The New Classics: The Wolf of Wall Street

By Michael Cusumano  

Scene: Quaaludes
It’s difficult not to lapse into hagiography when talking about Scorsese so I will simply say this and attempt to reign in the fawning as best I can: As much as anyone in the medium’s history he understands that the power of film isn’t in the text. It’s not in constructing an argument like an essay or a speech. It's in the images. 

Like all of Scorsese’s period pieces, The Wolf of Wall Street covers mountains of information in its headlong dash through the years, but what makes these films great are the moments when they distill all that material into a memorable frame. The technical gambling know-how makes you buy into the world of Casino, but it’s an overhead shot of a reckless Sharon Stone making it rain chips at the craps table that leaves a mark on the audience...

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Inception's dreamy femme fatale

by Cláudio Alves

It's a bit strange for me to be writing a celebratory piece about Inception on the movie's 10th anniversary. I've always considered the picture to be a tad overrated, undeserving of the titles of life-changing masterpiece or perfect action movie that I've seen people bestow upon it. Aside from a deadening first hour of exposition, my main issue has always been a matter of imagination or lack thereof. The world of dreams and the human unconscious is so rich in possibility, that it's disheartening to see Christopher Nolan bend it to fit the model of a heist picture.

Even the set design reflects that. There's much talk of impossible architecture, but what we get is modernist lines as far as the eye can see, bellicose fortresses and concrete cityscapes without a hint of surrealism. Notoriously, Satoshi Kon's Paprika, an anime hallucination with a lot of similarities to the Nolan blockbuster, is a good example of how the oneiric world of dream-sharing can be used to explode the rules of cinema. Still, has previously stated, this is a celebratory write-up and, while Inception's creative limitations may be frustrating, it would be a lie to say they are devoid of value.

After all, the most interesting character in the whole flick is an archetype of crime pictures and film noir. She's a trope, an old character type that has deep roots in men's fear of complicated women. She is Marion Cotillard's Mal…

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Shutter Island is 10 ... Remember Leo's "Dead Wives Club"?

by Nathaniel R

Ten years ago Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island (2010) opened in movie theaters. Or did it? It did but what if I were an unreliable narrator?!? Once you start worrying about fact versus self-fiction, well, it can drive a person crazy. Curiously given its hit status (though perhaps not so curiously given its release date) this is the only Scorsese film from the 2010s to not receive a single Oscar nomination. 

Are you a fan? What's your most intense memory of it? I'll tell you mine after the jump...

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Actors Playing Actors at the Oscars

by Cláudio Alves

To watch an actor play another performer is a pleasure. There's wonderment to be found in these Matryoshkas of acting within acting, be it the porn inexpressiveness of Julianne Moore in Boogie Nights or the desperate showboating of Judy Garland in A Star Is Born. Not surprisingly, if we peruse the history of the Academy Awards, we'll find numerous instances of thespians nominated for giving life to fictional actors or real-life stars of the past. Perhaps no other profession is so generously dramatized in the annals of acting awards.

This season, Renée Zellweger won the Best Actress trophy for resurrecting the ghost of Garland for one final performance. There were two other actors-as-actors performances nominated. While we don't see much of Scarlett Johansson's Nicole onstage, her profession as an actress is a central part of the characterization in Marriage Story. On the other hand we see Leonardo DiCaprio's Rick Dalton at work, and layers of performance unraveling in glorious Panavision. 

After the jump a quick trip through Oscar history of actors who won gold playing other actors…

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What if DiCaprio had lost for "The Revenant"?

by Cláudio Alves

Oscar narratives can shape an entire awards season. More radically, they can transform the way we perceive certain films, actors and other artists. Leonardo DiCaprio is an example of the phenomenon. Until he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, the star brought with him a baggage of perceived injustice and honors long deserved but never given. He was due an Oscar, many argued, and the hysteria around his lack of one made every one of his new releases into an event – Would this be the movie to finally earn DiCaprio the Academy Award?

The Revenant (2015) was the production to eventually capitalize on all this hubbub, mounting a mighty campaign to win DiCaprio his prize. It worked and so it was that the poster boy for "Oscar dueness" lost his shine. That meant his following films wouldn't be able to take advantage of his lack of recognition and the reactions to his performances would no longer be inflated by the urgency to award him. But the next big film on DiCaprio's resume after The Revenant has proven to be an even more remarkable showcase for his talents than the production that earned him his overdue honors…

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