1986: Jenette Goldstein in "Aliens"

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

by Nick Taylor

My boyfriend had seen Aliens before we watched it together recently. Of course he had. Tommy loves science fiction and Aliens is one of the few perfect movies ever made in any genre, with so many elements that are not just immaculately assembled and realized in their own right but tremendously influential to how cinema subsequently related to sci-fi and war films. What’s undeniably stock about its characters and scenario is fresh and alive to behold, mixing an absolute lack of subtlety with nuance, modulation, and unimpeachable judgement. 

This is certainly the case with Jenette Goldstein’s performance as Private Vasquez, a member of the military unit assigned to accompany Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and her Weyland-Yutani Corporation handler Burke (Paul Reiser) to a terraformed colony on a planet that may or may not already be lost to an invasive species of perfectly-built killing machines...

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Locarno Diary #2: Lost men and religiosity

by Elisa Giudici

Heavens Above, a new Serbian film

Locarno has been in, let's say a strange transition period. I first started going when Carlo Chatrian was the Artistic Director (back in 2012). He left for the same position at Berlinale and his successer Lili Hinstin wasn't there long -- under two years which generated a lot of gossip. Giona A Nazzaro is the new director but because of COVID-19 this is his first edition. Maybe I was just lucky or my tastes align more with Nazzaro's than previous directors but this festival started with more energy and verve. (Until now my perception of Locarno was that it held a small number of amazing discoveries diluted in a pull of dull old fashioned auteurial selections.)

I choose today's two movies following my gut instinct and I especially liked how the films were having almost having a dialogue between themselves, despite major differences in tone and setting. Both of them are about the end of the world as known for the male protagonist. Hinterland and Nebesa (Heavens Above) try to describe how men struggle with change and the death of their previous idealogies...

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Doc Corner: A 'Whirlybird' over Los Angeles

By Glenn Dunks

There is a shot about 30 minutes in Matt Yoka’s Whirlybird that made me gasp. Not necessarily because of how shocking or surprising it is, but because of the decision-making process that must have occurred to choose to include it. It took what was up until that point a nice trip through Los Angeles news history and made me view the rest of this documentary through different eyes. The shot in question is live news footage taken from a helicopter over L.A. with a network chyron that reads "Rock Hudson Battles AIDS” while footage shows the actor being transported to hospital surrounded by medical staff.

It is hardly surprising that anybody would film this. What is surprising is that Yoka’s film doesn’t seem all that fussed about addressing it. In fact, at one point news camera hounding of Madonna and Sean Penn is used as a journalistic punchline in an effort to boost the image of what were essentially paparazzi with a bigger budget. Which speaks to the whole film, too, really...

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Posterized: one of a kind auteur Leos Carax

"Posterized" returns for a new season. Every Friday!

by Nathaniel R

If you've followed the career of French director Leos Carax over the years than the response to his latest picture, Annette, which opened Cannes last month and hits theaters today, did not surprise you. He's always been a director who left some scratching their heads while leaving others thrilled or even reverently besotted. If you haven't yet experienced any of his movies we urge you to try them out to see which camp you fall into. 

How many of his 7⅓  pictures have you seen?  The posters are after the jump...

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Emmy Analysis: A close race in Outstanding Writing for Limited Series or TV Movie

The Film Experience Team takes a look at the episode submissions for all the major Emmy categories.

by Cláudio Alves 

Unlike the Drama and Comedy writing categories at the Emmys, the Limited Series or TV Movie one can find entire seasons competing against solo episodes or single films. In the recent past, individual chapters of Sherlock and Black Mirror, classified as TV movies, won out against juggernaut series such as Fargo and Big Little Lies. This year, there are no such "movies" nominees. Indeed, despite six slots, only four series are recognized across the board. Wandavision is the nomination leader as well as the only show competing with single episodes instead of seasons. Indeed, with three nods, it thus becomes only the second limited series to score triple writing nods in the same year. The first one was American Crime Story: The People v O.J. Simpson. That Ryan Murphy show won in 2016, despite the threat of vote splitting, and maybe the Disney+ program can do the same. Let's take a look at the nominees…

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