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Before I started this post, I Googled the phrase “guerilla Oscar campaigning,” and the first result was this story about how Mel Gibson vowed to spend no money on his Passion of the Christ Oscar campaign, aside from sending out 8,000 DVD screeners. Oh, how times have changed.

This year, even as the writers strike limits the venues for pre-Oscar awards show appearances and shillery, nominees are making the most of every TV moment, doing stuff that ends up on YouTube, and ensuring that they, their nominations and their movies stay in the public conversation. Here at SpoutBlog, we’re dedicated to handicapping the hype as it happens, so expect us to compare and contrast these media moments semi-regularly (Daily? Probably not. Weekly? Let’s see how it goes.)

First up: Diablo Cody goes looking for Daniel Day-Lewis cred, whilst DDL himself is busy trying to siphon off some of Heath Ledger’s headlines.

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Under discussion:

Goliath  (2007)

The festival is over, but we’ve still got a back-log of content to deliver. In this installment, I talk to Nathan and David Zellner. At last year’s festival their short about the mysteries of circumcision, Aftermath on Meadowlark Lane, got a lot of people talking. This year they return with Goliath, a feature about divorce, demotion, and a missing cat. For my money it has the best trailer of any film in the festival, check it out along with Chris’ thoughts here.

Zellner Brothers Interview

Under discussion:

The Ballad of Jack & Rose  (2004)

Spider-Man 3  (2007)

The Squid and the Whale  (2005)

Juno  (2007)

Smart People  (2008)

If you were even slightly irritated by Ellen Page’s too-precocious performance in Juno, then you might want to avoid the trailer for Noam Murro’s Smart People. In the movie, which screened at Sundance last week, Page plays yet another teen who seems too smart for her own good. In fact, it is obvious that the trailer is trying to make this character appear similar to her Oscar-nominated role. Now, I’m not one of the many Juno haters, and I think Page has talent, but doesn’t it take away from her performance in Juno to show us that she’s doing the exact same thing in her follow-up? Never mind the fact that Smart People seems like The Squid and the Whale meets The Ballad of Jack and Rose — I’ve heard that it is pretty funny and smart despite its familiar territories — I’m more turned off by the fact that it’s like Juno II without our favorite Juno I actors (Cera, Bateman and Simmons, of course).

Not that you can go wrong with Thomas Haden Church, with or without a catfish mustache (I just watched Spider-Man 3 for the first time, and he’s the only good thing about it). Here he plays the adopted brother of a pompous Carnegie Mellon professor played by Dennis Quaid. Page plays Quaid’s Young Republican daughter; Ashton Holmes (A History of Violence) plays his son; and Sarah Jessica Parker is his former student-turned-doctor who becomes his love interest. Apparently Church’s character is more free spirited than the rest, and he probably teaches them all to have more fun in life. This sounds pretty unoriginal, but from what I’ve read the film as a whole works as a satire of academia and specialized knowledge. Of course, that doesn’t mean we’re going to enjoy any of those too-intelligent characters while waiting for them to relax.

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