Linkages: Wondrous Women, Chilly Lesbians, and Academy In-Fighting

Atlantic one of the best defenses of Carol's 'coldness" that you'll read. And as I've been saying since October... "If this is chilly, bring on winter."
Awards Daily has the nominations for the Canadian Screen Awards with Room and Felix & Meara (Canada's Oscar submission) leading the way. Perhaps Canadian readers can tell me about this one: How is it different than the long running Genies? 
Comics Alliance Wonder Woman get a "brassy" logo... which looks exactly like how you'd expect since that W on her breastplate is fairly iconic
Pajiba Wonder Woman has also released a couple of very brief clips including a campy look "disguise" will glasses that will remind you instantly of Lynda Carter librarian sexy look on the TV show. Unfortunately Wonder Woman looks as dark and gloomy as the other DC movies... it's a problem when you have to constantly brighten every still in Photoshop just so you can even see it.  
The Retro Set looks at Broken Lance, that interesting 1954 western we discussed a few months back
Amiresque Amir's "Best of" choices for the film year. A reminder to me that I really should have seen Queen of Earth
The Directors Cut Auteur Paul Thomas Anderson interviews Oscar-nominated Adam McKay on The Big Short
YouTube The Suicide Squad gets a new trailer w/ Margot Robbie looking like the obvious standout

Oscar Fights & Carol Honors after the jump... 

The #Oscars. The White BET Awards. https://t.co/8qjLR0uysI

— Chris Rock (@chrisrock) January 15, 2016

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Red Carpet Lineup XXL: Nicole, Jada, Paz and Kate(s)

Jose here. Nicole Kidman won another award! Nathaniel recently praised her work in Photograph 51 in London, and the voters at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards agreed with him, for they gave her a Best Actress award to go with her Oscar, Globes and other statuettes.

Nicole wasn't the only movie-related winner: James McAvoy and Imelda Staunton, also won awards for their work in The Ruling Class and Gypsy, respectively. At the event Nicole was simply majestic in an Alexander McQueen design.

...and before you all whine about how Cate wore it better (she did wear a similar McQueen to the Robin Hood premiere at Cannes in 2010),  be reminded that...

a) McQueen should be worn by all screen queens
b) Nicole is flawless!
c) Cate was in Robin Hood...
d) most importantly, Cate and Nicole love each other as proved by this image to your left.

Before I lose you to fantasizing about Nicole and Cate in Carol Part Deux, let's move on to our other looks of the week...

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Spike Lee's "Bamboozled" - Still angry, still timely

TFE is celebrating the three Honorary Oscar winners this week. Here's Lynn Lee on one of Spike Lee's most controversial joints...

Is Spike Lee an Angry Black Man?  Reductive as the label is, it’s hard not to associate with an artist as reliably outspoken as he is accomplished—if only because so much of his best work is fueled by genuine anger at the condition of African Americans and the state of American race relations generally.  The irony of having achieved major critical and commercial success by channeling those frustrations surely hasn’t been lost on him, even if it’s done nothing to diminish them.

Bamboozled (2000), an incendiary, balls-to-the-wall satire about a disaffected black man who creates a pop culture monster, shows Lee at his angriest and most conflicted.  The film takes its cue from Malcolm X’s famous wakeup call:

You’ve been hoodwinked.  You’ve been had…You’ve been bamboozled”

It tells the tale of a Harvard-educated black TV writer (Damon Wayans, sporting a deliberately outlandish pseudo-French African accent) who pitches a hideously racist modern-day minstrel show as a fuck-you response to his white boss’s demand for “blacker” material—only to have the show become a megahit despite, or rather because of, the controversy it causes.  [More...]

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Podcast: Top Tens of Summer 2015

For this week's edition of the podcast, Katey, Joe, Nathaniel and Nick reunite to share their top tens of summer movie season. We allowed ourselves full movies, single moments, general themes. It's a free form top ten roundelay. 

Topics include but are not limited to... 
Mad Max: Fury Road, I'll See You In My Dreams, Jurassic World, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Far From the Madding Crowd, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Diary of a Teenage Girl, Amy, Trainwreck, A Little Chaos, Ricki and the Flash, Joss Whedon, Amy Poehler, Elizabeth Banks, Jada Pinkett Smith, Andie MacDowell, footwear, camera-shaking music, counterprogramming and more...

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversation in the comments. Share your top ten anything from the summer movie season!

Summer Top Tens

Podcast XXL: Brian and Earl and the Inside Out Girl

Nathaniel R is thrilled to welcome Nick Davis back to the podcast. He's been binge-watching 2015 movies after months of deprivation. Seven films discussed if you count Jurassic World... but perhaps you shouldn't. We talk fast because there was just so much to catch up on.

Contents

• 00:01 Jurassic World
• 02:00 The Upcoming 1995 Smackdown
• 04:45 Magic Mike XXL and his women
• 10:37 Dope and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl: Or, The Good and Bad of Sundance Quirkiness 
• 22:10 Inside Out and a little more XXL just because
• 29:24 Love & Mercy and/or 'Admirations & Misgivings' about the movie itself
• 39:00 Spy

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes.  Please continue the conversation in the comments because if the podcast were twice as long there'd still be plenty left to say. We repeat: seven movies.  

Further (Related) Reading: 
1995 Smackdown Info, Nathaniel on Magic Mike XXL, Nick on Magic Mike XXL, Rose Byrne FYC, and Nick's "Fifties" Report for 2015

Inside Out, Magic Mike XXL, Me and Earl