Podcast: Black Panther (plus underseen gems)

With Nathaniel now ensconced in new digs, the podcast can resume. Up first a mini-podcast on Ryan Coogler and Marvel's Black Panther blockbuster with Nick Davis and Katey Rich. It's paired with a "deleted scene" from the last podcast as Nick, special guest Teo Bugbee and Nathaniel discuss favorites that were never really in the awards conversation but we hope people will find on streaming including super-hero adjacent Professor Marston and the Wonder Women. 

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? 

Black Panther and More

9 Foreign Film Finalists for the Oscar Race

by Nathaniel R

"The Wound" from South Africa might be the biggest surprise on the finalist list.The Academy's foreign film nominating committees have whittled down the 92 contenders to 9. If you've forgotten or never heard the procedure it involves multiple volunteers watching a certain number of entries to be eliglble to vote on them. The top six films advance from those ballots and the executive committee chooses another three which makes the 9 finalists. Then a final committee watches the nine finalists and votes to determine the five nominations. We correctly predicted 7 of the 9 finalist (you can peak here though we'll be updating that chart to reflect the official standings shortly)

A Fantastic Woman directed by Sebastián Lelio for Chile
In the Fade directed by Fatih Akin for Germany
On Body and Soul Ildikó Enyedi for Hungary
Foxtrot directed by Samuel Maoz for Israel
The Insult directed by Ziad Doueiri for Lebanon
Loveless directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev for Russia
Félicité directed by Alain Gomis for Senegal
The Wound directed by John Trengove for South Africa
The Square directed by Ruben Östlund for Sweden MORE AFTER THE JUMP...

Click to read more ...

Link Roundup

NYT Dan Kois profiles 'the loose screw rattling around inside the Marvel machine,' director Taika Waititi as Thor Ragnarok approaches
Film Stage Murtada interviews the director of Senegal's Oscar submission Félicité
TFE ...which you may recall he raved about right here.
Variety Jamie Foxx and Anthony Mackie will star in a Johnny Cochran biopic (Mackie as Cochran) with Taylor Hackford directing
Guardian can Michael Fassbender survive his string of flops?

Coming Soon The Seagull starring The Bening and Saoirse Ronan will be distributed by Sony Pictures Classic next year
ScriptNotes John and Craig welcome female screenwriters Daley Haggar and Dara Resnik to discuss the possible Post-Weinstein era in Hollywood
The New Yorker Harvey Weinstein's cameo in a 2005 animated movie for Mattel
My New Plaid Pants five photos of rising French actor Rabah Nait Oufella
My New Plaid Pants 'do, dump, or marry' on Greg McLean's Jungle with Daniel Radcliffe
Streamline on William Wyler's now-underdiscussed Wuthering Heights (1939)
Awards Daily Still no Best Picture frontrunner this late in season? (I personally love the more unpredictable years)
Tracking Board Netflix trailer for a western series Godless starring Jeff Daniels and Jack O'Connell and a mysterious town of all women
Variety Ben Mendelsohn eyeing the villain role in Marvel's Captain Marvel

LGBT
Towleroad a step-by-step sculpture of Freddie Mercury
Metro John Boyega is still being asked questions about whether Poe and Finn are gay for each other in Star Wars
Gr8er Days There's a documentary coming about the gay actor who starred in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge

RIP
EW Actor Robert Guillaume, best known for his classic "Soap" character Benson (so popular he spun off into an even more popular series "Benson") but whose career hit all three acting mediums has died at 90.
Browbeat Legendary musician Fats Domino has died

NYFF: Félicité, the Real and the Fanciful

by Murtada

Set in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo - a country which has seen a lot of strife in its recent history - Félicité is the new film from Alain Gomis, a French director of Guinea-Bissauan and Senegalese descent. It tells the story of its eponymous heroine, a singer trying to put a life together and barely making it work. The first few scenes establishes Félicité’s daily grind. She sings nights in a makeshift bar, comes home to tiny place. Her fridge is not working, she needs someone to fix it. Yet money is scarce so she has to make do with a local guy who’s obviously not the right person for the job.

Things start taking a turn for the worse when her teenage son is seriously injured in an accident...

Click to read more ...