Halfway Mark 3: Fav Performances of 2023 (thus far)

by Nathaniel R 

Teyana Taylor (A Thousand and One), Greta Lee (Past Lives), Nicolas Cage (Renfield), Chris Messina (Air), and Scarlett Johansson (Asteroid City)

We already discussed gay cinema of 2023 and favourite movies (thus far) in general. Now let's talk the magical gift of acting. Herewith a handy cheatsheet of favourite film performances (and why we love them) from the first six months of 2023 so we don't forget them later on in the year-end glut. Although will we have a year-end glut this year? Hollywood has come to a standstill throwing the futures of the year end releases into question as no actors will be available to promote their work. This is a small problem in the grand scheme of things -- fair pay and treatment is more important than the timing of any batch of releases -- but it could make for a strange year in cinema (and tv, too).

The halfway lists are generally our way of taking stock of the year. Consider it "intermission". Some of these performances won't factor into our own Film Bitch Awards at years end but that's no reason not to love on them right now...

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Year in Review: Nathaniel's 'Multiversal' Top Ten List & Personal Prizes

by Nathaniel R

Multiverses were the hot trend in mainstream cinema this year with the MCU banking its whole future on the appeal of mirror dimensions and alternate timelines. If you take the trend less franchise-literal, it was even more omnipresent. Multiple films asked us to consider alternate realities, ahistorical timelines, and the multiplicity of identity through the power of both storytelling and our own imagination. It's through this broad prism that I present my take on the year's best films.

I hope you enjoy though it always bears repeating that "Best" is necessarily subjective; We each occupy our own universes when it comes to these matters. Before the top ten, a bakers dozen of honorable mentions...

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Nathaniel's Best Actress & Supporting Actress Ballots

by Nathaniel R

How is it Friday before the Oscars already? So much to do before then including Final Predictions, my own top ten list, two more Oscar volleys, and ten more categories at the annual film bitch awards (my own long-running party of "best" this & that). Sorry to rush through the duet of the categories we live for: Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. But they're up. Among the 10 selected actresses there are six current Oscar nominees but only five overlaps; Hong Chau is stronger in The Menu than in The Whale. In both cases, and as always in her career, she's totally elevating her material. "These are tortillas" is among the very best line-readings of the year. Somehow she's calm, polite, and dripping with condescension at the same time. She's just a magical actress and it's so satisfying to see her finally get her mainstream due via that Oscar nod.

And you surely foresaw that I couldn't have a Best Actress list this year without the great Emma Thompson in Good Luck to You Leo Grande (doing her most revelatory work in two decades) and Danielle Deadwyler, so operatically moving in Till. 

P.S. Though we can't do the medal ceremony until all categories are posted, I think I've made it clear over and over again that Dolly de Leon will be my gold medalist for Best Supporting Actress. While it's abundantly clear that she was an 'almost there' in 6th place for Oscar's shortlist, given how well Triangle of Sadness did overall, it's still a damn shame she was passed over. I'd boot any of the current nominees -- even the ones I myself nominated -- just to have her in that lineup.

Film Bitch Awards: Breakthrough Performers, Small Gem Performances, Memorable Scenes

by Nathaniel R

Diego Calva at the "Babylon" premiere. Photograph by Sthanlee B. Mirador / Sipa USA via AP

In a mad race to finish the Film Bitch Awards before the Oscars, we've posted five more categories!  Breakthrough of the Year features rising stars from the US (Stephanie Hsu, Brandon Perea), UK (Bella Ramsey), Finland (Aamu Milonoff), and Mexico (Diego Calva). It's not strictly an acting award (like the others) but more about which new stars we're most eager to see in another picture... immediately.

Best Actress in a Limited or Cameo Role is also up for the scene stealers who do a lot with a very little like Lia Williams who is so self-regarding and droll as the poet Edith Sitwell in Benediction.

Finally the Best Scenes page is in process now featuring Best Opening Scene (Triangle of Sadness "H&M / Balenciaga" has to be there), Best Ending (The Fabelmans horizon line naturally), Credit Sequence (Jackass Forever's dick kaiju terrorizes) and also a Dozen Memorable Scenes that don't fit into the other various scene categories.

Enjoy!

Film Bitch Awards - Best Actor (and more)

by Nathaniel R

Though all of us have our differences of opinion with Oscar, but sometimes the stars align and we get an Oscar lineup we adore. I'm quite fond of Oscar's Best Actor list this year (have you voted today?) to the extent that my own ballot is 80% similar. That happens about once a decade (the last time was 2016). The one difference is my inclusion of Franz Rogowski, one of Europe's greatest actors, for the Austrian prison drama Great Freedom. It was an Oscar finalist last Oscar season in Best International Feature but wasn't nominated and then got a small US theatrical release in 2022. So while the film is now "old" (haha) it's been impossible to shake for over a year now. Thanks in large part to Rogowski's work. He outdoes himself with this portrait of a man so implacably committed to his own desires that you begin to wonder where the prison walls truly are. In short: he sells that alarming challenge of an ending.

Click on over to the awards to see the reasoning behind the rest of the ballot and the list of finalists and semi-finalists  which includes a lot of performance that Oscar would not have deigned to look twice at. It was a strong year for rising actors but Oscar generally likes their contenders already famous and well into their leading man years.

As a bonus, the "Best Actor in a Limited Role or Cameo" is also posted for your pleasure or scorn depending on your feelings for these performances. This time there's an actual Oscar nominee present since Judd Hirsch took a spot in Supporting Actor with the Academy. Love that for him as he packs such a punch in his two scenes. The other honorees are Tyler Merritt, David Lynch, Louis-do de Lencquesaing, and Julian Glover.