The Saturn Awards will also celebrate the year of "Barbenheimer"

by Nathaniel R

The 51st Annual Saturn Awards will take place on February 4th this year in Los Angeles. Universal has reason to celebrate as the nomination leader with films like Oppenheimer, Renfield, and M3GAN in the mix. While Paramount is not far behind with titles like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Dungeons and Dragons. The Saturn awards have been honoring genre film and television for decades and they once had that all to themselves but in the 21st century mainstream awards bodies like the Oscars and the Emmys aren't as afraid of genre entertainment as they once were so a few of the honorees each year are also awards player in the more mainstream ceremonies.

The Saturn Awards don't run with a full calendar year so there's always a mix of last year's titles and this year's. Avatar The Way of Water, released in 2022, is the nomination leader this time with 12 citations (a record) while 2023's atypical summer blockbuster Oppenheimer is just behind with 11 nods. Given its zeitgeist appeal, Barbie also competes in a few categories..

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Viola Davis should try Horror

by Cláudio Alves

Coming into its second week in theaters, the new Hunger Games movie keeps doing solid numbers. The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is a not-so-surprising success, reinforcing the franchise's popularity and audience's taste for fancy-dressed dystopia. What's more surprising, perhaps, is the relatively positive critical consensus. Though few herald the Francis Lawrence flick as best-of-the-year material, it's also not counted amid 2023's many busted blockbusters. The cast has been especially praised, including Viola Davis, who is expanding her repertoire to include one mad-eyed, crazy-haired villain in red. 

As Gamemaker Volumnia Gaul, she's the story's primary antagonist, an embodiment of its universe's power structures, bloodthirsty and ruthless. Seeing Davis triumph in the role makes one wonder how she'd do in more genre fare. Horror, for example…

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Gotham Awards 2023: "Huesera: The Bone Woman" Stands Tall in a Stacked Category

by Nick Taylor

If awards-giving bodies serve one purpose, it’s to point curious, nubile cinephiles towards films they might not have otherwise come across. Unexpected, eccentric nominations are almost inherently fun to observe, especially from organizations meant to honor smaller films. Sure, the Gotham Awards removing their budgetary caps is a disappointing move, but aside from Barbie, several of their choices reflect what a great year this is for smaller, genuinely independent titles. And if we’re talking about titles, how could I not jump at the opportunity to check out a film called Huesera: The Bone Woman? Michelle Garza Cervera was recognized in the Breakthrough Director category, and for me, this is the ideal way of rewarding the strengths of this potent film.

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A Haunting in October: Halloween Round-Up

by Nick Taylor

Boo! You all thought this half-alive miniseries was dead for good, but you were wrong! I have returned from the grave for one final shriek to celebrate some of my favorite new watches from this October, along with a shout-out to a surprisingly durable favorite. As I wipe off my makeup from a long night of trick or treating, enjoy your candy and feast your eyes on this!

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Happy Halloween with Hercule Poirot

by Cláudio Alves

I don't know about you, but after the double whammy of Belfast and Death on the Nile, I was ready to give up on Kenneth Branagh as a director. Yet, like Michael Corleone famously said: "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!"

Turns out that what Branagh and, more specifically, his Agatha Christie adaptations needed was a healthy shot of nonsense plus the spooky seasonings of horror. A Haunting in Venice, now streaming on Hulu, succeeds by untethering itself from literary fidelity, twisting Christie's Hallowe'en Party out of shape in pursuit of maximum entertainment. Though a sense of melancholy pervades, self-serious prestige is abandoned, or mayhap sacrificed at a witches' altar. And from its deadened carcass, Hercule Poirot emerges as the center of a ghostly storm, the skeptic anchor keeping this Hammer Horror resurgence from floating away on the Lido tide…

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