Venice 2024: Nicole Kidman in "Babygirl"

by Elisa Giudici

Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson in "Babygirl" (Credit: Niko Tavernise)

I believe that many of the negative reactions about Nicole Kidman's newest film Babygirl stem from a genuine misunderstanding. Personally, I find the polarizing erotic drama to be one of the most successful films in competition, as long as one understands and accepts where it stands and what it's aiming for...

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Interview: Dolly De Leon (Triangle of Sadness). She's the captain, now!

by Nathaniel R

Dolly De Leon

Dolly de Leon didn't know what was coming when she auditioned for an international feature from Swedish auteur Ruben Östlund, pre-pandemic. Two plus years later, thirty-one years after her film debut, she was an international hit, winning best in show reviews for his latest feature Triangle of Sadness. No small feat given that the film won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. Even after the film's splashy premiere the kudos kept coming for Dolly's work. In recent months she's been up for the Golden Globe, the Dorians, the London Critics Circle Film Awards, and other prizes. She also shared the Supporting Performance win at the prestigious Los Angeles Film Critics Awards in a tie with Oscar's Best Supporting Actor frontrunner Ke Huy Quan.

We had the pleasure of spending time with her at the Middleburg Film Festival earlier in the season. We enlisted the help of our own TFE contributor Juan Carlos Ojano to prepare for our interview, since he's well acquainted with the film industry in the Philippines. In our conversation we talked about her experience doing her first intimate scene, whether or not she expected Triangle of Sadness to blow up, and her dream role for the future. But we started our conversation by showing her a picture from her very first movie that Juan Carlos sent us as an ice breaker; Ice successfully broken!

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Split Decision: "Triangle of Sadness"

No two people feel the same exact way about any film. Thus, Team Experience is pairing up to debate the merits of each of the big awards season movies this year. Here’s Nathaniel R and Cláudio Alves getting shipwrecked... 

CLÁUDIO: Like many international cinephiles, my first encounter with the work of Swedish director Ruben Östlund was his 2014's breakthrough hit Force Majeure. Unlike others, however, I was mildly disappointed by what I encountered. Don't get me wrong, the main set piece that ignites the narrative's conflicts is astounding, the acting marvelous, and the staging coldly precise. My main issue was with the screenplay, which I found to be shallower than the film's reputation suggested, smugly superior, inflated with airs of self-importance without much to show for it. Comparisons to the similarly structured The Loneliest Planet didn't help, though I admit I might be one of the only ardent fans of that Julia Loktev picture.

In any case, I found myself excited by Östlund's potential, hoping to be dazzled by subsequent efforts now that he seemed poised to become one of Europe's most acclaimed filmmakers. But, sadly, such miracles did not come to pass. Not for me, at the very least…

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Awards Season Catchup: ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’

By Abe Friedtanzer

Being an Oscar completist means tracking down every title that may or may not get nominated, including the contenders for Best Original Song. In addition to nominations from the Critics Choice Association and the Golden Globes, Taylor Swift’s “Carolina” is officially on the Oscar shortlist. It’s the end credits song in Where the Crawdads Sing, based on the 2018 novel by Della Owens, a period trial drama with plenty of flashbacks and North Carolina drawls…

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Which young male actors will factor into awards season?

by Nathaniel R

Gabriel Labelle in "The Fabelmans"

While rising stars are a semi-annual event in the female acting categories, Oscar voters have long been resistant to young male actors. The statistics bear this out. For whatever reason (cough *the patriarchy*) voters prefer their women young / full of potential and their men older / with lots of achievements already under their belt. Yes, those stats are beginning to change. For example, Oscar voters have been much kinder to 40something to 60something actresses in the past couple of decades than they previously were. With the men, though, things have stayed much the same. 

Once men enter their 30s, awards bodies tend to take them seriously but before the 30something years it definitely takes a very special combination of the right role in the right film in the right year and with the right co-stars. Do you think any of these men will make it this year? Here are eight actors, thirty or younger, that are in the conversation or adjacent to it this season...

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