Halfway Mark 2021 - Fav Performances & Characters

by Nathaniel R

As we mentioned yesterday when we tackled our favourite movies of 2021 (THUS FAR) we like to jot down lists of favourites all year long so that when it comes time for the annual prizes we aren't just drawing from thing released in the last two months of the year the way Oscar voters tend to; cinema is a year-long love affair for us. So let's talk about the performances that have thrilled the most thus far into 2021...

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Halfway Mark 2021 - Movie Achievements of the Year (Thus Far)

Okay, sooooo... The Oscars f***ed around with their eligibility calendar but we did not for our own annual prizes. Anything released after January 1st or on its way to release at the moment was eligible for this fluid keeping track list (unless it had a qualifying release in 2020 -- confusing, yes but please go see I Carry You With Me, one of 2020's best that only just surfaced for your viewing pleasure despite an Oscar qualifying release several months ago). It's just our way of jotting things down before the film year really gets crazyso that we don't forget about early releases. Still, there's no guarantee any of these accomplishments will show up in January for the offficial awards. Generally Hollywood backloads the film year, as you know. We'll do fav performances tomorrow but for now our 'cheat sheet' for everything else from the year's first half...

TEN BEST MOVIES (thus far alpha order)

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5:30 AM

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Review: "In the Heights" sets the bar high for modern movie musicals

by Nathaniel R

A young man stares out of his bodega window, his favourite block coming alive in the reflection. This shot of Usnavi, our leading man and guide into the film version of Lin-Manuel Miranda's In the Heights is already beloved and with good reason. It gives you character (this man is something of a dreamer, caught between two places), world-building (the vibrant Latinx community of Washington Heights) and joyful genre specificity (the musical). It's not even the first clever moment in the movie at that, but something In the Heights builds up in its ever-escalating opening number after already providing you with gorgeous aerial shots romanticizing NYC as 'a city made of music', sounds from hoses, traffic, manhole covers, and alarm clocks as musical accompaniment, and introducing us to most of the main characters.

Above all else this visual beat as well as the larger song sequence that contains it, instills immediate confidence that the creative team, especially director Jon M. Chu (of Crazy Rich Asians fame) understand the oft-forgotten cinematic language of the film musical...

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In the Linked Heights

• /Film Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan will be starring as the key journalists in Universal's She Said a dramatization of the NYT exposé on Harvey Weinstein in 2017 which shook Hollywood.
• IndieWire Christian Petzold (Undine, Phoenix) offers 7 tips for a successful career
• Illuminerdi Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta rumored to be playing Namor the Submariner in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which means the plot will probably be an Atlantis vs Wakanda situation

More after the jump including the first 8 minutes of In the Heights and a video game based on... Vertigo?

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