Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair and Fests are Festing

by Jason Adams

I don't know about you but I've entirely lost all concept of time -- is it really time to start gearing up and delivering news about fall movie festivals? Wasn't it just Sundance a literal second ago? Next thing you'll tell me it's not 2020 anymore. Anyway while I was busy slowing sliding down the wall of my shower with a stunned vacant look on my face the New York Film Festival was announcing its Opening Night film for this year's 59th festival -- Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth, starring Denzel Washington and Lady Frances McDormand, will kick it off in the city that never sleeps on the night of September 24th. That's 64 days away! Here's their descriptor of the flick:

"A work of stark chiaroscuro and incantatory rage, Joel Coen’s boldly inventive visualization of The Scottish Play is an anguished film that stares, mouth agape, at a sorrowful world undone by blind greed and thoughtless ambition. In meticulously world-weary performances, a strikingly inward Denzel Washington is the man who would be king, and an effortlessly Machiavellian Frances McDormand is his Lady, a couple driven to political assassination—and deranged by guilt—after the cunning prognostications of a trio of “weird sisters” (a virtuoso physical inhabitation by Kathryn Hunter). Though it echoes the forbidding visual designs—and aspect ratios—of Laurence Olivier’s classic 1940s Shakespeare adaptations, as well as the bloody medieval madness of Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood, Coen’s tale of sound and fury is entirely his own—and undoubtedly one for our moment, a frightening depiction of amoral political power-grabbing that, like its hero, ruthlessly barrels ahead into the inferno. An Apple/A24 release."

Other names of note in Joel's take on the Scottish slaughter-tale of yore include Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Ineson (so basso-profundo memorable at Thomasin's pops in The VVitch), and the always memorable Harry Melling. Meanwhile names not of note specifically include Ethan Coen, who didn't work with Joel on this one? I hope the Coens TM are okay. I have a lot invested in that brand loyalty. What do we think -- will this one get the Coen name back in the Oscar business or what? 

The 25 Oldest Men Ever Nominated for Best Actor

by Nathaniel R

John Wayne just misses the list. Denzel almost double dips. And Hopkins tops the list setting a new recordWe did a "Youngest Best Actor" list a few years back so we thought we should balance it out with their counterparts given the return of Sir Anthony Hopkins this year at 83 years of age with The Father. He makes history in the process as the oldest nominee ever in this category. As we all know Oscar likes some years on his men (as opposed to how he feels about women) but that doesn't mean the golden years. Oscar loves men to be in their late 30s through mid 50s (whereas with women they prefer late 20s through mid 40s) but ageism  works against men, too. Just not as severely as it does against women. The roles still dry up at a certain age... though perhaps that's more on filmmakers and studios than the Oscars themselves. 

LIST HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH MINOR CORRECTIONS. (04/02). And a surprising piece of trivia about this list. Only one of the top 25 oldest nominees in this category actually won the Oscar. Not a strong success rate for senior men. Oscar likes to bid them farewell but doesn't feel the need to send them off with the statue (or a second statue)...

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The New Oscar Actor Hierarchy - Anthony & Denzel Rising

by Nathaniel R

We last updated the male version of this list (see the actress list here) just after Leonardo DiCaprio was finally crowned for The Revenant (2015) but it's time for some adjustments. What follows is a list of Oscar's 34 All Time Favorite Actors. The only brand new addition to the list is Anthony Hopkins who enters the exclusive club due to two new consecutive nominations (including this year's bid The Father) significantly changing his previous 4/1 record. But there are other big changes. Actors who improved their standing since the last update five seasons ago are Denzel Washington (up several notches and a tier due to Fences and Roman Israel Esq), Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio (up a handful of notches each due to recent nominations), Jeff Bridges and Al Pacino (up a couple of notches each), and Daniel Day Lewis (up a tier with that Phantom Thread nomination but the same numeric placement -- the higher up you go the harder it is to rise much after all). A handful of other men are getting very close to joining this club after recent Oscar favor, too.

This royal club is restricted to men with 5 or more nominations. Only the acting statistics are accounted for so George Clooney, for example, is not (yet) ranked...

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Actors Turned Producers @ the Oscars

by Cláudio Alves

We've already posted about many records broken with this year's Oscar nominations, but one particular achievement remained unmentioned. With her double nominations for Nomadland – for Best Picture and Best Actress – Frances McDormand became the first woman to earn an acting and a Best Picture nomination for the same project. This comes after a decade when this feat became incredibly common for male performers. Historically, ever since the 1950s, when AMPAs started to list producers with Best Picture nods, instead of merely the studios' name, actors have been producing their movies and earning added honors for those efforts. Still, it was only in the late 60s that someone scored the elusive double citation by the Academy…

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Review: The Little Things

by Matt St Clair

A movie like The Little Things probably would’ve done very well in the 90’s. A time when crime thrillers such as Se7en, and another Denzel Washington starrer The Pelican Brief, could thrive financially and when actors rather than superheroes were bonafide box office draws. Given how Denzel is one of the few A-listers left who can open a movie on his name alone, The Little Things might've made a decent profit in a pre-COVID world. Yet, given the film’s poor and dated quality, it would’ve been best to let it live in the past.

Once Kern County Deputy Sheriff Joe Deacon (Denzel Washington) teams with LA detective Jim Baxter (Rami Malek) to help him solve a string of serial killings...

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