BAFTA has a funny definition of "Rising Star"

by Cláudio Alves

"Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical" | © Netflix

The EE Rising Star Award is the only BAFTA category where the final vote doesn't belong to the British Academy but to the public. Over the years, many performers won the award on their way to the top, getting this honor before they were considered household names. Last year's victor, Lashana Lynch, quickly proved a worthy winner, showcasing her range in two shockingly different roles. First, she was a charisma bomb in The Woman King, electrifying the screen with good humor and action star chops. Next, Lynch gave life to Miss Honey in the Matilda musical, singing her way through a gentle, motherly figure who slowly learns how to make herself heard.

Most of this year's nominees don't have anything left to prove, nor do they need help getting recognition. This puts into question the award's purpose. Should previous BAFTA winners be eligible for this honor? Shouldn't the category be reserved for up-and-coming names who could benefit from a career boost at the start of their artistic journey? It seems not, judging by the nominees. They are…

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Interview: Dolly De Leon (Triangle of Sadness). She's the captain, now!

by Nathaniel R

Dolly De Leon

Dolly de Leon didn't know what was coming when she auditioned for an international feature from Swedish auteur Ruben Östlund, pre-pandemic. Two plus years later, thirty-one years after her film debut, she was an international hit, winning best in show reviews for his latest feature Triangle of Sadness. No small feat given that the film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. Even after the film's splashy premiere the kudos kept coming for Dolly's work. In recent months she's been up for the Golden Globe, the Dorians, the London Critics Circle Film Awards, and other prizes. She also shared the Supporting Performance win at the prestigious Los Angeles Film Critics Awards in a tie with Oscar's Best Supporting Actor frontrunner Ke Huy Quan.

We had the pleasure of spending time with her at the Middleburg Film Festival earlier in the season. We enlisted the help of our own TFE contributor Juan Carlos Ojano to prepare for our interview, since he's well acquainted with the film industry in the Philippines. In our conversation we talked about her experience doing her first intimate scene, whether or not she expected Triangle of Sadness to blow up, and her dream role for the future. But we started our conversation by showing her a picture from her very first movie that Juan Carlos sent us as an ice breaker; Ice successfully broken!

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Weekend Box Office: Status Quo

By Ben Miller

With an extra day at the weekend box office, Avatar: The Way of Water and M3GAN both repeated at the top two spots, while continuing to show impressive legs.  The Way of Water droped less than 30% in its fifth week, adding another $30+ million to its domestic total.  It's already up to $1.9 billion worldwide, and it should become the sixth film in history to surpass $2 billion next week.  It's also currently 13th all-time in domestic gross and will probably end up in the top ten.  As for M3GAN, the film only dropped 40% in its second week, which is great for a horror film.  Budgeted at only $12 million, horror continues to be the best bang for your buck in films these days.

Weekend Box Office (actuals) Jan 13th-15th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended
WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
M3GAN	SKINAMARINK
1 ★ AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER $32.8 (cum. $564.6) 4,045 screens	1 🔺   WALTAIR VEERAYYA $1.1 *NEW* 350 screens
2 ★ M3GAN $18.3 (cum. $56.8) 3,605 screens	2 🔺  SKINAMARINK $819k *NEW* 692 screens

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Split Decision: "TÁR"

No two people feels the exact same way about any film. Thus, Team Experience is pairing up to debate the merits of each of the awards movies this year. Here’s Chris James and Cláudio Alves on TÁR.

CHRIS: It’s no mistake that people mistook Lydia Tár for being a real person. There’s something authentic and substantiated about TÁR, Todd Field’s third film which centers around a complicated famed conductor. Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) doesn’t necessarily have delusions of grandeur, she simply has an inability to see anything below her ivory pedestal. As much as Field and Blanchett have a laser focused idea of this character, the movie never spoon feeds us the narrative. We enter her journey in media res, trying to piece together her home life, her work life and whether the visions in her head are delusions or real threats. It’s a refreshing and engrossing way of telling this woman’s story the way she would want it told, while leaving ample room for interpretation and opinion.

I could go on and on about my favorite movie of the year, as one often does. However, tell me Cláudio, why don't you love TÁR? What elements give you pause?

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Interview: Composer Michael Abels on "Nope" and "Chevalier"

by Nathaniel R

MIchael Abels photographed for the LA OperaOne of the most exciting film composers to gain prominence in the past decade is Michael Abels. He's received multiple nominations for his work and prizes, too like the Jerry Goldsmith Award and the World Soundtrack Award. We wait impatiently for an Oscar nomination to follow, given his memorable inventive scores that have played such a huge part in the mass appeal of the films of Jordan Peele. We were honored to sit down with him to talk about his diverse interests in musical genres, his history with piano and voice, his Nope score, and what's next.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity...

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