Streaming Roulette (March 18th-31st) Last chance for lots of classics!

Farewell Amor, which we discussed a few times last year, is now on Hulu

Time for another round of streaming roulette where we point out titles that are new(ish) to streaming or about to leave and just for fun, freeze frame them at totally random places in the scroll bar and whatever comes up we share...

Have you seen the movie Tell Me You Love Me?

MONSOON WEDDING (2001/2002) leaving on March 31st
Mira Nair's colorful layered empathetic classic is a must-see. Check it out on Criterion and then read Cláudio's recent piece; It was the first time he had ever seen it...

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"Gold List" Outstanding Asian and Pacific Islander (API) achievements

by Nathaniel R

Despite all the amazing advances in diversity in film over the past few years one group that remains extremely underrepresented in American cinema is people of Asian descent. Even when an Asian-centered film breaks through to major success, awards are compartmentalized. You've probably noticed that even if said film wins Best Picture (Parasite, Slumdog Millionaire, The Last Emperor) no actors are nominated in the acting categories. Only three actors of Asian descent have ever won Oscars: Miyoshi Umeki for Sayonara (1957), Ben Kingsley for Gandhi (1982), and Dr Haing S Ngor for The Killing Fields (1984). We hope Parasite's Oscar win at the start of 2020 was a fine omen of changes to come considering that the year that followed was actually a strong one for Asians in movies.

CAPE (Coalitions of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment) and Gold House have teamed up for a first, we hope annual, group of awards called the "Gold List" honoring Asian Achievements in (mostly) English language cinema. Please note that is not a critics group, but an industry-group (creatives, executives, and "other entertainment leaders"). Their list of ten categories (with two winners in each) is after the jump... 

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TIFF Quickies: Animated Bollywood, Mother/Daughter Science, and Annette Bening

by Nathaniel R

HOPE GAP (UK, William Nicholson)
Have you ever wanted to see Annette Bening play a retired British poet attempting to create her own 'Martha & George'  dynamic with her unwilling elderly husband (Bill Nighy)? That was a rhetorical question. Of course you want to see The Bening do that as you'd want to see her do all things onscreen if you have any taste. Hope Gap, the second directorial effort from long time screenwriter William Nicholson (Gladiator, Shadowlands, Nell, etcetera...), is about a married couple of 29 years whose marriage has died. The wife just doesn't know it yet and continually "has a go" at her husband, eager to see him fight back or express anything at all. Their loving but avoidant son (Josh O'Connor, doing a 180 from his breakout role in In God's Country) is completely out of his depth as he is forced into the role of shoulder-to-cry on, referee, and messenger boy all at once. Though Bening struggles a bit with the accent, she's on typical fire when it comes to blending a well of complex emotion with crackling comic timing...

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