Kirk Douglas (1916-2020)

by Nathaniel R

By now you've heard that one of the last* true superstars of Classic Hollywood has left the Earth. Three-time Oscar nominee Kirk Douglas, best known to modern audiences as "Spartacus" and the father of Oscar winner Michael Douglas has passed away at the age of...103 (!). We've written about his films before for his centennial (you know how we like centennials here at TFE) so if you're interested we have pieces on Spartacus, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Lust for Life, and multiple pieces on The Bad and the Beautiful.

*This leaves only Sidney Poitier and several female stars -- De Havilland, Novak, Johns, Saint, Lansbury, Moreno --  standing from Hollywood's Golden Age which is roughly considered to be the very late 1920s through the early 1960s stretching from the chaotic advent of sound through the tumultous time frame when "New Hollywood" took over. "Oldest living screen actors" post here.

Oscar Ceremony: The Presenters

by Murtada Elfadl

Today the Academy and the show's producers Lynette Howell Taylor and Stephanie Allain announced the latest batch of presenters: Jane Fonda, Josh Gad, Tom Hanks, Oscar Isaac, Sandra Oh, Natalie Portman, Chris Rock and Taika Waititi.

We are especially excited to see Fonda...

Click to read more ...

1999 with Nick: "Stuart Little" and Visual (and Animated) Effects

This week, in advance of the Oscars, Nick Davis is looking back at the Academy races of 20 years ago, spotlighting movies he’d never seen and what they teach us about those categories, then and now.

This year, The Lion King joins Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) as only the third fully animated feature to be nominated for the Best Visual Effects Oscar. I’ve read that tidbit in several places and assume that it must be true, according to people who know better than I do. I wasn’t sure why the movie that defeated Kubo, the 2016 remake of The Jungle Book, did not belong on this list, until I remembered that Mowgli was played by a living, breathing actor, Neel Sethi. Actually, what I mean is that I remembered Mowgli was in the movie, period. And I actually didn’t remember, I had to look it up. The Jungle Book, like an incredible number of films nominated for Best Visual Effects since the category got expanded to a five-wide field in 2010, made almost zero lasting impression on me. Like Best Original Song, it’s a division where I gladly release myself from seeing all the nominees. So, sorry, Lion King. Sorry, Endgame. Don’t get smug, Rise of Skywalker, you weren’t much better. And, until I proposed this series to Nathaniel, which partly exists to fill my own viewing gaps, sorry to Stuart Little, a movie that really tested my sense of the line between animation and visual effects, especially in the context of 1999. That line only gets blurrier as time goes on, so I thought I’d dig in a little...

Click to read more ...

Doc Corner: Taylor Swift is 'Miss Americana'

By Glenn Dunks

A film like Miss Americana is always going to be something of a piece of image rehab. It’s just a part of the process of making a documentary about the biggest pop star in the world whose mega-fame makes her equally loved and loathed (as these sorts of things always do; hi, Madonna) by large swathes of the population. And while it is unlikely that the many shouting “fuck Taylor Swift!” in boorish unison at a Kanye West concert or those whose deep-dive into stan culture is unhealthy in its obsession are unlikely to be moved – or, probably more likely, reminded that they ever cared enough about her in the first place– from the looks of it, Lana Wilson’s doc appears to have worked.

Many journalists and listeners who once criticised her for any number of reasons (her perceived lack of sincerity, her cunning, her dating life, her choice of friends, a craven need for attention, etc) have come out to perform mea culpas and many casual observes of its subject’s meteoric rise to fandom acknowledging that maybe, just maybe, she’s human after all despite everything that they had been previously led to believe. 

Premiering as one of the opening night films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Miss Americana may seem like something of a peculiar choice for it’s director, too.

Click to read more ...

Can Thelma Schoonmaker beat her own record?

by Cláudio Alves

Throughout the History of the Academy Awards, two filmmakers have received eight nominations in the Best Editing category. They are Michael Kahn and Thelma Schoonmaker. They also happen to be among the four people currently tied for the title of 'most awarded film editor of all-time'. Daniel Mandell and Ralph Dawson as well as Kahn and Schoonmaker have all won three statuettes (though Schoonmaker and Kahn lead the nomination tally). Both of those champion editors are still active, so one of them may beat these Oscar records. As of the moment, Martin Scorsese's most important collaborator is in contention to win her fourth Oscar for The Irishman.

If it happens, she'll become the undisputed queen of film editing in Hollywood. In regards to the Academy Awards, that is…

Click to read more ...