Jack Fisk: From "Badlands" to "Flower Moon"

by Cláudio Alves

Jack Fisk as "Man in the Planet" in David Lynch's ERASERHEAD.

From Malick to PTA, going through De Palma and Lynch, Jack Fisk's contributions to American cinema are enough to take one's breath away. This year, he collaborated with Martin Scorsese for the first time and earned his third Oscar nomination for Killers of the Flower Moon. According to the designer, his director wanted his film to be "wide, big, like a western," and Fisk delivered.

Working primarily from historical documents, he dove deep into Osage country records to figure out the reality of the characters' lives, including which houses they once inhabited. He also dug through old buildings in search of period foundations and used original plans of buildings like the train station to recreate them as faithfully as possible. For the oil derricks, he recycled research he'd done for There Will Be Blood. In total, Fisk and his team built over forty interior sets, plus entire houses like Hale's ranch, and two blocks of Pawhuska restyled to represent the town of Fairfax across a decade of bloodshed. It's impossible to overstate the scale of his achievement. And yet, what would be other artists' crowning glory is just one among many such triumphs in Fisk's career…

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Split Decision: "Killers of the Flower Moon"

No two people feel the exact same way about any film. Thus, Team Experience is pairing up to debate the merits of this year’s Oscar movies. Here's Juan Carlos Ojano and Nathaniel Rogers on Killers of the Flower Moon...

CARLOS: Hi, Nathaniel! So excited to talk to you about this film. Confession time: this is the first time I've seen a Martin Scorsese film on the big screen, even though his works (Taxi Driver, Casino, The Departed, The Wolf of Wall Street, Silence, The Irishman) usually end up in my favorite films of their respective years. Maybe he is one of my favorite directors? But my respect for him goes beyond 'favorite'. This is also my first time seeing Leonardo DiCaprio (one of my favorite actors) on the big screen, with my "relationship" with him now spanning from Titanic to this. And my gosh, after months of buzz after its Cannes premiere, I can say I was floored and destroyed. Just in awe. I think it is one of the most powerful films I've seen from last year… 

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FB Awards: Movie Posters of the Year

by Nathaniel R

It's that time again! I'm going to do the Film Bitch Awards a little differently this year and give them each their own article... all 40ish categories. At least that's the plan over the next month but we'll see. First up, movie posters of the year. The state of movie posters in general is dire, many often looking more like an AI generated collage of faces with sizes proportioned by legal contracts and no consideration of visual appeal. But, gripes aside, there are always bright spots. Honorable mentions to this list include the upside down "don't get lost" teaser for Saltburn,  the retro-painted poster  of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and Oppenheimer 's literally explosive biography. 

Herewith 12 favourite movie posters of the year in not very particular order...

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Oscar Volley: Will there be any surprises in Best Cinematography?

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category before the nominations are announced. Here's Eric Blume and Lynn Lee to talk Best Cinematography...

ERIC:  We have the pleasure of discussing the insanely talented cinematography candidates this year.  It seems like this year's two big awards players, Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon, will certainly make the slate here...so, can I say, why I am not particularly excited about the work of either Hoyte van Hoytema and Rodrigo Prieto for these two films?  Don't get me wrong, both are beautifully lensed films and these men are brilliantly talented, but their work seemed more standard than inspired. 

Neither world, neither Oppenheimer's labs and offices nor Moon's flat plains, are the most visually exciting terrains, and while both men work with their respective directors to build a few lovely frames, I was definitely more knocked out by the imagery in some other films this year...

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On Gladstone and Scorsese's Mollie Kyle

by Cláudio Alves

Oscar voting opens today, and, for once, some of my favorites are poised to thrive on the nomination ballot. Because of that, it might seem overkill to write FYC pieces, those love letters by another name. Even so, as it's a time for advocacy, I shall articulate why some of the year's best cinematic achievements deserve to be recognized as such. Today, I find myself inspired to make the case for Lily Gladstone, a virtual lock for a Best Actress nomination who might win it all. And to think some said going lead would ruin her Oscar hopes. 

As Mollie Kyle in Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, she breathes life into a dark chapter of American history. Gladstone illuminates the tragedy of a woman and people betrayed, forsaken by individuals who claimed to love them and systems who exploited them under the guise of protection, brutalized by greed and white supremacy…

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