Best Animated Feature Contenders: How to Train Your Dragon 3

by Tim

Only time will tell which five movies are going to receive nominations for the Best Animated Feature Oscar in January, but I can tell you this much with absolute certainty: there are going to be a lot of sequels in the mix. Each of the four biggest American animation studios released a single film in 2019, and each one of those was a franchise entry. Disney had the blockbuster hit Frozen II just a month ago, and their corporate cousin Pixar released the slightly smaller hit Toy Story 4 over the summer. Illumination Entertainment had a rare flop with The Secret Life of Pets 2. Before any of these, though, came my pick for the best major studio animated feature of the year, and a film we really haven't talked about very much at the Film Experience: DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, third and final film in a trilogy that started in 2010.

The film was greeted without much enthusiasm, whether from critics, fans of the series, or audiences more generally; this seems horribly unfair to me. While it is more than a little bit of a retread of 2014's How to Train Your Dragon 2 in its plot and especially in its generic, forgettable villain (and one should never think "unforgettable" when watching a character played by F. Murray Abraham, but here we are), the emotional stuff is all new...

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Great Acting or Great Makeup?

by Cláudio Alves

As soon as the first Bombshell teaser dropped, many were ready to claim Charlize Theron's performance as a great feat of transformative acting. She had become Megyn Kelly, apparently. That people were saying this after having only seen a couple of pointed glances and a tense smile left me perplexed. Were people reacting to the acting or the makeup? Still thinking about Theron, one remembers how she sailed to an Oscar in 2003 but Monster didn't get a much deserving Best Makeup nomination. Sure, that performance is incredible, but part of the transformation is the cosmetic wizardry of the makeup brush rather than the virtuosity of the actress.

When it comes to "transformative performances", a lot of people conflate great acting with great makeup...

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Tis the Season; Carol-mas

Today we celebrate the anniversary of Carol and Therese's first date. That fraught with desire and longing first date. That rudely interupted by Harge first date. That beautiful trip from NY to NJ that felt like a lifetime and looked as dreamy and gorgeous as a water color painting come to life.

I'm celebrating by going to a screening of Carol (2015) at Metrograph in NY, introduced by master cinematographer Ed Lachman. How are you celebrating Carol day?

In Appreciation of Eddie Murphy in 'Dolemite'

by Murtada Elfadl

“Make That Shit Swing, Put Your Weight On It”

Eddie Murphy as Rudy Ray Moore says that to his musical accompanist the first time he takes the stage as Dolemite. He wanted more oomph, more swagger, just more to complement his stage appearance. And that’s also what Murphy does is his riotously funny and mesmerising performance in Dolemite is My Name.

He’s fully committed to the character. A comedian playing a comedian so of course he’s funny. He lands every joke from the stand up bits which are of course laugh out funny, to the silly aside jokes. For example watch him as plays off Luenell who plays his aunt in one scene, as he tries to cajole her out of money. It’s a full body performance with many physical jokes, karate chops, singing and dancing. Every minute he’s on screen you can’t take your eyes off him...

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Interview: Karim Aïnouz on 'Invisible Life' and why he chose to make a melodrama

by Murtada Elfadl

With a depth of feeling and lush gorgeous colors that knock the wind out of you, Invisible Life is melodrama done right. Set in Rio de Janeiro in 1950 as two inseparable sisters have different dreams. One, Euridice played by Carol Duarte, wants to become a renowned pianist. The romantic Guida (Julia Stockler) yearns for true love. They are separated by their father and forced to live apart. They take control of their separate destinies, while never giving up hope of finding each other. We follow their story with ache in our hearts but with our eyes feasting on the beauty that fills the frame.

We got a chance to speak with director Karim Aïnouz recently in New York. [This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.]

Murtada Elfadl: Congratulations. The film is amazing.

Karim Aïnouz: Thank you. Thank you. That's good to hear

One of the things that I really love about it I grew up on Egyptian movies, which are very melodramatic.

Are you Egyptian?

I'm Sudanese.

Okay, let's go. Yeah. Okay.

So this reminded me of all the movies that I loved growing up. It's very lush.The emotions are very big. It's about family, it's about women. So I wanted to ask you about that first. Melodrama is not that respected these days. Were you afraid or concerned to make a melodrama?

It's like that for me too, I was raised on melodrama. I was raised bathing in melodrama because that's the genre root of Brazilian soap operas, radio soap operas and novellas in the 50s and then that sort of led onto the soap operas of the 70s when I was growing up...

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