What's on your cinematic mind + 'Ask Nathaniel'
Thursday, October 13, 2022 at 11:41AM 
Thank you dear readers for your patience during this past month's quiet period. Your host here is off to catch a flight to Middleburg in an hour but I'll aim for daily reports from there where I'll be moderating Q & As with Supporting Actress contender Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once) and Best Documentary Feature hopeful Goodnight Oppy as well as doing another "Coffee & Contenders" panel with Clayton & Jazz as is our annual habit! We'll also catch up with some other Oscar contenders there like The Whale.
In the meantime what's on your cinematic mind? Besides Cate Blanchett in TÁR, Triangle of Sadness, and Angela Lansbury (RIP) that is since there are other posts to discuss those! Also have you taken our recommendation to watch Catherine Called Birdy yet?
And let's take another round of questions from you to get us talking again.
Middleburg, Reader Questions
Reader Comments (24)
As a diehard Nina Hoss fan (Phoenix is in my TOP TEN ever) I am excited to see she has a shot at a nomination!
Your ecstatic review of TÁR and Blanchett's work in it just reminded me how much you've grown to love her. I don't mean to imply you ever disliked her, but I do remember back in the aughts that you tended to respect her work without ever quite being enraptured. It's only during the last decade that she's risen in your estimation. Am I correct in assuming this? If so, is there any other performer or filmmaker whose work you've only loved more and more as they've grown through the years?
P.S. Safe travels!
A random cinematic question that’s been on my mind for while, but it requires a little prelude: I think there’s some general agreement about the style/look/general feel of what’s being discussed if you use the term “80s movie” or “40s movie”, or pretty much any other decade you can think of—except the 1950s. Maybe it’s just a cinematic blind spot for me (I think it’s easily the decade from which I’ve seen the fewest films),, but when I try to think of an image or a style or a feel to capture the term “50s movie”, I can’t, and it may be the only decade that’s the case for. So: what makes something a “50s movie”? What are the major signifiers that shout “50s”?
Any of these you can answer
Danielle Deadwyler does she have a shot at the win
Jamie Lee Curtis Top 3 performances
Will you go see Madonna next year in concert
Re: Angela Bassett in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Any shot that her tremendous goodwill amongst her peers in Hollywood combined with her last nomination being almost 30 years ago might propel her to a Supporting Actress nomination?
How can I become a subscriber to this site and donate more than the $2.50 option that's via the sidebar? :-)
DAVID S, I've had the same thought about Angela Bassett's performance in Wakanda Forever since seeing the first teaser trailer. I wouldn't be surprised if Marvel throws its weight behind a campaign for her, especially if the film itself is well-received and she gets warm notices.
A random though that popped into my mind earlier today is Alfre Woodard as Lena Younger in A Raisin in the Sun, and I don't even know where it came from. It's not like we need yet another revival or film adaptation, but suddenly I want to see her tackle the role.
Shirley MacLaine has been on my cinematic mind recently. So I'd like to ask - what is your favorite performance of hers?
Safe travels to beautiful Virginia! (MacLaine's home state!)
Any hope of seeing the 1951 Best Supporting Actress Smackdown this month? I keep hoping to see it pop up when I visit the site.
Which is better: Godfather Part I, or Godfather Part II? (In this household we don't talk about Godfather Part III.)
I just rewatched both. I still adore Part I, and I'm flummoxed as to why Part II is often praised as being the better one. (It's good! Just don't think it's *better*.)
Do you think the media attention Whoopi Goldberg is getting with Till (over 20 years laboring to get funding to produce the film and her epic clap back at the critic who reviewed Goldberg’s fat suit instead of the film) will generate sufficient traction for the Oscar winner to receive a third nomination for her strong performance, despite limited screen time?
November 14th is the 100th Birthday of Veronica Lake.
Will this site do a retrospective of her best work? (I Married a Witch, Sullivan's Travels, This Gun For Hire, The Black Dahlia, The Glass Key, So Proudly We Hail).
I love Angela Bassett but the faux Shakespearean ACTEUR mode she can shift into is...not exactly revelatory or nuanced stuff. We love her for it but that teaser trailer gave me what I need to know about that performance. Unless I'm surprised!
Thinking about Ariana DeBose and Jeremy Pope getting their dues recently, are there any other recent Broadway actors you would like to break out in movies?
I'm continuing a yearly tradition of watching a horror movie every night during the month of October - with the goal this year of watching horror films I have never seen before. This leads to three questions:
Do you have any just-for-you film traditions?
Is there a horror film that you feel doesn't get enough credit for how good it is?
Is there a horror movie that you've not avoided, but haven't been able to see?
mmm... I think I've asked you many times before... Javier Fesser's "El Milagro de P. Tinto" (1998), which is like Monty Python, Frank Capra, Steven Spielberg, Looney Toones and Franco's age propaganda documentaries "No-Do" clashed in a perfect blending. The film was a disappointment at b.o. and just warmly received by critics back then, but has grown into an iconic cult one. To me, it's the Best Picture of 1998, hilarious yet poignant, tender, and talking about the scars of 40 years of a teocratic dictatorship, with extreme love for its characters.
It's so specifically spanish that anyone that isn't familiar with Spain and specially the Spain under Franco, won't catch 70% of the references or the fun and puns, but still, absolutely hilarious and always surprising with every spin and turn, and so full of ideas...
The confusion of God’s Country and God’s Creatures - the posters. The titles. I need to watch the Em Wats / Paul Mescal one soon to get it out of the visual queue.
Would it be a good or bad thing if we wind up with FOUR sequels in the Best Picture lineup? i.e. Top Gun, Avatar, Knives Out, Black Panther.
In part of course it depends if the movies are good (and in particular I'm skeptical Black Panther will capture cultural lightning in a bottle again) but it does seem like there are enough spots "open" once you get past Fablemans, Banshees, TAR, etc. that if they all hit we could have the most commercial Oscars since... 2009? (Not to mention other relative box office successes like Elvis, The Woman King, and Everything Everywhere... that are very much in the mix).
I've always liked Cate Blanchett but her last three "major" performances (Blue Jasmine, Carol, now TAR) are on a completely different level from anything she did previously.
Elizabeth will always be a touchstone for people (even though I disagree and love Paltrow's win), The Aviator hasn't been memorable with time, I'm Not There feels gimmicky in hindsight (Tilda's win was so smart), Notes on a Scandal is remembered for Dench, and the less said about The Golden Age, the better. She did solid un-nominated work in the aughts but nothing that makes me fall out of my chair.
So to go from that to giving absolutely titanic performances (really some of the finest of all time) is a major key change, she wasn't always this great. And to boot, she's come into herself as a star and style icon in her 40s and 50s.
Timing is a funny thing. There is no doubt in my mind that if Banchett, Deadwyler, Williams, or Yeoh had had their films released last year they would have one Best Actress in a walk.
I'm going to second DK's observation about Angela Bassett's faux Shakespearean mode. And I'll go one further, which is to say I don't love her for it. I know this is sacrilege on this site, but I think Bassett is more often than not an objectively bad actress. I think she's coasting on 30 years of her one terrific performance in What's Love. I personally think then she overplays every beat like it is a beat, has zero subtlety, and makes clumsy and obvious choices. I take no pleasure in saying this...I want to love her every time. But...she does not make that easy. I chalk it up to her being a person others love that I just do not get.
*won
I’m wondering if The Fablemans is going to be another movie hyped as a “crowd pleaser” that doesn’t actually draw crowds.
I think that the audience award at TIFF was an appreciative thank you to a famous director for choosing to have his movie premiere in Toronto. The other 2 TIFF movies awarded were to a hometown favourite Sarah Polley for Women Talking and for the one they actually liked, The Glass Onion.
My guess is that poor box office and displacement by later films will dilute the enthusiasm for acting awards for both The Fablemans and Women Talking. (Not a reflection on the quality of the films, just the later reception).
I am over the moon for many actresses right now, but when asked, I cannot name a single actor I feel that same way about. The closest would be Stephen Graham, but he does mostly British television.
Who are your top five working male actors at the moment?
(Also, when do I get to suggest a blog topic?)