Joaquin Phoenix @ 50: An Alternative Oscar History

by Cláudio Alves

Joaquin Phoenix's last great performance was in C'MON C'MON.

Do you have your own dream Oscar ballots lying around? I've been doing them for ages, probably since first finding The Film Experience and becoming entranced by Nathaniel's Film Bitch Awards. In recent years, the mountains of notebooks finally came to be formally digitized, starting with the long process of creating Letterboxd lists out of every Oscar eligibility rulebook, going back to 1927. This way, I was able to make a massive Excel spreadsheet with ballots for every year, following AMPAS guidelines. Oh well, much ado about nothing. The only reason I'm bringing this up is to contextualize the bizarre birthday post in store for today, when Joaquin Phoenix celebrates his mid-century mark. 

As the Todd Haynes fiasco and the disappointing Joker diptych have made Joaquin Phoenix something of a sore subject, let's go back to happier times and better movies. Indeed, let me present an alternative Oscar history. The thespian remains a winner but under very different circumstances…

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Beyond Sight & Sound: An Alternative Canon

by Cláudio Alves

Appearing on 77 ballots, Spike Jonze's HER was the most voted film.

Two years ago, Sight & Sound released the results of their polls, voted by critics and filmmakers, on the best pictures ever made. Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles topped the former, causing various reactions that ranged from ecstatic to outraged. In total, the 2100 participants voted for 4366 unique titles. And yet, much great cinema was left without a single vote. In response, Ángel González devised another project for They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?, focusing on all those films the Sight & Sound voters ignored. A new list was devised based on the ballots of 839 critics and cinephiles. This time around, 4336 films received at least one vote - think of it as an alternative canon.

Nathaniel and I were among the lucky voters, with a few of our picks making the A-List of 1030 titles. Sometimes, our tastes even overlapped…

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Dan Stevens is a tempting romantic ideal in "I'm Your Man"

by Matt St Clair

Despite having otherworldly leading man looks, Dan Stevens has a clear affinity for playing eccentric character roles. That being said, some of those roles that he’s played, like flamboyant, implicitly gay Russian singer Alexander Lemtov in Eurovision Song Contest and the enigmatic titular character from The Guest, have allowed him to play into his sex appeal. The German sci-fi romance I’m Your Man, which is opening today in US movie theaters, is a continuation of that trend. 

Stevens plays Tom, an android designed to be the perfect companion, someone with perfect looks who is programmed to fulfill the every need of their human partner...

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Streaming Roulette: Monstrous Kaitlyn, Shifty William H, and Ubiquitous Sharon

After the jump you'll find a listing of everything that's new to streaming this month (October 2020). But first we pick two handfuls of titles and we just randomly freeze them with the scroll bar. Whatever comes up is what we share. Do these images make you want to see (or rewatch) the movie? 

[Church choir singing]

Dick Johnson is Dead (2020) on Netflix
Filmmaker Kirsten Johnson dramatizes her father's death in multiple ways to help them both prepare for it. Glenn reviewed this buzzy new documentary for us in his weekly column.

Nononononononono. That's not how we're going to talk to one another. I will not be that guy. You cannot put me in that category: the biological father I spend every other week with and I make polite conversation while he drives me places and buys me shit."

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Blueprints: Standout sequences in Original Screenplay winners

by Jorge Molina

Last Sunday, in a ceremony filled with joyful surprises, heartbreaking disappointments, and Emma Stone’s shocked tears, Green Book won Best Original Screenplay.  Instead of driving into Peter Farrelly, Brian Currie and Nick Vallelonga’s screenplay, let’s take a look at the last ten years of winners of Best Original Screenplay (2008-2017), and a standout sequence in each. Because somehow Viggo Mortensen folding a pizza in half and Mahershala Ali learning how to eat fried chicken are now among their peers.

The King's Speech, Django Unchained, Her, Birdman and more are after the jump...

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