Cinema and Popcorn

Genre: Drama; Thriller. Director: Paul Thomas Anderson Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson Starring:   Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti One Battle After Anohter might well be one of the most interesting films of the year: it explores extremely profound subjects in disguise of an action film. Immigration, racial issues, the craving for revolution and change, unconditional love, empathy, community values and courage... Paul Thomas Anderson delivers it all in what might well be his most entertaining cinematic ride and he executes beautifully - his latest film feels like a full package. The movie starts like a heist film: a group of revolutionaries take a militarized immigration enforcement center and it ignites the first act where characters meet and interact in ways that will influence the second one (which takes place 16 years after) in ways I can't describe (SPOILERS). It takes its time and we get to be amazed by Teyana Ta...

Genre: Drama Director: Martin Scorsese Writer: Eric Roth & Martin Scorsese Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, Robert DeNiro, Jesse Plemons, Brendan Fraser, Tantoo Cardinal and Cara Jade Myers Some might argue that Killers of the Flower Moon is too long and that might hurt the audiences' ability to appreciate its quality - they are not wrong, but I found Scorsese's latest a truly fascinating tale of greed and grief. The director works around the most interesting central subject he has ever handled since The Departed and I got completely engaged in the movie's narrative. Plus, Killers of the Flower Moon is exquisitely crafted and amazingly acted, making it an extremely satisfying cinematic experience at the movies. The movie starts by presenting the greatness of the Osage people and how they got insanely rich by accident and it shows how good their lives were back in the day. Then the white men arrive and things start getting as dirty as the oil the Osage...

Just like Best Actress, the Best Actor race also feels like anyone's game considering all the viable (and quite baity) possibilities. From Best Picture competitive vehicles, to traditional biopics, to highly original narratives, it seems Best Actor race has it all this year, which makes predicting it even more tricky. Of course Best Picture players and biopics make for the most obvious choices, specially if they have a big distributor campaigning for it, but the AMPAS is getting edgier than ever and I could see some "surprise" nominees in the final nominees shortlist like Barry Keoghan ( Saltburn ) or Andrew Scott ( All of Us Strangers ). The first spot goes to the current Best Picture frontrunner's star - Cillian Murphy , for Christopher Nolan's  Oppenheimer - since his amazing turn (very internal, yet so potent!) in one of the most critically acclaimed movies of the year (and the highest-grossing biopic of all time from a director who's overdue for some Os...

To be honest, I had a lot of fun looking back to last decade and selecting the biggest movie stars... So... I did it again, this time for the 2000's! Of course I don't have the same level of insight because of my cinematic maturity at the time (I'm a 90's born after all), but considering what I watched and the notion I have about the older people talking about the 2000's movies, I think I was able to make a fair selection! It's not always about delivering the best performance in order to be considered one of the greatest actors of a decade - it also takes the ability to open a big production movie, to turn a small indie into a box-office hit or work with some of the most prestigious directors/auteurs these days. That's how I made this list: performances + prestige movies + box-office numbers! And we've got our 2000's decade's biggest male movie stars:

I'm still having a look back at the past decade of movies, which means... more lists! It's not always about delivering the best performance in order to be considered one of the greatest actors of a decade - it also takes the ability to open a big production movie, to turn a small indie into a box-office hit or work with some of the most prestigious directors/auteurs these days. That's how I made this list: performances + prestige movies + box-office numbers! And we've got our last decade's biggest male movie stars: