Oscar Volleys: Best Supporting Actor is a Done Deal

The Oscar Volleys are back for some post-nomination talks. Today, Eric Blume and Nick Taylor discuss Best Supporting Actor...

A REAL PAIN | © Searchlight Pictures

ERIC: Nick, I'm lucky enough to be paired with you for two different Oscar volleys this year. Let's start with the easier, our dive into the five Best Supporting Actor nominees. Nathaniel has already written about the incredible strength of this year's nominees, and I agree with him that it's one of our best ever. These gents were all a part of my personal top ten in this category, and there's not a dud in the bunch, in my opinion.  What are your thoughts on the group?

NICK: I’m less enthusiastic about this year’s contenders than you and Nathaniel are. No one’s doing bad work, but I wouldn’t have any of them in my lineup...

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Split Decision: “Conclave”

In the Split Decision series, two of our writers face off on an Oscar-nominated movie one loves and the other doesn't. Today, for the last convo of the season, Abe Friedtanzer and Cláudio Alves tackle Conclave...

CLÁUDIO: As the Academy congregates to elect a new Best Picture winner, here, at The Film Experience, we continue our Split Decision convos. However, this debate won't finish with the white smoke of agreement - we never seem to come to such conclusions around these parts. And yet, we persevere in arguing because it's fun. Oh, how I wish Conclave were as fun to watch as it is to reflect upon and talk about. I've fallen in love with the movie those Yaoi girlies saw and keep promoting online, but that's not the movie I watched at TIFF. Edward Berger's too self-serious for such levity, even if this adaptation would have significantly benefited from a surrender to its gossipy pleasures. Give us RuPaul's Drag Race: Vatican with a matching Untucked, not this mirthless drudgery that only elicits laughs because it treats its characters as fodder for shock rather than people. I guess that's enough for an introduction. So let me do like Cardinal Lawrence and wrap up this homily. Or should I emulate Bellini and declare war? Whatever the case, let's go, Abe. Come defend your Catholic fave.

ABE: We're off to a good start with this bevy of puns and references, which should make for a great conversation…

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Oscar Volleys: Best Supporting Actress is a Disappointment

The Oscar Volleys are back for some post-nomination talks. Tonight, Nathaniel Rogers and Cláudio Alves discuss Best Supporting Actress...

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN | © Searchlight Pictures

NATHANIEL: Cláudio it falls on us to discuss Supporting Actress. I thought it only fitting that we approach this as a callback to Supporting Actress Smackdowns of the past, and start the hype by discussing their character's introductions. But I could only remember two of them so there goes that idea. I'm beginning this way so as to not bury the lede: I REALLY don't like the category this year. I would not have been tempted to nominate a single one of these performances even though I like three of them just fine. The fact that I've already forgotten how they're introduced in the context of their films reinforces the mediocrity of the chosen five. To dispel this immediate negativity (sorry sorry) let's just say that I felt like one of the extras in A Complete Unknown in the sequence where we meet Joan Baez.  Had I been in that cafe I, too, would have fallen silent utterly bewitched by stage presence and voice. The film doesn't make much room for Baez/Barbaro thereafter but what a voice! 

Did you love any of their introduction scenes? Or, alternately if you also feel the category is weak, were you excited by any of their introductions in terms of anticipation as to what that character and that actress might bring to the rest of the film?

CLÁUDIO: Oh, how I wish I could come in as a contrarian and sing the praises of this lineup. Sadly, that would be dishonest and we're all about truth-tellin’…

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Split Decision: "A Complete Unknown"

In the Split Decision series, two of our writers face off on an Oscar-nominated movie one loves and the other doesn't. Today, Eric Blume and Ben Miller discuss A Complete Unknown...

ERIC:  Hey Ben!  It's cool to be able to discuss A Complete Unknown with you.  I didn't love the movie, but I did find it very entertaining until its final reel, and it kind of felt like the kind of sturdy Hollywood films they don't make very often nowadays.  I have lots of thoughts about it, but where do you stand on the movie overall? 

BEN:  This is where we diverge, because outside of some of the supporting performances, I found it dreadful.  I wasn't even entertained.  The entire film felt like an anti-musical biopic, but the more it tried to get away from the formula, the more it leaned into it...

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Split Decision: “Emilia Pérez”

In the Split Decision series, two (or three) of our writers face off on an Oscar-nominated movie one loves and the other doesn't. Today, Nick Taylor, Lynn Lee, and Juan Carlos Ojano discuss Emilia Pérez...

NICK TAYLOR: Hello, Lynn and Juan Carlos! I’m really excited to start our conversation on Emilia Pérez, surely the most divisive of this year’s Oscar contenders. I am entering this talk as our resident hater - I admire the nutty swings this movie is taking, though very little of that admiration extends to how those nutty swings are executed by Jacques Audiard and his collaborators. Still, I wanna hear what makes the movie work for you guys, or at least makes these experiments worthwhile. Lynn, as the person in this conversation who likes Emilia Pérez the most, do you wanna take the baton?

LYNN LEE: Haha, is it even safe to admit you like Emilia Pérez these days?...

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