Almost There: Andy Serkis in "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"

by Cláudio Alves

The particularities of screen acting make it a collaborative effort, even in the most low-fi of situations. What gets left on the cutting room floor, what reactions are chosen by the editor and director, the sound, the makeup, the way a cinematographer lights the performer's eyes, all shape what we see projected on-screen. Still, when it comes to awards, there's a belief that performance is the sole responsibility of the individual in front of the camera.

When the collaborative aspects of screen acting are made inescapable, it's  difficult to collect golden accolades. We see that happening to voice-only performances and motion-capture efforts, in particular. With The Lord of the Rings trilogy new to streaming on Hulu, we have a good opportunity to explore the mo-cap performance that came closest to Oscar glory. I'm talking about the paradigm-shifting work of Andy Serkis as Sméagol/Gollum in 2002's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers…

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Showbiz History: Superman's premiere, Middle Earth's arrival, Bollywood's physique

Six random things that happened on this day, December 10th, in showbiz history

1966 "Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys, considered on of the most influential and important compositions of the rock era, hits #1. Remember when Paul Dano did such amazing work playing Beach Boys genius Brian Wilson in the biopic Love & Mercy (2015) and then got such a shabby awards season response (though at least we nominated him here!)?

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Streaming Roulette, September ...now with Criterion Channel!

As is our practice we've selected a handful plus of new-to-streaming titles and frozen them at utterly random moments without cheating (whatever comes up comes up!). After those selections we've listed all the movies from each of the streaming channels. What should you queue up for SEPTEMBER 2019 ?(★ means we definitely recommend catching them.)

OH and also we're very excited to announce that we have added THE CRITERION CHANNEL to this monthly roundup because good god but it's worth the money. Ready? Here we go...

Boy. Boy. Will you come with me?

Jungle Book (1942) on Criterion Channel
True embarrassing story: I've never seen this Korda brothers film which was the first complete movie adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's book (though there were earlier films using portions of it) and it's got to be better than the subsequent versions, nearly all of which I have seen of this oft-regurgitated story. It was nominated for four Oscars: Cinematography (losing to Black Swan though this image above makes me want to restart our Hit Me With Your Best Shot series), Art Direction (losing to My Gal Sal), Special Effects, and Score

Anyway, this is the finish. Me and showbiz. 

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Ashley Judd might have been Arwen... or Galadriel

by Nathaniel R

Ashley Judd in her blockbuster breakout "Double Jeopardy" in 1999I keep getting into trouble when I tweet out semantic arguments on the internet as if I'm missing the point of very serious topics. So let me assure you that I'm not missing the point. I am filled with rage when I read these stories about the toxic treatment of actresses in Hollywood but the only way I can cope (I live for actresses, duh) is to nerd out and take deep dives into thinking about their filmographies, or looking at Oscar stats, or other less fraught things to rage less. Lashing out in all directions with rage or feeding my rage by continually sharing it is just not my way and has never helped me cope with pain. So, in other words, I'll save my little semantics quibble until the end of the post. 

Anyway the reveals of what Harvey Weinstein was up to in his most powerful days keep getting worse. To stay within the confines of Weinsten adjacent imagery, let's just say it makes me want to watch an Inglorious Basterds ahistorical style rewrite in which some Ashley Judd gets the Brad Pitt role and her team of merciless female soldiers gives Weinstein what he deserved back then...

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110 days 'til Oscar. More Lord of the Rings?

It's only eleventy days until Hollywood's High Holy Night. If you aren't familiar with "eleventy" think back to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001).

That whole Oscar winning trilogy kicks off with the celebration of Bilbo Baggins eleventy-firth birthday or 111th birthday in human years. Eleventy can refer to 110 or numbers much larger; one stops counting after awhile...

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