Oscar Stuff
Buzz for Cate Blanchett and TAR [HE]
But “Tár,” the first film he has made in 16 years, takes Todd Field to a new level. The movie is breathtaking — in its drama, its high-crafted innovation, its vision. It’s a ruthless but intimate tale of art, lust, obsession, and power. It’s set in the contemporary classical-music world, and if that sounds a bit high-toned (it is, in a good way), the movie leads us through that world in a manner that’s so rigorously precise and authentic and detailed that it generates the immersion of a thriller. The characters in “Tár” feel as real as life. (They’re acted to richly drawn perfection down to the smallest role.) You believe, at every moment, in the reality you’re seeing, and it’s extraordinary how that raises the stakes -Owen Gleiberman [Variety]
Some early word on Bardo [HE]
Reviews trickle in for Noah Baumbach’s White Noise [RT]
It seems like no time at all since Adam Driver was playing the embodiment of cocky youth in Noah Baumbach's While We're Young (2014). But one of the great things about Baumbach's films is that as he gets older, his angst-ridden characters get older, too: with each new project he shines a light on the worries of another age bracket. In his brutal 2019 divorce drama, Marriage Story, Driver played a director who wasn't a hip young flavour-of-the-month any more. And now, in Baumbach's latest brilliant comedy, which opened the Venice Film Festival, Driver is middle-age incarnate: a university professor with thinning hair, a thickening waistband, and a looming awareness that he might be closer to death than birth. The role suits him so beautifully that awards nominations should be heading his way. [BBC]
Brendan Fraser’s Prosthetic Suit for ‘The Whale’ Added 300 Extra Pounds, Took Up to Six Hours to Get On [Variety]
Teaser poster for Sarah Polley’s Women Talking:
Movie Stuff
Helena Bonham Carter Joins Anthony Hopkins And Johnny Flynn In Holocaust Rescue Drama ‘One Life’; ‘Black Mirror’ Director James Hawes To Make Feature Debut [Deadline]
Steven Spielberg and ‘Wall-E’ Inspired Mars Exploration Doc ‘Good Night Oppy’
Exclusive: The Telluride-bound documentary is a photorealistic journey to the surface of the red planet, but it's just as much about the scientists behind the scenes. [Indiewire]
Rian Johnson Confirms His ‘Star Wars’ Trilogy Is Still in Development [Indiewire]
Venice Review: Nancy Buirski’s ‘Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy’ [Deadline]
Other Stuff
Twitter to Launch Test of Edit Button, Reveals New Details of Long-Awaited Feature [Variety]
Today in Apology Culture
J.K. Rowling Says New Crime Novel “Genuinely Wasn’t” Inspired by Backlash to Comments on Trans Community [HR]
Diversity Workshop Gone Wrong Prompts Apology [Times-Delphic]
Apology accepted vs. apology ignored [St. John News]
“I’m Sorry I Don’t Look Like You Enough For You To Love Me”: Mom Uninvites Daughter From Wedding So As Not To Upset New Husband’s Family [Bored Panda]