NYFF: Steve McQueen's "Mangrove"

by Jason Adams

Well we knew the party couldn't last forever -- it's 2020 after all, and there's serious work to be done. Last week the New York Film Festival officially opened with Lovers Rock, the second part of Steve McQueen's five-part "Small Axe" series of films all set within the same West Indian community in London where McQueen grew up (and which are set to air on the BBC and Amazon starting at the end of November) -- Lovers Rock, which I reviewed at this link, was set over the course of a single night, a single party, and reveled in tactility and sound, in the moment; it allowed its characters to lose themselves in song and sex and joy. Tonight the NYFF rewinds back us to premiere Small Axe's first part, titled Mangrove and based on the famous legal battle of 1970 involving the so-dubbed "Mangrove Nine," a group of local activists who were wrongly accused of inciting a riot by a corrupt and racist police department.

So no, no big party here -- this one's a courtroom drama. And a rip-roaring one at that... Although it takes its time becoming exactly that...

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Vote on BAFTA's Rising Star Award

The BAFTA nominations (i.e. the UK version of the Oscars) will be announced this coming Wednesday. That's during the Oscar nomination voting period (which runs January 7th through the 14th) so it could be helpful to certain contenders (we're looking at you, especially, Mary Poppins Returns since you got stiffed at the PGA.)

But we already know the nominees in one category with BAFTA, their annual EE Rising Star Award, which is voted on by the public. This year's nominees and the 13 year history of that category after the jump...

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THR's 20 New Stars to Watch. Plus Ezra Miller.

by Nathaniel R

Remember when the release of Vanity Fair's "Hollywood Issue" used to be so exciting for its semi-frequent attempts to predict who would be the next big things? You could spot future superstars as well as divine which actors, great future or not, had hustling agents that managed to snag them covers with little actual work to back that up. The Hollywood Reporter is trying their hand at something similar with their new issue, which has four cover stars, two of whom (Awkwafina, Ezra Miller) aren't listed within the "NextGen" list presumably because they've already "arrived"? We don't know. The other two cover stars (Letitia Wright, Noah Centineo) are represented on the list after the jump...

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