Batman v Running Time, Ex Machina v Blockbusters, and More

Can you believe Christmas is just 3 days away? Eeep how fast the month has gone. Let's jump right into news & links...

Women and Hollywood well, this is good timing. Charlotte Rampling is getting an eight film retrospective in NYC starting Wednesday... just in time to remind East Coast AMPAS members of her brilliance before balloting. Do NOT miss The Night Porter (1974) or Under the Sand (2000) if you haven't seen them.
THR looks at make or break moments coming in 2016 from Batman v Superman to MTV's Shannara Chronicles
Comics Alliance Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is apparently 151 minutes long. Yikes. Here's an idea: cut the death of little Bruce's parents because how many times we gotta see that origin story. The entire world knows it. No need for "previously ons" at this point.
The Wrap Dustin Lance Black and Gus Van Sant are working together again post-Milk. The new project is a miniseries When We Rise about the gay rights movement kicking off with the Stonewall riots

Variety Guy Ritchie's untitled King Arthur movie has been pushed back to 2017 
Variety Star Wars pay scales... back end bonuses don't kick in until the film grosses one billion dollars. Not that it won't pass that in record time (it's already over half a billion globally after that first weekend)
Slash Film modern movies getting the old VHS cover treatment
W Magazine the most provocative fashion photography of 2015. Miley Cyrus, Jessica Chastain, and Cate Blanchett among the subjects
W Magazine Bryan Cranston does a dramatic reading of Drake's "Hotline Bling"
AV Club charts the 24 times 2015 totally lost its shit. Outrage culture is exhausting! 

/Film Cuteness. You can sit in a BB-8 chair (row BB, seat 8 in the balcony) while watching movies in the El Capitan in Los Angeles through February 7th.
The Guardian on the Bechdel Test's origins and Star Wars. Good history feminist politics piece but for the very odd suggestion that gays aren't interested in seeing heterosexual romance onscreen. What the what now? History (and LGBT culture) does not remotely support this notion.
i09 on the devolution of the fan fiction trope "the Mary Sue" with the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens 
Gawker the complete history of Quentin Tarantino's use of the N word, used 65 times in The Hateful Eight which is second only to its use in Django Unchained  

Prize-Giving. Tis the Season
Playbill The Sydney Theater Award nominees for 2015 have been announced for fans of Aussie actors (i.e. everyone). Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving are among them
St Louis Film Critics chose Spotlight as Best Picture and Leo & Brie as best leading actors
Nevada Film Critics Society gave those exact same top 3 prizes but since The Revenant won four prizes it feels like the defacto winner

And Finally...
The Academy has announced the 10 finalists for Best Visual Effects, chosen from that longlist of 20 we shared earlier. The 5 Oscar nominees will come from these 10 pictures...

• Ant-Man
• Avengers: Age of Ultron
• Ex-Machina
• Jurassic World
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Martian
• The Revenant
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens
• Tomorrowland
• The Walk

The most surprising miss among the earlier semi-finalists is probably Spectre since James Bond films generally make the finals in the Daniel Craig era, don't they? But this category gets more competitive every year. I'm suddenly less confident about my current predictions (Avengers, Jurassic, Mad Max, Martian, Star Wars). Might Ex Machina, which hasn't left the awards conversation despite an April bow and is 1000% deserving of this particular nomination, actually make it despite not being of their preferred size and with the effects actually in a supporting role for a change? 

Who Wore It Best? Todd Haynes Edition

For Carol Week, all I, Dancin' Dan, would like to talk about, is the men. 

Well, the man. That would be Kyle Chandler as The Husband, Harge Aird.

He delivers wonderful supporting work that should be garnering awards attention. But all I've been thinking about since seeing him with his slicked-back hair and 50s-style tailored suits is.... well, another man.

THAT man would be Dennis Quaid, who played The Husband in Haynes's other 1950s melodrama masterpiece, Far From Heaven.

Quaid also delivered a wonderful supporting performance that should had gotten more awards attention, and he looked perhaps the best he has ever looked (quite a feat) in Sandy Powell's luxe costumes and era-appropriate slicked-back hair.

So with all that said, WHO WORE IT BEST?

"...and would you like to marry him?"

I barely know what to order for lunch."

Beauty vs Beast: Red & Green & Tangerine

Jason from MNPP here, wishing you and yours a Ha Ha Happy Holidays with a Ho Ho Ho in your heart -- since it's Christmas Week I figured what better way to celebrate the festive mood than with the hilarious and heartfelt brand new Christmas classic, right up there with Batman Returns and Eyes Wide Shut, that is Sean Baker's Tangerine. Like Keiran argued recently my favorite character in the film is also Alexandra (played by a lovely Mya Taylor), but for "Beauty vs Beast" purposes its gotta be Sin-dee (the very funny Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) versus her pimp-snatching rival and "real fish girl" Dinah (Mickey O'Hagan's hilarious performance should be getting more attention too)...

PREVIOUSLY Two weeks ago we looked back at the 25th anniversary of The Grifters and set two of TFE's fave actresses against each other in a con-woman cage-match -- well repeating history it was tough mama Lilly (played by a maybe never better Anjelica Huston) who shoved her way to the front with over 70% of your vote! Said kermit_the_frog:

"I choose Huston here - Tthe Grifters is a far more sinister and unpleasant film than I first thought it was. That Huston makes you actively root for the character is achievement in itself. By the way, I nominate Huston twice in Best Actress 1990 - this and The Witches (I've never understood the annoying 'one nomination per category' rule!"

Best of '15: Co-Star Chemistry, the Great Intangible

These are the 15 relationships that really crackled for us on screen this year with an electric snap... or familial/platonic warmth... or sexual combustibility... or tense reserve ... or  lived-in authenticity ...or any combo thereof depending on what the relationship called for. Kudos to the actors, directors, screenwriters, and casting directors who all obviously contributed to capture lightning in a bottle. The following examples of screen chemistry told us so much about the characters within the story and sometimes outside of it from long before the events of the movie or projecting out after the narrative. Do I find it troubling that the SAG and BFCA nominations for Best Ensemble avoided ALL of these films save Spotlight? Why, yes --- yes I do! Thanks for asking. 

Note: I opted not to include Carol in the list primarily because the obsession is too strong and every single relationship in the movie is fascinating (yes even Therese & Richard's! Even Harge & Abby who only get one scene together) and it wouldn't be fair to the other pictures with its web of relationships, new, old, soured, fresh, complicated and all superbly rendered. Joy, which is better than the initial response suggests, also has fine pockets of chemistry within a bustling cast (something David O. Russell excels at) but I couldn't settle on any one relationship.

The list is presented without commentary... but for what you have to say in the comments. 

15 Sylvester Stallone & Michael B Jordan in Creed (trainer/trainee and surrogate something)

14 more couplings after the jump...

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