Would you rather?

Would you rather...

• resist pasta with Henry Golding?
• practice hula hoop skills with Catherine Zeta-Jones?
• do yoga with Kerry Washington?
• get tatted with LaKeith Stanfield?
• cosplay Audrey with Illeana Douglas?
• weightlift with Taron Egerton?
• suck on something blue with Yoo Ah-in?
• consider the zucchini with Sutton Foster?
• skinny dip with Orlando Bloom?
• or eat Chris Hemsworth's cake?

Pictures are after the jump the help you decide.

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1986: Straight Best Friends

Before each Smackdown, suggestions for alternates to Oscar's roster... 

Tilda Swinton in "Caravaggio"

1986 was, from the digging I've done, a fascinating year for queer cinema. Some of the films originated in '85 but belatedly hit the US  in 1986, disparate efforts such as Desert Hearts, My Beautiful Laundrette, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, and What Have I Done To Deserve This?!. Meanwhile, Working Girls premiered at that year’s Cannes but didn’t get a US release until February 1987. All of these films showed up in one form or another alongside pure-cut ‘86 releases like Parting Glances and Caravaggio, indicating a shifting tide of indie and mainstream cinema with vested, complex, even sympathetic interests in LGBT themes and characters, often made by queer filmmakers. Not only that, but the films themselves are risky and provocative. Save for the deeply unpleasant Mala Noche, all are worth real engagement, and you couldn’t go wrong checking out any of them.

Still, it must be asked - what about the straight people? What is their contribution here? What about the S.B.F.? Y’know, the Straight Best Friend?

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Category Analysis: Three Outstanding Editing Emmys

by Juan Carlos Ojano

I really loved my experience writing about the Best Film Editing category at the 92nd Academy Awards. I had edited all of my short films when I was in film school, was an assistant editor for a feature-length film once, and continue to edit videos for my podcast. Rarely do I get the opportunity to talk about the craft itself. It is daunting to even try to verbalize it. As an editor, editing is about abiding by the rules and theories but also making choices that just feel right or, even more interestingly, that feel wrong and right at the same time. As a viewer, the impact of good editing is not just about the cuts but also the lack of them. This temporal aspect of storytelling is essential and what makes film and television distinct from other forms of art.

So let's talk about three Emmy categories for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing. I will try to be as candid as I can with my observations and musings per episode submission. Some are even harder to discuss because of shows nabbing multiple spots (hello, The Mandalorian and Hacks), but let’s see how we do...

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Review: Aretha biopic "Respect"

by Patrick Ball

The scene is a packed movie theater in Oakland, California on Christmas Day, 2006. The film is Dreamgirls. We’re finishing up the iconic musical number “Listen”, a solid 75-80% into the movie. Beyoncé’s Deena Jones hits the last passionate note and the audience loses it, clapping and hollering, and a woman stands up and screams “You GO, EFFIE!” That was how powerful Jennifer Hudson’s Academy Award winning performance was, that this woman was ascribing every fabulous moment in the movie to her and her character, even when another character/actress was onscreen.

Hudson has had a bumpy road as a film actress since then, but is back in a big way in Respect, the long awaited Aretha Franklin biopic...

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Locarno Diary #4: Good cop, bad cop

by Elisa Giudici

Locarno Film Festival's symbol is a leopard: before any screening a "pardo" (italian for pard) walks across the screen roaring, just before the edition's motto appears (2021's motto is "Cinema is back"). All prizes are shapes as small, stylized felines, the most important one being Pardo d'Oro, the Golden Leopard. Pardo is for Locarno what Lion is for Venice and Palms are for Cannes...with some interesting results.

The main colours of Locarno Film Festival are yellow and black, as in pard's coat. Pard spot motif can be seen everywhere: window shops, café, restaurants. Everyone in Locarno wants to celebrate the main event of the summer season. So during the Festival there is a little "pard mania" everywhere...

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