FYC: Youth Acting and Breakthrough Stars

by Nathaniel R

Alan S Kim, everyone's favourite mischief maker in Minari

Each year at the Critics Choice Awards -- I just filed my ballot -- we're expected to vote in a category that gets almost no press or campaigning: Best Young Performer. The nominees tend to be whichever kid had a leading role in a movie everyone saw. I've always found this depressing since all awards categories should be taken seriously and, as with adult performances or directing or costuming or whatever, you should think about your ballot and not just pick the most visible options solely because they're right in front of you. So each year I try to help by posting my own ballot...

Click to read more ...

Year in Review: Greatest Thirst Traps

by Team Experience

Beauty is the eye of the beholder and so is sex appeal and cinematic eye candy. So take these rankings as seriously as they were assigned which is to say, barely seriously at all. T'was but a glancing approximation of how many lists each hottie showed up on from our teammates and whether they were high up on said lists. At any rate these faces (and bodies) and born-to-perform stars deserve your wide open appreciative eyes when they're working it onscreen. 

We meant to post this last night when the mood was more drunken and festive but it's okay to start a new year off lustily, too! Please to enjoy our choices for the greatest thirst traps of 2020. Which of these stars made you quiver under your bodice or weak at the knees these past twelve months? 

Click to read more ...

The legendary Ann Roth does it again!

by Cláudio Alves

89-year-old Ann Roth is a living legend in the world of costume design. With a filmography that has long ago surpassed 100 productions and a curriculum further filled with numerous stage shows, the Oscar and Tony-winning Roth is a figure that demands respect and adoration. The best part is that she shows no signs of retiring and, this year, the designer is back with another showcase of her talents. The Denzel Washington-produced adaptation of August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom features gorgeous 1920s fashion.

Every character in Ma Rainey is trying to say something with their clothes, be it to project self-worth as a shield or visualize their aspirations. No one does it more than the leads, Viola Davis' Ma Rainey and Chadwick Boseman's Levee...

Click to read more ...

Review: "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" does August Wilson proud

by Nathaniel R

"Deep Moanin' Blues" - Ma's introduction

We see black suffering so often in films that the slightest purposeful subversion of that expectation can stun. You could easily mistake the first shot of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, for instance, for a slave drama. It's a wide shot of a dark quiet forest, crickets chirping, that's punctuated by two men running breathlessly through it, and then the sound of dogs barking as if in pursuit. Two lit torches at the end of the shot, however, don't spell doom but joy. The only escape these men are currently after is communal experience. They're headed for a tent concert where folks are already lined up to pay their coins (a sharp detail) before the camera swoops up to see "Ma" Rainey (Viola Davis) humming those "Deep Moanin' Blues" before a joyful crowd.

Not, mind you, that Ma Rainey's Black Bottom replaces suffering with joy. It just nods to their connection before announcing everything else it has on its mind. Which is quite a lot...

Click to read more ...

Showbiz history: Glynis Johns, Dr. No, Taylour Paige, Pitch Perfect

10 random things that happened on this day (October 5th) in showbiz history...

1923 The great Oscar nominated and Tony-winning actress Glynis Johns (Miranda, Mary Poppins, The Court Jester, The Sundowners, The Ref) born in South Africa. The picture to the left is at the Tony Awards in 1974.  She turns 97 years old today. Happy birthday, Sister Suffragette! Glynis is currently the fifth oldest living Oscar nominee. 

1945 A strike by set decorators turns into a riot "Blood Friday" at Warner Brothers studios. Aren't you glad Daniel's series "The Furniture" on the work of production designers and set decorators is back? I missed it so much when it went on hiatus.

1946 The very first Cannes film festival wraps up...

Click to read more ...