Top Ten Quickie - Best Horror Performances?

Eeek! We have planned absolutely nothing for Halloween on the blog just yet so in case we don't here is an impromptu list (mostly off the top of my head) for discussion fun. Since horror is not my preferred genre, it was actually quite hard to come up with the male actors list but the female list was easy but for the difficulty of narrowing it down. Can you believe I had to leave the Exorcist women off the list? 

10 Best Lead Actresses in a Horror Film

Click to read more ...

Exciting 30 Year-Old Actors, An Armchair Casting Director's List

A special Top Ten today, derived from an aborted or perhaps delayed larger project -- you just never know. - Editor

Though we usually discuss actresses we like to keep you on your toes with a curveball now and then, so today: actors entering the prime male casting range! The thirtysomething years tend to be where men in showbiz can make their major marks and become respected actors / huge stars. Yes, there are actors that get really famous as young as actresses do (DiCaprio, Chalamet, etc) but they're the exception rather than the rule. These men were all born in 1988 so they just turned 30 (or will in the next handful of weeks). Which of them do you think will have an amazing decade of screen work ahead? And which, if any, do you think we'll still be talking about in 2028? (In an alternate life I was a casting director so I love concocting these survey lists.)

TEN EXCITING 30 YEAR-OLD ACTORS
Okay, eleven. We're bad at math

How talented is the '88 vintage? Time, talent, commitment, luck, and opportunities will tell but these men were selected due to work we've seen or hunches about their potential. But take this with a grain of salt because there are literally thousands of actors all over the world who could rise up quickly if the right opportunity / exposure happens. They're listed in alphabetical order...

Click to read more ...

TIFF 2018 Finale. Jury of One: Nathaniel

OKAY WRAPPING UP TIFF NOW. Unless you are on an actual jury at a festival, you see a different set of films than everyone else attending (with a handful of crossovers) so I couldn't corral votes with my festival roomies (Nick, Joe, and Chris -- instead we did a podcast). So I thought it might be fun to share my favorites from the festival in 'nominee' Oscar style. These are not, of course, Oscar predictions or even Film Bitch ballots because not all of the films are guaranteed eligibility this year and we've had 8 months of good movies before these and we'll have 3 months of hopefully good movies afterwards that they'll have to compete with. But here's the achievements within traditional awards categories that thrilled me most at TIFF during that 29 film screening marathon.

They're listed in alpha order (by film) except the actors (by name) and links go to our festival reviews if we managed one -- a few more reviews are half written but we need to wrap up TIFF so expect more on A Star is Born, Beautiful Boy, Border, and more soon as they'll be in theaters within the next few weeks.

TEN BEST FILMS I SAW AT TIFF

"Roma" is rich with endless details and emotional punch

• Border (Sweden)
• First Man (US)
• Museo (Mexico)
• The River (Kazakshtan)
• Roma (Mexico)
• A Star is Born (US)
• Transit (Germany)
• Widows (US)
• Wildlife (US)
• Woman at War (Iceland)

Runners up: Cold War (Poland)

Lots more after the jump including best performances, best visuals, best dogs (yes, really), best original songs and more...

Click to read more ...

Tues Top 10: Oscar's All Time Favorite Supporting Actors

by Nathaniel R

Tommy Lee Jones in JFKLet's discuss Oscar hiearchies, again. This one is ultra specific but we're doing it for balance since we did the supporting actresses last week. Who are Oscar's 10 favorite supporting actors of all time? We'll work the ranking like so: Supporting nominations count most, with wins acting like half a nomination to help determine rank. The tiebreaker is the spread of time of nominations which can denote either long term fandom on the Academy's part or shortlived enthusiasms.

In contrast to supporting actress where the leaders were clear and the nomination counts higher but among fewer people, very narrow statistics separated all of the runners up from the top ten. Though if you must know, the unlucky #11 was Tommy Lee Jones, who would have ranked 5th on the top ten had he won the Oscar for Lincoln AS HE SHOULD HAVE. But we'll discuss Tommy and the 7 other working actors who almost made the list after the top ten under "who's next?". But for now a shout out to the departed. They left behind great performances and almost made this list: 

• Gig Young (1951, 1958, 1969*)
• Martin Landau (1988, 1989, 1994*)
• Charles Coburn (1941, 1943*, 1946)
• Melvyn Douglas (1963*, 1979*)
• Philip Seymour Hoffman (2007, 2008, 2012)
• Charles Bickford (1943, 1947, 1948)
• Anthony Quinn (1952*, 1956*)

okay on to the top ten list...

Click to read more ...

60 Reasons Cinephiles Should Love Madonna

Happy 60th birthday to the coolest bitch in the world since 1958.

Because we are first and foremost a film site, here are 60 reasons you should love Madonna that are at connected to the cinema.

They're listed in no particular order, numbered only so we can keep count because when the subject is Madonna we tend to go on...

1. She makes a perfect animated character in the credits sequence of Who's That Girl  (1987)
2. She's been close friends forever with one of film & television's secret actress weapons, Debi Mazar
   
   
3. Dick Tracy (1990) is awesome.
4. As is Desperately Seeking Susan (1985).
5. She deserved a Best Original Song nomination for "Into the Groove" from Desperately Seeking Susan
6. She loves movies
7. "Greta Garbo, and Monroe..."

Click to read more ...