Review: South African Queer War Drama ‘Moffie’

By Abe Friedtanzer

 There is a traditional image of military might that emphasizes strength above all else, to the detriment of individualism and often humanity. We’ve seen this portrayed many times in disturbing fashion in movies and television (not to mention real life), as drill sergeants and other commanding officers work to crush the spirits of their charges and “toughen” them up so that their weaknesses will be rooted out. This can obviously have truly scarring effects, felt both during and after service. A powerful showcase of that phenomenon is on display in director Oliver Hermanus’ new film Moffie, opening Friday.

In the same way that Confederate battalions aren’t fondly remembered in America, white men who fought for South Africa in the 1980s aren’t really on the right side of history...

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2020: Essie Davis in "Babyteeth" and "True History of the Kelly Gang"

by Nick Taylor

Been a lot of chatter about this year’s supporting actress race. You can check out the comments section of any given post on this site over the past year and probably find this category poking its head into an entirely unrelated conversation. Can’t imagine why! To give a quick word on the race, I think this is a remarkably strong lineup, boasting five incredibly talented women who tangibly elevate their films. The sheer number of contenders popping up at other ceremonies makes these nominations feel truly earned - no one coasted to their slot, and the variations of genre, roles, career trajectory, and screen time are delightfully eclectic. A film or two may be sketchy, but the work isn’t, and every one of those actresses would make a fine winner. 

As per the tradition of my companion pieces to the Supporting Actress Smackdown (coming in a week!), I’ve decided to bypass anyone with visible buzz in favor of an actress whose work I loved and wish had gotten more attention than it did. This category‘s already had plenty of airtime lately, so I’m sticking to just one write-up. Luckily, my favorite supporting actress of the year gave two performances worth talking about...

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Doc Corner: 'Allen v. Farrow' & 'Framing Britney Spears'

By Glenn Dunks

How do you go about making a film or a series about celebrity scandal let alone writing a review of those very projects? It’s difficult. It is virtually impossible to not bring one’s own history and baggage to a work like Allen v. Farrow or Framing Britney Spears. And then there are the works themselves, both of which confront subject matters that demand the audience assess—or re-assess—their own thoughts and responses to damaging events in the lives of the rich and famous that played as entertainment for the masses in less enlightened times of media representation.

Arguably the two biggest works of documentary to have arrived in the first quarter of 2021, I actually don’t think either of them really work. They sure are thorny works, though, that push the viewer into murky areas that need to be explored.

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93rd Academy Awards: on the "Makeup and Hair" Nominees

by Nathaniel R

Throughout our "gulp" twenty years of covering the Oscars, no branch has proven more confounding than the Hair and Makeup designers. Like all branches they have weird and glaring blindspots (for some reason despite adoring makeup effects prosthetics they loathe the genre that most commonly deploys them: horror) but many of their rulings have been bizarre (remember how a little CG touchup on Nicole Kidman's prosthetic nose in The Hours disqualified the film in this category but throughout the rest of the Aughts huge CG spectacles were regularly honored?!). They love old age and prosthetic effects makeup regardless of quality, except when they suddenly get fussy about it and don't.  Sometimes they love wigs and other times only the makeup matters, hair be damned. They're tough to get a bead on but it's easier to suss out what might win once they've made their often perplexingly random finalist and nominee calls (Like how was Possessor and its innovative makeup effects not even on the finalist list? Oh, right, Horror film.) 

The nominees are listed in ascending order of how likely we think they are to win the Oscar...

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Linkness

• Vulture Marcia Gay Harden answers all the questions about her awesome Oscar win for Pollock on its 20th anniversary
• MNPP Josh O'Connor to make a queer horror film with Francis Lee (God's Own Country, Ammonite)
• Deadline very interesting (if way too complimentary) report on dubbing films into other languages. Daniel Brühl is among the top actors who dub their own performances into multiple languages rather than letting other actors do it and change the performance. It helps that he's fluent in multiple languages of course. 

More after the jump including Pose, Regé-Jean Page, Killers of the Moon, a new adaptation of Blindness, and recent showbiz deaths...

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