I wasn’t prepared to post about this, but having spoken with Jeff Sneider, who decided to drop this news on his Hot Mic podcast, he’s also hearing the same rumor that’s been going around town for the last week or so.
Read moreBest of the 1960s Poll: Critics and Directors Lists
Over 130 critics and filmmakers voted for the Best Films of the 1960s. The full results were posted earlier this week. Below are the ballots.
Read moreDid National Board of Review Delay Their Vote?
Looks like a date change may have occured with the National Board of Review. Their Twitter account has pulled the “just one week until our Nov 30 awards announcement” tweet from earlier this week, and on their website the press release from earlier this year revealing the Nov. 30 date has gone missing. Could this have to do with Guillermo del Toro's “Nightmare Alley” still not being ready? As it stands, the first “Nightmare Alley” screening is set for December 1st in Los Angeles and New York City. Steven Spielberg's “West Side Story” surely adhered to NBR's original date, setting up a screening the day before the vote on November 29th.
The 10 Best Performances of 2020
Here are my annual picks for the best performances of 2020. There was a lot to choose from, but this is the cream of the crop as far as I’m concerned. Notice, no Frances McDormand in “Nomadland,” she would have probably cracked the top 20. I’m not as big of a fan of that performance and movie as many of my colleagues in film journalism are.
Read moreSundance Film Festival Announces 2021 Lineup
The 2021 Sundance Film Festival was always set to be different than any other previous version in its history. The wintry film festival, pandemic be damned, has undergone changes including screenings held digitally via a Sundance-built online platform. That’s how I’ll be covering it, much like most of my colleagues in film journalism, and, purists be damned, I am excited to embark on another Sundance adventure filled with discovery.
Read moreJose Padilha On Board as Director for Netflix's Jiu-Jitsu Origin Story, "Dead or Alive"
Brazilian director Jose Padilha has signed on to another Netflix production, continuing his long-running relationship with the streaming service. This time, Padilha will be turning his attention to the genesis and growth of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, with the film “Dead or Alive” set to explore how this mixed martial art spread across the world. Padilha is sharing scriptwriting duties with Peter Maguire, while he will also produce the film alongside Greg Silverman.
Read moreAcademy Invites 842 New Members, Half of Them Women
842 new members have been invited to join the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Half of the new invitees to the film academy are women and 29% people of color. The Academy has thereby doubled its percentage of nonwhite members over the last four years. In 2015, people of color accounted for 8% and in 2019, based on these new invites, that percentage has gone up to 16% If 95% of the invites are accepted, which should be the case, then the film academy will number more than 9,000 members.
And they will still get the winners wrong.
‘X-Men: Dark Phoenix' Expected to Lose $100M
Deadline has released a report claiming that “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” is projected to lose upwards of $100M for Disney (Although, I do wonder how much of the production costs were already paid for by Fox). The report quotes sources and analysts, they predict “Dark Phoenix” will probably take in approximately $325 million worldwide at the box office, making it a major bomb if that’s the case. But a sub-$300 million intake is also not out of the question, which would render its losses at much higher than $100M. What a disaster.
Bond 25: Daniel Craig out for Two Weeks With Lower-Body Injury
Daniel Craig’s ankle has, most probably, not been given enough rest time, at least based on my decent knowledge of how these things work. The Bond producers are claiming that it will just be two weeks before Craig is back on the set of Bond 25. As we all know, a Bond movie these days requires a lot of Bourne-esque activity, a 51-year-old Craig recovering from this injury and running/jumping/diving etc. in such a limited recovery time-frame is unusual, but I’m all eyes and ears. Maybe they’ll pump his ankle with some tranquilizers or maybe they’ll just freeze it, who knows.
Read more#MeToo Themed Israeli Film ‘Working Woman' Is Too On-The-Nose But Has the Power to Shake You [Review]
Israeli director, not to mention award-winning documentarian, Michal Aviad’s “Working Woman” is a movie that feels and, very much, wants to be relevant, but in its attempt to depict a situation which is heavily #MeToo it doesn’t manage to sidestep its biggest problem; the obviousness of it all.
Read more‘Captain Marvel’ Trailer 2: Another Look At Brie Larson's Superheroine
Patty Jenkins' "Wonder Woman" set in motion the possibility of a movie like "Captain Marvel" existing. Before that, having a female-led superhero movie was deemed "box-office poison" by the powers-that-be, whoever the hell those people are-- especially since 2005’sJennifer Garner-starring “Elektra," was a box-office bomb and seemed to reinforce that point to many. The success of "Wonder Woman" proved nay in terms of the mainstream not accepting a female superhero. They did. Jenkins' movie made $821M worldwide.
Read moreTimothee Chalamet and Steve Carell on ‘Beautiful Boy' [Interview]
Director Felix Van Groeningen (Broken Circle Breakdown) adapts two memoirs (from real-life father and son David and Nic Sheff) into his first American film "Beautiful Boy."
David (Steve Carell) lives with son Nic (an excellent Timothee Chalamet), and second wife Karen (Maura Tierney) in their comfortable San Francisco home. Major problems arise when Nic becomes addicted to Methamphetamine. The movie then, for the duration of its 112 or so minutes, goes back and forth between Nic's continuous cycle of relapse and recovery.
Any doubts that Chalamet's breakthrough performance in "Call Me By Your Name" would be a one-time deal are easily vanquished by his passionate take here of Nic. Chalamet is astonishing, finding a kind of dramatic depth and feeling for character that most actors could only dream of reaching. Carrel, a comedic actor that has proven over time to be a solid dramatic one as well, infuses wisdom and hard-earned tears to the movie in a performance that ranks among his very best.
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