Final Nomination Predictions: Picture / Director / Screenplays

by Nathaniel R

What a final month this has been in the march towards nominations. What were Oscar voters thinking during the week that stretched from the Golden Globes through the BAFTA nominations? You had to freeze the buzz right there and try and make sense of it while also trying to ignore anything that happened thereafter which can't really have an effect. Hell, you can't even really be sure that things that happened during voting truly changed things. Was there time, for instance, for voters to turn on James Franco -- he was added to the long list of men being accused of sexual misconduct that week but the story didn't get loud until the last few days of voting. Did voters even notice the BAFTA nominations and their total rejection of The Post and the minor kisses blown to both Phantom Thread and Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (two very last minute releases that have mostly struggled in the precursors). How did Oscar voters feel about the Three Billboards frontrunner heat and its subsequent backlash? We shall soon find out. Tuesday morning in point of fact...

Click to read more ...

RuPaul's All Stars Enter the Workroom!

Chris here, champing at the bit to just get RuPaul's Drag Race All Star-ted, already! We are only a week away from a new season of mega-wattage lipsyncs and high stakes before another queen joins previous All Stars winners Alaska Thunderfuck and Chad Michaels in the Drag Race Hall of Fame. We still have no sign of the mystery tenth queen, so we can expect the show to save her for a big reveal as it did last season with the return of Cucu. However, we can expect a slew of guest stars including Titus Burgess, Vanessa Williams, Kristen Chenoweth, and, catch this, Nancy Pelosi!

And to aid our speculation on the eventual winner before the premiere, we've gotten a glimpse at the first looks as the queens enter the workroom. Since we're Drag Race obsessed, let's rundown the best first impressions and rank the looks:

Click to read more ...

Tweetweek Turducken

Collected by Nathaniel R because Twitter is so toxic you shouldn't hang out there but you also shouldn't miss the more curated pleasures. Let's begin with a question that's enormously easy to answer:

Has there ever been a movie couple with better collective hair then Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeline Stowe in THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS?

— Max Weiss (@maxthegirl) January 15, 2018

An emphatic chorus of "NO!" because seriously. Never. Never has there ever. After the jump some Star Wars, a little Frances McDormand, a laugh from Sharon Stone, and guest appearances by Ratatouille and The Greatest Showman...

Click to read more ...

Blueprints: "The Shape of Water"

On the last week before the Oscar nominations are announced, Jorge takes a look at another of the potential screenplay contenders. This week, he explores a fight, in which one person has to speak both sides of dialogue.

Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water is a fairytale about the forbidden love between a mute woman and a captive fishman. But as much as the film is about their romance, it is also about the unique friendships and relationships made by those that society has pushed to its margins for being “different”. 

Let’s take a look at one of the most memorable scenes in the film, between Sally Hawkins’ hopeful and infatuated Elisa, and her closeted gay neighbor and best friend, Giles, played by Richard Jenkins. It’s a fight where Elisa not only begs him to help her save the creature, but also to be seen and understood...

Click to read more ...

Worst Best Picture Snubs Ever?

by Nathaniel R

This week on Las Culturistas I froze on the question of "Greatest Oscar Snub of All Time?" so with 5 days out until the nominations (we know we know final predictions coming at'cha starting tomorrow), let's answer it! Restricting ourselves to Best Picture here because you gotta keep it tight when answering loose questions. 

SO WHAT WERE THE DOZEN WORST BEST PICTURE SNUBS EVER? Let's group them according to types of injustice...

TYPE 1. PLENTIFUL NOMINATIONS INCLUDING BEST DIRECTOR. SO WHY COULDN'T OSCAR GO THAT ONE SIMPLE HAPPY STEP FURTHER?  My Man Godfrey (1936) and Some Like it Hot (1959), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and They Shoot Horses Don't They? (1969) and Thelma and Louise (1991)

In all five of these cases the Best Picture snubs are puzzling. It's not just that the movies are all so grand that you watch them with jaw dropped -- from laughter, cathartic despair, or sheer awe. It's also that the Academy loved them enough to recognize them across multiple branches...

Click to read more ...