NYFF '24: "Lázaro at Night" asks what you really want

by Cláudio Alves

Treading the line between documentary and fiction filmmaking, Nicolás Pereda continues his collaboration with the Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol theater collective in his latest film. Lázaro at Night can, at times, feel like an acting exercise spinning out of control yet perpetually low-key, a sort of screwball comedy on a morphine drip. It's the story of three friends in their forties, living in Mexico City, where they pursue work as actors and fall into a peculiar love triangle. In this, Lázaro G. Rodríguez, Luisa Pardo, and Francisco Barreiro are basically playing themselves. Or, at the very least, a fictionalized version of their identities, twisted for the pleasure of Pereda and a film that confounds aplenty but is also captivating in its own odd way…

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Ranking Alan Menken's Oscar Nominations

by Cláudio Alves

Alan Menken accepts the Best Original Song Oscar for BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.
Earlier this week, Alan Menken celebrated his 75th birthday. As a stage composer turned motion picture maestro, he's authored a number of original musicals, enchanting generations across the decades. Indeed, many could probably credit Disney's favorite composer with the soundtrack of their childhood – I know I can. For his efforts, Menken amassed 19 Oscar nominations and eight victories, many of which he shared with the writers who put words to his music. To celebrate the man's legacy, I shall give him the same treatment bestowed on John Williams a few months ago and rank all his nods, both in the score and song categories…

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Showbiz History: Milk baths, hit singles, and Montalban's centennial

7 random things that happened on this day (Nov 25th) in showbiz history... 

1932 Claudette Colbert infamously bathes in milk in Cecil B DeMille's The Sign of the Cross, new in theaters.

1947 The Hollywood Blacklist begins, denying employment to those with perceived Communist ties or sympathies. This period has haunted self-reflecting Hollywood since as witnessed in Trumbo, The Way We Were, Guilty by Suspicion, Good Night and Good Luck, and numerous other movies...

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Remembering Howard Ashman

by Cláudio Alves

On the morning of February 19th, 1992, the nominations for the 64th Academy Awards were announced. As always, the last category to be revealed was that of Best Picture and, just as Best Director lineup had done, it brought with it a historical event. Disney's Beauty and the Beast became the first animated feature to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, a momentous achievement that was applauded by the audience of journalists. It was the only Best Picture nominee to receive such jubilant cheer and it's easy to see why. While some had predicted the cartoon's glorious haul of nominations, the long-lasting prejudices of AMPAS against animation made its success seem impossible. Thankfully, even the Academy can get over itself from time to time, and honor truly deserving cinema. Beauty and the Beast is certainly deserving, being a masterpiece of American animation, as well as one of Disney's crown jewels.

Unfortunately, not everyone involved with its triumph was able to bask in the glory of the Oscar nominations. One of the men most responsible for the wonder of Beauty and the Beast was long gone by the time of the announcement…

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Seven Stocking Stuffers!

Our year in review continues. A new list daily.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HANUKKAH, HAPPY KWANZAA to our beloved readers! 

For this festive morning of gift-giving, here's a list of some treasures from this year's movies that would make some lucky recipient smile from ear to ear. Which of these 7 would you most want to kiss Santa Claus for stuffing in your stocking this morning? Do tell in the comments.

(We wanted to include JLo's Hustlers fur or Tom Mercier's mustard Synonyms coat but we've never seen a stocking big enough to include either so we decided clothing was not allowed for this particular list) 

• The 'Scholar's Rock' from Parasite. You'd have to be more careful with it than the Kims were but it did bring them sudden success as advertised. 

• A Sith wayfinder from Rise of Skywalker. They are very rare so they're valuable. Though why would you want to go to Exegol? What a (surreal) dump...  

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