FYC: Richard E. Grant in "Can You Ever Forgive Me?"

by Seán McGovern

There is a particular kind joy that we film lovers get to experience once a year or so, and that is seeing an actor who we have enjoyed and admired for years finally receiving the widespread praise and admiration we have always felt for them. Here at the Film Experience that's usually actresses: Isabelle Huppert in Elle, Laurie Metcalf in Lady Bird as recent examples. But every once in a while there is a man and a performance that makes you excited to pay attention to Best Supporting Actor.

Richard E. Grant in Can You Ever Forgive Me? is a performance so involving and entertaining that to know he is on the cusp of an Oscar nomination fills me with almost the same excitement he is currently experiencing; In a recent interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air, he found out during the recording that he had been SAG-nominated, exclaiming that he was "levitating" at the news...

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Clint is "The Mule"

Please welcome guest contributor Abe Fried-Tanzer from Movies with Abe. Since we hadn't discussed Clint Eastwood's new movie, he's doing the honor...

This is not the first time that Clint Eastwood has released a film at the tail end of awards season. That strategy worked wonders in 2014 for American Sniper, which landed major Oscar nominations despite missing out on a number of precursors. A full decade earlier, Million Dollar Baby launched late and managed to overtake the Oscar frontrunner, The Aviator, to win Best Picture. Eastwood may have arrived too late to earn accolades for this effort, which marks his 37th film as director, but he’s sure to earn some fans for his performance.

The most comparable frame of reference for The Mule is the most recent film that saw Eastwood as an acting Oscar hopeful, 2008’s Gran Torino... 

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Eligible for Oscar

347 titles are eligible for Best Picture this year. More films than that are released each year theatrically but not every title bothers with paperwork or with playing one week in Los Angeles (to become eligibile)  The annual list always contains a few curiousities...

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Oscar Charts!

A tip of the hat to you. Just letting you know that most of the Oscar charts have all been updated. 

This week sees gains for Stan & Ollie (especially all things John C Reilly and that wonderful makeup job to make him more Laurel-like), Ready Player One and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (given their multiple finalist list bids), A Quiet Place (given that it's still campaigning and got that absurd "supporting" actress nomination at SAG), and Bohemian Rhapsody all over the place (because, 'Facts are Facts America,' sometimes massive popularity makes quality a complete non-issue!)

Check 'em out, won't you? They're updated
INDEX |  PICTURE  
DIRECTOR |  ACTRESS | ACTOR  | 
SUPPORTING ACTOR | SUPPORTING ACTRESS |
 SCREENPLAYS | FOREIGN  FILM 
VISUAL | SOUND | ANIMATION / DOC

Tweetweek: "Poor Unfortunate Souls" and Seasonal Hijinx

Relatable content!

Nicholas Britell: 🎺

Me: 😭

— kathryn hahn & paul giamatti @ applebee’s (@bkkirby) December 19, 2018

 AFTER THE JUMP, awards season nuttiness, Mary Poppins Returns, Aquaman, and Harvey Fierstein doing Ursula the Sea Witch which was always clearly meant to be...

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