SXSW: Portraits of motherhood in "Ninjababy" and "Bantú Mama"

by Cláudio Alves

Motherhood is one of cinema's favorite subjects, ever since narrative pictures emerged as a force to be contended with. One can go so far as saying that ever since the origins of drama, of storytelling, tales of mothers have dominated audiences' attentions, defined cultures, were made into the foundations for moral and religious belief. Perhaps because of such history, such conceptual weight, mainstream cinema rarely attempts to subvert or question the precepts of dramatized maternity. Even in more independent circuits, there's still reverence there, a willingness to prop up the mother figure into a saintly paragon, idealized caretaker, matriarch of humanity.

Because of it, one feels grateful when artists turn their back on all that baggage and decide to subvert what cinematic mothers are, what they look like, what they represent. The irreverent Ninjababy and the beautiful Bantú Mama, both presented at the SXSW film festival, are prime examples of this…

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SXSW: Reviews of "WeWork" and "Language Lessons"

 by Christopher James

Day Two of the SXSW Festival provided even more interesting, high profile premieres. Between a billion dollar flamout and a star-studded movie shot entirely on zoom, it would be hard to find more disparate projects on the second day of the festival. Both WeWork: or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn and Language Lessons were engaging and worthwhile watches in very different ways. One was a grandiose look at the rise and fall of a famous company born out of the ashes of the financial crisis. The other was a heartfelt dramedy where two lonely souls connect via online Spanish lessons...

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The New Oscar Actor Hierarchy - Anthony & Denzel Rising

by Nathaniel R

We last updated the male version of this list (see the actress list here) just after Leonardo DiCaprio was finally crowned for The Revenant (2015) but it's time for some adjustments. What follows is a list of Oscar's 34 All Time Favorite Actors. The only brand new addition to the list is Anthony Hopkins who enters the exclusive club due to two new consecutive nominations (including this year's bid The Father) significantly changing his previous 4/1 record. But there are other big changes. Actors who improved their standing since the last update five seasons ago are Denzel Washington (up several notches and a tier due to Fences and Roman Israel Esq), Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio (up a handful of notches each due to recent nominations), Jeff Bridges and Al Pacino (up a couple of notches each), and Daniel Day Lewis (up a tier with that Phantom Thread nomination but the same numeric placement -- the higher up you go the harder it is to rise much after all). A handful of other men are getting very close to joining this club after recent Oscar favor, too.

This royal club is restricted to men with 5 or more nominations. Only the acting statistics are accounted for so George Clooney, for example, is not (yet) ranked...

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SXSW: Uncanny sibling chemistry in "Our Father"

by Jason Adams

As a person without any close siblings (I have a half-sister who I wasn't raised with) the tricky alchemy of sibling-hood often escapes me. I watch my friends who do have close relations with their brothers or sisters with some fascination. It's not quite a foreign Twin Language every time but it might as well be, to me, the weird ways you people relate and the fiery push-pulls of it; the way you can be meaner to a person you were raised beside than anybody else on earth and then turn and snap fangs at anybody trying to do the same at that person. 

But, like too many things in life, I've learned the most about those relationships from watching them in the movies...

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SXSW: The dystopian visions of Executive Order & Witch Hunt

By Abe Friedtanzer

 

It’s sadly not all that difficult to imagine our society slipping into dystopian territory, and while that might have seemed impossible here in America, recent events have suggested we’re not that far away from authoritarian misery. Cinema has long explored such inevitabilities, and it’s those “very near future” concepts that don’t look so different from what we know today that can be especially terrifying. They can also be insightful, strong pieces of filmmaking, and SXSW has two this year that are indeed frightening and thought-provoking...

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