Nathaniel's Best Actress & Supporting Actress Ballots

by Nathaniel R

How is it Friday before the Oscars already? So much to do before then including Final Predictions, my own top ten list, two more Oscar volleys, and ten more categories at the annual film bitch awards (my own long-running party of "best" this & that). Sorry to rush through the duet of the categories we live for: Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. But they're up. Among the 10 selected actresses there are six current Oscar nominees but only five overlaps; Hong Chau is stronger in The Menu than in The Whale. In both cases, and as always in her career, she's totally elevating her material. "These are tortillas" is among the very best line-readings of the year. Somehow she's calm, polite, and dripping with condescension at the same time. She's just a magical actress and it's so satisfying to see her finally get her mainstream due via that Oscar nod.

And you surely foresaw that I couldn't have a Best Actress list this year without the great Emma Thompson in Good Luck to You Leo Grande (doing her most revelatory work in two decades) and Danielle Deadwyler, so operatically moving in Till. 

P.S. Though we can't do the medal ceremony until all categories are posted, I think I've made it clear over and over again that Dolly de Leon will be my gold medalist for Best Supporting Actress. While it's abundantly clear that she was an 'almost there' in 6th place for Oscar's shortlist, given how well Triangle of Sadness did overall, it's still a damn shame she was passed over. I'd boot any of the current nominees -- even the ones I myself nominated -- just to have her in that lineup.

Oscar Volley: the still bonkers-crowded Supporting Actress race

Here are Baby Clyde and Mark Brinkerhoff to discuss TFE's favorite category, Best Supporting Actress:

Jessie Buckley in WOMEN TALKING

MARK:  Happiest season, to all who celebrate! I love a supporting actress smackdown, in real time, don’t you?This is a blood bath, to be sure, although one thing I’m fairly certain of: There will be someone from  Women Talking and  Everything Everywhere All at Once. At this point, I’d say Claire Foy and/or Jessie Buckley and Jamie Lee Curtis and/or Stephanie Hsu could even form the bulk of the lineup.  Curtis definitely is gunning for it—will she be the third veteran, overdue actress in as many years (after Amanda Seyfried and Kirsten Dunst) to find herself finally nominated in supporting?. If Everything Everywhere All At Once overperforms, that could augur well for Hsu. (Wouldn’t it be something if we got four actors in a single film nominated again this year after The Power of the Dog did it just last year?)

My hunch is we’re likely to see a majority of first-timers in this category, which is always exciting...

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Would you rather?

Sharing our fav Instagram posts semi-weekly via a little game we like to call Would you rather

... lift weights with Laura Dern?
... get piggy with Zachary Quinto?
... celebrate Pride at Disneyland Paris with Rossy de Palma?
... cave swim with Rebel Wilson?
... stroll by a Yalitza Aparicio mural with Yalitza herself?
... stuff your face at Applebees with Gabrielle Union?
... commute to work with Glenn Close?
... work without sleep with director Ari Aster?
... eat lots of ice cream with Nina West?

Pictures are after the jump to help you decide...

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Review: Breaking In

by Chris Feil

Twist a tried-and-true subgenre like the home invasion movie with just the slightest bit of invention and we’re intrigued - like say, the homeowners are the one who have to do the invading. Add in relatable context for emotional investment - motherly instincts, forging one’s own family unit after estrangement, female badassery. Sign up a dependable actress like Gabrielle Union and you have a formula for easy popcorn thrills and a rewarding opportunity for an underutilized actress to take center stage.

How has Hollywood not yet realized that Union is a star, and one we want to watch take revenge on a slew of bad guys with her poise and no-bullshit wit? Thank you, I'll have five. But Breaking In is only half of that movie.

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National Voter Registration Day PSA

Today is National Voter Registration Day and Fox Searchlight has partnered with movie theaters to show the following PSA from The Birth of a Nation cast including Nate Parker, Colman Domingo, Aunjanue Ellis, Aja Naomi King and Gabrielle Union. Partnering movie theaters in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York, and Kansas will have voter registration in the lobby during promotional screenings of this film and during its opening weekend October 7th-9th. 

The objective for the initiative is to encourage everyone to be a part of U.S. history by highlighting everyone's right to vote, encouraging registration and underscoring that their voices and opinions matter.  Currently 20% of all people who can legally vote in this country are stopped by technical roadblocks when they try to register.  This presidential election will be especially challenging, as many current laws lack the protection of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  The act was passed to overcome many legal barriers that individuals faced when exercising their right to vote but section 4 was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013. 

If you ask us this is a smart and resonant move both for the Fox Searchlight release and the wider unrest around the country.