Encore - The 1987 Discussion

by Nathaniel R

Before we move on to the final push for 2020 and a special trivia-filled overview of where the Supporting Actress Smackdown has been over the years (we know how y'all love stats), here's one last push for the 1987 Discussion with the rising busy actor Ato Essandoh, former TFE member and now author Manuel Betancourt (seriously buy his book "Judy at Carnegie Hall" - it's a perfect stocking stuffer gift!), and the critics Kathia Woods and Naveen Kumar. Listen in at the bottom of the post on on iTunes

Index (1 hour and 15 minutes)
00:01 Meeting the Panel
04:30 Throw Momma from the Train
19:00 The zeitgeist impact of Fatal Attraction in 1987 and Glenn Close's brilliance
37:15 Disability drama Gaby and the Old Hollywood actresses of Whales of August
53:30 Moonstruck has aged beautifully. And why Olympia Dukakis won
1:06:00 Final 1987 Recommendations from our panel and Role-Switcheroos

Other pieces on 1987

• 1987 Vintage -An overview of what was hot that year
• Baby Boom
• Carmen Maura in Law of Desire
• Cher, She ruled the world in '87
• Child acting in '87, an unusually Oscar-calibre bunch
• Cinematography Nominees
• Costume Design Nominees
• The Dead, John Huston's Swansong
• Faye Dunaway in Barfly
• Karen Allen in The Glass Menagerie
• The Last Emperor's Forbidden City
• The Living Daylights, unpopular Bond
• Maurice, James Ivory's misunderstood gem
• Moonstruck, over and over
• Robocop, a discussion
• Sally Kirkland's historic Oscar campaign
• Supporting Actress Profiles
• Supporting Actress Smackdown
• Vanessa Redgrave in Prick Up Your Ears
• Veronica Cartwright in The Witches of Eastwick

Fatal Attraction, Moonstruck and More

Review: Dolly Parton's Christmas on the Square

by Christopher James

When someone tells you who they are, believe them. If the title Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square didn’t already clue you in as to whether you are within the target audience for the film, the opening minutes do. After credits play over the kitschiest of Christmas landscapes, Dolly Parton appears as the world’s comfiest homeless person in full hair and makeup. Her beautiful voice launches into an original song/life lesson that prompts the entire town to break out into a highly choreographed dance routine. This all takes place, you guessed it, in the titular Square. Over the next 98 minutes, Dolly Parton’s Christmas of the Square continues to deliver exactly what it promised you upfront. With __ original songs throughout, Christine Baranski doing a drag version of her gay Twitter persona and Dolly Parton as the chicest homeless person around, Christmas on the Square is Parton’s Citizen Kane...

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Gene Tierney @ 100: Leave Her To Heaven

by Jason Adams

The surface of the lake is calm -- almost, but not quite, like a mirror. It's a clinical aquamarine color, not much different from Gene Tierney's own eyes. Not that we can see her eyes -- she's just put on her sunglasses. They too act as mirrors -- dark mirrors, reflecting darkness. Ellen Berent Harland (Tierney) watches as the annoying little "cripple" Danny (Darryl Hickman) breaks the sheen of the lake's surface, as if slipping through into some unseen Wonderland -- they say repeatedly the water is warm, so warm, so very warm, but it looks to us cold, ice cold, and indeed the actor Hickman got pneumonia from the filming of this, Leave Her to Heaven's most infamous scene.

But then that's a sense that suffuses all of John M. Stahl's 1945 technicolor Noir masterpiece -- the feeling that something that sounds warm and inviting on its surface might actually be hiding an icy purgatory of horrors just beneath...

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The Best Costumes of 1987

by Cláudio Alves

Before we say goodbye to 1987, our final "year of the month" to coincide with the Smackdown events, we must look at one final Oscar category: the Best Costume Design race. It was a stellar line-up, dominated by films set during the first half of the 20th century, whose designs spanned from epic opulence to modest realism. The nominees were…

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International Oscar: new submissions and the "english language" problem again

We now have a total of 66 submissions for Oscar's Best International Feature competition. Here are the new submissions since our last overview roundup.

• Brazil -Babenco: Tell Me When I Die (Brazil & Oscar)
• Chile -The Mole Agent - now streaming on Hulu
• Colombia -Forgotten We'll Be
• Denmark -Another Round (EFA Nominee | Denmark & Oscar)
• Dominican Republic - A State of Madness
• Finland -Tove
• France -Two of Us (France & Oscar)
• Jordan -200 Meters
• Kyrgyzstan -Running to the Sky 
• Latvia -Blizzard of Souls
• Suriname -Wiren (FIRST SUBMISSION!) 
• Tunisia - The Man Who Sold His Skin
• Uzbekistan - 2000 Songs of Farida

In addition to the 66 titles already announced we have finalist lists for Italy, Nepal, and Serbia on the respective Oscar charts.

ELSEWHERE 
We have begun to hear rumors that Canada's Funny Boy which hits Netflix on December 10th is mostly in the English language so if that's true it might be disqualified from the category (this has happened to several films in the past). Films have to be less than 50% English language in their dialogue to be eligible. The only exception the Academy has made is that they've now approved "Pidgin English" ostensibly to make it easier for certain African countries to submit after Nigeria and Austria's entries, both featuring Nigerians were disqualified last year. But Pidgin English is a broad term so we don't know how lenient they'll start being given this new ruling.Trailers rarely paint the whole truth about a movie but the trailer to Funny Boy is ENTIRELY in what sounds like traditional English.

WHERE TO SEE THE MOVIES?
If you want to get a jump on some of the submissions 12 of the 65 titles are streaming or will be soon.  Netflix has six of them: Austria's What We Wanted, Mexico's I'm No Longer Here, Spain's The Endless Trench, Taiwan's A Sun, Turkey's Miracle in Cell No 7, and on December 10th, Canada's Funny Boy.  You can also stream Chile's The Mole Agent on Hulu, Guatemala's La Llorona on Amazon, Indonesia's Impetigore is on Shudder or Roku, Lithuania's Nova Lituania on MUBI, and South Korea's Man Standing Next on Amazon, YouTube, or iTunes. Denmark's Another Round, which feels like a likely nominee or at least finalist arrives in December in both theaters and on VOD. You can follow the list as it grows at our Oscar charts or on our Letterboxd list.