Smackdown '97: Joan, Minnie, Gloria, Julianne Moore, and Kim Basinger

Welcome back to the Supporting Actress Smackdown. 

In this monthly series we pick an Oscar vintage to explore through the lens of actressing at the edges. This episode takes us back 25 years to the landmark year of 1997 when Titanic and "Matt & Ben" were all rage.

THE NOMINEES  

Aside from an encore showing for comedic genius Joan Cusack, a surprise nominee in 1988 for Working Girl, the Academy went with all first-timers for 1997's Supporting Actress roster. Not that the actresses were "new" to the scene. There were two "comeback" narratives: Kim Basinger had been a leading lady for over a decade before LA Confidential but she'd taken a three year break from the movies (amidst multiple financial and legal troubles). Meanwhile Gloria Stuart who began in the early days of sound cinema was being celebrated in a way she hadn't been since 1932. The "breakthrough" nominations, were also two-fold. One went to Minnie Driver (who had two films out, In & Out  and Grosse Point Blank). The other went to ubiqutious Julianne Moore who kicked off '97 with a Sundance hit (The Myth of Fingerprints), and continued making news with a blockbuster (Lost World Jurassic Park) before her career-elevating role arrived in the fall in the unlikely package of an epic ensemble drama about the 1970s porn industry from a filmmaker barely anyone had heard of.

THE PANELISTS 

 Here to talk about these five films and performances are (in alpha order) author and entertainment jourmalist Kyle Buchanan (The New York Times, "Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road"), podcaster Chelsea Eichholz (Cinema Gals), and comedian / podcaster Louis Virtel (Keep It!, Jimmy Kimmel Live). The Smackdown is hosted by the founder and editor of The Film Experience, Nathaniel Rogers.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN + PODCAST  

LET'S BEGIN...

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Would you rather?

A game to excuse the hours we waste looking at celebrity instagrams. So... Would you rather?

• enjoy the ocean beside Julianne Moore?
• explore Lee Pace's cave?
• go barefoot on the streets of Paris w/ Janelle Monae?
• have a self-care day a la Millie Bobby Brown?
• play on a rug w/ Ranveer Singh?
• join Daryl Hannah in her bubble bath?
• watch Sharon Stone paint?
• make popcorn w/ Kevin Bacon?
• have a cup of coffee w/ Michelle Pfeiffer?
• flip and tumble like Nope's Brandon Perea?

Pictures are after the jump to help you decide.

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Julianne Moore to preside over the competition jury at Venice

by Nathaniel R

Julianne at the Met Gala. Image: AFP/Angela Weiss

Exciting news to report. Julianne Moore, who originally inspired my own career writing about film and thus this website, will lead the jury at the 79th annual Venice International Film Festival. The festival runs August 31st-September 10th so expect lots of Julianne gowns this summer. What a nice full circle monent this will be for the Oscar winning actress. She's a previous winner of the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for Far From Heaven (2002) and this year she'll help determine who wins that same prize twenty years later. Penélope Cruz took the prize last season for her work in Pedro Almodóvar's Parallel Mothers which helped pave the way to her fourth Oscar nomination... 

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Cannes Gowns, Round 1

We'll do this in quartet rounds, to bring you beauty on the regular, and so as not to overwhelm ourselves.

online polls

YNMS x 4: Dear Evan Hansen, Stillwater, Venom 2, and The Green Knight

Ben Platt and Kaitlyn Dever in "Dear Evan Hansen"Besieged by movie trailers we are. Movie studios hopes you'll go back to the movie theater ...sort of. They also hope you'll join their streaming service, whatever it is, and stay at home. Have any of these movies -- Dear Evan Hansen, Stillwater, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, or The Green Knight -- already sold you a ticket? 

Let's look at their trailers after the jump...

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