Nicole Kidman Tribute: Margot at the Wedding (2007)

by Eric Blume

With Margot at the Wedding, writer-director Noah Baumbach makes an Éric Rohmer film.  The character’s names are French, it’s lit like a French movie, cut like a French movie, and has the rhythms and languorousness of, specifically, a Rohmer movie.  But, and this may be a hot take:  Rohmer never made a film as textured and exquisite as the one Baumbach makes here.  Rohmer’s films often deal with an indecisive man-child choosing between two women:  there’s a lovely wistfulness about them, but they’re repetitive and limited in depth. 

Baumbach captures the Rohmer melancholia, but he fleshes out all the relationships in the film so they are deeply lived-in and layered. The film is all frayed edges, with unpredictable touches and uncomfortable complexities…

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The Academy loves power couples

by Cláudio Alves

Though Margot Robbie isn't up for Best Actress, she's nominated in Best Picture with her husband, Tom Ackerley.

It's Valentine's Day, and love is in the air. To commemorate the occasion, let's consider this year's Academy Award nominations through the prism of romance, searching for couples among the contenders. Recognizing lovers together has been an Oscar tradition since the very start, from Lunt and Fontaine's matching Best Actor and Actress nomination in 1931 to last year's Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin. Even so, this season feels especially prone to honoring couples. I could find six of them while perusing the list, including in the Best Picture race. Though they're not represented in the star-studded acting categories, they still deserve acclaim and attention…

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"Barbie" Gets Pushed to Adapted Screenplay

by Cláudio Alves

Shed a tear for Andrew Haigh's Oscar hopes.

What many believed was bound to happen finally did. Despite Warner Bros. campaigning Barbie's script as original, an Academy committee formed by members of the Writers branch - Howard A. Rodman and Dana Stevens took precedence as governors, while Eric Roth recused himself - and  chose to uphold the usual rules for IP-based material. That means Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach will have to compete in Best Adapted Screenplay, shaking up the race in a big way. The pink fantasy was the assumed frontrunner in the other category, facing off against The Holdovers as its biggest competition. Now, it's up against a veritable battalion of Best Picture contenders, including titles wrestling for the honor of nomination leader – Killers of the Flower Moon, Oppenheimer, and Poor Things…

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Review: Come on, "Barbie," let's go party!

by Cláudio Alves

What does it mean to sell out? Some would decry Greta Gerwig's move from mid-budget indies to big studio fare as a modern example. This line of thought posits the director's fourth film, Barbie, as capitulation to the tyranny of big bucks, no more than a glorified toy commercial for "vacuous, hypersexualized dolls." But when you're actually watching Gerwig's movie, it's difficult to take the pink oddity as proof evident of any sacrifice of vision or integrity for the sake of profit. Barbie's too ambitious a creation - in terms of text, tone, performance, audiovisual stylings galore - to support such dismissive readings.

From beginning to end, the summer's biggest comedy bursts at the seams with ideas, saturated with the clear intent of a creative mind given free rein. It glows with the kind of resources seldomly bestowed upon women directors. That doesn't mean the picture's perfect, exempt from criticism, or its enthusiasm is without drawbacks. But, even if Gerwig can't quite have her cake and eat it too, she manages to share a personal, goofy, deeply idiosyncratic proto-existentialist dream with her audience. Better yet, she does it with the attitude of a kid, their favorite toy in hand, eyes widening at the playtime possibilities before them…

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Middleburg Day 1: Two Adam Drivers, Three for Cate Blanchett, and a Tenth Anniversary

by Nathaniel R

"Is this starting to looking familiar?," the driver asked as we neared our destination, surrounded by lush greens on every side. Yes, yes, it's all very familiar. Horse and wine country. We've been coming to the Middleburg Film Festival, for so many years now that it now has the kind of nostalgic pull that only comes from the combo of staying power and lovely memories. The festival launched back in 2012. On Thursday October 13th, opening day in 2022, sandwiched between the first screening (TÁR) and the opening night film (White Noise), the festival's founder Sheila Johnson, welcomed corporate sponsors, select press, and Virginia power players like Middleburg's Mayor at a special reception to toast the 10th Anniversary edition of the festival...

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