Podcast: Sorry to Bother You about Oscar's fifth spots!

Nathaniel R and Murtada Elfadl and Nick Davis talk Oscar races

Hello! No new movies to review but plenty to talk about.

Index (56 minutes)
00:01 Glenn, Regina, Olivia, and Patty saved the Globes
05:16 What we've been watching lately: Boots Riley's Sorry to Bother, plus Support the Girls, Minding the Gap, Eighth Grade and A Star is Born (again).
18:00 Supporting Actress / Actor: Foy or Robbie, and King? Sam, Sam, or Timothée?
29:22 Actor & Actress: Hawke or Washington? Blunt, Aparacio, or Kidman?
35:45 Screenplay confusions / Score weirdness
42:30 Foreign Film: Never Look Away or Burning?
45:50 Nick is thumbs down At Eternity's Gate
47:20 Director / Picture and Pawel Pawlikowski and Spike Lee
55:00 Wrap-up

Further Reading / References
• Oscar Charts
• Golden Globe Speeches
• KCRW's "The Business" interview with Spike Lee
• Nathaniel's Ben Foster interview

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Sorry to Bother You about Oscar's fifth spots

Interview: Toni Colette on horror, grief, and her prismatic performances

by Nathaniel R

Toni Collette gives one of the year's great performances staring into the abyss of her own life in "Hereditary"Toni Collette doesn't like horror movies. We relate but there are exceptions: horror films starring Toni Collette are events. Her resistance to the genre,  she refers to both of her biggest horror hits as "classic dramas", may be the strange key to why she's so superb in them, grounding them in emotional truths while simultaneously having the kind of stylistic range as an actor that can lift right off with them into otherworldly places. 

We recently sat down after an encore screening and lively Q&A of Hereditary. Her sole Oscar nomination came early in her career as the grieving mother of little Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense (1999) and in a way, twenty years later, she's bookended that great early success with another very different grieving mother. This one's much harder to love but the performance is even better. Even if you don't love horror movies, it's impossible to miss the fact that her Annie, a self-indulgent artist and resentful mother, is a tour de force performance from an actress at the top of her game. Annie's life is traumas stacking up on traumas but Toni's performance keeps stacking brilliance upon brilliance.

Though she's played her share of narcissists or flighty women, the actress herself comes across as generous and grounded, thrilled by the collaboration of filmmaking. She rolls her eyes about herself and other actors if anyone gets too precious or self-involved about the craft. Though she loves acting dearly, she hilariously refers to it as her "day job" as we're making small talk before the interview.

In a rare turnabout, as we sat down, Toni asked the first question. So we'll begin right there....

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Critics Choice Movie Awards Live Blog

by Nathaniel R

7:30 It took me 15 minutes to find a live stream but I unfortunately found it just in time to see a frankly hideous video mix which used this strange early photoshop spotlight effect on movie clips so the actors were lit up and everything else was blacked out. Taye Diggs was introduced as a 'chocolatey heartthrob'. He launched into a musical performance which was........ ........   ........... ........ .........Yes, Taye Diggs is very handsome!

7:32 Lady Gaga wins Best Song for "Shallow". Who knew Peter Farrelly was such a fan, giving her a standing ovation. She thanks Bradley Cooper profusely and smartly talks about his transformation into Jackson Maine (we need people to talk about this amazing performance.  "I was mesmerized both for myself and my character" Wait, they're different people? Kidding.

7:38 Best Young Actor or Actress goes to Elsie Fisher with reaction shots from Thomasin McKenzie and Amandla Stenberg, who both seem unfussed about losing, already pros they are.

As someone who has anxiety, it's exciting to be on this stage right now.

Tee hee. Sadly, though Elsie throws up a peace hand sign, she doesn't say "Gucci" but 'Peace and love, y'all'...

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Interview: Nadine Labaki on directing children in her riveting Oscar contender "Capernaum"

by Nathaniel R

Nadine Labaki is three-for-three. Lebanon's most prominent filmmaker has seen all three of her films premiere at Cannes to considerable acclaim and go on to represent her country as Oscar submissions. The first two Caramel (2007) and Where Do We Go Now? (2011) became international arthouse hits. Her newest feature Capernaum, distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, recently began its platform release in the US and will hopefully see the same warm reception. It's her best shot yet at an Oscar nomination, having made the finals in foreign film. Her Cannes jury prize winner looks at the refugee crisis in Lebanon by focusing on one Syrian boy named Zain (played by Zain Al Rafeea) who is trying to survive on his own. It's a visceral must-see and should elevate Labaki's already healthy reputation as a world class director.

To my surprise, she isn't sure what she's doing next, admitting that this one has been particularly hard to let go of...

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Final Best Director predictions: Will Lanthimos score?

Will the Academy's 512 wide director's branch go their own way this week while balloting for their nominations, or will they just co-sign what the Globes and the DGA said (i.e. Cooper, Cuarón, Farrelly, Lee, and McKay)? BAFTA, for all its myriad problems of trying to be part of the Oscar race rather than keep its own uniquely British identity, actually gave us a possibly best case scenario (i.e. Cooper, Cuarón, Lee, Pawlikowski, and Lanthimos)...

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