Link Buzz

← TODAY'S MUST LISTEN. Nick and I joined Joe Reid and Chris Feil on their new podcast "This Had Oscar Buzz" this week for a special episode. If you haven't yet heard their podcast they generally cover one major failed Oscar bet each time and discuss that year as well. But this episode ignores the usual formula since we recorded in Canada and talked TIFF movies. We covered many of the films which currently have Oscar buzz like Widows, If Beale Street Could Talk, Wildlife, and  A Star is Born. 

Okay on to links! We probably missed a whole lotta news while we were away in Canada but here are a few random links for ya!

• IndieWire Critics rank of the best performances and films from TIFF. This list is completely nuts. Lady Gaga makes the list but Bradley Cooper doesn't? Whaaaa. FTR Gaga is solid with the acting but Bradley Cooper, a great actor already, tops his own previous career best. It's no contest. Maybe the odd results are that they only let us vote for one thing per category, so no rankings or anything else. But still.
• Feedspot "30 Best European Movie Blogs" Somehow The Film Experience made the list even though we aren't really European... (well a couple of contributors are!). And we do cover Eurofilms. But we're in good company so thank you Feedspot.
• Broadway.com had readers vote for which current TV series should be stage musicals. Weird poll but I can definitely see a few of them working
• THR Crazy Rich Asians star Henry Golding was added to the A Simple Favor poster after the fact to capitalize on his new stardom
• THR Bryan Singer in talks to direct Red Sonja. Somehow he's still going to be paid top dollar despite being fired from his last picture for frequently not showing up on set!

Soundtracking: "Lady Sings the Blues"

The 1972 Smackdown is coming soon! Here's Chris on that year's Oscar nominated biopic on Billie Holliday...

We complain a lot about stodgy biopics in the “greatest hits” mold, simply relying on the known Wikipedia fenceposts to construct its narrative. Lady Sings The Blues is kind of the poster child for such frustrations - I mean, the original poster literally proclaimed “Diana Ross IS Billie Holiday”.

What we were given is a film mostly bored by subject and performer, or at least unable to capture what made Ross and Holliday such captivating performers. Blues meanders through the singer’s life story, halting for her performances with fly-on-the-wall passivity that’s as indifferent to the magnetism of the music as it is to Ross’ take...

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Showbiz History: Mary Tyler Moore Debut, Charlie Chaplin Exile, Brangelina Split

10 random things that happened today, September 19th, in showbiz history

1913 Frances Farmer born in Seattle. She becomes a movie star and is eventually committed to an asylum as told in the movie Frances (1982) -- See, American Horror Story wasn't the first time Jessica Lange won awards for living in an asylum. 

1927 Happy 92nd birthday to Tony winner and Oscar nominee Rosemary Harris! We thank her for all her fine performances and for bringing another great actress, Jennifer Ehle, into the world...

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If Beale Street Could Talk & First Man

by Nathaniel R

Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy are a dream together in "First Man"

Festival season is a relentless sprint. NYFF screenings are already underway and Middleburg is right after that so herewith a few quick notes on two TIFF movies whose directors are coming off of their most successful film yet two years ago and an Oscar year where they competed against each other quite famously though both left with Oscars (Barry Jenkins for writing Moonlight and Damien Chazelle for directing La La Land). I personally loved both of those movies but I think Barry Jenkins won the first round and Damien Chazelle takes the second . I realize they're not actually competing with each other. They're friends. Prizes for everyone! Yay for talent. We just like talking awards. It's a sickness. Okay, quick takes here we go...

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TIFF: Alfonso Cuarón's "Roma" Triumph

by Nathaniel R

Alfonso Cuarón's jaw-dropping Roma is inspired by his childhood in Mexico but it's no traditional memoir. Rather than focusing on his own life, he spins a slow-burn fictional memoir, imagining the emotional space occupied by the live-in maid/nanny who helped raise him...

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