Kelly Reichardt's "Showing Up" is one for the fans

by Cláudio Alves

As the resident Kelly Reichardt fanboy around these parts, it's my duty to inform the TFE readership that Showing Up is currently available on PVOD, and it's another smashing success from the director. Admittedly, such effusive verbiage is at odds with the film proper. You see, Reichardt has produced a film of such self-evident smallness it seems to arrive pre-labeled as a minor work in the auteur's canon. Then again, all of the director's features could be similarly described by those misaligned with her insularly specific wavelength. No Kelly Reichardt film feels big, not even when containing sprawling landscapes, multiple storylines, or the ghost of past lives haunting present earth.

And yet, Showing Up takes things to another level, closing itself in a cantankerous mood and hyper-precise milieu, playing with anti-dramatics to the point it feels like a provocation directed at those who don't get it. In other words, this may be Reichardt's version of 'one for the fans'...

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What's next for the recently Oscar-nominated: Pt 2- Actresses

With the 95th Academy Awards wrapped, it's time to look to the future. We already talked about what's next for last season's most honored directors so let's turn to our favourite subject: Actresses. What's in store for the recently nominated? Read on...

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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.

Oscar Volley: Supporting Actress confounds and divides

Team Experience is discussing the various Oscar categories. Here's Eurocheese, Mark Brinkerhoff, and Cláudio Alves on the volatile Best Supporting Actress race.

EUROCHEESE: Hello Gents - With the SAG awards throwing us a curveball, this might be the most exciting race this year! I have no idea who's taking the win. Before we get into it, any thoughts on these five nominees? 

MARK: Any thoughts? All the thoughts!

I honestly did not expect for this race to be as exciting and, dare I say, unpredictable as it appears to be now. A month ago, it seemed like Angela Bassett’s to lose, a long coronation to a storied—and underrewarded—career, and now…I don’t know what to make of it, following Kerry Condon’s win at BAFTA and Jamie Lee Curtis’ gobsmacking upset at SAG...

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New Trivia via the 95th Oscar Nominations!

By Nathaniel R 

JUDD HIRSCH, record-breaker!

It used to be that Oscar experts were few and far between but now you throw a rock and you hit one! Are you wielding elaborate spreadsheets to track things at home? If so we salute you in solidarity and ask for your help in fleshing this out. We will add to this list as new trivia occurs to us or is told to us by you (or others) but for now here’s some “firsts” and rarities and other interesting factoids from the nominations for the 95th Oscars...

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