"I Carry You With Me"

by Nick Taylor 

I am both tremendously enthusiastic and a bit disappointed that I Carry You With Me is finally getting a theatrical release. Enthused because it’s a goddamn gem that ranks among the best films of last year, and sits right alongside Lingua Franca and Welcome to Chechnya as one of the very best queer films. The disappointment comes from the fact that, as far as anyone's concerned, this is a 2020 film. Distributor Sony Pictures Classics went out of its way to give this an awards-qualifying run despite pushing its wide release date further and further back. As with the aesthetically entrancing documentary Gunda or the tonally triumphant, richly acted French Exit (both also distributed by SPC), it’s a bit mystifying that this was seen as the superior strategy rather than letting I Carry You With Me’s reputation build over the course of this year. Art doesn’t need awards, sure, but it’s a bummer that Heidi Ewing’s fiction film debut won’t be able to generate the sort of grassroots attention that Isabel Sandoval, Eliza Hittman, Kelly Reichardt, and Kitty Green all earned to different degrees over the extended 2020 season.

But enough griping! Legitimate criticisms about a film’s release strategy shouldn’t totally overcome the fact that such an engrossing, formally adventurous and emotionally direct feature has gotten a theatrical release. Compared to Lingua Franca and Welcome to Chechnya, it’s by far among the most approachable of the three, which shouldn’t bely how adventurous its storytelling approach is...

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93rd Academy Awards: Handicapping the Best Actor Nominees

by Ben Miller

Few years can boast the overall performance strength of this season's Best Actor lineup.  In a category with two previous Best Actor Oscar winners and two up-and-coming screen stars, the conversation has been blanketed by the shadow of tragedy.  What is the likelihood of each nominated actor coming out on top on Oscar night?

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2020: Essie Davis in "Babyteeth" and "True History of the Kelly Gang"

by Nick Taylor

Been a lot of chatter about this year’s supporting actress race. You can check out the comments section of any given post on this site over the past year and probably find this category poking its head into an entirely unrelated conversation. Can’t imagine why! To give a quick word on the race, I think this is a remarkably strong lineup, boasting five incredibly talented women who tangibly elevate their films. The sheer number of contenders popping up at other ceremonies makes these nominations feel truly earned - no one coasted to their slot, and the variations of genre, roles, career trajectory, and screen time are delightfully eclectic. A film or two may be sketchy, but the work isn’t, and every one of those actresses would make a fine winner. 

As per the tradition of my companion pieces to the Supporting Actress Smackdown (coming in a week!), I’ve decided to bypass anyone with visible buzz in favor of an actress whose work I loved and wish had gotten more attention than it did. This category‘s already had plenty of airtime lately, so I’m sticking to just one write-up. Luckily, my favorite supporting actress of the year gave two performances worth talking about...

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FYC: Never Rarely Sometimes Always

by Nick Taylor

Never Rarely Sometimes Always is the 2020 film I've watched the most times this past year. The story of a 17-year-old girl fleeing her small town for several days to get an abortion in the city is perhaps not the kind of tale that one expects to dive into over and over again. But few films have gripped me quite like this one has. Of all the American  films contending for an Oscar nomination, this and First Cow are by far the two I most want to see recognized somewhere, anywhere, everywhere. It’s always rough when the televised awards start culling from critics prize winners for their own lineups, and even harder when the whole goddamn process is strung out for two extra months. Will key nominations from the exclusive, rigorously discerning Critics Choice Association help kick it back into the conversation? Or did writer/director Eliza Hittman missing at WGA signal the end of the road? Maybe the Indie Spirits will be the last time we see this crew up for an award, but until proven otherwise, here’s my pitch on behalf of this marvelous film in any and all categories available to it.

There’s nowhere to start like the beginning, which in this case is the most internally idiosyncratic scene of the film. Never Rarely Sometimes Always begins with a talent show of sorts, as student dress up in ‘50s Teen Outfits and sing & dance to Elvis...

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Streaming 20:20 (Finale) - Soul, Let Them All Talk, and more...

ICYMI Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four

Since it's crunch time to complete viewing before all the awards shows hit we've been surveying the films of 2020 that are already streaming for free (provided you have the services of courses), whether they're great, terrible or anywhere inbetween. Maybe you're looking to get caught up? We've been freezing films at the 20th minute and 20th second just for gimmicky time-stamped streaming roulette kicks. How many of these twenty 2020 pictures have you seen? 

Next up one of my favourites, soul number 102,2010,121,415

SOUL (Pete Docter & Kemp Powers, US)
Disney/Pixar. Original release date: December 25th. Streaming on Disney+

Didn't you love the design of the "Jerries" in Pixar's latest? It's so distinct visually. If only they had taken the genderlessness further and applied it to not just the names but the linework.

There's an implant. They put it in your shit. It's like... okay, It'll come back. It's fine, Lou. It's like 40 grand... 80 grand, whatever.

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