the sports world, will be the king of logic used by a smear campaign if one is even deemed necessary by “Moneyball” competition this year. Let me be clear that Steve is fair in his piece, but it simply reminded me of how touchy true stories can be for many, and how limp the ammunition of “but it didn’t happen that way” can truly be. It rarely passes the smell test because, the fact remains, if people like a movie, they like a movie. Whether it “happened that way” or not. Now, let’s see what’s going on in the Oscarweb today…
Steve Pond accuses Bennett Miller’s “Moneyball” of not telling the real story and trying to put one over on its audience. [The Odds]
Jonah Hill, meanwhile, talks about the film, idolizing Joe Pesci and being all grown up with Mark Harris. [Vulture]
Tom O’Neil straw pulls a boatload of pundits and awards commentators, including our own Guy Lodge. [Gold Derby]
Maureen Dowd writes up Roger Ebert’s new autobiography, “Life Itself.” [New York Times]
Ryland Walker Knight and Danny Kasman engage in “a fittingly geographically separated, electronically connected conversation” about “Contagion.” [MUBI Notebook]
Jonathan Romney talks to Kirsten Dunst about the Lars Von Trier Cannes controversy and her work in Von Trier’s film, “Melancholia.” [Independent]
Jeff Wells keeps banging the gong for Olivia Colman in “Tyrannosaur.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]
Anne Thompson takes note of half-eaten movie poster designs. [Thompson on Hollywood]