Thursday, April 18, 2019 at 1:09PM Our annual inevitably foolish April Oscar predictions are now complete!
There's so many questions to consider now that the first Oscar charts for Best Actress (and all other categories) are now up. We've asked you seven questions for the comment party after the jump...
Thursday, March 28, 2019 at 5:15PM 
Hodge and Chukwu at ND/NF
Chinonye Chukwu’s Clemency opened the New Directors/New Films fest in New York last night. I got the chance to see it again and any reservations I had about it went away. This is a new version that is tighter than the one I saw at Sundance. While the changes are miniscule, they really pull the film together and focus its story. At Sundance I praised the central performance of Alfre Woodard as a prison warden managing a prison that includes a death row. However I thought the film meandered and was repetitive.
Not anymore!
Now it centers Woodard’s dealing with the processing of one death row inmate (Aldis Hodge) and the forces both against him and defending him. The focus is still on the toll all this takes on the psyche of Woodard’s Bernadine; so she is still front and center and owns the film. What is around her now flows easier and the film’s message about capital punishment remains potent. Chukwu won Sundance grand jury prize making history as the first black woman to do so. Clemency announces her as an exciting new director.
Oscar Chances: Obviously Woodard is its biggest and perhaps only chance at Oscar. The performance is there and so are the critical plaudits, however she needs a patient release plan to allow the film to reach its audience (The Wife playbook if you will). Other than that I see this as a film that Gothams/Indie Spirits will fall in love with - with possible nominations for film, director and supporting actor (Aldis Hodge).
Saturday, March 9, 2019 at 2:18PM Reader Request: You voted on which Jennifer Jones films we had to write about for her centennial and this was your top choice. So it's your fault, then.
One of the tag lines reads...
In each other's arms they found a love that defied 5,000 years of tradition!
'Defying tradition? But what's more traditional than Hollywood casting white stars in Asian roles?' he said sarcastically. Figured we should get this out of the way upfront and then try to ignore it: Jennifer Jones's last Oscar nomination came for playing Han Suyin, a biracial doctor, who falls for Mark Elliott, an American foreign correspondent (William Holden) in Hong Kong...
Thursday, March 7, 2019 at 7:06PM 
Last year's performances by leading ladies were so rich, that I could have filled up three Best Actress lists and not once felt of any of the choices as "filler". In fact, 2018's leading actresses were so strong that I'd chuck out all but one of last year's nominees (I'm keeping Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird) if I had 10 spots to give for the two years combined. Check out the chart for more...
Monday, March 4, 2019 at 10:52AM by Nathaniel R
As you have no doubt heard, the 1993 stage musical Sunset Blvd., Andrew Lloyd Webber's adaptation of the film noir classic Sunset Boulevard (1950) now has a green light for the movies. The stage musical premiered in London in '93 with Patti LuPone in the lead role before a legally-fraught switcheroo to Glenn Close for its Broadway debut in '94. The musical would go on to win 7 Tonys (including Best Musical and Best Actress) and roughly ever since then (we're talking 25 years now!) there's been talking of adapting it back to the screen, its original home and subject matter. This wouldn't be the first time that's happened of course. The most recent example is Hairspray which proved a hit in all three incarnations: 1988 / 2002 / 2007.
This project has been talked about for years and now a sudden green light with shooting scheduled for October. Was it Glenn Close's year long comeback of sorts as she undoubtedly came close to winning that elusive Oscar that finally did it...
