Gotham Nominations: "The Favourite" and "First Reformed" Lead

by Nathaniel R

It's the first official awards announcement of the season! The Gotham Awards, the East Coast's answer to the Independent Spirit Awards, have announced their nominations with the palace intrigue tragicomedy The Favourite and the existential heavy drama of First Reformed sharing the lead with 3 matching honors each: Best Feature, Best Screenplay, and one acting citation (a special ensemble prize for the former and Ethan Hawke for the latter). One assumes that they'd have both been nominated for director, too, but one of the quirks of Gotham is that they don't have a Director category, only a category for brand new directors and we love the nominees there, especially Bo Burnham for Eighth Grade and Ari Aster for Hereditary. 

Other films receiving much needed good news since they were released before the fall glut and needed awards bodies to be reminded of them over the next few months: Leave No Trace, The Wife, Sorry to Bother You, and The Rider. The complete nominations and a few more comments after the jump...

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Months of Meryl: A Prairie Home Companion (2006)

John and Matthew are watching every single live-action film starring Meryl Streep. 

 

#33 —Yolanda Johnson, a Midwestern songstress and longtime staple of the titular radio show.

MATTHEW: Two of the most revered artists in American cinema history, Robert Altman and Meryl Streep each built their lauded careers by probing into characters from countless corners of the world, driven by an ardent and undiminished interest in the micro — but never minor — idiosyncrasies of collective human behavior. For those who believe in the supernatural forces of fate, there is something undeniably kismetic in Streep and Altman’s first collaboration, which would turn out to be this mighty auteur’s valedictory effort. A Prairie Home Companion, Altman’s final film, is a moving backstage comedy that sketches out the (fictional) final broadcast of the historic and beloved Minnesota radio variety show of the title, created and hosted by Garrison Keillor, who also scripted the picture. (Keillor was fired from his program in November of last year over allegations of sexual misconduct.) Brimming, like all of Altman’s work, with an abundance of people and all their peculiarities, A Prairie Home Companion relies on the character-inhabiting talents of an irresistible and excitingly-paired ensemble, whose every member gets ample opportunity to ingest spirit and specificity into a wide array of oddballs and straight-men, from Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly’s ribald cowboys to Maya Rudolph’s quietly panicked and heavily pregnant stage manager to the pair of aging songbirds brought to fanciful, rueful life by Streep and Lily Tomlin.

As Yolanda and Rhonda Johnson, the two surviving members of a four-sister singing act, Streep and Tomlin are, quite simply, a match made in acting heaven...

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Why aren't poster photos taken on set? The eternal mystery.

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again has a new eye sore poster. Every single cast member has been photographed separately and then composited together like some Ensemble Frankenstein Monster. The poor beast is then tasked with imitating pure joy before it has learned to control its facial muscles.

It's easy to imagine some photoshop artist creating their own mini-narratives to keep them interested while hunched over their computer jamming all the stars together. Do I spot a romantic comedy between Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård whose eyelines are matching up?

Why does this type of poster keeps happening? Why aren't poster images and promotional photoshoots done on sets on the days when busy actors are already all assembled together? If you want to see the full poster just click on Cher's sassiness to your left. I didn't want to sully up the front page.

Oh and go ahead and tag yourself in the comments. I am Lily James' left foot that's eager to jump into the water. 

Film Bitch Awards: More Acting Honors!

by Nathaniel R

Twenty acting nominations (i.e. the traditional Oscar-like honors) just aren't enough at the Film Bitch Awards. Here where we also like to shout to rising stars, actors who make vivid impressions or give full characters with barely any screen time, cast chemistry, and the men and women who collect all the talent in these thrilling combinations. So click on through for our nominations in...

• Best Actress in a Limited Role or Cameo
• Best Actor in a Limited Role or Cameo
• Best Juvenile Performance (17 and under)
• Breakthrough Performer
• Best Ensemble
• Best Casting 

Films scoring multiple nominations on this page include Lady Bird, Get Out, Lady Macbeth, Wonder and The Big Sick.

Lost Podcast / Last Jedi

Surprise! The following podcast was lost after a recent move but has been recovered. This podcast was recorded over the Christmas break but the SAG part at least is hyper relevant to this weekend with the Screen Actors Guild Awards hitting tomorrow. 

Nathaniel welcomes a particularly grouchy Nick Davis and new guest Teo Bugbee who had just pulled an all nighter to see Star Wars The Last Jedi. We discuss what the hell Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro are doing in it before moving on to SAG's "Outstanding Ensemble" nominees (and other ensemble films we like, too). 

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Lost Podcast Last Jedi