Almost There: Myrna Loy in "Test Pilot"

by Cláudio Alves

Myrna Loy's an interesting case as far as the Oscars are concerned. She was a great star, a charming performer with a magnetic screen presence, and even appeared in more than one Best Picture winner. It's easy to imagine that such a person would be a shoo-in for an Academy Award nomination at some point in their career, but Loy was never that lucky. Of the many times she came close, we're here to discuss Test Pilot. This Victor Fleming-directed romantic drama nabbed three nods back in 1938. Among them was a Best Picture citation, though no love was shown to the movie's actors…

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Emmy Review: Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie

by Juan Carlos

We now reach this hotly contested category, consisting of Emmy favorites, Oscar winners, and a breakout performer. Aside from Regina King and Cate Blanchett, pundits were trying out several combinations of who would fill the remaining slots, especially with the decrease from six to five nominees. Unbelievable is competing for Limited Series, but neither of its widely predicted leads Merritt Wever or Kaitlyn Dever made it. Previous Emmy winners and nominees that were also in the running but didn't make it included Reese Witherspoon, Michelle Dockery, Helen Mirren, Ellie Kemper, and Aunjanue Ellis.

Without further ado, let's consider the lucky five who were nominated...  

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Berlinale goes for genderless acting prizes

There were quite a few comments the other day wondering why we hadn't shared the news that Berlinale, one of the world's top film festivals, will no longer be giving out separate Best Actress and Best Actor prizes. Instead they'll now be giving out two genderless acting prizes, one for a leading role and one for a supporting role. The reason we hadn't yet shared the news is that we found it self-sabotaging and depressing. A disclaimer before we continue: Before yet another angry comment explosion wherein we're accused of not having any perspective -- 'the world is burning, who cares about movie awards,' etcetera, you know the drill -- we must state upfront that we're fully aware that film awards are not the most important thing going on in the world. To which we must also state "duh!" reflectively and pre-emptively. But this is a film site, and a film site that is obsessed with film awards so please just let us do our thing. If you want to read about the world burning, you're at the wrong website anyway. This one is built for talking about arts and entertainment with a heavy emphasis on the filmed kind.

Now let's continue to the Berlinale topic...

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Emmy Review: Lead Actress in a Comedy

By Abe Friedtanzer

I’m still sad that Elle Fanning isn’t here for The Great and I can’t understand how Better Things gets nothing but rave reviews and somehow Pamela Adlon isn’t nominated? That said, the list of actresses here is strong, And you'd think that previous winner Rachel Brosnahan would be the frontrunner with last year’s tough competition, victor Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) and six-time consecutive champ Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep) out of the way. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel may be the comedy nominations leader, but Brosnahan isn’t likely to eclipse Moira Rose. 

I’ll try to avoid major plot details in my analysis – but if you’d like more spoiler-filled descriptions, click on the episode titles. Let’s consider each nominee…

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Yes No Maybe So: Ammonite

by Nathaniel R

Okay. NOW it feels like prestige film season is about to begin... even though it isn't, not really, at least not in its traditional way. Behold the lovely poster for Ammonite, pairing two star profiles in ethereal fashion, The trailer is even more thrilling. Let's break down the Yes No and Maybe So of it all after the jump...

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