Nicole Kidman Tribute: Birth (2004)

by Cláudio Alves

After her Oscar win for The Hours, Nicole Kidman's career went through some interesting somersaults. 2003 saw her bow the avant-garde cruelty of Dogville at Cannes, while Hollywood bore witness to two prestige projects whose success is debatable. The Human Stain is one of those classic "This Had Oscar Buzz" case studies, while Cold Mountain is most interesting for how it didn't secure a Best Actress nomination despite AMPAS' affection. Then came 2004, when von Trier's Brechtian film finally reached the States, and Kidman faced critical lashings as a response to her risk-taking. If not for Dogville, then for a derided broad comedy we'll discuss later in the series. And, of course, for today's subject – Birth.

Jonathan Glazer's sophomore feature was a resounding bomb with audiences and critics back in 2004, and only the Golden Globes seemed willing to recognize the genius in Nicole Kidman's work. Twenty years later, its reputation has changed…

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Tribeca Review: Terrible Neighbors in "The French Italian"

by Abe Friedtanzer

Everyone has had an inconsiderate neighbor at some point in their lives, someone who can’t understand, or doesn’t seem to care, that their actions – and likely the noises emanating from their place of residence – affect those around them. In part because people can be crazy, most don’t confront these nuisances and instead find workarounds that may lead to a drastic decrease in their own comfort.

The comedy The French Italian takes that idea to a new level, as its protagonists hatch a revenge plan that’s half-baked at best and better described as entirely aimless and lackluster...

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Nicole Kidman Tribute: Dogville (2003)

by Eric Blume

If you’ve never seen Dogville, Lars von Trier’s 2003 masterpiece(?) that gives our Nicole three full hours’ worth of very tricky acting, watch it.  Or at least, try to watch it.  You may find it absolutely insufferable, and turn it off even before Nicole appears, twelve minutes in.  This is the definition of a movie not meant for everyone, and perhaps even a movie for almost nobody except a small sliver of people.  But I suppose am one of those people for whom the film was made, and I think it’s fantastic.  And it’s one of my all-time favorite performances by one of cinema’s greatest actresses...

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Nicole Kidman Tribute: The Hours (2002)

by Cláudio Alves

Nicole Kidman's career moves in cyclical repetitions, always coming back to the Australian star having to prove herself and then re-emerge with a revitalized surge of prestige and popularity. It happened back home, when Kidman found early success in popcorn cinema, leading to bigger roles that let her prove her mettle. At the end of the 1980s, she was on her way to securing the respect afforded a serious actress. But, as she traveled to Hollywood, Kidman had to start over. For a while, she was Tom Cruise's starlet girlfriend first and foremost, before a string of more challenging roles set the stage for widespread acclaim, culminating with an Oscar win. We'd see the cycle come back around after a slew of commercial and critical flops besmirched her image, making her the butt of many a plastic surgery joke. And then, there was her 2010s resurgence and the "rediscovery" of her talents in a new era of prestige TV. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Today, we arrive at that Academy Award victory, the first great peak of Kidman's Hollywood journey. It was when she donned a prosthetic nose and delivered the specter of Virginia Woolf for Stephen Daldry's adaptation of The Hours…

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1999: Tina Holmes in "Edge of Seventeen"

by Nick Taylor

Hello, strangers! Did you miss my supporting actress write-ups? With no smackdown to latch onto like a gay barnacle, I’ll be hopping onto our 10|25|50|75|100 anniversary format to look back on supporting actressing feats of years past. For those keeping track at home, this means I’ll be writing up performances from films released in the US in 2014, 1999, 1974, and 1949 (technically I could also do 1924, but I think that’s less likely). If you would like to see the whole list of films and performances I'm considering for this series and a longer run-down of it, click here! The dream is to post these corresponding to months of release, or, barring that, themed categories based on what month it is. Like how June is gay Pride month, meaning I can write about queer films and queer actresses all month long! Broader schedules hopefully mean more wiggle room to write about as many films as I like!

For my first entry in this series, I’m immediately going to take advantage of that US release calendar for Tina Holmes's indelible performance in David Moreton’s Edge of Seventeen . . . .

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