Triple Crown of Acting: Who's Next?

by Eric Blume

Kieran Culkin will have to wait a bit longer before he can add a Tony to his SUCCESSION Emmy and A REAL PAIN Oscar. | © Searchlight Pictures

Back in 2016, I wrote an article here when one of my favorite actresses, Jessica Lange, won a Tony for Long Day’s Journey into Night, thereby joining the club of elite actors who had achieved the Triple Crown of Acting (competitive Oscar, Emmy, and Tony). Only 24 actors have ever achieved this, and since Lange eight years ago, only two people have joined that list (Viola Davis in 2017 with her Emmy; Glenda Jackson in 2018 with her Tony).

I thought it would be fun to take a look at who is a realistic possibility to join that club.  I’m reminded of it because, until just a few days ago, there was a chance that person was going to be Kieran Culkin!  Culkin had been largely predicted to be nominated for a Tony Award (and possibly win!) for his performance in the revival of Glengarry Glen Ross.  Alas, Culkin was shut out of the nominations on May 1.  Had he won, he would be the first person to win all three awards in such tight timing (he just won his Emmy for Succession and Oscar for A Real Pain within the last three  years).   It took Jessica 33 years and Glenda 47 years!

So since it's not going to be Kieran Culkin, let’s take a look at who might be next.  I’m working on probability here, not possibility:  meaning that I’m not counting likelihood for actors who rarely or never work in that given medium.  Here are some thoughts…

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TIFF '24: "The Wild Robot" brings Monet to a Miyazaki Forest

by Cláudio Alves

Many have rightfully said that animation isn't so much a genre as a different medium than live-action cinema altogether. Though many of the same rules apply, audiovisual grammar and specific dramatic codes, there's a depth of craft and intentionality to its image-making that exceeds what can be achieved between a camera and our material reality. Such rhetoric tends to manifest only when analyzing more avant-garde efforts in the realm of animation, but even the most mainstream of productions deserves these considerations. Chris Sanders' The Wild Robot is a good example, borne out of DreamWorks with eyes set on the future of its medium, expanding technological horizons while inventing new forms of cinematic beauty…

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Berlinale #7: France is the big winner at Berlin

By Elisa Giudici

Mati Diop and Lupita Nyong'o at the awards ceremony © Ali Ghandtschi / Berlinale 2024

There was a clear standout at the 74th annual Berlinale: French cinema. Given the competition lineup, France secured all three podium positions one way or another. Let's start with the Golden Bear, naturally. The jury, led by Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong'o, crowned a new documentary by French-Senegalese director Mati Diop (of Atlantics fame) as the winner. It's a double win for French cinema: not only is Diop a French citizen, but she's also a product of the Cannes Film Festival, a source of national pride.

Her winning documentary, Dahomey, is a low-budget project that might have struggled in the bright spotlight at Cannes... 

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Review: "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever"

by Nathaniel R

Presenting a task as impossible as hiding a futuristic country for centuries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Imagine having to follow up the phenomenon of Marvel's Black Panther (2018) which, like most explosive zeitgeist events, had ultra precise perfectly timed ingredients and arrived at the exact moment in culture when all of them would be most appreciated. Now imagine having to follow that up without its charismatic leading man, lost to cancer at the young peak of an already impressive career. Director Ryan Coogler was in an unenviable position. It's no surprise, then, that the sequel to Marvel's most popular solo adventure is a bit wobbly on arrival. Never mind that the sequel must bear the weight of all the absurd expectations and make sense of T'Challa's absence while trying to find new legs on both land AND at sea. Thank god for the latter. Whatever the movie's faults, it's not from attempting a simplistic retread...

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Links/News

• NYT Fun Avatar Way of the Water discussion with James Cameron, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldaña, and Sam Worthington
• Mashable a list of family-safe horror movies if you like spooky but hate gore (this describes me!)
• IndieWire first gushing reactions to Black Panther Wakanda Forever
• Parade Comprehensive Jessica Chastain interview. She wants to remake Death Becomes Her which... sorry, why not just a legacy sequel with new character? Streep & Hawn are still with us

More after the jump including Paul Mescal, Lupita Nyong'o, James Gunn, Jennifer Lawrence and Everything Everywhere All At Once Oscar campaigning...

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