A Star Is Born: Kirsten Dunst in 1994

by Cláudio Alves

For all its controversies, Alex Garland's Civil War has gifted us with more than just an (a)political provocation. The chosen format limits the film's considerations of conflict journalism, and its overall construction has flaws aplenty. Yet, in the picture's lead, Kirsten Dunst delivers another worthwhile turn as a disillusioned photographer. Exhaustion laces every gesture and actorly choice, and though Garland seems to abandon her for the film's final act, whenever the camera finds Dunst, she delivers. Whether portraying cynical apathy or shell-shocked grief, apprehensive over a younger colleague's fate or breaking down at the eleventh hour, the actress can weave straw into gold and elevate any material.

Considering her latest performance, I couldn't help but reminisce about Dunst's early days and how, thirty years ago, she became a star at just twelve years old…

Click to read more ...

1986: Cathy Tyson in "Mona Lisa"

We're revisiting 1986 this month leading up to the next Supporting Actress Smackdown. As always Nick Taylor will suggest a few alternates to Oscar's ballot.

It’s been a while since I wrote about someone who had actual Oscar buzz, right? We can argue how Anna Magnani and Kimberly Elise should have contended in their years, but Cathy Tyson’s cryptic and involving turn in Mona Lisa definitely appears to have landed in the sixth spot of the 1986 Supporting Actress lineup. Tyson won LAFCA (tying with Dianne Wiest for Hannah and Her Sisters) and was first runner-up with New York. She scored Globe and BAFTA nominations, as well, before missing out with Oscar. Given the strength of her performance, the degree of precursor attention she received, the way her role fits in well-worn paths for ingenue recognition, and the ... um... quality of some of the actual nominees, I’m surprised Tyson didn’t make the cut.

Tyson plays Simone, a high-class sex worker. Her shadowy employer suddenly gives her George (Bob Hoskins), a hot-tempered ex-convict fresh out of jail, as her driver/bodyguard...

Click to read more ...

FYC: Sean Bobbitt for Best Cinematography

by Cláudio Alves

Director Shaka King (left) and Cinematographer Sean Bobbitt (right)

Sean Bobbitt started as a news camera shooter, a photojournalist more than a cineaste. His first feature was Michael Winterbottom's 1999 Cannes Competition entry Wonderland, an auspicious beginning to what would become a splendorous filmography. The collaboration with British director Steve McQueen came to define the cinematographer's career, their work running the gamut from commercials to museum installations and award-winning films like Hunger, Shame, and 12 Years a Slave. Despite all this, Sean Bobbitt has never been nominated for an Oscar. Thanks to Shaka King's Judas and the Black Messiah, that sad state of affairs may be about to change…

Click to read more ...

Horror Actressing: Kirsten Dunst in "Interview With the Vampire"

by Jason Adams

All of the best moments in Interview With the Vampire belong to the eleven-year-old. Re-watching the film now here on its 25th anniversary there's a lot to like (Tom Cruise allows himself to be camp in ways that he usually is but this time purposefully, and Neil Jordan floods everything with opulent blood-red atmosphere) and there's a lot to hate (it's a slog and Brad Pitt is awful) but there's really only one thing to love, and that thing is Kirsten Dunst every single second she's on-screen as the immortal vampire trapped in a little girl's perpetual curls.

The story goes that Dunst was the first girl that they auditioned for the role of "Claudia" but that she auditioned twice -- her agent supposedly told her she was terrible the first time through and forced her back into the room to do it all over again. "How avant-garde," indeed. Still that gambit worked, and one of our greatest actresses got her start by slashing up multiple nannies and kissing Brad Pitt on the mouth -- an experience Dunst maintains was "gross," speaking for exactly zero other people aged eleven to one hundred and eleven...

Click to read more ...

Review: "Greta"

by Chris Feil

As a palette cleanser for the sour taste left in our mouths from the Oscar season, director Neil Jordan has a chocolate-covered acid truffle to offer. Intergenerational stalker thriller Greta is here to deliver in a pinch, an unpretentious treat with pedigree and casual self-awareness. It’s the cinematic equivalent of an airport paperback in the best possible way, all schlocky upsides without the unrefined downsides.

Chloë Grace Moretz stars as Frances, a young woman in New York City grieving the recent death of her mother. In a chance moment of good samaritanism, Frances finds a handbag bag on the subway and returns it to its rightful owner, Isabelle Huppert’s Greta Hideg. Greta’s abandonment by her own daughter sparks a sudden friendship of complimentary loneliness between the two. But once Frances learns that their meet cute was a calculation on Greta’s part, things quickly escalate into obsession and very ominous hats.

Click to read more ...