Hello, Gorgeous: Best Actress of 2015

A new series by Juan Carlos Ojano

In this year’s group of nominees - more than any other year I have covered so far - the given space during their introductory moments is incredibly important in establishing the character and their place within the story. Whether it is set in the past or the present, the stories where these characters are situated are framed through the visual juxtaposition of the character and their location a few shots into the film. While that is the unifying theme among these women, they also dabble into different variations of perspective, filmmaking styles, and acting registers. This makes for a dynamic comparison of their first impressions.

Are you ready? The year is 2015...

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Hello, Gorgeous: Best Actress of 2022

A new series by Juan Carlos Ojano

“WHO IS SHE?”, a philosopher named RuPaul once asked.

As with that question, character introductions are vital in storytelling. First impressions are usually given importance right from the page, as those will establish our relationship with said characters. Screenwriters strategize on how they describe a character when they enter the story. Likewise, directors pay attention to how characters enter the story for the first time. Whether those entrances become consistent with the rest of the character or are ultimately subverted as the narrative unfolds even further, they matter a lot. 

Since it is a truth universally acknowledged that Best Actress is perhaps the single most important category in the long history of the Academy Awards, particularly in the lives of its (mostly gay) fans who worship actresses to the ends of the earth, this new series will be focusing on how each of the five Best Actress-nominated performances were introduced in their respective films. Narrative functions, filmmaking decisions, emotional implications, and stray observations included...

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TIFF '23: "The New Boy" and "Kidnapped"

by Cláudio Alves 

A boy contemplates Jesus on the cross, the figure's perpetual suffering a striking sight. Because he's not been raised Christian, the youth relates more to the depicted pain than the iconography's meaning. In a show of naïve empathy that others would read as sacrilegious, he frees Christ, ripping the nails out of the cross. Whether the son of god's body tumbles a wooden fall or walks away reborn depends on the film, but the basic premise of these scenes ties Warwick Thornton's The New Boy and Marco Bellocchio's Kidnapped together. 

Both films consider historical atrocities done in the name of good, unmoored children at the center of a religious storm. Thornton sees a fictional aboriginal boy as a synecdoche for his colonized people, while the Italian master dramatizes the real-life episode of a Jewish boy taken from his family…

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Blue Jasmine @10: Confessions of a Blanchett Agnostic

by Cláudio Alves

It's been ten years this week since Blue Jasmine arrived in theaters, kickstarting one of the most unwavering award sweeps in living memory. After a period where she dedicated most of her attention to the theater, Cate Blanchett returned to big screen leading lady status with Woody Allen's San Francisco-set Madoff-inspired spin on A Streetcar Named Desire. Her Jasmine is a modern Blanche Dubois bedecked in Chanel, a showcase for thespian pyrotechnics so immense nobody can be left indifferent. No wonder so many count the performance as Blanchett's best and one of the top Best Actress winners of the 21st century. I understand and even grasp the grandeur that enchanted Oscar voters, critics, cinephiles everywhere.

And yet, I can't deny a certain skepticism when faced with the achievement itself, finding it highlights many of the issues I often have with Blanchett on screen. Maybe I am a Blanchett agnostic…

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Queering the Oscars: The Delicious Costumes of "The Talented Mr. Ripley"

Team Experience has been looking at LGBTQ+ related Oscar nominations. Tonight we're serving lewks!

By Christopher James

For a movie with iconic nude scenes, the costumes of The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) are just as memorable and titillating. It’s fitting that the Oscars honored the incredible work of costume designers Ann Roth and Gary Jones for the film, which should’ve shown up in more categories than the five it was nominated for. Though the actual Oscar went to Lindy Hemming’s period-specific and gloriously gaudy work in Topsy-Turvy, we’re still cheering on the sidelines for Ripley.

Let's count down the 10 queerest looks from the movie...

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