Same as it ever was? Same as it ever was!

Thanks to Tropical Storm Hilary, we’re all going to have to don long-sleeve shirts and pants for another ... what? Week? Month? Year? When will these mosquitoes fly away and return to the circle of hell they came from?

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope’s Friday newsletter. As I’m writing this, the writers and studios are meeting — for the second day in a row! If they ordered pizza from one of these places, perhaps a settlement is in the offing.

‘Stop Making Sense’ is back and better than ever

Annie Clark (a.k.a. St. Vincent) was there, as were Phoebe Bridgers, Dakota Johnson, Jessie Buckley, Stephanie Hsu, Toni Basil, Scott Alexander, Adam Scott and Patti Harrison. So was Paul Thomas Anderson, who came to Santa Monica’s Aero Theatre on Tuesday night to introduce the glorious restoration of the greatest concert movie in the history of film, “Stop Making Sense,” and talk with Talking Heads — a band not fond of talking, and, sometimes, not all that fond of each other.

The group, which came apart a few years after the release of Jonathan Demme’s 1984 masterwork (though members were always kind of in the process of coming apart), has been making the rounds to promote the re-release of “Stop Making Sense.” (It’s playing on about 200 IMAX screens beginning today before going wide next week.) My colleague Mark Olsen caught them talking with Spike Lee at the Toronto Film Festival, and we also had Rob Tannenbaum interviewing them the next day.

“It turns out, the best live band of 1983 is also the best live band of 2023,” Tannenbaum writes. He may find a few (million) people who beg to differ with him on that. But you can definitely make the argument.

Talking Heads perform at the Pantages in “Stop Making Sense.”

(Richard E. Aaron / Redferns)

France submits ‘The Taste of Things’ for the Oscars

As you may know, countries submit movies to compete for the international feature Oscar. Some 92 nations entered films last year, with Germany’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” ultimately winning. Countries can submit only one movie a year, often leading to some difficult, contentious choices.

This year, France, whose films have been nominated more than any other country for this honor, had to single out either Tran Anh Hung’s sumptuous romance “The Taste of Things” or Justine Triet’s daring courtroom drama “Anatomy of Fall.” Hung won the best director prize at Cannes. “Anatomy of a Fall” took that festival’s top honor, the Palme d’Or.

There was no bad choice here.

In the end, France went with “The Taste of Things” (previously titled “The Pot-au-Feu” when it played at Cannes), a heady drama about the relationship between a renowned chef (Benoît Magimel) and his cook, his muse, his life (and if he had his way, his wife), played by the legendary Juliette Binoche.

Binoche’s headline status was an integral part of IFC’s pitch to the French selection committee, according to a source. France might be the most nominated country for the international feature Oscar, but it hasn’t won the award since “Indochine” prevailed in 1993. “Indochine” stars Catherine Deneuve, an actor, like Binoche, that audiences strongly associate with her home country. That connection, along with the movie’s tone and subject, were key selling points for “The Taste of Things.”

“The movie is all about what Americans love celebrating about French culture, which is food, love, romance and the French language,” notes the source, who was present at the Zoom pitch to the selection committee.

The language aspect might have helped tip the balance for “The Taste of Things,” as it is entirely a French language film, while “Anatomy of a Fall” bops among French, English and German. Recent history was probably also a factor. Last year, France submitted Alice Diop’s legal drama, “Saint Omer,” a critically acclaimed film that didn’t go on to earn an Oscar nomination. France’s 2021 selection, Julia Ducournau’s polarizing Cannes Palme d’Or winner “Titane,” also failed to make the final cut.

“Anatomy of a Fall” will still be campaigned for other Oscars, of course, and it has a strong lead actress contender in Sandra Hüller, who plays a writer accused of murdering her husband. (She’s also outstanding as the wife of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss in Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest,” the United Kingdom’s international feature submission.)

So both “Anatomy of a Fall” (in theaters Oct. 13) and “The Taste of Things” (which will have a brief, theatrical qualifying run at the end of the year) can still prevail at the 2024 Oscars. They’ll just be taking different paths on their journey.

Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel in “The Taste of Things.”

(Carole Bethuel / Cannes Film Festival)

That’s a wrap on the Toronto International Film Festival

The Toronto film festival cleared away the last plate of poutine Sunday, announcing that Cord Jefferson’s biting satire “American Fiction” had taken the event’s People’s Choice Award, a coveted awards season bellwether. The honor raises the movie’s Oscar profile, along with that of its star, Jeffrey Wright, who, remarkably, has never been nominated over his long, celebrated career.

One movie that will most definitely not be nominated for an Oscar is Harmony Korine’s new “Aggro Dr1ft.” But I would be remiss to not highlight my pal Mark Olsen’s report from Toronto on this movie, which prompted fainting and nausea and the usual head-scratching. Sound like fun? We’re not certain how or even if you’ll be able to see it.

“We really were even unsure about putting it in a movie context,” Korine told Mark about premiering the “Aggro Dr1ft” project at festivals. “We’re trying to make something that was more immersive and that felt closer to an experience — a kind of a specific vibration that was more physical.”

Feels a little like the sensation I get from those damn mosquitoes. Oooof. I’m starting to itch. If you’ll excuse me, I have to go change into my long-sleeve shirt and pants right now.

Erika Alexander and Jeffrey Wright in “American Fiction.”

(Claire Folger / MGM-Orion Releasing via AP)