2025 in Review: 10 Best Screen Creatures

by Nathaniel R

The following list is dedicated to the unnamed squirrel Kal-el (David Corenswet) saves in Superman, a good-hearted hit that made for a respectable relaunch of the DCU under director/producer James Gunn. The squirrel's scant seconds of screentime proved a perfect blockbuster moment: broad but suprisingly non-generic, funny but heartwarming, and above all else memorable.

While cats (led by Flow) were ruling the movies a year ago, their eternal rivals for human affection came roaring back dominant in 2025 cinema. We've included three canines in the following "Best" list but there wasn't room for everyone so our apologies to funny showdogs Honey & Sterling (Fixed), sadly rehomed dogs Si-Two & Ri-Two (No Other Choice), and other creatures great and small. Leash on. Door open. Here we go...

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TIFF 50: To be or not to be, with "Hamlet" and "Scarlet"

by Cláudio Alves

You thought you were free of TIFF coverage? Well, think again, because there are still a lot of movies to discuss, even if already intertwined with NYFF reviews. In any case, let's consider Shakespeate and a certain prince of Denmark.

There lived and died a Hamnet before Hamlet came to be on the page, on the stage, and in the imagination of countless folks stretching from the Elizabethan age into eternity. At TIFF 50, however, Aneil Karia's Hamlet screened before Zhao's Hamnet, a bit overshadowed by the film that had already rocked Telluride by that point and still promises to be a talking point for months to come. The same could be said for Scarlet, Mamoru Hosoda's latest animated fantasy, which takes its cues from the Bard's tragedy for one wild ride into purgatory and beyond…

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All the Pulitzer Prize Winners for 2022

If you're in NYC the important theater news today outside of the Tony nominations, of course, is that "Fat Ham" which is about to premiere at the Public (in a co-production with the National Black Theatre) just won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. That's the same prize the Tony frontrunner "A Strange Loop" previously won. The Public describes the new work like so...

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Showbiz History: Hamlet vs Johnny Belinda and A Beautiful Mind vs. four brilliant films

Today, March 24th, in Oscar history only. Four ceremonies have held on this day.

1949 The 21st Academy Awards are held honoring the films of 1948. We discussed this race a handful of years ago on the Smackdown.  Johnny Belinda led the nominations with 12 but it was Laurence Olivier's Hamlet that emerged as the Best Picture winner and took home 3 other Oscars as well. It's actually a fairly interesting Oscar year given the variety of genres in the Best Picture shortlist...

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Ranking Laurence Olivier's Oscar nominations

by Cláudio Alves

The Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1965 will be up on Sunday afternoon so here's an extra list before we get there. Before each event, I like to watch every nominated movie, even those I have already seen. Because of that, I found myself with the unenviable penance of revisiting 1965's Othello. Many of you surely did the same, exposing yourself to one of Sir Laurence Olivier's most problematic star turns, a Blackface version of Othello. I figured if I was going to force myself to watch this dirge, I should something productive with it. Hence, this write-up, in which that famous thespian's ten acting Oscar nominations are ranked...

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