Daily Archives: December 8, 2019

The Toronto Film Critics Association Announced Their Picks For The Best of 2019

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Canada has spoken!

Or, at least, one city in Canada has spoken.  On Sunday, the Toronto Film Critics Association named Parasite the best film of 2019.  Here’s a full list of the winners at Toronto:

Best Picture

“PARASITE”

Best Foreign Language Film

“PARASITE”

Best Director

BONG JOON-HO, “PARASITE”

Best Actress

LUPITA NYONG’O – “US”

Best Actor

ADAM DRIVER – “MARRIAGE STORY”

Best Supporting Actress

LAURA DERN – “MARRIAGE STORY”

Best Supporting Actor

BRAD PITT – “ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD”

Best Documentary Feature

“AMERICAN FACTORY”

Best Animated Feature

“MISSING LINK”

Best First Feature

“BOOKSMART”

Best Screenplay

“THE IRISHMAN”

Love you, Canada!

 

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association Honors Parasite and Jennifer Lopez

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

On Sunday, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association announced their picks for the best of 2019!  Parasite was named Best Picture while Jennifer Lopez finally picked up an award for her acclaimed performance in Hustlers.

Here’s a full list of the winners:

Best Picture

  • “PARASITE”

Runner-up: “THE IRISHMAN”

Best Foreign-Language Film

  • “PAIN AND GLORY”

Runner-up: “PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE”

Best Director

  • Bong Joon Ho, “PARASITE”

Runner-up: Martin Scorsese, “THE IRISHMAN”

Best Actor

  • Antonio Banderas – “PAIN AND GLORY”

Runner-Up: Adam Driver – “MARRIAGE STORY”

Best Actress

  • Mary Kay Place, “DIANE”

Runner-up: Lupita Nyong’o, “US”

Best Supporting Actress

  • Jennifer Lopez, “HUSTLERS”

Runner-up: Zhao Shuzhen, “THE FAREWELL”

Best Supporting Actor

  • Song Kang Ho, “PARASITE”

Runner-Up: Joe Pesci, “THE IRISHMAN”

Best Cinematography

  • Claire Mathon, “PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE” & “ATLANTICS”

Runner-Up: Roger Deakins, “1917”

Best Screenplay

  • Noah Baumbach, “MARRIAGE STORY”

Runner-Up: Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won, “PARASITE”

Best Music/Score

  • Dan Levy, “I LOST MY BODY”

Runner-Up: Thomas Newman, “1917”

Best Documentary/Nonfiction Film

  • “AMERICAN FACTORY”

Runner-up: “APOLLO 11”

Best Animation

  • “I LOST MY BODY”

Runner-Up: “TOY STORY 4”

Best Production Design

  • Barbara Ling, “ONCE UPON A TIME … IN HOLLYWOOD”

Runner-up: Ha Jun Lee, “PARASITE”

Best Editing

  • Todd Douglas Miller, “APOLLO 11”

Runner-up: Ronald Bronstein & Benny Safdie,” UNCUT GEMS”

Douglas Edwards Experimental Film

  • THE GIVERNY DOCUMENT, Ja’Tovia Gary

Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 12/2/19 — 12/8/19

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I started out this week worried about woman in the Peloton commercial and now, thanks to Ryan Reynolds and Aviation Gin, I know she’s going to be okay.  Yay for happy endings!

Films I Watched:

  1. Coming Home (1978)
  2. Darkest Hour (2017)
  3. The Doctor Will Kill You Now (2019)
  4. Fatal Getaway (2019)
  5. In The Blink of An Eye (2009)
  6. The Killer Next Door (2019)
  7. The Killer Shrews (1959)
  8. Marriage Story (2019)
  9. Nightmare Tenant (2019)
  10. The Twisted Nanny (2019)
  11. A Very Brady Christmas (1988)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. 9-1-1
  2. Beverly Hills 90210
  3. Couples Court With The Cutlers
  4. Doctor Phil
  5. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
  6. Judge Jerry
  7. Lauren Lake’s Paternity Court
  8. The Love Boat
  9. The Mandalorian
  10. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
  11. Mrs. Fletcher
  12. Saved By The Bell
  13. Silicon Valley
  14. South Park
  15. Survivor 39
  16. The Voice
  17. Watchmen

Books I Read:

  1. The Girl In Red (2019) by Christina Henry
  2. Miracle Creek (2019) by Angie Kim
  3. Run Away (2019) by Harlan Corben

Music To Which I Listened:

  1. Alexandra Savior
  2. Annalisa
  3. Armin van Buuren
  4. Big Data
  5. Canova
  6. Carly Rae Jepsen
  7. Dillon Francis
  8. DJ Judaa
  9. DJ Snake
  10. Dropkick Murphys
  11. Dua Lipa
  12. Icona Pop
  13. Jax Anderson
  14. Katy Petty
  15. Motionless in White
  16. Mxmtoon
  17. New Order
  18. Panic! at the Disco
  19. Pat Dailey
  20. Saro
  21. Saint Motel
  22. Taylor Swift

Awards Season Links:

  1. The Atlanta Film Critics Circle
  2. 2019 Annie Nominations
  3. The National Board of Review
  4. The Satellite Nominations
  5. The Gotham Winners
  6. 20 Semi-Finalists from the Best Visual Effects Oscar
  7. The New York Film Critics Circle
  8. The AFI’s Top Ten
  9. Detroit Film Critics Nominations
  10. New York Film Critics Online
  11. San Diego Film Critics Nominations

News From Last Week:

  1. Disgraced Peloton Husband Speaks Out
  2. Ryan Reynolds Just Saved the Viral Peloton Girl in Hilarious Ad for Aviation Gin
  3. 2020 Sundance Film Festival Lineup Announced
  4. New ‘Planet of the Apes’ in the works with Maze Runner’s Wes Ball attached to direct
  5. Someone ate the $120,000 banana at Art Basel. Some quick thinking saved the day

Links From Last Week:

  1. Peloton’s viral ad captures a ‘116 lb woman’s YEARLONG fitness journey to becoming a 112 lb woman’
  2. The Peloton Ad Woman Is Absolutely Not OK
  3. Someone please help the woman from Peloton’s awful new ad

Links From The Site:

  1. I shared music videos from Jax Anderson, Katy Perry, Mxmtoon, Carly Rae Jepsen, Saro, Dropkick Murphys, and Pat Dailey!  I wrote about the trailers for Black Widow, The Assistant, and Wonder Woman 1984!  I reviewed The Killer Next Door!
  2. Erin shared Spicy Adventure Stories, Dime Detective Magazine, Front Page Detective, The Chill, Rebel Road, Gunfighter’s Return and Naked In The Night!
  3. Leonard shared the trailers for No Time To Die and Free Guy!  He paid tribute to Rene Auberjonois!
  4. Ryan reviewed Grip and shared his Top Ten Ongoing Series, Top Ten Collected Editions (Vintage), Top Ten Collected Editions (Contemporary), Top Ten Special Mentions, and Top Ten Graphic Novels!

More From Us:

  1. At Days Without Incident, Leonard wrote about Rene Auberjonois and the Wonder Woman 1984 trailer!
  2. I reviewed the latest episode of Survivor for Reality TV Chat Blog!
  3. On my music site, I shared songs from Alexandra Savior, Saro, Canova, Motionless in White, Panic! at the Disco, Annalisa, and Dua Lipa!
  4. On Pop Politics, Jeff wrote about Steve Bullock and Joe Sestak, Kamala Harris, and the Labour Party’s anti-Antisemitism.
  5. On her photography site, Erin shared: Scary Little Building, Scary Little Building 2, Find The Possum, Visitor in the Night, All The Cameras You Could Want, and Antenna!
  6. Ryan has a patreon!  Please consider subscribing!

Want to see what I did last week?  Click here!

In Memoriam: René Auberjonois (1940-2019)

Posted on by Leonard Wilson

René Auberjonois passed away today at the age of 79, If you picked a decade between the 70’s and today, people would remember him for different things. In the 70’s, Auberjonois played the weasely Clayton Endicott III on Benson, starring Robert Guillaume, and his character was often the butt of many jokes. He also played a role in the 70’s remake of King Kong, along with The Eyes of Laura Mars, directed by John Guillermin. In the late eighties, he voiced the Chef in Disney’s The Little Mermaid, who tried to cook poor Sebastian.

The 90’s and 2000’s may be where Auberjonois had the most impact. There are a number of memorials pouring in from Star Trek fans. Many Star Trek fans knew him as Odo, the shape shifting Security Officer on board Deep Space Nine. Odo was one of the coolest characters in Star Trek lore, in my opinion, even better than the Borg. Odo’s serious nature and gruff style was a departure from the roles I was used to seeing him in.  Auberjonois never failed to keep a little humor going thoughout.

In 2004, Auberjonois joined David Kelley’s Boston Legal with fellow Star Trek star, William Shatner. As Paul Lewiston, his character acted as the straight man among the madness at Crane, Poole and Schmidt. He had some great appearances on the show for 5 seasons, in particular an arc that had him dealing with a drug addicted daughter.

He’ll be missed.

Here’s The Trailer for Wonder Woman 1984!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

It’s here!

Here’s the trailer for Wonder Woman 1984, which looks wonderful!  I mean, seriously — Wonder Woman and the 80s!?  How can’t you love that?

Other things I like about this trailer:

  1. It doesn’t give away too much of the plot!
  2. Wonder Woman using her tiara as a boomerang!
  3. A battle in the White House!
  4. The clothes!  The cars!
  5. Chris Pine is back!
  6. The perfect use of New Order’s Blue Monday as the trailer’s soundtrack.  Hopefully, this won’t be a case where a song only appears in the trailer!

Now, just from looking online, I can see that some people are already trying to do the whole “here’s the political subtext of Wonder Woman 1984” thing but you know what?  There will be time for that later.  You’ve got a while to go before the movie comes out so, if you’re so obsessed with politics that you have to bring it into everything, you’ll have plenty of time to do that and bore everyone silly with your analysis.  For now, let’s all just enjoy the damn trailer!

Here Are The 2019 Nominations of the San Diego Film Critics Society!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

On December 6th, the San Diego Film Critics Society announced their nominees for the best of 2019 and here they are!

Best Picture
1917
THE IRISHMAN
JOKER
MARRIAGE STORY
ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD

Best Director
Noah Baumbach, MARRIAGE STORY
Sam Mendes, 1917
Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie, UNCUT GEMS
Martin Scorsese, THE IRISHMAN
Quentin Tarantino, ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD

Best Actor
Christian Bale, FORD V FERRARI
Adam Driver, MARRIAGE STORY
Eddie Murphy, DOLEMITE IS MY NAME
Joaquin Phoenix, JOKER
Adam Sandler, UNCUT GEMS

Best Actress
Awkwafina, THE FAREWELL
Scarlett Johansson, MARRIAGE STORY
Lupita Nyong’o, US
Saoirse Ronan, LITTLE WOMEN
Renée Zellweger, JUDY

Best Supporting Actor
Willem Dafoe, THE LIGHTHOUSE
Al Pacino, THE IRISHMAN
Joe Pesci, THE IRISHMAN
Brad Pitt, ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD
Wesley Snipes, DOLEMITE IS MY NAME

Best Supporting Actress
Laura Dern, MARRIAGE STORY
Thomasin McKenzie, JOJO RABBIT
Florence Pugh, LITTLE WOMEN
Zhao Shuzhen, THE FAREWELL
Octavia Spencer, LUCE

Best Comedic Performance
Daniel Craig, KNIVES OUT
Eddie Murphy, DOLEMITE IS MY NAME
Sam Rockwell, JOJO RABBIT
Wesley Snipes, DOLEMITE IS MY NAME
Taika Waititi, JOJO RABBIT

Best Original Screenplay
Noah Baumbach, MARRIAGE STORY
Bong Joon Ho, Jin Won Han, PARASITE
Rian Johnson, KNIVES OUT
Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie, UNCUT GEMS
Quentin Tarantino, ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD

Best Adapted Screenplay
Greta Gerwig, LITTLE WOMEN
J.C. Lee, Julius Onah, LUCE
Todd Phillips, Scott Silver, JOKER
Taika Waititi, Christine Leunens, JOJO RABBIT
Steven Zaillian, THE IRISHMAN

Best Documentary
APOLLO 11
THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM
LOVE, ANTOSHA
ONE CHILD NATION
THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD

Best Animated Film
ABOMINABLE
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD
I LOST MY BODY
MISSING LINK
TOY STORY 4

Best Foreign-language Film
THE FAREWELL
PAIN & GLORY
PARASITE
PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE
TRANSIT

Best Costume Design
Ruth E. Carter, DOLEMITE IS MY NAME
Julian Day, ROCKETMAN
Jacqueline Durran, LITTLE WOMEN
Arianne Phillips, ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD
Anna Robbins, DOWNTON ABBEY

Best Editing
Andrew Buckland, Michael McCusker & Dirk Westervelt, FORD V FERRARI
Jennifer Lame, MARRIAGE STORY
Fred Raskin, ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD
Benny Safdie, Ronald Bronstein, UNCUT GEMS
Thelma Schoonmaker, THE IRISHMAN

Best Cinematography
Jarin Blaschke, THE LIGHTHOUSE
Roger Deakins, 1917
Hoyte Van Hoytema, AD ASTRA
Rodrigo Prieto, THE IRISHMAN
Phedon Papamichael, FORD V FERRARI

Best Production Design
Dennis Gassner, 1917
Jess Gonchor, LITTLE WOMEN
Clay A. Griffith, DOLEMITE IS MY NAME
Barbara Ling, ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD
Bob Shaw, THE IRISHMAN
Donal Woods, DOWNTON ABBEY

Best Visual Effects
1917
AD ASTRA
THE AERONAUTS
AVENGERS: ENDGAME
THE IRISHMAN

Best Use of Music
JOJO RABBIT
JOKER
ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD
ROCKETMAN
YESTERDAY

Best Ensemble
DOWNTON ABBEY
THE IRISHMAN
KNIVES OUT
MARRIAGE STORY
ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD

Breakthrough Artist
Jessie Buckley, JUDY, WILD ROSE
Julia Butters, ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD
Roman Griffin Davis, JOJO RABBIT
Kelvin Harrison Jr., LUCE, WAVES
Florence Pugh, LITTLE WOMEN, MIDSOMMAR

The New York Film Critics Online Named Parasite The Best of 2019

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yesterday, the New York Film Critics Online voted on and announced their picks for the best of 2019!

And here they are:

  • Picture: “Parasite” (NEON)
  • Director: Bong Joon-ho, “Parasite” (NEON)
  • Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, “Joker” (Warner Bros.)
  • Actress: Lupita Nyong’o, “Us” (Universal Pictures)
  • Supporting Actor: Joe Pesci, “The Irishman” (Netflix)
  • Supporting Actress: Laura Dern, “Marriage Story” (Netflix)
  • Screenplay: Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-Won, “Parasite” (NEON)
  • Breakthrough Performer: Kelvin Harrison Jr., “Luce” (A24) and “Waves” (A24)
  • Debut Director: Lila Avilés, “The Chambermaid” (Kino Lorber)
  • Ensemble Cast: Mary Vernieu, “Knives Out” (Lionsgate)
  • Documentary: Todd Douglas Miller, “Apollo 11” (NEON)
  • Foreign Language: Céline Sciamma, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (NEON)
  • Animated Feature: Jérémy Clapin, “I Lost My Body” (Netflix)
  • Cinematography: Roger Deakins, “1917” (Universal Pictures)
  • Use of Music: Elton John, Bernie Taupin, Giles Martin, Matthew Margeson, “Rocketman” (Paramount Pictures)

Top 10 Films

  • “1917” (Universal Pictures)
  • “The Farewell” (A24)
  • “Hustlers” (STX Films)
  • “The Irishman” (Netflix)
  • “Jojo Rabbit” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
  • “Joker” (Warner Bros.)
  • “Marriage Story” (Netflix)
  • “Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood” (Sony Pictures)
  • “Parasite” (NEON)
  • “The Two Popes” (Netflix)

Four Color Apocalypse 2019 Year In Review : Top Ten Original Graphic Novels

Posted on by Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)

Ryan C.'s Four Color Apocalypse

Here it is, the final “top ten” list in our year-end wrap, and probably the one people are most interested in. Books in this category are comprised of all-new material, never serialized in single issues or online, and constructed specifically for the so-called “graphic novel” format. And your “winners” are —

10. Blood And Drugs By Lance Ward (Birdcage Bottom Books) – A visceral, harrowing firsthand account of addiction and recovery on the social and economic margins by a cartoonist with a busted hand. One of the most immediate and unmediated works in recent memory, this one will leave an indelible mark on your brain.

9. The Structure Is Rotten, Comrade By Viken Berberian And Yann Kebbi (Fantagraphics) – Exploring architecture and gentrification as inherently political topics, this exquisitely-illustrated book has much to say about damn near everything,  yet never feels like a treatise or lecture. There’s nothing rotten about…

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Four Color Apocalypse 2019 Year In Review : Top Ten Special Mentions

Posted on by Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)

Ryan C.'s Four Color Apocalypse

We’re inching closer to being done with our monstrous year-end wrap, and with this, our next-to-last list, we’ll be taking a look at my top ten “special mentions” — that is, projects that have to do with comics, or are by cartoonists, but aren’t precisely comics per se in and of themselves. The term I settled on some time back was “comics-adjacent” works, and until something better comes to mind, I’m sticking with it. And so —

10. Folrath #3 By Zak Sally (La Mano 21) – The third and final “volume” of Sally’s riso-printed prose memoir of his life on the social, economic, and cultural margins in the early 1990s ably demonstrates that he’s every bit as gifted a writer as he is a cartoonist. I hated to see this end, but loved every page of it.

9. Bubbles #4 Edited By Brian Baynes (Self-Published) – Baynes came out…

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