Alan Rickman (1946-2016)

Heartbreaking. Alan Rickman, one of the UK's most treasured showbiz mainstays has passed away at the age of 69. Though he occassionally dabbled in directing (The Winter Guest and A Little Chaos) he was best known as an actor of stage, tv, and big screen.  He's inarguably best known and beloved for the many years as Professor Snapes in the Harry Potter series. But for me, his career always makes me nostalgic for the early 90s. His career was energized by the success of Die Hard which led to a bunch of movies. 

When I saw Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) I was shocked that any film could contain so many performances that were all over the map in terms of quality - a chaos of acting styles and fumbles but he was always fun hamming it up as the Sherrif of Nottingham. I immediately typecast him as a villain. A year or two after Robin Hood I discovered in short succession the intense incest drama Close My Eyes (in which he is horrified to discover that is brother-in-law Clive Owen is sleeping with his wife), the claustrophobic thriller Closet Land in which he terrorized my then obsession Madeline Stowe (at the peak of her powers from roughly 1990-1994). But all my limiting ideas that that inimitable voice and the stern face meant he was a screen baddie were blown apart by this next one. My best girlfriend had fallen for this romantic comedy Truly Madly Deeply in which he plays Juliet Stevenson's ghost lover and demanded I see it. I fell hard. For them and the movie.

It's a great rental / streaming idea if you haven't seen it. This scene, which gives it its title, is my single favorite moment in Rickman's filmography.

What's your strongest memory of Alan Rickman's career?

Final Oscar Predictions. What We Got Wrong.... (And Right...?)

UPDATED TO REFLECT ACTUAL OSCAR NOMINATION RESULTS

This post will self destruct in 5...4...3...

With Oscar nominations hitting us first thing in the morning, we'll be frantically updating the Oscar charts to reflect the official history book decisions from our beloved/hated AMPAS and you can look back at this madness and point and laugh. The title of the post is even preemptively self-mocking because the punditry business is tough tough tough in this volatile year. Without further ado here are the predictions we made at the last minute and we'll update later when we know how wrong we were.

PICTURE 
Predictions (9): (locks) Spotlight, The Martian, The Revenant, The Big Short, (probably safe) Mad Max Fury Road, Bridge of Spies, (iffy) Carol, Straight Outta Compton, Room
Alternates (3):  Inside Out, Sicario, Brooklyn

Results: I scored 7/8 here missing Brooklyn where I had Carol... though curiously Carol did far better in the nomination tallies. Straight Outta Compton was probably just outside with Inside Out and Sicario since it managed a screenplay nod.

DIRECTOR
Predictions: Scott (The Martian), Inarittu (Revenant), Miller (Mad Max Fury Road), McCarthy (Spotlight), McKay (Big Short) 
Alternates: Haynes (Carol), Villeneuve (Sicario), Abrahamson (Room) 

Results: 4/5 I assumed Ridley Scott was the strongest lock for direction -- as I think most people did but he was the one shut out. Lenny Abrahamson took his place reminding us again that the DGA nods almost always feature one man who's going to be replaced when Oscar chimes in.

more...

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YNMS: The Conjuring 2

Jason from MNPP taking a brief breather between your pre nomination Oscar jitters with a look at the recently dropped trailer for James Wan's Conjuring sequel, creatively titled The Conjuring 2.

I was less bullish (my review) on the 2013 original than most horror movie fans were and indeed than several contributors here at TFE - I'm more of an Insidious guy myself when it comes to the ghost worlds o' Wan - but I do think that Wan's gotten better as a filmmaker with the years, and he sure knows how to goose a good scare out of an audience.

Anyway let's break down the good the bads and the maybes here after the jump...

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Visual Category Madness... and Guild Nominees for Makeup/VES

This just in. Here's a quick Oscar chart update on all the Visual categories... (You can see the index of Oscar Predictions here - we're almost finished -- but of course everything gets taken down and rebuilt tomorrow - whew). I have worked through the sadness as I removed predictions for Carol in no brainer should be easy get categories like Production Design (seriously sometimes Hollywood make-a-me-crazy). The one I left in that I'm very worried about is Cinematography. It's one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen. Watch them replace it with something basic like The Hateful Eight or The Martian (sigh). 

MEANWHILE... The Makeup and Hairstylists Guilds and the The Visual Effects Society, which have much larger voting bodies than their correlatives within the Academy released their nominations so we'll share those after the jump if you're interested with a few comments on each...

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The Razzies Are Here (Though You Wish They Weren't)

Kieran, here. The Razzie Awards, “honoring” the worst cinematic offerings of the year have announced their nominees and it’s pretty much as expected—knee-jerk, steeped in misogyny and patriarchal nonsense (more on this later) and generally indicative that they don’t care about quality filmmaking any more than the offenders they’re highlighting. A little background on who votes on the Razzies—voting is actually open to the public. People who want to vote pay an annual fee or you can pay a whopping $500 for lifetime membership. Why would anyone ever pay to be part of this unseemly orgasm of fruitless schadenfreude, you ask? To quote Sarah Paulson’s Abby in Carol, “I can’t help you with that”.

Anyway, here are the nominees...

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