Nicole Kidman Tribute: Billy Bathgate (1991)

by Cláudio Alves

In 1991, Nicole Kidman was nominated for Best Supporting Actress by the Golden Globes. Interestingly, though it marks the first time she wever scored a major precursor, the film that did it, Billy Bathgate, is a somewhat forgotten stop in the star's Hollywood journey. 

After the splashy box office results from Days of Thunder, the actress was a hot commodity, some beautiful import from Australia whose persona was still malleable for American audiences. Moreover, her true powers remained untapped, perchance untested. In that context, Robert Benton's Doctorow adaptation is a chance to test Kidman's talents, an attempt at transitioning from popcorn cinema into prestige fare. After all, haven't we seen similar projects elevate a starlet's profile? In a cast dominated by men, she's the only important woman, the linchpin of the protagonist's arc and an alluring sight that sings a silent siren song. She's the Hollywood Golden Age brought back from the dead for one more gangster movie…

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A Penélope Cruz Top Ten

by Cláudio Alves

The Merry Month of May is upon us, but first, there's still some April business to attend. Specifically, Penélope Cruz turned fifty last weekend and celebrated a big party that included such names as husband Javier Bardem, auteur par excellence Pedro Almodóvar, former scene partner Salma Hayek, and many more. Happy belated birthday to the Spanish star! 

Here, at The Film Experience, the best way to mark such occasions is surrendering to list-mania, so let's consider this Oscar winner's extensive filmography and sing her praises. Excluding TV and with honorable mentions woven into the write-ups, here are my top ten favorite performances from Penélope Cruz…

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Jocelyne LaGarde @100: "Hawaii"

by Cláudio Alves

This year, there was much talk about Lily Gladstone as one of the few Native Americans ever nominated at the Oscars. This focus on indigenous representation makes one's mind wander further into Academy history. After all, who was the first? Jocelyne LaGarde was her name, and today marks a century since her birth. The film that earned such honor was one of those 1960s overblown epics, the historical farrago of Hawaii by George Roy Hill, whose future work would stray away from such stodginess. Yet, to dismiss the piece as colonial apologia like some of its harsher critics do is unjust. The picture's much stranger than that, cruel and miserable, willing to see missionary work as the destroyer of paradise, a tragedy marred by the kind of spiritual bleakness no luscious island vista can conceal…

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Happy Birthday, Jessica Lange (& Nina Foch)

by Cláudio Alves

Like Mark said in his Veronica Cartwright tribute, this 4/20 is an essential date for actressexuals... among others. After all, we celebrate the horror queen's 75th birthday and that of Jessica Lange as well. Initially, I thought about writing about the star's upcoming adaptation of O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night, but that film seems trapped in some nebulous distribution limbo. By all accounts, production wrapped in late 2022 after a brief halt due to financing issues. Since then, there's been hardly any news, and Lange herself speculated it might not yet be finished in a Vulture interview. Let's hope we don't have another Blue Sky situation in our hands, though that farrago resulted in a Best Actress Oscar.

So, instead of dwelling on that mystery, why not remember The Film Experience's collective love for Jessica Lange? Going through the site, I came up with a selection of write-ups worth revisiting, plus some bonus Nina Foch to mark her centennial…

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A Julianne Moore Top Ten

by Cláudio Alves

Mary & George, Starz's new miniseries, premieres today, with a new episode every Friday for the next few weeks. Christopher James recently reviewed the historical drama, detailing its intersection of smut and scheming, all centered around its titular characters during King James I's reign. Hot new thing Nicholas Galitzine plays George Villiers under the camera's lustful gaze, but it's Julianne Moore's Mary who commands the screen as his mother. To honor one of The Film Experience's favorite goddesses on this occasion, I decided to do one of my actress-y top tens, focusing on the Oscar-winner's best performances across a career rich in excellence…

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