The Fred & Ginger movies ranked

by Cláudio Alves

87 years ago, someone at RKO had the brilliant idea to pair up an up-and-coming vaudevillian with a brassy character actress used to playing comic relief. The result was pure movie magic. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers quickly became two of their studio's biggest stars and their collaborations live on as some of the most glamourous musicals to ever grace the Silver Screen. Thanks to HBO Max, the majority of those flicks are now available to stream. The only one that isn't, Follow the Fleet, can be rented from Amazon if you wish to see its dancing delights.

With that in mind, it seemed like a good time to delve into the wonderful world of Fred and Ginger onscreen. Here's a ranked list of their ten movies together… 

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Streaming Roulette, Sept: Whoever Slew Carey Mulligan's Oscar dreams?

If you're new to the site this is how we share new streaming offerings for the month. We select a handful or two of titles and just randomly hit a place on the scroll bar to see what the film looks like - no cheating.  Ready? Let's play...

I used to dress like this all the time when I was younger...

Wildlife (2018) on Netflix
We stand by our stanning of Carey Mulligan in this movie. She should'a been in 2018's Best Actress lineup. How many more great performances does she have to give before Oscar nom #2? 

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Almost There: Let's vote again!

by Cláudio Alves

Last month, we asked you to choose what performances should be analyzed in the Almost There series which concerns itself with acting achievements that came close to the Oscar but failed to secure the nomination. You came through with more than 800 votes on each of our polls and the feedback seemed quite positive. Your choices were the against-type star turn of Cameron Diaz in Being John Malkovich and Joan Allen's incandescent fury in 2005's The Upside of Anger. Not only that, but the runners-up of the new to streaming poll, Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler, were also written about.

Because of such good results, we're repeating that experiment. This time, we'll be focusing on movies that are newly available to stream in September as well as flicks from 1938, our sidebar theme thanks to the Supporting Actress Smackdown. 

First up, here are some possibilities from different streaming services:

survey tools

Secondly, here's a selection of 1938 performances. While it's difficult to discern who had awards buzz on those early Oscar races, we believe all of these folks were in the conversation: 

survey services

You can vote on each poll, once a day, until Saturday, September 5th. We can't wait to see who you choose!

Alan J. Pakula: The King of Paranoia

by Cláudio Alves

This summer, several of Warner Bros. classics have become available to stream on HBO Max. Among them are a good variety from the 1970s, including some of the best movies of New Hollywood's most underrated master of cinema. We're talking about Alan J. Pakula, a director whose pictures came to embody the mood of that decade, full of misanthropic discontentment and a sense that the world is diseased, people are out to get you and safety is unachievable. Alan J. Pakula was truly the king of cinematic paranoia…

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How Had I Never Seen... "Candyman"?

by Cláudio Alves

The Nia DaCosta-directed, Jordan Peele-produced, Candyman is scheduled to arrive in American theaters later this year. In the meantime, the original Candyman, a 1992 horror classic freely adapted from Clive Barker's The Forbidden, is newly streaming on Netflix. With all that in mind, this seemed like a great time to finally watch that acclaimed nightmare of 90s cinema, a picture I've long heard about and have considered one of my great blind spots as a fan of horror movies.

Despite astronomically high expectations, Candyman did not disappoint…

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