Ranking Roger Deakins' Oscar Nominations

by Cláudio Alves

Roger Deakins on the set of EMPIRE OF LIGHT | © Searchlight Pictures

Since two categories merged into one, no director of photography has amassed as many Oscar nominations as Roger Deakins. The British cinematographer earned his 16th nod this year for Sam Mendes' Empire of Light, having previously won for 1917 and Blade Runner 2049. His career spans continents and six decades, encompassing projects as varied as a Marvin Gaye video clip and pioneering work in animated cinema. What started as an early interest in the possibilities of digital filmmaking has turned into a veritable pursuit of innovation, bringing classic technique to virtual spaces. A visionary, a pioneer, a living legend, Roger Deakins is one of a kind.

To celebrate the master, let's look back at his many Oscar nominations, ranking them along the way. After all, in times of awards fever, everyone loves a good list…

Click to read more ...

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...

Click to read more ...

Venice at Home: Day 9 – Best Actors of Festivals Past

by Cláudio Alves

Neither Vahid Jalilvand nor Andrew Dominik is a newbie when it comes to the Venice Film Festival. Though the Iranian director never before competed for the Golden Lion, his films have won many prizes at the Lido, screening within the festival's parallel sections. Maybe Beyond the Wall can repeat the feat and nab some trophy from Julianne Moore's jury. As for Andrew Dominik, his adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates' Blonde is already the topic of much controversy. Critics are divided regarding the movie's depiction of sexual exploitation – some see it as a ruthless dissection of celebrity culture, and others lament another voyeuristic desecration of Marilyn Monroe's personhood, intimacy, her legacy. 

For the Venice at Home program, let's remember two instances when these cineastes directed their leading men towards acting prizes. No Date, No Signature won Navis Mohammadzadeh the Venice Horizons Award in 2017. Ten years before that, Brad Pitt earned the Volpi Cup for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford…

Click to read more ...

I'll Link to That

• Vulture "Do they really have enough champagne in Death on the Nile to fill the Nile?" funny must-read!
• IndieWire Hilarious marrieds Megan Mullaly & Nick Offerman will be hosting Spirit Awards
• MNPP a preview of NYC's annual "Rendezvous with French Cinema"
• Forbes Highest Paid Entertainers - annual list topped by Peter Jackson who sold part of his vfx firm WETA. He's now the third director to become a billionaire (after Spielberg and George Lucas)

Rumors about Blonde, Lady Gaga's congratulations, Flee's record-breaking Oscar triple, Dolly Parton's generosity, and more after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Three Questions in the News

by Murtada 

As Carrie Bradshaw would say, some of today's movie news got us thinking. The news offered more perplexion than usual. We'll present you with the questions and maybe you can help with the answers. Or just join in the bewilderment:

How many franchises can one actor be in?
You’d think being Superman would be enough. But no Henry cavill is joining Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 6. No details about who he’s playing. Simon Pegg, and Rebecca Ferguson are expected to be back for the new adventure.  Jeremy Renner is not.

Who is starring in Jennifer Kent’s follow up to The Babadook? We know who Sam Claflin is, as we’ve seen him in a few films including The Hunger Games. But he’s not the lead, the new film titled The Nightingale is set in Tasmania in the 1820s, and follows a young Irish female convict whose family is murdered by a British soldier. With the help of an Aboriginal tracker, she heads for the wilderness in hope of exacting revenge. Have you heard of Aisling Franciosi? Well she nabbed the coveted lead role. Digging into her IMDB we found out that she played Lyanna Stark in Game of Thrones, you know in that famous flashback scene. She was also in Ken Loach’s Jimmy’s Hall (2014). Can’t say we remember either performance, but we are very excited to see whatever Kent chooses to show us.

And finally buried in a news item announcing Andrew Dominick's new film; War Party which is billed as an action-adventure movie about Navy SEALs that will star Tom Hardy, is this nugget about his long gestating Marilyn Monroe project, Blonde:

he has been trying to get his Marilyn Monroe movie Blonde off the ground [], but has struggled to find a leading lady everyone can agree on

Hmmm. The names that have been publicly shared so far were Naomi Watts in the first iteration and then a few years later Jessica Chastain. We wonder who else was up for playing Marilyn and was deemed not appropriate?