Kelly Macdonald and other Oscar-Less Wonders

by Kyle Stevens

I was finishing up the new season of Black Mirror --which is alternately smart and smarmy, somehow managing to exaggerate reality to the point of smugness rather than satire-- when, lo and behold, who should pop up in the finale but Kelly MacDonald. And she's magnificent in it. Not being a Boardwalk Empire watcher, I hadn't really thought about her since her spectral turn as Rowena Ravenclaw in the Harry Potter movies. Then I remembered just how good she was in No Country for Old Men, Gosford Park, and even Nanny McPhee. I surprised myself by starting to fantasize Oscar-winning roles for her -- as one does. 

But there are so many worthy actresses without the big award. So to get our minds off the horrors of this past week, let's retreat into some good old-fashioned actressexual playtime. Who are your top five working actresses you'd love to see win an Oscar?

Off the top of my head, and in no particular order, mine are:

1. Annette Bening
2. Maggie Cheung
3. Sally Hawkins
4. Isabelle Huppert
5. Kelly MacDonald

CAVEAT: I've not said Viola Davis, because her status will probably change soon!

Sick Bed List Fever

by Nathaniel R

Okay, this is one of those "sick" calls you make to the boss when you're not really sick but you just absolutely can't. Getting out of bed since Tuesday has been quite a Herculean challenge. Hence the far lighter than usual posting (apologies! but by Monday we will figure out a way to be posting with the mad frequent abandon that awards season deserves). If you have any tricks for soldiering on whilst feeling despair do please share them in the meantime. It's not just myself who needs them.

One of the best activities when feeling under the weather, physically or spiritually or emotionally is arguably list-making. It is "busywork" so in one sense you don't need all that much energy and focus to do it but it is also fun if you choose the right list topic. Over the past couple of weeks I've been updating and fixing the top ten pages (which are always under construction in case we see a new old favorite) but if you'd like to investigate the various decades and see the lists please click away.

 
 
Check them out. If only we had time to write about them all...

Rank the "1 and Done" Oscar-Winning Actresses!

Since today is both Tilda Swinton's birthday and National Love Your Red Hair Day (there's a day for everything) we found ourselves suddenly missing Tilda's redhead years. She's been preferring platinum bold for several years now but for a good long stretch she favored RED.

Hmmm. What does Oscar sound like?

Sudden Listing Impulse after the jump...

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“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” S1 in Ten Songs

With Crazy Ex Girlfriend returning Friday evening for Season 2, here's new contributor Jorge Molina surveying season 1's songs

Season 2 premieres Fri 10/21 at 9 pm on The CWMaking a Top 10 Best [blank] is pretty much impossible. Top 10s are never final, accurate, or objective. 

So I decided not to do one. 

After all, how could I rank and, even worse, decide on the best musical numbers of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s amazing first season? They all represent a different aspect of the show, and it would be unfair to compare them on equal terms.  So I instead came up with a compilation of what are not necessarily the ten better numbers, but the ones that best showcase the show’s style, tone, and humor. What would be in a “Crazy XGF 101” course.

TEN SHOWCASE NUMBERS FROM SEASON 1

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Blue Velvet at 30

by Jason Adams 

With our host Nathaniel off in Toronto seeing movies this week; some good, some bad... but which ones will last forever? It's a question I put forth because David Lynch's masterpiece Blue Velvet played at the Toronto Film Festival exactly 30 years ago today. Did those fortunate souls sitting there in that audience know they were seeing a stone-cold American classic unveiled unto the world. I can't imagine they didn't know they were seeing something unlike anything else they'd ever seen before, that much seems clear. The film made some noise!

Blue Velvet's one of my Top Five Favorites so let's celebrate its anniversary (it was released in US theaters one week after its screening in Toronto). In honor of 30 years here are 30 favorite Blue Velvety facts, figures, and fun stuff, starting with...

1. LAURA DERN'S FACE

2. But seriously this is Lynch's first collaboration with his muse and most important collaborator (so says me and that cow he stood on Hollywood Blvd with) and it's a pleasure to contrast the character of Sandy with the places the two would later go - the sweetness and naivete here evenautally giving way to all kinds of craziness; it's impossible not to look at this nice young lady now and not see the wild woman -- Lulu Fortune anybody? -- about to come beating out from underneath those fuzzy sweaters.

Ears and lots of the F-word after the break...

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Summer Movie Season Surveyed

This article originally appeared in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad. It is reprinted here in a revised TFE specific but abridged version...

While summer didn’t technically begin until June 20th and isn’t technically over yet, “Summer Movie Season” is not beholden to the solstice and equinox but to The Blockbuster. Summer has long been the most lucrative season for Hollywood and so they’ve stretched it out to start earlier each year. It now tends to begin sometime in April with the release of the first movie that feels like a Summer Blockbuster proper (this year that would’ve arguably been The Jungle Book on April 15th) and ends on Labor Day, aka Any Second Now. It’s no secret that it’s been a rough summer for the quality of blockbusters. But if you’re lucky enough to live in a big city or smart enough to seek out films without gargantuan ad budgets, there was still plenty of cinema to get excited about. So herewith the Best & Worst of 2016’s Summer movie season…

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