Yes No Maybe So: "First Man"

by Nathaniel R

Raise your hand in the comments if you needed this month of enticing trailers. I sure did. There have been too many weeks this spring and early summer where too few interesting options appeared in movie theaters asking for our money. Suddenly June's onslaught of teasing has led us to hope that 2018 will turn itself into a stellar film year... and thus a competitive Oscar season to come. We've already discussed A Star is Born, White Boy Rick, The Children Act, Suspiria, Widows, Mowgli, and Christopher Robin. Now we have the latest from Oscar winning young director Damien Chazelle (Whiplash, La La Land) and it's the historical drama First Man about Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) and the moon landing.

As with A Star is Born before it, this trailer lives up to the movie's 'on paper' promise and will only feed into more pre-release Oscar hype. Let's Yes No and Maybe So™ it after the jump...

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April Foolish: First Supporting Actress Predictions!

by Nathaniel R

Amy Adams as Second Lady Lynne CheneyPeople keep talking about whether or not Glenn Close can finally win an Oscar with The Wife... but while we're on the topic of perpetual bridesmaids, whither Amy Adams? She stars as Lynne Cheney in the biopic about Dick Cheney which reunites her with her American Hustle costar Christian Bale so perhaps we'll have to do "make up" Oscar wins this year for past slights? That's just one of the questions we have about this year's Best Supporting Actress competition which so far has zero competitors unless you count Rachel McAdams in Disobedience (but that just opened today so let's give everyone a week or to catch up with it - here's Jason's review) or unless you count fan favorites like Jennifer Garner in Love Simon and Lupita Nyong'o or Letitia Wright in Black Panther but all three of those scenarios are more fan-fiction than real possibilities given the type of roles and movies and performances they are. (They serve their movies well, especially Letitia Wright, don't misunderstand.)

The best supporting actress turn I've seen thus far for women in 2018 (and it's obviously super early in the film year) is from Virginia Madsen who does lovely work as a Christian mom realizing her eldest son is gay in the understated AIDS drama 1985. That's a micro-budget black & white indie, though, so we can't expect awards play unless the fates are miraculously kind to it. Still, there are plenty of exciting performances to come so on the new Supporting Actress Chart where we've selected 20 women who look like possible contenders. At least on paper but we have to start somewhere!

SEE THE CHART AND SOUND OFF RIGHT HERE IN THE COMMENTS. 

Previous April Foolish Articles
Costume Design, Cinematography, Original Score, Screenplays, Animated Features, Supporting Actor and the Prediction Charts

Brief Takes: Unsane and Pacific Rim Uprising

by Nathaniel R

Unsane (Steven Soderbergh)
Synopsis: A disturbed young woman, who is institutionalized against her will, is convinced that a former stalker is one of her nurses.

Capsule: The queer community got there first. Although to be fair when isn't that the case? Soderbergh's iPhone shot movie is no aesthetic relevation like the trans iPhone classic Tangerine. Still, more filmmakers ought to try to make something as fast and cheap and spirited as this thriller inbetween pricier or weightier projects...

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Claire Foy Goes Positively "Unsane"

By Spencer Coile 

In just a few short years, Claire Foy has created an electric resume. After a lauded performance in Wolf Hall, she was cast as Queen Elizabeth in The Crown - leading to heaping amounts of accolades and acclaim. Now that her two season stint as the royal monarch is up, she is ready for exciting film projects. 

Unsane, the latest from Steven Soderbergh, feels different from many of his previous films. Shot "in secret" on an iPhone, it tells the story of Sawyer (Claire Foy), a woman who is involuntarily committed to a mental institution where she confronts her stalker face-to-face. Or does she? Is it all in her head? 

Watch the trippy trailer after the jump...

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Third Actress' the Charm for Lisbeth Salander?

by Murtada

Claire Foy is confirmed to be the new Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo sequel, The Girl in the Spider’s Web. Rumours have been flying about Foy playing the part since the spring, but it has now become official. Foy will become the third actress to play the iconic part of the tattooed pierced hacker. The film will team Foy with director Fede Alvarez, who helmed 2016’s Don’t Breathe. The plan is to release in October of next year.

Of course one can’t process this news without thinking of Rooney Mara. When news of this reboot was first reported last November, she announced her interest...

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