Top Ten Movies of 2015

1- Carol

Palpable emotions dripping from every single frame. And what beautiful meticously constructed frames they are. Carol gives us the best acting duet of this year, maybe this decade, in Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.

2- Girlhood

3- 45 Years

4- Sicario

....for puting me in the thick of things and getting me as perplexed and scared as its lead character Kate Macer (Emily Blunt).

5- Brooklyn

... for the copious tears I shed and for translating the ache of homesicknes into film.

6- Tangerine

7- About Elly

The best emotional thriller of the year.
8- Macbeth

Shakespeare has never been this sexy.

9 -Diary of a Teenage Girl

........ and

10- Slow West

Introducing new confident filmmaking voices in Marielle Heller and John McLean.

Golden Globe Predictions and Wishes

Happy Golden Globes day! I will love this year's edition no matter what because it gave us the headline "Carol Leads Golden Globes Nominations". As it should be.


Cate has three but I'm hoping for a fourth

My biggest wish - apart from couture, couture, couture - is that we get a lot of surprises. Hey Globes just embrace your inner star fuckery and vote for Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet and Jennifer Lawrence and throw this awards season unto more disarray.

Here are my predictions and wishes.

Best Motion Picture Drama
Winner: Spotlight
Alternate: Mad Max: Fury Road
My Wish: Carol

Best Motion Picture (Comedy/Musical)
Winner: The Big Short
Alternate: The Martian
My Wish : Spy.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama)
Winner: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Alternate: Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
My Wish : None

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Comedy/Musical)
Winner: Matt Damon, The Martian
Alternate: Christian Bale, The Big Short
My Wish : I guess Damon... I don't really care.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama)
Winner: Brie Larson, Room
Alternate: Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
My Wish : A tie between Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara for Carol

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy/Musical)
Winner: Amy Schumer, Trainwreck
Alternate: Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
My Wish : Lily Tomlin, Grandma

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Winner: Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Alternate: Sylvester Stallone, Creed
My Wish : Paul Dano, Love and Mercy

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Winner: Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina
Alternate: Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
My Wish : Winslet or Jane Fonda (Youth). I want surprises, dammit!

Best Director
Winner: Ridley Scott, The Martian
Alternate: George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
My Wish : Todd Haynes, Carol. Duh!

Best Screenplay
Winner: Spotlight
Alternate: The Big Short
My Wish : Carol is not nominated so whatever. Just not Quentin Tarantino, please.

Best Animated Feature Film
Winner: Inside Out
Alternate: Anomalisa
My Wish : Inside Out ie. the only nominated film I saw.

Best Foreign Language Film
Winner: Son of Saul
Alternate: Mustang
My Wish : Mustang.

Best Original Score
Winner: Carol
Alternate: The Hateful Eight
My Wish : Carol

Best Original Song
Winner: One Kind of Love, Love and Mercy
Alternate: Writing's On the Wall, Spectre
My Wish : Any really as long as it's not the dreadful Spectre theme. How did that get nominated?

A gushing fan moment with Cate Blanchett

Everybody I know knows how much I love Cate Blanchett. They have also heard me babble incessantly about Carol for more than 3 years now. Still I thought I was a functioning human being who can get up and ask a simple question at a festival screening. Turns out that’s not the case.

My long weekend of Carol events at the New York Film Festival started Wednesday night with a talk with Ed Lachman. He was articulate and eloquent. The most interesting tidbit to me however was that he mentioned that in addition to the screenplay, Todd Haynes presents his cast and crew with a “lookbook” that illustrates how he envisions almost every frame in the movie. A storyboard of sorts I guessed.

The anecdote was on my mind all through the standby line for Friday’s premiere, even as I waited in the soaking rain. I thought about it while I watched Todd Haynes being interviewed Saturday morning. It stayed vivid in my mind because every frame of the movie drips with meticulous beauty. By the time I got to seeing the movie for the second time in less than 24 hours it was crystallized into a question for Cate about the beautiful way she posed and was framed in the movie and if these lookbooks helped her performance.

So when the time came for the Q and A, I asked her. I thought going on about Lachman and lookbooks would be too much so I decided to edit. Or maybe I just got lost in the moment and completely lost my train of thought. Here is what I think I said:

My question is for Cate. The performance is emotional and moving. Just everything. But I wanted to ask about the look and the pose. In every frame, it’s  just perfection. How did you manage that?

The moderator Amy Taubin paraphrased it as “how did you manage to be perfect in every frame?” Which let’s face it, is probably what I meant anyway. Taubin knows a fan when she sees one.

The moment became hilarious. The Alice Tully Hall audience erupted into laughter and applause. Even Haynes almost fell out of his seat laughing. Cate, I think, was a bit embarrassed by my effusing love for her performance. Still she managed to be as generous as she always is and deferred the credit to her fellow actor saying “It was all in the gaze, looking into Rooney’s eyes”. And after a beat said a very sweet and short “but thank you” to me.

If you’ve seen the movie you probably got what I meant. And look at the way she's posing in these photos. She is perfect. And that moment of utterly embarrassing myself is one I will treasure.

Swoon Time with Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara

No words needed. Just watch and swoon.

Cate Blanchett in a couple of new stills

It's Always Carol

I'm thinking of changing the name of this blog to Carol: The Most Anticipated Movie in History of Cinema.

The lovely Miss Belivet has created the swooniest Gifs ever. For those anticipating, enjoy!

These images are better than I ever imagined. Looks like the movie will have the romantic scope, lush visuals (not just the actresses but also costumes and design) that I had hoped for. Swooning.

Fall Expectations Are High But Tempered

The Fall movie season is always eagerly expected because of the plethora of exciting options it usually provides. As the Toronto Film Festival unspools we think of all the movies we are eagerly expecting.

Been Waiting So Long We're Kinda Over It

Foxcatcher

We were excited a year ago. The raves came way back in May from Cannes. I guess we'll see it.

Cautiously Optimistic Because of Source Material

Into the Woods

Stephen Sondheim. Meryl Streep. Emily Blunt. Anna Kendrick. Christie Baranski. Billy Magnusson. Those songs. It would be our most anticipated but unfortunately we've seen Nine.

Career That Might Jumpstart

Jack O'Connell in '71

Starred Up. Unbroken. '71. Three major movie just might make a movie star. Two of them already seen with critical kudos, he's on his way.

Career Possibly Reinvigorated

Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler

The marketing has been aces. The campaign to tell us about his commitment and weight loss has already started. He's been on a roll of edgy interesting movies. We have faith.

Suspect Because of Terrible Trailer

Men, Women and Children

It seems it is trying to say something profound about the way we live now. Only that something looks and sounds very obvious. Hoping for the best but our gut says it's a turkey.

Suspect Because Tim Burton Has Been Lost For Years

Big Eyes 

Maybe Amy Adams will save it. Hoping for the best.

Known Entity But Still Eagerly Awaited

The Imitation Game 

We've seen it. It's fantastic. We love Benedict Cumberbatch in it. Who knew we'd ever say those words? We can't wait to see it again. Mostly we can't wait to discuss it over and over. The conversations are going to be good.

Meh Feel We've Seen Before

The Equalizer 

It looks like every other Denzel movie. Get that Fences adaptation going. And hire Viola Davis as your co-star.

Most Eagerly Awaited

Birdman 

The stellar reviews. Throwing about the "M" word. As in "masterpiece". We can't contain ourselves.

Wish It Was Opening This Fall

Carol

Not many movies starring women. This would've been the ultimate with some of our best actresses. As we mentioned before this might be our most anticipated movie ever.

What are you most excited about this Fall? What do you think of the movies we've mentioned? Agree? Disagree? Tell all in the comments.

Most Anticipated : Carol

Blanchett as Carol

When reading The Price of Salt, the Patricia Highsmith novel on which this film is based, I imagined Carol as Marlene Dietrich if she were a 50s New York housewife. That is to say Cate Blanchett is perfect casting.

Pedigree

Todd Haynes re-teams with his I'm Not There star Cate Blanchett and enlists Lisabeth Salander herself, Rooney Mara, to film Highsmith's cult lesbian romance. TV stars turned prestige supporting players Sarah Paulson and Kyle Chandler lend support. Behind the camera it's a full on Far From Heaven reunion with lenser Ed Lachman and costume designer Sandy Powell. 

What's It About

Set in New York in the early 1950s the movie will tell the story of Therese Belivet (Mara) a department store assistant and her infatuation and eventual romance with the mysterious and beautiful Carol Aird (Blanchett). We can also think of it as a love quartet since the story involves Carol's husband (Chandler) who she's trying to divorce while keeping custody of their daughter, and her best friend and ex (Paulson). 

Why I'm Excited

Any movie with Blanchett is a most anticipated event around these parts. That she is working with Haynes again for which she gave one of her most astonishing performances is reason to cheer. That Haynes is working again in the 1950s milieu that he explored so well before in Far From Heaven raises the anticipation to fever pitch. That it is an adaptation of Highsmith's beautiful and moving novel, which defied conventions and stereotypes about LGBT stories and characters early on, raises our expectations to pure joy and giddiness.

Really?

Nothing. This might be my most anticipated movie EVER!

First Pictures of Cate as Carol

My most anticipated film in a long time is Carol; based on a Patricia Highsmith novel, directed by Todd Haynes and starring Cate the Great. It's a gay man's heaven : ACTRESS, queer writer and director, an impossible forbidden love story. It also has a killer supporting cast with Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson and Kyle Chandler. All the ingredients that make me giddy and excited.

Here are the first pictures from the first day of shooting. And we will give the movie the "most anticipated" treatment soon.

Cate

Sandy Powell is serving some 50s coat realness

Even her back looks alluring.......

Mara and Paulson