Oscar Volley: Best Supporting Actor suffers from "Succession" nostalgia

...after a brief holiday break, the Oscar Volleys continue with Elisa Giudici and Abe Friedtanzer on Best Supporting Actor...

Denzel Washington in GLADIATOR II | © Paramount Pictures

ELISA: This year’s Oscar race seems wide open for surprises, which, after years of things being more or less decided in advance, is pretty exciting, right? Unfortunately, due to local release schedules, I haven’t seen a few of the candidates, but I wouldn’t bet on anyone being "locked" exactly.

Take Denzel Washington, for example. He’s been widely praised for his performance in Gladiator II—arguably the only part of the film that everyone agrees is of high quality. It’s the classic, showy, theatrical role that could easily land an actor like Washington yet another nomination, especially given the respect and fame he commands...

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April Foolish Predictions: Best Supporting Actor

by Nathaniel R

Samuel L Jackson was Tony-nominated for The Piano Lesson on Broadway. Will the transfer result in another Oscar nomination?

It's the last four days of April Foolish Predcitions and, thus, time for the acting categories. A year out nobody knows anything, particularly in regards to the supporting categories since they're less dependent on juicy obvious-from-a-distance leading roles and far more dependent on things you can't really know in advance like who will "steal" the movie, how large their supporting roles will be, and whether they'll film will have enough heat to ignite their campaigns. This is when it's most fun, especially in the supporting categories where you can imagine almost anything happen. By the time the televised awards roll around each year there is zero drama in Best Supporting Actor (though we infrequenely see some in Best Supporting Actress).

Last year's lopsided contest was the Robert vs Ryan showdown with two full blown movie stars competing for the supporting gold, one leaning into a career achievement narrative while the other was content to ride his film's pink zeitgeist wave rather than worry about the gold...

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TV: "Succession" Course-Corrects With Third Episode of Final Season

By Christopher James

Some episodes of TV are above and beyond the show’s they’re housed in. Season four, episode three of Succession raised an already strong show to new heights. A twist early enough in the episode sets the final season in a new direction and gives Emmy-ready tapes for its crew of actors.

In full honesty, I was working on an article about Succession jumping the shark. A once dynamic series which captivated audiences and critics was just spinning its wheels tossing business jargon and curses into an incomprehensible word salad. Much of season three featured the Roy clan rehashing more of the same. However, episode three of the new season is flooring. 

SPOILERS TO IMMEDIATELY FOLLOW...

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Link World Dominion

• Variety Actors on Actors with Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong
• Vanity Fair interviews Julie Andrews who talks Mary Poppins, The Princess Diaries and her new voice role in Aquaman 2
• Deadline Scarlett Johansson to star in Kristin Scott Thomas' directorial debut My Mother's Wedding. We haven't seen her onscreen since Black Widow last summer but she has a lot of projects lined up now.
• MNPP gifs of Trevante Rhodes as Mike Tyson in a new Hulu miniseries called Mike

more after the jump including stop motion feature Wendell & Wild, Judy Garland's centennial, Stranger Things hairdos and music revivals, and the new Jurassic World movie...

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A Different Take on "The Trial of the Chicago 7"

by Eric Blume

We embrace respectful differences of opinion here at TFE, so with all due respect to my fellow staff writer Tony, who just gave Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 a rave review, I offer a dissenting opinion.  Fortunately thanks to Tony’s great synopsis, I can cut right to the chase.  I love Aaron Sorkin as much as the next guy, thinking his scripts for both The Social Network and Steve Jobs are essentially masterpieces, and even thinking more favorably upon Molly’s Game than most:  it had its own mini-sweep of energy and he tapped into all the things that make Jessica Chastain special. 

But there’s not a frame of Sorkin’s new movie that felt authentic or assured to me...

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