DGA Winners: Chloe Zhao, Darius Marder, Melina Matsoukas, etc...

by Nathaniel R

Zhao on the set of Nomadland

As expected Chloe Zhao took the DGA prize last night  for Nomadland on her way to making history (hopefully) on Oscar night. She's only the second woman to win the DGA for Feature Film and she'd be the second to win the Oscar if she prevails later this month on Hollywood's High Holy Night. She reportedy praised her fellow nominees at the guild awards where her peers convene honoring David Fincher as "master class", Aaron Sorkin as  "a poet". And echoing the sentiment of many of us movie lovers in that Lee Isaach Chung's Minari touched her personally and she can't wait to see what Emerald Fennell does as a follow up to Promising Young Woman. Relatable words and classy, too...

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The Oscars' real people problem

by Cláudio Alves

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty tired of the biopic domination of the acting Oscar categories. Admittedly, such distaste comes from my general dislike of prestige cinema's biographical genre, but the situation is truly glaring. This year, 45% of the nominated performances are of real people whose lives were dramatized on-screen, exercises in actorly mimicry, and direct emulation. It's not that these achievements aren't impressive or worthy of awards, but that they're over-represented a great deal. Most narrative films aren't dramatizations of actual events or the lives of celebrities no matter how much AMPAS' selection might make us think otherwise. It's a pity that other kinds of character construction tend to be underappreciated while biopic roles become frontrunners before anyone has even seen the movie…

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BAFTA predictions? Why not!

by Nathaniel R

Rather famously the BAFTAs did a gigantic overhaul of their nomination process to insure gender parity and diversity in their nominations. Many of the individual category nominations were decided by tiny juries. But for the winners the whole voting body will vote. Given that the nominations themselves were impossible to foresee perhaps the winners will be too? So lets just try our hand at divining what might come to pass.

FILM

• The Father
• The Mauritanian
• Nomadland
• Promising Young Woman
• The Trial of the Chicago 7

WILL WIN: This is actually a tough call. BAFTA has disagreed with Oscar more than we commonly think for the top category...

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Links: Multiple Sherlock Holmes, Change in Oscar Venue, and more...

• Crime Reads an amazing piece ranking the 100 best, strangest, and worst portrayals of Sherlock Holmes. I LOL'ed several times. 
• Deadline icymi the Visual Effects Society awards were held. The Midnight Sky, The Mandalorian, Project Power, Lovecraft Country, and Soul were all winners
• Variety on the absence of Latinos at the Oscars. Rosie Perez speaks out about never being asked back. And she's not even talking about being nominated again.

“Not even to sit in the audience, not to present, nothing—and I’m a member. I love the Academy Awards. I cheer on my peers, but it hurts. It’s like when your home team doesn’t ask you to come back into the stadium after you got up to bat and hit the home run.”

More after the jump including Los Angeles streets during Oscar week, Youn Yuh-jung, Queer as Folk, and more...

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Review: "Thunder Force" (Netflix)

by Christopher James

Longtime friends McCarthy and Spencer in "Thunder Force."Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer are already acting superheroes. Over their long careers, they’ve stolen scenes from the best, been nominated for Oscars (with Spencer winning in 2011), and headlined comedy, drama and horror films. There’s nothing these women can’t do… until now. Thunder Force is their kryptonite. There’s no superpower in their arsenal that can save this comedy, which is completely devoid of laughs. 

Thunder Force takes place in a world much like our own. The main difference: mysterious intergalactic rays touched down in the 80s and gave a few bad apples superpowers. These super individuals, called Miscreants, use their powers to terrorize everyone in sight. If only bad guys are given powers, how are the good guys ever going to prevail?

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