Sarah Greenwood: From Narnia to Barbieland

by Cláudio Alves

Gerwig and Greenwood discuss BARBIE in a behind-the-scenes video. | © Warner Bros.Last Sunday, Sarah Greenwood officially became the most nominated production designer without an Oscar, breaking her tie with Nathan Crowley for the "Diane Warren" distinction. This year, she was nominated for Barbie, another triumph among many in a career spanning 1980s BBC miniseries to 21st-century Hollywood blockbusters.

Though many of her best works rely on a sense of material realism, the Greta Gerwig feature aimed for a sort of "authentic artificiality" where denying reality is a sort of reality into itself. For Greenwood, midcentury Palm Springs was a source of real-world inspiration to combine with Mattel's history, adding a sense of internal logic to Barbieland. Moreover, the aesthetic was sustained by old-school techniques like hand-painted backdrops and a practical fake sea, visible wires holding everything together in the loopy transitions between worlds. She used scale as a tool for wonderment, took cues from Gene Kelly musicals, and delivered a screen dream in fifty shades of fuchsia. Indeed, her team used so much pink paint that they caused an international shortage…

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Jacqueline Durran: From Kubrick to Barbie

by Cláudio Alves

Two-time Academy Award winner Jacqueline Durran is undoubtedly on the path to another Oscar nomination, maybe even a third victory. The British costume designer brought the pink paradise of Barbie to life, delighting audiences with a mixture of archival recreations sized-up from doll scale and original creations in line with Greta Gerwig's reality-hopping narrative. The movie is a delight for costume lovers everywhere as soon as its first scene when it contrasts the graphic modernity of the 1959 swimsuit-clad Barbie with the attire of midcentury girlhood, their look defined - perchance shackled - by domestic aspiration. Then comes a series of classic Mattel outfits, a flurry of rosiness, and our welcome to BarbieLand. It's a colorful explosion of femininity as understood by kids' imaginations... 

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Quickies to Catch Up (pt 2): Female led thrillers and CG beasts in battle

by Nathaniel R

In an attempt to clear our cache of notes and fill out that review page for 2021, we're addressing movies we didn't get around to discussing in full for your commenting pleasure. Better late than never! As we were typing these Luca emerged but it's so good it deserves one big post or several little ones before the Oscars so more on that soon. If you missed part one of this review catch-up, that's here. After the jump brief thoughts on four films: Godzilla vs Kong, Mortal Kombat, Those Who Wish Me Dead, and The Woman in the Window...

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'The Woman in the Window' delayed again

by Murtada Elfadl

Remember the 2018 Oscars? Amy Adams was nominated for Vice and there was a time early in the season when we talked about the possibility of her winning because of the 6 nominations that she had amassed so far. That was of course before the Golden Globes when Regina King won for If Beale Street Could Talk on her way to the Oscar podium. Even then some said well King isn't nominated for SAG, Adams is bound to win there and start her narrative, Emily Blunt won for A Quiet Place, and at BAFTA Rachel Weisz won for The Favourite. Then we all looked at what’s next for Amy. For sure that would be her Oscar vehicle. Adams has given many great performances and is an actress who deserves to have an Oscar on her mantle.

The Woman in the Window was next... 

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What's the best Jane Austen movie adaptation?

by Cláudio Alves

Jane Austen is one of the most celebrated authors in the English language. Fittingly, many of her works have been adapted into films. This year, we got another Emma, which to many felt like an improvement upon the previous major adaptation of the novel, the one starring Gwyneth Paltrow and a desperately funny Toni Collette.

But which Austen cinematic adaptation is the best of them all?  For clarity's sake and a vague sense of fairness, modernized versions of the author's storylines were disqualified from this race for the title of best Jane Austen movie. So, don't expect Clueless to make an appearance despite its genius. Of course, even without Amy Heckerling's 90s teen classic, it was difficult to whittle down the list of films enough to name the three best... 

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