Hi readers. I know I got lost in the weeds a bit in November. It's that damn International Feature Oscar race. It really brings out my OCD qualities with those Oscar history overviews (Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iran, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland) so I skimped on other stuff. ANYWAY, here are some of key posts of November in case you missed any. There's one day left but it's the holiday weekend so we're doing the wrap up early ;)
Highlights from the Month That Was
• Ethan Hawke at 50 -an appreciation. The definitive Gen X actor?
• Home for the Holidays -deserves to be a better remembered!
• "Gay Best Friend" -a delightful new series kicked off with My Best Friend's Wedding and Under the Tuscan Sun
• Netflix has too many Oscar contenders - considering the possibilities
• Nicole Kidman in The Undoing -giving us eyeball acting!
• Joan Crawford -Criterion's curated collection
• Cher in 1987 -how she ruled the world that year
• Gene Tierney - a three film retrospective for her Centennial
• Carmen Maura in Law of Desire - the definitive Almodóvar interpreter?
Most Discussed
• Amy Adams in Arrival - almost there at the Oscars
• Smackdown '87 - Olympia Dukakis vs Norma vs the Annes (x 3)
COMING IN DECEMBER / ANY REQUESTS?
Oscar chart updates this week. Then a new movie bonanza as the studios finally release their supposedly strongest Oscar contenders --mostly huddled around Christmas week as if they're pretending it's a normal awards-strategy year: The Prom, One Night in Miami, Soul, Promising Young Woman, The Father, Minari, Mank, Ammonite, Nomadland, and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Beyond that flurry of titles we'll begin our "year in review" list-making frenzy.
Not sure how much time we'll have for older titles but which of the following birthdays/anniversaries would you most like to see celebrated? 10th: Black Swan, Rabbit Hole, The Fighter, True Grit, Blue Valentine, Another Year; 25th: 12 Monkeys, Dead Man Walking, Sense & Sensibility, Nixon, Waiting to Exhale, Cutthroat Island, Timothée Chalamet; 50th: The Aristocats, Donkey Skin, Husbands, Love Story, Horror of Frankenstein, The Wild Country, Puzzle of a Downfall Child, Little Big Man, Gimme Shelter, Regina Hall, Jennifer Connelly; 75th: Spellbound, Bells of St Marys, Leave Her to Heaven, or National Velvet?