Almost There Extra: Tilda in "We Need to Talk About Kevin"

A bonus episode of "Almost There" (Claudio's Monday afternoon series) this week. Here's Eric Blume on a 2011 race...

There was a sad surprise when the 2011 Oscar nominations were read:  Tilda Swinton did not make the Best Actress slate, despite checking every precursor box along the way.  She had nominations from SAG, the BAFTAs, and the Golden Globes, but Oscar overlooked her magnificent performance.

Three of the nominees for the Oscar that year were considered locks:  Meryl (who won, of course) for The Iron Lady; Viola Davis for The Help; and Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn.  But the final two to make the list were Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs and Rooney Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...

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HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

Though the film year doesn't really end until Oscar night (you know it's true!) here are some cinematic dreams that we have for 2020 on this special night/morning...

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99 days til Oscar - let's get drunk

The number 99 always makes us think of that roadtrip sing-a-long "99 bottles of beer on the wall" which naturally leads to the question... what's the best booze-soaked performance of all time? 

In recent years our answer would totally be Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine (2013) who justly careened right into her second Oscar. Screen drunks are actually rather commonly beloved by the Academy factoring into many Oscar-nominated roles but the list of winners is shorter. After the jump a (complete?) list of completely inebriated Oscar wins. How would you rank them? 

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Horror Actressing: Mia Goth in "Suspiria"

by Jason Adams

To tell the truth it's been taking me a coven's worth of willpower not to use this "Great Moments in Horror Actressing" series week after week as an excuse to go through the cast-list of Luca Guadagnino's  Suspiria one by one by one and highlight every single woman in the film -- there's nary a weak link in sight, everybody is serving something special, and that's a lot of every-bodies given how deep that cast-list runs. 

Thankfully I'm not alone in my obsession, and one of my favorite horror writers on the entire internet, Stacie Ponder at Final Girl, has devoted the entire month of October to doing just that. She's not just talking the stellar cast though -- every day she's dissecting themes and images and if you ask me proving to the naysayers (of which those of us who adore the film know there are many, more many, than there are lovers) that Guadagnino gifted us with a profoundly rich and moving horror masterpiece, aching up to its eaves with feeling.

Anyway Stacie's impelling piece last week on the love relationship between Susie (Dakota Johnson) and Sara (Mia Goth) finally managed to break my back with respect to holding out on talking this movie -- specifically I've had nothing but Goth's work on my mind for seven straight days. And what a blessing that's been...

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The 72 Greatest Gowns of the 72nd Cannes Festival (Part 2)

by Nathaniel R

Look, Andie MacDowell (with Ellen von Unwerth and Izabel Goulart) at a party in Cannes is illustrating for us exactly how we feel like watching actresses work the red carpets at Cannes: drunk, giddy, silly, happy and greedy. 

So let's finish up that list of our favourite gowns at this year's Cannes but before we do that we should note that we purposely didn't include any pants outfits though there were more women in slacks this year than has been the norm. Of those our favourite looks belonged to Margot Robbie and Li Yuchun. Like so...

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