Split Decision: “American Fiction”

No two people feels the exact same way about any film. Thus, Team Experience is pairing up to debate the merits of this year’s Oscar movies. Here’s Lynn Lee and Cláudio Alves on American Fiction...

LYNN LEE: Hi Cláudio - looking forward to a friendly fisticuffs (is there such a thing? at TFE, yes!) on American Fiction, one of my favorite movies of 2023. 

I have to admit I'm a little self-conscious about ranking it so high in a year filled with noteworthy films.  It wasn't a cultural behemoth à la Barbenheimer.  It's not the work of a known auteur or a rising one; it doesn't have the weird-cool vibe of a Poor Things or the wistful-cool cachet of a Past Lives.  Visually, it's not particularly interesting.  Thematically, it follows in the footsteps of other, similarly themed movies about Black artists confronting racial pigeonholing and stereotypes - from The 40-Year-Old Version to Bamboozled all the way back to Hollywood Shuffle - but made significantly more palatable (I won't say diluted) for mainstream audiences...

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Oscar Volley: Best Supporting Actor

It's the final pre-nomination Oscar volley. Here's Eric and Chris to discuss Best Supporting Actor

A win for Ryan Gosling in "Barbie" would age so well. But Oscar rarely goes comedic.

CHRIS:  Hey Eric! It's Barbenheimer 2.0 in the Best Supporting Actor race. In my mind, the two most secured nominees in the bunch are from the pair of box office summer behemoths - Robert Downey Jr. in Oppenheimer and Ryan Gosling in Barbie. It'll be interesting race to see if Gosling can overtake Downey Jr. to win for a comedic performance, but that's a post-nomination conversation. It's not just that both of these men starred in the hottest movies of the year, they gave indelible performances that are cemented in the conversation this year (well, I would say Gosling did, but I'll hold space for the Downey lovers). 

May December was gaining momentum and critical acclaim at just the right time to be a major awards player (at least around the time the Globe nods were announced), which made me ecstatic...

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Emmy Review: Supporting Actor in a Comedy

Please welcome new contributor Christopher James to continue our Emmy analysis/review...

The new eight-wide field Supporting Actor in a Comedy field brought in some old and new faces. The incumbent Tony Shalhoub hopes to win his fifth Emmy (he won three times for Monk and once previously for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel). However, there are plenty of people standing in his way. Both Harper and Levy contend for their show’s series finales. Oscar winners Ali and Arkin hope to add an Emmy to their respective trophy cases. Meanwhile, Emmy regulars Brown, Braugher and Thompson are hoping to be the David to Shalhoub’s Goliath.

Without further ado, let’s dive into a look at each of the nominee’s submissions (mild spoilers to come)...

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Emmy Review: Lead Actor in a Drama

By Abe Friedtanzer

Will Succession produce a Best Actor winner? There are two options.

This was going to be the year that Bob Odenkirk finally took home an Emmy for Better Call Saul on his fifth try with a slam dunk episode submission of “Bagman.” But, like Richard Madden for Bodyguard last year, the expected frontrunner got snubbed altogether, leaving the field totally open. There are six great choices for the win. Half this field is new, and this is actually one of the first times that Golden Globe winner Brian Cox and Critics Choice winner Jeremy Strong are nominated against each other, which sets up a major showdown not unlike the one that happens between their characters on Succession. 

I’ll try to avoid major plot details in my analysis – but if you'd like more spoiler-filled descriptions, click on the episode titles. Let’s consider each nominee…

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TIFF: "Waves" Crashes

by Chris Feil

Writer/Director Trey Edward Shults’ approaches his subjects with raw emotionality, with his first two features Krisha and It Comes At Night using visual acrobatics to reveal the tenser truths festering inside extreme family dynamics. His third feature Waves attempts this dynamic again while pushing the sensory experience extreme territories. Shults somersaults and twirls with florid visual vibrancy here, as aggressive a display of a director demanding we consider them with greater reverence as we have seen since Xavier Dolan. But despite its fevered sensory world and punishing human stakes, Waves struggles to align the two for the truly immersive experience of its ambitions.

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