Cinema and Popcorn

The "supporting" categories are extremely co-related with the Best Picture race in the way "supporting players" tend to coattail with the movie's campaign for that category, but this year there are many buzzy acting turns that are buzzy on their own. Oscar trivia shows the most usual number of Best Supporting Actress nominees from a Best Picture contender is... 3! But sometimes they are only 2 (88th Oscars), sometimes they can even be 5 (89th Oscars)! So, with the end of the strikes on sight, we should start seeing the actors and actresses doing some press and attending some events and it will give us a better perspective about the campaign that are set to start. Still, a big question mark still is The Color Purple - will it be good? The trailer seems to put on a big show and the Broadway musical was pretty successful, but will it be a good cinematic adaptation? I feel people still have a lot of love for Spielberg's adaptation starring Whoopi Goldberg and I...

Genre: Comedy; Drama Director: Ben Affleck Writer: Alex Convery Starring: Matt Damon, Jason Bateman, Ben Affleck, Viola Davis, Chris Messina, Chris Tucker & Julius Tennon People who go watch Air expecting a groundbreaking sports drama will have a letdown, but Air is a solid real-life story put on-screen and told in a very straightfoward way. It's the "boy next door" of sports drama, but it doesn't mean it has nothing special: there's something very charming about this movie. The ensemble cast is great, the pace is great and the script is excellent - I was never truly impressed, but I was never bored... in fact, it is one of the most engaging "simple" comedy/dramas in recent years. Air is made of great direction decisions. Ben Affleck has offered us some impressive heavy work in Gone Baby Gone , The Town and Argo , but he's equally effective and narrative-focused with the lighter material Air is made of. In fact, I believe Affleck relies most...

Is Ben Affleck 's " Air " the first Oscar contender of the upcoming season?  Early reactions have been quite enthusiastic about Affleck's latest directorial effort - a crowd-pleaser that has actually a higher message to deliver. Amazon has decided to give it a wide theatrical release in the U.S. while Warner Bros. was granted the international distribution rights, which means Air is no lesser picture at the eyes of studios. In fact, Amazon Studios has failed to generate a big awards contender ever since Manchester By the Sea back in 2016 - of course Ladj Ly's Les Misérables (2020), Cold War (2019) and The Salesman (2017) were Best Foreign Language Academy Awards nominees (with The Salesman even winning), but afar from these three and I Am Not Your Negro and The Big Sick (both scored 1 Oscar nom), Amazon Studios hasn't had a big awards hit a long time ago. Is it a bad sign for Ben Affleck's Air ? Or is it a good sign for Amazon? Air closed this year...

Genre: Drama; Action Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood Writers: Dana Stevens & Maria Bello Starring: Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim and John Boyega The Woman King is one of those movies with a trailer that doesn't sell the movie as it really is... and let me say I considered the movie far superior than what I was expecting. Audiences might go watch it expecting an action flick... and they will get it for sure, but The Woman King is much more than that. Go for the action and for the charismatic Viola Davis, but you will remember it for the sisterhood drama, for the incredible acting ensemble and for the score by Terence Blanchard. First of all, there's some historical inaccuracies about Dahomey's politics regarding slavery it seems, but I don't consider they are fundamental for the movie's success/flop. What this movie is really about is female empowerment in every level - power because they have a mind of their own, power because they nee...

 After a kinda weak Best Actress race last year, 2020's race looks insane to me! On the top of my predictions: Viola Davis for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom ! She's starring another adaptation of an August Wilson play (the last being Fences , which earned her an Oscar back in 2016/17), but this time she'll be playing not an wife in crisis but Ma Rainey, the Mother of Blues. While not much is known about the project, it will be directed by Broadway veteran George C. Wolfe and early word on the project say Davis delivers an amazing performance - the hype is here and the buzz is strong at such an early stage! Up next: former Oscar darling Kate Winslet , who plays Mary Anning, a real-life self-taught palaeontologist who falls in love with another woman in Ammonite - it's a Francis Lee directed movie (the man who brought us God's Own Country ) and considering how great he is with actors PLUS Winslet's talents, I'm expecting nothing less than brilliant (and the ...

Few actresses can bring the authenticity of inner strenght to a performance so beautifully as Viola Davis - and she achieves her best performance (yet) at the hands of Denzel Washington's direction and August Wilson's words. Davis has one of the best written characters of the last decade and she makes the most of it with two key scenes for me: the "18 years of my life" argument scene and the scene where she holds the baby in her arms. In those scenes, we see a broken woman who tries to keep her whole dignity when she's hurt and bleeding inside. Yet, in those scenes she frees herself, she finally raises her voice and she finally raises herself. It's a powerful performance and Davis is able to outshine Denzel Washington wheter when they're sharing a scene or simply when she isn't on-screen but you wish she was. It's a role that seems meant for her and she delivers a performance that makes you feel that no one could top her work. It's an ac...

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 female movie stars:

I will write an article about "Academy Awards 2019 Best Actress Race: The Bloodbath" (seriously, I've already started writing it and a study on Robert Downey Jr. too because of "Celebrating The Avengers", but TIFF and Oscar race are priorities now)... I was predicting all these actresses to enter the race and while I was pretty sure Layne would be a revelation (I trust Jenkins) and that Roberts would become an easy frontrunner after seeing Ben is Back teaser (seriously, her expression when she hugs Lucas Hedges is so moving it is Oscar-worthy alone), I was not expecting Moore and Davis to be these well-received! Right now, for Best Actress, I'm considering: Glenn Close ( The Wife ), Olivia Colman ( The Favourite ), Lady Gaga ( A Star Is Born ), Kiki Layne ( If Beale Street Could Talk , not many reviews yet, but early reactions are quite positive), Julia Roberts ( Ben is Back ), Viola Davis ( Widows ), Julianne Moore ( Gloria Bell ), Nicole Kidman (...