Ranking the Woodward/Newman Collaborations

by Cláudio Alves

Last month, Ethan Hawke's documentary series The Last Movie Stars premiered on HBO. Chronicling the lives of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, the show is a precious consideration of the couples' legacy as artists, celebrities, teachers, and private people whose love endures beyond the threshold of death. Rather than being an idealized portrait, it's a program that acknowledges its subjects' thorny complexities, emerging as a humanistic jewel that's essential viewing whether or not you're a fan of its starry duo. Inspired by The Last Movie Stars, I spent a good part of August exploring many of the movies mentioned in the doc.

Specifically, I watched every single project Woodward and Newman made together, including those where one was working behind the camera. Here's a personal ranking of those 17 titles… 

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Poland & Ecuador make their Oscar picks

by Nathaniel R

Poland won their first Oscar in the Best International Feature Film category for Ida (2014) eight years ago and surely came closer than expected to a second win four years ago with a late surge for the brilliant Cold War (2018) which also scored Best Director and Best Cinematography nominations. In fact, Poland has had a major comeback with the Oscars in the past 15 years, racking of nearly half of their nomination total after a quarter century drought from the last time the Academy couldn't get enough of their cinema back in the mid seventies to early eighties.  Can they keep their hot streak going with the buzzy donkey point-of-view feature, EO... 

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Missing Cameron Diaz on her 50th Birthday

by Nathaniel R

image from Cameron's instagram. We added the birthday wish ;)

Do you remember the first time you saw Cameron Diaz onscreen? Her debut The Mask (1994) was a smash hit but believe it or not I missed that one in theaters despite being a weekly moviegoer by then. I first saw her in My Best Friend's Wedding (1997) a quickly-beloved movie though I can't say she was my focal point. It was only years later when I realized how deftly she was navigating a tricky part...

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New "Supporting Actress Smackdown" Schedule

Apologies to do this but we have scheduling changes (a lot going on chez Nathaniel) 

SMACKDOWN "1951" -NEW DATE: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19th, 2022
1951 will be our "year of the month" for another few weeks. Email us your votes on the Smackdown (anytime before September 17th) with "1951" in the subject line. You should rate each performance you've seen on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (perfection) hearts. Feel free to include blurbs which we might quote but they aren't necessary.

• Joan Blondell, The Blue Veil    - good luck finding!
• Mildred Dunnock, Death of a Salesman    - available on YouTube
• Lee Grant, Detective Story.   - rentable from multiple sources
• Kim Hunter, A Streetcar Named Desire - streaming on HBOMax / rentable elsewhere
• Thelma Ritter, The Mating Season - available on YouTube

SMACKDOWN "2004" -NEW DATE: MONDAY, OCTOBER 24th, 2022
Email us your votes on the Smackdown (anytime before October 20th) with "2004" in the subject line of your email. You should rate each performance you've seen on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (perfection) hearts. Feel free to include blurbs which we might quote but they aren't necessary.

• Cate Blanchett, The Aviator -  streaming on HBOMax / rentable elsewhere
• Laura Linney, Kinsey -  - rentable from multiple sources
• Virginia Madsen, Sideways -  streaming on HBOMax / rentable elsewhere
• Sophie Okonedo, Hotel Rwanda -  streaming on HBOMax / rentable elsewhere
• Natalie Portman, Closer -  - rentable from multiple sources

Since this will bring us up to date on film years, we might try little experiments thereafter for fun. 

A Weak Weekend at the Box Office

by Nathaniel R

A deflating weekend for Hollywood, proving once again that if you don't put enough new glitzy stuff in theaters (and don't promote them well) people don't show up! But for what it's worth, here's what the weekend was like...

Weekend Box Office  August 26th-28th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended links if we've written about it
WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
THE INVITATION	ORPHAN: FIRST KILL

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