Hello, Gorgeous: Best Actress of 2021

A new series by Juan Carlos Ojano

From one nail-biter year to another, this year presents an interesting set of nominees with an interesting lead-up to Oscar night. Kristen Stewart racked up the majority of critics’ awards. Nicole Kidman won the not-televised Golden Globe. Olivia Colman was riding the waves of The Lost Daughter’s late-breaking hype. Speaking of late breakers, Penélope Cruz was another big critics’ push and enjoyed a last-minute surge for a win leading to Oscar night. Ultimately, Jessica Chastain - after winning SAG - squeaked out and won the award.

Another thing to note is the dominance of biopics in this category - three of the five nominees played real-life figures. However, that is where their similarities end. Their films could not be any further in terms of style and tone. Same goes with the other two remaining nominees - one originated from an acclaimed novel and one an original character from a formidable master of world cinema. But for now, we are going to explore how the five characters of the Best Actress nominees were introduced in their respective films. 

Are you ready? The year: 2021...

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Doc Corner: Amy Poehler's 'Lucy and Desi'

By Glenn Dunks

I hadn’t expected it, but I somehow became a defender of an Aaron Sorkin movie across the most recent awards season. Unexpected because I was not a fan of Sorkin’s earlier directorial efforts. But his somewhat fictionalized film about Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez, Being the Ricardos, had—for all its faults—a point of view about its subjects and as a piece of storytelling. At least one that went beyond the more predictable birth-to-death narrative of star-laden biopics where performers are essentially asked to pantomime through famous moments across history.

I am sure many fans who disliked Sorkin’s film will embrace Amy Poehler’s documentary, Lucy and Desi. It’s also not a comedy in the way that non-fiction can be funny, but it plays a lot of clips from I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show and more, so it plays more like one...

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ICYMI: Makeup and Hairstylists Guild Winners

by Nathaniel R

Mike Marino, who assisted Rick Baker for years, working on prosthetics for Coming 2 America

The Make-Up and Hair Stylists Guild held their awards this past Saturday so you might have already heard who won. The big winner was Amazon's Coming 2 America which won three prizes: Contemporary Makeup, Contemporary Hairstyling, and (most surprisingly given the competition) Special Effects Makeup. This does not necessarily mean it's going to win the Oscar as it has formidable competition from Cruella and Dune and the voting body is different. The winners are after the jump...

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Best Supporting Actor - "How'd he get nominated?"

by Nathaniel R

The Best Supporting Actor Chart now contains a ton more information and a poll which you can vote on daily. If you fused all these men into one Oscar-Nominee they'd be a 6' tall 49 year-old veteran character actor with 41 films under their belt and experiencing their first career nomination thanks to the help of a female director. Incredibly the majority of this acting lineup was directed by a woman -- an Oscar first...

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Oscar Volley: Picture - Does it really come down to just two spots?

TFE’s Oscar volleys wrap up with Lynn Lee, Eurocheese, and Christopher James making predictions for the Big One (Best Picture). Nathaniel’s final Oscar chart predictions will be up tonight to usher in the weekend.

Lynn Lee: Oscar nomination voting closed Tuesday night but before it did do we agree we were approaching a consensus core group? Taking the precursors into account (minus BAFTA which hasn't yet announced as I type this), eight of the ten spots are close to locked up (in alpha order): Belfast, CODA, Don't Look Up, Dune, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, The Power of the Dog and West Side Story. That leaves two nomination spots for maybe a half dozen viable contenders. PGA went with Being the Ricardos and tick, tick...BOOM!, but as Nathaniel’s noted, the Oscar list is rarely an exact copy of the PGA. Could it happen this year? Entirely possible but I suspect at least one of those two is going to drop out and if I had to take a bet, it’s sadly more likely to be BOOM!...

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