Maybe they should've just cancelled the Oscars?

by Nathaniel R

The news from behind-the-scenes for this year's Oscar ceremony just keeps getting worse. First came the news that they were demoting crucial artistic achievements like Film Editing and Production Design to a 'pre show'... to be edited into the live event (we know how badly that comes off from other awards shows who do it -- all of which have lower ratings than the Oscar). It was a telling sign that they don't get or love their own popular brand, a lethal combo for the future. When the filmmaking community naturally expressed concerns and even anger and threats of boycott, outgoing CEO Dawn Hudson and the outgoing Academy president attempted gaslighting... it was our problem. We just didn't understand what they were saying. Um, no. We hated it precisely because we understood!  

The fallout continues...

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Doc Corner: Keith Maitland's 'Dear Mr. Brody'

By Glenn Dunks

Sometimes it is those brief moments in history that can offer the greatest glimpse at the changing state of a nation. Keith Maitland does just that with the story of Michael Brody Jr., a blip on the radar of pop culture by today’s standards, but who in 1970 at the age of 21—a self-proclaimed hippie millionaire, the heir to a large margarine fortune—caused pandemonium when he declared his intentions to give away his entire wealth to anybody who asked for it...

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Hit Me With Your Best Shot: 'The Conversation'

by Nathaniel R

a wonderful 'establishing shot' not of a building but of a man (Gene Hackman), his targets (in photographs), and the tools of his trade.

Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation (1974)  is nothing if not elusive. So many of the images in this paranoid mystery are obstructed. Coppola and the cinematographer Bill Butler are continually adjusting focus and searching for the subject and his targets. The protagonist, an 'unreliable narrator' type albeit without the narration, is Harry Caul (Gene Hackman, brilliant) and he's often hiding in the corner of frames, or with his back turned to us. The film begins with a full circle, as Harry is spying on a man and a woman as they walk around a city park. For what reason we do not yet know and might never know. Though we see his targets frequently, there are constant visual interruptions from trees and people and their own movements. We understand this to be Harry's view, figuratively if not literally, since people can't move like a crane shot or zoom in for a closeup...

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Review: Sebastian Stan devours horror-romance 'Fresh'

by Matt St Clair

The new horror/romance hybrid Fresh chiefly functions as a viable kidnapping thriller that still  gets one thing right about our modern dating scene. It can be a literal terror show. It’s especially horrifying in our era of dating apps. The constant hoping for a companion as you keep sending messages saying “Hello” that get no response can make you wonder if people read the actual profile. It’s easy to judge a book by its cover and message someone based on how they look in their photo. But do people bother to read our bios for a better idea on what we might be like? 

As Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) finds out the hard way, meeting people in real life can be just as rough...

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Linkers Dozen

three must reads
• Blood Knife "Everyone is beautiful and no one is horny." Excellent article about the weird symmetry of the perfection of the body and the desexualization of cinema
• Thrillist Chris Feil suggests Oscars clips for this year's acting nominees
• The Ringer "Robert Pattinson has been lying to you for years" investigating the actors self-mythologizing interviews

Sam Elliott mouths off, the cast of Oppenheimer, a restoration of Alligator, Stephen King's next book, and more after the jump...

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