Oscar Volley: ‘Cruella’ is the one to beat in Best Costume Design

Continuing our Oscar Volley series at The Film Experience.  Cláudio Alves and Glenn Dunks discuss Best Costume Design

Cláudio Alves: This is my favorite Oscar race! I studied Costume Design in college and still design for theater. However, that doesn't necessarily correlate to my appreciation of the Oscar category. That admiration stems instead from this branch's propensity for lone nominees, the recognition of films with little to no hope of breaking into other races. Sometimes, that lonely contender even wins, though it's been over a decade since that last happened – 2006's Marie Antoinette with costumes by Milena Canonero.

Truthfully, I could envision that occurring this year with Cruella. Beyond that Disney fashion show, one wonders if there'll be any surprise single-category nominees. Honestly, I'm having trouble coming up with a potential candidate unless it's Cyrano or House of Gucci drastically underperforms. What about you, Glenn? 

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Oscar Volley: Best Cinematography, Half-Locked, Half-Not?

Continuing our Oscar Volley series at The Film Experience. Eric Blume, Elisa Giudici, and Glenn Dunks talk Best Cinematography. 

Greig Fraser shooting Timothée Chalamet in the desert for Dune (2021)

Eric Blume:  Glenn and Elisa, Do we all agree that we probably have two "locks" for Best Cinematography nominations:  Delbonnel for The Tragedy of Macbeth, and Greig Fraser for Dune?  Those feel like two very worthy nominees to me.  While I think Joel Coen's conception of his film is limited and flawed, I admired Delbonnel's execution of Coen's concept, really leaning into that austere Calvinist guilt like we got in Carl Theodore Dreyer movies, and stealing from Sven Nykvist's framing in Bergman movies...yet netting out in its own unique visual scheme to highlight those sets and costumes.  And I thought Fraser's work made Denis Villeneuve's arid sci-fi epic surprisingly sensual, which helped the film (which is dense and heavy) enormously by taking you out of your head sometimes and back to your senses. Do you think both are locks?  What are your thoughts on those two, and their closest challengers... 

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Interview: Sean Baker and Simon Rex on 'Red Rocket'

by Nathaniel R

What film character will you remember best from the past year? One of our contenders for that crown is, for better and worse, Mikey Saber, the motor-mouthed adult film actor in Red Rocket. Better, because he's wonderfully written by Sean Baker and brilliantly played by Simon Rex. Worse because he's a walking disaster and narcissistic predator. Though the indie grossed a solid $1 million in limited release, it would surely have been a bigger success if its raucous mix of sex/cringe/character comedy could have played to more crowded theaters in non-pandemic times. Still, a Cannes competition premiere, 3 Gotham Award nominations, and a Los Angeles Film Critics Association win for Best Actor makes Red Rocket's brief run a major success. The film and Simon Rex's devilishly funny star turn are both bound to pick up more admirers soon on home viewing.

We had the privilege of sitting down briefly with writer/director Sean Baker and star Simon Rex prior to the release to talk about the film. [This interview has been edited for length and clarity...]

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Oscar Volley: It's a Best Supporting Actress lovefest!

Our Oscar Volley series continues with Cláudio Alves and Nick Taylor doing a deep dive on a category near and dear to their hearts...

NICK: First, quick introductions! What drew us to this category, you ask? The Supporting Actress category was one of my favorite fields to rummage through when I was initially exploring the Oscars. Tilda Swinton, Lupita Nyong’o, Sandy Dennis, Thelma Ritter, Mo’Nique, Dianne Wiest, Agnes Moorehead - all led me to new ideas about film and performance I hadn’t dreamed of before then. Watching talented actresses carve out whole worlds from the corners of their films became one of my favorite things to search for in movies.

I have a very specific memory of discovering the Supporting Actress Smackdown after watching Kramer vs Kramer for the first time only a few weeks after the podcast on 1979 dropped and listening to the discussion with rapt attention. And then the 1948 episode came out like, the next day! Gave me wild misconceptions on how fast things updated, lemme tell you...

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Oscar Volley: Should music be judged outside of the film for Best Original Score?

Continuing our Oscar Volley series at The Film Experience. Abe Friedtanzer and Timothy Lyons on Best Original Score

Abe Friedtanzer: The Best Original Score category is an interesting one since we have only fifteen films left in consideration, which in one way is great because it's a smaller field from which to predict but also means that some terrific soundtracks are no longer in contention. I like to take the opportunity to listen to as many of the scores as I can after I see the films, to see if there's anything I pick up on or enjoy more as I hear them in a different context. This year, that has been beneficial for a film I didn't love, Don't Look Up, since Nicholas Britell's orchestrations really are a marvel, and also for Being the Ricardos, which reminded me that Daniel Pemberton's music drove the rhythm of the story just as much as Aaron Sorkin's script. I'm also intrigued by the inclusion of Candyman on the finalist list. I generally avoid horror films but the score is quite haunting. There's no chance it shows up, but it's good to see that voters are at least listening to a variety of films! My main issue has been with The Harder They Fall, a film I liked a lot but where I have trouble differentiating between score and song. That's also true for Encanto.

Do you think songs are a disadvantage or actually more likely to get voters to give the music love?  

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