All the Plummer in the World

Chris here. While we've been waiting for reactions on the big late year arrivals and potential Oscar players The Post and Phantom Thread, don't forget that we have another film yet to be seen: Ridley Scott's All the Money in the World. Though admittedly what we're anticipating here is if the film will arrive on time at all or not.

The film famously went back into reshoots last month to replace Kevin Spacey after several sexual assault revelations came to light regarding the actor. Scott had originally wanted Christopher Plummer for the role of J. Paul Getty, and now he's getting his wish - and sans the unfortunate looking makeup that shrowded Spacey. But by all reports, Scott will achieve the difficult casting overhaul and the film will open on schedule on December 22.

Which means all eyes will be mostly on Plummer as Getty and the potential for him to be a last-minute player in the Best Supporting Actor race. By the looks of the first footage, Plummer is a more chilling and formiddable presence than the glimpses we saw from Spacey. From the new trailer, what do you think of Plummer's chances?

Review: "Creed"

Our newest team member Chris Feil saw the latest in a long dormant franchise early. Here's his review - Editor

Making good on his mainstream sensibilities post-Fruitvale Station, Ryan Coogler returns with Rocky reboot/sequel/spin-off Creed. Born after his legendary father Apollo's death after an affair, Adonis (Michael B. Jordan) attempts to forge his own boxing path without the Creed namesake, recruiting his father's notorious opponent and comrade Rocky Balboa. Similarly, the film tries to have it both ways, attempting to be a sideways stand-alone film while borrowing heavily on the iconography of the original. It is a bit of a left turn for cinema's current trend of cut-and-paste nostalgia, giving Coogler's film a much needed edge for a tired genre, but cursing it with enormous shoes it falls short of filling.

If Fruitvale showed us anything about Ryan Coogler's potential, it was that he could both emotionally invest the audience with a charismatic subject and that he knew how to structure a film's most intense scenes for their maximum dramatic effect. These skills make him the perfect candidate for a mainstream actioner that pulls on the heartstrings, and Creed provides a solid larger platform for him to deliver those goods. Unfortunately still present is his diminished sense of confidence and clarity of vision in extended dialogue scenes, lending to an overall flabby structure. He knows what we want as audience and how to give it to us, but here he has a tricky time transitioning between story beats.

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