It is thrilling to see all these great directors make the switch from movies to TV. Legendary filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, David Fincher, Woody Allen, Steven Soderbergh, Spike Lee, Todd Haynes, Joel Coen and Ridley Scott are all giving us their own serialized statements on the small-screen, hell, even this past year Steve McQueen made the jump to streaming with his powerful “Small Axe” anthology.
Read more‘Small Axe': Steve McQueen's Anthology is a Total Triumph [Capsule]
One of the highlights of this year’s New York Film Festival has been watching Steve McQueen’s new film anthology, “Small Axe.” NYFF chose three of the five films featured in the upcoming BBC series, “Lovers Rock” “Mangrove” and “Red, White, and Blue.” The first two were chosen for competition for Cannes 2020 before the festival had to be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The latter had its world premiere at NYFF and was just screened for press.
Read moreOscars: Can Steve McQueen's ‘Widows' Get Nominated For Best Picture?
At the moment, it is very hard to predict whether "Widows" will garner a Best Picture nomination, all of this despite its 86 metacritic score and 92% RT score.
If director Steve McQueen's film is not nominated for Best Picture, it won't be because it's an action film, a genre the Academy tends to ignore much like sci-fi. No, "Widows" is not an "action" movie; It's an arty-cool, distancing film that is more about build-up than tany actual heist. McQueen's film has none of the high-tension, octane-driven action that the trailer hinted at, it plays more like a snail-paced, character-driven drama than anything else. There are socio-political overtones throughout the film as well, something the Academy seems to be hungry for ever since #OscarsSoWhite ridiculed them back in 2014.
Read moreDirector Steve McQueen Says Some Positive “Widows" Reviews Are Sexist and Racist; He's Right.
Steve McQueen's “Widows” begins with the wondrously set-up image of Viola Davis and Liam Neeson in bed together and passionately kissing. Some of the audience I saw the film with actually gasped at the scene. Was it because Davis is an African-American woman and Liam Neeson is pure Irish white? Quite possibly. The reaction was telling; it showcased how some people are still in total denial that an interracial couple can have a passionate on-screen romance.
Read more‘Widows’: Steve McQueen takes genre conventions and twists them inside out to messy glorious effect
Steve McQueen's first three films were all accomplishments. With "Hunger," "Shame" and "12 Years A Slave," the British-born director proved to be a master at his craft. Not only were his films visually groundbreaking, after all, his background does come from being a prize-winning photographer, but his films seem to be grounded in a humanism that expands on the highly-stylized nature of his films.
Read moreReview: Why even remake "Papillon" to begin with? This new version doesn't answer that question.
When Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman tried to escape Devil’s Island back in 1973, the result was the messy, passionate, and watchable "Papillon."
The decision to remake "Papillon" in this day and age is a rather odd one, especially given the fact that a) these sort of prison escape flicks are a dime a dozen and are steeped in common genre clichés, and b) well, the original "Papillon" wasn't that great.
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Earlier this year, Zack Snyder mentioned having seen James Gunn’s “Superman.” Heaping praise on it. Now he’s saying he actually hasn’t caught up with it yet?