Oscar Volley: Best Makeup... or is it "Best Prosthetics"?

Team Experience will be discussing each Oscar category as we head into the precursors. Here's Nathaniel and Elisa to discuss Makeup... 

Colin Farrell and... Colin Farrell?

NATHANIEL: Elisa, let's start with a question: Do you think this category should be split into two: Best Makeup Effects AND Best Makeup and Hairstyling? As it stands now, the latter never gets a fair shake. If you do incredible things with glamour and character design but don't offer anything in the prosthetic department, chances are slim to none that you'll be nominated!

For example I think it's pretty clear that Elvis, The Batman, and The Whale will be competitive primarily because they each bury one key character in prosthetics until they're almost unrecognizable. But why? It always feels a bit like showing off. Why hire a famous actor to play a role if you don't actually want their famous face? This bugs me most in the case of The Batman but it might be because I relish looking at Colin Farrell's face... and if you're going to deny me that, don't promise me Colin 'Feckin' Farrell...

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November. It's a wrap.

There's only one month left of 2022? Crazy talk! Here are a dozen highlights from November in case you missed them...

• Mahler's 5th in Tár & Decision to Leave Lynn enjoys the renaissance
• The Fabelmans Cláudio's review of Spielberg's confessional family melodrama
• She Said's Modern Marriages Ben with a 'no big deal' observation
• All Quiet on the Western Front Christopher on the overwhelming new war film
• Black Panther Wakanda Forever Nathaniel on the underwhelming sequel. Namor, tho!
• Young Men and Oscar The Academy resists young leading men but quite a few are in buzzy films this year
• European Film Awards Close, Holy Spider, and Triangle of Sadness are popular
• Team Punditry We're polling our writers on where they think the Oscar races stand
• Till Nathaniel is bowled over by Danielle Deadwyler's star turn
• AFI Fest Pinocchio Eurocheese finds Guillermo del Toro's latest dazzling
• Best Supporting Actress is Overcrowded It might be the most volatile race right now
• The Crown Season 5 Cláudio loves the new cast. The show not so much
• Dorothy Dandridge is Carmen Jones Baby Clyde remembers the icon on her Centennial

Coming in December
Avatar The Way of the Water, Empire of Light, Spoiler Alert, several new interviews, the return of the podcast, the Oscar finalists in various categories, and more Oscar volleys

Almost There: Don Cheadle in "Devil in a Blue Dress"

by Cláudio Alves

Noirvember can't end without a noir-themed write-up here at The Film Experience. It falls on the Almost There series to consider a style born in shadows, that cinema which came into its own in the aftermath of war and persists in perpetual reinvention. Though it'd be nice to look back on the origins of noir, most of the classics fell outside the Academy's radar. So it's only logical to wander into the depths of neo-noir, searching for a title that embodies the best of it all, combining classical sensibilities with a modern perspective. Thus, one arrives at Carl Franklin's Devil in a Blue Dress, a 1995 adaptation of Walter Mosley's book where a 1940s-set crime drama is reframed through the centering of a Black protagonist. 

However, it wasn't the film's hardboiled anti-hero who caught the attention of awards voters. Instead, those honors befell on a supporting player – Don Cheadle in his breakout role as a dangerous man called Mouse…

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Streaming Diaries: "1899", "Friend of the Family" and more

by Nathaniel R

I didn't see you there.

I had a short-lived second round with COVID over Thanksgiving week (all better now, "negative", and out and about). While sick the hot ginger tea was flowing and the streaming entertainment was constant. The great f***-over moment of the timing of all this (first world problem incoming!) was that the FYC screeners went to my old address and the new Apple TV that could download the studio FYC streaming apps didn't arrive until after the holiday. This means I did not have access to Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio so naturally that's the movie I felt like watching at every moment. But you should know (if you don't already from social media) that Netflix is really pouring money into that Oscar campaign; they sent a massive box of stuff!

Okay, we'll do a few of these streaming diaries posts to catch up and they'll be very random as to what's discussed from Oscar bait to trashy TV...

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Sunset Circle names "TÁR" best of the year

by Nathaniel R

Sarah Polley's philosophical drama Women Talking and Park Chan Wook's twisty noir Decision to Leave led the nominations for the Sunset Circle Awards in their third year but came up mostly empty-handed when it came to wins. Todd Field's TÁR emerged as the big winner taking Picture, Director, Actress, and Screenplay. The smaller the critics group the more likely you are to have nominee and winners list with some personality. Whether or not that personality is a good one is of course up to the eye of the beholder. Sunset Circle is composed of just 9 film journalists who specialize in awards coverage. We don't love that they vote before all the movies are screened each year in order to be first but we do love that they don't try to predict the Oscars. No critics group should. If you're voting on anything other than your own preferences, you're doing it wrong! Their nominees and winners (marked by ★) follow along with a few more comments... 

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