How Had I Never Seen... "Memories of Murder" and "The Host"

In this Team Experience series, contributors catch up with gaps in their film history. Here's Cláudio Alves...

With Parasite making history and Bong Joon-ho more celebrated than ever, it's a good time for me to watch the two films that propelled the Korean director to his first waves of international success. I had never seen 2003's Memories of Murder and 2006's The Host so I was eager to correct that. 

The first film is based upon real events, telling a story of police investigation and serial killing, while the second is a sort of South Korean answer to Godzilla's prismatic view of national trauma as monster movie hijinks. Not unexpectedly, I found myself in awe of both pictures…

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Photos and fun from the Los Angeles Film Critics Dinner

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"1917" big in weekend three (and other box office stories)

The war drama 1917 moved into wide release in its third weekend, touting that big Globes victory, and scored with an amazing haul for a serious non-franchise film with no bankable stars. The civil rights drama Just Mercy also had a successful expansion to wide release in its third weekend but that one has three movie stars to help it (Michael B Jordan and Jamie Foxx in the main roles and Brie Larson in support) 

Weekend Box Office January 10th-12th (ESTIMATES) 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = recommended
WIDE RELEASE (800+ screens)	PLATFORM TITLES
1 🔺  1917  $36.5 (cum. $39.2) GLOBE VICTORIES, TEASER ★	1 🔺   PARASITE $966k on 345 screens (cum. $25.3) PODCAST, CLASS, BONG, SAG CAST ★

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The prizes literally never stop... NSFC, GLAAD, NAACP and more

As per usual we've fallen a bit behind in the awardage department so we're doing a massive post right now to catch up. Here are the latest critics groups to announce their awards as well as nominations from two civil rights organizations, GLAAD and the NAACP...

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Final Oscar Nomination Predictions

The 92nd annual Academy Awards are almost upon us. They're just 29 days away at this writing. We'll have the official Oscar charts back up for you as soon as is humanly possible once the potentially exciting event has occurred on Monday (they're coming down now to prep for Monday's unfurling). But until then, it's time to make final predictions.

BEST PICTURE

The sure things: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Parasite, The Irishman, Joker, Jojo Rabbit, 1917. That's six titles that we can't imagine missing on Monday morning given their success to date in precursor awards and with critics and the public. The extremely probable: Marriage Story. The only reason we've begun to worry is that there's been virtually no traction for Noah Baumbach in Best Director which suggests that people have reduced the movie to "an actor's showcase"... but then where was the SAG Outstanding Cast nomination? It's likely in but if there's a shock omission Monday morning...

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