10th Anniversary: Scott Pilgrim vs The World

by Nick Taylor

I first saw Scott Pilgrim vs The World with my mom at an advanced screening, the benefit of a summer-long stint in 2010 where my parent’s work received passes for secret audience test runs of upcoming blockbusters. The theater was decently sized and completely packed, mainly crowded with teenage boys escorted by parents, grandparents, and other miscellaneous chaperones, plus a good number of twenty- and thirtysomethings who likely read Bryan Lee O’Malley’s recently concluded graphic novel series. You can imagine any number of reasons why this movie would’ve played well to the teen boys in the audience, though it still amazes me how much everyone in the theater seemed to be having a good time with it. Ten years later and it’s still a reliable hit with my immediate family, and someone referring to it as Edgar Wright’s best film can get me on their side real quick...

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Atwood vs Powell: Battle of the costuming titans

by Cláudio Alves

Our look back at the cinematic year of 2005 and its Academy Awards continues. This time, we're examining the work of two titanic talents who battled for the Oscar in the Best Costume Design category as they were prone to do. We're talking about the magnificent Colleen Atwood and the sublime Sandy Powell…

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"Won and done." The curse of finally winning an Oscar

by Baby Clyde

I recently watched Susan Hayward all but demanding voters hand her the Best Actress Oscar in-movie during 1958's I Want To Live. It got me to thinking about her fellow Academy favourites, whose eventual triumphs were also their Oscar swan song.

If an actor who achieves multiple acting nominations is going to win it’s usually early on. It’s common to bag the statue and then spend the rest of your career chasing another. Bette Davis won on her first 2 attempts and then suffered 8 consecutive losses. Spencer Tracy won on attempts 2 and 3 and then spent the next 30 years and 6 nominations waiting for his name to be called again. Sometimes a veteran actor with multiple nods will finally get the prize and continue on in Oscar good books, like Paul Newman who won on nomination 7 and scored two more in following decades. But a surprisingly high amount of winners who have been made to wait find that their greatest triumph is also their last. 

If you win on your 5th nomination (or later) odds are high that you won't be invited back. Consider...

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Would you rather?

Would you rather?

• ...have a cup with sleepy Charlie Heaton?
• ...road trip to Moab Utah with Mira Sorvino?
• ...load up on carbs with Martha Plimpton?
👈 • ...play politics with Jessica Chastain?
• ...pee in the Swedish sea with Joel Kinnaman?
• ...take a bubble bath (for charity) with Daniel K Isaac?
• ...summer squash it with Natalie Portman?
• ...read a bestseller with Christina Hendricks?
• ...listen to tunes / take selfies with Yahya Abdul Mateen II on the Watchmen set?
• ...blow bubbles with Tom Mercier?
• ...contemplate 2020 with Michelle Pfeiffer? 

Pictures are after the jump to help you decide...

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Doc Corner: 'Mucho Mucho Amor' and 'House of Cardin'

By Glenn Dunks

When we look back at our 2020 times stuck indoors for endless hours, I wonder what people will remember. Among the much more high profile television series and surprise album drops, I suspect one title many will find themselves reaching for in their memories is Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado. I have to admit to being entirely oblivious to the focus of Cristina Costantini and Kareem Tabsch's documentary except a well-timed ‘appearance’ on RuPaul’s Drag Race just a week before the film premiered on Netflix. Unless I caught him on an episode of Sally Jessy Raphael, I guess. 

What I discovered—and what I imagine is what will allow for fond remembrance of the movie once we are long out of isolation hubs—was something so very sweetly tender. A film that’s every bit as fabulous as the elaborate, bejewelled cloaks and capes its subject was famed for.

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