It's '300' days until Oscar

by Nathaniel R

Fassy on the set of 300

A bit of very random silliness since we now know when the next Oscars will be held. With 300 days to go, the film 300 popped into my mind. It was a big hit fifteen years ago grossing almost half a billion globally and becoming the 10th highest grossing film of 2007 in the US. Thrillist once argued it was the most influential movie of the Aughts. It received plentiful MTV Movie and Saturn Awards nominations but zero love from Oscar which is... appropriate. But every once in a while we think about the fact that it was Michael Fassbender's debut film (!) and that director Zach Snyder has continued to have a surprisingly fanatic cult following... so much so that his work factored into Oscar's embarrassing "fan favourites" contest this past season. So it prompted a question: Have any 300 alums outside of Michael Fassbender gone on to Oscar love?

The very Aughts very Digital action flick boosted several careers (as box office hits do) but the answer to that specific question is  'yes but but not my much'... 

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What Other Movies Should Get The Justice League Snyder Cut Treatment?

By: Christopher James

Sequel culture has led to remake culture and now... recut culture?  HBO Max recently released Zack Snyder’s four hour cut of Justice League to subscribers. Snyder left the film in 2017 in the wake of his daughter’s suicide, leaving the project in the hands of Joss Whedon. When the film was released in November, Justice League was savaged by critics and audiences alike. The two hour film had very little character development, laughable dialogue, an unmemorable villain, bad CGI and made very little sense. Sequel culture has led to remake culture and now to recut culture of movies of the recent past.

While we prefer new movies and the classics to reworking old-IP, why not join in on the fun and ponder the alternate realities of what could’ve been had Justice League been 4 hours or had Mrs. Doubtfire been rated R? If streamers have hoards of IP and buckets of money, what other cuts of old movies should they bring to life?

Here are ten suggestions…

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Streaming Roulette (March 18th-31st) Last chance for lots of classics!

Farewell Amor, which we discussed a few times last year, is now on Hulu

Time for another round of streaming roulette where we point out titles that are new(ish) to streaming or about to leave and just for fun, freeze frame them at totally random places in the scroll bar and whatever comes up we share...

Have you seen the movie Tell Me You Love Me?

MONSOON WEDDING (2001/2002) leaving on March 31st
Mira Nair's colorful layered empathetic classic is a must-see. Check it out on Criterion and then read Cláudio's recent piece; It was the first time he had ever seen it...

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Zach Snyder and the Separation of Art and Artist

by Ben Miller

Many outlets are reporting the news that director Zack Snyder is stepping down from directing the upcoming Justice League in order to be with his family following the suicide of his daughter, Autumn, in March. This news has unfortunately prompted some insensitive reactions online. This brings to light an interesting separation between the artist and the art they create.

Snyder has his fair amount of detractors.  I was impressed by his debut with Dawn of the Dead and got caught up in the zeitgeist that was 300.  But, I have been less than thrilled with his contributions to the superhero genre in Watchmen, Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

This has birthed a persona of the man – Zack Snyder, director.  His personal life and character has been shielded by a believed persona of what we feel this man is like, just because of the films he makes.  We assume that the CGI heavy and slow-motion leaning visual style says more about the man than anything else...

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Movie v Its Ensemble

Spoilers Ahead - Many of you have surely taken in the large spectacle clashing of Zack Snyder’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice for either popcorn fun or schadenfreude curiosity after the critical drubbing. Even the film’s fans and apologists have to admit that substantial missteps were made.

One of the most gruesome of the film’s plentiful sins is how it hangs its enviable cast completely out to dry. This is a cast of Oscar winners, legends, and future greats (poor Scoot McNairy!) giving it their all, but still completely out to sea. The luckiest are the ones that are still used too sparingly: Laurence Fishburne and Diane Lane don’t have time to make a mark, despite giving the grim actioner its only laughs.

But the film has a huge actor problem. There are many moments of its cast being underserved, undervalued, or placed into outright embarrassing situations. And there’s one glaring example I just can’t get past...

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