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March Highlights. April Sneak Peek.

The month began with final thoughts on last year's Oscars (yes, those were the 2015 Oscars no matter what search engines, IMDb, and the web say!) and the final podcast of the season. And then we bravely tried to forge ahead unmoored to any one topic, though we immediately lost our more fairweather readers. Damn you random people who aren't reading this!  Ah, well. They'll be back next season. 

MARCH HIGHLIGHTS
get caught up if you missed anything! 

Random March Highlights!
HELLO MY NAME IS DORIS and KRISHA acting showcases for older women 
GODS OF EGYPT and BATMAN v SUPERMAN bad movies: enjoyable & not
2016 CALENDAR a tentative list
MCCAMBRIDGE CENTENNIAL we had fun writing these!

Returning Series
POSTERIZED checked in w/ Sally Field & Saoirse Ronan. How familiar are you?
BEST SHOT hit Atonement (2007), and Daredevil (2016)
STAGE DOOR attended Broadway revivals The Color Purple & The King and I
TUES TOP TEN celebrated Zootopia and the Best Acting of this Decade 
Q & A returned with thoughts on superhero acting and the best of Australian cinema 

New Series!
THE FURNITURE a production design series launched w/ The Exorcist and Brooklyn
DOC CORNER new work celebrating Nora Ephron, and investigating abortion politics
READER'S CHOICE as you commanded: Gattaca and Cruel Intentions

COMING IN APRIL

APRIL FOOLISH OSCAR PREDICTIONS as we do
ACTOR MONTH A special detour to celebrate men (who get short shrift here, we know)
BEST SHOT SCHEDULE the more the merrier - join us!
APRIL SHOWERS shower scenes
TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL coverage from Nathaniel, Manuel and Jason
NEW FILMS The Boss, Jungle Book, Demolition, Huntsman: Winter's War, Sing Street
REVISITS Crimes and Misdemeanors, Roman Holiday, Witness, Throne of Blood
AND MORE... to be announced

Tues Top Ten: Best Performance of the Decade (Thus Far)?

Today's top ten was inspired by Robert MacFarlane who asked what the greatest performance of the decade was on twitter to a quick flurry of responses involving some usual suspects: Phoenix, Hoffman, Cotillard, Blanchett and some unusual suspects: O'Connell, Culkin, Pitt. But the question naturally lingered because who doesn't love ranking such unrankables?

Let's do this!

BEST PERFORMANCES OF THE DECADE (THUS FAR)
Ranking likely to change tomorrow. Oscar nominated roles marked with asterisk. Oscar winning roles with double asterisk 

Honorable Mentions (No Particular Order): Binoche in Certified Copy, * Keaton & Norton in Birdman, * Riva in Amour, ** Day-Lewis in Lincoln, ** Bale in The Fighter, * Rampling in 45 Years, and many others...

10 James Franco, Spring Breakers (2013) --look at his shittttttttt
09 * Marion Cotillard, Two Days One Night (2014) --transcendent
08 * Cate Blanchett, Carol (2015) --daringly stylized, mesmerizing
07 * Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom (2010) --she did a great thing, sweetie
06 Charlize Theron, Young Adult (2011) --the layers. the layers
05 * Viola Davis, The Help (2011) --smart. kind. important. (and other wonderful adjectives)
04 Matthew McConaughey, Magic Mike (2012) --lawbreaker in the house
03 Nicole Kidman, The Paperboy (2012) --Bless Charlotte Bless
02 ** Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine (2013) --from airplane to park bench, perfection
01 Ralph Fiennes, The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

What are yours? 

Ask Nathaniel. And "Best Shot" Scheduling Notes

Time for another Q&A Column. So ask away. I'll pick 10 questions to answer for Wednesday evening. We'll try to do this weekly. Now that the Oscars have wrapped it's time to get back to something like a regular schedule (though we're still working out the kinks backstage. There's always something happening here at TFE is the point so visit us daily.)

Hit Me With Your Best Shot Schedule

TOMORROW
GHOSTBUSTERS (1984) If you're playing along post your best shot by 9 PM EST so we can include you in the round up. (Amazon Prime)

• Tues March 15th ATONEMENT (2007) revisit Saoirse Ronan's breakthrough before Brooklyn in this Best Picture nominated romantic drama (Netflix Instant Watch)
• Tues March 22nd TBA
• Tues March 29th ZARDOZ (1974) a Sci-Fi oddity starring Sean Connery & Charlotte Rampling & Unfortunate Costumes
• Tues April 5th GREGORY PECK CENTENNIAL Pick either Roman Holiday (1950) or To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), whichever you'd like. They were both nominated for the Cinematography Oscar in their years. (Netflix Instant Watch)

Final Oscar Predictions. Here We Go...

Thanks for reading all year, dear Oscar freaks.  I originally published these predictions in my column at Towleroad but the write-ups are expanded here with more details since y'all are movie freaks and I love you for it. Here we go...

From silly rumors of a bear “raping” Leonardo DiCaprio, to the critical fervor for a fourth film in a Mad and previously non-prestigious action franchise, to obviously gathering but non-impactful support of our years long anti category fraud crusade, to the internet rage and ongoing controversy over #OscarsSoWhite this has been an eventful and often surprising awards season. Will Oscar night continue that trend or feel like an anticlimax? Whichever way it goes, it all comes to an end this Sunday night on ABC when the 88th Academy Awards unspool.

The following predictions can be used to inform your Oscar party or office Oscar pool but fair warning: even seasoned Oscar pundits like myself and other Gurus and Experts are confused this year about some categories. As early as last week, for example, I had planned to start this article with an obnoxiously cute bit about the surest prediction being that the producers would try desperately to pretend that Hollywood was very diverse on Oscar night. I was wrong, wrong, wrong. They went and made another anti-diversity blunder, axing performances of two of the Original Song nominees, the two that happen to be sung by a famous Asian soprano and a trans woman. Can we have a round of applause please for Anohni (better known as Antony Hegarty) who has published a must-read personal essay about the insulting behavior of the Academy in regards to her nomination for Best Original Song.

Sigh. It’s like The Academy can’t help themselves!?! They just dig themselves deeper every time. Yet we can’t help ourselves either and continue obsessing over that 13½ inch naked gold man. Let’s look at all 24 categories after the jump...

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