Cannes Review: The unsteady but miraculous "Annette"

by Cláudio Alves

It all starts in the recording studio, as Leos Carax and his daughter - to whom this achingly personal film is dedicated - observe the Sparks working their magic. The reference to supernatural powers when writing on artistic marvel is overused, but it does seem fitting for Annette. Here, performance can invoke a new reality, singing it into existence. That's what the film's team does in this metatextual prologue. As the Sparks exit the recording booth, the camera and the Carax duo follow, with the movie stars joining along for good measure. As they ask "May We Start," they also admonish the audience, heed them, warn them, and set the stage for what's to come. Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard depart in separate vehicles at the end of the song, no longer themselves. The ritual of performance has begun – they're now Henry and Ann…

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Emmy FYC: The cast of "Small Axe"

by Cláudio Alves

As Christopher James mentioned in his overview of the Limited Series Emmy race, much of the discourse surrounding Small Axe has focused on categorization. Is it TV or cinema? To be perfectly blunt, I don't care. Indeed, it's been pretty disheartening to see how so much energy was spent debating this matter instead of simply appreciating the work. To me, the five Small Axe films are a miracle of audiovisual expression and historical narrative, perchance Steve McQueen's most important masterpiece. When it came time to write these Emmy FYCs, I jumped at the chance of singing the anthology's praise. Honestly, the only problem was singling out just one element to promote.

While I could just as happily have written about Shabier Kirchner's luminous cinematography or the sensuous textures of Jacqueline Durran's costumes, I've decided to focus on the actors…

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Streaming Roulette, Jan: Gremlins, Fairy Tales, and Brothers from Another Planet

After the jump you'll find a listing of everything that's new to streaming this month (January 2021). But first we pick two handfuls of titles and 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?

[Voice offscreen]: All right, let's go.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MISS JANE PITTMAN (1974) on HBOMax
People don't really talk about this in the days of the common false proclamation "everything is available online" but TV from previous decades is much harder to get a hold of than feature films (which have it bad enough). So it's always cool when a streaming service plays one. This telefilm was a big deal in the 1970s winning 9 Emmy awards including Best Actress for Cicely Tyson. In the UK it was released as a feature film and Tyson received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress (losing to Joanne Woodward in Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams)

These are the keys to perfect posture.

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Streaming: Riz Ahmed's star ascends in "Sound of Metal"

by Christopher James

Since he broke out in Nightcrawler, Riz Ahmed has been looking for his movie star moment. Sound of Metal proves he is the real deal. Director Daris Marder displays quite a bit of flair in his directorial outing. The Place Beyond the Pines screenwriter excels here specifically because of his unique use of sound design to give us greater insight to our lead character. Between Ahmed and the sound design, Sound of Metal is of major interest...

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Emmy Review: Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes

by Cláudio Alves

Compared to other Emmy awards, the Best Costumes tryptic of Contemporary, Period, and Fantasy/Sci-Fi represents a fairly recent addition. For decades, there was no distinction between genres. Contemporary, period and fantasy competed together, to the obvious disadvantage of the more modern-set series. Later on, fantasy and period designs were joined in a single award, leaving space for contemporary fashions to win. As of 2018, all three got their own category.

We'll be starting our analysis of the Best Costumes contenders with the Fantasy/Sci-Fi race which has been dominated by Game of Thrones in previous years. As that series' reign has ended, a new champion will emerge…

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