Revisiting "Spotlight" on Netflix

Please welcome new contributor Juan Carlos Ojano

As the 88th Oscars neared its conclusion, the anticipation for the Best Picture winner was high: The Revenant had previously won the DGA and three Oscars including Directing, The Big Short had momentum, the PGA win, and an Oscar for Adapted Screenplay, and Spotlight had previously won SAG and on the big night Original Screenplay. Meanwhile, the critics had rallied behind Mad Max: Fury Road and it just kept winning Oscars that night. But ultimately, it was Spotlight that prevailed, winning the top prize. With the film now streaming on Netflix, it's worth a revisit...

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Streaming Roulette, August: Exotica, Harriet, and Muppets Now

If you're new to the site this is how we share new streaming offerings for the month. We select a handful or two of titles and just randomly hit a place on the scroll bar to see what the film looks like - no cheating.  Ready? Let's play...

I CAN'T WATCH!!!

Muppets Now (2020) Season 1 on Disney Plus
Let's HOPE Kermit isn't being prophetic about the quality of his new show with this random shot/dialogue. Maybe because we grew up with them, we always give new Muppet content a chance. Will you?

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10th Anniversary: The Kids Are All Right

by Deborah Lipp

In the second year of Oscar’s expanded, ten-nominee slate for Best Picture, the change proved its worth. The occassion was the nomination of The Kids are All Right, a film of such perfection that there can be no doubt of its worthiness, yet who could have imagined its inclusion? In 2010, we definitely weren’t ready for a queer picture to win, and ten years later, it seems like we’re still not ready for a female-centric film to win. But inclusion is victory, and anyone who watched The Kids are All Right solely because it was nominated was also a winner.

The Kids are All Right is an intimate and human movie. Everything and everyone here has skin that is fully lived-in, fully human, and perfectly, adorably messy...

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July. It's a Wrap

Will this hellscape of a year ever be over? Apparently it will because each month of the year has arrived and then departed even if they've been thrice as long as usual. Here are a dozen or so highlights from July that you might have missed!

• Costumes of Clueless 25 years later, Claudio feels they're even more iconic
• Mira Sorvino Mini-Fest  the actress programmed her own retrospective for us
• Let's talk about poop jokes -Michael's brilliant take on Bridesmaids (2011)
• 100 Oldest Living Oscar Nominees -Sadly we had to update this recently
• Eva Green in Dark Shadows Jason considers when a bad movie houses a great star turn
• Smackdown 1957 some people say this is one of Oscar's worst lineups but it was still interesting to discuss
• Almost There: River Phoenix His performance in My Own Private Idaho remains a treasure both of promise fulfilled and agony of what could have been thereafter
• First on Vanity Fair Viola Davis's cover prompted a look back
• Bloody Nose Empty Pockets we keep hearing great things about this doc
• Lana Turner what star power!
• Hamilton on Disney plus

Most Discussed
• Smackdown 1991 Juliette Lewis vs Mercedes Ruehl in a photo finish
• Hamilton for the Oscars? The rise and fall and chaos of 'is it eligible?'
• Olivia de Havilland (RIP) the last superstar of Hollywood's Golden Age

Coming in August
We'll take intermittent trips back to 2005 (any requests?) before the next Smackdown which will feature reconsiderations of Amy Adams in Junebug, Catherine Keener in Capote, Michelle Williams in Brokeback Mountain, Rachel Weisz in The Constant Gardener, and Frances McDormand in North Country.

We'll also be celebrating the career of two-time Oscar winner Shelley Winters (any requests?) for her Centennial. The rest will be a surprise to you AND TO US as we haven't planned much!  

Sakamoto on Criterion

by Cláudio Alves

Ryuichi Sakamoto is a master of music that needs no introduction. Thanks to his work with the Yellow Magic Orchestra and solo experiments, Sakamoto has helped shape the evolution of electronic music like few other artists in the past decades. His avant-garde sound is difficult to confuse with that of other composers, but he's not an artist predisposed to repetition or stagnation. Since the 1970s, has never stopped composing, never stopped challenging himself, or dazzling his audience with music whose beauty transcends comprehension. Sakamoto's also an avid cinephile and had been writing film scores since the 80s when Nagisa Oshima cast him in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. Across the years, he's built an eclectic filmography that's rich in artistic brio and lacking in mediocre efforts. He even won an Oscar.

Because of such excellence, the Criterion Channel has curated a selection of 10 Ryuichi Sakamoto scored pictures. Here are some highlights…

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