Will black-and-white dominate Best Cinematography?

by Cláudio Alves

I don't know about you, but I love how démodé film styles are slowly making a comeback. Black-and-white cinematography and Academy aspect ratio, for instance, have become something of a fad. I'd love for it to persist until the techniques go beyond boutique indie distributors and prestige awards bait, returning, at long last, to the forefront of mainstream moviemaking. Sure, it's a bit of a pipe dream, but one can hope. At the very least, AMPAS is enamored by the trend. Their last Best Cinematography winner, Mank, was in silvery monochrome and, for the past three years, there's been at least one black-and-white film nominated in the category. Considering the prominent contenders of the season, this year will surely prolong the tendency.

Indeed, we might even have a majority of black-and-white movies in the Best Cinematography lineup. Don't believe it? Check this out… 

Click to read more ...

"Passing" and "The Lost Daughter" lead Gotham Awards nominations

by Nathaniel R

It was a good year for forthcoming Netflix content helmed by actresses turned directors with the juries of the Gotham Awards. Rebecca Hall's artful black and white drama Passing and Maggie Gyllenhaal's artful thorny adaptation of the novel The Lost Daughter led the nominations. They'll hit Netflix on November 10th and December 31st respectively. With both the Gotham Awards and the often slighlty more mainstream Spirit Awards it can be hard to know exactly what is eligible. Usually budgets make all the difference in film (for example Power of the Dog was ineligible) which creates a fuzzymath accounting line between mainstream and 'indie. But how do they decide with television? Did they not like Mare of Easttown (which scored zero nominations) or was it just not eligible though its chief Emmy rival The Queens Gambit obviously was since Anya Taylor Joy was nominated. 

Nominations and commentary are after the jump...

Click to read more ...

NYFF: "C'mon C'mon"

by Jason Adams

Mike Mills, the maestro of what actually matters, strikes excellence yet again with C'mon C'mon, his latest film screening at NYFF this week. How in the ever-loving world is this only his fourth -- yes you read that right, his fourth! -- feature film? The math don't lie: Thumbsucker, to the grand Beginners, to the masterpiece 20th Century Women, and now C'mon C'mon, and Mills' ability to laser right in on the emotional truth of any and every moment remains unparalleled. Jettisoning all the Joker toxicity from his body, the film stars Joaquin Phoenix, thankfully in his sweet smiling airiest tender boy mode. This is the Joaquin I personally signed up for, whispering his feelings into a telephone with wet eyes. What a heartfelt symphony this whole experience is; a gift..

Click to read more ...

Rapid Fire Yes No Maybe So: "The Matrix Resurrections," "C'mon C'mon," "Don't Look Up" and More

Nathaniel is heading back from Venice. While he got to watch so many great upcoming films, all we’re left with are trailers. Christopher James is taking over and giving all the recent trailers the Yes No Maybe So treatment.

Neo and Trinity are back in the first trailer for "The Matrix Resurrections," opening this December.

By: Christopher James

What a wild week of movie trailers! A lot of films seemed to want to capitalize on festival buzz and release trailers alongside glowing reviews. However, some blockbusters, most notably The Matrix Resurrections, thought this week would be the best week to own the internet. Either which way, it’s nice to be excited to go to the movies again and it looks like there is a lot of great stuff on the horizon.

Let’s do some Yes No Maybe So after the jump…

Click to read more ...

Come On Come On, C'Mon C'mon

by Jason Adams

I'm still not sure what to make of the movie year that's been 2021 -- everything still feels to me of a piece with 2020 to be honest, for reasons I am sure you can extrapolate. I have only been inside a movie theater a handful of times and those have been for press screenings or for a cannot-miss repertory screening (like when The Paris here in NYC screened Call Me By Your Name a few weeks ago); that is to say I still haven't been to see a single new movie in a theater with a crowd of normals since March of last year. Add on the fact that I saw several of this fall's big movies this past winter at Sundance (my first), while several of this fall's big movies were first meant to be last fall's big movies, and I think this has given the current moment a formlessness that I'm having trouble delineating.

Anyway my ultimate point is I was going to call Mike Mills' new film C'Mon C'Mon my most anticipated film of the fall, but I actually have no idea what that means anymore. So let's just say I really really really really really wanna see this movie. So much so that doing any "Yes No Maybe So" for this morning's just-dropped first look trailer would be a total and complete farce. I am one thousand percent down for this. I mean did you SEE 20th Century Women? 

C'Mon C'Mon will be playing NYFF in a few weeks and then will presumably be out by the end of the year but A24 hasn't set a date yet. What are your thoughts on the trailer?