Florence Pugh starts filming "The Wonder"

by Nathaniel R

Today on Instagram, Florence Pugh shared the first image from The Wonder, a thriller from Chilean director Sebastián Lelio. Lelio, as you may recall, had a truly sensational three film run circa 2013-2017 with the marvelous character study Gloria, the Oscar-winning trans drama A Fantastic Woman, and the Jewish lesbian drama Disobedience. He interrupted that amazing run of originals by remaking his own international breakthrough film as Gloria Bell with Julianne Moore which was good if not as magical as the original. Now he's finally back to work...

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Almost There: Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Departed"

by Cláudio Alves

Many actors have long-lasting creative partnerships with their directors, bringing out the best in both artists. Unfortunately, when it comes to Oscar, not everyone gets recognized for these joint efforts. Many thespians don't get that golden recognition for their best work either, adding a tinge of bitterness to their triumph. Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese's 21st-century muse, did get nominated for two of the director's pictures, 2004's The Aviator and 2013's The Wolf of Wall Street. However, I'd argue that the actor's best performance in a Scorsese flick got snubbed. In 2006, despite a lot of precursor attention, The Departed failed to secure an Oscar nod for its ill-fated protagonist…

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Review: Sarah Paulson in Hulu’s "Run"

By Abe Friedtanzer

Is there any project that wouldn’t be able to write in a great part for Sarah Paulson? The Emmy-winning actress is a frequent Ryan Murphy collaborator, most recently working with him in the title role of Netflix’s Ratched, which finds a role almost tailor-made for her as a passionate nurse with subversive aims and a formidable will to achieve them. She was also very memorable as one of the few fictional characters in Mrs. America, a stoic supporter of conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly who undergoes a fascinating transformation over the course of the limited series. Now, she’s back on streaming in the Hulu movie Run, a tense thriller not to be confused with HBO’s recent dark comedy effort.

Paulson stars as Diane, a woman who is devastated to learn upon giving birth that her daughter is afflicted with a number of conditions that will make her life very difficult...

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Nicole in HBO's "The Undoing"

by Eric Blume

There are few things in life more exquisite than watching Nicole Kidman unravel.  And she does so with her usual panache in the new HBO miniseries The Undoing, from director Susanne Bier.  

HBO is releasing the six episodes week by week, so we're currently only two episodes in, but what we have on our hands with The Undoing is a genuine potboiler!  The program slowly lays out its icy upper east side NYC terrain with careful deliberation, only to end the initial episode with a fun corker that sets Nicole into a fiery actressy spiral...

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Will Mads Mikkelsen have another Oscar hit?

by Nathaniel R

Mads Mikkelsen stars in "Another Round"

Denmark is currently Oscar's favourite country in the Best International Feature category. Yes, we know they're not the "all time" favourite country, so don't @ us. But in the past 10 years (2010-2019) they've been nominated 50% of the time, with two additional finalists. Deep involvement in 70% of the Oscar conversations in a decade is a pretty great track record. How long can they keep it up? We won't know if they'll nab another nomination this season until a few months from now but Denmark just announced their finalists. On November 17th, they'll choose their submission between the following films: 

• Another Round by Thomas Vinterberg 
• A Perfectly Normal Family by Malou Reymann
• Shorta by Anders Ølholm and Frederik Louis Hviid. 

If Denmark wants to bet based on past success they'll go with Another Round.  It just won the top prize at the London Film Festival. Plus, international star Mads Mikkelsen has headlined three Oscar-nominated films from his home country previously....

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