Remembering River Phoenix on his 50th Birthday

by Camila Henriques

This Sunday marks what would have been River Phoenix’s 50th birthday. A talent taken away from us much too soon, he went from adorable teenage prodigy to Oscar nominated scene stealer to Volpi Cup winner in less than five years.  Seeing the work that other actors of his generation, who also started young, like Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale, have delivered from the mid 90s until now can be heartwrenching. They make it impossible not to wonder what could have been if that fatidic night in 1993 had not happened...

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Almost There: River Phoenix in "My Own Private Idaho"

This article is dedicated to Mark, one of our subscribers (thank you!), who requested a piece on River Phoenix -Editor.

by Cláudio Alves

It's difficult to write, it's difficult to think, about River Phoenix without the tragedy of his premature death casting a dark shadow over all other considerations. His acting is often talked about in terms of wasted potential, another facet of the same mythos that James Dean inhabits in the public consciousness. Sure, his film work is important, but only as far as it adds to the narrative of a flame that burned too bright and died out too soon. That can be a blessing to one's legacy, a promise of cultural immortality. However, it's also a curse that makes a young actor's amazing career into a footnote of a Hollywood tale of doom and gloom. River Phoenix was and is more than the protagonist of a real-life story about dying young. He's a great actor, one whose performances still have the power to amaze and impress, to enlighten and hurt.

This piece is about such a feat of acting, one that takes my breath away every time I gaze upon its magnificence. It's about River Phoenix in Gus van Sant's My Own Private Idaho…

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18 days till Oscar

by Nathaniel R

18 is today's magic number. Everyone knows that Oscar's acting branch sometimes takes a shine to little kids for acting nominations (almost always it requires a Best Picture nomination for the movie that houses them) but how often do they nominate kids who've just become adults? Not too often! There have only been three 18 year olds who've ever been nominated* and curiously none were in Best Picture nominees. Still, all of them gave unforgettable performances and the latter two could have easily be argued as "shoulda wons" in their year. They are...

•  Mariel Hemingway in Manhattan (1979), Best Supporting Actress
•  River Phoenix in Running on Empty (1988), Best "Supporting" Actor 
•  Juliette Lews in Cape Fear (1991), Best Supporting Actress

Fact: No 18 year-olds have ever been nominated in either lead acting category.

* It's possible we missed an 18 year old in Supporting Actress (though we could only think of 19 and 20 year olds like Angela Lansbury and Saoirse Ronan beyond the 16 and under famous inclusions) since it's the category that is most favourable to teenage nominees and most trivia and articles list don't go beyond age 15 or 16 in that category. If we did we trust you'll tell us who in the comments. 

The Planet of the Links

Pull it together, Nathaniel! There is so much showbiz news of late that we've been buried in avalanche of it. How to stop and collect the linkage? So herewith a looooong list of links in a vain attempt to catch up or but by the time you've read it we'll surely have missed another 20 stories in addition to those that already slipped by in the past two weeks. What I'm saying is "too many things too many things too many things" 

So read on and click away for The Avengers: Infinity War, Paul Thomas Anderson, Jessica Chastain, Big Little Lies paydays, Sundance buzz, and much much more. Please to enjoy or at least peruse...

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Sneakers Turns 25

by Lynn Lee

Sneakers turns 25 today, and until last week I’d never seen it.   Although it came out when I was of moviegoing age, it was barely on my radar.  All I remembered of it later was that it was about hackers and maybe also spies and the NSA, and I tended to confuse it with Hackers (which I’d never seen either).  My husband was amazed to learn this, having seen Sneakers more times than he could count, and said I had to see it.  But wouldn’t it be awfully dated now, I wondered?  He insisted it still held up, despite admitting he hadn’t seen it in a while.  There was only one way to find out…

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