Oscar Volleys: Best Picture could be more multicultural than ever before!

The Oscar Volleys are back! Tonight, it's time for Eric Blume, Eurocheese and Nick Taylor to discuss the Best Picture race...

HAMNET, Chloé Zhao | © Focus Features

ERIC: Hi gentlemen, I'm looking forward to our three-way... to talk about the ten possible Best Picture nominees. We're just starting to get some clarity on early predictions, so we might as well add our own two cents regarding the big race. Do you both agree that the two absolute lockshere are One Battle After Another and Hamnet? It's fun that they are two very different films that generate very different feelings, OBAA being sort of the "head" movie and Hamnet being the "heart" movie? That's an oversimplification, of course, but I don't think it's untrue…

Click to read more ...

Screening Season in Los Angeles - Round 2

by Eurocheese

can we have father and son Skarsgård nominations, please?

In Round One (in case you missed it) I shared thoughts on One Battle After Another, Train Dreams, Blue Moon, Hedda and more. Here are a few thoughts on ten more films, ranked by personal preference...

Click to read more ...

TIFF 50: "Frankenstein" has great gowns, beautiful gowns

by Cláudio Alves

Last year, Emilia Pérez finished in second place for TIFF's People's Choice Award, and, while not as bad, this year's runner-up left me similarly displeased. You can deduce that the masses disagree, having received Guillermo del Toro's Mary Shelley adaptation with open hearts and adoration aplenty. I think I was also predisposed to love the Mexican master's spin on Frankenstein, having defended his follies for the last decade, even when critics I respect soured on the man's cinema. Moreover, I even re-read the novel – comparing the 1818 and 1831 versions as I went along – to prepare for what was sure to be a grand Gothic spectacle to sweep me off my feet.

As it turns out, del Toro's Frankenstein was one of my major disappointments at TIFF 50, maybe the biggest. Thank heavens for those beautiful costumes and that beautiful Creature, for I'm not sure I'd have made it through this 150-minute slog without them…

Click to read more ...

"Hamnet" wins the People's Choice at TIFF. Can it win Best Picture?

by Nathaniel R

HAMNET © Focus Features

With TIFF wrapping up today, it's time to update the Oscar charts (which we will be doing soon). Chloe Zhao's adaptation of the acclaimed novel Hamnet, historical fiction about the Shakespeares and the loss of their son, has the won the coveted People's Choice Award. While this prize has historically been very prophetic in regards to future Best Picture runs, Hamnet didn't need it per se; it's Oscar appeal was already ample given the subject matter, pedigree, rising stars, and ecstatic critical response. (We're super excited that Chloe Zhao will be able to follow Jane Campion in becoming only the second woman to score multiple nominations in Best Director. That might even happen twice this year with Kathryn Bigelow in the mix for A House of Dynamite) The runners up for the coveted People's Choice prize are slightly wilder cards in terms of Oscar gold...

Click to read more ...

Horror Costuming: The Bride of Frankenstein

by Cláudio Alves

As promised, the Horror Costuming series is back for a new spooky season, going further into the past than ever before. So much so that one delves into what now seems cliché, lest we forget that what is commonplace today was once new. There's no better example of this than the Universal Horror monsters of Hollywood's Golden Age, when studio head designer Vera West helped crystalize looks that would become classics. Think of Dracula's tuxedoed elegance with a red-lined opera cape, the Invisible Man's bandage and sunglasses combo, and, of course, the lumbering threat of Frankenstein's Monster.

Speaking of that 1931 James Whale-directed horror classic, today's topic of choice shall be its sequel. After the first movie's massive success, Universal begged the director for a follow-up, giving him unprecedented creative control. From there, we got the Genesis of the horror (tragi)comedy, a camp extravaganza like none other – 1935's The Bride of Frankenstein…

Click to read more ...