Cinema and Popcorn

Genre: Comedy; Drama Director: Damien Chazelle Writers: Damien Chazelle Starring: Diego Calva, Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Jean Smart, Jovan Adepo, Flea, Olivia Wilde, Li Jun Li, Max Minghella &  Tobey Maguire It took me a while to understand my own opinion about Damien Chazelle's Babylon and I still can't figure out if I like it more than I hate it. To be clear: Babylon is able to reach brilliance sometimes, but it also can go low, very low. An exciting first act with a chaotic energy and a beautiful last act full of heart and nostalgia aren't really matched by what goes in between. It's a mess, but it is a visually stunning mess with what might well be the richest score I've ever heard since La La Land - Justin Hurwitz did it again! Babylon is composed by four parts: a 30 min prologue that gives you a boost of energy right before the title card pops on-screen and then three acts: the discovery and rise to stardom of Nellie LaRoy & Manny's entrance i...

Golden Globes night is almost there and it comes with a lot of expectations surrounding its winners choices. If the nominees shortlists were, in fact, a kind of a letdown considering how the HFPA didn't quite embrace diversity as I was expecting it to do considering how it should try to prove the world it is a different (and more diverse) organization now.  So, a few notes about some categories: I do believe Best Motion Picture - Drama will be between The Fabelmans and Elvis , but the later seems to have a more passionate fanbase and it is a box-office hit biopic (but we have the box-office titans Avatar: The Way of Water and Top Gun: Maverick also contending and the trifeca winning Tár also in the run, so it feels like anyone's game); Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama can go in many different ways, but the HFPA usually go for either fresh new female actresses or titanic acting veterans, which makes me believe it will be a Ana de Armas vs. Cate Blanchett ... but I exp...

  GOLDEN GLOBES 2023 NOMINATIONS The absence of  Women Talking  in Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Director and in the acting categories was a major shock for me, alongside the snub of the supporting men of The Fabelmans. I was expecting the HFPA to go for a more diverse and gender-equality friendly picks, but I was wrong. Still can't believe they still picked Brad Pitt ( Babylon ) despite the domestic abuse allegations these days. About the selection of Ana de Armas ( Blonde ) and Olivia Colman ( Empire of Light ) despite their movies flopped - well, I would be fine with them but their inclusion meant Danielle Deadwyler to be snubed by her astonishing performance in  Till  (and that was simply criminal). Sad for no  Cha Cha Real Smooth  here, but pleased to see some love for  The Menu  and Dolly De Leon ( Triangle of Sadness ), although I didn't like Triange of Sadness (she was the best thing about the movie, by far). So, no big shocks he...

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE The most open Oscar races of the year seem to be the supporting acting ones. The category placement of Michelle Williams as a lead for The Fabelmans opened a huge gap in the Best Supporting Actress predictions and... God!... How exciting it really is! Sarah Polley's Women Talking has been collecting rave reviews since the day it first hit fall film festival circuit, with both Claire Foy and Jessie Buckley receiving some of the best reviews of their careers and the movie's MVPs status. Since Foy got THAT ATROCIOUS SNUB for First Man (2018) despite being in a career's sweet spot thanks to the acclaim (and popularity and awards love) of The Crown TV series, then an Academy Award nomination would not only be a recognition for her performance, but also an apology from the AMPAS. As for Jessie Buckley, she can benefit from some career hit: an impressive breakthrough performance in Beast (2017), followed by an Oscar worthy (but snubed) turn ...

In the previous posts, it was all about the sound categories. Today it's all about the "visual" categories: editing, cinematography, production design, costume design, makeup & hair and visual effects. Epic productions fare well in these races (usually), but there's no way to deny a spot to smaller or even international productions with widespread critical acclaim. Big players in these fields usually translate to Best Picture love (like Dune , most recently, for example), but this year feels a bit overcrowded with big quality productions - Avatar: The Way of Water , Black Panther: Wakanda Forever , Babylon , Elvis ,  Top Gun: Maverick , The Fabelmans and The Batman . Still, I feel Netflix's All Quiet On the Western Front might have a nice show here: war movies tend to do good in these categories and since Netflix lost its biggest Oscar horses due to less enthusiastic buzz-killing (non-enthusiastic) critical receptions for Bardo , White Noise and Blonde , I ...