Say What? Cate and Jessica

Glenn here. The Golden Globes are an endless source of "what is happening there?" fun. We already asked what you thought was going on with Meryl, Emma and Harvey and now Jessica Chastain's endlessly entertaining Facebook page posted this photo of the two-time Oscar nominee laughing hysterically a "naughty" Cate Blanchett joke on the Globes' red carpet. But what did Cate say?

As I watched the Golden Globes with Nathaniel and The Boyfriend, the topic of Cate's Australianness came up. In that, she doesn't sound Australian anymore. She never really did. However, watching her at the awards on Sunday night - and this entire year back to the interview trail for Blue Jasmine - and the way she just has no time for anybody's bull is the most Australian thing of all. Her comment about Ryan "I hated every second of that" Seacrest swept across Twitter like a wildfire, as did her back-handed compliment to U2: "Your first album was really great." And let us not forget her oughta-be-famous appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman earlier this year. So what could she have possibly said to make Jessica react that way?

I Dream of Arendelle

Last night, surely prompted by Frozen's Golden Globe win and upcoming Oscar run, I dreamt that I discovered a magical threat to Arendelle. I helped Queen Elsa find enemy spies who were watching her every move through carefully planted glittery baubles placed around the kingdom. Since Disney princesses veritable sweat glittery knickknacks, you can imagine how difficult the foreign objects were to discover and destroy. [more...]

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Curio: Just Keep Livin'

Alexa here. My personal highlight of the Golden Globes this year, and of my Sunday night, was Matthew McConaughey.  I'm glad that all the prognostication over the last few years finally payed off with a win for him. And I loved/found it hilarious how "on brand" he was with his speech (opening it with "alright alright alright" and closing with a variation of "just keep livin").

Right after the show I threw "True Detective" on, and it couldn't have lived up to the hype more, with McConaughey delivering yet another career-high performance in the first episode.  Since the chances of a Wooderson-esque speech at the Oscars are probably still low, let's celebrate this moment with some curios in the Texan's honor.

More after the jump including bongos...

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Film Bitch Awards: Actor & Supporting Actor

I haven't forgotten about The Film Bitch Awards, also known as "Nathaniel's Ballot" that once grand internet tradition (14 years now, Jesus!) that has been eroded by my time management problems. But no more. I'm turning over new leaves in 2014, you'll see, and so we begin now with the catch-ups.

And now 43 words it gives me great pleasure to type...

Elyes Aguis Kyle Chandler Bradley Cooper Chris Cooper Bruce Dern Leonardo DiCaprio Paul Eenhoorn Chiwetel Ejiofor Michael Fassbender James Franco James Gandolfini Jake Gyllenhaal Tom Hanks Sergio Hernandez Oscar Isaac Hugh Jackman Jared Leto Matthew McConaughey Mads Mikkelsen Tye Sheridan and Keith Stanfield 

And that's just the cream that rose to the top for yours truly when it came time to sort out my thoughts on the best performances by men this year at the cinema. Though supporting actor was lean, the leading men more than made up for it. It was such an unusually rich year that I, the internet's ringleader for actressexuality, am arguably or at least sometimes more excited about Best Actor than Best Actress. This has little precedence.

My ballot: BEST ACTOR & BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The whys and the whos on great work from 12 Years a Slave, Nebraska, Spring Breakers, to Inside Llewyn Davis and beyond...
Three previously posted ballots: ANIMATED FEATURE, CASTING AND ENSEMBLE 

Oscar's Documentaries: Tales from the Shortlist (Part 3)

Glenn continues his 3 part look at the 15 finalists for Best Documentary. (Here is part one and here's part two icymt). Watch along with us!

Firstly, apologies for the delay in this third instalment. I had problems with my HBO Go, which so it turns out was the only way to catch at least one of these films. 

Cutie and the Boxer
Synopsis: Documenting the lifelong partnership between Ushio and Noriko Shinohara, Japanese artists living in New York as they struggle with selling art pieces to galleries and private collectors, their son, and competitiveness.
Director: Zachary Heinzerling
Festivals: Brisbane, Calgary Underground, Full Frame, Houston Cinema Arts, Karlovy Vary, London, Sarasota, Seattle, Stockholm, Sundance, Sydney, Toronto, Tribeca, True/False, Vancouver
Awards: Emerging Artist Award (Full Frame), Grierson Award – Special Mention (London), Documentary Directing (Sundance), Documentary Audience Award 2^nd Place (Tribeca), Outstanding Debut/Outstanding Graphics and Animation/Outstanding Original Score (Cinema Eye)
Box Office: $170,449 (max. 12 screens), on iTunes and DVD now
Review: It’s hard not to be won over by the protagonists of Cutie and the Boxer. Naturally, Cutie is the more interesting of the pair given her lifelong position in the shadow of her husband and there are pangs of sadness to be found in the rollcall of gallery figures and artists praising and wanting to look at his work and not her own. Debut director Zachary Heinzerling noticed this and focuses the pair’s climactic exhibit around her and the praise she receives. Heinzerling is a talented man and definitely has a future in documentary filmmaking that is both topically interesting and visually splendid.
Oscar? A sneaker possibility if voters respond to the personalities of the Shinoharas and the themes of artistic integrity. Otherwise I think its more populist leanings may hurt it when placed alongside such emotionally involving pictures like The Act of Killing and The Crash Reel.

Photographers, journalists, brave kids and tortured families after the jump.

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