Yes No Maybe So: The Last Duel

Please welcome new contributor Patrick Ball...

Jodie Comer in "The Last Duel"

One of the more anticipated fall releases, Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel finally got a trailer. A medieval swords n’ beards tale, it boasts the first joint screenplay from Matt Damon and Ben Affleck since their Oscar winning effort on Good Will Hunting (1997), this time joined by Nicole Holofcener. Starring Matt and Ben, Adam Driver (having yet another big year with this and Annette and House of Gucci) and Killing Eve breakout Jodie Comer, let’s raise the drawbridge on another installment of Yes No Maybe So... 

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Oscar Prediction Charts: Three questions about Best Supporting Actor

by Nathaniel R

We're not predicting Richard E Grant Oscar buzz for the drag musical Everybody's Talking About Jamie but we're sharing his picture because we're in this kind of cheerful mood and because he was ROBBED in his Oscar year and we've been fans for as long as we can remember. Wasn't he fun on Loki this month? 

The supporting categories at the Oscars are always hard to read this early. Supporting roles are rarely the focus of pre-release buzz. What's more they can have a tough time finding awards love since leading movie stars have a super gross and predictable way of constantly crashing the party for those lower on the call sheet (last year's "supporting" race arguably had just one 100% no debate supporting player). So we threw one lead into the predictions (Jesse Plemons in Power of the Dog) but it's more than likely that some other lead will be pitched here, too. We don't care to guess about who that will be right now. For first attempt at predicting nominations in this category for 2021 we're saying...

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That Shakespeare + Gods & Monsters conversation

We received word from readers that the Apple Podcast/iTunes service has suddenly gone glitchy with The Film Experience so we wanted to let you know that you can also listen on Stitcher or on Spotify if you haven't yet given the conversation a go. One more round of applause please for writer/director/showrunner Leslye Headland (Russian Doll, The Acolyte), actor Mitch Silpa (Bridesmaids, The Heat), DJ Rob Campion (Cooler Than Ecto), writer Jenelle Riley (Variety), and animator/illustrator Dashiell Silva. 

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Conversation Index (74 minutes)

00:01 - Introduction of the Smackdown Panel and the 1998 Nominees
04:00 - Primary Colors. What works (Kathy Bates) and what doesn't, and how it plays in today's much different political climate.
15:41 - A detour to the 2020 Oscar race and "Da Butt"
17:00 - Hilary and Jackie's odd structure, sadness porn, and tortured artists
28:30 - A detour to The English Patient (1996) and the Weinstein/Miramax industrial complex
34:45 - Shakespeare in Love "a rom-com for theater nerds". Why Judi Dench deserved the Oscar.
50:20 - The disastrous miscalculations of Little Voice, and Brenda Blethyn, hot off of Secrets & Lies
59:30 - Gods and Monsters, hampered by its budget, and maybe even its Oscar winning screenplay. Beautiful performances!
1:12:28 - Wrap-up / Goodbyes.

And in case you missed our 1998 "extras" we revisited Velvet Goldmine, High Art, Beloved, Central Station, The Prince of Egypt, A Bug's Life, The Truman Show, Hollywood's onslaught of blonde ingenues, and the pop culture hits that year. 

Category Analysis: Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Two recurring nominees in this category, two guest stars in their show that might just be elevated to regulars in their subsequent seasons, and a nominee returning to a role that gave her a win in lead. These are the contenders that compose this year’s crop of nominees for this category. With the exception of last year, The Handmaid’s Tale has had a strangleghold on this category with three consecutive wins and six nominations for its first three seasons. Meanwhile, The Crown is the nomination leader (overall) and the frontrunner to win Drama Series.

Without further ado, here are the nominees…

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Oscar Chart Updates: Picture, Director, Screenplay, and more...

Jane Campion's new film Power of the Dog has been named the Centerpiece for the New York Film Festival. Perhaps it's wishful thinking (we've loved Campion forever) but we're betting big on it for the Oscar race. The film is set in 1920s rural Montana and stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Jesse Plemons as brothers who are at odds. The rift between them grows wider once the younger brother brings a new wife (Kirsten Dunst) home. The novel by Thomas Savage has been compared to works like East of Eden and Brokeback Mountain and if the film can live up to either of those classics' screen adaptations it will be something special.

We've been working hard on the first Oscar charts of the year.  The four acting categories and international film have yet to be posted, but the rest of the charts are now up...

• PICTURE - Will streamers like Netflix or Amazon prevail or will more traditional distributors like MGM/UA, Searchlight, Focus, A24, and SPC rise up? So many films sound exciting but we won't know which deliver on their promise until later in the year.  
• DIRECTOR - Jane Campion could become the first woman ever nominated twice in Best Director
• SCREENPLAYS  - Numerous brilliant writers have new films coming but however will they choose between Asghar Farhadi, Joel Coen, Tony Kushner, Pedro Almodóvar, Mike Mills, and Paul Thomas Anderson?
• VISUAL CATEGORIES - There's (presumably) eye candy aplenty in Dune, Last Night in Soho, House of Gucci, and Nightmare Alley
• SOUND CATEGORIES - Can it finally be Nicholas Britell's year or will he split his support with three movies (Carmen, Don't Look Up, Cruella)?
• ANIMATED FEATURE - Will Disney's musical Encanto be the frontrunner? Will Flee and Belle be the more adventurous citations?
• PREDICTION INDEX - the overview snapshot