Indie Spirit Revue: "Dìdi (弟弟)"

by Nick Taylor

The 40th Film Independent Spirit Awards ceremony will take place on Saturday, February 22nd. Every voter has until February 13th to submit their choices. I'm enamored with most of this crop of nominees, and in celebration of an amazing year for independent cinema, I'll be profiling some of these lineups and nominated films. First up are the firsts: Best First Feature and First Screenplay, two categories with phenomenal taste and considerable overlap. Oscar will likely nominate none of these films, and that's their loss. But we get to celebrate them, and if any Academy voters are reading this, do your duty on behalf of good art! Nominate these movies!!! You'll be better and cooler for it! 

The first film in this series of reviews is Oscar-adjacent in a way. After all, its director was just nominated last year for Best Documentary Short. It's Sean Wang's Dìdi…

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Paul Newman @100: The Early Roles (1954-1959)

by Cláudio Alves

THE LONG, HOT SUMMER (1958) Martin Ritt

On January 26th, it'll be a century since Paul Leonard Newman came into this world. To celebrate this centennial, various writers from our Film Experience team will explore some of the blue-eyed star's best performances and most interesting pictures. There'll be some analysis of Oscar-honored triumphs, perchance a look at his directorial career, re-evaluations and sweet farewells as we remember one of the greats. As one dives into Newman's life on screen, feel free to explore the actor's tag on the site and re-discover some of the many, many pieces we've already posted about him over the years. From Oscar histories to overviews of his creative partnership with Joanne Woodward, there's a lot to enjoy.

For now, let's go back to the start, where everything began. Let's look at Paul Newman's early roles, those 1950s projects that saw him go from a nobody to a veritable, no doubts about it, Hollywood star…

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Best International Film: Canada's "Universal Language"

by Cláudio Alves

In the last hours of voting for the Oscar nominations, let's celebrate one of the best films up for Academy consideration. It's none other than the Canadian submission for Best International Film, Matthew Rankin's sophomore feature – Universal Language. If watching the director's debut, The Twentieth Century, felt like witnessing the second coming of fellow Winnipegger Guy Maddin, seeing the wonder of his latest work is akin to re-encountering Jacques Tati in the 21st century. Or perchance a Manitoban Abbas Kiarostami. Rather than evading such comparisons, Rankin runs straight at them, making his latest project into a dialogue between filmic languages and other idioms along the way, reaching for the fantastical, so specific as to be universal…

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Will any of the PGA Nominees miss the Best Picture list at the Oscars?

by Nathaniel R

A REAL PAIN scores a coveted PGA nod. Can it beat SING SING to the Oscars?

After the BAFTAs the season is coalescing leaving little room for surprise when the delayed Oscar nominations arrive this coming Friday (January 23). The Producers Guild have also announced their nominations. While the PGA leans more 'mainstream' than Oscar, this looks very much like what we can expect on Oscar nom morning. Still history suggests one (or two) nominee(s) could fall to the wayside. But which...

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DAVID LYNCH (1946-2025)

by Cláudio Alves

David Lynch as John Ford in his last big-screen appearance, in THE FABELMANS (2022).

Somewhere in LA, in the middle of a concrete nowhere, an open door beckons. It tugs, a jerky motion that makes you fly through space, into Club Silencio. The insides are old, the red velvet memory of a place that is no more. And yet, despite the unease, it's time to sit down and attend the MC's lugubrious presentation, a swirl of lies and jest, fakery that denounces itself in a spectacle that's a bit like a threat, a lot like a spell. Blue swaths over red, it glows, and then, at long last, the diva makes her entrance – Rebekah Del Rio will be singing "Llorando." But of course, it's not her voice, for she falls, and the ghostly tune persists. Somehow, that doesn't matter. In a palace of illusions, the false still rings true. And look, truthful tears stream down your face.

Watching this scene in Mulholland Drive feels like falling an endless fall, free-floating across the void, suspended in nothingness. It feels like pure beauty born of nightmares, pain and ravishment. It feels like nothing else in the world. Like something only David Lynch could have imagined. And what can we do other than surrender to that feeling on this day of all days when we must say farewell to the man, the artist, and the great? David Lynch has died…

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