Our Favorite Line Readings of 2018

Every day a new Year in Review round-up as we joyfully bid 2018 adieu...

For today's entry we asked Team Experience and a few of our friends to share their favorite line reading of the year. No one was assigned anything so these are direct from our faces to your faces. Yes, Toni Collette's towering work in Hereditary is on our minds lately. Remember that gem? 

And all I get back is that fucking face on your face."

Or these:

I am your MOTHER." 

I did everything they told me not to do, but it didn't work. I'm happy it didn't work.

So, that was my mom’s life.

God she's extraordinary in that new horror classic, isn't she?

Okay, ready for more actorly gems as actors elevating specific lines or sometimes whole films. Here we go...

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18 Beautiful Examples of Co-Star Chemistry in 2018

Year in review list mania each day. Here's Nathaniel...

This is our fourth year of highlighting that unpredictable spark between actors that can elevate a movie whether the movie is able to catch up or not (see previously installments for '15, '16 and '17, if you're so inclined).  If only we could bottle these formulas but the thing about great chemistry is that it can't ever be fully recreated even if old movies during the studio system teach us that the same pairing can at least generate similar energy again. Why Hollywood doesn't still try to repackage successful combos of actors (rather than just all the brand do-overs) remains an unsolved mystery 

Herewith the most beautifully realized relationship energy of the year...

18 [TIE] Ben Foster & Thomasin McKenzie, Leave No Trace 
AND Josh Hamilton & Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade (Single Father/Teenage Daughter)
There's a lot to recommend in both films, two sleeper arthouse successes this year, but neither film would have the same emotional resonance without that authenticity of feeling in the central duet. Marvel at the way Hamilton looks at or speaks to Fisher, for example, perpetually impatient to be let in on her interior life, but also nervous about intruding on her journey and walling her off yet further. Equally impressive is the difficult balancing act McKenzie plays as both dutiful daughter and emotional caretaker for her troubled father, as she grows ever more restless to escape him without losing him. What a quartet of performances...

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Watch at Home: Dumplin', Searching, and Leave No Trace

What's newly available for home viewing these past few weeks? We've neglected to keep you updated of late in the rush to awards season  but this is important since there are several awards contenders that are newly available.

DVD/Blu-Ray
[links to to reviews]
• The Little Stranger - Lenny Abrahamson (Room) returns with a ghost story costume drama.
• Lizzie - Kristen Stewart and Chloe Sevigny star in this lesbian drama about the infamous ax wielding Lizzie Borden
• McQueen - the acclaimed documentary about the fashion designer - it's eligible for the Oscars.
• Mission: Impossible - Fallout - the latest installment in Tom Cruise's evergreen franchise with death defying stunts, double crossing, and (this time) Henry Cavill's moustache and muscles.
• Searching - John Cho is nominated for Best Actor at the Spirit Awards for this sleeper hit about a man searching for clues online when his daughter goes missing

ALSO NEWISH: Peppermint, Smallfoot, The Equalizer 2, The Nun, The Happytime Murders, and Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days.

Great rental deals and streaming options after the jump...

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The Spirit Award Nominations are Here

by Nathaniel R

Gemma Chan (Crazy Rich Asians) and former Spirit Award winner Molly Shannon (Other People) announced the Spirit nominations for the 2018 film year. No film truly dominated the announcement because, while We the Animals led with 5 nominations (YAYYYY) it wasn't nominated in the top category. Eighth Grade, First Reformed, and You Were Never Really Here each had 4 nominations. The highest profile expected contenders with not so great results this morning were BlacKkKlansman (only Adam Driver was recognized) and Can You Ever Forgive Me? (the Screenplay and Richard E Grant only). 

so happy for this little gem!

An important note before the full list of nominees: Unlike other major awards bodies, film festival releases are (sometimes) eligible here, overseas films even if they're in english are (mostly) ineligible outside of foreign film, and anything over a $20 million budget is (usually) ineligible here, so the eligibility pool is slightly different. Some examples of 'not eligible' this year for those reasons are: The Hate U Give and Beautiful Boy (too expensive) The Rider (festivals and nominated last year), Roma and The Favorite (both foreign film only though The Favourite led the Gotham nods). The Spirit Awards has multiple nominating committees assigned to different categories. Even better they meet several times throughout the fall before selecting the nominees which is, we think, why the nominations sometimes have a better spread of titles (in terms of release dates) than the Oscars do.

The full list of nominees along with a few comments are after the jump...

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Podcast: Bohemian Rhapsody and the Best Actor Race

Nathaniel R, Murtada Elfadl and Chris Feil talk new films and the Oscar race

Index (65 minutes)
00:01 Bryan Singer's Bohemian Rhapsody, homophobic storytelling, and cat reaction shots
10:25 Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury, the limits and strengths of the performance
14:08 The Best Actor race: Bradley, Ethan, Viggo, Willem, and Rami? Plus floundering campaigns for First Man and The Front Runner and the default possibilities of Vice? 
35:00 Lucas Hedges in both Ben is Back and Boy Erased
37:30 Boy Erased in general, Nicole & Russell's fine parental performances, and a bit of The Miseducation of Cameron Post on the side 
50:30 Recent DVDs: Mamma Mia 2, Leave No Trace, Skate Kitchen, and Sorry to Bother You
55:55 Return trips to both A Star is Born and BlacKkKlansman
01:02:00 Can You Ever Forgive Me? afterglow and Wildlife fade?

References / Further Reading
• Nathaniel's review of Bohemian Rhapsody
• Best Actor Chart 
• Murtada on Carey Mulligan
• Jorge's Mamma Mia obsession

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? 

Bohemian Erased