Team Experience will be discussing each Oscar category as we head into the precursors. Here's Eric Blume and Glenn Dunks...
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ERIC: Glenn, before we get to this year's nominees, I just want to celebrate the Academy's relative great taste in this category compared to most others. It's phenomenal that only once in the last 14 years has this award gone to a straight white American man (Damien Chazelle, deservedly in my opinion). In those years, we've had three women, two Asian men, two Brits, and a French guy who have won, plus three great Latin filmmakers (including double wins for Iñárritu and Cuarón). It's the category where they now have diversity and true talent. I might have chosen differently in any given year, but none of the filmmakers are bad or untalented. Tom Hooper beating David Fincher didn't land back then and certainly hasn't aged well, but regardless it's a great category filled with remarkable work.
This year, it seems our one lock is Steven Spielberg? He wouldn't be in my top five, but he's received the reviews and the industry is in his back pocket...
Gina Prince-Bythewood in conversation with Kasi Lemmons. Photo: Patrick Ball
This week Sony Pictures held a Downtown Manhattan screening for their awards contender The Woman King, at the Roxy Cinema. With its handsome below-the-line offerings and the true actor/producer star wattage of Viola Davis behind it, The Woman King looks to be one of Sony’s top contenders as we head into the intense first phase of Award Season. With the critics groups beginning to announce, and many major awards bodies entering their voting periods ahead of nominations, now is the time to grab the metaphorical crown, as it were...
You think I’m just here enjoying myself, don’t you? You think it’s all World Premieres and swanky parties, hobnobbing with the stars and swilling champagne. Unfortunately, that is not quite the case. My trip so far has been somewhat more mundane. Saturday, I had 5 films to see but spent most of my time visiting various electrical shops trying to find a US/UK travel adapter (I idiotically left the half dozen I own back in London). Instead of sipping Mimosas over a leisurely breakfast I was in Best Buy at 10am perusing plug sockets. At time of speaking, I still haven’t found one. I didn’t eat anything until 6.30pm. I’m now home and hastily throwing together this dispatch before my laptop dies. I’ve got about 20 minutes. Here goes.
First film of the day was a particular treat for this Brit after all who needs a Queen when we have The Woman King...
In my more fanciful moments, I have a pet theory that Charlize Theron is a reincarnated ancient goddess. I’m not just talking about her statuesque beauty, effortless glamour, or seeming immunity to aging. No, I mean her superhuman ability to batter, dirty up, strip down and sometimes strip away that beauty in service of a role…only to reemerge in the same state of impossible physical perfection as before, as if nothing had happened.
Who better, then, to play a female warrior who never dies or grows old and whose wounds heal without a trace? While Theron’s played a lot of certifiable badasses in recent years, she hasn’t often been cast as a bona fide superhero, and the results have been mixed when she has (Aeon Flux is the last that comes to mind, unless you count Hancock). I’m happy to report she finds a good fit with The Old Guard, Netflix’s latest attempt to make us all forget we ever needed to go to a movie theater...
It's impossible to keep up these days. So herewith a bunch of news we haven't covered and other enjoyable places to go on the web today...
News Baz Lurhmann has written a letter to fans about the cancellation of The Get Down, his Netflix series. My favorite bit because I like having him on the big screen in 2 hour doses:
All sorts of things have been thrown around for the future... even a stage show (can you imagine that? I can, concert version anyone? Next summer? Just saying.) But the simple truth is, I make movies. And the thing with movies is, that when you direct them, there can be nothing else in your life. Since The Get Down stopped, I have actually been spending the last few months preparing my new cinematic work...
Variety IFC is on a buying spree at Cannes, including Lars Von Trier's latest, a serial killer drama named The House That Jack Built starring Matt Dillon and Uma Thurman BBC Star Wars' John Boyega hits the London stage in Woyzeck. Reviews are a bit mixed but everyone seems to love that he challenged himself to such an extent post stardom Cartoon Brew Pixar has a new experimental shorts division without executive oversight. This sounds like a great idea for the company, fostering new creative visions without much investment or interference Kenneth in the (212) Jeffrey Schwarz, who specializes in documentaries about gay or gay-interest historical figures (I Am Divine, Vito, etcetera) has a new documentary on Producer Allan Car (Grease 2, Can't Stop the Music) Broadway World Glenn Close stops a performance of Sunset Blvd to address a rude audience member:
We can have a show or we can have a photo shoot
Variety Kirsten Dunst gets emotional at The Beguiled premiere Variety Gina Prince-Blythewood (Beyond the Lights) tapped to direct Spider-Man spinoff Silver and Black about the characters Silver Sable and Black Cat. Angry Asian Man there's a Joy Luck Club tv series in the work and they're looking for Chinese American women
Good Reads Vanity Fair on that new unforgivably hideous Spider-Man Homecoming poster Jezebel on the terrible Dirty Dancing TV remake. (I have to ask though, why do people keep watching TV remakes of movies. They're all just t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e... remember that trainwreck that was Beaches recently?)
For Fun Gay Comic Geek [nsfw site] Wonder Woman cosplay... by men The New Yorker Joe Dator draws a comic about his fortieth anniversary with Star Wars. Cute.
Exit Video Dynasty is getting a reboot.
I object that Krystle isn't a blonde and doesn't look that much different than Fallon (why does the CW have such trouble varying haircolors/styles and overall looks in their casts in all their shows?) but otherwise some of the changes are fun. The most potentially interesting touch being that trashy golddigger Sammy Joe (the Heather Locklear role) is a gay man this time but still after the same mark, Steven Carrington (the family's gay son). But, is this really the right era to idolize the super wealthy? Not sure it will sit as well in 2017 as it did in the 80s when people were more naive about the 1%'s havoc-wreaking on the economy of everyone else.
Wednesday, December 14, 2022 at 10:53AM 
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