AFI Top Ten: No "Coco", Yes "Wonder Woman"

Consensus is a funny thing. And a boring one. But when mostly good art is honored you can't complain too much.  The American Film Insitute has announced its top ten of the year list which is identical to the Best Picture list offered up by the BFCA via the Critics Choice Awards. Well, as identical as it could be given one eligibility issue...

They are 

• The Big Sick
• Call Me By Your Name
• Dunkirk
• The Florida Project...

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47 days til Oscar nominations and I'm feeling a bit morbid...

by Nathaniel R

Edith Piaf and Judy GarlandPerhaps it was those uninspired Critics Choice nominations? Perhaps it's no critical year-end love for La Pfeiffer in her comeback year? Perhaps it was my anti-depressant prescription running out with no health insurance to renew it with? Or, probably, it's the generally miserable state of the world in which things are so dire that we're watching a kleptocracy filled with proud sexual predators, treasonous pathological liars, greedy overlord billionaires, fact-averse idiots, and blatantly sociopathic racists amass power at a record pace, dooming future generations to have it much much worse than we even do now? Meanwhile the good people of the world stare in disbelief whilst fighting amongst themselves for any number of reasons but the largest, we suspect, is a feeling of impotence against the actual enemies.

But since I was feeling terrible all day whilst trying to come up with our habitual trivia fun with numbers as we countdown, I kept remembering that Judy Garland died when she was just 47. (I'm working my way to a non-morbid point after the hand-wringing...)

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FYC: Christine Baranski in "A Bad Moms Christmas"

By Spencer Coile 

As this year's Oscar race heats up, two performances appear to be our Supporting Actress frontrunners: Allison Janney in I, Tonya and Laurie Metcalf in Lady Bird. These two veterans share more in common than scene-stealing roles in their respective films. They are each renowned television actresses (with 13 Emmy nominations and 10 wins between the two of them). With careers spanning decades and their biggest success arguably coming from TV, there is something deeply satisfying about seeing these two respected television actresses be paid their dues for film as well.

That said, there is another 2017 performance in the same vein that merits some discussion: Christine Baranski in A Bad Moms Christmas... 

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A First Trailer for Haigh's "Lean on Pete"

Chris here. Andrew Haigh's adaptation Lean on Pete made it all through the fall festival season with only a few stills to entice us. But now we have a gorgeous new trailer to feast our eyes upon ahead of the film's March release. You might recall that the film's young star Charlie Plummer won the young actor Marcello Mastroianni prize at the Venice Film Festival - looks like we've got one of 2018's major breakthroughs, as he has the plum role of the kidnapped John Getty in Christmas's All the Money in the World.

After the impressive triple punch of Weekend, 45 Years, and HBO's short-lived Looking, we are ready to line up to anything Haigh delivers. But this story of a boy escaping home with the horse he tends to seems like an interesting narrative progression for the writer/director, and his keen emotional insights seem to be perfectly calibrated to study a troubled teen. And he looks to deliver some of his most gorgeous visuals

With this and The Rider, Chloe Zhao's horse-centric festival darling and Indie Spirit nominee, it looks to be a big spring for horses on the indie scene. Insert your "Andrew Hayyyyy" joke here. What do you think of this first trailer?

Rob's Got Whosits & Whatsits Galore

by Jason Adams

I'm still traumatized (yes I know that's a strong word, but I need a strong word to get across the scope of the trauma) by the fact that we won't be getting Sofia Coppola's version of The Little Mermaid, so perhaps I'm not the best person to report this news, but here we are. Rob Marshall, the man who inflicted Nine upon the world, has according to Deadline been offered the gig of updating the Beloved Disney Classic to live-action. They say he will make up his mind over the holidays...

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