Almost There: Daniel Craig in "Queer"

by Cláudio Alves

Apart from Call Me By Your Name, awards voters rarely see anything worth celebrating in Luca Guadagnino's cinema. In some ways, this season seemed to be a change of pace on that front, with Challengers and Queer going into Oscar nomination morning with some hopes. Sadly, they both got blanked. And while the tennis melodrama was mostly vying for "below the line" honors, Queer had its sight set on a Best Actor nomination, the first piece of Academy Award recognition for the erstwhile Bond, Daniel Craig. Ultimately, the William S. Burroughs adaptation was probably too weird for AMPAS' tastes, but we're here to recognize a performance that's nothing if not Oscar-worthy…

Click to read more ...

Paul Newman @ 100: "Road to Perdition"

by Cláudio Alves

When was the first time you saw Paul Newman on the screen? It might be hard to remember for some, but I can pinpoint it exactly. It was a summer holiday in those early years of teenhood, when my parents liked to drive across the border into Southern Spain for the afternoon. I loved those day trips for many reasons, and one of them was this big store in town where they sold movies that I couldn't ever find in Portugal. They were cheap, too, the perfect fit for a young cinephile looking to spend his allowance. At the time, I was just starting to get into the Oscars, so I always looked for films I knew AMPAS had honored.

One of them was Road to Perdition. 

When we got home, I remember waiting for nightfall to watch my new treasures in darkness. And then, there he was, Paul Newman. At the time, I was becoming aware of who he and many other Old Hollywood stars were, though I knew very little. Yet, there was a weight to my discovery of Newman. You see, my mom had pointed him out on the DVD case when she saw me with my new picture and waxed rhapsodic about the fellow who happened to be her favorite actor. She called him a legend, one of the most beautiful men she'd ever seen, his eyes piercing, intense, BLUE like nothing else in the world. She wasn't wrong…

Click to read more ...

An Early Look at the Best Actor Oscar Race

by Eric Blume

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN remains unseen, but Chalamet is already a major Best Actor contender.

I recently posted about the Best Director Oscar race, and how the same five men seem to be on almost every prognosticator list in town.

A similar thing seems to be happening in the Best Actor Oscar race as well.  Almost anywhere you go, these five names seem to fill everyone's list...

Click to read more ...

Venice 2024: Luca Guadagnino's "Queer"

by Elisa Giudici

Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey in QUEER (photo: Yannis Drakoulidis)

Luca Guadagnino's 2024 double feature, early release Challengers and the new premiere Queer, explore the intricate and slow process of calibrating love. In both,love is a delicate balancing act where one person loves intensely, perhaps even desperately, while the other remains more passive, content to be loved without being deeply invested in the relationship. The fundamental difference between the two lies in how they resolve this imbalance...

Click to read more ...

First & Last 038

Can you guess the movie from its first and last shot?

The answer is after the jump...

Click to read more ...