It's '300' days until Oscar

by Nathaniel R

Fassy on the set of 300

A bit of very random silliness since we now know when the next Oscars will be held. With 300 days to go, the film 300 popped into my mind. It was a big hit fifteen years ago grossing almost half a billion globally and becoming the 10th highest grossing film of 2007 in the US. Thrillist once argued it was the most influential movie of the Aughts. It received plentiful MTV Movie and Saturn Awards nominations but zero love from Oscar which is... appropriate. But every once in a while we think about the fact that it was Michael Fassbender's debut film (!) and that director Zach Snyder has continued to have a surprisingly fanatic cult following... so much so that his work factored into Oscar's embarrassing "fan favourites" contest this past season. So it prompted a question: Have any 300 alums outside of Michael Fassbender gone on to Oscar love?

The very Aughts very Digital action flick boosted several careers (as box office hits do) but the answer to that specific question is  'yes but but not my much'... 

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Cannes at Home: Day 11

by Cláudio Alves

Spike Lee's illustrious jury will hand out its prizes Saturday night. Friday was still full of screenings, however, including the last two premieres in the Main Competition. Justin Kurzel's Nitram has generated some controversy, purporting, as it does, to tell the story of the man responsible for the deadliest mass shooting in Australian history. To extend cinematic empathy, or even a gesture of exploitation, towards such a figure is bound to cause a polemic. The other film to screen on this last competitive day of Cannes 2021 was Joachim Lafosse's The Restless, the story of a Belgian family dealing with the struggles brought upon by bipolar disorder. To celebrate the event, we'll take a look at two previous tales of killers from these filmmakers. One is a mythic warrior, haunted by the carnage he commits. The other, a real-life mother who did something unthinkable…

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Almost There: Michael Fassbender in "Shame"

by Cláudio Alves

With the films of Steve McQueen's anthology, Small Axe, earning critical raves as they traverse through the festival circuit, it's a good time to remember some of his previous projects. While 12 Years a Slave was a great success that conquered acclaim and many awards, the rest of the director's filmography has been more polarizing and arguably underrated. It feels wrong, for instance, that his recurring muse, Michael Fassbender, got the first of two Oscar nominations for his least impressive contribution to McQueen's oeuvre. He was much more deserving two years before that best Picture winner, in 2011's Shame...

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Sixteen Linkles

• Vulture why Charlize Theron is so pleasurable to watch in action films
• My New Plaid Pants Luca Guadagnino signing on to deliver a feature adaptation of Scotty Bower's "Full Service" which has already inspired a feature doc and that gas station as whorehouse in Ryan Murphy's Hollywood
• Vanity Fair What Olivia de Havilland remembered about the 1939 Oscars 

After the jump, Ramy's nominations, Michael Fassbender's return, Hugh Jackman's butt, Scarface memories, X-Men's 20th, and more...

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Review: Dark and Tired Phoenix

This review was previously published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad...

Don't they have any healing and creative rejuvenation among the super-powered mutations at Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Children? If so they needed them to lay their hands on this franchise for a few years before making another bungled attempt at the beloved Dark Phoenix storyline (from the 1980 comic books) within this movie franchise's 19 movie years. But that's a rhetorical question. If Dark Phoenix (2019) is indication, mutations cannot save this franchise.

When we return to our characters, much has changed since our last visit. Which is fine since who wants to be reminded of X-Men Apocalypse? The X-Men are now no longer shunned by society but held up as heroes. Professor Xavier (James McAvoy, phoning this one in... but then who isn't?) has a direct phone to the White House, like a Batman / Commissioner Gordon sitch on steroids. Their first mission, which serves as kind of a second prologue to the over and underwritten film, is making Raven (Jessica Lawrence) nervous for some underwritten/performed reason...

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