Hollywood is gearing up for their annual awards, but there is a real problem in a fundamental part of filmmaking \u2014 a problem many of us have seen for some time. Good writing is scarce. And when you add in a list of rules so byzantine and twisted, the nominees for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adaptation from another work, turn very odd. One example: the critical acclaim for \u201cInglorious Basterds\u201d is likely to earn a Best Picture nominee, but Quentin Tarantino won\u2019t get a script nod because he is not a member of the Writer\u2019s Guild. Then there\u2019s writer Nick Hornby, whose movie \u201cAn Education\u201d is gaining lots of praise and nominations, but since he belonged to the \u2018wrong chapter\u201d of the Guild, he is not eligible for an Oscar nod. The rules in place are making a shambles of the potential race for \u201cthe best\u201d and a fine write-up at Cinematical details how everyone is being disqualified.<\/p>\n
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Tonight, film fiends will want to stay up late for a chance to see movie star Lana Turner in her one and only wacky LSD trip motion picture. Turner Classic Movies will air \u201cThe Big Cube\u201d, made in 1969, and certainly a vivid snapshot of \u2026 hmm, well, a snapshot of Weirdness, in a groovy sexy \u201960s kind of way.<\/p>\n
It airs at 2 a.m. and is followed by another drug\/romance tale, \u201cI Love You Alice B. Toklas\u201d. But since The Big Cube barely was released to theaters and just hit DVD last year, that is the one to watch.<\/p>\n
Turner plays an aging actress (what a stretch) who has a daughter who speaks with an eastern European accent for some reason, and the daughter falls under the seductive allure of a Bad Man (George Chakiris from \u201cWest Side Story\u201d) and pretty soon murder, orgies and crazed LSD trips fill the movie screen. Here\u2019s the trailer for the movie (all nudity is genteelly blocked):<\/p>\n