My Miyazaki Ranking: Part Three – Self-Portraits

by Cláudio Alves

One way or another, artists can't help but put some part of themselves into their work. It might not be obvious or a direct expression of character. It might not even be conscious on their part. However, it's there for those willing to see, from works by the most self-effacing hacks to world-renowned auteurs. Hayao Miyazaki is no different, though he's sometimes prone to underselling just how personal some of his pictures can be. Of course, there's no denying the introspection happening in his most recent "last films," and not even the director has tried to distance The Wind Rises or The Boy and the Heron from such interpretations. But there's more self-portraiture in his filmography than just those late-career triumphs. I'd say there's a lot of Miyazaki in a little witch who loved to fly…

Click to read more ...

Sarah Greenwood: From Narnia to Barbieland

by Cláudio Alves

Gerwig and Greenwood discuss BARBIE in a behind-the-scenes video. | © Warner Bros.Last Sunday, Sarah Greenwood officially became the most nominated production designer without an Oscar, breaking her tie with Nathan Crowley for the "Diane Warren" distinction. This year, she was nominated for Barbie, another triumph among many in a career spanning 1980s BBC miniseries to 21st-century Hollywood blockbusters.

Though many of her best works rely on a sense of material realism, the Greta Gerwig feature aimed for a sort of "authentic artificiality" where denying reality is a sort of reality into itself. For Greenwood, midcentury Palm Springs was a source of real-world inspiration to combine with Mattel's history, adding a sense of internal logic to Barbieland. Moreover, the aesthetic was sustained by old-school techniques like hand-painted backdrops and a practical fake sea, visible wires holding everything together in the loopy transitions between worlds. She used scale as a tool for wonderment, took cues from Gene Kelly musicals, and delivered a screen dream in fifty shades of fuchsia. Indeed, her team used so much pink paint that they caused an international shortage…

Click to read more ...

Oscar's Director Hierachy 2024 Edition

by Nathaniel

Spielberg & Scorsese just keep moving up Oscar's hall of fame

Since we did this with the Actresses and Actors, why not the Directors? Martin Scorsese added to his incredible record this season and Steven Spielberg did the same just last year, nudging Billy Wilder into fourth place. The Most Hallowed Directors Quartet is far more "current" than the Actor or Actress throne rooms as a result...

Click to read more ...

A Memorial for "In Memorium"

One last piece on an individual moment from Oscar night?

by Baby Clyde

They couldn’t have started off the In Memoriam segment of the 96th Annual Academy Awards, in a more sober fashion. Recently assassinated Russian opposition leader and subject of last year's Best Documentary winner Alexei Navalny appears on screen, speaking directly to the audience. It’s a bold, surprising opener, somewhat at odds with the slick, professional and ever so slightly dull show that made up the rest of the runtime. This grim reminder of a world outside the Hollywood bubble gives absolutely no indication of the calamitous 4 minutes we're about to endure...

Click to read more ...

Trivia Collection for the 96th Academy Awards

Here's what we came up with as the dust settles from Oscar night. Let us know in the comments if there's any other interesting trivia bits you noticed from this season. 

PICTURE / DIRECTOR

• Oppenheimer is the third consecutive movie to be released before fall film festival season to win the Best Picture Oscar (after Coda and Everything Everywhere All At Once)... so perhaps distributors can learn to start trusting that movies can be released at any time and still factor into awards season? It's also the first movie to go straight to theaters (no festivals) to win Best Picture in ages (well, since The Departed in 2006)

• Three female-directed films Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, and Past Lives were nominated in Best Picture which is an all time record...

Click to read more ...