Gotham Award 2019 Nominations: big boosts for Waves, Uncut Gems, Clemency and more...

by Nathaniel R

There’s no true frontrunner at the Gotham Awards this year with Marriage Story, Uncut Gems, and The Farewell each receiving 3 nominations overall within the 6 (narrative film) categories of the Gotham Awards. Let’s take a look at the nominations shall we? It’s a big year for A24 who always has a few wonderful films up their sleeves each year. They’ve dominated the feature and screenplay and breakthrough actor categories with 60% of the nominees in each. No other company was as dominant though there are lots of honors for Netflix, too.

Best Feature

• The Farewell (A24)

• Hustlers (STXfilms)

• Marriage Story (Netflix)

• Uncut Gems (A24)

• Waves (A24)

The surprise here is surely Hustlers though we’re not complaining. Still one has to feel a bit sorry for The Last Black Man in San Francisco or Diane which were earlier acclaimed indie releases that had to step down for newer ones...

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CONSIDER - Actresses of 2019, First Half

Here's our penultimate 'halfway mark, year in review' post for you. The 19 performances by actresses we treasured most at the movies thus far this year. 

We hope you'll sound off on these and share your own favourites in the comments... and we hope this list serves as a reminder to Oscar and Globe and SAG voters to keep lists of things that impress you all year so that at the end of the year you aren't just voting for the 5 things you just saw. Before we begin I should note that I sadly missed the three following female-led films and will catch up with them when given the chance later in the year: Her Smell, Little, and The Souvenir. Okay here we go...

7 LEADING ACTRESSES
(Jan 1st - June 28th releases)  

Jessie Buckley as "Rose-Lynn" in Wild Rose
Yes, the movie basically hands her the "star-making" reviews on a platter. It's ALL about watching her sing and emote. But the performance has lovely nuances, lived-in feeling, and own-worst-enemy fire. And that voice. Good god.  

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Streaming Roulette, July: Reese doesn't live under the silver lake anymore

As is our practice we've selected 8-10 titles and frozen the films at utterly random moments without cheating (whatever comes up comes up!). It's our way of previewing new titles streaming in the first half of JULY 2019. (★ means we recommend catching them.) Please do let us know if you're dying to discuss any of the films and maybe we'll write about them.  

Ready? Let's go...

Why did I get stuck with the janky old broke hobo Spider-Man? 

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) on Netflix ★
Watched this again on a whim with a friend who was curious because it won the Oscar. He's not into animated movies or superhero movies and he totally enjoyed it. Thus are its many inventive delights. It really holds up to viewing number two. Jam-packed with details you can easily miss on the first round.

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New Podcast: High Life, Sauvage, and Mary Kay Place in Diane

by Murtada Elfadl and Nathaniel R

 

Index (50 minutes)
00:01 Claire Denis' High Life starring Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, and the Fuck Box
16:00 A gay hustler movie from France Sauvage/Wild
24:10 Mary Kay Place is Diane in Kent Jones' intimate narrative debut starring a slew of underutilized older actresses
34:50 What we've been seeing on Broadway as the Tony nominations approach
44:44 Coming Soon & miscellaneous silliness since Murtada wants to know if Cate Blanchett is in Avengers: Endgame)

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? 

Sauvage Diane

Tribeca: Mary Kay Place leads "Diane"

Tribeca has ended but we have a few more movies to talk about. Here's by Jason Adams with a movie to keep your eye out for...

Why is it so hard to describe why Kent Jones' Diane works so well? Twice just after seeing it I stumbled trying to do so. Just laying down the plot is insufficienct. It's about an older woman in a small town whose son is a drug addict and whose cousin is sick with cancer. But that makes it sound like something Lifetime coughed up. So you've gotta start with Diane herself. Veteran character actress Mary Kay Place plays her, and already you can feel it. The no-nonsense lived-in vibe of it. The wood grain. Just keep going from there...

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