For "The Humans" to Err is Human and to Forget Divine

by Jason Adams

Erik (Richard Jenkins), the patriarch of the Blake family, stands staring out a dingy window into the gray light of the alleyway -- excuse me, the "interior courtyard" -- behind his daughter's unfurnished and water-logged Chinatown apartment. His thoughts are clearly elsewhere, new worries freshly lining his already lined face, as something catches his eye, and then another -- is that snow? It's lovely, in its way, but distressing all the same -- having traveled into the big city for this Housewarming slash Thanksgiving dinner from the wilds of distant Scranton he's got to think about getting everybody home at a decent hour, and a snow-storm would have them trapped here, nary a bed in sight. (Having lugged a Mary figure there as their Housewarming gift the soft Biblical allusions to "no room at the Inn" seem let's say non-accidental.) He brings up this his most recent distress to Richard (Steven Yeun), his daughter's boyfriend, who doesn't see snow at all, instead offering the thesis that someone on an upper floor has just emptied their ashtray.

Snow to ash, and just like that beauty to death, a recurring happening in Stephen Karam's Tony-winning play turned A24's darkly funny and emotionally cataclysmic awards-season contender The Humans, out this week...

Click to read more ...

An automatic "yup" for "Nope"

click to see it big if you so desireApologies for two movie poster posts in a row but you know time is; sometimes you have it sometimes you don't. Oscar winning Jordan Peele's third film will be called Nope and star Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, and Steven Yeun. It arrives in almost exactly a year's time. The supporting cast features Barbie Ferreira (Unpregnant), Brandon Perea (The OA), and Michael Wincott (The Crow).

After his zeitgeist horror hits Get Out and Us, Peele is either sticking with horror for good or he's just working through a trilogy of terror before he tries his very talented hands at some other movie genre. Normally super generic and impossible to search on the internet titles make us shudder, and not in the good horror movie way. But Peele's films have thus far earned their simple titles and somehow made them ultra-memorable moments within the films. So we're hoping the "nope" scene in Nope inspires lots of yaaaaaassss from audiences. 

Questions for the comments

1. On a scale of 1-10 how excited are you for his third effort?

2. Do you think aliens are involved since we're seeing the stars and that cloud obviously ain't no natural cloud?

3. How often do you become absolutely furious remembering that Lupita Nyong'o wasn't even nominated for what should have been an Oscar-winning star turn in Us. Sorry. Maybe that's just... us. 

93rd Academy Awards: Handicapping the Best Actor Nominees

by Ben Miller

Few years can boast the overall performance strength of this season's Best Actor lineup.  In a category with two previous Best Actor Oscar winners and two up-and-coming screen stars, the conversation has been blanketed by the shadow of tragedy.  What is the likelihood of each nominated actor coming out on top on Oscar night?

Click to read more ...

Yeun Trouble Now

by Jason Adams

It's really no surprise that writer-director Jordan Peele is at that point in his career, after Get Out and Us, where he could land anybody he wanted to land for the cast of his next movie -- he's got the sort of heat that would get the dead stars of yore reanimating in their caskets for a slice of that sweet cinematic success. But instead of choosing, say, the skeleton of Gary Cooper to star in his next flick, Mr. Peele is going with a cast of current babes and we cannot complain! (Although hey Gary Cooper's skeleton, call me.)

The title and the contents of Peele's new one are naturally being kept under wraps but we already know it will reunite him with his Get Out leading man Daniel Kaluuya as well as co-star the should-be-a-superstar-already KeKe Palmer -- this was announced back in February, along with the whisper that whatever this movie is KeKe is playing the villain in it. And today comes word that that tag-team of hot trouble is actually a trouble throuple, as Best Actor nominee and everybody-crush Steven Yeun is also joining the film. As who? Who cares? Buy your tickets today!

Peggy Link

• Movie City New Gurus of Gold latest predictions - i find it interesting that the ranking is all over the place with Promising Young Woman all the way from #1 to #10 (though it's on all the lists)
• IndieWire There was so much awards stuff happening this week that we never discusseed Todd Haynes planning a Peggy Lee biopic with Michelle Williams. Obviously I feel bad about this because we love all three people and that sounds amazing!
• Empire Got a spare 182 minutes? Directors Edgar Wright and Quentin Tarantino did a podcast together.

Steven Yeun, WandaVision, a messy Color Purple legal battle, a strange Nicole Kidman story, Edward Scissorhands at the Superbowl, and more after the jump...

Click to read more ...