The Producers Guild of America just shook up the Best Picture race as they have revealed their 2020 PGA Awards nominations in both film and television. This sets up, quite nicely, the Oscars.
Read moreDGA Announces Nominees: Bong, Scorsese, Mendes, Tarantino and Waititi
Meanwhile, the Directors Guild of America announced their 2020 nominees in the Feature Film and First-Time Feature Film categories. The five nominated filmmakers are Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”), Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”), Sam Mendes (“1917”), Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon A Time In Hollywood”) and, surprise, Taika Waititi (“Jojo Rabbit”).
Read more2020 BAFTA Nominations: 'Joker' Leads the Field With 11 Nominations
This condensed awards season continues to speed by as this morning saw the announcement of the 73rd BAFTA Film Awards nominations. Warner Bros “Joker” will be laughing all the way to London’s Royal Albert Hall, after the $1.1B Box Office smash led the field with 11 nominations, including Best Film (of which there are only five at the BAFTA’s) Best director for Todd Phillips, and Best Actor for star Joaquin Phoenix.
Read moreTimothee Chalamet In Talks to Play Bob Dylan in James Mangold-Directed Biopic
Variety’s Alex Stedman is reporting. that Timothee Chalamet is currently in the final stages of negotiations to play Bob Dylan in the Fox Searchlight biopic “Going Electric.” The biopic is set to be directed by “Ford v Ferrari” and “I Walk the Line” director James Mangold. The movie is said to follow Dylan as he “rises in fame on his way to becoming a folk music icon.” So, this biopic would, ideally, be taking place from 1960 up until Dylan’s 1966 motorcycle crash ..
The 24-year-old Chalamet is best known for his roles in “Call Me By Your Name,” and “Lady Bird.” Next up, he will star in Denis Villeneuve’s much-anticipated epic “Dune.” Mangold, best known for having directed “Logan” and “I Walk the Line,” has been helming adult dramas now for close to 20 years in Hollywood, which is an unprecedented feat given the amount of paradigm-shifting that has occurred in Tinseltown over these last few decades. He’s survived the onslaught and somewhat maintained his integrity as an artist, even amidst all the changes and obsessions with superheroes and the near-total dissolving of the mid-budget adult drama.
“Going Electric” does not currently have a release date, but expect it to be released in 2021, that is if most of the casting and pre-production has been completed by this year.
Cahiers du Cinéma Top 10 of 2019 Includes ‘Joker,’ ‘The Mule’ and ‘The Irishman’
The Cahiers du Cinéma never cared about hive-mindedness or “groupthink,” they live in their own passionate world of moviegoing.
Read moreChristian Bale to Star in “Thor: Love and Thunder”
Christian Bale, one of the great actors of his generation, has decided to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Read moreGolden Globes: ‘1917’ Wins Top Prize, Now Oscar Frontrunner?
Director Sam Mendes and Universal must be very happy this morning. The Golden Globe statues won during last night’s telecast will most definitely help them cruise into Oscar night as frontrunners. “1917” hasn’t even been released yet in wide theatrical distribution, it has, however, had a successful limited release earning $2.2 million in just 11 theaters since Christmas. It will roll out wide this Friday in mainstream theaters nationwide. What timing! Expect great box-office numbers.
Read moreBox-Office: ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ Earns $33.7M in Third Weekend, To Nab $1 Billion Globally Next Week
Disney continues to shatter records as we enter the new decade, whilst Sony’s newest offering “The Grudge”, just managed to survive its miserable reviews.
Read more2020 Golden Globes: Predictions
I am not big on watching the Golden Globes, but I do understand that many are into them. It’s all part of the inevitable road to the Oscars. This year the Netflix drama “Marriage Story” leads the field with six nominations, and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” with five — both expected to be frontrunners, but the Hollywood Foreign Press Association are an unpredictable bunch and films such as “The Irishman,” and “Joker,” no doubt have a lot of passionate advocates, ditto “1917.”
Read moreNational Society of Film Critics Awards ‘Parasite' Its Top Prize, Greta Gerwig Wins Best Director
The National Society of Film Critics has given Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” their Best Picture award. Are you people starting to realize that Bong’s film is the real deal when it comes to being an Oscar contender? It’s not just a contender, folks, it’s a frontrunner for the big prize as far as I’m concerned. I’ll chime in further on this later next week/
Read moreMartin Scorsese Calls Robert De Niro ‘The Greatest Actor of His Generation'
Martin Scorsese presented the Variety Creative Impact in Acting Award to his “Irishman” star Robert De Niro on Friday morning. In his introductory speech, Scorsese called De Niro “the greatest actor of his generation” whose “creative impact in acting will always be felt so long as there are actors to express their art.” Scorsese noted the nine films he made with De Niro, adding that “God willing, we’re on the tenth, with Leo [DiCaprio].”
Read moreNetflix 2020 Releases Include New Works By David Fincher and Spike Lee
Netflix has had another great year in terms of Oscar contenders. Their big kahunas are Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” and Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story. However, it does look as though the streaming giant will continue to rise in 2020 with films by directors such as David Fincher, Spike Lee and Charlie Kaufman. Netflix decided to start the new year by offering a synopsis for the 21 original feature films that will be released by them in 2020. Of course, Netflix picks up hundreds of titles at film festivals around the world, all throughout the year, so this list will proportionally expand over the next few months.
Read moreFilm Comment's Best of the Decade Poll Topped By Lucrecia Martel's ‘Zama'
One of the best-curated year-end decade lists you will see is Film Comment magazine and their poll featuring around 300 voters which include directors, critics, professors, and industry type. This decade’s list has been topped by Lucrecia Martel’s “Zama.”
Read moreASC Nominees Include ‘1917,' ‘The Irishman' and ‘Joker'
The American Society of Cinematographers has announced its nominees in film for the 34th annual ASC Awards.
Read moreOscar Voting Ends in 6 Days
I am fairly confident that my current Best Picture predictions will stand to be the same, at least up until Oscar voting ends in 6 days’ time.
Read more‘Better Call Saul’ Season 5 Teaser: New Season Set For February 23rd, 2020 Premiere
“Breaking Bad” was quite possibly the greatest TV drama of all time, right up there with “The Sopranos” and “The Wire.” And so, it was with great restraint that I started watching its spin-off “Better Call Saul” four years ago when it premiered on AMC. Any doubt that I had quickly evaporated by the first episode. The next four seasons would make for some truly compelling television.
Read moreThe Best Actions Movies of the 2010s
Here are ten movies — all released within the last 10 years — that tried to change the game, succeeded and made it a lovely day for blockbusters.
Read more‘The Fanatic': A Gonzo Vision Courtesy of John Travolta and Fred Durst
“The Fanatic” will be remembered, first and foremost, for John Travolta’s crazed and out-of-its-bloody-mind performance as deranged celeb stalker Moose. Directed by Fred Durst, the film is a watchable 88-minute jaunt into already-tackled cinematic territory (think “The King of Comedy,” “Misery” and “The Fan”).
Read moreQuentin Tarantino Criticizes ‘Ad Astra' As a Film That Left Him Confused in a Bad Way
When Quentin Tarantino raved about “Dunkirk” on The Ringer’s “Rewatchables” podcast, I completely omitted another segment from that appearance in which the writer-director also criticizes last year’s sci-fi epic “Ad Astra.” The James Gray-directed space drama featured Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” star Brad Pitt in the leading role.
Read more‘Les Miserables': A French ‘Training Day' With Added Political Resonance [Review]
[Review originally posted at the Cannes Film Festival on 05.16.19]
The fringes of France are about to blow up in Les Misérables, the feature-length directorial debut from 39-year-old Ladj Ly. The film expands on Ly’s documentary and César-nominated 2017 short of the same name, which also starred this feature’s three leads. “Les Misérables” is playing in competition at Cannes, which is an unusual pick, since first-time efforts tend to not be chosen to compete for the Palme D’or. Ly uses a cop-thriller structure to tell his story; in fact, his film bears more than a few similarities to Antoine Fuqua’s movies, albeit a slightly better version of that testosterone-fueled film. If ‘Day’ lacked in socio-political messaging, Ly more than makes up for it with his take on three cops roaming the streets of an impoverished but culturally rich neighborhood in the banlieu of France’s Montfermeil neighborhood.
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Adam Driver is still not over "The Hunt for Ben Solo," but there's a silver lining: Steven Soderbergh has already moved on to a new script, and Driver calls it one of the best things Soderbergh has ever written.