Marty's on Letterboxd! Are You?

by Cláudio Alves

During the actors' strike, many directors were put front and center of their films' promotion, stepping into the place usually occupied by their stars. It's an understandable strategy, alright. That's what happened to Killers of the Flower Moon, which, regardless of the industry's actions, would have hinged much of its publicity on Martin Scorsese. However, his centrality in the marketing meant we got to see more of him than expected, including a social media surge that can probably be attributed to the director's daughter, Francesca Scorsese. Between TikTok videos and snappy interviews, the old master even joined Letterboxd…

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Best International Film: Switzerland's "Thunder" and Austria's "Vera"

by Cláudio Alves

After a litany of TIFF titles, Sweden's Opponent, and a pair of Latin American gems, let's take our Best International Film odyssey to Central Europe. There, we find a most curious couple from neighboring nations – a Swiss period piece about sexual repression and an Austrian docu-drama hybrid on an Italian celebrity. Both countries succeeded with the Academy in the past, having won twice each. Switzerland had its heyday in the last decades of the 20th century, taking the trophy for 1984's Dangerous Moves and 1990's Journey of Hope. For Austria, the triumph's more recent, with 2007's The Counterfeiters and 2012's Amour.

Thunder and Vera aren't likely victors like those past titles, but they're worth your time, nevertheless…

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Best Supporting Actor: Is double-dipping the new trend?

by Cláudio Alves

For decades, it wasn't unusual to see two thespians from the same film nominated for Best Supporting Actress, but the same couldn't be said about its brother category. That was until recently when double-dipping in Supporting Actor became fashionable. 

It started in 2017, with Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri's Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson. In 2019, it was Joe Pesci and Al Pacino for The Irishman, and then Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeit Stanfield for Judas and the Black Messiah in 2020. The following year, Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee did the honors for The Power of the Dog, while, in 2022, The Banshees of Inisherin got in with Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan. For comparison, in the same period, Supporting Actress only had two such cases, with The Favourite and last year's Everything Everywhere All At Once. Now, the question is whether the trend will continue at the 96th Academy Awards…

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This isn't your mother's "Mean Girls"

by Cláudio Alves

Maybe this trailer deserves the "Yes, No, Maybe So" treatment, but why do all that work when the answer is a resounding NO? Though the musical of Mean Girls isn't an especially well-regarded Broadway property, there was some hope regarding its transfer to the screen. That was before it kept getting delayed until landing on the dumping ground of January 2024. Everything's pointing to it being a disaster, and the first trailer only accentuates those doubts rather than dispelling them. And no, it's not just because it's so eager to make the original audience for Tina Fey's teen comedy feel as old as Methuselah…

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My best IMAX Experience

by Cláudio Alves

As a last hurrah, Oppenheimer has been back on IMAX screens since last week, allowing interested audiences to revisit it in the format before the film comes to streaming on November 21st. Enjoy your last chance to see Cillian Murphy's bronzed pores projected sky high, closeups galore for titanic portraiture, faces the size of monuments. Indeed, this year, because of Nolan's blockbuster biopic, it seems like big screen superiority has been more discussed than usual, with cyclical discourse about the latest pictures to shine bright on IMAX. So much so that it got me thinking about my best experiences with the giant screens…

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