European Film Awards - Much Love to "The Square"

by Nathaniel R

The annual European Film Awards have logged many frequent flyer miles over the years as they hop around to various host countries. Today they were held in Berlin Germany and multiple Oscar hopefuls in Best Foreign Language Film took home prizes. The Cannes Palme d'Or winner The Square won the most statues and Hungary's Alexandra Borbely who stars in the weirdly compelling On Body and Soul (reviewed here) took Best Actress. You can see all the winners after the jump...

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BIFA Nominations: Lady Macbeth and Three Billboards Boosts

by Nathaniel R

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool received 4 nominationsHot on the heels of the Gotham Awards, the British Independent Film Awards have announced their 2017 nominations. Though they don't tend to get much press in the US due to the the first two words in their title, they're worth noting. And, we'd argue, they're worth noting precisely for their limited jurisdiction. Awards groups with their own identity / purview are all too rare. Lady Macbeth led the field (15 nominations) with gay romantic drama God's Own Country (11 nominations), political satire The Death of Stalin (13 nominations), I Am Not a Witch (12 nominations) and one big tragicomedy Oscar hopeful Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri (11 nominations) also super popular

I think the nomination I'm happiest to see (just because it was no sure thing) is Jamie Bell in Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool for Best Actor. He's just brilliant in the film as I've mentioned before but it's the type of role -- nuanced / romantic / skewing "feminine" in its appeal -- for which male actors are rarely honored no matter how good they are. The complete list of nominees is after the jump...

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"Lady Macbeth" and the Men Who Love Her

By Spencer Coile 

Even at a quickly-paced 89 minutes, Lady Macbeth is unafraid to work slowly and dilligently. Based on Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nikolai Reskov and directed by William Oldroyd, this is a meticulously made tale of sexual repression and desire. It follow Katherine (Florence Pugh), a young woman married off to a man twice her age. Caught in a loveless, sexless marriage, she plots a better life for herself and then ensures, by any means necessary, to achieve her goal. 

The film (out now on DVD) is a dizzying narrative of deceit and treachery. Despite taking place in a stuffy 19th century English household, its twisted web of sex, love, and murder smolders. I would be lying if I said I didn't find myself screaming "Ohmygod!" over and over again throughout the film. Lady Macbeth evolves into something far messier, more suspenseful, and ever more intriguing than what first meets the eye... 

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Podcast: Detroit, Girls Trip, Atomic Blonde, Landline

Nathaniel and Nick discuss six new films. No spoilers.

Index (42 minutes)
00:01 Why you should see A Ghost Story & Lady Macbeth
04:00 Kathryn Bigelow stumbles with Detroit (what we hope she does next)
16:40 Atomic Blonde is a blast, a true feat of direction and Charlize Theron-ness
29:40 Girls Trip is crazy well-acted fun
37:00 Landline is a let-down
38:30 Recommendations from 1963 for the helluva it

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Atomic Blonde, Detroit, Girls Trip

Race in Lady Macbeth and The Beguiled: Not so black or white?

by Lynn Lee

Florence Pugh in Lady Macbeth / Nicole Kidman in The Beguiled

In a summer filled with movies by or starring women of exceptional talent, The Beguiled and Lady Macbeth make an especially fascinating cinematic pairing.  Both films center on mid-19th century women who appear trapped by their societies’ constricting gender norms.  In both, the women are confined to an isolated, often claustrophobic space, yet nature is a constantly beckoning presence that at once shapes and reflects their desires.  (Both even have plots that turn on poisonous wild mushrooms!)  And in both, the women up-end the patriarchal structure of their circumscribed universe without liberating themselves.  If anything, they reinforce that power structure even as they seize momentary control of it, leaving not a feeling of triumph but a somber queasiness.

For all these thematic similarities, the differences between the two films are even more striking...

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