Oscar Chart: Best Supporting Actor's potential spoilers

by Nathaniel R

We live in fear of a Jared Leto nomination. Do you?

When we last dove deep into Best Supporting Actor just over a month ago it felt like there were 10-20 contenders still in the conversation. Sadly once the critics began to throw their weight entirely behind just two contender (Kodi Smit-McPhee in The Power of the Dog and Troy Kotsur in CODA) and the Globes and the Critics Choice came up with almost identical lists  (Kodi + Troy + Ciaran Hinds and Jamie Dornan from Belfast) the race began to look unlike a race at all but more of a slow waiting game until the Oscar nominations which are still five weeks away.

Is there reason to hope for the race to widen again? We'd like to think so...

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The shortest review you will read of "The Matrix Resurrections"

by Nathaniel R

Cons: I didnt understand a lick of The Matrix Resurrection (did you have to memorized the first three?), especially the last act "rescue" involving brain switching which played like a techno-babble illogic exposition in order to give us a botched Sense8 body-switching visual. On the other hand, writer/director Lana Wachowski claiming such ownership from behind the camera felt satisfying despite playing at times like meta snark. Definitely did not enjoy the suggestion that therapists are evil even though the cat with the bell was damn cute. 

Pros: Absolutely loved Jonathan Groff as the new "Mr Smith". Witnessing Keanu & Carrie-Anne fall back in love was a good time; they've always looked sensational together and age-appropriate, too, so that was a rare doublesexy 50something thrill. This has been my review. 

Yours?

Comment Party: What do you think of 1989?

Though it seems like the Oscar are right around the corner they're actually 89 days away!

So let's talk 1989 while your host here works on current Oscar charts. The 62nd Academy Awards has always struck us as an odd Best Picture vintage... maybe because we'd nominate none of them. But all were very popular with audiences at the time. The Oscars went for 2 blockbuster hits with Dead Poet's Society and Born on the 4th of July (yes, kids, audiences used to go for a little of every genre at the movies, not just superhero films. Both were among the top ten grossers of the year alongside things that would be hits nowadays like Batman and Ghostbusters II). The eventual winner was another very big hit in Driving Miss Daisy. To fill out the category a not-so little sleeper success Field of Dreams, and 1 arthouse favourite My Left Foot. With the exception of the Oliver Stone war drama and My Left Foot (inexplicably rated R), all were family friendly, too...

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Year in Review: Best Onscreen Chemistry of 2021

by Team Experience

Screen chemistry is the great intangible of movies. It can happen behind the camera among teams on the same or complimentary wavelengths. Director/Muse relationships often become the stuff of legend. But the most commonly celebrated electricity is the spark between actors that you can see onscreen. Sensational chemistry between them can elevate any genre, even the ones that aren't intrinsically built on interpersonal dynamics. A thrilling duet, romantic or otherwise, can rescue a film from mediocrity and elevate a very good picture to a beloved one. Old Hollywood understood this, reteaming co-stars that clicked over and over again. Modern Hollywood has a much rougher go of this kind of repetition (given that everyone is a freelancer) so we treasure great chemistry whenever it crops up in its too fleeting way.

We polled the team on 2021's greatest examples of screen chemistry and here were their top 16 choices...

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Jean-Marc Vallée (1963-2021)

by Nathaniel R

We are shocked and saddened to report that Oscar-nominated and Emmy winning director Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club, Big Little Lies), who was only 58, died yesterday at his cabin outside Quebec City. No cause of death has been revealed. 

The Quebecois filmmaker began making movies in the 1990s but first came to international fame wih the queer coming of age drama C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005) which was submitted to represent Canada at the Oscars that year...

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