What does it say when Golden Globes’ host Ricky Gervais is getting more post-show attention than the night’s winners (or January Jones’ gravity-defying dress)? Sure, Gervais’ sharp-tongued shots at various targets — from the easy (Charlie Sheen, Robert Downey Jr. and Mel Gibson) to the slightly less so (Steve Carell, Tim Allen and God) — were often insensitive and sometimes crass, but none of them were necessarily untruthful or even far from what most viewers would say about each recipient.

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There was a time when Winona Ryder could do no wrong. Simultaneously intelligent, beautiful and creatively savvy, Ryder burst onto the scene with a series of late-1980s roles informed by a refreshingly offbeat sensibility best exemplified by her adorable goth-girl breakthrough in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice and her career-defining performance as Veronica in Heathers, a scathing black comedy that still holds up 20 years later.

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As you've no doubt heard by now, a portion of George Clooney's next directorial effort will be shot in and around the Cincinnati area.

Based on writer Beau Willimon's stage play Farragut North, Ides of March features Clooney, who co-wrote the screen adaption with partner Grant Heslov, as a “Howard Dean-type governor” who's trying to win the Democratic nomination for president.

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The Directors Guild of American today announced its nominees for “Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentaries” for 2010: Lixin Fan's Last Train Home; Charles Ferguson's Inside Job; Alex Gibney's Client 9: The Rise and Fall of the Eliot Spitzer; Davis Guggenheim's Waiting for Superman; and Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger's Restrepo.

There's no denying that the Guild had a tough job in narrowing the field — it was another stellar year for the ever-evolving genre — but only two of the final five would have made my list: Inside Job (read my interview with Ferguson here) and Client 9, both of which appeared on my top 10 list of 2010 films.

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Tuesday has long been one of my favorite days of the week. Why? That’s when new music and movies traditionally hit stores for purchase and/or rental. Remember John M. James’ column/list of new albums that used to appear in CityBeat? I admit that was the first thing I turned to as a music-mad pre-CityBeat-staff college kid when I picked up the paper every week. Where are you, John?

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Another calendar year has turned, and you know what that means — a smattering of awards season fare that already opened in larger markets in order to qualify for Oscar consideration (Derek Cianfrance's Blue Valentine, Sofia Coppola's Somewhere and John Cameron Mitchell's Rabbit Hole, all of which open here this month) mixed in with stuff that studios have jettisoned for one reason or another (the most obvious being that they suck) to the cinematic dead zone known as The Land of Misfit Movies (aka the months of January and February).

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I try to stay away from movie trailers as much as possible — either because they rarely give you an accurate idea of what a movie is truly about or because they reveal the entire thing in two minutes. (On the other hand, I suppose I'd rather spend a few minutes with something like Tron: Legacy or The Tourist than sit through two mind-numbing hours.)

An example of the first reason is on display in the difference between the theatrical trailer version of No Strings Attached (which is set to open wide Jan. 21) and its much racier red band version.

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I try not to make it a habit of steering you, dear readers, to other Web sites, but The Movie Club is back! Essentially an insider-y movie-critic wank-fest, the Slate-curated endeavor features five writers who go back and forth debating the year in movies via 600-word-or-so online missives — a wet dream for those of us who think about movies deeply and obsessively and how they impact and reflect the culture at large but probably a big bore for those with little patience for such seemingly narrow, esoteric conversations.

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And now this from the CityBeat entertainment gossip desk: A couple of actors with Cincinnati ties announced marriage engagements today.

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The year-end movie season is now in high gear, as media entities of every stripe unveil their top 10 lists and various awards groups reveal their nominations. CityBeat's film writers will present our lists next week. In the meantime, check out this week's Year in Film essays, which offer a look at 2010's noteworthy cinematic trends — from a roundup of “off-the-wall” DVDs and an examination of the further fracturing of movie reality and indie cinema to the year's best crime epics and the lack of strong movies by and for African Americans.

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