Tom Hanks landed on the Late Show Tuesday night to talk "Charlie Wilson's War" with David Letterman.  The segment is split into two parts on YouTube, but here's the second half, which includes some politics discussion and the "Charlie" bits:



There was also this writers strike bit.  Hanks was slated to be on the show on a date that came amidst the strike, and the gag is he didn't realize the strike hadn't resolved itself.  Funny stuff:



Speaking of Letterman and the strike, I saw a picketer carrying a "ViaCON" sign in front of the Ed Sullivan Theater yesterday afternoon. Not overly clever, but "ouch" nontheless.

We're anxiously awaiting the SAG announcement, but in the meantime...

•  Hilton Als calls "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" a "visual essay about physical and spiritual isolation," compares the film to Elaine Scarry's "The Body in Pain."  Heavy. [The New Yorker]

•  Golden Globe nominee Tom Hanks apparently tells unruly and disrespectful MySpacers to go f*** themselves. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Todd Martens gets "Juno" composer Mateo Messina to answer a few queries about his experimental score and, of course, working in the shadow of Sonic Youth and the Kinks on the film's soundtrack. [Extended Play]

•  Sasha Stone thinks it might be time to take "Charlie Wilson's War" seriously again.  Eh. [Awards Daily]

•  Speaking of which, here's yet another pre-release piece on the film. [USA Today]

•  Ramin Satoodeh points us to David Ansen's mixed-bag top 10 list (and his own to boot). [The Gold Digger]

•  The strike gives David Cronenberg second thoughts about attending the Golden Globes -- he expects to be a no-show. [Gold Rush]

•  New York Magazine stretches for a story by indicating rash of recent pregnancies as perhaps detrimental to the awards success of "Juno." [Vulture]

•  BUT, they also start a cool "For Your Consideration" feature.  This week" McLovin' for Best Supporting Actor. [Vulture]

David Poland hasn't even taken a minute to let the film settle before going all out and writing a 1,800-word review of "Charlie Wilson's War."  It actually reads like he didn't take a minute, too, but in any case, he sings the praises of Phil Hoffman, calls Wilson a "perfect fit" for Tom Hanks and considers Julia Roberts "miscast" (doing his usual "so and so would have been better" routine).

Overall, he doesn't seem to have been impressed.

Jeffrey Wells, meanwhile, is okay with the film being "very good but not great," calls Hoffman a "lock" for a Best Supporting Actor nomination.

At a concise and seemingly amputated 97 minutes, "Charlie Wilson's War" may have surprised more than a few of tonight's press-heavy crowd when the credits suddenly rolled at Universal's first major west coast exhibition of the film this evening.

That's not to say they didn't like it (judging by a modest but warm round of applause), or that there isn't anything to like about the film.  There was plenty of laughter throughout (mostly at the lines delivered by Phillip Seymour Hoffman's cut-throat Gust Avrakotos) and a generaly air of enjoyment in the crowd.  But when reactions start to hit the net later this evening, tomorrow morning or later into the week (here's a knee-jerk from yours truly), I expect a number of the Oscar-watching readership to realize that we're all guilty of building buzz too strongly, hustling to anoint something a "frontrunner" based on pedigree, all in the name of forecasting a scenario that proves itself malleable and ignorant of hard and fast rules year in and year out.

Anyway, I won't make any declarations in this space, but we'll see what the critics and awards analysts have to say soon enough.  For now, Tom O'Neil, who was at the New York screening of the film earlier this evening, has some thoughts up.

Universal Pictures has finally cooked up a one-sheet for Mike Nichols' "Charlie Wilson's War," and I have to say, it's a little bland.  ComingSoon.net has the exclusive.

Word has it the studio is calling the film a "black comedy" and may even be looking to position it in the comedy category for Golden Globe consideration (though this may simply be chatter and speculation on Uni's part getting blown into bigger proportion by the press).  I can't say whether that's the strategy or not, but this psuedo-Hugh Grant-ish, high-key-lit, glossy little thing is certainly a step in that direction.

I thought the script for "Charlie," which has been widely read, it seems, was a biting piece of Aaron Sorkin goodness.  Certainly it had its comedic elements (and the trailer has played up these moments, to be sure), but there was a richness to the drama and socio-political gravitas on the page that could certainly have been cultivated through production.

I guess we'll get a better idea in the coming weeks.  Uni doesn't plan to screen the film until the middle of next month.  Nichols is probably hunched over an Avid somewhere right now shaving frames off a sequence that will likely get cut anyway.  He's meticulous, that one.

Now I know not EVERYONE who comes to this page is an Oscar obssessive with stored-up knowledge on the season.  So if you haven't read George Crile's book and want some backdrop on the "Charlie" plot, take a look at the Charlie Wilson Wikipedia page.