Curio 2020: Ten movies that will inspire artists

Curated by Nathaniel R

Gorgeous AND THEN WE DANCED collage from Istanbul based artist "Pervane"

Each day we're doing a "year in review" list. When Alexa used to do her Curio series we got a fine overview of what type of films generally inspire artists. The well known classics, of course, but also movies with queer sensibilities, movies from auteurs, movies of any genre outside of drama / comedy but especially horror. The magic ingredient just might be movies and stories that lend themselves to visual reinterpretation or perpetual discovery or which are courting cult favor in some way by their nature or their aesthetic choices. Not every movie that deserves mass fandom gets it. We're dying to know for example what contemplative moving American stories like Nomadland or Minari might bring out in artists? What would cartoonists or painters make of emotionally severe but visually rich movies like Russia's Beanpole or Chile's Ema?  And why isn't every online sketch-machine obsessed with Riz Ahmed's face, tats, and platinum hair in Sound of Metal? Whyyyyyy?

Without further ado here are 10 films from 2020 that we think will continue to inspire visual art. If you click on the links you can see more from that particular artist. Most of them have merch shops or take commissions...

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Review: Wonder Woman 1984

By Lynn Lee

Heading into this strange winter holiday season, Wonder Woman 1984 faces a daunting double challenge even for one of the world’s most iconic superheroes.  First, as a movie, does it live up to the widely acclaimed first Wonder Woman?  Second, will its performance – by whatever metrics apply in COVID times – justify Warner Bros’ decision to release the movie simultaneously in theaters and on its newly controversial streaming platform HBOMax?

The jury’s still out on the second question, but the answer to the first, alas, is no.  Wonder Woman 1984 is a mess.  Despite that fact, it’s also surprisingly enjoyable, due to the charisma of its cast and residual goodwill from its 2017 predecessor.  But as the movie that may shape the future not only of the Wonder Woman franchise but of movies as we know them, it’s a worryingly slender reed to bear such pressure...

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Oscar Chart Updates: Visual Effects and Makeup

by Nathaniel R

Oscar chart overhaul is upon us. Let's talk two categories that are exceptionally difficult to read without the usual supply of blockbuster style filmmaking to dominate them.

VISUAL EFFECTS
Given that most of the blockbuster style films moved out of 2020 (without those theatrical billions to win), this might be the weirdest Oscar race of the year or the dullest if they don't nominate well...

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Links

• THR Malcolm & Marie, that COVID-filmed two-hander with John David Washington and Zendaya, is now joining Netflix's stable of current Oscar contenders with a February release; as if they didn't have enough already!
• Deadline Spike Lee keeps us guessing. He's doing a Viagra musical next. WTF?
• The Verge Wonder Woman 1984 is now going direct to streaming on Christmas day (the same day it opens in theaters). It'll be on HBOMax at no additional cost for one month after which it will only be in theaters. We haven't believed the worst premonitions about the future of movie theaters up till now. But if the big studios are now willing to give up their surest billion dollar theatrical titles to streaming (where those same titles can't earn them any additional revenue other then arguably more subscribers -- but how many are required to make those regular $200 million budgets for superflicks affordable? --  then all bets are off.  *cries hysterically* 

Link Roundup

• Advocate straight actors still not feeling any hesistancy about taking on gay roles that could be played by underemployed actually gay actors. Viggo Mortensen is the latest, he even wrote it for himself
• Coming Soon I don't know quite why I expectd Jordan Peele, who got famous in comedy, to transition out of horror films but he's sticking with the genre. After Get Out and Us his third horror feature lands in 2022 (no plot, title, or cast details yet)
• My New Plaid Pants ohmy. There's a pretty gay rumor about the long delayed Dev Patel picture The Green Knight which co-stars Joel Edgerton

More after the jump including Andrew Scott, The Queen's Gambit, A Quiet Place sequels, new film projects and new TV series... 

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