She Had Oscar Buzz!

Yes, the title is an homage to our friends podcast "This Had Oscar Buzz". Here's a piece from new contributor Elie Chivi that we think you'll love on women who strangely haven't been nominated yet... 

by Elie Chivi

After Kirsten Dunst’s comments last month about the relative lack of awards attention she’s received throughout her career, I couldn’t help but think of the many other never-nominated yet deserving actresses of the past couple of decades. Some actresses can get Oscar nominations for doing the bare minimum (think Frances McDormand in North Country or Catherine Keener in Capote) due to a mix of bandwagoning on to a bigger lead performance or simply because of who they are. 

On the other hand, some of our finest actresses consistently do interesting, complex, or hilarious work yet always come up short on Oscar nomination morning. From the crop of post-90’s era performers, the list below highlights five of the most egregious members of the never-nominated list...

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The New Classics - No Country For Old Men

Michael Cusumano here to take a fresh look at a film that never fails to reward it.

Scene: The Sad, Strange Death of Carson Wells

Moss: What's this guy supposed to be, the ultimate badass?

Wells: No, I wouldn't describe him as that.

Moss: How would you describe him?

Wells: I guess I would say he doesn't have a sense of humor.

But that’s not really accurate, is it? 

Anton Chigurh displays frequent amusement throughout the Coen’s adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country For Old Men. It simply that the humor exists on a wavelength only he can hear. Shortly after making that assessment quoted above, Woody Harrelson’s Carson Wells will learn just how mistaken he is...

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Lunchtime Poll: Which Beatles song could you never forget?

This week's new titles on DVD or Blu-Ray are the remake of Child's Play (reviewed), the critically lambasted three generations of Shaft, Luc Besson's latest action flick Anna, and one of the year's true sleeper hits, Danny Boyle's Yesterday. In a freak occurence a failed songwriter (Himesh Patel) wakes up to discover that The Beatles have never existed. He's the only one who remembers their music so he starts passing off their songs as his own and skyrockets to fame. Did you see it? Did you love it, loathe it, or fall somewhere inbetween (*raises own hand*)? Either way there's surely a Beatles song you couldn't ever live without, even if you had to make do with a cover version.

Today's Lunchtime Poll: Which Beatles song is most burned into your memory and which is your favourite? 

"Incitement" will represent Israel at the Oscars while Thailand sends a horror film.

IncitementWe are now up to 73 films competing for those coveted 5 nominations in Best International Feature Film at the Oscars. Submissions are due to the Academy at the end of the month.  Israel's Ophir Awards were held over the weekend with Incitement taking Best Picture, making it their submission. The film tracks the year leading up to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin from the point of the view of the assassin. Curiously the film only one two Ophir Awards, the other being Best Casting. The acting prizes largely went to Peaches and Cream and the craft prizes largely went to The Unorthodox but neither could muster up the support to take the top prize. The two Israeli pictures of 2019 with the arguably highest US profiles, festival hit Synonyms (at NYFF next) and currently in release Tel Aviv on Fire (nearing half a million at US arthouses) took Cinematography and Screenplay respectively. You can see all the winners here on the updated nominations post.

Other updates? Argentina is sending the pleasant heist comedy Heroic Losers starring their ubiquitous top film actor Ricardo Darín (The Secret in Their Eyes, Wild Tales) and his son Chino Darín (El Angel, A Twelve-Year Night), neither a stranger to headlining Oscar submissions. We saw that one at TIFF and it could make the finalist list if Oscar voters are in the mood for charming 'light' entertainment.

But the real curveball, and there's always one or two true oddities in the submission list, is Thailand's choice of the horror film Inhuman Kiss (starring Oabnithi Wiwattanawrang and Phantira Pipityakorn) which is about a girl whose head detaches from her body to hunt human flesh. Has there ever been a purer form of Oscar bait? Kidding but... wow. Want to see. 

How had I never seen... "M" (1931)?

Series Debut! As a kind of dark mirror to our "Over & Over" column, we've invited  Team Experience to fill in some of their most shameful film history gaps and tell us about their experience. We all have gaps in our viewing with over a century of film history behind us! To kick things off here's a 'Lang-delayed' encounter for Mark. - Editor

by Mark Brinkerhoff

I first became aware of M, Fritz Lang’s seminal 1931 German thriller, while flipping through Vanity Fair’s Hollywood, a weighty, sumptuous 2000 coffee table book. Therein, opposite a cuckoo photo of Doris Day with half a dozen dyed poodles, is a haunting photo of actor Peter Lorre with the following caption...

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