FYC: Lily Gladstone, Supporting Actress

by John Guerin

I could not have predicted that in a movie starring Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart, and Michelle Williams, a performance by relative newcomer Lily Gladstone would leave me the most affected. The best short film of 2016 is the third act of Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women, in which Jamie (Gladstone), a solitary Montana rancher, falls for Beth, an out-of-town lawyer (Stewart), who is stuck teaching an educational law night class four-hours away from her home in Livingston. Stewart, unsurprisingly, adds another formidable performance to her collection of direct yet remote modern women, but the revelation here is Gladstone, who contributes a sensational breakthrough performance that deserves The Academy’s attention...

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AARP Deems Loving The Most Grownup Movie of the Year

by Daniel Crooke

As Paul Ryan and his conference of House Republicans noodle over whether to raise the national retirement age, it’s more important than ever to stand with the AARP – even in Oscar season, when they honor their annual favorites in film. You can rely upon their Movies for Grownups Awards to serve up some fresh names in the same-old stale category line-ups and this year’s idiosyncratic nominations were no different: Molly Shannon! Tilda Swinton! Stephen McKinley Henderson! The ballots have been collected, the final winners tabulated, and this year the AARP Movies for Grownups selected Loving as the Best Picture of 2016. And Character Actress Margo Martindale will host their awards ceremony!

It would be silly to blow these awards out of proportion but as Nathaniel has pointed out, it’s interesting to consider the chief commonality between the Academy and the AARP: age.

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ICYMI Year in Review

We'll finish up our Year in Review lists with Nathaniel's Top Ten List (and with it the daily Film Bitch Award Nominations in all Oscar-like and beyond categories) in the next couple of days but until then, please catch up with all the lists we've already made celebrating this amazing film year while the Academy starts filling out their ballots (today's the day). 

Surely you missed one of these lists or forgot to share your favorite on social media (hint hint *shameless* plug plug)

Movie Cats of the Year 
From The Legend of Tarzan's nuzzling pride on to Isabelle Huppert's pussies.

Grief and Letting Go 
Kubo and the Two Strings, Manchester by the Sea and more dealt with losing parents...

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What's your favorite Jane Wyman?

It's Jane Wyman's Centennial.  The actress was born on this day in Missouri in 1917 as Sara Jane Mayfield.

Like many major stars her legacy rests on a period that's only about a decade long -- in Wyman's case the mid 40s through the 50s, or more specifically the Best Picture winner The Lost Weekend (1945) through the Douglas Sirk classic All that Heaven Allows (1955) a period in which she specialized in childlike women and their inverse young widows-- but her career was long, stretching from bit parts in the early 30s through TV stardom in the 80s.

Her greatest hits and Oscar triumphs after the jump. Which is your favorite?

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W Magazine's 2016 Best Performances

Chris here. Have you seen this year's W Magazine "Best Performances" spread yet? Each year the photo collection features Oscar hopefuls and breakouts alike in one massive treat, and this year is as sprawling as ever. Previous years have ranged from the avant garde to the candid, but this year seems to spark inspiration straight from the loins. No seriously, its actually titled "Come Together", winks at gender and self-love, and recalls 90s lesbian chic supermodels on more than one occasion.

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