Brendan Fraser has the Girth

by Cláudio Alves

As one of the world's foremost The Whale haters, I was ready to despise whatever Brendan Fraser was up to in Killers of the Flower Moon. Indeed, part of me relishes how many have turned against our current Best Actor champion, eviscerating him for going ridiculously over-the-top in his brief scenes as William Hale's attorney. And yet, some of the criticism feels unfair, failing to recognize the character's purpose within the film's sprawling canvas and bizarre tonal twists into dark humor. After despising his lauded work under Aronofsky, I now find myself an unlikely Fraser apologist. 

I'm not alone in this, of course. Apple defends him with an appeal to literary authority, and Martin Scorsese has recently said that what the actor did with the role was perfect. In the master's own words, he had that girth...

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Best Costume Design is all about Big Hats

by Cláudio Alves

It's always interesting to find links between otherwise disconnected pictures, whether in the context of a film festival or just the calendar year. Sometimes, the awards season can suggest interesting threads uniting films by virtue of competition-born comparison. Note that one need not be very intellectual about this, and it's always good to have some fun about the race. This year, for example, I couldn't help but notice how three of our likely nomination leaders are bedecked in exuberant millinery, with Killers of the Flower Moon taking the cake as 2023's best hat movie. Or, at the very least, 2023's most hats movie.

And, as we all know, when it comes to the Academy, "most" often trumps "best." Not that Jacqueline West is locked to win Best Costume Design for the Scorsese movie. After all, even in hat terms alone, there's stiff competition from Barbie and Oppenheimer…

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Category Confusion: LEAD or SUPPORTING?

by Cláudio Alves

The Gotham nominations caused quite a stir among the Film Experience readership. Going through the comments section, the matter at hand is category fraud: who is and isn't guilty of perpetrating it going into the awards season? For instance, I would have categorized Ryan Gosling as a secondary lead in Barbie, but I've been convinced by the comments that he fits better in supporting. Other cases discussed included Binoche's Gotham-nominated work in Taste of Things, Whishaw in Passages, Hüller in Zone of Interest, and beyond. 

So, why not relocate that discussion here while having fun with polls? You get to vote, deciding on each performer's rightful placement…

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Review: "Killers of the Flower Moon" is a Monument of Sorrow

by Cláudio Alves

Killers of the Flower Moon starts in death, but not of flesh or person. The Frontier is no more, the West has been won, and the Track of Tears travailed when the Osage tribe gathers to mourn a way of life. Their traditions, their beliefs, their language are moving into the twilight, so they bury a sacred pipe and give themselves a symbol to weep over and express unsurmountable grief. As if listening to the lament, the earth responds. Black oil bursts from the ground, a geyser of wealth for the People from the Middle Waters brought to this Oklahoma barrenness after settlers pushed them asunder and away from the Great Plains. A pittance place once thought worthless reveals itself a treasure, and, overnight, the Osage Nation becomes the richest per capita population in the world.

So starts Martin Scorsese's latest opus, a title that, even within the context of his hallowed filmography, feels like a monumental achievement…

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Cannes: Scorsese triumphs again with "Killers of the Flower Moon"

Elisa Giudici reporting from Cannes

Leonardo DiCaprio & Lily Gladstone in "Killers of the Flower Moon"

Dear Martin Scorsese, why did you shy away from the main competition for the Palm d’Or? Needless to say, someone with your career and pedigree has almost nothing to lose even when pitted against younger, eager colleagues at a festival. And Killers of the Flower Moon is exactly the kind of movie that is sure to impress. First of all, it is carried with the energy and politics you would expect from someone younger than Scorsese. His trademark intensity is present again. He's ardent to share the forgotten history of how a group of white men in the 1920s orchestrated a slow genocide of the Osage tribe -- at attempt to eradicate them from a land filled with oil. It is not a war but a vicious scheme because the Osage tribe was given the land before its real value was discovered.

As a result, the young USA decides to play nice with the native people, at first, making them immensely wealthy...

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