Cinema and Popcorn

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 ...

We (re)start with the sound categories: Best Original Score, Best Original Song and Best Sound. These fields are often associated with bigger productions and (in Best Original Song, specially) animated features. So, there's no surprise to predict Top Gun: Maverick as the top contender in two categories: the box-office smash hit features the best sound work of the year so far, with exquisite editing and mixing of all the sounds in the action flick. Plus, it also features the super balad " Hold My Hand " by Lady Gaga , who seems to be determined to become a two-times Oscar winner. But there are also other big names here: John Williams is back scoring another Spielberg flick ( The Fabelmans ) and reviews praise his work (as always); Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connor (both fresh from their Oscar win for " No Time to Die " song) are back with two tunes for Pixar's Turning Red ; Taylor Swift wrote and sang " Carolina " for Where the Crawdads Sin...

When I started publishing my Academy Awards 2023 nominees predictions, I must confess I was stopped by a huge amount of professional work and I wasn't fast enough so I could publish it before going on vacation. The thing is: Venice Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and Telluride Film Festival happened meanwhile, shaping (and changing) the awards prospects of a big couple movies. And things keep changing! Soon we will have the first reactions and reviews for some releases set for New York Film Festival, which starts screenings today, and then there will be Middleburg Film Festival as well (and BFI London Film Festival starts on October 5 for 2 weeks of screening). So, it's time to recap the big winners of each major film festival until now, hoping it can give us some clarity besides the box-office numbers: SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL GRAND JURY PRIZES U.S. Dramatic Competition – Nanny (Nikyatu Jusu) U.S. Documentary Competition – The Exiles (Ben Klein and Violet Col...

DECISION TO LEAVE Park Chan-wook sets a hugely intriguing (and romantic) crime puzzle that's both entertaining and absorving. Stylish yet it never sacrifices its narrative maze that comes full circle once you enter the third act - here, you can see a director in full control of his craft and directorial signature. Amazing editing work from Kim Sang-bum and  Jo Yeong-wook 's score is emotionally ressonant . Tang Wei is magnetic - she casts a spell since the first time you see her on-screen - while  Park Hae-il makes for an engaging and sympathetic hero (yet a flawed man). Decision to Leave elevates the romantic whodunit genre and sets the bar really high in the international filmmaking field. Still, it is not Park Chan-wook's masterpiece: that title still belongs to the beautiful (and thrilling) The Handmaiden (2016), but Decision to Leaves ranks right after that one. One of the best films you will see all year! RATING: 9 / 10 TOP GUN: MAVERICK A sequel to 1986's c...

Oscar race is on! Studios have already published the release dates of its biggest award hopefuls and the reason I'm writing this piece this late in the season is due to Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon , which ended-up being postponed for a 2023 release date. It was Apple's biggest Oscar player this season and it leaves the newly-Best Picture winning studio with only Cha Cha Real Smooth as the only viable award vehicle for Apple this season. The thing is: Cha Cha Real Smooth is not as beloved as CODA was last year, but I expect it to crack here and there thanks to a strong campaign... still, a Best Picture nod looks like a longshot. Meanwhile, Searchlight's Good Luck to You, Leo Grande was deemed eligible for Oscar consideration since the AMPAS accepted an appeal from the distributor, which released the movie on Hulu streaming service by the time the Academy reversed the Oscar eligibility rules back to pre-COVID terms. The movie, the screenplay and, speci...

MCU put the internet on fire with the release of the emotionally ressonant trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever , which takes place after the death of King T'Challa (and real-life death of the talented Chadwick Boseman , who played the title character of the franchise). Ryan Coogler is back with the franchise's director's duties and it seems his job reached titanic heights! Black Panther: Wakanda Forever 's trailer featured some of the most impressive visuals showed on a movie trailer this year, so far! Plus, it seems an ode to women power: Lupita Nyong'o , Angela Bassett , Letitia Wright and Danai Gurira - these are the actresses portraying the four women leading Wakanda after the king's death.  No matter what, it seems MCU is going right in the Black Panther realm: not only it gives POC actors a lot of room to shine, but its upcoming message of feminism and presentation of women as rulers, carers, warriors and symbols promises one of the most special...

1. Cha Cha Real Smooth Cooper Raiff brings something very special in Cha Cha Real Smooth , which he directed, wrote and starred. A tale about living in the limb when you just finished college and you must realise what you want in life. It makes you laugh, it makes you shed a tear and it makes you think about your own life. I feel it is a very special movie. Raiff is a charismatic lead and he delivers a very charming performance, but the best performance in Cha Cha Real Smooth comes from Dakota Johnson who plays the multi-layered Domino - she's a magnetic presence and she has some of the best lines as the enchanting and flawed young mother.  Go watch it and you'll understand why it won the Audience Prize - U.S. Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival. RATING: 9 / 10 2. The Batman From the many adaptations around Batman character, I must say Matt Reeves ' take on Gotham's hero elevates above all the others. With plenty of space for character development, th...