Awards Season Catchup: "Devotion"

By Abe Friedtanzer

While Top Gun: Maverick has been enjoying a warm reception from audiences and awards bodies alike, another film about daring pilots is flying around in theaters. Based on the 2015 nonfiction book Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice by Adam Makos, Devotion is about a powerful friendship between two Navy pilots during the Korean War. One of them is Jonathan Majors, the only Black member of the unit. In the film's other Top Gun: Maverick connection, the other one is played by Glen Powell, who portrays Hangman in the present-day film. 

Devotion opens on Tom Hudner (Glen Powell) arriving to join Fighter Squadron 32, which already includes Jesse Brown (Majors), who faces routine racism from his fellow Navy officers and the neighbors who believe that his mere existence is stirring up trouble...

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Awards Season Catchup: "Blonde" on Netflix

By Abe Friedtanzer

It’s hard to wait to watch a film months after its release and not be at least somewhat affected by what the public thinks about it. To say that the Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde has not received favorable mentions is an understatement. Still everyone has opinions so it seemed possible that there might be something worthwhile about it, like Ana de Armas’ Golden Globe-nominated performance or the Oscar-shortlisted makeup and hairstyling. Seeing the NC-17 rating and the daunting 2-hour-and-47-minute runtime at the start of the film sets up certain expectations, and, somehow, this film still manages to surprise, and not in a good way.

Blonde opens in black-and-white on a young Norma Jeane Mortensen (Lily Fisher) and her mother Gladys (Julianne Nicholson), who shows Norma a photo of a celebrity she claims is her father. Gladys quickly descends into a manic state, driving her young daughter straight towards a fire while everyone else is running the other way...

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Review: Hanks Makes 'A Man Called Otto' Watchable

By Christopher James

The practice of remaking international films for an English language audience is a lazy process. Though we sometimes get a stray hit like Scorsese’s The Departed, too often we see a film’s teeth and charm whittled down to nothing (see Oldboy, Downhill, Ghost in the Shell to name a few). A Man Called Otto isn't an abject artistic failure like some of those, but it doesn't bring anything new to its Swedish counterpart, A Man Called Ove. It doesn't feel quite like a Google translate job (most of the American-ized changes work), but definitely only exists because it feels US audiences are unlikely to seek out the Swedish original.

You may think you’ve seen a curmudgeon before, but you haven’t met Otto (Tom Hanks). Every morning he makes his rounds, which includes cleaning up his small neighborhood development, closing the gate on his street and sneering at every smiling “idiot” he comes into contact with...

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Oscar Volley: Adapted Screenplay

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category in the lead up to the nominations. Here's Nathaniel and Chris to talk Adapted Screenplays

CHRIS: Hi Nathaniel! I’m looking forward to discussing the Adapted Screenplay race with you. Each year, it’s fun to size up which screenplay category is more competitive - Original or Adapted. This year, the scale is tipped much more in favor of the Original Screenplay race, which has a majority of the Best Picture hopefuls. By comparison, the Adapted Screenplay is much more open, which can lead to a more interesting set of nominations. The clear frontrunner is Women Talking. It’s a Best Picture hopeful that has a really clear script hook. The film takes place over the course of 24 hours, yet weaves the individual stories of its female ensemble into a stunning patchwork quilt of trauma. Yet, it does so with moments of levity and heart. After that, the only other Best Picture sure thing in contention is Top Gun: Maverick. As that movie becomes more of a threat to win the big prize, it feels like the blockbuster behemoth will take one of the five slots here. So what becomes of the final three slots?

It’s crazy that Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery only stayed in theaters for a week. The groundswell for the incredibly twisty and fun whodunnit will likely begin now that it's streaming on Netflix...

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Dorothy Dandridge @ 100: "Island In the Sun"

by Cláudio Alves

"Island in the Sun" | © 20th Century Fox

After Carmen Jones proved a financial triumph and earned Dorothy Dandridge a ground-breaking Best Actress nomination, 20th Century Fox signed her for a three-picture deal. As Baby Clyde mentioned in part one of this centennial, Darryl F. Zanuck was invested in Dandridge's success, planning to make her a screen icon unlike any other Black performer in Hollywood history up to that point. Unfortunately, however, nearly every project fell through, including a remake of The Blue Angel that would have seen Dandridge take on Marlene Dietrich's star-making role. Even so, while absent from the big screen, her fame rose.

So high was Dandridge's profile that she became a target for Confidential magazine's libelous articles. The erstwhile Carmen Jones was one of the few stars to testify against the publication in a series of suits that brought along its downfall. In 1957, Dorothy Dandridge's victory in court coincided with her return to the big screen. Island in the Sun was her first film in three years… 

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