Contemporary Costume Design - an FYC overview

by Nathaniel R

We don't get "finalist" lists for half of the craft categories so theoretically everything is still in the running for the visual categories of Cinematography, Editing, Costume, and Production Design. Today let's focus on Best Costume Design options for awards voters. While two-time winner Jeanny Beavan's work on Cruella has been looking like a potential Oscar-winner since way back in May, plenty of competition has arrived since. Our first clue as to what the industry might go for here will be on January 26th with the CDGA (Costume Designers Guild Awards) nominations which divide movies up into period, sci-fi/fantasy, and contemporary. That's a handy way to do it, since it's too easy to fall into "Most Costuming" otherwise and entirely ignore the breadth of what is possible in this field. 

What follows are NOT predictions as to what the Guild or the Oscars might choose (craft predictions are here) but FYCs if you will, highlighting six options we think are interesting in the realm of "contemporary" (mostly)...

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Surprise Podcast! Nick & Nathaniel reunite to talk Campion, Zola, and *much* more

Since several of you have asked over the past couple of years, Nick Davis, who was once a weekly regular on both our podcast and his own site (haha) is fine! We spontaneously jumped on the phone to talk last month and recorded it. Apologies for waiting so long to share but you know how December is. So "Happy New Year!"

94 minutes
00:01 Reunited and it feels so good
01:40 Jane Campion's return with The Power of the Dog
13:35 The brilliance of Rebecca Hall's Passing which Nick has taught in book form for years
23:00 C'mon C'mon 
29:30 Quick feelings on King Richard, Dune, and  Licorice Pizza
40:12 Titane's anger and the atmosphere of The Humans
53:15 We split on The Worst Person in the World 
1:08:00 Quick feelings on tick tick BOOM!, Belfast, Prayers for the Stolen, and The Velvet Underground
1:14:00 Hating on Spencer together. We really dislike it, okay?
1:24:45 Loving on Zola together. Get into it, bitch!
1:31:30 "Deleted Scene" House of Gucci

You can listen to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher or Spotify or right here, attached...

Power of the Zola

Year in Review: Best Onscreen Chemistry of 2021

by Team Experience

Screen chemistry is the great intangible of movies. It can happen behind the camera among teams on the same or complimentary wavelengths. Director/Muse relationships often become the stuff of legend. But the most commonly celebrated electricity is the spark between actors that you can see onscreen. Sensational chemistry between them can elevate any genre, even the ones that aren't intrinsically built on interpersonal dynamics. A thrilling duet, romantic or otherwise, can rescue a film from mediocrity and elevate a very good picture to a beloved one. Old Hollywood understood this, reteaming co-stars that clicked over and over again. Modern Hollywood has a much rougher go of this kind of repetition (given that everyone is a freelancer) so we treasure great chemistry whenever it crops up in its too fleeting way.

We polled the team on 2021's greatest examples of screen chemistry and here were their top 16 choices...

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Spirit Award Nominations!

by Nathaniel R

Zola leads the nominations with The Novice and The Lost Daughter in runners up position

Zola, A24's raucuous stripper roadtrip comedy led the 37th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards with 7 nominations. A24 also scored with  C'mon C'mon (3 nods) Red Rocket (2 nods) and The Humans (1 nod) putting them in the lead for distributors. Netflix was in second place with 9 citations, 4 of those for The Lost Daughter. The big surprise, though, was arguably the very strong showing by IFC Film's horror entry The Novice which received 5 nominations.

It wasn't all good news. Passing was given the short end of the stick yet again (why can't people see its brilliance?) and due to the vagaries of juried nominations there are always a few odd omissions to consider. Full list of nominations with commentary after the jump... If there's a link it goes to our review of that picture.

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I'll Link You Last

• AV Club Sue Mengers superagent biopic in the works with Jennifer Lawrence to star and Paolo Sorrentino behind the camera. You may recall that Sue Mengers got this treatment on Broadway already with the play "I'll Eat You Last" starring Bette Midler
• Collider in unexpected casting news Luiz Guzmán is the new Gomez Addams in a future live-action Netflix series spun off from The Addams Family
• MNPP the first poster for Parallel Mothers is never going to make it to the US
• Celebitchy Looks like Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander had a baby during those couple of years when neither of them were in the press or on the screen 

Gemma Chan, Beanie Feldstein, West Side Story's non-reopening on Broadway, South Park forever more, Clue memories, Zola tweets and more after the jump...

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