Reader's Choice - Let's watch _____ together

We'll be discussing the comedy Dick (1999) this weekend. But how about next weekend (April 7th/8th)? We're starting the voting earlier so you have more time to decide. Voting closes this Sunday. So which film, hitting a major streaming service on April 1st, will it be? 

UPDATE: Marnie won in a squeaker over Bound with 39% versus 38% of the vote respectively.

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Honoring the genius of Angela Bassett

by Cláudio Alves

Angela Bassett did the thing. And yet, that wasn't enough to win her a much-coveted Academy Award. In the moment of losing, her face betrayed a visceral disappointment seldom seen in such a setting nowadays, where fake smiles are de rigueur. Many used that flash of genuine emotion to lambast the actress, while others felt fueled by it in their outrage against AMPAS' choice. I've previously written about Jamie Lee Curtis, defending her work in Everything Everywhere All At Once, but that doesn't mean I didn't mourn Bassett's loss.

As a white Portuguese man, I can't pretend to know what the thespian and her potential victory would have meant for Black audiences, specifically Black women – read Angelica Jade Bastién's Vulture piece for that perspective and a marvelous analysis of the actress' gifts. However, I'm an Angela Bassett fan who thinks she should have an Oscar already, so the potential for a career win for Wakanda Forever felt like justice and her loss like a sting. So, as the month draws to a close and the 95th Academy Awards drift into the past, perhaps into collective closure, let me take you through Angela Bassett's career and my favorite of her big-screen achievements. After all, there's no better way to celebrate an artist than to appreciate their work...

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Drag Race RuCap: "Teacher Makeovers"

NICK TAYLOR: I know both of us are less jazzed about the makeover staple, so let’s just get that out of the way now. This episode didn’t alleviate any of my usual feelings about how this challenge is judged or executed. I’m glad the teachers were so uniformly game, unlike some of the surlier participants from older seasons, and the basic cloning/color swapping made the peaks among this group somewhat limited. Imagine the ramifications of Crystal Elizabeth Methyd rightly winning this challenge in season 12 and encouraging future queens to really go apeshit on what “family resemblance” means. The race is tight enough at this point that winners and losers truly come down to hair-splitting, yet this week’s choices release that tension into something inevitable without being totally satisfying. How did this week’s episode sit with you?

CLÁUDIO ALVES: For a bitter curmudgeon like me, who thinks the makeover challenge is the worst Drag Race staple, this was an enjoyable hour. It could have been much worse…

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What's next for the recently Oscar-nominated: Pt 3 - Actors

by Nathaniel R

Austin Butler and co-stars in "Masters of the Air"

With the 95th Academy Awards wrapped, it's time to look to the future. We already talked about the next projects for this past season's hot directors and actresses. Now let's look at the leading and supporting men. What's next for them? 

AUSTIN BUTLER
Like most modern stars, Butler is juggling both TV and movies now. He's already shot the World War II miniseries Masters of the Air (fellow Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan is also in it). The big movie news...

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"Dick" it is!

Much to our surprise, y'all selected the Kirsten Dunst/Michelle Williams comedy Dick (1999) as our film of the week in the readers poll. So watch it before Friday (it's on Pluto free with ads or rentable anywhere) so we can have a good conversation on March 31st. (Last week we devoured Babette's Feast) We should ask you to vote earlier each week so on Wednesday look for the poll for April 7th discussion to go up so you'll have more of a headstart on voting/watching. 

Fri March 31st - Dick (1999)
Fri April 7th -TBA voting starts Wednesday
Fri April 14th - Fatal Attraction (1987) since I owe a patient reader a piece on that.