Linky Chatterley

• Cartoon Brew the long awaited animated feature adaptation Nimona is back on. Now at Netflix since Disney shuttered it mid production. It was first announced way back in 2017.
• Out Pedro Almodóvar's gay western short Strange Way of Life will premiere at Cannes in May
• AV Club RIP documentarian Julia Reichert (American Factory)

NIMONA

More after the jump including Paul Mescal's taste buds, Amazon Prime numbers, Lady Chatterley's Lover sex scenes, and a tribute to a movie poster giant...

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"Aliens" Revisited.

by Nathaniel R

How long was I out. HOW LONG? Please."

This week I had the pleasure of guesting on InSession's podcast to discuss James Cameron's sci-fi/horror classic Aliens (1986). When they asked me to guest on the show I secretly thought "What more can I say about it? I've been talking about this movie forever!" but then of course I couldn't shut up and the episode was too short for me to squeeze in everything that was inside of me. So herewith some notes and, of course, the podcast itself...

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Almost There: Jamie Lee Curtis in "True Lies"

by Cláudio Alves

When announcing his honors for the year's first half, Nathaniel cited Jamie Lee Curtis among his Supporting Actress favorites. If Everything Everywhere All At Once keeps its buzz going into the awards season properly, we might see Curtis among this year's Oscar contenders. This Hollywood princess turned erstwhile scream queen has had a storied career full of outstanding performances, and it's about time the Academy pays her respect. Maybe the reason for her nomination-less state is that Curtis' best work tends to happen when she's playing in genre pictures – comedy, action, and horror. Such is the case of 1994's True Lies, a James Cameron-helmed action-comedy for which the actress got some buzz.

As we wait to see how Curtis' new Oscar hopes pan out, let's look back to the 90s and re-examine the actress' take on the character of Helen Tasker…

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Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Titanic (1997)

by Nathaniel R and other Best Shot participants

As our season finale (series finale, too, at least in this format) we thought 'Why not go down with the ship!!!' The RMS Titanic to be specific. Twenty-five years on James Cameron's Oscar-winning prestige disaster film Titanic (1997) is still giant with audiences and one of those rare movies that "plays" for everyone.

After the jump the choices from the Best Shot club...

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1986: Jenette Goldstein in "Aliens"

Before each Smackdown, suggestions for alternates to Oscar's roster...

by Nick Taylor

My boyfriend had seen Aliens before we watched it together recently. Of course he had. Tommy loves science fiction and Aliens is one of the few perfect movies ever made in any genre, with so many elements that are not just immaculately assembled and realized in their own right but tremendously influential to how cinema subsequently related to sci-fi and war films. What’s undeniably stock about its characters and scenario is fresh and alive to behold, mixing an absolute lack of subtlety with nuance, modulation, and unimpeachable judgement. 

This is certainly the case with Jenette Goldstein’s performance as Private Vasquez, a member of the military unit assigned to accompany Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and her Weyland-Yutani Corporation handler Burke (Paul Reiser) to a terraformed colony on a planet that may or may not already be lost to an invasive species of perfectly-built killing machines...

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