TIFF Quickies: Animated Bollywood, Mother/Daughter Science, and Annette Bening

by Nathaniel R

HOPE GAP (UK, William Nicholson)
Have you ever wanted to see Annette Bening play a retired British poet attempting to create her own 'Martha & George'  dynamic with her unwilling elderly husband (Bill Nighy)? That was a rhetorical question. Of course you want to see The Bening do that as you'd want to see her do all things onscreen if you have any taste. Hope Gap, the second directorial effort from long time screenwriter William Nicholson (Gladiator, Shadowlands, Nell, etcetera...), is about a married couple of 29 years whose marriage has died. The wife just doesn't know it yet and continually "has a go" at her husband, eager to see him fight back or express anything at all. Their loving but avoidant son (Josh O'Connor, doing a 180 from his breakout role in In God's Country) is completely out of his depth as he is forced into the role of shoulder-to-cry on, referee, and messenger boy all at once. Though Bening struggles a bit with the accent, she's on typical fire when it comes to blending a well of complex emotion with crackling comic timing...

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BAFTA's 2017 Rising Star Nominees

Chris here. This year has had so many breakthrough performances that you'd be hard pressed to whittle it down to five performers, but such is the pain of awards season. And yet one of the season's biggest prizes for new talents, BAFTA's Rising Star award, has just announced its five contenders for 2017 honors: Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Florence Pugh (Lady Macbeth), Josh O'Connor (God's Own Country), Tessa Thompson (Thor Ragnarok), and Timothée Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name and Lady Bird).

This makes for a stellar lineup of headliners of Best Picture contenders in Chalamet and Kaluuya, indie darlings with Pugh and O'Connor, and the big budget superhero badassery of Thompson. The latter actress is a bit of a headscratcher here considering she's been a ferocious talent for years (and in lead roles!) in the likes of Dear White People and Creed, but we love her so much that we'll accept her placement if only to see her getting the love she deserves. This prize has been a boys club of late so my money is rooting for Pugh, such an emergent and invigorating new talent in the taxing Lady Macbeth.

Now you'd have to go back to Kristen Stewart's 2010 win to find a non-Brit winner of this prize, so consider this a statistical leg up for Pugh, O'Connor, and Kaluuya. But the past two winners (Tom Holland and John Boyega) also had the visibility of franchise weight behind them - could that spell some strong chances for Thor's Thompson? Or is this just another in a string of breakthrough prizes for Chalamet?

The full BAFTA nominees will be announced on Jan. 9!

Jose Gives Thanks ♥︎

by Jose Solis

 

Jose here. Perhaps more than any other year, I'm grateful for the fact that we made it. We survived! Despite of the government, natural disasters, the news, and especially the white patriarchy, we are still around. So this year I won't take the turkey and trimmings for granted. Every bite of pumpkin pie will feel like a blessing.

So this year I'd like to give thanks for the following:

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